Author's Note: Hello to Germany and thank you for your kind review! I hope you enjoy part 2 :)
The King of Light marched back into the darkness of the prison, the flashlight clipped to his hip lighting the way. He didn't wait for the Oracle, too agitated to slow his pace for her, his cane striking the stones at twice the pace of her trident.
He'd entered the place expecting to have to fight the King of all daemons, the source of the Starscourge. Instead, he'd found... he wasn't sure what he'd found.
Noctis came to the end of the carved entryway. What greeted him was the same sight that'd left him staring in growing anger. Until he could no longer stand still, and sought the Oracle.
It looked like a man. A man with chains embedded all around his torso, suspending him in the air. His arms were raised above him, cruel looking spikes stabbing right through the palms. Bare feet were tightly wrapped in chains, hanging limply a foot in the air.
The chains may once have contained powerful magic, but Noctis could only feel the fading remnants of very weak seals.
He knew that the prison on Angelguard was the place he'd find the daemon he was fated to kill, Bahamut had shown him exactly where to go. He was certain that he was in the right place. But the Draconian had not shown Noctis what the daemon looked like.
This is the dreaded Starscourge I'm meant to defeat at the cost of my life!?
He was glad he hadn't allowed the others to follow. Noctis was frozen once again, unable to say anything in the face of the daemon, chained like an offering. Held immobile like a beast before an altar of the Gods for a ritual sacrifice.
The braziers lining the walls illuminated the rags held around the daemon's waist, still lit by the quick fire spell he'd initially cast on all of them. He'd done so hoping that the sight before him would change. But it hadn't.
Lunafreya finally caught up to him, joining him at the threshold. He turned to see her reaction, and frowned at the picture of regal pity on her face.
"Can you dispel whatever illusion this is?" He asked her.
Lunafreya gained a slightly befuddled look, like she didn't understand his request, or maybe because she didn't understand why he'd need her to do so.
Noctis wanted to throw his hands up in frustration, but that was not a kingly behaviour, and was easily suppressed. Still. Her hesitation to do anything, or to answer him did not help the agitated fury simmering under his skin.
The daemon shifted in its chains, the soft clinks drawing their attention, stirring for the first time at the sound of Noctis' voice.
Noctis clenched his jaw, horrified when the daemon raised its human head, squinted at them through messy long hair, and croaked, "Who…?"
Annoyed at himself for continuing to hesitate, just because of an illusion Noctis spat, "If you think this illusion will save you daemon, you're wrong."
The man shaped creature squinted at Noctis for a moment, until something like recognition dawned on its face, "Oh it's you. Don't care for the beard." The underwhelmed voice irritated Noctis enough that he summoned one of his blades.
The daemon flinched, but the implicit threat didn't stop it from speaking. "Finally find a way to kill me, little brother?" The sneer at the end was half-hearted at best, exhaustion clear in the voice. It made Noctis pause, both at the tone and the words.
But he quickly shook himself, refusing to participate in whatever mind game the daemon was playing.
He turned to Lunafreya, "Well? Can you dispel the illusion? I'm not..." He trailed off at the look on her face. The same regal pity she'd been wearing since she first laid eyes on the daemon, and her confusion at Noctis' behaviour. Her lips were pinched together as she obviously hesitated over what to say.
"This… is real?" He pointed a finger towards the chained monster.
The red haired daemon blinked at Lunafreya, noticing her for the first time. It gave her a perplexed look and asked, "Aera? Why are you with-?"
That seemed to throw Lunafreya a bit, her cold distant look thawing.
"Ah," the daemon closed its eyes and let its head once again rest against the bare chest, "A dream then."
Noctis blinked, unsure how to respond to that strange reaction, and dismissal. So instead he asked, "Lunafreya… did you know about…?" He made a gesture to encompass the man and the room and the chains and the whole situation.
"I'm sorry, Noctis." She shifted her hand along the shaft of her trident, "It is the only way to cleanse our star of the Scourge."
"Adagium is supposed to be a daemon!" He protested indignantly, barely refraining from stomping the end of his cane into the stone. But he was not that childish anymore.
"And you are so sure that it isn't?" She looked significantly at the sacrifice.
