Link stood, carefully roasting his evening meal of venison. Trapping the creature hadn't been difficult, though in his memories he'd typically hunted with bow and arrow. He currently traveled east, arcing around the Mediterranean with the intention of traveling down into Africa. He wasn't sure what drove him specifically in that direction, yet as he faced south, towards where he wanted to go, he somehow could sense it was the right direction. The feeling was an odd one, a… brightness pulling him. Very similar to the feeling that had drove him towards places of religion. He trusted it, it was… similar to the feeling Zelda had always given off. He suspected he had a natural attunement for divine powers.

Leaving the Acropolis, indeed Greece overall, had not been as difficult as he'd feared. It had been true that he'd been reported missing, but after two days there were no longer any active searches. He was presumed missing. He'd still avoided any law enforcement, there had still been a real chance he'd be recognized, and had not left following any roads. He suspected there might still be blockades.

That had all been just over a week ago, his rough estimates of how far he'd traveled said he was making good time. He was able to travel very light, thanks to the inventory, and though in the early days his body had been very sore after his daily traveling, he'd quickly grown accustomed to the rough terrain. He was also practicing with his sword and shield. He'd thought he'd hardly need it for skill, his intention had been to build muscle for better endurance. He'd been slightly surprised. His mind knew what to do, but his body lacked the strength or muscle memory to complete many of the more complex tasks. Now he wore the both of them on his back at all times. He'd originally feared standing out, but here in the near wilds he hadn't seen another human in days.

Director Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. had difficulty leaving behind his idea officially titled the 'Avengers Initiative'. He hoped, still, to bring the idea back. The thought was nearly laughable. Yet… something deep within him believed strongly that they, humanity, would need it. Of course, he had certain knowledge that even Shield lacked. Shield knew of ancient civilizations on Earth and of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Fury knew how outmatched they were. And the genius of weapons development had just shut down his… well weapons development. Shield would never have hired the erratically frivolous billionaire personally, but they had taken some, well nearly all, of his ideas and secretly improved or expounded on them. Even Shield was feeling the impact of Stark's sudden growth of conscience.

Next to that event the rest of the reports he had to go through seemed irrelevant, except maybe the new 0-8-4. Archeological digs in Egypt had unearthed a doorway in the Valley of Kings about a week back, and Shield had finally managed to get personnel in to inspect it themselves. It was of particular concern due to its seemingly indestructible nature, along with the glyphs it bore.

Shield knew of several instances of this writing to be found in the world, but linguistics had never managed to crack it. Doors in rock, small shrines, and various statues could be found all over the world with this language, as if the civilization responsible for them had spanned the entire world. Even more oddly, considering the fact that nearly all of them could be found on the Earth's surface, they were impossibly old. The objects, and any rock also found to be under whatever protection make them indestructible, were far older than the dinosaurs.

The reason Shield even cared to keep these findings secret, however, was their inability to suffer so much as a scratch from any known form of weaponry. Shield consistently tried stronger and stronger lasers as the technology advanced and, yes, in the past a nuclear blast had been tested against one. All to no effect. Shield wanted to know how these were created, and it especially wanted to keep the world as a whole from knowing such indestructibility existed.

The problem here was that it had been normal archeological digs that unearthed the new doorway, and knowledge of the find had begun spreading before Shield had found out the significance. As of yet nobody had tried blowing the door open, thankfully, but it was already out that Egypt had a supposed tomb with unknown runes matching those in a Greek shrine found in the Acropolis. Shield had to find a way to keep the unbreakable nature hidden, if that happened this would all blow over. Hopefully.

Link dreamed of a young child he'd never seen before. The girl lay sick in bed, watched over by two older women. One clearly her mother, the other somewhere between the two, possibly an older sister? All three looked middle eastern, though he couldn't see their features very well from his position looking down on the event.

"You must go and bring a doctor, Amira. All the men are already sick, and now it's taken your sister. You must go." The mother was saying.

"I cannot go mama, you need help tending them. I cannot leave you all in danger from this curse."

Link frowned, they weren't speaking any language he'd studied before, though he could guess an Arabic language obviously. Despite that he understood them perfectly. He heard sound combinations he didn't know, and his mind was translating them into… Hylian? Odd.

