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Link Fi has remembered the code to the secret door deep inside the ancient city under Death Mountain.

Deep down a magitechnological dome structure in the deepest caves, past a gravity chute, walking on cold metal, Fi inputs the code into the door, and with a thousand years of inertia dying away, it finally pushes past, allowing the group through.

The heat is at its hottest past this door. The group is still walking on silver metal, but the matching walls have corroded away, revealing rock face and a lava flow that directly pours in like a river from the higher portions of Death Mountain. The ceiling looks weak, like it could crumble with just enough pressure. Past that, though, it's clear what this place is.

Lanterns light the pathway, ceremonially, as every footstep reverberates through the room. At the far end, lit up by the lanterns, is a tall white statue, of a beautiful woman with wings, holding a sword faced down. In front of it is an altar, which is almost cut off by the lava flow spilling over, but is bypassable by climbing on the warped metal from the walls, or on the rocks that have spilled in from the ceiling. They exist in the form of obsidian pillars, metal chunks that have been magma coated, and a small open space out in the exposed cave.

The altar emanates divine energy. There's nothing else to call it. There's a fragment of sheer power in there, that's been waiting a thousand years to be found.

Link is here, sweating from the sweltering heat, dressed in his worn green tunic, as the blue-skinned statue-like crystal woman skates across the metal, spinning around alongside him as she does. Fi speaks up first, but never leaves his side.

"This altar hides an ancient relic. I am 93% sure you can guess what it is."
Tetra     Tetra's downed her heat-resist potion. The heat is oppressive nonetheless; she wonders, as she steps through the doorway, if her clothes are going to catch fire...

    That power... before she even sees it, before she even sees the *altar* through the heat-haze, she knows what it is. Her right hand throbs, and she reflexively covers the back of it with her other hand. If not for her disguise, it'd be glowing right now. The fragment is resonating with hers.

    She looks at Fi. "A piece of the Triforce of Courage," she responds immediately, looking to the altar. She stares a moment... slowly, carefully, she reaches out with her right hand, touching a finger to it tentatively. She expects it to be hot, of course, but more than that, she doesn't really know what to expect.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia is once again here. She wants to see this through, and build some reputation as a hero in her own right. But she is definitely not happy about being in this heat again. Between her last visit and now she had a new dress made. A very breezy dress, made out of some sort of sheer material. So breezy that she had to wear a sports bra and shorts underneath to make sure her modesty was protected. And once they are down here, she is wondering much like Tetra whether the material will even survive.

     She blinks as she hears Tetra's response to Fi. "Wait...a piece? What happened to it that it was broken?" she wonders as she fans herself with an ornate Japanese-style fan. It is doing absolutely nothing in a place like this, but it makes her feel better mentally. "Does that mean there are many more of these vaults scattered about Hyrule?"
Raziel 'With the door opened by Fi, our newest ally, we advanced into the room that was once blocked to us.  Here the heat was at it's most intense, without protection I would be forced into my immaterial form in almost no time at all.  The heat's effects on the artificial structures is telling at this point.  While our footing remained strong, the walls were mostly gone.  The roof looked unstable at best, and the littlest disturbance could spell the death of my allies should we not be careful.'

Raziel continues down with the rest of the group.  His more ghastly features covered by special clothing to give him a more 'not undead' appearance.  Those eyes were still unmistakably inhuman, two orbs of glowing energy.  His arms ending in three claws, and his feet cloven.  A cape hid his most tattered wings, keeping the illusion of somewhat normal.  

'This architecture seems to match many of the same ancient sites I had been able to visit in these lands.  If not slightly more pristine.  Obsidian pillars protect the statue that stands in front of us, and while providing more of an obstacle, was not insurmountable.  The altar itself produced a feeling.  I could not rightly describe it.  Calm and serene, yet powerful.  A part of me felt disgusted at myself for my presence here in this form.'

"Then let us claim the relic and leave this sweltering place.  Though, I imagine it will not be so easy once he attempts to claim his prize," Raziel says, slowly looking around.  He would not be caught off guard this time, instead looking for whatever was waiting to ambush them.

"What is the Triforce, really?  I have heard mention of it, and know it is a relic of power, but what is it truly?"
Staren     Staren's back as a robot with protections provided by magic and technology both. And he's once again glad that's a thing he can do.

    "You know, I've been wondering about that. The sword's supposedly broken, right? But... you found the sword, and, it's her." He looks at Fi. "Are you broken?"
Alruna Greengate Alruna walks at a brisk pace; fire-resistance potions only do so much, especially this deep into the mountain. "I wouldn't have guessed that." she admits. Of course she can /feel/ it, but what 'it' is is less intuitive to the outlander.

