Spyro couldn't believe it. It was the destroyer. "But how?" he thought, his will quickly draining from him. If this was the same beast, the tunnels inside were too narrow for him to navigate now. It would be impossible to destroy the inner crystal, or even catch it. That's when they all noticed two things. One, it clearly had no desire to form the ring of fire, and two, it was headed straight for them.
Cyan among several other dragons saw the destroyer, forgotten memories of pain and destruction rose anew, and they took off to attack the beast. They heard cries behind them, warnings. But they ignored them. For Cyan he remembered how the world shattered, his parents pushing him out of the way, as they fell into an abyss, they sacrificed themselves for him. And one of these things had caused that fissure to open. He would destroy it or die trying.
Kenji watched as the group of dragons flew at the destroyer, the voidlings and flying creatures had long departed in fear of the monstrosity before them, the last of the zombies were being slayed as they spoke. He watched as the lead dragon spewed a torrent of poison that hit the beast and corroded the stone skin, the creature bled magma, but it quickly cooled into new stone. The other dragons came in range and opened with a barrage of earth attacks, energy flails, missiles, earth armor strikes, and even a fury went off, dealing superficial damage to it.
Kenji watched in growing horror as the beast started to glow, radiating heat.
Cyan gave it his all, but no matter what happened, he could never seem to deal any lasting wound. He saw a dark crystal embedded in it's flesh, as he started to attack, he felt his mana slip away, just after that, the air started vibrating, it's temperature increasing dramatically. It soon became unbearable and he turned and saw his comrades literally spontaneously combust, emitting a high whistling sound and screaming in agony.
He then realized his scales were gone, turned to ash, he couldn't feel anything and watched as his skin liquefied, his wings burn to the bone. Everything went dark and his last thoughts were. "I tried Mom, Dad. Now I get to se you again, at last." He opened his eyes and saw a bright light amidst the darkness that consumed him.
Cynder saw this happening and when the last attacker had dropped from the sky as a pile of charcoal, she realized she had tears in her eyes. "Cyan." She said to no one in particular, "You were as good a friend as any, rest well." Then with an inner fire in her eyes, she leapt into the air after the beast.
Spyro saw Cynder and went after her. He quickly caught up "Cyn! What are you doing? We can't take it on! Not this time!" He looked back at the destroyer and watched as it opened its mouth and a wave of fire large enough to consume Warfang spread and roared toward the defenders. There was a flash and they saw a bubble consisting of hexagons of light appear and reflect the entire nova, when the flames died, He could see Kenji, The keyblade, Keberdu held above his head, shining like a new star.
"You see?" Cynder said, "We MIGHT die if we attack, but we will die if we don't."
Spyro nodded and raced for the nearest dark crystal, releasing a blast of convexity that quickly disintegrated it. He looked and saw Cynder do the same. They attacked a few more crystals, but soon felt the air vibrate as it had before. "Spyro! RUN!" Cynder yelled both in the air and through their mental connection. They both got away just before the air behind them caught fire. Cynder turned around in synch with Spyro and she blew a tornado into the blaze, creating a tunnel of air which Spyro cooled with a blast of icy energy, This super chilled air made it's way to the destroyers mouth and made it's way inside, the blast caused the destroyer to slow somewhat, but it almost instantly thawed. The fire attack had stopped though and Spyro and Cynder resumed their attack.
Kenji had unleashed a thundaga spell, smiting the remaining enemies. Of his original force; six remained, including himself. He turned to the reinforcements, "Selena, Ryan, Stay here and help the injured! Everyone else, on me!" He yelled, and then took off toward the destroyer.
As they all got closer, they could see masses of magma drop from it's torso and solidify, Kenji watched in growing realization, it was making golems! He cursed, this could not get any worse! The golems looked up at Spyro and Cynder and giant wings of fire spread from their backs, their legs receding into their bodies.
"Why?" he thought. "Why can't I keep my big mouth shut?" Kenji charged a blizzara and swung Keberdu, a flash of blue flying from his blade. It struck the nearest golem and froze it solid. Just when Kenji thought It was done though, the ice glowed red and vaporized, the golem continuing toward his friends.
Spyro turned it time to see something big ram him. As he regained his balance, he saw a flying golem! He opened his mouth and loosed a blast of convexity at its head, which shattered, revealing a dark crystal, which he finished with a beam of light. The creature fell to the ground, surprised at the easy defeat, Spyro was caught off guard as three more came at him. These ones were just as easy. By this time, Cynder and the others had joined the fight, but as it wore on, by process of elimination, only the smart ones were left, they could no longer get hits, as these golems knew when to evade. At the same time, neither could the golems score a hit on the dragons.
