Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
at adventu, we believe that colorful story and plots far outweigh the need for a battle system. rp should be about the writing, the fun, and the creativity. you will see that the only system on our site is the encouragement to create amazing adventures with other members. welcome to adventu... how will you arrive?
year 5, quarter 3
Welcome one and all to our beautiful new skin! This marks the visual era of Adventu 4.0, our 4th and by far best design we've had. 3.0 suited our needs for a very long time, but as things are evolving around the site (and all for the better thanks to all of you), it was time for a new, sleek change. The Resource Site celebrity Pharaoh Leep was the amazing mastermind behind this with minor collaborations from your resident moogle. It's one-of-a-kind and suited specifically for Adventu. Click the image for a super easy new skin guide for a visual tour!
Final Fantasy Adventu is a roleplaying forum inspired by the Final Fantasy series. Images on the site are edited by KUPO of FF:A with all source material belonging to their respective artists (i.e. Square Enix, Pixiv Fantasia, etc). The board lyrics are from the Final Fantasy song "Otherworld" composed by Nobuo Uematsu and arranged by The Black Mages II.
The current skin was made by Pharaoh Leap of Pixel Perfect. Outside of that, individual posts and characters belong to their creators, and we claim no ownership to what which is not ours. Thank you for stopping by.
Well that was a horrible way to wake up. One second trying to show up at Snow’s little palace in the Chaos and what happens next? A certain little ‘demon’ shows up face first in the dirt. Scowling as she brushed the dust and dirt off her clothes, her crystal blue gaze scanned the area. “Well that’s no good. Must have been that Bhunivelze interfering again. He really doesn’t like people messing with his plans…” She mumbled to no one in particular. From what Lumina could see, there was no one in the area which made things even more depressing. Now how was she going to make Lightning see reality? That was something she’d have to figure out.
With an exasperated sigh, Lumina closed her eyes to try and feel just what kind of place she had arrived in. The chaos here was…different….than what she was used to feeling. It was raw and untouched by Valhalla and yet the Historia Crux dropped her here. A thoughtful expression crossed her features as she tried to figure out just how that worked. Finding it too difficult to figure out with too little information, her first goal was to find some people. Secondly, she needed to confirm something.
“Hellooooooooooo!”
She called into the nothingness that surrounded the temple. It was the easiest way to tell if someone was there. Most people just couldn’t resist going to look when they hear someone’s voice echoing. It was just human nature to be curious and oh how she loved using that fact to help her out. It was like offering a thirsty person in a desert a drink of water. While she waited to see if there was anyone around, she walked around the temple to take a look at its design. It was foreign, frightening, and beautiful all at once and served as the perfect place for her end game to take place…if in fact Lightning was here. If that Deity thought he was being slick and pushed her here to stay away from Light then he had another thing coming. He was so going to pay for that.
It was while Lumina was lost in her musings that she heard the telltale signs of sneaky footsteps. It actually brought a grin to her face to hear that someone tried to be sneaky. “There’s no need to hide, I know you’re there.” In a matter of a second, Lumina would vanish in a small burst of light, reappearing behind a…flamboyant guy? Putting her hands on her hips, Lumina would ask this stranger a few questions. “What’s with all the sneaking around? Is there some big bad guy after you? Or are you just lost?” At that moment, she would have a mock gasp of sudden revelation complete with hand over the mouth before asking, “You’re hiding from your bad fashion choices. Aren’t you?” She was partially curious but at the same time, nothing was stopping her from enjoying this place and cracking a few jokes…wherever here was. Plus if she didn’t bother people how would she ever know where she was?
The streets were lined with fetid floodwaters. The buildings were left bare and broken by gale winds. Rare was the day when clouds didn’t suffocate the sky, and the town was granted anything but colorless, miserable gray. Perhaps it was this very dismal atmosphere that allowed the spread of sickness on bemoaning breaths. Perhaps the deathly creep of blight was a manifestation of misery itself. Or perhaps it was the work of a kind of mad god hungry for the spread of chaos and decay.
Ardyn would have loved to stay and relish in his handiwork, but alas, the world was a vast and mysterious place. With his work done, he simply couldn’t justify lingering in the shadows any longer. No matter how he longed for the darkness.
