Chapter 11: Chapter 10: Plateau Progress

From atop the rebuilt Temple of Time, the Great Plateau looks different now. I look out onto the plateau beneath my vantage point, and I can see houses where once only ruins existed. I can hear the soft, distant sounds of sapient life coming from what amount to a dozen hamlets, and it’s hard not to smile.

I am standing in the same room that King Rhoam was standing in when I asked him to join me. This once ruined room was once the highest room in the temple’s tallest tower, where scholars and priests devoted to the goddess Hylia stored their research and conducted solemn prayers. Now it is a something akin to a watch tower.

There are hylian archers situated around me, all armed with sturdy, upgraded bows and arrows and sheikah slates of their very own. They use the slates to study their surroundings, and to keep their eyes open. Above us, shining bright in the night’s sky, is a magic-covered blood moon and we can all feel the frightening power of Ganon’s malice rising in intensity as the moon slowly creeps ever higher.

I watch and study friendly, purified guardians roaming the rebuilt road that separates the Temple of Time and the less tamed woods where Ganon’s strongest henchmen atop the Great Plateau roam. To see the mechanical marvels on our side is interesting, especially since hundreds of them roam the plateau, freely and powerfully protecting the hundreds of hylians who now occupy the burgeoning kingdom.

I feel a powerful flow of essence casually pouring into me with every passing second. Claiming the entirety of the plateau as my dominion has been quite rewarding, even if I’ve only been able to proclaim that I am the master of this place for a few hours.

The flow of essence that perpetually seeps into me, like a never-ending amount of adrenaline, feels incredible. I have never felt this relaxed, at least not since I was first resurrected. Beyond just feeling incredible, however, comes the reality that now that I possess a fairly sizeable dominion I can really flex my dominion perks.

I look up into the sky and I see the truest protectors of my dominion floating in the night’s sky. Several strange, statue-like beings are hovering high in the sky over key areas throughout the dominion. They are impressively stoic creatures who, for now anyway, seem content to silently keep watch over the settlements that dot the plateau. They are “Sentinels”, embodiments of one of my dominion perks.

I close my eyes and I focus on my mind’s eye for a moment. Doing so causes me to be able to see every inch of the Great Plateau, and to study the new civilization I have built with my own two hands. It is the dead of night right now, so many of my citizens are fast asleep, but I can still appreciate my own labor.

The formerly frozen peaks of Mount Hylia are now covered in houses, tilled fields, stables, and other things, all made possible because I have manipulated the climate of the place and I have freely used my transystems to create impressive infrastructure. There are even new shrines that I made using the [Existential Inducer] wherein trains connect different parts of the plateau! Guardians watch over these shrines, as well as allow those who seek to use the trains into the shrines.

This is a safer, though slower, version of some of my ideas for facilitating fast travel from one part of Hyrule to another at least as far as ordinary citizens go. Vampires, and a handful of other minions of mine, can freely use the [Shadow Paths] dominion perk to instantly travel throughout the plateau, but ordinary citizens need to make use of my custom-made shrines.

I don’t get to stay introspective for long, as the second that Ganon’s blood moon reaches the apex of its journey to the heights of the night’s sky it begins to expel mighty waves of his sickly malice. I watch the night’s sky become fully infected with Ganon’s hatred and anger, and I sense my dominion thoroughly reject the stuff.

The air at the edge of the plateau wobbles and I chuckle as I see a thin, forcefield like wall of energy appear at the plateau’s furthest reaches. Ganon’s energy touches the forcefield and disintegrates, completely rejected, and overcome by the power of my dominion.

I was genuinely curious whether malice would prove strong enough to overcome my dominion’s ability to shut down powers below that of a cosmopotence. Cosmopotences are, according to my player handbook, creatures that are usually but not always ascendants and are strong enough to affect entire universes with their powers. I am pleased to see that Ganon does not qualify as one.

My dominion can and does shut down supernatural powers wielded by my foes, so long as those foes are not cosmopotences, due to a perk named [Power Suppression]. In my territory, I am like a supreme divinity. No one, barring the very greatest beings, can challenge my authority so long as they attempt to do so within a place that I call home.

