(Song for this chapter is Coral Guardian, from the game Armored Core 6, people who have played the game might know that song from the difficult boss fight against the IBIS weapon, one of the harder fights in the game. I think it suits well both as a piece of music and for that reason.)

Cynder hissed in triumph. Sinking her fangs into an enemy had never felt so good.

Darkmire's scales cracked under her jaws. Even the bone of her skull seemed like it would crack like an eggshell with enough force. So fragile in the real world compared to the absurd toughness she had exhibited in the dream.

In the dream world Darkmire had skin like iron and bones like... whatever was harder than iron. But now Cynder's teeth dug into her scales, not quite effortlessly, despite being malnourished she was still a potent dragon after all. But she was biting and her teeth were going in, and that was a nice change.

With a startled rasp Darkmire jerked awake, head twitching in Cynder's grip only making her bite down even harder. Blood ran into Darkmires eyes as she tried to open them.

Behind her Cynder could hear Malefor and Spyro beat their wings hurriedly, letting out involuntary yelps of shock and relief as they were snapped out of the nightmare that had gripped them.

"Cynder!?" Spyro's voice, frantic and disturbed, was still the sweetest thing Cynder could imagine. She couldnt reply with words for now, but she grunted and waved her tailblade.

Biting down hard Cynder grabbed Darkmire's overlong and brittle horns and ripped a bloody chunk off the side of her head and spat it out.

"Cynder, I was... I was dead..." Spyro said.

It was a lot to process without Cynder's advantage of being in touch with the dream thanks to her element. Spyro had gone from an extremely vivid and accurate nightmare of dying in a nuclear explosion, to being awake in the real world again, with nothing to hold onto.

His mind was quick, trying to recover, but his attempts to understand what had happened brought with it a horrible relisation. If he had survived a moment after his death, his magic keeping his consiousness intact for a short time before it would fade away... did that mean that all dragons who died 'suddenly' experienced the same feeling? That same horrible sensation of their mind and body drifting apart, with no way to heal it back together? What if instant death wasn't so instant after all?

If Spyro was taking a few seconds to remember where he was it was with good reason.

Darkmire was starting to show some signs of resistance, tail sweeping and swatting at Cynder as she shook and thrashed her head. Her strength was still incredible for such a fragile and malnourished frame, and Cynder hissed as she kicked the tailblade away, snapping towards Darkmire's face.

On Darkmire's forehead there was a glowing rune. Malefor and Imperia had designed it together, they had set up so many scribbles and runes and seals; now all collapsed and focused down into the little spark of power enscribed on her black scales.

All that effort, and so far all it had done was make the real world Darkmire's eyes glow white showing that her control over Pleasure was unstable. With Darkmire's force of will the instability had so far not resulted in anything.

"Okay Pleasure, if you can hear me then its time to break out." Cynder muttered.

She slapped her paw down on the mark and pushed her magic into it. She didn't really have any idea what she was doing, she just hoped she could spark it to life and it would do whatever it was supposed to do.

Finally Spyro snapped out of it, eyes refocusing. A pair of black dragons were fighting in silhouette, but it was hard to tell which one was which because the convexity star that they had been falling towards during the dream was how horrifyingly close.

Like a wall of whiteness, radiating white hot fire. Spyro could practically feel his scales burning. They were at the upper limit of survivable tempratures for dragons, it was lucky Cynder had picked up a little bit of temperature resistance from her fire training, and that her body had been mostly shielded from the radiation by Darkmire's wings.

Spyro slapped himself lightly on the face and shook his head, then he darted forwards to help Cynder.

Darkmire's tail swiped upwards towards Cynder's spine, but Spyro slammed into it and knocked it aside. It took all of his strength to hold the tail alone, he sealed the tip of it in rock in the hopes that Darkmire wouldn't notice and it might make her slightly less deadly.

Spyro looked down and saw Cynder had her paw pressed against Darkmire's bloodied face, her own tailblade poised under Darkmire's jaw ready to inflict the fatal blow. A single moment of brain death was all Ignitus had claimed he needed to defeat Darkmire.

But Cynder hesitated, desperately trying to reach for Pleasure, even as Darkmire's mind began to wake up.

