The Blasphemer of Zero Chapter 3, a familiar of zero fanfic

Alright, a new chapter, this one is longer than the previous ones as I felt it wouldn't be right for the events happening here...

Chapter 3: The Apocalypse

Louise slowly opened her eyes, seeing everything as if in a haze, the sounds muffled, ineligible to her ears. She regained after a few moments her lucidity but her confusion only grew more.

Looking around she only saw trees, grass, rocks and leaves. Finding herself in a forest was not something she expected when waking up…

Turning around and before she began to panic she came face to face with a brown skinned man with a high nose, blue eyes, a somewhat gentle looking face with black hair which, was thick and curly, and dressed in fine clothing.

'Wait! Since when was he standing behind me?! And he looks Germanian… but is dressed as… a noble from Albion?'

Gulping down her anxiety, Louise weaved her hands in a friendly or placating manner as she spoke.

"H-Hello? Sir?" She said in accented Albionese as she presumed he was from Albion but, the man simply ignored her or more precisely, he didn't notice her in the first place.

Louise's anxiety and slight fear were slowly being replaced by annoyance and anger at being ignored after a few more attempts at gaining his attention. And suddenly, he moved forward, not leaving Louise any time to react, she expected to fall down but when he seemingly passed through her, she felt shock and confusion for a short time.

Realization then hit her. 'Is this… a dream?'

She shook her head and turned towards the man and she soon noticed three different things: One. There was another man, standing a couple meters behind the brown skinned one, dressed in similar fashion if not more refined; Two. They were staring intensively at a tree; Three. The tree's outer bark rapidity peeled off, revealing the core wood beneath and on it, holes cracked open as strange worms with about eight circles around them crawled out.

Louise was confused, disgusted and afraid while looking at the strangest thing she has ever seen so far in her life and could only ask herself one question.

'By The Founder! What is wrong with my imagination?!'

But before she could contemplate more about her mental health, the belt, coat and hat of the Germanian suddenly disappeared and before his pants could fall down, his waist just as suddenly swelled.

'…What… just… happened…' she stared at the tree, at the Germanian and at the other man and saw something even weirder. 'What… why are the insects… rats… and other animals… surrounding the tree?! What in Brimir-'

"Calm down. Don't be angry. Everything will be resolved."

Her thoughts have been interrupted by an unknown voice.

She turned towards the voice of the newcomer and when she saw him she was surprised that she recognized him and more surprised that it was her master!

'What is he doing here? Wait! Is this one of his memories? There was something about experiencing dreams of familiars in a few books!' she paused for a second as she realized something, 'I understood what he said! But I don't know in what language he spoke!'

"Is that so?" said a vicious sounding voice that was somewhat feminine in nature and Louise had another realization, it came from the tree!

She took a deep breath and decided to just watch how the events play out, thinking that maybe she could understand her master a bit more... or understand what in all of Tristain was going on.

Louise saw how the man still fully dressed turned towards Amon's chuckling figure and instantly tensed.

"Relax, I have the means to stop you from losing control. All you need to do is to follow my instructions."

'Losing control? What does he mean by that?'

Then she saw how the tensed man raised his hand, noticing he was wearing a glove, and literally disappeared, leaving Louise to blink in confusion, not soon after the Germanian snapped his fingers and got engulfed in flames and after less than a second said flames disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

"I can't take this anymore! Someone please explain to me what in Founder's name is going on?! A talking tree, people vanishing, their clothes vanishing! And now burning to nothing?!" Unfortunately for Louise, her pleas were once again, not noticed.

Now her master halted and turned to look at where the two originally stood, nodding slightly and scoffing at the ground.

"A Bizarro Sorcerer of Evernight."

'What does that even mean?! A Bizarro Sorcerer? What even is that?! A mage? And who is this… Evernight? Ah… this is getting more confusing by the second…'

She watched how he turned towards the tree.

"A descendant of Jacob?" he asked.

"Y-yes, do you know my ancestor?" and said tree responded.

He stroked his chin and nodded before replying.

"Of course."

"Ah yes, now he is having a friendly chat with the tree…" she thought out loud with obvious sarcasm in her voice.

"They tasted excellent." Louise and the tree both fell silent at his declaration. Only for the tree to utter a few seconds later in what could be perceived as horror.

"Y-you are Blasphemer Amon!"

'Blasphemer?! Not only he ate the talking tree's descendants but he is a heretic! By Brimir's grace, what is going to happen to me if the Church finds out?!'

Her train of thought soon stopped as she looked towards the tree, seeing how a worm with rings was crawling out before it quickly stiffened and froze in place.