That said, my dominion hasn’t had a chance to extend very far beyond the plateau yet. It has begun to slowly expand outward, inching towards the very closest homesteads and villages that surround the plateau, but it hasn’t reached them yet. Not far beyond the plateau I can see monsters reforming, seemingly from nothing. Bokoblins and moblins, large creatures that are far stronger and often dumber than bokoblins, as well as swarms of “Keese”, what this world calls bats, are all reforming not far from or, sometimes, even between various homes that are just beyond my dominion’s reach.

I look at my soldiers and order them to keep watch in case any of the keese swarms attempt to fly towards the dominion. My sentinels could handle them, but only once the keese reach the dominion and I dislike waiting that long.

They all nod at me before I take advantage of the speed granted to me by the savage focus and I hurl myself towards the areas where monsters are reforming. I sprint, leaping off the temple’s tower and dashing through the air in the direction of the thickest swarms of reborn monsters.

My perception of time slows to a crawl as I move forward. I mentally order the vampires closest to each of the settlements that borders the plateau to go and protect the villagers and farmers who dwell in the shadows of my kingdom. I also order them to attempt to persuade the inhabitants of the villages to join us, as them doing so would generate small amounts of essence for me to sup on. I smirk as the quickest of them mentally nod at me and drop what they were doing to go and be heroes.

I sprint past the sheikah tower and leap off the edge of the plateau just past it. I study the chaotic scene down beneath me even as I retrieve a bow and visually scan the chaos I am approaching. Adult hylians are moving in slow motion, at least in my eyes, as they draw weapons and ready themselves for a deadly clash against the reborn monsters.

None of the hylians are confused, they have all seen and suffered through countless instances of Ganon’s malice reviving their fallen foes. They all wear makeshift armor, constructing things like breastplates and helmets out of whatever they can get their hands on, and they wield shoddily made weapons but with determination and righteous anger.

The village that I am falling towards is the biggest single settlement in the shadow of the plateau. It consists of over a dozen buildings, most but not all of which are houses, constructed close to each other on the sides of a poorly maintained dirt road leading to Lake Hylia.

I raise my hands and point fingers at individual monsters that I can see with ease from here. As I do I let out a dark chuckle even while preparing to cast decently powerful magic.

The monsters are forming more slowly than they should be, and they look dazed and confused. I have absorbed enough memories, from enough monsters, to know how a blood moon should go.

I can see the visible confusion in the eyes of my foes, and that makes me eager to take advantage of this moment. My enhanced brain effortlessly pieces together that the reason for the slow reformation and confusion could very well be Ganon’s weakened state, though proximity to the plateau and the place’s protected status also probably helps a bit.

I begin to wordlessly cast a powerful cantrip, simple magical spells that expend virtually no arcane energy even when cast by novice magicians, and several bolts of green energy fly out of my fingertips. The powerful eldritch blasts that explode out of my extremities sail through the air at incredible speeds and nail various monsters that were in the process of reforming, killing any creature they touch. I smirk as I feel new essence flowing into me, essence which is amplified by [Gluttonous] since I am still in my dominion.

I am powerfully connected to vampires I create and several of them are also reaching the villages and farms they left the dominion to go save. As they approach the places that they will be heroes of, they begin to fire arrows at foes and several of those arrows connect with their enemies. I smirk as I sense even more essence, from far more distant enemies, seep into me. I vaguely feel my dominion slowly expanding as I feed on the newly generated essence.

---

The villagers of Loreal Village gasp when their dreaded foes, a small group of angry bokoblins led by a moblin that reform in the middle of the village every blood moon, are all suddenly hit by lightning-fast bolts of corrupted green energy. The struck foes are sent sailing back, dozens of feet, and when they stop moving they also stop reforming.

Their bodies are infected by the potent corruption which Link himself has only just begun the long journey of mastering, but even without mastery his corruption is mighty stuff. It scars their corpses, filling them with his mighty power.

The purple energy of the calamity begins to cover the bodies of the creatures and a few moments later they all vanish. All that is left behind where their bodies had just been are their organs, and things like fangs and claws, and their weapons; a few swords, a spear, and a moblin club.

The villagers turn to look at each other, and one of them freezes in shock for a moment when he sees a heroically handsome figure slowly descending from the skies above them. He quickly points at the almost angelic, elf-like figure slowly gliding towards the village, causing the other villagers to turn and notice the handsome hero.

The figure is a resplendently handsome man with long blonde hair, pointy ears, and oceanic-blue eyes. He is wearing the clothes of a simple hylian peasant, and is smiling at them. It takes him a few moments to finish falling from atop the plateau and reach the surface of the sea-level region tucked away in the shadows of the first place to become part of New Hyrule.

