PLEASE NOTE: This chapter contains some very dark/disturbing themes and imagery


It wasn't long before they arrived at the Well of Souls. Fear and discomfort filled everyone's hearts as they landed in front of the hulking mountain, staring down the entrance of the mount. Green and purple energy spilled down the mountain and illuminated the world around them, taking the job of the moons, which were both absent.

Cynder gave a shuddering breath. "I never thought I'd be back here," she murmured weakly.

"Neither did I, Cynder," Muras replied, tapping her shoulder gently.

"We're with you," Blitz said. "Both of you."

Molron and Lavin both nodded. Cynder and Muras looked at each other, fear in their eyes, before they took a deep breath each. Cynder turned to look back at the Well of Souls, before taking the first step, leading the march into the large mount.

They walked into the long corridor, glowing purple crystals decorating the dark, rocky walls, and purple energy flowing down the walls between the cracks in the rocks. It was silent around them, the only ambient noise being their fearful, shaky breaths and their careful pawsteps.

They then entered the main circular room that Cynder remembered well. Rubble still remained from eleven years ago when this room had collapsed, and a few dull yellow shards of Time Crystal remained also, scattered about the place. There was a lot less rubble than back then, however; something or someone had obviously cleaned this room up.

Cynder looked around. She couldn't see Spyro anywhere. Muras quickly grabbed her attention and saw a hole in the ground; it was the same hole that Spyro had fallen into eleven years ago, and had emerged out of it as Dark Spyro, having just freshly decimated Gaul. He suggested that maybe Spyro was down there, so they leapt down to check, landing on the raised arena that Spyro had fought Gaul on, the same raised platform that the beam had burst out of. Cynder and Muras were just lucky it wasn't the Night of Eternal Darkness or otherwise that beam of pure energy would have burst out of the middle of the arena.

Blitz swore under his breath. "I've never been in a more terrifying place in my life," he breathed.

"It's a scary place, alright. I've been in the Well a few times; it's not a very nice place. It just has an air of darkness and evil, like you're being watched," Lavin replied. "I must admit I've never been down here, though. I was never brave enough to travel further down than ground level."

Spyro was nowhere to be seen, not even down in the lower level of the Well. "Where the hell is he?" Cynder questioned, a little frustrated.

"Well, if there's anything I remember about this place, it's that the Well of Souls is bigger than it looks." Muras replied, looking around the room, before walking towards a stone in the wall and pulling it out.

There was a heavy thunk as a large pillar of rocks began to sink into the ground, creating a doorway that led into an ominous corridor that was pitch black. Everyone looked at the corridor with terror. There was a brief amount of hesitation between all of them, before Cynder let out a growl and stomped forward. The growl was towards herself to get her moving and down to Spyro in time to stop him, but it clearly urged the others on too, as they followed her almost immediately after she took the first step.

The pitch darkness of the corridor swallowed them, and the only light was the bright white light from Lavin's bracelet, which only seemed to get stronger and stronger the further down the corridor they went.

"We need to be careful down here," Muras said with a dark tone. "This section of the Well of Souls… it's sinister. Make sure you look out for everyone, okay?"

No words needed to be said. The air of acknowledgement was thick around them.

Before long, the corridor opened up into a massive abyss; purple crystals littered the walls of the abyss, filling the room with more light than they had earlier, allowing them to analyse their surroundings a bit more. The length of rock they were walking on continued over the deep abyss, creating a small bridge made out of stone.

With a shaky breath, Cynder stepped forward and began to walk along the length of the rocky bridge. About halfway along it, she paused and looked down. There were more bridges of rock below them, leading into other corridors in the rounded walls of the abyss. It stretched many kilometres below them, so much so that the crystals quickly became tiny purple dots, before they became too small for the eye to see.

Once they made their way across the bridge, they were met with a small room, with several large holes in the wall, looking across the abyss. Inside the small room was a spiraling stone staircase, moving down into another room, where another bridge awaited them. They kept making their way down many sets of bridges and staircases. The silence was haunting and uncomfortable.

They finally made it across the final bridge into the next room, which was a large open room with purple energy flowing throughout it, lighting up the room with the eerie purple light. There was a rock staircase going downwards in the middle of the room, and around the staircase was an ancient dragonic phrase etched into the rock, which glowed with the evil purple energy. Cynder turned to Muras. "What do those glyphs say?" she inquired.

"'Lost souls and evil presences lie ahead; proceed if you wish to join them.'" Muras translated.

Cynder didn't like the sound of that. But Spyro had already proceeded, and was likely going to do something that would put the whole world in danger. She had to proceed. She didn't believe in evil presences. Sure, Malefor was evil, but he was very much physical. There was no spiritual aspect to him at all.

Sometimes she even struggled to believe in the ancestors. Spirits were a hard concept for her to grasp now.

"We've gone too far to turn back," Cynder murmured. "Whatever Spyro's doing down there, we have to stop him."

