Spyro the Dragon: Creation and Destruction
By ValkierieDjermegandre
Disclaimer: Sigh...hey! I still don't own Spyro or any related characters that appear in this story! They belong to their respective creators at Vivendi Universal! I own Spyro's god form, his powers and any original characters including, but not limited to, Atlas! I also own the scenario and not...much...else!! Rawwrr!! Okay? Okay.
Plot: Through time, there has always been one god who has been the object of fear; one who's right hand is chaos…who's left hand is destruction…who's very breath is pestilence. Creation and destruction will clash…as forbidden myth becomes black truth…
Notes: It's here! The next part in my Spyro the Dragon God saga, Creation and Destruction. Mostly inspired by my own need for another story to write and an answer to the requests for the next part of the saga (I'm looking at Draganta the Dragonlord and Nightmare King). Hope you like this too!
Book II: Blood in Trial and Time
Chapter XXIII: Time
After a fair number of days in the Dragon Realms, the heavy storms finally ceased and a new air began to blow through the world of the Pure Dragons, despite the gloomy cloud cover that still remained. No one could explain what this atmosphere was, but everyone tended to agree that it felt pleasant...like an air of new hope and prosperity. Outside of the Dragon Dojo, Tomas sat with a proud look about his face; he was happy with the decision that Atlas made and he was also proud that he was the one that sent the God of Destruction off on his journey. He wondered if he retrieved Spyro from the realm of the dead yet and if so, what kind of resistance, if any, did he encounter? The Elder dragon wasn't worried about him however; he figured that Atlas was strong enough in all of the three essences of existence...soul, body and mind.
"Hmm...I wonder where that dragon is? Even more, I wonder why the storms suddenly stopped? Could it be tied to Spyro possibly coming back to life?" Tomas said to himself.
"Yeah, that might be it, Tomas." came the voice of one that he thought he would never see. Tomas turned toward the peninsula and set his eyes on the restored God of Creation.
"Spyro!" Tomas said, while running up to the God and taking him into his arms, ignoring his sling. "I see you were successful, Atlas..."
"Yeah...It wasn't easy though, and this guy didn't make it any easier..." Atlas replied, his voice full of exhaustion.
"Well, what could you expect? Would you be able to keep your temper if I betrayed you, killed you, and then showed up at the graveyard?" Spyro snapped.
"Now, now Spyro. Don't forget that if it wasn't for Atlas, you'd still be sitting in that graveyard with your soul being bound to the afterlife. You should be thanking him." Tomas said.
"Yeah, I'll thank him when both my wounds and the wounds on my world heal." Spyro said.
Atlas merely dipped his head in shame and didn't respond after that...soon after, the red Yokkurei collapsed to his knees and then completely on the ground; he was breathing very shallow breaths. Tomas immediately set Spyro down and rushed to Atlas' side to see what was wrong. He checked the red dragon's temperature and found that he had a fever. Tomas was confused somewhat, but then remembered the night that Atlas showed up at the dojo, walking through the terrible storm that night. Normally, his godhood would prevent him from getting any kind of sickness from bad weather, but he also remembered that Atlas was absent of any aura that night.
"Atlas is unwell...Spyro! Help me bring him inside!" Tomas ordered.
"How are you going to lift him with your arm messed up?" Spyro questioned. Tomas raised an eyebrow.
"I'm going to bring him inside?"
Inside the dojo with Spyro's help, Atlas was positioned in a large room at the end of the hall on the first floor. The room was a well decorated room with candles lit all around the room. There was an expansive magic glyph in the center of the room and a large crystal chandelier dangled over it from the ceiling above; the crystals looked like Orichalcum. There were paintings of many mythical beasts and demons inscribed along the walls and there was a large mural drawn on the ceiling that depicted two dragons in a cataclysmic battle. Finally, in the very back of the room, there was a balcony that overlooked a waterfall basin. Atlas was laid down on top of an enormous pillow and on Tomas' order, Cho-Lei began to put her fingers to his body in many places. As she went further across the Yokkureian's frame, her face slowly dissolved into one of concern.
"Did you find the problem?" Tomas asked.
"I should think it's obvious. Considering that he walked through that terrible storm that night, it wouldn't be outrageous to say that he could have caught something." Cho-Lei responded.