So with a heavy heart, he bade the city of Provo farewell and took to the road. South, he thought, towards the next city on his map. Torensten, he’d heard, had once been a bustling city of opulence and splendor, but had faced nothing but disaster and misfortune as of late. He heard wild tales of demons and monsters – of fiery destruction and the wholesale slaughter of the innocent. His heart quickened at the thought of it, but sadly, it was not yet to be. As soon as he’d approached the city’s outer limits, he was apprehended by a rather troublesome array of the city’s remaining military. The city wasn’t taking visitors, they said. Particularly not strange and mysterious strangers with an aura of mischief, Ardyn assumed. He thanked them all for their service with a polite bow and a tip of his hat. One day Ardyn would return to relish in the human misery that permeated the place like floodwaters, but not yet. Patience was a virtue, after all, and there was little need to cause trouble when he had infinite time at his fingertips.
Infinite time to spread chaos elsewhere. He moved on.
It had been a long time since he’d last had to ask so many questions. Questions such as where or even rarer, why. At first he’d loathed that unsettling feeling of uncertainty, but as he ambled along the ever winding country roads, he found a certain sense of discovery in his trek. How predictable was it to walk the same earth for so many centuries? How droll? Here he had nothing but a map – a vague series of dots and lines without answers. They didn’t warn him of the dropping temperatures as he traveled south. They couldn’t prepare him for the fields of violet winter crocus blooming among the frost. As he approached his next target, snow touched at his fingers in icy pinpricks. Only hours later, the flurry had intensified, plateaued, and then ceased. The well-worn path was nothing but a blank sheet of white, but Ardyn continued on without concern or even a destination. His questions were too vague to answer and too meaningless to bother with.
It wasn’t until he heard a voice that he paused. It was a woman’s voice somewhere in the snow, forward and nasal like a child’s. The word itself was equally childish: a single long, impatient “Hello?”
It wasn’t in Ardyn’s nature to help lost children. It was even less in his nature to help anyone at all, but something else tugged his attention in the voice’s direction – sheer boredom. His feet were moving before he made the active choice to investigate. Whatever had happened to this girl, it had to amuse him more than the empty fields of snow and barren trees. He stepped quietly towards the voice, head tilted forward in mild interest.
He saw her as a shadow through a grove of frosted evergreens – a girl dressed in black against a background of sloping stone spires. He tilted his head and squinted through pine needles. She stood like a mischievous pixie, a mass of black and pink with a hand on her nearly bare hip. She turned and he caught a glimpse of a side ponytail in a single, long curl.
She smirked. “There’s no need to hide,” she said. “I know you’re there.”
Ardyn blinked, but couldn’t say anything in return before she’d disappeared in a flash of light.
How curious.
”What’s with all the sneaking around?” The voice came from directly behind him. ”Is there some big bad guy after you? Or are you just lost?” Ardyn paused before glancing at her. She stood there with her hands on her hips, looking as smug as a child telling a lie. She gasped suddenly, placing hand over her mouth in mock horror. ”You’re hiding from your bad fashion choices, aren’t you?”
Ardyn chuckled at the joke. It was a clumsy grasp at humor, but it was so brazen that he couldn’t help it. She clearly thought of him as nothing but a victim of her mischief. How unfortunate.
”It’s so difficult to hide from, isn’t it? Such a troubling matter! There’s truly nothing more persistent than one’s own choices.” He turned to face her fully, arms raising theatrically as he appraised her. ”That aside, can I be blamed for approaching your radiance with caution? You clearly wield the power of a goddess! Who am I to lay eyes upon you?” He swept his hat from his head and lowered into a formal bow. ”I am but an aimless traveler. I feel I must ask for your forgiveness.” Head lowered, his lips twitched in a smirk.
The moment Ardyn chuckled, Lumina slipped her hands from resting on her hips to behind her back. It wasn't every day she got someone that actually chuckled at her purposely bad jokes. But it wasn't until he started to speak that she really truly had a reason to doubt him. He had to be humoring her. No one ever used flattery unless it was sarcasm or to just plain suck up. Since she didn't know him, Lumina could easily assume it was the former of the two options and decided just to see how far this man would humor her.
