Chapter 39: Hidden Within the Hood

Light returned to the world, and the portal disappeared, dispersing into the clouds like hot steam. The Phantom, overjoyed, laughed until his lungs were sore. He was so enthralled by his deceit, so overcome by wonder from how he had made it out of his predicament.

"Such deceit would never work on me." No, it couldn't be. "You were right about me, Phantom. I was not ready to accept my destiny."

He turned around, slowly, disbelieving, to see the Hero of Winds at the edge of the cliff, as if he had never fallen at all. His wounds had disappeared, as if they had been illusions created to make the Phantom think he had won. And most peculiar of all was what the Hero held in his hands.

"It can't be," the Phantom said, almost desperately. "You cannot have returned. I killed you. Is this some kind of dream? Your wounds have disappeared, and you hold a new blade in your hands. It's…it's…just a trick. This can't be real."

Link took a step forward, and the Phantom saw a new life awaken within him. First he saw the boy's hand brighten, a golden triangle glistening in the day. Then his sword seemed to incandesce with a light more vivid than the sun. The shaft of light was so strong, so bright, that it seemed to dispel all shadows in the area as truth dispels lies.

"I am complete again," Link said. "You knew this day would come. You knew that sooner or later I would accept what I have become, that I would finally be ready to progress further."

The Phantom said nothing, and instead lifted his wand and set loose a bundle of energy so powerful that it seemed a part of him had gone with it.

Unmoving, Link let the red cloud come to him. At the last second, he thrashed the Hero's Sword forward, letting the white light from within him be released. It collided with the Phantom's magic just before it touched Link, and the Hero held it there with his sword, pushing it away. Finally, the light of the sword consumed the red magic, swallowing it and blasting across the mountain.

The Phantom had no time to move out of the way, and so when the magic of the Hero's Sword struck him, his hands were raised in surprise. A sphere of fire and smoke erupted the mountaintop, and Link stepped through it to see the Phantom on the ground.

Suddenly the Phantom jumped forward, thrashing his sword in hope that Link would not be ready. But with just one stroke of Link's shining blade, the Phantom's sword was shattered into fragments of metal that were swept into the blackened air.

The Phantom again fell to the ground, and Link loomed over him. The Hero allowed the smoke and fire to be suppressed by the light of the sword until everything was clear again.

"You're too late," the Phantom said, pointing to the Phantom Hourglass. There were barely any grains of sand left on the top. "In mere minutes, this whole war will be over. Everything you ever fought for, everything you ever hoped to achieve, is about to be lost." The Phantom took out his wand, but Link's sword sent it flailing into the distance. The light of the Hero's Sword seemed to banish the shadows within the Phantom's hood, brightening everything. The wind finally lifted the hood, and Link saw who the Phantom really was.

"I don't believe it," Link said. Link had seen the Phantom's abnormal features before, his red eyes, his thick lips, but he had never seen his face. In reality, the Phantom was a man. He had no hair, and his skin was wrinkled and shriveled, but this fact was evident. "You are a man, not a ghost. How could this be?"

The Phantom laughed, taking refuge in his last power against Link: his identity. "It is true," the Phantom admitted. "I am a man. It should have been obvious. Haven't you ever wondered why the leader of the Poes is not a Poe himself? I grew up in this village like the rest of you, but when I saw the truth in the Poes, I turned to them for refuge. The Poes, the creatures that will come through the Phantom Hourglass –they are the future."

"I don't understand how you can turn to them," Link said, "when all they seek is power and destruction."

"You could never understand," the Phantom said. "Only she can." He pointed behind Link, and the Hero turned to see Maple rising in the distance, clutching her wounded body. "I saw myself in her those few years ago, and I hoped to give her my gift. She walked down my road, but eventually her fears overcame her. She could have been great. She could have been as powerful as me. But it is too late. You both chose the wrong side, and pretty soon you will see where your power falls short." He pointed again to the Phantom Hourglass, and they both saw the last grain fall to the bottom. "So kill me, Hero of Winds, only to see millions of others take my place."

He hesitated. When Link had pictured this moment, he had seen himself destroying a wraith, a creature bereft of humanity. But now it seemed as if he were killing one of his own –a man, a human like himself.

"It is just as I thought," the Phantom said. "You don't have it in you. Your people have a history of faltering when the end is near –of refusing to finish what you have started. And you are no different. It is just as Ganondorf said. You, like your people, have been asleep your entire life."

Link dropped the Hero's Sword into the Phantom, the white light seeming to drain the life from him. On his knees, the Phantom held the hilt of the blade, his mouth open, and finally fell to the ground.

The Hero of Winds looked at the Phantom, still alive, his eyes open in surprise. Bending closer, Link avowed,

"I'm wide awake."

He dug the sword deeper into his body, praying silently for his destiny to be over, for the Phantom to finally die. The Hero heard him release his last breath of air, a whisper in the wind.

Then he looked back to the Phantom Hourglass, encased in an outline of black. It began to expand, and Link felt all life and color begin to leave the mountain. It was like the Phantom's spell from before, but the intensity, the draining, and the speed, were all increased ten-fold.