Writing this chapter wasn't easy; Hope and Malefor are incredibly powerful and it felt very different to most of the other fights in this story.
Whenever I got stuck I'd listen to the song Lightbringer, by Pentakill. The chapter wasn't written with that song in mind beforehand; but it's an awesome song and it fits well enough, I recommend checking out out!
Enjoy.
In the skies above Warfang two purple dragons faced each other. One with bright scales and gleaming violet eyes; the other with dark shadowy magic rising from his body like steam, his eyes flat and yellow and full of fury.
Hope's magic radiated hatred like a physical force, everything that he had thought was going perfectly for him had been taken away; and the dragon he loved more than life itself had refused him.
Malefor in contrast was outwardly calm, but he knew all too well that Hope was going to kill him if he got the chance. Last time he'd fought Hope they had both been holding back and not fighting solely to kill; that time the dark dragon had won, leaving Malefor's life at his mercy even if only for a brief moment.
The memory of looking up at Dark Spyro's mocking smirk was still prominent in Malefor's memory, he had felt real fear in that instant; and was deeply unsettled afterwards to know that his fallback plan at that time had been hijacked by Imperia.
A moment such as that would not be repeated.
Hope used a comet dash to close the distance between them, but in his anger he spent a massive amount of mana, the entire city of Warfang was illuminated by the huge blaze of fire, hot wind kicking up dust from below.
Malefor protected himself with a blue heat shield as the massive fireball eclipsed the sky, bearing down on him, Hope came surging out of the firestorm, his teeth bared, fire trailing off his body and his claws outstretched.
Malefor darted out of the way, reaching out with his magic he took control of Hope's leftover fire, he growled with effort as he dragged the huge mass to a stop and forced it to reverse. The fire wavered and crashed upon itself before Malefor snapped it back the way it had come, whirling it around and sending it back against it's owner.
Hope had turned to chase Malefor, unaware that the other dragon was taking advantage of his magic. The fire surged in and slammed into him, the impact and heat caused his wings to crumple and his scales to smoke, but his anger was only made hotter. Hope roared and lashed out at the fire; a sphere of wind expanded around him, blowing the fire up, down and away; patches of fire like burning oil fell on the city below as the massive firestorm was broken apart.
Malefor was retreating, his goal was to lure Hope in, not engage him in direct combat. He'd moved to be over the Dragon Temple but he was cautious not to give his aim away.
While the two purple dragons tested each other's defences, with Malefor leaping and flying around to stay ahead of Hope's huge elemental attacks, Cynder watched on with frustration.
Terrador, Flare and Cyril were below, flying hurriedly below the fight and protecting the buildings from falling earth, fire and ice that Hope was carelessly discarding. Cynder looked across to Volteer, who was hovering beside her. Volteer's elemental abilities didn't allow him to do very much to help, just like Cynder.
"We have to do something. Is everyone totally evacuated?"
Volteer nodded. "Everyone is accounted for!"
"Even Ember?" Cynder pressed. "She was at her house. I have to check." Before the lightning dragon could even respond she darted off, circling the fight but keeping a close watch. If anything went wrong she was going to dive straight in there and deal with Hope herself, plan or no plan.
A long streak of fire came flying past her, Cynder saw it splash down on the roofs below, blackening the yellow stones of the city buildings. It had landed near to where Ember lived, Cynder touched down in the street, recognising the door and darting inside. She came to the familiar bedroom with the walls decorated by flower shaped scorch marks, but nobody was there. Missing Ember was good Ember, in this case. Cynder sighed in relief, but a roar from outside had her dashing back out of the house and towards where Hope and Malefor were fighting.
The sky was growing dark above them as the sheer amount of magic radiating through the air attracted a thunderstorm. Despite the regular violent gusts of hot wind the overall temperature around the city had still dropped several degrees. Cynder hissed in annoyance, if the temperature around Malefor and Hope got too cold then she wouldn't be able to jump into the fight. At the moment she was still at full strength, but there was a slight chill in her wingtips.
Hope's roar mixed with the thunder, a deep booming sound as clouds rolled in. The wind howled in response, Cynder and Malefor were immune but the guardians and even Hope himself were faltering and having to beat their wings hard to stay level.
Hope turned towards Malefor, lightning crackling around him, but Malefor matched him by gathering electricity from the storm as well.
Flare looked at Volteer with a raised eyebrow, silently asking if he wanted to get involved in that, he was the lightning guardian dragon after all, but Volteer shook his head with a wide eyed expression.
"They're using natural lightning, the more dragons try to manipulate it at the same time the more violent and unpredictable it will be. Lightning could go anywhere and hit anything." Volteer shouted to her over the rising winds.
