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He'd tried and failed to reach the Armiger so many times already, but it was no use: something was blocking his abilities again, and he couldn't so much as summon a sword to defend himself, much less cut a path ahead to reach Prompto. Noctis collapsed to his knees, drained and out of breath, mental exhaustion taking its toll from failed attempt after failed attempt.
"Dammit," he gasped, his voice strained to his own ears. He gulped in air, waiting out the minutes for his strength to return again, when footsteps tinged with clanging metal joined the sound of his breathing.
"Oh, dear," a voice layered with venom said just behind him. "Is His Majesty in need of some... assistance?"
On instinct, Noctis whipped around with a swinging arm, striking air. The clang of buckles resumed slightly to his left, but the little strength he'd recovered had been spent. He panted, turning his head toward Chancellor Izunia with a vicious flame in his eyes.
"Now, now," Ardyn scolded, a malicious smirk spreading across his face. "Is that any way at all to show gratitude after I fell just short of handing over a map to lead you to your beloved Prompto?"
"Fuck you," Noctis growled, readying his muscles as his strength slowly returned again.
"You best mind your words, Noct," Ardyn replied, hiding a warning deep within his overly-friendly tone, ending his sentence with a sheepish shrug. "My deepest apologies, I fear I became quite fond of calling you 'Noct.' I'm sure you don't mind."
"What do you want?" Noctis stated more than asked, his jaw clenched and eyes locked onto Ardyn as he paced in front of him, that swaggering walk irritating him more and more with each step. "And what the hell did you do to me?"
"Oh, you misunderstand, Noct, because I've done nothing at all to you. However, I may have some sort of, how should I put it... device running not too far away. It could, perhaps, cause a bit of interference."
"Is Prompto really here?"
"You could say the gunslinger is not too far from our current location, but I could say he mightn't be there much longer."
"You bastard!" Noctis lunged at him, aiming for his legs, but Ardyn simply sidestepped out of his path. Noctis stumbled forward, stopping his momentum with a hand to the ground, and he turned his head to glare ever harder at Ardyn. "Stop fucking with me!"
Ardyn shrugged, almost nonchalant, then turned away with a small wave.
"If you wish to find him," he said over one shoulder, a dangerous undertone in his voice. "There's a small trinket of yours that may be of service to you."
After a beat of his final word, Ardyn vanished in a flash of violet smoke.
Noctis inhaled sharply through his teeth, eyes wild and searching back and forth, as if looking for a clue to Ardyn's riddle in the pocked patterns of the concrete. As his frantic breathing slowed, so did his mind clear, and the weight in his jacket nagged at his side. He slipped a hand into his pocket, pulling it away to look at the ring-- his birthright-- in his palm. He took a sharp breath through his nose, his eyes wide and apprehensive. Even through his glove, he could feel the heat coming off the ring, the ring that had drained his father of his youth, and would do the same to him.
He steeled himself, gritting his teeth together, and with shaking hands slipped the Ring of the Lucii over his finger. An overwhelming pulse of heat and energy hit him at once, collapsing him forward, and he cried out in raw agony. It burned, radiating out from his hand, and pulled him in all directions, and what was once an industrial hellscape turned to a momentary darkness to his eyes. He gasped for air, fearing for a moment that he may pass out from the pain, when it suddenly subsided and turned to a dull ache centered on his hand.
He began to stand when his vision swam and he collapsed to his knees again, holding his head as a a myriad of voices boomed with unison in his head.
"...sacrifice all for the king..."
"Witness the sacrifice to the Chosen."
A flash of white, and he was in the rain, laying on his back on soaked stone. He recognized the place as where he'd lost consciousness during the trial of Leviathan, and his heart ached. A figure lay not far away, and he blinked away the rain to see Ignis restrained on the ground by MTs, his face untouched by scars. He struggled against his captors, his face twisted in pain. Noctis tried to reach out, to stand, to even move, but he couldn't, as if he were frozen in place by Shiva's magic. He tried to shout, but no sound came. Ardyn hovered over him, looking him over, and not even a cry of frustration came as Noctis tried and failed to will his arm to summon a polearm and drive it through the Chancellor's smug face. His mouth was moving, but he couldn't make out the words; however, from the blade held in his hand-- is that Ignis's...?!-- it wasn't anything pleasant.
You piece of shit...!
