//------------------------------//
// Rage: Warlocks in the Temple 
// Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

It didn't take the siblings long to return to Winter Tundra, after their visit to Mystic Marsh, and instead of stopping for a few seconds, to discuss the remaining realms they would tackle and which they wanted to take on next, Spike and Ember simply followed Spyro as he lead them towards the next realm they would be visiting, and that meant heading over to the first tunnel that they found the Professor at the end of earlier. The portal in question would take them to Cloud Temples, one that seemed interesting just by the name, and while he knew they could visit Robotica Farms and Metropolis, the realms that the other two portals would lead them to if you decided to pick those portals, he felt they should focus on the portals that were outside the castle and then deal with the ones that were inside the castle. Elora, as they discovered, had walked over to the passage that would allow them to enter the area that Ripto was in, no doubt practicing with the stolen Power Crystal for when they arrived, but first all three of them were focused on saving the rest of the realms from whatever was happening to them at the moment, regardless if Ripto was behind the problems the realms were facing or not. They still found it rather odd that Mystic Marsh hadn't been bothered by the villain they were here to defeat, rather the residents had been in danger due to one of the Water Wizards falling asleep, something that would likely be corrected for the future, before they turned their attention to the portal they were heading towards and passed through it.

When they appeared in the starting area for Cloud Temples, however, the siblings discovered some nice looking stone temples, ones that had tiles on the roofs and near the various entrances, that were resting on some sturdy clouds, ones that Spike determined had to be enchanted in some manner to be able to hold all of the buildings that the residents of this realm called home. Standing near the flag that bared the symbol of this realm was a yellow skinned individual that was wearing an orange colored robe and happened to be floating above the ground, where the flag indicated that they knew who they had to talk to, so they could learn about what's happening to the realm and what they needed to do to restore order, but they remained still for a moment as they took in the rest of the area in front of them. The other bring they noticed was a red skinned individual that was wearing a black robe, though his appearance made it look like he was a tiger that had blue colored hair, which was rather weird when they considered the other colors, and he happened to be carrying a magical wand. Spyro and Ember glanced at Spike for a moment, knowing that he was going to be critical to helping out this realm, thanks to all of the magical knowledge that he had accumulated over the years, before they moved away from where the starting area was and headed over to the being that was floating nearby, as it was time for them to figure out what was happening to this realm and what they could do to help everyone out.

"Ah, Spyro, Spike, Ember, I'm glad that you guys are here." the being said, to which he shifted his head for a second or two and glanced at the other being that was standing at the edge of the area that they were in, as they happened to be on a rather small island that rested on some clouds, before he focused on them once more, "I used to be the most powerful Wizard in all of Avalar, or I was until that Warlock over there stole my magic wand... not to mention that his friends have stolen all of the magic wands that my friends had been carrying, allowing them to use the power within our wands to take over the entire realm."

"Well, don't worry, we'll take your wands back and save this realm from the Warlocks." Spike stated, where the Wizard put a smile on his face, showing that he believed what Spike had to say, though at the same time his siblings approached the Warlock that was standing in their way, because now that they knew the wand he was carrying was stolen that meant they knew who their enemies were.

As it turned out the Warlock, seeing them coming his way, pointed his wand at them and cast a stone bolt at the pair, one that was rather fast as they soon discovered, but it was easy to dodge the attack and let Ember smack him over the edge of the island that held the starting area, though he did drop the wand he was holding, allowing the Wizard to rush over to them and collect his wand. Interestingly enough the Wizard hugged his weapon for a second, showing that he was happy to have it back, before he cast a spell on the five moving platforms that were moving around the area that was between them and the temple that was in front of them, where they stopped and then snapped into place between the two areas, forming a walkway that looked like a diagonal Z in Spike's eyes. Once the walkway was in place the siblings turned around and focused on the stuff that was around them, where they found three gems resting on the ground and picked them up, before heading over the walkway so they could see what the other enemies in this realm were, since they knew there were one or two more for them to worry about. It didn't take them long to reach the area that was in front of the first building and discover that there was a stone ram waiting for them, one that suddenly burst out of its stone casing and charged at them, causing Spyro to flame it down and open the way for him and his siblings to see what was inside the building and continue their exploration.

