Hello there, Skylinemaster with another installment of The Devil Familiar of Zero.
"Speech."
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Familiar of Zero or Highschool DxD.
"Like the view?" I asked Agnes with a smile. Right now, we are currently on a ship that will take us to Albion, and we are nearing the floating continent. Our travel plans are messed up however, as the airship we planned on leaving on departed without us. I managed to find alternate transportation, although the airship we are on doesn't have the most savory crew out there. I had to threaten a smuggler that was docked for passage on his ship.
He reluctantly agreed after I threatened to burn his ship down, and we boarded the ship a few hours ago. I am currently on the ship's deck, looking overboard as I see the clouds starting to thicken.
The air around us reminds me of the air of the Underworld for some reason I can't explain. The mist around us is thick enough for us to avoid the blockade set up by the rebels in Albion. The smuggler said that he was going to stop at Londonium and that we would have to find another way to get to Newcastle.
"Captain!" One of the smuggler's men shouted, causing me to look back.
"There be a ship nearing us. The flag is Albion's." The same man said.
"Aye, I suppose we should bluff our way past this. Keighley, retrieve the forged papers." The captain said as I looked in the distance.
There was an airship very close to us, and I can see movement in the distance.
"Pirates! They be pirates!" Another man said, causing me to be alarmed. Damn, why can't this trip just be smooth sailing?
"Veer the ship and out run em." The captain replied as there was a blast of fire from the other ship that is dangerously close to us. The blast of fire missed, but that gave me an idea.
"Agnes, you ready?" I said as I grabbed onto her hand, and blasted a jet of fire from my feet. I propelled myself into the air, along with Agnes, and landed on the other ship which was 200 meters from the original ship.
"Get these people off!" A fat bearded man, wearing an eyepatch on his right eye and a blood red military uniform that was a bit too tight, said as he raised up a sword. From that command, hordes of unkempt men charged at Agnes and I, most of them wielding crude axes or swords. I launched shards of ice at the onslaught of attackers while Agnes held some off with her sword.
"How you holding up?" I said as I dodged a sword slash aimed for my head.
"You got us into this mess. Help me finish it." She said as I could see a blast of fire coming at us from the corner of my eye. I raised up a wall of ice which blocked the fire from hitting her and then turned my attention at the source of the fire, which was the bearded man.
"You, you're Devil, ain'tcha?" The bearded man said as I raised my eyebrows.
"Who might you be?"
"Wouldn't you like to know sonny? Since you won't be around to tell anyone, I'll be nice and tellya." He said boastfully as I frowned.
"Names Uri Valefor, boy." He said. Valefor, interesting. Valefor. If my memory is correct, this clan died out from natural causes, a rarity among Devils, but still possible. The clan was decimated during the Satan Civil War, and then wiped out when the heir had no children. I can see that that is a lie though.
"You are right, I am a Devil. Names Rofocal Shax." I said as I created an ice sword in my right hand.
"Aahahaha. I've always wanted to kill a Shax member!" He said as he charged up a lightning bolt in one hand. Heh, kill me? I'm too young to die.
I dodged the initial lightning bolt, and charged at him with the ice sword in my hand. He kept launching a hail of lightning bolts at me, but I dodged each one, causing him to get madder and madder.
"Die you punk!" He yelled as I neared stabbing distance.
"You first!" I said as I stabbed him in the stomach with the sword before touching his face. I aged him to death and ended the pain of the stabbing.
"Agnes! Are you okay?" I said as I turned around, looking for Agnes to make sure she is okay."
"Yes, no thanks to you." She said as she glared at me.
"Come, let's go to the control room of this airship, we will need to direct this ship to Newcastle." I said as she nodded.
We made our way to the control room of this ship, just above the below the deck of this ship. We caught the crew by surprise, and forced them to turn the ship to the direction of Newcastle.
Agnes and I left the control room to look for any stragglers remaining on the ship, and we are still looking for them.
All of a sudden, the airship nosedived and we hit the ceiling, hard.
"Agnes, the crew must have abandoned the ship." I said as I grabbed Agnes after we both hit the ground.
I ran as fast as I could as the airship moved in all directions, causing me to be unsteady as I made my way to the control room. Sure enough ,there was no one manning the controls, and our airship is rapidly losing altitude.
"Agnes, do you know how to fly this thing?"
"I how a little bit." She said wearily.
"That is good enough, take control of the ship!" I yelled at her as she gripped the wheel with all of her might. She gritted her teeth as I felt the ship stabilizing and returning to normal altitude.
Whew, disaster averted.
