BOOK 1: KINGSGLAIVE

CHAPTER 9 – A KING'S WILL

Clarus was still one of the strongest men in Lucis, but he could do nothing against the powerful magitek armor of the General. With a swift movement, Glauca grabbed the Shield and send him flying across the room, lunging for Regis after that. The King summoned the Royal Weapons to deflect the greatsword aimed to his head, but he could only stop it, the strain visible on his face. Clarus launched an attack to the General's back, using the King's distraction, but the armored man spun around, disarmed him with ease and, grabbing him by the neck, he hurled him again. Clarus impacted against the black marble and clung desperately to the carvings to avoid a fatal fall. Glauca then grabbed the Shield's sword and tossed it, so powerfully he impaled the other man to the wall.

Regis could only watch his old friend exhaling his last breath, as a gigantic warship cast its shadow over the Citadel.

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"Well," said Chancellor Izunia, gazing alongside the Emperor how an assault craft dragged the case containing the Crystal out of the ruined Chamber. Their own was slowly taking altitude. "I daresay everything has proceeded according to plan. No?"

The Emperor seemed like an alabaster statue at his side. Not even the warm last lights of the day could liven up his icy countenance.

"So it has," he simply said. "We have broken the Wall. All that remains is to break the city."

"Shall we take our leave, then? The sun will soon set. We need not be here to witness the terrors of the night."

The two men walked deeper into the ship as it gained speed and altitude, their mission finally complete.

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Luna watched the craft taking the Cristal and boarding a warship as they overflew the Palace.

"You're going too fast," she said. "We have to land!"

"Yeah, you're gonna have to give me a minute on that," Nyx grunted, trying to keep the ship on a steady course.

"There is no time. I will go on my own."

"You got wings underneath that dress? You can't use magic"

They would be flying by a balcony at the Palace in a few seconds.

"Not all miracles are made by magic," she calmly said. "I do not fear death. What I fear is doing nothing and losing everything."

And she jumped from the ship.

Cursing, Nyx left the controls and followed suit, and with good timing, for Luna's jump would have missed the balcony for a few inches. He grabbed her by the waist and threw his kukri; the two of them landed atop the marble terrace, the glaive always protecting her with his body.

"You can thank magic for that miracle, Your Highness," he pointed out as he helped her to her feet. Warping wasn't a pleasant first experience, but she managed to walk more or less steadily and keep down whatever her stomach might have held.

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At the plaza inside the Citadel and in many places throughout Insomnia, assault crafts landed, deploying MT soldiers. The robots started shooting indiscriminately to the crowd, felling soldiers and civilians alike.

The man with the lavender shirt walked among the crowd, a smile on his lips as he watched the people running by.

"The reckoning is at hand," he murmured. "Dawn of a new age."

His soliloquy was cut short, however, when a stray bullet pierced his right lung. He fell to the ground, still watching the panicked crowd around him.

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Regis invoked a magic shield to deflect the General's blows.

"You have the Crystal," he said. "What more would you take from me?"

The shield broke in a thousand shards. Without a word, Glauca snatched the King's left hand and pulled him forward. The momentum left the monarch defenseless and the General, with a wide arc from his sword, severed Regis' left fingers, making the Ring of the Lucii tumble with a metallic sound on the floor.

Fortune had that the ring rolled to the feet of someone they didn't expect to be in the room with them.

"The ring of the Lucii," Ravus said, looking at the intricate filigrees on the ring's dark metal. "I lost my mother, my country, my birthright. Niflheim was the only life left to me. But all of that was for this. The Ring belongs to me now."

Several things happened at the same time when Ravus put the Ring on his finger. Time seemed to stop, and he saw how Glauca was already upon him, his sword tracing a deadly arc aimed at his head. A door had opened, and he could see his sister with one of the King's lapdogs.

No matter: the Ring was his, and he could fulfill his vengeance.

"Hear me, Lucian Kings of Old!" he invoked. "For I am Ravus Nox Fleuret and none is more worthy of your power than I!"

There was a moment of silence. Ravus' face changed his expression from one of triumph to incredulity.

"No. Why? Why do you refuse me?"

As an answer to his pleas, his arm burst in flames, and he fell to the ground, writhing and screaming in agony.

The Ring fell from his hand, rolling back to the King's feet; Glauca's greatsword cleaved at the marble floor in the place Ravus stood moments before. Luna met a gruesome scene, with his older brother now unconscious on the floor, his left arm blackened and ruined beyond salvation, and the King holding his bleeding hand. Seeing Glauca about to attack the King, Nyx warped towards him, while Luna helped the monarch.

Glauca saw Nyx coming and, with a flicker of his left hand he deflected the knife and Nyx with it. The glaive roared in frustration, throwing a lightning spell at the General. He warped, this time landing a kick to the chest, but Glauca didn't seem to even notice. He warped again, quickly attacking and retreating, but the General could read his every movement and deflected his blows with astonishing ease.

He tried warping above the General's head, but Glauca guessed his intentions once again. He grabbed the kukri in mid-air and threw it to the floor, making Nyx land heavily on his back. Through his blurred sight, he saw the General looming over him, sword ready, until an electric explosion made the armored man kneel with a grunt of pain.

