(A/N) Sorry that this was later then usual but I had a bunch of family stuff to take care of as well as taking care of work. The next chapter won't come for a week or more as I'll be going on a family vacation to D.C. and I won't have as much of a chance to focus on writing. Plus with Football practice, work, and a few other extra curricular activities It'll be more difficult to get chapters out. But hopefully I'll be able to take care of that easily enough. So without further ado, here is the next chapter of Rise of Hope!
The three continued on father into the dim cave before reaching a closed doorway on the other side of an open cave with a collapsed ceiling. The doorway had 3 orbs laid equidistance from each other on the circular border that surrounded the doorway. Ignitus paused for a moment causing Spyro begin to ask what was wrong before silencing himself in order to hear the strange command that Ignitus was speaking.
"The past is prelude, tomorrow a dim promise. Allow us entrance, do not reject us." While Spyro stayed silent while absorbing the mystic sounding phrase, Sparx voiced his doubtfulness.
"Did you just make that up? It sounds like complete crap." Ignitus shook his head and replied, "The door should be opening to us but isn't. There must be a disturbance. It means that my fears are realized and they are pervading the temple interior, this means you'll have go through that opening," he said pointing to a crumbled section of wall where the opening was just above Ignitus's head, "and push back the Dark Armies that are most likely pervading through the rooms. The door won't open until they are all gone." Spyro nodded as Sparx decided to again add his opinion to the matter.
"Lets just don't and say we didn't. Why dont you do it?" Sparx criticized as he stared at Ignitus, attempting to stare him down.
"You want my help? Fine." replied Ignitus, unflinchingly holding Sparx's gaze in a silent contest of wills for a moment before turning and heading towards the hole in the wall and positioning himself as an impromptu ladder. "Finally looks like the big guy is coming to life." Sparx remarked, as Spyro clambered onto Ignitus's back before finally managing to jump up and scrabble at the ledge for a moment before pulling himself up and into the hole.
"Remember to be careful Spyro, Cynder's forces are not to be taken lightly." warned Ignitus, causing Sparx to reply, "Oh goody, it'll just be grand dealing with them." Spyro nodded before turning to face the faintly illuminated path before him. As he followed the trail, Spyro stumbled upon a cluster of gems that were radiating a faint glow. The gems surface seemed perfect, while the inside of the crystal seemed to swirl with a rainbow of colors that seemed to draw him in. Spyro tuned out the rest of the world as he stared into the crystal's depths. It seemed to call for him and fill with an unknown desire. He could barely register his thoughts as he felt his body move of its own accord. Suddenly it ended as quickly as it began, leaving Spyro somewhat confused and disappointed as he stared at where the crystal had once been. It had seemed that during his trance he had struck the crystal with his claws and shattered the surprisingly fragile crystal into much smaller pieces. He then decided to pick up a shard and began to examine it, but he hadn't gotten much than a second to study its features before the shard began to glow brightly. Spyro and Sparx stared in amazement as the crystal absorbed into Spyro's paw, causing him to suddenly feel a slight rush of energy. As he wondered what happened he noticed something that had occurred once the crystal was absorbed. His bruises from yesterday, which were still visible but less severe than before, had disappeared completely. This shocked Spyro but also made him curious. He attempted to achieve the same result from the last crystal as he grabbed a new shard and waited for something to occur. He wasn't disappointed as the crystal shard repeated the process and filled Spyro with even more strength. Spyro then checked the side of his face, paw searching for the tell tale marks but could find none. It seemed that the crystal shard had made him as good as new. Spyro continued to gathering and using the crystal shards until he felt completely reinvigorated. Spyro stood there amazed at the power of the crystals before Sparx brought him back to reality by saying, "What the hell was that Spyro? Are you doing magic tricks now with these crystals?" Spyro smiled for a moment but that was quickly reduced to a frown as he wondered what could have compelled him to suddenly destroy the crystal. He may have needed the energy boost since he had to admit that it has been a very long exhausting day for him and the healing factor also made things alot easier for him to deal with. After a few more moments of silence Spyro admitted, "I have no idea Sparx. I just suddenly got the urge to break it and when I did, those crystals just healed me completely and have me feeling like I am at my best right now. Whatever kind of crystals they are, we need to keep an eye out so we can keep ourselves together if we screw up." Sprx laughed at this and said, "Correction, if you screw up with that weight of yours chunky." A chuckle left Spyro's mouth before he focused on the tunnel before him and began following the path leading to the rooms that they would have to clear out in order to open the door.
As Spyro entered the first room, he found two apes that sat in the middle of the chamber with both seeming to be on the verge of falling asleep. He frowned internally as he noticed this, with luck he could have slipped by both of them and continued on undetected, but he had no choice but to kill them. Spyro slowly crawled out of the tunnel, hugging the right wall and slowly maneuvering behind the two unsuspecting guards. After a few tense minutes, Spyro had managed to be directly behind them as he prepared to end their lives. They never stood a chance as Spyro's tail sprouted out of the chest of the surprised right guard in a shower of blood and bone and shocking the left guard for long enough that Spyro managed to jump onto the guard's back and end his life with a quick snap of his jaws, snapping his neck and ending the one sided battle before the guard could even gasp in surprise. Spyro stood there for a moment, alert as he searched for a sign of any other apes coming to check out the disturbance. Once he was sure that the coast was clear, he continued onward to the next chamber.
