Myriad Path II
Finally Awake – Part Two

Garrin rolled his eyes into the back of his head, coughing loudly as he rolled onto his side, crushing the undergrowth below him. His entire face was tingling, and not a good, drunk kind of way. The got-hit-in-the-face-with-a-house kind of way. His whole felt like it just finished a ten-kilometer run away from some overtly ambitious royal guards, but the fact is he had barely even walked some much as even a tenth of that distance. He stared into space for a moment, trying to recall exactly how he got into this situation, when from above, whizzing by no more than an arm’s length above his face, a yellow blur in the shape of a Goron shot past him and careened into a thickly rooted tree. The Goron honked upon impact and slowly rolled into a ball as it slid into the undergrowth.

“Stonebiter? That you?” Garrin muttered, rolling onto his knees, then to his feet. Glancing around, making sure the area was clear of any further flying competitors, he darted over to Shaft’s side, jostling the large creature. “Hey, c’mon, you allright?”

“Dude, I just got slapped upside the face with a tree, give me a moment, eh?” The Goron whined. “Man, like, that big ol’ dude down there carrying those two normal sized dudes? He ain’t playing fair.”

Garrin rubbed his own forehead, “That’s right… Higgs,” he thought to himself. He was charging across an oversized puddle and then – WHAM – something hit him… and then he hit a rock… or a tree… or something. Didn’t matter now anyway, as he groaned, “Two other dudes?”

“Mmmmrmm… go look for yourself, G-man. I’m gonna lie here for a moment, wait until the ground stops spinning…” Shaft trailed off.

“Damn,” Garrin muttered, taking Shaft’s advice and rushing through the undergrowth, darting under the low-hanging branches of the bizarre, curved trees, sliding down the embankments until he relocated the old, weathered path, discernable only by a thin strip of dirt and rock, but otherwise overgrown with undergrowth. Nearby, down the path to his left he could hear what sounded to be some kind of massive skirmish, with varying voices calling out. With a small degree of apprehension, Garrin followed the path, keeping close to the tree lines in case he had to evade another attack.

Or, alternately, a giant fireball which scorched only a few meters away from Garrin, slamming into a young sapling, instantly engulfing it despite the colder, moister air. Garrin stared at the burning foliage for a long moment, seriously considering the benefits of even bothering to go further along the path.

“No, we’re doing it to save that Foxtrot guy… guy that apparently got us out of the Myriad Dungeon or something,” Garrin muttered. “Just returning the-“ he trailed off as a short distance away, he watched the familiar frame of Blaze the Iron Knuckle do her best impression of a cannonball as she shot through two large trees before coming to a stop, then immediately clanking back onto her feet. As she did so, darting directly from Garrin’s right, a squad of Sheikahs: Sai, Amaya, Taliesin, and Isolde ran effortlessly behind and before him like he was just another sapling.

“Incoming!” a loud voice screamed from further inside the forest just as a large clump of dirt half of Garrin’s size slammed into the path directly in front of Garrin, causing him to scream and falter backwards.

“Returning the favor, Garrin… returning the favor…” he repeated to himself, leaning heavily against a sapling. Swallowing hard, he spoke a small prayer to Nayru for protection and dashed off towards the same direction that the Sheikah took.

As Garrin slipped around the trees, the noise of battle grew louder and louder. Eventually, the path he took, which of course was now vacant – stupid stealthy Sheikah – arched up a small outcropping which peered down upon the path. At the peak, he spotted a firing line of Haru, Miff, another Deku we has unfamiliar with, and Rath, all unleashing their own attacks down onto the path. Pursing his lips, Garrin slid from tree to tree, keeping his distance from the firing crew but approaching the pathway along the outcropping’s side.

And there’s along the path, was the riot. Garrin could count at least eight heads crowding around the seven foot tall necromancer, Higgs. They were vicious in their attacks, using drawn blades and staffs, bludgeoning, stabbing and slicing into Higgs’ frame, or at least that was when it would connect. More often than not, their weapons seemed to deflect off of some invisible field, like when magnets pushed off of each other. And then, even more hidden forces, like the one Garrin had already encountered, would strike against Higgs’ oppressors, slamming them away like they were only fruit flies.

