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The Path of Wisdom

By Flufux the Velociraptor

Chapter 1

The End...or the Beginning?

Thunder loomed over the darkened sky, winds tore and pulled at the dead trees surrounding an ominous black tower, all culminating in a vortex of black clouds swirling above it, an evil red glow springing up right in its centre.

In the barren wasteland surrounding this dark pillar, a single living creature made his way towards it. This...'creature'...as it were, was a Hylian boy, probably no older than 18 years old, and garbed in a green adventurer's tunic. However, despite how ominous the sight before him looked, there was only the slightest speck of fear and hesitation on his face, and he bravely held a firm grip on his metal shield and the sacred weapon in his left hand...a weapon which was none other than the legendary Blade of Evil's Bane: the Master Sword, itself.

Determined to accomplish what he went all this way to do, the boy entered the evil tower through the unlocked and opened front door. It, as well as several lit torches lining the walls, welcomed his arrival as if he was an expected guest.

Meanwhile, at the very top of that very same tower, a man was sitting in his chair patiently waiting for the green-clad hero below to reach him. While he waited, he played a dark and ominous tune on the massive pipe organ in front of him, hoping to inspire a sense of dread for the boy who dared to ascended his tower.

This man was big...very big, and more than that, he had a dangerous, almost psychopathic, glint in his yellow eyes as he calmly played his dark music. The black armour and long flowing cape he was clad in painting him as a warrior as well as a ruler; a harsh dictator who sought to rule the world with force and an iron fist rather than diplomacy or fairness. His long flowing red hair and the two great blades jammed into the floor next to him, shattering the stone underneath them while the swords themselves were kept intact, spoke also of a more feral and savage side to him as well.

He was not alone up here though, as just above his pipe organ, a teenage girl around 17-years of age was sitting inside of a magical crystal keeping her contained and immobilised.

This girl was dressed in a regal and majestic pink silk dress, adorned with all kinds of golden ornaments and jewellery...and looked very out of place for this part of the world. In fact, dressed as she was, she would stand out no matter where in the world she happened to be...as was actually intended.

She was no peasant, servant or worker, and only a fool would ever assume that she was, but the presence of so much precious gold, as well as the unmistakable crest of the royal family of Hyrule on her dress made her seem as though she was even more than just your everyday noble:

She was royalty.

However, the sparkling golden tiara on her head, while impressive and a clear expression of divine rulership...was not the crown granted to the supreme sovereign ruler of the land upon his or her coronation. In other words: though she rightfully claimed the title of 'Princess', she was no queen...at least not yet. While she was of royal blood and it was indeed her destiny to rule, as she was next in line should her father, the King of Hyrule, ever die or abdicate, she...hasn't really gotten the chance to do that yet considering her current predicament.

Though she wore some armour, namely her golden shoulder pads, arm guards and metal boots, they hardly protected any of her vital areas and were more there to portray the image of strength rather than being all that useful in a fight. The impractical dress she wore certainly did her no favours in that regard either. For all intents and purposes, she was a fragile-looking thing who clearly wouldn't stand a chance against the dark lord below her if he decided to attack her.

This did not stop her however from glaring at him with all of the rage and hatred she had for him...which was a lot considering how long he had kept her imprisoned in this awful place. Despite how powerless she currently was, she took every opportunity she could muster to defy him...even if it was futile at best.

"Your victory won't last, Ganon!" she eventually declared, partly out of her need to be defiant, but also to get him to stop playing that same hysterical tune over and over, almost to the point of mania. A princess could only take so much...especially considering she was trapped right above the instrument that was making so much infuriating noise. At this point, she was even starting to wonder if the music was some kind of cruel and unusual torture method he was trying to subject her to. "...You know that, do you not?"

Fortunately for her though, Ganon, or Ganondorf as he preferred to be called, did indeed stop playing after the princess' declaration, though he remained silent for a few tense moments before he eventually addressed her.

"...Because a hero will save you? Because just as the legends foretell, whenever the land of Hyrule is threatened, a hero clad in green will save it, and that he, and he alone, can defeat me?" he asked, almost as if he was challenging her.

