Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny of a Hero ❯ Into Evil's Den ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 2: Into Evil's Den

The sky overhead was beginning to clear. The stars above could now be clearly seen. Link stared at them, knowing that around one of them was the world of Hyrule.

The world of Sanctuary was the by far the most horrible place either Zelda or Link had been to. Much of the vegetation was dead or dying, their browned and dry bodies cluttering the muddy ground.

As their group walked the path though the Blood Moor, they were constantly harassed by the wild animals indigenous to the area. They had luck on their side, for the monsters seen earlier at the bridge were mysteriously absent. "Things were never like this before," Haze mused. "It seems like only yesterday when one could pass through these lands, or most other lands, without being harassed."

Ahead the party noticed a small house. Smoke was issuing from the chimney. Deciding to investigate, Menadar knocked upon the splintering, wooden door. The others stayed behind him. No answer issued from inside.

Slowly, Menadar pushed the door open, finding it unlocked. "Hello," he softly called inside the room. Only the crackle of the fire greeted him. He was about to close the door when something caught his eye.

A body lay sprawled across the bed. Menadar could now smell the pungent smell of death, masked slightly by the aroma of the smoke. Menadar crouched by the body and rolled it over.

The man had clearly been for days. A festering wound in his stomach told the story of a tragic death. Over the bed hung an axe, which the body was trying to grab. He never even had a chance to fight back.

Then, the man's eyes opened. Milky white orbs stared at Menadar. "By Rathma..." Menadar whispered, trying to get away from the thing. His sentence was cut short as the bony hands of the man wrapped around his neck.

Menadar fell onto his back, dragging the monster with him. Using the creature's momentum, Menadar kicked him over his body. The hands released their grip from around his neck as its body landed outside the door.

With a low moan, the creature tried to pull itself off the ground. Before it knew what was happening, a sword became lodged in its back. It involuntarily twitched as it died, but soon fell still.

Haze pulled his sword free from the dead thing then wiped the blood on the things tattered clothing. Menadar looked at the creature blankly, absently rubbing his neck. "My friends, we face a strong and evil enemy that can bring back the innocent to serve him," he said.

"Shall we bury him?" Link asked. "Nay lad," said Biluk, "we have naught to bury the poor fool with. And I'm not about to dig with me sword. B'sides, the necromancer uses them things as minions."

Link looked past the big man. Biluk was right; Menadar was speaking in a low voice to the corpse. When he finished, the corpse stood. Another had joined the party.

*****

They had been following the crude dirt trail that led deeper into the dark lands for most of the night. Zelda had taken to walking closer to Link. At times she grabbed his hand impulsively, but quickly drew away when she realized what she was doing.

When they had stopped to rest, Haze and Livia had begun to train Link and Zelda. It was a slow start, but Link and Zelda were proving to be adept students.

Haze had taught Link how to sanctify his sword. Haze explained to him that while this would be physically painful to Link, his sword would cause the creatures a great deal more pain. Haze had also taught Link to use prayer to heal those in the party and how convert energy to use an aura that paladins called Might to strengthen the physical attacks of the party.

Zelda had been taught three new elemental spells. Livia had schooled her in all the arts in hopes that she would find one path that she excelled at. That would be the path she would follow for the duration of her training.

Livia had explained that when training, the sorceresses trained in all of the basic skills. When their skills matured, they stuck with two of the paths. One path they focused more on than the other, but kept training in the other path as a secondary option for the times when they found their primary path being resisted by an enemy.

*****

The attack came at night. The first volley of arrows tore through the ranks of the monsters. Every soldier capable of wielding a bow was on the wall, shooting salvo after salvo of arrows into the horde of monsters.

By quickly counting the monsters outside the wall, Darunia guessed that the demons held a six to one advantage to the Hylians. The nation of Hyrule had been decimated over the past seven years, leaving the number at a slim twenty thousand. Of the population, only five thousand served as soldiers.

Darunia knew the Hylians had been brave warriors that would have sacrifice themselves for their nation. But they had been demoralized. Defeat after defeat had broken their valiant spirit. They now only fought for survival.

Another barrage of arrows was spat into the ranks of the monsters, yet still the wave carried on. They hit the wall as the archers had reloaded and fired another volley.

Monsters crawled over the bodies of their fallen comrades, carrying crude ladders with them. The ladders were raised to the top of the wall and the monsters began climbing. Those not shooting bows tried to push the ladders from their wall.

