Mere days after I finished the writing process for this chapter the final episode of the show Murder Drones came out and, well, its basically the fight with Darkmire to an almost scarily exact amount. Yes, that means this chapter has been finished for a while, I've been busy doing game making stuff.
You don't need to watch the whole show, I've watched the show and I still don't understand what is going on. It's a really good time, would highly reccomend it, but the reason I'm bringing it up is that if you wanted to see a 20 minutes long, spooky, gory, gloriously over the top and beautifully animated fight with Darkmire it already exists, its Murder Drones Episode 8: Absolute End, and it's definitely worth a watch.
Speaking of game making stuff I'm proud to announce that Imperial Wilds has been released! Check it out for free on the website 'itch io' at imperia4dragons. itch. io
The game features Imperia and Flare, and a few hours of content with a whole lot more planned on the way! It's still in early days so far, but I'm very excited for this project.
But of course I have something else to finish first, Cynder, Spyro, Darkmire and the others have been waiting long enough. And no matter how long I want to hold onto them all the time has come.
The darkness of Convexity was vast, an endless expanse of lavender sky populated by dots of bright white. Stars that were huge beyond comprehension yet so far away that their light was but a glimmer. In Convexity strange laws were followed contrary to those of the real world where stars were made of hydrogen and burned through nuclear fusion, where the influence of gravity meant that closer you were to a vast object the faster the universe around you moved.
In Convexity stars did not simply run on magic, they were magic, upwellings of infinite potential from which all magic used in the real world derived. Of course this truth was not known for certain, it was something that many scholarly individuals like Malefor and Volteer had theoriesd, but the immeasurable scale of Convexity stars, their destructive almost radioactive aura, and their bizarre interactions with the flow of time made such theories nearly impossible to test.
Among this sky was an orb unlike the others, tiny in comparison, perhaps the size of a mere real world star. A blue-white orb that glittered and released wisps of steam from its surface as the vicious rays of Convexity stars slowly ate away at it, a process that at this rate would take thousands of years yet. An orb the size of a star, made of solid ice, and contained with it...
Contained within the ice was a very out of place fire dragoness, although with her casually twirling streamer tail and calm unflappable demeanor Flare looked like it was only a minor inconvenience for her to be trapped in a frozen space tomb, like this sort of thing happened all the time and she took it in stride. If anything it was indeed a relief, the ice offered protection from the radiation of Convexity, which had been growing increasingly painful to endure the longer they were in unprotected space.
Next to Flare and looking very frazzled by comparison was Malefor, the ancient purple dragon who's dimensional portals and healing abilities were the only thing that had kept them alive so far, and would perhaps be their only escape once this was done. Malefor brought them through the ice, neatly parting around them and closing behind them until they emerged in a larger chamber. At the center of the chamber was a shard of ice so dense it was stronger than steel, and at its center a dark shape.
Gravity was light, they were standing on the ground properly enough, but it was weird enough to keep them slightly off balance.
From the other side of the cavern arrived Spyro and Cynder, both looking battered and worn. Spyro standing tall, sporting a wicked looking fresh cut on his chest that had gone through even his armored gold and purple scales, occasional blood droplets on the ground marking where he walked. Cynder leaning against him appeared to be sleep walking, kept upright by his supporting wing and struggling with putting her feet under herself. No visible injuries on her aside from minor cuts and scrapes, but she was the one with the fear elemental magic, or emotion element as they had recently renamed it. Cynder was the one who had been delving into the mind of their enemy, one of their very few options for doing significant harm to the godlike dragoness who they were here to kill before she destroyed the world.
That enemy was currently locked within the hardened ice spike at the center of the frozen dome, the emaciated black dragoness form of Darkmire an eerie and slender shape in the middle of the rugged spike of ice. Despite knowing better the three fully conscious dragons breathed a slight sigh of relief, Darkmire had been consistently gaining the upper hand against them, wildly firing blasts of powerful magic and trying to force them into torturous games. All three of them had taken painful hits, especially Spyro and Flare, and all because they had to buy time for-
And then Cynder began to scream.
A different world, a different sky. A dream world, created by the subconsious minds of Darkmire and Pleasure.
Faint tiny weak stars and glimmers of glassy stone created a mournful imitation of a night sky, nearly completely smothered out by toxic yellow clouds. Dominating the world was a menacing eyeball, taking up nearly half of the expanse of the sky, narrowed in mockery and spite, brilliant yellow iris, and a black pupil that was less like a round surface and more of a ragged pucture wound, bleeding a river of black and dull red blood, and other unidentifiable eye... gunk stuff... To create a vast and horrible waterfall. Looking away from that evil eye was better, but not by much, as the land into which the blood poured was a freakish mountain rage rising out of a sea that was in turns piss yellow and puke brown. The mountain range itself was stark and forlorn, with black shale, white capped peaks, and red rusty ore... Except if it was instead black skin, cracked exposed bone, and twitching red flesh. It was as if the landscape itself could not decide what it was, but with every second it was reverting away from stone and rock, more and more back towards being the morbid corpse display that it had been when Cynder first saw it.
