CHAPTER 2: UPHEAVAL

They'd been walking for hours now, descending deeper into corridors and passages that hadn't seen light in centuries, at least. Zelda kept her torch aloft in her hand, watching her steps as she carefully walked down the unevenly carved staircase, and Link stayed in step with her, always at least two steps behind. "This strange gloom keeps getting thicker..." Zelda noted. Link nodded, she was correct. It was barely perceivable up inside the castle, almost like a fine dust. But down here, in the air around them, it floated around them almost like the smoke and embers of a fire. It wasn't anything like the puddles that had been reported on the surface, but it was thicker nonetheless.

They walked lower and lower until they turned the corner to a cave lit by clusters of luminous stone, and that led to more stairs that went even deeper. Link and Zelda both let out an exasperated sigh. "We've been descending for a while now... These tunnels are deeper than I thought. What could be down here?"

Link could only shrug. "More stairs?"

Zelda smiled at his comment, then sighed again. "I never imagined this was all deep beneath Hyrule Castle... When I was a child, I asked my father if there was anything below the castle. He told me there was, though seeing it for ourselves or even discussing the matter was forbidden. No one in our family knew anything more than that."

Link observed Zelda as she continued, "I can recall what my father said, even now. 'No one must ever venture beneath the castle – not even one of us.' He said this warning had been passed down through my family for as long as anyone could remember."

"Yet, here we are," Link said. Zelda nodded.

"We need to continue to explore this underground area, forbidden or not. The source of the gloom is down here somewhere. I am determined to discover the connection between this place and the emergence of the gloom."

They were silent for a while, before Zelda broke the silence. "Let's keep on going. We're sure to find some clues to all of this ahead." Zelda started moving again, and Link followed.

As they walked gingerly, Zelda was constantly scanning their surroundings, and watching the gloom around them. She spoke to herself, "People have been falling ill after coming into contact with the gloom drifting through these caverns. Though here it seems almost misty, and not concentrated enough to harm us..."

Zelda briefly thought about turning back. A small part of her begged her to turn back, but she steeled herself. "We'll keep going. With it coming up from beneath Hyrule Castle..."

Believing that she had reassured herself, Zelda turned and addressed Link, "We do not know what waits below, so we need to be ready for anything. But I know I'll be okay with you, Link."

Link gave a small smile and nodded. The two of them took the next set of stairs down. "I didn't even think people could dig this deep," Link observed.

"People can't," Zelda chimed. "The mines dug out by the Gorons stretch down far into the bedrock, but they are more suited for deep mining than we are."

"So this place was dug by Gorons?" Link asked.

"I... can't say for sure," Zelda conceded. They walked in silence for a while, and then it was broken by the sound of an ethereal chime. Startled, Zelda and Link whirled around for the source of the sound. Link saw nothing, but the same couldn't be said for Zelda.

"Link! The Master Sword..."

Link looked over his right shoulder to where the Master Sword sat in its sheath. He pulled it partway out, and the dim light of the sacred blade was clearly visible, accompanied by a low hum. The Princess and her knight exchanged a worried look. The blade only glowed in the presence of evil. "It must be sensing something! I knew we had reason for concern... We must be careful as we move deeper." Link let the sword fall back into the sheath, and the two of them carried on in silence.

A short while later, they entered a ruined hallway. Unlike the last hour of the cave, this hallway was constructed from evenly shaped bricks and pillars. Link kept walking forward, and didn't notice Zelda falling behind until he heard a sharp *CLICK* echo behind him. Turning around, Link observed Zelda on her knees in front of a fallen mural, holding a slender tablet-like device in her hand: The Purah Pad, Link recalled. It was built as a successor to the Sheikah Slate that Link had previously been familiar with. This model however, was more simple and stripped down, removing most of the Slate's rune capability in favour of becoming a research tool. Notably, it retained the camera functionality, which explained the sound that Link had heard.

"Link! Look here!" Zelda's eyes were wide with excitement. "These are ruins from an ancient civilization. Wait... Something is written here. Might the ruins be... from the Zonai?"

At the mention of the word "Zonai," Link immediately went to Zelda's side. He wasn't as knowledgable as Zelda or any other researcher on the people of ancient times, but even he knew that anything to do with the Zonai was a holy grail. Zelda rose to her feet and started scanning the walls of the hallway like a child looking for sweets. Zelda meticulously documented every square foot that she could, The shutter of the Purah Pad closing and opening as if it were an eye that needed to blink. "These carvings... I'm sure they're Zonai in origin. I've seen designs like this in my studies."

