Whirlwind moaned as she staggered back up. A pounding headache encapsulated her, and her legs were sore from the fall, so sore she could barely move a muscle.

"Where am I?" Whirlwind whispered as she just barely lifted her head up and moved it around as she tried to make sense of her surroundings.

However, it was near impossible—the room was completely dark save for the light that poured out from the hole above her, and her vision was so blurry that she could barely make put the room in front of her. All she could glean was the sky blue light of something else that glowed from the center of the room. As Whirlwind's vision returned to her, she quickly came to realize that this light was none other than the Eternal Air Source, which shone brightly in the center of the room!

"Oh, thank the Ancients, it's still here!" Whirlwind breathed a heavy sigh.

Just then, a deep, bellowing scream echoed around her! She looked up and saw something falling down from the hole above her! As if by instinct, she immediately cast a dense, fluffy cloud where she assumed the thing was going to fall, and watched as Warnado came falling from above and landed onto the cloud with a grunt.

"You okay?"

Warnado rolled off the cloud, shook his head and looked back at her.

"I'm fine, Whirlybird. Thanks for catching me," Warnado said with an easygoing nod.

"No problem!"

Whirlwind gently nudged Warnado with her wing before she looked back at the Eternal Air Source in all its majesty. As they both looked it over, their eyes sparkled as they shivered from the raw power emanating from it.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Whirlwind just barely whispered as her eyes glowed.

"Yeah, it's pretty and all, but we can't just stand around here and look at it!" Warnado summoned a tornado. "Time to get the Source!"

As he said this, Warnado flew on his tornado until he laid directly under the Source. He channeled his power combined with that of the Air Source, until his tornado was now about half the size of the ones that once ran about outside. Then, with a smile he grabbed the Source!

"Gotcha!"

Warnado beamed as he clasped the Eternal Air Source tight, but his beam faded as he heard a loud rumbling.

"What the heck's going on?!" He and Whirlwind yelled in unison.

However, they could barely be heard over the rumbling, which got louder and louder. Just then, the part of the ceiling that laid above Whirlwind crumbled and fell apart! Whirlwind ran into the center of the building just to keep from getting covered in stones and loose pebbles.

After she took sanctuary under Warnado, she ducked and covered her body with her wings. Meanwhile, Warnado clutched the Eternal Air Source tightly in his arms, only for it to disappear! As he felt himself hugging empty space, he whipped his head around and found that the Source was gone!

"What the—what happened to the Eternal Air Source?!" he exclaimed as his tornado vanished and he fell to the floor. Warnado screamed as loud as he could as he retreated into his shell, then hit the floor and exited his shell once again. "What's going on?!"

Warnado shook his head back and forth when heard a loud, ominous cackle and shuddered.

"Kaos."

As they spoke, a giant, blue, holographic head, complete with malevolent, heightened features, appeared out of nowhere! As it came into view, its largeness imposed onto the two to the point where it made them like ants, it cackled and looked down on them with a smirk pressed across its face.

"Looking for this, I presume?" Kaos asked as the Eternal Air Source in all its glory appeared and floated in mid-air!

Warnado and Whirlwind both gasped, before they stood tall and glared down Kaos.

"Give it back, Kaos! It doesn't belong to you—it belongs in the Core of Light!" Whirlwind shouted as she stepped forward and stared Kaos down.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Skyblunderers!" Kaos cackled as he raised his eyebrow. "I thought I banished you to the furthest reaches of the universe, never to be seen again!"

"It takes more than a fancy spell to get rid of us, knucklehead!" Warnado exclaimed, his eyes narrowed and ablaze with flames so furious his element could almost be mistaken for Fire.

"So it seems." Kaos groaned before he collected himself and sneered. "But, that won't last for long, as you fell right into my trap!"

"TRAP?!" Whirlwind and Warnado exclaimed at once.

"That's right! I, being the most brilliant evil genius there is, lured you here with the Eternal Air Source, and now that you're trapped here…" Kaos covered up the holes and other exits within the area with thick, rumbling storm clouds/ "I'll have my minions finish you off!"

As he said this, Kaos closed his eyes and chanted some kind of incantation, completely oblivious to the now-tense Whirlwind and Warnado. As his chanting trailed off, three creatures appeared right in front of Whirlwind and Warnado!

The first one was psychically identical to Whirlwind in basically every way, save for the fact that it was made of pulsating evil magic. Its whole body was a dark purple in color while occasional veins of sky blue Air Element magic coursed through it and throbbed against its body. The second was made of magic similar to the first creature, but took the shape of a stout griffin with a large beak, feathery wings, and clawed paws. The third was also made of the same evil magic as the first two, but formed in the shape of a broad, muscular person with wavy, flowing hair and a soft, fluffy cloud where its legs would normally be.

"These things?" Warnado scoffed with a sneer. "We've beaten them more times than I can even count! Why do you think now will be any different?"

"You may be right, turtle." Kaos's voice dripped with poison as he glazed over the Eternal Air Source. "But have you fought them while they channeled the RAW, UNHINDERED POWER OF THE ETERNAL AIR SOURCE, THE ROOT OF ALL AIR ELEMENT MAGIC IN SKYLANDS?!"

And with that, the Eternal Air Source shone brightly and zapped the three minions—which in turn created a bright flash that covered all! When the light disappeared, the three minions glowed bright with a sky blue light, and they seemed to radiate with raw strength so powerful that everyone shuddered.

