An hour soon passed, leaving the sky absent of the sun, Adrano and Zella dominating the dark expanse of the sky above them. Cynder was just happy it wasn't a cloudy night. The moonlight shone down of Typhaar, illuminating it in the soft moonlight, allowing much better vision as they looked down upon the city below them.
The city was tinted with a slight green glow, as Zella was shining much brighter than Adrano was tonight, which was quite a rare event; Cynder was a little unnerved by this, due to Zella being known as the Ghoulish Moon and sometimes bringing bad circumstances when it's more prominent in the sky. She tried not to think too much on it however, just trying to focus on the task ahead of her, taking careful watch on the city below her as she covered one half of the city that was visible from the palace, while Prafûr sat behind her, monitoring the other half.
It didn't take too long before Cynder spotted something; it wasn't too far away from the palace, maybe a block or two away from the edge of the palace's courtyard. A faint, distant silhouette landed in the dark, quiet streets, looking around cautiously and suspiciously, before lowering itself into a crouch as it stalked towards a building that looked very much like a house.
Cynder turned around to Prafûr and whispered in his ear, causing him to jump with the sudden sound and heat of her breath. "A very suspicious dragon just landed and sneaked into someone's house," Cynder said. "Come. We're going to check it out."
Without waiting for her uncle to respond to her, she slowly spread her wings out, before leaping off the roof of the palace towards the street that she had seen the dragon silhouette land in. Prafûr was slightly unnerved as he flew beside her, noticing as her striking emerald eyes glowed brightly, reflecting the light that Zella emitted, giving off the same ominous vibe as the Ghoulish Moon up above.
They landed, making their way slowly to the house that the suspicious dragon had walked into. The door was closed. Cynder reached forward to grab the doorknob, but hesitated as she heard faint whispering from inside the house. She put an ear against the door, trying to make out the words. As she did so, she pointed to Prafûr and motioned towards the window, telling him to see if he could sneak a look inside without being seen.
Cynder could only get a few words out, but she didn't like what she was hearing. The voice, while a whisper, sounded masculine.
"...create… distraction… get guards over here while you… her. Yeah. Yeah, I'll… done quickly. Make as much…? Sure, I'll make noise, sooo much of it. Once they're… you find her, and… her. We'll meet up again and find… Alright, see you then."
Oh ancestors, 'distraction'? Cynder thought. Yeah, they're definitely going to kill someone to distract the guards from the palace and pull them away from their stations. With the amount of noise he's claiming to make, it'll definitely be heard from the palace; we're not that far away from it. The guards better not come running out to investigate; I was right, they're going to try and get something. The Queen's lucky we're here too; it sounds like they're going to kill her too. Hope Ta'torol's ready.
There were footsteps, and Prafûr dived under the window back to Cynder, fearing the intruder would now see him through the window. "What did you see?" Cynder whispered, trying to keep her voice at a volume that Prafûr could hear her, but not the intruder.
"Fire dragon, young adult, covered in dark markings, kind of like yours. He was talking to a black gem that he held to his face; he also appeared to be listening to it, almost as if it, or something else, was talking back to him," the wind dragon explained.
"Okay. Just like I thought, it's Spyro's Dark Assassin Corps. Keep your wits about you," Cynder said. "Now, hold tight onto me. We're gonna sneak in."
Confused but not questioning her orders, Prafûr grabbed a firm hold of her leg. As he did so, Cynder pulled both of them into the shadows. She had to hold a paw over Prafûr's mouth to keep him from making a noise, as sounds made in the shadows could still escape to the world above. Cynder understood Prafûr's discomfort; being pulled under the shadows was a scary experience for those not wielding the shadow element, as they would only see a dark, swirling void in front of them, the sounds of the world above becoming a painful, garbled mess of noise. She knew this from Spyro's personal experience when she had pulled him under as a prank during their high school days, leaving him incredibly freaked out and disoriented. Of course, due to Spyro's exposure to darkness now, he could use it just fine.
Cynder stalked slowly through the shadows underneath the door, pulling Prafûr with her. When they had made their way into the home, she released the shadows' hold on them. In her peripheral vision, she caught Prafûr shuddering as he tried to process what just happened, but she just started to stalk forward, watching the red dragon's tail disappear around the corner of the hallway.
She peeked around the hallway to see the red dragon a few metres in front of them, his scales a deep fiery red with black and dark purple markings snaking up his limbs and neck. The markings appeared to be much larger and more intricate than hers, meaning that they were probably corrupted by stronger dark magic, which didn't surprise her as Spyro had proven that he was significantly more powerful than Malefor. On the red dragon's shoulder was a metal shoulder plate with a black crystal sitting inside it; that was likely the gem that Prafûr had mentioned.
Cynder was forced to stop and hide back around the corner as the red dragon stopped and whirled his head around to look behind him. She briefly caught sight of his hideous, slitted red eyes, and Cynder was very confident that he had seen him. She heard a sigh from around the corner, before a click sounded. Then there was more whispering; he had likely taken the black gem out of the shoulder plate and was now speaking to it again.
"I'm being followed," he whispered, his voice much clearer to Cynder and Prafûr now that they didn't have a door between them. "Yes, I'll continue with the mission. Is Lorrith still with you? Yes, bring her over; I might need some backup considering who I think is in here. You still have Grol'ethe with you, right? Alright, thanks."
There was a click as the black gem was returned to the shoulder plate, before more footsteps sounded. Cynder peered around the corner again, watching as the red dragon continued moving forward, quietly opening each of the doors and peering into the rooms. She turned back to Prafûr and beckoned him over to her, gesturing at her front leg for him to hold it again. He did so, and Cynder pulled them both back into the shadows.
She pulled them both through the shadows towards the mysterious red dragon, aiming to sneak up on him. However, the sound of the front door opening and another set of footsteps registered in Cynder's ears, causing her to freeze in fear, not knowing what to expect.
"By Vaa'glan, Lorrith, that was fast!" the red dragon whispered, causing Cynder to tense as he used the name of another one of the major dragon demons in place of 'ancestors', particularly one of the ones on a similar level to Naar'voth—she had done her research on the draconic demons to make herself more knowledgeable on them should another Naar'voth situation happen again.
"I'm sure you know I have good control over my speed when it comes to my lightning abilities," a more feminine voice whispered, as a yellow dragoness appeared around the corner.
Lorrith bore a similar body shape to Cynder, being very tall and very slender with some decently defined curves, however she appeared to be more curvier and slightly shorter than Cynder. The yellow dragoness bore long, blackened horns that covered her head and jawline, and a tailblade that split into an upside-down cone of four blades. A ring of blades around her abdomen lay flat against her body; Cynder was almost positive that they would fan out around her when she was in battle. Many large black spikes covered her shoulders. Around her neck was a choker, almost like Cynder's; Lorrith had her own black gem lying inside the metal choker, rather than having a shoulder plate like her comrade.
"Yes, you make a fair point, Lorrith," the red dragon whispered. "Now, I've been told that this house should be home to a small family of a mother, father, and two children, one in their teens and one still a hatchling."
"Oh, that sounds fun, Flaris," Lorrith whispered with a smirk. "I can't wait to fill the night with their screams."
"We'll make them howl with pain," Flaris chuckled as he peered into another room. "Anyway, I think I've found the kids."
In the shadows, Cynder turned to Prafûr, who clearly seemed to be confused by the garbled whispers he could hear. "They've found the kids, and the red one's got backup," Cynder whispered as quietly as she could. "I wanna intercept them before they can do anything, so I'll pull us out now."
The moment Cynder and Prafûr leapt out of the shadows, Lorrith whirled around with equally horrific red eyes as Flaris, and a low hiss escaped her throat. Balls of deep purple lightning surrounded them, holding them suspended in the air, unable to move.