A bit relieved that he had at least stopped playing that infernal instrument for the moment, she looked down at him with scorn in her eyes and responded, "Well...yes. You may underestimate him, belittle him, or think you've grown above the legend, but I know for a fact that he will slay you, demon king. It doesn't matter how powerful you think you are or how many times you come back, the hero will always defeat you. That's how it's always been."

A bit amused, Ganondorf chuckled in his deep and sinister voice...and then he looked up to face her. "You are mistaken. I do not underestimate him. I know exactly how resourceful your Hyrulean heroes are. I have met the previous ones, and they fought like no man or demon I have ever known. I was a fool for believing myself above defeat, I will admit that, and yet...despite all the...'heroism'...and courage of these so-called heroes, and whatever holy blades they wield against me...I am still here, alive and free. Even if I'm defeated again, I doubt it will be any more permanent than the last time. Eventually, I will win...sooner or later. And even if a new hero shows up to stop me after that, I will have had years to rule your pretentious kingdom. However...throughout the centuries your ancestors and I have been locked into this eternal conflict, one question kept nagging at me..."

The dark lord rose from his seat, slowly and menacingly, and inspected his captive with his calculating eyes for a moment until he asked, "...why do you always need to rely upon him, Princess Zelda?"

That question gave the princess pause. Zelda wasn't quite sure how to respond to it or what her captor was getting at. "I beg your pardon?"

"For centuries upon centuries you two have played this game. Ever since Demise fell, the spirit of the hero and the blood of the goddess have been bound in a never ending cycle, the reaction the Triforce had when I touched it only proved the legend real, as I was granted the Triforce of Power, making me survive the hero's blade, as well as making me rise strong again despite you pests' best effort to imprison me...while the hero holds the Triforce of Courage, giving him the determination to face me, and long before that, go on a quest that will give him the power to do so...and then there's you, the bearer of the Triforce of Wisdom. Yet...in all the years this cycle has repeated itself, you have always been the weakest link in the chain."

"Oh that's rich coming from you, you uncultured swine! My family have led Hyrule to prosperity over and over again," Zelda rebutted indignantly, standing up inside the tight confines of the crystal to show her strength. "We royals have guided countless heroes to face their destinies with hidden knowledge, and we have kept that wisdom out of the hands of the likes of you for thousands of years. I have earned my piece of the Triforce. You stole yours."

That response did nothing but make Ganondorf laugh. "You fool! Hehehe, the Triforce Piece you hold may be the most powerful of them all, and yet you and your ancestors have merely used a mere fraction of its potential! If you were to truly use it for all it was worth, you could have outsmarted me, you could have found a solution to this eternal conflict, you could have made your kingdom stronger than any other. You could even unlock magic that not even I possess. Knowledge is a power unlike any other, and yet you've squandered it...a mistake I won't make once it is mine."

Zelda was about to argue back, more out of stubborn defiance than anything else, but she couldn't think of anything to say...or at least anything that didn't make her come across as pathetic. Ganon's words had actually left her speechless, and she was now being reduced to just flapping her mouth open and closed like a fish as she struggled to find the words.

Never before had someone spoken to her like that, never before had anyone dared, but the worst part about it was that she knew deep down that the dark lord was actually right.

Throughout history, there have long been tales of princesses being stolen by powerful fiends and heroes that saved them, and yet not once had she ever read or heard a tale of a princess outsmarting her opponents or dealing with the threat herself. Even Zelda, she who bore the mark of wisdom at the back of her hand, could do nothing to predict Ganondorf's return or his plan to kidnap her. His assault on Hyrule Castle was so swift and so brutal that there was nothing she could do to stop it or escape. She was supposed to be a great and wise leader, and yet she had ended up completely blindsided when a threat that had been known for ages decided to predictably appear once again.

A bit weakly, Zelda eventually argued, "...And just how would such knowledge help me out of this mess? It's not as if my Triforce piece gives me unlimited power like yours does. All it's ever been good for is giving me vague nightmares about future events that barely make any sense! So far it's been nothing but a nuisance!"

Ganon smirked at that. "You want to learn a secret, Princess?"

She didn't respond...choosing instead to just stare at him and wait for him to continue on his own.

