Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar

by Blackdrag-rose


Hero: Depths of the Falls

Spyro made sure to give the group a few minutes of rest so they could be ready for anything and everything that the next realm, a mine from what he could tell by looking at the elevator shaft they were sitting near, might have to throw at them as they made their way towards the area that the Dark Master was lurking in, preparing for their arrival and the final battle for the fate of Capora, a battle that he intended on winning, especially since he and his siblings had won all of the major battles since their first adventure had started, though this time there was one major difference and that was the sheer amount of power their foe commanded. The Dark Master was the strongest foe he and his siblings had faced over the years, just like he had been the strongest foe he and Cynder had fought in their previous life, and the previous battle they had been in with the foul dragon, or soul in this case, informed him that it was going to be an incredibly difficult fight the next time they found him and that Spike had done the right thing to call in Malefor, as they would need the first purple dragon's power to bring down the Dark Master, even though this time around he really had no idea how they were going to permanently defeat their foe, especially with the power he wielded. He had to admit that it was a tad bit annoying to admit that they needed help to take down one of the villains of their adventures, where Gaul didn't count since he had been planning the end of the entire world and they needed all the warriors they could muster to stop his army from overrunning Warfang, but, as the others were no doubt thinking, they needed Malefor's help in taking down the Dark Master and liberating the lands of Capora from his dark grasp, just like what had happened in the past when they freed Avalar and the other lands from the villains that were trying to take them over, even though he suspected that Spike was coming up with a plan of attack now that they had an idea of what their foe could do. As he took a few minutes to think about that he noticed that Cynder seemed to be in the middle of thinking about what they had witnessed during the first battle with the Dark Master and had to be comparing it to what the two of them had witnessed before they sacrificed themselves to save this world, where he sighed and hoped that such an event didn't happen again, to which he stood up and faced the rest of the group.

"Okay, its time that we descended into the mines and see what's waiting for us," Spyro said, where the others nodded and started to pick themselves up from the areas that they had been sitting in, even though all of them were grateful for Spike casting the Frost Aura spell on them before they actually tackled the realm they had just finished exploring, before he took a moment to glance at the size of the platform that would allow all of them to reach the mines that were below them, as there was a slight problem with it, "though it looks like we'll have to divide ourselves into groups and take turns riding this elevator down into the mines, since the platform isn't as large as the other platforms we used to get to some of the other realms we saved from our foe's minions."

"Then you, Spike, Ember, and Cynder should be the first ones to head down into the mines," Flame stated, as he could see what Spyro was talking about and figured that sending their most experienced heroes down into the next realm first was the best move they could make, where he was surprised when the others nodded their heads to show that they agreed with his statement, though he smiled for a moment as he focused on their leader once more, just like what everyone else did once they finished nodding their heads to his statement, "we'll join you once the elevator comes back up for us, so we can tackle the rest of the realm together, since I'm positive that the Dark Master put some enemies down there to slow us down so he can prepare for our next battle."

