Aloy feels herself reassembling as the yellow light dims and images begin to take shape before her eyes. She is next aware of standing at the front of the entrance to Zora's Domain with those two guards, Rivan and his daughter, before them. Link is alongside her as well. The guards are astounded.

"A-Are you two responsible for Ruta being up there!" Rivan clamored as he points upward.

Aloy and Link look up to see Divine Beast Vah Ruta on top of the mountain where they had fought the Lynel shooting a red beam of light at something off in the distance. They follow the beam's trajectory, but their view is blocked by more mountains.

"Yeah, there was a monster inside it and we beat it," Aloy said.

"Then you must notify King Dorephan and Prince Sidon of your victory!" Rivan's daughter stated.

Link nods and runs, accompanied closely by Aloy. Zora begin to follow after them and they are soon gathered before King Dorephan, Prince Sidon, and Muzu in the throne room.

"Link! Aloy!" Dorephan rumbled. "You both did well to survive your trial! I have been awaiting your return! The violent downpour has disappeared as has the threat to Zora's Domain! It is all little more than a bad dream now. Thanks to your efforts, there is no longer any danger of a great flood laying waste to Hyrule! You both appeased the Divine Beast Vah Ruta and thusly saved Zora's Domain! We are all truly grateful! What you both did for us is more than we could have ever expected of you both."

"Link," Muzu said humbly. "I must sincerely apologize for my harsh treatment of you. That whole time, you were thinking of Hyrule's and Lady Mipha's well-being, just like the rest of us. All of the members of our council humbly fold our fins back in gratitude, along with the rest of our people! Perhaps the older generation of Zora, myself included, misunderstood Hylians after all. It would seem so. That said, I would be overjoyed if you could find it in your heart to forgive me. If not now, then perhaps one day."

"Link!" Dorephan said. "I must reward your efforts! Now then! I implore you to collect the treasure inside that chest over there. It was cherished by Mipha. A memento of sorts. I would like you to have it as a token of our friendship. Please take good care of it. By the way, Link. I see that you are without your trusty blade . . . the sword that seals the darkness. Did you perhaps lose it when you lost your memory?"

Link asks what sword.

Dorephan rumbles in concern. "So you have forgotten that as well."

"What sword are you talking about?" Aloy asked.

"It is a legendary blade that only the Hylian Champion can wield," Dorephan answered. "It is no doubt resting somewhere in Hyrule even now . . . waiting for its master to return. Link, Aloy, all of the Zora thank you for the depths of our hearts for your heroic and selfless work . . . ! And you too, Sidon. As your father, I am proud of you for fighting the Divine Beast alongside Link and Aloy. You have grown much recently. I know you will be a worthy heir when your time comes."

"Father," Sidon gasped. "I . . . Thank you!"

"The heavy rains have stopped, and the Divine Beast is our ally once again!" Dorephan mused happily. "How glorious! Truly splendid!" And he laughs with joy.

"Link! Aloy!" Sidon said as he approaches them. "This is wonderful! Link!" As he takes Link's hand in both hands and firmly shakes it, then releases. "Aloy!" As he also takes her hand in both hands and firmly shakes it. "Thank you so much! Truly, I could never thank you two enough! You helped save our home from vanishing away! This calls for a top-tier expression of our gratitude! Zo! Zo! Ra Ra Ra! With all my heart . . . Thank you."

Behind them the crowd of Zoras also cheer Zo Zo Ra Ra Ra. Link walks up to the chest and opens it to take out the Lightscale Trident. It is a silvery elegant looking trident.

"So if we are finished here," Aloy said to Link. "Should we continue on our quest?"

Link nods and they bid goodbye to the Zora, with the crowd parting to let them through. Some of the Zora pat them on their shoulders. Link tells her that he wants to check out that shrine down below and they go to it. It is within an enclosed area that is surrounded by a pool of knee deep water with flowers and lily pads in it. Link and Aloy enter the shrine and are taken below on its elevator.

They hear the unseen disembodied voice someone named Ne'ez Yohma offering this test for them. The interior is larger with skylights and blue lights lining either side of the walls. Before them is a vast slope with water running over it and a seemingly bottomless pit beneath it. There are shapes protruding from the slope, along with a laser beam passing across an area. Causeways made of metal meshing are above it. Large white spheres roll down the slope, either of them capable of crushing them or at least knocking them off. They can see the monk across the chasm on the other side, and near him is a glowing indentation for one of those black and orange spheres.

Aloy scans the area and sees a sphere that is solid color up the slope and at the back that is at rest.

"There's a sphere up there," Aloy said while pointing toward it. "It looks like we'll need to get it over to there. Any ideas?"

Link tells her that they will need to go up the slope.

"I figured you were going to say that," Aloy sighed. "Although by the looks of the running water, I don't think it'll be strong enough to threaten our footing."

They begin their assention of the watery slope, cautious about the moving spheres. Not only is the water flow weak, their footing seems to have more traction. Link uses Stasis on the laser beam's source to stop it for the moment, long enough for them to quickly go past it. They hurry up the slope, moving around oncoming white spheres. Aloy notes the large tubes up above from where the spheres would fall at various moments. Sure enough, they see their objective: a sphere like the Sheikah Heirloom, but larger. It is upon a high block that is part of the causeway in the back.

