Daruk was the first if them to reach his Divine Beast.
Making his way up the mountain as quickly as he possibly could, Daruk barely acknowledged the way his friends and family left their houses to follow him through the city, some of the reaching out towards him—one even going so far as to pull the blue piece of cloth that signified his status as a Champion off his shoulders.
There was no time for him to turn around, so Daruk didn't, forcing himself not to give in to the urge to stop and say goodbye, instead passing through the crowd of people, past the arms that threatened to pull him in for a hug, but stopping at the last possible moment, as the gravity of the situation dawned on them. He could see it in their eyes, the way his frantic movement and short orders for people to move, to let him run past them without having to slow down made them realise that this would not be the noble battle they had all imagined, where the four Beasts would unite the corners of Hyrule with the help of the princess and the chosen hero. So they moved aside, and Daruk hurried past them without as much as a goodbye to his family.
How he regretted that as he entered the belly of Vah Rudania.
The air around him was warm, the lava that was only kept at bay by the strange material of the Beasts having warmed it up until it reached a temperature so scorching hot that no one but the strongest of the warriors would have been able to survive in there for long. Despite his training, Daruk could feel the effects of the heat, making his movements sluggish and unprecise as he passed through the Beasts, towards the terminal.
That was when something hit the outside of the Rudania. At first, Daruk barely gave it a thought, assuming that it had been a rock from the crater being thrown through the air by the movements of the mountain, but soon a purple substance was seeping into the Beasts, entering through every path it could find.
Already before the first drop of it had hit him, burning straight into his soul with its cacophony of voices screaming for revenge, death, and destruction, Daruk knew what it was.
Ganon.
As quickly as the warmth allowed him to move, Daruk swung his Boulder Breaker above his head, putting his entire body behind the movement as he brought it down, hitting the puddle that had formed at his feet. But the strange substance continued its path towards him, moving up along the side of the edge of the sword, swallowing all of the ornate detailing. Daruk could still remember how proud he had been when the blacksmith had shared with him how each twirl of the design had been chosen with the help of those who admired him, representing all of his adventures as he watched how the design was swallowed by the liquid, centimetre by centimetre, until it threatened to climb along the hilt and devour his arm as well, leaving Daruk with no choice but to let go of the sword entirely and stand there, powerless, as he watched his most cherished possession disappear.
It was not until he took a step backwards only to find that the path behind him was now also gone, having instead been replaced by the substance, that Daruk felt the fear of death creep towards him.
As he watched, a single bubble rose to the surface before bursting, sending droplets flying in every direction, and as Daruk stepped to the side to avoid being hit by even a single drop of it, he instinctively knew that this meant danger, something far more dangerous than the lava around him.
So he called for help. Clutching the amulet that sat in the chain wrapped around his chest, he begged anyone to come to his aid, for once not thinking about how he had been supposed to be the one to help the people around him. Anyone, he would take anyone, as long as it meant that he did not have to be alone in the end, Daruk would even have accepted the company of a dog. It did not have to be one of the other Champions, and although he right then found himself unable to worry about anything but the way the level of the liquid around him was slowly rising, eating up the platform he was standing on, Daruk knew that the plan still called for them to, with the help of the Divine Beasts, stand next to the princess as she sealed away Ganon once and for all.
But as the substance reached him, moving up along his legs and sending tendrils of hate towards his heart, Daruk knew that he would not be able to continue long before the purple colour of the hate around him became the only thing he could see.
As he felt the last bit of his soul struggle against the power that threatened to destroy it, Daruk could only hope that the others would be able to continue on without him, for a second later, what little that was still left of him crumbled and he disappeared into the sea of anger.
Mipha felt the stones inserted into her crown grow warmer the moment she entered Vah Ruta, the desperation of the voice calling out for her help almost strong enough to overwhelm her.
But as she leant onto her spear, letting the intricate weapon support her while she tried to make sense of the scream, the pain, and then the sudden sense of nothingness, Mipha already knew that there was nothing she could do. No matter which of the Champions had been the one to send out the cry for help, she would simply have to pray that they could handle it on their own, for the plan had not left any room for any of them to make a mistake. Mipha knew the odds, knew first-hand how many nights of planning it had required to even give them the slightest chance.
So, although it pained her, and she could practically feel how it ripped her soul in half, Mipha ignored the plea for help and continued with her own quest, moving deeper into the Beasts.
The first sign of what was to come was the sound of Vah Ruta's scream. Eerie and unnatural, it cut into the night, sending shivers down Mipha's back as she jumped, letting the years of training guide her as she swung the spear in front of her, crossing it in front of herself in an attempt to let it both act as a shield while remaining alert, ready to let it fly through the air towards her enemy at a moment's notice while she herself would dive into the water, allowing her to fight while in the preferred element of the Zora.
