The Adventure of Link
Chapter Twenty Five: The Red Wizard
Just barely having time to get his small shield up before the white, curved energy was released, there was a small explosion that made Link's ears ring for a second as he was thrown backwards. Crying out when his back was scraped up from sliding across the rocky terrain, the Lord Sheriff scrambled to his feet while raising his sword, only to find out that he had lost his grip on it at some point. Easily spotting the silver weapon against the brown rocks, he started toward it, only to have Carock appear in his path.
The punch came before Link could react, hitting him between the eyes and making him stumble backwards, followed by the red wizard kicking him in the chest. The Lord Sheriff might have fallen onto his back from this last one that made him gasp for breath, but then Carock vanished, instantly reappearing behind him with a spinning kick to the back of the head, making Link get a face full of rocks while once again sliding across the terrain.
"I remember you… the new Hyrule Sheriff now, am I right?" The red wizard asked as Link made a failed attempt to get up. "The friend that Agahnim ran off with all those years ago, to be a common thief instead of staying with the order."
Instead of immediately trying to fight again, the Lord Sheriff crawled across the ground over to where his silver sword had fallen. Grabbing onto the weapon, and then stumbling a bit when he stood up, he advanced toward Carock, but the red wizard leaned to the side just enough to avoid the slash attack that followed. Stepping and leaning just enough to avoid each of Link's attacks, the two of them circled around the plateau, the other wizzrobes and the wounded Agahnim just watching as the Lord Sheriff failed to hit his target again and again.
"Give me that, boy." Carock said, grabbing onto the hilt while kneeing Link in the stomach hard enough to make him fall down. "Are you sure you defeated Ganondorf? Perhaps I will keep you alive until I retrieve the third Triforce from this place… so that we can ask him?"
So, that was that the red wizard was doing in Death Valley… trying to use his own son to break open Sing's barrier to the Great Palace, so he could what… use the three Triforces to somehow bring Ganondorf back? Could they even do that? Regardless, this desire meant that Carock was a dangerous enemy of Hyrule, and that he needed to be stopped from ever getting near the Triforce of Courage.
This new determination filled the Lord Sheriff with energy, realizing that not only was the fate of the original Princess Zelda in his hands, but that of the entire Kingdom once again. So he jumped to his feet, ready to… have his whole plan shattered when the red wizard struck him across the face with the hilt of the silver sword. Link saw double, realizing several seconds later than he had collapsed, but then Carock stabbed the sword into the ground, before grabbing onto Link and pulling him to his feet.
"You worthless, uppity, peasant." The red wizard scolded, slugging him in the stomach with every accented insult. "Fight back, you servile, inbred, peon."
After that last hit, the Lord Sheriff used the last of his strength to swing his shield, since it was locked onto his forearm, but Carock vanished at the last second, reappearing off to the side with a chop to Link's ribs, and then another release of that white curved energy, this time hitting him right in the chest. Flying out the back of the explosion, the Lord Sheriff had rolled across the ground and slid to a stop, before he'd even realized that he'd been hit, and now with most of his shirt burned off… Link wasn't getting back up.
"Weak and pitiful." The red wizard said, pressing his foot down hard into the Lord Sheriff's chest, gathering white energy in each hand. "Do you feel that, boy? That is the realization that you are going to die in your proper place… under my heel."
"Reflejar." Agahnim said weakly, pointing his hand toward Link.
A barely visible distortion of light formed around the Lord Sheriff's body just as Carock released this double attack, but this time it was the red wizard who screamed as he was thrown backwards. His robe singed from the blast, and stunned from being completely blindsided by such a powerful attack, Carock was again surprised when his son vanished, reappearing long enough to grab the sword, and then vanishing again… this time reappearing so that he could drive the silver blade right into the red wizard's chest.
"Agahnim?!" Carock gasped, grabbing onto his son. "Agahnim… not good enough!"
The younger wizard was already wounded, so he didn't stand a chance when the red wizard released another blast of the curved white energy right into his chest. Agahnim was catapulted into the air, falling onto one of the other wizzrobes, and causing a disruption in the spell that was keeping the temperature down, but the others made up for it, restoring the field in a couple seconds by spacing themselves out a bit more. Something had changed in Carock, though, as he ripped the sword out of himself… he was moving slower… bleeding… and his robes were no longer red.