"It is not a curse, it is a sickness. And we need a doctor, they will die. I know it's dangerous to leave but…"

Link woke up then. Something stirred in his mind, a sense of something… dark. Evil. It came from the general direction he'd been traveling. He checked the sky. It was still night, dawn wouldn't be for a few hours yet. The moon was nearly full, casting more than enough light to see by. Something still felt off… but that sense of evil was miles away. Movement drew his eye, close to his sleeping place. Link relaxed, it was just a small snake moving towards the remains of the fire for warmth. He pulled his feet away from the creature's path and sat up, idly watching the reptile. He couldn't place its species, probably wasn't anything to make it noteworthy, like venom glands. The firelight caught its eyes and it gleamed red. That was unusual for sure… he hadn't heard of a snake that's eyes… Link jumped up immediately from his position and reached for his sword. He pulled it free from its scabbard right as the monster changed course, launching itself into the air in a way no true snake could have done, a single red eye flashing with hatred. Link's mind and battle experience took over, and he sidestepped the attack and took its head off with a clean upwards strike. It died instantly and it's body, composed as it was of evil energy rather than natural birth, began to decompose at a unnatural rate. In seconds there was no trace the thing had existed.

Too awake now to continue his sleep, he broke camp and continued his journey. As he walked he analyzed the serpent's appearance. What did it mean? Was his ancient enemy already aware of him? Or had it been a chance encounter? He knew what the thing was. Thankfully he'd already been woken when it appeared. Despite its one head, that thing had been an adolescent hydra. The older they got the more heads they grew, meaning that one was less than a year old. It was a very good thing he'd run across it so early in its life, hydras were extremely poisonous.

Two days later, Link found himself on a true road for the first time since his departure from Athens. He wasn't really sure where this road led, he unfortunately did not own a map. Something he was beginning to regret not finding a way to obtain on his way out of the city. He had not seen any further evidence of Ganondorf's touch on the world, but that sense of evil grew closer to him by the day or at least he grew closer to it. Then, unexpectedly, that sense shifted.

Link stopped in his tracks, had he imagined it? He stepped backwards a few paces, but nothing changed. He focused, really feeling that sense of evil for the first time. It was a revolting experience, but he shoved through that and tried to interpret it. Finally he began to understand, that sense had been a… black area ahead of him for so long, but inside that area… was a point. An epicenter. That was what had moved. No… what was moving. Link turned and looked straight towards it, maybe… a good two hour's walking distance away. And there, on the ground practically at his feet, was a trail. It lead out and towards a forested area, something of an anomaly in this part of the world maybe half a mile out from his present location. But there was something else about it. Even from this distance he could feel it, that bubble of… corruption was sitting right on top of that forest. Link tightened the belt holding his sword and shield on his back, he had a feeling he'd need them soon, and he marched off the road.

As he approached the forest, he could tell already this place had been touched by his ancient enemy. The trees were sickly, what should have been green leaves we're turning to purple, and further in he could see some were already much darker. Inside the rim of dying trees the light was unnaturally dark, something he'd expect of a forest at night with no moon, not in the middle of the day. He stopped at the edge, and reached out to touch the bark of a tree. His fingers came back with a grimy sap-like substance attached to them. He compared to the other trees, they all seemed the same. This place was under a dangerous curse or possibly a supernatural poison. Ganondorf was known for utilizing both. However, curses were easier, and if he had not come here personally it would be virtually impossible to do this with poison. This was good, curses had epicenters, bindings. Usually the King of Evil preferred to attach those to dangerous 'boss' monsters of his own creation, this meant Link could, if he was successful in combat, essentially 'kill' the curse by killing its epicenter.

There was one more thing to worry about, however. He never placed these curses randomly, they targeted either people or places of power. Usually both. He could have been angry at a particular person or family but more likely… this place hid something he wanted buried or destroyed.

Link mentally prepared himself, his memories of past lives, they still weren't him in the same way as his memories from this life. He knew them, remembered their emotions, thoughts, and actions. But… they were somehow… distant. His body's understanding of how to use his sword felt far more real. This meant, in a very real way, he was likely about to face his first fight. He felt his heart pounding with trepidation at that thought, he itched to draw his sword here and now, it wasn't a particularly hot day but sweat ran down the side of his face, his nerves pulsed, muscles tensed. He was scared, he sensed danger and his instincts were trying to wrench control away from him. And yet, a part of him remembered what to do. It wasn't time to fight yet, that would come later and the fear would be worse, so he closed his eyes and breathed long and deep breaths. His body relaxed, nervous energy changing to resting strength. Strength he'd need soon, but not yet.

