It is shortly after sunrise as Aloy and Link are standing at the pool past the East Gate with a waterfall flowing down into it from up high. Sidon had come to that inn before they awoke and woke them up with his usual boisterousness, then explained to them that he was going to wait at the East Reservoir Lake right by the Divine Beast and they could go to a pool with a waterfall past the East Gate to go up the mountain. There, Link can easily swim up the waterfall with the Zora armor, of which Link is currently wearing.

"So how am I going to get up there with you?" Aloy said as she is staring up at the top with Link.

Link suggests holding onto him and keeping her head down.

"Do you think that'll work?"

Link shrugs, then adds that she should remove her focus and tuck it away somewhere safe on herself, of which she does.

They enter the water and swim up to the waterfall. Once there, Aloy grabs onto Link like she did yesterday when she jumped off the cliff with him as he used his paraglider and takes a deep breath, then presses her face firmly into his neck. A suddenly rush of water over her almost causes her to lose her grip and she struggles to maintain it.

The sudden rush of water over her is gone and she finds herself flying. She looks up to see that she and Link are flying through the air. They start falling, but Link has his paraglider out and they float down. Once they touch down, Aloy lets go and falls with a sigh.

"Okay, that was really intense," she gasped.

She gets up and they go up to that other waterfall and repeat. They arrive at the top and come upon another waterfall, and repeat. At the top, they discover that was their last waterfall, much to Aloy's relief. Link tells Aloy that they must be close.

"Just let me make some more arrows here," Aloy said as she takes out her focus to put back on.

Next, she takes ridgewood and metal pieces out, then begins crafting arrows.

"Okay, let's go," Aloy said as she tucks the finished arrows away.

They go up a hill and come upon a relatively flat ground save for a large outcrop that they walk up to while looking around. There are also trees about, of which they can see yellow arrows stuck into them.

"Okay, so where's-" Aloy began, only for Link to cut her off by grabbing her arm and pulling her around the outcrop. Carefully, she peeks out with him to see the Lynel walking down from a nearby hillside. It looks just like the one they had taken a picture of. It also looks powerful.

The Lynel stops and looks around with its back to them, then begins to turn around, prompting Aloy and Link to duck back before they are seen. Aloy uses her focus to see the Lynel through the rock, reading it as such. The Lynel begins walking toward their general direction and Aloy urges Link to follow her around the outcrop so that it will not see them. With the sun low in the sky, both of them know the danger of the Lynel seeing their shadows. But the sun's position casts a long shadow that the duo are able to hide within.

Aloy watches as the Lynel continues stalking ever closer, trying to keep herself and Link between the outcrop. The Lynel continues walking onward and the duo are forced to continue stalking away in the effort to keep theirselves hidden from it. The Lynel is fully past the outcrop and the duo are on the opposite side of where they had first hidden. Aloy takes out her spear and silently runs up the outcrop. She takes only an instance to see that its lower broadback half is vulnerable and decides to drive her spear through there as she jumps with spear held high.

The Lynel leaps forward and lands upon its two front feet while raising its rear and violently kicking upward with its hind legs. If not for her Shield Weaver, she would have suffered serious injury. She lands some twenty feet away and immediately rolls away and up onto her feet.

Damn! That thing's more clever than I thought! Aloy thought.

The Lynel is now facing Aloy. She can see Link with a bow and an arrow out back to the outcrop out of the Lynel's sight. She hopes that the Lynel thinks that she is alone. The Lynel snarls and roars, then lowers its head to charge. It gallops at her with its head low, right past Link, who unleashes a bomb arrow that strikes it after it clears the outcrop. The Lynel roars and Link takes out another bomb arrow, takes aim, and releases. The Lynel staggers once more and turns to face Link.

This time Aloy releases an arrow of her own. A tearblast arrow that strikes the Lynel and makes that quick ever increasing droning buzz, then explodes. Aloy and Link are ready with their bows, understanding that Lynel is extremely dangerous in close combat.

The Lynel glances between Link and Aloy warily, then takes out a shield that looks like the head of battleaxe, showing that it not only is for defense but also for offense as well. It also takes out a huge sword with a blade resembling an extremely elongated axe head, showing that it is meant for bashing instead of slashing.

The Lynel charges at Link, and Aloy releases another arrow, but the Lynel swings its shield wide and back, knocking Aloy's arrow away then swinging its shield arm and sword together simultaneously upon reaching Link to do a scissors attack. Aloy gasps fretfully thinking Link is surely killed.

But Link does a backflip, the Lynel's weapons narrowly missing him. Link rushes forward with a Lizel forked spear and repeatedly stabs the Lynel over and over in a flurry. The Lynel falls back with wounds, but swings its shield wide so that Link has to duck this time and roll away. Aloy releases freeze arrows at it this time.

The Lynel turns rapidly and charges at Aloy with its sword held high. Its bestial face twisted from rage. It swings at Aloy, and she is quick to dive out of the way. It swings at her over and over again in the effort to strike her, but she keeps rolling away from it.

