In case it wasn't obvious already, I really enjoyed age of calamity. Sure Breath of the Wild is also fun too, but the experience of being able to down hordes of enemies at once like in AoC, that's truly something else. I own none of this except for own imaginings...and i guess this story itself.
Chapter Twenty Two
The Future of New Hyrule
We ran towards the castle, our feet pounding against the ground while the Rito flew overhead. Upon reaching the main gates of the castle, Zelda and I skidded to a sudden stop. This brought everyone else to a stop as we were in the lead.
"Is that…?" Zelda trailed off as we stared up and ahead.
Hovering there was Astor, device still floating above his left hand.
"So, here you all are. All of you despicable pests!" He practically spits the last couple words. Then behind him, a translucent form appears. It's humanoid, but is not human. Actually, it looks very much like…I turn to look at Ganondorf, just behind me. He's looking at this ethereal double of himself with confusion that suddenly turns into recognition. It's him, Demise himself.
"I will crush you beneath my heel! That is…MY FATE!" Astor continues, voice rising at the last two words.
Then he disappears in a puff of malice along with the ethereal figure of the demon king. A horde of monsters suddenly comes charging out of the entrance to the castle. The rapidly approaching mass of monsters consists of bokoblins and lizalfos, thinking quickly we divide our forces. Some of us stay to engage the battalion of monsters and the rest of us push forward to try to secure the castle. I take point as the attack group proceeds into the castle.
The main hallway, like the rest of the castle, is identical to how it was in our last life, well except for the large quantities of malice covering massive sections of the walls, ceiling, and floor. We navigate around it when we need to, fighting the monsters swarming in the hallway. We approach a fork that split into two small staircases, each leading to the large hall. We take the left one and upon stepping into the seemingly empty room, malice swirls appear at the other end of the room and stalfos appear in huge numbers. There are dozens of stalkoblins, two stalmoblins, and a stalnox.
The Rito archers and Apollo children with us immediately start firing at the monsters' heads. The stalnox lumbers towards me, I charge up Urbosa's fury and release the lightning. The monster crackles with electricity, jerking and spasming as I hack and slash at the monster. It falls, I skewer its eye and it bursts into smoke. I turn to see my wife down a stalmoblin with a powerful blast of her magic. After it disappears, Astor's voice comes from seemingly nowhere, "Exquisite, a valiant effort but futile, this was over long before it began."
We rush up the stairs directly next to the ones we entered by, at the top of the stairs is a room full of bokoblins. Our communication devices suddenly broadcast a message that alarms us.
"Report! The four blights have been detected close to your location." Our devices, although primarily for communication also have a map feature to show us where we are, on this map we see the location of the newly resurrected blights. The room has two hallways leading off from it in opposite directions, one to our right, and one to our left.
The left path would take us to Waterblight and Windblight, the right would lead us to Thunderblight and Fireblight. My wife and I go left, our group following as the other group goes right.
"I've been waiting for this moment, you're gonna pay for everything you've ever done!" Daruk's voice comes out, hard and fierce as he refers to Fireblight.
"Now I shall have my warrior's revenge!" Urbosa snarls, as she rushes to battle Thunderblight.
My group and I approach Waterblight, Mipha immediately engaging the monster. This is certainly fitting to be honest, the former champions working to defeat the very monsters who killed them. With everyone working together, the blight quickly falls, and we rush off to Windblight.
"Some payback is in order!" Revali spits as he faces down Windblight.
Upon the blight's defeat, we hear over the communication that the other two blights have been defeated as well. We are now at each of the gatehouses, whose gates are now open.
"Astor is in the East Gatehouse. Preparing to engage!" Lexa called out.
"NO, HE'S MINE!" Zelda and I both shout at the same time, rushing off to that location as Mipha and Revali rush into the West Gatehouse to face whatever is in there.
Upon our arrival there, we rush in to the gatehouse. Astor's face contorts into an expression of utter rage and hatred.
"You! I will sever your thread once and for all!" He howled, waving his free hand above the device.
"No, you will not! We will defeat you here and now!" My wife instantly replied.
