The Legend of Spyro: Age of Heroes Book II

The Legend of Spyro: Age of Heroes Book II is the second book in the Age of Heroes series.

Plot Summary
The story begins with a retelling of the final events of Dawn Of The Dragon; as Spyro repairs the world, the crystal containing the imprisoned Malefor is banished from the world.

Eighteen months after the events of Age of Heroes I, as Flame and Ember return to Warfang, fragments of the crystal begin falling to the world as meteorites. A pair of young black dragons stumble across one such meteor, and a part of Malefor's essence manifests from it; possessing one and killing the other. In the black dragon's body, Malefor approaches a pack of wolves whose leader is already controlled by another part of his essence, and manages to set himself up as their leader. He designates one wolf; Snarl, as the Alpha of the pack, and begins planning to launch an attack against a dragon city, while capturing all the black dragons within it.

At Warfang, Spyro subconsciously becomes aware of danger, and soon discovers from Hunter - fleeing with his village from the attacking wolves - that a northern wolf tribe is preparing to attack a dragon city; the home of Flame and two of the Guardian candidates. Spyro, Cynder, Flame, Ember and the young guardian candidates - twin siblings Tremor and Gaia for Earth, Stella for Electricity, and Candice for Ice - promptly travel to the city and help defend it from an initial attack. The wolves attack again the next day, and during the battle Gaia is killed by Snarl; her energy fusing with Tremor's as she dies. In the aftermath, Candice attempts to comfort Tremor - the two normally being enemies - and their relationship with one another gradually begins to improve.

Later, Spyro notices a black dragon being pursued by wolves. He rescues the dragon and brings him into the city, only for it to attack him; revealing himself to be none other than Malefor. The others arrive, and Malefor reveals that none of them will be able to see him, before threatening to kill Cynder if Spyro attempts to tell her about him. Over the next few weeks - during which time the guardians return to Warfang, along with Liun; a young black dragon in love with Stella - Malefor tortures Spyro physically and mentally, forcing him to make up stories to the others to explain his injuries. Cynder suspects something and attempts to spy on him, but without success. Eventually, Malefor pushes Spyro to breaking point and he attacks him just as the others try to get him to reveal the truth.

The guardians quickly see through Malefor's illusion and attempt to join the battle, but end up in the Training Room, where manifestations of Dark Cynder, Dark Spyro, Gaul and Malefor overwhelm them. Cynder defeats them when she arrives, but in the chaos Malefor escapes with Spyro, and stabs him with a crystal in Spyro's room to drain his powers. Cynder manages to find Malefor and manages to kill the black dragon he's possessing. Malefor's essence flees, but not before revealing that he has plenty of hosts now in the form of the captured black dragons.

Some time later, Mole-Yair arrives at Warfang with the Manweersmalls, and reveals that Malefor's force have taken over Munitions Forge; apparently searching for something within Boyzitbig. In the night, Ignitus appears to Cynder in her dreams, and tells her that Spyro is going to lose his powers over the coming weeks as a result of the crystal Malefor stabbed him with. Fearing what Spyro will do if he learns this, Cynder decides to keep it a secret.

The next day, Warfang is attacked by Titanus; an enormous dragon who Malefor freed from within Boyzitbig. Terrador reveals the history of Titanus to Ember and Flame; telling them that Titanus was imprisoned many years ago and can only be defeated by fire. However, the Fire Guardian who imprisoned him died doing so, which makes Ember fear for Flame's life. Titanus attacks and destroys part of Warfang, while the guardians begin attack his body's weak points. In the heat of the moment, Spyro gains a new power; turning silver, and flies directly through Titanus' body; killing him. Spyro collapses in the aftermath and wakes with no recollection of the power he used. In the night, Spyro has a vision of fighting wolves at Dante's Freezer - where his fire breath refuses to work - and the guardians decide to travel as a group to Dante's Freezer to find Malefor's fortress. Unknown to Spyro, Cynder also had a vision; Ignitus came to her and told her she would have to rejoin Malefor's forces in order to gain the power necessary to protect Spyro.

Upon arrival at Dante's Freezer, the guardians are attacked by wolves, and Spyro, Cynder and Liun go missing; they have been captured by Snarl, who drains Spyro's ice energy with another crystal. Cynder manages to escape and disrupt the crystal - sending its energy into a wolf, which becomes mutated and flees - before offering her services to Snarl in return for the release of Spyro, which Snarl accepts.