Already, she was reaching up towards the jewel, sending out both a warning to the other Champions that something was not as it should be as well as a prayer for the goddess to let one of them come to her aid.
The moment Mipha once more clutched her spear with both hands, sending a fearful glance in the direction of the entrance to the control room, she heard the creaking sound of something moving over the smooth surface of Vah Ruta. It came from above her, and as Mipha looked up, she saw how a shadow was growing, blocking out the sun as it dripped down from the ceiling.
Mipha moved instantly. Jumping through the air and twisting around so that she was already cutting through the water like an arrow by the time she entered the water, the gentle feeling of the waves hitting her body and the sound of disharmony being drowned out only serving to make her movements grow even more desperate, she made her way through the room before shooting up and hitting the floor, safely out of range for anyone who might have figured out how to climb up along the sides of Vah Ruta.
But, of course, her moment of peace did not last for long, and Mipha soon came to realise that she had been doomed from the moment she entered the cambers of Vah Ruta.
In front of her, halfway floating above the floor and halfway looking like a thousand invisible strings held it up was a beast, completely unlike anything she had ever seen before. As it advanced towards her, Mipha instantly backing away before finding herself trapped between the blade of the weapon the creature brandished, the edge of it almost appearing to be nothing but pure light, and the shadows that still dripped from somewhere up high above her, she opened her mouth, forming a farewell to her family that she already knew they would not be able to hear.
The monster lunged towards her, bringing up its weapon, and it was nothing but a combination of luck and blind panic that enabled Mipha to throw herself to the side, the blade missing her by millimetres.
As she rolled across the floor, it felt like time slowed down around her, all thoughts disappearing, until the only thing she could think of was how close they were to the Zora's Domain and how she had made her younger brother promise that he would be able to shoulder her responsibilities if anything were to happen to her. It had seemed like such an innocent thing to ask back then, back when they had all thought that they would have ages to prepare, that Princess Zelda would have time to reach the goddesses and find her powers, but now Mipha knew that she could not allow anything to happen to her, not when it would not only costs her brother his sister, her father his daughter, and the kingdom a princess, but would also end up robbing Sidon of his childhood, all due to a promise she had never meant.
So she allowed herself only that short moment of failure, and by the time the beasts in front of her had turned around, swinging its weapon at her, Mipha was ready.
With a yell, both directed at the monster, but also at any Champions that might still be able to hear her, Mipha sprinted forwards, the tip of her spear aimed directly at a thin crack in the armour of the creature she was battling.
She could feel how the spear connected with something, how the weight of the attack forced the creature back ever so slightly, but even then, Mipha still used every last bit of strength left in her to send the spear even deeper into the monster.
It should have worked, and, for a second, she almost thought that it did. But then a laugh, loud and monstrous, without a single trace of anything other than pure evil to be found in it, echoed through the chamber, and her spear fell to the ground, going straight through the monster, and she saw how the hole she had created in the armour had let her see what was on the inside.
It was purple, twisting around as it moved to fill out the gap left by the spear, and Mipha was doomed already before it attacked, making a spear appear out of thin air.
She stood there, frozen as the spear sailed through the air, hitting the floor in front of her to let the drops of purple travel up her leg and into her heart. Mipha could feel how the promise she had made her brother repeat to her twisted painfully as the hate that accompanied the feeling of nothingness seeped into every last corner of her soul, chipping away at everything that had made Mipha the person she was. Slowly, the image of Sidon swimming up the waterfall faded, the memory of her father following after.
The very last thought she was able to form before she lost her vision to the hate that now covered her completely was a warning.
Her crown grew so warm that had it not been for how she was already long gone, Mipha might have screamed in pain as she sent one last desperate plea for the other Champions to abandon the plan and save themselves.
Nothing good would ever come from them going to their Beasts; Mipha knew that as she finally escaped into the bliss of nothingness.
The moment both the plea from Daruk for someone to save him from being alone in his last moments and Mipha's desperate voice begging her to return to her family rather than to continue with the plan echoed into her ear, the spells that had so carefully been woven into the process of melting the golden hilt of her scimitar, Urbosa knew what had happened. They were gone, taken away before they had even gotten the chance to activate the Beasts.
