Chapter 24b. The Three Trials (Part 2)
Dyntos drops Pit off inside of a wide-open throne room with a pale green atmosphere for his next trial, and after getting his bearings of the location Pit remarks "Wait a minute…Isn't this Dark Lord Gaol's throne room?" The familiarity of the room makes more sense to Pit once he looked towards the throne room, where he finds Magnus standing beside a caped, devilish armored figure whose grieves and gauntlets were covered in green flames.
Casually, Magnus lifts his sword over his right shoulder and leans forward while saying to Pit "Hey there." The armored figure also turns around and holds their right hand out, summoning flames in the palm of their gauntlet as Pit says to the two figures in a very puzzled tone "Magnus? …And Dark Lord Gaol?!" As Magnus swings his sword out beside himself in his usual manner, Pit asks him quickly "Why are you here with Gaol, Magnus?"
"What can I say? The old god asked me to fight you, so here I am." Magnus quickly responds, and Gaol says to him in a surprisingly feminine tone of voice "Do you think you can take the both of us, Pit?!" "Do I really have a choice here?" Pit remarks in a hesitant manner as he draws the Palutena Bow ready for battle. Magnus then charges forward at Pit and swings his sword down, forcing the angel to leap back as the sword crashes against the ground and cracks it.
Pit was a bit hesitant to shoot at Magnus, both out of doubt regarding how real he might be and the fact that he didn't feel right shooting at an ally. As Magnus keeps sprinting at Pit and swinging his sword around, the young angel swerves his body around and leaps to avoid the attacks while questioning "Magnus, that's really you, right?!" Magnus responds confidently "The one and only." Once Pit lands on the ground he fires a shot off to force Magnus to dodge by moving his head to the right, and with this Pit is able to run past the side of him while remarking "I thought for sure you were one of Dyntos' creations!"
Pit then tries to attack Magnus from behind with his bow, but Gaol was prepared to intercept him by using her dark magic to send small fireballs at Pit's backside. With a little singe on his wings to distract him from firing, Pit is then swiftly struck in the chest by Magnus turning around with his sword swung out. Pit is launched back a great horizontal distance, putting him at the feet of the throne room, where Gaol slams her right palm against the ground to summon forth a burst of flames that hits Pit from behind and pushes him onto his stomach.
As the battle goes on, Palutena remarks "They do seem to be fighting too accurately to be copies…" "There would be no such thing as 'almost' with my creations. Even so, I personally invited these two here to help test you, Pit." Dyntos responds with, while Pit rolls to the left to dodge Magnus' attempt to hit him hard with a downward swing of his sword. Once on his feet, Pit remarks "Then if we have this chance, I got a lot of questions to ask you Magnus!"
While focusing on dodging Magnus' sword swipes without getting a single chance to fire back due to how quickly he attacked, Pit inquired "Why were you so quick to join up with me when we first met? And how come you're stronger than any other human I've ever seen besides Riku? AND-" Before Pit asked a really important question, Magnus uses all of his strength to crack the ground, which surprised Pit as he leaped back a fair distance and ended up being struck with a powerful laser from Gaol as he landed.
"What is this, twenty questions?" Magnus takes a moment to stand up and swing his sword over his right shoulder while Pit recovers from Gaol's laser, which gives the angel a chance to feel the burn from the attack while responding in a rather serious tone "…Maybe." With a shrug, Magnus tells Pit "Hate to tell you, but I don't have any answers. I'm only here to TEST you."
Gaol then warps behind Pit and uses her magic-empowered fist to backhand Pit on the side of his body, sending the young angel tumbling across the floor until he stopped at the other side of the arena, barely keeping his footing on the edge once he stands upright. Brushing off Gaol's hit, Pit listens as the armored woman holds her arms out and inquires "Angel! It's the lord of the Underworld you oppose, yes?" Pit swings his left fist out and proclaims "Of course it is!" "Then concentrate on proving yourself, not what we're saying. Hold your questions for after you save the world!" Gaol proclaims.
"…I'm holding you to that then!" Pit proclaims after a moment of hesitation, and he then quickly took his Palutena Bow and aimed it at his foes, ready to fully engage in this fight. "That's more like it, angel face." Magnus says happily before he swings his sword out beside himself and runs right at Pit. The young angel raises his bow, ready to take aim at Magnus…Or so everyone thought. Once Pit was sure that Magnus was going for a sideways swing with his sword, he held onto the charge in his bow and leaped over Magnus, positioning himself behind him while the momentum of his swing prevented him from reacting to Pit's next move.
