Day 48:
The black storm building over the city didn't stretch much farther than Cavaugh, but the whole sky seemed darker. Looked real unnatural. But the farther they drove, the smaller it seemed to get. Everything else over Lucis was just blue skies. He would have preferred the storm. At least that didn't conflict with the whole end-of-the-world vibe going on here. The blue skies just seemed wrong.
Was it sunny in Altissia, or had the Hydraean brought some storm as well? When he'd sent Luna that way, he'd expected her to be talking to a god, not fighting one. Damn it. She wasn't a fighter. Leviathan would mop up the whole city, Luna included. How had either of them thought this was a good idea? Rei was right, like she usually was—there was no way any of the Astrals were ever going without a fight.
Damn it.
All he could do was trust that Ravus was as good with that sword as everyone said. They had way too much still to discuss. If Ravus didn't keep her safe…
"Step on it, Specs. No one's going to pull us over while the world is ending," Noct said. Except probably no one else knew it was ending. Then again, he wasn't really sure if there was actually law enforcement out here. There were hunters, sure, but they didn't seem to do that kind of thing.
Rei's car growled and they shot down the straight road surrounded by all that sand. Desert as far as Noct could see. So long as they didn't break down this time, they should make good time. Hell, he hoped they didn't break down. But Prompto wasn't driving, so that was bound to be a plus.
He rose up on his knees in the seat, turning around to look back toward where they had come from. He thought he saw a little balloon rising up overhead, speeding on toward Angelgard.
"Good luck, Rei," he whispered.
He really hoped they knew what they were doing. Cause if anything happened to her, the whole world was going to hell.
"Think anyone went with her?" Noct asked.
"Ardyn will have accompanied her," Ignis said.
"Anyone besides Ardyn?" Noct asked.
"Doubtful. The king wished to keep Cor at his side, and Iris is unlikely to have gone alone."
"Right," Noct said. "Doesn't that worry you?"
Ignis didn't respond right away. At first Noct thought he just wasn't going to, but when he craned to get a look at Ignis' face, it looked like he was just thinking real hard about the answer. It wasn't a question that was supposed to make him think hard.
"No," Ignis said at last. "I should, of course, be more comfortable if I stood at her side as well, but if only one could go with her, Ardyn is the best choice."
Noct gaped at him.
"He isn't the man he wishes us to believe he is," Ignis said.
"No one is."
"Save that, in this case, he wishes us to believe him a worse person than is hidden within. Deeply within, albeit."
"Right," Noct said. "Well, I hope you know what you're talking about."
"I trust him in this," Ignis said. "And you should as well."
It was food for thought. They had a while to chew on it during the drive out to Cauthess. Ignis had only been gone a couple days with Reina and the others. Whatever had happened out there had changed his mind about Ardyn and, well, if travelling with Ardyn made Ignis trust him, Noct could do the same thing. He still didn't understand it, but he didn't need to. Rei trusted Ardyn. Ignis trusted Ardyn. That was enough for Noct.
He just hoped it would be enough for Bahamut.
They were two thirds of the way there before the ground started rumbling. The first couple times Noct thought it was his imagination. After the fourth, with each shake lasting a bit longer, he couldn't ignore them anymore. At least they weren't inside or underground or something. If you had to be somewhere while the earth was quaking, probably on the ground was the best place to be. Unless the ground opened up and ate them. He was hoping that didn't happen.
They were on their way to fight a god. The fact still refused to register, but bit by bit it was sinking in. Yeah, maybe Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto were all Crownsguards and good with a blade—or gun—but a god? They didn't even have magic.
He could do something about that, at least.
"Hey." Noct reached into the In-Between and pulled out flasks, one at a time, until a small arsenal of elemental grenades were sitting on the seat between him and Gladio. "Everyone take some of these. Gonna need all the help we can get, where we're going."
There was an imperial blockade on the way into the meteor, but the Nifs were long gone. Even though the gates were open, there were dozens of cars parked along the road leading up to it. People stood outside their cars, staring up at the meteor. Some had climbed onto the concrete walls to get a better view: it took that long to realize they were watching it because the meteor was moving.