Sure, some of the texts had claimed that Adagium could take human form. But Noctis had assumed it was nothing but an illusion, a trick.
Annoyed, Noctis stalked forward until he was less than an arms length from Adagium. Hung in the air as the creature was, Noctis had no trouble peering up into its face, its chin resting against its chest. Its eyes closed once again. A side part of Noctis marvelled at the attention to detail, it had even bothered to give itself stubble.
His annoyance only grew at the fact that Adagium wasn't even paying attention to the one whose duty was to kill it. So with his free hand, Noctis recklessly slapped it in the face.
He phased back a step, half expecting teeth to try and bite his hand off. What happened instead was somehow even worse.
It gasped, looked him in the eye, glanced down at the sword still in Noctis' hand, and then its whole body flinched, attempting to escape. The chains dug into its flesh, keeping it immobile, and it let out a loud cry. It cut the cry off with a ragged gasp, quickly going back to hanging limply. Faint moans now coming from it with every breath.
Noctis' eyes caught on movement where the chains were embedded into the torso. Black blood was running from the open wounds agitated in Adagium's flinch. Noctis wasn't going to risk touching it, but it looked like the same substance that daemons sometimes oozed.
The King looked up into anxious, amber eyes that shone unnaturally in the fire-light. Eyes framed by red bangs that reached past the pale skin of naked shoulders.
"Leave me... please," Adagium gasped, "Somnus."
Noctis took a half step back, eyes wide. By Somnus could it mean... the Founder King? The one who'd sealed the daemon in the first place? It thought Noctis was him? Did it... really have no idea how much time had passed?
The King backed up to Lunafreya, Adagium's eyes following him, until they grew unfocused, and its head drooping until it was back to resting on the chest.
"Something's not right here." He whispered to her. Adagium had barely said anything, but what it had was already ringing warning bells within his head. Especially because no one had ever told him that Adagium could so realistically take the form of a man.
"It is as the prophesy foretold Noctis." She softly replied, looking disturbed at the situation, but that was it.
"Remind me then." He demanded through gritted teeth.
She sighed at him. If he was the young man he used to be, he might have hunched his shoulders at the disappointment he could tell she was feeling. But he wasn't the same man who'd stepped into the Crystal ten years ago. Even if it still felt like it at times.
"The True King will lead the people as their beacon of hope and drive away the darkness." She quoted the words of the Draconian, and of the prophesy. "Summoning the power of his forebears, he shall sacrifice the vessel of shadow to usher in the light. And at last relieve all of their suffering." She looked pointedly at the hanging man as she emphasized 'all'. As if Noctis needed to have that spelled out to him.
He stared hard at Adagium. He knew those words, yet they took on a vastly different meaning when confronted with the 'vessel of shadow'.
The older versions of the prophesy had claimed he'd have to defeat the vessel, implying a battle would be fought. He'd always read it to mean that there would be a large scale conflict between the power he had accumulated in the Crystal and this 'vessel of shadow'.
But there would be no battle here.
Well... just because he had to follow through on the Gods' prophesy, that didn't mean he had to do it while Adagium was chained up. It sickened him. Had he been hung here specifically with that intention?
With a flick of his arm, his summoned the Armiger. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Lunafreya step back, a relieved look on her face. Adagium's head shot up, fear blooming in its eyes as they took in the spectral blue blades.
He wondered if her relief would still be there in a moment.
He waved his arm, and his weapons flashed out. Aimed not for the man who was now cringing, but at the base of the chains that held him in place. The weapons embedded themselves into the stone walls with a crack, the chains disintegrating as the last of the magic holding them together failed.
Adagium fell to the ground with a surprised cry, while behind him Lunafreya gasped in shock.
A part of Noctis expected that, now free, it would transform and attack them. In fact, he fervently wished that it would. Anything was better than the sight of the man weakly lying where he had fallen, face down. He didn't even try to get up. Just moaned softly into the stone.
"Noctis." Lunafreya breathed out a sigh, "What are you doing?"
He spared a quick glance back at her, but otherwise did not respond. He needed answers. Before he completed his God given duty he needed to make sure. Adagium didn't look completely coherent, but hopefully he could still get what he needed from him. And Lunafreya would apparently be no help.
