The air was thick down in the caverns that stretched below Hyrule. It was musky and damp, and Link could almost feel it pushing down on his body as he walked. Filled with gloom and monsters and deadly traps, The Depths were not a place he favoured; but it was one he knew he must face. There were rumors of a powerful artefact hidden somewhere in the labyrinth – and he was determined to find it. Though his strength was not yet recovered from his run in with Ganondorf, his skills and resolve were unblemished. Armed with a had a sturdy sword, shield, and bow, as well as some bombs and arrows he felt confident that he could handle any challenge that the Depths threw at him.

He was wrong.

The hours passed as he ventured deeper and deeper into the maze. The monsters he encountered were stronger than those of the surface, but were still of little consequence. Walking across the strange roots and shrooms, he watched the strange red liquid that covered some of the walls and floors as he picked his way through the darkness. Gloom was aptly named, for it the embodiment of evil itself. In the dim light it looked like blood, and had a sickly sweet smell that made him nauseous. Link knew to avoid touching it, but the gloom was everywhere. It seemed to go on for an eternity.

As he readied to throw his next bright bloom across the valley floor Link froze. Something had changed. The air – it was different here. It was infinitely darker, thicker. It had a bitter taste that burned his throat. His eyes we stinging. The hairs on the back his neck, across his arms and body, began stand on end. Something was out there... in the darkness. Something toxic. Something vile. Grabbing his sword he pointed it forward, circling round slowly. From the corner of his eye he swore he saw the gloom begin to move. His head shot sideways, and he squinted hard

A dark, almost black pool seemed to float across the sea of gloom. It would shift purposefully from one side to another, as though it were scouring, or searching even. Link gasped in horror as long, creeping red arms and fleshless hands rose up from the centre, each with piercing yellow eye searching for it's target. Shrinking back into the shadows, he began to realise that the gloom was not just something that lingered in the depths. It was alive. A living entity. And it was hungry.

Suddenly the eyes all shot round and locked onto him.

Link backed away as the sinister pool hissed and started to move towards him, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Even in pitch darkness it seemed to sense his presence, and it wanted to consume him. Link could do nothing to escape it's foreboding glare.

Clutching his bow Link fired bomb arrow after bomb arrow at the glowing red eyes, but the hands seemed to dodge his every move. The air around him turned crimson red and before Link knew it the beast was upon him, clutching it's vice like fingers around his chest and squeezing the life force from his veins. It lifted and thrashed him against the floor. Link winced as heard the bones in his shoulder crack.

Wrenching himself free he instinctively fought back, slashing at the red madness with his sword and hammering with his shield. Crimson clouds pushed him downward, slowing his every move. He tried shooting arrows at it, throwing bombs at it, but he could barely see. Nothing seemed to hurt it. It just smiled and kept coming, like a relentless tide. For every hand he destroyed another would respawn.

The fight intensified, and for the first time in his life, Link was frightened. The air was now so foul that every breath caused his lungs to burn. His skin was starting to blister. And still the hands raged, with new vigour and rage. Link knew this was a fight he could not win. His weapons were exhausted, his body was failing, and he needed to find rest.

Hurling his last spear Link turned ran for his life. It felt so wrong to quit, but what choice did he have? He pulled out the Purah Pad ready to make his escape. But the Gloom was faster than him and suddenly it choked off his exit. Link retched as the gloom snatched its blood red hand around his torso, suffocating his lungs and pulling him back. He screamed as he felt the wretched fingers melt through his clothing and touch his skin, scalding and stinging him like boiling acid. Pain roared through his arm as another red menace sunk its claws in. His shoulder and fingers twisted and spasmed violently, and time slowed as he watched the Purah Pad fall from his grasp. He was trapped.

This can't be happening, he thought. No, this can't be happening! He was supposed to defeat the darkness. He was supposed to stop the blight that ruined the land. What would become of Zelda. And Impa. And everyone. He couldn't let it happen.

The caverns echoed with agonised screams as the gloom began to dissolve his skin and burrow into his veins. Link struggled and writhed, desperate to break free. But it was to no avail. Their grip was too strong, and his body too weak. He screamed again. Just as he thought he could take no more, another foul hand rose up from the darkness. Climbing higher than all others, it's eye fixated on his tortured body, the hand paused for a moment, as though revelling in his agony. Then, as he let out one final scream, it reached down and smothered Link's face, suffocating his airway and cutting his scream short. Link was now alone, writhing in the dark, with no hope of escape.

Consumed by pain Link felt the Gloom enter his body, filling his veins with poison and slowly spreading through his blood. He felt it burn his muscles and dissolve his bones. Within seconds he felt his heart stop beating, his lungs stop breathing, his mind stop thinking. Then he felt nothing at all.

He was gone.

The Gloom had claimed another victim.