"He's a God, how could he have gotten sick from bad weather?" Spyro questioned.
"He had no Godly aura that night, young master." Tomas said, with somewhat of a stern tone, "He had no protection from anything like the flu. Even now, I sense no aura around him."
"Hmm...I wonder how that happened..."
"I have no idea...but I can say that it wouldn't exactly be in our favor for him to die..."
"...oh yeah, because it would disrupt the balance, right?"
"Yes."
"So then, why did he kill me so easily if he knew that such an action would cause problems for everyone, including Yokkureian dragons?!"
"I have a feeling that he took the balance into consideration when he killed you. Did you feel anything before you woke up in the graveyard?"
"Well...I did feel a strange warmth. But what could that have to do with anything? He still impaled me without even thinking about it."
"Young master, you must practice forgiveness. It is one of the most important virtues for a God such as yourself. If you do not forgive, you cannot move on. After all, you may need him more than you think, beyond the balance."
"Need him?! We're not even supposed to exist in the same world, let alone interact with one another!"
"In case you've forgotten, you have already interacted with him. Now then, I'm going with the other elders to find some medicinal herbs. Try not to tear him limb from limb while we're gone."
With that, Tomas left the room with the other elders, leaving Spyro alone with the unconscious Atlas. The God of Creation looked at his counterpart and then walked over to him; the sun shining through the back of the room glistened off of his ruby, but bruised, scales. Spyro knelt down beside the Yokkureian and put his hand over the red dragon's heart; it was beating very slowly and unevenly, giving Spyro an uneasy feeling. The white dragon took a hard look at his counterpart and started to realize his own behavior.
"Forgiveness, huh? Atlas, you've caused a lot of trouble for me...but, even so I don't know why I'm finding it so hard to forgive you..." Spyro started. He paused, almost expecting a response, "I guess it's mostly because it seemed like you purposely ripped my heart out and stomped on it. I mean what was I supposed to think, what with you tearing down the Artisan Home like that. I know that you had a reason for everything, it's just that...I felt so betrayed."
"Than again, distancing myself from you may well be the way that I'm compensating for my behavior towards you. I have a habit about overreacting to guilt...but then again, you went through heaven and hell just to find me in the Graveyard of Reason so I guess you also have a thing about feeling guilty. That feeling drove me to attack you at the graveyard without even thinking. For all I know, you could have destroyed the Artisan Home because you were struggling with some inner conflict...and I know how that feels."
"I let myself fall to my inner darkness and jealousy during my first few months as a God...I caused an enormous amount of trouble for my world at that time. Since then, I've been very protective about what happens to my world and that may be the reason that I got so angry with you. No matter how hard I try, I can't forgive you...you tore a huge fissure in my heart."
Spyro took one last look at the Yokkureian and started to walk out of the room. The God of Creation wasn't sure how everything would go from here; what if he did need Atlas to defeat Hinarious? If he couldn't forgive Atlas for what he had done, they would never be able to work together. What Atlas had done to try and save his world may have doomed both worlds...
"Big brother...what is this?"
"That? Oh, it's a clock. It counts Time."
"Time? What's Time?"
"Time...hmm, a simple and accurate way to describe it is one thing that your big brother doesn't know. I guess you can think of it as measure of how long we have to accomplish our duties in this world. You see, Time waits for no one...if you don't use every second of it to its fullest, than you may find yourself regretting it soon enough."
"How do I use Time?"
"Heh, I'll tell you all about that later..."
...
"And you did. You told me that there is no one way to use Time. It's something that everyone uses individually and differently. Time is something that is used by your every action and your every breath. At the moment, there was no greater wisdom than that. Only now can I ask myself...have I been using my Time wisely? If not..."
...
Terra slowly opened his eyes and found that he was floating. The silver wolf started to question where he was until he found that whatever clothes he was wearing were gone and the only thing covering his body was his fur. He also started to notice that he was in fact floating in an enormous globe of water. Terra figured that he was back in his room, but the fact that he could see surroundings akin to an azure temple and snow in some spots disproved that theory.
"Where...am I?" Terra whispered. He tried to move, but received a great pain from his chest area.
