Link
"War and the Yiga are here! Yunobo has the Goron's Ruby, protect it at all costs!"
Link is unable to respond to Zelda's warning, but the pivotal information she speaks of stays in his mind. The Goron Ruby, which Link deduces is likely within the medallion Yunobo wears around his neck. None of the Yiga Clan has appeared at the volcano's peak, though Link didn't put it past the evil version of the Sheikah to make it up here. For the moments they are ahead, Link will need to be quick.
There's just one issue; while Ruta was somewhat upright when he returned to its interior yesterday, Rudania is still in the position where one-third of its body is outside the volcano's mouth. In addition, the control unit is on the beast's back, directly across from Link and Yunobo, but slightly slanted. The terminal that connects to it, however, is on the back. Link will have to find a way to safely traverse the sloping back of Rudania without falling in the lava.
Yunobo looks over Link's shoulder, seeing the Hero's dilemma. "How are you going to go about it, Link?"
"Good question. I can get to the shoulders safely, they're flat. But there's no possible way for me to climb down this structure. For some reason, the ancient technology is unclimbable." Well… Maybe I could try it, but this is not the best time for a test run. The other option is to paraglide, hopefully stick a good landing and maintain myself on Rudania's back...but that's even riskier. Damn, Zelda could handle this better. Link fiddles in his pocket, taking out his Climbing Gloves. Forged with the ancient technology, Link hopes that the gloves will allow him to stick to the Divine Beast. Sighing, Link musters a silent prayer to the gods and faces Yunobo. "Yunobo, the Yiga are attacking. While I'm over there, I'll need you to defend me as best you can."
Yunobo puts on a toothy grin as he beats his chest. "Don't worry, Link! They won't know what hit them!"
Link nods. Seeing Yunobo all confident reminds him of his grandfather, minus the beard. He points to the chain around Yunobo. "Okay, but even more important, protect that chain. It is more valuable than me. I don't know all the details, but it holds something of importance to me and Zelda. Also," Link pulls another object from his bottomless pouch, a large hammer-like weapon that once belonged to Daruk. He hands it to Yunobo, offering him his heirloom. "I think this fits you more than it fits me."
Yunobo holds his grandfather's weapon, inspecting it. "Is this...Boulder Breaker?"
"I'm sure he would want you to have it. Completes the set now. 'Just work hard, take care of your brothers, and...eat rocks, and you'll become stronger than him,' he wanted me to tell you. Now watch my back, Yunobo." Link steps forward to the mouth of the volcano, taking a deep breath. I should have volunteered to stay in the village. The things I do for Zelda, while she gets to sleep, hold a seal, not die…and not jump into Death Mountain a second time. "For Hyrule. Revali's Gale!" Link calls upon the winds, lifting him up in the air, He makes a short flight to Rudania's shoulders, sticking the landing. Now comes the hard part. Option One, Link decided, is of less risk, even if the item in question is being used for the first time. Link trusts Robbie's inventions, so he believes this new piece will work. If not, he'll have to trust the ancient technology of the gloves.
The hook shot, Robbie called it, would allow Link to adhere to anything he fires the hook at, thanks to the ancient tech. Link takes aim for the foot of the control unit, watching the chained hook extend and impale the foot of the base. Link gives a tug, but the chain doesn't give way. It works. Smiling, Link looks to the summit where he and Yunobo stand, giving him a thumbs up.
Link, now confident he could retrieve Rudania's core, holds tightly to the handle of the hook shot as he slides down the Divine Beast's back. He slides until he is and the opposite side of the control unit, where the main terminal dimly glows blue and orange. His hook still sturdy, Link begins to pull himself up. Once he reaches the terminal, Link reaches for the Sheikah Slate, wondering just how he'll safely remove the core. "Maybe it'll work just on a whim, just as regaining control of the Beasts did." He taps the tablet on the terminal and says, "Um… Open up the control unit so I can take the core?"
A few clicks from the unit occurs, but Link's wishes are granted. A few seconds after connecting with the terminal, the red core of Divine Beast Vah Rudania is out. "Alright." He adjusts himself to reach out for it, then manuevers to the backside of the unit. With both the Goron's Ruby and Rudania's core with him, Link's mission is complete. He takes a breather as he listens to Vah Rudania shut down, growling one final time before going to sleep.
"Zelda, I got it, I got the core."
