Chapter 23 - Trial of the Hero - Part 1

Several months after King Rhoam's Champions Meeting, a package addressed to Link in Zora's Domain arrived. The return address was Dr. Purah at Hyrule Castle.

"I wonder what this can be?" said Link to Mipha as he opened the package. Inside were two strange looking devices he had never seen before and a letter addressed to him.

Link,

I have completed a set of virtual reality trials, which I believe are suitable for demonstrating the proficiency required of the Hylian Champion. Princess Zelda has reviewed the trial content and agreed with my assessment. Therefore, this is an official request on behalf of Princess Zelda that you attempt these trials in the next thirty days. Below is the information you will need to access the tests and some additional training scenarios I have created to help prepare you.

Entering the trials and training scenarios requires access to the power of a Divine Beast. Since you are living in Zora's Domain, I assume you will use Vah Ruta. You should first secure the smaller device to your person. Then attach the larger device, which I will refer to as the simulator, to the Divine Beast's central control unit. Once connected to the control unit, several selections will be visible on the simulator. When you select any of the scenarios, your mind will enter a construct that will seem real to you while your body will remain inert in the real world. You will automatically exit a trial if you suffer a mortal wound or fail the test. You can also leave at any time by choosing the exit option on your device. Finally, if anyone disconnects the Divine Beast control unit's simulator, you will also exit all simulations.

One set of scenarios is for training purposes. You can select from several training scenarios that will not count as part of your trial but can help you prepare for the actual test. When you feel confident in your ability, you should select the real challenge, which I will refer to as the Trial of the Hero.

The Trial of the Hero consists of four scenarios that place you in various locations throughout Hyrule and confront you with a situation you must successfully resolve. Resolving the situation means doing what is best for the survival of Hyrule. There may be more than one way to solve the simulation successfully. You must complete all four scenarios to pass the trial. You may attempt the Trial of the Hero as many times as you wish but must complete it successfully within thirty days to meet the requirements. Please return the devices to me upon completion since they will have a record of your results.

Best of luck,

Dr. Purah

P.S. Though I have called this the Trial of the Hero, anyone can access the training and trial scenarios by following the instructions above and wearing the personal device. We are using a similar approach to train troops here at Hyrule Castle, but their combat scenarios are not as severe as your trials.

"So, this is the skill test Revali wanted me to take," said Link. He shared the letter with Mipha.

"It looks like you have to take these trials in Vah Ruta," said Mipha. "In that case, I am coming with you. If I sense these trials are causing you too much stress, I would like you to cancel your involvement, and I don't care what Revali or anyone else says. Remember, your primary loyalty is to the Zora Royal Family now, which is my father and me and Sidon and your children. I don't want to see you suffer preparing to defend Hyrule against an attack which may never happen."

"I agree with you," said Link. "But if I can't pass these trials, I should not be a Champion any longer."

"Good," said Mipha. "Let someone else take your place if they can. You've already done so much for Hyrule. Besides, I want you here with our family and me, not playing the hero in a make-believe world."

"I still think I should give this a try," said Link. "I can work on this while the children are at school so that it won't take much of my time away from our family."

"Alright," said Mipha. "Give it a try if you insist. But you need to pace yourself. Your instinct will be to push yourself to extremes right from the start. And your rivalry with Revali will only make that instinct worse. If I see you're becoming overly stressed, or you start having nightmares again as you did during our first year here, please promise me you will stop this. All right, sweetheart?"

"Of course, sweetheart," said Link as they kissed.

"We can start looking at the trials tomorrow," said Mipha. Now let's meet the children. School for today should be ending soon, and let's hope they stayed out of trouble."

The next morning after the children left for school, Mipha and Link headed to Vah Ruta with the two devices. Vah Ruta was still on the mountaintop in Zodobon Highlands, where Mipha had driven it after she and Link defeated Waterblight Ganon at East Reservoir Lake.

"Vah Ruta is way too far to be going back and forth," said Link.

It took almost a full day's walk and climb to reach it from home

"I can move it back to East Reservoir Lake," said Mipha. "Let's do that now. I can move it while you're doing your simulation."

