As Link enters the boss room, there’s a stunning flash of light. When it subsides, the man who was watching Link’s progress is seen trying to bash through a golden sealed door in the room. He notices Link’s presence and stops, turning to face Link. He’s the one who summoned the black tornado, but it didn’t do its job well enough because Link survived. Link is mostly irrelevant, though – the tornado was only meant to take Zelda (“Her Majesty,” even though she’s not a princess in this game) from the clouds, and succeeded at that. Now there’s just the pesky matter of actually capturing her.
The man realizes in his ramblings he’s forgotten to introduce himself. He’s the demon lord who claims to rule over the surface since the goddess sent her people to the sky, and his name is Ghirahim. (He prefers his full title, Lord Ghirahim, but he’s “not fussy.”) At this, Link draws his sword, only earning mockery, and Ghirahim goes back to the topic of Zelda. He nearly had her when she fell, but the woman in the Sealed Temple saved her. “Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? Furious! Outraged! Sick with anger!” Ahhh. Twilight Princess was weird with how different Zant was at first from what I expected, but this is exactly the Ghirahim I know.
As Ghirahim said that last line, he disappeared, and continues to speak to Link, saying that he’s glad for the opportunity to take some of that anger out on him. He walks up behind Link, promising not to kill him (but just barely), then he waggles his very long tongue at the camera. Link stumbles away from him, Ghirahim gets rid of his cape, and the fight begins.
In the first phase of the battle, Ghirahim isn’t really trying to fight Link, merely toying with him. He holds up his hand and catches Link’s sword when he swings it. There’s a quick tug-of-war, and if he wins, he whacks Link a couple times with the sword, taunts him for telegraphing his moves, and tosses the sword away. It’s possible to get a hit through Ghirahim’s defense, but I couldn’t tell why sometimes he was blocking and sometimes he wasn’t. Doing research afterwards, I think the problem is I was too impatient and not luring his hand far enough away from his center to open up the other side before trying to actually attack.
After establishing that Link knows his stuff, Ghirahim recalls the sword he had earlier and begins fighting back. He’s got three attacks. First, he summons a bunch of daggers to throw at Link, and of course they’re in a line that of course Link has to make the right directional slice through and of course the Wiimote’s accuracy leaves much to be desired. Fortunately, there’s no reason Link can’t just walk out of the way of this one. The second attack has him teleport directly behind Link and stand there like a fool for Link to hit. Finally, the third attack is the one that I found easiest to counter: Ghirahim charges at Link and goes off to one side or the other at the last second leaving him open to attack. Hitting him leaves him stunned for a bit so Link can get in a couple more attacks.
After the battle’s gone on long enough, Ghirahim stops attacking. Link’s put up more of a fight than expected, but he now realizes Link has the Goddess Sword. However, there’s no reason to continue the fight, because Zelda’s gone. “Good-bye, sky child. Run and play this time. Get in my way again, though, and you’re dead.” He teleports out, leaving behind a heart container (how kind of him?); once he’s gone, the door Zelda’s aura was behind begins glowing.
Behind the door, which disappears when Link approaches, is a garden area. The centerpiece is another altar like the one in the cave where the Goddess Sword was. There’s a Goddess Cube behind the altar that Link whacks, and then it’s Skyward Strike on the altar, and Fi receives a message that she relays to Link. “From the edge of time I guide you, the one to carry out the goddess’s mission. The spirit maiden who descended from the clouds must travel to two sacred places to purify her body. You stand in one of these places: Skyview Spring. The other is known as the Earth Spring. This second spring is hidden away deep in the scorched earth of Eldin. The spirit maiden, ever mindful of the heavy task entrusted to her, has set out for this second sacred place.” As she says this, she dances and skates around the spring, ending with a long pirouette at the base of the altar. It’s weird, but also rather endearing, which she badly needs. (Immediately after the cutscene ends: “Master, as I have just translated, it would appear Zelda purified herself in the waters of this spring. I calculate a 97% chance that she has already set out for Eldin, where another great spring exists.” YES, I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME. At least Kaepora Gaebora asked before repeating things. Gah.) Link gets a second tablet, this one with a ruby.
Before Link returns to the sky, Machi comes up to thank him for helping reunite the Kikwis and ask if he found Zelda. After he leaves, Link uses a bird statue to return to the sky, then flies back to Skyloft. Inside the Goddess Statue, Link places the Ruby Tablet in the map section, which causes the clouds to part with a red beacon.
Next: Link goes around sleeping in everyone’s beds.
