The Legend of Zelda: Blood and Spirit

Chapter 24: Mark of the Triforce

Link tried desperately to reach his own hand out to give to the girl so she could take him away from this torture chamber and lead him into a peaceful rest, but right before he could, the light suddenly turned into darkness and Zelda vanished altogether. The ache of his bleeding chest turned numb as a sharp chill and a feverish heat ran through his body, accompanied by the sound of dozens of incoherent voices calling out to him, dragging him away from death and rest and pulling him back into life and corruption once more. At the same time, Veress stood by, watching in furious shock as both the markings on the hero's face and the deadly wound she had inflicted in his chest started to glow with a strange light until, right before her eyes, the wound somehow closed itself up, leaving nothing but a heavy scar behind.

"Impossible!" Veress screeched in fury. Enraged by her second failed attempt at killing him, the Interloper leader shrieked in hot rage, grasping him by the front of his shirt once more and shaking him roughly. "Why won't you die!?" she yelled at him hatefully, wanting nothing more than to destroy him once and for all, something that seemed impossible for some unknown reason.

Struggling between corruption and freedom, Link managed to lift his lowered head and open his closed eyes to glance at the Interloper leader. Even Veress was taken aback when she saw that one of his eyes was still crimson and focused and the other one was pure white and empty. "It's… f-frustrating… isn't it?" the hero said defiantly, giving her a weak, yet triumphant grin, much to her aggravation.

Veress took a step back from him and examined him with both awe and scorn. "How… how did you survive that?" she asked incredulously, her unlettered tone showing just how confounded she was. "How does someone defy certain death, not once, but twice?! Nothing, not even pain or torture, seems to break you… It's like you're not even human… Boy… what are you?"

Link's confident smile grew as he seamlessly managed to push away the oncoming spell of corruption. Both of his eyes reverted to their focused red and through some unknown source of strength, he managed to reclaim his footing and stand up straight and firm once more, clenching his fists as he looked the rebel leader straight in the eyes, completely devoid of fear or hesitation. "I am the goddess's chosen hero," he declared bravely and proudly, letting both the Interloper leader watching him in angry shock and the furious demon futilely trying to regain control over him know exactly who they were dealing with. "And you will never break me."

Veress was clenching her fists in anger so tightly they were trembling. She turned her back to him and let out an unbridled shout of fury and frustration, hating his unrelenting hope and determination with every fiber of her being. She was willing to do anything it took to destroy those things, right along with him, and, as she realized that she had the means to do that, her rage started to subside into a calm smile as she turned to face him once more. "We'll just see about that," she said forebodingly as she held her hands out in front of her. They took on a blackish glow as she used her dark magic to summon something, calling out to it as she did so. "Come to me, my Fused Shadow!" the Interloper leader commanded her dark relic. "Come so that we may finally put this foolish hero in his place…"

Veress laughed wickedly as the Interloper's mysterious power source materialized, floating ominously above her palms. The moment the Fused Shadow appeared in the room, Link let out a soft cry of pain as his head suddenly began to pound and his heart began to race. It was as though the mere presence of so much concentrated dark energy was weakening him for some reason. In the midst of his splitting headache, the hero remembered that this had happened only once before, right after he had come down to the surface for the first time, when he had first felt Demise's evil presence subtly pervading the land. But he didn't understand why this sensation was happening again now. Surely the strange, dark power of the Dark Interlopers could not be equal to or stronger than that of the vanquished demon king, could it?