It was when Leviathan reared her head above the waves that Ignis realised something must have gone wrong. Noct had been off anyway—which was probably understandable knowing his fate, but this—this was something else entirely.

Why would he summon Leviathan, especially now, of all times? There was nothing she could do for the city—in fact, she was only making the chaos worse as she crashed into buildings and levelled entire streets.

Ignis was forced to dodge back behind a corner to avoid the MTs running through the streets, motioning to the people following him to remain hidden. At least they had practice at this from last time, but still... He needed to find out what was going on, quickly.

When he was sure the street was clear he motioned for them to follow him as he headed as quickly as he could towards the northern docks. Street after street after street, he tried as best he could not to go too fast for the weak and the elderly among the group, but it was hard going all the same, what with the state the streets were in.

Just a bit further now, another corner...

Ignis's heart sunk as he saw what lay before him. The route he'd used before had been rendered completely impassable, the bridges in tatters, the water beginning to flood onto the street. There was no way across without swimming, and Ignis was fairly sure not everyone he was guiding could swim.

"What are we going to do?" barked and old man from behind him.

"Find another way around," said Ignis, straightening his glasses—little good it did him in the rain. "Follow me."

He tried desperately to remember the layout of the city, such as it was, from the last time he was here, but it was tough going. Eventually he found a side-street which led them clear to the docks. Thank goodness. He was beginning to worry for a moment there—

A shrill scream sounded behind him, and Ignis leapt forward just in time to push a woman out of the way of Leviathan's jaws as she came crashing down behind them—but that wasn't the only thing they had to worry about. In the shadows of the street the woman had almost been pushed down, he could see shapes moving in the darkness. Dusk was slowly fading, and soon night would have well and truly fallen. He needed to move faster.

He set off with a renewed speed, hoping the others would be able to keep up. It was their only hope.

It was a relief when the docks finally came into sight, but only a small one. The group thanked him and he did his best to extricate himself as soon as possible without appearing too rude. He needed to find the source of all this trouble, as soon as possible. Surely Noct had realised by now that Leviathan wasn't helping? Why hadn't he sent her away yet? Had something gone wrong?

The questions were spinning through his mind, just as he came face to face with Gladio.

"Iggy!" he cried, rushing over to him. "You're alright, right? What the hell's going on? Have you seen Noct?"

"I'm fine, Gladio," said Ignis, trying his best to brush off the concern, "but as to those last two questions, I'm afraid I'm as in the dark as you. I haven't seen Noct at all, and I've no idea why he's summoned Leviathan."

"She completely wrecking the city," said Gladio, clearly barely able to contain himself. "She must have killed some people already, and who knows how many more will die if this keeps up? He needs to send her back."

Ignis raised a pacifying hand. "I know. We must find him, as quickly as we can. It's possible he no longer has the means to send her back, in which case we must fight ourselves."

"His magic again?" asked Gladio, begrudgingly.

"Or he's been knocked unconscious. His powers do not require him to be awake to function, if I recall correctly."

Gladio nodded grimly. "You're right, they don't. But where are we gonna find him?"

"Guys!"

They both looked up at the new voice, and saw Prompto rushing towards them.

"Guys, I'm so glad I found you," he panted, resting his hands on his knees. "Things are going crazy. Me and Aranea got separated, so I figured I'd find you—but we have to go after her! She's looking for Noct, and she's really angry he summoned Leviathan—"

"Alright, Prompto," said Ignis, trying to think of how best to calm him down. "We were going to try and find Noct anyway, Do you have any idea where he might have gone?"

"Well he said he was gonna cover the south, right? But I dunno if he's there anymore—Leviathan's right in the middle of the lake, I guess if he wanted to stop her..."

"Let's head there first," said Ignis. "Then we will begin looking elsewhere. That seems like the best course of action."

"And if we don't find him?" asked Gladio.

"Then we start to worry."