Cynder, on the other side of the city, saw that the other guardians were still holding back. She trusted them for now, but she was itching to get involved. She wanted to try and control the storm with her wind magic, wrap it all around Hope, and slam him straight through the roof of the dragon temple. She would have done it too, but she didn't know which room they wanted him in or weather the roof needed to be intact for their planned trap to work.
Hope had his own ideas on how to use the storm, lightning lanced from the sky down to his wings, gathering in his chest. Multiple lightning strikes hit him, and after each one he grew brighter until finally he locked is gaze on Malefor and unleashed the gathered power.
Malefor closed his eyes and meditated for a moment, preparing his defence the instant he recognised what Hope was about to do. Even as Hope unleashed the lightning Malefor reached out, gripping something only he could see and pulling it up. A spire of rock burst from the ground, rising to the height of the mid-air battle immediately. The huge tower of stone intercepted the lightning strike and diverted most of it harmlessly into the ground.
The remaining lightning spread out randomly but it didn't have the strength to get far, crackling and spitting as it dissipated through the air, for a few moments it obscured Malefor from view.
Malefor took his chance, with a swipe of his paw he shattered the huge pillar of stone into thousands of shards, then he thrust his paw towards Hope and sent the storm of dirt and rock to crash into him, nearly knocking him out of the sky.
The hail of sharp stones and dirt cut off Hope's vision and stung him even through his hard protective scales. Enraged by the painful little attacks Hope roared and lashed out with both of his wings towards Malefor. A massive shockwave of wind shot forwards, the crack louder than the loudest thunder and the force splitting the entire storm between them, a ray of morning sunlight pierced through the torn gap in the clouds. In the city below windows shattered while dust, sand and dirt kicked up into the air.
Malefor deflected the impact of the gust around himself, but below them the buildings of the city were battered by the force. Malefor had no time to waste on assessing the damage, he didn't even have a chance to look and see whether Terrador and the others were alright after the attack.
Cynder too deflected the wind around her, but she watched with horror as Flare and Terrador were both slammed down to the ground, immediately she was dashing towards them.
Terrador shook the impact off like it was nothing, despite the fact that he had crashed through a solid stone roof, within seconds he'd taken to the air again, following the fight as Hope continued to rain down fire and rocks in his attempts to close in on Malefor.
The black dragoness changed direction, touching down in the street beside where Flare had landed. The fire guardian was on her feet as well, but she did look slightly unsteady, her tail was whirling and dancing more slowly than usual. Flare looked back and forth between the fight above and the western side of the city where the underground of Warfang was hiding most of the population. She turned to Cynder as she approached, waving away the black dragoness' concern.
"I'm fine Cynder; but I don't think we've evacuated them far enough." She looked up as Volteer struggled through the wind towards them. "Tell him to go and get them further away."
Cynder nodded and took off easily, sweeping up to Volteer's height. She relayed the message to him, and with a nod the yellow dragon rushed off to check on the underground.
Hope's eyes caught the movement and Cynder felt her heart sink as she saw his mind turning over what he'd just seen. He glanced down at the city, for the first time taking note of it being completely unoccupied and rapidly guessing where the evacuation would have gone to. Spyro and Cynder had heard about Warfang evacuating into the underground before when the Dark Master had moved his plan to destroy the world into it's final phase.
Seeing Volteer dashing in that direction confirmed it.
Hope didn't want to massacre the citizens of Warfang. But right now he was desperate to murder something, he was hurt and heartbroken and furious. Malefor was proving hard to get hold of and while Hope wasn't going to give up, nothing could make him stop hating Malefor, he was keen to take the sharp edge of his fury by killing some weaker targets, and hopefully doing so would force Malefor to stop him or make the infuriating old dragon distressed enough to make a mistake.
With a surge of lightning Hope blocked Malefor off from him and abandoned the chase, turning instead towards Volteer and angling his wings to dive towards the entrance to the underground.
A streak of black scales cut him off and Hope jolted to a stop just before he would have crashed into Cynder.
"You're not going anywhere." Cynder said in a calm but dangerous voice.
Hope faltered, looking at Cynder with anger and pain, then he narrowed his eyes. "You're not the real Cynder. You're nothing but lies!" He folded his wings and dove past her, but a well aimed gust of wind slammed him back. Cynder floated down between him and his goal again.
Hope snarled angrily, his head swinging back and forth between her and Malefor like a hunted animal.
Cynder's willingness to stand by and watch was gone. After all what choice did she have?