"But what about the lost souls and evil presences?" Molron questioned.

"If we have to fight for our lives, so be it. It's either our lives to stop Spyro, or we turn back and millions of lives get lost," Cynder deadpanned, before raising her voice into a snarl. "Now we're wasting time talking, hurry up or we'll be too late."

"You're scared, aren't you?" Muras questioned as they walked down the stairs, his voice cutting through the disturbing silence and stillness of the cave.

"No," Cynder snapped.

"There's nothing wrong with admitting you're scared, Cynder," Lavin piped up. "No one's perfect; no one is ever not scared of something. And given the stakes and where we are, I think you have perfect reason to be scared."

"I'm not scared," she denied again. "I just want to get down there, kill Spyro, and then get out."

"I doubt it'll be that easy," Muras sighed.

"Don't. Say that."

The quiver in Cynder's voice was unmistakable. The desperation. The fear.

She couldn't hide it anymore. Muras faltered in his steps, and Blitz and Molron exchanged very concerned looks. They had never heard Cynder scared before, especially the two young soldiers.

It wasn't long before they reached the bottom of the staircase, entering a large room filled with a blinding purple light. The light source was from a large pentagram etched in the middle of the room. Mist rose from the etching, and a low warbling sound filled the air. Through the light and the mist, a large figure could be seen standing in the middle of the pentagram. It was Spyro.

"Spyro!" Cynder roared.

Spyro froze and turned around, looking at Cynder with a snarl. The purple light from the pentagram etched in the rocks below him projected up onto his form, giving him an eerie appearance. The mist in the room didn't help either. His face was blank, his crimson eyes glowing brightly, darting quickly between Cynder, Muras, Lavin, Blitz and Molron.

"I see you brought some company," Spyro growled.

"Stop this, now!" Cynder snapped.

"I don't think so."

"Spyro, please listen to her… to us," Muras pleaded, stepping forward. "Don't make a mistake you will regret. The dark magic down here… it's pure evil. This will not help you in any way."

"The magic down here is more power, to help me achieve my goals, to help me stop this chaos, to save the world from itself."

"You aren't saving the world from anything!" Cynder cried. "This chaos that you speak of? You created it! The only thing at fault is you!"

"Did I create it? I thought I told you that people ridicule others! They segregate and attack and beat up others! That causes enough chaos in itself! It brings out the worst in people, and then violence breaks out, riots start, wars start," Spyro growled. "I started this one so I could begin to stop that! I had to; there was no other solution! But now everything's out of order! Panic has overridden everyone and they're all going insane! No one realises that I'm trying to help our damn world, and they're only making it worse!"

"They're only panicked because of you! You're delusional; your logic is even more broken than the last time you spoke to me about it!"

Spyro didn't acknowledge her. "I need more power, more dark power to help me bring order back into this world! Dark power is all that can help me now. Regular power isn't strong enough to help me out; I need the darkness. It's stronger, it's better, it's feared. It will help me achieve what I need to."

"Spyro, this won't achieve anything. Trust me," Muras said, his voice shaking dangerously. "I had these thoughts too. I felt I needed more power too, so I came here to perform a ritual to get it, until I entered this very room and felt… another presence here. A dark presence. Hell, I feel it even now. The urge to get power from here is false; it'll only summon something bad into you. If there's one thing I can thank Malefor for, it would be his pride. Malefor decided that he didn't need help from another being, only from power, and so left without the help. Trust me, Spyro, this won't benefit you in any way."

"You lie. You lie, Muras! You don't know what you're talking about!"

"I STOOD EXACTLY WHERE YOU WERE, SPYRO! I USED TO BE ON THE VERY SAME SIDE AS YOU, SO I DAMN WELL DO KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Muras roared.

Spyro just scoffed. "When I'm done with this, you two will die. There's nothing you can do to prevent that. You two have given me hell these past few months, and I just want you out of my way so I can finally do my job! This power will help me do that!"

"Listen to us for once in your ancestor-damned life, Spyro!" Cynder snapped. "This will not help you in whatever sick, twisted way you imagine it will! If Muras can sense this dark presence then by the ancestors, I believe him, and this dark force will destroy you if you let it enter your body. We are in the deepest, darkest depths of the Well of Souls, so if any dark presence is going to slumber here it may as well be the worst one possible!"

"She's right," Lavin piped up. "I've never picked up dark energy readings this powerful before. Whatever is down here will not benefit you. I can feel it too—my study on dark magic has helped me become familiar with the sensation of it. The dark magic down here… this presence that Muras is feeling… I feel it too, and it has a mind of its own. It will not benefit you, Spyro. It will not seek to help you out. It will possess you and destroy you, and turn you into a monster you do not want to be."

"Magic is a thing, a power, worm. It does not have a brain; it does not have thoughts; it does not have a soul. Magic is not sentient. Light or dark. It's just dark magic. It's not a big deal," Spyro snapped.