Unfortunately Cynder was not seeing much of anything at the moment, she had flown with her fellow black dragoness Pleasure up to that evil eye, gazing up into the abyss of its pupil, briefly free to move thanks to the hard work of the others outside.
They had been given a chance, a few moments to move and plan. A few moments for them to try and attack Darkmire in a way that would finally do actual harm to a god.
But now the abyss had woken up, and it was gazing back. Cynders teeth were bared, every muscle straining in her steely whiplike form as she struggled.
Darkmire was attacking, reaching out with a cloud of darkness. Needle after needle of black shadow piercing into Cynder's scales and beginning to pry them off her body.
It was agonising, Cynder felt like she was being flayed alive and it was only her white hot fury which kept her sane.
Cynder moved inch by painful inch towards the terrified black dragoness next to her, refusing to give up focus on using wind magic to keep her supported. She was dimly aware of her real body screaming, normally she would have suffered with nothing but growls and snarls right up until the point of death, but in this case she had two bodies and screaming with one of them seemed to be helping her push through the pain just a little bit.
"Pleasure... You have to... Convexity breath..."
Shit, she probably should have tried to teach her that properly earlier, but it had been hard enough teaching her how to hover in the air, let alone any kind of fighting.
And yet, suprisingly, amazingly, Pleasure turned to the inky black void. She looked so tiny against the vast malevolent eye, but she glared and bared her fangs nontheless.
"You leave Cynder alone!" She shrieked, and as she finished speaking a lance of bright light burst from her mouth and pierced the darkness.
Pleasure was so startled that she yelped and the blast cut off after only a moment, however Darkmire's hiss of pain and fury was so loud that it felt like it was going to split the world in two. "You should not have done that. You think one tiny prick is enough to stop me!?"
And Pleasure froze for a moment, but with a scream of effort now in both worlds Cynder beat her wings, heedless of the needles stabbing into her from every direction, and she grabbed Pleasure's paw tightly. As she did so the needles faded away, and Pleasure took a deep breath and opened her mouth again.
"pleasepleasepleasepleasecynderspyrocyndercyndercynder-"
And bright white light once again burst from her mouth, cutting deep into the darkness. Pleasures head turned this way and that, cleaving apart the shadows until they began to clear ever so faintly.
And Darkmire began to laugh.
"Well now look at you two! I can feel that! I can feel my powers waning, the energy that keeps me together. Being unmade... But not quickly enough."
And it was true, Darkmire's earlier dread and paranoia every time something unexpected happened were gone, replaced by a mocking confidence now even in the face of death. The darkness lifting, failing, but far too slowly.
"I didn't think she would get this far, even with you holding her little pawsies. But this little attack? So close and yet soooooooo far!"
And then they were swatted down, Pleasure and Cynder falling, plummeting down towards the mountain peaks of rock and bone far below. Cynder dived closer to Pleasure, grabbing her, trying to spread her wings and catch the air.
Darkmire laughed down at them mockingly, and the shadows slowly began to darken again, piecing themselves back together. Her giant eye focused on Cynder, admiring the distant little scream of rage as Cynder fell, the fury that Cynder was feeling from having her determination thwarted over and over again. Cynder was painfully aware of how close they had just gotten, and her frustration was a delicious meal for Darkmire.
They landed hard and tumbled, sharp pebbles of bone jamming into Cynder from every side as she used her body to shield Pleasure from the worst of the impacts. She couldn't allow Pleasure's will to break, not when they were so close!
They landed in a lake of blood, Cynder clawing their way out, dragging the weakly flailing body of Pleasure after her and hoisting her onto the "shore" made of broken black scales and twitching muscle.
"Spyro!"
She hissed, and she felt in the real world Spyro jump in fright, he had still been carrying her. Very dimly in the background she could see Flare and Malefor both hurling fireballs at the frozen ice pillar Darkmire had locked herself in.
"Spyro, we just need a few minutes. No matter what, you have to give us just a few."
Spyro paused for just a moment, then looked at her, eyes bright with the spark of an idea. "How many minutes?"
Cynder's gaze went vague, judging the memories of the dark eye, and the pace at which it had been leeched of its colour.
"Four minutes." She said. Darkmire's red tendril of energy flicked over Cynder's mind, and it seemed Darkmire had agreed based on her snicker.
"Four minutes indeed." Darkmire hissed. "No matter what, you say? Four minutes, you say? Be careful what you wish for Cynder."
"I've got this." Spyro said confidently. He gave Cynder's forehead a soft kiss, a gentle flick of his paw created a 'nest' for her to lay in out of the surrounding ice cave. He laid her down gently among the ice, blowing some warm air down against her to remove the chill so she could focus.
Cynder cuddled down among the comforting cradle of ice, dimly looking up at Spyro, his gentle smile, his gleaming violet eyes.
"Good luck in there." He said, then he darted away.
