Elves vs. Demons

As the Skylanders stared at Cazador in bewilderment, fully understanding their situation, they began to ready their weapons in what they knew would be a futile attempt to defend themselves. They realized that they were beat, and that the enemy in front of them had lead them into a trap. They knew that Cazador was too powerful for any of them, that he was smart and willing to use his power, and that without Bouncer and Rubble Rouser, they didn't stand a ghost of a chance. His cloak alone had been able to withstand four of their attacks, and it seemed to still be usable. If that was testimony to the owner, then the Skylanders would need a miracle. A miracle that came in the form of a missile coming from the Dread-Yacht that hit Cazador, exploding in a burst of fire and launching the surprised adversary a few feet away.

Turning toward the wrecked airship, Cazador, Ephialtes, and the Skylanders saw Colin, standing in his usual aviator's jacket, holding a missile launcher, which was pointed at Cazador, another missile already magically forming in the piece of artillery. Cazador stared in complete shock at the mabu pilot, having never been attacked in such a manner before.

"That's impossible," Cazador muttered aloud to himself, scowling at Colin. "I was told that there were only nine Skylanders, three of which weren't even official Skylanders and aren't here, and three, maybe four, stowaways. My information is never wrong, so who are you?"

"Your information is correct," Colin replied, aiming his missile launcher at Cazador again. "I'm not a Skylander. I'm the pilot of the ship that you just shot down, you son of a bitch. And right now, I'm really, really pissed off!"

With this said, Colin fired another missile at Cazador. Raising his arms, Cazador grabbed the explosive projectile on either side, stopping it just a few inches in front of his face. Lowering his hands, Cazador turned the missile around in his hands until it was pointed at Colin, then released it from his grasp. The missile rocketed straight back at the mabu pilot, but before it could hit, a hand materialized in the air right next to Colin, which grabbed his left arm and dissipated into shadows, taking the mabu along with it. With nothing to hit, the missile exploded against the side of a tree on the other side of the clearing, raising a cloud of snow, pine needles, chips of wood, and dust into the air.

Blinking in surprise, Cazador scanned the area for any signs of his attacker, and stopped to look at a single spot of darkness forming in the air in front of the split in the Dread-Yacht. This spot grew until it formed the shapes of two people, one clearly Colin and the other that of a person that Cazador didn't and couldn't recognize, before dissipating into the air, revealing Colin and an undead elf with pure black eyes wearing a black cloak over a pair of plain black pants and a shirt. Turning to the elf next to him, a mischievous grin formed on Colin's face.

"As always, you have a knack for showing up at just the right time, Hades," Colin said as the elf, which he seemed to know, let go of his arm.

"And you Colin, as always, have a knack for getting into unneeded trouble," Hades replied, a very serious expression on his face. "You really should stop trying to piss people off."

"Whatever," Colin huffed, crossing his arms. "What are you doing here anyway? Are you here to deal with this guy or not?"

"Yes," Hades said, moving forward toward Cazador. "Clearly, he is a threat, even if he is not my original target. I suggest you and the Skylanders head back into your ship and try to repair it while I engage in combat."

"Sure, I've already gotten bored with this guy anyway," Colin replied, walking into the ship through the hole.

"Hey!" Food Fight yelled, annoyed at the undead elf's suggestion. "What do you mean we should all hide in the Dread-Yacht? Do you honestly believe that you can take on this guy by yourself?"

Turning toward Food Fight, Hades looked into the veggie warrior's eyes. Looking into those seemingly empty voids, Food Fight felt a strange yet weirdly familiar dread, causing shivers to run up his nonexistent spine. "Yes," Hades replied, after a moment. Suddenly, a huge, black, double-bladed sword, bigger than any sword Food Fight or any of the other Skylanders had ever seen, appeared in Hades' hand. It was a complete mystery to almost everyone there how the elf could even hold up a sword like that, much less wield it with the ease he handled it with.

Turning back to the enemy in front of him, Hades pointed his blade straight at Cazador. "My name is Hades," he said. "A Tenth Class Skill Reaper, and the lieutenant of Triumvir Tod. Prepare to die."

"Enough with the drama," Cazador said as he rolled his eyes, which turned red as a large steel pole with a scythe-like blade made of energy on one end appeared in his hands. "I'll fight with you because you seem like you'll be a bit more of a challenge, but don't think I'll just let those weaklings go. Ephialtes will deal with them in my place."

"I get to bring pain?!" the little gargoyle-like creature, which almost everyone had forgotten about, questioned excitedly.

"Go crazy," Cazador replied, waving his free hand at the small demon.

"Yay!" Ephialtes cheered, turning towards the remaining Skylanders. As the Skylanders turned to look at the small creature, Ephialtes began to grow in size, his claws becoming longer, the small, stubby horns on his head sharpening, and his talon-like feet growing bigger. When Ephialtes had grown to be the same size as Freeze Blade, huge, bat-like wings erupted from his back. From there, Ephialtes kept growing in size until he was as big as the Dread-Yacht. Rearing his head back, Ephialtes let out a monstrous roar that echoed through the mountains causing an avalanche that could be heard in the distance.

