The air grew heavy, like they were descending into an abyss and the gravity of the earth was slowly crushing her. Filaments and tatters of shadows wafted from the ground only to evaporate once they made contact with the ceiling. Her vision became tainted by the familiar warm orange tones of fleeting light. Being close to Veran negated the magnitude of pressure that threatened to destroy her body. Sable persevered with all her might to keep moving, but by now her body wanted nothing more than to fall and not rise. Amazingly Veran appeared immune to the strange ether cloaking the temple as they made their way over a stone bridge. Beneath them was possibly meant to be a ceiling with large holes cut to allow light in. The view it now offered was incomprehensible. A mad web of shadows and bleeding light that wavered erratically like an ocean.
Finally bursting through a final door, Sable realised they had reached a dead end. The chamber held four statues of the Giants systematically posed around a fifth giant in the centre of the rune circle on the ground. The fifth giant was neither man nor woman, nevertheless it appeared as a fearsome warrior wielding a blade that appeared curved to a double helix. Elaborate red and blue war paint adorned its stoic face. Black rope dangling with paper charms were looped around the statues like a spider's web. However there was a deviation to the motif, a mass of cut ropes dangled between two of the Giants.
Veran remained by the door, the demonic howls of Onox echoed in the chamber nearby. Sable on the other hand stumbled over to the statue of the fifth giant. Her mind too tired to entertain caution of what this chamber had been in the temple's glory days. She said as a whisper "The fierce deity, one of the primal gods, the Oni… the Gomess worshipped the Oni as well?"
"They worshipped the Man Eater too," Veran turned to her calmly "In fact, the Gomess were responsible for bringing the Man Eater's mask to Termina and also why Ikana was wiped out overnight. The end result of that night was the addition of Majora's soul to the Man Eater's trap."
Sable remained silent as Veran continued with the tale of caution. She moved elegantly amidst the statues. Her hands ran over the smooth stone like she was recalling vivid memories.
"The Man Eater has always been a deity that feeds on sins of others, often driving mortals to the brink of insanity in order to grant their wishes... although I've never heard of a wish turning out the way the mortal intended. As it devours more souls its power grows, so it uses its tricks to lure in the most powerful warriors and mages to ever live." Veran conjured the vision of an armoured beast out of the wispy darkness in the air "It grew tired of glutting on the greed of mortals and wished to die and reincarnate into something greater. So the Oni came forth in the guise of a mortal traveller and moved time for the Man Eater once more through the power of music. The Man Eater danced wildly for three days before it finally died."
The tale felt eerily familiar to Sable, her mind enthralled by Veran's words that she did not even notice that Onox was closing in on them.
"When the Man Eater died, it left behind its armour so the Oni did something cruel to stop it from reincarnating properly. It carved a mask from its armour, trapping the Man Eater's soul into that useless form… the Oni then left the mask in the deepest reaches of the Twilight Realm. Until the Golden Goddesses cursed the Stone Towers and mistakenly turned the Gomess place of worship into a portal to the Twilight Realm… it was the Gomess who found the Man Eater's mask and allowed many wild deities to make their home in Termina."
Veran gestured to the statue of the Oni with a smirk "In fact, it used to reside right there on that statue. But it wasn't until Majora, a chosen of the Eastern Giant and a member of the Gomess, donned the mask that it received its true name. Out of fear she cast herself and the accursed mask back into the Twilight Realm where the Oni had left it and sealed the Stone Towers."
"Until the incident with the moon falling happened, right?" Sable had conjured numerous theories around why the Giants intervened and also why Termina had fallen into chaos. "Someone found Majora's Mask, didn't they?"
Veran nodded solemnly "It had to be done, the Man Eater was trapped within it and because of that, the Oni was growing weaker with every passing eon. So I'm guessing the Man Eater put its own plan into action to draw the Oni out and destroy that mask once and for all. You see, they are two sides of the same deity, so you cannot worship one without the other."
"Does that mean Majora… I mean, the Man Eater will return?"
Veran shrugged with a confident laugh "Who knows what a primal deity will do next? However I doubt it will attack Termina so openly next time."
"Veran, why do you even know all this? And how could you keep it from me for so long?"