Link opened his eyes, the cursed forest loomed over him, dark, deadly, terrifying. He hadn't banished fear, he'd controlled it. Fear wasn't a bad thing when kept in control. Fear was alertness and power. Link stepped into the forest, using a pre-trodden trail but keeping his thoughts on that innate sense to track down the curse's epicenter.

It was an hour later that he found a young woman on the ground, dying. He'd barely seen her before stepping on her, and he had barely been able to stop himself. Now he crouched down, propping her up while pouring clean water down her throat. Among her other ailments, dehydration appeared to be the most imminently dangerous. She coughed, that was good, it meant she was still alive. He pulled back the water and capped it. Then he checked for other signs of danger. This didn't look the same as the sickness on the forest, she had a heavy fever and her skin was dry, but Link suspected that was only because her body had long ago run out of fluids to sweat out. Then he saw her wrist. There, right over her veins, were two small holes in her skin. The holes hadn't scabbed up but instead infected. Likely that had prevented her from bleeding out. Her veins were visibly purple along the length of her forearm. Venom. She'd been bitten by something, likely a hydra, judging from his own encounter mere days ago. He quickly scanned the area, looking for the offending creature. It was unlikely it had stayed to watch her die, but it was equally unlikely that Link hadn't now discovered the general source of the forest's contamination. And to curse an area this large… Link now suspected he knew what he'd find at the epicenter.

He'd guessed one more thing from this encounter. This forest was inhabited. The girl was middle eastern, and Link remembered his dream two nights ago. The trail he'd been following was overgrown, but not hard to follow. Why or how he didn't know, but he was ready to bet that dream of his had been really happening in that moment, and he'd just stumbled upon the older sister who'd been sent to get help. Link considered his options. Once, he'd known potions to counter poisons like this one. Now, however, he lacked the materials to make anything helpful. The plants he'd need were long extinct, and he didn't dare risk a fire to boil water anyway. If he could kill the exact creature that bit her the poison would vanish, though she'd still need to be cared for as her body wouldn't instantly heal or recover the lost strength it had spent trying to fight off the venom. It was, unfortunately, her only chance. She could stave off death if she could be forced to eat and drink, but it would kill her eventually unless the poison itself was countered. She wasn't awake at the moment, Link suspected it had been too long since she'd been bitten for real hope she would wake. So he picked her up bridal style. He couldn't risk putting away his sword and shield, and with them on his back he couldn't carry her in any more effective way. He hoped his strength could last till he got her back to the village. Or that he found the creature that bit her. He wasn't sure which hope was more likely.

Fortune favored him as it had not the girl, apparently. She'd been bitten a mere two hours out from her village, at least moving at a far slower place than normal as he'd been carrying her, which he discovered when a clearing appeared before him filled with small homes constructed with mud bricks. It was actually fairly large, he suspected the inhabitants cleared trees for firewood to make room for their small fields. Said fields had what should have been healthy crops nearing harvest. Now, however, the plants were wilted and looked purple with the same sickly sap on the trees. Very few people were outside of their homes, but as soon as he pushed out of the dying wood a few women looked up and saw him carrying the girl they would all know by sight. Something of an alarm was raised as what appeared to be everyone not sick already rushed outside and over to him. As his dream had indicated, there were no grown men among them, only women and small children, and not many of them. He only counted sixteen homes in the entire clearing, most of the space was taken up by the fields.

The women took the girl from his arms, her mother already wailing in a language he didn't understand. Whatever had translated for him in his dream didn't appear to take effect in the real world. Somebody finally caught on to the fact that Link wasn't able to respond in their native tongues, for he heard one of the younger women speak English to his side.

"Are you doctor?" She asked.

He looked at her, she looked Greek, which caught him off guard. While it has also been odd that the women in his dream had seemed middle eastern given where he thought he still was in the world, he'd also expected this little community to be mostly one race. Looking around he noticed he couldn't have been further from the truth. As far as he could tell, no two families shared the same nationality. Most were European in some way, mostly southeastern though, but he also saw a pair of Russian children.

"Are you doctor?" The girl repeated.

