Level 7 Act II: The Truth

Silver gazed up at the image painted onto the wall of the temple with a sullen countenance. She said nothing for a moment.

Watching her from the side Clow, Alicia, Olivia, and I looked up at the mural as well, eager to hear the silver-haired guardian's tale.

After a moment of silence that seemed to have gone on for hours, Silver began her tale. "Before the days of the five goddesses, a lone goddess, one of the three true goddesses, fought a great demon and gave the last of her energy to defeat and seal it away in the dark abyss between dimensions. The battle in question is the first scene on the upper left of the wall," she explained softly.

I gazed at the scene. It depicted a woman of similar appearance to Luna, but slightly older. This woman however had silvery-white like Silver's, and her eyes were shining gold. It showed several streams of color, what I presumed to be energy flowing from her body towards a large creature that was predominantly colored blood-red.

The very sight of the creature was ghastly. Its horns protruded from its head to astonishing lengths, its eyes were red as blood, and its teeth like millions of razor needles. The monster's face was just so disturbing I didn't even want to look at it; however, looking further to the right I saw the same woman, but with five lights surrounding her.

I looked over to the scene after that. The woman with white hair and golden eyes was gone and five women have taken her place. What made it really bewildering though was that two of the girls resembled Luna and Silver. In fact, they eerily resembled them. There was also a term Silver had used that was unfamiliar to me, "true goddess."

I felt the need to know more. "What's going on in those next scenes beyond the first?" I asked.

Silver remained silent for a while, seeming to ignore my question as she gazed at the mural herself. "Us," she answered randomly, "This is the true story behind how the five 'Goddesses of Elysia' as you call us came to be," she told me quietly.

"In the battle against the great monster named Genesis, the lone goddess saw it necessary to use up all of her strength to seal the creature away, since she herself could not permanently destroy it," Silver added.

I remained silent. I wanted to know more. There were still too many questions left in my head.

Silver noted my silence and continued. "What you see towards the end, is the lone goddess beginning her journey to the afterlife, in other words, it depicts her dying," she explained.

Noting my surprise, she continued to speak. "Instead of dying, she used an ancient spell to split her soul into five pieces, splitting one part of the great demon's seal among her five offspring. After which, those five goddess-like children, the ones you often hear of in legends, obtained their powers and eventually succeeded her," said Silver.

I gaped. Every answer I get seems to leave even more questions. So then one of the "true goddesses" is already dead? I couldn't leave it at this. I just needed to know a little more.

"What happened after that? What became of those five?" I asked curiously..

Silver giggled. "Enjoying your history lesson?" she teased.

"After the splitting, two girls who were born as twins remained on Chronos, one migrated to the land of Vaizen, another to Weisslan, and the last one to Alexia. In short, they occupied the four floating landmasses of Gaea. They lived as goddesses would, merely among humans in the realm of man. That is, until a particular incident occurred," explained Silver.

I sat there in awe. It was all starting to make sense now. I just needed two more pieces to this puzzle, and I'd have it figured out.

"What incident was that?" I asked, hoping to get her to say more. While it was true that I was genuinely interested in the silver-haired guardian's story, I was hoping that she'd eventually forget about killing me if she enjoyed talking to us.

Silver looked back at me. This time, her eyes were different. They were hard to read. "On that day, on the day of the planetary eclipse, the demon lord's seal broke and he ravaged the four lands once again," answered Silver sadly.

Noting my shock, Silver shook her head. "No, this time they did not give up their lives to seal it away," she began, anticipating my question.

I tilted my head. "Then how did they get rid of him?"

Silver crossed her arms. "They chose another route. So that they would be able to watch over the seal, they instead gave up their divinities and placed them within the sword known as Prometheus, wielded by the warrior named Valdr. If I recall, your people call him the knight of the goddess," answered the silver-haired guardian.

I tilted my head. I hadn't realized that the legendary knight had a name. I looked over to the others, but was surprised by what I saw.

Clow and Olivia looked terribly pale.

"D-Did you say 'Valdr?'" asked Clow.

Silver eyed the boy confusedly. "Yeah, I did. Why? You know about him?"

Clow didn't answer, but Olivia continued for him. "I heard that Valdr was from a dangerous group of warriors. That and," Olivia paused and stared at me. "I also heard that Jake is a descendant of those warriors."

I stared at Olivia in shock.

Clow nearly did a double take. "Wait, seriously?"

Alicia was the only one who looked confused. "What are you two talking about?" she asked.

Olivia and Clow looked at Alicia and then to each other. It seemed that they both weren't really sure of how to tell her.

I was equally as confused. What could they have possibly heard?

Silver, with a strangely solemn face, said to us, "I can answer that question."

Luna looked at me worriedly. "S-Silvy, maybe's not the best time-"

"It's only fair that he knows the truth," argued Silver.

A sudden chill ran down my spine. A strange sense of anxiety washed over me. "What are you two talking about?" I asked.

Luna and Silver looked at me and then to each other. The look in their eyes told me that they were trying to decide who was going to give me the bad news.

"On second thought, you tell him, you're the most attached to him," commanded Silver.

Luna shook her head. "Bah, that's no fair Silvy! For the record, you were the one who was arguing with Claire over who got to hold him first when he was a baby," argued Luna teasingly.

Silver flushed. "H-Hey! They didn't need to know that!" yelled the silver-haired guardian, obviously embarrassed.

"Oh don't hide it! The truth will set you free!" teased Luna.

"Leave me alone!" retorted Silver, who backed away from Luna defiantly.

My friends and I stared at them incredulously. What else were we supposed to do? They were acting like children! Still, I had caught something while they were arguing. Luna had mentioned Silver wanting to hold me when I was a baby. They knew me before coming here? I thought to myself confusedly.

Remembering how Luna and Silver had behaved around me when we first met, I thought to myself, Then why did they act as if they didn't know me?

"U-Uh," I began nervously, "Can either of you tell us what's going on here?"

Luna and Silver looked at each other before Silver finally stepped forward. "Valdr was not just the knight of the guardians. He was a destroyer of countries, an accomplished dragon slayer, as well as one of the most powerful warriors of his time," she began. "But that wasn't all he was."

A moment of silence washed over us. Silver said no more.

"Okay, what else was he then?" I asked.

At the time, I assumed that Valdr must be at least several hundreds of years old. After all, the last time a country was destroyed was well over a century ago, and the incident that the guardians were referring to took place about five hundred years ago.

Silver looked back at Luna and then to me. "Valdr was also a Synchronizer, better known as a weapon of weapons." Pointing at me, she added, "And he was also your father."

Level Music:

Hyrule Castle by Koji Kondo, Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, and Toru Minegishi - The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker