[ZGen] LOZ: Destruction of Light (T)

Posting Chapter 1 and 2 here... I haven't worked on this for months, but I may again. If you spot errors, please do tell me.

CHAPTER 1- The Blade of Evil’s Bane

In the forests of Faron, a lone male and his trusty steed walked slowly in through the grasses and trees. The man, garbed in a dark green cloak over a green tunic as well as tan pants and deep brown boots, was named Link, Hero of Twilight, and the descendant of a legendary hero. He wore a large metal shield on his back, as well as a broadsword made by a man named Rusl in the Village of Ordon. On his steed were various bags that were attached to a thick leather saddle that was engraved with the symbol of Hyrule: the Triforce. Most of the bags had food and clothing, while a few had some water skins.

The forest was one of the oldest ones in the kingdom of Hyrule. A Light Spirit named Faron governed and ruled over the forest, deterring evil creatures from the depths of the forest in order to keep the peace. Trees all around Link seemed to bloom with life, as it was spring. Link stopped before an apple tree, admiring its beauty; there were pink blossoms on each little inch of the branches of the tree.

Epona, the horse, was scratching at the ground, hoping to find anything to eat. Link patted her on the back and continued forward, hoping to find a certain blade. With the coming and passing of five springs, Link was surprised how thick the forest had grown; perhaps an enchantment was placed to keep the forest alive and well.

Then it came into view: a large torn structure that resembled that of a fallen and forgotten temple. Link recognized it right away: the Temple of Time. It was the resting place between the world he knew, as well as the Sacred Realm. One could only travel to the Sacred Realm now only through the Master Sword that slept within the crushed temple. Over the course of the five springs that had passed, the Temple had been overtaken by vegetation such as vines and grasses.

Pulling out his broadsword, he slashed at the vegetation with a rhythmic precision. Over the course of a few minutes, the vegetation had let up, leading Link more and more into the temple. He walked past a large door which was nearly off its hinges and towards the room the Master Sword slept in.

Upon touching the sword Link could feel a second conscience touch his own. It rubbed against him, until a voice boomed through his mind. “Why have thou come to claim me?”

“The people of Hyrule need your power once more.”

“The climate of evil is descending upon this land. Even I have sensed it through my dreams.”

“Spirit of the Sword… Please release your seal and let me take the Blade of Evil’s bane.”

Link tugged on the sword as a ray of light shot out of the blade. Suddenly the grip let off and the sword came out, nearly knocking Link off balance. The Sword was much heavier than his broadsword but he easily held it in his left hand. Rays of light wrapped around his back as a second sword sheath appeared on his back. He swung the sword around and withdrew it, and then placed his other sword back into its own sheath.

He jumped onto Epona, kicking her in the side and pulled her reigns, turning towards the forest’s exit to his hometown of Ordon.

CHAPTER 2 - The Veil of Darkness

As he approached the village, many of the female villagers ran into their homes while the males came up and drew their swords. Of the men, Link could tell only a few: Fado, the mayor, Colin, Rusl, and even Talo and Malo. Malo had left his business in the hands of the shopkeeper in Hyrule Castle town and every month he got a hand full of money he used to assist the town with. Talo, his older brother, as well as Colin both had became more courageous as well as stronger than Link last saw that he nearly forgot who they were.

“State your business and your name.” Colin said.

“My business is to deliver a blade back,” Link raised his sword and gave it to Rusl, “fitting that this blade goes back to its owner.”

Rusl took the blade and was shaken a bit. He raised his head and muttered a name: “Link?”

Link took the hood off his eyes and looked at the village males before him, all awestruck. Across his left eye was a long scar that was red. His face no longer was soft like it was five years ago, but now showed the stress of long battles and wars.

Colin came up and was still amazed. “Is that really you, Link?”

Link shook his head and looked at Rusl. “The time is coming. Turmoil is once again happening and I have had sleepless nights for the past month or so. I’ve had dreams of evil descending from the sky and destroying our fair Hyrule.” Link drew out the Master Sword which gleamed with a golden light. “Behold the slayer of evil, the Blade of Evil’s Bane, the Master Sword!”

Rusl came up to the blade and touched the side of it, enjoying the smooth metal running past his fingers. “Such a fine crafted blade. The legends were true; a sword with the power to banish evil.”

“Gather any of the villagers and take to Kakariko Village for support.” Link turned Epona around and turned his head. “Ordon Village is still too isolated to get any support from the Kingdom. Please go to Kakariko.”

He kicked Epona again in the side and dashed off to the forest, leaving the village behind. In a matter of a half of an hour, he already had gotten out of the forest and into the south edge of Hyrule Field. Epona stopped abruptly, making Link almost fall out of the saddle.

