FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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"Seraphor, I need to talk to you. Open the door, right now."

"I'm not going to open that door! It's the only barrier between your world and my world now!"

"Sera, your emotions cannot help you. You need assistance. At least hear what we have to say to you. I know you're better than this. Now, open the blockage, and let us in."

Seraphor went silent for a while, long enough to worry both Spyro and Ignitus. Then, the next moment, there was a loud noise from behind the door, and as it opened, both of them became very sympathetic.

Unlike in his daily life, Seraphor was in the border between a dragon that'll lose his mind and a sickly one. His wings were indifferent, but because of the infliction his body got, he was so weak that he couldn't even stand. The room was in a mess. The bed where Seraphor was supposed to sleep was torn to pieces, and the room was full of rocks, supposedly made by the silver red dragon. He was also struggling to breath, which made Spyro even more sad. He quickly embraced the silver red, to which he quickly shed tears.

"You don't deserve this. All of this," said Spyro comforting the sobbing Seraphor. "We really must help you getting out of this mess."

"I don't want to hurt you guys, but...I'm more helpless to not be able to save Yort. He's like a father to me, and...and..."

"Terrador and Avila went to him yesterday," said Ignitus. "But, Spyro and I must tell you something that may be more devastating than that."

When Spyro broke out from Seraphor, he said, "Sera, we all decided to put you inside the Shadow Realm until we can find you a cure."

Seraphor was surprised, but not because of the decision.

"W-wait a sec. You mean, you reopened the portal? How? I thought Rakasha..."

"We wanted to tell you about it, but we didn't think it would be important with your commitments to your twin," said Ignitus. "Are you still aware that Shyplis lived inside Shadow Realm when he's not taking over Spyro's body? He finally found a way to open a portal from inside, with a theory Rakasha left in the Shadow version of Spyro's room. It took 50 years but he finally done it."

"That's great news! I mean...it can be my retreat for a while. Yet, you do know what the risk of going into the realm, right?"

"Yes...that is why...once you're in there, stay as long as you want before you get out. This time, there will be no talismans to save you from the adverse effect."

Spyro then moved closer to Seraphor. "When you're in there, you'll experience a great hunger. Sustain yourself more, because that's when you lost most of the use of your elements. Remember, that realm is solid, so don't make problems to Shyplis."

"Yeah...but I guess it would be lonely with Shyplis's trivial talk."

Spyro then made a smile. At the same time, when Seraphor blinked, his vision became blurred, and everything around him lost their color, becoming monochromatic, including both him and the figure in front of him. Ignitus was gone, and Spyro was replaced by Shyplis, an older purple dragon with furs growing in some part of his body and looked pretty much oriental, that currently resided inside Spyro's sub consciousness, which was the Shadow Realm, where he became a resident when not needed back in the real world.

"Ah, I see you've arrived. Did I ever tell you that when you blink, there might be a chance another world might pop out of nowhere in front of you? Well, if I activate this, and you're staring at Spyro's eyes, you're opening the portal to this Realm. Welcome for you, my friend."

"Maybe I should take the advice of not blinking."

"Only if you see a statue covering its eyes, which apparently not real and humanoid. C'mon, I know you're hungry, mate."

"Since when you become British?"

"British? Oh, right, I am always like this, Seraphor, you just don't really know yet, since we don't really meet each other that much. Right, so, where do we start? Oh yes, you're hungry as hell, right? Spyro had warned you, right? This way, I'll show you what you can eat in the mess hall. Come, don't be shy. This is my home, after all, and some other locals to talk with."

Seraphor could see that the 'locals' Shyplis was talking about were shadows of some sort, not some weird-looking creatures native to that world, which mean that it was invaded, which was a relief.

"So when do these...shadow creatures came in?"

"Oh they are not shadows. Your eyes haven't adjusted yet. Take your time, and you'll find that they are just like us."

True to Shyplis' words, after a while, the shadows became more solid, and finally, came out like a black-and-white dragons, with no distinction of any color, except many shades of gray like old televisions and movies, which made Seraphor asked, "When the last time we're here, we're not black and white."

