Finished the next chapter at last!

Enjoy! ;)

Chapter 9: No More Hiding the Truth

The light took the heroes outside, right at the very top of the tower. It was nighttime, meaning that they did spent quite a long time in the dungeon. There was a tall structure in front of them with a large bell at its top. Luka and the Mario cast watched as Link climbed up the ladder and looked up at the bell above. Seeing a pole in it, Link took out his Grappling Hook and launched it up to it to start swinging.

The loud noises of the ringing bell echoed all over the portion of the Great Sea where the Tower of the Gods stood, clearly sending a message to the gods about the rise of a new hero who, along with his comrades, managed to successfully overcome the trials in the tower.

In response to that, a ring of golden light suddenly materialized right in front of the tower's entrance. Somehow, the heroes were sent back all the way to the bottom as they steered the boat towards the ring of light.

"You have done well, everyone." the King of Red Lions spoke. "It would seem the gods have acknowledged you to be true heroes. But this does not mean your trials have ended here… Once you take your first step into the world beyond the ring of light you see shimmering in the waves before you… Your true trial will begin." he turned to face the group. "Are you ready?"

Everyone had the same answer. "Yes."

With that, the boat cruised forward to the ring of light, and much to the group's surprise, they all began to sink into the water.

As the boat sank deeper and deeper underwater through a column of light, Link and the others except for Luka were holding their breath while gazing around the eerily empty ocean bottom. Soon, they felt that were slowly running out of breath as they let out all of the air inside their lungs, but surprisingly enough, they didn't start choking.

"Huh…?" Link's eyes widened. "We can… breathe underwater?"

"Yep! There was no need to hold your breaths!" Luka winked.

"You sound pretty excited about this." Mario noted. "Why's that?"

"Because… see it for yourselves."

The moment she said that, the blueness of the ocean suddenly faded away, being replaced by a dull grey color and all the fluidness of the water was completely gone. Link and the Mario cast then looked at the direction Luka was facing, and the first thing they saw was a giant grey castle standing in the centre of a massive grey pond.

"There was a castle underwater?!" Link exclaimed in surprise.

"Look at that symbol!" Yoshi pointed to one of the castle's tall towers, where the crest of the Royal Family of Hyrule stood at the top.

"Wait… We've seen that symbol before…" Peach pondered… and then it hit her, "Could this place be…?!"

It was then that realization struck the rest of the Mario cast.

"No way… We actually found it at last!" Toad exclaimed. "The lost kingdom of Hyrule!"

"But… what is it doing underwater?!" Luigi asked. "And… why is everything dull and grey?"

"I don't know, but it is as if the entire place is frozen in time…" Mario mused.

"These guys claim to be from a different world, yet they know about this place?" Link thought, before an anime tic mark appeared on top of his head. "I'm starting to get fed up by all those unanswered questions…"

Eventually, the boat came to land on the pond, in which the water didn't even move under it due to it also being frozen in time. Link and the others disembarked from the King, and made their way up to the steps.

"Leaving your friends aside, you are probably wondering where we are, aren't you?" the King of Red Lions spoke to Link.

"Well, yeah." Link nodded.

"Unfortunately, there is not enough time for me to explain it to you now…"

"*sigh* Again with that, King?" Link sighed in frustration. "Why do you always have to keep hiding the truth from me?!"

"Hey, Link…" Luka tried to talk some sense into Link, but he ignored her.

"Seriously! You made all of us go to all sorts of different places to get three pearls, in which you did not explain their purpose to me until we got all three of them. We also got these star pieces that not only you didn't explain their purpose again, but you also told us to ignore them for now. You made us go through a trial and then we came to this place, and yet again you don't want to explain all of this to me." he fumed. "I just don't understand why you can't explain to me already all the new stuff I don't know! All I wanted from the very beginning was to save my sister, not to go through dangerous trials!"

"But, Link-"

"Don't say anything else to me!" Link rudely interrupted the King. "Honestly, I'm sick of having the truth being hidden from me all the time. And that includes you guys!" he pointed to Mario cast, who all gasped in shock after hearing this as well as Luka.

"L-Link?!" Peach stuttered. "W-We… we're really sorry, but that's because-"

"Oh, NOW you're sorry? Sorry about not telling me the truth right from the very beginning? Forget it." Link stormed through the group, right towards the castle's entrance. "For now on, I am not going to be surrounded by unanswered questions anymore. I'll find the truth myself if I have to!" he then dashed to the entrance.

"Link, wait up!" Peach called out, but Link was long gone. "No… What have we done?" she lamented as the rest of the crew frowned in guilt.

"It is not your fault." the King of Red Lions told them. "I suppose it is only natural for Link to become frustrated like this. Even so, I suggest you go after him just so he doesn't get too reckless. He might possess great courage, but that doesn't mean he takes precautions of his actions."

"You're absolutely right." Luka nodded. "Let's go, guys!"

With Link…

"Whoa…" he awed at what he's seeing in front of him and everywhere in general.

