The Great Old Lights (Doc Genz, Eternis)

Acknowledging the grin, Eve smirked back. She planted a torch so that the light would reach the innards of all three doors.
"It's bizarre, I didn't expect all the suspicious entrances to be. . . in the same place. But that's not important, we need to figure out which to open first."
Eve looked at her gloved hand, and counted her fingers one by one. Was she mumbling a childhood rhyme to pick the door?! If the rumors were true, any one of them could hide certain death. Traps, horrible monsters, the pitch black: all could be awaiting behind the doors. Eve did not show even a hint of fear.
"I know why nobody could open these."
She waved a hand to suggest Holle to follow, and ran down to the bottom door.
"With your sling, hurl a stone toward the door. It must be booby-trapped. If we can trigger it from afar we can survive it."
There was no reason to object, he lobbed a nearby stone toward the door. But that's when something happened that even little Evelyn couldn't have predicted. Out of the solid stone, there projected many barbed tentacles to catch the stone. They swung in onto each other and created a webbed net as they tried to kill the perceived intruder.
"They-they're ALIVE! The gods of good, all that is righteous could not have been responsible for these beings. Those things, I think they suck blood. Holle, get back. I need to try something."
Without another word she ambled closer to the twisted up bramble of flesh.
"My blood is horribly poisonous, I was filled with a horrible toxin in the war. It was a miracle that I got out of that coma. If these creatures taste my blood they should withdraw. There's nothing I hate more than vampires. . ."
She allowed one of the tendrils to prick her arm and ingest her blood. As she explained, it recoiled in disgust along with the others.
"Now! We have to get in there now before the monster wakes up!"

Thinking for a spell, Eve puzzled over what simple kind of key could open this trap that nobody could have down here. Something they would react to. . . that's it! The lights! She held up her left arm as if to offer up something. The glint of gold from under her glove shined once again.
"These enemies, while their door is sturdy and tougher than diamond. . . anything they make will be sensitive to bright lights."
Just like in the desert battle, her arm ignited in flames. In the darkness of the cave, the flames were incredibly bright. She groaned as she tried to push it further. The black flames became every color at once, making the dim cave flash like a sale at a Malo Mart. Propelling off the floor with a slam of her boot, Eve flew into the door with her blazing arm.
"YRRRRAAA! This is how we open them!"
There was a shout and a flash. When the two looked back up, the door was broken into three pieces.
"Get your weapon ready, darling!~ Here he comes! The first enemy is in here!"

There was no need for a torch. All around them, sparkling crystals and mushrooms gave off florescence. With the added light from outside, the red crystals began to glow brightly. The glow revealed a massive figure in the stone. The figure had a rat-like face and a herculean body. A voice exploded from the stone.
"This flavor! It is like the cold vomit of a dog!"
The surface of the pillar began to collapse around the statue, and a real-to-life body came out. His snout had markings on it resembling a mustache starting from the nose. The body of the creature was completely sky blue, and he wore little more than an archaic sporting garment. He flexed backward and posed, provocatively.
"That you should awake me prematurely. . . it is a disgrace to our efforts! I, Goriya, will kill you both where you stand!"
Eve should have got on her guard immediately. Instead, she put on a smug face and swayed closer to the being. She balanced one elbow on her hammer and leaned to the side, as if to relax on it.
"We can beat you in just a few moves."
Goriya was perplexed. He lost his posture and leaned back forward.
"What?! Have times changed so much in two-thousand years that any boy and his dog can just walk in and defeat one of us?"
Eve fanned her face with her hand. Things may have been getting a little hot again, but she made it look like she was relaxed.
"We know that you can rebuild lost body parts, and we know that you can absorb living people into your bodies to do so."
Eve turned and winked at Holle.
"We also know that you hide underground because of these ancient legends and tales. These tales about your weakness to the rippling sunlight! It just so happens that we can counter your every move."
Goriya moved forward from his perch. He didn't seem quite as surprised as before, he even looked more confident.
"You awaken me, and then you make a mockery of me? You forgot to mention that I am both stronger and faster than either of you. As well as my Mode, my Mode of the Spiraling Heat! Burn, my Tempered Boomerangs!"
The towering monstrosity yanked two flaming, dripping molten crescents out of his body. Were those his own ribs? He flung them unceremoniously toward Eve like crossed scissors. They would both come back around and return to their master. Caught completely off-guard, Eve barely dropped to the floor as they shot past her head. The molten weapons grazed her face- the boiling drops seared her eyes!
"KREEEEEEEE!"
It was up to Holle to stop him before the weapons returned to his arms.