"Quickly!" he heard the King calling for him. "Through here!"

He threw his kukri where the voice came from, not really seeing where he was going, and he landed with a thud against the wall.

The doors of the lift closed behind him, but not before he could see the General getting on his feet again.

As he fought to catch his breath, he heard the sound of cloth being torn: Lady Lunafreya made an improvised strip of bandage from her tunic to dress the King's hand.

"This leads to a secret passageway," Regis told Nyx. "Follow it. Once you are away, make for Altissia. Noctis awaits you there."

"Your Majesty…" Luna whispered, when she realized what the King's words implied.

"You knew this was coming," Nyx accused him.

"Yes!" the King admitted, frustration making him raise his voice. "But it was the only way to draw their wrath from Noctis."

"Is that the way of our king? Sacrifice Lucian sons to save his own?"

"To save the world," Luna sternly corrected him.

"See Luna safely to Altissia," said Regis. "This is not an order from a king to his glaive. This is a plea from one man to another. Please, Nyx Ulric, keep her safe. For the future of all."

"The future?" he echoed, trying to keep his incredulity from showing. How could this man talk of the future with his kingdom crashing down around him?

An explosion shook the lift. Glauca was no doubt trying to breach the doors above them.

"Here," Regis said, pressing the Ring into Luna's hands. "It is time it passed to another's keeping."

The three exited the lift and traversed through an empty, half lighted room. Luna led the King by the hand, but before they reached the middle of the room, Regis let go of her.

They stood looking at each other, horror welling up in Luna's eyes when she realized he was mirroring her, twelve years prior.

Before she could react, Regis raised his hand and a wall grew between them. Luna screamed, hitting it with her fists, but it was too late. A smaller version of the Wall which had protected Insomnia for over a century had risen between them.

"I know your mother would wish the same as me," he said with a smile. "That you and Noctis live happily. All those years captive because I failed you. Not again. Locked doors will seal your fate no longer."

Another explosion echoed in the distance.

"Our hope goes with you now, Nyx Ulric," he said to the glaive. "Godspeed."

Nyx led the Princess away to the exit, and Regis turned from them to face his enemy.

Glauca landed on top of the lift's car, crushing it with the impact. The breached doors from the floor above fell behind him along with pieces of wall, but the armored man didn't flinch. Instead, he calmly stepped into the passage and into the room. He raised his greatsword, offering a salute as the King threw away his cane, both men preparing for the duel.

The General lunged forward, but Regis raised his injured hand, the white cloth now of a bright crimson. An explosion of electricity hit Glauca and launched him against the marble walls. The armored warrior got up with a grunt, shaking away the pieces of broken masonry. The next lightning bolt was to hit him in the chest, but he blocked the spell with his blade.

"Behold the king of Lucis, who hoarded tranquility within his precious walls," his distorted voice boomed as he slowly stepped forward, overcoming the King's power. "Where is your tranquility now, king? Here is your peace, by steel's swift descent."

Stray rays of energy hit the armor as Glauca advanced. Regis' spell was powerful enough to dissolve the metal, but its regenerative properties restored it almost instantly. The General moved the sword ever so slightly to the side, so he could look at the King in the eye and, for just a fraction of a second, the spell hit the helmet, dissolving its upper part.

Regis faltered then, his green eyes wide as he shook his head in disbelief, for he had recognized whose face was under the liquid metal.

With a movement of his wrists, the General deflected the spell and Regis' hand. The motion made the King spin on his feet and Glauca, seeing the opening, thrust his sword through the King's back once, he took it out and ran him through a second time. The General tilted his head upwards, and an inhuman scream of triumph echoed in the chamber. Nyx and Luna watched in impotent horror as the King's eyes became unfocussed. With a push from Glauca, Regis' corpse fell face first to the ground.

Without thinking, the glaive unsheathed his kukri, and it was Luna's turn to drag him out of the room.

"We must get away from here," she reminded him, tugging at his clothes and forcing him to look at her. "It is what your King wanted."

He bared his teeth like a wildcat, looking at Glauca standing over Regis' corpse, his sword raised before him in silent vigil. His impulse was that of clawing at the barrier, which still stood between them, but the Princess was right.

They ran as fast as they could towards an exit to an underground parking. Before getting in one of the cars, Luna stopped, staring at the colossal statue presiding over them: Another of the Kings of Old.

As they sped their way towards any city exit, they could see that it was already dusk. Insomnia would be defenseless against the daemons.

Nyx tried contacting HQ to no avail. He then shook his head, remembering how his conversation was abruptly cut when the explosion went off, and trying to push away the thought of Drautos being caught on it.

The screen on the dashboard showed the newscast. An announcer narrated how the security cameras had caught the images of the alleged terrorists who had planted the bombs at the Citadel's plaza, which had been promptly identified. However, the newscast only centered on one: Libertus Ostium, Galahdan refugee and former member of the Kingsglaive.

Nyx shook his head. Of all the stupid things Libertus could have done…