"Oh, it's simple. We weren't accepted here since these Shadowkind dragons don't like strangers, and strangers come with full color. When that attack happened they assumed other visitors are intruders, so that's why. But now, I became one of them, yet of course, I can still take over Spyro's body. No, I'm still the same wandering soul, but in here, souls can also have solid bodies."

"Does that mean I'm dead?"

"No, your body came with you. Now, enough explanation, let's grab some food, shall we?"

Seraphor kept thinking about the shadow realm as he ate the food. It felt very real, even the foods had taste and flavor. Despite of it being a black and white environment, it wasn't so bad, until he realized that he couldn't use any elemental ability, which was somehow making him uneasy.

"They don't want any dragon to destroy their homes, do they?" said Shyplis when he noticed Seraphor's uneasiness. "It's justifiable, given your problem with controlling your elements. It won't be indifferent once you've learned how to step it down a bit."

"But I can't hold my energy! If it burst, there will be significant damage."

"Who says this place holds your energy? Yes, I know, that's a theoretical answer to your inability to use elemental powers. But, the real answer is, you don't have any elemental powers to begin with when you crossed the border, so technically, you don't have any magic inside you."

"Then why am I still alive?"

"The shadow helps cover that lack of magical energy, which was evident when you become famished. Only those with initial energy to manipulate magic can retain their ability here. Anyways, out of the brainy topic, how do you explain the problem you're now?"

"When I try to use my electricity step and other elements, my body seems overreacting. It's like I'm so out of practice that my body becomes soft, then the next thing that happened is how much my abilities had changed."

"Yes, that's unfortunate, and quite ironic. You see, in this world, when you lost control of your abilities, that's the first step of becoming an annihilator, which has shaped the history of purple dragons from the first age. Well, except Rakasha, me, and Spyro, we all survived, albeit in a very different ways. No, I'm not telling you that you will become like Malefor, but instead, you will die."

"Do you have any way to fix this? Handicap feels so depressing."

Shyplis then went silent, so Seraphor suspected something bad. Yet, he said, "I don't have any way to return you to normal, but when you're here, you will be safe from it, and you'll not become everyone's risk. I am not going to say that you must be in here forever, but you need to train yourself on controlling it before I can let you out. I know saying Yort's death is only a distraction will enrage you, so I just say it out of concern, and to make you understand that rage is not the way to solve things."

"Are you assuming that I'm an incarnation of rage?"

"Apparently I am. You pissed off too fast, always activating your Genocide Mode, and panicked a lot. If you can't control all of this, I won't take you out of this place."

"But I assume you have safety measures? I may not have any elemental magic left, but I am still trained under the elders in basic combat."

"Oh, so you think that will be a problem? If you want to vent off any problems, call me any time. If not, then I'll 'kindly' take the shadow away from inside you. Kind of a deal, no?"

The 'kindly' made Seraphor shiver. Shyplis did have a tendency to become very sadistic and very dangerous, not to mention morbid. He would gladly make a seemingly innocent remark, but then proceed to kill his opponent in the past. Seraphor then realized that he didn't want to become Shyplis' enemy, lest he became one of his victims.

At the 'colored' world...

"Spyro, let's get our mind out of Seraphor's problems to address our own problem, hmm?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"It seems that after years of research, Volteer found out that the realm where Avila and Cynder were stranded into was not as far as we thought it would be."

"Are you assuming that the dark island you passed is the place where they got stranded? But, where is it? Do you still remember anything about the place?"

Ignitus went silent, before turning to the gathering point and said, "Follow me."

At the gathering point, essentially a place just behind the area where dragons meet the guardians talking about their problems, Spyro saw that Cyril and Volteer had gathered there. Cyril tried to look as normal as possible, but Spyro could see that he was elated. Volteer, on the other hand, had a trouble keeping his wild emotions in check.

"Okay, stop with pretending to be cool. Just tell me what the good news in the midst of problems is."

"Glad you ask, kiddo." Volteer then produced a holographic image out from the middle pedestal, which showed an image of some scenery. The imagery and the appearance of Volteer manipulating a remote on the floor prompted Spyro to ask "So what do you want to tell us aside from the camera drone you made?"

"Hey, just wait for a moment, okay? Damn control...ah, now we're talking. When I'm making a check on my autopilot drone after that...problem previously, I found out that this drone had apparently reached the place I suspected, but it went adrift for a moment. Now, we only have a little fuel left to stay on the sky, so let's..."

