Skylands Legends

4.1 The Call of Heroism

The Sky Lady drifted through the dense gray fog of the Lowlands. A darkness surrounded the ship, pressing in towards them as it tried to smother any and all light.

Multiple times on their journey into the Lowlands they had crashed into islands they hadn't been able to see. That's when Dive Clops had stepped up and began sending out sonar signals to detect the island's locations in the dense mist. The journey had gone on much smoother since. That didn't keep a dour mood from setting in over the seven Skylanders.

Down and down they went into the abyss until Dive Clops abruptly called for them to stop. They were close. The ship creeped ever closer to the hidden island, all the lights directed forward to light up as much of the way as possible. Out of the darkness it appeared, not more than fifty feet away as a looming shadow. Slowly it began to take form as the broken fortress.

The Sky Lady drifted over the fortresses' decimated walls before coming to a halt. Tossing a rope ladder over the edge of the ship, the seven made their way down into the desolate courtyard. Rubble from a broken barrack was littered everywhere, the grand entrance to the castle was a barely standing archway, and a moldy moss clung to every surface it could touch.

The seven Skylanders stood at the empty gate staring into the darkness.

"Torch," Eruptor commanded. The fire nymph stepped forward and released a flaming cascade of light into the castle, illuminating a long corridor. The lights cut out as Torch returned her flamethrower to her hip.

"Seems clear," she said.

"Yeah," Eruptor frowned. "Seems." He turned around to look at his team. "Stay close, I think I know where we're going." He proceeded into the dark corridor. The lava running along his body began to glow brighter to light the dark, Torch's head did the same with her flaming hair. The other five pulled out their glowbulbs and activated them.

Cautiously, they made their way down the corridor. Shadows danced on the walls as they delved deeper into the castle. The graying tile gave way to a black and white checkered pattern as they entered the throne room. A feeling of despair rushed over Eruptor, making him shiver. He stopped the team.

"Glowbulbs," he said. Fiesta, Barbella, Chill Bill, and Dive Clops all stepped forward and rolled the glowing orbs into the room. Hedgefog hesitantly did the same a second later. The glowing orbs rolled slowly across the cracked tile all the way to the other end of the room where they were stopped by the steps leading up to the dais. The four lights illuminated the entire room, revealing a giant mass of darkness swirling in the center of the hall.

Dive Clops gasped. "Holy sh..." A loud growl reverberated from the darkness, shaking the entire room. Dust and small stone pieces fell from the columns lining the hall. A brief silence followed, the only sound was the breathing of the Skylanders.

"Looks like we found the source," Eruptor whispered. He began walking towards it slowly.

"What the hell is that?" Barbella asked, following him.

"I think," Eruptor started as he lifted his arm up to the blackness. A feeling of wrongness rushed over him and he flinched backward. "I think it's the dark rift."

"How is that possible?" Fiesta bursted. "You defeated Kaos!"

"We did." Eruptor answered. "Or, at least, it did."

"Wait, you were there when it opened?" Hedgefog asked, his meek tone all but gone.

Eruptor looked at him. "Yeah. We tested for rift resonance and found nothing, we all assumed it had failed. We were miles from the Heart still. There was no reason it should have worked." Eruptor glanced back to the darkness. "It wasn't this big then, either."