They reach the back where the water falls along the wall as a sheet alongside them and look around.

"It looks like it stopped raining large spheres," Aloy noted as no more white spheres fall from those holes above them.

Link sees a treasure chest atop one of the protrusions and sails over to it.

"And of course you will," Aloy said dryly.

Link reaches the chest and takes out a Zora spear. It is silvery blue with an elegant triangular point. He heads back over to Aloy.

"Seriously, do you really have to go out of your way to get treasure chests?" Aloy smirked, then looks away while shaking her head briefly. "Well whatever, let's just get this ball over to that indent down there somehow."

They stare at the slope down below them and Link tells her that he notices that those protrusions are shaped in those specific forms.

"Now I get it," Aloy said in a eureka tone. "We've got to get that sphere down there and over to that indent that is currently hidden from us. Let's go and check out that indent first."

They get down and walk back down the slope and over to the place they need to get that sphere into. They return back up to that sphere. At first, Aloy was afraid that white spheres could start raining upon them, but that does not happen.

"Link, can you use the ice thingy on the water here?" Aloy asked.

Link uses Cryosis and the ice blocks effortlessly forms, then gets rid of it.

"What about along the wall there?"

Link again uses Cryosis to show that it can be done.

"Okay, here's the plan," Aloy said.

She tells Link to raise an ice block in one area and looks down to where the sphere should go. She bids him to follow and they go over to a pair of white spheres still on the slope, trapped by a protrusion guide and push them off.

"Okay, I think that'll do," Aloy said. "Now let's return to the sphere." Upon their return to it, she says, "Link, make an ice block appear directly behind it."

He does so and the sphere is pushed off and rolls down the slope at a diagonal, the ice block placed earlier sets it on its proper course to the area where they pushed those white spheres away.

"Now raise an ice block underneath it."

Link does so, and the sphere is lifted and rolls over the protrusion. They go around to see that the sphere had landed directly into the indentation and had disappeared to turn the indentation blue and raise the grating.

"It was that easy after all," Aloy said, of which Link nodded with approval. "Now let's get our reward."

They enter the chamber where the monk's corpse is sitting. This one has his right arm raised in a gesture while holding a large brass ring in the other as he sits with a circular white cloth with red trim behind his back. His face is bare, showing it to be skeletal.

"This guy really should've kept his face covered like the others," Aloy winced.

Link touches the blue forcefield to receive their spirit orb and for the monk to telepathically thank them, then dissipate into blue motes. They return to the surface.

"Now then," Aloy said. "Remember what I had said yesterday up at the top of that Sheikah Tower? After we finish doing what we needed to do here, we have to go to this Robbie fellow so that we can see if he can make me a paraglider like yours."

Link agrees as he remembers and together they leave Zora's Domain. Since they had effectively killed the enemies they encountered, they have an easier and quicker time getting back to the fork in the road where the sign is, which reads the directions to the Maw of Death Mountain and Zora's Domain.

"Death Mountain," Aloy sighed. "Ooh boy. Sounds like a wonderful place. So Akkala is suppose to lie in that direction?"

Link says yes.

"Well then. Maybe it's not at Death Mountain. Either way, we'll be finding out."

They travel down the road. It begins rising as they go further. Once it peaks, they see a massive mountain off in the distance that is covered in lava, making it a volcano.

"That must be Death Mountain," Aloy said. "It sure looks like it lives up to its name."

They pass a dilapidated covered wagon on their right. As they go further, she sees someone coming. No, something. As it gets closer, Aloy wonders if it is a monster as it is so big and freakish looking. But Link assures her that it is not a monster, but a Goron.

"A . . . Goron?" Link mused.

As they reach the Goron in question, Aloy has a better up close and personal look at it. It is huge and dark yellow, with a shape reminding her of that sphere that she and Link had to manipulate back in that shrine within Zora's Domain. A sphere with long thick arms that end with large beefy hands, short stubby legs, and a neckless conical head with solid black eyes and white hair. It also wears a white loincloth and carries a huge backpack.

"Hey there! I'm Bolton!" The Goron greated them jovially with a voice that reminded Aloy of rocks breaking. "Goron City's ambassador of tourism! These days, Hyrule Castle is just a creepy old ruin. The treasure hunters who sneak in there must be crazy!"

"Wh-Where is this G-Goron City?" Aloy asked as she tries to calm her apprehension.

"Are you kiddin' me?!" Bolton exclaimed as he gives a start while the whites of his eyes become obvious with shock for a moment. "Why! It's over there in Death Mountain!" As he points back at the distant volcano.

"So . . . people actually live there?" Aloy mused.

"Just Gorons, little sister," Bolton said. "The heat over there will kill non-Gorons. If you're going there, might I suggest you stock up on fire elixers to give yourselves temporary immunity to the heat. But be sure to get yourselves Goron Armor once you get there. Those are designed for non-Gorons to protect you from the heat."

"Ah, thanks," Aloy said. "But we're going to Akkala first. To a place called the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab."