"Oh shit," Roller Brawl, who had dropped down on the ground, muttered.

"So what's the plan here?" Food Fight questioned out loud, staring in fear at the huge beast that Ephialtes had become. When nobody answered, Food Fight looked around to find that the other Skylanders were already running towards the other end of the valley. "I thought so." With this said, Food Fight began to follow suit, going surprisingly fast despite his stubby legs.

Jumping over the collapsed form of Bouncer, Ephialtes began to give chase to the Skylanders. Watching as the energetic Ephialtes pursued the heroes, Cazador let out a small chuckle. Turning back towards Hades, Cazador's countenance instantly grew serious as he lowered himself into a fighting stance.

"Shall we?" Cazador questioned the elf reaper.

Hades nodded in response, reading his weapon.

For a few seconds, the two enemies stood in utter silence, sizing each other up. After a few moments, the two suddenly charged each other, striking at each other with their weapons, which met each other in a spark of undead energy...

OOOOOOOO

In a clearing nearby, Aquillo was pressing the tip of his spear between the claws of Spee D. Mon's metal arm. Suddenly, Aquillo flipped over backwards, pulling Spee D. Mon over his head. Throwing Spee D. Mon down on the ground, Aquillo pulled his spear out of the demon lord's claw and landed on his feet him. Bringing his spear over his head, Aquillo thrust the weapon at Spee, who immediately rolled out of the way. Springing to his feet, the demon lord brought his gun up to the elf's head and fired. However, Aquillo ducked, dodging the wind bullet, and attempted to stab at Spee D. Mon's abdomen, but missed as the masked demon seemed to disappear.

Where did he go? Spark thought to himself as he scanned the clearing for signs of the demon lord. While the two were fighting, Spark had made his way over to where Angela was along with Triton, Strike, and Lefa, and was currently helping to dig the phoenix-unicorn-dragon hybrid out of the snow. Infernia and Quartzia were still standing at the other end of the clearing, too focused on the fight between the elf and the demon to notice them. Suddenly, Spark felt a gust behind him, and turned to see Spee D. Mon pointing his gun at the dragon. Before he could pull the trigger, a strand of light-blue energy flew over Spark's head and attached itself to the demon's chest. Spee D. Mon flew over Spark's head back towards Aquillo, who had embedded one of the blades of his spear in the ground in front of him, where the cord of elemental energy was attaching itself to the demon.

"Focus-concentrate on this fight-battle," Aquillo said to Spee D. Mon as he separated the rest of his spear from the tip embedded in the ground and pointed it at Spee D. Mon. "Then you can try-attempt to murder-kill that dragon."

"Very well," Spee D. Mon replied, getting up from the ground. "Tell me first though. Why do you defend this dragon? You have never met these people before today, and if you are hoping for a reward, then it seems to me that you could obtain it through much easier ways than this. You know this, and yet you defend these people anyway. Why?"

"You could not understand-realize," Spee D. Mon said. "My objective-goal is to help-assist others. I do not care-think about prize-reward. I only want-wish to help-assist people who require-need it. That is my reason-why."

Spee D. Mon was silent for a few moments, and when he did speak, his voice was in a whisper that Aquillo could barely hear. "I...understand the need...to protect people..."

Aquillo blinked in surprise at the demon lord's statement, but before he could question Spee D. Mon further, he heard a monstrous roar in the distance, followed by a loud rumbling coming from behind Infernia and Quartzia. As everybody turned toward the sound they saw a huge wave of snow coming straight towards the clearing, and before anyone could react, the avalanche swept over the group, enveloping the clearing in a uniform whiteness...

OOOOOOOO

In the highest room of a purple-colored stone tower on an island that floated far above the nearby islands, a young man was sitting at a desk, writing in a large book. The young man seemed to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, with blonde hair that was covered with multiple violet symbols and two different eyes, the right one being a blue human eye and the left one being a snake-like yellow eye, over a pair of spectacles. He wore purple shirt with a golden eight- pointed star over the teen's heart and a pair of black jeans. On the back of the chair he was sitting on was a violet trench coat with golden buttons in the same shape as the symbol on his shirt. As the young man continued to write in the book, the door on the other side of the tower opened, revealing a small mabu wearing a purple jacket and a brown book-bag.

"Magicanus, sir?" the mabu spoke tentatively.

"How bad is it, Reginald?" Magicanus asked, noticing the slight hint of fear in his assistants voice that told him he was probably about to hear something he wouldn't like.

"Weeeellll..." Reginald replied, drawing out the word in order to avoid answering as long as he could. "It seems that Spark has been discovered missing, along with Angela, Triton Strike, and Lefa."

