The heat grew immense, signaling the Company's proximity to Vah Rudania's domain, and although such a noticeable event signaled the turning point of this quest, it also brought about the most difficult portion of the trek as well. Without Urbosa's guidance, due to her massive weight in carrying Daruk, Link was left alone guiding Mipha in her mechanical shell, while more or less entailed him pulling at her arm, willing her to continue.
Eventually, Zelda had taken the opposite side, the two yanking at Mipha's arms until, subtly enough, the Zora's legs began to drag, making the Hylians' jobs all the more difficult until, finally, they were forced to stop.
"Alright," Link panted with pained exhaustion, "We need to figure something out."
Zelda rotated to the front of Mipha's suit, sliding a rag from her pocket as she wiped away the fog from the glass visor, unable to reply. Link dropped a hand to his knee as he bent over, chugging further breaths as he watched Urbosa press on through the tunnel, unable to change course without utterly dropping to the ground without the ability to walk at all.
"Okay, maybe if-" he began to think aloud, but his ears shot back as Zelda's voice broke through to his mind.
"Link-!" she gave a hesitating, terrified voice.
He quickly turned, stepping to the front of Mipha's suit to glance inside beyond the suit, his heart sinking at the sight. As if she'd fallen into an ever-deepening sleep, Mipha's shoulders slumped forward into the suit itself, her head fallen forward in lifeless reverie, with only a pursed mouth even giving the slightest impression that she was still alive.
Zelda rushed to the backside of the suit, yanking at it to drag it back into the caverns, "We have to get her back to- Urbosa!"
Eyes glued to the visor, Link stood placid, though his heart trembled at the sight. As Zelda threw her weight against the machine, Mipha's body began to shift in a triflingly small movement, seemingly awakening her from her slumber, however slightly. Her eyes barely peered out through the glass screen, eyelids heavy as they were from a vacuous mixture of exhaustion and biology bubbling with heated disruption.
"Link!" Zelda cried, begging for help as her feet slid inconsequentially atop the volcanic soil.
His hand raised, sitting atop the glass visor as his eyes met Mipha's own tired pair. As if in silent communication, Mipha's eyes shook, lost as they were, begging him for action in some language reserved only for those most pristine of silences between lovers.
Link's breaths grew heated. He knew what she wanted. She'd made it clear enough.
"We need to keep going," he only barely spoke up, dropping his head, escaping Mipha's weakened glance.
Zelda's eyes went wide, "What?!"
"We won't ever have the amount of resources that we have at this moment," Link offered pragmatically, lifting his eyes only to watch Zelda's hallowed reaction, "It's now or never."
"Link! Look at her! She's gonna-!"
"It's what she would want," Link muttered coldly, screwing his eyes painfully before taking another look through the glass visor, "She's no more of a detriment than any of us."
Mipha's eyes constricted painfully, forcing a whimper to leave her as her face tightened like the breadth of a canvas, her body's lack of moisture forcing her need for tears to shoot ever more painful across her cheeks.
Zelda's face contorted in wary confusion, but even so, Link's downtrodden voice had said everything she needed to hear. She dropped her arms, but not without a sigh of distress as she worked her way back to Mipha's front side, shaking her head.
"I hope you know what you're doing."
"I don't," Link admitted as he curled his arm around the mechanical counterpart to Mipha's own, "I haven't a clue."
Zelda shot him an almost angry stare in critique as Link threw his body forward, angling his posture as he started dragging Mipha's heavy suit behind him.
"Only she knows," he bit into the air through tense, churning breaths.
However apprehensive she was, Zelda fell into assistance as she pulled Mipha's opposite arm, the two working through the tunnel at a crippling speed until rounding a final corner, the ashen, acrid air, painted orange with specks of black soot clouding the atmosphere, signaling their arrival. A final burst of enthusiasm made the final sluggish stomps no more easy, but their minds were quelled for only a brief moment, thinking only of the light at the end of this treacherous tunnel.
