Recap: Alongside Aryll and Tetra's story, Link's journey to becoming the Farore's Wrath is revealed. He survived his fall on Outset Island, but he was gravely wounded. Tetra rushed him to Greatfish Isle – a land renowned for its healing practices. Link awakened to discover that, though he was saved, he had lost his legs. As he learned to live without the ability to walk, he struggled to accept his condition and blamed himself for Aryll's capture. Three months into his stay, the King of Red Lions made an unexpected visit. The boat revealed that an evil man named Ganondorf had Aryll, and that he would go on to destroy the Great Sea. The boat claimed that Link is the Hero of Time reborn, and that he must defeat Ganon and save the world. Link rejected the boat's quest, arguing that he could not be a hero without his legs. The King of Red Lions tried to argue that he did not need legs to be a hero, but he failed to persuade Link.

The following night, Ganon arrived on Greatfish Isle, destroying it. The King of Evil recognized Link as the reincarnation of the hero and captured him, vowing to make Link understand why he had made enemies of the gods.

Link awakened in an unfamiliar room. Ganon revealed that he had made a bargain with a demon named Demise thousands of years ago, and that Demise was the source of his power. Ganon offered Link a choice: if he agreed to commune with Demise, Link would experience Ganon's past and understand his motives. In exchange, Link's legs would be returned to him, and he would be freed. All Ganon asked for was Link's empathy. Unsure if he really had a choice, Link agreed. He soon awakened at an undetermined point in the past, where the narrative transitioned to first-person. He found an ancient tribe of Gerudo apparently living in peace. Until mountain people named Hylians descended into the valley to lay conquest to their land.

From that moment on, Link witnessed horror after horror committed by Hylians in the name of the Goddesses. The untold generations of suffering was laid bare before him. Each time Link died trying to protect the Gerudo, he awakens in the present again – only for Ganon to throw him back into the past and start over. Months, years – Link is unsure how much time has past since immersing himself in the horrific truth of ancient history. As he witnesses more bloodshed, he begins to understand Ganon's motivations, though there are still missing pieces. He sees his own memories in Ganon's sometimes, such as a younger version of himself bleeding into this reality.

Link awakens from his latest journey into the past as Book II: Hatred continues.

Chapter 20: Wrath of the Fallen

Link's eyes opened, and the sting of a spear's killing blow followed him. A stone ceiling replaced the grizzly face of a Hylian soldier. The screams of dying Gerudo faded, too, and the small room's silence was deafening in its place.

He lay there for a while, breathless. Then, he summoned the willpower to lift his head. His legs – still twisted and veined with dark magic – were almost complete. Only his feet were somewhat incorporeal. He stared at the new limbs thoughtlessly. Exhaustion and confusion had paralyzed his mind. Regardless, Link scooted himself slowly to the edge of the plain mattress and lowered his feet to the floor. He felt its cold, smooth surface shoot up through his body.

Link dared to stand. His feet succeeded for a moment and then threatened to give out. As he held the edge of the bed, he looked around and found a thick, wooden staff leaning against the counter. Link's brow furrowed, and a thought finally came through: Does Ganon expect me to find him this time? He carefully hobbled his way to the counter, grabbed the staff, and walked with its support.

He carefully made his way to the door and opened it as the screams of the ancient past returned to him: They're coming! the boy named Ganon had screamed. Kelan, get down! However, the spears had shown no mercy, eventually discovering all who'd fled. Another failed attempt to save them, Link thought. Another version of Ganon that my ancestors butchered.

Time had lost meaning. All that mattered was his craving to return to the past. I will save Ganon. I will defeat my people. The Great Sea no longer mattered. The present was an empty, hollow thing. How could the world keep going when so much bloodshed lay forgotten within its soil? I have to fix it, he thought. I have to make things right.

But he didn't know if that would be possible alone.

The door opened to a familiar dark staircase. Link worked his way slowly down and reached the large chamber. Demise's altar, Link knew. The swirls of wind carved into the floor's center were unassuming. None could know that an immensely powerful creature tethered itself to the world through there. I can't enter without Ganon, Link thought. And he needed help before he returned to the past.