Spyro and Cynder joined paws and combined their energies, mixing convexity. They released it at the golems a wave of purple energy hit them and the beasts turned to dust on contact. Suddenly, Spyro and Cynder felt drained and barely had the energy to land safely, as they looked up, they saw the destroyer had somehow pushed it's crystal heart out of it's body, draining all their energy, Spyro and Cynder watched as one by one their friends and family fell from the sky, too tired to attack.
Selena was using a spell to absorb all the energy from her surroundings to form a mass of energy. However, try as she might, all the energy was already trapped in the crystal. The destroyer locked eyes with her father, and a small, white fireball shot from its mouth, Selena could feel the energy in it, she knew it would kill him. Using the very last dregs of her strength, she formed a shield over him, the fire hit, and while the shield took some of it, it quickly buckled and Selena watched in horror as her father was consumed.
Spyro only knew pain for a brief instant before he was surrounded by cold. He opened his eyes and could see nothing. When the nothing faded, he realized that after Selenas defense had failed, Cynder had used her powers to save him. He saw that both Cynder and Selena were passed out, no longer having the energy to stay conscious. He tried to get up and was met with pain; he looked down and saw he hadn't completely escaped the inferno. Half of his body was scorched and to his disgust, half of his tail was bleached bone. It was then that he looked up and saw the destroyer had its fist raised, ready to crush them all. He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. It never came.
Spyro opened his eyes, it was blurring around the edges, but he saw the destroyer looking up at something, he wearily followed it's gaze and saw Valcor hovering a safe distance off. "What's he doing here?" Spyro thought. Just then, Valcor started giving off lightning; it looked like a plasma globe, except the lightning bolts numbered in the hundreds and pulverized the ground where they struck. Valcor folded his wings and there was a streak of yellow that shot through the destroyers' chest, a massive explosion coming from the exit wound. Valcor stopped his strike and flared his wings, pivoting to face the destroyer. The beast groaned as fire started to consume it Valcor started radiating electricity again, and he was gone, a matrix of yellow streaks crisscrossing through the destroyer, all in an instant, after Valcor reappeared, the destroyer literally fell apart, explosions all over it tearing it apart. Valcor turned and dove toward the fallen defenders; the last thing Spyro saw before he passed out was Valcor land beside him.
When Spyro awoke, He realized he was immobilized. He looked around and saw his family, minus Zoulu and James. Cynder was the first to notice him wake up. She ran over to him embracing him. "Oh Spyro! Thank the ancestors you woke up!"
Spyro groaned as he tried to move. "Where am I?"
"The ruins of the northern temple." Icera said. "My home as a child, The Dark Master may have killed the inhabitants, but their medical knowledge lived on in our hidden chambers." She said, patting a pile of scrolls beside her.
"But why can't I move?" Spyro asked.
Cynders face turned from one of joy to guilt. "We… didn't want you to hurt yourself when you woke up."
Spyro was confused. "Why would I do that?"
Selena looked ready to cry. "Dad, we tried everything we could, all my learning and magic, Iceras experience, but we- we couldn't…" She broke off.
Sei picked up in his gravelly voice. "Spyro, you're aware that the creature burned you, correct?"
Spyro nodded. "Am I scarred or something?"
Sei shook his head. "I wish it were that simple. To put it simply, we couldn't save your tail."
Spyro looked at them all with a face that showed shock. He looked back, and half his tail was bandaged, the last four feet and the spike were gone. He felt sick.
Cynder whispered "I'm so sorry."
Spyro looked into her eyes. "It's not your fault Cyn. It was that thing." Suddenly he had a flashback, he remembered as he saw his life pass before his eyes, then opened them to watch Valcor save them. "Where is he?" he asked.
"Here." Spyro turned to the door, Valcor walked out of the shadows, his piercing purple eyes filled with guilt. "I'm sorry, Spyro, maybe if I had gotten here sooner…"
"You- You saved us? You saved me? Why?"
Valcor put on a weak smile. "You may not like me, but believe it or not, I'm not my father. I grew up watching the pain he inflicted on people, the pain he put me through, trying to awaken elements I didn't have. I saw my mothers' madness for what it was. I was happy when you killed them. I could finally step out from their shadow, I reminded myself every day of what they did so I would never take that same path. And… and don't tell her this, but I love Zoulu, After you left, in her rage at you, she almost killed herself, I in turn almost gave my life to save hers. And since you're her father, I felt like I had to extend the same courtesy, whether it was welcome or not."
Spyro listened to all this and spent several more minutes in thought. He tried speaking, but his voice caught. He felt ashamed, this dragon, who had never hurt anyone, who had to LIVE with Malefor, came to him and he beat him and cast him out. He felt horrible, but couldn't bring himself to say it. Finally, he thought, "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't."
