The Legend of Zelda: Union of Evil Powers

by Martian Tempest

One year after the events of Majora's Mask, Link makes a safe return to Hyrule and is reunited with his friends. However, two of the villains which Link has slain have formed an alliance through the power of one and are ready to take their revenge. Can Link and his friends stop them before it's too late?

42. Chapter 42: The Longest Shortcut

Chapter 42: The Longest Shortcut

The group landed in what appeared to be an empty room that looked similar to the temples they may have been in before, especially regarding Link, but it was just a plain room. One side had a door ahead that was sealed shut, the other part led to a corridor that had a portal at the end.
"Well, this must be it…" Link said, looking around.
"Yeah. I wonder what needs to be done to progress." Zelda said.
"Maybe we need to go through that portal over there to see what we can find there?" Saria asked.
"Good point. Perhaps it can give us any clues or something." Ruto said, nodding.
The group headed for the portal, finding themselves inside a large room with windows and tiles so shiny it left a mirrored image of the room around, as if the tiles had a property like a mirror. However, one wall had a mirrored window on the floor, but there was no window on that part…
"That is weird, normally there should be a window…" Link said, moving over to investigate.
"The acoustics sounds nice here; I can hear my voice echoing a bit." Ruto said.
"There are gratings on the wall at high spots…" Impa noted, while Zelda went with Link.
Using the Lens of Truth, Impa looked in the same direction as Link and Zelda were going in.
"It's a fake wall; there's a Big Chest and a couple of Rupees behind it." She said.
"Alright, thanks." Zelda said, smiling at her attendant while Link hopped in the room beyond the fake wall, indeed finding the chest and several rupees around.
Moving to open the chest, Link blinked at what he saw.
"More Clawshots?" He asked, taking one.
"What? You found even more Clawshots?" Zelda asked, arriving in the room.
"Yes. Perhaps we can use these in combination with the ones we already have." Link said.
"Let's take them, who knows what use they can be for us." Zelda said, helping Link in gathering the Clawshots to hand them to the others, before collecting the present red and purple Rupees.
"What an adventure we've been in so far." Link said softly so only Zelda heard him.
"I'll say… and to think that this isn't over yet…" The Princess said.
"I feel certain that we will make it. If not, I'll make sure I won't go down without a fight. He won't get us off-guard like last time."
"Right. Now that we have the Purified Fierce Deity Mask as our secret weapon…" Zelda said, smiling which made Link smile in kind.
"True. Hopefully the tables are turned in our favor this time." He said as they went to the others who were waiting for them.

Handing over the additional Clawshots to the group, giving each of the group Double Clawshots in turn, they looked around.
"So, how do these work? I mean, we can use only one of these at a time, right?" Ruto asked.
"Yes and no," Link said, "I believe that we can use the second one to reach another target while were hanging off the first one."
"Can you show us?" Saria asked, confused.
"Sure thing." Link said, using the first Clawshot to reach the first target after stepping on a switch that opened several doors in the higher floors in the room. Once attached to the first target, Link took his second Clawshot and fired it at a target close by, letting the first target go as he was pulled to the second one.
With this, Link worked his way over to a room in the first floor area, after which he let go and entered the room. Looking around, he noticed a chest standing in the room that looked akin to the chests that contained the key leading to the Boss door.
"That's strange; normally I'd expected something like a map or a compass or something." Link said, before opening the chest to collect the key, before making his way down again, using the leaf that Saria gave him in the Stone Tower Temple to gently float down and through that land safely back on the ground without any form of damage.
"What did you find?" Zelda asked.
"I found this key right here." Link said.
"Huh? That's it?"
"I guess so…"
"Wait, I thought to have seen some keyholes in the giant door ahead. Perhaps we need those keys to open the door." Nabooru said.
"Hmmm, this is weird." Link said, getting ready to climb his way up again, using the Clawshots to climb to the second floor, discovering two more chests that contained the Big Key, but these were in a different color. Where the first one he found had a black color, he now had keys with a Sapphire and an Emerald color.

