Cynder groaned as she tossed and turned. The eerie light of Zella shone through the window, swallowing the room in a haunting, foreboding green hue; Adrano was completely absent in the sky.

Her mind wandered, moving at a pace she couldn't keep up with. She'd have a thought, and immediately it would leave her as the next thought conjured up inside her brain. The dark purple dragoness hated it, and huffed as she rolled over again.

She stared at Hunter's silhouette at the other end of the room as he lay asleep. He was starting to groan in his sleep, as if he was having a terrible nightmare. She felt terrible for him.

It had been three days since Hunter had moved in with her, and he had appeared to be slightly better, until yesterday when they received news that Kassaan, Hunter's mate, had woken up from her coma. Unfortunately, she was in a very bad condition; her brain had been very badly damaged, and it rendered her unable to talk and unable to keep her balance while standing.

Hunter fell back into his depression that day, and had cut himself with his own claws, being unable to find anything else to do it with. He still had long scars from the wounds running along his arms. Cynder was scared for Hunter's mental health. He'd hit depression a lot harder than he seemed to usually, and she was worried he'd hurt himself even more.

It wasn't long before a terrified scream tore from Hunter's throat as he jolted upright. Cynder flinched at the sudden scream, raising her head and looking at Hunter with worry. "Are you alright, Hunter?!" she exclaimed. "What… wh-what happened?!"

Hunter just stammered unintelligibly. The poor cheetah's chest heaved with every heavy, forceful breath. He shook his head, before he finally found the words to speak.

"I… I saw him," he murmured, his voice wobbly and frantic as he fought for air. "I saw that devil. I saw him again, and everything he did to me… to my family… to my village!"

Hunter slowly fell into hysterics, spittle flying from his mouth as his body shook and his face twisted with rage. He cursed Spyro on and on, before Cynder had to walk over to him and stroke his back gently, shushing him. He shook under her paws, and his fur was hot and sticky with sweat, matted together in large clumps.

"Calm down, Hunter. It was just a dream," Cynder whispered.

Hunter growled a strong curse at her, slapping her paw away as he stood and walked to the other side of the room, where he rested his head and left fist on the wall. His right fist shook by his side, his fingers flexing as if he was wanting to punch something. So he punched the wall, hard. He grunted in pain, staring at his shaking paw which now returned to his side.

"And when will it not be 'just a dream', huh?" Hunter growled, his voice low and quivering with terror. "He's going to come for us sooner or later, Cynder. You know that. Spyro won't stop attacking us. And he knows we escaped; he targeted the Cheetah Village for a reason and he knows we escaped. He'll come for us."

"Hunter—"

"No!" Hunter interrupted. "It's been a couple weeks since his attack on the Cheetah Village; he won't allow us to stay alive if he targeted it in the first place! That demon wants us dead, Cynder. And… personally I'm starting to agree."

Cynder blinked. She hoped this wasn't where she thought it was going.

"I don't want to live in this damned world anymore, Cynder! Every day, I'm controlled by fear and depression, where everyone I know and love has been taken from me: Prowlus, Meadow, my brother, Rasha and Mumblon, and now Kassaan!"

"But she's—"

"Don't you dare say she's still alive! Not in my eyes! Her beautiful voice has been taken, and she can't even stand! I can't live knowing that she's like that!" Hunter scowled, and Cynder could see him eyeing her sharp tailblade. He fell to his knees in despair. "Please, Cynder. Just kill one more time. End me, please! I don't want to be here anymore!"

Cynder hesitated. She remembered Electrika and how she had killed herself. It had hurt Cynder, even though their friendship had been destroyed by Electrika's lust for revenge. If Hunter was to die, she didn't know what that would do to Derilan and Kassaan, who were much closer than she had been to Electrika. Hell, they were his family!

And Hunter was asking her to take his life. If she went with it, what would Derilan think? What about Kassaan? What about the people in her life: Aerus, Pyron, Freeze, Rubblerust, Logron, and Muras? Would Electrika blame her from the afterlife?

