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The dark shores of Galdin Quay greet Noctis as he steps from the boat to the ruined dock beneath.
Daemons instantly rush to kill him, running from the Mother of Pearl only to die quickly to his blade. Anger and remorse fuel Noctis as he cuts through every daemon on his way through the restaurant and down the walkway to the beach.
Umbra, his quiet companion, guides him down the beach and to a haven.
The dog was the first to greet him in however many years he had been trapped in the Crystal. As Noct had stepped out from his prison, Umbra had rushed up, empty-handed (empty-mouthed?) and whining enthusiastically.
Although he was a welcomed face, the fact that Umbra had no message for him somehow felt off.
Pulling out a can of soup from the armiger and warming it over the campfire, Noctis takes his time to reflect - as if he hadn't done enough of that recently.
Galdin had obviously not been suitable to withstand the hoards of daemons that this night brought. Where would the survivors have gone?
Lestallum was his best guess. Travelling there rather than heading directly for Insomnia also gave him the opportunity to find his friends and gain them as his backup.
He swallows down his fear - if anyone could survive in this world, it would be them.
Noctis looks out into the ocean and sets his empty can aside. It was so dark.
From the distance, the roar of daemons catches his attention.
Noctis jumps to his feet and looks into the direction he heard the noise. More sounds come forth, clangs and clacks echoing out like one would hear in battle.
The sand crunches under his feet as he and Umbra leap from the haven and sprint towards the fight. Cresting over a hill, Noctis slides to a stop and jumps behind a gnarled bush.
A Red Giant was being harassed by a group of daemons that Noctis could not identify.
On first glance, they could almost be mistaken for humans. Their blue-gray skin, gangly limbs, and sharp features told otherwise. They looked almost like a cross between a Goblin and a human.
There was also the fact that he could catch sight of a small pair of horns peaking out through their hair.
Noctis narrows his eyes and sinks lower behind the bush. Umbra whimpers.
The human-like daemons looked to be in their adolescents, the telling clue if not from their stature then from their reckless behavior.
The Red Giants swings its flaming blade around, nearly nicking one as it jumped back. The other two shriek out in laughter or fear - Noctis can't tell.
Having enough of the torment, the Red Giant punches the earth. Even from where he crouches, Noctis can feel the ground tremble. The show of force is enough to back the trio of smaller daemons away.
The Red Giant gives chase - driving them in Noct's direction.
Acting on instinct, Noctis warps, sending his blade straight into the heart of the Red Giant. The massive daemons twists, and as Noctis switches to the Trident of the Oracle, a spike cuts his cheek.
Phasing through an incoming fist, he hurls the Trident into the air and warps after it. When he brings it back down into the skull of the Giant, it topples the entire daemon.
Noctis rights himself as the daemon vanishes into mist around him. Wiping his cheek free of blood, he turns his narrow gaze onto his onlookers.
Their sharp features are twisted even sharper in fear and awe. Noctis waits for them to make the first move before judging if they were the same as every daemon.
They still look human enough, Noctis thinks, maybe there's no need to fight. All three appeared to be male, two black haired and one brunet all looking so similar to human teens that Noctis decides to risk making the first move.
The instant he dismisses his weapon, the smallest of the three lunges at him in a frenzy.
Something like disappointment buries itself in his chest.
Light, it seems, is just as deadly to these daemons as it was to the rest. The daemon falls in a single hit, and through its dissipating body Noctis can see the brunet daemon holding back the black haired one.
It snarls at him, less in a frenzy and more in a rage, and Noctis brings his sword up. The brunet, not willing to be struck down as well, lets the other go. It dies just as quickly as the first.
Noctis watches in curiosity as the last daemon flees up the hill and towards the road. Over his many encounters with daemons, many had fled and depending on the threat, Noctis and his friends would give chase.
This daemon, as it screamed and bellowed, was smarter - or maybe more sentient - than any other he had come across before.
In a split-second decision, Noctis trails it quietly.
It leads him to a truck, and in it's frantic escape it fails to notice him hiding away in the bed. The fact that it understood how to use a truck mildly surprises Noctis, and he sinks lower into the blind spot as the engine starts and they pull away.
Looking out onto the road behind them, he spies Umbra. Gazes locking for a moment, the dog paces away into the darkness.
...
To his horror, the dim headlights of the truck land on Lestallum.
Noctis warps from the truck bed and out of sight before they can enter the town. He barely restrains a snarl as the truck squeals in front of the gates and is let in by even more humanoid daemons.
Where were the humans?