"No." Link said, wishing he could have given more a hopeful answer. But if he was correct in his assessment of the situation here…

"I am a warrior. I break curses." He spoke simply, the broken English the girl spoke suggesting he shouldn't press his luck with her understanding him.

It seemed she wasn't the only one who spoke English, though, as after his assertion more than a few of those surrounding him looked up at his sword.

"You were sent by God?" one asked hopefully.

"The goddess Hylia" Link answered, he figured he might as well speak the truth. He was created by the goddess, before she incarnated as one of her Hylians, after all. The crowd was, understandably, confused.

"I need someone to tell me what happened here. I must know the curse I fight." Link said loudly.

"It was snakes, holy warrior" the first girl who had spoken said. "They came and attacked those who went to the temple to pray. Then they attacked anyone who came close. If it is a curse… God is angered at us. Though we do not know what we did to offend."

"No god put this curse on you." Link tried to assure them, he wasn't sure what these people believed, but hope was often the best fortification in times of distress. Believing your very god, whoever they might be, was punishing you… Link wasn't sure there was a better way to crush hope. "He is a demon, the King of Evil. But he is not here personally. His minions are these snakes. If I kill the snakes, their poison will vanish."

The village people spoke between each other, the ones who could understand him translating his message, he hoped. They didn't seem convinced yet though.

"There is a great snake" an older woman said from the back of the small crowd. Link couldn't see her very well. "It has many heads, all as large as a man's. You cannot fight this thing."

Link hesitated. It wasn't that he doubted he could win. He just… wasn't sure how to assure these people he could save them. His memories of past lives showed a near silent warrior, blunt and strong. He spoke to people sure, but usually to get information or trade for items he needed. He was a sword who got pointed at the bad thing that needed killing. In fact he realized he had already made a mistake. Whatever 'god' they worshiped, he'd essentially denounced by saying he had been sent by another then by claiming a demon had cursed them despite their god's protection. He'd practically proclaimed that their god was worthless, but his sent him to solve their problems. He was not meant for this, standing in front of a crowd and giving hope. He often fought behind the scenes, with only a small few who knew of his endeavors. What fame and notoriety he'd gained were always after the fact. Legends that told the people of Hyrule that if things got bad a hero would come. He didn't recall having to do this type of thing before. He didn't have any previous experience to draw on. Zelda had been the leader. She knew how to make people trust her. She could be kind. He was a warrior. More than that none of his previous achievements survived to today. Nothing to use as an example of his strength.

But there was one thing. He was a warrior, true, but he wasn't hard. He could move when others faltered, he could forge head when people got hurt despite his best efforts. But this was not due to a lack of caring. He did care, always had. He remembered watching his wounded uncle, he remembered facing a monster that had killed his sworn brother. He was not devoid of emotion, he was simply in control of those emotions. He steeled himself for what came next.

"I realize you don't know me, I realize you cannot trust me." He drew his sword, and the crowd stepped back from him, "I will save you from this nightmare. I will kill this 'great snake'. That is the creature that has poisoned your home. When it dies, so too will the curse."

He could not reassure them, indeed they seemed scared of him at this moment, so he'd simply save them. Maybe, in time, he could learn to inspire hope. He didn't know how, he couldn't do anything for these people but fight. So he would.

He concentrated on the epicenter of the curse. It was nearly straight ahead from him right now. It wasn't moving. He stepped forward, the crowd parted for him, or more likely, for his sword. He pulled his shield free from its place on his back, it was designed so that he could tug it free easily from the right angle, and he tightened it over his arm as he walked. There was a paved path leading into the woods. It seemed to lead in the direction he needed. He didn't stop when he reached the other side of the village and the edge of the woods. He walked right in.

The stench was far worse on this side, a good sign really, though it wasn't actually very useful with his mind somehow tracking the origin of the curse. Though, he immediately did realize how much worse the curse was. The forest was nearly dead already, well… he didn't know how long this had been going on, but he wasn't certain he could save these trees. Branches were already falling from the sickly purple forest, and as Link stepped on one it didn't crunch but squish, his boot sinking through what should've been a brittle structure, smashing a repulsive near-liquid mass down. He marched onwards, even as his senses told him to gag and vomit.

