The Great Fairy's Fate

Aryll was in the middle of a rounded room, as Linkle had described, and aimed up at the ceiling. It seemed odd to Rutilah that there was a way up, when there was a flat stone ceiling above Aryll, but sure enough, when Aryll shot the ceiling, a respectable length of the clawshot's chain vanished into the stone. Aryll gasped lightly, in time with Rutilah, as she passed through the illusion.

Rutilah couldn't see very well what Aryll was doing, but she could hear the other chainshot strike the floor and the sound of the chain reeling in as Aryll drew herself towards the floor. As she landed, Aryll clutched the Zora's Sapphire. Rutilah felt a spark of magic as Aryll drew on the power of the blue Resonant Stone, and focused on the magic, added her power to Aryll's as she had done when the blonde was in the middle of the fire ship late yesterday. While Aryll created the blue flame, Rutilah pushed it towards the water that she sensed, let it burn and spread across the tainted surface.

The darkness in the fountain that easily rivaled the taint that had cursed the Great Sea itself, and though the water was contained and could harm no one else, the situation was no less urgent, but didn't have one Hero and one guardian god, just a princess and a captain. It felt doubtful that she and Aryll could handle this, but Rutilah had been uncertain about all of her chances before, up to her adventure in the Water Temple. Despite all of the doubts she had for herself, or the future of the Zoras and Great Sea as a whole, Rutilah did more than survive, thanks to the Hylian sisters, the Great Sea was purified—just as Death Mountain had been—and now they reunited to break another curse.

Given that, it seemed easy to hope too much that this time would be like the ones before, even if they did everything within their power. If they were going to purify the water, Rutilah was sure they'd have to draw on all the magic they had available. She hoped they didn't need all the water to help the Great Fairy, but that, too seemed like too much to hope for. She wondered if Aryll was as anxious as she was.

She drew the blue fire onto the floor and formed a path that ran back to the shaft. Aryll, in turn, ran the water through the blue fire, up until Rutilah took over, then she followed the fire to the drop, and found that it was no cleaner than before. The Hylian anchored a claw from her clawshot into the ceiling and lowed herself. Rutilah had pooled the tainted water in the middle of the floor while the blue fire burned through the taint, but it seemed they'd have to wait for a while before the darkness was burned out. Aryll fired her second claw into the floor a little way beyond the pool of water and blue fire so she didn't fall in, then turned, held her hands out, and took a breath. Rutilah instantly knew the spell Aryll was going to cast and called out with her, "Fiery Billows!"

The light of the Zora's Sapphire flared with the azure blaze that danced on the darkened surface, the burst of power was strong enough, cold enough that Aryll shuddered from the sudden drop chill in the air. Aryll chuckled softly and turned to see Rutilah, who she thought for a moment was right beside her, "It wasn't that cold before, was it, Ru...?"

"I know the feeling..." Rutilah thought—supposedly to herself—as she mulled over the icy fire that was already burning through the darkness. She wasn't sure if the flames had needed fanning before, or if her magic made that much of a difference for Aryll's spell. Rutilah wanted to speak the words that she thought, she felt like she was right beside Aryll and couldn't help a sense of expecting to feel the chill in the air from their Fiery Billows enhancing the blue fire.

Oddly, as she thought the words, Aryll voiced her surprise, turned about to see where some sound came from. Rutilah wondered if Aryll was alright, if she heard a monster in the room with her, and after a pause, Aryll spoke, "I'm alright...unless I just imagined all of this?"

"My voice isn't your imagining, I believe that this is another of the Sapphire's powers." Rutilah focused more intently on communicating with Aryll, instead of wishing that she could as she had just before.

"Purifying water, protecting me, adding your power to mine, telepathy, the Zora's Sapphire has more powers than I would've guessed." Aryll remarked as she turned away, satisfied with the blue fire's progress in purifying the water, and started back down the hall to meet up with Rutilah again.

Linkle rolled onto her side and bore down against the floor to try to slow the speed at which she was pulled, the Great Fairy was still hurt badly enough that it was a struggle to control the vines and run, which gave Linkle some time to think. While she felt being dragged downstairs would inconvenience her, quickly realized something worse was likely in store for her. The vines ran all the way up the stairs to reach her—and had to pass under the gates before then. The Great Fairy made her way out from under the gates, which confirmed that she didn't want to be there when the gates fell.