"I knew we were being followed, by Cynder nonetheless. What a surprise," Flaris said softly, a dark chuckle leaving his throat as a demonic smile pulled at his lips.
"You two don't want to do this, trust me. I've been in your position. You may think you want to do this but in the end you'll truly regret it," Cynder pleaded. "Don't do something horrible, please."
"You don't know us, Terror of the Skies, if you're even deserving of that name anymore," Lorrith snarled, licking her lips. "I heard the stories of how you adored bloodshed, how your lust for blood suffocated your every thought. I also heard how you turned down Master Spyro's offer to return to that life. How the mighty have fallen."
"Don't do this," Cynder said again, trying to fight against the electric orb that held her in place, occasionally zapping her as the arcs of lightning bounced around inside the orb.
"There's nothing you can do to stop us."
With that, Lorrith turned and stepped into the room, while Flaris turned further down the hallway and spoke a soft chant, before a distorted wall shot up in the middle of the hall; it was a barrier, likely preventing the parents from getting in when they were woken up to the chaos that would soon ensue. He then turned and joined Lorrith inside the children's room.
Cynder fought as hard as she could against the electric orb surrounding her, as did Prafûr, but they had no luck. They could only watch as the door opened, giving them a perfect view inside the room, as two wind dragons, one thirteen years old and one four years old, both female, lay asleep side by side in the middle of the room.
Cynder watched with horror as Lorrith effortlessly plucked her shoulder spikes out of her scales, before they grew back in place. She then threw the spikes she held into all four paws of the four-year-old youngling, pinning her to the ground and sending pain flaring throughout her paws. She immediately woke up with a loud squeal. The thirteen-year-old also woke up with horror at the sound. Before she could make a move to help her sister, Flaris thrust his tailblade down on her, slicing her torso in two, sending an agonised howl out of her jaws.
The screams grated against Cynder's ears; they were hell to listen to. She found herself screaming for the two murderers to stop; there was no point staying quiet now that the silence had been destroyed by the children's screams. She watched as Lorrith grabbed a firm hold of the younger sister's head, her claws pulling back against the top of her forehead to keep the youngling's eyes open and focused on her sister, as Flaris then moved around to the front of the older sister and thrust his claws into both her eyes. Both of the sisters' screams tore through the air at an even louder volume.
This could definitely be heard from the palace. This could be heard throughout the entire neighbourhood. There were no other sounds to get in the way of this.
Cynder spotted movement down the hall, and watched as the mother and father slammed into the barrier, unable to get through, as expressions of unadulterated fear painted their faces. Cynder turned and looked into their eyes. She had seen those eyes many, many times in her life as the Terror of the Skies: a mother, terrified for her children's lives, fear and sorrow gripping her as she knew she cannot do anything to save them, the grief all too real for her as she realised she might lose them forever; and a father, rage glistening in his eyes as hatred grew inside his heart for the monster that would dare harm his children, his claws wanting nothing more than to rip into those monsters the same way they were ripping into his kids.
Neither parent could do anything for their children, stuck on the other side of the invisible barrier that Flaris had created. But Cynder and Prafûr… they were on the right side of the barrier. Seeing their expressions made Cynder even more determined to get out of the electric orb detaining her, wanting to get in and save the children from any further harm.
With a roar, Cynder gathered all her strength to try and move even an inch inside the orb; she could make a few inches but that was it. The electric orb was too strong for her and she felt herself snapping back to her original position, the lightning inside the orb continuing to bite at her. All the while she watched as more blood was spilled inside that room, the older sister's front paws being sliced off, followed by the younger sister's wings.
She heard Prafûr snarling beside her, and turned to look at him as he too fought to get out of his own electric orb, but without luck. Cynder knew she needed a lot of power to get out of the orb, and it had to be elemental power. Raw physical power had no hold over this situation. Knowing none of her main elements could do anything, she called on the one element she rarely used: convexity.
Cynder felt the wild purple energy crackling in her clawtips, throbbing in her chest ready to force itself out, building up in her jaws. With a loud scream, she let it all out, feeling the powerful energy combust around her, breaking through the lightning that surrounded her. As she fell to the ground, she turned and released a beam of convexity at the lightning orb encasing Prafûr. It also combusted, throwing Prafûr to the ground.
"Quick, let's go!" Cynder ordered.
They both ran into the children's room, lunging at both of the remorseless monsters decimating the screaming children bleeding out onto the ground. Prafûr tackled Flaris to the ground, and Cynder attacked Lorrith. Cynder felt Lorrith struggle underneath her, and she fought with all her strength to keep the she-murderer pinned to the ground.
Lorrith snarled in pain, tossing her body around underneath Cynder, before she turned her head around and breathed a strong bolt of lightning at the four-year-old youngling, sending her flying into the air, the force plucking her out of the hold the spikes in her paws had on her.
The shoulder spikes remained embedded into the ground, and where they once stuck out of her paws now remained deep, bleeding holes that went in one side, out the other. The youngling fell on top of her older sister, sending them both sprawling out in pain. The four-year-old leapt to her paws, staggering as they gave way underneath her, but she tried her best to reach out and hold her sister's face, covered in blood and optic fluids that streamed from her pierced eyes.
"Aela, I'm scared!" the younger sister shrieked, tears and snot streaming down her face at the awful pain flaring through her body, as well as the horrific sight of her older sister's brutalised face.
"Wynna, is that you?" Aela cried, reaching out with bloody stumps towards her sister. "I can't see you. Oh ancestors, I can't see you!"
Cynder tried not to focus on the children's heartwrenching exchange as she tried to hold Lorrith down, slamming her fist against her face forcefully. However, all the sounds were starting to get to her as she could hear the parents screaming and pleading in fear from behind the barrier too. As she beat Lorrith's face relentlessly, she was astonished to realise that Lorrith was cackling, blood spilling from her nose and teeth, making her invigorated, crazy smile that much more terrifying.
The sensation of blood spraying across her tore her attention away from Lorrith, terrified that Flaris had gotten to the kids. Relief washed over her as she realised Prafûr had scored a huge slice across Flaris' chest; large bloody cuts covered both of their bodies as they tore each other apart, sending even more blood spraying across the children's bedroom.
This moment of distraction gave Lorrith the upper hand as the lightning dragoness breathed another beam of electricity, this time at Cynder, sending her flying across the room as well. Cynder slammed into the wall, quickly recovering as Lorrith was immediately to her paws and rushing towards the two children lying between them. Cynder rushed forward to intercept Lorrith, trying to prevent her from getting to Aela and Wynna.
They clashed, slashing and biting at each other, but in their clash, Lorrith had managed to turn herself around so that she was able to swing her tailblade at Aela. Cynder noticed and tried to pull her away, only just managing to make it a non-fatal blow. The cone of blades tore at Aela's flank, causing her to collapse to the ground with another squeal of pain as blood streamed from her side, but it was not as deep as it could have been.
Lorrith snarled at Cynder, releasing another beam of lightning at her. Cynder was sent sprawling to the ground, and Lorrith reached up to pluck more spikes out of her shoulders, which grew back almost immediately, much like the last ones she had pulled out of her. Lorrith resorted to this knowing that Cynder would recover quickly, and only just managed to hurl them all at the two children before Cynder tackled her to the ground again. Three of the spikes slammed into Aela's side, and one into the side of her face. Two scored hits on Wynna's body, one slamming into her nostril and the other into the roof of her mouth, which was open from screaming in pain.
The lightning dragoness kicked out at Cynder, briefly knocking her off. Before Cynder threw herself on top of Lorrith again, Lorrith fanned out the blades around her abdomen, causing them to now stand erect and poised to strike around her stomach. Cynder saw this but reacted too late, as she thrust both of her front paws down with force onto Lorrith's torso, severing her paws onto the blades.
Cynder immediately pulled herself free, crying out in pain as large bloody holes cut clean through her front paws. She tried not to pay too much attention to the pain as she stood, focusing on Lorrith again as she stood, bolting towards Aela and Wynna.
