Beyond the mysterious wall lay a room of incomprehensible size. A platform barely large enough to accommodate the entirety of the group provided them with something to stand on as they observed their new surroundings. This time the ceiling as well as the floor seemed to go on forever, shrouded by darkness. Two small brown and white striped pots sat on either corner of the platform, each containing three dirty, but sturdy arrows-- what appeared to be blood was caked all over the sharpened tips.

The walls of the room made up a large rectangle-- nearly the size of a race track. On the far end of the room, directly across from the group, lay another platform as well as another wall with a skull alcove and two torches. Between the two platforms, floating high above their head, lived three floating statues, each connected to a swinging blade. The statues each resembled a dark, hunched over and hooded figure and were evenly spaced out as they swung their massive scythes across the room. In spite of the pervading dinginess, the scythes were perfectly polished-- reflecting the dimly lit figures on the platform briefly as they swung by.

Each member of the group would see a different version of their own warped reflection in the mirror-like scythes. For Lethe, she appeared as a fairy once more, bathing the other members of the group in her purple glow. Jillian would see herself as a typically dressed hylian child with dead, vacant eyes and blue lips. A stream of thick red liquid appeared above Zephyrus's head, drenching his scalp and running down the length of his figure until he was completely covered. Perhaps the starkest difference, Naviela would see herself as a larger-than-average man with red hair, faintly green skin, and a long nose. The figure was menacing at best and anyone who had ever picked up a history book would very likely recognize that the man was none other than Ganondorf himself-- smirking with sinister amusement.

Looking past the disturbing images, one would see the faintest suggestion of a path laid out before the group in the mirror.

Staring with a look filled with awe and aversion in equal parts, Felicia tore her eyes away from Noi's exposed 'chest' to take her water skin back from Jaege once he had finished. She smiled coyly in thanks for his concern and set to work cleaning up her own array of bite and scratch marks. Several bandages later, she took a deep breath and nodded.

"I suppose we should continue...?" she said hesitantly, once again refusing to take the lead even as she made the suggestion.

Left Tunnel Group

Nearing the end of the narrow hall, the group stumbled upon what appeared to be a dead end in the form of a room. The room was filled with skeletons in various forms of imprisonment and torture. Four spacious cells lined the back wall while three large cages, each housing skeletons with several long spears and arrows sticking out of them, occupied the front left corner. Hanging from the seemingly nonexistent ceiling, the cages swayed to a breeze with no apparent source. Two large iron cabinets suggesting shoulders and a large eye where the head should be filled the space between the hanging cages and cells. One of them laid open on its side, revealing rusty spikes and broken bones.

A dirty old table laid on its side to the right of the room, along with chairs and several shelves packed with questionably filled bottles, pots, broken baskets, and a few rusted weapons. A search of the shelves would further yield two small round bottles of red health potions, several blue rupees, a glass flask of blue fire, and a handful of Deku Nuts. A single torch in the center of the room barely provided enough light to investigate.

Hay coated the floor of each cell in the back, but the left-most cell seemed to contain a larger mountain of hay than the rest. The mass seemed to shift ever so slightly in the dim torchlight of the room.

Team Din, as Lev was beginning to think of his odd assortment of immediate companions, was more or less sorted out and proceeded to press forward, the Poe fascinated by Noi's transformation, for a lack of better term, and the true mechanical nature of the creature, machination, Unidentified Stomping Object, became quite apparent when a facsimile of a face was visible, followed by the pouring of a water skin into a glowing port in his chest. Lev had dared venture closer to the machine, studying him under his lantern light with renown curiosity. He'd spent countless years consuming whatever literary tomes he could get his hands on, and not once did he come across anything that described what he was seeing now.

Superficially, Lev recalled the Iron Knuckles that were associated with the Gerudo Tribes and how some accounts made them seem less than human with poor women forced to be bonded with the suits whereas others simply described them as specially trained warriors who wore a hulking suit of armour like any other. There was a Gerudo among the group, wasn't there? Lev would have to inquire with her when they were free of this wretched place. He looked back and made eye contact with Veitaru. Well, the older one, anyways. he thought, leading the way once more when Noi seemed to be back into a more or less mobile condition.

The tunnel opened up not long after and it became quite apparent that things were not going to get more pleasant as they ventured deeper into the bowels of the Temple. Finding a single lit torch in the center of the chamber, which upon approaching turned out to reveal something that probably was making a few people consider snuffing the flame out to spare their eyes. Skeletal remains and the very obvious signs of what had killed them, a variety of weapons and torture implements, dotted the room, along with cages and piles of hay that were the makeshift beds for the poor bastards that had lived out their remaining days here before their Sheikah guards managed to make them perish. Did any of them become Poes, he wondered, inspecting the iron maidens from afar. He didn't care to open the heavy iron doors to find out what lied within. Best case scenario, nothing. Worst case...