Hope radiated cold, aiming to weaken her with it and confine her to the ground, but Cynder wasn't having it. Blades of wind formed on her wings and tail; not sharp enough to cut but enough to add a respectable impact to even her glancing strikes.
A gust of air still hot from Hope's earlier fireball brushed against her wings and Cynder wrapped it around herself as she dived forwards. She blew Hope's cold air away, scattering it before he could use it against her, and then she was on him.
Unlike Malefor and Hope she had no difficulty in keeping herself at her chosen range for combat; she'd mastered using her wind element to improve her agility to a far higher degree than they had done.
The range she chose was extremely close, almost grappling range; but at no point did she let Hope come near to laying a claw on her. She was in control of the space that Hope had, cramping his ability to cast any of his most powerful attacks and lashing out at his throat and belly every time he tried to gather any power.
Hope flailed, his claws lacerating the air between them; but never hitting the elusive form of Cynder. She swept around him in a circle, gathering momentum and gathering wind around her hind leg before kicking him hard in the chest and knocking the breath out of him.
Hope snarled in pain, his wings beating unsteadily. He stopped flapping for a moment, starting to fall; letting gravity open some distance between him and Cynder so he had room to think. Cynder didn't allow it, her tail hooked around his and yanked him back and she battered him with lightning fast jabs and slashes from all four of her legs before turning to shadow as his jaws snapped towards her throat. She rematerialized behind him and clapped her wings against his head, making his ears ring and his vision blur.
Cynder grabbed his horns to try and keep his head away from her as he tried to clear it and counterattack, all the while she was kicking and stomping on his wings and smacking him in the head to weaken him and keep him dazed.
Hope had the strength to turn and snap at her, his strength far exceeding hers, but before he could make any movements Cynder released him and vanished and suddenly he realised she'd been freefalling with him during that frantic fight and his wings weren't flapping and then his head hit stone and his body came to a painful halt.
He was still conscious. Otherwise his body wouldn't be hurting this much.
Stars danced in his vision as he struggled to rise, it took him several moments to realise he'd landed in one of the city squares. His wings and legs were aching and slow to respond as he tried to get up, his head was ringing and he could barely see. Compared to the bright lights everything looked dark and out of that darkness came Cynder, relentlessly beating him back down to the ground. Hope managed to get his tail and wings around himself for a bit of defence, but Cynder continued to get painful strikes through his guard. A slash to his hind leg brought him down again, his jaw hit the stone painfully; but that saved him from her followup attacks. With his head on the ground now Cynder only had half as many angles to attack from and Hope was able to guard against her for enough time to regain his bearings.
He had underestimated her savagery and had nearly paid the price; by the time she'd taken him down to the ground she'd nearly battered him enough to begin targeting his weak spots, more precisely aimed strikes which could have put him unconscious. If she tried them on him while he was fully on guard there was no way she'd have gotten through, his reactions were too quick and they both knew it. She'd been softening him up and slowing him down before going in for the kill, or in this case the knockout.
Hope didn't know if his pressure points worked like a normal dragon's. Would a well aimed hit from Cynder to the base of his jaw be enough to knock him senseless? He didn't know, but it was too late for her to find out.
The black dragoness hissed in fury as Hope concealed his head beneath his wings and tail, she grabbed his tail and tried to yank it aside, but he was too physically strong. She darted forwards, stomping hard on his defences, but Hope endured the hits and then his body erupted with lightning, hitting Cynder painfully and throwing her back.
Hope leapt to his feet, shockwaves of all five of his elements firing constantly in every direction to force Cynder to keep her distance. The black dragoness shifted her weight and deflected the waves of energy, her lean form moving through the impacts, but she was still forced to back away as his randomly aimed attacks cracked the stone walls of every house that bordered the area.
Before Hope could go back on the attack chains of purple energy wrapped around his legs and his throat, strangling his roar and trapping him in place.
Malefor touched down beside Cynder, balancing on his hind legs and controlling the chains with his paws; his teeth gritted with effort.
Hope snarled, his muscles bulging as he strained to get free. Malefor took a step closer, putting even more power into the chains, repairing them, thickening them, and looping more and more around him.
His voice was tight, betraying his strain; but it was calm and controlled.
"Cynder… I can only hold him; you need to move us into the trap. Hurry please."
"Move you to the trap?" Cynder asked, bewildered. For a moment she was just puzzled, but then she worked out what he was meaning. She carefully wrapped wind around Malefor and Hope and was just about to try lifting them up when Terrador touched down in the courtyard and approached.
"Is he contained?" Terrador asked urgently.
"For now." Malefor grunted.
Cynder took over explaining to let Malefor focus.
