//------------------------------//
// Chapter 17: The Shadow Temple. 
// Story: Harmony of Heroes: Ultimate Multiverse Explorers [Parallel Quest] 
// by Cyrus Colter 
//------------------------------//

When morning came, the first thing Link did upon waking up before even taking a breakfast was to go at the pedestal and shoot an arrow at the rising sun, right between two pillars further away. The next instant, an arrow with its tip in an orange crystal fell from the sky between the pillars, giving Link the ability to shoot fire arrows using a little quantity of his magic.

Something that will be very useful for Link. He will be able to light torches more easily and to put monsters on fire, which will be very effective against ice ones like Freezards, without having to use Din's Fire which uses a lot of magic.

After breakfast, the heroes decided to return to the Temple of Time thinking that they may find Sheik who would give them at least a clue of where to go next. If not, they were thinking of going to Gerudo Valley, the only place that Link hadn't fully explored yet, not even as a child, because Gerudo guards blocked the way.

From what they knew, the Gerudos were a fierce people living in the desert, entirely made of women warriors thieves. Ganondorf had apparently been their king, being the only male who was born in a century. Outside of Ganondorf, it was very not recommended for men to go to the Gerudos.

Which may be a problem because Link was a man, along with Marko.

But right now, Link played the Prelude of Light to warp to the Temple of Time, followed by Sweetie Belle and the Bage siblings.

But Sheik wasn't here, to their disappointment.

"So I guess it's off to the desert," said Navi.

But the second the group stepped out of the Temple, Marko sensed a dark magical presence coming from Kakariko Village.

“We gotta help them!” Link said as the group charged through the hoard of ReDeads. Upon leaving town, they looked in the direction of Kakariko Village.

And saw smoke rising from its location. Having a bad feeling, they didn't even take time to call Epona, running instead across the bridge and up the stairs to the village.

Finding it partially on fire.

"What happened?" asked Sweetie Belle.

Before Link could answer, he spotted Sheik facing the well, and he ran toward him, followed by the filly and siblings.

"Sheik! What happened!" the Hylian shouted.

"Get back, Link!" replied the Sheikah who seemed nervous.

Suddenly, the wooden beam above the well was ejected by an invisible force that then caught Sheik and threw him down the stairs to the well. Link and Marko went to see if he was alright while Sweetie Belle prepared her weapons and Rota dropped into her fighting stance to defend from whatever invisible thing just got out of the well. The thing, however, seemed to turn into a shadow that began to move around on the surfaces. Seeing this, Sweetie Belle also turned into a shadow and followed it. When the two clashed, the thing was forced out of its shadow form, and Sweetie Belle immediately got out of her shadow form too before she managed to hit it with her sword.

There was a deep groan of pain before the thing turned back into a shadow and fled toward the graveyard. A white-haired woman in light armor then came and followed it, and Sweetie Belle and Rota followed them. In the graveyard, they saw the shadow-thing climb a cliff at the back of the graveyard, and the woman jumped on it. When Sweetie and Rota went to follow them, they saw them enter a small tunnel leading to a large door with the Sheikah symbol (the crying eye) that closed behind the woman, in front of many torches currently off.

“Drat…”/Damnit…”

Looks like the next location has been found.

Sweetie Belle and Rota returned to Link, Marko and Sheik just as the Sheikah was getting up and told them what happened.

"That was Impa, the leader of Kakariko Village", informed Sheik.

"So that was her? I suppose that I should have guessed. Was that thing the evil spirit she had sealed in the well?" asked the filly.

Sheik nodded. "Yes. And now, he has fled into the Shadow Temple, and Impa has gone after it to seal it again. But the power of the spirit seems to have grown since last time. I'm not certain she will be able to best it this time."

Marko scoffed. “Considering it just broke the last one, that’s obvious.”

Sheik nodded again. "Impa is one of the six Sages. You must destroy the evil spirit and save her! Let me teach you the melody that will lead you to the Shadow Temple." He then took his lyre. "This is the melody that will draw you into the infinite darkness that absorbs even time... Listen to this, the Nocturne of Shadow!"

