"You'll never guess whose name Izunia was."
Allow me to regale you with a tale two thousand years passed - a tale of treachery and betrayal at a time when the Six reigned, and men thrived under their vigilant watch. That is, until the Wicked brought the plague of Starscourge upon us.
Black mist speckled the once vibrant blue heavens, dulling the brilliance of the sun as it rained down on one of the cities of Solheim. The people of the prosperous city only paused briefly to admire the strange sight before going on about their business. It was a day like any other, except that it wasn't - it would soon come, unequivocally, to an end.
A silver-haired, elderly woman stared into the darkening sky, enthralled by the particles falling from the sky and collecting on every surface. She hacked and wheezed, covering her mouth with an ivory, cotton handkerchief. Her grey eyes gazed in horror at the black ooze soaking into the cloth. Wetness dripping down the curve of her cheek beckoned her hand to swipe at it - more of the liquid.
The old woman's shrill shriek pierced through the bustling sound of the city. Her voice became raspy as her body contorted, liquefying into a puddle of aqua goo. Glowing, yellow eyes protruded from the blob as another wail ripped through the block.
The everyday hustle turned to screams and panic as the citizens of Solheim rushed to flee the terrifying creatures taking form throughout the city.
"Brother, what's happening? What are these monsters?" An onyx haired young man shouted above the grievous howling amidst the scattering people. A molten ball of flames shot past the man's head, the searing heat making him stumble back.
"Ain, watch out. I don't know where they came from, but they are not friendly." A second raven haired fellow blocked a barrage of lightning with a crystalline broadsword before it reached its target; a child crouched in a niche in the wall of a building.
"Ardyn, there's too many of them. Even with the Armiger, we can't save everyone." Ain wrapped his fingers around the hilt of a glaive and spun his body, the black coat tails of his jacket fanning out behind him as he utilized the momentum to throw the sword into the chest of a rotting samurai.
"We'll save as many as we can, then." A crystalline shield materialized in front of Ardyn as an orb of blazing green charged at him only to bounce back off the blockade. Its enormous, jagged mouth bellowed a yowl that threatened to pierce the two men's eardrums had they not covered their ears. The monstrosity swelled continuously until the air surrounding it crackled and its body began to glow. "Ain, take cover! It's going to explode!"
The blast roiled up dust from collapsing cement buildings and roads, sending a nebulous cloud twenty feet in every direction.
"Why do we serve these wretches? They are weak and insignificant." Torrid waves of heat distorted the air around the Infernian as he spoke with animosity about the populace of Solheim.
"It was the charge placed on us by the Divine Host. Because of our protection, they are allowed to flourish," the Fulgurian reminded as a violet lightning bolt danced down the length of his staff and vanished into sparks when it hit the stone floor.
"But what do they offer us? We should just wipe them out and be done with it." Orange flames fluttered over Ifrit's bronze skin, his elbow propped on the skull armrest of his skeletal throne. He brushed a clawed hand through stringy chestnut hair hanging past his shoulders.
"They do not need to offer us anything. As you say, they are weak and frail, and they require our protection." Water droplets froze in mid air from the Glacian's frosty breath as she spoke, falling like snowflakes to the ground. Shiva's icy presence countered the Pyreburner's scorching fury, preventing his fires from broiling the other gods.
"Leviathan kills hordes of the pests every time her mortal body awakens. Why do I have to sit here and play nice to insects when she can do as she pleases?" The fires around Ifrit smoldered as his temper flared.
"The calamities caused by Leviathan's body cannot be helped. The ocean's waters react to her body just like fire does to yours, and ice to Shiva," Ramuh exhorted, his voice booming like thunder during a storm.
"And yet, she stays out in the world while you keep me in this secluded dungeon. Are you afraid I'll set the world on fire?" Ifrit propped his chin on the knuckles of his hand as he stared at the Fulgurian through hooded lids.
"It is not I who keeps you here, Ifrit. The one who forbade you from the lands of Eos was Bahamut."
Ifrit sneered at the name as he recalled the Draconian's decree. The self-proclaimed leader of the Hexatheon would only permit the Six to leave Pitioss in times of grave danger to humankind. If not for them, he'd be able to leave the hellish place that Bahamut forced him to live in. The thought of being cooped up in such a dark, cold place was maddening. Even with all his incandescence, Pitioss never appeared brighter than the blackest of nights.
Blood and ash decorated the once brimming city as the new monsters revelled in their dominance over the human population. The black mist devoured the light from the sky, leaving those left standing to stumble around in the darkness. The screams died down to soft mules, whimpers, and sobs as bodies continued to pile up.
