Chapter 18: Razing the Derelict Kingdom Dry; Search through the Well
Ruins of the Forgotten Ones Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "Puzzling Truth" - Fire Emblem IX: Path of Radiance OST. Chapter Briefing.
"Inside a House" - The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword OST. Scene 1 (First Half).
"Cave" - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"Tusk" - Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 2 (First Half).
"Pledge of Demon (Slow Version)" - Yakuza 0 OST. Scene 2 (Second Half) and 3 (First & Second Halves).
"Last Moment of the Dark" - YS I & II Chronicles OST. Scene 4
Having rescued the lands of Woodfall, Snowhead and Great Bay, Link and Tatl offer themselves very little time for rest and relaxation and set off in search of the final corner of Termina, but it is one that tests their wills indomitably.
Ikana Canyon and Stone Tower, also known as 'Rockvale'.
Said to be the resting place of a tribe of people that once abandoned their gods, 'The Forgotten Ones', Ikana Canyon is no less safe than the rest of the country and even more dangerous for it. In arriving to its seemingly cursed lands and thanks to the Garo Mask he acquires recently, Link and Tatl encounter a Garo shinobi and the two duel for their lives.
While the young Hero of Time wins this engagement as easily as he has done so often in this journey, it is one that leaves a lasting impression on him; while laying on his deathbed, the battlefield itself, the nameless Garo ninja mentions names that seem foreign to the duo. 'Niylahns' and 'Akuma'. But there is one that the listening and wide-eyed Link does manage to successfully identify.
'Shinzui'.
It is in that very word that Link's memories are brought back to a name; a single name that filled him with heavy despair and near futile-like feelings in his battle across time with the royal princess Zelda.
Kage Narumono.
It is a name the unusually stoic and grim Link had not expected to speak for many years to come. The name of a darker side of himself; a reflection of himself that Sheik of Hyrule once called 'Dark Link'.
Kage Narumono stems from the Aegir of the holy Triforce itself, something that, though is a grim contradiction, it is also one that resonates truly within the gloomy Link; having just barely managed to overturn Kage's control over his host body in the fallen timeline in which he came from, he knows with a great bleak truth that the next inevitable confrontation between them will be a great one indeed.
"Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai ga anata no naka de nemuru kagiri... Watashi wa kesshite shinanai..."
Kage's last parting words from his first-born self, loosely translated to:
"So long as the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai sleeps within you... I will never die..."
A chilling proposition indeed but it is one that resonates strongly within the hardened Hero of Time; having saved three of Termina's four country corners, he now turns his much-required attention to the ruins of the 'forgotten ones'. Ikana Canyon and its long-abandoned kingdom. Although he remains as bold and as robust as he usually is, Link cannot help but build anxiety at the thought of awakening the likes of Kage Narumono once again.
For without the guiding light of the Great Deku Tree's last gift to him, Navi, he is lost; completely and utterly.
It is now, bereft of this light, he sets his shoulders straight and takes the next lead he gains in assisting a nearby family living in Ikana; a well leading to, and through the undersides, of Ikana Royal Castle.
'Niylahns'... 'Akuma'...
These two names Link hopes to investigate in order to find some connection to the holy Triforce itself, and its unholy chaotic Aegir; the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai.
Or die trying...
Scene 1
NIGHT OF THE FIRST DAY
-60 Hours Remain-
"Ah you must be Pamela's little friend!"
Seemingly having recovered from their earlier emotional embrace, the nameless scientist and his daughter parted ways temporarily, almost as if to give the nearby Link some room to breathe and talk with the man. He extended forth his slim arm and smiled down at him.
"Thank you for spending so much time with her!" The nameless scientist smiled on appreciatively. The standing Link shot him a chuckling grin as he shook his hand in response.
"No problemo." He answered, ever in his usual happy-go-lucky tone of voice.
"I am Palmer! Pamela's father," he introduced himself with in his smile, pulling the rest of his body up to fold his arms down at him. "Obviously." He chuckled in his own way; an attempt at humour.
"Obviously!" Link repeated in his own jolly grin, placing his hand upon his hip in his usual sociable fashion.
"Ah!" The newly-introduced Palmer exclaimed, his smile fading in favour of a surprised frown. His eyes soon followed the bulbous form of Tatl's fairy-like flying, seemingly entranced by it. "Isn't this a fairy?"
The former Kokiri found himself exchanging an unsure look with the hovering Tatl and she rolled her eyes a second time; a sign of agreement.
He smirked on.
"Yeah...," he answered, turning his young grin on the older man above him. "Yeah this is my current guardian fairy."
"Oh-ho! 'Current'?!" The man called out, his intrigued smile growing. "So you've had more than one!"
Link's grin grew but only a little. "Maybe."
"Impressive!" He exclaimed out a second time. "Would you permit me to do some research on this little pixie?"
He couldn't help but raise up his small hands to rest behind his green-clothed head, chuckling on nervously in response. "I dunno how she'd feel about that, but..."
"Ah never mind in that case," Palmer laughed similarly, waving the matter off with a slight raise of one of his slim hands. "I am the famed academic of Termina, known the land over for my research in fable-like stories such as guardian fairies, ghosts, Gibdo and other such supernatural phenomena," he explained briefly in his smile, arms folded as he spoke. "In fact I have moved my small family out here to the lands of Ikana Canyon, just to research its astounding lands!"
