Chapter 31: The Past Materializes
The Monster Squad and Link kept on walking. They periodically stopped to make sure there were no Lizalfos along the way. With the combined ability of the Eye of Truth and Link's sharp eye, any camouflaged Lizalfos along the way weren't a big problem for the team. Eventually, a boulder fell down the pathway. "Watch out!" Link exclaimed to the others and they ran out of the way of it. The boulder fell down the mountain. Poump looked up and saw the main crater of Death Mountain had a large mechanical creature of some kind. It looked like a salamander.
"Is that Vah Rudania?" Poump asked.
"Yup. That's it." Link said as he observed it a little bit more. "Those red lights don't look good. The last time they were like that, Calamity Ganon had control over it."
"What happened when Rudania was under control of Calamity Ganon?"
"A lot of bad things, but among them, meteor showers and falling boulders. They happen more frequently the closer you get to it, and right now, we're getting pretty close. Let's keep walking." The party kept on walking. They eventually made it to a rocky area that had a rock formation formed like a huge tunnel. There were 16 Gorons holding pick-axes that were looking inside of the tunneled area. They turned around to see Link.
"Oh hey there brother!" One of the Gorons said at the sight of Link. "I'm pretty sure you've seen it already, but Vah Rudania has been acting weird lately. Reminds us of what happened during the Calamity."
"All of us have seen it for ourselves, Tanko." Link said to the Goron. "Why are all of you out here right now? Where's Yunobo?"
"Yunobo is at Goron City right now, protecting the other Gorons from Vah Rudania's attacks. There's also a big amount of monsters swarming around the place. Yunobo told us to get out of Goron City, so we did." Tanko looked down the mountain. "From what we could tell, it looks like there's more monsters down the side of the mountain. We don't know where we should go from here, Hyrule looks like it's in a lot of danger."
"Zelda sent me here to escort you all to the Akkala Citadel." Link told Tanko. "There's 16 of you Gorons. My friends and I have cleared out a bunch of the monsters along the way up here, so I trust that all of you can make your way down to the Akkala Citadel yourselves. It's a tall building, can't miss it."
"How can we go down there without Yunobo?" Tanko said.
"You can make it because all of you are strong." Link said to Tanko and the other Gorons. "Roll to your heart's content! You can make it to the Citadel by yourselves!"
Tanko scratched his chin. "Huh, you're right!" Tanko turned to the other Gorons. "Come on brothers! Down the mountain we go!" Tanko and the other Gorons walked behind the party, rolled up into a ball form, and then rolled down the mountain at a really fast speed.
Uten turned to Link. "How can you tell the Gorons apart? They all look the same to me."
"Sometimes it's just luck." Link said. "Alright, let's get moving through this tunnel now." Link and the party walked into the tunnel. Some ores were on the ground, as well as several hot rocks. Tipa looked at some of the hot rocks and noticed a few lizards sitting on one of the hot rocks. She decided to walk up to the lizards and tried to catch them. She jumped down and managed to catch one of the lizards. She held it tightly in her hands and felt it squirm. Uten noticed Tipa with the lizard in her hands.
"Tipa, don't eat that!" Uten said to Tipa.
Tipa turned around with the lizard in her hands and looked straight at Uten's eyes. "Meat." She said. She put her helmet off and then stuffed the lizard into her mouth. She maintained her eye contact with Uten. Tipa felt the lizard wiggle around inside of her mouth, and then she spat it out, allowing it to run away. Tipa put her helmet back on, stood up, and then exclaimed "HOT! LIZARD HOT!" Link walked up to her and reached for a potion on his waist. He force fed the potion to Tipa, and then her mouth felt better. "Thanks." She said.
"You're welcome." Link replied.
Poump looked at the ground. He noticed a few small hot rocks started moving a little bit. "Whoa! What the?!" Poump exclaimed. Link looked at the ground as well. The moving rocks emerged from the rocky floor and started lumbering towards the party.
"Oh snap, Stone Pebblits." Link said. "Punch em, Poump!" Link said to Poump.
"Okay!" Poump ran up to the Stone Pebblits walking up towards the party and punched them with his fist. The Power Bracelets allowed Poump to destroy them instantly.
"If these Pebblits are here, then that means-" The ground quaked underneath Link and the gang. A bigger rock in the area started moving and then rose from the ground. It looked like a Stone Pebblit but a lot bigger. "An Igneo Talus." Link said. The large rock creature permeated a fiery light within itself. Link pulled out his bow and knocked an ice arrow. He fired the ice arrow at the Igneo Talus, and then it's fiery light disappeared. Link ran up to the Igneo Talus and climbed up the surface of it. The Talus tried shaking him off, but he held on for his life. Link made it to the top of the Igneo Talus and pulled out his Master Sword. He whacked at a protruding piece of rock on it's back, and after a few hits, the Talus fell to the ground and then exploded into a bunch of ores.
"Well that just happened." Poump said blankly.
"It always rests in that spot." Link said. "Here, take these ice arrows in case you run into another one of these again." Link handed Zhago 5 ice arrows.
