[He listened without fully comprehending the concept; he could think of it in terms of himself, of Ardyn Lucis Caelum's light suffocated by blackened hate. There were sure to be things he'd lost and forgotten himself in day after day after day after year after decade after century--but this sounded different. Worse, perhaps, although measured on a different scale.]

[Only once Church had finished speaking and silence briefly settled in did Ardyn speak again, as though for once in his life he was actually hesitant about crossing some boundary whether physical or otherwise.]

Then you're in excellent company right now, aren't you?

We don't have to solve this right this instant, not with you so shaken by the issue at hand. And I won't pretend to understand the full situation or even know if there is a solution to it, or even if one would fix anything.

But I promised you that we're getting an 'after' once this is over, and I'll hold to that even if I have to tear it from the hands of impossibility itself. We're going somewhere better than this, broken and ragged and miserable as all of us are.