Ultima Weapon?

[Cilia]

There are a number of hints that the Ultima Weapon, and the Ultima spell, are both direct manifestations of Zodiark's power / will. This is arguably because the Heart of Sabik, implied to be some manner of Dark Crystal, acted as the Ultima Weapon's core.

Thy foe is Darkness clad in steel.

... [T]he hammer of Darkness must needs be brought to bear upon the shield of Light.

Behold but a sliver of my god's power!

As such, directly resisting Zodiark's power on the corporeal plane would be difficult for the already-weak Hydaelyn. Ultima is an extremely powerful spell, implicitly a direct manifestation of Zodiark's power - so it would stand to reason that it would take an equal or greater amount of Hydaelyn's energy to protect us from it. With very little strength left and even less after protecting us from Ultima and helping exorcise Lahabrea from Thancred, She has been unable to communicate with us often since.

With few details on Omega, none can yet say if it is as anathema to Hydaelyn as Ultima (Weapon) was. It does possess more power and destructive potential (wrangling Bahamut and going toe to toe with Shinryu vs. fighting the likes of Ifrit, Titan, and Garuda), but without knowing if it has a core akin to the Heart of Sabik (Darkness) powering it...

[Anonymoose]

There are a number of hints that the Ultima Weapon, and the Ultima spell, are both direct manifestations of Zodiark's power / will.

Thanks; name-dropping Him rather than leaving it at "Darkness" probably would have helped, lol.

without knowing if it has a core akin to the Heart of Sabik (Darkness) powering it...

<struggles to hold a straight face> Perhaps ... Nero ... after leaving the Praetorium, heard the boom of Ultima and rushed back to find out what could possess that much power, thereby taking possession of the Heart of Sabik from the disabled Weapon and enabling the escape of a mortally-wounded Gaius van Baelsar, these two facts utterly hidden since as they await the perfect time to play their trump card: The Battle of Ala Mhigo!

Orrr Elidibus just gave it to Nero or Teledji or whatever.

Either way, the Heart of Sabik was allegedly going to make an appearance before 4.0, but never did. From the deepest chasms of my paranoia, something whispers that perhaps this was because certain facets of the story were shifted around a bit to connect Omega to the main story arc (since feedback from Alexander included it feeling isolated or separated or "not like Coil"). The sudden throwing of the eyes over the bridge, the lack of serious foreshadowing to the events of 3.56, the need for Alphinaud and Kan-E-Senna to explain what the hell just happened via text exposition alone ... it'd explain a lot, lol. Perhaps it made an appearance after all. </darksteelfoilhat>

But even so, utilizing the blessing of Light on the same scale again would probably undo what energy we gave Her back in 3.4 and put her back in serious jeopardy. She at least needs the strength to maintain Minfilia as her emissary for now, right? If Sabik was indeed here, I suspect we'd try to find another way to deal with the spell now that we know that it's a thing. And if - as Chrono lore suggests - the Bend of Time is a pocket dimension, we might use that to our advantage to rid of us both <holds flashlight to face> and thus cement the fanon that FFV's Omega came from FFXIV.