City of Flames
-I'll be back soon.
Wait for me here.
Noctis sets the note down on the table of their dark hotel room. His companions sleep deeply from where they lay, and as he leaves the room he makes sure to shut the door slowly.
Noctis backs away from the room and quietly makes his way through the darkened restaurant. The lights on the walkway still light his path as he travels along it and to the parking lot.
A white shimmer of fur catches his eye - Pryna sits between him and the Regalia.
"...Pryna?" He asks cautiously.
Pryna looks uncomfortable in his presence, but remains steadfast in her position before the car.
"I understand the risk in going alone, but I can't sit by and do nothing anymore. Please, trust in me." He asks the dog and makes his way around her to the car.
The rumble of what could be a growl reach his ears and he turns around in shock, but all he sees is the empty parking lot. He looks around hoping to catch sight of her, but when he sees nothing he resigns to getting into the Regalia and driving off.
He pulls the top up as he speeds down the dark roads, and the sound of wheels and the whooshing of wind are reduced to a constant murmur. The headlights are enough to light his path, but he doesn't fool himself into thinking they will repel any daemons.
Noctis was driving fast enough though that he didn't feel like they would be a threat if there were any.
Ignis would be furious if he could see him now.
The red gleam of some airships blaze in the darkness, but they pay Noctis no mind as they travel to their destination.
From this distance, he can see the flames of Insomnia as it burns.
Cars fly past him, likely driving the same speed he was in effort to get away. Headlights flash by, and some honk at him in warning.
Noctis whizzes through the checkpoint on his way to the bridge, panicking the fleeing refugees nearby. His eyes catch the city's skyline as he crosses the bridge, the fires illuminating swarms of daemons.
Noctis frowns as he reaches the end of the bridge and pulls the Regalia off to the side. He jumps out the car and is quickly knocked to his feet as the earth shudders beneath him.
A daemon, as tall as Titan himself, lays waste to Insomnia.
With a snarl, Noctis summons his Armiger in a bright, crystalline flash and warps his way to its flank. His people duck and run as it reigns fire upon them, and Noctis lands on top of a building to take aim with all thirteen Royal Arms at the massive daemon.
He is taken off-guard when the world suddenly shifts, the air coming alive with magic. Noctis recognizes it as a call from an Astral, and instantly accepts it.
The smoke that had blanketed the night sky suddenly opens, and Noctis nearly covers his eyes as brilliant swords reign down like meteors. Screams of daemons reach his ears, the light from the swords instantly vaporizing any who were too close. Noctis looks back up at the parted clouds, tingles washing over him.
A ring of light illuminates a draconic figure.
Bahamut rapidly descends towards the city, the swords that make up his wings glowing brighter than the sun. He comes to a hover over the Citadel, a sword held at the ready before him.
Noct glances down to the people in the streets, seeing they were just as entranced at the sight as he was.
The titanic daemon roars at the challenge Bahamut presents him, sending the people into action once more. The Draconian extends his wings and swings his sword to the side.
He charges, and with a cleave of his sword he cleanly separates the top of the daemon from the bottom.
The daemon screeches as it falls, the sound breaking windows and forcing Noctis to throw his hands over his ears. Bahamut lets his sword vanish and turns to Noct, the piercing blue eyes holding none of the gentleness Noct had seen just the night before.
The Draconian turns his gaze away and points to a spot further in the city. He says nothing to Noct as he vanishes, and Noctis takes that as a bad sign.
Noctis looks to the place Bahamut pointed at and warps his way over the buildings, the Armiger acting as his lift.
He doesn't know what he is looking for, and doubt rolls over him in waves.
What was the point in even being here?
Bahamut had told him that the choice was his, so why had he looked at Noct with such disappointment?
Noctis frowns, his father was already dead - along with Gladio's.
Likely everyone he had known within the Citadel were already dead.
If Noctis had wanted to really make a difference, he should have returned to Insomnia with his friends the instant he had woken up in this timeline.
Noctis doesn't entertain that thought, what difference would he and his friends make?
The blood in his veins freeze when he catches sight of what Bahamut was directing him to.
Luna kneels over a wounded Kingsglaive, Ring of the Lucii in her grasp and making its way towards her finger. General Glauca advances on them.
Time slows to a crawl - he warps down to them in a flash the same time the Kingsglaive reaches to take the Ring.
Noctis gets it first.
The Ultima Blade hums from where it is embedded in the pavement before Luna, and her hand imperceptibly shakes beneath his grip. Noctis lets his Armiger die, and looks down at her.
"Sorry Luna, but this is my duty." Noctis gently takes the ring from her grasp, grateful of the warmth he felt in her fingers.
"Noctis..." She breathes, and the Kingsglaive next to her sits up.
"Way to make an intro, Your Highness. But you need to get out of here." Noctis recognizes him as Nyx Ulric, but turns to look at the approaching General Glauca instead of fleeing with Luna.
