Chapter 39: Fight For Freedom; Long-Awaited Reunion

Stralanavian Slavery Emancipation Arc

Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.

Featured Music: "Ranked Amongst the World's Best"The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass OST. Chapter Briefing.

"Behind the Clouds" - Black Lagoon OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).

"Swept Away" - Dynasty Warriors V OST. Scene 2 (First Half).

"A Cold Wind In My Mind" - Black Lagoon OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).

"Iudex Gundyr (Phase 1)" - Dark Souls III OST. Scene 3 (First Half).

"Iudex Gundyr (Phase 2)" - Dark Souls III OST. Scene 3 (Second Half).

"Resurrection Ceremony"; Scaverin's Theme (B) - YS IV: Memories of Celceta OST. Scene 4.


While Stralanavia has been known for its strangeness and its strict customs with other countries surrounding the continent of Aurelia, it is Impa and her group of heroes that quickly discover just how strange a country Stralanavia is to its core; even before arriving to its borders does the train they ride to it crash due to what seems to be a creature invasion. The monsters with which Link is familiar with back home in Hyrule, such as the Lizalfos or even the Stalfos, are all but alien to the people of Stralanavia; indeed, it is otherworldly like machinations of horror and cosmic-like origin that terrorise the train and its passengers.

Luckily, with powers far exceeding that of the average fighter, the heroes easily manage to dispatch them and save the surrounding people as well as a small village nearby from a bandit attack.

Having rescued the nearby village they are thanked by the residence's elder, Zina, and she explains her own society's origin as a community of people dedicated to preventing said monsters to have escaped another nearby location; the far-off northern cavern of Klimormansk. As Impa explains her group's next destination, the coveted capital of Velinsk, Zina opts to repay the group by having her granddaughter Sonya lead and guide them the rest of the way by joining them temporarily.

It is only when arriving to Velinsk however that the group soon learn just how contrasting Stralanavia's customs and laws are to their own familiar lenient legislation; as Link spends his time shopping for new gear within the capital's main market borders, he soon finds a young girl dressed in rags having been seemingly abused by what seem to be criminals. Yet, as he inevitably intervenes in an attempt to rescue her, soon discovers that she is merely a slave working within the borders of her owners and employers; a law and act legal within the borders of Stralanavia.

As the young Hylian hero haphazardly makes a purchase of a live Cucco, thanks to a humorous misunderstanding with a market stall owner, he makes his way back to the 'Yensk' with Malon in tow; the building in which all political discussion and matters were dealt with, as well as a special high-class residence for those with connections. In returning they quickly learn their luck in avoiding a brutal punishment for interfering with Stralanavian customs and laws; something Link much later takes great thanks in.

Now, having returned to the Yensk unharmed and unafraid, it is Nadya that contracts the group of heroes on a new mission; one of her own machinations. Link, for all of his comical misunderstandings and lack of political knowledge, cannot help but speculate on her motivations as he and a select group of his companions are all sent out to an area outside the border of Morovo; a small settlement, just on the edge of the country leading back to Kaiohdrahl...


Scene 1

"I have to admit I'm fairly surprised."

Link swung his head his mentor's way; his eyebrows rising up in surprise of his own as he kept his form low so as to avoid detection.

"What do you mean Impa-sensei?"

"I mean after seeing that slave-girl in Velinsk's market stall I fully expected you to blame Nadya and the other senators of Stralanavia for causing it." The Sheikah spoke boldly, a half-amused look in her fire-red eye as she rose up a silver-shaded eyebrow to match, the sounds of birds singing very early in the morning around them.

"I'm more shocked he didn't throw a fist in her face to be honest." The nearby hanging Barkner grinned into the conversation with, also laying lowly upon the field of snow they waited atop.

"Hey!" The newly frowning-faced Link shot back, swinging his head in the direction of his Goron companion on his right, an insulted quality in the tone of his tenor. "I got a rule; I never hit girls."

"Ahem!"

