Chapter 25

The entryway to the stairs of the tower was dark except for the dim greenish glow of the globes still set into the wall. They seemed to try desperately, futilely to defeat a darkness against which they were ill equipped to shine against. Everything was as Gereth had last seen it during his trial. There was no trace of his old master's remains, nor did he expect to find any. He had seen the undead elf mage completely dissolved through the energies of an exorcism spell powered by his wand.

The rest of the companions were visibly wary of the comparative silence of the entry hall to the spire. They had been expecting more resistance.

"There will be no abominations in here. Maester Duazhen had no living apprentices or servants in his tower. There will be no raw material for the Demon Lord to raise against us. He trusted nothing but the magic." Gereth told the rest of them.

"And you?" Brother Garen asked.

"I am not living." Gereth replied. "And he did not truly trust me either."

Garen didn't respond as the party allowed their eyes to adjust to the subdued lighting. The rose colored marble staircase to the tower ran high upwards in a spiraling circle, a gold colored railing followed its edge. Doorways off the main entry hall led to different chambers around the base. Another small landing could be seen not far up the stairs and the outline of a doorway gave the promise of another chamber.

Link stared up at the twisting stairwell as it disappeared high up into the tower. A determined resignation appeared on his face at the sight.

"The Demon Lord will be at the top of the tower." Gereth told them. "That is where my old master's laboratory was." He then mounted the steps and said, "Come."

Gereth led them to the next landing up, and then, to their surprise, he took them through the doorway which was curtained with translucent blue silks.

"I thought we were heading to the top." Link said in confusion.

Gereth glanced upwards and then back to Link, "We are, but there may be a more efficient way to get there. Come with me."

Within the chamber he led them into was a large, curious device. It was a pedestal with a golden frame like one might find holding a globe of the world. On either "pole" of the frame was a gilded statue of a Sindorei woman with her palms outstretched towards a giant translucent orb within which swirled crimson mystical energies. A current of similarly colored energy flowed between the palms of the statues and the red orb.

"What is this?" McBride asked. "I've never seen such a device before."

"You likely wouldn't have." Gereth replied. "I imagine few within even the Horde are familiar with them. It is a magical technology the Sindorei don't lightly share with anyone. It is called an Orb of Translocation. It allows a being to instantly teleport from one location to another, either within the same building, or across a continent. This one leads to a separate chamber just below Maester Duazhen's laboratory."

Images of a device with a similar function erupted from Link's deepest memories. It involved rings surrounding a person and a flash of blue light.

"You didn't think he walked every step of the staircase just to get to his laboratory, did you?" Gereth asked.

"If he was a mage, why not just teleport directly there?" McBride asked.

"He did at times, but his elemental servants couldn't, and teleportation still takes a significant amount of mana energies in order to perform. This device makes the process much less draining and quicker." Gereth replied. "It may not work now that teleportation magic has been suppressed within the city, but I thought it worth a try to save us time and energy we do not have."

He then instructed, "Just touch the globe."

Gereth placed the palm of his hand on the globe first, and then with a flash of reddish light he was gone from the chamber. Then, one by one, the remaining members of the party and began to disappear from the chamber in a bright flash of crimson until only Link was left. He put his fingers to the glowing red orb and pressed his palm against it.

In an instant it seemed like time and space had rearranged themselves and then came back together around him. He felt somewhat nauseous as the room around him came back into existence.

And then the next thing Link knew, blazing balls of blue fire flew past his head to strike the sandstone colored wall behind him. The wall erupted into sapphire flames which strangely caused it to ice over even while it burned.

Without thought, he dodged to one side and rolled to a crouching position. The Master Sword appeared instantaneously in his hand, and his shield went up in front of him as he tried to get his bearings and see what was happening.

Beside him the other six members of his party were pinned down in a fight. Across the sparsely decorated chamber was the only doorway framed in polished, rose colored marble. In between his companions and the doorway were at least four purple robed mages with hoods drawn over their heads and black clawed, skeletal hands. They were behind several huge, menacing creatures Link had never seen before. They appeared to be made of nothing but hardened stone and fluid green energy. A malevolent energy flowed off of them in waves. They stood on two legs and had two appendages like arms, but that was where the description "humanoid" ended.

"I thought there weren't supposed to be any of these things here!" Link shouted.

Gereth was not far from Link, returning the demon mages' frostfire with flames of his own. Brother Garen stood next to him but not too close as he chanted, his own hands blazing with Holy Light which he then directed in blasts against the monstrosities. Zelda and McBride stood in front of the mage with their shields and blades out, protecting Gereth and Brother Garen while Shaggara dealt blow after blow against the creatures with the Sword of Mastery. Next to her, an immense bear with fangs and sharp claws stood its ground against the stone creatures, swiping at them with powerful swipes of its huge front paws.

"The Laboratory is through that doorway and up the stairs!" The Forsaken mage shouted back as he unleashed another salvo of fiery wrath at the hostile creatures of shadow. "Leave these things to us! Take Zelda and go! You're the only ones who have any idea how to end this!"