Seeing the others following him, he waited for them as he climbed his way to the top area, using the Clawshots to reach the far side of the area using the gratings at the ceiling. While underway, he spotted that there was a portal right up ahead in the room in front of him.
"Well, looks like we have to go through here." He said, switching to his Hookshot to get a ceiling target and pulling himself towards it when it hit.
Once in the room, he waited for the others, who were also working their way up with the Clawshots. After the group had gathered again, they went through the portal and arrived back in the room with the giant door. Now Link noticed the three different Locks on the door, handing a key out to Zelda and Saria.
"Let's see if this works." He said as the three went to put the keys in the corresponding locks, twisting them around until they heard the familiar *CLICK* of the locks unlocking.
Instantly the markings on the door began to glow, before the door opened up by separating itself in columns, one part going up, the other going down, leading to a single room outside, with a very small stairway with what looked like a large switch at the end, the switch being so heavy that it required a serious pounding to activate. Realizing that this was his job to do, Darunia approached the switch.
"This is weird, there are no enemies around as far as I have seen…" Link said.
"Yeah, you think something like this must have been occupied somehow…" Zelda said.
"Perhaps this temple was eventually abandoned to be left in obscurity after it has served its purpose for Ganondorf?" Impa theorized.
"That could be possible, but as long as we can go through…" Rauru said.

Darunia went towards the switch, climbing on top of it before forming himself into a ball as usual, before jumping up and delivering the trademark Goron Pound on the Switch. This caused a siren to go off, sounding twice, making the group instantly draw their weapons, ready to face what was about to come… only for a thick circle of tiles on the ground in the room move and parts of it lowering, each tile going lower than the other… making it in fact a stairway that led to a doorway down on a lower level. Blinking at this, the group put their weapons away.
"That was odd…" Link said.
"Yeah, I wonder what will be next…" Zelda said as the group then went down the stairs.
"Another hallway. This temple looks solid, but a place without traps and the like is a bit unsettling to me. It's like you're expecting things to happen, but when it doesn't, it makes you even more paranoid that you already are." Rauru said as they went through the open doorway and into a long hallway, hopping over platforms where necessary.
"Yeah, as if things are trying to throw us off…" Impa said.
"Well, as long as we can progress…" Ruto said.
Link giggled at this as the group went on.

As they traveled further down the hall, the tiles that were a bit reddish in color were now a mixture of blue/cyan, as if they entered another section of the temple. No sooner did they see another room in sight and approached it, when a door closed behind them, separating the first section they were in before from the one they were in now, effectively locking them in and through that preventing them from backtracking.
"Just as I thought…" Rauru said.
"But where are the enemies?" Darunia asked.
"Look, there's another giant door in that room up ahead." Saria said.
"But this one has FOUR locks. So that means we need four of those Big Keys this time around." Link said.
"Looks like the search game is afoot once more." Zelda said as the group went the other way, only to see a spider's web blocking their path, which Saria took out with a Fire Arrow.
"At least it's something." She said as the group entered the room, which had several floating platforms ahead that went upward, which in effect would make the group go and find their way upstairs to the next room.
"This is going to be quite a climb." Link said, looking up.
"There's a floor switch directly ahead." Zelda said, pointing to an area before Link's feet.
Stepping on it, Link could hear a nearby door responding to it by opening up, only to close directly after Link stepped off of it.
"Great…" Link said as he stepped back on the switch, grabbed his Ocarina and played the 'Elegy of Emptiness' song, creating the statue of himself on top of the switch he stood on, after which Link himself walked away while his statue kept the switch pressed down.
"We can advance now." Nabooru said as she hopped on one of the floating platforms, with the others following step by step, right before Saria entered a room where she found a few small chests containing some arrow bundles, which she took.
She also saw another floor switch in that same room and, following Link's example, she stepped onto the switch and played the Elegy of Emptiness on her Ocarina to use her own statue to keep the switch pressed down for good measure. The door that opened because of the switch was leading into a small room which Zelda located, which also sported a suspicious looking crack in the left wall. Since she wasn't in the room itself, she prepared a Bomb Arrow and fired at the cracked wall, destroying it as the bomb detonated, which on its turn revealed a crevice in the wall containing a big chest with the same colors as the one she had seen with Link before in the secret room of the first area of this temple. She entered the room with the crevice and opened the chest, obtaining the Big Black Key in the process. Seeing another floor switch, she grabbed her Ocarina of Time and, while standing on the switch, also played the Elegy of Emptiness to keep that switch too pressed down with her own statue. Once that was done, she left the room to join the other Sages and Link, with the door now opened leading to a portal that would help them progress.