The three turned their heads to Impa's left, only to find the ever smirking-faced Vassia casting her superior look on the young blonde Hylian, violet-haired eyebrow risen upward as she did almost as if to make some sort of statement to him. He rolled his oceanic eyes and re-opened his mouth to amend his earlier sentence.

"Unless it's a fight sanctioned by the Prima World Tour." He answered back in a humorous emotionless change to his tenor, as if he were one of the very staff members themselves. The listening Zelda, dressed covertly as Sheik and laying on Vassia's left, could only hold her mirthful giggles back with the fashionable white scarf she always wore to block her face.

"Here they come."

Alwyn's ever business-like baritone, coming from Barkner's right, made the laying group dart their heads up above the small incline they hid behind. Sure enough, there they were; a rather large group of what seemed to be merchants travelling along the bridge across the frozen river leading to Stralanavia's main borders, all carrying what appeared to be surprisingly large cargo.

"What were her orders again...?" Barkner murmured out curiously, swinging his curious-eyed look to his left and right as if for confirmation.

"'Halt the group of shippers travelling through the border and seize their cargo'," Impa spoke up simply and confidently, her ruby-red eyes narrowing over at the group of men a few yards from their position. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say Nadya was sending us on a mission to steal goods for her..."

"Or maybe it's to stop someone from selling them."

Sheik's surprising words, filled with the same wisdom Link knew her for, left the frowning-faced Impa nodding in silent-eyed agreement and light murmurings within the rest of the combatants.

"All right then...," the frowning Sheikah spoke up. "Let's do what we do best people; move out!"


"Urgh, look at this yield..."

The words of the group's commander, a woman, echoed out through the frigid-cold landscape they traversed woefully; she cast her scar-covered face on each cage they carried, all containing what appeared to be a multitude of people itself.

"No-one with muscle...," she bemoaned again, her hardened scowl twitching with what seemed to be irritation marring her already stained complexion. "We won't even get enough to cover our losses on this."

"But we looked all over for these рабы commander Ania!"

The woman swung her purple-haired head 'round to face one of the men in charge of guiding the horse-ridden carts, a disappointed kind of frown filling her face. The man seemed half-insulted himself, a kind of deflated look in his eye.

"I been sellin' these useless ублюдки for over ten years and you know the one thing I found to be consistent?" She posed forward, a firmly-held frown on her face. The man blinked back at her.

"W-What commander?"

"No muscle, no hustle," she shot back, turning her lightly-irritated look on the poor prisoners resting within the cages around her. "The only way we're getting any money off these sacks is by makin' 'em all stronger somehow."

"Makes you wonder what these guys even do with these рабы..." The man began again, leaning around to stare inside one of the many cages around, finding a group of mixed Aurelians huddled in a corner, hiding from his stare as if they were wild and timid animals.

"It ain't our job to wonder," Ania reminded the man angrily, her eyelids lowered in a display of her annoyance and growing frustration. "They could be abusin' 'em for all I care; so long as we get rupees, that's all I care about."

"Commander! Up on the hill!"

Another man's voice made the woman at last rise not only her violet-haired head, but her eyelids and eyebrows to match; she swung them 'round over to the snowy incline not far from their position, soon widening her eyes when she realised the shapes and figures in the distance were people.

"I see them!" She called back, eyes narrowing. "There's only a few of 'em... six!" Ania continued on, brow furrowing as she counted them all in their swift approach. "But they don't look like common rabble! Stay alert!"

2

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH...

SLICE

"Eyaargh!"

The yells and screams of battle cries and agony were all thrown in together like a melting pot to boil as the first couple of snowflakes fell from the sky, dotting the already beautiful landscape of Stralanavia with yet more sleet. As Alwyn's released sword-fins came whirling through the air and successfully managed to cut through the first guard's face sending him stumbling in his advance, he scrunched shut his eyes and scowled horribly before re-opening them both in an abruptly-widened gasp when he found what seemed to be a fast-rolling rock-like form fast-approaching him.

CRASH

"ARRRGGgghhh...!"

