Future Pride burns — not from bombs, not from war — but from confusion.
Two Ignises walk its streets.
One bathed in gold and sorrow.
The other cloaked in shadow and conviction.
The Divided City
From the sky, Future Pride looks like a circuit board on fire — half blazing neon, half shrouded in smoke.
To the east, the Helios Districts glow with cold precision. Skyscrapers pulse with blue holograms projecting a single phrase:
"Trust in the True Flame."
Noctis Ignis stands on those towers, the crowd beneath him roaring his name. He promises safety, discipline, and a world where weakness no longer costs lives.
His followers — the Eclipse Syndicate — patrol the streets in black armor traced with burning veins of emberlight, spreading his doctrine like wildfire.
To the west, the Old Sectors cling to rebellion. Faded murals of heroes watch from cracked walls, and markets glow under red lanterns. This is where hope breathes quietly — kept alive by those who still believe in the original Ignis.
Lira Vale — The Voice of Truth
In a hidden radio tower beneath the collapsed Metro Dome, a woman adjusts a rusted microphone.
Her name is Lira Vale, once the city's most fearless journalist, now a ghost on every frequency.
Her gift — Spectra Voice — lets her weave emotion into sound itself. When she speaks, her words can stir hearts or calm riots.
"Future Pride," she whispers into the static, her voice echoing across stolen channels.
"There are two flames now.
One burns to protect us. The other burns to rule us.
Remember which one truly gives light."
She is hunted by both Helios and the Syndicate — yet her broadcasts continue to inspire the hidden, the broken, and the young.
Marshal Orin — The Weight of Order
High above, on the skybridge between Helios Towers, Marshal Orin watches the chaos unfold.
His armor hums with gravitational distortion, air warping around him like bending glass.
His power — Graviton Field — allows him to alter gravity within a hundred-meter radius.
One motion of his gauntlet can crush a car flat or make a man float helplessly.
Helios Core entrusted him with keeping "peace," but lately even Orin doubts what peace means.
He's loyal to structure — not tyranny. And now, both Ignises claim to stand for order.
"Light or shadow... both burn," he mutters. "But which one leaves the world standing?"
Dr. Syra Kline — The Architect of Imperfection
Deep within Helios Core's bio-labs, Dr. Syra Kline studies twin holograms — Ronak and Noctis — their DNA strands twisting like mirrored serpents.
She once designed the Phoenix Genome, the spark that allowed Ignis's cells to channel cosmic plasma safely.
But now, she stares at her creation with awe and guilt.
"One flame... two souls," she whispers. "He wasn't resurrected. He was replicated."
Her research notes reveal a secret even Helios Core never intended to uncover —
that Noctis might not just be Ronak's darkness...
He might be the continuation of Vexar's code inside Ronak's fragmented DNA.
Twin Flames, One City
As the sun sets over Future Pride, two figures meet above the skyline — on opposite ends of the broken solar bridge once called "The Path of Heroes."
Ronak stands with golden-white fire dancing softly around him.
Noctis approaches, his aura devouring light itself, turning the air into swirling void.
"You've made them afraid of their own strength," says Noctis.
"You've turned light into a cage."
"And you've turned freedom into fire," Ronak answers, steady but weary.
"Light without shadow is blindness, yes. But shadow without light... is death."
Noctis smiles faintly — a mirror of Ronak's old defiance.
"Then let's see which truth survives the dawn."
The two Ignises ignite — twin flares across the city skyline, one gold, one black —
and for the first time since the old wars, the heavens burn in two colors.
Every soul in Future Pride looks up — some in awe, some in fear, none knowing which flame to follow.