And now my chapters are starting to get a little longer. Overcompensation, I guess.
Anyway, this next part is a flashback, in case it isn't immediately obvious. Enjoy!
P. S.: I own neither the Legend of Zelda nor Okami.
Link quietly stalked through the undergrowth, under the cover of darkness, every sense attune to the sounds around him. His golden pelt was scratched from the brambles of many plants, yet the fierce light of determination still pulsed in his icy blue eyes. The scent was stronger than it had ever been before, his pelt prickled in the anticipation of a sudden encounter.
As a minor god, he often got neglected in terms of worship, praise, and sacrifice. The "Olympians", as they chose to call themselves got most of that glory from the humans on their successful, monster free universe they called "Earth". Their rise to power made them famous, as their triumph was so unlikely, so unexpected. So they got to bask in the glory while hanging around a monster free world, partying all day. Especially Zeus.
He didn't really mind. After all, they deserved it. Defeating Titans is no small feat, after all. And he, Link, hadn't done anything, other than being the only surviving child of a wolf goddess, saved out of pity, not because of any heroic deed.
Still, at least he tried to make a difference in the world.
Because of a sudden surge of monster and demon activity, most gods and goddesses were cowering in terror, afraid to do something as world after world became overrun by darkness.
But they could do something! They had powers beyond comprehension, powers that could easily stop the flow of darkness, if they could only muscle up and use them!
And that's why he was wandering through dark and foreboding woods at midnight. Recently some inky black creatures had been screwing around on a recently created universe by the name of Nippon. Only one god was fighting to rid the world of monsters, and he had recently gone missing. So Link had been tasked with finding this god, this...Shiranui, and quickly!
A sudden howl of pain snapped Link out of his thoughts. He quickly crested a small hill and ducked down to avoid detection, while he figured out what was happening.
Peeking just above the rise, he saw a white wolf, writhing in pain as blood poured from multiple wounds. Closer inspection revealed that the "blood" was just red patches of fur, shaped like old battle wounds.
A golden, fiery disk hovered above the wolves back, as it wrestled what looked like an inky shadow. As he watched, the inky figure bite the wolf's front leg, causing the wolf to let out a cry of pain.
Link was on him in an instant, grasping the creature with his teeth and tossing it against a nearby tree. He began to rain blow after blow on the creature, but the creature was surprisingly resilient. It struck back with enormous strength, throwing him back against an enormous tree, stunning him.
The creature closed the gap between them at an alarming pace, but the other wolf was able to tackle the creature before it reached Link, giving him the precious few seconds he needed to recover. He joined the white wolf and together they began attacking it with as much force as they could muster. Slowly, the creature's struggles started to get weaker and weaker, and Link thought they might actually kill it.
Unfortunately, the thing was only toying with them. With a loud roar, it lept up and knocked the two wolves off their feet. It lunged toward the white wolf and seemed to cover him with its inky body. The wolf's fur became splattered with black, but oddly enough the red markings weren't affected at all, not the slightest splotch of black clung there. The snow white fur, however, was a different matter entirely. The inky blackness began to spread across snow white fur, and as it did so, the wolf began to struggle less and less.
Link shakily got to his feet, and stumbled over to the white wolf. Slowly but surely, the inky substance was slowly consuming the wolf. And there was nothing that he could do but watch. Panicking, he tried desperately to think of what he could do to stop the spreading, but then he noticed something odd.
In the center of the wolf's forehead, where another red marking lay, the white forehead sported an odd shaped look Link was sure wasn't there before. It was a diamond-like pattern that seemed to throb like a beating heart, as though something underneath the skin was alive. Could that be the center of activity?
The wolf's breathing became so shallow it was getting hard to hear. There was no time to think; Link pinned the wolf's head gently to the ground with his paws, then carefully broke skin above the wolf's forehead with his fangs. At contact, the wolf whimpered and tried weakly to squirm out of his grasp, but Link gently applied more pressure and kept going, wincing slightly. He was relieved to feel his jaws close around a solid, almost rocklike object. So at least this wasn't all for nothing.
The wolf tried again to weakly pull away as he started to slowly lift the object out of the forehead. Link easily held firm, but tears were running down his cheeks at the thought of how much pain he must be causing the wolf. Finally, the object broke free of the skin and Link spat it on the ground, stepping off the wolf and gasping as he saw the golden blood of the gods pouring from the egg-sized hole in the wolf's head.
At least the ink had sto-
The ink suddenly pooled off the wolf and was sucked into the odd, crystal like object in the wolf's head. It was shaped like the outline of a diamond, albeit a roughly cut diamond, and seemed to sparkle cruelly in the small light that the moon gave out. It was about the size of an egg, and it looked to be only a few centimeters thick.
A small groan from the wolf made Link jump in surprise. Turning back to look at the wolf, he noticed that the hole in it's head had closed up completely. Breathing a small sigh of relief, he opened his mouth to ask the wolf if it was okay, who it was, and if it knew anything about Shiranui, when the mysterious diamond like object began to twitch.
As Link bent down to examine it, the object suddenly launched itself into the air and, with a flash of searing pain, became imbedded in his forehead. Howling desperately he fought to shake the object free, but to no avail. The malicious object only pressed itself further into his forehead, sending out another wave of white hot pain that made Link howl in pain and fear. The white wolf stepped forward to help, but Link shook his head, and met the wolf's eyes.
The wolf's eyes were two amber pools, filled with sorrow and helplessness. It started toward him, but Link tried to ward it off with his gaze. It actually did work, but the wolf was sent reeling back with shock, then stumbled away, streaking as fast as it could through the trees.
Link suddenly became aware of a certain darkness that started to spread throughout his entire body, slowly sucking out all the warmth and goodness out of his limbs. His breathing became heavy and labored, and spots swam before his eyes. The scariest part, however, was that it seemed like this darkness was leaving an impression on him. He found himself wondering if he'd live through this, but he found that he didn't care. Even though he had every reason to!
His legs could no longer support his weight, and he toppled to the ground, gasping for breath as he struggled to rise. But he was too far gone.
He felt something struggling to invade invade his mind. He tried to fight it, but he was already slipping away. His last sight was that of the crescent moon, standing alone as it battled away the cold darkness of the night.
Author's Note: I'm just realizing that this has a lot of similarities to Bendy and the Ink Machine, at least in terms of villains. A little too late to fix, and I need to work on showing, not telling a bit too.
I hope to post again soon!