Legends of the Hero of Time

by Ryan-Sinclair

A continuation of Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask. The Hero of Time, Link, is blessed by the Golden Goddesses with a normal existence, free for himself to rule over. He must learn the true meaning of life as he attempts to join Hylian society. Protecting and loving his new family, as new threats emerge, he grows to understand how he must still endure the challenges of fate.

25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

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[Time: 11:15 A.M. (Late-Morning)]

[Date: Month 8 'Autumn', Day 03, 8th Era]

(Location: Hyrule, Forbidden Forest, Lost Woods - Sacred Forest Meadow)

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Deep in the dense and foggy Lost Woods exists a location normally inaccessible to everyone in the kingdom, even the majority of the diminutive Kokiri. The Sacred Forest Meadow; a secret grove that served to protect the holy Forest Temple by hiding it away behind an ancient and mystical maze. Since it wasn't on the map, only a select few individuals even knew of its existence. For almost a century it remained that way in order to safeguard the place as well as its relics from plunderers and villains. The only visitor had ever been the lone Saria, who merely used its tranquil space as a hideaway to destress from the world's worries.

As per usual, aside from the buzzing of local insects, it was quiet. With the flora as thick as it was, in spite of it being morning, light was only just barely able to penetrate the treetops.

However, the majestic atmosphere suddenly turned eerie. The chirping of Restless Crickets vanished. Birds in the nearby trees abruptly took off from the branches or nests they resided in, flying away as if they had spotted a grave danger.

From the bottom of one out of two of the long stone staircases leading up to the Forest Temple appeared a shadow, a formless black mass that swirled with negative energy. Small bubbles occasionally popped from it like a dubious potion brewing in a cauldron. Unlike a natural shadow, the dark blob proved sapient when it crept up the steps. It made no sound and seemingly had no physical interaction with the ground either as it hovered over it without disturbing a speck of dust. Nonetheless, it wasn't completely intangible as it was soon spotted by nearby inhabitants of the woodland.

Upon reaching the top of the first stone staircase, two Mad Scrubs popped up from the holes they borrowed themselves into. They looked similar to the regular non-hostile Deku Scrubs of the same race; short armless plant-based imps with wooden bodies, glowing red eyes, floral growths on the tops of their heads in addition to a large cylindrical proboscis that served as a nose as well as a mouth. Except, these two were rogue, with no real allegiance or loyalty to anyone but themselves. Seeing the swirling mass of darkness, they immediately considered it an intruder encroaching on their territory. Letting out a shrill cacophonous squeak, both scrubs attacked using their notorious method of spitting a Deku Nut through their proboscis like a cannon.

Two Deku Nuts impacted right in the center of black mass, exploding on impact. While at first, the dark blob appeared to be stunned by their disorienting effects, after a couple of seconds, it accelerated toward the nearest Mad Scrub like it was running full speed.

Warbling from the fright of seeing its offensive rendered useless, the closest scrub spat another Deku Nut in hopes it would achieve something different. Unfortunately for the ornery forest creature, the result was the same if not worse. The Deku Nut hit the swirling black mass, exploding with a bright flash as well as a small bang. Yet, this time the mysterious shadow didn't even seem stunned by it. Witnessing the amorphous entity coming closer than anticipated, the Mad Scrub decided to withdraw into the safety of its personal burrow, leaving only the leaves on top of its head to stick up in resemblance to a shrub.

Not stopping even when the imp sought refuge, the dark mass quickly hovered over it. For a split second, nothing seemed to be happening. But, before long, the leaves belonging to the top of the scrub began to wiggle prior to being compressed. With a force far greater than expected of an incorporeal pall to be capable of, the Mad Scrub was violently plucked from the ground.

Seeing its partner scream in shock of being picked like a root vegetable, the second scrub attempted an impromptu rescue. Shooting a Deku Nut, it hoped to at the very least provide a distraction so the other could escape. Unfortunately, that backfired as the ammunition merely stunned its buddy instead of the swirling darkness. Witnessing the foley, it shivered in fear in advance of abandoning its hideaway in favour of beating a hasty retreat up the next flight of stairs leading to the Forest Temple, not even looking back to see what was going to happen to its accomplice in crime.

Meanwhile, the uncovered Mad Scrub continued to flail as it was temporarily left levitating. The amorphous blob of darkness proceeded to envelope the woody imp, leaving only its legs sticking out of the black cloud. Right away it squealed from within the shadow before being made to spin in a circle at breakneck speed. As discombobulating as it was for the pathetic creature, the worst was yet to come. All of a sudden, its head stopped spinning, but its body continued to be demonically wrenched. It only took a single rotation to kill it, ceasing its cries of agony as well as the light in its eyes; replaced with the cracking sound of its wooden flesh being shattered. Following three more rotations, its head was torn from its torso. Like a ragdoll, its body fell back inside of its burrow. On the other hand, the head dripping with green chlorophyll was then flung by a ghostly tentacle protruding from the mass, slung so hard it flew all the way up the next staircase where it landed atop.

Now that it had taken care of the situation, the dark mass moved on, continuing its way through the narrow passage leading from one staircase to the next. Same as before, it slunk up the staircase in an odd manner unlike that of a regular organism. More bubbles popped forth from it, but still didn't make a sound.

Reaching the top of the last staircase in a matter of moments, from between two stone pillars, the amorphous shadow arrived in the quaint meadow that served as the entrance to the holy grounds. Looming over the horizon, raised and sitting on a hill was the imposing limestone fortress known as the Forest Temple. As eerie as it was being such a large structure abandoned to nature, it was also rather beautiful with its initial bilateral symmetry overgrown with moss. Up above the massive stone doorframe was a monument sign showing an encircled simple green leaf surrounded by a laurel wreath. In the center of the meadow, right in front of the dark mass, was a large intricately carved pedestal depicting The Triforce being overlapped by a smaller image of the same encircled leaf. Beyond the pedestal was a long since collapsed stone staircase that was supposed to lead up to the doorway. Once upon a time, there were even two trees, one on each side of the ruined stairs. Now there was just one on the left; the right having fallen.

Standing between the pedestal and the destroyed staircase was the very same Mad Shrub who had run away after seeing its partner overcome. It visibly quivered in fear, even shrieking when it spotted the malicious dark mass. Unfortunately, since there was nowhere else for it to flee, it had no choice other than to remain there or try to run past the shadow. Considering it was frozen in fright, the former was forced onto it.

Paying absolutely no attention to the petrified Mad Scrub, the swirling mass of darkness proceeded to glide over the pedestal in advance of levitating off the ground. Instead of looking like a puddle of black, as it slowly hovered through the air, it was more amalgamated. Still, it made no sound while moving toward what remained of the temple's steps.

The Mad Scrub fainted, falling over onto its back as the shadow coasted over its head.

Not caring, the shadow kept magically floating until it made contact with the top of the stairs, smearing itself in front of the doorway to the Forest Temple. The actual wooden doors had long since disintegrated. With nothing else to prevent entry, the entity went inside of the structure.

After traveling through a short hall, it arrived in a small atrium with two massive trees. To the right was a wall covered in vines. Straight ahead was another doorway with a majestic temple-peaked cast stone surround. Up above the doorway was also another monument sign of an encircled leaf.

Going forward, the dark mass slid a mere inch whenever it was interrupted by two feral howls. A wolfos revealed itself from behind the tree to the left. It wasn't alone, however, as another hopped down from the top of the entryway's intricate cast stone surround. The two beasts were more intrigued with the appearance of the sentient darkness than antagonistic toward it. But, that quickly changed as their animalistic instinct told them that their territory was being invaded. Snarling and dripping with rancid drool, both of them walked closer. They barked a few times, growled, then without provocation lunged in near unison at the demonic puddle, intending to bite as well as gore it with their gnarly claws.

Unexpectedly, two ghostly tentacles emerged from the dark mass when the wolfos neared it, swiftly extending toward and wrapping around the throats of both monstrously oversized bipedal canines. The creatures yelped before their airways were restricted from the sheer force applied. No matter the abonimation's obvious tangibility considering the assault, when the wolfos tried to bite the phantom appendage, their teeth just chomped at thin air like nothing was there. In retaliation for their aggression, the entity somehow rotated the two savage mutts in mid-air until they were both facing each other. The tentacles got a good grip by pressing against the back of their skulls. Following a tight squeeze that made the wolfos gag, it slammed them together, crashing their heads into one another.

The wolfos were stunned and aching from the forced headbutt. On the other hand, it wasn't enough to make them cease resisting. Seeing their refusal to give-up, the mass resumed its overpowered onslaught by repeatedly smashing their heads together. After the fifth intense slam, the creatures were discombobulated, on the verge of unconsciousness and finally quit moving. Still, the entity wasn't done as it once again resumed vigorously bashing their skulls against each other until their broken faces started profusely bleeding. Not until they were left severely mangled and with their skulls caved-in, around the seventeenth smash, did the darkness finally stop crashing their limp bodies together. Separating the wolfos, the tentacles tightened their grip and roughly shook them in an attempt to get a response. When it sensed no further movement from the canines, it tossed them aside like useless shattered ragdolls.

Moving past the wolfos corpses, the amorphous shadow traveled up the steps to the following doorway. This time, there was an intact wooden door obstructing it. In spite of the fact that the blob could probably use its ethereal arms to operate the doorknob, it didn't bother. Noticing the speakeasy window built into the door, it approached and began turning into a fine mist. Since it was then in an uncondensed state, like smoke, it seeped through the gaps of the doorway, the window, underneath and between the hinges.

Coming out on the other side of the doorway, it condensed back into an ultra-opaque murk. The room it entered turned out to be a gentle ascending hallway, one made entirely of stone; walls with decorative garland engraved wainscoting as well as beautiful arching engaged columns. On the other side of the hallway, above the next door, was another image of an encircled leaf. When the dark mass started moving forward, although there were multiple vines strewn across the ceiling, the only thing actually alive turned out to be a Big Skulltula. As soon as it reached the center of the hallway, the arachnid lowered from its web. Since the amalgamation was the intruder in the encounter, the spider proceeded to attempt an attack. However, the moment it landed atop the sentient black disc, the skulltula violently exploded. All eight of its legs flew off and its body collapsed into itself as if it had been brutally squished.

Since nothing could stop it, the darkness coasted through the rest of the hallway in advance of coming to the next door. Just like it had done beforehand, it evaporated into a fog. Once thin enough, it seeped through to the otherside without any issues.

Arriving in the bowels of the temple, it came out on the other side of the door in an enormous, mostly dark, octagonal rotunda. Up above was a massive dome sitting atop a decorative tholobate. Vines hung from the ceiling and dangled from the corners. The five walls that were in front view each had a doorway leading to other rooms, three of which were reachable while the other two were currently inaccessible. Centered in the rotunda was a regal red square rug surrounding a dip in the floor where the cab of a fascinating stone elevator had been built. Four golden torches bejeweled with amethysts enshrined the elevator, each lit with a different colour; Red, Purple, Blue and Green.

Even though it was a complex area, the dark mass had no problem knowing where to go. Ignoring all the other rooms, it darted toward the intricate stone elevator in the middle of the room. Nonetheless, as soon as it started moving, the flames on the gilded torches were supernaturally snuffed out.

Materializing right above the smoldering torches came four ghostly poes that spun into existence. Generally speaking, poes were wraiths, disheveled spirits wearing tattered clothing as well as holding a brass lantern containing their own souls. These in particular were once the holy priestesses of the temple. Now, however, they were more like banshees, with garb coloured the same as the flame of the torch they hovered above. Their glowing red eyes narrowed in anger as they shrieked from spotting the intruder to their sacred grounds. Instead of lanterns, they held antique brass lamp sticks lit with the same coloured flame as their clothing in addition to the torch they were above. Their colour scheme was more than a mere fashion sense though as they attacked using their corresponding fire too, pointing at the mysterious black abomination and then flinging their flames in its direction.

The dark mass waited for the coloured balls of flame to impact it before retaliating by bouncing them straight back at the quadruple poe sisters.

Only one poe was hit by its own attack; the green sister. Her body lurched back from the hit and contorted in pain. As soon as the ghost got her bearings, she started floating away, hesitantly waving her free hand in submission to her underestimated opponent's power.

The other three sisters dodged the retaliation, yet still witnessed the failure of their sibling. Seeing green retreating, they didn't simply give up. With wide spooked eyes, they used their powers to begin lowering the sophisticated stone elevator there in the center of the room, intending to seal off its access to the intruder.

The blackness wasn't amused by their petty attempt, opting to dart forward while sprouting its own ghostly appendage, using it to hold the elevator up as it approached. As soon as it levitated into the cab of the elevator, it started changing into the wispy fog it resembled in order to go through doors.

Seeing that the menace was now in the elevator, the remaining three poe sisters, Red, Purple and Blue decided to reverse their spell by forcing the lift to remain stationary. They figured, if they couldn't keep the amorphous black mass out of the cab, they could suspend the entire device. To their dismay, they saw how it was capable of turning into a mist so fine that it could physically seep straight through the gaps on the sides of the elevator, gradually entering into the shaft. In a last ditch effort, the poe sisters tried dropping the elevator. They hoped that the falling lift would squish the encroaching phenomenon, praying that would make it cease breaching the inner-sanctum hidden beneath.

Once again, the unnerving dark mass had proved its superiority over the poes by continuing onward, even with the elevator falling atop it. In fact, the plummeting lift served only to force it downward faster than it would have done so on its own. The disembodied darkness was swiftly transported down the elevator shaft before coming out the otherside, parting like a cloud as the cab of the lift went through it to rest on the floor of the room below.

The inner-sanctum, the room it had now breached in spite of the desperate attempts of the poe sisters above, was the Forest Temple's secret chamber. Like a rotating puzzle box, the walls could pivot on a track to reveal different paths. Its floor resembled a carousel or parasol, with different colours for different paths separated by white marble. Only one direction had a royal purple rug and that was the one securely blocked by wrought iron bars. Under normal circumstances, the room would have to be rotated to solve the puzzle; that would usually be the only way to progress, to get the iron bars to lift. However, the dark mass wasn't interested in playing puzzle games. It slid over to the gate blocking its way and squeezed itself right between the iron bars, bypassing the whole challenge.

In the next room, the entity found itself in a short hallway. The royal purple runner rug spanned from one end to the next. There were more engaged columns on the walls, but the wainscoting was coated with crimson paint and there were a series of ruined paintings hanging between each gap, protected by stanchions and velvet rope. Another symbol of an encircled leaf hung above the doorway to the final room beyond the hallway.

Hovering across the hallway, the amalgamation came to the last door blocking its path. This one was nothing like the others in the temple. It was a humongous solid-wood nine panel door with numerous complex golden carvings. Yet, the real issue was the unique giant gilded padlock and thick gold chains keeping the door from opening. Usually it would require a corresponding key to unlock, a key likely somewhere else. Although it had already done many feats a regular shadow couldn't do, the dark mass provided an example of its intellect by using its ghostly appendage as its own personal lockpick. Shoving its tentacle into the plug of the locking mechanism, it proceeded to operate the tumblers with some degree of difficulty. The tumblers had to be lifted to a correct height before the locking bar would release the shackle hidden behind the body of the lock itself. Only after a few minutes of fiddling with the tumblers did the entity succeed in opening it.

The lock fell to the floor the moment it was unlocked, releasing the chains as well. Lifting the door enough to go underneath, the black mass did so in advance of dematerializing its ghostly appendage. On the other side of the big door was the prize of the Forest Temple. The Shrine, a refuge for those who once built as well as resided in the holy place and wanted a spot to contemplate in total peace. Just based on its architecture, it looked like a scaled-down version of the large rotunda aboveground. Except this one was hexagonal and had a series of blue clerestory stained-glass windows in the dome. A platform in the center took up the majority of the room, but was so tall it made a pit surrounding it. To the left of the trespassing entity was another set of stanchions and velvet rope, while to the right was the only stone staircase leading up to the platform.

Going the only way it could, the abomination crept up the two flights of stairs until it came to the level of the platform. More stanchions and velvet rope encircled the platform, helping to prevent someone from accidentally falling off. The corners of the platform had small depictions of The Triforce. Yet, the center of it had a unique sigil with a larger image of The Triforce in the center surrounded by a six-pointed circle, six yellow triangles and hylian writing repeating the word 'Triforce'. Since the dark mass was higher after ascending to the platform, it could see numerous big gold-framed architectural portraits on each wall. The paintings were all of a dark pathway leading to a spooky mansion in an eerie blue lit background.

The intruding phenomenon stopped where it was, not moving onto the platform. Instead, it remained in place for a moment before the supernatural whirring of its form increased tenfold, making those creepy bubbles pop faster too. At first, it seemed to be transforming into another shape; condensing into the fog it had used to perform many of the tasks needed to get where it currently was. Even though it was certainly a shape, it wasn't a simple one. Building upon its form like the weather makes a twister, the entity manifested a humanoid shape of its own. Unearthly as it was, the person-shaped smoke continued its actions by finally taking a clumsy, gangly step forward onto the platform. After the third step, its form began to solidify into a more recognizable figure. What was once thick dark smoke quickly hardened into skin, clothing and weaponry, retaining only the black colour.