Some shelving caught his eye with a variety of inventory that actually still looked usable. Lev regarded the contents for a moment, and his eyes were drawn to a jar of blue flame that burnt without air or a source of fuel, against all logic or reason. It was a fascinating thing, and one the Poe found himself drawn inexplicably towards. He recalled that there was blue magic fire that could freeze things, or was it melt a magical sort of ice? His memory of the passages was foggy at best, and without asking if anyone else was interested in it, Lev stuffed it way in the same ether within his robes where he stored his journal.

Hanging from a ceiling without a roof were three large cages that swayed without reason, something that considering everything else in the room, probably had a good reason for although not one that anyone would care to find out. With a half-annoyed, somewhat concerned grunt, Lev decided he should probably go figure out what was causing them to sway, or if there was another chamber above. Unless someone like Felicia or Veitaru planned on climbing the chains (he doubted Jaege or Noi were up to such a task), Lev was the only one suited for such an endeavor. "May I say that I am not at all pleased with being the kind of person who has to act like the first victim of about 25% of horror stories? I'm going to go check where those chains are hanging from to make sure that nothing horrible is waiting for us. I should be able to defend myself, unlike people who need both hands for not falling to their deaths. But hey, take it from the undead fellow, it's not so bad." he said, knowing that if he were physically capable of sighing, he would be at this juncture as he floated up to the opening above. "Wish me luck." he pleaded, ascending the shaft, lantern lighting the way, although not nearly as efficiently as Lev was strictly comfortable with.

Zephyrus wasn’t sure which prospect terrified him more: that he was peering at his literal fate, or his metaphorical one.
Was this a grim omen of the future to come, or the sanguinary echoes of his people’s pasts? Which would fill him with more dread, as they marched deeper into the darkness?
It wasn’t just his sleeven reflection, at least, and he found some small comfort in that. He had wondered if, for a second, the temple had peered into the dark of his heart, and his heart alone. Sought to answer only the forbidden question all Sheikah carried with them from birth. At least he was not the sole target of the temple’s chthonic will.

But still, the visions that peered back were hollowing. The worst of their kind. The powerless fairy, the wicked and anomalous Gerudo King, the dead child. And him. One of the sinning people. The heretical progeny.
He wondered what Archer would think, watching it drench him. Turn the white of his attire red with innocent blood. He would crack a joke, he would make light of the sorrow growing in Zephyrus’ bosom. Somehow.
He wondered what Archer would think, because he already knew what he thought.
”So it’s true.”

How many men who looked like he did had peered into these blades after committing some great atrocity, he wondered. How many Anders. Had they been the stone masons? The blacksmiths? Or those who marched the undeserving towards a horrifying death. An end so agonising and brutal, that the blood sank into the stones and poisoned them to the temple’s base.
He had heard the rumours, the legends of this place. But he had seen the selfless good in his people, and hoped, dreamed it was folly.
He dropped his gaze to his whitening knuckles, wrapped still around his polearm. No blood yet.
Exhaling, he lifted his head again. He felt a cold breath rattle its way out of his chest.
Not the first to be breathed here, he suspected.

"Lies," he whispered, eventually, although he wasn’t sure how much he believed that. For now, he would need to. For the strength it would lend him. Be like water, don't stop for anything.
He straightened his back. Narrowed his gaze.
"The stone here is quarried from evil, it seeks only to mislead and demoralise us. We should make haste to leave this place, we should…"
Was that a path, in their reflection?
"… hm. Do we all see that?", he gestured on.

"Well." Jaege set his hands on his hips as he took stock of the room, nodding slightly as he swept his gaze over the sight before him. "I've not seen a room so uninviting since I stumbled into Cander's honeymoon."

Veitaru seemed to be focused on the cabinets, particularly the one that remained closed. She didn't dare approach, but she kept a frightened focus upon them.

"No worries friend, I've got your back. I'll, eh, throw this or something if there's something." Jaege started with a reassuring tone, which became more of a vocal shrug as he realized he didn't have a whole lot to cover his ghostly companion with. But, hey, a big metal torch thrown hard enough could do some cover, and Jaege could certainly throw it hard.

Presuming nothing jumped out at them while Lev levitated to check things out, Jaege would spot a standard hylian shield and sword. "Well, if no one minds, I'll borrow these." Jaege addressed the skeletons in the cells. The shield was like a buckler to a man of his size, and the sword seemed short in his hands, but they were nonetheless still heavy iron and at least worth their weight as bludgeoning instruments.