"Not a big deal? Spyro, dark magic ruined my life, remember? Whether it's sentient or not, it ruined me. Or have you forgotten?" Cynder retorted.

"It's not just dark magic either. I don't know if you can feel what we're feeling, Spyro, or if you're just being ignorant to it, but there is more than just dark magic here," Muras added with a shiver. "I can feel it, stronger than I ever have. I can feel… him…"

"Him?!" Blitz cried, catching the use of the pronoun. "There's someone else down here?!"

"Yes… very much sentient, very much… alive. Oh ancestors, I had the strength back when I was Malefor not to cower, but now…"

Spyro chuckled at Muras' fear as the purple dragon shrunk in on himself, curling his tail between his hind legs and taking slow, staggering steps back towards the wall. His grin then disappeared from his face before he looked down at the pentagram he stood in, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Spyro, don't you dare utter a damned word." Cynder warned.

Spyro took another deep breath before he spoke, "Ng'afali torol…"

The Dark Overlord was immediately interrupted by Cynder's loud roar as she tackled him to the ground. He let out a savage snarl, instantly lashing out with his hind legs, kicking Cynder off him. She recovered quickly, and they both raced each other to be the first one standing. Cynder won, and stepped towards Spyro, slugging him in the side of the face, the sudden force snapping his head sideways and throwing him back to the ground again. He tried to pick himself off the ground again, but Cynder drew her claws along his face in a long, bloody line across the edge of his indigo snout.

Cynder raised her claws to strike him again, but Spyro was quicker, turning and letting loose crimson plasma beams out of his eyes directly at Cynder's face. She let out a howl as she staggered backwards, the scales on her face dark and peeling away as burned and bloody flesh peeked out through the scales.

Spyro was quick to get up and lunge at her, but Molron came to her rescue, tackling Spyro to the ground and breathing a large stream of fire into his face. The Dark Overlord kicked out, throwing Molron off him, leaving the fire dragon winded and fighting for breath. Spyro got up and readied his tailblade to deal the final blow, before Blitz entered the fight, biting down around Spyro's tail. He snarled, shooting another strong beam of plasma out of his eyes. Blitz yelped in pain as the beams slammed into the bridge of his nose, leaving nasty burns across it.

The electric dragon recovered quickly however, forcing himself to keep going and protect his friend, and he released a large beam of electricity at Spyro. Spyro dodged, and breathed his own purple beam of lightning at Blitz, hitting him square in the chest. Blitz shot back and slammed into the rock wall with force.

Cynder stood back up and was quick to assault Spyro with savage swings of her claws, which he sidestepped as best as he could. He failed to avoid every swipe, but he eventually got around to Cynder's side where she was open for him to attack, and he slugged her across the jaw. Her vision went hazy for a bit and she staggered almost drunkenly backwards, before Spyro walloped her in the face, knocking her to the ground.

He continued to pummel her face with heavy punches, causing blood to spill from her nose and mouth. She gave a heavy cough, spitting out a large tooth. She thrashed out violently, throwing Spyro off her, before she tried to get to her feet. Spyro gave a low growl before his mouth glowed a horrible orange, and thick globs of lava projected out of it towards her. She gave a loud cry as she staggered backwards, narrowly avoiding the molten rock that landed in front of her.

By this point, Molron had finally recovered from his blow earlier, and he stood and rushed towards Spyro, aiming to take his attention away from Cynder, who was still suffering from her concussion. The fire dragon's distraction worked, but only briefly, as he was knocked down mid-lunge, before a pillar of rock burst out of the ground and skewered Molron with a splash of blood.

Blitz screamed in protest, getting up to attack Spyro, but the Dark Overlord quickly retaliated with another plasma beam from his eyes, slamming into the young electric dragon's chest and sending him sprawling back into the rocky wall. He fell to the ground and barely moved, his head drooping as he struggled to stay conscious.

Lavin and Muras looked at each other with fear in their eyes. Lavin was quick to make the first move, leaping high into the air and encasing his paws with a thick covering of rock. He slammed them down over Spyro's face, causing the Dark Overlord to stagger backwards, large bloody cuts being left over. Lavin swung at Spyro again, who turned his head to try and avoid getting the attack front on. Spyro's horn was chipped quite badly from Lavin's blow.

The ex-solider swung again but Spyro countered it with the same attack. They had a fist-fight for a few seconds, each of them blocking the other's punches successfully, before Spyro finally landed a hit, punching Lavin underneath the chin. Spyro had left himself open after the attack, so despite the concussion, Lavin took his opportunity and slammed Spyro straight into the nose, drawing blood.

Spyro had had enough with Lavin, so prepared to shoot a plasma beam at him. Muras was quick to intercept Spyro and knock him down, tackling him to the ground and hitting him across the face with his own rock-encased fists.

