This story has reached a grand total offfff... 5,000 VIEWS! Yay! Thank you so much for continuing to read this wonky story of mine. This chapter ended up on the longer side due to how much I wanted to fit in, but I guess that just means a lot happens.
Enjoy!
After making sure Salato was okay, Link ushered us along through one of two doors, the one furthest away from the entrance. Clearly, the room housed the area where the fighters would warm up. Wooden benches split in half and targets next to dummies falling apart littered the floor. Salato pet Creota on her shoulder cautiously, still quiet from what happened to her moments before.
Link noticed a chest raised on a platform in the middle of the room. Climbing it, he popped open the top and pulled out a large spinner. The spinner clanked and clicked slightly, made of gears and other whirring parts. He hit a button somewhere, causing the whole bottom to change shape a few times, jutting out different patterns of spikes until retracting completely.
"What is this?" he wondered aloud.
I shrugged. "It's a spinner, but it looks weird from what I remember."
Salato shot me a quaint look, narrowing her eyes for a split second then softening them as if she never twitched a muscle. I raised my eyebrow briefly, but Link quickly picked back at my attention.
"It's huge. I could ride it if I wanted to."
My lips puffed out a chuckle. "Yeah, that's what it's for, at least in the story."
Salato pointed the same look at me again. My cheeks flushed as I realized what she was remembering. Reading my thoughts, she gave a short nod and turned away.
Is there something you're not telling me?
"It's from when you couldn't hear," I mumbled.
"What?" Link peeked away from the spinner.
"Nothing."
He dropped it into his pouch and we continued on into a long hall. It stretched to what appeared as another training room, but this one was far more grand and spacious. Ornate weapons of gold, silver, and rusted iron decorated the walls. On the other side, a barred door held back a full onslaught of sand. It covered the whole opening, piling out onto the floor. My nerves itched at the sight, wondering if this was the big colosseum, the larger arena where Stallord sat dormant in the sand. It had to be.
"You know what this place is," Salato stated.
I spun to her, panicking slightly. "What?"
"Spit it out, what's the point of not saying it out loud?"
Link crossed his arms, leaning back onto his foot. I swallowed back the knot in my throat and spit it out before I started an argument. "We need to find a way into the arena. I think the actual ring is filled with sand so we need to get to the seating. That thing possessing the prison is there and we can access the mirror from it."
Midna slid out of Link's shadow, smiling. "Yes, let's go, quick."
I scowled at Salato as Midna started blabbering to Link about how close they were. She scowled back at me, mumbling below her breath, "Why do you feel the need to hide everything?"
"Why are you mad at me? I saved your life."
She pet Creota, softening her look. "I know."
"So?"
"I just want to find that son of bitch who tortured me as soon as possible and I know for a fact wherever you guys are going, he'll be there. I want to see you wipe that stupid smile off of his face...cause I know I can't do it."
At that point, I didn't think I could do it either. I frowned, but she reassured me silently, giving me a stiff nod. The scars shone along her collarbone, across her shoulders and disappeared into her loose sleeves. Her clothes were torn and disheveled, blood staining her skin.
Link's voice peaked as Midna poked him playfully. Her giggle jingled against the walls as his closed lipped scowl turned up in a small smirk. Salato elbowed me lightly.
She continued, keeping a close eye on where the other two's attention was, "You should tell him the truth. I don't care if you told him only a half lie, he deserves to know. And he deserves to know about your feelings too. I can't tell you the amount of times I heard his thoughts end up on you during that wagon escort. And I definitely can't imagine what it's like now either."
Before I could open my mouth to try to change the narrative, she laughed.
"You like him."
"I-"
"You know you can't lie to me."
Or me.
I knew, I knew a little too well by then. But now wasn't the time and she agreed when we started moving again. We were able to find a way out, up a staircase and to a large door. It remained closed solid into the ground, however, in front of it on the floor seemed to be the perfect hole to slide the spinner into. After noticing this, Link pulled it out and slipped it in, but nothing happened.
"Hit that button again," I suggested, taking my hand off my leiyn to gesture it out to him.
Did I tell you to stop charging it?
My hand flew back as he found the button and the familiar clanks filtered through until a loud ping rang from the slot. When nothing happened, Link took a guess and planted his feet in the shoe-shaped slots on the top. With a spring, the spinner jumped out and the door started to shake open.
