The sounds of the motor rang in Louise's ears as they traveled their way down the forest paths. There was a small rumbling that was both soothing but also damning to her because of how bothersome it was. Ever since that large explosion she wanted to get some shut eye, but this machine would not let her!
Only after what felt like hours did the engine start to stutter, Itch slammed his hand against the machine with a small panic. That was not enough to get the machine to start again, and soon it sputtered out and stopped working.
"No no no! We ran out of fuel-Warpstone!" The rat dropped from the machine and started looking at the inner workings of the war machine.
"Out of Fuel? So it's hungry or something?" Louise asked as she too dismounted the machine with a small bit of irk in her voice.
"Yes, Master-Boss! We need to create more Warpstone to feed-fuel it!" He admitted as he looked over the machine a few more times, "Not good not good not good!"
Looking down at her Familiar's panic Louise looked around wherever they were. It seemed they were in one of the many forests that dotted Tristain's domain. Judging by how long they were traveling in it, Louise could only assume they were in one of the bigger ones that spanned miles upon miles of land.
They were lost…
"D-damn you Familiar!" She shouted while brandishing her wand and whip, "We are lost because of your stupidity!"
"Master-Boss we are not lost, for we do not have a home." Pointed out the rat as he turned from the machine to her, "My Laboratory has been destroyed! Turned into an explosion by that dragon-thing's master-boss! We must endeavor to create a new one!"
"But I have a home!" Louise yelled at him with a fury, "The Academy was my home, where I was supposed to learn and study! Now look, we are stranded in a forest after being attacked by one of my fellow students! We ran like dogs with our tails between our legs."
Louise shook her head as she came to some realizations, "Oh my mother is going to kill me! Itch, how big was that explosion the Warpstone Cauldron caused!?"
"Hmm." The Rat thought to himself for the moment the beatings stopped, "Since the Academy was reinforced with magic-stuff we took down one or two towers."
"W-we took down two of the towers?" Louise could not believe what went into her ears and exited her mouth, "Itch what happened there can get both of us in trouble! By the Founder, I will probably be expelled because you caused that!"
"Ouch ouch ouch!" Her Familiar cried as he started to be beaten again, "Master-Boss it is so much worse than that! The Witch-Hunter Thing is still alive! She has probably told them we caused it instead of her!"
Louise's eyes widened as she thought about it more and more. Indeed they were nowhere near the Academy. At best it might take them a few days to return, which by then Tabitha will tell her side of the story and probably incriminate Louise.
The only question was why did Tabitha do all that? Why did she attack Louise and Itch?
The answer is easy, because Louise got her only friend expelled.
Well not Louise, "Itch, you bastard!" And like that Louise brought her wand to bear and started channeling her magic.
"M-Master-Boss have mercy!" He screamed as he barely dodged an incoming explosion.
"I WILL NOT HAVE MERCY BECAUSE YOU DID THIS!" Louise shouted as she sent another greenish explosion right at the rat.
"But Master-Boss you suggested it!" Claimed the rat as he hid behind a tree, only for the stump of that tree to disappear with another explosion of green fire.
"I don't care if I suggested it, you're the one who set it up! Because of your actions I have tarnished the Valliere name and ruined the one place I could learn magic!" She stopped casting magic for just a few moments with a heavy heart, "I AM A FAILURE!"
With a surge of power creeping through her body Louise fired another spell, though this time it was an arc of green lightning that went through the air. This time, stuck out in the open of what was now a barren crater ridden landscape could not dodge the incoming lighting and felt the attack then and there. Only through his corrupted and mutated autonomy did the rat survive a direct attack.
It took Louise a moment to realize what happened and what she just said. F-first she should start with what she said, for it was the truest thing there. The actions of a Familiar always reflect upon the mage who summoned it no matter how large or small. The reason for this was because the summoning created someone both capatable and similar to the mage.
Second to this fact, was that everything he did in some way had her approval. It was obvious Tabitha was getting revenge for what both she and her Familiar did.
"UGH!" Louise grabbed her head as her Familiar slowly rose from his singed form, everything but his white fur destroyed by the attack.
It was then that he brought up the second fact made clear with a smile, "Master-Boss is a Ruin Mage, bless the Horned Rat."
Louise stopped in her wallowing as she turned to face him, "What did you just say, Rat?"
"I knew the moment Master-Boss summoned me she was destined for greatness-divine." The rat both admitted and lied as he continued, "Does Master-Boss really need the school for lesser sorceries?"
Louise stared at her companion for a moment, not really knowing what she wanted to express as she heard him say those words. However she quickly steeled herself up and stared at him with a fury, "I will not be honeyed by your words, Itch. Even if what you said is true there is more purpose being at the Academy than just to learn magic."
"Master-Boss might think so, but Itch knows you stayed there in hopes to learn proper magic." The Rat gave a small laugh as his mouth curled, "Master-Boss should know that those hopes were gone even before the explosion."
Louise sneered at that remark with a venom equal to the rat's, "It does not matter, even if everyone there hates me I must show myself. Politics may be damned but appearances need to be kept, which means we must return to face down the consequences of our actions."
