'Oct' a muffled voice called out.
'Mhmm' Noctis grumbled, his eyes remaining perfectly shut, why couldn't he just sleep? Stubbornly the Prince rolled over, his hands covering his ears.
'Come now Noct, you're too old to be throwing a tantrum' Ignis told the sleepy Prince, the advisor lightly shaking Noctis as he spoke.
'Fine' Noctis muttered, finally sitting up, his entire body protesting from the sudden action Noctis was putting on it. In a groggy-like action Noctis clumsily wiped his hands over his eyes. 'God what time is it?' The Prince then asked, his head feeling numb and disconnected.
'It is just past 7:30' Ignis answered impeccably, 'Noct are you well? Your voice sounds quite scratchy'.
'M'fine' Noctis mustered as he looked to his advisor with glazed over eyes, 'where's shevee?'
'Shevee?' Ignis said, his voice filled with confusion, 'if you mean the Glacian then she is outside, are you sure you are quite alright?'
'Yess momm quit hassling me' Noctis drawled, the Prince was quick to anger at the sign of genuine worry from his friend.
Ignis's eyes thinned at Noctis's tone, 'that's enough of that' the advisor said before effortlessly yanking of one of his gloves and holding his forehand up to the Prince's head, though he quickly pulled away at the near burning heat emanating from Noctis's skin.
'Dear God man, I knew you were ill, but this is too far!' Ignis proclaimed to the offence of Noctis's now quite sensitive ears.
'Ughh don't yell' Noctis moaned, his hand attempting to comfort his now ringing ears.
'Stop being a child Noctis' Ignis said sternly, 'now put some clothes on, at least then you'll stay warm'.
Grumbling under his breath the Prince pulled his shirt and jacket out from his Armiger and threw them on, and though his advisor was right about the added warmth Noctis didn't feel like admitting such to Ignis.
'Just give me a potion or something' Noctis said, his head shaking slightly at an unnerving pace.
'Would that I could' Ignis frowned, 'but you have never reacted to potions very well when you have a cold'.
'I threw up like twice' the Prince growled protectively.
'Yes you did, within ten minutes, then thrice more within the hour and I was the one who had to clean up afterwards' Ignis remarked, his memory as ever sharp as his wit.
'Fine I get it, no cold medicine for me' Noctis groaned, before crawling towards the tent's exit, Ignis holding the flap open with a suppressed smile as his friend struggled with his very real illness.
'Shit dude, you look dead' Prompto exclaimed as Noctis stumbled to his feet, his hand wiping away at his mucus filled nose.
'Shuddup' Noctis replied hoarsely as he tried to ignore Gladiolus's stifling laughter as he sat by the now extinguished fire.
'Indeed, you do look unwell' a cold voice replied, making Noctis's head spin to find the source of the familiar sound.
'Oh not you too' Noctis whined as the pale skinned Glacian descended from the sky, a small yet noticeable smile fixed on her lips as she looked gently at the ill Prince.
'Considering that you were the cause of this' Ignis announced as he strolled around the camp, picking up pills that Noctis felt were for him alone, 'I would suggest that you do not make light of this situation'.
Shiva's head tilted slightly at Ignis's aggravated tone, and the lack of formalities that the advisor almost religiously stuck too. For a split second Noctis thought that Shiva would react in some fashion, but thankfully she remained mute and returned her gaze back to him, her purple eyes glaring at Noctis's paler than usual face and the black bags that had emerged underneath his eyes.
'Very unwell' Shiva muttered, her hand drifting to Noctis's forehead, a content sigh emanating from Noctis as the Glacian's hand momentarily relieved him of the scorching heat of his temperature.
A swift slap from Ignis's hand on Shiva's ended the contact and gained the advisor two angry stares. 'Here take these' Ignis told Noctis as he shoved two pills into the Prince's hands before rushing off.
'What are they?' Noctis croaked, his throat feeling itchier for every word he spoke.
'They will help, dull the pain, and stop the drowsiness. Though they may be some side effects' Ignis explained as he closed one of his various catering boxes.
