Fan Fiction ❯ Harry Potter and the Hero of Time ❯ To the summit ( Chapter 15 )

Chapter 15-To the summit

"Brother, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Darunia, just transformed. At least I'm not a hideous beast like Ganon."

"That is a relief," sighed Navi gently. "Then I wouldn't be able to communicate with you effectively, Link. I'm glad that you're okay; now let's save Skull Kid!" As Navi said these words, Skull Kid floated in midair and then crumpled motionless to the ground as Majora's Mask separated from him.

"Your little friend had far too many weaknesses to use my power," intoned the object in its toneless voice. "A puppet that can no longer be used is mere garbage-this puppet's role has just ended. Rathenai karendoth arenda-so•at!" The chamber soon changed into the chamber Majora's Mask occupied on the moon. The Remains Masks flew into their places and then Majora's Mask awoke from the wall and grew tentacles from its backside.

Link knew that his Fierce Deity body had the ability to fire energy disks, so he focused on the foe and fired. The disk connected, and Link ran to slash Majora's Mask before it could get back up. After the mask recovered, the Remains Masks flew off the walls and began to attack Link spewing energy blasts as they did so. Link dodged the orbs of energy and downed each mask with more energy disks. After the masks had fallen and burnt up, Majora's Mask began to spin so that its spikes would hit its foe.

Link dodged the mask until it had stopped spinning and then hit it with another energy disk. He slashed it twice, and that was significant damage to the creature. Majora's Mask rose into the air as its tentacles burnt into ash and then grew a humanoid form. Link knew that this stage, Majora's Incarnation, could run around the chamber at fast speeds while it launched energy orbs. After stretching, the metamorphosed mask began to run at fifty miles an hour. Link followed it and hit it with an energy disk to drop it to the ground, stunned temporarily.

After three slashes, Majora's Incarnation was forced to transform to its strongest form, Majora's Wrath. The arms and legs bulked up and the head turned more ferocious while its arms turned into extremely long, powerful whips. Link stood next to the creature and hit it with an energy disk. He slashed it afterwards three times and then backed up, allowing the creature to respond. Link repeated after dodging the spinning whips and the battle ended.

Majora's Wrath hung in midair, its whip-arms dangling uselessly from the side of its body. Its body began to dissolve from within as the evil essence turned into a huge ball of light. Majora's Mask reappeared and then faded back into the plane of destruction whence it came. Skull Kid awoke, and his headache was very bad this time.

"Where is the mask," the imp moaned, his voice thin and weak.

"Back where it came from," Link replied. "Old friend, you should head back to Hyrule and rest for a while." William nodded and lifted Skull Kid gently, as he would a child who had fallen asleep, Tatl and Tael hovering nearby. Where Majora's Mask had once rested, a portal to the Lost Woods appeared, to the very glade where Link and Skull Kid met seven years earlier. Skull Kid curled up on the grass, Tatl and Tael guarding his sleep from nightmares.

"Thank you, Link," Tatl said softly, just barely audible.

"You're welcome," Link said with a tear in his eye. He wiped it away and watched the portal close.

"I understand," Zelda said, putting her arm on Link's to comfort him. He smiled at her, and everything was somehow all right again. Link steeled his shoulders and climbed back to the rest of the party.

"We stop Drakan here and now," Link said. "I have seen too much suffering in this life to tolerate much more of it, and Drakan is its source. Drakan will pay for making my friends and I suffer without need."

"We're behind you on this one, Link," Kafei said. "We will stop that thing that calls itself a god and send it into the Evil Realm where it belongs together."

"We fight together," everyone shouted. William led the way up the stairs to the floor third from the top of the keep. The first chamber was empty, but the second had no less than ten Iron Knuckles in it. These monsters, mindless killing machines, bore axes strong enough to cleave through a person in seconds. The Gerudo witches of centuries past had forged them with metal and magic to guard their fortresses, especially the Spirit Temple in the Haunted Wasteland, from intruders. They also guarded the graves in the kingdom of Ikana and some served as traps for those like Flat the Younger and Nabooru.

Link, Darunia, Impa, Sheik, and Nabooru strode forward to take on the metallic knights. William, Alzeroth, and Raistlin conjured a force field that prevented the Iron Knuckles from passing. The exact incantation they used was, "Dovenathot relin tobanis-kar / rennul abdis tukng varial!" Whatever that means in Draconic, the language of mages, remains a mystery by decree of the Wizards' Conclave, the governing body of the most powerful schooled wizards in all of Krynn. Technically, since the Wizards' Conclave was disbanded years ago, I should say the ghosts of the Wizards' Conclave who live with their gods of magic, Solinari, Lunitari, and Nuitari.

The iron knuckles had armor of ten colors-red, green, yellow, white, blue, orange, black, violet, gray, and gold. Anyhow, the fighters were careful to waken only one Iron Knuckle at a time for safety's sake. Link was done with one quickly and then moved onto the other. Darunia, Impa, and Nabooru were also moving nicely, but not Sheik. The young Sheikah was having a tough time just dodging the huge greataxe and finding a chance to slash the Iron Knuckle.

"I have a way to help," said Guru-Guru. The middle-aged Sheikah began playing his organ grinder, and the Song of Storms began to resound through the chamber. William joined in on his red Ocarina, and the Indigo-go's followed the demigod. The Iron Knuckles slowed down, even if their breastplates had exploded. Sheik then found ample time to deal with the Iron Knuckles. When five had died by dissolving into blue flame, the five who remained began chopping at the marble pillars in the chamber.

"They're going to bring down the roof," Link said. "Hurry, everyone!" Sheik was no good fighting hand-to-hand, so he started tossing Bombs at his Iron Knuckles. The force of the explosions toppled them before they could slash the pillars. When the smoke cleared, the Iron Knuckles lay dead or dying on the floor, their bodies fading into smoke and dropping Bombs as they did. Sheik took the explosives, placed them into his Bomb Bag, and then watched for any more signs of trouble.

