PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Stone Tower
Day 2 – 6:30 PM
Link (with Tatl fluttering overhead), Homura, and Miyako entered the tower, looking up (and up, and up…) at the temple far at the top. They moved straight ahead, hopping across a set of huge floating stone blocks to reach the other side, and then ninja-leapt/Hookshot-ed up to a higher platform on the left. A bizarre stone statue with a revolving single eye shot a laser beam at them, but Link used his Mirror Shield to deflect the blast and then tossed a bomb that blew the 'Beamos' apart. There were three floor switches on the three accessible levels here; Link used his Hookshot, his Goron and Zora Masks, and the Elegy of Emptiness to hold all three down, causing the floating stone blocks to rise up and bridge the gap across to a higher level of the other side.
The group continued making their way up the tower in this manner, until finally they reached the Stone Tower Temple, using the Elegy to solve one last switch puzzle and then hopping across the blocks to enter the temple. In the opening room, Homura and Miyako fired magic bursts to take out a pair of electric dragonfly-monsters, while Link used an arrow to destroy a 'Real Bombchu'. They went through the west door, into an oddly-shaped room with a few Bombchus skittering about. A cracked wall was straight ahead, and a blow from Miyako's hammer brought it down, revealing a small side-room with a few heavy crates. Seeing as there were a few floor switches in the area, the required actions were clear: they killed the explosive rats, then placed crates on each of the floor switches, using a Goron-form Elegy of Emptiness statue to press down the big one. A gate opened into a small courtyard; Link used a bomb to destroy a tan-colored square section of floor on the left-hand side, and then they followed Tatl's pointer spell through the northwest doorway, down the stairs to a basement level below.
There was just enough sunlight left in the day to reflect off of Link's Mirror Shield and into the Sun-face block ahead, and as it cleared out a pair of statues across the way came to life, hopping toward the trio with swords in hand. Link, recognizing the Armos Statues, placed a bomb in their path, and the explosion blew them to bits. A treasure chest magically appeared containing a Small Key, and the larger chest across the way held the temple map. They headed back upstairs, and used the key to unlock and pass through the east door.
The next room had a small fenced-off area to the side blocked by a Sun-face block, and the main area was divided in two by a fence but also had a pool of water in it. A treasure chest was visible across the way on the other side; Homura made a magic-powered leap over the dividing fence and retrieved the Small Key from within the chest. Miyako, carrying Link, joined her, and Tatl used her pointer spell, but it pointed to a submerged passage. Link shifted to his Zora Form, grabbed hold of Miyako & Homura under his arms, and the girls held their breath as he dove in, speed-swimming through the passage and quickly surfacing in the next room. The girls caught their breath as they climbed back onto dry land, using magic to dry their outfits, while Link returned to his normal form. The boy used his Mirror Shield to reflect sunlight into a mirror, bouncing it off into a sun-face block. With the block cleared, a chest containing an enchanted compass appeared. With that acquired, the trio headed through a locked door in this room.
The first thing they noticed in the next room was a stack of disc-shaped stones with faces carved into them. Link shifted to his Goron form and punched them away, allowing light to shine down from a hole in the ceiling; the Sun had now set, but apparently the temple designers had taken this into account, as magically-stored sunlight shone down from a magic artifact overhead. After disposing of the little shadow creatures, Homura used her shield, and Miyako an ice-mirror, in conjunction with Link's shield to bounce light around the central pillar and into the sun-face block obstructing the way forward, making it vanish. In the next room, the whole set-up with fans, Deku flowers, and lava was skipped by Homura carrying Link as she & Miyako used chakra to walk along the walls, reaching the door on the other side of the room. The next, square-shaped room seemed empty. The doors suddenly locked, and then a large figure leapt down from the ceiling, clad in gold-lined purple robes and wearing a bronze-colored mask. He drew two curved swords from within his sleeves, and the blades were wreathed in fire.
