Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse {Book Three: Pestilence}(Ignis x Reader)

|| Twenty-Four ||

After the events following Ardyn's deception, Noctis promptly called Ignis after regaining consciousness and told him how he was tricked by the man. He told him how he shoved Prompto off the roof of the train, believing it had been Ardyn. The advisor calmed him down, telling him what they had to do first and to rendezvous with him and Gladio.

Before Noctis could tell Ignis about finding (Y/n)'s staff, the train entered a tunnel and the call suddenly dropped. Looking up at the ceiling and sides of the tunnel, he saw myriads of daemons crawling around. The sheer number of them caused him to gape in shock. Tightening his grip on Pestilence's staff, he glared at the horde of enemies. "And things just got worse."

Daemons leapt off the ceiling and walls of the tunnel, landing on the train. Noctis watched the assailants for a few seconds before a faint glow caught his attention. Looking down, he saw (Y/n)'s staff was glowing faintly. The moment he lifted it up, lightning struck the daemons and killed them instantly. The boy gaped in awe when seeing his path was cleared and glanced at the staff once more before proceeding to regroup with Ignis and Gladio.

Noctis used his own magic and grinned when seeing how enhanced it was due to wielding the Horseman's staff. Once defeating another group of daemons, he chuckled. "I gotta get me one of these." He continues to fight through daemon after daemon as he makes his way toward the front car of the train. With every passing wave of enemies, he was becoming irritated and exhausted. "Where do they keep coming from?"

What felt like an eternal struggle, Noctis reaches the front car and realizes it's no longer broad daylight when looking toward the end of the tunnel. Night has begun to fall, which wasn't a good sign. He couldn't believe how quick the sun was setting. "What?! No light at the end of the tunnel?!" Then, he takes notice of many large spider-like daemons hanging from the ceiling ahead of the train. "What in the world...?"

The daemons drop onto the train, which emerges into the rapidly disappearing daylight. The train becomes swarmed as it reaches Tenebrae. Noctis looks toward the distance and stares with wide eyes at Fenestala Manor. His attention was soon redirected to the horde of daemons stalking toward him.

All of a sudden, Leviathan emerges from the valley below and begins unleashing waterspouts at the daemons, knocking them loose and shattering the train's windows. The Tidemother creates another water cyclone, which sucks in the daemons as they are knocked off the train.

Once all the daemons were gone, the Astral vanished. With the assailants gone, Noctis looks back at Fenestala Manor and realized it's burning. He kept his gaze focused on the blazing building until tearing his eyes away. He added (Y/n)'s staff to his arsenal and headed back inside the train.

<----------<<<<<

Arriving in Tenebrae, Noctis, Gladio, and Ignis climb off the train once it rested idly in the station. The raven-haired boy kept glancing at his advisor, wondering when to tell him about Pestilence's staff.

Ignis could sense the boy's jitteriness and looked up at him. While he could still only see shapes and colors, he knew exactly who he was looking at. "Noct, what seems to be the issue?"

"Yeah," Gladio spoke up. "What's the deal?"

A heavy sigh came from Noctis as he held out his hand and conjured (Y/n)'s staff. "I found this in one of the cars." He handed it to Ignis, who used his hands to identify the object when he wasn't familiar with the blurry shape.

The strategist's gloved hands traced the tip of the staff, eyes widening when he finally recognized it. "This is..." His hands gravitated back toward the middle of the weapon.

"Okay, so you found (Y/n)'s staff," Gladio stated. "But where's (Y/n)?"

"How should I know?" Noctis groaned. He pulled out the vial in his pocket and showed it to his shield. "Last time we talked, she gave me this before disappearing. It sounded like she was gonna leave. Maybe she left."