Oni Link looked at the darkness flowing from the cracks in the sky and the way it flowed towards the castle. He couldn't expand his senses the same way as before, or he ran the risk of his mind touching Link's. He gritted his teeth.
Of course, he had known that Farore would know about him right away. After all, Link was nothing if not Farore's pawn.
And yet…and yet he had let himself get too familiar with him. Had left him an open road into the infinite awareness that was his own divine awareness.
And now Farore had had enough, and snatched Link back. What silly hopes he had entertained by thinking that she would side with him against Nayru.
A light shone bright and purple down from the sky, and Nayru floated in front of him, wearing the body of princess Zelda.
"They call you the Fierce Deity now," laughed Nayru. Her vessel held up better than the last one. Only the tips of her hair started losing their color, fading into white. It would start cracking from the inside soon though, no matter how compatible with her the spirit of the princess was.
And yet not soon enough.
"They have called me a lot of things throughout the years," said Oni.
Nayru smiled. "Nuissance is as good a name as you need," she said.
Nayru lifted a hand, and the very earth cracked under Oni's feet. He hovered in the same spot. Waiting.
He needed an entrance. He needed a breach in her defense, which he could see swirling like purple lights all around her.
"You disrespect me, Nayru," said Oni, calling forth his power, and feeling the limitations of his current vessel. It would crumble if he put too much pressure on it. "Do you think I am a simple mortal that will bow to you as soon as you stomp your feet down?"
"You might as well be. In that wooden puppet you copied from Farore," she said, swatting him away.
Oni teleported away from the spot, just as it crumbled, as if an explosion had taken everything away, leaving nothing but a great hole.
Oni called forth his sword and slashed at Nayru, who dodged it with a single step, so that only the tips of her hair were cut off. The hair sizzled and flared as it burned off, released from Nayru's control.
Barely more than a simple shove to Nayru, Oni was sure of it.
It was too much. Zelda had been created for her just as Link had been created to contain Farore. Oni simply couldn't compete with the power they could channel through their vessels. He would never win if he kept being constrained by the law.
Especially not when he didn't want to fight her.
Oh, he wished he could strangle her and rip her apart. He had cultivated his hatred for thousands of years, watching her laws rule the world below. He wanted to land a thousand stabs throughout her body.
And yet, when he saw the hylian face looking back at him, with that pale golden hair floating about, he would stop himself. He would slow his slashes and still his hand.
"Has your imprisonment turned you weak?" asked Nayru, with the same mouth that had dared Link to drinking contests, and blown him kisses from afar. From the same mouth that thanked Link for giving everything he had done to save the world. "Or could it be something else?"
Oni Link saw the purple sparkle in her eyes, wanting to shout to Link's stupid heart that that wasn't princess Zelda. She couldn't be.
"Leave my world," said Nayru, the energy around her expanding and burning away everything in her path.
Oni Link backflipped away from her, expanding his own energy to block her. The space between them exploded, obliterating trees and earth equally.
"This is not your world anymore," spat Oni.
It was Farore's world, it was Din's world. It was his own world. His own light had shone down on it, and the living beings adored him just as much as they adored Nayru.
Nayru's face contorted in rage.
"Ah, I'm right," said Oni, smirking. "This is why you want to destroy me. You can't stand for me to be adored too. You would destroy the moon if you could!"
"I can! I will take it back and have Din put it back on my world," said Nayru, parting the clouds and calling forth the moon into view.
"What are you doing?!" cried Oni, feeling the earth shake. "You are upsetting the law! You will break apart the world."
"It is my world and it will do as I command!" yelled Nayru.
Oni took a deep breath, letting his consciousness fall deeper into his self. Past Link's sealed mind. Past the awareness that this vessel could contain, and deep into the part of himself that still resided in the moon. His true form.
He opened his eye to see white. His temple.
Transparent water cascaded down the walls onto the floor that shook with each forced movement of the moon.
He went out of the temple, into the green grass outside. He could see the earth get closer and closer, so he held on to the law that commanded the moon to surround the earth. Let it flow into every particle of the moon, down into the cold core.
It stopped.
Nayru hit him before he could resurface into his vessel. He awoke to the feel of dirt and fluids in his face.
Blood.
Cold and useless, but still blood.
"You won't stop me. The moon obeys me, not you," said Nayru, kicking him in the stomach.
Oni cried in pain, feeling something inside his vessel break.
"It is obeying you, you idiot!" yelled Oni, pushing himself up. "You made the law!"
Nayru shrieked, sending thunder down on him. Oni dodged it, but he could feel himself losing blood fast. He had almost forgotten this vessel needed it. But the return to the moon had given him enough power to defend himself.
He punched the ground in front of him, sending a wave of energy that lifted up the very earth over Nayru.
"You are an unworthy opponent," said Oni. "And we shall face off once more. With our own true faces."
He flew away towards the castle, where he could feel the darkness collecting.
Where he could hear the shadow crying in pain.