There were other doors along the chamber, and he went through the one across from the bedroom. It opened into an equally dark room with an equally vaulted ceiling. It was much smaller. The floor traveled only a few feet before curving around a still, peaceful body of water. The artificial pond reflected only black stone, a void that could swallow anyone whole. On the room's opposite end, the pond opened into a channel that led into an endless cave.

Ganon sat at the edge of the water. His legs were crossed, and his eyes were closed. He was barely visible in the dark room. Link used the staff to join Ganon, grunting with pain as he sat beside him. They said nothing for a time. Ganon kept his eyes closed while Link stared into the water. The blackness was too thick for his face to stare back at him. There's something wrong with that water, Link thought. It's unnatural.

But that wasn't what he'd come here to discuss.

"I want to go back," Link said. His voice felt flat and dead. It was hardly a whisper in the dark chamber. "I want to kill them."

"Why?" Ganon replied immediately. It was like the sorcerer had expected Link's exact words. He knows everything, Link thought. He has to.

"Because they lay claim to a land that is not theirs, and they slaughter everyone in their way. Because I must atone for the crimes of my ancestors."

"How can you possibly atone for their sins while lost in memories? Your actions there have no impact on the real world."

Link scrunched his face together. Those words stung him. I want to save you, he thought. I owe it to the little boy from Vure. "I don't understand," Link said. "I thought that's why you were sending me back there."

Ganon didn't move or open his eyes. "We're not talking about what I want," he said. "I asked you a question. Why do you want to return to the past?"

"Our bargain," Link stammered.

"I asked for your empathy," Ganon said. "Nothing more."

Nothing more, he thought distantly. As if that empathy had not cost Link his sense of self, his sanity, and his grasp on reality. Despite all of that, he was grateful. Knowing the true horrors of the past was worth any price. Everyone on the Great Sea should experience those memories, he thought. Every. Single. Person.

"You have my empathy," Link said. "But I need to return to the past. There's… more I need to learn. To understand. I can only do that by winning."

"Is understanding required for you to win?"

Link hesitated. "Yes," he said. "They win because they surprise an unsuspecting people. They have power that I do not comprehend. I can't defeat them if I do not know them."

Ganon moved for the first time when his lips curled into a smile. "Yes," he said. "Understanding gives you a tactical advantage. But it also shapes your empathy. You have not fulfilled the bargain until you understand. Because until then, your empathy is incomplete."

Link processed that, still staring into the water. "How much more is there?" He thought himself immune. He thought – surely – that the barbarism of the Hylians had reached its peak.

"You have hardly scratched the surface," Ganon said.

Link was suddenly light-headed. " I can't…," he said, stammering. But he noticed Ganon's immediate reaction to that hesitance. The sorcerer's smile turned to a frown – a deep one. No, Link thought. He will not throw me into the past again until I choose to go back. Link centered himself with a deep breath before continuing. "I can't find understanding without more guidance," he said.

Ganon's head tilted curiously. "Explain."

"There is too much chance," Link said. "I've created so many different possibilities in that past. I can't know which one will bring understanding. I'm afraid that… without more guidance, I'll spend the rest of my life in your memories. And I won't come any closer to understanding."

Ganon sat – still as statue – as he offered a response. "Do you know who you become when you venture into the past?"

"Infier," Link said. He remembered young Ganon shouting that name – several trips ago – when the twisted, corrupted Hylians had descended upon them.

"And who is Infier?"

"I think he's Demise," Link said, finally piecing it together. "Or, an echo of Demise. A lesser shade in control of a body. That's why I can access these memories and influence them. Because they're the demon's memories."

"I am impressed," Ganon said. "Yes. The pale, young man who found Vure was indeed a puppet of Demise's. He did not have blonde hair, blue eyes, or a hero's tunic – these are imprints that you bring to the memory. But he did look like the mountain people. And he did hide his true identity from us. Demise foresaw the upcoming battle with the Hylians, and he sent a shade to the surface to look for a vessel. One that he could mold into a weapon to defeat the Goddesses."

"And that vessel was you?" Link said. He hesitated before he revealed his next thought. "You were manipulated by Demise into becoming his vessel?"