His scream of pain and agony went unanswered and unheeded as he was sent careering high through the snowflake sky, joined only by yet more of his yelling and howling comrades, also knocked and ricocheted high into the sky. As the fast-rolling rock that was Barkner continued his mad advance, kicking up the beautiful bright-white flakes of snow into the air with it, it didn't take long for the nearby Vassia, Sheik and Impa to press forward in their own advance-by-assault; a quick-moving attack that saw them bobbing and weaving out of the wild and fairly predictable defensive strikes of the bandit men around them, soon finding themselves pushing the enemy forces back across the bridge on the frozen lake where they came.

"Pull back! Pull back!"

The listening Impa and Sheik exchanged a quick look together, almost as if to confirm with one another that they both heard the woman's frantic call above the din of battle, before shooting up their heads to its source; the violet-haired woman leading the enemy forces appeared to be standing surrounding a number of caged humans, carrying a simple longsword as she did. When she caught the nearby-watching forms of Impa and Sheik, she double-took in their direction and rose up her eyebrows lavender eyebrows to match, tightening her grip on her longsword.

"Put it down!" Impa called forward in a deft yet firm-faced warning, her ruby-red eyes narrowing as she did. "If you can do that... I promise you we can keep your company's casualties to a minimum."

A corner of the woman's hardened frown upturned into a mirthless smirk as she re-opened her mouth to respond. "You know what you're doing...," she spoke quietly yet confidently, her smirk coming through in the tone of her own contralto. "Who sent you?"

"That's not something you need to know," Impa shot back accusingly, tilting her silver-haired head back at the woman as she affixed her stance to stand tall and imposingly over her relatively timid posture by comparison. "Resist as much as you wish but with the information we have, you won't walk out of here alive if you do."

"Must have been one of those damn senators somehow...," Ania spoke lowly to herself, almost as if she were voicing her own postulations and anxieties, using her free thumb to bite at its fingernail. "I've been doing this for over ten years!" She called back, spinning the longsword she carried around expertly, staining it in the beautiful-white of the falling snowflakes around them. "There's no way on this earth I'm giving up for those of my own country, let alone outsiders!"

The silent-eyed Sheik threw her mentor and leader a quick sidelong glance, joined by the similar-faced Impa, before at last they readied their own weapons and leapt forward.


Link spun the Gilded Sword of the blood that he had managed to stain it with, instead besmirching the otherwise spotless snowfield beneath him, leaving him in a hardened-eyed frowning-faced glare as he quickly turned his head around. Littered behind and surrounding his small form were the bodies of many of the bandit men, having chosen to attack him presumably in thinking he was easy pickings.

He thanked the Sainted Three for his skills, grateful and all.

WHOOSH...

His straw-haired eyebrows lifted upward and his oceanic eyes widened as he felt a sudden rush of wind to his far-left, eliciting the blonde youth to back-dash to immediate safety, kicking up shards of ice across the frozen river and the snowfield behind it. Link's eyes widened a second time when he clocked the weapon that had forced him to move so abruptly, a halberd that he'd have recognised anywhere. When shooting his cloaked head up to confirm his inner suspicions an odd kind of feeling ran down his spine as his eyes drank in the sight of a figure he'd only seen mere days ago in Kaiohdrahl's national championship martial arts tournament.

He was wearing what seemed to be a similar cloak to himself, ragged as most of his clothing always appeared to be, but it was definitely him; the tilting-stance and scowling form of Raynard Van Garrick himself. Link's eyelids lifted and his own hardened frown slowly upturned into a cautiously optimistic smile, re-opening his mouth to address his raven-haired rival.

"Ray!" He greeted forward, receiving little in return. "W-What are you doin' here?"

The listening Raynard opted not to respond vocally; he merely stood in his sidelong-eyed glower, watching him carefully as if he were just another enemy soldier. Link's smile found itself breaking little by little to match his growing concern and he chuckled back nervously as if to convey it.