Spyro said nothing for a moment before nodding his head for a second, which was when he, his siblings, and Cynder took a moment to step onto the platform and used it to descend into the depths, where they found that the shaft was long and that it went rather far down into the ground, which made sense based on the sheer size of the realm that they had just finished exploring and liberating from the Dark Master, before they found what appeared to be the end of the shaft and braced themselves, though it was easy to see a couple of bullseye chests were waiting for someone to smash all of them, but for the most part it didn't look like there was anything else in this area for them to worry about, save for a few cracks in the ground, to which they sent it back up to the others and spread out. While they waited for the elevator to come back down, with the rest of the group no doubt riding on it, though once it came to a stop, and Elora, Hunter, Amelia, Hunter, Flame, and Aurora climbed off of it, Ember beckoned to the three bullseye chests that were scattered around the rest of the area that the elevator came to a stop in, something that was followed by three of them smashing the chests to pieces and collected the gems that had been resting inside them, but when one of them was broken it knocked down a couple of wooden planks that were attached to a stone wall and it revealed a small crevice that contained a metallic chest, one that Ember smashed by charging through it, though once all of that was done they started to move out of the area the elevator was now resting in. The opening they walked through brought them to a small open area, like a chamber of sorts, that had a lone Armored Warrior patrolling the area, either meaning their foe was running out of guards or this was something that might have been designed to make them lower their guard if they believed that their foe was running out of soldiers to throw in their way, though that didn't stop Spyro from freezing the Armored Warrior with his Ice Breath and opened the way for Cynder to smash the block to pieces, defeating the first foe of the new realm, one Spike claimed was called Magma Falls, even though he personally felt the name might be misleading, something that he would confirm or deny once they saw the rest of this realm. The group also found a pair of metallic chests resting another set of wooden planks and one of the fireworks crates, to which Flame used a bit of his Fire Breath to take care of the fireworks crate, Aurora smashed both of the metallic chests, and Cynder took out the wall of wooden planks to get at another oddly placed fireworks crate, one that she allowed Bianca to take care of with a wave of her hand and a small bit of flames, before they were able to get the gems that had been inside it and then moved forward once more.

That was when they found one of the Rock Monsters, as the Hyena from the other realm called this sort of monster, that was standing in front of a number of stone platforms that seemed to be rising out of the lava and lowering back towards it, or rather towards the small pool of lava that was beyond the rocky creature, though since the group knew most of these Rock Monsters were like the Earthshapers, unless they were creatures of fear that Aurora had laughed at, Spyro charged at the creature that was in front of them and leapt into the air so he could avoid the incoming club that was coming his way, only to knock his foe into the lava that was behind it. Once the Rock Monster was taken care of Spike determined that none of the rock platforms were actually moving, not that such a thing mattered in the end since Flame and Aurora were the first ones to jump onto the first one and headed for the highest one of them all, where they used their Water Breaths to take down three Fire Imps that happened to be guarding the way forward, opening the way for the others to follow as they came to a stop at the highest stone pillar and knocked out one final Fire Imp that was resting off to the left of the platform, even though it looked like there might be another split in the path. As it turned out both paths seemed to have small bridged that used to connect to the top of the highest pillar Flame and aurora had stopped on, though the openings were only wide enough for one of them to jump through at a time and Spyro picked out the right path after a few seconds, where they found another of Moneybags' shop pads resting inside the area in question, though that was when they found another set of wooden planks that were blocking a side chamber and both Hunter and Amelia pulled them off to reveal what was inside the area. What they discovered was that there was an Armored Brute guarding two metallic chests and a golden chest, so Bianca quickly used a small bit of her magic and froze their foe with a small amount of her Ice magic, to which Elora smashed the ice block to pieces so Ember could step forward and break the pair of chests that were resting near the main chest that they were interested in opening, though once that was done Spike stepped forward and used a bit of his magic to unlock it, revealing a dragon egg with a purple top, a red bottom, and a yellow zigzag in the center, one that he sent off to the Nursery as soon as it was freed from the chest.

With that done the group headed over to the other opening that was in this area and Spyro used his Water Breath to take down a pair of Fire Imps that happened to be guarding the way forward, even though that brought them right to an area that had a couple of Fire Imps dancing around the upper reaches of the chamber, to which Spike nodded and Bianca took a moment to loose a few Water Bolts into the air and knocked out all of the enemies that were in the air, opening the way for Flame to collect the gems that were just resting on the ground while everyone else noticed that there were two close sets of walls for them to use the Wall Jump technique on, to get up to where the Fire Imps had been resting. The first thing that Ember did was smash through another wooden plank wall and found a metallic chest resting behind the planks, but once that was smashed Cynder quickly climbed up the close set of walls that was near where Ember was standing and was able to get up to where the Fire Imps had been dancing, though as she reached that area she spotted two Fire Birds that happened to be guarding a Light Gem, so what she did was ignore the straw baskets that were up there and used her Ice Breath to strike down the fiery birds, before landing on the small wooden platform and collected the Light Gem. Once she was done with that Spyro climbed up the other set of close walls and found that there was another Fire Bird guarding this side of the chamber's ceiling, though he was more interested in the firework he spotted at the end of his path and lit it not a few seconds later, only for the firework to smash a metallic container that was just behind the Fire Bird that was flying near him, so he sighed and froze the bird with his Ice Breath before having Sparx fly over to all of the now freed gems and pick them up from where they were resting. With that done, however, the group took a moment or two to look around the rest of the chamber, just to be sure there weren't any other side paths in this area for them to worry about, though once they determined that there was nothing else in this chamber for them to explore the group headed back to the shop pad and jumped over to the highest stone pillar so they could jump through the next opening, but as most of them did that Spike noticed a golden chest resting on some planks above the stone pillar and jumped up to it so he could unlock it, only to be disappointed when he found a pair of Fire Bombs inside it, so he smashed a pair of straw baskets after collecting the bombs and then glided down to where the others were waiting so they could move forward.

