Forzen stood in the large training room, his heart thumping savagely against his chest. The moment they stepped foot into the room and made Forzen stand in the arena, he instantly wanted out. He didn't feel comfortable having so many eyes scrutinising him as he displayed his elemental capabilities; he didn't feel like they were too impressive but he was scared of what everyone else would think, especially given the opinions he'd heard about him today already. He was terrified at what they expected him to do, and how much they expected him to demonstrate.

He had a feeling they might not be expecting as much with the electricity element, considering the guardians had been made aware that he'd only just discovered the element today, but it was the wind and sound elements that scared him. Especially sound. It was completely new territory to them, and Forzen knew for a fact that new things were scary, mainly from personal experience but he was sure that concept would carry over even to the guardians.

The purple dragon knew that this was just to let Muras, the guardians, and even Cynder, know where to start him off in his training. He knew they were going to create dummies for him to beat up with his elements, but he really didn't want to be violent. He'd seen Spyro, his own father, be incredibly violent, and he hated it. Violence scared him; it sickened him.

But he had to. They were going to force him to fight, just like they forced him to talk. It's the only way to make you trustworthy, Forzen thought to himself with a dejected sigh as he looked over towards the guardians.

The four guardians sat a few metres away from the outer rim of the large arena that he was in, Muras sitting beside them. Cynder stood a bit further forward, but still outside the ring. The large dark purple dragoness had been assigned to start off his training today, being the general of the Warfang Army, and also as the dragon who would oversee his training with the wind element.

"Alright, we're going to give you two dummies to go up against. We'll do this in three rounds: wind element first, then sound, then whatever you can manage with electricity. Do you understand, Forzen?" Cynder announced.

"Yes, Cynder," he mumbled.

"Speak up," Cynder snapped. "And in a training setting like this, I want you to refer to me as General Cynder."

"Y-yes, General," Forzen said, forcing the volume in his voice.

"Alright, you may begin when the dummies have materialised."

With that, Cynder stepped back slightly. Forzen turned and watched as two shimmering forms began to appear in front of him, and he lowered himself slowly into a firm battle stance. If there was one thing he knew how to do, it was fight; not that he liked it of course, but it was part of the education that Spyro made mandatory for Jaarsol to teach him.

Forzen watched the shimmering forms carefully, and he frowned when he saw them take on very distinct quadruped figures with claws, wings, a snout, and… Wait, I thought these were meant to be dummies, Forzen thought. Why are they dragons? Aren't dummies wooden poles filled with straw?

And then the scales began to form. Being on the opposite side to Spyro, Forzen fully expected Cynder to create shadowclaws, venomfangs, or fearbringers for him. But the black scales did not come. They weren't painted with purple, red or green stripes either.

But one of them was red.

And one of them was green.

A fire and earth dragon; these seemed to be dragons on their side—normal dragons, good dragons.

Forzen spoke his fears to Cynder. "Uh, aren't these meant to be dummies?" Forzen asked. "Why are they… dragons?"

"I find it hard to believe Dark Peak doesn't have arenas like these too, unless you were taught to fight against slaves," Cynder murmured.

"We do, but Jaarsol only made me fight against dummies or apes for a moving target!" Forzen exclaimed, cowering as the fire and earth dragon slowly advanced on him. "These aren't dummies like you said they would be! They're dragons! Normal dragons! I can't fight normal dragons!"

Cynder didn't answer; she just watched as Forzen was forced to evade the sudden fire breath that shot from the red dragon's maw. He tried to duck and dive around the earth missiles that followed, but one of them hit him strong in the side of the head, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Make it stop, please!" Forzen cried. "I don't want to fight these things!"

Cynder made no move to call back the dragons attacking the young purple dragon.

Forzen tried to cry out again but he suddenly felt the breath shoot out of his lungs as the earth dragon jumped on top of him, slamming a balled fist into his face. Pain flared through his jaw. The earth dragon punched him again.

It all felt real. It all hurt. Blood was spilling from his nostrils as he took the punches, not wanting to fight the dragons, whether they were real or not. He knew they were magic but his brain was telling him they were real. He could feel the weight of the earth dragon on him. He could feel each and every blow.

The young purple dragon didn't want to prove himself anymore. He wanted to run out and leave Warfang. He didn't care if he starved; if this is what it took to prove himself able to get into Warfang, he didn't want any part of this.