"Ray...?" He prodded the black-haired youth again curiously turning his curious-eyed gaze 'round and, suddenly realising their surroundings, threw a quick glance in the direction of the battle-at-hand. "What are you doin' here?" He asked this time, his smile soon faded in place of a concerned frown. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you're-"

"On the other side."

A kind of uncomfortable silence shot in between the two Hylian boys; a noticeable tract of stillness that left a burning nervousness in the air. Link's brow furrowed back at his raven-haired rival and a concerned feeling swept across his spine in realisation.

"Ray...," he whispered out, their eyes glaring at one another through the falling snowflakes between them both. "You're not... fighting for these slavers... are you...?"

Silence again and this time for what felt like an eternity.

Raynard glared back at his blonde-haired rival in a sidelong-eyed glower of his own, the wind whipping at his spiky-haired fringe. "It's good rupees..."

He at long last opened up his mouth to speak to him and a shocking trio of words it was; the listening Link held back from taking a step back in sheer shock, his oceanic eyes widened and letting out a gasp to convey it.

"Do you even know what these people are doing Ray...?" The former Hero of Time spoke quietly again, his cerulean eyes re-narrowing as he re-opened his mouth to continue. "They're-"

"I know exactly what they're doing."

Another tiny gasp escaped the young blonde's lips, unable to believe it.

Raynard's chestnut-brown eyes narrowed similarly and his stance straightened somewhat. "What's it to you?"

"B-But Ray... these people that they're takin' advantage of... it's-"

"It's none of our fucking business."

Link stopped in his rant's tracks, eyes widening again as he lowered his small cloaked arms. Raynard opted merely to continue his glare forward as he re-opened his mouth as if to elaborate.

"As long as I get paid in the end...," he claimed, brow furrowing lightly as he did. "That's all I care about."

"You don't mean that..."

The listening Raynard tilted his head back. "So?"

His quick response, so callous and yet so confident, managed to leave a gaping hole in where their friendship once was.

"If our places were reversed no-one would be coming to save me." The black-haired boy spoke through a slit-eyed glare this time.

"So... I can't change your mind on this?"

A corner of Raynard's mouth upturned into a smarmy-faced smirk as he re-opened his mouth to speak. "I think we've reached an understanding."

Only the sound of the rushing wind, joined only by the beautiful-white snowflakes of Stralanavia emanated between the two Hylians as they glared back at one another, an invisible line of circumstance and oppression filling the suffused air between them. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours as they kept their eyes firmly fixated on one another's forms, their fingers twitching terribly at their sides to move at a moment's notice.

It was only when Raynard's figure shimmered in the foggy light that Link's eyebrows lifted in realisation and recognition, and he gasped out in effort as he very abruptly swung his body 'round to face his back, bringing up the Gilded Sword and Mirror Shield in mid-air to block.

3

CLANNNG

Link near scrunched shut his sky-shaded eyes and grit his teeth together as he just managed to block the sudden back-attack assault his new foe attempted behind him; somehow re-obtaining his sunken halberd and finding the time and movement with which to approach him from the back, Raynard hung in the air, steel halberd held imposingly high over the grunting and defending Link. Time slowed down for the pair of Hylians and, as Link flew backward in mid-air, he found himself watching the firm and frigid look in his rival's eye; something that Raynard returned with great fervour, as if he were waiting for this particular moment for quite a while indeed.

Even as the pair of Hylians skid backward across the beautiful alabaster of the Stralanavian snowfield, they found themselves very quickly advancing again by rushing forward again, moving so quickly they almost seemed to be air-dashing. The snow beneath their feet kicked up in a lovely flurry of white before at last it ended in a powerful crescendo of muscle.

DROOM

The two rivals collided the backs of their forearms together so savagely and so noisily that it caused minor shock-waves, commanding the very attention of all those within its radius. Indeed, even the screaming bandit men and surprised companions of the Hylian hero all swung their heads 'round mid-battle to quickly glance and gaze at the brutal exchange, before yet one more shock-wave exuded from the pair of Hylian boys; a final one that acted as a prelude to their second clash and this one much more embittered than the last.

