Ravus Aeterna
Saying that Ravus' mind was in turmoil was like saying that the Empire had a minor internal dispute to settle – a vast understatement.
Ever since he left Altissia, the gears in Ravus' head had been turning. The detour Minister Besithia had taken via the primary magitek production facility to drop off their precious cargo had lengthened their journey, but had done nothing to help Ravus reach a conclusion.
He had always preferred his world to be painted in black and white, with clear rules and principles to guide him through his life. But now, good and bad, right and wrong, they all had lost their meaning. What kind of twilight age was this, in which the light could hurt and the darkness could heal? In which bloodlines that had been loyal to the gods for eons, had turned their backs on the divine?
For all his unworthiness, the Lucii had allowed Noctis to use the ring and save Luna, while he, despite having been declared worthy by the Draconian himself, had been burned by the ring's magic. Ravus considered himself lucky that his burns were mostly superficial, but then again, did luck have anything to do with it?
Worse still was only that the accursed chancellor – the man who had "evil" written in bold letters all over him – had played a part in saving Luna from the darkness. One might argue that they were one team, working against the gods, but if the outcome was that people destined to die lived, then what was the true value of the prophecy?
All this pondering was more likely to result in a headache than anything else. At this point, only one thing was certain: Ravus needed answers. But not from the Emperor. He had only come to Gralea in the distant hope that he would be able to figure out where to go next.
Aldercapt had made him wait for an audience. First, because he wanted to speak to the minister in private. Then, because Zegnautus Keep had become inaccessible due to technical difficulties. As if Ravus would believe this cover-up story.
Eventually, Brigadier General Loqi Tummelt arrived to take Ravus to the Emperor. It was not that Ravus needed someone to show him the way, but Aldercapt seemingly insisted on some security, given that Ravus had gone against his orders back at Insomnia and still refused to hand over the Crystal.
As Loqi led him through the empty halls and drab concrete corridors of Zegnautus Keep, Ravus could not help but notice the lack of human presence, as well as the lack of magitek guards. It seemed that they were the only two living beings aboard the floating megafortress.
"What happened to the defence forces?" he asked.
"There has been something of a falling-out between the Emperor and the Head of Research," Loqi explained, "and now we have to deal with unprogrammed and rouge magitek soldiers that have escaped from the fortress. I'd like to pretend these two events are unrelated, but the connection is too obvious to ignore."
"So much for relying on the loyalty of the one man who has manufactured the entire Niflheim army."
"Go figure," Loqi replied. "As soon as I'm done with this menial task, I can go back to fighting our own infantry just to keep them from laying waste to the capital."
No matter how much Ravus hated everyone in the Empire, there was something to be said for Loqi's loyalty to his homeland. Every member of the government and every military leader, except Loqi had either died, fled, or turned their backs on the Emperor. At this point, the only commander left to them was one, inexperienced, over-ambitious brigadier general. Perhaps the last shred of integrity in this madhouse of a nation.
Ravus glanced sideways at the young man and scoffed. Even Loqi was falling apart in a way. He looked as if he had dropped out of bed after a half-hour nap when he had hoped for 4 or 5 hours of sleep, then rushed to put on that overly decorated armour. The armour plates sat askew on his shoulders. His hair was unkempt. And all this despite the fact that he was almost as vain as Ulldor had been. Actually, his appearance provided a fitting allegory for the state the Empire was in: An unfixable mess. Even the pretence of integrity had become pointless by this point.
"It's hard to believe now, but when I was a new recruit, I respected you for your swordsmanship and sense of duty," Loqi said, trying to fix his hair as they stood in one of the Keep's elevators. "Of course, that was long before you went and declared yourself King of Lucis."
"I was boasting, is what you're thinking," Ravus stated, "but the title of True King is no mark of a monarch. It is a divine calling. I have no interest in ruling over Lucis."
They exited the elevator and approached the cylindrical room in the upper levels of Zegnautus Keep, where the Emperor awaited them.
"I'm afraid it'll make no difference to Aldercapt," Loqi replied, straightened his posture and entered the room ahead of Ravus.
A short red carpet led up to the Emperor's seat. Neither the throne nor the room could compare to the magnificence of its counterpart in Insomnia, which only proved how much harder Niflheim had to work to achieve the same goals, since they had never been blessed by the gods as Lucis had been. Still, envy was a poor excuse for setting one's sights on world domination.
Emperor Aldercapt sat slumped back on his throne, looking deathly pale.
"Your Radiance," Loqi greeted the Emperor and bowed.
"Thank you, Commander Tummelt," Aldercapt said and drew a wheezing breath. "You may return to your duties."
Loqi gave a sharp nod to Ravus as he turned and left the room.
"Ravus, my son. Please, step closer."
