Wow. Chapter 11. This fic is getting so ponderously large that I actually had to move it to another Google document so that it would stop lagging up my computer.
Also, wow. 30 reviews. I'm… astonished. And psyched. And ecstatic. Did I mention proud?
RRRP:
ChangelingRin (FF): Yes, my plot to convert all the Zelink shippers has finally begun in earnest! Honestly, I just wanted to write Malon as a bonafide badass. Thanks for all the support!
Reaper4425 (FF): Alright. I know they're not actually father and son- I've never played TP, and I possibly never will (I don't own a working Nintendo Wii, Wii U, or Switch). Thanks for clearing that up!
Agent3Novi (AO3): Again, thanks for all the support! Also, by the name of all that is holy, thank you so much for the fanart! I've actually posted it as the cover image for the fic over on FF dot net, so anyone who's interested, feel free to take a look!
Chapter XI: Temple of Flames
The gate to the Death Mountain Trail was still open after Link's seven year nap, fortunately, and this allowed the Hero and his fairy to ascend the volcano. It was full of giant rolling rocks that Link had to avoid, as well as a particularly violent infestation of Tektikes and little pigs Ivan labeled as bokoblins.
Eventually, after being nearly crushed by the gargantuan boulders countless times, Link made it to the entrance of Goron City. Above him, he could see the fiery halo around Death Mountain, like a hellish harbinger of doom. Swallowing, the Hero of Time stalked into the heart of the mountain, anticipating the disappearance of every last Goron inside.
He was right. The entirety of the city of the stone race was void of life, save a single tiny Goron rolling around on the middle floor. Knowing that this particular Goron was Darunia's son that he had named after Link, the Hylian eagerly jumped from the top level down to the middle one. Unfortunately for the Hero, he jumped directly in front of the Goron and was promptly flung backwards by the rolling rock. The rock in question proceeded to cancel its momentum and roll the other way, in an effort to get away from Link.
He knew what he had to do. The Hylian ran towards the still-blocked entrance to Medigoron's smithy and picked one of the Bomb Flowers growing right by it. He flung it in the path of Goron Link, only for it to not detonate when he wanted it to. The oblivious Goron rolled right by it. This process repeated itself quite a few times. Finally, an exasperated Hero decided that enough was enough. He pulled out his Hookshot and latched onto his namesake, tugging Link along with the Goron as it rolled along the middle level. As he was dragged across the ground, Link procured a Bombchu from his pack and set it down on the handle of the Hookshot. He watched as the mobile explosive crawled along the chain of the Hookshot, eventually making contact with Link's stony exterior.
The Goron halted his motion, finally ceasing in his rolling. A grateful Hylian soon disentangled himself, examining a few bruises that he had garnered along his ill-advised trip.
"How could you do this to me?! You- you're Ganondorf's servant!" the tiny stone squealed.
"Uh, actually, I-" Link started.
"Hear my name and tremble!" the child proceeded to scream. "I am Link, Hero of the Gorons!"
"About that… I'm Link," the Hylian finally said.
Link proceeded to stare at Link with his violet eyes. "What? Your name is also Link? Then you must be the Legendary Dodongo Buster and Hero, Link!"
"Legendary… Dodongo Buster… and Hero…" Ivan tried to interpret, dying of laughter. The Hylian glared at him.
"My dad is Darunia… do you remember him?"
"Hard to not remember him… he nearly cracked my skull open that one time," Link answered, subconsciously rubbing the top of his cranium.
"Oh yeah, he told me about that! Link, you're a hero to the Gorons! I'm so glad to meet you! Please give me your autograph; sign it: 'To my friend, Link of the Gorons'!"
Holy Farore, is this what it'll be like after I kill Ganondorf? Link thought to himself worriedly. I can barely stand one Goron fawning over me, much less an entire country…
"Oh… I guess this isn't the best time to ask you for that… please help everyone!"
What do you think I was going to do, kick back and relax like I was on holiday?
"My dad went to the Fire Temple. There's a dragon inside! If we don't go to help, everyone will be eaten by the dragon! B-b-b-boooo hooooo!"
Goddesses, was I this emotional as a kid?
"You'd better try to calm leetle baby stone Link down if you can… maybe he'll calm down if you talk to him?" Ivan suggested quietly. All he got in reply was a curt not.
"Hey, kid, it'll be okay," Link said placatingly. "Tell me about this dragon."
"A-a long time ago, there was an evil dragon named Volvagia that lived in this mountain," the Goron began, sniffling. "That dragon was very scary! It ate Gorons! Using a giant hammer, the hero of the Gorons… BOOOOOOM! Destroyed it just like that. This is a legend from long ago, but it's true! I know it's true because my dad is a descendant of that hero! B-b-b-boooo hooooo!"
At least the kid wasn't outright bawling this time around.
"Where's everyone else? What happened to the Gorons?" Link asked, trying his best to sound like he didn't already know the answer.
"Everyone was taken to the Fire Temple. When my dad was out, Ganondorf's followers came and took them all away. They will all be fed to Volvagia, who Dad says has been revived by Ganondorf! And he's doing it as a warning to all the other races to never oppose him! Darunia went to the Fire Temple all by himself to try and save everyone… Please help, Link!"
"Of course I'll help," Link said, putting a smile on his face. He was good at it, too, and it almost looked genuine. "Volvagina won't know what hit her."
Ivan blanched, but the insult sailed straight over the Goron's head. "Uh… its name is Volvagia, not Volvagina… Here! I can give you this heat-resistant tunic and I'll open the gates!"
Before the Hylian knew what was happening, his Goron namesake was shoving a red tunic into his hands. He wasn't complaining, because he knew it was ridiculously expensive to buy from the shop and it looked quite good on him, if Link did say so himself, but the Hylian was confused all the same.
"Hang on a moment. Why do you have this? You're rolling around the middle level of Goron City and just happen to be holding one of these? Also, this is Kokiri style, and they don't grow past the age of, like, ten! So why do you have an adult-size Kokiri tunic?!"
"I… I don't know…" Link answered slowly, evidently having just considered it himself. Shrugging, the Goron proceeded to dart down to the lowest level and shove the entrance to Darunia's chamber open, allowing Link to walk inside.
!0*0!
While Link had no clue why a tunnel straight into Death Mountain crater existed in Darunia's chambers, especially why said tunnel was hidden behind a giant stone statue, he wasn't complaining, as it spared him the long and arduous sojourn up Death Mountain and through the massive active volcano.
Sighing, Link strolled towards the edge of the stone cliff and Hookshotted onto an inexplicably still functional wooden bridge, which was surprising, given how it was located inside an active volcano. Normally Ivan would have commented on this, but he was hiding in Link's fireproof hat to escape the heat. He was glad that he had gotten used to this mirrored world. It helped to not take a right whenever he needed to go left, and vice versa.
As he was about halfway down the bridge, a shadowy shape descended from somewhere above him. The shape turned out to be Sheik, and after Link got over his shock, his demeanor changed to one of mild anger.
"Princess, what are you doing here! This is an active volcano! You must be boiling alive!"
"Sheikah do not get hot," Zelda said, as drolly as if she were reciting it from somewhere. "We are equally effective at any temperature."
"But you're not a Sheikah, Ze- Sheik. You're just disguising yourself as one. Now, please, for my sake of mind, can you just teach me the Bolero of Fire and get out of here? This is stressing me out."
