My first attempt to post this chapter for whatever reason made it be all this nonsensical text with all this code stuff. No clue what's up with that, technology mishaps aside...here's the next chapter. Not Nintendo. Not Riordan. And I hope my computer makes it through its battery replacement intact, I'll be honest, I'm scared about this. Hence why I'm trying to post the rest of the story before then. In case something happens...well at least I got this up before then right? If something does go wrong...it might be a while before I'll be able to write anything else.
Chapter Twenty One
All New Hyrule, United
One month after the Sheikah joined our cause, and mine and Zelda's son was nine months old, the plan for the final battle was finished. We would soon make our move upon the epicenter of all this darkness, that lookalike of Hyrule Castle in Kansas. We would need everyone and everything we had to take this monster down. We would be assembling all four of the divine beasts, and large forces from all of the races to unite to destroy Demise once and for all. Before we headed out for the final battle, my wife and I gave our children a fond farewell and Ilia, now about six years old, and unusually aware for her age, wished us well. She made us promise to come back. We each hugged her and I told her to look after her little brother for us while we were gone.
Upon arriving at our destination, maybe anywhere from one to four miles from the outskirts of the area surrounding the castle, we gathered and contemplated what we were about to do. Zelda stood at the head of everyone, I stood directly behind her, to my right was Impa, to my left was Apollo. Behind us in numerous rows were forces of the other races. I felt a little concerned, I kind of wished that my wife hadn't come, if anything happened to her…Zelda's soft voice cut into my worries.
"I understand your fear, Link." She says quietly enough that only I hear her. She then raises her voice as she continues, "With all of us together, we shall prevail!" I nod my head in agreement.
"The time has come then." Impa states beside me as we all turn to look behind us.
Maybe several hundred feet away, one of the Sheikah is busily working at the travel gate we placed there. We faintly hear her voice as she stands up, having finished what she was doing.
"Click, snap! Look over here!" She exclaims, the travel gate shoots a pillar of blue light straight up into the sky. Between it and us, more of our forces are fast traveled here. Dozens of Zora, Gorons, Rito, Gerudo, and Hylians. Behind them, the massive forms of the four divine beasts also manifest.
"Thank goodness, it looks like it went well!" Mipha states.
"All that is left to do is to join up and destroy Demise!" Ralis replies.
"And finally it's our chance to flaunt our power in all its splendor." Revali says, crossing his wings in front of his chest.
"Make us proud, Master Revali." Nala states, coming up next to the former Rito champion.
"Alright everybody, let's go get our sweet revenge!" Khoga exclaims, his followers all raising their sickles.
"Time to rock and rampage, yeah Darbus?" Daruk says before trying to clap Darbus on the back, but being suddenly blocked by the energy field of the ability first created by Daruk himself.
"Yes sir! Let's do this!" Darbus replies, extending a fist.
"What a sight, I never imagined things could go this way." Cedra says with awe.
"Awaiting your orders, your highness." Urbosa states.
Zelda looks at her father standing beside me, he nods, permitting her to speak for everyone, even the gods.
"The demon king will be brought to its ruin! New Hyrule is our home and we must band together to protect and defend it! Divided our strength would never have been enough, but together, all of us, united in our great power, together we are unstoppable! We shall overcome this threat!" She turns back around to face the castle in the distance. "Now, to the castle!" Everyone cheers and raises their weapons in readiness.
As we proceeded toward the castle, our forces split into several groups. The current champions accompanied us as well, leaving the spirits of the past champions in the divine beasts. One group would stay put and defend the stronghold we'd started in, thank the goddesses for Roman engineering allowing for something so effective to be made so quickly. Some of the gods and goddesses stayed in this group, to help protect the stronghold with their godly power. The other groups would take the various monster outposts and secure them to our side. Lexa led one group of our forces down the path to our right (which also happened to be east), while Austin lead another to the left (which in this case was also to the west). My wife and I lead our group straight forward to the north to the outpost in the center of the plain. Our group had significantly more people in it because of the numerous groups of monsters scattered about. As Zelda and I made our way toward the outpost, as we passed the groups of monsters, smaller groups split from us to engage the enemies. A contingent of Zora lead by a Zora captain headed off to the right to engage a pack of bokoblins. At the same time, about two dozen Yiga separated and went left to attack another bokoblin horde. The attacking groups also had several of the gods to assist in the fighting. It was to great effect at that, their immense magic and power was great for inflicting devastating damage to the monster ranks.
Entering the outpost, the rest of us in this group engaged the monsters. I was a whirlwind of destruction, slashing and spinning around, bokoblins fell in droves to my blade. My wife was just as dangerous with her blasts of magic. The moblin who was in charge of these bokoblins roared, throwing its head and arms back, as it watched its underlings being destroyed before its eyes. It lumbered towards me and raised a fist to crush me flat, but I dodged it and flurry rushed it, obliterating it in moments.
"Southernmost outpost on the west side has been taken."Came Austin's voice through the communication devices.
