Disclaimer!: I don't own Zero no Tsukaima or Warhammer 40,000! Please don't sue!

Herald of the Void

By Nim Maj

A Necron Familiar Challenge Response Fic

Chapter 10: The Divine Wind

Henrietta was growing a headache.

"The Albionese insist that it was our fleet that fired first!"

"This is all caused by a misunderstanding right?"

"No! We should request assistance from Germania!"

"We should send an envoy to Albion before this war gets out of hand!"

Her advisers were all a bunch of opportunistic fools giving advice like chickens with their heads cut off.

"The Albionese has occupied the Plains of Talbes and is mobilizing from there!" shouted a councillor from the War faction. "And this is why we have the alliance with Germania! We should invoke the pact immediately!

"Lords, are you saying we should launch a counterattack?" demanded a Conservative. "That would only exacerbate the situation!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"That's why we should send an envoy immediately..!"

"I already know!"

Slamming her hand on the table, Henrietta stood up, fed up with the quarrelling of her council. "Do you all have no shame?" she asked while glaring at them. "Isn't our country being invaded by an enemy? All this talk about alliances and envoys is a waste of time! While we spend time deliberating, our citizens are shedding their blood! Isn't our duty as aristocrats our duty to protect them?"

She continued to glare at them as they began whispering amongst each other. "For whom do we claim to be royalty or aristocracy? During such emergencies, it is our duty to protect the citizens! Otherwise such failure in leadership will never be forgiven by them." She glanced around the room in disgust. "You are all afraid of your responsibilities in time of war! Do you think just planning a counterattack or invoking the alliance will help you live longer?"

She got up and began to leave the room.

"Your Highness?" said an advisor.

"You can all stay here and continue the meeting. I will command the troops!"

"Princess!" Henrietta ignored them instead slamming open the door, picking up her wedding dress' skirts and walking quickly out. Behind her one of her advisors caught up.

"Princess, it's important for you to rest for your wedding!" he said.

"Please reconsider Princess Henrietta!" said a maid following her.

Unfortunately Henrietta realized that she couldn't run in her current state. A problem easily solved by simply ripping it partly.

"Princess!" gasped the maid, scandalized.

"Y-You shouldn't be running!" said the advisor.

"My marriage to the Prince of Germania is on indefinite postponement." said a determined Henrietta.

"Th-they won't forgive such a thing!" said the advisor aghast at the prospect.

"Then why don't you marry him!" Henrietta said while throwing her wedding veil at her advisor's face.

Holding her hand out in an imperious gesture, "Tell the entire army that I will be assuming command! All regiments! Follow me!"

Herald had quite the conundrum. He didn't want to reveal the presence of the Necrons any more than he should, at least until he had the numbers to easily defeat the powers of Halkeginia. This was kind of hard for his army of fourteen, not including the A.I.s in charge of the Scarabs, Tomb Spyders, and ships.

Facing him was the might of the 3000 men of Albion's vanguard and the Battleship Lexington, also the one involved in the Battle above La Rochelle.

In this case, he had to not only wipe them out, but do so in such a way that there would be no survivors to warn the rest of the world of their presence. Now, how could he do that? Obviously, despite the rapid fire of the Gauss Cannons on the TombRaiders and the Destroyers, 3000 was still a tall order. He needed something to even the scales, and to keep them tied down while the Destroyers and Raiders did their work. An after receiving an update from the Leonardo, he should do it before Tristain's army arrives. Obviously the Tomb Spyders were to slow to be mobilized and he would not leave the base undefended. The Scarabs...

Oh... that would work. Now to inform his Master.

"Herald! Where have you been?" asked a surprised Louise as Herald teleported near her.

"Preparing... master."

"Preparing? For what?" Louise asked curiously.

"War..."

"War...? You mean the war between Tristain and Albion?"

"Yes..."

