Groose emerged from below, breathing heavily. He could hear the Bokoblin stumbling up the stairs behind him.
"Halt in the name of Coarstle!" a chorus of raspy voices called out. Groose frantically searched the room, his eye catching a rusty lever on an adjacent wall. If only he could reach it… Oh wait, he had that glove!
Taking it off, he threw it at the lever, missing it by a couple feet. Groose's shoulders slumped as he walked over to the fallen glove. The lever was just beyond his reach. Bending down to pick up the glove, he saw the glove begin to vibrate once more. As he put it back on, the metal glove shot up, smacking Groose in the face. It latched onto the lever, pulling it down.
Groose collapsed on the ground, knocked out. The glove was still on his hand.
Link felt a strange sensation come from the ground below. Strong vibrations emanated from the floor as Link began to descend, finally realizing where he was. The statue began to give way underneath, revealing Link, Ghirahim, and Cheeb tied to the poles.
"Well shit." Link spotted Groose unconscious on the ground from atop the statue.
The mysterious villain appeared over Groose's body. "Well, this certainly isn't going to do. Sleeping through a show is very disrespectful…" The villain scooped up Groose in his robe, teleporting and dropping him between the tied up trio. Groose hit the ground with a loud thud, remaining asleep.
The dark villain repeat the effort, with Groose hitting the ground unceremoniously once more.
"Ha! Joke's on you! Looks like Groose forgot to wake up!" Link smugly looked at the villain, who elicited no emotion of irritation, or any emotion for that matter. His pale, white mask looked up at the smug adventurer, reaching out a hand to his throat. "Silence…" Link felt a sharp pain in his head, then everything started to go black. "I refuse to be heckled by someone as… idiotic as yourself."
"At least I'm a man enough to show my own face, you cowering asshat. I've seen a more courageous man in a three-foot tall Kikwi."
"Did you not hear me?"
"I heard you loud and clear, you piece of shit."
"Did you not understand then?"
"I understood perfectly, perhaps more than even you."
Link's eyesight began to fail him. He could feel the darkness enclosing him. He mustered all his energy to uphold his smug grin.
"F…f-…"
"What are you going to insult me with this time?"
"F… Foreshadowing! Bitch!"
The masked villain felt a small flipper creep across his mask. Link smiled at the Kikwi, who had freed himself in the meantime and was now latched onto the backside of the villain's mask.
"Get off of me, you little squirming wretch!" Link's senses returned as the villain reached for the Kikwi on his head. Cheeb squealed as he was tossed around, but his grip never weakened.
As the evil man became fed up, he swung his robe around, leaving Cheeb to fall to the ground. The mysterious man was nowhere to be seen. Cheeb waddled over to Link, cowering behind his legs.
"Cheeb! Start taking off these ropes!"
Cheeb jumped and sliced the ropes with his beak in one cut. Link fell to the ground.
"Okay, now we can- wait, where's Ghirahim?"
"I don't know!" Cheeb looked around, but couldn't find any sign of him.
"… Shouldn't this section cut out by now?"
"Usually it does. I'm still new around here. Is this "breaking the fourth wall" thing some kind of gimmick?"
"I think something like that…"
"Well in that case I guess the best course of action would be as follows: All we have to do is-
"Lies!" Ghirahim screamed and swung once again, his sword narrowly missing the dark blob that was seemingly untouchable. He evaded attack after attack, leaving Ghirahim grasping for a single chink in the armor.
As the two battled back and forth, Ghirahim's mind continued racing with thoughts he had suppressed. Thoughts that should not be thought of again. Thoughts he thought he had been done thinking about, but the thought of the thoughts was enough to make him think otherwise about said thoughts. I think. What if he couldn't control it? What if something happened? What could he do?
"I believe this has gone on long enough… If you won't kill me, maybe some of your friends can… if they survive."
The beast slowly began seeping into the floor, creating a large puddle. As he slowly began to coat the ground below him, Ghirahim could feel the tiny room he had teleported to grow a bit weaker. The foundation beneath began to give way. Ghirahim was sent tumbling down, along with a blur of metal and a large gooey mass.
Ghirahim caught a glimpse of the ground below, which he was rapidly approaching.
-and that's all we have to do!"
