Chapter VI
The five made it to Death Mountain—and past—without anything special happening. Once they got out of Hyrule, Link didn't really know the way, but they made it to Danack, the capital of Acimera. The people there were mostly Gorons, with some Hylians, but not enough to have been conquered by the Odentians.
As the five walked towards the governmental center (after being directed by citizens), the sky turned black.
The five instantly looked up to see something gigantic blotting out the sun. Tiny things were falling from it.
When the things hit the ground (or anything hard) they spread some kind of green liquid over the surrounding area. Link stared as a tower collapsed from just two capsules.
"It's acid!" Phoenix shouted. "Lightning, don't hit any with lightning. Just stay here, I might be able to make a barrier!"
Phoenix held up his quarterstaff. The air around it seemed to shimmer…
Acting on impulse, Link ripped off his left gauntlet and pressed the center of the Triforce symbol on the bottom of the quarterstaff. At the same time, Lightning channeled electricity from his fingertips to the staff.
Several things happened at once. Link was in undescribable agony from the electricity—the Triforce couldn't help him, it was putting all its power into the staff.
At the same time, the staff was lifting into the air, Link along with it. Phoenix had let go of the staff, but Lightning still shot his hand-held lightning. Link felt like his arm would fall off, it dragging him first ten, twenty, thirty feet off the ground. He kept on raising.
A huge golden barrier covered the city. As capsules fell towards it, they were hit by lightning, then fire, from the barrier. The acid that fell off was absorbed by the golden dome.
It took about a minute for that huge black thing to get the idea and stop dropping the capsules. The last one hit directly above the staff.
The whole barrier came back in to the center. A huge ray of gold shot out at the black thing. The beam ripped through it, incinerating every last bit.
Then Link saw a lot of gold light and blacked out.
Link woke up to see white.
Am I dead?
Link got no response.
"Am I dead?" he asked aloud.
"No, you're not. You're very alive." Link heard Blade's voice say. "You saved the city. Everyone here is willing to do just about anything for you."
Realizing he was lying down, Link sat up. He was in a small room. In a corner was a chair that Blade was sitting on. Link saw a closed book lying next to him.
"Can they send their military to Hyrule?"
Blade laughed. "They would, but it would be suicide. Not even kamikaze. Suicide.
"While you were sleeping, I checked out their military. We used wooden swords and pointless arrows, stuff like that. It took a hundred of them to even get an arrow to hit me at all. And I'm not as good as the Odentian elites."
Link sighed. "Any chance of getting some decent military help here?"
"Yeah. They make great bows, just don't know how to use them. Snipe and I got one already. You should, too."
Link nodded, and tried to stand up, but found he couldn't. He collapsed onto the bed again.
"Save your strength," Blade advised. "Guess the Triforce can't fix exhaustion."
"It usually can," Link said. "Guess not after it got used so much."
Blade nodded and picked up his book. Link got a glance at its title:
Symptoms of Sickness From Magical Artifacts.
Link snapped up.
"Why are you reading that?!" Link demanded.
Blade looked innocent. "What?"
"That!"
"Oh, this. No reason."
"Really. Is something wrong with me?"
Blade looked at him, straight in the eye. "I swear, I have no reason to believe anything is wrong with you."
"Then why are you reading that?!"
"Well, you see," Blade looked around nervously, "it's Snipe. I think that when the Triforce shot out it's healing thing—"
"Huh?"
"Oh, you didn't know. After that sky-thing got blasted, gold light went everywhere and everyone got healed. The buildings got fixed, too."
"Oh."
"But Snipe got kind of, well, messed up."
"How?" Link asked.
"He's acting different, like he's suddenly not out for money and to help people, but for glory and the thrill of it."
Link shook his head, saying he didn't know, and went to sleep.
When he woke up, he did know.
The eight figures made their way slowly down the river, liquid within liquid. Every thirty seconds or so, another came, seemingly from nowhere.
By the time the group made their way to Lake Hylia, they numbered forty-seven. The forty-seven flowing creatures slipped their way through the cracks in the door.
They began.
Diurdom watched in approval. His new country was doing well.
Everyone thought of the Odentians as conquerors without reason, people born simply to take other lands. But it wasn't true, really.
The Odentians were the only ones fit to exist in the universe. Everyone else was scum, not even fit for the bottom of an Odentian foot.
Odentia itself was a tiny country in an alternate universe. It was much too small for the Odentians. They were far worthier than that.
It took place quickly, their ascent to power. For a long time, the Odentians were fine in Odentia. They worshipped their gods, especially the ones of trickery and war. Those two deserved the best the Odentians could give. For a time, that was a sacred mask with magic power. But that was not enough.
The gods needed sacrifice. Not just of animals, but of people, and even land.
Yes, that was why they conquered. They lived in one country for a time. Then they moved on, and it was destroyed in the gods' utter wrath.
Rasoginim was not so approving, however.
His airship, his pride and glory, had been destroyed. With it, he could have conquered Acimera. Acimera was one step closer to Hyrule. And Hyrule one step closer to the Triforce.
But his airship was gone. He knew it had been destroyed by powerful magic. The Triforce could have duplicated any one part of that barrier—but not the whole thing. There had to be some other magic involved.
Rasoginim might be able to negate the Triforce's power. He did, after all, have the most powerful of all dark magic on his side.
But if there was more to it, other magic…
Well, he would just need some time. With time, Rasoginim could do anything. He was sure of that.
Gorin Zachian's magic blade flashed. Thalalok, his sword, had been stolen from a dragon, but not by him. It was inherited from his father, who had been died eight months ago from poison. Gorin, though, couldn't have revenge. The criminal had killed himself, probably suicide, maybe an accident. He had been found slumped over, dead, the same magic toxins in his body as found in Gorin's father.
Gorin put Thalalok down as his opponent scored a hit on his shoulder. He had lost yet another match of fencing. Even with a magic blade, Gorin found it almost impossible to win.
"One more time?" His opponent asked. Gorin nodded.
His fury at being a failure, not worthy of Thalalok, not worthy of being his father's son, not worthy of being alive, seemed to channel through his left arm and hand, into Thalalok. The dull silver glowed a deep green. Thalalok moved faster now, almost acting on its own. The blade was parrying perfectly, waiting for the perfect chance—
Now.
Thalalok leaped forward. The opponent stared. Gorin had been told this person never lost a match.
Gorin's smile was interrupted by a searing pain on his left hand. He managed to rip off his gauntlet—
Imprinted on his hand, a triangle formed of four triangles, one of them upside down in the center, burned. Two, the top and lower left, were a brilliant gold.