She turned to Link excitedly, and found him staring blankly, trying to understand. She cleared her throat and clarified, "The Zonai are said to have lived long ago, in the time of earliest legend. They possessed godlike powers and had a prosperous civilization in the sky. Many history books tell us about the Zonai, but none gives us the full picture. Much is still unknown about them." Link slowly nodded, believing he was starting to understand.

Zelda captured some more images, and put the Purah Pad away. But when they walked a bit further and found a statue seemingly depicting one of these ancient people, the Pad came back out and began shuttering once again. "Is this what the Zonai looked like? They seem so different than us, and such large ears... How did the ruins from a civilization in the sky end up here beneath the castle?" She inched her way around the statue, capturing every angle, and caught something in the corner of the eye. She paused, turned to glance, and chuckled. Link looked quizzically at her, and she moved the torch to illuminate the end of the hall. "More stairs," she quoted. Link couldn't help but chuckle as well. "It looks like the path ahead goes even deeper. Let's continue, Link."

Zelda put the Purah Pad into a holster on her belt and lit the way forward. As they descended another staircase, Zelda continued her train of thought, "The ruins we're seeing down here... I'm certain this all must be from the Zonai civilization. I would never have dreamed we'd find traces of the Zonai down here in this forgotten place."

Link absently watched her as she kept talking, "Zonai... The very word has an air of mystery. The Zonai civilization comes up again and again in history books, but none really tells us much about who they were. One thing historians have been sure about is that the Zonai existed during a time of great significance... When Hyrule itself was founded. Given that Zonai ruins are right here, under the castle... Hm... It's strong evidence that the books are correct – the Zonai and Hyrule shared some sort of history together. What are you looking at?"

Link snapped out of his reverie. He'd been staring at her. "U-um... I..."

Zelda placed a hand on his forearm. "It's okay, Link." Their eyes met in the darkness. Link snapped his mouth closed, and turned his gaze away sheepishly. Zelda did the same.

"I... I wonder what more we'll discover as we go farther." Zelda stammered out. Link nodded and they started walking again. Both were grateful that the dim light of the torch hid the blush on both their faces. At the bottom of the stairs, they froze in place when a screech broke the awkward silence. Zelda turned to Link, "Monsters?! Down here?"

Link stalked forward to get a better look. In the next chamber, he heard multiple creatures skittering, following some flapping noises. A small wave of relief flooded Link. It was just a couple of ordinary keese, not super deadly on their own, but they knew where to make you hurt. If it had been a swarm, or one of their elementally imbued relatives, however...

He drew the sword, which glowed a bit brighter now, and strode into the chamber. In the indirect light, he made out two shapes flapping in the shadows. They picked up the sounds that Link made and each turned their singular eyes onto him, diving towards the knight with a high-pitched squeal. With expert technique, Link swung the sword twice, and both creatures dropped to the stone floor in multiple bloody pieces.

Link stared at the two dead keese on the ground, and nearly missed the *WOOSH* sound behind him. He spun just in time to grab a third keese and stop it mid-flight. It screeched and scrabbled in his grasp, trying to inch its way closer to the intruder. With both hands, Link threw the creature to the ground and drove his blade through its eye, at which point, it immediately stopped its fluttering.

Zelda dashed into the room, hearing the commotion. "You're not hurt, are you, Link?" Link turned to Zelda and shook his head. Zelda gave him a once over, and smiled when she was satisfied that he was uninjured. She turned her eyes from her companion to the expansive chamber, and let out a wide-eyed gasp. Link looked in the same direction, and his eyes widened as well. Carved into the wall before them was a series of large, elaborate murals. "Look at these murals..."

Zelda took a step forward to examine them further, stopping in front of one that depicted a veritable army of bokoblins and moblins littered on a field of black and red. As Zelda scanned the images, she stated, "The written histories of the royal family include stories of a great war fought long ago. It was a conflict between allied tribes and someone only ever referred to as the Demon King... Is it possible? Do these murals depict the same legend?"

Zelda almost ran to the far end of the chamber, where the murals began. If her eyes could go wider, they would have at that moment. Front and centre on the first mural was an image that Link and Zelda had already seen down here once. "This is similar to the statues we saw earlier – a Zonai. And these figures... look like Hylians!" Indeed, there were a line of humanoid reliefs carved into the stone below the Zonai figure, the pointed ears on them clearly identifying them as Hylians. Curiously, they were all joined hand in hand. "This depiction certainly suggests that the Zonai descended from the heavens..."

Another gasp escaped Zelda, and she moved to examine the next mural: a Hylian woman and a Zonai figure facing each other, joined at the hands. Floating above them were two teardrop shapes. Lines carved into the stone gave the illusion that they were shining. Link noted that the previous mural contained seven of those shapes.

