Insomnia, all ablaze with death and destruction, made the perfect backdrop for her battle of vengeance.
Glauca flew. She leapt. They darted across the dark sky in streams of magenta and blue. He crashed into buildings, hoping to slow her down, but she kept on his trail like a shark upon blood. Perhaps it had hurt when she had slammed into that reinforced window and shattered the whole room with her—rather insubstantial—body weight. But what was a little pain while she was on the hunt?
She was as a woman possessed, single-minded in her purpose and utterly dedicated, regardless of the consequences to herself. Eventually she did realize her city was still in danger, though. Or perhaps she had known all along and simply didn't care. Ardyn still had no clear concept of what was going on inside her head. But he knew she displayed remarkable similarity to him, and he therefore based all further hypotheses on his own proclivities.
He wouldn't have protected the city, of course. He wouldn't have given an ounce of strength to Somnus' fool brood that dwelled inside the ring, let alone enough to tear them out of the In-Between and root them in reality once more in defense of some ignorant wretches who would only blame the resulting mess on him.
Ah, but she was young still. Not as young as she looked, but merely a child in the wider scheme of things.
And so she did.
Glauca landed inside what had once been an office building, but was now little more than a battleground—for he and she, anyway. This time she followed him in through the hole he made, rather than making her own. It was probably for the best. Ardyn crawled in through the darkness, harnessing the miasma that hung thick throughout the city to sweep him along.
Once her feet were on the ground, the little Dreamer reached out to the In-Between. She took hold of every Lucii that had been carved in stone and set in the Old Wall and dragged them back to the physical world. Ardyn felt them wake in their statue-tombs, where they were imprisoned in stone instead of in limbo. He felt them wake before he heard the stone cracking across the city.
Somnus. How unfortunate that he hadn't learned to stay dead.
Then again…
It would be much more fun to kill him again.
"Oh little Drea-mer…" Ardyn strung out her name and turned it into a tune. Miraculously, she actually heard him over the sound of her glaive clashing with Glauca's armor.
She turned to look at him. Rabbit took the opportunity to leap back out the window, making another hole. Tsk. Who was going to clean all this glass up?
"I wouldn't dream of telling you what to do… but you might consider getting a handle on the daemons before they wreck your pretty little city." He paused. Then smiled. "Unless of course you don't care."
In which case. Well. That was her business, wasn't it?
He laughed and drew the miasma up around him, wrapping up and letting it drag him away once more. He had a very important date to keep. A discussion two millennia overdue.
"Enjoy your revenge, little Dreamer…" He said. "I know I will."