"Cynder, we can't wait." Spyro said softly. "I'm sorry."

Cynder nodded reluctantly, and then she slammed her tailblade into Darkmire's skull.

A purple sheen covered the world, the brightness of the Convexity star made slightly more bearable, although its heat remained just as strong as ever.

Malefor, groaned, rubbing his head and looking up, feeling a chill of worry as he saw the closeness of the star. His eyes darted around, taking in Spyro and Cynder floating on either side of the still form of Darkmire. Cynder flicked drops of blood off her tailblade, stained red right along its length.

"Did we win?" Malefor asked warily. "That dream, it... it was more difficult to recover from than I would have expected. I apologise."

A purple spark emerged from the stab wound on Darkmire's throat, and for a moment her body began to knit back together slightly.

A ghostly pair of claws caught the spark and it winked out.

The form of Ignitus, The Chronicler, etherial and partially transparent, faded into view between them. He faced Darkmire, his expression somber.

"Ignitus, can you hear us?" Spyro asked.

The former fire dragon nodded. "Yes Spyro, forgive me that I have no more time for a long goodbye. I'm so proud of you."

Ignitus reached out and touched Darkmire's head, gently, almost tenderly.

"May you find peace, ancient one."

Ignitus' body began to glow softly, and Spyro felt his heart lurch.

He had known that if Ignitus made Darkmire the new chronicler then it would mean his death, but the thought of watching it...

Tears sprang to his eyes. Cynder with a beat of her crimson wings came to float beside him, a paw reaching out and squeezing his own.

Upon Darkmire's bony shoulders fine gold armour appeared, a gold chain and crystal pendant starting to fade into existence on her throat.

Under the armour Darkmire's scales began to leech of colour, turning bluish white.

Purple sparks floated around Darkmire's head, flickering, as if confused.

The black dragoness' body twitched, claws clenching and unclenching, a corpse still infused with remnants of Darkmire's spirit.

"You... caaaaant... doooooo... thisssssssssssssss..."

Darkmire's mouth slurred the words. Bright white and yellow eyes unfocused, slowly fading to blue even as Ignitus himself faded.

"I... can't... die... like... this..."

Darkmire continued.

"You're going to get a second chance at life." Ignitus responded, the blue spreading further through her scales, but slower. Ignitus's mouth was set in a firm line, but a faint tremble betrayed how much effort this was taking him.

The purple sparks grew brighter. Cynder let go of Spyro's paw and darted forwards, swatting them away, but for every one that she destroyed two more took its place.

Spyro and Malefor moved in, but they could do nothing but watch as Darkmire's transformation halted.

Her long clawed hand leapt up and grabbed Ignitus' wrist, cutting off his escape.

And then Ignitus' scales began to turn black.

"I said... you can't... do this!" Darkmire grated out. Spyro grabbed her fingers and tried to pull them off Ignitus. One of her three talons snapped and twisted, the bone breaking and peircing from her skin, but she refused to let go.

Ignitus let out a grunt of pain, his other hand glowing and grabbing at his arm, pushing power into his limb, but the inky blackness continued to flow across his chest.

Darkmire let out a mocking grin, pulling him closer, ignoring the others.

"You really thought you had me? You thought your little power could contain me? You're a joke, and the power of your gods is a joke. In fact, thanks to your clever plan I'm going to erase the Chronicler from existence, now and forever!"

Darkmire began to laugh, things were going even better than she expected. They thought they'd found a way to defeat her, but she was unbeatable, she was indestructible, she was-

A hot flash of pain crossed her hand, and she looked down, watching severed fingers floating in the air before her. Ignitus pulled his arm back, gasping as the blackness retreated from his scales.

Shadow and purple sparks flickered over Darkmire's wound, but... but it didn't heal properly.

Her eyes darted around and then locked on Cynder, Cynder aiming a bright golden spear at her head.

"So that's where the dragonslayer is."

Darkmire said, and then Cynder thrust it forwards and Darkmire's vision went black.

Ignitus woke in a bed in the medical wing of the Dragon Temple in Warfang, surrounded by the dragons who had been with him when he fainted, Terrador, Cyril, Cyria, and Seizo all looking at him worriedly.

""Ignitus! You suddenly fell unconsious. Terrador was barely able to catch you!" Seizo said worriedly.

