It had began to rain as they rushed past Kakariko, they planned to go through the village and bypass Dueling Peaks, but some of the Sheikah guards were preventing monsters from getting in through that way. They took a left and rushed through Blatchery Plain, it was rather barren currently, the stable was being abandoned, people were rushing to get to the seas and escape the land. Zelda looked away in shame, if only she was powerful enough to actually defend her people. Her horse was disobeying more than ever, she tried her best to control him but he ended up bucking her off. Moments later Link had scooped her up and she was riding along with him. They rushed past the giant peaks and up towards the Castle, as they progressed forwards, Zelda could see flames filling the sky from multiple settlements, and in the distance Castle Town was burning to the ground. They made their way towards Lon Lon Ranch, something was destroying the buildings. They quickly dismounted and Zelda saw a Guardian, she sighed with relief, knowing that it would take down whatever was burning the village, but its orange light was a light magenta now, but all of a sudden it shot a beam at a house, blowing its roof right off. She gasped in horror before it turned and faced them, advancing towards them. Zelda watched its red laser focus on Link, she froze, unable to register what was about to happen. He had grabbed a shield from his horse and deflected the beam, the shield broke and the machine was stunned, Epona got spooked and ran off into the distance, she felt Link's hand grab hers and they began to run. She heard a large noise and looked back to see four large balls of malice shooting out across the sky and hitting the Divine Beasts. She watched in pure terror as the blue light turned purple as the machines were infected, overwhelmed by the malice, they turned away and began retreating for the time being. They began running through a forest, Zelda didn't think she could keep at this pace for much longer..

--

They had been forced to retreat, turn away from the castle. The fields were too dangerous. He had led them into a forest where they could not be attacked. He couldn't believe it, the Guardians had been infected with malice and were now fighting against them. They kept running, the ground was hard to run through, the torrential downfall of rain mixed with the soil made it extremely hard to run without slipping, and it was only inevitable until one of them would fall. Link felt Zelda's hand slip away from his before hearing her fall onto the ground. He slowed to a halt and quickly turned before stepping towards her. "How.." He put his sword back in its sheath. "How did it come to this?" He knelt down in front of her, her hands were balled up into fists now, and he decided to allow her to let everything out, he didn't really even know what to say, he didn't even know how this all happened, and so quickly. "The Divine Beasts.. the Guardians.. they've all turned against us.. it was.. Calamity Ganon." Link couldn't believe he had actually thought that this would all be straightforward, and the least of his worries had been these ancient machines which were foretold to instruct them. This monster was devious, he'd learned from his past mistake, and now they would pay for that. "It turned them all against us!" She began looking up towards him, he could see tears in the corners of her eyes. "And everyone- Mipha, Urbosa, Revali and Daruk.. they're all trapped inside those things.." Her voice died down to a soft and quiet remorseful tone. She looked so.. defeated. "It's all my fault!" He couldn't believe that she could blame herself for all this, it wasn't her who brought Ganon back, this wasn't her fault, they couldn't even have made it in time. "Our only hope for defeating Ganon is lost all because I couldn't harness this cursed power!" She buried her face into her hands. Link felt his heart break for her, she felt responsible for all this.. it wasn't her fault.. he felt tears stinging his own eyes now, but he held them back, he had to remain strong for her. "Everything- everything I've done up until now.. it was all for nothing.." She looked up at him again as tears began to stream down the sides of her face. "So I really am just a failure! All my friends.. the entire kingdom.. my father most of all.. I tried, and I failed them all.." Link shook his head, unable to allow Zelda to keep going. "I've left them.. all to die." He paused, she hadn't done that. She began to cry again and she moved towards him, he allowed her to cry against him as he put his arms around her. "Zelda.." "Save it, Link." He ran his fingers through her hair softly, he couldn't let her lose hope now. "You haven't left them, not yet. We have time still to unlock your powers, we can at least avenge them." She kept crying for a few moments before pulling away. "We need to go to Kakariko then, Impa had some ideas a few years back on how I could unlock them, but the ideas weren't allowed under my father's wishes, now though we have a chance to try them." He nodded softly before she stood up shakily. He got to his feet and took her hand before beginning to run back with her to Dueling Peaks. "We will do this, Zelda. I promise you." She shook her head and followed him. "Don't make promises you can't keep." He frowned before nodding.

When they passed through Dueling Peaks, the sight that greeted them was horrendous.