A malice creature suddenly manifested in front of him. This malice creature, it was a duplicate of me! I felt a flash of disgust come over me, not just because of the malice, but because Astor was using it to fight me rather than doing it himself, coward. The creature charged, I slashed it in two with the Master Sword, and my wife created a golden dome tipped vertically in front of us as a shield as Astor used the device to fire balls of malice at us. Flinging her hands forward, she changed the shield into a swarm of shards that shot forward and peppered Astor. Astor reeled back, stunned, I raced forward and slashed at him. However, he was strangely resilient to damage, as despite my literally slashing him with a sword, he only had small scratches to show for it.
"Curse you!" He snarls, getting to his feet again.
He levitates into the air a little, and curls into a ball, a malice sphere manifesting around him. He then shoots forward at high speed. Zelda and I dive out of the way as it careens through were we just were. It stops on the other side of the gatehouse and disappears as Astor reappears. Then he kneels down and places his free hand against the stone floor of the gatehouse. Five malice puddles suddenly manifest around him, I leap out of way as they erupt like geysers, malice spraying into the air. My wife doesn't dodge, instead she encases herself in a protective sphere of golden light.
I circle behind the prophet of doom, sword raised. I slash down, striking him with immense force, the blade cleaving deep into his flesh. He still doesn't fall, but does hunch over, his right arm folded across his torso as he trembles slightly.
"The story of my triumph was writ long ago! How dare you try to efface it!" He rages, the device moving to be directly in front of his chest as he levitates again, folding his body around it. Then he disappears in a puff of malice. Then his voice issues from seemingly nowhere: "I am Demise's right hand man, an emissary of fate itself, I cannot be beaten!"
We instantly rush out of the gatehouse, ready to chase him down to wherever he's moved in the castle. We sprint down around the path's curve and reach the intersection of the path to the other gatehouse and the one that leads across a small bridge to a staircase that would lead up to the sanctum. We rendezvous here with the others, two guardian turrets immediately began to power up, one shines its laser directly on me. I ready my shield, razor focused as this going to take perfect timing. Just as it fires I parry, the beam deflecting right back at the guardian. The machine is instantly destroyed.
Ganondorf downs the other with a powerful strike with his blade. Ganondorf, Zelda, and I charge up the stairs directly to my left and come upon Astor and the ethereal figure of Demise. The ghostly figure of the demon king glares balefully at us, his eyes radiating an orange light. Astor falls to his knees, head angled down at the ground for a moment before lifting it to look back at us.
"How?" He asks, sounding like he can't believe this is happening. "The great demon king, selected me!" He gets back to his feet, his free hand clutching his head like it hurts as he looks down. "This humiliation cannot be my destiny! IT CANNOT BE!" He howls the last three words at us, face snapping back up to us, his face taking on a crazed look with his mouth and eyes wide, his eyes with their small iris and pupil looking extremely off-putting.
"Hear me Lord Demise!" He chants, raising the device high into the air as he points at us with his free hand, slashing it to the side as he continues. "It's time for you to devour these…these?" He trails off, suddenly looking up in confusion before turning his gaze to his right hand.
Malice is enveloping his hand, turning it pitch black. The wisps climb further down his arm, turning it black as they go. Black spots began to appear and grow over his face and body and as he jerkily turns his head to look back over his right shoulder at the spectral face of Demise less than a foot away from his and glaring right at him with his burning orange eyes. Astor gags and gasps, and as he turns entirely black, his left arm falls limp. The device falls from its place and rolls slowly across the ground. The three of us all take a step back, Astor's form slumps to its knees, but is then pulled upward by tendrils of malice and enveloped by the demon king.
Demise tilts his head skyward and a huge burst of dark flame engulfs him. The flame towers about fifteen feet straight up. The ground shakes, making us all rattle like an earthquake. A large fist and arm appears out of the flame, composed entirely of malice. The still slowly rolling device is then crushed by a huge hoof-like foot or boot slamming down to the ground. We all tense up as the flame dissipates to reveal a massive humanoid form hunched almost onto its knees. Then it looks up at us and throws its head and arms back in a massive roar as malice seems to radiate off its frame like a corona from a star.