"I can see that...," Link laughed out, turning his eyes 'round the machinery littered around the lowered floor they stood in. "Is this all...?"
"Oh yes!" Palmer smiled again, nodding in confirmation. "It's all the tools I use in which to research this phenomena! All state of the art of course," he stated proudly. "Although there's lots of material for Gibdo research here...," he began again, this time in a tone of intrigue. "I'm researching another field instead."
Link's entertained grin soon fell in favour of a furrowed-browed frown and he opened his mouth to reply. "Yeah...?"
"There was once supposedly a clan of people that lived in this very kingdom!" Palmer explained, his smile soon extending into a light grin. "The only problem is the information on them is extremely limited," the man chuckled half-nervously, raising one of his hands to rub the back of his head as if in sheepishness. "But what I do know is they apparently were in charge of some kind of secondary clan! A clan of-"
"Ninjas... yeah?"
Link's impertinent if, very rude interruption, made the talking Palmer drop his smile in favour of a blinking frown but he soon regained them as he chortled in confirmation, nodding as he did.
"Shinobi! Yes; that's right," Palmer chortled on sociably. "According to legend, these people worked in the shadows for a group of people driven to the darkness by their king, Igos Du Ikana," he explained, a smile upon his face as he did. "I hear they also helped to spy on the Ikanian royal family as double-agents of sorts; it's all quite complicated and fascinating!"
Link's oceanic eyes narrowed mid-thought, his ruminations running through his head at a similarly rapid pace.
So if the Garo clan were not only working for the forgotten ones but for the Ikana royal family as well...
How would they even keep up with that effort of deception?
The powers and dedication of a clan of ninja-like people I suppose, he thought.
"Sorry if this music device is too loud."
Palmer's apologetic chuckle could only make the listening youth widen his eyes out of his deep thought, before soon rising his cobalt-blue eyes to shake his head in a sheepish-sounding smile.
"It's all good," he answered in his similarly nervous chuckle. "It really helped with those Gibdo earlier."
"Oh really?!" Palmer gasped out, eyes lightly widening as his smile likewise extended. "Yes, of course! This melody I discovered a few months ago deep in my research of Gibdos; I dubbed it 'Farewell to Gibdos'!"
"I'll bet." Link grinned back.
"At any rate...," the scientist smiled on. "There isn't another academic alive who can match my knowledge. So if you ever need any more information..." He trailed off.
Link rose up his right hand and drew him a gesture of understanding, grinning on as he usually did in his sociable manner. "Got it."
"Leeeave it! Leeeave it!"
The echoing screech of the mummified man standing before him would have normally froze all of his nerves completely and utterly, but thanks to the recently-acquired Gibdo Mask, he stood his ground and stared back at it through its small eye-holes.
"Leeeave me something crunchy that sprouts when watered!"
The voice in which the towering Gibdo spoke was haunting; something that sounded like a whisper and a scream, yet all in one.
"Magic Beans..."
Tatl's confirming whisper in his small Hylian ear made him regain his muscle control; as Link reached back into his vast inventory behind him, he very slowly and carefully rose up some beans that he procured earlier for this very instance.
"Ah...! Thisss!" The Gibdo exclaimed. "Thissss! I bear you no remorssse!"
FRRRRRR
VWUP
Along with the unnatural green-shaded fire that coated the Gibdo's rapidly-vanishing form, the sound of the iron bars that surrounded the first door before them flew upward; a signature of acceptance.
It was something that Link was grateful for.
Having received some more advice from the seemingly wise and sage-like scientist Palmer, Link and Tatl turned their combined attention to their next lead; the royal castle of Ikana itself. However, unable to even enter the ancient edifice, they turned to the only remaining avenue that offered them entry.
The underground Ikana well.
A dank, dark and dingy dungeon that seemed to suit the background of Ikana's shady past sufficiently.
As the heroes traversed through the dim light that they were provided with, they found themselves beset with all kinds of foes crawling in the dark; Keese covered head-to-wing in ice, Wallmasters and the occasional Skulltula. When gifting what seemed to be one of the well's last Gibdos, the narrow-eyed Link and Tatl soon found themselves within the arena of what seemed to be a resting place.
A dead end.
Although Blade Traps ran dedicatedly 'round the brown-shaded arena ahead, he shook his straw-haired head in disinclination and made ready to turn and leave.
"Nothin' here; come on Ta-"
"Link...!"
He swung his head back 'round, eyes narrowing in a suspicious-eyed gaze to trace her own stare; sure enough, there it was. A figure stood knelt far to the chamber's front, seemingly embroiled in what appeared to be an examination. Resting at the hooded figure's feet seemed to be some kind of cadaver; a notion confirmed for the wide-eyed Hero of Time when he caught the mysterious person snap their head 'round to glare back at him, bits of flesh hanging around its hands.
He held back an urge to gag and winced.
"What in the...?"
"Link we should get the hell out of here; he's gonna see us and-"
"No."
Link's hardened and reaffirmed answer cut the little guardian fairy's words, marked only by his narrow-eyed advance forward a few steps. He watched the form carefully, looking for some kind of tell or weakness.
Is he hostile?
If he's eating a corpse, he thought...
"Then he's not friendly."
"Hey!"
This time he gave voice to his thoughts and chose to call forward, curious.
"What are you doing over there?"
His raised voice was enough to draw some kind of reaction; the figure, seemingly thin in stature, very slowly and carefully stood to its feet, watching him in a similarly careful-eyed gaze.