"Terrador, you're just the dragon we need. You need to move this patch of ground into the dragon temple so we can activate the trap. I'll help with my wind but we can't let Malefor or Hope be disturbed."
The earth guardian nodded. "Understood. Be ready to keep them stable."
The ground beneath them trembled slightly and the stone path slowly began to rise; Terrador kept a broad stance, his legs gripping the ground firmly as he did his job.
Hope stopped fighting directly against the chains, instead just looking at Cynder with anger and hurt; as if asking for help. She looked away, unable to meet his gaze and instead focused on Malefor; watching the purple dragon hold the chains steady. The dragon temple rose up behind them.
"Couldn't you use dragon time or some other trick on him?" Cynder asked Malefor; trying to distract herself from Hope's stare. She cut the two of them off with a wall of air to keep him from hearing the conversation.
"Unwise." Malefor responded. "His magic will imitate ours. The more 'tricks' I use the faster he will learn. I use dragon time and maybe he can still only manage the three minutes of time he did before, giving me a chance to bring him in."
He sighed quietly.
"But maybe he reveals a stronger version of dragon time we haven't seen before and everyone in Warfang dies. Using these chains is bad enough; with mere minutes of practice he'll be able to do it to us. We can't beat him using a variety of powers, we have to beat him without showing him anything he hasn't already used on us."
For a few moments there was stillness, only the sound of the chains clinking quietly; but then Cynder felt a sudden chill of dread and a certainty that something was very wrong.
She whirled around towards Hope, dropping her wind wall and seeing the snarl come back to his face; his magic was all around them and the platform trembled as he fought against Terrador's control, aiming to break the stone apart and break Malefor's concentration with it.
Terrador had enough skill and raw power to match Hope, but the dark purple dragon wasn't finished. A hard gust of wind hit the platform and it shattered, Terrador and Cynder both leapt into the air, while Malefor and Hope began to fall, still locked together by the chains.
The pair of them hit the ground and Malefor's control was broken, the chains shattering into purple fragments of magic as they both were sent sprawling.
Hope was the first to his feet, he blasted Malefor with lightning and the other dragon was hurled backwards, crashing through multiple houses and disappearing from sight. Hope beat his wings hard as he rose up, his eyes scanning the ground to see where Malefor was, already fire gathering in his mouth as he prepared to drown wherever Malefor had fallen in a torrent of flames.
Before he could attack again Cynder was back on him, kicking him hard in the head and using a gust of wind to throw him backwards, making him tumble through the air before he was able to right himself.
They had a trap in the temple for Hope, and then they could get Spyro back. They were so close… so close to the temple; Hope and Cynder were practically on top of it. Poison, wind and shadow didn't have the power to force her will, but the strongest element called alluringly to her, it's power waiting for her to choose it.
Her screech sent a pulse of red energy through the air, energy which locked onto Hope and crashed against him. His eyes went wide, his wings shuddered, and he was stopped in place as the fear ran through his mind and body.
More red energy radiated from Cynder, gathering towards her mouth. Hope broke through the effects, a snarl of anger coming to him as he began to move, but Cynder screamed again and red orbs of concentrated fear shot from her mouth, the orbs slammed into Hope, the air shrieking around him as the waves of power crashed through him, each passing through his body multiple times without inflicting direct damage, but still causing harm.
Hope's body was wracked by violent trembling, his heart racing but also faltering, on the brink of stopping with every single beat, his pain receptors and his adrenaline were in chaos, his skin crawling and his muscles feeling like they were burning and freezing at the same time. Cynder struck him down with a gust of wind, he was in no position to defend himself. He slammed into one of the rooftops of the temple, cracking the tiles, before staggering to his feet with jerky movements.
Hope's healing powers activated, soothing his heart and flushing his system of all the chemicals that had flooded his body. He needed to recover quickly before his muscles was paralysed, trapped by his own fear.
Cynder darted across the sky, hovering above him, a terrifying red tainted silhouette against the stormy sky. Even as Hope tried to get up Cynder screamed and the fear struck him down again. Cynder's fear magic had a mind of it's own, sweeping around her and crashing down on Hope. All of her anger and frustration empowering her magic and striking out, doing her will and then doing more.
Hope's fear radiated back up to her, and it made her magic stronger and stronger. She was the centre of the entire world, her power was limitless. It was so so easy, her magic sustained itself, draining almost no mana. She wasn't even trying very hard to use it.
She was focused on Hope, but her magic had other ideas, it followed all of her thoughts, not merely her conscious mind.