As Zelda and I sprinted out of the now captured outpost, Lexa's voice reported the same statement for the east side. Then there was a sudden rumbling noise and turning to look west we saw glowing boulders raining from the sky over the second western monster outpost, annihilating every monster in it. Rudania had just captured us another outpost, utilizing its ability to launch boulders by slamming its tail club against the ground.
"Ha! You really think we have time to take a breather? Let's keep going!" Daruk commented.
Merely a few moments later a series of explosions resounded from the east as Medoh's cannons fired upon the second outpost in that direction.
"I'm a busy bird, you know. But fine. I'll make an exception and bail you out. Just this once." Revali's voice issues from the coms.
Several guardians come into view, heading right toward us. We have no choice but to engage them. As my group and I began fighting one of the guardians, a blast of lightning nearby marks another of the guardians being destroyed, in this case by Naboris.
"Spare no effort! Together we are unstoppable!" Urbosa remarks.
Lexa and Austin's groups each defeat the guardians at their locations, leaving only one guardian remaining. The guardian is quickly eliminated by a blast of ice from Ruta.
"Take heart, we are here to help!" Mipha states, then she continues, "Thank you for waiting. Now the divine beasts are ready to launch their attack!"
"Let's see how you like this one, Demise!... Hmm? What is THAT?" Revali's voice issues before trailing off with a question.
We all instantly see what he's talking about, the wisps of malice around the castle suddenly thicken into a huge cloud of malice that completely obscures the castle from view.
"Whatever that…thing…is it's going to block our attacks on Demise!" Urbosa reports. "The barrier is being generated by the monsters, destroy them!"
"Report! Three unusual monsters have appeared! One in the castle town, one in northeast, and one in the northwest!" Says one of the Zora captains through the coms.
My wife and I charge into the castle town, and see a Hinox, but not one like any we've ever seen before, no this Hinox seems to be made of malice. Just like those malice guardians from before! This malice Hinox tilts its head back while scratching its side and then spews a glob of the stuff at us. We dodge out of the way, and I rush the beast.
I slash and hack at the monster but exercising more caution than I typically would, but not for the reason you would think. The reason for my heightened caution around this malice Hinox was because malice was not something to be taken lightly. Touching the stuff was extremely unwise, it was highly corrosive to most living matter except for monsters. But that wasn't the only reason I was making every possible effort to avoid coming into contact with this substance, I was also wary because malice had a tendency to corrupt objects and living things. It had corrupted the guardians, reanimated the skeletal stalfos despite the fact that movement shouldn't be possible in something that's no more than bones. I didn't want to take the chance of touching malice and becoming corrupted by it myself. I involuntarily shuddered at that image, the image of the hero of legend becoming corrupted and twisted by this stuff. That might sound ridiculous, the hero being corrupted? But then again, malice was the very embodiment of hatred and evil. This stuff was not something to be taken lightly.
Finally, the beast falls, collapsing to the ground and puffing into smoke.
"The barrier should fall now, right?" Inquired a nearby Hylian captain.
The malice barrier around the castle still swirled but was less dense. This was substantiated by Mipha's next statement, "Alas, the barrier still stands. Although, it does look weaker!"
"Report! We have some kind of…malice frost talus! Our attacks are struggling to cause it significant damage, requesting immediate assistance!" Came Austin's voice over the communications.
"We're struggling against another kind of malice talus, this one appearing to be an igneo talus! Attacks are having very little effect! Requesting aid as soon as possible!" Lexa's voice issued next.
I glance at Zelda beside me, she nods and we race off, splitting up at the entrance to the castle town, me heading east, toward where Lexa is struggling in battle and my wife racing off to the west to assist Austin against the malice frost talus.
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Third Person Omniscient
Zelda ran as fast as she could, legs pumping furiously. She sprinted over to where Austin's group was and saw the massive icy form of the talus lumbering around. It was swinging its huge frosty boulder arms around, trying to crush the frantically dodging warriors assailing it. It was no wonder they were having so much difficulty with it, it was ice based and was covered in malice, fire or divine magic based weapons would be far more effective. She raced forward and skidded to a stop about sixty feet from the monster. Utilizing her sacred power, she hit the beast with a massive blast of light. The monster fell onto its front, exposing its weak ore deposit. The attackers all congregated at that spot, hammering and striking at the protrusion. The crystal quickly shattered and the talus burst apart into smoke and numerous chunks of crystals. When it had disappeared, Zelda's thoughts turned to her husband and she wondered how he was faring against the malice igneo talus.
While Zelda was fighting the malice frost talus, Link arrived at the location of Lexa's group and drew his bow, notching an ice arrow. He remembered that ice arrows were extremely effective against fiery enemies. The talus immediately reeled back, staggering stiffly as its partially molten boulders cooled and solidified. It fell forward onto its front side, Link ran forward and jumped onto it, avoiding the malice clinging to its sides. He struck at the ore on the top of it before leaping clear when it readied itself to shake him off. As he landed on his feet gracefully, the talus beat its rock arms against its huge central boulder, almost like an ape beating its chest. It then slammed itself down against the ground, reigniting its rocks. Link crouched down and activated Revali's Gale, soaring high up into the air.
