As it was almost dawn I decided out of prudence to start over before I started on the Temple, noting in passing that it didn't appear to be the local Guardian that added the Goron Colony to the Deku Palace and Clock Town. Being able to start from there made things much quicker, allowing me to re-surprise everyone with Darmani's miraculous recovery, defrost various Gorons, put the Goron Elder's son to sleep and make sure the Elder himself was safe.
Biggoron was back in place because of this of course, but a repeat performance of the Goron Lullaby sent him back down into the chasm below. I checked on him to make sure he'd be fine when he woke up, then started up to the Temple.
The route was narrow and snow-covered, and now that Biggoron was out of the way large chunks of snow that had built up behind him started to roll down, each one big enough to easily engulf even Darmani.
As a Goron though, all I needed was to get up enough speed to cause the spikes to appear. As long as I remained on course and didn't end up heading down to join Biggoron, I'd be able to just smash through them without incident.
Once I'd managed to get up the slope at the far end there was a wide snow-covered plateau with the local Great Fairy's cavern in, and also a similarly narrow path that wound up around the peak to the Temple proper. At least if I fell there, I'd be able to carry on back up again.
I had to draw heavily on the borrowed skill Darmani had left me to make it. He was more experienced at this naturally, I was still learning. Getting around by rolling about was one thing, doing it while there's no room for error isn't quite so easy.
A pack of white Wolfos showed up as I got on to the plateau but for a streaking Goron these were less off a problem and more of a source of amusement as they loped after me. They're rather thick creatures, more concerned with trying to catch me than each other. Several of them got shoved off the narrow route by their friends as each one tried to bull past the others.
At the top was of course a second cavern, serving as the initial entrance to the Snowhead Temple. Pillars of ice curved up on either side like the fingers of some icy titan, and behind them were clouds of white with orange eyes – white Boes. One of the Wolfos managed to catch up with me only to find me just about to do another ground-pound, shattering the ice fingers, the shock destroying most of the Boes and even managing to catch the unlucky Wolfos. A second one left me on my own again but for Tael.
This also shattered some smaller ice pillars that, if the others had been fingers, were more like thumbs. Except there were a few too many of them. Behind them was a massive stone block with, peculiarly enough, an engraved Majora's Mask on it. It didn't appear to be magical or cursed or anything, so as any good Hero would, I gave it a good shove forward through the gap it was otherwise filling.
It dropped down into a hole in the floor that obviously I hadn't been able to see before, opening the way into a small room which had three doors, the northern one opposite me being frozen. I didn't have a chance to check the other two doors because another white Wolfos caught up with me.
This one I dispatched with a powerful punch, a touch of magic happening on its own to engulf my fist in a brief flare of fire. Normally if you attack a Wolfos from the front it'll block, but a Goron Punch gave it no room to do that, cutting right through and sending it flying up against a wall where it vanished in defeat.
With it out the way I checked the other two doors. To the west was a locked door, and since the ice was still stubbornly trying to ignore Din's Fire leaving only a few drops of water to drip off it, this left me to pick the east door instead.
This room was both deeper and longer. At the bottom was what could have been a shallow pit of lava, which also had a pillar in it, in turn holding a Stray Fairy in a bubble. I shot at that with the crossbow only to have the bolt hit something unseen before it caught the bubble. The Lens of Truth showed this was because there was an invisible wall facing me on this side, so I left that for the moment.
I was up on a ledge with a wooden rope bridge leading to a similar ledge on the far side, and it was that far ledge that connected to two smaller ones on either side. One had a block of ice on, but both had enemies I'd seen previously only in the Ice Cavern – Freezards. Their icy breath was visible, always crossing the bridge.
Since I'd returned to my own form to shoot the crossbow I floated down and over the lava instead of seeing if I could just walk through it as a Goron. This revealed that under a narrow ledge in the north wall was another Stray Fairy, and the one I'd seen before was no longer behind an invisible wall. Both of them were shot to release them from their bubbles, then the Great Fairy's Mask persuaded them I was safe and brought me the first two Stray Fairies.
Again rather than change back I stayed as I was, ignoring both the bridge and the Freezards by floating up the north end of the room instead.