Taking aim at Gaol now, Pit fired a charged shot right as Gaol summoned forth a shield that sent out a series of projectiles that flew around Pit's arrow and went for the angel himself. But Gaol's defenses weren't strong enough to stop the arrow, and after the shield shattered Gaol flinched a bit and was left open to attack. Pit ran forward the moment he saw Gaol's projectiles coming out and split the Palutena Bow in two, which allowed him to swing at the projectiles and launched them back at Gaol.
Gaol took all the attacks to her armor and flinched with each blow, giving Pit enough time to finish running across the room and combine the Palutena Bow back together before firing a direct charged shot to the chest of Gaol's armor, dealing more damage than a faraway shot would've and launching her a great deal of feet off of the arena, where she crashes into the wall and is left defeated in the indent made from her impact.
Pit then hears Magnus running at him from behind and immediately tries to leap to the left to avoid an attack, but the swordsman has wised up to his tricks and performed a swing from the left side of his body to clobber Pit hard in the gut, continuing the swing until he has performed a 180 turn with his body and sent Pit flying across the room again, where Pit ends up landing on the floor and has his wings grinding against the floor for a few seconds before he's kicked up into a momentary roll that ends with him landing back on his feet.
Magnus swings his sword over his shoulder and then waves his other hand out to taunt Pit into attacking him, a taunt the angel takes seriously as he fires a series of regular shots from his bow while walking towards Magnus. Magnus quickly takes his sword and spins it in front of his body, reflecting away all of Pit's attacks with relative ease before the barrage comes to an end, at which point the man grabs the sword back into both hands and leaps towards Pit, bringing his sword down like a hammer before Pit gets close to him.
Pit leaps back to try and avoid getting swept up in the collision of Magnus' sword with the ground, but when Magnus lands his sword unleashes a sharp shockwave that chases right after Pit, causing the young angel to roll to the side to get out of the way. Once there, he finds that Magnus has gotten his sword stuck in the ground, and while on his knees Pit takes the chance to fire a charged shot at the defenseless Magnus, which deals a critical blow to his body.
Pit then rapid-fires a few more shots at Magnus' body, making the man flinch due to the damage done from the charged shot. Then with one forward roll Pit regains the charged shot in his bow and launches it at Magnus, which proves to be strong enough to knock him onto his back and let out a pained grunt, all the while his now pulled up sword is dropped from his hand, signifying that Pit had managed to defeat Magnus.
Lifting his head up in a rather concerned manner, Pit exclaims "Magus! Are you ok?!" The man's laughter is heard a few seconds later as he lifts his body up and gives Pit a thumbs-up, saying to him in a tired tone "Nice job, angel face…" Pit smiled a bit, but didn't get to say anymore to Magnus or Gaol as both of them were warped away from the arena by Dyntos' powers. "Huh? Where did they go?" Pit inquires as he looks around the room for any sign of them.
But instead of finding the duo, Pit is instead surprised when he finds Palutena floating in front of the steps of the throne. "Lady Palutena? What are you doing here?!" Pit says in a tone of utter surprise, which then leads to Palutena holding her staff out with a rather unnatural smile on her face as she proclaimed wickedly "Isn't it obvious Pit? I'm here to finish you! Hahahaha!" The sky then opens up, summoning forth a gigantic laser that goes right at Pit, and the young angel quickly leaps to the right to avoid the attack while saying in a very annoyed tone "Do I really have to fight this imposter?! I know you like making re-creations, but this is really in poor taste!"
"Oh don't get all huffy now. Besides, if that Palutena is a copy, then where's the real Palutena?" Dyntos taunts Pit with his words, and Pit takes his word lightly as he quickly calls out while dodging 'Palutena's' attacks "Where she always is! Right, Lady Palutena?" When the real Palutena doesn't reply, Pit's observations are brought into question, and he remarks in a worried manner "Uh…Lady Palutena?"
In a rather over-the-top manner that did sound something like the original, 'Palutena' says "Time to DIE, Pit!" Before launching out another powerful laser. Thankfully, Pit knew enough about Palutena's moves from the previous battle to not be hit at all by this fake. Even so, he was rather worried about his predicament as he remarks "Oh, no…Don't tell me that IS the real Lady Palutena." With Dyntos laughing in the background, Pit decides to just take a risk as he aims the bow at 'Palutena' and says "Well, can't hurt to attack…"
A charged shot goes right past 'Palutena's' attacks and strikes her head in the face, which apparently deals a critical blow as the goddess of light yells out in pain as her head lurches back and she is surrounded by a dark aura. When that aura vanishes, 'Palutena's' skin has become purple, and her face has become an ugly mish-mash of wrinkled skin, elongated tongue, and brittle teeth. "You're FINISHED!" Pseudo-Palutena proclaims before she surrounds herself in a pillar of light and aggressively charges at Pit.