Spyro hurried over to the others, claws scraping the ice as he skidded to a stop.
"This pillar is quite the remarkable material." Malefor said. "Even Flare cannot melt it, it blocks-"
"We need to get it open one way or another. Step back and I'll use Convexity breath." Spyro said.
"One more thing to try first." Flare said, the Dragonslayer spear appearing in her hand and glowing with heat. She waited a moment to see Spyro's nod of confirmation, then she stabbed the spear into the pillar of ice protecting Darkmire. The speartip sank inside, there were a series of cracks, jets of steam, the pillar beginning to shatter. The blade jolted deeper and a trickle of blood ran down, quickly boiling and cracking from the heat. At that moment the ice turned sharp, and the pillar erupted into a hail of knives. Flare fell back, pulling half melted ice spikes from her chest, bleeding from various wounds. Darkmire's tail reached out, and the shadows seemed to cling to her tail, making it longer and broader, so that Flare's dodge which would have put her at a safe distance was now easily in range. She swatted her tail like a whip, catching Flare on the side and sending her hurtling into the icy cavern wall with a wicked crack. The ice shattered and left a crater at the point of impact, and Flare gripped her chest as she slid down to the ground, struggling to breathe with broken ribs, a broken leg, and two broken shattered torn up wings.
Darkmire emerged, skittering, spidery, grinning widely at Spyro. She casually wiped away the stab wound on her chest inflicted by the Dragonslayer, once again removing the wound from her body as an alternative to healing it directly.
"You think you can hold me off as long as four minutes? Pretty sure you can't even hold me off as long as four seconds."
It wasn't just shadows clinging to Darkmire though, her eyes were bright white, signalling her control over the body was faltering, signalling that inside her midscape Cynder and Pleasure were fighting.
Meanwhile Cynder had hoisted Pleasure up to her feet, pointed her straight at the giant eye, and with a single instruction: "Stay perfectly still" launched the poor girl like a javelin, hurling her straight up several hundred meters in the span of barely a second.
Pleasure's ears felt blocked, then did some kind of weird popping thing halfway through the trip. When it happened she squeaked and tried to curl up to protect her head, and the wind immediately began to buffet her and send her spinning. For a moment she panicked, but then Cynder was beside her, gently stopping her tumble, and bringing them to a graceful hover back in front of Darkmire's eye. The inky darkness was no longer a bleeding void, it looked more like a cavern, hollowed out, the darkness draining and leaving a fleshy black tunnel in its wake. Cynder guided them inside, but they didn't have to go far before they saw a jet black dragoness body with gleaming white eyes, currently completely still, focused on the real world outside. The thing, Darkmire's true dream self, glanced at them and gave Cynder a cruel smirk. It lazily tapped it's chest in an obvious gesture. Bring it on.
"Okay Pleasure, do the laser again." Cynder said, her heart pounding.
"I... Dont kn-"
Cynder didn't need to hear the rest, she gave Pleasure's paw a reassuring squeeze. "I'm here, just do as I do."
Cynder surged magic through her body, using her emotion element to help evoke the same feelings and magic in Pleasure's body. In perfect sycronisation they opened their mouths and blasted twin lances of Convexity into Darkmire's chest. That was the moment when in the real world Darkmire burst out of the ice pillar. Cynder's convexity beam did not have very much effect, if it had any at all, but from the point of Pleasure's impact the darkness began to recede, leaving behind skin like clear glass, a powerless statue in the shape of Darkmire. Inch by painful inch the darkness grew shallower, four minutes and counting down. There was nothing else for them to do except hope. Cynder gave Pleasure's paw another squeeze.
Darkmire made no attempt to dodge, but she raised her paw and a flickering wavy image appeared in the air beside them. The image showed the ice cavern outside, it showed Flare getting swatted aside like an insect, and then focusing on Spyro and beginning to prowl towards him. They were seeing through Darkmire's eyes.
"I said four minutes, Cynder knows she can trust me." Spyro said. He had a plan, but he couldn't let Darkmire know he had a plan, but she could read his mind and so he had to distract her. Had to give her something to focus on, something for them both to focus on. Four minutes, four minutes. Cynder was counting on him, everything else had to be done without even consiously thinking about it.
Darkmire could see his every thought, he had to do this on instinct.
"The one element where you can't cheat your way to power with raw mana is poison. No wonder you're so much worse at using it than Cynder is." Spyro said.
A dangerous gamble, extremely dangerous. Despite the length of the fight Darkmire had barely used any poison at all, Considering the number of times they had taken hits if Darkmire had been using poison during the entire fight they would all be long dead by now.
Darkmire's breath went from clouds of pale mist due to the chilly air, to clouds of green. Toxic liquid began to ooze down her oversized twisted claws, painting them a sickly green as well.
"Why, you're sooooo right Spyro." Darkmire said, slinking closer and leaving a trail of green fog in her wake. She was now losing all colour except for black shadowy skin, white eyes and horns, and green fangs and claws. She looked like a true demon, a malevolent specter more than a living creature. A wraithlike shadow, oozing poison and advancing on him. "I think what I need is practice, right!?"
