[EDITING] The Legend of Zelda: Goddess of Secrecy

Boss 13 - Dungeon Master

...before he felt nothing. That wasn't entirely accurate. After a moment, he realized it wasn't accurate at all. The encasing stone hadn't finished, it had stopped shy of his face. Or most of it.

Many of his senses were limited, but slowly the few he did have started to grow more acute. The shadow hand behind him had stopped moving. The stage ahead was clear. Why it would stop though was beyond him.

Something passed by Link. Without the ability to turn his head, he thought it was a person. He was right, he realized, but not how he thought.

The figure towered over him. Though this was a shadowy projection of someone Link had never met, he knew who it was, a familiar tug in his soul.

"We meet at last," the baritone voice taunted as it strolled by Link. The phantom of Ganondorf was not material here, but it acted as though it was. "The irony, seeing you like this. And the shame. You came so far, only to fail so close to our inevitable meeting. And I had such high hopes."

Temper flared in Link, and he was eager to retort. But the stone reached over his jaw up to just below his nose, leaving him mute.

"Really, it is a shame. You were doing so well, a real thorn in my side," Ganondorf crooned on, his hands clasped behind his back as he idly studied one of the statues. Link's insides, the insides he could feel, knotted as he worried whether the Demon Lord might actually be material enough to affect this space and the equally trapped Keaton.

But Ganondorf walked away, instead turning his attention on Link. "My general and prime monster maker goes missing. All of these pesky Sages popping up out of the woodworks. My own sister, dead, by your allotment." The last he said in Link's ears, the nerves that remained sensitive acutely aware of the sound.

Ganondorf passed behind Link, his voice still carrying in the room. "And yet, for what? To fail so miserably, there at the end. A waste. Now this." Link had the distant sensation of a hand on his shoulder. "This is a work of art. Truly, your best form yet. I think, when I'm done with Hyrule, I'll replace that distasteful piece in Hyrule Field with this. It'll need a new name, of course. Hmmm, but what?"

The head of the phantom was close to Link's ears again. "How about Martyr's Shrine? That has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" After few moments, the phantom stepped back into Link's view. "Nothing to say? A pity, and your fault."

Ganondorf began to walk away again, the next set of taunts prepared when a series of lights appeared in the theater. First, along the walls, and then between the rows along the paths. Link couldn't make them out for a while, until he recognized their shimmering as crystals.

Unable to turn away from what was ahead of him, Link watched the echo of Ganondorf continue towards the stage before stopping. Seven circles appeared along the platform, before dropping away to leave pits.

Link heard the heavy sigh, and saw the phantom shake its head. "Of course you did."

Lights fell down on the pits, before platforms began to rise to take the missing stone's place. On top of each of them was one of the Earth Sages.

Immediately, the hands of the shadow monster began to move. Link couldn't turn to see the Dungeon Master, as he decided to call it, but its presence loomed over the stage.

All seven of the Sages were harmonizing that same song Hira and Ryo had sung to repair Link's shield. Though the tempo was faster, in thirds, not fourths.

A light followed each of them on the stage. Iwato stepped to the front of the row, calling out to the theater, "Alright, Howling Caverns, how're we doing tonight?" His voice carried easily over the chamber, even to the back end.