Reaching the next chamber he found the chamber surprisingly void of life, with bodies of the apes being scattered around the chamber as well as the corpses of other strange creatures. These creatures seemed to be oversized spiders with imprints on their large abdomen that seemed to help the creature camouflage as one of the many mushrooms that littered the jungle. As he came closer to the carnage he noticed that quite a few of the apes had puncture wounds and little else, while there were others that seemed to have been partially eaten. This made Spyro conclude that running into even one of these creatures could easily end his life so he became extra wary of the mushrooms that were lining the walls of the tunnels so far.
"Well great, now we have giant deadly spiders. Definitely can't get any worse now." Sparx complained, before Spyro shushed him and focused back towards the tunnel. As he made his way through the tunnel to the next room he focused on each mushroom, studying it to look for any signs of life or irregularities that could give the spiders away. He had reached about three fourths of the way through the tunnel before he heard a near imperceptible scratching noise. Spinning quickly to face the source of the noise, Spyro's blood ran cold as he watched mushroom after mushroom sprung to life as hundreds of beady eyes focused themselves onto Spyro. The tension seemed to go on for an eternity as the stare off froze Spyro in place with the spiders having their emotionless eyes locked on him. Then, as if by a silent signal, all hell seemed to break loose with the spiders beginning to chase after Spyro while he turned and ran the last stretch of the tunnel before bursting out into the chamber and into a rather large ape. They each seemed shocked by the other's presence but before any further action could be taken, the first wave of spiders smashed into the apes and causing the chamber to erupt into chaos. Spyro, being the small target he already was, was soon forgotten about in the melee as the apes were desperately attempting to hold their position against their spider counterparts. As Spyro weaved his way through the chaos, he was suddenly rammed into a nearby ape by a spider that had singled him out as his target. The spider wasted no time and quickly began to close the distance. Spyro panicked as he desperately thought of a way to avoid melee combat with the spider before he suddenly got an idea. He began to focus and felt a heat gather within his throat, while the spider continued his advance to end Spyro's life. The spider was nearly on top of Spyro when he felt that it needed to be released. He exhaled a wave of flames that quickly engulfed the spider in the smothering embrace of heat. The spider continued his advance for a few feet before collapsing in front of Spyro. Spyro gasped for air for a few moments as he smiled internally from how he had pulled out his flames faster and stronger than before. Maybe more use will make it easier, Spyro thought as he continued his escape through the throngs of chaotic fighting. but before he had gotten too far he was tackled from behind and sent sprawling onto the floor. Spyro struggled to clear his mind as his head swirled from the abuse it took earlier. The ape, however, advanced mercilessly and with a murderous gleam in his eye as he raised what Spyro recognized as a saber.
The ape raised his weapon high above head as he placed all his strength into delivering the deadly blow before suddenly being smashed into the floor by a spider that had dropped from the ceiling. The ape never had a chance as the spider sunk its fangs deep inside the ape's neck and held him down as he feebly attempted to shake the spider off before succumbing to the poison's effects and drawing his last breath. The moment he stopped moving the spider began feasting on the corpse of the ape. Spyro watched, horrified, as the spider ripped chunk after chunk as it devoured the poor victim and reducing him to a puddle of bones, blood, and chunks of remaining meat. Spyro's eyes had grown wide as he imagined himself in the poor ape's position should he had continued to panic earlier. He could almost feel the fangs piercing his skin, the spider ripping him to shreds as he stayed conscious during the whole ordeal. Spyro would've stayed rooted to the place in fear until he was ripped back to reality by Sparx.
"Goddamnit Spyro, wake up! We need to run, now!" Sparx yelled, his miniature face mere inches from the stunned dragon. Spyro, having had Sparx's words reach through the mental fog that surrounded his mind, manage to struggle out a reply.
"Y-Yea, you're right. Let's ge-, Let's go." Spyro sputtered, as the words seemed to have difficulty escaping his mouth. After a few moments, he managed to get his paws moving again and began to sprint towards the exit, hoping to go undetected but sadly that was not meant to be. The sound of chittering made Spyro's blood run cold as he noticed the spiders finishing off the last of their ape victims before turning on him. Spyro stood stock still, stuck in an immobilizing fear as the 5 remaining spiders slowly approached him while Sparx was doing everything he could to pull his brother's mind back from the brink.
"Spyro, come on man snap out of it." Sparx whispered, as the spiders continued their advance. After a few more attempts Sparx forgot about being quiet and began screaming into Spyro's ear. The spiders broke out into a full sprint at the yell. As the spiders closed the gap, Sparx did the only thing he could do at the moment. He screamed in fear as the spiders were nearly on top of them both.
(A/N) Sorry for the cliffhanger but I felt it was the best place to end this chapter. Don't forget to R&R everyone! Read how Spyro and Sparx escape these remaining horrors in the next installment of Rise of Hope!