It caught Malefor as the ancient purple dragon was getting to his feet, the stone walls around him were no protection against it. His mind was filled with pain and death as all of the wrong he'd done was turned towards him. He saw himself through Cynder's eyes; an evil unstoppable destructive force; he experienced how Cynder had felt to know she'd served the Dark Master but to only remember the pain and what everyone told her she'd done. That awful terrifying force controlling her whole life even after Spyro had freed her, both wanting to remember what had happened and at the same time desperately wanting to forget it all.
The fear cut through his mind, filled with the hate and vengeance that Cynder had been carrying with her for her entire life. The rational part of Malefor's mind recognised that this was a big part of why Cynder had avoided using her fear magic when possible and to not take it personally that she was using it on him now; but the fear and hurt all felt very personal and directed straight at him. He was seeing their positions reversed; he was the helpless child and she was the ancient dark force controlling him. So this was how Cynder had felt.
He couldn't stand, couldn't move; couldn't see what was going on. His eyes were open but his brain wasn't processing what they saw. There was nothing he could do but endure through the attack. He felt a twinge of sympathy for Hope, not wanting to imagine how it would feel to be right at the centre of this storm of fear.
Through a stormy and blood red sky Cyril, Terrador and Flare watched. Malicious shades of Cynder's fear magic brushed over them and hissed around them, Cyril felt the red energy almost like claws scraping against his scales, setting him on edge and making it clear to him that while Cynder might hold no grudge against him in her actions, there was some part of her somewhere that still hated him for how he'd acted around her.
Nothing escaped from Cynder's magic, all around the city streaks of red mist danced through the streets and filled the clouds above. Plants wilted and lost their leaves, the stone itself bleached and turned to pale yellow instead of the distinctive gold colour of Warfang's architecture.
Even the ground offered no escape; on the other side of the city Volteer and Altia were bringing up the rear of the crowd as Warfang's citizens retreated deeper into the underground. The sounds and tremors of distant explosions and impacts had grown fainter; but just as Volteer dared hope the worst was over a shockwave of red energy rippled through the cavern, barely even slowed down by travelling through solid rock, disturbing the dust and sending chills through the entire crowd. Even Volteer and Ember who recognised the effects felt their hearts race and their muscles tense; some of the younger dragons started crying.
The power seemed to effect some of the citizens more than others; Altia bit her lip, carefully trying to keep her emotions off her face.
"It appears Cynder remembers those of us who she feels have treated her unfairly."
"Well you did treat her unfairly." Volteer pointed out bluntly to her. "But she's not doing this for petty revenge. Things must be bad back there or she wouldn't have felt pushed hard enough to resort to Fear."
He raised his voice.
"Keep going everyone!"
The population of Warfang moved on quickly, more worried than ever.
Volteer and Altia glanced at each other for a moment, then turned back.
Within the dragon temple Imperia was gently shaking Ignitus' shoulder. The Chronicler had collapsed the instant the fear attack started, his eyes were glazed and he was twitching erratically. Why he was so badly effected she did not know, but she had to try and help him.
The seals were done, a beautiful circle on the floor that filled the room, surrounded by smaller complicated symbols connected together like a lattice, a finely woven lace. A trap that would bind Hope and supress his personality the moment he entered it. All that remained was for him to step inside. Imperia dragged Ignitus away from Cynder; able to sense where the magic was radiating from as surely as if it was the sun.
Traitor.
Imperia flinched as Cynder's voice hissed in her ear. No, it was just her own imagination of Cynder's voice; her own fear. She'd felt the effects many times before when she'd offered advice and volunteered herself to be a test subject to help Cynder master her fear effects did not get weaker after experience, nor did the fact that Imperia had nothing to truly fear from Cynder make it easier to cope with; but she struggled through it.
Child killer.
She gritted her teeth, trying to force the voice from her mind. She wrapped Ignitus in her wings and dragged him to safety, keeping watch over him and just waiting. Waiting for the relentless fear to stop and praying that Cynder had things under control.
Coward.
All of this was below Cynder's notice, she felt fear from other sources and drank it in, spinning it towards Hope and increasing the torment, but she was totally unaware of the danger she was posing to Malefor, Ignitus and, if she kept this up, potentially the entire population of Warfang.
Fear magic was addictive, easy and instinctive, there were good reasons why she had been avoiding it ever since she'd become powerful enough to drink in fear from her victims, allowing her magic to sustain itself. It felt too good, and she had tried and failed to be able to wield it with the precision of her other elements. Her fear magic was wild and savage, it went wherever it pleased and did whatever it wished; all the worst parts of Cynder without any of her redeeming qualities.
It fed on her flaws; her distrust of others, her isolation, her ability to hold grudges and seek vengeance.
