THE LEGEND OF GANON: TYRANT'S ASCENT
Chapter 2: Our Strength
Not every dangerous creature in Hyrule was subject to the corruption of evil. While Ganondorf had always been quite adept at bending wildlife to his will, turning them into monsters and creating monsters of his own outright, many of Hyrule's most formidable animals were natural, neutral beings that did not know the concepts of "good" and "evil" and fought to protect their territories, their young, and themselves. Most Hyruelans thought of keese as evil, for example, but the truth was that they just liked to roost in dark and inconvenient places and disliked intrusions upon their homes. These creatures provided an inconvenience to a tyrant bent upon restoring his power.
There were some creatures that were specifically good, however, and they fought Ganondorf and his army while they were on the march. His horse – an animal carefully bred through generations, a descendant of his first stallion, protected him through the desert when the sand cats and the sun foxes attacked, trying to halt his advance. They were weak creatures, easily dispatched with the old Sages' Sword and bolts of basic magic.
Then there were the bulbins. These goblin-like creatures had served Ganondorf in ages past, but in this era, tribes of them were divided. The sorcerer had been able to gather two tribes of about fifty apiece into his service, but there was one stubborn faction that had the gall to attack him on the road. This was the King's Faction, or the Ordon-Tribe. They were independents and, it was said, they held a loyalty to a Hero long-dead. They were not exactly "good," but they knew, somehow, that he was the enemy of the Hero their ancestors had sworn fealty to after their once-king had been bested in battle.
The bulbins were, of course, the result of what happened when minions developed too much intelligence. This was a regret of Ganondorf's and a mistake he would not make again. The beasts were, supposedly, the descendants of moblins, creatures he'd designed, in part, by using his own blood.
That was an ability granted to him by the part of his spirit that had once belonged to an evil even more ancient than he was. He had partnered with that fragment of perfect malevolence long ago, letting the darkness be reborn in him. There was no mistake that Ganondorf was "in charge," however. The ancient strength had merged into his strength, for it needed the coursing blood of a living being in order to exist in the physical world, let alone make any of its desires known. It, in turn, enabled him to live though he be felled a thousand times by holy arrows and Heroes' swords. It was a symbiosis of ambition. A general ambition and hate transferred, in turn, to every being created or twisted by Ganondorf's sorceries.
He'd learned that after moblins had become capable of breeding on their own, that subsequent generations had gained greater intelligence as well as a more humanoid appearance. If it was true, it came as an utter surprise. What Ganondorf remembered of moblins was that they were so dumb that any that successfully bred tended to eat their own young, often as soon as the whelp was birthed.
He'd decided to create more of them, and ones that were good and stupid. Bone dust from a dog of a particular breed, flesh from a swine, magic ripped from the aether and a few drops of his own blood were sufficient. He also raised the bones of the dead – most of those that had been buried beneath the desert sands – Gerudo, Hylian, human… all unquiet dead. Their souls had long departed, but their bodies were well-capable of being bent to his will.
With all who were willing or had been bent to serve him, Ganondorf felt confident enough to go to Hyrule Castle. He entered by way of the front gate and the front door. He did not bother with diplomacy or with a mask. His soldiers just attacked. While they kept the palace guards busy, he made his way through the halls.
He drank a potion that he'd taken from a shopkeep to soothe a cut he'd taken under a gap in his armor. He stowed the bottle in a tiny rift dimension he'd created for storage. There was no telling when a bottle might proove useful. He ran up the stairs into the throne room. The seats for the king, the queen and the princess were empty. A pair of knights – Hyrule's highest by the style of their armor - rushed to greet Ganondorf with their swords. The warlock danced around them, hefting his blade to meet theirs. One man got behind him and cut his cloak. The soldier thrust the tip of his blade into Ganondorf's back just as Ganondorf relieved his comrade of his head.
"I will protect my king, my princess and my country, demon!" the knight shouted. Ganondorf whipped around (causing the sword to cut a rather painful slice into his flesh with the movement) and grabbed the young man by the neck. The offending sword clattered to the floor.
"Noble words from a weak fool," Ganondorf said, beginning to squeeze. The man struggled and his eyes rolled back. "I should make this slow, but I am feeling impatient."
With that, he squeezed until he felt the sharp pop of breaking vertebrae separating from the skull. The knight's struggle ceased and the sorcerer threw the limp corpse to the far end of the room, just in time to meet the head of his friend, which was rolling that way. From both of the bodies rose a ghostly, flame-like light. Ganondorf doubted that anyone could see such a thing but him – and he recognized what the flames were. They were life-essences. They were not the spirits of the dead men, for they'd departed already, but merely the residue of their physical life-energy. Ganondorf touched them and immediately felt strength go into him. His wound mended.