"You were tossing and turning, your arm was turning black. What happened!?" Terrador stepped to the front, leaning down to look at Ignitus' wrist.

Ignitus looked down at his foreleg, the corruption thankfully had receeded, but the point where Darkmire had grabbed him a handprint had been left burned into his scales, like a scar or a blister. He struggled not to shiver at the memory of that vicelike grip, the numbness spreading up his body, unable to escape.

"What happened? Something to do with being Chronicler, or to do with Spyro's dark side?" Seizo said. "Can they defeat Hope?" Seizo said.

Ignitus nodded, rolling onto his chest and raising his head to look around at them more comfortably. "I have good news and bad news, the good news is that they have defeated Hope and Spyro is saved. Excellent news, of course. The problem is that in Darkmire's tomb there is a terrible evil, and I do not know for certain if they can defeat her."

"What are you talking about?" Terrador asked. "Is it Malefor? Why did you fall unconsious?"

"Malefor has proven a trustworthy ally. This dragon is a black dragon, capable of fear magic and more powerful than anything I could have expected. More powerful than the Dark Master in the height of his powers. It was her pulse of fear magic which knocked me out."

"Darkmire's tomb is two days flight away." Terrador said. "Did the tomb truly contain a dragon that powerful?"

Ignitus looked down at his hand again, staring at the scar left on his scales.

"That is only a glimpse of her power..."

Cynder withdrew the Dragonslayer from Darkmire's skull and flicked blood off the tip of the spear.

"I'm sorry Pleasure, I'm so sorry."

"We did the best we could." Spyro said reassuringly to her.

"Better than we had any right to do." Malefor noted. "Realistically we should have all died." The elder purple dragon beat his wings to hover beside them, reaching up with a hand and creating a barrier of purple light which protected them from the worst of the radiation emitted by the Convexity star.

"You weren't much help." Cynder muttered. "She got you with your own 'evilization' trick and you tried to kill us, and then you spent most of the fight hiding in the corner."

Spyro thought that was a bit harsh. Even Cynder knew it was a bit harsh, she had trained Malefor from a complete ametur in a fight the moment it got even a little bit scrappy, to now being someone who had some first hints of battle instinct, and considering that he had handled himself well enough. She quickly scanned her mind to make sure Darkmire wasn't somehow manipulating her, but she couldnt feel anything of the sort.

"I... I am sorry." Malefor said. "You are right, if I had done better then perhaps Pleasure might have been saved. However we may not be done yet."

"I did think that Darkmire's death would be more... Explosive." Spyro said. "I know the Dragonslayer cuts through magic as well as flesh, but-"

"You don't have to tell me twice." Cynder said, then she stabbed the spear in again and twisted it, before ripping it out and stabbing Darkmire's heart. "If she so much as twitches I'll stab her again. I might be sad about Pleasure but I'm not squeamish."

"We can't stay here long." Malefor said. "The star, it's gravity is getting stronger, if we don't leave soon we're going to burn up. But at least it will be an efficent way to dispose of the body."

Darkmire was dead again. Did this make two times? Three times? She didn't know how to count a death in a dream. Maybe it should be counted as four. That Dragonslayer was quite a weapon, she could feel the wound left like a cold spike pressing into her thoughts. It had stunned her briefly, like a brain freeze almost. So that's what it felt like to have her entire "spirit" cleaved. Not that dragons had spirits, the shape of their magic was their life, and that was what had been cut. The experience of it was much more annoying than a conventional death. Her consiousness was in no hurry to fade, she could feel them, talking, thinking their little thoughts. It was positively hateful. She could try to reach out and push out one of their minds, but their bodies were not adapted to handle her power level, at best they would vaporise, at worst they would vaporise and she would be left with another mental pest stuck in her mindscape. No, the only collection of atoms within her reach and optimised for holding her power was her own body. She just needed to fix those wounds making it unoccupiable.

"I feel something."

Cynder hissed.

"She's trying something tricky."

"If any purple sparks show up stab them." Spyro suggested. "What else can we do?"

"We're about to hit the star. We need to pull out." Malefor said with increasing urgency. "My shield won't keep holding at the rate that its heat is increasing."