"I will make sure I use these correctly." Zhago said as he put the ice arrows into his quiver.
"Alright, let's keep trekking." Link said to the others. They kept walking forward and climbed up a rocky wall. After a quick break to catch some stamina, they kept on walking through the tunnel and they eventually saw the sky again. Zhago looked forward and saw someone wearing a Sheikah Warrior uniform.
"Sheik?" Zhago said as he squinted his eyes a bit. The heat of Death Mountain made it hard to discern what things looked like, especially since they were getting even closer to the volcano itself. The Sheikah Warrior disappeared and then in their place stood the dark armor of Veerus. Veerus let out a loud screeching sound, and then all of a sudden, the party felt themselves disappearing elsewhere. Link noticed them disappearing.
"Wait, what?!" Link exclaimed. He looked at where Veerus stood, but she wasn't there either. Link looked around the place in a panic. He couldn't see the party members anywhere. They were completely gone. He kept on walking around the path trying to see if they were anywhere nearby. "Poump! Uten! Zhago!" Link shouted, but none of them answered. After a minute of searching for them, Sheik teleported in front of Link, and standing next to her was a large Gerudo male. "Sheik!" Link exclaimed. "Where have you been, and who is this?!"
Sheik looked at Link. "Someone who you should know." Sheik said.
Link looked the Gerudo man up and down. "Who are you?" Link asked.
The Gerudo man stood up proudly. "I am Ganondorf. And you are Link I presume."
"Ganondorf?" Link said with slight confusion. He noticed Ganondorf's triforce on his hand. "Wait a moment, you were that strange body Zelda and I found!"
"Well there's a lot more to him than just that." Sheik said.
Link and Ganondorf stared at each other with an uneasy energy, with Sheik making sure they didn't get into a fight.
Poump fell onto the ground. The ground vibrated as if it were a drum. Zhago, Uten, and Tipa also landed onto the vibrating ground with Poump. They stood themselves up. And looked around themselves. Wherever they were, it was pitch black, except for the floor underneath them, which was visibly white. Veerus materialized in front of the party. "Hello again." Veerus said through her mask. "It appears you four have fulfilled your mission that was given to you by Zelda."
"Yeah, what about it?" Poump said.
"You served Zelda, which meant that you served the Royal Family. I am sure you are tired of me telling you about Demise and his curse, but I must remind you that for as long as Zelda and Link live, Demise will return time and time again throughout all of time, in an endless cycle." Veerus looked at Zhago. "Sheikah Warrior, if you are well acquainted with the history of the Royal Family, you would know that they did terrible things to your people." Veerus waved her hands and then the area surrounding them changed into a large field, looking somewhat like the modern Hyrule field, but all the divine beasts were standing together, with guardians and other extremely ancient technology, except it all appeared brand new and Sheikah clan members were examining and fixing this technology. It felt real, as if the somewhat warm energy from the Divine Beasts being worked on actually warmed them up. One of the Sheikah members was testing out a Guardian's laser, and it shot a concentrated beam of energy that flew right past the party members.
The area surrounding the party changed in appearance. People wearing the Royal Family crest approached the Sheikah. One of the Royal Family members spoke to a Sheikah researcher. "You must give us your mechanisms, or die." The Royal Family member said. They turned around and appeared to be one of the oldest kings of Hyrule, from 10,000 years ago.
The area around the party changed into a temple with a large Goddess Statue. It looked a lot like the inside of the Temple of Time, just a lot neater and less mossy. A Sheikah member prayed in front of the Goddess statue. "Please Hylia. Oh Goddess Hylia, what have I done to deserve this?" The Sheikah member said with panic in their voice. "All of our efforts, all of our research, all of it is for nought. Why do I continue praying to you when the Royal Family also prays to you?! Why do you favor them instead of us?! Please Hylia, forgive me!"
The area around the party changed once again, and now it looked like a field. Members from the Sheikah Tribe were lined up in shackles and brought to a chopping block. The old King of Hyrule stood next to the chopping block and ordered an executioner to kill the Sheikah member. The axe fell and the Sheikah member's head rolled. Standing next to the old King of Hyrule was a Sheikah woman, who seemed perfectly fine with what was happening, as the expression on her face didn't change at all.
The area around the party changed once more, now appearing as a hideout in the Gerudo Desert. Several Sheikah warriors sat in a circle around a fire, with a Sheikah warrior preaching next to the fire. "The Royal Family has betrayed us! We have served them for generations, and as soon as we found a technological breakthrough, they took that from us! Look outside, friends! They are slaughtering us by the dozens just for us wanting to keep our free will and our own findings! We must fight back against the Royal Family, and all of the other Sheikah members that would wish to continue living like this!"
The Sheikah warriors in the crowd raised their weapons into the air and started chanting. "Maz Koshia!"
"Maz Koshia!"
"Maz Koshia!"
"Maz Koshia!"
"Maz Koshia!"