'Side effects? So his Royal sickness may grow a brain?' Gladiolus asked sarcastically, Noctis rolling his eyes at his Shield's childish comment.
'Not quite' Ignis replied before turning back to Noctis, 'your Father used them when the outer wall began to strain his body. They can fight off most illnesses well, but they have a habit of interfering with your powers'.
'Err, should I be taking them then?' Noctis said sceptically, holding his outstretched hand a little further away from himself.
'You should be fine Noct, just be conservative with your abilities' Ignis told him with an air of finality. Reluctantly Noctis opened his mouth and threw the pills inside, swallowing them dry. The Prince shuddered as a breeze of mountain air shot threw him, his clothing offering little protection. Then, out of nowhere the fog that clouded Noctis's mind lifted somewhat, the irritation around his throat and nose too disappeared albeit not altogether.
'Damn they kick in straight away' Noctis commented to the knowable nod of Ignis and the grins of his two other comrades. Shiva too perked up slightly.
After some packing up, including Prompto falling on his arse after pulling on a tent peg, the group began to move onwards for the bounty. Their path, instead of heading upwards started to decline, and it led them towards something that Prompto found very uncomfortable.
'Wasps!' Prompto screamed as he ran away from the large yellow coated insect.
'Stop running and start shooting you idiot!' Gladiolus yelled as he chased after the gunner and the swarm of killer wasps that followed.
'Never a dull moment' Noctis sighed as he pulled on his engine blade, the Prince feeling some slight resistance at first, but soon the purr of the mechanical blade materialised into his hand. Weapon in hand, Noctis threw it with his usual deadly precision at one of the straggling wasps and then warped towards the sword. The effect was instant, the blade slammed straight into the oversized insect, and coupled with Noctis's own inertia the wasp soon fell limp to the ground.
With the arrival of Gladiolus the skirmish was soon shown to be one sided as the swarm of wasp turned their attention towards the Prince and the Shield. A near decade of experience however proved too much for the insects as Noctis and Gladiolus worked together flawlessly, Gladiolus shielding Noctis from harm and launching him upwards to the creatures, allowing the Prince to take out all of the killer wasps.
'Good job dude' Gladiolus grinned, high fiving the shorter Lucian as he passed.
'Yeah good one' Prompto added as he ran back towards the two.
'Seriously Prompto, you could've shot at them when they started coming at us' Noctis told the gunner critically, though truthfully he held no long term anger for his blonde friend.
'Hey that not fair, those wasps were scary, and anyway Ignis didn't help' Prompto whined.
'Oh they were scary, really?' Gladiolus taunted, shaking his head in mock disbelieve.
'Come now, the deed is done' Ignis said, trying to stop the imminent abuse that was to be hurtled at Prompto from occurring.
'Fine, let's go' Noctis replied, disheartened that he could not ridicule Prompto further considering that for once he was not the subject for his friends' abuse.
No longer hindered by Prompto's mortal enemies, the group ventured onwards, the rocky path proving less of hindrance after experiencing it a day before.
'Huh, are those eggs?' Gladiolus inquired as everyone jumped down from a cliff into a small crater.
'Yeah, but those are massive' Noctis replied, 'wonder what laid these?'
'Could be that Zu bird thing we're looking for' Prompto suggested as he leaned over one of the eggs, tapping it experimentally with his finger.
'Everyone get down!' Ignis yelled, breaking the peaceful silence of the mountaintop. Instead of listening and following the words of his advisor, Noctis turned to look at Ignis, only to see a behemoth of a bird flying towards them, its large claws pried open and aiming directly at him. Noctis froze as the colossal bird came closer and closer, the Prince ignoring the cries of his friends as they pleaded for him to dive.
If it was not for Shiva slamming into him, Noctis would have been skewered on Zu's claws.
'You must be more careful' Shiva admonished Noctis after landing on top of him, the Prince however couldn't help but feel the Glacian's presence more than the hard rocky ground his body had been slammed into.
'Umm, yeah, sure' Noctis blustered before shaking his head, trying to drag his mind out of his mental gutter.
The Glacian's head tilted to the side, a knowing smile adorned on her lips, 'later' she whispered into Noctis's ear before removing herself from the Prince, pulling him up with her.