"Right, I'm taking her head off." Cynder raised the Dragonslayer, gripping it with both forepaws, then swung it down.

Shadows erupted from every inch of Darkmire's body, but not just emerging from her, in a nightmarish display the shadows were actually breaking her body apart, disassembling and rearranging with horrible tearing and cracking sounds. A shadowy whip spiked with sharp bone fragments and scales turned backwards and inside out lashed and swiped, forcing Malefor back.

Spyro roared and immediately began to breathe fire onto the horrifying thing, making it quiver and screech, but not seeming to do any real damage.

Cynder slashed and swiped with the Dragonslayer, the shadows and flesh splitting and breaking itself to avoid the strikes. She leaned in, beating her wings down powerfully as she tried to run it through entirely, but a blast of purple energy threw them all back and formed a protective bubble. Cynder bounced back immediately, pointing the Dragonslayer, only for a pulse of red fear magic to crash into them and bring even her to a halt.

The shadows coalesced, bringing bits of flesh and bone back together and stitching it together piece by horrible piece, purple sparks flickering, healing magic repurposing broken parts and restoring functionality as Darkmire systematically arranged the wounds out of her body.

She breathed in a ragged breath, what were they breathing in Convexity anyway? Whatever it was it tasted good and sent a rush of clarity to her thoughts, sharpening her mind and reversing the effects of her brush with death. As far as she could tell she had lost maybe a few percent of her body mass, most of which she had subtracted from her excessively long horns which hadn't been doing anything useful anyway. She had arranged the material far better this time, taken some steps towards fixing the severe malnourishment Pleasure had suffered, improved bone density and muscle mass. Being killed by the Dragonslayer, for all of it's reputation and powers, was just another inconvenience. Still though, this probably wasn't good for her long term health. Long term health, ha, what a joke. As long as everyone else was in worse health than her what did it matter. She was a god, it wasn't like she was going to die.

Spyro, Cynder and Malefor were struggling to shake off the effects of the fear pulse Darkmire had subjected them to, they had been knocked back far enough that it was clear she had stopped paying attention to them.

"This is likely to be our last chance." Malefor said. "If we don't get clear then the star will drag us all down."

"Lets get out. Being a brave dumb hero is charming. Dying in a star is just stupid." Cynder said.

"Do you think she can get out of this without teleporting?" Spyro asked.

"Impossible to know, but we'll burn to death before she will, and then she'll escape or not on her own terms regardless." Malefor said.

"Lets get out of here then."

Malefor raised a claw and opened a portal, heart pounding with dread. If she noticed. If she copied this skill. If...

They flew through the portal and it snapped shut behind them.

"Where are we?" Spyro asked, looking around at the convexity sky. It was featureless, peaceful. One star was bigger than the others, but with no sense of direction or scale that could mean anything.

"We're back where we started. The place I marked as our landing location." Malefor said. "Which means Darkmire and the bubble field should be..." He pointed. "That way."

"I see it." Cynder said, creating some shadow goggles to shield her eyes from the intense, and yet still comparatively mild, glare of the light. Very faintly she could see a tiny black dot, she almost fancied she could hear a scream of rage echoing across space. "She's so far away." She watched as energy flickered and pulsed, the bubble field doing its work of containing Darkmire's energy. The bubble shield got it's energy from the radiation of Convexity stars, with it being so close to one now it would be at it's most powerful. They had nothing to worry about.

She could see the flickers growing faster and more desperate, like a distant little strobe light. It got so distinctive that Spyro and Malefor noticed it too, the three of them watched, and watched, for long minutes, before finally the dot vanished into the white light.

"So that's it?" Spyro said. "Do we have any way of knowing if she's escaped or not?"

"It would be foolish to stop watching so soon." Malefor said. "I'll open a portal for you two to get back, get some rest. I will observe for longer. The barrier was designed to draw power from convexity stars, but hitting a star will likely overload it. There might be a moment in which it goes down that she could escape."

"Wait, I see something." Cynder pointed, not that they needed the extra guidance.

On the surface of the star a small black streak spread out, thin and wispy, like a drop of ink or black food die dropped into water. It grew thinner, spreading, faint, swirling. After a few seconds the whiteness overtook it, and that streak faded away.