Even if it didn't kill her, Linkle didn't want to struggle with the gates again, especially with the Great Fairy able to control them from the inside. The best plan she could come up with was to trap herself and the Great Fairy, not a ideal situation, but if she had to choose between getting struck by heavy gates and possibly trapped under there while the Great Fairy prepared to attack Aryll and Rutilah or getting trapped with her but able to confront her, she felt the latter was the least terrible option.

Linkle reached out and focused on the Great Fairy, "Spirits of nature, I call on your aid! Let me restrain the corrupted Great Fairy in hopes of saving her! Binding Vines!"

She squeezed her eyes shut as she focused the path of a vine, drew it nearer to herself, aligned it so as to wrap around the being in the blood splotched green dress when it emerged from the wall. She used it to pull the Great Fairy against the wall and raised another vine—this one around the lever above her, to hold it in place.

As expected, the Great Fairy attempted to raise the vines that rose and wrapped around the lever, but Linkle's vine remained steadfast in its purpose, like its master. Another vine emerged with the one wound around the Great Fairy, and stretched above her, Linkle held onto it and raised the vine swiftly, the vine raised the lever and black, spear tipped bars sailed down to trap her—and the Great Fairy.

The Great Fairy released the vines and attempted to corrupt the ones around her, let her focus fall on the ones that dragged Linkle against the bars—which Linkle attempted to burn, to no avail. She didn't have to, as the pain she caused the Great Fairy completely shattered her focus, and the vines fell limp on the ground while she stumbled away. Linkle knew she had once again hurt the Great Fairy, she hated that she did, that she couldn't find any other way. She tried to find the words she wanted to say, when the Great Fairy turned on her, the young heroine couldn't imagine a more vengeful glare.

"What have you done?!" The Great Fairy bellowed, as she held her arms out, willing vines to lash out from the stone walls—none emerged, so she lunged at the heroine, held her by the shoulders and slammed her into the gate right behind her, "You foolish child!"

Linkle held the Great Fairy's wrists as she was thrown from one gate to another. The Great Fairy's fingers gripped her shoulders tightly, steadily tore at her Heart, the darkness eerily calling out to her with her own twisted, screeching voice—the voice that the dark manifestation of her soul used.

The visions brought about by the poison of the bees and skulltulas of the temple returned to haunt her, yet the only pain was the dull ache born of the helpless dread plaguing her. Linkle thrashed about, as if she could shake the living nightmare staring her down, but no amount of panicked fury could break the hold. As unnerving as it was, Linkle was sure that the Great Fairy was only growing stronger from the rage brought on by the heartache, this was a kind of battle that she hadn't expected, but she wasn't going to let herself fall here.

Linkle closed her eyes and peered inward, toward the world and horrors that would've befallen it if she hadn't been there, that might befall the world now should she die here. Half of Castle Town buried in lava, a putrid sea that would soon engulf the world, and the corruption of the forest—and soon, she was sure, the rest of the world's flora. She bowed her head and loosely gripped the wrists of the powerful being, "It can't come to pass...it won't..."

"Because you'll stop it?" The Great Fairy scoffed, "After I've corrupted you? Good luck with that!"

Linkle gazed up at the Great Fairy of Courage, defiant, hopeful, sympathetic, and unwilling to let the Great Fairy do this, for the world and the Great Fairy herself, "No way you could show me this without seeing it, too, and you know the Kokiri will suffer if their home is corrupted. I know you're afraid too, I know that you still love them, I know you'd fight and suffer if it meant they could be happy!"

"They're hardly the first generation of Kokiri—but they will be the last, I'll make sure of it. They won't be corrupted, and they won't be hurt, not again...I'll make sure their end is painless."

"Do you really believe that's what they want?! Will you ask them if they want to live, if they want to hold on, and try to make the most of the lives they're given, to stand against the darkness?!"

