Phew... Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long, but the next chapter is here at last!
Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Suthorn Ruins
[BGM: Still World – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom]
If there were three words that Zelda and Arusu could describe the new place they found themselves into, they would be: creepy, surreal and wrong.
All around them, pieces of land and trees were suspended in midair haphazardly in this ominous dark void and arranged into a twisted path, with their undersides appearing to be dripping as if they were about to slowly melt away. The two stared at the distorted mess before them for a long time in shock and horror: it almost reminded them of the Chaos Vortex back in Pit's world, another place where all the laws of reality were out for lunch. But while the Chaos Vortex focused more on active chaos, this place seems to lean more on the silent type of chaos.
"What is this place…?" Arusu wondered, finally breaking their silence.
"This is the Still World." Tri answered. "Everything you see floating around in here was sucked in through a rift. Anything that ends up here will begin to break apart and eventually vanish completely."
The pair gasped at this shocking revelation. "That's awful!" Zelda cried.
"Me and my friends have the ability to restore things that have ended up in rifts though, so not all is lost if we're quick." Tri then looks around. "Speaking of, I sense my friends deeper in here. Let's go, Zelda and Arusu."
They nodded in response and wasting no time, they proceeded to walk through the Stilled Suthorn Forest via the path created by the random pieces of twisted and turned land and trees by jumping on them, with the larger gaps between them having to be crossed by Zelda's bed echoes. They also encountered strange blobs of darkness known as Tecuums flying around, which would then form into shadowy versions of the monsters they had encountered in the Light World once they got to them.
As they approached a cave entrance, they spotted something…or rather, someone, suspended in midair nearby. It appeared to be a statue of a woman sporting a look of horror on her face like she was about to let out an inaudible scream, and some parts of her body appeared to be melting away much like with the pieces of land.
"This woman… Could she be that man's wife?" Zelda guessed.
Arusu cautiously approached the frozen woman. "Looks like she's been locked into some sort of stasis…" he said rather unsettled.
"This is what happens when people get pulled into rifts. They kind of…petrify and can't move anymore." Tri explained. "And if they stay that way? They'll eventually fade away."
"No…" Zelda breathed sadly.
"But wait a second…" Arusu interjected. "How come Zelda and I are perfectly fine in here?"
"Because you two are special." Tri replied.
"Special…in what way?"
"I don't really know; I just could tell."
Arusu deadpanned. "Gee, that's some helpful information…" he said sarcastically.
"Let's just get going…" Zelda sighed. "We cannot waste any more time if we want to prevent all of this from disappearing forever."
The trio went into the cave where Arusu dealt with the Shadow Keese while Zelda stepped on a switch to open the door. It led them into a room full of Shadow Zols that were easily taken care of, then they exited the cave and pressed further, until Zelda stopped as she gasped at what she saw in front of them.
"Minister Lefte!" she cried, approaching the statue of none other than Hyrule's prime minster herself.
"Hey. I remember this one from the castle." Tri remarked as they and Arusu approached as well. "I can restore her back to normal if we mend this rift."
"That's a relief." Zelda sighed, but stopped when she realized something that didn't add up. "Hey, wait a second… How did Lefte end up in here if the rift she was pulled into was at the castle?"
"Rifts don't follow the same rules as your world. Things connect differently inside them."
"In other words, anything could end up anywhere in the Still World?" Arusu surmised, and Tri nodded in response. "Geez, that's messed up…"
"Then that means… General Wright and my father could be anywhere in Hyrule!" Zelda concluded. "But let's focus on closing this rift first."
"Right." Arusu nodded, and then he noticed something just up ahead. "Hey, I can see an old building up ahead." he pointed at it. Zelda looked over, and her eyes widened in dread as she recognized said building: it was the Suthorn Ruins.
"Th-That's…" she stuttered.
"You know it?"
"Y-Yes… The Suthorn Ruins. The very place where Ganon took me after he kidnapped me."
"Oh…" Arusu could tell that the sight of it was stirring bad memories for Zelda, since that was technically the place where it all started.