The Lynel gets another bomb arrow in the back, courtesy of Link. That is when the Lynel runs away from them, then turns around. It puts up its sword and shield, then takes out a huge bow with a ring in the center that seems to join the two halves. It takes a yellow arrow out, showing it to be a shock arrow, and releases one at Link, who is forced to dive as far as he can from it to avoid getting a shock through the ground. It also takes aim at Aloy and she mimics Link as her Shield Weaver has not yet recharged.

The Lynel continues to launch shock arrow after shock arrow from Link to Aloy and back, forcing each of them to roll away from where the arrow is about to land. That is when Aloys realizes that they have rolled up next to each other. It only dawns on her that the Lynel had been aiming to a spot next to them that forced them to roll away from it and in turn come closer together. In short, it had herd them together.

The Lynel charges at them with its horned head low. Link and Aloy roll out of its way, but are unable to entirely avoid getting hit by it as they each are nicked by the Lynel. While Aloy's Shield Weaver had managed to recharge in time to absorb the blow, Link stumbles with a pained look. Both get their spears out, knowing that the fight is showing signs of turning to the Lynel's favor.

"Link we gotta finish him before he kills us!" Aloy shouted.

The Lynel next spits a ball of fire at them and they just barely dodge getting scorched. It spits another fireball at them, and the duo dodge that one. This time Link whips out his paraglider and the rising heat takes him soaring high, causing the Lynel to look up at him.

Don't know what Link is planning! Aloy thought quickly. But I'll have to do something that Lynel won't expect!

Aloy takes out her spear and runs at the Lynel. Another bomb arrow hits the Lynel from above. With a shout of defiance, Aloy runs at the Lynel with her spear ready to stab it. The Lynel, now desperate to kill one of them as quickly as possible, grabs Aloy's spear before she can successfully stab. The Lynel opens its mouth wide to blast Aloy with fire, only to have something shoved forcefully into its mouth, then firmly pushed for extra emphasis to prevent it from spitting whatever she had forced into its mouth out.

The Lynel releases her spear and starts gagging as it grabs at its mouth to dislodge whatever that was. Its head explodes, splattering its skull and brains everywhere, and its body falls. Aloy sits on the ground gasping with relief as Link lands near her.

"I shoved one of my blast sling balls into its mouth," Aloy explained. "Let's have a moment's rest before we set out to do what we came up here to do."

Aloy and Link sit on the ground for several minutes until Link tells her its time to go to work. They examine the Lynel and collect what they could find from it. That being its weapons, along with its horns and hooves. Next, they start looking for shock arrows. They find them all over the place, with several stuck into a tree.

"We have more than twenty," Aloy said. "Now let's see where we have to go."

They walk up to a sign that reads, jump at your own risk. They look out over a large lake that is the East Reservoir Lake, and within that lake is the Divine Beast Vah Rota. It is a huge machine that is in the form of an animal that Aloy is not familiar with as it looks like it has a hose for a nose. The machine looks to be made of beige and black stone with pink lights in various places upon it. Its nose is sprouting water fiercely and there are waterfalls flowing from either of its respective shoulders.

"So," Aloy began wearily, "we have to defeat that and get inside it . . . Should be easy enough. I've fought large machines before. Although none quite so large as that. Hey, look at the pier down there. I think that's Prince Sidon."

Link takes out the Sheikah Slate and looks through it using the close-up view. At its highest they do see a Zora down there with Sidon's colorations.

"It's gotta be him," Aloy said as Link puts the Sheikah Slate away. "So . . . are we gonna have to use your paraglider to get down there now?"

Link nods, causing Aloy to sigh as she hangs her head momentarily.

"After we finish with that Divine Beast we have definitely got to go to this Robbie guy and see if he can give me anything like a paraglider," Aloy said with frustration.

Link agrees, then takes out his paraglider once again and Aloy holds him tightly from behind. On the count of three, they simultaneously jump from the edge of the cliff. Aloy clasps her legs partially around his waist as they glide down. As it was when they first did it, so it is the same as the double weight causes them to sail down twice as quickly as either Link or Aloy alone were using it. It also shortens their distance too.

Gradually, they glide ever closer, with Link having to steer closer to the loading dock from which the pier juts out to be able to land upon it. Soon, they land and Aloy slips off his back, thankful that she did not slide off. And a touch annoyed that she cannot hang on to him longer. She winces at that thought and pushes it aside.

They walk up the pier to greet Sidon.

"Glad to see you're both ready to go, Link, Aloy! Are you both ready for this? Do you have your Zora armor, Link, and enough shock arrows between the both of you!"

Link admits that he's ready.

"Wonderful!" Sidon exclaimed. "You never cease to amaze me, Link, Aloy! Now then, let us go and appease that Divine Beast as one!"

"Ah, hold on there a moment," Aloy stated. "What's the plan exactly?"

