[It smells like destruction, is Ardyn’s first thought.
The smoke is oily, and it reminds him of Niflheim; their mechanical creations that added to the might of their army, the groan of metal against metal, the robotic way the magitek troopers moved in their formations. The hum of drop ships and the scent of the ozone as they drifted through the sky. But this is different, what he sees. These are the corpses of great airships, the dead shells of armored suits. And there’s more than that, something far more easily broken than clockwork and steel. Children, dotting the landscape. Bloodied and still.
It smells like war. He knows it well; he stood at the helm of one, a mighty nation clashing into the other to leave it battered and dying. This is something that settles familiar in him, reminding him of the fall of Insomnia. Reminding him of the darkness that overcame the capital city, years later.
The crunch of dirt underfoot, as Ardyn steps forward next to X’rhun. He spots another — a younger one, it would seem — slinking in the shadows at a distance.]
A
The smoke is oily, and it reminds him of Niflheim; their mechanical creations that added to the might of their army, the groan of metal against metal, the robotic way the magitek troopers moved in their formations. The hum of drop ships and the scent of the ozone as they drifted through the sky. But this is different, what he sees. These are the corpses of great airships, the dead shells of armored suits. And there’s more than that, something far more easily broken than clockwork and steel. Children, dotting the landscape. Bloodied and still.
It smells like war. He knows it well; he stood at the helm of one, a mighty nation clashing into the other to leave it battered and dying. This is something that settles familiar in him, reminding him of the fall of Insomnia. Reminding him of the darkness that overcame the capital city, years later.
The crunch of dirt underfoot, as Ardyn steps forward next to X’rhun. He spots another — a younger one, it would seem — slinking in the shadows at a distance.]
Do I seem like the squeamish sort?