Akko has managed to reach the end of the seventh dungeon, getting closer and closer to conquering all seven words and also getting closer to becoming a great warrior, capable of defeating Andrew Hanbridge, all in a much faster time than following the plan that Queen Reiko has been following to realise it, it's all going quite smoothly since the lord has no idea where Kagari has fled and has also been wasting a lot of time chasing where he thought she was, while the girl is getting closer to her goal.
The next day after conquering the dungeon arrived, and at dawn Atsuko was already starting to get things ready to leave. She spent a long time talking to Ruto, where she went to sleep in the Zoras' city during the night, but first thing in the morning she returned to the house where her friend was making food for breakfast. They ate for a while and it was already another moment of Zoras eating Hyllian food for the first time and loving those things that were prepared, found by Kagari on the outskirts of the forest around Lake Zoras. When they had finished eating, it was time to say goodbye. The crimson-eyed girl picked up her things, turned her staff into a broom and looked back, hugging Ruto, before heading off on her journey.
"Goodbye Akko, it was a lot of fun meeting you, really, I only met you yesterday and it feels like I've known you for a long time, I hope you'll be okay in this part of the journey, you'll make it to the end, I know you will, we'll be cheering for you here in Zoras, defeat that guy with Ganondorf's spirit and save Hyrule" said Princess Zoras.
"I'll do it, it was nice to meet you too, you were the first Zoras I met and you helped me gain access to the dungeon, now enjoy all this, surely the monsters on this side won't appear any more, anyway? Goodbye Ruto, take good care of the Zoras, I'll come back one day and show you the Hyllian world" Said the brown-haired girl riding a broom.
The warrior from Luna Nova gets on her broom and leaves the place, starting a long journey, this time in the direction of Rastavan, after long years without touching the place, it was time to see old faces again, something she was already very tense about, thinking in case she was caught and also in the frightening presence of the lord of Appleton, who she doesn't know is simply far away still chasing her.
On the way, some lights pass by, which hit the girl, there were nine strange lights, emanating different colours, and she ends up entering, feeling a little more invigorated, with a slight increase in magic and strength.
(This is really strange, it seems that I'm suddenly becoming strong, at the same time I'm getting close to getting everything to defeat Andrew, now I'm worried, could he find me flying, anyway these lights coming also give me an impression of a message that has happened).
"We've done all we can to save you and Empress Reiko, the disguises have fallen, right now we don't know what the lord of Appleton is going to do, but he momentarily thought he'd captured us, we've sacrificed ourselves to be able to help you in this Akko, I hope you're getting close to your goal, please save Edo and all of Hyrule" said voices in Hyllian's head.
(What's that? That's strange, it must be something connected to the lights, I remember Marianne telling me that Queen Reiko made a plan to use disguises if Andrew set foot in Edo, that's a sign that he's already been there and captured the girls in disguise and now their disguise has fallen into his hands, Well, those lives sacrificed won't be in vain, I can assure you of that, well now I've understood the message, I hope Empress Reiko isn't in danger, apparently her plan will soon be discovered byAndrew, by now we're at another stage of escape, he has no idea I can fly).
Akko continued to fly with the broomstick for a long way, observing the sky nearby, the landscape, Hyrule all small, the clouds nearby, she was even travelling at a high speed in a way she had never done before and without feeling any impact, it was as if she was riding a horse.
After a three-hour journey flying at high speed, she arrived at the Rastavan Mountains. As she could fly easily, she didn't need to go inland to climb the place, which was even full of snow on the outskirts.
(I have fond memories of me and Hellene climbing this place, I hope Alan is still here, it would be a great help, but I think I'll probably have to climb everything to get to the dungeon on my own, Frank has escaped and is in Wedinburgh, his grandfather if he's alive will surely love this news, let's go to his house).
Atsuko walked up and down the mountain while there was a light snow falling and also across the ground, which used to be rocky, where she arrived at the entrance to the cave, knocked on the door and when she least realised it was open, as she entered she looked around and the house still seemed to exist, still having the same things as six years ago, which she sat down on a sofa looking around at everything.
An elderly figure soon appears, and when she realises who it is, she smiles widely, which Kagari responds to in the same way.
"Oh it's been a long time girl, you've grown up, you're very different, I've been watching you a lot on this whole journey, when I found out that you managed to escape, I'm relieved to know that you've almost managed to finish the nine dungeons of the nine witches, that's very good" said the wizard.