"EVIL UNICORN DRAGON, EVIL GRIFFON, EVIL STORM TITAN, ATTACK THE SKYLOSERS!" Kaos sneered as his floating head faded away. "Have fun dying~"

Whirlwind and Warnado looked at each other and nodded before they charged up their respective powers and leaped out at the Evil Minions! In immediate response, the evil minions shouted out cries of war as well and leaped forwards.

The battle for the Eternal Air Source had begun.

§

Chihiro frowned as she gazed over the stone pathways before her and Spyro with a critical eye. Her legs started to ache from walking so much, and her arms turned sore from carrying the heavy books she snagged from the library for so long. All in all, her whole body yearned for some rest, and that's just what she did. She immediately sat down and moaned, before she placed her stack of books next to her, flopped on her back and looked up at the ceiling.

"Think we can stop here, Spyro?" Chihiro asked, looking up at the stone ceiling.

She then looked over at Spyro and watched as he sighed and sat down next to her.

"I guess," he said in response, his voice worn from talking so much, "I've been feeling kind of tired, too." Spyro laid down on all fours and glazed over the books Chihiro stacked next to her, and carefully ran a claw against the leatherback cover of the one on top. "Why'd you pick up these books, anyway?"

"I dunno, thought they looked interesting, I guess." Chihiro shrugged slightly.

Spyro shrugged as well before he picked up the book on top of the stack, flipped it open and glazed over its pages. Of course, since the book was covered in grime and dust, dust flew out everywhere as soon as he cracked it open and sent him into a coughing fit. As the dust faded, Spyro glazed over the book's worn, yellowing pages. When he read over the rightmost page in particular, his eyes looked over a certain paragraph and widened. In one swift motion, Spyro slammed the book shut, tucked it under his front right leg and took back to the skies.

"Chihiro, do you have any idea what's in these books?" Spyro asked, absolute wonder in his tone.

Chihiro gave a side glance and shrugged again. She jumped back and watched as Spyro magically levitated the remaining books with flashing purple eyes and brought them close to his side.

"Chihiro, we need to get these back to Hugo."

Spyro flew ahead, the book he was reading still tucked under his leg.

"Why?" Chihiro dashed forward with confusion.

Spyro retrieved the book from under his arm and flipped back to the page he was on before he showed it to Chihiro. The words written were in some kind of Skylandian text that Chihiro most definitely couldn't read, but the scribbled-in illustrations on the pages depicted some kind of object placed into a machine, which caused the machine to grow larger and more expansive.

"Now, I can't read the text itself. It's in Ancient Skylandian, which I'm not very fluent in." Spyro pointed a claw towards the scribbled illustration on the rightmost page. "But, this drawing here—I have a feeling that it's the Core of Light! See, this part is the base, and these are the Twin Spouts, at least from what I can make out…"

Chihiro half-listened to Spyro ramble on with a large, fake smile on her face. I don't understand a word he's saying, Chihiro thought.

"Point is," Spyro closed the book and tucked it back under his leg, "I think this might have something to do with the Core, but we won't know for sure until we talk to Hugo. He studies these kinds of books all the time, and I bet he could translate this in no time!"

"So why are we standing around here?" Chihiro's eyes sparkling as she claimed the books floating next to Spyro and stacked them in her arms. "We need to get going!"

"Exactly!"

A wide, genuine grin spread across Chihiro's face as she strode forwards across the stone pavements.

"Chihiro, wait!" Spyro called out with a drip of warning in his voice as he flew to her side.

However, Chihiro didn't head his warning and ran face-first into a stone wall! As she moaned in pain, she slid down the wall and collapsed on the floor, and her books straddled in a pile on her lap. As she rubbed her aching head, she looked over and saw Spyro fly towards her.

Spyro held out a paw and heaved Chihiro back up. "I was gonna say there's a wall there."

"I'm fine, don't worry." Chihiro picked up her books and stacked them in her arms once more, before she looked around the area and frowned slightly as she hummed, her mind busy at work. For that matter, wasn't I in this place before?… Chihiro thought.

"Now, if I remember correctly," Spyro remarked as he looked over to a corner that turned to another open pathway. "If we take a couple more rights, we should be at the entrance of the citadel!"

"You think so?" Chihiro gave Spyro a curious gaze.

Spyro nodded firmly before he passed the corner as Chihiro dutifully followed him. The two of them walked in complete silence for the next several minutes, as they passed corridor after corridor and path after path. However, those minutes quickly turned to hours, and soon enough they both started to grow weary.

Spyro frowned as he looked at the pathway in front of him, while Chihiro stopped and frowned with him. It didn't seem like they had gotten any closer… Then, as they passed through another open path, their eyes glazed down at the stone floors and found that the path turned to wood! They both looked up and found themselves in an abandoned room they recognized all too well—Master Eon's personal study!

"We made it!" Chihiro exclaimed, a wide smile on her face.

"Not quite."

Spyro gently took Chihiro's free hand with his free paw and lead her out of the study. As they walked outside and sniffed in the fresh autumn air, Spyro and Chihiro both breathed sighs of relief before they sat down and gazed at the sky.

"I thought we were never gonna make it outta there." Chihiro laid the books next to her side.

"I almost thought the same thing." Spyro levitated the books next to Chihiro and took to the skies once again. "I'm gonna take these to Hugo—hopefully, he'll know something about them,"—Spyro turned around and went to fly away before he turned back and looked at Chihiro—"do you wanna come?"

Chihiro nodded eagerly and skipped to Spyro's side before the two of them raced off…