She was too late to pull Lorrith back from doing any harm to them. Claws slashed forward, and Wynna's throat was torn open, silencing her with a spray of blood and a horrid choking sound. Aela shrieked. Their parents screamed from around the corner, knowing very well what that sound meant.
Cynder roared with rage, biting down around Lorrith's throat and pulling her back. Lorrith thrashed about, throwing her limbs and tail in every direction. Her tail connected with Aela, sending her slamming against the wall with a heavy crack. Aela was still alive, but with the way her body refused to move after that horrific crack, Cynder knew she had broken her back severely and couldn't move because of it. Aela sobbed pathetically.
Cursing with rage, Cynder threw Lorrith to the side, watching as she slammed into Flaris on the other side of the room. Lorrith was quick to climb off Flaris, who was grinning slightly, despite the small bloody holes left in his chest due to the ring of erect blades on Lorrith's abdomen that had dug into him. They both laughed maniacally, before leaping back into battle. Lorrith spat three rapid bolts of lightning at Cynder and Prafûr, who both dodged each attack, before Prafûr leapt at Lorrith.
The corrupt lightning dragoness caught Prafûr by the throat in her jaws, before throwing him to the side; she quickly plucked more spikes from her shoulders and threw them at Prafûr, pinning him to the ground.
Lorrith, as well as Flaris, who was now standing on all fours, now both leapt at Cynder. She sidestepped away from Lorrith but was unable to dodge Flaris' attack. She kicked him in the gut as she was thrown to the ground, causing him to stumble off her, before she scrambled to her paws and bit down hard on his throat. He just snarled and breathed a large stream of fire at Cynder, causing her to stagger off him, batting the flames away from her.
She growled in pain as Lorrith now bit down around her nape, pulling her further away from Aela, Prafûr and Flaris. Cynder thrashed in Lorrith's hold, but didn't manage to pull herself out of her grip as she felt herself being dragged further and further away. Cynder dived into her shadow, knowing that to be the only way out.
Cynder immediately leapt out of her shadow at Lorrith, but it was almost as if Lorrith expected it, as she sidestepped and slugged Cynder in the face, sending her sprawling into the ground. Lorrith lunged at her, and Cynder released a siren scream. The red sound waves shot through Lorrith, but they did nothing. Lorrith just cackled again as she held Cynder down with a paw around her neck. "That won't do anything against us, dear Terror," Lorrith mocked. "How terrifying you are."
A roar of rage burst from her throat, convexity following. Lorrith cried out as she staggered off Cynder, half of her face burned off from the harsh convexity beam. Cynder was quick to her paws to run forward and pin Lorrith down, placing her tailblade against her throat. She held both of her front paws on Lorrith's head and shoulder, and stood with a hind paw on Lorrith's flank.
Flaris was quick to react as he launched towards Aela, placing his own tailblade against the youngling's throat. Cynder felt her heart lurch. Flaris just laughed darkly. "Let her go, Cynder, or I kill the whelp," he threatened.
There was a cry of protest from down the hallway, but in the room was complete silence. Cynder and Flaris stared into each other's eyes, and Cynder could tell there was no way that he was going to let up. Those maniacal, evil red eyes were dripping with bloodlust. Cynder grit her teeth, feeling her claws tighten around Lorrith's head. The dragoness underneath her just giggled.
"If you kill Lorrith, I take the little whelp with her," Flaris rasped darkly, his grin horrible, blood spilling from his gums. "So, if you were smart, which I don't doubt that you are, I'd suggest you'd let her go."
All Cynder heard was her heartbeat. She didn't want to let go of Lorrith. Lorrith needed to be killed. It was the only way to stop this. But if she killed Lorrith, Flaris would kill Aela. And she wanted to avoid another child being murdered. She looked to the body of Wynna lying in the middle of the room between her and Flaris, her throat spilling out onto the ground below her, a dark combination of blood and optical fluids covering her face. Blood from her torso and legs pooled like a river below her, as the other half of her body and her two front paws lay scattered across the room, more blood pooling from them.
Cynder wouldn't allow another child to die. She refused to. One tonight was enough. It was one too many. She had seen too many be torn apart in her lifetime, whether it was in her time as the Terror of the Skies or not. She had been the cause of too many young deaths; if she killed Lorrith now and Flaris took Aela with her, Cynder knew she would also be as much at fault for it.
She couldn't do it.
Hating herself for it, she withdrew her tailblade and stepped off Lorrith's body. Lorrith stood up with a growl, before stepping cautiously away from Cynder, watching her with an angry glare. Flaris chuckled. "Good girl, Cynder," he said, almost mockingly, before he turned to Lorrith.
The two murderers locked gazes, before they nodded. Before Cynder could even register what was happening, it was all over. Lorrith whirled around, thrusting her coned tailblade into Prafûr's chest, before pulling it out and bringing with it an impaled heart. At the same time, Flaris slammed his tailblade down, separating Aela's head from her body with a sickening crack.
Cynder screamed long and loud.
Lorrith cackled wildly, before her red eyes pulsed with a powerful glow. The parents ran from around the corner into the room, and screamed when they saw the carnage that covered the room… the state of their two daughters.
Rage blinded the father, as he lunged forward at the two evil dragons that stood over the corpses in the room. Cynder cried out in protest, knowing that Flaris would be too strong for a dragon not professionally trained in combat. Lorrith rushed to her and held her back, pinning her to the ground. Cynder struggled against Lorrith, but she had such a strong hold on her that she was unable to move, being forced to watch as the two kids' father leapt towards his demise.
He slashed twice at Flaris, but the large red dragon nimbly dodged both attacks. Flaris then thrust his head forward, slamming it into the face of the father. The wind dragon staggered backwards, disoriented from the hit, before Flaris charged forward with his horns aimed forward, thrusting them into the father's chest. With a gurgling choke, the father collapsed onto Flaris' head, before he threw him into the wall with a heavy crack. Blood streamed from his chest and nose, and Cynder knew that he was going to die.
"STOP, PLEASE!" Cynder pleaded, but she felt a firm paw slam down onto her head, applying pressure on it so she couldn't move her jaw to speak. A wordless scream left her lips.
Flaris cackled as he painted the wind dragon's body with rivers of dark red, tearing open his chest, stomach, face, and finally, his neck. It barely took thirty seconds, but it felt like a lifetime watching it happen. The father slumped over onto the floor, joining his two daughters in the bloody scene.
Lorrith suddenly leapt off Cynder, and she watched as the evil yellow dragoness lunged at the mother, who was in the process of running away. The murderess plucked more spikes out of her shoulder, slamming them into many different parts of the mother's body as she literally pinned her to the wall. Wings, limbs, torso, even the sides of the neck.
"You will hang here and watch as those corpses rot, you hear me, worm?" Lorrith said with a dark giggle, before walking away from her.
Cynder had now managed to get to her paws, and was about to run to Lorrith to intercept her, but Flaris had snuck up from behind and bit down around her nape, before throwing her behind him and out of the bedroom window, the glass smashing spectacularly.
She blinked, her vision blurry and head throbbing from the impact. She took a good minute to properly recover from the blow, but she was shocked to realise that the two dragons hadn't come out to follow her and continue attacking. They must have decided they had better things to tend to… such as the palace.
Standing to her paws, she was about to make her way back to the palace to help out, but remembered the mother still inside the house, hanging against her wall, forced to stare at her daughters, her mate, and a complete stranger, all bleeding out and rotting on the ground. She couldn't leave her like that. So, she quickly ran back through the window that she had been thrown out of, devastated to see the state the mother was in: her body trembled in its bindings, and her eyes jumped erratically between each corpse that painted the bedroom red. She had no tears left to cry; her eyes were already completely red from crying all the tears she could give.
