Akko and Amanda arrived in Gerudo, and even managed to get a good reception there, because even in the middle of the desert they also got news about the legendary Hyllian who is being a thorn in Appleton's side. Atsuko soon proved herself to be a great warrior, defeating the queen in hand-to-hand combat without using her tunic or power gloves. It was a peaceful fight for her and she won the trust of the desert kingdom, which has already begun another stage of this journey, which is to get the other pendant to gain access to the dungeon, up the mountain of death where the Gorons live.
The girls start the next day, even having decent quarters in Queen Nayla's castle, where they start the day, already arming themselves for what's to come. Amanda has already told them that she's going to stay in the city, which will be Akko's first mission travelling alone up the mountain.
With everything ready, she heads out of town towards the trail that leads to the Mountain of Death, realising that there's a path ahead of her, noticing that there's even a volcano nearby - the heat of the desert wasn't enough, there was also a volcano.
"Well, this is Death Mountain, the Gorons live right near the top, luckily there's a path that leads there, but I'll warn you to be careful, there are monsters along the way, so go armed, if you get the Gorons' ordeal, then I wish you good luck" said the Queen of the Gerudos.
"I'm used to dealing with monsters, there's no worse monster than Andrew Hanbridge" said Atsuko, looking down the track.
"Good luck Akko, I'm going to stay here, I'm going to enjoy it and miss where I've lived for so long" said O'Neill.
Kagari nods to the two of them and starts walking along the mountain path, noticing that at the end of it there is the entrance to it, which looked like there was a cave down there, also seeing some Gorons rolling down the mountain, which she dodges.
Starting there on the way up, she was already some distance from the city of the Gerudos and on the way she was already coming across the presence of some Tektites who were advancing and jumping close to the girl who easily defended herself.
(So these are the monsters? The same old Tektites, it's pretty easy then)
In addition to the arachnid monsters, there were also Gorons rolling down the mountain, some of which ran over creatures that stood in the way and others just rolled, without looking where they were going, as if everything were a big chute for the rocky creatures.
In the meantime, there were only these two creatures along the way, and once in a while there was a shower of stones, which protected the crimson-eyed girl from being hit by these things, also taking advantage of the fact that she had extra strength to walk calmly.
(Wow, I thought it could be worse, but this mountain is quiet, let's see how it turns out here, for now the mountain doesn't show any exaggerated monsters, I imagine it must be because the Gorons don't want to die either).
She reached the halfway point without any problems, noticing how smoothly everything was going, but on one part of the route there was a bridge and there wasn't enough room for the girl to cross it as there was always a goron rolling down the mountain.
The brown-haired girl started to use the hook and with it she passed smoothly when she caught onto a rock on the other side, making it easier to cross without going over the bridge and being run over by the creature, and with that she was able to walk a little further.
(I could use my hook to climb to the top of the mountain, but I don't know how well it will work, I think I'll have to walk the traditional way anyway).
Soon she arrived at a part of the mountain where it was possible to see the gorons walking to start rolling, with an entrance to a cave, it was exactly there, the girl went into the city that incredibly had no guards approaching her, although there were two at the entrance they just waved to Hyllian who went in.
(What a peculiar little place, there really are a lot of Gorons here, I didn't imagine it would be like this, it's like some kind of animal's lair, only full of things inside, very strange and peculiar, well let's see if any random Goron in the city has anything about the pendant).
"Hey man, before you go rolling around, tell me what's going on in this place, why do you guys roll around down there all the time?" asks the warrior from Luna Nova.
"Ah, that's because there's our food down there, we're trying to get a special kind of stone that's very delicious, and we're also going down to bring food to our kingdom, we roll down the mountain of death and then climb it all the way up until we get here, with stones and everything, the king said that he would reward a lot whoever brings the very rare delicious stones that they hide in the cave, which we've never found" said the goron.
"That's interesting, where is the king, I can help with that" asks Hyllian.
"He's downstairs, Hyllian girl, if you can bring those stones up for us we'd be eternally grateful" said Goron.
Akko nods to the creature, who then follows the path to roll down to the bottom. She soon sees some Gorons resting and eating the stones in a room and also begins to descend to where she stands in the middle using her broom.
When she got there, she came across a creature with a few horns and a meaner face than the others who inhabited the underground city.
"Who are you mysterious flying Hyllian female?" King Goron asks.
