The final battle begins! Personally, I think it was well worth the wait. In related news, I do what I always end up doing when writing busy chapters...I split them in two. So the final battle is spread across two chapters, but that will also allow me to flesh out certain things.
Chapter 22 – Demon of Storms
The stone slab slid shut, taking with it any thought or desire to retreat. The walls and floors of the small cave were slick and shiny with condensation, reflecting the dull light from the cave mouth. Fierce wind blasted the entrance, twisting into a low howl as it went.
"Are you really ready for this?" Peach murmured, laying a hand upon Link's left arm. Her touch was light.
Link nodded slowly. "I died once before fighting him. You could say I'm more ready now than ever before."
"Careful. You were lucky there was anything left of your old body to contribute in reshaping you upon awakening." Lucario wore a wry grin in the darkness.
"Wait, is that what happened to his body? In the tomb?" Roy looked Link over in disbelief. "That's gross," he said, strangely in a slow and contemplative voice.
"While we waste our breath, the demon's storm grows stronger," Ike said in distaste. He rested Ragnell on his shoulder and walked towards the mouth of the cave.
As blunt as Ike's words were, they all agreed, and followed him outside.
The twisting clouds that once hovered above the mountain had now already engulfed the top of it. They emerged inside of the funnel, the edge of path dropping down into greyness so thick you would believe it to be a solid wall. The spiraling trail itself was mostly clear, leading up to an opening near the summit of the mountain that was flat in the center. Craggy rocks lined the outside, and a few steaming pools freckled the land. The gorons loved hot springs, and this spot in particular seemed to be the most secret, and sacred, of them all.
"Welcome," Kneph hissed, hovering down from above. His normally pale (and always ghastly) face was stained black from dried demon blood. "The top of this mountain wouldn't be such a bad place for a grave, don't you agree? The view up here is usually quite splendid – when I'm not working my magic and all."
"Maybe we'll take the time to enjoy it when you're dead and buried," Roy responded, unsheathing the Sword of Seals. "We do bury demons, don't we? I guess we can start today."
Kneph's remaining sword emerged in his hand from a plume of darkness. "If you were smart, you would have fled the land while there's still a land to flee from."
"If you were smart, you would have fled with your life while you still have one to live," Lucario retorted.
Kneph was unmoved. "You'll feel differently once the Tempest is upon you."
Ike made the first move, closing the gap between himself and Kneph in a blur. He made a wide swing that the wraith swooped under, and then their swords filled the springs with the repeated clashing of blades.
Link did not know the story behind Ragnell, but judging by the demon's desperate attempts to avoid it, he knew there was something special about that golden sword. And maybe it had been the combined strength of Ike and the sword, or Kneph's weariness from the last battle, but the demon was losing. Ike's strikes were not particularly fast, but left with one blade, Kneph was feeling the force behind each blow as he blocked and parried as best as he could.
And then he slipped up.
Ragnell cut through Kneph's ghostly visage. The demon released an earsplitting screech of pain and retreated into the skies, narrowly missing an aura sphere thrown his way. Lucario leapt into the air and gave chase.
"What's he doing!" Roy shouted in disbelief, watching the battle continue into the sky. "He should be trying to keep Kneph close to the ground! We can't fly!"
"Maybe that's what he's trying to do," Link suggested. There would have been no point in putting a team together if Lucario intended on fighting alone.
"Perhaps, but he will need our assistance," Marth said. "If Lucario were able to slay all of the demons himself, he would have done so a long time ago."
Ike was carving something into the ground with Ragnell. Link could only wonder what he was up to, though his previous battle experience with Ike led him to assume that he was preparing to hurl boulders whenever Kneph was within range.
An explosive discharge of energy brought his attention back into the skies. An aura sphere collided with Kneph's own spin on the technique, a ball of lightning. Once the blast cleared, the demon was retreating further into the skies.
