Link's month on Stomboli felt like the slowest month of his life. He was honestly tired of exploring empty ruins with barely a hint of anything useful in them. Over two weeks since he'd managed to dispatch the five shades and nothing had changed for the better. Still no sign of the epicenter, no useful information or items (he had found one more item but it was worse than useless in these decaying ruins), and the volcano looked more and more on the verge of collapse and subsequent eruption.
The inhabitants of Stromboli island were in trouble as well. They were almost exclusively fishermen, and now there were no fish. Link had heard some of them mutter about some old guy who'd predicted this right before dying but he couldn't see how that was possible unless he'd somehow learned of the curse.
They weren't starving, thankfully, since fish were still found at most other islands in the Mediterranean, only a relatively small bubble around Stromboli itself seemed to be having problems. So between some light relief that neighboring island towns had been willing to give, and the people's own stores they weren't in any real danger. Unless Link failed and the volcano exploded.
Today, though, he thought he might just have found the answer. High up the climbing sides of the mountain, so much farther up it wasn't even visible from most parts of the Goron city, was one last ledge. He couldn't see what was on it, but he had finally found that it was there. There was one problem though: it was so far up and the curse of decay had spread so far that Link wasn't sure he could make it safely anymore. Still, he really had explored everywhere else and the decay would only get worse if he delayed.
Touching the Ice Rod to the surface of the volcano wall, he channeled magic through it and ice started to fill the ever growing cracks in the rock. He directed it to make a path for him reaching up high to the ledge above. When he could no longer see well enough to direct the flow to be just in the cracks, which took the most effort but the least magic, he used more power to coat the rock instead, being certain to leave handholds. Eventually, though, he was forced to leave off the creation of an ice path, so he created a ledge maybe two thirds of the way up to climb on and create further reinforcements to his path.
Even with his strength and stamina, climbing the side of the volcano this far proved to be an arduous and exhausting task for Link, but even when he managed to make it up to the ice ledge he'd made for himself he wasn't given time to rest. The curse of decay was already eating at the base of the ledge, where the ice met the rock, and he didn't trust the ledge to support his weight for much longer. He hurriedly used the Ice Rod again and formed the last of the path he'd need, then pulled the Golden Gauntlets on to brace his arms. He wasn't sure it would actually help, but he'd realized on the way up that he should've tried this earlier.
Only a few minutes later, he'd soon found the decay was more rapid in this area than anywhere else and had to rush, he finally scrambled up onto the large ledge he hoped held the key to this riddle without words. The place was in shambles, where the rest of the ancient Goron city was decaying and would likely fall apart soon, this place already had. He could not see a single building that still stood with all four walls. Most didn't even have one remaining. Of course, he couldn't actually see very far. It was like those cracks ate light, and that faint purple glow they gave off wasn't very useful even with so many of them.
Link started into the buildings, looking for anything that might hold a clue or something that could finally point him in the right direction. Eventually he spotted a building that was taller than those around it. He saw it as a silhouette, the purple light not really showing him what it might be, only that the angles were too ridged to be a natural rock formation and the size towering over these other broken homes. He made for it immediately.
It was another temple, Link soon found with no small amount of relief. And, he quickly realized, it was the reason this entire city had felt sacred to him. The spread of the decay was here, but it struggled against the temple. The telltale cracks were there, but not nearly as eclipsing on the actual temple stone as with the rest of the buildings on this ledge.
Unfortunately, inside was a different matter. The walls and roof still stood, but the rooms and enchantments looked almost… disassembled. He could feel magic leaking from the broken doors and walls. Nothing stood except the huge door at the far end of the room, or the far end of what should have been many rooms at least. That door looked about to cave in, the curse of decay must have been eating its way to this point, but Link had come before it had finished.
He searched hurriedly through the wreckage, but there were no remnants of broken chests or items that could have been useful. At least the curse probably hadn't swallo wed up something Link might need in the future. His memories often showed him arriving to deal with curses or other problems right before they became completely insurmountable. He hoped for at least the same here.
He walked up to the huge door and tried to push it open. It gave way easily, and it swung open to reveal a chamber very much like the one he'd fought the scorpion in back in the Valley of Kings. The stone was different, though, here it was the same material as the rest of the temple and there were no automatons along the walls, instead there where some rather massive hammers lined on the walls.