Her gaze flickered to his hat as he swept it off in a bow. "Radiance? Goddess? Didn't anyone ever tell you that flattery doesn't get you anywhere? And then he just had to ask for forgiveness. It actually took effort to not roll her eyes at such a request but then again, what harm could it do to possibly play along even if for a little. "I suppose I could forgive you..." Just the way she trailed off could easily lead anyone to believe there was supposed to be more to that sentence than was said. Her crystal blue gaze remained on him, almost appraising his features and moves but it didn't last long.
After a moment, Lumina turned away from him, choosing to look around at the scenery a bit longer. Her smirk actually fading for a brief moment as she looked at the barren trees scattered amongst the blanket of white. "If you're just a traveler then I guess I'm just a kid. How about a game? If you win, maybe I'll answer a couple of your questions." The offer was there but personally, she expected him to say no. No one ever wanted to play a game with a kid. That was why she made the offer for information. Whenever there was something someone wanted to know, they seemed to be a little more cooperative. Besides, even though this guy seemed light hearted, something just felt depressing about him.
The girl shifted her weight, eyeing him skeptically. It was a look he’d grown quite used to – doubt. Whatever game she wished to play, he could play it twelve times better and with far more gusto. ”Radiance? Goddess?” Her eyes darted from his lowered hat to his plastered smile. ”Didn’t anyone ever tell you that flattery doesn’t get you anywhere?” The girl flashed him an irritated look before pausing thoughtfully. ”I suppose I could forgive you…” Her words trailed off as though there was something more, though she didn’t add anything immediately. Instead, she kept her eyes on him – thoughtful and intent. Ardyn offered her a dramatic sigh.
”I’m afraid no one did, as a matter of fact. Oh how different my life could have been! If only someone had told me sooner!” Ardyn glanced at her and smirked before taking a few steps to the side, circling her. He kept his chin raised thoughtfully, his heels rolling with every step. ”But why would I continue to flatter if such claims were true, I wonder…?” Ardyn stopped abruptly, turning on his heel to face her. ”You’d really forgive me? Oh such relief! Here I thought I might be cursed to walk the earth forever under your spell!”
He chuckled under his breath before turning to appraise the tundra around them. Barren trees and ice-tinged evergreens. The foreboding shadow of ruins on the horizon. The quiet tittering of winter wrens. Ardyn squinted into the glare of the sun on sheet ice. Too bright. How long would it take to scourge those skies in darkness? Too long, but Ardyn had more than enough time to spare.
The key to immortality, it seemed, was patience.
”If you’re a traveler then I guess I’m just a kid.” Some of the amusement had left the girl’s face. She watched the scenery with a kind of morose contemplation. ”How about a game? If you win, maybe I’ll answer a couple questions.”
Ardyn blinked at her in surprise. Now that was an interesting proposal. And not one he’d heard before. This world was just full of novelty.
”A game? Oh how intriguing. But you haven’t set your terms!” Ardyn touched at his cheek, eyes raised in thought. ”Now then, I suppose that if I’m playing for information, then it’s only fair that I offer the same in return.” Now wouldn’t that be interesting. He wondered what a girl like her would even ask and what answers he might give. Honesty hadn’t been his strong suit for some time, but he supposed he'd have no choice if she insisted on using truth as bargaining chips. ”I will warn you, however.” He tilted his head towards her, eyes intent on hers. ”That I’m not one to lose.”
Though Lumina's crystalline blue gaze remained on the tundra of a landscape, her gaze particularly strayed to the way the light reflected off the ice and snow in rainbow hues fighting for control with the shadows of the trees that dotted the landscape. Her attention however was drawn back to Ardyn with one simple little sentence. "A game? How intriguing. It was those very words that brought the smirk back to her young features. For a moment, her expression would reflect a smug Lightning only many years younger. "Oh good. Then this'll actually be a challenge." With a quick motion, she had stolen his hat and would be twirling it on her finger, standing a few feet away. "But I'll go easy on you this time. You've got until sunrise to take your hat back. Though you might want to be careful, I swear I heard some really powerful monster lurking nearby."
Then she slipped away like dust on the wind into the bit of forest that lined the snowy domain of the tundra. It was all good fun until the monsters came out to play and oh how Lumina loved them. They were after all, her friends. It didn't matter that she was somewhere new, the fact the Historia Crux had touched here made it possible to call her friends to play. But that would wait. She couldn't let all of the rabbits out of the hat just yet. Plus, the information she wanted was important even if it meant she had to...adjust the rules to suit her needs. The wind that traveled through the aspen and firs was a gentle caress yet fierce enough to sting the eyes and skin as well as cover any and all tracks. That mattered little when this game of hide and seek was between someone that needed to trudge through that and someone that could vanish in the time it takes to bat an eye. In the distance, the echo of a tree falling and hitting the frozen earth reverberated through the woods.