Kneph pointed the blade to the darkest regions of the Tempest, calling for its power. A bolt of lightning engulfed the sword, giving it a violet sheen and a steady current of electrical power.
"You are an abomination and your very existence is an affront to Father!" the demon hissed acidly. With the swing of his corrupted blade, a spiraling bolt of lightning hurtled towards Lucario.
"If he feels that strongly now, I wonder how he's going to feel after I slay one of his 'children,'" the pokemon taunted, vaulting aside through the air. The spiraling bolt returned like a boomerang and ensnared Lucario's right forearm as an electrical rope. There was no pain, but his entire arm was stricken with paralysis; even attempts to move his fingers proved daunting.
A short cackle erupted from Kneph's maw. "That's only a fraction of the powers I can harness from the Tempest!"
Down below, Link squinted into the sky. "What's happening?"
Roy sighed impatiently and said, "They're too far to see."
"I have a bad feeling," Peach murmured.
"Then let's do something about that," Ike said. He thrust Ragnell into the hard earth and it began to shake. The pattern he had carved into the ground was a crude but large circle, and the platform dismounted and slowly rose into the air. "What are you waiting for? Are you just going to stand and watch?"
Link trusted that Ike had the power to pull off such a feat and followed the others onto the floating piece of earth. Ike thrust the blade further down and the platform began to rise much more quickly. Soon, they were high enough to see Lucario and Kneph more clearly, and their apparent standoff.
"Some strange power has gripped Lucario's arm," Marth observed. "Perhaps that is the source of his hesitation."
"So he's going to need all the help he can get," Roy said, pondering the situation. He looked to Peach with an idea. "Hey Peach, do you think your air bullets could reach Kneph from here?"
"I suppose so," the princess replied with a touch of uncertainty, "but he is a master of wind and lightning. It won't hurt him much."
"It just needs to be distracting."
Link watched with great interest as Peach extended her arms forward and a twisting spiral of wind encompassed each of her forearms. She pushed each arm forward one after the other like two rhythmic pistons, releasing a bit of energy with each push. The 'air bullets' curved and spun, homing in on Kneph and pelting the demon repeatedly.
Kneph turned his attention to the source of the nuisance with a quiet growl. As he contemplated a way to deal with the unwanted combatants, he realized his grave mistake just in time to take a kick in the face from Lucario. He backed away and gave the pokemon a loathing gaze.
"What's that? Are you trying to tell me that my attack wasn't fair?" Lucario jeered. "What would a demon know about fairness?"
Kneph chuckled. "You're right. There are no rules in this fight!" He grunted as he threw his sword forward, spinning it into a disk of lightning. It cut right through Lucario, or rather, the image of him that was left behind; the real Lucario suddenly appeared behind the demon and delivered another powerful kick.
"I hate that technique!" Kneph declared in a raspy scream, grabbing Lucario's leg and spinning him through the air before throwing him the direction of the floating platform.
Lucario recovered just in time to make a graceful landing. His right arm hung limply as the electrical bindings still brimmed with life.
Marth was tempted to pry it away with the Falchion. "Your arm is..."
Lucario turned away. "Don't worry about me – we need to take Kneph down before he starts siphoning any more energy from the storm. We can't give him any breathing room, or much worse is headed our way."
Kneph's sword was returning like a boomerang, but a well-placed air bullet changed its trajectory and sent it careening away. Whatever annoyance the demon was feeling with Peach's interference escalated tenfold when an arrow with a bomb strapped to it exploded in his face. The pain brought back unpleasant memories of the price he paid the first time he fought Link.
He pointed a bony finger at the floating platform just long enough for the Tempest to respond. A massive bolt crashed down but met with Link's green barrier. The magic shield cracked and shattered under the attack, but held up long enough to deflect it away.
"Nice one!" Roy heaped on the praise, but Link felt undeserving of it. He hadn't planned on summoning the barrier; it was more of an instinct.
