23.1
[Fate/Grand Order]
Visitor from Beyond the Stars
Some people made the strangest friends. Indeed, one would have to travel far and wide to find the sorts of people Ritsuka Fujimaru made allies and comrades of. But that was something special about them.
Sometimes, however rarely, they would be capable of calling upon a friend from beyond the stars. Servants from an entirely different Universe.
"Hey! Fujimaru!" Ritsuka blinked as the woman materialized upon the summoning platform. A familiar woman she should not have yet met (Because this was still the first Grand Order). Calamity Jane, an Archer from the Servant Universe. The Space Scout.
She had to play it cool. "Hi there… uh, should I know you?" Ritsuka asked, rubbing the back of her head, trying to sell the lie that she didn't know this woman. So long as Goetia didn't pick up on that, they'd… probably be fine. It worked with the Fairy Knights, so it should probably work here.
"What do ya mean, 'should I know you?'" Jane put her hands on her hips, pouting as Mash looked between Ritsuka and the woman.
"I'm sorry, but… um. I don't believe we've met. Can you please introduce yourself?" Mash asked, bless her heart, she was unAwake this Loop.
"Oh, right. Hi! I'm Calamity Jane, Archer-Class Servant from the Sapphire Galaxy!" she gave a two finger salute. "I came in response to your call for help, Rits."
"I… don't believe we've met yet. You're the first Servant we've summoned Jane," Ritsuka offered, and she could see her smile droop, before sighing.
"Time is weird… great. Well then, I guess since we're meeting for the first time, for you at least, I'll be a bit more expositive." She tapped her feet together, before more formally saluting. "Calamity Jane, former Space Scout from the Sapphire Galaxy. Messenger from a Galaxy far far away. If you say I'm the first Servant you've called upon, then I'll be your ray of hope." She smiled. "Don't worry, I'll help light your way."
Actually summoning someone from the Servant Universe was a rare occurrence… but it was a welcome one. "Then we're glad to have you along." Ritsuka walked into the summoning chamber, to shake hands with the friend she'd yet to meet. A visitor from the Stars.
The First Servant often had a way of affecting just how things were going to go. And as Ritsuka had learned, Chaldea's Summoning System, FATE, was finicky. Unlike that of the Fuyuki System, it had a secondary component. It merely sent out a message to Servants, a call to action that they had to choose to answer, at least that was how it worked without any catalysts involved.
It seemed Marisbury's experiments had an unintended after effect this Loop. "You know, for being an organization trying to save the world, we don't get a lot of new blood do we?" Jane noted as she was in the Summoning Chamber with Ritsuka, who'd been doing some mental calculations.
"I don't know why… is the FATE system not working?" Mash asked in concern as Ritsuka began to mentally check. If things kept going this way she was going to have to resort to catalysts to drag Servants off the throne kicking and screaming.
Three Singularities in, and they'd only gotten two Servants. Ushiwakamaru and Altria (who thankfully was Awake, and quite pissy this Loop.)
Da Vinci, who was in the Summoning Chamber looking things over, shook her head. "Nope, the systems working perfectly fine," the Awake Caster kicked a panel closed and crossed her arms. "I know what the problem is. The Servants are still pissed at Marisbury and his stupid experiemts," she snarked.
"Oh…" Mash frowned at that, biting her lip as Jane similarly frowned.
"Hey, give a gal a hint yeah? I don't know what these are, not from around here you know," she asked, tapping the side of her head with her fist. Altria, who was currently nursing a mug of coffee, scoffed.
"Marisbury was the former director of Chaldea. He did some very questionable things that pissed off a lot of people, to the point where the grand majority of Servants on the Throne want nothing to do with a Chaldean Summon," the Black Saber provided. Idiots, the lot of them, and quite petty.
"...Certainly explains the hostility," Ritsuka muttered. Aside from the French Servants, Asterios and Euryale, most of the Servants had been surprisingly hostile, at least until they warmed up to Ritsuka herself.
"Well, none of that matters to me. Maybe other folks from the Sapphire Galaxy would be more willing to join up?" Jane offered, but shrugged. "Course I have no idea how I got called anyway."
"I'm sure I can figure something out," Da Vinci offered, humming. It would be interesting to summon Space Servants for a change.
"You know what, space it is, you figure that out-" she started, before an explosion went off… right on schedule.
"What was that!?" Mash summoned her shield, and was the only one in the room on alert.
"An explosion, duh," Altria commented, taking a sip of her coffee before Ritsuka turned and grabbed Jane and Mash.
"Space later, problem now," Ritsuka offered, Mash just letting herself be dragged along as Jane broke free and followed along. Nobunaga and Okita had just arrived.
Well at least it was looking like this Loop was going to be a very interesting one. With far more SPACE than usual!
23.2
[Fate/Grand Order] [Adminspace]
Grand Order Rising
Ritsuka Fujimaru Awoke in a rather… strange location, she was sitting at a table in a fairly simple looking coffee house. She looked around, trying to quickly gather her bearings… and noticed someone extremely out of place almost instantly.
An older gentleman, with silver hair, and wearing what seemed to be a mix of attire she'd seen from Uruk and a more pre-modern style. A mix of old and new. He was fairly dark skinned, of a similar shade of brown to others from the Mesopotamian era.
"Ritsuka Fujimaru," the older man offered, tilting his… clockpunk hat towards her, that really was the only way to describe it.
"Hi?" she asked as the man moved to sit at the table. She could practically feel the power rising off him, despite how casual he was.
"I'm not exactly one for conversation," the man offered as he sat a small cup in front of him. Beer, specifically of the Mesopotamian type. She recalled the many times she and Mash had helped create it, and despite not drinking it herself, she knew the ingredients, as well as how to make it by heart at this point. Gilgamesh wouldn't have accepted anything less than that. "But I've been waiting for this conversation until this very moment."
Ritsuka nodded, she'd had some weird conversations before. "I don't believe we've met yet sir, but… you seem to be Mesopotamian," she commented, drawing on the many hints from his appearance, but the man shrugged.
"You're close… I am Manu the Great, the Chaldean God of Fate." he grabbed the cup, and took a long, hard drink from it. "And I'm the Admin for your Branch, as well as the new Admin for the rest of the Nasuverse." He brushed a small strand of silver hair out of his face.
Ritsuka blinked at that, before leaning back in the chair she was in. "Okay… wasn't expecting to be having this sort of meeting just… on the spot?"
"Most Admins don't do this mind you, but I'd decided to do this a while ago. After all, you and yours deserve some explanation for the more… problematic elements you've been dealing with," Manu put his hands on the table. "The rest of them will be arriving shortly."
"There's a reason you're here with me alone?" Ritsuka crossed her arms.
