Chapter 24 – Endgame
Rock the Moon; Termina Reborn
The Final Cycle Arc
Disclaimer: I don't own The Legend of Zelda, this is just a Fanfiction.
Featured Music: "The Instinct" - Killer Cuts (1994) OST. Chapter Briefing.
"The End of the World" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 1 (First Half).
"Majora's Theme" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 1 (Second Half).
"The Four Giants' Theme" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 2 (First Half).
"Tatl & Tael" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 2 (Second Half).
"To the Moon" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 3 (First Half).
"Serious Suspense" - Dragonball Z (Unreleased OST). Scene 3 (Second Half).
"Crono's Theme" - Chrono Trigger OST. Scene 4.
"Majora's Mask" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 6 (Second Half).
"Termination"; Kage Narumono's Theme – YS II (Falcom Boss Zanmai Ver.) OST. Scene 7 (First Half).
"Majora's Incarnation" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 7 (Second Half).
"Majora's Wrath" - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask OST. Scene 8 (First Half).
"Termination"; The Fierce Deity's Theme – YS Origin OST. Scene 8 (Second Half).
Southern Swamp, Woodfall.
Weybour, Snowhead.
Great Bay, Pirates' Fortress.
Ikana Canyon, Rockvale.
And, at last, Clock Town itself; since in his fateful meeting with the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide, the Hero of Time and his guardian fairy companion Tatl have managed to traverse all four corners of the continent of Termina. In doing so he uses his storybook-like strength to free their edges from the tyranny of Majora's Mask's dark influence; something that manages to find its perch in spite of their time-travelling abilities.
Having at last reunited the missing Kafei and Anju within the borders of Clock Town, Link elects to use the very time-cycle in which they've used for it to end this stalemate once and for all. Still in shock, Tatl can barely form words with which to voice her surprise before her overconfident partner
takes off toward South Clock Town's plaza, his destination set and ready; the roof of Clock Town's clock tower.
"But are you strong enough to put Majora's Mask to the sword...?"
The words of 'Kage Narumono', the demonic second side of himself, and words that begin to ring true for the young Hylian; in great spite to how easily he managed to conquer three of Termina's four corners, Majora's Mask is in a completely different league altogether.
"There is no-one... not even within the descendants of my clan that can approach the obscene power... of Majora's Mask."
Having been phrased in such a way by the man that once taught the peaceful teachings of the Sainted Three, the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide himself, Link and Tatl begin to realise the monstrous and devil-like powers that Majora's Mask itself contains. Seemingly having been constructed by the very people that the Sainted Three elected to banish from their lands, the Forgotten Ones themselves, Majora's Mask's power can only be compared to one of similar grotesque and odious Aegir; the Fused Shadow. Said to have been possessed by a once-living entity loyal to the Forgotten Ones, Majora's Mask now has no allegiances; indeed, it chooses to consume everything around it indiscriminately, like an animal.
Although he hasn't quite yet conquered the deadly Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai and the chaotic Aegir that's attached to it, Link dares to hope to find some way to utilise it in the upcoming struggle.
For even he knows he will need it.
Scene 1
NIGHT OF THE FINAL DAY
-6 Hours Remain-
CRACK-BANG
CRACK-BANG
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As fireworks and the clock tower's mechanism slowly pulled itself up via its two supports at the side, the firmly-frowning Link and Tatl stood watch on South Clock Town's clock tower entrance, eyes fixated on the celebration and with no-one else to see it.
BOOM-DROOM-DROOM...
CRRRRICK-CRICK-CRICK-CRICK-CRICK-CRICK-CRICK
As the wall before them, very slowly, all dropped into stepping stones; seven in total.
Just like how we remember, the narrow-eyed Link thought.
"Here we go..."
Tatl's anxious murmur made the frowning youth swivel his blonde-haired head 'round to face her.
"Tael... I've always wondered how this would go," she spoke again, turning her milky-shaded light skyward. "Now that we know more..."
Link swung his straw-haired head back at the newly-opened clock tower and cast a grin toward it. "Now that we know more...," he began, his frown slowly upturning into a confident smirk. "It's gonna go exactly how we want it to!"
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As the sound of the gigantic moon rumbling overhead reverberated for miles, the two heroes had at last traversed the steps below and walked up to meet the floating Skull Kid wearing Majora's Mask.
Just as they remembered.
In his invisible-eyed stare, he levitated in mid-air in a folded-armed frown, his vigil watching the pair carefully and closely.
"Sis!"
As Tael's little pinging sound echoed out, a mirror to his big sister's, the hovering Tatl flew up to meet him, her progress blocked by the ever watchful Skull Kid.
"... Tael!"
Link rose up his right hand to stop her, but only hovered it a few yards away from her as if to give her room.
"Don't," he advised her, cerulean eyes narrowed directly at the eerie-looking mask watching them. "Not yet."
"Swamp. Mountain. Ocean... and Canyon," Tael began again in reply; an expectant response that he gave them the first time. "Hurry... the four who are there... bring them here..."
Triggered by the little guardian fairy's words, as he had always been in this particular moment, the growling Skull Kid hovered up and back-handed the poor little purple pixie, sending him wincing down.
"Don't speak of out of line!" He exclaimed angrily, as if a child being denied its right to play with its toys. "Stupid fairy!"
A sudden volume of undeniable rage filled the watching Tatl's body; something that registered in her angry-toned ping.
All of this, in spite to having time travelled to have seen this happen twice.
"That's it!" She called up, eyes widened and glaring at the little Skull Kid. "I won't let things go the way you expect them to!"
"Hmph... well... whatever...," the grinning-voiced Skull Kid began in reply, turning his body to face his new two adversaries below him. "Even if they were able to come now... there's no way they'd be able to handle me." He chuckled knowingly.
Link glared back at him, watching him carefully.
It can't be Skull Kid talking, he thought.
This has to be the mask.
Whatever's inside it is making him act like this.
"Just look above you..."
As the forest denizen spoke, the Hero of Time did just that. In swivelling his oceanic-eyed gaze above to widen his eyes up at the sight above them, there it was; the horrifying scowling-faced moon that had threatened Termina's destruction countless cycles over was closer even than the first time they were here.
"If it's something that can be stopped, then just try to stop it!"
In response to his own messianic delusions, the Skull Kid tore his head and limbs skyward before giving vent to a piercing, screaming yell.
SHRIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK...!
Just as in the first cycle, the moon responded; its eyes lit up and the rumbling grew even stronger if that were possible.
"I told you I'd be back...," Link at last gave voice to his hard-eyed response, glaring up at the shaking Skull Kid. "Now I'm gonna make you answer for this..."
"Do it Link...!"
At his partner's urging he shut his oceanic eyes in a hardened scowl and rose up the Ocarina of Time to his lips; Zelda's last gift to him and the only reason the pair had even made it this far. As he played through the notes to the melody that would save this continent, a second rumbling began to echo out; one that unnerved even the hovering Skull Kid.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
"W-What's-?!"
MMMOOOOOOOOOAN...!
