A/N: Something feels weird… Not sure why. But here it is, hopefully there was enough build-up to this moment, because this actually was in the 'Cool Moments that I thought about when I wanted Louise to suffer/enjoy life with Ghost'. Also, implications of things to come!

Louise stood there among the crowd of students with a stunned expression on her face, all around her she heard the panicked murmurings and conversations at the shocking news that had been revealed to them.

War?

With Albion?

A part of her felt sick, a wheezy feeling going up her throat that started from her…

The empty sensation of where her mid-section should have been would be something that she would never get used to. The way that she felt the need to vomit, but the missing piece that would have made it possible confused her brain.

A gasp escaped her lips as one hand covered her mouth when she realised that she was starting to breath too quickly, while her other arm wrapped itself around her stomach.

She almost threw up on the spot.

That sick sensation seemed to rise higher and higher and higher that it almost felt hard to breath. It almost felt like her heart stopped beating.

Despite that, she managed to stay calm. Her breathing slowed down, the feeling of vomiting slowly creeped back down. And when she seemed to feel her heart beating in her chest once more, Louise closed her eyes and swallowed the spit in her mouth.

She took a deep breath, and calmed down.

Her eyes opened, thankful that her moment of panic was just another student in a crowd. The Valliere looked up at the messenger, and she heard the next part of his message.

That the Princess of Tristain, her friend, was going to aid not only the village, Tarbes, that was being attacked. But also the Insects that had resided in that village.

It would be, probably, the first major contact between the kingdom of Tristain and Hallownest that she was aware of.

-ER.

Louise 'heard' Bug in her head once more, the Void Vessel speaking to her. It stared up at her, ever so slightly twitching.

WILL YOU ASSIST HALLOWNEST?

Once more she felt that feeling in her stomach, Bug's words struck her for some reason. She lowered the hand from her mouth and placed wrapped it around her stomach once more, distantly she was worried that people might think she was holding something in due to fear, and let out sigh.

"Not Hallownest, my loyalties to Tristain and the Princess first" She answered her Familiar. She saw how Bug's heard tilted at her words "But if the Princess wants to protect it, then I will protect it as well."

Then she smiled "And if, no when they do I'll make sure to help all I can." One hand patted Bug's head "I still need to give that Pale King a piece of my mind after all."

A frown found its way on her lips slightly at the twitch that went through Bug's body, before it righted its head and continued to look at her.

THEN BRING THE BOOK. IT WILL HELP YOU

[Scene]

Louise stared at the once empty pages of the prayer book that she had been given to write a wedding speech, for a now cancelled wedding she supposed. To her surprise, the pages that had once held nothing, were now filled with glowing writing.

Even the pages that she had used were overwritten.

Pages upon pages of the once empty book had been filled.

And it took once glance to realised what she was looking at.

Spells

Void Spells.

Written by the Founder himself.

Her eyes landed on one particular spell, it was as if she was drawn to it.

Written on top, above a chant that seemed almost comically long, was the words 'Explosion'.

YOU SEE IT DON'T YOU? THE SPELL TO USE TO FINISH THEM OFF.

It didn't matter how Bug could see what she could see, but deep inside her she knew that it was right. It was as if she could already envision the spell that would be casted, it would be more than enough to take out the ship and everything around it.

The world around her grew darker and darker, and seemingly in response the words grew brighter and brighter.

Then for a moment her focus on the book was cut short, when she heard rapidly approaching footsteps next to her.

Eyes glancing away, she saw the approaching figure of Kirche.

Orange eyes wide and frantic.

[Scene]

"You're joining in why…?"

Incredulously the words came out before she stop them, and she pulled back abit at the amused snort from her.

"Really Zero, after all we've been through?" A hand was placed over her chest as a mock look of sadness appeared on her face "I can't even help my friend?"

The embarrassed look vanished, replacing it was an annoyed one "Well it's not exactly common for someone not from Tristain to join its princess now is it?" She huffed "Besides, what makes you so sure that I'll join in the first place."