Zelda scanned the mural with her eyes as she spoke, "It is said that my ancestors – the first of Hyrule's royal family – were born from a union with gods who had descended from the heavens. These murals tell a similar story, and if they are accurate, then the gods mentioned were the Zonai. They must have forged a relationship with the Hylians of that time, working together to establish... the kingdom of Hyrule!"

It was Link's turn to go wide-eyed. Much of the kingdom's origins were apocryphal, but if this depicted the true founding of Hyrule... This was a historical find that people would kill each other to have the chance to present first.

Feverishly, Zelda moved to the next mural: the Hylian woman laid dead on the ground, and a large male figure stood above her body, his eyes crazed. He held an arm in front of him with another teardrop shape floating in his hand, this one bearing an ominous red colour. "This figure... he seems to be stealing something of incredible power from the young kingdom. This all aligns with what I've read during my studies. And then this... It shows the Demon King!"

Zelda sprinted to the mural showing the army of monsters, and looked at the other half of it. The large figure carved into the stone made Link's blood run cold, though he couldn't think of a reason why. The figure was of the same man as the previous carving, but now he sported horns as he led the army forward. "If the creature here really does represent the Demon King, then... oh, incredible! This mural must be the great war recorded in the royal histories! This is the Imprisoning War and the events that led up to it!"

Zelda whirled on Link with a wild excitement that he'd never seen before. "Link! This is a huge discovery!" She reached down to her belt with her free hand and fumbled, trying to undo the Purah Pad's holster with one hand. Link stepped forward, taking the torch from her. Zelda gave him a grateful smile as she activated the Purah Pad again. "I'm glad I didn't leave this behind! It's so easy to record, you point it and click." With a press of the button, the shutter on the front clicked and captured the murals in quick succession. She only stopped when a pile of rocks came into view on the screen. "Oh, it looks like the rest of the murals are obscured..." Looking away from the Pad and with her own eyes, she saw at least a third of the remaining wall had a large of boulders piled against it. The smallest one was waist-height on Zelda. No way to move these themselves.

Conceding defeat on this matter, she holstered the Purah Pad, and took the torch back from Link. "I can't tell you how excited I am. The murals down here – their images support so much of what historians have written about." Zelda smiled, and then it faded as she pondered, "I find myself wondering... how did this area come to be so forgotten? Why was our history left hidden here? Did the royal family in those ancient times want this place and these murals to remain secret and out of sight?"

Link was just as stumped. "I... I don't know." Link was still somehow unnerved by the mural of the Demon King, but he didn't let it show, keeping up a neutral mask to hide the uneasiness.

Zelda shook her head, "I can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something here. Why would anyone want to keep this whole area a secret? It can't be because of what's shown in those murals..."

They turned to the end of the end chamber to the only other point of interest, a stone arch that preceded another hallway. "I can only hope we'll find more answers farther below. Link, let's keep moving deeper."

The gloom stretched from thin wisps into thick ribbons as the pair walked through the archway. Suddenly finding it harder to breathe normally, Link inhaled deeply. Zelda tugged at her own collar in kind. They both paused at the end of the hall, finding a staircase which led even deeper, into what looked like a thick cloud of gloom.

Zelda broke the silence, "The gloom is growing heavier as we go. It's more and more unnerving..."

Link turned and looked at her for a moment. "Do we go back?"

Zelda met Link's eyes, then turned back to face the darkness. She was silent for some time, before answering, "I... don't like the look of this. But we must find our answers, Link."

So they continued on, both of them keeping a stoic mask up as the walls that surrounded them turned from carved pillars and bricks back into roughly hewn cave walls. It was clearly visible where the ones who constructed this place had chosen to stop their progress. Or where they had been ordered to stop...

Deeper and deeper they went... until they thought they saw a colour that wasn't black or red. Through the haze, shades of green and blue faded into view. As they got closer, it got brighter and brighter, though they weren't sure if this was real or a trick of the eyes. Zelda took a step off the bottom of the stairs and let out a sharp gasp, as if she'd received an electric shock. Link was at her side instantly. "Zelda?"

Zelda took a moment to compose herself, "That green light in the distance..." The pair finally registered a clear source for the new light. It was still obscured by the fog, but they knew now it wasn't a trick. "I'm having the strangest sensation. This is all-" Zelda paused as she retrieved her waterskin and took a large swig, "-so ominous." Before Link could suggest turning back once again, Zelda was already walking forward. Link followed, being ever so obedient.