He nodded. "Of course there is," he started, before looking the young woman up and down. "As Admin, my job is not just to maintain your Branches, it is also to make sure that those under my care are in good health, mentally." Ritsuka closed her eyes as he continued. "...And I must say, you've exceeded expectations."
"Excuse me?" Ritsuka muttered, and Manu chuckled.
"Young lady, you've held up rather well, all things considered. You're damaged, but not broken, nor do I feel you'll be breaking anytime soon. You've made progress towards finding your own solutions, even if some of those solutions aren't the best." he shook his head.
"You're not referring to my… Identity thing are you?"
"Fujimaru, you are who you want to be, I am not about to admonish you for that," the God of Fate took his hat off, taking another sip of his beer. "But there are people with worse habits than you, who we shall not discuss." he set the cup down.
"Then what do you want to know?" Ritsuka asked as the Admin looked her up and down.
"Quite a few things, namely how you feel you've been adjusting, how you've taken to the Loops, and more," he said, tapping a finger to the table.
"Well, I've got a lot to say I guess," Ritsuka admitted, and the Admin gestured for her to begin. And so Ritsuka began to tell her story, from her own perspective.
"This appears to be the place," Sanson started as he, Abigail and Lavinia all stood outside a small coffee shop. The place they'd been walking towards when they Awoke this Loop.
"Seems like a nice place," Lavinia commented, holding Sanson's left hand while Abigail was holding his right through her sleeve.
"Wonder where we are this time?" Abigail questioned happily, Sanson sighing and shaking his head as he gestured towards the door.
Together they walked into the shop, and were greeted by a sight… they hadn't been expecting.
"I mean, I can safely say me and Link ended up pretty darn good friends after all of that," the young woman with bright orange hair said, clearly still telling a story to a silver haired man at the table.
"Seeing how you speak of him so fondly, I would imagine so. Such are the bonds you forge," the man that Sanson could feel was something far greater than they said calmly. He chuckled, turning around. "And right on time."
"Who's on-" the girl leaned to look around the man… and was stricken silent by them. The silver haired man leaned back as Sanson slowly let go of Abigail and Lavinia's hands.
The girl got up, and Sanson walked towards her, and she towards him. "I…"
"It's… been a long time, hasn't it been?" Sanson asked with a soft smile. "...The last time I saw you, you were coming to try and save my life…" he could see in her eyes… she'd lost some brightness, but in place was such a different form of life. No longer was she that innocent girl he'd walked alongside. "Master."
"Sanson… You're… you've been…" Ritsuka muttered as he rested a hand on her shoulder.
"I'm here Ritsuka. All three of us are." He looked down at Abigail and Lavinia, the two girls smiling as they stood together.
"I was wondering when I'd finally see you three," Ritsuka was smiling, and also crying.
"We're here Ritsuka, we never forgot about you," Abigail wrapped her arms around Ritsuka, leaning her head against the orange haired girl's shoulder.
Lavinia smiled darkly. "We didn't exactly meet for very long but…" She walked up and joined the hugging. "I'm happy to have met you. Thank you for saving our world we've yet to really see."
"How's the multiverse been for you three?" Ritsuka diverted, looking between the trio. "We haven't exactly gotten out much."
"It's been many things." Sanson started, taking a seat. "And we have quite a few stories to tell… in fact, I have one to tell of the very last Loop."
"Same here," Lavinia offered as Abigail chuckled.
"Yeah… a really big story, even if I wasn't there for very long," Abigail offered, and Ritsuka smiled.
"You four take your time. We'll continue when the others arrive," the silver haired man offered, taking a sip of his drink, and allowing the four to speak to each other. A meeting millenia in the making for all of them.
"Well this is the spot," Da Vinci mused as she, Mash and Altria were arriving at the coffee shop. Altria had detoured them by dint of being hungry, so they'd ended up taking an extra thirty minutes wandering the streets of Nekomi.
Altria still had a box of fries in free hand, and she was wearing her casual dark clothes. "I do wonder why we were coming here, or where we are."
"I agree," Mash noted. "I still wonder why we're here though."
Da Vinci smirked as she looked at her companions. "I suppose we'll figure that out then, shall we?"
Mash nodded, the youngest of the trio pushing the door open to reveal a surprising sight. "Sanson? Abigail? Lavinia!?"
"Mash!" Abigail cheered, the little girl grinning as she broke away from Ritsuka to run up to Mash, tackle hugging the pinkette. "It's been far, far too long!"
"Hello Mash," Lavinia was far more sedate as she waved to the ground. "Good to see that you're Looping as well."
"Lavinia…" Mash smiled, "I'm happy to see you as well. We always make sure to save you from Raum."
"Thanks for that, I suppose," Lavinia commented, just smiling all the same, Altria huffing as she walked up to Sanson. The taller man looked down at her as she set the box of fries on the counter.
"Charles." She nodded to him.
"Altria." He nodded back. She held out a hand to him, and he took it, the two shaking for the first time in a long, long time. "I still remember our battles together, but only now do I understand their meaning."
"Good. I will admit, I was surprised to learn of your travels. You will tell us of them all later," she ordered, the Gentleman of Paris nodding with a small smile. They let go of their hands as Ritsuka stood up.
"So… Manu," Ritsuka looked to the silver haired Admin, who'd been silently letting them meet and greet with each other. "As far as I know, this is everyone?"
"It is, at the moment at least," the man spun around to face them, and snapped his fingers. Surprisingly, a radio turned on, playing an oddly familiar tune. For Ritsuka, memories of a mist filled city were what greeted her.
"Really setting the mood aren't you?" Ritsuka snarked, but Manu ignored her, taking the hat he'd left on the table and placing it back upon his head.
"Loopers of Chaldea, of the world known to the Hub as 'The Grand Order'. I am Manu the Great, the current Admin of the Nasuverse Cluster," he relayed, quickly and precisely. "I suggest you all have seats. We will be here for a while."
The seven Loopers all found somewhere to sit. Lavinia and Abigail sharing a chair, Sanson and Altria taking a seat at the bar coffee shop's counter. Mash, Ritsuka and Da Vinci all took a table together, allowing Manu to continue speaking.
"Now then, I'm sure you all have a lot of questions. But I don't have long before I must return to my duty of maintaining not just your world, but several others. I've taken the time earlier to inform Shirou Emiya, Touko Aozaki, and Shiki Tohno of the new arrangements. However, you all have…" he pulled down the hat, hiding his face, and his silver hair. "Special circumstances."
"What kind?" Altria questioned, the pale woman crossing her arms as Manu tipped his hat back up, the mostly Mesopotamian looking deity looking to her.
