Chapter 12

The remnants of the Gerudo camp had fallen back to around Kakariko, where they entered into the protection of those already there, laying siege. Word had it that an army of reinforcements, led by Verletz himself, was on its way.

In the dusty tents of the besiegers, numerous makeshift hospitals were lit by lamps from within day and night. In one such hospital was a young woman being treated for her wounds.

"AHH! Din's fiery nails!" She cried out in anguish as the surgeon wiggled the arrow that was embedded, nearly to the fletching, in her midriff, just below her left breast.

"To which your soul will be consigned, if you don't stop moving around. The arrow is deep, shot to kill. You're lucky it missed your lung."

The surgeon's breath came in short pants, sweat beading her face, as she worked at the shaft.

Malon collapsed again, breathing heavily, succumbing to the agony and letting the surgeon do what she could. "Get it out, out!" she gasped desperately. The surgeon made no comment. Eventually, after what seemed like hours, she removed the blood-soaked tip of the missile, delicately, to avoid the serrated edges from ripping the wound still larger. Immediately after she clamped a gauze on the hole to staunch the bleeding. Malon gave a sigh of immense relief.

"You'll heal in time. Just don't try anything too hasty."

Malon was too exhausted with pain to do anything but nod weakly. The surgeon left without formality.

She lay semi-conscious, verging on sleep or collapse, for a short while, before being roused by vague shouts of amazement outside. Presently she made out the voice of her commander Nabooru, who was uninjured, speaking to someone just outside the entrance to the tent.

"My lord, it is heartening to see you, for surely your wits will lead us to victory over our stubborn foes of the mountain."

"Fear not. I will crush them. But I wish to speak with the one in this tent."

"Malon? Absolutely, sir, but why..."

"Don't trouble yourself about it. Just see that we are not disturbed."

"Yes, my lord."

And with that, the tent flaps parted and Verletz himself strode to Malon's bedside. At first the maiden thought herself delirious.

"My child, are you hurt unto death?" The man was calm, and handsome. He was clad in his white vestments, but his shawl and turban had been removed, revealing a face that was slender and delicate, of the Hylian race, with expressive eyes and supple lips, framed by a shoulder-length shock of dirty blond hair.

"No, sir," Malon said quietly.

"Your sacrifice in the name of our cause will be rewarded. But first there is something I must ask of you."

"Any service I may render, I shall," said the girl, awed.

"There is something that you have...experienced. I sense that you have done something that you dare not speak of."

Malon shuddered, fearing that her master would punish her if he knew what she had released, although his tone and expression still conveyed only sympathy. However, she felt that hiding it from him could only aggravate him further, and that it was useless to hide things from a man who could see her naked soul.

"I...I will tell you all that happened."

"Proceed." And Malon explained it. The destruction of her raiding party, the lost survivors in the maze of tunnels, the strange tomb of unknown gods, and the ultimate horror of the sealed door and the horror within: all these passed from her lips. Her master remained calm and silent, as if he knew already.

"Do not fear. I know of the tomb and the monster of which you speak. Not in my own waking life, but in dreams, and remembrances of things not of this world, but of the others, I have seen it and known the signs of power by which to control it. Once, it was my slave."

"When?"

A strange half-smile crossed the lips of Verletz. "It matters not. Now I no longer can conjure the symbols by which to master the thing. But it may do us some good. Perhaps it will attack the Gorons."

"Or..." Malon's voice was pregnant with tense expectancy.

"Do not fear. My powers are such that I could destroy it, if need be. But...actually..." His face changed to a look of deep thought. "Do not trouble yourself. All will be well. We are the chosen of Din, mother of fire, and no creature that dwells in the lava of that volcano will threaten us. Now, for your honesty, I will give you my blessing." So saying, he laid a hand on the bloodied cloth that covered Malon's wound, and spoke strange words, evoking the name of Din. His eyes closed, and a calm smile appeared on his face. Malon felt a warmth flow from his hand, as if the warm fire of the sun was bathing her hurt. And when Verletz lifted away his hand, and drew back the cloth, Malon gaped to find the bloody hole sealed, with only the littlest scar to mark its former existence.

