Chains of the Void
As promised, here is the next chapter, the six review quota fulfilled. It contains the promised fight scene as well. Really enjoyed writing this chapter and am more than happy that this story has gotten so much love and feedback. Hope you guys continue to enjoy my story.
Im very glad that many of you like the way I have portrayed Louise and that you consider her to act properly according to her character. I hope that you find I do all of the other characters justice too. But surprisingly I have not actually watched the Familiar of Zero anime, nor read the novel it was based on. I am pretty much basing all of my Familiar of Zero story(s) off other great fanfictions, only briefly watching small parts of the anime to direct the flow of my plot and to confirm certain details.
Anyway, back to the story, what you guys are really here for. Read on and enjoy.
Thoughts'
"Speech"
I do not own either Darkest Dungeon or Familiar of Zero. They are each owned by their respective companies. This story is for fun only, no copyright infringements intended.
Her familiar was in trouble. It had not been ten minutes after her Familiar had requested to wander the academy freely again, before she had caught wind from a bunch of gossiping noble students, that Guiche would be dueling a familiar who had insulted him, at Vestri court. Her familiar.
'How had this happened?!' She cursed herself for letting her familiar out of her sight and cursed her familiar for leaving her sight.
She sprinted towards the selected court, intent on ending this charade. If her commoner familiar had insulted a noble then maybe, if he apologised, Guiche would forgive him. Maybe...
The Vestri court was a large open space, bordered by stone pavement and then by the stone walls of the academy, but most of it was covered in finely cut grass. This was where a large crowd of students were gathering, cloaks waving in the wind as they jostled and shoved for a better position to see the fight. The two supposed fighters stood in the centre of the ring the crowd of students had formed. One, a blonde student by the name of Guiche, top buttons undone and chest slightly exposed to the joy of his adoring fans. The other had no choice but to expose his battered body, for he had nothing to clothe it with. Nothing but a ragged and torn set of a cloak and trousers.
'How had he gotten into this mess?' Abomination sighed
He glanced to the right. His dark eyes seeing through a small gap in the crowd, to the maid Siesta who looked back at him, worry obvious on her face.
'She was why. The first one to care.'
He had lived apart from everyone else his entire life. From strange, silent boy, to disappointing squire, to corrupted man and finally caged demon. This life of his had driven all those close to him away, and his appearance and reputation had made sure that no one ever would get close to him again. But here in this new world, that had changed. The masses still feared him, but there were exceptions. His master had saved him. His naive, childish master with so much pent up anger and hate. But against all that, she had still given him her shelter and her food. He had to admit he felt a certain kinship to his master. A small girl who only wished to prove herself, but just simply lacked the thing to do so. Just like in his youth, while Louise lacked magic, he had lacked both skill and strength.
And the maid, the Saint, in his eyes, was why he was involved as he was now. At first he had thought her an enemy, sneaking and following him. When she had mistakenly revealed herself she had been hit by a full blast of demonic aura. The fear, the hatred, the sheer wrongness of his existence would have perhaps frightened her to near death, if Abomination had not realised his own mistake and helped her back up from the ground she had fallen upon. And despite his actions, whether Siesta knew of them or not, she helped guide him through the academy. She had cleaned his hands of her own volition and she had not once questioned his appearance or how he had got it once. This indebted him to her and that is why he would not allow a threat to her to stand.
Siesta had only been doing her job and had directed a first year student to Guiche's location, while he was entertaining his supposed girlfriend. The resulting backlash from having been dating this first year had stung as well as it should have. Such a fool this boy was. Being caught red handed and blaming his own mistakes on that of a defenceless servant, who had everything to lose. Abomination had interfered, defending Siesta who he considered himself indebted to and was quickly challenged to a duel at Vestri Court. Abomination knew why the noble boy did it. He could see it in his eyes, in his expressions. Guiche wished to regain his lost pride, despite a large portion of his reputation being shattered for two timing. A show of power over someone weaker than him would make people forget his mistake if a big enough spectacle was put on. And a spectacle was what Abomination's interference would provide. Humiliating a servant girl, that was common place amongst nobles. Humiliating another noble's familiar however...
"I'm surprised you have the courage to even show up, commoner familiar."
