((A/N: Well, took a bit longer to get a new chapter up thanks to AP English IV's newest book assignment, Heart of Darkness, and school in general. Plus I pretty much only type up my story at school, so that's about ten minutes in the morning and 45 minutes in the last period of the day when I'm library assistant. I pretty much do nothing but play Guild Wars at home… So, I had trouble describing the Shadow Beasts accurately and getting the scene in the throne room to work out just right… Not one of my best chapters so far in this, but I tried my best.
Ten: Hahah, very funny. *sarcasm* I'm working on making this a long story but with shorter chapters than I usually do. Six pages per chapter on paper makes it quite long to type up on computer… Four pages per chapter seems to be working out better. And I mostly borrow names from other things if I can't think of anything else… like the names of the weapons her brothers use, which will be revealed later. You'll recognize them if you're a fan of Fire Emblem.
Jenn: Woohoo! Glad someone else is reading my story! It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Now ya just need to spread the word to others who may be interested in it. :P More reviews makes it much better for me and motivates me to write more. Just look at the sheer number of stories I've stopped writing in the middle of. I'm hoping that doesn't happen to this one… But anyhow, yeah… I wanted Zelda to seem more important and realistic than she was portrayed in Twilight Princess. If you think about it, she's the ruler of all Hyrule, and she doesn't even look to be older than mid-twenties, so she must have lost both of her parents to ascend to that position. Such an event would place a heavy burden on her shoulders. I'm glad you like my portrayal of her, because I've definitely tried my best.))
Chapter 4: The Fall of Hyrule Castle
Danielle had finished her lessons as fast as she could the next day, although her mind was continuously wandering while she worked. Finishing them in what seemed like record time to the young girl, she sat up straight and looked up towards her mentor, seeing Zelda smirking in satisfaction as if she had expected this sudden and unusual behavior from Danielle. "You seem more eager than usual to finish your studies today, despite the fact you have always complained about how much you despise these lessons," Zelda commented, taking up the parchment she had been writing on. "Of course, I am sure the only reason you did so was to get to your sword training faster."
Not even bothering to hide it, the young noble grinned and nodded. "I won't deny that, Princess." Zelda put aside the parchment once she was satisfied with what she read, motioning for Danielle to rise while taking up her royal blade from the table. She stood up from the chair, reaching for her own sword when Zelda's smirk fell away and her head tilted just slightly to the side. Confused, Danielle was about to ask what was wrong when she heard shouting coming from the corridor. A knight suddenly burst through the door, startling her and causing her to jump a bit. "Ah…?"
"Princess! The castle is under attack!" the knight cried, Zelda's eyes narrowing as soon as she heard these words. "These dark beasts have stormed the castle and overrun our defenses! We must get you to safety, milady!"
Zelda frowned, turning her gaze now to Danielle. There was worry and anxiety in her eyes as she wrapped her gloved hand tightly around her regal blade. "Danielle, remain here and hide," she spoke calmly. "You should be safe here…" Turning around, the princess headed out of the door with the knight who had entered the room, the heavy wooden door shutting behind her.
Danielle stood in stunned silence, confused as she tried to make sense of what was going on. The castle was under attack? But by who? Who was strong enough to overwhelm the well-trained knights so quickly? And that knight had mentioned dark beasts, so did that mean mere monsters were coordinated enough to take the castle with such speed? Hesitating, Danielle now focused on listening to the sounds of battle outside the room while taking up her sword. The cries of pain from injured knights reached her ears, along with something else. It was a dark and inhuman sound that made her skin crawl.
Taking a step back from the door, Danielle raised her sword with both hands just as something slammed into the door with crushing force, rattling it in its frame. She cringed, something hitting the door again with even more force, the wood beginning to splinter and crack. With the third blow the door flew open, revealing a nightmarish beast stepping slowly through the doorway on its hands and feet. It was vaguely humanoid in shape, its skin dark grey with strange black patterns all across its body. Its hands were large with long, strong fingers, its body muscular with a strange magenta pattern on the front and back of its torso. Its head bore a flat headdress of sorts, no eyes visible behind it, long black tendrils extending from the back of the head-dressing while shorter ones hung down from below it. Despite lacking any visible eyes, the beast turned its head towards her, slowly approaching.