"Y...your magic can heal, my lord?" said the dumbfounded girl.

"Din is not a merciful lord, but she does reward those who sacrifice to her. Not lightly can I use such healing, but Din deems you worthy."

"I owe you my profoundest thanks."

"Rest now. You are still exhausted from the battle." He rose from her cot and left, as a sweet exhaustion flooded Malon, and she fell to sleep blissfully.


Later that evening, Verletz retired to a tent he had appropriated, and had called all his generals to council with him. These were tough, battle-scarred veterans, for no qualities but competence in battle did Verletz value in his officers. Among the group, also, was Nabooru, only a captain, but invited because she too had seen the horror that Malon had.

"I do not know when, or even if, the thing will show itself," he said. "It may have even already returned to sleep. But we must prepare ourselves. The magic I will perform will drain me utterly; I will be unable to command the troops. But it is vital that I perform it, for with their damnable mountain to hide in we will never destroy them utterly."

A chorus of agreement rose from those seated around him.

"Can mortal weapons harm this creature?" asked one general.

"They can, they have," he answered, a glimmer of anger in his voice as he spoke the last word. "I must ask you to finish what I start. By Din, the bugle that announces our charge to arms will be the grinding of stone!"


I dressed in haste and left the springs. I returned to my chambers, where I collapsed on the bed, emotionally if not physically exhausted. As I stared up at the ceiling, I had nothing to do but think.

What had I done? Why did I let the one chance for happiness in my life pass me by? Maybe I'm not destined for happiness. I don't know. I wished I had done it: I wish I had crushed her to my breast, her lips to mine, I wish I had said yes, yes! But I knew that if I could do it again my response would be the same. It couldn't be...not now...

I barely noticed her when she entered.

"Link?"

"Oh, oh...gods..." I stammered incoherently.

"Shh." She put a finger to her lips. "Don't worry about it. I'm going to pretend it never happened. You did the right thing."

"But...I don't want it to not have happened."

"Don't worry," she repeated. "I just want you to come with me so we can have some food."

"A...all right." She offered me a hand, and I took it and rose from my bed. I lingered with my hand in hers for a second, but then...something told me to break it off, to not give in to my love for her, to stay focused on the mission at hand. I withdrew my hand, and she made no comment. We walked towards the mess hall.

"Zelda, I have to tell you how I feel..."

"You did. What you said was all I needed." She smiled warmly. "I understand everything, Link. I know that you don't need to deal with anything more than what you have. I'll wait. I'll wait as long as it takes."

"Okay." I felt weak. I wanted to get down on my knees and beg forgiveness from her, from this divine, wonderful, beautiful woman that I had slighted.

Then the earthquake came.

A tremor shook the floor, and Zelda and I nearly fell. Then it grew, stronger and stronger, and I grabbed Zelda and dove to the floor, shielding her with my body, as the world blurred to my sight and a horrible grinding, like a thunderclap in slow motion, a roar from the maw of hell, consumed my hearing. Then there was a rending tear and a blinding light.


Moments earlier, on the slopes of Death Mountain, a white-robed man stood, many feet away from the throng of warriors behind him. He stood motionless, his garments blowing in a stiff breeze, his eyes focused with burning intensity on the side of the mountain. Then his voice lifted on the wind and spoke a terrible invocation, a plea to his dark god to smite his foes, a ghastly cadence that grew in intensity as an approaching avalanche, which penetrated the unconscious minds of all who heard, and which they would remember to their dying days:

"Oh fiery Din, she who shaped the world with her burning arms and formed from naught the earth and stone, by my signs and powers I call you to the earth to rend what you have created asunder, to caress with your flaming hands this miserable pile, to cleave it in twain that we might smite your enemies within!"

His voice had risen to a frenzied shriek, and he cried with horrible conviction the final arcane syllables of his magic, in a voice that rang from the rocks and chilled to the core the doughtiest of his warriors.