As he leapt off, he picked it back up, but placed it back down. "Hey Midna, you think you can hold this for me like the boots again?"
Midna peeked out, touching the spinner and causing it to shrink and turn black. In its place sat the pair of iron boots which Link painfully heaved up into his pouch.
We warily passed into the large colosseum, walking along an open aisle that lead straight to the basin of sand where the large arena once stood. Moonlight mixed with the very first dim show of dawn cascaded from the fallen opening in the high ceiling. The chamber was gigantic, tall and wide enough that my eyes barely comprehended the sheer distance of the other wall. Meticulous stonework decorated them, engravings of stories and gold linings, etchings of triforces and crests.
In the center, a massive skeleton of a strange creature lied in the sand. Its rib cage down to its spine and hands were humane, but its skull was that of a satanic beast, goat like with four huge horns extending behind it and several swords stabbed into it. Remnants of brown fur stuck to its bones, especially at the back of the skull in curtains. Two broken fangs stuck in the sand, its body half buried.
I held my breath as we approached, waiting. A bloated hum exploded behind us causing me to turn sharply. Zant's full height appeared there, a monstrous whine echoing into the empty air. He laughed deeply.
"It appears I underestimated you. And perhaps overestimated that bloke, Destrian." Zant walked slowly to the seats, stepping up lazily so he was even taller than us.
Midna leapt out of shadow, her fang showing under her downturned lips. She spat, "You thought you could get rid of me, huh?"
Zant faced away, kicking a rock with his loafers. "Mm, I did. I still do." His feet spread out as he flicked his arms away from his chest. A pulsing ball of red flew back, barreling towards Midna. It was too close, too sudden to react, it met her head on. As it collided with her outstretched hands, it stopped, halted by something. The Triforce glowed bright on the back of her hand. Throwing her arms aside, the ball tore apart and dissipated.
He sighed somewhat, but kept rambling. "You weren't my target this time around anyway. Destrian might've failed me twice, but he did do one thing useful." Zant faced back around somberly. "Maizy, sweetheart, you know Vox works for me? Well, worked for me. I'd call him rather a traitor by now. That is unless he wants to come back. Vox, tell me, did you forget that your wife and daughter can still be revived? All you have to do is take her over and proclaim your loyalty to me."
My heart constricted, twisting in my chest. I gasped for air, collapsing to my knees as pain shook through my veins and my muscles tensed. "What? Wha-" Vocal chords choking, I tried to speak, but they didn't work for me. As Link darted to my side, they vibrated, trilling out a voice that wasn't mine. "You're a liar, Zant. You just want to use me like you did everyone else."
Everything in my sight blurred and spun, but I saw Salato watching me, horrified.
"We can end this, Vox. Your power can save your people from enslavement, even in that form. This world will be ours, no more persecution, no more strife. It's what my god promises to me."
My throat rasped, shouting, "Your god is a fake god! My brothers ran from you because they saw what you were doing. I was blinded by grief, but I see now. You're a cunt, a liar, a usurper. Nothing you own is yours. I'm as good as dead and this girl is my last stand against a fuck like you!" I felt my arm raise, collecting energy in my hand, balling up a massive amount of electricity that buzzed in the air. Link stumbled backward on his hands while Salato clutched Creota and ran. Throwing it forward, Zant intercepted it with his own power, tearing it apart midair.
A silence fell.
"Have it your way," he hissed, phasing out, the same chime startling from the center of the chamber. Zant stood on top of the skull, wielding a sword of the same design as the Fused Shadow. As he plunged it into the head, the skeleton rippled with jagged red lines, then, its eyes glew the same hue.
His figure thinned and disappeared as the reanimated creature climbed up from the sands. My body shuddered and I fell, my muscles relaxing. With my head against the floor, I tested my fingers, flexing them in and out. I breathed heavily, but voluntarily.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's all for a reason, it'll all make sense.
Next I tested my vocal chords. "Shut...shut the fuck up, Vox."
"Maizy!" Salato's embrace enveloped me. She pulled me up into her lap, parting my hairs that stuck to my face. "Oh goddesses, what was that? I couldn't even read you."