Ardyn's scarf, once ivory, was now stained in crimson and muck from the explosion a short while ago. He clutched one of the glaives in his hand and gazed at the carnage scattered over the abandoned roads. "What a horrible sight." The back of his hand smeared the dirt and sweat across his forehead as he rubbed it across his face.
"I don't understand what's going on at all. Was this an attack? Who could have done something like this?" the questions poured from Ain's mouth before Ardyn could think of a response to even a single one.
"I do not have an answer, brother. I've never heard of such a thing in all of Eos' history." A pained look crossed Ardyn's face as his eyes shifted upward. Are the Six testing us? His eyelids drooped closed, and his head fell as a tear rolled down his cheek.
Ain gripped his brother's shoulder and gave it a squeeze before he let his arm fall to his side again. "Ardyn, we will figure this out. None of our known enemies are capable of a feat such as this. It must be some kind of poison, or magic."
Metal creaked behind the two brothers, drawing their attention as a massive arm emerged from the ground. A giant of a creature hoisted itself up with metal clanging and scraping against the stone. It aimed the humongous sword it wielded at Ardyn and Ain and, with a sweeping attack, knocked both men off their feet.
"What could it hurt to let me out for a little while? I promise I'll behave," the Infernian cajoled.
"I'm afraid I cannot allow that. It is not my decision to make." The old man's astral essence was much smaller than his colossal mortal body that remained in the outside world.
"What that dragon bastard doesn't know won't hurt me." Ifrit stared down Ramuh as they played a battle of wills, testing who would back down first.
"You assume that Bahamut wouldn't find out, but we both know better. You must stay in here so that you do not incinerate the whole of Eos."
Ifrit's features hardened as he glowered at the Fulgurian. "I grow bored of listening to you and your commands, geezer. I will decide what I do from now on." The Infernian vaulted from his throne of bone and flounced toward the entrance of Pitioss.
"Stop! Ifrit, you can not leave!" Ramuh's voice thundered throughout the stone chamber.
Ifrit paused and turned to him. "You can't stop me in your astral form," he informed the God of Storms.
"Do not underestimate me, Pyreburner." With his arm outstretched, lightning bolts sparked from the end of Ramuh's staff. Ifrit stood, unflinching, as the violet jolts streamed through his body and crashed into the wall behind him, causing no damage.
"Just as I thought. You have no power to keep me here." The Flame God proceeded with his task, making for the doorway to freedom.
The monstrosity before Ardyn and Ain took little damage from their swords. Not even the magical glaives they wielded made a dent in the thing's iron husk. Each attack only served to anger the creature as it thrust sword and fist after each man, taking no heed in the surrounding areas.
"How are we supposed to defeat a giant made of metal?" Ain shouted over the scraping of steel on concrete when it swung its sword through the corner of a building.
Ardyn ducked behind debris as he plotted his next move against the iron giant. He watched the movements it made, the way the joints bent and twisted with every attack and defense. There had to be a weakness, they just hadn't found it yet. His eyes caught sight of a gap between the monster's head and bulky shoulders, and an idea formed. "Ain, can you keep him distracted? I think I know where the weak spot is."
"I can try, brother. But you'll have to hurry." Ain released the crystalline shield, and it vanished, a sword, as long as his body, replacing it. He charged the giant, the long sword dragging the ground behind him, until he was close enough to swing. It required every ounce of strength he could muster in order to haul the large blade above his head.
While Ain attacked from ground-level, Ardyn chunked his sword into the building behind the giant and disappeared in a phase of blue light. When he reappeared, he was hanging from the sword lodged into the stone wall above the monster. Ardyn stepped onto a narrow ledge and wiggled the weapon from the hole it created, careful not to lose balance. He positioned himself over the fighting and dropped. His coat tails whipped in the wind as he descended from a near twenty-five foot building.
The giant howled in pain as the sword sunk to the hilt into the back of its neck, arms flailing and reaching behind to grasp for the man. After the monster's body drooped toward the ground, Ardyn yanked his glaive from its neck and leapt off. The giant's metal body collapsed in on itself and shattered to dust.
"We did it." Ain let out an exasperated sigh as he fell to his knees. His laugh permeated the air, thick with the mist blocking out the sunlight.
Ardyn gazed at his chuckling brother and took a relieved breath as he tried to calm his racing heart from the encounter. If he fought that monster with anyone else aside from Ain, things wouldn't have played out so well. He was the one person Ardyn could rely on inexplicably. He was his twin, and they had been inseparable since the womb. Ain is an extension of me, and I of him.