Did Adagium know what the King was here to do?
Noctis cautiously approached the collapsed form. Adagium had managed to weakly push its upper body up onto one elbow, its hair obscuring its face. It looked up when Noctis crouched down before it, using his cane for balance.
The confused look it gave him only lasted a second before it violently flinched away from him. Noctis raised his empty hand to try to show he meant no harm, the daemon scrambling away from him.
"St- Stay away-!" It cried, waving an arm to ward off an attack. As it did, Noctis could see the wounds in its chest were already sealing shut, leaving behind puckered scars as they did. Proving at least some of the tales of Adagium true.
"Adagium." He started, then hesitated.
The King was torn on what to do next. He wanted to demand, no, command the creature to answer his questions. But he had a strong feeling that doing so would get him nowhere. Especially not with Adagium so frightened of him.
"Leave. Just leave." Adagium kept pulling itself away from Noctis until it hit the stone wall, and flinched, surprised eyes quickly darting over the room. But as soon as Noctis made a slight movement, the amber eyes flicked back to him.
In fact, his behaviour reminded Noctis of... 'd keep ready if he needed to move quickly but... Well, it was worth a try.
Noctis shifted from his crouched position to sit crossed legged, putting the cane to the side, hands resting loosely on his knees. He angled his body so he wasn't facing Adagium directly. The nonthreatening body language coming naturally and easily to him. A wayward childhood spent caring for every stray cat he came upon had taught him the best techniques to avoid being scratched.
"Adagium, I'm not going to hurt you." He kept his voice soft, soothing. He focused his eyes on the man's chin, in case eye contact would be seen as an act of aggression. Not all humans took eye contact as confrontational, but he didn't want to take the chance.
The creature, the man, the daemon, propped itself against the far wall, watching Noctis wearily. After a moment it softly questioned, confused,"Adagium? What?"
Did it not know it's own name? What sort of memory did it posses? Would Noctis be denied his answers?
"It's your name." Noctis tried to remind it. But then another possibility assaulted him, when the man scrunched up his nose, "Isn't it?" The records had so far held a lot of exaggerations and obfuscations, but surely they weren't wrong about this as well?
"Somnus." Adagium's voice cracked, weirdly upset.
There was that name again.
"Brother," It looked confused and hurt, slouching against the wall now. "What are you-?"
It cut itself off and flinched again when Noctis whipped his head up to stare at it head on. Brother? Somnus was the name of its little brother? But Noctis had been sure it had been talking about the Founder King earlier. For he was the one who had sealed Adagium here in the first place. From the records, Somnus Lucis Caelum would have been the last human face he'd seen in two thousand years.
A cold dread formed in his gut. He resumed his non-threatening posture and said, "My name is Noctis. What's yours?"
The man took so long to respond, Noctis almost chanced a look at his face. Instead, he watched the scarred hands. A small part of him was still waiting for an attack, and was ready if the frightened daemon decided to do so. But a larger part was cataloguing the nervous movements, the fists clenching and unclenching in the rags around his waist.
"Ardyn." The name was eventually whispered across the empty space between them.
Noctis tilted his head to show his smile through his beard. The man slightly relaxed his hands at the gesture, losing some of the defensive and fearful tension.
"Noctis." Lunafreya broke the fragile rapport Noctis had established in an instant. Her sharp voice was harsh in the small space, "Why do you delay your duty? It may not take the form of a monster, but that is what it is. I assure you."
"Monster...?" Adagium- No. Ardyn frowned down at his hands. "Area, how could you..."
Noctis wanted to growl in frustration. He regretted asking her to join him here now. She was only going to make this more difficult and awkward. Already he could see Ardyn losing focus, head bobbing, eyes following shapes that Noctis could not see.
"Be silent." He pointed at her, "Or leave."
A part of Noctis couldn't understand how she could be so cold-blooded about all of this. Did she not see the same thing he did? But he knew she must, she just wasn't letting it affect her need to do her duty.
During that long year spent collecting Royal Arms and forming the Covenants with the Gods, he'd resented the fact that his Dad never told him the truth of his fate when he was a child. Noctis had spent all of his teenage years barely training and goofing off with Prompto. It was only in his twenties that he began to learn what it meant to be King.