The next room was reminiscent of the Bottom of the Well area in Kakariko Village. Twenty coffins stood open, with Gibdos guarding each of them.

"Now how are we supposed to get past this lot? The Sun's Song won't work against all of them; there are just too many."

"Take a gander at this, then," smirked Alzeroth, pulling out a small music box and attaching a trumpet-shaped amplifier to it. "When this music box winds up, it plays a song that makes Gibdos run back to the underworld where they belong."

"Like the Music Box House in Ikana Canyon," Kafei said.

"Precisely, young man. Insert one silver coin and voila, there it goes." When Alzeroth dropped a silver coin into the chimney of the house-shaped music box, it began playing. The musical tunes of `Farewell to Gibdos,' the song of the Music Box house, rang sweetly throughout the chamber. When the music reached the Gibdos, they fell to their knees and then sank into the floor, their arms raised. The door beyond the coffins then opened as the braziers in the room lit up, giving a less eerie feel to it.

At the room above, Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters were waiting in a mock-up of the Little Hangleton graveyard. Harry strode forward with his wand raised and prepared to duel with the evil wizard with dreams of world domination. Voldemort, though, watched Hagrid with a strange gleam in his eyes.

"Well, Rubeus, it has been a while," Voldemort hissed.

"You! Yer Tom Riddle!"

"I was, Rubeus, and then I became Voldemort. The `t' at the end of my name is silent, you know. My name means, when translated literally from French, `flight from death.' A fitting name, I should think." Harry was in no mood for idle chatter, and made it clear by launching a Stunner at the Death Eaters. Wormtail, or Peter Pettigrew, caught the red beam of light full force and fainted, knocked unconscious by the effect.

"Very good, Potter," smirked Lucius Malfoy from behind his mask. "Milord, it is time that you kill this whelp."

"I quite agree," replied Voldemort. "Bow to death, Harry." Unlike their encounter a week earlier, Harry bowed without Voldemort forcing him to. "Very good. Crucio!"

Harry began to scream with pain as the Cruciatus Curse took effect. He fought off the pain, though, and summoned a hidden power from deep inside his body. Voldemort was shocked; nobody had ever broken the force of the Cruciatus curse before. Voldemort knew that the only solution left was to use the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, but Harry was ready.

"Avada Kedavra," Voldemort shouted. The two words are Aramaic for "Let the thing be destroyed."

"Expelliarmus," Harry shouted at the exact same moment. The red stream of light from his wand met with Voldemort's green wand-beam and there was a flash of bright light. When everyone could see again, the two were surrounded by a cage made of golden light while a stream of golden light connected the wands. Along the stream were strung beads of white light that were moving towards the tip of Harry's wand. Harry forced them back, inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter, until the first of them hit Voldemort's wand, making it start to smoke.

When the bead hit, the wand emitted a long stream of screams, the muted remains of the Cruciatus Curse. Then, a smoky hand emerged, the ghost of the hand Wormtail sacrificed to revive Voldemort the previous week. After a few more screams, a human form emerged-the head, arms, torso, and finally the legs of Cedric Diggory.

"Your body is resting now," Harry said.

"Thanks a lot, Harry," the echo of Cedric said. "What did you do with the prize money?"

"I donated it to a worthy charity; I don't need it."

"Good work, Harry." Cedric moved away to hiss at Voldemort as the music of the phoenix song radiating from the cage grew louder. Suddenly, an old man's echo, the echo of Frank Bryce, longtime resident of Little Hangleton, rose from the wand.

"Good work, boy," said Frank, and then he went off to join Cedric. The next form to emerge was that of a Ministry of Magic witch, Bertha Jorkins, who died after giving Voldemort information the previous July. Bertha said nothing to Harry, but the phoenix song grew louder still, almost forcing Voldemort to drop the wand. Suddenly, the figure of a tall man with untidy black hair emerged from the tip of the wand.

"James," Sirius shouted. "Look, Remus, it's James, or what remains of him!"

"I'm proud of you, Harry," the smoky gray image intoned, his voice sad with regret. "Your mother and I are very proud of you indeed. Fight Voldemort with all your courage; prove you are a true Gryffindor."

"How did you know?"

"We hear many things inside Voldemort's wand," replied Lily Potter. "He wants revenge against Dumbledore and most especially you, son. We know all about the diary debacle and the sword you pulled from the Sorting Hat. Break the connection when we tell you and grab the silver chalice in this room. That will force the dementors and Death Eaters back to Earth. We will hold off Voldemort long enough for you to get the chalice."

"Thanks for the advice, Mum," Harry said. "I'm not going to let you-or myself-down, not ever."

"Go now," James said. Harry nodded and jerked his wand back, breaking the connection to Voldemort's wand. The phoenix song ended, the cage and stream of golden light vanished, but the figures remained. Harry dodged past Death Eaters and fired an Impediment Curse (Impedimenta!) back at them. Lucius Malfoy, though, was closing in, unaffected by the curse. Suddenly, a figure Apparated in front of the evil wizard-it was Severus Snape.

"Now is not the time, Lucius. We will have our chance to have revenge against Potter later on, so letting him escape now serves us no risk."

"Like hell it does," said the elder Malfoy. He elbowed past Snape and fired a Stunner at Harry. Harry ducked and aimed his wand at a silver chalice resting on a pedestal.

"Accio," Harry shouted. He grabbed the chalice as it sped in his direction and held tight to it as he stood up. The Death Eaters shrieked, but Disapparated before they were torn apart by the chalice effect. Voldemort Disapparated to reappear near Drakan's side in the throne room above.