Another fist, covered with red scales, began flogging him in the chest. The earth dragon had moved off him, but continued to wallop him in the face. However, it was more than just a fist he could feel against his chest. Hot, searing pain burst through it, and he suddenly realised that the fire dragon's fist was on fire. He yelled out in pain, pleading for it to stop.

His body screamed at him to fight. It howled for violence. It wanted to fight, to not let these 'dragons' beat him up so freely. His body didn't know they were apparitions, creatures created by magic, no matter how real it felt. But the visual of real, normal, good dragons scared him out of it. He couldn't fight them, no matter how much they hurt him. That would be wrong.

The earth dragon atop him slugged him up the jaw again, and his head shot sideways. The force ramming into his bottom jaw sent it clenching upwards into his top jaw, catching his tongue between his closing jaws, making him bite down hard on it. Forzen let out another pained shout as he tasted blood.

"CYNDER THAT'S ENOUGH!" Torialis' roar echoed throughout the room.

Suddenly, the dragons were gone, dissipating in a wave of coloured sparkles. Forzen laid on the ground, not wanting to stand. He didn't feel like he could. Bruises covered his body and his chest and head throbbed with pain. He fought with everything within him not to start crying.

"What… in the hell… w-w-was that?!" Forzen stammered eventually.

"I actually agree with Forzen on this one; I'm sure Muras does too," Torialis said, moving everyone's attention over to the older purple dragon, whose eyes were wider than Forzen thought a dragon's eyelids could open, his jaw hanging open as words failed to come to his tongue. "That was needlessly harsh on the kid. You said you'd give him dummies, not artificial opponents, and especially not other dragons."

"That was the first test I had for him. To see if he would actually attack another living dragon or not," Cynder said without emotion. "And he passed."

Muras growled, rage welling up within him. "You sick piece of—"

"And," Torialis interrupted, "he got incredibly wounded in the process. I should've spoken up sooner than I did; that was appalling."

Forzen watched as Cynder held back a retort, watching her features twist with anger. She was quick to hide her anger again, and Forzen wasn't sure if Muras and the guardians saw it, but with how close he was to her, there was no denying the brief lapse in her emotionless state.

"I sure hope you don't do this to the kid when you teach him for his wind element. You still need to hold a sense of responsibility and professionalism, considering one, you will be his teacher, and two, you are still the general of the army. We can and will punish you if we find out you're abusing him," Lagenon scolded.

"Cynder, I want you to get him some red gems and allow him a few minutes to rest before we actually begin his elemental analysis," Ash ordered; he spoke much gentler than Torialis and Lagenon, but Forzen could still tell the fire guardian was seething with rage, he just chose not to show it; Forzen didn't know whether that was scarier or not.

"Fine," Cynder said with a huff, whirling around to the other end of the room to grab some red gems from the storage chest, her sharp tail lashing angrily behind her.

With Cynder now in the distance a bit more, Muras sprung into action, running towards Forzen. "Are you okay, Forzen?" he asked, reaching out to help him stand.

Forzen slapped Muras' helping paw away, raising himself into a sitting position. "Don't touch me. Why do you care?" Forzen snapped. "Why does anyone care! No one has ever cared for me except Jaarsol!"

Muras reeled back at Forzen's outburst, before an expression of pity twisted his face. "Oh, Forzen. Is this about your name?" he asked.

"My name? What about it?"

"It… it means 'strength' in ancient draconic."

"Well, I didn't know that, so no," Forzen snapped, averting his gaze. "I'm just… I… I'm just not used to people treating me like this. It… it just reminds me of Jaarsol…"

"At least you know there are others like her," Ash said softly.

"No! No, I won't believe that! All that means is that others are doomed to die for caring for me! That they can't be with their friends and family anymore!" Forzen shouted, choking back his emotions. "Jaarsol was someone else's mother, and I took her away from him! Du'ryal should have had his mother with him, but instead, she was with me! He should've had his father, but instead, Kyoren was working for Spyro, and then eventually got killed by him! That kid's an orphan now and it's all my fault, because all they did was care for me!"

"Du'ryal? He doesn't mean… the orphan null that lives as Mrs Jeroth's Home for Deprivileged Younglings?" Frélix muttered under his breath.

