EP Luna;
*Luna wakes up in an underground tomb after her death in Altissia following the ten year timeskip. Reaching the surface, she's forced to run from a Deathgaze Daemon. She runs into Solaria and a hunter group, and they try to escape. The Deathgaze catches up, and the two are forced to fight; Sol is experienced, and Luna is forced to use a spear Sol is carrying. She is attacked by Deathgaze, but it is weakened, and when it grabs her, it disintegrates and leaves her arm marked. The hunters, including Sol, are wary of her both because her wounds heal abormaliy fast, and they don't believe she's Luna as...well, Luna's been dead ten years.
*Luna is surprised by the world's state, being taken to a temporary base where she meets Cindy. Umbra also appears and has a joyful reunion with Luna, but when she tries sending a message to Noctis Umbra resists. Noctis is safe, but currently unreachable. Luna decides to keep a note of her journey. The next bit's a little fuzzy, but she seems to help Sol with repairing their vehicle, showing she has knowledge beyond her role as the Oracle as well as martial skills.
*Luna is visited by Bahamut in a dream. The narration says that Bahamut is different from the other Astrals; while the other five are tied to the world of Eos and intimate with humanity, Bahamut is a celestial being who eclipses both humans and the other Astrals in power. He tells Luna her task is unfinished, and shows her a vision of Noctis's sacrificial death using the Ring. However, this was the original course of events; Ardyn's rampage through Insomnia with Ifrit and refusal to follow his destined path means the Ring now isn't enough to purge Eos of the scourge. Luna must now travel to defeat Ardyn herself; Bahamut resurrected her and gave her the power she now possesses to destroy Daemons for this purpose. Luna's puzzled, but as this new fate may save Noctis's life, she's ready to follow Bahamut's lead.
*Luna tells Sol about her mission, and while initially sceptical Sol agrees to take Luna to Lestallum for the time being. During their talk, Sol asks Luna about her harsh training as the Oracle. While Sol can't understand Luna's dogged response that it's the will of the Six, Luna can't understand Sol's belief that such duties should be fun and rewarding to perform as she's never asked for anything in return for her magic. They then get a call from Biggs; the ruins Luna was in were from the age of Solheim, which holds a powerful Daemon called Sapphire Weapon. Sol decides to investigate, and gives Luna some new and easier-to-wear black clothes. Sol and Luna have another argument, this time about whether it's right to follow the Gods' will above her own. Luna reflects that she's seen a large amount of suffering and death in Niflheim due to people blindly following someone else's decrees, and begins questioning her own autonomy. As she accompanies Sol to the ruins, she absorbs Daemons she defeats, getting increasing numbers of black marks on her skin. Sol then asks Luna's personal wish; it's to laugh with Noctis. Sol pretty much says she should make that wish come true.
*Aranea is trapped in the ruins with Sapphire Weapon; Sol is ordered to seal the ruins with Aranea inside. Luna insists on going in and absorbing Sapphire Weapon, even though her body's reaching its limit. While Luna knows Sol's family history from their talks, and knows Nilfheim killed her mother, that doesn't apply here. She's helping a girl named Sol save her mother Aranea. And that's Luna's choice. Turns out Luna trained in the ruins long ago, and knows a secret backdoor inside. As they enter, they discover a statue of Aera Mirus Fleuret. Aera's spirit speaks to Luna, showing Ardyn's past and the truth of the Oracle's power; a derivative of Ardyn's power to absorb and heal those touched by the Scourge. Luna's shocked by the revelation as she only used her power to wipe away the scourge rather than absorb it, and Aera ends with an appeal to save Ardyn.
*Broadly speaking, the mission's a success and Luna absorbs Sapphire Weapon. But then they find out the truth; Aranea was infected with the Scourge, and ordered the ruins sealed before she turned. Using Aera's vision as reference, Luna embraces Aranea and absorbs the Scourge. But this finally transforms Luna into a Daemon version of herself, which Aranea begins to attack. Luna retains her sentience and will, and Sol manages to stop Aranea. Luna is detained and imprisoned in Lestallum. There, Luna's predicament is discussed by Gladio, Prompto and Ignis. They're astonished by Luna's return, and saddened by her current condition. As there seems no hope for her yet she retains her sense of self, they decide whether to grant her wish to travel to Insomnia
*During this time, Luna has another dream. This time, its Gentiana/Shiva, who warns her against Bahamut's direction. Bahamut gave her this power not specifically to defeat Ardyn, but to become a new host of the Starscourge, effectively turning into a goddess of darkness, to fulfil his own plan; the purging of humanity, using the combined powers of light (the ring and Crystal) and dark (the scourge as embodied in Luna) to trigger Terra Flare, basically Bahamut's ultimate world-purging power. To Bahamut, humans are like flowers in significance, having no individual value. When the Great War of Old broke out between humans and Ifrit, and then between the other Astrals, Bahamut became disgusted with the whole situation and saw the world as having fallen too far to be redeemed (explained in more detail in next chapter). He thought the other gods would use their powers to purge mankind, but they so exhausted themselves in the fighting as to prevent this. Shiva now wants Luna to thwart Bahamut.
