AN: I originally posted this over on my Tumblr, but I figured it was good enough to post here too!
ᴛɪᴛʟᴇ: ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ᴋɪɴɢ
"I suppose I never revealed my proper name, so allow me to introduce myself: Ardyn Lucis Caelum.""The Founder King?"
"If only. No, that would be my dear brother, who snatched the throne and cast me into exile."
— Iᴢᴜɴɪᴀ Lᴜᴄɪs Cᴀᴇʟᴜᴍ —
The purplish glow pulsed through the room, carving the walls in false amethyst for its swirling rays. The light emitted from the Crystal flooded over the King's face, picking out the handsome, strong features almost lost beneath the lines and grey of exhaustion. There were moments when Izunia fully sympathised with his fallen brother. Staring at the crystal, silver-grey eyes hardening to steel, this was one such moment.
The Crystal had chosen him as the Founder King in desperation, a last-minute attempt by the Astrals to keep the darkness at bay whilst they scurried to fix the problem that walked among them. Their Chosen, the one meant to become a vessel for the light...had instead become a vessel for the very darkness he was meant to destroy. For all their wisdom and sight, the gods had not seen this eventuality. For all their words and bravado, Izunia knew the truth – the Astrals were at a loss. The world would wait for them to forge a new Chosen. And, in the meantime...
"If you trust in me enough to lead this kingdom, trust me with the light intended for my brother!" Izunia commanded, taking a step towards the Crystal. The macabre, twisted stone merely hummed, the light brightening slightly in response to the King's venom. It brought Izunia's teeth to grind, lip curling. "...He is coming. You know this. Give me something to defend my people with."
After a moment's silence, the tearing voice of Bahamut echoed in Izunia's mind, born of the Crystal's link between his world and the Astral Realm:
"It is not a matter of trust. If it could be done, the light of the Crystal would be yours to wield, and the darkness purged from our star. But you are not the Chosen King, you were not born with the divine powers of the Chosen. The light would tear your mortal body asunder. Until a new Chosen is forged from fate...you must delay the Usurper's rampage. Protect the Crystal, and protect the ring. That is your calling."
"And what of your calling?" Izunia snapped back, one hand balling into a fist at his side. Of the brothers, he had always been the one more prone to speaking a reflection of his emotions. Ardyn had always been laid back to the point of ridiculousness. It made his fall all the more bizarre to Izunia; the very idea that the slothful, ever-smiling man who worried over little bar healing the wounded could become the walking embodiment of darkness and hatred. "You cast him out, and for good reason. My brother was a fool to play a god walking among the afflicted, trying to defeat the Starscourge on his own power instead of waiting for your bequeathed light. But we have waited. The world has waited. People are dying!" The king pointed out behind him, the outside world beyond the castle's walls shrouded in the looming plague. "How much longer must we wait for your new Chosen? If not me, then who?"
The Crystal fell silent, and Izunia's silver eyes glanced around the room. The light seemed to dull before him, the purple glow receding back on itself. The very air around him grew a touch colder, and the chuckle that responded to his outburst did not come from the Crystal before him, but behind. Izunia glanced over his shoulder, barely daring to move: he knew exactly who had laughed.
"You are starting to sound like me, Izunia. Your goal of replacing me seems to be going well!" Ardyn's voice slithered through the room, dripping with bored confidence and sending Izunia's blood cold. Arrogance was ill-suited to the brother he once knew, but the shadow-gilded corruption wore it all too well. He turned to face his brother in earnest, silver eyes meeting gold. Ardyn smiled, though none of it warmed the amber orbs that fixed upon him for a moment in greeting, flicking a little over Izunia's shoulder to the Crystal and nodding to it. "Even the Crystal is rejecting you! Perhaps you've managed to fool everyone. Should I start calling you Ardyn? Or would that get confusing?"
Every word brought Ardyn a step closer, and Izunia had to fight the urge to step backwards. He would not show weakness, and he would not back down. Not even under the hateful gaze of his brother, the betrayal clear and cutting his soul. Izunia took no pride in what he was forced to do, but Ardyn was beyond the reach of mercy. He had become one of the daemons his brother fought to hard to rid the world of, to the point of sacrificing his own soul to carry the burden of scourge in place of tens of thousands of people. There was enough of the blight in Ardyn's veins to turn the whole kingdom into monsters, it was no great surprise that one man had fallen to it in the end.
