Hyrulequestria

Ch.88

The room was a circular Romanesque chamber, at odds with the architecture of the rest of the Arbiter’s Grounds. “Oh...oh no…” Gleaming quietly breathed out on sight of the absolute slab of black metal embedded in the center of the floor, dozens of ropes tying the hilt to the floor, the ropes covered in ofuda talismans. “W-we shouldn’t be here. What is that doing here? Oh no...”

“What is it Gleamy?” I asked worriedly of my Hero. She’s never been this shaken before, and I thought I was going to be having problems here.

“Those ofuda, the sword. This is an evil long ago sealed by the Sheikah. What is it doing here?” Gleaming tried to edge us back out of the room, but she paused, took a deep breath, and let it go. “Okay. Whatever. It’s just another thing in the way. I’ll do what no Sheikah has managed before and banish perhaps the strongest Poe in Hyrule to the Dark World where it belongs.”

“Wait. You mean this is old Shrieker?! Wow! He’s been gone forever~!” Jalha commented, then wilted. “Oh. Shit. It’s Shrieker.”

“Huh? I thought his name was Death Sword.” I gestured to the giant weapon that made the Biggoron Sword look like a toothpick. Shame it’s evil and we can’t loot that, it’d be a great situational tool since Gleaming has the Power Gauntlets to make it usable.

“I explained how Poes are made earlier didn’t I?” Jahla commented. “Shrieker was made the same way, but instead of pulling out the soul to make a Poe, ripping out the bones to make a Stalfos, and preserving the rest to make a Gibdo, Shrieker had his soul shoved back into his body upon going through the Gibdo process and reinforcing the skeleton-like done for a Stalfos. He’s batshit insane! He attacks any moving thing he sees. It’s no wonder he’s been sealed instead of defeated.”

“What about the giant cleaver though?” I asked curiously.

“That’s what his soul was tethered to before having it shoved back into his body. The result, well, we’re gonna find out, aren’t we?” Jalha asked in resignation.

“Seeing how old the seal is, all we need to do is disrupt a single one, and it could get free.” Gleaming informed us as we floated close, and she pulled the Biggoron Sword out of our cleavage. “If we die, I blame you for this Navi.”

“Why me?” I demanded in a huff before Gleaming swung, slicing through a rope on the edge of the seal, and we quickly floated away.

The foul shrieking was the first thing we heard before the sword started to move. The ropes caught fire, and a spectral monster appeared, towering over us at easily 12 feet of spindly, lanky emaciated flesh, thankfully contained in a rather stylish black robe. The spectral demon grabbed the hilt with one hand, and easily yanked it free with a metallic screech, the runes along the fuller of the cleaver shone red before it shrieked at us and turned invisible, save its sword.

“Okay, Jalha! Please tell us if you have some sort of ghost or spirit vision or something!” I suddenly realized that without the Mask of Truth or Lens of Truth or a spiritual beast form to use a similar ability, we might actually be fucked! If there was anyplace such a thing would be, it would’ve been before we got to this point!

“Uh...what do you mean? I see him just-WHOA!” Jalha jerked us to the side, evading the massive black cleaver which just chopped into the stone floor. “What are you two waiting for! He’s still weak from the sealing!”

“We can’t see him. You can.” Gleaming snarled before deflecting the cleaver sword. OOF! Holy crap! I can’t feel my arms! Er, our arms! “Gah! I can’t block hits like those! Jalha!”

“G-got it!” Jalha shoved the Biggoron Sword back into our cleavage, and instead pulled out her Poe Lantern. “Hope you like some fire!” Jalha held the lantern to our face and breathed out heavily, blowing a stream of fire at the invisible enemy, who howled in his haunting shriek and became visible, flying up into the air. “You really are weak! Now’s my chance to deal with you for good!”

“Don’t get cocky!” Gleaming and I demanded of our ghostly lover, who flew up after Shrieker, only for him to turn into a swarm of ghostly bats, get behind us, and chop into our back. “AH~!”

