Making my way towards the temple, I fight off a couple more Bokoblins, though one of them does manage to land a painful smack to my wrist. Munching on an apple seems to help with the pain, however, and I find a chest in a ruined building with some more comfortable trousers and better boots, which I take. It doesn’t look like anyone here will object.

As I crunch into the sweet, crisp flesh of the ripe apple, I see strange machines. Some with segmented, jointed legs, others with no legs at all. Every one of them seems to be no longer functioning, whatever their original purpose. They do still have useful materials, though, which I avail myself of, making my way up towards the bulk of the ruined temple building, tossing the core of my apple into the grass.

As I climb the last of the steps to stand before the temple, another Bokoblin charges. In a panic, I throw my club, which explodes into blue light on impact with the creature’s face. While it ragdolls, I charge in, snatching up its dropped club. When it realises I’ve armed myself with its own weapon, it stamps in fury, before I bash it in the face again, making it poof into smoke like the others.

As I catch my breath, I stare. Four more of the strange machines, arrayed as though they were heading towards the temple when whatever made them stop working happened. One is even reared up, legs frozen as if in the act of starting to climb the temple walls.

Inside the temple is just as ravaged as the outside. The entire western wall is full of huge holes, with only parts of the pillars still standing. The roof is in much the same condition.

 

 

Leaving the temple, I check my map, reorienting myself with where I should go next. To the north-east, apparently. The smell of something rich and salty fills the air, and I follow my nose. More of those Bokoblins, roasting… is that… meat?! My mouth starts to water as I stare longingly at the huge haunch suspended over the flames. I have two options. Fight for the meat, or steal it and run…. I settle on the second option. Creeping as close as I can to the camp, I prepare to make my move.

NOW!

I dash in a low crouch over to the fire, hand out, and swipe the meat right off the spit, as the two Bokoblins yell in porcine wrath, as I flee into the grass. Dodging past another trio, I duck into a cave with one of those pedestals in it. It’s less of a cave and more a concealed lean-to. Placing the Sheikah Slate in the indentation, I hear a voice. “Sheikah Tower activated. Please watch for falling rocks.”

The earth begins to rumble, and I fall on my ass, shrieking, as I feel myself rising into the air! Once everything stops shaking, I sit up, as the tower speaks again. “Distilling local information.”

A glowing line of runic symbols coalesce in a hanging point above the pedestal, before a drop of glowing blue light falls, the Sheikah Slate absorbing it and filling in the regional map. The girl’s voice echoes in my mind.

Remember… try… try to remember. You’ve been asleep for the past 100 years… the beast… when the beast regains its true power, this world will face its end…”

A roar comes from far away, and I run to the edge of the tower, leaning out over the wall. Far away, stands the shape of a castle. Something swirls around it. A huge stormcloud-esque… thing… is writhing, the front shaped like the head of an enormous boar, tusks jutting into the sky, as it bellows in fury, before a golden light glows from the heart of the castle. The girl’s voice returns, ringing through my brain.

“Now, then… before it is too late…”

I stare out towards the castle for a lingering moment, before turning to find a way down from the tower. After a few precarious drops onto platforms jutting out from the towers’ walls, I find my feet on solid ground again, just as the old man from earlier drifts in from on high with some kind of flotation apparatus!

He looks up at the tower, and then down at me. “My, my… it would seem we have quite the enigma here. This tower, and others like it, just erupted across the land, one after another. It is almost as though a long-dormant power has awoken quite suddenly.”

The old man looks at me more closely. “If you do not mind me asking… did anything… odd… occur while you were atop that tower?”

I look back at him, before admitting, “I… I heard a voice.”

The old man’s eyebrows rise into his hood. “Well now, a voice, you say? And did you happen to recognize this mysterious voice?”

I shake my head. “No.”

 The old man muses, “I see. Well, that is unfortunate.”

He turns and points. “I assume you caught sight of that atrocity, enshrouding the castle? That… is Calamity Ganon. One hundred years ago, that vile entity brought the kingdom of Hyrule to ruin. It appeared suddenly, and destroyed everything in its path. So many innocent lives were lost in its wake…”

He sighs. “For a century, the very symbol of our kingdom, Hyrule Castle, has managed to contain that evil. But just barely. There, it festers, building its strength for the moment it will unleash its blight upon the land once again. It would appear that moment is fast approaching…”

I stare in the castle’s direction, a feeling of strange sadness washing over me, before the old man’s voice draws my attention.

“I must ask you, courageous one… do you intend to make your way to the castle?”

I remain silent. Should I? If this ancient evil is lurking there, shouldn’t I avoid the place? But something is drawing me, a feeling like I’m… supposed to go there…

 

I look up at the old man. “I do.”