To his dismay, Ardyn lifted his upper body free from the ground by his collar, and he could only hang limply as the blade was lifted high and readied to swing down. After a scream, something deflected it away, he couldn't see what, and he grunted internally as Ardyn unceremoniously rolled him to the side onto his chest. He wasn't far from Ignis now, and he could make out the unbridled fear in his green eyes that were so much clearer in the absence of his glasses. Something rolled between them and Ignis's eyes flickered to it, but Noctis didn't dare take his eyes off his advisor and oldest friend, looking the most vulnerable he'd ever seen him. Noctis tried to make out the words as Ardyn began speaking again, but the rain roared in his head, so only the infuriating melody of his voice reached his ears.
Whatever he said, it returned a fire to Ignis's eyes, and Noctis watched as his advisor's hand whipped out and grabbed whatever had dropped between them on the stone. He knocked the MTs away from him, his movements sloppy and pained, as if he'd just come off a long and treacherous day of fighting. He panted, glaring forward with narrow eyes, and Ardyn spoke loudly and clearly, and for once since this nightmare began, the voice had meaning.
"I'll take that... as a no."
Ignis glowered at him, still taking labored breaths as he held himself up with hands on his knees.
"I swore an oath to stand with Noct and keep him safe..." Ignis rasped, forcing himself to stand up fully.
If he could move them, Noct's eyes would've widened, for the object that Ignis had swiped from the ground stood out clearly in his hand now.
No--!
"Whatever it takes--!" Ignis shouted, his voice bellowing with intensity. "I will protect him!" And before Noctis could move, even if he could, his dear friend jammed the Ring of the Lucii onto his finger, and screamed.
Ardyn tutted at him from somewhere behind Noctis, a scolding sound that grated at the ears.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." he said, his voice almost drowned out by Ignis's cries of pain as he thrashed around before Noctis's unwilling eyes.
Ignis finally calmed enough to grasp at the arm bearing the ring, panting, an eerie glow emanating from it. He staggered, seeming to struggle to maintain his balance, and Noctis's chest grew taut with realization. And that realization was something he was now powerless to stop.
No...
"I may not be of royal blood," Ignis shouted, "but if a Glaive can harness its power..."
No... he didn't...!
"Then so can I!" He screamed again.
Don't!
"Kings of Lucis!"
Ignis--!
"Lend me your strength!"
STOP!
With another agonizing scream, a violet-white flame enveloped the side of Ignis's face and left hand as he reached out toward Noctis, who watched as his friend's face twisted into a different kind of agony. With another scream, one full of unimaginable anguish, Ignis slumped forward, holding his still-burning face, panting, and emitting an ancient and familiar power.
No...
Ignis shifted slightly, and Noctis could see clearly the red glow that enveloped his eyes now, robbed of any sight. He didn't have long to stare, however, as Ignis warped several meters backward, and assumed a battle-ready stance just as Noctis found himself slipping away from the scene. The last he saw was Ardyn following the warp by warping himself, leaving a trail of red light in his wake.
Noct opened his eyes with a gasp, drawing in desperate breath after breath as he comprehended his new surroundings. Back in Gralea, where he had been stopped just short of finding and rescuing Prompto. He held a death grip on his right wrist, in a mirror image of Ignis from his nightmare. It had to be a nightmare, there was no way that Ignis would be so reckless.
"He who sacrificed for the king..."
He hissed through his teeth and his shoulders slumped forward, one hand rising to meet and support his head. It was then he realized he was crying, tears overflowing down his cheeks and falling in droplets onto the concrete at his knees. He let out a strangled sob, the sound cracking and echoing around him. He collapsed in on himself, much like when Prompto had found him broken down and in tears under a tree, but this time was different. Prompto wouldn't come to comfort him again, and he choked on another throaty sob as he realized just how much he needed that warm embrace.
But he was alone.
"Why..." he choked out weakly, pulling in a ragged breath. "Why... didn't he tell me..."
First his childhood caretaker. Then Tenebrae and Ravus. Then Insomnia. His father. Luna. Prompto.
"Ignis..."
He sniffled, clenching his teeth together. He looked to his hands, staring at the cursed ring whose power coursed through him, and whose power also robbed Ignis of his sight. And it was all because he hadn't been strong enough to protect them or even himself from Niflheim, from Ardyn. The image of Ignis, his face in flames, burned into his mind, and he could see it so clearly as he squeezed his eyes shut against the threat of even more tears.
"This is all my fault.... Ignis... I'm... I'm sorry..."
Words meant for Ignis directly, but the crystal took him before he was able to voice them when it mattered.