Zelda inhaled, then exhaled. "It is something that grows over time… a true friendship. A feeling in the heart that becomes ever stronger… Are we not friends?"
"O-of course we are," Link promised, struggling to not accuse her of abandoning him. That was another Zelda, from another time. Right? "I'm… just trying to protect you because I don't want to lose that friendship."
"Then let that friendship blossom into righteous power, for through it, you will know which way to go," the ex-princess spouted. "Please, Link, let me be your friend as you are mine. It's fitting, then, that this song is dedicated to the power of the heart… the Bolero of Fire…"
Sheik then procured her harp and played the eight-note song. Link repeated the song on his ocarina, suddenly remembering all the times he had played the song to warp here.
"I'd actually like to ask you a few things, but you seem to think I'm incapable, so I guess I should ask them later. I'll see you again-"
"Wait."
She stopped. "What?"
"I think you got the wrong impression," Link tried to assure her. "I don't think you're incapable. Far from it. In fact, that's why I'm being so protective. Because I couldn't stand someone incapable. Do you understand me?"
"I think," she answered. "Regardless, I'll ask you the next time we meet. It is rather hot in here, I suppose."
Then, with a flash of a Deku Nut, she was gone. The ensuing silence permitted Link to veer right and jump down a long ladder- quite literally, despite Ivan's protest- and enter the Fire Temple.
!0*0!
It was darker than Link remembered inside the Fire Temple. If he recalled correctly, he needed to go to his left the first time to meet with Darunia… but there was a massive stone pillar blocking that way that he would need to get the Megaton Hammer to access. But he couldn't get the Megaton Hammer for a long time…
Oh, wait. The world was reversed, so he actually needed to go right. He had nearly forgotten.
Link walked towards a set of stone stairs and tried to climb them, only to be caught off-guard by the wall of flames that he casually strolled straight into. Desperately, the Hero tried to beat the fire off of his body in an effort to not remain alight, and eventually he succeeded.
"Well, shit," Link grumbled. "How am I supposed to do this now?"
"Ivan… is not sure," the fairy said. "Is there a hookshot panel somewhere?"
Link looked around. "Not one that's visible," he lamented. Did he need the Lens of Truth for this? He hoped not. The more time he could spend without having to go to the Bottom of the Well, the better.
"I'm going to ask Saria," Link suggested before thinking better of it. "Actually, she probably wouldn't be able to help."
"Leetle man, that door is unlocked. You could go there," Ivan suggested, directing Link towards the rightmost door at the bottom.
"Oh, yeah," the Hylian agreed, walking through the stone door as it closed behind him.
Inside of the tiny hallway was a Goron, curled up in a ball in a cell, along with a large wooden chest. Funny. This chest used to contain the Boss Key, right?
Link had no time to think, however, as a Like Like descended from the ceiling and managed to tug the Hylian into its innards. Eventually, it spat Link back out, tunic-less. Enraged, Link wasted no time in driving the Master Sword down its gullet, killing it instantly.
He put on his undigested Goron Tunic back on, and tripped inelegantly over a small chest on his way back out. It contained a Blue Rupee. Too bad his wallet was full.
Now he was stuck at square one again. He was still in the first room, and still thwarted by a wall of fire.
"You know what? I'm just going to climb over," Link grumbled, jumping up on the side of the stairwell. Thankfully for his sanity, he wasn't promptly bathed in fire.
Sighing in relief, the Hero finally ascended the stairs and was now on the second level. Upon closer inspection, the rightmost door was locked, but there were two suspiciously placed torches embedded in the sides of the stairs. Relieved to finally have an easy puzzle, Link positioned himself between the two torches and readied Din's Fire, a bubble of heat expanding out from his body and lighting the braziers mounted on the stairs.
Nothing happened.
"What the fuck? I lit the torches!"
"For the last time, watch your language! You know what? Ivan is done with this. Every time you swear, Ivan is going to take Rupees out of your wallet."
"What! That's not fair!" Link complained.
"Neither is swearing for the thousandth time after Ivan told leetle man not to," Ivan retorted. The Hero of Time stopped mid-statement, mouth hanging open as he tried to come up with words with which to defend himself.
"Good, we agree!" the fairy said, diving into Link's pouch. "Shall we agree on… five Rupees per swear before this, and ten from now on?"
"Ten?! That's clear extortion!"
"Don't complain, or Ivan will raise it to fifteen," the sprite threatened.
"Ugh, fine," Link relented. Now I've really got to watch my tongue…
The torches had gone out during the argument. That was a lot of magic Link had wasted. He was tempted to curse, but he was almost out of Rupees and didn't particularly want to find out what Ivan would do then.
Sighing heavily, Link plopped himself down at the top of the stairs, which fortunately didn't burn him alive. There must be a way to open that door. There must be. At least there weren't any annoying Fire Keese this time around.
He looked around aimlessly. There weren't any eye switches that he could see, nor any floor buttons. There was nothing he could move… unless…
Shoving the statue blocking the leftmost door out of the way proved impossible; it was just too heavy for Link to move. He would need the Megaton Hammer to get it out of the way. Link muttered half-baked ideas to himself incoherently as he plodded to the three face-shaped braziers stuck together in the center of the room, placing his head against the central one in defeat.
Then he stopped and peeled his forehead away from the oddly cool stone. There wasn't a flame in it like last time…
To his left, a flame was lit. To his right, one was not. Link grasped his head in his hands, cursing his own stupidity, before preparing Din's Fire once again, igniting both unlit heads.
Nothing happened. The Hero of Time immediately realized that he was out of magic. Peering back towards the entrance, he noticed a few pots tucked away by the gaping entryway. Link ran over, sure to avoid the wall of fire, and cut them to bits, refilling his magic back to its maximum with the potions nestled inside.
He then went back and cast Din's Fire again, which thankfully worked, lighting all four torches. The rightmost door opened, and Link let out a sigh of relief. He walked through it, ignoring how it closed behind him in favor of looking across the pit of lava at his old friend and Sworn Brother, Darunia of the Gorons.
"Who's there? Whoever's… wait, is that you, Link?" he boomed.
"Yeah, it's me," the Hylian replied. "Sorry it's been so long since I last dropped by."
"Oh, it really is Link! You've grown so big since I last saw you! I'd like to have a man-to-man talk with you, but… well, now's not the time. Ganondorf is causing trou-"
"Yeah, Ganondorf revived Volvagia and locked all the Gorons in the Fire Temple, promising to feed them to Volvagia as a warning to the other races," Link said. "Your son filled me in. And why in the name of the Goddesses did you name him after me? I mean, it's cool and all, but surely there was another option, right? Because now I'm going to get so confused!"
"Uh… okay? Anyway, I need to try to seal up the evil dragon-"
"Don't!" Link burst. "You don't have the Megaton Hammer! You'll die!"
"Da! Stone man is crazy!" Ivan chimed in.
"Do I have a choice? It's either me or my people, and I put my people first. And if Volvagia ever escapes from inside of the mountain, she'll rain down fiery death on all of Hyrule! I can't let that happen! Link, I have to ask you this as my Sworn Brother: don't stop me. Save my people from the Temple! The prisoner's cell is in the opposite direction! I'm counting on you, Link!"