He then began to teach Link a sinister song. Once he was done, Sheik assured them that he will take care of the village while they go save Impa and deal with the spirit. He then used a Deku Nut to disappear.

The heroes didn't lose time and used the Nocturne of Shadow to warp on the cliff behind the graveyard. There, they traversed the small tunnel and reached the entrance of the Shadow Temple with all the torches. They easily guessed that they had to light all the torches. However, lighting them one by one wasn't the right method as the flames rapidly disappeared, meaning that they had to light all of them at once. Link understood how, warned Sweetie Belle and the siblings to move away, walked on a platform in the middle, and used Din's Fire. This successfully lightened all the torches, opening the door.

And they entered the Shadow Temple.







Following the hallway entrance, they traversed a pit using the Longshot before reaching a dead end with a scary face carved in the back wall. When they approached, a mysterious voice coming from nowhere told them that they needed the "eye of truth", and Sweetie Belle immediately equipped the Lens (that Link had given her), seeing that the carved wall was an illusion. So they passed it and entered the first room.

The atmosphere was oppressively reminiscent of the well for Link Sweetie and Rota. But neither they nor Marko paid it any mind as they walked in the room, which had a statue of a bird on a pillar in the center surrounded by several smaller pillars with skulls on them that served as torches (however the skulls revealed to be illusions thanks to the Lens of truth, except for one). There was a normal lighted torch, and a large pit with the head of a huge statue on the back wall that had its mouth wide open and its tongue sticking out, a barred passage being inside. Link couldn't reach the tongue with a jump however.

There were several more of these 'face walls' around, but most of them were real. Only one other wall, at the left of the entrance, was fake.

When Link approached a part of the central pillar that could be pushed to make it and the statue rotated, another voice said "Make my beak face the skull of truth. The alternative is descent into deep darkness." So, with the help of the Lens, Link turned the statue until it faced the only real skull on the pillars around, opening the passage inside the statue head. But Link still couldn't reach it.

So they went through the second fake wall and passed the door that was behind it, entering a room with skulls in small alcoves in the walls that seemed to talk to them.

"One who gains the eye of truth will be able to see what is hidden in the darkness."

"Shadow Temple... Gathered here is Hyrule's bloody history of greed and hatred..."

And other joyful stuff like that.

Some walls were fake, and behind one of them at the right, they found another door that led to a small dead end room that was like the one where they fought the Dead Hand, filled with skeletons. A ReDead was present as well as a couple of Keeses that, once killed, revealed a big chest containing the map of the temple.

The map revealed that the temple really was entirely underground, and that they were on the top floor. It will also be very useful in seeing where the secret passages were.

Map in hand, they returned to the previous room, listened to the skulls say their dark stuff, destroyed the floating jars attempting to ram them, and eventually entered a second room like this one with more talking skulls. In this room, behind another fake wall, they found another door.

When they saw the long pale bloody hands coming out of the ground in the next room, they immediately understood that they were up against a Dead Hand. Marko, having only heard secondhand about the creature, volunteered to draw it out, approached one of the hands, and was grabbed.

Before the creature could even lower its head after emerging, Link, Sweetie Belle, and Rota were hacking and blasting at it, while Marko simply flash burned the hand holding him. Within seconds, the Dead Hand was killed and a large chest appeared in the room.

Opening the chest allowed Link to claim a pair of winged boots, which allowed him to hover, at the cost of having no traction, making the Hylian easily slide when walking with them.

Link quickly used them to cross the pit in the room with the bird statue, entering the passage they opened earlier. In the following hallway, they walked down a slope to the second basement of the temple into a small circular room with a Beamos in the center. A bomb quickly destroyed it. With the Beamos gone and with the help of the map and the Lens, they could choose between three paths (one being behind a wall that they had to destroy with a bomb).

One of them was locked, so they needed to get a key.

They first chose the path leading to the smaller room where two Gibdos awaited them. Killing them revealed the big chest with the compass.