With that, the mountain groaned with terrible convulsions. With a shuddering, thunderous report that shook the earth, the hills parted like curtains, and the rocks fell like no normal avalanche should. The fell to the left and the right, as water breaking on rock. The echoes sounded and re-sounded for minutes, and when the choking dust finally settled, the dumbfounded warriors beheld a mangled heap of stone, and, like a bee's nest split in half, the Goron city, choked with rubble and splintered wood, its intricate twisting passages laid bare.

Verletz's white form lay on the ground. A grim smile twisted his unconscious face. Immediately two high-ranking generals bore his body away, and the others formed the stammering, half-stunned masses into organized units. Death Mountain was now half destroyed, a cruel spire rising scornfully into the sky, surrounded by a sea of stone.


My vision was blurred and veiled, my brain numbed by the terrific force. I slowly regained feeling: Zelda was beneath me, panting softly. Above?

I tried to stand, I couldn't. It was dark.

"Zelda, are you all right?"

"I'm...I'm okay."

Then pain hit me---unimaginable pain. Pressure. We were trapped. I struggled and managed to clear a space so I could slide off of Zelda. I probed the walls of my prison and felt rocks. I tore, I fumbled, I pried. I began to see shafts of light filtering through the rubble. With renewed hope I continued to dig. The rocks were irregular, fist-sized or bigger. Their sharp points poked my palms. Finally, with a gasp, I emerged from the rubble. I felt Zelda behind me crawling out. I went blind.

In a minute or two my eyes adjusted again and I saw something that defied reason. A rubble-choked slope, and a Gerudo army. At one moment I had been inside the safety of the impenetrable Goron city, and now I was naked, in the open, facing an army that seemed immeasurable. Then I saw movement near me.

A Goron head poked out of the rubble. Then more, and more. Around me were Gorons, with rage and bewilderment in their eyes. I looked to recognize any.

"Darunia! Little Link!"

No one answered. I decided to act.

"Get up! Everyone who can! We have to get back to safety!" Gorons began to climb out of the avalanche and gaze, dumbfounded, at their situation. At the sound of my voice a few of them began to move towards me, slowly, laboriously over the rocks.

"What the hell just happened?"

"Verletz! It is the dark lord Verletz and his magic!" screamed one. "We are doomed!"

"Shut up! We've got to get to safety somewhere!" I couldn't let a panic spread.

"Where? They destroyed the whole city! We can't hold out against them all!"

"We have to fall back..." I trailed off. I had lost confidence in my words. It seemed that the sea of Gerudo was infinite. Already they were forming ranks. They focused into a wedge, an arrowhead, with a tip scarcely twenty soldiers wide, with more and more behind them. In minutes, they would charge in and destroy the handful of Gorons that had crawled out and were congregating around me. Then they would wait for the others to emerge...and then...

I looked, desperately, for somewhere to retreat into. Behind me, I saw a rubble-choked hole---a tunnel, one that probably entered the Goron city, a hundred yards behind me. "There! We have to get to that tunnel!"

"It's blocked!" said Zelda.

"It's our best shot!" I started off, moving as fast as I could over the rubble. Zelda followed, and the Gorons followed her. Twenty or so were with us, and I saw around us more and more emerging from the rock, like pumpkins in a field. They seemed little bothered by the cave-in physically. I yelled as I went for them to follow me. I turned behind me and saw the Gerudo army begin to move, slowly, like a parade. Units of archers were forming up, although we were currently out of bowshot range, but it was obvious that they intended to remedy that fact. Behind me a clump of Gorons were beginning to follow me.

We reached the rubble-strewn hole and I desperately began clearing rocks from it, heedless of the pain that shot through my bloody hands. I broke through to the other side, felt my hand enter open space, then suddenly, I felt a cold, rocky grasp on it. I gave a startled yelp, but before I could react further, the pile of rocks seemed to explode---rocks went everywhere and before I knew what happened half of the blockage was gone and I could see clearly into the passage. A face was there.

"Hey! Get in here!" It was Darunia. I nearly wept for joy that he was alive, and here to command us. "I'll be damned! You're alive!"