With that, Darunia turned around and walked through the door leading to Volvagia's chamber. Link assumed that he must have had the Boss Key on hand. But if that was the case, how was he expected to go in there?
There was one cell in this room that Link needed to unlock. It probably had the small key Link needed to unlock the leftmost door on the bottom level back in the first room. He looked around, noticing a hookshot panel on the left side. So he leapt across several pillars stuck in the magma in order to get over there, successfully Hookshotting over to the other side. On closer inspection, there was a torch stuck inside of the Hookshot pillar, as well as one on the other side. He knew he needed to use Din's Fire to light one, and then shoot an arrow through the fire at the other arrow, but Link had also noticed several wooden crates strewn about the room that probably contained his desperately needed Rupees. So he cut them down with his sword, only to find that the one on the precipice of a high ledge hid a third torch. Cheeky.
Link lit the two close torches with his magic, and then proceeded to fire an arrow through the flames, lighting it as it streaked towards the third torch. His aim was off, though, and he missed.
He tried again. This time, he hit it, and the cell door opened.
So he jogged across the magma to the other side, marveling on how it didn't hurt him at all. He clambered up the stone structures, eventually walking into the cell.
There wasn't a Goron inside. Link took a moment to pay his respects before he opened the small chest inside, revealing a Small Key. Perfect.
!0*0!
He ran back to the first room and unlocked the left door that wasn't blocked by a massive stone pillar. Immediately, he was beset by a Keese, which managed to bite the Hero before he batted it away with the sharp end of the Master Sword.
He walked further into the room, only for two Stalfos to appear out of nowhere, jagged bronze swords gleaming in the light. Link fumbled in his bag for a Deku Nut, eventually finding one and throwing it. He managed to stun one of the Stalfos with the blinding flash, allowing Link to run up and hit it. The blow wasn't enough to down the skeleton, though, and it soon reared up to strike. Link summoned his shield and batted away the blow, wincing at the decrease in his Dark Magic. The action managed to disorient the Stalfos long enough for Link to ram the Blade of Evil's Bane into the skeletal warrior's eye socket. Even still, the Stalfos just wouldn't die, and it managed to hit Link in a way that would have been quite bad had he not Backapparated behind the skeleton and performed a Jump Slash at its exposed backside, finally killing the one Stalfos.
Unfortunately, Link had forgotten about the other Stalfos in the scuffle, and so the skeleton was able to score a hit on him. Because he wasn't expecting it, Link wasn't able to Backapparate and abuse the skeleton's lack of defense. The Stalfos rose its blade for a vertical chop, but the Hero anticipated this and brought his own sword up, keeping the bronze blade at bay. He would have used his shield, but his dark magic was nearly depleted and he wasn't sure if he could hold it for very long without it exploding. For a few seconds, they remained in this position before the living combatant twisted his blade in a wide arc, successfully disarming the skeletal warrior. The sword disappeared in a cloud of white mist, and the Hero wasted no time in capitalizing on the skeleton's sudden defenselessness. He hit the Stalfos once, twice, thrice, four times, before the blade re-materialized in the Stalfos' hand, catching Link off-guard as it brought the sword down into Link's cranium.
There was a second of darkness before Link felt a fairy emerge from within his Pouch of Holding, healing many of his injuries and restoring light to his vision. He then proceeded to viciously decapitate the Stalfos, causing the door forwards to open.
The next room was tiled, and as soon as Link walked in, several of the tiles rose out of the floor and flew towards Link at high speed. He nimbly leapt out of the way; normally he would have summoned his shield, but he was saving it for the Iron Knuckle-
Hang on. Iron Knuckle? In the Fire Temple? Link did a double-take to ensure that he wasn't going crazy, and indeed, there was a giant suit of armor sitting motionless in a throne right in front of him.
That wasn't right. He wasn't supposed to fight Iron Knuckles until the Spirit Temple, when his body could sustain at least a few blows. Everything hurt twice as much, so Link estimated that he could survive only… two hits from the metalloid monstrosity. And he didn't even have the Biggoron Sword! How come this kind of thing only happened to Link?
At the very least, all the sentient floor tiles had become little more than shrapnel. The way forwards remained sealed, so that left one option- fight the Iron Knuckle. Link sighed, nocking an arrow in his Fairy Bow before letting it fly.
It hit its target just fine, but it did nothing against the heavy armor the Iron Knuckle… wore? Was made of? Come to think of it, what was an Iron Knuckle? Kotake and Koume had brainwashed Nabooru into becoming one, so… did that mean an Iron Knuckle was a Gerudo? But if that was the case, then what was it doing here? And how did it get here?
And more importantly, why was its axe faintly glowing? Was that magic? He hoped not.
"Do you think you can Mind Hack it?" Link whispered to Ivan.
"Ivan does not think so," Ivan replied. "Mind Hacking requires a target with a brain, and Ivan is unsure of whether or not Iron Knuckles possess those."
"So I have to fight it with the Master Sword. Great," Link grumbled, unsheathing the sacred blade once more. He crept up to the suit before slashing at it. The Iron Knuckle then slowly lifted its ponderous bulk, hefting its strangely luminescent axe as it started slowly marching towards Link. Link habitually twirled the Master Sword in his hands before getting in close. The suit of armor then swung its luminous halberd in two great strokes, cutting down its own stone throne, but Link was able to backflip out of range and then Jump Slash it. The Iron Knuckle didn't even flinch as it continued its trek towards the Hero of Time.
Link made to bait the steel soldier once more. Said soldier brought its axe over its head and slammed it into the floor where Link had stood just a heartbeat before, sending sinuous cracks all through the tiles. The Hylian, having rapidly sidestepped to his left to get behind it, then managed to exploit its defenselessness, getting a few Jump Slashes in.
Then the Iron Knuckle spun around counterclockwise, whirling its axe in a great, wide arc. The attack caught Link unawares, but gave him almost enough time to dance out of the way.
Almost.
The Hylian was flung backwards several paces by the hit, landing on his back at the foot of what was once the Iron Knuckle's seat. Pain blossomed from several places throughout his entire body, most notably his left eye. Right where the Knuckle's axe had nicked him.
Scrambling backwards, away from the still advancing Iron Knuckle, Link cautiously opened his eyes. He immediately realized that his left eye saw nothing. He assumed that the Iron Knuckle had managed to cut him right above the eyeball, and the stream of blood coming forth was causing his inability to see. So he closed it, relying on his right eye to keep track of the metalbound warrior. He took in his surroundings, not very lucidly. A crimson trail of blood meandered from the seat of the throne to where Link was, ensuring that it was, in fact, his own blood. There was also another fluid that he couldn't identify.
"Dear Goddesses! Link, are you alright?"
It took Link a second to realize that the voice belonged to Ivan. "I… van?"
"Da! Ivan will distract the Iron Knuckle! You take some of those bandages we bought in Kakariko and wrap them around your head! Go!" the fairy ordered, darting off to get the suit of armor's attention. Deliriously, the Hero managed to open up his pack and retrieve the strips of fabric, remove his hat, wrapping them tightly around his head and covering his wounded eye before replacing the red hat. It still hurt like mad, though, so he also uncorked a bottle and released the fairy inside, healing his lesser injuries and returning his sense of mind to him.
But his eye still hurt.
