Chapter 3: The Ultimate Corruption Skill and the Face-Off

Nighttime, a blissfully quiet time where dragons could enjoy the starry night sky to themselves and enjoy the peacefulness that surrounded them. Nature was amazing like this. One particular dragon, Spyro, was staring up into the sky as he contemplated the recent going-ons. There had been news of Malefor's rise but no-one knew for certain if he was around or not. However, Spyro would soon find out what he dreaded to know.

A dragon of small stature walked up to Spyro and tapped him on the shoulder with one of his talons. Spyro turned around to face the dragon now that his gaze was directed elsewhere.

"Are you Spyro?" The dragon asked.

Spyro raised an eyebrow giving the dragon an incredulous look. A dragon had to ask him if he was Spyro? Him of all dragons? Spyro answered nonetheless.

"Yes I am."

The dragon nodded satisfied that he had found who he was looking for.

"I have a message for you."

Spyro was confused. A message for him? Who could've possibly sent it to him? And why would they send him a message? Spyro was dreading to know what the message was, in fact, he was tempted to tell the dragon not to tell him the message and tell him to leave, but Spyro wasn't going to do that. If there was a message for him, he was going to accept it.

"Very well, what is this message?" He asked cautiously.

"I have been told to tell you that you must confront another purple dragon known as Malefor. However, you are not to go after him now. You have been told to look for him in the morning."

So it was true. Malefor indeed had risen and it seemed that he was challenging Spyro but why wait until morning? That was the thing that puzzled Spyro the most. Surely whoever sent this message would want him to go after Malefor right now to end any threat that he might become in the future.

Meanwhile, in a place where Gods and Goddesses convene to discuss the happenings of the mortal realm, one particular Goddess was observing the happening discussion between Spyro and the messenger.

She was a dark purple dragoness with white flecks that sparkled on her wings. These white flecks seemed to represent that stars themselves, as well as many well known constellations, her horns came straight up out of her head and her tailblade looks like Spyro's. Held by one her of paws was a scepter that bared both celestial bodies of the sky, the Sun and the Moon. This dragoness was known as Galaxia, and she was the Goddess of the Galaxy as well the creator of the Element Galaxy.

As she watched over what was happening, she knew something strange was going on and She was going to do all she could to prevent Spyro from leaving Twilight Academy in the night in order to find and confront Malefor. So she turned away from the event and called for all other Gods and Goddess so they could discuss a course of action.

The next morning, Spyro awoke and quickly got out of bed to prepare himself for his conflict with Malefor in the Dark Twilight Realm. There was a high possibility that he may never return from this quest, but that was a risk he was willing to take.

After making sure in his room was in order, Spyro made his way to the door that would lead him out of his room and into the halls of Twilight Academy. However, as he opened the door, there was a dragon waiting for him on the other side, barring him from progressing down the halls. It was none other than Ignitus who didn't look to impressed with Spyro.

"And where do you think you're going?" He asked.

Spyro knew there was no way of talking his way out of this one. With one like Ignitus, it is almost impossible to talk your way out of what your doing, so the golden dragon just accepted that he was probably not going to be going anywhere.

"Out." Spyro replied trying to bluff his way through.

He then tried to push way past Ignitus but was stopped in his tracks when he saw Ignitus paw be consumed by lava. He knew that Ignitus had gained the Lava Element and would probably be unrivaled in the element.

"You can try and get past me but know that I am the master of the Lava Element and will use force if need be."

Spyro sighed. There was no use resisting, it would just land him in a heap of pain.

"Very well."

Spyro made his way back into his room with Ignitus following him in but staying at the doorway.

"No-one will be allowed to enter and you are not allowed to exit. The only one who is allowed to come and go at their will, is Cynder."

Cynder, the other dragoness who had also undergone a change recently. She was no longer the same Purple Dragoness that she used to be, instead, she was now a silver dragoness. He hadn't thought about her when he was ready to leave the Academy to search for Malefor. He wondered how she would feel when she finds out the truth, how she will feel that he didn't tell her of what he was going to do.