"What what what?!" Pit proclaims in complete surprise before he high-tails it to the right to avoid Pseudo-Palutena's attack. As he turns around he rapidly fires arrows at this fake while stating to himself "I'm glad I decided to attack!" As Pseudo-Palutena continues to aggressively attack Pit, Pit himself holds nothing back as he continues to fight, dodging all of the fake's attacks with relative ease until the copy finally falls to his assault, and as the fake disintegrates into nothing Pit pumps his right fist out and proclaims "Take that you fake!"
"At least…I'm beautiful…" Pseudo-Palutena says in a melancholy and ignorant sounding tone before she crumbles away completely. Pit wipes some sweat off of his brow before he's suddenly teleported out of this arena and taken to a circular arena made out of a pristine blue metal. There was nothing but a vast black space surrounding the arena and a Drink of the Gods in front of Pit, which the young angel quickly drank up while Dyntos told him "Well done sonny!"
"Two down, one to go!" Pit proclaimed as he threw the bottle off the side of the arena, and Dyntos humorously said to him "Yes, yes, I'm quite aware of that. Here it is. The Great Sacred Treasure." With a clap of his hands, Dyntos summons forth one of his greatest creations to the arena. It was a huge legless mech made entirely out of white orichalcum, with a design that looked completely out of place with everything else Pit had ever seen before. It was mounted with two laser cannons on one arm and a blade on the other one, and there was also a golden, angelic symbol behind the mech.
Pit was taken aback by the Great Sacred Treasure's appearance, but more importantly he remarked in a suspecting tone "You're just giving it to me? I don't have to do something horrible first?" Dyntos chuckles as the Great Sacred Treasure suddenly roars to life with energy sparking from all parts of it's body, and the five-lined symbol in front of it's chest glow brightly while Dyntos says "That depends on your definition of 'horrible'." With the GST bright and active, Pit exclaims "Wait! Don't shoot!"
Pit then has to dodge the charge of the GST, but can feel it's raw power as he avoids the attack and proclaims "Now this is a trial!" "Hehehe…Look alive out there, sonny! This is a far cry from the Three Sacred Treasures of old, eh? This beauty is made of pure orichalcum!" As Dyntos brags proudly about his creation, Pit runs around like a chicken to avoid the relentless assault of the GST, which includes the mech firing off a flamethrower and a net of electricity across the arena. "I have no idea what that even is!" Pit proclaims when he gets the chance to do so.
"Hmph, well, now that I've set you up with your final trial, I need to go back to give little Riku his own final trial. Good luck there with the Great Sacred Treasure!" Dyntos then quickly drops his communication in a rather nonchalant manner, and Pit proclaims as he starts firing at the unflinching GST "I hope Riku's having a better time than I am! Come on Lady Palutena, where are you?!"
As Pit's cries go unanswered, Dyntos teleports back to the start of his workshop again, with Riku commenting to him immediately "…I'm surprised you took so long." Dyntos said to him as he laid on the side of his body "Little Pit took a while with his second trial, what can I say? Now then, are YOU ready for your final trial, Riku?" "Well, so far you've done a questionnaire and then a psychological test…What's next, you're going to have me fight my own shadow?" Riku inquires while folding his arms in front of his chest.
"That's a fair assumption to make, but no, you're wrong. Now, draw your sword…It's time for you to fight!" Dyntos, for the first time in Riku's presence, sat upright on his pedestal and clapped his hands a few times, and suddenly a melody begins to play over the atmosphere of the workshop. The melody was slow and melancholic, but Riku swore that there was something very familiar about it. Before he could question Dyntos on what was going on, he found himself summoning his sword into his right hand unconsciously, but there was not yet an opponent in sight.
This would change in an instance, when Riku glances ahead and sees a mysterious figure wearing a black coat with a long zipper extending from the neck to the bottom of the outfit. The person's head was obscured by the shadow of their hood, and their hands and feet were protected by black gloves and shoes respectively. There was no way to distinguish just who this person was because of all these factors, but Riku remarks quietly to himself "That coat…Just who exactly has Dyntos summoned?" as though he was at least familiar with the coat itself.
The cloaked figure raises their right hand up and suddenly summons forth a simple wooden bow from a flash of light, and as they put it in front of their chest and grab onto the string with no arrow loaded Riku flinches and says "No one wearing that cloak would use that weapon…But if it's just made of wood, then I just have to-" In the middle of his sentence Riku tries to raise his left hand up and shoot a fireball, but finds that nothing emerged from the palm despite having a complete and utter focus on his elements.
Quickly realizing that Dyntos must have sealed him off from his elements for this battle, Riku nonetheless has barely any time as the mysterious figure draws light into the bow, creating a perfect arrow-shape that he fires straight at Riku. The teenage Overlord pulls his body to the left, the arrow brushing the front of his chest much to his surprise. After Riku repositions himself and holds his sword in front of his body, he prepares for another arrow to be fired from the bow.