No, she couldn't do it.

So she refused.

Tears streamed down Hunter's cheeks as he punched the wall again. "Damn it, Terror of the Skies! Kill me!" he howled.

"Don't call me that; you of all cheetahs would know that's not me," Cynder murmured, her voice wobbling as she struggled to keep her composure from the sudden use of the hated name.

"I don't care! Kill me, lizard! Do what you're good at for once; satisfy your bloodthirsty needs once more and end me!"

"No. I won't do it."

"DO IT! Why are you hesitating?! You used to do this all the time when you were Malefor's wh—"

"HUNTER, SHUT IT!" Cynder snapped, screaming over Hunter's insult.

Hunter screamed wordlessly at her before he leapt towards her tail, fumbling at her tailblade. With a surprised shout, she tore it out of his paws. Hunter cried out in pain, and she felt flesh ripping under her tailblade as she yanked it out of his grasp. Cynder apologised frantically, but Hunter stood again and made for her claws.

She staggered away from the deranged cheetah, whose eyes were wild with rage and lust for his own blood, which was already dripping down his paws. He roared and rushed towards her again. She swung her tail around to swat him away, but he saw it coming and grabbed onto it, beginning to climb up her tail towards the tailblade. Cynder could feel his blood being smeared on her tail from his palms.

Cynder thrashed her tail about, taking a good few moments to flick Hunter off. He landed on the ground with a heavy thud, causing him to cough violently.

For a while, Cynder and Hunter stared at each other, Cynder's gaze full of worry and Hunter's cold and full of rage. After a few moments of silence, Hunter pulled himself up and rushed out of the room. Cynder quickly ran after him, however she was still consumed by her shock, causing her to lose her bearings and slam face-first into the wall.

The dragoness shook her head and continued to run after Hunter. When she found him, he was holding some shattered glass from a vase that he had just broken. He had it pressed against his throat.

"Hunter, put the shard of glass down," Cynder growled.

"If you won't end me, I will," Hunter threatened, increasing his grip around the glass dagger and pressing it further against his throat. Blood started to ooze from his neck and paw.

"Hunter. Don't."

"And what can you do to me if I do? Send me to the naughty corner? Send me to hell?!" Hunter challenged, beginning to laugh hysterically.

Quick as a flash, Cynder lashed out and batted the glass shard out of Hunter's paw, sending it falling to the ground with a smash. Cynder swung her tail around again, smacking Hunter across the chest and propelling him backwards away from the broken vase. She leapt towards him and smacked him back down to the ground as he tried to stand up.

Cynder lifted her paw, and this time, Hunter didn't get up. He curled up in a ball and cried, waiting for another blow.

Cynder's heart skipped a beat, and she began to tear up at the heart wrenching sight before her. She lowered her paw gently on Hunter's back and began to stroke him soothingly. She could feel his body quake.

"Hunter, I—" she started.

"Don't," Hunter snapped between his sobs.

She didn't bother to try and say anything. She just stayed silent, stroking Hunter and comforting him as he sobbed and coughed and spluttered pitifully.

They sat there for about fifteen minutes before a distant scream pierced through the air, followed by an earth-shattering explosion. Both Cynder and Hunter were on their feet as quickly as the scream sounded, rushing to the front door and slamming it open.

The horrific sight of one of the watch towers in the distance engulfed in a cloud of purple flame greeted them. Not even a couple seconds later, a second watch tower went up in flames as well. Cynder spotted multiple large, dark shapes moving in the distance, not before she noticed the many glowing eyes that each shape wielded.

One pair of glowing crimson eyes, and at least a dozen pairs of green.

Spyro was here, with a large group of venomfangs.

"Hunter, go and grab Muras and Logron," Cynder ordered. "Now."

She didn't even check to see if Hunter had heard her; instantly, she took to the skies to the two burning towers. Her eyes were set on the pair of crimson eyes, her claws out, ready to tear into Spyro's flesh.