"Of all of the Nasuverse Branches, yours is the most unstable. Originally assumed to be due to another Admin's negligence, the deeper I've dug, the more I've learned that it happens to have been gravely affected by many events in Yggdrasil's history. Indeed, as if by Fate, it took this long for them to surface, just after our most recent Crisis," he shook his head. "The world tree works in strange ways. But the point is, your world has been in poor condition. Indeed, worse than most."
"Why tell us this now?" Da Vinci asked, reasoning that there had to be something for this meeting.
"Allow me to posit something to you four in particular. Surely, you've noticed just how variable your Baseline is. What occurs, when it occurs, who appears, who arrives, how long it is, eccerta?" he asked.
"Yes mister Manu," Mash admitted, and the god snapped his fingers.
"You see, since Chaldea began Looping, I've actually had it set as restricted to purely Baseline runs. That's how damaged this Branch is, that even when it's been forced onto what's effectively 'Baseline', it is still so variable all it can do is maintain similar 'beats' as it were. There are other Branches that are similarly damaged, but very few indeed. Of course I've done all I can to repair this damage, but at this rate, it will likely be in the latter half of fixed universes by the time the Loops are done, however long that may take," he revealed.
"...So wait, we haven't technically had any variants?" Ritsuka questioned in shock.
"You've had some, but not many. Surely you've noticed them, such as that time Shielders and Sabers swapped classes. But the point still stands that, since your Activation, and even until this very moment, your Branch has effectively been set to run in sandbox mode while I've been doing very specific repairs." The god took a deep breath. "That is also the reason you've had so few 'Fused Loops'. There were things within your Branch I was preventing from getting out. For example, the Outer Gods present within it, the Seven Beasts, things you haven't even witnessed, since they were glitches and bugs buried deep within the code."
"So what you're saying is, until this point, you've been keeping us as isolated as possible to prevent things from getting out?" Da Vinci asked.
"Somewhat. There is also the problem of things getting in. You've noticed the very few 'full fused' Loops you have had. Every one of them was approved and organized, as a test. I won't go into specifics, but the long and short of it was I needed to make absolutely sure things would be able to run as intended. Patches, safeguards, programs, and more." Manu smirked. "As it stands, a majority of these tests have been an unmitigated success, despite the best efforts of your standard villains to ruin them without even realizing a test was occurring."
"So you're telling us this to inform us that repairs are complete?" Sanson questioned, the executioner crossing his arms as Manu shook his head.
"Oh, far from it. What I'm here to inform you all of is that, as of this Loop iteration… we've finally made just enough headway. And with all of the tests completed to satisfactory results several changes will be made, effective next Loop." He removed the steampunk cape, and the hat, setting down his anachronistic clothing in favor of his full 'Chaldean' garb.
"First, Abigail, Sanson, Lavinia. You're being removed from Traveling Looper status. Yes, you're finally coming home," he revealed, Abigail cheering as Lavinia smiled. Sanson nodded as Manu continued. "Second, your Branch is going to be having a lot more regular Fused Loops, since we're lifting the safeguards preventing it from doing so. Expect the unexpected, not even I know what will come from the future," Manu revealed.
"So we'll finally be having visits to the Multiverse ourselves then?" Altria asked, and smirked. "About time. And here I thought going outside was going to be such a novelty."
"And third," Manu added. "I'm removing the restrictions keeping Chaldea from undergoing the typical degree of Variance most Branches regularly experience. So similarly, you all should expect some new sights shortly." Manu nodded to them all.
Da Vinci smiled. "Well I suppose that's good news then isn't it?" she mused, and Ritsuka snapped her fingers.
"...Do you mind if I ask a question sir?" Ritsuka asked, and Manu turned to her but didn't speak. "...Why do I keep changing species every Loop, and… well everything?"
Manu sighed. "I suppose that would be a very pressing question, wouldn't it Fujimaru?" he adjusted his seating, crossing one leg over the other. "To make a long story short. Your file is heavily corrupted. More than just that, it's missing lots of key data pieces that have been outright deleted. Your Baseline history has effectively been lost to Yggdrasil, and only small bits and pieces have been recovered." He picked the hat up off the table and began spinning it on his finger. "However, your species is an entirely different issue, before the Activation and Expansion that occurred during it, we actually did have a lock on your species, which as you might assume… was human."
"I figured as much, however I'm sensing a 'but'," Ritsuka pointed out, and the God of Fate nodded.
"I've determined why your species tag was glitched out, and it's a combination of a few factors. For starters, the Branch is just that heavily corrupted, and your file was already highly variable as it was, so that didn't help anything. The other involves a particular person you've met quite often. Koyanskya," Manu revealed.
Altria scoffed. "What the hell does that Vitch have to do with Ritsuka's screwed up species?"
Manu closed his eyes, putting the hat down upon his lap. "It has to do with her plan in Baseline. As most of you know, her plan was to become a Beast… however, you did not know the requirements, did you?"
"Those have mostly eluded us, but we've been putting together a picture," Da Vinci admitted. Catching Koyanskya, and getting her to talk, was tricky business, not helped by learning she'd done various extremely helpful things in Baseline, meaning removing her from the equation early could be a major problem.
"Then allow me to spoil those for you… her plan requires 'Magical Beasts' to be turned into her tails. As for what this has to do with you, Ritsuka…" He held up nine fingers. "You should know just how many tails a Kitsune should have at their maximum power."
"Nine tails." Ritsuka frowned, putting one hand on her chin. "...I can only possess five currently," she muttered.
"I'm sorry what?" Sanson questioned, and Mash sighed.
"We'll… tell you about it later, mister Sanson," Mash said calmly, and Manu continued.
"Her plan was to use creatures from the seven Lostbelts to accumulate power, turning them into her new tails to become a new nine tailed fox, separate from her origin as Tamamo-no-Mae. Her planned target for her ninth tail…"
"Was me," Ritsuka determined, and Manu nodded.
"Thankfully, that plan has been derailed already in Baseline. However the problem still remained. These were facts from Baseline. Her plan requires Magical Beasts to turn into tails. From the other Lostbelts she had gathered magical beasts, and had already created tails out of them." Manu then pointed at Ritsuka.
"By simple deduction, in order for Ritsuka to even be a viable target as the ninth tail, she couldn't be Human," Da Vinci reasoned.
"And yet many Servants hold Ritsuka as a shining example of a human, of humanity. An ordinary person, not some magical beast," Altria pointed out.
"You see, that's where things get tricky. At this point, even I'm getting into mere hypotheses… but even in Baseline, Ritsuka Fujimaru, you display things that are 'inhuman'. Surviving terminal velocity. Extreme poison resistance that was assumed to come from your contract with Mash, but remained even after Galahad's departure. Speed outstripping even some Servants with no reinforcement… I could go on, but even before this revelation from Koyanskya, there were things distinctly 'off' about you."