The area around the party members changed into an area with a castle that was draped with the crest of the Royal Family, except some of the flags were being burned. The Sheikah Warriors were ravaging the guards of this castle. As if they were being taken by them, the party members were floating alongside the Sheikah Warriors and into the castle's main chambers. The Sheikah that was preaching to the other warriors was in the throne room, and he stabbed the King and Queen of Hyrule dead. He looked at the other Sheikah Warriors in the room. One of the warriors ran up to the Sheikah that killed the King and Queen. "They have a daughter. A princess somewhere in the castle." The warrior said to the preacher.
"Find the princess! Kill her too! We cannot have any of their bloodline left!" The preacher proclaimed and the Sheikah Warriors raised their weapons with bloodlust.
The area around the party members changed again, this time showing them a field not too far away from the castle. The Sheikah woman who was standing next to the King was riding on a horse across the field, with a small child covered in a cloak on her horse. An arrow fired from the distance and hit the horse, causing it to fall over. The woman grabbed the small child in the cloak and landed onto the floor. The woman set the small body down. "Stay put." She said to the child, which was standing upright while wearing the cloak. The woman turned around and saw the Sheikah preacher approaching her. "Maz, is this what you wish for? Solving violence with violence?" The woman said.
"No Impaz, this is exactly what I wish for. We deserve much better, and the Royal Family gets in the way of tradition! Our achievements!" Maz said to the woman, wielding a katana.
"You are blinded by bloodlust! The Royal Family might have mistreated you, but that doesn't mean you have to kill them!" Impaz replied.
"Then you are my enemy! They killed many of our tribe! What could they possibly do that could be right for us?!" Maz ran for Impaz. Impaz pulled out a sword and parried Maz' attack. Maz stabbed Impaz through the torso.
"AGH!" Impaz said. She dropped her sword and then performed a pattern with her hands. This caused the both of them to teleport away, leaving the small child in the cloak behind. Eventually another Sheikah warrior appeared before the child wearing the cloak. The small child ran away from the Sheikah warrior, squealing with fright.
"Don't fear, you're safe with me." The Sheikah Warrior said to the small person in the cloak. The cloaked person turned around and ran immediately towards the Sheikah.
"Oman Au! It's you!" The child said with a squeaky voice as they grabbed onto the Sheikah Warrior.
The area surrounding the party members changed again, this time showing Maz and Impaz sitting at a spring together, praying to a Goddess Statue. "Time will heal our wounds." Impaz said to Maz. "You must let go of your violent tendencies, and we may have a brighter future ahead of us."
"But Impaz. Why did you stand by and allow us to be slaughtered?" Maz asked with a shaky voice.
"Maz Koshia, the reason is because-" Impaz was cut off before she could finish her sentence and the scene changed.
Once more, the area changed around the party members. This time, it was a group of bloodied Sheikah Warriors, all huddled together. One of these Sheikah Warriors started preaching. "We may have lost Maz Koshia, but we will not lose our ways! We are no longer the Sheikah Clan, we are now the Yiga Clan!" The warriors around the preacher started pumping their weapons into the air.
The party members rearrived in the dark room with Veerus. Veerus started speaking. "Do you see what happened to your ancestors? How the birth of the Yiga Clan was caused by the Royal Family? How could one forgive such a terrible thing? The Goddesses of Hyrule rejected not only your people known as the Sheikah Clan, but they also rejected my people known as the Twili. I will spare you the details about my world, but I will offer you a choice. If you join me, you will find yourself in a perfect world in which the Royal Family and the Yiga Clan don't exist." Veerus stepped to the side and revealed someone behind her. It was Zhago's wife. "You could live in a perfect world in which she is still alive."
Zhago looked longingly at his long dead wife. He started walking towards Veerus and his wife. Then he stopped and shuddered for a bit. "As tempting as that offer is, I'd rather live in this world where I could make my decisions and live with the consequences!" Zhago pulled out his bow and shot an arrow at Veerus.
The arrow hit Veerus' armor and fell to the floor. "So you choose to live in a world where mistakes are made over and over again. If that's the case, then you will be executed by one of the many methods in which the Sheikah Clan suffered from." Veerus levitated into the air just a tiny bit and then slammed her feet into the ground, which created a vibration on the floor again. "Meet your doom to a ghost of the past. Bongo Bongo!" Veerus disappeared from their view and then two disembodied hands floated out of the darkness. The hands banged on the floor, like a drum.
"What in the goddamn world did we find ourselves in?!" Uten exclaimed.
"An ancient torture chamber." Zhago said. The floating hands drummed on the floor, making it vibrate enough for the party to lose their balance. "We need to jump constantly!" Zhago said to the other party members. They started jumping in between each vibration, which allowed them a surprising gain of focus. The hands got closer and closer to the party. Zhago shot at one of the hands with his bow, causing the large hand to retract. He shot at the other hand, which also caused it to retract. Zhago pulled out the Eye of Truth and examined the room some more and then saw a large eye staring at him. He pulled out an ancient arrow and aimed it right for the eye. The ancient arrow shot out of the bow and pierced through the disembodied eye. A loud screeching noise was hurt and then the hands disappeared into a puff of smoke. The eye exploded, and then the drum underneath the party faded away.