The laughter ceased while Ain inspected the sky, noticing the black veil that eclipsed it beyond the mist. "Is it night? It can't be - it was mid-day when all this started." His eyes fell to Ardyn, and a sense of panic coursed through him.
Heavy footsteps sounded from around the corner of a large skyscraper as a familiar metal scraping stone noise followed. The clomping of the footfalls grew louder until they stopped at the edge of the street.
"Another one?" Ardyn helped Ain up and they scurried to the side of the building for cover from the new enemy's line of sight. "I don't have it in me to fight another one."
"Nor do I. What do we do?" Ain asked, looking to his brother for advice.
"What can we do?"
The metal whined and groaned as the giant rounded the corner, its copper tone glinting in the fires burning in the streets. Its red, glowing eyes caught a glimpse of the twins and lurched in their direction, sprinting at them with rapidly increasing momentum.
The field Ifrit laid in was bare, aside from the luscious, green grass, without a single living being for miles. He chose it with care, intent on proving to his brethren that he could be trusted with the lives of humans on Eos rather than spend his time locked away in a dank, dark dungeon. The Infernian propped his leg on his knee, foot bouncing up and down as he stared at the heavens in appreciation of the puffy white clouds. They dotted the bright, blue sky, and the sun shown through them in golden rays of light. Fires burned around his body and devoured the grassy pasture, orange tendrils of flame reaching toward the sky and flickering in the gentle afternoon breeze. Luck was on his side when he chose to leave; a spell Bahamut placed on Pitioss only allowed the door to unlock when the sun was up. "Ah, fresh air after so long is quite the treat," he said aloud to himself.
"Ifrit, what have you done?" He instantly recognized the voice of the Draconian.
"I've done nothing but enjoy the rare moment of freedom." Ifrit gazed past the dragon armor and into the blue-grey eyes of the Hexatheon leader.
"You have set this field ablaze just by being here. You are carelessly burning your surroundings while paying no heed to anyone else but you," Bahamut admonished the Infernian.
"I made sure there were no humans around." Ifrit tsked at his brother, annoyance interwoven in his voice.
"Even though they are not here today, this field is where they grow their crops, and you have nonchalantly scorched everything." The Draconian's presence was one that demanded respect, even in his ethereal form. "You must go back to Pitioss, now."
Ifrit leaned his legs up and sprang from the ground, pushing off with the heels of his hands. He landed in a crouched position and glared up at Bahamut's astral body. "I will not." Despite the warm glow of his reddish orange eyes, they looked upon the dragon coldly.
"Your presence here is dangerous, Ifrit. You're a threat to the humans. Your mere existence on this plane threatens their lives," Bahamut insisted.
"I am no more a danger than Shiva, and you allow her to be free of that Hellhole," Ifrit spat as the flames surrounding him reacted to his anger by flaring out.
"Shiva is a kind soul who doesn't allow her emotions to rule her. She leaves her mortal body in an isolated mountain and uses her ethereal body to interact with the people of Eos. You do not. Or have you forgotten the fiasco that happened a century ago? You are a fickle being who cares only about his own pleasures." The Draconian's speech was calm while Ifrit only became more enraged with every word spoken.
The Infernian recalled the events that Bahamut spoke of. He fought a particularly nasty enemy machine from an unnamed opposition and as a result, scorched a third of the Solheim empire's territory. The land never recovered, becoming a desolate wasteland of a desert.
"That was not my fault. I was trying to protect the citizen's of Solheim from our enemy."
"And yet you killed a third of the population and showed no remorse for it. They demanded you be sealed away, and the rest of the Six agreed." The dragon grasped for the Infernian's arm to force him back into Pitioss.
Ifrit wrenched away from his brother God. "I will not go back to that pit of Hell. It will drive me mad."
"That is the consequence of your actions." The Draconian was as cold as the mountaintop Shiva sat upon.
The Flame God's face contorted with anger. "Do they really mean that much to you?" Ifrit growled deep within his throat, lost in his anger. "I will destroy the humans you would value over me, your own brother and equal by all rights. They will kill each other in the eternal darkness." His body dematerialized into a lavender crystal before crumbling and vanishing into the astral plane.
Bahamut stared up at the sky as he pondered the words Ifrit spoke. "Eternal darkness… He doesn't mean that, does he?"
The red giant gripped Ardyn in one of its massive fists and Ain in the other, squeezing the brothers in an iron grasp. Their bones ground together under the immense pressure, cracking and popping in ways no human body ever should.
