Chapter XIX: Dies Irae

Chapter XIX: Dies Irae

The clouds began to bleed. Gently, subtly at first but Soon their wounds were pouring. Link looked up. Where once was the roof of the tower, there were now clouds weeping upon him; Their cuts ran as deep as a canyon. He began to pace to and fro in anticipation. Waiting. The wind pounded upon him like a sledge, the rain cut into his open wounds.
How long had it been? An hour? A few seconds? A lifetime even? He clutched his sword untill his knuckles flushed white. All that had gone on before, came to the front of his head.
'It only takes one man to make a difference' stated his uncle as he lay dying in the rain wash.
'Let's take back our kingdom!' Zelda exonerated.
'Have faith, Advised Sage Tellah
'For this' He said to Zelda who felt so warm between her arms, so natural.
'Please make this old man's dreams come true' pleaded Sahsrahla
'The darkness has no chance against you'
That statement resonated within his skull.
Celteria came as he had asked, battered by the storm, but her mucsles were tense and ready and her eyes flared with an eagerness to help Link.
'Hero! I have come!'
'Ganon has taken Zelda. You must help me find them.'
'We must get her back! It has probally taken her to its stronghold, The Pyramid. That is where they are.'
She took a hold of him, and they took off into the storm. The wind tried to push them back with all of it's might. The rain attacked, attempting to drive them into the ground. It beat hard upon her wings, each drop feeling as heavy as a boulder. The lightning stabbed at them, flashing mere inches from thier feet. Bolts as great as skyscrapers, peirced the sky about them. The tempest was so thick, Link could not see the ground below.
He thought of that first night. Her desperate plea rang as vividly and as clearly as it had when she first called. Charging head first into a violent, furious storm, was by no means the most sensible thing he'd ever done. His uncle told him his courage outweighed his common sense and perhaps that was true. No matter. If he failed, Hyrule would be nothing more than a mound of cinder.
His breathes were staccoto, erratic. His heart could be heard between his ears. His perspiration and rain merged. The storm did not convince to turn back on that first night. Link could only conceal his laughter.
The pyramid came into view. The thunder drowned out his pulse and thoughts. She set him down upon the same surface upon which he had entered into the realm. A hole as large as a hill had been punched in it.
'Thank you.' He kissed her graciously upon the crown of her head.
'I am sorry, Link, for I can go no further, But I can heal you.'
Link closed his eyes as Celteria raised her arms. He felt a warm energy flow into him, and made every fabric of him resonate with vigour.
'All of Hyrule is in your debt.' thanked Link.
'I am praying for you Hero!'
He looked into the hole, and before he could begin to reconsider, Link stepped in.

He fell upon the floor with a deep thud that shook his bones loose. Link swore that even after he hit, he bounced off of the ground. The rain poured down the hole, flooding the chamber. He shook out pain, and drew his sword. He saw Zelda imprisoned within a crystal, suspended in the corner of the chamber and Before him stood his oppressor.
'So Hero, we meet at last.' Gannon was a mountain of a man, if he was a man at all. What Link stared at was as tall as the Missississippi is deep; with shoulders that were as broad as as the river in a summer flood. It stood haughty as Goliath in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It's skin was cobalt, and was a tough as leather. A trident as long as a telephone pole was in grasp, and it thirst for blood. The head was like that of a wild boar. Two tusks like daggers were jutting out of the lower jaw, they were slick with saliva. The eyes burned like hellfire, Their gaze peirced into his his very core. A skull the size of Link's own, stood adorning the chest.
The darkness has no chance against you
'It is unimaginable that a boy such as you could cause me so much trouble. You defeated my alter ego twice! I never expected to look upon Agahnim's battered frame. None of that matters now. Your life ends here! I will make my dream come true and reign over all realms of Hyrule! You can do little more than perish before me.'
It tapped the blunt end of the trident upon the ground. A wall of flame encircled Ganon. Link raised his shield, lowered his shoulder, and charged. Just before he came into the circle, he left his feet. He sailed like an arrow, shield foreward.

Link struck the form of Ganon and fell back like a bb striking the hull of a battleship. Upon the ground, He sat dazed and shook off his stupor just to see the head of the trident falling towards him. He rolled foreward, and ran the edge of his sword across the back of it's shins.
He heard Ganon wince. Link rolled out of the burning circle and The Dark Heart of Chaos turned to face him. The wall of fires dropped and It came towards Link like a runaway comet. It stuck low and Link parried. The force of their colliding weapons shook the very pillars of Hyrule. Before he could anticipate the next strike, Link felt it's fist crash into the bridge of his nose.
Link wheeled back, knowing it was broken. Some of the cartilage had been pressed into his tear ducts, and it stung like salt in an open wound. His head began to throb, and his vision filled with moisture.
The blunt end of the trident snapped into his jaw, freeing a tooth his gums. An armoured boot, the size of his torso, pounded into his chest, breaking yet more ribs, and taking the wind from his lungs. A cold, harsh palm clasped about his throat. Link was lifted up and thrown across the room.