Entering the Portal, the group arrived now in a room that had a shadow moving left and right, But there was no visible clue as to what the shadow was. This prompted Impa to use the Lens of Truth to look around, locating a platform that was invisible to the naked eye. She also saw a few Rupees around and one Skulltula guarding the entrance to the ledge in front of a Spider's web. Zelda took both the Skulltula and the web out with a single Fire Arrow, before the group climbed on the only visible platform to get on top of the invisible ones, hopping over the platforms with care until they reached the ledge with the Big Chest, containing a Big Sapphire Key. Advancing ahead on the nearby platform, the group now arrived in a room that had a mirror in front of them. In the mirror and on the ground, the group could see a set of shadows in a straight line on a path to a high ledge that contained yet another Big Chest, once more guarded by a web with this time a Big Skulltula in front of it, which were also taken out with a single Fire Arrow, this time courtesy of Link. Making their way carefully over the platforms, using the Lens of Truth and the polished, mirrored wall as their guides, the group reached the crevice and opened the Big Chest to receive the Big Emerald Key. Advancing once more through the teleporter, the group now landed in a large, square room with yet again invisible platforms a polished floor, a crevice at the far side with a Big Skulltula and a web guarding it, but this time even the entrance to the crevice was made invisible to the naked eye. Saria fired another Fire Arrow to take out the hostile arachnid and the web in a single strike, before the group proceeded on the platforms to the crevice, although there were now going half a circle forward in the path in a counter-clockwise direction before they could enter the crevice. Once in the crevice, the Big Chest was now opened to reveal a Big Ruby Key. Stepping on the teleporter afterward, it took them back into the room where the Giant Door was, with Link, Saria, Zelda and Ruto moving to the big locks in order to use the keys on them in the right places, which made the door open for them.
"Whew, that's the endeavor through this part of the temple." Link said.
"Check this out, this setting could be fitting for a town's square." Zelda said, seeing the clear, blue sky, the presence of two trees, a stairway underneath one of the trees at the far side of the room and seeing the sun shine overall. There were also some metallic rattling sounds, three inside the trees and one on the ground. These remained in place however, not making a move except turning around in position constantly.
"What the-?! Gold Skulltulas? What are THEY doing here of all places?" Link said.
"Is someone cursed here?" Zelda asked.
"I don't know, but whatever the reason, we should deal with them, just in case." Link said, firing an arrow at the Gold Skulltula on the ground, instantly killing it before Link collected its token.
The other three Gold Skulltulas were also taken out in a single strike, or two as Saria used her Slingshot for one occasion, while Ruto used her Magical Boomerang to collect the tokens. After that, the group moved on to the staircase, the area around them being completely silent. The staircase was long, but also a bit low with the small steps that it contained. Upon reaching the top, the group moved into another hallway, descending down the stairs that were present there and making a turn to the right to climb another set of stairs to move into the next area. Link yawned and stretched as he went on, but making sure not to hit any of the others.
"Getting a bit sleepy, huh?" Zelda asked, giggling.
"Sorry…" Link said, sheepishly grinning.
"No need to be sorry; I think we can use a bit of a rest. We've been traveling on for quite a long time now I believe and, with the previous events considered, things have been rather hectic for all of us." Impa said, patting Link's shoulder as they entered a section of the temple that was technically a giant room with beige colored tiles.