"No. No no no don't tell him, please! Please, he can't know!" Forzen pleaded, his voice hoarse as he yelled at the top of his lungs, sounding like a desperate child. "I don't want him to have anything to do with me! If he knows that I stole his parents from him, he'll hate me and he'll beat me, just like those artificial dragons did. Just like all the other kids at Dark Peak did. Please don't tell him!"

The guardians were shocked at the sudden outburst, and Muras stepped back a little bit. Even on the other side of the room, Cynder had turned her gaze to him, not expecting him to raise his voice as much as he had.

Exchanging wordless glances with the other guardians, Torialis nodded hesitantly. Forzen didn't buy it. "Please," Forzen pleaded again. "Please just promise me; promise me you won't tell him. Swear by the ancestors please!"

Torialis took a deep breath, closing his eyes and raising his head with frustration. He held the breath for a while, before he exhaled, looking back down at Forzen with a sad glint in his eyes. "I swear to the ancestors that I will not tell Du'ryal about his parents' connection with you," Torialis promised. "But he has to know that his parents are never coming back. We have to tell him that much. He deserves that knowledge at the very least."

"Fine. I don't care. As long as you don't say anything that will lead him to me. Please."

Torialis nodded again, and Forzen released the breath he didn't realise he was holding. Suddenly, he was made aware of pawsteps sounding from behind him. He turned around to see Cynder returning, holding a small satchel of red gems in her mouth. She stopped in front of Forzen and dropped it on the ground with a thud, followed by a loud clatter as a few gems spilled out of the open satchel and onto the floor.

"There, heal up, Forzen," Cynder said—the words were ones of compassion, but the way she said it made it sound forced.

Forzen looked up at Cynder hesitantly, before looking down at the gems and grabbing a hold of one, breaking it in his palm. He felt the energy rush into his body; it was warm and soothing. He raised the gem closer to his face, where the majority of his wounds were, feeling the soft wave of warmth sweep over him as his wounds closed. He dropped the drained gem, before wiping the blood off his muzzle.

Cynder then snatched the satchel off the ground and chucked it to the side out of the ring. She stepped back and said, "Alright, we're doing this for real this time. I'll give you some apes to fight with, since you said you've fought with them before. I do want to see you moving around and fighting rather than just attacking motionless dummies."

"I… okay," Forzen said with a nervous nod.

"Great. Again, we're doing this in three stages, starting with wind. Begin when you're ready."

With that, three apes materialised with a flash of coloured light. Immediately, all three apes rushed forward, and Forzen leapt to the side, dodging the apes. One of them turned, rushing back towards Forzen. The purple dragon opened his mouth and let out a large gust of wind, aimed at the ape. It staggered backwards, before being blown off its feet, flying head over heels in midair.

Forzen closed his maw and was about to tackle the ape to the ground, but a second ape attacked him first, jumping onto his side. Forzen summoned a small amount of wind between the body and the ape, before forcing the wind upwards, taking the ape with it. Forzen ended the magic blast of wind, and the ape rapidly began to descend, landing on the ground with a heavy crack. It didn't move again.

The first ape was closing in on Forzen, its right arm outstretched towards him. Forzen summoned a tornado around the ape, causing it to once more get swept off its feet. It spun around inside the tornado, before Forzen stilled the tornado, sending the ape plummeting down to the ground. Like the ape before it, a large crack sounded when it landed, and it ceased to move.

The third ape was armed, however, holding a blunt wooden sword. It wasn't sharp, but could still cause a decent bit of bruising if Forzen was hit hard enough with it. And that was exactly what happened.

With a loud smack, the wooden sword came pummelling down on Forzen's right shoulder as he watched the first ape fall to the ground, sending the purple dragon stumbling backwards as his shoulder throbbed painfully. The sword swung down on him again, but Forzen was quick to react, twisting his head around to bite down on the sword.

Forzen whirled around quickly, swinging the sword around, as well as the ape, as it held on for dear life, before throwing it to the other side of the ring. The dummy staggered to its feet, but it was thrown back to the ground again with a strong gust of wind from Forzen's mouth.