The sounds of the Four Giants themselves, powerful otherworldly-like moans echoed toward them from far away.
It was definitely them.
The Skull Kid swung his masked head 'round, eyes widened in shock behind his thinly-veiled disguise of power.
At last it sunk in; as the second barrage of moans and bellows reverberated toward them, the nameless Skull Kid began to scream in what appeared to be horror, gripping the sides of his head as he shook in levitating place.
SHRIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK...!
–
2
DROOM...
DROOM...
DROOM...
DROOM...
As the sound of the Oath to Order echoed out from the centre of Termina itself, South Clock Town's plaza, so too did the Four Giants answer it; the echo of their footsteps, godlike in power, shook the very earth itself in their slow but sure advance.
From Woodfall to Weybour, from Great Bay to Rockvale, all Four Giants materialised seemingly out of thin air itself and all to answer the desperate last-ditch call to save the world.
As they all began to make the final approach, the three behemoths all gave each other one last nod of recognition before reaching back with their gargantuan arms in preparation for the rapidly-descending moon above them.
DRRRRRRRRRRRR... RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As a sheer wall of flame itself encased the lunar object, it was all the divine four could do to stay standing; their huge legs shook with the godlike effort it took to even maintain their positions.
At last however their hard-won efforts saw fruit; a bright light shone out of the moon as the flame slowly dissipated and, as it did, so too did the descending form of it stop. Time itself even seemed to halt temporarily; the Four Giants remained in their positions, perhaps unsure in its stance, as they waited.
"... It... it stopped..."
Tatl's wide-eyed whisper, directed toward the huge moon now remaining stationary above her, echoed down to the frowning Link.
"I don't believe it...," she murmured out, near-unable to even accept their success. "It stopped!" She exclaimed this time, a wide-eyed and open-mouthed grin in her voice.
"Sis!"
"Tael!"
As the two guardian fairies flew 'round another in ecstatic joy in their reunion, the standing Link couldn't help but turn his saddened frown down on the fallen and seemingly unconscious Skull Kid.
His heart went out to him.
Just a lonely kid, he thought.
Used and manipulated by whatever was inside that mask.
"Thank the goddesses...," Tatl sighed, her bulbous form bobbing lightly as if to compliment her deep sigh. "We made it in time... I wasn't sure we were gonna," she claimed, briefly shutting her eyes before she turned her form on the fallen Skull Kid. Her eyes re-opened and she glared. "Hey! Skull Kid! Do you realise what you've been doing everyone?!" She called over angrily.
"W-Wait, Sis... don't be... don't be too hard on-"
"Tael!" Tatl heatedly interrupted him with, swivelling her form on him almost as quickly as he spoke. "Why are you protecting him?! Aren't you angry at him for hitting you like that?"
"Well... yeah but... he was lonely..."
"He was trying to destroy everything around him Tael!" Tatl reasoned with in her earlier raging tone. "Those aren't the actions of a child!"
"B-But it was the power of Majora's Mask that did it to him...," Tael attempted to soothe his elder sister's flaring temper. "Maybe it was too much for him to handle..."
Tatl snorted, rolling her eyes. "Oh yeah, maybe it was too much to handle!" She exclaimed. "With as little will as he had I'm shocked his personality wasn't completely devoured by it."
"Indeed. Such a simple-minded child had far too many flaws to be of any true use."
The listening Link's oceanic eyes widened, both in an unhealthy mixture of horror and shock upon realisation of the new voice's point-of-origin.
A deepened baritone that came directly from the demon-like mask itself.
"Yeah!" Tatl exclaimed out, eyes shut in ignorance. "That's it! Admit your stu-"
Her eyes widened and, as her form began to shake in fear and realisation, so too did her younger brother's; at last the pair grasped what had happened.
Rather chillingly, the sound of a dark and demonic-like Aegir came off the Skull Kid's form as his very body began to lift off the ground. Link took a wary step back, hand itching for the Gilded Sword.
"A puppet that can no longer be used is mere garbage."
As the new male voice spoke from within Majora's Mask, it made the watching Link rise his eyebrows in recognition.
This is him, he thought.
This is the boy-turned-man that the Forgotten Ones forced into this thing.
CRICK-CLATTER
The Skull Kid's body dropped to the ground lifelessly, still seemingly either unconscious or deceased, leaving the eerily-staring Majora's Mask watching them.
"This puppet's role has just ended."
–
3
"It-It can't be! But then... what about the moon?!"
As Tael put forward his horrified query, Majora's Mask answered; a powerful aura of Quintessence dropped from within the stationary moon in the sky. As it made contact with the staring mask's form, the mask itself began to quickly rise up in response to it, seemingly somehow entering the very moon itself.
"Link! This is bad!"
As the moon's eyes lit up chillingly, the listening young Hylian could only narrow his own back at the disappearing form of his new enemy.
"I know, Tatl...," he answered in a grit-toothed scowl. "I know...!"
"I... I SHALL CONSUME..."
Majora's Mask's new oppressive baritone thundered down to meet them; a hearkening to the Dark Interlopers of old.
And their declaration of war.
"CONSUME... EVERYTHING..."
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
As Majora's Mask spoke again, its new voice filled with a demonic filter, not unlike that of Kage Narumono's, the moon high above began to vibrate worryingly.
DROOM
In a sudden increase of mass and physical power, the moon restarted its rapid and powerful descent. Their arms already ready to give way, the Four Giants let loose squinting-eyed groans of sheer effort, their gargantuan forms about to buckle under the satanic pressure of Majora's Mask.
"L-Link! Enough! Go back! Go back!"
Tatl's anxiety-filled soprano echoed toward him, making him turn briefly to face her.
"The Song of Time, Link! The Song of Time!"
He chose not to answer, not vocally anyway; his cerulean-eyed gaze swung 'round to glare at the deep aura of demonic-like Aegir still hanging around the Skull Kid's form. Somehow able to sense his thoughts, Tatl's eyes widened before she soon narrowed them and shook her body vehemently; an answer in and of itself.
"N-No! No Link!" She resolutely denied him, tears falling from her face. "I'm not going in after that psychopath!"
"We have to Tatl!" Link barked back, his own eyes widened. He slowly wandered them over to the rumbling moon above them and the scowl it stared at them with. "If not us...," he began again, his tenor lowered to a mere whisper. "Then who?"
The words of the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide rung true to his memory and his small and pointed ears.
"There is no-one... not even within the descendants of my clan that can approach the obscene power... of Majora's Mask."
Even while they're dead and buried the Dark Interlopers are still causing mass murder, the narrow-eyed Link thought dejectedly.
"We'll only have one shot at this..."
Tatl's fear-filled sentence came hurtling at him; something that he was able to at least register as he turned back to face her out of his hard-eyed thoughts.
"You realise this right?"
He nodded in firmly-faced frown. "Yeah," he answered, his frown very quickly upturning into the confident grin he was known for. "Besides... I've always played best when it counts for real."
In spite of the grand horrors they were about to face, and the urgency of the continent's imminent destruction, Tatl's anxious-filled frown soon found itself changing into an appreciative smile of her own. As the grinning-faced youth stepped forward into the darkened aura of Aegir, Tatl spoke her last sentence on earth.