He decided that killing this Iron Knuckle took priority, though, as it had probably gotten bored of trying to hit Ivan. The little sprite was surprisingly nimble in the air, always avoiding a strike by the slimmest of margins as to ensure that the suit of armor didn't lose interest. So Link crept up behind it and rammed the Master Sword into its midsection before swiftly backing off, to prevent it from spinning again. The entire chestplate of the suit caved away, and the Iron Knuckle growled in what sounded like rage as it started running at Link faster than it was before.
Link swung at its exposed torso, landing the hit and causing it to stumble backwards. He attacked it again, causing it to take a step back once again. It growled again, renewing its assault. Its efforts were fruitless, though, as one final swipe caused the Iron Knuckle to keel over, evaporating in an ocean of green fire as it finally died. The Hylian, however, couldn't hear it, nor did he hear the sound of the door sliding open. Instead, he carefully undid the bandages surrounding his face.
Ivan let out a little gasp. "Leetle man, what are you doing? Shouldn't you leave those on? You just got hit by an Iron Knuckle!"
"I took a Healing Fairy. I should be healed by now," Link explained, tearing the last bits of fabric away.
But he still couldn't see anything out of it.
Ivan let out a dismayed tone, staring at his left eye. "What the hell?!"
"Language!" Link grumbled mockingly.
"Your eye… Ivan knew that glowing wasn't good!"
"My eye is glowing?"
"No, leetle man, the axe! Yebat…"
"Ivan, you're scaring me. What's going on?" Link asked, genuinely concerned.
"Okay, Ivan is going to have to explain some things. Be patient, da? So, the eye has this fluid inside of it that holds its shape. That's important, because that keeps your eye functioning as it was intended by the Goddesses. That Iron Knuckle hit you in such a way that the axe went into your eye without hitting your nose or the eye socket. But it hit you just enough to… crack your eye open like an egg. That clear liquid on the floor is the fluid that used to be in your eye. And because there's no fluid in your left eye anymore, it kind of deflated inside of your eye socket. Fortunately, the fairy… was able to stop the bleeding, or you'd probably be dead right now. Ivan is sorry, but you're not going to be using that eye again."
Link should have felt something. Anger. Fear. Depression. Instead, he felt oddly peaceful. He wasn't sure if it was denial or something until he realized for sure that it was not.
The pain of losing his left eye was just nothing compared to the pain of having lost everything else. Losing his past had been his greatest struggle, and he wasn't sure if he had even fully accepted that yet. Intellectually, he knew there was nothing left, and that he ought to move on, but there was still that primal urge to try lingering in his mind. But one thing was certain; he wasn't letting something as trivial as an eyeball get in the way of his goal; to save Hyrule and maybe, just maybe, getting his Hyrule back. Not his old Hyrule, as that was lost to time, but the Hyrule of the present.
"I'll be fine, Ivan. And no, I don't think I'm in denial. I just think I've been through worse," Link said. "If I could get through my grief over losing my friends, one eyeball shouldn't by that big of an issue."
Ivan nodded. "That is… very mature of you. Perhaps you aren't so much of a leetle man after all."
There was a pause of a few seconds.
"Ivan is still going to call you leetle man, though."
"Shut up, Ivan," Link said amicably as he finally left the room.
!0*0!
The flame dancer exploded in a fiery inferno, causing the doors of the small arena to open. Meanwhile, a large chest appeared on the dais situated in the center of the room. Link clambered on top of it and leveraged it open, hoping beyond hope that the Megaton Hammer would be inside.
He was proven correct, greeted by a silver hammer that Link couldn't carry one-handed. Hefting it out of the chest revealed that he could barely handle it two-handed, either, due to the limited strength of his Stalfos hand. Nevertheless, Link was able to lift it, with some difficulty.
Then he swung it experimentally. And he went out of control.
Before, he could at least somewhat handle the ludicrously high momentum of the hammer, but now he was physically incapable of stopping the hammer, and started spinning wildly like a drunken Peahat. Seconds later, the Hero of Time was able to stop his angular velocity, but consequently had to nurse a massive headache and extreme dizziness.
"Okay, so be gentle with this thing," Link noted. Ivan nodded solemnly in agreement, preemptively flying towards the door forwards. His partner soon caught up with him, and together, they opened the stone door.
Now they were on the other side of the cell, and Link was faced with a red switch.
"Hm… This switch looks rusted." Ivan noted. "Smash it."
"What do you think I was going to do?" Link responded before bringing the Megaton Hammer over his head and laboriously swinging it into the button.
The blow forced the rusted switch into a closed position. This prompted the cell in front of him to open and the Goron inside to perk up.
"A… are you releasing me? Am I free to go?"
"Yeah. Go back to Goron City," Link replied. "Darunia's son Link is waiting for you."
"Oh, I see! Big Brother Darunia asked you to rescue us. I owe you big-time! Please help Big Brother!"
"Ivan and I promise," Link replied.
Smiling widely, the Goron eagerly sprinted out of the Fire Temple- well, as fast as a Goron really could, anyway. They were more the slow, strong type in general.
He returned to the central room and beelined towards the effigy pillar. Now that he was armed with the Megaton Hammer, Link could smash the stone to smithereens with relative ease. And so he did, walking through the stone door when he was done.
The next room was a magma-filled basin with several short stone pillars strewn about. There was also a precarious-looking wooden bridge crossing the room. However, Link knew that there were three other rooms that connected to this one. It would be prudent, then, to investigate them before continuing onwards.
He decided to first go right, jumping across the pillars. They started sinking into the lava as Link put his weight on them, but he was off before they could come anywhere near submerging themselves. He made it to the right side, walking down the corridor and through the steel door.
He ended up in a tiny, curved hallway. He rounded the corner and came across a Goron Cell with a Gold Skulltula inside. Hefting the Megaton Hammer, Link pressed the rusted switch and opened the door.
"Are you releasing me? Am I free to go?" the Goron inside asked timidly, unfurling.
"Yeah."
"Here's a secret for saving me! A wall that you hit with your sword will sound different if you can destroy it with the Goron's 'special crop'."
With that, the Goron ambled out of the cell and presumably out of the Fire Temple. Link killed the Golden Skulltula before moving on. If his numbers were correct, that was his twenty-ninth.
He returned to the lava chamber, breaking a pot to fill his quiver as he returned to the rickety wooden bridge that somehow hadn't caught on fire. It was extremely hot in there; if Link wasn't wearing the Goron Tunic, he would have burnt alive for sure. The Hero of Time tried going left, only for a massive wall of flames to bar the way. It didn't look very high, though…
Link hopped onto a pillar that was moving back and forth in front of the flaming wall. He knew he couldn't get to the raised stone platform without being immolated, but he could probably get to the rubble slope next to it, right?
"Here goes nothing!" Link yelled as he hurled himself across the gap. Unfortunately, his jump wasn't quite high enough to not start burning, but Link did manage to get to the other side.
"What are you thinking!" Ivan chastised. "That's a good way to get yourself killed!"
"Relax, Ivan. I didn't die, did I?" Link shot back playfully, hauling himself onto the platform. He was instantly met with a torch that, when lit, would probably dispel the flames. Convenient.
He blew up an awfully conspicuous wall with a Bomb and stepped inside the small chamber, chugging the magic potion that had appeared from the remains of a ceramic pot. He was instantly greeted by another Goron cell, with one lit brazier on his right and an unlit one on his left.