Ganon took a moment to answer, but he did not show any anger. "Demise certainly had a plan. He had a purpose. But it was not a selfish one. Demise had his reason for opposing the Goddesses and the Hylians. I did not become Demise's vessel until I had willingly accepted his influence, and that came after years and years of fighting side-by-side. I trusted Infier more than anyone I had before. By the time he revealed his true nature, I would've died for him."

Link had spent many trips where he and Ganon had become allies – brothers-in-arms. He hadn't realized those experiences were closer to the truth. But something still feels off about this, Link thought. "I don't… feel like someone else when I'm in the past, though," Link said. "I've only heard Infier's true name once. I feel like I'm me when I'm back there. And everyone else reacts like I'm myself, too."

"As I've told you before, Demise is not bringing you into the past as a bystander," Ganon said. "You shape it. You experience it. Infier's memories are merely a gateway for you to see what we did, but you arrive into the past as yourself. That is why your memories bleed into Demise's. You see Orca's face in your enemies. You see your younger self in your victims."

Deep down, Link had known that. But he still wasn't sure why it felt so impossible to say his name in the past. He'd never been able to proclaim himself as Link. You shape it, Ganon had said. Maybe it shapes me, too, Link thought. Maybe I'm becoming someone different.

He turned to see that Ganon's eyes had opened. The sorcerer watched him patiently. "I will offer you guidance," Ganon said. "The past is still something you must experience, but I will prepare you for what happens next. So that you do not lose yourself completely.

"I do not torture you needlessly, Link. You are still welcome to leave once the bargain is complete. But I ask for your empathy so that you can help me here and now – on the Great Sea. But I need you to understand before you help me, so I will offer guidance. This way, you will not get lost in the echoes of a demon's memories. And you will emerge complete and whole in your purpose."

Link considered. Yes, he thought. This is what I needed. Pride swelled with him, even if the exhaustion was nowhere close to abating. He nodded, though. There was still work to be done.

"You have experienced only the beginning," Ganon said. "Yes, Infier tried to warn us of the Hylians, but ultimately, he failed. The Hylians conquered Vure, stole our women, slew all the children except for me, and they sterilized our entire race with a curse. The resistance was slow to emerge, but it began at the palace of Sav'sa."

"In one of my trips," Link said, "the Hylians sent corrupted soldiers across the desert to overtake the palace. Is that part of the real history?"

"No," Ganon said. "Whatever you did in that trip must've triggered that reaction early. The Goddesses did not corrupt their soldiers until many years later."

Link's mouth went dry. The Goddesses, he thought. Another question I've been too afraid to ask. "Are they… real, then? The Goddesses actually exist and gave the Hylians their magic?"

Ganon's face darkened, though his eyes never waved. "Yes. They exist, and they eventually twist their people into horrors far worse than the monsters you saw at Sav'sa."

"I've never seen them," Link admitted. "And I've lasted months in the past. They never show their faces. They've only sent Hylians to battle."

"Eventually, our resistance grew," Ganon said. "And it wasn't until we began to pose a threat that the Goddesses showed themselves. And when they did, they decimated hundreds of Gerudo with a single flick of their wrists."

Link's blood ran cold. He couldn't imagine what a Goddess looked like, let alone what sort of power it could possess.

"They molded me into the monster I am today," Ganon said. "Every time I stayed my hand from violence, a spear murdered a close friend. Or a shard of power on the back of a Hylian's hand wiped out a village. The Goddesses hide their magic in innocents – children. Triforces of power, courage, and wisdom were seared into the bodies of young Hylians to use our morality against us. If we refused to kill children, then that meant they had another weapon to use against us. If we ever left survivors, they would return – twisted with more anger and vengeance than before. It took years, but eventually, they ground every ounce of mercy out of us."

Link's brow furrowed again. "And it was all based on a lie?" he asked. "The Hylians followed the Goddesses all because they believed the Gerudo were infected with Majora?"

"A story," Ganon said. "That's all Majora was. The magic users at Sav'sa confirmed countless times that we were free of Majora's influence. The Goddesses invented that story to manipulate an entire race of people into exterminating another race of people. It was used to justify genocide in the beginning, but the story quickly turned into hatred for Gerudo. The Hylians kept killing us because they viewed us as inferior. They viewed us as pests beyond redemption.

