Author's Note: And let's welcomeeeeee *drumroll* the Stallord! Dadadadundaunnnn! You know, there were theories saying that Stallord could be the remains of the Volvagia but you never know! Unless you're an archeologist then that's a different story…so…R & R!

Chapter 26: The past, present, future

The large arena was filled nothing but sand while a thick fog was clinging around, causing me to see things a bit hard. The air in general definitely held unwelcoming energy. I went down the path only to find a large skeleton that was unmoving. It had a roughly humanoid upper body that was protruding from a pit of sand and a horned animal head.

The lower body, in which I observed, was never seen while there were several weapons that were embedded in the beast's skull.

I got a really bad feeling about this…

Out of nowhere, Zant appeared standing on top of the beast's skull which quickly (acting on instinct) made me to draw out my sword; my eyes narrowed at the horrible person.

"Zant." I replied, disdainfully. My lower lip was slowly turning into a snarl.

"You still live…How astonishing." his voice held dark, an unwelcoming tone. "No wonder some call you "hero"." he sneered at the tittle. "But this is truly a bittersweet reunion…Truly! For I fear this is the last time I will see you alive!"

"Ha! Bring it." I spat, hatefully.

He chuckled darkly as if he found everything what I said amusing. He then produced a black sword, twirling the sword so that the tip of it was facing the skeleton's skull. And then, Zant plunged the sword and with a look at me, he turned back and started to walk away.

"Come back here, you coward!" I shouted, gripping on the hilt of my sword tightly.

He scoffed quietly before sneakily producing a ball of energy in which he flung it at me who didn't even know about it in the first place. The ball struck me in the chest, making me to fly backwards just as Zant disappeared.

I grunted when I scraped my shoulder blade against the blade. However, I felt something trembling so when I looked at the skull, I now knew where the tremble was coming from. I gaped at the skull that was now moving and two red lights entered its eyes.

As if it was dragging itself lazily, the beast lifted itself downward having its face still glaring at me making me to be frozen on my spot. But then I realized that the skull was attached to the body.

It gave out a mighty screech before it returned to glare at me, wickedly.

I gulped, crawling backwards away from the resurrected beast. My heart hammered against my cage, furiously—yes, I was that terrified—before Midna snapped at me to get up. I quickly scrambled up (just in time as the beast spat out its dark fire from its mouth) then resumed staring at the horrible monster.

I also spotted tracks on the edge of the ledges so that automatically made me to get out my spinning device so that I could be attached to it. I quickly observed that its lower spinal vertebrae was left open so I launched myself to it. The device attacked the spinal, making the beast to crumble when the spinal was shattered.

Even though I figured out the weak point, I still panicked when I saw dark fire spewing out of its mouth which I yelped out when the dark fire stung my back badly, forcing me to get off my device.

Wincing and grunting, I tried to ignore the pain (it felt like white hot knives entering your skin by force) and resumed to break the spinal.

However, the beast had other plans so when I launched myself to break the spinal for the second time, its mini troops—Staltroops—happened to block my path. I rebounded back to the railway, spinning in the opposite direction.

I grew annoyed when the Staltroops once again blocked my path, sending me off course. On the other hand, I noticed a small narrow path between the troops so after I timed it right, it was then that I finally attacked the spinal.

The beast crumbled down even deeper into the sand so I knew it didn't had that much to go. Of course, things didn't always went the way I wanted it to go since blade traps unwelcoming bumped into me which as a result, had me off the device again.

Blasted traps.

Grumbling, I went back on the rail and started to spin while also avoiding the blade traps...somehow…This time, when I tried to attack its spinal, there were Staltroops surrounding it.

Come on!

Because of that, I decided to take out the Staltroops first before attacking its spinal. When the small army was out, I was now able to attack the last piece of the spinal. By this time, I was completely sore and aching all over the place as I watched the beast tumbling down to the ground.

The light from its eyes vanished, having itself dead once again. I put my guard up when I heard something sinking only to realize that it was the sand that was sinking down while beside me there were columns.