His Dad had put off subjecting Noctis to the responsibilities of Kingship for as long as he could. Longer than he probably should have. For a time floating in the Crystal, Noctis had both hated and loved his Father for letting him live in ignorance.
But here. Now. Seeing the different approach and attitude Lunafreya was taking compared to him... He was only grateful. Would knowing about his fate from the beginning have turned him as cold as her? Would it have prevented him from seeing how scared the red-haired man before him truly was? Would he never have hesitated at the sight of him strung up in chains as a sacrifice?
Noctis looked back at Ardyn to see the man's hands were once again making agitated movements. His eyes were flickering all over the prison, not staying still on any one thing. It looked like he was trying to force himself to stay alert, and was in danger of losing focus.
Great. Now he was back to square one. He sighed.
Noctis summoned a blanket from the Armiger. It was black, with the constellations of the stars spread across it. It was the softest thing he had, a comfort from home he'd taken with him on his long journey. He gripped the folded fabric and slowly stretched his hand out to offer it to Ardyn.
The man didn't move from his place against the wall, staring suspiciously and uncomprehendingly at the blanket.
Noctis kept his arm outstretched until it became clear the man wouldn't take it from his hand. So he lowered it to the ground, leaning over to push it even closer to him. It was only when Noctis had backed away and resumed his nonthreatening pose, that the man reached slowly, hesitantly for it.
As soon as Ardyn had a good grip on it, he jerked it towards himself, wary of a trap. Or worried that Noctis would snatch it from his fingers. Noctis tried to keep the image in his head of a tattered stray cat swiping up a treat Noctis had left out for it from his mind. This was a man, or a daemon. Not a cat.
And yet... his strategy appeared to be working.
The red haired man wrapped the blanket around his bare shoulders, running his hands down the soft fabric in wonder.
It was painful to see.
The offering seemed to have done the trick, the man was a bit calmer now. Noctis decided to see if he could get one of his suspicions confirmed.
"Do you still remember my name?" Best not to assume. The man had already called Noctis 'Somnus' and 'brother' a few times. He didn't know if his introduction had stuck.
The man looked at Noctis suspiciously, "Somn-"
Noctis shook his head, and Ardyn cut himself off.
"It's Noctis." The man wrapped the gifted blanket more tightly around his shoulders. "And you're Ardyn... Ardyn, what is your full name?"
Golden eyes looked at him suspiciously, "Why?"
Noctis tried to keep the agitation from his body language. He knew it would be misinterpreted if he did.
A soft, pained sigh came from behind him. The whisper so soft he almost didn't hear it, "Noctis..."
It was that whisper that spurred him on, though he was sure that was not her intention. It made him even more sure he was on the right track.
"Is your name..." It was painful to think. Painful to force past his lips. But he had to. He had to know. "Ardyn Lucis Caelum?"
Adagium was a monster, all the texts said. But one scroll, hidden in the depths of the Royal collection, had asserted that Adagium had once had a different name. That he was once a man of Royal Blood.
The man straightened his back at the name, the action reflexive. He frowned at Noctis, for the first time since the King had entered the prison he focused on Noctis with a level of alertness that suggested he wasn't completely out of it. It suggested he might be able to answer Noctis' most burning question.
"Of course it- Why do you even have to ask? What is happening? Is this...not a dream?" He looked around the prison, at the damage done to the stone where Noctis' weapons had destroyed his chains, "Am I... awake?"
Given the way the chains had cut into him, Noctis hoped he'd been able to sleep through all of the last two thousand years.
"You've been asleep for..." Noctis hesitated to give him the actual number, then decided to settle for, "A long time."
Ardyn rubbed a free hand over his face, looking like he wasn't sure whether he believed Noctis or not.
"Do you know why I'm here?" Noctis decided to jump right into his main concern, now that his other suspicion had been confirmed.
A small part of him still wasn't sure if he could believe everything he had so far seen and heard from this man. It could all be an elaborate play for his sympathy, so that he'd let his guard down but... a larger part didn't believe that to be true.
"I... No." Golden eyes shone with alertness and intelligence. Noctis had to wonder if the man suspected.
