Sorry for the late upload but stuff came up. And just realized I spelt Kirche's name wrong. Not going to fix that yet in previous chapters.
Chapter 10: Armor and a new Ally
It has been days since the love potion incident. Louise remembered everything from when she was under its influence. Most of the time she locked herself in her room, but when she had to go to class she avoided Kirche at all cost. Kirche on the other hand cleaned up her act and dumped all of the boys she had been seeing to spend more time with Tabitha just talking to her.
Shu showed Osmond the paper he got from Henrietta for access to the vault. Osmond led Shu to a different but much larger vault room. He was astounded by what he found in there. There were many toys that he had found and at one point started playing with a kedama. He also found a solar charger and started charging the MP5 player he had. But yet Shu also found weapons that have spanned through time and whenever he touched them, he instantly knew how to use them. He also founded several jeeps, some had mounted guns on them.
It was the fourth day of his inventory of the vault, the door opened to reveal Colbert. Shu was taking a break at the time playing with the kedama. "There is something I need to ask you." Colbert walked in closing the door behind him. "Shu, have you ever heard the name Gandalfr?" Colbert asked.
"The water spirit at Ragdorian Lake called me that," Shu answered as he put away the kedama in one of his coat pockets, "It said that Gandalfr use to be with a person named Sasha, one of Brimir's familiars."
"True, Gandalfr was one of Brimir's familiars. But this is the first time I've ever heard of a Sasha. Anyways Gandalfr was said to be able to learn how to use any kind of weapon just by touching it. So just how many weapons are in the vault and have you learned how to use them?" Colbert finally got to what he wanted to ask.
Shu pointed to one side of the vault where there were two piles of weapon crates. "The larger pile are full of weapons and ammunition that would backfire. The smaller pile are weapons that can be used. And it did seems that I learned how use them all." Shu left out that the larger pile also contained weapons that showed the sign of nuclear and bio weapons.
"I thought that there would be more than that. Then what's with the other piles around the vault?" Colbert waved his staff to the other piles that took up the rest of the vault.
"Those are harmless stuff, mostly children toys."
"Those are children toys!?" Colbert said shocked, "Everything that we put in here we thought was dangerous."
"Then what about that crate of machine guns in the other vault?"
"Well that one, a noble had asked Headmaster Osmond to keep it for a while and that vault was our most secured one. Aha speaking of the Headmaster, he wishes to see you in his office."
"Alright, and can you find someplace where I can dispose of the unusable weapons?"
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Shu was about to head inside the office till he saw Louise coming up the stairs.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Are you also here to see the Headmaster?" Shu asked back.
"Whatever, let's go in." Louise said pushing the door open.
Inside was Henrietta and Osmond sitting across from each other having tea. Osmond stood up once he saw Louise and Shu. "Well, I'll leave you to your business." Osmond then left the office.
"Princess what are you doing here?" Louise asked as she bowed.
"It's another mission is it?" Shu guessed.
"That is correct Shu. Well I'm getting married to the Emperor of Germania."
"Congratulations Princess for getting married! But why do you have to marry a Germanian Savage?" Louise interrupted.
"Louise, Tristein is small and relativity new. This marriage can create a strong alliance with Germania." Henrietta started to explain, "However, there is a certain item that could break this alliance. A love letter that I've wrote to Prince Wales of Albion."
"But couldn't you ask the prince to give you the letter?" Shu asked, "I'm sure that he will understand that you're doing this for your country."
"Albion is in a nearing state of civil war and the royal family is on the run and hiding. Me going there would cause Wales to worry and come out of hiding. I'm sorry for giving you two another mission so soon, but you two are the only one that I can ask of this personal matter."
"Princess, to be asked by you to take on an important mission like this would be my honor and happiness." Louise said bowing.
"Then you will go?" Henrietta asked and Louise nodded her head. "Thank you Louise, you will need these as prove. Give them to Wales and he will understand" Henrietta then took off her ring and placed it on a letter she had previously placed on the table.