I panted, pushing up to support my own weight. Link stood at the edge of the ring, the spinner in his right hand and Midna floating next to his left. Stallord towered above him, letting out an ear shattering roar that shook the chamber viciously. Without a note of hesitation he jumped on the spinner and Midna grabbed his arm. They traced on the edge where a track with teeth connected with the spokes on the spinner and propelled them forward.
"He's worried about you," Salato confessed, sighing, "He's really worried, he doesn't understand what just happened. And frankly neither do I."
"I don't either." I left her grasp, standing up on my own two feet. "And I'll find out later."
Link sprung off the side, surging down towards the spine. His sword connected with the first vertebrae, but it wasn't enough to break it. He needed me. The next time he came by, I waved him down. He stopped at the edge, flashing a look to the gargantuan beast behind him warily. "What's wrong?"
"Let me help."
"What?" Link blurted, raising his eyebrow. "An hour ago you couldn't even use your magic and now you want to run in?"
Salato rolled her eyes.
I persisted, "Let me hop on back, I'll charge up your sword or something, that way you can break the vertebrae. Once it's knocked down, it won't be able to move."
Link was silent for a moment. "...Fine."
Midna waved and dodged away. Stallord's arm hovered high in the air, raised to slam down on us. I gritted my teeth and ushered Link back on his spinner. Salato left with Creota, running up the stands as I squeezed behind him and he popped out into the arena track. Stallord's hand slammed into the seats just as we got away, claws stabbing into the stone and breaking it apart.
Hugging his torso, I leaned with Link as he tore along the track. I made sure not to get in his way, matching his movements as much as possible. It was tight, tighter than I thought, but as he dug his foot into the spinner and we jutted out, we managed to stay upright and barreling towards Stallord's exposed spine.
My fingers pointed lightly away to the Master Sword, running a pulse from my leiyn through my nails. As it struck the blade, a nearly blinding golden light enveloped the metal. Link reeled it back, sputtering closer and closer, then as the vertebrae came up, he swung forward, decimating the bone in one slice.
It crumbled away immediately, knocking Stallord into the sand. As we skirted back to the track, the creature swept its arm around in the cloud of dust left in its wake. Barely discernible in the sand, we darted past where it landed, but were quickly met with the silhouette and then full on force of its skeletal hand. I lost my grip on Link, tumbling far into the dunes and scratching up my skin. When I looked up, he lied several feet away, collecting himself as the dust settled and Stallord dug its claws into the dirt.
Moving along the ground, it pulled itself towards us. I scrambled next to Link, shaking his shoulder and pleading with him to get up. He sat slowly, flexing his right arm somewhat and wincing.
"What's wrong?!" I tugged on his tunic.
"Nothing, it's nothing." Link caught Stallord in his eye, widening with subtle panic. His arms clambered for the spinner, setting it on its side and gesturing at me as the skeleton drew nearer. I hopped on, tilting upright as we took off and circled it.
"Any undying wisdom?"
I scoffed, replying, "I didn't expect him to run around without legs."
We looped to the track, using it to watch Stallord as it maneuvered in the arena. Link scowled as it shifted around in the sand. "I'm just going to go in at him and try to cut down what I can," he shouted.
"Okay, I'll back you up, whatever you do."
As we circled back to Stallord, he disconnected us from the track. The beast launched forward, digging a hand into the sand next to us. Link readied his sword and I followed up with a charge. As we raced near its rib cage, he swept up and sliced off two. It didn't flinch.
Back on the track, we moved around again, analyzing its movements. I pointed out its arm and Link nodded. He sprung out, surging at it. Stallord raised its arm, preparing to crush us, but we aimed for the other one that anchored it to the sand. I lit the Master Sword with my energy as we dodged the smack and Link cut off its boney hand, watching it fall into the ground while barreling away.
"Go back! Cut off its head!" I shouted.
Our momentum stalled as we tried to turn and instead of reconnecting with the track, Link bailed and ran into the loose dirt. I stumbled off and trampled after him, however, my feet barely found hold. He caught up to its neck before I could get close to him, but Stallord was beginning to get back up. Pulling from my leiyn, I threw out a bolt of green to the blade in his left. As it hummed with electricity, he leapt up and sliced its head clean off.
