I'm struggling with ideas for the Symphogear x High School DxD fanfic I'm working on and my original webnovel needs me to get the creative juices flowing. This is a side project.
Quick heads up, Tristain and Albion's Void Familiar are swapped for this story.
The endless flow of lava ran down the caverns of the Volcanic Hollow. In the cooler areas, the large, bulky Slagtoths roamed the cooler outer areas, slowly chewing on any vegetation that managed to grow in this hostile environment. Deeper into the lands, the stone-swimming Uroktors lurked for their next great meal, their beaks clattering whenever they peeked up to look around.
But in the deepest areas of the Hollow, an event rarely witnessed was about to go underway. The two kings of the hot lands, the slime-fisted Crushing Wyvern, Brachydios, stood before a violent metallic red foe. Before the explosive Brute, was blade-tailed Cutting Wyvern, the Glavenus. Both dinosaur-like wyverns roared at each other, making themselves seem as large as possible, each instinctively knowing the danger of the other.
A situation like this is not uncommon in the wild. Two large beasts, ready to fight each other for their next meal. Among the Brute Wyverns, the Brachydios and Glavenus were in particular known for their aggression. Yet this was different, for today, the Glavenus had stepped into the nest of the Brachydios.
A nest, where a single egg lay. The situation was dire for the Crushing Wyvern, its parental instincts screaming to defend its offspring from the invaders. But a single wrong move would mean both of their lives. It did not need to kill today, simply drive away the invader.
But the Glavenus would not have that. For a large monster such as it, large meals were needed. Its stomach ached from a lack of sustenance and it saw the perfect meal. Not only was there plenty of delicious meat on it, the obsidian shelled beast had a place to rest. A spot that it had won for being at the top of the food chain. But today, that would change.
The two Brutes charged, Glavenus opening its mouth to spit off globs of molten stone and metal, shaved from its tail and heated within its bursa. Even in the volcanic fields of the Hollow, such a blow was not to be shrugged off by the Brachydios, who was struck once.
Roaring in pain as it felt the metal roll down its shell, the Brachydios leaped into the air with its fist, ready to bring it down to the steel dinosaur. However, its opponent was too fast, as it leaped out of the way, causing the fist to impact against the hard ground. Hard stone shrapnel flew out into the air, bouncing off of the Brachydios' horn.
Both brutes had tested their opponent's strength and determined that they needed everything to win this fight. The Brachydios brought its fists to its mouth and began to slather it in saliva, while the Glavenus swung its blade-like tail towards its mouth and fired up the furnace as it dragged it through the steel-hard mouth.
Fists primed. Tail sharpened. The fight raged on.
The two beasts exchanged blows, but in a fight of giants, it ultimately came down to speed. A quick, but shallow punch to the side of the Glavenus left thick blobs of green slime, but the razor hot steel tail of the Glavenus was a weapon among the monsters. Sharp enough to cut off the chin of a Uragaan, the much softer Brachydios Ebon Shell would not be able to withstand such a blow.
The swing was fatal, cutting through the shell, several ribs and internal organs. But the slime would make sure that the Glavenus would not go untouched. Within seconds, the glob on the red Brute changed color, before detonating in a terrifyingly powerful explosion. Pieces of the shell pushed deeper into the flesh underneath, rupturing a lung and damaging the stomach. This blow was enough to knock it out.
But the Brachydios was dying. Falling to the ground, its vision grew hazy as it looked to the nest. It had defeated the invader, but the child would not make it. The carcass of the mother would attract the scavenging Remobra, or the ravenous Uroktors. The presence of an unconcious Glavenus in addition to that, would attract the attention of larger predators. The nest would not survive that presence.
The Brachydios roared. If it could speak, it would be crying out a single, request that only a parent could make. It would be saying, "Somebody, I beg of you, protect my egg!"
Perhaps that wish was heard. For as its vision faded into oblivion, the last thing the Brachydios saw, was a strange light that overtook the egg, spiriting it away to parts unknown.
And with that, the Crushing Wyvern took its last breath.
In the land of Halkegenia, there lay several Kingdoms. Among those kingdoms, there was the land of Tristain, which was home to one of the known world's foremost academia, the Tristanian Academy of Magic. Here, budding youths spent three years, while they studied and polished their skills to serve their homes as upstanding nobles.
For the second year students, a rite of passage was to be held during the Spring seasons, where they would call upon a beast from far away and summon them, binding them to them as a Familiar. Fittingly, this ritual was called the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual and as one would expect it, completing it was a requirement for all the students.
It was an easy procedure. Stand in a circle, recite a short magic prayer and poof. You'd get a Familiar that was meant just for you, be it something simple like a dog, or a great creature like a dragon. To fail it would mark one as a complete failure as a mage.
For this very reason, one young girl stood behind all of her students in the courtyard. This child, was Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière. Among the students her age, she was one of the brightest and most dedicated nobles that you could find. Were it not for one flaw, she'd be the perfect student. Unfortunately, that flaw was as massive, as it were simple.
She couldn't cast magic. No matter what she did, no matter how much she tried, every spell ended in the same way. An explosive failure. Quite literally. Every time she made an attempt, it was just another failure to go onto her record. A record with a total of zero successes.