Inside the building they found two more Statue Rams, as Spike and Ember decided to call them, surprising Spyro for a moment since he wasn't used to both of them suggesting the same name at the same time, but then he regained himself and took down the pair of enemies that were inside the building, allowing them to pick up the gems that were around the room, smash a few straw baskets, and break a few metallic vases. Once the room was cleared the siblings turned to their left and headed for the other opening that the building had, one that brought them to a short walkway that connected to the second building, though the first thing they had to do was break a few more metallic vases before they could even think about entering the next structure. The moment the three metallic vases were smashed open, and the gems inside them had been collected, the siblings entered the second building and found a brand new statue resting behind the Statue Ram that was in front of them, where this one looked like a small creature that had fur and some decent sized horns, but the first thing they had to deal with was the Statue Ram that broke out of its casing and charged at them. As Spyro and Ember dealt with that, by rolling out of the way and then flaming their foe, Spike stared at the other creature as it broke out of its casing not even a few seconds later, informing him that someone must have sealed all of the Rams and whatever these creatures were in stone statues, leaving them to decorate the buildings they would be walking through. If that was the case, and those statues had been for decorating the temples, than that meant the Wizards were the ones at fault and not the Warlocks, as that would mean that the Warlocks had gotten tired of seeing animals trapped in stone statues and did all this to free them, but for now he focused on blasting the creature, a Rock Spitter as he soon discovered thanks to the creature spitting a rock at him, and then repeated himself when a second one showed up a second later.

As soon as he had taken out both Rock Spitters, and his siblings had taken care of the Statue Ram, they explored the rest of the area they were in and smashed all of the metallic vases that were in the building, and those that were on the small walkway outside the building, allowing them to collect all of the gems that were now scattered around the building, though Spike did notice that the defeated Rock Spitters left behind a magma rock, which he tossed over the edge so none of them set fire to the building.

With that area cleared out the siblings walked out onto the second walkway, which wasn't connected to either of the walkways they had walked on so far, and found a whirlwind that took them up to the next level of this building, which was when Spyro charged a Statue Ram and took him out, allowing Ember to break the three straw baskets that were nearby as Spike looked at the cubed shelves that were around them, taking a moment to look at the scrolls, books, and pieces of parchment that were around him. He was instantly fascinated by what he discovered, as some of the pages were signed by the Wizards of this realm and others were signed by Warlocks, as he could tell the difference thanks to the distinct writing styles that were on the pages, and the contents of the pages only confirmed something he thought about when they first laid eyes on this realm, that it was a place of magic and study, before someone snapped and this happened. From what he could tell, by checking what Elora had written in the Guidebook, the only reason this realm would have been bothered by Ripto was because most of the magical wands and scepters came from here, and there was even a rumor that the one who made the Talismans for the realms of Summer Forest and Autumn Plains lived somewhere in this realm, but Elora was unable to determine if that was true or not. Of course he then realized why Ripto had never come here in the first place, after his first scepter was smashed and eaten by Gulp, because he didn't have the Orbs necessary to empower the portal he and his sibling had walked through a few minutes ago, which put a smile on his face as he looked at the rest of the scrolls and tomes, as he knew that he could spend days here, before someone tapped his tail, causing him to turn around for a moment.

It was in that moment that he found Spyro and Ember looking at him, not with disappointment, as one might expect due to how eager he got whenever he discovered something new to learn about or found some tomes and scrolls that caught his attention, rather they had been hoping that he would have pushed the desire to check all of this out later, once they were done with Ripto, and not stop them while they were saving this realm.

"Sorry, I guess I was too eager to see what the tomes and scrolls said, so much so that I temporarily forget why we had come to this realm in the first place," Spike said, where he rubbed the back of his head for a second, to show that he did understand what his siblings were silently conveying to him, before he returned the books and scrolls to where they had been a few moments ago and then slipped the Guidebook back into his satchel, before turning towards his siblings once more, "Okay, I'm ready to continue with our quest."