"What are they all doing here?" Prompto asked.
"Gawking," Gladio said.
"This is not good," Noct said.
Ignis slowed the car down as they wove through the parked vehicles toward the open gates. The whole place was packed. They were just standing here, right in the way for when Titan decided to drop that meteor and send waves through Duscae.
Noct stood up in his seat. "Listen up! I need everyone to evacuate the area. The Archaean is awake and he is not friendly. This whole place is unstable. Pack up and get as far away from the meteor as you can until we give the all-clear."
Heads turned. A few of them exchanged curious looks. They didn't know who he was out here. Shit.
A man shouted from the crowd. "That's Noctis Lucis Caelum, your Crown Prince. And if you know what's good for you, you'll get out of here like he says."
Heads swiveled in the other direction. Whoever that guy was, people seemed to know him because they started packing up and taking off. Noct scanned the crowd, looking for the source. Wasn't too hard to find; while everyone else was packing up and taking off, he was standing there staring at Noctis. When Noct caught his eye, he waded through the crowd toward their car.
"David Auburnbrie, head of the hunters," said the man. "Though most people 'round these parts just call me Dave. You won't find much recognition for the crown out here. Thought you could do with some legitimacy."
He cracked a smile, like it was funny that a hunter was lending legitimacy to the crown prince.
Alright. It was funny. But also the world was ending and Noct had bigger fish to fry.
"Thanks," Noct said. "Wasn't expecting to get any help from the hunters, but if you're offering…" He let the statement hang.
"What do you need, Your Highness?"
"Keep everyone away from here," Noct said. "The farther away the better. If there are any people living out here, evacuate them."
Dave gave him an appraising look but nodded slowly. "I'll see what I can do. Round up the others and get this place cleared out for you. Gonna tell me what's going on?"
The other Astrals are trying to distract us while Bahamut ends all life on Eos. Noctis tried out the words in his head. Nope. Still sounded crazy.
"Let's just say Titan's probably going to kill anyone who gets too close," he said instead.
"Notice you're heading straight in there," said Dave.
"Someone's got to stop him." Noct shrugged. "And I'm not going to send anyone else to do it." He dropped back into his seat. "Let's go, Ignis."
Ignis threw the car back into gear and hit the gas.
"Godspeed, Prince Noctis," Dave called after them. "I hope we'll see you alive when this is over."
"Yeah, me too," Noct muttered.
They passed through the gates and descended into the meteor. This part of the road was familiar. Just inside was a royal tomb, which they had visited a month ago.
At least, it had been a royal tomb back then. Now the lid was thrown open and the king on top was missing his head. Noct was betting that's what all the little bits of rocks scattered around were from. That wasn't even the weirdest part. The weirdest part was that miasma was pouring out from inside the open sarcophagus. When they rounded a little closer to the tomb, they could see black goop bubbling from inside. Noctis was suddenly thankful he had skipped lunch.
"What is that?" Prompto covered his nose, but nothing smelled.
"Who vandalizes a king's grave?" Gladio asked.
"Perhaps the king's brother, passed over for the crown and shunned not only by his own family, but by all the Gods and, eventually, all of Eos," Ignis said.
"That's Ardyn's brother?" Noct asked. He hadn't even begun to connect the dots when the story had come out.
"Quite likely," Ignis said. "What's left of him, in any case."
Noctis reached out for his Armiger. Of the nine spectral weapons, one seemed to glow a little less brightly. The Blade of the Mystic. Blade of the Betrayer, more like. He pinpointed the strand that tied it to him, felt the tenuous threads that held it to the tainted grave and also to something else—a spirit still somewhere on Eos—and he sliced straight through all of them. The blade shattered and dissolved in the air.
"Founder King my ass," Noctis muttered under his breath. He spat on the ground in front of Somnus' grave.
The ground shook under their feet, reminding them they had places to go and gods to kill.
"Let's go," he said.