"Fool me once, shame on you," Link muttered, "You're not getting me again."
He cast Din's Fire, lighting the left brazier and opening the cell.
"Are you releasing me? Am I free to go?"
"Yes."
"I'll tell you a secret for saving me! There are switches in this temple that you have to strike to activate. But you could also use the Goron's 'special crop' to do it!"
And like his brethren, the Goron proceeded to leave the Temple, leaving Link to open the small chest inside. It had a Small Key. Actually, were Gorons male? Did they even have genders in the first place?
The Hylian then left the cell, returning back to the lava chamber once again. He knew he needed to go to the right side again and go up the third chamber for what was probably another Small Key, but how?
"Ivan, do you see any switches around here?" Link asked.
"Nyet," his fairy companion answered. "There's a little alcove up there with a torch in it, though. And there's another torch up on the parapet, but it's out of the range of Din's Fire and your Hookshot."
Link followed Ivan's outstretched finger towards the tiny square hole in the stone chamber. He could barely see it in the darkness, but there way no way he could get up there. Right?
"Ivan, how am I supposed to get up there?" Link asked over the hissing noises of the moving pillars.
"Ivan doesn't know. But if it's there, you can probably go there, da?"
That didn't help Link, but he didn't feel like stating that. It would hurt Ivan's feelings.
Absentmindedly, Link strode over to the right side, ignoring how the pillars descended under his weight. He didn't care. He was busy trying to figure out how to get up on the parapet. He couldn't Hookshot to it… so what was he supposed to do? Keel over and die?
Then he was struck with a thought, a fleeting memory from the Fire Temple he knew. The one he had already done. He vaguely remembered being shot up into the air by one of the platforms before crashing down into the lava again, nearly causing him to hurl. Navi had used it as an opportunity to lecture him about being careful.
Maybe…
Link maneuvered himself over to the pillar closest to the alcove. When he stepped on it, it started shaking violently before detaching itself from the lava with a loud hissing noise. Once it reached its apex, Link leapt off of it and landed in the alcove, noting the torch embedded in the earth. The stone cube fell back into the magma while Link smashed a pot to reveal a rather large jug of green potion, which he disregarded; his magic meter was almost full and he was about to use Din's Fire to light the torch anyway. He did so, and eagerly partook of the magic-restoring drink afterwards.
It took him a second to realize that absolutely nothing had happened. He immediately set back to thinking again.
"Er, leetle man… Ivan has an idea. Do you remember that room in the Forest Temple, between the two courtyards, on the second floor?" the sprite said a few minutes later
"Yeah?" Link replied gruffly.
"You shot an arrow through a lit torch to ignite a cobweb. Maybe you could do that with the torch down there?"
Link stared dumbly at his partner. "Maybe the Goddesses should have made you the Hero of Time!" he eventually stated.
Ivan stared for a bit before realizing that Link was joking and laughed, a little bit harder than the statement really deserved. Grinning, Link turned back to the torch- only to realize that it had gone out during his brief conversation with his fairy. Grumbling, Link cast Din's Fire again, and wasted no time in igniting an arrow in it and firing it at the distant torch, now to his left. It lit easily, causing the door right next to it to open. But that didn't help Link get there, did it?
"Hm… Try the other torch," Ivan suggested.
"But that deactivates the firewall, right?" Link questioned.
Ivan looked at the Hero of Time drolly. "Does leetle man have a better idea?"
"I guess not," Link surrendered, firing another arrow through the closest torch. This arrow went to the right side of the room and hit its target, the unlit torch, dead-on. The ensuing fires caused several Hookshot panels to rise out of the lava all over the room, including right on top of the leftmost parapet.
Grinning, Link set off with a bounce in his step, jumping out of the alcove and onto another rubble ramp.
!0*0!
He didn't expect this, but he was thoroughly enjoying the Fire Temple. It was challenging, trying to figure out exactly what everything did, and Link found it so much better than the Fire Temple he had known.
Returning back to the right side of the room, Link Hookshotted up onto the stone and walked through the door. Instantly, his ears were beset by a wall of fire across the room. There was also a lit torch on either side of the wall of fire, several living floor tiles, and…
Was that the Boss Key?
Link stared at the ornate chest at the other side of the flames, completely forgetting about the living floor tiles until they were about three feet from his face. Yelping in surprise, the Hylian barely had time to dive out of the way. Fortunately, the one movement was enough to dodge all of the floor tiles in the room.
Convenient. Just like the fact that the Boss Key was on the other side of this room. That was almost pathetically easy, right?
Link aimed his Hookshot at the torch situated on the other side of the flames. It yanked him through the fire so quickly that nothing happened to Link. The Hero of Time promptly retrieved the Boss Key from the chest, adding it to his pouch.
"Does this mean that I don't have to do anything else? I can just run back to the boss room and open it up now. I mean, I have the Megaton Hammer and the Boss Key. There's nothing stopping me."
Ivan gave him a look. "You really think you could jump that gap? Ivan doubts it."
A thought struck Link. In order to get to the room Darunia went into, you have to do something about the pillar stuck in the ceiling, a Goron had once told him.
He was right, wasn't he?
Slightly less optimistic about finishing the dungeon, Link exited the room, returning to the wooden bridge and unlocking the steel door with the Small Key.
The next room was a bit odd, if Link was being completely honest. Even on his first adventure, he never understood how a pillar of fire could lift a stone block as massive as the one sitting in the center of the room. Fire didn't have weight, so how could it push?
Where the new room differed was the fact that there was also another column of flames surrounding the block, and there were Keese somewhere in the room, judging by the errant flapping noises. He Hookshotted onto the top of a interlocking metal fence structure, using each rung of steel as a foothold to climb upwards. He killed the Keese that had made nests on top of it before jumping down onto the remains of a pillar.
The Hero peered over the edge of the pillar before flinging his head back, as the stone block flung itself into the ceiling. It had been propulsed by the pillar of fire. After a second, Link looked back down. The column of fire from earlier completely wreathed the flame pillar, dwarfing the space where the stone once stood. He would have to jump onto it the instant it started moving upwards; jumping down any earlier would result in Link immolating himself.
The stone cube fell back down with a cacophonous boom, actually shaking the room a bit. Link gulped, and started counting. He stopped counting when the stone started rising again, and when it fell once more, he started counting again. This time, at the instant it had risen before, the Hylian flung himself from the pillar, landing on the ascending stone as it rose into the roof.
Ivan gave him a look as Link stepped off of the stone onto the second floor. Link looked right back at him, chuckling a bit.
Fortunately, the door forwards wasn't locked, and Link could easily push it open. He remembered there being a block puzzle in here last time, but he didn't see any stones that he could push. He walked to his right, knowing that he couldn't open the cell from this section of the temple, and hoisted himself up a set of stairs. From there, he saw an unlit brazier, and instantly knew to cast Din's Fire. The fire caused a Hookshot panel to rise across a gap, which Link Hookshotted to before climbing on top of it and using it as a stepping stone to the top of the earthen structure.
He was caught off guard by a lone Lizalfos, but all his experiences killing Lizalfos, both in this era and the last, had made Link quite good at cutting them into bloody ribbons. Once the bipedal lizard was dead, Link climbed up an iron fence, only to notice a hookshot panel right at the top that he could have Hookshotted to. He ignored it, and instead continued on his way, opening an iron door.