Stallord's eyes dimmed and extinguished as it rolled over on the ground, the rest of its body lying limp. I rushed to Link's side, grabbing his arm and staring at the massive skull.
Midna jumped out. "Is it dead?"
Link shrugged, scowling at the bones littered around. "I don't know. Normally they turn into dust," he remarked.
I sighed, knowing I should probably tell them, but before I could get out the words, that I knew it wasn't dead, the arena shook like the whole colosseum was about to fall apart. Link tried to dart off for the spinner and I fell behind with him. Stallord's eyes pulsed red once more, glowing bright as the skull shook off the sand and rose into the air. Midna fell back to Link's shadow.
We were about to the spinner when tons of undead arms shot up from the dirt. I yelped as one grasped my ankle, its head popping out to reveal the helmet of a Hylian soldier. Each skeleton who climbed out bore the disheveled armor of Hylian guardsmen, still screeching and crying out in pain as if they were dying all over again.
Link kicked the soldier off of me, neglecting the spinner to now slice down the army forming around us. Stallord floated above, its jaw lowering slowly. In its maw a bright red orb glew bigger and bigger.
"Cover me!" I yelled.
His sword slid past my thigh into the reaching hand of another undead, startling me, but not enough to tear my gaze away. "I got you."
The red ball sprung from Stallord's jaw, shooting down into our tangle of bones and flesh. I drew out my fingers, flinging a wall of blue energy back at the attack. As they collided, I held onto my connection with the electricity and urged it forward, directing the orb backwards and at the skull. I let go, watching its trajectory fire back and miss by a long shot.
Collecting my breath, I waited for Stallord to strike again. Link constantly kept up with the numbers of soldiers, slicing through bone after bone. The hollow clunk as the skeletons fell onto each other echoed in the empty chamber. Another red orb grew from its maw, expanding until its jaw quivered at the size.
I whispered lightly to myself, "Come on Maizy, you can do this," reassuring in the silence. Although I didn't want to hear Vox, the small space where he usually spoke resounded like a deafening roar. His words of encouragement danced around in my thoughts, but at the same time I knew I didn't need them. I could do this myself.
My arm flicked out, summoning another blue wall to collide with the orb. As the orb released, my wall spewed out and smacked into it. I felt it, pushing me back, daring me to let go and break my wall. Instead of letting the blue go halfway like before, I pressed forward, ushering the wall against the orb further, throwing them both back and straight into Stallord's skull.
Stallord fell from its massive height, throwing up a cloud of dust as it landed. After a moment, the soldiers stopped in their movements, their bones turning to dust. As they blew away, I saw the skull in the distance, disintegrating as well, the twilight sword buried in its head falling away to the hush of the sands. I heaved a breath and spun on Link. He sheathed his sword, coughing a bit in the sand clouds.
"Link?"
"Maizy?"
My eyes wavered over his small form, the way the sweat coated his brow and his hair slipped down the back of his neck. His face was red and tired, clothes clinging tightly to his skin. The way he fiddled with his gauntlets, flexing his fingers until they were in the right place. It wasn't any sight different than normal, yet I kept marveling at him like a statue. Our gaze met over and over, awkwardly. Questions passed silently between us, but none of them could be answered now.
"We need to talk...later," I stated.
He gave me a nod, then, without indication, snapped me close with a hug.
"You two make it look easy." Salato's voice carried over. I pulled away, seeing her across the arena, making her way over. Creota licked her cheek and she smiled widely, patting the kitten on the head.
I glanced Midna just barely behind us, the spinner gone from the ground where she hovered. She looked back at us sternly. "Zant must know what we're here for. We need to get to that mirror. If we can't get him in the Twilight Realm we can't win. He has the advantage of retreating here, but in the throne room he'll have no where else to go."
Link agreed, motioning towards the door where the first rays of sunlight teased the outside. We fell into a bunch and headed into the open air for the first time in a day. The desert heat hadn't set in yet and it was still sort of cool. The doorway lead out to a balcony, several stories up on the colosseum. Desert sands stretched out for miles, hiding any figure on the horizon. Our only indication of direction was the lack of any sign of the bulblin encampment or entrance, so we were at the back.
"The wind is so still," Salato mused.
Midna hummed, "The evil presence is all but gone. This place can finally heal from what the Hylians did to it."