"I can feel it… My friends are in there somewhere." Tri spoke.
By hearing this, it was clear to Arusu that they must head in the Ruins anyways. Looking back at Zelda, he knew that she could not linger on these bad memories for too long; she had to put these aside for now, otherwise nothing in here will ever be restored.
"Hey, Zelda-…"
"I know; we need to head in there." Zelda sighed, interrupting Arusu. "I'm definitely not happy about it, but we must to if we're going to restore Lefte and everything else in here. Their very lives are at stake, and I'll do whatever I can to save them!"
'Glad that she caught on quickly.' Arusu thought while smiling before replying, "Exactly. I'm ready when you are."
With that, the duo walked into the Ruins with Tri on their tail.
[BGM: Suthorn Ruins – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom]
"So this is where you were trapped not too long ago, Zelda?" Arusu asked as they stepped into the entrance chamber, taking in their surroundings.
"That's right." Zelda nodded. "Though I did not escape through the main entrance; I had to take an alternate route after the floor crumbled underneath me at one point."
Tri floated in front of them, looking at the doorway up ahead. "We're getting closer to my friends. They're farther in, but we're getting there." they informed.
"Okay, let's go." Zelda said and they went through the doorway, where they came upon a big rock that was blocking the switch that would open up the door.
"That's a pretty big rock, huh?" Tri said.
Arusu smirked. "No worries. I'll just blow it up!"
"Actually, I have a better idea." Tri interjected before Arusu could use his Bang spell. "We could simply move it."
"Uh, how?" Zelda tilted her head. "That boulder is way too big for just me and Arusu to push it."
"What I'm about to tell you doesn't involve any of that. You know, when I'm fixing rifts, I have to move a lot of things around. I bet the ability to do that would come in handy for you." Tri then directs to the Tri Rod. "If you guide me with the rod, I can move things for you based on your movement."
Zelda's eyes perked up in interest. "Is that so?"
Tri nodded. "Try facing this boulder, and then guide me by aiming the rod at it."
Zelda did just that, and the boulder was now surrounded in a green light with a streak of it being connected to the princess. "Oh!"
"We're now bound together. Now try moving." Zelda did it so by moving forward as the boulder did the same, and made it press the switch down. This caused the door to open.
"Incredible…" Arusu awed, having watched the whole thing.
"This ability will definitely come in handy!" Zelda exclaimed in excitement after unbinding herself from the boulder.
And this did turn out to be true, since in the next room, Zelda used the Bind ability on another boulder to not only reveal a hidden ladder leading to the lower floor, but she also used it to fill in a gap that they would cross over to another room with a half-buried treasure chest. They dug it out and opened it, taking out… five portions of Radiant Butter.
"This is…butter." Arusu flatly spoke in clear disappointment. "Is this some kind of sick joke?"
"I wouldn't be so sure. They could be useful later." Zelda shrugged as they walked back, then they went down the ladder.
It took them to an underground tunnel that was filled with web strands hanging from the ceiling, all caused by a few Strandulas. After defeating one of them, Zelda managed to obtain its echo and used it to create her own web strands, allowing her and Arusu to reach higher places and even get to another treasure chest.
"I just hope it's not another food item." Arusu said and opened it up, pulling out the map of this dungeon. "Hey, that's more like it!"
"I thought you would find it weird that a map was found in a chest." Zelda tilted her head.
"Nah, I've heard from Eight that he had found maps of the dungeons he's gone through in treasure chests as well."
Zelda giggled. "I'm glad to hear that our universes share some similarities."
After looking at the map for a bit to get a good glimpse of the dungeon layout, the pair made their way to the other side of the tunnel, where another ladder awaited them. Going up, they took a left turn to get to the next room, which composed of a long stretch towards an elevator platform at the end. They first got the echo of an Ignizol nearby, then they went over to the elevator that led them up.
Up above, they next encountered a Darknut that was easily slain by Arusu, then Zelda learned it and they went up the stairs on the left since the ones on the right led to nowhere but the void of the Still World, taking them to a chamber with another ladder leading below and a single brazier on the corner. Seeing it sparkle, Zelda proceeded to learn it before they climbed down the ladder.