"We barely started the temple and we already got all the main items except the Big Key," Link said in astonishment.

"Good!" said Sweetie Belle. "With all these illusions, I was afraid of missing a chest."

Returning in the room where they destroyed the Beamos, they took the other path and entered a larger room that reminded of one of the rooms of the Ice Cavern: there were two giant blades-here, bloodied scythes held by two statue of reapers- spinning, and they had to get five silver rupees. At least, here, the ground wasn't slipping, and there were open cells where they could hide from the scythes, but there were wooden obstacles all over the room. The method to get the rupees was the same: Link and the Bage siblings simply had to duck to avoid the blades, and Sweetie was too small to fear them. Obtaining the five rupees opened the way to a small chest containing the key they needed.

With it, they unlocked the door in the third path and passed it, entering a S-shaped hallway that led to the third basement of the temple. Several Skulltulas attempted to block their path but were easily killed. Toward the end of the hallway, they also had to pass two guillotines before rounding a corner with a Wallmaster.

Sweetie Belle killed it like she killed all the others. "When will they understand that they will never have the drop on us?"

"Never," Rota answered with a chuckle at the filly’s pun.

They then entered a large bottomless cavern where they had to jump on several floating platforms with more guillotines (and avoid a Red Bubble jumping out of nowhere). When they reached a platform without a guillotine, they had to fight a Stalfos.

From there, they could choose between two paths, one leading to a platform hanging from the ceiling with chains that served as an elevator, and the other going through two invisible platforms. They took this second path first. They then entered a room with two more spinning scythes, invisible this time, with a Like Like that Sweetie killed with her beams. Killing it as well as some Keeses in the room opened the way to two chests (one of them invisible) containing a blue rupee and a lot of arrows.

They returned in the cavern to the platform where they fought the Stalfos and jumped this time on the platform elevator. There again, there were two paths for them, one with a Beamos and five silver rupees, and one with more invisible platforms. This time, they took the first, destroyed the Beamos, grabbed the silver rupees while avoiding the circling Blade Traps, and passed the now open passage.

The room it led to had two spikey platform smashing the ground in front of them. To help them avoid a gory fate, they found a cube thanks to the Lens that they pulled, then pushed under the platforms until it was right between the two so the two platforms stopped from smashing the room by it. Thanks to it, they were able to explore the room without risk.

There were several cells in the room, and inside one, in a chest, they found some more arrows. Another cell was empty. There was another cell in the upper level of the room, but they had to pull the block to the end of its path to use it as a platform. They jumped on a ledge, and then, jumped on one of the smashing spiked platforms to reach another ledge with a switch that made a chest fall from the ceiling on a third ledge. While on the second ledge, they entered the third cell and opened another chest with another blue rupee. They then jumped on a spiked platform again to reach the third ledge and open the chest that fell from the ceiling, obtaining a key.

They returned to the big cavern and took the last path with the invisible platforms (passing another guillotine). The last invisible platform moving left and right, they had to be careful. After it was a locked door that they opened with the key they just got.

Entering the next room, Sweetie Belle immediately informed the group of some invisible spikes while Rota sent a pair of energy discs to kill the ReDeads. Their death revealed another chest with a blue rupee. From their perspective entering, there was a barred door to their left and a locked door across the room on a platform. There was even an invisible platform in the back-left corner, and there were also several invisible Longshot targets (including one above the invisible platform). Finally, there were five silver rupees. To obtain some of them, Link had to use the Longshot on the targets. Sweetie Belle and the siblings helped him to gain time. 

Getting the five rupees unlocked the barred door, which led to another door with a giant skull torch between two staircases leading up. There were also four smaller skull torches in the four corners, suspended against the walls, and a slow Spike Trap was moving back and forth in front of the giant skull.

What they had to do here was pretty simple. The giant skull revealed to have a hole in the top, and there were Bomb Flowers in the upper level. After dealing with some Keeses (unlocking the door that had barred itself behind them), Link took one of the Bomb Flowers and threw it in the hole in the skull, destroying it and revealing a key that they immediately used in the previous room to unlock the door on the platform.