Noi was last to get into the room. He was still slowed by his limited power, but the power he did have was dedicated to his sensory array. Carrying his flaming hammer to the center of the room the area was lit up far better.

“Peculiar. This torch should have burned out long ago. Be prepared.” Noi told the others as he inspected the object.

There was no clear reason and that likely meant magic, but who made that magic? Noi became worried. While he was technically designed to fight an all powerful magical force, magic was extremely dangerous to him.

It was this worry that left him on edge. When he noticed the brief shaking of a hay pile he ignored his sensor array and decided anything he didn’t already know was too dangerous to give another second. He charged the hay pile sweeping his flaming hammer upward sending hay everywhere and setting most of the pile on fire as well.

”In the name of Hylia submit!” Noi roared not even knowing if there was actually something to roar at.

Jillian stared long and hard at the reflection. Her hand touched her cheek in the reflection she broke her gaze long enough to observe the deep blue tones in her own hand then compared them to the reflection. Zephyrus spoke but his words barely registered. The Skullkid was enraptured by the reflection of her Hylian self. Her eyes roamed over the other reflections and the image of Ganondorf looming over Naviela terrified the skullkid, intimidating. While the image of Zephyrus cascading blood was ghastly at best. Lethe... annoying little fairy once again.

"Lies."

She blinked her globus red and yellow eyes then turned her attention onto Zephyrus. Perhaps it was a lie but it was not a shock. This was a sort of wakeup call, the game momentarily forgotten. She forced herself to peer past their haunting reflections, noting the path behind the statues Zephyrus pointed out. Second thoughts were rolling over her chaotic mind, maybe the dungeon wasn't the best place to waltz right into, maybe... she might not make it out of here if she wasn't careful. They might not make it to see the keystone either.

Taking a big gulp of air she held up her lantern high as she could, "It's sorta strange. I know how skullkids are made, you lead kids and naive kokiri into the Lost Woods. They get lost and stay lost. I know that's me in the mirror. I don't remember what it was like to look like that." She pulled down the brim of her hat to hide her eyes from the mirror. "Comin' up a big blank on that."

She looked up to Zephyrus then Lethe, she placed the lantern down beside Lethe.

"I ain't afraid of the dark so I'll check it out. You guys better not steal my lantern, or I'm gonna be mad." She scowled pointing an accusatory finger at everyone in the group in turn. "I'll have my puppet and I'll holler if it's safe to follow me. Yeah?"

The puppet bent low for Jillian to climb back to its shoulders. Breathing heavily again she didn't glance at the reflection again, irrationally thinking she'd jinx herself. As she approached the narrow bridge across the darkened abyss lying before her, she pointed to the pots noting "Maybe there's somethin' to do with those bloody lookin' arrows in the pots. Like another riddle to solve. "

Felicia stayed near the entrance as everyone scattered, too horrified to move. Pressing the back of her hand to her trembling lips, she felt as though she might hurl at the sight of the hanging skeletons, winced at the iron cabinets, peered sadly at the cells lining the back wall, and shuddered at the shelves. The others pressed forward-- even the young Veitaru. They were all so brave. Two of them weren't quite human, sure, but still-- brave.

"B-be careful, Lev," she cautioned her friend. Friend? Could she call him that? Worrying about social cues seemed a far cry from anything that should be on her mind at this point, but she took some comfort in it. As long as nobody was paying her any attention, Felicia hoped to hang onto that feeling as she she slipped her flask out of her pocket and took a quick drink. No sooner had sharp liquid warmed her belly as she screwed the top back on when all of a sudden....

Left Tunnel Group

As Jaege collected his goods of choice from the shelves and Lev began his ascent, Noi's blind charge at the squirming hay pile with his flaming hammer would spark a sudden and unfortunate chain of events. Felicia could only watch as, all at once, a rather plump looking Like Like was sent flying-- smacked into the air by Noi's hammer along with several bunches of hay. The Like Like released a shrill cry of surprise as it flew, illuminated by bits of flaming hay before it all began to fall. The loud shriek awoke something in the iron cabinet that Veitaru had been observing.

Long, bony brown fingers closed around the cabinet door from the inside. The slow, meticulous movement made it all the more startling when the door was suddenly flung open-- just as the Like Like smacked against the ground of the cell with another loud cry of distress. Several bits of fiery hay landed near the others. The shelves took to the flames easily as a Redead stepped out of the iron cabinet. A deafening shriek filled the burning room, paralyzing the young girl long enough take two deliberate steps in her direction. Shriveled brown skin clung to the creatures bones as it approached, hand outstretched to welcome her into a tight embrace of death. Deep within its dark, sunken eyes, two glowing red irises remained hungrily fixed on Veitaru while it chattered its teeth with anticipation.

