As the balloon seated itself back in the heart of the island, the basket opened once more and Whirlwind, Warnado and Flynn all exited. When they all left the basket, they found that all eyes laid on them as everyone who bustled about in the heart stopped in their tracks to catch a glimpse of the heroes of the hour.

"So," said Spyro as he moved past the crowd and towards Whirlwind. "How'd it go? Were you able to get it?"

"See for yourself," Whirlwind said. She extended her right wing, and the Eternal Air Source hovered out from behind her back!

Everybody who crowded around them chattered and whispered in excited voices.

"You did it!" Spyro exclaimed as he smiled widely while his eyes glistened with joy. He looked over the Eternal Air Source and trembled as he basked in its raw power, before he pushed himself to grab it and hold it tight. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to take this to Hugo."

Spyro took to the skies and flew off. As he looked back, he caught the others crowding around Whirlwind and Warnado as they regaled their perilous journey to get the Source back, and heaved a sigh.

"Wow, I almost can't believe it— I'm holding the Eternal Air Source in my own two paws!" Spyro said as he held the Air Source tighter.

He flew towards a large, stone building and quickly darted through its open door. As he flew further, his smile turned to a frown.

"But, if the Core hadn't been destroyed in the first place, then I—no, WE wouldn't even have to worry about this in the first place!" Spyro's eyes stung with tears. "If I was actually able to stop all this, then the Core would still be here, Master Eon would still be alive—"

Spyro shook his head and kept flying until he saw an open door with a bright light and flew inside.

The room he entered was large and circular, with tons of wooden bookshelves stuffed with books and stray papers scattered about, and a messy floor covered in stray flyleaves and torn pages. In the center of all this mess was Hugo, who stood on a wooden stool and read the book Spyro gave him, which Hugo placed on a tall wooden book stand. Chihiro, who had the rest of the books next to her in a stack, sat next to Hugo and watched him with focused eyes while she knocked her knees intently.

"Hugo—"

Before Spyro could say anything, Hugo jumped up from the stand and let out a cry of glee.

"EUREKA!" Hugo exclaimed as he fell off and hit his head on the floor. His glasses fell off his face and skid off to Chihiro's side, while Hugo himself laid face-first on the floor. "…Ouch."

Hugo staggered back up and peered around the room, his eyes squinted and likely unable to see anything other than a big blur. Chihiro then picked up Hugo's glasses, walked over to Hugo and placed them back on his face.

"Thank you, Chihiro." Hugo gently dusted off his jacket as his vision refocused and he looked over to Chihiro.

"No problem!" Chihiro chirped.

Chihiro looked over, and she saw Spyro standing in the doorway. Her eyes quickly lit up and a wide smile stretched across her face as she waved at him. "Hi Spyro!" Chihiro noted the Eternal Air Source cradled in his front legs and her eyes grew even wider. "Is that?…"

"Yep, it's the Eternal Air Source in all its glory," Spyro affirmed as he held out the Source and watched it float towards the middle of the room.

Hugo's eyes sparkled as the Source floated before him, before he ran towards Spyro and wrapping him in a tight hug. "Spyro, this is amazing!" Hugo exclaimed as he practically crushed Spyro with his hug.

"Hugo, personal, space!" Spyro coughed while he caught breaths between each word.

Hugo quickly drew back from Spyro. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright." Spyro shook his head as he spoke. "Besides, if you wanna thank anyone, thank Whirlwind and Warnado. They're the ones who got the Source back."

"Well, regardless of who got it back," Hugo's eyes sparkled, "it’s great that we got it back, especially because of my latest discovery!"

"Really?"

"Yes!" Hugo then cleared his throat and walked back to the book stand. "You see, Spyro, I was looking through the book you gave me—"

"And?"

"You were right to believe it had to do with the Core!" Hugo took the book off the stand and showed its contents to Spyro. "This book contains the original blueprints and instructions to create the Core of Light, as written by the Ancient Elementals themselves!"

"REALLY?" Spyro's mouth spread into a wide smile. "That's amazing, Hugo! If we have that—"

"The we can use it to recreate the Core of Light!" Hugo placed the book down, clapped his hands and watched as the Eternal Air Source floated down into his open palms. "Let's take the Source back outside," Hugo said as he then looked back towards Chihiro, "and Chihiro, you get the book and follow us out."

"Okie dokie, Huges!" Chihiro chirped as grabbed the book and trailed behind Hugo and Spyro…

§

Back in the heart of the island, everybody gathered around Hugo, Spyro and Chihiro. The trio themselves stood in the heart of the island, and the Eternal Air Source hovered next to them.

"Let's hope this works," Hugo quivered as he took the book from Chihiro's hands, opened it to a certain page and breathed in.

He chanted in some kind of ancient Skylandian language, one that most around could only understand as complete gibberish. As he chanted, the book glowed with a light that grew brighter as Hugo spoke, until it was completely engulfed in light! Then, the book shot a bolt of energy at the Eternal Air Source, and the Source itself shot into the center of the island! As it hit the ground under it, the Source phased underground and disappeared! But nothing else seemed to happen…

"Did it work?" Hugo gulped and balled his hands into trembling fists.

