Chapter 12

Link snapped his head up, his ears perking, his brows up in shock.

The princess gave him a sad smile. "You probably didn't expect to see me. Probably thought I was long dead, or asleep like you were." She looked back down at the red swirling in the chasm, and her lightheartedness fell. "No, I've been here, stuck in this realm of nothingness, keeping watch, holding Ganon down whenever his malicious clutches rear their nasty heads."

Link didn't answer, couldn't answer. He had no words. His gaze landed on the castle gate he'd just opened to get in here, and he noticed a yellow-orange glow permeating the night sky. In addition to the darkness of night, the golden light danced across the sky like thin wispy clouds, yet somehow did nothing to light the land.

She followed his gaze and spoke softly beside him, her words dampened by the palpable nothingness in the air. "This space we're in, it's not Hyrule. Well, it is, but it isn't. It's always dark here in this realm." Then she walked over to the gate and stopped and looked back at Link.

He followed her to the gate, and he could see that the ground beyond the castle was also dark. No longer could he see lantern lights of distant villages and stables, or campfires of resting travelers. The grass, trees, hills, and everything beyond was dark, in an eternal shadow. There were little specks of red where the Guardians overrunning the castle town ruins moved about. And further out in the distance, other flecks of red wormed around. He knew those spots—those were where monsters liked to waylay Hyrule citizens. Every dot of red was a monster wandering the land. Some were large, indicating bigger or stronger monsters like hinoxes, and some were small, representing smaller ones like bokoblins or keese. Every monster had a red glow, and every red glow was a monster. They littered the landscape. Calamity Ganon's reaches were far and wide indeed.

"Here, the spirits of the monsters lie in wait, and enter the world of light during the blood moon. Every once in a while, when I can't bear it, I reach out and add some of my power to this bleak, twilit land." Princess Zelda gracefully outstretched her hand, palm up. She closed her eyes and slowly breathed out, and her hand started to glow, just as golden and almost as bright as the sun. The light from her palm grew outward, up into the air first, and then she redirected her palm to face the outside. Light streamed into the night sky, adding to the golden, airy clouds that were already there. The land below lightened just a little, washing out some of the red monster glows that had been in the fields. Fading, the golden stream from the princess's hand stopped, and she lowered her arm.

"I like to hope that it weakens Ganon's monsters," she said, watching Link now. "I do the same thing when the Malice crawls up the walls of this chasm, fighting to come out. I refuse to let it, and I can feel Calamity Ganon's frustration every time."

She turned toward the chasm in the room and looked at it wearily. "He's not getting any stronger, but neither am I. We're both tired of playing this game."

Link approached the rim of the cavernous depth and looked down, deep in thought. "This is the part where I come in, isn't it?" he asked stoically. "To disrupt the game. To move you to the winning side."

"I'm sorry, Link," the princess said from behind. "That's how it was always supposed to be. That sword on your back, it chose you long, long ago, before our ancestors even came to be. And the Goddess chose me. Believe me," her voice was nearly a whisper now. "I don't feel worthy either. But I'm doing what I can, how I can."

Link turned to look at her now, knowing she was right. Hadn't he said similar things to Daren not a few hours ago? They'd all lived through a destiny they didn't want, and they all had a chance to either embrace it or reject it. He nodded and grabbed the Master Sword with his left hand. "Let's finish him, then."

The princess was again at his side, looking down the chasm. "And how do you propose we do that?"

He glanced at her worried yet hopeful face. "How often does this Malice crawl up here?"

"Often." She didn't have to think about it. "I have little concept of time and days passing here, but multiple times a day, if I were to guess."

Link set the sword back in its sheath and put his hands on his hips. "We'll wait for it, then. When it comes back up, we will ride it down."

"You think that will work?" she asked.

He shrugged, then sat cross-legged at the edge of the chasm. "Calamity Ganon is down there, right? How else will we get down?"

"Hm," she said, sitting in a similar posture next to him. "If only we had some sort of machine that could get us down there without having to depend on the Malice. Something we could surprise the Calamity with. A first strike, of sorts."