Suddenly it wasn't just an unknown entity encroaching in a place it had no business in, it was the tulpa that called itself Dark Link; this time in adult form. His eyes opened, contrasting its pure black appearance with glowing blood-red irises completely lacking pupils. As soon as all of the mist it had been constructed from dissipated, he mimicked a sigh over the exertion spent manifesting. Crossing his arms, he looked around the room at the paintings hanging on the wall. Following some time examining the artwork, he merely scoffed with a tongue click in advance of approaching the center of the platform where the sigil was.

Looking through his eyes, he could see more than the average person, more-so than even his 'light' counterpart. Due to having been made from a different source, he wasn't constricted to the Golden Goddesses rule of life. In a certain sense, he could see the true reality in front of him.

Even though there certainly was an old chamber he was standing in as well as all he had gone through to get there, beyond that, there was also a true phenomenon, an abnormality in space-time hidden from the naked eye. There in the center of the room was an ovular haze, the size of a watermelon, with thin wispy stings in the air flowing away from it prior to dispersing. Strangely, the haze seemed to fold into itself like it was in a perpetual state of collapsing. However, each time it reached singularity, it would rebound in a way that could only be described as the reverse of peeling an onion. Occasionally different colours could be seen flashing from within its core.

"Finally." Dark Link spoke to himself. "The anomaly I was looking for."

Unlike most lifeforms in the realm who couldn't even see it, Dark Link knew exactly what he was looking at. Just like he said, it was indeed an anomaly, one that had been caused by an interference with the natural order of things; mostly from divine magic or advanced sciences. Although it was definitely a tear in the fabric of the space-time continuum, it was contained within a specialized forcefield by those with higher powers and hidden from the eyes of mortals to prevent further tampering. Whenever magic or science of sufficient aptitude warps baseline reality beyond what was initially intended, such as time travel, any kind of temporal intervention, the act of summoning from a different realm or banishment to another, true transmutation or any kind of systematic alterations to the subatomic paradigm already established by the original creator of the universe, the result is always one of these. They served as a quick-fix, a bandage to prevent reality from falling apart.

Dark Link had traveled a long way to initiate the beginning of his grand plan. Looking at the anomaly shimmering with static in the center of the room, the shadow replica came to do more than simply sightsee. Approaching the object, due to his otherworldly composition, he could sense the immense energy radiating from it like an aura. Strangely, the thin wispy strings surrounding it were attracted to his form. He reached his left hand out in a tentative manner prior to touching one of the ethereal strands with his index finger. As soon as the two made contact, the strand appeared to seamlessly meld with his finger. It didn't hurt, but he could feel the raw power invigorating his body. After a few more mystical strings infused themselves into his left hand, he reached out with his right hand, allowing them to meld with all five of the fingers.

While gazing into the haze of the anomaly, Dark Link saw flashes of memories in his mind. Even though he wasn't fully developed until after his alter ego experienced the Water Temple, he could still recall some of what occurred. He remembered the challenge of the Forest Temple in addition to the battle that had transpired in the very room he was standing in. He envisioned a particular enemy as he continued to toy with the wispy strands of energy. His upper lip twitched as he thought back to what Ganondorf said that day. Hearing it echo in his mind, he growled in anger, tightening his hands into fists. The action caused the strings of ether to become almost taut.

"This better work." Dark Link lamented. Having never tried to manipulate divine magic before, he was unsure if he would succeed.

Keeping ahold of the wispy strands, he tried walking backward. He only managed to take a single step before the strings of ether stopped him, restraining him like shackles. Although he cocked his head to the side out of curiosity, he purposely resisted in order to apply his own force to the anomaly. Doing so effectively interfered with the phenomenon in a way that, if his calculations and theory was correct, would cause it to fluctuate. This fluctuation could potentially function in different ways depending on the reason for the anomaly's existence in the first place. In this case, he had high hopes his actions would cause it to temporarily widen enough for a portal to form to the otherside before those of divinity sealed it yet again.

Fighting with the strands, he saw it warble. The random colours swirling inside the haze sparkled as they spun faster. Its 'onioning' effect gradually slowed the more strength Dark Link exerted resisting its influence. However, after taking a heavy step backward, his influence overpowered and forced it to begin fluctuating in reverse. The harder he pulled the faster it went.

Unfortunately for him, even with all the leeway he'd made, the anomaly wasn't without other types of protection. It automatically tried to keep itself intact. Safeguarding itself as it was designed to do, more of its ethereal strings drifted over into Dark Link's direction. No matter how far he'd pulled the others with his hands, the rest of them still managed to reach as well as inject themselves into his torso. Same as previously, he couldn't really feel them in the traditional sense. He could just sense their presence by the energy they emitted in addition to their pull.

Now that the majority of strands had embedded themselves in him, he was struggling to retain control. Grunting from the exertion, he tried grabbing at the wispy strands piercing his chest but found his arms were kept from rotating inward or outward by the strings connected to his hands. Without anything else he could do, he continued his plan by summoning more strength needed to keep warping the anomaly. Pushing himself to the limit, his muscles pumped with blood as he took several more strenuous steps backward. His black leather boots scuffed against the floor as he resisted.

Before long, he managed to overcome the anomaly's defense, forcing it to tear open the metaphorical tourniquet that held reality together in that spot. The more he backed up, the more the phenomenon fell apart. First, the colours on the inside of the haze flashed until they blended together into a pure white static. Instead of being the size of a watermelon, its body seemed to swell as well as flatten out until it was the size of a large threshold. Dark Link saw this and was encouraged to proceed with his plan. Securing his footing, he stopped walking backward and opted to pull on the ethereal strings until his arms were up resembling a bodybuilding flexon. The pressure on his form made him grit his teeth and holler out from the immense exertion. Nonetheless, he refused to stop until the white light coming from the anomaly brightened to a blinding glow. Only whenever the mystical strands attached to him started disintegrating did he ease off.

Immediately he had to catch his breath from all the work he'd put into breaking through the phenomenon's design. Regardless, he'd done it. The wispy strands piercing into his form started collapsing, dissolving into themselves like dust in the wind. Although he could no longer feel fresh energy invading his body, he'd already been intensely rejuvenated by what power had coursed through him as he worked on the anomaly. Slowly but surely, his muscles relaxed. Mimicking the action of panting from the immense exertion, only after he took a deep breath did he look up to see the results of his labour.

Finally, he'd torn open the anomaly, revealing what was truly on the other side hidden behind the metaphorical bandage to the fabric of space-time. He'd chosen carefully, ensuring the phenomenon was one caused by banishment. Based upon his theory, so long as it wasn't due to time-travel or transmutation, the destruction of the phenomenon wouldn't cause reality to collapse. So long as it was simply created to fix an unnatural summoning or banishment, Dark Link hypothesized that he'd be able to widen the hole enough to open a portal to the otherside. Since everything had gone according to plan regarding opening the portal, he speculated he'd be able to retrieve what was on the other side too.

Leaning up from holding onto his knees, the shadow of the hero took one more deep breath in advance of approaching the white oscillating portal. While the energy level wasn't the same as what had been emitted from it previously, he could still sense the enormous amount of raw power emerging from the tear. Supernatural electricity sparked in the air as the doorway between realms caused interference due to the incompatibility of their rules of reality.

Thinking back, although it was muddled since he wasn't fully conscious at that point in his existence, Dark Link remembered the fight that had occurred here. A fight with a true doppelganger of his enemy. A fight that took place in a time that will never be. He could envision his light counterpart combating the one known as Phantom Ganon, an evil spirit from beyond who had been created by the infamous Ganondorf. If he recalled correctly, the apparition was a near duplicate of the gerudo king, dressed in attire that consists of snug black and brown armor pieces with thick patterned fabric encircling his calves and forearms. Although it lacked the lengthy royal cape and jeweled headdress of its creator, it chose to cover its lack of a face by donning a skull mask with two protruding horns.

No matter the entity being a spitting image of Lord Dragmire, when it proved itself incapable of defeating the real Link, it was tossed aside like common rubbish. Worse than that, it was quite literally forcefully cast into the gaps between dimensions. There were many gaps between the structure of reality, but Phantom Ganon had been banished to the deepest pits of nothingness, where the laws of physics completely ceased to exist. Dark Link had seen this place only once, for a split second, when the birth of his consciousness transmitted like an echo through the layers of the universe. It was haunting; a pure white void with no time and no existence, suspended in a cosmic soup surrounding the other realms. For something to be banished to such a place, or rather a lack of place, it was torture. To be there meant there was no hope, as there was no escape as well as no sweet release of death to look forward to.

Except, Dark Link planned to change that. The reason he had come to the Forest Temple in the first place was to gain an ally. By releasing Phantom Ganon from his surreal bondage, he hoped to have the entity be subservient to him. It didn't matter that the being's imprisonment occurred in a different timeline as the anomaly itself transcended time altogether. In fact, if his theory was correct, by running it in reverse and then opening the phenomenon, it would cause a chain reaction of events. Those who had been banished would essentially be vigorously summoned back into existence.

"Come forth, phantom." Dark Link vocally conjured.

The newly manifested portal to the gap between dimensions continued to brightly shimmer. A disembodied voice could be heard chanting unintelligibly from the otherside, starting out disjointedly in advance of becoming a long drawn out scream. The booming hollering sounded like it was coming from far away but got louder by the second.

Within a moment's notice, another flash occurred. The light coming from the gateway bulged like blisters on skin. A giant lump swelled forth from the portal, absorbing the smaller growths before splitting off. Within the blink of an eye, the big mass turned into a pure white form resembling a hulking barrel-chest humanoid. Several additions to its natural form came flying out of the void, giving it a horned barbute helmet, a cape, boots, gauntlets and an exceptionally broad greatsword. After that, violently jettisoned from the portal came numerous after-images that slammed into the brawny white form. First came four shades of colour that immediately adhered to the humanoid; black, blue, white and purple. Most of its burly body was black, but it was outlined by blue and white hues. Only after an invisible wave of energy was transmitted through the portal did the form open its eyes, revealing solid purple retinas and irises.

If the being were indeed Phantom Ganon, it looked absolutely nothing like Dark Link recalled. He wondered if perhaps he'd miscalculated his plan and the anomaly had somehow summoned an entirely different entity from the lost depths of oblivion. Not only did this person lack Phantom Ganon's ghostly steed, the massive sword it wielded seemingly replaced the grand corseque spear it had once held. Seeing that it was potentially someone else than anticipated, he felt more cautious than he wanted to be, unsure if it would attack him without hesitation.

"Tae tofinn çteiðr tüseci pûcat sacequ?" The entity proceeded to ask in an unintelligible language. At the start of each sentence, its voice echoed in a ghostly manner. "Uresnun kesoc tdilirin wringu on treeln þor idah te æȝiac?"

Dark Link narrowed his eyes in advance of saying "I cannot understand you. Do you speak Hylian?"

"Hylian?" The strange being rephrased its words in hylian after hearing Dark Link's linguistics. "Yes. Though, it has been some time." Shaking its horned head, it then reiterated "My questions still stand for you. What have you done to me? Why have you brought me back to this accursed place?"

Smirking from the promising results, Dark Link proudly announced "I summoned you back into existence. You are the one known as Phantom Ganon, right?"

Looking at Dark Link's smug grin, it suddenly dawned on the phantom that the person claiming to have brought it there looked an awful lot like the grandiose hero it had been tasked with yet failed to kill. Understandably, it immediately infuriated the being. Its glowing eyes brightened like flickering flames as it furrowed its brow and visibly tightened its grip on its enormous cleaver. Huffing, it didn't bother to answer the question asked, choosing to instead ensure that Dark Link had no chance to react to its maneuver.

Moving so fast that to the plain eye it teleported, the phantom appeared right in front of its challenger, arm already raised at the ready for a heavy downward slice. Fully intending to cleave the shadow's head from its body, it managed to stop in mid-chop, its blade an inch from Dark Link's head.

Dark Link didn't flinch. He simply stared straight ahead at the entity with the same smirk before inquisitively cocking his head to the side.

"Are you he?" The phantom asked.

"No…" Dark Link immediately replied, knowing full well what the question was. "I am a separate creation."

"Why do you look like him?" It continued its interrogation even with its sword hovering just above its summoner's carotid artery.

Blinking once, Dark Link's smirk gradually dissipated to show how serious he was being. He didn't want to give the wrong first impression no matter how galvanized he was for succeeding in his goal. "I am a tulpa, but I originated as a shadow duplicate to his form." Thinking about it, he decided to make an attempt at appealing to a weak sense of brotherhood, hoping it might start a small bond with the entity. "I was made by the same magic which made you, by the same person who made you."

Slowly lowering its super-broad greatsword, the phantom let out a low growl that bounced around the chamber they were in. "Ganondorf."

"The very same." Dark Link confirmed. "Our ex-master."

Lowering to the ground until its feet touched the floor, the phantom slammed its sword down into the tiles. Resting with both hands clasped to the hilt indicated that it was becoming more relaxed. Its curiosity in the matters at hand outweighed its aggressive nature. Now more than anything, it wanted to know why it had been brought back to the location it had been long-since banished from. "Why have you brought me here?"

Witnessing the phantom's interest in what he said, Dark Link felt increasingly confident that his plan was going to work. He wanted to ask about its change in appearance, but decided upon answering its questions first in order to keep it docile. "I brought you back here so that you might seek vengeance on the person who sealed you in that dimensional void in the first place."

The phantom turned its head to the side, staring at the portraits on the wall. For a brief period of time, it too reminisced about the battle that had occurred here seven years in the future. It wasn't aware that it was in the past, yet the concept mattered little to it anyway. All it thought about was how it was originally made for a purpose it had been unable to fulfill, how that failure caused its demise. Only after returning its gaze to the replica of the hero who'd defeated it, did it shake its head to reject the offer being given to it. "I am not interested in revenge."

Dark Link grit his teeth upon hearing that. Yet, he refused to show any signs of trepidation. "How could you not be? I am talking about the mortal who used his own magic to create you, filled your head full of grand ostentatious ideals, then abandoned you, cast you into a solid white oblivion. Doesn't that make you zealous?"

"Not anymore." The ghostly being continued to refuse the notion of remaining upset at its master's actions. At the same time, through context clues, it confirmed that it was indeed the same Phantom Ganon that had combated the Hero of Time in the very chamber they stood in. "Even though you speak with an elegant tongue, you clearly do not know what I have been through since my days of being a mindless puppet. You think I floated in an endless void, null in the head? You are incorrect."

Placing his hand to his chin, Dark Link pondered what to say next. "That makes sense. You look nothing like the doppelganger you once were."

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" Phantom Ganon tightened its grip on the hilt of its sword. "Do you not realize you still trounce around in the form of the one who presumably defeated you too?"

Dark Link rolled his eyes at the ghost's tendency to keep its guard up. "I assure you, I am not joking." Holding his hands behind himself, he turned around, showing his back in an attempt to show that he wasn't a threat. "You do have a point. If you must know, I have a good reason why I continued to stay in this form. How about you? What's your reason for changing yours?"

"You first." The Phantom grumbled. "You're the one who brought me here. I'm the one who deserves answers."

Holding back an unenthusiastic sigh, the shadow replica said "The Hero of Time and I are metaphysical twins, but I aim to prove my superiority over him. Those who think I am the imposter masquerading as a champion, they will soon see that I am just as real and ever more capable of being the true saviour of this pitiful world."

"This world isn't worth saving." The phantom spat.

"You're wrong!" Dark Link flourished his left arm out to the side in advance of spinning around with a furious expression plastered on his face. "If we don't save this world, others will follow suit."

Although Phantom Ganon lifted its sword from the blade's impalement in the platform's tiles, it remained at ease. The specter didn't expect such a passionate response. It piqued its interest in a way it hadn't felt in a long time. "Explain yourself."

"I…" Dark Link suddenly found himself feeling tongue-tied, unsure of how to properly explain what he merely felt. "I don't know how."

"You are wasting my time." The phantom grew frustrated.

"Look…" Dark Link tried his best to put what he knew into a coherent sentence. "There's a disease plaguing this realm. But, it didn't come from here. It came from others it has already consumed."

The phantom calmed down upon getting more answers. "How do you know this?"

"Because I've felt it…" Dark Link asserted while holding his right hand up to his heart in another show of honesty. "I both felt and sensed them disappearing." Hanging his head to express his dread, he continued "When my consciousness ricocheted throughout the timelines, I caught a glimpse of the multiverse. There were too many to see all at once. Still, I knew there was more than met my newborn eyes because I could sense their raw enormous power." Sighing, he stated "But, something was wrong. What was supposed to be a stable system of realms had somehow been compromised by something that didn't belong anywhere. I could feel death creeping through the gaps of the bubbles, most of which were being gradually popped. A few were either strong bubbles or lucky enough to survive, yet once they were touched by this world-eater, they became broken and tainted."

Phantom Ganon once again lowered its sword until the tip made contact with the floor. It was confused by what it was being told, yet still intrigued by the thought of another unknown entity transiting throughout every universe in existence. "How do you know this so-called 'world-eater' isn't just entropy? Everything created is eventually destroyed. It is a natural process to be eaten by time."

"There's nothing natural about this." Dark Link sulked from thinking about the tragedy. "It's a cancerous blight consuming these realms. I don't know why it's doing this. I just know that it's happening and if I don't stop this cosmic infection, it's going to absorb our world and then spread to the next as it's done countless times beforehand."

Proving it was smarter than anticipated, the phantom wondered why the higher powers weren't doing something. "What about the Golden Goddesses?"

"What about them?" Dark Link asked.