Kneph's sword finally found its way back to him. The vibrant energy transferred from the blade to the wraith's body. With the sword outstretched, the demon spun into a drill. Lucario knew exactly what Kneph was planning and summoned a barrier of his own before leaping into the sky to meet him head on.
Lucario was overpowered and his aura barrier dissipated under the pressure. Kneph took advantage and drove him deep into the side of the mountain. Only the demon emerged from the hole, a victorious grin plastered across his horrific face. Slowly, that grin gave way to frustration as he realized that he made a similar mistake during the battle in the temple ruins. With Lucario buried in the mountain, he was free to launch a surprise attack from practically any angle under the earth. Kneph had a solution, but needed the Brotherhood off of his back long enough to pull it off.
Ike seethed at the sight of Lucario losing to Kneph but tightened his grip on Ragnell and continued to concentrate on keeping the platform afloat. When the wraith's form once again wrapped itself in destructive power and became a twisting drill of lightning zigzagging through the air, Ike knew an opportunity had presented itself.
"He's coming straight for us," he warned in a low growl, ripping the sword from the earth. A few seconds later, Kneph burrowed into the bottom of the floating mound, shredding it to pieces. The Brotherhood scattered to the summit below, but Ike took the demon head on by throwing Ragnell.
The spinning blade stopped Kneph in his tracks. "Aether!" Ike cried out as he grabbed the sword and spun into a blur. The demon's hand clutched Ike's arms, ending his attack before it could really begin. Confused and dazed by the sudden interruption and Kneph's newfound strength, Ike found himself a lot closer to the demon's face than he wished.
"Like a child in awe, you follow Lucario everywhere without really knowing anything. Would you be so loyal if you knew the truth?" Kneph cackled at the thought. Ike's nostrils burned from his rancid breath. "It doesn't matter; you're both heading to an early grave anyway!"
With little warning Ike was tossed forward like a piece of trash. He wondered why Kneph hadn't attacked him while he had the chance, and even considered him a fool for not doing so. The bolt of lightning that struck him soon afterwards made it abundantly clear that the opportunity wasn't lost on the demon after all.
Ike's limp body plummeted towards the summit below, saved by a small whirlwind conjured by Peach. He was surrounded by his teammates; even Roy looked a touch worried, until Ike suddenly sat up. A smirk slowly emerged across his face.
"Is that the best he's got? I've been hit harder, so I'm a little disappointed. I expect more from the demons."
"You might get your twisted wish soon enough," Roy murmured, observing the new, erratic behavior of the Tempest's lightning.
"Listen, world-ending storm!" Kneph called out to the skies. "I summoned you, now I command you to lend me some of your destructive power!" The demon held his hands above his head as if receiving a gift from the heavens. Several streams of lightning pierced through the clouds, converging in Kneph's hands. The electrical energy condensed into a large volatile sphere at Kneph's beckoning.
"Look at that power!" Roy exclaimed in horror. "All of that concentrated energy...it's a bomb!"
"It's not just a bomb," Kneph boasted, basking in his power. "It is a mole. It will burrow into the mountain until it reaches the base, and only then will it explode!"
"There won't be much left for your father to consume if you just start blowing everything up!" Link screamed, attempting any type of reasoning.
Kneph replied with a flippant snicker without even realizing it. "No one cares about a few gorons." His fingers danced excitedly with anticipation, he could not wait to obliterate Death Mountain. But before he could drop the bomb, his vision was blinded by a golden arrow that penetrated the heart of the sphere. The energy reacted negatively, causing the sphere to implode and shower Kneph in painful light.
"I do," Zelda said, letting the golden bow trail from her fingers into wisps. "I care about everything within my land, and I will defend it with my life."
Zelda joins the fray! Link's attempts to protect her may be for naught...or maybe Kneph is the one that needs protection from her!
The final battle concludes in the next chapter, but we may also get some insight into some events that took place between the prologue and chapter 1...