"Don't ever change... Link."
"Hey... Kagami."
The listening Link's eyes widened awake and he swung his blonde-haired head around his surroundings.
Am I on the moon, he wondered.
No...
No this is my mind.
When he saw the far-off clearings of shallow-held water, he knew it to be true; sure enough, the source of the deepened baritone came from directly ahead of him. Standing ever in his cage was the glaring-faced form of Kage Narumono; physical manifestation of the holy Triforce's chaotic Aegir, the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai.
"What do you want?" The firmly-faced Link answered him in an irritated narrow of his cerulean-shaded eyes. "I'm busy."
"Stop being so fucking childish," the angry-eyed Kage cursed in response, his right eye shining a bright oppressive red. "Do you even realise what you're doing? What you're about to put us through?"
"Yeah...?" Link batted back half-curiously, rising up a straw-shaded eyebrow as he did. "Majora's Mask's about to annihilate Termina."
"So let it."
Link's eyes widened, genuinely surprised by the demonic being's words. Sure enough, Kage merely stared back at him from within his cell through the bars between them, fiery-crimson eyes glaring.
"What...?"
"Do you honestly think you even stand a chance against Majora's Mask?"
Kage's sudden and fiery response made the listening Link furrow his brow in a mixture of curiosity and puzzlement.
"You realise even if we don't stand a chance then-"
"There's no reason to believe that Majora's Mask will turn its eye to Hyrule... much less the world itself," Kage interrupted with, impolitely but with in a softened tone of his hardened demonic-like baritone. "Majora's Mask is a descendant of- nay... it is a Dark Interloper, forgotten and abandoned by time. One of your... 'forgotten ones'...," he continued, eyes narrowing. "It is an entity of pure unadulterated evil."
"Yeah," Link agreed with in a hardened nod. "Which means it will eventually turn on Hyrule!" He shot back, stepping forward to face his demonic second-side down. "And anyone else that stands against it."
"Kuh...!"
Catching an annoyed and frustrated look in Kage's eye, Link's own eyes narrowed in recognition and surprise.
"You're scared of it... aren't you?"
His query wasn't even a question; more of a statement of realisation. Regardless, Kage Narumono opted not to respond vocally; his growling scowl twitched in the face of his mirrored human side, unquenchable rage filling him. At last however, the demonic entity's head lowered and he glared his crimson-fiery eyes forward, re-opening his mouth.
"I should be. And so should you."
His statement, words from the very manifestation of the chaotic Aegir of the holy Triforce, shocked the listening Link; he could only widen his oceanic eyes in response.
"While Majora's Mask and I have the same dreams of destruction... I at least was contrived by nature... and can be reasoned with."
Link couldn't contest with that; he lowered his eyes in thought and, sure enough, he was right.
Kage Narumono, after all, was an entity born of the chaos that was the Triforce of Courage itself. Majora's Mask, on the other hand...
Link shuddered to think what depraved soul exists within the eldritch depths of Majora's Mask.
"Don't do this..."
Kage's quiet-voiced plea made him re-rise his head up to face the fiery-bodied form of himself, surprised.
"Majora's Mask will not only kill us... but subject us to far worse fates than mere death... the Sorcerer was right," the demonic entity claimed, tilting his head to the side as he spoke. "Not even the men within his clan can stand against this heretic blasphemy." He spat.
The former Kokiri couldn't help but grow the contemplative frown he listened with into a confidently-growing grin; his excitement raising at the prospect of a real challenge.
"Someone's gotta try," he shot back. "Might as well be me."
STOMP-CRACK-FRR
In raging response, the ground cracked and cried under the lava-like strength of Kage's boot; a simple stomp that would have broken at least two bones within his own body, let alone any future opponents. Link's cheery sociable grin dropped and a more serious frown adorned his facial features as he listened to Kage breathe heavily through his nose; another sign of his patient anger.
"It will kill us," he whispered in a hardened nod, near spitting the words with which he spoke. "Not even the Shinzui-et-Sanmiitai can save us both."
"You seem so confident in-"
"YOUR FAITH! BRINGS DEATH!"
Link's eyebrows lifted and he even took a step back in sheer shock from the sudden desperation that Kage's rage-filled response gave; as his demonic baritone knocked noisily and echoed against the walls of his subconscious Link suddenly remembered that Kage's voice, even with its demonic filter, was simply a copy of his own.
It was easy to forget, even if staring at him was like staring at himself with fangs to match.
"Not unless..."
Kage's sentence re-beginning made the listening Link quirk another eyebrow up, curious and quizzical; Kage merely shook his fiery-shaded head in disarray, almost as if he were shooting down the very thing he was about to suggest.
"Not unless we can achieve perfect synchronisation...," he claimed in his slow shut-eyed scowl, shaking his head as he spoke morosely. "And reach the path to heaven."
"'Path to heaven'...," Link murmured out, eyes narrowed. "You mentioned that before, in Ikana, didn't you."
Kage re-rose his head up and frowned. "We are simply too young, too simple-minded," the demonic warrior claimed. "To reap the benefits of heaven's power... we would need to become a new entity entirely. I'm sure your Garo Master Yoshiyuki and that old hag Aki Kitamura told you of him... didn't they."
"'Him'? Who's 'him'? You're not making any-"
And suddenly, just like that, it all made sense; Link stopped himself mid-sentence and widened his oceanic eyes in shock as the puzzle pieces began to fit.
Kage Narumono was a physical manifestation of the holy Triforce but if I give in to the Shinzui, then I become something else.
Something else entirely, he thought.
Memories of the silver-haired, war-painted face he saw on murals in Rockvale Temple filled his mind.
It was just like Yoshiyuki Miyazaki said; Kage was the key and the link.
"The power of the 'Fierce Deity'," the listening demon spoke, his head tilted to the side in his hardened scowl. "It is our only way feasible to leave a battle with Majora's Mask alive and, believe me when I say this," he began again, his hellish-red eyes narrowing in the inflection of his sentence. "Between us both and Majora's Mask; only one of us will."
The reality of what Kage spoke of abruptly hit the listening Link like a ton of bricks; he near took another step back, near horrified.
This must be the point in time when I give in to Kage's influence and the Shinzui itself, Link thought in terrified wide-eyed realisation.
It was just like Yoshiyuki said.
"Whether you give in to its influence today, tomorrow or far into the future... it matters not..."
So what happens now?
Do I join with Kage to become the Fierce Deity and we annihilate whatever's inside Majora's Mask?
And what then?
Turn on the rest of Termina? Hyrule?
The world?
"No."
–
4
Kage's eyebrows shot up into his forehead, taken aback by his mirrored side's denial.
In further rejection, Link shook his lowly-held head as he began to slowly re-rise it, a hardened frown on his face.
"I made a decision after I helped Zelda to save our country," he began, brow furrowing as he spoke. "That I wouldn't rely on the Shinzui until I found Navi again."
Kage's patient frown soon mutated into the hateful scowl he was known for.