"I am not a very good sorcerer," he revealed, much to the princess' surprise. "Yes, I can call upon a power beyond anything anyone else could ever achieve, but my knowledge and skill with spells and sorcery is...mediocre. There are those much more versed and understanding of magic than I, and if one of them held the same well of power as I do, they could do so much more with it. Once the training I received in my youth from the sorceress sisters was over, I saw no need to train anymore since I already had a source of power that made such skill useless to me. Even without my power to back you up, your Triforce of Wisdom should be able to teach you more about the very nature of magic itself than I know."

Zelda put her hand on her chin and considered his words carefully. Though he was an enemy, as well as a skilled manipulator, who was no stranger to lies and deceit, she had to admit that Ganon held a perspective that not many did, and that there may, in fact, be a twisted form of wisdom to what he was saying.

"Why are you telling me this?" she eventually asked him, trying to shed some light on what the villain's agenda might be. "What do you hope to gain from me using my Triforce better?"

Ganondorf picked up his twin blades, yanking them both out of the floor with his impressive physical strength and leaving two big noticeable marks in the stone pavement...and then he answered, "Because I have no intention of being trapped in this endless cycle forever. I want something to change, for better or for worse...and perhaps with all three pieces used to their full potential, things will eventually turn out differently."

Just as he finished that sentence, the boy in green reached their chamber and stepped into the room, ready to face his predecessor's nemesis...just as the legends foretold.

"...and here he comes..." Ganondorf said, smirking widely as he slowly turned around to face his opponent...while also turning away from the captured princess. "...the spitting image of the heroes of old."

The hero gave Zelda a brief look, silently assuring her that things were going to be okay, then he steeled himself, gathering all of his courage and prepared himself for the coming battle as he turned his kind blue eyes to the burning yellow eyes of Ganondorf, the great king of evil himself.

"Be warned, hero, I won't underestimate you this time," he noted, chuckling a little as he sized up his significantly smaller opponent. He clenched his left fist around his great blade and lifted it up so the boy could see the back of his leather gauntlet.

The mark of three golden triangles lit up there, with the one at the very top standing over the others, the mark of Din, the Goddess of Power, glowing brighter than the other two. A symbol of the sacred power that he had stolen from the heart of the Sacred Realm so many years ago.

The same thing happened to the back of the hero's hand as well, though of course his marking had the triangle on the right, the mark of Farore, the Goddess of Courage, glowing bright and radiant. A symbol of the unfaltering courage he had rightly earned throughout his adventures across the land in his quest to rescue the princess and stop Ganon from corrupting the land once again.

...And lastly, on the back of the princess' silk gloved hand, the same marking lit up as well, now with the triangle on the left, the mark of Nayru, the Goddess of Wisdom, glowing strong and bright. A symbol of the divine wisdom that her family had passed down to her...that she was now questioning whether or not she actually deserved due to the words the demon king just spoke to her.

"So tell me..." Ganondorf began to ask while moving his giant twin blades as well as his whole body into attack position. "...do you think you're worthy of that mark on your hand?"

The silent hero didn't answer with words, instead opting to make his reply known by raising his shield to protect himself from Ganon's inevitable attack with one hand, while taking a firm grip on the Master Sword in the other, ready to use its holy edge to counterattack and banish this ancient evil once more.

However, what he didn't know as he steadied his breath for the most important battle of his life...was that that question was not meant for him.

Safe, yet also trapped in her crystal prison high above the fight that soon ensued, Princess Zelda could only watch as the great king of evil launched himself at the hero, his demonic blades flowing with black magic while the humble, green-clad boy who had come to save her blocked Ganon's initial attack and delivered a quick slash of his sacred blade that hit his opponent right in the shoulder and left a wound that would not heal quickly.

For Zelda though...this was torture.

The fight just below her feet would decide the ultimate fate of her kingdom and the world beyond it for centuries to come...and yet she was powerless to do anything about it. She could not fight Ganondorf herself, nor could she aid the hero in doing it either...instead she was trapped in this prison with not enough power to break free, where all she could do was to helplessly watch as her fate was decided for her.

There were truly no words for how much she hated that feeling.

She clenched her fists in anger and narrowed her eyes at the warriors duking it out below, furious that she was denied to be involved in it, and silently cursing the gods for making her so useless at this pivotal moment.

...but then...she relaxed.

Anger would not help her...not here, not now.