Looking around the new room, they saw an open door with yet another giant door up ahead, this time the door had FIVE locks that needed the keys to open with. Moving to the left, the group could see several floating platforms up ahead, while at the ground floor area, there was a lower section that was filled with water that was flowing softly and gently from a present fountain. Smiling at this, Link simply hopped down to the ground floor and into the water puddle, seeing that it reached up to only his feet and felt rather comfortably, as if it was something like Spring Water. Yawning again, Link set down his equipment against the wall on the dry area and sat down into the water-filled area, finding the water soothing his legs a bit despite it only being a shallow pond. Chuckling at this, Saria and Zelda joined him by sitting at his sides, soon followed by Ruto, while Nabooru also joined in, providing a bit of a cushion for the group as she sat down as well. Rauru and Darunia decided to remain on the dry area, taking turns in watching over the group, while Impa also went inside the pond to help Nabooru, seeing that Link, Saria and Zelda had already fallen asleep, leaning against each other and Nabooru as they rested. Princess Ruto herself yawned as well before settling down in the water, deciding to lay down in the water instead due to her being a Zora. Soon enough, the entire group was vast asleep, resting peacefully inside the temple.

Several hours later, Link and the Seven Sages woke up again, yawning as they had a good rest indeed. Link walked to the fountain, using the stream of water coming from it to wash up his face to get it refreshed. It was of no surprise that Saria and Zelda both followed this example immediately.
"Whew, that felt nice." Link said, using part of his outfit to get the water out of his eyes.
Impa smiled.
"Feeling better now?" She asked.
"Yeah, I really needed that rest, apparently." Link replied.
"We all did. At least we should have the energy to continue on." Nabooru said.
"So, where do we have to go?" Darunia asked.
"Those floating platforms obviously are present to make us reach the other side, but that path is blocked by means of a fence that has to be lowered first." Link said, walking to the fence first to see how high it is, moving through the water to the other side.
Just as he went to move on the path going up to the fence however, Link yelped as he slipped and fell back on the ground on his rear, immediately causing Saria, Zelda and Ruto to rush at his side.
"A slope?!" He asked after getting up and testing the upward path with his foot, now noticing it was slippery overall.
"The fence itself is also somewhat high nonetheless." Zelda noticed.
"Are you alright?" Saria then asked.
"I'm fine, just made a slip, that's all." Link said, smiling.
"Just be careful, we wouldn't want you to break anything." Zelda said as the children made their way back to the far side of the area, climbing the vines to get to the higher area, where the other Sages were waiting for them.