That was when the group found a pair of Armored Brutes that were not only guarding a new metallic chests, three or four of them based on what little they could see at the moment, but the pair also happened to be guarding a Ball Gadget that rested near the backside of the chamber, to which Spike enchanted Hunter and Amelia's arrows so they could freeze both of their enemies and that opened the way for Ember and Cynder to smash through the ice blocks, but as soon as both of the Armored Brutes were taken care of Aurora smashed the metallic chests that were resting near them, of which there were three of them. With all of the gems collected, and all of them were sure of that fact, Spyro stepped into the center of the Ball Gadget and allowed it to surround him with the ball that he would use to navigate the next area of this realm, and he knew that once he descended down the pipe Cynder and the others would do the same thing not a few moments later, so they could keep up with him, even though the area the pipe brought him to was certainly an area full of metallic rails and had a few mine carts moving around, based on what he could see. From what he and the others found out there were two paths for them to take, other mine carts for them to jump over, holes that needed to be bypassed, and a few items that needed to be collected before they reached the end of the tracks they were riding down, since they had little control over the balls this time around, though from what they saw there were two Light Gems scattered throughout the area and the mines also contained two dragon eggs that seemed to be collected by Zoe's magic, as the Fairy happened to be in this area and was ready to assist them, where Spike waited for them to reach the end of the line before determining which of the remaining sets the eggs belonged to, one of them being a yellow egg with white dots while the other was a purple egg with a star on it, and once he made sure neither of the eggs had been damaged he sent them off to the Nursery, before turning his attention to the area the others were staring at after they emerged from the second Ball Gadget. The area in question appeared to be full of lava and had chains everywhere, along with stone platforms that seemed to be leading the way forward, though right now it sure looked like they weren't in a mine and they were somewhere else, meaning Spike's thoughts on the realm's name was actually wrong since he thought they would find a mine below the area they had rested in earlier, though he didn't think about it too much as they ignored the nearby shop pad and moved towards the pool of lava that was in front of them.

What they did was carefully jump over the pair of stone platforms and headed over to where an Armored Warrior was standing, though along the way Elora punched a pair of Fire Imps into the walls that were nearby and opened the way for Spike to use his Ice Breath to freeze the foe that was standing in their way, who was smashed to pieces by Ember not even a few seconds later, though once that was done Flame smashed the pair of dark crystals that were resting nearby so Spyro could start using the Wall Jump on the close set of walls that their foe had been guarding, only for him to find a Dark Gem and smashed it to pieces with the Horn Dive. Once he did that a portion of the wall that was just beyond the area the foul gem had been resting in lowered before his very eyes, revealing that it was a wide platform that bad been raised to block the way forward, though as that happened the group shattered three dark crystals that were resting nearby, along with a metallic chest and a pair of straw baskets, and then, after making sure they weren't leaving anything else behind, Spyro stepped onto the platform and moved into the next section of this realm. It was then that they found that what they had seen a few moments ago was being repeated in this area, as there were a number of stone platforms for them to use to progress deeper into the realm they were in and one of them happened to have a Fire Bird guarding the way, where it was taken down by Hunter loosing an Ice enchanted arrow at it and knocked it into the lava that was below it, but after taking that foe out the group quickly found another one guarding an area that seemed to be the way forward, where Elora made sure to punch the second Fire Bird in the face and opened the way for her and the others to reach a wider area that had a few dark crystals inside it, not to mention a wide crack that was full of lava, one all of them could just jump over to reach an area that an Armored Warrior was currently patrolling. As such the first thing the group did was smash the pair of dark crystals that were in this area and then jumped over the crack that was filled with lava, where they found that there was actually two enemies in this area, as the second foe was another Armored Warrior, and both enemies happened to be in two different areas, one guarding a golden chest while the second seemed to be protecting the path that would allow the group to get deeper into this realm, though the first one fell thanks to Spyro freezing it with his Ice Breath and Cynder just charged through it to smash it to pieces.