He was instantly greeted by an oddly disturbing face engraved into the stone wall. He realized that he was in the maze chamber, but he didn't hear the sound of rolling rocks, nor the sound of those lava slugs, so he assumed they weren't present.
"Is there something… unusual here?" Ivan asked cautiously.
Link looked at his partner, confused. "Wasn't that what you said in Lord Jabu-Jabu's Belly?"
"Da," the fairy replied. "What of it?"
"Ivan. There aren't any cows to shoot here."
"Nyet. But there is a face."
The Hylian turned back to the engraving. Deciding to trust Ivan, as he owed his companion as much at this point, he aimed his Hookshot at the nose of the stone face and fired it. Interestingly, a pink healing fairy emerged from the stone.
"Cool, a healing fairy. I could use that," Link said, catching the Fairy in a bottle. Ivan cringed, but said nothing.
Link then turned and attempted to navigate the maze. He was periodically assaulted by the Lizalfos, but they were easy enough for him to dispatch. Eventually, he came to the door that would lead him to the small chamber above the lava-filled cave from the first floor. But to his dismay, it was sealed tight. And because of that, there was no way to get on top of the maze and access either of the two cells in the room.
"So now what?" Link asked.
"Ivan does not know," Ivan replied. "Try exploring the rest of the maze; maybe there will be something."
So Link and Ivan proceeded to scour the rest of the room. They found one cell filled with a number of boxes and another cell on the level above, also filled with boxes. There was also a diamond switch situated right behind the second cell's bars, which definitely triggered something.
However, there didn't appear to be any way of accessing it; the bars prevented Link from reaching the switch, and it was out of reach. Sighing in defeat, the duo turned around and searched the other half of the maze, eventually reaching the other side.
"I hear a Skulltula here," Link noted. As he approached a wall, the sound got louder and louder. Wasn't this wall bombable? A swing with his sword confirmed this, as the blade bounced off with an odd ding. The ensuing explosion caused a section of the wall to give way, revealing a rusted switch and a Skullwalltula. Hefting the Megaton Hammer now, Link bashed the switch into the ground, killing the Skullwalltula in the process with its shockwave. He hoped to hear the creaking of one of the cells opening, but instead, Hookshot panels emerged from the ground in the corners of the room. Turning around, he saw that similar Hookshot panels had erupted on top of the maze, allowing the Hero to reach the upper level. He did so gladly, but not before rounding a corner and blowing up another section of wall, revealing a blue switch and a door.
"Well, that doesn't help me. The door to the center of this area," Link grumbled, pointing at the little circle on his Dungeon Map for emphasis, "is sealed. The door to this area is locked and I don't have a key. And I can't get into this little hallway to the north nor the two cells! I'm stuck!"
"Wait… ah, yes! There's a Block of Time that you can summon right there," Ivan said, pointing to a region of empty space above the locked door.
"I mean… okay, but how does that help me?"
"It will let you go up onto that little ledge, which will lead you to that lift," the fairy explained, indicating the various objects as he mentioned them.
"Alright, I guess," Link capitulated, Hookshotting on top of the maze and playing the Song of Time on top of another Hookshot pillar. True to Ivan's word, a large Block of Time appeared, suspended in space, that Link jumped onto. From there, the Hylian Hookshotted onto the tiny ledge and then again onto the lift, letting it pull him up onto the fourth level of the Temple.
He walked through the steel door, easing it shut behind him. He could hear the croaking of several magma slugs in this room, but he couldn't see them. They must have been further in.
The very instant Link realized this, a hot and searing pain shot up his left side. He turned instantly, backing away from the lava slug that had somehow managed to sneak up on him from his left. He was, at that instant, grateful he was wearing the Goron Tunic. But if Link hadn't been missing said left eye, he surely wouldn't have missed it in the first place.
In his panic, he stumbled and gracelessly tripped over his own feet. He felt a cool fluid run down his outer thigh, and as he picked himself up he confirmed it: the fall had broken his canteen, spilling all of his water onto the stones.
"Why, you little…" Link started, running through a list of verbal jabs in his head. He noted that he needed to learn more insults that weren't tied to the profane language that Ivan would charge him Rupees for. He settled on glaring at it viciously with his good eye.
Hefting the Megaton Hammer because the Master Sword was too good for it, Link reduced the slug to a puddle of rapidly cooling lava, which dispersed before disappearing. In its place was a vial of green potion, which Link drank greedily. Continuing forwards, the Hylian climbed a steel fence and slew another lava slug, finally ascending the room and entering the doughnut-shaped fifth floor.
The floor of this room was slick to the touch, and was colored a mottled gray. Link guessed that it was packed ash, given how, all the way at the bottom of the giant hole in the center of the room, sat the lava-filled chamber from the very beginning of the Temple.
There was a golden button right by the door, which Link stepped on. This caused the sound of flames, which Link had been tuning out since he entered the room, to die. He assumed that they had dispersed, only to reappear whenever the switch reset. The Hero decided that he wouldn't worry about it all that much; he could always step on the switch later.
He decided to work his way around the room, clockwise because counterclockwise was impossible. He immediately ran into a problem, though; he slid down any ashen slope with an angle greater than thirty degrees. This made traversing the room in a timely fashion nearly impossible.
The pillar of fire had come back long before Link got to it, and they appeared to be surrounding a chest. Right next to it was a rusted switch, which Link pushed with the Megaton Hammer. Immediately, Hookshot pillars rose from within the floor, allowing Link to go straight from the gold button to up by the chest.
So Link swandove from the platform onto the level below and stepped on the button. Then, he immediately Hookshot to the nearest panel, using the momentum to vault across the room and right in front of the chest. He kicked it open, revealing some kind of metal band. It was rather small, and would probably fit on one of Link's fingers. On closer inspection, the silvery ring had some kind of runes etched into it in some language Link couldn't identify, and there was a moderately sized onyx shard embedded in the metal.
"What's this…? A ring?" Link asked. "Ivan, can you read these runes?"
"Da," Ivan replied, fluttering closer. "Hm… Ivan thinks this is the language of the Interlopers, powerful dark magicians from long before your time. This was back when Rauru the Sage was alive. They sought the Triforce, and used dark magical artifacts like the Fused Shadow to aid them in that quest. They were banished to another realm long ago, but their legacy remains in their dark artifacts.
"If Ivan is understanding these runes correctly, this ring was meant to augment the power of any sorcerer to higher levels. Ivan thinks this correlates to how much Dark Magic leetle man can wield. This shouldn't affect your light magic, though Ivan still recommends caution when wearing it. It may have wards that prevent non-Interlopers from using it."
Link thought for a second. "Nope, still putting it on. I'm tired of my shield blowing up every other time I use it."
So he slipped the metal ring over his fourth finger. It fit surprisingly well, and the onyx started faintly glowing with a violet light. Instantly, the Hylian could feel his reserves of dark magic swell within him, growing to at least twice its original size.
He waited a few seconds. Nothing else happened. He experimentally summoned his Stalfos Shield, remarking once more on how its color had changed from when he was a child. It worked the same as it usually did, only Link had so much more magic than he had before.
"This is great!" Link said. "But… it doesn't help me with actually progressing in the dungeon…"
!0*0!