"I had to wait for you to mature and awaken Argorok's soul, otherwise I doubt you would believe any of this." Veran saw Onox approaching them from over the stone bridge "Now it is time to make our descent and knock some sense into a pair of stubborn old dragons."
The world around Sable became engulfed in darkness as it fragmented and washed downwards in a spiral. Powerless against the tide of reality, Sable fell through the twisting ether with Veran by her side and Onox falling nearby.
Veran breathed out as she stretched her wings, her body enjoying the welcoming glow of twilight. All around was flat darkness stretching out into the horizon. The pure smoothness ruptured by rising monoliths of polished black stone. Most glowed with red and blue patterns of light. The sky was in the eternal embrace of time between day and night. Fragments of shadow wafted from the ground to disappear into the air. For all the millennia she had been gone, the Twilight Realm had not changed in the slightest.
In this realm she could shed her human skin and unveil her fairy form. A drawn out human figure adorned by six filamentous wings and four long arms. Her skin was varying shades of blue while her hair was the colour of fire. Shadows were stretched over her body to form robes that both hugged and flowed from her form. Veran looked down upon the mortals she had brought here, it always intrigued her to see what became of them. Some became floating flames of light, reverting to their soul form, while the more gifted took the form of beasts that could hold a real shape.
She floated over the forms of Argorok and the Dark Dragon as the two massive reptiles struggled to their feet. Both let out various screeches as they struggled to find their voices. Veran simply waved a hand and said "Welcome to the Twilight Realm, Onox and Sable. Don't be too afraid, no mortal can take their true form here. Fortunately you can borrow the bodies of beasts."
The two dragons quietened down, their attention diverted to the celestial replicas of their current forms. They were in a vicious aerial fight overhead as they wildly pursued each other.
"Those two are from a long lost era, where all the races of Termina wielded magic." Veran swooned from nostalgia "That was glorious, although it went a bit pear shaped when the Terminans divided into the Ikana and then they divided again into the Gomess. Then we all know what happened then." She casually wafted over them, reclining in the air "Still you can see remnants of this age in Termina, from the Gorons who can bend the earth to their will and spring spikes from their body to the Zoras who can channel their repressed bioluminescence into an electrical shield."
Sable and Onox simultaneously roared at Veran, a fine way of reminding her of their presence.
"Right, now what to do about you two." Veran laughed wickedly "You two are in quite a lot of trouble now these dragons have woken up. But you're probably wondering why they're there to begin with?"
The two celestial dragons crashed into the earth, the Dark Dragon's jaw was clamped around Argorok's body while Argorok had pierced her talons and pointed tail into the Dark Dragon's neck.
"Out of fear of succumbing to the Goron Geomancers, Argorok made a bargain with an Arch Mage of the Gomess, Midna. She bound the dragon's soul to her Fused Shadow so that Argorok could always watch over Termina. This did not please Horonox, the dragon king who demanded that she keep fighting." Veran pointed to the battling dragons "As you can see, he's still not over it. His hatred was so great he became a deity in death and a very powerful and malevolent one at that. Realising the danger of what he was, the Gomess intervened again and bound his soul to the bloodline of the strongest warrior in their ranks. The logic was that only a strong warrior could keep that beast in control."
Onox hesitated momentarily, keeping a safe distance from the battle to observe the movements of the Dark Dragon. Veran teleported before him in the blink of an eye "The question is, can you tame such a creature? Do you hold the mental fortitude to keep control of yourself at all times?"
Sable stood next to him, nudging his wing with her snout as a sign that she was prepared to help him in any way she could. Veran then rudely snapped "Not you, I just needed you here to lure Onox to the portal." She grabbed Sable by the wing and effortlessly dragged her away from him "This is his battle, not yours. So I'm sending you back to the temple."
Sable madly buried her talons into the ground but struggled to keep a grip. Her entire form was enveloped in darkness before fragmenting and shooting upwards into the sky. The celestial form of Argorok vanished, this led the Dark Dragon to change its target. It focused its gaze upon Onox in the dragon's corporeal form.
Veran remained nearby as she coldly informed "I will kill you if you cannot reunite the body and soul of this creature."
