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Chapter 24

The Missing Crystal

Spyro, Izrayl, Cynder and Malefor stared silently as the dragon before them held the Purple Essence in his paws; or more specifically, a part of Malefor's Essence.

"Hand it over!" Malefor shouted, looking at the dragon menacingly.

"I'm sorry, was this yours?" he asked, waving it playfully at him. "But I am afraid I can't return it; finder's keepers you see."

"You—" Malefor was cut off as a blast of fire nearly torched his entire face. He looked to the source and saw Gaul smiling grimly at him.

"Watch your language," he said, before jumping towards his Master.

"We have to stop him," said Izrayl to Spyro.

"Who knows what the Dark Essence is going to do…" said Cynder.

"What are we waiting for then?" asked Spyro.

The dragon on the other hand held the crystal in his paws, before suddenly glowing brightly. He glow a bright purple, as he began to siphon the crystal in his body. The crystal began to dissipate into fine dust, before seemingly being absorbed straight into his body.

"This power…" the dragon murmured. "It's intoxicating!"

"And what better way to test it out is by killing these four Viku," said Gaul.

"Yes…" he said, as he stopped glowing. The crystal was now no longer to be seen. He had quite clearly taken it into his body.

"Watch yourself guys, this one's tough," said Izrayl, preparing himself.

"That power is suppose to be mine…" said Malefor darkly.

"Try and take it then," said the dragon now known as Viku.

Spyro was the first to attack, launching out a fireball headed straight for Viku. The dragon however, didn't flinch, but instead summoned an ice wall, easily deflecting the flame. Gaul followed up with one of his green flames, summoning a firestorm headed straight towards Spyro and Cynder. The two dragons dodged it immediately, as well as Izrayl.

Malefor on the other hand decided to lay in some attacks as they were distracted, and summoned a twister, picking up boulders in the area and hurling it straight at Gaul. The ape sidestepped and countered with a flourish which sent dozens of green hot fireballs straight at him. The purple dragon jumped to the side, some of the flames grazing his purple scales, making him grimace from the pain.

Viku decided to kick things up a notch by bashing his paws on the ground, which resulted to it forming dozens of cracks that were headed straight towards Spyro. Thinking fast, he quickly jumped into the air, quite nicely evading the summoned spikes by Viku, which came from the earth.

"How does he do that!" exclaimed Izrayl.

He then fired torrent of icicles at Gaul and Viku. Spyro then followed this up with bolts of lightning, lighting the entire mountaintop like a Christmas tree. Cynder glanced to the side and saw Viku smirk as he prepared to counter the combined effort of the two dragons.

"And I'm just getting warmed up!" he shouted pounding his paw on the ground below. A loud rumbling shook the earth as the ground he was on, rose up instantly, forming a pillar of earth. Followed by this were the surrounding ground that they were on, began to rise up as well. Before they knew it, the entire battlefield was field with pillars of earth, making it hard to navigate if you were flying. Huge earth columns littered the field, and the dragons found themselves fighting in an all new environment.

"Wow!" exclaimed Cynder, as she was riding one of the pillars that were rising high up into the sky. She looked in front of her, and saw Izrayl and Malefor with surprise written across their faces.

"Why on earth can Spyro never seem to do epic things like this?" she asked herself.

"I heard that!" shouted Spyro as she flew by her, and began to fire boulder after boulder at Viku and Gaul who were standing still.

"I second the motion!" shouted Izrayl, as he himself took to the sky, and decided to try something new as well.

Malefor did as well, and swooped down Gaul and gave him blade after air blade. The ape danced around them lightly, thinking nothing of the petty attack. But Malefor smirked, as the ape didn't realize what he had actually intended to do. The air blade was strong. Strong enough to cut through the pillar of earth the ape was standing on. Gaul was horrified to find the ground he was standing on shaking, before crumbling down to the mountain base below.

"That takes care of that."

Viku on the other hand, returned fire on Spyro's boulder and hurled them right back at him, with the help of his earth element. Cynder on the other hand tried to put on the pressure by chucking acidic poison at him. This, Viku hadn't accounted for and didn't managed to evade fast enough. He suffered for it, by receiving face full of acidic poison. It was hot and it made his skin sizzle like a frying pan with cooking oil. He shouted in pain, and it made him vulnerable. This didn't bode well for him, as Spyro and Izrayl both launched one after the other a barrage of icicles headed straight at him.

The icicles cut through him, giving him gash after gash in his scales. Malefor decided to put the icing on the cake, by serving him a gale of air blades, which resulted to the earth pillar he was on to give way, much like it did with Gaul. The entire battlefield was covered with dust and debris as the pillar of earth fell, giving a sort of domino effect on the remaining ones. One after the other, they toppled down, like trees cut down the mountain.