"If there really is something going around destroying realities, shouldn't the Golden Goddesses do something about it?" Phantom Ganon made another valid point. "They are far more omnipotent than you or I."

Dark Link scoffed. "They are the masters of this realm and many others, but they are not any of their creators."

"Still…" The phantom interrupted. "They should have more to say and do about this matter than you or I."

Chuckling, the hero's shadow revealed the truth. "Oh, they did. You're correct. The holy relic left behind by the Golden Goddesses, the Triforce, is basically a glorified wish granter, a digital genie capable of manifesting the user's greatest subconscious desires. Except to use it, a person must be mortal as well as of pure heart. If a person has a drop of divine blood in them, it won't function and if they're not pure-hearted, it'll malfunction. In order to save the realm from destruction by this evil world-eater, their messiah planned on intentionally sacrificing herself to become a true pure-hearted mortal."

Exhaling, Dark Link took a deep breath before carrying on. "Doing such a thing would've made her able to use their holy relic to wish away the evil plaguing reality. As good at planning ahead as this White Goddess was, it didn't work because the devil struck first, tearing the surface of this world asunder before she could undertake the process of transforming into a hylian. Her champion was the only thing that stood in the way of the living contagion and as a knighted protector of the holy Triforce, he showed his might by taking on the embodiment of evil." Chuckling again at how history played out, he said "You know, all of it almost worked. This hero progenitor, a man personally blessed by Hylia, was probably the only being in all of the multiverse who had ever given this… thing… a proper run for its money."

"It's just too bad it didn't work." Dark Link quickly continued so the phantom wouldn't interject. "The champion fought valiantly, but no mortal could ever stand up to something of this magnitude. The White Goddess was all that was left at that point. She decided against her normal plan, instead choosing to hide away the Triforce. When taking on the world-eater herself, she used her powers to create a seal, one that was supposed to be capable of executing the evil's form. Thankfully, the champion had made the monster weak enough to be affected by her. But this force, this hatred, it couldn't be completely killed. At best she could just banish it, seal it away for several millennia." Walking over to the steps leading down from the platform, he sat down, pretending to be tired from his trek. "Funny thing is, she did sacrifice herself afterwards, just not to use the Triforce." Again he chortled. "For an almighty figure, she must've felt pity for her champion upon his death. I don't know why, all I know is that she wound up using all her powers to reincarnate the champion's spirit."

"Does this story have an end?" Phantom Ganon interrupted regardless of Dark Link's attempt to hurry.

Dark Link waved off the entity, yet answered with "It goes on for a while. Long story short, the Golden Goddesses plan failed and not even the reincarnation of their hero or their messiah could kill this thing. All they managed to do was create a vicious never ending cycle of rebirth between good and evil. Every time the world-eater's spirit manifested another reincarnation, the Golden Goddesses would remake the champion and Hylia as Link and Zelda, the hero and the princess." Placing his head in his hands as if to pout, he grunted. "That's the best they could do. They couldn't stop this thing or kill it, all they could do was constantly stall it."

"And that is not good enough for you?" The phantom enquired with a pissy tone.

Raising his left eyebrow, Dark Link shook his head. "No, no it's not."

"Why?" Phantom Ganon prodded. "Who cares if this so-called 'eater of worlds' is stuck trying to consume this one? It sounds like a good compromise, especially for the others."

"'Good enough'." Dark Link mocked before crossing his arms as well as placing his left leg on his right knee. "Don't you get it? I didn't tell you that story for no reason. I told you to show you how this unstoppable force will never give up. Do you really think the will of some advanced beings pretending to be actual gods can keep up forever? They're up against something that completely transcends time. They're going to mess up at some point or the darkness will find a way to creep through the cracks of all their grand plans. It'll find a way! And when it does, it's going to suck the life out of this world and move on to the next. Wherever you've been the whole time, it's not safe from the reach of this master devil. It'll eat everything and…" He stopped for a moment as his red eyes darted side-to-side in heavy contemplation "and there will be nothing for us but the void."

For a few moments, the entire chamber was in complete silence. Dark Link remained seated on the first step to the stairs leading down from the platform while Phantom Ganon hovered in place staring at the portraits hanging on the walls. It was so quiet the creaking of the Forest Temple settling could be heard. Even the dust falling from the overhead dome could be heard as it landed on the sigil in the center of the room. That all changed, the peace vanishing when Phantom Ganon abruptly bursted out into a heavy snigger.

"What are you laughing at?" Dark Link immediately scoffed an enquiry, his brow furrowed at the thought of being the butt of some joke.

"You." Phantom Ganon slammed its fists down upon the hilt of its sword. "You summoned me here over this frivolous nonsense? I care not for tampering with the work of gods, be they demi or fake." Forcefully yanking its enormous sword up out of the platform, it swung the cleaver up over its shoulder. "You are smart and you are powerful, but you do not seem to comprehend the workings of time. One realm's time is relative in comparison to another's." Shaking its head, the hulking ghost seemed to reject everything it had heard with little to no care for any potential consequences. "Why should I care about the death of this universe or any other? You might call this entity you're worried about a 'word-eater', but I am known as the 'Scourge of the Multiverse'. As aforementioned, I didn't just sit there in the Gap Between Dimensions, floating in an endless oblivion like a helpless baby or a mindless puppet. I chose to snip the strings of reality, unraveling them at the seams until I found a way back inside the massive sweater that is existence."

Using magic, it lifted up off the ground until it hovered there in the center of the chamber about ten feet (3m) above the platform. Finally, it revealed some of where it had been the entire time of its banishment; its tone becoming aggressive as it did so. "I've been to hundreds of realms and each were nothing more than challenges to me, testaments to my strength." Staring down at Dark Link, it felt only disgust for having been summoned by what it considered to be such a weak-minded individual. "I'm not interested in revenge and it no longer serves my interest to think of myself as a king or god. No. In fact, I have never pretended to conquer a realm or held the desire to destroy them all either." The phantom's brawny chest heaved as it laughed. "All I have done is use them to increase my power."

Slamming its gauntleted hand to its super-broad cuirass, it said "From one universe, I found and used a forge of blood and ectoplasm to make me this entire suit of armor. In another, I had it tempered by alien master blacksmiths before being empowered by a wizard in a third universe. My sword was made by an expert and his behemoth slave in a parallel world that heavily resembled this one. In one universe I learned spells and fought for two centuries as the defender of a race of giants and in another I learned new skills as I spent almost seven centuries as the overlord for a race of stupid gremlins."

"Hundreds of realms I visited just to hunt down the strongest opponent I could find and execute them." The specter raised its enormous sword from off of its shoulder in advance of pointing it at Dark Link. "All I'm interested in is becoming more powerful than I was previously. Besides, if I'm ever threatened by this evil of yours or am in a realm it's about to consume, I'll just hop to another. That solves that."

Dark Link stood up from off the top of the stairs. "You're only thinking about yourself! Don't you understand that you can't run from this thing fore-...?"

"Enough!" Phantom Ganon raised its voice. "I don't want to hear anything else out of your mouth. My razor thin patience is long since gone. All you've done so far is bring me here to this accursed place so I can listen to your concerns." With the broadsword still pointed at the shadowy replica to the Hero of Time, the revenant abruptly became hostile. Although it was yet to take a swing, at the very tip of the blade came a glow that gradually brightened in intensity. The light started out as a small dot in advance of turning into a swelling orb. "I will not help you. Now, I command you to release my conjuration so I can return back to whence I came."

Gritting his teeth, Dark Link tried not to show any further emotion. Yet, he couldn't keep his upper-lip from twitching in frustration. He simply held up his hands in defeat. "I am not holding you captive. You are free to leave anytime you wish."

Slowly turning around, Phantom Ganon directed its gaze at the shimmering anomaly. Considering it didn't have any knowledge pertaining to finer workings of reality, it had no clue of how to operate the phenomenon. Nonetheless, its aggression decreased and the glowing orb at the end of the sword shrunk into nothingness as the dimensional ghost investigated the source of what brought it there in the first place. It lowered to about three feet (1m) off the ground as it hovered in front of the anomaly. The hesitation it showed at approaching was brief but a solid sign that it had some level of fear for its own mortality. Placing the sword back onto its shoulder, it reached out to the warbling haze of magic, sticking its hand inside. Its head cocked to the side as it felt around on the inside of the portal, likely confused by the lack of proper sensation.

On the other hand, Dark Link couldn't stand to see the phantom about to depart. He'd worked so hard to find this place and spent a lot of time figuring out a way to bring the ghost back to the world. To know that it wanted nothing to do with him, it made the tulpa's insides churn. As fast as he could possibly contemplate, he formulated a way to make the imitation Ganondorf stay. He mentally ran through everything the hulking being told him in an attempt to process any potential solution. Recalling its obsession with power, he eventually made a plan. It wasn't a good one, but the only one he had.

Dark Link conjured a mirror version of the Hero's Bow, taking aim at the back of the phantom's brawny form. Out of nowhere, an arrow came into existence without him even having to nock it. All he had to do was pull back on the string and release it whenever he was satisfied with his aim. Letting go, he watched as his shadowy arrow flew through the air.

The Evil Spirit From Beyond was less than a second away from stepping inside of the anomaly that had brought it there whenever it felt an arrow pierce the back of its neck, having gone right between the helmet and cuirass. Its glowing purple eyes widened in shock from being struck. Despite not being enough to critically damage the specter, the attack was a surprise as it had been a long time since it had encountered a worthy opponent that was brave enough to make a move with its back turned. Thankfully, since it wasn't a mortal wound, the revenant was able to reach behind itself, grab the shaft of the arrow and steadily pull it out of its neck. Almost immediately the arrow disintegrated. Then again, it didn't matter as Phantom Ganon's rage was boiling.

"Did you just do what I think you did?" Phantom Ganon enquired.

Dark Link lowered his bow and relaxed his stance as said "You're damn right I did. If the only thing that you can think about is power, then I'm going to show you my true power by kicking your fucking ass."

Turning back around so it faced the tulpa, Phantom Ganon shook its head in a disapproving manner. "You shouldn't have done that."

"What are you going to do about it?" Dark Link scoffed before belittling the ghost in an attempt at using reverse psychology. "I'm beginning to think that you're all talk, that's why you don't want to help me. You know if you try, you're just going to lose." He held one hand to his chest as he heaved mocking laughter. "I mean, you call yourself the Scourge of the Multiverse but I just shot you in the back of the head like it was nothing."

"VILE CREATURE!" Phantom Ganon raised higher into the air, returning to a decent height of ten feet (3m) off the ground. Aiming at the pipsqueak challenger, it used a spell to make another mysterious globe of energy grow upon the tip of the cleaver. "I SHALL SHOW YOU WHY THEY CALL ME THAT; BY ERADICATING YOU FROM THIS SHALLOW HUSK OF A WORLD!" Using the greatsword as if it were a magic wand, it cast forth the ball of energy at a relatively high-speed. "YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANY WORLD-EATER BECAUSE YOU'LL ALREADY BE DEAD!"

On instinct, Dark Link jumped out of the way to avoid being blasted by the orb of energy. Rolling on the ground, he hopped back up before watching as the attack hit the edge of the platform and then fizzled out. Taking aim with his bow, he materialized another arrow prior to releasing the string. The ammunition soared amongst the air until it struck the phantom's armour. Unfortunately for Dark Link, the tip of the arrow simply smashed against the enchanted cuirass, shattering the shaft and falling to the floor.

Now that he had revealed to the ghost his intent, he wasn't going to be allowed to get another sneak attack like previously. Since there was no way he'd be able to penetrate the entity's armour, he knew he'd have to change strategies and he'd have to do it while avoiding being hit.

"HOW DARE YOU BRING ME HERE TO LISTEN TO YOUR DRIVEL!" Phantom Ganon announced as it slung another ball of magic in the direction of the Hero's Shadow.

Unlike last time, as the electric glowing orb came toward him, Dark Link recalled the battle his light alter-ego fought in. He remembered Link fighting the original Phantom Ganon during the future timeline. Even though the revenant had come a long way, it was still using the same tactics it was back then. "You say you're all powerful and can hop from dimension to dimension, but you couldn't even stop my arrow from hitting you. How can I trust you're capable of all the things that you say you are?" Once the glowing orb was within striking distance, Dark Link dematerialized his bow in advance of conjuring his sword. Using the black mirrored reflection of the Master Sword, he leapt forward toward the globe of energy, hitting and thus bouncing it back into the direction of the crazed ghost.

Within the blink of an eye, the magic spell was sent barreling back at its caster. Phantom Ganon saw its own attack being reflected back, yet wasn't able to move out of the way in time before impacting its chest. The orb exploded on impact, transferring an intense painful shock. The ghost's arms and legs stiffened and its torso quivered as the mystical electricity coursed through it. In spite of hollering out from the agony of being hit by its own attack, that wasn't enough to take it down. As soon as the spell ended, it shook its head, making its horned helmet sway. Suddenly, it then tightened its grip on the sword.

"Maybe Ganondorf was right in disposing of you." Dark Link purposely insulted the maleficent entity. "Maybe you're just a failed experiment."

Without saying a word, Phantom Ganon abruptly moved so fast it once again looked as if it had teleported. All of a sudden, the ghost was right in front of Dark Link, swinging its enormously broad greatsword to the side. Dark Link barely had a chance to react, only having a millisecond to block with his bound weapon. Nonetheless, when Phantom Ganon's blade hit Dark Link's, it shattered the antihero's imitation Master Sword. The replica resembled the real deal, yet it couldn't hold up to a quarter of what the true legendary artifact could. On the bright side, it wasn't overly difficult for him to start conjuring another.

"Failed?" Phantom Ganon questioned before becoming irate "FAILED!? YOU'RE THE ONE WHO FAILED!"

As Dark Link was in the process of manifesting another sword, the dimensional ghost took another swing at him. Since he hadn't retrieved his weapon, the tulpa was mostly powerless to block the raging being. The best he could do was raise his arms to protect himself and yet even then Phantom Ganon's cleaver was far too oversized to properly deflect. Instead, the edge of the blade cut into his gauntlet. His feet came off the ground as the sheer momentum caused him to be knocked across the platform. Like a ragdoll, he hit the velvet rope, yanking down several of the surrounding stanchions as he fell onto his back.

Knowing that he couldn't lay there without risking imminent death, he jumped back up onto his feet. Except, the pain in his hand was unbearable. Glancing down at it, he saw it had nearly been severed. His hand was hanging by a few bleeding tendons and torn shadowy flesh. Although his index finger and thumb were twitching, he couldn't actually control them.

He wanted to deal with his disabled hand first. Regrettably, he was forced to once again jump out of the way as the evil spirit from beyond tried to cleave him in twain. Lunging to the side, he avoided the attack. Acting quickly, once he was out of harm's way, he immediately grabbed his paralyzed hand and properly positioned it back on the mangled stump that was his arm. Pressing down hard, he waited for his healing factor to kick in. Even though he accelerated his rejuvenation due to being quite literally handicapped and in the midst of battle, the undertaking was still rather strenuous, normally requiring a lot of focus, willpower in addition to stamina in order to accomplish.

After achieving the right state of mind, his superior healing made the broken bones in his hand fuse back together. Tendons followed by reattaching and the flesh on the outside reconnected. Just a few seconds later he was able to wiggle his fingers and even ball his hand into a fist. Yet, instead of celebrating, he had to duck to avoid another heavy swing from the brawny dimensional ghost.

Phantom Ganon was furious for being summoned and was trying its absolute best to eliminate the dark interloper interfering with its personal goals. However, it knew it couldn't keep using its powers to flash step for much longer as it too cost vital strength to do so, strength it otherwise needed to fight. Ceasing with the enhanced speed, it instead chose to return to old tricks, but with a spicy twist. Reeling back, it used the tip of its sword as if it were a magic wand, slinging forth another electric orb which swiftly floated through the air toward its target.

Dark Link, having regained the use of his broken hand, had already begun manifesting a replacement sword. Seeing that the phantom was doing the same thing it had done earlier, he planned on casting the glowing orb right back at the insane revenant. Except that plan quickly went awry when the spell split into several different orbs. Now, there were three instead of one. He'd only just gotten ahold of his new weapon, but he was going to have to decide which orb to reflect while avoiding the other two.

"TAKE THAT!" Phantom Ganon chortled with a strange snorting sound.

Unexpectedly, Dark Link smirked in advance of performing a spin attack. The whirling blade technique allowed the shadowy replica to rotate in three-hundred and sixty degrees, hitting all three of the electric orbs. "You're all talk." He proceeded to throw more taunts as the trio of spells were reflected back at their caster.

Phantom Ganon dropped down to the ground to avoid being stricken by one of its own attacks. The other two orbs bounced off to the side before fizzling out. On the other hand, the dimensional ghost couldn't stop itself from falling right into his opponent's trap by becoming more and more enraged at the verbal jabs. "SILENCE!" It demanded as it threw its arms out to its sides. Its body began to glow with an unnatural blue hue until a strange thing happened. Using a different spell, the entity duplicated itself. Two translucent doppelgangers split away from like a cell dividing into copies through mitosis. "YOU ARE THE ONE WHO HAS SPOKEN NONSTOP!" All three of them spoke in unison while getting into an offensive formation. "YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS NOTHING MORE THAN MERE TALK!"

Acting as transparent mirror images, the two copies did precisely as the real phantom did. By reeling back their enormous sword, they too assisted by slinging forth three energetic globes. All of a sudden, there wasn't one or even three orbs of magic, but a whopping nine, all of which sought out Dark Link like they had a heat-seeking mind of their own.