"You would kill us both...," he growled out in his narrow-eyed glower. "Just to prove a point...?"
"Nah."
His casual calm tone left an impression on the listening Kage; in response, the demon saw himself furrowing his own brow in light surprise and curiosity.
Link's grin returned to him; the cornerstone of his confidence evident on his young countenance. "Only one I'm killin' is him," the youth shot back, smirking on as he spoke. "Or at least puttin' him out of commission!" He added in a wide toothy grinning chuckle, leaning back as he rose his small hands to rest behind his head.
One of his many old habits.
"Kuh...," Kage began again, shaking his lava-shaded head, as if insulted by the boy's display of youth and innocence. "Dōshite son'nani... yōchi ni naru koto ga... dekimasu-ka..."
Link could only blink in quizzical ignorance as his second-side spoke the forgotten tongue of ancient Hylian.
Probably something insulting no doubt, he thought in a small smirk.
"Watch me, Kage," he began, his smirk slowly growing as his body began to vanish, his legs first. "Zelda didn't call me the 'Hero of Time'... for nothin'!"
As his words knocked noisily against the walls of his subconscious, his form at last vanished completely from view. Only his echoing tenor remained; the last reminder of his existence. Kage's hardened scowl twitched as he listened, re-opening his mouth when the voice of his second side at last dissipated.
"Kōun o...," he began, his fiery-bodied eyes narrowing as he spoke. "Anata wa sore ga hitsuyō ni narimasu..."
–
5
The sounds of birds singing and a far-off wind blowing made the young Hylian re-open his cerulean-eyed gaze and, sure enough, he was standing in a huge green field.
That's odd, he thought.
"Where am I? Shouldn't we be on the moon...?"
"It's... the moon... isn't it?"
Tatl's quiet-voiced frown made the listening Link turn his head up, quirking up a small smirk as he did.
Maybe she knew how to read minds, he thought.
"Sure hope she didn't read that conversation I had with Kage then..."
"But why is there a sun...?"
Sure enough, as she claimed, Link swung his head in the direction of the powerful glare; a sun's rays shone down on them in beautiful radiation.
"Maybe we're not in Termina anymore," the frowning Hero of Time claimed, lowering his arm as he turned his head to his front. Far ahead appeared to stand the only sight worth seeing; a large tree in the centre of the area situated atop a slight incline. "Maybe this is... the Void."
"'Void'...?" Tatl murmured out, swivelling her bulbous little form on him curiously. "You mean... that place people go to when they die?"
Link swung an amused grin on her, eliciting a rolling-eyed sigh.
"I hate you sometimes."
He chuckled. "Come on," he urged, pulling out the Bunny Hood to up his movement speed. "Let's go!"
Even as they approached, the pair's puzzlement and curiosity could only grow; dancing all around the tree in the centre appeared to be children, not much less younger than himself, all dressed with familiar masks.
Sure enough, they were the boss masks he had come to collect during his journey.
What's going on, the frowning Link wondered silently, his brow furrowing as he watched the children skip past him, almost as if without a care in the world.
"Ahhh... nice weather... isn't it?"
The youth swung his head 'round to face one of the four children dancing 'round the tree, eyebrows risen up in curiosity.
"Masks... you have... a lot...," the masked boy spoke, seemingly wearing what looked to be Odolwa's remains. "You, too... will you be a... mask salesman...?"
Link's brow lifted in sheer shock and surprise, horrified by the boy's words.
That's not possible, he thought.
But then surely the Happy Mask Salesman himself knows about this?
"Of course he does; why would he tell us?"
That man knows far too much, he added silently to himself, eyes narrowing at the boy staring back at him.
"Link... I think he wants our masks..."
"Yeah...," he answered, nodding his straw-haired head in slow response. "I figured..."
Having traversed through four dungeons, whether somehow fit within the same dimension or not, Tatl and Link managed to run through every single mask they had collected thus far with an exception to three.
The Deku Butler's son's spirit, Darmani's spirit and Mikau's spirit.
Funny how the masked children never asked for those, the grinning-faced thought to himself in a simple shake of his head.
At last, however, as he began to make the final approach to the tree in the centre of the field, he saw the sitting form of one last moon child.
A boy, much like the others, wearing Majora's Mask.
He sat in a simple seeming posture; with his small hands draped over his raised knees he cast his gaze out toward the far-off clearing before him, a seemingly lonely kind of look in his body language.
Was this Majora itself, the wondering Link thought to himself, eyes narrowing in scrutinisation.
"Or whatever the hell's possessing that mask."
"Everyone... has gone away... haven't they...?"
When the boy spoke, Link's eyes rose up half-expectantly, his nerves similarly shooting up in response. As he turned Majora's Mask's eerie-looking eyes to stare back into his own in a slow raise of his head, Link fought every urge to take a step back as if in defence or preparation.
"But you don't have any masks left to share... do you?" The nameless boy asked, pushing himself up to stand, a seeming frown in the tone of his tenor. "Well... let's do something else."
"Something else?" Link parroted, turning his head half-way away as if in anxiety.
"Yeah...," he spoke, staring straight into the youth's eyes. "Let's play good guys against bad guys... yeah... let's play that."
I don't like where this is going, the young Hylian thought in a worried twitch of his frown.
"Here... you're the bad guy... so you need this."
PING
In a surprising manoeuvre of unknown magic, an object materialised seemingly out of thin air ahead of the surprised Link. A tremendous sense of déjà vu washed over him when the bright light of the object fell into view at last; a mask stared back at him, slowly rotating in mid-air. Just as he remembered from the walls and murals of Rockvale Temple, it was the man's war-painted face he remembered so vividly.
It was Aki Kitamura's 'Fierce Deity'.
A kind of anxiety-filled foreboding filled the watching Link's body as he drew his eyes over the mask's form.
Even in looking at it, it somehow seemed to radiate darkness and divinity simultaneously.
A somewhat similar feeling to giving visage to the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide himself.
As Link very slowly outstretched his hands forward to accept the slow-hovering mask of sheer power, he watched it not without with a deep sense of suspicion and wariness.
"Are you ready?"
The boy's words echoed out amongst the walls in which they resided in as he stood to his feet, eyes watching him behind Majora's Mask menacingly.
"You're the bad guy... and when you're the bad guy, you just run," he claimed in his hardened tenor. "That's fine... right...?"
The standing Link glared back at the doubtful form of the boy before him, his breath coming out in firm and heavy exhales through his nose.
"Well...," he began again, his mask's eerie-looking eyes somehow widening as he spoke. "Shall we play...?"
–
6
"W-Where are we...?!"
His senses somewhat groggy, Link swung his eyes 'round his new surroundings and they very slowly began to come into their own; a new colourful arena rested before him, decorated only with what appeared to be odd kind of symbols resting on each wall facing him.
They were obviously for something but what, at the moment, he couldn't say.
And sitting directly ahead of them was the object of Termina's, and theirs by extension, suffering; Majora's Mask rested in what seemed to be a large indentation in the wall before them.