With a roar, Spyro sent electricity throughout his whole body before expelling it in a massive wave of lightning, sending everyone in the room flying backwards. Muras was quick to recover, breathing a beam of ice at Spyro, encasing his head in a thick layer of ice. Spyro toppled to the ground, the ice on his head throwing him off balance. The ice shattered as his head slammed into the ground; he stood, shaking his head slightly and wiping blood from his nose.

His eyes glowed red as plasma beams shot from them towards Muras, throwing the purple dragon into the stone wall behind him. By this point, Lavin and Cynder leapt at Spyro, both tackling him to the ground. They both clawed at Spyro's flank, but only got so far before Spyro discharged more electricity out of his body, sending both dragons flying off him.

Lavin was the first to stand, rushing back towards Spyro. The Dark Overlord swung his tailblade around, slicing Lavin across the chest, leaving behind a deep, bloody wound that streaked from shoulder to shoulder. The earth dragon staggered backwards with a cough, but lunged forward again. He dodged four consecutive swings of Spyro's claws, before he got sliced across the face.

Taking the hit, however, Lavin found a very brief opening and took it, swinging around with his fist and punching Spyro up the jaw. The earth dragon clawed at Spyro's face twice, successfully, before whipping around and delivering a hard blow to Spyro's face with the club at the end of his tail.

Unfortunately, Spyro broke through Lavin's offense, breathing electricity at Lavin and sending him to the ground, seizing and shaking. He noticed Cynder moving out of the corner of his eye, and whirled around to intercept her attack: both her claws aimed at his throat. They both rose up onto their hind legs, holding each other's front paws high in the air in a feat of strength, trying to get their opponent's claws out of their face.

Spyro eventually won as he soon outpowered her, throwing her to the ground and kicking her in the face. Lavin ran up from behind and walloped Spyro across the back of the head with his clubbed tail, but Spyro was quick to swing his own tailblade, slicing off the end of Lavin's tail. He cried out in pain.

Lavin was momentarily distracted, before Spyro thrust his claws into the long slice that he had left across Lavin's chest. He slowly dragged his claws down Lavin's chest through the raw, bleeding flesh, and Lavin howled.

Muras rushed forward and released several earth missiles at Spyro, causing him to disengage and stagger away from Lavin, blood streaming down his side as the sharp stones protruded from his flank. Muras rushed to Lavin, dragging him backwards towards the edge of the wall, trying to take care of him. They made their way towards Blitz, who was starting to regain consciousness.

Spyro turned to Cynder, who was just recovering from a heavy hit to the head she had sustained after being thrown off Spyro. They stared at each other briefly, blood streaming from the both of them.

"It's just you and me, Cynder," Spyro snarled menacingly.

"I've fought you many times before; I can hold my own," Cynder replied.

"My, my, you've gotten so egotistic, haven't you? You really think you can win?"

"I have to."

"You have never beaten me, Cynder. EVER. Even as the Terror of the Skies, YOU LOST." The purple dragon spoke those words slowly and with emphasis, so much so that Cynder recoiled from the words.

Doubt started to flood her thoughts. Shaking her head and fighting back a tear, she looked at him square in the eye. "There's a first time for everything then, isn't there?" she murmured.

Spyro just smirked. He opened his mouth in a loud, threatening roar, before his throat glowed orange and another round of lava shot out at her. Once more, she dodged the attacks, before using her shadow element to rush through the ground at Spyro. The Dark Overlord sidestepped her attack, watching her shadow zip through the ground, before he grabbed Cynder and threw her down to the ground, gripping her by both sides of her head.

She let out a shriek of pain as the most unbearable burning sensation flared through her temples; she could notice what looked like smoke rising out from under Spyro's paws in her peripheral vision. It was as if he was using his fire element to cook her alive. He opened his maw wide—Cynder shuddered as she stared down his throat, unable to move her head—and a bright orange light began to rise from the depths of his gullet. She could feel the heat of the inevitable rush of lava, and she closed her eyes tightly, not wanting to stare down the abyss that would be her demise.

Suddenly the pressure against her temples disappeared, and Cynder opened her eyes to see the aftermath of Spyro being hit by a beam of convexity from Muras. Cynder scrambled to her paws, before falling back down painfully. She crawled across the ground towards Muras, Lavin and Blitz, her head throbbing in pain, her scales seared and flesh smoking.

"You will never be strong enough to beat me, Cynder. You try again and again, but you fail every time," Spyro chuckled darkly as he recovered from Muras' convexity beam, before his grin faded ominously. "But even still, you refuse to die, and continue to hold onto your measly little life. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get what I came here for."

"Don't do it Spyro," Cynder coughed weakly. "I swear to you, please don't. It won't help you, I promise."

Spyro's only response was a beam of electricity, sending Cynder back down to the ground, convulsing violently in front of her comrades, as they cried out in protest. She screamed in pain as her limbs kicked out against her will. The electricity did not stop. Her head pounded; she wasn't sure how much more she could take, especially after how she almost got cooked.