This tunnel featured two torches that had to be lit, which was not a problem for Zelda and Arusu, with the former making use of the Ignizol echo on one while the latter used the Frizz spell on the other. With all the torches lit, the metal door opened up and allowed the pair to leave. The next chamber featured another metal door sandwiched between a line of four soldier statues; one of them was noticeably holding a shield.
'Hmm, I wonder if I can…' Zelda thought and used Bind on the shield, then she began walking backwards to try and pull it out with her body, but was having some difficulty. "Nnnngh…! Arusu…a little help here…!"
Arusu then grabbed Zelda by the waist and began to pull her back. After some struggle, they managed to pull the shield out of the statue, causing the metal door to open. However, that action of pulling back had caused Zelda to land right onto Arusu's lap, in which the former was completely unaware.
"Phew… that worked." Zelda said. "And I even had a soft landing to boot!"
"Uh, Zelda…" Arusu nervously spoke, a small blush on his face.
"What?" Zelda looked behind her. "Ah!" she quickly jumped back up, blushing as well. "S-Sorry!"
"I-It's alright…" Arusu replied as he stood back up and dusted himself off, all while averting his gaze from Zelda.
"Is there something wrong with you two?" Tri asked. "Why is there some pink on your cheeks?"
"It's a sign of embarrassment, Tri." Zelda replied.
"Em…barrassment?"
"It's a human emotion that triggers when someone is uncomfortable with a situation, mainly a social one that's considered unacceptable or frowned upon. What, you're not familiar with the concept of emotion?"
"No, not at all. I've never heard of this word before."
'Huh, now that's interesting…' Zelda thought.
They went through the opening, taking them to another long stretch that now had Shadow Keese and another Darknut. They easily dealt with all the enemies, but as they walked along the stretch, Zelda began to notice the familiarity of her surroundings; mainly the fallen pieces of debris scattered across the floor.
"Wait, this area…" she whispered.
"What about it?" Arusu asked.
"It's all coming back to me! This is where I began my escape!"
"Ah, yes. That's when I led Zelda out of this place as it was being consumed by the rift." Tri recalled.
"So that means up ahead…is where I was held captive!" Zelda concluded, then she looked at the map. "But to think there was more beyond there… I wonder what we'll find?"
"Well, only one way to find out." Arusu said, and they went up the stairs.
[BGM Pause]
Upon reaching the top, they stepped into a wide chamber with more fallen debris… as well as a figure that was familiar to Zelda, leading her to gasp. "Link!"
And sure indeed; Link was standing in the middle of the room, with his back turned on them and facing a large stone monument with old inscriptions on it that mainly depicted lines and dots.
'So that's the Link of this era…' Arusu thought.
"Huh? Is that the person who fought the blue monster?" Tri wondered. They wouldn't get an answer, as Zelda began running up to Link.
"Oh, Link! Thank the Goddesses you're-…" but once Link turned around, Zelda immediately cut herself off and gasped when she saw his face: his eyes were glowing a vicious red, and his expression showed hostility and malice. "L-Link?!" she stuttered in horror, slowly backing away. "Wait, no… You're…you're not him!"
Without any warning, 'Link' suddenly leapt up into the air and was about to slash Zelda down. The princess let out a distressed cry and looked away with her eyes shut… but then a loud clang sound was heard, and she opened her eyes to see Arusu standing right in front of her in a defensive stance, having blocked the attack with his shield. 'Link' gave a quiet snarl and jumped back, holding his sword and Hylian Shield aloft.
"You alright?" Arusu asked Zelda as he glanced back at her.
"Y-Yes… Thank you." Zelda replied and looked over at 'Link'. "Arusu! That's not the real Link! That's an impostor of him!"
"So it's a fake, huh?" Arusu said, then smirked as he stood ready to fight. "Good, that means I won't have to hold back!"
Zelda moved back a bit more so that she would be out of harm during the battle. "Please, be careful!"