She keeps a good distance from the edge of the solid ground, remembering her last close encounter with naked magma all too well. Once again, being a dragoon would be extremely useful here. She starts picking up weighty rocks, grunting as she does so, to close some of the gaps in the perilous path through the molten flow cutting them off from simply walking up to the altar.
Rean Schwarzer Rean's here, heat potions and slightly more suitable clothing donned. Still just a short sleeved shirt and shorts, but it's something.

Rean nods. If this place was anything like the Old Schoolhouse, they wouldn't be able to get at the relic without some sort of trial.  "So, how do we do this? Does Link just step on the altar, or...?"
Sylvi The deep Caldera Temple complex gives way into a massive stone arena with a rough walls and pools of bubbling, popping hot lava flowing slowly beneath and around the platform with a sweltering, room-filling heat. Sweat beads rapidly become instantly vaporized heat mirages around people. There is a distinct sense you're boiling. If there was a heat meter, it would be maxed out.

But there's the idol. The statue, holding the piece of power. The Triforce Shard.

First, though, there's traversing the area. With a deep, abiding rumble the platform buckles as dislodged chunks from the cieling rattle to the 'ground' or fall past it, plooping into the magmatic rock below.

There's another presence here. Something watching. Something 'being'. The rumblig begins anew, the platform beginning to run cracks through the length of the room. A titanic snarl, a baritone gurgle. Then it raises in pitch, no less loud but far less like a geologic noise (even if it remains exactly as rattlingly loud) - the end of a yawn.

"--Haaaaaawn. You TOOK long enough." Rattles a voice, rasping from 'below'. "To come into the demense of Volvagia. I have guarded this treasure from the unworthy for generations..."

"Or something."

A long, long, long shape loops around the lower platform, rising up and slithering before raising up to be highlit in the cieling in silhouette - a great snake with two claws and covered in dripping magma! With a screeching roar, 'Volvagia' dives into the center of the platform, splitting it into four quadrants with swiftly-cooling rock bridges at irregular points. The shrine - at the back of the room, where the great dragonsnake raises up and--

The magama slides away, down hundreds of feet of scaly tail, capped by the upper body of -- Elisabeta Hyrule, the queen of Hyrule in traditional Gerudo drapery. It's probably shocking!

"Hello children. You're not allowed to touch this right now."

Placing both royal hands on the altar, the enormous snake-queen tosses the altar straight through the cieling where it 'sticks', rattling the whole structure of the place once more -- and probably prompting a quicktime event from Tetra and Link -- and leaving the room full of lava, rock, and apparently the Queen of Hyrule turned into a giant evil snake.

As the battle begins, large boulders of lava-covered rock shoot from the bottom of the pools to crash and shatter on the platforms, causing moderate AOE damage! Oh no! It's a predictable boss meteor pattern!
Raziel Raziel's sense of boss room bullshit was on point.  The voice from below causes him to jump towards ready, his glowing right hand ready to draw the reaver into existance.  However, with no real target, he could only remain ready for what would doubtfully come next.

The dragonsnake bursts forth, as the lava drips from its form and revealing it's true form.  It moves quickly and forcing Raziel to try and move forward.  Sadly, it's action takes the altar off the table, forcing Raziel to grunt in annoyance.  Drawing the reaver blade he lept back as the rest of the room was covered in fire and rock.  

The weapon swings deftly, smacking what was coming for him away as he narrowed his eyes towards Volvagia.  His eyes slide towards Tetra just a bit but return to the target.  Whatever else, this had to be the way forward and to get what they came here for this monster had to be defeated.

"Then before we continue this.  I am Raziel, and I represent the Concord.  I will graciously accept your surrender should you give it, but until then expect me to fight with everything I have for my allies," he says with an open challenge before making his move.

That is to rush towards the Snake as it's bulk would make quite the target.  The Soul Reaver aiming to try and swing through its flesh and take the fight to Volvagia.  The ghostly sword would cut through anything like a hot knife through butter, making it an exceptionally deadly blade.
Tetra     Tetra is thoroughly startled out of her wondrous reverie as rumble shakes through her feet. The adventurer stumbles back lightly, ears visibly perking in response to the vocal assault... a familiar voice.

    No. Can't be.

    She starts to move back toward the main platform... and she sees what's perched atop the snake's body.

    Mother. How...? This is impossible. Tetra's thoroughly stunned by what she's seen, and as Volvagia grabs the platform, she can't react in time. The altar's thrown skyward, and she's thrown off, falling an Inadvisable Distance down to the lower platform on her left shoulder. "Kuh...!"

