Ardyn POV
The Everfree from the looks of it was the best place to start. After maybe ten-ish minutes I was attacked by a few goblins and flans. I was hoping for bigger and angrier, but progress is progress I suppose. On another note my Royal Arms are still pretty effective in killing these things. While I was walking around aimlessly I decided to do a close examination of my weapons, I never did see if there was any information on why there were only 13 Royal Arms when there were I think 114 kings and queens including Noctis. I know you can't just fit that many weapons in a game under those circumstances, but you would think there would be more, a scythe, an actual bow, or a glaive (the pole weapon kind) to name a few.
After a while I stopped examining my weapons as I began to grow a little impatient with the lack of daemons.
"All those years in stone and I never thought to see if I could form or enhance other senses with these powers. Just my luck I'm afraid." I said to myself as the weather changed to rain. I removed my hat and just stood there with my eyes closed for a bit taking in the feeling as a faint smile found it's way on my face.
"Oh how I've missed this." Just as I finished that sentence I heard daemons all around me.
An armored giant.
2 arachne
5 bombs (2 fire, 2 lightning, 1 ice)
And 3 reapers.
"Well you lot took your sweet ti-" I was interrupted by the reapers stabbing me with 1 going through my neck, but not decapitating me and the other 2 stabbing my chest and leg.
"*pained gurgling noises*" I slammed the head of the one stabbing my neck as hard as I could with the shield and pulled out the scythe. It hurt worse coming out. I did the same thing with the other 2 just a second before the giant could cleave me in two and dashed away from it. Deciding the small fry should die first I targeted the bombs. I threw the star at one and missed (I never was good at aiming with thrown projectiles) as I shot another with the crossbow. Unfortunately I missed that as well thanks to one of the other bombs blasting me into an arachne's electrified swing or whatever it was and I got thrown through a tree.
I may be immortal, but that still hurt like hell! Eeyup! Nothing like getting stabbed, choking on your own blood, getting blown up, and thrown right through a tree to make sure you're awake!
"Aaaaagghh I'm probably going to be feeling that in the morning." I got out before a bomb bit my arm. I stabbed it with the Wanderer's blades until it died. The giant decided to start swinging relentlessly as the rest were getting ready to shoot me. Wanting to see my own strength I used the shield to block the sword and dashed through the giant to shoot the arachne with the crossbow interrupting them, but not the bombs. I warped to the bombs to dodge their spells before killing them with the katana.
Now with all the small fry out of the way I can focus on the actual threats (or would be threats). I threw the trident at one arachne and did a 360° spin with the mace after warping to it. The giant tried to cleave me in two again, but I dashed away from that and warped to the other arachne with the Rakshasa Blade. It lived so I dashed to the side of it and struck it's legs with the Sword of the Father and Wise. It collapsed and died a second later. The giant tried swiping at me, but I warped over it and plunge attacked it with the axe. Rinse and repeat it was still standing until I shredded it with the Sword of the Tall. Finally with all of them dead did I just collapse against a tree.
"I am out of shape!" I said to myself. I just sat there staring into the night sky, I tried to remember a time I could see the stars back home, but I can only remember when Orion's Belt was the only visible constellation where I lived. The rain hit my face and I felt at peace for a moment as I closed my eyes, but then my little episode from earlier happened again and I was crying again. I can barely remember my home, I'm responsible for the wrongful imprisonment of a princess and the deaths of countless innocent people even during my imprisonment.
"A monster can do naught but destroy." I heard a voice in my head, a voice I recognized and opened my eyes to one of my least favorite royals.
"You've haunted the real Ardyn for long enough Somnus. Not like you have any room to talk, after all it's your fault he became a monster in the first place. I think it's ironic the man with literal daemons inside him still had a more pure heart than you until he decided the son must pay for the sins of the father. You killed countless innocent people who any number of them were free of the Starscourge, labeled your own brother who's only crime was saving lives a traitor, killed his fiancé and your future sister in law, stole the throne, sentenced him to a fate worse than death, and erased him from history." I responded glaring at the pretender in front of me as the world faded to black.
"You call me a monster but history would beg to differ boy. You can try to deny it, but you'll soon choose the same path as my dear brother." Somnus taunted.
"History and facts don't always line up. Fact of the matter is you are among the greatest traitors to walk Eos. It's hypocritical of you to believe a 'sinner can't be allowed to sit the throne' yet you've betrayed and killed so many people including family for your selfish desire for power or even for reasons as petty as jealousy. Ardyn was a hero, a man who willingly sacrificed everything even his humanity to save the world he loved, he would have accepted you being chosen and kept saving people, maybe even established his own kingdom eventually." I said standing up with the Rakshasa Blade in hand.
"Tell me, what did you sacrifice to sit the throne? What did you lose? Nothing that's what! All you did was take and take and you were called a hero for it, he did the opposite and was called a monster." I channelled Darkness into my other hand as I walked towards him.
"Embracing your true nature I see. So you're going to des- OOF" *schlick* he looked at me with what I can only describe as hatred after I punched him in the face and stabbed him.
"*cough* *cough* Monster!" he choked out as he faded away and with him so did the surrounding darkness, bringing the real world back into my vision. I looked down and tightly gripped Rakshasa.