Cynder cursed inwardly. She had been in that position before. Many, many times. The loss of too many civilians, too many soldiers, too many friends… her own family, biological and mated… it had all broken her, so much to the point that experiencing loss like this didn't make her cry anymore. It was natural to her. It was normal. She felt heartless, but there was nothing she could do about it anymore. She felt like the Terror of the Skies again, watching as more families and cities got torn apart brutally, while she felt nothing.
The most she could do was help… show that she still cared even though she felt nothing towards the losses of any of these dragons.
That's why she continued doing this. That's why she pushed on for all these years, trying to lead dragonkind to a victory over Spyro, even when it seemed impossible, even when it seemed there was no hope.
Cynder ran towards the mother, ripping out the spikes that Lorrith had stabbed her with, carefully catching her when she finally fell down from the wall she was pinned to. The dark dragoness felt her heart sink when the distraught mother didn't even acknowledge her. She just stared aimlessly at the ground, breathing shaky, arms trembling, the trauma slowly setting into her mind.
A distant explosion filled the air. "Ma'am, I need to go now. Are you okay if I leave you on your own?" Cynder asked.
No response.
"Ma'am?"
Still nothing.
"Can you hear me?"
A nod.
"I have to go sort out something else. I need to follow those two… monsters. Can I trust that you'll be alright on your own?"
Another nod, a bit more hesitant this time.
"Alright. Go take yourself to the infirmary to get your wounds looked at. And for the record, I'm terribly sorry that we couldn't save your family."
"Thank you," the mother croaked.
Cynder knew that was all she was going to get out of her. She just nodded back, before turning and bolting out of the front door of the house. She could see in the distance, the palace was lit by fire and bellowing with smoke. Cursing, she spread her wings and flew towards the palace as fast as she could, trying not to let her own wounds get in the way of getting there.
This is far from over. You've been through worse; hold in there, Cynder, she thought to herself. You still have a mission to complete. You still have a queen to protect, a city to protect. They're counting on you.
You have to do this.
The palace was in a state of complete chaos when she arrived. Everyone who was stationed out the front of the palace was now in a fight with two more dragons on top of Flaris and Lorrith: an ice dragon and an earth dragoness, both of them bearing the same hideous red eyes and the same complex dark markings as the other two murderers. Three dead guards lay on the ground, blood spilling from their bodies. Cynder looked down and that the ice dragon was beating up Aerus, blood covering her brother's face.
With a growl, Cynder dived, knocking the ice dragon off Aerus and stabbing him with her tailblade. The ice dragon snarled, breathing ice at her face, but she remained strong as she stood on top of the dragon, holding him down, the ice shards scraping past her face and drawing blood in areas where there wasn't already. The ice dragon then gave a mighty kick, sending her toppling off him.
The ice dragon got up and roared, before opening his four wings—Cynder cursed once she saw the second set open out—and flapping them several times, summoning an icy gust around them, before he finished with a final strong flap of his wings, sending the ice shards towards Cynder. She cried out as the jagged ice shards slammed into her arms and legs, some of them managing to go completely through her flesh as her limbs were pinned to the ground, which the ice shards now penetrated.
The ice dragon leapt into the air, jaws wide open as a second and third row of fangs protruded from his jaws. They were already bloodstained. Before the ice dragon could leap on top of Cynder, Aerus slammed into him, knocking him back down. Flaris dove onto Aerus from behind him, knocking him off his ice dragon comrade. Flaris snatched up Aerus' throat in his jaws, until Flaris was yanked off the wind dragon by Forlorär, leaving long bloody tears in Aerus' neck where Flaris' teeth had been dragged out from.
A wind dragon guard had also run up to Cynder and started pulling some of the ice shards in her body out. Once the ones pinning her to the ground had been pulled out, Cynder thrashed about, leaping onto the ice dragon who was beginning to help Flaris attack Forlorär, pulling one of the looser ice shards out of her body with a large squirt of blood, before shoving it violently into the side of the ice dragon's neck. The ice dragon let out a pained gurgle, blood streaming from the deep stab wound, and staggered backwards, before lunging at Cynder, knocking her into Flaris.
Cynder kicked the ice dragon off her and then proceeded to roll off Flaris. Flaris was quick to get up, and breathed a long stream of fire at her and Forlorär. With a roar, Cynder let out a strong gust of wind, combatting against the stream of fire to keep it away from them. While Cynder did this, Forlorär leapt out to the side and released a crackling bolt of lightning straight for the corrupted fire dragon, hitting Flaris square in the chest and sending him sprawling to the ground.
Cynder leapt on top of Flaris, and began clawing at his chest, throwing blood everywhere. Flaris was now screaming in pain. It felt good to hear him scream after the two children he murdered. The corrupted ice dragon breathed a beam of ice at Cynder, hitting her hard in the side of the head, and she staggered off Flaris, head spinning.
Flaris didn't get up. He just lay there, groaning in pain. He didn't even have it in him to laugh like he had been earlier as deep bloody wounds covered his body, the ones from Cynder combining with the ones Prafûr had given him earlier.
Cynder shook her head with a groan, trying to recover from the ice beam, before she launched herself at the ice dragon, punching him hard in the face. Blood, as well as a broken tooth flew from the ice dragon's mouth, his head being knocked sideways from the punch. He didn't have time to recover as a guard leapt on top of him, clawing at his chest and neck, adding to the blood streaming down his neck from the ice shard Cynder had stabbed into it.
The ice dragon howled with anger, savagely kicking the guard off him, before standing and ripping the ice shard out of his neck with a large spray of blood. With a growl, he spat three more ice shards out of his mouth towards the guard that had attacked him, each one aimed at his throat. All three shards hit with deadly precision, and the guard fell to the ground with a pained groan, blood streaming down his neck. The ice dragon released two more ice shards aimed at the guard's chest this time. He ceased to move once the cold weapons met their mark.
Cynder growled, running towards the ice dragon and biting down into his neck and throwing him to the side. The ice dragon slammed into Lorrith and the earth dragoness as they fought three more guards, now reduced to two as Lorrith cut one down with a tailblade to the throat. "Ja'goll! Are you alright?!" the earth dragoness exclaimed.
"I'm fine, Grol'ethe!" Ja'goll scowled, spitting blood from his mouth as he struggled to his paws, but one of the guards leapt on top of him, sending him tumbling back down to the ground.
Lorrith was quick to react, biting down on the assailant's neck and pulling him off Ja'goll, before slamming the guard to the ground. She grabbed a firm hold of the guard's body with all of her paws, before she yanked her head upwards, the guard's neck still held firmly in her jaws. The guard's head was torn clean off his neck with a massive spray of blood.
Lorrith seemed to have the most kills so far that Cynder could count, and also seemed to be one of the fastest fighters out of the lot, so Cynder saw it would make sense to try and put her out of the picture as quickly as possible, wanting to prevent any more casualties caused by this monster of a woman. Running forward, she spat a glob of venom at Lorrith, watching it splatter all over her face. The sizzling sounded immediately as it burned through the exposed flesh from the convexity burns Cynder had already given her, and for the first time, Lorrith screamed.
It was almost music to Cynder's ears to hear that demoness scream after the amount of pain she had caused.
Ja'goll swore as he stood, watching Lorrith try not to touch her face as the venom ate away at her flesh. "Grol'ethe, cover for us. I'm taking Lorrith back to Dark Peak; Spyro can help her out," he said. "She hasn't got much time but at her speed she'll be able to take both of us there fast enough to make it."
"But Ja'goll—!" Grol'ethe started.
"No, we're going; we can't lose her. Besides, we still have backup!"
It's several hours' flight back there! Cynder thought. Is Lorrith really that fast, or has Spyro given them a resistance to the dark elements?
She remembered back to the fight in the house, when she had tried to use her siren scream on Lorrith. That won't do anything against us, dear Terror, Lorrith had said.