"Aha I should also mention that someone else will accompany you two on this mission and he should be arriving tomorrow morning. Shu,you're going to have a different backstory to make him feel more comfortable."Henrietta gave a folder to Shu. Then the door creaked open. "Who's there?"
The door opened to reveal Guiche flustered and a surveillance drone flew in the office and landed on Shu's arm.
"You were eavesdropping!" Louise yelled.
"I've heard everything," Guiche then bowed to Henrietta, "I Guiche de Grammont wish to also undertake this task."
"Oh, you must be General Grammont's son." Henrietta curtsied, "Then I will accept your services."
"If that is all, I would wish to go back to what I was doing." Shu said.
"Yes." Henrietta answered. Shu then left the room.
He went down the stairs to see Kirche and Tabitha sitting on a bench. "Are both of you going to follow on Sylphid?" Shu asked them, "Louise, Guiche, and I are going to be on the ground and I'm not sure about the other guy that is suppose to come." Shu then went to rest on a make shift bed he made in the vault leaving Kirche surprised and flustered.
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The next morning Shu, Louise, and Guiche prepared three horses and are now waiting for the person that Henrietta had said was coming.
"I wonder where that person is." Louise wondered out loud.
"Well whoever he is, he does not have great time keeping skills," Guiche said, "Oh and there is another that is also coming with us." The ground started to rumble and out popped Guiche's familiar. "My sweet cute Verdande, you always know how to make an entrance."
"You know that we are going to a flying country right Guiche?" Louise asked, "How are you even going to transport that big mole there?"
Verdande then jumped on Louise, "Guiche, get your familiar off of me!"
"It must be that ring that the Princess gave you. Verdande is attracted to valuable gems."
"I don't care, someone get this mole off of me!" All the sudden a big gust of wind blew Verdande away.
"I'm sorry if I hurt your familiar, but it was attacking my Louise after all." A voice said above the group. A griffon with a figure dress like a musketeer from Shu's world slowly start to descend.
"Who are you?" Guiche inquired as he raised his rose wand towards the figure.
The figure dismounted when his griffon landed. "I am Wards, leader of the griffon squad. I have orders from Lady Henrietta to accompany you."
"The Princess send you!" Louise shouted blushing madly.
Wards started walking towards Louise. "I sorry if I surprised you Louise, but when I heard that my fiancé was going on a dangerous mission I knew that I had to accept this mission."
"Fiancé?!" Guiche shouted, "You're engaged to Viscount Wards of the Mage Guard?"
Wards started to flirt with Louise as he helped her mount his griffon and Shu felt a bit jealous. "Wait why am I feeling jealous? I've got Inori." Shu thought, "Besides Wards is a confirmed traitor." The folder that Henrietta gave Shu also contained information about Wards from Matilda and the cover story he was given.
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During the trip to wherever Wards was taking them Guiche kept bragging on how great the Mage Guard and Griffon Squad are and Wards was still flirting with Louise.
This went on for a while till Wards finally started speaking to the two boys behind him. "Why don't you two tell me a bit about yourselves? I would like to know about my companions that I'm working with."
"I'm Guiche Grammont, the son of General Grammont." Guiche introduced himself in high and mighty voice.
"Oh you're the son of General Grammont. Then I will be expecting great things from you then." At this Guiche smiled happily. "And what about you?" Wards turning his attention to Shu, "That is an interesting arm by the way. Is it supported by earth magic?" Wards had noticed Shu's right arm that he had taken out to match the persona Henrietta suggested.
"Yes it is," Shu answered, "I'm Shu Ouma the Black Crystal."
"I've never heard of you." Wards said now suspicious of Shu, "Tell me, do you have any family members in the court?"
"I have no family," Shu answered sticking close to his cover story, "They threw me out and cut off my arm once they found that any earth magic I casted turned into black crystals. A court member found me and secretly took care of me."
"Then how did you find yourself on this mission?" Wards asked now glaring.