"Link... I think that's a woman..."
Tatl's quiet-voiced whisper made the listening young Hylian raise up his similarly thinly-held eyebrows; he very briefly faced her with his eyes before reasserting them on his new foe.
Now that I look at her, he thought...
"She certainly looks like a woman."
Which means she'll be stronger than I am, given her age advantage.
This could be bad.
"You..."
The woman's voice, a mezzo-soprano suddenly spoken with such fierce hate, could only make the pair of heroes fixate their gaze firmer on her.
"You're the one that will...," she began again, raising up her shaking left hooded hand to rest over her similarly hidden face. "B-Break the p-prophecy..."
Link couldn't help but scrunch one of his eyes near shut in examination and bewilderment; a sentiment shared by his shrugging guardian fairy.
"I-I h-have to kill him..."
Her words, now spoken with a fervour previously missing from her tone, indicated the rise in her Aegir aura as she began to step slowly forward. Link's senses tensed as he watched her, raising his hands up to pull the Gibdo's Mask off.
"Întotdeauna...," she began her legs moving slow at first before, eventually, picking up speed and very quickly at that. "Credincios!"
–
2
CLAAAAANG
The sound of the nameless figure's extended sources of light – essentially blades of light itself, extended outward through her sleeves – smashed and clashed noisily with the silver and golden of Link's Gilded Sword. Although he was used to some jarring, the force of which the woman before him possessed was enough to encourage him to rely on his Hero's Shield for defence.
Not something he liked to do very often, as his offensive fighting style would maintain.
"Ngh!"
In a single grunt he pushed his weapon against hers and the two warriors found themselves skidding backward in seeming recovery. Almost as soon as his opponent landed however did Link's sky-blue eyes widen in realisation at her sudden disappearance; he darted his straw-haired head to his right in deft and immediate evasion, barely avoiding the grunting woman's re-appearing thrust. Even as he swung his boot 'round in a defensive roundhouse kick, she used her remaining arm to rise up in a similar defence.
CLANG
Although his boot was simple and man-made, as it crashed noisily against the shining blades of Aegir's light within her sleeves, it made a sound similar to the steel in their hands; something that made the watching young Hero of Time widen his eyes in surprise.
Those things are dangerous, he thought.
Somehow able to sense a knowing smirk hidden beneath the darkness of her hood, Link grunted in agony as she pressed forward in an abrupt knee to the stomach, sending him reeling up into the air briefly from the sheer strength she seemingly possessed.
"L-Link!"
Tatl's anxious and worried call was heeded by none; even while he was sent upward he attempted to move his body, however little, in an attempt to avoid the incoming and telegraphed horizontal swing of her right Aegir blade.
FFFFWIP-SLICE
"Hrngh...!"
Even while it merely grazed his cheek, a wound reflected in its perilous nature, the force of it somehow managed to send the young Hylian careering through the air backward.
DROOM
The nameless woman waited for no sign of life; even when her younger opponent collided savagely with one of the skull-embossed stones upon the wall behind him, she shot off in immediate pursuit. Having expected her coming the scowling-faced Link widened his aquamarine eyes and, in response, the fallen debris and wreckage surrounding him burned up and blew apart; a hardened response to the blazing pools of his aura of burning Aegir.
KATAAAAAANG-SKRRRRRR
This time the youth kept his eyes narrowed as he clashed his Gilded Sword, both hands gripped on the hilt, with the assaulting woman's two flashing Aegir blades. Numerous sparks of Link's fire mixed aggressively with the blades' unnatural fierceness in a maddened mixture of malice; as the narrow-eyed Link glared forward, cobalt-blue eyes near shut from the narrowing he gave them, he could feel the likewise hardened stare she gave him through the hood of her blackened cloak.
SKRRR-CLANG
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH
As she managed to break through the youth's guard with her weapons, she swung one vertically in an attempt to strike at his stumbling form and he sidestepped to his right in response; the nameless cloaked figure growled as she swung her left blade in a wide horizontal angle, eliciting him to duck abruptly in wide-eyed evasion. The sound of the the shining Aegir blade whizzing overhead gave a light whine in his ears, as if they were some kind of instrument being played for him.
He didn't wait to respond very long however and opted to charge forward in a dashing thrust of his Gilded Sword as she recovered. In a similar sidestep to his own however, she shot off to the side, eyes watching him carefully. The narrow-eyed youth advanced forward in pursuit after her, bending his body to avoid the inevitable countering defensive strike she gave before grunting as he smashed his boot directly into her face, chin-first.
SMASH
"Grngh...!"
As she was sent sailing skyward, seemingly defenceless for a change, the narrow-eyed Link's form disappeared and soon re-appeared high above in the sky. He widened his blue-coloured eyes and plummeted downward, both boots coated in a blazing-shaded aura of fire-style Aegir. In a dazzling surprise however she let out what sounded to be a maddened cackle as she somehow recovered in mid-air via a simple back-flip.
VWOOM-VWOOMVWOOM-VWOOM
Link's eyes widened a second time and, abandoning his offensive, he pushed up against the air in an effort-filled grunt to evade the cloaked woman's Aegir bladed swipes. In a series of three swipes, two quickly followed after the other, the nameless woman's assaults were similarly swiftly side-swerved in mid-air by the nimble-bodied youth. He kept his form low and limber as he avoided the rest of her relentless onslaught, flipping his body forward in a simple recovery to land on the ground below himself.
