Quote Originally Posted by Vyrerus View Post
Ah, remember before he was eaten, he was first dispersed aetherically by a light wave that Thordan swung at him.
True. I interpreted that sort of similar to what we did at the end of 2.0, where we yeeted Lahabrea out of Thancred's body with the help of Hydaelyn. In this case, Thordan didn't really care about the body Lahabrea was inhabiting at the time, so it was a straight-up dispersal of mortal form.

In any case, the White Auracite or Dragon Eyes or Crystal Tower is basically just to pin the Ascian's soul in place, for whatever purposes later, be it destruction or nourishment. So even if Elidibus's soul is stuck in the Crystal Tower, it's not going anywhere, and will possibly just degrade over time into the undifferentiated aether that powers the Tower in general. However, the whole bit about Elidibus actually being a Primal birthed from Zodiark is a mystery in itself, so Elidibus's soul could well be still existing within Zodiark, and what we defeated was just a simulacrum of it.

(I feel like the metaphysics of FFXIV is generally less concerned with whether something makes complete sense based on the laws of the universe, and more about whether it's a cool scene. Hence Haurchefant and Ysayle helping us at the end of 3.3 when they should be totally dead, like Emet-Selch does in 5.3.)