"you are in a Healing Sanctuary in a small, desolate temple in the White Mountains." came the voice of Hinarious. Terra looked over and set his eyes on the Sage Dragon. "There was water in that pedestal and I just used magic to mold it into a sphere, also applying healing properties."
"Oh...I apologize, Hinarious...I failed you against Atlas..."
"I should have figured that Atlas would have something else up his sleeve...he's such an unpredictable dragon."
"But still..."
"A more important matter is what we're going to do about your headphones; that Yokkurei destroyed them with that attack he used."
"They were the only ones of their kind. There's no possibility of finding any others..."
"I see..."
Hinarious went silent after that. He was silently fearful about what could happen now; he knew that those headphones were the main source of Terra's powers, but they had another purpose. That purpose would probably give the Sage Dragon some trouble later, so he would have to start figuring out ways to combat any problems. For the most part, his plan was coming to fruition, but he did need more time...time that would undoubtedly be granted by Atlas' lack of Godhood. Hinarious rose and turned toward Terra, looking over the scars and burns across his body...than his jaw nearly dropped.
"That Yokkurei used...Yokerra Rajenken!" Hinarious gasped.
As many hours passed and day turned into Twilight, Atlas had finally awoken from his unconscious state. By then, Tomas and Magnus had finished brewing medicine from a plentiful amount of herbs they found in the Valley of White Roses. Cho-Lei walked up to the God of Destruction, who was sitting on his enormous pillow, and offered him the bowl that contained the medicine. Atlas took one sniff and knew that it was something that he didn't want.
"What...is this?" Atlas growled.
"This is medicine, made from Numec flowers and Shei Nectars. It should help with your influenza. Make sure to take it while its hot." Cho-Lei said, while handing Atlas a mahogany spoon.
Atlas gave the female elder a look and then dipped the spoon in the steaming medicine. He lifted the spoon out and examined the lime green liquid that graced it; there were small leaves in the liquid that were presumably from the herbs and flowers. The God of Destruction rolled his eyes and sampled the foreign medicine...and then his eyes turned a strange orange color as he prepared to release the presumingly disgusting liquid, but then he remembered that he couldn't possibly reject the Pure Dragons' assistance. Atlas forced the medicine down and nearly dropped the bowl.
"So, how's it taste?" Spyro coyly asked.
"Ugh...tastes like what blood would if you added disgusting herbs..." Atlas said. "But thanks for this all the same, Tomas, Magnus, Cho-Lei."
"No trouble at all. Just make sure you drink it all." Tomas said.
"Well, as long as we're all here, why don't you tell us what happened with you and Hinarious." Spyro said. Atlas had downed the entire bowl of medicine and started to throw it back up, but thought better of it.
"...oh, okay. Everyone had better get comfortable right now..." Atlas started. The elders and Spyro each took seats around Atlas and the Yokkurei was ready to begin.
"Alright, I'll start from the beginning. As you could have probably assumed, I was born into a normal Yokkureian family. However, my mother left me when I was born and didn't have a chance to truly know my father before he was murdered. I ended up growing up on my own with very few friends that I could count on, except when I met my one friend, Heimdegire at the age of four. Knowing that I was alone without any family, he offered me many times to stay with him and his parents, but I refused every time."
"Needless to say, that's how everything progressed in my life for a long time and I was comfortable; not happy or sad, but comfortable. One thing that always bugged me was the fact that everyone seemed to see something that I couldn't see about myself...maybe it was my Devil's Script or they knew something that I didn't know at the time; whatever it was, I didn't know. Like I said, everything was routine for me...until everything changed on my sixth birthday."
"Because Heimdegire and his family were the only true friends that I knew, they pushed me into celebrating my birthday with them. However, just before I was about to make my wish for my sixth successful year of existing, a strange dragon in a black cloak showed up in the room. He didn't come through a door or anything but seemed to appear out of thin air. The dragon said nothing and just grabbed me by my tail and literally dragged me out of the door. Heimdegire tried to stop him, but failed."
