[It did bring him to silence for a moment. After all, the war had been ongoing since long before any of them had been born, and they'd been stuck at a stalemate recently. Verstael had been dedicating himself to putting an end to that.

He was seeing this not from the perspective of a man whose lab was filled with daemons and darkness, but as a man who had only begun to associate with Ardyn relatively recently.

Ignis might hear some movement as he adjusted his weight, thoughtfully glancing around as he mulled it over, before finally speaking.]

The war can finally come to a close, then. [This was a good thing. Niflheim won. There was a sense of relief to that, mixed with something close to disbelief. He did follow it up with more of his perspective, however, in reply to Ignis' assertion about consequences.] His Radiance is a superb ruler in every respect. It is possible to rebuild and prosper, much as Accordo has done for over a century.

[Because honestly, he wasn't expecting to go in and kill every random citizen that had nothing to do with anything. Victory would be followed by rebuilding and establishing the new world order, not with meaningless death. Much like the rest of the Emperor's people, Verstael admired Aldercapt emphatically.]