"We can't just leave you here with these things!" Zelda shouted as her shield took hits from the elemental stone creatures. She countered with strikes from her own thin blade which shattered and chipped away rock from the infernal monsters.

"Go!" McBride added as his own sword shattered chips of rock off the creature's appendages. "We can handle ourselves. The sooner you get up there, the sooner we can all go home!"

Link looked at Zelda, and an unspoken agreement passed between them. They both knew their friends were right.

Sword and shield in hand, Link charged the mages who stood in his way. The closest to him felt the full impact of his shield as it smash into where the hooded figure's face should have been. The next one after that lost the skeletal arm it had been casting spells with. And then Link was out the doorway and onto the stairwell. He was soon joined by Zelda, her own sword and shield in her hands. Behind her, shattered stone lay smashed across the floor.

Zelda replaced her sword into her scabbard and her shield where it rested on her back. Holding out her right hand, a beam of light lengthened into the shape of a golden recurve bow. She drew an arrow of pure light from the quiver on her belt and knocked it. She then nodded to Link.

Then with Sword drawn and arrow at the ready, they climbed the remaining stairs to the laboratory door. The sounds of battle continued behind them as their companions kept the Demon King's minions at bay.

The door to the laboratory was made of a dark wood, inlaid with green glowing crystals and trimmed in gold. A smoothly polished ebony wooden handle was set into the the door at waist level.

Taking a deep breath, Link reached out for the handle, but Zelda caught his hand and held it.

"Don't." She said. "This is a mage's laboratory. It's never that simple. If Gereth were here he'd be able to tell us if the door was booby trapped or not. Now, we've got to figure it out for ourselves."

Link nodded and withdrew his hand. He and Zelda studied the door. He then began to pay special attention to the crystals set into the door. There were five small crystals arranged in a half circle pattern above one larger crystal set into the center of the door.

"What about this?" He said, pointing out the pattern to Zelda.

Zelda studied the pattern. Five smaller crystals for five fingertips? She wondered. But then would it be coded somehow so that only the master of the tower could gain entry? No. That wouldn't make sense. Then neither his apprentice nor his servants could enter when he needed them to.

Passing her bow into her left hand, she placed the fingertips of her right hand on the door, one on each of the smaller glowing green crystals. Then she pressed her palm against the large crystal in the middle of and just below the smaller ones. The door glowed with a crimson light, and then faded away into a mist revealing an open doorway and a small number of steps that led upwards and curved around beyond their sight.

Link entered first, shield raised, Sword at the ready. Zelda followed after him, eyes searching for a target for her arrow.

Then the mark on her right hand began to burn. Zelda glanced at the back of her hand to see a single triangle lit up with its golden white light. Link too felt the burning sensation, though he didn't bother to glance at it. He knew what it meant. The three pieces of Hyrule's triforce were near each other. And if he and Zelda knew, so did the bearer of the Triforce of Power.

They emerged at the top of the steps on one side of a large circular room. A metallic worktable covered in wizard's tools and instruments was to their right. To the left was a tall metal frame with open cuffs at the top and bottom which looked to be restraints. Strange equipment was attached to the frame with cables. Across the room was a large open doorway which led out onto a balcony.

And on that balcony stood a tall, muscular man in black mail and leather armor. Though his back was too them, there was no mistaking his greenish brown skin and flaming red hair which covered his head. Except for his orange-red hair, Zelda realized, he did resemble a male of Shaggara's people very much.

"I was wondering how long it would take you two to find me here." The man said in a deep, rich voice. It was the kind of voice one could listen to for hours. That is, if it didn't come from a being so malevolent and malicious. "I suppose you arrived in the same manner as I."

Neither Link nor Zelda replied to him. They had come too far, and the atrocity he had perpetrated on this world ran too deep to engage in pleasantries.

"I wonder if this world treated you kinder than it treated me. Of course, it wouldn't surprise me if it did. That seems to be the role fate has laid out for us, doesn't it?" He continued. "Oh, I thought the use of the undead knights as a distraction was well played. I really didn't know you were here until my servants in the translocation room alerted me. It seems the Triforce of Wisdom is useful for something after all. Isn't it, Princess?"

He continued to keep his back turned to them. His posture seemed relaxed and casual. It was off-putting as he continued to talk with his back to them.

"It's too bad they're losing numbers quickly. If you want, come out to the balcony and see for yourself." Ganondorf invited with a gesture.

Neither Link nor Zelda moved.

Ganondorf continued. "No? Suit yourselves. They've been fighting valiantly, I'll give them that. But their death magic is of little use against these servants of mine. You cannot boil the blood of an opponent who has none, now can you? They've been relying on brute force and their skills with those magnificent Ebon Blades of theirs. They are down less than half of their strength now. I'm particularly impressed with..."

"Enough!" Zelda shouted with authority. "End this, Ganondorf, so we can all go home! Leave these people in peace! They've already suffered enough!"

"Oh, but I intend to make them suffer so much more." He said, the tone of his voice growing far less conversational and far, far more menacing. "And I do think you have mistaken me for someone else." His voice then became deeper, and took on a hellish, demonic quality to it. "Of course, none of us are quite ourselves these days, are we, Hylia?"

