-A.N: It's at this point that I realize I gave Hamon five fingers when Pyronite's have only four. My bad. ^^'
Chapter 3: The Emptiest Shadow.
Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere wasn't a happy person.
Far from it. She was actually pretty miserable.
At Tristain's academy of magic, if you ask students about someone by the name of Louise then one of these two different reactions will follow. The first is a look of amusement as the students snicker to each other.
The second is a look of annoyance and scorn.
Louise was quite popular. Not in a good way.
Since day one of school, nay, day one of her lifetime of trying to do magic, her spells always failed horrendously. No matter what spell she used, they always blew up in her face quite literally. Sometimes they were mild explosions, sometimes they were intense enough to damage most of the classroom and even some students, herself included.
When her spells backfire, her wand remains mostly unscathed aside from some charring, but her hand is a different story. Even now, her right hand is still covered in various marks from old burns and scars caused by the explosions.
While most of the students take amusement in how she constantly fails her spells, the ones caught in the actual explosions feel nothing but ire towards her.
The ones who laugh and the ones who glare. Those two kinds of students are the ones that mock and antagonize her.
Even some of her own family falls into that category. Oh her sister Cattleya was a sweet soul, and she wouldn't ever mock Louise for her lack of talent in magic, but the rest of her family was another story. Her sister Eleanor would glare and mock her for failing even the simplest of spells and her mother would just give her a disappointed look and then make comments about how she wouldn't have much of a future if this kept up. Her father barely spent enough time at home to make a difference, but Louise knows that he is disappointed in her failures with spellcraft.
Verbal abuse isn't the end of it. There was physical abuse as well.
Once, a small group of students, two boys and three girls, ganged up on her after classes to mock her and other clichés for bullies. It escalated when one of the female students grabbed a lock of Louise's long hair and began talking about how Louise was such a loser, she didn't deserve such pretty hair.
So they began cutting Louise's hair themselves.
Of course, one of the professors caught sight of this act and stopped them before sending them straight to the headmaster. The students were given a warning not to attempt bullying Louise again or they would be suspended.
However they carried on anyway, making sure no teachers were in sight when they did so, like at night time. They had to limit themselves to mostly verbally abusing the pinkette though, hurting her physically would raise questions if people saw the bruises on Louise's skin. Which is why they made sure to hit her where nobody would notice, such as the back, abdomen or her right arm, where the burns would disguise the bruises. They threatened to do worse if she ever told anyone.
Louise had little to no confidence and was already rather sheltered. Adding the bullies just made it worse. She decided to keep her hair short so nobody would grab at it again but kept her bangs long enough so it would cover most of her eyes, drawing attention away from the dark rings she had under her eyes from lack of sleep. She wore a longer cloak around her uniform to cover up her entire body so nobody would stare at the burns on her hand and so they wouldn't catch even a glimpse of her bruises.
Yes, Louise wasn't a happy person.
And today was no exception.
The familiar summoning ritual was one of the days she dreaded the most. She feared how badly she would screw up such an important event by failing the summoning spell. So when Colbert called her name, she felt a growing pit of unease in her stomach.
"O-okay..." Louise began walking up to the summoning circle. As per usual when her name is called out for anything, students began snickering and whispering.
"Oh boy, time to move back a bit."
"The Zero? She'll probably kill her familiar instead of summon it!"
"Tch, what a loser. Why is she even here?"
Louise bit her lip as she heard a few of the comments and the nickname she was branded with. Zero.
Because she had Zero confidence, Zero talent, Zero friends, Zero hope.
As she stood in front of the summoning array, Colbert flashed her a small smile. He was by far the only teacher who still supported her. All the others had already lost hope. She smiled back weakly. It felt good to her, knowing that there was still one person in the school who had her back.
The students continued whispering amongst each other as Louise brought her wand out of her cloak and raised it. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as she began chanting. She needed to put all of her effort into this.
"Hear me out, familiar spirit!" She exclaimed. The students began growing confused looks.
"What is she doing, is she using a different chant?"
"That's stupid, she must be making her own up."
The summoning chant was something that remained static, it was always the same. It began with set words and ended with set words. The only words you could customize in the chant were in the middle of the spell, where you describe what you were looking for in a familiar.
"Oh powerful being of unrivaled strength, somewhere out there in the universe! I need a familiar that fears nothing and can defeat any opponent!"
Yes, how she wanted such a familiar. A familiar which was her polar opposite.
"A familiar who can stay by my side in life and in death! A familiar who will always be there to help me! A familiar that knows the pain of being alone! A familiar... a familiar who can be my friend!" Louise shouted as she chanted.
"Valliere..." Kirche muttered, a look of pity on her face as she sat with Tabitha and the two aliens. "You poor thing.."
"Fragile..." Alcorzar muttered. "Fragile.. heart... like... glass."