Time was short and yet for Lumina, rolled on forever. Time and memory, inevitably were linked. In due time, every inch of this frozen wasteland would be memorized and then the real game with Ardyn would begin. But until then, Lumina would need to find the beast that could fell a tree in such a way to make it's presence known in the middle of nowhere.
The girl’s attention snapped back to him as he gave his answer. Her face lit with mischief again – Familiar. Had he seen this girl somewhere else? – before she accepted his terms. ”Oh good. Then this’ll actually be a challenge,” she told him, though Ardyn couldn’t comprehend what might have given her that idea. He opened his mouth to ask, but she’d darted forward before he had the chance. In a moment, she’d snatched the hat from his head and danced back into the snow. Ardyn blinked at her uncertainly before touching at where the wind chilled his unsheltered head. Well wasn’t she bold?
”I’ll go easy on you this time,” the girl said, twirling his hat on her finger. ”You’ve got until sunrise to take your hat back. Though you might want to be careful. I swear, I heard some really powerful monsters lurking nearby.”
Ardyn tilted his head in interest. ”Ah, so that’s it, is it?” He had to admit, he was impressed. It took a certain amount of moxy to steal a piece of clothing from a stranger, and even more to suggest sending him out into the freezing wilderness. ”You needn’t worry,” he started, “I do believe I’ll be quite alri-“ The word cut short as she vanished. One moment there, the next – gone. Ardyn let out a disgruntled huff. ”How rude.” He glanced behind to the grove of evergreens but saw nothing but snow on the wind. He kicked up snow as he turned, scuffing the petals of winter crocus and pine needles. The fields were as empty as ever. The trees shifted in the lonely wind. And there he was – alone and without his hat.
Had that been her target all along?
Ardyn chuckled to himself at the thought. Had he stumbled across some mischievous deity with a penchant for weathered fedora hats? It was like something out of an old fable. ”I brought this upon myself, I suppose.” His eyes scanned the tree-line and the horizon. He had no way to follow her without knowing the exact nature of her teleportation, but he imagined she wouldn’t have made herself impossible to find. Not if she cared for her little game, that was.
”Until dawn, was it?” The sky was lit with the last orange rays of a fading sunset. For most, the twilight was a vulnerable time of darkness and evil, but the shadows brought Ardyn only relief. When the last light faded, he would be at his most alert – his most powerful. Still, he longed for his daemons. He felt almost blind and vulnerable without their sight. ”But that would make it all too easy.” He sighed and held up a hand to the setting sun. He had perhaps an hour until complete nightfall. Until then, he supposed he’d play the part of confused mortal, shuffling about the snow for a target he’d never reach. ”So long as it’s all in good fun.” The cold tinged at the hems of his coat. The wind howled through rocky precipices and the nooks of felled trees. Ardyn started forward without any real direction, trudging aimlessly through the snow.
He hoped it brought the girl some amusement. He would have to take his once the last light fell.
As the sun's rays slowly trickled beyond the horizon, Lumina was purposely staying above everything by remaining in the treetops. Her grasp clung tight to Ardyn's fedora as she moved from treetop to treetop. It wouldn't be long before the last flicker of light vanished. Once it did, the real game began. She listened to the wind as she moved, the crunch of snow from Ardyn's footsteps carrying to her as he drew closer. "Better hurry. The light is almost gone." She called in the wind, her powers twisting perception to almost sound as if it was everywhere around him.
Perception. It was such an easy thing to twist. She had even done it to Lightning back when she came so close to taking Snow's soul before it was time. And now, that gift came in handy for this little game of hers. Though it was but a distraction, it was necessary to take advantage of the wind's blistering tendency to sting at anyone left out in their breath so that she could venture to the center of the snow kissed field of evergreens. From what Lumina could sense the creature had meandered far enough that it would waste too much time to chase after. Instead, she chose to come down from her perch in the trees.