"Good! Now get out of here! Get both the ruby and the core-"
"Zelda? Zelda!" Link frantically places the core in his pouch, ejects the hook shot from his place and aims it for higher placement on Rudania's back, closer to its upright shoulder. He fires it, but it never hits the destinations. Instead, much to Link's surprise, it is caught by a red and white figure.
The Yiga! No! Link looks up, seeing the one who caught his chain to be male in figure, his mask mostly white except for the red outline of the symbol. If Link remembers, Ganondorf called him Pestilence. "Link Ordon, the Hero out of his time. Finally, we meet."
Despite his vulnerable position, Link displays his courage. "You're lost! I got the core."
Pestilence chuckles as he gestures to the summit. "Oh, I have to thank you for making the job easy for us. But we have the ruby." Link turns to see one of the clansmen hold Yunobo's chain while a group holds down the Goron. There's no way a Goron's strength can be matched physically by humans...unless the Goron was weakened.
Link's anger flares as he faces Pestilence. "What did you do to him!"
"Pestilence is my name, what do you think I did? What do you think I'll do if you don't give me the core?"
"You wouldn't."
"You're right. One Goron is nothing, but the entire tribe? Do you want to see a community of sick, suffering Gorons? There's no cure, no magic, no holy power that can stop my pestilence. Death might like his deaths quick. War likes to see blood run. I, suffering, and they will suffer immensely if you don't give me what I want."
Link grits his teeth. He remembers how Ganondorf described the death of King Dorephan, how it was not Paya's blade that killed him but the quick decay of brain tissue from Death's power. He looks to Yunobo, seeing the weakened Goron looking like he might hurl his rocky breakfast. This...is not the same Yiga that Link experienced in the recent and distant past. Whoever the new master is, they are ruthless. Ruthless enough to pressure the Hero of the Wild. Ruthless enough to make Link, a man who has only been defeated once in his life, surrender for the first time. He takes the core out of his pouch, presenting it to Pestilence. Pestilence chuckles as he takes the core from Link. "Smart decision, boy."
"I'm going to hunt you all down."
"Oh my, the wolf threatens me. I hope we do meet again, Hero of the Wild. But maybe after you learned the truth about your new friend, Ganondorf."
Link's eyebrows lower in suspicion. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, you don't know? Ha! Of course, he kept it from you. Why else would the traitor not reveal his former allegiance or his tainted bloodline? Yes, Hero, I see the confusion on your face. Ganondorf used to be of the Yiga Clan, one of the strongest members until he betrayed us. He is, as I sure you know, the male Gerudo King, but no one knows of him, and even if he did reveal himself, why would the Gerudo accept the boy as their first male in hundreds of years when he has the blood of Calamity Ganon in his veins?"
"What?!"
Pestilence chuckles as his second arm is stretched out. "Now we have the core of Vah Ruta, the core of Vah Rudania, and...the core of Vah Medoh." A green spherical object appears in Pestilence's left hand, joining the red one in his right. Link gasps in surprise. The Yiga...got to Medoh first? "Three of the five Sacred Stones are ours too. Amazing how convinced the Ritos can be when you pluck the feathers of their children." He turns away, facing the western horizon. "If only you could see the beautiful destruction over there. Too bad, Link, that the road for you ends here. Once Famine is done in the Great Woods and Death retrieves the last core and stone in the desert, we'll finish what he started. You and your dear Princess Zelda will watch from the afterlife." The cores vanish, and so do the Yiga surrounding Yunobo. Pestilence lingers a moment longer to charge a ball of energy and fires it towards Link. The Hero ducks, but realizes too late that he was never the intended target.
Rudania was. The Divine Beast, due to is being shut down, is easily toppled, losing its footing as it falls down the mouth of Death Mountain, taking the trapped Hero of Hyrule with it. Pestilence hears the cries of the sick Goron, but ignores him as the Yiga takes away his sickness while watching the Divine Beast sink into the lava pool below. "War, we're done here?"
"One fallen Princess, a multitude of dead Gorons, oh we're done."
"Very well. The lady awaits us."
Zelda
"Then I'll meet you back at base soon." War looks down at her beaten prey, her foot pressing down heavily on Zelda's throat. She laughs at the princess' struggle for air. "That's right, Your Majesty, beg for me to release you."
Zelda struggles to breathe, but her emotions are on the verge of being uncontrolled. War only managed to beat her in a controlled environment, where Zelda only fought to distract her. However, both Link and Zelda were played. Whatever happened on the summit, it is due to the Yiga outsmarting them. For someone who prides herself for having wisdom and also just returning her land to peace before all this, Zelda releases the only emotion she has in the form of tears.