More arrows were shot into their ranks, but still their carried on their attack. More ladders were placed atop the wall. The defenders scrambled to push them back into the mass of monsters at the base of the wall.

Then in the next instant, the monsters fled. Those archers that were still aware harassed the fleeing army with stray arrows. The Hylians breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Water was distributed among the soldiers. "Why would they suddenly stop their attack?" Impa wondered out loud. "They were only moments away from breaking us."

The thunder of hooves was heard. Over a hill, a single horse and rider appeared. The rising sun hit him from behind, obscuring his features. As he rode closer, it became apparent who the rider was.

Ganondorf had come.

*****

It was now morning. The sun had broken the darkness, leaving it but a dim memory. Warmth began to return to the adventurers as the sun began to raise higher overhead. The scenery changed little however; still staying dead and desolate.

Soon they came upon a cave with a strange standard. It was a large stick with a skull on top. A flag with a representation of a stretched skull hung from it. Every one of them could feel the evil issuing from this place.

The cave was unnatural. Smooth rock told the group it was fashioned by other forces than nature. No torches were present, yet there was a dim, red glow.

"Let's split up, we can cover more ground and we'll be able to get out of here just that much faster." Livia suggested. All were in agreement with her plan. Biluk, Haze, Zelda, and Link took the tunnel that branched left while Francine, Livia, Menadar, and his undead minion took a tunnel that branched right.

Link's group had walked only a short way down the tunnel, when Link began to get a bad feeling. He thought little of it, and chose not to warn his companions.

As soon as reached the clearing it emptied into, dozens of the short red demons came at then. A few of the demons came from behind, cutting of any hopes of retreat.

There was only a slight moment of hesitation by both parties before the battle began.

Zelda waved her hands, which then began to glow a soft blue. The air around her grew colder as a small cloud of ice began to manifest. She propelled the cloud forward, sending it into a demon.

It cried out as the cloud froze its body, killing it. The other demons screamed in fury at their companion's loss and stampeded at the fighters.

Link strafed to the left, ducked a slash aimed at his stomach, and cut downwards. The demon's dark blood splattering on my face was his reward. He laughed to himself. His laughter was cut off as a wooden staff was thrust between his legs, tripping him.

Link looked up and saw a larger version of those imps standing over him. It held a small version of the standard that was found at the entrance of the cave and a dagger. Its hand started glowing with bright orange energy as it pointed at Link.

Link closed his eyes. He began to think about the irony of how he survived great monsters, but killed at the hands of some minor demon. Link waited for death to come, but when nothing happened he opened his eyes and saw that it was writing upon the ground with its clothing still flaming.

He looked to Zelda who laughed, "Looks like the invincible Hero of Time can't even protect himself. He has to be saved by a princess." Link muttered to himself under his breath and asked, "What are these things?"

"These wee pests are Fallen Ones, little more than beasts with weapons. Those yellow bellied creatures attack in packs. That big bastard was one of their shamans. They can raise their dead and shoot fireballs. We're lucky that bastard didn't raise none of his kin." Biluk answered. "Oh. Great," Link responded.

They resumed their cleansing with small interference. Small packets of resistance had formed, but there was nothing as elaborate as the trap the demons had set earlier. They continued deeper into the cave.

*****

Biluk heard something from ahead and stopped at an opening to a wide room. He motioned for the others to remain silent. What they saw burned into their memories.

A fallen shaman was standing over a captured rogue who was struggling against her bonds that held her to a black stone slab. All around the room were fallen and zombies everywhere. "Haze, what are those big creatures?" Link whispered, pointing at the beasts that stood well over the height of a man, and bulked much larger.

"Those are gargantuan beasts," he responded. As he finished his sentence, the shaman chanted evil sounding words and plunged the dagger into the breast of the rogue. Blood flowed freely down the slab and her cries of agony echoed through the Den of Evil. An evil shadow appeared, then slowly solididified into a zombie. The zombie jerked spastically as the black vapor began to posses him.

Biluk counted to three on his fingers and they rushed into the room. He shouted orders and the rest followed. Haze walked calmly into the middle of the room and closed his eyes. In seconds small golden hammers appeared around him.

He made a wave with his hand and the hammers made a circle around his body, killing anything they contacted. Link gathered energy to his sword and spun around, releasing the energy and killing any creatures unfortunate enough to be caught within its radius. Zelda let loose a barrage of ice clouds at the gargantuan beasts, freezing their limbs, causing them to either die or move lethargically. Haze, Biluk, and Link cut down the remaining monsters.