Spyro tried to stay awake for as long as he could for tonight was the night he was going end everything. There was no way he was going to let Malefor be loose upon the world. He died sooner than let happen.

But even he didn't really want die, he wanted Malefor to die which is why he was staying up as long as he could. Galaxia may restrict him to his room, but there was no in all of Convexity that she was going to stop him from fighting and defeating Malefor.

Spyro moved over to the door and peered out to see it was Exedra who was currently on watch, or more accurately, asleep, fast asleep.

Perfect, thought Sypro.

Spyro backs back into his room and quietly closes the door. He then focused on the outside of Twilight Academy and slowly felt his body come apart as he teleported. Once past the buildings walls, he rematerialised on the ground where after back in one piece, looked back the Academy and smirked.

"Too easy." He whispered.

The Golden Dragon then leaped into the sky and headed for the one place that could take him to where he needed to go, the one thing that transects this world and Malefor's

The Portal to the Dark Twilight Realm, and more specifically, The Valley of the Dead.

"You better be ready, Malefor."

The Portal was dark purple, edging towards black, and shimmered as it gave a violent and evil aura. Spyro knew their might be a chance he would never return from this place, but that was a chance he was willing to take, for the sake of everyone else...

For Cynder's sake...

With a steel resolve and determine, Spyro slowed moved to the Portal and stepped through. For a few seconds, his vision was filled with nothing but black then suddenly, colour came into view, but it was nothing pleasant.

He know knew why this place was known as The Valley of the Dead.

Everywhere for as far as the eye could see, there were dead bodies of all different kinds of species. Dragons, Apes, Moles, Cheetahs, Death Hounds and so many more. It was a gruesome scene that the Golden Dragon did not like one bit, but this is the reason he was here.

To stop this sort of massacre from happening.

On a hill in the distance, Spyro spotted the castle in which Malefor would reside and took off towards it post haste, leaping into the air and beating his wings to propel himself towards the castle as fast as he could.

Within a few minutes, Spyro was at the castle door that lead inside and without any hesitation, he burst through them to see Malefor standing at the other end of the room with another dragon standing off to his side.

"Ah! Welcome, Spyro!" Echoed Malefor's deep and distorted voice. "I have been waiting for you."

"Good, cause this ends now, Malefor!" Spyro roared in return.

"Of course, but let me offer you something." The purple dragon replied, his visage still very calm.

Spyro was suddenly on guard. If Malefor was going to make an offer, then it obviously couldn't be something good, it never is.

"How does power beyond your comprehension sound? Or your skills increased? Or even learning new skills to help you become more powerful? Accept all this Spyro and serve me, besides, how could you say no to so much power?"

Once Malefor finished, a huge grin spread across his face and Spyro went into a spiral of thoughts. Just the mere mention of so much more power enticed him. Even having his own skills increased or learning more skills just added fuel to the fire.

But those weren't the only thoughts running through his head. What would happen to him? What would the Gods and Goddesses think? Especially Galaxia, what would she think? But there was one question that rose above the rest.

What would Cynder think?

It was that thought that cancelled everything else out but it is also what brought away from the veil of enticing power and back to his common sense. He knew immediately what his answer was. Fixing his gaze on the purple dragon, he spoke but one word.

"No."

"No?" Growled Malefor.

"You hear me, Malefor, I said no, so how about we get this over with!" Spyro roared in reply.

"Nothing would please me more!"

Malefor started reciting an incantation that was obviously created to corrupt Spyro. As he recited the incantation, Malefor felt good about himself. He would finally be rid of the golden pest and would be able to use him against the others.

However, once he had finished the incantation and saw nothing was happening to Spyro, who was standing there with a smug smile on his face, he felt his hopes be dashed as he obviously forgot about something.

"It didn't work?! WHY DIDN'T IT WORK?!" Yelled Malefor.

Silence filled the room momentarily as all three dragons in the room thought upon what could've possibly stopped Spyro from being corrupted, even Spyro himself wanted to know.

Then it all clicked.

Why the corruption didn't work, why it was all to easy to leave the Academy and the Twilight Realm altogether. Galaxia didn't stop him but she had also done something to him that would protect him against Malefor's corruption.

