Chapter 5: Remote Bomb

NOTE: This story is available to view on Archive Of Our Own. Click here to read it there.

Zelda blinked a few times as golden sunshine burst through her eyelids. Slowly, she sat up and yawned, looking around.

The memories of the day before returned. Oman Au, the four voices, the old man, and the afternoon of beating bokoblin ass.

“Good. You’re up.” Link’s voice startled her as she stood. “Here.” He tossed her a baked apple, and Zelda had to lean to the right to grab it. She bit into the toasty apple, before taking a swig from her canteen.

“What should we do next?” Zelda asked. “Probably one of the shrines, right?”

Link nodded. “I checked the map on the Sheikah Slate. The closest shrine is over there, in the Eastern Abbey.” Link pointed toward a structure with tall walls and arched doorways. What had probably once been a connection of shops and churches was now crumbled walls and grassy floors.

“Alright.” Zelda finished her apple and stretched. “Let’s get going.”

Link and Zelda began to walk towards the Abbey. A soft spring breeze blew, and dragonflies buzzed through the air.

Zelda and Link ducked through a big archway, entering the Abbey. A few crumbled halves of arches littered the courtyard, and several decaying metal creatures rested, rooted to the earth. Their design was similar to the creatures inside the shrine, but they seemed much more complicated.

Link cautiously knocked on one of the creatures, but it remained still. “I think we’re gonna be safe,” Link said, turning to Zelda.

“I agree.” Zelda stood up from where she had crouched down to examine one, her height bringing her slightly over the top of the mechanical creature. “Their engineering is very fascinating! The carvings in them suggest that they used a form of light to show which side they were-”

A dull thud and beep interrupted Zelda’s monologue. Slowly, she turned around, waves of terror rolling around in her head.

One of the creations had activated. Purple and pink glowed through the cracks in its armor. Most terrifying, however, was the glowing blue eye. The head swiveled around, before reaching Zelda and Link again.

A red beam locked onto Zelda, traversing her form before locking onto it. The beeping intensified, before a beam of light shot out of the eye.

Zelda froze in shock as the beam inched closer to her. Link leapt towards Zelda, quickly pushing her to the ground. The beam made contact with the Abbey wall, 

causing it to crumble and smoke.

“Are you okay?” Link asked. He was panting hard, and his faced was smeared with dirt. Dazed, Zelda sat up and nodded.

“We need to reach the shrine, but it’s blocked by rocks. We’ll have to scale the wall.” Zelda’s voice was shaky.

Link’s eyes darted around the Abbey. “If we hide behind the inactive ones, and the remaining structures, we should be able to make it to the shrine.”

Nodding, Zelda stood up and ran across the courtyard, ducking behind an archway as the monstrosity focused on her. Confused, the machine spun around, giving Link time to run over next to Zelda.

Zelda’s eyes darted to the side. The wall blocking the shrine off was about ten feet away. The run there wouldn’t be hard, but the difficult part would be scaling it. It was maybe ten feet high, but Zelda was unsure of her climbing abilities.

“Can you go first?” Zelda whispered. “I-I’m worried I won’t be able to climb up the wall in time, and I might need you to help pull me up.”

Link nodded, peering out from behind the arch. As soon as he noticed that the construct’s head was turned, he dashed towards the wall and climbed it quickly, finding footholds in the bricks.

Zelda took a deep breath and ran forward. The creature had already started aiming at Link, but Zelda’s arrival confused it.

Zelda leapt onto the wall, hands colliding with stone. She quickly reached upwards and grabbed another foothold, moving her leg up with it.

The monster had made sense of the situation, and locked onto Zelda. “JUMP!” Link yelled. Zelda mustered her leg strength and leapt upwards, but she fell inches short.

Lightning fast, Link reached out and gripped Zelda’s wrist. Zelda swung her feet to find footing as Link pulled her onto the top of the wall. Without thinking, Zelda shoved him over and they fell to the grass below, next to the shrine as a laser flew above them.

“Thanks.” Zelda said, standing up. “You’ve saved me twice today.”

Link grinned, his smile a little lopsided. “My pleasure, madam.” He bowed deeply as Zelda giggled and tapped the Sheikah Slate on the pedestal.

The doors glowed blue and swung open, revealing the lowering mechanism. Zelda and Link stepped onto it as it lowered into the shrine.

ooo0ooo

“Remote Bomb,” Zelda muttered. “How interesting!”

Link nodded. “Can I use it this time?”