He'd heard many a rumor that the Heroes he'd faced in the past were healed in a similar manner by the power of the love present in Hyrule, and that they could find this healing love anywhere – from tall grass to the remains of his monsters. Ganondorf didn't even try to think about how that worked. All he knew was that "love" wasn't a healing factor for him – but he could rip the residue of people's life-essences away. So appropriate that "trophies" from those he'd slain would strengthen him.
He ascended a winding staircase, where he vaulted himself atop a thick windowsill to open a treasure chest that had been placed there. It wasn't that he'd needed treasure, he was simply curious as to what was inside. After all, he was the King of Thieves. He opened the box to find a strange crystal bowl – shaped like a miniature cauldron. Within it was a ghostly flame, not unlike the life-essences he'd been taking from the dead. When he touched it, it vanished, imparting him with a magnificent feeling of strength. He grunted and grinned to himself. Apparently, the Royal Family had some magic stashed away – neutral magic that he could appropriate for his own use.
He was not as powerful as he'd remembered himself being the last time he was in the mortal world. As much magical energy and adeptness as Ganondorf had, it seems this newly resurrected and formed body had forgotten many specific skills. He'd growled and cursed in the ancient Gerudo tongue when he'd come upon a room that was completely dark. He'd tripped on a stone tile and had to fight more royal knights who were comfortable fighting without their sight. There was also a dog that growled and latched onto his arm. He heard it yelp and whine as he flung his arm out and it apparently hit a wall.
Among the cacophony of clattering armor and the howling of a hound with a broken back, he tried to will himself to cast a fire-spell to light up the room but found that the magic would not come. It was as if his old skills were separated from him the last time he'd been sealed away. The Sages' Sword scraped a man's armor as Ganondorf fought blind. The sparks of it lit the room just long enough for Ganondorf to see how many men were on him, their positions, and the way out. He used this to his full advantage. He swung his blade in an arc, cutting one man's legs out from under him. He elbowed another man, sent him to the floor, and ran him through. While he stuck the man whose legs he'd taken off before he bled to death, Ganondorf did not bother putting the dog out of its misery. He let it howl as a warning to the people higher up in the tower.
He found steps and he found light. He flung open an ornately-embellished door to a room that was decorated with royal purple curtains but was otherwise stark. Three people in the room huddled together – an old man with a crown, a pale young woman with black hair and black armor and a little girl with red-blond hair and a light crown that looked like leaves. They stood in front of what Ganondorf sought. It glowed with a radiant light, golden, holy and whole.
He laughed.
"Kasuto," the king said to the dark-haired woman, "Take Zelda and run."
"And leave you here alone, your Highness?" Kasuto retorted.
"I'll fight him… take my daughter and run! Now!"
"Daddy!"
Kasuto scooped the child up in her arms forcibly. She ducked past Ganondorf in a severely lucky move. Ganondorf would have cleaved her in half had he not felt the impact of a sword in his armor. He turned immediately to face the King of Hyrule.
"Come now, Nohansen," Ganondorf sneered as he countered. "Can we not solve this like civilized men? You know that I am worthy to take the Triforce, for I have felt its power in me. You keep it as… as an ornament!"
"I will not let evil overrun my land!"
Blades clanged and sparked. The king took a heavy wound, but stayed on his feet. Ganondorf took some minor scratches.
"You do fight well," the warlock said, "It is almost a pity to kill you, but what must be done, shall be done!"
"The power of this land will not be given to a tyrant! The future of my people… and my daughter… I will die for those if I have to!"
"As you wish!"
Ganondorf sensed an opening and thrust the Sage's Sword right through the king's chest. The man fell to the ground, moaning. Ganondorf grinned as he wiped his blade clean. He stepped up to the pedestal where the Triforce was held, noting that the king's gaze had never left him.
"Fortunate that the blade missed your heart," he said, looking down. "You shall soon be gone, but before you expire, you get to watch as your kingdom and your world become mine!"
King Nohansen coughed, spitting up foamy blood onto the tiles of the floor. "You won't rule for long," he gasped. "The Hero will come."
"He always comes," Ganondorf said with a wicked smile, "But this time, I do not think the outcome shall be typical."
Ganondorf reached out his right hand and stroked across the gold of the Triforce. He felt virtue going into him, rushing into his body, coursing through his spirit. Only…something happened that he'd hoped would not.
A deep yet feminine voice echoed through the chamber.
You are still one with a powerful, but unbalanced heart.
The two bottom fragments of the Triforce separated from the topmost piece. As the peak-piece vanished inside of him, the two other broke off, shooting out to two different windows, leaving ghostly trails of blue and green light behind them, respectively.