"I...I can't ask, they'll be afraid...the-they'll make the wrong choice!" The Great Fairy argued, panic in her every breath, in her wide, wild eyes, the emotions surged and ran rampant around Linkle, like a strong breeze, "They don't know their own lifespans, futures, how much suffering-"

Linkle's voice erupted before the Great Fairy could grow anymore frantic, "And you don't know how strong they really are! Is it really the wrong choice to try to do something, to have hope?"

Linkle's eyes widened as she gazed back at the fiercely determined Great Fairy, something suddenly shifted. The way the Great Fairy's eyes refocused was just one sign of the change, but there was something else that the Hylian couldn't explain. Behind that tempest of fear, angry, and despair, there was hope, a calm. The heavy, dark sea of clouds rolled and a break in them revealed the bright blue sky behind it, high above the turmoil, as if there were no storm, and it was beautiful. The words of the goddess came back to her, the instructions to purify a corrupted soul: Hold on and never let go.

While she didn't have the Seeker and Aryll and Rutilah hadn't yet brought the Great Fairy Fountain's water, Linkle wasn't confident that the Great Fairy would allow another such hole in her defense, and this already looked like it'd be a hard won victory—if one at all. It was stressful enough without worrying about possible scenarios, and while certain help would arrive soon, she wasn't sure if she could hold out for that much longer.

It was only a moment, though she felt that she had been contemplating this for a while longer, but her warped perception of time was because half her mind wandered through her worst nightmares. She cast off her doubts and willed her spirit to meet the light of the Great Fairy's soul in the hope that she could rekindle it, "I want to help you protect them, give them a world where they can be safe. I know it's a heavy burden you carry, but you don't have to carry it alone!"

Linkle felt the clouds of despair part further, though their heaviness grew with a strange sensation, as though she was drifting forward. The staggering weight of the darkness bearing down on her didn't help keep her to stay balanced, and there was so much in just one place, whereas the darkness in the Sacred Realm spread throughout the whole of it, yet she knew that this darkness before her was barely a fraction of all that waited in the Sacred Realm. Voiceless whispers of darkness called out to her, enticed her to spread corruption, to let all mortal races snuff themselves out.

Linkle was unkindly reminded of the Hylian mob that took up arms against her. As easily as they turned against her, as unbelievable as it is that they'd listen to her side, she knew that they had been tricked; still, there was a twinge of betrayal that the darkness drew off of, turned her attention to, until it resembled a bitter resentment. Linkle shook her head when she caught her thoughts being drawn astray, the concentration of darkness in the Great Fairy's soul must've been even higher than the Sacred Realm's, as hostile as this environment was.

She sensed the light of the Great Fairy swirl about, drawn by the currents of dark emotions. Linkle felt for that one bright spot and drifted towards it, called out to the Great Fairy, hoping to steel her resolve to aid in the next step of the process, "It's going to be alright, we'll save the forest and its inhabitants, we'll push back the darkness that threatens to engulf them! We'll stop the one behind it, too, I won't stop until Ganondorf..." She took a deep breath, even the thought of her ultimate goal was so heavy, she was hesitant to speak the words, "until Ganondorf's dead or I am."

"You're afraid of him." The voice called out from the light as it flitted behind darkness, "As you well should be. This curse his servant has cast upon the Great Deku Tree saps his very life and grows stronger. Etched within the heart of the curse are nightmares, visions of what could have been and what may be. It is a strange vision that maddens those who touch it. I know you defeated the queen gohma, and that even you were not immune to her venom, but the venom of the beast who carries the curse is stronger still. It chokes the life out of the Great Deku Tree, and will kill him in due time. This is the death of our world, let us not draw it out further, but bring it to a swift and merciful end. Soon you will see that our world is beyond salvation, and then you too will embrace the maddening venom, seek its blind rage, to become numb to our final hours! Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha!"

The shrill laughter that pierced the air made the young heroine shiver, she wanted to let go, to fall back into her own body, where she was safe from dread that pervaded the Great Fairy's soul and attacked her from all sides, but she knew better than that, the darkness would travel back with her and damage her Heart. The only option was to press on, armed with her hopes that they world could still be saved. The mob once more flashed through her mind, and impression that they would gleefully burn themselves down with the same fire meant for their enemies, that this was simply the way of humanity, "You think that because you're scared, so scared that you'd turn your ax against the very forest meant to protect it!"