She then watched how Amon adjusted his monocle before saying with a smile.

"That's too late now, isn't it? It might've been of some use if you had struggled and resisted from the beginning, but now… Do you believe that I'm here on my own?"

"You…" The tree's speech came to an abrupt halt.

'Huh? I don't see anyone else… I guess they are hiding..?'

"I heard that your family has split into tiny families with zero interaction, afraid that the lot of you will be caught by me, right? Ah right, didn't you establish a secret organization with Zoroast's descendants, as well as other Beyonders of the Marauder pathway? I believe it's called Hermits of Fate."

"You're probably a member, aren't you? Let me see if I can replace you and infiltrate the organization. Heh heh, a secret organization meant to defend against Amon and deal with Amon has Amon participating in it. Just the thought of it is rather interesting."

Louise could only watch as Amon held a mostly one-sided conversation with the tree, talking about things she didn't know or couldn't understand, like "Beyonder", "Marauder", "Pathway" and so on.

Amon then glanced at the mutated tree that was vigorously shaking and said.

"Unfortunately, from what I can see from your fate, you didn't undergo a good education in mysticism. You can't be a member of that organization. Are you the only one left of this Jacob family branch?"

"You wished to seek out a secret treasure left by the Jacob family in Backlund, but you ended up seriously injured for some reason and ended up sealed?"

"Ha, you even parasitized an ordinary animal. Yet, there are signs of you not talking to humans for an extended period of time… Aren't you very puzzled as to why you didn't receive 'warnings' about this from the knowledge contained within the potion or the murmurs when you advanced to Sequence 4? Yes, it's because I've deleted them."

"No!"

A sharp scream filled with anger and viciousness sounded. There was an indescribable pain in it.

Louise could only cover her ears to muffle the screams as she watched the tree's trembling intensify until it eventually calmed down. Thinking to herself 'Fate? Mysticism? Parasitized an ordinary animal? Sequence 4? Deleted them? I don't understand anything he is talking about!'

She then watched in mild confusion and awe as streams of light flew out from within the tree and surged into Amon's body.

'What… was that?'

Taking out a piece of silk, Amon took off his monocle and wiped it as he mumbled, "How foolish. She actually believed me when I said it's too late. One flaw with fellows who are on the brink of losing control is that they're brainless and easily fooled."

"If she had carefully thought about it, how could she not realize the problems within? If I could quickly finish her off and steal her fate, why would I be wasting so much time chatting with her? An avatar is an avatar after all…" he said before the corners of his mouth curled up into a smile and turned towards Louise, "Wouldn't you agree?"

At that moment, all the color from Louise's face drained as she stared with wide open eyes at Amon as a feeling of mild dread and fear started to grow inside her.

"Y-you can see me?! Wait! You knew I was here from the beginning?!" she shouted.

"Not at first. After a few moments I found the connection between me and your dream and only then I took control of the dreamscape."

"B-But why didn't you say anything?!"

"Well I thought it would be more interesting this way."

Louise woke up startled, sweating and panting chaotically, nervously moving her eyes around the room and finding it empty.

Eventually she calmed down, feeling the wet nightgown against her skin, staring at the floor with a blank expression plastered on her face as she was pondering about her dream and… her master, Amon.

"That annoying human! He tricked me and-" she paused and blinked twice before shouting, "I still think myself an Elf! AHH! I am going to throw a fireball at his face when I see him! Consequences be damned!"

She then proceeded to dress for the day and storm towards the dining hall for she had a hunch he will be there.

Siesta's day started like any other, waking up early, before the students, helping in the kitchen by preparing the food, waiting for the students to wake up and going to the dining hall, serving their meals and drinks and not staying too long in the same place as to not get noticed by the nobles and somehow offend them by her presence.

Unfortunately for her, today was to be quite disastrous if one might call it that, because, she just had to take the damned perfume bottle and use it on herself.

And now, she found herself at de Gramont's table and had to pay the price.

"Guiche, hold up," said the girl next to him, de Montmorency, "I've been meaning to ask something of you," She then pointed to the maid, "That scent you have seems familiar. Where did it come from?"

Siesta was anxious but did not think too much about the question and pulled the perfume bottle out of her uniform, clearly oblivious to the sweat pool around the noble's face.

"A-Are you talking about this, milady-" she replied, her anxiety evident.

"Give me that!" Guiche practically lunged at the poor maid, trying to grab the bottle out of her hands. Unfortunately, Montmorency was faster and he found himself grabbing only empty air.

"I knew it!"