Ganondorf's hair then burst into real flames. He slowly turned around to face them. The reddish orange flames ran down the length of his greenish face and formed a beard and mustache of fire. His eyes glowed with an unholy darkness.

Zelda's breath nearly caught in her throat before she steadied herself for what she knew had to come. He had to be stopped, regardless of who or what he was.

"Demise." She addressed him.

"Yes. I am. Yours and this world's." The being in possession of Ganondorf's body replied. "And unlike in Hyrule, there are real beings here who still worship me, surrender themselves to me. The taste of their faith is sweeter than you would ever allow yourself to know."

"Abomination!" Zelda cried and let fly her arrow of pure light.

Link launched himself at Ganondorf's form, Master Sword raised high for the strike.

Two more of the infernal stone creatures went down and were shattered across the polished floor of the translocation chamber. Shaggara and McBride fought the demons side by side, her sword and his shield bashing and slashing at the unholy elemental monsters.

Fueled by the divine light which had infused him, McBride fought faster and harder than he ever had before. His strikes had been so rapid and powerful that he had been able to hold his own against both stone demon and mage. But as the elven princess and her Hero got farther away, he found his strength and speed waning. But he refused to give in.

Shaggara spun and slashed and beat the monsters back with the Sword of Mastery. Each strike of the blade's power tore off more and more of the infernals' stone forms. The Sword struck with the strength of a bear, the speed of a wild stag, and with the agility of a shadow panther. Her dragonscale armor allowed no blow that managed to land harm her. In spite of her half century of age, she felt young, wild, savage, and invincible against these nether born demons and let out a great battle cry of exhultation as she fought.

Oliver had taken the brunt of the infernal's attacks. His great dire bear form could take tremendous amounts of punishment, but it had limits. And as the Hylian Princess departed, he too felt his own speed and strength wane, and more blows landed against his hardened hide than he had intended.

Gereth came up closer to McBride to redirect his own attacks towards the infernals, hoping to finish them off. Then, out of the corner of his dead eyes, he saw a ball of dark flames shot at McBride. Without thinking it through, Gereth spread out his arms and shielded McBride from the attack with his own body.

"What the…!" McBride exclaimed as he watched the scene unfold as if in slow motion.\

The flaming ball of shadow and darkness struck Gereth in the center of his chest. Tendrils of shadow and darkness spread and duck into Gereth's living corpse. Violet and blue electricity arced around the mage's form and he cried out in pain. Gereth then dropped to the ground writhing violently.

Shaggara had turned her head just in time to see her friend go down, and then time slowed down for her as well as she called out, "Gereth!" And then as his rotting mage's body seized and convulsed on the stone floor, she screamed, "GERETH!" And rushed to his side, forgetting the battle at hand.

Garen instinctively rushed to the fallen mage's side as well, without thinking he began calling on the Light to heal him.

"NO!" Shaggara yelled at him when she saw the Light fill his hands with its normally healing powers. "YOU'LL DESTROY HIM!" Tears began to fall from her eyes.

Garen stopped, realizing she was right. He wouldn't, couldn't do that to him.

McBride and Oliver alone were left to hold the line against their foes. And then Shaggara called for the Druid.

"Druid! Your healing magic is not of the light! Come quickly before the shadow consumes him!" Shaggara cried out in desperation. "Marshall! Please! Hold them off!"

McBride had never seen an Orc warrior consumed by grief before. He had assumed that it didn't happen. But he knew all too well how grief and panic could paralyze even the most veteran of warriors when a loved one's life was at stake. And it was a panicked love for the undead mage that he saw right then in Shaggara's eyes.

The mage saved my life by risking his. Now, I owe my life to them both. The realization struck him, as did the irony.

There were still two infernals left, and a single mage. For the five of them, it would have been difficult. For just him alone, he would only be buying them needed time.

So be it.

"On my honor, lady." McBride nodded to her. "A McBride never leaves his debts unpaid."

The Marshall called up what strength and courage he had left within him, said a quick prayer to what god or goddess may be listening, and attacked the infernals with a renewed vengeance. Forsaken or not, Orc or not, they would not perish today. He swore it.

He rammed the infernal in front of him hard with the face of his shield and spun, striking the infernal's torso with a backhanded slash. Rock and stone chips flew and the infernal fell backwards, but did not shatter.

But the real threat to all of them was the continued existence of the mage. The devilish stone elementals were protecting the demon mage while he worked his damnable spells. The mage was the priority.

Calling upon every reserve of anger and rage he had felt, McBride charged the mage, leaping at the demon whom he caught off guard. His shield hit the creature hard, and his sword slashed viciously at the creature's appendages. The mage had no time to react or cast another spell as it found itself hacked into fragments and cast across the polished stone floor.

Then McBride felt something like a hundred hammers hit the back of his neck. A terrible pain shot through his body as his neck snapped. And then the last thought which would ever run through his mind was, Today, I have repaid my debts.

The warrior's lifeless body dropped, hitting the floor hard for the weight of his plate armor. Then the two stone infernals turned to the group of intruders gathered around the corpse on the floor.