[BGM: Dungeon Midboss (Link) – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom]
Arusu and the Link impostor both ran forward and slashed each other, clashing their blades repeatedly as they glared at each other until they both jumped back as Arusu launched a Frizzle at the impostor, but it blocked the fireball with its shield and then did a jumping slash attack at the Hero, who quickly leapt to the side to avoid it before slashing back, but the impostor countered that as it slashed Arusu repeatedly and knocked him into one of the debris pieces.
"Ugh!" Arusu grunted from the impact. 'Well, Link's definitely no slouch when it comes to swordfighting.' he thought as he recovered and quickly rolled out of the way in time to avoid another jumping slash from the Link impostor, allowing the Hero to deliver his first strike on it. Snarling, the impostor quickly slashed back but Arusu parried the attack and delivered a Falcon Slash, and then next used Gust Slash to send it away and into a wall.
Now angered, the Link impostor enveloped itself in a dark aura as its coloration became darker as well and charged over to Arusu, unleashing a powerful spin attack on him.
"AGH!" Arusu yelled as the impostor kept furiously attacking him but he managed to recover and retaliated with a Lightning Slash, stunning it and giving him the opportunity to use Hatchet Man, knocking it away and making it drop the Hylian Shield. The impostor recovered, but before it could get its shield back, Arusu quickly used a Metal Slash to break it in half and leave it useless.
Before the impostor even knew it, it found itself on the receiving end of Arusu's Boom spell, being hit by magical explosions repeatedly and then the Hero charged towards it, his sword glowing with holy lightning.
"This is the end for you!" he declared, jumping up and unleashing Gigaslash, slicing right through the impostor.
[BGM End]
The impostor limped over as it planted the sword in the ground for support, but that wouldn't matter as its whole body turned dark purple before exploding.
"Good riddance to that fake." Arusu said as he relaxed his stance. "I could've also used my Roto Blade, but that would be too overkill." he chuckled to himself.
"You… You did it!" Zelda beamed as she ran over to him. "I know I said this before, but I really am glad to have you here with me; I don't think I'd have the courage to fight Link by myself, impostor or not…"
Arusu smiled. "Well, it's a good thing I came to this world, then."
"That was intense…" Tri spoke up. "He looked like the guy who helped Zelda before, but this one wanted to hurt her… He was…weird. Like the impostors back at the castle."
"Yes. That's why I could tell that Link was not the real one." Zelda replied.
Just then, the sound of stone sliding came as they looked over to see the stone monument in front of them moving to the side, revealing a barricade that consisted of some odd-looking dark purple ooze. Before Zelda and Arusu could inspect it, something else had caught Tri's attention as they floated over to it. It was the sword that was left behind by the Link impostor. "Looks like he left something behind…" they stated the obvious.
Zelda and Arusu approached the sword to take a good look at it. It seemed like a fairly simple sword, having a light blue guard and a white blade, and the name 'Link' was engraved on it.
"Curious…" Zelda mused as she leaned in closer to it and decided to pick it up with her free hand (her left hand).
"I feel powerful energy coming from that sword. Even more powerful than the large rifts!" Tri spoke.
"Really?"
"Yeah, this sword has a special kind of power…"
All of a sudden, before Tri could say anything else, the sword emitted a bright glow, making Zelda and Arusu shield their eyes, unaware that the former was changing during that. Once the glow died down, the pair uncovered their eyes… and Arusu saw what happened to Zelda as his eyes widened in surprise. "Zelda, you're…!"
Zelda then looked down at herself and gasped in awe. Her whole body was now in a blue hue, she was now wearing a replica of Link's outfit complete with the cap, and she held the Hylian Shield on her other hand. Even weirder, her eyes were also lacking pupils and she had no mouth… yet despite that, she could still speak normally.
[BGM: Field (Swordfighter Form) – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom]
"Whoa…" she breathed, her voice having a noticeable echo on it. "I feel…amazing!" then, as if naturally, she began swinging the sword around like Link does before finishing it off with the spin attack.