Seeing a hole for the device, I went to it and triggered column to rise up. I chuckled at my accomplishment once again so I turned to face the door as I wondered how am I going to get over there.

"That was easy." I said.

Midna didn't say anything. "…Something doesn't feel right."

"Oh come on. The beast is dead…again…I turned out to be victorious yet again. Nothing can go wrong."

"Except for a flying skull that looks like it wants to kill you." Midna replied.

I whirled around and gaped at the large flying skull.

"What?"

I turned behind me but I had no way out and I definitely didn't feel like falling down. However, the beast was a pain in the butt (and quite rude) since it pushed me off the column, sending me to fall down until I slammed against the ground with my back hard.

I was dazed for a couple of minutes, having the wind knocked out of me. I coughed to get the wrong air out of my system and then picked myself up.

"I did told you." Midna replied.

"Shut. Up."

Once again, I used the device to spin around the column so I can hack away the beast. When I was close to it, I leapt into the air and struck the beast's jaw, forcing the huge skull to timber down.

Sprinting, I quickly got there and started to hack away the sword a few times before the beast rose up in the air once again. Of course, nothing was easy for me since the monster decided to fight back by spitting out large fireballs which I miraculously dodged them.

Because it started to spit out fireballs whenever I reach it, it forced me to jump from one rail to the other rail and then I was able to hit the jaw again. Sooner or later, blade traps started to spin around which made it harder for me since I had to jump from the column to the outer wall though sometimes, the blade trap would hit me and I had to start all over again.

Not fun.

I did this two more times until at last, I hacked away at the sword. The monster shot straight in the air, letting out a deafening roar until it finally stopped when it nearly reached the ceiling. The skull then began to timber down until crashed onto the ground, skidding itself away. Apparently, the beast landed hard on the ground as the sword got out of its skull, flying into the air before it struck the ground.

I breathed out a sigh of relief while watching the bridge getting out of the column creating a path. Finally, I am done with this forsaken dungeon.

Giggling, I quickly got out of the place to be outside where it was actually refreshing for once since it was nighttime. That got me to wonder: how many days had I spent in there?

Once I reached the final spot, I hurriedly defeated the annoying shadow beasts and then went up the large column until I reached the top which I placed the spinner into a hole (yet again) to activate the chains that looked like it was holding something only to have the object (that was being chained) rising up while at the same time, the column I was on was lowering itself.

I stared at the black chained wall, wondering what it was until Midna emerged. She looked happy since she swiftly flew towards the other object but then suddenly her reaction had changed which made me to be worried.

She sunk down to the ground so I cautiously made my way up. It was then that I knew what made her to be upset. The Mirror of Twilight was broken. There was only one piece standing in its place.

"Mi…Midna?" I started.

"What?" she snarled. "Leave me alone."

I gazed at her sadly and I could've sworn I had heard sniffling.

"Midna." I gently lowered myself, placing my hand on her tiny shoulder. She didn't look like she was going to remove it.

"I'm sorry."

Apparently, we weren't alone since I felt something so I looked up to see the oddly familiar ghosts. Each of them were standing on the top of the pillars except one of the pillars was empty.

Midna felt my sudden pause since she looked up as well to see the spirits.

"A dark entity lurks in the twilight…It houses an evil power…" one of them spoke.

"You who are guided by fate…You who possess the crest of the goddesses…Hear us."

"At the command of the goddesses, we sages have guarded the Mirror of Twilight since ancient times."

"You seek it…but the Mirror of Twilight has been fragmented by mighty magic."

"That magic is a dark power that only he possesses…"

"His name is…Ganondorf."

I stared dumbfounded at the spirit who spoke last. Ganondorf…?

Like before, I felt a strange pull being implanted in my mind.

"He was the leader of a band of thieves who invaded Hyrule in the hopes of establishing dominion over the Sacred Realm."

The scene was formed, showing the most ruthless person that ever existed. His dark horse reared up as the flames flickered behind him, making him to look even more menacing.

"He was known as a demon thief, an evil-magic wielder renowned for his ruthlessness…But he was blind…In all of his fury and might, he was blind to any danger, and thus was he exposed, subdued, and brought to justice."