He snapped his straw-haired head up, the corners of his eyes catching immediate glints of steel.
"Link!"
But he was already moving before the Aegir blades came rocketing toward him, a high-pitched whine in the echo of their sailing; he knocked his own Quintessence roughly against the soles of his fire-coated feet and found himself flipping forward a second time, this time sailing to his top-right in immediate evasion. As gravity brought him back skidding down to the dirty-trailing ground behind him however, he had little time to recover; the fast-moving shadow that was his opponent shot off toward him in hot-footed pursuit. Link ducked the figure's unarmed sleeved lariat-like swing before meeting her eventual low sweep attempts with defensive kicks of his own; he kept his eyes glued to the darkness of her hood and the odd paired blue and red that existed deep within.
But that's impossible, he thought.
She has two eye colours?
Somehow, however, in moving even more fluid than he could she successfully lodged her fist within his lower chest.
CRACK-CRRRRICK-SMASH
Almost as if in response to her burning Aegir, a sapphire-shaded trail of ice flew along from the intensity of her assault and hung on the wide-eyed Link's young form, shattering loudly and emphatically as a result.
"L-Link!"
Tatl's anxious call went unheeded; as the wide-eyed Hylian was sent up into the air a little his cloaked foe spun around in her further advance to continue her offence.
A promise of pain for the young hero's muscles to come.
"Pyrokinesis!"
Her voice knocked against the walls as savagely as her assault wrecked havoc on her foe's younger body; as she spun around toward his still recovering form, she brought down her left raised fist as if it were a great-axe coated with fire.
FRRRRR-SMASH
"LINK!"
Tatl's horrified shriek barely registered on the level of destruction the nameless sorceress left in her wake; as her fist collided in a brutal explosion of fire and lava, the green-clothed boy's form was completely lost to them all in a great fireworks display of smoke and clouds. Only the sound of the consistently spinning Blade Traps' 'round the arena echoed out to match the occasional rock-drop and smoke-spread. The nameless woman back-dashed, presumably to a safe point on the wall high above, before stopping just outside of the smoke cloud almost as if to spectate; she very slowly and carefully ran her hooded head across the scene of destruction she left forward, as if looking for him.
FWIP
Her cross-coloured eyes behind her hood widened however at the sudden movement to her rear; she snapped them 'round to her back and, sure enough, she felt him hovering on the wall standing in mid-air behind her.
The floating Tatl couldn't help but rejoice on seeing him out of harm's way "L-Link!"
Although he kept his green-hatted head held lowly and in his hardened narrow-eyed frown, he shot his frown into a notable smirk as he drew his oceanic-eyed gaze his foe's way. As the wide-eyed Tatl watched she caught a single small trail of blood crawling down the side of his mouth; seemingly the only wound he managed to suffer during his opponent's intimidating assault.
The sorceress narrowed her own eyes forward before pushing herself off of the air; similarly relinquishing himself to gravity, Link followed her cue and lowered his confident smirk as the two slowly dropped to the ground below them. Almost as soon as they began to touch solid ground however he narrowed his eyes and shot his left elbow backward in an attempt to smash into her head.
In response the woman ducked her body downward to avoid before reaching up to counter-attack; she grasped his exposed limb and tossed the wide-eyed Hylian over her shoulder, crashing down under her. She reached up and, with a widened pair of eyes, smashed her ice-infused left fist down into his undefended body.
Unfortunately for her, however, it was met not with flesh but with steel.
CLAAAAANG-KERASH
Her icy-blue and hot-red eyes widened and, only upon discovering a simple Blade Trap in his place did she realise the youth had played a crafty little trick.
But by then it was far too late.
"Hya!"
Coated in the super-hot fires of Goddess Din herself, the wide-eyed Hero of Time re-appeared mid-air and spiralled down in a spinning drop-kick, smashing his lava-infused boots directly into the wide-eyed woman's cloaked body.
"Yes!"
CRASH-SMASH-RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As the wide-eyed woman's body reacted – a painful ricochet that saw her knocking savagely against both the ceiling and very walls of their battle arena – the narrow-eyed Link landed in a spinning skid, gasping with the effort in which he put into his abrupt assault. He watched the nameless assaulter collide brutally with one of the ruined walls of their arena and turned his earlier grin into a hardened and firm frown, knowing of her eventual survival.
"There's no way she's getting out of that one!" The little guardian fairy prefaced her earlier excitement with. "I mean just look at that!"
FRRRR...
Tatl's eyes widened behind her little bulbous form; almost as soon as she had spoke, the wreckage in which their enemy had at-long-last landed in began to dimly light up in fire-red.
SMASH-KERASH
In a light explosion of fire the narrow-eyed woman stood before them seemingly unharmed except for a few signatures; a similar trail of blood that drew down her heart-shaped face and the hood that Link managed at last to remove from her, revealing her head's appearance. As she glared back at them in a seemingly emotionless enough manner, they drank in her oddly-shaped and coloured hair; just as with her eyes her hair was coloured both a mixture of deep-crimson and chilling-azure, both on sides that coincided with her likewise strange eye-colour.
All that said, however, her hairstyle was simple enough; spiky and unkempt.
Link couldn't help but grow a very small grin on his face. "I'd forgotten what this is like," he gave voice his inward thoughts, his own cobalt-sapphire staring back into his enemy's. "I haven't been challenged like this since..."