Back in the maze room, above the labyrinthine system of corridors, Link covered his ears as the bombs he had planted exploded. The explosion caused part of the platform to cave in, revealing a way back down onto the second floor. Rappelling down the hole, the Hylian ended up on the other side of the empty cell, but there was still no button in sight. There weren't any eye switches or torches, either, just a number of wooden boxes. Link smashed a few to vent his frustrations, only to find a rusted switch. He laughed, and pummeled it with the Megaton Hammer. This caused the gates to open, and inside the cell was a chest, which contained the Compass.
Link returned to the maze room and pondered his predicament. He couldn't get into the smaller hallway because he couldn't get a box, and he couldn't get a box because he couldn't open either of the cells!
The Hero of Time meandered through the room towards the cells, eventually finding himself right in front of the uppermost one. He could very clearly see a diamond switch just within the cell, taunting him.
"Maybe try Din's Fire?" Ivan suggested. "That spell seems to be used a lot in this dungeon."
"Worth a shot," Link said, shrugging, as he readied the spell. The ensuing fireball expanded out of his body and all around him, triggering the switch with a triumphant ding. This caused the cell to open, allowing Link to parkour across. Inside was a bunch of wooden crates, including a few that Link could easily pick up. There was also a chest, but it only contained a Deku Nut.
Snatching a box, Link jumped out of the room and jogged through the maze, turned slightly to the left to compensate for his currently missing eyeball. He was rewarded by not missing the onslaught of Lizalfos that fell on him almost the instant he left the cell. Link didn't bother to fight them, and instead ran; he could have easily killed them, but he was currently encumbered by the wooden crate that he was hauling through the maze.
Eventually, he lost the Lizalfos pack in the maze and had ended up on the other side of the chamber. Gingerly, Link placed the box on the bright blue button, causing the nearby door to unseal. The Hylian then walked through it into another cramped corridor. Around a bend was a Goron Cell, but it was empty. Link opened it after taking a moment of silence for the deceased Goron that once resided there. There was a small chest inside, in which was enclosed a Small Key.
Link sighed in relief. He was tired of this maze already. Worst-case scenario, he'd have to backtrack for that other cell. So he left the way he came, Hookshotted on top of the maze, and took a left, unlocking the door and stepping through.
The bandages covering his eye were starting to slip off, what with the overabundance of sweat that was forming due to the heat. Link was forced to take them off, squeezing his eye shut in order to prevent further damage. Reaching into his pack, Link withdrew the last of his bandages and wound them tightly around his skull, ensuring that none of his hair was caught in it. Not only would that not look very good, but it would probably damage his eye even further.
Replacing his crimson cap, Link surveyed the new room. Just like last time, it was filled with lava. From experience, the Hero knew a wall of fire would appear as soon as he stepped onto the iron patchwork suspended from the ceiling. But he had nowhere else to go…
So he stepped on it, and marveled at the lack of flaming walls that rose out of the lava. He gingerly tiptoed across the platform, noting its slight sway under his weight, before leaping to the next one. An idle glance to his right revealed a blue button behind a set of thick iron bars, and a furtive look to his left confirmed that the door was locked. He would need another wooden box.
So he turned back to the beginning of the chamber and hefted the wooden box there. He jumped across the gap onto the platform, but try as he might, he couldn't make it to the other one. The box was extremely fragile; Link knew from experience that it wouldn't survive a three inch drop. So Link set it down on the stone platform just below the next area and hauled himself on top. He turned to pick up the box, only to stare in horror as its remains burned away. Evidently, he had placed it too close to the lava.
There had to be a way that didn't get him too close to the lava. So Link decided to explore the remainder of the room; maybe there was a button somewhere that he could press that would create a walkway or raise the bars.
So Link continued through the chamber- and noticed another small box by the exit. Groaning at the fact that he had missed it, the Hero of Time jumped onto the stone platform and picked it up before returning back to the second hanging platform.
Excellent. Now he could get to the other side of the room with a box in tow. But as Link made his way to the other side, he came across a problem: the gap between the second hanging platform and the third was just as large as the one between the first and the second, meaning that he simply couldn't reach it without dropping the box. His Goron Tunic, while heat-resistant, wouldn't help him walk across a large pool of magma because he would sink into it. He'd tried it once, back in the other timeline, and it had nearly killed him.
"Er… There's a small box up there," Ivan pointed out from underneath Link's hat, gesturing towards a larger crate just above the blue button.
"Oh yeah," Link noted verbally. "Thanks, Ivan."
"Don't mention it, leetle man. Ivan is just happy to help without having to leave your hat," the sprite answered. "It's too hot for Ivan here."
Link grinned, leaping to the third platform and then clambering up the stone parapet. From there, he grabbed a box and descended into the caged portion, gently setting the crate down on the button.
He expected to hear the slithering of steel on steel that signalled that the door had opened. Instead, he heard the whoosh of something lighting on fire. He looked around, and saw that two torches set into the pillars by the second hanging platform had lit. He also noticed a third lit torch above an unlit torch. And given how he didn't have the Fire Arrows, he assumed that he had to shoot an arrow through the lit torch into the unlit one.
Hookshotting onto the larger crate, Link made his way to the second platform and fired an arrow through the flames. When it missed, Link tried again. The second time, the flaming projectile managed to ignite the brazier, causing the door to open.
He promptly left the room and was met with an empty hallway. Carefully, Link tiptoed through, expecting a Stalfos or a Lizalfos or, worse, a Like Like to drop from somewhere.
But fortunately, they never did.
The next big chamber housed the large pillar from back in the room where Link had talked to Darunia. If he hit it, he could then jump down after it and enter the Boss Room, ending the menace once and for all.
"Hey… isn't that the room where we met with Darunia? Down there, below this pillar?" Ivan pondered.
"Yes, Ivan, it is. If we smash this pillar down there, we can finally face the dragon."
The fairy blinked. "But… there's so much more of the temple we haven't explored yet! Darunia asked you to save his people; what if they're further in the dungeon?"
"I guess we can look at the last cell," Link conceded, jumping over the suspended pillar and through a door. The Hero was blocked from descending to the lower level, but he could see the cell within. It was empty.
"There's nobody in the cell, Ivan," Link said. "And this is the last one I can access. We've saved who we can. Last time, the Gorons came back and found everyone I hadn't been able to rescue. Okay?"
"D-da," Ivan replied shakily.
"All right," Link replied, going out the door he had came from and smashing the Megaton Hammer into the stone pillar. Then he clung onto it for dear life as it came crashing down into the first floor, embedding itself in the magma. Link, by some freak miracle, was unharmed save a slight bit of dizziness.
And his missing eye.
Standing back up, Link leapt over the lava-filled gap onto the platform where his Sworn Brother had once stood. Then he withdrew the Boss Key and jammed it into its receptacle before twisting it, watching as the chains fell away and it creaked open ominously. He stepped through just as it slammed shut again. He put away all of his items save the Megaton Hammer, storing them in his pouch. Then he went to retrieve some water from his canteen, only to remember that the Lava Slug had broken it. Lamenting the lack of ability to slake his mounting thirst, Link composed himself and pushed further into the boss chamber.
!0*0!
Even over the cacophonous rumbling of the stone pillar descending into the lava behind him, Link could hear the hissing of the subterranean lava dragon from deep below him. Eventually, she ascended from one of the nine magma-filled holes in the dark stone, spraying flames from her mouth inches from Link's face before descending back into the lava below.
