Chapter 37: A favor returned
Link led the group towards the entrance to the Stone Tower area, having played the Sun's Song to freeze the resident ReDeads and Gibdos along the way, although the hero was shivering as he went up the path.
"Bad memories, huh?" Zelda asked, seeing it.
"Pretty much. When it combines with the feeling of feeling weird underneath your feet or just feeling lighter, you know you are in a high place." Link said.
"True that."
"Just a warning ahead, when we scale the tower, don't look down." He said, taking out a map of the Stone Tower he had conveniently taken with him.
As the group entered the area, they could already see the massive height of the tower itself.
"By the Goddesses, this tower is HUGE!" Saria said, blinking at the height of the tower
"We never had a chance to get a good look at it before, even though we were close by when we landed inside that spider/Skulltula-infested cavern before, but I agree…" Nabooru said.
"Just what on Hyrule did the people who made this tower plan to do?! Try to reach the heavens where the Goddesses reside?!" Zelda asked.
"I actually haven't put much thought into that; I guess I was too occupied in saving Termina…" Link said, blinking.
Rauru and Darunia already noticed boulders rolling around, as well as several Beamos around.
"Wait, didn't Termina have any deities of their own?" Saria asked.
"Those are the Four Giants, or at last I think that they must be for Termina, considering that they did help in stopping the moon from falling on Clock Town. I honestly haven't known much about Termina itself, other than that these Giants obviously have a level of importance to it." Link said.
"This would make the situation rather complicated for us… if Ganondorf and Majora have occupied this place, then it could very well be their intention to insult the three Golden Goddesses themselves," Rauru said, putting two and two together, "coupled with the fact that Ganondorf actually has the Triforce of Power…"
"So we are also dealing with a couple of blasphemers too, if those theories are true…" Link said, getting upset.
"Indeed." Rauru said.
"Well, we have no time to waste, we'll show them!" Zelda said, taking the initiative this time and hopping onto the floating platforms, with Link right next to her, reaching the other side safely with the others.
"Alright, now we're going to have to deal with a complicated puzzle. For this, I need the remaining Sages to stay here near the switch, but be careful of the boulders around. Zelda, I need you to come with me to a higher level, Saria, I need you to stay alert for when I call you." Link said.
"Sure thing." Saria and Zelda said, nodding while the other Sages were confused.
"What's going on?" Rauru asked.
"These floating blocks can be moved into position by means of the switches on the floor, obviously a mechanic invented by whoever made this tower in the first place. I will need the assistance of Saria and Zelda with this, as I have given them the means to help in solving the puzzles up ahead." Link said, before he took Zelda and used his Hookshot to take him with her to the ledge above. Link however came in full sight of a Beamos as he led Zelda to the switch, but the Princess intercepted it and destroyed it with a bomb before it could strike Link, who blinked at this.
"Whoa, thanks." He said.
"Don't mention it. At least we're somewhat even for now." Zelda said with a smile.
Link smiled back.
"So, what do you want me to do?" She then asked.
"I want you to stand on that floor switch over there, while I go to an even higher ledge up there to hit another one." Link said.
Nodding, Zelda went to stand on the switch, keeping a close watch on the Boulders rolling around, while Link went to the higher ledge to stand on the switch there, the two blocks that were connected to it moving into place on a higher level from the bottom.
"Saria, can you hear me?" Link then shouted down.
"Loud and clear, Link." He heard her voice several meters below on the lower ledge.
"Stand on the floor switch on where you are and play the 'Elegy of Emptiness'. The statue you'll make will keep the switch in place." Link said.
"Gotcha." Saria said, doing as requested, causing the third and final floating block to move into place.
"Zelda, play the Elegy of Emptiness to keep the switch down with your statue." Link said.
"Understood." Zelda said, nodding as she took the Ocarina of Time.