"Since Hyrule?"
He lowered his blonde-haired head and nodded, his grin growing but just by a little. "Yeah," he answered the hovering little guardian fairy. "She's a lot better than I thought."
"But who even is she?"
She didn't even wait for him to answer the little guardian fairy; the nameless sorceress re-appeared in shocking speed directly behind the youth.
FWIP
His oceanic eyes widened and he brought 'round his Hero's Shield to block the inevitable assault but he was too slow; she grunted as she slammed her left leg across his face, sending him careering across the battlefield. When she gave pursuit in a hot-footed glare, her face as impassive as always, the spinning Link grunted as he lowered his shield arm to grip and push off the ground. Pushing himself up into a backward somersaulting recovery he watched the fast-approaching form of his foe carefully, eyes boring a hole into her own cross-coloured eyes.
Here she comes, he thought.
Should I be safe and just block?
No.
"It's time to end this."
As he hung in mid-air, slowing his descent through his Aegir trail, he channelled his Quintessence into his Gilded Sword to form a coat of sheer fire; it was a statement in and of itself, something that was not entirely lost upon the nameless young woman. At long-last, as she began to make the final approach, she threw a wide haymaker with her similarly blazing-shaded right arm. Link narrowed his eyes and darted his right to his lower right to evade before yelling in effort as he spun his body around in a vicious fire-infused spinning attack.
"HEYT!"
In quick response the wide-eyed woman shot up her remaining left arm, back-facing and an ice-formed shield, however crude, materialised between them.
CRACK-FRRRRRRRRR...
Time slowed down for the two combatants in their heart-stopping match of wills and valour; as the unnamed sorceress widened her eyes at the sight of her opponent's fire-coated Gilded Sword very slowly breaking through her Aegir-made shield, her seeming anxiety grew with the desperation that took hold of her. Link couldn't help but regain his earlier satisfied smirk as he watched the results of his offence; a successful excursion.
He followed up in his wild slice with a spinning somersault back-kick, directly slamming her back sailing down.
WHHHHIIIINE...
KERASH-CRASH-RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As he recovered in mid-air the young Hero of Time at last began to descend, and rose up his small arm to wipe away at the perspiration that formed upon his likewise small forehead.
"That looked kinda dicey for a while... huh?" He offered over to his following and hovering little guardian fairy.
"I figured that's how it would have ended."
The grinning Link could only laugh in response, almost having known of her usually-so-defiant retorts.
"Oh yeah I bet," he laughed, jolly in nature. "I forget you know pretty much everything."
Link felt her shrug in her dismissive response, a grin attached the tone of her soprano. "I might as well," she answered in her light grin. "I mean I'm pretty knowledgeable, after all," she continued as she began to approach the youth's form, surrounding him. "I'm sure I know more than that floozy you've been searching for."
"Yeah...," he grinned back, shaking his head in response. "We'll see."
Almost as if in response, the debris in which their nameless foe had been knocked into began to rumble and loudly at that; the pair of heroes swung their bodies and heads 'round to address it, eyes similarly narrowed.
"N-No!" Tatl exclaimed out, her earlier calm tone easily vanishing. "B-But you beat her, didn't you?!"
CRASH
In an incredible explosion of fire and ice, the wreckage lit up as both elements destroyed it further, giving re-birth only to the fallen young woman beneath it; as she hovered up, seemingly somehow floating via use of divine means, she held both clenched arms to her two sides as an aura of Aegir aggressively pushed back the watching Link and Tatl.
"Resurrection!"
Having spoken the first time since first meeting the two adventurers, Link found himself widening his eyes through the intense fire and ice unnatural air that pushed at his form, surprised when he found a likewise shocking fact.
Her body had been removed of all former wounds he had dealt to her, including the life-threatening ones.
It was just like she said; a 'resurrection'.
How is that possible, he thought.
"Not even Ganondorf could do that!"
The nameless young heretic didn't wait for the former Kokiri's thoughts to finish however; as she landed, and the aura she carried dissipated somewhat, she aimed her left fist forward as if she were firing some kind of projectile and narrowed her cross-coloured eyes.
"Cryokinesis!"
He widened his oceanic eyes and shot up his Hero's Shield instinctively.
"No, don't!"
But it was too late.
As the sphere of ice shot toward him at an alarming rate of speed, it eventually made physical contact with the Hero's Shield and, as it did, Link's cobalt-blue eyes widened.
CLINK
FWOOHHHHH...
"L-Link, let go of it!"
In a fit of shock and speechlessness the wide-eyed Hero of Time could only cast his surprise down on the projectile; though it broke apart as it made contact, its contents began to infect the very surface of the trusty shield he had grown so used to. The ice began to spread so badly until, eventually it went over, under and even onto his right fingers themselves.
Soon, just like an infection, it began to spread across his small arm.
"LINK!"
At last he was able to respond although, in spite of that, it was his hand turning to sheer ice that made him drop his Hero's Shield, clanging noisily to the ground.
CLANG-CLANGGG...
"Die!"
The young woman's mezzo-soprano was the catalyst to her next assault; an incredible glide forward that saw her slamming her fire-infused right shoulder into his infected right side. Although she connected and saw the wide-eyed youth spinning in mid-air, the ice afflicting his right arm did not dissipate. Reaching up for a follow-up strike, the nameless sorceress stepped forward and used her left elbow, likewise coated in what seemed to be a stalactite of ice.