While anger could push a person past their fears and unlock true courage...or possibly give one such rage that it became your power...no wise decision in history ever came out of anger. The only way for the mind to reach true clarity was to let go of impulsive emotions like anger. If Zelda was ever going to prove Ganon wrong, as well as proving to herself, that she was indeed worthy of her piece of the Triforce, she needed to calm her rage and frustration.

While the young hero and Ganondorf fought below her with more and more vigour, violently clanging their blades against each other, with the dark lord unleashing magic spell after magic spell in a stubborn effort to make his enemy fall, while the hero had to rely on his entire arsenal of bombs, hookshot, boomerang, bow imbued with fire, ice and light arrows, and even a massive ball and chain just to keep himself alive from the villain's relentless onslaught, Princess Zelda somehow managed to tune them out completely.

Even with all the noise their struggle caused, the princess did not look down at them nor let herself be distracted by them. Instead, she slowly lowered herself to her knees, closed her eyes, and gently brought her silk gloved hands to her chest.

Then...she just sat there, bringing her troubled and unfocused mind into a state of meditation while calling upon the very wisdom of the gods themselves to come to her aid when she needed it the most.

This process took well over an hour...all the while those below fought with all their might, oblivious to what Zelda was doing...but eventually, the mark of Nayru, the Triforce of Wisdom itself, began to glow on the back of her hand even brighter than than it did before.

...And in that brief moment, she could see everything.

Sure, her eyes were still closed, but that only let her see the truth even better. She could see every angle, every possibility, every single course of action she could make, and though she might not be able to fully predict the consequences of those actions, just having options to pick from was a vast improvement over her former situation.

Thanks to her new insight, she now knew that, with Ganondorf using more and more of his magic to fight the hero, Zelda could easily shatter the rapidly weakening crystal prison she was in by herself if she just waited just a few more seconds.

That said, she also needed to make a plan as for what to do once freed. There were two options available to her: either she tried to fight Ganon alongside the hero, helping him bring an end to the tyrant king once and for all, or...she could escape, and at the very least keep the Triforce of Wisdom out of his grasp for the foreseeable future.

Though both alternatives were better than just staying here, locked in her tiny prison, both still had risks. If she stayed and fought, there was a very high risk of her needlessly throwing her life away at an enemy that was far beyond what she could handle, and even possibly distract the hero himself from going all out on his opponent out of fear of accidentally hitting her in the process. However, if she simply ran away, she'd effectively abandon the valiant young man to fight the greatest evil of the land all on his own. Not to mention the fact that if Ganondorf won, Zelda doubted that she'd get all that far before he found her again...and then there'd be no one left to save her.

Though her next action seemed like a hard decision to make, once she focused her mind and trusted the infinite Wisdom of Nayru, Zelda only needed a second of consideration before she made up her mind.

Her eyes snapped open and she swiftly placed her hand on the surface of the crystal interior, then, with a single precise burst of magic, her crystal prison cracked into shards of glass that evaporated into magic dust that rained down on the two combatants below.

Ganondorf, noticing that her cage had just been destroyed, quickly looked up at her and stared as she used her magic to keep herself suspended in the air while looking down at him.

There was something in her eyes this time though that was noticeably different than the pathetic glares she had given him before this battle started. They didn't hold the same impotent rage and stubborn defiance. Instead, they were cold, distant and analytical. It was like she was seeing right through him, regarding him as little more than an obstacle to be overcome rather than an enemy to be defeated.

Though he would never admit it, those eyes made Ganondorf feel just a speck of unease...and perhaps even fear?

In that moment, Zelda reached deep within herself and then cast the greatest feat of magic she'd ever managed to achieve in her life. She held her hands together, palms aimed at the demon king, and unleashed a very bright beam of light right in his face.

The magic she used wasn't meant to kill or injure him though. Instead its purpose was to imprison; making chains of pure holy light form all over his body, restraining all of his limbs and keeping him completely immobilised.

Knowing that this lock would effectively make him an easy target for the hero's Master Sword, Ganon fought against his restraints with all of his might, pushing and pulling, screaming and roaring. He was so strong, and so filled with rage, that she had to use all of her strength just to keep him from breaking her chains like a twig.

Yet, even with her full attention and power, she knew she could only contain him there for a few seconds at most.