"Heh, you definitely got the hang of it quite fast!" Arusu grinned.
"You look strong, like that guy who wears green… Link, was it?" Tri said, then looked over at the dark ooze blockade. "Hey, I wonder if it can break through that barricade?"
"I'll give it a try!" Zelda said, running over to it and swinging her blade repeatedly at it. Everyone watched as the ooze disintegrated bit by bit with each slash until nothing was left of it. "Oh! It worked!"
"Sweet! Now we can continue!" Arusu exclaimed.
"I don't know what's the deal with this sword, but now I can finally do some proper fighting!" Zelda spoke pridefully… buuuuut then the form on her suddenly vanished, returning her to normal.
[Resume "Suthorn Ruins" BGM]
"Huh?! I'm back to normal? What gives?!" Zelda questioned.
"I believe it has to do with the sword's power." Tri stated. "Whatever this power is, it appears to be fairly limited in use."
"Oh… But is there any way I can restore it?"
Tri looked around, until they caught sight of a small blue speck lazily floating around the chamber. "Ah! Right there! See that blue speck over there? Let's call it Energy. By collecting enough of those, you can restore the power in the sword back to full again."
At this, Zelda ran over towards the Energy. As she got closer to it, it was automatically drawn to her and absorbed itself into the sword. "I see…" she pondered. "In that case, I think I'll only use this in situations where I most need it, like facing tougher monsters."
"Sounds good enough." Arusu approved. "Let's press on."
The opening behind the stone monument had a ladder leading down, which took them to another underground tunnel. There, Zelda used Bind on a large boulder and placed it on a depression on the floor, allowing her and Arusu to cross the wide gap between two platforms and find a treasure chest. Zelda opened it, and pulled out a Heart Pin.
"Ooh, what a cute hairpin!" Zelda chirped, immediately putting it on her hair. "Well? How do I look?" she turned to Arusu.
"It really suits you." Arusu complimented, giving her a genuine smile.
Zelda giggled. "Thanks!"
After that, they left the tunnel. They would eventually come across a chamber with a golden door up ahead, which was locked. "Guess it's now the time to find the Big Key of this dungeon." Zelda stated.
"Big Key?" Arusu asked.
"Oh, right. Opening this kind of door requires a specific key called the Big Key. Thankfully, they're always stored in a different type of chest, so they're not too hard to find."
They then went through the door on the left since the one on the right was locked. However, the moment they stepped in… the door suddenly slams shut behind them, locking them inside. The reason? Three Deku Babas awaited them in this room.
[BGM: Dungeon Battle – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom]
The pair then split up as Arusu went to deal with the Deku Baba right in front of him, easily dodging its lunging chomping attack before cutting off its stem, killing it instantly. Zelda dealt with the one at the far left, first going into her Swordfighter Form to cut through another wall of purple ooze to get to it before killing it in the same way Arusu did, and also getting its echo for good measure.
For the last one that was at high ground, Zelda changed back and had the idea to use Bind at it and pull back to try and literally rip the Deku Baba's head apart. She was successful, and the room was clear of enemies.
[Resume "Suthorn Ruins" BGM]
"That takes care of them." Zelda said as the doors unlocked, and she and Arusu could continue.
The next room just so happened to contain another Deku Baba that was positioned right behind a tall iron fence and out of the pair's reach. Remembering what she did back in the previous room, Zelda did the same thing to eliminate the Deku Baba and causing a treasure chest containing a small key to appear. With the key in hands, they proceeded to return to the Boss Door chamber and unlock the door on the right.
There, after solving a quick puzzle involving Bind, they were able to go down to another underground tunnel that featured moving platforms. But soon they would come upon a large gap with no way of getting across. "Uh… what now?" Zelda asked.
"Oh, yeah, Zelda." Tri spoke up. "There's one more thing you can do when using bind."
Zelda's eyes perked up. "Seriously? Do tell!"
"By using it on preferably moving things, you can make it so that your movements would follow what you are bound to. I call that…a Reverse Bind." they then looked at the moving platform directly above. "Try it on that platform."
