The air on Death Mountain was different, thinner than usual, and it carried
with it a foul stench, of charred bones and molten metal.
Link carried with him Darunia's Megaton Hammer as a weapon, which made him a little uneasy, since he was much better with his sword. It wasn't the only reason Link was feeling upset. He had just fought Darunia, and apparently rid him of some foul mind-control spell, but it was still his friend, his brother, who had tried to kill him earlier.
Link cleared his head of these thoughts as he approached a large column of black smoke that rose from above the mountaintop. Volcanic ashes were falling all around Link, and he could barely see what was in front of him. Epona was nervous. Not because of her age, not because of the danger ahead, but because Link was nervous as well. He'd never been one to be scared of a little volcano ash.
-"Perhaps you should go back, girl." -Link said as he dismounted and covered his nose and mouth with his hat. -"It's okay, nothing's going to happen to me, but I'll really be moving a lot faster on my own. Besides, you should be looking after Darunia.".
Epona shook her head. Link embraced her neck and smiled under his hat. -"Go, Epona. I'll be fine."
Epona stared at him sadly as he moved on without looking back. He was right, though. The terrain was too rough for her to keep climbing, but it was still sad to let him go alone in the middle of a quest.
Link climbed with his weapons sheathed as the trail grew cumbersome. The volcanic ashes were starting to impair his vision, but he wasn't going to wait any longer to get to the bottom of this.
Link found himself on the entrance of a cave that went directly into the core of the volcano, and he entered without hesitation.
Link was horrified by what he saw inside the volcano: An army of dark metal monsters, building a foundry with the fires of the volcano. Gorons were helping these monsters build: lifting heavy boulders, walking through the magma to build them bridges, and greeting them as their masters. In the middle of the volcano stood atop a rock a gigantic black dragon, its scales strangely symmetrical, and its wings, arms and legs jointed by cranks, cogs and levers, instead of bone and muscle. Its eyes were blood red and bright like fire.
Vents on the dragon's head and back expelled boiling hot steam as it curled its long neck around itself to look around. Link was startled when the dragon faced his way, but it didn't seem to notice the young Hylian.
The Gorons helping the monsters were adorned by strange markings on their arms and forehead, and their spines had large jet-black spikes jutting out from each vertebra. Their mouths were oddly gagged with some sort of metallic muzzle, with a couple spikes on the sides, like the jaws of an ant. Link wondered if the Gorons had been enslaved and such devices were meant to keep them in line, but they didn't seem hampered by such artifacts, quite the opposite. They seemed stronger, unafraid, and worked twice as hard as he'd seen them work in their entire lives.
The Gorons were the least of his worries. Even the gigantic dragon didn't seem so bad compared to the thousands of strange soldiers that crowded the volcano: Some were as small as a cucco, but had many insect-like legs, and a long spiked tail. Some were the size of men, had six eyes around their heads, but no mouths, or ears, or noses, or hair, or flesh. Spikes of seemingly erratic stone jutted from their backs, and they held bizzarre shields and even stranger blades on their clawed hands. The blades on their weapons dripping an oily, brown liquid.
The larger ones were as tall as a house, and had multiple arms and legs, attached to a torso that spun independently of the head, that had several gaping maws.
Link wondered where he could start fixing things, but there were literally thousands of monsters within the volcano, and they seemed to be building more of them, hammering molten iron and pouring it into strange coffin-like crates.
In the midst of these metallic monsters, Link noticed a familiar being: Ganondorf.
He had grown long hair and a small beard, he was wearing a heavy full- plated armor made of dark iron, and black torn robes draped around him. The Gem on Ganondorf's forehead had been replaced by an obsidian pike, attached to a small, mainly decorative horned helmet he was wearing.
Link was surprised to see him in the middle of the army. He wasn't usually very happy having to deal with his servants, and would rather be in an impossibly tall tower, guarded by his many abominations.
It didn't matter. Link was impossibly outnumbered there. Perhaps Zelda was right, perhaps war was upon them inevitably. But Hyrule castle wouldn't resist a siege from this kind of army. The people of Hyrule had embraced peace, and even if they managed to get every single territory to fight against these monsters, the odds were against them.