Curious, he eyed her then. She still seemed beyond tired, but her optimism poked through her hardy exterior.

Then he remembered.

Not something from his past life, but from this one, right after he'd woken up in the Shrine. The old man, the ghost king, gave him something, which Link had briefly used to leave the Great Plateau. Something he'd stowed away, repurposed as a pack, and forgotten about.

His paraglider.

He slid everything—his packs, his sword, and his pod lid shield—off his shoulders with a thud from each and a clang from the pot lid. He unwrapped his pack's straps and unthreaded them through the drawstring holes at the top. Then he pulled the seams of his pack apart, opening it up to its full length. It still had rods at each side, which had helped give the pack structure while folded.

The princess's eyes went wide in recognition. "I know that material. That was one of my father's coats." Then she looked up at him, scrutinizing. "You used it as a pack?"

Sheepishly, he shrugged again. "It's a long story."

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I believe I have a right to know."

He paused right after flattening the paraglider on the ground between them. "Now?"

"Well," she huffed. "I suppose not right now. But later. After we defeat Calamity Ganon."

Link nodded. "After. I'll tell you everything. Not that there is much to tell."

"That does sound like you," she said with a small smile. "You never were very talkative."

"You know me so well, huh?" he asked, both teasing and a little serious. "What else am I like?"

The princess shook her head. "After."

Link hmphed and stood up, pulling the paraglider up with him. He held the handles on its sides and pointed it forward, its tassels ready to flit around like fairies. He opened and closed it rapidly, testing its durability. It seemed to be just as ready as it had all that time ago when he'd gotten off the Great Plateau. The princess watched him get ready, then hoisted herself up. He nearly balked, thinking he'd lost the opportunity to help her up, since he had supposedly been her knight. He should have been knightly.

She shook her head again, weary. "I've been alone all this time. I know how to get up when I'm down."

"Good," he said simply. "I think we're going to need that." Then he strapped on his pot lid and sword once more, opened up the paraglider, and stepped to the ledge. He turned to look at her one last time. "You can come with me if you'd like, but I can't promise it will be safer down there with me than it is up here without me."

"I'm done watching from a distance," she said, resolute.

"Hop on, then," he said, looking down again, guessing and hoping the extra weight wouldn't be too much for the paraglider.

Hesitantly, the princess stepped up to him and wrapped her arms tight around his torso.

His gash from Daren's crescent blade flared as she touched him, and Link stepped back with a gasp, wincing.

The princess immediately let go. "What? What is it?"

Without a word, Link lifted the left side of his shirt up just enough for both of them to see the massive wound. Princess Zelda's face turned a shade paler for just a moment, then she sprang into action. Her hand glowed golden again, but instead of the light streaming towards the night sky outside, she gently pressed her palm to the gash in his skin. Link twitched, almost recoiling, when her cool, tingling hand touched him. He felt instant relief as he watched the flesh scab over and the skin knit together again. As it did so, Link felt a warmth that wasn't there before, like something missing had been returned. Skin now healed, pain subsiding, that spot on Link's torso tingled with sensitivity.

"I'm afraid it will still scar. That was a little trick I learned while studying Nayru," the princess said, pulling her hand away, the glow dissipating. She frowned at the now-healed wound, and she furrowed her brow. "You were going to go in there with that injury? You didn't want to tell me about it first?"

"After?" Link pleaded.

Her shoulders dropped as she sighed. "For being a good knight, you always were just a little stubborn, in your own way. Are you ready now?"

He nodded and stepped up to the chasm again. She followed him and wrapped her arms around his torso yet again. This time, there was no pain. If anything, Link felt even stronger than he'd ever been. "Thank you," he mumbled. "And I'm sorry."

"For what?" she said into his ear.

"This," he replied, and leaped.