There was no doubt in his mind that Veran was actually some kind of Great Fairy. Yet she unlike any kind of fairy he had ever heard of. Tales always portrayed them as gentle, beautiful creatures that helped wayward travellers. Veran was closer to a demonic entity that was setting him up for a gruesome death with a smile on her face. He had every desire to strike her now and he would have if the soul of the Dark Dragon hadn't charged towards him.
Out of panic, Onox raised his powerful talons in the hope to catch the Dark Dragon by his horns. The dragon soul passed right through his body only to collide with Onox's chest as it viciously rammed its head. The Dark Dragon followed through with a beserking frenzy as it wildly tackled and viciously clawed at its opponent. Onox broke free of its grasp to ascend as fast as his wings could carry him. The celestial monster remained on the ground and circled. There was no sign of injury on its form despite Onox's best efforts to counter the attacks. The Dark Dragon was toying with him, waiting for Onox to strike first so that it could counter.
Feeling a tight and sharp pain in his chest, Onox figured that charge left him with at least a few broken ribs. The pain surging through his body and the exhaustion from keeping him hovering suggested there may be internal bleeding and organ damage as well. There was no telling what the Dark Dragon could do to him if he was caught or failed to evade a second time. Yet how was he to fight a creature that had no true physical form. Perhaps if he could revert to a different beast he may have a better chance, but his ability to shift forms had been nullified by the twilight.
An observation came to mind, by then the Dark Dragon had grown impatient with its pathetic opponent and flew after him. Onox realised that something had to have struck him in order to injure him. Careful watching of the dragon's face, he realised there was an abnormality glaring at him like a target. Onox charged mustered the remained shreds of strength in his wounded body. He dived towards the Dark Dragon, ignoring how the creature's form was a wavering nightmare. He disregarded the feel of its talons passing through flesh and bone to slice his soul. Instead, Onox lowered his head and rammed his newly grown horns into the gleaming gem on his opponent's forehead. Fortunately he had struck it with enough force to shatter it.
The Dark Dragon let out a scream as its body evaporated into swirling mist. Onox felt woozy by then as he finally gained control of himself.
Veran clapped slowly with a Cheshire smile "Congratulations, I don't have to kill you now. But this is merely the first battle you'll face with this creature, so you should keep reinforcing your fortitude."
Onox remained silent as she warped both of them out of Twilight Realm. Their bodies fragmented into pieces of shadows that soared upwards to Termina.
Sable did her best to examine the chamber with a finely focused sight. There had to be something about the statues and the paper charms that opened the way back to Twilight Realm. Her actions were frantic by now as she desperately needed to get back so she could help Onox. Already a day had passed since Veran tossed her back into the Stone Towers. She had not slept or rested as she had ran through the temple in search of anything that could help her.
A strange howling sound came from the sound of the chamber behind her. Sable went to the stone bridge to see pieces of shadow solidify as an elaborate puzzle. It melted from the formed creatures to reveal Veran and Onox alive and back in their Terminan bodies. Onox fell to his knees as he struggled to remain conscious. Veran remained standing with hands on her hips and looking a little too pleased with herself.
Sable dared not question Veran now, after all, it had been made very clear that she was actually the Great Fairy of the Twilight Realm. She felt like an utter fool for not having realised it before. It definitely explained Veran's natural gift with shadow magic and how she seemed to know everything. Despite this discovery, Sable felt her feelings of betrayal lessen as Veran stretched her hand out to her with a gentle smile. She beckoned her to come closer and Sable obeyed. Now they were reunited as a trio, Veran warped them from the Stone Towers.
Although, Sable knew this was not last she had seen of this temple. Perhaps in the future she would be able to explore it at her leisure.
When they arrived at the Southern Swamp, Koume and Kotake asked no questions of what had transpired. The two old hags were simply waiting for them at the glade near the Woods of Mystery. They had prepared potions, a hearty meal and a welcoming bonfire, just as they always did. The caravan was parked nearby and already set up to Veran's liking. Iris appeared more perplexed but ultimately kept quiet, the result of a stern lecture from her master prior to their arrival. They remained silent the entire time as they tended to their wounds and fatigue. Veran finally retired to her caravan while Onox and Sable returned to the tourist hut with Koume.