    "This can't be the queen," she growls, picking herself up and nursing her shoulder. "There's no way..." She grabs her bow, now, but she's on the defensive, looking for a good spot to shoot.
Link As Link approaches the altar, the ground quakes, and a massive dragonsnake, with the Queen for an upper half, appears. 'Volvagia'. Link's entirely shocked. What's going on, he thinks, as the altar is ripped off and tossed to the ceiling. The sheer force sends him falling back, barely catching himself on a pillar, but taking lots of force that reverbs and damages him.

As Link gets to the ground, shaking, he looks up to the beast. This is what he has to fight? This is the type of thing they have to face? She's terrifying.

But Fi snaps him out of it, by speaking. "Target, locked. Master, I advise you use the Sword Beam technique." Link has no idea how to do that, and Fi just stares at him for a bit. "I see. Leaping stab. I will follow up."

Drawing his blade and charging 'Volvagia', Link leaps onto a chunk of pillar, dodging through rock barely, getting grazed and almost knocked off each time, and moves to try and get into the air. Once he is, he leaps to the rock wall, and starts climbing with his gloves, trying to get up in range of the Elisabeta torso.

Once he is, Link, getting targeting advice from Fi on 'potential weakpoints', leaps off the wall and moves to try and stab the blade straight into her. It's not going to take her out - Link's too shaky, and it's the first blow - but it's certainly not a light tap.

Especially not when Fi comes in from the other side, one of her caped 'limbs' moving to try and stab the Queen as well opposite Link.
Sarracenia      Apparently Sarracenia has not encounter much in the way of typical dungeon bosses. After nearly falling in the lava after the area was shaken and broken, she is also staring at the sight of the queen she met a short time ago apparently topping the body of a deadly fire dragon. When those meteors come down...one hits Sarracenia from directly above, crushing her into the ground.

     The fiery boulder smashes apart a moment later, leaving a rather angry looking princess. "What sort of abomination are you?! I just saw the Queen of Hyrule at the Inheritence Ceremony! How dare you defile the image of a regal royal like her!" she exclaims. The princess reaches into her purse and starts tossing things upward. Things that are giant bullets larger than herself and painted with shark-like faces. Four of them go up, and as they come down Sarracenia goes into a spin. She swings her hammer in perfect syncronization with the falling Bullet Bills, sending them flying through the air at the creature with the thundering report of a powerful cannon. Each one attempts to track the target despite travelling much faster than they usually do, and each impact is accentuated by an explosion.
Alruna Greengate Alruna about-faces and runs across the path back to the larger, more spacious platform at the first sign of a malevolent presence. More dragons. More bloody dragons! She slashes with her lance at a rock descending from the ceiling to crush her, shattering it into shards that shower her - but it's still better than being brained by a stone.

"Agreed." she rumbles in reply to Tetra, rolling out of the way of a lava-coated boulder that crashes onto the platform and shatters into a pile of rubble.

Sweat rolls down Alruna's neck as the heat intensifies. She leaps across one of the temporary bridges, getting close enough to hurl her spear at the dragon's sinuous body. Hopefully distracting her from Link's efforts to get closer, though that seems a distant possibility.
Staren     Here's the idol. Link will somehow draw power from it? Or perhaps the 'broken' part of Fi, if that's a thing? And then...

    Volvagia. Staren doesn't just immediately shoot the boss, because... it's a guardian, and Link is supposed to be worthy, right? It might not necessarily be an enemy. That it looks like the Queen of Hyrule is /weird/, but Staren isn't exactly sympathetic to the Hyrule royal family aside from Zelda.

    When it says they're not allowed to touch the triforce piece, Staren starts in with "Well--" to discuss it, but suddenly, attacks! He's already planning his counterattack as he tries to dodge a boulder, but ends up with one slamming into his forcefield anyway. At least, thanks to the field, he doesn't end up with lava all over him. That would be very, very bad. A layer of forcefield cracks apart and falls away all the same.

    As soon as it's clear, though, Staren drops the field and lets the 'queen' have it with both barrels of his beam cannon. There's no real trick to it, just a reliable weapon.

    "You know. Is it really about 'allowed'? You call yourself a guardian, but a guardian would be on our side, not trying to kill us. Are you just... a random monster that moved in here and took it as its lair? You're a fire dragon, it's a nice lava cave, I can see why you'd want to set up here..."

    Is he serious or is he just talking to see what she says?
Rean Schwarzer A voice rings out from above them.  Rean glances up at the ceiling, onhand ready to draw his sword.

And then...Well, he was right. The triforce was guarded by some sort of monster...Specifically, a snake woman in Gerudo garb who also /looked just like the queen of Hyrule/, going by what others were saying.

The heck was that about?