He chuckles. “I had a feeling you would say that. However, here, on this isolated plateau, we are surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs, with no way down. If you were to try and jump off, well… No death could be more certain. Or more foolish.”

 

He lets out another dry chuckle. “Of course, if you had a paraglider like mine, that would be quite another story.”

I blink. “Paraglider?”

He nods. “Oho! Piqued your interest, have I? yes, I didn’t come soaring down here on my own feather wings, you know! Worry not- I will happily agree to give you my paraglider. But not for nothing. Let’s see, now… how about I trade it for a bit of treasure that slumbers nearby? Come, let me show you something.”

He makes his way up a small rise, and points at a strange, glowing thing a short way away.

“Do you see that structure there? The one glowing with a strange light? It began glowing at the exact moment those towers rose up from the ground. I would think that such a place might house some sort of treasure, wouldn’t you?”

He nods. “Treasure for the paraglider. A fair exchange, I believe.”

 I shrug. Not like I have any other option. I start moving towards the shining structure. The entrance is sealed by another Sheikah pedestal, and I touch my Slate to the emblem in the centre. It flashes blue, and a voice chimes, “Travel gate registered to map. Access granted.”

The door opens, and I step into the alcove that formed, a blue light surrounding me, as the floor lowers into the ground. A few moments later, I emerge into a vast space, another pedestal in the corner of the room. There are bars blocking my way forward, and two huge plates of metal on the floor.

Placing my Slate into the pedestal, I watch as it slides and rotates into position.

The strange, not-human voice responds, “Sheikah Slate authenticated. Distilling rune…” something coalesces at the tip of the overhanging spike, and drips onto my Slate. Upon retrieving it, I find a new icon that looks like a U. the icon reads, ‘Magnesis’.

With a few minutes to experiment, I figure out how this ‘rune’ works. It has the ability to move and pick up metal objects, and control where they go, as long as I can angle the Sheikah Slate correctly. Levering up one of the metal plates on the floor, I drop through and pass under the bars, before stopping. A wall of huge stone blocks halts my passage, but, in the middle of the wall, is a single metal block.

With a few careful movements, I nudge the stones out of my way, and come face to ‘face’ with a small, crab-like machine, like a baby version of the big, broken machines scattered around outside. As soon as it detects me, it begins emitting a series of beeps, almost like an alarm, and charging up to do something. I’m not having any of that, and turn off the Magnesis, dropping the metal cube on it from a great height. It ends up pancaked, and explodes ineffectually.

“Heh, idiot.”

I cross over a bridge made from another metal plank, and then move it to make a second bridge, crossing to the far side, where two enormous doors stand. Magnesis works just as well on them as the plank and cube, and I tug them open, starting to smile a little. This is kinda… fun!

 

On the other side of the doors is a person! They’re inside a barrier made of blue light. When I approach and touch it, the barrier shatters, and the figure within is revealed. They look… dead. Wizened and dried out, a mummified corpse! But, somehow.. the figure speaks.

 

“I am Oman Au, the creator of this Trial. I am a humble monk, blessed with the sight of Goddess Hylia, and dedicated to helping those who seek to defeat Ganon. With your arrival, my duty is now fulfilled. In the name of Goddess Hylia, allow me to bestow this gift upon you… Please accept this Spirit Orb.”

A ball of strange purplish light emerges from the monk’s withered husk of a chest, drifting towards me and vanishing upon making contact with my body. I feel… slightly stronger, in a way that doesn’t make sense.

The monk disappears into greenish particles, with a parting. “May the Goddess smile upon you…”

 

 

Upon exiting from the shrine, I’m again accosted by a flying old man. He recognizes the Spirit orb, and, after vomiting exposition at me about a long-gone tribe of highly-advanced  people called the Sheikah, and how they made all kinds of ancient technology, and had great wisdom.

According to the old man, there are three more shrines, just like the one I just left, scattered around the Great Plateau. With that in mind, I decide to make my way back to the top of the tower. A high vantage point might let me spy the shrines more easily than bimbling around like a blind idiot.

 

 Sure enough, once I make my way back up to the top of the Sheikah tower, I can see three more glowing shrines. With my Sheikah Slate proving invaluable, I mark down the locations and set off in hot pursuit of the nearest shrine, which is surrounded by ruins, as if it emerged in the very heart of an old building.

 

As I approach the first of my three destinations, something… happens. One of the defunct machines reactivates! It starts glowing with lines of sickly magenta light, and seems to target me with an awful intensity. I sprint for the wall nearest my destination, scrabbling up it as an ear-splitting siren starts rising in pitch, letting myself just roll off the top and out of sight of the disturbing machines.

 

“Not today, thank you very much!”

With trembling fingers, I activate the shrine’s doorway and duck inside. This time, the rune I receive is a pair. The round remote bomb and the cube remote bomb. Nice, those will definitely come in handy!