Darunia stood on top of yet another Goron Switch, which he then gave a Goron Pound onto once the group had gathered near him. As the switch was activated by the pound, the gate at the far side lowered itself into the ground, leaving the road open for the group to travel across the area using the floating platforms.
"This could be... an excellent... training course... if you... ask me." Link said between jumping.
"You got that right." Impa said, following after Zelda and Link himself, while Saria was behind her.
The group managed to cross the platforms in time, as right after Rauru and Darunia landed in the corridor at the far side, the gate raised behind them.
"Timed switches. Haven't seen those in a while." Link commented.
"Hey, isn't that a Red Emblem on that glass/crystal disk or whatever it is on there?" Saria then said as she looked ahead, spotting the emblem she had seen in the Stone Tower Temple before.
"Oh dear, I hope it doesn't turn this place upside down..." Zelda said, as Link fired a Light Arrow at it.
However, all that happened was the symbol spinning around once, before it went back to normal.
"Huh?!" Zelda and Saria asked, blinking.
"That's weird..." Link said, firing a second Light Arrow at it, but was met with the same result as before.
"It appears that it doesn't have any results..." Impa said.
"Maybe it requires something stronger." Link said, setting up a third Light Arrow, readying himself to fire it, but held the arrow at its place, feeling strength increasing in it.
After about 10 seconds or so, Link fired the Powered Light Arrow, which caused the disk to suddenly spin around like crazy in position once it was it, with sparks coming from its sides. In the distance however, the group could hear a scraping sound as if another gate was opening. This caused the group to blink.
"What could be hiding here?" Saria asked.
"Only one way to find out." Link said as he hoped down, yelping as he landed on a platform that had a trampoline for its surface, launching Link up a bit before he landed safely on the ground.
Making his way to the right, Link looked around in the room, seeing different portraits or paintings at the wall to the left, but one of them had moved up and revealed a path behind it...
"I have to give it to this place, it knows to hide its secrets." He said.
"Yeah. I wonder what we will find here this time..." Zelda said as the group went up to a platform that raised using a Crystal Switch, although a ticking sound indicated that this one too was temporal as the group moved to the second platform, raising it to reach the new crevice they made, which led into another room with a pool of water.
As the group approached the pool however, a presence made itself known. It was yet another Great Fairy, with the same appearance to the one they saw in the room back in the land between Ikana Canyon and the Woods of Mystery, being dressed in a green dress, with majestic, green wings flapping softly behind her, sporting the sweetest smile on her face that showed she was friendly too.
"Welcome, great Warriors. I can see you have been through quite the hardships." The Great Fairy said.
"That we have, ever since the Evil King Ganondorf and the wicked being known as Majora returned..." Princess Zelda said.
"I understand. I will help you by upgrading some of your weapons. Receive it now!" The Great Fairy said, before spreading her arms.
A glow appeared around the group, making them blink, but not moving. It was then that their respective swords and their bow and arrows began to glow, as if they were being changed...

This glow lasted for several seconds, before it dissipated, leaving the group now with a different color on their swords and bow and arrows. The hilts of their swords have now colored green while the blades themselves were now completely of pure gold. The bows had a little darker shade on them, so it wasn't that much of a different, but the primary change was seen in the arrows, which instead of the regular brown arrows with metal tips, they were now completely colored in Silver.
"What happened?" Zelda asked.
"You now are in possession of the strongest weapons at your disposal, being the Golden Sword and the Silver Arrows. By extension this also powers up the combination items you can make, being Silver Bomb, Silver Fire, Silver Ice and Silver Light Arrows. This will let you kill most enemies in a single strike, deal with obstacles quicker and regular Silver Arrows can now also directly harm armored enemies like Iron Knuckles." The Great Fairy said.
"Really? Thank you very much." Link said, bowing politely to her.
"As an added Bonus, I also attuned your 'Burst' Skill to some of your weapons. If you wait a bit before firing a weapon, not only will it have increased power, but will from now also have an extra effect: The Bow will fire THREE Arrows simultaneously in one shot, the Boomerang can be fired three times in rapid succession to stun multiple incoming enemies, Bombs and Bombchus will do twice the amount of damage and have a wider blast radius (making the Bomb Arrows extremely powerful), the Hookshot will have a three-pointed hook to deal damage, extends farther and is faster and the Nice Ice Rod will drop four Ice Blocks in a diamond formation." The Great Fairy said.
"Wow, thank you!" Zelda said.
"However, do not get careless; these upgrades come at the cost of a greater consumption of ammunition as well as magic power, so use these Charged abilities wisely." The Great Fairy said.
"We will be careful, thank you." Saria said.
"No problem, may the Goddesses be with you." The Great Fairy said, before departing.