This time around, the light in the bow is replaced with a freezing-sound and a blue light, and Riku readies himself to slice the arrow down once it's fired off. However, the figure quickly points the bow down a bit before firing it off, causing the arrow to strike Riku's right foot and freeze it in place with a thick amount of ice. Riku, feeling the cold flowing through his leg, quickly slashes at the ice with his sword to try and free himself, but in doing so he opens himself up for the mysterious figure to dash at him for a physical attack. Discarding his bow, the mysterious figure leaps into the air while holding his left hand up, and a beam of light extends out from the grip to signify that he was summoning another weapon.
Riku made the right assumption that his foe was summoning a sword, and dropped his attention on the ice on his leg in order to swing his own blade out to block the sword before it hits him. But when the two weapons clash and the figure lands on the ground, Riku's face freezes up in a look of shock as he sees what sword the figure was wielding. The pure silver blade, the winged purple hilt, and the single golden jewel could only belong to one sword…The Master Sword. Riku whispers out "Impossible…There is only one person who can wield this weapon…"
Knowing Dyntos, there was a high probability that the person he was facing was a fake created to throw him off, but if that's not the case then Riku knew for a fact that the cloaked figure was none other than the once deceased Hero of Time, Link. As Riku seemed to be realizing this fact, Dyntos smiled from atop his pedestal and remarked to himself "How will you fare against the one that embodies your greatest regret, Elemental Overlord?"
Meanwhile, Pit was faring horribly against the GST so far. The mech was relentless in it's assault, firing a multitude of attacks that forced Pit to run around and barely get a shot in on this heavily armored machine. While he struggled against the GST with a sweaty body, he finally hears Palutena groan in his head, showing that she had awoken after a brief period of sleep. "Lady Palutena! I'm really glad you're back!" Pit proclaims before he leaps out of the way of a forward chest laser from the GST.
"I…Don't know what happened. I must have fallen asleep." Palutena remarks as she embarrassingly tries to regain her strength. "It's not like you to be napping on the job…" Pit remarks in a rather concerned tone before Palutena bluntly states "You can thank Lord Dyntos for that one, then."
"What?! He has the power to put the GODDESS OF LIGHT to sleep?! This is really not a fair fight!" Pit proclaims in disbelief before he continues to assault the GST with shots from his bow, keeping nimble to the best of his ability despite the pressure of the mech keeping him from stopping for even a second. Suddenly, the GST warps to the edge of the arena and thrusts both hands out, charging up a gigaton of energy that bathes the battlefield in an atmosphere of crimson.
"Pit! Get out of there, now!" Palutena quickly warns the young angel of the danger of the attack, and Pit dashes to the left until he was past the grid set up across the arena, at which point a laser of impossible of describe strength is unleashed from the GST, wiping out one half of the arena entirely, and though Pit managed to avoid the attack his heart was rapidly pumping against his chest before he realized that the GST was vulnerable to strike while it suffered through a down-time from that powerful attack.
Firing whatever arrows he could, Pit manages to deal quite a decent amount of damage while Palutena remarks "Had that attack hit you, you would've been finished!" "Well it's a good thing our little angel is quite nimble, hmm?" Dyntos suddenly remarks after being quiet for a while, and the GST immediately warps back above the arena and fires more projectiles at Pit, who now had less room to run around and avoid the attacks.
"Lord Dyntos, aren't you worried about this weapon falling into the wrong hands?" Palutena remarks while looking on in concern towards Pit. "Of course I am! That's why I'm testing this young warrior! I need to know it he has the skills and heart to operate the Great Sacred Treasure. But let me tell you, it's been quite a hoot watching you and the young Elemental Overlord face your final trials at the same time." Dyntos responds, chuckling afterwards much to Pit's annoyance.
"Come on Pit…You can take this machine! You haven't come this far just to lose to a trial!" Pit motivates himself with a few words before flipping back to avoid a darkness bomb from the GST, after which he fires a charged shot at the mech's chest. But then the GST warps behind him and tries to sneak in a flamethrower, with Pit responding to this by turning around and folding his wings inward so only his body is singed by the flames.
But he fires another charged shot at the same spot he struck the GST before, this time managing to crack the armor slightly, which surprised Dyntos from afar. With the flames from the GST at an end, Pit leaped back and fired another charged shot, but the mech barrel rolled to the right to avoid it, immediately following up by sending out a spread of projectiles in the direction of Pit. The young angel runs to the right, since the homing properties of the shots meant dodging would leave him briefly vulnerable to the attacks.