Rean jumps back, trying to avoid the meteors. The impact still catches him, knocking him skidding to the floor a few feet and almost into the lava.

He holds his position for a moment, one hand still on his sword's sheath. He then swiftly draws it, the force creating an arcing shockwave aimed at Voldoga's head.
Sylvi The Queen of Hyrule (ft. Enormous Danger Noodle) laughs lightly - courtly - as if she was sharing anecdotes over little crustless cucumber sandwiches, even as Tetra falls besides herself in panic. 'Volvagia' darts through the area simply to shift alongside the mercenary, looping a circle of hot dragonsnake scales around her at arm's length - cornering her - just for the Queen to lean on her own tail and sigh. "You're really not cut out for this, are you?" She wonders, tapping a human finger on the tip of one hand-sized scale, shrugging. "Well, door's that way." She gestures at the entrance that Fi opened, a huge pile of crumbling platforms between her and safety. The queendragon doesn't really give her much choice other than climing over scaldingly hot scales to get there, though, until--

Raziel is quick with his offer, running out his words moments before he brings up his soul reaver. "Mmhmm! I, too, will accept your unconditional surrender should you give it before your inevitable interaction with liquid hot magma!"

Queen Elisabeta unloops from around Tetra as Raziel makes good his attack, chopping *through* hardened scales and dealing damage to life-points... directly.

And, true to her words, with a big windup, a magma-streaming tail whips out to half-spray, half-slap Raziel away with molten bits.

Link gets the HOT TIP (but not the same hot tip that Raziel got) from his new blade-companion, and searches for weakpoints!

The return is pretty unheartening: There are no weakpoints. Furthermore, in his quest for a weak point on the Guardian, Link should go home and forget he ever was a Hero.

"There's a one THOUSAND percent chance you're doing this all wrong, little green one!" Volvagia titters as she's dropstabbed, the blade wedging itself into flesh and scale.

"You and all your friends!"

Volvagia crosses her human arms, staring intently at Link as he choppety-chops. He gets the big impression that he's definitely depleting a health bar, but...

"You lot really aren't good at this!" Volvagia shouts, this time clear as a clarion bell. The massive Banzai Bill with its BIG stupid grin flies right into the massive snake and connects with a satisfying 'THUNK' before it's...

Punched all the way across the arena by a heaving, annoyed Queen. She opens her mouth, raising a finger as if to lecture, before her entire torso is consumed by a coruscating column of beam weaponfire.

The whole snakewoman drops down into the lava far below, returning in the center of the platform, roaring as she cascades molten hotness all over the arena.

"Look, I'll even expl-"

Rean blasts her in the face with an air-slash, which doesn't seem to 'do damage' but it does daze her for a heartbeat. A fiery snort issues forth from the queen's nose. "Look. OK. Let me break this down:"
Sylvi "IF THIS WAS A CLASS, YOU'D ALL HAVE A ZERO!"

She starts ticking off her fingers as if counting.

Tetra. "You're fine, but you need to actually fight back if you're going to go to a hot mess whenever you see anything shocking."

Raziel. "I like the pitch, but you followed it IMMEDIATELY by attacking me. Just do one or the other. Plus, I'm a Guardian, which means we HAVE to fight! We have to! It's... prophecy, or something."

Staren. "Speaking of 'aren't you a Guardian', uh, yes? I'm here to test your worthiness, not pass out tchotckies to kids in pyjamas! Gheez! The system is in place to TEST if someone can defeat the Great King of Evil, not who can get their ticket stamped by everyone while we all cheer him on!"

Link. "You're asking someone you just met how to get what you want. Still, maybe your instincts are good. Then again -- Have you tried the glowing weakpoint?" She laughs at the Hero's expense.

Rean. "Actually, you're fine? Just... vexing! The nose, really?"

Sarracenia. "You started with the big thing! You never start with the big thing! You've got NO sense of timing!!!" The Queen complains.

Alruna. "Actually, you're fine too? You're doing a fine job of spacing me out and getting into position, kudos. Anyway, alright, try it all again. With gusto, please, I'm trying to make this a 'little' hard for you this time."

O-oh no. Is the Queen Of Hyrule-Volvagia... The *tutorial* Guardian?
Raziel "Why?  I gave you an offer.  I did not expect you to take it because they never take it, so why would I give up the advantage?  Pride?  Because I can not talk and fight at the same time?" Raziel fires back, blade drawn again ready for th-

Nope, that was faster than he expected, though to his credit the tail smashes against his blade, the force of the attack sending him flying.  Sliding across the ground until he finally comes to a stop.  Groaning, he flips back to his feet and narrows his eyes.  