"Ulric, I am going to ask you to leave instead. Take Luna with you and get to safety." Noctis looks down at the ring in his palm, and Nyx says something in disagreement but Noct ignores it.
He slips the Ring onto his finger.
Magic floods through him, overflowing into his veins. Bahamut had said the Light belonged to him? The magic threatening to consume him begs to differ. Noctis bites back a cry so not to appear weak in front of all who were gathered here.
From the corner of his eye, he sees Luna help Nyx stand. His car - not the Regalia, but the Star of Lucis - is manned by a Galahadin who is calling them over.
Luna guides Nyx into the car and turns to look at Noct.
"Please, Noctis, prevail. For all our sakes."
General Glauca had killed her mother. Had killed his father.
He was the result of countless innocent deaths. Noctis wasn't going to miss this chance to avenge their deaths.
He nods at her, and Glauca uses the distraction to charge straight for him. His sword meets the general's and he doesn't spare a thought as he hears the others speed away.
"Prince Noctis," Glauca spits, "thought you'd be off on your honeymoon by now."
Noctis ignores the jab and instead lets loose a Thundaga spell point-blank in Glauca's face. Glauca staggers back and laughs it off.
"What, with you being the son of a betrayer and all, I'd have thought you would run -" Glauca swings his sword back down, "- like all you Royal cowards do!"
"My father," Noctis sweeps his sword at Glauca, "was no betrayer."
"Really?" Glauca asks and steps back, "Then why did he choose to save his son over the entire city of Insomnia? Seems like the actions of a coward and a traitor."
Noctis chooses to remain silent again, instead phasing around Glauca and delivering a blindside attack. Glauca rolls forward, brushing his attack off like it was a breeze. He faces Noct and holds his sword high, preparing to strike him down.
Noctis phases to the side and ignites Glauca in the Holy flame of the Ring.
Glauca screams as it eats through his armor and bites at his flesh. He desperately tears at the regenerative armor, hoping to separate himself from the white flames.
It's when the general is clawing at his helmet when Noct sees it - the man who had ruined so many lives.
"Drautos?" Noct gasps.
Titus pulls his helmet free and falls back a few steps, the flames dying slowly.
"Sorry, Prince." He meets Noctis eye to eye, "I have people to avenge too."
Noctis wants to rage at the sight before him. The captain of the Kingsglaive - those closest to his father - was the very one to betray him.
Did his father know it was someone so trusted that killed him in the end?
"You bastard," Noct hisses, "My father's the betrayer? What hypocrisy!"
Noct heart rate skyrockets and he forces himself to take a steadying breath.
"You - " He wants to continue, to curse this man until his dying breath - and the thought of that nearly sends him staggering.
He hadn't felt rage like this since Luna had died at Ardyn's hands.
Noctis breathes in again slowly, letting the anger wash over him until his emotions are calm and collected once more. He had learned enough by now to not be controlled by hate.
He fixes his gaze back on Titus, the other having collapsed to the ground and looking up at him - emotions equally as collected.
Noctis opens his mouth to say something when a sudden roar draws his attention.
The clawed arm of the massive daemon Bahamut had injured reaches skyward, taller than the surrounding buildings. Daemons flock and swarm again in the sky - having gained a sudden second wind.
"This is the end." Titus says, leaning against some stone and knowing the truth to his own statement. Noctis looks down.
"...yeah." The Ring glistens in the light of the fiery sky.
"This is." Noctis raises his hand heavenwards, and the ring on his finger heeds his demand.
It's as if molten lava is released into him through the ring, and he can even see how it blazes through his veins and turns his skin to ash. He grits his teeth against the pain and feels his feet leave the ground slightly at the power he is conjuring.
Air whistles past him and debris lifts up and to a point far in the sky above him. Magic crackles along some unseen void, and the point Noctis is focusing on starts to twist and fold in on itself over and over again.
Noctis screams as reality itself rips and latches onto all his enemies. He can't hear himself through the sudden implosion as his enemies - Titus, the massive daemon, and swarms alike - are violently pulled into the black hole above Insomnia.
Alterna rips the energy from him the very same way it had ripped his enemies from existence.
His knees meet concrete, and Noctis thinks he may have gone deaf for a moment as all sound disappears from the immediate world. Ash falls like snow around him, and it blends in with his skin.
The bright glow of his veins fade, but the pain doesn't. His vision swims into gray and he can feel his cheek meet the dusty concrete. His eyes force themselves shut.
Noctis thinks it would be fine if he didn't wake up again.
Thank you for reading, and all comments/favs of last time!
Please let me know your thoughts/comments/concrits for this one! Also any errors, I have no beta.
This chapter didn't save while I was writing it, so I ended up having to rewrite about a third of it. It isn't too~ long of a chapter, but it was still disheartening to have to rewrite what I did. I really hope I did Alterna justice, thats the coolest spell in my opinion.
Also - I went back and edited a line from the last chapter to clarify that Umbra did indeed meet with Noct - but nothing was changed. Noct wrote the same thing he did as last time.
Thank you again for reading!
See you next time! :)