The sun peeped over the dunes, painting color into the barren landscape. We continued up a staircase, then another, reaching higher than the lower arena chamber. When we found the top where a section of the floor adjacent to the middle had caved in, matching the hole in the previous ceiling. Above it, a black rock strung up with heavy chains sat suspended in front of a risen platform, a semi-circular stand for a mirror propped up at its end. The stand was adorned in Hylian crests and bizarre texts. In its hold was only a single shard of a precarious mirror, the tall form of a man leaning against its side.
Destrian smirked, standing up from the Mirror of Twilight. He stared us up and down, eyeing Salato slower than the rest of us. Midna's lip curled, exhaling between a scoff and a sob, her sight locked on the shard.
"Would you leave us alone already?" Link slid the Master Sword from its sheath, its full length glowing in the dawn. With his voice laced with such anger and desperation, I touched his shoulder tentatively.
"Not until I get what I want." Destrian jumped down from the pedestal, his hand tracing up to his back where the hilt of a blade sat. As he pulled it out, its size became apparent, matching his build like a twin.
A deep thrum rumbled from above as three black forms fell from the sky and smacked into the stone. The soft pulse of a red portal above gave the mirror chamber an odd hue, almost demonic as the shadow beasts stood. I let go of Link's shoulder and clutched my leiyn to my chest.
He rushed in at the first beast, cutting a line through its chest and flinging drops of bright blood into the air. Destrian stood back, his eyes locked on me, not wavering. Midna still sat in shock, shaking her head lightly as Salato sunk a kick into the chest of the beast coming up on her. I balled my fist tighter, feeling a warmth erupt from the tension in my fingers. My knuckles turned white as they shook.
Destrian's smile vanished for once, his eyebrows drawn in taut. His blade flashed with energy and he charged towards me, readying a swipe. My heart pumped fast, thudding against my chest as if butting to burst out. I took my fingers off, blocking the sound of blood rushing through my head and clenched my teeth. We collided in sparks, I met his blade with a stiff bolt of green, knocking him away a step.
Link finished off the three shadow beasts, their thick blood painting the sand between the stones. He watched Destrian and I's dance, our glancing strikes and weaving around parries. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him run in, but I quickly skidded across and butted myself between him and Destrian. This was my battle to fight for once.
"The day I first saw you I knew there was something off about you. You trust too easily. You're like all the other girls, easily manipulated. Do you really believe that Vox is on your side?" Destrian slid by my slice, countering immediately with a strike into my side. I reacted too late and took the blow without much grace.
As I took the brunt of the blade, I tripped over. Link lurched forward, but I quickly scowled at him, shouting, "Stay out of this!" I got back up, however not without Destrian letting me.
"What makes you think that tomorrow, you'll still be in control?"
I didn't know anymore. My braid had been in for too long, strands of hair fell in front of my eyes as I stood slouched, stance sunken in. Destrian's lip quirked up and he swung at me. I caught it passively with a weak sheen of red.
"Your balance is really tilted with that arm there, why don't you let me get rid of it for you."
His words fell on my ears like a casual drawl. I'd heard it before, his little tactic. As he went back in with a slice, I reached at my leiyn and met his shimmering blade again. We collided, bits of energy flicking off, the light of his sword dissipating at my contact. I could feel at the edges of my power now, only a bit left, but enough.
"Shut up," I muttered. "Shut up!" My voice cracked, wavering as I wasted no time throwing my hand back at him, green electricity vibrating through the air. He dispelled it with a red shield, but I saw the look on his face shift, his eyes widen. "Why don't you go use your stupid lines on someone else. Someone who cares!"
Destrian's lips tightened into a frown. "Come here you little bitch."
"Fuck you." I drew it all out, every bit flowing from my leiyn through my chest and to my outstretched fingertips. My anger pulsed like a circuit of energy, in and out, spiraling through the air between us like a bullet. Lightning erupted from my palm, the brightest green, almost white. Destrian threw up a red shield, but as my bolt reached him, it shattered before his eyes and shot straight through his chest, fizzling out the back and dying away in the dawn.
His mouth opened as if to scream, but nothing came out save for a gag. He fell to his knees, dropping his sword and clutching the hole in his heart where golden blood dripped and pooled onto the ground. I held my breath, watching as his eyes faded, the smallest laugh escaping with his last breath before he fell, striking the floor with a simple thud.
