Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers

by Lucar


Chapter 18: Crossing The Desert

The heroes left behind Kakariko Village, which the inhabitants already began to rebuild. Thanks to Sheik, the fires had been put out rapidly, the village didn't take too much damage, and nobody died. Kakariko should be back to normal in a few days. Sadly, Sweetie Belle and Link couldn't help them. They had an evil overlord to defeat after all!

After calling Epona, they traversed Hyrule Field to the West where the valley leading to the desert was. After a long journey, the green let place to brown as they arrived in the hot area of the valley. After walking on a wooden plank that let them pass above some water, they finally reached the bridge leading to the fortress of the Gerudos.

Only to discover that the bridge had been destroyed.

"Just our luck..." muttered Link as he looked down at the Zora River far below.

Sweetie Belle pointed at the other side. "I think that you can use the Longshot to reach the other side."

Link nodded. "I could, but..." He looked down at Epona and petted her mane. "You think you can do it, girl?"

"Uh... What?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Let's do this!" said Link before he led Epona back at the bottom of the wooden plank.

"Wait! You won't do what I think you are about to do, right?"

"I totally will! YAH!" shouted Link, and Epona galloped on the plank as quickly as she could before she ran toward the remains of the bridge.

"Wait! Are you sure?! Wait!"

And Epona jumped, Sweetie Belle shrieking on her back, before she successfully landed at the other side.

Sweetie Belle hit Link on the back of the head. "You are crazy!" She then giggled. "That was fun! Can we do it again?"

Link chuckled. "We had nothing to fear. I knew that Epona could do it. And if she missed, I knew that I could count on you to save us."

"Good point, but warn me next time you decide to do something as crazy as this so I can prepare!"

"No promise," replied Link with a grin at the filly. "I'm not sure this is revenge enough for what you did at the graveyard."

"Oh, come on! I told you this was the perfect plan! There's no problem being a girl for a few minutes! We would have been able to enter the fortress of the Gerudos without fighting!"

"No thanks."

"Did I hear right? You are planning to enter the Gerudo's Fortress?" asked a voice coming from their right.

The two heroes turned to look at the burly old man with a white mustache who just talked as he approached from his tent, and Link nodded. "We do."

"You must be crazy, son, if you expect to win against the Gerudos. They are very skilled warriors, from mother to daughter, and there are dozens of them. And as you probably already know, they don't like men. Especially men barging into their fortress."

"We know, but we have no choice," said Sweetie Belle. "To continue our quest and defeat Ganondorf, we must enter this fortress."

"You want to defeat Ganondorf? You must be fools! Or you really mean it? Well, if you think that you can do it, I have something to ask for you. I am a master craftsman! And I plan to fix this bridge! The Gerudo Thieves destroyed it to not be perturbed, but that's not counting on me! However, my guys are gone. They thought that being craftsmen wasn't cool enough, and so, they went to the fortress to become thieves. You can guess what happened to these idiots. But they may be idiots, they are still my guys. Despite all my skills, I can't hope to fix this bridge by myself. So, if they are still alive, and if you really can face the Gerudos, can you save them? There are four of them."

Both Sweetie Belle and Link nodded. "You can count on us. If they are still alive, we will save them," said Link.

"Thank you! And if you manage to save them, then we will repair that bridge before you know it! Good luck to you!"

And the old man returned in his tent, letting the heroes continue to the fortress.

They eventually reached the stairs leading to it, and left Epona not far of them before they climbed them, getting a good view of the fortress.

It was a large structure of stone with many entrances at several levels. Already, from the outside, the heroes could tell that it was built to be a maze so any trespassers would get lost in it. Many Gerudos armed with naginatas were patrolling a little everywhere, making infiltrating it very difficult.

Well, they weren't intending to infiltrate it anyway. As soon as they climbed the stairs leading to the court in front of the building, they were spotted by the guards here.

"Intruder!" yelled one of the guards.

The Gerudos were like described. They were all women with tan skin and crimson hair tied in a long ponytail in light clothing, not even wearing a single piece of armor. And like the old man said, Sweetie Belle could see that they had skill with their weapons.

But they weren't Meta Knight, so this should be easy for her. For Link, however, it may be harder...

Speaking of, one of the guards, seeing that they weren't surrendering, attacked, only for Link to use his shield before counterattacking. He missed however as the Gerudo dodged backward. Then, another guard attacked him, and this time, Link dodged to the side, grabbed the handle of the naginata, and pulled strongly, making the Gerudo stumble toward him before he used the pommel of the Master Sword on the back of her head to knock her out.

This only caused more Gerudo Guards to come and circle them, weapons ready.

"Still not regretting not following my plan?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Yes."

All the Gerudos surrounding them then suddenly jumped toward them from all sides, leaving no way to escape. Sweetie Belle stopped all of them with a dome-shaped shield before extending it, sending the Gerudos flying. However, all of them managed to land on their feet excepted the ones who were unlucky to be propelled toward the stairs where they fell down them. Sweetie Belle then flew to the nearest Gerudo and readied her sword. The Gerudo used her naginata to parry, only for Sweetie's sword to slice it. The Gerudo looked at the sliced naginata in astonishment before she was strongly bucked on the face by the filly, sending her flying on her back.