Once more, the Ghost attempts to get closer, moving around carefully and with purpose.  Hopefully, she turns her attention even for a second.  In that moment, Raziel bursts into a run.  Leaping into the air, he attempts to use his telekinetic power to try and throw himself into the air, gripping onto the stone roof.  

He does not linger, leaping down aiming to try and slash across the beast's human parts, before hitting the ground again.  "Besides, you are not the first guardian.  Though you are at least the most coherent and friendly."
Sarracenia      This time as danger comes her way, Sarracenia brings up her hammer to try and block it. It works! ...except for the part where she is knocked right off her platform and falls down into the lava! She shrieks before bouncing high into the air with a trail of smoke following her. She lands back on a another boulder and runs around frantically trying to put herself out. Now she looks quite comical with the rear of her dress burned off. She twists to look at her now exposed sport shorts, then pouts. "This dress was expensive, I'll have you know!" she exclaims at Queen Volvagia, then blinks before laughing. "You thought that was my big thing?!"

     A grin spreads across the princess's face. She reaches into her purse and pulls out a black metal box with a big red ! on it. "You have not seen big!" she shouts as she sets it down and hits the top ! mark. The box unfolds...and unfolds...and unfolds some more. In a few moments, a box the size of an apartment with a barrel drilled through most of it is sitting there, pointed at Volvagia. There is a screeching of metal on metal before a heavy 'ka-thunk' can be heard as another shark-faced projectile is revealed. This one though is as big as a train car! "-THIS- is my big thing! Go, Bonzai Bill!" she calls out as she hits the red ! one more time.

     There is a thundering 'KA-THOOM!' as the Bonzai Bill is launched. It flies with all the speed of a typical runner, but tracks its target relentlessly. Once it catches up to Volvagia...

     There is an explosion that sends fragments of the massive shell spraying at her, followed by a steady staccato of increasing explosions, which is finally followed by one more delayed and more powerful explosion that leaves a mushroom cloud in the air.
Staren     A thousand percent? "That's not how fractions work!" He frowns a bit at the 'never lead with your big attack' comment -- he does that sometimes, although today he's pacing himself as he watches Volvagia, but it seems that she doesn't show signs of damage well, making it hard to tell whether they're hurting her or not.

    She's a guardian and this is a test? Staren shrugs, "Fair enough. You were prepared to die when you took this gig."

    Lava comes in a wave. Staren facetanks it with his forcefield to create more safe places for others to stand behind him -- but another layer glows white-hot and disintigrates as the lava hardens against it. Staren frowns at his damage projections... oh well, too late now.

    Using the hardened lava flow as cover, he keeps taking shots at her. At least energy weapons don't appear to count as 'fire' elemental!
Tetra     Tetra falters, trying to step away as Volvagia encircles and taunts her. She nocks an arrow, and gathers up her courage. "Rgh... no. You're wrong," she protests in reply. "This is me. This is what I am here to do..."

    Memories flash through her head. That same face, that same voice, telling her it wasn't proper for a princess to play at being an adventurer. That she wasn't cut out for this. She draws the string, and her arrowhead flashes with white, growing into an ice crystal. Frost forms on her hands, even in the oppressive, boiling heat of the chamber.

    "THIS IS WHO I AM!"

    Volvagia turns away, and she releases the bowstring. It's not one arrow. It's three. They streak through the air, shedding a heavy mist as they fly, aimed in a narrow spread centered right between the dragon-queen's shoulders.

    She's nearly distracted from the wave of magma washing over the arena; she leaps to avoid it, barely clearing it. The heat burns through the thick cloth of her tunic, though, baring and singing the skin of her side. "Gah...!"
Alruna Greengate Alruna's lance reappears in her hand. "Is this another mummer's farce..." she mutters under her breath. The appearance was already somewhat 'off' - she recognised the Hylian queen's visage almost as readily as Tetra. But...

She has to hold that thought as she dives over the surging flows of lava, receiving mild scorching from the radiant heat but otherwise unharmed. She's going to need to drink a lot of water. She may just walk into the river delta she crossed on the way to Death Mountain and never leave.

Speaking of water - Alruna decides to finally experiment with something. Placing her hand on the satchel at her side, she focuses her aether and gathers energy from the BLUE DRAGON SPIRIT totem she's been holding in trust for Shyra. A bubbly... pixelated effect starts to appear around the tip of her lance. Suitably empowered, she slashes the lance through the air, sending what appears to be a bubbling wave of water, rendered with jarringly crude, literal pixels effects, at the dragon's midsection.

BIGREND
Link Link slashes, but it's not a weakpoint. Fi realizes immediately, returning to Link's side, as the 'scan' hits Link hard. He should go home. Forget he ever was a hero.