"Maizy?"
Whoever said my name, I couldn't tell, everything around me swirled, the realization of what I had on my hands crowning me like a tyrant. "I-" my hand shook vigorously over my mouth. The winds were impossibly still.
"It's over." Finally, I heard him. Link. His touch grazed along my arm, reaching my hand and threading his fingers through mine. My muscles wouldn't stop spasming, but he held on, letting go only to pull me into his arms and clutch me tight. He'd hugged me a lot, but something in this time felt so sure, so right. I found myself sinking into him, my limbs ceasing their twitch. Tears decorated my lashes, landing on his shoulder drop by drop.
When he let go, I saw Midna next to the Mirror of Twilight, clutching the shattered edges with paralyzing fear. "He-but how."
"Is there another way in?" Link asked.
Midna let go, shaking her head over and over. Softly, she replied, "No...no there's not. But I'm the only one who can break it completely so the other pieces have to be somewhere. We'll find them." She poked at the triforce crest in the center of the mirror shard, her hand pulsing again. Link startled, looking down at his hand too, the Triforce bright on his gauntlet.
Six faint burst of light erupted from the mirror, soaring up to the seven spires, meeting all but the one whose emblem had crumbled. The lights formed into the pure white forms of old men, adorned in heavy long cloaks, their faces flat and blank behind a mask. They all wore long aprons, from the ground visible each matching symbol embroidered into the bottom. The Sages.
"You're too late. He was here first," One of the Sages spoke, though I couldn't remember the symbols and didn't know which.
Midna turned sharply on him, snapping, "And you didn't stop him?! You watched him break it in front of your eyes. You knew what he was here for."
What I thought was the Sage of Forest spoke up meekly, "We have guarded the Mirror of Twilight since ancient times, but Zant's magic is powerful. We've seen it before…" He gestured his disembodied hand to the broken crest, all six letting out a chorus of soft moans of fear. It sounded both holy and demonic at the same time. "Long ago we banished his god, as he calls it, to the Twilight Realm."
Another sighed. "Yes, Ganondorf."
"The genocide began after the civil war, hundreds of Gerudo locked in this prison. When he was placed here the Hylians transformed the arena as a second safeguard against his escape. As we found him to be more than just a dark wizard, we set out to execute him, but we weren't aware he held the Triforce of Power. He took a strike from our blade, pulling from his chains in anger, and killed the Sage of Water. We did what we had to." The fourth Sage finished, watching as Midna fumed from below.
"So you threw him to my people?! You caused all of this!"
"We didn't expect him to be able to pass on his power while he regained his strength. We thought...the Mirror of Twilight was one way," The fifth said.
"Ganondorf…" Midna turned the name over in her mouth. "Zant's god...so he's just as weak as he's always been he's just hiding behind him."
"He must've knew of the Vinderendetta. If Ganondorf can give his powers to others, he can take away too." The sixth Sage looked longingly at the empty space beside him. "You must find the mirror shards. They scattered across Hyrule when it broke. Their power is dangerous, should someone find them first, it'll wreak havoc. Go quickly, and may the Goddesses bless your travels."
The Sage's transparent forms dimmed and disappeared. We were left in the eerie silence of the Mirror Chamber, four living beings and a dead body. Salato tip-toed to Destrian, crouching down and tugging the massive sword from his limp grasp. She examined it hesitantly, then gave it a strong swing, wincing while Creota dug her claws into her shoulder. Her muscles labored, but she seemed to handle it with a clumsy grace.
I gripped Link's hand, tugging him closer to me. Midna crossed her arms, her expression flat. "This is going to take a lot more power than usual to get all of us out of here," she remarked. She flicked out the stone, looking at all of us awkwardly. "This should give me enough."
We huddled together, shoulder to shoulder, Destrian's sword balanced on the stone next to my foot. Above, the now blue tinted portal stirred. A shocking chill rushed over my body as the creeping heat of the desert let go to the subtle cool of the fields. Castle Town's walls stood in the distance, inviting after so long. As we made our way back to the city, I basked in the relief for a moment, knowing the moment one of us opened our mouths it would all crash back together.
