[Wake up… James, wake up…]

As I heard the voice from the phantasmagoria of my dreams, they slowly coalesced into logical surroundings; I was in the temple of time, or outside to be specific. I looked around me and the first thing I noticed alarmed me, on the horizon, instead of the chaotic darkness that enveloped the place, there was only white. It stretched unbroken to the horizon and even encroached on the land. It was as if this place were a drawing and someone was erasing it.

The next thing I noticed was I wasn't alone, with me were Spyro, Cynder, Spyder, Valcor and Terrador.

"Wha-" Terrador started, but was interrupted by the voice. [Welcome friends, I'm glad you made the journey safely.] Ignitus said.

"Dad?" Spyro shouted, "Where are you?" As he spoke, a door in the Cliffside opened and Ignitus, the Chronicler walked out. "I apologize for not inviting you inside, but alas, things have gone beyond my control."

"What do you mean Ignitus?" Terrador asked.

"Old friend, you can see the void slowly erasing this place, the same is happening inside, books recording dragons' lives are disappearing and reappearing at random, I've never seen this before. It is the work of Ōumĭ jiā.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Ōumĭ jiā wants to bring about the end of existence, but have you stopped to consider why, or what would become of him?" I shook my head. Ignitus sighed. "The dragon is demented, not even I know why he does this, but I can answer the second question, he lives in a place unreachable, the opposite of existence. I suppose a proper term would be "Anti-Space". That is what you see before you now. He is expanding his boundaries and negating this place in the process. Soon this place will be gone, me along with it."

"Dad! No!" Spyro said. "There has to be a way to stop it!"

Ignitus chuckled, "Look for yourself." Sure enough, the whiteness was moving, erasing the ground at a rate of half a meter per minute. A small, crab-like creature blindly walked into the void and simply winked out of existence. We looked back at Ignitus. "I am resigned to my fate; the time of the Chronicler has come to an end."

Spyro stared at the ground, "No no no no no… You can't die!"

"Spyro!" Ignitus said sternly, forcing him to look up. Ignitus smiled, "I'm already dead, remember? I am content with this, so there is no purpose in beating yourself up over it, I may be gone, but you'll always have those close to you."

Spyro nodded, tears forming. Valcor groaned, "Jeez! He's not dead yet!" Cynder shot him an icy glare; he just shrugged.

"Will I- will I ever see you again?" Spyro asked.

"Even the Chronicler does not know everything, will my spirit simply cease, or will it join with the ancestors? Only they know, and they're not sharing the secret. All I can say is when the time comes for you to find out, you will. Until then I have some information no Chronicler has shared before, but as I will soon be no more, the knowledge must survive if you are to defeat your enemy."

We walked a little father away from the antispace to talk. When we had all lain down, Ignitus started again. "First; Spyro, I'm sorry to hear about your tail, I cannot tell you everything you would wish to know, but I can say that will not be a permanent disability."

Spyro got exited, but Ignitus silenced him. "Before you ask, know that is all I know, I have no other answers on the subject. However, I do know how you can reach Ōumĭ jiā."

"Ok, I'll bite." Valcor said. "How do we get to the unreachable opposite of existence?"

"The same way you came to the dragon realms."

"How? Be born?" Valcor said sarcastically.

Ignitus chuckled, "You know, I did enjoy reading your book, you have an interesting sense of humor. But no, you were not born in the dragon realms, or even to Malefor. He told you that to gain dominion over you before you could make your own choice." Suddenly, two forms materialized on either side of Valcor, the first appeared as a huge, serpentine dragon with pink scales and blazing in flames. The other appeared as a black dragon whose color changed to blood red as the light hit it just right. He gave off a dark aura.

Valcor looked surprised. "Ondonna! Tempes! What are you doing here?"

The black dragon, Tempes smiled cruelly. "The power of this place allows us to take on a form of our own."

"Though it is not a true body." Ondonna said. Tempes grunted. "But at any rate, what the Chronicler said is true, we had to hide it from you until now, as before you met your friends, if we had told you the truth, you would have likely lost the will to live."

"And what is the truth?" Valcor asked.

"You're dead!" Tempes said.

"Tempes!" Ondonna yelled, Tempes shrugged "It's the truth."

Ondonna curled the end of her massive tail around Valcor, who stared into space, his eyes unfocused. "There there, that's not true, while you first life ended, you are very much alive now." She twisted so she was in front of Valcor, forcing him to make eye contact. He seemed to calm down as he met her gaze. Tempes huffed, "Wuss."

Eventually, Valcor had collected himself. "So, do you know who I was before?"

Ignitus sighed and looked at the ring of white that was slowly but surely encroaching, "I know, but there is no time for me to explain." He looked at me, "James also knows, he just hasn't put the pieces together, with his abilities, if you two could figure it out, he could explain much better than I could if we had a century to talk."

