Another update, and by the way the next six chapters (which are also the entire rest of the story) are actually going to come a lot more frequently than the previous ones have. The reason for this is admittedly a little worrisome. My laptop is going in to the shop to get its battery replaced, how long will this last exactly? I have no idea, potentially as long as a couple weeks. Hopefully it won't take that long but that's not even the biggest concern either. You see I was told that there's a small possibility that damage could possibly occur as a result of the battery replacement. Sure I could just back up all my data on an external device, but...just in case I'm gonna post the rest of the story before I take it in so if something bad does happen I won't lose those chapters.
Obligatory note out of the way lets get into this
Chapter Twenty
Each Step Like Thunder
One month after the battle of the citadel, something very odd had been noticed. Although the monster attacks had continued as normal on the outposts. The Yiga hadn't been seen since before the incident with the beasts almost being corrupted again. What had happened? What were they up to now? Speculation on that was put off by the report that came in that day, a massive horde of monsters and guardians was heading right for Camp Jupiter. This horde was so huge, it was immediately alarming. Our reconnaissance suggested hundreds if not thousands of guardians, and hundreds of thousands of monsters. A plan was quickly made, we would utilize Vah Naboris to eliminate as many of the guardians and monsters as possible before they reached the outer battlements of Camp Jupiter.
Cedra and Urbosa brought Naboris into position and waited for the signal. The rest of us watched from afar, Naboris rampaged around, blasting enemies with its lightning. At times, it would fire its beam, annihilating dozens to hundreds of enemies at a time. Finally, thanks to the actions of Cedra and Urbosa, only a few straggler guardians and groups of monsters remained. It was up to us now then; the next step was for us to do.
Our attack force set forth, despite the pouring rain, heading toward our battlefield outposts that were under attack by monsters. In this group, aside from mine and my wife's former cadets, we had Ralis, Nala, and Darbus. Also present were many soldiers from the various races. We split amongst the main areas of fighting, except for Zelda and I, I kept her very close to me. With her power currently unavailable, she was utilizing the Sheikah slate to fight. The runes on it were being quite useful for that.
The magnesis rune was great for flinging metal objects around into the monsters, the bombs blasted devastation to the monsters ranks. When she used the cryonis rune, the enemies were flung into the air and killed upon hitting the ground again. When we reached the first of the outposts, we found it teeming with bokoblins who were being led by a moblin. I drew the Master Sword, the presence of the sacred blade immediately caught the attention of the moblin.
It lumbered toward me, raised its massive, brutally spiked club to try to crush me flat, and slammed it down. It hit the ground where I'd been standing not moments ago, having dodged at the last moment to activate my flurry rush. I landed a flurry of blows to the moblin's stomach, so fast in fact that by the time it ended, the blood had only just started to leak out. The moblin collapsed onto its stomach, dead from being practically disemboweled. It puffed into smoke like the monsters always did upon death. The only things left behind were some teeth, its horn, and a section of guts. I ignored these and continued on.
The next outpost directly on the way to the fort being attacked was also under assault by a pack of bokoblins lead by a moblin. This moblin was unarmed however, this moblin was also quickly taken down, saving this outpost.
"We can't take much more of this!" The message rang out on the communication devices, along with the location of the message displayed.
My wife and I rushed off to help, and found this outpost being attacked by bokoblins but also a lynel. The lynel noticed us instantly and charged at us. I fired an arrow from my bow, hitting it right in the head, stopping it its tracks. I engaged the lynel, slashing at it repeatedly while Zelda hammered it with the runes. Soon the beast fell, only for an explosion to ring out from somewhere nearby.
"An explosion! Was that one of the guardians? It sounds like the fort is in grave danger!" One of the Hylian captains yelled.
Racing over, we saw that indeed it was. Three of the remaining guardians had grouped together in front of the fort. There was one stalker and two skywatchers, I rushed forward and spun in a circle, executing the final skill taught to me by the hero's shade, a great spin. The sweeping arc of destruction obliterated the guardians instantly.
"Quickly! We must hurry and save those within the fort!" My wife called out, and we rushed forward to see what we could do to help.
0000000000000000000
Third Person Omniscient
As Link, Zelda, and Rails hurried toward the entrance to the fort, the rain pouring down all the while, they had no idea what was about to happen. Just as they were about to enter the fort itself a sinister chuckle was heard behind them and they all turned to see where the sound had come from. Standing less than a hundred feet away was someone they had never seen before, but knew who they were all the same because of Link's visions giving him a description of the individual. It was Astor, the prophet of doom. He was standing there, his cloak damp from the rain as the device floated over his left hand. He looked back at them with an eerie smile before speaking.