The ape rolled over, finally managing to get itself up, holding its sword firmly and rushing towards Forzen, a slight limp affecting his gait. It got up close to him, swinging a few times but narrowly missing. The ape then did a low sweep with its sword at Forzen's legs, but the purple dragon leapt up into the air, before letting loose another strong gust of wind, slamming down onto the ape from above. It was a strong gust of wind, so it continued to push the ape into the ground, leaving behind a small crater underneath it.

Due to the force of the wind slamming down on the ape, resulting in such a large amount of pressure, the ape stopped moving, having been killed.

Killed.

The word echoed in Forzen's mind, and it made him feel sick. He knew it was an apparition; he knew it wasn't even sentient. But it still felt wrong. It felt real. The violence, fighting it until it went still… he didn't like the feeling it gave him.

He'd done a bunch of training like this before, but it was all before Kyoren's death. It was all before Jaarsol died. Since then, the thought of killing, even in training against artificial opponents felt wrong to him. He was worried that even acting it out would make him want to do it for real. After all, with a father who loved to kill, and who, like him, was a super powerful purple dragon, Forzen was sceptical about anything to do with himself and violence.

He was pulled from his thoughts as Cynder's voice registered in his ears. "Fair enough. Fairly basic, but pretty good, nonetheless," Cynder said with a shrug. "Alright, now onto the sound element. None of us have even seen this element before; I don't even think Spyro has used this one, at least to my knowledge; he doesn't bring out the sinister elements often."

Still unknowing about the sinister elements, Forzen was tempted to ask Cynder what she meant by that, but was too scared to ask her. Maybe he could ask Muras or the guardians—or at the very least Torialis and Ash; he didn't trust Lagenon that much and he especially didn't trust Frélix—but he didn't feel comfortable or safe asking Cynder a question like that. She'd just blow up at him and make him stay focused, or just call him stupid for some reason. At this point, Forzen didn't know what to expect from Cynder. All he knew was that he couldn't expect many good things to happen from her, at least towards him.

He could also tell that there was a large amount of animosity from everyone else towards Cynder, even since the moment he had met Cynder and Muras. Was she always like this or was she only being super agitated and hateful because he was around?

It wasn't long before Forzen realised Cynder was speaking once more. Afraid of being yelled at for not listening, he immediately focused all his attention onto her. "Alright, I'll summon the apes again. Begin."

She then stepped back, a bit further than she had last round, assuming the sound element was going to be very loud at closer distances. Three more apes materialised in front of him, one wielding a wooden sword and the other two unarmed, much like before.

Forzen was quick to dodge as the armed ape lunged straight at him, its wooden sword pointed at him. He knocked the ape down to the ground, before running towards the other two, grabbing them and throwing them one by one at the one he had downed earlier. They struggled to stand themselves back up as they lay sprawled on top of each other.

From a distance, Forzen watched as they struggled to pick themselves up, and began to prepare an attack against the whole trio of apes. He took a deep breath, before letting out a deafening shriek, indigo sound waves rushing towards the apes, distorting the air around it. The apes, almost successfully on their feet, collapsed back to their knees, placing their large hands over their ears and screeching in pain.

The purple dragon began to close in on the writhing apes, his shriek attack still continuing as he screamed in one long breath. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Ash was squirming uncomfortably, before he ended up bringing a paw to one of his earholes. The other guardians, as well as Muras, seemed to look pretty uncomfortable too. He couldn't see Cynder's reaction; he almost didn't want to. He wasn't even trying to affect them.

To make the situation worse for the apes, he did something he accidentally figured out a few weeks ago: he felt and connected with the sound waves around the apes, before making them vibrate with a higher intensity, increasing the amount of volume around them. Their screaming got more desperate and pain-filled.

Suddenly, the apes went limp, flopping over each other, before dissipating into colourful dust. Forzen closed his mouth, confused. Surely those sound waves hadn't been strong enough to kill the apes, were they? Maybe Cynder had just ended the fight prematurely.

Or am I really just that strong? Forzen thought.

His mind started to run astray, trying to guess what the guardians might be thinking. Were they scared of him and his power? Would they throw him out? Try to kill him? Weaponise him?

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Forzen turned around to look at Cynder. She was still where she was standing before the fight began, out of range of the ring. She would've had to step closer to end the fight, right up to the edge of the ring. Forzen's heart sank. Unless she stepped back again after ending the fight, it looked like he probably just killed those apes with nothing but pure sound waves. Just how loud was his screech attack?

