(A little before…)
Edel and Cynder continued their fight against the evil Darkcel and his army of undead generals. The fight was beginning to be more complicated. For a moment, Cynder could sense large amounts of earth mana and electricity being released. Edel sensed it too.
"Two Dark Ones have fallen already," Edel warned Cynder, "Only three remain."
"Watch!" Cynder yelled.
Skabb (or at least, the resurrected one of him) was about to cut Edel's throat, but…
"Freezing Blade!"
Aurora arrived and defended her mother with her own tail transformed into an ice blade. Edel was safe and also very happy to see her daughter. However, he had only parried Skabb's strike when Astherious lunged at her with his axe.
There was a sound of metal colliding with metal... but the last metal was metal irradiated by light: the ax was stuck in Sam's white armor, but fortunately, the latter was quite resistant.
"This bad guy again?" Sam asked recognizing the resurrected ape, "Didn't the first one get enough?"
Seeing the intruders, Darkcel ordered both Simian and Galu to attack as well. However, the other young dragons also arrived and pushed them back.
"Lightning Fang!"
"Earth Impact!"
"Blazing Dragon!"
"Shadow Dragon!"
The four hits hit both enemies, but did no apparent damage to them because they were technically already dead.
"You won't be able to destroy them!" Darkcel boasted, "And what's more…"
Emanating mana back to the ground, he summoned more resurrected creatures: Trolls, orcs, grublins… they seemed to be like the ones currently fighting with the army, but they had the same hideous appearance of the ape generals. On his part, Sam emanated mana and with a struggle, managed to get away from Astheriou's weapon.
"Star Rain!"
The beams of light struck the resurrected ape directly. Upon contact, not only did his body take damage, but every single particle of his body began to burn, causing him to scream in pain. The others saw that and came to a conclusion...
"Light!" Aurora exclaimed, "The light destroys them! Well done, Sam."
"Damn..." Darkcel said and took flight trying to escape. Cynder flew after him.
"Cynder and I will take care of him," Edel said, "Kids, take care of the resurrected."
"Don't worry master" answered Nina.
Edel then accompanied Cynder across the battlefield chasing Darkcel. On more than one occasion, they were nearly crushed by a troll, but made it out alive. However, when the field was clear, Darkcel seemed to have fled.
"Hell coffin!"
Cynder pushed Edel just before being locked in a black box and she in turn was covered in black chains. Inside it, the dragon tried to use her shadow element to escape, but the box did not allow escape.
"Cynder!" Edel yelled as she saw what had happened. He tried to use her ice blade to free her, but Darkcel stopped her:
"If you do, you will destroy her too," he warned her.
Edel stopped her attack and turned her gaze back to Darkcel, whose body was surrounded by dark electrical energy, indicating that he was using quite a bit of power. The guardian had no other choice: now she was one against one and she meant business.
"I won't let you do anything to her…" Edel told him.
Darkcel sighed at those words and then said: "I heard that before… my ex-partner told me…"
Edel did not understand, but she was attentive to any movement of the enemy.
"My ex-partner went however and wherever he wanted without my authorization" Darkcel continued, "One day I saw her with another… I got angry and slaughtered her… he was actually her brother and I was in jail for a long time. But then I killed her for blaming me for what happened: I no longer believe in her love, it is as dead as she is and as these beings that come out of the earth "
"You're crazy!" Edel yelled at him, "I'm sure what you were showing wasn't love, but some stupid jealousy of someone who only wants everything for himself. Not having it, you decided that no one would have it anymore and you committed such a crime. If you had really loved her, you would have walked away from her."
"And leave her because of what she did to me?" Darkcel replied with eyes glowing red with hatred and emitting a dark aura, "I will never forgive those who betray me…"
The nearby presence of Darkcel's dark mana was oppressive… it was like being at a high altitude with little oxygen.
"Final destination!"
Mana was projected onto ten spectral skulls that floated in the air around them. Then, from his mouth came green chains that entangled Edel from his neck to his tail.
"Women think they know about love..." Darkcel told her, "But they don't know anything... they don't know what men feel with pain and when they reject us... it is better to kill what will never be done..."
"You're wrong" Edel replied trying to get free.
"Be quiet! Descent to death!"
From the eyes of the skulls, ghosts with the same shapes came out, but like ghosts and they were enclosing her in a green cloud of death.
(For while…)
Nina, Aurora, Rayla, Ash, Flint and Sam had rounded up all the resurrected and there was only one thing left to do...
"All yours, mate," Flint said to Sam, as he used his earth power to hold them back.
"Star Extintion!"