He was a fool to think he could carry so much darkness without being corrupted by it.
"I was crowned with the name of the healer the people mourned. In homage and—"
"—and I suppose the newly-crowned Queen finds it easier to call you King Ardyn?" Ardyn snapped back, an echo of emotion finally colouring his tone and drawing cold through his eyes. Izunia felt his jaw snap shut. The Queen...Ardyn's wife. There was no love between Izunia and Vespera, though similarly, no hatred. They both bore the weight of Ardyn's fall, the consequences, and their shared duty to the people of Lucis, born in Solheim's ashes. Though it had settled poorly in his heart, Izunia had agreed to be crowned as King Ardyn, that the people of the kingdom might remember the healer and saviour his brother had been, and not the monster and daemon he had become. It was intended to bring hope, to keep his name in history, to blot out the true Ardyn's actions from memory, in time. Perhaps, in centuries to come, the name Ardyn Lucis Caelum would recall the Founder King, and not the monster...
"The world would find it easier to forget what you have become. My title in your name will cut your poison from the word of history." Izunia responded, words more bladed than intended. "I would not see my brother forgotten...but I would see you forgotten, daemon."
For a brief moment, Izunia thought he saw something of the man in the shock that split Ardyn's face for but a heartbeat. But then, the teeth were bared, and the shadow spoke once more:
"Forgotten? Hmm...now there's a thought." Ardyn hummed, circling now around the rooted Izunia, "Is that why you ordered my execution? Several times, I might add."
"I would see you die with some semblance of yourself before I see you become a true monster." The king retorted, brow creasing as he turned his head to follow Ardyn's movements.
"And yet, I have witnessed you become a monster, Izunia..." Ardyn sighed with false-sorrow threading in his words, coming into view in Izunia's peripheral. "...Beheading...burning...crucifixion...what kind of man orders such acts upon his own brother?"
"You are not my brother, creature!" The dark-haired man snapped, turning now to face Ardyn head-on. "Anything left of Ardyn has been devoured by the Blight. By you. By his own naivety. I begged you to stop, Ardyn. I told you you could not continue to absorb the Scourge from others, that you could not save everyone! That you could save many more if you had just waited for the Crystal's light! You could have purged the world of darkness!" An element of pleading cracking Izunia's voice, and brought a grin more fervently to his brother's face.
"Words of rote, dear brother. I heard your little conversation with the Crystal...you're starting to think like me. All this waiting on the gods' whims..." Ardyn turned his attention then to the Crystal, then looked back to Izunia, "...and how many would succumb to the blight as we waited for the light to make me its vessel, hmm? I know!" Ardyn clicked his fingers, eyes brightening as an idea came to him, the whole vision making Izunia's mouth grow dry, "You are so keen to walk in my shoes, little brother, so how about a game? You can play the role of me...and I shall be—" Ardyn stretched his arms wide, head tilted a little to look at the ceiling. "—the Astrals! And your stolen wife shall play the role of the ungrateful people of this land!"
Izunia's heart slammed to his stomach in a cold pit of dread. He failed to keep his mask of calm intact, as Ardyn's laughter responded, boots clicking around him as his brother put a hand on his shoulder to turn him around. There, conjured behind him without his notice, Vespera stood. Though she was bound by the darkness summoned by the fallen Chosen's hand, she still held her composure far better than Izunia had managed for his brother's taunting. Her chin held high, white-blonde hair tumbling to her waist, and a frozen azure gaze piercing the approaching daemon in her former husband, Vespera did not allow the heartbreak to show as readily as Izunia had.
"Have you missed me?" Ardyn asked as he reached Vespera, words as flippant as asking the time.
"I have mourned you." The woman responded, unflinching. "And I have grown far beyond fearing the shadows."
Ardyn sucked in a breath, turning to face Izunia as he stood behind Vespera.
"Oooh, such venom! Well, I suppose the vow of love is only until death do us part, and my dear brother has technically had me killed numerous times."
Izunia saw a muscle twitch in Vespera's jaw. Inwardly, he knew it would be breaking her heart to see Ardyn like this. He had been there each day she walked tall through the halls of the newly-built castle, wearing her duty and title as sword and shield. He had been there each night, hearing her weeping through the walls as she mourned the loss of her love.