Spyro and Ember nodded their heads before walking over to the nearby opening and jumped into the air, where Spike watched as they glided over to the opening that was in the building they had been in a few minutes ago, only this time is was connected to a walkway that was near the roof, one that was separated into two parts, so he followed after his siblings and glided over to the other building. As they landed on the first half of the walkway the first thing they did was pick up the gem that was laying near them, adding it to their collection, before Ember jumped over the gap first and hardened her tail as the Stone Ram burst out of its casing and charged at her, which was the moment she beat it into the ground and took care of it. That opened the way for Spyro and Spike to join her as she headed for the other opening that would allow them to leave the building once more, as there was nothing else they could do on the broken walkway, though as they headed outside they found a Rock Spitter that broke free of its statue and a Warlock, who no doubt freed the trapped creature with his stolen wand, though near the wall was a Wizard without a wand. Since the way was blocked by a golden door of some kind, which had a head that either resembled a laughing dog's head or one of the Warlock's heads, all they could do was focus on their enemies, so while Spyro and Ember chased down the Rock Spitter, and avoided its attacks, Spike took care of the Warlock, stopping the incoming rock bolt with his magical barrier, allowing him to take care of the Warlock in a matter of seconds, even if that disappointed him a little. It didn't take Spyro and Ember long to take out the Rock Spitter and make this area safer than it had been a few seconds ago, allowing the Wizard to move from where he was hiding and claim his wand, which he used to get rid of the golden door that was blocking their way, allowing the siblings to see that there were a few more foes outside the area they were in, not that they were surprised by that.

With the door opened the siblings smashed the nearby pair of metallic vases, to collect the gems, and then headed through the opening the Wizard had created, where they quickly took care of the pair of Rock Spitters that were standing near the edge of the balcony they were on, though all Spyro and Ember did was hit them over the edge with their tails and dismissed them from the realm, even though Spirit Particles flew up out of the clouds a few seconds later. Once they were taken care of the three of them quickly cleared out this area of all the gems that were near them, where one happened to be inside a straw basket and some were just laying on the ground, before they even glided over to the ground that was in front of the next building they would be moving through, even though there were a fair amount of enemies outside the building, which would need to be taken out first. There happened to be two Statue Rams, these ones also breaking out of their casings as the siblings approached them, and another Warlock, so what happened was that Spyro and Ember pulled the rams away from the Warlock and let Spike deal with him, though that ended in Spike trying something new, as he just dodged the incoming attack and then blasted his foe with a fireball, knocking him to the ground in seconds, just in time for Spyro to flame his foe as Ember smacked hers in the face with her hardened tail. With those three enemies taken care of the scared Wizard, who was hiding behind a nearby tree, rushed out from where he had been hiding and picked up his wand, where he then cast a spell on the building's entrance and opened the way so they could progress to the end of the path they were following. As they watched him do that, however, all three of them also noticed an area that they could walk through to their left, where it looked like a rather tall person was standing, like he was admiring a tree of some kind, which meant they might have found an area that held one of the Orbs they were looking for, but for now they focused on the more immediate issue as they headed inside the building.

The first thing they did upon entering the large structure was take out the Rock Spitter and the Statue Ram that were in the area that was just beyond where the golden door had been located, but as Spyro and Ember did that Spike glanced to their right and found the location of the Powerup Gate for this realm, though this time around there was a Wizard that happened to be standing beside it, something that was unusual when he considered the majority of the realms they had been to so far. The other thing that interested him, as his siblings finished off their foes, was the opening that was right in front of them, one that none of them could reach without him activating his Substitution spell, but for now he decided that they would come back to this point once the rest of the realm was safe from the Warlocks, so he joined his siblings as they collected the gems that were around them, mostly by smashing a metallic vase for the gem it held. From there Spike had his siblings stop as he investigated the area near the Powerup Gate, just to be sure there weren't any gems for them to pick up, which was when he backtracked outside and smashed some baskets that were near the tree the last Wizard had been hiding behind, allowing him to pick up the gems and then return to where his siblings were waiting for him. After that they walked up the short ramp that one of the Wizards was standing at the top of and found that there was a Warlock standing in front of a gap between this building and the next structure, one that had a golden door as well, to which Spyro picked up the nearby gems as Ember whacked the Warlock in the chest with her tail, causing him to fall to one knee as Spike blasted him over the edge.