Felicia cried out in alarm. Veitaru was dire straits. She had to do something!

Sword-- remember your sword! she urged herself, but just as her hand closed around the pommel and, filled with a sudden bout of bravery, she moved to lung towards the foul monster to protect the child, something strange and with an all too familiar shape to it wrapped around her torso. At first she thought someone might be grabbing her from behind, but as her feet left the ground, she quickly realized it wasn't from behind-- but above.

She would've screamed. The air to do so had definitely filled her lungs quickly enough, but somewhere on its way out it got stuck-- or perhaps lost? The floor rapidly abandoned her and, on her way up, she passed Lev. Slack jawed, she looked to him with wide, pleading eyes before disappeared into the dark abyss above. Meanwhile, more shadows appeared on the floor below, followed by strange shushing sounds as three more Wallmaster descended. One, of which, was heading straight for Lev's face.

The smash of Noi's hammer below was certainly distracting, and for a moment, Lev had to look down to see exactly what was going on in the chamber he'd just departed. Before he could make out anything down below thanks to the very dim lighting, a deafening and horrific screech punctuated that there was trouble down below. "I'm coming back, hang on!" Lev called, beginning to descend at a rate that he felt was entirely inadequate. Felicia's cries didn't help matters; Lev felt powerless thanks to his utter lack of speed.

He didn't have to go far down; a dark shadow zipped up and past him, and his lantern's light brought Felicia's horrified face to light along with the dark fingers that gripped her. In a moment, she was gone. "FELICIA!" Lev cried, extremely concerned about her fate. He turned and tried to give chase the best he could, and immediately he found himself staring down more of the disembodied hands of horror. More of a reflex than a conscious decision, Lev shouted in alarm, swinging his lantern into the Wall Master, lighting the shaft in a blaze of light as his blow knocked the hand astray.

Naviela took a long and hard look at herself or rather the reflection staring back at her.

Her expression blank of emotions; no anger, no fear for what might come or disgust at what was shown to her and the others. But deep inside the Gerudo was seething. Not because of what it showed, but because of the memories flowing back at her. The sight of Ganondorf smirking at her, like he knew what she was planning and thinking it folly.

It had been him who broke the cycle. Every few hundreds years, a male born to lead them further into the future, until the birth of Ganondorf and his obsession with eternal life. No more males born to them to lead them into prosperity. Just endless stagnation as they waited and hoped and knew that as long as the Gerudo King was still alive, but trapped, that the cycle would not press on and give them a new leader for a new age.

Finally the Gerudo reacted by spitting in front of the scythes and their reflections.

"Lies? Maybe not. Our fears and inner-most worries? I think so." The woman thought to herself, but she kept her silence for the moment. There was no need to bring it out on the open.

At least not for the moment.

When the Skullkid mentioned the arrows, Navi decided to check them out, while the child was testing out the path ahead. She'd try and pull one out, attempt to study it and see if there were any clues or anything special about them.

"Hmm."

Noi’s swing went wide the impact only barely slowing its velocity. He staggered from the momentum, but didn't let himself fall forward. He looked to see what exactly he had hit. The flaming hay-storm obscured his quarry at first, but undeterred by flames Noi marched toward the cries.The squishy barrel shaped mollusk was writhing around in panic.

“I have se-en yu… ca’at recall…” Noi’s voice was shaky and stuttered.

His long term memories were still offline to protect them. He rumbled with anger. This dungeon had only been trouble. Monsters and more monsters and… well he wasn’t sure what else came before that, but likely it was terrible too. He stepped up to the creature and bringing his hammer down from overhead flattened it. Lifting his hammer back up Noi watched the creature unsquish itself. So again with a massive downward swing Noi smashed the monster. Unsurprisingly it sprang back up.

Noi dropped the hammer staring down the annoying squishy thing. With a furious roar he began to lay into the creature with punch after punch blow after blow. No matter what the creature just squished down absorbing the blows.

“Just splat!” Noi roared growing more and more pissed.

Furious Noi decided he had been too merciful. There was a mouth of some sort on the top of the monster. Noi reached into the mouth so the creature was up to his elbow. Now wearing it like a glove Noi repeatedly smashed the monster into the wall. Ooze and blood went everywhere as the monster was slowly torn apart. Throwing it off his arm Noi roared triumphant.

“By hylia be damned you stupid... stupid… thing!”

