The Fireblight looks very similar to the Waterblight, save that it has a more muscular torso with a sleek left arm that ends in a claw-like hand with a ball of fire hovering above it and a more muscular right arm that ends in a huge handle-like device that produces a massive Guardian sword blade. It has a huge mask-like head that resembles a two pronged spear with a constellation and a dome for a face with a single techno eye, along with a spiked red mane.

The Fireblight shreiks menacingly, but Aloy is more collected now due to her previous encounter with the last Blight and scans the thing with her focus. She sees only the energy that it is made of.

"Damn! This one's even uglier than the last," she quipped as she takes out her hunter bow and a tearblast arrow.

Link also has the royal bow out, along with a ice arrow. Daruk speaks again.

WATCH YOURSELF NOW! THAT UGLY PAIN IN THE CRAG IS GANON'S HANDIWORK. THING GOT THE BEST OF ME A HUNDRED YEARS AGO . . . GOOD LUCK, LITTLE GUY, LITTLE GIRL! GO GET 'IM!

The Fireblight lifts its weapon arm.

WHAT OUT FOR THAT SWORD!

The Fireblight swings, causing Link and Aloy to jump backward. At first, she feared that they might fall through the roof, but a quick glance around reveals that the openings had closed.

Aloy releases a tearblast arrow at the Fireblight. It hits and explodes, staggering the Fireblight. Link releases an ice arrow, also staggering it. Then it is Aloy's turn with another tearblast, then Link with a ice arrow and the Fireblight falls.

GO GET 'IM!

The duo are quick to run over with their melee weapons to hack, slash, and stab the Fireblight repeatedly. It turns into a ball of blue light and moves away from them, then reforms. But Link and Aloy are quick to put away their melee weapons and take out their bows.

"That's right!" Aloy proclaimed as she quickly takes out a tearblast arrow, then aims and launches, hitting and dazing the Fireblight. "Keep hitting that thing hard and fast!"

Link releases his ice arrow to daze the Fireblight as well. Together, they unleash a barrage of alternating tearblast and ice arrows to weaken it. Once again, the Fireblight falls and they are upon it with their spear and rock breaker respectably. They keep up their attack until the Fireblight goes into blue light ball mode to move away from them, and take form. It moves further away this time, forcing Aloy and Link to have to run after it. Upon its reforming, the duo let loose with more arrows at it, and Link ends up breaking his royal bow. The Fireblight falls and the duo are upon it with their melee weapons, savaging the Fireblight. Link's stone crusher breaks and he has to take out the dragonbone Boko club, along with a knight's shield. Dragonbone is incredibly hard, making for a good bludgeoning weapon.

The Fireblight turns into a blue light ball once again to fly away from them and reform before the main central unit. It next produces a fireball in its left hand and infuses it into its sword.

"I think it's really mad with us now," Aloy said.

The Fireblight's sword turns orange and it next creates an orange forcefield around itself. Daruk speaks once again.

THAT FLAME BALL IS DANGEROUS.

The Fireblight floats elsewhere still encased in that forcefield. That is when it extends its arms and air starts rushing toward it as Aloy and Link can feel the wind blowing past them. Mists of flame are drawn toward the Fireblight. The wind stops and a flame ball buds from its forcefield. The flame ball begins floating toward the duo, gaining size as it gets closer. Link takes out an ice arrow and fires, destroying the flame ball. The Fireblight extends its arms once again and air starts rushing toward it.

"Throw a bomb at it!" Aloy exclaimed.

Link takes out the Sheikah Slate and creates a bomb, then throws it at the Fireblight. The bomb gets sucked toward it and Link detonates it as it reaches its target. The Fireblight falls and the duo are quick to rush over with their melee weapons and lay a beating upon it. Once again, the Fireblight rises and turns to blue light to move away from them, this time moving outside of the platform. It forms a fireball in its hand and hurls multiple tiny fireballs at them, some of which hits Aloy's Shield Weaver and Link's shield. Link and Aloy have their bows out and launch alternating ice and tearblast arrows.

The Fireblight falls and the duo rush over to attack it once again. It rises and lifts its sword arm and brings it down, but Aloy and Link were quick to move aside. It's fire infused blade releasing fire to threaten the duo as they had to be quick to avoid it.

A couple more attacks and the Fireblight shrieks loudly, then begins self-destructing. It finally explodes in the same manner as the Waterblight. Aloy and Link recover from the destruction of the Fireblight and look at the main central unit as the Malice around it dissolves.

"Well that's that," Aloy said. "You can do your thing now."

Link walks up to the unit with the Sheikah Slate out and touches it to the pedestal before it.