She tackled him to the ground, and instantly she was engulfed in purple flame. Pain seared through her body and she instinctively let go of Spyro and rolled off him, no matter how hard she tried to hold on. The Dark Overlord was quick to his feet, as was Cynder, but she was grounded again as two venomfangs jumped onto her from behind.

Cynder felt four sets of claws ripping into her flesh, and she thrashed on the ground as much as she physically could. She suddenly felt one body get pulled off her, and she looked up to see a watch guard, covered in blood and horrific burns, fighting off the venomfang as best as he could.

The dragoness turned her focus back to the second venomfang, sweeping her tail underneath its paws to knock it over. Cynder quickly stood and began to slash into its face. She had almost torn the green crystal in its head out when a third venomfang leapt at her, jaws snapping and dripping with venom.

Cynder staggered backwards as the venomfang climbed on her, clawing at her body. She whirled her head around and breathed a large stream of shadow fire at the venomfang, causing it to fall off her, snarling in pain.

She turned back to the venomfang she'd been hacking into earlier, which was now standing, torrents of green gore spilling from its forehead. Cynder lunged at the venomfang to knock it down, but it sidestepped and Cynder almost ended up slamming face-first into the burning watch tower, the purple flames from above illuminating their fight.

It didn't take long for Cynder to recover, but by the time she had righted herself and turned back to the venomfang, it was already on the ground, Muras standing on top of it as he yanked out the green crystal in its head.

"You're welcome," Muras said, his breath heavy.

"Save the remarks for later," Cynder snarled, noticing Logron in her peripheral vision, as well as Hunter and Derilan, armed with a bow.

A couple more dragons showed up behind them, all from the barracks except for one. "Pyron, what the hell are you doing here?" Cynder questioned.

"I wanted to help," Pyron said firmly.

"He wouldn't take no for an answer," Logron scoffed.

"Pyron, this is not a game; this isn't safe," Cynder snapped.

"And I'm not playing. I heard you needed help and so I wanted to help. Also I… kinda want to join the army," Pyron explained.

"Ugh, fine. Consider this your initiation, if you survive, damn it."

Cynder knew she wasn't going to dissuade Pyron from joining the fight; she knew him too well.

Throughout the fight, Cynder kept her eyes on Spyro, who ended up standing at the back and watching in glee as the venomfangs tore into the guards and soldiers. There was as much venomfang blood as there was Warfangian blood; red and green stained the cobblestone street. Four venomfangs lay dead on the ground. One soldier also lay dead. All the watch guards eventually got picked off, whether they burned from the explosion or were killed by the venomfangs.

Five times Cynder tried to get to Spyro, only to get stopped by a group of venomfangs and pulled back into the fight. "COWARD!" she howled at him.

Spyro just laughed. He didn't need to do the work if no one could get to him. His killing machines were too powerful. They were made to kill, so why not let them do most of the work? He could just save energy until someone attacked him.

Which someone did, and that someone was Muras.

The red dragon dropped two more venomfang corpses to the ground, before he finally lunged at Spyro, trying to tackle him to the ground. The Dark Overlord roared as he staggered backwards to keep his footing, holding back pained groans as Muras clutched onto his throat, digging his claws in.

Spyro turned and breathed a beam of purple lightning at Muras, causing him to release his grip and fall to the ground, writhing as electricity coursed through his body. The Dark Overlord placed a heavy paw on Muras' chest, pinning him to the ground.

Out of his peripheral vision, the purple dragon saw Cynder rush towards him, finally free from the onslaught of venomfangs. He simply swung his tailblade around, slicing Cynder across the chest. She hissed with pain as she fell to the ground, reaching up to her chest to apply pressure to the large wound, blood spilling down her chest.

Spyro looked back down to Muras, sensing something strange about him. A strange amount of magical energy emanated from him, which was odd for a fire dragon. He reached out with his own magic to try and read Muras, and it didn't take long for Spyro to recognise a familiar elemental signature deep inside his core.

Aether.

This was a shroud; Muras was a purple dragon.

Couple this with Muras' face and horn structure, and it became clear to Spyro who Muras was.