Zelda did as told, allowing the platform to guide her to the other side as she levitated off the floor, only touching back down upon making it. "Whoa, that was so cool!" she gushed.
"I'll say!" Arusu agreed.
"But…how will you get across, Arusu?" Zelda wondered upon noticing that her partner was still on the other side.
"No worries, I have my own solution." the Hero jumps over and uses Swoosh to propel himself horizontally, successfully landing right next to Zelda. "See?"
"…Right, you can rely on your spells for that." Zelda chuckled as they made through the rest of the tunnel via the moving platforms, as well as getting a Red Rupee from a chest along the way. Emerging out, they were now in a room with iron bars separating the bottom and top halves, and at the former half…was a grand chest.
"That chest looks different…" Arusu stated the obvious.
"I wonder…" Zelda mused and went to solve the easy Bind puzzle to lower the bars, then she went to the chest and opened it. "Aha! I knew it!" she exclaimed, pulling out the Big Key triumphantly. "The chest that holds the Big Key!"
"Nice! Now we can get through that golden door!"
"…I only just noticed now, but you weren't weirded out by finding a key in a chest either. Let me guess, you also found keys in chests too?"
Arusu chuckled. "You hit right on the mark; I did get the Magic Key and the Ultimate Key during my journey that way. But they're not used in dungeons, though. They, along with the Thief's Key, are instead used to open color-coded doors scattered throughout the world: red doors for the Thief's Key, blue doors for the Magic Key, and any other locked door for the Ultimate Key."
"Interesting…"
Soon, they made it back to the golden door, and as they approached it, Zelda warned Arusu, "You better get ready, Arusu. Behind these kinds of doors, a big monster always lies in waiting…or so what the Links have told me."
"Okay. I'm ready." Arusu nodded, determination clearly shown on his face.
And so, Zelda unlocked the door and the pair walked in.
[BGM End]
They found themselves standing into a seemingly empty large chamber. "Nobody's here?" Tri asked, looking around. "But…I definitely sensed my friends in this spot earlier."
Before the pair could say anything, the ground suddenly began to shake. Then, a pair of rocky hands emerged out of the ground, soon followed by a large, golem-like body with a glowing purple orb at its bottom. Its head was backwards, though, so the creature quickly rotated it to face the right way, and glared down at the trio with its ominous glowing purple eyes before letting out a loud roar.
It was the Seismic Talus.
"Oh my! It's some kind of rock Talus!" Zelda exclaimed.
Tri lightly gasped. "My friends! They're in that creature…"
"Then we've got to get them out of there." Arusu said, already taking a battle stance. "Come on, Zelda – we can do this!"
"Right!" Zelda nodded, and stood ready to battle as well.
[BGM: Seismic Talus Battle – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom]
The Seismic Talus pulled back one of its hands and lunged it towards the pair to punch them, but they quickly leapt out of the way as Zelda noticed the purple orb and created a Keese echo, who proceeded to divebomb directly at it and making the Talus roar in pain, and in retaliation, it angrily slammed its hands to the ground and crushed the Keese, but it left the creature vulnerable.
Taking advantage of that, Zelda used Bind on the orb and was able to pull it off the Seismic Talus, causing it to crumble apart and sink into the ground, leaving only the orb behind. The pair then ran over, with Zelda going into Swordfighter Form as she and Arusu proceeded to slash the orb repeatedly until it dove into the ground, in which the Seismic Talus popped right back out. The orb was now in its right shoulder.
The Seismic Talus's hands glowed purple as it spun them around to try and hit the two, but they ran back to avoid the attack and then Zelda proceeded to do the same thing as before. However, the Seismic Talus caught wind of that this time and attempted to stop her by throwing another punch, but the hand it used for suddenly got destroyed by Arusu's Bang spell, leading the Talus to shift its focus onto the Hero as it instantly regrew its hand in order to slug him in response… except that at this exact time, Zelda had once again managed to yank the orb off of it and causing it to fall apart again.
