"Sounds good to me."

Link looks for the ladder to get back up to the shuttle.

In the meantime, Purah rattles off a list of more titles and names to ask Cam to conjure.

In a few minutes, Link will be up.

If the big pile of conjured hims are still around, he'll pick some up to turn around in his hands. If the possibly-dud fairy sword is unattended, he will also steal that if Cam doesn't object.

Cam doesn't care at all what happens to stuff after he conjures it as a general rule! He does Purah's forensics and pulls up the ladder to proceed when she's done with him.

Then Link will provide necessary navigational assistance to find their next stop.

It's not a long flight. They have to cut over or around the outlying crags of Death Mountain and a few lava lakes, which have quieted since the recent activity. But dark basalt erodes quickly to dirt and grass, and as they continue into the valley, they quickly find their quarry.

It's hard to miss. Akkala Citadel is a walled fortress built atop a small but steep hill, guarding the pass between the volcano and the Zora mountains. It supervises a low-lying lake and wetland, and has a good vantage on the rolling highlands of Akkala farther in the distance. What would have once been a major roadway passes beneath the castle's rock; the Citadel itself is only accessible by bridge from the mountain it's nestled by.

It's in bad shape. Most of the bridge is collapsed, half of the wall fortifications are crumbled along with much of the rock beneath, and not much of the castle keep itself is still standing. Even from a distance, the infestation of Malice that's pooled into the cracks and pits of the ruins are visible.

Three flying Guardian drones patrol above the fortress, scanning for prey with scarlet searchlights.

"Okay to explode the guardians?" Cam asks, equipped as he is with this handy local to consult.

Link takes out his Sheikah Slate and squints through its zoom feature.

"Yes," he says.

He points out a shrine, glowing orange, beneath the northwest face of the Citadel rock.

"We can pick up the travel gate there for a retreat point. Then approach on foot?"

He has more confidence surviving an attack not boxed up in a metal death trap.

Boom boom boom. "If you prefer." He falls over when doing anything complicated on foot even if the wings and tail usually serve on normal floors.

The Guardian Skywatchers go without a fuss, by which is meant "giant energy explosions". The fortress infestation does not respond to the downing of its sentries.

It's only a second to grab the gate, then Link will set off on for the mountain trail leading up to the bridge to the Citadel. It's a short few minutes' trek. When they get there, Link gestures at the collapsed section. "Bridge?"

Akkala Citadel is a lot bigger close up, and as they approach, the sky seems to get... darker. The air feels thick and heavy, wavering like a mirage, with a reddish tinge and faint scent of rust. Link wrinkles his nose, but looks otherwise unperturbed.

Bridge. Cam will just fly, personally, but Link can have a bridge.

The Citadel lies silent as they approach. The way is littered with dead Guardian husks.

The barbican that greets them at the bridge's end is built directly against the sheer rock face. The fortress isn't so much mounted on the hill as around it; the chambers past the entrance can only tunnel into the earth. However, the portcullis is buried under fallen rubble, and what they can see past the gaps indicates that the interior is collapsed as well.

There's a stair to the left ascending the ramparts.

There is a story to be told in these ruins. Did the defenders demolish the entrance to protect from the incursion? The Guardians are too large to fit in those tunnels, but a strike from their beams deep in the fortress' underbelly could risk an even more devastating collapse. Yet the exterior walls are remarkably free of structural damage, if siege was what they feared. What felled the Guardians that lie decaying on the bridge?

The stonework down by the bridge's approach is clear of signs of Malice. If one recalls precisely, the violent infestation seen from the air was concentrated at the upper parts of the citadel, atop the hill.

Link starts swiftly scaling the wall, glancing back at Cam to check he's with him.

Flap flap!