Another chapter, hope you guys like it. Please do leave reviews, it really would help me out. For those of you reading who are not authors, I tell you, getting reviews actually helps a lot in regard to knowing how to improve and get better at writing. So do me a favor and just let me know what you think so I can use that to help guide me in the future.
As usual I am not Nintendo OR Rick Riordan, like that wasn't clear already.
Chapter Nineteen
Relentless Like a Waterfall
My POV
We pulled back from the battlefield without incident, I was very glad to reunite with my wife when we returned to Camp Jupiter shortly after. We greeted each other with a passionate kiss and then made our way together to see our children and reassure our daughter that we were both alright. Zelda and I recounted to each other our experiences in the divine beasts and the battles with the blights. The spirits of the champions from an age past were currently staying in the divine beasts for the time being, constantly on watch.
A week after the incident, we received word from one of our strongholds that they were under siege by a massive horde of monsters and guardians. This was bad, those guardians would raze the citadel to the ground if something wasn't done quick. Plans were quickly drawn up; as the citadel was located near a canyon with a large river, it was decided we would send in a squad of soldiers along with Vah Ruta to handle the guardians. I was going of course; my skills would be invaluable here. My wife also insisted to me that she was coming too, unwilling to let me go without her.
I agreed with her request provided she agree herself on two conditions. The first was that she was not to leave my side, that she would stay with me where I could keep an eye on her and know that she was safe. The second condition was that she take the Sheikah slate and have it with her as an additional means of protection. My skill with the Master Sword meant that I didn't really need it. Our children were obviously staying behind, goddesses it hurt us to have to leave our children at times like this, but it was necessary. When this war was over, we could spend all the time in the world with them.
We boarded Vah Ruta and set off for the citadel, upon nearing the location we came to the entrance of the canyon. Ralis, Mipha, my wife, and I were all gathered in the "head" of Ruta as we looked out at the area. We quickly inspected the land ahead, deciding what to do.
"The path forks in two here before rejoining farther ahead." Ralis observed, "The path to our left is the quickest route to the citadel, but has more enemies. The path on the right is longer but has plenty of water which will give us the advantage."
What to do indeed, take the longer path and play it safe? Or take the shorter route and take the risk? It didn't take long to decide; a divine beast was mighty and time was not on our side. We took the left path, and saw it was filled with monsters and guardians. We were too high up to see exactly what kind of monsters but it didn't matter. As we advanced through the canyon, Ruta fired its ice blasts and flung its trunk to wipe out everything in its path. When attacks were about to hit us, we would activate Ruta's energy field to absorb the damage. Monster encampments were everywhere, we destroyed all we came across, utilizing the ice cannons and other means of attack we had. Ruta also had a multi-target icicle blast attack. After we broke through a rock arch, the beam was ready to fire
"It's time for us to unleash you-know-what!" Ralis grinned.
Ruta came to a stop, its tusks extended and the beam fired from between them. In the narrow canyon, the beam was quickly able to wipe out all of the monsters directly in front of us. Hundreds of monsters and dozens of guardians obliterated in moments.
"The might of a divine beast's power is incredible, isn't it?" Mipha exclaimed.
We didn't need to answer it, just look out at the area. Before we rounded a bend, coming upon a straight stretch to our destination, Fi made her appearance amongst us.
"Master, the way ahead has many powerful enemies. I detect dozens of guardians, both skywatchers and stalkers. There are also dozens of lynels along the cliff sides, as there is no time to go the other way around, I would recommend using extreme caution, otherwise there is only a 73.46% chance of-."
"Icicle barrage, now!" I commanded, interrupting Fi as we came around the bend.
"Right away sir!" Ralis enthused.
Ruta's head swung in flat arc, the barrage of ice flying out of its back and striking every monster down there. With the way cleared we made our way to the end of the cliff, and cleared the obstacle of rocks in the way with a swing of Ruta's trunk.
"Excellent! Now let's go save our allies in the citadel!" Ralis punched the air with his fist, just like Sidon did.
