BOOK 2: THE TALE OF THE CHOSEN KING
CHAPTER 32 – THE CURE FOR INSOMNIA
The throne room hadn't been kept in the same pristine condition as the rest of the building. The left wall had been demolished and the debris blocked the stairs leading to the throne on that side. However, the scene Ardyn had prepared for Noctis hung from the ceiling: Four corpses had been chained as puppets. Noctis knew they weren't real, but seeing his father, Luna, the emperor a Glaive; seeing them desecrated like that made his blood boil.
The Crystal hung above the throne, held in place with the chains the empire had used to secure it back at Gralea.
"I'm afraid you're out of luck," Ardyn purred, sitting at the throne. "The throne brings you here? It seats only one."
"Out of my chair, jester," Noctis growled. "The king sits there."
Ardyn's expression changed as he got up.
"Oh, Noct…" his face contorted for a moment in a grimace of disgust, to then change into his signature half-smile. "How I have waited for this. Longer than you could ever know. Tonight, the dreams of the blood royal… come to an end."
"Spite's all that's kept his going," Gladio whispered.
"Talk about a grudge," Prompto quipped.
"Ardyn sits on the throne?" Ignis asked.
"Not for long," the King promised. "This is my ascension."
Without warning, Ardyn shoot a dark spell. The dark projectiles flew past Noctis and hit his friends. The three men collapsed on the floor.
"What did you do?" Noctis yelled, rushing to check on his friends' pulse.
"They have no place in this, the battle of kings!" the Chancellor said, standing at the broken wall. "Come, Noctis!"
He disappeared, but Noctis didn't follow him until he was sure that his friends were merely unconscious and not dead. As he climbed the stairs, the desecrated corpses disappeared in clouds of black mist. Just a trick of the mind.
"It ends here…"
He looked over the edge of the wall to see Insomnia. The fires had died out as soon as Ifrit had been defeated, but a deadly silence hung in the air. There was no sign of daemons anywhere, as if Ardyn had ordered them all away.
Noctis spied Ardyn's figure just outside of the Citadel, at the plaza where they had fought against the Cerberus. He summoned his sword and warped.
Ardyn stood waiting for him, smiling. Always smiling.
"The once helpless and hapless prince. Is he now ready to claim his crown?" he jeered, summoning his own sword, a mirror image of Somnus' blade. "Don't let us down."
The two men warped towards each other and clashed their blades. For an instant they held a power struggle, until their magic repelled their bodies, sending them crashing into buildings each side of the main road. As crystal exploded and fell over them, they regained their footing at the tarmac and readied their next attacks.
"Let the games… begin," Ardyn growled.
"No. Now they end."
They fought with warping abilities and magic, each one testing the strength of the other, trying to find an opening.
Noctis saw that Ardyn's fighting style was similar to Somnus', yet there was a chaotic element that had nothing to do with the Scourge. Surely Ardyn had studied the basics when he was younger, to then develop a fighting style of his own. That made him unpredictable and dangerous, for he mingled swordsmanship with hand to hand combat with an astounding ease.
After Noctis parried a slash, Ardyn switched to a pair of twin swords, identical to those of the Wandered. The King warped away at some distance, not because his adversary had the upper hand, but out of surprise at seeing that man with the Royal Arms.
Ardyn grinned, seeing the horrified expression of the younger King. Then he summoned the Bow of the Clever, and shot at him.
Noctis summoned the Shield of the Just to deflect the projectiles, but felt his strength waning dangerously. When he willed the weapon away to switch to his own sword, Ardyn was already over him.
"So you are the Chosen King…" the Chancellor taunted him after Noctis dodged a kick. "But you are a second choice at best. The ten years you spent accumulating your power, I spent assimilating daemons and accumulating mine."
Wanting to catch him with his guard down, Noctis warped to a street lamp and then warp-struck, using the twin kukris from Ulric. He landed several hits before Ardyn counter-attacked with a powerful blow with the hilt of his greatsword. Noctis fell backwards, the air knocked out of his lungs, but still he summoned his sword and warp-struck Ardyn, slashing with all his might at the man.
Many were the wounds he inflicted, but he noticed the black miasma oozing from the gashes, sealing them almost instantly. Despite the pain he surely suffered, Ardyn didn't seem to lose his strength; he brandished his sword with both hands, and spun around, letting the weight of the blade carry him with its momentum. Noctis tried to dodge, but they were too close to what remained of a car, and he had no other choice but jumping and rolling over the rusty hood to the other side.