It was a grim procession towards the altar. Leviathan had caused more damage than Ignis had anticipated—many buildings were wrecked and he'd seen more bodies than he cared to count. It was frustrating though—more and more daemons were appearing as the evening wore on, and along with the MTs still occupying the city and the threat of Leviathan storming down on them any second, it was slow going.

As they reached another flooded street, Ignis found himself wishing for the grappling hook he'd had last time. It would make traversing the city that much easier...

"Great, what are we going to do now?" asked Gladio, sounding tireder than ever. Ignis had to internally admit he was feeling much the same way.

"I guess we could try and swim," said Prompto, looking unenthusiastically into the water. "Can't be that bad, right?"

But just as Prompto was raising his foot to gingerly step in, and Ignis was moving to haul him away, it happened.

All at once, the water that had been surging across the street froze. Ice spread across the surface with a speed that was frankly terrifying, freezing the water all the way through, leaving icy waves frozen in the air, about to crash into the still, lifeless expanse of what had once been the canal.

Magic. Had to be. But Ignis had never seen Noct use this much of if before—didn't know he was even capable of such a feat. Incredibly cautiously, he stepped onto the ice, trying to look out onto the lake, to see if that had frozen too.

It had. An endless expanse of white, illuminated by the moonlight, stretched out before his eyes. This was...immense. The power this much magic would require—the ability to shape nature itself to his whim... What on earth...? How was this even possible? Never before had there been records of any King of Lucis achieving such a thing. It was unheard of. It was...incredibly dangerous.

Ignis suddenly felt he understood why the Gods were so afraid of Noct.

"Did...did Noct do this?" asked Prompto, tentatively following Ignis out onto the ice, sliding a little as he did. "I mean, how...?"

"I don't know," said Ignis. That alone unnerved him.

"He's got to be on the lake," said Gladio, trying to be all business, though it was clear by the pallor of his face he'd been rattled. "We need to get to him. ASAP."

"Yeah, yeah, we should do that," said Prompto, shaking his head as though to try and wake himself for a dream. "This can't be normal, right?"

Ignis wasn't sure there was such a thing as normal where Noct was concerned, but kept quiet. They were right. They needed to go after him.

The canals all being frozen made traversing the city a lot easier, and it wasn't long before they were all standing in front of the lake where Leviathan lay. Or used to, anyway. The lake freezing all at once appeared to have frozen her too—or trapped her in place at least, and she was writhing in the air, her tail trapped in the ice, bellowing so loudly it was hard to even yourself think.

She wasn't what Ignis was focused on though. There, in the centre of the lake, a small, dark figure was floating a high in the air, surrounded by blades of pure light. Noctis.

It really was him doing all this.

"Hey, Noct!" Prompto called out over the lake.

Noctis didn't respond. Ignis wasn't sure whether it was that he hadn't heard Prompto or that he just couldn't. He seemed to be in some other state now, another plane of reality. It wouldn't surprise him at all if he was deaf to the waking world now.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Gladio, as though Ignis would know the answer.

"I don't know."

"It looks like he's...possessed, or something."

"I certainly doubt he's still with us, in this moment," said Ignis, but just as he said it, something...shifted.

He couldn't have said what it was exactly, he just got the irrepressible notion something fundamental about the world had slid out of place. Like the very air had been rendered unbreathable. Then the voice spoke.

A horrible, guttural, incomprehensible sound echoed across the lake, and Ignis recognised the language as that of the Astrals, but... Although every sense he had identified the sound as coming from Noct, his brain simply wouldn't believe it. He knew what he was seeing, what he was hearing but...he didn't. He couldn't. This was very, very wrong.

Then things got worse.

As the voice echoed and boomed across the lake, Leviathan's screams got worse, and that sensation that the very air was choking him drove down to Ignis's bones. Then a huge hand landed on his shoulder and wrenched him backwards—he could breathe, properly breathe again! But...what the hell was that?