"Why, I'll . . . Oh, this could be a problem." As his tone turns embarrassed. "I was planning on carrying Link over to it on my back and he could leap up those water falls out of it and shoot the pink energy sources upon its shoulders. But with you here too, I won't be able to carry you both upon my back. That, and you don't have Zora armor."

Aloy stares at Vah Ruta, reading it with her focus. She can see the energy pods on its shoulders that need to be targetted.

"Okay, I have an idea," Aloy said. "How about you get me close enough to it so that I can use a graping hook and climb up it."

"That won't work, Aloy," Sidon said. "Many Zora, including myself, have attempted to board Ruta, only to get blown back by a force field that the Divine Beast throws up everytime someone attempts to set foot upon it.

"Okay then," Aloy said. "I'd try to use my sharpshot bow, but it's too far away for that either. So what can I do?"

Link explains that she can wait there while he takes care of the pink orbs, then once he destroys the last, Prince Sidon can swim over and carry her back over to Ruta to join him.

"As good a plan as any," Aloy said simply. "Better get to it, Link."

"She's right, Link," Sidon said eagerly. "Now let's get this done. Climb on my back!"

Link does so and Aloy watches as Sidon speeds away toward Ruta with Link on his back. She watches as three ice blocks appear on the side of the Divine Beast and hurl toward Link and Sidon, but shatter one by one due to Link's efforts of using Cryonis to bust them.

She next watches as Link suddenly gets hurled high above Ruta through one of those waterfalls. Link seemingly floats in the sky for the moment as Aloy can see a shock arrow on his bow and launches it at one of the pink orbs. The orb turns green and disappears. Link falls back into the water and is soon spotted racing to avoid five ice blocks that appear, but get shattered by Link. Again, Link gets hurled high up the other waterfall and can be seen by Aloy as he hovers briefly in midair high above Ruta and lets loose another shock arrow that turns the other pink orb green.

He falls back into the water and this time Sidon takes him around the other side, out of sight of Aloy. That is when she sees spiked ice balls flying the other way from the other side of the Divine Beast. She next notices Link having suddenly shoot up into the air then release a shock arrow. Unable to see anything else, she assumes that it was another pink orb. Later, after seeing spiked ice balls and blocks flying around and be destroyed, she sees a figure high above Ruta for the moment and a yellow streak.

Ruta trumpets loudly and next starts to sink. For a moment nothing happens and Sidon is not seen coming. That is when Ruta begins to rise once more, higher than before. She sees Sidon coming toward her.

"Aloy, I don't think you'll be able to get inside Vah Ruta now," he said regretfully once he got close enough.

"Don't worry about that, Sidon, I got a grappling hook for that. Now take me over to Link."

"Then get on and we'll be going."

Aloy gets on Sidon's back and he swims over to the platform where she can see Link looking down over the edge at the top.

"Okay Sidon stop right here for a moment," Aloy said, then looks up at Link. "Hey Link! I'm gonna launch my grappling hook up there and you be sure to get it, okay?!"

Link yells back down his certainty. Aloy takes an arrow out and ties her grappling hook onto the head of the arrow. She next takes out her sharpshot bow and places the arrow into it, aims upward, and releases. The arrow flies upward and well over the top. Link returns to look over the edge as he holds it.

"Swim up to it," Aloy said to Sidon, and he does so. Aloy takes ahold of the rope and coils it around her right forearm and holds it tight. "Okay, pull me up, Link!"

She begins to rise as Link pulls while walking backward in the process. Aloy clears the top and manages to crawl over safely then stands.

"Thanks, Link," as she takes the grappling hook back and puts it and her arrow away. They look down at Sidon.

"Show the enemy no fear!" Sidon called from below. "I'll see you both soon back at Zora's Domain! Farewell!"

Sidon swims away.

Link and Aloy turn to look at the entrance they must enter. Before them is a pedestal for the Sheikah Slate that Link takes out and places upon it. A circle near them suddenly glows blue with writing ringing an equally blue Sheikah Eye.

YOU'RE HERE. I MUST SAY . . . THAT I AM SO HAPPY TO SEE THAT THIS DAY HAS FINALLY ARRIVED. NOW RUTA CAN BE FREE OF GANON'S CONTROL. AND YOU ALSO HAVE A FRIEND THAT WAS BROUGHT HERE FROM ANOTHER WORLD TOO. EXCELLENT, SHE WILL DEFINITELY HELP YOU TAKE BACK CONTROL OF RUTA. YOU'LL BOTH NEED A MAP TO PREVENT YOU FROM GETTING LOST. THE GUIDANCE STONE THERE CONTAINS THE INFORMATION THAT YOU WILL NEED.

Aloy blinks absently as she looks around to see where that female voice was coming from. It was as if it was inside her head, and Link's as well since whoever that was had been speaking to Link. And for a briefest of moments she thought she saw a room behind bars that had one of those stones hanging over a pedestal.

"Link, who was that?" Aloy asked.

He tells her that it was Mipha.

"So her spirit is here then," Aloy said.

They walk up a ramp into the interior of the Divine Beast Vah Ruta.