While Link back-flipped as a sign of his earlier acrobatics in having back-dashed to safety away from the black-haired Raynard, Raynard instead chose to simply shift through the air, chestnut eyes kept solely focused on his younger enemy. As the pair very quickly approached one another from their sides, Link threw forward a quick couple of thrusts with the Gilded Sword in a vain attempt to catch his foe with; soon countered rather easily as Raynard merely scowled and weaved through them before soon swatting them away with his steel halberd in a noisy echo of their weapons crying with one another.

CLANNNG

Link winced and grit his teeth together as he felt his sword-arm jar terribly from the collision; a response that Raynard was looking for. The apt youth stabbed at him with a low thrust kick at his knees, sending him grunting down temporarily. He reached for his shield-arm before using it as a vault to kick both boots against the blonde's grunting face with, sending him sailing backward high into the snowflake-filled sky with, but he didn't go alone; as he back-flipped gracefully through the air, he used his free left arm to pull from his Aegir with and widened his tree-shaded eyes as he swiped vertically and brutally at the air.

"REPPUKEN!"

Like magic a projectile of razor-sharp wind-elemental Aegir energy came shooting down to meet the wide-eyed Link and, rather than directly challenge the snake-like Reppuken with his Hadoken technique, he wisely opted instead to use the Mirror Shield to block it with.

CLINK!

VRRR... VRRR...

Just like in his long-forgotten fight with Kotake and Koume in the original timeline he hailed from, his Mirror Shield – this time of Terminian origin – managed to not only stop the Reppuken from hitting him, but seemed to absorb its qualities completely; indeed, the horrifying screaming face on its mirrored surface appeared to be glowing indistinctly with a dull green-like hue. As it hummed out quietly, the blonde youth back-dashed to safety in an attempt to regain some space against his older foe.

Raynard, of course, followed.

It didn't take him very long to after-image behind the former Kokiri a second time and, as he did, Link was ready for him this time; he shot up the Mirror Shield to block and Raynard's steel halberd came singing noisily and boldly down upon it.

CLANNNG

The former Hero of Time narrowed his oceanic eyes as he pushed forward and upward at the halberd, sending the wide-eyed Raynard stumbling a step or two back from the sheer jar he felt up it. Link followed up by releasing the Aegir stored within the Mirror Shield, widening his own eyes as he did.

VRRR...

WHOOSH

"Gurnngh...!"

It wasn't much but it was enough for Link to gain an opening on his would-be-superior opponent; he pulled the Gilded Sword back, slammed the hilt of its powerful blade into Raynard's gasping lower chest before at last finishing by yelling as he spun his body and weapon 'round in a debilitating spiral assault, coating his body and his sword in bright-red flames.

FRRR-SLLLASSSH

As Raynard was sent back through the air, he flipped into a swift recovery, casting his lightly-bleeding scowl on his enemy before slamming both his free and his weapon-holding arm against the snow-filled ground beneath him in an attempt to rapidly slow his movement, kicking up buckets of beautiful-white snow into the air as he did. As the watching Link narrowed his eyes forward he too began to shimmer his form in what seemed to be a fairly subtle attempt at an after-image; the glaring Raynard unfortunately saw it coming and widened both tree-shaded eyes as he swung a brutal roundhouse at his immediate rear-left.

SMACK

"Hrngh...!"

Even as the blonde boy came flying through the air small fingers still gripping at his weapons, his figure shimmered again and, as it did, as opposed to a simple after-image it was his body instead that managed to split into two copies. The watching Raynard widened his eyes and made ready to counter for the obvious assault coming his way but it was simply too late; as Link's second multi-form copy reached out to grab his arm and swing him firing back up the way he came, Raynard could only watch and raise up his halberd to block as his foe came savagely crashing into him.

SLAM

The sheer force with which Link managed to crash into his older Hylian enemy was enough to send them both careering into and even through the once-thought near-indestructible bridge over the frozen lake, causing a huge carnage of wood and ice.