They blinked and then found themselves on Death Mountain once again. They were closer to the area with the Divine Beast. A bright flash of light appeared on the main pathway. The party members blocked the light from their eyes and then looked at it again. A figure wearing dark clothing appeared. The party approached the figure with their weapons drawn. The figure turned around to look at them. They seemed to have a slim body, with pale blue skin with a few dark spots, and orange hair. They appeared to be feminine. "Where am I?" The slim figure said. She looked at the party members. "Who are you?" She said.
The party members looked at each other. Poump spoke up. "We're the Monster Squad. Who are you?"
The slim figure looked at each of them and then spoke. "My name is Midna." She said.
"Midna?" Poump said. "Are you working with Veerus?!" Poump pointed his sword at her some more.
"Veerus? Who is Veerus?" Midna said.
"You don't know? Maybe you'd know her by her real name, Midna the 17th."
"Midna the 17th?! My name is used for that long down my line?!" Midna walked up to the side of Death Mountain and she looked down the side of it to see Hyrule Field in the distance. "How far into the future have I come?!" She exclaimed.
"Wait, you're from the past?!" Poump said.
Midna turned to Poump. "It appears I am… in the future now." She looked up to the highest peak of Death Mountain, which had the Divine Beast walking on it. "This place we're standing in, is it Death Mountain?"
"Uhh. Yeah." Poump said.
"I've been here before. A long time ago. This place has changed so much." Midna observed a lava river that was pouring down the side of the mountain.
"Well, uhh… we need to get to Goron City right now and meet up with Link again-" Poump was cut short by Midna.
"Link?! Did you say Link?!" Midna said with hopefulness in her voice.
"Seems like you knew him before. Here, follow us before you confuse me more." Poump said to Midna.
"I am always confusing, Hylian." Midna said back with a little bit of sass to her voice. The five of them walked up the road to Death Mountain. They looked up and saw a few meteors falling towards them.
"Those are the meteors Link mentioned!" Uten exclaimed. The party ran forward away from one of the meteors. Uten accidentally tripped on a protruding piece of rock and fell over. She looked up at an incoming meteor that was about to hit her. The other party members turned around and looked in shock. Midna quickly rushed up to Uten and then her orange hair miraculously turned into a large orange fist that punched the meteor out of Uten's way. The large orange hand shrunk down a to the size of a normal hand and picked Uten up. "Whoa, thank you for that." Uten said to Midna.
"I will always help people like you, just like how Link did." Midna said. The party kept on walking up Death Mountain's road. More meteors descended onto the party, so Midna used her orange hair to create a flat surface that blocked the meteors from landing onto them. They continued walking with Midna's hair above them.
"So wait a moment, if you know who Link is, which Midna are you?" Poump asked.
"What do you mean by which Midna?" Midna said.
"I mean like, we met Midna the 17th, and your name is Midna as well and you look like her too." Poump said.
"I am Midna the 1st, which means they continue to use my name for that long. Since you all know about someone named Link, I wonder if they would know who I am." Midna said to herself. She had a strange longing in her voice when she said Link's name.
The party kept on walking and they eventually made it to an overpass with a sign. The sign was titled 'GORON CITY', and behind the overpass were several rock huts and bridge structures. Some Moblins and Lizalfos were walking around the area with weapons in their hands. A Goron was hiding underneath the overpass. The Goron looked at the party. "The five of you are off your rockers!" The Goron exclaimed to the party as they went under the overpass. "You actually climbed all the way up Death Mountain in a time like this!"
"We're off our rockers, just like you said big guy." Poump said to the Goron. "Why are you here right now like this?"
"Monsters have been swarming Goron City right now! And it doesn't help much that we're also being bombarded by falling rocks from the sky!" The Goron pointed to the Divine Beast that was walking across the main mountain on Death Mountain. "Vah Rudania is the cause of the meteors! The only people who we knew how to get Vah Rudania out of here are Yunobo and Link, and we haven't seen Link in a long time!"
"Where's Yunobo?" Poump asked.
"In there!" The Goron pointed to a big rock hut in the area.
"We'll free him." Poump said to the Goron. "Come on guys!" Poump and the others went into Goron City with their weapons ready. Any incoming meteors were being dealt with by Midna, as she punched a lot of them out of the sky with her orange hair. Several Moblins and Lizalfos noticed the party and approached them. Poump used the Magic Sword's energy beams to his advantage and managed to blast a Moblin into a lava pool nearby. Tipa used both of her katanas and spun them around wildly, slicing a lot of the Lizalfos into pieces. She got dizzy after all of that spinning, but Uten defended her by stabbing any incoming monsters away. One of the Moblins had a large club, and they prepared to swing it at Zhago. Zhago dodged under the attack and stabbed his sword into the Moblin. The Moblin flinched from the attack, but moved itself to the side, with Zhago still holding onto the sword. Zhago lost a grip of the sword and was flung just next to a lava pool. Zhago felt the heat of it come closer and he quickly got himself back up. He pulled out some throwing knives and shot them at the Moblin. The Moblin used the club to block the incoming knife attacks and swiftly ran up to Zhago. Zhago noticed his sword was still stabbed inside of it's stomach, so he teleported right in front of the Moblin, grabbed his sword, and then sliced it to the side, pulling it out of the Moblin's flesh. The Moblin fell over screeching and landed right next to the lava pool. It let go of it's club and gripped onto the rocks on the side of the lava pool. Zhago took his sword and sliced at both of the Moblin's hands, which caused it to fall into the lava pool.