Yeah, perhaps they're right. He's...a coward. Too weak for this line of work. Every time he tries to do something, someone gets in his way, pushes him over, and he lets them. Weak. A wet blanket. All of the self-doubt he has kinda wells up in synchronization on its own, as he almost moves to toss his sword down and run. But...

'You're the one, Link.'

A memory pops into his head, even as the magma spray blasts him backwards, scalding him and burning his tunic, ripping parts of it to shreds.

'You're the Hero. I believe in you.'

A dead man's voice. His mentor's voice, and his last words. Link staggers up, even as bare skin exposes on his shoulder, and takes his blade. Fi, noticing he's standing back up, talks to him.

"Master, do not allow your judgment to get clouded. I recommend pulling back, and focusing on ranged-"

Link's eyes become a little wild. Like he's focusing his very being onto one thing. That thing is 'be a hero'. "Fi, dual plunge attack, once more!"

"Master, that's suicide. She's already expecting it. You need to allow your acquaintances to-"

Link shakes his head, and pulls out the bag he got from the Goron Chieftain. "We have to. I have a plan."

The Hero charges forward, bag on his back and sword in hand. Volvagia may be expecting him to go for the wall again, having overheard his plan, but, that's not what he does. He charges straight for her, where he can get to her before the lava blocks the way, and removes something from teh bag. It's a blue sphere, covered in runes. Some sort of bomb?

He takes the bomb, and throws it down. He grabs some sort of device from inside, as he leaps over the bomb. Suddenly, he presses the device, and the bomb detonates below his feet. He's sent flying into the air, blasted and battered by the explosion, and the explosive will also batter into Volvagia, but it's not the brunt of the attack.

Link's in mid-air. He's still holding his sword. Despite being damaged, he's wildly staring at her. It's an attack of surprise - do what they'll never expect - as he moves to plunge sword first back down, and ride down the draconic body with the sword, slashing through back to the ground. Fi comes in as well, side-by-side with Link. His plan may be stupid...but he's the Master, and she has to cooperate with him.
Rean Schwarzer Rean's arc slash doesn't do much damage, but it DOES distract Volvagia, which is good! Not so good is the flow of lava now going through the room.  Rean takes a running start and jumps over it, making a clean landing on the other side.

Volvagia /claps./ Rean kinda just...boggles at the snake queen for a moment. "...I'm not sure how to feel about this." Rean says, sighing. She was talking to them like a disappointed teacher...or not disappointed in his case.

Anyway, back to the fight.

Rean rushes in, and aims two horizontal slashes at Volvagia's...whatever is closest. He then makes one last swing with enough speed that one slash becomes many.
Sylvi It rapidly becomes clear that 'Volvagia' is serious about the tutorial guardian thing, splashing lava at people almost boredly, almost playfully, and *almost* threatening. It's anticlimactic! Well, not really.

There's still a lot of lava. It's still very dangerous. But the life - and the potent danger - seem absent. The training wheels are on, at least this time around.

"You see..." Volvagia observes. "You're still new at this. I can't really *try* against you, can I? That'd not be fair. You've not scoured the realm for every advantage, filled yourselves with preparatory soups, conquered every challenge, and come at me with determination, have you? You're ready for 'any old fight'. You're not ready for Volvagia. And you're not ready for Ganondorf Dragmire."

Her words are frank, and cut right through the air as if a sweltering caldera crater boss arena was crystal-clear air.

She speaks over the rumbling rocks above, the bubbling magma below, the crumbling platforms they stand on.

She demands they come at her. And they do - a sword of souls in the shape of steel, a blast of thunder in the shape of Wood, a bullet in the shape of a rictus grin, determination in the shape of biting cold, and charged particles in lingering, sworling patterns of light.

For a moment, all is light. The room fills with noise, and for long seconds there's nothing in the room but blinding radiance and the aftershocks of pressure and detonations.

Ker-WHUMP goes a noise that all hear, like a textbox telling them the precise tenor of 'audible defeat', as Link plunges into something and feels his sword drop into - pierce - something softer than scale.

Pained, heated breath whispers into his ear, as he's brought chin-to-shoulder with gerudo silk and hylian skin. The queen, looking only mildly vexed as she bleeds an oilslick rainbow down her scales, looks at Link, and smiles an unkind smile. "You stabbed through my hand and I need it back to prove a point, Hero."

With a heave, Link (and Fi, who had plunged into the OTHER hand, very annoying) is tossed down from his Boss Grapple Point safely to the platform as the cieling dims, and the air clears.

Bloodied and obvously 'health bar depleted', with an oilslick-rainbow bloody hand placed dramatically across her brow, Volvagia reclines on the rocks. "Ach, ooch, I am slain. The prophecy! ... Or something."