The Power of Galaxy resided within Spyro.

Spyro let out a laugh as he came to the realization of what has happened and was humoured by Malefor's situation now. It was also at this time that the other two dragons worked what was stopping the corruption.

"Galaxia..." The unknown dragon murmured.

"Fine!" Malefor yelled fustrated. "I'll just eliminate you!"

Spyro simply smirked. "Your welcome to try."

Malefor shot towards Spyro, like an arrow shot from a bow, roaring all the way and as he reached Spyro, he took a massive swipe at the golden dragon but said dragon simply ducked and rolled out of Malefor's way causing him to keep moving and crash into the far wall.

Spyro got to his feet and turned to face Malefor as the corrupted purple dragon got back onto his feet, glaring daggers into Spyro's head. The purple dragon knew now that simply charging at Spyro wouldn't work, even with how quick he was.

Slowly, the two dragons started circling each other, keeping their eyes locked on each other, trying to not let their opponent get the upper hand on him.

Spyro was the first to move as he leapt towards Malefor. He started to move to his right, causing Malefor to follow, only to rapidly change directions and go back to the left and slash at Malefor with his tail as he went past.

The tail-blade barely missed Malefor's bulky body as he tried to move out of the way and retaliate with a fireball which landed just shy of Spyro's feet but still exploded, throwing Spyro across the room.

As he hit the ground, Spyro lay very still, to try and fool Malefor. It was a slim chance, but he would take any chance he could to gain the upper hand against Malefor. Said purple dragon saw Spyro's body hit the ground and slide a bit before stopping and lay very still.

He moved cautiously towards the golden body that lay not far from him, not sure if he had truly defeated Spyro, or if he was just trying to trick Malefor and launch an unexpected attack on him. As he stood next to Spyro, he nudged him with his foot and the dragon did not move.

A sly and cruel smile spread over the purple dragon's face. It was all to easy as if the Spyro wasn't really trying. He turned to walk away, but then, the other dragon in the room suddenly realised what was going on as he noticed Spyro's eyes open suddenly.

"Malefor!" He shouted.

He turned to regard the other dragon. "What is it, Apollonir?"

The dragon now known as Apollonir never got a chance to reply as Spyro jumped to his feet and fired off an Earth Shot at Malefor which struck him square in the side, cause him to stagger and stumble a bit before he recoverd and looked his gaze on the dragon he thought dead.

"Sneaky little rat, but that won't save anymore now."

The two resumed their battle once again, trading blow for blow and firing off elemental attacks at each other, hoping to get their opponent with a strong hit that would make it harder for them to get back up and into the fight.

"Is that all you got, Spyro?" Malefor growled after about half an hour.

Spyro grinned. "Oh, I'm just getting warmed up."

And they started fighting once more.

Morning began to start as the sun started it's ascent into the sky.

Exedra started to stir as he felt the warm rays of light coming in through one of the windows in the hallway on his face. His eyes slowly opened up and blinked away the sleepiness that begged to come back. He stood up, stretching out his body to get all the knots out of his system.

He then opened the door to Spyro's room to see what was happening, however, when he glanced, he saw that Spyro was no where is sight.

"Oh crap..." He mumbled.

He quickly turned tail and started running down the hall towards where the Gods and Goddesses usually convene so he could tell them that Spyro was gone. He quickly burst into the room and started speaking hurriedly, making it very difficult for the others to understand him.

"Spyroisgone!Icheckedhisroomandhewasn'tintheresoIthinkhehas-"

"Exedra!" Galaxia interrupted. "Slow down."

Exedra flushed in embarrassment as he realised he was talking a really fast pace, so he took a deep breath in and then started again.

"Spyro is gone. I checked his room and he wasn't there, so I think he has gone to find Malefor and most likely fight him."

"Then we must go after him." Galaxia quickly replied.

All the Gods and Goddesses nodded and preapered themselves for the flight to the Portal that would take them into the Dark Twilight Realm. All of them expect Ignitus. He would be going with them, but he knew that this was Spyro's battle to fight.