Link's mind stopped drifting with a strange, oncoming buzz. He looked down the crater to see where it was coming from. Millions of insectlike tiny creatures were flying all about the volcano, leaving through any crevice they could find. Suddenly, they were all around Link, too, and some started clinging to his clothes, biting through them to his skin. His screams were drowned by the buzzing crescendo that had enveloped the entrails of the mountain, but these insects were showing no mercy on him.
Link deflected some of the incoming insects with his shield, and frantically started swinging at them with the Megaton Hammer, but there were too many of them. He concluded he'd have to protect himself by other means, and he started summoning to himself one of the very few magical spells he had learned.
Din's Fire erupted from within him and circled around him as the metallic insects' wings burned down and rendered them unable to fly. The large fireball he had become was spotted all around the volcano, and angry machines shrieked battlecries as they charged at him, even incomplete, lacking arms, or legs.
As soon as the fire around Link was extinguished, more and more of the battleflies started swarming around him. When there were enough of them, Link casted the fire once again, leaving an authentic fly carpet in his way.
As he stopped to cast the fire, the larger, seemingly more vicious machines started gaining distance on him.
Half a dozen of the human-sized monsters surrounded him, the battleflies had desisted for an instant, so Link could finally see what was ahead of him. As the monsters charged at him, Link swung the hammer sideways, splitting one of his attackers in half. Then he brought the hammer above his head, and started smashing the remaining ones with decided strikes. The last one to arrive caught Link off his guard and drove the tip of its poorly sawed sword into Link's side, who roared in pain and smashed off the monster's head with an angry blow. More were coming, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold them off.
Ganondorf hovered above the monster horde and flew swiftly towards Link, who was right in the mouth of the cave, still swarming with battleflies.
The rest of the machines charged uphill at him as he was slowing down.
Link felt his few pieces of armor getting heavy, his eyes were blurring, and he felt his mouth getting drier. He looked down at his wound and it seemed like it was already festering.
He finally made it out of the cave and tripped at the entrance. His sight turning black, and he felt his muscles giving up. He looked up at the path ahead of him, and he saw blurry figures climbing up toward him. "They look awfully familiar", he thought, as he finally fainted...
Link carried with him Darunia's Megaton Hammer as a weapon, which made him a little uneasy, since he was much better with his sword. It wasn't the only reason Link was feeling upset. He had just fought Darunia, and apparently rid him of some foul mind-control spell, but it was still his friend, his brother, who had tried to kill him earlier.
Link cleared his head of these thoughts as he approached a large column of black smoke that rose from above the mountaintop. Volcanic ashes were falling all around Link, and he could barely see what was in front of him. Epona was nervous. Not because of her age, not because of the danger ahead, but because Link was nervous as well. He'd never been one to be scared of a little volcano ash.
-"Perhaps you should go back, girl." -Link said as he dismounted and covered his nose and mouth with his hat. -"It's okay, nothing's going to happen to me, but I'll really be moving a lot faster on my own. Besides, you should be looking after Darunia.".
Epona shook her head. Link embraced her neck and smiled under his hat. -"Go, Epona. I'll be fine."
Epona stared at him sadly as he moved on without looking back. He was right, though. The terrain was too rough for her to keep climbing, but it was still sad to let him go alone in the middle of a quest.
Link climbed with his weapons sheathed as the trail grew cumbersome. The volcanic ashes were starting to impair his vision, but he wasn't going to wait any longer to get to the bottom of this.
Link found himself on the entrance of a cave that went directly into the core of the volcano, and he entered without hesitation.
Link was horrified by what he saw inside the volcano: An army of dark metal monsters, building a foundry with the fires of the volcano. Gorons were helping these monsters build: lifting heavy boulders, walking through the magma to build them bridges, and greeting them as their masters. In the middle of the volcano stood atop a rock a gigantic black dragon, its scales strangely symmetrical, and its wings, arms and legs jointed by cranks, cogs and levers, instead of bone and muscle. Its eyes were blood red and bright like fire.
Vents on the dragon's head and back expelled boiling hot steam as it curled its long neck around itself to look around. Link was startled when the dragon faced his way, but it didn't seem to notice the young Hylian.