"Yes. We have to...we need..." I stuttered, not sure what we had to do or needed.

"We gotta regroup. That cave-in couldn't have killed many soldiers but they're scattered and buried. Come with me!"

"What about the others?" I gestured to the Gorons behind me.

"ALL OF YOU! GET IN HERE!" The Gorons looked dazed for a second but soon came around and began filing into the exposed part of the hole.

"What about you?" Darunia asked as they entered. "Come on!"

"I'm not going in until the rest have gone!"

"All right. Just follow us. Oh," he leaned closer to me, "and don't worry. It's not as bad as it looks. That collapse actually didn't do that much damage to the city, and really it's just made it harder for them to get to us."

I doubted his words, but nonetheless took comfort from them.

Throughout all the proceedings Zelda has been silent, not afraid or startled or really displaying any emotion at all. Her face was a pale mask framed by wisps of hair and lips that trembled occasionally. Gradually her breathing became heavier and I started to hear it as she drew closer to me.

The army, like a menacing lion waiting in a crouch, was still at least a mile downhill, but already the soldiers on point were beginning to trundle up the rubble-choked landslide. Speed was not their weapon. I tried to help Darunia herd the Gorons who emerged into the tunnel, but my eyes kept drifting back to that colossus. I had fought monsters before, but here was a monster beyond all reason, a beast with ten thousand minds all merged into one massive will to destroy. It was frightening.

Finally, after several tense minutes, no more Gorons emerged from the rubble. I wasn't counting survivors; it will suffice to say "too few."

I followed the stragglers into the tunnel, and soon I discovered that this was not a miraculous trapdoor to freedom. The tunnel opened into a rubble-choked cave, barely large enough to hold the several hundred Gorons present.

It was totally dark in the cave except for Navi's faint glow, which troubled the Gorons not a bit but which put Zelda and I on edge. We seemed braced for some terrible blow, another earthquake come to destroy us. I waited for Darunia to say something. He did not. The silence was deafening. I had to speak.

"We can't stay here. We have to go. We need to rebuild, to reorganize. They can't get to us in any reasonable amount of time."

"Yeah, where? Where do we go?" a Goron in the audience asked, panicked. "It's all gone."

"It is not all gone," said Darunia fiercely, his love for his home clearly obvious. "It's there, but it's under the rubble. We can't go there now, but we will get it back. We will."

"So where do we go?" Zelda asked, not with a great amount of fear, but with far more simple practicality.

Then I had an idea. Everything was so different in this new time, this new world...maybe...

"Do Gorons suffer from great heat? Could you live in a volcano?"

Darunia seemed a little puzzled, and answered, "We're okay in the caldera at the top of Death Mountain, if that's what you mean."

"That's totally exposed!" one of the Gorons shouted. "We'd just have to wait for them to reach the top and come to destroy us!"

"First of all," I began, growing more confident, "I know from experience that it's too hot for anyone who's not a Goron to survive in there for longer than two or three minutes. And we don't have to worry about non-Gorons, because Zelda and I aren't going to be staying, and the other non-Gorons who were here seem to have died in the avalanche." The gravity of what I had just said made me pause for a moment.

"Verletz's magic can bring low the mountains themselves! Surely he could gird his troops in protective wards to keep them alive..."

"Probably. That's why you're not going to stay in the caldera. You're going in the Fire Temple." I wasn't sure if they'd know what I was talking about.

"The Fire Temple?" Darunia was stunned. The idea had clearly never entered his mind. "That abandoned ruin? Gorons haven't been there for years...but...it would work..."

"Yes. I know it will work, because I've been there before."

Zelda, who knew what I was talking about, asked, "Will it be the same? Didn't you say there were fiery monsters there?"

"Gannondorf put them there. Gannondorf made Volvagia his slave, and he filled its home with monsters. That shouldn't have happened."

Darunia, of course, had no idea what to make of our conversation. "So it's safe, and humans can't go there?"

"Yes."