"Goddess only knows at this point Tatl...," Link at last answered his worried partner, eyes narrowing forward at the hanging mask before them. "It could honestly be in the Void for all we know."
SHHHIIIIING...
Almost as if in response to his words, a bright light shone from within the youth's centre; a gathering point for Aegir. He watched with half-eyed suspicion as the four remains slowly floated out from within him before turning their flight path toward the walls ahead of them.
Odolwa.
CHIK-UH
Gyorg.
CHIK-UH
Goht.
CHIK-UH
And, at last, Twinmold.
CHIK-UH
RUMBLE-RUMBLE...
In response to the four remains' having been put in their rightful places, the very form of Majora's Mask itself began to vibrate and rumble within its indentation. Link's oceanic-eyed gaze very slowly hovered over to watch it, a worried look in his eye.
CHIK-UH
The rumbling suddenly stopped and, as it did, its eyes eerily lit up; seemingly a registration of its newly-alive form.
CRACK-CRASH
The very wall itself broke apart, as if from mere contact with the mask, before the catalyst of evil itself hovered forward in a deep-sounding hum. Tentacles drooped down from its back, hairlike in nature, and gave the mask an even more demon-like feel to it. As Link stood down watching it, his heart racing, he knew he couldn't even dare to attempt to try to fight it; its Aegir much too potent and much too powerful.
"But I have to try."
MAJORA'S MASK
"It's coming!"
Having spun itself 'round in what seemed to be a spinning top manoeuvre, Majora's Mask opened with a simple enough assault; as its eerily life-like moving spikes twitched, so too did its hairlike tentacles shake around as if in ecstasy.
SWWWWWISH-FRT
"Agh...!"
Even as he attempted to jump aerially to his side, Majora's Mask's spikes managed to catch him in a nasty cut bound directly for his exposed left arm. As he landed, Link narrowed his cerulean eyes forward and dropped down to his knees. Pulling up his injured arm and his uninjured one he formed them in a defensive cross together, fists similarly clenched.
"What are you doing?!" Tatl's wide-eyed wail exclaimed, near echoing against the walls of the ancient battleground.
"Come on you son of a bitch..."
In a firm-eyed glare and low-voiced curse, he began to charge his Aegir into a visible aura-like shield that encompassed his body; a thick blue-shaded circular bulwark that offered more-than-satisfactory support. As Majora's Mask began to spin 'round the arena for a second flight, Link's brow furrowed as he watched, unmoving from his position. Almost as if to challenge the very kneeling form of its enemy, Majora's Mask widened its madly-spinning eyes as it came pelting full-force at him.
CRACKKKKKK
A gasp escaped the shocked young Hylian's lips when he watched the devious spirit's spikes stick strongly into the boy's man-made shield of Aegir. Almost immediately he saw its effects; it began to crack and crick, just like glass.
SMASH
And just like glass, it eventually smashed apart, leaving him completely defenceless.
SWISH-SLASH-SLLLLICE
"No, Link!"
The wide-eyed boy could only gasp out, oceanic eyes widened as Majora's Mask's spikes and snake-like tentacles savagely tore his body up, sending him grunting to his back face-up. It was only when he landed, however, that the watching Tatl learned an even more disturbing truth.
"H-Hey... Link! Get up!"
Sure enough, he was seemingly unable to stand again, his body shaking and his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
"What's it done to you?!" Tatl shrieked out urgently, hovering down to levitate hurriedly over his face. "Wake up!"
SWISH...
The sound of Majora's Mask's spinning echoed out a second time and, as it rotated wildly in mid-air, it came for one seemingly final pass to finish off its fallen opponent. Tatl's eyes widened beneath her small bulbous form up at it before she 'rounded her horror on her fallen partner.
"LINK! WAKE UP!"
SWWWWISH
CRACK
Surprising both the watching Tatl and the wide-eyed Majora's Mask itself, the boy's injured arm shot up to grasp at Majora's Mask's spikes, halting its flight indefinitely and immediately. As his fire-charged injured arm shook wildly in place, a signature of the great fortitude it took to even hold the assaulter's attack back, he very slowly re-rose his cut up face and head to glare back at the wide-eyed mask.
"Not this time...," the boy spoke, a familiar devil-like filter filling his usual tenor. "Woman or not..."
CRRRRRACK
Majora's Mask let out a low-toned groan as the youth's grip hardened up into a clawed one, near piercing its front into its back.
"The only good Interloper is a DEAD ONE!"
–
7
SLAM-FRRR-DROOM
In a savage and barbaric counter-attack, the newly reawakened Kage Narumono widened his fiery-crimson eyes as he dunked the similarly wide-eyed Majora's Mask against the ground beneath them, a meaty explosion of fire-style Aegir accompanying the ruthless engagement. Coated in the fire of the devil itself, Majora's Mask let out a pained and agonised groan as its body ricocheted ferociously against the ground around it, causing small craters from the sheer fierceness of the Shinzui.
Flying nearby and, having realised exactly what her partner had transformed into, Tatl opted in well-chosen faith to stay a considerable distance back, opting to watch from her safe perch instead.
As Kage widened his eyes and grunted he shot his body upwards in a hard-bodied pursuit, leaping high in the sky upwards to plummet down in a fire-coated final assault. Sensing his approach quickening, Majora's Mask quickly shifted to its side in evasion as Kage made contact with the ground, smashing his growling hellfire fist into the ground beneath him.
"GRNNNGH!"
SMASH-KERRRRASSSHHHH
Time slowed down agonisingly for the two fighters; as the powerful surface beneath Kage cried in agony from the barbaric chaos of the Shinzui, Majora's Mask counter-attacked in its evasive manoeuvre by extending forth its hair-like tentacles. Kage let out a whispering wide-eyed gasp as the tentacles connected with his host's boots and, sure enough, he was tossed suddenly and directly into the air.
As he flew through the wind, his assailant widened its eyes before focusing its similarly hellish-red-shaded Aegir into its centre for a follow-up assault; a beam of pure malevolent fire-charged Quintessence. Majora's Mask finished its charge, almost as quickly as it began, and let out a demonic soprano-toned howl as it fired forth the lava-bodied projectile.
Managing to surprise both the watching Tatl and Majora's Mask itself however, Kage recovered in mid-air with a wide-faced grin, limbs set to his far-off sides as he did. He rose up his left arm forward, back-facing first, and a powerful god-like Aegir of his own began to expeditiously power-up.
"Behold, the power of the Shinzui...," Kage began, a holy triangle lighting up in his host's left hand. "A power not meant for the FORGOTTEN!"
VZZZZZZZZ-FRRRRRRRRR
As Majora's Mask's beam of hellfire made contact with the divine-like shield of gold that encompassed Kage's levitating form, it very quickly found its assault being eaten up; indeed, even as it connected, it just as quickly began to disperse seemingly within the hovering youth's form. Kage laughed uproariously as the shield around his figure began to whine and pull itself in toward him, almost as if to join with him.
"Now DIE!"
As he outstretched all his limbs out forward in an abrupt showing, so too did the absorbed power and Aegir he stored within himself expel ahead in a powerful explosion of magic and Quintessence.