Once that was done Spike approached the golden chest, while the second Armored Warrior remained inside the tunnel as it stared at them from afar, and used his magic to unlock it like he had done to all of the other golden chests, something that was followed by him finding a Light Gem inside the chest and he quickly added it to the bag that contained all of the others they had found over the course of their adventure in the lands of Capora, even though Amelia pointed out a straw basket and smashed it for the gems that were inside it. The moment they were done with the golden chest Ember walked over to a few wooden planks and tore the wall down not even a few seconds later, all so she could get at the metallic chest that happened to be behind all of the planks in question, though once that was done the group walked over to where the tunnel was located and found that two more Armored Warriors had appeared between them and the first one they had seen earlier, not that such a thing really mattered since Spike enchanted Hunter and Amelia's arrows so they could freeze the newcomers while Bianca used an Ice Bolt to freeze the other foe that was behind them, opening the way for Ember and Cynder to smash the pair of frozen foes while allowing Flame and Aurora to smash the third one apart together, and they made sure to pick up the scattered gems as well. The tunnel in question brought them right to an area that one of the Armored Brutes happened to be guarding, even though it fell due to Spike freezing it with his Ice Breath and let Elora smash it with a well placed kick, before they came to an area that appeared to be a bunch of wooden platforms that were resting above the lava that was in front of them, at various heights based on what they could see, which was odd since all of them assumed the heat of this area would have set them on fire, especially since Spike didn't feel any enchantments on the wood in question, before they spotted eight Fire Imps guarding the fractured path that the wood formed, though none of them were remotely worried about the new enemies that were in front of them. The reason behind them not being at all worried was due to the fact that a quick burst of one of their Water Breaths, or Water Bolts in Bianca's case, was more than enough to take them all down and that was what they did, where Bianca focused on those that were further away from where the group was standing while Spyro and Flame took the other four down, opening the way for them to head even deeper into the mountain that they were currently exploring.

While there was an Armored Brute guarding the tunnel that the wooden platforms lead them to, who seemed ready for all of them, Spike spotted a Light Gem that was at the end of a side path, one that Bianca had cleared the enemies out of just a few moments ago, to which he flew over to where it was resting and added it the bag that contained the rest of the Light Gems they had collected, before he returned to where the Armored Brute was standing and watched as Aurora used her Ice Breath on it so Ember could smash it to pieces a few seconds later, though once that was done they headed over to a pair of straw baskets, smashed them, and headed down the tunnel their foe had been guarding. Of course they found one of the Armored Warriors guarding the tunnel, not even a few steps away from where their last foe had been standing, but that only prompted Spyro to freeze the Gnorc in question and then shatter the ice block himself, eliminating another foe in a matter of seconds, before he resumed walking down the tunnel so he could see what else was going to be thrown at him and the others, since he was assuming there would be more to this realm than what they had seen so far. It didn't take them all that long to reach the end of the tunnel, which brought them to another chamber that seemed to have multiple paths for them to take, but the first thing they did was have Spike use his Ice Breath on an Armored Warrior that was in the middle of patrolling the area so Elora could smash it to pieces, which was followed by them heading over to a tunnel or opening that was covered in wooden planks, which fell not a few seconds later as Ember smashed them all apart, even though that revealed an area that had a big gap between the side of the cavern that they were standing on and the other side that an Armored Warrior was guarding, where the only way to cross over to where their foe was standing was to cross over a floating fragment of a wooden bridge that Spike was sure wasn't being supported by magic and that the rest of the bridge didn't exist at all, causing him to tilt his head since this didn't make sense at all. As it turned out Spike poked at it for a moment, using a bit of his magic to be exact, and the odd instance fell out of the air and dropped into the lava, which the group wasn't expecting to see if they were being perfectly honest, to which he simply sighed and used his magic to make a temporary bridge for them to cross over, an ice bridge anyway, which was mostly for Hunter, Amelia, and Bianca to use for a few moments since he and the others could fly over there, and that was followed by Spyro freezing the Armored Warrior so Cynder could smash it to pieces with a charge.

