Zelda is understandably upset now that Malladus is inhabiting her body and yells after the Demon Train, but Anjean arrives, saying it’s too late. She’s clearly injured from her fight with Byrne, but not dead. Link, Zelda, Anjean and the unconscious Byrne relocate to the Spirit Train, where they discuss their next moves. Anjean says if Malladus is able to fully adapt to being in Zelda’s body, the Spirits would be powerless against him. Fortunately, there’s a weapon that might be able to drive Malladus out of Zelda’s body: the Bow of Light. Anjean’s not sure Zelda’s spirit would be able to reenter her body, which worries Zelda further, but Link’s optimism calms her down. The Bow of Light is located in the Sand Temple, guarded by the last Lokomo, Rael. Zelda asks Anjean to make sure Byrne stays unharmed, because she wants to deal with him herself. (Byrne’s eyes open, showing he’s not as unconscious as he seems, while Zelda continues shadowboxing in the background.) Anjean gives Link and Zelda a Force Gem restoring the tracks to the Sand Sanctuary.
In the Sand Realm (the northern part of the ocean map and southern part of the fire map), the enemies are Sand Gyorgs – sharks that jump out of the sand to attack the Spirit Train. They can be startled out of the sand with the train whistle, then blasted with the cannon. They’re incredibly persistent, which makes hunting the four rabbits in the area complicated. At the Sand Sanctuary, a tablet tells visitors to find the entrance to the sanctuary by “blasting where the gazes of the big statues meet.” There are no statues at the sanctuary, but there were four railside in the Sand Realm. The stone roads at the sanctuary mirror the tracks in the surrounding area, and the rays starting from the corresponding locations of the four heads and heading in the direction they were facing intersect at a common point. This is where Link needs to blast.
After the duet restores the path to the Sand Temple, Rael explains what challenges await along the way. First, “the big eye that looms in the shadows,” then “twisted tunnels,” and finally the “impenetrable temple.” As the train approaches a tunnel linking the two maps the Sand Realm spans, Zelda wonders what the big eye could possibly be, and of course it’s another Rocktite. Sometimes this one comes at the train with its eye closed, and Link’s got to blast a barrel to get it open again. Otherwise, this is the same as the first Rocktite fight. The twisted tunnels are, as that name implies, a series of short rails connected by tunnels that don’t seem to make sense in how they connect. Finally, the temple itself is surrounded by cannons that Link needs to shoot out before he can enter. Along the way, there are the final five desert rabbits, plus a warp gate between the rails near the Sand Temple and the rails near the Sand Sanctuary.
The first goal of the dungeon is dodging boulders, rolling spike traps, and Gerunes (enemies made of living sand), plus fighting off a bunch of Stalfos, on the way to the dungeon’s treasure item, the one I knew was in the game somewhere, the Sand Rod. The Sand Rod can raise blocks over sandy areas, and this one simple ability gets a lot of diverse uses: giving Link a lift to reach higher surfaces or a walkway across quicksand, blocking the rolling spike traps (sometimes so Link can walk on them), popping up under object to push them where Link wants them, pulling Ergtoroks (sand Octives) out of the sand so Link can attack them, and digging up objects (which includes the Boss Key). As for the Gerunes, the Sand Rod causes them to harden so Link can smash them with his sword or use them as blocks to hold floor switches down. Rolling block puzzles reappear here, with the blocks having spikes on the faces and corresponding holes that the spiked faces need to go face-down on. As is customary, there’s a stamp station.
The boss is Skeldritch, Ancient Demon, a giant skull atop a totem pole of vertebrae. In the first phase, it has two attacks: shooting rocks from its base, and a laser beam from its eyes. Nothing can be done against the laser beam, but the rocks can be trapped with the Sand Rod, then loaded into cannons and fired back at it, destroying one of the vertebrae. After the first two, the vertebrae are armored against attacks from certain directions, so after Link loads a cannon, he needs to move so that when Skeldritch turns to face him, the armor’s gap faces the cannon, the shoot the crystal switch activating the cannon with an arrow. Further complicating things, as Skeldritch loses vertebrae, it shoots out more rocks, and they’ll pulverize each other, so it becomes trickier to catch and load them. Once the last vertebra is gone, Skeldritch falls over, losing its helmet, revealing the crystal top. Link needs to use the Sand Rod to surround the skull, raise himself up, and pound the crystal until Skeldritch is destroyed.
Once Skeldritch is gone, a staircase opens up to the basement where the Bow of Light is kept. Link and Zelda return to the Spirit Train, where Zelda’s excited, ready to face Malladus… only Anjean can’t locate him. (The bad news sends Zelda tumbling to the floor. Seriously, this game.) Byrne pipes up, saying there’s more levels of the Tower of Spirits, and in those levels is the Compass of Light, which he created to locate the Demon Train for Cole, and now can be used against him. Anjean has a final gift for Link: The Lokomo Sword (which, like the Phantom Sword, resembles the Master Sword, only the guard is the Lokomo symbol), already powered up to deal with the Phantoms. Well, that would have been useful. Why wait till now to give it to him? [1]
Next: Time is short, so let’s do a bunch of hard sidequests.
[1] Maybe it was depowered until Link restored the four temples. Or she kept it for her fight with Byrne. I can think of a few reasons, but I wish one was actually cited in-game.