Noctis wasn't naive - these daemons had obviously been human at one time, but not every human would have succumbed to the Scourge. Would they?
Lestallum had been his first guess for where he was supposed to reunite with his friends, or hell, even meet with a friendly face. Rage boils his blood to learn that it had been overrun by daemons. Not everyone would have turned in the entire town.
There had to be survivors.
Despite however many years had passed - because a glance in any reflective surface confirmed that it had been, in fact, years - there had to still be humans left.
Otherwise, what would be the purpose of this entire prophecy? To send him back as the only human left? Unlikely.
Noctis shifts and moves into the forest lining Lestallum's eastern wall as he hears the daemon shouting an alarm. It looked like this wall had been built to keep daemons out - further reassuring him that this town had indeed been stolen from humans.
Returning to Insomnia alone was possible - but he winces at the thought of doing it without his friends. However, finding them would have to wait.
His anger stirs the Astrals he's connected to - he can practically feel Leviathan squirming to release her rage towards the darkness. Noctis lowers himself behind some shrubs as a daemon patrols on top of the wall. He doesn't think about why it would use a flashlight.
Rather than letting his anger guide him, he clings to the desperate hope that taking this place back would bring him closer to finding his friends.
He looks to his tattered clothes, and pulls his kingly raiment from the armiger. Insomnia would have to wait for just awhile longer.
Straightening his tie and jacket, his expression darkens and turns to face Lestallum. Once there are no more signs of patrols, he warps to the wall and blends into the shadows of an alley.
He may be the King of Light, but he knew how to hide in the darkness well.
Daemons pass by him, unaware of his presence, and Noctis looks for higher ground and a better vantage point. Warping to a porch hidden by a clothesline, Noctis observes the main street below.
Nervous sweat beads at his brow as daemons rush back and forth - some looking like their were just carrying on with their lives, others like they were preparing for an attack.
Not for the first time, Noctis wishes he had backup.
Even if it were just one of his friends here with him - Ignis to give him any sort of strategy, Gladio to help him thin their numbers, or Prompto to provide him cover fire - because as it were, he felt so alone.
A pair of daemons get into a fight with each other below, the lamp (not bright enough for daemon-warding, Noct notes) illuminates the one he followed earlier and -
Noctis looks away, sickness pooling in his stomach.
Maybe he could go to Insomnia instead, bringing the dawn would kill every daemon and he wouldn't have to get his hands dirty himself by killing them all here.
Maybe he could pretend they didn't look as human as they do.
Maybe he could pretend that other daemon didn't look like -
Noctis slides down and against the wall, disturbing a dead houseplant. He rubs his hands against his face, loose strands of hair tugging between his fingers.
The door to the porch opens beside him. A stunned daemon in a bathrobe locks eyes with him.
The daemon shrieks, and before she can even lunge at him he casts Flare and flees. The entire building he had been hiding on explodes - the very ground itself shudders and roaring flames spout out into the sky.
Covering his ears, the wave of flames throw him off his feet at the end of his warp. Rolling, Noctis pushes himself into a sprint.
Noctis runs past daemons as they scream and cover their eyes from the suddenly bright street. Skidding back into an alley, Noctis pants as he winds further into the darkness.
Daemons that hadn't witnessed the explosion either jump at him or jump away from him in surprise and panic. Footsteps from behind tell him he is being trailed by at least one who had witnessed the explosion.
Noctis cuts down the daemons blocking his way until he reaches an empty alley. He would just have to warp over a building and to the wall and he would be free.
Leviathan calls to him, demanding to be released upon Lestallum, he staggers and shakes his head. It stalls him enough for the footsteps to skid into the alley behind him.
The familiar whistle of a blade flying through the air is not enough warning for Noct.
Pain erupts in his abdomen, and he doesn't need to turn and look to know that Ignis's dagger has sunk into his side. By the time he has pulled the blade free and healed the wound, he has resigned to the knowledge that his friends no longer exist.
If Ignis had fallen - he forces himself to look at the twisted, sharp features and curled horns of the blind daemon before him - then so had Gladio and Prompto.
Noctis had thought he would cry, he would weep, that he'd scream in rage or anything. Instead he feels nothing.
Simply numb.
What had once been Ignis jumps high into the air, aiming to skewer him with the polearm that had been fastened to his back.
Noctis summons his own and parries the attack to the side. Ignis relentlessly retaliates.
Noctis couldn't let this go on. He couldn't live knowing that his absence had caused this.
If only he had returned sooner.
"Fo-" He clears his throat and pulls a simple Thunder spell into existence, "Forgive me."