"Incredible." Malefor said quietly. "If that were an ordinary star that flare of power would have been sufficient to crush a planet. Convexity stars are bigger by a factor I have only tentatively began to calculate. Galaxy sized, maybe. We're lucky to have survived this encounter."

"We can't stay in this light, we all need to recover, even if it means tagging in Imperia to watch the star." Cynder said. "She could probably handle twenty minutes in Convexity."

"I'm not certain that leaving an ordinary dragon here is wise, but we can go back to the tomb for a brief moment."

Malefor raised a claw and created another rift, then stepped through it. He grunted slightly as he landed, the feeling of gravity suddenly reasserting itself made his tired limbs cry out in protest, but the relief of solid ground and calming cool darkness outweighed everything else. Spyro touched down with a heavy sigh and looked down to see his legs were shaking, feeling much the same. Cynder used wind magic to counterbalance the effects of gravity slightly anyway, and she disliked the stale air of Darkmire's tomb, at least Convexity was kind of fresh, but she was no less glad to be back. It felt safe, despite it's dislikable nature, and it was much better than being slowly fried by a star.

Imperia and Flare were instantly up and darting over to them. Flare put a wing under Spyro and guided him down to the ground, while also giving him a rapid check over for injuries, it was clear she was full of questions, but she didn't ask them right away.

Imperia was much more conversational, she gave Cynder a similar injury check, Malefor probably didn't need one as he could heal himself, but she still reached out wing and tail to support him and keep him steady. "What happened? I'm so glad to see you safe! I take it that Pleasure couldn't be saved? But considering how horrific Darkmire was just you all being okay is a relief."

"We kicked her into a star." Spyro said. "We tried everything else, we really did."

"I am so proud of you right now." Imperia said. "That's sad but really cool."

"The longer we fought her the more she learned." Malefor told them. "She was unlike anything I have ever seen. She took us through illusions and dreams and mental manipulations. I was not prepared, if it had not been for Spyro and Cynder I would certainly not be here. In the end it was an extremely messy fight, not the sort of fight with which I would prefer to defeat a god, but a victory nontheless."

"I imagine she was horrendous just like she was in conversation." Imperia said with a laugh. "Probably talked a lot during the fight too."

"Even stabbing her didn't shut her up." Cynder said dryly.

"With the Dragonslayer? Are you saying it didn't work?" Imperia asked, suprised.

"It certainly hurt her, but I can confirm she did not stay down."

"Sounds like quite an intense few minutes." Imperia whistled.

Malefor frowned. "A few minutes? The fight felt like hours."

"It was hours." Cynder said. "The dream alone went for at least an hour, and it all passed in real time too, I was checking."

"You were only gone for about fifteen minutes though." Imperia said, puzzled.

"Maybe time runs faster in Convexity?" Spyro mused.

"No, thankfully it does not." Malefor said, shivering slightly at the thought of his self imposed imprisonment in Convexity happening with him experiencing time faster than the real world. "I assure you I have checked thoroughly, and at least in the area of my prison... time... flowed... Ah. I think I see what has occurred."

"Well that makes one of us." Spyro said.

"Spyro, when calling on Dragon Time to slow down time around us you must notice that the place it draws from is Convexity energy. I believe that we are drawing upon the gravity of a convexity star to warp time. In effect the closer you get to a convexity star the slower time in the outside world moves in comparison to you."

"Hmm, that does make sense. It would help to explain why when one dragon time user goes into it any other dragon time user nearby is able to spend their own energy to go into it as well regardless of their reaction time. It should also be something that's testable, if while channeling dragon time you visualised yourself as a point in a sphere, and how time was effected by moving that point closer to the centre of the- this may not be the best time for this line of thought."

"You said you threw Darkmire into a star." Flare said with concern. "Does that mean she would be experiencing time faster than you were as she fell?"

"And then we watched her from a distance for multiple minutes." Cynder said in realisation. "It could have been days, years even."

"Oh wow, imagine falling into a star for years." Imperia whistled.

"I would really prefer not to." Malefor said.

"That's a lot of burning." Flare said.

"Well I for one am relieved to know we were experiencing time fast, the idea that we teleported out with only minutes to spare before being pulled into the star was not very comforting." Spyro said.