Ritsuka thought about that. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about…" she muttered, recalling such moments, even before they'd become natural to her… and there were quite a lot of things she'd done even as a 'mere' human."
"Finally… the reason this is probably even possible. Sakata Kintoki," Manu revealed.
Da Vinci snapped her fingers. "Right, he's a Man Attribute Servant, and even possesses the trait 'Hominidae', meaning 'Great Ape', or more specifically, primate…" She looked at Ritsuka. "Human."
"This being despite the fact we know he doesn't have a drop of human, or even primate blood in him. He's the son of a dragon god and a demon, and yet somehow he still represents the 'golden standard' for a human." Altria mused.
"He chose to live as a human, and not just defend human lives, but the human way of life," Ritsuka said with a smile. Kintoki had always been an inspiration for her, to keep going like this. "Osakabe also has that trait, and she's a kitsune to the core," Ritsuka also pointed out.
Manu nodded. "All of these factors existed in Baseline. Combined with Koyanskya's declaration from the Expansion, and the glitches and issues occurring during the Activation Loop," the god snapped his fingers. "One species tag, long gone. As far as Yggdrasil is concerned, it has no clue what you should be, even if it has guesses. I was recently able to recover enough data to pinpoint that you should be Japanese, as helpful as that is," Manu admitted.
"Yeah, real helpful, it's not like Japan has literally hundreds of different magical species in it," Altria snarked. But Manu nodded anyway.
"It's better than before. While your history is highly variable Ritsuka, you should continue as you are. Define who you are, however you desire," Manu said calmly, but smiled. "Now, there are a myriad of other things we could go over, but I don't have the time to do so." he grabbed the coat and placed the hat upon his head. "You should only be here in Nekomi for a few days, but please, take the time to enjoy yourselves."
"Thank you sir!" Abigail waved. "Grandpa says hi!"
"Hmph, of course he would," Manu mused before walking out the door of the coffee shop, leaving the group of seven alone to their own devices.
"So we're getting a vacation?" Altria asked, Mash sighing as the pale blonde picked up her fries again, and began munching.
"A short one, but a vacation nonetheless… So you three, how have you been?" Da Vinci asked, crossing her legs and looking to the girls and Sanson.
"Quite well, I recently had an… enlightening experience," he admitted, tapping the side of his head.
"Much the same," Lavinia admitted with a smile, one that was far more bright than expected.
"Yeah… Last Loop was kinda crazy wasn't it?" Abigail admitted.
"Oh this should be a story," Ritsuka leaned forward with a smile.
"We've got quite a few to tell, now then… I shall start. My most recent tale begins… with a murder, and a town called Inaba," Sanson began to regale them of his time in a clouded city, seeking not only a truth about murder, but truth about himself...
Adminspace
Manu typed away at his computer as the current iteration of Loops was winding to a close. Everyone in the Nasuverse Cluster had been sent off to Fused Loops for a Loop while this large maintenance was going on. Taking Chaldea off it's safeguards was only part of it, but the major systems update to the Tsukihime Branch was also occurring at the same time. Just another mess in his cluster at this point.
Of course, that was coming to an end, so he'd be ready to let things run at last. He'd finally settled on a proper level of safety protocols for the Nasuverse in general… Long story short, even a Spiral Nemesis would probably have trouble crashing this Branch at this point, just due to Chaldea's Baseline. That of course bled over to the rest of the cluster.
Well, at least visitors would have fun with a Loop that was stupidly hard to Crash.
"Right, finally time to let things run. Everything should be fine," Manu muttered, sitting back to observe as the next set of Loop iterations began. Everything seemed to be running fine… a Variant in the normal Fate Branch, Baseline Kara No Kyoukai… but that was where the normal stuff ended.
Manu pinched the bridge of his nose and just… groaned as he saw the screen displaying the Tsukihime Branch Data was spitting out errors. For once Chaldea was running somewhat fine, but now that side of the cluster was having data conflicts.
"Never a dull moment," Manu sighed as he set out to work yet again. No rest for him it seemed. Of course with the Nasuverse, there never was going to be such a thing as 'simple', 'easy', or even anything more than 'functional' really. Still, he would be rising to the challenge, now and forever.
23.3
[Fate/Grand Order] [Legend of Zelda]
Fate/Courage: Part 4
Actually reaching the Sacred Grove hadn't taken very long. Only a few hours of running by Link's measure. Surprisingly, unlike most things this Loop, it wasn't anywhere near as difficult to reach the true Sacred Grove, where the Master Sword slept.
After a much more complicated puzzle than usual. Same general gimmick but this time with three guardians, color coded in green, red and blue, had to be returned to their original positions… The duo was granted access to the true Sacred Grove.
"That was annoying," Ritsu snarked as she dropped back down from above, landing on Link's back. She'd been the eye in the sky, and predicting the correct path for the guardians and himself to avoid getting crushed. "Power, Wisdom, Courage… Altria told me those were the three parts of the Triforce," Ritsu mused, and Link nodded as he trotted towards the pedestal containing the Master Sword.
Ritsu flipped off of Link's back, landing on her feet and skipping towards the blade. "The Master Sword…" she hummed, floating back into the air and around the blade as Link walked up to it. His ears drooped as he stepped onto the pedestal, and nothing seemed to occur.
"You okay?" Ritsu questioned, and Link just shook his head. As expected, this time it had done nothing. There was no curse upon him… he simply lacked a hylian form to return to. "So… is this like a Caliburn thing? Only the chosen hero may pull this blade out?" she mused, tapping the hilt of the Master Sword a few times, before leaning against it.
Link thought about that for a moment. It was fairly variable what actually allowed someone to pull the Master Sword from its resting place. Heck, in the latest expansion, all he needed to be was tough enough to survive pulling the sword out… at least he assumed as much. Eh, better safe than sorry, he just nodded, even gesturing to her, to prompt an attempt to pull out the blade.
"Nah," she caught what he meant, spinning around to look at the sword. "There's no way I'd be worthy of it… not after what I've done…" she mused softly, Link sighed, as best a wolf could. So he trotted up to the sword fully… and contemplated how to get the thing out of its pedestal.
"We probably should have thought about this beforehand huh?" Ritsu cracked, chuckling as Link sat on his hind legs. This was going to be a bit tricky…
Ritsu watched as he lifted himself up, resting his forelegs on the guard of the Master Sword. The helmetless Twili laid in the air, watching Link try to wrap his jaw around the hilt of the blade. This was going to be a bit more trouble than normal…
The next twelve seconds were spent trying to get a good grip on the sword, attempting to pull. He could feel the Master Sword giving, but it wasn't coming out without actual leverage. Snarling as he tried to pull, Ritsu giggled. "Need a bit of help there?"
