Champions of a Fallen Age

Growing Pains

"What is that thing?" Zelda asked as Ganon's malice finally withdrew. Whatever being Ganon had been hiding them from for a century had again come close to finding them, despite Zeldas lack of resistance.

"If I knew the answer to that, I would not have told you I don't know."

"Do you suppose it could be Hylia?" It had been a question that had been bothering her for some time. Clearly, whatever was trying to find them was not stupid. In fact, she thought Ganon was being overly optimistic in thinking that he was successfully hiding them.

"Don't be ridiculous." Ganon must have sensed her skepticism as he continued without any prompting from her. "Tell me: how did you feel when you compared yourself to it?"

"I felt like a child staring up at a stranger."

"I have either underestimated your power, or you are too confident," Ganon replied with a sigh. "Regardless, the fact that you felt a sense of self when compared to it should tell you that it cannot be Hylia."

"How so?"

"You feel as a helpless child compared to this thing. Compared to Hylia, you would not even consider yourself dust. That thing could crush us with little more effort than it takes to raise a finger. Hylia could annihilate the entirety of Hyrule and everything else with a mere thought."

"Everything else?"

""

"What?"

"Do you remember those stories that, what was his name? Ganon asked, cutting himself off, Kass? Do you remember Kass stories?

"Yes?"

"What if I were to tell you that there is a chance that those stories are more than just stories?"

"But" She couldn't say the idea hadn't crossed her mind. Ever since she had borne witness to the library that Link and Mipha had discovered, she had been considering the possibility that there were other worlds besides the one that they inhabited. Even with all of the thought she had devoted to it, her natural inclination was to deny it.

"Don't ask questions as I do not have the answers. It was so long ago that even I barely remember."

"I see," Zelda replied, her mind running through every possible scenario. As much as she wanted to figure out who the mysterious entity was, there was little to nothing to go on. It would have to wait. "So, only one of the Divine Beasts remain."

"And?"

"Does it worry you that your plan is falling apart?"

"Is that what you believe? That my plan is falling apart?"

"You had control of all four of them, and the dragons, and now you're losing them one by one. Is that your plan?"

"You worked closely with the four pilots. How many of them could handle the strain of commanding two Divine Beasts?"

"Maybe one of them," she responded, an uneasy pit growing in her stomach. While Mipha had struck her as delicate, she had startling power when it came to commanding Ruta and holding her own on the battlefield. The Princess was certain that the Zora Champion was the only one of the four that could handle more than one at a time.

"Could he or she handle three? No? What about four? Do you see the problem?"

"You need your own Champions" With his own Champions to pilot the Divine Beasts, Ganon would be able to maintain control of them while being unhindered by the strain of commanding them.

"And who better than those who spent years mastering them?"

"Then why have you been trying to kill them?"