Dread rose in Cynder's heart as she saw the look of realisation flood Spyro's face. Her heart slammed against her chest, and her lungs constricted. She stood shakily, making a move to attack Spyro, but was knocked back to the ground as Pyron landed on top of her, having been thrown at her by the venomfang he was fighting.

Cynder practically threw Pyron off her, roaring at the venomfang that stood in front of them. She stood and leapt at it, clinging on with all her might and hacking into the venomfang's head, spraying green gore everywhere.

Meanwhile, Spyro had begun to press down on Muras, both mentally and physically, putting all his weight on top of the downed dragon and trying to tear down the shroud. "I know who you are," Spyro whispered.

"You… what?"

"Your essence core is too strong for a normal fire dragon. It carries aether. I know who you are, Muras. I know what you've done."

"No. No, no, no!" Muras cried, tears brimming his eyes and his breathing getting erratic. "What I've done in the past… does not define my true self! I'm not who I once was!"

"Don't talk about your true self when you are hiding it, worm. Show it to me; take that façade off!"

"No!"

Spyro clucked his tongue. "Then I guess I'll have to do it for you."

Muras' eyes widened as he suddenly felt a strange sensation in him. It was Spyro; he had found his core. He tried to fight Spyro, but Spyro was reaching in too far. The Dark Overlord was going to force Muras' shroud down, and fear pushed down on the purple dragon harder than Spyro was.

He didn't even get time to plead as an unbearable pain shot through his chest. He couldn't form words as horrendous howls tore from his throat.

The sound essentially put an end to the fight around them as everyone's attention suddenly turned to the loud screams. More dragons began to crowd around them cautiously—a mix of those to put out the fires on the watch towers and those who came out to see what the racket was. A few terrified eyes peeked through open windows too. Everyone stood their distance; they were too scared to get any closer, and too scared to move further back; they were too scared to move at all.

Muras' breath hitched as his entire body gave a massive convulsion, before his scales started to change, starting from his red left paw.

Red. Magenta. Purple.

Rich, vibrant purple.

The red scales began to turn a bright violet in an eerie, snake-like fashion. Everyone gasped in shock as this happened, except for Spyro and the venomfangs; the venomfangs stayed completely silent, while Spyro just laughed evilly.

"I knew it was you," he drawled darkly, his voice low and breathy. "Hello, Malefor."

Terrified gasps rose through the crowd as Muras' scales became swarmed with purple. Whispered curses of shock lifted through the air, before they became loud roars of aggression and accusation towards the purple dragon.

Cynder looked around, seeing horrified, angry looks aimed at her from Logron and Pyron, as well as Aerus, who was part of the large crowd that had gathered. Aerus looked the most shocked.

She turned to Muras. Spyro had stepped off him and he was rolled onto his stomach. He locked eyes with her, and her heart sank. They were the most broken, terrified eyes she had ever seen. Muras was terrified.

Spyro just stood there cackling at the drama he had caused. "Y'know, I think we've done enough; let them tear themselves apart," he chuckled, before he took to the skies and left, all the venomfangs following.

"HEY YOU COWARD, COME BACK!" Cynder screamed.

Barely a second later she was walloped in the face. She turned, looking with shock to see Pyron was the one who had punched her. Rage contorted his face. "Did you know?" he growled lowly.

Cynder didn't answer. Her breath was hard and her heart slammed against her chest a million miles a minute. She saw Aerus approaching behind Pyron, his face a mixture of many emotions: fear, anger, disgust. Logron and Derilan got closer too, their faces shrouded in disbelief. Hunter stood next to Derilan, but his face was unreadable.

"Answer Pyron," Aerus spat, his voice wobbly as he tried to sound stern. "ANSWER PYRON, DAMMIT! DID YOU KNOW?!"

Cynder stammered wordlessly, staring at Aerus with shock; she'd never seen him yell at her like this before. Aerus growled at her stammering, before he slapped her across the face. "DID YOU KNOW?!" he roared, tears streaming down his face.

