Hallownest at Peace
"Oh..." said Link.
Hornet simply stared in silence as the creature clawed its way through the lower half of the building. Suddenly, she jumped up, threw her nail, and swung off toward the creature.
"Hey, wait up!" said Link, getting out his hookshot and following after her. After a few minutes, he found her on the top of a tower, observing the creature.
"Why'd you run off like that?" he said, climbing onto the rooftop.
Hornet turned around. "I've come to a conclusion," she said. "This creature is made of void. That much is obvious, but more than just being made from void, it possesses complete control over the void... Or... No, it embodies the void. It unifies it under one mind. No other creatures can be made from the void anymore, for its entire conscience is this creature... The Lord of Shades."
"Alright, that's a lot," said Link. "What do you think we should do?"
"Simply put, we must defeat it," said Hornet. "The void... it opposes all life. Normally it is held back by its inability to cooperate with itself, but now it seems to have overcome that weakness. If we don't stop it, it could spread over all of Hallownest—no, the world."
"Hmm," said Link. "Well, this may not help, but when I went to the Abyss, my light arrows were able to subdue the void, at least for a little while."
"It is worth an attempt," said Hornet. "I've no idea if anything can defeat such a godlike being."
Link got out his bow, nocked a light arrow, and pulled back. "Here we go," he said. The arrow soared across the ruined city, leaving an arcing trail of light. It slammed into the side the the Shade Lord, and a disc of light appeared where it hit, and the creature recoiled. It instantly snapped around, spotted Link and Hornet almost immediately, and began sprinting towards them. "Uh-oh," said Link.
"Run!" Hornet shouted, before throwing her nail and darting away.
"Good idea," Link said, running to the edge of the roof. The Shade Lord arrived, and Link jumped off the side just as its claw drove downward through the building. The creature had four arms, however, and it quickly lashed out with another. Before he knew it, Link was surrounded by darkness, in the grasp of the Shade Lord. Reacting quickly, he slashed with his sword, bursting out of the thing's hand, which completely dissipated, and beginning a free fall through the city. He fired his hookshot into the wall of a nearby building, and the momentum swung him toward it. He crashed through a window and into the building.
A few corpses of once-infected bugs littered the room. Link dashed through the building and jumped out another window on the other side of the same floor. He used his mantis claw to slide down the side. Looking up, he saw that the Shade Lord had already reformed it hand, and seemed to be looking for him. Not in a frantic or panicked way, but slowly, methodically. Each of its eight eyes seemed to go in different directions. Link ducked under a nearby canopy.
'Okay, so the light arrows do seem to hurt it, if only a little,' he thought, 'but we'll need to find another way to actually kill it.' "Hmm," he said, poking his head around a corner. "Where's Hornet?"
Hornet, standing atop another building, close to the one the Shade Lord had destroyed, was having similar thoughts. She trusted that Link was safe, because she knew he was competent in combat, but she had no idea of how to defeat the Shade Lord. It seemed almost invincible. She swung away, looking for something she could use against it.
Link stalked through the alleyways and rubble of the city, trying to avoid detection, until suddenly he felt one of his feet turn cold. He looked down to see that he had stepped on a tentacle of void. "Uh-oh," he said. It shot up around Link's leg, and the Shade Lord, now halfway across the city, instantly snapped its head around in his direction.
He quickly sliced the tentacle, and readied another light arrow. It streaked across the city and blasted into the Shade Lord, but again didn't seem to harm it. It began running towards Link, who prepared to fire another arrow, until he saw Hornet swing down from above the creature. She slashed its arm as she went, then disappeared into the city. The Shade Lord disappeared from Link's sight while trying to locate her, so he grappled onto a nearby rooftop for a better view. He shot another light arrow, this time nowhere in the Shade Lord's direction, and soon Hornet joined him.
"So I guess we just keep hitting it until it goes down, huh?" Link asked.
"Yes," Hornet replied. "It is the best idea I can conjure."
"Alright, then," said Link, drawing his bow. The Shade Lord had seen them by now, and it started to close the distance. Link was about to fire when he saw a light at the top of another building, much higher than they were. It was the Hollow Knight. He was standing atop the tallest remaining building, and seemed to be focusing soul.
Hornet gasped, and, as the Shade Lord too turned to look at the Hollow Knight, said "Link, be ready to shoot when the Hollow Knight is ready," then ran to the edge of the building.
"Wait, how will I know when it's-" Link started to say, but she had already jumped off the edge. "Well, here goes nothing," he said, training his arrow on the Shade Lord.
The Shade Lord moved to attack the Hollow Knight, but Hornet wrapped her thread around it, restraining it and pinning it down. It tried to break free, but the strength of the Pale Wyrm lay inside her, and she held strong. The glow around the Hollow Knight got brighter and brighter, until it was almost blinding, and it bore its nail in front of it. Link knew it was ready then, and he shot the arrow, stunning the Shade Lord, as the Hollow Knight jumped off of the building. With its nail, it plunged into the Shade Lord, falling inside it as void poured from its body. For a moment, it seemed as if nothing was happening, but within the Shade Lord, a light began growing. It seemed to fight against the void, until it encompassed the Shade Lord's entire body, and all of it suddenly disappeared in a flash.
Link hurried to the place where it had happened, and saw Hornet standing there, holding what seemed to be a mask.
"It's over," she said, handing it to him. It was the Fierce Deity's Mask, only now, instead of just the war paint, its eyes were entirely black. Pieces were flaking off of it, and soon the whole thing crumbled to dust in his hands.
"It's over," Link agreed.
So that's the end. Hope you enjoyed this short little story. As always I don't own any of these characters, the Legend of Zelda, or Hollow Knight.