"I am Atsuko Kagari, but you can call me Akko, I came here from Gerudo after receiving a pendant and I learnt that you also have the other half of it, I would like to know how I can help so that I can acquire this other half, I would do everything possible to help" said Atsuko.
"Oh, so you've already spoken to Queen Nayla, I haven't seen a Hyllian in years, since the last visit of the Queen of Hyrule Laura with her wife Bernadette, they came here to build diplomatic relations, a lot must have happened in these 22 years that there hasn't been a Hyllian" Her Highness said.
"It did happen, my wife is the current queen of Hyrule, after her mothers were murdered, now we're doing everything we can to stop an evil that comes in a boy who has the spirit of Ganondorf" Kagari said.
"Oh, so he's really back... I thought it would be one of Gerudo's, but it seems it was somewhere else, a Hyllian was where Ganon was reincarnated, but you can win the other half of the pendant, but to do that you'll have to prove yourself to me, bring the purple stones that are inside the cave of the mountain of death, and then I'll grant you this request" said the majesty.
"Okay, I'll bring this stone, you really said you had this rare stone, tell me more about it" asks the crimson-eyed woman.
"Very well, it's a purple-coloured stone that is much appreciated by us Gorons, it has a very high value in our kingdom and even I'm out of it, they were the last ones last week, but we couldn't get them since there are many monsters in that cave that watch where these stones are born, we can't risk losing Gorons who are cowering there until they die waiting for someone to save them or for the creatures to leave, we need help, if you bring us these stones we will be very grateful" said the king of the Gorons.
With this warning, the girl turns her staff into a broom and heads for the exit of the Goron city with a mission in mind, but then she looks down at the mountain and wonders how she's going to get down without being hit by the Gorons who are rolling around all the time.
(I was a bit stupid, I could easily climb everything by flying on a broomstick, but I think it was smarter to save magic, now to get down I'm going to try too, I even have an idea of what to do, something that nobody has thought of before).
The brown-haired woman simply takes her shield out of her bag, where she prepares to start on him, already giving him a boost, which started to make him slip, since the ground was a little muddy on the mountain, which helped him pick up some speed.
(Ah good times, this brings back memories when I was with Hellene on the way to the third hanging dungeon in that tower, the two of us together on top of the shield going down that hill, it was really too much fun, now I'm here alone getting further and further down).
The speed was increasing all the time, and the more the girl enjoyed herself, she even managed to catch up with some Gorons who were in front of her and with that she even swerved and continued along the path, controlling exactly where she was going, which no Tektite was able to try anything about, as the girl simply managed to descend with ease.
The warrior from Luna Nova reached the entrance to the cave very quickly, and as she got closer, the ground changed to a harder surface and the heat coming from inside was also very apparent, so she had to throw
off the shield to avoid falling into the sea of magma ahead, having to use the hook to hold onto the wall and watching the shield fall into the boiling lava.
"Damn, I went too fast on that one, it was close that I didn't get roasted too, now the shield I got from Queen Laura is gone" said Hyllian, who broke free from the wall and went to talk to a Goron.
There, the Gorons followed a route through the cave that led to a place where stones were made that they could take to eat, entering a room full of stones that they picked up by punching the wall and then taking out a huge rock that they left in a rounded shape, devouring it until it was the right shape and forming a queue that went up the mountain.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Akko asks.
"We're collecting stones for the kingdom, we cut them up and take them to the top of the mountain, so we can feed the children, the elderly and also the king, the stones are our most precious resource, do you want to help?" Goron said.
"No thanks, I've had my fill, I just want to know how to get to the entrance to the cave where the purple stone is" said Atsuko.
At that moment, all the Gorons stopped what they were doing as they stared in amazement at the girl's courage to take a chance in that cave. Kagari just wiped her hands across her face and they all went straight to pointing their fingers at the entrance to the cave, which was just opposite where the Gorons did their mining.
"Are you sure you want to risk it, Hyllian, no Goron has come back alive from there, it's extremely risky, it's not for nothing that the king has put a huge reward on whoever succeeds" said the Goron.
"Well, as you said, no Goron, I'm a Hyllian, maybe I'll have a chance to get back from there with the pebbles, I'll fill this whole bag with them and even open the way for you" said the crimson-eyed woman.
"Good luck female Hyllian, you're too weak for this, Gorons die to monsters, let alone a Hyllian your size" said the Goron holding a rock until he was interrupted by the girl calmly carrying his huge rock in one hand.
"I'm not as ordinary a Hyllian as you think, I'm going and stop calling me female, I'm not a bug, I have a name" said the girl who dropped the stone and the Gorons around her were surprised and bowed in front of her.
