Link has to sneak into the castle again, and it’s the same as last time. Once the Wind Element is restored to its pedestal and the sword infused with all four elements to become the Four Sword (explicitly named as such), the sword can be charged to fire a beam that breaks curses. Link demonstrates this by shattering the tablet that told him how to use the Two Sword to split himself. A hidden doorway opens behind the tablet, leading to a room with the stained glass windows from the story introduction. In the center is a new window that wasn’t part of the original story. The story plays again, with the new window illustrating the ending of the story:
“And the force of the golden light, embodied in Hyrule’s princess, shone forth upon the lands.”
Vaati, still appearing as King Daltus, appears in front of Link and Ezlo, thanking them for helping him understand where the Light Force is. He zaps Link, knocking him out, and leaves to extract it from Zelda. Ezlo wakes Link up and explains the situation to him, and the two head out to stop Vaati. As they leave the Elemental Sanctuary, they find that Hyrule Castle has been transformed by Vaati’s magic, and its inhabitants turned to stone. Link uses the Four Sword’s beam on the first pair of guards and Minister Potho, restoring them to life. They’ve finally cottoned on to Daltus being Vaati in disguise, and one of the guards suggests that the real king must be somewhere in the castle.
Link finds the real king in the dungeon, petrified and stashed in a cell. Once restored to life, he’s shocked by everything that’s happened and wants to help Link fix it, but knows he’d only slow Link down. He gives Link a key that will help him escape from the castle. As he heads out, Link finds the dungeon map. Leaving the castle is strictly optional, but there are a few things that can only be wrapped up now that Link has the Four Sword. The guard at the doorway is gone, but the ones patrolling the west part of the garden are still there and throw Link out if they catch him. With the front entrance open, the only reason to go that way is to get to a fairy fountain, and there are others that are easier to find.
There are three Kinstone fusions Link can do in the outside world. First, fusing with the last Goron in Goron Cave causes Biggoron to wake up. He’s not willing to do anything to help Link just yet – he needs to be impressed, first. Second, in the area of the Minish Village where Link found a heart piece on his first visit, there’s a Minish who will fuse twice with Link. The first time causes a platform to appear in the water of Veil Falls, giving Link access to a Mole Mitts cave where he finds a piece of heart. The second time opens a crack near the Wind Crest in Lake Hylia, giving Link a path to where Librari has taken refuge while the town’s under alert. Librari gives Link a full heart container. There’s one last heart piece in town, in a Minish path in the playground of the school. Also, now that Link’s fused all the Kinstones he can, Tingle will reward him with a trophy.
There’s one more quest I didn’t realize existed until late in the game: Beedle only has the three varieties of Picolyte he started with: White (increases Kinstone drops), Red (increases Heart drops), and Green (increases Mysterious Shell drops). He’s got three empty bottles, waiting for new forms of Picolyte to be discovered. Picolyte is made from Pico Blooms, which are harvested in the barrel in the Minish Village where Link got his Jabber Nut. The Minish researching the Pico Blooms asks Link to bring him the ingredients to grow new types of blooms: Lon Lon Milk (Yellow, increases rupee drops), Mt. Crenel Mineral Water (blue, increases item drops), and a Red Potion (Orange, increases fairy drops). I pretty much entirely did this to have it done; White Picolyte was useful earlier when I was trying to get the initial set of Kinstone Fusions done and often found I didn’t have the right one, but otherwise they’re far too expensive to bother with. The Yellow one in particular seems like a worse gamble than the chest game: 100 rupee buy in, then 200 rupees per potion?
Next: Defeating Vaati again, for the first time.
