Content warnings (click to show)
Descriptions of death and injury (not gory).
Contains spoilers for Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker.
By Lark
Last updated: 6/28/23
Summary:
A fragment: on fighting a battle of wills against the embodiment of depair, in a realm where the mental and the physical become one and the same. Unnamed/generic WoL.
Your battle at the end of all things is agony on a level you've never known.
You are familiar with the pains of combat. You've been blasted, choked, torn open in more ways than you care to name. You are familiar, too, with the pain of grief, of failure - of rage, even.
And yet.
The Endsinger assaults you physically. The Endsinger assaults you mentally. There is no difference. You die a hundred thousand remembered deaths as the boundaries between your mind and the minds of countless dead stars break down. You succumb again and again and again to disease and poison and war and hate--
--it's enough to rip you to shreds, and then scorch every last remainder of you to nothing. And in this realm of pure dynamis, you know that this feeling will be more than metaphorical.
You dig your heels into the soil of your soul. Memories of your long, long journey rise, unbidden. Eorzea celebrating their triumph over the once-unstoppable Garlemald. A wide-eyed child safe upon Vidofnir's back as Ishgard watches in awe. Ala Mhigans raising their voice in song within their liberated city, Domans and Eorzeans alike joining their voices to theirs. The rejoicing of all of Norvrandt as the great Talos rises; as the night returns, for good this time. Jullus and the 1st Legion - not so long ago your bitter foes, now charging forward to defend the helpless alongside you.
The gentleness, the pride upon Venat's face as she finally goes to rest after her long vigil, her great gambit come to fruition. The faint smile upon Emet-Selch's - upon Hades' face, as he passes the mantle of his people to yours.
All things end. All things die. But the world - your world - carried on, despite everything, and it was... good.
It was worth it.
It is worth it, to exist and to love and to live in every fleeting moment.
Your world will die, one day. It will not be today.
You raise your blade, and resist with all your might.