A firey bomb streaked towards him. Link rolled to the side when it hit the wall. The force threw him to the other wall. Link arose. He felt his sternum crack as the blunt end was shoved into his chest. He did have enough wherewithall to leap back in order to avoid a swipe that was meant for his throat.
Link feighed low, and struck high but his strike was defended. He swung again and still he could not penetrate. It launched the trident foreward. Link raised his sword and it hit between two prongs. It twisted it's weapon, wrenching the Master Sword from his hands.
Link straefed to his left. It placed it's foot upon the hilt of the sword. He reached for an arrow, but felt nothing. Link groaned when he realized His bow was still in Zelda's posession and she was unable to join him.

'You honestly think you stand a chance?' taunted Link.
Ganon let free a boisterious laugh. 'Such insolence. Such pride. It will be a pleasure drinking your blood.'
'You've got problems.'
Link did the last thing Ganon expected. He lowered his shoulder, raised his shield and charged. Link leapt up shield foreward, and planted the edge into Ganon's throat. It staggered back off of his sword alloiwing Link to recover it, and landed a strike. Ganon's cry shook the roots of Hyrule itself. Enraged it, fired a blast from the trident, point blank. Link hit the the wall, and spat out another tooth.
From the deepest, darkest bowells of the abyss, to the grandest celestial spires, Their battle was watched. HEavens arches and Hell's chambers trembled at the rage and fury of their conflict. The pit of hell arose to back their champion. The angels looked down from on high, in support of their hero

It stood above him like a tsunami closing in on the shore. Zelda looked on. She saw Ganon raising the trident and shouted in a vain effort to make a difference. Ganon had taken so much from her. Her father, her kingdom, her home, even, even her inocence. She could not bear to lose anything else. Zelda saw her future, laying on the ground, battered, broken, and at the mercy of Ganon. Her tears blurred her vision as She screamed. I am not sure whether she cried Link's name or for her father.

He rolled foreward, only to recieve a blast to his chest. When He saw it charging towards him, Link arose and charged as well. With each step his legs became heavier. With each step, the sword grew heavier. He gave the impression that he was going to leave his feet. Ganon poised also, his shins becoming tense. Instead, LInk rolled to side, and drove his sword into the back of Ganon's knee.
IT wheeled about, and swung the trident. LInk pulled out the Master Sword, in time to dodge.
It swept again, only to meet with his shield. The resonace of the blow shook every bone loose. Link followed with a strike that cut the top of Ganon's wrist.
He struck again but Ganon parried. Still, Link hammered away, striking the trident with a serise of blows that drove the Dark King back. LInk kicked Ganon in the stomache, and struck again. It raised the trident only to have it break upon the edge of the Master Sword.