She was undefeatable with this power; she was untouchable, unquestionable, unmissable. She could never be ignored, never be dismissed, never be mistreated ever again. Anyone who questioned her she could kill with a simple thought. She would bring down hell on her enemies.
She looked down at Hope as the dark purple dragon writhed in agony below her. It would be so, so easy…
No.
Cynder forced herself to stop, her magic was spreading, feeding. She pushed away the fear that was radiating back to her, breathing deeply and slowly. She had to calm herself down and let go of her anger; even though it went against all of her natural instincts to do so.
She didn't want to kill Spyro; that she'd forgotten herself for even a moment and the thought had crossed her mind was awful. She had to control herself; she didn't want to kill anyone.
She breathed in calmly, then out again.
She was in control. Nobody was going to die today.
Hope was unmoving below her; for a moment she thought that she'd killed him and horror filled her chest; but then she saw his breathing and recognised he was still alive.
Now might be their only chance. A flick of her wing sent a gust of wind which blew the doors to the temple open; but she saw Hope twitch as he heard the sound. He wasn't going to stay down for long.
Wind coiled around him, lifting him into the air like a puppet. At the same time Cynder screeched again, fear locking his muscles in place and trapping his mind on the brink of snapping. She pushed aside the addictive temptation of using more power; she only used as much mana and fear as she needed.
She hadn't been as close to killing him before as she thought she had been; it took a lot of mana to kill using nothing but fear; much more than it would take to kill using poison or wind or shadow. She had not been trying nearly hard enough if she wanted to actually kill; which was a good thing because she didn't want to kill anyone.
"Truly remarkable… I pity anyone who crosses you." Malefor said softly from beside her. She glanced around; Malefor was standing on air, held aloft by his magic. His left wing and foreleg seemed to be cramped and unable to move fully, the fear had caused them to lock up and clench painfully, but he was stretching them and recovering his movement gradually.
"I don't like this." Cynder said softly. "He's too still, like he's not even trying to fight back."
Spyro found himself lying on his side, sunlight warming one half of his body, while a soft and cool surface supported him from below.
The fear was mostly gone, but he could still feel it clawing at the edges of his mind. It was meant for Hope, it worked directly on Hope's state of mind. Spyro was right there alongside him, he felt pain when Hope felt it even though he was barely aware of what was going on around them. He had been with Hope, taking the force of Cynder's magic, but it didn't torment him nearly as much.
Cynder!
Spyro opened his eyes and leapt to his feet. The ground below him was unstable, shifting and moving, but at that moment he barely noticed.
That feeling had been unmistakable, it was Cynder's fear magic. She was the only fear dragon anyone had ever heard of and the magic had distinctly carried her touch, as recognisable as another dragons' scent or face. How angry or desperate had she been to call on that power? He knew that she was wary about using it, she wouldn't have done so lightly.
He looked around and his mouth gaped open in confusion, struggling to understand what he was seeing.
He was floating on a huge leaf in the middle of a lake, or perhaps an ocean as he couldn't see any edges. That was why he'd felt unstable, the leaf had a bit of give to it, dipping under his weight as he moved.
"What the heck…" Spyro muttered. He spread his wings, but something about them didn't feel quite trustworthy, like if he tried to fly he might not get the height and speed he needed to properly take to the air. It was disturbing.
Spyro walked to the edge of his leaf and peered over into the water. It was clear, but it was not still, currents and disturbances below caused the surface to shift and even bubble. He could not see the bottom, but he could see that it was nothing but water for a long way down.
None of this made him feel better, so instead he reached out to the fear in the back of his mind, letting it come back even though it hurt. It proved to him that Cynder was still out there, even very close to him, somewhere just beyond this weird dream.
As the pain and redness swept back into his mind the sky above took on a bloody taint, spoiling it's pale calm blue. The water grew dark and began to ripple, waves breaking and colliding with each other; and still Spyro reached out towards where he could feel Cynder.
"Stop!" A purple figure burst out of the water with a huge splash, spreading it's wings and roaring at the sky. The red clouds receded and the water calmed, but not completely.
Spyro looked up defiantly as Hope came to hover above him.
"What do you think you're doing!? You nearly let her back in!"
"What is this place?" Spyro demanded. "Is this a dream?"
"It's a coping mechanism. A delusion. You should know all about being deluded." Hope growled. Spyro raised an eyebrow at how angry the other side of himself was. Clearly someone needed a time out on the Leaf of Meditation, as Spyro had just decided to call it. "She hurts too much, I need more time; so I made this place where I can see her magic in order to stop it."
"So this represents our mind? And the redness is Cynder trying to turn it all into fear?" Spyro looked up at the red light slowly refilling the sky, silently willing Cynder onwards. As if in response a wind picked up, bringing Cynder's presence with it.