Soon, all but a zombie and the shaman were lying in pools of their own blood.

The shaman looked at them and laughed. "You can kill all of my underlings, but you will never be able to escape from Corpse Fire. Get them!" He yelled; his ugly face twisting in anger.

The zombie moaned and attacked. Biluk tried to hack him with his huge sword. As his sword was coming down, the zombie grabbed his wrist. With its free hand, the zombie clasped a hand around Biluk's throat and threw him against a wall. He slumped onto the ground, unconscious.

Haze tried to charge at him, but only succeed in knocking him back with his sword blow. Corpse Fire slammed a fist into his head and he too was knocked unconscious. The shaman laughed with evil delight.

Zelda summoned another cloud of ice and projected it at the zombie. Corpse Fire took it without so much as a grunt. With amazing speed for a zombie, he ran across the room. Before she could react, he had slammed a fist hard across Zelda's jaw. Blood splattered in every direction.

Link turned his head toward her as he was pulling his sword from the demon he had just finished. Something inside him had snapped. "Corpse Fire, it's time to die you bastard!" Link yelled. Corpse Fire looked at Link with an icy stare. He ran for Link as Link crouched low, waiting for just the right moment.

As he was in striking distance, Link back flipped and kicked him hard in the face. He staggered back and Link took the opportunity to attack him. He made a quick dash forward and stabbed Corpse Fire through his black heart. The black blood and his body disappeared into a cloud of black smoke, leaving only smoking ashes behind.

Link then turned to face the shaman. "You bastard," Link yelled at him, "You think you can kill the innocent and get away with it? Well tell your master in Hell that we aren't going to take that shit anymore and we are going to stop him!" Link leapt up on the black stone slab and with a quick slash, separated the monster's head from his shoulders.

Link gazed up and to his surprise, the hellish red glow was gone. It was replaced by a glowing white light. He ran over to Zelda's side. She was out cold and bleeding heavily.

Then he noticed there was something abnormal about her. A dark green liquid tickled from her mouth. Link laid her down slowly and rushed to the aid of the others. Haze was now conscious, but was sitting dazed against the wall. Biluk was in a similar state. Link stood there not knowing what to do.

"Help! Someone help! She's dying! Help!" Link screamed, running himself horse as he did so. Link knelt down by Zelda's side and tried to use the prayer that Haze had taught him to heal her. Her cuts disappeared, but the poison was still killing her faster than he could heal her.

The prayer soon drained too much of his energy, and he had to stop. He begged the Goddesses of Hyrule to spare her. Hope was fading fast. With every second, Zelda slipped closer and closer to death. There was nothing that Link could do but watch as she died.

Then the sound of running footsteps came from the distance, but Link knew they would be too late to save Zelda. Link had been reduced to tears.

"Someone get here quick, she's Dying!" Zelda started to convulse and Link struggled once again to heal her. Link almost fainted from the effort. His energy was drained. Zelda was going to die.

"Damn you Goddesses, you just have to fuck my life over in every possible way, don't you?" Link yelled aloud. An answer never returned.

In a flash of light, Livia appeared next to him. "What..." she started then saw Zelda lying there, "Oh my God! What happened to her?" In between sobs Link managed to say, "She's been poisoned, can you heal her?" She nodded and pulled a black potion from her belt. She placed the jug to Zelda's quivering lips and spilled the contents down her throat.

Almost instantaneously, Zelda began to look better. The color started to return to he cheeks. "She will be fine in a few days, but we should get her back to the encampment so Akara can look her over." Livia stated.

Link nodded; still in shock that once simple potion could heal a person so quickly. Haze stood up and said, "I didn't know the minions of Diablo could be so powerful, I think we should exercise more caution in the future."

The rest of the party showed up and Menadar took out a scroll with a blue seal and read from it. A blue shimmering portal appeared and they walked through it. Link was carrying Zelda.

The group appeared in the camp. Link was asked to care for Zelda after she had been given more potions by Akara.

Link was given a tent near Haze. Link carried Zelda over to the spot and laid her in the flat bed. He gazed at her beautiful sleeping body for a long moment, and then climbed in next to her.

Link kissed Zelda softly on the forehead and then all the fatigue that he had accumulated over the past days came crashing over him and as soon as he closed his eyes. This night, no dark dreams penetrated his thoughts.