Link grabbed his own Ocarina to play the Elegy of Emptiness himself, creating his own statue that held the switch in place. The other Sages, except Impa, blinked at the Statues that were created of Saria, Zelda and Link as the song was played and the group proceeded onward to the second floor, crossing the floating platforms there in turn. The same procedure was repeated with the second switch puzzle, with the group avoiding the boulders as best as they could while crossing the area. They also spotted a platform that had several ReDeads on it as well as several jars, but with the way it was out of their reach unless they used their Hookshot on the post, they decided to ignore it. It would save them a lot of trouble anyway. Eventually the group arrived on the platform that held a broken Owl Statue, with at the far side the entrance to the Stone Tower Temple, the entrance looking like a mouth with a stone face around it. with two Fire barriers burning in the black patches that appeared to be eyes.
"So this is the Stone Tower Temple itself?" Zelda asked.
"The entrance to it at least…" Link said, shuddering as he, Saria and Zelda solved the final block puzzle to create a bridge that would let them reach the entrance of the Temple itself.
Link himself felt another shiver going down his spine as he hopped over the platforms, while the others followed one by one, with Impa being the last to follow as she was quite mesmerized by the statues that Zelda made, wondering how her own statue would look like considering she overheard Link teaching the song to Saria and Zelda in the first place.
"Now I understand how you felt when scaling this frigging tower the first time." Zelda said after the group safely reached the other side, with Saria nodding in agreement.
"The only thing I'm happy about is that the tower is right side up." Link said, bracing himself for what was to come.
Upon entering the Temple, the group could see some parts being upside down, in remembrance of what Link had told them before about his adventures in the Temple before. They could also notice several enemies around, including a Real Bombchu on the small, separated pathway ahead, two mutated Dragonflies who were flying around, several Mad Scrubs which were located around the area, but remained in place, four Corrupt Assault Spear Soldiers with their trident-like spears wearing red-colored armor with horned helmets patrolling around to and fro, four Ball and Chain Soldiers with gold-colored armor, whom were apparently guarding the doors to the left and right and finally two Stalfos who were guarding the door directly ahead.
"Well, crud." Link said.
"They definitely increased security out here…" Zelda said.
"Good thing we have some new weapons to deal with them." Saria said.
"Right. We'd better take out those Dragonflies to make sure they don't become a bother; those tails are electrically charged so you'll get zapped the moment you'll be hit by them." Link said, using his bow and arrow to attack one of the Dragonflies, missing two shots due to the erratic pattern, but scoring a hit on his third attempt, defeating the Dragonfly.
Saria and Zelda double-teamed the other Dragonfly, defeating it. However, two of the Assault Spear Soldiers clocked the group and began to throw their spears at them. The group narrowly avoided the incoming spears, with Zelda using an Ice Arrow to strike one of them, freezing him solid, while Link fired a Fire Arrow at the other, setting him ablaze. This gave the group some reprieve as it allowed them to properly recover and get prepared for another fight. The Real Bombchu was running around in a frenzy, its Bomb on the tail lit, but forming no real danger yet. Zelda took out the Spear Soldier she froze with an Ice Arrow, while Impa, Ruto and Nabooru took out the Spear Soldier that Link set on fire, although the other two Spear Soldiers came to the aid of their comrades. Link managed to reflect one Deku Nut projectile back at the Mad Scrub who fired it, before shooting an arrow at it to take it out, only for Link to be pushed out of the way to the ground by Saria, saving him from an incoming spear which grazed her side, causing Saria to hiss in pain as it left a cut there. Grabbing the spear, Link tossed it back at the Assault Spear Soldier, intercepting another spear in the process before Link fired an Ice Arrow of his own at it, freezing him. But no sooner had Saria helped Link up, when suddenly both of them were clocked in their backs by the spiked ball from one of the Ball and Chain Troopers, sending them back to a wall near the entrance, leaving a slight imprint on it there. Seeing this, Princess Ruto went in Shield position to activate her Electric Barrier, zapping the Assault Spear Soldier and the Mad Scrubs she was attacking in the process, before moving over to where Link and Saria were, intercepting the Ball and Chain Trooper with her Magic Boomerang to stun it, before she unleashed her Ether Medallion to freeze all other enemies around instantly, giving the group some time to recover while she tended to Link and Saria. The freezing proved to be a godsend, since it allowed Darunia to clobber one of the Assault Spear Soldiers onto the real Bombchu, defeating them both, thus killing two birds with one stone. Rauru, Impa and Nabooru took out the remaining Assault Spear Soldier and two Mad Scrubs, leaving just the Stalfos, three more Mad Scrubs and the Ball and Chain Troopers.