The dragoness looked at Muras, who was now getting kicked and beaten by a few dragons from the crowd, screaming and crying and retching and groaning.

"Yes," Cynder croaked, barely audible amongst the angry roars of the crowd.

"Speak up!" Pyron growled.

"Yes," Cynder confirmed, much louder, and she turned her face in shame.

"YOU WHAT?!" Hunter screamed.

"HYPOCRITE! TRAITOR!" Pyron roared.

Logron and Derilan stood with their jaws hung low in shock; they had no words.

Aerus tackled Cynder to the ground. He slashed her face relentlessly, sending large amounts of blood oozing over her face. She didn't fight him however. She refused to. She lay there on the ground as her brother tore into her.

"You turned on us!" he howled, taking large, hoarse breaths between each loud scream. "You brought him back! You're no better than when you were the damned Terror! You were just his puppet; you always were, and you always will be! You never changed! I HATE YOU!"

The wind dragon bent down and bit her on the neck, forcing a scream of pain out of Cynder. The pain wasn't just physical however, it was mental. Her brother was gone; her brother wanted to kill her. He believed she had never changed, and had always wanted to bring Malefor back. That pained Cynder the most.

Would she ever gain his trust again?

Logron stepped forward and bit down on Aerus' nape, yanking him off his sister. "Calm down, Aerus! There has to be an explanation; I know Cynder wouldn't willingly bring Malefor back here without a sensical reason!" he cried.

Cynder whispered an unheard thank you to Logron for being the only level-headed one there, although she could still see the fury in his yellow eyes.

"NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT! THERE IS NO EXPLANATION!" Aerus screamed, spitting at Cynder.

She just growled in response, before her attention was brought back to Muras as he let out a loud howl. His purple scales were stained red with blood as about six dragons, large and muscular, clawed and beat him relentlessly, crushing the poor dragon under their weight.

Cynder opened her mouth to scream an order to stop, but pain flared in her flank. She turned back to see Hunter, wielding Derilan's sword; he had thrust it into Cynder, her blood dripping down the blade. Beside Hunter, Derilan lay on the ground; Hunter had attacked Derilan to get to the sword.

With a snarl, Cynder kicked Hunter. He fell to the ground, taking Derilan's sword with him. Cynder bit back a yelp as the sword slid out of her body, allowing the blood to spurt freely out of her.

She took a deep breath. "ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY STOP!" Cynder howled, filling her voice with the fear element to raise the volume of her voice.

The savage shouts of the crowd silenced as they recoiled from the deafening shout that overpowered them all. Dozens of eyes turned to her, hatred gleaming inside them. There was only one sound that remained: the pitiful sobbing of Muras as he bled out a few metres in front of her.

Pyron walked up to her from behind, whispering lowly in her ear with a wobbly voice. What he said hurt her to her core. "Electrika was right. You haven't changed. You always were his puppet, sent here to bring him back when he is banished and defeated. And so you did just that. You brought Malefor back!"

Cynder took a deep breath, trying to formulate a response. Tears began to stream down her face; she was losing all her friends, as well as her only family member left alive.

The fire dragon took Cynder's hesitation as ignorance, so he slapped her, before screaming into her ear, "HOW DO YOU FEEL?!"

This time, Cynder hesitated in an attempt to control herself. She knew blowing up at Pyron would do no good. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, a thin frown on her lips. She could feel the dozens of eyes scrutinising her.

Pyron's paw made its way across her face once more, and she gave up on staying composed; it wasn't working.

"I knew what I was doing!" she shouted, whirling on Pyron. "I was as angry as you are when I found out! But then he told me his story, his life before his corruption, everything that happened up until he was banished in Convexity, and how he returned from the dead! He is a changed dragon and I have seen it! Does that look like the same dragon Malefor was?!"

All eyes turned to the bleeding, sobbing mess lying on the ground. He didn't move from his spot on the ground. His head was buried in his paws. He was choking on his tears and spit.