The new surroundings looked strange. It almost looked like an execution place as there was a great big black wall with a figure that seemed to be chained to it. A few centimeters ahead of it, stood six figures though they look more of ghostly spirits if anything else.

The chained figure had its head down as if it was exhausted from doing something but yet, it just had enough strength to lift it. The face held nothing but pure malice and hatred as it glared spitefully at the ghostly spirits that stood before it.

The captive figure never left its malicious glare at the spirits. He wasn't unfazed when a long white sword was lifting itself up before it went upward and then in so much of a blur, it struck in the middle of the evil figure ending him forever.

"Yet…"

Nothing moved from the wicked figure; no muscles, hands, heads and so on. It stood still as a statue.

But, something very faint started to glow on his left hand. It glowed faintly while at the same time, his hand twitched. It was as if the glowing object (that was on his hand) gave him his life back—his strength.

The figure gave out a bone chilling laugh that caused the spirits to cower with fear at the sudden alive person. He was supposed to be dead. How can someone from the dead suddenly been brought…alive?

Feeling this new strange strength, the wicked person reared himself up and started to get himself loose since he was tugging harder on those chains that didn't seem like they were about to budge. But the harder he tugged, the looser the chains got loosen.

Every move he made, the glow on his hand became brighter and brighter. It was as if it was feeding him power.

"By some divine prank, he, too had been blessed with the chosen power of the gods."

Finally, his left hand got free and he placed his hand in front of him. Now everything made sense. The spirits gasped with pure shock and horror at the glowing triangle.

At last, he was completely free and with a raging anger that was boiling inside of him, the evil person rushed towards one of the spirits, instantly killing him. The person snarled heavily while giving the spiteful spirits a look—a daring look.

With a so much of an effort, the wicked person took out the light sword that got plunged through his chest out of his body. He was feeling livelier than he had before. He was no longer weak; he felt more powerful.

Quickly thinking, one of the spirits stared at the huge illuminating mirror—a infamous mirror that was known as the Mirror of Twilight. The other seemed to know what he was thinking since all of them raised their hands so that it was facing the Mirror.

The Mirror was triggered as it was radiating off its white light that soon transformed into a column of light that struck the black empty wall, creating a portal.

The evil person snarled and growled, not wanting to give in from the powerful force that seemed to be pulling everything inside the portal. The force was still too powerful since the light sword that was once in his hand was now flying through the portal.

Finally on the last pull, the wicked man was forced to be sent into black particles which then soon made him to go through the portal, disappearing forever…

I blinked when I discovered that I was back to reality.

"His abiding hatred and lust for power turned to purest malice…"

"Perhaps that evil power has been passed on to Zant…"

"You're just now figuring out where Zant got his power? It's far too late…" Midna's rude voice replied, sharply. I jumped at the bitter tone from Midna; I had forgotten she was still here.

She had been so quiet…

"Only the true leader of the Twili can utterly destroy the Mirror of Twilight…so Zant could merely break it into pieces. Once broken by magic, the Mirror of Twilight became fragments, which even now lie hidden across the land of Hyrule."

Midna then turned her to gaze the Sages as hope was slowly started to rise into her. She didn't want to lift her hope to high just in case if in the end, the hope would be crushed.

"One is in the snowy mountain heights…"

"One is in an ancient grove…"

"And one is in the heavens…"

"You who have been sent by the goddesses…You should be able to gather the three pieces…"

"But you must be prepared, for a dangerous power resides in those fragments…"

The Sages' voice echoed before it turned into a whisper. I felt something touching my shoulder so I turned around and saw Midna who had her eyes filled with hope as she and I nodded, determined to find those pieces.

I grunted when I heard something crack when I was trying to flex my body. It felt like I hadn't move in a long time. The burns that were across my body still made me to flinch so I decided that I should probably get them fixed and to also relax my sore aching body.

So, I warped myself to Kakariko Village with an exhausted face. The fatigue was winning over me since I tried to keep them open. As soon as I knocked on the Inn's door, Renado came out and just like that, I passed out right into his arms.