"You've got those Arms for a reason! USE them!"
Gladio's voice.
Filled with frustration and exasperation as they battled hordes of daemons.
That was the last thing he remembered before his world dissolved down to a single point of pain.
Pain, and the feel of strings, chains, circling his wrists and manipulating him like a marionette, forcing his body to move when all he wanted to do was fall into a heap and never move again.
He couldn't see anything, but red and black.
The chains bade him to attack again, and his body obeyed. He warped forward, Sword of the Wise dragging him along.
"NOCT!"
He slashed, and more red danced in his vision.
"Noct! Stop! PLEASE!"
Something slashed at him, and the chains jerked him back, his body arching into a backflip, and then the Sword of the Wise was pulling him forward again, countering the blow-
The darkness got a little deeper, even as more crimson coated his face.
"Quickly! Gladio! Grab him! Before he strikes again!"
Something advanced on him as his body hacked and slashed at his enemies, and the chains pulled him into a warp to dodge as something tried to tackle him to the ground.
He tried to call out to his friends, he tried to scream, but he was too tired.
The chains jerked again, the Sword of the Wise attacked again, and more fire danced up his nerves.
Blood, hot and sickening, dripped freely from his drenched hands, making his grip on the Royal Arm uncertain as the blackness began to consume the red in his vision.
"NOCTIS! SNAP OUT OF IT!"
His heartbeat had been pounding in his ears, but now it was stumbling… each slash and warp the chains forced him into made it stutter in its rhythm, made his breath catch.
"We have to!"
But the chains forced him on.
"It's too dangerous!"
He slashed again.
"We've got no choice!"
Something slashed at him, and he turned, the chains ready to counter-
Something tugged on his heart, pulling painfully-
And suddenly his entire world was overtaken by ice.
The chains snapped, broken in that instant.
The Sword shattered and vanished from his grasp, and color, painful and blinding, returned to Noctis' world.
His body, free of it's chains, collapsed, but many sets of arms caught him before he hit the ground.
He cried out weakly at the contact, breath clouding in the air, the wounds that covered his whole body sending his nerves screaming. Gashes and slices gruesomely decorated his arms, covering him in his own blood, which had begun to frost over from the Blizzaga spell that had hit him.
His friends were above him, frantic, spattered with his blood, shouting at each other as they frantically tried to get him to speak to them, but he couldn't. His energy, his will, had fled with the last few drops of his magic.
He could barely breathe past the cold.
Already the world was fading again.
"No, no, no, NO! Don't you die on me, buddy!"
"Gladio!"
"Got it!"
Something sharp stabbed into his chest, and fire quickly began to burn away the ice, making the pain reach a fever pitch for an instant- as his nerves were repaired from the cold- before blissful numbness swept through his body, spiraling out from his heart to the tips of his fingers and toes, banishing the ice and sealing the last of the deep lacerations.
Blood still covered his body, and he still shook uncontrollably from the shock, but he could breathe once more.
"N-n-not," He stuttered, "N-n-ot us-s-sing th-them, ag-gain. E-ever."
He'd been told the Royal Arms came with a price.
He'd never expected it to be his life.
"No, never again, buddy!" Prompto vowed through his tears, shaking almost as much as Noct.
Ignis' grip on his hand was enough to crush his fingers, but the pain was welcome compared to what had just transpired. He welcomed the warmth of Ignis' gloves.
The world was fading again, but this time it was a welcome relief as exhaustion began to pull him into sleep.
Just before he went under, he thought he heard Gladio's voice.
"He'll have to learn to use it, to control it, if he's going to be King. King Regis didn't have this problem..."
His heart sank, and when he fell into sleep, it was into dreams of black and red, and twelve more Royal Arms to tear him asunder as the blood price for their might.