Gleaming took over, dodging another mid-air swing, and retreated to the floor as Shrieker seemed content to float above, waiting to strike. “Gah, not gonna let you do this your way!” Gleaming pulled the Goron Arbalest from our tits and shot the corporeal monster. It howled at us as it rapidly began flying around the room, getting closer and closer, so Gleaming swapped out the Arbalest for her shield and, my sword? What? Why my dinky Plunderthorn sword?

“Why my sword? We need something bigger to deal with this thing.” I huffed in annoyance before Shrieker was upon us, and Gleaming parried the immensely powerful strike to the side with her shield and stabbed at the demonic monster with my sword, which, shockingly, bit deeply into the beast’s shoulder. It shrieked in agony and flew back up the ceiling, keeping moving. “What in the…?” I looked more closely at my sword, and realized it was my sword!

I’m a Goddess now! I wasn’t one when I made it, but it’s made from my body! It’s literally a part of me! It has my holy power! “Still think this thing isn’t up to snuff?” Gleaming snarked as she sheathed the sword on our back, the sheathe magically materializing, and she grabbed the Arbalest one-handed, shooting Shrieker again, and goading it into attacking us.

Again, when it came at us, Gleaming parried and struck, but this time, it went invisible and partially intangible again, swinging wildly at us, forcing Gleaming to jump away since we couldn’t figure out where it’s giant cleaver was going to go without any movement cues from the body.

“Upper left!” Jahla called out in time for Gleaming to block. “Right! Lower left! It’s vulnerable, stab!” Jalha managed to coach Gleaming, and soon Shrieker was back, but instead of retreating, it turned into bats and teleported behind us again. This time though, we jumped aside before the black cleaver could get us in the back again.

Instead of fighting us head-on though, Shrieker bat-ported again and did this multiple times, trying to catch us from all directions. After several tries, Shrieker overextended, getting his sword stuck in the floor again, and this time Gleaming went for it, jumping over the monster, she aimed the sword under us, putting our full weight into the attack by shutting off Jalha’s flight magic and making sure we were fully tangible.

My wooden Plunderthorn blade pierced the monster’s flesh, and it shrieked one last time before suddenly seizing up, cracking, and then turning into an ominous cloud of ash-bats, flying through the long skylight hole in the ceiling.“Heck yeah! My holy sword is the best!” I proclaimed, before the late monster’s cleaver fell on us, tossing us to the floor. “Oof! Why is this thing still here?!”.

“You’re welcome~!” Farore cheekily said to me, and I groaned.

---]===>

“So what’s the point of this thing?” Gleaming asked as we rode the Spinner along the convenient tracks on the wall. “I doubt there’s gonna be tracks like this anywhere else. I can fly, so it’s used to get across rough terrain is pointless. Can I fight enemies with it?”

“To be fair, no. It’s just a glorified key.” I sighed in disappointment, before watching the Spinner’s gear teeth turn into spikes as it disengaged from one track onto another, Gleaming having figured out the tool quickly. “Or not. I think this is useful as a way to get through groups of enemies.”

“So it’s for crowd control.” Gleaming stated. “Would be really useful here. If y’know, we actually had to worry about the undead attacking us.” Gleaming snarked as she rode the wall rails up around the central chamber of the main floor.

This was another major difference from the Arbiter’s Grounds in Twilight Princess. Instead of having to hunt four Poes to sacrifice for some arbitrary reason aside from them stealing the magic flames, the Spinner was basically the master key to this place. Gleaming rode and jumped the admittedly fast mode of transport up around the coils of snakes on the statue until we reached the top. I mused this was basically the final puzzle of the dungeon from the game, so what will the journey to the top of the temple/prison be like?

Gleaming had planted the Spinner in the perfectly-fitting slot in the crown of the statue, revving it and causing the walls of the central chamber to give a stony rumble and rasp as they moved, revealing the main central shaft leading up to the top floors, said shaft was much smaller than I remembered, but then again, Stallord’s boss chamber was much bigger.

“Guys, I’m a bit worried,” I said as Gleaming began climbing the tower with the Spinner, clearly enjoying it enough to ignore the fact we could’ve flown up the shaft.

“What are you worried about? We’ve gotten super-tough thanks to Sans and his heartfelt help.” Jalha snorted along with me at her horrible pun, while I could feel Gleaming want to groan in exasperation.