War notices this, sneering at the princess. "You cry for what, Princess? The Hero? The dead? Those who will suffer in the coming days?"
"These….are for….you…."
"And why would you cry for me?"
"Because….I will….kill...you." War laughs, stepping off Zelda's neck.
"As much as I would love to see that, I have to go. If I was you, I would look for your beloved boyfriend. Hopefully, he isn't overcooked meat right now." In a puff of smoke, War and the Yiga Clan vanishes.
The Goron town is wrecked. Despite their strength, The Yiga had numbers. At one point, it seemed the battle between the Gorons and the Yiga, even Zelda was beating War, then the bit-Zelda internally groans, she's too angry to be proper-the bitch fires magic at the carving of Daruk. Seeing their hero's monument shattered, it shattered the spirits of the Gorons, and the sturdy warriors soon became bleeding victims of the Yiga. Zelda, trying to keep as many Gorons alive as she could, fell as soon as Link contacted her with the news he had the core.
Defeated, she and the other living Gorons watched helplessly as Buldo and the other Goron elders were executed personally by War. The Four Horsewoman would have taken the kids as well, had not Zelda made another attempt to fight War, ending with the princess' throat being dangerously closed to being crushed.
Now able to breathe properly, Zelda concentrates on one thing, Link. Pestilence took the core and the ruby for sure, she witnessed the fall of Rudania, but she will not believe Link's life was also taken. "Link….Link, are you there?"
"...Hanging...but alive. Are you and the Gorons okay?"
Zelda holds back her tears as she does her best to get to her feet. "The Yiga...they killed some of them, but brutally executed the elders of the village, Buldo included. But we can't linger here long. We must get to Hebra and-"
"No can do. Vah Medoh is gone. They have three cores, three stones. We're going to the Korok Woods, where we indeed have a head start...and where only a few people alive know how to get to. The Yiga, I pray, don't know the way before we get there."
Zelda nods. "Okay, we should head there now. I'm here at the shrine."
Link appears seconds later, Yunobo right beside him. Both Hylians having their share of physical and mental wounds, they simply walk up to each other and hug. Yunobo, witnessing the destruction of his home, drops to his knees. "They...did this?"
Zelda turns around, stepping to the young Goron's side. "Yunobo… This is my fault. If we-"
"No. Do not blame yourself, Princess. This would happen whether or not you came." Yunobo looks up to the destroyed artwork of his grandfather, tightening his fists. "You...gotta stop them. Whatever they're planning, you must stop them from getting to Vah Naboris."
"We will, Yunobo. We'll avenge the Rito, the Zora, and the Goron. Come on, Zelda." Link furiously taps on the Sheikah Slate for the shrine within the Korok Woods as Zelda joins him. Without a word, they join hands and vanish in a stream of blue light. No tears shed for the Gorons, no time to comfort them with words, no time to apologize for their fallen. It hurt Zelda not to be able to do so, but time is not a luxury they thought they had. The Yiga figured out where the Sacred Stones are located. With three in their position, never mind three of the cores, Zelda and her allies are losing the fight.
They'll have to trust Paya and Ganondorf in the desert.
Once they arrive in the woods, they hurry to the Great Deku, hoping to make an audience with him. However, before they can even say a word to the spirit, before they even reach the face of the gigantic tree, the pair are met with an unfortunate fate.
The fourth Horseman, the second Horsewoman, the blue and black Famine, walks up between them and the Great Deku.
Divine Beast Vah Naboris
"Rudania and Medoh in one morning? Very good, Horsemen. Now we wait for Death to deal with the Gerudo and Famine with the overgrown tree."
"What about the final core, my lady? Have you taken it?"
"Not yet. I want to savor my victory as you have. True, it is pointless, but to see failure on his face...and he will come here, rather than head to the town of his people. So I will wait, right here, until Ganondorf arrives. Pest, War, make final preparations. Once we assembled once again, we'll put the cores to good use." Disconnecting from her subordinates, the Yiga leader sits in preparation for her confrontation with her former ally, her former friend, and her great enemy. She forms an orb that allows her to see whatever she wants, and at the moment, it shows Ganondorf and the Sheikah girl riding in the southern Central Hyrule Field, near the Great Plateau. At their pace, since it is mid-morning, it'll be late afternoon when they arrive.
She chuckles as she removes her mask, letting her red eyes flash in anticipation. "Come Ganondorf. We shall end what binds us together here."