The entirety of the castle from inside was also colored dull grey and frozen in time, as there were several frozen Moblins and Darknuts all over the place. There were several portraits of members of Hyrule's Royal Family on the walls, and up ahead was a large statue depicting the fabled Hero of Time.

That statue obviously caught his attention so he made his way over there. As he went down the stairs, walking past the frozen monsters, Link thought about the harsh things he just said before to his friends. He began to feel really awful about it and started to regret for saying those things, since he and his new friends have been through so much together, such as helping each other along their way, and if it wasn't for their help, Link definitely wouldn't have overcome all these sorts of obstacles alone. He had never lost his temper, and a remark from a talking boat of all things is what triggered it. It was a feeling where frustration takes over you from what your friends said or did to you and releases it on them, but afterwards, you feel bad about that since you know you just made them upset.

"Everyone… I'm so sorry." Link thought. "I just hope you can forgive me afterwards…"

Once he reached the statue, he saw a passageway with a staircase going down on the floor. Curious, Link went down the stairs, not noticing Luka and the Mario cast following him as well.

Down the stairs was a wide chapel-like chamber, also colored dull grey all over the place. The walkways on the corners led to a dais, where knight statues were surrounding a sword stuck in a pedestal. On the walls circulating outside of the dais, there were stained glass windows, with six of them depicting the Six Sages from the Era of the Hero of Time, two of them on both corners depicting the Triforce, and the last one at the very middle depicting Ganon being sealed away into the ocean.

Of course, Link didn't recognize any of those stained glasses as his main focus was the dais up ahead. He made his way over to the pedestal with the sword, as there was a ray of light shining down on it. Link looked at the sword in awe: the fabled Master Sword, despite having its color faded, still looked exactly the same as when the Hero of Time wielded it… except that its guard resembling wings were folded inside the hilt, which is definitely very odd to us but not for our hero.

"Wow… I could definitely use this…" he breathed.

At the same time, his friends had just arrived silently at the chamber as well, watching Link from the uppermost walkway as Luka signaled the Mario cast to stay quiet.

"Alright, then. Here goes…" Link said and proceeded to grasp the sword's hilt.

Using all his strength, Link begins to pull out the sword, stopping in surprise as he felt the blade slip out of the pedestal for a bit before slowly pulling out the rest of it until it was fully out of its pedestal. It was at this moment that the statues surrounding the dais inexplicably sprung to life and lowered their swords down until each sword clashed with each other over the top of Link. With that, a bright light came from the ray of light above the pedestal, and then it got brighter and brighter, making Link and his friends shut their eyes to not let the light blind them.

Soon after opening their eyes upon the passing of the light, the heroes found themselves in the same chamber now filled with color and life. The walls, the floor, and the walkways regained their cobblestone color and look, the carpets turned bright red, the stained glasses were blooming with all sorts of colors, torches were lit on the walls around the walkways… But most of all, the Master Sword was now back to its original colors everyone is familiar with.

The Mario cast watched in amazement as they saw Link examining the Master Sword and doing a few swings with it, as if he was always meant to wield it, before raising it skywards. That sure made them remind of the Hero of Time they had traveled alongside with previously.

"Link! You really are the new chosen one!" Yoshi blurted out in excitement as he flutter jumped down the walkway, much to the others' dismay.

"Yoshi, shush!" Mario warned, but too late. Link heard what Yoshi said and turned around to see his friends a few feet away from him.

"Guys…?" his eyes widened. "Did you… follow me all the way here?"

"Yes, we did…" Peach sighed as she and the others had crestfallen with saddened looks. "We're sorry… Please don't be mad at us, Link."

"No, I'm the one who should apologize." Link frowned while looking down in regret. "I'm so sorry for yelling at you all. My frustration took over, and I couldn't control it."

"It's okay, we forgive you." Luigi smiled. "And I bet the King of Red Lions would forgive you too."

"Really?"

"Of course!" Toad exclaimed. "We're friends, after all!"

Link felt his smile returning again. "Thank you, everyone." He then looked down at the Master Sword. "Say, what kind of sword is this? Do you know it?"

"Yes, we do." Luka nodded. "It is known as the Master Sword, the blade of evil's bane."

"Evil's bane… Wait, does this mean this sword…!?"

"Exactly. It is the only weapon that can banish Ganondorf from the world above."

"So… does this means I can finally defeat him? Great!"

"Hey, wait a second…" Yoshi mused as he walked up closer to Link and glanced at the Master Sword, and he immediately noticed the odd changes. "Something's off about it, though…" unknown to him and the others, Luka had a troubled look on her face as she quickly ran up to Yoshi.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"It's about its edges and the gem… They're not-… MMMPH!" before Yoshi could say anything else, Luka quickly covers his mouth.

"Uh, Luka, why did you…?"

"Don't question it! It's a secret to everybody." Luka replied.

"Why am I familiar with that last line, for some reason?" Link thought while tilting his head. "Ookay, then…"

"Hey, guys!" Toad called out from below the dais. "You all might want to take a look at these!" he directed to the stained glasses on the walls. Taking a good look at them, the rest of the Mario cast's eyes widened up in surprise as they immediately recognized the Six Sages depicted on them.