"Agnes, how long until we get to Newcastle?"
"About two hours." She said as she gripped the wheel.
"Alright, if you need me for anything, I'll be right here." I said as she remained focused on the wheel. I walked around the ship, waiting to get a layout of the ship and I was rather bored in the control room. I found many chests filled with gold when I walked deep into this airship.
I was inspecting a rather large chest of gold when suddenly the ship violently rocked to the right.
"What the hell?" I shouted as I ran back to the control room. I ran as fast as I could, trying to keep myself from being flung all over the place as the ship rocked back and forth.
"What is going on?" I shouted as I burst into the control room.
"You can't see? That!" Agnes said as I noticed multiple black masses moving very fast in front of the ship. Griffins, with mages on them, this is bad, I need to get rid of them.
"I'll take care of them." I said as I rushed for the deck as I am going to try to shoot the griffins out of the sky. I reached the opening of the ship and spun around, trying to get an accurate reading on the number of griffins. There are one, two, three, four, five, six. Six griffins around us, each having an armored rider on it.
I looked around at the deck and saw various parts of the ship were ablaze. Okay, priority one, send the griffins crashing back to earth, priority two, put out the various fires.
The griffins circled overhead the ship, lobbing fireballs down at me and the ship. I watched the movement of the griffins, trying to get my timing down so I can shoot the griffins out of the sky.
I quickly noticed a pattern when the griffins swooped in to strafe the deck. After the griffin rider would launch their spell, the griffin would fly straight up and then turn left.
I capitalized on this, knocking three griffins out of the sky with ice spears after they fired on the deck.
I assume the remaining griffin riders knew that I figured out their attack pattern and they changed up their movements. The movements are now erratic and I can't get an accurate reading on the griffins. A griffin charged at me before sharply veering left, and I shot an ice spear through it as it turned, sending the griffin and the rider plummeting back to Earth.
Alright, two remaining. The two remaining are directly in front of the ship and they keep criss-crossing with each other. They are firing fireballs as they intercept each other and I dodged the incoming fireballs as they got closer.
Now! I caught the griffins as one is behind another and launched a hail of ice shards at the griffins. The hail of ice sent ripping holes in the griffins and blood flew onto the deck of the ship as the griffins flew out of sight.
"Rofocal! We need to abandon the ship!" I heard Agnes say as I turned around. The ship was on fire, everything was on fire and the smoke was making it hard to see very far. I used a wind spell to clear the smoke and saw Agnes, her hand over her mouth as the smoke surrounded us. I ran towards her, picked her up, jumped over the edge of the rapidly falling ship.
I deployed my Devil wings at about three-hundred feet above the ground and I landed in a wooded area. I gently lowered Agnes as I heard the ship crash in the distance, a burning wreck meeting its final end. We should probably get out of the forest and figure out where we are and then start heading towards Newcastle.
"Agnes, how far away are we from Newcastle?" I asked Agnes once we got onto a stone road. I can see a town relatively close to us, as well as the smoke of the flaming wreckage of the crashed ship nearby.
"We were about ten minutes by airship. I don't know how long it will take now." Agnes said as I noticed armored troops moving in the town.
"See that mountain range?" Agnes said as she pointed at a mountain ridge in the distance.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"Newcastle is just over that ridge." She said as I noticed a large column of troops coming out of the town and at our direction.
"Quick, into the bushes!" I said as I grabbed her before jumping into the bushes. The soldiers passed by our position about twenty seconds later, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"They probably noticed the flaming ship. But still, there are probably a large number of enemy troops staying in this area." I said as Agnes nodded.
"We can't risk going on the road as they might spot us, do you know this area well?" I asked her.
"I know a little bit. The princess had me travel with her when she went to Albion, so I know the terrain relatively well." She said.
"Good, we need to stay off the main roads and get over to the other side." I said as Agnes said.
We moved deeper into the forest as Agnes led the way. She kept mentioning something about a mountain pass that will cut down the travel time by a lot. We moved as fast as we could whenever we came upon open trails, but other than those times, we moved in the shadows.
The concentration of rebel troops searching the area surprised me. There were large groups of heavily armed Albionese rebels roaming the roads as we got closer to the mountain pass. We hid in the forest and waited for the soldiers to pass. We couldn't engage the troops without the other rebels in the area hearing the fighting, which would alert them to our presence. I don't know the total amount of rebel troops in the area and I sure don't want to find out, so I refrained from launching magical attacks at the rebels.