Once the projectiles landed on the ground, Pit took aim at the GST and fired another shot, this time successfully connecting with the spot he's been striking at so far. The armor broke apart a little more at that spot, and Pit knew he was close to reaching the core of the machine. As he was approaching that point, Dyntos remarked "Scatter-brained as your little warrior might be at times, he's very capable in battle, Palutena."
"Of course he's capable. I wouldn't have trusted him to fight as often as he has otherwise. But it's not just because of his battle capabilities that I trust him. His heart is just as strong as the rest of his body, Dyntos." Palutena explains, putting all of her faith in Pit, which surprised Dyntos to the point that he started laughing before saying to her "Now isn't that a little backwards? The goddess is supposed to be getting faith from her followers, not the other way around." "Is there anything really wrong with that? Pit's earned the right." Palutena remarks calmly.
"Not at all, it's just a little observation I was making." Dyntos said, and by this point Pit had managed to avoid a few more shots form the GST and was in the perfect position to fire one more arrow at the weak spot in the armor. Feeling confident in this last attack, Pit launched the arrow and then immediately turned around, pumping his fist out as the GST's core was hit by the arrow and was promptly brought to the ground. "And to the victor goes the spoils!" Pit proclaims as the GST crashes against the ground.
After a few seconds, Dyntos can be heard proudly clapping, and his voice clear as day said "Well done, kid!" Pit turns around and is surprised to find that Dyntos has appeared on the remains of the arena, where he quickly walks over to the GST and uses his powers to repair the damage Pit inflicted on it. Once the GST rises up in all of it's majesty, the cockpit opens up, and Dyntos extends his hands out and says "You earned it. Go ahead and take it for a quick spin!"
Pit, with a bright-eyed smile, doesn't hesitate to leap into the GST, where after the cockpit is sealed up Pit starts speeding around through the air at high speeds, cheering all the while. Dyntos smiled as he watched Pit enjoy the GST, but Palutena said to him "Umm, Lord Dyntos?" "Yep, that's my name." Dyntos replies in a humored tone. "That was quite a few enemies for 'Three Trials', wouldn't you agree?" Palutena then inquires.
"Eh, I might have thrown in a few freebies." Dyntos nonchalantly remarks before Pit suddenly crashes the GST head-first into the arena, creating a large crater that surprises even the god of the Forge. With both Dyntos and Palutena letting out a cry of "Oh dear…" the goddess of light quickly summons a pillar to take both Pit and the GST back to Skyworld before the armor gets ruined. After she does this, Dyntos smiles and says to Palutena "Oh, and don't worry about little Riku…I'll make sure he's returned back all safe and sound, you have my word."
"Could you at least tell me what you're doing for his trials? I haven't been able to see anything so far…" Palutena inquires, and with a wag of his right pointer finger Dyntos remarks "That's something you'll have to find out from Riku himself. You got your own preparations to worry about, Palutena, so just let me do my job properly!" Dyntos then warps back to continue watching Riku's last trial, with Palutena dryly remarking after he left "…He really needs to lighten up…"
While Dyntos had been off watching Pit deal with the GST, Riku was still in the middle of his battle with the supposedly revived Link. The two locked swords for a few more seconds before Riku decided to try and go for a punch with his free hand aimed at his foe's stomach. With the way 'Link' was postured it was easy for Riku to get a direct blow with his strength, which pushed him a few feet back along the ground.
This gave Riku sufficient time to raise his sword up and perform one hard slash on the ice surrounding his foot, which shattered it enough so he could pull his foot forward to break the rest of it off. Though naturally there was a bit of a sting felt in his muscles after he freed himself, Riku quickly looked at his opponent and proclaimed "Link! I know it's you underneath that cloak! But are you a copy made by Dyntos, or the real thing?!"
'Link' doesn't respond in words, instead preferring to dispel his Master Sword for the time being and performing a couple backflips to put some distance between him and Riku. Once on the other side of the platform, 'Link' pulls out a boomerang and throws it right at Riku. However, Riku is surprised when the boomerang suddenly summons forth a tornado that tears up the ground as it flies towards Riku. "The Gale Boomerang? That's not a weapon of the Link I know!" As Riku makes a short leap to the right the boomerang passes by him harmlessly.
Riku then glances at 'Link' and runs straight at him, making sure to keep his sword prepared to swing as he got closer to him. Once Riku saw 'Link' preparing to summon the Master Sword, Riku increased his speed enough to get right in front of him and perform an upward slash with his sword, striking 'Link' right through his cloak. However, 'Link' doesn't seem at all affected by the attack, as he quickly swung the Master Sword in a horizontal slash and cut through Riku's shirt, drawing blood from his chest and making him flinch noticeably in pain.