Then, out of seemingly nowhere, a yellow, circular stone platform formed over the place where the Eternal Air Source dove into! Two large, round stone objects with spouts for faces floated down on broken chunks of island before they landed on the ground, stepped off the chunks and flanked both side of the platform.

Everybody gasped and whispered as the sight unfolded before their very eyes!

"It worked! It worked!" Hugo turned around and tightly hugged Chihiro out of excitement.

Chihiro, meanwhile, joined in Hugo's shouts of excitement, before she picked him up and spun him around!

"The Eternal Air Source has been returned—nicely done," boomed a voice out of nowhere as everybody around stopped talking and looked everywhere.

"Wait, I think I know that voice!" Spyro exclaimed as he swerved around.

"You should, Spyro," boomed the voice once more as a pastel and translucent ball of shimmering light floated up from the stone platform and shone as brightly as it could against the darkening night sky, "I am your portal master, after all."

Spyro's eyes sparkled as he stood open-mouthed and in awe for a few moments.

"Master Eon!"

Spyro and the rest of the crowd all crowded on the platform around the ghost of what used to be Master Eon. Everyone all shouted and spoke at once, with others rendered speechless and unable to comprehend what was going on. With every passing moment, the chatter grew louder and louder while everybody bombarded Master Eon with questions.

"What happened to you?"

"How'd you come back here?"

"Are you really dead?"

Chihiro, meanwhile, groaned and shuddered. The crowds all pushed against her, their shouts were too loud and everything was just so, so, much. As she whimpered, Chihiro sneaked her way out of the crowd, but the ghost of Master Eon flew in front of her. With a soft gasp, Chihiro stared at Master Eon's ghost for mere moments. In a fit of curiosity, she reached out to try and touch him, but pulled back her hand.

"Are you, are you… Are you really Master Eon?" Chihiro sputtered, eyes wide in his presence.

Eon bobbed up and down, almost as if he was nodding.

Silence resonated for a few moments, before Chihiro forced herself to bow her head in respect. "I'm honored." She stood up and clasped her hands together, before she watched as Master Eon floated closer towards her and seemingly examined her person.

"And who might you be, young one?" Master Eon asked.

Chihiro flushed red and kicked the grass with her feet. She then bowed yet again while her legs trembled from some kind of amazement. "My name is Chihiro Hatsuki. I, I, I'm—"

"She's a portal master!" Hugo exclaimed as he barged into the conversation and pushed past Chihiro. "She brought the Skylanders back when Kaos banished them, and she reopened your portal network!"

Master Eon chuckled. "Quite impressive, young one."

"Oh, it was nothing." Chihiro chuckled and scratched the back of her head.

"Master Eon, how did you get back here?" Hugo asked as he looked Master Eon directly in the face (or at least, what was probably Master Eon's face). "We all thought you were gone for good!"

"I thought I was too, Hugo," Master Eon said as his voice turned grim. His light flickered, and he seemingly hesitated before he spoke again. "However, when you brought the Eternal Air Source back, a strong magical force pulled my spirit from the depths of the afterlife! I'm not entirely sure how I came back, but it seems that even in death, my work is not finished."

Master Eon returned back to Chihiro and watched as she chuckled and avoided his line of sight.

"You have great magical potential, young Chihiro, but you still have a long way to go before you can truly be considered a portal master. For the time being, Hugo and I will mentor you. Right, Hugo?"

Master Eon turned back to look at a shocked Hugo, who quickly nodded.

Chihiro nodded slightly and gulped. Wait, mentor her? Did he really just say that?

And with that said, Master Eon floated away from Hugo and Chihiro and went to address the Skylanders.

"Now, we had better rest for now. That was a very big day we had."

The Skylanders all murmured in agreement and everybody parted their separate ways. As they all parted, Master Eon floated over towards Spyro until they stood side-by-side.

"Spyro, it seems that I have much to catch up on," Master Eon said. "Would you please inform me of what happened while I was gone?"

"O-of course, Master!" Spyro sputtered as he nodded firmly.

Master Eon chuckled as he and Spyro walked over to the portal network building…

§

"And that should be everything up to now," Spyro said as he and Master Eon's ghost walked through the barren halls of the building.

"Oh, my," was all Master Eon said, a cold silence echoed through the hallways.

The only sound was the sound of Spyro's pawsteps, which seemed hollow and cold like everything around them.

"If Kaos was able to conquer so much of Skylands while I was gone—"

"Don't blame yourself," Spyro retorted, his tone solemn and laced with slight bitterness. "Apparently time passes a lot faster back on Earth. If I—I mean, we hadn't been gone for so long, then maybe he wouldn't have taken over as much as he could. Heck, if I—I mean, WE, had WE actually been able to stop him, then maybe none of this would have never happened! In fact, if I had actually just, just…"

Spyro hung his head slightly and let his wings droop to his feet.

"Spyro? You seem to be acting strangely," Master Eon asked, concern in his voice as he floated close to Spyro. "Is something troubling you?"

Spyro heaved a sigh. "It's nothing."

Master Eon seemingly frowned as he looked over Spyro, and he cleared his throat. "If you say so, Spyro," Master Eon said, "So, about this book you found in my citadel's hidden library—"

"Actually, I didn't find it—It was Chihiro."

"You mean, the young portal master?"

"I'll tell you the whole story on the way to the Sanctuaries."