I looked at Valcor, confused. He stared back, then Ignitus spoke again, "And now we get to the core of this subject, The way your spirit, all the spirits from other worlds came to this world was via portal."

"Wait, a portal?" Terrador asked. "I helped create each one personally, there is no such portal."

"Ah, that's true." Ignitus said, "But where do you think the technology came from? There exists references in my collection about a doorway to heaven, it seems there was a door that divided nothing, it was simply there, but it had eight controllers, and when activated, the door would fill with light and lead anywhere, and anyWHEN. However, the controllers would be activated in different sequences to go different places. However, this "address" had a fault, if activated simultaneously; this doorway to heaven would try to go everywhere at once, and in a paradox, lead to everything and nothing. I believe this references anti-space."

With that, he revealed a book and opened it, inside were runes I had seen everyday of my life, English.

"It took a while to translate, but I believe I have it solved." Ignitus said. "The main body talks about how in the past, a draconic being descended to the world it then used this doorway to summon an army to destroy the humans, but with their technology, they held him off and after many years of war. The survivors of humanity tricked the dragon and sent it back where it came from. They located the eight controllers, referred to here as "Chevrons" and used their technology to seal them. The last line of text was harder to decipher as it's written so differently." I looked at the line, it was handwritten cursive.

"It reads: Into infinity god went, trapped forever by our hands, along with his doorway to heaven." Ignitus read, I chuckled to myself, everyone looked at me and I took the book.

"No Ignitus, I've never seen humans write this poetically in a report, but it says: "A million years into the sky is The End. Sealed and buried for all time, his Portal."

"So," Cynder said. "We go back, break the seals of these "chevrons" and activate them at the same time?"

"Correct." Ignitus replied, "However, it will be much harder than that, the chevrons are scattered throughout the world, so timing the activation will be tricky. Plus each one responds to a certain element, so you'll need eight dragons of each of the main light and dark elements, plus a dragon capable of using convexity to actually open the portal itself. And there are two more things, first, is that the seal on each chevron will take the form of the darkness within yourselves. And secondly, once you go though the portal, the energies within will change you."

"Change us how?" Spyro asked.

"Well, for the humans, or "were-dragons" as they call themselves, their souls were given dragon bodies to live in. For James, he was returned to the body he would have had if he had stayed in his own world. Oh! I almost forgot! Speaking of changes, another dragon has came through the portal, I'm not sure how, but he arrived from the past, his element and appearance has changed, and I know he is destined to be the next earth guardian. When you go back, you are to find him and test him."

"And why exactly don't we put this off and just go kick Ōumĭ jiā's butt right now?" Tempes asked.

"Well now," Ignitus said, "You're not a dragon per say, nor are you mortal. If you want to go, I have no say in what you do, just know that Valcor just might decide to stay and carry on his duties as guardian."

Tempes looked at Valcor, who nodded; Tempes groaned and put his head in his paws. "I give up!"

"So, how do plan on returning us to their world?" Ondonna asked.

Ignitus chuckled, "Easy, wake up."

I sat up with a start, looking around. I was back in my room with Perrin. She lay next to me, sleeping peacefully. I gently kissed her on the forehead and got up. I left without waking her and flew to the wall of Warfang, I found everyone else there, Spyro, Cynder, Valcor and Spyder. I landed next to them and we looked out together at the volcano that had once housed Malefors lair, Nature was slowly retaking it, it was starting to house grasses again.

After a while, others had begun showing up as the sky lightened. First was Fever, who noticed Spyder was gone. After him, Perrin showed up. She walked over and lay close to me for warmth, I hugged her back, Ignitus's fate made it clear for the first time that the whole world ending wasn't just something in the future, it was almost here…

After them, the rest of Spyros family arrived one by one, along with Jacy, Kenji and Ryan. At this point, I didn't much care how everyone knew where we were, all I knew was we had to make a plan, and I said so. We explained what had happened after everyone had gotten over the shock and understood what was going on, Kenji put up his hand. "I volunteer."

"For what?" Spyro asked.

"Those chevrons, one has to opened with wind? Well, I only know three dragons who can use wind, Cynders the only one of use with poison, so she can't and Spyro's the only other one with convexity to open the portal, so that leaves me." Everyone nodded, it made sense.

After much talking, Flame agreed to handle fire, Icera was to do ice, Spyder was to go to shadow, Sei would take fear, and Valcor would unlock electricity. That left earth. We thought about the mysterious person Ignitus told us to find, perhaps he'd be able.

With that settled, we went to Terrador, we found him outside the temple. As we approached, he nodded and welcomed our group over. "So, the next generation is to leave to make their impression on the world. What do you need?"

