Chapter 57: Hell

Future Link didn't seem very satisfied with his brand new hammer. Thinking about it, I could understand why he wasn't. After all, he must've expected something amazing because of what slave Link and I had. Thankfully, he just sighed and tossed it behind him, intending to leave it behind. I had expected him to do that, but as soon as the hammer hit the ground with a loud thud, the entire room shook! Due to the jerk, all of the bones that lined the walls and ceiling fell off, blocking the door that we came in from and revealing another one.

With the bones that fell on top of us, I shivered and I watched as the other Links did the same. However, after we had brushed all of the bones off, future Link seemed much more interested in the hammer that had caused it. Eventually, he decided to take it with us anyway because it seemed to hit with more force than what its weight would normally allow. Chucking it up to simply being magic, we continued on.

About four hours went by where we were simply making our way through this place. The new hammer proved to be very useful in regards to stunning the various creatures that inhabited the place (several of which, we had never seen before). Every so often, we had to stop simply because of how disturbing a given sight was. Heck, there was even one instance where a dead man was hanging from the ceiling and some sort of creature (most likely a keese) cut his rope, making him fall in front of us. There was no blood, but it was still just as unnerving. However, nothing topped the boat.

In front of us, there was a boat that seemed to be floating in a river of… something. None of us could identify exactly what the boat was floating in. However, future Link still pulled out his zora mask, ready to transform and swim. Normally, he was the smart one, but perhaps the environment had gotten to him. Yet, before either of us could do anything, slave Link yelled out that he had found a sign with weird writing on it.

As it turned out, it was writing that future Link was able to read. Upon him reading it aloud, we discovered that it was a 'river of the dead' and that it lead 'straight to hell'. Looking closer at the river, I could see some faces in there that looked either peaceful, or pained… I couldn't tell. Obviously, we had to stay away, but the writing also stated that any living person who took the boat in would be able to return. After much debate between the three of us, we came to the conclusion that if the thing that we were looking for was anywhere, then it would be just a boat ride away…

Once all three of us finally boarded the boat, it began to move. We were all caught off guard by it, though, so each of us fell. In the end, we simply decided to stay down until we got there. However, we began to get freaked out when, what appeared to be the souls of the dead, began to scream. The few that weren't screaming actually approached us, seeming to wonder why there were live people in this place. Truly, it was terrifying!

Eventually, we passed through an archway and the souls began to disperse, becoming invisible to the living eye. Yet, I could feel that they were still watching us, even though I didn't know why. Obviously, the other two could feel it as well, because future Link's eyes were nervously darting around and slave Link was attempting to look confident, like he had a purpose for being there. Thankfully, it seemed like the souls didn't have any intention of messing with us, so we didn't really need to worry about them.

After exploring a little bit, we confirmed that 'hell' (at least for this dimension) wasn't a fiery inferno, or something like that. Instead, it looked a lot like the rest of the dungeon: dank, dark, and infinitely twisted. We had to lower a few bridges in order to get from one place to another, so we could tell that it was accommodated for the living to visit. However, it was blatantly obvious that it was better accommodated for the dead souls… who could fly. Frankly, all of this made me begin to ponder various things about life and death.

However, I didn't have much time to do so before we came across what appeared to be the boss door. The strange thing was that the key for it was sitting next to it, right out in the open. Apparently, someone had been there before… but we still kept on going. When we entered, we discovered that we had to jump down a very dark hole. I then dropped a nearby pebble down it in order to test its depth. When we discovered that it wasn't too deep to hurt us, we all jumped down at once.

Upon landing, we began to look around. Above us, we saw the two, fighting, balls of light that were in every dungeon that we had gone to. The black one, though, appeared to be about three times the size of the white one. Unfortunately, before we could do anything, the shadow that we had always seen with the black ball of light encompassed the entire room, then shifted to condense right in front of the three of us. After that, it rose and took shape. After it finally finished taking shape, all three of us Links looked into its glowing, red eyes with pure fear.

Then, it chuckled!

I don't mean to offend ANYONE with this last one. I was just glossing over how I viewed that moment from OoT during the first time that I played it. And that was when OoT3D came out, because I didn't have ANY console, growing up until the Wii came out... *sigh* Anyway, the boss is kind of obvious as to who/what it is. However, you'll have to wait for next week before you actually get to see it. Yes, it's one of my most evil cliffhangers yet! MWAHAHAHAHA! *ahem* Anyway, I guess I'll see you all next week! Take care and please wish me luck with my diploma exam via review! *sweatdrop*