Spyro held his breath as the fumes approached, but Malefor swept the air with a fan of wind, skillfully capturing each cloud of poison and then freezing them solid into smooth green statues. Darkmire tilted her head in annoyance, but she and Spyro were both on a timer.
"Fine then, a more intimate administration. Remember how I licked your face earlier?" Darkmire grinned and raised a hand, and gravity shifted abruptly. 'down' was no longer the floor of the cavern, it was the direction of Darkmire, and if they didn't resist they would be pulled in. Flare dug into the wall with all four limbs, clinging tight in grim silence despite the agony of holding on with broken leg and ribs, the increasing gravity tugging at her shattered wings feeling like there was a rabid beast biting and pulling at her, tearing at her wings and trying to rip her off the newly oriented ceiling.
Malefor created a platform of ice to keep himself away from Darkmire, but Spyro dived forwards. He shrouded himself with lightning, glowing bright, a brilliant star of gold and purple crashed into the shadowy monster. He kicked Darkmire's jaw shut with a snap before the bite could land, then grabbed her horn and wrenched her head around. Gravity went with them, violently reorienting itself and sending all of them smashing into the ceiling. Amazingly Cynder remained undisturbed in her icy cradle, simply sliding gently inside the protective ice while the others were sent sprawling. Spyro kicked off Darkmire, rolling to his feet, conjuring a rock and slamming it down on her head. She shrugged off the boulder without even noticing it. The only thing in Spyro's mind was time, and Darkmire was scanning his mind to keep track of his mental countdown. Three minutes left.
Darkmire could also feel her internals burning, mind and soul carving apart by the convexity blast. It was strangely invigorating, satisfying. She could feel their optimism, all of them, feeling the end was in sight. That countdown was everything, if Spyro survived four minutes they would feel joy, but if he didn't then their suffering would be commesurately worse. Interestingly her powers were deceasing, her access to her infinite pool of mana starting to shrink slightly. But even the tiniest trickle of her power would be plenty enough to deal with this.
Spyro blazed with lightning, charging forwards heedlessly. Darkmire took the hit straight to her skull as Spyro rammed into her, this time she felt the impact more than she had a few seconds ago; but it didn't stop her from casually raising a single claw and hearing Spyro hiss in pain. There was a flash of blinding light as Spyro's electricity aura broke, even brighter than expected due to the reflective ice. The light hit all of them, leaving them blinking and briefly dazed. Darkmire blinked her eyes clear and looked across, seeing Spyro with a new gash along his neck, right across his throat. She began to laugh, a horrible rasping sound, looking down at her claw, wet with blood, raising it up so that Cynder got a good look. Then she licked it off, laughing even harder as she savoured the taste.
Spyro grimanced, looking down, seeing his previous chest wound had torn open and was bleeding freely. He raised his paw to his neck, touching the new wound. "It's... shallow."
For a moment he smiled, then he remembered the green on Darkmire's claws. He wiped at his neck and among the trickle of blood he saw faint green.
Inside his mind was nothing but a countdown, so loud it was like a mental scream.
Darkmire held up two claws, cackling.
"You'll never make it to your three precious minutes."
Malefor rushed to his side, but Spyro waved him off. "You can't help me. Just go heal Flare, then guard Cynder. I'm fine. I promised her."
Cynder felt like her blood was turning to ice. She watched Spyro, standing tall and proud, dismissing Malefor who went over to heal Flare.
She squeezed Pleasure's hand for her own reassurance now, and perhaps she was imagining it but she could have sworn she saw Pleasure's convexity beam become the tiniest bit more intense, fear and anger giving them both energy. The clear emptiness inside Darkmire was spreading, the shadows fading. The eye interior was turning into stone, a cave. But Cynder's hope had turned to ash in her mouth, and Darkmire was revelling in it. So many different attempts, so many stupid horrible games, and finally Darkmire had struck the deepest nerve.
Spyro drew in a slow even breath, but when he exhaled there was a slight rattle, he swayed, closing his eyes and focusing. The edges of the wound began to blacken, tiny burns and blisters forming on the scales and crawling ever so slowly down his neck. He grunted, falling to the ground with a heavy thud.
The sound hit Cynder like a physical impact, her eyes flicking between her view of Spyro and the slowly failing darkness of Darkmire's corruption.
"They can't save him." Darkmire said, her voice grating with pain, but also filled with immesurable satisfaction. "Only you can save him, Cynder. With your mastery over poison."
Spyro's face was a mixture of pain and complete focus, his claws clenched and scraped over the ice. The blisters were spreading down his neck and up onto the side of his face, making him hiss with pain at each new one that formed.
Darkmire leaned in close to get a good look, the image swimming before Cynder's eyes until it was all she could think about.
"You're so close to winning. Are you going to let him die?" Darkmire asked mockingly. She leaned down to Spyro's ear. "She's going to let you die."