Riku quickly held one arm over his chest wound to hold back the blood and leaped back, forgetting about the Gale Boomerang as it made it's return trip. The tornado thus launches Riku into the air unexpectedly, leaving him vulnerable in the air. 'Link' then catches the boomerang and puts it away, summoning another weapon in his right hand for use in battle. This time he summoned the Longshot and fired it right at Riku, puncturing him through his right leg and dragging him right down onto the ground.
With the cold in his leg still affecting him, the pain in Riku's leg didn't hurt as much as it could've, but the fact remained that once he was brought to the ground and 'Link' pulled the Longshot out he was left with a gaping wound in his leg that made it impossible for him to walk again. Combined with the impact with the ground, Riku was left on his back with a bleeding chest and a hole in his right leg. 'Link' then walked towards him and summoned the Master Sword, pointing the tip of the blade at Riku's neck.
Riku lifts his head up as much as he could and looks at 'Link's' head, feeling an immense sense of helplessness that reminded him a lot of what happened when Link died the first time. He had no access to his powers, his body was severely damaged, and all it would take is one cut from the Master Sword to end his life now. But instead of begging 'Link' not to attack or feeling fear, Riku didn't hesitate to take his sword and swing it above his chest to push the Master Sword away from his neck.
With the pressure taken off him from that moment, Riku temporarily dispels his sword and uses his hands to crawl back a bit, pushing himself upright so he can eventually place his right knee and left foot on the ground, after which he summons his sword again and holds both hands where the handle would be, fiercely looking at 'Link' and saying to him "I don't care if you are a clone or the real Link! I don't intend to run away, and I hope you don't intend to hold anything back! You have every right to finish me off after I cowardly abandoned your world, but I will still fight to the best of my ability!"
In the face of Riku's proclamation, 'Link' did not move at all. Instead, he dispelled the Master Sword and stayed in place for a few seconds much to Riku's puzzlement. Suddenly, Dyntos appears on the platform, walking into view from beside 'Link' while clapping his hands proudly. "Congratulations Riku! You have cleared your final trial!" Riku naturally continued to look puzzled as Dyntos stood between him and 'Link' and folded his arms behind his back, taking only one out to stroke his beard a bit.
"Wait…Didn't you say…I was supposed to fight?" Riku asks, the loss of blood in his body starting to get to him, something that Dyntos notices as he takes his other hand and remarks "First things first, lets get you back on your feet." With a snap of his fingers, Dyntos completely heals Riku of all wounds on his body, removing the blood from the ground at the same time. Riku stands back up straight while Dyntos remarks "And I have given all of your elemental powers back. Hope you didn't mind me taking them away for a bit."
The humored tone Dyntos took didn't bother Riku, as he was still wondering just what was going on with this final trial. Dyntos notices this confusion and says to Riku quickly "Alright, alright, I can sense your impatience quite clearly. I didn't lie when I said you were going to fight, but I think you assumed that your fight was going to be against an actual opponent. You were actually battling against your own doubts and fears, a thing you could not physically attack. And what better way to draw out the strongest of those doubts and fears than to have you face off against the one who embodies your greatest regret?"
Riku pauses for a moment in surprise before pointing at 'Link' and asking "Then tell me Dyntos…Is that actually the Link I knew, or a copy you made?" "How about I let my little guest answer that for you?" Dyntos replies before he steps aside, allowing the cloaked figure to grab onto their hood and pull it back. Sure enough, behind the hood were the familiar blue-eyes, green cap, pointed ears and blonde-hair of the Hero of Time himself. Link smiled at Riku and said to him in his familiar tone "Sorry I had to hide my identity Riku…Dyntos said it wouldn't have been a genuine fight otherwise."
As Riku stared at Link's face for a bit, he found himself at a complete loss for words for the moment. He gasped in shocked and covered his mouth with both hands, fighting back the tears as he murmured out the words "Oh my god…" from under his breath. Dyntos rubbed his beard and remarked "Heheh, I bet you're wondering how I brought the fabled Hero of Time here, aren't you?" Riku quickly drew his hands away from his mouth and said "Yes! Hades' showed me his soul! There's no way you could've gotten that without a fight, Dyntos!"
"Hehehe, I think you are underestimating my abilities a bit there, sonny." Dyntos remarked in a humored tone before explaining with a grin on his face "The soul you saw belonged to Hylia's little reincarnation, Zelda. I managed to intercept the Hero of Time's soul from Hades' grasp the moment he died in Hyrule two years ago, and kept it with me all this time because I knew I would need it again later. Tragically, I could not do the same for Hylia's reincarnating soul, but the soul seems too pure for Hades to use, fortunately."