Upon reaching the citadel, all of us except Ralis disembarked from Ruta and began to make our way to the citadel. Where we were currently standing, the road curved as it went toward us from the right and then away from us in the direction we were facing. Ahead of us was a long bridge, teeming with bokoblins and guardians. I turned around and instructed one half of our forces to go secure the enemy outposts down the road that lead down to the lower ground at the foot of the citadel. As they set off, the rest of us began making our way forward. In this group, we had Mipha, Cedra, Zelda and numerous Gerudo, Zora, Hylian, Goron, and Rito soldiers.
As we set foot on the bridge, a barrage of ice from Ruta annihilated the enemies in front of us. Ralis's voice came through the communication device on my wrist, "Leave the guardians on the bridge to me! You and the others head for the citadel!" Running forward we saw another bunch of bokoblins and guardians which were obliterated like before by Ruta. Charging off the bridge we saw another guardian in front of us.
It approached us, its laser locking onto my chest. I raised my shield and readied myself, just as it fired I parried with my shield, deflecting the beam right back at the guardian. It wasn't destroyed by this, but it was left staggering, taking my opportunity I sprinted forward and jumped onto the curve of its leg before leaping again. I drove the Master Sword right into its "eye", neutralizing it immediately. The machine collapsed to the ground, the malice in it evaporating into the air. We continued on and came to a small staircase, at the top of the stairs was a small outpost of the citadel. This small outpost was under siege by a horde of silver bokoblins.
I raced up the steps and hurled myself into battle. The others behind me following suit, I didn't really pay any mind to any of them other than my wife. I whirled and slashed, bokoblins falling to my blade like they were insects. I was practically a whirlwind of death and destruction for them, soon we defeated the monsters attacking this outpost, leaving the way to the citadel clear. The Hylian captain was injured however, fortunately that was why we had brought Mipha with us, to heal anybody who was wounded.
"Hold still, I will treat your injuries." She replied in her soft voice. The blue glow of her healing power shone as she held out her hand to the injured soldier.
"Wow! My body's knitting itself back together! If you could please help my fellow soldiers in the citadel." He replied standing up again now healed.
"Come on let's do this!" I called back to my group.
As we raced along the next bridge to the citadel, I noticed a few guardians clinging to the walls of the citadel. No sooner had I noticed that then Ruta's ice blasted them out of existence. Racing into the citadel itself, I noticed a large force of monsters in the square directly within the citadel. There were dozens of bokoblins and a few moblins, all silver. We rushed forward and engaged the monsters in battle, with our appearance we turned the tide on the monsters, quickly obliterating them. After Mipha healed the Hylian captain in the square, the rubble blocking the way to the rest of the citadel was cleared away by the soldiers.
Charging deeper in we came across a few areas where groups of our forces were being assailed by monsters and were always just about at the point of defeat when we arrived to help. With my skill with the Master Sword, Mipha's healing power, and my wife's growing proficiency with the Sheikah slate, the monsters were all eliminated in short order. With each time, the respective captains turned their focus to defending the square upon being healed by Mipha.
With the citadel now secured, my group and I were just about to head down to the square as well, when a report came in via the communication devices we wore. The report informed of about a dozen guardians approaching the citadel from the northeast, almost directly opposite from Ruta. I rushed down the stairs and out to the courtyard on that side as fast as I could. My wife followed hot on my heels, but not in an attempt to fight as well.
"Link! What are you doing?! You can't fight that many guardians, you'll die!" She demands, panic filling her voice, pulling me back by the hand.
"I won't die Zelda, remember I have the champion abilities?" I pause, taking her face in my hands and pulling her into a kiss. I whisper my next words against her lips, "Also, I have you and our children to live for." Then I pulled away and sprinted out into the courtyard, leaving her standing there frozen in shock.