"Do you like what I've done with the world?" Ardyn laughed. "I twisted it all… just for you."
Noctis threw what he thought was a fire grenade at the Chancellor. A lightning explosion went off on a wide area, and both men had to warp away from the area of effect of the spell. Disoriented, the King searched where Ardyn might be, but he only caught a reddish shadow moving in the distance as his adversary warped from one place to another.
He felt the rush of air behind him, and he spun around just in time to block a slash from Ardyn's sword. His enemy warped away, and Noctis followed suit, trying to catch him in mid-air.
Ardyn went back to the ground, and the King warp-struck him with all his might. The Chancellor doubled down, and his body glowed with a purplish light.
Before Noctis could dodge, he was surrounded by miasma and dark energy. A twister of scourge and magic erupted form Ardyn's feet, hitting Noctis with full force and throwing him in the air.
He felt the impact of his body on the tarmac. Through his blurry sight he saw Ardyn's heavy footwear slowly approaching.
"A king in name alone," through the ringing on his ears, Noctis heard Ardyn gloating. "I'm truly disappointed. Can't you do any better than that? Ten years, and nothing to show for it!"
Noctis stumbled to his feet, yet Ardyn didn't attack immediately. The Chancellor was playing with him.
"I was so very close," Ardyn grinned. "So close to taking those friends of yours… then making them into daemons."
The King bared his teeth. He knew his enemy was merely playing mind games with him, but he couldn't contain his fury anymore. Roaring, he summoned the Trident of the Oracle and lunged at Ardyn. His adversary didn't try to dodge this time, letting Noctis stab him.
"Ah, to see the hollow shell of a king…" his enemy purred. "With no one to protect."
Noctis realized his error when Ardyn grabbed the Trident with both hands, which started to glow dangerously. The King willed away the weapon and warped at a safe distance.
"That's how you survived all this time?" Noctis asked. "A parasite of parasites! I can only pity you."
"Hah! Pity me," Ardyn's grin turned into a grimace of rage for an instant. "Aren't you high and mighty now? Poor, pitiable, lonely me. But I have you to play with now."
The Chancellor's body began to glow again with dark energy, and Noctis warped even further from him. In the slip second it took him to travel the distance, Ardyn had disappeared.
In a rush of panic, Noctis looked around him, but he could only feel a shadow leaping at him, knocking him to the ground.
"Ah… My revenge is soon at hand…" Ardyn exulted, his face inches away from Noctis'. "How long have I waited?"
"Don't worry," Noctis said defiantly. "It's far from over."
"Well," Ardyn hauled him up by the collar. "Let's have it, then. You and your Crystal against all I have become."
He pushed Noctis back and let him regain his footing. The King knew he had no other option, and resorted to his Arminger.
Ardyn grinned savagely, invoking his own Arminger, the Royal Arms floating around him with a reddish glow.
"Ahh, a king! At last!" he shouted in triumph.
Exactly as it happened when Leviathan destroyed Altissia, Noctis flew with the Royal Arms, continuing their fight in the air. This time the power wasn't temporally borrowed: it was born out of him. The time he had spent in the Crystal had fortified his connection with the Arminger, and now he could unleash all its power.
The weapons clashed as the fighters tried to find an opening in the other's defense. Noctis warped to mislead his enemy, but Ardyn had a keen eye and quick reflexes. The King had to retreat several times, when his attacks were met with a powerful counter-attack.
Noctis launched the Arms like he did against Leviathan; they exploded, breaking Ardyn's barrier for a brief moment. That was enough for him to warp and slash at the Chancellor before the later warped away.
Their fight carried them beyond the walls of the Citadel and above its towers. Despite the Arminger's protection, Noctis felt his strength waning with each blow Ardyn delivered.
"Behold, O King," Ardyn mocked him. "This realm in darkness. This land… of daemons."
The King tried not to pay any attention.
Too dark to see anything. It's time I restore the Light.
Ardyn commanded his Arminger to launch an attack at Noctis. In that fraction of a second, Noctis warp-struck him, and then he used the same movement in a desperate, all-out attack.
With a last explosion, Ardyn fell from to the Citadel's plaza. Noctis tried following him, but his own strength failed him and he also plummeted to the ground.
He felt darkness enveloping him. Shaking his head, he fought to stay awake. His arms trembled as he propped himself up, and he noticed it had begun to rain.