He looked at Valcor, and speaking before he could reconsider, said. "Valcor, I treated you like dirt, when I saw you; I wasn't looking at you, but your father. Yet you saved me and my family, I've blinded myself with emotion. Can-" He sighed and just said it. "Can you forgive me?"
Valcor smiled, "I'd love to." He looked at Spyros tail, "Besides, it looks like comeuppance struck, eh?"
Spyro smiled, that was in bad taste, but true all the same. "So can I move please? I'm not going to tear the rest of my tail off or anything."
Selena nodded, there was a flash and Spyro could stand, though shakily. He hadn't realized just how much he relied on his tail for balance. As he got up, he looked at Valcor. "Well, thanks for the whole saving my life thing, but you'd better treat Zoulu right. And don't try anything funny."
"Yeah!" Spyder said. "He gave me the same speech, and you've already seen him angry from what I've heard." Spyro rolled his eyes, but Valcor dipped his head.
"I promise not to do anything to betray your trust. I think we should be getting back now that you're up, I kind of left in a hurry and Zoulu's probably freaking out."
"Wait." Spyro said. "How long have I been out?"
"A little under a month." Selena said. "You should get some food too. You were unconscious that whole time, so we had to sustain you on mana transfusions alone, if you don't get some food, your body will have a whiplash effect soon."
Spyro didn't quite catch that, the whole "transfusion" thing threw him off, but whiplashing didn't sound fun, so the took off, going slow to make it easier for Spyro. When they had reached the outskirts of the ruins, they came across Kenji, who sat next to a bonfire, roasting a handful of deer. He looked up and seeing Spyro, jumped to his feet. "Spyro! I'm so glad you're-" He stopped as he saw Spyros tail.
Spyro smiled "Don't worry, I'm alive, right?" Just then, his stomach growled. Everyone laughed and sat down to eat. Spyro ate an entire deer himself, much to everyone's amazement. When they finished, Kenji burned the leftovers to ash and they started the long glide down. It gave Spyro experience learning how to fly without his tail. He had to rely on angling his wings more and as such would probably never be able to fly as well as he had ever again. After an hour, they had descended four miles; the air was thick and hard to breathe. After another hour, they had gotten used to the atmosphere again and made their way back home.
Warfang
It had been almost a month and we hadn't had any word from my family, Valcor, or anyone. Zoulu had slipped into a minor depression, while I still clung to the hope that everyone, Perrin especially, was safe. I couldn't reach my mind that far, but I was sure I would know if she died. I was in my room, reading about the world before Malefor was even born, when the door opened and Ember rushed in. "James! They're back!" she shouted. It took me a moment to realize what she meant, and I sprang up and ran to the roof. There was a crowd gathered, but Ember and Zoulu stood at the front. I went and joined them. I could see several dots on the horizon.
"So few…" I heard someone say. I then realized there was a bit more than half of the reinforcements coming back, and I couldn't tell if any of the original force had made it. I waited in nervous anticipation as they drew closer. As they got closer, I could make out two pink dragons. I breathed a sigh of relief; she had made it. One by one, my families' colors became visible. I also notice Valcors muddy purple among them. Spyro wasn't attacking, so I assumed they had made up.
Eventually, they came into the city limits and the crowd behind us erupted into cheers and welcomes. Another minute and they were landing among us. Perrin, Flame and Valcor headed toward us and embraced each of us. Perrin kissed me with a passion I hadn't known in a long time, when we finally broke, she said "I missed you so much!"
"Me too. I would have come after you, but the guardians had me busy." She just nodded and laid her head against me as I wrapped her in my wing. I looked over at the others, Flame and Ember were having a similar encounter, while Zoulu and Valcor were hugging, talking and constantly touching each other's faces. I saw Spyro looking over at the pair with a look of realization, then approval. It was then that I noticed his tail. I gasped.
Perrin followed my gaze. "Yeah, we tried everything we could, but couldn't help him. That's why we were so late." I walked over to Zoulu and gave her a nudge, pointing with my wing over to him. When Zoulu saw, her eyes started to well up. Valcor saw this and said, "Zoulu, don't even start thinking that, Even if you had gone, there was nothing you could have done. There was a destroyer." Me and Zoulu were shocked by that, and after everything had calmed down, We all went back to our living quarters.
Even though things had turned out fine, I guess, I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't over.
Meanwhile, on a building top, There was a figure, in a black cloak, he watched the entire thing, paying especially close attention to Kenji. After everyone had left, he spread his arms, flaps on the sleeves opened and wings spread, he jumped into the air and took flight.