In the space where he'd just been standing, Ignis saw it, plain as day. A hole had been ripped in the air, glistening, swirling just above the pavement. It was barely visible, only illuminated by the tiniest silver of moonlight, but it was there. What was he looking at?

"Is that...a hole?" asked Prompto, his eyes wider than Ignis had ever seen them. "How... Is Noct...?"

Ignis looked out across the lake. Light was shining out now, illuminating the figure floating high above the surface. Could that really be Noct? He looked so strange, so otherworldly... Could that possibly be him?

"We have to do something!" said Gladio, and Ignis immediately turned around, but the moment he did he saw Gladio's mouth was closed.

He was staring in shock at the window hanging in the air. But—

"We can't hurt him, Gladio." That was his own voice. But he wasn't speaking. What kind of twisted illusion was this? "It's our duty to protect him, we can't—"

"If we don't he's gonna die anyway."

"Ah, not to pile the pressure on or anything," that was Prompto speaking now, "but we won't be able to stay up here much longer."

"We've got to do this, Iggy. I'm sorry."

Ignis heard himself, or some eerily accurate replica, sigh deeply. "So am I."

Was that...really their voices? Ignis moved a little closer to the crack in the air—was it a portal? A way to another world? Were there other worlds? There must be, if what Noct had said about his time travel was true, but what—oh Six—what on earth was going on?

"Was that us?" asked Prompto, the real Prompto, from behind him.

"I don't know."

This was almost impossible to comprehend, let alone explain. Ignis looked back out over the lake. If Noct really was doing this, then he had power beyond anything any of them could have guessed. He was...something else. And for the briefest moment, Ignis felt...afraid.

He tried to shake himself. Who in their right mind would be afraid of Noct?

Then there came a thunderous crack from across the lake. Leviathan's wailing stopped.

That was probably a good enough reason to be afraid.

The light spilling out over the lake intensified, almost blinding in its fury, making the dark of night turn briefly to day in a flash of colour. Then Ignis noticed them: more cracks opening in the air, more tears in the very fabric of reality.

This was impossible. But nothing was impossible when it came to Noct.

More voices from within—from the same world, perhaps? From their old world?

"You know I heard the Prince of Lucis was coming here," said an unrecognisable voice. "To kill Leviathan, like he did the others."

"I hope Niflheim puts a stop to that boy," said the voice of an elderly man. "He's crazy. Everyone says so."

"He can't have gone far, right?" Prompto's voice now, from a different tear. "I swear he was here just a moment ago."

"Maybe we should just let him go," suggested Gladio's voice. "He seems to know what he's doing—well, that's what he says, anyway."

"Gladio's right, Prompto. He knows more than we ever will."

Another tear—there were so many now. This had to be damaging the world somehow.

Then something so loud it bordered on incomprehensible boomed through one of the portals—the Astral language, loud and clear.

"Well you see, you're missing one important thing." Noct's voice now. "I don't care."

There was such...coldness in his voice as he said it. Such hollow emptiness. Was that really him? Ignis had never heard him sound like that before, ever. All of this was wrong.

The air was beginning to blur around them as more and more portals kept appearing. Something about the hazy wrongness of them brought Ignis crashing back to reality in an instant.

"We have to stop this!" he called back to the others, though it had gotten so loud now, with the voices from the portals and wind blowing fiercely off the lake, that it was hard to hear at all.

"How?" came Prompto's voice over the din. "What's even causing it?"

"It has to be Noct, he's the only one who could wield this much power!"

"How're we gonna stop him, Iggy?" asked Gladio, and it was clearly taking effort for him to fight his way over against the wind. "I can't even see him anymore!"

Ignis turned back to the lake. Gladio was right—a swirling mass of white had formed in the centre of the lake, where Noct had once been—a snowstorm? Did he even have control over what he was doing anymore?

"What is that?" asked Prompto, gasping for breath against the strength of the wind.