That, of course, allowed the Wizard to pick up his wand and cast a spell that did away with the golden door, revealing three more Statue Rams that seemed frozen for now, though as the siblings glided over to the structure, which seemed to be a connection point between two buildings, the rams broke out of their casings and charged at them, leading to all three of them flaming their foes down. With those enemies taken care of Spyro and Ember picked up the gems that were on the inside of the structure, where Spike paused and stared at the lone tower that the other path could have taken them to, a path that the tall figure they had seen a few moments ago was standing near, before he shelved the thought and caught up with his siblings again. As they glided over to the other building that the structure was near they found another Warlock messing with the wand he had stolen, standing in front of the inactive exit portal for this realm, with a powerless Wizard standing to their right, so what happened was that Spyro and Ember distracted the Warlock as Spike blasted him in the chest, forcing him to drop the wand he was holding and let the Wizard reclaim what was rightfully his. With that done they collected all of the gems that were around them, and made sure to smash the couple of straw baskets for the gems that were inside them, before regrouping with the Wizard, who was now standing to the left of the exit portal for some reason, but they decided not to ask questions as they approached him.

"Spyro, Spike, Ember, thank you for freeing our city from the claws of those evil Warlocks, and for helping us recover our stolen wands." the Wizard said, which was followed by him waving his wand for a moment, causing Spyro and Ember to wonder what he was doing this time, before an Orb appeared out of thin air, where Spike understood that he must have been a keeper or guardian for the Orb and had sealed it somewhere to keep it safe from the Warlocks, least they leave this realm and bother someone else with their stolen magic, "Please, take this Orb, as a token of our gratitude... and because I foresee that it will be helpful to the three of you in the near future."

Spike took the Orb and added it to the Guidebook, activating this realm's exit portal in the process, before he and his siblings headed outside the room and glided back to the structure that rested between the two buildings, as there were a few more things for them to grab while they were here, both Orbs and gems to be exact, and they already knew where the other Orbs were located, they just had to help the residents in question first. Instead of heading back into the previous building they had been in, where the Powerup Gate was located, the siblings jumped over the edge and glided down into the area that the tall guy was standing in, where they landed near him and started to clear out the area of gems and straw baskets, even though there happened to be one of the circular metallic chests near where the guy was located, meaning they either had to break it with Ember's tail or find a missile to break it. While they did that Spike found that there were a few straw baskets up on the points that were near the guy they were ignoring for the moment, mostly so they could clear out the area that was around him, and that even included two metallic vases that were off to the side of the tower Spike had spotted earlier, but none of them stopped until they were sure the area had been cleared of gems, save for the one chest they hadn't smashed yet. While they were doing that Spike did consider heading over to where the Powerup Gate was resting and seeing what sort of power they could get from it, as he was sure it was either the Superflame or the Superfly abilities, before deciding that he would find out when his siblings did and not a moment before, which would no doubt surprise Spyro and Ember if he told them about his decision.

In the end they finished clearing the area of gems and breakables, choosing to leave the circular metallic chest in case there was a missile that was linked to it, and headed over to where the tall guy was standing, even if Spike had to use a whirlwind to get back to where his siblings were since the tower didn't have a walkway that connected it to the area Spyro and Ember were in, where they found that he was wearing a blue shirt, brown pants, and had straps that seemed to help keep his pants up, but he seemed a little wary of their presence.

"I'm a secret agent, and I'm heading to my super secret hideout!" the tall guy stated, where Spyro, Spike, and Ember just stared at him for a moment, because while they were willing to believe that the young twins from Scorch were secret agents, based on the realm and what Spike had found out for them, they refused to accept that this guy was one, as he loudly proclaimed that statement to them, which would have been bad if he was a secret agent and they were the ones that were trying to wreck the realm, "Only members of my secret club are allowed to enter my hideout, so I'm not leaving this area until the three of you leave or hide someplace where I can't see you."