"Hello...what do we have here?"

"It looks like a small helicopter...with a camera attached on it. Wonder where this came from. This is definitely not pre-arcana tech, and very advanced."

Spyro recognized the small young voice that was talking about the discovery. He turned his head to Volteer, to which the electric guardian seemingly understood and said, "I installed a speaker so you can talk to them, if in any case that it found the destination. C'mon, just speak up."

"Is that Sannourah's voice? Can you turn the drone towards him?"

"That voice...you're Cynder's mate, right?"

The camera turned towards the source of the voice. Sannourah, the young immortal black dragon claimed to be the demon Gate Guardian, was in front of him, watching the camera with his completely innocent face, or what could be called innocent from his yellow eyes and black sclera. Beside him was a dragon far older and bigger than him, with white hair and some snake-like shadow entrails behind her. Both were watching the camera with enthusiastic faces, as if this was the first time they saw a drone.

"Are you controlling this helicopter, Cynder's mate? Oh, my beloved fathers, your voice is a bloody relief! But how did you find our realm? I still can't open the portal to Cynder's world."

"Is Avila or Cynder there, Spyro? We need to talk to them."

"Avila is preoccupied at the moment, and Cynder...well, she has just become a mother."

"A mother?! San, we really need to go there! Spyro, Sannourah is still unable to open an inter-dimensional portal, but he'll manage. The target is your beach, right?"

There was a noise of the portal opening, some kind of a signature to Sannourah. The other dragon grabbed the camera, but she inadvertently caused one of the shadows to give a jump scare with the appearance of a toothy snake.

"Holy shit, get that thing off the camera!"

"Sorry, my bad."

When the snake jump scare vanished from the screen, Spyro saw familiar scenery of the same beach where the purple dragon liked to lounge. He quickly shouted, "Both of you, stay right there. We'll go there as soon as possible!"

The connection abruptly closed, but as Spyro ran towards the giant door, a big portal suddenly materialized, startled Spyro who didn't have time to stop, crashing onto Sannourah. Both grunted afterwards, trying to recompose themselves.

"See, this is why you don't make a portal in the middle of someone's house!" said the female dragon. "I don't know why you suddenly want to jump here, of all places!"

"I want to meet with Cynder!"

"For once, Sannourah, just please behave like a 150-years old dragon! Geez, that curse doesn't let you grow up that much." She then turned to Spyro. "Spyro, I'm so sorry about Sannourah, but I also want to see Cynder."

"It's okay, Yrelka," said Spyro while grunting. "I'll take you to her immediately."

All three ran towards the open door and opened their wings, flying over the skies of Dragon Realm. While on the way, Spyro explained to the two about Volteer's hypothesis of their shared universe.

"Really? We're still in the same dimension? No wonder I don't use up too much of my energy when opening the portal," said Sannourah. "Maybe we can ask them to start a sea expedition to open a trade route between here and there."

"You need to ask Volteer about that. We don't know how far these islands were separated. But what I'm more concerned is you. Why can't you open any portals back to Avila's world? Both her and Cynder really miss you, a lot."

"Yes, the truth is, for the past 50 years, we are trying to find a way back after my portal power was cut considerably by some circumstances back home. Even the arcana technology the humans adapted cannot help us. What's worse, even if the age went on, I'm still stuck in a 50 years old dragon body, never aging even though I'm three times that age."

"Me and Yorloka had tried to use the same lake projection to find both of you. We actually found the image of this island, but we can't pinpoint your location, until I realized that this place is still in the same dimension. That might be easier than trying to open a portal to another dimension."

"But, where's Avila? I know she's preoccupied, but I want to know as her friend."

Spyro was reluctant to share them the news of Yort's death and the reason Avila went there, since both of them didn't even know the earth dragon, but nevertheless, he said, "She...is investigating the death of a dragon in Qeveriyt."

"Oh...we're sorry about it."

"Don't mind." Yet Spyro tried to hide the fact of the death. Right now, with both demon dragons in Dragon Realm, and the proof that both realms were the same, the purple dragon would think that this might start a new relationship more than before, yet until what extend, he didn't know for sure.