Eve leaned back with her hands over her eyes for a moment. Some pungent fumes wafted from her face. The sick smell was powerful, like burning hair mixed with boiling medicine. It seemed like Eve wasn't responding to Holle for a second or two. There was an ominous quaking feeling coming from her direction.
"My. . . eyes. . ."
There was a gleam as she took her hands off her face. It was blurry, but she could see. There was a crackle when the boomerangs were broken. In the red glow of the cave she could finally make out Holle moving toward the enemy. Brilliant! It's a distraction. She thought as other feelings whizzed through her head.
W-was he unable to see? Holle winked at her and just barely missed seeing the skin on her face flaking off as grotesque blotches of blood rose to the surface of her wound.

Eve stood back up straight and triumphantly. Goriya confidently held his ground with his arms at his sides. The bubbles of skin sizzled on Eve's face. Her intense eyes glared at Goriya, who had just about made this personal.
"That fire, like sunlight. Din is responsible for this, no? Younger than my gods, but this ground we stand on would not be here without her. You plan to use the sunlight on me. I hope to see you try, man of mortal flesh." Goriya ranted with his nose tipped up smugly.

It worked, he really was distracted by Holle. Eve hoped that he remembered the plan, the Spark ability he had would work just as well on the flesh of this creature. I know what to do with him. . . right. Eve took the time Holle was giving her to think it over. The blood dripped and coagulated down her face, forming a crusty rust colored pattern. They didn't bring much, but the things in the room combined with her abilities could probably do something. Eve stretched her arms out, and got them good and limber. Those should be able to help.

She arched down and pulled at one of the oversized crystals dotting the chamber. Her power bracelets made lifting such a massive rock a piece of cake.
"This, Holle. . . it should be able to reflect and magnify the light."
With a heavy grunt she began to lift the massive transparent stone out of the cave floor. A crimson color brightened the room more as the surface of the crystal was exposed to the soft glow of the rest of the room. She crouched and lifted the glittering stone with her whole body. Then, she went into a duck-walk to inch it closer to the enemy.
"Cool." she observed as the cold surface of the stone touched her skin.

"Child of man, you challenge me?!" Goriya moaned in bewilderment.
He made a ratlike hiss and primed his fists for single combat. Something else began to hiss. Steam was coming off of his skin, and the sharp whistle of a boiling teapot blared from the holes on his chest as he raised his body temperature.

"We need to kill him before this room becomes an oven!"
Eve tossed the stone down within range of Holle's spellcasting. Then, she got back to a safer distance and grabbed her hammer. Little flakes of skin were still falling off her face. Once Holle distracts him, and we stun him with the flash, that's when we can go all out on him.

"One more thing. . ."
Eve released her fairy back into the open air. The poor creature fluttered weakly into the bright light.

"THIS IS!?" Goriya shouted as Holle's grip held him in place.
The Din's Burst shimmered and exploded in the center of the room. Everything turned bright white like a flash of lightning as the fiery pop magnified through the natural prism. The heat of daylight filled the entire room.

Holle would soon find that Goriya's flesh was falling apart in his hands. He was burning from the edges of his wounds inward, much like how a leaf or a piece of paper burns to ash slowly. The wise looking ancient creature had a baffled, shocked look of someone who was vastly outsmarted.
"WAAAUUGHAUAAGH!!"
The floating embers of the monster flew into the open air. They swirled and danced in the air, circling in on the fairy. Alice's light went from dim to slightly less dim as the sparks of life intertwined with her. For a split second, almost too fast to see, a transparent bluish chain could be seen. With a weak tug, the fairy came back to Eve.

"Fight fire with fire. . . so it really does work."

The final cries of the monster stopped as the ripple of daylight turned the last pieces of his body to ash. Din's might was not something to be taken lightly. Maybe the gods of Hyrule were truly the greater power here. The air fizzled for a moment as the last remains of the distorted creature faded. The red glow of the cave dampened down to a pitch black, only cut out by the light of Alice.

"This is it Holle, two more doors to go. One of them has the cloth with him, and the other is a danger to the settlement. Let's get to that next door."

With the brightness guiding them, the two walked cautiously out. They stepped toward the next slab of a door. Something was not right here, the air became colder. The torch from before began to dim and sputter. Fully aware there would be another trap, Eve went first. She tossed a Deku Nut down the hallway. To meet the disturbance, the entire hall closed in with ice. Sharp spears of pure ice closed in like teeth and slowly retracted when nothing inside was felt. As many as three Hylian bodies were shrunken and frozen on the floor, perfectly preserved.