But she would never yield to taunting of the Blight. Not even for Ardyn.
"Enough." Izunia brought some tone of command back to his voice, stepping forward to confront his brother. "Leave her be, she has suffered enough for you. Revenge is a simple satisfaction, but if that is what you want, take my life. If you think it will bring any joy to your accursed existence, Ardyn, do it. But leave Vespera be. Leave my people be."
As soon as the words left his lips, Izunia knew he had made a mistake. Ardyn's eyes hardened under a scowl that drew like a storm over his features.
"Your people? This was all you ever wanted, wasn't it, Izunia?" With that, the Accursed brought his arm around Vespera, hand clamping over her mouth as her eyes widened in shock, locked with Izunia's. She struggled, clawing at Ardyn's hand even as it started to cloud with obsidian mist and magenta tendrils. Izunia felt his throat tear in a yell that his ears could not hear over the roar of his Armiger springing to life around him. His first instinct was to hurl the blades at his brother, but Vespera's fearful face cut through his rage, bringing sanity back to the forefront of his mind; he could not risk hitting her with the blades, for Ardyn stood behind her as if to shield himself.
Black ichors now dribbled from his brother's eyes, white struck with midnight, face paling and black rotting across his features.
"You always were too rash...ill-suited to the Armiger, and ill-suited for a throne." Ardyn taunted him, letting Vespera go. The Queen staggered away from him, coughing and spluttering, but Izunia could see exactly what Ardyn had done. Though he had freed Vespera from his grip, the blight that clouded him did not fully leave her. The skin around her lips and cheeks bruised with the same rot that discoloured Ardyn's own, her whole body trembling though she refused to fall to her knees.
"You..." Izunia could not finish the accusation, eyes veiled with disbelief at Ardyn's madness as he slowly looked from Vespera to his brother. Something snapped, and the King brought the might of the Armiger blades raining down on the Accursed's head, each one answered by a ringing clang and clash as they met Ardyn's own summoned Armiger. It seemed the Starscourge had not robbed him of his birthright entirely, as magenta blades swam around him to match Izunia's own emerald-hued arsenal.
"Now now, we do not have time for a silly squabble!" Ardyn scolded him, turning false-weeping eyes to Vespera, hand outstretched. "The Queen is dying! Won't you save her, oh King of Kings! Quick, summon the Crystal's light and save her! Beg mercy of the Astrals that they might save her! Do something!"
Izunia could only let the frustration boil in his heart as Ardyn laughed. He could do none of these things. The Crystal did not react to beck and call, and the Astrals slumbered in the wake of Ifrit's war, letting mankind succumb to the darkness as they waited on nothing but a promise of light and salvation to come. Would it come soon, in this generation? Or the next, or the next? What were eons to the gods but a million lives lost?
Izunia shook the thought from his mind, knowing full well his bitterness echoed the logic of Ardyn's own. In some way, he understood his brother's anger at the gods. Still...the means did not justfy...
"...You can save her." The words came dull, cold, and void of emotion. A beg for mercy.
"...I can. But this is a game. You are playing me, remember? So...will you save her? Would you put your soul on the line? Or will you do the right thing and wait on the Crystal...wait for it to make a vessel of you in years past...and forfeit the lives of thousands for this greater good?"
Mockery and taunting, and all for what? Revenge? To prove a point? Or for no reason at all save to entertain the daemon?
Izunia dismissed his Armiger, despite Vespera's plea for him to ignore Ardyn's words. Silver eyes remained trained on the monster.
"It was a cruel and unfair choice you were burdened with, brother. And I still wish you had done as the Astrals' decreed. I wish you had become the vessel of light, but the cost was cruelty on the gods' hands. I wish...I wish I could have saved you."
Ardyn's face slackened with disbelief, the shadows nearly clearing from his face and his eyes. Izunia did not draw hope from it. "Please...save her."
A moment's silence settled between the brothers, and Izunia began to worry that Ardyn meant for nothing more than to hear his brother admit to understanding his view, then leave him to see Vespera succumb. But then, the Accursed raised his hand, drawing the blight from Vespera with ease. The darkness left her, rot clearing from her skin and she inhaled as though left submerged in the abyss until this moment, then collapsed to the floor. The Starscourge that drew from her lingered in Ardyn's palm, golden eyes studying it for a moment.