The thing lied dead off to the side. With its side ripped open a small bit of metal could be seen. Noi grabbed it to find a small kite shield. It was damaged, dented, and rusted, but just to spite the thing Noi decided to keep it. Noi let out intermittent rumbles similar to laughing. Turning to his compatriots Noi was blissfully unaware of the sheer chaos going on behind him. Both the Hylian female and Rags were gone, a rotted humanoid with sickle shaped claws was closing in on the child, and hands were falling from the ceiling towards the remaining others. There was no way he could reach the rotten monster without trampling the little one, and the hands were too high for him to engage them. He couldn’t just stand there though. The strong hylian had a chance to save the little one.

Holding his hammer like a javelin threw it as hard as he could at the hand dropping towards Jaege. It smashed the hand against the wall making it twitch and writhe. The hand flew back up into the darkness while the hammer fell to the ground.

“Hylian, Jaeger, Protect the little one!” Noi shouted as he started moving that way as well.

Lethe slowly folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at the scythe as it swung by. "Shadow magic...," she muttered as she observed her own reflection. Did the mirror mean to insult her by displaying her average form amidst the assemblage of freaks? She scoffed at Zephyrus dubbing them lies. If they were lies, then why hadn't she been morphed into something other than herself? Unless, of course, the reflections were just messing with them, like he said.

Alas, the arrow that Naviela observed was as unremarkable as a blood stained arrow could be. As Navi observed the sharpened tips, however, she would find that they were rather remarkably sharp-- so much so that she obtained a minuscule cut on her fingertip while testing them. A tiny droplet of blood fell from the wound, resulting in a very faint red glow from the spot on the floor where it landed. As if magnetized towards the opposite end of the room, the glowing spec of blood moved forward several inches before the light faded. Nothing happened.

"Not enough..."

A harsh, faint whisper rattled from the passage they had just come through-- presumably from the skull in the hall. Unfortunately, Lethe was preoccupied with Jillian in that moment, causing she and the skull kid to miss the strange words.

Lethe scoffed once more as Jillian offered to be the first to investigate the unseen path. She wasn't about to let the skullkid be the one to solve the riddle first. Lethe was the true leader of this adventure, after all. It was time for her to begin solving riddles.

"Step aside, imp," she commanded, brushing the puppet's shoulder as she stepped forward, "Obviously the path is there, though we cannot see it. It's an act of faith, then. A test of will! Observe." without hesitation, the fairy, still in her hylian form, stepped forward. And fell.

Her high pitched cry faded rapidly as she was swallowed up by the black pit below. A few moments passed before the sparkling sound of fairy wings brought her back up to the platform, back to her fairy-self. Her purple glow flickered in exasperation and her hair was an awful mess. Catching her breath, she smoothed down her indigo tresses and cleared her throat.

Before she could speak, she caught sight of her reflection in the scythe once more, noticing something had changed. In her place, a very dull looking monkey floating in the air, chewing stupidly on its hand while the other scratched its backside.

When the Redead revealed itself, Veitaru was instantly paralyzed. ~Come on, move, move! You've finally got your enemy in the open, cut his throat.. Or stab him in the heart.. or how do you kill something like this?~ But the redead would quickly find itself slammed in the face with a metal torch as tall as a man slightly on the short side. Pretty heavy actually, and thrown with a lot of might. Jaege had been on watch, and while unable to save Felicia due to her being behind his gaze, was definitely quick to protect his ward, before the Redead could take its steps forward.

But such a terrifying monster would not be stopped by a mere torch to the face, albeit a really heavy and fast one that staggered it back a step. It's eyes settled on the mere mortal man who had tried to stop it, eyes glowing with the hatred behind this abomination beyond death. The man foolishly strode forward towards its reach. It's scream echoed out again to paralyze the man....

Which did nothing. The man continued on his path, now within reach, and in perhaps confusion the redead reached for him and began to leap forward to strangle him, but its fingertips would barely brush his shirt before it was crushed under a giant heap of metal.

"Back in the coffin you go my friend! This is the place dead things are put, no?" Jaege said, having swiftly leveraged the giant weight slamming down upon the redead. There was some wriggly, and Jaege slammed his foot a few time on top of the cabinet to smash it some more, before it went still. "Better make sure, it might only be 'playing' dead. Haha! That was good one." Jaege kept his foot on top of the iron cabinet to keep the potentially still alive redead trapped.

"Well.. That's one way to solve a problem." Veitaru muttered, shaking herself before raising her awareness to the situation at large... The most large of which being that Noi seemed intent on killing Jaege.

"Down!" Veitaru yelled as she tackled Jaege, who fell over more from surprise and her instruction than from the tiny frame bouncing into his waist. Noi's hammer sailed above the space Jaege had just been... and crushed a Wallmaster that had been about to grab him.