Abomination only nodded and remained where he was. He could see all other students staring and pointing. Whispers of 'the commoners toast' and 'serves him right for challenging a noble' were commonplace. It was not their words that angered him. It was the looks in their eyes and the barely hidden mirth and laughter.
'What are you gonna do about it then? Just take it like a good, little commoner dog?'
Abomination ignored the voice, but it's whispers didn't hurt any less, or ring any less true. That was exactly what he had to do.
"If you get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness, I might just do so!" Guiche smiled, posing with a red rose over his head.
Abomination assumed the plant was a wand, as all of its thorns seemed to have been stripped away. But at his words the chained man immediately knelt down and tucked himself into a protective ball, arms prostrated towards Guiche.
"I humbly beg for your forgiveness, Lord Guiche." He spoke, much to the surprise of the crowd and Guiche himself. He had expected this strange familiar everyone seemed afraid of to fight back. "Please also forgive Siesta for, what I assure you was, a misunderstanding."
The blonde haired noble put the rose to his chin in contemplation. If he just forgave the familiar now, everyone one would just disperse in disappointment and perhaps remember his two timing. He had arranged this duel as a spectacle for his fellow noble's. Guiche smiled mischievously. And a spectacle was what they would get.
"Ah yes the maid. I was unaware her name was Siesta. I will have to find some sort of suitable punishment for her later." Guiche said absentmindedly.
Abomination gritted his teeth and his hands balled into fists.
'Your sorrys are not working, dog. Your debt is going to be left unfulfilled and the maid ravaged by noble attentions.' The demon tormented him. 'If he's feeling nice of course.'
"But before all that..." Guiche continued, his wand moving to point at the kneeling familiar. "I'll have to punish you!"
Abomination felt his body become weightless and he was flung into the air. His chains rattled and bounced off his body, bruising and marking his skin as they whipped around, due to some invisible force. He grunted and gasped in pain, Guiche laughed at his despair and the crowd laughed with him. Abomination subconsciously noticed his master, the pink haired Louise, shouting for the duel to stop, trying to push through the crowd.
'Now even your master gets to see you fail.' It laughed, the sound like nails on the chalk board in its occupant's head. 'Such a pitiful disgrace towards the one who saved you and the maid who cared for you. But you know there's a way to change this fight don't you?'
"I... I don't... Want…" Abomination grunted as he continued to be thrown backwards and forwards across the court.
"Don't want to what, commoner?" Guiche laughed. "Fall?"
The noble pointed his wand to the floor and the chained man fell like a rock, chains impacting the ground and crushing against his bones. A cry of pain filled the court as the man was forced back into the air again. A few nobles faltered in their laughs, the trick seen as a bit too brutal for their tastes. Guiche himself grimaced, but played it off with more laughter. He hadn't meant to drop him that fast, he had wanted to scare him by catching him at the last second. For a moment, Guiche felt like his magical grip on the man was slipping.
'All you have to do is ask. All you have to do is give in. And all your worries will be over.' The voice became soothing and tempting, so honest and kind. 'We can prove ourselves worthy of our master, protect your Saint and defeatmurderkill that fop who, like all the others torments us.'
"I... Don't... Want... To hurt... Anyone" He replied through the pain.
Abomination felt time slow as he twisted in the air. His vision began to fade, but not enough to hide the laughing, giggling, malicious faces of the nobles.
"I... Don't..."
Their faces twisted into shadows, lips sharp with open grins. Guiche was in the centre of it all, that rose the only red in a sea of blacks and whites.
'Soon there will be a lot more red.'
"Don't want to… Kill you..."
They tormented him, the shadows, they laughed and they mocked. They hurt him with their magic and their wands and their noble pride. The demon offered the only salvation every time. Every time he was maimed. Everytime he was branded. Everytime he was caged, whipped and bloodied, it was not God nor the Light nor the angels that saved him. It was the demon.
"Don't want to... Don't want to... Don't want to..." The one part of his conscience screamed like a mantra, over and over in his head.
But the other parts screamed something else.
"I want to..."
Old Osmond and Professor Colbert sat in silence around the headmaster's desk. One of the tallest towers in the academy, the headmaster's office was a place of dread for most students. Osmond rarely called students up to his office, but it could be for only one of two things. Either you had committed some offence and were to be punished. Or you were to be expelled. But today, no student graced the office with their presence this time.
"What does it mean?" Professor Colbert asked.