Link approached the center of the dais, eyeing as many of the holes as he could see with his one working eye. As soon as he saw the telltale rippling waves of magma that heralded Volvagia's approach, Link raced over to that hole, hammer ready. However, the lava dragon exited the hole while whipping her flaming locks around, catching Link unawares across the torso. He was flung backwards across the platform, clothes smoking despite their heat-resistant properties.
He gingerly touched his chest and hissed. That was at least one broken rib, he guessed. Link uncorked a fairy and let it swirl around him, healing his wounds as it flew up and out of his sight.
Volvagia, meanwhile, had descended as soon as she had hit Link. Suddenly remembering how this boss fight went, Link pulled his bow out of his pouch and nocked an arrow in it. As soon as the dragon's bulbous nose emerged from the lava, the Hylian loosed the arrow, dealing a small amount of damage. The lava dragon snarled, descending back into the lava below. When she resurfaced, Link was sure to stay out of range before sprinting forwards and laboriously smacking the dragon's snout with the Megaton Hammer. She collapsed, allowing Link to hit her with the much more efficient Master Sword. Squealing in agony, Volvagia dragged herself back into the lava while holding her nose with her talons. Link impatiently waited for her to resurface, sheathing his blade and readying the Megaton Hammer prematurely.
She soon emerged again, flying straight up towards the ceiling. Link attempted to shoot her with arrows, but the dragon was moving too quickly at an angle that prevented Link from hitting her weak point. The Hero of Time knew what was going to happen; she would drop boulders from the roof directly at Link at high speeds, but this could easily be thwarted by hanging onto the side of the dais.
"Is this all you've got, Volvagina?" Link taunted, clinging desperately to the side of the platform.
The dragon responded with a hiss, descending from the ceiling and back into the central lava hole. Link dragged himself back on top, but stumbled when the platform started vibrating. He watched as the lava levels rose to just below the top of the dais, preventing Link from hanging onto the side again. He grunted in derision before hearing the telltale rumbling that heralded Volvagia's appearance. It was coming from behind him, but as soon as Link turned, the rumbling noise started coming from behind him again. Turning, he saw the lava dragon emerge, the force of her arrival upending the entire dais. The whole platform tilted about thirty degrees, a third of it descending below the lava while the rest of it swung upwards. Link, who hadn't expected the platform to start rotating, nearly slid straight into the molten magma, and because of that, only barely managed to get to Volvagia in time to hit her with the Megaton Hammer.
One Master Sword Swing later, the dragon descended once more, only to not reappear when Link thought she was supposed to. For an instant, he wondered where she had gone, only to have his question answered when the entire platform started spinning. He stumbled, and the sudden force had forced him to drop the Megaton Hammer right on top of one of the nine lava holes. Desperately, Link grasped the handle of the Hammer and tried to lift it out of the hole. This choice proved to save him, however, as his grip on the Megaton Hammer was the only thing that stopped him from being flung outwards when the spinning stopped. Now dizzy on top of being in pain, Link barely managed to pick up the Goron's legendary Hammer before Volvagia once again reared her ugly head. He wasn't fast enough to hit her before she started breathing fire, so he summoned his Stalfos Shield and kept going. Luckily, the Shield absorbed the brunt of Volvagia's burning breath and, thanks to Link's increased dark magic reserves, didn't even explode into a shower of black diamonds this time.
Link smacked Volvagia across the face with the Megaton Hammer, successfully dazing the dragon. He then unceremoniously dropped the hammer before drawing the Master Sword and, with all his limited strength, rammed it into the dragon's nose. The movement was so strong that it not only pierced her nose, but also embedded itself in the stone below, effectively pinning the dragon in place.
"Not so strong now, huh, Volvagina?" Link snarled, grunting as he once again hefted the Megaton Hammer. Mustering the last of his strength, he brought the hammer over his head and slammed it into the dragon's head so hard that it dislodged the Master Sword.
As Link picked up the Sword of Evil's Bane, Volvagia slowly slithered back into the lava, clutching its snout in agony before emerging from the central hole of lava. It writhed and thrashed about in the air as it slowly burnt away, leaving only a charred skeleton behind. The bones eventually crashed to the floor, the dragon's head landing just inches in front of Link before it slowly burnt away in a small pool of Blue Fire. Link took some time to catch his breath, as he was breathing quite heavily. The adrenaline that had been pumping through his veins slowly subsided, causing him to stop being numb to the pain his body was in. Even with the power of the healing fairies, splinters of agony shot up his chest with every breath he took, due to the high levels of ash and smoke he had been breathing. There was a minor cut over his good eye, but it was hardly important. More seriously, the bandages protecting his bad eye were charred and partially burnt. He would have to buy more when he got back to Kakariko.
"Has anyone told you that you're vicious when you're fighting?" Ivan thought aloud.
Link smirked. "No, really? I never would have guessed…"
The fairy chortled in response as Link stepped into the light blue portal, whisking him away to the Sacred Realm.
!0*0!
"Thank you… Brother? What happened to your eye?"
"There was an Iron Knuckle…" Link replied sheepishly. "It caught me off-guard. I, uh… don't really want to talk about it."
"Oh, that's fine. I'm just thinking back to when I first learned about your hand… it was basically the same situation, wasn't it? Me thanking you for saving my people, only to see something disturbing with your body," the Goron rumbled, reminiscing about times when things were more simple. "Anyway, I really appreciate what you've done, on behalf of all of my people. You turned out to be a real man, just as I thought you would!
"By the way, I, the wild Darunia, turned out to be the great Sage of Fire… Isn't that funny? I guess it's what we call destiny."
"I mean, I wasn't all that surprised," Link said. "You… fit the bill for fire perfectly. Wild, untamed, chaotic but in control… just like the flames of Death Mountain."
"True that," Darunia replied. "Nothing has made me happier than helping you seal the evil here! Hey, Brother, take this Medallion that contains the power of the fire spirits- and more importantly, my friendship!"
With far too much fanfare, a red medallion emblazoned with a little fire decal on it fell out of the sky and hit Link on the head. Rubbing his now sore cranium, the Hero made to pick up the coin, relegating it to his Pouch.
His time in the Sacred Realm was fading, but just before his world faded to white, he heard Darunia's voice echo through the void.
"Remember; now you and I are true Brothers!"
Link smiled lazily, content. Two down, three to go. It was always nice, he decided, to meet an old friend.
He felt a pang of longing for Navi, one last time, before finally, finally, letting her go.
Dear God. This chapter is over 12,000 words and 21 pages on Google Docs. Why am I mentioning this? Because it's the singular longest chapter I've ever written, that's why!
Why does Adult Link get to escape all the trauma that I put Young Link through? Because he's had the last seven years to mope, and he can get that future… past… time back once he beats Ganondorf.
Am I spoiling things? I hope not.
NOOTTD: 1. The Interlopers are from TP. It's why the Triforce was in the Sacred Realm to begin with in OOT. As for their ring… well… I needed to upgrade Link's dark magic somehow.
2. The glow on the Iron Knuckle's axe basically means that wounds made by it can't be healed. The basis for Link losing an eye is the fact that the Hero's Shade, aka OOT Link, is missing an eye, specifically his left. So I figured, hey, why not?
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