Tension cast Ardyn's features in thought, his jaw tight, and for all the world, it looked as though he was fighting with a decision. Too late, Izunia realised the question that toyed in his brother's mind, as Ardyn simply stated:
"This is a game, remember?"
He threw his hand out, and before Izunia could react, the Scourge flooded across his eyes, blinding him and plunging him into darkness.
—Aʀᴅʏɴ Lᴜᴄɪs Cᴀᴇʟᴜᴍ —
Ardyn was no fool. He had not thought witnessing his brother writhe upon the floor, cast into darkness as had been done unto him, would bring him any blessed relief.
And yet, as he stepped over Vespera's unconscious form towards Izunia, Ardyn mused that he had expected to feel something.
Oh, and what a sight it was. The false-king, the traitorous brother, coiling and jolting on the floor at his feet, the Starscourge boiling his flesh and moulding it anew. Ardyn squatted down at Izunia's side, considering him with mild curiosity.
"It hurts. Burns, almost. Like your veins are being pulled taut...I know." He noted with an attempt at sympathy. Ardyn's heart was hammering in his chest – for now, he did not understand why. He did not care to understand. "But you see? You are not me, Izunia. This little shard of darkness is enough to turn you into a daemon...yet, the world's darkness could not turn me."
Despite his groans, Izunia managed to let out a cry of frustration, and grind out:
"Look at yourself! L-Listen to yourself! You m-might not appear a monster...but the s-scourge has long since t-t-turned your heart into a daemon's!"
His please brought little but a scoff to Ardyn's lips.
"If I am any sort of monster, it is by your doing. Consider the act repaid."
"L-look...at what...you are doing! Everything you fought...everything you did...you, who would not let e-even your worst enemy fall to the blight! Look at you! You...you wanted the opposite of all of this! This...this isn't your desire, it is the Scourge's!"
Ardyn felt his heart freeze.
His jaw clamped, his eyes fixed on the twitching form of his brother as he fought to retain his humanity against the Starscourge. The Starscourge he had plagued him with. The blight he was spreading. The blight he used to cured...
Somewhere, the thought that perhaps his own hatred had merged with the Scourge's own desire to decay to world had become lost in his fury. Brought now to full view by Izunia's words, Ardyn could not ignore the possibility. Had he fallen from one puppeteer in Bahamut only to become ensnared in the strings of the Starscourge? Had his divine birthright protected only his form, and not his heart from being turned by the Scourge?
...Had he even noticed, or thought it all to be his own freewill?
The concept nearly shattered Ardyn's resolve, and he felt himself recoil in on himself, hands coming up to claw through wine-coloured locks. A small voice, naught but a whisper, daring to speak in the surrounding abyss of his shattered mind – this isn't who you were.
"Ardyn...please..."
Reverie deglazed from Ardyn's eyes, and for a split-second, he saw nothing but his brother fighting against the Starscourge. For the first time since his fall, Ardyn felt the flash of want to save someone, to take their pain, to take their suffering, to help them. He lifted his hand, hovering over Izunia's fallen form.
He could yet save him.
...this is who I chose to be.
A Saviour. A healer. Yes, he chose that life. That was Ardyn Lucis Caelum...until he learned the truth of it. Of the gods' blood price upon the world, of a hatred in the hearts of man. If he had changed, he had changed of his own accord. Perhaps the Scourge had influenced him, Ardyn would not deny that. Perhaps it had closed the door on a blinding light, and now he could see.
Darkness poured from Ardyn's palm, shrouding his brother and robbing him of any chance against the daemonic form taking hold of him. He did not flinch, even as Izunia's voice howled in pain, physical and of loss, even as his final words corrupted with the growls of the monster he had turned into.
"Th-the memory...of you...will always be...m-my brother..."
Ardyn grabbed the now-daemon's neck, dragging him up as he got to his feet. Slowly, he began to walk towards the Crystal, its light crackling and hissing in warning to the Accursed. He could feel the daemon weakly twisting in his grip, too exhausted from its transformation to put up any true fight. He could already smell its flesh burning under the Crystal's harsh and cold light...
