Characters: Link, Chosen Undead, and Zelda

Settings: Hyrule Castle

Link didn't like talking. Words were weapons, and could cause damage without even meaning to, burdening those around with struggles not of their capacity to bear. And, like weapons, they were only meant to be used when necessary.

However, people like Zelda, people like Mario, who were close friends of his, managed to gain his words freely. In all honesty...conversation wasn't terrible. Especially not the one he'd just had.

It had been ages since he'd seen Mario, their last meeting being after Galeem had been killed. And now...well it seemed Mario was caught up in another struggle...one he and his kingdom would have to face eventually.

The choice to stay in Hyrule was not one he took lightly and he had multiple things to factor in. For one, he had no opposition to traveling the galaxy and defending other realms from this new threat. However, that would leave Hyrule without his defense. Leaving for Galeem was not the same as leaving to fight these portals.

Galeem was a fixed enemy, who's forces were not scattered. That allowed him to go and fight Galeem, before he could ravage Hyrule, without Hyrule being attacked.

These portals, however, could attack anywhere, at anytime, with seemingly no way to stop them, to their knowledge at least. There was no way to guarantee Hyrule's safety while he was away, and as such, he had to stay with his kingdom.

Also, he had a strange armored man following him, that he did not wish to leave Hyrule at the mercy of, should he leave. He had no knowledge of the armored man's intentions.

These thoughts of his drowned out his footsteps, as he made his way into the Sanctum, to join Zelda and the other Champions.

Upon entering, he noticed that the Champions had departed, and all that was left of their meeting party, was Zelda.

Zelda sat upon her throne awaiting her knight's return. She felt an immense sense of gratitude towards him, for choosing to side with Hyrule, over leaving for yet another war. It was surprising for her to be honest. He left so willingly for Galeem, yet, he chose to stay here now? It seemed like an odd decision on his part, but she was grateful nonetheless.

She heard the sound of boots, and looked up, to see the form of her knight, enter the room, earning a smile from Zelda.

"Did they leave without issue?"

Link nodded.

"I wanted to thank you for staying with us against this enemy. While you know that I am...not too keen upon your fighting for Hyrule, it was a gesture I appreciate greatly."

Link nodded once more. It took a moment, before Zelda noticed the sullen expression that stole his features, and that his mind wasn't entirely into the nod. It was evident that he was in deep thought. "Link...are you...alright?"

His daze broke, as he nodded once more, more alert this time. "I didn't know how I wanted to bring this up to you...but I am being followed. I keep seeing this man...in what looks to be knight armor, everywhere I go."

Zelda didn't expect him to say much on his mood change, however, even if she had expected him to say something, this was not it. Someone following him? Knight armor? There was no one in Hyrule with quarrel against him, except for the Yiga Clan, and they most certainly never wore much armor. This was something else. Perhaps, a portal creature was following him.

Before Zelda had any chance to respond, a Royal Guardsman ran into the Sanctum breathless. "Princess, you need to see this!"

Zelda's thoughts were wiped clean of Link's comment. What was going on now? In the span of days, a mysterious force had attacked the kingdom, a party of warriors had come to claim her knight, and now this... For fuck's sake...

Zelda nodded quickly, and her and Link followed the guard to whatever destination arrived.

The armored man entered a portal, into Hyrule castle. It was time to approach the Hylian Champion. What he hadn't realized, was that he'd entered a portal leading directly into the soldier's barracks, which at this hour, were littered with troops attempting to get some semblance of slumber. The armored man inwardly groaned. Perfect...

On queue, a soldier lifted his head from his cot, to see the armored man had just closed his portal. The soldier's eyes flew wide, upon realizing what this appearance met. "INTRUDER! WAKE UP!"

The armored man had no way to count the sheer mass of soldiers now waking up, grabbing their swords, spears, and claymores, and pointing them all into his direction. There was no way to fight all of these men off at once. He needed to portal out of there and fast, however he wasn't given the opportunity. A Hylian soldier jabbed his spear right towards his face.

The armored man unsheathed his sword, veering the spear away from him, and sending a swipe towards the Hylian's neck, causing a spurt of blood to shoot onto his helmet.

More Hylians followed, swinging their weapons, going for the kill. It might have been manageable, had they not all been attacking at once, but, being soldiers, this group knew how to easily overtake their enemies.

The armored man held off as long as he could, blocking left and right, slashing when he could. He'd taken out what he'd assumed to be 15 Hylians, before a blade finally pierced his armor. He spun around, and swung his sword downwards, splitting the Hylian's skull in 2. However, as he did that, a spear penetrated his back. He had to get out of there, or he'd be getting closer to Hollowing...

The armored man used all the strength he could, and opened a portal, taking him back to the Underworld. It was then, as he hit the ground of his homeworld, that he realized that his armor was soaked in blood, and most of it was Hylian. When he met up with the Hylian Champion, he would most certainly not be happy at the fact that he'd just killed almost 20 of his soldiers in arms.

However, despite this, he had to stop from Hollowing, meaning he'd need to address the wounds he'd sustained. They didn't cause him any pain, yet he knew they'd kill him eventually. He pulled an orange flask from his pack, and proceeded to guzzle the Estus within, feeling his wounds mend as the fire from the Estus coursed through him.

He'd have to enter the castle again, but he needed to be far more discrete about it, and this time, not teleport where hundreds of fucking soldiers stayed...

He realized that the castle would be much more heavily fortified due to his "attack", yet, it didn't matter. He had to get to the Hylian Champion. He had to get to Link.

The walk with the guard was longer than Zelda expected, but it wound up leading her and Link towards the barracks of the castle. This confused Zelda, due to knowing that there were a large amount of soldiers there at this hour. If anything had transpired, that was bad, surely the barracks would be the last place for it to happen.