"I cannot hold him for much longer!" Zelda screamed as she had her teeth clenched while struggling to keep the demon king restrained under her own limited magical power. "Do it...NOW!"

The boy in green looked her in the eye and gave a definitive nod, then he dropped his shield to the floor, creating a loud clanking sound that echoed throughout the room as its metallic surface hit the stone floor, grasped the legendary Blade of Evil's Bane with both of his hands, one of which was currently glowing brightly with the Courage of Farore, blessing him with her indomitable spirit...and then he charged at his vulnerable opponent.

The mighty Ganondorf could do nothing but watch helplessly as the hero of legend impaled him right through the chest with the Master Sword itself, slicing right through his black armour and dealing a deadly wound to the nigh-invulnerable king of darkness in just one decisive move.

In that moment, Zelda let go of her spell and fell down to the floor in exhaustion, only being able to muster enough magic to make it a soft landing.

As soon as her feet hit solid ground though, she fell over to her side, completely out of breath.

While the hero had a bit more stamina than she did, even he held his pose and took this moment of reprieve to regain his breath. Though naturally he made sure the grip he had on his blade was kept right where it was so as to make sure that Ganondorf couldn't cheat his way out of his inevitable fate.

As could be expected, the one who was in the worst condition by far was the dark lord himself, as not even his unlimited pool of magic could save him from the holy weapon now stuck in his chest that was rapidly draining him of his power and life force.

Yet, even so, he refused to give up, refused to give in, forcing his dying body to remain strong and get back up and fight...despite how futile his attempts were.

"You think...this is...the end? You think...this will make...any difference?!" he gasped, struggling with every word he spoke as his mouth started leaking blood. "You have only...delayed...the inevitable."

Being a man of very few words, the boy stared him right in eye, responding to the villain's hateful glare with nothing but an intense glare of his own.

By now though had Princess Zelda managed to push herself back up on her feet, through by the amount of effort it took to do so, it was clear she was still completely drained from the spell she had just cast.

"It doesn't matter, Ganondorf," she said, catching his attention. "...because even if you manage to survive this, crawl back from whatever dark abyss you'd get sent to, I will be ready for you. The words you spoke to me earlier, you might wish you had never spoken them, for I will use them well."

That remark actually brought a small smirk to Ganon's face, and despite the searing pain he was currently experiencing, he couldn't help but chuckle a bit at them. "Hehe..heh...then...maybe...things will become more interesting from now on..."

Zelda looked at her rescuer, he met her gaze and nodded, silently assuring her that his words did not frighten him. At least not until Ganon added, "...also..."

He turned his yellow eyes back to the silent hero and the princess and finished his speech with, "...I wasn't talking about me."

"What? Then who-" the princess was about to ask, but stopped herself when she felt...something. Her piece of the Triforce began to light up and flash erratically, as if warning her about something, all while every hair on her body began to stand on end and a deep sense of dread filled her heart.

It was a presence, a magical presence of immense power, far beyond what any mortal mage would be able to conjure under most circumstances, and it was coming from somewhere close by.

While she at first assumed this power was coming from the dying Ganondorf, possibly being him summoning all of his malice to transform into his dreaded beast-like form the legends of old spoke of many times...or possibly him trying to use his last remnants of magic to bring down the tower down on top of his enemies in a last ditch effort to take them down with him...but soon enough, it became clear to her that this was not at all what was happening.

In fact, between her abduction and her extended stay here in Ganon's Tower, she had grown quite familiar with the dark lord's, as well as his minions', magic. It was almost as if his power had a smell unique to him, and him alone. That distinctive unholy blend of Din's infinite divine power crossed with the unspeakable malice of Demise himself...with a dash of the distinctive style of Gerudo sorcery as well.

Whatever this new power was, it felt nothing like that.

Instead, it had almost a more...colourful feel to it. It was based on a form of sorcery so different from anything she'd been taught about that she couldn't place it, and seemed to be fuelled by the power of life and light itself, a...force almost as powerful as the Triforce if wielded by a skilled enough sorcerer.

...Though perhaps 'new' might not exactly be completely accurate either, since this power felt...ancient, almost forgotten to the passage of time.