"This is a familiar rune that exists only in legend. Furthermore considering it was the third girl of the Vallière family who summoned him..." Headmaster Osmond started. "I'd venture that this has something to do with the one, lost element of the pentagon."
"It can't be..." Colbert replied in a gasp, gripping his staff in shock.
"Whatever the truth behind this is, you must not-" Osmond started to say, but suddenly had his and the professor's breath stolen away from them, as they felt a huge burst of unnatural energy rush through the room.
"What in Brimir's name is that?" The fire wizard professor exclaimed, after he caught his breath.
Osmond was as shocked as his colleague. He couldn't describe what sort of energy had passed through his office. It felt like magic, but if it was, the nigh impenetrable anti-magic wards surrounding the school shouldn't have allowed it to get through the walls. It felt different. Although the headmaster in all his days had never quite experienced anything like this power, he knew one thing. It felt wrong. Very, very wrong.
Guiche suddenly felt his levitation spell on Louise's familiar end abruptly and the man fell to the floor. The noble briefly worried that he would kill the familiar if he fell from this height, but he seemed to have righted himself and landed on his feet. The moment the chains crashed to the floor however, the atmosphere in the court changed.
"I want to..." He spoke, his voice echoing and its volume increasing unnaturally.
Everything felt cold, as though the air was forcefully cutting through the nobles clothes. Dread gripped the crowds hearts, why they did not know. But Guiche knew why. He saw the dark energy pouring off of his opponent and he took several steps back. The familiar's skin was rippling, turning red as glowing green veins pushed his skin taunt. The chains surrounding the man rattled and stretched, until in a flash they broke apart, scattering across the grass.
"Kill you!" The familiar screamed, instantly in motion, feet and chains crushing the grass beneath him.
Guiche let out a cry of horror as this mad man charged him. With a wave of his wand and the fastest incantation he had ever cast in his life, three rose petals fell to the floor. In a burst of light three brass golems, Valkyries, appeared in their place, shields and spears held at their side. But no sooner had they rose from the ground, the one closest to Abomination was hit full across its armoured face by a huge length of chain. The Valkyrie stumbled back, the front half of its helm broken and flaking away. The sprinting man roared as he leapt through the air and onto the brass golem, moving too impossibly fast for a mortal man. With both hands now free, he grabbed ahold of the Valkyrie's crumbling helmet and tore it fully open, exposing its earthen exterior.
The student body was surprised enough with the sudden burst of energy and unexpected attack this commoner familiar had launched upon Guiche. But that surprise quickly turned to horror as they saw, heard and felt the same familiar's face contort, snap and twist into new shapes. Hard scaly ridges formed across his nose as the man's face elongated. His teeth shifted and grew into pointed fangs. With an unholy tearing, two black horns pushed themselves out of the Abominations skull and out the back of his head.
But nothing compared to what happened next. With a retching, gargling noise his throat budged and expanded, a torrent of oozing green liquid vomiting up from his mouth. The vile mixture was thrown up directly upon the Valkyrie's face and in moments, it had burnt and dissolved through the things body, leaving the golem a crumpled mess of hissing brass and metal. It collapsed and Abomination fell off it. With the final snaps of grinding bone his transformation was complete.
A monster through and through, a true Abomination that towered over even the brass golems that opposed it. Every noble was petrified into silence as they watched it look around, sniffing at the air. It's skin was now a dark crimson, eldritch green blood pumping through the veins that even now pulsed against its skin. It's clawed hands were mismatched. It's right was constricted still by the manacle and chain that clung to it, but still deadly sharp talons had grown from its fingers. But with the left manacle broken and in pieces across the grass behind it, Abomination's other hand was a bundle of muscle and tendons that exuded demonic power. Long blades of bone, the size of bayonets, were it's nails and as it flexed this hand, bones popped and clicked into place. It's feet were no different, razor tipped, muscle bound and deadly.
The silence lasted perhaps a second more, before the beast sighted Guiche and roared an ungodly wail of noise and hatred. Birds from miles around fled as one and the crowd of students screaming back, as they clutched their ears in pain. The Abomination resumed its loping charge, covering the distance between itself and the noble effortlessly. The remaining two golems intercepted him and formed a small shield wall, spears out. The small tipped blades pierced into the thing's skin, but snapped as they hit strengthened bone. Howling in pain, the monster tore the two Valkyrie's apart, it's huge claws raked through them, metal and earth parting like paper. Guiche froze up in absolute bed wetting fear for perhaps a moment too long before he tried to act. The Abomination was already upon him as he flicked his wand for one last spell.