Without a word, Ardyn thrust his now-daemonic brother forward, pushing the daemon's horned skull straight into the Crystal's maw. The Crystal immediately responded to the arrival of any form of the Starscourge, its light blaring brighter and brighter, bright enough to cause Ardyn to wince a little and cover his eyes with his free hand. The skin on his wrist and hand began t blister and peel, but it was nothing compared to what was happening to Izunia – the daemon wailed as his flesh was burnt to cinders, the very light he had craved now dooming him.
Only once his brother was nothing but charred ashes upon the floor and lost in the cracks and crevices of the Crystal did Ardyn turn away.
"And the memory of you will always remind me who I am, dear Izunia."
As Ardyn left the grand hall the Crystal was housed in, he found himself wandering the halls of the newly-built castle. Such a waste, he thought to himself with a smirk, a royal bloodline established and snuffed out in an instant.
Idly, he looked over his shoulder back the way he came. Vespera, the woman he once loved, lay unconscious. She would live, and not for any sense of mercy. Ardyn no longer held any love for the now-Queen of Lucis. He would kill her, yes...but not before she awoke to see Izunia's ashes swirling amidst the Crystal's glow. He would allow her to see that, and then snuff the light from her eyes as he had with his brother.
This world would have no kings nor queens to save it, no Chosen of the Crystal. He would deny the Astrals, the world, of everything, just as they had to him. They had rejected their saviour, and so Ardyn would see to it that they would never see salvation of any form.
He did not notice the darkness of the Starscourge in his veins now coil around his heart once again.
Ardyn had nearly made it out of the castle, intending to return upon hearing the news of the king's demise in order to kill Vespera as well, when he felt eyes upon him. The man paused, turning his head a little to the side. Something shuffled, sounding from behind one of the carved statues that lined the halls, swords ready to protect no one at all. Ardyn turned a little on his heel, and began slowly stepping towards the sound, craning a little to the side to peer around the statue as he approached.
"Do I spy a spy?" He offered around a smile. He had expected some frightened maid, a cowardly knight perhaps...
He had not expected pale gold eyes to peer out from the gloom of the statue's shadow. Slowly, the boy in hiding came forward, hands held ramrod at his sides, dark hair swept back neatly and shining tones of garnet under the light. His eyes were a strange hue, like gold frosted with ice, lighter than Ardyn's own and flecked with the briefest hint of cyan.
"I'm not a spy..." The boy huffed, "You're a stranger. I was hiding."
Ardyn raised an eyebrow, even his mind whirled: Izunia and Vespera...
"Very wise." Ardyn noted shortly, considering the boy. "Cowardly. But wise."
The boy's hand clenched, and it almost looked like he would stamp his foot.
"I'm not a coward! One day, I'll be king, and I'll remember you calling me a coward!"
The boy's words stolen Ardyn's voice from his throat. This child was the prince...child of Izunia and Vespera. The start of a royal bloodline, the start of a reforged salvation for this world.
Those pale gold eyes pierced Ardyn's thoughts – no. Not Izunia's son...
Damn you, brother. Damn you, the Crystal, the Astrals, the world...
He managed to curl his lip in a half-formed smirk, lacklustre for shock. The Starscourge tore at his mind, demanding the Accursed end the royal bloodline, remove any possibility of a Saviour for the kingdom. To kill Vespera, to kill h...her son.
"Well then, Your Highness..." Ardyn made a great, swooping bow, if only to hide the turmoil his mind no doubt painted on his face. "...I shall live in hope you grow to be a merciful king."
With that, Ardyn straightened and turned on his heel, taking his leave. His face a carved mask of a smirk that did not fully veil the shock he felt, the reeling instability now presented to him.
He would return on news of the king's death. He would kill the Queen, as she so rightly deserved in Ardyn's mind.
He would end this royal bloodline...he would rob the Astrals of their hope as they had of his.
...He would end the royal bloodline...
...but perhaps it would be better to wait. Let the Astrals forge their new Chosen and take that from them instead. Yes, Ardyn thought, wandering blindly from the castle through the city in a haze of confusion and conflict, yes, that would be far more apt. He would allow the royal bloodline to live, for now...and strike when the new Chosen rose. It was not humanity that stayed his hand, but revenge.
So he told himself.