Heretic of Zero
A Final Fantasy: Tactics/Familiar of Zero Crossover
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Prologue: Endings and Beginnings
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Ramza pushed his sister into the arms of his companions as the Blood Angel recovered. To Agrias and Meliadoul, he gave what he suspected to be his final order. "Get Alma back to the surface, protect her as you would the princess. I will handle the demon." Both of the knights looked at him as if he had grown fangs. "Just go! Before the portal closes!" His companions nodded before grabbing the young girl and dragging her back, Mustadio and Count Orlandeau assisting them. Ramza gave them one last reassuring glance, before turning back to the demon.
The once beautiful form of the High Seraph was rapidly rotting without a host. Ramza fought down his breakfast as the creature opened it's skeletal mouth. "Impossible...this end to meet...I see it now, too late. In you...his blood, my vanquisher in times...long past." The creature rose, it's proportions now distorted into a twisted parody of a human, thin and taller then three of the tallest men. Ramza smelt brimstone as the last of it's flesh crumbled. " But not so soon...shall I accept defeat..." The Arch-Seraph glowed with blue energy. Ramza could see the fury in it's black, soulless eyes. "Your soul itself shall not escape my wrath!"
The battle for the fate of the world had begun.
Gripping his sword, Ramza lept at the skeletal demon, slashing at the creature with ferocity more keeping with an animal then the final scion of the Beoulve. The strength of the blow would have sundered a mortal, but barely scratched Ultima. It laughed evilly as it threw Ramza back, and then began collecting energy in it's hand. Ramza rose to his feet, just in time for the demon to finish it's incantation.
"Behold! Simmering life-light! DIVINE ULTIMA!"
Ramza felt like his entire being was on fire as the spell hit him. His armor took the brunt of the damage, but it still hurt. Still, the divine armor he wore already began mending his body as he rose to his feet. "Nice trick." he said, before he began his own chant. "Brush off vanity and show reality! Ultima!" With that, the squire sent the demon's namesake spell back at it, the creature stumbling from the magical strike.
Ultima went into a rage. "You... dare! You dare strike at me with mine own spell?" Without thought of strategy, the demon rushed at Ramza. He barely parried it's rage induced strike with his blade, the strength of the blow echoing up his arm. "You shall payfor your insolence!" It began another barrage of blows at it's opponent.
Ramza smirked despite himself. Every moment the creature spat insults at him was one it was not using it's vastly superior spellcrafts. Ramza waited for his moment, before striking out with a crushing blow to the head, cracking the demon's crown. Ultima seemed stunned by the power of the strike, stumbling for a second.
A second which Ramza used. "Sacrifice." He muttered, wincing as the price of the dark ritual manifested. Dark energy burned down his blade. Moving with the speed of a ninja, the squire charged his opponent, thrusting his blade through the Blood Angel's bloody heart. He felt his his body go numb as he channeled dark energy down it. The blade exploded, unable to handle the strain.
Ultima fell to her knees, shadows whirling around her. "Had I but... more power..." She looked into the eyes of her killer. "You... have killed us both..."
Ramza's brown eyes seemed to harden. "Then my conscience will rest easy, that I traded my life for my sister's." A moment and an eternity passed. Ramza thought he heard whispers in his ears, but ignored them. He saw a beautiful green light.
Then the Airship Graveyard exploded.
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The Springtime Familiar Ritual. A time when students of the Tristain Academy of Magic may prove their ability as mages and as nobility. It is a symbol of status to summon a familiar, and many a fantasy had been built up for that day.
For the most part those fantasies had been unfufilled, as most of those students that wished for manticore or dragons found themselves with much more mundane creatures such as dogs or birds. However, there were outliers. One student summoned a bugbear, the sign of a strong earth affinity. Another summoned a fire lizard, it's element matching her own burning passions. And then there was the outlier in the opposite direction.
Poor Louise de la Valliere, who had yet to summon a single thing.
It wasn't as if she was not trying. The youngest of the house Valliere desperately wished for a familiar, something, anything, to prove she was not a failure. Her results thus far had been... less then satisfactory. Two explosions, and not a familiar to be seen.
Ignoring the laughter, the taunts, the condemnations of her classmates, Louise closed her eyes. "I just need to concentrate. Focus. Remember Mother's Rule of Steel." She stepped forward one more time, exhaling as she cleared her mind of nothing but her incantation.
"My Name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière." She raised her wand, the familiar tingle of power at her fingertips. Something was different this time.
"Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, heed my Summoning and bring forth my Familiar!"
There was another explosion, slightly larger then before, and the class was once again split between those laughing at the failure of the Zero and those choking on the smoke. Louise felt her cheeks go red, and she turned to the class professor, Colbert, preparing to ask for another chance. Then she noticed a hazy figure in the smoke cloud. "Could it be?" The smoke thinned as she stepped forward.
It was a young man, garbed in black armor. "After all this, I summoned a commoner?" Louise thought as her eyes wandered to his face. His hair was the blonde of thatch, and his amber-brown eyes seemed to seem almost hazy in the setting sun. His face seemed to have a resigned look, which gradually began to switch to shock. Normally, the young magus would have complained that there must have been some mistake, but beggers couldn't be choosers, and commoner familiar was better then no familiar at all. Louise moved quickly, finishing the incantation.
"Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, grant your Blessings upon this creature, and bind it as my familiar."
She sealed the contract with a kiss to the leaning man's cheek. As of now, he was her familiar. However, when she drew back, everyone gasped. She wondered if she had done something wrong.
Professor Colbert's voice was very concerned as he spoke up. "Miss Valliere, are you alright?"
Louise crossed her arms. "I'm perfectly fine, professor." She felt something wet, and looked down. Her once pristine white shirt was stained red. She heard a thump as her familiar collapsed to the ground, bloodloss catching up with him.
Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, daughter of the legendary Heavy Wind, follower of her mother's Rule of Steel, screamed. She was not alone in doing so.