Damn it, even my most potent elements won't do anything, Cynder thought. I guess I'm stuck using wind and shadow to fight, but I can't rely on it too much since I've already used convexity quite a few times tonight. I don't know how much more my essence core can take; with how little I use convexity it's definitely not used to it.
She was caught off guard as Grol'ethe tackled her to the ground, her tail raised to strike. Cynder cursed as she realised Grol'ethe's club was covered in large, nasty spines. She watched the spiked club rush down towards her head; it would kill her instantly if it slammed into her head. With how huge Grol'ethe's build was, Cynder knew she was outmatched in terms of strength. Cynder's only option was to dive into her shadows.
Just in the nick of time, she let her shadows envelop her and she watched as a split second later, the spiked club flew over her face where her head had once been. She stood and ran to the side a little, before leaping out of her shadows and trying to tackle Grol'ethe to the ground.
Cynder merely landed on Grol'ethe, unable to pull the large, bulky dragoness down to the ground, so she decided to just start clawing at Grol'ethe, but found that her scales were incredibly hard to pierce. Grol'ethe let out a loud roar, before throwing herself down on the ground, rolling herself over so that she landed on top of Cynder. Cynder swore she felt a rib crack.
She felt Grol'ethe get off her, but pain flared through her muzzle as a heavy fist slammed into it. Then another. A third blow never came.
Cynder looked up to see Grol'ethe now distracted by Aerus and Forlorär as they had leapt on top of her, both trying to attack her with claws and elemental blows as they tried to throw her down to the ground, but without fail. Grol'ethe let out a snarl as she whirled around, throwing Forlorär off her as he lost his hold on her, but Aerus kept a firm grip. She then turned and aimed an earth missile at him, which slammed into the side of his neck.
He cried out in pain as he dropped from Grol'ethe's side, pulling the earth missile out of his neck. It wasn't deep, and it was closer to the base of his neck, but it was clear it still hurt like hell especially with the amount of blood spilling from the wound.
Cynder knew Grol'ethe was too strong for any of them to fight, even together. She didn't want to have to do this, but she knew it was the only way to fight her off.
She called on convexity again.
Purple energy crackled in her jaws, and a wild, pulsing beam of convexity tore from her throat, engulfing Grol'ethe's face inside it. Grol'ethe roared with pain, but Cynder kept the beam going. The earth dragoness tried to step out of the beam burning through her face, but due to the slow speed she was staggering, Cynder followed her, keeping her convexity beam aimed directly at its target.
It was maybe twenty seconds after she let out the beam when her chest began to hurt.
Ancestors damn you, essence core.
Cynder tried to catch herself from collapsing to the ground, calling off the beam of convexity. She breathed heavily, keeping her legs spread out in a wide stance to keep herself standing, despite the awful pain in her chest. She looked up as Grol'ethe picked herself up off the ground, her face disfigured beyond recognition.
The dark green scales were black and crusty; most of the ones around her eyes, the bridge of her snout, and her right cheek were completely burned away and revealing horribly charred flesh. The flesh around her right cheek was so horribly burned that some of it had shriveled up into thin, black shreds that revealed the bone of her skull underneath.
Grol'ethe cursed Cynder, her voice harsh and raspy, before she turned and took flight after Ja'goll and Lorrith, leaving them.
"Are you alright, Cynder?!" Aerus asked as he and Forlorär ran towards her.
"I… I'm in a lot of pain. My essence core… I've used too much elemental magic for tonight," Cynder croaked.
"I suppose using convexity will do that with your situation," Forlorär murmured.
"I used it three times earlier as well; I've used it quite a lot tonight. I'm surprised my essence core held out as long as it did among the other elemental attacks I was using," Cynder replied.
"How did… how did what you were doing go?" Aerus questioned.
"Terribly. We lost Prafûr, as well as two children and their father. Their mother… she was alive last I saw her but I don't know how she is now. She was… mentally destroyed. I told her to go to the infirmary to get some medical help before I came here, but I don't know what happened to her afterwards."
"I'm just… I'm just glad it's over now. We won."
"No. We didn't. They said they still have backup. More will be coming, either tonight or tomorrow night, I don't know. I just hope it's not tonight," Cynder said as she looked around, taking note of the fire surrounding them, illuminating the front of the palace. "It looks like no one's made it in the palace yet at least, so hopefully the Queen and everyone and everything inside is still safe."
Cynder inhaled to continue speaking, but a pained cry interrupted them. It was young and prepubescent. Cynder turned to the source of the sound, before swearing, standing and running towards where Flaris lay. He was smaller than he originally had been, tears streaming down his face as huge pools of dark blood oozed from countless wounds on his body. She looked at the wounds that she had dealt to his chest from the last time she had seen him in that battle and gasped with horror at the reality of what she had actually done.
His chest was an awful mess, consisting of a huge gaping hole that betrayed view of his lungs and heart, and Cynder noticed that she had actually clawed out some of the outer membrane of his lungs. The ribcage was cracked; that had allowed her to get into the lungs. She watched the heart lurch weakly with every beat; it was struggling to pump blood through his body.
Ancestors, she had done this. Throughout all of this, she had completely forgotten that he was still a child, and she had done this.
If Flaris was to die, she would have just committed child murder also.
She would have done it again.
She felt cursed. She had done many atrocities and killed many during her time as the Terror of the Skies, but she always felt that killing children was the worst out of all she had done. She vowed not to do many things again after she became a regular dragon again, but child murder was the biggest one out of the lot. And she had done it again in Armageddon. She had since vowed she would never kill another child, and now here she was, about to watch another child die by her claws.
She looked down at her claws, covered in a thick, red layer of blood. She wanted to cry. She wanted to cry. Why did the tears never come when she wanted them to?! Curse you ancestors, let me cry of my own will for ONCE! Cynder thought.
At least, if Flaris did die, he wouldn't die corrupted; that was one thing Cynder was at least happy about. The darkness had been dispelled from his body, most likely because he was going to die. It made Cynder wonder how close she was to dying in the realm of Convexity, since her body also returned to normal when she was defeated.
Cynder wouldn't let Flaris die alone.
With a shaky breath, Cynder hesitantly put a soft, bloodied paw on Flaris' shoulder. He let out a whimper, before he cried out in pain. "You're going to be fine, Flaris. You're going to be fine," she whispered. "I'm with you."
"I… I… I-I'm s-s-sorry," Flaris stuttered, spitting up blood. He coughed and tried to inhale, but instead he could only let out a horrid, hoarse wheeze. Ancestors, he couldn't breathe. He stammered, trying to speak, but he was running out of air. His face was contorted in pain, but something in his eyes betrayed the fact that what he wanted to say was important. Cynder bent down towards his mouth and gently breathed a small gust of wind into it, despite her essence core protesting the action, and he finally inhaled. "I… I-I-I w-w-was the f-f-f-first one to… t-t-to… to be c-c-corrupted. I-i-it's only fitting that I-I-I was the f-f-first… first one to… d-d-d-die. I-I-I'm s-s-s-so s-s-sorry for… what I… d-did."
With that, he ceased breathing. He ceased blinking. His head slumped to the side and that was it.
Flaris was dead.
As if the ancestors finally decided to give her mercy, she felt tears prick her eyes. Before she knew it, she was crying. She let out a long scream, raw and filled with emotion. She hadn't felt this much emotion in so long, and… it hurt. Ancestors, it hurt. She had forgotten how much it had hurt to cry—to really, truly cry, not the brief quiet sobbing she had done the night before. She screamed again.
Once her second scream died away in her throat, she wiped her eyes with her wrists, as he paws were covered in blood, trying to clear her eyes a little bit so she could gaze upon Flaris' body once more. Before her vision was blinded by tears once more, Cynder reached forward and slowly closed Flaris' hollow crimson eyes, before she stepped back and let her sobs control her.