"What?!" the no longer red wizard demanded, dropping the sword on the ground. "How did… no!"
His answer came when Carock looked back over to where Agahnim had fallen… seeing that his son had very stealthily killed the wizzrobe he had landed on by breaking his neck…and holding in his hand the necklace with ruby ring that he had pulled from his father's neck before being hit with the curved white energy. Now drinking the potion that the dead wizzrobe had been carrying, and slipping the red ring onto his finger, it was Agahnim's robes that now turned the protective red color as he got to his feet.
"So, you have a… backbone after all." Carock said, gathering white curved energy in his hand while Agahnim gathered flame in his. "So what now, son? Are you going to kill me? Can you really do it?"
"No, father, I can't." The wizard replied, the flame fading from his palm. "I hate you, and you deserve it, but I can't… so he will."
Having taken his eyes off Link during the whole exchange, the formerly red wizard hadn't noticed the Lord Sheriff slowly crawling toward there the silver sword had been dropped, and he still hadn't noticed until Link stood up and swung the blade with all his might. Slicing through Carock's neck with ease that Link had only seen while wielding the Master Sword before, the formerly red wizard's head was completely separated from his body, causing most of him to collapse to the ground while his head sank into the nearby magma pool.
"Carock is dead!" One of the other wizzrobes announced. "Long live Agahnim, the Red Wizard!"
"Silence!" Agahnim yelled, stopping them in mid-cheer. "One of you give me a potion, and then get the hell out of my sight, all of you!"
The other wizzrobes obeyed, one of them handing him another healing potion, before the whole group vanished at once. This caused the temperature of the surrounding area to go back up, but also allowed Agahnim to bring the healing potion to his bruised and bloodied friend… who would have certainly died moments later without it. However, the red liquid did just what it was supposed to; closing the Lord Sheriff's wounds and restoring him to health so that Link could stand once again.
"I've stopped counting how many times you've saved my life, Agahnim." The Lord Sheriff said. "I'm uh… really sorry about your father, though."
"Don't be." The wizard replied. "This traitor helped Gooma and Rebonack kidnap King Façade, and now that you're here… I have to go and rescue him."
This statement was news to Link, since he hadn't heard anything from the King and Queen since starting off on his quest, but while Agahnim was willing to give him a condensed version of what was happening in his absence, the Lord Sheriff's offer to come and help was refused. After all, Façade had told the wizard about the quest Link was on, and how important it was to the future of the Kingdom, so his place was to stay and complete it… just like it had been five years ago when Agahnim hadn't wanted to get involved at first.
"You go and claim the Triforce." The wizard said, starting to walk away. "Gooma would have already been dead if my father hadn't interfered… I'll see you back at the North Palace."
With that, Agahnim vanished, leaving Link once again on his own as the temperature of the plateau continued to rise, now with nothing up ahead but the flashing barrier that supposedly surrounded the Great Palace. However, as he approached, the crackling, illuminated wall that had dome so much harm to Agahnim, the Lord Sheriff honestly had no idea what he was supposed to do. Suddenly the tattoo on his hand started to hurt, burning like it had done when it first appeared, and when he looked at it this time, it was actually glowing… glowing and flashing just like the barrier wall.
He wasn't sure how he knew, but something called him to touch the barrier with his hand, and instead of experiencing a horrific pain like Agahnim had gotten… the barrier turned a pure white color before vanishing. In its place stood a golden overhang that was supported by elaborately carved pillars, also made of gold. In fact, all of the floors, walls, and ceiling that he could see in this archway were golden… and just like the barrier had been, the entrance was crooked a little bit, as if the whole palace, which must've been built into the mountain itself like Spectacle Rock, was shifting because of the magma.
Beyond the elaborate entrance was a staircase that went down into the hidden part of the Great Palace, and as he took those first steps across the golden walkway, Link knew that somewhere down in the depths of this place… the Triforce of Courage was waiting for him to come and claim it.