"Then, what did you mean when you asked if your brother had finally found a way to kill you?"
No answer was forthcoming for so long that Noctis worried he'd lost the man again.
"Is that why you're here?" His voice softly carried through the space between them, "To kill me?" The next words burst from him in an old hurt, "Why? For what sins?"
Gods... he really has no idea. Noctis was beginning to feel even more sickened by this whole thing. The more he spoke to the man, the more glad he became that he'd followed his own counsel and hesitated.
"Your Majesty, do not heed its words." Lunafreya stepped farther into the prison. Noctis glanced back at her to see that her trident was now levelled at Ardyn. "You are only prolonging its suffering, and you are allowing it to delay its preordained fate."
Was that how she justified her actions to herself for all these years? She'd convinced herself that the man to be sacrificed was an it? Or that they were freeing him from his suffering?
"Majesty?" Noctis heard Ardyn whisper. He watched through his dark hair as Ardyn used the wall to lever himself into a standing position, one hand gripping the blanket to keep it tight over his shoulders.
"Aera, why are you helping him?" Noctis clenched his jaw, watching as the man's eyes again started to follow something that wasn't in the room. Lost in his head.
"You need to leave." He turned his head and stonily spoke to the Queen. He raised a hand, and a crystalline wall formed between them, forcing her back. He was tired of her interference. He never should have asked her to join him in the first place.
He heard Ardyn gasp behind him, but didn't look back until the wall was finished forming. It was a dangerous thing to do, taking his eyes off of Ardyn, but shields were not his strength and took his full concentration. When he relaxed his arm back onto his knee and turned to Ardyn, it was his own turn to gasp.
Any further doubt he'd harboured in his mind crumbled under the sight of the long red sword Ardyn had summoned to his hand. The man had an Armiger. Only those of royal blood had such abilities. He truly was a Lucis Caelum.
" Somnus, why would you-?" The armed man's voice lowered in anger. "No, who are you?"
Though Noctis should probably be worried that the 'vessel of shadow' was angry and armed, instead he just wanted to throw his hands up in frustration. Once again, she'd made the man scared and defensive. In the back of his mind he pictured a cat, his hackles up, claws out, and hissing.
Noctis refrained from moving from his seated position, even though his instincts were screaming at him to summon a weapon and defend himself. But he knew any movement from him would make the man lash out. The last thing he wanted right now was a fight, even if for most of his time in Adagium's prison he'd hoped for this very thing to justify killing the sacrifice.
"Noctis Lucis Caelum. The King of Lucis." He kept it simple.
Ardyn's eyes darted over him, taking in his expensive raiment, which probably contrasted with his messy long hair and trimmed beard. Eventually, confusion took over the anger and fear on his face and he asked "Why would a King... debase himself like this?" He hadn't lowered his weapon yet, but he was calming down. Good.
Noctis cocked his head. He supposed his actions could be seen that way. The royal council had always bemoaned his lack of decorum and nobility. Apparently a King was supposed to always stand above others. And with his family chosen by the Gods to safeguard the Crystal, some refused to even consider that Noctis was completely mortal. Not like them at least.
Meeting Prompto, and his frank way of speaking to Noct, had opened his eyes to the worshipful level some people took it. It had taken many years for Noctis to get rid of the few ingrained beliefs his friend had picked up. Thankfully Prompto had a habit of forgetting that his best friend Noct was also of the holy line of Kings.
Noct's inability to let a stray cat go hungry, and the lengths he would go to earn their friendship, had apparently been what first opened Prompto's eyes to the fact that Noct was human like him. And also shown Prompto how lonely he was in that period of his life. The little stalker.
"Well..." How to explain that, when calming a defensive stray, Noctis considered no action below his dignity. The man wasn't a cat, of course. But the technique worked. "I'm not like other Kings." He settled on the understatement of the millennia. "Can we just, talk?"
Ardyn tightened the hand holding the blanket, pulling it tighter around his shoulders,"You're here to kill me. And you want to talk?"
"Mmm," Noctis hummed his agreement. When the man still stood frozen against the wall Noctis threw in, "Please?"
