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The Tempering Grounds.
Not a place Ardyn had ever ventured in the past, as there was never a need for him to visit, but now as Noctis’s time in the crystal came closer to an end, he was drawn there. What once was a place for Shields of the King to test their might against the almighty Gilgamesh, had become overrun by nature, beasts, creatures, and eventually… daemons.
However, even with the land being consumed with miasma and darkness, the Tempering Grounds still held onto an ethereal beauty that couldn’t be matched anywhere on Eos. It was that beauty that seemed to draw Ardyn in, so he told himself, as he waved his hand to vanish the daemons in close vicinity.
This was a walk he meant to do alone.
Ardyn took in his surroundings as he went through each area, noting the scattered broken bones, armor, and weapons that lay across the floor. How many had attempted this foolish venture and lost their lives? It wasn’t a number he was entirely interested in because he also felt that it was a stupid venture to begin with.
Attempt to defeat Gilgamesh to prove your worth as a shield, or die trying.
“What is the point in that?” He muttered to himself as he continued down. “What good does the King if his Shield is dead?” Questions with no answers asked to the dead.
The further he ventured, Ardyn realized that the magic that kept many of the areas closed off had waned. Walls had crumbled, doors broken. The guardians intended to hinder your path no longer showed themselves at each juncture, which was a shame. There was a part of Ardyn that wanted to see if they really stood up to their name as guardians and were as powerful as told in stories.
“No matter.” He mused to himself as he tapped his fingers along the last broken doorway as he continued along. The famous bridge wasn't far off now, and as it finally came into view, Ardyn slowed his gait to a walk, then to a stop, and took it all in. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath as he let his head tip back as if he was relaxing.
"I feel you there, my old friend. I can still call you that, yes? We were friends at one point, weren't we?" Ardyn’s brow furrowed as he tried to remember moments from his childhood. Small glimpses of young boys running around flashed in the murky darkness that was his mind at the moment, leaving him with a minor longing to go back to a more simpler time, before the scourge enveloped him in its darkness once more.
Sighing, he opened his eyes and looked forward to venture further onto the bridge. The sounds of his footsteps bouncing off the high walls around him with no other sounds to answer him in return, proving just how alone he was down there. Taking off his fedora, Ardyn placed it on the edge of the bridge before leaning against it.
“I know what you must think of me, embracing the darkness, letting it consume me instead of fighting against it.” He crossed one foot over the other, entwining his fingers and rested his hands in front of him. “I stood for righteousness, healed the sick…”
Ardyn trailed off, eyes darkening as he stared at the rubble strewn about the area while he shifted his stance to push off the bridge and walk towards the center.
“Who’s to say what I'm doing isn't still the same thing? Taking control of a situation, making all the wrongs that had been done to me right again. Purging this world of those who hurt me…”
While he spoke, flashes of others' lives slowly started to form in his mind, whispers of doubt filling his ears, taunting him, telling him he was nothing compared to his brother. The intense anger of Ifrit began to bubble to the surface, running in his veins as his vision blurred; All the pain and suffering of being locked away before he was stolen by Niflheim and then consumed by Ardyn.
“How can you stand there and mock me like this Gilgamesh!?” Ardyn yelled, turning to look around, black, scourge filled eyes searching for the spirit in question, yet finding nothing.
“You have no idea the pain and suffering I went through! To see him strike me down, lock me away! I WAS TO BE THE CHOSEN KING! NOT HIM!” Ardyn screamed. Black veins crawled up his neck, covering his face as scourge dripped from his eyes and mouth. “HE TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME AND YOU STOOD THERE AND WATCHED, LET ME BE HUNG UP TO ROT!”
Letting out a feral screech, Ardyn fell to his knees as scourge rushed from his body and was expelled from his mouth. Thousands of memories flooded his mind before he could stop them. Men, women, and children going about their daily lives before Ardyn came along and killed them, taking their essence and creating a monster in their absence.
Little Johan playing ball with his dog, before the dog ran after a squirrel. The old woman Josie watching over her granddaughter. The man at the farmers market. The young couple who were just wed.
Clutching his head, the noises Ardyn let out were akin to a pained animal, each scream reverberating off the walls making it sound as if a beast had taken up residence in the abandoned place. He became blind to the surroundings around him as the memories flashed before his eyes. Every one of them, including the dog, had been consumed, their memories meshing with his own to a point where Ardyn could almost no longer remember what was his and what wasn’t.
“Make. It. Stop.” His voice gurgled as scourge coated his throat, dripping down his chin and neck as his body shook violently. It was too much for the human case that carried him around, and he knew he would soon expire if he could not reign in the scourge. Not that in the grand scheme of things it mattered.
Only one could kill him, and that man was still locked securely away in the crystal.
With the very familiar suffocation sensation creeping through his airways, and his vision beginning to go black, there was a small annoyance in the back of his mind that he’d be set back a few days while he recuperated at the bottom of this cavern.
Until there was a calm that washed over him.
Gasping for air, Ardyn fell forward, bracing himself with his hands against the stone floor beneath him. His lungs burned as if he’d been held for too long under water, and his body felt weak. Whatever scourge had been released from his body dissipated into the air, or soaked back into his skin while his eyes slowly changed back to their amber hue
“Aera?” A whisper in the empty chamber while his sight was still blurry and adjusting, half focused on a pair of ghostly feet that stood in front of him. Looking up, Ardyn blinked in confusion. “No… It’s you. You are still here.” His voice was laced with defeat as he realized the hand that helped pull him from the brink was Gilgamesh.
While Gilgamesh wore a mask to conceal his face, Ardyn thought he could feel worry radiating from him, or even worse, pity. Why would a ghost pity Ardyn, especially now after over two-thousand years? It was a frustrating thought, but one that Ardyn could easily articulate now that Gil had cleared his mind, if even for just a moment.
“Why? Why now do you help me when so long ago you stood there listening to my brother’s lies, watched as he cut me down in front of everyone, then strung me up in that cave on the sea.” Ardyn’s voice was low, frustration and anger tinged the edges of it.
“What gives you that right to act like you care? I…” Pushing himself back up to a kneeling position, Ardyn glared up at Gil for a moment, before he slowly staggered to his feet. “I trusted you back then. Back when I was a child, you were always the one to protect us, then you taught me to protect him, and I did. I protected them all, including you, and you… You were still supposed to protect me, and you didn’t. And for what? To be praised like him? To have your name written next to the great heroes?”
Ardyn laughed.
He raised his hands to the sky and laughed long and hard, almost maniacal, before he placed a hand on his hip and one on his chest as if to calm himself down before pulling his gaze back to Gil.
“The absurdity of the entire situation is that your soul became entangled in the game of the gods the moment you picked Somnus over me, and then you became just as immortal as me. Except, there is no loophole for you.”
Chuckling, Ardyn shook his head and turned away, walking back towards the edge where his hat sat. "You know, I pity you, Gil.” Glancing behind him, he smirked as he watched the ghostly vision of his old friend begin to disappear. “Your soul is trapped here, whereas mine... Mine will be free when this is all said and done. And you will be left all alone to rot with no shields to test their might any longer. I do hope it was worth it, my friend."
Picking up his fedora, Ardyn tipped his head towards the emptiness as a silent goodbye and put it back on his head before turning to warp up the cavern. He’d let himself feel everything that he needed too, and now it was time to wait for the True King to return so they could end this miserable nightmare.