"A war… of attrition, then," Noctis heard Ardyn panting, not very far from him.
The King used his father's sword to support himself. Lifting his head, he saw the giant, ghostly figures of the Kings of Yore appearing around the Citadel's walls.
"The Kings of Yore are on hand," Ardyn proclaimed, his left hand raised. "Calling you forth… to oblivion."
Noctis lunged at him. Ardyn parried with ease, but his energy was also diminishing. His wounds didn't close as quickly as before, and he was starting to sound short of wind.
"Even where the dawn to break now, it will only bring the horrors to light. The truth only offers despair!" Ardyn declared fiercely as he shoved Noctis away.
"Yet the people will live on!"
"You know those kings will not protect you…" the Chancellor said, pointing at the ghostly visages.
"I know… I am the protector!"
Ardyn warped out of sight. Noctis parried his warp-strike regardless, and kicked the man in the stomach to put some distance between them.
"The Crystal uses you," the Chancellor huffed, rubbing his stomach. "Drains you of life. It plays you all for fools."
"I accept it… if it means driving out the darkness!"
Ardyn laughed. It was the laugh of a madman.
"You should all thank me! In the dark, you would know peace," he said.
"I will drag you from that darkness. Out of solitude. Out of emptiness."
"Will you?" Ardyn sneered.
"You are a slave to the dark. Until you are free, you suffer alone! Return as you were!"
"You think you know me…" Ardyn scoffed in disdain. "You fancy yourself benevolent and worthy. And yet when your father died… you… were off playing with your friends! When your beloved died… you lay watching, powerless to stop it! And now you dare speak down to me? You think ten years is a long time?! It is nothing to me! I have lived in darkness for ages!"
Ardyn lunged at him. His attacks had become stronger, as if he had regained his strength. His ferocity almost overwhelmed Noctis, who had to warp away several times before attempting an attack.
"Have you made your peace, king?" Ardyn roared. With each sentence his fury grew stronger, until he was sputtering and growling like a wild beast. "If darkness shall die, so shall you! Curse your kings, and your iniquitous Crystal! Vengeance was to at last be mine! If not for you. I hate you… with all my being!"
As devastating as he was now, Ardyn's rage made him miscalculate his attacks. Noctis parried with difficulty but, when he saw an opening, he used all the royal weapons he had, one after the other. Ardyn tried defending himself with each counterpart of Noctis' Arminger, but his might was spent. With each blow a cloud of mist left his body, until the King delivered the final blow with Regis' sword, running Ardyn through the chest. An explosion of black mist and miasma came out of the wounds, as the same dark liquid trickled down his chin. Nevertheless, he smiled.
"So," he murmured, looking down at the blade. "That, is how you would end it…"
Noctis pulled the sword out of the body. Finally defeated, Ardyn collapsed on the ground.
Satisfied, for they had seen the desired outcome, the Kings of Yore disappeared.
"Now it is over, Majesty," Ardyn whispered, his eyes fixed on the cloudy sky. Black miasma poured out of his wounds and mingled with the rain. "What will you do? Banish the daemons and bring peace? Erase me from history once more?"
Noctis knelt at his side and looked at the man. He lay on his back, with many deep cuts staining his clothes with what should have been blood. Still, he showed no sign of pain; only his expression had changed: his harsh facial features, always set on a perpetual sneer, had softened. The end was near and he knew it, desired it in fact, but he wouldn't have gone down without a fight.
Now his struggle had ended at last, and Noctis thought now he could see a hint of the man Ardyn was once.
As much devastation as his ancestor had sowed in the world, now the King couldn't find in his heart to hate him. Like a flash, he suddenly remembered how Ardyn had taunted him in Gralea, so many years back, and how he had labored to strip the young King from everything he had: His family, his country and his friends. Part of Noctis wondered if Ardyn, out of pure spite, had wanted to repay onto the Chosen One what the world had inflicted on him, and he could only imagine the two long millennia of loneliness and bitterness.
Whatever had happened, whatever grief still gnawed at this man at his feet, Noctis would never know. The end was near, as the gods had ordained, and he wouldn't delay the coming of the dawn.
"This time…" Noctis said. "You can rest in peace. Close your eyes… forevermore."
Ardyn smiled, now looking at Noctis.
"I will await you… in the beyond."
His words died out as his body dissolved, as a dissipating bonfire.
The howling of a daemon in the distance broke the silence in the Citadel.
Only one more thing to take care of.