Outside, Tremor and Candice begin arguing with one another about battle tactics and the two storm off when Candice goes too far and insults Gaia. Alone, the two wonder about their relationship with one another; Tremor is met by the spirit of Gaia, who can tell he secretly loves Candice, and she convinces him to confess his true feelings. As goes to find her with a hastily-made bouquet of flowers, Candice, Candice encounters the wolf mutated by Spyro's ice element and becomes overwhelmed by it. The others arrive and rescue her, however; Tremor believes that Candice has died and flees, prompting the others to send her after him when they defeat the wolf. When Tremor realises she's alive, he reveals his feelings for her and they kiss, but Candice struggles with her conflicting feelings for him and eventually pulls away.

Meanwhile, the other guardians find the entrance to the caverns Spyro and the others are imprisoned in. Snarl prepares to attack them, but Malefor notes that Spyro needs to heal before he can drain more energy from him, and thus orders them to retreat - with Cynder - and leave Spyro for them to find. Flame and Ember enter and manage to rescue both Liun and Spyro; who they find brutally injured and hanging from a wall. They get him to the surface and decide to set up camp in a beach cave until Spyro can heal. Spyro plans to go after Cynder as soon as he wakes, but the others talk him out of it. However, Liun goes too far, and a fight breaks out between him and the others, resulting in Tremor dueling Liun and sending him away when he bests him. Unknown to any of them, Liun is Malefor's host, and was attempting to split them up with his words. Upon return to his real base, Liun mutates a wolf with dark magic, and sends it after the guardians.

Back at the cave, Tremor and Candice continue to struggle with their feelings for one another. After Spyro sneaks away with Sparx to find Cynder, the two argue about whether he did the right thing or not. In the aftermath, Stella takes Candice away to talk with her about Tremor, and Tremor ends up attacked by the mutated wolf. Stella manages to convince Candice to try a relationship with Tremor, and the two head back to their cave as a storm begins. Upon arrival at the cave, they realise that Tremor is missing, and they split up to try and find him while Flame and Ember head inland to escape the storm. At the same time, Tremor gets overpowered by the mutated wolf - even when aided by the spirit of Gaia - and winds up seriously injured before he can manage to kill it. Candice finds his mangled body and believes he has died, but the arrival of the other guardians allows Ember to use her healing power to slowly bring him back from death's door.

Meanwhile, Snarl imprisons Cynder in his pack's underground home city. In her cell, she meets Exile - a magically skilled wolf who was imprisoned when he refused to help the former Alpha use magic to attack his neighbours - who offers to teach Cynder all he knows. And after some training, Snarl arrives at the prison and attempts to return Cynder to her former self as the "Terror Of The Skies"; however, Cynder wills herself to resist, resulting in her regaining her old powers and size, but escaping the control of Malefor. Cynder then pretends to be a servant of Malefor, and heads for Dante's Freezer with Snarl when he gives her orders to seek out Spyro.

At Dante's Freezer, Tremor gradually recovers, and he and Candice formally begin their relationship by mating. Not long afterwards, Cynder arrives with Snarl and a pack of wolves, and ends up forced into battle with the guardians, despite her initial plan to lead the wolves down a false trail. Spyro abruptly arrives and tries to appeal to her, eventually becoming Dark Spyro out of grief at her feigned lack of empathy. Cynder inadvertently downs him by attacking his chest, but uses her wind attack to blast everyone else away, before landing to check on him. Her new powers are able to heal Spyro's injuries, and she then retrieves Snarl and flees; covering for herself by saying that Spyro will need to heal before Malefor can drain his energy again. Snarl imprisons Cynder again, but she uses her shadow power to escape, and heads back to spy on the others; inadvertently witnessing Spyro talking with Stella about his future plan to propose to Cynder. Spyro realises Cynder is nearby and chases after her. Cynder eventually reveals to him that she's only pretending to work for Malefor, but she refrains from telling him why. The two rest together, and the next morning Cynder returns to the prison, but not before telling Spyro she accepts his proposal.

Upon return, Cynder finds Snarl preparing for a fresh attack, and joins his forces as they head after the others. Unknown to Snarl, Cynder and Spyro have prepared for this, and they pretend to fight one another while the guardians ambush the wolves. During the battle, Flame's old power re-emerges, Stella gets blasted away by her own attack and gets abducted by black dragons, and Gaia reappears and alerts Tremor to Snarl's location. Tremor goes after Snarl, who begins taunting him in an attempt to make him overcome with darkness. Candice realises this and knocks him out, before letting Snarl escape. Tremor argues with her about this when he wakes, but she ultimately convinces him not to seek vengeance, as she fears losing him to it.