After another series of slashes from Zelda and Arusu, the Seismic Talus came back for a third time, roaring angrily as its whole body was now in a red tint. It then immediately proceeded to attack the two with another slam of its hands, only this time they were glowing purple and the slam attack also made a purple shockwave, forcing the pair to jump over it. As they did, Zelda noticed that the orb was now embedded into the Talus's head and proceeded with the same strategy as always. Unfortunately, the orb happened to be tightly fixed into the Seismic Talus's head, and thus Zelda was having trouble trying to yank it off.
"It…won't…come off…!" she grunted as she mustered all the body strength she had, but the orb refused to budge. Worse, the Seismic Talus had recovered and was about to throw another punch at her, and given the state the creature was right now, that attack would surely be devastating.
That is, until Arusu had an idea. "Nothing like a big explosion won't solve!" he grinned and casted Kaboom, and indeed, the force of the explosion was enough to not only make the Seismic Talus crumble apart yet again, but also knock the orb out of its head. And so, the pair went to hack and slash the orb one more time where Zelda would end it with a spin attack.
[BGM End]
As soon as the final blow was dealt, swarms of small golden lights suddenly flew out of the orb as it slowly turned entirely dark purple like what happened to the Link impostor, before it exploded into smoke and left behind two Heart Containers.
The pair's focus would immediately shift over to the golden lights, who one by one, formed into little creatures identical to Tri, but what differentiated each of them was the positioning of their eyes and mouths.
"Are these guys…?" Arusu asked, looking on in awe along with Zelda.
"Yes." Tri said. "Zelda, Arusu, these are my friends. You set them free! They're filled with energy and ready to get to work. So now we can finally fix the rift here."
"You can?!" Zelda gasped.
Tri nodded. "Using our echo ability, we can restore the entire area that was swallowed up by the rift. Watch this."
They watched as Tri flew ahead and stood in the middle of their literal circle of friends, then they began making noises as if giving orders before emitting a bright glow. In response, Tri's friends circled around them, spinning faster and faster until they along with Tri soared up into the air and through the ceiling, creating a swirling pillar of light.
As this happened, back in Hyrule, the pillar of light pierced through the rift and a wave of light expanded outward through it, restoring everything that was swallowed up back into place. Suthorn Forest was back the way it was, looking like as if nothing had happened to it at all.
Back in the Still World, Tri came floating down back to Zelda and Arusu. "Did it work?" Zelda asked, anxious.
"Yes. We managed to close the rift and repair everything." Tri replied. "Oh, and my friends shared some of their power with me." as they said that, a fourth golden triangle suddenly materialized on their 'tail'. "Now you should be able to create more of the same echo, or create ones that are too expensive."
"Sweet!"
[BGM: Tri's Theme – The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom]
"Oh yeah, also, they told me something while we were fixing the rift. They said that big rock monster showed up and captured them."
The pair instantly came to a realization. "So the reason they weren't able to fix the rift…was because they were trapped inside the monster." Arusu concluded.
"Correct." Tri paused for a bit before speaking again, "Oh, and one other thing… There are crystals that show up when we fix rifts. They're neat, so I'll give them to you." they give Zelda a handful of unusual blue crystals. "I'm all finished up here, so we can head out now if you're ready."
"Sure, but first…" Zelda said as she turned her attention to the Heart Containers. "Just give us one second, Tri." she then led Arusu over to them and they both picked them up, as they absorbed into them.
"Huh, I feel a bit stronger…" Arusu breathed.
"Heart Containers are known to provide lots of vitality, hence the power boost." Zelda explained.
"Ah, that explains it." he then looked back at Tri. "We're ready to leave now, Tri."
In response, Tri floated over their heads and proceeded to glow brightly as the triangles making up their 'tail' circled around the pair, then they would all vanish into a ball of light that took off and out of the Still World.
To be continued…
I was gonna add the reunion with Lefte after being freed from the rift, but I thought, "Nah, I'll do it in the next chapter instead."
And I'm glad I made that decision, since next time some pieces of lore will be dropped!