Siesta just watched how the entire dining hall was silenced by the rather audible sound of the female noble yelling, "Guiche, this is my perfume!" She then turned and gave a full on scowl at said Guiche, "Why does this maid have my perfume with her?!"

"Her perfume…?" Her voice was nervous and filled with horror, only now realizing what was happening, "I didn't know… I-I would not have accepted if it if I knew this was the case!" She pleaded.

'No… why is this happening to me… I just received a bottle of perfume!' She could only lament in her mind.

"Accept? Guiche, did you give this girl my perfume?!" she demanded again, "You know I gave that to you as a sign of our engagement! How could you give it away like a common mixture?!"

"M-Montmorency, I would never break your heart!" He pulled a rose and offered it to the fuming girl, "I assure you on my honor that I remain faithful to you and only you!"

"Then how do you explain this maid having it?" Her tone had lightened slightly when she saw the rose, but she still seemed rather suspicious of him.

"I…I must've dropped it and she picked it up," He excused quickly, "Or maybe she stole it from me," He added.

"What? But you gave-"

He fervently ignored the rapid explanations Siesta gave and continued, "Yes, that must be it! I would not be as careless as to lose something as important as a gift my fiancée gave me to celebrate our union!" A reassuring smile made its way onto his face.

"I-I guess you have a point…"

'I'm going to get fired… that's the price of stealing from nobility… Why had it to happen to me so soon…' Tears started to leak from the nervous girl's eyes, 'If I'm lucky… I will only be fired… else… I'll probably be sent to… the dungeons if I get blamed. But I didn't do it! He gave me the perfume last night when I bumped into him! Why is life so unfair!?' She asked and shouted in her mind but didn't bother voicing out the complaints to the oblivious couple.

"Guiche…" the blond, Montmorency he called her, seemed to soften at the passionate explanation of her lover gave her. She was also ignoring the maid's desperate explanations… "Y-You're right, maybe I was jumping to conclusions-"

"Lord Guiche?"

Now Siesta held some form of hope in her, thinking she could get out of this situation

A short, brown haired girl stared at the blond with mix of surprise and, much to the playboy's horror, pure sorrow.

Katie stood there, teary eyed and with a giant frown on her face, "D-Didn't you say that you had eyes only for me?" She gripped the hem of her cloak and did her best to try and stop herself from voicing out her thoughts.

"Ah, K-Katie-"

"Katie?!" The soft expression on Montmorency's face was gone, replaced with even more rage from before, "So you do know this girl, don't you Guiche?"

"Wh-What? Of course not, I-"

"H-Huh? But you said you loved me!" She'd officially given up holding the tears in and let the small droplets cascade down her face like a waterfall, "I-I gave you my first kiss!"

"First kiss! Why you cheating bastard!"

Two loud slaps echoed across the room.

Guiche stepped back, eyes wide in surprise and irises diluted as the emerging red color started to spread across his cheeks. Katie did nothing but collapse into a nearby chair, continuing to cry her eyes out as sympathetic hands from the crowd patted her gently in comfort.

Siesta wanted to back away, to leave, but, fear had rooted her to the spot and she was too afraid if she would still be blamed even if she chose to leave now. The price for stealing was bad, but the price for stealing and running was even worse. Her family would suffer as well and she would do anything to stop that from happening.

"You, this is all your fault!" Guiche stood back up and leveled an accusatory hand against the maid, "You caused all this with your theft!"

He stomped over to her and pulled out his wand, aiming it at the crying maid, "Admit to your theft before I-"

But before Guiche could continue he was being interrupted by the sound of clapping and what seemed to be chuckling.

Siesta then turned to where the noble was looking and saw the man she held a short talk yesterday, Amon, clapping his hands while keeping a small smile on his face.

"The duality of humans, such a fascinating thing you nobles are." He said.

Guiche stood there in silence for a few seconds, staring in annoyance at the young man before saying, "Are you mocking me? Commoner."

"Mocking you? No. I am piqued by the contradiction of how you preach about honor, fidelity, justice and a plethora of things to the general populace but only to do the exact opposite. This. However, makes my goal of understanding humanity more challenging. But that only serves to make success even more fulfilling and delightful, heh." He answered with a hint of mirth in his voice.

The maid could see how the noble was getting angrier and angrier the more Amon spoke and by the end of it Guiche had moved his wand from her at him.

"I have listened to your blabbering and suffered your insult for the last time!" He said slowly, "I was simply trying to dispense justice and clear my name, and yet you try to stop me and mock me? Very well."

Siesta took a quick glance at Amon and he still remained smiling, unfazed by the noble in front of him.