"Oh I'm so sorry Hyllian, forgive us, we'll be getting back to work, please save us" said the goron who was carrying the stone and the brown-haired woman who shrugged and turned round.
With that, she entered the cave and came across a part full of monsters, there were Tektites, Oktorks, some remains of Gorons that were simply shrunken and soon the monsters were sort of going from one side to the other, also getting close to attack the warrior from Luna Nova.
"They're little monsters like you, you quiet little thing" said a disappointed Hyllian.
In that part of the cave, she easily dealt with the monsters by slashing at them from a long distance, which the few surviving Gorons were grateful for and were coming out of hiding to leave the cave as quickly as they could.
Akko, on the other hand, was having a lot of fun. She reached a corridor in the cave where there were some Zazaks throwing fireballs, and there were no Gorons left who had made it that far, but she was able to clear the way with ease.
(Wow, but now there are some really annoying little monsters, you can imagine why they have such a hard time).
She entered a room on the left that was also full of monsters, but she could see that there were some stones of other colours, which was quite peculiar. She quickly killed the Oktoroks that were there, took one of the bags she was holding and filled it with yellowish stones, which seemed to be some fungus, leaving it in a smaller bag.
(Gorons can enjoy these stones too).
The crimson-eyed girl went on to the next rooms to pick up different colours of stones and also to finish off the monsters, but so far it was going pretty smoothly, they were the kind of monsters she had faced at the start of the journey, with the exception of the Zazaks who were from more recent dungeons, but who alone were nothing and were still the weakest version.
As she picked up many colours of stone, she couldn't find any of the specific purple stones, which made the cave look like a labyrinth from all the walking she had to do, and the monsters kept appearing.
(They reappear, there really is a reason why the Gorons aren't coming back, I'd need to find the source where they come from, maybe that way I can get the pendant of courage and also a future alliance for Hyrule, these Gorons scattered in our lands in the reconstruction would be very useful, they can build houses and eat the remains of stone that is left when making bricks).
As she walked along the inside of the cave, she came across a room in which a sword was stuck, emanating purple energy, and the girl got close to it and felt more evil energies coming from it, which she then pulled out of her gloves with great force, even managing to get it out, but was soon surprised when she was almost hit by a shadow of herself, blocking it with her Katana.
"What's that?" asks the confused brown-haired girl.
A fight broke out between the dark swords and Kagari's katana, which was moving swiftly, but the shadow also had a bit, but it couldn't be hit with thrusts and slashes as it passed through and this was soon realised by the warrior from Luna Nova, who stared right into the eyes of the shadowy creature.
"So you're the one who's been causing all the trouble around here?" Hyllian asks.
And soon the girl began to use other blows, since the thrusts weren't working and the sword was of no use, she began to use the elemental staff and it began to work, shooting fireballs at the creature and affecting it as it lost its strength.
Akko realised the timing was perfect and attacked, shooting more fireballs at the sword, which gradually lost the purple energy around it, until it simply fell to the ground and only splintered.
"Phew... That's it at last, now it's time to set off to find the purple stones" said Atsuko, who then scratched her chin.
(Wait a minute, I remember this shattered sword, I remember Andrew talking about planting something in the Gerudo desert to cause discord between the Gorons and the Gerudo so that they would fight and weaken while he conquered both their lands, he had done this two years ago, now it makes perfect sense, this sword even looks like the Gerudo swords, if it wasn't for me they would cause a war because of this, I'd better destroy this sword later, what a bastard).
But even defeating all the monsters didn't help because there was still a huge labyrinth for Kagari to go through and there was nothing that would help her find it, so without giving up she went room by room, finding only stones of different colours and none of them were purple, which made her more frustrated. Until, in frustration, she threw a blue stone into the middle of a room where there were red stones, and the contact ended up turning all the stones she touched purple.
"So that's it? The purple stones are red stones mixed with blue stones, I remember there was something like that when we were learning to mix colours in the castle" said the curious girl with the crimson eyes.
With that it became easier for the girl, every minute she filled the bag more and more with stones mixed red and blue, creating several purple stones, which soon filled the whole bag, with that she went back and arrived at the main entrance of the cave where she threw the Gerudo scimitar into the magma and the Gorons were even surprised.
"She's done it!" Everyone who was working in the cave said.