"Great work, little guy, little girl!" Daruk had said, this time from nearby and they look to see him floating and surrounded by blue flames like Mipha was. He has white wild hair and beard to match with bluish eyes instead of the black that other Gorons possess. He is wearing a chain around himself, along with a blue sash.

"I owe you both big for this. Because of you two, my spirit is finally free. Can't thank you two enough! I feel I should apologize to you, Link. I was doing all I could to protect Hyrule when that thing got the best of me. Sorry that me resting with the rubble caused such a mess. The good news is, Rudania is now back under our control! That means that our century-old Ganon beat-down plan can finally go into effect! I'm gonna take this down the mountain. I'll have a better shot at Ganon there. And then, once you've made your way into Hyrule Castle, we're gonna light that thing up! I want to give you something, Link. It's a special power of mine, called Daruk's Protection. Sorry about that, Aloy, but you were a last minute addition."

"Ah, yeah, so I seem to be," she sighed.

"Anyway, Link" Daruk continued, "this power is no good to me now that I'm a spirit . . . but it might be useful for you. Here it comes!"

He forms an orange sphere of light between his hands and launches it at Link, causing him to float for a bit with orange light about him. He lands and takes a stand, then winds up and punches his fists together, creating an orange force field about himself; which includes Aloy as she is standing near him.

"From this moment forth," Daruk said, "the power of protection from the depths of my soul now live inside you, Link."

Light motes begin appearing about Aloy and Link and they know what this means as yellow light overtakes their vision.

"Good luck, little guy, little girl!" Daruk is heard as his voice fades. "And give my regards to the princess."

Aloy and Link appear on the road that is on the threshold of Goron City and walk into it to see Yunobo standing before them in front of a bridge.

"Hey! Brother! Sister!" Yunobo exclaimed. "Thanks so much for appeasing Rudania, goro! I don't exactly know what you were doin' in Rudania, but . . . Well . . . it seems to have calmed down, goro! Ya know . . . While I was up there, I coulda sworn I saw Lord Daruk standin' on top of Rudania! I wonder . . . Was that his ghost? I dunno how to explain it, but somehow I feel a lot braver now, goro!"

Just how quickly did Yunobo get back here? Aloy mused inwardly. Did the means of transportation really send us down here in a matter of seconds?

"Oh! That's right!" Yunobo exclaimed as if remembering something important. "I talked to Boss about you, and he said to bring you to him! An order from Boss can't be refused. Move it, goro!"

Yunobo turns around and rolls into a ball, then rolls on ahead. They follow after him and come upon Yunobo next to Bludo.

"Hey! It's you two!" Bludo exclaimed gruffly. "Yunobo told me everything. You both really are somethin' else, brother, sister. Ya know that? I can't believe you conquered Rudania . . . Color me impressed. But good grief . . . did ya have to do it just when my back pain went away? I was all ready and rarin' to go at Rudania myself."

Sure you were, you big blowhard. Aloy rebuked inwardly.

"Now you've both gone and made it look like I was just fibbin' about my back pain this whole time!" Bludo continued more intently. "Imagine that! Me!"

He then laughs boisterously.

"Oh!" Bludo continued. "And I'm also happy to see Yunobo finally got his act together. I know that's your doing, as well. But enough back patting and other such nonsense. Take a look at this!" As he directs their attention up at Death Mountain where Rudania is perched and shooting a beam off at distant unseen Hyrule Castle. "The Divine Beast Vah Rudania has calmed down and returned to his peaceful ways. Now we can get back to diggin' for ore around Death Mountain. Oh right! I've still gotta thank you, brother, sister!"

He next turns away and points toward a cave behind him.

"There's some treasure in my house. Grab it. Keep it. It's yours. It's a sharp blade that Daruk himself once wielded. I'm sure you'll be able to make good use of it!"

Bludo turns back to regard them. "However," as his tone is more muted, almost embarrassed. "Well, as Hylians, you both probably already know this, but . . . Apparently, one hundred years ago, the Hylian Champion had a legendary blade-the sword that seals the darkness. They say the sword sleeps in the Lost Woods . . . Waiting . . . I bet you'd like to find it, eh brother? You should go lookin'. And maybe she could help you."

"Maybe," Aloy said, not really understanding.

As Aloy and Link are about to enter Bludo's house, Link sees a goddess statue nearby. Link tells her that they should pray to the goddess statue because for a price of four spirit orbs, she will give them a choice of either heightened durability or heightened endurance. And now that they have eight, they can have first one then the other.

"And . . . you've done this before?" Aloy asked.

Link nods.

"Okay then, let's pray."