However, while she was busy standing frozen in place as she tried to identify what this strange presence was...Ganondorf suddenly reached over and grabbed the young hero by the throat with his massive leather gauntlet, catching him completely off-guard, and started to choke him.

While Ganondorf could do nothing to prevent his inevitable demise...he still had no intention of letting his killer win. He didn't try to stay alive, didn't try to speak or to think...instead he pushed every single ounce of power into his hand as he clenched it tighter and tighter around the hero's neck.

The boy, being much physically weaker than his opponent, had to try to pry Ganon's one hand away from his throat with both of his, all while struggling not to pass out from the lack of oxygen in his exhausted state. It was difficult, but given that Ganondorf was coming closer and closer to death with every second, there was hope that he could make it if he gave it his all.

Almost on instinct, Princess Zelda snapped out of her daze, rushed forward and tried to help pry Ganon's grip off of her saviour's throat, but found her own frankly pathetic physical strength insufficient for the task.

Further complicating that effort was when Ganon then used his other hand to smack her right in the face, sending the dainty princess flying across the room and onto the stone floor, her tiara flying off her head and colliding with the wall in the process, while she barely managed to use her hands to break the fall. Nevertheless, when she soon after managed to push her head off the floor, she had a nasty nose bleed, her lip was bruised, and she immediately spat out a plash of blood onto the stone bricks below.

...and the sad part was that that hit was done with only a small fraction of Ganondorf's strength. Any more amount of power, and he could have smashed her teeth in, broken her nose entirely, or even cracked her skull wide open. She shuddered to think of the possibilities.

With Zelda out of the way and the green-clad hero within his grip, he focused all of his waning strength and focus on his mortal enemy. At this moment, his own life meant nothing to him. He had cheated death before, so he didn't fear it. However, he still refused to go out like a weakling or a failure, he wanted his death to have meaning, to have consequences.

Trapped as he was by Ganondorf's iron grip, the hero had now resorted to kicking and punching the demon king to escape his dire predicament. Ganon didn't budge, he just clenched his fist tighter, and thus making it harder and harder for the boy to breathe. Neither of them would last very long if this kept up.

Zelda meanwhile was trying to get back up on her feet, but her head was swimming from the collision it had with Ganon's fist, making her woozy and unfocused...and even if she did help, what good would it do? As she had just learned, she was useless against the dark lord's strength even if he was on death's doorstep.

More alarming though was that mysterious presence, which she felt even stronger than before, and the feeling was only becoming worse as whatever it was was coming closer and closer towards her...so much so that even in this dire situation, she found it impossible to ignore.

Soon enough, she couldn't help but turn her head to where she felt this power coming from, her eyes immediately settling on a nearby window, where she caught a glimpse of a massive black storm approaching the tower.

Sure, Ganon's magic around this place had smothered the sky in black clouds already, but this was something else. It was more violent, more aggressive, and had its own power that blew away Ganon's dark effects in order to replace it with its own darkness. The winds rushed around it like a tornado, sending dust and debris straight out of the ground only to be sucked into this violent tempest.

This wasn't just some crazy weather phenomena either, as Zelda could feel that the strange ancient magic approaching her was also powering the strong winds, forcing them to become more and more aggressive and destructive.

As if that wasn't bad enough, soon several powerful lightning strikes hit the storm in rapid succession as the force causing it gathered power for a single massive magical attack, one for which the princess was sure was aimed directly at this very tower.

...and that's when she saw it.

For just a moment, a gap was opened in the darkened tornado, giving Zelda a brief glimpse into what was hiding inside it...and what she saw terrified her to her core.

In the very heart of the storm was a single gargantuan eyeball which was staring right back at her, burning red with the power of a demon awakened from the depths of time itself and ready to exact its wrath upon the world once more.

Too preoccupied with their own life and death struggle to notice this mysterious new threat, the hero and Ganondorf's struggle was nearing its end. As much as Ganon's rage and stubborn will forced him to keep going, not even that could keep him alive for long.

Finally, after a few desperate moments of struggle and defiance...Ganondorf took his last breath, his eyes went blank, and his grip on the hero's neck loosened, as the Master Sword drained the very last of his life force out of his body.

At long last, he was dead.

The boy broke free from Ganon's rigid fingers, letting the demon king's lifeless corpse fall face first onto the floor with a heavy thud, giving him a precious moment to regain his breath.