Eve dashed into the line of sight, not sure whether she would make it in alive. She grabbed on when the sharp ice popped back out. In another feat of overconfidence Eve unleashed her Flame Choke onto the web of ice. The searing grasp spread from one to the next in a disorienting swirl of colors. A pair of eyes opened on the door slab to see what was going on. The red eyes beamed curiously down the hallway, trying to stare down the intruder and catch the prey for good. The gaze attack was met with the mirror-like glisten of a pair of golden eyes. The delicately painted orbs had been burned clean by Goriya's searing blood. It was like looking into another world. There was a bright flash and the entire slab melted into water.

​

Dragging her hammer, Eve carefully led Holle along with her into a softly cyan colored cave. Sharp, frosted stalagmites and stalactites lined the cave. There was a myriad of Freezor statues all around the original wall. But which one was the enhanced monstrosity, and which were statues? There didn't seem to be a single clue. More worrying was the six or so Freezards appearing out from amongst the stalagmites! They surrounded Holle and Eve slowly as they tried to slide in the right direction.

"Next you'll say: 'I thought you'd never ask!'"

"I thought you'd never ask!. . . Ugwuh?!" Eve choked on her words. Which statue said that, and how were they so quick to know something so specific?

All the Freezor statues stayed completely still, there was no way to tell which one had spoken. Eve ran over to the circle of Freezards, as Freezor didn't yet move enough to be a threat. The floor was a bit slippery, Eve made sure to jump up before making the first swing. She came crashing down, and her violent growl tainted the air. A powder, like snow exploded from a Freezard. The crackle of the ice was sharp and loud. Eve regained her footing and twisted around.

There was a gleam of light with her next swing. The sand on Eve's battle hammer was being wiped clean by the snow. The horizontal twirl was almost like a dance. Eve's dress fluttered as she skated the glistening tool of death into the shattering, crackling ice. She stomped the hammer into the ground and used her free hand to grab the snow out of the air and wipe it on her charred face. The tingling frost was refreshing on her stinging skin.

A Freezard turned to face her, she didn't flinch at all. With a drag, she pulled the battle hammer across the ice in a swirl. She performed a jeté, connecting the weapon with the Freezard as it spewed cold air to the side. She landed on her feet but slipped. Her slide pulled her into another of the monsters. She drew the hammer forward like a lance and jousted the end into the icy creature. The charge split the creature down the middle, sending a shard flying.

The shard soared to the right, mashing into one of the headless Freezards. The body zoomed on the slick floor and collided with the other headless one. The two clacked together like big snooker balls, the resulting slide launched them into the corners of the room. The pair were unsalvageably lodged in the stalagmites. With a final pirouette, Eve finished her ice dance.

"I'm watching you, your reflections sink deep into my thoughts." came the voice once more.

Somewhere, hiding amongst many clones was a monster. His powers were unknown. But with a little reflection, the two could figure it out. He had some power over ice and cold, and something about reflection could show him the inner desires of others. There was an awkward silence as the echoes of the fight faded from the cave. Freezor was elated, he didn't have to move at all. He would just wait for them to pick the wrong statue and he would kill them.

Eve wasn't buying this at all. If he was so dangerous he would just come out and fight. She looked around, sure to pick one of the statues out. They all had a dull red gaze, as if their eyes were vaguely glowing. That was it, they were all reflecting off each other. All Eve had to do was use her own sight to counter it. She opened her eyes perfectly lined up with the statue, if a little low to the ground. She projected all her fury and frustration into her gaze. The statue eyes all reflected the red glow back between each other. It was now polluted with this startling vision from inside the gold. The mind reading reflection was sent back into Freezor's own eyes. I'm hiding behind you, I'm about to kill you both. The sentiment weirdly transferred back to Eve. There was a sickened noise as Freezor tilted his head out of the icy wall.

"I think that's him. He's pretty stupid for an ancient monstrosity though."

"Even if you train your flames, it's useless useless useless useless useless! Could a monkey fight a man?" Freezor screamed as the tendrils of hardened ice grew thicker and closer. Eve was still staring at one of the statues, totally motionless.

"I'm trying to focus! What's all this hubbub?" Eve gesticulated with some outdated lingo and a few stomps to the floor with balled fists. She was still straining her weird metal eyes on the statue. With two of them destroyed by Holle, her gaze wasn't actually reflecting into anything. She was just having a staring contest with an inanimate object. Even with Freezor in the room, she was the dumbest one there.