"Earth pillar!"
Simultaneously, as a spiked shaft of earth exploded from the ground and impaled through the Abomination's side, a razor tipped claw fell upon Guiche's outstretched wand hand. The rose wand, as well as Guiche's entire hand was shredded into a mist of red. Petals, blood, flesh and fingers all.
The blonde noble went pale and screamed in absolute agony, but that became a muffled whimper and the Abomination's other hand clasped around his face. As the noble boy wailed into the beast's hand, the Abomination grimaced to itself as it broke away the jutting piece of earth stabbing through its body and tore the shard back out of it's flesh. Green blood poured momentarily from the hole before, slowly but surely the wound regenerated before everyone's eyes. In an immense display of strength, Guiche was lifted up into the air with the monster's one hand, feet dangling and hand bleeding. Tears pouring down his face and onto the red skin of what had previously been his victim, now turned tormentor. He tried to beg, but his words wouldn't pierce through the ever increasing grip over his head. It seemed that someone else would have to beg for him.
"Stop! Don't kill him!"
Guiche felt the crushing weight stop, but not lighten, as Louise finally pushed her way past the stunned nobles and stood in the open Vestri court. The Abomination's head slowly turned to her, snorting in contempt, it's eyes suddenly gained some form of intelligence.
"Why?"
It's voice was like a dozen, all shouting at once and shocked all present. The gathered noble students had believed that this was just some savage beast, a sort of werewolf from the fairy tales of youth. Even Louise was taken aback, she didn't think her plea would work.
"Why should I not kill him? Is this not one of the boys that have been bullying you so hurtfully all your life? What favours has he won from you to deserve such treatment? Why should I not crush his skull into powder and why should I not devour his frail body to sate my hunger! But more importantly, why..." The Abomination narrowed its still nonexistent eyes at Louise. "Should I listen to you?"
Guiche cried into the beast's hand again as it detailed ways in which he could be killed. Louise shook in terror of this new kind of monster they faced. One that was every bit as intelligent as a human and an untold number of times more cruel. One that seemed to stare into her very soul.
"Because..." She hesitated, her voice quiet and feeble.
'Rule of Steel, Rule of Steel, Rule of Steel.'
Her mother's words gave her strength and her voice grew with confidence.
"Because I am your master!" She shouted. "And you will obey me!"
The Abomination only chucked, it's teeth revealed in a toothy grin.
"Master? Of me?!" It laughed, a guttural rasping sound. "You may be the master of the Caged One, but you have no sway over me. But what Master are you to even order his pitiful existence?"
The beast dropped Guiche to the floor and the blonde boy desperately began to crawl away, clutching at his fingerless and broken hand. He was trying to drag himself across the grass towards Louise.
"Lectures and insults for a man unknown to this world and it's ways. Whipping for the tearing of a small rip in an easily replaceable shirt, while he could only but one arm. No food for a man who hadn't eaten for days."
Louise looked down in guilt, but tried to protest nonetheless, falling for the demons trap.
"I did give him food..."
"A loaf of black bread and the meat off discarded bones!" The demonic creature laughed all the harder. "Are you going to try to pacifying me with food next? I can tell you that I have more... Refined tastes than three drumsticks."
It licked the splatters of blood across it's hand, a long tongue slithering between its teeth, lapping up the red liquid.
"And if not food then how can you stop me? Perhaps with magic, but perhaps not considering your reputation." It continued, feet gripping the ground in readiness, claws flexing. Everyone soon realised that it was about to charge straight through Guiche and at Louise. "Don't think the Caged One and I haven't heard. Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. The black sheep. The useless noble. The Zero."
Louise held her head down in shame at the very mention of that accursed title. Oh how she hated it. Her classmates used it as a mocking joke due to her zero success rate with all magic. Now this malicious demon was utilising the name for it's own painful advantage.
"So let's see, how about this. All of you..." The Abomination glanced around the crowd spotting some of the more prominent mage's in the crowd, before taking up a twisted version of a runner's stance. "And the Zero try to stop me with magic. With force. If you can stop me from crushing this blonde fop's head and then devouring the pink Zero's tiny little body, I'll submit as your faithful servant. Your trained little dog on a chain."