VWWWIP...
DROOM-DROOOM-DROOOOOOOOOM
In a meaty conclusion to the original engagement in which they were in, Kage managed to turn back Majora's Mask offensive in a disaster-like eruption that blew apart even the decorations atop the walls around them.
As before, it groaned in agony as it was sent careering back into the wall behind it.
CRACK-WHIIIINE...
CRACK-WHIIINE...
CRACK-WHIIIINE...
CRACK-WHIIINE...
In four similarly-sounding sharp shouts, the four boss remains all left their resting places, seemingly called to action by their master. The levitating Kage's grin soon faded in favour of a twitching-faced scowl; his hellfire eyes darted between each one, quickly working out the fastest way to ending them.
"Do you really think this can stop me?" The demonic will growled out disdainfully, casting his hateful-eyed glare on the recovering form of Majora's Mask.
As Odolwa's and Goht's remains very slowly began to hover toward his form, clearly readying to attack him with, Kage chose to relax his form and let his hands and legs rest at his sides limp. The watching Tatl could only wince, hopeful but not gambling.
SHIING
SHIING
As they inevitably fired two Aegir-charged projectiles toward Kage's form they passed through harmlessly somehow, eliciting a wide-eyed gasp from the watching guardian fairy.
Suddenly realising his current form was merely an after-image she swung her eyes 'round and, sure enough, there he was; his form re-appeared directly behind the pair of floating masks. Time slowed down for the warriors; as Kage's scowl very gradually ascended into the malevolent open-mouthed smirk he was known for, he pulled back both his arms and narrowed his eyes as he did.
SMMMMACK-CRRRRICK-CRACK
Kage laughed animalistically as he merely slapped his hands together in a savage and ruthless smash, catching and essentially killing both the floating Odolwa and Goht's remains. As their masks broke apart in numerous pieces the remaining boss masks floated toward their enemy in an attempt to ambush him.
As before, however, the Shinzui's enforcer was ready.
In a lightning-quick manoeuvre he widened his satanic-red eyes and reached back with his left arm, catching the wide-eyed Gyorg's head before he began to twist insanely in place.
"Omae no inochi...," he began speaking ancient Hylian, slowly swinging toward the horrified-eyed Twinmold. "Moraiukeru!"
CRACK-CRRRRRICK-SMASH-SMASH
Managing to completely shatter Twinmold's remains he ended his war-cry bellow by tossing Gyorg's near destroyed remains toward the still-recovering form of Majora's Mask.
GROAN...!
FRRR-CRACKLE-CRACKLE...
In a painful-looking finish indeed, Majora's Mask found its form very slowly hovering up toward the centre of the battle arena, its body almost completely covered in injuries and a burning fire that crackled noisily. Its hair-like tentacles very quickly ascended back into its body and, as they did, a sudden change made even the watching Kage Narumono lift his hellish-red eyebrows in surprise.
CHIK
A single leg of blasphemy and demon-like proportions abruptly jutted out from its right side.
CHIK
A second leg shot out, this time from its left.
CHIK-CHIK
Two arms of similarly disgusting and eldritch material dropped down from its top sides.
GLUP
Just as suddenly, a head of nightmarish measurements popped up; a single eerie-looking eye of dark-green, marked only by two horns by its sides.
It truly looked like something out of a horror-induced hallucination.
As it began move in an abrupt fashion, swinging its body from side-to-side, a new voice escaped its body; a kind of high-pitched tenor that didn't seem altogether human. As it knocked noisily against the walls, Kage very slowly dropped from the sky to the ground beneath him in a narrow-eyed glare.
"Hmph...," he muttered out, eyes slowly narrowing in his hard-faced scowl. "Awarena..."
MAJORA'S INCARNATION
In incredible bursts of speed, Majora's Incarnation managed to sprint around the battle arena with such velocity that it left after-images of itself behind in its wake. Kage watched it, slow and patient, as it began to cry out in what seemed to childish joy; even when it was seemingly engaged in battle, Majora's Mask would continue to surprise the watching audience.
Its legs very smoothly slid against the ground, one after the other, carrying it backward.
In any other situation the watching Tatl and Link would have laughed.
The glaring-faced Kage, however, was of a different breed; he huffed through his nose, his hellish-red eyes narrowing in scrutinisation and disappointment.
"Like a child...," he muttered out, shaking his fiery-haired head. "Awarena..."
Almost as if having somehow understood the ancient Hylian in which its opponent uttered out, Majora's Incarnation suddenly 'rounded on the demonic warrior and shrieked as it fired out a barrage of magical energy projectiles.
Kage glared back at them and used the power of the Shinzui itself to slide through the projectile barrage harmlessly, his body widened its stance, one of his burning eyes turning bright-blood-red. His right leg rose up at the knee and his arms crossed one another, fingers outstretched.
An ancient stance and signature of the Sorcerer of the Divine Divide himself.
"Rikudoooo!" Kage began in a low-voiced murmur, quickly upturning into a wide-eyed war-scream. "OSATSU!"
As Kage's form rapidly approached Majora's Incarnation's a dull and dark cloak of anonymity descended down upon the two warriors; only the sound of Kage's thirty-strike assault and demonic-filtered scream echoed out from within. When the final attack made its connection light returned to arena and the scowling-faced form of Kage stood back-facing first, clenched arms resting at his sides and a kanji of ancient Hylian glowing hellish-red on his back.
As always, it read as: 'Destruction'.
"Messatsu..."
As the devil's words echoed out noisily against the battle arena's walls, Majora's Incarnation let out a blood-gurgling gasp, its huge form fallen to the ground.
In a pained shriek however, it quickly shot itself up to its feet, its one eye widened in agony. Shocked by its sudden revival, Kage Narumono swung his fire-haired head 'round in quizzical curiosity.
"How...?" He murmured out, narrowing a single eye in scrutinisation. "You should be exorcised...!"
Somehow choosing to defy Kage's expectations, Majora's Incarnation's form soon found itself slowly rumbling and vibrating, its heretic arms and legs very quickly growing in mass and muscle.
Just below the eye it wore as a head, however, a more suitable head this time poked out from underneath the mask's top; as it suddenly appeared it gave out a low-toned growl, something that would suit an eldritch horror taken straight out from a novel. With widened swirling eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, it looked every bit as horrifying as the watching Kage and Tatl had expected.
GROAN...
SHRIEK!
In a high-pitched echoing scream, Majora's Mask reinvigorated itself by revealing two more tentacles straight from its arms themselves, made seemingly of the same abominable material as its hair-like tentacles in its original form.
Here we go, the narrow-eyed Kage Narumono thought.
This is it.
"The Dark Interlopers true power."
–
8
MAJORA'S WRATH
Even as it shrieked in its high-pitched soprano, the watching Kage knew right then and there that the murals on Rockvale Temple were lying or, at the very least, not telling the whole story.
Whatever was inside Majora's Mask wasn't a man, or even a boy.
But a woman.
