Chapter 23, Fear the phantom.

Link descended the staircase, once he reached the bottom he saw that he was in a long hallway, as Link made his way down the hallway he began to feel a dark presence, the presence gave Link an uneasy feeling, it felt dark, cold, unnatural and otherworldly.

However despite this Link continued on his way, he wasn't going to let anything stop him from finding Saria.

Eventually Link reached the end of the hallway and found himself facing a spiral staircase leading back up, Link climbed up the spiral staircase, Link wasn't sure what he would find at the top but he could feel that the dark presence was becoming much stronger the further he climbed.

Link reached the top of the stairs and found himself in a large circular room, the walls was decorated with many different paintings and there was a large blue carpet in the centre of the floor that depicted the Triforce.

However what caught Link's eye was what or rather who was lying on the other side of the room, "Saria" screamed Link as he ran up to his oldest friend.

Saria was wearing a dark green cloak in addition to her normal outfit, she was clenching a homemade bow in her hand that looked to be carved from a tree branch, and some rough arrows in the other that was nothing more than some straight sticks with one end sharpened into a point and some bird feathers stuck to the other.

Saria wasn't moving and she was lying in a pool of old dried blood, Link carefully lifted Saria and he felt that she was ice cold to the touch, he saw that her skin was deathly grey, he saw that there was a large wound on her chest where she had been stabbed.

Saria was dead.

Tears began to fall from Link's eyes as he held his oldest friend in his arms, Navi flew from under Link's hat and tried to comfort him, "Link, I'm so sorry" she said although it did little to help.

Suddenly Link felt the dark presence that he had sensed, only now it was much closer, Link looked up from Saria's corpse and saw a very familiar man sitting atop a horse in front of him.

It was Ganondorf, he looked exactly as he had done seven years ago, and he was riding the same black horse, Navi was frozen with fear at the mere sight of Ganondorf, but Link was filled with pure rage.

"You, you killed her" said Link unable to keep his voice steady, Link carefully placed Saria on the ground and then he drew the Master sword determined to slay the man before him.

Ganondorf burst out in laughter, however there was something strange, he didn't have the same deep voice that Ganondorf had had seven years ago, instead his voice was high pitched, raspy and it had an echo to it.

Ganondorf reached up to his face and then much to the disgust for both Link and Navi began to peel the skin from his head as if it was a mask, soon the skin of Ganondorf's head was gone revealing a ghostly skull with large horns and burning yellow eyes.

"What's wrong, have you never seen a phantom before" said the creature, "That's not Ganondorf, its some kind of ghost" said Navi, indeed this wasn't the real Ganondorf, this was one of his creations, the evil spirit from beyond Phantom ganon.

Phantom ganon raised his right hand and a large spear appeared in it, then his horse galloped into the air as if it was running on solid ground.

Link gripped the Master sword and the Hylain shield tightly in his hands, he didn't care if this wasn't the real Ganondorf, he was going to destroy this monster and avenge Saria.

Phantom ganon swung his spear and a ball of dark energy was fired out heading directly for Link, Link rolled out of the way dodging the attack, Phantom ganon continued to fire balls of energy while Link continued to dodge.

Link was already having trouble in this battle, the phantom was high in the air and out of reach, Link had to think of a way to hit him, luckily Link quickly thought of an answer and he pulled his bow from his back.

After dodging another energy ball Link pulled back an arrow and fired, the arrow struck the horse in the side causing it to cry out in pain, Link fired another arrow and this one hit the phantom in the chest.

Phantom ganon growled in both anger and pain as he pulled the arrow out of his chest, than he and his horse disappeared into the wall and out of sight, Link with an arrow ready to fire looked around the room for any sign of the phantom, "Where is he" he thought.

Suddenly Phantom ganon burst out of the wall behind Link and aimed his spear right at Link's back, "Link watch out" warned Navi, Link moved a second too late and the spear struck him in the side.

Link fell to one knee as the phantom disappeared back into the wall, Link held onto his wounded side, he was bleeding badly, the spear had pierced his chainmail and gone rather deeply into his side.

Phantom ganon came out of the wall again and Link was only just able to dodge the attack by diving to the floor.

Link got back to his feet, he had to focus, he could still feel the dark presence of the phantom even if he couldn't see him, Link closed his eyes and focused on the dark presence.

Phantom ganon burst from the wall again, however Link was ready this time and he fired an arrow without even opening his eyes, Phantom ganon screamed in pain and Link opened his eyes to see his enemy.

Phantom ganon was on the ground, Link's arrow had struck him right in his right eye causing him to fall from his steed, as for the horse it had continued to run and had disappeared into the wall leaving its rider behind.

Link didn't waste any time, he drew his sword and shield and attacked the phantom with everything he had, Phantom ganon was having great difficulty keeping up with Link, every swing that Link took was filled with anger for his fallen friend.

A wild swing of the Master sword sliced off the phantom's left horn, then another swing cut a deep gash into the phantom's right leg, Phantom ganon knew that he would be killed if he didn't do something soon.

Suddenly Phantom ganon dived at Link with what little strength he had left, the attack caught Link off guard and knocked the young Hylain to the ground with the phantom on top of him.

Phantom ganon reached for the Master sword intending to kill Link with his own weapon, however as soon as he picked up the sword he screamed in agony as his hand was burnt as if he was touching fire.

Phantom ganon throw the Master sword as far away as he could, then he tried to bring his spear down on Link's head only for Link to block with his shield.

Phantom ganon attacked again with his spear and Link once again blocked with his shield, Link was unable to get up with the phantom on top of him, and he knew that he couldn't block for ever.

Phantom ganon was confident that there was nothing that Link could do to him without the Master sword but he was wrong.

While blocking another attack Link reached down to his boot and pulled out the Kokiri sword that was kept there, as soon as the phantom brought his spear down again Link brought the Kokiri sword up and straight into the phantom's skull.

For a second everything was still, than the spear fell from the phantom's hands and he fell to the side and off of Link, "I'm sorry master, I've failed you" said the phantom as it dissolved into smoke leaving nothing behind but his spear.

Link quickly got to his feet holding the Kokiri sword like a dagger, however there was little point, the phantom was gone.

Seeing that the battle was over Link returned the Kokiri sword to his boot and then retrieved the Master sword, "Great work Link you did it" congratulated Navi, however Link didn't answer, he may have defeated the phantom but he had failed to save Saria.

Link walked back to Saria's body, "I'm sorry, I should have been here sooner" he said as he knelt down.

Suddenly there was a bright light that engulfed the entire room, then Link, Navi and Saria's body disappeared.