Link didn't respond, since he was still trying to maintain a good grip with his mouth, but a second later, a light glow surrounded him, an orange hand wrapping around his chest and lifting him up with ease. "Just keep a grip on that thing Link," Ritsu ordered, lifting him up into the air. With his mouth still on the Master Sword, he finally came loose of it's pedestal, being dragged along by his mouth.
Rather than the heroic and awe inspiring occasion it should have been pulling the sacred sword, it looked more like a comedy sketch. A little imp using her hair to hold up a wolf much larger than her, with the hilt of a sword in the wolf's mouth as he dangled in the air. Ritsu set him down, Link raising the Master Sword skyward with a tilted head, allowing it to gleam in the sunlight. "Sacred weapon acquired!" Ritsu declared, giving a cheeky thumbs up.
Link took a few swings with the blade in his mouth. It was awkward, as usual, but nothing he hadn't done before… of course there was only so much one could do with a sword in mouth.
Putting the Master Sword on the ground, he looked to Ritsu, who shrugged and took a moment to sit down, looking at the sword as Link began recasting that spell that would allow him to speak. Of course, after several minutes, he finished, and sighed. "This is going to be annoying."
"You using that in your mouth reminds me of Lobo," Ritsu commented, Link scoffed at that.
"You mean the bounty hunter?" he questioned, thinking of that bike riding nutcase from the DC Loop.
"Why doesn't that surprise me that some bounty hunter would use that name," Ritsu muttered, shaking her head. Link hummed that comment, prompting her to explain. "I meant the wolf, Lobo, King of Currumpaw. You've probably read his story," Link gave an 'Ah' in response. "Course he also has Hessian to assist him. Headless Horseman," Ritsu added.
That was a bit more weird, but okay. "Midna is capable of putting the Master Sword in her little twilight space, so you should be as well," he gestured to the sword with a paw. Ritsu nodded, snapping her fingers and causing the Blade of Evil's bane to vanish into said magical dimension.
"Well with that out of the way," Ritsu floated back into the air, crossing her legs and humming. "One, it still feels weird not having the helmet, but I'll get used to it."
"Eh, it helps differentiate you from Midna for me. She always keeps that thing on when she's stuck as an Imp, and she doesn't like the form," Link mused. Midna at least tolerated it though.
"I don't see the problem, if it wasn't for the seals Zant put on my power, it'd be perfectly fine. Even if I'm half the height my memories say I should be, but that's what shapeshifting is for," she mused, before shaking her head, her half white and half black face once again being something Link noted as quite different from his old friend. "Anyway, two, we've gotta find the Mirror of Twilight to go after Zant at this point," Ritsu hummed, letting her legs dangle beneath her and putting one hand to her chin, tapping the other to her cheek. Link noted that the lines across her body were a different shade of blue from Midna's…
She then shrugged. "Of course, it's not like we have any leads on its location. You said it yourself, Hyrule's a lot different from what you remember this Loop," she raised both hands up before putting them behind her head, her glowing orange hair twisting a bit in the wind."
"It should be in the Gerudo Desert, but we should be able to take our time," Link pointed out, leaving Ritsu to raise an eyebrow.
"Take our time? What do you think Zant's just gonna lounge around?" Ritsu questioned, lowering her arms to her sides and putting her right hand on her hip with a frown.
"He does norma-" Link started, before he sensed something coming in. A familiar darkness, the Twilight. Both of them looked around in concern as twilight particles began to fly off the ground, and the temple grounds once more bathed in twilight. "Nevermind, right, he's not sitting on his ass."
"I happen to know wanna be kings don't tend to sit on their thrones lest they have a good reason to. Just so happens this wannabe doesn't have a good reason not to sit still," Ritsu said with a shrug. "First order of business, back to Faron then. We're in their domain, so if Zant's going after the light again, we know what we gotta do."
"Oh this is going to make things so much more annoying," Link groaned as Ritsu flipped through the air and onto his back. He spun around as she patted his side.
"Don't worry, We've got the lock on all four springs, and I'll be making sure we don't get another intercept again… shall we?" Ritsu asked.
"Let's." he bounded off, the duo taking off to once more return the light to the land… because Zant wasn't going to make things any easier on them.
Ritsu yawned as she stretched her arms, cracking her neck. "Right, that's Faron, Lanaryu and Ordina saved… again," she grumbled and Link similarly sighed. Zant had given the essence of Light to far stronger monsters than a bunch of insects the second time around. "He's gotta know we're still kicking, or at least you are, but nothing we can do for that. He'll keep trying to invade…" Ritsu grinned, punching he fist into her other hand's palm. "But we'll keep bringing his plans to a grinding halt."
Link nodded as they entered Gerudo Desert. Rather than getting shot out of a cannon as was normally, they'd had to fight their way through an underground tunnel network, dug out by bublins. Still, it had gotten them where they'd needed to go.
Sitting in the sand Link took a deep breath as Ritsu hopped off his back, floating before him. She turned towards the Arbiter's Grounds, a building off in the distance with a frown. "Can you feel that?"
Link shook his head when she turned to him. She closed her eyes, crossing her legs. "The intermingling of Light and Shadow, more Twilight… and yet," she tilted her head as Link frowned, deciding to do a bit of sensing himself. "And yet there is still sunlight?" she questioned, and Link frowned.
Of course things wouldn't be normal would they. "I suppose we'll figure it out when we get there," she mused again. He stood up, and she dropped onto his back. Off they rode into the desert, to find the Mirror of Twilight.
It took maybe five minutes to encounter their first big roadblock of the Desert, which wasn't water or food… but as per darn usual at this point, monsters. "Oh great, the dead are rising from the sand," Ritsu commented as Link dove past several skeletons, human, bublin or otherwise… mostly otherwise.
He came to a stop when he noticed the particles of twilight emerging from the sand. Growling, Ritsu looked at their pursuing foes, and then ahead, as well as around. "An army… why not at this point," she snarked, patting Link's side. "But we can handle this right?"
Link barked in response. Of course he could, an army of bones wasn't about to stand in their way. Ritsu snapped her fingers, the Master Sword appearing for him to grasp. Grabbing it out of the air with his mouth, he charged forth.
The horde approached, and he simply slashed away. It didn't matter he couldn't use any finesse with the blade in his jaws, but the weak magic of these skeletons, combined with the Master Sword meant they went down with a single swing, multiple in one as well. Ritsu laughed, and he wondered why, only for a gale to pass by. The Gale Boomerang flying out and literally scattering bones among the sand, while also kicking up massive clouds of sand.
When it returned, Ritsu caught it with her hair. "What, did you think I was just going to sit here?" she questioned, and Link rolled his eyes, leaping forward again and taking advantage of her distraction. He spun around, spin attacking to drive a hole in the rising dead.