The bitter taste doesn't leave as he sees Ignis stumble to a halt, the spell going off just before him and throwing him through a pile of crates and tires.
Noctis barely ducks a punched aimed at his head from behind. Dancing back a step, he turns his sad eyes to face his horned attacker.
And is met with Prompto's snarling face. Noctis wants to hurl as they lock eyes.
In an instant, as recognition takes over, that snarl falls to a shocked, horrified grimace and Prompto staggers back. A wounded noise escapes Noctis before he blinks and forces away his emotion.
He doesn't want this - it wasn't fair - he doesn't want this. He can't acknowledge what has become of the four of them.
Prompto throws his arms out before tearing at his messy, unstyled hair. Shrieks and garbled words that Noct can't understand fly from his lips in what Noct can recognize as panic.
So he wasn't the only one horrified by how things had turned out.
The fact that Prompto - and even Ignis, as he finally pulls himself up and out of the collapsed crates - were not simply mindless daemons brought Noct no comfort.
They were still daemons. Light would still kill them, therefore, they would be forced to snuff out any source.
Noct winces as Prompto pleads incoherently at him. Coming to stand next to Prompto, Ignis waits, just as tense and desperate as Prompto for any reaction Noctis could give.
He doesn't want to speak to them - doesn't want to make it real. They were no longer human, and he would become their reaper with the return of the dawn.
They could no longer be friends.
No matter how much humanity remained in them - their new (or in reality, however long they had been daemons) instincts would have been corrupted compared to his own. They could only love as much as any other daemon could.
So why did they look so much more hurt than even he?
"You remember me." He fights against the downturn wobble of his lips, of the cracking of his voice. Cold is what he would have to be to survive this.
Prompto nods manically, Ignis jolting a step forward before he himself nods.
"And so you remember that I am the Crystal's Chosen?" A stunned, mortified look crosses his former friends' faces. Ignis starts to incoherently babble, but Prompto sits in shocked silence, his mouth turned into a broken grimace. Were those looks of betrayal? Fear for themselves or even for him? Noctis wouldn't know - he's never been the cause of those expressions on his friends before.
Another explosions echoes in the distance - the fire he started reaching a gas line. Noctis steels his eyes and plunges them further into damnation, "Then you understand what I must do."
His Armiger springs to life brilliantly around him and the two daemons stumble back. Raising his hand, he takes aim.
A burly pair of arms wrap around him from behind and Noctis knows they can only belong to Gladio. He throws his head back - instantly regretting it as his skull connects with the side of a horn rather than a nose.
He brings his spinning blades in, knocking the big daemon free and jumping out of reach.
Gladio stands to his feet, wiping near-black blood from his face where the Mace clipped. He glares at Noctis - but Noctis can tell it lacks the normal heat of those he's seen before.
Ignis and Gladio exchange those rapid-fire gurgles and hisses that Noct recognizes as their language. Gladio looks back into the darkness of the alleyway - torn between Noct and something else.
Noctis doesn't give him the chance to turn back around. He forces his Armiger upon him once again, ignoring how Prompto has come forth to dig his clawed hands into his forearm.
Right now, Noctis had the upper hand - the only daemon here armed was Ignis. It was clear they could no longer summon, and Noctis didn't plan to let the other two grab weapons.
Gladio falls to the ground and Noctis yanks his arm away to backhand Prompto. Royal Arms swirl between himself and Prompto and Ignis, keeping them for interfering.
He keeps Gladio pinned to the ground with the remaining blades, ignoring how their light brought even greater pain to this husk that was once his friend. The Sword of the Father illuminates to life in his grasp.
Raising the blade, he looks to Gladio for one last time.
Something bites deep into his arm. Noctis grunts and flings the little interrupting daemon off him.
It scrambles off the ground and rushes to stand over Gladio, it - she, Noctis can tell - bares teeth stained with his own blood.
His Royal Arms fade, and in the instant they do Gladio jumps to his feet and clings to the child - because that is what she is. The daemon who bit him looked to be no older than a four or five year old child.
Oh, Noctis realizes, oh, they really have moved on without me.
That simple thought nearly undoes him. Breath hitching and eyes starting to burn, his sword falls to his side.
He had been left behind, the only being of light in a world that could not survive without darkness.
Gladio clutches his child closer, back exposed to Noct's blade entirely. Noctis hesitates - he wants to scream, to bawl, to rend the darkness from this world. He had seen that kind of protectiveness before.
When his own father had stood between him and the Marilith.
Scream breaking off into a sob, Noct clutches at his heart with his free hand and drives his blade deep into the pavement with the other. The sickening screech of metal through rock pulls his former friends' terrified eyes back on him.
