Welcome, one and all... To Skyview Temple!

I'll let you guys know now; as much of a Zelda buff as I am, I honestly have no idea how to write out things like dungeons, so bare with me if they aren't the Zelda dungeons you grew up with. Granted, I'll try my best to have Link solve puzzles, but they won't be as intricate as what Nintendo can. I hope you guys understand.

Chapter 7

Skyview Temple

Link took one final survey of the room before gesturing to Abel, telling him to follow closely.

"Where should we go first? There's only one door unlocked, so there?" recommended Abel, as two of three doors were locked, one by an actual lock, the other by some sort of three-part mechanism.

Link turned to the right most of the doors, nodding and walking up to it. The door was positively ancient; the design hinted at being older than the Hero of Twilight himself, more than 300 years ago. Wasting no further time, he placed his hands on the door to find how to open it. He eventually found that the doors open to the side, keeping that in mind for future reference. Entering the room first with Abel following closely, Link quickly scanned the room. He had to walk down a decently long hallway in order to enter the room itself, and he noticed that there was a mural on the wall in addition to a chest behind a barred door. Link looked around, not seeing much that could open the gate. However, he thought about what he had to do to get inside...

"Look for anything suspicious, anything that looks out of place, Abel," Link told his companion.

Abel nodded and looked around, seeing a stone of a more brown color than the gray of the rest of the temple.

"That stone is a different shade than the others, so maybe something is up with it?"

Link patted him and the back and ran over to the stone, kicking it aside to see there was a switch that the stone was holding down.

Instead of unbarring the door, it ended up closing the hallway off, sealing Abel off from Link.

"Sorry, Abel, I'll get that back open in a second," said Link as he stepped back onto the switch.

But nothing happened.

"Wha?" said Link as he stomped on the switch, sure he was pushing it down, but the door still wouldn't open.

"Damn," said Link as he looked around the room. "It must have rigged something up so I have to do something else now."

Abel looked around until seeing a little figure in the corner of the room, drawing what looked like a sword.

"Link, behind you!"

Link turned to see the source of Abel's fear, and it turned out to be around 5 bokoblins, stupid little creatures that knew nothing but 'beat what isn't a bokoblin with a stick.' Link quickly drew his sword and readied himself, the first one running at him and swinging clumsily with its club. Link easily knocked the club from its hand before decapitating it with an single swing, its body dispersing like monsters typically do when they perish. Charging the remaining 4, he jump attacked one, lopping off its arm before hitting two more with a spin attack, killing them. He rammed his shield into the uninjured one's chest, knocking it over before impaling it with a finishing blow. The disarmed one hobbled away, holding its wound before Link ran past it, bouncing off the wall before impaling it, pinning its body to the ground before it dissipated. With the final beast finished off, the door that Link came through opened, as did the door the was between Link and the chest. Abel quickly ran next to Link, not willing to be separated from the swordsman again.

"Well, now I know for sure that you aren't lying. No one but a Demon can fight like that and end up unscathed. Anyway, let's see what's in that chest."

Link nodded and went to the chest, checking for any other traps before opening the chest, finding a map and a key.

"It definitely looks like this place is navigable, just not a direct shot. We'll have to snake our way around in order to get to the center of the temple."

Abel nodded and investigated the mural. "Who would put a painting up in a place like this? It's littered with traps!"

Link stopped to look at the mural himself.

"You never know when something is there for a reason. Like that rock, it didn't make sense but it was there. Just keep it in mind."

Abel shrugged out an okay, still skeptical about the mural. But if Link said to remember it, it must be important enough, right? In that case, he grabbed a small notebook and made a quick sketch of what the mural looked like. Satisfied with his work, he marked the page and placed it back in his pouch. Link nodded and headed back down the hallway they had entered from and went back through the door. Pulling the key he gained from the previous room out, he unlocked the other door and entered, quickly looking around the room before placing his shield back on his back. This room had a huge spiral staircase going up, easily close to ground level.

"Let's get climbing," Link said before starting up the stairs, Abel following closely after. Link noticed that there were more paintings on the walls as they climbed, each one depicting heroes and armies facing off against what appeared to be giant spiders.

Abel shuddered. He hated spiders.

"Maybe the reason this temple hadn't been used for so long is that these monster ravaged the place, making it their nest," Link theorized Link as he pointed at one of the largest spiders, one suspending a man by threads like a puppet.

"I don't even want to think about anything related to spiders. Number one fear right there," stated the boy.