"The irony isn't lost on me, either." The Great Fairy replied as she closed her eyes, and drew on the darkness around her, sent it all crashing into Linkle.

In that moment the archer was struck by a sickening sense of dread—the Great Fairy's, though it brought all the weight of her duties as the Hero to mind, as well as all her near failures in those duties, every possibility of failure that could have occurred, including the outcome intended by the curses she shattered, as revealed by the nightmare venom of the monsters she vanquished.

Linkle almost fell under the weight, rage built as she vehemently rejected the tragedy that could have occurred had she not been where she was meant to be at the time she was meant to be there. She wanted to lash out at the illusions that plagued her, but reminded herself that there was nothing to fight, that she was safer than she felt, and that the anger swelling within could only serve to hurt her.

Linkle fought back the confusion as she remembered what it meant to be the Hero—she was meant for this encounter. She would come out alive or at least make some difference that would enable the the thoughts that swirled in her mind, her memories. Linkle watched darkness pool on stone floors, pitch blobs emerged from those pools in the Forest Temple, and assumed the form of monsters. The Great Fairy of Courage stared them down, she felled them all with a steel blade in a deku wood hilt.

The monster's Light Links shattered, their agonized wails echoed off the walls. Kicking and screaming, they returned to the Void's embrace, but they would all return again. It was a repetitive task, though didn't generally affect her, until recently. The power of the seal waned, more foul beasts threatened to bypass the seal and climb the fracture between the mists of the Void and the Kokiri Forest. To prevent such an intrusion on the forest, the Great Deku Tree made a conscious effort to draw in several of the monsters at one time. Still, the Great Fairy had only mild difficulty in keeping up, yet while she rested, they grew powerful in the temple, absorbed the darkness that was meant to be purified in the altar.

Gradually, their hold spread from the entry hall to the depths of the temple, the Great Fairy pushed herself to keep up with the additional numbers, and, for a time, managed to keep their numbers low, a most days she eliminated the threat a few hours before it was time to rest. Unfortunately, on a day not too long ago, the Great Deku Tree was struck from without. His agonized cries stirred her from the fountain where she rested, and she discovered the pool had been tainted by the darkness that seeped out from one of the Great Deku Tree's roots. She cut through countless hordes and reached the altar, it was there that all of her fears were confirmed: The temple had fallen.

She didn't know how, but overnight the altar and her fountain were both poisoned, and the Great Fairy knew she wasn't far behind, she could feel the power of her Heart thinning. Yet, in all the darkness, she felt a light, and pursued it. On the way she was lanced from above by the queen gohma, the poison immediately set in, and while the Great Fairy struggled with the sickening visions racing through her mind, the queen disengaged the ceiling, landed on the floor, and began laying eggs. The Great Fairy somehow overcame the poison, but knew time was short, she raced to that light she had felt. She had hoped to find the Seeker, but instead was greeted by the three young women who had invited themselves into the temple, the rest was a blur—though she recalled a sharp, piercing pain.

She already knew how this ended, the ground would split, black fires of all the world's malice would erupt and shatter the earth, tower high above the clouds, while past agonies borne upon the dark winds would surge and flood the world. Not even with all of her friends could Linkle stop this tragedy, it was better to plunge the world into the abyss now, or, at the very least, stop resisting. This was the inevitable fate of the world, so she might as well help it grow accustomed to despair.

"No!" Linkle's brows creased as she struggled to disentangle her thoughts from the Great Fairy's worst fears, before she, too, drowned in despair, but she didn't close her eyes or turn away. This was the Great Fairy's vision, and until the corruption was gone, Linkle knew she had to shoulder the weight until she could create a dim spark of hope, and until that spark grew into a bright flame.