"Alan, it's good to see you too, I'm relieved that this is a safe place, but wait a minute, what do you mean you're watching me? I'm confused by all this" said the crimson-eyed girl.
"Oh girl, come here, I've been watching you all these years, worried about what might happen, unfortunately without being able to communicate telepathically, this could be of great help" said Alan as he led the girl into another room of the house.
When he got inside there was a table with a crystal ball in the middle where the old man used his magic to observe, seeing practically live and on the spot the presence of his grandson who was in Wedinburgh, working with the bandits to start a revolution, then he simply shows Andrew in the middle of the sea with a heavy rain having difficulties seeing the troops suffering to maintain themselves.
"I can observe everything from here, don't worry, I haven't observed anything immoral, a wizard who does that should lose all his magic, I can only observe moments like this briefly, the other moments end up blurring automatically, magic itself does these things, but as you can see Andrew is a long way from here" explains the old man, which impresses the brown-haired woman even more.
"Woahhhhh, look at that, you can see everything, that's incredible, so you can even tell if we're safe or not, that's really marvellous, where is Andrew to be in the sea like that? Is that a sign that he's far away?" asks the curious warrior from Luna Nova.
"At the moment he's in the sea of Edo, going to invade the lands from the north, only there it seems that the goddesses are helping us and preventing the worst from happening, really strange, but at the same time it's good to see that he's doing very badly in this, his entire army has gone massively to Edo, this could be the biggest defeat for him if he continues to insist on this" Alan replies, which leaves Akko very relieved.
"This is very good, I still have a lot of time left to simply finish all the dungeons, apparently I'll manage, thank you very much Alan, for everything, this is good to know that we're all safe from the clutches of the damned, I've even thought of things I can do, since I can fly it will be impossible for the damned to track me" Atsuko said excitedly.
"Well, whatever you're planning, you're still going to need a lot of help, I'll give you the crystal ball and a bigger reward when you finish this dungeon that's coming up, it'll be a great help" said the old man.
"Oh thank you so much, this will really help me, I need to somehow get closer to having a chance of defeating Andrew's curse, when you were younger you must have witnessed his enormous power just like I did" said Kagari.
"I did see the exact moment, when he killed the two queens, but I say you're at that level, at least you've reached the queens, now you just have to finish more dungeons and soon you'll see that you can go even further, never underestimate yourself girl, be more confident, Andrew won't stand a chance against the legendary warrior" said the old man.
"I hope so, honestly I'm getting a bit hopeful too, now that I'm stronger, I'm just waiting to see what might be crucial to free Hyrule from this bastard" said the crimson-eyed girl.
"I'm sure you will. Before you leave, get some rest, I'll prepare some food and some potions, they could be very useful when you go into the dungeon" said the wizard.
The brown-haired girl nodded in agreement, returning to the entrance hall of the house, where she sat on the sofa, reflecting a little on everything, thoughtful. The old man even made a point of bringing the girl the crystal mouthpiece, where she could see his wife, with a smile on her face, seeing her well, then asked her to go and observe Andrew's situation from the sea.
Watching what was happening, she couldn't hear, but she could see that it wasn't the most desirable situation the boy was in.
Far out in the Edo Sea, the waves were crashing, they were very violent and high, some of Appleton's warships were already sinking, the smaller ones had already sunk, the waves were hitting the medium-sized ones, the larger ones and even hitting the main vessel in that huge row of ships with everything.
"My lord, the seas aren't helping us, we have to retreat to survive, we won't be able to advance with the seas like this, we won't even be able to do that, we have to retreat" said one of the generals.
"The last general who tried to retreat and give up ended up dying by blowing up our ship and sinking into the ice, you don't want to join them do you?" Said Andrew menacingly.
"The sea is killing us, my lord, this way we won't have a whole troop left to get to the other side, how are we going to fight and conquer Edo if we have trouble even getting there?" Said another general.
"Are you doubting our ability? Even if all the boats sink, I can still advance, are you with me or not? Only a bunch of cowards are afraid of not sinking, I have the triforce with me, the ship won't sink with its power" said Hanbridge.
"Yes, sir, we won't be cowed, we believe in you, but we may be outnumbered" said the same general.
"I don't care, we have outside help, it won't be impossible for me to use that help" said the lord, still confident.
The generals left the room in fear, and the young man, with his hands behind his back, stood at the front of the deck watching the ships ahead practically sinking in the waves, but then he was surprised by something, something he hadn't expected.