Whipping out his bow, he notched a bomb arrow and fired it right at the deposit. The crystal shattered into a thousand pieces, the talus falling and bursting into gemstones. Then Zelda's voice calling out through the devices caught his attention.
"Alright I should be able to dispel the barrier from the best location!" She informed.
On the map, her marker showed her moving toward the area directly south of the castle town, the area that happened to be an exact lookalike of the sacred grounds from the last time they lived. Link ran off to rendezvous with her at that location. He got there just as she was running up as well. The two of them shared a smile as there was no time for anything else.
Zelda raised her right hand, brilliant gold light shining off of it. The light intensified until it was as bright as the sun itself. The malice around the castle was instantly swallowed up by the light, revealing a comet-like chunk of malice going in circles around the tallest spire of the castle, the incorporeal form of Demise himself.
"Now fire!" Zelda commanded, swinging her right hand in an arc to be extended out from her side.
"C'mon!" Yelled Daruk.
"Take this!" Revali spoke.
"Here it comes!" Urbosa declared.
"We must!" Mipha stated.
All four of the divine beasts simultaneously fired their massive beams, the beams converging at the location of the incorporeal form of Demise.
"And now Link, it's up to us!" Zelda said, turning to face her husband but then going rigid when everything started to turn red.
She looked down at her hands and then around her as the redness became the shade of blood and embers of malice began wafting through the air. Then her head snapped upwards, then let out a frightened cry.
"Oh no!" She gasped, at the sight of a blood moon hovering high in the sky. "The blood moon rises—Demise's magic waxes strongest now!" As she speaks these words, the form of Demise manifests more, taking on the shape of a boar's head. He circles around the tallest spire of the castle, swooping down before angling straight up and unhinging his jaw to let loose a deafening roar. "The monsters who roam the land…Their souls have returned to them—they've arisen!" She continues, horror in her voice.
The monsters holding the barrier which had been defeated before had now been resurrected, along with many of the others. Everyone once again scattered to meet the newly returned monsters in battle and send them back to their deaths.
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My POV
As my wife and I sprinted back toward the castle town, where a pack of silver bokoblins and a silver moblin charged towards us, Lexa and Austin both split up again to handle the respawned taluses after I tossed each of them the respective magic rods. My group engaged the moblin and bokoblins, slaying them quickly and rushing toward the malice Hinox. Thinking fast I drew my bow and fired an arrow directly into its eye, the monster reeled back covering its eye with its hands and falling onto its rear. I raced forward and slashed and sliced my blade at it, the monster quickly slumping and bursting into smoke again. Then I caught sight of a monster I'd never seen before, it was a moblin, but not one I knew of. This moblin was colored like a blue or black moblin, it was hard to tell which in the red light of the blood moon, but it had luminescent greenish stripes on its body. It raised its club and slammed it down, releasing a blast of electricity.
"An electric moblin?" Ganondorf exclaimed, slashing about four bokoblins in half with his sword.
"It would seem like it." I simply replied, preparing another arrow and firing it at the monster's head.
The hit stunned the monster and it fell onto its back. Running over I slashed the Master Sword down at it, annihilating it instantly. Then two nearly simultaneous reports came in from Austin and Lexa.
"Report! Some kind of fire moblin!" Lexa yelled.
"Some sort of…ice moblin…has appeared!" Came Austin's voice.
We quickly handled the monsters again, felling the strange moblins and taluses. But then they reappeared a moment later.
"Damn it! This blood moon is going to make things difficult for us!" Ganondorf's voice was filled with frustration.
"Maybe if we defeat all the monsters in as short a time as possible we can avoid the effect of the blood moon?" Suggested Cedra.
Then the spirits of the champions appeared on the battlefield near their respective champions of the present.
"Kept you waiting, did we? How gracious of you not to finish before we arrived!" Urbosa said dryly.
"Lady Urbosa! It is an honor to fight beside you!" Cedra replies.
"Hey you survived kid! Not that I'd expect anything less from my own descendant!" Daruk congratulated Darbus.
"It's all because of this great ability I inherited from you Daruk!" He responded.
The other champions of the past each gave their present successors some form of congratulation. Our guess was right, upon the newly resurrected monsters being defeated, the gates near the edge of the castle town opened. This revealed a lynel, but a malice variant. Shit, that wasn't good.
"Everyone! Engage that lynel, do not let it escape, or anything!" I commanded.
Everyone mobbed the lynel, attacking it from every direction, hitting it with every conceivable weapon. Swords, spears, arrows, and other things pounding at it. The lynel quickly fell under the onslaught of dozens of attackers all assailing it at once. The gates to the walkway up the main castle gates then sprang open.
"The way is clear, to the castle everyone!" My wife commands.