Just as in that chamber from before, a melodic message played, though the sound was a little garbled he still managed to make out the meaning: "One who learns the necessity of power, it's ability to protect and destroy, face now the monstrosity of your past. Demonstrate your power and emerge victorious."
The gate at the far end opened, and out came an enormous rock monster. It was nothing but rocks, all piled together to form a vaguely humanoid shape that lumbered towards him. Link knew it's name immediately: a Stone Talus, and he really would have his power be put to the test here if he wanted to beat it. His sword would absolutely break against this thing's body, so he'd need to use those huge hammers on the walls. While he was certain he could lift and swing them, doing so with any level of dexterity would be next to impossible, and the Golden Gauntlets would be useless, as they did not increase striking power.
Link dashed for one of the hammers and hefted one up to wield but, when he turned to use it, he saw something terrifying. The Curse of Decay was attacking the Talus. It's cracks had spread rapidly across the ground, Link supposed he had unintentionally let it in when he opened the door, and now was snaking it's way over the rock monster's body. The Talus writhed, seemingly in pain though it had no mouth with which to scream or nerves to feel, but Link supposed it had to be able to receive sensory information somehow.
Finally it collapsed, it's body crumbling into its composite parts all of which were had the Curse of Decay's touch clearly evident on them. Then the body started to shift. Tendrils of dark matter started to pull the Talus's parts back together and hold them there. It started to stand right as another message played for him, but it didn't come out right. The melody was scratched and broken rendering the entire message completely unintelligible. The ray of light containing some item still appeared though, practically on top of the new enemy.
Link had reacted instantly, though. With the first broken note he'd shoved his hammer into the inventory and dashed for the ray of light. Even as the new creature moved it's slow body to try and destroy it, Link's hand closed on the hovering item inside. He rolled away and tried to put the item in his inventory, but it refused to leave his hand. He brought his hand up to look at it, but the moment it was free of his hand it flew out and slammed into his throat. Link only flinched a moment, but when he put his hand to the place the odd thing had landed, he felt it had fused into his skin.
With the blackened Talus advancing on him, Link decided he could figure out what was up with that thing later. He pulled free the huge hammer and readied himself for a fight. Cracks appeared across its 'head' that almost looked like a face. A grinning face. The creature raised both arms and brought them down onto the floor with an explosive crash. It's arms shattered, but the tendrils latched onto all the pieces and pulled them back together. The floor hadn't faired nearly as well. Cracks that weren't glowing in the slightest spread from the point of impact much father than Link thought they should have even from a hit like that. As if the damage dealt hadn't been enough, as soon as it was done the Curse of Decay started to spread again, weakening the structure even further.
Link's mind raced, he understood now why he'd never been able to sense the epicenter. The Curse was the epicenter. A living curse, one with the intention of destroying the entire city and everything in it. And based on what had happened to the Talus, possibly to then take over the city's rubble and start a rampage. Allowing himself to make some assumptions, Link guessed that some fault in the 'programming' of this monster had cause it to mistake the Talus as its goal, and now it was ready for that rampage. But that rampage was a severe threat, this volcano was almost ready to collapse into itself, which would almost certainly set off an eruption. But how to stop it?
The creature raised its arms again, preparing for another strike at the ground but Link stepped just a bit closer, planted his feet, and swung his hammer with everything he had. The cursed Talus's legs shattered, and the creature crashed to the ground in a pile of broken rocks. It had prevented the attack, but it clearly had a response ready. Even as it pulled itself back together, the cracks that had spread almost across the entire city pulsed and retreated. Link could feel the darkness that marked Ganondorf's curses shrinking rapidly, pulling into this one Talus.
When the creature stood again, it was so full of dark magic the stone it was holding together could barely contain it. It raised its arms, power pulsing dangerously around its entire body, and Link tried again with the same tactic as before. The evil mass didn't flinch when the massive hammer struck it. Link felt a moment of panic before squashing it down right as the creature's attack struck the ground again. This time, everything shattered into thousands of pieces of rock underneath them both.
When Link managed to level out his body to slow his fall as much as possible, he realized it hadn't just been the temple grounds that had broken. The entire ledge had broken free of the volcano wall and tumbled in huge pieces down to whatever floor it would meet. Unfortunately, most of those falling pieces were still above him. The living Curse of Decay didn't seem to realize how much danger it was in.