“Hello friends! I am so happy to have come to your aid.” The figure says, his voice soothing and relaxing even as he reveals that he is the reason the villagers were saved from the perpetual menace they have violently fended off or slain every blood moon.

The figure has a sword strapped to his side, and a shield and bow strapped to his back. He reminds the most romantic of the villagers of the tales of heroes and knights their parents would tell them before they went to bed. Something about him fills the villagers who gaze at him with hope and courage.

“My name is Link, and I hail from the Great Plateau, high above you. Is anyone hurt or sick? I can make you feel better.” He says, even as he begins to walk to the villager closest to him. The villager in question, a young man holding a shoddily forged sword, gasps as Link approaches him.

“Hi friend, how are you doing? You’ve done excellent work protecting this village.” Link utters, his voice a gentle and reassuring whisper as he approaches the young guard. The man blushes, pleased by the compliment, and laughs softly. Others, further away, continue to stare in wonder at the supremely handsome young man.

There is something clearly supernatural about his presence. Everyone standing before him is filled with wonder as they gaze at him, his mere presence assuring them that things will be okay in the long run. Perks mix and mingle together within him that allow him to have this powerful effect on people in his presence, so long as he seeks to be friendly with them.

The air around him dimly glows and those who are within a few dozen feet of him feel their energy regenerating at surprisingly fast rates. They can feel themselves recovering from a day of fairly intense labor, just by being in the presence of the stranger! Eventually, one of the village’s older men manages to regain his wits and he begins to walk out of his house, towards the stranger.

“You saved us from the risks we have to take every blood moon... Thank you.” The old man states, bluntly but kindly. Link looks at him and smiles, his features taking on Adonis-like qualities as he rejoices in the gratitude he is receiving from the villagers. More and more of them begin to regain their wits enough to stumble out of their houses, or even approach the figure if they were the men and women tasked with keeping the village safe.

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Elsewhere, powerful vampires descend on other villages as well. Skilled once-humans descend from the night’s sky even as the blood moon looms large overhead and immediately get to work protecting distant villages and homesteads from fierce monster attacks. The sounds of fierce battles quickly begin to fill the area, and Link himself internally delights as vast quantities of essence flow into him. He senses every killing stroke, and he delights in every instance of a monster falling to one of his powerful minions.

The hero quickly informs the villagers that people atop the Great Plateau are forming a new kingdom, a new attempt at reunifying Hyrule, and that all over the villages beneath the plateau hylian warriors are fiercely fighting back against the revived minions of the Calamity. Cheers resound throughout the small village, even as Link’s dominion reaches the very edge of the village in the minutes after Link defends the place.

In the immediate aftermath of the reveal of New Hyrule, Link begins to use his astounding magic and powerful transystems to create an abundant supply of corrupted food. Animals are brought to life, bushels of fruit and vegetables are created, and more is generously supplied to the villagers, all of which is thoroughly corrupted and filled with his version of the dreaded malice.

They all eagerly accept Link’s free gifts, and when he asks them if they’d like the protection, that he and his nation can offer him they all immediately agree to become citizens of his new nation. These acceptances of his offer to join his nation cause the people to become citizens of the nation and that grants the warrior individually small, but an altogether not insignificant quantity of essence.

As more and more monsters begin to fall, defeated by the mighty power of the skilled vampires under Link’s command, more and more of the vampires get to make similar pitches. When they do, amulets on their bodies begin to glow and create free food, in a range of forms, that is suitable for the villagers to eat.

The grateful people, in many cases, immediately agree to join the new nation when they see what this tiny country can offer them. In a post-apocalyptic world, food and security can persuade many people to join an organization, especially when members of that organization have just rescued them from what would have been difficult, dangerous fighting.

Each person who agrees to join New Hyrule unintentionally begins to transmit a tiny quantity of essence to the true lord of this burgeoning kingdom. Link revels in the ocean of new essence he is now acquiring, as the secret overlord of an entire country. He sacrifices some of it for the sake of merely copying the knowledge, skills, and abilities possessed by his new followers, but even after sacrificing some of the essence he could have acquired he is still left with a constant, powerful flow of the abstract stuff.