It was like a knife twisting in her heart.
Darkmire looked over at where Cynder's real body was, laying in the cradle Spyro had made to protect her, it would take her only a few seconds to get to him and start healing him. If she didn't then-
Tears were flowing down her cheeks.
No, Spyro was too important to her. She had to choose him. Her grip on Pleasure's paw loosened.
"Cynder... trusts me..." Spyro gasped out. "She knows... what she has to do."
She felt dizzy, she couldnt think properly. Spyro wouldn't leave her, he couldn't. The soul crystal was still connected to his signature, that had to be it, that had to be-
"Oh I see." Darkmire purred in growing delight. "You think even if you die that it will be possible to revive you? How tricky of you. A shame that Cynder's mind has betrayed your plan."
Darkmire's claws played softly with threads of magic, she was losing a lot of power from what Pleasure and Cynder were doing, but she had enough to shred Spyro's mind.
"The moment his heart stops, Cynder, I'm going to obliterate him. It's a waste to permenantly get rid of one of my playthings, but in this case its worth it to me. Do you think I'm lying?"
Cynders mind spiked with panic, she felt like her thoughts were shards of broken glass. Her instincts were still sharp, and she knew that Darkmire was telling the truth.
Spyro heard all of this, he gritted his teeth, looking up at them, one of his eyes was now looking hazy and dark, with hints of green around it. Cynder's heart broke, she let go of Pleasure's paw, the beam stopped.
Pleasure grabbed for Cynder helplessly, her mouth open hopelessly, tears of rage and fear pouring down her face, but no power coming out.
"Cynder stay in there! I know you can hear me! Don't you dare stop!" Spyro said, his voice suddenly strong, although he was coughing up green liquid.
Cynder screamed helplessly and grabbed Pleasure's paw again, crying as she and Pleasure both blasted Convexity beams once again.
The dream spirit of Darkmire was nearly entirely just a glassy hollow shell now, their beams burning away the shadows. They were so close to killing her, so close, but it tasted like dust in Cynder's mouth as she heard Spyro's pained breathing and even could smell his burned scales.
Darkmire groaned in pain, but still let out a little chuckle, her hand remaining above Spyro's head, waiting patiently for her moment.
"Too late to save him now, even if you left my mind. Now just watch, Cynder. And know that you needed only a single more minute. He's going to die... for nothing."
It was true, looking at the amount of shadow still left in Darkmire they still had perhaps a quater of the shadow to go.
His heart was still beating, but when Spyro breathed out he didn't breathe in again.
"One minute left for you, one minute left in his promise. But for his life? Five. Four. Three."
Cynder felt just as hollow as that glass statue did. The pain was too much, and she felt a hatred welling up inside her, she didn't even try to resist it, in a moment hate would be all she had left.
"Two."
And then Spyro stood back up, grunting slightly with pain but moving with his customary ease and grace. He smacked Darkmire's paw aside while the black dragoness was too stunned to react, and then skipped backwards into a defensive position.
"That's... impossible." Darkmire said, then her eyes narrowed. "You tricked me!?"
Spyro nodded, he created a spark of purple energy and repaired his eye, as well as some of the blisters, although he didn't have the strength to heal all of it.
"That's right, I tricked you. I used lightning to create a small illusion, I can't create a visual copy of myself, but I was able to create just enough to look like I was closer to you than I really was. This scratch? I gave it to myself. The blood you saw on your claws? I wiped some of the blood from my chest wound onto you."
"And you used your own fire magic to burn yourself." Darkmire hissed in realisation. "But... I saw green in your scratch and your saliva."
"Crushed glass dust. My friend Seizo makes goggles and glasses lenses using earth magic. It turned out darker than I expected, but clearly it was enough to fool you. For all your amazing abilities you're still using an ordinary pair of eyes. And your passive mind reading ability doesnt work on a thought that I suppressed by filling my mind with nothing but a countdown."
"And your eye?"
Spyro winced. "Burned it and rubbed glass in it while I was facedown. I'm sorry if I scared you Cynder."
Cynder had been entirely frozen in shock, but at the mention of her name her mind suddenly rebooted. "Scared me!? You nearly killed me!" She screeched, although since she was in Darkmire's mind he couldn't hear her. She began to half laugh and half cry.
"You know I'd actually completely forgotten about the revival crystal." Spyro admitted. "Good thing too, if I'd consiously thought too hard about any of this then you would have read our minds and figured out what I was doing."
Darkmire growled softly. "Like the fact that even now you're playing for time. It's strange, I was feeling so happy for a moment while Cynder was suffering there, but now I'm feeling even more bitter than ever."
"Maybe because inflicting suffering isn't the answer to your problems?" Spyro suggested.
"Very cute." Darkmire said dryly. "But I've had enough of this, Cynder your time is up."
Darkmire frowned as she realised just how close to death she was, only the tiniest scraps of shadow remained. The four minutes were almost up.