"Ardyn… Are we really going to let it end here… like this?" Ain gasped for air that his body couldn't take in, his lungs being crushed in the giant's hand.
"I can't…" Ardyn played scenario after scenario in his mind, but none of them ended well for either twin. They needed some kind of miracle, help of any kind to save them from this mess of a situation. It's getting harder to breathe. Ardyn wheezed as the remnants of oxygen squeezed out of him little by little.
An enormously oversized blade shoved through the copper carapace of the giant, all but slicing it in half. The monster dropped the brothers, and its body slowly melted into the ground in a puddle of black liquid.
Ardyn's eyes followed along the gargantuan sword to the sky until it disappeared into the darkness. "What is that thing?"
"A sword, but what could use a weapon that huge?" Ain gawked at the prodigious thing lodged in the cement.
A mammoth humanoid being phased into existence and pulled the sword from its resting place. Dark navy armor in the shape of a dragon covered the entirety of his body, gold and silver wings made of blades extending out behind him. The blue-grey eyes peered at the twins standing before him, judging them of worthiness.
"I-impossible… could it be… the Draconian, Bahamut?" Ardyn stuttered in sheer amazement as he stared at the colossal being.
"The leader of the Six? Why is he here?" Ain's gaze shifted from the god to Ardyn.
"What is your name, human?" the dragon inquired with eyes on Ardyn.
"I am Ardyn Lucis Caelum, this is my brother Ain," Ardyn answered, hiding his fear with sheer determination so that the Draconian wouldn't deem to smite them.
"You can understand him?" When the god spoke, it sounded as if he talked in gibberish to Ain, with a static buzz that nearly pained him to listen to.
"Yes, can you not?" Ardyn's eyebrow arched at his brother's question. Bahamut spoke clear as the crystalline glaives they wielded.
"Only the chosen can understand the language of the Hexatheon. You have a special magic, the Armiger, do you not?" Bahamut's voice was stern and his vast presence nearly made Ardyn's knees buckle.
"I do." Adryn stared hesitantly up at the God. "Can you tell me what's going on? These monsters came out of nowhere, and this darkness-"
"It is all Ifrit's doing. He seeks to destroy all of mankind and trap me and my brethren in Pitioss, which only opens during daylight hours. By bringing the Starscourge to the mortal realm, he has succeeded in bringing about night everlasting."
"Starscourge? Is that the black mist that we saw earlier today?" Ardyn asked the humongous being.
"Yes, Starscourge is a cloud of photosynthetic organisms that drink light before it reaches the ground. It originates from the astral realm. In a child-like temper tantrum, Ifrit brought it to the mortal realm."
"What is he saying, Ardyn?" Ain chimed in, completely lost in the conversation between his brother and a God.
"The Infernian brought something called Starscourge here, and it's the cause of this darkness." Ardyn glanced at Ain as he answered the question.
"It is also the cause of humans turning into daemons, the monsters that you mentioned previously. It is the ultimate source of daemons as a commonly occurring parasitic protozoa."
"Why have you come here? Is Ifrit in this city?" Ardyn's suspicions led him to believe there was more to the Draconian's visit than a chat, or even that it was so simple to find the Flame God.
"We Gods will not sit by and allow Ifrit to do as he pleases. But we cannot fight him and heal those afflicted with the Starscourge. We have chosen two with whom to entrust this task while we take care of the Infernian."
"And I'm one of two? Who's the other?" Ardyn could scarce believe the words he heard from the God; he was just an ordinary man with no special talent aside from the ability to summon glaives to fight. "Why me?"
"I have seen into your heart, Ardyn. You have a pure soul and truly wish to help all those in need." The dragon's words held the truth of it. Ardyn always tried to offer aid to those he crossed paths with.
"Let me help you defeat Ifrit. The Starscourge will keep flowing into our world unless he's dealt with, right? Allow me the honor of assisting you in his downfall." Ardyn knelt on one knee and bowed his head before the Draconian in submittance.
"Ardyn, what are you saying? What is it you mean to do?" Fear laced Ain's voice as he spoke to his brother, fear and something else - jealousy.
"I'm going to kill a God." Ardyn's chocolate eyes met his brothers, sincerity in them as a small smirk crept up his lips.
"Very well. I will allow you to aid us in the Great War." Bahamut reached down with his jumbo sized hand and scooped Ardyn up.
"Wait! What am I supposed to do?" Ain yelled up after his twin.
"Protect the citizens of Solheim from the daemons. I will come back, I promise." Adryn's voice faded into the distance as the Dragon God's body shattered into millions of violet crystalline pieces and vanished, taking Ardyn with him.