...and headed immediately for the edge of the pit. He swung over the side, dropping down two floors below before the skulltulas even noticed him there. Walking around the rim, Link walked into the room with the waterfall in it, aimed his bow at the switch tucked behind the water, and let the arrow fly. As expected, the floor of the pool dropped out and all of the water that had been flooding the room now dropped down to the pool below, filling that pool to the brim, spilling over the edges and out along the channels.
Link leaned over the edge for a moment, looking at the the room underneath him. The large floor switch was below at the center of the room, but it had barely moved an inch as far as he could tell. Link watched as it climbed back up to its full height, water being suctioned off to fill the remaining empty pool and pulling pressure off of the switch.
Taking a step back, Link realized there was only one third left in this temple before he would have to deal with that plant thing hanging from the ceiling. Flexing his grip around his bow, Link turned and walked back out of the room. He scanned the ledges and crannies of the pit, hoping to see any lost pile of arrows, or anything that might come in handy fighting that beast. He wasn't sure an old sword and magically appearing bow was going to cut it. He found a hand full of arrows, but nothing to restock himself entirely.
As Link walked around the edge of the pit, Link realized he was stalling. His legs were dragging, and his heart rate had started to increase. Putting two fingers to his neck, Link assured himself of that fact.
Breath, Sayre, he thought, rocking his head back to exhale. That didn't help as he faced up at the maw of the creature, still idly sleeping above. He jerked his head back down and pushed open the door in front of him.
It was the first pool Link had encountered. The target in this room was also the simplest to find, as it wasn't hidden at all, extended out on a bar over the pool itself, central to the whole space. Link paused for a moment, taking another deep breath as he stared down that switch. His fingers fidgeted on the drawstring and Link waited to pull the weapon back.
"Hesitation is how people die."
Link's hand snapped off the bowstring, the cord twanging as it bit over the back of his hand. He held the sting up to his mouth, pressing his lips down on it as he scowled at the ceiling.
"Do not dry fire your bow. Doing so will damage the structural integrity of the weapon."
"Thank you for the archery lesson," Link replied, pulling an arrow out of the quiver. He twisted it between his fingers before laying it over the bowstring, though he couldn't bring himself to draw the arrow back just yet. He was two steps away from being out, three if that big ugly had to be dealt with. But the possibility of fighting that thing...Link wasn't sure he could handle a fight like that.
Drawing back the bow, Link took his time aiming. "I have a question for you."
"So long as it is within my permission to answer, I will provide an answer for you, Link Sayre."
"Do you want me to die in here?" Link asked. Two fingers curled around the feathered end of the arrow, the other three drumming over the string.
"I do not want you to die, Link Sayre, I am simply prepared to act if such a tragedy occurs. The world must continue without you, and I will need to minimize the damages." Link felt a retort on the tip of the tongue, but the computer was quicker, "You find my programming to be destructive, and so you have chosen to believe that I am at odds to your survival."
"No one else has thrown me into a monster infested dungeon and told me to fight for my life," Link returned, letting go of the arrow. Or other people's lives, for that matter. Link lowered the weapon as the floor opened. A weak spray splashed up from below, but with no additional water flooding from above, the pool was relatively shallow. Certainly not enough to push that switch in the center pool. Link grimaced at the switch before turning away from the room and pushing on the door.
The Restoration however barred the entrance. Link jerked back on the handle, only to find it locked from the outside. "Do you want me to solve your puzzles or not?"
"I want you to act like the Hero you are. Are you not at all honored to have been chosen for a divine purpose? The Heavens themselves have brought you here so that you and I might achieve some greater purpose from this world."
"What if I don't believe in them?" Link replied, pounding his forearm over the door.
"Don't believe-- Oh, Goddesses forbid, don't tell me Hyrule is in such disarray that they don't pray to the Goddesses anymore."
Link pounded his arm before taking a step back. Let the computer block him from leaving. Link turned, hopping onto the floating platform that moved across the room. He didn't know how to answer the Restoration's question. His parents had always been religious, but Link wasn't sure he completely believed in the divinity that they did. Yet something powerful had planted itself inside him. He felt like it would be hard to deny a visible miracle from the heavens, but he also didn't know if he wanted Goddesses that would throw young adults into dangerous situations to be his sovereigns. He couldn't speak for anyone else beyond that.
As Link pulled himself out on the other end of the former pool, the Restoration challenged him again, "This is why Hyrule needs me though, Link Sayre. Can't you see the kind of danger the kingdom would be in if they continued down this path, backs turned to their Creators?"
"This isn't a kingdom, it's a democracy," Link answered, drawing his shield out as he climbed up the ramp at the far end of the room. He remembered this nut spitting shrub. After that wizzrobe, it hardly seemed any trouble as Link knocked its projectile back at it. The thing shriveled up into a clump of dust before crumbling away into ash in the bush it had once hidden in.
"Hyrule has been and always will be a kingdom. Reinstating a monarchy will be a simple task. You've left the family in place for it, just a matter of reasoning with your government."
"How do I turn you off?" Link asked, pulling the door open on the other end of the room. At least this one was working.
"That would be classified information."
"Great, then I have a reason to come back and make you talk to me more," Link grumbled as he turned around to scale the side of the pit. A skulltula came a touch too close for comfort, but Link kicked the bug's head aside and continued to scale up the wall of the pit as it tumbled off the wall.