"A snowstorm," said Ignis. "I have a feeling that unless we stop it soon it will take all of Altissia. We must move, now."

"By your side, Iggy," said Gladio.

"Right," said Prompto.

"Try and stay close to me as we approach the storm. We don't want to lose each other in there."

The both of them nodded, and they all turned towards the lake. Freezing wind blasted over it, hitting him with enough force that he half-thought he might freeze to the spot. But they had to keep moving. For Noct.

A light dusting of snow had covered the frozen lake by the time they jumped down to it, and the snowstorm was inching outwards with each passing second. Cold pierced Ignis's bones as he kept moving forward, but he knew he couldn't stop. He glanced back to the other two. Still following. Good.

"What are we gonna do when we find him?" asked Prompto's voice dimly through the storm. It was hard to tell if it was his Prompto or one from the portals appearing everywhere.

"We must convince him to stop," said Ignis, unsure if he'd heard him.

"What if we can't convince him?" called out Gladio. "I don't think that's really him out on the lake Iggy, not anymore."

Ignis had been trying hard not to think about that possibility. It was likely, almost certain from the strange light that had gripped Noctis in those last few moments where he was visible, but Ignis couldn't believe it, not just yet.

"Then we must find some other means of stopping him," he yelled, sheets of snow now coming down on them.

There was no reply. Ignis turned behind him to check they were still following, but...no. Just white—the snow had gotten so thick he couldn't even see them anymore. Had he lost them?

"Prompto?" he yelled. Nothing. "Gladio?" It was getting harder to speak the colder it got, his voice hoarse from the shouting.

Damn it. This was exactly what he didn't want to happen—if none of them could find Noct in time, or they couldn't convince him to stand down...it was so cold... No! He couldn't think of that. Not right now, anyway. He needed to make it through this storm first.

Cold...so achingly cold...

He couldn't even feel his own face, his hands like numb blocks of ice beside him. Which way was forward? There was no path ahead... He must be in here somewhere. Come on, Ignis! Keep going! Just one foot...after the other...

There—was that light somewhere ahead? Just keep moving—

He gasped as he finally walked free of the storm. Well, free might be putting it too strongly. As he looked around he saw he'd merely walked into a centre of calm—the eye of the storm, as it were. A flurry of white flakes was spinning just outside this cold central chamber of still air. He looked up, already able to guess what he was going to see above him.

Noct barely looked human anymore. White light was shining out of his eyes, his scars, just like after Gralea, but far worse this time. That skin he could see seemed to have a flaky, ashen quality to it, and there was something wild, almost feral in what was left of his face. Gladio had been right. He wasn't here now, not properly, anyway. But there had to be some way to free him, hadn't there? Beyond the obvious...beyond the terrible.

"Noct!" he yelled, as loudly as his ailing lungs would let him. The air was so cold each breath was like swallowing a knife. "Can you hear me?"

No response. Unless staring blankly outwards like there was nothing and no one there counted as a response.

"Noctis!"

Please there had to be something else. Anything else...

"Iggy, is that you?" a spluttering voice cried from behind him.

"Gladio!" Ignis had never felt so relieved to see a familiar face. "I thought I'd lost you in the storm. Do you know where Prompto is?"

"No, I haven't—" Gladio began, but then there was a loud gasping from the other side of the chamber, and Prompto practically fell into the area they were all standing. "Prompto! You okay?"

Gladio quickly ran over to Prompto's side, and Ignis followed just as quickly. Prompto was shivering fiercely but looked otherwise unharmed.

"Yeah," he whispered, clearly finding as hard to speak as they were. Then he glanced up and his already pale face became even paler. "Is that...?"

"I'm afraid so," sighed Ignis, unwilling to turn back and face what was behind him. "He isn't responding."

"Not surprised," said Gladio, staring up at him. "He looks far gone. There might be only one way to do this."