"Y'know Silver, I can't help but think you're disappointing those Freezards," Tael remarked with a distinct lack of sincerity. "They went to all that trouble to go stand there and try to freeze anyone who wanted to go across the bridge, and you've just made it all worthless.
"Isn't that a shame?" I replied. "I'd destroy them to put them out of their misery, but I don't think it'll really accomplish much right now."
"Stairs or door then?" he asked.
"Stairs first, I think," I answered after a moment, continuing to float up them. It tends to make thing easier, and also means I avoid any traps in the floor. Not that I've encountered many, but one is usually enough to make you wary.
At the top of the stairs I almost collided with a free Stray Fairy, attracted to me by the mask I still wore, then I quickly got up a ways to avoid a Real Bombchu that exploded below. Spikes formed a ring on the walls here, the room otherwise consisting simply of two platforms at different heights.
In one corner of the room was the first gold-bound large chest, containing the map of the dungeon.
"You know, I wonder who makes these," I mused. "There's one for every Dungeon, Temple and other important place I've been to, and they're never faded at all. They look as if they were made not too long ago."
"Maybe it's just magic? Or maybe there's a Goddess of Maps that's decided to help you by creating these?"
"A Goddess of Maps? Seriously?"
"Hey, don't ask me. I'm only here because you keep insisting you need me around."
With the map helpfully telling me this place stretched up quite a ways and that, should I be careless enough to fall, I could go right from the top all the way to the bottom, which would be inconvenient, I continued on.
The skull symbol for the boss was naturally right at the peak of this place. Though without the mask I couldn't hear its thoughts any more, I still kept a mental eye on its presence. It had stirred very slightly since I'd entered, but hadn't moved or reacted in any other way.
Back downstairs I took the door I'd gone past before, taking me to what was undoubtedly the centre of the Temple. Stone, wood, snow and ice were all prevalent, creating a kind of central structure with routes radiating from it on various levels with more doors and options than you can shake a stick at. And it's a big stick I'm talking about.
"Starting to think you might be on to something with your not wanting to skip ahead," Tael observed, staring upward, then at the map I held. "This room alone sorta suggests maybe you should temporarily forget how to skip things unless you think you need to."
"You mean do things a more mundane way," I corrected. "And there you were back in Clock Town telling me I should use my mind more."
"Yeah, whatever. I'm not trying to suggest you shouldn't use your psycho-whatever-it-is thing, I'm just agreeing with you when it comes to doing it the right way. If there is such a thing. But where're you gonna start?"
"There," I replied, picking a door at random. The one opposite where I'd come in pretty much. Given how many doors and stairs there were here, it was as good a choice as any other.
This room was separated into two levels, an upper one that I, in any form I cared to pick, could not reach without the benefit of my mind, and the lower one which seemed completely unremarkable. Part of the stone floor had been chipped away to reveal snow, and dusting that aside revealed a floor switch at one end of the room that, as they so often do, refused to stay switched. In an alcove near the door was a pair of stone blocks on top of each other that I used the Goron form to heave out and then shove on to them, causing a chest to appear on the upper level. It was tempting to go for it, but as Tael had mentioned, it made sense in a place this big to only do that if I had to.
Behind where I'd pulled the blocks from was a tiny area that had a small-gold bound chest. I figured out there that these chests were always small keys, where the more common iron-bound ones were for other stuff – up to and including Stray Fairies.
Consulting the map told me there was an alternative way back to the locked door I'd seen before, but it meant defrosting a door. Since I already knew Din's Fire to be ineffective I tried the only other thing I could – shooting a bolt through a helpfully placed torch. Which for some reason melted the ice in no time where the spell had barely had any effect at all. Magic works in strange ways.
This ice was actually the same ice that was on the other side of the door, in the room where the second Wolfos had caught up with me. It was a direct route that let me out only to find that yet another stupid Wolfos had found its way up. In a fit of irritation I waved one hand absently as I lashed out with my mind, sending it flying out of the Temple entrance in moments.
"You really don't like Wolfos, do you?" Tael asked.
"It's not Wolfos in particular," I told him. "More that I hate it when enemies come back after I've got rid of them. Even if that wasn't the same one I dealt with before."