"This also means that her possible window to escape is wider than we thought." Malefor said. "We saw a streak of her shadows across the surface of the star, it lasted a few seconds even from our distance. That means it could have gone on for multiple years from Darkmire's perspective, and it implies that the energy bubble which was containing her has not survived contact with the star and has ruptured. If she was still alive when it ruptured it's possible she could have teleported out."

Malefor groaned as he got to his feet. "I need to go and check."

"Are you sure? You're in no state to-" Imperia looked around to see Spyro and Cynder also getting up, determined looks on their faces. "Oh you have got to be kidding me."

"Do you want help?" Flare asked. "I am aware that Imperia and myself-"

"Thanks for volunteering me." Imperia laughed, although she clearly looked willing to go.

"- are not going to be at our best in Convexity, but it feels wrong for us to sit idly by. If the world needs saving we must give it our all."

"Imperia, Flare, you already have." Cynder said, surpised to find a surge of emotion welling up inside her. "The main dream that Darkmire created was a replica of Warfang, as accurate to the real world as possible, including all of it's citizens. You were there."

"Let me guess, we died heroically?" Imperia said playfully.

Cynder nodded, finding it surprisingly hard to speak. "You were incredible... All of you."

"We have so much to tell you." Spyro said. "Although a lot of it was pretty bad."

"It's okay, we can help you unpack that when you're ready." Imperia said brightly. "You're all overdue to take a well deserved break." She frowned slightly and put a paw to her chest. "I feel... weird."

"Well you have been surprisingly involved in the combat despite being here." Malefor said. "I would not have thought that it would drain you, but perhaps there has been some-"

Imperia's legs gave out and she started to fall, only for Cynder to catch her.

"Imperia?" Cynder looked her over, Flare darting to her side and doing the same. Black veins were appearing around Imperia's eyes and she let out a groan of pain.

"Oww, something's wrong..."

"Impossible, how can this be happening?" Malefor said. He opened a rift and the purple skies of Convexity were revealed before them. What he saw made him feel like his heart had stopped.

The black inky lines on the star were back, the whole star this time was now laced with rivers of blackness, swirling, spreading, growing.

The more they grew the worse it became for Imperia, blackness spreading out in veins from her chest, she coughed and spat up black liquid like oil.

"This isn't possible..." Malefor said. "This... this can't be possible."

He couldnt move his legs, he felt paralyzed, his mind spinning, refusing to comprehend.

How was he meant to save Imperia. How was this happening to her?

Should he go to her? She was clearly affected, would medical attention help her?

How could Darkmire be doing this? How could she still be alive?

Should he go into Convexity? Darkmire must be there, inside- inside a star.

How the hell was anyone supposed to fight a literal star?

A black streak raced past him on one side. A purple streak on the other. He watched as Spyro and Cynder flew into Convexity heading towards the star.

"You'll burn up." He said numbly. He could barely talk. There was no way they heard him. "Cynder! Spyro! You can't!"

But they didn't stop.

Spyro and Cynder were very much aware of that fact, but Cynder pulled her wind magic around them both as soon as she noticed Spyro was with her, and began to rapidly accelerate them forwards.

"Do you have a plan!?" Spyro shouted.

Cynder didn't answer. Of course she didn't have a plan. She couldn't heal Imperia with magic, the thing she was best at was hitting stuff, and she had to try something.

"Can you sense her with magic?" Spyro asked, beating his wings harder to fly at even pace with her.

Oh right, that was a good idea. Cynder reached out, emotion magic moving at the speed of thought, touching the surface of the convexity star. For a moment she recoiled, a sharp sting of pain transmitted down her magic senses to her mind due to its overwhelming power, but she pushed through it, trying to reach into the star.

It was mana, pure mana of no element and every element simultaneously, burning away anything that met it's radiation. A convexity beam fired in all directions at the same time. It was bigger than she had expected too, Cynder's emotion magic had it's reach determined by what she could perceive, which was why despite it's unlimited range she had never been able to use it to scan for life on other planets. From her range, without knowing for sure there was something there, she couldn't detect any thoughts. She could definitely perceive the Convexity star though, and calling it big did not even begin to describe it. It was... beyond comprehension, it was bigger than the universe.