Some of the ships ahead were simply capsizing, a few were sinking due to the waves, but some of them managed to do so, and as they aimed their cannons, they were being fired in the direction of the main warship, which was soon hit by a cannonball right next to Appleton's owner, which startled everyone on deck when they saw it.
"My lord! There's a mutiny, they're attacking us, our own men are attacking us, they're turning against us!" Said a general who started running towards the deck and was soon hit by a cannonball.
"Bunch of incompetents, they're really going to kill themselves, so let them stay that way, I'll give the order to attack" said the lord.
And the order to attack was given, the ships close to his were beginning to prepare for the attack with cannonballs heading for those in front, all over the sea there were more than 50 ships, full of soldiers, at least of those that were left and practically more than half had turned against Andrew, with the order to attack, a real slaughter was beginning, some cannonballs were catching the main ship that was shaking with the impact.
"My lord, do something. You said the triforce was protecting us, didn't you?" Said one of the generals.
"She's protecting me, not you, so do your job of finishing off the disinherited, or the worst could happen" said Hanbridge with an expression that was even causing terror in the crew members who were walking backwards.
An internal war in the middle of the sea was about to begin, but it got even worse in the middle of the sea, which was in a storm with strong winds and very high waves, to the point that some of them even hit the deck, and there was the head of the whole Appleton with his hands behind his back looking at it with a very closed expression, like someone who was frustrated, about to explode.
But behind his back, as soon as he knew it was coming, the generals gathered to go and talk below, seeing that the ship was being damaged by the cannonballs and the water falling below.
It didn't take long for a mutiny to break out on the ship's deck. All the soldiers had a consensus at that point and that was to take Andrew's leadership away from him, they couldn't take it anymore.
"Hey, enough of this, we're not going to die here in the middle of the sea like fools, these waves are sinking our ships, killing our men, tell everyone to stop, my lord, or else worse things could happen" said the general who was gathered with all the soldiers and then Hanbridge turned round and started laughing.
"What's so funny? We're giving you an ultimatum, you can't go against all of us, be a decent lord and don't let your men die, if we have a casualty like this there could be rebellions and revolutions and we won't be able to contain them, you know how conquered places are starting to want to turn things around, Hyllia Island was the first, but there will be others" said another general.
"No, no, no, no, I don't care about losing anything here, if I lose my men, I'll no longer have anything to hold me back from sending creatures from another world to conquer Hyrule, which won't stop me from destroying the whole of Hyrule, in fact there's nothing to stop me from doing that, if I lose everything, I'll have nothing to lose" said the lord himself walking towards his soldiers as if it were nothing.
"This is a pure bluff, don't go along with him, so listen to the debauched lord here, either you make our troops retreat, or..." said the general, who was then simply obliterated by a beam of light and turned to dust.
"Does anyone else have any contradictions? Well, it looks like you don't like me around here, so fine, I'll leave, I think I was too hard on this little guy, well I already left the warning about what happened here" Hanbridge said as everyone walked backwards in fear.
"We... We... We will advance, my lord..." Said another general who ended up swallowing his saliva and also being obliterated, then the dark-haired one gestured with his fingers in denial.
"Don't be a coward and give in out of fear, I want strong men, so get on with it in these seas, I think my children have been educated enough, I think I'll say bye-bye, get on with whatever decision you make" said the lord who turned his back and started walking back to the deck.
They were all frightened, Andrew's power was enormous, it wasn't like anything they'd seen before from someone strong, it was someone who could simply obliterate you without even having the remains of the person to tell the story, he began to float as if he were nothing, taking off, which was shocking, that was the power of the triforce, which then began to fly causing a shockwave.
This shockwave broke some of the waves of the sea and opened up in the midst of the warring ships, some of which simply sank, but were ignored by the lord.
"By the holy Triforce, you saw that, he could have killed us, he just abandoned us without blinking, let's try to retreat straight away, let's run for our lives" said one of the generals.
"What if he comes back?" asks one of the soldiers.
"I'd still rather take my chances, I don't want to die out here at sea..." Said the general, who then saw a huge wave forming with the impulse that Hanbridge gave it all.
A gigantic wave appears, it hasn't even broken yet, it sweeps over the ships that were fighting, quickly approaching the larger vessels, which were being sunk, the wave was going so fast and so strong that some ships simply capsized, others were sinking with the amount of water.