"Incoming! From the towers!" Ritsu called, throwing the Gale Boomerang again, the tornado around it catching, and deflecting around five arrows. Link charged in affirmation, cutting through the horde of skeletons again as a trio of cavalry bublins began to smash their way through the skeletal horde. "Seems like they aren't allied… we can use this!"
Link agreed, and as Ritsu caught the Gale Boomerang, she made it vanish once again. Running in front of the calvary bublins to get their attention, Ritsu stuck out her tongue, attempting to anger them. Clearly it worked, given the stampede now following in their wake. Dodging arrows, and the wild swings of the charging cavalry, Link let them smash through the horde of undead for them. Bones were crushed to powder as Ritsu snapped her fingers.
A chain shot out above him, the clawshot being used to grab one of the bublin's and yank it off the massive boar it was riding. The bublin screeched as it fell, and was subsequently beaten to death by skeletons using their own arms as clubs. The boar kept charging, at least until Ritsu hopped off of him, and onto the boar.
She laughed, using her hair to dangle a target in front of the beast, causing it to charge into the other two boars and knock their riders off before forcing it to turn back towards the horde of skeletons. She joined Link in beating down the horde, using her new mount to rush and crush as well. "Oi! Follow along!" Ritsu ordered, turning her mount towards what she could only assume was the Arbiter's Grounds, home of the Mirror of Twilight.
Link ran after her, ignoring the kicked up sand of the boar as they charged towards the stronghold of the bublins. As the skeletons thinned out, and finally seemed to get the hint they weren't going to be killing them any time soon. Ritsu flipped off the boar, which kept on charging, landing on Link as he skidded to a halt.
"Well, that was fun," Ritsu mused with a small laugh, Link rolling his eyes as she put the Master Sword back into her little twilight zone. "I think I'm getting better at this. You think so, mister wolf?" she playfully teased, rubbing an ear as she laid on his back.
'Well you're certainly outdoing Midna in the action and active department.' Link mused in his head. The more they traveled and fought together, the more confident, and more open she became. Better forging that picture of just who Ritsuka was. Playful, yet tactical. Willing to fight, even almost eager at times, but also knowing when to pick a fight. Similarly, quite curious of the world, and downright driven to save it, and anyone they came across, even if the spirits of people didn't know it, and only caring to hide herself from people in public places.
Still, she was a mystery he was unraveling slowly across their journey. Despite how chatty she liked being, her actions spoke far louder than her words did. "Oi, heads up and eyes wide." she bonked him on the head.
Link looked up in mild surprise, before she pointed out all the bublins trying to corral the boar she'd let rampage towards their base. "Stroke of luck for us. Let's go," she ordered, before diving into his shadow. Stealth it was then.
Well they'd been rather active this whole time, why not a bit of stealth then?
The moment they reached the Arbiter's Grounds outskirts, after he'd dug under a few gates, it became fairly obvious what was going on. Ritsu popped out of his shadow, unamused as they both stared at what lay before them.
The entrance to the citadel was shrouded by Twilight, a barrier they'd passed through many times before. "What, did he think this was going to keep us out?" Ritsu snarked, and Link growled. "What?" she looked towards him, and then back at the barrier.
Then she snapped her fingers. "Right… there isn't a Light Spirit here, so why is this place shrouded in Twilight? It's suspicious, yes," she mused, before looking at Link. "But there's nothing for it at the moment. Shall we enter?"
Link nodded, and Ritsu floated through the barrier, reaching through with her hair and bringing Link through a moment afterwards. Once inside the grounds proper, she returned to her regular position on his back. The entire Arbiter's Grounds was, of course, shrouded. "Let's get exploring then, shall we?" she questioned.
Running into the doors, and down into the first chamber, expecting something vastly different from the norm… he got something like that. A room much more wide and expansive, with multiple quicksand holes sinking into darkness… and creatures hiding beneath the sand that they could make out traveling at high speed. And at the other end of this massive room covered in ruined architecture, a single gate with the symbol of Hyrule above it. "Huh… bigger on the inside."
Link rolled his eyes, most dungeons were. Magic, most certainly, either that or they just appeared bigger due to careful use of space in their construction. This… this wasn't. Of course, he knew that the Arbiter's Grounds had a pretty dark history. After all, it was a prison and a graveyard.
As he was thinking, Ritsu was using her fingers to frame the room and the ruins amid the quicksand. "Got it," she started, floating off of Link before rapidly flying to a ruin, waving to him. "This way!"
Link nodded, and began rapidly jumping after her, the Twili barely keeping ahead of his leaping as she led him to a central platform. She spun back onto him as a large black charred skeleton, wearing regal red robes and carrying a black shield, as well as a red sword emerged from the sand.
Link growled, but Ritsu summoned the Master Sword for him, and he caught it between his teeth. The crown-wearing skeleton pointed its blade at him, as if challenging him to a duel, before running forward, shield and sword raised.
The small platform was barely enough room for him to slide beneath the undead's downward swing, slashing at its leg with his blade. The creature kicked at him with the other leg as it spun around, trying to bat him into the quicksand.
Ritsu instead grabbed it's outstretched foot with her hair and tripped it up, and while she wasn't able to yank the limb clean off, she dislocated it and left the skeleton on the floor. It reached for it's sword as Link spun into the air, coming down with the Master Sword in an Ending Blow, stabbing straight into the undead creature's skull. It screeched before exploding in a puff of Twilight particles.
"Huh, Skeleton King… those guys are normally so much tougher…" Ritsu mused, Link tossing the Master Sword out of his jaws, Ritsu catching it with her magic and stowing it away for later.
Link grinned. The Ending Blow technique was a strong one, and one of his favorites for just outright dispatching an enemy when he got the chance. He barked. "What, you want me to keep tripping them up?" she shrugged. "I can try, but first…" she looked around. "This way."
He followed, ready to take on the Arbiter's Grounds… At this point he was going to call it redux edition.
In extremely stark contrast to the rest of the dungeon… the room containing Death Sword was nearly identical to its usual appearance… save the sword contained in the middle of the room.
"Link…" he could feel her shivering at the blade's presence, the wolf glaring at it as he looked the blade up and down. It was charred black, and exceptionally tall and rather than the one sided blade he usually dealt with… it was a double sided one. The hilt was long, and topped with a circular pommel, making the shape of a crook attached to the blade. "I… I can't." she ducked back into his shadow, leaving Link to wonder what had spooked her.
Tuning to his wolf senses gave him that answer really fast. The room lit up like the sun in the spiritual world, forcing him to look away from whatever the hell was in the center of the room. Link growled, looking to his shadow. He needed answers, before he cut whatever this thing was free.