If the princess had been holding tightly before, she was now nearly strangling Link's torso. Her hair whipped around as they soared downwards. She let out a terrified gasp as they fell down, down, down, into the dark malicious depths. The ground was fast approaching them now, the stone floors of the deepest dungeons of the castle coming up to greet them. Then, Link opened the paraglider, the force of it straining his arms like never before. He'd never had to glide with this much weight, but the paraglider held firm. As long as Link could hold on, they would be all right. Their descent decelerated suddenly as the paraglider caught the wind, and they fell at a much more reasonable pace. The princess was still clutching him like her life depended on it, but she had at least opened her eyes.

Below, the round tunnel-like chasm opened up to a large chamber, where red Malice swam freely through the air, its wispy waves threatening to consume. It was otherwise completely dark in the room. No light from the outside filtered in, and the red Malice created shadows rather than light. It smelled like death mixed with dust and rats. As they slowly fell, the surrounding Malice seemed to part for them, floating away as they got closer, then reforming above them once they were past. The room was wide, like an arena where combatants competed against each other. But this would be a much different battlefield.

Shadows danced around them as they finally landed on stone ground. The princess upturned both hands and created two separate glows. In a swiping motion, as if she were in her own battle, the glows shot out in different directions, attaching to the walls. The room was now dimly lit all around with the yellow glow, like sconces on the walls.

"Where are you, Calamity?" Princess Zelda whispered. "Why haven't you come to greet us?"

The Malice sludge all around them swirled like ocean waves, leaving red wispy trails in its wake. It sectioned off here and there, and would reform in another area. In all its travels, it always avoided them—avoided both the princess and her makeshift torches on the walls.

After a minute of the Malice breaking and congealing like glue, it concentrated at the far end of the room. Now free to roam, Link and the princess backed away from the center of the room. He readied his pot lid and the Master Sword, and Princess Zelda's hand glowed. Beyond them, along the concave wall, the mass of Malice gathered, sounding like thunder before a storm. It rumbled in the room, a prelude to what was imminent. This was the opening act, the gathering storm, getting ready to strike. As the mass grew, it took shape, looking more and more like an arachnid, a tektite of long ago. Its body grew taller than a roadside stable and wider than a house. Its many legs protruded out from the body like growing crystals, forming inch by crawling inch as they elongated, red and terrifying. They seemed as long as rivers and thick as tree trunks. The thundering noise increased in volume as they grew, all competing at the same time like vines.

Toward the front of the mass, a fearsome face grew from the Malice, a mockery of the creature it could have been trying to imitate. Holes on the face became sunken, and replaced with obsidian glows, becoming eyes. In the mouth area, a seam grew apart, and dripping venomous pincers formed from the space. Multiple rows of sharp incisors then surfaced, chomping chaotically with sharp snapping sounds. It hissed in anticipation as the eyes spotted Link and the princess.

After more clicking and snapping, from the spindly legs to the face and body now encased in carapace, the monster stopped gathering Malice and pivoted its attention to Link. A voice in his head growled, and somehow echoed in this vast chamber, now only made of stone and the princess's torches. "Done waiting for me to finish you?" it taunted. Its voice was gravelly, unworked, and untested.

Link only barely understood the words, but he knew the intention. He didn't respond, but he did spare a glance at Princess Zelda, who nodded in an unspoken acknowledgement.

"I'll stay back," she whispered. "I'll be right here behind you." She did as she said, stepping backward toward the curved wall behind them, her glowing light not even flickering. Link wished he shared her confidence, but right now he was afraid to admit he was lacking. With this giant Calamity monster skittering back and forth along the opposite wall, teasing and prodding, Link struggled to anticipate what it was going to do first.

Multiple options of his first strike flashed through his mind. He could go after one or more legs first. Or he could ask the princess to shoot some glow at it. Or he could wait patiently to see how the monster moved, how it attacked, which direction it would favor while evading. He decided to wait a bit more, and as he did, the monster skittered frantically along the wall towards Link on his right side. Frustrated that it was engaging princess while he wasn't close to her, he instinctively ran after one of the monster's front legs to distract it from its path. It would reach the princess soon, and if he didn't waylay it—

A golden sphere bathed the princess in bright light, its aura emanating across the whole room. She was holding both of her arms out in front of her, creating the bubble. The monster slowed, startled by the light, but kept going. It approached her and tried to whack her light, but its leg bounced off with a twang. She was protecting herself, and she was certainly doing a better job of that than Link was.