The Gorons helping the monsters were adorned by strange markings on their arms and forehead, and their spines had large jet-black spikes jutting out from each vertebra. Their mouths were oddly gagged with some sort of metallic muzzle, with a couple spikes on the sides, like the jaws of an ant. Link wondered if the Gorons had been enslaved and such devices were meant to keep them in line, but they didn't seem hampered by such artifacts, quite the opposite. They seemed stronger, unafraid, and worked twice as hard as he'd seen them work in their entire lives.
The Gorons were the least of his worries. Even the gigantic dragon didn't seem so bad compared to the thousands of strange soldiers that crowded the volcano: Some were as small as a cucco, but had many insect-like legs, and a long spiked tail. Some were the size of men, had six eyes around their heads, but no mouths, or ears, or noses, or hair, or flesh. Spikes of seemingly erratic stone jutted from their backs, and they held bizzarre shields and even stranger blades on their clawed hands. The blades on their weapons dripping an oily, brown liquid.
The larger ones were as tall as a house, and had multiple arms and legs, attached to a torso that spun independently of the head, that had several gaping maws.
Link wondered where he could start fixing things, but there were literally thousands of monsters within the volcano, and they seemed to be building more of them, hammering molten iron and pouring it into strange coffin-like crates.
In the midst of these metallic monsters, Link noticed a familiar being: Ganondorf.
He had grown long hair and a small beard, he was wearing a heavy full- plated armor made of dark iron, and black torn robes draped around him. The Gem on Ganondorf's forehead had been replaced by an obsidian pike, attached to a small, mainly decorative horned helmet he was wearing.
Link was surprised to see him in the middle of the army. He wasn't usually very happy having to deal with his servants, and would rather be in an impossibly tall tower, guarded by his many abominations.
It didn't matter. Link was impossibly outnumbered there. Perhaps Zelda was right, perhaps war was upon them inevitably. But Hyrule castle wouldn't resist a siege from this kind of army. The people of Hyrule had embraced peace, and even if they managed to get every single territory to fight against these monsters, the odds were against them.
Link's mind stopped drifting with a strange, oncoming buzz. He looked down the crater to see where it was coming from. Millions of insectlike tiny creatures were flying all about the volcano, leaving through any crevice they could find. Suddenly, they were all around Link, too, and some started clinging to his clothes, biting through them to his skin. His screams were drowned by the buzzing crescendo that had enveloped the entrails of the mountain, but these insects were showing no mercy on him.
Link deflected some of the incoming insects with his shield, and frantically started swinging at them with the Megaton Hammer, but there were too many of them. He concluded he'd have to protect himself by other means, and he started summoning to himself one of the very few magical spells he had learned.
Din's Fire erupted from within him and circled around him as the metallic insects' wings burned down and rendered them unable to fly. The large fireball he had become was spotted all around the volcano, and angry machines shrieked battlecries as they charged at him, even incomplete, lacking arms, or legs.
As soon as the fire around Link was extinguished, more and more of the battleflies started swarming around him. When there were enough of them, Link casted the fire once again, leaving an authentic fly carpet in his way.
As he stopped to cast the fire, the larger, seemingly more vicious machines started gaining distance on him.
Half a dozen of the human-sized monsters surrounded him, the battleflies had desisted for an instant, so Link could finally see what was ahead of him. As the monsters charged at him, Link swung the hammer sideways, splitting one of his attackers in half. Then he brought the hammer above his head, and started smashing the remaining ones with decided strikes. The last one to arrive caught Link off his guard and drove the tip of its poorly sawed sword into Link's side, who roared in pain and smashed off the monster's head with an angry blow. More were coming, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold them off.
Ganondorf hovered above the monster horde and flew swiftly towards Link, who was right in the mouth of the cave, still swarming with battleflies.
The rest of the machines charged uphill at him as he was slowing down.
Link felt his few pieces of armor getting heavy, his eyes were blurring, and he felt his mouth getting drier. He looked down at his wound and it seemed like it was already festering.
He finally made it out of the cave and tripped at the entrance. His sight turning black, and he felt his muscles giving up. He looked up at the path ahead of him, and he saw blurry figures climbing up toward him. "They look awfully familiar", he thought, as he finally fainted...