With that foe taken care of they followed the path that it had been guarding and came to a section of the cave that looked like a dead end and happened to have an infinity sign formed out of a wooden walkway and a stone walkway, though this was where Ember rushed forward and started to charge all over the place, as there happened to be a Thief in this area and they knew that it was better to let her deal with these creatures, to which they waited near the entrance of this section of the cave and watched as Ember chased the Thief down, before she barreled into its backside and she brought the dragon egg over to where Spike was standing, who noticed it was a white egg with green spots as he sent it back to the Nursery, before they headed back to the last split in the path and found a sign that caused the dragonflies to head out.

"Its been a while since we found one of these signs," Amelia commented, because the last one had been before they found the way into Vicky's castle, even though she had been thinking that they might not find one while they were closing in on where the Dark Master was hiding until the final battle between them, though even as she said that the rest of the group took a few moments to stand off on the side and simply waited for the dragonflies to return with the dragon egg and the Light Gem they would find in the side area they were currently exploring.

"Yeah, but Sparx and the others can handle whatever is thrown at them," Flame replied, though as he thought about that he turned his attention back to what they had seen and what they had witnessed since the start of this adventure, despite the fact that his focus was on all of the destruction that had been caused to Icy Wilderness and the realms that Vicky ruled over, who was going to be in trouble for the foreseeable future since repairing certain sections of her domain was going to break whatever fortune, before he glanced over to Spike for a moment, "Say, Spike, how many gems have we recovered from the Dark Master's forces?"

"Based on what I can tell, we've got between seventy thousand to eighty thousand gems," Spike answered, which none of the group was expecting to hear, as most of their adventures didn't even come close to this amount of gems, because his count revealed that they had tripled, if not quadrupled, the highest count they had recovered in the past, while Flame and Aurora were caught off guard by just how much treasure they had recovered since the start of this adventure, "and, based on what's happened in the past, Sparx and the others will likely come back with a few thousand more, depending on what sort of obstacles might be standing, or flying, in their way."

"And, before you ask, we haven't determined what to do with the gems, even though we usually return the stolen treasure back to its previous owners," Spyro added, referring to the fact that during some of their adventures he and his siblings had collected all of the stolen treasure and had made sure all of it was returned to those who previous held it, which was likely what they were going to do this time, whenever they reached the end of this adventure, which had to be soon since they were getting closer to where the Dark Master had to be waiting for them.

"Might I suggest giving about seventy-five percent of that to Vicky?" Flame inquired, as while he was sure that he, Aurora, or one of the Elders had given the main heroes of the group the right to do whatever they wanted with the gems that were recovered from their enemies, even if Spyro was saying that all of it might be given back to the residents of the four lands that the Dark Master had tried to take over, he felt that he might as well speak his mind before they did anything else and left this part of the realm, "I mean, her domain was damaged more than any other realm or homeworld that we explored so far, which means she'll need all the resources she had muster to repair and overcome all of the damage that the Dark Master caused to her island and castle, so I figured that we could give her a large chunk of the recovered treasure and help her get her domain back in order."