Fear held her heart in its icy grip, Danielle backing away until she hit the wall behind her, the young noble trembling so much that her sword's blade quivered in her grip. It stopped just in front of her, tilting its head somewhat like it was examining her before one of its powerful hands shot forward with shocking speed, wrapping around her neck. Gasping, Danielle tried to pull the hand away as it slowly began to crush her throat, its head mere inches from her face. The beast peered at her intently, as if it was interested in watching her die, Danielle managing to raise her sword with her right hand while dizziness began to overcome her and her vision blurred. Baring her teeth, she drove the blade down at its neck, the tip piercing deep into its dark flesh. The beast let out an inhuman cry of pain as it released her and collapsed to the ground, Danielle falling back against the wall behind her as she rubbed at her throat with a trembling hand, her face pale. She had come so close to death at the hands of this inhuman monster, and it had scared her out of her wits. Taking a shaky breath, she nudged at its body somewhat with her shoe to see if it was really dead.
Without warning, the shadow beast's body exploded into strange, square-shaped black particles that turned sharply a few times before vanishing into thin air, leaving no trace of the creature behind. Gasping and struggling to catch her breath, she stared in confusion at where the monster had fallen. Just what was that thing? A frown spread across her face, the young girl lifting her head to gaze at the broken-down door. It was no longer save in here, especially if more of those things were around the castle.
"They'll be in the throne room," she murmured, thoughts drifting to her family. "The rest of the castle is probably overrun by now. Father and the others will be making their stand there." Her blue eyes flickered somewhat as she swallowed hard, that fear never letting up its grip on her heart. She wanted to run and hide, but she knew it would be pointless. There was nowhere in the castle that would be safe except for with her family, some of the best fighters in Hyrule. Getting to the throne room would be the problem. These beasts were powerful and terrifying, and the thought of running into more of them made her skin crawl. She had been lucky to kill the one that had attacked her, but if she had the misfortune to encounter another one that wasn't so keen on watching her die…
Heart pounding painfully hard in her chest, the trembling young noble wrapped both hands tightly around her sword's leather hilt, steeling herself for whatever awaited her on the path to the throne room as she stepped out into the darkened hallway.
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Greil held his massive greatsword by his side, wielding it with one hand despite its weight. The last few knights who had been able to reach the throne room stood in different spots within it, their weapons at the ready, determined to protect the princess they had sworn their lives to. His own sons were positioned close to him, Cale to his left and Rurik and Blaine to his right. Cale stood in his usual defensive stance, knees bent and longsword held horizontally with its hilt back near his head, eyes narrowed dangerously as he gazed at the entryway. Rurik wore a slight scowl on his face, axe resting on his right shoulder as he kept his body just slightly tensed up, a light sheen of sweat covering his face. Blaine, despite being the more relaxed-looking of the two with his lance held loosely in his right hand, was actually the most alert as ha also stared at the doorway, his expression one of focused thoughtfulness. A few of them, Greil himself included, had actually fought the strange "Shadow Beasts" that had invaded the castle and cut a swath through the knights with such inferior numbers. The rest had managed to rush to the throne room as soon as the alert was given that Princess Zelda had retreated there, avoiding the fighting for the most part.
My daughter is still somewhere down below, in the castle with those monsters overrunning everything… Goddesses, please… protect my daughter… I cannot bear to lose her, not when I cannot do a single thing to protect her…
His emerald eyes narrowed now, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. A dark cloud suddenly poured in through the entryway, Greil and his knights immediately preparing to fight as the Shadow Beasts charged in. The knights closer to the entry had no time to react to the sudden surge of enemies, the beasts slamming them aside with ease. Greil scowled as one leapt through the air at him, aiming to land on the commander, but he swung Exaccus through the air. The deadly sharp blade cleaved through its dark flesh, the beast crashing to the ground behind him. But even as he looked up, dread filled him upon seeing that most of the other knights had already fallen, the beasts holding several of the Hylians by their heads and necks. Quick glances to either side showed that his sons hadn't been attacked yet, still holding their ground with a handful of knights.