All that could be heard was the desperation of many soldiers, some throwing themselves into the water because they thought it was less dangerous, others climbing into the ship, but when the wave hit the largest warship ever built, it simply lifted, but it didn't rise high enough and the wave pushed it backwards, With the water accumulating on the deck and then passing over the other side in a crash that caused it to break into several pieces of wood, all the ships there were destroyed, which would have left very few, Akko looked at it in horror, even though she wasn't listening she was watching through the crystal ball horrified by the expression of Appleton's men.
Soon the focus shifted to the lord himself, he was flying at high speed across the sea, something that surprised her, she wasn't the only one who could do that, but it was precisely something that the triforce made Andrew capable of doing, which made him cross everything, which opened a portal and like a teleportation, he ended up stopping right in the capital of Edo in the throne room of Empress Reiko.
His clothes are soaking wet, but he soon dries them, which startles the girl when she sees the lord standing right in front of her, showing that an invasion was really taking place in Edo that rainy morning.
"When will the banquet be? I can already smell the food from here, but I can also smell something else, the smell of fear" said Hanbridge as the Empress's heart raced.
"What are you doing here? What are you doing here? Would an invasion here have notified my troops of how you appeared here out of the blue?" Said the surprised Reiko.
"Let's not go into too much detail, it looks like you wanted to fool me with your little friends pretending to be the nine captured girls, they're on another plane of life now, but it looks like someone here might be hiding a huge secret, doesn't it?" said the lord as he slowly approached the throne.
"Fuck it, I don't care if my army lost or not, in this rain it would be impossible for you to bring your troops here, the sea of Edo is very fierce and yes I fooled you, I completely fooled you, I want to buy time so that the girls can flee far away from your clutches and soon defeat you" said the empress confidently.
"All confident in herself, look I'll be honest, I came here alone, my troop couldn't cross your sea that protected you, but nothing stops me from turning Edo right here into one of the first places where I'll summon monsters from another plane to occupy the place and thus take over your island" The dark-haired man holds out his hand.
He thought he might have some power, and started trying to summon monsters, but nothing happened, as if there was a force preventing him from doing this and creating an army of creatures to attack the place, something that had already happened halfway round before he went into the sea, and it seemed that his strength was no longer working.
"Apparently the dungeon here has already been finalised, and that's all to explain why I can't summon any monsters. Apparently your land has been saved from the monsters, but not from me... There's no guarantee that you'll be able to escape from me, so you'd better open your mouth Reiko, or you don't want to see your people all wasting away, I think it's best not to fool me with this, I want you to come with me until I capture Akko, it will be my guarantee that I will capture her, if you fool me all your subjects will perish and you'll witness it with your own eyes, what do you say?" Andrew even laughed, and with that Reiko lowered her head, putting her hand on it, very upset by everything, but then she took a deep breath, she even thought about showing her middle finger, but that was a much bigger issue.
"You know that I'm the best guarantee that you'll find Akko, so you can't kill me, what guarantees that you won't end up killing everyone anyway? I don't have that much choice, you kill me, you kill all my people, you'll only waste time and Akko will only end up finishing all the dungeons, you're unreliable, so unreliable that you sent troops here to attack me" said the empress getting up.
"Ah hahahaha, you know I can force you to talk, you can give in anyway, are you really willing to die in vain? Look, I'm not an idiot, I know you have this information, apparently fear and bargaining won't do any good, do you have any idea what I can do? Are you going to kill all lives for the sake of just one?" Said the lord, who then began to snap his fingers and some obliterating rays fell on his soldiers.
At this point, Reiko is startled to see her soldiers being completely obliterated, because they were trying to protect the Empress, but something happens when Hanbridge tries to use more intimidation techniques, and as they get closer, someone watching them is in a rage.
SimplyAkko, she teleports, spending a considerable amount of magic on the fifth word, and then punches Andrew, who falls to the side on impact and then just sees a figure passing by, which he proceeds to notice with brown hair, followed by a middle finger, where he then loses his perception when he sees her disappearing.
(What? Was that Akko appearing in front of me? How did she manage to do that? How did she know I was here? I just saw her moving extremely fast, something really weird is going on here, I'm seeing things).
"Damn you!" Said the furious Lord of Appleton.
(Well at least the empress is no longer on the throne, anyway I'll get some word out here about her plan with someone, someone must have heard, she may have escaped my hands, but no sudito has... Damn... What was that, did that punch really hurt? That was strong, how did she get that far? I think I have to be careful, if I don't find her soon I'll be killed by her myself).