'Err guys, did I hit my head, or is there two of them?' Prompto questioned uncertainty, his hand pointing towards another mammoth bird.
'Double the fun, come on we can take em' Gladiolus growled, cracking his knuckles as he spoke before leaping down into the much larger crater, greatsword in hand.
'We had best not leave Gladio waiting' Ignis called out before following the shield into the fray.
'This is a really bad idea' Prompto moaned as he jumped down as well.
Shiva floated by Noctis's side, a confused expression written upon her face, 'are all of you this mad?' she questioned.
Noctis merely shrugged, 'probably, but it's more fun this way'. With that the Prince summoned his engine blade and threw it down near his comrades.
As it turned out, Gladiolus's assessment wasn't completely accurate. While Noctis and his friends may have been able to take out one of the large birds, two was proving to be too much. Whenever one of the group were able to slash their way through the thick feathers that covered the monstrous birds, they would simply fly away, and the other bird would take their place, not allowing anyone to recover their strength.
'This… isn't… fun… Gladio' Prompto panted, sweating dripping fervently down his face, his hair now sticking out at odd angles, his revolver dangling limply in his hand.
The Shield grunted in response as he blocked a claw swipe from Zu, 'Prompto some of us don't have guns, maybe instead of dancing around you'd use yours'.
The Blonde Lucian didn't respond, instead he began shooting at the blackened bird, the bullets proving more of an annoyance to the creature. Prompto then gave Gladiolus a hard stare as if saying, 'now what?'
'This isn't working' Noctis grumbled angrily, none of the weapons he had in his arsenal seemed to do any long lasting damage to the goliath beasts.
'Patience Noct, we need a strategy' Ignis advised, throwing his daggers at the darkened bird.
'Got a plan Iggy?' Gladiolus asked hopefully, the shield momentarily dragging his eyes away from the enemy and towards his friend.
'Perhaps' Ignis admitted, 'Noctis keep the blue one, Bennu, distracted, use anything, just keep him away from us. While Bennu is distracted the rest of us will go after Zu'.
'Sounds great, but how do we keep momma bird on the ground' Gladiolus asked, though they were interrupted by another diving swipe by Zu.
Recovering from a flawless backflip Ignis pushed his glasses into place, 'that job falls to Prompto, you see the smaller wings on her head?'
The gunner nodded.
'Good, shoot at them when she looks like she wants to leave that should startle her enough to stay on the ground with us' Ignis explained.
The rest of the team nodded, before Noctis hurried off away and then warped off into the sky to confront Bennu, leaving Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto to deal with Zu, whose eyes leered down at the three challengers with a feral anger. Shiva for her part had hovered over the four men, her self-inflicted pacifism had meant she could not aid in the battle in any combative role. For the most part she aided in other manners, picking up the team when they fell, and sometimes out of the corner of Noctis's eye he thought he caught the Glacian flicking her hands. Then before he would know it Noctis felt the sweat and heat he had built up disappear.
For now though the Glacian looked divided as the team separated. It was obvious to Noctis, even as he engaging in battle with Bennu that Shiva would rather be by his side than that of his friends. So it was no surprise to him when he pulled away from a failed stab to find Shiva floating above his head, watching as he took part in an absurd battle with the enormous bird.
'Help them, not me!' Noctis yelled to the Goddess as she circled about.
Shiva looked at him with uncertainty, 'are you sure? You could be hurt?' she called back, worry coating her every word.
'Yes, Go!' The Prince cried out, before being forced to warp out of the way of Bennu's wings.
When next Noctis looked the Glacian had disappeared, which allowed him to concentrate fully on occupying the large bird's attention. Using every weapon in his arsenal, the Prince whirled around the creature, chopping, slicing and cutting away at its thick plumage, not drawing any blood, but angering the creature further. Noctis nodded to himself as the creature's attacks became faster, and clumsier, it meant that Ignis's plan was working.
Stealing a glance back down to the ground, Noctis noted with some satisfaction that Zu was now looking injured. Its black feathers were now covering the surrounding area, thick red blood covering them. The wings that were attached it its head too looked wounded, as gaping holes were now painfully present and rivets of blood were leaking forth from them.
