Day 48:
It was boiling at the base of the meteor. Every breath felt thick and heavy in his lungs, but he needed every ounce of air he could take to dodge fists the size of boulders and keep one eye on Noctis all the while. Each time Titan's hand came down, it was assaulted by a flurry of blades. His flesh was stone. The strikes did more to dull Ignis' knives than to harm the Astral. And that was only his hand. They would not destroy a god by chipping away at his fingers. Noctis' Armiger could make an impact. The rest of them, however, were doing little good. But how could they crush a god who was strong enough to hold the meteor on his back for thousands of years without pause?
"Noctis," Ignis shouted as Titan's fist went up again. "We will need something more substantial than steel to take him down."
"Got any bright ideas?" Noct's eyes followed Titan's fist, but he backed toward Ignis.
Recognizing that a problem existed was rather simpler than knowing the solution to said problem. Though the first was a necessary precursor to the second.
Aside from steel, they had limited options. Prompto's machinery might make a dent, but that left little for the others to do. Concentrated force in one area might cause breakage, but how much force would that take? So far not even a finger had cracked.
That left the elemental flasks that Noctis had passed out on the way to the Disc. The Archaean appeared to be predominantly made of stone, or as close as a creature could come to being made from stone. That ruled out lightning. Most minerals were not highly conductive and the physical force associated with a blast of lightning was marginal at best. Fire was a possibility, but the melting point of even the most pliable minerals was still several hundred degrees. It wasn't feasible to reach that temperature with an elemental flask. That left ice. Ice was a powerful tool, used correctly. It was not so difficult to imagine a situation where ice met stone and came out ahead.
Ice it was, then.
"Break the surface of the stone," Ignis called out. "Focus your attacks on his cubital fossa. When a crack forms, fill it with ice."
"What the hell is a cubital fossa?!" Noctis shouted.
Ignis sighed. "The inside of his elbow!"
"Why didn't you just say that?!"
"Because cubital fossa is much shorter than 'the inside of his elbow'!" Ignis called back.
"Not if you have to stop and explain it, it isn't," Gladio said.
Titan's fist was coming down.
"Just attack his bloody arm in the same place I do!" Ignis called.
They scattered. The fist came down and the world shook, threatening to toss them off their feet and onto their rears. Titan always paused after striking the ground, as if it took him several seconds to react to the impact; Ignis used that to his advantage. He closed the distance to Titan's hand and pulled himself up, one colossal stone finger at a time until he was running across the Astral's forearm. He struck hard and fast. His daggers twanged against the solid stone of Titan's cubital fossa. They would need a sharpening when this was over. If this was ever over. Right now he didn't need them sharp, he just needed them solid.
He ducked out of the way, swinging around the back of Titan's arm as Gladio's sword came crashing down on the same spot. Prompto gave a cry of warning before a series of shots blasted their target. Noct came last, his sword a blue blur of magic as he struck.
That was all the time they had. Titan's arm quivered. Ignis leaped for safety and rolled on the hot ground. And Titan's hand rose into the air once more.
"Well done," Ignis said. "I believe I even glimpsed a chip in his stone."
"You need the ice for the break, right?" Noct asked. "What about the other flasks?"
"I doubt they will be as effective. But if you wish to try, we have little other use for them," Ignis said.
Prompto lost no time in stepping forward, primed with a flask in hand. "I've always wanted to throw lightning at a god!"
"What? Why?" Noct asked.
The flask flew. It shattered on Titan's face and lightning danced harmlessly across his stony exterior.
"Cause. Y'know?" Prompto said.
"No. I don't know," Noctis said.
"Because, like, Gods are always throwing lightning at people, right?" Prompto said. "It's like payback."
Gladio tossed a flask over his had. It soared through the air and shattered on Titan's cheek. And that was all. Nothing came out. Only shards of glass dropped into the crater.
"What the hell was that?" Noct asked.
"You tell me," Gladio said. "Same flask you handed me in the car."
"Look sharp!" Ignis shouted as Titan's hand came down once more.
They repeated the same again, each striking where the other had hit before. Between their carefully timed hits, Ignis was almost certain he caught sight of a hairline crack. Then Titan's hand was rising back up.
"You trying to tell me I messed up a flask?" Noct asked as they danced away to regroup. "No way. You probably just threw Prompto's soda at him or something."
He pulled a flask from the air and threw it overhand at Titan. Again it shattered on the stone and again no magic came out.
"So you messed them all up," Gladio said.
"I did not!"