The moment she did, the next gust that blew would seemingly be touched by shadows that grew more prominent as the last light was extinguished. Now, every shadow appeared deeper, as if it held something more sinister. The further Ardyn ventured in, the heavier the sickly and suffocating feeling of chaos grew. She closed her crystal blue eyes and focused, using the chaos she was gathering to keep an eye on her guest and make things vastly more interesting. Even the air was tainted by the touch of chaos, wavering in clear sight. Once again, he voice would float on the air that surrounded them. This time humming a tune that would be unfamiliar to him but important to her, her voice even distorted vaguely in the shifting darkness.
Either the girl had stolen his hat or she had the patience of a saint.
He trudged through snow and frigid wind. His boots cracked against the ice beneath his heels. He walked through sunset and then halfway through twilight as the last light drained from the horizon and the air chilled against his cheeks. It hadn't been more than an hour, and yet, he thought he should have seen something by now if the girl truly wished to tease him. Instead, he found nothing. Just empty fields and the sparse winter wildlife. She hadn't seemed like the type for patience, so he could only imagine she wanted nothing more than to steal from him and disappear on the wind.
Such a shame. He'd rather admired that hat.
At first, he didn't notice that the atmosphere had changed. He chalked it up to the shifting temperature and the excitement of impending night. But as he trudged forward without any real hope, it slowly occurred to him that there might just be something more to the prickle he felt at the back of his neck. The air felt thicker somehow. More alive. It wasn't a feeling that he could particularly explain, and yet it felt at once both strange and familiar. His heart raced in anticipation for something he'd never seen, never known, and couldn't explain.
Power. That's what it felt like. Like the dark side of the gods left to run astray. Like creation blessed upon corrupted hands.
"Better hurry. The light is almost gone."
Her voice was a whisper that echoed in plain sight. A ghostly after-image haunting gnarled tree limbs in the twilight. Ardyn tilted his head at it. How curious. He couldn't pinpoint it for the life of him. Could it be she was playing tricks on him?
The shadows darkened. For a moment, Ardyn thought it might have been his vision changing, but no. He saw it reaching on the wind in black tendrils. Saw it sweep past like so much dust on the breeze. He couldn't say what it was, exactly, but he knew at once that this was what he'd felt before -- only stronger, so much stronger and more potent in his blood. It didn't matter what it was made of. It didn't matter even where it came from, only the way it numbed him from the cold and his own doubting thoughts. Ardyn stopped and let it all wash over him. He breathed in deeply and felt it touch at his lungs. The corruption boiled within him, swelling, spilling over. He felt it well in his throat and the corners of his eyes. When he looked out at the darkened woods again, it was with a new kind of clarity. There were no shadows, no trees, nothing to block his vision. There was only power -- him and her. He started forward again with a new vigor. All around, he heard her voice.
A song. He could have laughed at its childish tone.
The trees opened around him, and he spotted a feminine figure silhouetted by the last violet rays of sunlight. He approached her, smirking and blighted, before stopping several feet away. He appraised her -- as spritely and mischievous as ever -- before tilting his head, raising his hands, and clapping slowly.
"Bravo, my dear! I must say I'm quite impressed. Those voices? How dramatic! Why, I could hardly have done better myself!" Ardyn clasped his hands together and let his last clap echo into the silence of the trees. "Though I must say, I have a few, ah...notes." He stepped closer, rolling on his heels. "That odd darkness. It was quite the lovely touch, but so hard to control. And you know what they say about double-edged swords..." Ardyn caught her eye -- clear blue against blazing, corrupted yellow. He extended a hand towards her. "Now then. I believe you have something that belongs to me?"
As the last light faded, her breaths would gradually end up more visible in the icy air that filled the area. The darkness slowly gathering as she called it, fragments drifting on the wind within its reach almost as if it was made of embers. Her humming would have slowly come to an end as she felt a growing power nearby. As she exhaled and released a breath of mist in time with the last of his clapping, she turned to be face to face with the flamboyant chancellor Ardyn. Her crystal blue eyes met his now yellowed gaze and yet she still smirked at him. Clearly, this mischief maker had more in store for him.
She watched as he walked, the crunch of the snow under his feet echoing in this chaos, his hat still twirling on her finger. As Ardyn held his hand out expecting her to hand over his hat, she brought her empty hand up and tapped a finger on her chin, looking thoughtful. After a moment, she shook her finger at him as if scolding a child. "Now, now. I did say you had to take the hat back. I can't just hand it over or that would ruin everything." She smiled deviously, her mind already concocting yet another game to play. There was just one thing that unnerved her though...