Dark Link's eyebrows raised as he was surprised to see such an ability. Nonetheless, he did his best to counteract each spell by slashing at them with his sword in advance of performing another spin attack. Just as effective as he was the last time, he was able to repel all of the orbs, bouncing them right back at the phantom as well as its two hollow copies.

When the duplicates were hit with their own spells, they screamed, contorted and then vanished into a cloud of ethereal mist. On the other hand, the actual phantom managed to successfully avoid being stricken by lifting itself several feet off the ground, hovering in mid-air. The three orbs flew right beneath prior to utterly dispersing. Not waiting around, the ghost immediately flew forward with the intention of impaling its challenger straight through the chest. However, Dark Link parried, pushing its massive sword off to the side and leaving the being momentarily vulnerable.

Dark Link took the opportunity to switch gear. Instead of his replica of the legendary Master Sword, he manifested a different weapon, one from the Future Timeline. He remembered the extremely heavy Megaton Hammer his counterpart had acquired from the Fire Temple. Since it was meant for use by an incredibly robust Goron, it was essentially a maul. Its shaft was made out of hardened wood that was reinforced with tungsten. Its double-sided stainless-steel head was spiked on one end while the other end was a solid cylinder a foot (30cm) in diameter. Altogether, it was approximately thirty-five pounds (16kg); definitely a powerful enough item to do some serious damage.

As soon as a replica of the equipment was fully summoned into existence, he slammed the massive maul down upon Phantom Ganon's sword, shattering the cleaver into numerous pieces. Except, even then he wasn't done. He also decided to grab at the ghost's horned helmet. Taking it a step further, he wanted to prove his superiority by unmasking the entity, knowing full well that doing so would further humiliate it.

"Wha-..." The dimensional ghost uttered in confusion, both befuddled by having its helmet grabbed as well as the fact that the precious sword it had personally forged and empowered just for it had been obliterated by such a pipsqueak doppelganger. "What are you doing?!"

Dark Link yanked the helmet up and off the phantom's head. Underneath, he was surprised to find that the dimensional ghost had a face that was completely black as well as lacking any facial features. Even though it had purple flames for eyes, it was somehow able to see; even without a mouth, it was somehow able to speak.

However, despite not having traditional identifiable facial features, it was still rather obvious that the Scourge of the Multiverse was absolutely furious over being unmasked so abruptly. The fire where its eyes should be narrowed in abhorrence and then brightened with rage. Retrieving its horned helmet, the specter snatched the protective headgear out of its opponent's hands. It just didn't realize that act of vanity served as its undoing. Taking the time to place the gear back upon its head left it vulnerable to another attack.

"RHAAA!" The Shadow of Link roared in response to the effort taken for him to lift the warhammer up above his head and then swing forward. He hit the ghostly being directly in its exceptionally broad chest.

The shadowy replica of the Megaton Hammer slammed against the enchanted chest plate of the ghost's cuirass so hard that it left a mighty dent. Phantom Ganon hollered out in agony as the vibrations made the armor ring like a bell, one it was stuck inside of. Not only that, the sheer force caused by the impact of such an oversized maul made the being physically soar across the platform before hitting and becoming entangled in the velvet rope as well as a few of the stanchions. Its instinctual wild flail of resistance exacerbated the situation by causing the revenant to lose its footing at the edge of the platform. Falling off the side, with velvet rope wrapped around it, the entire barrier was pulled off too.

Following the strike, Dark Link stumbled forward with the heavy hammer, nearly dropping it. Taking in account that he wouldn't be able to run with such a large maul, he decided to dematerialize the weapon. Instead of something so hard to use, he opted for his trusty Hero's Bow. Dashing toward the edge of the platform while in the process of manifesting as well as nocking an arrow, once he got to the ledge he immediately looked down at the location he saw the entity fall. Within only a split second of confirming the dimensional ghost was still down there, he swiftly aimed and then let go of the bowstring. He watched intently as the arrow rocketed toward and hit the phantom in the chest. Due to his amazing aim, he managed to strike the spot he'd previously dented, successfully piercing the abnormally thick armor.

"Huaaa!" Phantom Ganon cried out, its arms momentarily lifting and then falling limp at its sides.

Smirking, Dark Link had a feeling he'd delivered an incapacitating shot. He knew it wasn't going to kill the revenant, as he speculated its physical form was incredibly difficult to achieve a permanent death, much in the same sense as himself. Nonetheless, fatal blows such as that were capable of severely disabling it, if not cause a temporary de-manifestation.

"Well… Well… Well…" He harassed the dimensional ghost with more taunts. "Looks like I was right about you not being so tough." Chuckling, he hopped down from the platform. His black leather boots created a cloud of dust when he landed. Keeping a close eye on the downed menace, he continued by saying "I mean, if the Hero of Time could beat you and then his 'worthless doppelganger' did too, then it sounds to me as if you've got a long way to truly acquire the status of being a scourge to any realm, at least any that are the slightest bit important." Coming closer, he scoffed before belittling the phantom more even as he knelt down to examine its grievous wound. "Maybe I'm just wasting my time. Maybe I should let this little baby spend the rest of its existence playing invincible in toy realms while daddy here finds other adults to fix life's problems."

Phantom Ganon made a strange gurgling sound in advance of coughing up a sickening green coloured blood. Its left arm raised up a bit, reached out to the shadow of its greatest opponent and then fell back to its side. Even while hacking on its own vital fluids, it tried to speak, but was too garbled to be understood.

"What's that?" Dark Link huffed with a twisted smile, dramatically holding his hand up to his ear as if to pretend like he couldn't hear. "What are you saying?"

"L-Let…" The phantom spit up more blood before gagging.

Dark Link rolled his eyes at the pitiful sight. However, he really did want to know what the entity had to say, so he leaned closer and tried his best to decipher the muddled words. "Come on now." He insulted "Speak u-..."

Cutting the Hero's Shadow off in mid-sentence, the Scourge of the Multiverse suddenly shot its arm out, latching onto its challenger's throat with an insanely tight grip. It had feigned its imminent death in order to lure Dark Link closer and now that it had him right where it wanted him, it wasn't going to let go. "Let's see if crushing your throat will make you be silent once and for all." Standing back up in spite of being entangled in velvet ropes, it managed to completely lift the tulpa off the ground, leaving the doppelganger's legs dangling while his hands clawed at the phantom's grasp. Applying more and more pressure it said "You make me sick." Then, to throw some theatrical flair into the scene, it spat green blood into Dark Link's face.

Dark Link gasped for air as his fingernails tore at the phantom's gauntlets. "Y-Yes!" He started laughing in spite of being choked to death. "Finally y-you show-... some gusto!"

Phantom Ganon slowly shook its head. "You're insane." Leaning back, it said "You need to be lobotomized."

Afterward, the revenant slammed its head into Dark Link's with as much force as it could possibly muster. The helmet of the dimensional ghost was far more durable than the flesh of anything alive, including the wooden skin of a deku shrub or the scales of a dodongo. Because of the durability and hardness, only a few more brutal impacts were needed to do seriously critical damage to the hero's shadow. Even though the phantom was merely joking, it did precisely as it said by concussing its opponent into a stupor.

Dark Link felt his nose bust, his jaw getting dislocated and then his skull crack, all in under a minute. Blood dripped down his forehead and into his choking mouth. At first, he could see the phantom's horned helmet coming, repeatedly crashing into his head. On the other hand, that changed once his eyes began to swell up from the sustained beating. He soon lost all vision, rendering him temporarily blind. Since he was being suffocated by the ghost's grip, he couldn't say anything either. All he could do was fight back against the entity's grasp for as long as possible. Nonetheless, it was completely hopeless as he was losing consciousness faster than any progress he was able to make. Eventually, while still being headbutted, he felt his awareness slip away. His arms fell lip against his sides and his legs ceased their wild flailing.

Phantom Ganon didn't stop banging its head against Dark Link for another ten seconds. Each additional impact caused the hero's shadow to spasm. The last headbutt was so strong a loud cracking sound could be heard echoing throughout the chamber, likely several of the opponent's vertebra snapping from the trauma. Upon cessation of the bunt barrage, the specter then held out its challenger to observe any signs of life.

Dark Link's glowing eyes were dim, mouth hung open, vital fluids dripping from the gaping wound on his forehead. He wasn't moving an inch.

The Scourge of the Multiverse wiped the dripping crimson blood off its helmet with its free hand, slinging the droplets off to the side where they hit the ground with a quiet plash. Seeing no movement coming from its foe, it felt satisfied that it had accomplished the dirty deed. Except it didn't want to take a chance since it knew the doppelganger had some form of supernatural healing abilities. To test further, it tightened its grip until hearing another loud crack of the shadow's throat being severed. Still there was no movement, not even a wiggle. At this point, Phantom Ganon was certain it was holding a corpse.

"Well…" Chuckling, it slung Dark Link's body against the side of the platform, watching as the corpse hit the wall face first and then slid down into a slumped over position. "Looks like I win."

Turning around, the dimensional ghost bent down to grab its broken weapon. Lifting the remaining hilt, it shook its head before wiping off a bit more of its opponent's blood that was still dripping from its helmet. It sighed at the sight of the ruined greatsword it had come to cherish over the thousands of years worth of time spent in the outer realms. Turning back, it saw that Dark Link's body was in the exact same spot and hadn't budged; still displaying no signs of life. The phantom felt glad that it was able to finally defeat the shadow, but also angered by the fact that he was able to put up such an intense fight. It was pissed off that the doppelganger was strong enough to bust the sword and dent its beloved enchanted armour.

"You got off easy." It prattled on before giving the dead body of the foe a kick. "I should have made you in thrall to me for bringing me here and destroying my stuff."

Grabbing the velvet rope entwined around its chest, it ripped the barrier off with ease, tossing the objects to the side. The stanchions clanked against the tile as the being hovered back up to the platform. Looking down at The Triforce sigil where the shattered remains of the spellbound blade was, its eyes rolled and a deep sigh escaped its non-existent lips. It planned on returning to the cosmic sea and with any hope could go find another dimension with a master blacksmith, one who could reforge the mighty cleaver. However, while it was still there, it had a smidge of curiosity brewing within on how Dark Link could simply conjure any weapon he desired. Throughout all the specter's journeys, it had seen individuals that could manifest particular weapons, but never a wide-array ready at their whim. As a power hungry entity, rather than having to haul around a greatsword, having such an ability would be of tremendous use.

Knowing the matter was of little use contemplating now that Dark Link was dead, it decided to carry onward regaining entry into the phenomenon. Touching down on the platform, it slowly approached the shimmering haze. Since it wasn't in the midst of battle or being watched by a doppelganger, it took its time in examining the anomaly. Looking at it, the phantom noticed the short ethereal strings surrounding the exterior, seeing that they flowed through the air, pulling in a strangely magnetic-like manner. Sticking its hand inside the portal, same as before, it felt absolutely nothing; a complete lack of sensation. Pulling its hand out, it breathed heavily. Gazing around the room, it took one last look at the place that once haunted it, the place it'd keep suppressed from its memory for so long.

Taking a step forward, it was just about to walk into the portal whenever it heard a strange noise echo throughout the chamber; starting out as a metal clanking sound before gradually turning into a heavy shuffling of feet. The Scourge's first thought was that the Hero's Shadow had somehow come back to life, yet the footsteps were too loud and too many to be of a single person. Before long, the top of the intruder could be seen as it circled the platform. Whatever it was, it was tall and what was visible appeared to be made of some sort of metal. When the remaining stanchions surrounding the platform were suddenly pulled off the side, it was another indication regarding how big the unknown presence was.

Considering its proximity to the dimensional rift, there was nothing stopping the phantom from stepping inside. All it had to do was ignore the sights and sounds of the new opponent. It almost did too, taking one more step forward until its body was nearly touching the swirling portal. The only thing stopping it was curiosity in addition to its wounded ego.

'It's not possible.' The Scourge mentally remarked. 'I killed him. He couldn't still be alive.'

Turning its back to the portal, the phantom decided to take one more look at what was currently walking up the stairs. It found itself shocked to witness what appeared to be a gigantic mechanical goat with a humanoid face and horns bigger than the mightiest of bulls.

Due to being made of metal and other non-organic materials, the robotic creature was so heavy that each step it took either dented or cracked the decorative tiles of the chamber's platform. An eerie sound could be heard building up from within its bulky body until it resembled a hissing noise. Staring straight at the dimensional ghost, in a threatening display of intimidation, it pawed at the ground using its left forefoot. Except, instead of waiting to see if the challenge was accepted, it threw its head back, opened its mouth and released a thick cloud of searing hot steam. As the steam escaped, a booming roar reminiscent of a real bovid bellowed along with it.

"What the hell are you?" Phantom Ganon remained utterly befuddled.

In spite of there having been no provocation, the big mechanical goat abruptly charged forward with the intention of ramming the revenant with its imposing horns. The platform wasn't very big and certainly not meant to hold the weight of an enormous automaton, so there wasn't much space separating the two opponents in the first place. Nonetheless, Phantom Ganon was more curious than concerned. Seeing the massive robot coming in hot, the ghost decided to simply float up high enough that the steam-driven goat should go right underneath. Unfortunately, it didn't know the true nature of what the entity was; not even considering the notion that there was more to the uncanny machine than met the eye. As if everything had been planned ahead of time, right when the arrogant specter rose a few feet off of the ground, the robotic goat jumped with all its might.

"Huh!?" Was all that Phantom Ganon managed to get out before the machine's humanoid face was rammed into its torso. The impact had the same amount of strength as Dark Link's Megaton Hammer. Luckily, the goat's massive horns missed, so it wasn't gored to death; yet they were right beneath its arms, preventing it from properly lowering them. Aside from the percussion from being hit by something four times its size, the sheer weight of the monster also forcibly knocked it backward toward the swirling white portal.

Both of them flew inside of the anomaly. As soon as they crossed the threshold of the phenomenon, everything behind them disappeared. The chamber they were just in swiftly vanished without a trace. In place of the entire universe they'd been in, they were thrown out and into a pure white void extending in infinite directions; a place absent of anything other than the two beings. There was a complete lack of sensation. Without the previous realm's atmosphere, there was suddenly no resistance as well as no texture to feel. Since there was no wind, no temperature and no objects, numbness permeated their bodies. In spite of the lack of physical sensation, there did happen to be a deafening swirling sound unlike any known natural noise.

"THE VOID!" Phantom Ganon bemoaned where they'd been transported to even as the momentum from the mechanical goat continued to push the two through the realm of nothingness.

"I'm not finished." A familiar voice came from the mouth of the robot. "I still have to show you my true power!"

Hearing the goat monster speak in a voice immediately recognizable, the specter's glowing eyes widened in utter shock. Shaking its head, it exclaimed "NO! IT'S NOT POSSIBLE! I KILLED YOU!"

"You're stronger than I initially gave you credit." Dark Link continued to speak through the mechanical ram as the two gradually slowed to a constant drift within the pure white background of absence. "But you have far less smarts!" He mortified the ghost with the derogatory statement in advance of laying out the truth. "You didn't kill me, you fool. What you killed was your own chance to willingly join my cause! Because of that, I cannot let you live!" Since the robotic bovid's stoic anthropomorphic face was already pressed to the torso of the phantom, it opened its mouth, twisted its neck and chomped down on the side of the brawny armour.

"UHUAAAA!" Phantom Ganon wailed loudly from the pain of having the side of its chest plate dented in with a loud crunch. Because of the autonomous creature's horns and the way its craned bullneck caused them to be firmly locked against the ghost's left armpit and right thigh, the situation was going to be tough to get free of. Yet, The Scourge knew it had to, at the bare minimum, make an attempt at escape as the monster was beginning to vigorously chew as if it were cud. Its armour, since it was enchanted, saved it from being gnawed in half, but it wouldn't be able to hold up against the pressure being applied to for very much longer.

"You're not the only one who has hopped through dimensions..." Since Dark Link's current form was busy trying to tear through the side of the dimensional ghost's cuirass, he spoke telepathically. "This avatar of mine is Goht, the Masked Mechanical Monster. It came from the same land you had your sword forged at and the spirit of its form has been possessed by me." The echo of his wicked laughter boomed amongst the empty void. "But, don't worry. I won't take your spirit. After I conquer you, you'll become MY puppet… That's all you'll ever be."

The revenant's mind raced to think of a solution to the strange predicament it had found itself in. Following a few seconds of being gnawed on like a crunchy bone, the only thing it could think of to do was to start punching away like a rabid warrior. After a bunch of quick jabs, it raised both of its arms in advance of slamming its gauntleted fists down upon the top of the robotic goat's head. When that didn't cease the biting, it grabbed the machine's masked face and then made the impulsive decision to greatly maim the monster by driving its thick metal thumbs into Goht's bulging eye sockets, squishing its optical orbs to pasty mush.

Feeling immense pain from having its eyes gouged out, the manifestation of Goht let go of the phantom's side, spitting out metal bits of armour so it could jerk its head back and roar in agony.

The Scourge retracted its fingers, slung the blood off them and then began once again furiously punching. It socked the mechanical monstrosity in the left side of the head and then the right. Following several more hooks, it gave the beast an uppercut with enough force to knock the mechanization's hardware around in its metal skull. However, the specter had to stop for a moment after that to shake out the sharp twinge radiating through its hands from repeatedly impacting hardened metal. While its gauntlets definitely provided some form protection, even they couldn't keep its knuckles from becoming bloodied.