Those last words were spat out with such venom, more literal venom dripped from its toothed lip and burnt through the grass below.
Very few mage's drew wands and most took several steps back. The circle widened to reveal, Kirche, the redheaded buxom girl and her quiet blue friend Tabitha with wands out. Montmorency hesitated before also taking a step forwards and drawing her wand. There was even a commotion at the back of the crowd, as Professor Colbert struggled to reach the centre.
"Bah! Not a man of courage among you! Either way, ready or not..." The Abomination growled, before seeing Guiche finally be able to drag himself half way between Louise and itself. "Here. I. Come!"
The red demon exploded from the ground, dirt kicking up around him with each pounding step. He had made it halfway to Guiche before any could even fire a spell. But spells did come. Tabitha reacted first, a wave of pressurised wind blocking the beast's path, but it simply slammed into and through the magical barrier by lowering its horned head, airstreams billowing off his wide shoulders. Two bolts of concentrated fire struck next, one landing on either side of his body. Kirche had more time to gather a spell, while Colbert had only just stumbled past the fleeing students. A testament to his skill that he could cast such a spell in so little a moment. But both came to no avail as the Abomination's rage quelled any pain he felt from burning skin and propelled him onwards.
Only a single Mage remained willing and able to cast a spell. Montmorency had frozen in terror when the beast charged, and so it came to be that Louise was the only noble left. Her head was afire with spells she could use. While her practical use of spells was beyond poor, her knowledge of spell theory was beyond exemplary. She knew of dozens of useful spells that had the potential to be extremely helpful in this situation. But she knew that she could use none of them. There was only one thing she could ever consistently accomplish. And so that's what she did.
Her face darkened and contorting with her own feelings of anger and pent up aggression. Louise's hand drew her wand in the blink of an eye, and it was pointed at her target, just as the monster's taloned foot was about to come crashing down on Guiche's screaming head. Time froze there, as she felt magical power build in her body. The sight of her 'hated' rivals fleeing and failing around her, Kirche, Guiche and so many more who had bullied, laughed and mocked Louise, it all served to focus that power and that rage into succeeding. This time she would not just be content with trying another time. This time she would not just ignore their jibes and insults. This time she would not lock away her feelings and keep them bundled up. This time, she would Explode!
"I am not..!" She roared, the immense well of energy peaking and focusing on the point of her want. "A Zero!"
Magic, raw and undiluted shot forth from Louise's wand in a thin beam that impacted against her familiar's chest. Reality and space seemed to distort for a moment, in that second where time stood still. The Abomination's face began to change from malicious grin to confused frown, as he felt himself become weightless again. The monster felt it's chest tighten and twist as a matrix of constantly imploding and exploding invisible energy formed in a ball right in front of him. He felt the little mage's power shake his very bones as it washed over him and he chucked quietly.
'Perhaps, he had underestimated the Caged One's master.' The Abomination mused.
The ball of intense energy finally erupted into a focused explosion of gargantuan proportions. The condensed magic was forced in a direction. The demon's direction, towards the sky. The Abomination's skin was vaporised, but it felt no heat. It's nerve-system may have been fried by the blast, but the Abomination guessed that this explosion wasn't one of fire, but of something else entirely.
As the monster was sent flying through the air and over one of the Magic Academy's walls, it realised that it would have to relinquish its hold over the Caged One's body for now. With the flesh almost gone from his body, reverting back to it's smaller self would mostly heal Abomination's body, and give him time to regain his strength. Just before the demon hit the ground it's body bubbled and shifted, and the chain's enchantment took effect. Metal regenerating around it's body as the cold links tightened around The Abomination, sealing it back into it's mortal prison. The mortal who's master had been able to revert her familiar back to his normal, if not natural, state. In the Abominations last moments it wondered to itself.
'Perhaps it would not be so bad, being this little mage's servant as well.'
The runes on its hand lit up in affirmation.
Side note: The name 'Abomination' refers to the human familiar of Louise. 'The Abomination' refers to the demon form of Louise's familiar. Wrap that round your heads.
Reviews and criticism are welcome.
Signed by Imperial Decree
BluePanedGasMask