We are coming up on a clearing in the woods, allowing us great visibility of the surroundings. I can see a very narrow mountain pass between two hills, about fifty meters from our current location. There is a large group of rebels in front of the pass, probably a guard to prevent anyone from going in or out of Newcastle.
We stared at that group of twenty or so soldiers for about ten minutes, and those soldiers didn't move from the position.
"Agnes, any way around them? They probably aren't going to leave anytime soon."
"No, this is the fastest way to Newcastle."
"Any idea of how to get around them?" I asked.
"Can't you just freeze time on them?" She said in an annoyed voice, causing me to roll my eyes.
"I can't freeze time for a group that large. We need to think of a way around them."
"I have an idea."
"Yeah? What is it?" I asked, intrigued about what she might say.
"Let's get as close as we can to them, then we can take out as many as we can without them alerting the others." She said as I nodded. We crawled in the brushes until we are about five meters from the entire group.
"On my count." I said as Agnes moved behind a soldier who had his back turned to her, peeing on the ground as Agnes moved closer.
"Now!" I said as I launched a fire spell on the horde of soldiers. The fire I used is very very hot, and it burned the skin on contact. The rebels died before they could feel the heat of the flames, so I gave them a quick and relatively painless death.
I looked at the charred bodies, making sure that everyone was died by touching them with my foot to see if they moved.
"Agnes, you okay?" I asked, turning around as I saw her take her sword out of the peeing rebel's back.
"Yeah, let's go." She said.
We moved through the mountain pass, making sure that no one was setting up an ambush or attack on us by looking up at the mountain slopes for any rebel activity.
We walked out of the mountain about five minutes later, and came upon a small church like building on the other side.
"We should take shelter there, we aren't sure where the enemy forces are gathered. Best to stay out of sight and figure out our next move in safety." Agnes said as she grabbed my arm. Smart move, I also thought that going into the building would be the best course of action.
I looked around, making sure that no one was around before heading to the exposed road in front of the church. There was no one that I could see, so I went to the church. I heard some movement inside and I told Agnes to be on guard in case of an ambush.
I pushed open the doors, revealing a chapel complete with an altar and various benches like a church would have. I didn't feel any pain from being in a church, probably because Michael doesn't have any authority over this land.
We walked a few steps in before the door shut behind us. Yep, I felt an ambush coming.
"Who are you?" I heard a male voice say as Agnes put her back onto my back.
"Identify yourselves." I heard a male voice shout from the altar. The man is wearing a full suit of armor, complete with a facemask, so I can't see who is talking to me.
"We are servants of Henrietta, Princess of Tristain, we come bringing news that must reach Prince Wales." Agnes said from behind me. Geez, great job of exposing our identities.
"Henrietta of Tristain? Prove that you are who you say you are." The man on at the altar stated as he brandished a sword at us.
"I have the Ruby of Water." I said as the armored man stepped forward.
"That ring! It can't be…" He said as he stopped in front of me. He took off the glove on his right hand, exposing a ring on that hand.
"Please, hold your hand out." He said as I nodded. I made a fist and held my fist out, right in line with his ring. There is a very bright red glow from my ring and a bluish glow from his ring. I can feel the magical powers radiating out from the two rings, and it is very subtle, yet strangely powerful to experience.
"My ring, the Ruby of Water, has been in Albion's royal family for ages. When the water and wind meet, a rainbow is created. A rainbow that will bridge two families." He said as he took off his helmet. The young man inside has blonde hair, blue eyes, and looks to be a teenager.
"My apologies for before. I am the Prince of Albion, Wales Tudor." He said with a smile. Great, I guess we have found our guy.
"Princess Henrietta sent us to get you out of Albion. Your life is in danger here and we will bring you out of danger by going to Tristain." Agnes said as he nodded.
"I see, my cousin wants me to be with her. But I can't leave my men here." He said grimly.
"You will not survive if you are not evacuated." Agnes said briefly.
"I can't leave my men! The job of a noble is to lead his men. If one can't lead, how can he expect others to follow?" He said as I nodded, understanding the passion hidden within his words.
"Hm, I have an idea. We will help you and your men fight until we reach a safer location, then your men will disperse among the population." I said as he looked deep in thought.
"Then what are we going to do?"
"I suppose we will stay hidden from the rebels' sight and slowly make our way to a port and then escape off this island on an airship.
"That is a good plan Rofocal, but I have a better plan. Do you know where the rebels have a fleet of airships docked? We will steal an airship and fly all of us to Tristain." Agnes said as I thought of how brilliant that plan was
"The closest that I know of is the rebel fleet at Shrewsbury. The rebels use that port city to supply their forces this siege." Wales said after looking deep in thought.