Spyro darted forwards, launching a bolt of lightning. Darkmire tried to raise a paw and block it, but her limbs felt so heavy. The electricity lanced through her, and her magical potency did not dampen the impact as much as she had expected, she staggered with a hiss of suprise.
She flicked with wind and smashed Spyro against the far wall, but before she could focus her mind a fireball slammed into the back of her head. Flare rammed into her from behind.
Flare, with broken ribs, a broken leg, dragging her broken wings behind her, but still on the attack, blitzing past Malefor on a comet of fire and utterly ignoring the old purple dragon's offer of healing.
Darkmire tried to fight back, but her supernatural strength was greatly diminished. Her physical power level was perhaps equal to that of Terrador now, and with none of the training. Even with a broken leg Flare took her down within seconds.
The fight between Flare and Darkmire now was exactly as one sided as it looked like it should be, if you knew nothing about them. A finely honed martial arts expert beating up an anorexic old woman.
Darkmire quickly gave up struggling, she didn't have time to waste.
She closed her eyes, ignoring the beatdown and the way her skull was rattling around.
She opened her eyes in the dream, looking down at herself and noting with discomfort just how close to being fully erased she had come.
Of course if she didn't stop them right now she might be history, Pleasure and Cynder were each shooting a beam of Convexity into her chest. She didn't need to physically move in order to wield her power, but it did help. And so when she shredded Cynder's mind she did it by tilting her head slightly to the side.
The beams immediately stopped and Cynder vanished, leaving Pleasure alone in the darkness, with nothing but Darkmire's conjured screen showing what she could see in her eyes for company.
None of the others had fear magic, but they all felt the energy ripple and crack like a whip.
Cynder in her cradle of ice flinched just once as if having a dream about falling, and then began to bleed from eyes, ears and nose. A long narrow trail of blood trickled down to the ground.
Darkmire tried to rise, beginning to chuckle, but she was still a thread away from having her dark side destroyed, and Flare had no trouble keeping her down. "What did you do?" She demanded in the black dragon's ear.
Malefor was first to arrive, the ice parted and he reached down, gently touching Cynder's head. He sent a spark of purple healing magic, then rapidly sent several more.
He had to be calm, just a standard healing, thats all this was. He had never healed a brain before, but it was the same as healing anything else. It had to be.
Darkmire had rendered her brain dead, the thought sent a wave of horror through Malefor's mind.
Sure enough Cynder's physical brain was stitched back together without harm, but she did not wake.
"Well..." Darkmire rasped, voice muffled from underneath Flare. "I guess... Its over, huh?"
She snickered, watching Spyro running over to Cynder and gently trying to shake her awake, but she did not stir.
"Not much you all can do... Now that your only way into my mind is a vegetable."
"Don't say that." Spyro said coldly. "She's strong, too strong for you."
Darkmire rolled her eyes. "A shame to break her, she was the one I had the highest hopes for, but now she's just the millionth black dragoness who's mind I've vaporised. At some point I'll rebuild her with a new personality, but it just won't be the same."
"Shut up!" Spyro said, then his gaze softened as he looked down at Cynder. "Just rest and recover, we'll figure this out. You've done enough, just please, please be okay." He kissed her forehead gently.
"How touching." Darkmire sneered, she opened her mouth, ready to speak and twist the knife even further, but before she could she felt a sharp pain in her chest. No, in her mind.
Pleasure watched, tears streaming down her face, unable to fly without Cynder's help, unable to fight without Cynder's support, she had fallen to the ground before the glass statuelike figure watching as the tiny remaining scrap of darkness inside began to slowly recover and grow.
But when Pleasure saw Cynder laying so still she felt a sudden clarity, she squeezed her paw against the air, imagining Cynder's firm grip. Then she opened her mouth and let loose with one final beam of Convexity energy.
The beam carved through the shadows in a moment, and Darkmire felt a coldness leeching into her soul. Her real eyes went blind, reality faded away. Her control over her real body was lost. She could only see in the dream now, and when she looked down at herself she was clear, see through, and bit by bit her body was fading.
"You!? How dare you!" She loomed over the small figure of Pleasure. "You worthless, pathetic, spineless broken little worm! In what universe could you presume to-"
The cave they were in, filled with corrupting oozing darkness, was rapidly turning to stone. The darkness was retreating to a small pool between them, she didn't have time to waste.
There, in that little puddle beneath her feet was the thing which had been plaguing her all these millennia, a self replicating magical ooze, little more than a performance enhancing drug which removed her mana regeneration speed limits, at the cost of amplifying the worst aspects of Pleasure's original personality, and then over time giving those aspects their own force of will.
To think that this glorious curse which had been bestowed on her, on all of them, which had led to untold destruction and purple and black dragons being used as living extintion weapons. And what was the curse in the end? Barely more than a self replicating steroid.
Now stripped of that darkness she suddenly felt clarity for the first time she could remember. When Hope had felt this clarity he had realised the wrong of his actions and allowed himself to fade away peacefully, gazing at Cynder until he was gone.