First it is Link and Aloy watches as first a red mist surrounds him briefly, then afterward a green mist. Link tells her that the red mist was his getting heightened durability and the green mist was his getting heightened stamina.

Now it is Aloy's turn and she hears a woman's voice in her head asking her what she wants for four hearts.

"Heightened durability," she answered, and she sees a red heart surrounded by gold metal mesh and it enters her. Already she can feel her body becoming tougher. Again, the voice asks her what she wants for four hearts.

"Heightened stamina," was Aloy's next answer, and she sees a green sphere encased in gold metal before it enters her. Already she feels more energized for it. "Well now that was an interesting experience." Then scans the goddess statue with her focus to discover some sort of energy signature within it.

Link tells her that they should get what Bludo offered and then take their leave. There is a treasure chest in the back between two lava pools as streams of lava pour into them. Link opens the chest and takes out the boulder breaker. It is similar to a rock breaker, save that the weighted tip is a black beam. That, and it is also stronger as well.

"Okay," Aloy said, "now that we're pretty much finished here, where do we need to go next?"

As if right on cue, their fireproof elixirs fail and the overwhelming heat of the place hits them hard, causing them to hyperventilate.

"Forget . . . the elixirs!" Aloy gasped as the sweat begins dripping off her face. "Just . . . warp us outta here!"

Link hurriedly takes out the Sheikah Slate while he too suffers from the heat, and tells her to take ahold of a corner. Once Aloy does so, he presses a button and they warp out of Goron City.

Aloy is next aware that they have appeared within some sort of cave, and that it is much cooler. She sighs with relief as she wipes away sweat and notices what appears to be a large hollow chamber that has its opening raised and suspended over said chamber. Link explains to her that they are now on the Great Plateau in the Shrine of Resurrection, and that chamber was where he had slept for the past one hundred years.

"Wow, that was some sleep," Aloy marveled as she walks up to the chamber and scans it. "So why are we here?"

Link answers that it was the first place he noticed on the map, and that it is relatively in the center of the location of the Divine Beasts; so it will help him think of which two they should go to next.

"How about we go to the next Divine Beast that is the most convenient to get to?" Aloy suggested.

Link agrees, then tells her to come outside with him first so that she can have a view about the place. They pause for a moment as he shows her where he got the Sheikah Slate from.

They go outside and Aloy looks over the Great Plateau, seeing a Sheikah Tower nearby. Link tells her that he activated that tower, causing the rest of the towers to rise.

"I remember those towers rising," Aloy mused, then looks off to the side and points. "Hey, what was that building over there?"

Link tells her that it was The Temple of Time. He also tells her about the old man who helped him, directing him to the four Sheikah Shrines around here where he got the runes for the Sheikah Slate. Link then tells her that the man revealed himself to him up on the roof of the temple as the ghost of the last king of Hyrule. Then afterward finally went on his way to Kakariko Village.

"That's quite the startoff you had," Aloy mused. There is a moment of silence as she stares at the Temple of Time. "Now then," as she turns to face Link, "are you ready to go to the next Divine Beast?"

Link takes out the Sheikah Slate and checks out the map as Aloy stands alongside him to look. The detailed spaces are the ones where the Sheikah Towers were activated, while the darkened ones are the places where the Sheikah Towers are still dormant. Yet, the two pulsating yellow dots that make the locations of the next Divine Beasts are beacons within those areas of ignorance. He points out that the third Divine Beast to tackle is the closest to the conquered Keh Namut Shrine, located in the southwestern corner of the Great Plateau. He further tells Aloy that he remembers that it is where the Gerudo Desert is, where the race known as the Gerudo live.

Link tells Aloy to take ahold of the corner of the Sheikah Shrine and she does so, then programs their destination to the Keh Namut Shrine and presses a button, causing them to dissipate into blue filaments of light that rise into the sky and reassemble at their destination.

Aloy looks around to see that they are at the top of snowy mountains. She begins to feel cold. Although Aloy is no stranger to the cold, she finds that this cold feels as if it is seeping into her bones.

"Ah, L-Link?" Aloy said. "Y-You wanna get us to where we want to go right away?" Her teeth close to chattering.

Link takes out a spicy elixir and tells Aloy to do the same as it will protect her against the cold. Aloy drinks the elixir, finding it to be as spicy as it sounds. She feels warmer now as does Link. Together, they walk over to the edge of the mountain that is facing the southwest and jump off the mountain, whipping out their respective paragliders.

They glide down towards the road below that meanders through a canyon.


Note:

It makes more sense in the story for the acquisition of an extra heart to be in the form of heightened durability.