Mini-Boss – GARO MASTER
A wall of fire separated the two Puellae Magi from Link and the enemy, as the Garo Master charged at the boy. Link rolled to the side, and lashed out to deal a glancing blow as the enemy passed. The Garo Master rushed at him in a flurry of whirling, burning blades, and Link put all he had into parrying and shielding against the attacks. Eventually, Link managed to bash the Garo Master back with his shield, stunning him and leaving him open to a few more slashes from the young hero's sword. The enemy ninja pressed his own attack further, but after a few more moments of dueling Link bent backwards to dodge a decapitating swing, and then kicked upward at the Garo Master's wrist, knocking one of his curved blades away. Link then went for a low sweeping kick that knocked the Garo off-balance, and followed with a rising strike of his sword that sent the ninja flying. The Garo Master slumped against the wall, as his flame barrier faded.
"To think that I could be defeated…" he said. "Although my rival, you were spectacular. I shall take my bow by opening my heart and revealing my wisdom… If you shoot that which releases the sacred golden light to the blood-red emblem outside the temple… it shall rearrange things, in which the earth is born into the heavens and the moon is born on the earth. To die without leaving a corpse… that is the way of us Garo…"
The Garo Ninja Master triggered a set of exploding tags beneath his robes, vanishing in an explosion. A treasure chest appeared, and from it Link pulled out a shining golden arrowhead-charm.
"Awesome!" he said. "It's the Light Arrow charm! I can shoot arrows imbued with Light magic now; not even Ganondorf could withstand hits from these!"
The trio headed south, through a narrow corridor and onto a railed bridge. At the far end was a large blue humanoid statue without a discernible head, and when they got close to it a single huge teal-tinted eye opened up on its chest. The monster, which was around 10 feet tall, stomped toward the group, and then slammed its fists down; Link back-flipped to avoid being crushed. Its eye briefly turned yellow after attacking, before returning to its normal teal. Homura rushed in, luring the monster into attacking again, and when its eye had turned red she pulled a Sangheili plasma sword out of her subspace storage, activated it, and thrusted it deep into the monster's eye. She then sliced upwards, and the partially-bisected monster toppled backward and then vanished in a burst of darkness.
The next door led the group back to the temple entrance; With the Garo Master's words in mind, they exited the temple, and Miyako stood atop a switch to move a floating stone block away from a large ruby-colored gem. Link pulled out a Light Arrow and fired, and everything went white. When the trio opened their eyes again, everything had been flipped upside-down, with gravity reversed to fit. They re-entered the now-inverted temple, heading through a door on the right, and using a Light Arrow to destroy a sun-face block. In the next large room, ninja-style wall-walking saved the day again, climbing up the side to the spell-pointed room in the upper corner, rather than having to pull off shenanigans with the rising columns of air. The next big room after that had a rather aggravating puzzle involving a stone block and multiple flippings of the room, but eventually the next door was unlocked and passed through.
In the next room, they took some stairs up (or would it be down?) and to a room with a huge gap, the night sky visible beneath them. Miyako carried Link as she & Homura leapt across, and Link used his Stone Mask to sneak past patrolling Armos Knights and acquire a Small Key from a side passage, before returning to the girls and heading through the nearby door. The next room had an even larger gap. They made the jump again, and this time, while in midair, Miyako conjured an ice platform that they leapt off of, letting it fall into the sky as they reached the far door and passed through. Link used a few arrows to destroy the two Blue Bubbles in the following hallway, and they moved on to the next room. Fluttering in a circle near the ceiling was a huge flock of bats, and they then converged in the center of the room near the floor, forming into a shadowy figure that looked to be wearing a ragged cape, with a jagged red fanged maw and glowing green eyes, and a horde of bats circling around it. It conjured a scythe, and then roared a challenge.
Mini-Boss – GOMESS
Link leapt back and fired a Light Arrow, stunning Gomess and scattering its defense bats; Link then rushed in and slashed at the yellow gem on Gomess' chest, damaging it and forcing the demon back. Gomess began spinning its scythe in front of it while charging at Link, the bat-wall reforming around it, and Link rolled back and then to the side to avoid it. Miyako tossed out a freeze spell, taking out a big chunk of the bats, and Link shot Gomess' core with a Light Arrow. Gomess went wild with its scythe, slashing madly at the trio, but then a wave of Fire-type Sagitta Magica from Homura struck it and its bats from behind, leaving an opening for Link to stab his sword deep into Gomess' core, which cracked and shattered. The dark creature hissed/roared as it vanished in a burst of pale-yellow flames, and the doors unlocked. Link went through the east door into a tiny room containing an ornately-decorated blue & yellow chest, which held the Boss Key. With that in hand, he and the girls exited.