Zelda looked up at him. Link looked genuinely interested in it. “I don’t see why not!” Zelda responded cheerfully, handing him the Slate.

Link smiled and tapped on it. A small cube-shaped ‘bomb’ appeared in front of them, glowing with blue energy. Link walked over to the small rocks blocking the way

to the next part of the shrine. Zelda covered her ears as Link jogged back over and tapped a button, detonating the bomb.

The rubble crumbled and Zelda walked forwards. “Incredible! The bomb has impressive destructive capabilities!”

“Yeah, it does have whatever you just said.” Zelda flashed him a look of annoyance before walking through the doorway.

“There are two tunnels. I’ll take this one.” Zelda pointed to the right, and Link nodded, tossing her a spherical bomb.

Zelda caught it deftly. The bomb weighed very little, to her surprise. She supposed most of the weight came from the metal straps supporting it.

Zelda walked down the corridor. At the end of the hall, she noticed several tightly packed rocks tucked into a small niche in the wall.

“LINK!” Zelda yelled down the hall. “I found some rocks!” Quickly, she tucked the bomb into a crack between two of the rocks.

His response was the bomb exploding, shattering the rocks. Zelda climbed into the wall, finding a treasure chest.

Zelda pushed the center inwards, and it twisted, unlocking the chest. Inside was a long claymore with a similar design to the sword that was tucked into Zelda’s belt.

Zelda hefted it up and let out a small gasp of surprise. The sword was quite heavy, and Zelda had to grasp it with her other hand to keep steady.

Zelda leapt off of the segment in the wall, her boots clicking on the floor. Link had blown up the wall on the left side of the shrine, and he was standing in a new room, a cube-shaped bomb held above his head.

Link turned his head towards Zelda at her arrival, noticing her sword. “Find something?”

Zelda nodded. “It’s quite heavy. If you could hand me the Sheikah Slate…” Link pulled it out of his belt, and Zelda pushed the sword through the screen. It vanished into the Slate, pooping up on the screen as a ‘Traveler’s Claymore’.

Link nodded his head towards the wall of condensed rock across a gaping chasm. It seemed to spiral into emptiness, and Zelda swallowed nervously at the thought of falling down.

“There’s a platform that moves across the gap. I’m waiting for it to come back.”

Sure enough, a small platform with the same eye shape that was engraved on the ‘roof’ of the shrine glided over to them. Link set the bomb onto the platform as it began its trip back, and it soon reached the wall.

Link tapped the Slate, and the bomb detonated. The rocks crumbled, and Link smiled triumphantly. The platform landed back at their ledge, and Zelda tentatively stepped onto it, Link joining her. Soon it reached the other side, and they stepped onto the other ledge.

The next room contained several kinds of ‘thrusters’. The retracted backwards for a few seconds, before thrusting forward quickly, propelling objects forward.

“Hey, Zelda, could you step on that one?” Link asked, pointing to the one on the far left.

Zelda stepped onto the device. “Okay, sure, but why did you want me to dO THAAAAAAAAT!” The thruster shoved her forward mid-sentence and flew her through the air. She landed on the platform, the air rushing out of her lungs with an, “Oof!”

Link was cackling on the other side of the room, and Zelda shot him a death stare. Behind her was a treasure chest, which Zelda opened, revealing an amber.

There was a ladder leading off of the platform, which Zelda climbed down, before she climbed up another one to reach where Link was.

Link was still laughing, and Zela slapped him on the arm. “Ow!” Link yelled, still laughing.

“It’s not funny!” Zelda fumed.

Link finally quieted down, and he cleared his throat. “While you were over there, I cleared a way to the monk. Come on!” Link pulled her onto another of the thrusters, and they flew through the air.

Zelda managed to land more gracefully this time, and she quickly stood up. She and Link made their way to the cage surrounding the monk.

Zelda knocked on the blue walls, and they shattered into fragments.

You have done well to reach this place. I am Ja Baij, the creator of this trial. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, please accept this Spirit Orb.

The Spirit Orb flew through the air, dissolving into Link and Zelda’s bodies.

May the Goddess smile upon you.

Story Notes

Sorry this is late! I’m very good at procrastination :(, but I’m trying to work on it.

Because it is now SUMMER (yay), I will try to update more frequently. There will always be a Tuesday update, but there might be a surprise one every now and then. I realized this is probably necessary, as I am trying to make a series for this. Since this is A LOT of chapters, I can’t just do one a week and not expect this to take years.

That’s all! Have a great summer!

-bakergamerwriter