"On the same day that the search party for Nina was sent out, right?" Magicanus guessed casually, not really seeming to bay attention to the mabu, who blinked in surprise.

"Y-yes," the mabu stuttered. "How did you figure that out?"

"Because I know where they are."

"You do?"

"Indeed," Magicanus replied. "And I assure you, everything is going exactly how it should be. You need not worry yourself, Reginald. Now, is there anything else?"

"Yes," Reginald said, suddenly growing paler. "You have a visitor. Triumvir Tod is downstairs."

At this, Magicanus instantly focused on Reginald. "...Bring him up," Magicanus replied after a moment, then seemed to consider something. "Then go take the rest of the day...no, the rest of the week off."

"Yes, sir," Reginald said nervously, retreating back through the door.

Damn it, Magicanus thought as he grinded his teeth in frustration. What does he want?

After a few minutes of waiting, the door finally opened again. In walked a tall, slim male vampire with unusually tanned skin (for a vampire) and a pure black eye wearing a black cloak with intricate designs made of red thread over a blood-red tunic and black pants, a white eye-patch over his right eye, and a black circle around his short red hair. Behind him, Reginald was already scurrying down the hall towards the stairs, and Magicanus couldn't blame him. Even on the other side of the room, which was large enough to fit three cars side-by-side, Magicanus could feel the vampire's dark and deathly aura that, while not completely evil, was definitely dangerous and frightening.

"Greetings, Magicanus," the vampire said with a light smile that slightly masked his dark aura. "It's good to see you."

"Hello, Triumvir Tod," Magicanus replied, getting up out of his chair. "What brings you here?"

"What makes you think that I need a reason to visit friends?" the vampire said as he stepped forward, and it took all the portal master had to not back away from the reaper as more of his aura passed over the room.

"I don't consider us friends," Magicanus said sternly, glaring at the Triumvir. "Now, what do you want?"

"Sheesh, and I thought I was once cold," Tod said, rolling his eyes as he took a seat in the chair on the other side of the desk. "Very well. If you must know, I came here to talk to you about some information regarding an event that happened about ten years ago. I think that you know what I'm speaking of."

Magicanus, despite sighing with relief, nodded grimly. "The 'Skylander Slayer Number 5' case," he said, grimacing as he remembered that horrible day. "One of the few cases in all the history of Skylands where a Skylander died. Not just one though. That day, four Skylanders died, and what's worse is that the murderer was never found. It's hard to forget something that you have nightmares about every time you fall asleep. What about it?"

"Well, as you know, Grim Creeper was one of the Skylanders there that day," Tod replied, his smile dropping from his face. "And while we automatically should be thankful that anyone survived that day, I am already thankful that it was a reaper, who could easily sense and memorize the murderer's soul pattern."

"A lot of good that does considering he entered a traumatized state of silence after what happened," Magicanus responded sarcastically.

"I don't really blame him," the Triumvir said. "The loss of Smolderdash was like a punch in the gut for him. I remember how he was always so talkative before that day. It was almost like he was living in a dream of utter optimism, then he got a taste of reality so horrible, not even his cheerful nature could handle it. Anyway, yesterday I met up with him for lunch, as I often do with reapers in high positions. And when I did, he spoke."

"He did?" the portal master said with surprise, his eyes widening as he leaned forward subconsciously. "What did he say?"

"He said, and I quote," Tod replied. "'When I fought with the Skylanders Slayer that day, I felt something strange about his soul. It was almost as though there were two souls within his body, one violent and vengeful, and the other an undead soul with a desire to return to someone'."

The room fell silent as Magicanus contemplated what the Triumvir said. When he next spoke, it was in a whisper. "You don't think..."

Tod nodded his head reluctantly. "I'm afraid so. We weren't dealing with some ordinary serial killer that day. I am afraid that the person who killed those Skylanders, who murdered one of the Skylander's most valued allies, who caused two Skylanders to retire due to an inability to handle the loss, and got a woman in an asylum was none other than a body-thief."

"But the only case of successful creating a body-thief in the entire history of Skylands was the Outlands experiment, Prototype-A Legendary Entity One, also known as..." Magicanus said, trailing away as Tod finished sentence.

"Project Paleo."

A/N

A/N

And that my friends is how you make a freaking awesome cliff-hanger.

"It wasn't really that much of a cliff-hanger."

Shut up Foaly, you know practically nothing about writing.

"Well, I wouldn't say I knew nothing..."

PRACTICALLY NOTHING! O_O
Anyway, sorry for the long wait. I hope you all look out for my next chapter

A Shadow's Whisper

Thank you to everyone who support me on this story, and until next time Stay Magical!

EDIT: I have decided to officially change Sparx's name to Spark to avoid confusion between him and the dragonfly, Sparx. Also, to those who commented that Skylanders can't be killed, you should know that I am planning on explaining that later on. Just please be patient.