After watching her leave, the group then saw a Big Chest standing at the far side of the pool. Link went to open it, retrieving the Big Gold Key. After that, the group turned back to the room they came from, spotting the gate to the left on the first floor, realizing the platforms they used to reached the crevice is like a switch-based staircase, intending to test the skills of the group. Locating another Goron Switch in front of the first platform, Darunia gave another Goron Pound on it, which lowered the gate, thus opening the road ahead. The group then got on the first platform, using the Crystal Switch to make it rise, before hopping onto the next, repeating the procedure to reach the third platform and then finally the upper floor, where they saw yet another Big Chest, this time Zelda opened it to retrieve the Big Black Key. Moving on and walking down a few steps, the group now moved over a path that was part of the first floor, that also acted like a bridge to reach into a room directly ahead. To their left, they saw floating platforms that moved left and right, with a crevice containing another big chest, while to their right there were a few trampolines that led to platforms left and right against the wall, going up while at the top there was another crevice where they also assumed that sported a Big Chest. A grating with vines was lowered on the far side of the bridge on the opposite wall, allowing them to reach the bridge again in case of an unfortunate mistakes that makes them land back on the ground again.
"How about we split into three groups, with each group going after a chest?" Link asked.
"A splendid idea. That saves a lot on time." Impa said.
"I'll handle the path to the left with Darunia." Rauru said, pointing to the chest to the left side.
"That room ahead looks like a challenge for me to take." Ruto said.
"Alright, Impa and I will accompany you for this." Nabooru said.
"Okay, that leaves us three for the last chest to the right. We'll meet back down here at the fountain once we're done." Link said, nodding.

With this, the group went on their way to complete their mission. Rauru and Darunia had little trouble in crossing the floating platforms to reach the Big Chest, which contained the Big Sapphire Key, before they moved back to the ground floor, standing inside the water. Link, Saria and Zelda hopped on the two trampoline platforms which brought them to the platform ladder, jumping from one to the other after activating a smaller timed switch that lowered a gate to the room near the ceiling. Using the Giant Leaves that Saria generated for them as parachutes, the three glided in the air from the highest platform into the room, where they found the big chest which contained the Big Emerald Key. Afterwards they used the leaves to glide back to the ground floor to meet up with Darunia and Rauru. Ruto, Impa and Nabooru entered the room directly ahead, with Ruto using her Magical Boomerang to activate a distant crystal switch behind a pillar, which let the platform they stood on float to the far side of the room, where a smaller room with one more chest awaited them on a slightly higher level which they reached by climbing vines, this one contained the Big Ruby Key. With the key in hand, the three returned back into the main room and also hopped down the bridge and into the water area of the fountain where the others were waiting for them. Meanwhile, Link went back to the fountain and filled an empty bottle he had with some of the fresh, clean Spring Water, before drinking from the bottle to lessen his thirst a bit. He then handed the bottle out to the others one by one to refresh them, whom accepted it with a smile. Afterwards, the group went back to where they entered the section of the temple, moving now into the room that contained the giant door. Link, Saria and Zelda gave the others now the honor to open the door, which they did; Ruto had the Big Sapphire Key, Darunia the Big Ruby Key, Nabooru the Big Emerald Key, Impa the Big Black Key and Rauru the Big Gold Key, setting them simultaneously in their respective locks, which opened the door ahead... which actually glided back to what appeared to be a tunnel area, the door locking itself against the wall at the far side of the tunnel while revealing the exit.

Climbing into the tunnel, Link took a moment to observe the flowing lights around the walls, with what appeared to be stones floating around beyond it. He slowly made his way onward, as if watching the area carefully, the Sages soon following.
"This must be one of the very few temples where there is actually no boss around." Link said.
"Yeah, I'm actually beginning to like this place, as strange as it may seem." Zelda said.
"Perhaps we can use it as a training center?" Impa asked.
"Good idea. It can test the skills and endurance of the soldiers easily." Zelda said, nodding as the group turned to the left into the large corridor.
After turning to the right, they found themselves now fully outside in what appeared to be a high area, from where they could see the coast. A bit to the left, they could see the fragments of the ruined Hyrule Castle, while ahead, they saw what appeared to be dark clouds moving in a focused position over the area, while the water had an ominous dark appearance to it. There was also a boat that apparently had docked nearby. Link sighed.
"Well, this is it, no more turning back." Link said.
"Indeed. I guess we should take the boat to go to where their lair is." Zelda said, as the group went on towards the boat, moving over the dock to reach a net to climb in the boat...