And all the while, Higgs did not seemed to falter, he continued to press further, walking slow with loud, meaningful steps. All the while, his arms did not move an inch, continuing to hold fast to Foxtrot and Wotts in each arm. He almost seemed oblivious to the mob swarming about him, like he was—

“He’s toying with us,” he heard a voice right behind him speak directly to him. Garrin yelped, spinning around and holding his dagger outright as if expecting something like a Husk Shearer to bite his face off.

Instead, he found only Ankoku who easily arched backwards away from the blade, narrowing her eyes on Garrin, then promptly slapping his hand away like some overbearing school teacher. She continued, walking past Garrin and peering down the pathway. “This is why I was not hoping for a direct confrontation… he doesn’t play by normal rules. I don’t understand it myself but… we need to get Foxtrot away from Higgs.”

“Why..? Ah… I mean,” Garrin heard himself speak aloud, nearly cupping his hand over his mouth. Sure enough, Ankoku turned back to him with an expression that told him is he said so much as one more syllable she’d do questionable things to his internal organs.

“A number of reasons I could give you, boy. Main reason though is that he saved your ass instead of letting Uriah absorb you into his consciousness and let your body rot in a tomb. Good enough for you?”

Garrin watched Kaisui fly backwards, shrieking as he rebounded off the pathway like a medicine ball. “Yeah… right. We do it for some stranger that’s supposed to be the son of Eber fucking Sruc...”

Ankoku promptly retorted to Garrin’s glibness with a firm left hand slap across his face. “You should talk, especially after your exploits with that Lock girl. What has her backstory, mm?”

“Guys…” another voice spoke up behind Garrin. Glancing over his shoulder, Garrin saw the blonde boy Spheira as well as the pale, quiet girl, Ophila standing a little behind Spheira, staring coldly back at Garrin. Spheira continued, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but I just saw that Higgs guy launch that big frozen Goron guy almost halfway across this island. Can we do this before he give him much more practice…?”

“This…? This what?” Garrin inquired aloud.

“Nothing you need to be concerned with, boy,” she looked at Spheira then to Ophila, “So you’re going to play nice now, Ophie, darling?”

Ophila cocked her head to the side, arching a single eyebrow. She did not bother speaking a single word.

“Good. Come on then.” Ankoku then turned towards the road and brought her fingers to her mouth, suddenly uttering a loud, quick whistle. As almost if by cue, both Carmen Lightbane and Hrilani both appeared from the other side of the path and dashed forward, Hrilani being the lighter of the two taking the lead.

Ankoku slapped Garrin’s hip, “Watch and learn,” she said with a smirk and a wink as from below, a swirling blackness opened up and she quickly descended into the void. Garrin gasped slightly, turning towards Spheira and Ophila who in turn vanished into pools of blackness.

Garrin’s brow furrowed as he slinked to a spot where he could watch the path clearly, “I’m associating with hellspawn. That must be why my life sucks so much…”

Presently, the smallest of the Sheikah, Amaya, darted from side to side, scythe in hand landing a solid blow into Higgs’ midsection. Then, the blade twisted into Higgs’ midsection, but not of Amaya’s intention, as the shaft of her place ripped away from her hands, then rapidly twisting back, slapping her hands before the butt of the scythe smacked her away like a billiard ball. Sai, the largest of the Sheikah, caught his comrade in mid leap, cartwheeling forward and easily dropping her to the road before tearing forward, pushing off the ground and leaping towards Higgs’s face, blade at ready. Then, in mid-air, Sai’s momentum stopped as he hovered in place before being thrown down into the dirt, hoisted up and thrown up towards the attackers on the outcropping, careening directly into Haru and Rath.

Then, sliding along the pathway, past Higgs, Hrilani readied her scythe whip, arcing it back behind her head and tossing it back the way she came. The blade whizzed through the air, slicing inches away from Lightbane’s face, whom it turn grabbed the scythe’s handle in mid-air and proceeded to wrap the cord around the staff of her mallet.

