Abscond

Chapter Two: Sadistic Maniac

After the voice had vanished, leaving Link thoroughly unsettled, a new marker appeared on his Sheikah Slate. This one was in the shape of a simple diamond. Link stared at it for a few seconds, mesmerised as he watched it pulse. However, an over exaggerated cough in his head told him that he needed to start moving. Link rolled his eyes as he began climbing down from the Great Tower. Did he really need to be in that much of a hurry?

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His trip to the diamond shaped mark on his map had been drearily uneventful. Maybe he should have been thankful that he only came across two bokoblins on his trip, but the hero was becoming awfully bored. Every fiber of his being itched, wanting to do something more than walk to destinations that a mystical voice instructed him about. How did he know that he could even trust this voice?

Link, focus.

The blond held his hands up in a gesture of peace, but immediately felt rather silly afterwards. Could the voice even see him? He shook his head, hoping to whatever God existed that the voice wasn't watching him every single moment. He'd sue for privacy invasion.

After Link got done pondering over the voice and it's origins, he finally looked up to the structure that loomed in front of him. It appeared as if it was made of stone with glowing orange ruins decorating the whole structure. An ornate door stood proudly in the center while a pedestal stood beside it. Link recognized the pedestal from the one he had seen on the Great Plateau Tower and approached it cautiously. He wasn't in the mood to be skyrocketed hundred of feet into the air again. However, something about the building seemed oddly calming to Link. He tried to grasp onto remnants of a memory that flickered in his mind, but he just couldn't put a finger on why this place seemed so familiar.

Finally, only slightly nervous and tense from his previous experience with the pedestals, he slid the Sheikah Slate into the pedestal. Almost immediately, the structures ruins turned a bright blue as the massive doors slid open. Link let out a breath, relieved that this platform hadn't shot up. He slowly made his way into the dimly lit building, squinting to see. However, as he entered the structure, he quirked an eyebrow up in confusion. There was only one room, and it was rather small at that. The only surroundings in the room were the gray wall as and floor beneath him. There wasn't even a chair for him to sit in or a pot to smash. What was he supposed to do in there?

Suddenly, the ground below his feet fell into oblivion.

Link screamed as he entered a state of free fall before violently hitting his rear end on the ground below him. He let out a groan of discomfort at the sudden pain that spiked up his back from the impact. Why couldn't platforms stay still? Did the architect never hear about stairs? Only when a voice echoed around the new room he was in, did the hero stop grumbling about his foul luck.

"To you who sets foot in this shrine... I am Ghirahim. In the name of Goddess Hylia, I offer you this trial." Link was entranced by the voice. Instead of the high pitched feminine one in his head, this one was warm and charismatic. Something tugged painfully inside of him as he continued to listen, but he still couldn't firmly grasp onto the memory. All he could make out was a dangerous flash of chocolate eyes and a confident ivory smirk. "Also, good luck; you'll need it," the voice laughed, lacking any of the sympathy it originally had.

As the voice disappeared for good this time, Link finally looked around him. Everything was bathed in blue light, creating a calming aura in the shrine. The room, however, was long, terribly long. There was only one path in front of him, and it stretched out further than he could see. He stared at the path in front of him, trying to make out the end. He probably looked rather silly there, sitting on his bum and squinting so hard that one couldn't really see his eyes.