After a few minutes of fighting, a huge swarm of Lizalfos overwhelmed Uten and Tipa, attacking the both of them. Uten tried holding her ground but eventually one of the Lizalfos disarmed her of her spear. Tipa sliced away at a few incoming Lizalfos, but 4 of them managed to gang up on her and pin her to the ground, where she couldn't do anything with her swords. Zhago tried attacking the swarming Lizalfos but eventually they overwhelmed him too. The Lizalfos let out a very long tongue that was very sticky. They were about to eat them. Midna approached the Lizalfos and with her hair, she pulled each of them away from the party members. She smacked down on any Lizalfos that came her way, and with a few strands of her orange hair she handed the recovering party members their weapons back. Poump looked around the place and noticed something peculiar. A lot of the meteors in the location were fixated on landing on one specific mound of rocks, which seemed to be getting bigger because of the meteor's frequent hits. Poump walked up to the mound of rocks and prepared his fists. With the power from his Power Bracelets, he punched away at the rocks and made sure the meteors wouldn't hit him as he was punching away at them. Eventually he found enough rocks to be easy enough to carry, so he picked them up and rolled them out of the way. After some time, he saw the orange color of a Goron underneath the rocks. He picked up the remaining pile of rocks and then the Goron underneath managed to break himself free.
Poump recognized the Goron as Yunobo. "Yunobo! We need your help!" Poump exclaimed to Yunobo.
"Ohh-" Yunobo looked up and saw a storm of meteors heading straight for him. "Run for it!" Yunobo ran out of the way of the meteors, and Poump rolled out of the way from them. He noticed that the meteors seemed to be chasing Yunobo as if they were magnetized to his being. Poump took notice of the large weapon he was carrying. Yunobo turned around and smacked at the incoming meteors with his weapon but ran away a bit as well. Poump took out the Magic Sword and shot some beams of energy at the meteors, which managed to shoot them out of the sky with ease. Yunobo was able to deal with the incoming meteors much easier, and so he smacked away at them. There were more coming his way, so Poump ran up to Yunobo and kept on shooting at the incoming meteors with the magic energy beams.
"Yunobo! We need to deal with Vah Rudania!" Poump said to Yunobo as they were taking turns smiting away the incoming meteors.
"That's what I was thinking we needed to do, goro!" Yunobo said as he exerted his energy into smacking the meteors. "These meteors are a big problem though, they don't seem to end!"
"That's because they seem to be targeting you!" Poump said to Yunobo as he blasted away at more of the incoming meteors.
"Oh really?! No wonder why they seem so abundant! Rudania must hate me right now!" Yunobo put his weapon on his back and prepared to roll into a ball. "I need to get there!" Yunobo rolled into Goron City and ran over the swarm of Lizalfos, sending them flying. A Moblin tried stopping Yunobo's roll, but Yunobo plowed right through the Moblin like it was nothing. The meteors continued aiming for Yunobo, but his speed was tremendous which made the meteors hit the ground behind him.
As for Poump and the party, the meteors around Goron City stopped landing around it, with Yunobo out of it's vicinity. This left just a few more Moblins and Lizalfos to take care of. Noticeably, one of the Moblins walked forward to the team with gold skin, and a big weapon that was reminiscent of the one that Yunobo was carrying. "A Golden Monster?!" Uten exclaimed. "I have never seen one of these around ever!"
The Gold Moblin ran up to the team with it's weapon ready and then slammed it into the floor. The party members rolled away from the attack. Tipa sliced at the Gold Moblin from its side with her swords. The Gold Moblin looked like it was just annoyed a little bit by Tipa's attacks, and then it kicked her out of the way. Tipa rolled on the floor a little bit and got back up. Poump shot his magic energy beam at the Gold Moblin, but it didn't seem to be phased much by the attack. Poump kept on shooting the Moblin but then the Moblin swung it's weapon at Poump, sending him flying across the air and then rolling on the ground. He got back up and tried shooting an energy beam at the Moblin, but the Magic Sword didn't let out any energy beam like it usually did. Uten dodged some of the Gold Moblin's attacks and then stabbed at it with her spear. It didn't flinch much from the attack and prepared to swing at Uten again. Zhago teleported himself on top of the Gold Moblin and tried slicing it's neck with his sword. The Gold Moblin let out a screech and then shook Zhago off of itself. Zhago landed on the floor and looked up at the Gold Moblin's neck. The wound sealed up completely, as if it was healing itself from the inside. Zhago looked to Midna for assistance, but he saw her slamming her massive orange fist at the swarm of Lizalfos that were coming her way. Her fist smashed through countless Lizalfos, making them fly everywhere.