Mipha's feet slid coarsely along the rocky terrain as Link tore his body forward in spurts, finding Urbosa and Revali standing still a few paces along, Daruk's body sat against the wall as the Gerudo peered out into the distance, arms grappling her hips to rest while her shoulders churned up and down with mechanical breaths.
As Link and Zelda approached, they caught sight of the magnificently gaping maw of Death Mountain's mighty crater, bellowing smoke that chugged upward from the lowest depths the world itself. Link paused for a moment, leaving Mipha standing stationary as he stepped forward, his absence signaling Zelda to do the same and the two stepped up to the daunting edge of the tunnel's end, joining Urbosa and Revali, the look of their faces matching in their surprise.
"Is that- Vah Rudania..?" Zelda asked for confirmation.
Sure enough, from where they stood, Vah Rudania sat motionless beneath them, its mighty claws dug into the ashen rock face as it anchored itself, precisely where it needed to be.
"W- What-" Zelda stammered, "What are the odds..?"
Link shrugged, "I don't particularly care about the odds at the moment. Urbosa, you-"
He paused, noticing the Gerudo's still-placid stare, repeating, "Urbosa-?"
Whipping to attention, she nodded, "I suppose, from here, I can roll Daruk down and onto the Beast. Mipha, however-"
"We've got her," Link confirmed, pointing toward Revali, "Zelda and I balance her, and he sits up front to direct."
Revali grit his teeth, "Bah!"
"Objection?" Link asked.
The Rito threw a defiant arm into the wind before complaining, "No. but that does not mean I cannot be upset at the idea of being used as a rudder."
Returning to Mipha, Link and Zelda brought her body closer toward the edge, with Urbosa already crawling down along the rock face, noting Vah Rudania's body pressed against the volcanic wall of rock. She grabbed Daruk's foot and yanked him closer to the edge, with Revali begrudgingly pushing him along toward her with a tepid motion from his clawed foot.
"Alright, then," Urbosa sighed, "Make it quick."
With that, she threw her arm back over her shoulder, sending Daruk's body toppling over the edge before rolling down the craggy mountainside as she skidding down alongside him, the two's bodies kicking up magnificent plumes of soot up into the air as it followed their trail further and further down until, finally, the two fell atop Vah Rudania with a noticeable thud.
"Gah," Urbosa groaned painfully, dropping to the metallic surface as though she'd been taken down by an arrow.
Her narrow eyes peered weakly up toward the sky, surrounded by a craggy circle of crater rock, following the noxious fumes of sulfur as they arose to pierce that igneous-banded summit. Her body ached like never before, hopefully a mere sign of the treacherous journey and not of age. She certainly hadn't ever required the conditioning to carry a Goron, but even then, in her youth, such prerequisites never applied to her- a proud trait that had won the friendship of Zelda's mother.
Goddess, she thought- What that woman would have said, now, looking upon the fragile child she had so painfully left behind.
"FWAAAH!" came the sputtering cries of Revali as he slid down the incline, desperately worming his talons into the rock to direct the massive suit that forced him down the cliff at a blistering speed.
Like a dumbbell falling onto solid flooring, Mipha's feet slammed into the edge of Vah Rudania's shell before launching her upper body into an arc that slammed its back side onto the ancient material, forcing Revali desperately into the air with a breathlessly furious swinging of his winged arms as he avoided the cacophonous clamoring of metal atop metal.
"By the gods!" Revali cried out.
Zelda watched Link tending to Mipha, quickly launching her into instruction, "Revali, I need you to go around and scout around. I'll run around and get some rudimentary sketches, but I'm not about to li her, alright?"
Frowning, Revali nodded before reaching out his arms to work out the crummy bits of humid-laced splotches that stuck his feathers in a mangy mess, "Fine, I'll have it done to the best of my ability."
Zelda gave a directing nod before sliding down into the recesses of Vah Rudania, taking another look toward the four others of her Company, two of them lying about in lifeless reverie. She leapt down into the depths of the Beast, leaving them alone to recuperate, before continuing on her Divine quest.