"How far away is this Shrewsbury?" I asked, wanting to know the distance so I could calculate how long it will take to travel.
"Twelve kilometers." He said as I nodded.
"How many soldiers do you have with you?" Agnes inquired.
"Seven of my most loyal men are by my side.
"Alright, so ten people will be headed to Shrewsbury. We should leave at night, the cover of darkness will mask our movements and we will be able to sneak aboard a ship easier then." I said.
"Alright then, we will leave in approximately four hours then." He said as his troops cheered. I nodded and pulled Agnes to the side to discuss our movement plans.
"Alright, you have any ideas about how to get to this Shrewsbury?" I asked her.
"I know of how to get there. We should take the same approach of cutting through the forest to get there. It will be a little bit longer, but we will be much more unlikely to be discovered." She said as I agreed.
"Alright, the plan for getting into town?"
"Shrewsbury is a small town, and the airship fleet is docked in the port area, near the end of town. We will need to go through the town before we can reach an airship." She said as I sighed. Damn, going through the town will increase the chances of our group being seen.
"Is there no other way around it?"
"No, Shrewsbury is a port on a cliff, and the town is the only way to get to the port area." She said as I nodded sadly.
"Alright then, we will need to move silently to prevent getting discovered." She said as I nodded. This is going to be a long night.
The next four hours were spent roaming around the church, making sure that no one had snuck up on the church while we were inside.
At around eight, we started moving out of the church. The night sky had fallen, and the two moons were illuminating the night sky with their presence. We marched single file into the woods, with Agnes and me leading the column, followed by Prince Wales and his group of soldiers.
Agnes was in front of me, leading the group as we ventured deep into the forest. Whenever we came upon a road, we stopped and waited. We did the same thing whenever we heard a column of enemy soldiers marching in front of us.
Slowly but surely, we made it to the edge of the town, avoiding the few patrols we encountered near the paved roads. There were fewer patrols than I thought there would be, but I guess we just didn't encounter them.
I could see the town in the distance, completely blacked out, not torches or lamps anywhere that I could see. There was no activity there, it was just like a ghost town. I felt that something must be wrong with this picture.
Agnes led us into town, creeping along the side of various houses as we made our way up the main road of the town.
I can see an airship that has a ramp already set up as we closed in on the port area. There should be a lot more resistance than there is, something is wrong.
"Agnes, I think this is a trap." I said as we are at the last house before the ship.
"Yeah, I think so too, there should have been rebels here." Agnes said worriedly as she looked around.
"Should we head back?" I asked.
"No, the ship is right here. We should take it." Agnes said as I felt a hand grab my right shoulder.
"She is right, this might be the only way my men will escape." Wales said from behind me.
"Hm, alright then. You and Agnes should go on first. I will keep an eye out for anything." I said as Wales nodded.
I turned my back to look at the town before I heard a crash of lightning. I quickly turned around to see Wales and Agnes struck by the lightning, and then I looked up at the night sky to see the magical power source I suddenly felt. I saw a dark figure front of the moon, his face obscured by the light and wings protruding from his back.
The aura is unmistakable, the wings are just reaffirming what I know. The person is a Devil.
"All of you, take them to the ship now! Go to the Valliere estate and don't turn back!" I shouted as the soldiers picked up the bodies of the moaning Agnes and Wales and rushed towards the ship.
I then turned my attention back to the figure, who has now landed in front of me. I can see his face now, I can vaguely remember seeing it before…
"You! Louise's fiancée!" I said as I realized who that person is. His name is Wardes or something like that.
"Pleasure to meet you, lowly familiar. Name is Viscount Wardes, but my true name is Ezaniel Valac, I am the heir to the Valac clan." He said smugly as I became shocked.
"Valac? But your clan didn't die in the Satan Civil War! How are you not dead?" I asked him as I heard the airship behind me take off. Good, I bought them a few more moments to escape.
"Ah, too many questions in such a short period of time. Tell you what, maybe as you're dying, I'll answer your questions." He said as I frowned. Why do I always meet the arrogant Devils?
"Now, let us duel." He said as an evil smile formed on his face.
Guess there is no other way then, one of us will die.
Thanks for reading this chapter. I hope that you have enjoyed it. Next chapter will come out sometime in January of next year, and you can't miss it. There will be a lot of plot advancement in the next chapter and some big secrets will be let out and events will happen that will effect the story.
Please follow, favorite, and review this fanfic. I like to read what my readers think about my work and am open to suggestions about the plot of the story.
Until the next chapter comes out, happy new year, and take care.
-Skyline out.