The Princess and her knight walked a few more steps, breaking out of the gloom's haze. And they stopped dead, for they now stood in a chamber far larger than any of the previous ones they had trekked through. "What is this place...?" Zelda whispered.

In the darkness, colossal spikes jutted out the walls, pointing into the centre of the cave where a raised circular platform stood. And on that platform was the source of the gloom. The specific source wasn't able to be seen from this distance, but the thick, opaque cloud that surrounded it was unmistakable. The only other visible detail was a trail of green light, so bright that it was nearly blinding. It spiralled out and away from the cloud, curling around a spike that pointed straight down. Straight down... towards the cloud. Another quick glance revealed that each of the spikes jutting out of the wall was pointed perfectly towards the same spot in the middle.

Zelda clenched her free hand. It wasn't because she wasn't shaking. She turned to Link, looking for a hint of apprehension, anything that could possibly justify the part of her that was screaming to get out of here. Instead she found... that look. The look that said 'Whatever decision you make, I trust you. I'll follow you through it, and I'll keep you safe, no matter what.' Zelda swallowed the fear in her throat as her heart grew warm. "...Let's continue, Link. But we must be extremely careful." Link slowly nodded.

There were no more stairs past this point. Zelda led the way down the path with Link trailing behind. The path switched back once, before leading straight to the raised platform. The gloom grew thicker once again, but parted for the two of them, as if it was being repelled. The Master Sword shone so brightly that light could be seen shining out of the scabbard, illuminating the sword's guard. Their bodies ached, their hair clung to their faces with sweat, and there was an inexplicable weight on each of their souls, but they were so close now.

Finally, the gloom thinned out, and they got close enough to lay eyes on the source. "What is that?" Zelda wondered aloud. Through the gloom, they found... a man? Not exactly.

Whoever stood in the centre of the room had once been a man. Now he was just a mane of dull red hair, leathery skin, and dried muscles stretched taut on a frame of bones. Zelda looked at the jewellery he wore, and took a mental note: 'A... Gerudo?' Male Gerudos were exceedingly rare, almost unheard of. The only other male Gerudo that Zelda could even think of was one who was the villain of a few of the countless retellings of the Legend of the Hero. She hoped that this specimen before her would be kinder than the one from the stories.

The glowing swirl that reached to the ceiling started from the stump of an old disembodied arm, its owner nowhere to be found. It wasn't lost on Link and Zelda how the arm's palm looked to be stuck to the man's chest, as if it had once been holding him back. From what, neither of them could say.

The light started to dim, and soon, the cave was only lit by the torch Zelda was holding. The arm dislodged a bit, and eventually collapsed off of the man's chest to the ground. Something came away from it, ringing like a bell as it bounced across the ground to her feet. Zelda bent down and gently prodded the tiny teardrop-shaped item before picking it up. Link's eyes never left her, and he stood ready to act if anything strange happened.

Both Link and Zelda recognized the shape, they had just seen it in the murals upstairs. Zelda turned the thing over in her fingers; the object was transparent like glass, yet felt as solid as a stone. There was a series of lines engraved deep into the stone, perhaps a rune, or a character from a lost alphabet? But what caught the duo's attention more than anything was the pulsing glow it gave off, as if it were living. As Zelda focused, she let out a gasp as the light intensified in her grasp. She swore she could feel it beating in her hand.

*B-DMP*

The cave echoed as a heartbeat drowned out all the other noise. Link and Zelda looked to the source: the dead Gerudo man. A hole in his chest where the hand had been began to bubble with red and black as he started to convulse and shake. Link's fingers twitched, preparing to draw his weapon. "Zelda..." Link called, being careful not to show even the slightest hint of uneasiness. "Back up towards me. Slowly." Zelda did not move; she was frozen to the spot.

The man shook more and more, eventually going limp and falling backwards, his feet still anchored to the ground. His neck crunched as his head twisted to the side and his gaze fell on Zelda; his hollow, sunken eyes alighting with a hateful crimson glow.

The cave was silent for a brief moment.

A mass of blackened flesh-like hatred erupted upwards from the bubbling hole in the man's chest and charged at Zelda like a demon from Hell.

Link was in front of her within the blink of an eye, parting the mass of inky red with a swing of the Master Sword. He'd acted fast, but not fast enough for what came next. The mass shot forward once again, this time coiling around the glowing blade of the Master Sword and the arm of the knight who wielded it. Zelda could only watch in wide-eyed terror as it constricted, watching Link grow paler as his very life was drained away.