He glanced over at Ignis, and Ignis knew it hurt him just as much to even suggest it, but there might be no other way out of this.

"Yes," said Ignis, quietly. "I'm afraid you might be right."

"What's going on?" asked Prompto, looking back and forth between them. "Do you guys have a plan? How are we going to fix this?"

"Fix is a nice way of putting it," snorted Gladio.

"What do you mean?"

"He means we might have to take drastic measures to stop this," sighed Ignis, gesturing towards the snow spinning just beyond the invisible barrier. "We...might have to hurt Noct, to do that."

"How?" asked Prompto, his expression contorting into a frown. "And why? I mean, there's got to be some other way of stopping this, right?"

"We need to get him down from there at least," said Gladio, tilting his head towards where Noct was suspended in the air. "If he still isn't responding after that we have to knock him out. Sorry Prompto, if we don't want the storm to spread any further then it's the only way."

"I mean...he'll be okay eventually though, right?"

There was such an expression of panic in Prompto's expression, Ignis could hardly say no, but he forced himself to stay realistic.

"I've never seen anything like this before, Prompto. Who's to say what will happen once we calm the storm? Noctis's powers are out of control. He was ripping holes in reality itself back there—humans aren't supposed to have that sort of power. We all know that."

"Right," said Prompto, quietly.

This was going to hurt, whatever way they did it.

"We need to get him down first," said Ignis, trying to distract himself with the practical aspects of the thing. "Though how to reach him while none of us can warp will be an interesting affair."

"I think I could knock him down," said Gladio, swinging his sword in his hand. "If I can just get the right angle..."

With that, Gladio tossed his sword into the air, and it went flying towards Noct, the hilt colliding with him hard, bringing him down to their level. Well, that was the first step, but—

A blast of icy wind went sweeping over them in an instant, the force so colossal Ignis was knocked back off his feet. The ice was cold and hard beneath him, freezing his fingertips. The wind didn't stop though, so he stayed close to the ground, waiting for it to pass over. So cold...

Then it stopped. He pushed himself cautiously upright, and was immediately forced to duck again as a blade went rushing past his face. Wait—a blade? Was it...Noct, doing this? Ignis very carefully manoeuvred himself to look at Noct without him noticing and—yes, that was him alright. Well, not really him, not anymore. Something like him. It might have been Noct, once upon a time. But telling himself that didn't make the idea of fighting him any easier.

"Watch out!" he called across the ice, hoping the other two would hear him. "He's going to fight."

Moments later Gladio leapt upright, and began running towards Noct at full-pelt, clearly hoping to reach him before he had time to cast anything. Even if Gladio failed, Ignis knew he could use this distraction to get his own attack ready, and cautiously got to his feet too. Gladio's strategy was no good, that became obvious immediately as Noct sent a burst of fire in his direction—only avoiding burning him to a crisp because Gladio dodged out of the way just in time. He was taking this seriously. Or at least, whatever thing that had replaced him was.

Damn it. He didn't want to have to use actual force against Noct but if this kept up...

Another blade came racing in his direction, and he didn't even have time to formulate a plan of attack before being forced to dodge out of the way again. He didn't have enough time to plan, that was the problem—Noct was moving too quickly, keeping them all at a disadvantage. Ignis could see that Prompto had risen to his feet behind Noctis—that would probably be his next target. Perhaps he could use that as a distraction...

Sure enough, as Noct turned to face down Prompto, Ignis used his moment of distraction to rush over to Gladio, the idea being attempting to form a plan of attack. But just as he reached Gladio's side, there was an ear-splitting crack from behind them.

A gun-shot.

Noct was bursting with light now, light concentrated around a small point in his shoulder—where the bullet must have hit. Bestial rage contorted what was left of his features.

They had to get Prompto out of the danger zone. Now.

Ignis was already running towards him, and Gladio wasn't far behind. The light was getting worse, flowing off Noctis in waves. Damn it, this was no good. They couldn't really defend against magical attacks—if Noct unleashed all of his power...

