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Link held the Sword in front of him, ready for a fight. But Ganon merely looked at him with more anger than Link could possibly imagine coming from one person. "You... again," he said, slowly forming the words from his new vocal chords. "But... something else as well." A slow smile crossed his inhuman lips. "Yesss." Link had started to move forward, hoping the beast was too distracted to notice him. But it was to no avail. "No, I am not ready to destroy you yet. My... revival has weakened me, but I am sure we will meet again." As Link tried to stop him, Ganon turned himself into a giant, leathery bat, and flew through the corridors of Spectacle Rock.

As he left, Link heard rumblings from deep within the mountain. Earthquake, he thought, realizing Ganon hoped to kill him deep inside this cave. The rumbling started to grow louder as Link rushed through the twists and turns. There was no time to lose, and he even saw pieces of the walls and ceiling collapse. But he made it out, momentarily blinded by the brightness of the sun, well before any disaster occurred.

A quick glance around proved to Link that Ganon was nowhere to be seen. He breathed a sigh, half in relief, half in frustration. Despite his efforts to stop Sefia, he was unable to halt the revival of the King of Evil. The next step was obviously to destroy Ganon himself. But the means to do that eluded him. For the first time since the whole silly quest was given to him weeks ago, Link wasn't entirely sure what to do. Alerting Hyrule of the plight seemed to be the best course of action now that Link had no idea where Ganon was. Besides, the silver arrows were kept in the castle, and Link was sure he would need them again. Yes, going back to Hyrule, informing the people, and insuring Zelda's safety was the best option left. As soon as the aftershocks of the earthquake ceased, that is.

But a glimpse of something out there only furthered the need for haste. Out of the corner of his eye, Link detected movement. He raced to the edge of a cliff, and was mortified by what he saw. An army of stalfos were marching north, towards Hyrule. More were crawling out of the crevices of the mountains, joining their brethren. A short scan of the area revealed two more mobs of similar size. Interspersed between them were some scattered lynels, vicious beasts whose speed and strength were beyond a mere Hylian's. Goriyas also marched onward, called out of their dusty dry cliffs by Ganon. Even the armos, sentinals turned to stone and positioned in the mountain range eons ago awakened and added their might to the army. A few dodongos appeared as well, as did some of the alligator-like swamp men, the daira. Thousands of creatures were marching on Hyrule, a Hyrule still recovering from the last invasion.

There was no chance. No hope. Link could not possibly arrive at the castle in time to warn them. And even if he did, what good would it do? Hyrule had no chance of halting the massive army approaching, and could withstand a siege no longer than one or two weeks at most. The Triforce still did not respond entirely to Link, and it was almost useless against an army. There was nothing he could do. He thought of Zelda as grief and despair overpowered him. He had failed her. And still fate seemed to disfavor him. As the cave of Spectacle Rock finally collapsed, the tremors reverberated throughout the cliff, causing a few boulders to break lose from the edge. A despondent Link suddenly found himself a part of a rather large landslide, and he experienced the sensation of falling and tumbling for only a few moments before darkness enveloped him.

[This is roughly the halfway point of the narrative. More should be following in a few days. So stay tuned.]