'Please, don't let anyone get hurt because of me…'

She then watched as how the noble opened his mouth, saying "I, Guiche de Gramont-" only for him to freeze on the spot, obvious confusion on his face as Amon grabbed at the air in front of him.

The noble shook his head and tried again, "I, Guiche de Gramont-" only to freeze once again as if he forgot his thoughts.

'What… is going on?' Siesta thought to herself.

He shook his head again, this time a bit faster, "I-" and again, he froze after Amon grabbed at the air.

This continued for a couple moments before the other nobles started laughing at Guiche for forgetting how to speak or at how he only knew one line. Obvious to his peers mockery and jeers he clenched his teeth and shouted at Amon.

"Stop messing with my thoughts! Or whatever you are doing!"

'Wait. How is that even possible?' Siesta could only stare in confusion, wonder and a bit of fear at the man.

"Alright." He simply replied before once again grabbing at the air but this time also pinching his right eye rim.

She turned back towards the noble and saw how Guiche took a deep breath to calm his anger down and then turned and pointed his wand at her, saying, "A duel!" he paused, "I challenge you to a duel!" his eyes then widened at the fact he challenged the maid instead of Amon.

The same could be said about Siesta as her eyes also widened at the fact of being challenged.

'What…' she could only ask herself.

Then the crowd began cheering, laughing or mocking at what happened.

"Did I hear that right? A duel between a maid and a mage? Ha ha!"

"The maid has a death wish it seems!"

"I can't believe it… A maid challenged a mage to a duel?! This is the funniest thing I've seen so far!"

And many other such comments were made but, Guiche, Siesta and a certain pink-haired girl had a confused look on their faces at the last comment. 'A maid challenged a mage?' Wasn't it the opposite?

But before they could question it further, they saw something that they could never forget. Some of Guiche's friends approached the maid, which expected to be abused or insulted, and did the unthinkable.

"Guiche, don't go hard on her alright?" said one, patting Siesta on the back.

"Well, this was unexpected, be sure to show us a good fight, not like there are any expectations of a commoner…"

"At least you are going to fight someone pretty…"

They were chatting with Siesta as if she was… Guiche. And they were looking at Guiche as if he was… Siesta.

On the maid's face was complete shock while on the noble's face was complete fear at how his supposed friends were looking and talking about him.

Siesta took another glance at Amon and saw how the corner of his mouth curled up into a big smile as he looked at her in the eyes.

When Louise arrived at the dining hall, there was already a commotion. Some poor maid was being berated and accused by Guiche, the playboy as some would call him. Honestly, she didn't care that much about the maid, she was here for her master, but she did pity her, if only for the unfairness of the situation.

That was until a brown haired girl called him out… and after a bit of back and forth, Guiche ended up slapped by the two girls. Said girls then started crying after finding he was dating both at the same time.

And Guiche, being the noble man he so called himself, placed the blame on the same maid, accusing her of making the two girls cry.

'This is ridiculous.' She commented internally.

Louise then watched at how he pointed his wand at the maid, intending to punish her for his mistakes only to be stopped by someone familiar… her master.

'By The Foudner! Please don't let my master to do something stupid or outrageous…' she pleaded in her mind but she had the feeling it was pointless…

"The duality of humans, such a fascinating thing you nobles are." He said.

"Are you mocking me? Commoner." Asked an annoyed Guiche.

Louise felt anger at that comment about nobility but suppressed it nevertheless as she was more afraid of what will be Guiche's reaction.

And now she expected Guiche to challenge her master to a duel, not like she was too concerned for him, after all, if what her dream showed her was to be true, then people who could literally vanish were afraid of him… and he mentioned a whole organization created against him… then she had no need to worry… well only for Guiche.

But then something unexpected and hilarious happened. Every time Guiche was trying to challenge Amon to a duel, he would grab at the air and leave the cocky noble frozen and utterly confused, as if he forgot his thoughts.

'Heh, this is becoming amusing and unexpectedly interesting… Damn. I hope master's personality isn't rubbing off on me… ' she thought, finding the situation a bit frightening.

'Though… that annoying human deserves what he is receiving…Ah! Again! Not an Elf, Louise!'

But what happened next could only be topped by the dream she had.

"Guiche, don't go hard on her alright?"

"Well, this was unexpected, be sure to show us a good fight, not like there are any expectations of a commoner…"

"At least you are going to fight someone pretty…"

Guiche's friends were chatting with Siesta as if she was… Guiche. And they were looking at Guiche as if he was… Siesta.

"What… what did he do?!" loudly asked Louise, only to be noticed by the two closest to her.

"Oh dear, are you so bad at magic that you can't even understand such a simple situation as this?" asked a red haired Germanian girl next to a blue haired one that was reading a book.