They entered a hallway filled with Spike Traps and giant fans that regularly blew strong winds. Link had to use the iron boots to not be pushed by them, Sweetie Belle used her metal form, and Rota and Marko simply braced themselves against the gale-like winds. After dealing with a Skulltula, they reached a pit where they waited for the fan at the end to turn off so Link could take off the boots and use the Longshot on a beam to cross it.

Jumping down a ledge, they reached a room with a bottomless pit where they had to cross a stone bridge with fans at both sides, the air they blew threatening to push them beyond the edge into the pit. So, using iron boots and metal form, they crossed it and avoided the fireball sent by an eye-interrupter that was actually a trap, above a door. There was also a fake wall at the left.

They first passed the door and entered another small room filled with skeletons where they had to kill two ReDeads before opening an invisible chest that contained only a few arrows. Back on the bridge, Link then used the winged boots to reach the fake wall and pass the door behind.

Another room filled with skeletons, two Spike Traps, two Gibdos, and some floating jars attempting to ram them. However, killing the Gibdos only revealed a chest with a blue rupee. The exit being locked, they had to continue to search, Rota eventually blasting a cracked pile of dirt in a corner where the compass indicated that there was another chest. Destroying the pile did reveal an invisible chest containing the key they needed to unlock the door.

They entered probably the most particular room of the temple, and of all the temples they explored until now (without counting the illusion room with the dark doubles). They were at the entrance of a cavern with a river on which was a boat!

"I don't know why but a boat traversing an underground river gives me a strange sinister feeling," commented Sweetie Belle as she contemplated the boat. It wasn't helped that the 'river' seemed to be actually made of a supernatural fog instead of water, that ghostly winds with faces from beyond the grave could be seen in the cavern further, and that the figurehead looked like a zombie holding two bells and having a red cloth on its head.

“Many religious groups and mythologies throughout the multiverse have legends of a river across which souls would need passage, and in every single one of those legends, there were always two things in common.” Marko rattled off, before gesturing to the boat. “A boat and a boatman, tasked with ferrying qualifying souls across the water to the other side.”

“Hyrules version of such legends say that the only souls allowed on the ferry are those of the damned, to be taken to where they would face eternal torture as punishment for their sins,” Navi said.

“So, the creepiest dungeon we’ve traversed yet is a set of former torture chambers. I am not surprised, at fucking all,” Rota commented.

There was a ladder to reach a ledge from which they could access the boat, but they first had to pull and push a cube to it to reach it. Once on the boat, Link went on a Triforce symbol and played Zelda's Lullaby (it seemed so out of place here...), and the boat began to move, floating up and down in the river.

Two Stalfos came one after another during the ride, but the heroes quickly got rid of them before they reached the end of the cavern, and so, of the ride. The boat hit the wall at the end and began to 'sink' in the 'river', and the heroes hurried to jump onto the platform at the left. There was another platform across a smaller 'river', but first, they went to a door at the end of the actual platform, after a broken bridge.

The new room had an invisible maze that turned visible thanks to the Lens. Floormasters were present, and there were three exits. They first went to the South one that led to the smallest room where there were two beams forming a cross with chains and a lot of blood below it.

Sweetie didn't want to know what horrors happened here. Rota and Marko were fairly certain of what horrors happened here.

There was an invisible Floormaster that was quickly killed, revealing a chest with a key and unlocking the door that had barred itself behind them.

Back in the invisible maze, they went this time to the West exit and entered a room like the one with the giant skull, only this time, there were three skulls on a round spinning platform. Like in the first giant skull room, they climbed the stairs and used the Bomb Flowers to blow them up one by one. However, in the end, they contained nothing of importance except some rupees and some ammunition for Link.

So this left the North exit, leading to a room with two wooden spike traps slowly closing on them. Sweetie Belle quickly put a shield around herself and Link, allowing Rota and Marko to use twin explosions of Ki to destroy the spikes without burning them. When the spikes were gone, Sweetie then incinerated the two ReDeads that were behind them so Link could reach the two chests they guarded. A small one contained a blue rupee, and the other, a fancy chest, contained the Big Key.