Mipha and Link climbed aboard Vah Ruta. She raised the entrance back up and sealed it shut. Then they headed to the rear and the central control unit. The size of Vah Ruta again overawed Link. The Sheikah of long ago, who built this powerful device, must have been incredible scientists and engineers.

"Are you nervous?" asked Mipha.

"A little," said Link. "Maybe Revali is right, and I've lost my edge. Anyway, I am not going to give up easily. Let's see what Dr. Purah concocted."

"No, Revali is wrong. Trust in yourself. Which simulation are you going to do first?" said Mipha.

"I thought I would try the Zora Region training exercise first," said Link.

"Alright, I'll get the simulator hooked up to the central control unit while you attach the personal device," said Mipha.

Link clipped the personal device to his belt while Mipha attached the simulator and then activated the terminal. All at once, the simulator screen lit up and revealed a menu of options:

Gerudo Region

Goron Region

Hyrule Castle Region

Rito Region

Zora Region

The Trial of the Hero

"Are you ready?" asked Mipha. "I'll select it for you.

"Yes," said Link. "Let's do the Zora Region.

Mipha pressed the Zora Region on the screen, and Link suddenly closed his eyes and stood as if asleep.

From Link's perspective, when Mipha pressed the simulator, everything went blank for a moment, and then suddenly, he was awake and standing at Ralis Pond. He was dressed in his Zora armor but had slightly different weapons and arrows than before. And a sleeping Hinox was snoring away nearby. He knew how to take care of a Hinox but had to remember he no longer had a Stasis Rune, so his arrow aim needed to be quick. He did still have the Master Sword, and it was leveled up to the maximum. A few well-placed arrows and sword strikes and the Hinox was history.

Okay, what next, he thought. Since this was just training, he thought it made sense to circle the Domain. He headed over to Upland Zorana and soon confronted a Guardian Skywatcher. He dodged its energy beams and kept peppering it with arrows. Finally, it crashed to the ground in ruins. Some Moblins and Lizalfos were running around, but he ignored them and proceeded past Toto Lake.

He continued to circle The Domain and headed for Ploymus Mountain. Sure enough, a Lynel was waiting for him. Some arrows and a few Flurry Rushes and the Lynel was weakening. His only error was not avoiding one of its fire blasts, and he ended up with a burned shoulder. But a final Flurry Rush and the Lynel was finished.

He didn't think there were any other dangerous enemies here unless he had to tackle Waterblight Ganon. But in this simulation, Vah Ruta was uninfected by malice sitting peacefully in East Reservoir Lake. Time to exit. He took the personal device part of the simulator from his belt and pressed the option to exit the trial. Everything went blank, and when he opened his eyes, he was standing next to Mipha at the central terminal inside Vah Ruta.

"Are you done already?" asked Mipha. "You weren't gone very long."

"Really?" said Link. "There must be some temporal distortion then. In the simulation, I circled the whole area around the Domain from Ralis Pond to Ploymus Mountain."

"How did you do?" asked Mipha.

"Fine," said Link. "I got a little careless with the Lynel and let it burn my shoulder. I'll be more careful if I face another one. My Flurry Rush worked fine. And I handled a Hinox and Guardian Skywatcher with no problem."

Link wanted to try another simulation but remembered he promised Mipha he wouldn't push himself. In fact, he was tempted to skip the training sessions altogether and go straight to The Trial of the Hero. But that would only look reckless to Mipha, and it probably was.

"Okay, that's enough for today," said Link. "Tomorrow, I want to tackle the Gerudo Region."

Mipha had driven Vah Ruta back to East Reservoir Lake. They headed back to the entrance, and Mipha lowered it to the water level.

"You'll have to do a little swimming now to get home," said Mipha.

"Vah Ruta being back at the lake here brings back some nice memories," said Link.

"You can go on," she said. "We're not in any hurry. But let's talk in the water."