Urbosa knew that now, after two of them had already lost their lives doing exactly what she was about to do, the rational, the selfless thing to do would be to return to her throne and organise a counterattack from there, making it so that those she had left behind would not lose their queen and find themselves completely alone as they struggled to piece together a plan once the Beasts would no longer be able to help them. But as she felt the pain of those she had spent the last several years alongside, how all of their smiles were gone in an instant, the only thing that was left in her was the need for revenge, not only to avenge Daruk and Mipha, but also to show the monster that loomed in the horizon that this was the last time it would ever be given the chance to destroy the world, the last time it would ever be able to use another person's soul to achieve its goal of sweeping through the land, leaving only the burnt earth behind.
So she set out into the desert even as the screams from Daruk and Mipha's insistence for her to turn around and try to organise those who would be lucky enough to survive the next attack from Ganon repeated over and over again in her head, some kind of morbid way of reminding herself just why she climbed into Vah Naboris and walked up the ramp to get to the main control unit.
The air inside was cool, the comfort of knowing that, even as they had lost so many in just a matter of hours, the world around her was still the same making her heartrate slow down a bit, her mind becoming clear enough to allow her to send a message to Revali, telling him what had happened. Although Urbosa had decided that the last thing she could do to honour Mipha and Daruk's memory would be to continue what they had died attempting, Revali did not have to do the same, and she tried her best to let the message convey that as the sound of her shoes hitting the floor echoed through the stomach of the Beast before she finally came to a halt, having reached the control unit.
It was there, as she stood in front of the smooth surface, ready to will the Beast to turn around and make its way through the desert, towards the castle where Ganon was still twirling through the sky, the smoke slowly gaining a corporeal form, that she felt how everything changed.
At first, it was barely something she noticed, only Vah Naboris taking a step to the side that Urbosa had not wished for, but as she pressed her hand against the controls, gritting her teeth as she fought against the winds that whirled the sand up in front of her, impairing her vision, Urbosa felt how something had made its way into the Beast, slowly rising up from beneath her, infesting every nook and cranny, before it turned its attention towards the spot where she was standing, towards the machinery itself.
She reach back to draw her scimitar, keeping one hand on the controls through it all while readying herself for an attack. Although she could not figure out just how an attacker would have managed to make their way onto the Beast with how the only entrance was safely hidden away metres above the ground and Vah Naboris currently trying her best to force her way through the sandstorm, but if there was one thing living so close to the hideout of the Yiga Clan had taught her, it was to never underestimate the threat of being caught off-guard. So Urbosa waited, with her scimitar raised high, but the amount of power she poured into making Naboris continue her path towards Hyrule even higher.
In the end, the attack did not come from any physical being, but rather from the control unit.
A tiny fleck, barely noticeable, had been the first attack, and already as Urbosa withdrew her hand and saw how it had been stained purple, the sticky substance sending long tendrils of hate through her arm, she knew that this was not a battle she could win.
Slamming her hand back down onto the cold surface, Urbosa tried her best to stop the course she had sent Naboris on, tried everything she could to make the enormous weapon she currently commanded stop, throwing it to the ground, anything, that would keep the hate she could feel licking against the underside of the control unit from being able to take control of it and turn it against those it had been built to protect. But no matter how she tried everything she could think of, remembered how she had left her daughter behind in the palace, truly believing that she would survive to come back and tell her tales about the Champions that had fought alongside each other to secure her future, thought about how she had walked through the streets only a few days before, hugging those who were up early enough to see her leave goodbye as she set out on the journey towards Hyrule for yet another meeting with the Champions, the hate spreading through the Beast was stronger than her, and as she looked down, Urbosa saw that what had at first been only a dot of purple on her hand had grown, drawing twirls up her arm.
As she watched, the design crept up to her elbow, and her arm jerked wildly as the pain of knowing that the only thing it wanted to do was to destroy and devour swept over her.
But even then, Urbosa continued to fight, and ever so slowly, Vah Naboris turned around, walking deeper into the sandstorm as she finally lost the fight against the evil that had somehow, despite all of the magic they had only begun to understand too late, made its way into the Beasts and used them to doom them all.
She should have listened to Mipha's pleas, Urbosa realised. This was it. There was nothing she could do. No heroic death, nothing she could tell to her daughter with a twinkle in her eyes in a couple of years.
As she felt how she little by little had to give in to the overwhelming sense of hunger, Urbosa could only hope that Zelda would not blame herself for what had happened. But, knowing Zelda, Urbosa knew that it was a hopeless idea. And maybe it was that thought, the realisation that as she disappeared, her daughter had not only lost her mother, but she would also have caused Zelda to place the blame for what had happened on herself that stole her last bit of strength away, for Urbosa had already disappeared long before her body gave out and she fell backwards, off the platform and into the hate below.