Despite the fact that it should have kept its sight trained on its opponent, Phantom Ganon's instincts and fear for its life caused it to look down to examine its body. Its armour had sustained a significant amount of damage from the intense fighting. In addition to the round dent that had been left on its chest plate by Dark Link's Megaton Hammer, the entire side had now been crumpled inward from the robotic goat's mighty bite. Warm green blood dripped from the gaping wound and when it reached down to feel, upon inspection, discovered there were bits of metal shavings from the enchanted armour that had been forcibly embedded into its otherworldly flesh. Though there wasn't a need to be concerned with getting an infection, it was still immensely painful to have sharp foreign objects piercing its flesh wound.

Making matters worse, as the specter was busy scrutinizing how badly it had been hurt, Goht took the opportunity to bash its horns against the being's chest. The momentum alone caused Phantom Ganon to be thrown into a backward spin. Without atmospheric friction or anything to grab onto in order to stop, the ghost tumbled head over heels into the nothingness of the pure white void completely surrounding them.

Recalling the time previously spent in the purgatory, Phantom Ganon did its best to remember precisely how it managed to move about. Back then, only after several months of free-floating did it discover the possibility of being able to propel itself around by utilizing certain spells. However, it also had to concentrate, to use every ounce of willpower within for them to properly operate. It took another year before it mastered the technique; but in comparison to being in other realms for thousands of years, it was a long time ago and something it only did for a short period of time. Nonetheless, since it was currently being assaulted by a demon, it had no choice other than to try and do the actions again.

"I should leave you here, like that." Dark Link stated with hatred in his voice. "Cast into an endless cosmic sea like a rotted piece of driftwood forever destined to spin out of control."

The dimensional ghost spared none of its time to a response, instead choosing to focus on spellcraft. Summoning the needed energy from its core, it first projected a magic yellowish bubble around itself, one that wasn't for protective purposes either. Instead of keeping it safe from harm, the forcefield acted as a nullifier to the force causing it to spin. Unfortunately, the spell did nothing for the backward thrust. Once the power had done what it was supposed to by terminating the spiraling movement, the bubble popped. Still, the phantom wasn't finished as it proceeded to cast another spell capable of correcting its upside-down orientation. Using its index finger as a guide, the magic turned the specter so it was directly facing the mechanical monstrosity that sent it drifting.

"What's this?" Dark Link chortled.

Phantom Ganon still refused to speak. All its effort was put into casting spells. Even though, at this point its body was upright, it was approaching a significant distance between its opponent. It still had to stop itself from gradually floating further away.

"Looks like you really did spend enough time here to figure out how to move around." Dark Link belittled the revenant by doubting the history of what it had been through. In addition to the insult, he used his own overcharged willpower to help the avatar of Goht take steps forward in the void. "Just don't go thinking you're the only one who's done that."

The sight was heart pounding; seeing its enemy move about in the purgatory with greater ease than it ever imagined. Yet, the phantom knew with every fiber of its being that it had to keep throwing spells if it wanted the slightest chance of being able to succeed in such a desolate place. For a split second, it formed another glowing orb at its fingertips; except, this wasn't ball lightning like before. Reeling its arm back, the specter threw the orb like it was casting a fishing rod. The sphere of light shot forward a few feet before coming to a dead stop as if having hooked something in spite of nothing being there. Unlike the orbs from earlier that were used as a weapon, this one left a streak of light that connected to Phantom Ganon's fingertips. Within the next moments, the line of light straightened as if it were a string becoming taut. Since the phantom was holding the other end of the streak, when it ran out of excess length it acted as an anchor, immediately stopping the ghost in place so it was no longer drifting backward.

"Do you think you can do that every time?" Dark Link tried disparaging the entity. "If I just slam into you repeatedly, how many times can you reorient yourself before you run out of energy?" The monstrous goat took several more steps forward in the direction of the frightened phantom, each step becoming quicker than the last, far quicker than the dimensional ghost was capable of moving. "There isn't anything here to siphon the aura from. As soon as your powers are exhausted, you're going to be pretty much marooned here, huh? Sure, you can regenerate magic on your own, but it'll take at least half a century to build back enough to teleport yourself out of here." Acting on behalf of the doppelganger controlling it, Goht cocked its head to the side as if to represent precisely how maniacally ruthless Dark Link was. "I'm not so sure your fragile psyche can handle fifty years of floating around in this forsaken oblivion."

The Scourge of the Multiverse felt its eye involuntarily twitch from the stress and anxiety. It was trying incredibly hard to not listen to the nonstop degradation, on the other hand that was almost impossible as that was the only voice currently in existence. On a deep subconscious level, although it didn't want to admit such a thing to anyone, not even itself, the phantom was beginning to outright fear the being doing this to it. Having been overcome by the very person it was made to defeat, banished by the master who created it; neither compared to the torture it was receiving at the moment.

It couldn't fathom the thought of being stuck in this realm again, so it did its best not to think about the possibility. For the time being, it had to pay attention to its sorcery.

Not letting the approaching camelid scare it into submission, the phantom cast another incantation. Using its opponent as a spatial reference, it repeatedly shouted a phrase in an ancient dialect. Each time the rune was said, the ghost teleported a short distance toward the cloven hooved automaton. After a series of those spells, it managed to get back within range; now a mere twenty feet away.

"Ready for round two?" Dark Link harassed as the avatar of Goht pawed at the nonexistent ground. "Here we go!" He shouted in advance of making a mad dash toward the dimensional ghost. Even though there was no floor to achieve traction, somehow the giant robot managed to come up to Phantom Ganon in the blink of an eye. A loud hiss followed by a gush of steam was emitted from the nose and mouth of the machine. Just like an actual living ram would do, it used its menacing horns by waving its head side-to-side.

Seeing the monster closing in, the phantom changed the incantation to be teleported slightly off to the side. Because of the quick thinking maneuver, it managed to avoid being outright stricken. Nonetheless, the mechanical goat's right horn clipped the ghost's left leg. The horn clanked against its armour without penetrating, yet the issue was the centrifugal force it applied.

Once again, it was about to start spinning out of control. Acting quickly, however, the specter changed strategy. Casting an anchoring spell, it let the orb grow at its fingertips before slinging forth at the rampaging monster. The glowing sphere hit its opponent's back, attaching to him with significant adhesion. Almost instantly after, when the long tail connected to the orb tightened with a whipping sound, Phantom Ganon was physically yanked back into the direction of its enemy. Preparing itself, it used the ethereal strand as a grappling hook that slung it forward. Right when it slammed against the metal side of the robot, it grabbed onto one of the rotating cogs attributed to the machine's clockwork skeleton. The act of the cog's operation brought the revenant upward, allowing it access to Goht's back.

"What are you doing back there?!" Dark Link suddenly changed his tone.

Even though it heard the nervousness in its opponent's voice, Phantom Ganon paid no attention. Thankfully, it still discovered precisely why Dark Link didn't want it to be on Goht's back. Right before the camelid's neck was a giant yellow eye, scrunched to viciously ogle. The specter had never before fought the hooved mechanization, yet due to the eye being so vulnerable, had a nagging gut feeling that was a weak spot.

The anchoring spell fizzled out, leaving the ghost to hold on tightly or risk having to repeat the incantations all over again. Since the cog it latched onto was about to go back inside the armour plating to complete the revolution, the phantom had to eventually let go and make a leap upward at the same time before ensuring that its feet landed safely on Goht's back. The task wasn't easy to do since the robotic menace was still charging away in the plane of absence, but was done. Right after landing and regaining balance, Phantom Ganon took off running up the robot's metal spine. When approaching the eyeball, it reeled its arm back, rotated its hips, shoulders and then proceeded to give a seriously powerful cross punch square to the monster's retina.

Goht came to a screeching halt, rearing back on its hind legs in advance of letting out a horrible roar of pain. It's third-eye clenched shut, with a rather large tear droplet forming from the corners.

Phantom Ganon had to hold on when the robot reared up as that was the only way to prevent itself from falling off. Once the mechanical goat returned to a quadrupedal stance, the specter resumed its onslaught by repeatedly pummeling the eye with all of its might. The best motivation was knowing that losing the battle would likely result in its death. Because of that, it put its back into the attacks by giving the optical organ several straight jabs, a kick and then rammed a knee against hard enough to put a hairline crack in its armour.

"Get off!" Dark Link hollered before making Goht buck like a wild bronco in hopes of slinging the revenant from his back.

Phantom Ganon tried holding on again, but that was significantly more difficult than before since the giant machine was actively trying to lose him. The motion from Goht jumping up and down caused the ghost to be jostled around inside its enchanted suit of armour just enough to make it feel like a chunk of meat sloshing back and forth in a tin can. Unfortunately, no matter its diligent efforts, on the eighth buck it was ejected off the automaton's back, sent flying up into the endless void surrounding them both.

This time, the phantom didn't concern itself with the fact that it was drifting away from the enemy. Now that Dark Link's grand avatar was temporarily dazed, the Scourge of the Multiverse enacted the next part of its plan. It wasn't going to waste anymore of its magic level by reorienting itself or going after the crazy shadow of the hero, it was going to spend its remaining energy on escaping from the white oblivion.

Using memories, Phantom Ganon recalled and tried its best to replicate the ancient sorcery needed to open a portal from within the vast empty hellscape. The task wasn't simple and required multiple unique methods to accomplish. Not only that, the incantation consisted of speaking no known language, instead being that of a highly specific group of notes hummed from deep within the throat.

Meanwhile, for the needed boost, the ghost used its hands to concentrate and magnify its own raw life force. All while flying upward, the process started out as if praying; with its fingers it formed a steeple and then rapidly changed to a multitude of different hand gestures. Rotating its hands, its thumbs hooked one another for a moment until separating. It then raised its arms and clapped. The clap itself caused a small shockwave to radiate forth, but the phantom kept making the hand signs needed to amplify its stamina; circling its fists around each other and then interlocking fingers.

Dark Link needed time to gather his composure after the pain he felt through Goht. Yet, he still sensed as well as felt the shockwave coming from Phantom Ganon's attempt to gather aura. "What do you think you're doing!?" He couldn't stop from letting out a chuckle at the thought. "Are you seriously trying to flee?" Goht shook his head to regain focus and blinked away the tears in its dilated now blood red third eye. "You've got to be kidding me! I wish I had an audience here so they could all bear witness to the magnificent Scourge of the Multiverse running away from a fight!" The demented shadow laughed like the madman he was. "You're not so tough. I bet the subjects you indoctrinated in whatever realm you've been to would have something unkind to say about seeing you tuck your tail between your legs like a scared mutt."

"Shut up." Was all Phantom Ganon said while continuing to make the needed hand signs to amplify its chakra.

All that was left to do was clap two more times, point upward with its index fingers and then use them to draw a circle. While in the process of motioning the shape, a circle of sparks was created ten feet (3m) above, coming into existence as drawn. Still pointing at the circle but approaching it fast, the ghost shouted a series of harmonic phrases. Two golden orbs, one on each index finger, grew to the size of large apples before swiftly shooting toward the circle of sparks. Upon impact with the circle, the golden spheres exploded into a cloud of magical dust which sprinkled across the enclosed shape, causing a new portal to be manifested into existence.

This portal was different in that it didn't have the same shimmering effect as the phenomenon that led them to the void they were currently in. In fact, within a mere second of time, the otherworldly doorway became clear enough for the other side of it to be seen. However, it was obvious the location on the other side wasn't anywhere familiar. There wasn't the same musty chamber of the Forest Temple that they had just battled in; instead the image appeared to be of a strange villa constructed at the foot of an unknown mountain range with odd beehive-shaped abodes built from hollowed-out volcanic rock.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" Dark Link said with a growl in advance of making Goht change orientation. No matter the fact that there wasn't any ground for it to have traction on, it still managed to seem as if it were ascending a slope, headed straight for his opponent.

Phantom Ganon hurried. Despite already flying toward the portal from the momentum of being bucked off Goht, the ghost frantically kicked its feet and did the breaststroke, literally swimming to get to the portal faster. Although performing the act of locomotion didn't really produce much of any thrust since there was no atmosphere to be propelled through, any little bit definitely still counted by assisting in getting away from the insane pursuing demon.

Reaching the portal, the phantom cannonballed through the threshold. Nonetheless, the brutal terrorizer was right behind. The heat of the robot's searing hot steam transferred through the specter's enchanted armour as they barrelled into the dimensional gateway. Since the machine had managed to follow, the best Phantom Ganon could hope for was a chance at escaping while in a different realm, one with physics more compatible for moving around in.

Coming out on the other side of the portal, both Phantom Ganon and the subjugated avatar of Dark Link emerged high above the clouds into an alien world with an atmosphere, gravity and decent temperature. Immediately upon emergence from the Gap Between Dimensions, their molecules were affected by the local reality, pulled downward toward the ground with great force. From the sheer velocity, the phantom felt its body creating atmospheric drag. Goht, on the other hand, was bigger and thus the mechanical stress on it made the aerodynamic heating far worse. The robotic camelid's armour plating gradually reddened as more and more heat was applied from falling through the unknown planet's sky.

Phantom Ganon understood what was happening and decided to lay its arms flat against its side, pushing its legs together too in order to skydive quicker in addition to having less drag.

Approaching the ground, for a split second, the specter took a quick moment to look around at the surroundings. This world was definitely unlike others. There were two suns in the sky; a large red one and a small blue one, their light combined giving off a gentle greenish hue there on the planet's surface. Mountains jutted up from every visible corner of the globe, yet were constantly interrupted by long rolling plains and peaceful valleys. Several other villages and towns had been constructed in these lower areas, clearly made around enormous watering holes. A single big balloon could be seen suspended above the larger cities. Strange flying creatures that resembled a swarm of featherless storks with butterfly wings traveled around the balloons, occasionally landing on them to peck off barnacle bugs with spindly sucker-cupped legs.

Seeing the ground, a marshy swampland just outside of a nearby villa rapidly impending, Phantom Ganon braced for impact. It used a spell to slow the descent a bit, but was going to be in for a rough landing.

Exactly as predicted, the ghost hit the ground incredibly hard, hard enough to report with reverberation that affected the nearby plants by knocking them down. Fortunately, it managed to survive due to hitting at an angle, which allowed all of the mud and mucky water to greatly cushion its fall. Because of the high-speed as well as the angle that the revenant came in at, it also left a huge impression in the soil; a giant rut that extended twenty feet from where its broad body finally came to a rest.

Goht, on the other hand, wasn't as lucky as the phantom. It wasn't nearly as graceful when it came to taking the impact. As an automaton in the form of a goat, it couldn't exactly brace for impact like the humanoid ghost did. The only thing it could do was plummet into the same swamp with stiff legs and its head held high. When it slammed into the mire, its weight and size prevented it from hitting at a slanted angle like its opponent had done.

The machine collided with the ground legs first.

Going in from nearly straight above, the mud buckled nearly five feet, yet after that it was Goht's legs that buckled instead, eventually snapping at the knees from the immense force. Bolts, screws and metal shrapnel flew into the surrounding mud. As for the worst of it, when the monster's frame plowed into the sediment, it caused an effect similar to an earthquake. While a fast traveling sonic boom blasted trees much further away than the revenant did, water and dirt splashed up in a hundred foot radius and the sound could be heard up to five miles away.

Spitting out dirt that had invaded its helmet, Phantom Ganon proceeded to wiggle and squirm its way out of the enveloping mud. Looking like a zombie, it crawled up to the surface before shakily getting to its feet. It groaned a few times, shook its head from discombobulation and then took a look around at not only the surroundings but the fate of its opponent as well. In spite of the fact that it had felt the second impact from Goht hitting, it had been too concerned with itself at the time to realize what that was. So, the ghost was surprised to see that the evil automaton had been entrapped in mud and had hobbled knees. However, when the shock wore off, Phantom Ganon knew it had to act fast if it were to take out the enemy while the mechanization was incapacitated.

Dazed from the fall and hurting badly from breaking all of its legs, Goht made several high-bleats of distress before shaking its head. More steam was ejected from its nostrils. No matter the critical condition it found itself in, it refused to be utterly defenseless. Watching the dimensional ghost making a run toward it, the machine used its head to lunge forward with the intention of biting.

Phantom Ganon struggled to move quickly in the murky water and surrounding sludge. It barely managed to leap out of the way in order to avoid being gnawed on again, or worse. Except the problems just got started as, upon landing with a small splash, the specter happened to tumble into some of the local flora. The plants resembled orange cattails in the shape of a magatama. Rather than releasing fluffy white plumes of seeds, in response to being disturbed, they released a sticky substance which caused them to stick to the being's enchanted armour. "W-What in the hell? What are these stupid things?" It cursed as it yanked them off its chestplate, cuisse and grieves.

Dark Link noticed his opponent struggling from the sticky alien plants and took the opportunity to try and gore with Goht's enormous horns. After emitting another hiss of steam, it craned its neck, aiming its left horn at the revenant in advance of taking a hefty swipe.

Luckily, Phantom Ganon saw the attack that was coming and ducked. The horn went right over its helmeted head, totally missing. After seeing that it was safe, the ghost resumed its struggle to free itself from the strange alien plants. Swiftly ripping them off its armour, it then immediately took off running again, moving as fast as it could before abruptly hovering up into the air several feet off the ground. Floating allowed the specter to avoid the mire as well as the flora with adhesive properties. In doing so, it flew to and reached the mechanical menace within a flash, coming right up to the creature's head so that for a split second they were face-to-face with each other. Even then, Phantom Ganon didn't stay for long. Almost immediately afterward it used some of its energy to teleport itself onto the robot's back.