Once all of them were gathered, they all took of into the air with Galaxia and Exedra leading the way.

They quickly made it to the Portal and stepped through into the Dark Twilight Realm. They spotted the castle in which Spyro was fighting Malefor quickly, and moved even quicker when they heard a loud explosion and saw a large chunk of a castle wall get blown to pieces.

Once at the door of the castle, which had been blown apart, they could see that Spyro was fighting Malefor and another dragon that had just recently stepped in to help Malefor.

"Apollonir..." Galaxia growled.

She made a move to step up to Spyro's side and help him, but was stopped when she heard Ignitus' voice.

"We cannot interfere with this battle. This is Spyro's battle and Spyro's alone."

Galaxia couldn't argue with what Ignitus was saying, but she really wanted to step in there and give Spyro all the assistance that he needed...however, she couldn't, so she just stood there, and watched the battle with baited breath.

Spyro had been on the defensive for a while now ever since Apollonir had decided to join in the battle to help Malefor and things were starting to look bad for the golden dragon, but he wasn't ready to give up. Oh no, he had so much more to fight for and was prepared to die for those that he was fighting for.

Apollonir came on at Spyro and he rolled away from the large dragon and fired Ice Shards into his side, hurting him a little but not much. He quickly got back to his feet in time to see Malefor now coming at him and he had no time to dodge to the side...

So inside he went under.

Spyro ran towards Malefor and just as they were about to connect, he dropped to the ground and let his momentum carry him and as he cleared Malefor, he flipped over and fired several Fireballs and Earth Shots which had a visible effect on the purple dragon as he almost buckled under the hits. Spyro went to look for Apollonir but never got a chance when something rammed into his side...and very hard.

Spyro was flung across the room and landed on the ground with a loud thump! but got back to his feet, determined to not let them get the upper hand on him. As he did, he saw Apollonir bearing down on him and started firing as many Ice Shards, Earth Shots and Fireballs as he could. At first they weren't doing much, but gradually as the fire dragon got closer, it had a more visible effect but Spyro still had to jump out of the way otherwise Apollonir would've plowed through him.

The fire dragon couldn't stop himself and slammed into the far wall, and then just slid to ground and stayed there, not moving as the impact knocked him semi-unconscious. He could still hear everything around him, but couldn't move a muscle.

Spyro turned back to Malefor who was standing at the other side of the now destroyed castle. Said golden dragon was getting sick of this battle and just wanted it over and done with.

"Enough of this!" Spyro roared. "This ends now, Malefor!"

"Agreed!" Malefor roared back and he charged the golden dragon.

But inside of Spyro charging back, he focused on himself and dug as deep as he could and called forth the holy within him. The Power of Light, a pure element with enough power to purge one of the evil, if there is any, that has corrupted them.

A large white orb formed in Spyro's mouth as he focused more intently and when it was barely containable, Spyro threw wide open his maw and unleashed the beam of Light. It rapidly crossed the room, giving Malefor no time to move, and hit the purple dragon head on, causing a massive explosion of white light where Spyro and all the Gods and Goddesses had to cover their eyes.

When the light died down, Malefor could been seen on ground several meters from Spyro unconscious.

Apollonir had just barely seen what had just happened as his sense began to come back to him. Now terrified of what powers Spyro's possessed, he turned tail and fled out of one the holes in the castle, flying far far away.

A groan several minutes later coming from Malefor's direction is what alerted them to his awakening. As he woke up, he stumbled to his feet as he struggled to hold himself up.

Spyro was instantly on alert again not knowing what his power had done to the purple dragon in front of him but when he lifted his head, Spyro immediately knew there was something different about the dragon...something about him that told him he was no longer evil, so he cautiously lowered his guard but still kept himself prepared in the event of anything.

Malefor looked in Spyro's direction and recognised the golden dragon instantly. Knowing that moving towards Spyro might alert him, he thought it best to converse from the distance they were at.

"Thank you for what you have done, Spyro." He said bowing down. "You have cured me of my darkness, my corruption and for that, I am thankful."