Zelda and I stand there in complete shock at what we're seeing. We don't notice Ganondorf walking backward, tendrils of malice following him. We don't see the tendrils make contact with him and seep into his body. We turn around when we hear him fall to the ground. He gets up, one hand clutching his sword tightly, the other on his head like it hurts. He seems to be spasming slightly…oh no. I realize immediately what is happening, he's being corrupted with malice, and he's fighting it. He shakily stands fully, then rushes forward at the figure of Demise with his sword raised to strike him down. He doesn't reach him though, he skids to a stop just ten feet away from him.
He slowly turns back to face us and Zelda and I realize it's too late. His eyes are now like those of the malice, he stares unblinkingly at us, those horrible eyes locked onto us. He staggers forward, swinging his blade stiffly. Demise jumps into the air and vanishes into smoke before racing off toward the sanctum. Ganondorf's form lurches closer, he raises his blade up and swings it down. We dive apart, avoiding the weapon, he looks from her to me several times, seeming confused about who to go after first. My wife releases a blast of her magic, it's as bright as the sun. He releases an otherworldly screech as the malice is purged from him and expunged from existence.
He falls limply onto his back, and doesn't move. My wife and I exchange a look then quickly head over to him. We simply stare, uncertain of what to do. Then he coughs weakly, and his eyes open, back to normal now.
"You saved me." He rasped, it wasn't a question.
"Of course, you're our friend." My wife tells him.
"We were…some team huh?"
"Were? Come on we're still a team." I reply.
"I'm, uh, sorry I let you down guys." He says softly.
"Come on you can lick this, you're Ganondorf! You've survived worse!" Zelda urged him.
Ganondorf doesn't reply, just looks back at her sadly.
"Oh, come on Ganondorf come on! Tell him he's going to be OK Link!" She said, almost pleading now.
I didn't say anything, just staring down at Ganondorf, a sad expression on my face. Over the course of my many lives I'd seen death on the battlefield more times than I cared to admit and I knew the look of someone who was dying, and right now that was Ganondorf.
"Listen, you have to leave me here, if Demise regains his full power, this world is finished." He weakly utters.
"But…" Zelda trails off.
"Go, there's no time! It was an honor to fight at your side…" He goes quiet, his time nearly up.
"You didn't have to do any of this for us you know." I say softly.
"That's what you do for your friends." He says just before his body goes limp and his eyes glaze over and close.
He was dead, the man who had been reborn time and time again just as we had, had finally truly died. Ganondorf was completely gone now, forever, no more reincarnations for him.
We just stay there, looking down in shock. The champions, both those of the present and the ones from long ago, plus others from our forces, like Impa, join us as well. Everyone stares down at the still figure before us, silent and stunned.
"Demise." Zelda says, rage creeping into her voice as she clenches her hand into a fist. "For the sake of New Hyrule, for all those harmed and slain, for our future!" She stands and turns around to face the staircase leading up to the sanctum. "This is where you fall!"
Rushing up the stairs, we reached the entrance to the sanctum. Looking in, we found only darkness, the entire room was filled with a black void. The sky is blood red from the blood moon. Carefully we entered, then two flaming orange eyes appeared, followed by a flaming orange hair. The darkness then congealed into the form of Demise, he flung his arms and head back and bellowed loudly.
"YOU SEE? YOU ARE ALL FOOLS TO STAND AGAINST ME!" He roars in maniacal laughter.
"No! We will defeat you here and now!" My wife counters
Everyone begins trying to attack the demon king, but we're all alarmed when our attacks don't even make contact with him. Some sort of shield appears around him each time, blocking all attacks. We all scatter from his attacks, he charges around, trying to kill us.
"Our power can't reach it! So, this is the true might of Demise! What can we do?" Zelda exclaims.
Demise bellows in insane laughter, absolutely mad with power.
000000000000000000000000
Third Person Omniscient
Demise threw back his head and arms and roared with evil delight, chunks of malice raining down like meteors. A large beam of malice shoots out of his head up at the ceiling, breaking off large pieces of rubble. Link jumped back as large chunk of stone landed where he'd just been standing. He looked upward and saw to his horror that another large chunk of rubble was falling straight toward his wife who was staring up at it in stupefied terror. Racing over, he raised his shield and was able to parry away the massive piece of stonework. He didn't take the time to ponder how he'd just done that with a probably one thousand plus pound mass of stone.