The journey up to Vah Medoh was long and lonely, a feeling that only grew in his chest as Revali felt first the loneliness of knowing that he had been alone when Daruk sent out his cry for help, the desperation of knowing that there was nothing she could do when Mipha's voice faded into silence, and the guilt from Urbosa as she thought about everyone she left behind when she insisted on sticking to the plan.
As the bird grew in size in front of him, Revali knew that he should turn around, send out a plea for help like the others had done, anything to let Zelda and Link know that their plan had failed and that Revali was now all alone, flying directly towards the very thing that had ended the lives of his friends, but any sense of fear was drowned out by the anger as the idea of some ancient machine being the thing to destroy them all instinctively made him reach for his bow, sending five arrows in the direction of the purple comet that flew past him, missing him by mere centimetres.
The two attacks collided in mid-air, and Revali prepared for the shockwaves caused by the explosion, bracing himself for impact. But as he looked up, Revali saw that although he knew that he had hit his mark—of course it had, he was Revali after all, the best marksman among the Rito, the best archer in all of Hyrule—the purple comet continued its path towards the bird in front of him.
Already before it hit the side of Vah Medoh, sticking to the material for a second before it almost seemed to be pulled into the wings of the bird, making Medoh shake in the air for a second before continuing its journey towards Hyrule Castle once more like nothing had happened, Revali could feel that the comet had been the work of Ganon, the hate and anger radiating from where it had passed by him.
He should turn around, but if there was one thing Revali had promised himself he would never do, it was to run to the princess and that knight carrying the sword that seals the darkness, and tell them that, after all of the training he had put himself through, being handed a bow and arrow before he could even fly properly, he needed their help to defeat Ganon, that the only ones capable of facing the beast and saving Hyrule were two children who had never done anything other than happening to be chosen by the goddess and being put onto a path that would never be able to lead to anything but greatness from birth. So he ignored the voice telling him that he would never be able to make it through the battle against Ganon and the power that had hit Medoh alone, instead angling his wings just a bit, not giving himself the chance to change his mind as he cut through the air like an arrow from his bow, landing on top of Vah Medoh only a few moments later.
Keeping his bow up, the string cutting into his hand as he readied himself for the attack that could come at any moment, prepared to pull back the arrow before letting it fly at even the smallest sound, Revali walked towards the control unit.
He barely made it halfway across Medoh's left wing before the world around him exploded in screams, each one louder than the one before, and as Revali fell to the ground, the arrow flying aimlessly through the air, the sound of an explosion as it hit something in front of him almost drowned out by the screams, he could feel how the sounds around him, all of the disharmony combining until it was all he could feel, rendering all his other senses blind, numb, too far away for them to be able to aid him, Revali knew that he would not be able to stay like this for much longer. Although he pressed his head down, using his wings to shield his ears, the sound still cut into him like knives.
It was in that moment he realised that if Link were to appear from the mist the screams had created around him, holding the Master Sword high as he came to save him, Revali would not have been able to form even a single harsh sentence about how he, unlike Link had had to work for his position in life. No, if only someone would come to help him, keep him company, or defeat the source of the sounds, Revali would never have been able to think one bad thought about them for the rest of his life.
But as it was, Revali already knew that it would require a miracle for his life to be more than just the next couple of seconds. The knowledge that he would die should perhaps have made him frightened, rendering him unable to do anything but beg for his life, but even something as simple as opening his mouth, much less forming the words, seemed almost impossible with the sounds pressing him down into the ground, creating the illusion of there being a mountain of weight above him.
Why had he not called for help? Why had he gone to Vah Medoh?
As he laid there, Revali could not find an answer to any of the questions, only a vague memory of having wanted to prove himself to the others, to show them that even though he was not a part of any royal family like Zelda, Mipha, and Urbosa, a renowned warrior, known for his strength and bravery, like Daruk, or chosen by fate the way Link had been with the sword at his side that seemed to be able to bring every conversation to a halt each time he entered the room, Revali was just as good as any of them, perhaps even better.
It all seemed so silly now. Revali supposed that death really did bring clarity, but even that thought soon gave way, letting the hate that seemed to come from below him, from inside Medoh, seep into him, quickly making its way into his heart.
Revali felt how every single thing that had made him into the person he was, every memory, achievement, and emotion disappeared, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind.
He wanted to be saved. Now, more than ever, Revali knew why Zelda had insisted for them all to wear their amulets at all times, and, finding himself incredibly grateful for how the princess had stubbornly kept on insisting that he would have to wear it, Revali poured the very last bit of strength left in him into his scream for help.
Then, he disappeared, and although the shame of knowing that he had failed should have been immense, the only thing left in Revali as he fell back into darkness was the sense of hate that enveloped him.