Finally Ignis was at Prompto's side—he was trembling, tears coming from his eyes, frozen in place, and Ignis grabbed him by the arm, trying to get him to move—

The next second was agony.

The light crackling under Noctis's skin expanded, lancing out towards them, and when it connected—Ignis could barely breathe through the pain. Was this what it felt like? Was this what Noct was going through, every second that power coursed through him? Ignis could barely think—it was like all his limbs were lit up in flame, and a burning agony suffused something deep within him, something he'd never touched before. His soul? Was there even such a thing?

These thoughts slowly subsided as the pain began to wear away, but Ignis found his limbs were still shaky and unresponsive, even as he lay there on the ground. He could see Noctis's outline, standing above them, eyes blazing with light, an unholy presence burning inside him. Did he even understand he was hurting them? Ignis hoped he didn't.

But there was no way out of this now, if Noct attacked again he'd kill them, Ignis was sure of it. And he didn't know if they could actually stop him. There was so much power—Noct had just killed a God with it. What were they?

But...he hadn't killed them.

He hadn't...actually killed them. He could, obviously, of that there was no doubt, but...he hadn't. Hope flooded into Ignis's chest. There must be some part of Noct still in there, some part that realised what was going on. If that still existed then...then they might be able to get through to him. There was still hope. Thank goodness.

"Gladio," Ignis whispered, hoping Noct wouldn't notice such a small act of rebellion amidst his anger. "Gladio, can you hear me?"

"Just about," murmured Gladio. "I hope you know what you're doing. What if he attacks again?"

"He won't. He could have killed us by now, if he wanted to—he must still be conscious in there somewhere. We might still have a chance to get through to him."

"You sure, Iggy? I don't want any of us to end up dead. I think Prompto's been knocked unconscious."

Ignis's heart gave a jolt, and he tried to glance over at Prompto as best he could from where he was lying. No movement. All the more reason to move quickly then.

"Then we must get on with it."

"What are you planning?"

"We must make him realise what's going on, bring him back to reality."

"He's staring at Prompto, look."

He was. Noct's form was still hovering ominously in the air, but his head was clearly turned towards Prompto. Ignis couldn't clearly see Noct's face, but he thought by the more subdued light coming out of him that he seemed worried.

"Maybe we can use that to our advantage," Ignis said quietly. Now was the time to strike. "Noct!" he called out, and Noctis's head snapped around to face him immediately. "Do you see what you've done? This isn't you anymore!"

The light flared up again, blazing and wild, but Noct didn't attack them. Good, it was working. "Just stop now, please! Leviathan is gone!"

A sound came out of the body floating above them, a deep, echoing, incomprehensible sound, but Ignis wouldn't let it unnerve him. He motioned to Gladio to get moving. He just had to keep Noct distracted long enough.

"I know you can come back—we know, we trust in you Noct. Please stop this!"

Gladio crept upright and began moving around behind Noct. If Ignis could just persuade him down here...

Another rumbling rebuke in the Astral language, but it was slightly softer this time. Gladio was almost there now.

"You can do this." Just a little closer. "Listen, Noctis." The light was dimming again. Noct was floating closer to the ground, close enough to be in reach of Gladio... "It's all going to be alright."

Gladio brought the flat side of the sword down on Noct's head, hard. The light flared up again furiously, and brilliant, burning brightness exploded out again—no, no this couldn't be the end! He just had to hold on...

The white of the frozen lake was beginning to flicker and fade to darkness as the screeching pain wore on—or was it just that the snow had stopped? His vision was fading fast, but through the haze, Ignis could see a dark figure floating slowly towards the ground, then alighting on it—wait, dark? Had it ended? Was Noct...back...

The blurriness made it hard to tell even that much, but soft words echoed in Ignis's head as he finally lost himself to unconsciousness.

"I'm sorry."