Back outside in the graveyard I found a familiar sight waiting for us – Dark was leaning against a headstone, evidently having followed us and decided to wait outside rather than continue into the crypt afterwards.
"You're early," he said. "I was expecting you to take longer to get the Element."
"Some of them are just easier to get to than others," I replied. "What are you up to this time?"
"Just something that's been coming ever since you got here," Dark shrugged. "Seeing if I can beat a Hero. It's what I'm here for. Never did beat him," he said, with unusual emphasis on 'him'. "But you – and all who come after you – I can at least try."
"Dude, you're facing three of us, and you still wanna try us?" Blue asked. "You gotta be kidding me."
"You're not Manic," Dark told him. "Neither of you are. Manic's the only one I gotta fight."
"Y'know, you keep saying you're me, that you're stuck with being me and all that," I said, smiling. "So you gotta know I'm not gonna play fair. And these two, and Red too, are also me. So they're not gonna play fair either. Even if I said only I was gonna get involved, they'd ignore me."
Dark didn't look as if he'd thought of that, starting to look concerned. Rather than back down now though, he drew his sword and took up a battle stance, not bothering with a shield – much like I did.
For my part I glanced to Blue, who took my meaning and drew his own sword, putting himself between us and Dark. He held his sword with seeming negligence, appearing to hold it only lightly. Dark struck out and Blue's blade shot up to meet the blow, shoving it back, then was back held behind him again.
While he held Dark's attention I leaned over to Purple and murmured, "Sneak off. Get around behind him and steal his sword."
"And anything else of interest?" Purple murmured with a grin.
"Afterwards – the sword first."
"You're taking the fun out of this, Manic," he protested, but was already scanning the graveyard to plan out his route. As soon as he was off I moved up to supplement Blue, taking a more offensive approach that forced Dark to focus on me, allowing Blue to make a number of strikes.
"This isn't fair!" Dark complained as he grudgingly gave up ground. "This is three on one!"
"What'd ya expect of me?" I answered, making a strike for his head that narrowly avoided slicing his cap off. "I warned you!"
"Y'know Manic maybe we should go a little easier on him," Blue suggested with a sly look. "Gotta give him a chance to run, right?"
Dark regarded this with suspicion, just as I would have, and did. Blue had evidently seen something I hadn't yet though, so I concealed it and the two of us fell back a ways. Dark did not follow, looking from him to me warily, then paused.
"Hey, wait a minute," he said, frowning. "Where'd the other guy go?"
Purple emerged from behind a headstone, approaching on silent feet. In one hand he held a short stick, about the same width as the sword's handle. As he saw us, he held up one finger – not that it was really necessary.
"Like Blue said," I told him. "It wouldn't be right not to give you at least a little chance. Why else would there be only two of us?"
Purple continued to sneak up behind him, leaning in close then just said, "Boo."
Dark jumped back, turning quickly. Purple was quicker, keeping behind him, making use of the distraction to nudge Dark's sword out with the stick, leaving him holding that instead. Once he had hold, he fell back to join us and tossed me Dark's sword, leaving me bearing two. I quickly hid the other behind me.
"Hey, what're you looking for dude?" Blue asked him, now grinning broadly. "Ain't nothing there but an empty graveyard."
Dark turned back, spotting the three of us together now looking thoroughly spooked. Purple, though he had not drawn his sword, stood just ahead of us. Dark spotted the opportunity he thought he had and tried to strike, stopping when he realised that not only had Purple not moved at all, but was also still there completely unharmed.
He stared for a few moments, not quite comprehending, then at a meaningful glance from Purple, looked to his hand and drew up the stick.
"Looking for something?" I asked innocently, revealing his sword. Even up close it was clear it was just a dark copy of mine, without any Elements in.
"You- how did you-" he started, then it finally dawned on him. "That's where you went," he groaned. "I was stupid enough to fall for Blue distracting me, and you used that. You're a slippery bunch, you know that?"
"Took him long enough to realize," Purple laughed. "Want to play some more, or d'ya give in?"
"I give," he sighed. "Even if I were facing just one of you I don't think I could keep up. Three of you is just too much. Just... lemme have my sword back, Manic."