'Hey pretty boy, pay attention!'
Noctis's head snapped around at the sound of the confident dragoon. Only when a flash of red and black flew past the Prince did Noctis locate the source of the voice.
'Aranea what are you doing here?' Noctis asked, surprised that the Imperial mercenary was so far away from any Imperial outpost.
'Keeping your Princely ass safe, and snagging the bounty on this bag of feathers' Aranea answered with her usual sassiness, her lance pointing towards Bennu. 'Damn idiot has been flying towards here for that last two days, guess it was mating season or something'.
'Well I guess I can help you out, if you ask nicely that is' Noctis told the grey haired dragoon, responding with his own touch of sass.
'Aww how kind' Aranea replied sarcastically, 'but I doubt you can keep up with me'. With that Aranea darted upwards into the sky, her armour providing all the assistance she needed to stay elevated.
Noctis was not one to be left behind and he followed the Dragoon, his sword being flung upwards. When he reached the Dragoon's height Noctis watched with some awe as Aranea spun her lance around herself before plunging downwards towards the circling Bennu. However, when her lance made contact with the creature's feathers it made a horrific clang before throwing Aranea off course.
'Aranea!' Noctis yelped, warping towards the tumbling woman. In an instant he caught up with the Dragoon, catching her by the arm and then warping to the ground.
'Thanks kid' Aranea breathed as they hit the ground, particles of Noctis's warp still lingering around them.
'Whose ass needs saving?' Noctis replied with a snarky smile, earning him a heavy punch from Aranea's armoured fist.
'Don't push it' Aranea warned, her lance pointing towards Noctis, 'remember that mines bigger than yours'.
'Hmm, yeah well' Noctis sighed as he tried to call on all of his royal arms, though he felt more resistance, as though something was keeping them within his Armiger. After some tugging Noctis felt the familiar, yet ancient power at his beckon call, and with a flick of his wrist all thirteen royal arms surrounded him, 'mine are cooler' Noctis said with a smirk.
'Show off' Aranea muttered to herself as Noctis launched himself towards the Bennu, the bird seemed to be trying to join its mate on the ground. With a groan the Dragoon gripped her lance firmly before joining the Prince in the sky once more.
Even with the combined power of his Armiger and the aid of Aranea, Noctis was still struggling to do any real harm to the great bird, he was annoying it, that was obvious, but no real success had been made, not even a droplet of blood had been spilled. Matters were only made worse with the growing cries of agony emerging from Zu as the rest of the team were slowly but surely bringing it down, the pained calls angering Bennu more and more.
'We can't even scratch it!' Aranea yelled over to Noctis as her lance bounced off the bird's resistant feather again.
'We just need to keep it up here, once Zu is dead then we can focus on this one!' Noctis yelled back, though he doubted that any of his friends' weapons would be able to harm the Bennu.
The Dragoon frowned at Noctis's plan but she did not argue with him, instead she returned to slamming her lance into the creature's flank and wings.
This went on for several minutes with both the Dragoon and Prince's energy slowly diminishing, Noctis's more so from the use of his armiger coupled with the extended flight.
A piercing screech from below that shot upwards signalled a change in the battle. Noctis again dared to look down, and found that Zu now lay dead on the ground, its head lying on its side, its eye staring upwards blankly.
But Noctis was not the only one to notice this, Bennu too looked down and saw his mate dead, the murderers standing around her corpse. The sight enraged the creature, and ignoring the two flying humans it had been fighting with, it dived downwards, its wings buried close it its side as it soared towards its prey.
'Err Noct that bird ain't slowing down' Aranea warned the Prince.
'I know its going to crash into them!' Noctis yelled, before he began to chain warp towards his friends, hoping and praying that he would get there before the suicidal behemoth.
In the blink of an eye Noctis went from being hundreds of feet in the air to being on the ground. Once his feet were firmly on the rocky surface the Prince realised he couldn't warp his friends away in time, nor could he stop the enraged Bennu in time.
