Palace of Twilight (Hyrule Warriors)


 * This article is about the Stage in, for the dungeon in , see Palace of Twilight.

Palace of Twilight is a Stage in. It contains the Scenario "The Shadow King" in Legend Mode. In the Master Quest DLC pack, it also contains "The Usurper King," the third Scenario in Cia's Tale.

The Stage's layout takes many cues from the original dungeon in, particularly in the exterior areas being partially divided into three vertical sections. In addition to including the outer portions of the palace and a heavily condensed version of the inner portions (most notably the King's Room Keep), the Palace's incarnation adds a Fairy Fountain Keep in the southeastern region of the map.

The Shadow King
After the battle at the Twilight Field and Midna and Agitha joining their cause, the Hyrulean Forces continue their search for the era's Gate of Souls. With the help of Agitha's Goddess Butterfly, they are eventually led to the Palace of Twilight, where the Gate of Souls lies hidden deep within the palace walls. Zant however, who had seized the palace and sided with Cia, had prepared for their arrival with his army to prevent them from their task. Lana and Midna take charge as they enter and infiltrate the palace grounds.

Midna (or Lana if playing as Midna) stays behind to watch the Allied Base while Lana attacks the palace. Midna promptly recommends they go east first and capture the upper and lower levels of the palace, with Agitha joining. Zant's Forces prepare to counterattack as they advance towards the Allied Base while Zant fiercely guards the Gate of Souls. Midna is confused why Zant would be guarding the gate. After the Hyrulean Forces capture the first eastern Keep, Zant gives command for the palace bridges to be cut off. The stone bridges are immediately demolished, leaving behind rubble and preventing the Hyrulean Forces from leaving the palace. Midna however encourages Lana to stay focused and capture the other Keep. After capturing the last Keep, Lana (or Midna) obtains the Hookshot, allowing her to propel herself over the broken bridges. With the Keep's gate still unable to open, the Hyrulean Forces are forced to backtrack.

Just as the Hyrulean Forces conquer the Keeps, Zant sends Argorok outside to attack the battlefield. It immediately begins to advance towards the West Square Keep, which quickly falls to its intense fiery attacks. With the Keep fallen, Argorok begins to attack the Allied Base from afar by raining fire. The Hyrulean Forces immediately take notice that Argorok is flying too high to reach. Midna exclaims that they will have to use magic in order to damage the dragon mid-flight. She volunteers to create a Magic Circle in the Keep beneath it, and tells everyone to buy her some time while she hurries to the Keep. Lana is tasked with reclaiming the West Square Keep so the Magic Circle can be made. In his confidence, Zant opens his Base's gates as more enemy reinforcements emerge to attack the Allied Base in Midna's absence. Enemy forces also advance towards Agitha, who is keeping hold of the eastern Keeps alone. She however assures that she will do her best.

Eventually Lana recaptures the West Square Keep, allowing Midna to create the Magic Circle there. The Magic Circle summons magical chains that bind around Argorok, however the dragon manages to break free of them and momentarily retreats. Zant swears he is not defeated, and initiates his next plan to capture the Hyrulean Forces' commanders. He sends two Commandos to capture Agitha. Lana hurries to her defense and defeats the Commandos, saving her and increasing her Morale. If however Agitha is not saved, she will be forced to retreat from the battle. Argorok reappears shortly after and continues to wreck havoc again. It captures the Central Square Keep where it continues to attack the Allied Base. Midna again advises they recapture the Keep to create another Magic Circle. The circle summons more chains, but Argorok still breaks free. Midna concedes that the only way they will defeat the dragon is if they bring it down to their level. More of Zant's reinforcements then arrive to attack the Allied Base as Argorok quickly returns.

In the midst of the situation, Agitha announces that her Goddess Butterfly wants to lead them to the building in the southeast, which happens to contain a Fairy Fountain. Midna discovers another Magic Circle inside, and believes it should have enough power to take down Argorok. As the Hyrulean Forces hurry to the fountain, Zant commands his troops to attack alongside Argorok. The Magic Circle summons the Great Fairy, who conjures magical chains to bind Argorok. When these chains fail, another appears to pull down a recreation of the Terminan Moon from the sky. The Moon crashes into Argorok, knocking it down closer to ground level. With the dragon now weakened, Lana leaves to defeat it using her Hookshot. After Argorok is defeated (or alternatively, severely weakened), Zant is forcefully drawn out onto the battlefield. He is also defeated, thus ending the battle as Lana and Midna leave to dispel the Gate of Souls. Just as Lana closes the gate, Cia suddenly appears. Midna recognizes her as the one who cursed her to look like an imp. She soon leaves however after Midna hits her for being mocked.

The Usurper King
With her victory in the battle at the Valley of Seers, Cia had captured most of Hyrule and had claimed possession of the complete Triforce. Intoxicated by its power, she fell further under Ganondorf's influence. She had opened the Gate of Souls by his urging, and with it created portals to three other eras in Hyrule's history. From one of the portals, Cia began to sense a great power in the Era of Twilight. Intrigued, she set off to see whether it was be an ally that could be controlled, or an enemy to destroy. She traced its source to the Palace of Twilight, where Zant and Midna were both fighting. As Midna appears in her imp form, Cia had also transformed her sometime prior to the battle.