Uncertainty bloomed over Ardyn's face at that word. Noctis wanted to give himself a pat on the back. It looked like, by not conforming to any of the man's perceptions, he was getting through to him. If Noctis really did look like his brother, then it probably also meant that Noctis was behaving nothing at all like the Founder King.
And given that Noctis had met the spirit of the man within the Ring of the Lucii, he was not surprised.
Golden eyes roamed the prison once more. The man shook his head and brought a hand up to his forehead, grimacing. The blanket slipped from his shoulders, falling to his feet. Noctis tensed, just in case. But then Ardyn's legs faltered, and he slumped to one knee.
"Are you alright?" It wasn't the first time the man appeared to lose focus on what was happening around him. Noctis had to assume that, after being caged and asleep for so long, he kept forgetting what was real, and what was a figment of his mind. That he was as lucid as he'd been since they'd started to talk, was frankly amazing.
Ardyn collapsed into a seated position once more, eyes flying to Noctis, shocked, like he'd forgotten Noctis was there.
"Do you know who I am?" Noctis slowly asked, worried he'd have to start over from the beginning.
"Som-" Adryn began, but cut himself off before Noctis could, shaking his head. "No. Noctis."
"That's right." Noctis gave him a relieved smile, which the man hesitantly returned. He had kind eyes, Noctis distantly noted.
The red long sword was finally dismissed back into his armiger, red crystalline sparks filling the air, different from the usual royal blue. Ardyn picked up the blanket to return it to its place around his otherwise naked shoulders.
Having regained the man's focus, Noctis decided to return to their earlier topic before he lost the man again. He was curious to ask why he kept calling Lunafreya by the name Aera, but seeing as it had so far always led to him zoning out, he decided to stick with what was important.
"Now, you said you don't know why I'm here. Correct?"
Ardyn nodded, but one of his hands formed a loose fist, room for the pommel of a sword to appear in an instant.
"Do you know about the prophesy?"
Golden eyes narrowed suspiciously at him, but the man shook his head.
"According to the Draconian," He quoted, "In a time of Eternal Night, the True King will lead the people as their beacon of hope and drive away the darkness. Summoning the power of his forebears, he shall sacrifice the vessel of shadow to usher in the light. And at last relieve all of their suffering."
The suspicion never left the man's face as he slowly asked, "...And what does that have to do with me?"
Noctis let out a sigh, ruffling his long bangs. There was no good way to put this. Especially if the man had no idea. But Noctis could tell he had a suspicion now, going by the look on his face.
"I was named the King of Kings, the True King, by the Gods when I was young." Ardyn flinched at the words, horror forming in his eyes.
"No." He whispered.
Noctis continued resolutely. He wouldn't kill the man, sacrifice him, without him understanding why. Perhaps the Oracle had the right idea that leaving him in ignorance was better. Was kinder. But... after being lied to for so long by people he trusted, Noctis disagreed.
"The sun hasn't risen in five years. Daemon's are everywhere. People are dying." He tried to soften the blow.
"No." Ardyn's wide eyes were locked onto his, the word torn from his throat.
"The Gods named you the Vessel of Shadow."
The man stared at Noctis in horror for so long, it started to unnerve him, but he met the wide golden eyes resolutely. He couldn't shy away from the truth.
"No. That can't- But-" Ardyn shook his head in denial, "I did as the gods bid." He pleaded. "I only did as they-" Golden eyes slid to something behind Noctis, where the outline of Lunafreya could just barely be seen beyond his crystal wall." Aera," He reached for her, "you said if I-"
"I was led here to complete a ritual-" Noctis cut in, trying to explain, but Ardyn was no longer listening, having fallen back into his own mind.
Ardyn's outstretched hand flinched back, and he bent his knees, curling into a ball, hands in his hair, whispering to himself, the black blanket sagging on his shoulders.
Noctis could only make out soft denials, as he spoke to someone unseen. He grimaced, not sure what to do now, or how to get the man to listen without putting himself in danger.
Ardyn flinched at something, and raised his head to ask Lunafreya's outline, "Is that why the Crystal rejected me?"
What? How is that possible?