'Noct what do we do!' Prompto cried out, whilst both Ignis and Gladiolus looked to him for some sort of lead.
'I… I don't…' Noctis muttered, his brain searching for some sort of solution, before finally it clicked.
Reaching out Noctis went further into his Armiger, past the royal arms and the other weapons he had gathered on his journey, no instead his mind rest on a ring, the ring of Lucii.
With a bated breath Noctis pulled the ring out of his Armiger and onto his finger, the royal arms disappearing as he donned the ring. Then he pointed it towards the Bennu and he allowed the ring to take from his life force, ripping it out from his body to fuel its magic , the Prince feeling the cracks and scars emerging all over his body as the ring's insatiable hunger consumed his years. Noctis faltered for a moment as he collapsed to one knee, the strain of the ring and his previous fatigue setting in all at once, and for a moment Noctis feared that he would be too late.
Yet fate would not decree it.
A crack emerged before the Bennu and became a swirling vortex that swallowed the monstrous bird inwards, the bird crying out in fear before that too was swallowed. And then it was gone, the crack in reality disappeared and Noctis was able to lower his hand.
'Great job buddy!' Prompto said, his infectious smile now present, though not all were happy with Noctis's feat.
'What the hell was that?!' Gladiolus thundered as he ran up to Noctis, Ignis not far behind, though this was not all of the anger that would be directed at the Prince.
'You fool!' Shiva screamed at Noctis as she thundered over to him, a freezing hand being slapped across his face, 'how many years did you lose, how many?!'
'I saved my friends' Noctis answered weakly, 'I was worth it'.
Shiva fumed as she hovered over the Prince, the red lines and eyes that were the painful side effect of using the ring still evident. With a tired sigh Noctis deposited his ring into his armiger and stood on shaky feet.
Ignis and Gladiolus both looked as though they wanted to fill Noctis's mind with thousands of question, however the arrival of Aranea stopped such an event from occurring.
'Look I know what I saw was crazy, and I'm definitely going to beat the answers out of you Prince Charming if you don't answer me, but now isn't the right time' Aranea told everyone, 'look I'll give you a lift back to Lestallum, I'll even take her along as well' the Dragoon gesturing towards Shiva, her eyes gazing warily at the pale Goddess.
'Very well' Ignis agreed, placing his hand on Gladiolus's arm and pulling him away from Noctis and towards the Aranea's imperial transport that had appeared over one of the large rocky walls that covered the massive crater they were in.
'Look dude, whatever you did was freaking cool' Prompto began, 'and thanks for saving us, even if Iggy and Gladio won't show it'.
'No sweat' Noctis smiled weakly. Prompto then ran off to join everyone else, leaving the Prince by himself.
'Shiva?' Noctis then said to the Glacian as she hovered over him.
'Yes?' Shiva replied testily.
'We need to leave' Noctis began urgently, his tiredness fading instantly, 'I can't explain to them how I got my Dad's ring, I need to go back'.
Shiva's face twisted from anger to surprise, 'are you sure my Love?'
'Yeah, I don't want to, but there's no other choice' Noctis explained.
'Take me hand' Shiva told the Prince, Noctis didn't hesitate. The second Noctis's hand touched the Glacian's he felt a pressure fall on his eyes, forcing them shut.
When Noctis was next able to open his eyes the environment around him had shifted, instead of a rocky crater the Prince found himself within a train compartment, seats covering the sides. Noctis released a pent up breath, noting that he could visibly see the exhalation. Only then did Noctis's eyes focus on what was in front of him, a figure that he despised with a vengeance.
In front of Noctis stood the frozen Chancellor of Nifelheim, Ardyn Izunia, and in Noctis's hands rested a trident, the trident of the Oracle.
A/N
I have to admit I'm surprised that there isn't any dialogue in the game for when you use the ring when you travel back to the past, or use Shiva or the Leviathan summon. Meh, I'm probably looking too far into things.
Also that crossover with Terra... Sarah is pretty cool, and she had more interaction with Noctis than Luna, though that can be said for just about everyone in FFXV... what I'm saying is that I hope the Luna DLC gives us that.
Until the next chapter, bye!