To be fair, the decapitation was not the first blow. There are other signs of violence done upon his body, things done while blood still pumped healthily through him and which no doubt helped get him down to the dirt. To the position in which he would die before Ignis moved him aside.
Decapitation was merely... insurance.
Insurance for Ardyn's death, but not the questions which he is being asked now with those mismatched eyes focused on him. Ignis meets them squarely, no flinching. He has nothing to feel guilty of.
This might have always been necessary, after all, and he long ago settled into the idea of doing dirty but necessary work.
His hands grind down a bit on the filthy of the axe before he hefts it up again. It is not a proper shovel, and there is still so much digging to do. "One - could argue that I would have just cause no matter what," he forces out. "It is through Councilor Ardyn Izunia's hand that the Empire has become even worse and more aggressive than ever before, and it lacked no small amount of such beforehand. I have read all the reports of his improvements to magitek troopers, after all. The hand he has played."
A huff, a wipe of sweat away from his brow. "...But I am no mindless beast. Before leaving Insomnia in the way I have experienced through situations such as this, I would have been willing to understand things are... more complicated than one could realize."
They're almost soft, for all that he makes sure to enunciate clearly and audibly. Makes sure they can't be missed.
But then his jaw tightens and his eyes harden as he forces the axe right back into the earth. "Yet I hard to learn something, coming here. Something that is not wholly my story to tell, Ravus. All I can tell you, Ravus, is that he took a good man who could offer him no information which he did not already know, and tortured him." His lips curl in disgust. Something deeper than that, perhaps.
"No rhyme, nor reason. Torture for torture's sake, as far as anyone could tell. And I am to trust such a man would not act on such impulses again? That my own would be safe from that?"
The violent thrust of the axe downwards says his answer.
no subject
Decapitation was merely... insurance.
Insurance for Ardyn's death, but not the questions which he is being asked now with those mismatched eyes focused on him. Ignis meets them squarely, no flinching. He has nothing to feel guilty of.
This might have always been necessary, after all, and he long ago settled into the idea of doing dirty but necessary work.
His hands grind down a bit on the filthy of the axe before he hefts it up again. It is not a proper shovel, and there is still so much digging to do. "One - could argue that I would have just cause no matter what," he forces out. "It is through Councilor Ardyn Izunia's hand that the Empire has become even worse and more aggressive than ever before, and it lacked no small amount of such beforehand. I have read all the reports of his improvements to magitek troopers, after all. The hand he has played."
A huff, a wipe of sweat away from his brow. "...But I am no mindless beast. Before leaving Insomnia in the way I have experienced through situations such as this, I would have been willing to understand things are... more complicated than one could realize."
They're almost soft, for all that he makes sure to enunciate clearly and audibly. Makes sure they can't be missed.
But then his jaw tightens and his eyes harden as he forces the axe right back into the earth. "Yet I hard to learn something, coming here. Something that is not wholly my story to tell, Ravus. All I can tell you, Ravus, is that he took a good man who could offer him no information which he did not already know, and tortured him." His lips curl in disgust. Something deeper than that, perhaps.
"No rhyme, nor reason. Torture for torture's sake, as far as anyone could tell. And I am to trust such a man would not act on such impulses again? That my own would be safe from that?"
The violent thrust of the axe downwards says his answer.
No. He wasn't.
He wouldn't.