Eventually, the electricity stopped. Lingering convulsions continued to wrack her body, but they quickly weakened, before her body stilled. Her blurry vision and muffled hearing took longer to return, but when they did, Cynder's heart sank when she saw Spyro standing in the middle of the pentagram, wings spread open wide, muttering the final words of the ritual.

After a moment, silence.

Nothing happened.

Cynder, Muras, Lavin and Blitz all shared a very concerned look, before turning back to Spyro. His wings lowered back against his side, and he looked around in anticipation. The anticipation quickly faded, and disappointment painted his face. And not an angry disappointment like everyone was used to seeing from Spyro now, but a sad disappointment. It was odd seeing Spyro sad.

But Cynder liked it.

She wanted to laugh at him, mock him, call him weak and petty.

"Nothing… nothing happened?" Spyro murmured, his voice small and broken. "Did I do something wrong?"

With a sigh, he lowered his head and lifted his paw to step out of the middle of the pentagram. However he paused, suddenly realising that once he had lifted his paw, it wouldn't return to the ground. He couldn't even move it. It hung suspended in the air, shaking, before it slowly—ominously—lowered back down to the ground. Spyro's face contorted as if he was trying to fight back and keep it lifted, as if the paw had been moving against his own will.

Spyro turned to Cynder, Muras, Lavin and Blitz, his confused expression suddenly turning into one of unadulterated fear. Cynder could see his eyes begin to tear up and his breathing speed up rapidly. She felt Muras give a shudder beside her and she turned to him. His face was caked in sweat and his breathing was shaky and uneven. "It's him. Dear ancestors, it's him. It's him!"

Everyone looked to him with fear, and then back at Spyro.

They had never seen Muras so scared.

They had never seen Spyro so scared.

With a weak, protesting cry, Spyro's left leg gave way beneath him and he fell to the ground. He took in heavy breaths as frightened whimpers emanated from his throat. He suddenly burst into tears, pleading with slurred words that Cynder couldn't understand. He began clawing at the ground frantically, digging his claws into the rocky surface so hard that his claws began to bend into his skin at the roots, causing dark blood to stream from them. A strangled gurgle came from his throat as he choked on his own saliva, which spilled out of his mouth and dripped down his chin. Tears streamed down his face as he clawed at the ground, writhing, gurgling and groaning with pain and fear.

Suddenly he let out a horrid, two-toned howl, as he raised his head high into the air, long strings of saliva dripping down his jaws. His eyes continued to spill with liquid, but the salty tears quickly became replaced by his own blood. He stopped his drawling howl for a large intake of breath, before howling again. This time, the howl was cut off abruptly as he was forced to bend down, beginning to vomit. The first heave brought up vile stomach fluids, but the second one brought up blood. He coughed savagely, blood and vomit dripping down his face, before his stomach heaved again and more blood flooded out of his mouth.

Spyro reared his head to howl again, but this time he raised his claws, before proceeding to tear at his own flesh, spraying his own blood on the ground. He pulled his lips back as he howled, exposing his teeth, which were covered in a thick, red coating of blood, which bubbled in the back of his throat as he roared. His bloody tears streamed down his face replacing the faint tear streaks with very obvious streaks of blood.

He collapsed to the ground again. He didn't have the energy to claw or howl as he lay there, convulsing and gurgling with pain, blood spilling from his mouth, eyes, nose, claws, and everywhere he had clawed himself. With as much energy as he could muster, he managed to turn his head to look towards Cynder and mutter four words: "Help me, Cynder. Please."

He spoke with a horrendously gurgly voice, each consonant sound pushing more and more of the bubbling blood out from between his lips.

Whispers could now be heard around the room, sinister and ominous. They couldn't tell what they were saying, but they knew it was in ancient draconic. That was all they wanted to know. Cynder looked at Spyro, who had that terrible, pleading expression on his bloody face. She swallowed, taking a deep breath before shaking her head. "No. I'm sorry, but I can't. I won't."

"No, please!" Spyro choked, more blood spilling from his lips.

Cynder just shook her head again.

Muras gave her a shake and whispered in her ear, "We need to go. Now."

"I agree. Let's leave." Cynder replied.

They all turned and hobbled up the stairs, making their way out of the room and leaving Spyro behind, screaming and protesting. They moved slowly, their wounds hindering them. They made their way back to the bridges over the large abyss, and they hesitantly made their way across it. Anxiety filled them as the earth all around them began to quake, and Spyro's roars echoed throughout the whole cave system.

They made their way up a few levels, before Spyro's screaming ceased. The silence they grew familiar with on the way down suddenly returned, and it was almost more painful to listen to than Spyro's screaming was. They all froze, fear preventing them from moving. They stayed frozen in fear for quite a while.

"We… we need to keep going," Cynder murmured, swallowing nervously. "It's not safe down here."