"But we cannot let understanding absolve them of their crimes," Ganon continued. "Yes, they were victims of manipulation by powerful beings. But they ultimately are the ones who drew blood and built an entire society atop my people's bones. Hatred for the Gerudo now lives in all Hylians' veins, as much a part of them as blood. Even today's Hylians – largely ignorant of the past – perceive the world through a lens of hatred crafted by their ancestors.

"That much violence – that much bloodshed – that much killing – it does not heal itself. It is passed into children and reborn into the world as more death and suffering. Sometimes more hidden than before, but always lethal. This world was intentionally crafted by the Goddesses to be absent of Gerudo. It is not a coincidence that I am the only one left. While those on the Great Sea today did not commit genocide, the Goddesses hid their final weapons and trinkets in their bodies. Just like in the past, if we show them mercy…

"Then they've already won."

They sat in silence for a long while after that. It took a moment for those words to sink in. It does not heal itself, Link repeated in his mind. It is passed into children and reborn into the world as more death and suffering. "What happened?" Link asked. "How did the war end? When did the Goddesses and Hylians stop killing Gerudo?"

Ganon took a deep breath before he continued. "It was after the greatest massacre – dealt directly by Nayru, Farore, and Din – that Infier revealed his true nature. I was on the verge of death when Infier recruited magic users from Sav'sa to heal me and led us to the Temple of Hylia."

Link's eyes widened. "I know that temple," he said. "It's connected to the village that they built over Vure."

"Yes," Ganon said. "Unbeknownst to them – deep beneath the ground – Demise's altar lay undisturbed for centuries. That altar is the same one outside the door behind us – the one I eventually built my tower around. With the Temple of Hylia built on top of it, there was no way to reach it at first. But with the help of the sorcerers, Infier opened fissures in the ground, destroying much of the village. Demise's sword emerged from one of those fissures, and a ritual bound me, Demise, and Infier together. From that moment onward – Demise and I were one."

He paused for Link to react. "What was that like?" he asked. "To become one with Demise? Is it similar to how the Goddesses corrupted their people?"

"No," Ganon said immediately. "I was still myself. I was still in control. It was a pact, a willing agreement between us both to destroy the threat of the Golden Goddesses forever. From that moment on, the war changed. We finally stood a chance. With Demise's powers, the Gerudo were winning the war. History remembers that war as a noble, pure Hylian people besieged by demons from the underworld, but that is a lie.

"The Hylians drove us to darkness. It was the only way to save ourselves. When fissures in the ground opened up – and creatures powered forth from the bowels of the earth – they did so to save Gerudo. They were defending the helpless. To the Hylians, the Gerudo were just as monstrous as the creatures that came to save us. Remember that the next time you hear the tale of Hyrule's origins.

"The monsters that fought the Hylians – and drove them to the sky – were people. Gerudo. Who had experienced years of conquest and suffering before then. The legends say that my people fought to steal that golden power away from the Goddesses. But that could not be further from the truth. We merely wanted that golden power destroyed. Forever."

Link nodded gravely. He'd heard variations of this story from Grandma. But not like this, he thought. The monsters that rose from the earth were… evil. But all this time, they were Gerudo? "What happened next?" Link asked. "How did you… drive the Hylians into the sky?" He hadn't expected a complete, comprehensive history from Ganon, but he was grateful. This guidance would change his entire relationship to the past. There's an end goal, he thought. Now I know what's supposed to come next.

"Eventually, I won," Ganon said. "In my battle against Farore, Nayru, and Din, I succeeded. But I could not destroy them. With the other sorcerers' help, Demise and I sealed the Golden Goddesses away. Our chosen prison was a spectral, invisible space between worlds that Hylians eventually called the Heavens. The lie, however, is that the Heavens are the Goddesses' chosen domain. I forced them there so that they could no longer continue their campaign of genocide upon the world."

Link's eyes widened. "You sealed the Goddesses away?" he asked, dumbfounded. "You're the reason they no longer walk the earth?"

Ganon nodded. "But our victory was short-lived. Hylia returned after her sisters were banished. She protected what Hylians remained, gathering them on the Temple of Hylia's village. With her powers, she lifted what remained of the city into the sky, far above the clouds. And then she returned to the earth, and she killed me."