"Is that really wise-smart Master-boss?" The rat asked as he felt worry come over him, "Be smart-proper to contact your… brodkin first?"
"My Family?" Louise asked back as the rat nodded, "My Mother would never support me now. Though… my Father might and surely Caitlyn could persuade Mother. Fine, we shall make contact with my family. They are however on the eastern border and we are…"
The two of them looked around for a second time. This time they were not taking in the scenery but instead trying their best to get some idea of where they were. Of course Itch had little to no clue, but again Louise could only tell they were in a forest.
Still that was enough to go on, "Itch, any idea which direction we went?"
"Direction…" The rat sniffed the air before running to the closest tree to study it. With a nod the rat announced, "South, Master-Boss!"
"South… so that means we are near the Duchy of Montmorency." Louise realized as she remembered her early years of being tutored as a child, "Since there are plenty of forests, we might be near the border with Romania."
"Hmm Itch hears a bunch of words but what do they mean?" Asked the rat as he was almost fully recovered from the attack by his own Master.
"It simply means we have a long way to travel before we hit my Family's territory." Louise summarized as she turned towards her Familiar, "What is the status of feeding the Doom-Flayer! Even with that machine it will take the better part of the day to travel there."
"Hmm, well Master-Boss we do not have any Warpstone." The Rat said as his eyes widened, "If we do not have any Warpstone we cannot make more Warpstone! Master-Boss, what shall we do!"
"That is where you are wrong, Itch." Louise declared as she took the small vial from her neck, "This here is the Warpstone you gave me sometime ago. Do you think it will work?"
The rat could only smile as he looked upon it, "Yes yes, it will do! But we don't have any dead-killed corpses. We need those to feed it!"
"Can't we just kill some animals and start from there?" Pointed out the Mage.
"No no, animal things are too weak." He claimed as he sniffed the air, "We need more vitality, more life than a simple beast-thing."
"Itch." Louise began as she looked at him closely, "What were you using to make this before?"
"Human-Corpse-Things."
Louise felt herself almost drop the vial as she heard that. Sh-she was wearing the dissolved remains of humans this entire time! How could she have done that and not even know it!
"Master-Boss has problems using dead," Belittered the rat, "They are already dead-dead though."
"Of course I do! How do I know we are not distilling their Souls by doing this!" Louise pointed out as she looked towards the war machine, "But I don't want to leave it here…"
"Then let me get more dead-things."
"No, I will not disturb the dead for my own gain!" Louise declared as she heard some rumbling coming from the nearby treeline. Her Familiar seemed to scour for a moment as he realized what exactly was happening.
In the next second Itch threw himself and sent his Master flying onto the ground as a series of gunshots rang over their heads. The two looked up from their crater to see five men all cursing themselves that they had missed their shots and started reloading another.
"Man-things attacking Master-Boss!" Cried the rat as he kept his head in the nearby crater, "We must fight them! Let Itch fight them Master-Boss!"
"I'm just wondering WHY IN BRIMIR'S SAKE THERE ARE BANDITS!" Louise yelled at the group of men who were almost done preparing their next shot.
"Master-Boss, they are almost done reloading! We must act now-now!"
"I know that!" Louise shot back as she weighed her chances about it. Then she threw away her concerns the moment she realized the truth of the matter, that no one would care if these men were missing, "DO IT!"
In that moment a massive smile broke from Itch's mouth as the rat started to surge with green electricity. Gladly he jumped out, taking a few bullets to his mutated body just so that he could have the chance to fire off his first spell in nearly a month.
"FEEL-FEEL THE VERMINE TIDE! MWAHAHAHA!" With a laugh that seemed to reverberate through the ground with large amounts of Warp Energy throwing itself to and from Itch.
With a shutter the ground underneath the bandits cracked and shattered, sending the many of them into the ground with a single cast. Louise looked up to see the men swallowed by both earth and lighting, many having their flesh ripped asunder with the moving of the earth.
And like that, the earth settled down with all of the bandits dead in its wake.
Louise rose from her hiding spot and joined her Familiar, who was already tearing apart the things off the men as well as the ground. Louise had to steady herself when she looked down to see a stray arm just sitting on top of the ground clearly torn off.
This was the kind of power her Familiar had, restricted by her authority as his Master. It was comparable to a Triangle level spell in its sheer power.
The Element of Ruin, was something she herself could cast. She could have this same power.
These men were dead on her behalf though, such a thing she never expected to do. Though she was the daughter of a Duke she never expected that she needed to do that. She was just hoping to be married off to a man who would take care of her and they would have nice children together!
"Yes-yes, we have starting ingredients!" Her Familiar cheered as he ran over and started stripping the bodies, "Master-Boss, I suggest we find a cave and take refuge there for the coming week."
Louise looked at him in disgust as the rat unceremoniously took away all of the men's garbs and weapons. As he did Louise walked over and picked up one of their pistols, "F-fine, if only because I do not want to be rained on."
"Thanks-great Master-Boss!" Cheered the rat as he sniffed the air for a moment, "I think-feel there is cave this way."
With that the two of them started walking that way. Louise had to wonder to herself what exactly she was going to do, especially when she held in her hand a musket of all things.