From Goht's perspective, the Scourge of the Multiverse phased out of existence. In reality, the warrior specter moved so fast it couldn't be seen with the naked eye. The monster couldn't see what was happening, but it knew precisely when it felt the eye on its back being gouged. "NO!" Dark Link cursed.

"You're damn right!" Phantom Ganon rankled its arch-nemesis while flattening its palms and forcefully cramming both hands underneath the eyelid of the mechanical camelid's vulnerable third eye. The ghost cupped its palms and began tugging on the eye.

Goht bleated in anguish with its purple metal plated tongue jutting out from the intense agony.

Nonetheless, the phantom didn't stop. It doubled-down and pulled harder on the eyeball, going so far as to use its thumbs to really dig into the demon's sclera for a better grip. When it yanked hard enough, it eventually felt the suction give way; the eye socket releasing the hold on the optical organ.

Again, Goht bleated loudly, shaking its head side-to-side as it desperately attempted to do anything it could to remove the phantom from its back. "BASTARD!" Dark Link grew furious that it was so difficult to defeat the dimensional ghost.

Pulling the machine's eyeball from the eye socket, Phantom Ganon stumbled backward; held back from falling off the creature's spine only by the connected and pulsating optical nerve endings constructed out of plastic tubing, metal hoses and electrical wiring. Wasting no time, the phantom reached around to the back of the twitching eyeball, grabbed onto the nerves, then twisted while pulling to detach them with excruciating bruteforce.

As soon as the artificial veins and arteries were severed, the ghost held on tightly to a nearby plate as Goht let out a final bellow of searing hot steam and gave a weak buck in a failed last ditch effort to remove the specter from its back.

Unable to fight back any longer, the monster collapsed back to the ground with a thud. So much damage had been inflicted to it that it could no longer function. The initial impact in the swamp devastated much of its internals, its broken legs that were snapped at the knees had been leaking oil, it had already had two of its eyes gouged out and now its third had been plucked from its head; all of these injuries combined caused the robot to short circuit in addition to malfunction just prior to shutting down. As power was lost, the primary and auxiliary generators audibly wound down due to their motors ceasing operation. When the hydraulics failed, its head also hung limp.

"AHA!" Phantom Ganon exclaimed with glee while triumphantly holding up the monster's dislodged and severed eyeball. After staying quiet for so long to concentrate, it relished the opportunity to celebrate its own victory. "I DID IT! I KICKED YOUR ASS!" It laughed vehemently. "You beat the shit out of me and gave me a real scare, but in the end I gave you more than you bargained for and killed you twice!"

The fresh corpse of Goht remained motionless as Phantom Ganon stood in a victory pose with one foot atop the machine's head and the dislodged third eye held up like a gladiator with a trophy. Dark Link's consistent lifelessness was a good sign that he had truly been defeated this time. On the other hand, the ghost still didn't want to take any chances, especially not after having previously been proven wrong. Because of the fact that it wasn't stupid and quickly learned from mistakes, the phantom decided to wait around a little while longer in order to specifically ensure that it had indeed killed the opponent and wasn't being fooled for a second time. It doubted the shadowy doppelganger would be capable of regenerating into a third form, but without experience there was no way to tell.

Only whenever the entire surface of Goht started changing to a darker hue did the Scourge of the Multiverse feel more confident in Dark Link's end of life. In the fashion of a chameleon, the dead mechanical monster's skin blackened, putrefying into a dense clump of dark magic material. That wouldn't have been enough to satisfy; though thankfully the specter also took note of how the body very slowly began to shrink into an amalgamation, a blob of pitch black raw essence burning off into the ether.

"I did it…" Phantom Ganon said to itself as it started trying to catch its breath.

It winced in pain, its glowing eyes narrowing to slits as it groaned. Tossing Goht's rotting eyeball off to the side, the ghost then hovered away from the corpse, floating over to a nearby patch of solid land. Upon reaching the dirt, it lowered to the ground, took a few increasingly wobbly steps and then fell to its knees. Grabbing onto its side from where it had been bitten, the phantom examined how its blood was beginning to coagulate. To make matters worse, it coughed up a bit of its green vital fluid, proving that it had likely sustained internal bleeding from crashing into the swampland. Holding its hand to its chest, it also groaned a whine as the Megaton Hammer had definitely broken a rib.

Collapsing further, the specter stopped itself from face planting in the dirt by using its arms to keep itself propped up. Still, it breathed heavily. Crawling forward on its hands and knees, it made about twenty feet (6m) before utterly keeling over. Rolling over onto its back, the phantom spent the next several minutes catching its breath and trying not to pass out.

No matter the desire to do so, it wasn't given very long to recuperate as less than a minute later it heard an approaching squelching sound. The revenant's glowing eyes immediately widened. The first thing on its mind was the possibility that the noise could be Dark Link, that the malicious being could have somehow come back to life for a second time. Although Phantom Ganon had waited around and seen several signs that the shadowy doppelganger had indeed been given a true death, it wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if that was all another farce. Thankfully, upon turning its head, the ghost found itself pleasantly astonished. Instead of Goht or Dark Link, what it saw was a group of creatures coming closer who were vastly different from anything else it'd ever seen.

From the nearby village that was seen from above, coming to investigate the tremendous commotion were a race of extradimensional beings that resembled globs of off-white adipose tissue. They were very tall, averaging in around fifteen feet (4.5m) high. All of them had four tentacles on their oval shaped bodies that they used as appendages. They also had two eyestalks on top of their head and a bigger eye in the center of their face. Despite having no legs, they effortlessly slithered across the dirt like oversized slugs. Rather than having a mouth, they had a strip of baleen. While they likely consumed a multitude of substances in order to support the metabolism they had to have at their size, it was obvious they used a method of filter feeding to naturally capture smaller insects as bugs could be seen caught in the keratin patch on multiple individuals.

Showing evidence of intellect beyond that of mere primitive instinct, they traveled as a military unit in triangular formation with three teams of four. The middle group was slightly ahead of the others. Three-fourths of them held onto heavy wooden sticks that had round volcanic rocks attached on both sides while the rest of them utilized four odd staves that were actually a single spear divided into parts but capable of interlocking mid-air when thrown in unison.

Phantom Ganon rolled over onto its stomach and propped itself back up, trying to get to its feet. But, before it could stand, it found itself being surrounded by the entire squad of jiggly aliens.

The only sounds was that same squelching made from them leaving slime as they slithered. They didn't seem to be capable of producing speech or any other audible noise that might count as a known form of conversation. On the other hand, they clearly did have a way they communicated with each other as they were too in sync with one another to be totally socially isolated. Together, they acted as a troop. The frontline infantry, those with the big clubs, were sent in first to investigate the foreigners as those with the spears hung back at a safe distance.

"What the hell are you all looking at?" Phantom Ganon angrily grumbled as it finally stood up; hurt and in no mood to deal with extradimensional entities.

One of the beings nearest to the specter scooched closer, its eyestalks reeled back with caution, neck cocked to the side and weapon ready to use at a moment's notice. A greasy substance visibly leaked from every fold on its lumpy body. The closer it got, an unusually spicy smell permitted the air until becoming thick and almost overwhelming. All the other aliens were on high-alert in response to this scent. Doing its job by attempting to examine the intruding anomaly, the closest native then gingerly reached out with its top left tentacle to try and touch the equally odd humanoid.

The Scourge of the Multiverse narrowed its eyes in annoyance over the whole matter and coldly swatted the unearthly being's appendage away. "Don't touch me, you freak."

Even though the tension of the scenario was high to start with, the creature would have just been insulted were its tentacle slapped for merely trying to achieve tactile sensation. But, it was completely taken aback by precisely how strong the ghost was, not expecting the gentle smack to tear the cartilage in its arm. The native's appendage reflexively retracted and as a counteract to the pain, began releasing a more watery citrus substance that smelled like lemons. Phantom Ganon might not have understood what the alien was doing by changing to a different scent, yet in actuality, that was truly how it communicated. By letting out a variety of pheromones, the bizarre aborigine was capable of warning the others that the specter was considered a danger to them.

"You reek!" Phantom Ganon coughed before using its waning energy to float off the ground. It didn't want to smell the fatty slugs anymore and hoped a brief display of its powers would discourage them from any further interruptions. "Leave me be and I'll do the same to you!"

The entire group of locals jolted back in shock that the foreigner could fly. However, things didn't go as planned. Instead of making an immediate retreat, they made the rash decision to attack. Like unsophisticated primitives, they were scared of what they didn't know and to them it was far easier to first and then study later. So, with the initial blow having been made, they responded aggressively. Five of the alien tribals slunk forward, grabbing onto the specter's legs before pulling it back down to the ground. In unison, they proceeded to beat their crude weapons against its superior enchanted armour. Using all four tentacles, they tossed their sticks back and forth as if they were twirling batons, all the while forcefully bashing the caps of volcanic rock against the interloper.

Two more soldiers joined in the foray with their unique methods of fighting.

Phantom Ganon smacked away a couple of them and punched one so hard that its head collapsed into itself. "I just can't catch a break today!" Not really wanting to fight a bunch of big but puny aliens, it decided to summon a blue orb at its fingertips, distracting the confused creatures in advance of leaping up higher into the air. "There! Catch me now, you rum bastards!"

Nevertheless, the real challenge was yet to come. The ranged units, with their fascinating projectiles, were ruthless. The natives who stood far enough away to properly target began chucking their spears. In a highly coordinated fashion, they used all four tentacles to toss their four separate pieces at the exact same time. Each piece flew several feet (2m) in the air prior to combining in mid-air; perfectly carved grooves being used to aerially interlock them. It served a greater purpose than aesthetics too as the act of combining added to their weight in addition to their velocity.

Several of them missed, but the spears that did hit proved to be quite detrimental. Every one of them that struck against the specter's enchanted armour left a serious dent. Although they didn't manage to penetrate, their impacts could definitely be felt. Not only that, it caused the phantom to fear the possibility of one stabbing through the weak spot where Goht had gnawed.

Lowering itself back to the ground helped discourage the long range adipose aliens from throwing their spears because they didn't want to chance hitting their own troops. Except, by returning to the ground, the ghost was once again immediately subjected to being beaten by the frontline infanty's crude weaponry. While it was being assailed by twirling volcanic rocks, it narrowed its glowing eyes; hands balling into fists due to becoming increasingly angry. Not only was it mad that it was being attacked by natives, it was also furious it'd been taken away from the personally forged kingdom it had been building for centuries.

"That's it!" Phantom Ganon shouted furiously. The orb it had summoned got bigger and bigger until it had to use both hands to contain the energy. Only when the attack was ready did the ghost drop the glowing sphere of magic beneath, letting it fall atop the closest fatty aliens. "Fuck all of you!"

No longer was the specter just trying to just scare the natives away. When the oversized spell hit the group of seven mighty assailants, they were all severely electrocuted by the enormous discharge of energy. As the electricity coursed through them, they dropped their weapons and their blobby bodies shook violently. Some of them began to smoke while a couple had their eyestalks quite literally explode. By the time the sorcery was completed, they had so much amperage coursing through them that sparks shot out the tops of their heads.

One of the extradimensional beings couldn't physically take it, its body stiffening and darkening prior to turning into an odd powdery substance that resembled ash. The other six melted into a smoldering pile of fat tissue.

Seeing that seven of their troops bit the dust and that their weaponry had little to no effect on the intruder, the remaining natives scattered, fleeing back towards the safety of their village while leaving behind a smeared trail of sour scented slime. They obviously had some sense of self-preservation since they didn't want to risk fighting something so powerful it could kill a bunch of them at once. Even though a couple of them threw a few spears as they retreated, it wasn't anything that the ghost couldn't dodge. By now, Phantom Ganon didn't care what they were off to do, it was just relieved they were leaving it alone.

Breathing heavily from all the action and enraged from the constant disruptions, Phantom Ganon raised its arms and shouted to anyone who might hear it "Does anyone else want a piece of me!?"

It continued to seeth for the next thirty seconds until it finally caught its breath. Looking around, the ghost made sure there weren't any more locals coming to test its strength. Thankfully it didn't see any more of them nearby, just those slinking away. Nonetheless, it knew that it needed to get a move on with creating another portal lest it stay too long and risk encountering fauna far worse than the adipose slugs.

"I need to get out of here." Phantom Ganon calmed itself in advance of beginning its incantation, humming from deep within the throat. Concentrating its chakra, it then began performing the necessary hand signs, starting with the steeple. Right after interlocking fingers, the specter rotated its hands until its thumbs hooked together. Following pulling its hands apart, it held its arms straight up, slammed its palms together to create a shockwave, circled its fists, interlocked its fingers and clapped two more times.

The phantom was almost finished with the ancient spell to open another portal whenever it heard a voice come from behind. The voice was the same familiar one that was dreaded and made its green blood run cold.

"And leave me behind?" Dark Link growled.

Spinning around while continuing to do the spell, Phantom Ganon bore witness to Goht's blackened remains shrinking down to a much smaller size. Instead of being a giant mechanical goat, it had been reduced to an amorphous blob of darkness about as big as a large dog. However, it didn't continue to get smaller or rot away to nothingness. It stopped disintegrating, remaining at that size before suddenly sprouting a pair of tentacles that were much longer and spindlier than the arms of the native inhabitants.

"No…" Phantom Ganon lamented with widened eyes before pointing up and drawing a circle to complete the spell.

"Oh yes…" Dark Link mocked as his shapeless shadowy form hovered toward the cowering revenant. "I keep telling you that I'm not going to die until I do what I was made to do. Until then, you and everything else is just an obstacle, a challenge to be overcome." Chuckling, he said "You've made me regenerate so many times that I'm almost out of energy myself. I don't even have enough to hold together a solid form." The chuckling soon turned into boisterous laughter. "It doesn't matter though, because I guarantee this will be the form I use to steal your spirit."

"WHY WON'T YOU DIE!?" Phantom Ganon ferociously screamed at the top of its lungs.

The ghost's heart started pounding out of its chest as the situation fully dawned that it had indeed been fooled for a second time. Previously thinking that it was definitely done with the doppelganger this time, it couldn't believe that the opponent had come back to life again, especially after all the damage that had been dealt to him. A part of the specter wondered what would be required to really destroy the self-righteous tulpa, but the rest was genuinely terrified and far too concerned with making an escape to a dimension closer to the one it considered home to care.

In its wounded state, the Scourge of the Multiverse didn't want to go up against its rival again. Since it had opened a portal, it decided that the best course of action was to get away. While it wouldn't admit to fleeing, it knew its only hope at ditching the demonic replica of the hero was going to be by leaving him behind. Taking that into consideration, the moment the universal gateway spun into existence with an arc of lightning, without even waiting to visualize what was on the other side of it, Phantom Ganon didn't hesitate for a moment to dive straight in.

"Oh no you don't!" Dark Link in his amorphous form scuttled faster, managing only barely to jump into the portal behind the specter a millisecond before the rift fizzled out of reality. "You're not going anywhere until you belong to me!"

Phantom Ganon had hoped the enemy wouldn't reach the gateway in time, but was immediately left frustrated upon seeing the black blob follow. "I can't… This can't be it." It began to mentally break. Its breathing quickened as it decided to try and open another portal right off the bat.

To the dimensional ghost's dismay, its plan was temporarily halted when it roughly emerged on the other side in a far more violent manner than before. Where it emerged happened to be a location in outer space; although exactly where was impossible to tell. For the time being, all it could see was an unfathomable number of white stars dotting a black stellar background as well as a nebula in the near distance with thick purple clouds of material.

Nonetheless, the vacuum effect of the cosmos made the initial journey so immensely turbulent. The effect was sucking the atmosphere of the prior alien planet right through the portal as if it were a straw. Only when it eventually closed did the effect ebb off.

The injured revenant and desperate Dark Link floated in a similar manner to how they did when they were outside of the space-time continuum. On the other hand, something even stranger happened as an opaque forcefield abruptly phased through them before both were suddenly hit by a gigantic object that was drifting out there in the cold emptiness. Slammed against its hard surface, it took them a moment to figure out what it was. Prying themselves up to take a look, it turned out what they collided with was the front of a huge metallic starship. The space-faring vessel was an oblong shaped capsule with a single cylindrical tower atop as well as massive thrusters at the rear. There were numerous antennas all around it, many of which blinked with red bulbs of light. Although there were no windows anywhere in the hull, there was an observation dome built into the top of the tower. Humanoid silhouettes could be seen shuffling around underneath it.

Suddenly five additional crafts showed up from around the sides of the bigger starship. These were much smaller, spherical, painted white and appeared to act as escorts for the mothership they traveled with. Instead of a window for viewing or even a dome, these miniaturized vessels had cameras they used to see around them; two in the front and one in the back. Each had a single spotlight attached to the bottom which they used to illuminate Dark Link and Phantom Ganon, in addition to a strange quadruple ringed cannon-like weapon they took aim at the two with. It was unknown whether they were piloted, unmanned or even what type of creatures might be controlling them. What really mattered was whether or not they were going to be aggressive. For the time being, they seemed more inquisitive, likely curious as to how the entities got there as well as how they could possibly be surviving in the vacuum of outer space.