As Majora's Wrath shrieked a third time, it stabbed forward its right tentacle-like whip, presumably to catch the demonic warrior's form; he side-stepped effectively and, as he did, grunted as he shot down his left arm to catch the tentacle in his two handed grip. His enemy screamed and howled angrily, pulling at the tentacle but it didn't take much at all to sever his grip; with one extra tentacle with which to lash at, Majora's Wrath ruthlessly slashed at the wide-eyed Kage with its remaining left arm's whip.
SLASH-SLASH-SLICE
In a series of three assaults, one after the other and procured by its initial opening up, Majora's Wrath spun around in place acrobatically as it managed to make contact with its attacks. Kage grunted in physical agony as he was sent tumbling backward; he scowled and pushed up off the ground beneath him to somersault backward in air recovery, a newly-inflicted cut bleeding down his host's child-like cheek.
Even as he landed, the demonic warrior grunted a second time as he shot his body off to the side in an effort of evasion and space control, eyes watching his hated enemy carefully. When he liked the sizeable space he managed to create between the two, he pulled back his arms and readied his fire-style Aegir.
"Rgggh-AGH...! Shakunetsu!"
In his ancient Hylian-induced shout Kage pulled from deep within the Shinzui's power to shoot forward a lava-bodied sphere of fire itself, caked already in an aura of burning strength. In response, as it very quickly approached the standing Majora's Wrath, the mask's presence widened its eyes before it very acrobatically began to use its whips as if they were spinning tops.
SHRIEK-VWIPVWIPVWIPVWIP
A defensive technique but an effective one; as Kage's Shakunetsu Hadoken came into contact with the creature its whip-spin essentially managed to make the fireball dissipate.
"Grnnngh...," Kage growled out, half-worriedly and half-expectant. "Fine!"
As he leapt up into the air, his one fatal mistake, he executed the Ashura Senku technique a second time, widening his stance and gliding forward in mid-air presumably with which to attack. Majora's Wrath's eyes widened once more and it shrieked exuberantly as it immediately shot forward both its tentacles this time in pursuit.
SHRIEK...!
"Gurgh...!"
Kage's fiery-crimson eyes widened, this time in horror, for he had been anti-aired; Majora's Wrath screamed one last time as it firmly pulled its whips forward in a powerful yank, essentially careering his form forward like an arrow fired from a ballista.
CRASHHH
Kage's wide-eyed roar travelled with him, petering out almost immediately as his body smashed directly into Majora's Mask's initial resting place. He didn't have long to lick his wounds however, for the glaring-faced Majora's Wrath swung its form 'round and shrieked again as it swung one of its tentacles forward to grapple his body with.
VWIP
"Grugh...! No!"
Unable to move, even from the blitzing offence he was given, Kage's eyes began to limp from the pain and Majora's Wrath yanked his form out from under the rubble and wreckage. This time, however, it chose to use him as a mere rag-doll.
SHRIIIIIEK...!
DROOM-DROOM-DROOM-DROOM-DROOM
Kage coughed out blood from the sheer force and power with which Majora's Wrath's devastating counter-attack carried, his body smashing against the ceiling and the surface of the battle arena endlessly. When, at last Majora's Wrath seemed to finish, it merely shouted one last time as it tossed the devil aside as if he were a mere rat. Kage tumbled and sprawled across the floor covered in bruises, blood and all kinds of savage injuries. He gasped out with effort as he attempted to push himself up off the ground, barely managing to without shaking terribly from the exertion.
"E-Even the p-power of the Shinzui... isn't e-enough..."
"Kage!"
His near-limp eyes widened and he shakily turned his head in the soprano-toned voice's direction. His eyesight began to become blotchy and wavy, his consciousness fading in and out from sheer agony.
"Use the mask! That mask he gave you!"
Even as Tatl's urgently-called claims came toward him, Kage's lava-shaded eyebrows lifted in surprise.
I forgot about that, he thought.
Even as the Fierce Deity's Mask itself tumbled out from his inventory and clacked down onto the ground, the face of the war-painted god of destruction stared back at him; a possible ending for the Hero of Time.
"Y-Yes...," Kage mouthed out dreamily, his eyes lowering as if he were about to fall asleep. "The p-path... to heaven..."
His eyes at last rolled to the back of his head and he dropped down to the ground face up, his consciousness lost. As he did, the mask lying on the ground flipped upwards into the sky and descended down to meet him, perfectly landing on his fallen shut-eyed face. Majora's Wrath watched with child-like curiosity before shrieking once as it shot forward both its tentacle-like whips forward to attack with, presumably hoping to kill its younger and smaller opponent before the Fierce Deity's Mask even connected.
It was, however unlucky for it, unsuccessful.
It was only when an incredibly potent aura of Aegir suddenly encircled the demonic warrior's body that Majora's Wrath gasped, eyes widened as it watched him rise slowly up into the air, his human host's arms and legs splayed out as if still unconscious. The deep-purple shaded aura that encapsulated his form roared out like powerfully-studded fire itself and, as it did, the aura eventually exploded into a massive firework-charged blast that covered the entire arena.
Majora's Wrath shrieked but this time in shock and surprise; as it shot its arms up to block the incredible light that filled the battle arena, it eventually lowered them as the light slowly dissipated.
A new form stood before it; an adult man, dressed in peculiar yet familiar-looking armour. Silver plates rested across his torso, decorated with what looked like a single triangle on the left plate and a crescent moon on the right. A similarly silver-shaded tunic was placed under it, matching the powerful-looking silver gauntlets he carried on his broad and chunky arms.
His boots, though remaining the same as his adult counterpart in Hyrule's ruined future, clashed well with his other flashy attire. And, of course, resting upon his face was the noticeable and memorable blue and red face-paint, suggesting a connection to godlike divinity.
Resting across his back was an indescribably gargantuan two-handed sword; a seemingly similarly silver-shaded sword that came down in twists as if a double helix.
Just like the double helix that Yoshiyuki Miyazaki once spoke of.
The newly reinvigorated Link stood in his new form, casting his pupil-less eyes down on his open-palmed arms, almost as if to regard his new power.
"So...," he spoke, his voice a familiar baritone; the same tone as in his adulthood. "This is the 'path to heaven'..."
Majora's Wrath, completely unamused, shrieked once more as it tossed forward one of its whips to assault him with.
HARBINGER OF THE HERO OF TIME'S DESTINY
THE FIERCE DEITY
Link's ghost-like eyes shot up from his earlier examination and, as the whip very quickly began to approach him, he reached out with one of his armoured hands.
GRIP
Majora's Wrath widened its eyes and growled contrastingly lowly; a deep contradiction to its earlier woman-like howling. Offering very little effort in his counter-attack, Link merely watched his enemy closely from across the arena before twisting the whip's material 'round his arm further, almost as if to bring the wide-eyed Majora's Wrath in even further.
It could only watch in horrified shock before it chose to use its other tentacle with which to support its fallen one.
SWISH
GRIP
Shocking the watching mask even further, the firmly-frowning Fierce Deity somehow utilised his occupied hand to grapple at the second whip, successfully catching both within his titan-like grasp. Majora's Wrath struggled terribly to move but, in spite of its best efforts, it couldn't even seem to make a dent; indeed, the Fierce Deity merely narrowed his divine-like eyes as he seemingly pressed down firmly on his enemy's tentacle-like appendages.