Cynder feigns defeat as the battle draws to a close, and retreats with Snarl. Upon return to his city, Snarl receives orders to shift forces to Munitions Forge, and Cynder promptly flees under the pretext of going to speak with Malefor. At the same time, Stella wakes and finds herself with Liun, who - with Malefor - tries to convince her obtain her loyalty by giving her whatever she wants. Stella desires a family, and Malefor shows her an image of her future if she complies, but she becomes horrified when she sees her friends all dead and refuses. Stella then tries to get Liun to break free of Malefor's control, only for him to reveal that he was working from Malefor from the start, and is content to become the most powerful dragon in the world. She then flees, but ends up pursued by Malefor's army of black dragons.

Meanwhile, Cynder reaches the guardians as they decide to look for Stella, and explains her recent actions to them, and also explains to Spyro what she knows about his missing powers. Stella soon reaches them and they rescue her from her pursuers. Cynder then decides to return to the wolf city and rescue Exile, but she finds he has gone, and Liun is there instead - Malefor having since realised Cynder was a spy. After a short battle, he gets the upper hand, and then attempts to rape her to hurt both her and Spyro, but he mentally hears her cries and uses his time power to freeze time long enough to save her. Spyro and Cynder then fight Liun, but their battle causes the underground city to collapse.

Spyro and Cynder escape and return to the others, but Liun follows them and launches a surprise attack; stabbing Cynder and abducting Spyro and Stella. Liun imprisons them both at Munitions Forge, and begins draining Spyro's earth powers. He then tells him he killed Cynder, resulting in Spyro becoming Dark Spyro. At the same time, Ember manages to heal Cynder, and they decide to pursue Liun to Munitions Forge, where they split up to find both Spyro and Stella. Flame rescues Cynder while Cynder and Tremor find Spyro. Cynder engages in battle with Liun, while Tremor takes Spyro and the crystal away. Encountering Flame, Tremor tells him to take Spyro while he stays behind to destroy the crystal. After Flame and the others leave, Tremor cracks the crystal and throws it into a pool of lava, which makes Boyzitbig begin to shake. In the resulting chaos, the guardians manage to flee Munitions Forge as Boyzitbig erupts with Liun and Tremor still inside.

As the guardians retreat to a safe place and rest, Spyro has a vision of a strange dragoness flying through the mountains. Upon waking, they decide to try and find the dragoness. However, they are ambushed from below the ground by Liun and his forces, who are revealed to have survived the eruption of Boyzitbig. Liun imprisons them all at Cynder's old fortress at Concurrent Skies, but takes Spyro to have his electricity powers drained, and gives Candice to Snarl for torturing - along with Tremor, who they inadvertantly saved when escaping Boyzitbig.

When Tremor wakes, Snarl again taunts him with Gaia's death in an attempt to make him overcome with darkness. Candice - restrained - snaps him out of it, so Snarl attacks her and forces Tremor to fight him. Although Snarl briefly has the upper hand by merit of being able to control the Earth element as well as Tremor, Candice manages to entangle him in her restraints, and Tremor - aided by Gaia - kills Snarl. Meanwhile, Spyro wakes from a vision of a mysterious female dragon and finds himself imprisoned once more. Liun and Malefor then enter his mind and play tricks on him; telling him his friends are all dead, save for Cynder, who has become evil once more and is Liun's mate.

Cynder and the others manage to escape their cell and meet up with Tremor and Candice, and make their way to the room where Spyro and Liun are. They attack Liun, only for Dark Spyro to fight them back. Cynder attempts to break through to Spyro while Malefor tries to convince him it's another illusion. Amidst the chaos, Stella attacks the crystal containing Spyro's energy in an attempt to overwhelm it, but Dark Spyro hits it, which makes the energy rebound into him and explode; destroying the fortress, and burying Liun under a vast amount of rubble. Recovering Spyro's severely injured body, the others decide to continue searching for the dragoness and the location he saw. As they leave, Liun emerges from the wreckage of the fortress. Malefor reminds him that his revival is of the utmost importance, and Liun begins plotting an alternative way to gain the energy Malefor needs...

Appearances

 * List of characters in Age of Heroes Book II