The moment she said that, there was a loud screech from behind her, as she felt massive claws close around her. She looked behind her and screamed in terror as a horrifying creature had leapt through one of the holes in the wall, out from the abyss. It was clad in black scales that almost seemed to be melting. Its eyes were a glowing violet, and its snout was large and grotesque, goo dripping between its lips, the mouth outlined by a bright purple glow from the throat. A long, snake-like tongue sat erect inside its open jaws, ready to strike.

No one had to say anything to realise that this was 'Spyro'.

She screamed as she fought against the creature's grasp, spitting poison at its face. Muras joined in her attacks by releasing a beam of convexity at the creature's eyes, and Blitz, through hit dazed state from the concussion, also shot out a surprisingly strong beam of electricity. All the attacks at once caused the creature's head to jolt backwards, and its balance shifted back towards the abyss as it fell.

It took a little longer for it to drop Cynder, however, and she had been brought down with it. Luckily, she fished herself out of its grasp, and had latched onto one of the bridges hanging over the abyss. The creature, however, fell all the way down, crashing into the bridges below Cynder. The crack of each stone bridge was deafening; Cynder swore her ears were about to explode.

She felt her claws slipping, and she cried out for help. Quickly, Muras and Lavin leapt down onto the bridge to pull her up. She didn't get much of a chance to thank them as a loud roar rumbled throughout the cave, quite literally shaking it. Some more of the less stable bridges began to collapse, including the one that they were standing on.

They were too worn out from the fight with Spyro to be able to fly properly and dodge all the rubble and large rocks that were raining down on them. The rocks already pelting against their wings didn't help either.

Cynder looked up and saw Blitz standing over the abyss, reaching out and screaming in protest. "GO!" Cynder screamed. "LEAVE US! GET TO SAFETY!"

She didn't even know if Blitz heard her; they were falling fast.

Cynder and Muras landed with a thud on the ground. Lavin landed with a crack. They turned to him, and realised he was dead; his back was very broken. Cynder was surprised she didn't have any broken limbs. She turned to Muras. He had a dislocated paw, but by the time she had turned towards him after looking at Lavin, Muras had already relocated the paw with a cry of pain.

"Where the hell are we?" Cynder asked.

"Down. All the way down. We're in the bottom of the Well of Souls. It's like a labyrinth down here, I know that much. I don't know what's down here, though," Muras replied.

Cynder looked around. It was extremely dark. There were almost none of the glowing purple crystals that littered the abyss walls down here, and the only real light source was the bracelet around Lavin's wrist. Cynder looked back down at it, and realised every crystal was glowing white, so intensely that it hurt to look at.

The crystals almost seemed to be glowing brighter, somehow.

Until they shattered. All of them.

Darkness enveloped them.

"Muras, I'm scared…" Cynder whimpered, reaching out to try and find him, before hugging him tightly.

"I am too, Cynder."

Muras sounded on the verge of tears, and his voice was shakier than hers.

They stood in place for a few minutes, before Muras spoke up again. "Cynder, we need to figure out how to get out of here," he said.

"How do we do that? I can't fly, not from the amount of strain that's been put on me from the fight and then falling as far as we did down the abyss through all the rubble we did."

"I don't know… I guess we just… walk."

Cynder parted from Muras, before wiping her eyes and taking a big breath.

"Hey Cynder," Muras added, reaching out and touching her shoulder softly. "Careful. Please."

"Yeah. Y-y-yeah I'll be careful." Cynder murmured, before turning around and walking cautiously forward.

The rocky ground was hard and harsh to her paws, but during one of her steps, she lowered her paw to the ground, farther than it should have. The ground had a dip in it, and running over it was a sickly sticky substance that made a horrid squelching sound as Cynder so much as touched it with a claw.

Her vision flashed, a horrid image flickering in her mind. A dragon's skull, jaws open in a massive roar and bloodshot eyes half-hanging out of the sockets. Covering the skull was a thin layer horribly burned and torn up flesh which bled and hung in shreds over the bone. As well as this, a thick, black, gooey substance hung from its open jaws and dripped from its eye sockets. A loud, piercing shriek flooded her ears.

Cynder let out a howl of pure terror, launching herself backwards with such speed that she almost knocked Muras over. She looked down at her paw, and in the dim light she could see that it had small amounts of the gooey black substance on it, and she clawed at her paw with her other forepaw, ridding her of the scales and flesh that were stained with the black goo. Of course now she was bleeding, but she'd much rather prefer blood than that black goo that made her see that horrible creature.

Her breathing was erratic and hoarse as she struggled to take in air, which felt as heavy as the Warfang Temple. It was almost like her lungs had shut off, and refused to let in air. Her heart raced a million miles an hour, and her shaking was wearing her body out. Her ears rang from that piercing shriek, but as the ringing began to fade, she could hear Muras speaking to her. "Cynder! Cynder, are you okay?!" he cried frantically, the tears evident in his wet, choking voice. "Cynder, answer me!"

"I'm fine," she murmured.

"What the hell just happened?! What the hell was that?!"

