Chapter 32: Evening the Odds
This time, she wasn't helpless. Link squeezed the handle of the Four Sword as though to reassure herself that it was real and solid. Its blade glinted in the spotlight, the green gem in its hilt sparkling. She looked past Ghirahim at her twins, all holding a copy of the Four Sword, gleaming bright. This time, she had a weapon. And not just any weapon—the sacred Four Sword, which was able to seal away evil. Even a demon like Ghirahim would be vulnerable to its edge. Multiply that by four, and her chances of winning were near certain.
Ghirahim smirked at her, completely unfazed by the four Heroes surrounding him. "I must say, when I first laid eyes on you, I was beside myself with frustration. Yet again, I thought, I would be hindered by a child. I once fought a Hero, and he almost made me respect his skills. I could never defeat him. Although... he never quite defeated me, either." He lifted his black sword and ran his tongue over its edge. "You, however, only resemble him in appearance and that lack of fear you like to call courage. Now I am beside myself with glee at the thought of wetting my blade with your blood. It will be all too easy."
"Yeah, licking your sword and stuff isn't cool, it's just gross and unsanitary," Vio called out. "Can we skewer him yet, Link?"
"Please," she growled.
In unison, the four Links raised their swords. Link and Blue, in front of Ghirahim, lunged forward, each swinging downwards at his torso. He brought his blade up, intercepting both of them neatly, using only one hand to hold both of them back. While he was occupied with those two, Vio and Red rushed in from behind. One swung high, the other low, in a deadly scissor combination.
He barely glanced back and then disappeared. Their swords cut through empty air. The four turned around, searching for their opponent.
"I see that you will actually provide some entertainment this time," the demon called. They turned towards the voice, to see him standing atop one of the outdoor speakers. He snapped his fingers, causing a second sword to appear in his other hand. And then he vanished again.
Just in time, Link saw Ghirahim appear in the air above Red, swords pointed down. "Move, Red!" she shouted.
Her twin rolled out of the way, Ghirahim plunging to the empty stage behind her, his blades diving into the boards. Vio saw her chance and lunged forward. Her sword arced down across his back.
The demon grunted. Link's heart flared with hope. Had Vio's attack hurt him? Vio's face split into a satisfied smile, and she struck again, causing him to grunt in pain with each hit. But he quickly vanished before she could hit more than just a few times.
Link turned around, once again looking for the demon. Her eyes swept over the courtyard—wait a moment—it was empty. Just two people stood there below the stage: Vaati and Aveil. She locked eyes with the Mage. Had he teleported everyone away?
"Vaati!" she cried. "Find Impa! She's in the castle! I think there are other guests still inside, too—get them all out of here! I'll keep Ghirahim busy."
She didn't wait to see if he'd heard. There was the telltale sound of Ghirahim teleporting, and she whipped around. The demon was at the far end of the stage. With a snap, he summoned a ring of black daggers, floating around him. Another snap, and the weapons went hurtling towards the four Links.
They all scattered, dodging the daggers expertly. Link saw Red take off towards Ghirahim, launching into a furious set of attacks with a battle cry. The demon blocked each and every one with ease. Red didn't back down, however; even a demon had to falter at some point. The silver blade of the Four Sword contrasted sharply with Ghirahim's black sword, light and dark clashing, then separating, before coming back again to strike each other. Red and Ghirahim stood with their blades pushing against each other, trying to overpower the other. The demon looked as though he were merely holding his hand up, not straining against Red.
Blue and Vio ran to join their twin. Ghirahim's dark eyes glanced over at their approach. Vio attempted to stab him in the side, but his free hand shot out, catching her blade in two fingers. Link saw her struggle to pull her sword away. Strength, speed, teleportation—even with the four of them, Link wondered what it would take to bring the demon to his knees.
With both his hands occupied, Blue attacked Ghirahim from behind. He flinched from each strike. Like before, after several hits, he simply vanished, reappearing on the other side of the stage, keeping out of reach.
And so it went—Ghirahim generally kept his distance, hurling daggers at them or appearing above one of them. They did their best to dodge, and once he was close, they attacked. Each hit felt less satisfying, though, with each attack they launched. He was being injured, wasn't he? And yet, they were the only ones showing signs of wearying. The demon watched them with a small smile, as though enjoying a game.
