Heartless Courage Book One: Kingdom Hearts meets Legend of Zelda

Chapter XIX: Hopelessness

Almost immediately upon dropping into the trap hole Sora had realized his mistake that he should perhaps allow the dungeon crawling time traveler to handle the dungeon stuff.

He was not faring well. A large horde of some sort of freakish skull spiders had descended towards him, dripping venom from their razor sharp fangs and gaping maws.

Panic had slowly begun to set in after several minutes of this terrifying battle.
One had lunged for his throat. After getting smacked back, it flipped itself showing its fleshy stomach.
"Not falling for that again!" Sora cried as he shot it with a fire bolt, as opposed to falling for its counter.

It died in a shriveled pile of boned and guts, but countless more continued to eerily lower themselves from the ceiling. If it weren't for the few braziers lining the walls Sora would be blind..
Even so, all besides the spiders he could see was a chained up door several feet away.
Sora swung almost blindly at the descending arachnids, slaying most with a single slash.

His Key-blade struck almost with a mind of its own, luckily. The large two-handed key did its job well, but Sora was afraid if he slowed down even a little bit these creatures would eat him alive...

Oblivious to the horror show below him, Link had decided to continue on, realizing that nothing would be accomplished waiting for Sora to return. A door was just ahead. Link lifted the stone slab from the ground, allowing it to slam back down behind him.

The small enclosure caught him off guard! It was barely larger than a closet. Glancing up however, the Hyrulian caught sight of the many wooden beams spiraling upwards. It would be difficult to use his hook-shot at his current age, seeing as how easily his arms could be dislocated from the powerful pull, but it seemed he had no other choice.

The first shot yanked him up with enough force to actually propel him past the beam. He was suspended in midair for a moment before his brain caught up with his impending peril.

He quickly released another hook-shot to the next wooden beam, just barely catching it. Once again, it launched him much higher than expected, and he had to think fast to prevent becoming a puddle far below.

"Shit.. I'm too light!" He thought out loud, still rising through the chamber. After fifteen grueling flying lessons, Link finally landed on a solid structure with an unchained solid steal door to greet him. He collapsed onto the plank to catch his breath; he was pretty sure he left his stomach six floors down.

After a moment to recover, he entered the next room. It must have been some sort of throne room...yes, upon looking around, it was definitely the central chamber grand enough for any self respecting King to spend his days.

"It would be you to arrive first..."

Gannondorf sat in his throne, not unlike how he once greeted Link once before. His wounds were hidden beneath his thick armor...it was hard to tell if he had actually been injured before he was able to teleport away.

Yet he stood, just as powerful looking as ever, his very presence commanding fear and respect. His sword was drawn, which Link was surprised to see. Perhaps he was too weak to use his spells?

"So, boy. Here we are. The legendary 'Hero of Time', verses the 'evil' Gerudo King. At least, I assume that's how you've come to see it?"

Link merely nodded, keeping his steely eyes on Gannondorf.

"You know, I had almost given up hope that I could ever rule these lands. Koume and Kotake had both told me of what would happen, that I was doomed to die. I assume the first time around I did not listen."

Where was he going with this..?

"Now, though. I have a secret weapon, boy. One I did not have in our first encounter. I have the heartless. I have Nihl. I was meant to die.. it was Nihl's only possible way to escape the temple, and the future void of heartless. Now, I have him, his heartless army and you're naught but a child once more.
How could you possibly hold any more hope of stopping me?!" He exclaimed.