CRINKLE-CRASH
"Gurgh...!"
This time the assault was fatal as the boy's wide-eyed gasp would indicate; Tatl watched in wide-eyed horror as the stalactite pierced his body's flesh, drawing an unhealthy amount of blood and near caking his enemy's cloak in it.
The end was clearly in sight.
As he dropped to the ground, his enemy near spent, his Gilded Sword came flying away at their feet near unusable in the exchange.
CLANGGG...
As Link lay near finished, his once brightly-lit oceanic eyes growing dim, the light on the back of his left hand began to light further up. He turned his eyes up to watch as the young woman watched him in merciless emotionless intensity; she rose up her right arm and, like magic, a javelin of sheer fire materialised in her open palmed grip. She narrowed her multi-coloured eyes down at him as she spoke.
"The prophecy...," she began cryptically, pulling back her right hand as if to finish with. "Must be satisfied..."
"N-No! Link!"
In a series of extremely desperate bobs and charges, Tatl at last took to the battlefield herself; having seen enough, she helplessly and hopelessly attempted to stop the narrow-eyed sorceress. All useless of course; she barely took notice of the little guardian fairy's attempt and, when she did, she turned her hard-eyed glare on her before rising up her free left cloaked and gloved hand.
FLICK
"Ah!"
In barely a manoeuvre at all the narrow-eyed sorceress managed to merely flick the little guardian fairy, as if she were a mere fly, before at last returning her attention to her younger opponent.
"Now...," she began again, eyes narrowing once more. "For God's fallen glory...!"
As she rose her similarly multi-shaded haired head up to widen her eyes in her movement, she failed to notice the intense hell-shaded red her opponent's eyes took.
"DIE!"
CLAAAAAAANG
In a shocking display of strength indeed, as the nameless woman drove down her flame javelin and found its advance halted in a cacophonous whine, she widened her eyes in puzzlement before looking down.
Somehow having regained his earlier strength, the glaring Link used merely a single hand to grip at the flame she utilised, his eyes similarly containing a deep-seated crimson rage. The nameless sorceress' eyes narrowed in scrutinisation when she caught subtle differences in his appearance; his canines had grown into sheer fangs and his muscles had similarly unnaturally rose to match his new demonic-like design.
"Shin'ozo..."
SMACK
As he spoke the first words he were to ever speak, the likewise demonic filter to his simple human voice gave a chilling promise to come; something that he animated with a simple left-kick to the woman's exposed chest, sending her stumbling a few safe steps backward. Shocking her even further, as she stumbled backward, he somehow managed to keep hold of and indeed steal her very flame javelin itself; a blasphemous act that made the woman gasp in sheer bewilderment. He growled animalistically back at her, blood covering his complexion and yet, in spite of his earlier fatal wound, appeared to be fine and well.
He began, however, to charge slowly forward, his new weapon held back.
"Tomete KURERU!"
–
3
The young woman shot up a shield of Aegir and crystallised ice with which to defend herself; a seemingly weaker and much less potent variant of her earlier technique. As the newly reawakened demonic youth approached he roared with hardened intention as he swung the stolen flame javelin into the woman's shield, drawing a scrunch-eyed-shut yelp from her in response.
CRRRRASH-FRRRRR-SMASHHH...
The man-made shield easily broke apart and this time even quicker than the last to match the now dissipated flame javelin; the fiend-like warrior before her followed up with a simple combination. He slammed his fist across her face and drew a wide-eyed gasp from her before continuing on by swinging his small leg up in a long and half-circle arch. Although the size was small the level of strength was not; the axe kick he delivered, filled to the brim with the fires of hell itself, crashed noisily and painfully upon her body.
"Argh...!"
He at last finished his counter-attack with a simple low punch forward, a spinning hurricane kick to launch her into the air before he roared with effort as he finished his ruthless combination; a similarly spinning swinging haymaker of a dragon punch that sent her coughing and gasping.
"SHORYUKEN!"
THUD-CRUMPLE...
As the cloaked woman landed in what seemed to be agony from the merciless assault she gasped and gaped out continually as she attempted to pull herself up from the ground; a pained procedure that saw her sliding herself up to her knees. She knelt forward, a cloaked arm gripping at the ground beneath her as if for some kind of balance before she widened her multi-coloured eyes and vomited forward; the hot-red of blood itself caked the dirty-brown ground beneath them and, watching in triumph and satisfaction, the newly reawakened form of the once-human Hylian growled out.
"Grnnngh...!" He began, his hell-like crimsoned eyes widened as he gripped at his wounded chest. "Kore-wa-onozomi-da!"
CRASH...RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As he finished his introduction by slamming another axe kick into the ground, a forgotten string of words spoken in ancient Hylian dotting his speech, the gasping sorceress swung her wide-eyed head up to stare at him in shock.
"I-I know those words...," she managed out in slow realisation. "'M-My potential has-"
"At last been realised...," the young boy finished; a new tone of tenor that saw him speak in two different voices at once. His earlier more familiar tone followed but was seemingly drowned out by a much deeper demonic-like take to it. "Yes...," he continued, a knowing chuckle dotting the small fangs that followed his words. "So... you know it as well; the path to heaven..."
"Path to heaven...?" She murmured out, eyes widened. "Y-You know of the ancient prophecy...?!"
"I know of many, human child," he responded, his earlier grin soon dropping in favour of a more firm frown. "But I do not speak of yours," he continued on, blood-like eyes narrowing as if in disapproval. "What you speak of... is sheer heresy."