Monster now distracted by the princess's shield, it turned away from Link, who was practically underneath two of its legs. He started hacking away with the Master Sword, which he now realized was glowing a bright blue. As he sliced, the monster pawed at the princess's bubble, wanting to eliminate what it reasoned was the weaker of two assailants. But it was mistaken. The sword effortlessly sliced away at one middle leg, severing the bottom half away at a joint, causing a dark purple liquid to spurt out.

The Calamity monster shrieked in pain, then turned its attention to Link. It wiggled its way around him, facing him now with its ugly face. It swung one leg and pounded him square on the chest, knocking him back and expelling all the air in his lungs. Luckily, he was only stunned for a few seconds, and he held up the glowing Master Sword in defiance. The monster hissed and tried to whack the sword away, its legs clicking chaotically on the stone floor as it struggled to balance without a full leg. Every time it swiped at the sword, Link held up the pot lid to deflect the chitinous blows. Angry and desperate, it shuffled back against the far wall, hissing as it went. Link felt a momentary reprieve, but it didn't last long.

Rearing its head, the monster's face began to emanate pale blue-white light. Link thought he'd seen that kind of light before, but from what? The monster didn't give him time to think. Its massive ivory-purple pincers clashed together twice, a harsh metallic sound. Then the glow from its face shot out like a ray of light powered purely by vengeance. Directly at Link.

He barely lifted his pot lid up just enough to parry some of the blow, but the angle was bad and Link tumbled to the ground on the impact. He heard a girlish gasp come from the princess's golden bubble, but when he glanced her way, she remained still. Better that she stayed in her safe area than come help Link. He didn't blame her, knowing she was safer inside. He gave her a small wave, indicating he would be fine.

The fall and the impact startled him more than hurt him. But now that he knew the monster shot beams like Guardians, and he knew how it prepared its attack, he could anticipate the next one. The monster shrieked again, the cry reverberating around the room and nearly deafening Link. He winced, but he quickly stood up and readied his pot lid. The monster indeed readied another attack, the blue-white glow gathering at its head. Then, the pincers clicked, and the beam fired. This time, Link was ready for the beam, which reached him in less than one second. He parried with the pot lid, and the beam shot straight back at the monster's face, right on target.

Howling again, the monster wagged its body like a wet dog, and chunks of carapace flew away haphazardly, littering the room with chunks of dead Malice. The chunks vanished with a black poof. The Calamity monster reared its head up again, readying another attack. This time, the beam was thinner, faster, and Link parried a little too late, redirecting the beam to one of the monster's legs, and hitting a second leg behind it. The Malice body fell onto that side with a roar, and its other legs were now freely dangling in the air. Seeing his chance, Link ran up to the body on the ground and started stabbing with the Master Sword. Dark purple gushed out where the blows hit, and the monster's shrieks were now unbearable, to the point of painful. It kicked with its other legs, frantically trying to right itself.

The monster readied another beam as it thrashed about, but its pincers were so close to Link that he could crawl inside the creature's mandible if he wanted to. He would have no time at all to parry the next beam, so he would have to stop it where it stood. He leaped out from underneath where he was attacking the body and situated himself to have a better view of the face. The blue-white glow concentrated at the eyes and instantaneously shot out towards Link. He'd held up his shield and parried, the beam redirecting to the face again. And again, large chitinous chunks flew off of the head and body, and now that the inner flesh was more exposed, Link ran over to the face and started slashing. The blue glow of the sword flashed back and forth in front of his face, a mesmerizing blur. Finally, he landed a blow on the monster's left obsidian eye, pulled back, and the monster fell completely, shrieking as it hit the ground. Its legs and body fell limp, and its purple blood streamed out from too many places to count.