KERASSSH

As the pair of boys rolled across the frozen lake it was the narrow-eyed Link that pressed on his earlier reckless assault and indeed, his very luck itself, by rising up the Gilded Sword with both arms and driving it down upon his fallen foe.

CLINK!

KRSH...

The sound of ice being punctured beneath them echoed out as Raynard darted his scowling-faced head out of the way to avoid it before firing up a quick jab in the surprised blonde's face, sending his wide-eyed gaze stumbling upward half a yard or two, before he follow-up counter-attacked by grunting in effort and narrowing his tree-shaded eyes as he foot launched the wide-eyed Link over him.

Although the launch would have easily have sent the cocky Hero of Time flying through the air, he used a quick and expert counter-grapple of his own to reverse the okizeme that Raynard gained over him by using his Aegir to flip in mid-air and mid-launch, swinging his arms to grapple at Raynard's own. As they both attempted to wrestle with one another, their weapons clanged noisily to the ice-covered lake beneath them, leading the wide-eyed Raynard to finally eat the consequences of his actions.


CRASSSSH-CRRRACK

The sound of the frozen lake fracturing ever further from their punishing counters emanated out into the cold Stralanavian air and the growling Raynard reached up with his right arm to grapple at the wide-eyed Link's cloak and winter coat.

WHOOSH...

KERRRASSSSH-CRRRRACK

Again the robust ice-coated lake beneath them somehow managed to withstand the brutal assault upon it as Raynard and Link yelled in their passionate competition of strength with one another.

WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH

WHOOSH...!

Raynard growled out through his bleeding mouth as he grappled at the blonde's left arm and began to circle them both 'round superfast, eventually culminating in a yelling toss forward, sending the grunting Link flying through the air. Although the former Hero of Time managed to right himself fairly quickly by utilising his Aegir a second time, flipping backward through the air gracefully as he did in his landing, it was the narrow-eyed Raynard that managed to command the attention gained by the finished battle behind him; having at last ended their confrontation with the (mostly) deceased and defeated slavers around them, only Raynard and Link remained, still adamantly embroiled in their second face-off with one another.

RUMBLE-RUMBLE...

The last survivor of the Van Garrick clan gave vent to a low-toned tenor scream of anger and zeal, rapidly rising the depths of his strength, speed and Aegir. The watching comrades of the gasping Link all exchanged looks with one another before at last nodding and leaping toward the engagement, almost as if to assist the young blonde. Link, realising their intentions, widened his oceanic-eyed gaze at them all and rose up his now free left hand to dissuade them all, opening his mouth to voice his concern.

"N-No! Stop!"

Raynard's glaring wide-eyed gaze of his own soon realised the fast-approaching forms of Alwyn, Barkner, Impa, Sheik and Vassia and he reacted in kind; he used the very high-rising powers of his Aegir to knock back the air-dashing figures of most of his enemies yet utilised his Aegir-control so masterfully that only one direction was spared.

Sheik's.

As the young would-be Sheikah leapt toward him, bandaged arms held back to attack with, the excited-eyed Raynard cast his malevolent grin back at her before reaching forward to grapple at her as she approached.

The disguised young princess widened her magically-cloaked fire-red eyes behind her long fringe of blonde hair, soon realising her mistake albeit far too late; a sentiment shared by her attacker and he cast his smirking-faced elation down on her as he raised up his now free right hand, caked with razor-sharp wind-elemental Aegir energy.

"No!" Link called out, breaking forward into a sudden air-dash. "ZELDA!"

Raynard double-took toward the fast-flying form of his foe before soon dropping not only his seemingly-amused smirk but the very wide-eyed figure of Sheik, tossing her recklessly aside to his left. She grunted out in scrunch-shut agony as her small and petite frame slid across the frozen lake around them, suddenly grateful for the intervention of her close companion. Unfortunately for the fast-approaching Link however, he had done just as the watching Raynard had desired.