"H-How...?!" She gasped out, gripping one of her cloaked arms in what seemed to be agony, barely standing up. "We both serve the same god... don't we...?"
"Hmph... foolish child," the demonically-possessed youth chose to grin back in response. "I have no god."
"So then-"
The young woman's words, a fulcrum to the eventual realisation, could only make her gasp a second time. The standing possessed Link merely stared back at her wordlessly and silently, his frown telling and hardened.
"You're him...!" She gasped out. "The False Prophet!"
The youth's frown twitched into a light scowl, still opting to remain silent.
"'When the world is at its end...," she gasped out, at last beginning to stand on her own two feet though not without some difficulty. "And misery and suffering are all what the peoples of Aurelia will inherit..."
Still the listening demon glared back at her in wordless silence; a kind of respectful and curious look in his hellish-red eye.
"The world will either be led astray by the Sainted Three's devil...," she continued on, her cross-coloured eyes glaring back at the youth, almost as if she were speaking of him in her very open sentence. "Or be led to glory and prosperity by the reincarnation of the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide; a single man with mastery of fire and ice!'" She at last finished, a smug smirk written across her bruised and bloody expression. "I know exactly who you are..."
"Oh really...?" The possessed youth's form spoke again, rising up a flaming eyebrow in response. "And who would that be?"
"You're a shadow," she claimed, her grin illuminating her words, spoken on with a level of confidence that bordered on zeal. "You're merely a shade of what you'll become."
The listening youth's frown soon upturned into an amused grin, his fangs soon re-appearing.
"You're the demonic manifestation of the unholy Triforce!" She exclaimed this time, her voice laughing on as she rose up her recovered arms, a similar grin on her own face. "'Kage Narumono'!"
"At last we agree on something..."
In a single suggestive chuckle of his own, the newly-introduced Kage began a slow march forward, arm held lowly as he clenched its fingers tightly; an act that saw the once-confident woman drop her smirk almost immediately and back away a step or two.
"But I wonder...," Kage began again, licking the tips of the small fangs dotting his host's comparatively young complexion. "How much of a religious-fucking-fanatic will you stay when you lie covered in a pool of your own blood...?"
"S-Stay away from me..."
Suddenly realising the danger she was in, the nameless young woman began to take a few more steps back as she watched her new enemy slowly march toward her.
"Now that the Great Deku Tree's last remaining trump card has gone missing...," he chuckled on out, his words laced with knowing malevolence. "There will be no end to your suffering!"
WHHHHIIIINE...
The high-pitched sound of Kage's air-dash caused not only great ripples in the wake of his incredible Aegir; a long and broad aura of hellish-red Quintessence that successfully encircled and covered his body, head to toe. The nameless young sorceress barely had time to react; as her opponent's position rapidly and anxiously grew closer to her own she could gasp and attempted to sidestep his seemingly obvious assault.
However, even in doing so, she was far too slow to respond in her attempt at an evasive manoeuvre.
SLAM
"Gurgh...!"
She coughed out blood from the sheer intensity and force with which Kage hit her with; as he flew toward her, he simply haymaker punched her across her face. A deep-crimson trail of her life-juices followed with her as she was sent simply showering across the air, her eyes widened amidst her many new injuries.
As Kage landed after his initially successful assault, he simply grunted as he took off forward in pursuit again, the sound of his aura of Aegir blazing away in a high-pitched whine.
WHHHHIIIINE...
SLAM
"Argh...!"
The young woman could barely form a coherent string of words together as the growling demon below her successfully slammed his fire-coated boot into her back, sending her savagely crashing into the ceiling above, easily shattering the boulders and rocks above. Like a ball however she smashed noisily and painfully against it, ricocheting off it to come plummeting back down. Kage merely let out a satisfied chuckling smirk before swiftly regaining his hardened scowl as he rose up his two arms to collide brutally into the descending woman's body.
WHAM
She barely let out wide-eyed whimper as she was sent down an even faster speed than before, her body aching all over.
DROOM-RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As he hung in the air, somehow floating and maintaining his mid-air position, Kage Narumono turned his hateful-eyed close-mouthed glower down on the ruined battle arena beneath him. A huge cloud of smoke caked the likewise destroyed surface below, and the only sounds left that echoed across the walls seemed to be the ever reliable Blade Traps that loyally patrolled each corner of the room.
CRACK-CRINKLE-CRINKLE...
The sound of even smaller rocks being disturbed travelled up from the smoke cloud below and, listening in, Kage's hardened frown very slowly upturned into an expectant and satisfied smirk. Just as he initially predicted the gasping and coughing cloaked woman began to crawl out from underneath the ruthless and savage entanglement of wreckage behind her, another consistent trail of blood following her.
She's definitely on her last legs, the hovering Kage thought to himself.
"Y-You're-"
In her opening sentence she managed to vomit up another load of blood, caking the ground beneath her in deep-scarlet.
"J-Just a devil...," she managed out at last, grunting as she rose her head up to glare on back at him, running her free cloaked arm to wipe at her mouth. "The Himitsu Shakai... were right..."
Kage's hell-shaded eyebrows rose up, his interest successfully piqued.
"Now it all makes sense..."
His opener of a response was spiced by the slow descent of his form; somehow one of the abilities of the Shinzui.