Forzen also noticed that Cynder's eyes were wide and her jaw slack, as if she was incredibly surprised. But there was also something else in those wide eyes. Was it… was it fear?

The purple dragon's heart sunk. That seemed to be a pretty easy confirmation that he had in fact killed those apes. He couldn't have been holding the screech for any longer than thirty seconds. Obviously the volume of the sound was loud enough to kill. The other dragons obviously weren't dead but they were clearly uncomfortable from the sound levels. So the attack was still loud, but it seemed to be louder inside the visible sound waves.

Fear filled Forzen. Thirty seconds was all it took to kill someone with this attack. It scared him even more knowing that it was only the third time he'd ever used that particular attack; he didn't realise it was that powerful since he'd only used it on wooden practice dummies. Jaarsol had asked him not to use that attack since it hurt her ears even standing behind him, well out of range from the screech attack. He knew it was still loud to those not being attacked, but he didn't realise it was louder inside the attack.

What made matters worse was that he knew it'd get way deadlier with practice.

He wasn't looking forward to training and making this attack stronger. He wasn't looking forward to having to use it in school. Luckily there were other ways to use the sound element, but right now he absolutely refused to use this screech attack in school. He would never use this on another person.

"What the hell are you?" Cynder murmured under her breath.

"I'm sorry, what?" Forzen questioned.

"What… is that element?"

"It's… sound?

Cynder didn't respond. Forzen was getting real scared now. He didn't like seeing Cynder act that way. He didn't like seeing her scared. He was worried she would snap at him, attack him, do something to him. He looked to Muras and the guardians and studied their shocked expressions. He didn't like the looks on their faces either.

"I… I have other things I can do with the sound element if you want me to show you. Other things that… aren't as dangerous as that attack," Forzen suggested. "I think."

He didn't get an answer. He didn't know whether they would even say yes or no to him. They all seemed absolutely speechless.

Trying to assume what they would want, considering they were here to study his elements and gauge where he was at, he decided to demonstrate one other thing he knew: sound manipulation. He could essentially make someone hear a sound that didn't exist. This was easier to do on targets closer to the user, so since Cynder was the closest to him, he decided to demonstrate on Cynder.

That would be one of the biggest mistakes he ever could have done.

Cynder whirled around with a sudden scream, lashing out at the air behind her with her tailblade, before she stopped and recovered with heavy breaths, realising that there was nothing there.

"Whoa, Cynder… are you alright?" Torialis asked.

"I… I thought I heard a… a whisper… a hiss… behind me. R-r-right in my left ear," Cynder stammered, her strong mask suddenly gone, now seeming incredibly frightened and unsure of herself. "I-I-I don't know what it was. Was there… a-a-anything at all behind me?"

"No. No, I didn't see anything," Torialis muttered slowly, to which the other guardians, and even Muras, nodded.

Forzen shrunk into himself, sweat dripping down his face as he suddenly found it hard to breathe. That was the biggest mistake he could have made; he didn't know what he was going to do now.

This feeling got ten times worse as Cynder whirled around, looking suspiciously at him. He wilted under her gaze. "Did you see anything, whelp?" Cynder scowled, trying to work her strong, savage mask back into position again.

Forzen stammered wordlessly, before Cynder suddenly raised a claw at him, without warning. He leapt back, crying out in fear as he curled into a ball to protect himself, and both Muras and Torialis were quick to their paws at Cynder's sudden violent threat. Her gaze flicked to the two older males, before she lowered her paw. She looked back to Forzen, who was still cowering and shaking under her scrutinising, furious glare.

Her words were sharp and filled with rage. "Did you see anything?" she repeated slowly, emphasising each word aggressively.

"N-n-no, there was nothing there. I… I created the sound," Forzen admitted, his voice small and shaking.

Suddenly, Cynder's claw flashed across his snout before anyone could do anything about it, drawing small beads of blood. "Why did you do it? To make me look stupid? To embarrass me? To bring my guard down so you can attack me?!" Cynder accused savagely, closing in on Forzen as he tried to scramble backwards.

Muras was quick to Forzen's side, immediately jumping to his defence. "Cynder, I'm sure he had a reason, or it was an accident! You saw how strong that screech attack was, Cynder! It looked like he was struggling to contain it all himself!" Muras exclaimed.