After letting down her shield, the princess carefully plodded over to Link, who had sagged his arms from the weight of the pot lid and sword.

"What do you think? Is it gone?" she asked timidly. She didn't want to hope. She looked even more tired than before, and Link wanted to reciprocate her hope, if only for her sake.

Link couldn't answer, because he couldn't be sure. Other monsters disappeared with a black poof into nonexistence. But this Calamity, this abominable mass of Malice, had yet to dissipate.

The Master Sword in his hand continued to glow blue, which made Link hesitate. He wanted to tell her that it was done, that they defeated the Calamity. But they both knew that he could make no such promises.

The dead Malice suddenly swam around, gathering and congealing. Some of it, like the severed leg and the carapace chunks, did indeed dissolve into the air with a poof. But now something new was forming. An abomination as large and ugly as the arachnid Link had just fought. This time, the Malice formed into a giant boar-like creature, and it took up nearly half the domed room.

"That's him," the princess said at Link's side. "Those eyes, those marks. It's unmistakable. Calamity Ganon."

At the helm of this large new creature were giant tusks made of the red Malice, emanating a deep crimson swirling around with every nasty huff. The monster's eyes were a bright orange, and the face had a green tinting to it. On top of the head, curled horns wound their way up, nearly grazing the ceiling. The boar's shoulders and forehead glowed purple.

The princess glowed golden beside Link again, and this time a great bow formed in her hands, along with a handful of golden arrows. "Here," she said, handing them to Link, who took them reverently. "The Master Sword won't be as much use now. Use these arrows. Aim for the head."

Link nodded, grateful that she at least had a plan for attack.

Calamity Ganon was at its fullest, and roared mightily as it finished forming, shaking the world. Link hadn't practiced his archery since he'd awoken in the Shrine, but the bow felt natural in his hands, like a long-lost friend coming back home. He knocked a glowing light arrow onto the flawless string and pulled back, taking aim. He waited for the monster to face him, then he fired. The arrow met its mark directly between the eyes. The monster fell with a great howl, thundering as it collapsed on the ground. This time, as the monster fell still, it evaporated with a black smoke in its wake.

Link lowered the bow with relief and confusion. Was that it? He thought fighting Calamity Ganon would have been more difficult, more life-threatening, more panic-inducing. Beside him, Princess Zelda reached out for the bow in his hands. He handed it to her wordlessly, his eyes never leaving the now empty cavern.

"Once we were together, there was nothing he could have done. He was getting weaker, and he only needed a few final blows. That's why I needed you, and you needed me. We couldn't have done it separately," the princess said, and gestured to the sword on his back. He retrieved it and noticed it had stopped glowing. Calamity Ganon was indeed gone.

Still, he had no words, so the princess took action instead. She held out her hand to him. "Take my hand. I'll take us out of here."

Link took her cool hand in his, and once he did, both of them started to glow, and a flash of golden light entered his mind. Instead of seeing a memory, he found himself on top of the Great Plateau, looking down at Hyrule Field and the distant castle. The sky's pinks and blues greeted them as the morning sun rose, dispelling the twilight.

The princess was beside him, kneeling in a patch of flowers, reaching out to them in wonder. This was not her original time either, and Link looked on in understanding.

She stood up, having picked a flower and tucked it in her hair. She turned to him, curious. "I have a question for you. Do you really remember me?" Pleading with her bright blue eyes, she waited for his answer.

An answer he knew she wouldn't like. "I know who you are, but my memories of you are...inadequate," he said apologetically.

This took her by surprise, and she gave a sad smile. "Oh. I see." Then she changed tactics, taking in the landscape. "I never got to see the Shrine of Resurrection. Could you show it to me?"

He shrugged and nodded, not sure what else to do now that Hyrule was supposedly safe from Calamity Ganon. They turned toward the Shrine, the princess following closely beside him, a spring in her step and a lightness that neither had felt in a long time.