Offspring

Chapter 13: Counteraction

The chamber containing the main control unit was quiet. Vah Ruta sat perfectly still in the lake following Link's last command, which had been the final lowering of its mighty trunk. Therefore, the Beast made no sound whatsoever, and, coupled with the new lack of rain, there existed no ambient noise to accompany Link's surging thoughts. Chills scurried up his spine when his feet descended into the chamber's shallow water, breaking the eerie silence with a light splash. The next sound to be heard was his paraglider being stowed back with the rest of his gear.

If there was anything he had learned during his travels, it was that major accomplishments never came easily. Now that he was standing face-to-face with the main control unit, looming on the other side of the room, a mere sixty feet from the liberation of the Divine Beast and the Zora people, his alertness grew ever stronger. Walking forward and placing the sheikah slate to the pedestal would be too easy. There had to be something more. And as such, the silence surrounding him began to feel like...the calm before the storm.

Each step he took towards the unit, and the splashes they created in the water, rang through his ears with their own unique weight. Mipha and the denizens of Zora's Domain were counting on his success. Hearing the cloud-like voice of Zelda describe his importance back on the Great Plateau had not quite given him the sense of urgency he had now, with a critical turning point now inches in front of him. The legends were quickly becoming all too real.

He couldn't be sure if he could feel Mipha's presence in the chamber with him, since she had gone deathly silent after her last encouraging statements. He figured, one way or another, he'd find out soon. As he made it to the foot of the main control unit, which towered above him much higher than he had originally thought it would, he drew the sheikah slate from his belt and brought it forward slowly. He kept his other hand steady over the hilt of his weapon, ready to lash out at anything that might attempt to sneak up behind him.

With a stony scraping noise, the slate made contact with the guidance stone. Link held his breath, unsure if the device would respond to the action or not. The sheer amount of memories and heartache that had led him to this point over the last couple days was staggering, and now, it was time to bring all of it to a close. All he needed was for the glowing, orange lights decorating the pedestal to flash their hypnotizing, ocean-like shade of blue, and his family's ongoing nightmare would be over. Any second now...

In a timespan too short to properly address, a powerful, ghastly cloud of purple vapor shot out of the control unit, forcing Link to stumble backwards. He nearly dropped the sheikah slate in the motion, but he managed to secure his grip and stow the device back on his belt before glancing up at the infected apparatus in front of him.

The control unit, including the guidance stone attached to it, had become shrouded in a thick, wispy fog of Malice immediately following the attack on Link. It looked almost like a living, dark flame, lapping at the ancient machine like a hungry tiger. With its presence came the deactivation of the control unit, meaning he would not be able to regain dominion over the Divine Beast while it was still there, much to his dismay. It seemed Ganon was still conscious in these Beasts after all.

This was not the only occurring phenomenon, however. Link only had a brief moment to survey the damage on the control unit before an illuminating glow began to amass behind him in the chamber. At this point, every instinct in his body was already declaring danger, and when the blue light appeared against the walls of the chamber in his vision, he immediately drew his rusted spear and turned around, expecting to see a possessed Guardian of some sort.

Instead, he was surprised to see an indistinguishable ball of formless energy, hovering above the watery floor of the chamber and pulsing with a loose rhythm. He didn't dare approach the mass in consideration of its mysterious nature. As he watched, though, he noticed the entity begin to take a certain shape. Its central volume elongated into a thin, twisted body with no legs. It grew two long, frail arms with sheikah-themed enhancements. Its right arm developed a clawed hand on its end, while its left arm came to end at an angled shaft that quickly ionized into an oversized Guardian spear, reaching up to what must've been twenty or thirty feet in length. Lastly, its head formed on top of the body, sporting a wild frenzy of maroon hair and a hideous tri-pointed faceplate, engraved with corrupted sheikah designs.