"Anyways, after that all I had to do was recreate Link's body and put the soul in and he was back to life in no time! …Well, I guess it'd be more right to say that he's 'temporarily' back to life." Dyntos then got a little more serious in his tone of voice, and as Riku looks puzzled Dyntos explains "The power of the 'higher-ups' is great, meaning that all I could manage even with all my power is to temporarily prevent Hades from acquiring Link's soul. I froze Link's body in a state of intense cryogenic slumber until the moment he'd be needed again, but now that he has been out and about for a while the deal the 'higher-ups' made is going to take Link's soul to Hades by force."
"Then freeze Link's body for a little longer! Pit will soon stop Hades, and all the souls won't have to be in his possession anymore!" Riku proclaims in defiance of what Dyntos explained, but the god of the forge had to quickly tell him "Are you dense? The problem here doesn't just involve Hades' deal with the 'higher-ups'. We all live in a universe where coming back to the life doesn't come cheap, and I didn't pay a cost at all to bring Link back to life. As such, his revival was always meant to be temporary."
"Then I'll just use my powers to bring Link back to life!" Riku exclaims, and this time Dyntos summons forth his mighty hammer and clocks Riku in his chin with it, saying to him bluntly "Quit being stupid, that's not going to work! Haven't you forgotten that you need the person's body to bring them back to life? Well as fine as my craftsmanship may be, Link's current body is just a copy, not the genuine article! Your Chaos Form won't do a thing!" As Riku rubs the pain off of his chin, he looks at Link, whose body was starting to fade away into a series of golden lights.
"…But I'm glad I at least got one last chance to see you, Riku…Well, at least face-to-face. Dyntos allowed me the chance to see everything you've done since you left Hyrule." Link remarks quietly, and as Riku places one fist against his chest he contemplates what he wants to say Link in the short time he's got before proclaiming to the Hero of Time "Link! Please be honest with me! Do you hate me for abandoning Hyrule?!" Link smiles at Riku and says to him "I don't hate anyone that isn't Ganondorf, Riku. All things considered, you really couldn't have stopped Demise back then…"
"But it was still my mistake that allowed Demise to come back in the first place! And now everyone who died in Hyrule is having their souls used to power Hades' army! And who knows just what Hades will do with yours and Zelda's souls!" Riku proclaims, and Link flat-out tells him "Well then wouldn't it make sense to just kill Hades? From what Dyntos is saying, Hades' deal only works so long as he's still alive." "Hehehe, you picked up on that rather quickly, Hero of Time." Dyntos said in a respectful tone of voice as he swung his hammer over his right shoulder.
Riku then pumps his right fist forward and proclaims to Link "Then that's what I will do! Pit and I will kill Hades and let everyone's souls pass on to their rightful afterlife! I promise Link, I won't back down ever again!" The knowledge that Link did not hate him for what he had done seemed to be enough to ignite a new fire in Riku's determination, and with one last smile Link waved one hand off of his face and said to Riku "I'm glad to hear that. Take care of yourself, Riku…And thanks for being an ally."
With those final words, Link's body vanished, causing the cloak to fall to the ground as the golden soul bearing the Triforce flew off to be given to Hades. Riku watched the soul depart, while Dyntos remarked in a very impressed tone "I should give Hylia credit where it's due…Binding a soul to a reincarnation cycle is not an easy feat, and yet she did it for the hero she trusted the most along with her own soul…"
Dyntos then glanced at Riku, saying to him in a curious tone "So, are you feeling better now?" Riku nods his head after he looks at the god of the forge, saying to him in a rather renewed sounding tone of voice "I-I feel as though I can truly start living life now, knowing that Link forgave me for what I did…" "His forgiveness means nothing unless Hades is stopped for good though, you realize that, yes?" Dyntos remarks while stroking his beard.
Riku nods again, gesturing his right hand out while saying "I owe it to Link and everyone else whose souls have been brought to this world for Hades' wicked purposes. There will be no more hesitation, and I will not be dismayed by Hades' or anyone's words again! …I never really thought about it, but before now my heart felt as heavy as the earth…But now it's like it is as light as a cloud…" The last part of Riku's sentence sees the teenage Overlord smiling while holding one hand close to his beating chest.
"Hmm, speaking of that…Perhaps it'd be a good idea to change your name now. Seriously, it's quite embarrassing to know that your brother tried to name you after the sky and then gave you a name representing the earth…" Dyntos remarks, but Riku shakes his head in response and tells him "That's alright. I'm fine with this name, even if it was born of a mistake." "Hehe, that's your decision then. Now, I guess I should be getting rid of this old thing…" Dyntos says before he turns to face the black coat that Link was wearing.