At the same time, Link used the Longshot on another Gerudo, wrapping it around the handle of her naginata and pulling to disarm her. Without her naginata, the Gerudo was vulnerable to Link's following assault, only for another Gerudo to defend her by parrying Link's attack. But Link kicked the second Gerudo on the belly, sending her on the first one and making the two stumble and fall on the ground.

Then, a Gerudo armed with two scimitars came and confronted Link, beginning an intense duel where the both of them parried or dodged each other's attacks. That was until the Gerudo did a jump attack, and Link dodged with a roll to the side before immediately attacking, managing to hit the warrior under the shocked eyes of the observing Gerudo Guards.

Meanwhile, another Gerudo with two scimitars came to attack Sweetie Belle who had been easily knocking out the guards one after another. Materialising a second sword, Sweetie Belle exchanged with the Gerudo for a few seconds before she managed to disarm her by knocking the weapons out of her hands. Sweetie Belle then headbutted her, knocking her out. More of these Gerudos armed of scimitars then came and began to attack the two heroes, helped by the guards who stopped observing.

However, the Gerudos were starting to look at the heroes with respect as they fought them. It seemed that they respected skilled warriors, and Sweetie Belle and Link were clearly proving themselves to be above average. Not killing the Gerudos certainly helped too. But, despite this, they weren't stopping from attacking, even as more and more Gerudos were ending on the floor, even the scimitar-armed ones. Link was starting to get the hang of fighting them, and even though he had some difficulty and received more than a few hits, he was winning fight after fight. But he wasn't on the level of Sweetie Belle, knocked out Gerudos now littering the ground around her with the filly having not taken a single hit.

By now, there weren't many Gerudos left.

"Alright. I think that it's enough," suddenly said a strong feminine voice that imposed obedience and respect, coming from a Gerudo in green clothes who came out of the fortress. Immediately upon hearing her, all the other Gerudos stopped fighting, although some kept an offensive posture, ready to attack.

The new Gerudo stared at the many knocked out women, then at the two heroes who had their weapons ready. "I'm impressed. Not many would be able to face all of us like that. I thought that only the great Ganondorf could do this feat. State your intention! Why did you come to our fortress? It doesn't seem to be to kill us for our relation to Ganondorf..."

Link advanced to face who seemed to be the leader of the Gerudos. "We are here for two reasons. First, we want to save the four men who came here, if they haven't already been killed."

"No, we haven't killed them. They are in cells a little everywhere in the fortress. These fools thought they could become great thieves like us. What is the other reason?"

"We need to cross the desert, and it seems that the only entrance passes by your fortress."

"Mmh... You really have guts. The desert is very dangerous. If you don't know how to cross it, you will get yourself lost and become one of the many dried mummies buried everywhere in the sand before you know it."

"Then we wouldn't mind an advice on how to cross it. I'm sure you know," said Sweetie Belle as she moved beside Link.

The Gerudo just grinned at this. "Well, you two proved your worth. Very well, I agree to let the four fools go and to let you enter the desert. I will even give you this..." She then took some brown paper with what seemed to be the Gerudo Emblem and some words that Sweetie couldn't read on it. There were two of them. "A token that will show to us that you are now a honorary Gerudo, which means that you will be able to enter and explore our fortress as you desire, and even participate in our activities."

The two heroes nodded in thanks as they took the tokens.

"Now, to cross the desert... You don't know it as well as us, but we marked the first part with flags. But you will first have to pass a first trial, the River of Sand. After that, just follow the flags until you reach a stone building. After that... it becomes more complicated. It's the second trial, the Phantom Guide. You will need what is called the Eye of Truth, but it hasn't been seen in a long time."

"We have it!" Sweetie Belle said happily as she took the Lens of Truth and showed it to the amazed Gerudos.

The leader chuckled. "My... In that case, it shouldn't be a problem for you to cross the second part. Just climb on the stone building, use the Eye, and you will see."

"Thank you," said Link with another nod.

"Yes, thank you. And sorry for everyone we knocked out. I can heal them if you want," said Sweetie Belle.

The leader raised an eyebrow at the filly. "Really?"

"Yup! Look!" Sweetie Belle then used her powers to heal in one go all the Gerudos, amazing them even more! She also took the occasion to heal Link. "There!"

Link gave Sweetie Belle a deadpan look. "You mean that I didn't need to bother with the healing potion and the fairies? You could have healed me all this time?"

Sweetie Belle looked innocently at Link with a big grin. "Yup!"


They didn't directly go to the desert. Link decided to explore around to see if he could find something useful, and also to ensure that the four men would be freed and left to go.

They found a training ground where Link pretty much needed to use all the items he found in the dungeons to complete the trials and receive the prize. However, he was missing some items, so he wasn't able to complete all the trials. He eventually understood however that he didn't need to complete all of them to get to the prize. He managed to get just enough keys to reach it.