Tabitha nodded, agreeing with her familiar's comment. Hamon said nothing as he stared at the pink haired girl who was pouring her soul out into the summoning as the runic array in front of her began lighting up with a white glow as it hummed with power.
Some of the students began snickering to each other, some began actually pitying the pain in Louise's voice. Despite the varying reactions they were showing, they all knew one thing. Louise could never hope to summon a familiar because her summoning chant was incorrect and her spells always failed.
However... contrary to their belief, there was one familiar that could answer her call... from across the galaxy, in a different star system, a different planet.
On a different planet, a single grey figure was darting among alleyways in a dark metropolis, the sound of stomping feet following it. It was raining purple precipitation that evaporated into some sort of steam as the droplets hit solid objects.
Not this being though. Every drop slipped through its body seamlessly, as if he wasn't there at all.
The grey clad being narrowed glowing pink eyes as it escaped from the ones following it. There was a dead end up ahead. Perfect.
The figures following him halted in their spot in confusion as the being they were chasing went through the wall in front of them.
The grey figure mentally smirked as it exited through the other side of the wall.
And then something pierced its back, pinning it to the ground.
It's growled out in pain as it was held in place by a glowing hot white spear. It tried wriggling free as the sound of beating wings descended upon the alleyway. Suddenly four more spears pierced its body, one through each arm and two more around its torso. Glowing pink eyes widened in alarm and pain as the owner of the flapping wings landed several meters in front of him, dark silver armor with green highlights covering its entire body, a pair of glowing white eyes glaring out from a helmet styled after a knight's. A pair of huge angelic wings sprouted from its back.
"This ends here, foul creature. You have evaded us for too long. Your brother may have evaded our sight for years, but killing you will surely flush him out." The figure said with a female voice full of spite as she raised a gauntlet clad hand, a spear of light shuddering into existence in her palm.
The trapped figure struggled as he tried to break free. 'Not like this... NOT LIKE THIS!'
"Hear me out, familiar spirit!"
The figure froze, as it heard the unfamiliar voice.
"Oh powerful being of unrivaled strength, somewhere out there in the universe! I need a familiar that fears nothing and can defeat any opponent!"
The being with pink eyes were wide with confusion as it heard the voice. A familiar? What was that? Was this voice... a little girl from the sound of it... asking for some sort of guardian? The winged being in front of it wasn't reacting to the voice, could she not hear it?
'Is... is she calling out to me? ME? Why?' the pink eyed being thought as it began to slump in its place, no longer paying attention to the armored woman walking towards it.
"A familiar who can stay by my side in life and in death! A familiar who will always be there to help me! A familiar that knows the pain of being alone! A familiar... a familiar who can be my friend!"
Pink eyes widen as the being hears those words. This person... was also in pain. She was alone...
'Just... like me?"
The grey clad being began feeling a pull on its body. The pull was weak but it felt... odd. Like it was waiting for something.
"If you exist... somewhere out there in the universe... then please... please! Heed my call!"
The armored being stood right in front of it, raising her arm as she prepared to bring down her spear. "This is the end for you."
"No... It isn't..." the pink eyed being whispered as it felt the pull... and relaxed into it. 'I don't know who you are... but I won't let a chance like this slip by.'
The winged woman's eyes widen in shock as a green glow envelops her target and then promptly vanishes right in front of her, taking the injured being with it.
All that was left in the alleyway was a single raging figure with a spear of light and the sound of purple rain.
An explosion occurred, as the students expected. And it was by far the most intense one Louise has ever produced, completely covering the summoning circle and blasting her back, her own wand exploding into pieces in the process, causing her to cry out in pain as she flew back, only for Colbert to catch her. Smoke billowed from the explosion, spreading out as the students coughed from inhaling some.
"Whoa, that was *cough* crazy! I haven't seen one that bad before!" Kirche exclaimed, trying to wave away the smoke. To her, and most of the students' surprise, a gust of cold wind began blowing the smoke around them away. She turned to look at Tabitha's familiar, who had his mouth parted slightly before closing it.
Louise was gritting her teeth as she cradled her right hand, which was now practically charred from her latest failure. Tears were threatening to spill from her eyes.
"Here, let me see that..." Colbert said as he pulled a vial from his voluminous robes. He uncorked it and poured half of the contents onto her hand, causing the pain to lessen as a cool sensation enveloped it. "It should hurt less now."
"Thank you..." Louise muttered as she bit her lip. "I... I failed again..."
"I'll say!" one of the students shouted from the crowd, several others shouting in agreement as they began chattering again.
"Settle down!" Colbert exclaimed, a tint of anger in his voice as he stood up. Louise sat on the floor next to him, tears trailing down from her eyes as the students jeered.
"I.. really am a zero..."
Kirche watched this with a sad look as she turned to Tabitha. "We should go and check up on her."