"Are these… the Six Sages?!" Luigi asked.

"You got that right!" Luka smiled.

"No way… It's Ruto, Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Impa and Nabooru!" Peach exclaimed, saying the names of all the Sages in clockwise order.

"Does this mean… that this is what became of Hyrule in the future?" Mario wondered. "It got flooded deep into the ocean?"

"Yep." Luka nodded. "I could explain why to you, but let's leave all that to someone else."

"Once again with all of them saying things I don't know…" Link thought. "After what happened before between us, should I try asking them about that?" he took a deep breath, and called them out, "Hey, guys?"

"Yes, Link?" Toad replied as they all came to Link.

"I've been thinking… Now that we're even, do you mind explaining to me how do you know about all of that?"

"What?" Yoshi tilted his head.

"Like, how do you know about those people on the walls and what this place is? You all claimed to be from a different world, but honestly, ever since the beginning of our journey, I fail to see that."

"You know, maybe you should tell him the truth, guys." Luka told them.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Peach nodded, especially after what happened before until Link apologized. "Link… You know about the Hero of Time, right?"

"I do." Link nodded. "My grandma told me about his story ever since I was little, but I thought it was just a legend."

"Well, turns out that story was true. We all actually met the Hero of Time and adventured alongside him."

Link felt his eyes grow wide upon hearing that. "You did?!"

"Yes." Mario nodded. "That's why we knew several things in this world because of what we encountered in our previous adventure in Hyrule. Does that make sense?"

"Definitely." Link nodded back. "But, what about Luka?"

"Oh, I am a different case." Luka replied. "I wasn't with them in their previous journey, but the reason I know a lot about this world is because I've played a game based on this adventure we're having. Due to this, I know everything that's going to happen onwards."

"…I don't quite get what you meant, but whatever." He then smiled at his friends. "Thanks for explaining one of my unanswered questions to me. That alone made me satisfied."

"You're welcome!" Toad chirped. "Hopefully you won't get frustrated again!"

"I hope so too." Link chuckled.

"Eh…?" Yoshi heard some metal clanking noises coming from aboveground. "I just heard something from above!"

"Oh, yeah…" Luka's eyes widened up in realization. "Now that the castle has regained its colors back and time unfroze, so did all the Moblins and Darknuts around it as well. So that means we'll have to fight all of them once we get back."

"Well, we're already a big team." Link smirked. "An army of Moblins and Darknuts for us is nothing! Right?"

"Yeah!" everyone else exclaimed before they all dashed to the exit and ready to face a horde of Moblins and Darknuts.

Later…

After all the Moblins and Darknuts were dispatched, the heroes made their way back to the King of Red Lions, despite all of them looking a little bruised.

"Ah, you're back." The King said. "I can see that everything went well between you and Link after what happened."

"Yes…" Link nodded, although looking a bit saddened. "And, King… I should also apologize to you since I yelled at you too. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course I do. Hopefully you understand that the reason I never tell you everything immediately is because you might get reckless and go charging into any problem without thinking. I don't want you to become a hot-headed hero, you see."

"I understand." Link nodded again. Then, something came to him as he took out the Master Sword to show it to the King. "Say, is this the item I needed to get from the castle?"

"Indeed it is, Link!" the King exclaimed. "At long last, our preparations are complete. Let us return to the world above by riding that same light that brought us here. Link, the time has come to save your sister from her prison in the Forsaken Fortress! Let's hurry!"

"Yes, sir!" the heroes replied in unison before climbing on the boat.

The King of Red Lions began to cruise its way towards the light, but then he suddenly stopped.

"Hold up." He spoke and then turned to Link, "Link… Even though you apologized to me, I was thinking about that argument from before… and I've made a decision."

"What decision?" Link asked, noticing a hint of sadness in the King's voice as he spoke to him.

"After you and your friends finally slay Ganondorf from the world above, I shall tell you everything else. Everything about Ganondorf… About this kingdom… Everything that you want to know, I promise. Deal?"

Link didn't even hesitate. "Deal." Sure, it will probably take a while, but at least he will know the truth about everything upon accomplishing his task.

With that, the King resumed cruising towards the light, and it lifted everyone upwards back to the surface.

"Whoa, we're back!" Yoshi exclaimed in surprise, since the surface felt much different than the bottom.

"I also noticed something…" Link pondered. "The mountains we saw from down below as we were ascending… Were they all these islands from up here?"

"Well, it makes sense considering that islands are the result of the water level rising up." Toad stated.

"Yeah, that seems valid enough. Now, let's go kick Ganondorf's butt and save my sister!"

"All right!" the other heroes cheered as Link stomped on the sail button and they were off.

Little did they know, that something big would happen soon enough…

To be continued…

Honestly, I think this chapter turned out a little too short for me, but oh well.

If you played the game, you definitely know what's coming next! ;D

See you soon!

PS: Today is my birthday! I'm now 20 years old! :D