Chapter 4
He-Ro quickly got to his feet and swung the Staff of Light at Viper. A burst of light shot out from the staff and struck Viper in the chest however Viper stayed on his feet this time. Viper raised his hands and blue crackling energy leaped from his fingertips and snatched hold of He-Ro and lifted him in to the air.
Once Viper had lifted He-Ro high enough Viper shot a burning bolt of red energy from his eyes and struck He-Ro again and again until He-Ro came crashing to the ground.
"Now I shall take the power of Grayskull." Hissed Viper as he walked over to the fallen He-Ro and snatched the Staff of Light from He-Ro's grasp.
"You shall never have the power of Grayskull." Said the voice of the Goddess echoing from the sky. "We know who and what you are. And we have a way to stop you."
"You can not stop me!!" Viper howled to the sky. "I have learnt from thisss host that He-Ro isss your champion. I have beaten him I shall beat you asss well!!"
"We shall see." Said the calm voice of the Goddess.
Then there was a sudden flash of light and when the light faded the Goddess stood in front of Viper. Next to the Goddess stood Eldor.
Viper's mouth pulled in to an evil grin.
"A woman and a old man are going to stop me?" sneered Viper. "I have destroyed planets which had put up more of a challenge."
Viper then held up the Staff of Light.
"I also have thisss." Said Viper. "I will use it to feed off the power of Grayskull."
Viper then turned his gaze to the Staff of Light and his eyes began to glow brightly forceing the top of the staff open. Allowing the lifeform inside Viper's body to start feeding off the magical energy escaping from the staff
While Viper was distracted He-Ro got to his feet and swung his leg around driving it into Viper's guts. Viper doubled over as the air rushed out of Viper's lungs. He-Ro then grabbed the staff from Viper's hands and in one quick move He-Ro swung the staff at Viper's legs bringing the Snakeman crashing to his knees.
The instant Viper was distracted with He-Ro's attack the Goddess lifted her snake staff high over her head. The staff's snake eyes suddenly opened glowing with a bright blue light. The snake's head then turned to Eldor. Eldor instantly closed his eyes as the light washed over his body and Eldor began to glow. Slowly one by one the spirits of the Elders stepped out of Eldor's body and began to form a circle around He-Ro and Viper.
All at once the Goddess and the Elders attacked Viper with the magical energy of Grayskull. Viper screamed in rage as he tried to fight the magical attack. Then suddenly Viper felt the lifeform being ripped from his body. As the lifeform began to lose its control of Viper's body Viper's mind began to clear.
"NO!!!" screamed Viper as he realised what was being forced from his body.
Viper held up a hand to his face and saw that his black scales were now turning white as the lifeform's shadowy body began to leave his body. Viper tried franticly to grab hold of the lifeform's body but it kept on passing through his fingers.
With one last earpearcing scream the lifeform was torn from Viper's body.
Once the lifeform had been completely removed from Viper's body Eldor opened his eyes. Reaching in to his robes Eldor pulled out the Living book of Spells that he always carried. The instantly flipped open and Eldor began to read from the page that the book had chosen.
As Eldor read the magical energy surrounding the lifeform began to turn solid and harden. The lifeform tried to brake out of the now shrinking shell of energy its cries of anger going unheard with out its host. The shell continued to shrink and then it began to crystallise trapping the lifeform inside.
Once the shell had shrunken to the size of a large crystal the Goddess fell to her knees exhausted. The Elders fled back in to Eldor's body as they too were exhausted and were beginning to fade from existence.
"I must get the Elders back to Grayskull. They can not survive for long outside its walls for long." The Goddess said weakly. The Goddess then picked up the crystal and handed it to He-Ro. "We do not have the power to destroy this threat to Eternia. We can only contain it. You must hide this crystal somewhere where no one will ever find it."
"I think I now the perfect place for this thing." Said He-Ro with that the Goddess and Eldor disappeared in a flash of light.
He-Ro then threw the crystal in to the air as high as he could. He-Ro then aimed the Staff of Light at the crystal. A bolt of bright light shot out of the top of the staff and struck the crystal. Instantly the crystal disappeared.
As soon as the crystal vanished the lifeform's control over Snakemen stopped. The Snakemen suddenly stopped fighting and dropped their weapons in confusion.
Spittor dropped his sword just as Hiss lunged and stabbed Spittor through the shoulder.
"Master!?" pleaded Spittor holding his hand to his bloody shoulder.
"Pleading for your life?" sneered Hiss. "Where is your courage now?"
Hiss pressed forward as Spittor backed up.
"Master. I do not know what you mean." Said Spittor jumping out of the way as Hiss swung his sword at him.
"You dare to side with Viper. You helped have me exiled from Snake Mountain." Raged Hiss. "And now that he has been defeated you crawl back to me!"
"V-v-viper?" stuttered Spittor. "The last thing I remember about Viper wasss him skinning the Snakemen sent with usss to track down the source of power that you and he had sensed. He had thisss weird glow in hisss eyes I could do nothing to stop him."
Spittor continued to back up until he thumped in to one of the palace walls. Hiss swung his sword and Spittor closed his eyes waiting for his death. However Hiss stopped his sword so that only the very tip of the sword pressed against Spittor's poison sack stopping Spittor from producing his deadly poison.
"Open your eyes." Said Hiss calmly.
Spittor slowly opened his eyes to see that Hiss had his free hand hovering over Spittor's face.
"If you are telling the truth then I'll let you live." Said Hiss. "But if you are lying to me I shall kill you very slowly. Do you understand?"
"Yesss Master." Replied Spittor.
Hiss then placed his hand over Spittor's face and closed his eyes.
"You are telling the truth." Said Hiss after opening his eyes again. Hiss then lowered his sword. "However you will still be punished."
"I understand." Said Spittor rubbing his throat.
"This goes for the rest of you as well!!" Hiss told his men. "I know that you were all under the control of something you could not fight. But as Snakemen law states you must still be punished for attacking your ruler."
Hiss turned to see Viper sat cross-legged rocking back and forth calling out for the return of the lifeform torn from his body.
"It isss Viper who shall suffer the most." Snarled Hiss. "Grab him and drag his sorry carcass to the dungeons of Snake Mountain."
Instantly a group of Snakemen rushed Viper. Viper did not move or make a sound as the Snakemen picked him up and dragged him away.
Hiss turned to He-Ro and sneered at him.
"Do not think that my saving your life means anything." Said Hiss. "Be warned once my forces are back to full strength we will battle again."
"I look forward to it." Replied He-Ro.
Hiss then turned to the Snakemen.
"Come my warriors return to Snake Mountain." Called out Hiss.
"We can't let them go!" said Rotal as He-Ro held him back as the Snakemen left the palace. "We should attack while they are weak."
"No Rotal." Said He-Ro. "We have our own injured to take care of first. Besides as Hiss has said we haven't seen the last of him."
Epilogue
Deep within the heart of Eternia a flash of light exploded in to existence. Once the light had faded a large purple crystal appeared and fell to the ground. Once the crystal came to a rest a small animal crawled up to the crystal.
As the animal sniffed around the crystal a small crack appeared. Slowly something began to seep out of the crack and grabbed the animal. The animal struggled free and raced away from the crystal looking for a way out of the cavern with its glowing red eyes.
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