Further in, Link spotted stones under the fallen foliage which, after a quick inspection, he found to be a structured path leading the direction he still sensed his destination in. Then, finally, he spotted through the dying wild an answer to a previous question: this curse had targeted something specific. A dilapidated temple rose from the ground, there was no roof, and both trees and vines grew green in its perimeter. Curses were powerful, and the King of Evil could ruin any normal place in a matter of days with one, but sacred ground held more resistance. It wouldn't be safe inside, but it would fight the creature's influence for a time before giving way.

As Link neared the shrine he rectified an earlier judgement, this temple was no ruin, it was simply built to be open to the elements. The unmarked columns rose to the air and stopped suddenly, supporting nothing. The ground was covered in dead branches and leaves, some natural some cursed and blown in by winds, but there was no loose stone to indicate a collapsed roof. Was this place relatively new? The villagers behind him surely couldn't have made this structure… and where had the stone come from? Perhaps it had once been one rock jutting out from the ground? Link's sense of reverence returned as he stepped onto the grounds.

A column on far side of the temple had a doorway etched into the stone. He remembered Hylian magic enough to know it wouldn't open if… Link spun and jumped. The serpent head missed him by a mere foot but Link's sword, in his hand since before he left the village, was longer. He struck hard and the sharp metal sheared halfway through the creature's neck, Link's jump had taken him higher than anticipated. He landed and hacked the rest of the head free as the it tried to pull back towards the main body. Link started counting. The neck withdrew and Link followed it with his eyes to see several more serpent heads rearing up, an single glowing red eye in each one. Seven heads, and a scaled, branching snakelike body with all the colors of the forest outside the village.

One.

The creature hissed and charged, two heads streaking towards him with fanged mouths open.

Two.

Link dodged to the side, hitting the ground with his shoulder first but rolling his back across the ground, mitigating the impact and putting him back on his feet in a mere moment but third head already rushed towards his new position.

Three.

He sidestepped the single head and cut it cleanly, with a single strike, he was moving a lot faster than he had thought his body capable of. Speed gave him power.

Four.

The neck, newly liberated from its head, thrashed about, and Link got knocked to the side, but he rolled with the impact again, standing back up and slicing the next head in two with an upwards slash. The head made a strangled noise as it pulled itself back together, the sound changing to a hiss again, but Link was ready.

Five.

He took it's head completely off in two blows, but had to back away when the Hydra sent two more heads as reinforcements.

Six.

He stabbed one in the eye and parried the other away with his shield. Two more heads had lunged for the side where Link might've rolled. He smiled, he'd found the first pattern.

Seven.

He pulled his sword free and cut off the blinded head, then backed up, waiting for the next attack.

Eight.

Eight seconds after Link had killed the first head, that same head finished its regrowth, becoming fully active with a distinctly different hissing sound than Link had heard before. The other headless necks were still in the process of regrowing their heads. If this Hydra worked the same as the type he remembered fighting, he'd have to cut off all seven heads in a short enough time that the first hadn't regrown yet. Judging from the attack pattern Link had already identified, that would prove difficult, but not impossible.

The creature hissed again, the second of the three heads Link had already severed reaching full regrowth, then it charged at him with the same pattern Link had already found. Ganondorf's creatures of darkness and evil were not natural, they functioned very similarly to the creatures he often based them off of, but he had to design each one's physiology and it's mannerisms. He was limited to a certain extent by the fact that the magic had to hold on to something to keep effect. Do enough damage and the spell would break, causing the creature to crumble into nothing. The King of Evil had often found ways to try and circumvent this problem by focusing the spell into a certain point of a being (creating a weak point on an otherwise indestructible monster), or just plain giving it heavy armor which could be bested if one had the right equipment or enough raw power. But no matter what ways he crafted, he was also limited by time and imagination. His creatures had to be given certain instructions and instincts, and without direction it wouldn't matter how dangerous the creature could be, it wouldn't actually fight; only once in Link's memories had he managed to make something actually sentient and that had been back in his first life as Demise. This meant Ganondorf was forced to, in essence, preprogram attack patterns even into his greatest monsters. While his enemy could be very creative with these patterns, patterns could always be deduced and exploited.