"You can work all you want, I've also got the monsters out of there and you have a clear path to leave at will and pick up more purple stones" said the crimson-eyed woman, who then gave a purple stone to a goron who ate it and he quickly shook his head in denial.
"That's not a purple stone, it tastes like a blue stone with red, it's a fools purple stone" said the goron.
"What So you mean I got all this purple stone from an idiot?" Said the frustrated brownish girl.
"Let's show the girl where the purple stone is, these stones are made from fungi, they're seasoning for other stones" said another Goron.
The frustrated warrior from Luna Nova follows the Gorons along the path where they used to go to get the purple stone. When they get close, a strong smell rises in Hyllian's nostrils and when they get there, the Gorons eat the purple stones with all the joy in the world, while the girl gets a little disgusted.
"Those aren't..." said the disgusted Akko.
"These are very marvellous stones, take the female Hyllian here and take her to our king" said a goron, who then filled a bag with the stones for Atsuko, who looked disgusted.
(Let's hope it's just the smell of sulphur, if it's anything else I swear I'll be very frustrated, well anything for a pendant and anything for Hyrule right?)
Soon the crimson-eyed woman was picking up her broom with a bag full of purple stones that she was taking to the Goron kingdom where, upon arriving in the throne room, the Goron king began to dance with happiness, jumping for joy that the purple stones had finally appeared again, he even hugged Kagari who was looking very nauseous.
"These things smell very strong" said the brown-haired woman with her nose covered.
"It's too weak for your Hyllian nostrils, but don't worry, we'll take it back to our storehouse. We're very grateful to you for having this delicacy with us, now that we can eat these purple stones at will, look how delicious they are" said the king, who was devouring them with gusto.
"And then I get the pendant, I've also just rid the place of the monsters, they reappear all the time but I've found the solution" said the warrior from Luna Nova.
"It could only have been the Gerudos who were jealous of us" said Her Highness.
"It wasn't them, it was the kingdom of Appleton, I remember the lord telling me that he came here to start a war between you and then conquer your people and place them under the kingdom's judgement... But I managed to get rid of it, he even made a sword like the Gerudo's for it and put a curse on the monsters to appear inside the place" explains Hyllian.
"Oh then it all makes more sense, and since you know all this Atsuko, here's your pendant, whatever you do, since I'm sure you're the heroine that the ancient scriptures said, you must be the reincarnation of the great Link who helped us eons ago" said the majesty.
"Yes, I must be, I know these things because Andrew has kept me prisoner all these years, but now I'm totally free and I can continue my journey, I'll defeat him and then we can all be free to bring peace and prosperity to Hyrule" Akko told the king.
"Then do something great for everyone, save Hyrule, I'm sure you'll succeed, good luck warrior, goodbye and thank you very much for bringing this marvellous delicacy to us all" said the king of the Gorons handing over the other half of the pendant.
With that, Atsuko picks up her staff and turns it into a broom, heading back to where the Gerudo kingdom is and there everything goes as normal, the city waves to Kagari who waves back and she soon returns to the royal castle, where she sees that Amanda is standing next to the queen in a more romantic moment, with both of them kissing.
"Amanda!" Said the crimson-eyed girl.
"What's the matter, girl? I was just enjoying some free time and the queen wanted to show me a few things, don't look like you're worse than Diana and I won't even mention that you got her pregnant" said O'Neill.
"Oh good to see you back Akko, you've managed to fulfil the Gorons' mission, haven't you?" Queen Nayla said.
"It was disgusting, I thought they were normal stones with a mixture of fungus, but it's that disgusting stuff, and it fills badly, it's a bit gooey too, purple in colour, wow, I'm going to have nightmares about that stuff, I just want to bathe and then go to the dungeon tomorrow" said the brownish one.
"Oh the purple stones, they're made from the mucus of the snails and slugs that live in that cave, after a few years the mucus turns them purple and with that it also creates a distinctive smell, mixed with some of the recent mucus it also creates that gooey look, the Gorons love that stuff" said the majesty.
"Less disgusting than I thought it would be, at least they're not bat faeces, which there were loads of in that cave, but anyway I got it, apparently it was another Appleton cause, when Andrew came here he planted a sword in the Gorons' cave to prevent them from having access to their delicacy" said the warrior from Luna Nova.
"Ah, so that's why he asked to go to Death Mountain two years ago, he came to disturb us to cause an intrigue between me and King Goron, now it all makes sense girl, I'll go and talk to King Goron and we'll join forces to get rid of that tyrant too" said Nayla.