Someone strode into the throne room flanked by two larger than normal Shadow Beasts, with silver head-dressings, strange black designs on them with two thin metal "horns" rising from the top, the tendrils present on the other monsters absent from these. The figure itself was very tall and clad in pitch-black robes with teal patterns covering it, the sleeves running down past its hands and hiding them. Across its chest and shoulders was curiously designed grey armor with a single crimson gem in the middle. The most disturbing feature of all was a tall metal helmet shaped in the likeness of some outlandish, terrifying demon. The figure was unarmed, striding down the carpet with a gait that expressed it was not intimidated by the knights.
Greil growled in anger, still determined to protect the princess at any cost. He brought up his sword and bent at the knees, preparing to charge even as the intruder stopped before them. With a roar, Greil rushed forward, just as a sphere of strange red energy and black particles formed in front of the figure's chest. He was about to swing the greatsword and take the invader's life with a single mighty blow when that energy shot forward in the form of a thin red beam, slamming into his chest and piercing through his armor. White hot pain sliced through his chest, the air rushing from his lungs while the mighty knight crashed to his knees at the figure's feet with a clatter of metal hitting stone. He was barely aware of someone shouting his name, Exaccus slipping from his hand to the floor. Greil placed a gauntleted hand to his chest in a daze, pulling it away and seeing his black glove slick with blood.
Three knights rushed by him in a charge at the invader, everything around him seeming to move in slow motion. Even his mind seemed to work slower than usual, as it took him a second to realize it was his own sons making one last desperate charge. The figure didn't even raise its hands again, dark energy slamming into his sons and sending them flying backwards, their weapons clattering to the floor as they fell still. Without even lifting a hand, the invader had defeated some of the strongest knights in Hyrule.
The figure turned its gaze towards Princess Zelda now, one of the Shadow Beasts by its side approaching the heavily injured Greil. He glared defiantly at it, each breath coming in ragged gasps, his face pale and blood covering his armor. The creature wrapped its hand around his entire skull, darkness filling his vision now. He couldn't see anything, but he could hear that dark invader beginning to speak.
"It is time for you to choose: surrender or die." The figure's voice sounded strange and inhuman, distorted even further by the helmet it wore. Upon hearing these words, Greil felt his skin crawl, dizziness assaulting his senses from the loss of blood he had endured so far. "Oh yes, a question for all the land and people of Hyrule… Life? Or death!?"
As the figure spoke these words, the entire room fell deathly still. It seemed to him even the struggling knights had fallen silent. No one spoke a single word, and it was several seconds before a single sound rang out through the air: the clatter of a blade dropping to the floor. Princess Zelda had surrendered.
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Danielle ran up the winding steps to the tower, the stairs destroyed in several parts, revealing deep drops into the darkness below. Fallen guards littered the area at the top of the steps, evidence that a vicious battle had taken place here, a battle that the knights of Hyrule had lost despite their best efforts. Her stomach twisted into knots as she swallowed, trying to avoid looking at the fallen guards and making her way to the large door that was the exit outside. Upon stepping through, she found herself outside of the castle just below the throne room on the tower. Black smoke rose from the fires around the castle, the air unusually still, not a sound reaching her ears other than the fierce pounding of her heart. Her eyes flickered back over her shoulder to the top of the castle where the throne room resided, the young girl charging up the steps as she held her sword in a hand that had gone numb. She rushed into the throne room, only to skid to a halt on the red carpet with a gasp of surprise and fear. Several of the dark beasts filled the throne room, many of them holding struggling soldiers, ready to end their lives at a moment's notice.
Among those captive soldiers was her father, his face hidden from sight by the massive black hand wrapped around his head. The blood on his armor glistened in the dim sunlight that filtered into the throne room, and she could see her brothers pinned to the ground beneath the monsters, their struggles to get free weak and futile. The fear that gripped her young heart was overcome by anger at the sight of her father and brothers injured and at the mercy of the Shadow Beasts. She had always looked up to them, thought them to be undefeatable in combat, and to see them like this made fury overcome her judgment. Not even thinking, Danielle ran forward towards the one who had to be the mastermind behind this whole invasion, the black-robed man with the evil-looking helmet, shooting him a furious glare as she raised her blade to strike.