"Great. Let's go. If I recall correctly, it's in the caldera and we just need to climb up a few hundred feet and over the lip of the volcano. If we hurry, they probably won't even be able to see us from that far, much less shoot at us with arrows." He looked at my missing eye and then turned to lead the troops.


Malon and Nabooru, with their squad following behind, were scaling the rubble-choked slopes. It was not a steep climb, but it was slow, and knee-bruising, but Malon didn't mind. A few weeks ago, she had scored her first kill. Now, she was helping the army conquer the recalcitrant foe that had plagued them for months.

"What are we here to do?" she asked, not because she didn't know, but because she wanted to hear Nabooru give her inspiring rhetoric once more.

"We're going to march up and down this miserable rock," said the seasoned commander, feeding and reverberating Malon's emotion like a maestro. "We're going to find every last Goron scum that still lives and we're going to make them bow their bald little heads to the lord Verletz, and they will cringe before our might like sheep!"

"Yes! Yes!" The girl gripped her scimitar with white knuckles, slavering for a throat to slit.

But then something seemed wrong.

A few hundred feet in front of them, where the first squads to begin marching were walking, the boulders shifted. Red light shot out in thin beams from under the rubble. The soldiers there stepped back, afraid. Then, as if in slow motion, the rocks exploded, flying as deadly shrapnel in all directions, and a torrent of heat surely born of the blast furnaces of hell swept over those present.

The dragon had returned, and its home was rubble. Revenge would be his.

As Volvagia emerged sinuously from the rubble, it blazed with unimaginable rage. Its visage was like fire given hateful sentience. With a deafening blast of fire from its jaws, the creature descended on the Gerudo who still lived, ejecting gouts of flame that crisped flesh from bone and left blackened skeletons in its wake.

Verletz, the only person who could possibly have rallied the troops or stopped the creature, was comatose, his power utterly spent. The generals that commanded in his stead were broken, terrified utterly, and issuing contradictory orders. In only a few minutes the Gerudo were routed. Individuals were fleeing in disorder, and the leaders were giving the order to retreat. Already hundreds lay dead. Volvagia was an unstoppable engine of destruction and it was wreaking its terrible vengeance on the helpless army.


All this we witnessed, awestruck, as we made our way up the steep, rubble-strewn side of the mountain toward what remained of the caldera. After struggling for a few minutes on our own, Darunia, with his unbreakable strength, lifted Zelda and I onto his shoulders and resumed bounding up the side of the mountain. Zelda's hand gripped mine tightly.

We reached the lip of the crater after about a half-hour, the Gorons moving with awe and fear away from Volvagia's rampage of destruction. The Gorons were directed to the Fire Temple, which to my great relief was on the half of the mountain that was not destroyed. Darunia, Zelda, and I remained on the lip, looking pitilessly down on the mindless devastation below us.

"It's a godsend," Darunia said. "We could not have asked for a more fortunate outcome. I mean, I thought Volvagia was almost a myth, a creature that would sleep forever...but here it is, destroying the Gerudo."

Something clicked in my mind. I turned, and Zelda mirrored my worried gaze.

Darunia turned to us. "You two can't come with us; it's too hot for your bodies. The attention of the Gerudo forces is elsewhere. You two are small and swift. Now is you chance. Escape."

Somberly, Zelda spoke, "Darunia, we can't leave Volvagia alive. We have to kill it, and you have to help us."

With a look of incredulity and seriousness, he said, very coldly, "No."

Then, responding to the look of disappointment in Zelda's eyes, he went on, "I don't know what your game is, but I won't be a party to destroying the greatest boon we've had in months. Good luck and goodbye."

"No!" she cried, reaching out for him and stopping him. "You must help us! You must!"

"Why?" he asked crossly.

She faltered. "I…can't explain…but it's important."

His eyes flashed angrily. "I've had enough of your absurd 'time-traveling heroes from another reality' story. I've had to look out for you, guard you, protect you, be your guide, stick my neck out for you. And yet you still answer my questions with merely 'I can't explain,' as though the wise Hylians couldn't possibly be expected to explain something to the stupid Gorons." I winced; many stereotyped Gorons as being dumb and slow, and the Gorons carried a massive chip on their shoulder for it.