The siblings glanced at each other for a moment, as they weren't sure what to make of this guy, before Spike looked at one of the branches in the tree and had an idea, because he used a bit of his magic and made it disappear, using the same spell he had used back in Breeze Harbor, the Invisibility spell, only this time it was toned down and focused on a single item, instead of an entire area. The tall guy, on the other claw, didn't see the branch disappear and suddenly reappear as Spike let go of the magic, to which Spyro and Ember nodded their heads and followed their brother behind the wall that was around the entire area the guy was standing in, though that was when he weaved his magic around them and gave each of them a temporary Invisibility spell, one that ensured they could see each other and no one could see any of them for a few minutes. As it turned out they only had to wait a few seconds before the tall guy left the area they had found him in and watched as he headed towards the tower that Spike was interested in, to which they followed him as he made his way over to the area in question, where they found that it had been a good idea on Spike's part to use the spell on them, as there wasn't enough room for the three of them to hide if they followed the guy without the spell, and it wasn't long before the guy opened the tower's door and headed inside. Spike did have to stop Ember from smashing the couple of straw baskets that were revealed to them, as that would break the spell and alert the guy to the fact that someone was following him, to which she nodded and followed after him and Spyro as they carefully followed the guy through the rest of the tower, even if it meant heading outside and using some steps to get to the top level.

After the top room of the tower they found a very short walkway that connected it to a small floating island, one that had a small building on it, and watched as the guy ran towards the building and stopped as soon as he stood in the center of it, which was the moment that Spike dispelled the Invisibility spell so they could approach him, where the guy looked surprised to see them again.

"What, you guys managed to get to my secret hideout, without following me?" the tall guy said, which was the moment that the siblings were sure they were dealing with someone who wasn't very bright, even though none of them said a word as he pulled out an Orb and handed it over to them with a large smile on his face, as if he had determined something that wasn't actually true, "You guys must be members of my secret club after all, so here, take this secret decoder, as we can use it to send messages back and forth when we discover something."

The siblings said nothing to that as Spike put the Orb where it belonged, in the Guidebook, before they departed from this area and quickly smashed all of the straw baskets they had passed as they followed the guy up to this area, allowing them to backtrack a little before they reached the tower's entrance, which was when their dragonflies indicated that the rest of the gems were away from the tower... though as they headed into the large building, after using the whirlwind to get back to the entrance, they paused as they saw an interesting sight.

"No way. Is that what I think it is?" Spyro inquired, because what they were looking at was the Powerup Gate that they needed to use to help the residents of this realm in another manner, one that would give them an Orb in the process, but it was the gate itself that he was staring at, as the symbol that was on it was one they hadn't seen before and he knew that Spike was already studying what they were seeing.

"If you're referring to the fact that this is a powerup we've never seen before, than yes." Ember remarked, as she was caught a little off guard by what they were seeing, as she had been sure they had experienced all the different types of abilities these Powerup Gates could give them, but she was wrong in that regard since there was a new one resting in front of them, which did make her curious as to what it would give them.

"It is nice to see visitors that are so interested in our Superfreeze Gate," the nearby Wizard said, to which the siblings turned towards him for a moment, as they were interested in what he had to say on the matter and if there were any hints he could give them for when they tested out the power of the new powerup, before he considered something that would likely give them the chance to test it out for themselves, "anyway, our mystical bell towers haven't been rung in days, as they have been overrun by Trolls, and from what I've discovered fire spells don't work on them, as it just makes all of them crazier than they were before. From what I've been told this Superfreeze Gate will help us tame the trolls, but we really need those bells to ring."

Spyro smiled for a moment as he passed through the Gate in question, where Spike and Ember watched as his chest scales, his horns, the fin shaped spines, and even the tip of his tail turned an icy blue color, almost as if their brother had been empowered with the power of frost itself, to which Spyro headed into the room behind them and found a pair of Trolls, red-orange skinned creatures that had fire on their heads, standing near one of the walls, where he breathed on the pair and loosed a bit of frost, freezing them both in blocks of ice.

"Amazing! This is simply amazing!" Spike replied, as he was impressed by what the Superfreeze Gate had given Spyro, who was rather impressed with his look and the power that he could wield for a certain amount of time, and he could see that even Ember was thinking about what their brother was able to do now, before an idea came to him, "I wonder if there are any additional Powerup Gates like this one, where they'll give us something that we haven't seen before, as I'm hoping we haven't seen the last of these gates."