Zelda was horribly wrong.

Entering the barracks, her nose was met with a stench she knew by heart from the Great Calamity. It was the stench of death, and decaying bodies. Her eyes were met with a sight that complemented this smell.

On the ground, there looked to be a total of 16 or so dead Hylians, all slashed, stabbed, or gutted. There seemed to be no perpetrator present. Perhaps a Yiga clan member had sneaked in, and done this? She knew they were capable of teleportation, yet Zelda hadn't seen any Yiga members capable of taking down over a dozen Hylian Soldiers.

Zelda watched as Link walked over to one of the bodies, examining a slash mark made on the neck of the neck of one of the Hylians. He then got up, and walked back to her, before saying with a grave look on his face, "The cut isn't from any sword in the kingdom's armory, and it's not by a Yiga blade either."

Zelda didn't quite know how he was able to tell, yet she trusted his judgement. During his journey against the Calamity, she'd known that Link had handled every weapon native to the kingdom. "Do you think this could be...from the man you said was following you."

Link seemed in deep thought, but he wound up nodding and saying, "possibly."

Zelda turned to one of the soldiers present. "What has happened here?"

The soldier had blood on his sleeping tunic, and he seemed breathless. "I don't know what it was your grace, but one of those portals opened up here. Out of it didn't come a creature...it was a knight it seemed. He had heavy armor on, and we couldn't see his face..."

It seemed as though their suspicions were valid. Zelda caught Link's eye, seeing that he returned her grave expression. He simply nodded to her, an affirmation that this was indeed the one following him. Zelda turned back to the soldier. "I will be sending healers to deal with the wounded here, and to clean up the bodies. However, can you tell us what happened with this...knight?

"After a while, we overtook him, and he opened another portal, allowing him to escape. But surely he's dead now. We managed to get a few good stabs on him before he did."

Zelda contemplated this statement. If this knight was a creature from the portals, and was indeed following Link, to the point where it killed 16 of her men, he was most certainly not going to be taken down easily, and was most certainly still alive. Zelda nodded to the soldier. "Thank you for this information. I will be sending the crew to your aid promptly."

The soldier bowed, and Zelda turned to Link, beckoning for him to follow her out of the barracks. After they were well out of earshot, Zelda began conversation with her knight once more. "You don't think he's dead, do you?"

"I don't..."

"If he's looking for your, where do you think he will try to appear next?"

Link grinned, a rare occurrence. "Trying to make the hunter the hunted, are we?"

Zelda returned his smile. "Maybe."

Link's expression steeled once more. "If he's going to try to go anywhere, it will be my quarters. It's the most sure spot to find me."

"Speaking of him attempting to find you", Zelda responded, a frown overcoming her face. "What do you think he wants with you?"

Link took a few moments, to contemplate his answer. "He didn't seem to be hostile the first 2 times I saw him...he just stood there, and disappeared each time I got a good look at him."

Zelda had many questions for that statement, but knew he didn't have any of the answers, nor did he probably want to talk about it. The 2 made their way to Link's old quarters, silent for the rest of their walk, where they tentatively opened the door.

Link checked every crevice of the room, looking under his old bed, his closet, the balcony. Any place with a sizable amount of space, was diligently studied to make sure that the armored man wasn't there.

He wasn't.

Link had a hard time believing he wasn't near however, and despite knowing that this armored man had usually tried to keep his stalking of Link discrete, his clash with the soldiers in the barracks had proved that the armored man was done with keeping things quiet. He stood in the middle of the room, and simply said, "Show yourself."

Moments went by, and he and Zelda simply stood there, the silence of the room unwavering. Zelda after a while, placed her hand upon his shoulder. "Perhaps he isn't here. Is there anywhere else he might be?"

Link couldn't think of any, but even if he had, his response would have been cut off. Almost on queue, a rift in the stone under the 2 Hylians began to appear. It widened, and widened, until it was a large gaping portal leading to a world neither of them knew of.

A figure began to ascend from it. It was the armored man.

He was wearing a thick, dark blue tunic, with golden lining and symbols on it. He wore heavy metal armor, that went over the tunic, and had a sword and dagger sheathed on his belt. His left arm had thick armor plating on the shoulder, and had armor lining the entire arm. He was wearing metal armor on top of his boots as well, with a metal helmet, where no eyes could be seen through the openings of the visor.

Link didn't even have to think twice once he saw the man in full. This thing had followed him all the way to the castle, and had now killed multiple of his brothers in arms. In a flash, the Hylian unsheathed the Master Sword, and sliced right at the armored man's neck, slicing his head clean off. His body hit the ground in mundane finality.

Both Zelda and Link stood there for a few moments, Zelda dumbfounded, and Link taking in what he had just done. He didn't regret killing the armored man, but he never imagined it would take so little.

Evidently it didn't take so little. Withing moments of the armored man's death, another portal appeared, and with it, came the exact same armored man. What? Link looked down to see that the dead body was still there...yet there was the exact same man here?

Before Link could hack down the armored man for a second time, the armored man raised his hands, as if in surrender. "Disciple of Hylia, do not strike me!" His tone was not threatening, nor fearful, but it did have a large sense of urgency to it. Before Link could act on his statement, he felt the ground rumble under him.

By the time he realized what was causing it, it was too late.

A portal had begun opening under his feet, and before Link could react, there was no ground to react on. As his body passed through the mouth of the portal, his consciousness faded instantly. He plummeted into the abyss.

Zelda couldn't utter a sound. There was no reaction worthy of what had just happened.

She watched helplessly, as Link fell into a portal that this...thing opened. Then, she observed as a portal opened under the armored man himself, as he too, journeyed down below(his fall noticeably more graceful), into this unknown realm.