['Tonight, the dreams of the blood royal come to an end.']
[It was always going to come to that. Everything from two thousand years hence had led to that moment, in a broken Citadel beneath a blackened sky and blocked out sun. Ardyn himself atop the throne, glaring down at the Chosen King and his three glaives. Ultimately, it was a duel in and above the streets--two kings in the dead city both had once called home. Twin Armigers clashed, red and blue the only color in a darkened Insomnia ravaged by daemons.]
[And in the end-]
['What will you do? Banish the daemons and bring peace? Erase me from history once more?']
[Hatred still burned, but now it was the smoldering cinders left behind in the wake of a wildfire that had been doused in exhaustion. Ardyn was just...tired. Everything had unfolded exactly as he'd hoped, exactly as he'd needed it to--the rest was now a foregone conclusion.]
['This time-']
[Those clear blue eyes focused on Ardyn, calling back to something long forgotten when a long past ancestor had glared coldly at Ardyn though he was some kind of monster.]
['-you can rest in peace. Close your eyes... forevermore.']
[Ardyn couldn't quite tell if he was smiling; he did that quite often. People never questioned a lighthearted demeanor, and never guessed that it was a thin veil to cover the anger that had now ravaged the entire planet. But maybe...if he was smiling now, then just this once it may have even been sincere.]
['I will await you...in the beyond.']
[Everything from here was left to Noctis; to erase the scourge and bring back the dawn. The 'sky of burning light' had flared brighter than ever one final time and finally, finally went out.]
[Or so he briefly thought, before his eyes opened in a darkened room 7. It took Ardyn a minute to actually realize where he was and how he'd gotten there, why he wasn't covered in blackened blood and why the Ring of the Lucii was on his hand rather than Noctis'.]
[It was the sudden invasion of personal space that startled him back to the present--out of Insomnia in the rain to a simple room with someone insistently shoving his way against Ardyn's shoulder. How long were you in the dark carried an odd sense of deja vu that he ignored, trying to focus on the question itself.]
['Oh, Noct...how I have waited for this. Longer than-']
no subject
[It was always going to come to that. Everything from two thousand years hence had led to that moment, in a broken Citadel beneath a blackened sky and blocked out sun. Ardyn himself atop the throne, glaring down at the Chosen King and his three glaives. Ultimately, it was a duel in and above the streets--two kings in the dead city both had once called home. Twin Armigers clashed, red and blue the only color in a darkened Insomnia ravaged by daemons.]
[And in the end-]
['What will you do? Banish the daemons and bring peace? Erase me from history once more?']
[Hatred still burned, but now it was the smoldering cinders left behind in the wake of a wildfire that had been doused in exhaustion. Ardyn was just...tired. Everything had unfolded exactly as he'd hoped, exactly as he'd needed it to--the rest was now a foregone conclusion.]
['This time-']
[Those clear blue eyes focused on Ardyn, calling back to something long forgotten when a long past ancestor had glared coldly at Ardyn though he was some kind of monster.]
['-you can rest in peace. Close your eyes... forevermore.']
[Ardyn couldn't quite tell if he was smiling; he did that quite often. People never questioned a lighthearted demeanor, and never guessed that it was a thin veil to cover the anger that had now ravaged the entire planet. But maybe...if he was smiling now, then just this once it may have even been sincere.]
['I will await you...in the beyond.']
[Everything from here was left to Noctis; to erase the scourge and bring back the dawn. The 'sky of burning light' had flared brighter than ever one final time and finally, finally went out.]
[Or so he briefly thought, before his eyes opened in a darkened room 7. It took Ardyn a minute to actually realize where he was and how he'd gotten there, why he wasn't covered in blackened blood and why the Ring of the Lucii was on his hand rather than Noctis'.]
[It was the sudden invasion of personal space that startled him back to the present--out of Insomnia in the rain to a simple room with someone insistently shoving his way against Ardyn's shoulder. How long were you in the dark carried an odd sense of deja vu that he ignored, trying to focus on the question itself.]
['Oh, Noct...how I have waited for this. Longer than-']
...Longer than you could ever know.