Over the course of the next few hours the essence he acquires from the citizens of the newly expanded kingdom does more than cause the borders of his dominion to grow. The stuff solidifies within him, and new perks begin to blaze to life slowly but surely within his core: perks formed from the skillsets of his citizens. He gets the first perks from a range of origins, such as [Smith], [Rider], [Merchant], and [Troubadour].

Hours after saving the village he leaves the place and begins to create shrines and other forms of valuable infrastructure that will connect the newly added parts of the kingdom to each other and to the Great Plateau. Citizens are introduced to each other and taught the laws of the kingdom, which are mostly fairly universal, and sometimes modern laws. He also continues to perform miracles, even going as far as to raise the dead so as to reunite families. During this time Link subtly clones himself, so that he may journey to places other than the Great Plateau and the area immediately beyond it.

By the time the figure sun has risen over the distant horizon the main body of the enigmatic figure known to the people of this world as Link is an altogether more skilled individual. And he is no longer within the borders of his tiny kingdom. The figure is riding a handsome horse in the general direction of Kakariko Village.

The two are a striking pair. A mature, powerful horse that has been upgraded by Link’s tinkering, and Link himself, dressed in the clothes of an explorer. Link is a skilled rider, as the figure who has snatched the body of the hero is capable of using both Link’s actual instincts as well as the instincts of the citizens of his kingdom to dexterously guide the creature without overly pushing her.

As the two make their way deeper and deeper into the ruined remains of the once great kingdom, Link clones himself whenever he spots something intriguing. Whenever he and his horse encounter monster camps, or shrines, or even the one tower they’ve come across so far on their journey, clones appear and go on small quests. Monster camps get wiped out, shrines and spirit orbs get explored and absorbed respectively, and the Dueling Peaks tower gets climbed, shortly before its data is added to the network of sheikah slates that Link has created to better coordinate efforts among his kingdom’s peoples.

These clones do not idly vanish whenever they complete their goals. They are more than willing to work to transform Hyrule, and they start by creating villages of Hylians wherever they go. Monster camps, the areas around shrines, and even ruins swiftly begin to become transformed. The clones of Link powerfully make use of his transystems to create houses, food, and farmland, or even use small quantities of essence to repair ruins and perform miracles of various sorts.

One of the benefits of running a kingdom is that one isn’t alone. Some of Link’s vampires and thralls, a few of whom include the newest citizens to join the kingdom, go on missions beyond the Great Plateau and the area hidden in its shadows. These brave men and women embark in directions other than the one that Link went, venturing in the direction of the Faron Grasslands, the Gerudo Desert, and Tabantha. The vampires, all of whom are powerful enough to easily fight the enemies they encounter, do much the same as Link whenever they encounter a monster camp or tower.

Places begin to get explored, people begin to get saved, monsters fall, and the data from sheikah towers gets added to various slates. Shrines, while opened by vampires using their sheikah slates, are never actually entered by the undead. In the eyes of their god-king, shrines do not have much use to anyone other than Link as they contain dreadfully little that can be used to extract essence.

Sadly, the vampires are not able to use Link’s various ascendant abilities to transform the camps they leave behind. Only a handful of vampires possess the amulets used to create food last night, and those vampires do slowly create villages but at much, much slower rates than any actual clone of Link can. In the time it takes a clone to build a fully functional village, an amulet can only create a small house, if even that much.

Eventually, Link begins to close in on his intended destination. As he does, the warrior begins to check in on the parts of the kingdom he has connected.

---

I close my eyes as I feel my horse steadily speeding towards Kakariko. Beneath my horse’s feet is Kakariko Bridge, one of the final obstacles separating me from the home of the majority of the remaining sheikah loyalists. Behind my closed eyes I can easily see the disparate parts of my new kingdom slowly becoming connected as new [Shadow Paths] weave and connect with each other.

All over the continent my newly created villages, which in truth are just essence farms that I have attempted to poorly disguise as mundane villages, begin to slowly become part of my dominion. While most of my dominion is the Great Plateau and its surrounding areas, the first villages I formed in the ruins my clones created by massacring monster camps are just finishing up becoming isolated patches of my dominion following hours-long rituals performed by the people I have created and converted into vampires.