As Cia and her Dark Forces enter the palace, Midna and Zant are both confused by their sudden presence, but resume their fighting. With the two Forces fighting, Cia considers that she could absorb one of them into her own. Wizzro recommends that Cia consider Zant, noting that his greed would be easy to control. He suggests that they fight Midna's Forces and eliminate them to persuade Zant into their ranks. The Dark Forces immediately turn and attack Midna's army, however she at first suspects them to be from Zant's. She sends her Forces to attack the source; the Allied Base. Although while sharing common ground, Zant decides to rid the strangers from the palace as well and also targets the Dark Forces' Base. Cia leaves to intercept the advancing enemies and destroys them, saving her Base in the mean time. With Midna's troops gone, Wizzro says they should kill her now.

Midna however counters by sending another wave of enemies to the Allied Base. Volga advances to fight them off. As Cia heads to Midna's location in the north, she enters the North Palace Keep, and finds the gate locked. Wizzro says it should open once they claim it. With the gate opened, Cia proceeds to Midna's Base and fights her. When her health depletes to half, Midna proceeds with her plan and has her Forces appear out of their hiding places around the palace. The outside Keep gates are also shut, trapping Cia inside the palace. Despite Midna's advantage, Cia defeats her which opens the Base's door. Defeated, Midna is forced to retreat, leaving her Forces to fight both sides on their own with lost Morale. However due to Midna's retreat, Zant's Forces consequently grow stronger. With Midna now eliminated, Cia attempts to persuade Zant into her army. He refuses and insists that the world's sole ruler will be him. He then opens the gates to his southern Keep and sends his Forces to attack Cia's.

Having no choice, Cia resorts to force and fights his army. Zant then summons Argorok in the north to stall them, while he runs off to a Magic Circle in the Fairy Fountain to make his escape. Still trapped in the palace, Cia has her Forces hunt him down. They eventually reach and fight him, stalling his escape. Agitha then suddenly appears in one of the western Keeps. She is confused how she got there, and only remembers having chased a ladybug. She spots a key that opens the Keep's gate and decides to keep it for herself. Requiring the Keep's key, Cia fights her to get it back. Agitha fights back thinking that Cia is after her insect subjects, but willingly gives her the key once she is defeated. With the gate now opened, Cia rushes to Zant's location and engages him in combat, and eventually defeats him. With no other choice, Zant quietly submits to Cia and joins her army.

Her True Self
After Link has acquired the Master Sword from the Temple of the Sacred Sword and are preparing for the upcoming war with Cia with his allies, Princess Zelda has sensed an ominous dark magic with an unknown source coming from the Palace of Twilight and started devouring the light away from the lands it touched. She set out on her own to deal with this problem. Midna had then discovered Zelda's disappearance and had rushed out to find her at the Palace. Along the way, Midna had encountered Linkle who was transfixed on a black crystal she had found, which Midna soon became mesmerized by it as well. Soon as Midna touched it, she was utterly transformed from her cursed form into her true Twili self. With speechless words unspoken, Linkle joined Midna into rescue mission to save Zelda from the Palace of Twilight's dark magic.

Zelda was locked inside the King's Hall Keep, which was the Enemy's base, guarded by a Gate Keeper who were strengthened by the dark magic, fighting against Dark Twili Midna. She is doing her best to use her magic from causing the Twilight Magic from spreading but she will not last long. If Zelda falls or the Allied Base falls, the mission will have lost. The first objective is to capture both West and East of the Palace Entrance Keeps. Linkle was in charge of capturing the West while Twili Midna aims for the East. Once started, a Rally Captain will appear east of the Palace near an Owl Statue as well as Fortifier Captains are advancing towards the West Square Keep and North Palace Keep to fortify the Twilight Magic. Defeating them was added as a concern in order to opening the Enemy base as well. Twili Midna would discover that the Gate Keeper is really a Dark Zant after capturing one of the Lower Level keeps. To weaken Dark Zant, Hyrulean Forces must capture all of the Keeps in the surrounding area.

Once the Rally and Fortifier Captains are defeated, the objective left was to get the Enemy base open by defeating Dark Zant. The Heroes can may still weaken it by capturing all Keeps optionally. In overtime, Dark Twili Midna will summon dark reinforcements to capture the keeps under the Heroes' control. Soon as all the keeps but one was taken, the Southwest Square Keep will open and unleash forces towards the Allied Base. Messengers will then appear to be escorted to Central Square and the Fairy Fountain Keeps for reinforcements. Dark Aerolfos will target the messengers and then the Allied base if left unattended.

With the Keeps taken care of, Dark Zant will lose it's boosted power, making him the main priority to open the Enemy Base. Once defeated, Twili Midna must be present in front of the Enemy Base to open the doors. Inside they will find Dark Twili Midna weakening Zelda's strength. Twili Midna will have lend some of her power to revive Zelda. With Linkle's compass glowing again, it was clear to her that Dark Twili Midna must be defeated.

Upon defeating the dark version of the Twilight Princess, Zelda feels that the twilight magic has not stopped spreading. Twili Midna then took it upon herself to stop the twilight from spreading by smashing the crystal they had found earlier to unleash enough energies to contain the Twilight. However, in doing so, this had also cost Midna to relinquish her true self and become a cursed Imp once again, with no regrets knowing she has saved Zelda. Witnessing this resolve had inspired Linkle to hurry her way for Hyrule Castle.