A slight gasp came out of his mouth as he looked up towards the North, already the flames of disaster erupted out of the castle. What took nearly a year to rebuild was being destroyed.

“ZELDA!” Link shouted.

He beat Epona in the side and rushed ahead, tears running down the side of his face to the ground. The woman who he risked his very life to save was in danger and he instinctively rushed forward. The only thought in his mind was to save her, even at the cost of his life.

* * *

“So you’re leaving again for battle?” Zelda said, her ears drooping.

“Evil is never going to just vanish.” Link said. “Even with the fall of Ganondorf and Zant, we do not know if their evil has spread to create a new being.”

“But we can dispatch the soldiers to take care of them.”

“We don’t know who or what this new evil is. Sending a bunch of inexperienced soldiers would be suicide.”

“Excuse me?! Inexperienced soldiers?!”

“Aye. They have yet to go through what I had to deal with, dealing with monsters many times my size in order to gather three Fused Shadows and three Mirror Shards.” Link bit his lip in the memory. “I came here not only to tell you I am leaving here, but also to get permission as a knight of Hyrule to undertake a journey to find this evil as well as find the legendary Master Sword.”

Zelda turned and looked out of the window of the throne room. “Fine. You have been given permission. However, I expect to hear from you again to report your progress. I will send messengers to the Zoras and the Gorons to see if they will assist us in case a war shall break out. I expect to see you back soon, Hero of Twilight.”

“That I promise. And as a knight, I will risk even my life to save you, milady.”

* * *

The smoke from the burning castle began to flood the streets as people ran from their homes, most scurrying out through the eastern castle gates to get to Kakariko. Link ran through the streets and crowded people as Epona ran to the best of her abilities towards the burning castle.

Once there, Link scurried up the front of the castle. He took a right and ran up a flight of stairs that normally would kill a man if he should run up them, but Link’s body was extremely well built for such an occasion. The smoke was flowing down the staircase and Link began to cough and hack, covering his mouth to protect himself from the smoke.

Once he got to the throne room, he ran over to the throne, seeing Zelda unconscious on it. He lifted her soft head and felt her neck; a pulse was there and he sighed. He flipped her over onto his back as larger explosions came and rumbled through the castle. He could feel his knees caving in slightly; the floor was beginning to lose its ability to support weight.

He ran out of the throne room and cursed slightly as the only route back to the bottom floor had been destroyed in the process of the explosions. He looked around and found nothing of use and cursed slightly. Was he to die here and now, leaving Hyrule to its doom?

Then an idea came up in his mind. He had hoped it would work. He pulled his fingers to his lips and played a quick tune, hoping it would save him. When the flaps of a rather large creature were beginning to come, he smiled. Just then a large bird with a wingspan easily longer than three Links that stood up on each others shoulders flew down. Link petted it on the neck and pointed it to Zelda. It picked her up with its talons, easily gripping her hard enough to hold her, but light enough to not hurt her. Link jumped on its shoulders as a final explosion came, throwing the bird into terror and sending them into the sky.

Below them, Hyrule Castle had fallen to the grounds, burning in the raging inferno; a years worth of work, gone in an instant. But who or what could have done such a thing to destroy it?

Link’s Master Sword began to shake violently behind him as the bird took off quicker. Link directed it towards the east, flying them ever closer to Kakariko.

* * *

“She’ll be fine.” A tall man walked over and patted Zelda’s head with a cloth. “She suffered a few wounds, but they don’t look like much.”

“Thank you, Renado.” Link said. “Without your expertise in medicine, I don’t know what would have happened to her.”

“Not a problem. Although I am a bit worried as to what you said. Has the Castle really burned down?”

“Aye.” Link said. “A years worth of work on a Castle with the help of every creature in Hyrule… gone.”

“Do not feel bad.” Renado lifted his head. “A Castle means nothing right now. Everything was needed from there is here.” He pointed to Zelda. “If we had no leader, Hyrule would fall into chaos.”

Link walked over to the window and looked closer to the spring. A faint glow was over it, forming itself into what looked like an eagle. “I think Eldin would like to speak to me.”

“Go ahead. These Spirits know more of what is happening than us humans.”

Patting through the soft sand of the town, Link walked closer to the spring. His boots began to get muddy then wet when he walked into the spring. Eldin was awaiting him; it was a faint glow before it exploded into the world nearly blinding Link.

“Hero of Twilight… Welcome to my spring.” The Spirit was sitting on a large glowing orb with its wings stretched outwards. It took its head and bowed over to meet eye to eye with Link. “I see you have also been plagued with nightmares; I thought you would never draw the Sword out again from its slumber unless in times of need.”

“And this is the time we need it; already there is a veil of darkness ready to plunge this world from the Light.”

“As long as we four Light Spirits are here to protect this land on behalf of the gods, this land will not easily fall into darkness.”