The flash of Holle's blast hit the real Freezor in the face. The light flooded through him, he was hurt. However, Freezor's body of ice somewhat routed the flash out of his system. The stunned and bulky demon fell out of his pillar, shaken. His fist slammed against the ground to stop his fall. Just then his icicle weave had shattered under the shock as well as his break in concentration. He was remarkably muscular for an ice-man. His bulbous head and wide-open mouth was distracting, he looked alien. Freezor waggled his arms as if grasping at something that wasn't there to hold himself up. It looked like he couldn't remember how to stand up.

Eve spun around, now aware the monster was removed from the pillar. His cold breath wafted her hair into a mess, her ruffled headdress came off and flew to the floor somewhere. There was no going back now, the dirt had been thrown and Freezor had made just the wrong move to tick Eve off her tocker. This windy blow-hole was going to pay! Freezor jigged on the floor a bit more and finally stood up straight.

"I am standing, it seems. Now to freeze you two solid and lick your icy blood." the monster mused to himself.

"You. . . broken, break. I'm gonna smash your face!" Eve stuttered in anger. She threw a large icicle at him, striking him in the mouth with it. The icicle javelin stuffed his mouth like a holiday turkey. He was ready to fire his frost breath, but the blockage in his mouth ruined the flow. Freezing air whistled out of the ends of his mouth. He was trying to breathe back in, at this point his respiration was mangled by the reduced opening. Eve smashed at Freezor's shins repeatedly. Even with his accelerated healing, Freezor couldn't stand for long with his legs broken. Freezor snatched at Eve with his massive hand while clinging to the uncomfortable icicle with the other.

This was all my fault for making the icicles too thick to break! Freezor remorsefully thought as he tore at the air. He grabbed a large piece of Eve's dress as she dashed to the right. Her entire outfit was shredded right off her body as she went in for his neck. There was no embarrassment that day, however. Under the dress Eve was wearing a black bodysuit dark enough to cover everything up in the cave. Her hand slowly clasped around Freezor's neck.



"I've been wandering the desert for at least twenty years. It lasted that entire time. THAT DRESS WAS MY FAVORITE." Eve's words were lost on the creature. Her hand had ignited in a flame that was a color that could only be described as hatred. The strange heat of these flames was like a vice around Freezor's cold flesh. His head spun to the floor, whirling around on the icicle. The rest of his body exploded in a mist of flames that erupted to the ceiling. Speaking of the ceiling, it was dripping and cracking. Apparently the entire floor above them was made of mostly ice. The rising heat of their attacks and the death of Freezor, who had kept the cave frigid, was causing that floor to melt. That floor. . . was the one of the room they hadn't entered yet!

"Who enters the lair of the being with an entire Nebula sculpted after his breathtaking physique?"



Horsehead was already out of his pillar wall. The blue glow faded and a bright glow from the above chamber filled the entire cave with multicolored lights. It was like looking at a sunset over and over, purely breathtaking. Horsehead's movements were calm and rational, he jumped down from his ledge to face his opponents on the quickly melting ice. He seemed. . . happy? He was absolutely euphoric.

A dull outfit was on his supple body. It was a loincloth with a strap on each cardinal direction, tied together with a purple belt onto a ring buckle. His upper body was wrapped in these dull yellow clothes somewhat like a mummy or a sarashi would be tied. The cloth folded over at angles, upward around his torso. They tied on two ancient spiraled spaulders to complete the Golden Armor. Golden. . . Ensemble? It wasn't really armor, more like a Golden Raiment for gladiators. Nobody should expect a gladiator to survive their match, or maybe it was that Horsehead was the most confident in his own victory? It was just how Eve had described it, the Golden Raiment was lacking in color. It was faded and badly needed repair.

"You didn't notice? Trickster boy, whatever your name is. Have you not noticed it yet? This is precious."

"You don't need to tell him, gorgeous. What matters is that I get what I came for."

"Not now, strange-smelling leech girl. I am talking to the boy. This cretin has deceived you. We of the higher predators were not going to awaken for another one hundred and fifty of your Hyrule years. She purposefully awoke us by tainting our feeding trap with her nasty tasting blood. This girl is no more than a spider under my foot, and a menace to her own society. You were wrong not to burn her to death on sight. What is she anyway, it smells like a grandmother but looks like a child."

"Darling please, you're making a horse of yourself. Arse. . . I meant arse. Anyway Holle it's not true.

I don't smell anything like that." Eve swatted her hand playfully as she spoke. The small-talk was getting pungent. Eve used her idle trickery to mount an attack. She dropped her weapon and jumped straight into Horsehead's chest.