Surely, despite his head being bowed over his blade, they could see Noct's tears as they freely flowed.
"This changes nothing."
He had all the strength to bring back the dawn. The slim survivors - humans that had been able to withstand the dark (for surely, there had to be some?) - their very lives were counting on him to live through the night.
Therefore, he should not lose.
Therefore, I can not win.
He was the only one in the world now that could not be tainted by the Scourge, he would be the only one unable to join them in the darkness.
How very cruel.
He stands, dragging his blade across the stone road and ignoring how it sent up sparks. The wall separating Lestallum from the forest was just ahead.
Killing his friends was no longer something he could bring himself to do- at the very least, not like this. Rather, bringing back the dawn would ensure that they died with him.
He'd have to fight Ardyn alone. He could fight alone - he'd done so countless times. The only difference would be that it would be his final battle, one against the strongest opponent.
The question was would he?
It could be no more difficult than the battle he was in currently.
Noctis couldn't bring himself to say goodbye, to beg for forgiveness, to tell his friends everything they deserved to hear.
Taking a deep breath and sorting his thoughts, Noctis bolts for the wall.
Prompto tackles at him, Ignis quick to join in as well when they realize his aim. Noctis swiftly evades them, staggering only slightly as Prompto snags at his heel on his way down.
He warps to the top of the wall and turns to look behind him. The seconds seem to slow as he takes in his pursuers' faces.
Gladio has turned, grip firm and protective on his daughter - and Noctis has never seen him with such an expression of regret.
Prompto was pushing himself off the ground, real tears streaming down his cheeks as he cries out.
And Ignis -
Noctis ducks Ignis's lunge as time catches back up. He warps down into the forest, not stopping for a second as he hears the thud of feet landing behind him.
Gritting his teeth, he desperately tries to block out Ignis's calls.
"N-Noc..."
He claps a hand over his mouth - either to hide a sob or keep himself from being sick as he recognizes something that sounded like his name coming from Ignis behind him. He forces himself to run faster.
It seemed being blind mattered little to a daemon, no matter how many twists and turns through the trees Noctis took, Ignis was constantly a step behind. The trees open up suddenly, and Noctis can see the road in the distance.
He skids to a stop at the sudden downhill drop that had let him see above the trees, and Ignis crashes into him from behind.
They tumble down the hill together, Noctis wincing every time one of Ignis's bony limbs accidentally jabbed into him. In the chaos, he feels hands grab at him, and Noctis retaliates by first sending his fist and then his elbow into Ignis's face, effectively knocking him out.
Their roll comes to an end with a crunch of leaves and sticks. Noctis sucks in a breath and pushes his former friend's limp body off of him. Summoning a sword, Noctis kneels above Ignis and points the blade to his jugular.
Ignis, out cold, can't fight back.
Heaving for air, his grip on the sword shakes violently. Tears and sweat drip from him to land on the sickly flesh of Ignis.
Noctis waits a heartbeat, two, and nothing happens.
Breath coming back under control, the sword vanishes and Noctis weakly stands to his feet. Turning away, Noctis slinks into the shadows of the trees.
...
The tunnel leading into Lestallum stretches long as Noct walks through it. Maybe, once he reached the end, it would lead him out of this nightmare.
"It's like we're warping into another dimension!" Prompto had once said.
A spiteful huff forces its way through his lips.
He wasn't aiming for the end of the tunnel at the moment anyway.
Umbra sat midway, ears drooping and watching Noct as he limped his way.
"Umbra..." he chokes out.
Noctis falls to his knees before the dog, hands reaching out to steady himself on Umbra's haunches. Umbra leans closer to him, and in response, Noctis pulls him tight and buries his face into Umbra's neck.
The keening whine the dog produces is enough to finally break Noctis.
Convulsing sobs shake his whole body - Umbra remains a steadfast rock in a turbulent ocean. Noctis hides his face further into the dark fur, clenching his eyes shut until his shuddering body relaxes.
With one last sniff, he slowly pulls away from Umbra and stands wearily. From this point in the tunnel, he can see either end. Behind him would lead back in the direction of Lestallum - but past that would be havens and outposts, as well as endless woods and mountains. Places he could easily disappear forever in.
The one before him would lead him in the direction of Insomnia.
Umbra pushes his head against his hand, but the action fails to draw Noct's attention away from the end of the tunnel. With a shakey sigh, Noctis wipes the last of his tear tracks with one hand and uses the other to pat the loyal dog's head.
With that, he turns and walks the other way.