The burst of light beams knocked the resurrected down with great speed and they vanished into thin air like a leaf turning to ashes. When they could breathe easy, Aurora sensed an extremely powerful fire mana in the east direction (both ice and fire dragons had the ability to sense sudden changes in temperature), and where her mother and Nina's had gone, a mana of ice being swallowed by one of darkness.
"Mom!" Aurora yelled realizing it. Wasting no time, she flew in her direction. The others also followed her.
(Coming back…)
Darkness covered the guardian of the ice, blurring her vision. Edel had the terrible feeling that she was going to die and then Cynder too...
(Flashback)
Years ago, when they were training, their entire group had split up to train individually with masters of the elements: Thorr with Terrador, Ray with Volteer, Cynder with Cynthia, and, being a special case, Spyro and Jhonny with Ignitus. For his part, Edel did it with his father Cyril since he was the guardian of the ice at that time. In a moment of rest, she observed the statue of her mother with great happiness.
"Do you miss someone, daughter?" asked Cyril, "Is it your mother or your young friend?"
Edel blushed.
"To both. When I see the statue you made for mom, I start to think about that bond you told me about, "he replied, "If I hadn't been distracted, maybe Jhonny would be back in his world... would he have forgotten about me? "
Cyril just laughed a little.
"I don't think so" he replied, "Love is a special gift: the statue I made of Eira doesn't really matter. If extreme heat melts it or if it is destroyed, as was the case during the cataclysm of the previous age, it can be rebuilt. But the bond that unites you with the one you love the most comes from the heart and is more unbreakable than the hardest ice."
"So you think everything will be alright?"
"I don't need to be a teacher to have that answer... He loves you too, and he is thankful to be here with all of you"
(end of flashback)
Darkcel just laughed as the specters covered Edel completely. Meanwhile, Cynder was struggling to get out of the coffin.
But suddenly, the atmosphere began to feel colder and small but several snowflakes began to fall. Darkcel did not understand the sudden change in weather until the wraith cloud turned to white snow and the chains to ice. That same ice was expanding to the skulls and the coffin.
Finally, under a blast of ice and snow, Edel broke free by descending to the ground as her mana froze everything around her.
"No…" Darkcel told her, "How did you escape…?"
"You are the one who thinks you know that to love is to have everything for yourself" Edel replied, "But you are nothing more than a madman with a very big jealousy problem. For dragons and other beings that live in this world, love is an unbreakable bond that will never be destroyed: no matter how far away you are or whether you are alive or dead, it will always exist."
"Well, I'm not going to show any mercy... Final Destination!"
But Edel made her mana grow by freezing everything around her.
"Icy Dragon!"
A whirlwind of ice and snow wind enveloped Darkcel, lifting him fleetingly into the sky. That cold air gave the sensation of freezing everything around him... Then, when the victim reached the eye of the hurricane, it disappeared and in its place a huge ice dragon appeared and swallowed the Dark One, disappearing the next second and leaving a frozen block in place. The next second, it shattered into a thousand pieces along with what was inside.
Edel then made her way to Cynder, who had been freed almost immediately: the coffin disappeared into shadowy ashes. That indicated that the twelfth Dark One had been defeated.
"Ugh, thank goodness…" Cynder said, "That place was uncomfortable and smelly. Thank you very much, Edel."
"You're welcome" she said tired, "I need to rest for a moment..."
"Mom!" two voices shouted.
Edel and Cynder were happy to see how their daughters had returned along with the rest of their friends.
"This is Sam" Aurora introduced her friend to her mother, "He was trained by Sybilla and he also possesses the essence of mana. He wants to help us defeat the Dark Ones."
"Nice to meet you, young dragon" Edel greeted him, "So…"
Edel watched the new ally next to her daughter and there was no mistaking it.
"Mom!" Aurora yelled realizing it.
"Calm down, Aurora" her mother apologized, "By the way, what happened with your brother?"
"Drago stayed to help Master Jhonny with another Dark One" explained Nina, "He said we should go ahead"
"A moment ago, I sensed a strong explosion of fire…" Ash said.
"That's right, I felt it too," Cynder agreed, "And also the disappearance of another dark mana. With this one, there are already twelve, we have one left. And, if I know Malefor, that last Dark One must be… oh no! Spyro!"
(Near the big dark gem…)
Spyro was watching his and the ultimate dark opponent: a lightly armored dark dragon. His horns were curved backwards. His tail was unusually long and ended in a blade. Around his neck, he brought empty vials and others with a strange content… was it blood?
However, the now adult purple dragon should not be afraid, in such a way that he asked:
"Who are you?"
"In my lives, I have been called many names…" the dragon told him, "Your enemy, Malefor, fired me in the past. I call myself Mercenary"