"The fact of the matter is, I brought him here because once I found him, I couldn't trust him to be left on his own. I brought him here to keep an eye on him at all times," Cynder added, bringing all eyes back to her.

A short silence fell amongst everyone, before a young dragon in the crowd spoke up. "It still doesn't excuse the fact that you brought Malefor back to Warfang!" he cried. "I thought he died! I thought we won!"

"We did win the Dark War," Cynder retorted.

"Then why is he here?!"

"The ancestors brought him back!"

"Well if the ancestors trust him enough to allow him back to the world of the living, then I think it's a good enough reason for Cynder to bring him here," Logron pointed out.

"How do you know Malefor didn't lie to you when he told you that?!" Aerus growled, still fighting against Logron to attack his sister. "Tell me how you know, you piece of—"

"Because the way he'd spoken to me was more sincere than anything I'd ever heard," Cynder interrupted. "His eyes showed regret and grief, and his voice reflected that. That was something I remember feeling; it was something I related to."

"And so you're just going to… to… to let him off?! Let him go free from justice?!" Pyron shouted, the crowd murmuring in agreement. "You know what he did! You know what he made you do! It's his fault that Freeze is an orphan! His fault through you!"

Pyron jabbed a claw violently into Cynder's chest. A large snarl built in her throat, before bursting out in a large roar as she jabbed Pyron back. "I KNOW WHAT THE HELL I'VE DONE, PYRON!" she screamed.

Pyron leapt back with a gasp at the harshness in her voice, having reached a level he had never heard before, and that was something. Cynder hesitated, but the anger remained on her face. She feinted a lunge towards Pyron, and he staggered back even further with a barely contained grunt.

Pain surged through Cynder and her expression fell. He was starting to see the Terror of the Skies rising up inside her again. So was everyone else. It was even worse that she looked like the Terror as well; there was no hiding from that fact now. Tears began to stream down her face.

"And now you all just see me as that monster that terrorised the Dragon Realms…" she croaked.

Cynder looked across the crowd at the many fearful, yet judging faces. There was no reply, nothing but silence.

"Answer me, you damned lizards!" Cynder cried. "After all these years, you still see me as the Terror of the Skies, don't you?!"

"Y-yes…" the crowd murmured hesitantly.

The dark purple dragoness sighed, shaking her head. It had only been a couple minutes and already Muras' true identity had been revealed, and now Cynder was deemed 'untrustworthy' and 'the Terror' once more, blamed for bringing her 'master' back. She was right back where she had started eight years ago: surrounded by distrustful people. However this time, she had gained their trust, only to have broken it. It would be so much harder to gain their trust again.

She cursed herself, raising a paw and wiping her eyes dry from the tears. The silence was deafening and awkward. Everyone just stared at her, either in fear or in anger. Logron on the other hand looked completely lost, as if he didn't know what to feel.

"What can I do to help gain your trust back? Please," Cynder murmured, wanting to fix this.

For a while, no one answered. Cynder was about to ask again before someone finally answered.

"How about you kill the purple worm that ruined our lives?"

"What?" Cynder murmured, noticing Muras' bloody form curl up into an even tighter ball.

"YES, KILL HIM!" the dragon roared.

"KILL THE PURPLE DEVIL!" another dragon cried. "MAKE HIM ATONE FOR HIS SINS!"

The aggressive roars grew in volume, before a loud chant of 'death' began to grow. The dragons around Muras began to kick the purple dragon again. Muras did not make a sound; he lay there pitifully, taking in every insult and kick and glob of spit that was hurled at him. Cynder just groaned, shaking her head. "ENOUGH!" she ordered, and the chants and roaring and kicking died down. "We will not be killing Muras!"

"But," Logron added, before the crowd could complain and riot, "we do have an old, unused torture chamber in the basement of the temple that hasn't been used in at least four decades now, as far as I know. We could… you know, torture him?"

"What are you doing?!" Cynder hissed.