"Your thread will be cut here your highness!" He mocked in his strange raspy voice, hissing out the last word almost like a snake, lifting his left hand higher as he spoke.
The object pulsed a dome of darkness, like Demise's malice, and a fierce wind suddenly struck them. They braced themselves against it, Link raising his shield and Zelda and Ralis tensing up to remain in place. When the wind stopped, they all looked up and saw four entities hanging in the air above and behind Astor, they were the blights, somehow brought back.
"Impossible!" Zelda gasped, fear coursing through her.
Astor extended his right hand and a flash emanated from it and the blights activated, shaking themselves slightly as their lights came on. The blights all readied their weapons, preparing to attack; Waterblight extending its spear lengthwise, Fireblight tensing with its massive orange blade, Windblight readying both of its cannons, and Thunderblight slashing the air with its hooked blade. Link looked back at Zelda and Ralis and jerked his head in a gesture that only meant one thing, get her away from here.
"Zelda, come with me!" Ralis said, grabbing Zelda's hand and immediately beginning to run toward the fort and safety.
"We can't leave him!" She protested, keeping her head turned around to face her husband as she ran behind Ralis.
Link gave no indication that he'd heard her as he raced forward and blocked the hooked blade of Thunderblight with the Master Sword before pushing the blight backwards. Waterblight swung its mace at him, Link raised his shield instantly, the massive object crashed into the shield, which astonishingly remained undamaged. With no time to ponder this Link then blocked the strike from the massive blade of Fireblight. Racing forward in a zig-zag pattern to avoid the cannon blasts of Windblight, Link launched into the air to land a strike on the monster but was blocked by Thunderblight, which had moved at its lightning speed to put itself between the hero and the other blight, shield raised to block the attack. Link jumped back down to the ground, taking on a defensive stance as all four blights surrounded and closed in on him.
Zelda, still watching all of this take place, was becoming increasingly frightened. Her husband was in mortal danger, and she couldn't just stand by and do nothing! She had to do something! Suddenly she was hit with a flashback from seven years earlier: Link knelt before her, taking her left hand in his while reaching his right hand into his pocket while going down on one knee. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth with her free hand, knowing what he was about to do. He looked up at her, his eyes so warm, and he opened the little box in his hand to reveal a beautiful ring. He said her name, followed by the four sacred words; will you marry me? Coming out of the flashback with a jolt, she made up her mind, she was not going to just watch herhusband die!
"I must act!" She declared as she yanked her hand out of Ralis's grip and immediately turned and begin running back the way they came as fast as she could, desperate to save the love of her life.
"ZELDA!" Ralis shouted, but to no avail.
"Link!" She panted, extending her right hand as if to try to grab her husband. She stumbled and almost fell but regained her footing and continuing onward. Her desperation mounting, she extended her right hand as far as it would go as she loudly wailed her husband's name, "LIIIIIIINK!"
As she shrieked Link's name, the unthinkable happened, a brilliant golden light burst from her palm as a loud and metallic ringing noise issued forth. Shining like a star, the light illuminated everything for maybe a mile in blinding light. Ralis, some couple hundred feet behind her, winced and turned away covering his face from the intensity of the light. The blights all went rigid, spasming as though they were being electrocuted, before going limp. Astor covered his face with his free hand, turning his head slightly. As the light started to fade, he uncovered his face and looked back, his eyes going wide in astonishment as he spoke, "That light!"
Perhaps a quarter mile away, two Hylian soldiers were fighting a guardian and had accepted that they would likely die in battle with it when a large dome of golden light burst into existence over the plain, ringing like a bell, enveloping them. The guardian in front of them went rigid and sparked and jerked before dropping to the ground with a solid smack, its lights going dark and the malice in it evaporating into the air. "Huh?" They both muttered at once and looked at each other in confusion, wondering what had just happened.
Link was completely surprised when he found himself suddenly being backlit by an extremely intense golden light while a sound issued to his ears. As the light began to fade, he slowly turned around to see his wife standing maybe thirty feet away, her right hand raised and a brilliant golden light shining like a star out of her palm.
0000000000000000000
My POV
"Zelda, you did it! You awakened your power!" I say, sprinting over to her, and throwing my arms around her in a huge hug. "Not only that, but you saved me! I'm supposed be saving you, not the other way around, remember?" I laugh, feeling suddenly weak with relief.