Demise slightly leaned forward, knees bent and his arms out at his sides as his malice suddenly flew towards Link.
"LINK!" Zelda shouted, rushing forward and raising her right hand, calling upon the Triforce.
A large golden disk of light appeared in front of them, blocking the malice. At the very moment Zelda used her power, Ganondorf's body behind them stirred. His eyes opened, completely white with light magic. He shakily got to his feet, fell forward, got back to his feet and steadied his stance. He turned toward the sanctum, and took a couple shaky steps there. 'Goddesses of old, hear my final request. Set me to detonate with your light to break the demon's shield. I sacrifice my own life for eternity to save everyone!' He thought. 'Ganondorf, your wish is truly heroic, and may just succeed, so be it.' Came the unified voices of the goddesses.
Ganondorf's body began to glow brilliant goldish white with heavenly divine power as he picked up his pace a little toward the sanctum. The scratches on his body healing from the divine power building within him
Demise raised his arms over his head and slammed them down against Zelda's shield. The shield didn't fall, but Zelda fell to a sitting position, one hand behind her to brace herself. Her right hand still raised to maintain the shield, but it was shaking with strain. Malice flickering against the shield right by her hand, trying to find a way in.
"I must protect…everyone!" She exclaimed, head dipping with sudden fatigue but still not letting up on the shield.
Suddenly someone leaped past her, her head snapped up and saw Ganondorf flying through the air toward Demise. He was facing her, he looked at her and said one thing before blasting into an immense light, "For my friends." The blast was so powerful and bright that everyone averted their eyes. Demise sagged slightly, the shield falling away as splintered pieces. Everyone looked back at the demon, Link looked up, stunned. Zelda crouched there, then she looked up as well.
"No more!" She declared, then added while standing up, "It is time…to end this!"
Everyone rushed the demon king, their attacks now landing on the monster. Upon seeing damage on the beast, Zelda spoke again.
"Now our efforts will reach it, thank you Ganondorf, your sacrifice will not be in vain I swear it!"
00000000000000000000
My POV
We hammered away at Demise, he was no longer speaking or taunting anymore. He had gone mad with rage at what had just happened. He had lost all sanity to his own hatred, he was little more than a mindless beast now. All working together, we pounded the demon relentlessly, thwarting his attacks. After a while he roared in rage then pounded the stone with his fists, cracking it and sending us all down a long shaft to a dome shaped room below.
"To defeat the evil, it is my true calling!" Zelda declared.
With blasts of magic and strikes from all of our weapons, Demise was battered and assailed relentlessly. Every so often he would fall to one knee, giving us a chance to cause particularly damaging strikes. Utilizing the full Triforce, my wife was causing even more damage than the Master Sword. She was striking the demon with massive blasts of light magic or manifesting a massive copy of the bow of light and hitting the monster with a huge beam of brilliant light. Demise raged and stomped around in a frenzy. His own anger at losing was consuming him by his own volition, it was actually sad to be honest. That he would let himself be so blinded by his own rage and hate, now he was a mindless beast to be destroyed.
Finally, he fell down a final time. I raced forward, reading my sword, jumping up onto some of the rubble and leaping again into the air.
"You can do it little guy!" Daruk cheered.
"Don't screw this up!" Ares smirked.
I held my sword in both hands, bending my arms back so far that my sword pointed down my back, and with a mighty battle cry I slashed the sword forward as I fell past the demon's face.
The sword sliced a long slash down the demon's entire front, malice spewing from the wound. Upon reaching the ground I flipped backward out of range and landing in a crouching position I looked up at my wife. I nodded once, quick and sharp, as there was no time for anything else. She followed suit, before bending and then extending her right arm out in front of her, calling upon her power. The light surrounded her and the symbol of the Triforce blazed strongly, Demise turned around to face her. As I watched in amazement of the spectacle, he bent an arm back, fist braced. Then his arm flew forward, fist colliding with the bright light as though it were a solid object.
After a moment of contact, his hand pulls back a little, fingers uncurling a little. Then something amazing happens, the malice making up his body begins to evaporate before our eyes as my wife's sacred light begins engulfing him. His arms are the first to go, he recoils but it's too late, the light has attached itself to him, his whole body begins to evaporate away. My wife advances on him, still holding up her hand blasting him with heavenly light, Demise's form becomes completely engulfed in the light and is totally vaporized.