Zhago was fed up with the Gold Moblin, so he pulled out his bow and brought out a bomb arrow. The bomb arrow exploded as soon as it escaped Zhago's quiver because of the hot atmosphere of Death Mountain. The explosion sent Zhago flying towards the Gold Moblin, which took the opportunity to smack Zhago out of the air with it's weapon. Zhago slammed against a hard rock and he fell to the floor. He struggled to get back up, but his body needed to recover from the attacks he endured.
Uten rushed towards Zhago in order to heal him. Tipa and Poump ran towards the Gold Moblin together with their weapons ready. The Gold Moblin prepared to swing at the both of them. Poump brought out the Mirror Shield and Tipa got behind him. Poump blocked the attack and then the two of them ran right in front of the Gold Moblin and started double teaming it from both sides with their weapons. Tipa slashed the Moblin from the back, while Poump sliced the Moblin from the front. It tried to kick Poump, but Poump rolled out of the way of the attack. Tipa started to dig both of her katanas into the back of the Gold Moblin and scaled up it's back as if it were a wall. Tipa sliced the Gold Moblin on the back a little bit more, which caused it to fling it's weapon around wildly. Poump blocked the attacks with the Mirror Shield and then dodged under one of them. He rolled behind the Moblin and yelled up to Tipa. "Tipa! Turn it around to me!" Tipa nodded her head and then directed her swords into slashing it's back to the right. The Moblin lunged around to look at Poump and then Poump chopped at one of the Moblin's legs, causing it to fall over. The Moblin's large head was in front of Poump. "Jump off!" Poump said to Tipa. Tipa jumped off of the Moblin's back and then Poump punched his fist into the Moblin's face which sent it flying backwards. The Moblin was on the ground for a bit and then it started getting up again. "What?!" Poump exclaimed. "This thing just doesn't know when to die!"
Then an ice arrow shot through the air and froze the Moblin solid. Zhago had used an ice arrow and Uten was running right towards the frozen Moblin with her spear ready. She stabbed the Moblin while it was frozen, which caused it to fly back even more from the attack. Zhago shot another ice arrow at the Moblin which froze it again. Poump and Tipa ran up to the frozen Moblin and combined their attacks together. They sliced the Moblin together, which made it release from it's frozen state. The Moblin reached it's arm into the air and then fell down limp. It was finally killed.
"Well that took a while." Zhago said as he was breathing heavily. The party noticed the Lizalfos swarm that Midna was dealing with started to dwindle in numbers. Soon enough, a large group of Gorons rolled into Goron City carrying pickaxes and claymores.
One of the Gorons screamed "Brothers, for Yunobo!" and then they all charged forward past Midna and started attacking the Lizalfos horde, sending them flying away into different directions. Midna turned to the party.
"These Gorons don't seem to change much, I remember they acted like this quite a lot." Midna said.
"Gorons don't change much in the first place." Poump said. He looked at the huge wave of Gorons fighting back against the Lizalfos. Eventually, there were no more Lizalfos left as either most of them were dead or they ran away. The Gorons waved their weapons into the air in victory.
"What's our next move?" Uten asked.
"Our next move is to go to Vah Rudania." Poump said. "Yunobo rolled away into that direction, so we should try to help him out over there."
"Alright then, we'll follow your lead." Uten said to Poump. The party started running towards the large mountain with the Divine Beast perched atop it. Streams of lava poured from the top of the mountain. The area was getting even hotter the more they made it towards the Death Mountain volcano. They noticed Vah Rudania shooting the meteors from itself, which meant that the Divine Beast itself was the cause of the meteors. The meteors were landing towards an area behind the volcano. The party kept on running. They ran across a metal bridge that took them across a lava river and they found themselves directly underneath the Divine Beast. As it walked across the side of the mountain with it's many legs, several boulders rolled down the side of the mountain and towards the party. Midna held up her hair to stop one of the incoming boulders from hitting them, but the impact from the boulder made Midna flinch quite a lot.
"AUGH!" She exclaimed in pain. She let her hair toss the boulder to the side. Vah Rudania above them made a loud roaring noise and then a few things started flying out of itself. The party observed them a bit and then it became apparent that they were flying Guardians, with a red Guardian eye and everything. The flying Guardian aimed it's laser down at the party with no particular party member in mind.
"Everyone, run!" Poump said to the others. The party ran alongside a road on the side of the volcano away from the Guardian's laser sight. The flying Guardian let out a laser and it almost hit Zhago, but he dodged out of the way from it's attack at just the right moment. He turned around, knocked an ancient arrow, and shot right for the flying Guardian's eye, which caused it to fall down and explode. A few more flying Guardians were starting to fly around the corner. Zhago shot some more ancient arrows towards the incoming Guardians, which made all of them fall down and explode. Zhago found himself with only 4 more ancient arrows left, but there were a lot more than 4 flying Guardians coming for them. Midna tried reaching for one of the Guardians with her hair, but the Guardian flew out of the way from her attack and continued it's gaze. Then, as if it came out of nowhere, a large weapon fell from the top of the mountain and landed onto one of the flying Guardians, which caused it to fall to the ground. A Goron landed on top of one of the other flying Guardians, and punched the Guardian down to the floor and then they grabbed the large weapon back.