CRASSSH

Like the first free-fall of rain on spring, Link had air-dashed directly into the grinning-faced Raynard's low chest hook, halting his advance immediately and sending him wide-eyed and grunting to his knees. It didn't take very long for the stubborn young Hylian to react however; while his form twitched and he struggled to stand back up, he pulled back his jerking left arm and hand, clenched its fingers into a fist, before eventually firing it down and upward into the surprised Raynard's lower chest.

SMASSSH

Raynard screamed out in great pain and suffering, his very widened eyes twitching and shaking with the rest of his form. Veins began to stand out on end from his fists, as if he were suffering from extreme anger and hatred, before he eventually re-fixed his shocked face into a hardened scowl as he followed up with another frontal assault.

CRASSSH

SMASSSH

CRASSSH

SMASSSH

CRASSSH

SMASSSH

CRASSSH

In an unhealthy mix of body-blow after body-blow, the pair of Hylians let loose on one another with great eagerness, even beginning to bleed at the corners of their mouths from the sheer intensity with which they visited their pent-up aggression on each other. At last their passionate yet tactless slug-fest concluded, they swung their boots into one another's faces in brutal yet powerful confirms.

WHACK-WHACK

FWIPFWIPFWIPFWIPFWIP

The two youths were sent tailspinning rapidly in opposite directions, grunting out as an airborne trail of their bleeding mouths followed after them, soon staining the once-pristine frozen lake beneath them in boiling-blood red. Almost as immediately as they landed did they take to the air in simultaneous narrow-eyed glares, almost as if for more room to fight with. Raynard took the narrowly-won opportunity to dive-kick forward and upward in a debilitating assault upon the grunting Link's chin, sending him flipping backward. As he did however the young Hero of Time pulled back both his arms and, with his fingers now free of his weapons earlier, rapidly charged in non-elemental Aegir before quickly firing it down and forward, widening his oceanic-eyed gaze as he did so.

"HADOKEN!"

WHOOSH...

Raynard had little-to-no time to avoid the oncoming counter-attack, leaving him shocked and open to take it head on.

KERRRASSSSH

VWEEEEE...

Smoke from Raynard's newly-grunting form echoed out alongside the explosion of Aegir and magic, sending him flying back down to the ground whence they both came, followed by the back-flipping Link. Raynard, just barely managing to catch his own landing safely enough, at last began to show the signs of fatigue; as he glared back at the standing Link, he instead knelt on the snowy ground beneath him, his spiky-haired fringe of raven-shaded hair split at all ends from the endless combat between them, his already weathered and worn tunic ripped and showing holes through it. Blood fell from the side of his mouth as he gasped out continually as if for air to recover from.

The standing Link was in a fairly comparable state; he stood but just barely, his form shaking as his newly-purchased cloak and winter coat was wrought with holes and rips, breathing heavily through the blood that collected across his own mouth as drops of sweat fell from his blonde fringe. The Hylian hero clenched both fists back to ready himself for either another assault upon his raven-haired rival or indeed, prepare for an enemy assault of his opponent's.

4

The pair glowered and glared back at one another for what felt like an endless amount of time before, at last, a compromise was made. It was the surrounding surviving companions of Link that noticed first; a vapour-like portal that seemed to form out of sheer thin air itself not far from the battle site. As it began to kick up air and the very snow around it, it eventually managed to pull the surprised attention of the wide-eyed Link and Raynard, breaking them both out of their combined reverie together. They swung their heads 'round to the portal's noisy entrance only to find a form that the watching Link had thought not to see ever again since his original emergence from his own timeline.

The firmly-frowning form of Scaverin himself, former aide to the would-be-king Ganondorf.

Link's brow furrowed in curiosity as he caught an odd bandanna wrapped around the bald bishop's eyes, leaving him in what appeared to a strange blind state.

Sure enough however, he was as familiar to the Hylian hero as he remembered fighting him across time with Sheik and Raynard in the original timeline.

Why's he here now, the worried youth thought.