"She killed you?"

"My physical form, at least," Ganon said. "Demise survived, and my spirit remained tethered to him. When Hylia brought her city to the sky, she exposed Demise's altar. There, she drove Demise's sword into the ground, sealing away my spirit and his. Neither Demise nor I know what happened for many, many generations. We only know that surviving Gerudo fled. Eventually, the spirit of Demise's sword worked on our behalf, coaxing the surviving Hylians back to the ground. Demise was freed, but the new generation of Hylians defeated him. Thus, my fate was sealed.

"With Demise's defeat, he and I were bound beyond death. For all eternity. When his spirit was reborn henceforth, it came to life as a reincarnation of my body – the only man to ever again be born to the Gerudo. All men eventually died out, and Gerudo women could only give birth to more women. Demise's magic was the only thing powerful enough to defy the curse. Every time my mortal body dies, Demise reincarnates us, and I am born to the Gerudo again."

That's a lot to process. Link thought long and hard before asking another question. "What happened to the city in the sky?"

"Eventually, the Hylians returned it to the earth," Ganon said. "It was the first hero – the first version of you – that defeated Demise and began our cycle of reincarnation. It was he and the surviving Hylians who returned to a scarred, broken earth and built the kingdom of Hyrule."

"What happened to Hylia?" Link asked. "And the Gerudo?"

"Hylia found a mortal shell to begin a cycle of reincarnation of her own – the princess Zelda. Her bond with Zelda is different, though. Hylia has hidden her immortal self elsewhere, unlike Demise. Hylia's godly form has been hidden for hundreds of years now… but I have my theories. To this day, she remains a coward, hiding from her sisters' mistakes. Anyone who claims her innocence – that says she is not as evil as her sisters – has forgotten when she intervened in that ancient war. Only after Farore, Din, and Nayru lost, and in defense of Hylians. She never lifted a finger to save the Gerudo.

"As for the Gerudo, we eventually returned to Hyrule after the castle had been built. We never lost our foothold in the desert, and the new Hylians allowed that tribe of women to live there. Every one hundred years, I am reborn into that tribe. In some of Demise and I's reincarnations, I have been killed in my sleep as a baby. Not all of them have become powerful men and leaders."

"So," Link said, wrapping his mind around that convoluted history. "The Golden Goddesses are still trapped? In the Heavens? Why are you fighting them, then? Didn't you win?"

Ganon lowered his head. For the first time, he showed something other than confidence. Doubt, Link thought. "I was wrong," Ganon said. "I was wrong to assume locking them away would be enough. This is a mistake that magic users have made with powerful beings across history. The Goddesses had left relics behind: the Master Sword. Shards of the Triforce. Musical instruments. These objects still tethered them to this world. And through those objects, they exert influence still. As evidenced by the continued oppression of the Gerudo. As evidenced by…" He stammered as some horrible memory flashed across his mind. "… the flood.

"This body – my current incarnation – was born 600 years after the Kingdom of Hyrule's founding. In this lifetime, I took advantage of a civil war to earn the king's favor. Eventually, I gained access to the Goddesses' relics. I hoped to turn them against those foul beings, to finally slay them within their ethereal prison. But I failed again. You defeated me. Demise helped me to survive the flood. Now, on the Great Sea, my plan has evolved.

"I am gathering other beings like Demise. Other monsters of immense power. And this time, when I assemble the Triforce, I will use its power to break the Golden Goddesses' prison and weaken them. When they descend to finish what they started, my army will be waiting. We will slay Farore, Nayru, and Din and finally end their millennia of oppression and genocide."

Whoa, Link thought. He actually wants to free the Goddesses and kill them. Just like it was impossible to imagine what they looked like, it was hard to imagine fighting them. And winning. If they truly had created the world, then how could they possibly be stopped? Unless creating the world was a lie, Link thought. Unless they aren't really gods at all.

Ganon turned to face Link again. "Is this the guidance you were looking for?"

"Yes," Link said, though his voice wavered.

"You sound uncertain."

"I just wonder what my role is," Link said. "Once I gain understanding, I'm not sure I can help fight alongside powerful beings like Demise."