Hope flinched and pulsed with energy, driving it back again, but not as far this time. He couldn't stop it. "You're letting her in. Why, do you think she can save you? I'm what you should be, I am you when you're saved."
Spyro ignored the comment and kept reaching out for Cynder. "So why is this place like this? What happens if I jump in the water? Would I regain control, or would I drown? Where is the beach?"
"Beach? Water? You're in a cage."
Spyro waved a paw out over the water, it did not hit any bars. "Are you sure?"
"It doesn't matter what you see. We're each interpreting this place differently. It doesn't symbolise anything, it's just a meaningless place."
"Ah, but I have discovered the Leaf of Meditation." Spyro said.
Hope looked blankly at him, lost for words. "That… makes no sense."
Spyro shrugged. "Neither does this place. Since when could even a purple dragon make something like this?"
"I could never do this if our mind wasn't already stretched by there being two of us inside, along with Cynder's fear magic breaking through barriers and forcing us both to retreat deeper into our mind. But it might be possible to do it again in the future. You're on a leaf you say? When I'm done destroying Warfang I'll come back here and burn your leaf, maybe then you'll be gone for good!"
"Warfang?" Spyro's voice became hard and dangerous, even as a chill of dread went down his spine. "So that's where we are."
He took that fear he felt, fear for his home and his friends, and let Cynder's red magic latch onto it. The clouds began to rush in, and this time Hope couldn't stop them. The water turned black and stormy and Hope hissed in pain, but then he managed a savage laugh.
"You're too late… I needed to buy time to regain my convexity. Now everything you love will burn!"
Spyro roared in defiance and the clouds crashed in, making Hope scream and striking him from the sky, but the entire world faded away and Spyro knew that he had missed his chance.
"Cynder, be careful."
Hope's eyes flashed open and in a moment he was back to full power, if not even stronger than he had been when they'd first started to fight him. This was his final surge of power, he had nothing else left, but he was prepared to use it all and hold nothing back.
All of Cynder's work was undone in a moment; convexity and darkness surged through Hope's body, purging the fear from his system; he turned to her and roared, a beam of black light shooting from his maw straight towards her.
Cynder was stunned, to surprised to dodge out of the way. Instinctively her body turned to shadows as the beam hit her; the dark cloud was scattered and split into a thousand shards.
Cynder was unharmed, even though her shadows were scattered across half of the sky. Until she selected a shadow to emerge from she was simultaneously in all of them and none of them; but for the moment all of her shadows were broken into pieces too small for her to exit them; she would need to add some mana to a shadow somewhere, either one of hers or another one in the city, in order to emerge from it.
Her vision was in fragments, shattered, she was able to see from countless angles. The sights she saw reflected the state of her mind.
He had tried to kill her. A lethal attack aimed straight at her chest. She could be dead right now; killed by the dragon she trusted the most in this world.
Lucky she wasn't a dragon with trust issues or anything; she thought sarcastically. This was followed by a much less sarcastic thought: lucky she had her shadow element.
Hope had done it in self defence; they were the ones attacking him. He might have still been suffering the aftereffects of her fear attack; it had caused random aggressive behaviour in the past, perhaps he wasn't even thinking of her as Cynder anymore and had attacked out of an instinctive desire to stop the fear from continuing. Maybe he knew she'd survive it; Malefor had survived a similar beam after all.
All these excuses ran through Cynder's shocked mind as she watched the beam of convexity shred through her shadows and light up the sky.
Some of her shadows were filled with flickers of purple as Malefor rose up towards Hope. The elder purple dragon's body hadn't fully recovered from the fight like Hope's had; but his magic was as strong as ever. Hope turned towards him, the beam of convexity screeching as it sliced through the air. Malefor's eyes widened as the beam approached his face; with only an instant to react he opened his jaws and fired back his own beam of convexity.
Cynder's vision whited out, a high pitched ringing sound filled the entire world and half of her shadows were obliterated instantly.
She grew one of her remaining shadows and shifted out of it, turning solid again just in time to have the breath knocked out of her by the explosion.
The sphere of light expanded with a muted roaring sound, like a rushing wind; buildings shattered, the dragon temple was hidden from sight within the brilliant glow.
She was spun head over tail by the impact, beating her wings to regain her balance and watching.
Hope had been firing his beam of convexity wildly, he had been about to hit Malefor with it but Malefor had responded with a laser of his own. Convexity, it seemed; was not meant to come into conflict with itself.
