Chapter 26: Confrontation
Spyro and Cynder had flown rather peacefully on their way to Malefor's fortress, but when they had landed, Cynder had become fearful.
"Spyro...I'm scared." She told him, and he draped his wing over her.
"Just stay close to me." He replied and the large door opened to reveal Malefor sitting in his throne, seeming satisfied with their presence.
"At long last, my guests have arrived. Such determination to get here, it seems we share other qualities besides that of our color..." Malefor grinned.
"No! I'm nothing like you!" Spyro snapped while the larger Purple Dragon walked around him.
"Do you think so? Hmm...we'll get to that." Malefor said confidently.
"Don't listen to him, Spyro, don't listen to anything he says." Cynder reinforced his guard.
"You look so weary...allow me to indulge you in the construction of my machine." Malefor showed them his device, with the Time Crystal in the center.
"You'll kill everyone on this planet, even yourself!" Spyro exclaimed, but Malefor laughed.
"On the contrary, this mere vessel may be destroyed, but my essence will be preserved throughout time and space itself." Malefor's statement confused Spyro.
"Vessel?" He wonder aloud, causing Malefor to roll his eyes.
"Yes..."Malefor" is my pawn! Why do you think people refer to me as the Dark Master? I am no mere physical being, I am an essence of darkness itself. The Dragon I have, Malefor, is my puppet, enslaved to my will. I control his body...I made him destroy the only life he ever had. I made him kill Incendia and Rose! You want to know what Malefor was like? He was weak, he rebuked violence when he should've embraced it, I've merely enhanced his power...oh, Ignitus never told you this, did he? Why would he? No one would believe him, and now: I will use his body to wipe your unholy existence off of this planet!" Malefor roared and slammed Spyro into the wall.
"Spyro!" Cynder cried out, then she growled and leapt at the Dark Master, only to be swatted aside.
"Now then, Cynder, your usefulness has come to an end..." He was prepared to kill her, but Spyro leapt on his back, digging his claws in. "ARGH!" Malefor tried to reach for Spyro, but he used his lightning to send a jolt throughout the Dark Master's body. It didn't last long since he grabbed Spyro and flung him through the wall into another room, he turned his attention back to Cynder, who had vanished and spewed Poison and Shadow Fire at him. The Dark Master laughed as he extended his paw, and Dark Magic flowed from it and countered the Shadow Fire.
"Pathetic whelp, you know nothing of your abilities, and you will not stop me..." He began using his larger body mass to push Cynder towards a pit of lava in his fortress.
"Not so fast!" Spyro rammed into the Dark Master, causing them to roll across the ground. "You wanted to kill me, right!? Well, come get a piece!" He mocked the Dark Master, who roared and charged at him. Only for Spyro to use his Ice to stiffen his attacker's body, and Malefor crashed into the room with the machine.
"Master!" Nemoy saw him and tried to help, but was stopped by him.
"Finish. Your. Work." He growled and tossed Nemoy aside, and flew back into the throne room. "You have interfered with me for the last time, Purple Dragon!" The Dark Master snarled.
"My name is Spyro!" Spyro retorted and met him head on in a uppercut, which caught the larger Dragon by surprise.
"You hit well..." He smirked and blasted Spyro with pure Aether, who was trying to resist the extreme heat of the blast. Until Cynder did the same move as Spyro and leapt onto The Dark Master's back, clawing at him. "You are persistant, aren't you?" He asked and threw her over to Spyro, who caught her.
"I got you!" He said to her and let Cynder down. "Now: let's do this!" Spyro leapt at Malefor with Cynder, and the battle continued.
"More Siege Towers incoming!" A Mole cried out and Janne looked over at it.
"You know the drill, people!" She exclaimed and they rammed right into the Dark Crystal on the center. causing it to tumble onto the Apes below.
"Are the cannons primed?" Janne asked a Mole inside one of several cannons, who nodded. "Then fire!" She cried out and the cannonballs launched at the Siege Towers, knocking each one of them down.
"Apes are scaling the walls!" Another cry was interrupted when an Ape climbed over the wall and stabbed the Dragon, killing him.