A light clicked in the boy's head when he darted his eyes back 'round to gasp for air in Raynard's direction, soon realising the connection.

This is bad, he thought.

"Raynard died in my time because of his connection to this freak," he ruminated on, gritting his teeth together tightly as he swung his blonde-haired head to glare over at the standing Scaverin. "If that happens again... then I..."

The narrow-eyed Impa exchanged fairly quick glances with the standing Alwyn and Barkner and, receiving nods from both, she leapt forward with them supporting her advance presumably for a frontal assault on the would-be-blind Scaverin. With little warning the summoner tilted his bald head to his left and shot up his robed right arm to the skies and, like magic, an invisible shock-wave of Aegir shot out from his form, sending the gasping Sheikah and her comrades flying back the way they came.

CRASH-CRASHCRASH

CRASSSH

The snow around them all opened up in a beautiful flurry of white and fluff, caking them in it as they were sent careering back. As Sheik attempted to assist her mentor so too did the watching Vassia try to help Alwyn and Barkner up.

"That's insane...!" The gasping Barkner managed out as he coughed out from the sheer force of their enemy's sightless counter, taking the grunting Vassia's hand to sit up from his fallen position. "Did you guys feel that...?!"

"Yeah...," Alwyn responded on the Goron's left, gasping similarly as he pulled himself from the wreckage of his own fall, wincing as he dusted himself off. "I've not felt that kind of power since my army days..."

"It was reckless of me to try that...," Impa huffed out as she took Sheik's hand to pull herself up to a standing position. "But then... he is in the Black Book back home..." The Sheikah wisely claimed, ruby-red eyes narrowing back at the standing form of Scaverin ahead. As opposed to even acknowledging their existence, the former bishop lowered his earlier-raised fist and began to turn his bandanna-covered eyes on it, almost as if he were shocked by something.

"I... I can see...," the sightless summoner proclaimed, as if it were a skill he had at last only just delved into. "Even without the benefit of eyesight... I can see...!"

Indeed, just as he whispered his fabled words into the Stralanavian snowy weather, the figures he saw were mere dull shapes filled by a coloured substance of what seemed to be Aegir itself; multi-coloured figures of human forms all stood out before him, some duller than the others. The near-kneeling forms of Link and Raynard were shaded light-red and light-green; a sign of their natural Aegir affinities as well as their current incredible fatigue.

The listening Raynard, curious himself, could only furrow his own brow back at his benefactor before him, eliciting another response.

"Raynard...," Scaverin at last addressed the raven-haired youth with, his usual business-like frown adorned to match. "Come. We are leaving."

The gasping Raynard double-took in the direction of his similarly gasping blonde rival, eyes boring holes into his own as he did.

"N-No...," Link wheezed out, struggling to stand back up to his boots as he turned his hardened-eyed glare on the standing Scaverin on his right. "I... I still don't have... my answers!"

Scaverin turned to face the kneeling form of the Hero of Time and the two stared at one another for the first time since their original meeting in the first timeline; an event only Link had managed to recall.

"The boy that imprisoned lord Ganondorf...?" He murmured out thoughtfully, brow furrowing forward through the bandanna he wore across his ruined eyes. "Hmph..."

Unfortunately for the weakened Link, the gasping Raynard still had enough strength to limp up the incline of snow to reach his mentor, reaching out one of his arms to use Aegir to call his steel halberd back to his fists. The two Hylians didn't stay long; they turned their heads 'round as they stood back-facing the noisy blood-portal behind them, brow furrowed and eyes narrowed. While he opted to say nothing else, the watching Scaverin kept his sightless head focused in Link's direction, his brow furrowing back at the gasping youth thoughtfully.

At long last, as they both stepped backward through the blood-portal, it swallowed them whole and the air around them shimmered before they both vanished into thin air itself. Link gasped out one last time as he dropped his head to a lowered and defeated position, oceanic eyes shutting in frustration.

Twenty years in the making, he thought...

"And I still can't change the future."