Louise began to understand. "I see! You commanded armies correct? And you're strong? Maybe you can help protect the Princess!" she suggested, happy that she could do something to help, even if by proxy. She really didn't think anyone could take Herald on.

"I... have... your... permission... Master?" Herald asked.

"What? Of course you do! Protect Princess Henrietta! Save Tristain!"

"Thank... you... Master." Herald said, with heartfelt honesty.

"By the way, what happened to those two Immortals you assigned to protect me?"

"I... needed... them... master." He gestured to a shape that was appearing beside her. Louise "eeped" at its sudden appearance.

"This... one... will... protect you... in... our absence."

"I-I see. Oh, and how are you going to help the Princess?" she asked as the Wraith began to fade away again, allowing her to turn her attention back to Herald.

"Fear not... I... will... deal... with... them." Herald said as he teleported away.

"Deal... with them...?" asked a confused Louise, a chill of dread running up her spine. Somehow, she almost felt sorry for the Albionese.

Almost.

Herald appeared near Talb, at an obelisk he ordered constructed as a waypoint for Necron forces. Of course it was near the shrine where the Dragon's Raiment was hidden. Here was where his forces would rally while he set the stage for the battle.

Moving into the nearby forest, he went to scout the battlefield on a tree-covered hill before engaging his Stormcaller device. He ran headlong into refugees fleeing Talb. Surprisingly, one of them was Siesta, the maid who was on vacation.

"Eek! P-please don't hurt us Mr. Herald!" she said while cowering before him, holding tightly onto two of the children she was leading.

Herald would have sighed if he could still breathe. He just looked at her before pointing in the direction of the Shrine. "Go..." was all he said before dismissing them entirely from his mind as he moved past them.

Secondary Objective: Save Tristain. A nation was its people. That was best served by killing invaders.

He moved to a hill overlooking the valley, but covered in dense trees to provide cover from prying eyes and enemy scouts. As he gazed out at the forces, he realized it was time.

Time to call the Storm.

He would smile if he could.

As the clouds began to cover the Plain of Talbes, Herald's plan began. It consisted of several phases. Phase one was to draw the Albionese army out of Talb, which it had occupied in order to garrison some of the higher ranking members of its army. Draw them out into a killing field. To get them out, he first sent the Wraiths. They began killing all those people in the city in large concentrations, trying to draw attention and scare them out. They targeted inns and alehouses.

Apperaing out of the wall Jacques the Ripper ripped through enemy bodies, sometimes taking time to impale them several times in the face before tossing them away. Vlad impaled them with his tail before tossing the victim away and into his allies. This scene was repeated throughout the town. A few Wraiths took different paths however. Ezio killed sleeping officers where they lay before phasing out and into the next room where he continued killing. Jason was the most efficient simply killing as many as it could, killing with each blow. Others were there simply to spread terror and fear, force them out of the city.

Of course there was resistance. Mages attempted to set the Wraiths on fire. That didn't work well on metal. Donatello speared him through in retaliation. Swords were cut by the impossibly sharp talons of the Wraiths as officers tried to cut them. Water smashed into a Wraith, tossing it into the ground. Freddy quickly recovered, phased into the ground, and came up under the water mage and cut him in two. Wind magic simply tried to cut what simply wouldn't be cut. Out of them all Ice and Earth magic was the most effective... for as long as they could be kept trapped in ice or the earth, something the mages were unable to do when they stopped supplying the traps with magic.

This of course led them to be targeted first. And the slaughter continued.

"What on earth is going on!" shouted an officer as he was roused from his sleep and stepped outside to take stock of the situation.

"I-I'm not sure sir!" babbled a terrified aid. "These... these ghosts just appeared out of nowhere and simply started killing everyone in sight!"

"What?"

"I-its true sir! They came out of the walls, cut a few people and then disappeared only to reappear later, killing more!"

"That's impossible! What about our battle mages?"

"Dead or dying sir! The ghosts appear to be targeting them as soon as they can find them!"