"Even better one, friend, Vei! We must keep an eye out." Jaege thanked Noi and Veitaru. But Veitaru only felt silly for having not trusted Noi.

But now there was nothing holding the redead inside the iron cabinet but its weight if the creature had survived.

Jillian grumped as she picked up her lantern again, watching Lethe take the lead and promptly topple over the edge of the platform her body swallowed up by the darkness. The skullkid lifted her mask, her mouth popped open with shock. The little glowy bob of purple light appeared out of the darkness a moment later. Lethe's attention was back on the scythe's again, Jillian curiously looked to the reflections again.

It was all she could do but laugh, cackle and snort.

"Hahahaha! HAAAAAAAA!" Holding her sides she kicked about laughing more and more. "I-I can't-" Overtaken by another obnoxious wave of guffaws.

It took her several minutes for the laughter to die out.

Jillian huffed rubbing tears from her eyes. "Gnarling Deku Tree! Tread the path carefully then huh?" Pushing herself up she grabbed one of the bloody arrows from Naviela's hand. "Why're they so bloody anyway? What's the... point."

She elbowed Zephyrus, "Geddit? Point." Waving the arrow about accidently poking him with the tip of the arrow drawing a little blood.

"Whoops."

A very prominent shade of red occupied Lethe's face and the tip of her pointed ears as she once again transformed into the short hylian woman with long indigo tresses. She indignantly refused to look directly at the impotent Skullkid until she saw her accidentally pierce the Sheikah man with the tip of the arrow she'd been waving around.

"Watch it!" she hissed, "That isn't a toy!"

The same faint red glow resulted from a small droplet of Zephyrus's blood falling from the tip of the arrow in Jillian's hand. Once again as if magnetized, it moved towards the opposite end of the room-- several inches before the glow faded.

"Not enough...!"

The harsh, faint whisper rattled behind them again-- this time with a hint of impatient irritation.



The spinning blades slowly came to a halt. No sooner had Magus returned to his body when a swarm of Wallmasters descended from the ceiling, snatching up whomever was unlucky enough not to evade their cold, bony grasp. Additionally, a high pitched cackle accompanied the appearance of a Poe beside the large blue lantern that had been floating high in the center of the room. With long, wispy gray hair peaking out from within a torn blue cloak, she narrowed a pair glowing yellow eyes as she reached towards them.

A ball of blue flame manifested in the palm of her hand and was fired off towards the group. She repeated this action in between fits of laughter, every once in a while floating sideways to shoot at them from a different angle.

Left Tunnel Group

Two Wallmasters remained. Knocked aside by Lev's lantern, the first fell to the floor, palm side up. It arched its fingers and wiggled itself back into an upright position. Though eyeless, it seemed to sense the bodies of Veitaru an Jaege nearby. It skittered towards them, aiming to slash at Jaege's arm with the sharp nails of its index and middle finger. The second landed atop Noi's head, succeeding only in obscuring his vision as it strained and failed to pull the robot off the ground.

Meanwhile, the flames from the ignited hay began to spread, slowly filling the room with thick smoke. The deadly coffin trapping the monster shook violently. With another blood curdling scream, the Redead burst out, surveying the room as it slowly pulled itself back to its feet. Fortunately, the scream had not been directed at anyone in particular and so failed to be as effective as before. Its eyes once again fell on Veitaru and it began to move.

The single torch in the center of the room continued to burn peacefully amidst the chaos.

"Not enough..."

In that otherwise still darkness, Zephyrus was lost in a heavy, heady thought. Not so much startled into action by this new presence as he was shocked into contemplation.
This was not so difficult a puzzle. If anything- he heard Archer’s voice remark dryly within his head- it was a junior word jumble at best.
And yet it caused him pause. How simple it would be to defeat the fool who offers oneself. It was obvious, blood was the key to this room’s test: but would offering it only make them weaker, when the temple inevitably betrayed them?
And the thought worried him. Not because of its potential, but because he’d thought it. In an instant, he had made this small puzzle into a sizable trap.
Perhaps it was true, then. Perhaps his people were not solely the people of shadow, perhaps they were also the people of blood.

He threw another glance into the blade as it swung by them. His own red-soaked image stared back at him, but did not reflect the sorrow which hovered just behind his eyes. It was hard to gauge in just an image, whether a man was weighed down by the guilt in his heart.
He waxed introspective for a few moments more, before this brief respite of personal meditation was broken by a sharp stinging in his forearm.
"Whoops."
Zephyrus suddenly drew air through his teeth, and tightened his jaw – but made no other sound. Best not to show weakness to total strangers, just yet.
He winced as he glanced down. An arrow already tainted with blood – he would need to see an apothecary as soon as they returned to town.
He opened his mouth, with the visible intent of reprimanding Jillian, before he caught his own blood slinking off into the darkness, just as that of the Gerudo had done.