Zelda comes out of her stunned trance, curling her arms around me in a hug as well as she presses her face into my neck, frantically nuzzling me, indicating the level of her relief to see me unharmed. It's Astor's voice that snaps us out of our reverie and back to the job at hand.
"That light, it looks like…no, NO!" He screams.
We sprint towards the blights, noticing that there only two of them now…where did Windblight and Thunderblight go? As we split up to each dispatch one of the two remaining blights, we again hear Astor's voice issuing from somewhere we can't see.
"Awaken, blights! Consign that wretched princess to oblivion!" He yells.
The blights do not awaken, and are quickly destroyed.
"The surge is not over yet; more guardians are on the way!" The report comes in.
We look towards one of the cliffs in the near distance, seeing three guardians on one of the ledges. The guardians then jump off the ledge one at a time, landing on the ground with heavy crashes. Upon landing, they immediately turn and began making their approach. As they approach I see that two of them are of a type of I've never seen before. One has brilliant bluish white strings coming out of it along with patches of the same color on its shell. The other has the same thing but in reddish orange.
I quickly realize that these are elemental guardians, I see the blue one shoot off a blast of ice and the red one expels fire. I pull out the ice and fire rods I picked up a while ago and send the magical energy at the guardians. The fire hits the ice guardian and the ice hits the fire guardian. Both instantly collapse, their hulls expanding and contracting respectively. This flexing of the metal splinters the casing around them and causing them to shatter. The one remaining guardian then leaps into the air and lands with a shockwave that knocks back some of the soldiers attacking it. I race off toward it but as I approach, it rotates in its stance, lifting one leg up. Then it begins spinning extremely rapidly as it careens towards me. Not having the slate at the moment, I am unable to freeze it with stasis so I instead utilize Urbosa's Fury. The lightning stops the guardian in its tracks and I quickly destroy it.
The other two blights then reappear, looking absolutely enraged based on their shrieking and attacking everything in sight aside from each other. Windblight is blasting its cannons at just about everything that moves. Thunderblight is discharging lightning everywhere, even with all four of the champion abilities I'd never even get close to them. I'd be fried or blasted off the face of the planet before I could even get in a hit. I'd also never get an arrow into them, they were moving too erratically. There was nothing we could do, the only way one could get at them was to have an immense godly power…wait a minute, that's it!
"Zelda, I have an idea, but please don't panic." I quickly say before sprinting off toward the blights before she can answer.
As I run forward I call out in my mind for the entity who saved my life at Camp Half-Blood, the one who was a kindred spirit of mine. 'Kinshin I need your power! Help me defeat these creations of the demon king and save everyone!' I pray.
"You have need of my power again, and in your time of need, you shall have what you request, hero! I lend you my power again, use it well Link, and fight like you always have." His voice resounds through my head.
A rush of strength fills me, and my appearance shifts slightly. As at Camp Half-Blood, I take on the appearance of Kinshin, the fierce deity. Charging forward, the blights attacks having no effect upon me, I swing the massive double-helix blade to devastating effect by a downward strike. The ground split in two as pure divine fury unleashed itself upon the blights. The blights are knocked from the air, and crash to the ground. I swing again and Windblight is nearly cut in two, Thunderblight is instantly blown backward from the blast of power released in the strike. I launch into the air, blade ready, I crash down upon the prone blight, blade ripping through it and ending its existence. Just a few moments later a malice guardian appears a few thousand feet away. Racing over at god speed, I swing the blade again, the weapon crashing into the abomination's side. The guardian is knocked back like a ragdoll, bursting apart into fragments upon impact with a nearby cliff face.
"All remaining monsters in retreat, well done hero!" Kinshin congratulates me before withdrawing from my being, returning me to normal.
"Link that was amazing! It's one thing to hear about it, but another to witness it!" My wife's voice draws my attention.
She's standing behind me, she pulls me into a hug after I turn to face her and she presses a loving kiss to my lips.
"You did it! You saved us, my hero!" She exclaims, wrapping her arms around my neck.
"Well to be fair, we saved them." I gently correct her.
"I don't care about that, I'm so proud of you my love." She murmurs into my neck.
I couldn't even reply to that one, how could I? I just pull her a little closer, burying my nose in her hair. It's damp from the rain, which I only now notice is still falling. We stand there for another minute, hugging in the rain, before we hear a throat clear. We stand apart a little and turn to see who it is. A number of our soldiers and generals are gathered there, they're looking at Zelda and me with awe and reverence. As we stare back at them with somewhat befuddled expressions, they all kneel with an arm folded across their chests.