Darkmire doubled down.
Now that she was completely free of that urge to destroy the universe she was still going to inflict suffering, all the greater, all the sweeter than it would have been before. She was practically drooling at the thought of how satisfying it would be.
All she had to do was survive without the darkness, but that was easier said than done.
Pleasure flinched as Darkmire raised a hand to strike her. Seeing that flinch felt so good, so satisfying. This was like heaven.
Finally when she hurt people it felt fucking good, it felt like it was supposed to.
Until Pleasure screwed her eyes shut and the Convexity beam began to fire wildly. Darkmire frowned, the beam cut across her chest and left a gaping empty hole. If this kept up she was going to have a problem. It would be a shame to destroy two of the most interesting little minds she'd ever seen in a single day, but her life was more important. She clicked her fingers, aiming to obliterate Pleasure just as she had done to Cynder a moment ago... And nothing happened.
She clicked again, faint red strings lashed out at Pleasure, only to burn away immediately. Shit, this was bad.
"STOP IT!" She screeched at Pleasure. Her voice was laced with a thousand threats, images of every torture imaginable, warning of what she would do to Pleasure if her demand was not complied with. Normally a command like this, even if it was not empowered by even the tiniest hint of fear magic, would be enough to generate instant and absolute surrender. A thousand lifetimes of programming, of torturing this broken pathetic mind in front of her. This command was meant to be unbreakable.
Pleasure trembled, she was shaking like a leaf, clearly resisting even this single command was taking an incredible amount of willpower, but the convexity beam was still whipping around randomly and Darkmire gritted her teeth in fury as she knew she couldn't simply reclaim this mind in her current state.
Thankfully there was another black dragoness body nearby, one who's mind was already shredded, just waiting for her to make a home.
Darkmire cackled in delight at just how well everything was working out for her, since she was already fading away she had no qualms about releasing her grip on Pleasure's mind, freeing her at long last from her influence.
Underneath Flare's restraining paws the black dragoness went completely limp, shadows melting away, glowing white eyes turning emerald green. Pleasure began to cry and sob uncontrollably, still held in a painful lock by a cautious but optimistic Flare.
Darkmire rose out of Pleasure's body, dismissing it like a cast off cocoon. There was a much more physically appealing option available now.
Darkmire narrowed her eyes as her gaze met Malefor's.
"So you can see me then?"
"Indeed I can, enjoying your final moments?" Malefor said. "You're seconds away from unravelling."
"Correct, but even with one percent of my power..."
Darkmire gritted her teeth as she expended magic, shaving valuable seconds off her remaining life in this state in order to blast Malefor with a gust of wind. Even reduced like this the blast still knocked him cleanly across the room. Worth it, in order to make sure he didn't block her from reaching Cynder's body.
"She's trying to possess Cynder!" Malefor shouted in sudden chilling realisation.
Spyro was instantly up, creating a wall of fire around himself and Cynder and taking a defensive posture, he saw the ghostly shape of Darkmire for a moment, swooping straight through the flames utterly unaffected. In desperation he fired a beam of Convexity, slicing the air close to Cynder while making sure not to harm her, but between Darkmire's nearly invisible state and his refusal to aim any nearer to Cynder his attack missed.
Flare released Pleasure gently, darting up and trying to intercept as well, but they were all too late.
Cynder's mindscape was a sky in twilight, two suns in the sky, one permanently in sunset, the other permanently in sunrise. There was no mountain range, no caves, no ocean. No ground at all, just a chain of floating islands circling around in a gentle wind.
A memory of the floating islands where she had first felt truly happy that she was in love with Spyro.
Darkmire touched down on the largest of the islands, her paws landing on hard stone, smooth polished marble in a black and white chessboard pattern, from which a jungle of marble plants in black and white sprouted.
It was a beautiful sight, sky of pale lavender and blue, orange streaks, and stone of pure black and white monochrome colour.
"What an amusing mind." She mumured.
She could see the damage she had wrought, half of the island chain looked like it had been hit by a meteor, islands spinning the wrong way, islands slowly falling into shattered pieces, blackened, burned, cracked, turned into sharp debris like a cloud of floating daggers.
"Time to make it mine." She said, licking her lips in anticipation of the power she was soon going to wield. She had no time to waste, after all, she was starting to lose her shape and the wounds from getting hit by Convexity beams were not healing.
As soon as she began to channel mana she felt better, sighing in satisfaction as tiny lines of corruption began to spread out over the dreamscape, her fading body still concerningly close to oblivion but with every second that she worked she felt death receding.
Then she heard a growl.
Darkmire looked around at the plants around her, a jungle of marble sculptures obscuring vision after a few meters.
"Is that you, Cynder?" She asked.
Only silence in return, but she thought for a moment she saw the long sharp edged shape of a prowling dragoness before it disappeared into the darkness.
"I doubt there is much left of you, a few moments more and I'll put you out of your misery." Darkmire chuckled, although a slight chill ran down her spine.
