Part 37: God of Darkness
Zak screamed long enough to make his throat hoarse.
"Well?" The shadow loomed over him. "Will you finally join with me fully?"
"No…" Zak said weakly, already feeling the effects of blood loss.
"You will die soon if you are not healed by me." The shadow said.
"I will not be the only one who dies…" Zak rasps. "If I die, so do you. For as you said many times before… we are connected. Just as I cannot get rid of you, you cannot get away from me."
"What?" The shadow hissed. "You would kill yourself to kill me?"
Zak coughed, tasting blood. Zak looked into the shadows white cloudy eyes. There was no uncertainty in Zak's eyes as he spoke.
"Yes. If that is what it takes. But if you do not want to die, you will have to heal me. That is your only option." Zak told the shadow.
"You must do as I say if I heal you." the shadow said realizing that he was losing ground. Zak did not care if he lived or died. The shadow still wanted to retain control over Zak, what he considered a pathetic excuse for a human, so incapable of following through with his plans.
After so many years, the shadow being thought he had a good enough grip into Zak's mind that Zak would not be able to say no, but apparently something about his encounters with Zelda and Link changed things. The shadow was aggravated. All he needed was three more days. Three more days and he would be rid of the useless whelp. For the full moon would grant him his wish, to have a body of his own. And once that happened, he would not need Zak to sustain his shadow self and he would be invincible.
No longer would he be contained and confined to his minimal powers that Zak let him use. He would be able to use all his powers to cover the world in darkness and become ruler, a ruler greater than even Ganon, and unlike Ganon, impossible to defeat. The shadow knows that if Zak is left unhealed, he will not last the three days, but if Zak finds a way to get rid of him in those three days, all his plans will unravel. Luckily for him though, Link was dead already. That would leave a broken princess, so no one else would oppose him. Only his host…
"No. You will heal me and then I will go find my brother." Zak told the shadow.
"Your brother is dead you fool." The shadow cackled.
"No he is not. I know he still lives." Zak replied calmly.
"What do you mean? How do you know?" The shadow demanded, his form crackling with fury.
"Because I can feel it right here." Zak says as he puts his right hand over his heart. "I know he still lives and that he is trying to find me."
The shadow scoffs at Zak, the boy is being foolish.
"Well if he is trying to find you, he will try and kill you. You will need my help then… and I will only help you if you give me power to use whatever means necessary."
"That will not happen…" Zak says as he slowly gets to his feet, using his right hand to block the wound on his left arm.
"Why not? After all, you just poisoned Link, why would the Hero not come after vengeance if he is actually still alive?" The shadow questioned.
"Zelda." Zak said simply as he hobbled over to place where he kept his medical supplies. "She did not believe that I was evil, even if Link thinks so, Zelda will not. Link holds Zelda's opinions in high regard, so he might consider the possibility of that I can be saved, even if he believes it to be otherwise."
While Zak wrapped the gash on his left arm tightly, the shadow form clenched his fists as he bore his eyes into Zak.
"And what then? What will happen once they come? They will talk to you, and I will kill them." The shadow asked, not sure what the pathetic human hopes to accomplish with this meeting.
"No…" Zak said calmly. "You will not kill them… They will kill you."
The shadow chuckles.
"And how will they do that? They will end up killing you as well." He questioned the foolish boy.
"If that is what it takes for this world to be rid of you, than I am willing to do that." Zak said confidently.
"Oh, so the little 'Shadow' has finally decided to stand up to me? It is far too late to do that…" the shadow cackled as he grabbed Zak's right arm.
"What are you?" Zak started to ask when the shadow ripped his shoulder out of its socket. Zak screamed.
"See?" the shadow mocked. "I have control over you, even if your mind resists, I can still take control of you."
The shadow stood back to admire his handiwork, his eyes changed from being white to being completely black, with a white outline. In his eyes, you could see the almost child-like delight he was having at seeing Zak kneeling before him.
"This is how the world should be. Everyone at my feet, graced with my presence. Not resisting… only thinking of thoughts of how to best please me. Soon my foolish little boy, it will not matter if the brat is still alive. I will not need you to keep my own form and I will not be tied to your measly little existence. Once I am free, my powers shall bring darkness to the world, making all succumb to my divine presence."
Zak was trying to get a grasp of what the shadow was saying. After all, how could the shadow get free after so many years of being tied to him? And what divine presence, after all, the shadow was just a shadow.
"Divine presence?" Zak said mockingly. "You are not a God."
"Oh but I am… I am the God of Darkness. I am the one who brings night. I am the reason every person has a shadow. For the Triforce has an inverted shadow triangle in it. For the goddesses brought light to the world, I brought shadow, death, and destruction."
"I whispered to Din, the goddess of power, telling her not to trust the other two, to give her power to someone in the world they had created. For that would make her influence on the land greater."
"Nayru, the goddess of wisdom, was easily tricked to use her 'wisdom' to give a mortal her power as well. To counterbalance Din, of course, the shadow in her mind said. Little did she know that was me."
"Farore followed suit, there was a need for a mortal to fight against Din's chosen one. Farore's shadow said that only she could pick the mortal with the most courage to bestow her power upon."
"It was too easy to divide the Triforce into pieces. Power given to Ganon, Wisdom, given to Zelda, and Courage given to Link. All mere pawns. I spoke to Din, convinced her that Ganon needed something to give him an edge, give him even more power. Her chosen one would be given some of my power, to slowly poison people as the man deemed fit. She agreed, wanting her pet to win."
"For my little shadow voice was able to awaken fears in the goddesses, that they would lose control. So they listened to me. It was so easy and simple. Even goddesses can be manipulated by fears."
"That is how I was able to bring my existence fully to this world. I could not speak directly to Ganon though, Din made sure of that. She only wanted the man to only hear her voice. So I had to wait… I waited patiently for him to use shadow magic on one of his own kind. The Gerudo have a natural connection to me, they use stealth and shadows to be the great thieves they are. I watched as he got close to the courage boy, I hoped that I would not be thrown to him, for Farore would definitely never let me talk to her Hero. She would not want the poor boy to lose his courage. But you… I sensed shadow thoughts within you… dark… gloomy… resenting thoughts… I knew I could slip into your mind easily. Your mind was the perfect conduit for my power, young enough to be trusting and also exceptionally moldable. I could influence your thoughts with minimal effort, but I had one problem."
"My power was fighting your soul when it was at weak strength. It was a night with a full moon. Full moons weaken my powers, while new moons enhance it. I could not fully takeover you, so I had to be sneaky. Slowly sinking further into your mind until I had enough of a hold and enough power to make you do what I wanted."
"Why now though? You have been slinking in my thoughts for years." Zak asked.
"The alignment is just right. There will be a solar eclipse. The sun will be blotted out by the moon, creating a shadow across the land. It is a very rare occurrence, once every one hundred years. But with the upcoming event, my powers are getting stronger… I am able to have more substance. In three days I will be invincible. The solar eclipse paired with the new moon will grant me my own body. All I have to do is keep you from dying for that long. If any of the pesky pawns come, I will just have to make you kill them. But for now, you need to be put on a leash…"
The shadow pulled Zak over to the chains where Zelda was trapped and put the shackles around his wrists.
"That should do well enough. Now all I have to do is wait…"