When Ignis asked him, ''What in the world were you thinking Noct!'' angrily while Prompto worked on the prosthetic hand, Noctis found himself unable to answer. He didn't remember what he had been thinking and maybe that was the point, maybe he hadn't been thinking at all. He certaintly didn't remember thinking when he called on his Engine Blade. He didn't remember thinking when he faced Ardyn among the darkened pathway. He certaintly didn't remember thinking when he had collapsed, exhausted from the back lash of several days without sleep or proper food, not to mention the blood lost.
2 weeks earlier-
Noctis started running through the hall in front of him the moment the elevator door opened. He had to get to the crystal as quickly as he could! ''The crystal had better be here!'' he shouted, both at himself and Ardyn who undoubtedly was somewhere close by, listening to the Prince. ''Everyone's counting on it… counting on me.'' Whispered Noctis as he entered a large open area, the metallic catwalk leading towards a glimmer of blue light. The Crystal! Overhead lights turned on, illuminating the last few meters separating the Prince of Lucis from the Crystal, almost mocking in its timing. ''Your journey is over, Noct.'' Announced Ardyn in an infuriatingly calm voice. Noctis ignored him, slowing down to a walk as he started at the Crystal of the Lucci, shining in all its splendor even among the barren wasteland that was Zegnautus Keep.
Noctis hesitantly reached out his right hand, the ring of Lucis shining in the light cast by the Crystal, ''Please… Help me stop the daemons.'' He begged it. The light seemed to grow brighter, surrounding his hand, almost as if it was trying to grab it. Noct realized with a jolt of horror, it wasn't as if, the light was grabbing him! ''Why?'' he shouted as whatever held his hand started dragging him ever closer to the Crystal. Noctis tried to free his hand, setting his feet apart and pulling away from the Crystal with all of his rapidly fading strength to no avail. He was being drawn slowly but surely into the Crystal itself.
Coming from behind him, Noctis heard a low chuckle and then, ''Unharmed by the Light. The Chosen King indeed.'' Ardyn footsteps grew ever closer as Noctis fought back harder against the pull. ''Allow me to regale you with a tale…'' Ardyn was talking from behind him, his voice not changing in tone at all. Noctis twisted around to look at the hated Chancellor of Niflheim, ignoring his words as the prince's mind grew frantic with fear and confusion. What's going on? Why? Why? Ardyn… Ardyn? Ardyn! The more he looked at the chancellor, so calm as Noctis slid an inch closer to the Crystal, the more Noctis saw red. The prince remembered…
Prompto being chased around by him because of Ardyn…
Prompto being kicked off a moving train while trying to protect him, thrown out because of Ardyn's trick…
Prompto looking frail and broken, suspended on a metal contraption like a doll…
Prompto injured and bleeding, unsure of anything and flinching when Gladio reached out to him…
Ignis unseeing eyes, blinded because of Ardyn…
Luna dead because of Ardyn…
Gladio's dad dead because of him…
Iris and Talcott seeing Jared die because of him…
His dad dead….
Insomnia destroyed….
All…
Because…
Of…
HIM!
Noctis howls in anger, barely aware of his Engine blade materializing between him and the Crystal. Barely aware of the pain of the heavy blade, gifted from his father, severing his hand and forearm from his body. He is only aware of the burning hatred screaming at him to Move! Kill! Kill Ardyn! He is barely aware of calling his Armiger, the glowing weapons swirling around him as he charged the Chancellor. Grinning as Ardyn's face went from a pleased and calm expression to utter shock and fear. He felt with delighted, twisted pleasure as the royal arms of his ancestors tore into Ardyn until the smoking figure of the man was thrown into the Crystal.
Noctis panted heavily as he watched his enemy shriek in pain as he touched the pulsing Crystal. As Ardyn's body turned black and riddled with scars. As Ardyn's shrieks of pain grew louder and louder as the light from the Crystal started bursting through the Chancellor. The smell of burning smoke filling the air, Noctis falls to his knees, his remaining hand clutching what remained of his forearm, trying to stem the blood flowing freely from the stump. Ardyn shrieked and his body twisted in pain until it disintegrated right before Noctis' eyes. The prince staring in mindless exhaustion at the Crystal as is light up once before falling into complete darkness and leaving Noctis alone among the metal catwalk of the Keep. It was like that that his retainers found him, half dead, missing his right hand and forearm, and the Ring of Lucis.
Noctis barely remembered the trip out of the Keep, only remembering the comforting touch of his friends as they took care of his mutilated arm in the moments before the Prince passed out. He woke up several days later, on Aranea's airship heading back to Lestallum with Prompto sleeping curled up on Noct's uninjured side, Gladio sleeping sitting on a chair nearby and Ignis dozing by his injured arm. Now two weeks after escaping that gods-forsaken place, Prompto was carefully attaching a prosthetic hand unto the healed stump; Gladio a firm pressure on Noctis' back while the sun shone brightly over head as it had for a few hours every day since their escape. They were alive and Ardyn, whoever or whatever he had been was gone. As soon as Cor reached the city with the remains of the Crownguards, they would all be heading back home, to Insomnia.