Gladio stepped in front of him. Noct didn't fight him for it; let him do the job he had been trained for. Whatever made Gladio happier.
They kept as far away from the sarcophagus as they could, which turned out for the best. They had just reached the path leading down when another tremor shook the earth and the stone tiling cracked and shuddered. Another shake sent what was left of the tomb tumbling down into the dust and hot air below.
"Great," Noctis said flatly. "Titan can have it."
They inched down, going as fast as they dared but never fast enough. In some places the trail was just a ledge. Other places it was crumbling rocks threatening to drop into the meteor. Okay, so it wasn't a trail at all. It was just the place where they were walking, which might—hopefully—lead them down to where Titan was.
It got hot. Hotter than it had any right to be. The ground was on fire. The actual ground. Scaley, winged beasts swooped down on them and wouldn't take a hint from Gladio's sword or Prompto's gun. Noct was sweating before they could even see Titan. He didn't want to know how much hotter it would be at the bottom, but he was going to find out. There was no way he was turning back.
The quakes were stronger down here. Made sense, if he was thinking about it. Mostly he tried not to think about it, because that meant thinking about the fact that they were walking into a crater to go kill the thing that was making the ground shake from here to Leide.
They stepped out onto a ledge, rounded another turn in the not-a-path, and caught sight of Titan.
That thing was huge. One of his fingers was half the size of Noctis' body. He knew, because all four of them were standing out on that ledge with Titan reaching one giant stoney hand out toward them, trying to grab them or smash them or whatever Astrals did to people they didn't like. Besides turn them into daemons. Obviously.
"Look alive!" Gladio shouted.
Titan's fist struck the cliff above them and rocks came showering down. Noct never had gotten the hang of that shield thing Dad and the Glaive did, but he gave it a try anyway. His magic flickered in the air over their heads. A few rocks fell straight through it, one of them barely missing Noct's eye and hitting him across the cheek.
"C'mon, Noct, you can do this," he said under his breath.
"He's coming back!" Prompto shouted.
Titan's first pounded into the cliff above them. Noctis' barrier wasn't ready; what little he had managed to produce shattered as rocks rained down on them. One smashed into his shoulder, leaving his arm numb down to his elbow.
"Move!" Gladio dragged him forward.
They stumbled, awkwardly groping along the narrow ledge, half-blinded by dust and debris.
"Where are we going?" Prompto's voice shouted from somewhere behind.
"To solid ground, I hope," came Ignis' reply.
Noct hazarded a glance around as the dust settled. Titan was winding up again. He could hold up a meteor and send quakes through Eos, but he was slower than Noct waking up in the morning. They could use that. Fifteen feet away, down a crumbling path, the ground opened up. It wasn't quite flat, but it would do. They would have enough space to maneuver in. That was all he could ask for right now.
"There." Noct pointed.
It was harder to get there with Titan pounding on the rock and grabbing at them. Even when he missed it made the whole cliff shake and sent them tumbling, off-balance, toward the edge.
They reached the bottom. Or they hit the bottom, at a none-too-graceful slide. But what was the difference, really? It was hotter down here. The air was so thick that just breathing it made Noct choke. And never mind the sweat dripping down his face and… and everywhere, really. Titan looked bigger from here, too. They were standing at around waist level for him—his bottom half was buried in the crater. He towered over, holding the wobbling meteor on his back. If he dropped that thing, they were dead. Hell, if they killed him and caused him to drop it, they were still going to have some major problems. Too late to worry about that now.
Noctis summoned the Armiger "Ready to kill a god?"
Ignis drew his knives and dropped into his stance. "On your word, Noct."
"Ready as I'll ever be." Gladio hoisted his sword up to rest on his shoulder.
"Knew I should have brought the camera." Prompto sighed.
Noct would have thrown a rock at him, but that would have taken time and he didn't want to let Titan out of his sight for that long. Besides, the Archaean was likely to throw plenty of rocks at them.
"Here goes nothing," Noct muttered.
Titan's hand came down again.