The pretence of familiarity irritated him, as it always had when Aldercapt or Izunia had used that tone with him, but he walked up to the throne anyway. There was something off about the Emperor. He had not looked so frail the last time Ravus had seen him.
Only a few more steps into the dimly lit room and Ravus realised what was wrong. The scourge had almost completely taken over Aldercapt's body. Wisps of darkness rose from his shoulders and arms. In a matter of mere minutes, or even moments, he would turn into a daemon.
Hissing, Ravus fell into a fighting stance, ready to draw his sabre. "What have you done, you old fool?"
"Do you not see, how badly the Empire needs the ring and the Crystal?"
"Both the Crystal and the ring are intended for the one True King only," Ravus claimed, although he no longer thought of the True King as himself, since the Lucii had rejected him. "They are certainly not meant for those in league to the darkness."
"But they were supposed to be mine!" Aldercapt grimaced. "Surrender them now, and I … I will forgive you your insolence and insubordination."
"You are a blind old man, fooled by your chancellor, and powerless without the minister."
"No, I …!" The Emperor gasped for air. "I am not powerless!"
Something cold, dark and sinister rose from the ground behind Ravus. He glanced over his shoulder to find himself threatened by two daemons, each of which was made up of what looked like a humanoid corpse wrapped in tattered robes, ribbons and skulls. Psychomancers. Kind of ironic to think that the Empire had lost control of everything but the daemons, the most difficult part of their forces to control.
Ravus ground his teeth. Best to end this quickly. In one practised motion, he drew his sabre and plunged it into the Emperor's chest.
Aldercapt let out a gasp, but no blood stained his white robes. Instead, miasma poured out of the wound as the Emperor's body dissolved and his clothes folded in on themselves.
Curse his luck. Ravus was too late.
Whipping around, he found himself face-to-face not just with the two Psychomancers, but also one new addition. Out of a pool of miasma rose a large, sinewy daemon with upside-down, leathery wings and blades protruding from its arms that pierced its own hands but still extended far enough to be perfectly usable weapons. Foras, they called this subspecies, but this specimen in particular could only be the Emperor's new form.
"Not powerless!", the Foras screeched in a heavily distorted voice. It lunged at him with its blade-like protrusions.
Ravus blocked and deflected two strikes, then dodged through a third to try and escape the room. He managed to avoid a blow from one of the psychomancers, but the other caught him with a blast of dark magic.
In the nick of time, Ravus raised his blade to defend himself. The sheer force, however, pushed him out of the open door and onto the catwalk leading up to the room. This would be so much easier if he had divine magic at his disposal. No matter how skilled he was with a sword, no mere man could hope to defeat three daemons of such size and power.
Ravus did the only sensible thing, turned around and fled across the catwalk to the nearest elevator.
With a crash that shook the ground and caused Ravus to stumble, the Foras daemon landed in front of him. It dug its blades into the iron grating of the floor and cut off his escape route, in a quite literal sense.
Due to its structural integrity gone, the catwalk wobbled underneath his feet. As it suddenly tilted, Ravus slid down the iron grating until he reached the edge, then jumped off, down into the hollow core of the Keep, hoping, but not knowing, that he would survive the fall.
Landing on another platform suspended far below, he performed a dodge roll in an attempt to break his momentum, but pain shot through the shoulder of his still-burned arm. Ravus struggled back to his feet by holding onto the railing for support. His shoulder stung and burned with pain, causing him to wince. At least, he was still alive and no longer threatened by those daemons. Chances were, however, that they would not take long to catch up with him.
He pulled the Ring of the Lucii out of his coat pocket. Could he use it or not? He needed the answer now.
With clenched teeth, Ravus sheathed the Alba Leonis sabre and slid the ring onto a finger of his still unburnt hand, but held it in place with the other, ready to remove it instantly in case the Lucii denied him their favour.
"Hear me, Kings of Yore" Ravus said, feeling the pain from his shoulder pierce into his chest and restrain his breathing. "Hear me and let me talk to the one who calls himself the Founder King, brother to the Accursed."
The faint whispers of the Lucii reached his ears, but nothing else happened. Ravus was getting fed up with them.
"Very well, your Highness." Ravus spat out the word as if were a piece of hot coal on his tongue. "I give you three seconds to show yourself or I will throw the ring into the bowels of the Keep."
And if they punished him for his insolence he would do the same. The ring would be lost, and then there was no bearer to deliver it to Noctis. Certainly, the Lucii realised this much as well. Ravus had thought himself to be above the use of blackmail, but apparently that was the only way to commune with this stubborn lot. He counted silently to three and just as he began to pull the ring off, a voice spoke up.
"I am here, Ravus Nox Fleuret. What do you want from me?"