"You know about me, then what is this pathetic attack?" Horsehead reacted by fusing Eve with his own body tissue, a tactic for absorbing prey. However, his body was rejecting hers. He began to rash around where she entered. The poisons of Ganon's army still pulsed through her veins. A freak accident had resulted in a symbiosis of the toxins and her body. Horsehead suddenly knew that he had to eject her before the poison was absorbed into his entire bloodstream. He turned into a puddle of flesh-sludge and removed himself from her.

Eve watched as her fairy, Alice, had finally gathered the life force of the dying Freezor from the room.

"I feel better, my thoughts are coming back to me! It feels so good to be a sane fairy again! Oh thank you all so much!" Alice cheered as the life came back into her. "Wait, little Evelyn what are you doing over there? What is all that?"

Eve was standing crookedly with a weird smile on her face. The Golden Raiment had somehow draped onto her as Horsehead unlatched himself from her. It was loose on her dark silk bodysuit, and as dull as before. What did Alice see that was so odd? There, scattered all around the room from before. . . were the Gratitude Crystals! They surrounded every corner of the room and were slowly sucking into the center. They increased in velocity and caught Alice square in the face. They bludgeoned her on their insane dash to the Raiment.

The crystals were tied to Eve with small threads of some unmentionable material. The Gratitude Crystals battered Alice into the Raiment and drained her life entirely into the wardrobe. The fairy was sucked in and consumed, repairing the burns on Eve's face. Alice was a part of the outfit now- a part of Eve! The gratitude was filling the garment with life and restoring its original glow and color. Eve slowly rose from her position, laughing maniacally.

"The Ultimate Being embodies the strengths of each and every living thing.
All lives gather as one.
And. . .
How beautiful its shine! Truly the most wonderful thing I have ever beheld!


I have finally, FINALLY TAMED THE LIGHT! GUOHOHAHAAAAH! OOOOH HOHOHO!"

Horsehead rose from his puddle with a bewildered face like that of a curiously painted horse mask.
EVEN HORSEHEAD WAS AFRAID!

"She has no weaknesses! On that evil thing not even Light will work! Actually that's probably an exaggeration but still what the HAY" Horsehead neighed in pure dismay. He knew what powers the Great Old Lights possessed, it was the only thing he even had hope for when coming out of his pillar. Normally, the Gods would build the terrors and demons of the land with one true flaw. No matter how strong the foe, the goddesses of the Triforce's Light Enchantment was sure to be their one true weakness. Even Ganon can't stand Light Arrows, every scholar worth his degree in Hylian Myth knows that! Horsehead put his hands to his muzzle in shame. His one valuable treasure, in the hands of this backstabbing nincompoop!

"NEIGGHHHHHHHHH! Boy do you wanna take this punk, if we team up we can grab her and disrobe her!" Horsehead hastily bargained. Obviously he wasn't going to get someone like Holle to undress a girl as the entire settlement was about to arrive. Horsehead trotted forward, but he wasn't fast enough. Eve was escaping from above. . . on the ropes she had told Holle to bring previously. First, the Western Caves Guard came. They marched into the cave with torches, sure to find the source of the disturbance. Horsehead snorted steam in anger. There was no escape for him now.

Eve stopped dead in her tracks. Without the light of the strange geode formations, her glow from before was starting to wear off. She tried to make a face of confusion, but the current lack of expression painted onto her eyes hindered it a bit.

"You're actually right I forgot to give a closing statement. All of this was kind of set up for that dramatic climax. I planned it for a long time really. But unlike that trio of monsters I don't need to run around preying on humans. So uh, just keep your eyes on the Quest Board. I will be back. Just be aware, my previous bands of thugs aren't around anymore. If we want to fight something right nasty it will take some real work." Eve speedily rambled, clearly exhausted. Though mind-bendingly insane, she looked like she meant it when she said she wouldn't kill anyone in the caves. But for Farore's sake she just absorbed her own fairy, this was not common fare for a Kokiri.

"Now get out of my way I have chafing like you wouldn't believe and I need to use the little girls' outhouse." she stated, walking closer to the much taller boy. "Also good luck on getting that pouch, I think everyone is convinced you saved them all, this time."

The "Ultimate Being" waddled off down the cave into the dark, looking uncomfortable. All of this for a stupid yellow outfit? Someone was a little too obsessed with fashion. With the long ears of Hylian, one could hear a slightly pained laughter down the end of the cave.

"OOOHOHOHO!"

"Sorry for trying to kill your best friend!"