"Don't do that, I'll take care of this problem, you'll die in vain, Andrew is extremely powerful and very powerful indeed, if you think I'm strong, it's because you've never seen him, he's capable of defeating me now with a single blow if he wanted to, with me having all the upgrades I've acquired in these dungeons around Hyrule, who will you say, he's swept cities and the kingdom of Wedinburgh completely" Hyllian said.
"You describe him with such awe that it makes us really fear him, but just think, together we can all defeat Andrew at once, he will be no match for the union" said the queen.
"I saw it with my own eyes, he has two pieces of the triforce, he got them by defeating the old queens who had the power of the triforce and killing them, there was nothing I could do but witness that power and it was enormous, I could see that it wasn't something that swords and arrows can defeat, it's beyond the power that armies can battle, that's the level we're talking about, it can control monsters, it can do scary things and that's why I'm getting more powerful" Akko said in a very serious tone.
"I'll listen to your warning girl, but I won't wait more than a month to rebel against it, we'll attack Appleton and help you take back the kingdom of Wedinburgh, peace will be reborn, in short you can make yourself at home in the castle, I'm glad you made it" said the majesty.
"And it looks like you've managed to bring the queen to her knees too, Amanda, hahahaha" said Atsuko laughing and leaving the throne room while O'Neill blushed.
With that, the girl goes to where the bath room is and takes off her clothes to have a relaxing bath after coming into contact with that place that smelled so bad, on an adventure that helped King Goron.
A long way from there Andrew finally arrived in Appleton and with him he brought the nine prisoners of Edo to the throne room where he began to laugh as he looked at each of them, the girls staring at him still keeping in character, which the boy was finding to be mind-blowing.
"We've arrived at your new home, now you're going to suffer for life, except for you two, you have better things that I'm going to do, you're my precious ones" said the lord, pointing at those who were disguised as Diana and Akko.
"Well, we're still going to have privileges, but good, your trip lasted a long time, didn't it Andrew?" Said the debauched girl pretending to be Kagari.
"Pfff, you're trying to find yourselves right now, it's the end of the line for you, now there's no way out, it looks like couples are going to be broken up, it looks like I'm going to have to let these girls suffer a lot, this is all your fault Akko, if you stayed quiet in your prison, you'd be getting perks and your friends wouldn't have to pay for it" said Hanbridge, and soon each girl was holding hands in a ritual where a spirit rose and fell until the one pretending to be Akko was left, and with that their disguises were revealed as their masks fell off.
"It looks like you've wasted even more time Andrew, Empress Reiko has made a point of deceiving you all this time, just look at the sky, look around, Akko keeps going from dungeon to dungeon without you realising, she must be well away from here by now, managing to finish her mission, the Empress trusted us to sacrifice ourselves for that" said the girl who pretended to be Akko, taking off her mask.
"What? How dare you! You bastards! You tricked me, where's Akko, where are the girls?" Said the furious dark-haired boy.
"Reiko and Marianne had been planning to rescue Akko for years and then deceive you to buy time, while she was carrying out the most important mission and she succeeded, our empress deceived you, how does it feel to know that you are the most powerful man in Hyrule and yet you have been deceived by nine little
girls with no power who are sacrificing themselves for the good of this whole land, you will only waste more and more time while you get angry whining" said the Hyllian of Edo to the boy who kept getting up from the throne.
"Know that it's no use running away and that even so Akko will still bear the brunt of your deaths because of this, your sacrifice will be in vain, I will attack Edo with all my strength and there will be nowhere for this girl to hide, nor her empress, she will feel the impact of Appleton's power, she will see what the power of two triforces is!" Said the lord of Appleton, smiling.
"Will there be time for all this? You'll be stopped before you do any harm Andrew, you'll pay for all your crimes, now I'm saying goodbye, I don't want to be tortured in the worst way, my soul will be useful, as well as that of my friends to communicate this message to Reiko as our last effort, she will know everything and will be prepared for the war" Said the girl who then sacrifices herself using the last effort of magic by taking the soul from her own body.
Andrew just laughed, then called in all his troops, who took the bodies of the girls from the ground and threw them into a mass grave to decompose for the whole city to see, beginning to plan an attack on the same scale as what happened to Wedinburgh, only in Edo.
Akko helped the Gorons by obtaining the much-acclaimed and exotic purple stone, and with that she has the door to yet another dungeon, which will begin another part of her journey, being the sixth dungeon on her journey to bring peace to the land of Hyrule.
See you, goron witches...