It was the fact that Ardyn moved so much quicker in the chaos. It was an unexpected turn of events and yet, she would find a way to work with it. "Besides...who said anything about controlling the chaos? I just...gave it a push." She commented as a rift of light lined darkness appeared behind her for a split second. Long enough for her to back inside and it close behind her. Once again she slipped out of his sight and grasp. The trees having grown into more ominous figures as they had talked, thanks to the chaos.
Though she was out of his sight, he was certainly still in hers. She remained out of his line of sight watching from the shadows of the trees. Her light footsteps on the snow almost like footsteps in sand, washed away by a breath of wind. Her slim figure slipping from the shadows of tree to tree in an attempt at stealth. It was a childish attempt at a come find me and yet felt more tense due to the atmosphere.
Once again, her voice echoed in the bleakness that surrounded him. "You can see in this stuff can't you? I guess that means you aren't a regular person." The comment was more of her musing aloud than anything really directed at him. As time slowly moved forward, the darkness that had been called would twist and shift, growing like an actual being and yet it felt heavier. Any sound of wind or branches creaking would be enhanced. Right now, the only thing missing was monsters. In a place like this, there should have been tons of monsters or at least animals scurrying about on the ground.
The only inkling of what could have happened to them would be a splash of deep scarlet splattered on the ground in Ardyn's path.
It's up to you whether he gets the hat or not. I left it off a bit abruptly so you could decide.
I'm an impatient traveler ready to turn ship.
She was not yet bothered by his startling appearance. Not by his gleaming yellow eyes or the darkness touching at his lips. Instead, she watched him with an almost impatient tone, his hat twirling haphazardly on her finger. She glanced from his eyes to his outstretched hand before tapping her chin and extending a finger out to him chidingly. ”Now, now. I did say you had to take the hat back. I can’t just hand it over or that would ruin everything.” Her face twisted into a mischievous smile. ”Besides, who said anything about controlling the chaos? I just gave it a push.”
Something flashed behind her – an odd array of lights that could have swallowed her whole. Ardyn raised a hand to shield himself from them, but the lights were gone as soon as they’d come, and they’d taken the girl with them. One moment there, the next – gone.
Ardyn sighed as he lowered his hand. This had quickly become far more effort than it was worth, but he supposed he didn’t mind. Not with that intoxicating power coursing through him. The last tinges of sunlight had slipped over the horizon, and stars awoke from the sky in vast, eclectic clusters. Ardyn closed his eyes and breathed deeply. Without the oppressive light of the sun, his corruption welled like something alive – the curse of Ifrit still hungry for human lives. It welled thick and warm in eyes before spilling over, trailing like tears towards his chin. Whatever this girl’s power, it had awakened something monstrous in him, and that monster grew stronger with every breath he took. Ardyn smirked bitterly.
If the girl wanted to do this the hard way then so be it. He’d given her a chance for peaceful surrender.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw everything with a new kind of clarity. His devilish eyes casting everything in a new light – something all his own that caught every edge, corner, and shadow of the darkness. ”You can see in this stuff, can’t you?” The girl’s voice echoed from somewhere only a little beyond him. ”I guess that means you aren’t a regular person.” His smirk widened. So the girl’s darkness was her own kind of corruption. He let out a deep, lamenting sigh before raising a hand towards the trees. His eyes raked the darkness for movement – a little here, a little there, almost too quick for comprehension.
”So sly. And yet, you’ve not mentioned the nature of your own curse. Are the gods not the most fickle of creatures? Why, I could almost pity you.” His eyes caught on a figure beyond the shadows. The darkness came thickest there like suffocating, translucent smoke. The source.”But how rude of me, asking without offering answers of my own!” He tossed his head carelessly and pointed his fingers to the sky. ”Please, allow me to demonstrate.”
The movement took less than a second. In a flash of red, Ardyn ripped through the dimensional veil, grasped the sword handle behind it, and flung it towards the figure in his vision. As quickly as the sword moved, Ardyn followed – a crimson streak through the shadows. He kept his arm outstretched, grasping for his hat as he passed until the sword hit solid tree bark and Ardyn came to an abrupt stop beside it, banishing the blade from its wooden sheathe as he regained his balance.