CRACKKKKK
SHRIIIIIEK...!
Majora's Wrath gave vent to an otherworldly blood-curdling scream of terror and agony, even dropping to its knees from the pain.
"Tenchi no hedatari-o-mikiwame rarenu to...," the Fierce Deity began in ancient Hylian, much like his former counterpart, Kage. "Wa awarenari..."
The listening Tatl, shock beyond her, could barely translate each word; it was an even older form of ancient Hylian than Kage was used to speaking but she liked to think she got the basic gist of what he said.
'I shall grind beneath my heel... all that exists.'
Opting not to rely on the Ashura Senku as his fiery counterpart did, the Fierce Deity merely chose to move so quickly he left behind an after-image of himself behind. Majora's Wrath swung its devil-like head up from its earlier injury and widened its eyes, darting them 'round in quick and frantic search; it was only when it felt a divine-like powerful cerulean-shaded Aegir behind it that it swivelled its body 'round to prepare.
But, unfortunately for it, it was just far too late to react.
SWISH-VZZZ...
A single disc of pure eldritch Aegir was enough to nearly end the engagement completely and enough to down Majora's Wrath a second time; a round disc of light-blue Quintessence collided with Majora's Wrath's form, completely caking it in the brightly-blue shade of power. In response it screamed a horrific scream indeed; a cacophonous howl that saw the very weakened walls themselves near break from the absurd level of physical and spiritual agony it endured.
It was all the watching Tatl could do but shut her eyes and attempt to cover her ears, truly disturbed and not just by the unending blood-lust within her partner's new ghost-like eyes...
But the incredible control he wielded with it.
Indeed unlike the primally-powerful Kage Narumono, this nameless Fierce Deity not only boasted far more might, (if that was even possible) it also was a lot more reserved.
Even as she re-opened her eyes to watch the near godlike figure plant his boot squarely in Majora's Wrath's back, sending their foe sprawling and shrieking to the floor, she couldn't help but find some sense of righteousness in the chaotic Aegir that once held sway over him.
He's still in there, she thought.
"Maybe he really is controlling his actions this time."
As Majora's Wrath scrambled to its muscled yet weakened legs, it called out in its high-pitched persona as it whipped at the air; in response a spinning spiked top materialised from its tentacle, whirring noisily as it spun 'round endlessly. Although it looked similar to any basic Blade Trap, even complete in its own singular form, it contained one unsettling difference; an eerie-looking eye in its centre.
Always open and always staring.
In a second spinning shriek, Majora's Wrath managed to make another spinning spike and then one more. The ungodly horror that was Majora's Wrath swung one of its tentacles and pointed it directly at the standing Fierce Deity, not in attack, but in an angry-voiced order.
SHRIEK...!
Reacting to their creator's demand, the trio of spinning spikes shot along the ground in pursuit, eyes eerily staring at their foe as they did. Although the watching Tatl wanted to warn her partner of their sheer number, and of course of the near divine-like power they probably possessed, she knew better.
Whatever Link had become now was divine in and of itself.
Kage was right, she thought, as she watched the narrow-eyed deity-like figure spin once forward in his counter-attack, both palms outstretched and caked with a deep-purple shade of Aegir.
This was Kage's 'path to heaven'.
CRRRRINK-CRINKCRINK
SMMMMMASSSHHHHH...
As the Fierce Deity's gauntleted palms struck the spinning spikes in assault, one that resembled Kage's Ashura Senku technique, they almost immediately spit up and shattered into irreversible pieces. The eyes, even as eerie as they were, rolled to the back of the spinning spikes' heads, almost as if in sheer shock and agony at their opponent's plateau of godlike might.
Majora's Wrath, raging at its opponent's apparent superiority, chose to madly shriek as it unleashed an endless barrage and swipes and slashes with its whips.
SMACK-SMACK-SMACK-SMACK
Even as he approached, the Fierce Deity kept his ghost-like eyes narrowed, effortlessly knocking back each strike as they drew near with his mere back-hand.
"Incredible..." The watching Tatl murmured out, mesmerised.
The difference was as clear as day; the ungodly level of Aegir that Majora's Mask alone possessed, while completely infecting Link and near killing him, was mere child's play to this oni-like existence
When the nameless Deity slowly began to approach, Majora's Wrath's eyes widened and it did something drastic; as it swung its body 'round in one last wide-eyed roundhouse kick, the Fierce Deity grappled at it, surprising not just the watching Tatl but the shocked Majora's Wrath as well.
"Oh...!"
In Tatl's startled-eyed stare, she watched her partner break not just his enemy's leg but its very will to fight back.
CRRRRRACK-SHHHHRRIIIIIIIEK...!
As Majora's Wrath dropped to the ground on one knee, eyes widened as before, it very slowly re-rose its head to stare up at its foe; the Fierce Deity widened his own eyes as he at last drew the gargantuan great-sword resting on his back. Following up on his counter-attack he grunted once as he held it overhead before suddenly plunging it down on Majora's Wrath's defenceless form.
CRACK-SSSQUELCH-SHRRRRIIIIEK...!
Even in its intense otherworldly agony, Majora's Wrath was still hanging onto consciousness; an incredible feat that saw no repose from its watching foe. As the double-helix great-sword's huge form was stuck through the mask's body in a savage run-through, not only did it stop it from fleeing, but it left it open for one final assault.
The Fierce Deity at last widened his eyes and they lit up at last, his arms rose and dropped; one to the sky and one to the lower side in perfect symmetrical posture.
"ISSHUN SENGEKI!"
As with Kage's 'Rikudo Osatsu' technique, an eerie darkness plunged down on the battle arena almost as if to prevent any prying eyes from watching. Only two were privy to it; the Fierce Deity himself and his woe-begotten victim.
In a brutal series of thirty-strike attacks light at last returned to the arena and, as it did, the Fierce Deity stood in a hardened stance; his arms remained at his side, fingers clenched together, his legs held similarly apart. His silver-haired head cast its glare to the ceiling, eyes narrowed as he re-opened his eyes, his last offence finished. The ancient Hylian kanji character that lit up on his back, however, was a word that separated him from his earlier devil-like form.
'Heaven'.
"Messatsu..."
In one final screech of agony, Majora's Wrath began to circle its head 'round in similar-faced anguish, its whips swishing in a deep-toned echo as it did.
VWIP
Suddenly, and quietly as well, Majora's Wrath finally breathed its last; it swung its body to have its head and body face the ceiling, the rest of its limbs remaining limp at its sides as it did. The battle arena, and everything in it, began to rumble violently; a tremor that rocked the core of its body to its very foundations. The wide-eyed Tatl and the glaring-faced Fierce Deity could only watch as the bright-blue light of the Fierce Deity's Shinzui began to wash over and even overtake Majora's Wrath's body completely.
The centuries-old monster, at last put down, gave out one final gasp of agony as it dissipated into the chaotic-divine fire of the Shinzui.