The first of the guardians comes over the wall, I whip out my bow and immediately fire an arrow into its eye. The guardian loses its grip on the wall at the hit, falling out of sight followed by a crash far below as it slams down and is hopefully destroyed. I feel my wife's eyes on me, but I remain focused ahead, the next guardian appears over the wall. I fire another arrow, knocking it off as well, another four guardians are taken down that way. Then the guardians try something different. The remaining six guardians all come over the wall at the same time, and immediately begin charging their beams. They surround me, and having only a few seconds before they fire, I charge up Urbosa's Fury. The lightning hits all six of them at once, stopping them just in time. They stand there, sparking and shaking, I run over to the nearest one and embed my blade in its eye. I quickly do the same with the others, the guardians have been neutralized.
I look back over at my wife, she's staring at me wide-eyed. She breaks into a run towards me as her lower lip begins to tremble. In mere moments, she practically tackles me to the ground, pressing frantic kisses all over my face, tears streaming from her eyes. She then buries her face in my shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around me, and begins sobbing into my tunic.
I stand while lifting her in my arms, bridal style and carry her back into the tunnel that leads out to this courtyard. I walk about sixty feet into it, around the bend and out of sight of either the courtyard or the room that connects to this tunnel, and sit against the wall with my wife on my lap. She's still sobbing and holding onto me like her life depends on it. I finally realize what's happening, she's terrified. Absolute, paralyzing terror filling her and sending her into near incoherency.
"Link!" She gasps, shoulders shaking as she maintains her death grip on me.
I don't speak, I just hold her as close to me as I can, cradling her in a warm embrace. I let her sob into my tunic, willing to put up with the wet spots to the fabric if it will help calm my love. After a few minutes, she quiets down a little, and tilts her head up to look at me. I tilt my head down a little to meet her gaze, her cheeks are streaked with tears, her eyes are huge and terrified, and her whole body is trembling like an earthquake. I understand what's happening now, there's only one thing it could be. This must be reminding her of one or maybe two combined events, the first being the day I died millennia ago in the Great Calamity and the day less than a year ago where Camp Half-Blood was destroyed and she thought I'd been killed in that assault. In short, she's reliving an intensely traumatic experience. My heart twists in my chest, feeling like it could shatter any second, seeing her this distressed always made me feel like crying as well. Her distress would make me distressed for her.
I raise my hands to cup her face, rubbing away the tear tracks, and stroking my thumbs over her cheekbones. I lean my head forward a little, pressing a kiss against her lips in a wordless promise that I'm not going anywhere, that I'm here for her no matter what. She makes a small, needy sound in the back of her throat and returns the kiss with a burning desperation.
"Zelda, please tell me what's wrong. I want to help you my love, tell me what I can do to help you." I say gently.
"T-t-this is…s-s-s-so mu-much like the G-G-G-Great Calamity!" She stammers, sounding like she's fighting back even more tears as she continues, voice suddenly coming out in a rush, "I'm so scared for you! You could have died just now, and I would have been left alone again! I don't want you to die! Please don't leave me alone again!" She bursts into tears again, pushing her face back into my shoulder.
I tenderly tilt her chin up to return her gaze to mine as I softly answer, "I'm not going anywhere, love, I'm staying right next to you. I promised you I would never leave your side permanently, that I will always return to you, have I ever failed to do so, in the end?" I gently ask.
"No." She shakes her head, looking down now.
Before I can answer, the communication device broadcasts another message.
"Report! Three unusual guardians have appeared and are approaching the bridge!" My wife and I tense up at the next thing that comes out of the device. "Link, Zelda, what is your location?"
We look at each other for a moment, then I raise my wrist and speak into it, "We're by the northeastern courtyard."
A few moments pass in silence, then "Confirm, you are near the northeast courtyard?"
"That is correct." I respond.
"Are you in any need of assistance? Have those guardians been eliminated?" Comes the reply.
"Negative, soldier, all guardians have been destroyed." I say, trying to get this done so I can get back to soothing my frightened wife.