Whether or not the King of Evil would rise again was unclear at this point...but even if he did, the hero had at least made sure it would not be for a long time to come. For now, Hyrule was no longer threatened by his malice or his tyranny, and the brave boy clad in green had proven himself to be a true hero, just as those like him had done before.

Unfortunately, there would be no time to celebrate his victory, for as soon as the hero had managed to escape the clutches of his nemesis and was free to escape with the princess he had come all this way to rescue, it was already too late.

Without any further warning, an immensely powerful blast of magic lightning struck the base of Ganon's Tower, sending shockwaves throughout the whole structure. The blast itself even hit with enough force to clear the sky entirely of Ganon's dark influence while the noise it made was loud enough to be heard throughout half of Hyrule.

Entire rooms and floors collapsed in on themselves, crushing any of Ganon's unfortunate minions that the hero hadn't slain on the way up under hundreds of tonnes of stone. Screams of Moblins, Bokoblins, and Lizalfos could be heard as the castle collapsed around them. A few Wizrobes were lucky enough to teleport away at the last second, but even a lot of them weren't fast enough to escape and ended up crushed.

Soon, the ceiling above Zelda and the hero collapsed, with the heavy stone bricks it was made of raining down into the room all at once, leaving the two of them with only a single whole second to react before they were crushed underneath.

The boy in green could only look up in alarm before it happened...while Zelda closed her eyes and clenched her fists as the Crest of Nayru's Divine Wisdom lit up at the back of her left hand once more.

The rest of the tower didn't last much longer after that, tipping over by its roots and hitting the ground with enough force for the sound to echo for miles in all directions. The great ominous monolith of fear and oppression Ganondorf had erected to show his power to any who gazed upon it was now nothing more than a pile of stone and rubble...the only grave he would ever be given, for the only one to ever mourn his death was himself.

Left behind was nothing more than a smoking ruin in a desolate landscape...while the nightmarish creature that had attacked it used its mastery over the wind to make the stone blocks that once made up the imposing tower be tossed up into the sky and then discarded like someone trying to search for a specific object in a pile of garbage.

Far enough away from the ruins of the tower, a small green wisp of magical wind swirled around the sandy ground like ribbons, kicking up dust in a brief, but intense, spiral motion until Princess Zelda, alive and unharmed, miraculously appeared within it.

She had been lucky...very lucky.

In that one second she had to react before the ceiling was about to crush her bones into gravel, Zelda had somehow been able to cast an ancient teleportation spell of sorts known as Farore's Wind to save her own life...and it wasn't exactly an easy spell to cast either.

The way Farore's Wind worked was that instead of just teleporting someone from one place to another in the strictest sense of the word, it instead transformed the caster into pure wind, which could then move as fast as the fastest breeze to somewhere else until the caster transformed back into solid matter. It was a technique invented during the early days of the Kingdom of Hyrule by a wicked and mysterious sorcerer who's name was lost to time, and then recreated by the elusive Great Fairy of Magic centuries later, who taught it to the Hero of Time himself...but has since been lost to the passage of time.

The Princess Zelda of this era had never cast it before, had never even tried, and only heard about it in passing, so even she was surprised that it actually worked...or at least, she was surprised about that when she eventually figured out what she just did. Right now she only knew that she did something to escape certain death and end up here...

When the dust around her settled and the green winds surrounding her calmed down, the princess looked around confused, trying to figure out where she was and how she got there.

"How did I..?" she asked herself quietly as she tried to remember what exactly happened back in the tower, how she managed to survive when the whole structure was about to...

Then...a thought hit her with the force of a sledgehammer.

"Oh no!" she gasped under her breath.

Dread filled Zelda's heart as she slowly turned around to look at the huge pile of stones that were once Ganon's Tower, her eyes widening in horror.

There was no possible way the boy in green could have survived that. None at all. While there was no doubt that he was the hero incarnate...he was still only human, and she herself only survived thanks to a last minute magic spell and sheer luck by the looks of it. It would be extremely unlikely that he did the same. That meant that...it meant that...

She could barely even finish that thought, and instead closed her eyes and fell to her knees. Her cold analytical state slowly whittled away as her emotions began to come back in full. Eventually, tears began to slowly build up at the base of her eyes as she let the facts sink in.

