Inside the Thunderhead.

"This place is a lot worse than I thought..." Nika commented, looking at the dark clouds surrounding her, the beam from the light tower kept going through the Thunderhead until it reached a building located on an island.

Nika jumped off her Loftwing and landed on a platform in front of the building, on it was some kind of trigger with three of the crystals she saw before the the temples, "What does this do?" Nika wondered before using her sword to strike one of the crystals, causing walls to rise from the ground, that's when she noticed the opening in the wall that would let her in, so she stretched her arms and pulled herself in.

Inside the structure was... Nothing, nothing at all... Why did she need to come here? The only thing that looked familiar was the crest that was in the Goddess's Statue, of course she did what she had to do, she made her sword vibrate and struck the crest.

Expecting a note to play like the other times, Nika was surprised to see a statue rise from behind the crest, and it started singing, in that moment, the spirit of the sword came out of the blade and moved in front of the statue, but this time, the light surrounding it was dimmed, showing that it had the body of a small child, "Master, I have important information, the moment you struck the crest, a message from the Goddess awakened within my memories: He who seeks the sacred flames, listen well, for I guide you from my place at the edge of time. The sacred flames are three in number. To obtain them, you must also earn relics known as the three sacred gifts. For each trail you overcome, you shall be blessed with one of the gifts… You need to make use of the giftes to reach the sacred flames, Now, I bestow unto you a melody. It will serve you as a key, opening the first trail that awaits you deep in the wilds of Faron Woods." It said before it started singing.

Nika understood what she had to do, so she took the lyre out and started playing notes that matched the lyrics the spirit was singing, when they were done, the spirit said "I would suggest heading to Faron Woods, the trial is located where an unusual amount of butterflies gather.", Nika nodded and started heading for the woods.

Faron Woods.

The spirit instructed Nika to use the radar of the sword to make finding the trial gate easier, eventualy, she located it in front of the great tree in the middle of the woods, "Master, play the song on the lyre and the gate shall open to you." The spirit said as it got out of the blade and began singin accompanied by Nika playing the lyre.

When the song finished, a symbol appeared on the ground, "I can confirm the appearence of a mark on the ground, stab your sword into it and you will be transported to the trial.", Nika did as such and got teleported to a weird place, it looked like the woods but it was... Darker, and to make matters worse, her pockets were empty and her sword was gone, "Master, as I suspected I can't access the trial, you'll be on your own for this one, your objective is to complete a test of Courage, the moment you leave the circle you're standing in, it will begin." The spirit explained before going silent.

This left Nika quite in a pickle, she had no idea what to do at all, nothing at all, test of courage explained a little, but not enough, what would happen once she left the circle? The only way to find out would be to actually do it.

Since it was the only course of action, Nika stepped out of the circle, and the moment she did it, the circle disappeared and a voice talked in her head "The test of Courage has begun.", this seriously creeped out Nika, nothing she met so far did anything like this, the only thing that came close was the spirit of the sword, but even then, it gave her a sense of calmness, but this felt cold and unsettling.

The trees had black leaves, rotten bark and what looked like blood dripping from the tip of the branches, "This is horrifying... Where am I even supposed to go?" Nika wondered outloud and she actually got an answer "You're not going anywhere.", when Nika heard this, she felt... Nothing. This voice felt empty, as if it didn't mean anything.

"Who's there!?" Nika yelled, bt got no response, not knowing what to do, Nika just started walking, hoping to find something, on her way, she saw walking monster corpses, they ignored her, but it was still weird, then suddenly, a shadow darted around and made all the corpses disappear, "What-" Nika was about to say, but was interrupted by all the corpses dropping around her, all mauled and in pieces.

Seeing this made Nika start running, she didn't want to see what did that, not having any weapons didn't make it better, "Whatever is moving around here better stay away!" Nika warned whatever she saw, of course it didn't do anything, and while running, she ended up surrounded by darkness.

Now Nika was really scared, not only there was a monster chasing her, but now she couldn't see it, "I believe I am the God of this forest." The same voice as before said, however, it wasn't inside Nika's head, but all around her, "After all... I'm ###" The voice continued and all of a sudden the darkness disappeared and in it's place there was a creature that eerily looked like Nika.

This... Thing, looked like Nika if she was a monster, the body was hers, but it had bleeding claws, a black void in place of the eyes and mouth with black goo dripping from both, and finally large horns growing from it's temples.

For some reason, Nika wasn't scared of this, and the monster didn't move either, "Why aren't you moving?" Nika asked and the monster asked back "Why should I?", this confused Nika of course so she pointed out "I thought this was supposed to be a test of courage...", what the monster did next came as quite the surprise, it reached behind Nika's head and pulled out a flower bud, "It is a test of courage, and you passed it." The monster said as it passed the bud to Nika, the moment she grabbed it, it opened and revealed a blue scale.

"...What do I do with this?" Nika asked, "Take a guess." The monster said, Nika took a moment to think before she put the scale in in her mouth and swallowed it, surprising the monster, "Well... The power is yours... Not what I had in mind, but it works..." It said before smirking, it grabbed Nika by her collar and pulled her for a kiss, weirding her out in the process, but a second after it did that, Nika woke up holding the sword which embedded in the ground, she pulled it out and steadied herself from the experience.

After a moment, Nika could walk again, so she turned around and saw the Kikwi Elder Bucha behind her, "Hey, you look different." Bucha said, prompting Nika to use the blade of the sword as a mirror, she saw that her eyes disappeared and looked like the monsters with the same goo dripping, she also had the same horns as the monster.

This is the last thing Nika saw before fainting.