0000000000
Third Person Omniscient
It was known everywhere the moment it happened. Everyone sensed the moment that Demise was defeated forever, marking the permanent success of good over evil. In Zora's Domain, Rito Village, Goron City, and Gerudo Town, people all looked up and breathed a sigh of relief. In the Korok Forest, nestled within the Lost Woods, the Great Deku Tree smiled widely in his slumber. The hero and princess had been successful at last, evil had been defeated for the final time and had thus been repelled for eternity at long last.
000000000000000
Third Person Zelda POV
For a moment, there was complete silence. Zelda then lowered her hand and turned back to the champions, both new and old, along with their other forces present here. They all nodded and smiled, then she turned to her husband as he stood up and slid the Master Sword back into its sheath with a metal sliding against metal sound. He met her gaze and smiled before closing his eyes and nodding to her, although he was being mindful of the fact they had observers, his eyes were so warm that it made her blush slightly. She was moving before she realized it, making her way over to him. His eyes snapped open at the sound of her footsteps and he looked at her with a look of mild confusion.
Reaching him, she grabbed his tunic and pulled him into a kiss, long and loving. He flailed for a moment in surprise as he was pulled forward, but he recovered quickly and wrapped his arms around her, hands splaying out on her back. After a minute he pulled back slightly, he looked into her eyes, unspoken words of passion floating in them. She smiled widely in delight, then she directed his attention back to the others.
"Well this all very touching and heartwarming, but can we just get out of here now?" Revali groaned, wings folded across his chest as he turned away a little, with an obviously exaggerated disgust at what had just been displayed.
"Revali, don't be rude, we just finished the most important battle in all of history, and my little bird and her beloved have definitely earned themselves a special reward." Urbosa said, smirking and cocking an eyebrow, resting a hand on her hip.
Link and Zelda both turned red with embarrassment at Urbosa's statement, before turning to give her angry looks for embarrassing them.
"Yes?" Urbosa asked, completely without shame.
"We should get out of here though." Zelda said quickly, her face still bright red.
"We'll take care of that." Athena said, and the other gods present; Zeus, Apollo, Hera, and Poseidon nodded in agreement.
000000000000
My POV
We were all then teleported to the entrance to the sanctum. We walk out into the sunlight, the sky back to normal now, Zelda and I up in front. The gods are now nowhere to be seen, likely having used this opportunity to go back off to…wherever. Zelda is holding her right hand over her heart we walk into the bright sunlight outside the sanctum. We can see the landscape all the way out to the horizon, which happens to be the southern one in this case. Suddenly a faint noise makes us all stop and turn around, to see the champions of old beginning to fade.
The champions of the present each step up to their counterparts and share brief exchanges of words.
"Well then, it seems the time has come. I could not be prouder, it was an honor to be of service." Cedra says to Urbosa, raising her right hand to her chest in a fist while closing her eyes and bowing her head a little.
"I know you'll lead our people well Cedra." Urbosa responds, voice full of confidence.
"Thanks for everything Daruk!" Darbus expresses his gratitude to the old Goron champion as the two bump their huge fists.
"Don't mention it kid, I know we didn't get much time together, but I'll always cherish it." Daruk replies, folding his arms across his chest and bowing a little.
"I will too! It was so much fun! You're the best Daruk!" Darbus exclaims.
"This has been enlightening, I even got to see the face behind the champion." Nala says seriously, resting one wing on her hip and lowering her head a little to one side to look at Revali out of the corner of her eye. Revali didn't respond verbally but I saw him give a slight nod.
"I know that we'll meet again Ralis!" Mipha says, her spirit walking up to Ralis, who crouched down due to the big difference in height between them.
"Yes, you're my ancestor and our hearts will never be apart." Ralis replied, smiling and nodding, but with a slight sadness.
My wife stepped forward a few steps, my vision tracking over to her at her movement.
"I will never forget today's miracles, how all of you fought by my side, and the trials we overcame together. And I will treasure…our friendship always." She says as they finally disappear, streaking up into the sky as they return to the heavens. She adds one last thing then, "And now as you return to the heavens, may the light shine upon you for all time."