"Is that the light of hope fading from your eyes that I see?" Ghirahim taunted. "Even with the strength of four Heroes, you lack a key ingredient. That sword in your hand will never be able to best me. It was created for the Wind Mage, not for me. No, you will need a different sword. Too bad for you that you won't be alive to retrieve it."
He vanished, and they looked up, anticipating his attack from the air. Link heard a laugh, before realizing that it was coming from behind her. She whipped around to see Ghirahim right behind her. His black blade flashed towards her face. Caught off guard, she was only able to clumsily block his attack; the tip of his blade cut near the corner of her eye. They both leaped back from each other, Ghirahim gleefully admiring the blood on the edge of his sword, Link feeling the cut oozing warm blood down the side of her face.
Why wouldn't the Four Sword harm him? It had the power to repel evil, didn't it? If it could defeat someone as powerful as the Wind Mage Vaati had been, surely it had the power to overcome a demon.
A different sword, he said. Could he mean the Master Sword? But it was missing, likely taken by the Yiga. Perhaps that was all part of Ghirahim's plan—by taking away the Master Sword, he was ensuring victory for himself. And this fight was just a fun game of cat and mice for the demon.
Ghirahim raised his sword to launch into another attack, but just then, there was a rumbling under their feet. Ominous smoke poured from an upper level of Hyrule Castle. The demon frowned. "Tch, those Yiga... they are even more impatient than I am."
Link's heartbeat picked up. Were Vaati and the others safe? He and Aveil were no longer in the courtyard, so they were probably in the castle. She called out to her twins, "Keep him occupied!" and leaped off of the stage, pelting towards the castle.
She heard Ghirahim teleport, and she screeched to a halt just in time to avoid the swing of his blade. But Blue had followed her, and she attacked Ghirahim, diverting his attention away from Link. With a grateful nod to her twins, she took off again. She heard them give their battle cries. Even if they couldn't defeat Ghirahim, she knew they could hold their own against him.
The ballroom was completely empty; there was glass scattered on the marble floor near the refreshment tables, where wine glasses had fallen in some commotion. Link ran up the grand staircase, following her ears and nose to where the source of the smoke was coming from. As she ran, she spotted signs every so often of struggle—vases knocked over, chunks missing from the wall, burns in the carpet, flickering lights. She even had to step over two or three unconscious Yiga agents.
Turning a corner, she barreled into someone, and immediately leaped back, drawing her sword. The other person also drew back defensively, hands raised and wind whistling. They both relaxed when they recognized each other.
"Geez, I thought you were a Yiga," Link sighed, lowering the Four Sword and giving Vaati a relieved grin.
"Same here... There's been way too many of them." Vaati sighed. His eyes flickered to the side of Link's face. "You're bleeding."
Link shrugged. "Just a minor scratch. Where's everyone else?"
"Impa and Aveil are going to meet me in the ballroom; they were checking for guests. We can't find Zelda yet."
"What about that explosion?" Link pointed at the ceiling.
Vaati shook his head. "It was just a loud smoke bomb so the Yiga could get away. Impa and I were fighting about five of them." He suddenly squinted and looked around. "Where's Ghirahim? And your twins?"
"Still fighting. Hopefully..." Link looked down at the Four Sword in her hand. "I still can't hurt him, not even with this. I thought I could finally beat him, but in the end, I have the wrong sword. And the right one—the Master Sword—is missing." Her fingers tightened around the hilt, her eyes hardening. "I have to find out where he's hiding it."
Her roommate opened his mouth to speak, but there was a sudden loud crash from down the hall. They both whipped towards the sound. More Yiga? Had Ghirahim caught up to Link? Link grabbed Vaati's arm and dragged him into the nearest room. They waited, barely breathing, standing right by the door, and listening closely.
Quick footsteps pattered by. Two or three people, Link guessed. She opened the door just enough to see out into the hall. As she thought, they were Yiga agents, running swiftly back the way Vaati had come.
She moved forward to chase after them, but Vaati grabbed her arm. "What are you doing?" he hissed.
"I'm going to follow them," she replied, frowning.
