The Legend of Zelda

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VIII. Worlds Apart

To the ignorance of all, Agahnim was but a puppet figure, Ganon pulling the strings from the Dark World. Agahnim moved quickly - he secretly murdered the King, took over and isolated himself in Hyrule Castle, took control by way of his magic the Knights of Hyrule, and ruled the entirety of the kingdom as a shadow sovereign and monarch... but no one outside the castle knew of it.

Agahnim didn't stop there - he then carried out his plot to magically banish all the descendants of the Seven Sages to the Dark World, so that the lifeblood of the Sages would no longer be in Hyrule, and the seal placed on the Dark World would be rendered broken. After Agahnim was finished sending six of the seven descendants, Zelda III, the late King's daughter and princess of Hyrule as well as the final descendant, sent out a telepathic message to Link, a descendant of the Hero of Time.

Sixteen year-old Link II, his parents having been gone years and presumed deceased since being banished into the Dark World by Ganon because they were descendants of the Knights of Hyrule, heard the plea in his sleep. He awakened to see his Uncle with the family's sword and shield, preparing to set out into the night. He told Link not to leave the house until morning, for he had heard the plea as well as Link.

Link, knowing the plea was for him and not his Uncle, waited a while and left towards the gates of Hyrule Castle, where Princess Zelda III was imprisoned.

In the castle, taking a "back door," Link found his Uncle seriously wounded. He didn't want Link involved, but knew the telepathic message was meant for his nephew. He briefly explained how to use the sword and shield before giving them to Link, passing away shortly thereafter. Arming himself with them, he found Zelda locked in the dungeons of the castle. He took her to the nearby Sanctuary, a temple where she would be safe in the care of a sage.

At the Sanctuary, Zelda expressed her belief that Link II was "the legendary hero who appears in Hyrule once every hundred years," while the sage explained that the only weapon that could slay Agahnim was the Master Sword, the weapon that the original Link used against Ganon during the Imprisoning War.

Successfully tracking the recluse down, the wise man Link soon met in the desert named Sahasrahla further explained that to claim and wield the Master Sword, hidden for centuries now in the depths of the maddening Lost Woods, he would require three enchanted pendants before anything.

As it became clear to Link, one pendant was hidden in each of Hyrule's three dungeons - the Eastern Palace, the Desert Palace, and the Tower of Hera.
Setting out, Link was quick to obtain these pendants, champion their respective labyrinths/dungeons, and systematically slay their guardians.

After Link recovered the pendants he made haste to the Lost Woods and retrieved the Master Sword ("The Sword of Evil's Bane"), and with the power of the pendants, wrenched the blade from its stone.

It was after he withdrew the sword that he got the grim telepathic message from Zelda. She had been found by Agahnim's minions and had been recaptured. Link raced to the castle only in time to see Agahnim send her to the Dark World, fully breaking the Sages' seal. Link then battled Agahnim by using the Master Sword to reflect Agahnim's black magic. But before Link could defeat him, Agahnim banished Link to the Dark World.

Once in the Dark World, Link got a telepathic message from Sahasrahla. Sahasrahla told Link that the seven descendants were in crystal cocoons in seven dungeons. To stop Ganon from returning from the Dark World to conquer Hyrule, Link set out to find all of the descendants.

Link traveled to all the dungeons and, after many a hard battle, he finally found Zelda in the final Dark World dungeon. After rescuing all the descendants, Link went to Ganon's Tower atop Death Mountain. In the Tower he battled Agahnim again, only this time he struck Aganhim down, who was revealed at last as Ganon. Ganon changed himself into a bat and flew off to the Pyramid of Power, where Ganon kept the Triforce. Link did not give up, and followed the Prince of Darkness.

It was within the walls of the ominous Pyramid that Link did his final duel with Ganon. With the combined effort of the Master Sword and his Silver Arrows, Ganon was defeated.

Touching the Triforce with a wish of goodness in his heart, all evil was vanquished from the Dark and Light Worlds alike and the Dark World was returned to its former state of being as the Sacred Realm/Golden Land. Upon returning the Triforce to Hyrule, he found the King of Hyrule and his Uncle had returned to life, and peace had wholly returned to the kingdom.

Not long after his return, however, the King of Hyrule stepped down from the throne, turning it over to his daughter, the newly-crowned Queen Zelda III. As one of her first tasks after ascending the throne, Zelda knighted Link, appointing him Master of the Knights of Hyrule.

Soon, as a final task, Link returned the Master Sword to its former place of resting in the Lost Woods.

While Hyrule was at peace, however, other lands would soon need Link's help...


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