"Not enough...", another rattle came, like the chittering of old bone.
Zephyrus narrowed his eyes about the place. Would they get nowhere, if not for the shedding of blood? How little Hyrule had changed. He exhaled, and threw one last cursory glance towards his own sanguineous form, before turning and taking a few steps towards that shuddering voice that dared them from the dark.
He unbound the fabric tethered about his guandao – It was useless indoors, anyway. He used it only to gauge the passage of the wind, to better practice his own magic. Zephyrus took a deep breath, and then stood with his pole’s bottom to the ground, and wordlessly he used the blade to carefully lengthen the cut Jillian had left him with. He raised the new wound to the dark, and watched as his blood drifted into the fade.
"”Sheikah blood for the Sheikah temple."

--

Archer heard Alyce’s story, but that didn’t quite mean he had _listened_ to it. The words had certainly gone in, but the few Sheikah Archer knew painted a picture of the race so drastically different that he, with his small-world, big-city sensibilities couldn’t quite picture it.
So when she was done, he did little more than smile, and flash her a tonally discordant thumbs up.
"Spooky story, but I know Sheikah – on a personal level, ya feel? – and they all seem like right honourable people. Boring, can’t hold a conversation for their lives – but they’re good. You’re good.”
He nodded sagely, arms crossed, as though this was the end of the matter.
"'sides, I can't imagine Zephyrus doin' anything that metal. Just the idea of that is crazy!”

Archer laughed at the thought, which he supposed was rather dark of him. Zephyrus would laugh too, when he heard what this one was selling. Imagine him, part of a lynch mob! Zephyrus wouldn’t so much as hurt an innocent spider – in fact he’d chastised Archer for doing just that.
Just as he began laughing, however, Magus somehow managed to ruin the entire moment in a way that certainly wouldn’t have happened if he had been in charge.
The blades, twirling scythes of almost certain doom, slowed to a stop.
"Oh hey, great work!", Archer offered with a smile – credit where credit is due.
Then things started descending from the ceiling, and there were fireballs flying everywhere.
"Oh hey, great work!", he repeated with decidedly less good will, because this was somehow Magus’ fault. Then he shoved Alyce out of the way of a Wallmaster before leaping to the side himself.

On some level he knew as a Sheikah she was probably more than capable, but on another, she looked like a bookish nerd, and book learnin’ wasn’t… fight… learnin’…
Archer didn’t have time to think of clever wordplay, but did make a note to shriek in abject horror the next chance he got – because these big, gross hand things looked like spiders, and there were few things he loathed more.
A blue fireball sailed by his head, and somewhere above a Poe was cackling in that disgusting way only Poes can.
Was that racist? He would ask Lev later. In fact, he would just cut out the middle man and apologise. Archer was no racist – not like those Zora.

In an instant, he’d wreathed both hands in fire, and began hucking crackling balls of flame back the way the Poe’s volley had come: "If you wanna pull it out and measure ‘em, I’m over here!”

"Ow!" Her ascent came to an immediate halt, coupled with her head smacking against what she assumed to be the ceiling. Lev and the room below was but a glowing speck in the distance. Having regained her voice, Felicia decided now was as good a time as any to scream for help. Before the sound could leave her throat, she found her mouth buried between the cold, wrinkly old fingers of a second Wallmaster. Her eyes widened and the room below vanished as she was yanked and pushed sideways down a tunnel that seemed to run along the length of the ceiling. It was too dark to make out any shapes, but it felt as though the inside was entirely filled with the nasty hand creatures as they passed her from one to the other.

The whole experience was terribly disorienting. Like some sick version of crowd surfing, but more akin to drowning, the dry stench of the creatures filled her nose as she was moved. By the time she reached the end of it, Felicia could hardly tell up from down. The sound of stone scraping against stone came from up ahead and dim firelight illuminated the stomach wrenching tunnel of hands for an instant before she was unceremoniously thrown through the opening. She fell several feet onto a cold stone ground, shouting out as the air flew her lungs upon impact.

Wincing her eyes open, she could see a set of bars, beyond which was a single torch and long hallway. Hissing through her teeth, she slowly moved her arms. Pressing her palms against the floor, Felicia began to push herself upright. On all fours, she froze as soon she turned her gaze turned towards the wall immediately in front of her. The ground was stained red and a collection of four skeletons leaned up against the wall of the cell. She gasped loudly as yet another scream caught in her throat. Before she could move away, a sudden weight landed on top of her.