"Well I'm through with it," he continued angrily. "I won't listen to this – "

I stepped in between the two of them and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Think of Volvagia," I pressed, my voice urgent. "It won't be content killing Gerudos for long. You and your people are its food of choice. What if it turns its attentions here?" I saw fear and understanding begin to cloud his features. "You are now living in its home. If it returns here, your people will be wiped out. You can't fight Volvagia and the Gerudos. And what if Verletz turns Volvagia into a weapon?" Here, I turned and pointed down at the battle below. "Imagine that descending upon your people."

I saw that my argument had begun to win Darunia over to my side. Warily, he asked, "How could anyone master that creature? It bows to no one."

"What?" I demanded in a façade of incredulity. "Did Verletz not just destroy half the mountain? Who truly has the measure of his power? Will you risk your people on the chance he cannot turn the monster to his power? And besides, I know you don't believe our story, but I have seen it happen. Volvagia was a slave to the most evil man in existence, and the entire Goron race was on the verge of annihilation."

He stepped back, and my hand fell from his shoulder. He crossed his arms, and his brow creased as he thought upon my words. After a few brief moments, he lifted his gaze, and asked, "How do you know that we can defeat it?"

"Because I've done it once before."

His eyebrows raised, and I saw that he now finally believed me; finally believed our story of being time-traveling heroes from another reality. He turned to face the two of us at once. "But how will you two make a difference?"

"We won't," I said, conviction in my voice. "You will."

His face became a mask of resolution and determination. "All right," he said. "Let's do it."

I looked with admiration at the man who was about to become a Sage. I looked to Zelda and began to speak: "You don't ha..."

She cut me off. "I'm coming. We're in this together and you need to learn that."

"All right, all right."

"What are we going to do to fight it, though? I don't know about you but the mountainside is hard to fight on." Darunia was right. Just moving around was a chore, fighting a flying monstrosity would be nigh impossible.

"There's nowhere up here that all three of us can fight. How long will it take us to get to the bottom of the mountain?"

"Me?" Darunia gave a rare smile. "A couple of minutes, all curled up. You two won't be able to follow nearly that fast."

"You can't take him on alone. How long, walking?"

"Five or six hours, with all this rubble, I'd say. I can carry you."

"Thank you. I think we'll just have to start down. Hopefully Volvagia won't be going anywhere."

"The whole Gerudo camp will take at least six hours to pack up and flee, with Volvagia harrying them the whole time. And whatever happens, I know for sure there will be no Gerudo looking for us." I was feeling confident.

As we went down the side of the mountain, we deliberately averted our eyes from the slaughter going on below. We didn't owe the Gerudo any love, but we none of us was quick to embrace any slaughter.

The hours dragged by. It was surreal, something that no one should ever be doing, and we were doing it. Through our occasional glances at the Gerudo camp, it looked as though our timing would be perfect. Thousands upon thousands of souls were flowing around the circular city like water flowing around a rock in a stream, and those in the camp were struggling to push through the gates facing away from the mountain, to retreat back to Kakariko and Hyrule Field and safety. All the while, a shifting, writhing rope of flame hovered over the masses, strafing with blasts of fire. Arrows bounced off its scales, or incinerated before they even struck from the intense heat radiating from the monster.

As we drew within a few hundred feet of the smoldering timbers that once were the earthworks of the Gerudo camps, I had a shuddering realization that somewhere around here were fragments of my skull, somewhere near here my blood soaked into the earth and all over Zelda's lap. It was a disturbing realization.

The monster was at the other side of the ruined camp. The devastation was total: nothing but rubble, still-burning tents, and ashen skeletons of buildings and structures remained. We walked through the ruins until we neared the center. We saw, with no buildings to obstruct our view, the last Gerudo fleeing the gates. The dragon gave one last blast of fire to the Gerudo, and then it turned, preparing to return to its home. Then it saw us.