"Roger that Sir, those three unusual guardians are causing some minor problems, we're fine for the moment but we'd appreciate the help." The answer comes, making me grit my teeth slightly.
"Standby on that, Zelda and I are discussing something at the moment, we will be up shortly." I say, keeping my voice calm although my tension is rising at how this is keeping me from devoting my attention to my love.
"Copy that Sir." The device goes mercifully silent again.
"Now that that's out of the way…how can I help you feel better darling?" I ask my wife gently.
"I…don't know." She says, shaking her head.
"Do you want to leave? I'm sure everyone would understand if this was too much for you." I offer.
"No, I don't want to leave, even if you went with me, I want to help these people. But I just feel so afraid, I can't think of anything at all. What is wrong with me, why am I so…" she trails off.
"Love, I have an idea that I think will work, even though I don't think it's ever even been done before." I softly reply.
"Huh?" She mumbles looking up at me.
I take her right hand palm in mine, her palm facing down and against mine. I lay my left hand over the back of her hand, essentially enveloping her right hand in both of mine. I close my eyes and tilt my head back slightly.
"Link what are you doing?" She asks me, but I don't answer as I'm focusing on my idea.
I begin to speak but not to her, my eyes opening and returning to meet hers as I begin to speak, "Goddess Hylia and goddesses of the Triforce, hear my prayer to you now. I wish to bestow my piece of the Triforce upon my wife Zelda, the mortal embodiment of the goddess Hylia. I have no need of this piece of the Triforce myself, I've had it long enough over multiple lifetimes that its virtue has embedded into my being. I ask now that you allow me to transfer it to her, let it be her source of strength to get her through these challenging times."
As I finish my words, the back of my hand heats up, until it almost feels like a brand is being seared into my skin. Just when I think I'm going to get burned, the pain stops and streams of greenish light exude from my right hand and arm, flowing into my wife. The Triforce symbol on my hand fades and then completely disappears. The symbol of the Triforce on the back of my wife's hand becomes brighter than before, with now two brightly glowing triangles instead of one. She looks at her hand in wonder, a look of awe on her face. She no longer looks afraid, thank the goddesses, then she looks back up at me. She stares for a few moments, then speaks.
"I…feel so-so…" she trails off.
"Brave?" I ask, with a warm smile on my face.
"Yeah, and confident, like this warm feeling that everything's going to be ok." She replies, still looking amazed. Then she adds a question, "Is this what it feels like to be you?"
"Most of the time yes, my love." I answer, a smile on my face.
"Thank you, for everything Link." She says softly, leaning forward to wrap her arms around me in a warm hug and pressing her lips against mine in a passionate kiss.
"We should probably head up there and see how we can help." I say standing up.
"Yep!" She says, sounding confident for sure.
We head up to meet up with the rest of our forces. We find that Darbus has arrived to help as well, his inherited ability of Daruk's protection being a major help. However, mine and Zelda's attention was captured by the guardians there. They looked as though they were made of malice! So apparently these maliceguardians, were here. Clearly, they were the work of Demise.
These new foes exhibited an extreme resilience to damage, in fact they seemed to be nearly invulnerable to our forces efforts. My wife and I looked at each other, alarmed. These things were unstoppable? Then an idea surfaced in my mind. Wait, they were made of malice, malice was weak against the sacred magic, or a divine weapon. We had at least two such weapons at our disposal currently, the Master Sword and the Bow of Light.
"Zelda, Bow of Light now!" I say drawing the sword from its sheath on back.
Her face lights up with realization, "OH!" she exclaims and manifests the bow, drawing back the string and ready to fire.
"Here's what were gonna do, I'm going to go engage them and you give me supporting fire!" I say launching myself off the wall and towards the malice guardians. Arrows of light race past me, piercing the enemies before me.
"Master, you have guessed correctly, these enemies are weak against divine weaponry, due to the sacred power contained in them. My calculations indicate a 100% probability of effectiveness." Fi monotones helpfully, appearing next to me.