Spyro still wasn't sure what to think, but the next voice he heard cleared everything up.

"It's alright, Sypro. You can relax. You've won your fight and saved a dragon in the process."

Spyro looked the direction of the voice and saw all the Gods and Goddesses and saw that it was Ignitus who had spoken. He had known to trust Ignitus, so he was going to trust Ignitus, so he stood down his guard completely and moved towards Malefor as the others did as well.

Galaxia took a long look at Malefor and definitely could see that was now changed, but now came a big decision she was about to make that could change a lot of things, but she knew that Malefor, the new Malefor, was the perfect dragon for the job.

"Despite what you have done in the past Malefor, how would feel being the God of Convexity?" She asked.

Malefor's eyes lit up in surprise. After all that he had done to her and all that she cared for, she was offering to make him, of all dragons, the God of Convexity? Sure he was honored to have been offered such a prestigious thing but if it was there to take, then he wasn't going to turn it down.

"I would be honored." He said, bowing down yet again.

Galaxia focused deeply and then breathed a strange mist over Malefor. For a few seconds, there was nothing but then their was a surge of light that engulfed the purple dragon, or what was once the purple dragon. Once the light died away, there stood a whole new looking dragon.

Instead of a purple dragon, he was a deep black scaled dragon with three sets of golden horns on his head as well as golden talons, deep black wings while the membranes were crimson. His eyes have changed from the sickly yellow to a silver colour, black fangs and his tail-blade is navy spike.

Once all changes were made and everyone had taken in the new appearance of Malefor, he bowed yet again.

"Thank you for this opportunity, Galaxia. I swear upon my life to use what you have given me for good."

Galaxia and Exedra look at each other and both nod, satisfied with Malefor's vow.

"Rise then, Malefor, and do what you have sworn to do...as soon as we get out of here."

And with that, they all left the Dark Twilight Realm behind them.

Within minutes, all the dragons had arrived back in the Twilight Realm via the Portal in the Valley of the Dead and then another few minutes later, they were back at the Twilight Academy where within a few seconds of Spyro walking in the door, a larger silver mass smashed into his side as she hugged him, letting loose a few tears.

"Spyro!" Cynder shouted. "Don't ever leave like that again! You had me so worried!"

Feeling bad for what he did, Spyro wrapped his arms around the silver dragoness in a comforting manner as he apologised for what he had done. Cynder accepted the apology and soon got off of Spyro where she was soon greeted by a surprise as the Gods and Goddesses stepped aside to reveal the new Malefor.

At first she was shocked, but with a quick reassurance from Spyro, she knew that Malefor wasn't going to harm her, in fact, she could see what looked to be a look of hurt as he moved forward to her, and bowed one last time.

"I truly am sorry for the harm I cause you, Cynder. I understand if you can't forgive me, but I wish to offer you something that would help you."

Still not sure what was going on, Cynder answered nonetheless. "What is it?"

"Galaxia has made me the God of Convexity and I have vowed to use my powers for good. I notice that their is a Convexity spark within you and I wish to help you train and develop your Convexity."

Cynder was shocked again, but even more than last time. She was completely speechless for a couple of minutes before a wide smile broke across her face and with it, came words that relieved Malefor to the core.

"I would be happy to learn...and also..."

There was a slight pause as Cynder hesitated slightly but finished her sentence anyway, her smile still spread across her silver face.

"I forgive you."

"At least Malefor is good again." Cynder spoke as Spyro came and sat down beside her.

"Yeah and it was nice of him to offer you training with your Convexity."

Cynder simply nodded in reply.

A momentary silence lapsed between the two as they just sat there, on the balcony of their room, at least for now, staring up at the starry sky, until Spyro decided to break the silence.

"Cynder?"

"Yes, Spyro?"

"At the end of Middle Year...would you like to move into the Twilight Palace with me...?" He asked.

Cynder purposely paused as if to think about what Spyro had offered and knew it would put the golden dragon she loved on edge. So when she figured it had been long enough, she simply rested her head on his shoulder and spoke three words.

"I'd love to."