"I don't… I don't even know. I don't want to know," she whimpered through clenched teeth.

"You saw me."

Cynder and Muras both let out a scream at the new voice.

In front of them, at the end of the corridor, appeared the creature from before. Its glowing eyes stared into their hearts, and the large purple light that was the creature's mouth flickered as its lips closed over its oral orifice while it spoke. "What you just stepped in is my essence. That black substance is my life force, and contains me. All of me."

"Wh-wh-wh-who are you?" Cynder stammered.

"My name is Naar'voth, my dear. Now don't be frightened, you should consider yourself lucky. It's rare that I get the opportunity to show other people a Metamorphosis."

"Metamorphosis?! What do you mean?!"

"Now I thank your confused friend Spyro for summoning me into his body, even if only accidental. Looking into his memory he's actually quite a good host, looking at what he's done, both now and in the past: lots of power, lots of violent instinct… murderous instinct. But this form doesn't suit me. So I need to change it. Readjust it. Pull apart the skeletal structure and put it back together."

"Don't. You've done enough to Spyro already," Muras pleaded.

"Oh, I don't think I have," Naar'voth growled.

Suddenly, the room filled with a blinding white light as dark glyphs on the wall began to illuminate, lighting up the room around them. In front of Cynder and Muras was a massive pit about twenty metres long filled with the thick black goo, and on the other side stood the monster that had taken over Spyro's body.

Naar'voth let out a loud, two-toned roar, similar to the one Spyro had let out when Naar'voth had first entered his body, and the black goo in the pit between them began to ripple. Suddenly, large tentacles of the black goo shot out of the pit, lunging at Naar'voth and pinning him against the wall behind him, piercing through his chest and neck. Naar'voth suddenly began to let out a choking sound as the tendrils of black goo suspending him to the wall began to ripple with energy.

His frame lay still for a moment before it gave a heavy spasm, and a thick black goo, similar to the stuff in the pit, began to spill out from the scales on top of his head, dripping down and around his face. Black goo began to flood out of his chest, shoulders and legs too.

A loud cracking was then heard as Naar'voth's body gave another violent spasm. His arms shook, before there was another crack. His arms began to readjust themselves in a way that made more sense for a bipedal structure than a quadrupedal one. This was the same for his legs too.

Naar'voth gave a roar as another series of cracks filled the air, and he thrust his chest forward as two new stumps sprouted on his back, before more bones began to form on top of them, followed by flesh and scales, as a new pair of wings began sprouting on his back. Another grating crack was heard and his jaw fell open, widening his wicked grin and causing several strings of black goo to dribble down and connect the new, ripped skin that the jaw had taken with it upon it getting cracked.

Cynder was in tears now watching this. She was scared beyond belief, and so was Muras, who was also in tears. They couldn't even begin to register what they had just watched. Spyro was now gone, completely replaced by this Naar'voth. They didn't know much about him, but he was bad and out to maim, kill and conquer. He was a demon.

Naar'voth took himself down from the rock wall, the black goo holding him up retreating into his form.

"What… what the hell?" Cynder murmured to herself.

"Don't be scared, my darling," Naar'voth said slyly, walking forward towards Cynder. She shuddered at the pet name being uttered by his hideous voice, and fear filled her frame at the sight of the massive bipedal creature walking towards her. He knelt down in front of her, bringing his maw close to her neck; she cringed at the feeling of his rough tongue sliding up the side of it. He then whispered in her ear, "At least, stranded down here, you won't be able to see what I have to do up there. Be thankful that my focus is up on the surface; down here is the least of my concerns. If you're smart, you would stay down here."

With that, Naar'voth spread open his massive black wings and shot up into the air at great speeds, breaking the sound barrier with a deafening, reverberating crack. He shot up the abyss that they had fallen down, before breaking through the ceiling and reaching the surface. Rays of bright sunlight shone down through the hole Naar'voth had left, but Cynder and Muras were so far down that the light didn't reach them, and they remained in near pitch darkness. The hole reaching up to the surface was so far away it appeared to be just a small white dot, rather than a massive, gaping wound in the earth to allow Naar'voth to leave.

Cynder and Muras just stared in shock at the hole, neither unable to speak. Cynder fought not to shake. She wanted to cry but she couldn't; even her tears were too scared to show themselves.

She heard whimpering beside her. The dragoness turned to her right to see Muras lying on the ground, quivering, paws hiding his head. The purple dragon's breath was heavy and irregular, and his body heaved with every inhale.

"Muras…" Cynder murmured.

"I hate this I hate this I hate this," he whimpered quickly. "Can we stay down here please?"

Cynder's heart tore in two. In front of her was a grown dragon, blubbering like a hatchling and brought to his knees in terror. She had seen this many times as the Terror of the Skies—she remembered the many dragons who became blubbering, sobbing messes that would beg at their knees, and even cry for their mothers—but it was so much harder to watch now that she wasn't under the control of darkness. It was so much harder to watch, now that the one being utterly broken in front of her used to be the powerful, feared Malefor.