"Terrador." Spyro began, "We need to know about the chevrons."

Terrador nodded. "I stayed with Ignitus after the rest of you had left, he told me many things, that included." He pulled out a map. If you draw lines connecting the four temples, then using the intersecting point as your starting point, you would fly in each direction of the compass, North, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, etc. Simple."

I nodded, "But what about the earth dragon?"

Terrador sighed, looking distressed. "You'll find him at the western temple." He looked at me. "You must go now, there is no time to waste, Ignitus has told me when Ōumĭ jiā will strike. We have until sundown a week from now."

So that's how it came to be that I was in the portal room. It was a huge room with massive vaulted ceilings, and covering every inch of the walls were portals, all the way to the apex of the ceiling. Terrador had showed me which one to take and I flew through.

It had the feeling of being squeezed and inflated at the same time, I couldn't tell up from down or even if I was moving, the only thing I could see were lights streaking past me, eventually I came through the other side and stood at a lake shore. I looked around confused, where's the temple? Then I looked up.

Above me was a massive structure. The bottom was a massive dome, with a tower reaching several hundred feet into the air, but maybe ten feet across supporting what looked like the arch upside down, but much bigger, altogether the temple was well over 1000 feet in height, and the whole thing floated a mile above the lake. I mouthed "wow" and took off.

After I had reached the dome, I could tell the only way in was through the city of windows in the arch above, so I corkscrewed around the spire until I reached the arch and entered what looked like an entrance based on the decoration outside.

Once in, I noticed every dragon here was the same color, they were all albinos. One noticed me and walked over, "Be welcome silver one from the southern temple, we have foreseen your arrival."

I was surprised to say the least, "You have?"

He… or she nodded. "Yes, here, we have willingly surrendered our elements; they breed only war and pain. In exchange, our spiritual practices give us certain abilities unknown to other dragons. This is how we knew of your coming, and of the pilgrim."

"The pilgrim?"

"Yes, the one who voyaged through time, whether intentional or not."

I nodded, they must be talking about the earth dragon. "May I see him?"

The albino nodded and led me through the maze of corridors and staircases to a room. He/she opened it and I walked in to find… "Valcor? What are you doing here?"

Valcor shrugged, "Ignitus told me to come after you left, so I did. He said the spiritual energy of this place could help me remember. And I have! It turns out I was from your world before, but then I was known as Stephen."

I grinned, "Congrats, you know your identity now, does that change anything?"

He shook his head, "That may have been me before, but I'm Valcor now." He turned to look out the window, "Oh! and I found your earth dragon, come on, I'll show you."

So we jumped out the window, and instead of opening his wings, he shot down like a hawk, I followed. We got closer and closer to the ground and I had the bad feeling that he was playing chicken. Turn out I was right, he veiled himself in electricity and comet dashed into the lake. With no time to think I used shadow strike, turning into a cloud of shadow and phasing through the water without a ripple.

In this form I had no eyes, so I relied on my mental abilities to sense where Valcor was. I remembered my fight with Icera and returned to normal to save my mana. I then swam after Valcor, "flying" underwater, the water put up huge resistance and it was much harder to flap, so I just kind of waved them and lazily floated along like a manta.

Valcor swam into a cave and I considered going back up for air, but I sensed his relief as his body received fresh air. I followed and sure enough, I surfaced in a grotto, light from the lake casting light ripples across the walls and ceiling and casting everything in a blue hue. Near a pile of fish bones sat Valcor and the dragon , talking.

I walked over and Valcor introduced us. "James, this is Kwaik, Kwaik, this is James."

"Nice to meet you." The dragon said in a bass, yet smooth voice. I looked him over, He looked like a typical earth dragon, green scales with brown everything else. His belly and horns were textured like wood while his wing and elbow spikes were textured like stone. His tail ended in twin spiked hammers, like those armored dinosaurs with the hammer tails.

"Valcor has been telling me much about the current situation in this time. As much as I would like to return to my family, my mate, Rictrea and my son, Terry, I feel like I need to help here, Valcor said you would come to test me to see if I'm guardian material?"

I thought for a minute, then, "No, actually, Kwaik, I have the same ability as the banished purple dragon, I can manipulate time. If you want, I can send you back right now." Valcor stared at me like I was the biggest fool He'd ever seen.

Kwaik shook his head, "No, this, Ōumĭ Jiā, if he wins, he'll destroy not only your time, but mine as well. I want to help."

"Think rationally." I said, "What about your family, what if you don't come back?" Then I focused my power and the wall seemed to fall into a vortex until there was a shining white disk in the wall. "There, the portals open, your four steps from your family."

Kwaik looked at the portal with intense longing and took a step forward, then turned his back to it. "No! I've made my decision and you can't change my mind!"