"That's gonna irritate you a lot, you know," he said while I unlocked the door. "Every time you play the Song of Time-"
"Yeah, I know, I'm trying not to think about that. By what Odolwa told us, it means I'll even have to fight the bosses again, and I'm not particularly looking forward to that."
"Well, you shouldn't have to do it unless you actually need to, right?"
"Believe me, sometimes things don't work out sensible ways when you're hanging around a Hero."
This door took me through into a room very much like the one I'd got the key from, but on a larger scale, with a second big chest, and a couple more Wolfos hiding behind some of the chunks of ice in the room. I sent a brief flame from Din's fire to catch the two Wolfos so I wouldn't have to worry about them, then moved to check the chest. As I neared I sensed something sense me back and paused.
"What is it?" Tael asked.
"There's something in there – something that knows how to find minds like I do." I gnawed on my lip in thought for a moment, then touched on it again, taking care to protect myself.
The presence had a familiar feel to it, very similar to Goht but at the same time different. I took out Odolwa's remains and checked the lasting presence of the demon within it and found the same feel again.
"Demon," I murmured. "The boss is one, and whatever is in there is as well."
The unidentified demon reached back out to me again. Unlike it though, I held it off and prevented it from getting to anything unless I let it. It pushed against that for a time, trying to find a way in then I felt it's mind move. It sensed the mask of Odolwa and the presence within, causing Odolwa to mutter something in the same harsh language as the boss demon had been thinking in.
I didn't like this. Demons are bad news as it is, and the reaction of these two demons to each other did not bode well. Knowing that the boss was another demon, and that the remaining two Temples likely continued this trend really bothered me – particularly if they held the same ability as this unidentified one to sense minds.
Once I stowed Odolwa's mask back in the pouch, putting it beyond the reach of the demon in the chest, I warily opened the chest, flipping open the lid with the tip of my sword rather than doing it myself. Nothing happened.
Tael cautiously flew overhead, and I kept my hand on Nayru's Love in case I had to create a barrier to protect him from something that came out.
"There's another paper compass, Silver," he reported. "And what looks like the old remains of a sword. Looks like the handle and bit of the cross bit. Only a small bit of blade. Doesn't look too dangerous to me."
I didn't trust it though. I retrieved the compass and added it to the map, like the Woodfall Temple allowing me to see where I was and also where all the chests were on the map, then I looked at the sword piece.
The whole thing was black, a handle with a leather grip that was only noticeable because it was a different shade. It was clearly made for someone with a far bigger hand than mine, or perhaps was meant to be wielded two handed. Above the handle was a large ornate cross-guard, like three fingers reaching out and up toward where the blade should have been. All that was present of the blade was a small piece into which a red stone was set.
Knowing that it shared my ability to sense minds, I took out an old friend from Hyrule's future, the Silver Gauntlets. The silver in them had offered me a boost to my physical strength while inhibiting my mind as all silver did, something I explained to Tael.
While they didn't fit me in my own form or as a Hylian, they fit Mikau's hands much better. With them worn and still with caution I picked out the sword piece. It felt as if it was writhing under the touch of silver, giving rise to the theory that perhaps all demons held a weakness of some kind to the metal, or perhaps it was just the effect on its mind.
"I know you can hear me," I said to it. "And I know you can talk in some way, like Odolwa did to me." This time there was a low and faint hiss from the blade, a sound that seemed to arrive in my mind without going through the ears. "I know you're a demon too," I went on. "So you tell me who you are and what you're doing here."
"Let me go," the voice pleaded. "The touch of silver-"
"I know," I cut it off. "That's why I picked it. Answer me."
"I was left here. A piece of a whole blade. Parts of me were scattered. I was a demon in the form of my master's sword, but I cannot recall his name – not without being reunited with the rest of my shattered body."
"You didn't answer him," Tael said, hovering nearby. "Who are you?"
"I answer only to the Hero."
"The fairy is with me, and if you want any hope of me possibly helping you – though why I'd want to is beyond me – you'll answer him as you seem to suggest you would me. Who are you?"
"I am the demon lord Ghirahim," it answered.