"No tricks," I warned him, extending it for him to take. Blue stayed nearby just in case, but Dark had evidently learned his lesson, sheathing it and stalking off without another word to us, muttering animatedly to himself.
"Well that was fun," Blue remarked, sheathing his own blade. "If we're done here, we oughta split. If Vaati thinks we got the last Element, we might wanna step right along."
"Hey! Telling him what to do is my job!" Purple objected.
"Children, please!" Ezlo said over them. "If you don't behave yourselves I'll get Manic to put you back in his sword!"
"Oh yeah? What makes you think I'd listen to you?" I teased him.
Ezlo threw his beak skyward and burst out, "Why me?" quickly followed by, "Don't answer that Link."
"Me? Would I do a thing like that?" his voice asked innocently.
Purple laughed, "We're a bad influence on the old God. He's even starting to sound like us."
"Just what we need," Ezlo muttered.
The broad stone King Gustaf had spoken of was not hard to find, though I had to access Veil Falls through North Hyrule Field, a passage just outside the castle itself. The stone was reached by a bridge that led up beside the massive waterfall that was the source of all Hyrule's water. Normally used by tourists who came to see it, now deserted due to monster activity that didn't long survive our arrival.
Just as the King had told us, Purple returned the necklace to me and turned back into Red, while I offered it up to the stone door. A gemstone in the necklace flashed brightly, followed by the Triforce design on the door, and then finally the two sides of the stone split apart, showering the bridge and water below with stones and rubble. A slow stream of dusty, stale air emerged, though it lacked certain scents that had been in the royal family's tomb. It was clearly visible even from outside that there were no lights inside, and the light coming in from out here tapered off quickly.
"Oh, joy," Red muttered. "Just what I wanted to come back to."
"Hey, if you don't like it, take that back," Blue told him. "He was better company anyway."
Red glared at him – he and Blue often do clash like that – then said, "Just for that, I think I will stay."
"Try not to bump into Manic then," Blue said. "He might mistake you for a monster in the bad light."
I sighed, "Will you two pack it in? I'm not going to use the Fire Rod this time because once we're in there and our eyes are used to the darkness we'll be able to see fine. And if you don't want to deal with that, you can have the necklace back," I told Red. This time, probably because it came from me instead of Blue, he took me up on that.
Despite the light coming in from the newly opened entryway, the three of us paused just at the edge of the light and did not look toward it, listening rather than looking for any threats while our eyes adjusted to let us make out enough to work with. It wasn't perfect, but since the place had not seen visitors for a long time, I didn't feel the need to light it up.
Once we could see well enough we saw this was just a small, square and empty room, the only way to go a small set of ancient stairs upward. This room too was empty, but had a slight breeze coming from two walls. Bombs set at each revealed a way outside south, and another room north. While we still had our low-light vision we went north first, up more stairs and into a larger room where we shoved aside a large rock, only to find another way out that led to a chest of rupees – again.
As that way was a dead-end we backtracked to the other exit, back out into the light where the only way was up a rough wall, rough enough to be climbed. At the top it levelled out to form a small plateau, but otherwise it was back inside in the only opening available.
That lead to another small cave system, this time suspiciously lit up by candles that were similarly suspiciously fresh. Most Heroes might have got into the habit of shrugging that off, but not me. Link isn't subtle enough to escape my notice.
This little system led to several areas, a rapidly flowing stream at the top of one of the waterfalls, two more chests of rupees, and finally back outside to another climbable wall. The view wasn't quite as spectacular as the one I'd had from the peak of Mount Crenel, but it came close. At the very peak, the highest point I could reach, there was only one thing and one thing only – a giant air vortex, whirling around like a miniature tornado.
"You two will have to go back," Ezlo told Purple and Blue. "I can only carry him, and if he needs you he can always bring you back out."
"Hey, wait a moment," Purple said. "You don't even know what'll happen, or where that'll take you! You're just going to jump in and find out?"
"Why not?" I asked impudently. "The only way is up, after all," I pointed out, looking up to the heavy cloud cover above. "And it makes sense for the Wind Tribe to have taken to the skies."