"The sword… it's Laevatein," Ritsu provided, barely poking her head out of his shadow. "At least, it's partially Laevatein… There's no Twilight in this room. There can't be… That sword is Light. But it's a vile light. A Light that wants to burn everything to cinders." She dropped back into his shadow, leaving Link to look at the sealed black.
Well… he was going to have to deal with this thing if they wanted to Spinner, and they were going to need it from what he had seen so far. He growled, and Ritsu popped her hand out of his shadow. She snapped her fingers and the Master Sword was dropped for him. He grasped it in his teeth, and moved towards the sealed sword's ropes.
The closer he got, the warmer the room began to feel, but not a comforting warmth, more like Death Mountain. Closing his eyes, he steeled himself… and cut the line.
He leapt back as the room's temperature skyrocketed. His ears perked up to the sound of a roaring fire, and a demonic howl. He opened his eyes to see the sword rising from charred black, turning a red… and then golden with heat. A large, floating spirit of flames appeared, the entire room alight with it's burning presence. Visually, it resembled Death Sword, save that it was wreathed in pure yellow flames, and it's mere presence was like that of the sun.
Mentally he just dubbed the replacement as Laevatein, based on the sword it held. It raised the sword towards the room's ceiling, screeching as pure light radiated from above. But rather than the comforting light of the goddess, or even the light of the Master Sword clutched between his teeth… it was as Ritsu claimed it would be. Smothering, vile, and destructive.
He needed to end this fight quickly, before he was burned alive, and before this thing could escape… even if it's sword could purge the Twilight. He'd add it to his collection after this.
He charged, Laevatein swinging it's massive blade across the arena, leapt over the flames, slashing the spirit's flame coated body. He'd cut away a portion of that, even as embers licked at his coat.
Laevatein raised its sword again, flew up and around the room. Link growled, eyes following the speeding spirit before he noticed something from above.
He jumped out of the way of a ball of fire, as more began to shower in from above. Flames from the makeshift sun of cruelty. Of course he then barely was able to avoid a beam of pure heat shot from Laevatein's eye socket. Link winced in pain as part of his fur was burned away, the wound cauterizing in an instant from the heat of the attack merely grazing him.
As he ran around the room, dodging falling flames and eye beams, he followed the pattern Laevatein was making around the room. He ran for the wall and ran up it, leaping into a spinning slash. Laevatein screeched and brought up it's sword, scraping the edge of the massive blade through the wall, gouging out stone and glassing it in an instant.
The Master Sword clashed against the Blade of Light. Even as the heat burned at him, he used it as a jumping off point, flipping over the spirit and dragging the Master Sword clean down it's back. Laevatein screeched again, dragging it's sword out of the wall. It landed on the ground as Link did the same.
The spirit reached it's free hand for the sword, holding it's hilt with two now, rather than one. Link growled, only for Ritsu to pop out of his shadow. He could hear her grunt in pain as she held up the clawshot, using her hair to grasp at Link. Everything happened all at once.
Laevatein swung, a crescent slash of pure light and heat crossing over the room. Before that had occurred, Ritsu had fired the clawshot at one of the new melted protrusions hanging from the ceiling. Grabbing Link with her hair, she allowed herself to be pulled by the clawshot, taking them both skyward to avoid being turned to ash. Laevatein looked up at them, the duo close to the sun it had made in the room's ceiling and screeched.
As the spirit pointed it's blade at them, Ritsu vanished back into Link's shadow, dropping him in turn. This sudden drop allowed him to avoid the now extended blade of yellow light that came from Laevatein's sword. Landing on all fours, his feet burned from how hot the ground was. He pushed on through the pain, even as his fur was smoldering, smoke rising from his body as the creature swung Laevatein down at him.
He dodged out of the way of the clumsy but brutal swing, a line being gouged in the floor, turning stone to molten rock where it struck. So close to this burning bright light, he leapt at the beast's chest.
He tore the Master Sword clean through the monster's flaming torso. It roared, even as the flame began to reform around the 'wound' to heal it. Link hit the wall behind Laevatein, bouncing off of that and going straight for the creature's skull.
He cleaved the skull in two, and from there, didn't waste the time to let it attempt to die. The room itself was practically about to melt from the heat at this point. The moment he landed on the ground, he barked out to Ritsu.
She appeared for a moment, biting her lips and snapping her fingers, glowing sigils appearing one the spirit's arms and torso once more, even as it was reforming it's head from flames. She vanished back into his shadow… and he lunged for the sigils, going as fast as his body could take him.
When he landed again, the creature behind him roared… before turning to little more than ash and cinders. Nothing but dust. He looked at the sword, which was going from it's bright yellow and crimson red, back to the charred, dark black. It was losing his luster. He Pocketed it with a slash of his tail, wincing from the singe that he got from the sword.
He ran for the hallway that contained the spinner's chest. He didn't want to deal with this heat anymore, and they'd probably be waiting for said heat to be dying down for a while.
"Sorry about that Link," Ritsu muttered as she and him were sitting in the room that had contained the spinner. "I mean, I know Zelda gave me the ability to survive the light and all, but…"
He sighed as she was taping her fingers together. "It's fine, you're still somewhat vulnerable to the light. Granted a malevolent Spirit of Light wasn't what I expected to be fighting this Loop by any metric." The wolf shrugged as best he could. "Got a cool sword out of it though."
She shrugged. "I mean, I wasn't expecting Laevatein either, but at least it wasn't Surtur. Just looking at that thing hurt." She turned, revealing there were a few rather nasty burns on her back from when they'd literally gotten too close to the sun.
"See this is what we have potions for, stuff that we can heal," he mentioned, and she pulled out a bottle from her twilight space, filled with red potion.
"Don't mind if I drink this?" she asked, and he gestured for her to go ahead. Ritsu smiled, before popping the cork off and grasping the bottle with both hands, downing the red potion. She put the cork back in and put the bottle away. "Thanks."
"Hey, we're both taking hits here. So what was that thing?" Link questioned and Ritsu frowned.
"Well I know what it was from my world, but…" she looked down at her feet, wiggling them despite their lack of toes. "I have no clue, drawing a total blank on its history here."
"I'll take the former," Link said, and Ritsu nodded.
"Laevatein was Surtur's sword. See, in our world, Surtur was… interesting. He is Museplheim, as well as pretty much the concept of Ragnarok. He also was the sun at one point," she admitted.
"Well… damn," he muttered. Big stuff. "What else?"
"His sword, Laevatein, was a sword of malignant Authorities, made by the planet with absolute authority over 'life'. Technically if that sword was actually Laevatein, you'd be dead just from that graze you took," she pointed out.
