In Hyrule Castle, Link had snuck his way through the secret tunnel and into the castle. It honestly hadn't been all that hard, as the monsters had gotten distracted fighting the Guardians.

It was fairly obvious where he had to look for Ganon as well. Even if he didn't know Ganon had once been an arrogant would-be king, all he had to do was go to where Ganon's presence felt most oppressive. And by far, that was the throne room.

Ganon had blocked the hall to the main entrance to the throne room with Malice, and he couldn't find where the eye was, but he had managed to find a hole in the castle keep's wall that led into King Rhoam's room, and followed the hall to the throne room. (And if he had picked up the King's somehow-intact diary when he was in his room, it was only to make sure it wouldn't get destroyed during the fight and he could give it to Zelda.)

(No, he genuinely didn't read it; it wasn't his to read. It was up to Zelda what to do with it.)

As he approached the throne room, he heard a noise of pure rage. It couldn't be described as a roar, or a snarl, or a scream. It was a hellish noise, one that couldn't be reproduced by any living being Link knew of.

Link knew the time for deception was over. With his right hand, he drew the Master Sword from its scabbard. He had been using Ignatz's shortsword against any monsters unlucky enough to spot him, but it would do little good against this opponent, so it was stowed in the Korok Pouch. He didn't bother with a shield; this was an enemy that a shield would not protect him from.

There would be no mistakes this time. Link had failed to defeat Ganon once. He would not fail again.

As he entered the throne room, he saw Zelda sitting perfectly still at the main entrance of the room, with an aura of light around her keeping the Malice in the room away from her. However, the Malice wasn't far away from her, having crept within a meter of her still form.

Sensing Link's entry into the throne room, the Malice crept away from Zelda and over to the throne, along with all of the other Malice in the room. There, it formed itself into...well, the closest thing Link could compare it to was a massive scorpion with what was probably supposed to look like a human face with a long red beard. In place of pincers, it had two huge Ancient Battleaxes, and its stinger was a cannon of some kind. Some of its legs were broken-off Guardian legs, while others were made of Malice and stone.

It was a truly horrible monstrosity. But Link had come prepared. Several of his friends, both within the Company and throughout Hyrule, had gifted him with various weapons that would be of use against Calamity Ganon. They would be enough. There was no other acceptable outcome.

Zelda opened her eyes and saw Link facing the abomination down. "Link..." she said softly, though from happiness or worry, Link couldn't say.

"Get somewhere safe, Zelda," Link said. "I can take this thing."

Seeing that the abomination's attention was entirely focused on Link, Zelda ran to the door of the throne room...only to turn at the last moment. A golden bow appeared in her hand, and she fired three arrows made of light at it, all of which left holes in it when they hit. The monstrosity turned its head and its stinger-cannon to try to attack Zelda, but Link took advantage of the monstrosity's distraction to make use of the first of the gifts.

Time seemed to slow as Link sheathed the Master Sword, unslung his bow, and fired an Ancient Arrow, one of two that Robbie had produced since the one that had destroyed the Windblight (Robbie had kept the other 'just in case') at the stinger-cannon. He couldn't take the chance that the head was decorative. His aim was true, and the cannon was vaporized, along with most of the thing's 'tail'.

Link dropped the bow, as he had no other arrows he thought would damage the monstrosity as well as the Master Sword, which he drew once more. It tried to swipe at Link with its massive axe-arms, but Link had anticipated that, and with his left hand, he fired a tool that Dorian had given him at the ceiling rafters. A Clawshot, a device that fired a claw connected to a chain. When it hit the rafter, the device pulled him towards the claw, and out of the abomination's reach before it could hit him.

Link swung the Master Sword at the abomination. It was out of reach of the blade...but a crescent-shaped beam of energy formed by the slash shot out at it, striking it. However, the monstrosity smashed one of the pillars supporting the room, causing the rafters to break, and Link began to fall. The abomination positioned itself in place to attack him where he would fall.

That was where Linhardt's gift came in. With Riju's help, he had contained a powerful Wind spell in a silver ring, such that even a non-mage could use it. "Ventas servitas!" He used the spell to change the direction of his fall in order to land at the monstrosity's left side.

The problem with its enormous form was that it couldn't easily turn. Having landed well, Link had plenty of time to draw his gift from Ingrid: a Thunderstorm Rod charged with all the Fury lightning it could contain. Link let it all out in one massive burst, aimed at one of the monstrosity's four left legs, the only one that had come from a Guardian.

The metal conducted the lightning straight into the scorpion. Malice didn't handle lightning that badly, but there was a lot of it, and it was conducted through whatever outer defenses it might have had. The abomination was frozen stiff by the sensation (Link didn't know if it could feel pain, but it felt something), and Link used the distraction to send another slash-beam at the arm that supported the left 'claw'.

The monstrosity didn't try to turn to attack him. Instead, it scuttled sideways toward him, raised its middle left leg, and tried to crush him with it. He dodged, and removed his gift from Impa from his pouch. It was her cane, which had been enchanted to absorb the force of the impact every time it hit the ground.

For every day for at least three decades.

And when he placed the end of the cane against the stone leg and unleashed the force, it shattered most of the stone into dust.

What was left of the leg tried to stab at him, but he used the Master Sword to cut it off. Then, using all of the Sword's power, he struck a downward, two-handed blow that sliced the thing in half. Both halves began to dissolve, and he relaxed to catch his breath.

Then, the Malice began flying up into the air.

Zelda ran into the room and grabbed his arm. "We don't have much time." She wrapped her arm around his waist and the two were enveloped in a flash of light. When the light faded, they were at the castle gate, where Link saw King Dorephan's body along with the crushed bodies of hundreds of monsters. He gave the deceased monarch a nod of respect.

The two of them saw a colossus forming in Hyrule Field, in the shape of a huge black boar with a mane of pink flames.

And on the horizon...the Hyrulean Army.

Oh no.

Zelda took the Shiekah Slate from his belt, quickly keyed something into it, and a machine with two wheels appeared in front of them. It was one Link recognized; they called it the Master Cycle Zero.

There were two seats, one behind the other. "Do you remember how to drive the Cycle?" Zelda asked.

Link nodded as he took the front seat. "Yes."

"Good," Zelda said as she donned a hawkeye mask and took the seat behind him, the golden bow forming in her hands once more. "Because this isn't over yet."