"Zero come on," the mostly healed hand gestured to the messenger "That shmuck there says that the princess herself is joining in." It pointed, and gently poked her on her forehead "And I know that you'd be all in the moment you heard the 'p'."

Smacking the finger away, gently despite her irritation, and… well she wanted to say she glowered. But the amused puff of the Germanian's cheek told her that she merely managed to pout. "Humph!" She crossed her arms and looked away "Alright, but what makes you think I need your help?"

"Hey someone's gotta come and try to protect you?"

"I have Bug and Sib don't I?"

In response Sib drew the Soul Wand it had, and seemingly mimicking something it had seen, held it up.

Bug, strangely, kept still (Minus the twitching).

"What are Familiars for?"

"Puddle," Kirche simply spoke, causing the shorter girl to sputter a 'It was only once!' earning a hearty laugh from her.

Still pouting, Louise dropped it with a sigh "Well if you're joining I can't really stop you." Her voice dropped to a mutter "I just want you to stay safe as well okay?"

"Hey I'd have a whole batch of hunky soldiers to protect me. And if I do die I've got Tabitha who'll tell my will to my parents."

The blue haired girl lowered the book to look at her taller friend with a small glare.

"I'd be fine!"

[Scene]

Louise eyes widened when she saw Kirche rapidly approaching her.

Faintly she was aware of Bug looking at Kirche, she saw one of the tendrils that it had summoned stop it's trashing.

"Louise!"

There was a crack in the air, one of the tendrils bent and speared towards Germanian.

Louise's eyes widened, when the black tendril suddenly impaled a hidden Albion soldier.

Kirche stumbled, falling to her knees just beside the horse she was riding on.

"I need som-" The red head paused as she turned to see her pursuer impaled through his chest "Oh… thanks. I needed that."

"Kirche," Louise looked at her "Are you okay?"

The sight of her eyes confused the Valliere, they seemed orange one moment and then her normal brown.

"Yeah…" She smiled, she tried to push herself to her feet "I just feel…"

The day grew darker, the moons grower closer and the sun was covered up more and more.

"Tired…"

Louise saw the red head's body suddenly flumped over unconscious. It was double worrying, when she saw that she had passed out with her eyes open, flickering from color to color.

Her eyes narrowed at the still struggling Albion soldier and pointed her wand.

The determined glare faltered when Bug's tendril suddenly tore it apart. She wondered how, if they weren't already distracted with the Lexington the soldiers around her and the Princess would have reacted to a sight.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO WORRY.

"Huh?"

The tendril retracted, Louise felt a hint of worry when it also dragged the remains of the corpse, and re-joined the ones that were growing around Bug.

Her Familiar stared at her directly.

It was then she noticed that its left hand was… glowing.

NO HARM WILL COME UPON YOU. THE LEFT HAND WILL NOT ALLOW IT.

Louise then remembered memories that were not her own.

Of an elf who sat there, smiling as the White Root carefully etched those marks into the back of her hand, her roots marking her skin with the servitude.

Once it was done, the hand, her left hand, grabbed a blade, and beside the Root was the Pale Wyrm as its own eyes widened and the runes immediately glowed.

A glow that Louise felt was the same glow whenever Bug's Void body seem to take over.

She let a shuddering breath as she looked at her Familiar "You're the Gandalfr."

[Scene]

"The shaking is much more intense this time."

The words could be vaguely heard past his own coughing and hacking. He had long fallen to his knees, as he would occasionally spit up more of the black sludge. He took a shuddering breath "What is… happening?!"

He felt the Queen look at him, despite his eyes being glued to bloodied floor.

"You are Void touched, one who is close to you could use the ancient power. And now, on this day with it awakening for but a moment, it is…"

Wardes shut his eyes and forcefully swallowed another cough, lifting his head to see the Queen staring at him.

"Deciding if you are worthy."

More sludge escaped in a hissed cough, the mage's eyes wide "And what do you know, about the Void Insect?!" He hacked out "About our holy element, why could you know of the power that belonged to our founder?!"

"Hallownest has used the Void once to remain eternal. It was used again, to save it from an ancient enemy that would have torn this entire world asunder."