"I know you don't want to do this but the people want it, and I know you want to earn their trust again! He destroyed everyone's lives, Cynder; how do you think people are going to react to him being here? What do you think people want? Death of course but if we can't do that, at least break him for them, as bad as that sounds!"

Cynder stared at Logron with disgust. "Do you know what you are asking me to do?"

"Yes. Yes I do."

"I do not want to be that person again. I do not want to torture again."

"Would you rather kill Muras?"

Cynder looked at Muras. The purple dragon was now looking up at her with disbelief, fear glistening in his eyes. He shook his head slowly, and Cynder's heart sank. The pleas in his eyes weighed down on her like a vice.

But she had a choice to make. Firstly, she didn't feel like it was fair to kill him, and she was also not keen on taking another life that was not Spyro or one of his minions. Secondly, Muras was powerful; he could prove a useful asset in the fight against Spyro. Thirdly, the ancestors had sent him back to the Dragon Realms for a reason; it didn't feel right to send him back to the ancestors.

"I think he should stay alive," Cynder whispered.

"Then you know what you should do," Logron replied.

Cynder just nodded. She took a deep breath, and lifted her head. "Well then, a torture it is. I will still punish him," she announced, trying not to hesitate or break down into tears, because this time, the tears were more threatening than they had been previously. "I'll give him what he deserves for what he did."

The crowd exploded with cheers and chanting.

"Use the powers and skills he gave you against him!"

"Make him beg and scream!"

"Make him wish he was being killed!"

"Show him what he made you do to us!"

Holding back her tears was the most painful thing she'd ever had to do. She locked eyes with Muras, who was now crying again. Tremors shook his body as fear completely froze him. The dragons around him gave him one more kick each, before picking his bloodied body off the ground and lifting him onto their backs.

There was a tap on her shoulder. Cynder turned to see Logron. "Let's go; I'll lead the way," he said.

Cynder just nodded, and she followed him. The crowd began to follow also. As they walked, Cynder felt another tap on her shoulder. It was Aerus. "I hope you redeem yourself with this, Cynder," he spat. "Do him hell."

Aerus didn't even wait for a response; the wind dragon slowed down, disappearing back into the crowd behind her and Logron.

The whole way there, Cynder couldn't shake the broken look that had been on Muras' face. She couldn't even look back at him. She knew what she would see and she didn't want to see it. Not until she had to.

This whole idea terrified her. She was going to have to play Terror of the Skies again. She was going to have to play being that monster towards Muras, to satisfy everyone and to gain their trust. She needed to hurt Muras to gain the trust of Warfang again. It was sick and it was wrong.

What scared her however, was the possibility that she might enjoy it.

I'm back with another chapter! Uni is still at large and I've been doing lots of commission work so this hasn't been the hugest focus recently (plus I hit a small bit of writer's block at one stage lol), but I'm doing good and still going strong with this lol.

ALSO I released my first album with a friend of mine, which was really good! If any of you are interested, the artist name is Luu Luue, and the album name is Ethereal. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I hope you all like it if you decide to listen.

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Dragon of Mystery: 'Wow' definitely describes that last chapter well, and imo definitely describes this one well too; although tbh, it likely describes most chapters of this story well. Good to hear last chapter had a good name too considering I'm not the best at names haha.

Yeah it's rough with how everyone's doing; Hunter's not getting much better either lol. Muras is now also in a very rough spot too lol (kinda felt bad for him while writing this ngl tho; I feel I was a lot more emotive with him this time round as opposed to my first draft so ye).

You're welcome on the well-wishes too, and good luck for getting back to employment (if you're not already back). Hope the job searching goes well.

Derick Lindsey: Hey! Good to see you back! Also for seeing Cynder's friends again, hope you enjoyed the bit of Pyron we saw this chapter (although he's very much not liking her right now haha).

Also that's fine; you're not obligated to leave a review, but I was wondering where you were considering you're also one of the most frequent reviewers on this story. I understand not having time to review so don't worry about it too much. It's good to see you again tho :)

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Well I have no clue when the next chapter will be but hopefully it'll be soon. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and thank you for reading! See you all later!