The sphere of light began to retract and all that remained behind was destruction. A perfect ring of buildings had been turned into nothing but rubble; centring on where the two attacks had met and spreading out across the city, leaving a huge round mark on the ground in place of what had once been the entire southern side of the mountain.
The sealing array was destroyed, completely shattered; the room it had been in was unrecognisable from the rest of the Dragon Temple, save for a silver wing sticking out from under the rubble.
Cynder gasped softly in relief as she saw Imperia crawl out from under the rubble; covered in dust but otherwise alright. She shook herself and blew the dust off her scales with a gust of wind, then helped Ignitus up with a paw.
Flare, Cyril and Terrador had been scattered around but they were all still in the air, they stared at the ruins of the city with shock.
The light shrank back to it's source, and as it faded away it revealed Malefor and Hope.
The world seemed to slow down, even though nobody was using dragon time. The wings of both of the purple dragons were burned, skeletal; their scales blackened and seared. They did not beat, they did not move, and after a long moment they fell.
They hit the ground at the same time, Hope and Malefor; lying together in the midst of a ruined city.
Ignitus looked on as the future that he'd seen came true. He had seen this before and thought he could stop it; but it had happened. He just had to hope they were still alive.
Ignitus pushed off from the rubble, rushing down towards the still dragons. Imperia was ahead of him, her wind giving her speed; but Cynder got there before either of them, landing beside Hope, not even caring if he might be still dangerous. She just had to make sure he was alive.
Hopes scales were cracked and burned, fragile to the touch. Cynder laid her head on his chest, trying not to breathe in the smell of smoke. There was a heartbeat; rapid and strong. He was breathing shallowly, but he was breathing. He was alive.
Cynder gasped in relief, looking across and seeing Imperia was checking Malefor. The two of them nodded to each other, sighing as they realised that Hope and Malefor were both alive.
Cynder looked down, even though it hurt to see Spyro so badly wounded. Would it be enough to change him back? His scales were beginning to repair themselves, thickening and starting to regain some colour. If it was happening fast enough to see then that meant…
"Imperia; I don't think this is over. Quickly, we need to contain him somehow!"
Hope was breathing deeper now, recovering, healing. He still wasn't down, despite everything they had done to him; and now they didn't even have anywhere to put him.
Imperia stepped up beside her and Cynder felt the air around Spyro change. Imperia was using her magic to try and keep Hope unconscious, just like she'd tried to do to him at the fortress in Concurrent Skies; but it was too late.
Hope's right eyelid was too damaged to open, but his left eye was just as yellow and angry as ever. He staggered upright, a sphere of wind forming around him, pushing Imperia's control away and kicking up a cloud of dust. Imperia and Cynder took to the air, the wind blowing them back to a safe distance. Malefor was thrown away from Hope, hitting the remnants of a wall; the impact woke him, but he was still dazed and weak.
Hope had nothing left, no convexity, almost no mana. He had used everything, he was panting, blood dripping from the cracks in his scales, his wings little more than muscle and bone with the membranes burned away. He bared his teeth at the world, a desperate threat; he was still dangerous, but he was outmatched and he knew it.
His one good eye picked out Imperia and for a moment surprise showed on his face.
"Altia?" He asked in a rasping voice.
"No." Another voice said from behind him. Hope turned, seeing Volteer and Altia had circled behind him. Terrador, Flare and Cyril completed the circle, Hope was surrounded. He looked back and forth between the two silver dragonesses for a moment, not comprehending.
"But… I killed her. I killed you." He looked at Imperia. For a moment there was a flicker of purple in his eye.
The silver dragoness smiled and shook her head, she began to walk forwards.
"We've got you now Spyro. Just lie down and go to sleep; everything will be fine."
Hope shook his head, looking around desperately. There was nowhere he could go. He turned and started to stagger away from Imperia, but Cyril was approaching from the other side now. He stopped, struggling to call on convexity for one final attack, he refused to give up; he would never let them beat him like this.
Suddenly his eye widened. He couldn't bring convexity to him, but maybe…
Hope slashed at the air and a rift appeared in front of him. Malefor saw what was happening and used wind to surge upwards. "Stop him!" He roared.
Cynder was moving instantly, accelerating past Imperia and charging straight towards Hope, but she was too late. The dark dragon stepped into the rift, and Cynder tried to follow him but suddenly a wall of ice was stopping her.
"No Cynder! It's too dangerous!" Cyril shouted to her.
She smashed the wall with a hard gust of wind, but it was too late. The portal had gone. Hope was gone.
Originally the plan was for Hope to be defeated and captured after this fight; but it didn't seem to quite fit. The key to Hope's defeat should ultimately be Spyro. Let's hope he's up to the task.
Thanks for reading!
-4Dragons