As the battle between the Ivory Dragon and the Beast of Twilight grew more and more devastating, Sunny raced across the heavenly chain and approached the walls of the Ivory City. Up above, Sevras and Noctis continued to rip each other apart, their fury terrible enough to shatter the sky.
According to the short briefing from Noctis, Dan Heng, March, and Veliona were still alive. He also mentioned that there were two Awakened woman sneaking around on the ship Dan Heng was flying, which gave him a sneaking suspicion.
However, some of them weren't able to continue fighting. Dan Heng seemed to have exhausted his Essence while dealing with the Sun Prince — which was quite impressive, by the way — and the same could be said for Veliona. March was the only other ally of his who was still active.
Sunny himself was in the worst state of them all, considering that he had lost an entire Rank of strength. He couldn't use Essence to strengthen himself, couldn't step into the shadows, and couldn't even use any active enchantments that required Essence. The situation of his Shadow Creatures was unknown, and they'd need to be in the range of his shadow sense in order to return to him.
Wearing the Puppeteer's Shroud, a mere Awakened Memory, he knew the only way forward was to survive long enough for the Nightmare to end. He wouldn't be so helpless by then.
Still, he had other concerns to deal with before that time came.
Summoning the Dark Wing, he pushed his way to the top of the city wall and remained there for a moment, hiding in the shadow of a graceful guard tower.
The Ivory City lay beneath him, bathed in sunlight. It was… not even remotely as beautiful as he remembered.
The city had been bathed in debris and blood, fire and severed limbs. Massive rifts were carved into the earth, creating small valleys. Survivors looked up at the battle in the sky, chanting prayers towards the dragon. A large spire seemed to have been torn from its position, and was impaled into the ginormous walls, which seemed much less pristine from the inside.
It was as if someone had hoisted the spire and chucked it like a throwing lance.
The once-graceful buildings had been reduced to rubble, crushing both guards and civilians — which numbered to an amount far less than what Sunny would have assumed for a city so large.
'Did some of them evacuate…?'
Who could have caused this kind of damage?
Seeing the oversized claw marks… it was simple.
He remembered what Noctis had told him once about the noble, valiant, and wise Sevras, the Ivory Lord. That he was both the sanest of them all, and the closest to utter madness.
Sevras had resisted Hope longer than any other Chain Lord… but it was precisely for that reason that he was the most susceptible to her poison. Due to his uncompromising resilience, he had maintained most of his sanity intact, and so, had never had a chance to build up a tolerance for the insidious influence of the Daemon of Desire over the ages.
Now that the death of Sun Prince pushed him over the edge, everything that Sevras had been stalwartly keeping suppressed broke out of control and flooded his mind in an instant. Hundreds of years of harrowing struggle, crashing into the bastion of his sanity all at once.
…Noctis had also said that the Ivory Lord both loved and hated his people. That they were a burden that weighed heavily on his soul, one which he could not escape due to his sense of duty. That they had bound the dragon to themselves with their faith, their devotion, their trust, and their dependency.
When that final string broke, had Sevras rampaged against those who tethered him?
"Good for him…"
In the next moment, the dragon roared as he received an especially painful wound, beads of crimson blood rolling down his ivory scales.
Losing the last crumbs of sense, he twisted in the air to better see his enemy, and breathed out a torrent of immolating flame.
However, his enemy was too cunning. Noctis had positioned himself between the dragon and the crowded streets, hoping to use the city below as a shield… or maybe hoping to taunt Sevras into destroying it.
His cruel trap had worked. The stream of pale light danced out of the way of the river of fire, which fell down and engulfed the square a moment later.
Sunny staggered back.
In an instant, thousands of the people who survived the previous carnage burned to death, their flesh turning to ash. The destroyed square became a scorching inferno, with even the stone itself melting and turning into incandescent lava. Cries of pain and horror filled the air. Some of the people survived and tried to flee, but the fire was everywhere around them. There was no escape…
…This was the response the Ivory Lord sent to their prayers.
Horrified, Sevirax froze in the air and looked down, shock swirling in his radiant, bestial eyes.
Sunny could practically see an internal struggle that happened in the muddled mind of the magnificent dragon.
For a short moment, the light of reason grew brighter in his eyes.
And then, it became fully extinguished.
'Ah… not so good for him, huh?'
Not caring anymore and longing for freedom, the dragon let out another furious roar, and then breathed out a powerful stream of fire, destroying a small part of the hateful enemy, but also drowning several streets of the Ivory City in flames.
Sunny stared at the slaughter, sighing in displeasure at the smell of burnt flesh.
It did not matter how vile and tragic the fate of the Ivory Dragon, and his city, had turned out to be…
All that matters was that he now had to get through the burning hell below, himself.