"I am sensing a high amount of resentment towards me from your person, Link Sayre. I have given you an amazing opportunity, to save your country and serve the Heavens. Please tell me why we cannot co-operate on better terms than this spiteful bartering we've been having these past hours."
Fishing out the key in his bag, Link snorted a laugh. He even managed to smile. "You want those alphabetically or chronologically? Don't know what works better with your programming."
"Now you're just mocking me. I am simply trying to communicate with you. Will you not try to reciprocate that effort?"
"When you answer the questions I want answered, sure. Or maybe let me out of here. How about just let Dwarf go. That might put us on good terms," Link replied, dropping the rent key out of his hand and pushing open the door. "Right now I'm really tired, of your bull and just in general, so unless you want to make a safe room for me to take a nap in, I think I'm good." Link turned back, opening his arms out as he stared at the ceiling. When the Restoration didn't respond, he shrugged. "You're good too? Cool." He walked through the door, clapping his hands together as he turned around.
Inside was just a switch. Link, frustration with the Restoration outweighing his own hesitations about fighting that plant, pulled the lever without any second thought. As Link heard water beginning to spray out from the floor beneath him, he wondered if maybe that meant the Restoration had won in some way, beating him out of his fears into fighting what they wanted him to fight.
With agitation and adrenaline being the only things left keeping him awake, Link wasn't altogether sure that he cared in that moment. And that growing sense of apathy was just going to keep gnawing at him. Link put his hand over his heart, gripping at his chest as all of that hurt he had been holding on to throughout this fight started to turn into numbness.
"There is it, Link Sayre. This isn't you. I only want you to achieve greatness, and your spite and frustration is preventing me from helping you obtain that. Please, let us--"
"I'll be a Hero." Link grimaced as he said that. He didn't want to be, but whatever the Restoration had done, Link knew he couldn't back out of this. Sure, he'd sleep for a day when he got out of here, but he wasn't just leaving this problem behind.
"Thank you for finally seeing things my way. Now, let me--"
"But I'm not going to be yours," Link answered, turning and standing as defiantly as he could. It was hard to look tough when he was half asleep, eyes burned red by tears, and staring at a ceiling. Link didn't particularly care what he looked like right then, because that wasn't the point of the stance. The point was that he was taking one.
"Very well then. Let me assist you with your hesitations then."
Before Link could ask what the Restoration had meant, the floor vanished. Link fell through, splashing down into a shallow puddle of water, but the heavy downfall from the now reappearing ceiling created a current Link couldn't fight against. The water pushed him back down the rump, before throwing him over the edge of the now bottomless pool.
The swing around the ramp barely left Link with any time to righten himself. He was thrown over, fortunately over the water, but his back collided into the liquid before he had a chance to correct his fall. Link pushed himself up, throwing his head above the water and gasping for air as he paddled wildly to keep himself afloat. Link coughed and spat, fighting to clear his lungs as the cold water bit back into his clothes.
Out of breath and soaked, Link pulled himself to the edge of the pool. He leaned over the edge, kicked his legs as he forced the last reserves of water out of his throat. Drained, he pulled himself up over the edge. Everything was soaked, from every cranny of his shoes to all of his hair clinging to the side of his head. Link pulled his beanie off, twisted it to rinse out some of the water. "I thought you weren't trying to kill me."
"Very sorry, Link Sayre."
He didn't know why, but Link got some small satisfaction out of irritating the Restoration after that bitter response. Maybe it was the idea of beating a computer at its own game, not that Link was sure that the Restoration was just a computer. Making them bitter though, after everything they had put him through, felt good. Not terribly heroic, but good.
As he rung out his clothes again, Link walked towards the central chamber of this cistern. The pressure plate was pushing down as he entered, and Link could hear the groan of a gate being pulled aside. He wasn't sure where it would go, but the gate that had been blocking the bottom of the pit had moved. And based on the creaking protest he could hear from the barracks, so had the gate blocking that chamber further in.
And finally, that plant had woken up. Its roar forced Link to cover his ears, though it still was deafening even through that. He could hear its vines stretching out to crack stone as the dungeon broke open so the beast could climb down. When nothing stopped it, Link guessed that the Restoration was just going to let this plant tear the place apart.
Link pulled open the door to the barracks and started walking towards the trap door when the Restoration finally challenged him. "And where do you think you're headed?"
"To the end of this dungeon. Never said I had to fight that thing," Link answered, swinging open the trapdoor. His expression fell flat as he started down at a murky pool of water beneath him. All of the sewage water was now rushing around in the space beneath the door, filling it up nearly to the top rung of the ladder with opaque, liquid filth. The entire room down the hall would be underwater based on how high the water was.
"You must fight this monster, Link Sayre."
"And how do you plan on that? That ladder was the only way I could get out of this level," Link replied, slamming the trap door shut. "And you dropped me down here."
There was an unsettlingly loud thud on the other side of the barracks door. Link felt his stomach twist into knots. That plant hadn't just broken through the wall. It couldn't have broken through the wall.
"The monster has broken through the outer wall of the cistern chamber."
Link drew his sword. All that was stopping this fight now was the wooden door to the barracks, but if that thing could tear open a stone wall that easily, he didn't think he stood much chance against it. What would it do to him if he got caught by it? Link shook that image out of his head quickly.
There wasn't time to wait anymore. He had people to save. And if he was going to save them, then he had to stop hesitating. He would agree with the Restoration on that. If he waited, he would die down here. Other people would get hurt by their backup plans. Link couldn't die down here. What happened to Dwarf wasn't going to happen to anyone else.
So he rushed forward...