I nod and together with my wife, we obliterate the malice guardians. With them defeated, the citadel has now been saved. I meet up with my wife again inside the square, we're also met there by Ganondorf.
"That was amazing!" He exclaims. "How did you do that?!" He asks.
"With this." Zelda holds up her hand, showing the now two glowing Triforce symbols.
He looks at me with surprise, then back at her and says, "My congratulations, your grace, it's very fitting for you."
"Thank you Ganondorf." My wife says, voice betraying none of the slight cringe I see in her face at the title.
"I want to give you something actually, I've actually wanted to do this ever since I joined your cause. I wish to give you my piece of the Triforce, you are worthier than any to wield the entirety of the sacred relic. It was never mine to possess, it was always Demise's ambition that held it. I kept it within me to ensure that he didn't get it and hold onto it long enough for me to give it to its rightful owner." He says, bowing his head.
We gasp and Ganondorf takes Zelda's right hand, like I had a little bit ago. He speaks similar words, not exactly the same but similar. The streams of red light transfer to Zelda, then the Triforce symbol disappears from her hand.
"Huh?" She gasps.
We all stand there stunned, is the Triforce gone? Fortunately, Fi clears up the confusion.
"The Triforce is not gone Master, it is merely dormant and waiting to be awoken." She states in monotone.
"Oh! That's like last time!" My wife exclaims excitedly. "I know how to do it now! Last time it took my admitting to myself that I loved you Link, it should be simple now seeing as we don't need to worry about that!" She says happily.
She raises her right hand and…nothing happened. Ganondorf and I tilt our heads in confusion, shouldn't something have happened by now? My wife is just as confused as well, she proceeds to attempt to use the power several more times all without success.
After the last attempt, her shoulders drop and her face crumples into a look that sends a pang into my heart, it's an expression I saw on her face in our previous life more times than I cared to admit, an expression of someone who believes themselves to be a failure.
"I have…failed. Everyone, my friends, and even you Link! It's my fault! Why won't it awaken for me?" She bursts out, falling to her knees, finally breaking into tears, absolutely devastated.
I quickly hurry over to her, kneeling down in front of her and pulling her into my arms.
"I think…it will happen in its own time. Don't worry about it Zelda, you'll activate it soon, I know you will." I murmur confidently into her ear, rubbing circles into her back with my hands.
"Even across lifetimes, you never doubt me do you, you always have utter faith in me, don't you?" She sniffles again.
"I have always believed in you, love, always and forever. I know you've never done anything less than your best, it'll work out Zelda." I reassure her.
"Thank you Link." She replies quietly.
Later when we returned to Camp Jupiter, and thus to our temporary home here, we greeted our children warmly. Ilia was delighted to see us back and it made me realize again how blessed my wife and I were. We had two wonderful children, and more specifically our daughter had a little sibling who she adored and could hardly wait for to be old enough to play with. While I technically did have an older sister at her age, I later found out it wasn't real. That sister was simply nothing more than an illusion, but our little Ilia had a real sibling.
Additionally, the life our children were living was about all you could ask for, despite the catastrophe going on. Two loving and supporting parents who also loved and supported each other. A stable bond that had a positive influence on our children as opposed to a rocky, unstable relationship. Every child deserves to have that kind of life, but sadly not all of them are lucky enough to have that.
Three weeks later and when our son was eight months old, my wife and I were dismayed to hear that the number of people who thought we should lead them had grown. There had even been talk of renaming the country (seeing as it has for intents and purposes fallen) New Hyrule after the kingdom that Zelda and I once lived in. Although initially our objections had quieted the people's vocal desires for that, that wasn't the case anymore. People were becoming very determined now, I didn't know what to think about it. The people were increasingly getting eager to have my wife and I as the leaders of the country. I squirmed at the thought, I'd never been one for titles and honorifics, even being called Sir in being a teacher was hard enough, but king… I desperately hoped it wouldn't come to that, fate had other ideas however. As frequently happens, fate decides all.