There was another growl, and the sky seemed to be growing darker.
"Enough of that." Darkmire said dismissively, some solidity was starting to come back to her ghostly self as she asserted control over Cynder's body and mind.
The breeze whipped up, and the disquieting sensation of being hunted rapidly spiked. On the wind she could faintly hear Spyro's voice, whispering encouragement to Cynder.
"Fight her, you can do it Cynder. You're going to be okay."
A pair of green eyes looked at her from the darkness, then another pair, then another, and another.
"What the fuck is this?" Darkmire said.
Shadowy Cynders were circling her, and the sky above was filled with winged shadows sharp as knives.
Cynder's mind had been broken into pieces, but those pieces were angry.
Darkmire glared and snapped her fingers, the sound targeting one of the Cynder shadows and blasting it with a pulse of red energy. The shadow wavered, warping and deforming, before it bared a set of bright white teeth and snarled.
Darkmire's eyes widened fractionally, showing a sign of fear.
The shadows pounced.
It was a long time before the screaming stopped.
Cynder found herself covered in transparent blood, standing above a shredded, chewed, and nearly completely faded body. She groaned softly, rubbing her head, bladed shadows hovered around her, and she felt like she was in multiple places at once. Bit by bit her senses came back together, each one bringing with them thoughts of victory, thoughts of hate, thoughts of relief. She hissed down at the ruined Darkmire, then her eyes narrowed as she heard a faint chuckle in response.
"Didn't... Think... You'd be so vicious." Darkmire muttered.
Cynder didn't respond, she was still missing pieces, she wasn't even sure if she had the ability to speak. She raised her claws, preparing to finish off what was left.
"Do it... You'll carry on my work... Some day..."
Cynder hesitated, and as she did so more pieces of her personality fell back into place. Her curiosity. "You don't regret a single thing, do you?"
"Heh... Only that I died. I could have gone on to big things, new universes, every possible world..."
Some more of Cynder's mind reconnected. "You would have destroyed the whole universe."
"So small minded."
"You're trying to mess with me even now, even as you lay dying. And I'm not going to let you." Cynder said with a slight smirk.
"Just one? Its a good one, you're going to want to know it..." Darkmire said softly.
Cynder tilted her head in consideration, something about Darkmire's tone of voice told her that listening to this would bring her a great deal of discomfort, but also that she would be better off knowing it than not knowing it. "Fine. But speak quickly, I think you only have a few seconds left."
"Everyone I've ever met, everyone who has even heard my name... I've left a little mark on all of them. Someday, somewhere, I'll be reborn in one of their minds."
"Oh really? Is that a fear magic trick?"
"Could be Pleasure... Could be Malefor... could be you. If you tell anyone in Warfang what happened here it could be them too..."
Cynder inspected her claws. "Neat. Someday I'll become an emotion dragon so powerful that I can remove even that stain from this world. I will erase every memory of you, every tether you've ever had to this world."
"You'll never... Remove me... From your own mind..."
"Pretty sure I'm about to do that right now." Cynder said, then she opened her mouth and fired a beam of Convexity.
Darkmire cursed and swore and was getting ready to make all manner of threats, vicious and unapologetic to the very last moment, but her words would never be spoken.
Cynder wiped ash off the shiny tiled floor, and within moments even the ash had faded into nothingness. Darkmire was gone.
Cynder looked up at the sky with a smile, feeling tension relax, taking deep breaths in and out. She watched the floating stones of her mind space mending back together.
If only she had someone to share this with- Spyro!
Cynder's mind fully came back together with a jolt, and she immediately opened her eyes in the real world, finding herself looking up and being tightly hugged by a battered looking purple dragon. He looked dreadful, streaked with blood, dark circles under his eyes, burned and scratched scales. She had never seen a more beautiful sight in her whole life.
"OW!"
Spyro yelped as Cynder hugged him so hard his ribs creaked.
She could hear Pleasure sobbing in the background, but it took her a moment to notice that Spyro was crying too. Cynder hugged him even tighter for a moment, then adjusted her grip so that they were both more comfortable.
"I'm so glad you're okay." Spyro whispered.
"Right back at you!" Cynder responded, wrapping him up tightly in her wings. Malefor was talking, but Cynder and Spyro didn't hear a single word he said, just listening to each others heartbeats, each others breaths. After a few moments she began to smile.
"We did it Spyro." She nuzzled against his cheek, then leaned back and flashed a grin. "And we're all still here."
And with that... it's done. The defeat of Darkmire has long been on my mind, and was very hard to put into words. She fought me until the bitter end, but in the end I'm overjoyed with how they overcame her. To me this felt deeply real, right from the early chapters until now I feel like I've been describing a fully formed world.
I hope you enjoyed, as always thank you so much for reading!
If you're in the mood for more then please do check out Imperial Wilds imperia4dragons. itch. io
Until next time, much love to everybody who has come this far. Next time our team will get their victorious ending.
-4Dragons