Hrilani nodded and tossed the other end of the cord backwards into thin air. Then, just in time, Tekallon emerged onto the pathway, gripping the barbed cord and quickly tied it around his own weapon, all of this as he ran past Higgs, effectively wrapping the cord around the necromancer’s legs.

Higgs glanced down to the cord, and instantly the cord begun to be pulled away from him, dragging Lightbane and Tekallon back down the pathway, their ruse not even coming close to slowing down Higgs march.

But at the same time, it wasn’t supposed to – only to distract him from the assault from above. As Tekallon and Lightbane struggled to keep their foothold on the pathway, from the outcropping, an overhead onslaught of Amos, Rune, Isolde, and Liehl, all barreling down upon Higgs, each landing a blow before the forces around Higgs slapped them away. Still, in the process, the forces became loose on their grip upon the cord, allowing Lightbane and Tekallon to tighten the cord around the necromancer’s legs.
Garrin watched with a sense of amazement, twitching slightly as a refrained cheer with each successful hit. Then from behind the remaining cavalry arrived. Thundering down the pathway, the combined force of Dark, Dilila, Taliesin, the entirety of Nane’s pack, and trailing a distance away, Shaft, apparently regained his bearings, with a bomb in each thick mitt and Rayne and Rokuran following shortly thereafter. Shaft spotted Garrin and gave out a wild laugh as he signaled the Phoenix Knight to light up his attack. With a short Goron war cry, Shaft volleyed the bombs over his comrades heads, each of them exploding as they connected on Higgs backside. Finally, the necromancer showed some response, hunching over a few…inches.

This only further fueled the oncoming attackers as they all proceeding to pile upon the necromancer, beating and stabbing his backside like a pack of crazed insects. As the group worked over the necromancer, from either side of Higgs, Garrin witnessed Ophila and Spheira in unison rise from the ground like a pair of wraiths, leaping onto Higgs just as from the outcropping Ankoku appeared and vaulted down upon Higgs. In one bizarre, otherworldly action, Garrin watched as both Ankoku and Higgs slurped into a shadowy mass, much like the mass she initially disappeared into earlier. In a heap, the attackers all fell to the pathway, each of them rolling to their feet, laughing and cheering, certain that their ploy had defeated the necromancer.

“What… just happened…?” Garrin muttered aloud, walking up towards the pathway, towards Tekallon and Lightbane whom had held back.

“Apparently…Ankoku has the ability to slip into the dark world… the poor thing…” Lightbane responded. “While it was against my better judgment, Ankoku surmised the only way we could free Foxtrot and the girl he was carrying would be to thrust him into that dank, hellish place.”

“Think we’re celebrating too soon though,” Tekallon grumbled aloud, scratching the stubble on his face.

“How do you figure?”

“Well, outside of the fact that she didn’t just dump him off and come right back, how exactly are we supposed to get off of this rock? Did anyone remember to bring a spare dingy?”

“I…” Garrin trailed off, “You know, this is why you have so much trouble getting friends, Tekallon.”

“Come to think of it… where are our other coupla shadow-walkers, eh? Figured they’d be back by now too.”

“…damn it…”

“Please watch your language, Garrin,” Carmen lightly scolded the thief.

“Further, y’know… Higgs coulda killed us outright, right? Same thing with that guy Foxtrot? Why didn’t he just do that, eh?”

“I think,” Carmen added, “I think instinctively, Higgs had no desire to kill us. Perhaps he just felt… maybe allowing us to fight against him would ease his mind for using us the way he did, perhaps?”

“Eh… maybe. It’d make him the biggest chump in the world, but eh, what would one expect from an idiot painted up like…” the island then seemed to rumble “…that?”

“What… was…” Garrin muttered before the island once more rattled and quaked below. All around, the former competitors began to yelp and shriek. A fragment of a memory coursed through Garrin’s head, something about if the Myriad Dungeon did not have a controller, is simply faded into ether. If that was the case… what would happen to the Island of Hail, which encased the supposed Dungeon…?

What happened to everyone stuck on the damned island? Was this another trick?

The island then shook once more, a violent, painful shake, causing nearly everyone to lose their footing.