"Agh!" the air forced its way out again and her limbs gave, reunited her face with the stone floor.

For a moment the Gerudo stared as her blood seeped from the wound and floated away into the darkness.

A decrepit voice tore through her focus. More, it wanted. More blood? But the others did not seem to hear, not with Lethe falling into the depths and the skullkid laughing her face off. Naviela frowned, but otherwise did not react to the fall. Not while knowing that she only needed to reform her wings to get out alive again. No, there was no worry to be found within her - but, before Navi could once again cut herself on the arrowhead the skullkid already snatched it out of her hands.

That one was far too eager to prance about and take freedoms not given to her.

But then she accidentally cut Zeph and his blood flowed away into the darkness, similarly to her own. Again the voice recoiled across the cavern walls.

...it seemed annoyed to have to repeat itself?

Which was strange, because it suggested a certain sense of sentience.

"More blood for a sacrifice?" Navi mumbled out, but Zeph was already on the case. With the trace of his edge the wound increased in intensity and the blood flowed richly. It surprised the Gerudo how eager the man had been with his offering. It already weakened him, made him less strong than others.

And he did not know the people around him.

Why did he have so much faith in them?

Oh, let's split up, it'll be fine, Lethe said. It would be great, we'd find that stupid stone quickly, she said.

Has our dear fairy jerk ever read a horror story? Splitting up always leads to getting murdered. And the Goron always dies first.

Every time. Lev thought bitterly, hurrying down the shaft as quickly as he could, which given the circumstances, wasn't nearly as quickly as he'd hoped. Wallmasters, just the thing he didn't want to see; they'd snatched arguably the nicest human Lev had ever met simply by virtue by treating him as a person and not just a haunted pile of evil rags, and now they were going after the few people Lev had left in this cursed dungeon.

Being undead didn't mean he wanted to be alone in this place. The other undead sucked. Case in point, the Redeads. Putrid and rotting bodies that only screamed and tried to eat people's faces, hardly an ounce of sophistication or depth to them. And Wallmasters... floating hands that abducted people were pretty much the worst and most useless creation in Hyrule after Mosquitoes. And here they were, threatening people Lev was supposed to help save the world with.

The Poe tried to recall in his stories if he'd ever heard of the hero going into the Underworld right off the hop, and he came up short. This was going to set a terrible starting tone for his story, he decided. The audience wouldn't have time to get invested with any of their characters before they met their untimely demise in an even more inhospitable locale than even the bowels of Mount Doom. At least the Gorons were capable of having a pleasant conversation, unlike the shrieking pricks that roamed in this place.

The torchlight from the chamber below became visible, and so did the ReDead that emerged from the iron maiden. The thing, thankfully, was incapable of looking up or jumping, so he'd be reasonably safe from its clutches. If he ReKilled it, then his companions wouldn't be petrified by its' vocals, which were only slightly better than that insufferable bard in Kakariko Village named Cindy Dijon, whose voice could make paint and milk alike curdle. Floating above the ReDead, Lev extended out his lantern, cackling maliciously as he doused the monstrosity with cleansing flame. "Get outta my story, you over-dried piece of jerky!" he taunted, immediately feeling that his insult game needed improvement.

Goddesses, Lev really needed interaction with more living people.

Noi wasn’t entirely sure why his optical receivers were disabled. One moment he was looking at the Hylian and now it was utter darkness. His head jerked upwards. Again it was pulled up for a brief moment. Noi was confused, to say the least. Was his entire sensory array malfunctioning? He could not identify the source. At most he had some thermal readings from behind him. Out of ideas Noi attempted to open and remove his helm but found his arm unable to reach. Something had surrounded his head. It was soft and made a bizarre sound when he prodded it.

He dug his metal fingers into it and wrenched it off. Noi found he had grabbed one of the floating hands by the pinky. It flailed trying to break free, but it didn’t have the strength to. While it seemed normal for them to carry off a person they were never prepared for something like Noi. It was only barely able to scratch at Noi’s chest plate by fully extending its fingers, but even then the metal coat wasn’t damaged. Noi tightened his grip until there was an audible crack. The hand spazzed even more desperate to get free.

“This little digit went to the bazaar.”

Noi grabbed another finger with his open hand and broke it. “This little digit stayed home.”

Then the next, “This little digit had fresh oil.”

And the third, “This little digit had none.”

He grabbed the thumb and with a brutal force tore it from the hand, “This little digit went we-we-we all the way home.”

The hand writhed and died quickly after that. Even in the heat of battle, his memories were both lucid and fading. He had heard the rhyme back in the workshops. When new brothers were built and their hands made. Why did they come and go so frivolously?