"Cheeb, that's a really shitty plan." Link was unimpressed. There was no trace of that robed bastard, and Groose was out cold. All their leads were dead. Pondering this roadblock, Link heard a massive noise overhead. Looking up, he saw a flamboyant man, a wad of… something, and a robot hurtling towards them.
"You there! Halt!" A band of rotting Bokoblins began lurching over the side of the statue's head, slowly crawling onto the top. "Coarstle disapproves… greatly…"
The metal pieces crashed to the ground, along with Ghirahim and the blob. Ghirahim teleported at the last second, reappearing next to Link and Cheeb.
"Well, great. This is exactly what we needed." Link muttered sarcastically. Cheeb, Link, and Ghirahim stood back to back over Groose's fallen body. They were surrounded on one side by a mob of decomposing Bokoblin, a scrap heap and a malformed Jell-O dessert stood on the other. As Ghirahim held up his sword, the blob cackled with a sinister glee.
"But wait… there's more!" The blob began seeping over to the metal heap, covering every bit of the rusted pile. The metal began vibrating, and a shape rose from the ground. A mechanical being rose, coated in a black slime.
The trio looked at each other and nodded. "Ghirahim, you take the robot looking thing!" Link yelled. "I'll handle the Bokoblins. Cheeb, try and wake Groose up." Nodding to his companions, Link rushed at the crowd. Ghirahim formed a large broadsword in hand, and sprinted towards the robot.
Link threw a quick uppercut, slamming a Bokoblin's jaw into its head. It fell backwards, its head crippled. A hand reached out, grabbing Link by the collar. He thrust a hand backwards, punching a Bokoblin which stumbled backwards and off the statue, falling to the ground below with a sickening thud. The group approached Link, but were drawn back by a flurry of punches.
Ghirahim was having little to no luck, as his sword could only slice through the thin slime. The wounds immediately resealed. Even if he could get beyond that, there was no way to dent the armor underneath. The being itself was sheltered inside, safe from harm.
Cheeb slapped Groose on the face repeatedly. "Wake up!" he screamed in Groose's ear. Cheeb scrambled off of Groose's chest, running up to his ear. Cupping his hands, he screamed with all his might, to no avail. An idea began to form in Cheeb's head. Leaning in, he whispered in Groose's ear. "Groose… I have a bottle of hair gel."
The hero's eyes flashed open. He stood straight up, alive to the world once more. He picked up Cheeb. "You're alive! Where's the hair gel?"
"That doesn't matter, we've got bigger problems."
"Cheeb, please, there's no bigger problem than an unruly pompadour. There's always time for gro- is that a robot?"
"Something of the sort, yes."
"That must be the drawing on the wall downstairs! It looks like Koloktos! That's why it was so familiar! I get it! Minor detail explanation is fun!"
The robot picked up a chunk of rubble and hurled it at Groose. Dodging it swiftly, he raced forward. The rock sailed past him, nearly hitting Link. It slammed into the crowd of Bokoblins like a bowling ball.
Groose leapt up and came down hard with his fist. He felt his hand vibrating again as he pulled it back. A large chunk of the metal came along with it. Groose looked down to see the glove attached to his hand. He gleefully began to rip chunks of metal out, slowly whittling away at the demon's defenses.
By the time Groose made it to the core, he was coated with slime. He gripped the small, glowing organ in his gloved hand. "Ghirahim… I know you can hear me… You'll never forget what you've become… You can never regain your tarnished soul…" A small scream came from within, as Groose crushed it in one hand. The monster was defeated. The slime began to dry up.
"Glad that's over." Groose sighed with relief. He was quickly joined by a battered Link and a stunned Cheeb. An etched pattern began to glow in the ground they stood on, as a golden piece of the Triforce appeared.
"That makes two." Link said.
Ghirahim sat on a grave outside the cistern. He didn't know whose grave it was, but he felt a knowing sadness creep over him. Everything that demon had said only helped to reaffirm his worst fears. He quickly lifted his head as the sound of footsteps approached.
"So that's where you went. No time to mope around. We've got to keep moving!" Groose said, patting Ghirahim on the back. He stood up and smiled. No matter what happened, at least he knew he had companions that viewed him as a friend.