"Defend this position!" Glacia said it for Janne and they all charged at them, making sure to properly defend the wall.
"Shard! We need our anti-air guns primed on those fliers." Gaia told Shard, who ordered the Mole to his right to give the signal to fire, he nodded and pressed the signal button. The Moles in the heavy guns acknowledged and started shooting down Dreadwings and a few Dropships.
"Keep the pressure on! We don't want them dropping any reinforcements into the city." Shard ordered, hoping that Spyro and Cynder could stop Malefor.
Speaking of Spyro, he was busy getting clobbered by the Dark Master.
"I'm going to enjoy this..." He grinned evilly and charged Spyro's face into the stone floor, and tossed him towards the throne. Then Cynder tried to use her Fear on the Dark Master, but he absorbed the blast and fired it back on her, warping her vision, and gripping her.
"How does that feel?" He asked the now shivering Cynder, who was terrified of the warped Dragon, he then hurled her next to Spyro, and walked up to them. "Now...to finish this..." He turned to face Nemoy, who was handing him a lever.
"Once you pull this, the Temple will plummet into the Volacano. Only when the machine makes contact with the Planet's core is when it will wipe away the Timeline." He explained and had the Dark Master take it.
"Excellent work...you two should be grateful that your pitiful existence will measure up to something after all." He said and pulled the lever, immediately the fortress started crashing into the volcano, Spyro regained his footing and charged into the Dark Master, grabbing the lever. He tried to flip it up, but the machine still functioned.
"You will not stop me, Spyro!" The Dark Master growled.
"So, you can remember my name." He smirked and kicked Nemoy away, Spyro then blasted The Dark Master into the wall with Aether.
"No!" He protested while Spyro rushed to the machine, breaking the glass holding the Time Crystal in place, and was preparing to yank out the gem, but then Leo and Falcon tried to ambush them, only for Cynder use her poison on them.
"Do it, Spyro!" She said as Spyro used his Earth element to yank the Time Crystal out of the machine. Once he did, a flurry a visions filled his mind: He saw a Purple Dragon who seemed to resemble him flying with a Magenta Dragoness in a series a floating islands, who looked vaguely like Cynder. He saw himself and Cynder again in a valley, once more, he saw himself and Cynder in a forest of some kind. Finally, he saw a pale-flesh colored Dragon with a glove filled with gems, snapping.
"Spyro!" Cynder brought Spyro back to reality. "Spyro, we're going to die if we stay here." She informed him, who looked at Malefor, then at the fortress. He calmly said
"Get close to me..." He trailed off and had the Dragoness step beside him, allowing him to form a protective purple orb around them while the Fortress crashed onto the Planet Core, shattering into different piece. They slowly descended onto the surface, and Cynder hugged Spyro when it dispersed.
"Is it...is it over?" She asked and they walked on the purple crystal that was the Core of the Planet, her question got it's answer when the Dark Master broke through the rubble, roaring in fury.
"YOU WILL ALL BURN!" He screamed in fury, purple fumes clouded his eyes and maw, his body soon erupted in purple flames.
"There's your answer..." Spyro became much more confident. placing the Time Crystal on a piece of rubble. "Make sure that it doesn't make contact with the Core." He instructed Cynder, he charged at him, but he gripped Spyro and slammed him into the Core.
"Spyro!" Cynder cried, causing the Dark Master to turn and face her. Using his Dark Magic, he shackled her and started to torture her.
"I should've killed you when I had the chance!" He snarled and clenched his fist, increasing the threshold of pain that was dealt on Cynder, who screeched in agony. But he was blasted by a round of Pure Aether, he turned to see Spyro, black mist was starting to float off of his body.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!" He yelled as a beam of Aether shot down from the sky and onto his body. Once he emerged, he was now black with gold highlights, and white soulless eyes.
"Finally, a challenge..." The Dark Master smirked and they charged at each other, now the real battle had commenced.
Hello folks, apologies for the shorter chapter, but this final battle is being cropped into two parts, this being the first, so...yeah, epic.