Eventually, the mass relinquished Link's arm, leaving it as a withered, ashy husk of its former self. His arm burned with a creeping darkness that travelled from fingertip to shoulder, the pain throbbing throughout his entire body. The Master Sword hadn't fared any better; the dark power within the Gloom was enough to sap away the light within the sword, the blade now dimmed and sporting several large darkened red spots where it had been held the tightest. Link could barely keep it pointed up as he staggered in place, trying not to drop dead himself.

The mass of gloom reared back once more like a cobra, and made a rush for the duo. With the last of his strength, Link raised the Master Sword and brought it down into the gloom, diverting it around the pair.

And with a final flash of divine light, the blade of the Master Sword splintered and shattered into countless pieces before his and Zelda's eyes. The very tip of the blade managed to slice open the man's cheek as it flew forward into darkness, before healing in a matter of seconds.

The gloom retracted back towards the man as Zelda finally found her voice. "Link!"

"Was that the sword that seals the darkness?" The voice that issued from the ancient man was dripping with contempt, and rasped in his throat like a rusted blade against stone. He slowly straightened himself into a standing position, every one of his joints cracking as he did so. "A blade that shatters so easily against my power cannot save you from me." The man's gaze focused, and his eyes flashed with recognition. "Zelda..." He sighed, before pivoting to stare through her companion. "You, who carries that fragile sword... are Link."

Zelda and Link both went completely white. He... knew them?

"Rauru placed his faith in you... and that was all you could do?" The man finally reached his full height, towering over the two Hylians.

Who was this Rauru? How did...? Zelda swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "How do you... know our names?"

The man didn't answer. Instead he focused a roiling ball of gloom between his hands and directed it upwards into the ceiling of the cavern. The force was so great that the spire pointed down directly at him began to rise and withdraw into the earth. As this happened, the cave began to tremble and quake around the three people in the cave. The platform began to crack and fall to pieces beneath the feet of the man, and he tumbled into the darkness below, a look of wicked satisfaction on his face.

Another cold stab of pain rolled through Link's body. He could feel the burning sensation spreading further up his shoulder as he collapsed onto one knee. Zelda started to move. "Link!"

Link was about to tell her to stay back, lest his affliction hurt her as well, but then the earth crumbled beneath Zelda, and she began to fall. Link dropped the remnants of the Master Sword to the ground, shrugged off the pain coursing through him and flung himself after her without a second thought, his face an unmoving mask of determination. He stretched an arm towards her, and she did the same.

Time moved in slow-motion, their fingers inching closer... before they swept past each other completely.

And the mask broke. "NO!" Link exclaimed.

Zelda's eyes widened as she careened into darkness. Link barely had time to process her form dissolving into golden light before his arm was nearly wrenched out of its socket as his descent was halted. He tore his gaze away from where Zelda disappeared towards his unexpected saviour, and saw only a glowing disembodied hand clutched around his wrist. The same glowing disembodied hand which had previously been holding that desiccated man in place. The arm began to pull Link up into a bright white light, and he lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, on the surface, pandemonium was taking place. The dark power unleashed by the man in the caverns below was shooting out of every crevice in the ground it could squeeze through. And as it pushed, the castle itself was torn from its colossal foundation and began to rise, balanced on a thick pillar of rock. Higher and higher it climbed, severing and collapsing many of the rooms and corridors in the lower levels. Left beneath the floating landmass was not just a crater, but a gaping maw that led only to black, churning out massive amounts of gloom that sublimated into a smoky vapour. Across the land of Hyrule, dozens of similar chasms of differing sizes opened, swallowing livestock, homes, and families. Each one of these also spewed gloom and dark vapour.

In the east, the waters flowing through Lanayru became thick with a vile sludge, killing most of the aquatic life and straining the Zora.

In the north-east, the Gorons in the mines of Death Mountain discovered a new type of rock. A particularly delicious new type of rock...

In the west, the Rito were grounded when the winds became too violent and unpredictable to safely fly. So they waited, but the winds didn't stop, and the cold became colder, nearly unsurvivable.

In the south-west, the Gerudo took shelter as a great sandstorm settled in their homeland, shrouding their vision and choking their breath. And in the storm, pulsing purple nests erupted from the sand, releasing foul creatures that appeared as if they had returned from the dead.

And all over the land, the people of Hyrule bore witness to a massive collection of landmasses floating down from nowhere and settling just above the continent. Buildings, holy structures, flora and fauna... a snapshot of a world that hadn't been seen in this realm for tens of thousands of years. Many of these landmasses cracked into smaller pieces which fell to the earth, making new homes among the land and the terrified Hylians lamenting the end of their era of peace, and their respite from calamity.

Thanks again to Kawaiichan67 for proofreading!

Reviews are appreciated!