"You are just as powerful as they are," Ganon said. "Demise reincarnates me, and Hylia reincarnates Zelda, but you are also reborn into this world with a strong spirit. Perhaps a remnant of Farore, or perhaps something else. But you have stopped me more than once across history, and other powers of similar strength. The Golden Goddesses' magic flows through you, and it is imperative we turn that strength against them."

"I think I understand," Link said.

"But it isn't just Goddesses that we must face," Ganon said. "Just like the ancient Goddesses hid their trinkets in children, they also hide them in people on the Great Sea. Innocence is their greatest weapon. It has turned many of my allies away, and it has ensured that they've survived so many generations. You will face your family – on Outset Island, and across the world. And you cannot hesitate, Link. Do not kill needlessly, but do not show mercy, either. The Goddesses will exploit weakness every step of the way, no matter how well-intentioned."

Link's stomach churned. He'd seen Orca's face countless times on the murderers of the past. He'd seen other faces, too. Deep down, he must have known what that meant. And I understand, he thought. "Yes," Link said. "I've seen what the Goddesses' armies can do. I will not let them trick me."

"You will be tested," Ganon said. "And I hope, for the world's sake, that you do not fail."

The sunlight was brilliant as I traveled across the ancient land. A little boy named Ganon was now a young man beside me. His lithe, muscular body walked with a staff and bow. Together, we'd again killed many to save victims of this holy conquest. As the green, verdant landscape sprawled on before us, we knew blood had seeped into its soil. We knew it would never truly leave.

"It won't be long now," Ganon said.

"I know," I replied. "I'm ready for them." I wielded a sword and shield on my back, prepared to reach a Hylian patrol that hoped to intercept the children fleeing Vaib.

I held out a hand to stop Ganon when we noticed the first glint of sunlight on steel. Ganon immediately reached for his bow. "No," I said. "Let me speak to them first."

Ganon's brow furrowed. "You want to speak to them?"

"Yes," I said. I could feel it in my mind – I had reached understanding. It was time to proclaim who I was. "We will fight them, and we will win. We do not need the element of surprise." There was no cover to be found in this empty plain of grass, anyways.

There were seven Hylian soldiers. They did not have horses. They stopped marching long before we did, ending their approach when we were a hundred feet apart. I eyed the strong men in sturdy armor. Their spears. Their swords. Their shields. Their confidence. It all angered me. They watched the lone adult men – one Hylian, and one Gerudo – with their faces obscured in visors.

I stopped just across from them when the leader of the guards spoke. "From where do you hail?" he asked.

"We hail from the village of Vure," I said. "Which you have desecrated by building a temple for dark magic atop its grave."

"Dark magic?" the guard said, clearly aghast. His body stiffened, already preparing for battle. "The golden magic of the Goddesses is what cleanses this land of corruption. Vure was a shrine to decadence and darkness."

"You lie," I said. "And you will not harm more innocents in your conquest for power."

"Innocents?" This time, the leader smiled. "Aren't you one of us, boy?"

I took a moment to answer, and I noticed Ganon grow tense beside me. His hands remained readied on his bow. "Yes," I said eventually. "I am one of you."

"Then why throw in with them?" the leader asked. "They won't love or accept you. You'll never be a Gerudo."

"This isn't about love or acceptance," I said. "I am the hero chosen by the Goddesses to protect this land. I am the Hero of the Skies. Hero of the Minish. The Four Who are One. The Hero of Time. And the Hero of Winds. But all this time, the Goddesses have been the true blight upon this land. Every enemy I slew for them was merely a victim of their power. Now, I will use that power to right their wrongs. And my own."

The leader of the guards stood there, dumbfounded. He turned to those behind him, exchanging glances of confusion. "You hope to stop the Goddesses?" he said, incredulous. "The creators of the world as we know it?"

"Yes," I said. "I have shed their shackles. I no longer obey the command of slavers. I am, for the first time in all my lifetimes, a hero. I am the Wrath of the Fallen, arisen to slay the monsters you worship as gods.

"I am the hero, come to claim the blood of the wicked."

I drew my blade and charged at the soldiers. Ganon drew his bow and fired from behind. Three fell before I even reached them. Once my blade rang free from its scabbard, it sliced through the air like vengeance. It tasted steel. It ate flesh. Blood seeped between gaps in armor as my shield deflected their weak attacks. Their resolve was nothing compared to mine.