Before Dyntos picks the coat up, Riku says to him in a puzzled tone "Just how did you get a hold of one of those? Don't those belong to the Orga-" "ONCE belonged to those people. Just because you've been instilled with the knowledge on hundreds of worlds, doesn't mean that all of it is still relevant…Heed my warning on this one, Riku…Do not try and question this coat's presence any further." Dyntos says in a very foreboding manner before he sends the coat away with a thought. The man then turns towards Riku and faces his puzzled expression with a smile on his face before he says to him "But if you are curious about something else, then by all means, ask away. For putting you through all those trials, it's the least I can do."
Taking Dyntos' advice seriously regarding the coat, Riku lifts his right hand up and summons his sword, asking in a rather upfront tone "You asked me if I knew the name of my blade…So that means you created it, doesn't it?" "Very perceptive, sonny." Dyntos says with a chuckle afterwards, and the man then goes on to explain "What you wield currently is the Helix of Balance, Muchitsujo. It's a blade meant to help one balance the light and darkness within their bodies, which of course means it's a perfect fit for someone like you, wouldn't you agree?"
Riku then glances at his sword, murmuring the name Dyntos mentioned to him before more questions start to pop up in his head. When Dyntos notices Riku's realizing expression, the god of the forge goes on to say "When you activate your Chaos Form, the weapon splits into the Gilded Katana, Kashoku and the Abyssal Fang, Shin'en. Of course, I didn't just have a hand in creating those weapons…Your brother's weapon, the Broadsword of Renewal, Saikafu, and the sword of the original reincarnation known as the Sun-Rending Crimson Fang, Gekimetsu, were both crafted by me personally!"
"…How is that possible? I was just born two years ago, and I know you didn't just hand Muchitsujo to me." Riku inquires, and with a stroke of his beard Dyntos says "It's quite simple, really. 2,000 years ago, the original Elemental Overlord came to me and asked that I forge him three weapons. After he passed my trials, I took up his task, meeting his specific requirements perfectly. Afterwards, at his request, I bound the three weapons to his soul so they would be carried with him when he was placed into the body of his successor."
"The successor would then be granted the right to Gekimetsu. Once the successor created a clone, the fragment of the Elemental Overlord's soul containing Saikafu would be passed on. Now this is where the fun part comes in…Until the day where the clone would in turn create a clone, Muchitsujo would reside within Saikafu, where it would absorb traces of the Light element from the Elemental Overlord's Light Citadel along with the Darkness of the viral entity known as the Parakali. Thus, when the second clone was created, they would not only have the ability to use Light and Darkness, but be able to fully control it thanks to the Muchitsujo. And to think, until this point you probably never suspected any of this, hmmm?"
Riku rubbed the back of his head, letting out a rather exasperated sounding "Wow…" before he looked down at Dyntos and said to him with an honest chuckle "Truth be told…That's a lot to take in…" Riku then lifted his eyebrows up and remarked "Wait a second…The Elemental Overlord knew that all of us were going to exist?" Thinking back, Riku recalled an instance that he hadn't thought much about before, where Mithos mentioned the original Elemental Overlord intended for Riku to fulfill the deal they made.
Dyntos went on to explain "Yep, the Elemental Overlord knew this would happen. But do not get the wrong idea…The Elemental Overlord did not have the power to see the future." Dyntos had to make sure to be clear on that last part, but that only puzzled Riku further. "Heheh, don't worry about it. I get the feeling you'll end up meeting her one day…Oops! I may have said too much there." Dyntos' humored chuckle afterwards suggested that he intentionally slipped in that bit of info at the end.
Riku didn't mind that though, as after folding his arms together and dispelling his sword he remarked "I'm not really interested in figuring out who told the Elemental Overlord the future. I'm just surprised that he did know all of this was going to happen…" After thinking about everything for a few moments, Riku then glanced at Dyntos and said to him "You know, I really feel like I'm overstaying my welcome at this point…But can I just ask one more question?"
"Go right ahead…But then you're heading back to Skyworld." Dyntos remarked. "Did you have a hand in creating every weapon in the universe?" Riku inquires, and Dyntos chuckles before admitting sincerely "Not exactly. I created stuff like the two Star Rods, Galaxia, and a lot of what you've seen young Pit wield…But I only helped supervise the development of most other weapons, like the Eternal Sword, Master Sword, Varia Suit, etc. Though I really wish Origin listened to me when I told him that making a sword that only one race can use would come back to bite him in the butt later."
"Alright, then I guess that's all I have left to ask. Thanks for your help, Lord Dyntos, and thank you very much for giving Link a little more time in this world." Riku respectfully bows towards the god of the forge, and the man hauls his hammer over his shoulder before remarking with a grin "I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors, Riku. Now off you go! You got a Lord of the Underworld to slay!" Without a single gesture, Dyntos makes Riku vanish from his workshop in an instance, after which he turns around and says "Now to go grab a seat…This is going to be quite an exciting battle!"
Next Time: The Battle for Everyone's Souls