I do not own Familiar of Zero/Zero No Tsukaima or any of the other pieces of work mentioned in the story.
The End of the World Spell
AIDE OF THE IMPERIUM!
The first thing Malicorne de Grandple noticed was the smell. How could he not?
He'd been in a number of stables during his few years on this world, but everything he knew paled in comparison.
Founder-almighty! Some of his classmates closer to the cloud had started fainting! What kind of a familiar did something like th-
They hadn't fainted. People that fainted didn't scream. Why were they scre-
Oh Brimir above! What was happening?
It felt like something was trying to claw its way out of his skull. It was the day after he raided the wine cellars mixed with the day of his first migraine. It was gleaming fangs on his kin, the cawing of crows in his ears, the taste of rotting meat, the blackness of a clouded night in the heart of winter…
It was his magic abandoning him, that familiar presence in his mind, his very soul, gone. Ripped away like it never was. In its stead, a dark maw threatened to consume him, to excise the memory of what he was and the possibilities of what he could have been from the fabric of reality itself.
Malicorne felt like his mind was being split in two.
That vile harbinger of his madness followed him down into unconsciousness.
No mage who was there that day would remember anything other than the smell and the feeling of something… ancient looking into their very souls.
Investigations would yield nothing, save footprints and a curious hole blasted through the wall surrounding the academy.
To this day, the Crown still has investigators looking for the Familiar of the Lost.
No sign would ever be found, save the occasional ransacked home, scorched patch of earth or curiously ragged gouges in the earth.
AN: I've spent a great deal of my holiday devouring the Ciaphas Cain series (at least until Cain's Last Stand) and I adore it.
As interesting as it would be to have Cain summoned, I would not be able to do him justice. Instead, we get the psychic Blank (and Cain's aide) Jurgen. I'm not going to bother to explain too much.
Suffice to say, Jurgen is a living psychic/magic nullifier who can drive psykers (or magicians) insane through prolonged proximity. Jurgen is the aide to Commissar Ciaphas Cain (HERO OF THE EMPERIUM!) and has various useful skills (expert scrounger, insane(ly good) driver, expert marksman, etc.), other traits (very brave, but also incredibly literal minded and follows orders without question or hesitation) and he smells (the last part is important).
… Just go read the damn books. They are frakking excellent.
Which reminds me…
I do not own Warhammer 40 000 or the Ciaphas Cain series in any shape or form.
Anyway, the hole is from his melta, ransacked houses his scrounging skills, the gouges his attempts at driving a carriage and his general mission is to attempt to return to Cain.
Read, enjoy and review.
~GrinGrin
PS- two things…
Firstly, I'm killing the poll regarding my ANs by tomorrow at the latest. It hasn't got a lot to do with TEotWS, but I'm putting it here anyway.
Secondly, I've been mucking about in my profile page. I've put requests, general info, milestones or targets and generally cleaned it up a bit. Pay it a visit and see if it can either help you or me, yeah?
Written: 06/01/2014
Posted: 07/01/2014