She grasped the hands on her shoulders by the wrists and kicked her foot of the wall to give herself a boost, the Great Fairy stumbled back from the unexpected force, it was then that Linkle turned on her other heel and swung the Great Fairy around, so that the powerful being was against the wall that she knew was there, "You don't understand, I won't let anything like that is ever going to happen. When Ganondorf's not a threat anymore, I won't stop fighting! I won't stop until all the darkness is subdued in this world and the Sacred Realm, until all the people I can find know how to stand against it, no matter how long it takes me!"

Something Linkle said struck the Great Fairy to her core and rang throughout her being. The feeling that sparked lingered even when the words were gone, dazzling her, thawing out her fears and every doubt in her mind. A shiver crawled along her skin, a warmth spark inside her chest, and a strange sense of clarity came to her mind and eyes. Once more she not only realized what she had forgotten, but felt it, too. Linkle restored something broken, and the Great Fairy's memories rushed back to her as a great light erupted around them, radiating from the Great Fairy's heart.

This time, no memories of her fears and inadequacies flooded her inner sight, only those courageous deeds she committed herself to, including this prison she volunteered to manage and the reason she'd consigned herself to this fate: She dedicated an her existence to a seemingly hopeless task, a task she took on for the sole purpose of preserving the hope of the world—the hope that Princess Hilda believed so fervently in, the hope that Hylia sought for through Hilda, the hope that Linkle now represented—the hope that someone like Linkle would be born and heal an ailing world.

She felt the darkness crumble around her, onto her, trying to pull her back under the despair; the Great Fairy didn't want to be lost to such agony, not again, but she was weary. As the wild, corrupted energy of her soul slowed and receded, the excess energy that made up her Heart began healing her wounds instead. She had very little Heart protecting her, and no magic with which to influence the realm within her soul, there was no guarantee for safe passage against the hundred year's worth of darkness raining down on them, but there was hope.

"You've cut my dark binds loose, Hero, and your courage gives me strength. To challenge a Great Fairy and survive is no mean feat, and to face a darkness powerful enough to crush her spirit is even more improbable." The Great Fairy of Courage eyed the hero as dark forms grew from the tainted earth that surrounded them, though they were a good distance from it, "Yet, darkness continues to hold me here. If I will not be it's servant, I will be a prisoner within my own soul. My body cannot act with a dormant mind, eventually it will fail, and I will die. I have no delusions of overcoming my demons, I've fought them for so long and I just want this to be over. At least my mind can be clear, at the end."

"You don't need to fight them alone. You don't need to fight them at all, let me fight them for you! I think you've struggled without any help for long enough, just...rest." Linkle reached down for her crossbows, but found none on her boots. She remembered that she used nothing but her hands to stop the two halves of her from tearing her or each other apart, though her actions were reflexive and she held some sway over the light and the dark that clashed within her; here she had no such influence or connection to the looming threats she'd face, and so wasn't as confident now as she was then. She was armed with nothing but her own willpower, but as she faced off with the Great Fairy of Courage and thus far survived, there was hope for success, she was going to fight for that hope.

Now that she noticed—really noticed—it, it seemed odd to her that her boots were still there, but perhaps her spirit was only taking a familiar form, one she recognized as herself from the immediate present. She chuckled nervously, felt awkward that she'd tried to find her weapons when she had none on her, and turned to face the darkness. Linkle was surprised and mildly alarmed when the Great Fairy stumbled up beside her.

"Think on all you love, all you seek to protect, and fight to protect them." The Great Fairy of Courage closed her eyes and steadily made her way down to her knees, head bowed as she tried to calm the raging chaos howling around them, and drew strength from Linkle's resolve to save her, the Kokiri, Hyrule, and all the world from Ganondorf's wicked, wide grasp.

"I will. Aryll and Rutilah are out there, purifying your fountain's water, so I can wash away this darkness without the Seeker." As Linkle spoke, she stared down at the darkness ahead of her. Fear and rage poured out from it, she used this time to put aside the nagging doubts that she might fail, that she might be threatened with corruption again.

The darkness encouraged those memories to surface, to shift her focus onto her near defeat, and the fact that the Seeker was elsewhere, but she remembered how close she was now, focused on that instead. She'd come this far without the Seeker, she'd find a way to succeed, Aryll and Rutilah were there to support her, she could feel their presence. The plan worked so far, the Great Fairy returned to her senses, now it was time to suppress the threat altogether.