"And what if Ghirahim pops up when you're fighting them?" her friend pressed. "We should just meet up with Impa and Aveil and get out of here. We can't do anything as long as Ghirahim is here." When Link just looked back at the door, he tugged on her arm. "Seriously, Link. You'll only get hurt."
She gently pulled her arm out of his grip. "I'm the Hero. I can't just run away and let Ghirahim get away with this."
The Mage sighed in exasperation. "Fine, then let's find the others first before we pick any more fights." He took her arm again and dragged her behind him back towards the ballroom, ignoring her protests.
They walked quickly, not speaking. Vaati never let go of Link, and she found herself focused on his hand. His grip was tight, as though he wanted to make sure she wouldn't get away. Such a contrast to when they had danced; he'd barely held her hand and the pressure on her waist was ghostlike. If she didn't know any better, she'd say Vaati had been nervous. But then again, so had she. The memory of their dance made her heart stutter as she recalled how close they had gotten; influenced by the gentle, romantic atmosphere, she'd been about to—
Link shook her head. She hadn't been about to do anything. And now wasn't the time to worry about that, anyway.
As they approached the ballroom, they caught the sounds of metal hitting metal and pained grunts. A fight was already underway. Link broke out into a full sprint, rushing out onto the balcony of the ballroom. Down below, her three twins were scattered across the room, with Ghirahim standing in the center.
Vio and Blue rushed at him from opposite sides. At the last moment he vanished, and their swords ended up crashing against the other's. Link cried out in alarm when the demon reappeared right behind Blue, bringing down his black blade across her back. She cried out in pain, legs giving out from the blow. Vio shouted and tried to counterattack, but Ghirahim merely jumped back in a graceful flip.
Link leaped from the balcony before Vaati could stop her, rolling as she hit the marble floor. Ghirahim regarded her with a calm smirk. "You are early. I had planned to kill these three before you returned." He swept his sword towards her twins. For the first time, Link saw that they were all bleeding from various cuts: Vio had a gash on her arm, Red was limping from a wound in her thigh, and Blue lay on the ground, blood flowing profusely from her back.
Vaati came running to her side, his eyes quickly darting over the other Links, narrowing as he saw the damage as well. The red of his eyes began to glow slightly. "We should get them out of here," he hissed to Link.
She nodded. The Mage snapped his fingers, summoning a cloud of Keese. Before Ghirahim could react and attack the Keese, they flew towards the injured twins, enveloping them before dispersing, leaving behind only bloodstains on the marble floor.
"How inconvenient," Ghirahim frowned at the spots his victims had been only moments ago. Then he turned to Link and Vaati, letting his sword vanish into diamonds. "Is running and hiding the only thing you know, Wind Mage?"
Vaati snapped back, "I'm not going anywhere until I beat that smirk off your face."
The demon only laughed and grinned, apparently amused by Vaati's anger. "You are a long way from beating me into doing anything." He began walking backward, away from the center of the ballroom. "I tire of play-fighting with these so-called heroes. Why don't you two amuse yourselves with this?" He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
A shock ran through the ground, making Link and Vaati stumble. Ominous cracks began to appear in the marble, spreading out from the center of the room like a spider's web. The two quickly stepped back as the floor started to swell at the center.
"It is quite lucky for me that you Hylians are so... sentimental. You don't like to dispose of anything, not even the bodies of your enemies," Ghirahim mused from the other side of the ballroom.
The floor was breaking now, large chunks separating from each other and dirt crumbling out from the cracks. Whatever was coming out of the ground, it was huge. Link held her breath. Her mind ran through all the giant monsters the Hero had had to face in the legends: dragons, giant skeletons, robots...
All at once, the floor burst, chunks of marble flying into the air. Link instinctively threw her hands up, but Vaati was already using wind to shield them both. It was impossible to see anything through the cloud of dirt and marble raining down. She felt it, though—something huge, shifting its feet, adding subtle tremors to the already rumbling floor.
Slowly, the dust cleared. The mysterious giant in front of them gradually shifted from a shadow within the dust cloud to the beast it truly was...
"Oh, Hylia," Link cursed as the beast's single yellow eye fixed upon her, and it turned on its eight legs towards them. "Why a Gohma?"