"Kirche! Since when were you there?!"

"Since a while ago. But to answer your question in terms that you would understand my dear Zero, The maid, snapped after the accusations of our little playboy there and challenged him to a duel."

"What?! What are you talking about?! Guiche challenged her and now for some reason everyone is acting as if the maid is Guiche and Guiche is the maid!"

The Germanian and her friend were looking at Louise in confusion and, if Louise was seeing it right, concern… for her mental health…

"…Never mind…" she muttered.

'Just what did he do…' and before she could follow that train of thought, she was once again surprised how everything returned to normal with no one realizing what happened except for Guiche, Louise, Siesta and… of course, Amon.

She then followed a frightened Guiche, a confused and anxious maid and a joyous Wizard towards the Vestri court… and the group that decided they want to watch.

'Even if Guiche is scared to the bone, the maid still has zero chances of winning this duel… honestly what is Amon thinking…?' she could only muse to herself, standing next to said man as she watched the two duelists getting ready.

'And the maid is if not more afraid than Guiche… but for different reasons obviously.'

After a few more seconds, it started. Guiche summoned one of his Valkyries, wielding a stick who was moving rather quickly towards the poor maid, who was shaking in her boots… until she stopped. No, it would be more correct to say her whole demeanor changed.

Confused, Louise turned to the man standing next to her, seeing how he had his arm outstretched towards the maid and realizing that he again did something.

But before she could ask what exactly he did, said maid rushed towards the Valkyrie, grabbed the stick and smashed a hole in the left leg of said Valkyrie before hitting the construct in the face, leaving scattered pieces of brass to fall down together with what remained of the construct.

Everyone was silent at what happened, everyone except the maid, which now had a wicked smile plastered on her face while she glanced at the defeated Valkyrie… but that soon turned into a frown and snort, snorting at the noble.

'Not only she defeated the Valkyrie but her personality did a 180! What did Amon do!?' she shouted in her mind at another bizarre thing that happened in the last 24 hours.

Guiche, somewhat offended by the maid's snort lost most of his inhibitions and summoned three more, this time armed with swords and spears but, said maid only smiled as she rushed towards the spear wielding one, deflecting the attack and ending it piercing another Valkyrie. Then she grabbed the defeated Valkyrie's sword and parried a horizontal slash, piercing the said Valkyrie's neck. She then rapidly turned towards the spear wielding one and cut the head off. And then, she did something unexpected.

She threw the sword at Guiche before he could summon other Valkyries and embedded itself in his stomach.

Everyone went wide eyed, with the exception of the maid and Amon who were finding it more amusing than impossible or frightening.

The moment only lasted for a few seconds before people rushed towards Guiche and dragged him towards the healers' quarter. And at the same time, the expression on the maid's face did another 180 and could only be describe as absolutely terrified.

"What did you do?!" she turned towards Amon, shouted at him, barely managing not to stutter.

"Oh, I stole her fear."

"You… stole her fear? But… But that doesn't explain how she could fight like that and win! Not even mentioning the complete change of her personality!"

"A good deduction. Stealing someone's fear would not result in such a change of personality. But, in this case, I stole the concept of fear from her. Meaning, the intensity placed unto that specific emotion still remained." He calmly explained.

"Wait… if the… the intensity remained… where would it go?" Louise muttered more to herself than to Amon, trying to understand what he was talking about.

"To other emotions. Evidently. But in most cases it would go to the next strongest. In her case? Anger. Thought, it seems something interesting happened. Courage. Her courage was heavily suppressed by her fear and when I stole it, it grew uncontrollably." Commented the man while the corner of his mouth curled up into a smile.

Louise remained deep in thought for a few moments before adding a very important point.

"But courage and anger can't make someone so skilled in combat, especially for a maid."

"Heh. I was rather curious what would happen if I were to give her the abilities of a Criminal, a rather low-level Sequence but very useful in this situation. After all, because I stole her fear, I managed to find a loophole and give her something "back" if only temporarily."

And done. This took more than I thought it would, and there has been some modifications needed for it to work as I wanted it to. Either way, I hope you enjoy it. And thank you for the comments.
Now, I don't think myself an expert but I believe I've got flow, interactions and characters right, probably... Also a bit of action but that was not my point in this chapter, If it felt too lackluster I might come back and write a longer and better detailed fight scene. The next ones, however, will be more detailed because, after all, Guiche's brass puppets are barely a challenge.
(And for those wondering about Siesta's Criminal change of behavior, it was mostly due to the Sequence 9 and the sudden surge of emotions)