Mipha dove into the water, and Link followed. They both started swimming toward the northwest pier. About halfway there, Mipha stopped and waited for Link to catch up. Then she put her arms around him, and he wrapped his arms around her as they floated together, only their heads and shoulders above water.

"Isn't this comfortable?" said Mipha.

"It is with you here," said Link. "We've had some very happy moments here, and given my memory problems, I probably remember only a fraction of them."

"I remember all of them," said Mipha. "This was one of our getaway spots. You would swim with me, and we would sit together and talk as we watched a sunset or the moon rise. I recall I usually did most of the talking, but we were both so happy being together. I missed you so much when you had to leave and worried you would get hurt, or we might grow apart. But then you would return again, and my heart would be full of joy knowing you were unhurt. How much of all that do you remember?"

"More than I used to," said Link. "But sometimes it's in bits and pieces. I do remember sitting with you on Vah Ruta. Hearing you talk about it makes me feel like I'm reliving it. And one thing I will never forget is how much I love you."

She smiled, and she was so beautiful. He could never tire of looking into her soft amber eyes. They kissed and then kissed some more.

"Let's do some more reliving," she said as she pulled him to the pier

The next morning, they were back at Vah Ruta and ready for the next training simulation. Mipha selected Gerudo Region.

Link opened his eyes, and he was just outside the Yiga Clan Hideout. So maybe Purah's training configuration was hinting that in the real trial, he would have to deal with the Yiga Clan. In his old timeline, he remembered he needed to rescue Barta and recover the Thunder Helm. So maybe the best thing to do was practice sneaking through their hideout. He recalled how he managed this, using some Mighty Bananas he found along the way to lure guards out of position. Soon he was through the entire hideout and emerged outside. But there was no Master Kohga waiting for him. Instead, three Yiga Clan warriors appeared. He got off two rounds of Ice Arrows to stun two of them, then dealt with the third with an ice arrow and his sword. He finished off the other two fairly easily. It seemed like that was it. He selected the exit option.

"How was that one?" asked Mipha.

"The simulation started at the Yiga Clan Hideout, so I think that's what Purah wanted me to concentrate on," said Link. "I did fine."

So far, the training had been fairly routine. But he did have to remember he no longer had a Sheikah Slate with all the helpful runes. So, he had to rely on his weapons and skills more.

The next day he tackled the Goron Region. He ended up battling an Igneo Talus then some Fire Lizalfos. But there was one tricky part where he needed to cross some lava. It took some clever climbing and gliding to intermediate points to make his way across. On the other side was a Guardian Stalker. But he got the timing right with his shield and successfully parried its laser beam. Nothing more to do here, he thought.

He wanted to save Hyrule Castle for last, so tackled the Rito Region simulation next. He awoke next to a Frost Talus. He was wearing the appropriate armor for the region and had plenty of fire arrows. Nothing much to that. His experience in the simulations was improving his confidence—time to move on.

The last training module was labeled Hyrule Castle Region. When he entered the simulation, he found himself in Castle Town. But it wasn't in ruins. It was in perfect condition, just with no people around. He was wearing the Champion Tunic and some Ancient Armor. The objective was to reach the heart of Hyrule Castle on the lowest level, but there was a timer. He had to reach it fairly quickly. He remembered the castle layout and the underground passages. In fact, the book about Hyrule Castle Sidon recently bought, and Link had also skimmed, actually helped jog his memory. He reached a lower level of the castle in time. There were no enemies on the way. But when the timer expired, instead of the simulation coming to an end, he saw Calamity Ganon emerging from underground. Okay, here we go again, he thought. He used Flurry Rushes to dodge attacks, arrows to prevent some, and his shield to parry laser beams. In the end, he emerged victorious without taking too much damage. He wasn't quite as quick as before, but he was quick enough. There was no second phase of the Ganon fight, so that was the end of the training simulation

"How did this one go?" asked Mipha.

"Okay," said Link. "I had to hurry through Hyrule Castle in time to meet Ganon in the basement."

He felt he was pretty much done with training. He had to admit Purah had done a remarkable job recreating realistic situations. He was curious about what the Trial of the Hero would contain.