"Yunobo?!" Poump exclaimed at the sight of the Goron.
Yunobo looked at the party. "What are all of you doing here?! Being here would be suicide!" Some meteors started to come from the sky towards the party and smashed the flying Guardians out of the way. Yunobo smashed the incoming meteors out of the way and then rolled into a ball. He rolled across the side of the mountain and then the meteors were starting to chase after Yunobo. Any flying Guardians in the sky started making an effort to chase after the Goron Champion, instead of the party. The party started running forward some more and then they saw what looked like a cannon. The meteors and flying Guardians surrounded the cannon, and the balled up Goron Yunobo was inside of the cannon. Zhago noticed someone wearing Sheikah clothes planting a bomb into the cannon, and then Yunobo launched out of the cannon shortly after. Yunobo cut right through the flying Guardians and the meteors and shot straight for Vah Rudania. The Goron hit Vah Rudania and then a large impact was seen on the Divine Beast's body. Vah Rudania roared loudly and then it started to tighten it's legs into the mountainside. Then, as terrifying as it sounds, the magnificent Divine Beast springboarded itself off of the mountain and propelled itself into the air. A bunch of boulders were falling down towards the party, and Vah Rudania sailed through the air. The Beast landed it's four legs onto the ground of Death Mountain and then it marched itself down the mountain towards Hyrule Field.
The boulders violently slammed themselves down the mountain side. "Jump!" Poump said to the others. They all jumped off the side of the mountain and brought out their paragliders. They glided down the side of the mountain. Some of the boulders just barely missed the party on their way down. Everything seemed fine, until one of the boulders slammed itself right onto Zhago, sending him falling straight down to a pool of lava underneath him. Then, just before he could hit the lava, he saw a hand land onto his face and then he teleported elsewhere. Zhago didn't land on the floor painfully, but felt two arms keeping him up. He recovered his wits and got back up. He noticed the person who saved him, and it was Sheik.
"Even in your age, you sometimes forget your most important lesson." Sheik said.
"To stay calm no matter what situation I would be in. I'm sorry, Master." Zhago kneeled to Sheik.
"Don't be sorry, I know you can do better." Sheik said to Zhago. "And by the way, you have no more need of referring to me as Master."
Zhago looked up at Sheik. "What shall I call you then?"
Sheik started unwrapping her head dress. "You shall call me by my real name." As the head dress was being unwrapped, a few strands of purple hair fell out of it. "My real name... is Hilda." Hilda looked back at Zhago with her face fully revealed.
Zhago had a shocked expression on his face. To think that he was trained by someone much younger than him made him feel a little bit pathetic, but the training she gave him was what kept him alive for this long, so he was grateful. "Hilda. Princess Hilda." Zhago said to himself. "So, you were here in Hyrule the whole time?!"
Hilda answered him. "I know what you're thinking. You're confused as to how I was here in Hyrule this whole time, when my younger self lived in Hyrule Castle. During my journey through time which started in the Temple of Time, I learned many techniques and fighting styles. I trained with many Sheikah Warriors throughout the ages, learning their own unique abilities and styles and applying them to my own skill set. Once my training was complete, the Sheikah Warriors told me that I could pass my knowledge down to any Sheikah Warriors I could meet. Therefore, I chose to train you and the other current Sheikah Warriors for your 2 years of training. However, training all of you Warriors took me only 6 months of my own time, as I would use the Ocarina of Time to skip myself forward to each training lesson, and I would interchangeably visit other points in time in order to continue my journey to redeem Ganondorf." Hilda looked at Zhago's face, which was in disbelief.
"So that means that you… taught your own self how to play the harp?" Zhago said with great confusion in his voice.
"The more you think about it, the more it will hurt." Hilda said. "Now I must leave Death Mountain. My fireproof elixir is wearing out."
"Paya says hi." Zhago said.
"See you later, Zhago." Hilda teleported away in a puff of smoke. Zhago looked around the mountain and then looked up. He saw his party members gliding in the air above him, and down the side of the mountain, Vah Rudania was continuing it's walk towards Hyrule Field. Midna appeared before Zhago.
"Ah-ha! I was looking for you!" Midna said at the sight of Zhago. She looked up and saw the party members paragliding above them. She snapped her fingers and then the three gliding party members appeared on the floor.
"Whoa!" Poump and the others exclaimed as their feet met the ground. They stumbled for a bit, and then regained their balance.
"Good, now all 4 of you are safe." Midna said at the sight of the party members together again. She looked up the road of Death Mountain and then saw a bunch of Gorons rolling down the road. She widened her eyes and then made a pushing motion with her hand, which caused the party to be shifted off of the main road. The Gorons rolled by in the dozens. The last Goron of the group unrolled from his rolling state and looked at the party. It was Yunobo.