Link shrugged and continued up the stairs, revealing another central chamber leading off the three rooms, each one a different color.

"A black door, a brown one, and a green one... I wonder what significance these hold," said Link as he walked up to the green door, opening it to reveal a long hallway that had gratings that appeared to show the room after the triple-locked door. It was too dark for Link to see, even with the torch, but he thought he could make out the feint sound of clicking, like if a huge insect were walking around. He noticed Abel was shaking, likely because of the sounds.

"That sounds like... S-Skulltulas. Goddesses, I hate skulltulas... They're like normal spiders, but huge. They can be bigger than full-grown horses, even Shadowsteeds..."

Link knew the term Shadowsteeds. They were massive, powerful horses favored by the King of Evil long ago, as they were the only horses capable of supporting the massive man. According to eyewitness accounts, the Tyrant of a Gerudo, his race as discovered by scholars searching about his past, was 7'6", and bore weight to match, even bearing heavy Blacksteel armor, a durable metal forged using dark magic. The Conqueror of Hyrule was a very powerful man, and he only utilized the finest gear.

Link was pulled from his thoughts when Abel poked at him, pointing at the end of the hallway. There was a green pressure panel in a small, circular room that was otherwise empty. Link, cautious from last time, grabbed a large chuck of the old ceiling weighing around 50 pounds before lobbing it at the switch, and to his relief nothing happened other than the sound of a few mechanisms at work.

Link gestured back at the door, only to see that it was closed.

"Goddesses damn it."

He soon saw that the sides opened up, letting through about 3 smaller skulltulas, each the size of a dog. Link scowled as he drew his sword, not wanting to fight anything for a while.

"Abel, hide in the circular room. I'll make sure none of them get past," commanded Link, placing himself between Abel and the creatures.

These were skulltulas, huge spiders that make their home in deep forests and dark caverns. True to their names, the abdomens of these titanic arachnids bore chitinous armor that naturally formed a design almost identical to a menacing skull capable of repelling most weapons. However, there was a small spot on their underbellies that didn't have this natural armor, so if he could just flip them over...

Link charged the nearest skulltula, though with its highly durable mandibles, blocked his sword and then bit at him, though he slammed his shield into its face and broke its mandibles. Another scurried up the wall and around Link, heading for Abel, though Link couldn't chase after it without letting the other two hunt him unhindered. Quickly uppercut slashing the one he'd already injured, he flipped it on its back and exposed its weak point, a large purple sac that housed the majority of its bodily fluids. Reacting fast, he leapt up and stabbed the beast there with a fatal blow, gushing its insides everywhere. He quickly hit the other with a spin attack, knock it off balance before finishing it off the same way. Wasting no more time before charging at Abel's assailer, he shield bashed the skulltula away before stabbing at it with all of his might, piercing its chitin and impaling it through the very center of its body. It fell soundlessly to the ground before dissipating, leaving Abel breathless as the beast perished.

"T-Thanks... I can't say I'll be of much help whenever a skulltula attacks, those things are terrifying. Sorry," explained Abel.

"I understand," assured Link as he checked to make sure no more skulltulas were nearby, and that the door was open. "Everyone has their own fears, so I can't judge you. But anyway, let's get out of here."

Abel nodded and jogged past Link in order to leave the room as quickly as he could, Link picked up his own pace in order to keep up, and both left the room.

"At least we know why those pictures on the wall are there," said Link, shrugging. "This place is absolutely crawling with skulltulas. We'll just have to be more cautious of traps and the like."

The two made their way to the black door, Link going through first. This room was different than the others they've been in so far in the sense that there were several pressure plates on the ground, three in total, and behind a gate was a black pressure panel after a small hallway. Link went through and stepped on a switch, though when he moved to the next one, the one he pressed moved back up.

"Oh, I see. They're all rigged so you have to stand on all three at once to open the gate," theorized Link as he looked at the three of them. Looking further in the room, he saw that there was a wall covered in thick vines, easily capable of being climbed. He ran over and quickly scaled the vines, displaying to Abel how effective of a hunter he is. When he was a thief, he had to know how to climb quickly and quietly.

At the top, he saw two creatures that he knew as helmasaurs, beasts that attempt to subdue prey by ramming their bodies into them, though they can only charge in a straight line. Most have somehow found huge, iron plates capable of fending off weapons, though their backsides are typically left uncovered.

One of the helmasaurs noticed him and charged, though he easily sidestepped and it ran straight off the ledge.