Suddenly Eldin picked up his head and looked towards the west. “It… cannot be…”

“What is wrong?!” Link shouted. “What’s wrong?”

The western skies filled with darkness, covering the Lanayru Providence in thick shadows. Link gasped as Eldin cocked his head forwards and grabbed Link in the shoulders, then took to the sky to give Link a better view. Darkness covered over the Castle, not even letting a hint of the fires to be visible.

“Lanaryu has fallen.” Eldin said.

“But I thought he could defend the darkness with ease?” Link was shocked, a Light Spirit of such power easily defeated… Or was he?

Eldin cocked his head to the south. Link saw a group of people were leaving the forest, heading east to Kakariko. In the back of the group came out a rather large monster that stood on all fours that looked like a cross between a deer and an Ordon Goat. Behind that beast came another one that looked like a cross between monkey and a squirrel.

“Ordona and Faron are already coming out of their resting spaces to flee. I believe they have already sensed the evil and are coming to join with me.” Eldin said. “Alone, one Spirit is weak, but together, we are strong enough to combat the darkness… for awhile.” Eldin set Link back down on the ground.

“Hero of Twilight, you must know that even in the wake of the darkness, that you will be strong to defend the Kingdom like you did so many years ago.”

“I will defend it till I die.” Link said.

“This darkness is pure evil… Different than both Ganon and the Twili.” Eldin said. “It lives to eat the Light to feed itself. This is the darkness we were sent to destroy, not Ganon or the Twili, for it has existed since the beginning of the time the Goddesses left our dimension. It is a darkness that is so powerful, not even the Triforce can defeat it. It is a darkness that was created to make the world equal in both good and evil, and even shadow and light.”

When the villagers came into Kakariko, Faron and Ordona had changed their attention to Eldin and Link.

“It is a darkness that was opposites of the Goddesses themselves.” Faron said.

“The Goddesses only duty was to create this land for the gods.” Ordona said. “They gave the people and creatures life… but in the process of leaving forgot to give them death.”

“Then came the darkness. It bred itself from the evilness of man and became a deity itself.” Eldin looked around, awaiting any danger. “It came and reared its ugly head from the depths of the cold ground and sucked up the life of the Hylia and the creatures around them. A process you know as death. The longer the darkness sucked on your life, the more your health became depleted and thus you died… If it weren’t for the darkness, you would live forever, being as young as you were once you became an adult from adolescence.”

Link looked around and sighed. “This darkness… Does it have a name?”

“No one knows its name or even its form, for it hides in the darkness much like a predator. It is why most people die in the night; for the beast is more powerful in the shadows away from the sunlight.” Eldin lifted his head.

“We thought Ganon maybe trying to reincarnate the beast in himself, but you slew him so quickly we thought nothing would happen.” Ordona sat her legs down to rest; her size was too large to walk that far through a thick forest to a small village without hurting herself. “It was poor thinking on our part.”

“Lanayru was the only one who was still cautious.” Faron said. “He was always uptight since the day he was created. He was the leader of us all, and the wisest, knowing what to do always, and was always the one to attack to defend. He will be missed.”

Link looked up. “If Lanayru fell, doesn’t it simply mean they stole his light? If I can gather back his Light Tears, won’t he come back and we can defeat this darkness?”

“I wish it could be simple as that, little hero.” Ordona nudged him on the shoulder and he petted her on her head. “As we said, this darkness steals life… If Lanayru had been defeated, then he must have been killed slowly without realizing it…”

“He died?!” Link exclaimed. “Then what do we do?!”

“Settle child!” Faron bellowed. “You may have only lived on this earth for more than twenty-two cycles… excuse me…years, but we have lived longer. The Master Sword maybe known as the Blade of Evil’s Bane, but it can only cast away the evil, like Ganon. If you walked into the Veil of Shadows now, it would simply be suicide. The Shadows will eat away your life in a matter of minutes.”

“What Faron is meaning is you need to leave Hyrule.” Eldin said. “Before you protest, you must know that there is a land east of here that the goddesses created alongside here that holds its own Kingdom that is in peril… In the depths of the Mountains in that Kingdom will be an orb of pure light that was meant for the Master Sword. No one knows its name, but it was said to be the Light to drive away shadows… However the Kingdom is being overtaken by evil, whilst this one is being overtaken by darkness. Bring together the Light and the Bane to send away evil for eternity.”

Link nodded. “I will do so.”

Ordona lifted her head and saw the forest already falling into darkness. “The Darkness will take about a few days to come here. The forest is full of life to satisfy it for now. That means by tomorrow, you need to leave to get the light orb… Are you ready?”

“I am always.”

“Leave by dawn then, and take your steed and get to the Kingdom quickly. We will try our best to keep the shadows at bay.”