"It will try to stop you, as I tried to when we fought in the long hall between the gates and the tower," The Great Fairy warned, "it should be harder to attack if you're above the ground. Magic is only your soul acting on the world. Within a soul, there is magic in abundance, draw on it as you see fit, Hero."

Linkle took a deep breath before she sprinted ahead. She focused on feeling all the magic and darkness around her, she stumbled back to avoid a spire that launched from the ground to her right, then leaped into the air as spikes grew beneath her feet, rolled aside in anticipation of a quick rising spear in the ground. So far, it seemed that even the corrupted half of the Great Fairy's spirit used—or believed itself to use—forest magic, like in the long hall between the gates and the four doors.

Even if it wouldn't have killed her, it wouldn't have been pleasant to be struck by malevolent force, especially while in a free fall. She watched the ground carefully, rolled left and right in anticipation of the dark spires that rose below. Eventually the corruption within the Great Fairy anticipated her reflex, and when it came time for that pool of darkness to erupt, it branched the attack in two, to hit Linkle no matter which side she rolled on. At that point, Linkle dove down, but then a smaller spire branched from that lance and grazed her as she passed under it.

Overcome with a shock of emotion and memories that were not her own, she plummeted. Memories of battle, overwhelmed by hordes of monsters tearing, clawing, burning at her Heart. Pitched combat that led to rage and invited darkness to cloud her thoughts, assailed her mind to inspire well intended destruction against those she fought for. And then the darkness that bled into the world and gathered in the Forest Temple came and settled in the fauna and flora. Bees fed on befouled plants, became twisted and hungered for the darkness in them, instead of the nectar. Their sting plagued her with nightmares near to her heart, in that way, the venom weakened her Heart.

Linkle bounced from one spire to another, felt the darkness wash across her being, but after the initial shock, she could see through the nightmarish agony that flared in her chest with every strike landed on her. She stared at the ground below and waited for another spire to rise from the ground, and focused on the air around her. When she saw the next attack rising, she sent a blast of air and fire into it. She named the spell Burning Cyclone, and as she cried out the spell's name, another voice erupted from below, a terrible, inhuman shriek that chilled her blood.

She dove down while the voice raised in pitch, it was her time to strike. She wove to and fro as several spires reflexively shot up from the ground, and a sudden burst of air pulled her away before jagged limbs could grow and slice at her spirit.

The beast below her was similar to the monster she fought before, the one who's eye she couldn't pierce for it's quickly closing lid, who's skin wouldn't break and bend no matter what she did, and that lay so many eggs so quickly in an attempt to overwhelm her, the one that looked so much like those that invaded Hyrule Castle. A name echoed in her mind, the name of the monster, "gohma." It was a queen of its species, which made sense to Linkle, it, like a queen ant or bee, lay many eggs.

At first it made even more sense than how she knew this, but then she remembered that she had been struck with the memories of the Great Fairy, who lived in a time when those monsters were common enough to be called by name. But, she knew, this was only a memory, recently created when the queen gohma wounded the Great Fairy, and knew that she couldn't know what to expect from it.

The thing that alarmed her the most was the face the monster's head bore, it was strangely human, it's features startlingly feminine. Maybe it was the darkness affecting her mind, maybe it was the pain of the life she ended, but Linkle thought back to Arzo. Former priestess and traitor to the Zoras, to all living things threatened by Ganondorf's curses. As much as the memory sickened her, she was sure the twisted part of the Great Fairy's soul wanted her to see a face on the monster—perhaps it was even supposed to be Arzo's face, but it was too hard to see with the face stretched to fit its head.

As she continued her descent, Linkle drew back her first and aimed for the monster's giant red eye, but as she flitted about to avoid the dark spells rising and grew gradually closer, the gohma closed its eye. Linkle hissed as the one weakness was concealed. She let out a deep breath and committed to the strike, even with it's eyelid shut, the heat from her attack should still hurt and she had hope that the impact would rend the eyelid. She raised both arms and breathed out what little light she had absorbed in the air. She mixed it with the element of fire in case she couldn't pierce the lid, and constructed a blade similar to what she produced when she used her crossbows.