These strange patches stretch from the area in front of the Dueling Peaks sheikah tower to the Ash Swamp, a place where my clones are even now repairing, purifying, resurrecting, upgrading, and even transforming guardians into vampires. Dozens of the things have become part of my armed forces, and by emptying out the swamp and the plains that neighbor it I will be clearing the way for a major trade route that can connect Kakariko, Lurelin, and Hateno, three of the largest hylian villages in this region.  

My horse finishes crossing the bridge and I find myself on a sloping road bordered by two small mountains. The road is a simple but well-made one of dirt that guides those who’ve made it this far to Kakariko Village. As we trot along the path, I quietly create a carrot and give it to my companion, a handsome white-maned beast that has carried me for many miles at a truly impressive pace.

I open my eyes and I gaze up at the sky. I can see different shades of energy in the air above the distant village, connecting and mixing in a way that leaves the sky a curious color. I can see orange energy, the color of great and powerful fairy magic, as well as gold energy, the energy of devotion and care. I can also see other energy, such as the blue energy of the sheikah visible in the sky as well.

“The sheikah… A clan of ninja-researchers, all mine to claim.” I remark, as my horse ventures deeper and deeper into the seemingly rough wilderness. The only thing that hints that this area is not as wild as it seems is the faint smoke rising into the sky in the distance.

It takes a few minutes for my horse and I to reach the impressive gate that marks the boundary of the village. The thing climbs into the sky, dozens of feet overhead. It is made of dyed, tempered wood.

Beyond it lie a few guards, men holding elegantly crafted steel spears and wearing clothes that have the same runic symbol I’ve come across in shrines: the lens with the three triangles on top of it. The two men are elderly fellows who still skillfully wield their spears while they watch the entrance into the village.

The guards barely have time to notice me before I dominate and enthrall one and turn the other one into a vampire. They realize who I am, as soon as my power washes over them, and their eyes widen in delighted shook.

“Link! It’s… It’s really you.” One of them quietly exclaims, while they both take a beat to study me.

“You look just like how you did in Impa’s photos… The Shrine of Resurrection must work even better than we dared dream it could.” Mutters the other guard. They are both visibly overjoyed to see me, even as my power washes over them.

“Uh… Come with me! Impa needs to see you. You surely came here to find her right?” The first guard, the one I dominated, says, quickly after his companion finishes speaking. His memories, skills, and knowledge begin to flow into me, granting me the skills of a sheikah warrior, even as he motions for me to follow him.

He guides me into the village proper, taking me past the narrow entrance and exit into the place and into a much wider valley filled with houses, businesses, and inhabitants going about their business. Children happily play, and animals pleasantly relax in various pens, while adults watch over them both. The village is beautiful, and I can see a distant home that is much bigger than the rest of the houses loom over the village.

Two older men stand in front of the house, and a stunningly beautiful white-haired woman is on its patio, diligently cleaning it. I am guided to this very house, and when we reach it the guard who escorted me here helps me off of my horse. He tells me he’ll take my companion to a stable nearby and I can retrieve her when it is time for me to leave.

“Nix, who is this you’ve brought before us?” Asks one of the guards of the house, while the other guard studies me silently. “Nix”, the guard who escorted me here chuckles at the question.

“Dario, do you not recognize this man? Think for a second!” Nix says, chastising the guard. The house-guard turns his gaze back to me and silently appraises me. I decide to shorten this interaction by taking out my sheikah slate. This is something he recognizes, and his eyes widen in alarm as he suddenly falls to his knees in prostration.

“Master Link! I… I never imagined you’d look so much like your photos, after taking a century long slumber but that slate… Is it truly you?” He asks, a mixture of emotions audible in his voice. I smile serenely at the figure and nod.

“Please, raise your head. I have indeed returned from my death-like sleep. Your diligence and skepticism are deeply logical and serve as indicators that you do your job well. It is commendable. I have only recently awoken, and I wish to speak to someone who knew me before I sustained my injuries. I have been told that Impa is one such person.” I explain, while using essence to muddy the minds of the guards and prevent them from overthinking my remarks. When I look up past the guards I chuckle as I see that the white haired woman has vanished, and the door leading into the house is open.

In a matter of moments I find myself being led into the home, and when I finish climbing the stairs I am able to look into the home. I see the white-haired young woman seated next to a much older, much smaller woman, with a broad grin on her face. I recognize both women as I internalize the memories of Nix, since he is giving me essence. I am looking at Paya and Impa, a sheikah who has just completed her training and the ancient leader of the sheikah clan respectively.

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