And then… nothing. Silence. A long, strained silence filled thro group as they exchanged glances, muttering quietly.

Silence.

And then a scream. From above, in the grey sky at the peak of the trees, careening down onto the pathway, came a trio of figures. Ophila. Spheira. Ankoku. The first two landed hard, Spheira rolling to a stop, Ophila seeming to bounce upon the impact, taking a few more additional hops forward to cease the momentum. Ankoku however landed heavily on her back, her hand outstretched towards the sky. Eyes open, still breathing.

Slowly the crowd gathered around her sprawled figure, Spheira however blocking their advance, holding his arms outstretched. “It’s fine. Leave her be.”

“What happened? Where is Foxtrot? The girl?”

“It’s fine. We need to go.”

“What Happened? Where’s Higgs?”

“It’s fine.”

“What Happened? Come on, Spheira!”

“They… they all died, okay?”

“WHAT?!”

“They are dead. We won.” Ankoku then spoke, her hands slowly clenching into a fist as she slowly rose from the ground, albeit in a significant bit of pain. Still, she managed to her feet. She looked to the group, wincing, then looked back down to the ground.

“Let’s… all just go home. We did… a good job.”

*****

An air of morose filled the ranks of those upon the island as they slowly regained their comrades, allies. It was an empty victory – they had survived the nightmare, the enemies, Eber, Uriah, Quicklime, Higgs, all were killed, but it felt… shallow somehow. Like awaking from a long dream and realizing none of it mattered. Slowly, each competitor, each Chronicler found one another amongst the island. Thash and Zace, broken and bloody, also were found by a search party, and were brought out from the frozen pool, seemingly forgiven for apparently momentarily siding with Higgs. Or perhaps it was due to the fact that at this point, no one felt any need to draw blades. The only unaccounted parties were Jaella, whom many assumed had fallen to the ocean, and of course, Foxtrot, the son of Sruc.

Upon the west cape, led by Ankoku’s instruction, the group found a long, outstretching pier, the tip obstructed by a thick, overlaying cloud of fog. “This is the only way on and off the island,” Ankoku explained, hopping onto the pier. “From what I remember from being a former dungeon keeper of this place, all you need to do is walk through the fog and you’ll find yourself back home, or wherever you need to go, really. Sheikah magic at its finest, right guys?” she feigned a smile and nodded towards the pack of Sheikah standing somewhat outside of the group.

A short distance away, the Nin-Ha, Liehl maintained his usual pose, arms crossed, face stony, eyes cold as he watched the group one by one slowly hop onto the pier, the others mulling about, sharing final embraces and handshakes, quietly hoping they might meet once again, preferably not at the edge of each other’s blade. It was an odd feeling – meeting people that by all rights should not exist in your reality, but there they are, smiling back at you.

“Mister Liehl! Liehl! I need to speak to you! Immediately!” a small voice whispered in Liehl’s ear, a voice he immediately recognized.

“Raki?” Liehl spoke aloud, albeit under his breath. It was the Minish Chronicler he had met. Apparently the tiny creature somehow managed his way out here. “Where have you been hiding?”

“That’s not important right now, Liehl! It’s Ankoku and the other two! They’re lying to you!”

Liehl’s brow furrowed, “…What?”

“I was… curious about their teleportation powers so I snuck a ride onto Miss Ankoku. Fascinating experience, really, but regardless… when they teleported, instead of going to this Dark World – and my, wouldn’t that have been an experience! – they instead went back inside of the dungeon. The Myriad Dungeon.”

“Why..?”

“Because of Foxtrot.”

*****

“ What… the hell…?” Ankoku snapped, her eyes darting all around, finding only the familiar confines of the entrance hall of the Myriad Dungeon. “Higgs? What the bloody fuck did you…” she realized she was then speaking to a phantom, the only ones in attendance were herself, Ophila, and Spheira, both of them giving her the same puzzled expression. “WHAT THE HELL!” she stammered. “WHERE ARE THEY?!”

