*Phantom Knight Solaire summoned*
Solaire of Astora: "Hello chap! Time to engage in... wait... where am I?"
*Miazma descends from the heavens*
Solaire of Astora: "Miazma! But you were dead!? What is going on?"
Miazma: "I have returned from being dead and I bring ill tidings!"
Solaire of Astora: "What!? What is it? Tell me!"
Miazma: "A new crossover fanfiction is in the works, unfortunately it is yet another generic Familiar of Zero crossover!"
Solaire of Astora: "Oh no! What poor universe will have its characters ripped out from it this time!?"
Miazma: "Dark Souls of course! Why do you think I brought you here?"
Solaire of Astora: "Why did you bring me here?"
Miazma: "So that you could do the disclaimer, you silly sunbro!"
Solaire of Astora: "Oh... what do I say?"
Miazma: *whispers into Solaire's ear*
Solaire of Astora: "Okay, so like this? Miazma doesn't own Dark Souls or Familiar of Zero, they belong to their respective owners."
Miazma: "You did great!"
*Miazma pulls a Black Separation Crystal out of his back pocket*
Miazma: "Now back to the Kiln with you"
Solaire of Astora: "NOOOOOOO!"
"Speech"
"Thoughts"
"Powerful being speech"
"Powerful being thoughts"
Knight Artorias' Grave, Darkroot Garden
Sif's paws slammed into the ground as it finished another swipe at the wayward undead, the drake-sized wolf was visibly fatigued and wounded, and was panting into the hilt of Artorias' Greatsword.
"I must not fail, for the sake of Master, and for the sake of this Undead!"
Sif had indeed seen, had smelt this Undead before, many years ago, during that fateful time. Sure, the Undead may have been wearing the armor of the giant guardians of Anor Londo, but even that couldn't mask the Undead's unique aroma.
The Undead's large sword slammed into the ground where Sif was standing, the ground left smouldering and black as the enchanted weapon's flames cut into the coarse dirt.
"This Undead, if he gets the ring, he will be consumed by the Abyss, just as Master was, I cannot allow that!"
Sif let out a huff as it once again began to spin, however as it began to swing Artorias' blade, Sif felt a mind-numbing pain and burning sensation in its left foreleg. Sif toppled over with a surprised whine.
"I have to get back up..."
The Undead approached cautiously, Sif's left leg was sporting a deep cut, courtesy of his Zweihander, and chaos fire was spreading slowly across its mottled grey fur. Sif struggled to stand, but collapsed once more under the immense pain.
"No, he can't... get the ring..."
Slowly, the Undead sheathed his Zweihander, no longer seeing Sif as a threat. He spotted a glimmer of silver near the wolf's neck, and slowly parted the fur around the area to get a better view.
"No!"
Sif snapped at the Undead, but the Undead easily dodged out of the way of its struggling bites. There it was, Artorias' ring! Hanging from a chain fashioned out of skillfully carved wood around Sif's neck like a pendant. The Undead tore the ring off of the wooden chain, snapping it and sending the masterfully crafted chain links scattering across the ground.
"I won't let you have it! I won't let you go mad like he did!"
The Undead backed away as Sif got up once more, ignoring the blinding pain in its leg, growling fiercely at the ring in the Undead's hand.
"If you are going to take the ring, you must prove to me that you are stronger than master was! You must prove you can survive the abyss!"
A chilling howl filled the air, so loud and pained that all could hear it.
Tristainian Academy of Magic, Tristain
"A salamander!?"
"Zerbst summoned a salamander?"
Murmurs spread throughout the young nobles, as they witnessed a red, horse sized Salamander nuzzle up to its redheaded master.
"Please everyone, calm down. Although I must say, that is an impressive summon you have Miss Zerbst!" Professor Colbert, an academy teacher said.
"Ha! It's only fitting that I, Kirche the Hearth, summon such a familiar."
The busty girl put a hand onto her chest and laughed, her familiar attempting to copy her laughs to an abysmal effect, sounding more like a hacking cough than a laugh.
"Yes, it reminds me of my own familiar summoning, anyway, is that everybody?"
In the corner, a small, waiflike pinkette was trying, and failing, to be seen.
"Professor Colbert, the Zero hasn't summoned her familiar yet!" Kirche said, causing many students to flinch at the name, and some to even snicker.
Said pinkette was fuming, glaring holes into the Zerbst that had called her out.
"Well, Louise? Step up to the platform and begin the ritual." Colbert said, putting on a warm smile that only barely hid his fear, he had experienced the aftermath of this girl's spells, and while he was hopeful she would succeed, he was mentally preparing himself for the imminent explosion.
Louise Francois le Blanc de La Valliere, the third daughter of the Valliere family, and so far, the only to fail at magic, spectacularly so.
If your definition of spectacular is 'extremely large explosion that somehow doesn't harm anybody,' that is.
Louise sighed as she stepped up to the plate, ignoring her classmate's jests.
Slowly her classmates began to back up, some even hiding behind their familiars.
"What do you think she'll summon?"
"A bomb probably."
"As if she'd even manage that, I bet the spell will just blow her up!"
"That would be doing the world a service, her very presence here is an insult to Brimir himself."
She had heard it all before.
"Rule of Steel, Louise. Rule of Steel!"
Holding back tears, Louise raised her wand and began the chant.
Knight Artorias' Grave, Darkroot Garden
Sif came crashing into the ground, utterly defeated, the Chosen Undead standing triumphant over the collapsed wolf, yet only one of them was happy about the event, and strangely enough, it was Sif.