"You're hoping to reawaken him again... aren't you?" The self-proclaimed shadow began, tilting his body to the side as he glared forward in his guesswork. The young woman averted his gaze and, with intuition as his guide, Kage grew his fanged smirk again. "Alphanion...the Absolute."
The woman, her shock evident, could only widen her eyes in a mixture of alarm and bewilderment, gasping as she did.
"Hmph...," he continued on in his disapproving grin. "Said to be the only one capable of wielding the holy Triforce in all of its divine powers...," he spoke on, as if reiteration an old fable. "Power, Wisdom and Courage. Not like these current incarnations..." The shadow warrior muttered out distastefully, raising up his human host's arms and pulling a face down at them as if disgusted somehow.
"You... you know of us...?"
He re-rose up his fire-shaded haired head, a curious expression written across his demonic-like countenance.
"How could I not?" He answered, his grin re-growing upon his expression as he began to march forward a third time. "One must keep his friends close, woman... and his enemies..."
The sorceress glared and began to shuffle back to her feet, wincing with the effort.
"Even closer!" He finished in a wide-eyed exclamation; the hellish-red pits of his eyes lit up as he widened them and, like magic, a force of invisibility hit the gasping young woman sending her sailing through the air.
CRASH-CRACK
"Gagh...!" She cried out, her back slamming and ricocheting off the wall behind her, leaving a successful mark of pain and agony in her wake. She barely had time to roll her body out of the way in a wide-eyed quick slide, the madly-laughing form of her opponent whizzing straight for her former position, his leg outstretched forward and his body held low as if he were an arrow fired from a ballista.
CRASH-CRUMBLE-CRUMBLE...
Numerous blocks of dirty-brown stone and rock broke apart from the sheer force of the demonic warrior's assault; a promise to come for the wide-eyed nameless sorceress. She peeled herself off the wall she was seemingly glued to and gasped as she pushed herself off of it, descending downward and just barely avoiding the growling demon's pursuing spinning roundhouse. The sorceress of ice and fire landed to the ground in a gasp of effort, stumbling forward a few steps as she did so, her energy beginning to run low.
Having doggedly chased her, Kage descended downward upon her with a single grunting slam of his outstretched fist; the woman gasped a third time as she quickstepped to her left in deft evasion, barely avoiding the near-fatal strike. She responded with a counter-attack of her own and narrowed her cross-coloured eyes as she swung her left leg 'round in a savage roundhouse.
"Hmph...!"
"Gurgh...!"
SLAM
Although she pined it with the ancient abilities of ice she had been previously been bestowed with, the ice itself was crystallised and much-less potent now than it once was the first time it had been utilised. As such, even having suffered a counter-hit, Kage swung his hell-shaded head 'round to laugh as he lowered his claw-like hands to grip at her leg.
"You didn't even... knock me down!" He exclaimed out, bringing down his right muscled elbow down on her exposed leg.
CRACKKKKKK
The young woman's eyes widened and, to match the barbarous sound of her leg bones breaking, she called out to the ceiling above her in great agony and pain.
–
4
The far-off Tatl, now wisely opting to stay hidden, watched from a perch hidden away in rock and stone. Her lemon-drizzle eyes widened beneath the bulbous form she carried; a gesture to match the incredulous shock she carried with her.
Not only was Link was telling her the absolute unfalsifiable truth but she sensed something else within him.
Something besides the demonic presence of Kage Narumono.
The Quintessence and Aegir that Kage utilised, completely separate from the spice of the holy Triforce, appeared to be of a man's; a Goron's.
But why, she wondered silently.
Did Kage kill the Goron and take his power from him?
Or...
Did Link do the deed himself...?
There's only one way to get him out of this, she added thoughtfully.
Tatl breathed in and out slowly, a gesture that saw her call up some form of courage for her next feat; an achievement that followed her silently-spoken ruminations.
"Here goes nothing..."
The nameless young intruder that he fought with, however, was at last on her final hand; as she fell to the ground bloody, beaten and bruised, she could only heave and choke on the blood that threatened to suffocate her as she attempted to crawl away from her much stronger foe. Kage watched her slowly leave with a small grin growing back on his demonic-like face, merely letting go of her leg with which to do so. He marched forward after her, flame sparking and following his footsteps in his wake.
"To have sent you so far into Termina's backwater... to a rural and abandoned canyon such as this...," the self-proclaimed shadow spoke, his fire-red eyes narrowing as he did. "Just what are your comrades hoping to find here... that the Interlopers themselves have not?"
She chose not to listen to him; even as he spoke on, she regarded his fiery form with but a single bloody-faced glance before swinging her blue and red-haired head back 'round toward the exit she crawled so desperately to.
Kage merely chuckled. "You people...," he began again, shaking his head as he brought his host's boot down mercilessly upon her already wounded leg, drawing a pained yelp from her in response. "You're even more deluded than those Interlopers were..." He claimed, one of his fangs shining in the darkness that the chamber offered them.
She turned her wide-eyed sweaty-faced head up to stare into his own gaze and only the sound of the ever loyal Blade Traps echoed out behind them.
"But not to worry..."
Kage's beginning speech managed to make her swing her multi-coloured haired head 'round to widen her eyes at him, her breath drawing in and out sharply in a hardened and pained desperation not unlike that of a retreating animal.
"I know just the cure..." He spoke one last time, his grin shining his fangs in the darkness as he slowly advanced on her hopeless and lying form.