The moment Green stepped inside the expanse of the room it felt like time itself slowed down. It was dim, and cavernous, the sparse torchlight flickering on the walls doing next to nothing to illuminate the surroundings. The ceiling appeared to be domed, the floor smooth and tiled. From what he could see, the walls were adorned in richly colored tapestries, the floors in intricately woven rugs. The sound of the door opening had caused every one of the moblins inside the room to turn, beady eyes fixing on him. The Iron Knuckle itself was the only movement in the room- as Green watched, heart in his throat, it reached the center of the room and paused, turning its massive head towards him with a shriek of protesting metal.
Green swallowed.
The door slammed shut behind him.
"And what is this we have here?" came a voice unlike anything Green had ever heard, and he struggled not to flinch. It was cold and harsh, rasping and brittle, sounding like it came from several directions at once. "An errant Hylian walking freely through my domain?"
With that, the monster turned fully to face Green, the moblins clustering around it looking like children compared to its vast size. "This will not do at all, no," it continued, one long arm reaching forward. "Detain him."
Immediately three moblins broke off from the surrounding mass and raced towards him. Green hefted his sword, tightening his grip briefly. They were clearly unused to combat, running at him in a ragged v-shaped line, and the moment the nearest one came within range he stepped forward and sliced its head off. From there it was a simple matter to pivot and turn, stabbing the one to the left of him in the back of the neck and reversing neatly to parry a strike from the third, who immediately tried to back away. It was a simple matter to bend under its hasty swing and take it out at the knees, and Green kicked the unsteady monster onto its back and executed it with a single sharp thrust through the chestplate.
He moved back, flicking his sword briefly to fling the drops of blood off the tip. The gathered moblins shrieked angrily, a few of them moving forward towards him before the metal being dropped its raised arm. It tilted its head at Green, studying him, and Green shivered at the pressure of that merciless gaze.
"So," it rasped, armor protesting noisily as it resumed its pacing, faceplate never turning away from Green. "Not just an errant Hylian, then- an errant Hero?" Its voice dropped, becoming even colder, even louder. "A poor lost soul who merely happened to stumble his way to the top of my mountain. Do you know who I am, little Hero?" Without waiting for an answer it once more raised its hand, sending a much larger group of moblins at Green.
It was just as easy this time for him to dispatch his foes- easier, perhaps, since they'd seen his swordsmanship against their brethren earlier and were still mad with rage. Green's sword danced in the low light, and within moments the ground around him was surrounded once more with bodies
"I don't care who, or what you are," Green said from behind gritted teeth. "I'm just here to get the townspeople back."
At that, a low gravelly rumble filled the air. It took Green a moment to realize that it was the creature laughing. "Oh, little Hero, look at you- filled with the fire of defiance," it mocked, footsteps falling hard against the solid floor. "You say you do not care- that is your first mistake." Once more its arm raised, and once more Green slashed his way through a wave of minions. "Or, should I say, your second mistake- your first was entering my domain in the first place!" It moved ponderously over to the nearest wall, upon which was hanging a large and dangerous looking double headed battleaxe. "Perhaps I should teach you a lesson about trespassing into the lair of the Shadow King."
Green was panting by now, covered in flecks and smears of moblins blood, and at the monstrous being's words his heart skipped a beat. Moblins he could take by the score, but how could he ever hope to defeat something like that?
The Shadow King's hand closed around the axe, and it hefted the weapon from the hooks on which it hung. It turned to Green, tendrils of darkness writhing across its armor. "Well, Hero?" it asked, metal visage seemingly taunting. "Have at you!"
With that, it swung the battleaxe down in a deceptively swift motion that Green was barely able to dodge. The axe hit the floor instead, flinging shards of ceramic tile into the air. Green rolled to the side, darting forward to try and hit the Shadow King's side, but it heaved the weapon out of the floor and swung at him, fast enough that the very tip clipped him and sent him sprawling.
He skidded to a halt, but immediately had to roll to the side again as the axe once again whistled downwards to bury itself in the floor. This time he was fast enough to get in a ringing blow to the Shadow King's armored side. It didn't seem to have any effect and he cursed as he was knocked away again by one of the hulking arms.
Back and forth they struggled across the room, Green's blows seeming less and less effective each time he managed a hit on the hulking iron being. The room was filled with the sounds of shattering tile and metal plates grinding together, and Green swore as one of the ceramic chips sliced across his cheek. The next second the side of the battleaxe caught him once again, causing him to stagger backwards, landing on the floor.
The Shadow King laughed, a cacophony of sound that slithered down Green's spine and fixed him in place. "This is all the fight you can muster, boy?" it mocked, and swung its axe down. The sharpened triangular tip thudded to the ground a hairsbreadth from Green's leg and he gasped, scrabbling backwards away from it. "I wonder how you ever managed to defeat my master in the first place." Once again the great axe came up, and again down, and Green barely managed to roll out of the way once more.
The desperate maneuver ended when he came up hard against a wall.
"Hero, Hero, Hero," the Shadow King shook its massive plated head. "You're barely more than a child. You should feel quite lucky that I will be the one to end your pitiful life- my master would not be so kind." The axe swung down sharply.