Despite their injuries, Link and Saria got up with Ruto's help and, with the assistance of her and Zelda whom had taken out one Mad Scrub by herself, began to take out the Ball and Chain Trooper that attacked Link and Saria both, with Link going so far as taking out the Ball and Chain itself out of its hands, while Saria, Ruto and Zelda defeated it. At the same time, Nabooru, Impa, Rauru and Darunia engaged the two other Ball and Chain Troopers, dealing with them with more ease since Darunia just clobbered one of them with his Goron Punches, while Rauru, Impa and Nabooru teamed up on the other one. Link, Saria, Zelda and Ruto then attacked the final Ball and Chain Trooper that was present, with Saria yanking the Ball and Chain out of its hands, while Link, Zelda and Ruto defeated it in turn. This also gave Link and Saria a brand new weapon; the Ball and Chain they looted from the Troopers, taking it with them, while Zelda and Ruto took out the remaining Mad Scrubs, which only left the Stalfos, which were fortunately confined to the small path ahead.
"Are you alright?" Link then asked Saria.
"I'm fine, it's not as bad as it looks." Saria said, right before Link gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, making Saria blink and look at Link.
"Thanks for saving me from that spear that had my name on it." Link then said with a smile, which made Saria smile as she absent-mindedly rubbed the cheek that Link just kissed.
"It's… it's no problem at all…" Saria said, blushing even before regaining her composure and waited for the others as they returned, but not before giving Link a quick hug and a soft kiss on his cheek in return.
Nabooru gasped at seeing a few red patches on the backs of Link and Saria.
"What happened?!" She asked.
"It's not as bad as it looks, Nabooru; one of the Ball and Chain Troopers nailed the both of us in our backs." Saria said, with Link carefully stretching a bit.
"And what's that on your side?" Impa asked.
"A spear just grazed me there." Saria said, smiling as the group gathered again, moving towards the left door which apparently was the only one directly available at the time, considering that the other ones were blocked with iron bars…
Upon entering the next room, the group noticed some more Real Bombchus around, coupled with two Dodongos.
"Oh, man… we must have really entered the big boss' lair in here…" Nabooru said, while Link made one Dodongo eat a Bomb, blasting it from the inside in the process and defeating it, its detonation taking out two of the Real Bombchus out with it.
"In Termina, yes… but there's still the one in Hyrule we need to deal with…" Impa said.
"Point taken."
Zelda used a bomb of her own to kill the second Dodongo, with Saria and Ruto taking out the remaining Real Bombchus, using Link's advice to keep the shield ready to defend against them if necessary. Surprisingly, there was no switch puzzle in here this time around, something which surprised Link as he expected to continue the routine of playing the Elegy of Emptiness again to progress. As he moved on, he saw that the gate that was normally blocking the path wasn't present at all, as if it had been removed or something. This was something that unsettled him, but he remained focused as the group moved on to the next room.
Upon arriving in the open area, they already spotted the open hole in the ground that was left open, while up ahead in the room were just two Eyegores. Seeing one of them approaching them, Link took out his Bow and lined up an arrow, but he stood in position, waiting. While the Sages looked on in wonder, Link suddenly felt a rush going through his body, which began to focus on the arrow he was holding. When the Eyegore's eye colored yellow again as he was now close enough, Link let the arrow fly, which struck the Eyegore with a force that instantly killed it, causing the Sages, as well as Link himself, to blink!