"Oh, his reason is because he wants me dead, is that right, you little purple scum?" Cynder scowled.

"No, Cynder… uh… General Cynder!" Forzen pleaded. "I swear, I didn't want to attack you! I-I-I thought that because the fight was so quick a-a-and that the screech attack was s-s-so powerful… I don't know, I thought I-I needed t-t-to show off something else that was a b-bit less dangerous! I know I messed up, I should have told you what I was doing, but please don't take your anger out on me! I swear I n-n-never meant to make you scared, I just w-w-wanted to sh-show what else this element could do! You've got to believe me, General!"

"No, absolutely not!"

"He made a mistake, Cynder! Please take it easy on him!" Muras cried.

With a growl, Cynder pushed Muras out of the way, before snatching Forzen up from the ground, carrying him by his nape in her jaws. Out of sudden, unexplained instinct, Forzen curled up in Cynder's hold like a hatchling; this instinct of curling up in a hatchling hold doesn't leave a dragon until they hit fifteen. Forzen realised Cynder using the hatchling hold was intentional, to stop him from fighting back, knowing he was still only twelve.

"Cynder? Where are you taking him?" Muras asked, but Cynder didn't even acknowledge him.

She walked around the training arena and opened a door, entering a medium-sized room that contained a large pedestal, which was large enough for a fully grown adult dragon to stand on. It was very dark inside, apart from the soft blue light from the blue spirit gems that filled the room. Forzen felt fear enter his chest.

"The elemental power reader? You're really going to attach him to the power reader?" Torialis asked. "We just saw what power he has; why do we need to attach him to it?"

The word 'attach' didn't escape Forzen's mind. It echoed again and again. He had a feeling he knew what was about to happen, and he didn't like it. It reminded him too much of… back then.

Cynder dropped him on the floor in front of the pedestal, placing her large paw on top of him to hold him in place, before she turned to look back at Torialis. "Because with that amount of power, we need to know what he's capable of," Cynder explained. "There might be something he's hiding from us, or maybe something he hasn't yet discovered. The latter is most definitely true as he only currently has three elements; Spyro had six, including convexity, before he turned… who knows what other elements or powers Forzen might have. And knowing where he was raised and how secretive he's been, there's a chance the former is true as well."

"I'm not hiding anything, I swear!" Forzen pleaded.

"I saw your electric attack earlier this morning, whelp! That was a sorry excuse for a lightning bolt, one of the weakest ones I've ever seen, and after what I saw and experienced with that sound element, I'm obliged to think you were faking that."

"I wasn't! I swear I wasn't! That was the first time I had ever used electricity! I've used sound multiple times! Please, Cynder, you have to believe me!"

"Shut up and cooperate!"

Cynder picked Forzen up by the nape again, before throwing him onto the pedestal. With a paw firmly on him, she reached down with another paw, before the clinking of metal was heard. The paw rose, with a metal shackle in between her claws, with four blue spirit gem crystals running around its circumference. The shackle was just large enough to fit around his midsection; Forzen wasn't sure if this was a shackle made for an adult's wrist, or if the shackle was supposed to go around the midsection, and this was made for someone his age.

Forzen let out a cry of help, fighting hard against Cynder, but she was stronger, snapping the shackle shut around his midsection. A chain ran down from the large shackle and into the pedestal. Cynder bent down to pull out more shackles from the side of the pedestal, also decorated with blue spirit gems, and they were much smaller. As she clamped them around his wrists, Forzen realised that this set of shackles was made for a twelve-year-old dragon.

The purple dragon felt sick as he was chained to the pedestal by his wrists, and then his ankles. He felt claustrophobic. He felt abused and betrayed. He was chained up once more.

Memories started to flow freely into his head, but this time, he couldn't stop them. They came and pushed down on him with no remorse, and fighting back his tears and emotional screams now proved harder than it ever had.

He watched as Muras spoke to him; Forzen couldn't hear Muras' words over his own thoughts. He felt like Muras was trying to tell him to calm down and that it would be alright. The way his lips moved looked like he was saying it won't hurt.

But that wouldn't matter. The weight of his memories were stronger than Muras' words. He felt like he was two again.

Forzen turned and watched as Cynder stepped back and pulled a lever on the wall. Forzen felt the chains on his shackles tensing, before he was lifted high into the air by some magical pull. He felt some odd power rush into him, and the chains binding him began to glow a bright blue. It didn't hurt at all; it was a strange, weird feeling, but it wasn't painful.