Wardes sucked in a breath, especially when the Needle was pointed at his throat. The words had their weight again, but this time instead of it just being a heavy presence it felt near suffocating.

Simultaneously feeling as if he was staring at a bright light, while feeling as if he wrapped up head to toe in front of a predator.

Those eyes of her stared deeply into his own.

"But Never It Will Belong To One."

It took all of his effort not to suddenly slam his forehead into the ground, the weight was almost crushing. But then, it lifted…

Just as a deep rumbling filled the area around them.

The Queen clicked her tongue, and muttered something that he could not understand. Her vision turned back to the massive egg in the room.

She stayed where she was, staring at the massive structure.

Wardes glanced at it, and saw that the same black sludge he had been coughing up was slowly pouring out of it.

[Scene]

The Void Vessel continued to stare at her. It said nothing else, simply looking at her with those eyes.

The tendrils around it continued to trash around, and seemingly to confirm what it had said, a few reached into the air and caught what few cannonballs was fired its way.

Louise gulped and gripped the book in her hands before she took a deep breath and stared at her Familiar "Then… keep me safe Bug while I cast the spell!"

VERY WELL.

The wand came up, pointed in the massive battleships direction. Her eyes, glowing ever brighter as the day seemed to grow darker and darker.

The tip of her tip aimed for the ship, but every few moments a Dragon Knight or a Griffin Knight would block her sight. She wouldn't care if it had only been the former, but she was afraid that if she hit the latter it would not only kill her own countrymen. But she'd also catch everyone on the ground with the blast, considering the mental image that she received when she read the spell.

"I can't…" She moved her wand around, and every few seconds she could get a clear sight, she would be blocked by something else "I can't get a clear shot!"

AIM FOR THE SHIP.

"How? There's too many-"

I WILL CLEAR THE PATH. CAST THE SPELL VOID MAGE, END THIS ENCOUNTER.

Her shaking hand clenched into a resolute fist, her eyes shot down to the Prayer book and she started to read.

Immediately she could feel it, the familiar sensation that filled her whenever she casted a spell that would turn black.

A spell that shared her affinity, a Void Spell.

The words on the pages glowed brighter the more she read them.

It looked away from the Void Mage, instead it focused its gaze upon the skies above them.

With its body covered in the Void, it seemed almost impossible for it to grow darker and its eyes to glow even brighter. Yet as the moons grew ever closer. The Sun disappearing more and more behind them. The colors of green and red upon the moons were hidden by their own shadows.

More and more of the tentacles that had sprouted underneath it thrashed around.

It tilted its head, and saw many of the soldiers flying above them.

Louise's glowing eyes focused on the ship above the village, her wand pointed towards it.

The void swallowed it completely, turning into a completely black silhouette.

Louise finished her chant.

And at that point, the sun finally vanished. The two moons had converged completely.

The day almost turned to night. And when it did.

It SCREAMED.

"Explosion!"

With the eclipse already happening above them, they didn't expect that the day could get darker. But for that moment, the soldiers of Tristain, the soldiers of Albion, the humans and Insects in Tarbes felt as if night had completely fallen on the battlefield.

No.

That would not have been appropriate.

It wasn't as if night had just consumed it for just a moment.

It was as if light had stopped existing for that split moment.

And with it, came the sound of a monster's roar. It filled the air, drowning out the sounds of the soldiers as they were devoured by what had been summoned.

No…

By what it was.

Within the darkness, it was as if hundreds of spirits reached out and grabbed onto everything that they could. Tiny claws and tiny tendrils, lashing out to grip onto whatever was nearby. Whether it was an Albion Knight who screamed as they were torn to shreds. Or a Dragon who roared, only for them to be silenced.

Or the Tristain Knights who could watch in quiet horror as they and their Griffin mounts were swallowed up by screaming spirits.

And in the middle of it all, was a massive creature. Its form hidden by the darkness that had appeared…

No by the darkness that it had summoned by its sheer presence. What soldiers that hadn't been struck by the spirits, met swift ends by a claws sharper than anything that existed.

