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Hyrule was dying. No one could dispute that. The trees were dead, the lakes dried up. The rivers were mere trickles of water, and the air was thick with malice. The animals are all gone, either eaten or poisoned by malice. Plants turned brown and the sky turned gray. Farosh's body was found across what used to be Lake Hylia, covered with scorch marks from his own lightning. Dinraal's body was seen in Tanagar Canyon, charred and surrounded by ash. Naydra still laid on Mount Lanayru, malice enveloping every part of their body.
The people were dying too. The Gerudo were forced out of the desert due to the rising temperatures, which already took their weakest, just as the freezing winds made the Rito leave with malice coating their wings to the point they could barely lift them. There were very few Zora left, only the ones who were used to going long periods of time without water. Even then they were sick and weak. The Gorons also left after Death Mountain sent so much lava down upon their city that it completely melted their homes. Lurelin villagers headed north to Hateno when the ocean started rising, and then to Kakariko Village when they found Hateno abandoned and burning. Even the Yiga left their pasts behind to travel to their Sheikah cousins. The stables were long since ransacked by monsters and the castle wasn't even recognizable. The only places left untouched were the Great Plateau and the Lost Woods. No monsters could enter those places, nor could the diseases reach them.
Finally, after years of struggling to survive, the last people of Hyrule headed to the Lost Woods. They couldn't save their land, nor could they save their families, but they could at least get a peaceful death in the foggy forest. It was truly a sight to see. Gorons helping Ritos limp to the entrance of the woods. Gerudo warriors carrying the frail Zora. Yiga clansmen helping their new allies herd the last Hylians into the unknown. Once the last survivor entered, there were no living things in Hyrule except for Ganon and his monsters.
And they didn't last long. With nothing to eat, the monsters starved until they started eating each other. Soon enough only Ganon remained. But what was the point? The land was barren, there were no people, no life, no hero to defeat. The princess was already dead, and the Goddess was nowhere to be found. He grew weary. He was all alone in this forsaken world that even the Old Gods wouldn't claim. This cycle of never-ending fighting, just to be sealed again and again, made him ache. He wasn't powerful enough to create life, nor was he able to stop this apocalypse. So, Ganon let himself succumb to the welcoming arms of death. And that left nothing alive in Hyrule.
The wind blew through the torn scraps of fabric that used to make up stables. Lava cooled and became rock. The desert went became completely barren before finally cooling. The freezing temperatures in the north rose again, melting the snow off of the dead ground. The oceans calmed, filling the lakes and rivers again. Farosh's body was left on the shore of Lake Hylia as the water pushed it out of reach. The towers surrounding Hyrule Castle collapsed, and the Divine Beasts powered down. The shrines and towers scattered around Hyrule went dormant.
One of those shrines, high upon the Great Plateau, held something more precious than the spirit of long-gone monks. Inside was a boy. A living boy, resurrected from the dead. And as that shrine went dormant, its last action was to wake him. So the boy awoke to darkness and silence. He found the doors to the shrine open, and the cliff outside crumbling beneath his feet. Rain poured down on his scarred skin as he took shelter under the Temple of Time, coming across a statue. He stared at it, even knelt, as his instincts told him to, but nothing happened.
He explored the plateau, finding the most wonderous things. Mushrooms of all colors, trees green and bent over from the weight of glorious red apples. Ponds of clear water and full of fish and frogs. Deer and boars wandering the forests, and birds singing all morning and into the night. Butterflies and dragonflies hovering above beautiful flowers scattered among luscious green grass swaying in the breeze. It was peaceful, but eventually the boy had explored every nook and cranny, so he decided to leave. Before he did, he wanted to give himself a name. He knew he had one, everything did, but he didn't know what it was. So he called himself the very thing he came to love so much: Wild.
Wild climbed down the plateau to find more ruins before him. Everywhere he went, he found ruins. Some older than others. The largest ruins, however, were the ones in the center of the land. Spiraling towers stood next to ones with half of the tower gone. Walls had crumbled to dust, and houses were little more than piles of brick. Rotten wood that used to be bedposts and tables laid in piles next to wind-torn fabric of bedsheets and clothes. Books fell apart with barely a touch of his scarred hand against them. Those same hands were used instead to pull himself up cliffs and to tame horses that challenged his right to call himself Wild. He ran, chasing whispers of long-lost voices in the wind, finding nothing but a world that destroyed itself being put back together, piece by piece.
Soon, Wild knew every part of this land. From the heat of the volcano to the freezing north mountains. From the beaches to the desert. And the things he found; he could never forget. Seven warriors standing in a circle, with an eighth hidden away. Giant skeletons of beings never seen in centuries. A giant temple containing the largest statue of the goddess yet. Three springs with the same statues he found in the Temple of Time. Three labyrinths, and three bodies. Three bodies of great dragons killed by their own power, each belonging with a different spring. That's something he noticed. There were always three of something. Three dragons, three skeletons, three trees, three triangles on the back of his hand.
Everywhere he went, he found beauty. In the plants, in the water, in the clear air, even in the ruins of the past. Then he found a giant graveyard. It was hidden in a valley, with no markers leading to it. The graves themselves were covered in plants, and it took him days to uncover all of them. It looked like something was carved into the stones, but they were too weathered down to read.
There was a heavy feeling in this place, and on one day while Wild was resting from cleaning the last stone, he felt a sudden warmth. It enveloped him, bringing with it a light. It shone in his eyes, blinding him. Then it was gone, and in its place was the goddess from the statues. She looked upon him and smiled. Her voice, the first he had ever heard, was clear and smooth.
"Link. I am glad you are alive." She sighed, turning to face the fields near the ruins of the castle. "I never meant for any of this to happen. Ganon was too strong for me, so I asked the Golden Goddesses for help. But the only thing we could do was destroy this world."
Link's eyes widened. Destroyed the world? But it was so beautiful? He cocked his head at her, confused. She turned back to him.
"Oh, no. We won't destroy this world, little one. We destroyed the old one. This one is perfect. Calamity Ganon had brought the old world to the brink of collapse, and my people were dying. There was no other choice. So we sent droughts and freezing winds, fires and storms, high temperatures and disease. I mourned every being that died, but either Ganon killed them, or we did. We managed to spare the Great Plateau and the Lost Woods, luckily. I wasn't able to return here, however. After we destroyed the world, the Old Gods came back to restore this land to how it is now. I've never seen so many Gods working together like that. And with their help, we brought life back to Hyrule." Hylia knelt down in front of him, taking his hands into hers. "There is much you do not know, little one, but we will teach you. The Old Gods and the Golden Goddesses wish to meet you, and pass this world into your hands. Do you accept?"
Link, overwhelmed, could only nod. Yes. He could protect this world? Keep it safe and beautiful? Of course. He would do anything to keep this land at its best.
Hylia's smile grew. "Good, but before you meet them, there is one more place you must go. The Lost Woods. There is a sword deep in the forest that belongs to you, and you will need it to keep your land safe. That is also where the last survivors of the Calamity fled to. I don't know if they died upon entering or if there's a flourishing town in those woods, as it is blocked from my sight, but you will be welcomed with open arms. You are the future of Hyrule, and whether you named yourself Link or Wild, the Gods will always call you Ours. Our future, our hero, our Champion. Now go, and I will see you soon."