-1Disclaimer: I don't own Spyro the Dragon, but the bonanza of incoming original characters are all mine.

Chapter 7

The Hero's Path

Spyro screamed in pain as the dark magic consumed him. He could barely think, but all of his mind was focused on resisting the darkness. Images flooded through his consciousness, images of the worst experiences of his life. Anger and hatred filled him.

The darkness around him stopped turning and a purple glow appeared between him and it.

The Dark Master smirked. "That's it. Try and resist me. It will make my triumph all the more sweet." He raised his hand and clenched his claws into a fist. The darkness moved forward and hammered against the glow.

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The creature that had attacked Cynder was another dragon. He was dark blue and his horns, spines, and wings were similar to Cyril's ice like ones, but were purple instead of light blue.

Cynder tried to get up, but fell back to the ground and fainted. The dragon glanced down at Cynder and growled.

Sparx flew up in front of the ice dragon. "Hey, who do you think you are, jerk? Just because your big and…" Sparx stopped as he looked up at the much larger creature. "Um, just, ah, watch where you're going next time…"

The dragon snorted and the force of his breath sent Sparx flying backwards and onto the ground.

He turned and picked up Cynder and slung her across his back. The dragon turned and leapt back into the air. Sparx fired up his wings and flew after them.

The dragonfly flew up above the trees and looked around. He frowned when he didn't see them. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes," Sparx spun around and faced the speaker. The black dragonfly was hovering a few feet away.

"Who are you?" Sparx demanded, raising his fists.

"I am Edord, envoy of the Dark Master," He bowed as he introduced himself. "I'm here to eliminate you, insect."

Sparx gritted his teeth. "First off, I'm not impressed. Secondly, you're calling me an insect? Dude, you're an insect, too. I mean that's like-,"

Edord growled and tossed a mass of dark magic at the yellow dragonfly. Sparx barely managed to dart out of the way.

"The Dark Master says that I should eliminate you," Edord said, another mass of energy building in his hand. "I don't know why. I doubt you could possibly cause any harm to his plans, but then again he's the evil mastermind, not me."

He tossed the ball of energy at Sparx. The other dragonfly dived out of the way and back below the trees. Edord scowled and dived after him. Sparx zipped through the tree branches, Edord flew after him, tossing dark energy balls.

Sparx screamed in terror as the blasts of energy exploding around him. Sparx was lucky that Edord could not aim well.

Edord growled as Sparx darted to the side. Edord turned after him. Sparx had vanished. The dark dragonfly stopped and looked around. The annoying bug couldn't have gone far. He was probably hiding amongst the trees.

Edord hovered forward and glanced around, looking for a yellow glow. He spotted movement and tossed a ball of dark energy at it. The blast hit and the target fluttered weakly, attempting to stay in the air.

The dark dragonfly frowned. He had hit a butterfly. Sparx jumped out from the tree he was hiding behind. He landed a punch to Edord's jaw.

"Ah! No fair!" Edord roared as Sparx grabbed a hold of his antennae. He grabbed Sparx and flew forward, taking the other dragonfly with him. In his haste, he didn't see the tree until he had hit it.

They both groaned as they collided with the hard bark. The two dragonflies remained plastered against the trunk for a few moments before sliding off and falling to the ground, leaving two dragonfly-shaped dents in the wood.

Sparx groaned as he hit the hard floor. One thing about being so small was that you could fall a long ways without getting hurt.

Edord's laughter caused Sparx to look up and see the dragonfly hovering above him with his glowing hand pointed at Sparx's head.

"Goodbye, insect."

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Cynder was half-conscious as her captor landed. Through her blurry vision she could make out several huts constructed out of wood. The huts were numerous and stretched far into the woods.

The dragon flew into the village. Lots of dragons were going about their business below on the village's streets .As they entered, Cynder noticed the guards that nervously stood watch around the perimeter.

They landed in front of a large hut that seemed to hold some sort of authority. Cynder guessed it was the governing building of the village.

The ice dragon landed in front of it and dropped Cynder to the ground. Cynder groaned as she collided with the hard dirt. Three dragons emerged from the large hut and walked over towards her. She noted that each of them was a different element, fire, earth, and lightning.

"What have you found, Feron?" the orange fire dragon asked. He sounded rather old.

Feron smirked and pointed the tip of his tail at Cynder. "This… black dragon!" he said, making no attempt to hide the disgust in his voice.

"She looks hurt," the orange dragon noted.

"That's not the point," Feron growled. "She looks like Cynder."

The orange dragon growled. "Cynder is looks much older than that."

"It doesn't matter," Feron argued. "She could have disguised herself to spy on us!"

By now, a crowd had gathered around the four dragons and were watching the proceedings and shooting nervous, or hateful looks at Cynder.

Feron glanced at the crowd. "We must get rid of her! She's a danger to all of us!"

"What do you mean 'get rid of her'?" the earth dragon asked with a female-sounding voice.

"The same way we got rid of the others, Gladis," Feron said.

The orange dragon hurriedly stepped forward. "Hold on, we're not doing anything until she's fully conscious and has had something to eat. Guard!"

A gray dragon stepped forward.

"Take her to Pyris's cell and give her something to eat when she wakes up."

At this point, Cynder passed out completely.

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"You know, normally I would be all in to this whole prolonged agony thing," the Dark Master sighed. "But it does get boring after a while. Even for me."

If the dragon within the mass of darkness heard, he didn't respond. The demon could see that his resistance was weakening, the purple glow was fading. The Dark Master rubbed his claws together gleefully.

The demon frowned as the wind picked up all of a sudden. He gasped as spectral flames burst into life next to him and a phantasmal Ignitus emerged from them.

"You!" the Dark Master gasped. He didn't understand how this was possible, how had he learned to project himself into this world so quickly?

Ignitus ignored the specter and instead turned to the mass of darkness. "Spyro, you can fight it! Don't let this monster twist you."

The Dark Master growled. "You're too late, you old fool." He raised his hand and Ignitus's projection vanished. "Spyro's all ready mine!"

Spyro dug his claws into the ground and then roared. The black color of his scales faded and a massive purple glow surrounded him. The Dark Master raised his arm to shield his face from the light. When he lowered his arm, he saw that his darkness had vanished and a older looking Spyro was standing and glaring at him. The specter gasped as Spyro opened his mouth and a beam of purple light shot from it and though the demon's chest. The shadow roared and faded away.

The older Spyro smirked and then shrank back to his normal age. He stumbled forward and then fell to the ground, unconscious.

After a few seconds, a creature emerged from the bushes and crept over toward the unconcious dragon. It stood over him, its teeth glinted in the light and it reached its clawed hand out toward the dragon's neck.