People argue about whether Volvagia is intelligent. Certainly, it is as intelligent as any other predator. But at that moment it seemed far more intelligent than a wolf. Circling around overhead, its fiery eyes looked us three tiny figures over, sizing us up. It somehow could sense, with whatever intellect was locked in its massive head, that we were no ordinary Gerudo, fleeing and mad with terror. We were coming, specifically, to challenge it, and it was as though the great beast smiled at the notion and accepted our challenge.

"Zelda...you stay safe and shoot it as much as you can. I don't know how much arrows can hurt it. Shoot for the face, the mouth, the eyes...somewhere that's not covered in scales and not on fire." I spoke clearly but quickly.

"Darunia, you and I have to engage it directly. We need some way to get it on the ground, or else I can't hurt it. You can get close, you can touch it without getting burned, right?"

"Burned? A Goron?" Darunia seemed insulted. "But you'll need to look out. It breathes fire. I'll try to draw its breath at myself instead of toward you and Zelda."

Volvagia was done giving us time to plan. With quickness incredible for such a huge creature, it whipped its head around and came straight at me, teeth bared.

I flung myself to the side, throwing a thrust towards the creature as I dove, but could not strike it significantly, my sword glancing from its hard plates. Zelda, arrow nocked, hopped away from the creature and targeted after its head, but its movement was too fast for her to get a decent shot. Darunia scarcely moved, merely shifted his weight away from the speeding creature, and then lunged toward the thing's burning body. Heedless of the flames, Darunia grabbed the monster's body and hung on. The creature immediately whirled its head around and came after Darunia. To avoid being swallowed whole, Darunia had no choice but to slacken his grip and go flying off the monster's back. He fell perhaps twenty feet as Zelda and I looked on, stunned, and traveled a good distance horizontally from the momentum imparted by the monster's whiplash. He landed with a ground-shaking thud on his back, but was on his feet again in an instant, face grimacing with determination. Zelda and I gave each other a last look and split, moving in opposite directions, circling the coiled monster in the air. It was our best chance for beating it, using our numbers.

The creature kept focusing on Darunia, which was best. The dragon swooped low and shot its fiery breath. Darunia, stoic, shut his eyes and let the fire engulf him. Moments later he emerged from the flames, the ground around him scorched but he himself unscathed. The monster kept coming; Darunia saw his opening. He held his hands out and let the monster's jaws come to him. The teeth punctured his palms, with a trickle of his dark blood, but he held on in spite of the intense pain he was obviously feeling. The jaws tried to crush him, but his iron strength wavered only slightly. The dragon's forward momentum pushed Darunia along the ground, as the long body piled up behind him. The dragon just would not let the Goron go. I felt like I was moving in slow motion, witnessing the two titans matching one another's power.

Then, I saw some ways away from me, Zelda, crouching behind a ruined wall, appear with bow at full draw and aimed at the monster's head. But when she released the arrow, something amazing happened.

The arrowhead flared into brilliant light, so pure and radiant as to be beautiful. It shot for what seemed like an eternity towards the monster and struck true, hitting Volvagia in what would be the cheek. The light flashed and flared, engulfing the monster's head, and it reared up, dropping Darunia and emitting a shriek that sounded like steel on stone. Its fires burst higher in its pain, and its burning blood splattered over the ground. Then, as I looked on in horror, it turned directly at Zelda and came at her full speed.

As it swooped overhead, the monster breathed fire at her, and she dove behind the wall for cover. Then the monster's enormous tail whipped across the battlefield, and smashed her cover to rubble. Bricks and splinters flew everywhere, and I heard a sharp scream that was drowned out in the crash.

"No!" I gasped in a whisper. I immediately tore off across the streets to get to her, heedless of the monster. Darunia said nothing, but resumed attempting to distract the creature. I reached the pile of rubble in a flash and began fling rocks away, shouting for Zelda.

In only a second or two I felt her body, and I flung rubble aside to reach her. She coughed a few times and then pushed the rubble off herself, and sat up. "Unh...owwww..." I could see some bleeding cuts on her face, and bruises were inevitable, but nothing serious.