"The Princess heard of me and gave me another mission to do along with this one."
"Oh there is a canyon up ahead," Wards said looking back to the road, "My griffon can't really handle cramp spaces. I'm going on head to La Rochelle with Louise." Wards's griffon then took flight leaving the two boys behind.
"Hey partner," Derf said finally popping out for the first time during the trip, "Why don't you send me up ahead. That canyon just shouts ambush and I want to try out that void thing you were talking about."
Flashback
"Partner you know that void thing you do and how the water spirit said it was people's hearts?"
"Yeah." Shu answered while shifting through another pile of toys.
"How does that work if you don't mind me asking?"
Shu then explained some of the specifics about the Power of the King and its restrictions. Then he went on to talk about voids.
"So I guess I don't have one since I'm seven thousand years old huh?"
"Surprisingly you actually do. I don't know how that is possible."
Present
"You sure about this Derf?" Shu said laying his right arm on the handle.
"Let it rip partner!" Derf said excited for what is going to happen.
Shu pulled out Derf's void. Black crystals started coming out of Derf's mouth and fell to the ground. It then started forming a black suit of armor as it hit the ground. The armor was simple and light for speed and skill over power and it had a helmet that covered the whole head. (A/N: Easy to think of the Elven armor with a Guard helmet from Skyrim.)
"Whoa, this feels funny," Derf said his voice still coming from the sword, "I know I'm in the sword but it feels like I'm also in the armor." The armor then moved around for a bit before taking Derf. "Check it out, I'm swinging myself around! This has got to be the weirdest and greatest thing ever. Well see you guys up there."
Derf ran into the canyon and the two boys followed on the horses galloping. "How fast is that armor?" Guiche asked amazed, "It's faster than a messenger horse at a full sprint!"
When the two finally caught up to Derf, he was already fighting off an ambush that some bandits had set up for passing travelers. "About time you two got here," Derf shouted dispatching another bandit, "Help me out, I'm still getting use to this body!"
A flurry of ice spikes and fireballs started raining down on the bandits and Derf. But the armor was absorbing the spells making it change color. The armor was still primarily black but the shoulder, arm, and leg armor had a dark yellow hue and white outline to them. The sword also changed from not being rusted anymore.
"Hey Shu!" Kriche called out when Sylphid landed, "Where's that hunk that I saw riding with Louise and Guiche did you redesigned your golems?"
Guiche decided to answer both questions, "They went ahead over the canyon earlier and believe it or not that is actually the sword Derf."
"Pretty cool huh," Derf said his voice now coming from the armor, "I somehow have a void and Shu pulled it out of me. Now I can control my own body."
Kriche then went puppy eyed and faced Shu, "Do we have any voids Shu?"
"Yes you all do, but don't know what Guiche's void is." Guiche got a little depressed at Shu's answer, "I'm not going to pull them out. Voids are not something to play around with. If your void breaks then you will die."
"Then what about Derf?" Tabitha asked.
"Well little missy, magical attacks don't work on me I just absorb them. If you try to hit me with a physical attack though, it might do some damage if you can hit me of course. Anyways, it's almost sundown we should get going to La Rochelle."
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"Yo waz up!" Derf greeted Louise and Wards when he ran up to them.
"Derf is that you?" Louise asked when she heard the voice coming from the armor.
"Yep this is me alright." The rest of the gang caught up to Derf and the horses were tried out.
"This is an interesting golem." Wards said observing Derf head to toe, "Which one of you created this? It's the first golem I've ever saw that could talk."
"It's more like a body than a golem." Shu answered.
"A body for what?"
"For the sword, it's my familiar."
"That sword on your back was a familiar. That is interesting, then what is with the runes on your left hand." Wards asked.
"That is a contract with me you dope," Derf answered giving Wards a slap on the back, "I'm a sentient being, my master gets branded instead of me."