Checking below to make sure they would hit as he thought they would, he found they were indeed unlucky enough to be about to crash into another ledge, and he was fairly certain there were a few more below even that ledge. He didn't yet have any items to help break a fall, so he needed a way to change his trajectory last minute. He dove towards a large chunk of rock and grabbed on to the side, Golden Gauntlets nullifying any strain the maneuver should have put on him, and pulled himself on top.
The Curse didn't seem to care where Link was or that it was falling, so Link didn't have to worry about it. He kept careful watch and, just before the moment of impact, Link jumped for the side of the volcano, which thankfully wasn't yet damaged by the Curse of Decay. He watched as the falling rocks all cascaded down the volcano, causing echoes of the ear-splitting crashes all the way down. The Curse of Decay broke apart several times, from what Link could see, but he lost sight of it well before the avalanche of rocks hit the bottom.
Unfortunately, when everything did hit the bottom, Link could see the effect near-instantly. The Curse did not die, it just lost the body it had claimed before. With melted rock all around it though, it quickly picked a new one. Link watched wide-eyed as the magma rose in a torrent, attacking the walls around it, searching for somewhere to go.
Unsure just how far this would go, but knowing full well how much danger he and everyone on the island were in, Link started to climb, making a beeline for the exit. Link heard a great hissing below as he climbed and looked down to see that the Curse had broken through the wall to find ocean water which tried to rush in and cool everything down. The Curse immediately plugged the hole, showing its first sign of being in real danger, but Link had seen. So, it could be stopped by getting locked into an unmoving body? There might be a way to cause that. In a way, it was only possible now that it was using a liquid not a series of solid structures, even if it was far more dangerous now.
Link managed to make it to the opening before the Curse rose that high, but it was already searching for an exit that wouldn't be dangerous for it. He used the Ice Rod again to freeze the exit and rushed out as quickly as he could.
"Link's back, and in a hurry too," someone said.
"No doubt because of the eruption that just started out of nowhere!" Someone else said.
"You think he caused it?" Someone asked.
"You think he can?"
"Enough!" Hill said, annoyed, "If he did we need to find out if it was intentional, if not we need to understand what really happened. Where is Link going?"
"He seems to be making a beeline for the nearest shore, and he's running fast, as fast as we've ever seen him."
"What would he wa-" Hill was cut off by a massive explosion.
Hurrying to the window for a view of the volcano, she saw it. Right where the entrance Link had been using all this time was, right where a small portion of her team was lava poured out of the mountain.
"Tell them to get out of there!" She yelled.
"Too late…" one of her agents said, quietly, "the explosion sent rocks everywhere. The camera is gone and so is everything else. If they're alive, they're on their own."
Maria felt her heart sink, but she didn't have time to mourn yet.
Link had remembered the people following him all the time almost too late. He'd booked it back to their location and barely made it in time to block the rocks with his shield. Fortunately there were only two of them. Their equipment was ruined, though. Nothing he could do about that.
The two men had quickly asked him what was happening, explaining that they were here to observe the volcano's strange activity, and was that a sword and shield? What would he need that for, not that they were complaining since it saved their lives. It wasn't a bad story, all things considered, and the terror in their voice probably wasn't far from being completely legitimate. He decided to let them think he believed them, telling them to abandon their equipment and run. That magma, no it was lava now, was coming fast and in this direction.
They did run, and Link turned to the Curse of Decay that was now more lava monster than anything else. Pulling out his Ice Rod again Link prepared for a very difficult fight. His real problem was that his opponent's weaknesses were still unknown. He had guesses, but if he was wrong he wouldn't really know until too late.
The lava moved quickly, being magically controlled by the Curse to attack everything it reached. It even ate at the ground it was on. Finally, the flow from the now much larger opening to the volcano stopped. One part of his guess was correct, he hadn't been able to take everything into it a body, it had a limit. But that limit might still be more than Link could handle.
It started to take some semblance of shape, a face and shoulders, mainly. The whole mass was still too spread out for what Link could work with. He had to make it condense itself some before he could defeat it. Behind them the volcano was still going off, whatever damage the Curse had done had been enough to trigger a true eruption, and ash was starting to fall, burning. Link's earring protected him from the heat, but even he would probably suffocate if he stayed out here too long so he was also on a timer.
