The newly discovered path brought the Heroine to a pretty weird place, unlike all the other paths that lead to mines or some sort of factories, this time it lead to a workshop, for a single person.
"This is..." Fi suddely voiced, sounding oddly nostalgic, "Fi?' Vexalia called out, "This is the place where the original sword of the Goddess was forged." Fi told her mistress, "This is where the Goddess Hylia used to live." She elaborated.
That information punched Vexalia in the face really hard, "So it's historic..." Vexalia muttered, looking around at the equipment, but it wasn't really the idea that it's where the Goddes lived, more so that everything was huge.
Getting closer to a workbench, it was clear as day that Vexalia wasn't even close to reaching it, "I guess the Goddess would be floating." She rationalized, remembering how small Hylia appeared in her vision.
Searching around for a bit yielded no real result, so Vexalia proceeded to the other exit, where she had to use her whips to make it across a fissure, but after that, the sight was incredible.
Sand. Only sand for miles, however what preceeded it was odd, "Why is there a harbor here?" She wondered outloud, "Is that even what they're called?" She quickly asked nobody as she walked toward the expanse of sands.
"Mistress, I suggest inspecting the carcass of the giant creature." Fi brought up, confusing Vexalia a bit, "Giant creatu- Woah!!" She let out in shock as she realized that what she thought was just rubble from the desert, was actually a gigantic skull.
Approaching the skull felt incredibly scary, as if it would suddenly move, "Man this is..." Vexalia drawled off as she saw what was held in it's jaws, the pedestal that was supposed to have the sacred flame, "...Well we're fucked then!" She exclaimed, sitting down.
To respond to that, Fi came out of the blade and floated in front of Vexalia, "Mistress, there is a high probability that this creature took the pedestal from somewhere else." She pointed out, "If we were to bring a timeshift stone to said location, the flame should also reappear." She theorized.
That tidbit made Vexalia get up thinking that was her shot, but there was one problem, "Where in this ocean is this place?" She asked Fi, "The creature seems to be much longer than it appears, following it's spinal structure might allow you to find it." Fi informed.
With a nod, Vexalia looked around the sand for parts of the spine that might be poking out, and saw quite a lot actually, "Okay, now for the time stones." She said, looking around the harbor and the containers.
Opening up the container revealed many time stones much to her luck, and with a smirk she decided to try something new.
Accelerating her heart, her veins once again started to glow, but unlike before, this time Vexalia blew up into a swarm of insects that grabbed as many stones as it could, and then it began flying over the sand, following all the spine parts it could see.
After a lot of flying, the swarm stumbled upon an old and broken down ship, which seemed to be where the spine ended, prompting Vexalia to reform, "What is this?" She asked Fi, "This is a ship, a vessel used to travel over vast quantities of water." Fi explained.
The mention of water made Vexalia climb onto the ship with the stones in tow, at which point she activated them, causing the ship to go back to pristine condition, and a few miles of sand turned back into water.
"Woah!" Vexalia let out in awe at the sight of such pristine water, "The might aberration..." She heard a familiar sounding voice buzz behind her.
Turning to look she saw a robot much like the ones back at the mines, but this one was in a cage, "You actually showed up." The robot said in happines, "I am the captain of this ship, but it was overrun and now all my crew was captured." It explained.
Vexalia nodded at that and looked around, "You're here for the flame, I know, but the only way to open it is with a special key, and each part is in possession of one of us." The captain added, hoping it would sweeten the deal.
In response Vexalia grabbed the bars of the cage and pried them open, letting the captain out, "Thank you." He said with a bow, "Got anything I can use to force open doors?" Vexalia asked, not wanting to deal with keys.
The captain turned to look at the cage and pointed at the bars, "I think those should work." He replied, prompting Vexalia to grab and and rip it off, "Okay, I'll be back with your crew." Vexalia reassured and moved on.
The track through the ship was pretty uneventful, the bar allowed her to pry open doors, and the monsters were just moblins and she fought so many of them it became just muscle memory at this point.
It still took a while to free all the crewmates, but nothing too difficult, so Vexalia was able to quickly go back to the captain, crew in tow, "Did it!" She called out, "Already!?" The captain exclaimed, "And you already dealt with that trecherous Bolt Beard!?" He asked in awe.
This made Vexalia pause a moment, and the captain caught onto it, "Oh no." He said, before hearing heavy metallic footsteps approaching.
The source of the steps was another robot, but this one had legs and actual arms, "The hell?" Vexalia let out in surprise, but that simmered away when it took out a horn, "NO WAIT NO!!" The captain yelled out as the crew scrambled to get inside the ship.
The warning went unheard as Bolt Beard blew into the horn, causing the loudest note ever to reverberate through the entire sea, and soon, the storm clouds came, "What's going on?" Vexalia asked the captain, "The flame will have to wait! We need to go!" He exclaimed in a panic, going inside to the control panel.
Meanwhile Vexalia was left to face off against the robot pirate, "I don't know what you did, but you won't stand between me and that flame." She stated, taking out her sword, which was met in kind.
Tratitorous Bucket of Bolts, Captain Bolt Beard.
The duel began with Vexalia charging forward and giving a forward thrust with her sword that got parried by the pirate's hook, and still with said hook, he backhanded Vexalia away from him, "Mistress, this model is older than even all the others, it know a lot more about fighting, you have to be smart." Fi warned.
To that, Vexalia formed a whip, anchoring the robot's hook and pulled him close, letting her get at least one slice with the sword in, but then Bolt Beard cut off the whip and struck Vexalia in the chest.
This damage made Vexalia kick Bolt Beard away, dislodging the sword from her chest, allowing her to regenerate, but this didn't deter her adversary as he charged forward with a swing of it's hook ready.
It would have been easy to block, but instead of going through with it, Bolt Beard turned it into a feint, opting to instead kick Vexalia in the leg and then struck her in the head with the blunt end of his hook, "Damn this guy is goo-!" Vexalia stopped when the ship suddenly started shaking from a strong wave that came out of nowhere.
At that point the ship began sailing away at full speed, away from something, "Seriously, what did you do!?" Vexalia questioned Bolt Beard, but was met with no answer, so the fight kept going.
To try and give herself an advantage, Vexalia let her veins explode out, tangling the robot with them, giving her time to charge a Skyward Strike, which landed head on, but surprisingly didn't do that much damage, and when Bolt Beard freed himself, he let out a noise that sounded too close to a laugh for comfort.
"Did you just-" Vexalia was saying angrily, but suddenly the ship buckled a bit, and while she was able to keep her footing, Bolt Beard clearly had a way harder time, "...I see!" She smirked and went on to attack relentlessly.
With the attacks coming in quick succession, Bolt Beard had a hard time blocking the and was quickly on the backfoot as he had to make distance by walking closer and closer to the ship's railing.
When close enough, Vexalia waited for the ship to buckle again, and when it did, she took the moment to kick the robot off and into the water, where it short circuited and exploded.
"Good!" Vexalia let out in relief, "Now-" She was saying, but noticed the harbor she was on earlier quickly approaching, "Oh no!" She said worriedly as the ship went onto the harbor an the entire crew got off.
Running after them, Vexalia noticed that the skeleton disappeared with the time stones, "What's going on!?" She asked the captain once again, "It's the scourge of the sea!" He replied, his voice filled with worry.
As he said that, a massive creature rose from the water, a humanoid figure with pitch black skin, glowing spot, a wolf like head, and an extremely long serpentine tail, "IT'S THE LEVIATHAN!!" He said in horror, as Vexalia got ready to fight again.