"Abel, climb the vines! They can't reach you if you're up here!" Link commanded. Abel nodded and ran past the dazed helmasaur, as it had rammed into the wall. Abel clung to the vines and climbed, stopping when he reached the ledge so as to give Link time to get the other one to the ground. It didn't take long for him to get the other's attention, and followed suit and charged off the ledge, allowing Abel to climb up the ledge unhindered. Link hopped after the beasts and drew his sword. He stood between the two of them and knocked his sword into his shield, catching both creatures' attention. Both charged at once, Link quickly dodging so that they rammed into each other, dazing themselves and giving Link plenty of time to slay them both. However, when they died, he noticed that their masks stayed. He went over to one to pick it up, and noticed that it was very heavy, easily over a hundred pounds. Looking from the masks to the switches, he placed one on a switch, satisfied to see that it held the switch down firmly. Doing the same with the other, he finally went to the final switch and stepped on it, opening the door to the black plate. He called to Abel, having him head down and step on the switch, and though the similar sounds of gears crunching resounded throughout the room, no additional enemies made their way into the room. Abel sighed in relief and left the switch, though the switch went back up and the sounds ceased.

"Damn it. The switch still has be held down... Alright, Abel, get out of there I have an idea."

Abel left the room, shortly afterwards Link stepping off the switch, noting the delay in the door closing back up.

"Two seconds. Abel, can you stand back on the switch I was on? I need to be able to move freely."

Abel ran over to the switch Link was talking about and stood on it, reopening the gate to the black switch. Link acted quickly grabbing the helmasaur's mask and running to the gate.

"One second left!"

He wasted no time in throwing the mask at the switch, landing it perfectly and turning back towards the gate, which had started to lower.

"Come on, COME ON!"

Link slid under the gate, though he left something get caught as he slid through. He quickly rose to see that it was his bow, and the weight of the gate had crushed it and cut the string.

"Damn it. Well, it could have been worse," stated Link as he turned to Abel. "Anyway, let's get going. What was left, a brown door?"

Abel looked back to the gate and then back to Link. "Sorry about your bow."

"What, that old thing? Don't worry about it. It was honestly a pathetic bow I got a long time ago."

Abel shrugged and then went back out the door, turning to the brown door with Link following. The next room looked like some sort of cathedral, and following suit with that, several murals adorned the wall.

"Well, none of these have to do with spiders, at least," said Link as he went to the statue at the altar, depicting a man wearing a tunic and long hat wielding an intricate sword and shield, a wolf behind him with fangs bared.

"Wait," said Link as he finally realized something. "This wasn't a place of worship for a tree, but for one of the Heroes! This one looks to be the Hero of Twilight, due to the wolf."

"Hey, you're right!" said Abel as he looked around the room. "Wait, not just him. Each Mural depicts a different hero. That one depicts the First Hero, the Goddess' Chosen Hero. Oh, and that one depicts that Hero of Time! And these have even more! Oh, but this one is broken. What a shame."

Link remembered something from an earlier room as he looked at the mural Abel was talking about, one behind the statue of the Hero of Twilight. "Abel, get out that sketch of that mural from the first room."

"Wha- Oh my Goddesses, you're right! If we can fix this one, maybe it will reveal the final switch!"

Abel quickly reached into his pouch and grabbed his journal, quickly turning to the page where he had sketched the mural.

"Alright, let's fix this mess. This piece goes here..."

OOO

"...And then this one goes here," said Link as he placed the final piece of the mural into its proper position. In the end, it was a mural depicting all of the Heroes standing side by side, each with their blades held out in defiance of the evil plaguing Hyrule. Link quickly gave a prayer for the Goddesses in thanks for the Heroes. He took a mental note to stop doing so, even if out of habit. As he had predicted, the statue of the Hero of Twilight moved back, revealing the final switch to the triple locked door. Link quietly stepped on it before making his way back out of the brown door, Abel follow suit. He made his way back down the staircase and to the main room before standing in front of the now opened door that led deeper into the temple.

"You ready, Abel? This was the room with all those skulltulas, likely their main nest."

"No chickening out now. Time for some heroics! I mean, who else is going to find out about the secret of the woods, Hylian Knights? As much as they've shaped up after the Hero of Twilight, they still wouldn't get far, nowhere near as far as we did. No, we started this, by the Goddesses are we going to finish it," Abel replied adamantly.

Link nodded approvingly before heading through the door. Now that he could actually see the remainder of the room, he knew why this place frightened Abel so much- It was covered wall to wall in skulltulas, and they seemed to be converging around the circular room at the end of the hallway.

"Alright Abel, if I give any semblance of a signal, you are to run, okay?"

Abel nodded and sat down at the door, setting down a dazed Marze, who had been clinging to his back for a long time.

"Stop flying, little birdie..." said Marze before falling unconscious again.

Link made his way to the room where the skulltulas gathered, and a door closed behind him when he entered. He took a look around, but he didn't see anything. He still drew his sword and shield in precaution however, just in case something popped up. His caution was justified when a skullwalltula, the larval state of a skulltula incapable of making sturdy webbing, fell from the ceiling, drawing his attention up.

"Dear sweet Hylia."

Clining to the top of the room was a titanic skulltula, typically classified as something even worse, a Gohma. They were skulltulas that have lived many times longer than a typical skulltula, and are far more dangerous. Link took note of how it possessed one huge eye at the front of its body, and how egg sacs were stuck to it as well.

"Why me?" Link asked no one as the creature fell to the ground, shaking the entire structure. Link examined the Gohma closer and determined it must have been male, and therefore the king of this nest since the young of a female were stuck to its body, the young of the queen. That also meant that the queen was somewhere, and it had to be dealt with.

"I don't care how many King or Queen Gohma are here, I'll kill them all if it gets me any closer to Ryla," declared Link as he charged the King Gohma.

The creature reared back and bit at Link, though he flipped back to dodge its powerful jaws. As skulltulas grow into their Gohma state, the develop an extremely powerful poison that acts like more of an acid, and Link knew a simple wooden shield like his wouldn't do anything to stop its venom. It would simply dissolve, becoming useless.

"I wish I had one of those blessed shield the Hylain Knights use," said Link as he dodged the leg of the King come crashing down where he was standing. Hylian Shields were realistically indestructible, as they were blessed by the very Goddess Hylia herself through a special ritual kept hidden from the general public by Royal Law, upheld by Imperial Decree. They really don't want people to know how to mass produce them on their own, as they are a decent source of profit in Hyrule.

Link sidestepped the angry Gohma's attack again, trying to find a way to hurt it. He couldn't possibly hope to pierce its chitin- At the Gohma stage, you'd be better off trying to cleave solid steel. However, its eye didn't appear to have any sort of armor, so perhaps...

Link dodged an additional attack from the King Gohma before running in a stabbing its eye, wounding in and throwing it back from its own recoil. It stared at him angrily, arachnid blood leaking from its eye before crawling to the top of the chamber, reaching back and pulling an egg sac off of its body. It then proceeded to drop it to the ground, the sac shattering and releasing countless skullwalltulas to the ground. Link ran through them, cutting some down before reaching the center of the cluster, killing the rest with a powerful spin attack. The King released what could best described as a roar as it crashed back to the floor right where Link was standing, forcing the bounty hunter to dodge or be crushed by the huge spider's weight. It was dazed by landing so hard, therefore it sat there in mild confusion as Link walked up and stabbed it hard in the eye, using two hands to ensure he cut deep. His strike was true, and the Gohma stood back up only to fall again, as it had grown weak from blood loss. Link was about to finish the job when it grabbed an egg sac from its back, liquefying the larvae inside before drinking its contents, discarding the silken sac before rising again.

"I'll have to take out those egg sacs if I don't want to be here all day... If I had my bow I could just shoot them off, but I'll have to wait until he tries to land on me to cut a few off."

The King Gohma once again began lashing out against with its legs and maw, though Link easily dodged out of the way due to how slow the King was. He weaved his way in and stabbed at its eye again, sending it scurrying back to the ceiling where if released more larvae, which Link quickly dispatched of. The King once again tried to crush Link under its weight. He again dodged, dazing the King Gohma. Link, before striking at its eye, managed to cut off two of the remaining three sacs, cutting them apart and preventing them from hatching. Quickly circling around, he stabbed it in its eye. As expected, it devoured the final egg sac before reaching up, placing itself back onto the ceiling.

"Trying to run, huh? Not today," declared Link as he threw his sword up at the Gohma, lodging the blade into its eye, bringing it back down to the floor. He ran up and grabbed his sword, slashing upwards as he wrenched it free, stabbing down hard, piercing beyond its eye cavity. The King Gohma threw him off before standing back up, though it stuttered and fell before rolling onto its back, legs flailing around before curling up, the creature having finally died. Its corpse didn't dissipate immediately however, the mark of a more powerful monster, and therefore merely decayed slowly. The door opened, as did one on the other side of the room, and something fell from the ceiling encased in webbing, shaken loose by the titanic beast's thrashing. The webbing slowly fell away, revealing a chest. Link sheathed his sword in victory, swinging it twice in front of him before spinning it around, landing it in the scabbard before completely sheathing it.