The Curse lifted an almost hand-like formation of lava and stretched it out towards him. It was slow enough that even a human would have been able to escape the pathetic attack and Link did so with incredible ease. The Curse was made to infect rock, if Link was correct, and it had recognized the magma in the volcano as rock. But it was nearly useless in this body of molten rock because it didn't know how to control itself. It was trying to apply pre-programmed attacks to a body those attacks wouldn't support, and it lacked the imagination to alter them accordingly.
Seeing that its attack was ineffective, the Curse tried again with a bigger arm, just as slowly. Link dodged again. He noticed that the creature wasn't cooling off at all, which was bad. It implied that the Curse had some method of keeping its body in its current state. The thing tried yet again, making and wielding two hands from its body of molten goop. Link dodged again but ran closer to the Curse this time.
The Curse rose up like a tower, looking to bring its entire body down on Link, but that brought its body all into one place. Link seized his chance, he poured all his magic through the Ice Rod and brought it to point at the lava monster. The ice instantly coated the Curse, encasing it in a small iceberg like the one Link had originally found the Ice Rod in. He made certain that the ice grew into and froze the ground underneath the monster as well, it wasn't easy, but he managed it.
His magic was drained, but the first step to a plan he could only hope would work was done. The creature inside the ice was still alive, of course, but it could not break out with the heat of its body or with brute force, no matter how hard it tried. The ice was magic, and the only way to break out would be to use magic against it. The Curse of Decay could do exactly that, of course, exactly as it had broken this very ice inside the volcano, but it would need time to break through so much. Time that Link wouldn't waste.
Agent Hill's team were scrambling, but there was little they could do. This island was an active volcano, whether Link was behind its sudden eruption or not, they could do nothing about a volcano going off. If that were all that was happening, they might've been at least a little more control of themselves. For that matter, if Hill wasn't staring transfixed by what they were all looking at through the drones they had in the air, she might've been in as much a panic as they were.
Some small piece of the lava that had burst out of the volcano was alive. There was no other word for it. It made a face and hands with its body and attacked Link with them. Or it had been, he'd frozen the thing just seconds ago. The video live feed showed him using that blue wand of his to completely encase it in ice. She watched now as he put the thing into nowhere (how did he do that?) and walk up to the massive pillar of ice.
"Zoom in on that ice pillar" she ordered.
Someone actually did and the she could see that, somehow, that lava monster wasn't actually cooled off, it was just surrounded in that ice. The ice wasn't melting either, it but it was cracking from the inside out. Link had slowed it, not stopped it. Then Link shoved his hands under the ground at the ice pillar's base, and started to lift. The ground started to break away, apparently the ice actually extended underground slightly, but Link pulled and, impossibly, he picked the massive thing up.
"He... can do that?" someone asked, sounding weak.
Hill understood, the sheer physical strength Link must possess to do something like this... He lifted the thing over his head and turned, facing the shore, and started to carry it. It wasn't that far, and all downhill at that, but the cracks were spreading from inside the ice pillar, it wouldn't hold as long as Link needed.
Link must've realized this too, for he suddenly shifted his grip on the huge prison and hurled the thing like an oversized spear. It didn't quite make it as far as the ocean, but came close after it stopped sliding down the mountain, and Link was right behind it, running at full sprint. He reached it again and grabbed on to lift and throw a second time. This time the ice prison and the lava monster landed squarely in the ocean. This kid, Link, was... incredible.
Link watched as the ice prison he'd made for the Curse crumbled and finally broke. The Curse shattered the ice in a crash, and was instantly enveloped by the Mediterranean waters. Steam burst from the point where it had sunk in a torrent. The water there was boiling for certain, though it wouldn't last long. The Curse could be dead and dispelled, or it could be trapped in a unmoving body, but either way the danger it posed was past. If Link was right about how this thing worked.
Based on his knowledge of curses and enchantments, Link was sure there had to be a way to kill the Curse of Decay outright. It was a living curse after all. He just hoped that it couldn't just eat at the now solid body of rock and jump into the seafloor instead.
Link turned to the volcano behind him. Only the actual crater and Link's entrance/exit to the Goron city ruins were giving any ash or pumice, and neither were pushing out enough or in the right direction to be dangerous to the two villages on the island. Disaster had been averted, barely. He caught sight of a drone watching him and was reminded of the two guys from the group that were tracking him everywhere. He hoped they'd made it far enough away to completely out of danger. Link decided he needed a rest, exploring those ruins had proved an arduous task, and everything after finding the temple at the top had been hard. Besides, he had no idea where he would be pointed to next.