"Goodness!" Yunobo said at the sight of the party members. "It is so good to see you guys alive and well! Not many people survive that close to Vah Rudania, granted that it's now walking down towards Hyrule Field, and that's a really bad sign. But, it is good to see all of you alive. These Gorons and I are headed to the Akkala Citadel to prepare the Goron forces, as Link told me to do."
Poump gave a thumbs up to Yunobo. "Keep on rolling, Champ!" Poump said.
Yunobo also gave a thumbs up. "I sure will! Keep on running, Poump!" Yunobo balled up and continued rolling down the mountain with the other Gorons.
"Nice to see these Gorons are doing well for themselves." Midna said.
Poump took out his Sheikah Slate and initiated a call with Zelda. She picked up. "Hello Zelda, we've managed to finish the job. The Gorons are going to the Akkala Citadel right now. What is our next mission?"
Zelda responded. "Come back to Lurelin Village. I will give you the full details on what you need to do next. And by the way, good job out there, I'm glad you're alive." Zelda hung up the call.
"Well guys, I guess we'll have to make the trek all the way back to Lurelin Village." Poump said. Uten sighed a little bit. The party walked down the road of the mountain, which thankfully was really close to where the Stable was. The party got onto their horses and then Midna walked in front of the party on their horses.
"I can take all of you to where you need to go. Just tell me, and I'll be able to bring you there." Midna said.
"Oh, that would be quite nice actually." Poump said. He looked at the others who nodded in approval.
"Alright then, I hope this works." Midna put her hand onto the ground and then all 4 of the party members and their horses turned into small black squares. They jettisoned high into the sky, and then as if the feeling was instant, they found themselves rematerializing in Lurelin Village, next to the boat. It was night time right now. Midna landed next to them and looked around the place. She was quite intrigued with the tall trees and the wooden huts. "It has been a long time since I've been in this world."
"Yeah actually, what's your story?" Poump asked Midna as he and the other party members took their Firebreaker Armor off. They were still wearing their clothes underneath, so they weren't naked.
"It's quite a long story." Midna said as she shifted her toes through the sand. It didn't occur to the party that Midna wasn't wearing anything on her feet, so seeing this made her look very alien to them. They realized that Midna was barefoot on Death Mountain, which should've been so hot to her, but she was unflinching to the heat on the mountain. "I'll spare you all the nitty gritty details, I met someone named Link, and they assisted me in dealing with someone named Zant. When I-" Midna stopped talking and widened her eyes at the sight of two horse riders that were riding into the village. She walked towards the horse riders and ignored Poump and the others.
Poump looked at the other party members. "Well dang." He said.
Midna approached the two people on their horses and looked at them get off, taking note of one of them wearing a green tunic, and the other person being a large man with red hair. "Link?" Midna said as soon as Link could get her attention.
Link looked at her with a slightly confused expression.
"Link, do you remember me?" Midna said with some hope in her voice.
Link kept on having a confused expression. "Who… are you?" Link said feeling really clueless.
Midna looked down to the ground in defeat. "Ah." Midna said with minor despair. "Nevermind." Midna took a closer look at the Gerudo male that was with Link. "Wait a moment, are you Ganondorf?!" Midna said with slight anger in her voice.
The Gerudo male looked down at her. "Yes, I am Ganondorf." The Gerudo male said.
"You're supposed to be dead!" Midna exclaimed, and her orange hair burst out in anger, prepared to pummel this man. She punched at him but Ganondorf quickly raised his arm in order to block the incoming attack.
"Whoa whoa whoa!" Link said to Midna with his hands raised. "Chillax! What is the dispute here?"
Midna looked at Link with an angry expression. "This man, he tried to kill me! He threatened all of Hyrule, and the Twilight Realm!"
Ganondorf, who still had his guard up clarified what was being said. "I remember her Link." Ganondorf said. "Your name is Midna, correct?"
"Yes indeed." Midna replied with menace in her voice.
"In one of my many incarnations, I caused great trouble for her, and someone who was very much like you Link. However, that is in the past now. I have changed now." Ganondorf said as he put his guard down slowly.
Midna stopped her attack stance and calmed down a bit. "You don't seem to be ill intentioned, but I will keep my eyes on you." Midna started to walk in a huff towards the waves of the beach and then she sat down to think a little bit more.
Link looked at Ganondorf. "Looks like that bad history of yours is gonna need to shake off a little bit."
"It sure will have to, buddy. It sure will have to." Ganondorf replied.
As Ganondorf said that, Zelda walked out of the tent where she was making her battle plans. "Link!" She noticed Ganondorf standing next to Link. "G-Ganon?!"
"It's a long story." Link said.
All of a sudden a bright flash of light appeared next to Link and then materialized into someone. They were a Hylian boy who was most likely 14 years old, wearing a green tunic and the Master Sword on their back. Link took an extra notice at the cracked Hylian shield on their back. The kid stood up and looked at Link with a shocked expression. "Dad?! You're alive?!"
"What?!" Link and Zelda exclaimed in unison.