"I like the way you think." Cynder commented, as while some people could think that Flame was being too generous with the recovered gems, and she was sure that there were those that might have that sort of thought, she knew that it was the right thing to do given all of the damage Vicky's homeworld had suffered during their fight with the Dark Master, which did make her wonder just how much of the mountain they were exploring was going to be destroyed when they finally found their foe and fought him, something they would find out in due time.

Spyro and the others nodded their heads, as most of them had been thinking about Vicky and what they could do to help the Ice Princess out, though before anyone could say anything else Sparx and the other dragonflies returned to the area that they were resting in and magically delivered the items they had recovered from the small tunnel they had tackled, as one was a sack that contained about three thousand gems, another was a yellow dragon egg with white dots, and the final item was a Light Gem, to which Spike made sure to put the gems away, stored the Light Gem inside the bag the others had been placed in, and sent the egg back to the Nursery before they resumed moving through the rest of the realm. With the side section of the realm taken care of, and the dragonflies were sure they had left nothing behind, the group headed over to the final opening of this chamber-like cavern and found that an Armored Brute was guarding the way forward, though that was when Aurora froze it with her Ice Breath so Flame could smash it with a charge, which allowed them to walk down the tunnel it happened to be guarding, though they did have to jump over a few holes in the ground that had lava resting at the bottom of them. The tunnel quickly brought them to an outside area, one that seemed different from the areas they had explored earlier, as in when they entered the first area of Molten Mount and noticed what they would be facing, only to stop as they found that there were a few moving rock platforms that were suspended in the air, which seemed to be the path that would allow the ten of them to move deeper into the realm, not to mention make their way towards whatever the next realm was, and they were wide enough for the entire group to stand on them, meaning all of them could jump onto the first platform and let it move them in the direction of the next platform. Not a few moments later they found out something interesting, there were actually six floating stone platforms, not the three that they originally believed there had been when they first entered this area, and the path the set of stone platforms formed was bringing them right up to what appeared to be a metallic entrance of some kind, one that had a metallic cover protecting the area in question, and there were yellow and black stripes on the upper part of the front of the structure, like a warning sign of some kind, before they noticed that there were a few metallic pistons that seemed to be moving and that there was an opening that lead into what appeared to be the true mine.

"Are... are we already at the end of Magma Falls?" Aurora asked, as she couldn't believe that they had reached the end of the realm that the mine shaft's elevator had brought them to, in record time no less, though when she glanced at Spike he nodded his head, informing her and the others that they had definitely reached the end of the current realm and were just outside the next realm that stood between them and the Dark Master, "I would have thought that it would have taken us a lot longer to reach the next realm, especially after everything we went through to reach the end of the previous realm, not to mention all the enemies we had to fight to reach the mine shaft in the first place."

"Well, we'll take another short break, just to get back whatever energy we've used so far, and then we'll head into the next realm and get closer to where the Dark Master is hiding," Spyro replied, as while he and the others were surprised by what they were seeing, as most of them were surprised by how short this realm had felt, especially since it reminded him and his siblings of some of the realms they had assisted in the past, the ones that they had completed in what appeared to be record time in comparison to some of the others, he still felt that this was a good place for them to rest, as it looked like any enemies that might be guarding the entrance of the next realm were leaving them alone, which he was perfectly fine with since it gave them a chance to rest before they faced whatever the next realm had to throw at them.

Spike and the others nodded their heads as they scattered around the area that was in front of the next realm's entrance, even though Ember made sure to smash the three dark crystals that were near them before sitting on the ground, though each of them were eager to see what in the world was waiting for them in Dark Mine, which was either one of the last few realms between them and the Dark Master or it had to be the last one before they found their foe, though everyone was hoping that Malefor would appear soon, otherwise they might have to face their foe on their own and they were sure that if such a thing happened they might not be able to win at all, but time would tell and they were willing to wait to figure out what was going on before facing the Dark Master for the fate of this land.