“How the heck will a Stalfos fit into a harem?” My question caused Gleamy to lose control of the Spinner, and we fell a short distance before she recovered, grabbing the magic beyblade skateboard, and flying up the shaft instead.

“Why did you have to ask such an awkward question?” Gleaming whined as we floated in front of a massive door. Oh, and another difference. It seems that many of these dungeons after Gohma’s mine don’t do the whole magic keys and locks. I’m glad because it saves time, but at the same time, it feels a bit hollow.

“Majora’s medling has caused many things to change. The places that become Dungeons have lost many of their self-generated protections against invaders.” Farore helpfully told me.

“Because Gleamy, while Charswirl is one thing, and Jalha is another, we’re talking about a skeleton here! If it’s who I think it is, then it’s gonna be a bone-babe, and I’m kinda worried as all hell what she’ll possibly look like, let alone how...naughty, stuff will work with her.” I replied, and Gleaming felt so queasy at my concerns that I felt it, and also felt my arousal get sucked into a pit of nothingness.

“Please don’t make this-where’d that lock come from?” Gleaming demanded as a lock so conveniently appeared on the giant door, chains running from it to the frame of the door.

“MAJORA~!” I wailed as I had us fall to our knees, and Majora’s satanic cackling intensified.

“Uh...girls? You know those locks don’t actually work on doors like this, right?” Jalha asked us rhetorically, and I ceased my dramatic demonstration of fury.

“H-huh?” Gleaming asked, having also thought they worked, considering Gohma’s dungeon had several locks and Small Keys.

“It’s literally just a giant lock, hanging on chains attached to the door’s frame,” Jalha informed us, and I felt our face heat up incredibly with how embarrassed both Gleamy and I must be feeling right now.

“...I knew that. I totally knew that.” I dismissed, going up to the door, and with a heave, it lifted right up, the chains and lock not even doing more than clink against it. “Hmph! Fucking troll.” Once in the door, we came upon a giant shaft, easily ten times the scale of the one we entered this one from. It must be inside the mountain the temple/prison is up against.

However, whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t this.

“Hm? Some brave souls enter our chamber. They are three, just as we.” Stated a sensual husky voice belonging to the shapely, dusky-furred Gerudo woman, easily 15 feet tall. She was turned away from us in the sandy shaft, giving us quite the show of her callipygian big booty in her purple Sirwal pants. However, the back of her head had a flaring bright red mane, which should only be on a male lion. It was so long it even reached her butt. It failed to hide her...skeletal...tail…

“Homana.” Gleaming said as our shared bosom swelled in arousal. The beautiful lioness turned slowly, exposing beach ball-sized breasts, which at her massive size, were like basketballs on the rest of us. This also revealed that her head was encased in bone, her eyes glowing red, and there were visible rib bones over her torso’s exposed flesh, with only a purple bandeau to cover those glorious dusky boobs.

“Oh? You do not find our undead form displeasing?” The woman asked with a predatory smirk on her fleshy lips, the only part of her head not looking like a perfectly-fitted lion skull.

“Lady, one of my lovers is a Lich, a really well-preserved one too,” I admitted, unable to look away from her eyes. Those eyes. They’re...not…

“Heheheh, well do you wish to have some fun~?” This weird mix of bone and flesh asked, her lips opening in a vicious smile to reveal her sharp teeth. “Let’s play~.” Suddenly, from her sides, blasts of fire opened up on us from the very air, and I barely had the presence of mind to jump into the air. “Aw~! You don’t like our burning passion~? Try our cold shoulder!” They declared, summoning a hail of ice spikes before flinging them at us too.

“HOLY SHIT?! Why is she attacking?! We weren't doing anything to her!” Jalha wailed as we suddenly had to dive out of the way of a blast of dark necrotic energy.

“Hahahahaha!” The madwoman cackled like a witch as she kept attacking us. It got worse when she summoned Staltroops from the sand, the hastily assembled skeleton-like sand golems shambling about as they used slings to throw rocks, decrepit-looking crossbows to fling stone quarrels, and threw javelins at us. “Disobedient Poe! Come back to your General, Stalrova, to be reeducated!”