The bluenette raised a brow. "Why?"
"What do you mean 'why'!? Look at the poor girl!"
"Not that. Why now? This is new." Tabitha corrected, pushing up her glasses.
"I..." Kirche started before realizing Tabitha was right.
Kirche hardly interacted with Louise at all. When she did it was just little pokes of teasing. Louise however kept her distance from Kirche. Saying that her mother said the Valliere family were the Zerbst family's enemies. WHY had Kirche never tried checking up on Louise before?
Hamon whistled a bit before turning to Alcorzar. "That was one big explosion. By human standards at least." He then raised a rocky brow as he noticed something odd about his fellow alien. "What's up with you?
The Necrofriggian was standing ramrod straight, its eyes narrowed and almost glowing as it stared right at where the summoning circle was supposed to be, now just a smoking crater. "Something... isn't right..." He then took a deep breath and exhaled a blast of cold air right at the crater, surprising the students and Colbert as he began clearing away the smoke.
The crater was revealed, a large three meter hole in the ground. There was still small traces of smoke too, but that wasn't what caught their eyes.
Something was floating above it. Something transparent, almost invisible.
The partially invisible outline began slowly approaching Louise, causing her breath to catch in her throat.
Slowly, the figure began losing its transparency, becoming completely visible.
And many of the students screamed in horror.
It was a monster. A wraith. A demon. There were many words that could be used to describe it but inhuman was the best. The being was vaguely humanoid, it had a torso and a pair of arms shaped like a man's. That was where the human resemblance ended.
Its body was covered with some sort of grey material that looked like skin. Its upper body was that of a lanky human male's, almost skeletal as the material had the outline of ribs on it. The material covering its body had multiple dark gaps in it for some strange reason, like cracks in pavement. Several odd straps and buckles like the ones on a straitjacket were hanging from its collarbone, below the ribs and various other places. The material covering its arms were a bit baggy and voluminous, like the sleeves of a robe. The sleeves had the same odd straps and buckles on them. Each arm had a single hand with four abnormally long fingers tipped with sharp claws, thumbs included. Each finger was roughly twice as long as a normal human's.
Its lower body was a single wispy trail of the grey material, like a tail, making the figure appear more phantom-like. The tail was roughly half a meter long.
Its head was completely covered by the material like a mask, a metal collar around its neck with a 10 inch chain hanging from it. Where its mouth was, a single zipper line was extended, a zipper hanging from the end of the right side.
Its eyes were fixated inside a dark gap in the grey material that slit across its face and then went down its neck and joined with the crisscrossing pattern of gaps. The pair of glowing eyes with pink sclera and tiny dilated black pupils. The eyes were strangely uneven, the left bigger than the right and the right eye wasn't on the right side of the gap but instead was in the dead center.
This thing looked like a nightmare from an insane asylum. And it was staring right at Louise.
"...so... you are the one?" a breathy voice, sounding like a whisper, came from the wraith-like being, shocking the students. Louise was trembling in fear but she slowly nodded shakily.
Then, the zipper line on the being's face curved into a small smile as it floated closer to Louise, bending its back lower until it was eye level with her. "Don't be scared of me... I wouldn't hurt you..." the creature smiled wider. "You saved my life after all."
"H-huh?" Louise blinked in shock. "I-I what?"
"I was about to die... and you saved my life, little one. By calling out to me, I was saved from a humiliating death. And I am one who always pays people back." The being straightened up. "So... I will fulfill your wishes."
"M-my wishes?" Louise repeated.
"Yes... you wanted someone strong... someone who feared nothing... someone who would stay by your side forever... someone who could be your friend, correct?"
Louise's eyes widened. Her classmates and teacher forgotten, all she could see and hear right now was the being in front of her. "A-are you..."
"My name is Tar'Rhor. I am your... what was the term you used? I believe it was... familiar."
So, now Louise has summoned her familiar.
As you can see, Louise in this story is quite different indeed from canon Louise. She's quieter, has short hair and is a victim of verbal and physical bullying. I have nothing against canon Louise but... I'd like to see how I can go as I type this story with a different Louise instead of canon Louise.
Now then, as for her familiar... I'm sure you all can figure out exactly WHAT he is.
I'm happy that I got a few positive reviews for this. Especially a particularly long one from a guest.
I am aware that the five elements include water, not ice. I originally pondered on having Tabitha summon a Piscciss Volann, but in the end I thought a Necrofriggian would suit her better.
A few readers would probably wonder who the story would be focused on in terms of POV. It will switch alternating between focusing on Tabitha, Kirche and finally Louise, along with their familiars. I hope I can alternate evenly between them..
And I do have a plan for where the story is going, no need to worry. But for now, we will follow canon.
Well, if anyone has any questions or concerns about the story, feel free to PM me.
Until next chapter then. Toodles~ ^^