"Yes... he is worthy, he can succeed where Master failed."
Sif felt a deep thrumming within itself, like it was being called to by something, it heard words, but it was too tired to even want to understand what they were Chosen Undead dropped his Zweihander and removed the imposing mask he had donned for the entirety of the fight, revealing a weathered yet youthful face bearing the telltale features of a Traveler from the Far East, while Sif knew that the Undead could never cry due to bodily limitations, it could see the sorrow on the Undead's face. He could tell that Sif would not survive the wounds inflicted upon it. The Undead pet the once-great wolf softly, causing the wolf to whine in a sad, yet content way.
"At least I can die knowing that he... he won't end up like Master did."
The voice was still there, the feeling of being called away was still there, from the sounds of the voice, it belonged to a young girl, but the dying wolf could only make out parts of what it was saying. No, no point in trying to understand it.
The Undead backed away, guiltily raising his Zweihander, he was going to put the wolf out of its misery, and oh, the misery it was in. Cuts adorned Sif's body, and fur was burned and mottled with blood, it would no longer be appropriate to call this being the Great Grey Wolf any longer as the fur now held only a few unbloodied spots. The Great wolf rested its head upon the ground and closed its eyes, almost drifting into sleep instantly. It was oh so tired, and right now was its time to rest.
"Goodbye"
Suddenly, under Sif's beaten and bloodied form, a large circular portal of green appeared, causing the Chosen Undead to stumble back in surprise as Sif's unconscious form slid into the too-small portal. The Chosen Undead was about to jump in himself when the portal abruptly closed, causing him to grunt in frustration as he face-planted into the coarse dirt. Suddenly he looked to the ring he clutched in his hand, and grimaced. He knew where he had to go next...
Tristanian Academy of Magic, Tristain
"No, not another explosion, anything but that..."
Louise coughed as she desperately tried to swipe the dust away from her face, her classmates were all recovering from the blast and Colbert was pulling himself out of the wall that he had somehow become indented into. Her eyes turned to the summoning platform, but she was unable to see anything through the thick cloud of smoke and upturned dust that had settled into the area.
"Damn, that was a big one."
"You almost got us killed, you bitch!"
"Louise the Zero strikes again, why don't you do us all a favor and just leave the school already!?"
"Even better, she should just off herself, I'm sure her family would thank her for it."
"SILENCE!"
The entire courtyard went quiet as Colbert was fuming with the intensity of his runic name, Inferno.
"In all my years I have never seen such vulgar hate directed at a singular person before, you should all be ashamed of yourselves!"
Louise couldn't see it, but Zerbst had a slightly crestfallen and pitiful look upon her face, her rival wasn't supposed to go down like this, even she thought it to be too cruel.
"What is that? In the summoning circle!" a student cried out.
Indeed, a slumped form was lying lifelessly in the summoning circle, it was a wolf slightly smaller than a horse, just lying there completely still.
"Is this my familiar!?"
She squinted to see any details because the smoke had not cleared yet, but she could see that the wolf's fur was a peculiar shade of red.
"A red wolf? Such and odd color of..."
Wait...
That wasn't its fur.
Louise barely suppressed a scream as she saw it, adorned with cuts, bruises, and even burn marks, as well as its fur being so bloodied that she had initially believed the crimson red to be its natural color. Colbert and the rest of the students saw this too, and some went into a panic, while others even began to laugh at the pinkette's misfortune.
"Water mage! I need a water mage right now!" Colbert called out desperately as he ran up and kneeled next to the unconscious wolf. Nearby, one of the water mages on standby that was treating a student's sprained ankle heard Colbert's call and rushed to his aid, and seeing the bloodied form of the wolf, began to chant a Brimiric prayer of wellbeing as water seeped from within the mage's water canteens and into the wolf's wounds. All this time, Louise was kneeling next to the wolf's slumped head, staring at the creature's shut eyes with tears beginning to form.
"Please, please don't die, if you die then I'll... I'll..."
"Miss Valliere, you must complete the binding ritual before it dies!" Colbert said.
The pinkette breathed in a deep breath, chanted the words of the ritual quietly to the point where only she could hear herself, and then, leaned down and kissed the giant wolf, sealing the contract.
A few things to address.
First, I can't write fight scenes very well.
Second, I know far more about the events of Dark Souls than Familiar of Zero, but I have a pretty good idea since I have read quite a few Familiar of Zero crossovers in my time here and most of them basically follow the same story but with a different familiar.
Third, I'm scaling Sif down while it is in Halkeginia because a wolf the size of an elephant wouldn't work for most of the story.
Anyway, as you may have guessed, Sif doesn't have a gender here, that's because I haven't decided one for it yet, please leave a suggestion for what gender you may want Sif to be in your review.
Speaking of reviews, please leave some, I'd love to read the feedback you have to give this hot mess of a story.
*Dark Phantom Iron Tarkus has invaded*
Miazma: "What!?"
Tarkus: "MIAZMA!"
Miazma: "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!"
Tarkus: "EXPLAIN TO ME WHY SOLAIRE CAME CRYING TO ME ABOUT YOU BANISHING HIM BACK INTO HIS KILN?"
Miazma: "Uuuuuhhhhhhh..."
Tarkus: "IF YOU DON'T WANT TO EXPLAIN THEN FEEL MY WRATH!"
Miazma: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"