It was worth it because the prize was none other than an arrow in a blue crystal, giving Link the ability to shoot ice arrows!

Then, they found a shooting range on horseback, and Link immediately decided to try it with Epona.

He broke the Gerudos' record on the first try, getting a bigger quiver to let him transport more arrows!

"By the Goddesses! You are a man of many talents!" commented the leader of the Gerudos when she witnessed this. "And me who thought that all men excepted the great Ganondorf were useless... You could become one of our leaders alongside Nabooru!"

"Nabooru?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"She is the great Ganondorf's second-in-command, and the one who put me in charge of this fortress," explained the leader. "Her headquarters are in the Spirit Temple, at the end of the desert. If you follow what I told you, you will find it."

"Alright."

With nothing more to be done, the two heroes went to the gate leading to the desert. With a nod, the Gerudo beside it opened it, letting them pass.

They quickly understood why they needed all these instructions to cross the desert. It wasn't because it was huge (even if there was no doubt that it was huge), but because there was an eternal sandstorm that made it hard to see very far.

At least, they were able to see the first flags until they reached the famous River of Sand. Like its name indicated, it was a large quicksand that stretched in both directions like a river. Nothing problematic, Link was able to use the Longshot on boxes at the other side, and Sweetie Belle just flew despite the strong winds. Then, they followed the flags like they were told to do until reaching the stone building, not minding the sign on the way.

The stone building had an entrance that just led to two torches that, once lit, made a chest containing a purple rupee appear between them. With nothing else in the building, they climbed on its roof by a ramp along the side. On the roof was a pedestal indicating that only "one with the Eye of Truth shall be guided to the Spirit Temple by an inviting ghost".

So Sweetie Belle took the Lens and used it, letting her see a Poe who then talked to her.

"I'll be your guide on your way,
but coming back I won't play!
I'll show you the only way to go,
so follow me and don't be slow!"

And without waiting, the Poe began to move away.

"Follow me, Link! Quick!" shouted Sweetie Belle before she jumped from the roof of the building to follow the Poe, Link quickly following her.

Following the ghost took some time as it took several detour giving them the impression that they were going in circle. to make it worst, green creatures that Navi called Leevers began to come out of the sand and to harass the heroes, so they had to avoid or kill them while not losing the Poe. Eventually, they reached two flags after which the sandstorm stopped.

Further ahead, they could see a giant colossus of stone carved in a lone mountain.

Before going to it, they began to look around in this new area, finding a crack in a wall leading to a Fairy Fountain with a Great Fairy (who looked exactly like the other one) who gave Link a new spell: Nayru's Love, a crystallised barrier that enveloped Link to protect him from all sides for a time.

Another point of interest they found was a dried oasis in which Link had the idea of playing the Song of Storms to fill it, making fairies come, and Link took the occasion to fill his empty bottles with them just in case.

Finally, there was the now familiar large pedestal with the Triforce symbol that let them warp on it with the right melody, meaning that the colossus was certainly what they searched: the Spirit Temple.

However, all the while, they had to deal with the Leevers who just weren't stopping from coming no matter how many of them they killed!

Finding nothing else they could do, they entered the temple, the entrance being at the base of the colossus.

They were surprised to not see Sheik. They hoped that nothing happened to him.


The entrance room of the temple was pretty much like the one back in the Fire Temple; there was a central staircase leading to a superior level, and nothing else. Two giant snake statues were at both sides of the stairs, and at the top, there were two smaller, strange horned statues with a sword, a shield, and a Goron mark that Link warned were called Armos Statues and that they could actually be creatures called Armos.

After dealing with some floating jars and verifying that the Armos Statues weren't real Armos, they looked at the two passages they could use: one left and one right.

There were two problems however.

The left passage was a hole too small for Link to even crawl through, exactly like in the bottom of the well.

The right passage had a huge block blocking it, too heavy for Link to push or pull.

Sweetie Belle could do something about both problems but she decided not to.

When he read what was written on the snake statues, it was confirmed what the heroes had already understood by now: they had to return to the past. A part of the temple will have to be explored with Link as a child. They will apparently have to retrieve some "power of silver", certainly to move the block.

Well then, they exited the temple.

And there was Sheik finally appearing, landing in front of them and starting another of his monologues.

"Past, present, future... The Master Sword is a ship with which you can sail upstream and downstream through time's river... The port for that ship is in the Temple of Time... To restore the Desert Colossus and enter the Spirit Temple, you must travel back through time's flow..."

Thank you Captain Obvious! thought Sweetie Belle at this.

"Listen to this Requiem of Spirit... This melody will lead a child back to the desert," Sheik finished before he took his lyre and began to teach Link the last warping melody.

A song that really gave Sweetie Belle an ending feeling. It was well named.

Then, when they were done, Sheik disappeared like always, this time the cover of sand blown by a burst of wind.

After that, it was simply a matter of returning to the Temple of Time with the Prelude of Light, placing the Master Sword in its pedestal with Sweetie Belle singing the Song of Time to return seven year to the past, and then play the Requiem of Spirit to return to the Spirit Temple.