No one had ever said anything about the Crystal rejecting someone before Somnus became King. Noctis frowned and now wished he'd asked for details on how the man had ended up imprisoned, instead of jumping right into figuring out if the man knew he was to be sacrificed. The person he kept mentioning, and it must be a person, Aera, was obviously someone important to him. Enough that he kept speaking to her as if she was there, even though Noctis had forced Lunafreya from the room and mostly hidden her from view.
A broken cry tore from the man's throat and he begged, "Aera, did you know?"
Yes, he definitely had made a mistake in his single-mindedness.
"The Gods never intended for me to heal people?" The man shook his head violently, a growl started to form at the back of his throat."They only wanted to turn me into... a sacrifice!?"
Before Noctis could fully process the implications of 'heal people,' an inhuman noise tore from Ardyn's throat, echoing oddly in the small stone room. Ardyn staggered to his feet, blanket pooling around his bare feet. The large sword appeared in his hand with a shatter of red crystal, and he slashed at an unseen enemy. "What about you, 'dear brother'? Did you know?!" Noctis was forced to his feet, and backed up to the crystal wall he'd erected at the prison exit.
Ardyn's eyes locked onto Noctis' movements, he growled, "Somnus." And attacked.
"Ardyn, I'm not- I don't-" He cut himself off, forced to phase away from the attack, bringing up a sword to deflect the larger man's wide swings. He'd almost said 'I don't want to hurt you' or something to that effect. But he'd be sacrificing the man at some point soon. So that wasn't at all true, and the man would know it, even if he thought it was Somnus he was fighting.
"Answer me! Did you plan this together?!"
The small room made swinging the large sword awkward, and gave Noctis room to dodged around what he could, circling Ardyn, and blocking the ones he couldn't. Never going on the offensive, no matter what openings the other man left. The spirits of the Kings within him stirred, responding to the threat, causing the spectral wounds their swords had left to ache.
"I'm not your brother." He tried to reach the man.
"What?" Ardyn snarled, "Can't stomach having a 'monster' for an older brother?"
Noctis warped away, barely dodging a swing that cut a stone block clean through, when the pain in his back flared sharply, the motion pulling at the wounds. He stumbled.
The King grimaced. Shit. If Ardyn didn't calm down, he'd have no choice. Which was ironic, as he'd been hoping that Ardyn would attack him form the moment he'd first realized he'd have to kill something that looked like a man. If he'd attacked Noctis like this when he'd first freed him from his chains, the prophesy would have been fulfilled already, the ritual complete. His friends would no longer be waiting outside, wondering what had happened.
Now that the excuse to fight and kill Ardyn had been given to him, Noctis couldn't bring himself to follow through. Not like this. He'd finally gotten the fight he'd wanted, but it wasn't for the right reasons. It didn't help that his attention was split, as he forced the rising agitation of the Kings' souls down, not willing to use them yet.
Black tears began to run down his opponent's face, shining in the warm light of the braziers. The whites of his eyes bled black, giving his golden iris an ethereal glow.
The King observed this with growing unease. Though he still hesitated, his hand might soon be forced. If Ardyn got any stronger, he wouldn't be able to both dodge and hold back the power of Kings at the same time.
Even his blood was turning black, the veins creeping up his neck and down his forehead. He clearly was the daemonic monster the texts had named Adagium. There was no doubt there. The more daemonic he turned, the more tempted Noctis was to begin the ritual.
But he still hesitated. For while the texts had been proven correct on some fronts, they were also completely wrong on others. He was also Ardyn Lucis Caelum, elder brother to the Founder King, and... healer of the Scourge?
Noctis summoned the Shield of the Just to better weather Ardyn's attacks, hoping he could wear him down. For all the power put behind the swings of the large red sword, his ancestor was tiring.
However, as soon as he'd braced himself, Ardyn stopped, panting. Noctis lowered the shield to see Ardyn staring at his reflection in the shining surface, horrified.
"The Scourge?" The man whispered, the tip of his sword drooping, touching a fingertip to the edge of a blackened eye.
"No!" He fell to his knees, his sword shattering back into the Armiger.
The black veins retreated, his eyes regaining their more human appearance. All that remained were the black tear tracks trailing from the corner of his eyes. He gasped wetly, looking up at Noctis, his sudden despair disturbing, "I am a... monster."
He collapsed the rest of the way back in a heap, unconscious.