Ganon clubbed Link with one half of the trident, and slashed him with the other. It leapt back then pounded its fist into the ground, sending a wave of energy surging towards him. THe stones in the floor were rent and uprooted as the energy surged through. Link was dazed and took the full force of the attack. Ganon rushed in as soon as he struck the wall and delievered three more strikes. He lifted him up, and tossed him again.
Zelda ran over to him, and stood before her Hero, bow loaded and ready, eyes tense and ablaze with rage.
'How nice.' quipped Ganon. 'Do you both wish to perish?'
LInk arose and raised his sword. He stepped in front of Zelda and glared at Ganon.
The darkness has no chance against you
'LInk we can kill him!'
He said nothing to her, only tightened his grip on the hilt. Ganon raised his trident, and pointed it towards them, and the adversaries ran at each other and met in a flurry of blows but Neither one was able to penertrate. As time drew on, their attacks increased in number and potency, Seemingly faster with each passing moment. The Master Sword was as light as a leaf, and it stung upon Ganon's armor like the rain that beat upon the ground.
It slashed Link's shoulder. He reeled back and Ganon closed in, flailing his weapons. Link could feel his intestines, and bowells grow soft with each blow he absorbed.
LInk managed to evade what would have been the decisive blow. He retorted by running his sword across Ganon's chest. He followed up with a blow to his left arm, causing it to drop the sharp end of the trident. Link then lunged foreward, and cought the bottom of its wrists across the edge of the Master Sword. Out of despiration, Ganon kicked Link in the crotch.
He keeled over into a spasm of dry heaves. It recovered the pronged end of the trident and raised it. Before Link could get the chance to regain himself, It would strike. It pulled it's arm to the apex of it's reach, relishing the moment. Just before it brought it down, the weapon fell from it's grasp.
Ganon found a radiant arrow jutting through his arm. It pulled it out giving Link to recollect himself, and take the sword back into his grasp. Still on all fours, he surged foreward, and drove the Master Sword into it's knee.
Zelda fired another arrow into it. Instead of falling, as they expected, it arose a foot off of the ground. It flailed it's leg kicking Link and the sword against the wall. It turned it's attention towards Zelda, who was on the opposite wall, and fired a volley of flames. She took to flight, the flames brushing upon her.
'Most impressive young Hero. But can you defete this archiac technique of darkness?! En Gaurde!'
The room became devoid of light. Link felt a searing fist crash into his ribs stomache. He felt the cold sting of the trident's sharpened prongs run across each of his wrists. He dropped the Master Sword, and ran. His arms began to burn. Where once there was sensation, there was only pain.
Ganon pounded upon Link as hard as the rain clashed upon the ground. He felt the warmth of his own blood flowing down from his nose, his wrists, across his chest. It pooled with in his lungs, and he felt it seeping inside him from his bowells. His head was rocked between two sets of fists. Link did manage to raise his shield. He felt his arm begin to swell from what he surmised would be a fracture.
Link felt a foot crash into the small of his back toppling him over. He felt the harsh scrape of a fang across his Achiles' tendon. He cried. The pain was drowned out by a set of cold hands that cletched about his throat, and removed his feet from the ground. Like a desperate prayer, he threw his good foot. It landed in the soft of Ganon's throat, and he fell to the ground.
He took to flight again, and found the Sword. He could barely wrap his fingers about the hilt for It was as heavy as a planet. If he was ever worth anything, he'd keep fighting.
When you are weak, I will strengthen you
Link swung wildly like a hurricane, as though the Master Sword were swinging itself. He could feel half of his sword strokes digging into flesh. Other strokes passed thru it's frame like it was a wraith. It retreated with each blow and Link struck. It's cries caused the pyramid to tremble. It regained itself, and inflicted a grievous slash across Link's chest. He staggered back, and it advanced.
A light flashed like a shooting star. He saw the shadow of Ganon. Another light flashed and Ganon's figure became visible like a static transmission on a television screen. Link knew this was it. He leapt up and with a savage stroke, found Ganon's throat. It gurgled. It stood, moving slowly like a decrepit rusty old tractor.
'Zelda now!'

A single shaft of light bright as the sunrise peirced the darkness of the room. It entered the form of the Dark King. In mid air it was beset by a brief seizure. It fell to the ground panting voraciously upon hands and knees.
Link took it's head into his scope, and cocked back his sword. With the force of a cannon, Link drove the Master Sword into Ganon's chest. Giving his sword a quarter turn, he plunged it farther into the Dark Heart.
It let free an aganous cry that drowned out the thunder, and cuased the very foundations of Hyrule to quake.
'I...Will, not....Be denied!' Ganon arose and clenched his hand upon Link's throat. Link felt like he was caught in a noose, as his heart doubled it's rythym, and his lungs cought fire. Ganon began marching towards Zelda, magic energy pooling about his fists. He let free a torrent of energy at Zelda. her eyes grew wide, and she dove into a corner of the room. The energy hit like a bomb, knocking a hole in the wall, and leaving a crater in the floor.
'See what you are up against!' Link could feel Ganon's jagged claws dig into his throat. He felt one cut deep, approaching his racing pulse. The Master Sword dug itself to the hilt into Ganon's chest.
Zelda arose and saw Link hanging from Ganon's fist. As he neared she saw that Ganon's eyes burned like a furnace, just as they had when he had her in his clutches. She remembered all that she had suffered by his hand, the murder of her father, the ursurping of her kingdom, the degrading abuse. Zelda's hands clutched to the bow, and she notched a final arrow. Her legs could barely hold her, and her arms could barely support the bow.
'See as I crush your beloved hero as though he were but an ant!! He is nothing to me! Your cause is lost Princess, your hero is broken! You and your realm are mine!' Again, energy pooled about Ganon's free fist and it sent a torrent crackling and coursing towards her.
Zelda's eyes narrowed, consumed with rage. 'Burn in hell you filty bastard!'
She loosed her arrow, and saw it sail through the barrage that an instant later, slammed into her and threw the against the wall. Zelda prayed that Ganon would fall, as the breath was snatched from her chest, her head struck the stone floor.
Link saw another arrow had sailed into it's chest. Still Ganon's grip grew faster, as it kept marching towards Zelda, who lay still and prone. Link held fast to the Master Sword, through darkning eyes, he found his target. The Master Sword began to resonate with energy, that coursed through them both. The blade turned and Link pushed it downward toward its blackened heart. It trembled upon his blade, as if a seizure had befallen it, and fell to its knees. LInk pushed the blade in further, his knuckles upon Ganon's flesh. A claw reached his pulse and Link's grip upon his sword tightened, The Master Sword rampaging within the dark heart of chaos itself. Ganon consrticted harder upon his throat, like a tightening python. Both Link and Ganon met gazes for a moment, then fell to the floor, spent and broken.

End Chapter