She was thankful that everyone had decided to give her space while she cried. She needed this. It didn't take long for her to calm down. As much as Cynder wanted to keep crying, she knew her job was not over. She could cry later once she got home. If she was able to cry again.
Once Cynder had calmed down to just intermittent sniffles and whimpers, she heard Aerus stepping up towards her. She felt his paw on her. She refused to look at him, but she knew that he was crying too.
She despised what he said next.
"It's alright, Cynder. This was nobody's fault," Aerus murmured softly.
"What in the HELL are you talking about?!" Cynder snarled, whirling around to glare daggers at her brother. "That… That corpse right there… It's all my fault! I killed him! A CHILD!"
"Cynder, no. Aerus is right," Forlorär said softly but cautiously. "It's not your fault that you killed him. It was a violent and bloody battle. It's Spyro's fault. He corrupted Flaris, sent him here, and cornered you to the point where you had to kill the kid. Same with the other kids that were here. I think we all forgot in the moment that those violent, murderous beasts were actually kids, but that's what this corruption does. It makes us forget. It makes us fight for our lives, and makes us truly think that these are bad people.
"It happened with you too, for many years. No one bothered to think that you were a child, corrupted and turned into a monster. They just saw what was in front of them: a scary dragoness that wanted to kill and maim and bring glory to her Dark Master. You only survived because we had no one as strong as you who could actually fight back and hurt you. You only survived because Spyro—"
"Don't finish that," Cynder snarled.
"Okay, I'm sorry," Forlorär murmured. "My point is, it's not your fault that in the heat of battle, you felt so cornered that you had to bring harm to these kids, so much so where it took the life of one of them. You saw how they fought. We had no chance against them without holding back. We had to give it our all."
Cynder sniffled, before nodding softly. "Thanks, but… I still feel like it's my fault. I mean, after how my life started, I just… I feel horrible. They're suffering the same way I suffered. Even worse if those dark markings mean anything. Flaris never got the chance to be redeemed. He never got to have a life outside of his corruption," she replied.
"At least he's with the ancestors now. They won't judge him. He's lucky he won't live to get judged by society like you were."
Cynder scoffed. "You're right there, but he didn't deserve to die. If he did, then that just means that I deserve to die too. We're the same in that we were corrupted and used as kids, tormented by the dark warlord of our respective timeframe."
Forlorär sighed sadly. Nobody said a word for a few minutes, not even the guards. They all mourned Flaris.
There was a sudden heavy thud that snapped them out of their mournful state. Another thud followed, and Cynder realised with fear that it was coming from inside the palace. She got up, turning and running into the palace, slamming the doors open with her shoulder. As she ran, the sounds got louder the closer she got to Queen Lehftin's chambers.
Ancestors, that's not good.
Two massive earth dragons, although not as bulky as Grol'ethe, also bearing the same complex dark markings, were currently attacking Ta'torol and the two other wind dragons guards that were in the palace. Queen Lehftin lay squashed up in the corner of the room, groaning and crying with pain, blood streaming from her shoulders. Her hind paw had been sliced off, her blood streaking across the room from her stump to where the paw now lay. Cynder noticed one of the corrupted earth dragons had a heavy clubbed tail, whereas the other had a metal blade, much like Ta'torol's, which was smeared in huge amounts of blood.
Cynder saw the earth dragon with the clubbed tail slam his club into the head of the guard he was fighting, sending him crashing down to the ground with a heavy thud. The earth dragon grabbed the guard by the neck, before throwing him at the wall. The earth dragon then ran towards the downed guard, pressing his paw hard on the guard's snout, holding his head against the wall, before swinging the club at the guard's head, crushing it between the wall and the club with a massive snap of the skull and a spray of thick blood and broken pieces of brain. His left eye was popped clean out of its eye socket. The marble wall was dented and cracked too, stained a dark, deep red.
Cynder let out a roar as she lunged at the earth dragon, cursing Spyro for forcing children to cause this carnage. She cursed him for doing something that Malefor had done to her, something that Spyro had always cursed back in his days as a just, loving, caring dragon.
You truly have become the monster you fought so hard against, you devil, Cynder thought.
She sliced her claws down the earth dragon's right eye, drawing blood from the skin around the eye, as well as the eye itself, but it was not enough to cut the eye out. The eye was good as dead anyway as its black optic fluids began to slowly ooze out with the blood, pooling out on his bottom eyelid and down his right cheek. The earth dragon cursed her, spitting two large boulders at her, both of which hit her in the chest. They hit with incredible force, too. The first was enough to cause her to stumble, but the second sent her sprawling to the floor.
The dragon leapt towards her and held her head down firmly to the ground, claws digging into her forehead and drawing blood. She felt the soft plip-plop of the mixture of blood and optic fluids landing on her snout from the stream of the gore that rolled down the earth dragon's face. Cynder fought the dragon's strong hold, but he released another two earth missiles that went clean through her forepaws, pinning even those to the ground, before he turned and did the same with her hind paws and tail.
Now she truly was stuck, with her limbs pinned down with earth missiles and her head immobilised with the heavy green forepaw that pressed it down. Her body was pretty much useless. To make sure it was useless, the earth dragon on top of her spat another earth missile into her back between her wing shoulders, wedging itself into her spine with a spray of blood. This one forced a scream out of her.
She watched as the earth dragon with the tailblade slit the throat of the guard he was fighting, before punching Ta'torol in the face, causing him to step back, blood streaming from his nose. Forlorär launched himself at the dragon that slugged Ta'torol in the face, only to receive a tailblade to the face, the long, wild cut running from Forlorär's snout to his forehead up the middle of his face. The lightning dragon growled, stumbling backwards before collapsing, holding his paws to his snout and groaning in pain.
She saw Aerus lunge at the earth dragon on top of her, but the clubbed tail just slammed into the side of his head, knocking him unconscious as well as drawing blood from her brother's temple. The dragon on top of her inhaled and let out a shout. "D'varin! Block the door, will you?!"
D'varin, the dragon with the tailblade, turned and slammed his forepaws into the ground, causing a heavy tremor to rip through the ground in front of him as a heavy barricade of rocky pillars burst out of the ground in the doorway of the Queen's chambers, forbidding all entry to the room. "You happy? Now how about you actually do something, Trogon?!" D'varin scowled.
Both Ta'torol and Forlorär were the only ones that were still able to fight; Cynder knew that they didn't stand a chance, dread pulling at her. Forlorär was back up on his paws, and Ta'torol was already in claw-to-claw combat with D'varin. Trogon, the dragon standing on top of her, spat an earth missile at Forlorär, which landed in his neck with a spurt of blood, knocking him back down to the ground. He didn't get back up. D'varin on the other hand was quick to snap his fangs down around Ta'torol's neck, dragging him to the ground before with a twist of his head, he snapped his opponent's neck.
Cynder's heart broke.
D'varin let out a loud laugh, before he began to step towards Queen Lehftin, blood dripping down his jaws. He dragged his metal tailblade on the ground with a dreadful scraping sound, leaving behind a trail of blood. "Now, my queen. Spyro knows you have the Ring of Spirits. Tell me where it is. Don't make it hard for us," D'varin said.
Queen Lehftin didn't answer. She just stared at the carnage around her, before looking pleadingly at Cynder. Cynder caught Queen Lehftin's gaze, and the look in her grey eyes told her what she wanted.
Attack him. Kill him.
Her mouth was still free, so she could still spit venom at D'varin. She opened her mouth wide, getting ready to spit venom at D'varin, but the assassin followed Queen Lehftin's gaze to her, and scoffed. "Oh, Cynder. We can't have that. Here, Trogon," D'varin said, before his markings glowed a bright purple and a dark crystal materialised in his paw.