"Good." I said, terminating the portal, it vanished and the wall returned to normal. "The test was to judge will and integrity. You passed."

Later, on the lakeshore

Me and Kwaik stood opposite to each other. Suddenly he covered himself in a jagged boulder and rocketed toward me, I shot a blast of light, but it glanced off the side and I barely had time to jump to the side as he shot past. The boulder disintegrated and he whipped around, an energy flail shooting from his mouth and tail. He spun round and round, making it impossible to get close. Then the energy ceased and he faced me, shooting a stream of earth bullets from his mouth. I performed the shadow strike and flew through the bullets as black smoke and reappeared in a spiraling slash that hit him, throwing him to the ground. Bad mistake.

As he fell to the ground, he continued, going underground. "Why does this remind me of a show about kids catching monsters?" I said and flew up to evade the imminent attack. It never came though. Suddenly a pillar of earth shot from the ground toward me, I dodged only to see another coming at me. After a few of these they stopped. Only to be followed by the pillars exploding, raining razor sharp shards at me, I folded my wings and dove to the ground, just before colliding I twisted around and shot a wide light beam that blew the deadly rain away.

Just as I thought it was over, I felt something cold slither up my tail. I turned around to see the rock had jutted up and had engulfed my tail, before I could cry out, I was yanked down and was up to my chin in solid rock. I was about to shadow phase out of it when I was sucked the rest of the way down, I had no escape and would soon run out of air! I started panicking and soon realized that was only using up air faster, so I forced myself to calm down.

Then there was a voice that echoed through the rock. "Give up yet?"

I would have smiled could I move [Not on your life] I thought to Kwaik as I fused the light and shadow within me, summoning the chaos, There was an explosion and I was hovering in a crater ten yards deep. As I hovered there, a ball of earth energy shot from the rock, my reflexes were unnatural and I evaded with ease. Another shot out at a different location and again I dodged, this continued a few more times. [Have anything new?] I shouted.

Kwaik emerged from the ground at last. "Just this!" he yelled back, I turned around to see the twenty or so energy balls had formed a ring above me, and they all converged on me in a way that made it impossible to dodge, the blasts inflicted minimal damage, but as I turned back to Kwaik, I was surprised to see them come around for another pass. I tried to negate them with my own blasts of light, but when they hit, the earth blasts only got bigger. "Aww..." I started to say as the barrage hit me again, the damage doubled due to my own attack.

I tried to fly away, using the chaos energy to speed up, but they followed me with the agility of a dragonfly, then at the wrong moment, the chaos I had stored up ran out and I resumed normal speed, just as the energy blasts hit me again, this was really starting to become annoying. Then they came around and fused into a massive ball of green light. I smiled. Just as it hit, I summoned my shadow element as a wall, it acted similar to voidstone, absorbing the attack and turning it into energy for me, refreshed, I turned to Kwaik and dive bombed him, summoning my light energy in a comet dash.

He tried to defend by making armor out of the earth, but the comet dash plowed straight through. When the smoke cleared, I was pinning him, my wing blades X'd around his throat. We were both gasping for breath and smiling.

"A draw then." Kwaik said.

"Huh?" Kwaik nodded for me to look up. I did and saw a massive stalactite hovering above my head, ready to impale my face.

"If you were to strike now, I'd lose my focus, causing that to fall" He said. I suddenly got the heebie-jeebies real bad and scrambled away, completely freaked by how close I had just come to death. Kwaik chuckled and got up, the stalactite falling behind him and burying itself ten feet into the rock with a crunching sound.

Kwaik walked over. "So?"

I couldn't really say anything, I was just staring at the giant rock and moving my mouth up and down. Valcor walked over laughing, "I think you pass man!"

Later as we were flying back to the temple, I was still shaken, so Valcor did most of the question answering. The questions so far had been mostly routine, then he asked a seemingly insignificant one. "So, who's the current earth guardian?"

"A dragon named Terrador." Valcor answered. I almost ran into Kwaik as he'd stopped in midair.

"Woah! What the heck man?" I yelled as I rolled around him in time, I twisted in midair to face him, his face was unreadable. Valcor had turned around to join us, "Is he ok?" I shrugged.

"Terrador… you sure?" Kwaik asked.

"I've been living with him for close to a year now, I'm pretty sure." I answered.

"Why, what's the problem?" Valcor said.

"I… how old is he now?"

I frowned, "Umm… I dunno, over 500 I'm sure."

Kwaiks face grew haggard. "My God, has it been that long?" He looked up at out confused looks. His own grew red. "Sorry, I didn't mean to trouble you, but… You clain this is my future, well my sons name is Terrador, and if you're right, then to him I left home over five centuries ago and never came back."