Ganondorf howled in rage.
The king wheezed laughter before choking on a gout of blood that bubbled up in his throat. Ganondorf snarled and brought the Sages' Sword down upon the dying man over and over again until almost the entire floor of the tower room was painted red and the king would have been unrecognizable from a commoner or a poorly-slaughtered animal, even to his daughter.
Ganondorf made haste back down the stairwells and hallways he'd come up. He found the ones he sought back in the throne room. Little Zelda was shaking and crying, staring at the corpses of the knights he'd slain earlier. Ganondorf leered. Glowing, fresh and new upon her tiny right hand was the telltale mark of the Triforce of Wisdom.
A small knife embedded itself with force in his right shoulder. Kasuto stared him down. "You'll not lay a hand on her!" she screamed.
The strength and accuracy with which the knife had been thrown was impressive. It had landed home in a gap between Ganondorf's armor plates. The wizard ripped the knife from his body without a sound or a flinch. He could feel the strength imparted to him by the Triforce of Power already. He remained wounded, but the pain did not bother him at the moment. "You are not a Sheikah," he said.
"No, I am not," Kasuto replied, "but I am a warrior, a sworn servant of the king and the sworn guardian of the princess."
"If you want her to be safe, just give her to me," Ganondorf said smoothly. "I will spare her life…. All I really need is that delicate little hand of hers. She's young – she can heal."
Zelda hugged Kasuto's legs. She peered out from behind them and glared. "What did you do to my daddy?" she demanded.
"Oh, he is sleeping… sleeping quite well. Would you like to join him?"
"Enough!" Kasuto shouted, taking another large knife from her hip. "I am skilled and I am quick and I have already made you bleed!"
Ganondorf laughed. "Aren't you up on the legends, little guardian?" he sneered, "Someone like you cannot defeat me. That job takes a Hero. I am afraid that as bold as you are, that you are quite lacking."
"Zelda, stay behind me," the armored Hylian said. "If I fall you take off running, you hear? You know where the stable is and you know my horse. He'll take you to safety."
"Yes 'um, Miss Kasuto."
Zelda shrank back toward the main stairwell. It was obvious that she wanted to run right now, but did not want to leave her beloved nanny. Ganondorf and Kasuto circled each other around the room, their movements slow and tense.
"You should know me," Kasuto said.
"You have an aura about you," Ganondorf replied, "but I cannot say that I have met you before."
Magical energy formed around Kasuto – it took a very strange form, like gray flames that glowed. An odor filled the room – the sharp, sour, dry scent of bones.
"Oh, my," Ganondorf muttered, flipping his sword in his hand. "Have I just awakened a Sage?"
Kasuto smiled. "You have not known me, but you have known my energy. Every time you have been sealed. Every time you have killed. I am Kasuto. I am the Sage of Death. And this time around, I shall be your death."
"Doubtful," Ganondorf replied, switching his sword to his left hand and concentrating power into his right fist. "I am a job for a Hero and you are not him."
The two rushed at each other. Little Zelda decided it wisest to run, right then. She disappeared down the stairwell. Ganondorf felt a knife break upon his chest armor and the power of death swirl around him. He suddenly felt very tired – almost… gray. His magically-charged fist collided with Kasuto's jaw. His own magic swirled about her. He concentrated and enacted a spell. His newfound Power surged through him to aid it.
Kasuto fell, but did not die. She screamed as her body shrank and twisted. After several moments, a creature stared up at Ganondorf with baleful yellow-green eyes. His curse had not killed her, but it had rendered her without access to her abilities as a Sage. Kasuto was now a small black cat.
She hissed at him.
"It seems your strength was not sufficient," Ganondorf jeered. "I suppose now that the dying shall go without comfort or peace since you are trapped in this form. Wonderful."
"A Hero shall come!" Kasuto growled. Even in feline form, she'd kept her voice. "The Sages will stop you, too! You will never rule Hyrule as long as the Sages keep the Seven Temples. Forest, Fire, Water, Shadow, Spirit, Earth and Wind. They are at their strength and will see to your downfall in short order! Then… oh, then… I shall be waiting to be your Death!"
The sorcerer grinned broadly and brought up his sword. He might as well finish the job.
Kasuto fled before he could bring the blade down.
Ganondorf looked around the ruined throne room. He continued on his way down the steps. He would send orders to find and capture Zelda and he would pay each of Hyrule's regions and their temples visits. If the Sages went down as easy as Sage Kasuto, he would have full ruling and even the full Triforce in short order. He had been unable to actually kill Kasuto, and that worried him. As it was, the smell of blood was thick in Hyrule Castle and he paused to enjoy it.