"Zelda, are you all right?" My voice was steady, far too steady considering how frightened I was for her.

"I'm fine." She blinked, paused. "I'm fine, get going! I'm a little burned, but I'll be fine."

I offered a hand, she accepted: hands clasped I helped her to her feet. A moment, only a tiny moment, passed as we stood.

"All right. Let's go."

Darunia was becoming tired. I needed to act.

I went at a run towards Darunia and soon I was near him. He didn't acknowledge me, but I knew he knew I was there. Zelda was behind me, readying another arrow.

"One more time! Grab it!" I yelled at Darunia. He looked at me and then toward the monster.

Volvagia swooped again and its jaws closed over Darunia's massive body. The gnashing jaws snapped at him, but his rocky skin deflected the teeth. Bloody wounds appeared, but it seemed no worse than a dog bite. Zelda shot another arrow, and again it flared into light. The creature screeched, and Darunia was surely in intense pain from the noise. Then, while the creature writhed, the great Goron lunged. His enormous weight crashed into the monster's head, and both it and Darunia struck the ground. Darunia's enormous strength was enough to wrestle the monster's head to the ground for only a moment. Reflexively, its long body flailing and thrashing, Volvagia breathed forth fire again. The flame passed so close to me I felt some of the hair on my arm sizzle, but I moved forward with confidence.

Just as the creature seemed about to break free, the Master Sword hummed through the air. The blade struck the side of the monster's head, and it screamed again, in a different tone, a piercing shriek of agony and fear. Blood sprayed on the blade, on my clothes and my face and on Darunia. The creature thrashed and writhed and shrieked. With fury in my eyes I brought the sword down again, like a knife, point thrusting toward the dirt. A crunch, a splash of boiling blood, a final, earsplitting shriek, and I tore the blade from it and stumbled back as the creature writhed in its death throes. Its enormous body reared up, stiffened, and fell back. The flames died down. It was over.

"The head." Darunia was urgent. "Destroy its head. Cut it off. This thing must never come back."

I didn't know why he wanted this, but I couldn't really argue with him. I swallowed and approached the head that lay, lifeless, before me.

I hacked at the thick joint between the neck scale and the head. I penetrated only an inch. I hacked again. Blood squirted onto my boots, covering me even further with disgusting gore. Again and again I struck. The joints were unbelievably thick and powerful. It's next to impossible to sever a human's head in one stroke, and even with as many as you want it takes some effort. But this neck was three feet in diameter. I cut through its leathery skin. I cut through its steely muscle. I hit vertebrae, and at my angle I would have had to cut straight through its bone, so I had to gouge flesh away so I could cut through the softer cartilage between the bone. I cut through the spinal column. The blood trickled from the sides of the rift in thick torrents. I looked like a butcher. Zelda turned pale, then looked away and wretched onto the ground, and I nearly joined her. Finally, after what must have been five exhausting, sweaty, blood-soaked minutes, the head was off. Darunia, who was watching approvingly, hefted the massive trophy over his head with both hands. "A fine prize from a battle well-fought."

"It's finally over. It's over." I was utterly spent. Splattered with blood and soaked in sweat and the filth of battle, I sank to my knees and let my sword and shield go slack. Zelda approached me, recovering from her disgust, and put a hand to my shoulder. I looked up at her admiringly. "Zelda...how did you create..."

Then, as I had seen so many times before after I had defeated great evils, a shining blue portal appeared where Volvagia's head once was. It was a beam of blue light descending from the heavens. Darunia looked at me, unsure. I reassured him.

"It's fate. It's destiny. This is it. You step into this beam as Darunia the lieutenant. You will leave it Darunia the Sage."

"The Sage?"

Zelda stepped up. "Trust us. This is the way."

He set his jaw, nodded, and stepped unhesitating into the beam. He was bourn away into the sky in a moment. Zelda turned to me. I gestured toward the portal obligingly, and she went in first. Then, I took a final look back at the body of Volvagia, the ruined camp, and the jagged spire of Death Mountain, and the stepped in as well.