The battle shook the desert.
Link moved faster than human sight, blade flashing against dark magic. Each strike rang like a bell across the dunes. Ganondorf met him blow for blow, twin swords burning with crimson energy.
Zelda stood behind, weaving sealing magic, golden light colliding with storms of malice.
Sand turned to glass around them.
Link was thrown across the battlefield, crashing into a stone pillar. He rose again.
Again.
And again.
Ganondorf's power kept growing.
"Do you see?!" the king roared. "The Triforce itself sustains me! You cannot win while the curse exists!"
Zelda realized it.
The Triforce wasn't empowering them.
It was anchoring the loop.
"We've been doing it wrong…" she whispered.
Link looked at her.
She understood at last — they never needed to defeat him.
They needed to end the connection.
"Link!" she shouted. "The Master Sword — it can sever divine bonds!"
He understood instantly.
He ran straight at Ganondorf.
Not to kill.
To reach the Triforce.
Ganondorf struck him down — a brutal blow through his armor. Link fell to one knee, blood staining the sand.
But he still held the sword.
Zelda ran to him, grabbing his hand and placing her own over the hilt.
"Together," she said.
Golden and blue light surged.
For the first time in history, Wisdom and Courage moved as one.
Link drove the Master Sword into the glowing Triforce mark on Ganondorf's chest.
Light erupted.
Ganondorf didn't scream.
He laughed.
"…Finally," he whispered as his body began dissolving into light. "Release."
The sky shattered like glass.
The sunset moved.
Time resumed.
The curse… was gone.