Stars in the Night Sky [NOCTIS X READER]

CHAPTER 19 - TO WATCH THE WORLD BURN

So, fair warning, we are following the plot of Comrades here, but I use that term VERY loosely because I've taken a jackhammer to it to make it make more sense and fit with the main plot of the fic. Enjoy!

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"The gods want Noctis to sacrifice his life."

Ignis' revelation was quiet, barely audible over the roar of the truck's engine and the wind in your ears as you sped towards Lestallum. In the front seat, Cor tried very hard to pretend like he wasn't listening as he drove.

"Whoa, hold on, back up," you said. "The gods want him to do what?"

"Die," Ignis replied. His tone was grim. "Ardyn has allegedly grown far too strong for the Crystal to purge without him sacrificing his own life, so he must be killed both in the mortal and afterworlds."

"No," you said, your voice sounding foreign in your own ears. "No. Absolutely fucking not."

"I agree," Ignis said. "It's why I put on the Ring--to see if I could defeat Ardyn in Noct's stead. It's only by his grace that I still live."

"You gave him hell, looks like," Gladiolus had an enormous arm thrown over the back of the truck, dangling dangerously close to one of the tires.

"Yes," Ignis murmured. "I pray it was enough to weaken Ardyn. We know as well as anyone he's not dead. He'll likely bide his time until Noct returns."

You looked away, staring down at your hands. They were trembling in your lap. Noctis' disappearance still struck a horrible chord in you. You knew it had to happen. You knew that he had a destiny larger than anyone's and a role to play that had been foretold in the Cosmogony. But it didn't make it hurt any less.

You missed him. Unbearably so. It had only been a day since he'd been swallowed whole, but you thought of him almost every minute. Some desperate, childish hope of yours prayed that he wouldn't be gone long, but you knew (and likely your companions knew) it would be a long, long time before you saw Noctis again.

But if he came back only to die for your sakes?

That was a fate too cruel for even for the Six. It couldn't happen.

Getting back to Lucis after the events of the Keep had been surreal. Ravus (who'd survived his daemon encounter) had flown you all the way back to Caem, alongside the Crystal that had been ferried away to where it would be kept safe. It was nothing more than a rock now with no one to channel its power to cleanse the world, but it was still a cornerstone of the Lucian society and needed to be protected.

When you arrived in Caem, Cor had been waiting to escort them to the few remaining safe settlements in Lucis. The rest of them were overrun by daemons or in the process of becoming so. Less and fewer places had the electricity to help fend off the monsters at night. Lestallum had gotten lucky thanks to the EXINERIS plant and the meteorshards that helped power it.

And thus, on the long ride over, as the sun threatened to sink below the horizon at just shy before four in the afternoon, Ignis was opening up about the events that had driven him to put on the Ring and attempt to give his life up to stop Ardyn.

"We have to find a way to make sure Noct lives," you said. "Regardless of if you managed to weaken Ardyn or not."

"Agreed," Prompto sat up a little straighter. "I refuse to let him die!"

"Though we know very little of our enemy," Ignis pointed out. "Aside...from what he himself has told me. Were any of you aware that his surname 'Izunia' was nothing but a pseudonym?"