"By the flabbergasted gods of fate…" Phantom Ganon stated in shock at witnessing such advanced technology. Its eyes narrowed to a squint from the drones' spotlights.

A loud crackling sound followed by a short screech came from one of the closest spheres before an undulating voice spoke with an electronic undertone in an unknown language. "Deagdo mef nigan. Ouw ooft pirnol, zeep nok nok yowlbaftir? Isa Twafen? Zelch?" After that, a static sound was heard prior to the speech switching to an entirely different language that consisted of a series of tongue clicks, lips pops, teeth clacks and throaty noises. Not long after finishing the sounds, the same static was emitted from the speaker of the spherical craft before it projected a third language made entirely out of mechanical beeps and boops.

Clearly, the vessels were trying to communicate with the two, trying to find words they could understand. Unsurprisingly, likely due to originating in another realm with its own set of unique languages, neither Dark Link nor Phantom Ganon could understand what the spacecrafts were trying to convey.

Without indication of anything else being awry, a muffled klaxon-like alarm echoed through the thin atmosphere within the forcefield. The red beacon lights atop the antennas started rotating while flashing to represent the emergency. A heavy clank reverberated throughout the big starship's hull before metal security plating rolled down the observation dome, enveloping it in additional shielding. For even more safety to the inhabitants, the tower itself very slowly lowered down into the inside of the spaceship's main body in advance of being sealed over by giant automated hatch doors. It might not have made any sense to either dimensional intruder, but it was obvious that whoever was in control of the vessel had chosen to institute a lockdown in response to the crazy situation.

"That can't be good." Phantom Ganon stated in regard to the noise as it started climbing up the sleek side of the starship, hoping to reach the top to open another portal.

"I don't care what's happening around us." Dark Link snarled ferociously as he proceeded to make chase. His tentacles seemed to stick to the hull, allowing him to move faster than his opponent. "All that matters to me is making you a part of my grand plan. I'll go through a thousand realms if that's what it takes to capture you."

Without delay, the spherical drones started making a humming sound. In the next second, the cannon-like weapon they all had aimed at the duo began charging up. One out of four of the rings on the device lit up, then two, then three. After the fourth circle lit up, the tip of it glowed a bright red. Before either of the intruders could make it to the top of the massive spacecraft, the escorts revealed that the cannon-like weapon was in fact an incredibly advanced ray gun capable of emitting deadly laserbeams. Shooting their lasers, the scouts initially missed and struck beneath the interlopers, managing to singe while otherwise not affecting the durability of the hull itself.

Nonetheless, as the drones oriented the continuous red beam of condensed light at them, Dark Link and Phantom Ganon both quickened their pace, not wanting to find out precisely how badly it would hurt to be hit by the alien laser beam. Phantom Ganon was first to reach the top of the ship, its gauntleted hands grabbing onto an antenna in order to assist in the ascent. Except, Dark Link was right behind and grabbed onto its leg.

"Got you!" Dark Link growled as he tugged on the dimensional ghost's leg, preventing it from fully climbing up onto the top.

Phantom Ganon kicked its free leg at the tentacle. "LET ME GO!"

Momentarily forgetting about the pursuing drones and their powerful ray guns, Dark Link got so caught up in trying to tear the specter's leg off that he wound up being the one getting harmed. Several laser beams from the nearby spherical scouts struck the black amorphous blob directly in its back. Although it was predicted that it would be painful, it was surprising exactly how devastating to him that the sophisticated alien technology was. Not only did the laser hurt worse than an arrow or a sword, it pierced through his body with an intense burning sensation so strong it disrupted his shapeless physical form. For the split second it took for him to respond to it, his shadow body violently vibrated and then attempted to separate at the spot it was being attacked, which failed considering the red ray penetrated all the way through him.

"Oww, Shit!" Dark Link cursed at his rotten luck as well as the searing pain he was in.

He knew he needed to deal with the foreign machines if he wanted to focus on his true victim. Letting go of Phantom Ganon, he temporarily switched targets. Using both tentacles to wrap around two of the offending drones, he fought through the agony while proceeding to use the captured crafts as makeshift hammers. Within a flash, the remaining three escorts were destroyed. He smacked the miniature crafts that were on the left and the right so hard that they flew out of the starship's forcefield, wildly spinning into the depths of outer space. The drone in the middle was utterly smashed between the two caught in the grasp of the shadow's tentacles and then those two were simply crushed like tin cans.

Phantom Ganon took the opportunity given to escape while the attacker was occupied. Using the antenna it still held, it finally managed to climb up on the roof of the starship. Looking down at the stern of the vessel where the thrusters were, it noticed a multitude of identical spherical drones on a rapid approach to its position to serve as back-up for the others. Not only that, gazing beyond them and at the surroundings, the specter saw there were two more starships following behind that were equally as ginormous as the one it was currently standing on. The ghost blinked, shook its head in total awe at such a sight and then got its priorities straight by performing the same ancient spell it needed to open another portal to another realm.

"I'M COMING FOR YOU!" Dark Link spoke from behind as he started climbing up to the rooftop to join the specter.

The Scourge of the Multiverse took off running, all while making the hand gestures for the spell; steeple, thumb hook, parallel arms and a clap.

"Are we leaving again?!" Dark Link taunted upon seeing his enemy attempting to open another portal. "Good!" He heaved as he lunged forward. "I'm not a big fan of science fiction!"

"SHUT UP!" Phantom Ganon interrupted its throaty humming just to yell back at the wicked being. Afterward, it resumed yet continued to run across the roof of the starship. In spite of the fact that it was darting toward the incoming fighter pilots, that was a better option than standing still. It hoped and prayed that if there was even an inch of luck left within, it'd get the next dimensional gateway open before running across them or getting caught by the amorphous blob from hell.

"COME HERE!" Dark Link's voice twisted into a demonic tone as he moved faster and faster.

The ghost quickened its pace as well in order to stay ahead. Circling its fists, it interlocked its fingers, clapped twice more, pointed up and then used its index fingers to draw the entrance to the next portal before shooting it with a golden orb. Same as with the previous creations, a dazzling spark swiftly zipped around the entry until the gateway itself was gradually manifested into existence. The phantom purposely conjured it a slight bit further away this time so that at least a glimpse of what was on the other side could be seen. Sure enough, when the portal cleared, the image of what appeared to be a back-alley between brown clay bricked buildings could be seen in addition to a blue sky above. There was no way of telling exactly where that was, but the specter felt anywhere was better than floating in space. Besides that, maneuvering would be easier if it were back on a planet and had solid ground to walk on.

Right as the approaching squadron of drones made it to their position, Phantom Ganon leapt into the portal.

Dark Link was right on the trail, but the alien crafts had precharged their ray guns, causing him to have to dodge their laser beams. Even without eyes, he saw the gateway beginning to close by shrinking. One of the rays hit him, burning the core of his amorphous form. Pushing through the pain, he started making himself smaller by stretching his body as much as he could in his stamina exhausted state. After getting as thin as he could, right as the drones targeted him, the interloper sprung forward, barely succeeding in getting inside the portal before it closed on him.

Phantom Ganon came out of the portal onto another planet. Unlike the area between the hull of the spaceship and its forcefield, the atmosphere here was thick in addition to being capable of supporting life. Exactly like previously seen from the other side, the ghost arrived in the middle of a dank back-alley during the day. The surrounding buildings were four to five stories tall as well as all made of a similar shade of brown or red clay bricks joined using gray mortar. Most of them lacked windows while those that didn't only had small ones. Nonetheless, there were heavy wooden doors attached to all of them. Metal trash cans filled with assorted rubbish littered the way. A couple of metal sewer grates on the cobbled ground spewed forth a smelly steam. Laughter could be heard from within one of the structures, plus people talking, glass breaking, a dog barking and a strange honking sound coming from off in the distance.

"This seems more familiar." The ghost said before taking off running down the alleyway.

Dark Link emerged from the portal a few seconds behind his opponent, barely coming through before it closed. Still, he saw the specter running down the alleyway and began the chase anew. "Oh P.G.!" He harassed as his tentacles used the brick walls to propel him forward. "You're not going to lose me that easily!"

Running into and knocking over one of the metal trash cans, Phantom Ganon kept going, not stopping even while glancing back at the enemy to see how close he was.

"Oi, bub. Spare me a penny, eh?" A dirty, near-toothless, homeless, heavily tanned human man dressed in soiled rags and huddling in a large cardboard box begged, holding out his hand without so much as a glimpse at who he was speaking to. However, once he actually opened one eye enough to see why the individual he heard was running, he was absolutely stunned by Phantom Ganon's size as the specter passed by as well as confused by the antiquated armour it was wearing "Yo, the fu'k?"

Despite the surprise, the bum's heart metaphorically dropped in his chest and blood ran cold when he spotted Dark Link in pursuit. To him, the black amorphous mass looked like a demon. "LORD ABOVE!" He shouted as he jumped up onto his grungy bare feet, crashing backward into his own box in order to press himself against the wall. His jaw hung open and his eyes were wide as he watched the two move past him.

As soon as the extradimensional visitors ran by, the hobo fell to his knees, threw a green glass bottle of alcohol against the wall across the alley and sighed as it shattered into a bunch of shards. "I-… I-… I gotta quit sloshin' that shite."

Sprinting to the end of the alleyway, Phantom Ganon saw a left corner leading around the bend, but was moving so fast there was trouble stopping in time. Although it tried to turn, it slammed up against the wall with a rather rough impact on its injured side. Gritting its teeth from the sharp pain, it pushed itself off the wall and kept going, making the turn to exit the alley.

"You're just going to piss me off if you keep running!" Dark Link hollered with a guttural undertone as he used his tentacles to turn the corner much smoother than his opponent did.

Coming out of the alleyway, Phantom Ganon once again found itself flabbergasted at the differences of the realm it was in. Just like from the backside, the mass produced brick and mortar multi-storied buildings surrounding them were unique. From the front, there were bigger windows and more doors that led inside. A couple of people ambling around from within their homes could be seen through the windows. Strange tall metal poles stretched electrical wires to each structure.

The street itself which led through the uncanny town was paved using concrete blocks. Incredibly advanced horseless carriages zoomed up and down the road, serving as transportation for the local populace. While the vehicles did vary slightly in colour, each one had a boxy metal frame with leather or fabric seats on the inside for people to sit. Pneumatic tires seemed to replace the familiar wooden wheels of normal wagons. Other accessories made it far more sophisticated than any horse driven buggy. An Acetylene lamp attached to the front of their frames provided ample light for seeing in the dark, small mirrors hung from their roofs so they could see when in reverse, they even had a machine capable of converting water vapor into cold air. Yet, none of that was as impressive as the steam engine operating them at a whopping eighty horsepower.

As the Scourge of the Multiverse ran out into the street, the honking noise it had heard from earlier turned out to be the horseless carriages. Several drivers of the vehicles blared their horns and some swerved to go around. Unfortunately, to the dismay of the specter, a significantly larger steam-powered buggy which appeared to be hauling wooden boxes was unable to stop in time even though it attempted to apply its brakes. The hefty automobile honked its much louder horn as its air-filled rubber tires screeched on the concrete pavers. No matter how hard it tried to stop, the automobile couldn't avoid crashing into the fleeing being.

Phantom Ganon felt the impact as the enlarged steam-powered buggy hit, but didn't even realize it'd been taken off its feet until it had already been thrown clear across the street into the display window of a nearby building. It shattered the window and landed amongst several wooden dress forms with fashionable gentlemans town coats and ladies suits on display; none of which served well at cushioning the collision.

"OI!" The shopkeeper on the inside, a tanned brunette human woman in a blue pioneer dress, screamed out in surprise before berating whoever just trashed her shop. "That's gonna take a fortnight of me own stipend to reconstitute, you douchenozzler!" She appeared from around the corner with a broom to both beat the person who broke her window as well as sweep up the glass. However, when she saw the mighty revenant lying injured on top of her products, she just screamed at the top of her lungs. When she saw the being getting back up, she then started hollering for local law enforcement "OVERSEERS! HELP! HELP!"

Not bothering to deal with the shrieking lady, Phantom Ganon got up and started running again. It wanted to use its abilities to fly, but after traveling to several different realms in such a short period of time, its stamina was nearing depletion. That last thing it wanted to do was waste what little magic it had remaining within whenever it knew it was going to require the reserve to open another portal; hopefully one which led home. Considering that, it just sprinted out the broken window and down the street, not looking back as it feared it would be caught by the ensuing monster.

"OI!" The balding guy who was driving the enlarged buggy spotted the dimensional ghost, pointing it out to the people standing by his wrecked vehicle. "That's him! That's the jumbo bumpkin in the ol' knight drag who ran smack dab into me truck!"

The three individual's the man was talking to were tanned humans as well. They donned gray double-breasted frock coats with the word 'Overseer' written on the back in bold gold embroidered white lettering. In addition to a gold badge and red armband representing the authority they held, they also had a strange, rectangular, single-buttoned communication device pinned to their outfit. Their brown leather cross belt circled their chest and connected to a black braided duty belt that had attached to it a steel whistle, several pouches, a polished wooden truncheon and a leather holster with a handheld cannon. Topping it off, they wore custodian helmets and also had a miniature rotating red light built onto the top of it to catch the eye of anyone around.

"Oi!" One of them shouted while pointing their truncheon at him. The little rotating red light on the top of his helmet became active. "You there! Stop where you is, big man!"

Without a doubt, Phantom Ganon didn't cease its hasty retreat no matter what the realm's local authorities had to say. By this point, the being decided to begin trying to open another portal. Since it was injured, bleeding out and its magical abilities were waning, it knew that might be the last time it could create a dimensional gateway for a while; at least until its aura rejuvenated. Sprinting down the center of the road, it commenced the required croaky throat humming while also performing the needed hand gestures.

"This be the New Catalina Civic Authority! Stop right now in the name of the law!" One of the overseers with gold stars pinned to his uniform collar detached a whistle from his belt in advance of blowing into it. "You is gonna be sent off to the pound for disturbin' the peace and resistin' arrest!"

Pressing the button on his communication device, another pursuing overseer informed his comrades "Oi! I done buzzed for a paddy wagon! We'll need backup to take down this hulker!"

Several oncoming horseless carriages swerved and/or applied their breaks in order to avoid the interdimensional intruder. For a while, the Scourge of the Multiverse used that to its advantage as the pursuing law enforcement stayed off to the side in order to not get hit. However, after another minute of bolting down the concrete pavers, it saw a different kind of steam-powered buggy coming around from around the corner a block ahead.

This one was black and similar in length to the trucks transporting consumer goods, except its bed was covered with a tonneau. As it turned, the word 'Overseer' could be seen painted on its doors in white, but the words 'Civic Authority' were plastered on the engine bay's hood. Rotating red lights oscillated from atop its roof as well as a blaring two-tone emergency siren to signify they were in a hurry. Accelerating towards the scene, other vehicles even got out of the way for it.

Phantom Ganon was halfway through the hand gestures needed to open another portal when, out of nowhere, Dark Link landed directly in front, no more than a single yard ahead. It was so shocked that its feet slid out from beneath it, causing the ghost to tumble onto its rear.

The whole time the specter had been dashing through the streets, the amorphous blob of darkness had climbed atop the buildings and had been traveling across their rooftops so he could cut his challenger off at the pass. "AHA!" The crazed tulpa jovially shouted while using his tentacle to grab onto his opponent's left foot. "I GOT YOU NOW!"

"FU'K!" The leading overseer fell back in fright upon seeing the shapeless mass with octopus arms.

"OI! WHAT THE HELL BE THAT!?" Another screamed.

"LORD, DAMN THIS THING!" The third joined in on exclaiming as he pulled his handheld cannon from his holster, already in the process of taking aim at the formless evil. "IT BE A MONSTER, EH!? KILL IT!"

Together, the three overseers used their firearms to shoot at the sheer horror. Aiming, all they had to do was pull the trigger for the hammer of the device to hit the primer of the bullet, then a projectile was fired out the end of their weapon's barrel. Empty shell casings shot out the side of their guns as their three lead bullets flew through the air before impacting the amorphous blob. The ammunition was utterly ineffective against him, yet the humans weren't content with the attempt as they continued to barrage him with their five remaining bullets; fifteen total projectiles colliding into the demonic darkness.

Unlike with the laser beams from the outer space drones, this realm's law enforcement was unable to harm Dark Link. Their bullets went through him as if he were nothing more than a hazy thundercloud. On the other hand, while still holding onto his opponent, he decided it would be best to try and intimidate the lesser beings into submission as it would be easier to deal with his primary target if he weren't being pestered by humanity. Using a minute amount of stamina, he added onto his body by manifesting an unnatural gaping mouth with sharp saliva soaked fangs. After roaring at them so loudly drool was expelled forth, he utilized an extremely deep voice overlaid on a demonic undertone to scare the pursuing humans. "STAY AWAY FROM ME OR I'LL KILL YOU!"

"I'm doin' a bunk!" One of the overseers of the trio said as he spun around and retreated. "I be damned if that bugaboo is gonna snatch my shite!"

The other two started reloading their firearms. However, they didn't continue their approach and chose to begin backing up instead. In the meantime, the incoming 'Paddy Wagon' with reinforcements had finally arrived at the scene; siren whooping and red light oscillating. The steam-powered buggy applied its breaks, screeching to a halt twenty feet (6m) from the formless blob and dimensional ghost. The vehicle's carbon-arc searchlight came to life to shine upon the monster in the street, but was completely ineffective in illuminating any of its amalgamated body. Numerous humans in civic authority attire hopped out of the buggy. Having heard the bullets discharged from their comrades, they immediately drew their weapons and opened fire upon the two beings from a different realm.