"Is this true?" Wards asked the gang. They all nodded. Shu and Derf created a story and explained parts of why Shu was playing a mage to the rest while they were in the canyon. Louise was the only one who vaguely knew about the cover story, but nodded with the rest anyways.
"Well then, shall we check into an inn for the night?"
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"Three rooms my good man." Wards said to the innkeeper.
The innkeeper gave Wards three room keys, "Have a nice stay."
The rest of the group was in the mess hall of the inn having dinner and Derf was back in his sword along with his void.
"What was with that story Shu?" Louise started to interrogate Shu, "What would happen if Lord Wards asked me if I have a familiar or not?"
"Just say an ominous voice told you that it was not time for you yet. We'll cooperate with that." Kriche said lazily.
"But that's not going to work!" Louise yelled.
Just at that moment Wards walked towards the group. "Hey Louise you're a second year right. What is your familiar like?"
"Well an ominous voice told me to improve my magic a bit before trying to summon a familiar. Isn't that right guys?" The rest nodded their heads like Kriche said they would.
"That's my Louise. The voice probably knew that you had tried to summon a very powerful familiar and wanted you to strengthen yourself up before meeting it. Alright Louise, I will personally help you as much as I can after this mission, I would like to see this familiar you would have summoned." Louise was shocked that such a flimsy story that Kriche made up would work.
"So you got our rooms?" Kriche asked, "I plan to do something girly with Louise and Tabitha."
"Actually, I had to get an extra room since I wasn't expecting more companions." Wards then held his hand towards Louise, "Now then my fiancé, shall we go to our room?"
"But we're not married yet!" Louise said loudly her whole face turning red. "It's not traditional for engaged couples to sleep together before their wedding."
"I understand Louise. Then I guess that we'll be using two rooms then."
"Then let's get to sleep then." Kriche grabbed one of the room keys than dragged Tabitha and Louise with her.
"Well boys we better get to sleep, the ship leaves tomorrow."
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Shu woke up to someone shaking him. He opened his eyes and saw Wards. "Shu wake up there is something I need to talk to you with."
Shu grabbed Derf with him and they both left the room. Wards led him to an open space behind the inn. "What is your real mission?" Wards started interrogating Shu, "I know who you really are, you're the one that started killing off nobles."
Shu drew Derf and got into a fighting stance. Then the ground started shaking and the yells of men could be heard. Both Shu and Wards turned their heads towards the noise. "She's early." Wards muttered. Then he pointed his sword-wand at Shu "I'm going to take care of you now." Wards launched a lighting spell that he had been saving up at Shu. Shu was sent flying and he hit a wall hard knocking him out.
Wards went back inside the inn to find the others taking cover behind the counter and casting spells at the attackers. "About time some help showed up!" Kriche yelled.
"Louise, come with me to the ship. The rest of you hold them off." Wards picked up Louise by the waist and headed towards the back door.
The fight took a while but Guiche finished his chant to create a rock wall in front of the door blocking anyone coming in or out. Then the ground started shaking and men were heard yelling once again. But the yelling was of panic. A hole appeared behind the group to reveal the former thief.
"Fouquet!" Everybody pointed their wands at her.
"Don't shoot," Matilda put her hands up then cocked her head, "Where's Shu? I'm suppose to meet up with him not you children." Matilda then used her earth magic to try to locate him. She located Shu in the back and went towards the back door.
"Hey where are you going?!" Kriche yelled as the group followed her. What they found in the back shocked them. Shu was lying on the ground with his cloths in front of his chest charred and a large heavy burn wound with small black crystals covering it.
"Come on and follow me. I have another ship waiting to follow Wards and Louise." Matilda used a levitation spell to carry Shu.
"Why?" Tabitha asked still pointing her staff at Matilda.
"Let's just say I'm working for the Princess now I'll explain once we're on the ship." Matilda said as she started running towards the harbor with Shu in tow.
A/N: The polls are closed and it looks like I'm going to bring in Funeral Parlor. Now I'm not going to bring in all of them just some. Reasons why in the next couple chapter.