"What? We'll see about thi-" the officer's retort was cut off as a scream pierced the air. Looking down the street to an inn that had somehow caught fire they saw a horrid sight. A mage had been impaled by one of the ghosts. It had a skull-like head attached to a humanoid ribcage-styled body. It had short stubby wing-like shoulder guards, but ended in a serpentine tail. That tail had pierced the man through and lifted him off the ground. Then, using its long blade-like fingers proceeded to stab him several times. After it had done so, it flipped and threw the dying man into the flames. Almost immediately it took on a transparent look, which allowed several attacks to fly through its body before it took off after its next victim.

"R-Retreat."

"Sir?"

"Retreat! Retreat damn it! If it wants this town we'll let it have it, right before we burn it to the ground!"

"The Albionese had had enough. They withdrew from the town, and proceeded to burn it with Fire mages. Phase one was complete.

Herald noticed the Albionese forces' response to Phase one. Altogether unnecessary, but not unexpected. Still, that wouldn't do. He would have to wait until calling down the rain however. For now, he ordered Phase two to begin.

While Phase one was being carried out, Phase two was in the making. With the weather turning for the worse, the Lexington was forced to pull away to avoid the heavy winds. It took a holding position above the presumed location of the town in order for it to provide fire support for the forces on the ground when the storm moved away.

This put it right in the sweet spot, a location that, when the Lexington was attacked by six Destroyers, would have catastrophic consequences for the forces on the ground. The Destroyers rose up from ambush positions and fired. In the first volley, the Gauss Cannons tore through the Lexington and out the other side. The second volley tore away the wings and mast. As the Lexington began to lose altitude due to the loss of the wings, the third volley tore through the keel. With that the Lexington simply began disintegrating, as without the support of its spine, and gaping holes all over the sides, the ship tore itself apart.

Oh yes, and due to the gauss energy making the holes, the ship was set on fire. Six seconds after opening fire the Lexington could no longer be saved. It took a bit longer for it to lose cohesion and bits of debris still rained down onto the ground.

Then the Destroyers turned their attention to the patrolling Dragon Knights.

With Phase two on the way, Phase three could begin. He ordered the Wraiths to cut their way through the army and out the other side. While this was going on, he ordered the two TombRaiders into position. Herald also ordered the mobilizing of his forces.

That was when a burning Royal Sovereign class battleship crashed down. Onto the gathered Albionese forces. It surprised both sides actually. Herald didn't expect the ship to drift that far off. The Albionese never expected the Lexington to be sunk at all. Horror, terror, and confusion reigned.

Herald moved for the kill. Time was running out, the Tristain army was marching. The TombRaiders detached their Monoliths, which teleported on opposite sides of the battlefield. Power matrixes deployed in all their glory, and Necron Portals activated, spilling out thousands of Attack Scarabs. Unlike their Builder and Spy brethren, these were smaller and completely oriented toward battle. Their claws were sharp enough to slice armor, excellent at hiding, and thanks to Necrodermis were highly resistant to damage. They were also easily mass produced.

Against an army of the 41st millennium, they were usually employed in advance of an army as scouts and when equipped with disruption fields as anti-armor weapons, easily tearing into tanks leaving them useless against the advancing Necrons. They could also be used to swarm large enemies like Greater Daemons or Avatars, stalling them to allow the Necron forces to get into position to deal with them. Against commoner infantry of Halkeginia, it would be a slaughter.

Albion's army fled east of the town, towards the plains. Wraiths cut through them, in the dimmed light of the early afternoon, under a light drizzle. After the Lexington crashed into the Albion army, the Monoliths previously attached to the TombRaiders were teleported north and south of Albion's army. Destroyers descended from the clouds and took position three of them reinforcing the Wraiths and the other three taking station in front of Talb. With the Wraiths stationed to their east, and the town of Talb, still on fire burning to the west, the vanguard of the Albion army was surrounded. The Monoliths continued to pour out more Scarabs.