"Only one way to find out, and that's by visiting the other realms and helping them out." Ember said, as while she and Spyro knew that Spike was excited to find something new, like a brand new type of Powerup Gate, they also knew that the answer to their brother's thoughts would be revealed in the future, as there were two more realms for them to assist once they were done here.

While she said that Spyro retraced his steps and walked through the Superfreeze Gate again, restoring the timer on his new power, before watching as Ember and Spike did the same thing, coming out looking similar to what he currently looked like, which was when they moved out and headed towards the pair of Trolls he had frozen a few moments ago and found that they were still frozen. Just to be sure they didn't escape yet the siblings applied a little more frost to the pair and then climbed on the ice cubes they were trapped in, allowing them to jump up into the other area they had spotted when they were first walking through this building, meaning they could explore the rest of the realm and see if they could find the rest of the gems while they were ringing the bells. What they discovered was that there were a pair of Trolls that were wandering around the room that was in front of them, even if they picked up a few gems in process, and, oddly enough, there was another Superfreeze Gate in this area, why they had no idea, but they wasted no time in freezing the pair, one by where one of the bells was located and one that was running near the second Superfreeze Gate. With those two stuck like that Spyro glided over to the second one and then jumped up into the chamber that the first bell was resting in, leaving Spyro and Ember to smash the straw baskets that were nearby and collect all of the gems that were in this area, before watching as their brother froze one more Troll and then jumped onto the new ice cube so he could charge into the bell, allowing it to ring.

What was interesting was that when the first bell was rung the Troll that Spyro had frozen was broken out of his small ice prison, which made sense due to the fact that they had been really close to where the bell was located, and ran over to where Spike and Ember were standing, positioning himself so that they can use him to jump up into the chamber where the second bell was located, and it wasn't long before they froze him and the Troll that was near the bell, allowing them to ring it as well, before they headed back to the Wizard that was near the first Superfreeze Gate.

"You guys did well in helping us ring the bells, but there's still one left," the Wizard stated, informing the siblings that he could have said something else, about them expecting an Orb and him not being able to hand over one due to the fact that they hadn't actually finished helping him out, but he didn't say that and that made the siblings happy, before he took a moment to gesture to what was behind the Superfreeze Gate, "you can use the whirlwind that's behind the Superfreeze Gate to access the area that the last bell is in, and, like the other two, there are a number of Trolls around it."

The siblings nodded their heads and headed through the Superfreeze Gate, allowing the whirlwind that was behind it to take all of them up to the area that was above them, where they found a Troll jumping up and down near the edge of the entrance to the area that the final bell was located, along with a Troll that happened to be running around the area that was around the tower the bell was in. What they did first was follow the one Troll that was running in a circle and picked up all of the gems that were in the area, including smashing some straw baskets, though as they did that Ember spotted the missile that would allow them to blow open the circular metallic chest that was near where the tall guy had been standing, so they froze the running Troll and formed a step so she could get up to the missile, allowing it to shoot off into the distance and detonate on the chest in question a few seconds later. With that taken care of the siblings focused on the Trolls that were near the entrance to the bell's tower and froze them while they were moving, forming a pair of steps for them to get up into the tower, where they found two more Trolls in the tower in question and proceeded to freeze the pair in their tracks, allowing Spyro to jump on them and collide with the final bell, which put a smile on their faces as they left the tower and glided down to where the Wizard was standing.

"Thanks, you guys are lifesavers, you know that?" the Wizard remarked, where the siblings glanced at each other for a second or two, as they had figured that out on their own over the course of their adventure in Avalar, before they focused on him again as he pulled out an Orb and handed it over to them, "Here, you guys can have a souvenir from the Cloud Temples gift shop, as thanks for helping me out."

Spike said nothing to that as he collected the Orb and stored it inside the Guidebook, though once that was done he and his siblings headed to where the circular metallic chest had been located and picked up the gems Ember had freed with the missile, but the moment those gems were done, and their dragonflies indicated that everything had been picked up, they headed for the exit portal so they could head to one of the other two realms that needed assistance, before they focused on Ripto and brought an end to his rampage.