D'varin threw the crystal at Trogon, who caught it and stabbed Cynder in the neck with it. Cynder let out a scream as she felt the crystal sucking her mana out of her. It hurt. Her essence core flared up in pain as her mana was sucked clean out of her; it was some of the worst pain she'd ever felt from it.
It wasn't long before she felt completely empty inside. Not as empty as the time where she almost lost all her ancestrite twelve years ago, because she knew it was still there due to her essence core pulsing with pain, but all her mana was completely gone. Now there really was no way she could use her elements to stop D'varin. Trogon had her well pinned, and she was way too wounded, exhausted, and filled with pain to be able to fight back against him.
All she could do was watch.
D'varin turned back to Queen Lehftin, who was crying even harder now. "Oh, poor queenie. All your guards are dead, even the Warfangian assigned to you by Cynder over there. I could never even begin to imagine how… how trapped… and frightened you must be. It's just a regular night for me, spilling blood and taking what rightfully belongs to the darkness," D'varin chuckled lowly. "Now, where is the Ring of Spirits?"
Queen Lehftin didn't answer. She let out a few pained groans as she tried to calm her fearful sobbing down. She opened up her paws slowly, ready to summon a gale, but D'varin was quicker, creating another dark crystal with a flash of his dark markings, stabbing Queen Lehftin in the neck with it. The Queen screamed with pain. She stopped once her mana was ripped from her, but her painful groans kept continuing as the dark crystal continued to cause her pain.
D'varin chuckled with sadistic glee. "My Queen, this doesn't need to be hard. Tell me where the ancestor-damned ring is, and I will consider not killing you," he said. "Is it in a relics room? Where might this relics room be? Or… are you hiding it somewhere else?"
"It's… it's in the palace, but it's not in the relics room. It's too valuable and dangerous to put in a relics room. It needed to be somewhere where no one could find it. Where no one could use it," the Queen croaked in between coughs. "We swore many millennia ago that we would protect it and prevent anyone from using it, and now, our oath as Typhaarian dragons still stands."
"TELL ME WHERE IT IS, DAMN IT!" D'varin roared, drawing his tailblade and placing it threateningly on Queen Lehftin's throat.
Cynder watched with horror as a small bead of blood dripped down Queen Lehftin's throat. She silently pleaded that she would just say its location and be done with it. Spyro already had heaps of powerful relics that he had collected over the years. At this point, what was one more? She had no idea what the Ring of Spirits was, but there was so little hope after twelve years in the war and no chance of any victory that she almost didn't care if the Dark Overlord got another one.
Queen Lehftin slowly shook her head. "I will not risk the safety of Typhaar and the rest of the world," she breathed.
D'varin blinked, before a low growl rumbled in his throat. He lowered his tail before he kicked Queen Lehftin, rolling her over so her underbelly was exposed. He flashed his tailblade across her chest three times before he placed it back on her throat. The Queen screamed in pain as blood ebbed from her chest; they weren't deep, deadly wounds by any means, but they were still pretty vicious and large.
"Tell me where the damned ring is, I swear to Naar'voth," D'varin growled the gritted fangs.
Cynder felt sick at the mention of that horrid demon's name.
Again, the Queen refused to answer, and D'varin slugged her in the face. Blood streamed from her nostrils and mouth. A few fangs hung loose from her gums when she parted her lips to let out a groan. D'varin pressed her for an answer again, but she still refused to say anything.
"I will get an answer out of you, queenie," D'varin snarled, before he created two more dark crystals. He stabbed Queen Lehftin in the shoulders with the dark crystals, before they began to glow an eerie violet colour. D'varin slowly pushed the crystals further into her body, and the wet squelching of flesh and blood reached Cynder's ears, before it was overpowered by the sound of Queen Lehftin's hoarse screams of pain. She reared her head back as she screamed, and she eventually had to stop with a gurgle as the blood building up in her mouth began to run down her throat. She swallowed, lowering her head and let out another scream as D'varin suddenly yanked the dark crystals out of her body. The purple colouring was almost completely gone as the crystals were coated in a thick layer of dark, wet blood.
The crystals began to glow again, and red mist began to flow from Queen Lehftin's deep wounds, before turning purple as it neared and entered the crystals. Queen Lehftin began to convulse violently as the red mist bellowed from her body. Her grey scales began to wilt, showing off her pink flesh. Her flesh was slowly going dark as it began to rot, pus and blood oozing from many areas on her body now as her flesh deteriorated even further.
Cynder let out a muffled scream of protest as she realised the red mist bellowing from Queen Lehftin's body was her own life force.
"LAST TIME, QUEENIE! WHERE IS THE RING OF SPIRITS?!" D'varin roared.
"I-i-i-it's underground. U-u-u-undern-n-neath T-T-Typhaar," Queen Lehftin stammered weakly, spitting bloodied saliva from her mouth. "I-i-it's too d-d-d-danger-r-rous to even k-k-keep in the r-r-relics room, s-s-s-so it was k-k-kept u-underg-g-ground, and has been th-there for m-m-m-millions of years."
D'varin smiled and lowered the dark crystals. The bellowing red mist from Queen Lehftin's body stopped, and she collapsed, a bleeding, rotting, messy husk, only just holding onto her life.
"Thank you for answering me. It didn't have to be that hard now, did it?" D'varin asked, his voice a low whisper. "It's a good thing that Trogon and I are earth dragons. Thanks for letting us know it's underground. We'll get to excavating promptly. Have a good night."
Cynder thought D'varin was going to simply turn and leave. He did, but not without shoving both dark crystals deep into Queen Lehftin's chest. She howled once more, her violent convulsions resuming, even stronger than they had been before. Her howls turned to horrid gurgles as blood bubbled in the back of her throat, splashing out of her mouth and running down her face. Her scales disintegrated and her flesh rotted, shriveling up and tearing itself apart. Suddenly, her cries and convulsions calmed, before she lay still, her rotted eyes staring up sightlessly towards the roof of her chambers.
Cynder let out a muffled scream, trying to fight Trogon who stood over her, but he held her down. Tears brimmed her eyes again. This wasn't meant to turn out like this! Nobody was meant to die, especially the Queen! She looked around the room. There were dead guards. Ta'torol and Forlorär were dead. Aerus lay unconscious a few metres away from her; blood streamed down his face from where Trogon's clubbed tail had smashed into his skull. He'd wake up with a heavy concussion, if they were even lucky enough to get out of this situation.
She didn't like their chances. She wasn't sure what D'varin had meant by 'excavation', but she didn't like it one bit.
D'varin's voice pulled her out of her thoughts. "Trogon, let's go find this damned ring. Make sure Cynder's silent and fixated to the ground. She can suffer awake," he said with a chuckle, before turning to her. "She can know that we are better servants than she ever was. She can know that she gave up her chance to ensure her safety and that she would have life by denying our Master. She can suffer, and she can die, with no one to come and save her."
Trogon laughed with his comrade, before he stood off Cynder's head. She raised it, until a large boulder struck her violently in the head, sending it slumping back down to the ground on its side. She was somehow still awake. Her vision swam, but she knew she was very much conscious. She opened her mouth and groaned, before a small earth missile shot through her open mouth and pierced through her tongue, sticking it to the ground. A howl tore from her throat.
She then felt a hard encasing of earth form over her snout, stopping her from moving her head. The earth missile on her tongue would have been enough to stop Cynder from moving her head. She wanted her tongue intact, not in two pieces. She wouldn't dare try to rip her head backwards to free herself; the earth missile was halfway down her tongue, so she'd lose the majority of it.
With that, D'varin and Trogon turned, breaking open the barricade in front of the doors and leaping out. She could hear faint shouts and roars burst out when the two assassins made their way out of the palace, but they died out very quickly. By the sounds of it, most of the guards outside died, but she knew some probably ran off.