Their screams filled my ears, and my eyes remained wide, wild with death and carnage. Crimson warmth left their bodies, staining my tunic as I screamed. They fell before my fury. I carved the wicked to pieces with a hero's sword and watched as they fell to the earth in chunks of flesh. As Ganon joined me – now wielding his staff – the bloodbath continued until the final guard remained.

I parried one blow and then another. I ignored the terror in his eyes – his helmet knocked off by Ganon – as he fought for his life. I showed him nothing but rage as my sword plunged into his stomach. The soldier stumbled once, and then twice, before he buckled to his knees. I did not smile, but I relished the kill. I stared into his eyes as all light left them. One more army of wickedness had fallen before our might.

As I pulled my sword free, the dead man fell away to reveal someone standing behind him.

A child.

He wore a green tunic and a large, brown bag. Blonde hair peeked out from beneath his funnel-shaped hat, and his blue eyes were wide. I paused, panting as blood dripped from my body and my weapon. "You," I said, stammering.

Ganon's head turned curiously beside me.

"Can you see him?" I asked, pointing to the small forest child. Ganon shook his head, looking in vain for something that wasn't there.

I relaxed my shoulders, standing tall as I beheld the young boy. He was perhaps twelve. He looked healthy but tired. Dark circles cupped his eyes as if he had seen immense horror and loss. He looked uncertain, standing there amidst the carnage. Bodies littered the grass around him, but only I had killed them. The boy was clean – free from blood. His weapons were still sheathed.

"Who are you?" I asked. Though already, I knew.

The boy stood there in silence for a small eternity. Then, a smile flickered across his face. "Tatl," he said. "I remembered the sunlight."

I did not know who Tatl was. I did not care. I walked toward the boy, my resolve growing with every step. My sword remained at my side – drawn – blood dripping from its shining edge onto the bodies already rotting in the grass.

I recognized those blue eyes. I saw them scream for their mother. No! the young boy shrieked into the beautiful night. His mother stepped closer to the edge of the cliff. Please don't leave me again! I love you! But his mother took a final step forward anyways. She careened over the edge, spinning through the air. The young boy ran forward, reaching out for her – but he also reached into the sky, into the bright light of a temple. A white fairy flew far away, up toward the windows and away. Navi!

I crossed the battlefield regardless, stepping behind the boy. He did not seem to notice, shivering in place with wide, fearful eyes. "I just wanted someone to love me," the young boy said. "They all leave me. They all die."

"This isn't about love," I said, as I placed a hand on his shoulder, readying my blade. "This is about justice. This is about being a hero." My voice did not waver. I knew what had to be done. The sad, lonely boy screaming for his mother had no place in a war against gods.

I plunged my sword through the boy's back, and the weapon protruded through his chest. The child gasped, neck shooting back and mouth flying open. Fresh blood sprayed the grass. For a moment, we were no longer in the vast field of an ancient land. We were in a dark chamber, and a demon of impossible strength had shoved a crystal dagger through the child's heart.

NO! A shrill scream filled the dark chamber. LINK!

The beautiful land returned, and the child fell to his knees as I slid the sword free. He collapsed onto his back, mouth agape as he stared into the sky. Lightning flashed across the cloudless sky, and suddenly, we stood on a cliff overlooking a raging sea. Rain hammered relentlessly on the dying boy. A horse galloped away in the distance, abandoning him.

"I don't want to die alone," he said as tears trailed his pale, blood-stained cheeks. "Please don't let me die alone. I'm so afraid." He reached up for a hand – for my hand.

I ignored his pleas. I watched, transfixed, as the hand returned to the ground limply. A final exhale left the boy's lips, and then he was dead.

I stood there for a long time staring at the corpse. My mind was blank as adrenaline rushed through my body. Purpose filled me with an incredible lightness. I looked over the fallen soldiers; I was complete.

Ganon stepped forward. I snapped out of my trance, and suddenly, the forest child's body was gone. "We're done here," the Gerudo warrior said.

"Yes," I said, twisting the blood-stained sword in my hand. "We are."