Having finished exploring this part of the temple, they returned where they got off the boat, and Link fired an arrow at the group of Bomb Flowers next to a large damaged pillar at the other side of the small 'river'. The arrow created a chain reaction ending up in a huge explosion that made the pillar fall to become a bridge to cross the 'river'. Once on the other platform, the heroes used the key they got to unlock the door here.

The room after it seemed to just be a large bottomless pit between the entrance and the exit, which was the golden-locked door. However, thanks to the Lens, they could see that there were actually some invisible platform that Link could reach with the winged boots. Moving from platform to platform carefully, they reached the golden-locked door and opened it.

All there was behind was a small room with a pit. They had no choice but to jump in it.

They fell on what looked like a giant drum surrounded by some poisonous looking stuff.

Then, two giant disembodied hands appeared and began to play on the drum (a bongo?), making the four heroes bounce on it. The evil spirit then fully revealed itself. An upside-down beheaded torso with two handless arms and a red eye surrounded by flaps on the neck. While the eye looked at them, it was actually the torso's back that was facing them, and the heroes could see the backbone through the dark, bluish-greyish skin. The spirit then turned invisible, only letting its hands visible as they continued to play the bongo. It also began to sing with a deep voice.

Sweetie Belle handed the Lens to Link so he could keep track of the body while she, Rota and Marko dealt with the hands. The filly and siblings all flew to stop bouncing while the Hylian equipped the winged boots.

“I can’t do anything to the spirit with its eye protected by those flaps,” Link warned.

“Rota, you and Sweetie take one hand, Link and I will take the other. Link, try to keep an eye on the body. If it does anything, let us know. Got it?” Marko barked out orders to keep the situation in their favor.

The others nodded and Link took his bow.

Link's boots quickly revealed to be a hindrance however. Because of the lack of traction, and so, of the sliding they caused, it was very hard for Link to avoid the spirit's hands when it decided to attack, and Marko couldn’t protect him forever. So he eventually took them off, deciding that he preferred being bounced around than risking being killed. Sweetie Belle and Rota didn't have this problem however with the former’s wings and the latter’s abilities and quickly managed to injure the left hand, stopping it from playing. Link took his time targeting the other hand as it rapidly moved around while still playing and attacking, and was able to hit it with an arrow after Marko missed with a flame lance. With both its hands hurt, the spirit attempted to ram Link with its body, the flaps protecting its eye moving out of the way. Marko, seeing Link’s stance, quickly turned around and shot a beam at its eye, stopping the spirit in its charge and stunning it. The four heroes then repeatedly attacked the eye until it recovered and restarted to play the bongo again.

However, the spirit became more vicious. One of his hands violently hit the bongo, making Link bounce high in the air. The other hand then attempted to slap Link while he was in the air to send him flying toward the poisonous stuff. Sweetie Belle pushed him out of the way just in time.

It then targeted the filly and Rota, first clapping its hands to crush the former, then, after the latter stopped that with a flicker-step to get in place, attempting to hit them both repeatedly while playing the bongo. The hands were fast and well-coordinated, so even they had to use a few teleportations and after-images to save themselves until Link managed to hit the right hand. With one less hand to worry about, Rota easily hit the other hand, then the eye when the flaps opened again, getting the spirit stunned.

When it recovered after several more hits, the spirit became more violent in its manner of playing the bongo, and Link was forced to put on the winged boots because of how he was now constantly bounced left and right. The hands were much more frantic, moving rapidly all around the bongo while playing it, becoming hard to hit, and the body itself began to randomly sweep the bongo or to smash it, and Link had to constantly warn Sweetie Belle and the siblings. The spirit even had the idea of placing its hands between the heroes before moving them out of the way at the last seconds, causing the heroes to shoot at each other accidentally. The spirit laughed when this happened.