She sits up, as the rocks above dislodge the shrine, which, conveniently, drops into the center of the four platforms and forms a connecting lifted leve and brige between all four. "Look, that was actually pretty good. I'm, by the way - absolutely not Volvagia. You can tell, right heroes? You're going to need a lot more to defeat Ganondorf, though."

She snaps her fingers, raising up. "I almost forgot! I need to do a little foreshadowing. Right, right."

Lifting a bloodied, pierced hand to her mouth, coughing and clearing her throat lightly, she begins: "Ganondorf weilds more than just flame and darkness. He is the Great King of Evil! He is Power!"

The carved up hand flashes with a golden triangle across the back of it, glowing with a lambent power.

"And so am I."

A wave of physical nausea and miasmatic vertigo fills the area as her 'power' unleashes, a hammer of stone with face of drippingly molten lava rises up, meanacingly, over Staren.

"And you should Show A Little More Respect To The Process."

Hit or miss, 'Volvagia' retreats to the outside of the arena, arms crossed, enormous snake body lingering just at the outskirts, expectant. She makes no movements to stop the party from interacting with the Shrine.
Tetra     Tetra watches as Link makes his charge, running to his side when he's tossed from the guardian's hand. "Are you all right?" she asks, just before the shrine crashes down into the center of the arena. She turns around, placing her bow back on her back, and looks up at 'Volvagia'. She definitely reacted to the presence of the Triforce fragment... but as the guardian's hand displays the mark, she doesn't react at all.

    She does react with a fair bit of horror as the guardian seems to... well, more or less pound Staren into paste. "Fuck...!"

    She's about to go check and make sure he's still alive, but she remembers a few offhand comments about his weird relationship with life and death; he'll be fine, most likely. Instead,she looks up at 'Volvagia'. "Who are you, then?" she asks. "And why do you look like Queen Elisabeta?"
Raziel Raziel gets ready for another attack, but the monster recoils back and decides to not push it.  Well, except to punish Staren.  Raziel considers saying something on that, but he decides to both let the lesson speak for itself and not condemn the monster for getting annoyed at Staren.  Also mildly aware that he can't really die without concentrated effort.  

Looking across the way towards 'Volvagia', Raziel allows the reaver to once again become but the energy on his arm.  There was a lot going on here, and apparently, this was...some sort of training?  Those eyes squinted at her for a moment, before asking.

"Who are you, really?  As you say, you are not Volvagia, and you seem to be willing to test us.  What do you know of the prophecy?  By your tone...there seems to be more than you say."
Staren     'He needs to be taught an object lesson'.

    "Hmph You think I'm not prepared? Bring it on, then!"

    He winces slightly when she says Ganondorf's name. That may be true -- if the final battle had surprised them here, WOULD they have been ready? They'll never know.

    And then the test ends, before he even has a chance to go the distance. There's no payoff for his skillful managing of resources, and he has countless mighty attacks not yet used. It kind of feels like when you replay a videogame and have to go through the tutorial level again, and what nearly killed you on the first run has you through with barely a scratch and all your resource meters nearly full. Except Staren hasn't played this /particular/ game before, just so many like it. Staren sighs and waits to see what new power they've found for the Hero.

    And then: Hammer.

    In an instant as it starts to move, he fires everything. Beams and a salvo of missiles blow off chunks, send cracks deep into the rock. Wings appear at his back and thrusters flare as he tries to fly out of the way, but the damaged hammer tracks and still comes down.

    When the hammer moves away, his body is crunched, but not disintigrated. It looks like every metal bone must be broken into many pieces. An organic would definitely be dead from vital organs squished and popped, and it doesn't look much better for a robot, honestly. There would need to be some kind of tiny backup device inside there somewhere that hopefully didn't get crushed by the parts around it.

    Fortunately that's exactly what he has.

    Tetra and Raziel will have to drag what's left of him back to the Concord, though.
Rean Schwarzer And so the fight ends...kinda. Looks like she conceded. However, there's one more bit left...In that Staren got hammered.

Rean winces. Well, he'd probably be fine, right? Right?
Link Vovlagia says Link isn't ready for her, or for Ganondorf. He thinks about it briefly. She's right. But that doesn't mean he can't become ready. That's why he's fighting, isn't he? He still feels weak, both physically and emotionally, but...he can't give up on his quest, even if the thought still pervades.

As he's tossed down, Fi returns to his side, observing as 'Volvagia' is 'defeated'. "This is a farce, but at least it went well." She speaks, quietly.

