The memory continues, almost as though Noctis doesn't hear the other. Though it could also be because the memory is telling him exactly what happens, and considering his feet are no longer on the ground? The struggling continues. Even as he sometimes glimpses in the direction of the voice he hears like one would a static-emitting television set.
That's what it seems to be in his eyes, too. A brief flickering of something that looks like it tries to break through, and yet fades back to what his memories tell him should be there. So instead he focuses on the one other being in the room as he continues to fight something more than just the light pulling him up further and further off the ground.
"In an age long past, an incurable scourge ravaged mankind. A tiny menace that twisted men into monsters, the likes of which you've seen."
The older man's voice is calm, practiced despite the scene before him. Almost as though he is only educating the young royal instead of giving a lecture as he struggles and writhes as, inch by inch, the Crystal isn't just pulling him up, but inside.
And, for an instant, the scene flashes to the storage hangar, focusing on the different types of daemons they'd just fought before it returns to the Crystal's chamber. Just in time for the cannon's blast goes off, knocking Ardyn to the ground. Yet nothing truly seems to happen, except his face begins to show black ooze falling from his eyes and the corners of his lips. His own pale face turning ash-white as blackened cracks form where the veins in his neck should be and the whites of his eyes turn black.
"Did your parents never tell you it is rude to interrupt your elders when they speak?" The man asks, voice far more corrupted and less human. He moves quick to his feet as well, before tossing the fedora aside and, in the blink of an eye, the same weapons that spun around Noctis not long ago appear around he man. Red replacing blue, a hand making a simple gesture of dismissal as all twelve of them shoot forth from their positions to strike at Shiro—
"No, you can't—!"
—and the scene switches to a train. The same man, frozen solid and turned to ice as a silverite trident stabs through the man to the core. Noct's hand guiding it before it disappears in pale blue light and he falls to the floor.
It's a scream of rage that snaps it back to the actual memory. Everything becoming more greyscale aside from the light and the three present. Ardyn, unharmed, standing only a few short paces from the two of them. Only this time the man of no consequence looks completely through Shiro as Noctis' right leg ends up stuck inside the Crystal as well.
"In Lucis lived a savior that could cure the afflicted. His body would come to host a myriad daemons, that countless lives be spared. Yet, a jealous king, one not yet chosen by the Crystal, ostracized and demonized this healer of the people. Making a true monster of him."
In yet another blink, it switches to another scene in the same train, the man once again completely whole and unharmed. A brief glimpse of the man kneeling before a woman in all white before it cuts out with his voice once again, before anything could be seen of what happens.
Noctis is stuck in the Crystal up to his hips, now. free hand almost as if trying to grasp at his own neck-
"Noct, killing you as a mortal will bring me scant satisfaction. Claim the Crystal's power. Arise as its champion."
A vision of the Draconian, the King so small he fits neatly at the center of His large clawed hand as the same blue eyes gaze down upon the Chosen. "Only once the Crystal and King are no more..." A static-filled scene in grey and blue, as ghostly figures appear around a throne, where an older and more ragged man sits. "can I know redemption."
The Chamber disappears as a bloodcurdling scream leaves Noctis' throat, revealing what the true memory is: the young king floating in the very void that the memory began in, brilliant blues and violets swirling around them as the younger man curls into himself, arms hugging his knees close to him as the only support in zero-G. The Ring on his finger glowing with a brilliant light as his shoulders shake soundlessly.
no subject
That's what it seems to be in his eyes, too. A brief flickering of something that looks like it tries to break through, and yet fades back to what his memories tell him should be there. So instead he focuses on the one other being in the room as he continues to fight something more than just the light pulling him up further and further off the ground.
"In an age long past, an incurable scourge ravaged mankind. A tiny menace that twisted men into monsters, the likes of which you've seen."
The older man's voice is calm, practiced despite the scene before him. Almost as though he is only educating the young royal instead of giving a lecture as he struggles and writhes as, inch by inch, the Crystal isn't just pulling him up, but inside.
And, for an instant, the scene flashes to the storage hangar, focusing on the different types of daemons they'd just fought before it returns to the Crystal's chamber. Just in time for the cannon's blast goes off, knocking Ardyn to the ground. Yet nothing truly seems to happen, except his face begins to show black ooze falling from his eyes and the corners of his lips. His own pale face turning ash-white as blackened cracks form where the veins in his neck should be and the whites of his eyes turn black.
"Did your parents never tell you it is rude to interrupt your elders when they speak?" The man asks, voice far more corrupted and less human. He moves quick to his feet as well, before tossing the fedora aside and, in the blink of an eye, the same weapons that spun around Noctis not long ago appear around he man. Red replacing blue, a hand making a simple gesture of dismissal as all twelve of them shoot forth from their positions to strike at Shiro—
"No, you can't—!"
—and the scene switches to a train. The same man, frozen solid and turned to ice as a silverite trident stabs through the man to the core. Noct's hand guiding it before it disappears in pale blue light and he falls to the floor.
It's a scream of rage that snaps it back to the actual memory. Everything becoming more greyscale aside from the light and the three present. Ardyn, unharmed, standing only a few short paces from the two of them. Only this time the man of no consequence looks completely through Shiro as Noctis' right leg ends up stuck inside the Crystal as well.
"In Lucis lived a savior that could cure the afflicted. His body would come to host a myriad daemons, that countless lives be spared. Yet, a jealous king, one not yet chosen by the Crystal, ostracized and demonized this healer of the people. Making a true monster of him."
In yet another blink, it switches to another scene in the same train, the man once again completely whole and unharmed. A brief glimpse of the man kneeling before a woman in all white before it cuts out with his voice once again, before anything could be seen of what happens.
Noctis is stuck in the Crystal up to his hips, now. free hand almost as if trying to grasp at his own neck-
"Noct, killing you as a mortal will bring me scant satisfaction. Claim the Crystal's power. Arise as its champion."
A vision of the Draconian, the King so small he fits neatly at the center of His large clawed hand as the same blue eyes gaze down upon the Chosen. "Only once the Crystal and King are no more..." A static-filled scene in grey and blue, as ghostly figures appear around a throne, where an older and more ragged man sits. "can I know redemption."
The Chamber disappears as a bloodcurdling scream leaves Noctis' throat, revealing what the true memory is: the young king floating in the very void that the memory began in, brilliant blues and violets swirling around them as the younger man curls into himself, arms hugging his knees close to him as the only support in zero-G. The Ring on his finger glowing with a brilliant light as his shoulders shake soundlessly.