“They’re fine, Ankoku,” a familiar voice called out from across the hall. All three turned to see Foxtrot, sitting upon the staircase which led to the cells. He slowly arose to his feet and two steps forward before blipping out of existence before reappearing before the trio.

Ankoku blinked and smiled nervously, “Th-That’s a new trick.”

“It’s my father’s,” Foxtrot spoke in a monotone voice, his eyes looking upon Ankoku, but his gaze seeming to look through her. “He’s dead… but he’s still existing. It’s like… you know when you kill an animal, the animal dies, but the body remains? It’s kind of like that… I know he’s dead, but his memories, his thoughts are still there… it’s like… I dunno… you know how uriah was trying to absorb everyone’s consciousness into his own…? I wonder if this is what it feels like…”

“Fo-Foxtrot… okay, you’re scaring me now…”

“Oh… I assure you I’m scaring myself more, Ankoku. I’m learning things, understanding things I really shouldn’t. My dad… hehe… he was a really sick bastard… wow… Din, help me…”

“Foxtrot…”

“The New Kingdom? It needs to happen. My father… he knew things… this… this is what Uriah was so afraid of. It wasn’t just Eber… it was… oh Farore…”

“What are you talking about?! Foxtrot!”

“There is something coming, Ankoku… a darkness. chaos… something this kingdom has never seen. That is what Uriah was so afraid of, that’s why he needed to create the New Kingdom, create something that might hold off the darkness and… and my dad was… my dad going try and usher it in… he…. Shit…SHIT what was wrong with you, Dad?!”

“But he’s dead now, Foxtrot! He’s—“

“But the chaos… it is still coming… ohhhhh Goddesses…” Foxtrot bleated, collapsing to his knees, sobbing for nearly a minute before regaining control of himself. The trio watched this in a sort of morbid horror and curiosity. Foxtrot slowly returned to his feet. “You need to prepare… you need to leave this place and begin preparations. Higgs and Wotts, I… I let them go. They know, Higgs does, he will teach Wotts. They will prepare for the coming darkness… the storm. I will… I need to stay here of course… need to prepare.”

“What? No, no dammit we risked our lives to save you, you’re coming with us!” Ankoku barked, grabbing Foxtrot’s arm.

“If I leave here, you will have no time at all! My father was ushering in this storm… he knows how to complete it. I have to figure out if I can stop it. I know… I know that might also make me a liability but… but heyyyyy, double bladed swords, right? Ahhhhh he heh ehhh he ha….”

“Foxtrot… you can’t stay here. Come on, come back with us and we can figure this--”

“CHARON! Artimus Charon! That is his name!” Foxtrot screamed, his eyes wide and manic. “The last of the bloodline! Charon! He is the storm!”

“FOXTROT!” Ankoku growled, jerking her head forward, effectively headbutting Foxtrot to the floor, “What?! WHAT is wrong with you?! Who the fuck is Charon?! What are you going on about!”

Before she have a solid answer, Foxtrot’s eyes rolled back into his skull as from the pit of his stomach an ungodly sound ushered forth. Teeth gnashing, he waved his arms and instantly, fingers hooked. Then with a whimper, he crumpled forward, wheezing heavily, “Ankoku… you… Spheira, Ophila… you are the first to know… the rest outside, the others to come… they will learn of the enemy. Tell them I am dead… buy yourselves enough time. Higgs and Wotts too… give them enough time. This… all of this… just the start. Go… go back to your homes, you will find the exit of the west cape. Go home and pray.”

Foxtrot then simply waved his hands and immediately, the trio found themselves in complete freefall, back within the Isle of Hail

*****

Liehl’s brow furrowed throughout Raki’s story, his gaze blankly watching the crowd dissipate.

“So… what do you think, Liehl?”

“I… I think I want to go home now and hug my family,” he said quietly, heading towards the pier, and effortlessly leaping onto the wooden planking.

“But… but Liehl! What about this Charon character? What about this darkness?”

Quietly he strode up to Ankoku, nodding quietly. He then spoke under his breath, turning his head away from Ankoku, “He is supposed to be a storm… and you cannot turn back a storm, Raki.”

“You can only sit and wait.”

MYRIAD PATH II
THE END