"OI, WHAT THE F'UK IS THAT!?" One of the overseers said.

"Our bullets be useless against it!" Another hollered as he tried taking shots at different spots on the amorphous blob. "Someone hit it with the gas!"

The human who had been driving the steam-powered buggy ran around to the side of the vehicle. He opened a compartment, pulled a gas mask over his face and then grabbed a canister with a rubber hose attached to it. Sprinting over to the shadowy abomination, the overseer aimed the tube in addition to turning the valve on the top of the canister. A thick cloud of yellow smoke was ejected along with a loud whooshing sound. It gradually enveloped the two intruders.

"What the?!" Dark Link was confused by how he began to feel a tingling sensation from the chemical agent. To his dismay, the pins and needles feeling swiftly turned into a burn that increased tenfold.

Phantom Ganon, in spite of still trying to claw its way out of its opponent's grasp, also felt the sting of the gas the courageous overseer sprayed. "MY EYES!" It coughed and winced as its eyes watered profusely.

However, Dark Link turned out to be the one who was more affected by the chemical compound than The Scourge. Somehow, the volatile gas disrupted his otherworldly composition, causing his molecules to literally vibrate apart. "These knuckle draggers won't quit!" His voice warbled and then slowed to an unnatural pace. "Oh hell no…" He knew right away how much havoc the weapon was causing to him. Although initially he didn't believe them to be capable of such harm, because of the trauma being sustained, he had no choice other than to initiate combat with the local populace to cease their interruption of his plan. "NOW YOU'VE DONE IT!"

In the moment it was released, Phantom Ganon got back to its wobbling feet before hastily limping out of the yellow cloud of toxic gas. Taking the chance given to by the divines, it fled onto the sidewalk so it wouldn't be struck by any other vehicles. After a solid minute of hacking the poisonous chemicals out of its supernatural lungs, it started up the heavy throat singing as it needed to restart the entire ancient gateway spell due to be interrupted. Not bothering to look back at the madness unfolding behind, the ghost also started performing the required hand gestures as quickly as possible; steeple, hook, clap, etcetera.

Dark Link wrapped one of his mighty tentacles around the overseer who was in the process of gassing him, squeezed him so hard his eyes popped and head nearly exploded. Then as the injured, panicked human screamed through his gasmask, the incredibly enraged tulpa stuck the top half of the man into its monstrous mouth and effortlessly bit him in half. The horrified officer's sounds of distress ended immediately upon being chomped into. Blood soaked torn gray uniform as well as tanned rent flesh mashed between the demon's enlarged fangs while the majority of the upper half of the overseer's body was swallowed whole. In advance of being tossed aside like garbage, the human's severed nerve endings caused his lower half to reflexively twitch, but his upper half forcibly slid into the center of the amorphous darkness where it rapidly dissolved into a gooey mess of organic fluids mixed with freshly stripped bones.

"LORD ABOVE!" Several of the overseers shouted together in total despair. One of them even vomited his lunch onto the ground upon witnessing his partner's managed body being devoured by the black amalgamation. A couple of the humans remained, shooting their worthless bullets all in vain to bring justice for their buddy. However, most of them as well as the surrounding populace ran away as fast as they could, hid inside buildings or sped off into the distance.

Phantom Ganon succeeded in finishing the spell as its enemy dealt with the realm's authorities. Ending by drawing out the portal, just like previous times, one manifested a short distance in front. Holding onto its side, the specter dashed forth. Except, this time it decided to take a brief glance back in order to see how far away the horrid abomination was. Right as it hobbled across the threshold of the dimensional gateway, it felt a wave of relief wash over due to the fact that Dark Link was still a decent distance back, currently using his two tentacles to flip the local authority's so-called 'paddy wagon' out of his way. Spinning back around, without a care as to where it was going to be taken next, the ghost focused on running through the portal to get as far away from the maniacal demon as possible.

Coming out on the other side, it fell a few feet (1m) before collapsing onto a stone platform. The drop hurt as it managed to bend the phantom's breached armour in a way that the metal sliced into its ghostly form. It wheezed loudly as all the breath was taken out of its lungs upon impact with the hard floor. No matter the green blood coughed up or that seeped from its side, pooling around it, all it cared about was keeping wide-eyes glued on the portal. It watched the gateway for the few seconds that felt like an eternity, heart racing as the rift began to dissipate. Once the portal shrunk down to nothing and the sparks that created it fizzled out, the revenant let out a long exhale that willingly expelled what little air it had remaining.

"I did it…" It uttered in near disbelief before getting louder with delight. "I did it!" Letting out windy laughter, it wildly slammed its fists against the floor from the glee of successfully escaping. A single tear from all the stress rolled down its pure black cheek. "I permanently left that horrid tyrant behind in a totally different realm!"

Catching its breath and bringing its crazed laughter to an end, it leaned up. Looking down, it groaned from the gaping wound on its side. By now the specter had lost a lot of blood and was beginning to feel woozy. However, since it had finally managed to get away from Dark Link, it was free to either seek assistance or deal with the injuries on its own.

Wincing, Phantom Ganon got to its feet but fell right back to its knees, barely catching itself with its hands as it was feeling weaker and weaker. Its fingers slid a bit against its own blood when it tried standing again. Thankfully, the ghost managed to keep upright on the second attempt.

Looking around at the surroundings, even though it was exhausted, weak and completely depleted of manna, the phantom realized where it was. The place wasn't the realm it had come to call home, but still somewhere it was able to recognize. Somehow, by luck or fate, its last portal took it back to the secret chamber in the Forest Temple of its native dimension. At first the specter wasn't positive whether or not it was at the actual location or a parallel world; on the other hand, sure enough, its broken sword still laid amongst The Triforce sigil on the ground. Other bits of evidence, such as the fallen stanchions and velvet rope, smashed floor tiles, cracked wall from where it was thrown and bits of metal from its armour confirmed it was indeed in the same location it had been at less than thirty minutes ago. The phantom didn't know why it had been brought back there, but without its arch-nemesis threatening its life, the silence, stale air and dusty room was a great comfort.

Taking deep breaths, it latched onto its side. Having an idea, it grabbed a hold of its ruined cleaver and then used the remains as a makeshift crutch. The situation was sad, almost shameful to it knowing it was in such pitiful condition. Since the phantom couldn't dwell on that for long, it decided to think about finding somewhere to hunker down. Although it wanted to go find a healer who would either willingly or forcibly rejuvenate it, the being knew it wouldn't be able to walk out of the accursed temple, let alone the Forbidden Forest while as physically diminished as it was and certainly not while losing so much blood. The ghost then figured it was best to locate somewhere to tend to its wounds on its own for a while, it just needed to think of where. Speculating, it wondered if it could stay where it was since the place was an actual safe room, but it was unsure and felt sheer dread regarding the location.

The indecisiveness was a failure on its behalf. As it stood there contemplating where to limp off to like a dying dog, a familiar buzzing sound made it queasy. Before it could react, a portal manifested into existence directly above its head. Since the phantom wasn't the summoner of this gateway, it feared for the worst, anticipating its own demise. It tried to flee, but the very demonic being appeared who it had been trying so desperately to run from and for such a brief time thought it had escaped.

Quickly slipping through the portal, the shadowy amalgamation proceeded to land on the dimensional ghost, easily knocking it flat on its back against the platform.

"Surprise!" Dark Link laughed with an undulating devil voice. Roaring in his opponent's face with his disgusting blood soaked maw, he continued to hold the brawny specter down as he said "I guess I never mentioned that I can open portals too, huh!?" Bits of flesh from the human he had just killed fell upon the dented helmet of The Scourge. Still cackling like a lunatic, he admitted "Okay, I might not be able to open portals to all the crazy places you just did, but I can open one back to this dimension."

"Damn you… DAMN YOU TO HELL!" Phantom Ganon wheezed, spitting up blood as it tried to resist. Its arms buckled from the weight of the abominable tulpa.

Dark Link just chortled. "Hell? What, you're religious now? Please…" Opening his gaping mouth unnaturally wide, the hinges of his jaws cracked. The dark mass started heaving while making a vile retching sound. Putrid corpse juice dripped from his fangs. Before long, he puked up a deluge of blood mixed with bodily fluids, all of which splashed upon his opponent's face and covered its cuirass. Regrettably, he wasn't done as he then proceeded to gag in an almost nauseous cat-like manner until finally ejecting atop his rival the overseer's gorey skeleton, which was held together by nothing more than stringy ligaments and partially dissolved cartilage. "There's no god or goddesses here to help you, even if they actually wanted to. No, buddy. No… It's just you and me."

Phantom Ganon, disregarding the mutilated remains and stewed human blood, tried giving a punch only to have its arm forced against the ground. "This can't be happening." It whimpered.

Snarling at the being, now that he was back in Hyrule, Dark Link began gathering enough raw magic to transform again. He wasn't able to completely revert back to his infamous doppelganger form mimicking that of the real Hero of Time, however he managed to reform his hylian torso and head while keeping the tentacles for arms. His lack of legs didn't bother him either since he was able to locomote just fine without them.

Now that he had identifiable facial features, he rolled his glowing crimson eyes. He wasn't really sorry for what he had done, just feeling a pinch of pity for the specter since it had once been screwed over like him by the very man he ultimately wanted to kill. "I tell you what…" The shadow of the hero smacked his lips, eating the human blood painted on his lips. "If you swear your allegiance to me, right now, I might- just might let you live."

"W-What?" Phantom Ganon quivered, narrowed its eyes and then spat its green vital fluids at the monster pinning it down. "Eat shit and die." It insulted the demon even in the face of death. "I'll never swear my allegiance to you or anyone else. Just do it… Do it… Kill me, you fucker!"

Dark Link used his tongue to lick up some of the phantom's green blood before cocking his head to the side. All of a sudden he acted serious and in a certain sense, he was. He was really taken aback to hear the ghostly entity refuse a potential chance at not being destroyed, no matter the fealty that had to be acknowledged. Nonetheless, he blinked and asked in order to make sure. "You're serious? You're so against helping me save all of reality that you want me to just go ahead and kill you?"

"Do it…" Phantom Ganon repeated.

Chuckling and shaking his head, Dark Link remained surprised at the ghost's choice. Then again, he knew what he had to do, especially seeing how he was literally being encouraged to do so. Utilizing his two tentacles, he wrapped them around the wrists of the phantom and then lifted him up off the ground. Two more tentacles emerged from his torso, immediately slithering forth to wrap around the being's ankles. As soon as the phantom was held up high enough, his appendages were spread. "Just know that this brings me no pleasure to do." The shadowy doppelganger ended their conversation. "I would rather have had a genuine partner than a zombie." Afterward, he gave a single nod in respect to his opponent's decision.

In the blink of an eye, Dark Link's tentacles constricted, crushing Phantom Ganon's wrists and ankles to chunky bone meal in advance of snapping back with far more force than necessary. The sheer power of the pull was immensely overpowered, not only dislocating and snapping its arms and legs from their sockets, but also brutally amputating by altogether ripping them off the phantom's torso. Without its appendages, the dimensional ghost plummeted and clanked against the ground with a thud while screaming from the intense mind melting agony. Dark Link simply dropped his opponents detached arms and legs before approaching the now limbless specter body that was writhing in pain.

Not saying a single word, Dark Link's four tentacles gradually reeled back like snakes getting ready to strike. Lashing out, in a split second before impacting, the tips turned into proboscises resembling that belonging to huge mosquitos. They struck as well as pierced the revolting mangled gouges where the phantom had been dismembered, causing it to let out an ear-splitting cry as they forcibly wiggled deep inside.

Dark Link started heaving again, but this time instead of vomiting, he opened his mouth to let out a fifth tentacle that was thicker than the other four. This last one looked different as instead of a proboscis it had a small toothless mouth with teeth shaped like little hooks. Strange as it was, it acted similar to the others by lunging forth. It struck, bypassing the metal helmet and latching onto the specter's face, right over the ethereal screaming mouth.

Letting out an exhale, Dark Link began retching a different substance than the corpse soup from earlier. This time it was a black chunky ectoplasm. The concoction quickly began pumping not only from his mouth, but his arms as well, coursing through the tentacles as if they were enlarged intravenous tubing.

Phantom Ganon squirmed the best a quadriplegic could before the solution spat out the ends of the tentacles, flooding its insides with the unknown syrupy goo. Even as the specter screamed, liquid poured down its throat until it choked and fluid splattered out the sides of its mouth.

Dark Link's eyes suddenly rolled back in his head while Phantom Ganon's did the same.

Following less than a minute of being forcibly injected, the ghost started becoming corrupted. Pulsating black veins emerged from every pore and orifice, completely enveloping not only its body, but armour as well. The more of the fluid that pumped inside its shattered body, the more the web on the outside slowly thickened.

All of the sudden, Dark Link's quintuple tentacles swelled further; tumorous masses the size of cucco eggs gradually being squozen through them. Once the lumps reached the phantom's dismembered body, the appendages bulged from the resistance in addition to the buildup of condensed black magic. The shadowy doppelganger appeared to momentarily choke before pushing harder. After giving it his all, the accumulated pressure eventually caused the eggs to penetrate the specter's dying body, stuffing them inside its stumps and down its throat. When the masses had gone as deep as they could, he continued applying the revolting black goo to pack them into place.

The tentacle invading the phantom's trachea was the first to be removed, sloping out of its throat before retracting back inside of Dark Link's. Phantom Ganon's body convulsed as more goop flooded its insides. Only after the foul smelling concentrated juices ran out were the other four tentacles then removed from the dismembered gore holes with an exceedingly strong yank. Unlike the one that went back inside the shadow of the hero's mouth, these appendages didn't fully retract, they just pulled back away from the dead opponent prior to combining into two normal, completely functional arms. With minor whirling of the sorcery it was made out of, Dark Link also materialized his legs, which sprouted from beneath him.

Now that he was back in humanoid form, Dark Link took several steps back. He smirked, coughed harshly from all the vile regurgitation, wiped his lips and then merely watched the result of his labour unfold in front of him.

Phantom Ganon's torso continued to wildly convulse as the thick webbing of pulsing unnatural black-veins proliferated its entire infected cadaver. Its mouth reflexively fell open, sloshing out some of the putrid stew that had been forcibly pumped into its stomach. Fresh green blood quit gushing from the being's dismembered limbs only to be replaced by excess spit up bile which also eventually slowed to a mere drip. The dimensional ghost's eyelids quivered as the purple flames of its rolled back eyes diminished down to a smoldering nothingness. Its body soon began to contort, writhing like a bug for thirty seconds. As the phantom involuntarily thrashed upward, a single heavily restricted gasp for air escaped its trembling lips before it collapsed dead on the cold ground.

Ten seconds passed with the ghost's dismembered body lying utterly silent and totally still. Just when Dark Link inquisitively cocked his head to the side, it took a deep breath. Its neck suddenly snapped to the side and then forward with an unusual cracking sound. Looking like it was having a seizure, the phantom's head jerked back and forth as the possession initiated the indoctrination of the newly captured spirit.

While still creakily convulsing, more of the revoltingly tainted fluid was ejected from its heaving mouth. The smoldering smoke where its eyes once were soon spontaneously reignited; except the fire replacing it burned bright red instead of searing purple. An ominously distorted scream escaped from the phantom's lips as it momentarily stopped thrashing. Out of nowhere, octopus-like tentacles emerged from the gorey stumps where the revenant had been violently dismembered. These appendages looked exactly like Dark Link's, but were instead connected to Phantom Ganon. After sprouting, they rapidly grew until they matched the size of its original limbs. However, in spite of looking immensely unnerving, they soon transformed into new arms and legs. Smokey black clouds swirled around them and once they dispersed it was as if the specter had regrown its previously severed limbs, the only difference being that they lacked the enchanted armour the entity had always prized itself on obtaining.

"Rise my puppet." Dark Link commanded.

Phantom Ganon kept lying motionless on the ground for another ten seconds. It blinked numerous times but acted braindead.

"Rise my puppet." Dark Link repeated. He was beginning to wonder if he'd done something wrong. Termina as well as a few other realms were the only places he'd actually enthralled powerful spirits to his servitude. Although he had briefly tested his intense possession skills on the local wildlife of the Forbidden Forest there in Hyrule, they were lesser life forms in comparison to more sapient entities such as the one he was currently trying to indoctrinate. "Rise and do my bidding."

Thankfully, it proved to just need more time as upon hearing his voice again, the phantom's head swifty snapped upward and its red eyes stared blankly at him. Its newly restored arms and legs twitched as if they were waking up from a long slumber. Aside from its creepy wobbly head, when it got up off of the ground, it moved in a very slow zombie-like manner. The fact that it wasn't steady on its transplanted feet wasn't a good sign either. None of the other captured individuals were so heavily affected by the curse. On the other hand, even as it stood there hunched over, it finally responded by speaking with a raspy wheezing voice. "How can I assist you, master?"

Dark Link shrugged at the strange progress, yet smirked that he got any result at all. "That'll do." He said in response to the delay. "I'll tweak what I can through magic manipulation until you're not so-... dumb."

Getting right to the point, he then said "Let's go see who else we can recruit."