It not only broke her heart, but it scared her. It made her wonder if she should be more scared.

Still, a voice lingered in her mind: Ignitus'.

"The world depends on this. I'm counting on you. GO."

Ignitus would not have assigned her this task if he knew that she would not be able to do it. He would not have made her do this if she was going to fail and die. If Muras was going to fail and die. He'd told her to take him as well. There was always the possibility that Ignitus couldn't see that far ahead, and that he didn't know what the outcome would be, only that Spyro needed to be stopped.

It was too late for that now.

She didn't even know if Naar'voth could be stopped. But she knew that she could help protect people and help them evacuate.

She had to go up and intervene, despite what Naar'voth had told her. It went against her good conscious to stay down here and not do anything.

"Muras… we have to go," Cynder said sadly.

"No. No! You heard what he said!" Muras pleaded.

"I did, but we can't stay. People don't know what's coming… we do. We have to do something."

"We can't fight him."

"I know, but we can protect others. We can at least try."

"It will get us nowhere. Everyone's going to die. Or get corrupted. Or whatever he plans to do. Why delay the inevitable?"

"LISTEN TO YOURSELF!" Cynder screamed. "Are you seriously going to give up?!"

"Yes."

Cynder stared at him with shock. She almost couldn't move from what she was hearing.

"You would let… everyone die?" she whispered, her voice breaking.

"It's hopeless. What other choice do we have?"

"We could go and save lives! What's stopping you from wanting to preserve life?!"

"I'M SCARED, CYNDER! NAAR'VOTH TERRIFIES ME!"

"DO YOU THINK I'M NOT SCARED?"

An uncomfortable silence rang out between the both of them, their shouts echoing in the large, rocky abyss. Cynder's breath hitched as she looked at Muras sadly. His eyes were bright red and very bloodshot, and tears streamed down his face.

"Do you think I'm not scared? I am terrified, Muras. Just like you," Cynder murmured. "I have never seen anything like what I just saw, and I have never been so scared in my life. But the Chronicler sent us here for a reason. I don't think this is an impossible task, or something he sent us to do just to watch us die. We have to stay brave so we can get out there and do what we need to do. We can't just give up. You're my only ally; I need you."

Muras opened his mouth slightly, inhaling to speak, but the words wouldn't come out, no matter how hard he tried. His lips formed voiceless words as he tried to find one word to start with, but failed. His composure crumbled and he broke down into a sobbing mess.

Cynder's heart broke. She wanted to say it would be okay, but she knew that would just be lying to Muras, and she didn't want to do that. It would just be lying to herself.

Even if they did win, there was no way that there would be no losses. Even if they won, everyone was going to lose something.

That was the biggest thing she was terrified of.

Muras' voice broke her from her thoughts. "Okay… I'll go," he murmured.

Cynder cracked a small smile, before reaching forward and wiping Muras' eyes with a soft paw. She then reached into the satchel around her neck, opening it to see just enough red and green gems for the both of them. With a hesitant sigh, she dished it out between the both of them and they both healed and re-energised themselves, before they both spread open their wings, flying up into the air and towards the hole that Naar'voth had left behind.

It took a good minute to get up there, whereas Naar'voth had taken barely five seconds. But eventually they were out, and their eyes were met with dark clouds filling the sky, purple lightning filling the air, with a large cluster of dark clouds, almost appearing black, swelling from the direction of the mainland, specifically where Warfang was.

"Oh no… he's going to Warfang," Muras whimpered. "How are we going to get there in time, especially with how fast he flies?"

"Okay, let's try this… hold on," Cynder said, before grabbing hold of Muras.

Her eyes began to glow a bright white, and they felt the air around them start moving around them. With a push, a massive burst of air sent them shooting forward in the direction of Warfang. It had been ages since she used her wind element, but she knew that this was the best time to call on it.

She just hoped that they wouldn't be too late to Warfang.


So sorry for the wait but finally finished this chapter, and I'm upping the darkness again lol hehehe; we're in for the end of the ride now! Into the thick of the climax of the story lol

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Dragon of Mystery: Yeah last chapter's name was quite self-explanatory, as was this chapter (and the story lol; this is what the whole thing was leading up to hahaha). But yeah, things are going down and it's going to get much worse when they head to Warfang XD

I'm glad you liked the Sparx bit; I felt I needed to bring a bit of a close to the sequence I had with him, Nina and Flash a few chapters ago, and considering they were on their way to the Well of Souls which is on the same landmass as the swamp, I felt I could fit it in well. But yes, poor dude; he just had everything ripped from him just like that.

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Hope you guys all liked this chapter, and I look forward to showing you what happens next! Idk how long it'll be because final semester of uni has hit hard and I might not have time to write, but I'll try and fit it in when I can, and then just crank out writing once I finish, coz I'll have plenty of time then lol. See you guys later!