On Rastavan Mountain, in the blink of an eye, Reiko and Atsuko return to Alan's house. The empress is confused as she looks around, not recognising anything, but when she sees Kagari's face, she is even more confused, not realising that she had saved her from the worst.
"Where am I? Where am I? What are you doing here Akko?Andrew? He can see you" said the desperate girl.
"You can rest easy, he doesn't know about my abilities, he may have seen me after all, I gave him the middle finger and punched him in the face, I still don't want to settle this with an injury, but the message has been given, if he messes with any of my friends he'll pay for everything" said the crimson-eyed one.
"Akko, did you bring me here? Did you save me? How did you save me?" asks the confused Reiko.
"Reiko, I have a broom in my hands, I also have the ability to teleport just like him, I saw everything, I was watching you and I didn't want the worst to happen to you, I had to change your plans, the girls are now separated in different places in Hyrule, I flew them to these places, apart from that I'm alone in this, Andrew will never have any idea how I'm capable of all this" said the brown-haired girl who soon received a hug from the empress.
"Thank you for saving me Akko, but what now? He won't stop looking for you, I'm afraid of what could happen to my people, he seems to be powerful enough to cause a real slaughter, I don't want to have that weight on my hands, I was almost giving in to talk, although I know he would kill me right away" Said the girl who was crying and receiving affection from the girl.
"Unfortunately I can't hear anything he says in that crystal ball, but I can assure you that he doesn't have the power to do that, with every person he kills the power of the Triforce diminishes, if he kills all the Hyllians in Edo it would be shooting himself in the foot, but I'm sorry for whoever he interrogates, he needs the Triforce to bring his goal to light, he is destruction itself, without the means of creation, there is no way he can bring about destruction, Andrew knows this as well as I do" said the warrior from Luna Nova.
And with that, the relieved Reiko began to relax, but she was still crying, very much for what the kingdom would suffer with the lord taking the throne and possibly making everything a living hell for the people of Edo. Alan noticed the sudden appearance of a new person and realised Akko's heroic act. He then asked her to go and have a bite to eat with the empress, which was better for Atsuko's magic to gradually recover.
"You really are very powerful girl, you must have seen that Andrew has arrived in Edo again, this time you showed him your new powers, but don't give him too much leeway, he could catch you, you took him by surprise, by now he's more alert" said the elder.
"I know that... Because of my blunder, I'm going to hurry up and finish this dungeon, I don't want Andrew to end up causing the worst" said the frustrated Kagari.
"I was an essential piece, if Andrew took words out of my mouth he would find out about my escape plan, I made Akko undetectable in his lands by sending her mixed with several merchants and now that she simply knows how to fly it makes all the exploration much easier, that way she wouldn't be found, he has no more chance of discovering my plan and now that Akko has said that he can't go out killing everyone it gives me some relief" Reiko said.
"She's right, he can't exterminate too many people if he doesn't end up getting weaker, the Triforce is the union of the powers of everyone in Hyrule, he needs this power to open a portal from the dark world to here and thus bring the creatures and revive Ganondorf, but he won't be able to become powerful if he causes more massacres, no matter how cruel he is and sweeps people around" said the old man.
And with that, they began to talk about their plans for the future, since they were far from there in Edo, Andrew was still extremely perplexed by everything, his entire plan and blackmail had been thrown out, and when he saw the one he had always wanted to capture, he kept wiping his hands across his face as he sat on the throne.
(She must be almost finished with her journey by now, that can only be the explanation for so much strength, she can already teleport, that's a sign that the remaining piece of the triforce is with her, what the hell, I can't do anything, I won't find a trace of her here in Edo, blackmailing Reiko was useless, she didn't know, I can't just go around obliterating people, I get weaker, besides it would be useless, it would be a waste of time, Akko must surely have been watching me somehow, she was here just waiting for the moment and then left, now I have to go back to Appleton, there will be nothing here, that's what I'll do, surely some wise man must have my answers, in this the girl managed to escape, but it won't be for long).
Hanbridge stands up and the people in the throne room are startled, wondering how he's going to react, only to be confused when he simply teleports himself back to Appleton with the power of the triforce, where he goes to the throne room in frustration, already starting to drink wine, wondering what to do, his whole plan having fallen apart.
Akko arrived back at the Rastavan, with old faces welcoming her, but ended up finding out about Andrew's plan and immediately went to interfere, taking a risk, showing the boy a little of the powers she possessed, which was no small thing, it was even a lot, she really was one step ahead, about to end the whole journey.
See you, teleport witches...