Having enough, Sweetie Belle boosted her own speed by accelerating her time and fired two beams with great precision at the hands, hitting the two of them, before she fired at the eye when the flaps moved out of the way. With the spirit stunned, Link immediately ran (or slid because of the boots) to it and finished the spirit.

Screeching in agony, the spirit frantically played the bongo before stopping, its body darkening. It then fell on the drum and disappeared in shadows, its soul going to the afterlife for a well-deserved boat-ride.

The blue light then appeared, and Sweetie Belle, Link and the Bage siblings entered it to be transported to the Chamber of the Sages.

There, the purple pedestal glowed, and out of it appeared the white-haired woman possessing a light armor Sweetie Belle saw previously, Impa. The woman had such an aura... It was clear that she wasn't one to be messed with. She was a real warrior.

"The boy with the noble Zelda's ocarina... As I expected, you have come. I am Impa, one of the Sheikah. I am Princess Zelda's caretaker, and I am also the Sage who guards the Shadow Temple," Impa presented herself. Then, she began to reminisce. "We Sheikah have served the royalty of Hyrule from generation to generation as attendants. However... On that day seven years ago, Ganondorf suddenly attacked... and Hyrule Castle surrendered after a short time. Ganondorf's target was one of the keys to the Sacred Realm... the hidden treasure of the Royal Family... the Ocarina of Time! My duty bound me to take Zelda out of Ganondorf's reach. When I last saw you, as we made our escape from the castle, you were just a lad... Now I see that you have become a fine hero... with the help of that impressive little filly and those equally impressive foreigners."

"I'm sure he could have become a hero without our help. He is very resourceful," Sweetie Belle said as the siblings nodded.

"I don't doubt," replied Impa before she looked back at Link, seeing the worry in his eyes. "There is nothing to worry about... The princess is safe now. Soon, you'll meet Princess Zelda face-to-face, and she will explain everything... That is when we, the six Sages, will seal up the Evil King and return peace to Hyrule. I have to stay here... You go to Princess Zelda's side and protect her on my behalf. Now I put my power, which should be helpful to you, into this Medallion!"

Impa raised her arms, and a purple medallion appeared above Link.

She then looked at Sweetie Belle, Rota and Marko. "I can see in your eyes, behind that fake innocence, that you each went through a lot. I know that I can count on you too."

Sweetie Belle, Rota and Marko nodded, and the area was plunged in light.

"Please, look out for the princess!"

They then were back in the graveyard, on the pedestal on the cliff leading to the entrance of the Shadow Temple.

"That temple was certainly something," commented Sweetie Belle. "It was more straightforward than the others, but it had so many more traps and tricks, many of them mortal. I'm really glad to be out of it."

"Me too," said Link. "That place was just full of wrongs."

"I wonder how the last temple will be," wondered the filly.

"We will see soon enough. Time to go to the desert."

"Okay."

Sweetie Belle suddenly sent a beam at Link and Marko, and in a flash, the boys became girls! They looked down at their new bodies, one in horror, the other with annoyance.

"EEEEEHHH?!!! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!!" Link yelled at the filly who simply grinned.

"Didn't you say that men weren't welcomed at the Gerudos', Linkle?" Sweetie Belle then burst into laughter.

“Just turn them back Sweetie Belle. We’ll deal with it when we get there.” Rota said, pinching the bridge of her nose as she chuckled as well.

"But it would make things so much easi-!”

“JUST…. Do it. Please?” Rota asked the filly.

Sweetie Belle stopped laughing and pouted. "Spoilsport!" She then turned Link and Marko back to normal. "Don't complain when we end up fighting an army of warrior women. You're lucky I'm here to help you."

Link grumbled something unintelligible before he just walked beside Sweetie Belle and jumped down the cliff to the graveyard, followed by a snickering filly and fairy, as well as a slightly amused Saiyan and human.

Marko then leveled a cheeky smirk at Rota, asking the first question on his mind. “You just want to have a brawl against the Gerudo, don’t you, sis?”

Rota simply gave him an equally cheeky smirk as the group proceeded on their journey.