It was for this unique 'talent,' that she had been given to nickname 'Louise the Zero.' A name that she would kill to get rid off.
In the center of the courtyard, one of the last students had summoned their familiar. After they completed the ritual, an older balding man in glasses and long robes smiled at the second years. "Well, I do believe that is everyone," he said as he adjusted his glasses.
Before he could say anymore, one student with flawless blond skin and boasting a big, bouncy bosom raised her hand. Louise shot her a glare, mentally screaming to her fellow student, "Dammit Zerbst!"
"Professor Colbert, Louise still hasn't attempted the ritual!" Shouted the student, Kirche von Zerbst.
Colbert looked at the crowd and gasped, muttering a slight word of self-reprimand. How could he forget one of his students? Waving her over, the professor had the students clear the way so that she could easily get to him. "Are you ready, Miss Vallière?" He asked.
"No, I am most certainly not ready!" She screamed in her head. But she didn't have the guts to say that. All she could do, was nod her head and step forward into the summoning circle as she tried to brush off the jeers of her peers.
"Don't blow it Zero!"
"Everyone, take cover! Who knows how big this is going bomb!"
"Taking all bets, payout for Vallière's success is a thousand to one!"
Needless to say, the people who could see her face as she raised her wand up could tell that she was doing a very poor job at brushing off the insults. Even still, she cleared her mind and focused on the task at hand. She was determined to show them up. She needed to, not as child of the house Vallière, or a noble. But as Louise. Frankly, she didn't care what she summoned. For all she cared, it could be some brutish beast.
"My beloved Servant that exists somewhere in this universe, I call upon you! Please, grace me with your presence, my divine, beautiful, powerful Familiar!" She recited. The magic in the air began to build up in a familiar way for the students. Everyone was ready to duck and cover. But even still she pressed on. "Heed my summons and come forth, my Familiar!"
Boom!
As expected of Louise, all spells were followed by an explosion. Tremendous heat filled the courtyard as a plume of smoke rose. But as it rose, Louise's hopes fell. This was her last chance to prove them wrong and she blew it. Everything ended up like this; a failure. Another big ugly egg on her record, like everyone expected.
But what they didn't expect, was for a literal egg to be in the center of the summoning circle when the smoke died down. The crowd was speechless. Sure, it was just an egg, but the fact of the matter is, Louise had summoned something. Her eyes filled up with pride and she struggled to hold back the tears as she looked up to her stunned professor.
As an academic, Professor Colbert couldn't help but wonder what she had called forth. Never in his years had he heard of someone summoning an egg before. Even aside from that, just what could have laid an egg like that? Even dragons didn't lay eggs that large. Not only that, the air around the egg seemed slightly distorted from heat. Just where did it come from?
It took him a moment before he recalled the fact he had a student waiting for direction. "Miss Vallière, please complete the ritual. But do be careful, it does look to be quite hot," he warned.
Not being bothered by such things, Louise quickly made her way forward with as much dignity as she could. Kneeling by the oversized egg, she quietly whispered to it words of thanks. "I owe you more than you can ever know…" She quietly said as she leaned in, placing her lips on the egg for but a moment.
Quickly pulling back so as to not burn her lips, Louise and everyone present saw something strange occur. The shell glowed with a green light, slowly rumbling. Right upon the contract being placed, it was hatching! Excitement swelled up in Louise's chest as she watched her familiar be born into the world.
She had heard of how long birds would take to be born. It could take hours- even days for it to complete. Because of this, she was flabbergasted at the speed of the creature before her. First at the top of the egg, a long blunt horn broke through, sending shell flying around the courtyard. It went in and out, making similar holes for the rest of its limbs to slowly break through before eventually, the creature's birth room was destroyed.
Louise marvelled at the strange creature, covered in the slime of an egg as it made weak growling sounds. It looks almost like a bipedal dragon, but it had a strange ebony shell like a bug. Yet it didn't seem chitinous, rather made of bone. Small fingers on its arms were only barely visible within the strange gauntlet like shell that surrounded the hands and forearms and the tail resembled that of a mace. But most interestingly, was the large horn on its head that it used to break the egg.
The horn was massive! It was easily as long as Louise's forearm and as thick as her thigh. If the thing hit someone with it, they'd surely be in for a lot of pain. What's more, is that the thing looked heavy. For a newborn to carry such a weight would surely be impossible.
But the class all watched in awe, as slowly, the creature at only the size of a large dog managed to stand up. It took a few attempts and its legs were shaking, but it had managed to slowly take its first steps forward.
Louise looked with pride at her Familiar. Kneeling down, she held open her arms and whispered. "Come to me, my Familiar."
With a small growl, that pride was quickly destroyed as the familiar shook its body free of the slime, splattering a fair few people. Unfortunately, most of it landed on Louise.
Louise remained still. It was a newborn child, so she couldn't possibly be mad at it. Not only that, this was her Familiar. Her first success. While a few students laughed at her receiving the egg mucus, nobody would call her a Zero today. And if they did, she could easily shake it off. After all, the proof was right here.
Still though, the slime was disgusting and she quite nearly puked. "I think it got in my mouth!"
What better monster for Louise to Summon than a Brachydios?