And the only thing the ones who were exposed to this massive creature, were four pairs of eyes glowing in the absolute darkness around it. Before they were swallowed up by the beast.

But not all of them were swallowed by the beast, some were spared. But if they were aware that they had been spared, they would have begged to be eaten by the spirits that the beast had summoned. Those, whose minds were already charmed by the Void, was left untouched by the spirits and the beast itself.

Instead, the same darkness that blotted out the sky exploded out of every orifice of their body. Pouring out of their ears, nose or mouth like vomit or tears. No sound could be heard from them, as their bodies simply ceased to function the moment it happened.

Their minds had already failed, and their bodies finally caught up.

Then, just as it had seemed that everything went dark. The world exploded into light.

The darkness that had swallowed the day vanished, not wiped clean however. Instead, it seemed to make way for the light, as if it allowed it to grow and take its place.

At the epicentre of the growing light was the Lexington, the massive ship that allowed the Albion forces control over Tarbes.

There were two sources of light.

One was for the lines that surrounded the ship, growing from nowhere yet all converged around it as a protective shield. A false image of a four-armed figure could be seen, holding it together.

The second source, was the one that shattered the protective like glass. It grew from the ship's keel, the very heart of such a thing. It expanded outwards, even as the white lines that were meant to protect it continued to glow brighter.

Before it shattered and broke apart.

The light from what spell had hit the ship grew. Unlike the sudden darkness, it was near silent. The light merely expanded outwards, in a calm white glow that grew and grew and grew.

It swallowed the Lexington in its entirety, the Dragon riders that surrounded the ship. Even the Insects that had hovered too closer were not exempt, although it was more likely due to them grabbing what Dragon riders that they could to keep them in place, seemingly uncaring of their own deaths.

From the field where the world had momentarily gone dark, the one responsible looked up at the glowing ball of light. The glowing eye sockets a similar colour.

Then as the light faded away, it revealed the ship. It was broken, the sails had been ripped apart, the wooden and steel frame was falling to pieces, and the ship itself was falling out of the sky.

As did the poor souls that had been unlucky enough to be around it.

It continued to stare at the ship, ignoring those that had fallen victim to the spirits it had summoned falling down to the earth. What remains of their bodies splattering on the ground and staining it red with blood.

Another wave of bodies followed, this time it was the ones who had already been charmed by the Void. The black essence that now filled their bodies spilled out onto the ground, covering it with the black ichor of the abyss. An ichor that it easily controlled and moved with its own.

The growing abyss underneath it swallowed what it could, it spread out further and further as the blood turned from red into inky black, joining the black that was already present.

It was then aware of the other Vessel. It stood amongst the bodies, but it was not harmed. It stared at it, and then at the ground, before it stared back at them. Then it looked beyond it.

The tendrils around it lashed at the reaction, and it turned to see where the Vessel was looking.

The Summoner, her hand still outstretched with the catalyst in her hands. Those around her could not see it, but it spotted it clear as day.

Stretching out from the sleeves, barely hidden from view such that if anyone were to even look at her, they would see it. But they were too distracted by the suddenl ball of light in the sky.

Slowly the tendrils relaxed, and as it did so did the abyss pool underneath it. It looked down, the bodies were relatively untouched. The blood that had been spilled upon splattering on the ground was gone however, absorbed into itself.

It lifted its hand, glowing eyes staring at the stumps that were the Vessel 'hands'.

Then as the false darkness of the day slowly faded, the glow in its eye sockets vanished. The Abyss that covered the mask receded into its body once more, and Bug found itself staring at its own hands.

[Scene]

Louise gripped the arm that was holding her wand, her excitement at the spell had vanished the moment she realised that it felt cold.

But it wasn't from fatigue. No, despite the absurd spell that she had found herself casting, Louise was at top shape. Her will had seemingly recovered from the initial group of spells she casted, the tired feeling in her head had vanished the moment the sky went dark when the sun had been covered by the two moons.

Instead Louise was gripping it, because she could feel the same cold emptiness on her stomach had somehow stretched its way up her arm.

She didn't care how that caused her grip on the Founder' Prayer Book to be lost, and the ancient treasure was now on the ground covered in mud.