His memories were painful though. They continued to weigh down on him, stronger and stronger the more he remained chained up. His heart raced, his lungs fought for breath, and his throat began to constrict. His eyes began to water, and he felt the first tear slide down his cheek. The first tear in… however many months now, he had forgotten. It might have even been years since the last time he cried.

Suddenly another tear dripped down his cheek. Then another. Then another.

They wouldn't stop coming.

THEY WOULDN'T STOP COMING.

The first scream tore from his throat: raw and shrill, long and harsh. He paused for a heavy, hoarse breath that he had to fight valiantly for, before he screamed again.

The blue light that emanated from the spirit gems began to get stronger, before they began to change colour, the colours displaying the amount of raw magical power that lay dormant in Forzen's body. Slowly, the gems turned into a soft purple.

It unnerved everyone with how Forzen's screams continued to get worse and worse the longer he stayed chained up, and the more the gems continued to progress to the colour spectrum.

"Why's he screaming so much?" Cynder exclaimed. "It's not that painful."

Soft magenta filled the room.

"Unless you infused him with your fear element as revenge for earlier; we know you and your temper, Cynder. That sounds like something you would do," Ash growled.

"Guys, look at the colour!" Frélix exclaimed.

It scared everyone seeing how close to red the power levels got, with red being the highest reading level that anyone had seen before. Only Spyro had ever reached red, back when he was tested; Cynder had reached a deep, warm magenta, but it definitely wasn't as red as Forzen's was. Forzen's levels were even redder than Muras' levels, who had been tested about five years ago, just out of Cynder's curiosity. Usually dragons were tested during high school, usually when they were seventeen or eighteen, but sometimes adults were hooked up to the power reader too, hence the large size of the pedestal.

"Oh, ancestors," Cynder murmured.

"Why's that whelp still screaming?!" Frélix scowled. "It's done the reading; it's not reading his energy anymore."

"I swear, Cynder, if you infused him with your fear element—" Ash threatened.

"I did no such thing!" Cynder snapped.

"That's a load of sh—"

"No, Ash! Cynder's right!" Muras interrupted. "That's not evidence of a fear coma in his eyes, that's… oh ancestors, I think he's having a trauma episode! GET HIM OUT OF THERE!"

Torialis rushed to the lever near Cynder and pulled it to the off position, the intense almost-red glow in the room returning to a soft, calming blue. Muras sprinted towards Forzen, catching him as he fell back to the ground, before he proceeded to rip off Forzen's bindings. As soon as Forzen was free, he leapt onto Muras' chest, clinging onto him for dear life as he cried. And cried. And cried. He didn't stop. It was more than just regular crying.

Muras was definitely right; this was some sort of trauma response.

What had happened to him to have such a heavy reaction? What memories had the power reader brought up? He needed to know, but the last thing he wanted to do was pry, especially when the memories obviously had this effect on Forzen.

What had Spyro done to him?

Dragon of Mystery: If you remember back in Demonised when sinister elements were first brought up, three of them are mutations of the light and dark elements, with sound being a mutation of the fear element. It's also quite a lethal element, with certain attacks and usages of it being able to create sound waves of a lethal decibel level, as displayed here. That aside it's quite a manipulative element as a sound dragon can manipulate what other people hear, so overall it can be used for some pretty nasty things, which all the dragons of the sinister elements (lava, sound, plasma, ethereal and sinister) were known to be nasty dragons, hence why they were named as such. So yeah Forzen being able to use all three subsets of elements makes him a pretty powerful dragon, although, as mentioned in this chapter as well, Spyro is a lot more packed in raw elemental power and control alone.

Agwa: Oh yeah, Cynder's a terrifying dragoness when you're on her bad side lol; that kinda came out in Demonised of course, but since we're not gonna be from Cynder's perspective for as much of the story as Demonised, we're gonna see a lot more of it from other perspectives, and in Forzen's case, he's definitely very scared of her just in general. And yup, the tie to sinister dragons will definitely come up throughout this saga, and I can't wait to actually write it lol.

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I hope everyone liked this chapter! Thanks for all the reviews so far, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys think of this one! Have a great day/night everyone! See you in the next one!