Cynder was here alone. She felt tears brim her eyes once more and she didn't stop them. She wept. Everything hurt like hell. Even her emotions. This room… this room was a mess. Blood was splattered absolutely everywhere. Everyone in here was either very dead or very unconscious. She was the only one still awake, but she was very wounded. Blood spilled from her body in torrents, and the dark crystal was still embedded in her neck. Either the dark crystal would kill her, or she'd die of blood loss.
This was not the way she wanted to die. Ever since the Dark War, Cynder had believed that the remainder of her life would be in peace, and that she would be able to die peacefully when the time came to it. That's all she'd ever wanted. A peaceful death.
This was anything but peaceful.
Why? Why did this have to happen? Why did Spyro have to do this to her? To the world? The world that he saved. Why did her death have to come now? She'd survived Armageddon of all things, and now she was left here to die by the paws of two dragons.
At least she'd be with the ancestors. She felt terrible, knowing that Aloelle, Terrador, her mother, had all asked her to speak with them, communicate with them, all those years ago. She barely did. She barely prayed, she barely spoke to the ancestors, she… she just stopped… believing. At least she could make it up with the ancestors now, and she could be with her parents.
She didn't want to die but now she was starting to accept it.
She would be with her parents, but also with her friends. With Rubblerust and Tyrax. With Electrika. She'd be with the guardians: Terrador, Volteer and Cyril. She'd be able to go see the dragoness she killed in Armageddon and apologise. She'd be able to see the dragoness' son she killed as well. She'd be able to see Vetar's family and apologise to them. She'd be able to see her Uncle Prafûr once more. She'd be able to see Ta'torol and Forlorär. She'd be with Logron. She didn't know if she'd be with Hunter since they're different species and likely with different spirits, but she hoped she'd see Hunter… somehow.
She'd be with everyone.
So why won't she die? Why was it taking so long? Everything hurt like hell. She heard her painful screams, muffled by the encasing over her snout. Ancestors, just make it quick! Please! She just wanted to die! Instinctively, she tried raising her tail, but pain flared up in it as she tried to move it. The squelch of the earth missile in her tail ripping through more flesh and spilling more blood reached her ears, and she winced at the sound.
The sound of pawsteps now reached her ears, before there was a gasp and a guard ran in, breathing heavily with shock at the sight of the carnage in front of him. Cynder let out another muffled scream, and his attention was brought to her. "Ancestors, there's one alive! Guys, come on!" the guard shouted, and three more ran in through the doors. "Get her out and to the infirmary, she might be the only one still alive!"
The guards ran to her and began inspecting her. "Alright, pull the dark crystal out first, La'nul. That'll be weakening her. Be careful though, we don't want it to affect you too; smash it once it's out," the first guard ordered. "Herith and Araelon, pull the earth missiles out of her limbs. I'll work on the muzzle. Once you're finished with the crystal, La'nul, I want you to help me out. The stone casing looks strong."
The other three guards nodded and got to work on freeing Cynder. With a spurt of blood, the dark crystal was out. Cynder winced in pain. La'nul threw the dark crystal at one of the bloodied walls of the palace foyer, causing it to shatter with a large spray of delicate minerals as well as a cloud of dark purple mist, which dissipated after a while.
La'nul then turned to what seemed to be the leader guard and helped him claw at the stone encasing over her muzzle. On a count of three, the earth missiles in her forepaws were yanked out, forcing another cry from Cynder and more blood. Then came the ones in her hind paws, followed by the one in her tail. The only one that was left was the one in her tongue, and that one hurt the most. She felt her whole mouth going numb as blood flowed from her tongue.
Air quickly rushed into her mouth and nostrils. It was only after the stone casing around her muzzle started to fall apart after the intense clawing that she realised she was being suffocated with no access to air inside the casing. La'nul swore as he noticed the earth missile in her tongue. "There's another earth missile in her tongue, Ulyzon," he said to the leader guard.
"We need to get rid of this encasing first so it doesn't get in our way. Now that we've got some holes inside it, it shouldn't take too long to get rid of it," Ulyzon replied.
Before long, the stone encasing was destroyed, the rubble thrown off to the side. Ulyzon stepped up towards her open mouth and saw the pinned and pierced tongue. "Okay, we're going to have to be very careful with this one," Ulyzon said. "La'nul, can you press down on the tongue on both sides of the earth missile to keep it down? Cynder, are you able to open your mouth a bit wider?"
"I cahng'," Cynder murmured. "Ish ngung, I cahng' 'oo' ih."
She had no idea if Ulyzon understood that last bit saying that she couldn't move her mouth because it was numb, but he seemed to understand the 'I can't' bit as he let out a sigh, both out of frustration and sadness. "Alright, Araelon, can you pry Cynder's mouth open a little wider please?" Ulyzon asked.
Cynder felt Araelon's paws grab her jaws and pull them apart a little more. La'nul was now able to get his paws inside there to press down on her tongue, and he cringed as he touched her soft tongue, but also pointed out something wrong with it. "Ulyzon, her tongue's super dry and rough," La'nul reported.
"She's probably dehydrated with all the blood loss and action, and who knows how long she's been in here alone for?" Ulyzon muttered. "Alright, Cynder. I'm going to pull the missile out. This is probably going to hurt. A lot. Brace yourself."
Ulyzon grabbed a firm hold of the earth missile and pulled. Pain flared through her tongue as blood sprayed from it, and she let out a howl, pulling back her lips as far as they would go. Ulyzon, La'nul and Araelon stepped back, and Cynder closed her mouth, before spitting and coughing up blood. Her tongue hurt, and now she realised how dry it was. As a matter of fact, her whole mouth felt dry. At least she could feel her mouth again.
"Are you alright, Cynder?" Ulyzon asked.
Cynder just nodded. Ulyzon smiled at her, but it was a sad smile. "It looks like you're the only survivor though," he said.
"No," Cynder croaked. "My brother Aerus was only knocked unconscious. He's the only other who survived."
"Go check on him," Ulyzon ordered to Araelon.
Araelon nodded, running over to Aerus and checking for a pulse. "Yes, he's alive," he reported.
"Great. I want you to carry Aerus. La'nul, help me with Cynder. We need to take both of them to the infirmary, now," Ulyzon said, before turning to La'nul. "Alright La'nul, we'll need to be careful; Cynder's very wounded, and we don't want to make anything worse."
"Understood, Ulyzon," La'nul replied.
Soon, Cynder and Aerus were on the guards' back as they turned and left, trudging through the dark of night towards an infirmary. It wasn't took long after they stepped outside the palace before the ground began to shake violently.
Dust and dirt bellowed up from the ground, and cracks appeared in the cobblestone pavements. Loud screams filled the air as the rest of Typhaar awoke with the heavy tremors. Some buildings even cracked. Some of the cracked buildings also collapsed, silencing some of the screams and crushing the inhabitants underneath the rubble.
The loudest crack shot through the air, deafening and thunderous, as the palace split in two, clouds of rubble being thrown up into the air. It was a horrific sight, watching an entire city crumble to ashes around the palace.
Suddenly, a small, but bright, glowing gold ring shot out of the ground underneath the palace, leaving a trail of dust behind it. The sound of laughing filled the air as two silhouettes flew towards the floating ring, before flying away.
The rumbling and exploding dust continued, however, reducing Typhaar to a heap of rubble. A building collapsed nearby, almost flattening Herith. Another building collapsed. This one landed on top of Cynder, La'nul and Ulyzon with a loud crash.
Cynder's vision went black.
So this chapter ended up being waaay longer than anticipated, so hope you enjoyed a much larger chapter hahaha. I don't anticipate chapters frequenting this length, and I almost split this one in two, but I felt like this scene all needed to be in one go, so I decided to leave it as one big chapter lol. I also ended up writing all of this within three days so I'm pretty proud of myself with the speed I wrote this one.
Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this! I've already started Chapter 11 so hopefully I should be able to get that finished soon for you all! Let me know what you thought of this chapter, and I'll see you with the next one!