She had gripped her wrist, seemingly in an effort to stop it from growing further.

The cold at her wrist wasn't the worst thing however, it was the feeling in her chest that was worse. It should be expected, it had to reach her wrist somehow.

But the cold feeling, the utter emptiness that reached her heart was almost enough for her to pass out. She took a deep breath, even if the feeling vanished halfway down her throat, and tried to calm down.

The cold slowly creeped back down. The hand gripping her wrist felt like it was gripping her flesh and blood once more, and slowly it moved further down and down and down. It fell from her shoulder and the moment it uncovered her chest, she took another deep breath. This time she could breath, and once more the cold feeling settled.

In her stomach.

She lowered her wand, and it took her a moment to calm down. But as she did, she felt eyes were thrown her way. Some of them looked surprised, some of them even looked fearful. But most of them had looks of awe in their faces.

"Louise…" Henrietta was the first one to say something, her eyes staring at her directly due to their close distance. The Valliere could not help but blush, some part of her wanted to look away but it would have been inappropriate.

Instead she nodded and tried to say the first thing that came to her mind "At your service!" She winced, was that really the first thing she could think of?

Despite that she saw the small smile on her face, before it turned serious once more "Behold!" She cheered as she raised her own wand "An opportunity arrives from the family of the Valliere," she pointed her wand forward "Charge now! And strike down the remains of the attackers!"

A roar of excitement filled the air, the name of the family that the Heavy Wind was enough for them accept it. Once more they charged, no longer held back the cannon fire of the Lexington.

They all marched past the bodies of those one the ground, their minds thinking that they were simply the victims of the skirmishes before.

Louise held back, her eyes staring at the back of the princess that had ordered the charge. She turned to the unconscious body beside her, blinking somewhat in surprise when she saw Guiche had somehow also passed out. Then, as the eclipse ended.

The two of them managed to get to their feet.

Guiche was the first to do so, the boy pushed himself to his knees and the first thing he muttered was

"My head hurts…"

Before he pressed his forehead against the ground and just let out a long unending groan.

Louise couldn't help but stare at him with a dismissive glare, before she turned to Kirche.

A surprised face met her, the Germanian had managed to stand up in the time it took for her to look at Guiche. "Louise?" She sounded confused.

"You passed out, probably from the insane amount of spells you were casting." She answered the unasked question.

Her eyes blinked, oh they were back to being brown, before she looked around. They widened when she saw the, still descending ship of the Lexington "Did you…"

"Never mind that for now," She tried to avoid talking about it, at least for now "We need to catch up with the Princess." Her eyes narrowed at the still groaning blonde "That means you too Gramont."

Kirche placed a hand over her mouth as her other hand waved towards the smaller mage "You go on ahead Louise, we'll catch up later." Her mouth bulged a bit "I think I have a headache I need to nurse for a bit."

"You sure?"

Looking at the ground, Kirche spotted the Founder's Prayer Book, the one that she and Louise had looked over to try and write a half-way decent speech for a wedding that, she was certain would be called off right now. Grabbing it, the red head passed it onto the pink haired mage on the horse "Don't worry about us, just go and we'll catch up."

Her mouth fell open just a bit, before she nodded "Stay safe." Grabbing the reins of her horse, Louise directed the animal towards her Familiars.

As she did, she couldn't help but shudder as the animal she was riding on stepped over the numerous corpses. Feeling just a little uneasy at the sight.

[Scene]

"Hey Guiche?"

"…Urgh yeah?"

"Is it just, or was everything after we left the academy a blur?"

"The last thing… I really remember was meeting Montmorency. You know, just in case…"

"…Huh… You think, something happened to us?"

"Well Montmorency seems rather adamant that Louise's Familiar did something to her."

"…"

"Well in any case, if we ever do feel like shit again. We have to go to Ragdorian Lake."

"…Why would you say that?"

"I… I'm not sure…"

"Huh…"

She leaned back on the grass, her head was still pounding but as the sun shined down on her she could help but think.

"Maybe I'll try and invite Louise if we ever have the chance."