"Oh, I heard of that place," Bolton mused. "I've also heard that the man who lives there is a bit of a weirdo too. But he's suppose to be brilliant."

Link next says that he and Aloy should be getting there before the sun sets.

"Oh yeah, right, you better get goin' then," Bolton said. "At night more monsters come out, especially them skeletal ones."

Aloy and Link thank Bolton and they are on their way. Once they get far enough ahead, Aloy steals a glance back at a retreating Bolton.

"Hm, first it was the Zoras and now it's Gorons," Aloy mused. "This world just keeps getting stranger and stranger."

A man on horse passes them, but he does not stop and continues onward, denoting an urgency. They encounter another fork in the road with another sign by it that reads, 'Maw of Death Mountain. Akkala.' With the arrow for Akkala pointing down the road that leads away from their right.

"That's our path," Aloy said and they walk down the road on their right.

The road to Akkala is rockier with decrepit stone bricks and a cliff to one side. They reach the peak of the road and see a Sheikah Tower straight ahead in the distance, seemingly upon a ruined castle.

"And of course, we will need to pay a visit to that tower if you want to get a map of the place, right?" Aloy asked dryly.

Link answers yes.

"I understand," Aloy said. "Knowing or not knowing the area can mean the difference between life or death." While remembering those Tallnecks that she had to climb upon in order to override and get a map of the local area.

They come upon another fork in the road with a sign that reads, 'South Akkala Stable. South Lake Akkala.' Up ahead toward South Akkala Stable is an area with ruins a little off from them that has Bokoblins, along with two Moblins camping amongst them.

"We really need to avoid those," Aloy said. "So let's go over as close to the ledge over there as possible to avoid them. I just hope that Bokoblin on that platform doesn't notice us."

Despite looking forward to fighting them, Link agrees and says that it best to conserve their strength.

So they sneak past the monsters, staying near the edge at the other side, though careful not to fall over. The monsters look too lazy to notice them and the Bokoblin on the platform is back on to them and fails to notice them. They want to run past them, but the noise and sudden movement would only alert their attention. Caution is something that they must exercise now.

Gradually, they move past the monster campsite and are soon past them. Not having raised the alarm. They do not relax until they are too far down and hidden for the monsters to notice.

"Whew!" Aloy gasped. "I kept getting the mental image of them discovering us and we having to take them on, especially those two Moblins."

Link then asks why she just didn't use one of her corruption arrows.

"I don't have very many left and I don't have the materials on me to make them," Aloy answered. "I'm only going to use those when I really have to from now on."

Link nods and they continue onward. That is when they hear shouting coming from off the road, up a flight of ruined stairs next to them. More shouting is heard and the clang and clash of steel.

"Somebody could be in trouble," Aloy said. "We should go help them."

Link agrees and they run up the stairs, past a ruined Guardian on their right, and up to a ruined bridge that no longer spans a chasm. On it is a Moblin armed with a claymore and shield confronting a man who is also armed with a sword and shield.

Aloy takes out her ropecaster and runs over closer, followed by Link with a Zora sword and Lizal shield. They reach the Moblin and Aloy fires one end of the rope into its back and the other end into the ground. The Moblin roars in pain as it tries to get at its back. Aloy fires another, piercing its flesh. She launches another and pierces its flesh again. Another, then another. And the Moblin falls backward. Link and the man they rescue hack and slash it. Aloy takes out her spear and joins in on the fray, stabbing it through the neck, spilling its blood and killing it. They put up their weapons.

"I thank you both for coming to my rescue," the stranger said. "My name is Nell. I figured that I would come here, but I cannot go any further."

"Why did you come here?" Aloy asked.

Nell turns and stares at the ruined castle that surrounds the Sheikah Tower, then gazes at it with a hand over his eyes. Across the chasm are more ruined Guardians, but flying ones that Link reads with the Sheikah Slate as Guardian Skywatchers.

"Do either of you know the story behind that castle there?" Nell asked them as he continues to gaze at it. "That's the Akkala Citadel Ruins. Long ago, at the peak of Hyrule's power, they built a fortress to protect Akkala. It was said to be unassailable, but during the Great Calamity, Hyrule Castle fell . . . The army had no royalty to lead them. With no other choice, they fell back to this citadel to make their last stand. Sadly, a concentrated assault from out-of-control Guardians spelled the end for this fortress too. In a real sense, the kingdom of Hyrule met its doom here."

Nell then turns to them. "I found out my own kin died in that battle, so I came to at least to pray at the spot where they fell. But it turns out that the old Guardians are still active, so this is as far as I go. I've never heard of anyone else escaping a Guardian's sights, at least."

"We were able to," Aloy said. "But only because there were two of us to confuse the Guardian we managed to destroy."

"I figured as much," Nell answered. "You both don't look reckless enough to chance it alone, but be on your guard in these hills all the same. Wait a minute!" As he gives a start. "You. Girl. What's up with your ears?"

"I'm . . . not from around these parts," Aloy answered.

"Then where are you from?" Nell asked.

"From a land that's too far away for you to go to," she answered.

Link tells Nell that they must be leaving and do so as they leave the bridge, heading toward the Akkala Citadel Ruins.