With all the Spirit Gems, Link returns to Spirit Island to complete upgrades on his spirits. Leaf gets even more damage, Ciela allows better sword beams, and Neri… I guess absorbs even more damage? Given that taking damage hasn’t been a problem and I prefer to run Link into melee for jump attacks so sword beams aren’t much use, I stuck with Leaf the whole time. On Zauz’s Island, Zauz takes the three pure metals and begins forging a sword, but it’s going to take a while so Link has to scuttle off to find something to entertain him in the meantime.
A perfect opportunity comes in the mail: Jolene challenges Link to one final confrontation. Link seeks her out, and she’s honed her skills. She doesn’t leave herself open as long after missing a big attack, and picks up her sword after being disarmed the first time, but she’s still no match for Link. She’s apparently concerned that Link’s quest to stop Bellum is doomed and trying to dissuade him, but Link’s determined to see it through. And she knows Linebeck’s been hiding in a box. Once she’s gone, Linebeck explains their history: He accidentally saved her from a sea monster, and she mistook him for a hero, so they traveled together for a while. Then he realized he couldn’t keep up with her, so he stole something from her and ran off. All the while apparently oblivious to the fact that she was in love with him.
The diversion with Jolene accomplished its goal: Zauz had time to forge the Phantom Sword’s blade. But Oshus needs to make the hilt, so Link takes it to him. (Oshus swings it around, causing Link to scream and duck.) He takes the Phantom Hourglass – with no patience for Link’s Item Get! presentation – and turns it into the hilt of the Phantom Sword. Link takes the completed sword, and the theme usually associated with drawing the Master Sword from its pedestal plays. (The Phantom Sword itself is modeled after the Master Sword, so it’s not too out of place.) In addition to being able to fight Bellum, there are other powers of the Phantom Sword that Ciela has yet to unlock. Linebeck stops Link and Ciela on the way to the temple with a few encouraging words of his own.
Having the Phantom Sword completely changes the Temple of the Ocean King, because Link can now kill the Phantoms. The hammer is also very useful because its impact catches the notice of the Phantoms who come to investigate, and Link can hide out in a safe zone, wait for them to come over and turn their back to him, and whack them. The hammer can also kill Phantom Eyes around corners. A treasure chest appears on each floor when all the Phantoms are defeated, containing treasure, ship parts, and rupees. That said, the first nine levels really aren’t that different aside from maybe trying to kill all the Phantoms. (Annoyingly, killing the Phantoms on the seventh level puts the treasure over on the west side, which can only be gone back to by going down to the eighth floor and back.)
On the lowest floors, the Gold Phantoms teleporting to Link’s location means all he has to do to kill them is get spotted just outside a safe zone, run into the safe zone, and jump out to stab them as they teleport in. These last floors also have some of the hammer tricks from Mutoh’s Temple; rusted floor switches appear, and Link can basically skip the eleventh level by running to the nearby open staircase down and catapulting himself out of the enclosed area of the twelfth floor. The final level, empty before, now has three sets of three Phantoms – one set of each type – for Link to kill as a final test.
The next room of the Temple is safe, with a bridge. As Link runs across, the torches on either side of the bridge light up. Once he makes it to the other side, an earthquake causes the bridge to collapse behind him, seemingly indicating there’s no way back – but a portal appears leading back to the temple’s entrance. This gives Link a chance to collect the treasures marked by the maps he got on this final run, and he can repeatedly run the Temple to earn more treasure (there’s a reward of two random ship parts for re-completing it). Also, by careful use of time refunds – including grabbing the last one immediately before running through the final door – it’s possible to get both the halfway checkpoint time and the final time down to zero seconds.
When Link’s ready, he doesn’t have to go through the whole Temple again; the portal he took from the end left a return portal. Link goes through the portal and heads up the long staircase to fight Bellum.
Next: Linebeck’s moment of glory and Link’s awakening.
