Royal Rebel 4 ~ The Return

Chapter 20: The Calamitous Truth

- flashback -

"So, I'm sure you all wonder why Zelda and I invited you here today." Link started as he joined Zelda's side in the conference room, the young Princess of Hyrule asleep in his arms. The new Champions looked between each other, their faces confirming the king's statement. "We have some... dire news."

Seven days it had been now since the devastating Battle of Karusa, with the invasion to rescue the six year old princess, and Link and Zelda had spent a number of those days attempting to figure out Elric's plan. But their efforts bore no fruit, or at least not nearly enough to know what exactly to do about the situation. The prophet grew stronger by the day, while they remained almost entirely oblivious.

"We are beginning to worry that Elric is planning to resurrect Ganon again. Very soon." The Champions gasped as the queen spoke, and the others in the room went silent. "We aren't sure when he'll decide to go through with his plan, but if it's too soon, I fear our options to fight back are limited."

"What are they limited to?" Riju asked, but as the queen opened her mouth to speak, a little yawn interrupted, and everyone glanced over as the princess tiredly lifted her head from Link's shoulder. The room was quiet as Idalia looked at her parents, and then everyone else.

It was almost as if nothing had happened to the girl at all. Almost as if she'd forgotten about the event. Perhaps nothing was as traumatic for her as they feared, her parents hoped. She was probably just scared to be away from them in the moment. Maybe she thought the whole ordeal was merely a bad dream.

"I can take her upstairs and get her to sleep." Kai offered, standing up and raising his hand. Amalia quickly stood with him, a wing on his shoulder and one on his arm to make sure he was stable. "I'm alright, Ami, it was just a little bruise." He walked over to Link, who carefully set Idalia into his arms, and she latched on to him.

"I'll go with you." Amalia went over to him, and he nodded and the pair took the princess upstairs to her room so she could go to sleep without having to listen to the discussion regarding another devastation coming upon her kingdom.

"Well," Zelda began in a low tone, returning the attention to Riju's question. "Our options have become limited to a few scenarios, all of which may result in me sacrificing myself." She said it so bluntly the champions were so sure she wasn't serious.

"Sacrificing yourself?" Yunobo gasped, jolting forward in his seat out of shock. "Why would you have to do that? Won't we just seal him away the same way you two did last time? Except, you know, we're a bit more prepared this time?" The two leaders were silent, and the champions became confused. Impa and Paya only continued to listen.

"There should be no reason you can't just seal Ganon away the same way again." Sidon cut in, carefully eyeing Link, who was avoiding his eyes. "We'll be masters with our Divine Beasts by then, and Link is the greatest swordsman of all time. And your highness, you've fully awakened your power!"

"Even if this is all true, even if with our current strength we may have been able to defeat Ganon all of those years ago... I fear our enemy has thought past all that." Zelda trembled at the thought. "Just as we've had time to grow stronger, so has he. And I've come to believe that this new strength he carries may have been growing since before even his time..."

"You believe Astor was behind this somehow." Teba stated, and Zelda nodded. "Well, even if he was, we've been ahead of him for years. I mean, as the prophet, he couldn't even predict the former queen would overpower him. So, we already know he was probably far from brilliant."

"The plans he was working on were likely passed to him from his predecessor." She corrected. "But he managed to develop them enough to pass them on to Elric. We think he's empowered the malice beyond what we could have imagined."