"Abel, it's safe! You can enter the room!"

Abel made his way to the center room, stuttering as he saw the King Gohma's corpse.

"What the Dark Realm?! Did you fight that thing? ...And win?!" shouted Abel in shock.

"Yep," replied Link rather casually as he pointed to the chest. "But it left this. I wonder what it could be?"

Link went to the chest and opened it, revealing a longbow of very fine make, braced around the leather-wrapped handle with steel guards and being larger than his old bow.

"Whoa..." said Link as he pulled the bow out. "This bow is amazing. It's even better crafted than the Huntress' bow, and she spends a lot of rupees on good equipment."

Link drew the string back, and to his satisfaction it bore an intense draw weight.

"Whew. I'd say it takes about 200 pounds to pull this sucker back. And it's in great condition. But how did it end up here? I've heard stories of how the Heroes found weapons on their journies, but finding a bow like this out here is preposterous," commented Link over his new bow. "Regardless, I'll take it."

Link drew back an arrow and let it fly through the grating around the room, killing a skulltula in one shot, shredding through its chitin.

Link nodded in approval of his new weapons new power. It was hard to find anything capable of piercing skulltula chitin like that.

"Let's get a move on. We still have the rest of this temple to blaze, and I'd assume another Gohma to slay. That was merely the King Gohma. The Queen is still somewhere within Skyview.

Abel blinked in surprise. "A Queen Gohma?! Aren't they even larger than King Gohma?"

Link nodded. "Multiple times. And not only that, but they also possess more powerful venom and silk, even possessing entirely different abilities all together. They aren't to be taken lightly."

Abel swallowed in fear, turning to the newly opened door. "Better we kill it and be done with it than someone else meeting a grim fate because we ran."

Link placed a hand on Abel's shoulder to support him. "Then all we have to do is keep moving."

The two went through the new door, which lead to an enormous spiral staircase that went up, leading above ground and near the top of the Great Tree. They came to a small balcony atop the tree with a door sealed shut by an enormous lock and a smaller room off to the side simply sealed shut. However, there were what looked like three eyes staring at them, watching their every movement.

"Okay, that's creepy," declared Abel.

"I'll get rid of them," assured Link as he got out his new bow. "I need to get used to this bow anyway."

With three well-placed shots, Link destroyed the three eyes, causing the side door to open.

"Oh, neat."

The two entered the room, spotting a huge black chest with a gem embedded on the front. Link opened it, finding a huge key that was of equal proportion to the lock outside. Link and Abel went back to the huge door, Link opening it with the colossal key, leading to a huge room made entirely out of the branches of the tree.

"Just be careful, Link," asked Abel as Link went to enter the room. "We both know that what's in there will have been the strongest thing you've ever fought."

Link's mind wandered to Dark Link, though he quickly nodded so as not to tip Abel off as to what he was dealing with. "Yeah, I know. But anyway, let's head on in, shall we?" asked Link as he turned to the room. "Wait, Abel, stay back," commanded Link as he saw what was covering the floor.

The bottom of the room was covered in the bones of warriors who failed to face the threat of the forest. Link looked up, knowing full well what was at the top.

Clinging to the top of the room was the largest arachnid Hylians had ever witnessed, a Queen Gohma, the largest and strongest of all the Gohma possible in nature.

The beast was positively gargantuan, its mass alone being able to take up most of the room. Link thought of the easiest size comparison possible.

"It's bigger than my house."

After he said that, the creature sensed his presence and turned around, displaying its eight eyes that searched the room before finally landing on him. The beast remained staring at him before letting loose a terrifying roar, the sheer force pushing Link backwards.

"Well, we've got quite a fight ahead, don't we?" asked Link menacingly before grabbing the handle of his sword, staring back at the beast with his piercing blue eyes.

Alright, this is an extremely long chapter, right? Over 5,000 words? Yeah, that sounds pretty long, easily the longest chapter in this story so far. It's always good to have a nice long chapter every once in a while though, so it isn't like this is a bad thing. Now let's see here...

The bow he got is essentially a slightly more powerful version of the Hero's Bow from Twilight Princess.

The King Gohma's body minus the legs is roughly the same size as a pickup truck, though that Queen Gohma is at least 5 times larger, maybe a little bigger than Armoghoma. Spiders are huge here.

OniHelix out!