Though Zelda admittedly barely knew the boy personally, having only met him in the flesh once and didn't even know his name, he alone had risked everything he had to rescue her, and did so without a second thought. However, even from that briefest of contact, she could tell that he had a kind heart and the soul of a true hero.

...and now he was gone, just like that.

Her tears were not really for a man she missed, but for a man she was sad she would now never get the chance to know. More than that, she owed him her life...and now she would never get the chance to repay him.

He wasn't even struck down in battle by his nemesis Ganondorf as one could expect - in fact, Ganon too must have befell the same fate as the hero - Instead, they were both taken out by a surprise attack by some mysterious third participant who had come out of nowhere and that no one could have predicted.

Speaking of which, once Zelda finally managed to open her eyes again, she could see through her tears that the monstrous storm was not only still there, but that it was doing something new.

Though it was hard to see from this distance, the princess caught a glimpse of two small bright lights rising from the rubble and ascending straight towards the demonic eye in the middle of the raging tempest as if drawn in by the pull of gravity.

As they drew closer to it, Zelda's pointed ears were then assaulted with the most terrifying and unnatural laughter that she had ever had the misfortune of hearing. It was loud enough to echo through the mountains, as well as vibrate straight through her body like a tremor despite how far away it was coming from.

That laughter told her two things: the first of which being that she was dealing with no mere beast acting on its instincts, but an intelligent and cunning creature of great power, the second being that it was evil. After all, no being who found such joy in destruction and death could have noble intentions.

In fact, despite not knowing what exactly it was, she could reasonably guess its intention.

The timing was no coincidence. It had attacked Ganon's Tower when all three wielders of the shattered Triforce were at their most vulnerable, giving the creature a rare opportunity to claim all three pieces for itself. It was a clever and devious move which had almost worked out perfectly for it.

What it clearly didn't expect though was for Zelda, along with her piece of the Triforce, to have escaped its attack at the last second, denying it a full set.

This presented a problem, the princess realised, as it would not be long before the monster would realise its mistake and begin to search for her to complete its collection. Zelda shuddered at the very thought of what it would do to her if it found her now.

Knowing better than to stick around to find out, the princess turned tail and ran as far and as fast as she could away from the one-eyed beast, hoping to escape its grasp.

Unfortunately, the lands outside the tower were not much safer...

Author's Note

Howdy and hello, I am Flufux the Velociraptor, and here I'm back with 'The Legend of Zelda'...a series I haven't written fanfics about in a long time now.

For a while I had completely moved on to writing about talking pastel ponies, but after that show ended, as well as a some bad stuff which I don't really want to get into...I eventually decided to make my triumphant return to fanfic writing in the fandom I first started writing for.

Now, if anyone has read or heard about my previous Zelda story (or even just seen it on my profile), I can tell you right now that this is NOT in any way a continuation of that, but instead a brand new story.

I wrote that one when I was still an inexperienced teenager and hadn't gotten a handle on writing or storytelling yet, and made a lot of rookie mistakes, such as adding waaay too many underdeveloped characters, a too convoluted plot, and just weren't that great of an overall writer...at least not compared to now.

With this story, I intend to correct those issues, giving you a more coherent narrative and fewer, but far more developed and interesting, characters.

That said, I have kept about about three of my original characters from that story and intend to use them here. However, each of them have been completely reimagined once I realised not only what worked and what didn't work with them before, but also how to better make them fit within this particular story. Hell, one is pretty much an in-name-only version of one of my old OCs.

So feel free to tell me what you thought of this first chapter and where you think the story will go from here. Also, I have a gallery on my Deviantart account (where I'm called 'Reptileman778') dedicated to this fanfic, so make sure to check that out as well.

Timeline-wise, this story takes place sometime after 'Skyward Sword', 'The Minish Cap' and 'Four Swords', and Ganondorf did steal the Triforce of Power sometime after that, got defeated, came back, yadda yadda, but Hyrule didn't get flooded and he wasn't sent to the Twilight Realm...and I'm not touching the confusing as hell Zelda timeline anymore than that for now.

Oh, and one last thing: I have not played 'Tears of the Kingdom' yet, so I'm not using anything from that game, and please don't give me any spoilers.