Final Fantasy XV The Dawn Of The Future is the latest "effort" of Square Enix, released in Japan on April 25 and coming to the West. The Dawn Of The Future is a novel written by Emi Nagashime which tells the story of the canceled second season pass (which contained Episode Ardyn, Episode Aranea, Episode Lunafreya and Episode Noctis), only Episode Ardyn was able to see the light, and this novel reveals what would have been his "Alternative ending" and other interesting story-related content. Below is a summary of the chapters ad high content of spoiler.
Ardyn chapter
Thus, the plague of the stars is spreading, much faster than Ardyn can heal the afflicted, he refuses to know reality, he refuses to deviate from his ideals, he persists in his conviction by speaking of "sick" and "innocent", and in his ideal there is still the idea, despite everything, that "another person is worth saving".
Somnus believes that what Ardyn is doing is essentially a poor choice of who lives and dies, ignoring the reality of what is happening to several victims of the plague, numerous innocent people died as he desperately tried to save "one more person". Somnus also thinks that Ardyn's refusal to face reality ... is not essentially a good hallmark for a king.
Ardyn thinks her gift is essentially a body that can absorb the plague and withstand much higher levels of infection than a normal person, but that has no way of getting rid of the plague it has absorbed. A Angelgard will try to console himself, imagining Aera and wondering what would have happened if they had run away together, only to realize immediately that hundreds of years have passed, remembering the fact of his immortality… And that he would still see her die.
He is perfectly aware that "Aera" and "Somnus" are creations of his mind, and is therefore completely furious that Somnus keeps coming back to him no matter how hard you try not to think about him. He also realizes that everything horrible that "Somnus" says is something generated by his unstable mind.
Learn the astral language from the memories of Ifrit. It also obtains the most remote memories from the Crystal, which serves as a channel for the sleeping gods to observe the world. Through this, he is able to see the revelation of Aera and him as King.
He knows that Lucis' soldiers are not literally Somnus, but he can't stop seeing and hearing them like Somnus and he abandons himself in a blind rage. Verstael urges him to see all the Lucis as Somnus' children, so his revenge begins. At the end of Bahamut's speech, it could be argued that the Gods "they chose him as king"Precisely because they knew it would happen, they needed a cursed" guinea pig "full of hatred so that he could become the embodiment of the plague itself and face the Chosen.
Also during the scene with Bahamut, it was revealed that Ardyn is not immortal due to the plague. He is immortal because when he touched the Crystal he absorbed his soul into the realm connected to Eos by the Crystal which cannot be placed in physical form. Either way, it's where we find Noctis at the end of the game to annihilate Ardyn's soul, which has apparently been there since he touched the Crystal 2000 years ago.
It all ends with a summary of the events prior to the final battle ... the door of the throne room opens, and Ardyn intervenes: "I'm afraid luck won't smile on you", but in reality it is not Noctis who enters the room ... but Lunafreya.
Aranea chapter
The story begins with sleep-deprived Aranea eating a box of popcorn she found in a destroyed and partially flooded shop, popcorn that tastes awful but doesn't want to throw away. It is in the cockpit of his airship that he returns to Niflheim, after a non-stop shift of 35 hours engaged in the recovery and cleaning of Altissia, along with Biggs and Wedge, and the 87th Air Fleet he commands.
They were about to land in Gralea when the airship was hit by Diamond Weapon (the giant daemonic weapon used to attack Insomnia in Kingsglaive), who meanwhile is free in the city with the army intent on stopping him. Diamond Weapon heads for the Zegnautus, and Aranea enters and makes her way to the top floor. Meanwhile, Biggs and Wedge help some children evacuate.
The Chancellor enters the scene, Ardyn begins to speak to the city: “Ladies and gentlemen of Niflheim, thank you for your presence. The empire ends today ". Referring to the fact that the emperor has no successors. Aranea recalls that the empress died soon after giving birth, the emperor never remarried, and their son died in battle several years earlier. The people believe that the Empress's death is the reason for the Emperor's personality change, but Aranea believes it is due to Ardyn's arrival.
Ardyn explains that the Emperor pursued "magic" as a path to immortality, with the intention of remaining emperor forever, and invites everyone to look where he had led them. After that, he allows Iedolas, now dying, to speak: “Sol… heim… The sun of Solheim ... will rise again ... "
Aranea finds the Zegnautus empty without people e Iedolas dead on the throne because of the plague. When he gets to the top floor, he sees an airship carrying Diamond Weapon away. Meanwhile, Ardyn enjoys an apple as he watches the Empire burn, repeating “Oh, what a pity…” as when he watched the destruction of Insomnia in Kingsglaive. And here Aranea realizes that it was he who freed Weapon and made the Magitek soldiers lose control.
He tries to attack Ardyn, but his spear hits the void and he counterattacks throwing her to the ground, Aranea is tormented by pain and coughs violently. He tries to recover slowly and then asks him what he had in mind to do with Weapon, he replied saying that it is his intention to free him to unleash the destruction on Tenebrae.
Biggs informs Aranea via radio that he has just put the refugees on a train to Tenebrae. Ardyn is amused. On the contrary, Aranea replies that she is quitting her job, giving a "I hate you" as a reason if requested, then jumping off the top floor with her spear.
At this point, he runs into "the most annoying man of all those he knew", Loqi Tummelt, in his Magitek armor. After a fight, he opens the cockpit to find he is carrying one about eight years old girl at the special request of the emperor. The girl says that she too wants to fight, Aranea tells her that at 10 it is too early, so she begins a reflection on her own childhood.
When Aranea was about her age, her village was attacked by daemons and she was ordered to take the younger children to the basement of the church and hide while the adults fought. He got the same “too early to fight at 10” response from his father, before both of his parents were killed.
Loqi entrusts the child to Aranea thanking her in a whisper, as a horde of daemons approached threateningly. As Aranea heads to the train and Tenebrae, she observes him one last time in the furious struggle with his Magitek armor, and hears him exclaim "Glory to the Niflheim Empire!". Aranea, addressing his air fleet, reports that their final mission is that of protect Tenebrae.
They run out of bullets and try to take down the airship carrying Diamond Weapon, they miraculously manage to damage the airship enough to crash them, but Weapon is still active. Aranea takes her spear to fight Diamond Weapon alone.
Diamond Weapon is destroyed, refugees arrive in Tenebrae safely, everyone is alive. Aranea finally talks to the girl, who turns out to be Sol Antiquum, the secret daughter of the emperor's deceased son. He comforts the girl and hugs her, remembering herself as a child again. 10 years later, in the ruined world, Sol grew up and learned to fight, raised by Aranea, and is now a rebellious teenager. Aranea tries to send Biggs and Wedge with her on a mission, but Sol insists that she doesn't need to be treated like a child. Biggs and Wedge are apparently even more overprotective. Meanwhile, Aranea cooks a canned meal while waiting for her to return.
