[center][h1][color=00aeef]Link[/color][/h1][/center]

[center]Word Count: 1161 [/center]

[center][color=00aeef][b] Level 7[/b] [/color] - (54/70) + 6[/center]

[center]Location: Carcass Island ~ Kosm's Beach[/center]

[hr][hr]

Their attempts to pull the abyssal out of the hole was in only served to get dirt thrown in their face. She rebuked Link, Rika, and the freshly alive Sakura with a wall of bitterness so bad that it inspired even the stubborn savior Sakura to violence. Link would have let her, too. The things he implied about Rika and Bella were deplorable slander. The gall of this woman to talk about people becoming bitter balls of pure hatred, losing parts of themselves as they died and came back, died came back, again and aging and again, after having only experienced it a single time. Proof stood in front of her, living proof offered her the world in the form of a lollipop, that this was not the case. The only way she couldn't see it is if she was choosing to ignore it. Like the alternative was too painful. 

It was only this that moved him to stay the Street Fighters hand. Good for New Southern, because Sakura seemed to understand and put it in simple terms for Rika as she dragged her away. She felt awful, so she was being awful. He stood there are they the pair left, ducking on the lollypop head until they were out of earshot. He felt as though he should say something, but what right did he have. As someone whose existence had always, [i]explicitly[/i], had a point what could he say to someone who until a few minutes ago hadn't been much more than a Silver Bokoblin harrying merchants on the side of the road? What would he say to one of them if they stopped in the middle of the fight, broke down, and asked what the purpose of it all was?

"I think I do see. You and your sisters didn't get to choose your role in this, it was thrust on you. And it's not fair. It's not [i]ever[/i] fair." He gazed empathetically up at her atop her crab, his eyes tired and sad. "I'm jealous. You [i]can[/i] just start over. Make any choice you like. I just think it would be a waste if, after being freed from your role, you still chose to be just one more dead monster."

With that he gave the Princess a slight bow and started back toward where his companions were resting. In the end her course was hers to set, no matter what any of them said. She was free, and he still had a role to play.

[hr]

Link kept his shield up and blade at the ready as they passed through the haunting horde of monsters that had gathered together to in this beautiful undersea hall. Despite the residents it was perhaps the most beautiful thing he had laid eyes upon today, though it wasn't as though the competition we steep in the department. As they passed the halfway point, though, he felt the tension leaving his body despite himself. It wasn't as though he thought they was safe, despite the fact that Bowser was treating this like an impromptu stroll through an apple orchard. It was just that if this entire hoard turned to face them at once and charged he wasn't sure even they would be able to find a way to prevail. There was just something about knowing that no matter what precautions you took you were still doomed that set the mind paradoxically at ease.

So he eventually put the sword away and took the opportunity to do a little photography. He swept the room with the reticle of the Sheikah Slate, searching out every new variant of fishman and sea squirt and ocean plant to snap a quick picture of. He was especially grateful for the squadron of Abyssal's that bowed in any way their deformed bodies allowed them to. He had been to concerned with the battle at sea to take many pictures of them during it, and felt that now more than ever they should be catalogued. After all, if they felt anything like the Princess he had left back in the parasite farm there may not be too many of them left after the darkness rolled over this group and set them free from Galeem's influence. He kept snapping photos, only lowering his slate finally when the others collectively dug through the barricade blocking the way hand and hat had indicated their objective could be found. 

Link didn't notice the impossibility of the Beach they had stepped out on until Ms. Fortune pointed it out. Despite how they should be underwater they could still breath, still gaze up at the sky. Above them loomed...a Moon? An eye? It wasn't Galeem, whatever it was, and before he knew what he was doing he had raised up the slate and taken a picture of that as well. It's light illuminated a vast quantity of corpse, all splattered with a black substance save one, something fleshy and immaculately white that occupied a central position on the Beach.

Then, from within it, crawled what could only be their opponent. It was funny how just seeing something through a lens can help separate you from it. He watched as the creature, the woman, on the Beach bulged. How the thing within pulled some of her out as it climbed between some of the flaps and tentacles that made up her flesh. It wasn't anything like the Enderdragon. The dragon had been an enormous and powerful instrument of pure wrath, scales so black it almost vanished into the darkness of the void in which it soared. This creature was bipedal, skinny, and in place of a terrifying roar it gazed up at that light in the sky and began weeping. It began high like a baby's, and steadily deepened until it was the low quiet sobs of a grown man. Something had happened hear, some nameless tragedy had brought this creature into existence. He could feel true despair in those sobs.

He took one last picture and lowered the slate, only to find himself weeping along with it. He hurriedly wiped his eyes as Sakura spoke up, putting words to the thought that perhaps kept most of them rooted in their place. That this creature was just a baby. Galeem, however, wouldn't have chosen just any baby to be its guardian. If they hesitated because of that it could get them killed. He was prepared to allow that.

Bowser started forward first, but Geralt quickly caught up to him and held him back. They needed some kind of plan Link advanced to join them. "Let me start it." He said, stepping past them to take point, raising his sword and shield, so that the first thing the Guardian would see was him. "I can block or dodge most anything. Let if come to me." He felt his body tense up, arm and leg coiled like springs to react to whatever the guardian might do.