They returned back across the previous room, but went through a door on the left rather than back the way they came. Tatl's pointer spell led them to Hookshot/magic-leap up to a higher level, passing through a locked door and into a room with a narrow bridge with another 'Eyegore' at the far end. Link rushed in, tempting it into attacking and thus turning its eye yellow, and then Miyako launched a spear of ice into the eye; a following Fire Arrow from Link finished the job, and the Eyegore vanished. In its place appeared a chest, and from that Link pulled a pale-grey magic mask. They moved through the door on the other end of the bridge, and hopped over a few rolling spike-logs, soon coming to the Boss Door. They unlocked it and headed through.
Somehow, they found themselves in the middle of a huge sand-filled area with a few stone pillars scattered about. The ground began to rumble, and suddenly a gigantic centipede-like creature with blue exoskeletal plating burst out of the ground, armored pincers clasping as it flew through the air overhead. A second one with red plating soon joined it, both creatures then diving back under the sand.
Giant Masked Insect – TWINMOLD
Homura and Miyako's auras flared as they tapped into their power. Link pulled out the new mask he just got and put it on, and suddenly he rapidly grew in size, becoming a giant, with his gear and sword growing to match. The Red Twinmold burst out of the sand, flying overhead, and Miyako cast Jaculatio Grandinis, firing several large ice spears at its face. The impacts briefly stunned the beast, enabling Giant-Link to slash at its vulnerable tail a few times before it dove back underground. The Blue Twinmold emerged across the way, and took a fireball to the tail from Homura, followed by a sword blow to the face from Giant-Link, before it could submerge again.
The Twinmolds emerged together, coiling through the air toward Giant-Link. Link brought his shield up to block the Red Twinmold's tackle, and then a Fire-type Sagitta Magica barrage struck the Blue Twinmold in the chin when it tried to hit Link from the side, forcing it to break off. The Red Twinmold reared back and spread its pincers, which crackled with power as Darkness energy quickly coalesced into a roiling sphere between them. The dark energy ball was fired at Link, but the giant-sized boy swung his sword at just the right moment to knock the ball back, and it exploded in the Red Twinmold's face; the injured beast dove back under the sand. Meanwhile, the Blue Twinmold took another fire-arrow barrage to the eyes, and roared as it retreated below-ground.
Feeling the ground around him tremble, Link brought his sword back, charging mana into it. The Twinmolds emerged from either side of him, diving toward him pincers-first… and flew straight into the giant-sized Spin Attack that Link unleashed, knocking them both away and dealing considerable damage. They resurfaced a fair distance away, holding their heads close together and opening their pincers wide as they combined energies, forming a huge sphere of Darkness energy between them. Link drew and fired a Light Arrow, and the resulting destabilization made the explosion backfire on the giant worms, stunning them and blasting off the armor plating on their heads. Giant-Link then rushed in and, with one wide swing, decapitated both of the Twinmolds. The huge heads of the beasts fell to the sand together and then exploded, along with their bodies. On the area's central platform, a familiar blue magic circle appeared.
Link took off the Giant's Mask, returning to his normal size, and he & the girls walked into the circle, acquiring the downsized Twinmold Mask and then being whisked away into the fourth Giant's realm. Across the yellowish mist, the entity was faintly visible.
"Well," Tatl said, "we've helped all of you. That's all we can do. So now, you'll help us in exchange? We'll call you when the time is right, so do something about him, all right?"
"…FOR…GIVE… YOUR… FRIEND…"
In a flash of light, Link, Tatl, & the girls were teleported out, reappearing in Ikana Canyon, outside the Stone Tower's entrance. A pulse of light soared up into the night sky, its glow enveloping the canyon, and all of the restless souls summoned and tainted by the Skull Kid's dark magic returned to the afterlife. Link nodded. Then, Homura gathered her power into her device, and a wave of energy enveloped the entire Ikana area, time-locking the recent events.
"Well, that's that" Link said. "All four Giants are free. Now, let's head back to the ranch for tonight. And tomorrow night, we finish this…"
-CHAPTER END-
For this fic, I'm going to be condensing the Anju & Kafei quest into a single day's time, rather than being spread out over a three-day period like in-game. So… Next Time: Reuniting Lovers, and the Final Battle.