There was a short pause in the battle as the Albionese just seemed to realize how utterly fucked they were.

At an unseen signal, the forces moved in for the kill. Blade hands poised t rip and tear, Gauss Cannons powering up, readying to discharge, and Power Matrixes glowed as energy for the Particle Whip was gathered. And all around, the humming drone of thousands upon thousands of carapaces filled the air. Then it began raining. Visibility plunged. Death descended.

"I'm glad that you are with me Louise Francoise." said Henrietta as they marched toward the Plains of Talbes.

"It is my honor your highness."

"Still, I am happy that you at least are with me. It makes me believe we can get through this no matter what happens."

"Princess..." said Louise as she gazed at Henrietta in adoration.

They rode in silence for a while. "What kind of support do you think Herald will provide?"

"I don't know. He said he would take care of it. And judging by his name, maybe the clouds are his doing."

Henrietta looked a bit discomfited at that. The power to call a storm was unheard of. The only way she could think of was if three royal square mages or four royal triangle mages pooled their abilities. She was only a triangle water mage!

"If he did, then we have him to thank. If the Lexington were able to provide artillery support, our chances of victory would be small indeed."

"Princess!" a scout called out interrupting them.

"What is it?"

"I... I don't know but, it appears to have been a battle!"

"What?"

"The Albionese army, it's gone! You... you should see for yourself! We found bodies!"

They walked through a muddy field, corpses strewn all about.

"By the Founder, what could have done this?" Henrietta asked as she looked around.

We... don't know your highness." said the scout hesitantly. "Most of them appear to be slashed by blades. However some of them appear to be just charred bones. Then there's the craters."

"Craters?" Henrietta asked for clarification.

"Yes your highness. Many craters have been left going north to south. Whatever hit, it seems to have blasted its way several feet down. It left nothing but craters and dust. Whatever was hit, was completely destroyed, and I don't think whoever was standing nearby would survive either."

"I see." replied Henrietta s she approached one such crater, grey mud filling it.

"Also, we have something to show you."

"What is it?"

"We think it's the Lexington."

As they stared at the gutted wreck of the Lexington the Tristainians were filled with a deep sense of foreboding. Something great and terrible struck the Albionese. Reports from the scouts in the village of Talb sketched a grisly image, with the unburied corpses still littering the streets and the inns, those that weren't damaged by fire. For those that were, burned corpses could be spotted.

Turning to address her soldiers Henrietta spoke, "My dear soldiers! The Founder has blessed us this day! Under cover of this storm, he unleashed His Wrath. On this day, the Albion army was utterly destroyed, as angels of death struck the Albionese where they lay, where they caroused in merriment, hoping to draw our army into a killing field. So proud were they that they did not reckon with the Divine Wind. Clouds filled the sky; wind tore at their ship and drove it to the ground. Fire came from the sky and burned many into ash, and rain fell to wash away their hubris. For their deception, God judged them, and we came to this field, to witness the work of His mighty hand, His Victory!"

"Long Live Tristain! Long Live Tristain!" the Tristainian soldiers shouted in reply.

Whispering quietly to her friend Louise, Henrietta said "Louise, we need to talk to that familiar of yours." Louise heartily agreed.

As they looked upon the cheering army it began raining hard again.

Herald gazed upon the rows upon rows of unpowered Necron Warriors. This day had been quite the windfall.

Gauss weaponry could be summed up thusly: they are magnetically based weapons that break down the target into its component molecules layer by layer and attract the molecules back to the gun at incredible speed. Interestingly enough, this was also how they harvested and stored souls for the C'tan to consume later. The soul, being anchored to the body would go along with the attracted molecules and stored in the barrel of the Gauss weapon. The C'tan would then be able to consume the soul at their leisure.

Of course, not all souls would be consumed. Some could be used to increase the troops under the command of the C'tan.