*Determined to help Luna, Sol plans to break her out. Aranea catches her in the act, but moved by Sol's appeal helps her rather than stops her outright. Luna and Sol barely escape as an alarm sounds. Luna travels alone on Sol's bike while Sol holds back the pursuers. Luna also entrusts Umbra with a last message to give to Noctis when he awakes. The chapter ends with Luna in the Lucian throne room, facing Ardyn, who is surprised by her appearance and her wish to talk rather than fight. Luna proposes that they cooperate in halting Bahamut's purge.
EP Noctis;
*Noctis is in the Crystal dreaming, seeing memories and flashbacks surrounding Ardyn and Somnus's pasts, Ardyn's actions, and Luna's death. Noctis wonders if he's no different from Somnus in the whole tragedy. Bahamut's urging him to think of nothing but his mission, but Noctis goes on remembering, this time Regis and how he was accused of pampering Noctis as a boy, of what happened with Ignis and Ravus in Altissia, Luna's pain and struggles during her own journey to prepare his way to the Astrals. He muses that he just wanted to live a normal life with Luna. Waking up on Angelgard, he recieves Luna's message via Umbra; to meet her at the Citadel. On the mainland, he meets Sol and learns of Luna's transformation. He considers that the gods offer no salvation for Daemons, and decides to save Luna no matter what.
*The scene changes to Luna. Despite his death playing right into Bahamut's hands, Ardyn refuses to listen to Luna's pleas and is about to attack, but Aera's soul speaks to him. He can't bring himself to kill Luna himself because he can't bear seeing Aera die in front of him again, but instead summons Ifrit to do it and leaves. In parallel to their battle, Noctis fights his way through Insomnia alone, defeating the possess Kings of Yore and hearing Somnus's plea to save Ardyn as he has lived in regret for two millennia. Now he knows what he knows, Noctis curses Bahamut for leading them to this point, as it was Ardyn's powers to absorb the Scourge that led him to this path. Meanwhile Luna uses her power to purify Ifrit. Speaking to Ardyn as she does this, she reveals her plan; to trick Bahamut into appearing to unleash Terra Flare, then he can be weakened to the point that he can be killed. Luna asks for a Covenant and Ifrit agrees as Bahamut's now a threat to Eos, causing Luna to collapse from the strain of overusing her powers.
*Noctis enters and sees Luna, who loses her sense of self even as she speaks with Noctis. If he doesn't attack her, Bahamut will. Noctis's role as the True King is eliminate darkness from the world. This next bit's a little fuzzy, but it reads like humanity has no divine protection because of the darkness within them that caused wars amongst the gods, and Luna has become the embodiment of that darkness.The threat Luna poses triggers Bahamut to raise the Citadel into the air in an effort to protect the Crystal. Duplicates of Bahamut (messengers maybe?) appear and begin attacking humanity. Noctis and Ardyn individually warp up to the Citadel, while Noctis's friends are drawn there while pursuing Noctis and end up there by accident alongside Aranea and Sol. Noctis sends Aranea and Sol to evacuate Lestallum, while Noctis goes with his companions to find Luna and Ardyn.
*Ardyn knows and relates Luna's plan, but is unwilling to participate. Basically it's a back-and-forth between Noctis and Ardyn. Noctis convinces Ardyn by appealing to his messianic desires, and gives him to Ring of the Lucii to use against Bahamut. Noctis also says that the only salvation he can offer Ardyn is true death, which using the Ring will provide. Ardyn reluctantly agrees.
*They divide into two fronts; Ardyn clears the way for Noctis to face the physical manifestation of Bahamut, who is using Luna's darkness to activate Terra Flare; while Ardyn himself goes into the other world and destroy's Bahamut's spiritual self. During the real world battle, Noctis is aided by the other five Astrals, but even their combined power won't stop Terra Flare, which will be many times more devastating than earlier great outbursts of power and potentially ravage all of Eos. Noctis shares his powers with the others, who unite in battling Luna - who is purged of the Scourge but being used as Bahamut's pawn as she begins unleashing the destruction of Terra Flare across Eos - while he faces Bahamut with the Astrals. Ardyn uses Providence to obliterate Bahamut's spiritual self and fades away, briefly hearing Aera's voice. At the same time, Bahamut's physical self is destroyed. With Bahamut's death, the Crystal and the Astrals, along with magic, begin to vanish. The Citadel crashes back to earth, but Noctis, Luna and his companions are saved by Titan. In her final moment, Gentiana heals and revives Luna, wishing her a happy life. A bright light appears in the following calm; not Terra Flare, but the dawn.
*The scene shifts forward. The Starscourge is gone. Insomnia is in ruins, but as magic is gone from the world and the power of kings has lost meaning, people are seeing it as a memorial to the past time of kings. Lestallum was mostly spared due to the evacuation, and the power plant is undamaged. The Nilfheim continent has become fertile once again, either due to Shiva's power vanishing or Terra Flare not impacting it much, and it's set to become a bread basket. Tenebrae wasn't much damaged, and the royal palace is being rebuilt. Altissia has been rebuilt, and it's there that Noctis and Lunafreya are finally married.
And that's it. In a strange way it's like a fever dream. But it also feels strangely in line with the lore as built up within XV on a surface level, and the added layers they created using the pre-Ardyn DLC. This was a very, very long post, and I've certainly missed out key minor details that will prove essential to understanding some pieces. Also, is it me or does a lot of the stuff that happens in this novel as a whole sound very....FNC-ish? Otherwise....that's it. I'm now seriously looking forward to reading the entire thing in English. IT LOOKS EPIC!