"What the-?! How did you do that?!" Zelda asked.
"I… I don't know! I just waited for him to come closer, although I did feel a rush going through me…" Link replied.
"Wait, didn't that Ancient Fire Sage give us this 'burst' thing he told us about?!" Darunia then said.
"I remember now! I think what I did must have been what he gave us, which allowed us to inflict more damage than normal, although the cons of it makes it kinda useless for arrows. With swords on the other hand…" Link said.
"I think we may have the right chance to beat this Temple after all. It's a shame we ran out of Light Arrows back during our fight against the Army of Darkness when the invasion of Hyrule began…" Zelda said.
"That's right." Link said, while Saria took out the second Eyegore.
"Should we drop down the hole?" Ruto asked.
"No; there's a staircase at the other side that leads to the same room below that leads to a single room; there's another door at the far side of the room here though... It's only a shame I don't have the Mirror Shield with me now…" Link said.
"We'll find our way around, don't worry. And we'll see what every room contains so we are sure we haven't forgotten anything." Saria said, patting his shoulder, before moving on with him and the others to the stairs, going down.
Upon arriving in the room, there was a pool with lava ahead, but seeing the two Armos Statues inside the lava made it appear as if the pool was very undeep, which was further proven by Darunia as the lava didn't reach up to halfway his toes, with Darunia himself being unaffected by the lava, due to the Goron's natural resistance to it. Darunia took out the two Armos Statues, just as a few Nejirons appeared, which Darunia also took out.
"Makes me wish I was lava resistant." Ruto said.
"Well, the Goron Tunics makes us somewhat lava resistant, mostly to ponds like that. Against the more lethal lava we have seen in that Sanctuary as well as what is in Death Mountain Crater, all the Tunics would do is make us resistant to the heat; if we would fall in the lava there, we'd be lava soup." Link said, with Ruto nodding in understanding.
"I got us a new map here." Darunia said, having located a chest with the map of the Stone Tower Temple, moving back to the group so they all could look at the Temple's overview.
"So, where do we go now?" Nabooru asked.
"We need to go back up the stairs and head for a door that is on our left once we enter that open room again." Link said.
"Right, let's go and see what else is hidden for us." Zelda said as the group went on towards the staircase and back in the open room, moving to the door on the left as Link said.
Entering the room, Link noticed that there were ladders present on either side of the area which was once filled with water, the water level itself having been reduced to about chest height for a child. To their left was a pathway going to the right with a dead end that had a Beamos standing by, ready to attack anyone within its range. On the far side of the room was yet another Ball and Chain Trooper, flanked by two Bomb Soldiers and two Bow Soldiers, while on their direct right was a single Stalfos, who was ready to attack. In the water area itself were several Shaboms and Stingers, coupled with a few Octoroks. Darunia engaged the Stalfos by himself, while Link, Saria and Zelda used the projectiles fired by the nearest Octoroks at them to their advantage, using their shields to deflect them to the other side, taking out the patrolling Bow Soldiers after a moment as well as one of the Bomb Soldiers. Ruto on the other hand used Deku Nuts to defeat the Shaboms and stun the Octoroks that were too close, allowing the group to take them out safely, while Nabooru used her Sword Spark to take out the second Bomb Soldier. Impa used one of the Bombs to take out the Beamos for good measure, while Rauru was standing by to assist Darunia to stun the Stalfos for him. Shortly after that, Link, Zelda and Saria worked together to take out the Ball and Chain Trooper, making him drop his own Ball and Chain which rolled into the water, ready for Zelda to collect this time, before he was taken out with a charged Arrow shot. After that, the group jumped down into the water, with Darunia using the Goron Pound to shake up the Stingers and defeating the Octoroks, with the others striking at the Stingers with Arrows, Deku Seeds, the Boomerang Fins and the Boomerang itself and even the Hookshots to defeat them all.