It was this second principle that Herald now applied.

The Albion army occupying Talbes had a little over 3000 souls including the ones present on the Lexington. Unfortunately, due to time restrictions, many he had to kill. It was entirely too much hassle to recover them all, so he relied on the Gauss weapons to harvest as many souls as they could and let the Wraith and Scarabs kill the rest. Still, the Monoliths and Destroyers stil accounted for an impressive 1239 souls, including some that survived the Wraiths and Scarabs long enough to be harvested.

In front of him, 1239 souls poured into the waiting bodies of Necron Warriors, the Necrodermis wiping away any fleeting memory and drive. Only the soul was needed. 1239 Necron Warriors' eyes glowed before dimming, put to sleep until they were called upon. Some Herald would convert into Immortals, others into Flayed Ones. But most would remain Warriors.

Herald of the Storm gazed upon his dark army, and was pleased.

OMAKE by Nim Maj

"So... Herald, do you always talk like that?" Professor Colbert asked.

"Like... what?" replied Herald in his long drawn out metallic tone.

"You know, like that! Drawing out your words. Instead of saying things smoothly and clearly, you speak in a metallic tone that is drawn out as if you are speaking with a hoarse voice.

"Yes... I... always,,, speak... in... this... manner."

"I see. It is very intimidating."

"It... is... supposed... to."

"Ahhh. I guess that is because you were made with purely military purposes in mind?"

"Yes... Imagine if I talked like this? It makes me less intimidating. The Necrons had a more efficient means of communication anyway."

Colbert had an uncomfortable look on his face. "I see what you mean."

Author's Notes:

Error! I made a slight mistake. In chapter 8 I said that Fouquet made it to La Rochelle to back Wardes up but later on in the same chapter I said she didn't. Sorry about that!

Lord Sia asked a question regarding beggars and refugees joining the Necrons. Suffice to say Herald hasn't engaged in a recruitment drive. He has... other ways of getting it for now. He isn't ready to reveal the presence of the Necrons yet. Once he does you can be sure he'll try other ways of recruitment.

Madork Gunna asked for the names of the ships. I'm still considering but RogalDorn came up with all good ones. Names won't be picked until Henrietta hears of them.

I hope this chapter was up to your standards. It took me a long time to get around to this because I'm still sick and I had a day long headache.

Now, as for that last bit about Gauss weapons and Souls, I admit to making that up, but i always wondered how the C'tan ate souls, and they did not start out with Gauss weaponry I believe. This way, Gauss weapons are not only terrifying for their flaying effect, but efficient for the C'tan, as they could store souls for eating later. So this is my original take on a canon ability with the whole soul storage thing thrown in.

Lexicanum has this as a description:

"Gauss Weaponry is used by the Necrons and are horrifying devices. They are magnetically based weapons that break down the target into its component molecules layer by layer and attract the molecules back to the gun at incredible speed. This creates a flaying effect and can vaporise the most heavily armored warrior or blast a hole in a Land Raider. This means that even the most basic Necron Warrior has a chance to blast a hole through the heaviest armor and completely vaporise the most skilled Space Marine. Other Necron technology is listed in the Necron Armoury.

There are several variations of Gauss Weaponry, listed below:

Gauss Flayer

Gauss Blaster

Gauss Cannon

Heavy Gauss Cannon

Gauss Flux Arc

Gauss Annihilator

Gauss Obliterator"

So this means I made the whole soul thing up, but Logic says it is plausible (meaning good chance of it happening). (Or at least mine.) What do you say? Is it possible and is it plausible?

Oh, and I also made up that Necrodermis conversion/stasis thing that Herald used on Mott and co. A less efficient way that they had before Gauss weaponry came about.

I think that's all for now? I can't think of anything else right now and I am sleepy. Gotta get better so I can get back to work.

Oh yeah! VexMaster hasn't turned in his Omake so I'm still waiting on him.