"Soul Blade! Flaming Impact!" Linkle shouted, just before blasting herself back with a cry of "Updraft!" to avoid several blades of darkness poised to close in on her, which had grown off of two spires that crossed over each other underneath her. She rushed forward and spun vertically through the air, shattered the gate that the blades ahead formed. She dove quickly on the gohma, and though a thick fog of darkness grew around it, she felt the eye. There was something about it that set it apart from the rest, like a candle in the dark. She took a deep breath and slowed her downward spiral, gripped her blade underhanded, and cried out, "Meteor!"

Fire swirled around Linkle as she braced herself for the collision, the gohma started to crawl away, but she raised vines to entangle its legs. It attempted to seize control of the vines, but by the time it started to loosen them from its legs, the tip Linkle's blade struck its eyelid. All the time gohmalings crawled up their mother's body, clawed and bit Linkle, but she remained focused on her goal. As much energy as it took, she blocked out the painful thoughts and feelings the little bugs' venom inspired.

An agonized cry erupted from its maw as the heat around it scorched the sensitive organ. Claws reached up and hooked around her, but she secured her position with several vines. Her will to fight on and defend against the darkness fueled her spell, no amount of past regrets, near or future failings, betrayal, or sorrow could deter her or diminish her will—especially when the people who couldn't stand against the darkness might depend on her success. If she couldn't triumph now, she would find a way to endure and grow stronger until she could purge evil from the land.

The red flame grew green, azure, and finally, white hot as Linkle's determination and sheer willpower fueled the spell. The gohmalings burned and shrieked, and when they could no longer tolerate the heat, purple and green mist flowed around her as they vanished from the world. Her flames charred the eyelid until it cracked and peeled away, exposing the eye. As her spell sank into the eye, the beast emitted a mist of darkness from it as a last line of defense against Linkle, but she didn't intend to let the monster live for long enough to debilitate her with its foul venom. She shouted and her voice rang throughout the Great Fairy's soul, heralding the mighty being's impending salvation, "Blinding Flash!"

Linkle poured all the light in the blade and some from her own soul into the very tip of the blade, from there it blasted outward and tore its way from the back of the eye up to its surface. The light carried Linkle's hope and unwavering determination to inspire the soul's master, to encourage her to fight back against her darkest fears and live. The light dispersed to the darkest regions of the Great Fairy's darkened soul as the husk of the gohma burned away in a purple and green blaze.

The smoke the gohma burned into split into four drifted around, an anguished howl echoing as the four parts converged on the point they split from, and vanished in a dim flash—but Linkle felt it's light more strongly than before, even in the very moment before the faint light appeared.

"Linkle, Linkle, you did it!" The Great Fairy cried, her voice growing faint, even though—when she turned—Linkle saw her drawing near. Linkle nodded tiredly and fell to her knees. Her mind was tugged by every passing, haunting thought of the lingering poison as her Heart attempted to resolve it, as she struggled to see through the lies meant to hurt her. She stood again when she felt a renewed strength grow in her spirit. After a moment's contemplation, Linkle realized that while the pure light renewed her spirit, her spirit itself had only grown stronger for the arduous trial the gohma presented.

She wondered if she was finally strong enough to defeat Volga. Linkle remembered the carelessness with which he regarded those he might hurt, but she felt no rage. She only hoped that he might be stopped before he tried something similar to what he almost did to Kakariko Village and Castle Town, though she dreaded what "stopped" might need to imply for one as powerful as Volga.

A/Ns: Boss: Great Fairy's Nightmare: Distorted Queen Gohma. Loot: A thousand Rupees, seven hundred exp, Heart increased by two, attack by five, will by ten, mind by fifteen, and soundtrack (The Twisted Tyrant) unlocked. Achievement Get: Arachnophobia. All in all, not a bad run. Maybe next time the boss will drop Arachne's Needle and the Sheer Delight outfit. What do you mean, "Never again?" but...but...you can weave giant webs with it! You know, to catch insect monsters with. Umm, to harvest extremely fragile, otherwise unobtainable parts for high-end elixirs, I guess.