"I was taken to the White Mountain Range and to the black side of the Temple of the Edge where I was forced to take three trials...the Trials of Power, Courage, and Wisdom...in order to become the God of Destruction. I was battered and bruised from those trials; running from hoards of demons, fighting with weapons that I didn't even practice with, having the Grimoire of the Sealed Heavens bound to my body and soul. Suffice to say, I wouldn't accept the final Rite because I was so traumatized..."
"You okay?" Spyro interjected as Atlas began to cough and hold back desperate screams of rage. Atlas nodded in response and then continued.
"After I had run away and returned to my home, I figured that I was alright and that the Grimoire didn't mean much; as far as I was concerned, no one had to know what had transpired. In fact, no one did know until a few days later when I started to feel a certain strangeness deep within me...it was like many volcanic eruptions at once. And then it happened. I was with Heimdegire and we were fooling around near a shrine. It was getting late, around the time the sun would set in this world."
"My body started to bulge and convulse erratically and my Devil's Script also started to bulge. The marks themselves started to feel like wet ink and burned like hot tar...and then I transformed. It was the first time that this body...Twilight, had shown itself and I didn't know what was going on and to say the least, Heimdegire was shocked. I don't remember anything of what happened while I was transformed, but he told me that I started roaring and blasting beams of dark energy around the shrine...then again, that explains why the shrine was destroyed..."
"That sealed my fate as the God of Destruction and Heimdegire apparently knew everything about it. I pleaded with him not to tell anyone and it remained our secret for many years. During those years, I kept seeing that dragon telling me that I couldn't run and that I was the protector of the Yokkureian realm. I eventually started to buy into it and looked on with concern as the conditions in my world grew worse. I started to learn about why this was happening and how to reverse it, along with studying the dark arts that I now use. After five years of searching, that dragon returned and told me that the only way to rid my world of its curse...was to kill the Pure Dragon God of Creation and take his life force."
"So that's why..."
"I declined. Despite my heritage and my race, I didn't have it in me to kill another dragon; I knew it was murder. I declined every time he gave me the option. One day, however, I was sitting in a dark room in my house because by then, I memorized when I would transform and I knew it was at hand. I had a spell working in my house that would prevent Twilight from escaping my house. During the time when I would usually transform, Heimdegire came to me and told me that three Yokkureians were fighting and trying to kill one another."
"For some reason, I rushed out and as soon as I reached the battleground, I transformed. I had no control of my body in any way...but I remember Heimdegire telling me that I jumped into the midst of the fighting...and obliterated the dragons with the a strange fire weapon...Shinigami Yotoi. It was the first time that I killed anyone...yet for some reason, I felt that I had control and power over everything. Four years later when I had finally gained control over my powers, I looked on at the condition of my world and knew that I had no choice. I used my Godhood to cause the Einher Volcano to violently erupt as part of my fifteenth birthday...this caused the meteor shower in your world that I used to sneak into your world under the guise of a harmless red dragon that lost his way. I'm sure you all know what happened from there."
"Yeah...you fooled us all, but..."
"But guess what? That dragon in the black cloak was the one who had organized everything for his own devices. Hinarious tricked me into bursting into your world and disrupting your peace! He tricked me into thinking that killing you was the only way to save my world! He tricked me into thinking that he gave me ultimate power when I performed the final rite, when he really put some kind of seed in me to take away my Godhood! He tricked me into thinking that I had achieved victory at the Kikoun Shrine, but he really took some black mess from your life force and then locked my Chakra! This whole fiasco was set up by that bastard and its because of him that I have no power and even more so that I have no way of saving my world! Spyro...I'm so sorry for everything but as you can see, it wasn't my fault!"
Spyro couldn't argue. Atlas' whole life and his actions had revolved around an elaborate trick played by Hinarious. Nothing that Atlas did was on his own free will. It was amazing that Hinarious had built up Atlas so well...all so that he could make the God of Destruction fall even harder. One thing did bug Spyro, however...Hinarious probably lied about the final rite in order to make him and Atlas fight. If that was the case, then Atlas could have a chance at getting his powers back...but what was the final rite for the God of Destruction?
End Chapter Twenty Three...next chapter, Trust...
ValkierieDjermegandre: Whew, long as hell. Ah well, couldn't do it any other way; it was a super talky chapter. By the way, in case you didn't read my profile, my MS word died so I had to get a new word processing software and that's why this is so late!