Link parried away the head to the left with his shield, and used the extra room to once again sidestep and behead the other one. Then he turned and hacked the first one off as well. Not hesitating, he jumped again, then used a leg to vault off the writhing neck to his right, leaping as far up and left as he could manage. One of the two heads intended to catch a potential dodge was still extended there, though it was already starting to retreat back towards the main body. Link didn't let it, he came down full force and cleaved the serpent's head free. Three down, the last of the ones he'd removed earlier would already be replaced. He stood up and readied himself. The creature attacked again in the same pattern, unable to adapt to Link's adaptation. He executed the same strategy perfectly, cleanly removing three more heads in mere seconds.

One head left. Link wasn't sure if the thing would attack with the one, he doubted it could, lacking an appropriate number of heads to launch its pre-established method of attack. The neck of the sixth severed head retreated and Link looked up at the Hydra. It was… shedding its scales. No, not all it's scales. It's six severed heads has ceased their regeneration, and instead all seven necks were combining into one massive body and head, and the scales separating the flesh from joining were being discarded. Link must've triggered this transformation when he endangered the monster by putting it one good sword swing away from death.

The serpent ,once a hydra and now a simple but gigantic snake, whipped its tail at him but Link jumped over it easily. He had no fear of getting ambushed by multiple heads anymore. The thing spit poison at him while he was in the air. Link raised his shield in defense, but the thing was designed small enough to be portable and was far from the size he'd need to block all of the dangerous liquid. It did protect his head and chest, however, and only his legs were splashed, but that was enough. Pain seared them both as he hit the ground hard, his legs didn't support him and he crumpled. The poison had first burned through his pants like acid, then seeped into his skin, leaving no mark but poisoning him all the same. His legs felt like they were on fire and already he could feel the stuff spreading.

The serpent hissed, sensing his weakness, and lunged with it mouth open. Link looked up at a maw with seven rows of fangs descending on him. He couldn't move, so he fell backwards onto the ground and stabbed stabbed up into the creature's head. Pain seared his sword arm as two fangs sank into it, but the creature stopped instantly against the ground. Link had to hurry, but the poison was in his arm now too. He reached up with his shield hand and pulled his sword and arm free. The snake's head started to repair itself immediately, he had to be fast. His sword arm and legs were poisoned and dying rapidly, but he stood up anyway, forcing his body to move. He raised his sword and starting hacking at the monster's neck with both hands. He was weak, but he didn't fall. It took seven strikes, but he finally severed the thing completely. Then it started to decay. He felt the poison die and disappear inside him. Mere seconds later his only pain was the two holes in his sword arm. He hadn't really felt that pain alongside the poison, and now in comparison to that it was laughable. He looked at his shield, the poison had marred the surface but hadn't done enough damage to hurt it's structural integrity. It would still function.

He turned back to the column with the apparent doorway, if his hunch was correct… yes. Right before the monster had attacked him, Link had guessed that this door had a magic lock that sealed itself when evil magic was near. With the hydra dead, there was no longer any evil source close enough to trigger the spell.

Link didn't immediately go to see what had been revealed. He stood still, the events finally catching up with him now that his battle calm was fading. He'd almost forgotten how he'd come here, let the feeling of this sacred place distract him from the fact that he'd been tracking a hydra. He'd noticed his sense of it shift towards him last minute, and from there… he remembered combat, he remembered how it felt, but was his first time really experiencing it. It was a rush, a thrill, it was terrifying and wonderful at the same moment. His body had performed far beyond what he'd considered his own limits. His sword hadn't felt like an external item, it had felt like a part of his body, an extension of himself; same with his shield. He'd fought and killed a gigantic hydra. No, he hadn't just killed it, he'd systematically destroyed it. It had caught him off guard and he'd come out with barely a wounded arm. And the result?

Link looked around. He'd been right, the forest wasn't healthy by any means, but it no longer had that sickly purple filament over everything, and that unnatural darkness was gone, the light shining through as one would expect. He'd lifted the curse, or killed it anyway.

Still, that poison had been strong… it had nearly killed him in seconds after injection. How had the villagers survived this long?

A woman's words echoed in his mind, "It was snakes"

Young hydras, like the one he'd killed a few days ago. There must be a nest of them. He'd need to kill each specific one who had bitten someone. He'd need to draw them out, he couldn't just wander the forest hoping he'd stumble onto all of them.

He turned to the now accessible door, it glowed faintly along its outline and decor. How had nobody found this before now? He touched the stone and it faded away, revealing a tiny room with a chest inside. He opened it, and smiled. He figured he could deal with the young hydras now.