The faintly glowing apparition of a man dressed in black robes appeared before him. It was just barely visible, even in front of the dimly lit insides of the Keep. His likeness to the young prince of Lucis was uncanny.
"Noctis?" Ravus asked, mildly confused by what he was seeing.
"I am Somnus Lucis Caelum," the spirit replied and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "First in the line of Lucis, and yes, brother to the Accursed. Now ask. Do not waste what precious little energy holds me in this world."
Ravus gathered his strength, straightened his posture and pushed the pain to the edge of his perception. "Tell me, why have the Lucii rejected me when Bahamut himself declared me worthy? Your bloodline has faithfully served the Bladekeeper for many generations. You were supposed to comply with his decisions."
"I stand by my kingly calling and the original prophecy as much as any of my line. Thus, I refuse to accept any replacement for the True King. Bahamut's power was too great in Insomnia for me to object, so I had to bide my time until you crossed paths with Noctis."
"Yet Noctis refused the ring because of you," Ravus stated. "Why?"
"It is as the Draconian has told you. My brother has dug his claws deep into the mind of my heir and is using him to exact vengeance on Bahamut and me. He told him of what I had to do to him in order to stop the scourge, to halt what he was becoming. Of course, Noctis thinks not too highly of me, seeing how he's heard only the side of the victim. I firmly believe, however, that he can still fulfil his calling. The Draconian has not outright rejected him, and Ardyn must be put to rest or our star will never be free of the scourge."
Ravus narrowed his gaze but found the Founder King's face to be very difficult to read.
"Surely you know of the price that has to be paid for expelling the darkness."
"I do, and I do not wish for my line to end," Somnus replied. "Bahamut has foreseen Noctis' demise, but there are other ways to enter the beyond and complete his task."
The screeching of daemons resounded through the hollow core of Zegnautus Keep. Ravus looked up briefly before turning back to the Founder King.
"Here's my deal:" he said, full of confidence knowing that he could still threaten the Founder King with dropping the ring over the nearest railing. "Help me defeat those daemons and escape, and I will meet up with Noctis in Insomnia so that he may have the ring and the sacred stone. If both the Oracle and the line of the Lucii no longer believe in the prophecy as it was foretold, then neither will I. As long as my sister stays alive, you can have my support to rid the world of darkness in whichever way you deem right."
Somnus nodded. "Then we have an agreement."
As Ravus looked over his shoulder, he saw the shadows behind him merge into a pool of miasma. Out of it clambered the Foras daemon.
"Call forth the Sword of the Father and I shall channel the power of light through it," Somnus said as his visible form faded away.
Ravus turned to face the daemon, raised his right hand and summoned Regis' sword. He would have preferred to take on this fiend with both blades, but there was no way his left arm could suffer another blow.
"What did you think I needed the ring for, smartass?" he hissed under breath.
"I heard that."
"So what? Three of you Lucis Caelums made my life a living hell. I'm done treating your kind with decency."
There were no more complaints from the Founder King after that. Magic tingled in the palm of his hand as light was channelled from the ring into the Royal Arm.
In the meantime, the Foras daemon had fully materialised from the shadows. It wasted no time to lunge at Ravus again, screeching.
"Give me the ring!"
Ravus dived under its swipe and slashed at the daemon's side. A trail of light followed the sword's movements.
The Foras daemon staggered for a moment before retaliating. Keeping his wounded side out of harm's way, Ravus dodged another blow and let a flash of light burst from the ring. Thanks to its divine power, he was confident that he could win this fight. It was still an effort, though, especially when the two psychomancers from earlier joined in. Partly because of his injuries, but also because Somnus was granting him access only to a portion of the power Bahamut had given him. Not that any of it was ever really his.
After suffering another burst of Holy, one of the psychomancers dissolved permanently. By summoning the Draconian's blades, Ravus quickly dispatched the other. The Foras daemon, too, had taken a fair amount of damage. It really had to be driven by Aldercapt's spirit to want the ring so badly. The next time the daemon lunged at him, Ravus struck its arm with the fully-charged Sword of the Father and cut its blade-like protrusion clean off. Before it could recover from the blow, Ravus ran it through.
He watched the daemon dissipate and finally allowed himself to catch his breath. Closing his eyes, he let the adrenalin fade and the pain back into his mind, just to check if he had suffered any more injures he should be aware of. Ravus felt just as sore as before, but he definitely needed to have that shoulder seen to.
A sigh escaped him as he took the ring off his finger. A loose strand of hair fell into his face.
Hopefully, his sister had recovered well from the ordeal at Altissia.
I have to admit: over the course of this fanfiction, Ravus has grown on me.
So much in fact, that I need to save him now, too.
I also think his boss theme is one of the best soundtracks the game has to offer (although it has many fabulous soundtracks in general) - hence the title.