The entire battlefield was covered in a dust cloud.

"Come on! Let's finish him off!" shouted Spyro.

"Roger that!" replied Izrayl, as they descended.

As they touched down, the dust cloud began to clear, and it was quite evident that Viku was loosing this battle. Wounds desecrated his body, some even bleeding openly. Gaul on the other hand, surprisingly enough was still alive, but barely. He no longer had a cocky grin on his face, but instead, a grin of desperation.

"It would seem…" he stopped as a cough racked his body. "I have underestimated you four…" said Viku.

"You did," said Cynder proudly. Viku just scoffed.

"Enough playing around then; I've found what I am looking for anyway," he said.

"What are you—"

Izrayl was cut off as he felt a sharp piercing sensation come from his chest. He looked down to find a jet black paw stabbing him quite cleanly through and through. Blood oozed at the side of his gaping wound, and some even came out of his maw. He looked up to find Viku starting daggers right through him. Everything seemed to move out of sync, as his vision began to cloud himself; the only thing remaining was the face of his enemy. His voice echoed across his ears.

"The third and final piece of the Essence…is finally mine."

0 0 0 0 0

Dread filled Spyro as he saw Izrayl get stabbed quite cleanly through and through by Viku with the aid of Convexity. One moment he was right in front of them, and then the next, he had done the deed. He had forgotten that Viku had one last trick up his sleeve. He also had Dragon Time. There was no window for reaction time. None whatsoever; everything seemed to move in a slow distorted pace as the three of them realized that their comrade was just stabbed right through the chest.

But in a flash, Izrayl's frail body collapsed onto the floor, twitching slightly as the large gaping hole on his chest, oozed blood everywhere. It was fatal strike. Viku was standing back to where he was earlier, a contented smile on his face. Then the next thing they knew, Izrayl and Viku's bodies both lit up with a tinge of purple and it reminded Spyro of one thing.

It was the same as earlier. The same process as Viku siphoned the Purple Essence. Then that meant…Right before there eyes, Viku siphoned what seemed like Izrayl's soul right into him. And they were powerless to stop him. The Purple Essence could only be extracted from a dragon…if that dragon was near death.

And just as it began, it was over.

Izrayl's lifeless body stopped twitching, and the blood oozing out began to stop. It was truly a horrific horrendous sight.

"It was fun playing with you three," said Viku. His wounds, as if using a red gem, began to heal instantly right before there eyes. "But my time is up. We'll see each other soon enough," he said before disappearing in a cloud of green fire.

"Consider yourselves lucky to be still alive…" said Gaul, before disappearing as well in a wall off green fire.

0 0 0 0 0

"AHH!" the voice exclaimed as their bodies collided. There was a heap of tangled bodies as they rolled across the ground, trying to gain the upper advantage. Flame fought back fiercely as he tried to pin him down.

Coincidentally enough, the two of them skidded across the floor and stopped midway, in front of a window, where moonlight was shining through. That was where Flame got a good look on who the snitch was.

He wasn't surprised.

It was none other than Li.

The crimson red dragon had a shocked and stunned expression on his face. He didn't expect this, out of all things. But he quickly had to react, and he kicked Flame off of him.

"You don't seem to be surprised!" he shouted at the red dragon that picked himself up.

"Lucky guess I suppose. I always had a thought it was you," said Flame, glaring at Li.

"What are you going to do about it then?" asked Li, raising a brow.

"Well I'll be sure to get you detained!" shouted Flame. Li just scoffed.

He was left with no choice. He was found out. He needed to get rid of him.

He was about to attack him when he felt a sharp pang of pain in his head. It was excruciatingly painful. It was like his mind was being shredded to pieces with a jackhammer that was busy banging his head down into place. He wanted to scream but no sound came out. It was so painful he blacked out. He just collapsed in a pile of heap on the ground, unmoving. Flame on the other hand was surprised at the display before him.

"What just happened…?" he asked himself.

Nonetheless, his sense of responsibility kicked in, and he rushed to the side of the fallen dragon. He looked at his chest, and relief washed over him. He was still breathing. Good, at least he was alive. But now though, it would seem that he was incapacitated. Thinking fast, he decided to report this to the Guardians. This would be the best move to do at the moment. As Flame ran, he couldn't help but feel a bit proud of himself.

He singlehandedly saved the entire Temple from being overrun by apes.

Not bad. He wondered how Spyro was faring on his end.

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