"You truly are the goddess Hylia herself incarnate." One of them says, "You truly are the best one to lead us through these dark times and beyond into a new era of peace and prosperity!"
Before Zelda can even say a word, their attention turns to me, "And you, hero of legend! You are the best person to lead us at her side! We will follow your lead, your grace, your highness!"
Zelda and I cringe a little at the titles, we haven't done anything to earn this privilege…several people notice our hesitation and speak up. "We are honored to serve you, you will be a wonderful king and queen for this nation!"
Zelda and I exchange a quick look of resignation, it's clear that this time the people won't be talked out of it anymore. I resist the urge to facepalm. They'd all seen the spectacle of my wife using the full Triforce. Maybe they'd even seen me use Kinshin's power, that one I wasn't sure if they were aware of it. Goddesses I really hope they didn't see that. Apparently, the goddesses weren't taking my calls anymore because the gathered people proceeded to describe exactly how I had destroyed the blights and malice guardian. Fuck.
"There's no way we're talking you out of this, is there?" I ask, resigned.
"Nope, there isn't." Someone answers.
Damn it.
My wife and I exchange another look, wordlessly conferring between us about we should do about this. Decision made, I speak again, "Very well, but with one caveat."
"What is that caveat?" A Hylian captain inquires.
"That in return for our agreement to do this, any preparations for our coronation wait until after all of this is over." I pause for a moment and continue, "Our top priority is defeating evil, agreed?"
Everyone nods, thank the goddesses. It's decided that come morning, an announcement will be made to all of Camp Jupiter. As my wife and I made our back to our temporary home here, the rain finally stopped and the sky cleared up. We split up at the top of the stairs, me going to Ilia's room and Zelda to Michael's.
"Ilia wake up." I gently shook my little girl's shoulder.
She whines in protest, waking unwillingly. She looks around fuzzily, then focuses on me.
"Daddy, why are we waking up now?" She grumbles.
"Your mother is going to make a very important announcement to the entire camp and we thought you would like to witness it." I reply.
My wife and I began walking to one of the camp's inner walls, where everyone is going to be gathered. I'm holding Michael in my arms, Ilia trotting along beside me, one of her hands held by my wife. After walking about six hundred feet from our temporary home, we're met by two fully armored Hylian soldiers. I suppress a groan, really? Bodyguards already?
They see my reaction and once of them winces slightly, "Sorry your highness—err I mean Sir, orders of praetors Reyna and Frank."
I sigh and reply, "Don't apologize, it's just going to take me a while to adjust to the titles. And if you're under orders, well very well then, but at least give us a little more space, at least while we're still getting used to this."
"That sounds reasonable enough." The other one says as they both back up about ten feet.
We resume walking towards our destination, but before we enter the area where everyone already seems to be gathered, one of the soldiers behind us speaks up, "Uh, up the stairs to your right, your highnesses."
We turn and ascend the stairs, coming out onto the top of the wall. Due to this particular location being more defensible, the soldiers remain on either side of the entrance to the stairs below. Zelda lets go of Ilia's hand and walks off about twenty feet before turning to look out over the landscape before us.
The ground is covered in marks of battle, pieces of guardians are strewn about, and craters dot the area. Injured soldiers lie there while being tended to by healers. Soldiers in full armor are also positioned near them. Other soldiers are working on repairs to the walls, standing on scaffolding to access damage high up. Others are loading wheelbarrows with rubble and transporting it away. My wife takes a deep breath, likely mustering her resolve and words.
"Everyone, hear me now!" She calls out, making everyone below stop what they're doing and turn to look up at her. Nearby, Ganondorf is leaning against the wall, nodding with an approving smile on his face.
"With the demon king now focused entirely on our destruction, here we stand, at the threshold of the unimaginable." She says, voice moderately pitched, then continues, "Despite that, we must not give into defeat, we must not despair!" The soldiers and everyone below are staring up, completely focused on what they are hearing. My wife then raises her right hand to her chest and speaks, sounding determined and confident. "We must stand and fight!"
I notice the soldiers below remain absolutely focused as she goes on, "New Hyrule wields the Divine Beasts and their champions! We are armed with my husband, whose sword will destroy the darkness! And, we shall strike with you, you brave soldiers! Everyone, you are ours to lead now." She raises her right hand up as high as it will go as she speaks her next words, "The demon king will be defeated forever, with the power—" she clenches her hand into a fist, the Triforce glowing brightly from her hand— "I possess!" She says, much louder now, voice full of strength.