"I can't destroy something that doesn't exist, Somnus. I can't embrace a nature I don't have. I have no desire for revenge nor do I have a desire for destruction. You paved Ardyn's path with blood and darkness, mine has neither within sight, I'll make sure of that, monster!" I said quietly to myself before continuing onward.
I kept Rakshasa in hand as I walked through the forest, there were a few daemons here and there, but they weren't anything a guy with literally any weapon shouldn't have been able to kill. After a while I felt a strange warmth that only grew as I progressed. Eventually I heard noises and shouting like a fight was going on and thought there were more daemons. Following the sounds there were a few giants and giant flans surrounding a bunch of ponies. Still being in a bad mood and wanting this done quickly I launched a barrage of weapons at them all until the daemons were no more. Upon killing them I got a better look at the shocked and exhausted ponies, the 6 from earlier and the princesses if I'm seeing who I think I am.
"You all know it's incredibly dangerous out here, especially at night right?" I asked. While a few of them seemed a little relieved to see me the rest had varying looks of fear and pure rage for the princesses.
"So you came to us then? Saves us the trouble of looking for you monster!" Luna said in a 'I finally get to kill you' tone.
"Please, I've been called a monster enough tonight by a hallucination so can we not do this?" I asked only to have a scythe again go through my torso.
"Sorry, but it's going to take a lot more than that to kill me, and why does everything want to stab me with a scythe all of a sudden?" I shouted through the pain a second before Celestia joined in on the stabbey fun time with her giant ass sword that's just a few feet short of a horse cleaver maybe 2 more feet in length and a few inches thicker would it count.
"You have no place in this world, now begone, and take your plague with you!" Celestia shouted twisting her sword getting a pained grunt out of me.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry, and I forgive you." This only made them angier.
"You're sorry??!! Is 'sorry' supposed to bring back those who died? Is 'sorry' supposed to cure the afflicted? Is 'sorry' supposed to give back the thousand years I've lost??!!" Luna shouted digging the blade deeper into me. I phased back a little to make speaking easier as I summoned the rest of my arsenal to block everything they throw at me.
"As I said, I'm sorry. I can't change what happened, I can however do my part in ridding this world of daemons, and I can't do that if I'm imprisoned. I won't let the past repeat itself, I won't lose control again!" I said blocking every strike and spell they sent at me. This only angered them more as I wasn't even fighting back.
"Quit hiding behind your shield and fight!" Celestia said.
"I don't want to fight you. You have every right to hate me, to want to kill me, but if you do the Starscourge will never go away." I lowered my defense and caught her sword holding it in place. It burned more than it stung.
"I was once a savior you know. I was blessed by the Hexathion with the ability to cure the afflicted by taking the darkness into myself. I refused to abandon my people and held the darkness at bay even after curing so many." Her expression changed slightly as she kept trying to pull her sword free. Luna saw this as an opportunity to attack me from behind with a decapitation, but I used several Royal Arms to ensure it went straight through my chest and I held the end of it in place as well with my other hand.
"My younger brother and I were the heirs to an empty throne. He was charismatic and ambitious while I was a man of the people. He labeled me a traitor for my gift and hunted me down while he used unthinkable methods including scorched earth policy to deal with the daemon threat." The sisters' struggling increased as did the pain in my chest and hands.
"Get on with it!" Luna said impatiently.
"I was chosen by the Gods as the first king of Lucis. When the news reached my ears I accepted with the hope the throne would bring me that much closer to saving the world from daemons. My brother Somnus in his jealosy used the news against me to convince everyone it was false, that he was chosen and intended to lure the 'traitor' into a trap." Their struggling began to lessen, making 'my' history easier to tell.
"After a short fight he landed a good enough hit to leave me defenseless. In his attempt to finish me off the Oracle, my fiancé, his soon to be sister sacrificed herself to save me. In my grief I lost control and the darkness burst out of me. The Gods had changed their minds and chose him as the Founder King as he brought me down. He imprisoned me for over 2,000 years, renamed me 'Adagium', made himself out to be the hero who saved the world with the Oracle and erased me from history." I looked behind me to see a conflicted look on Luna's face, I turned to Celestia to see the same.
"After I was released by an enemy of Lucis 2,000 years later I swore revenge against my brother who had taken everything from me with a smile on his arrogant face, but since I couldn't kill him persae I chose to destroy everything he built. Before I could end his blood line I was stopped by the chief of the Hexathion and told they had chosen me to bring darkness to the world. I was to be a sacrificial lamb for the Chosen King who would end the long night and with it my suffering and the daemons. The world of Eos was free of daemons and I finally had my revenge, the justice I deserved for so long." I didn't even look at theirs or the faces of the 6 ponies still on standby. I phased through their weapons. They made no movements I could hear as I turned my back to them.
"I know your pain better than you do, and for twice as long for reasons as justified as yours." I said to Luna and walked away for a few seconds before stopping.
"When I came to this world I had hoped for a new beginning, and since I didn't feel the Starscourge I thought nothing would stop me. It's because of my own carelessness that we are even here, I'm sorry again."
No one tried to stop me as I took my leave.