"Whew, that was quite a fight." Saria said as Zelda indeed collected the Ball and Chain that was lying on the bottom of the water pool they were in.
"Yeah, but there's a lot more coming up soon…" Link said, waiting until Zelda joined the group again while carrying her new weapon with her.
Moving on, the group made their way into a corridor where there was previously a Dexihand present, using a ladder to reach it.
"This place really has become different; perhaps the adaptations were made to house the proper materials for making this into a stronghold?" Link said, scratching his head.
"That's likely." Zelda said as she and Saria were walking at Link's sides, with Ruto behind him and behind her were the adults of the group. Upon arriving in the next room, they saw that there too the water level had been lowered, but it would still make Darunia fall to the bottom, unable to escape. Fortunately, Saria helped out by generating vines to attach themselves to the wall, making them strong and tough enough to be climbed on towards a pathway that Link mentioned to them as the group observed the area. Upon arriving there, they saw the sun shining on the center of the path with a mirror at the far side of the room.
"That mirror looks weird…" Zelda said as she went to check it out.
"It is; it is capable of absorbing light from the sun when it's pointed directly at it, before it releases the light of its own to solve specific puzzles with. Fortunately these have been solved already…" Link said, smiling as he and the others joined her, with Nabooru checking out a nearby chest.
"Great, a compass! Now we should be able to see where we are on the map." She said, which brought quite a relief to Ruto.
Studying the map, they saw that the door ahead would bring them back to the entrance, so they went the other way instead. After going through the door and entering the room, they noticed that there were several Sun faces around, with one of them being already active in a happy smile.
"Check that out, more of those mirrors… and what are those black things around here?" Saria said.
"Black Boes. Easy to defeat, but quite an annoyance in numbers, especially when they jump at you." Link said as the group moved on, killing the Black Boes where necessary. Just as they were about to reach the next room, a couple of Nejirons suddenly appeared, ready to roll into the group. However, the group responded quicker and let loose some arrows or their Hookshots to blow the Nejirons to pieces, allowing the group to proceed. Upon arriving in the next room, the others gulped as there was again some lava around.
"Don't worry, there should be a shortcut in the form of a ladder that allows us to bypass the lava." Link said as he went to a ladder to climb down, after which he waited for the others while taking down a few Fire Keeses along the way. Darunia on the other hand just jumped down and waded through the lava as it was nothing to him, deciding to make use of it and help Link in guiding the others safely around the lava.
"At least my feet are getting nicely warmed up…" Darunia said.
"Heh, lucky you." Nabooru said, giggling.
Moving onward, the group made their way to the other side, where they smiled as the ladder Link mentioned was indeed present, allowing the group, including Darunia, to climb up towards another doorway, with Zelda taking out another Fire Keese before she climbed up the ladder. A Real Bombchu spotted them as well, but since it was once again on a place where it couldn't reach the group, the Real Bombchu just kept on running until its bomb detonated, killing it while the group ignored it.
"Hm, so far only the Fire Keese and that suicidal Bombchu…" Impa said, narrowing her eyes as the group rested up a bit again, trying to calm themselves down despite the atmosphere of death around them.
"Yes, apparently this room and the few we've been in before were apparently of little importance." Link said, taking a sip of some Red Potion he had taken with him, before giving some to Saria, who also eagerly took a sip of it.
"Whew, so far we made through it alive…" Rauru said.
"So far, so good indeed. But now is not the time for overconfidence." Impa said.
"Indeed. If this is supposed to be a stronghold, I believe that what we have been through so far is only a tip of the iceberg." Link said, while Zelda took a sip of the Red Potion.
"Right. We should keep our guard up at all times." Zelda said after handing the bottle over to Ruto.
After a few minutes, the group got ready to enter the next room. Upon entering the next room however, the door closed behind them with iron bars, trapping them in the room. As the group looked around, they could hear a dark chuckle from within the room itself, instantly making them draw their weapons, before looking straight ahead…