“Shit! Somehow, Majora has fused Twinrova and Stallord together into Stalrova! This is crazy! How’d he do it?!” I wailed, dodging projectiles while Gleaming pulled out the Spinner. “Why are you taking that out?! This isn’t-!” I was interrupted by Gleaming taking control, jumping onto the Spinner, and pulsing it as we neared the first group of Staltroops. They scattered into sand on contact, but instead of bouncing off, like in the game, this superior Spinner tore through them and kept going, right at a stunned Stalrova.

“AH~!” She wailed as we jumped, pulsing the Spinner as we hit her, tearing into her necrotic flesh, which quickly healed over, even as she retreated into the air. “You dare?! Taste the power of ice, fire, and entropy!” Stalrova roared in a powerful leonine bellow, before firing a beam of freezing cold, boiling heat, and corrosive necrotic energy at us from her mouth.

“Hold on ladies~!” Gleaming excitedly warned us, still going on the spinner, taking to the track around the sandpit, watching as Stalrova’s attack glassed/froze/obliterated the track behind us and the sand filling the pit. The force of her magic attack was also sending sand flying, exposing the central Spinner switch. “Gonna need a distraction! Or some way to disorient her!”

“Oh! OH! The Cleaver! Let’s use that to knock her out of the air!” Good thinking Jalha! The black mass of metal would be perfect for slapping her down! Thanks Farore!

“Yes!” Gleaming chuckled, fishing the gigantic cleaver from our cleavage, flying up around the still attacking lioness, and swinging the broad back of the weapon into her, sending her sprawling into the sand that remained below. “C’mon, c’mon.” Gleamy hissed as we dove for the Spinner switch, slotting the Spinner in, and revved it as fast as possible.

“Grah! You impudent-we will feast on your-whoa!” Stalrova wobbled on her bone-covered paws as the central spire began rising up through the shaft. “So that was how to get it to rise! Thank you! Now once we’re through with you, the invasion of the Twilight Realm can begin!”

“The Twilight realm?!” I yelped in shock. But the Twili are masters of magic! So this is why the Mirror Chamber is sealed! They’re keeping the invader’s out not being kept in! And we just helped undo part of the seal! “Gleamy! We’ve gotta stop her! The Twili may be legendary wizards, but if she can get an army in there, so many will die!”

“Ha, ha, ha, ha! Yes! Soon Lord Grogar’s plans will come to fruition! With an army of undead, we will sweep across the southern half of the continent, killing your changeling allies and trapping your foolish resistance between two armies!” Stalrova declared excitedly as she raised her arms above her head and began belly dancing, sending her massive breasts quaking and those child-birthing hips rocking. But the display clearly wasn’t intended to be enticing, as her dancing was being used to cast a powerful necromancy ritual that began sending arcing shocks of necrotic magic all over!

“No, you don’t!” Gleaming shouted as she took out the Arbalest and shot the towering mini-giantess in the face, the arrow pinging off of her skull-covered forehead, but she wailed as her ritual was interrupted, falling to her hands and knees and necrotic magic backlashed over her. Gleaming took the opportunity to rush in, wielding my Plunderthorn Sword and slashing frantically at the beautiful revenant, who screeched in agony as my holy blade tore at her until she recovered enough to teleport away.

“Enough!” Stalrova roared as she held her arms above her in the air, an orb of spinning fire, ice, and necro magic forming. With a snarl, she hurled it at us, and while I wanted to dodge, Gleaming readied my sword, and with a valiant shout, swung at the projectile. My sword exploded into splinters, stabbing into us, but the attack was sent back at Stalrova, who couldn’t react before getting blasted up into the ceiling with a scream of pain.

We panted, watching her fall in a silent, smoking heap back on the stone tower. We staggered, the destruction of my sword having hurt us quite a bit, but Gleaming managed to fish out her lyre, playing the Song of Healing. It took several tries, because as hurt as we were, Gleaming kept missing notes, but eventually, she got it done, and Stalrova was engulfed in darkness, compressing down and exploding to reveal her new mask form, which had the red mane of hair extending over the top as if it would hide the head when worn.

With that, I weakly sent a magic summons for my little healer fairies, and we collapsed.