Green, not seeing any other recourse, swiftly whispered a prayer to Farore and flung his shield arm upwards. The axe skidded off of it with a horrific noise and buried itself into the wall as if the rough stonework and rich tapestry was little more than wet clay.
The Shadow King took one heavy step forward, then another, until its great dark form was looming over Green. "Ah, Hero, if only you had lain down your life, you would have gone peacefully," it seemed to sigh, the noise of its exhalation like a hundred screaming teakettles. The incised segments of its chestplate began to move, sliding back away from each other to expose a swirling hole of blackness.
"I will take your soul, Hero," it hissed, "and you will wish you had died." It lowered itself further, until it was merely an arm's length away from Green. His mind was racing, heart pounding, body numb from fear and adrenaline, and yet-
If he died here, so would Vio, and Blue, and probably even Red and Shadow. So would all the townspeople he had tried to rescue, and probably the entire rest of the town, eventually. If he died here, who would protect them? Who would protect Zelda? Who else could protect the land but the five of them?
He tightened his hand on the hilt of his Four Sword once more, and took a deep breath as the dizzying whirl approached him.
"Speak your last words, Hero," the Shadow King intoned with the finality of a funeral dirge.
"I'm not the one dying today!" Green snarled, and with one final push of desperate strength he plunged the sword into the writhing mass of darkness.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, with the screech of a thousand tortured souls, it exploded outward, knocking Green even harder into the wall as the Shadow King's metal corpse flew backwards. He slid to the ground, head ringing, as clouds of smoke billowed out of the still-twitching iron mass. Blasts of air began to whip around the room, flinging loose objects in every direction, and Green could barely muster up the strength to raise his shield against the worst of it. The smoke flowing upwards in the center of the room was untouched, and as Green watched in exhausted horror began to coalesce into something beastly, some monstrous roughly featured head that slowly turned to face him.
It opened a mouth that seemed to disappear and reappear in the constantly swirling winds, and in a voice that chilled Green to his bones began to speak.
"I know your face now, Hero," it howled in its fury. "I know your face now, and I knew your face then. Look at you, you wretched filth, not even half of what you used to be- you could barely defeat this shell! How can you think you will ever defeat ME? I will return for you, Hero, and your Princess, and this time NO ONE SHALL STOP ME!"
The column of smoke whirled dizzyingly as the face moved closer to Green. "I am your death, Hero," it hissed. "I am your beginning and your end, and I will destroy everything you hold dear. I am Ganon and your world is going to be MINE!"
With that the winds rose to a shriek and the column contracted into a pinpoint of shape and color. Then everything exploded in a wave of heat and sound, and that was the last thing Green knew for a while.
He came to himself again as someone was reaching towards his face, and on pure reflex reached out and grabbed their hand. "Easy, Hero," a voice said soothingly, and it was everything he could do not to cringe. "You're safe now, everything's alright."
With a groan Green lifted himself up onto his elbows, taking a muzzy look around. The cavernous room… didn't appear to be a room any longer- the walls looked like they had been blasted away by some huge explosion, and the stars were bright above his head. "What happened?" he asked, or tried to- in the middle of the first word he began coughing, and a flask of water was held out for him to drink.
The woman who had helped him gather up the townspeople was sitting at his side. "We hid as you asked us to, Sir Knight, but no one came," she told him in a low voice. "We waited for you to come out for a long time, and then…" She gestured wordlessly at the destruction around them. "When the dust cleared, we came in to find you."
Green handed her back the water flask with a nod of thanks, then began the painful process of pushing himself onto his feet. "No one was hurt, right?" he asked, turning to her.
"A few minor injuries," she shrugged, "but we found a cache of red potions in a chest at the far end of the hall."
Green's eyes widened at that. "Are there any left? I need at least two of them." The woman nodded, slightly confused, and went to fetch them. Once he had them tucked into his belt pouches securely Green gave the gathered villagers a quick once-over. "You can get down the mountain, right?" he asked. "There's a path straight to the bottom- it's a little tricky at places, but I think everyone here could manage it."
"Aren't you coming with us, Hero?" A young girl from the crowd stepped forward shyly. "We need to thank you properly! There should be a feast, at the very least!"
Green shook his head immediately. "I have to get back to my … my brothers. One of them is very sick, and another is hurt pretty badly, so I should be getting back as soon as possible."
"Please, Hero- may we at least reward you with something?"
He sighed, rubbing his temples briefly. "Must you? Really, it was nothing to, thank me for…." He trailed off, eyes flicking briefly towards the vast pile of metal armor, and gave an embarrassed chuckle. "Well, maybe it was, but really-"
"No, Hero, we must do something to thank you," another townsperson said, the rest nodding and smiling. Green sighed again and thought for a moment.
"Alright," he said, and a few people cheered. "I have to make a stop about a quarter of the way down the mountain, so you'll probably make it back to the town before me. If I could borrow," he stressed the word, "two of your fastest horses or ponies, and have them waiting for me when I reach the town, it would be me in your debt."
With that, he turned to retrieve his sword and shield, and began the slow trek downwards.