The sun then emerges from behind the hills, shining down from behind us. My wife's voice continues, "Standing in strength, we begin our march! New Hyrule's fight, to rescue all within it, is now!" She finishes, making me realize she has a knack for motivational speeches.
All the soldiers below tighten their grips on their weapons and raise them into the air as high as they can, shouting and cheering. Ganondorf follows suit, making it clearer than ever that he is fully on our side. Ilia, standing beside me, looks up at me. Her expression is one of fascination at the spectacle of all these brave men and women pledging their lives to a cause for the good of all. Eventually the cheer ends and everyone disperses, my wife and I begin to walk back to our house, her in front and me behind holding Ilia's hand and holding little Michael to my chest.
A fully armored Hylian soldier catches our attention, his visor hides his entire face other than his chin and mouth, he gestures for us to follow him, clearly wanting to tell us something. We follow him for about sixty feet before he slows to a stop.
"So, what did you want to tell me?" My wife asked, sounding confused now.
The hair on the back of my neck suddenly stood up, something was wrong with this. The soldier turns his head to the point where we see it in profile, I calmly let go of Ilia's hand and move her behind me as I prepare for a possible altercation. The soldier suddenly somersaults forty feet straight up onto an overlooking cliff face, his sudden movement making me draw my sword and clutch my son as close to me as possible without crushing him as I pull up beside my wife. Then the unthinkable happens, his form is momentarily obscured by a puff of smoke and paper card like material. When it clears, the soldier is gone, and in his place, is Master Khoga. Before I can do anything, we notice he's clenching his fists, and almost seems like he's deliberating on something. Then he jumps again, one fist cocked back. He lands in front of us, on his hands and knees, pressing his forehead against the ground near our feet.
"Huh?" Zelda gasped.
I was just as confused, it looked like he was swearing allegiance to us.
"Khoga, what are you doing here?" I ask firmly, keeping myself in check to not scare my children with a display of anger.
"I'm here to join you." He says, not budging from his position.
"But why?" Zelda asks, sounding completely lost.
"I'm joining you because that maniac killed dozens of members of my clan!" He bursts out, lifting his masked face to us.
"Astor? He did what?" I ask, shocked.
"After the demon king's failed attempt to corrupt the beasts again, he extracted the souls of dozens of my people to resurrect those monsters!" Khoga raged, fists clenching as though picturing them around the neck of Astor.
So that explained the presence of the blights in this battle here, even though they'd been destroyed.
"You know, Khoga, the Yiga clan's grudge against the Hylian Royal Family in ages past was understandable. Not condonable, but understandable, you were outcast by the very people who you helped. If you help us now, and also agree to live in peace with us, we will consider all your previous crimes forgiven." I say.
He looks up, as though startled. "You mean that?" He asks.
"Yes, help us and you will be welcomed back as the Sheikah tribe. We have the other races as you probably knew." I respond.
"I agree to your terms and I know the rest of my clan will as well." Khoga responds.
"Very well, bring them then." Zelda adds.
Khoga stands, nods, turns around but then stops. He turns back around and asks, "How would you have us be forgiven? You don't speak for everyone, do you?"
"Well Khoga, as a matter of fact, it turns out we do. The people have all decided that they want us to lead them through these dark times and beyond into a new era of peace and prosperity." I reply, firmly and confidently.
"Then I get to serve to the future king and queen! I'm your best guy!" He exclaims and teleports away to go fetch the rest of his clan.
I look back at my wife and we roll our eyes, people. Later, Khoga returned with the rest of the Yiga clan. They joined our ranks and were distributed amongst our outposts. When Khoga brought the other Yiga, I immediately focused on the large figure of Sooga. I suppressed the automatic rush of anger towards him. We were allies now, whatever the Yiga had done before was no longer important, as per my promise to Khoga. Also among the Yiga, or renegade Sheikah, was a young to middle aged woman who offered to take the role of being Zelda's advisor, as per the old Hyrulian tradition. We saw no reason not to do so, so we went along with it. Also in keeping with those old traditions, that Sheikah woman changed her name to Impa. She was nowhere near as old as the Impa in my last life after waking in the shrine of resurrection. Speaking of the (former) Yiga, they were extremely grateful to be forgiven and welcomed back as the Sheikah tribe.