"Wow." Cynder said to herself. Her senses weren't really able to process what she was feeling, it was coming across as a mixture of confusion and an unpleasant stinging sensation.

She pushed past that, reaching in, the star felt like pushing against a strong headwind, only the emotion element was able to push against the tide of it, anything else would be rejected, just like trying to reach directly into the body of any dragon with non emotion magic was impossible.

It was really similar to wind actually. Like the whole star was faintly wind aspected. Like the whole star was... Imperia? Imperia adjacent at least. Could this be where Imperia, or even all wind dragons, got their mana from?

Once she knew what she was looking for Cynder almost fancied she could feel Imperia's mind emanating faintly from that star. She could feel confusion, worry, relief at being comforted by Flare and Malefor.

Cynder could feel another mind as well, a much more hateful one. Darkmire was alive, and she was reacting to Cynder's sensing tendrils.

Even with eyes unable to look directly at the brightness of the star Cynder could see her, limbs outstretched, locked in a scream of rage, shadowy magic lashing out blindly. Darkmire was killing the star, bit by bit, pouring her magic out into it and thinking of nothing but destruction. If Darkmire was in that state in the real universe she would destroy it probably within minutes, it was only the sheer absurd size of the star which had kept her from destroying it already. It was getting faster too, Darkmire's limit of how much power she could summon at once was growing even now. Thrown into a second star and she would destroy it in half the time. A few more and maybe she would be wiping out universe sized stars with a twitch of her fingers.

Cynder definitely didn't hold Malefor's inability to move against him, if she wasn't moving already right now she probably wouldn't have been able to either.

And then that aimless angry mind locked onto her position with hypersonic speed and her dread got so much worse. Darkmire was still under the effects of dragon time, and so when she reached back with her own emotion element it came at an utterly impossible speed, moving to rake over Cynder's mind and obliterate her in a billion years of torture compressed into a fraction of a millisecond. Cynder felt a pressure in her body, her dragon time flaring up to protect her. She activated it, drawing Spyro in with her, then desperately put up mental shields, feeling red energy coming screaming towards her.

The attack still stopped her dead, her nerves on fire, feeling the sensation of burning and fury and confusion. Then more parts of Darkmire's mind began to wake up, whatever sort of coma she had gone into starting to fall away. The anger got more specific, Cynder heard her own name whispered in her ears over and over. The attack paused, and then Darkmire began to move.

Cynder felt it like a sinking feeling in her stomach, Spyro's wing beats fumbled for a moment and she knew he felt it too. The black inky stains lacing through the star began to move, shifting in their direction, consolidating on one side of the star.

"Looks like you got her attention." Spyro said. "I guess we take that as a win? Dont think the magic bubble survived as well as she did though."

"As long as she comes out here and we can hit her. She was still gaining power in there, and probably would have killed Imperia, and maybe permenantly depowered all wind dragons. I don't know."

"Wow, clearly you've figured something out. Today has been a good day for science."

"Sure, except we're all going to die and nobody is going to know any of it. But at least we're doing our best."

"Well no matter what happens I love you."

Spyro said with a warm smile.

The two dragons looked towards the star, gazing at the swarming blackness which was racing towards them. Without a further word spoken the two dragons drifted close, Spyro taking point, Cynder shadowing him, and both moving into a fighting stance. They were ready for anything, at least, they hoped they were.

Finally back in the real world, with all the plans ready to get wrapped up neatly. But Darkmire does not care how neat an idea is.

Overall I really like this chapter, especially the reveal that dragons are in some ways made of star stuff; it's part of how the magic system works and I'm quite pleased with it. The thought of a universe sized star inside which time flows faster instead of slower the way that time is slower around intense gravity in the real world was such a cool mental image I just had to find a way to include it. Throwing her into the star was a good idea... but only if it killed her.

Next chapter will be the final phase of the fight, although it alone might go for multiple chapters. We shall see.

In other news I've been experimenting a bit with game design, and I think I would like to make something seriously. Perhaps starring Imperia and Flare, those two have had a decent role in the events of this story, but I dont think I'll fully explore them as much as I'd like to within this fic.

Until next time, thankyou for reading!

-4Dragons