He nodded, noting the Twilight particles coming off of the ground around them, which had been a surprisingly comforting sight after the unbridled and extremely harsh light. "It seems the mere presence of this sword was capable of dispelling Twilight… I'll have to experiment with it later," he mused. "I'm just gonna call it Laevatein anyway, even if that isn't the right name."
"Hey if it looks like it, might as well call it that," Ritsu admitted with a giggle. Link smirked.
"Oh, by the way," he started, Ritsu humming as she grabbed at her feet, both eyes looking directly at him as she rocked back and forth on the ground. "How are Sanson and the girls doing?"
Ritsu blinked. "...What?"
"Sanson and the girls, you know, Abigail and Lavinia," Link muttered, the wolf looking at her confused as the Twili just… stared.
"...Sanson, Abigail and Lavinia?" she asked, as if to confirm his words.
"Yeah?" he drawled, Ritsu looked him up and down, determining he wasn't lying.
She looked back to the hallway towards the room where Link had battled the creature. "...Well we've still got a while before that room's a somewhat survivable temperature again, now… what's this about those three?"
Link began to tell a tale of his rather short encounter with the trio, and in turn… got a tale he hadn't been expecting. The tale of Salem, of Chaldea's Activation.
What a strange tale it was.
Neither was certain how long their conversation had gone on for, but it had proven to be a bit of an enlightening one. One that by the end, Link felt he knew the young Anchor far better. Heck, he was willing to bet he was the only person he'd told this story to in full detail outside of her home Loop.
Course, it was also a humbling experience to know that another Branch had been so close to being lost. He kept quiet on that one as the two returned to their trek through the Arbiter's Grounds. With the Spinner in their possession, traversal through the crumbling prison, trapped in perpetual Twilight. Similarly, it was interesting to ride the device while a wolf, since his center of balance was so different.
Chasing after the poes that had stolen the flames hadn't been exceptionally difficult, but at the same time, Link noted that with Ritsu getting more and more involved in the combat, despite him being stuck as a wolf, they were plowing through enemies with ease. Skeletons rose and fell, spirits were found and sent back to rest. Even the random monsters beyond Laevatein that were of Ritsu's home Loop were brought low by their combined efforts.
Puzzles were solved, rooms were cleared, and finally they reached the boss room after maybe two hours after they'd been able to leave Laevatein's room. Link skulked into the room after Ritsu forced the door open with her hair, Master Sword clutched between his jaws in preparation for whatever they would find.
"Well this place is even gloomier than the rest of the grounds," Ritsu remarked as they entered the pit, together they looked down upon the skeleton in the center of the room. As Link had come to expect at this point, it was kinda off. It was still a massive and dragonic looking skeleton, but literally going through this an uncountable number of times told Link some very simple facts.
Namely the number of horns was off, it had less than usual. Also, for some reason there was a third eye-socket on it's forehead. Trotting down towards the skeleton, dark and foreboding laughter began to emanate around them.
"How… annoying." Link and Ritsu both looked up as Zant appeared, in a very different style of teleportation than Ritsu's. A full on warp rather than forming from twilight particles. Link growled, raising his sword as Ritsu glared daggers at the Usurper King. "That you both still live? It's astonishing. And that you both continue to subvert my goals," the masked Twili looked down at them both.
Link still could not get over the fact he was still so darn short. "No wonder that people called you 'hero' beast," he addressed Link.
"You come to get your ass beat Zant," Ritsu spat at him, reaching her hand behind her back around to pull something out of her twilight dimension. The 'king' regarded the imp.
"So stubborn Ritsu," the man clicked his tongue beneath his mask.
"How did you shroud this place in twilight?" Ritsu questioned, the man tilting his head.
"You assume I am the one who did this?" Zant laughed. "Oh, but I wish… I would tell you, but I fear this shall be where we part ways…" the twili raised his arms, revealing withered hands. With blood red magic that Ritsu kept her eyes clean on, he summoned a blade, jamming it into the skull of the skeleton before vanishing as red energy overtook the body in the sand.
"That wasn't our magic…" Ritsu clicked her tongue as the ground began to shake. "Well, either way, incoming!" she ordered, summoning the spinner for Link to leap onto. As Stallord awoke once more, roaring in anger as it's eyes lit up, the twilight shrouded room lit up… with light. "Oh you've got to be kidding me," Ritsu complained as the spinner attached to the rail on the outside of the pit.
Link looked up at the light beginning to appear from above. It was harsh, but nowhere near as harsh as Laevatein's light. Ritsu leapt off his back to avoid getting clipped by a beam of light shot from the creature's third eye, though this one was made of that same red power Zant had stabbed into the skeleton.
'Okay, this is just the Triforce of Power,' Link figured. Zant really was serious about killing them with this one. Ritsu grunted as she raised the clawshot with her hands, taking aim as Link looked for an opportunity to smash into the skeleton's spine.
The battle to set the Stallord to rest began anew.
"Well fuck us then," Ritsu snarked after the sages had given their story about the broken Mirror of Twilight. She'd been annoyed about it, like Midna had. Learning about Ganondorf had also similarly pissed her off.
"What did they think the Twili were all dead?" Ritsu commented, rather rudely as she looked up at the Mirror of Twilight, Link looking up at it with her. She shook her head. "Then again… that was apparently so long ago, they probably forgot about us…"
She looked back at Link. "Yeah I know, it's just Loop memories, but… well they're still people, and right now they're my people. Whatever's left of them, we've gotta save, just like we have to save Hyrule," she ordered, and Link nodded. As was the standard fare.
"So, snowy mountain, through time itself and up in the heavens… this'll be fun, but I doubt Zant's just going to stop his plans in the meantime for us to just go grab the door key." She tapped her hand to her cheek as Link snickered. That was an interesting way to put it, that the Mirror of Twilight was a giant door-key.
Eh, it kinda was like a boss door. "While I'm well versed in time travel, I don't think we should go after that one first. Traversing the heavens is also probably out right now… Are you up for something cold after all this heat?" she smiled, putting her hands behind her head.
Link nodded in approval. It would probably be nice to get out of this heat. But before Ritsu jumped up, she turned to look at the Mirror of Twilight.
"A sage dead, broken seals, and a shattered mirror… No wonder the Arbiter's Grounds are completely shrouded in twilight. It's leaking out of the busted mirror. And unlike with the Light Spirits, there ain't an easy way to put this back as far as I know…" she turned to like. "Let's go to Lanayru. The big snake should have an idea how to get this place unclouded, as much as I would enjoy the perpetual twilight."
With that, she hopped onto his back, warping them away. Off to continue their adventure once more. Zant's looming threats on the horizon, a journey to find the pieces of a mirror, and more and more difficult challenges along the way.
23.1: SPACE! The final frontier of the Servant Universe!
23.2: Let's get this show on the road, and off the rails.
23.3: Another step into Hyrule, more adventures abound.