Ignis reached into the In-Between and grasped a flask of ice. Frost crept across the inside of the glass and it felt cold to the touch. The lightning flask he held was much the same: crackling with light and electricity contained in a bottle. Lastly he reached for the flask of fire.
It was empty.
Nothing but a bottle.
"The element of fire is gone." Ignis dropped the empty flask on the ground.
"Wha—? How?" Prompto asked.
"He's coming back!" Gladio shouted.
Titan's hand swatted pointlessly to punctuate their conversation. Again they struck, one after another. This time there was no doubt about it. Beneath the chips they had made, a crack was forming in the stone of Titan's arm.
"So every fire flask you made is dead?" Gladio asked as Titan's hand rose again.
Prompto tried one to no effect.
For a frozen moment, they stared at each other while the Archaean's hand hovered above.
"Ifrit is dead," Noctis said. "Gone for good. Not like when Niflheim tried to kill Shiva."
"And you cannot use the magic of a God who does not exist," Ignis said.
He caught Noctis' eye. Ifrit had been corrupted by the Starscourge. He had been, for lack of a better description, Ardyn's pet. He must have joined the fight with all the other Astrals, but he had been standing on the opposite side. Against Bahamut. If Ifrit was dead, what did that mean for those who had gone to confront the Draconian?
What did that say about Reina?
Gladio's thoughts had evidently gone in the same direction. "She's probably fine."
"She is fine." Noctis turned toward Titan. "I'd know if anything happened to her."
But that didn't mean she wasn't in danger. And it didn't mean he wasn't worried about her. If only Ignis had stayed with her. But not for the first time in the last few weeks, his heart had split in two and gone in different directions. He couldn't protect them both. He could only trust that Ardyn would. If only one person could stand with her against Bahamut, Ardyn was the correct choice.
"Enough talking," Noctis called. "Let's break this thing!"
Titan's hand slammed into the ground. The earth shook. Rocks flew like shrapnel. Before the dust had settled, they struck. Ignis, then Gladio, then Prompto, then Noctis. The crack was a black line across his cubital fossa. Ignis dumped half the contents of his water bottle down it and stowed the rest. Titan's arm shook.
"Specs, get out of there!"
They had limited water and a vast Astral left to destroy. The few seconds it took for his hand to come back down would be enough for it to evaporate at this temperature. He reached for his ice flask, though Titan's arm lifted off the ground and his balance wavered. He shattered the flask against the crack in Titan's arm. Glass scattered around his shoes and ice crept beneath his feet, slippery against the smooth stone. That was all it took. His foot slid off the rounded edge of Titan's forearm, though he scrambled for purchase. He was fifteen feet off the ground and gaining. And falling. He dropped everything and threw his arms around Titan's. It wasn't much of a hold. But he wasn't actively falling. He was actively slipping. And actively listening to the creak and groan of stone as ice expanded in a too-small space.
Then it snapped. All at once the little crack they had created spread around Titan's whole arm. The sound was akin to a thunderclap. If he didn't get off now, he was going to find himself falling underneath a stone arm in seconds.
He kicked his feet up, grappling for something to push off of, and managed a sliver of leverage. It was all he would get. He leapt back, shoving away from Titan's arm just as the stone cracked again and the limb began to fall. It didn't take him as far away as he would have liked and the inside of the crater was not an optimal place for gymnastics, but his landing, while not beautiful, resulted in only a few scrapes.
The Archaean bellowed. Titan's arm hit the ground. A cheer went up from the other side and through the dust he could just make out three figures, one of whom was jumping up and down.
"We did it!" Prompto shouted.
"Specs! You alright?" Noctis' voice came after, drifting through the dust.
At least they hadn't watched Ignis ruin his eclat by crashing head first into the dirt. They would remember this only as the moment when he broke an Astral's arm clean off.
Ignis picked himself up and dusted himself off. "Quite alright, Noct."
The dust settled but Titan's roar stretched on. They regrouped.
"And now we need only repeat the same again," Ignis said.
"Yeah," Prompto said. "But unless he decides to lay his head down on the ground all nice for us, it's going to be a bit hard to take the important part off."
"Or the other arm," Gladio said. "He can't hold the meteor and hit us at the same time."
"Well, I don't think we're going to have to worry about that," Noctis said. "Because it looks like he's ready to give up on one of those two things."
All eyes turned toward the Archaean. His hand inched along the meteor, shifting his hold on it.
"I don't suppose it's the hitting us part he's giving up on?" Prompto asked.
"Not a chance," Noct said.
Titan's hand moved. The meteor slipped.