As the fake 'Volvagia' attacks Staren, Link winces, but turns to Tetra. "I'm fine...just some bruises." He tries to smile, but it's not easy, because he doesn't feel like smiling.

The shrine is now in the center of the room, past a lava bridge. Link approaches it, and moves to touch it. Fi touches it as well.

The shrine glows. Tetra can feel her hand getting hotter and hotter, as the altar cracks.

It splits open, revealing a piece of solid gold light. It's not a full triangle, not by any stretch, but it's certainly part of one. It has a fragment of divine power, but not enough to match with Zelda or Ganondorf.

DA DA DAAAAAAAAA

As Link lifts it high above his head, he moves to put it in his bag. He's going to need to find somewhere safe for it, absolutely, but for now, he can carry it on his person. Glancing over to the group, he ses that Staren's dead, and looks aghast, before he realizes he's immortal, and therefore it's probably not a big worry. But...good thing they didn't fight her at her full power, right?

"Thank you, everyone..." He says to the group, and then looks up as their 'tutorial boss'. Link has no idea who she is, but...for some reason, he's not mad.
Sylvi 'Volvagia' settles on the perimiter, running both hands through her hair and resettling her closing wounds and the silken clothes around them to a less 'ruined by getting blown the eff up', which is a largely futile process. The party have 'repelled' her, and as everyone knows, 'repelled' is parlance for 'done the entire boss's hit points, BUT THEY LEAVE INSTEAD OF EXPLODING'. It's truly the least satisfying fight conclusion!

"I'm a helper, like you. I'm just helping..."

'Volvagia' settles, before shrugging. "... I'm helping myself. Ganondorf Dragmire, Great King of Evil, may help prove a point. You see, I think prophecies are stupid. Heroes are heroes because they strive and try. They scrape, and they respect the process, and they struggle. They don't give up. And above all: They understand that victory isn't theirs to collect. They have to earn it."

The snake in the form of the Queen of Hyrule spreads wide her arms, graciously. "Well, I left the bar low tonight. I guess that puts me on Hyrule's side. If you just walked up and fought some giant Chu Jelly that split into four, wouldn't that be much worse?"

'Volvagia' laughs light and airily, bringing a healing palm to her mouth to demurely hide her sharp, sharp teeth - which the Queen of Hyrule definitely shouldn't have a mouth full of, especially with two oilslick rainbow dripping fangs. "I don't really care about Hyrule, or the Gerudo. They're just places. Colors of skin. I see past that. I see interesting people, and a little room for everyone to grow."

"Thanks for playing along."

Finishing her speech, the great fake snake plunges back into the lava, and light pours down from the outside world godraying against the unlocked shrine.

The fake Volvagia, truly being the must scummy, evil boss, does not leave a heart container.
Sarracenia      Even after their combined efforts, 'Volvagia' is still up and about. And not only that, but apparently mostly unharmed. Just how strong is this fire dragon lady?! That question seems answered when she produces a lava hammer and PULVERIZES Staren. Sarracenia yelps in surprise and shock, then blinkblinks before approaching Staren. She doesn't seem too concerned about him, though. After all, an agent from her own faction tried to kill him and failed because of that failsafe against death he has.

     Volvagia's words leave Sarracenia rather confused. This monstrous creature seems quite well spoken, and does have a point. Sarracenia's confused expression changes to a smirk as the creature disappears into the lava. "She did not answer your question, Tetra. Perhaps she does not even know why she looks like Queen Elizabeta. It is curious, though. Her appearance suggests she was created recently, or perhaps that she can change her appearance. Maybe the Queen even placed her here somehow?"
Raziel "No, but she answered the important question," Raziel says.  "As for the rest, I feel we'll discover in time."

Raziel moves passed Tetra, and gives her a clap on the shoulder.  He does not say anything, he just moves on after that to collect Staren.  
Tetra     Tetra shakes her head. "The Queen isn't exactly... known for her kindness to the Gerudo, Princess. The fact that 'Volvagia' took the form of the Queen, /wearing/ Gerudo robes... and the things she said..." Tetra sighs, looking at Raziel a moment before moving to help Raziel with Staren's body. "I believe it was *very* intentional."
Alruna Greengate Alruna tries to get to Staren before the hammer strikes him. She honestly does - but the explosion of firepower he unleashes in his own defence forces her back, holding her arm up to shield her face. When the dust has settled, Staren is a pile of wreckage on the floor of the chamber.

Intellectually, she knows Staren can be revived. She knows he will at some point return to be his irritating self soon enough. But she still has an expression of distaste on her face as 'Volvagia' departs. "Lets quit this place. I find I don't have the stomach for it anymore." she says, holstering her lance, and wiping her brow. She could really use a drink.