Download App
25.1% Unbound Familiar / Chapter 179: Forever Failure

Chapter 179: Forever Failure

Michael turns with Agnes' strike, managing to catch his stumbling feet and manoeuvring towards where Derflinger was positioned. He shakes his head and looks back over towards the trio who were all staring at the empty stump where his left arm used to be.

He himself glances at his wound, and grimaces as the pain finally hit him. He keeps his senses with the help of his pain resistance ability, but the utter agony is still present, even if he can ignore it somewhat.

"You blew my fuckin' arm off!" he shouts at Louise as he activates Dark Pact and Shadow Dance simultaneously, covering the whole room in black smoke. Louise, Henrietta, and Agnes cough and back up towards the corner as their vision is impaired, all readying themselves for another attack by Michael.

Dark Pact activates and Michael's shoulder explodes with pain as a new arm bursts out of the stump, it was almost as if you were observing the Salamanders tail regrowth ability in fast forward, except way more disgusting.

Fortunately, Michael was spared from the sight due to the Shadow Dance smoke covering the room, and once he recovers he grabs Derflinger and dashes towards the trio, intent to get some payback for having his arm blown off.

*Bang!*

Agnes fires her musket towards the sound of footsteps, but misses as Michael easily twists past it. His foot flies up and kicks the weapon clear out of her hands, his regrown arm coming around and striking her hard in the jaw, knocking her to the ground as he turns towards Henrietta and Louise.

"This would have gone fine if you'd just given me the book!" he growls as he lunges for Henrietta, intending to use her as a hostage. Unfortunately, she wasn't as defenceless as one might expect.

"Vile Torrent!" she exclaims, and water is rapidly sucked from the air around them and fired towards Michael's direction. The spiralling, stabbing, pressurized water strikes him in the chest, easily picking his body up and throwing him clear through the wooden wall and onto the street.

Michael rolls to a stop and gets to his feet, ignoring the many staring civilians as he peeks his head through the hole he'd been shot through. His Shadow Dance ends as he does this, and he's forced to turn his head to the side in order to avoid yet another musket ball that Agnes fires at him. "Surrender now!" he shouts as he Blink Strikes behind her, slamming the pommel of Derflinger into the back of her head, easily knocking her unconscious.

He then leaps backwards to avoid an Explosion spell fired by Louise, Blink Striking behind Princess Henrietta before smacking her wand away. To secure his hostage even further, he casts Shackles that wrap tightly around Henrietta's neck, slowly burning and electrocuting her as they hold her still. "Louise! Surrender or I'll kill your Princess! Try and cast that spell again and I'll kill both of you!" he growls as he tugs on the Shackle binding Henrietta.

Smoke steadily rises from the shackle around her neck, and the groans of pain almost immediately have Louise throwing down her wand. "Stop! Let her go! I'll..."

Henrietta pushes against the shackles while shaking her head, "Don't! He can't have it! We need it!" she says, knowing that the Prayer Book presented one avenue for Tristain to actually survive the coming conflict.

"You can't use it if you're dead, Princess." Michael grouses, glaring at Louise whose looking back and forth between them with an aggrieved expression plastered across her face.

"W-why are you doing any of this!? I thought-" she starts, looking as if she were about to start sobbing.

Michael scoffs, "You thought what? I was going to beg you to take me back as your familiar or something? That I wanted to talk to you about a pardon? That I gave a fuck what my 'master' thought?"

...

"No. I just want out of this shit world, and for that, I need the book. So give it to me, or I'll leave your Princess's bloated corpse on your doorstep in a month's time!" he states.

"Don't!" Henrietta rasps out as she struggles against her bindings.

"Y-you're a monster..." Louise says with a shuddering voice, confusion and hatred clear in her eyes. "I-I'll give you the book! J-just let the Princess go!"

Michael grins, pulling the Princess back and extending a hand, "The book for the Princess."

"I-I left the book in the palace! H-hand over the princess and I'll get it for you!..." Louise says, but Michael just shakes his head.

"No. You go grab it, I'll keep a hold of the Princess until you do... I'll leave another note with the palace guards, hopefully you get it... For the Princess' sake." he says, not wanting to wait around much longer as he could hear the sound of armoured boots arriving around the inn. Clearly, the commotion from him being shot through a wall had drawn some attention.

Michael knocks the princess out and retrieves some bed covers from his inventory before proceeding to wrap the unconscious girl in it. Afterwards, he hefts her over his shoulder and rushes to leave the place, "The book for the Princess, it's your choice, Louise!" he says as he exits, leaving Louise alone in the dilapidated inn room.

"Arrrgh!" she cries out in frustration, giving a nearby chair a kick as she frantically thinks about what to do... Her familiar had just kidnapped the princess and threatened to kill all of them, and now she has to hand over one of the most important Brimiric artifacts that is both essential for her own growth, and the safety of Tristain itself.

She ignores the pain now pulsing in her foot and wipes the unshed tears from her eyes, "Why is this happening to me..." she mutters, eventually going over to wake up Agnes whose still slumped against the floor.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Kingsprovince

JayJonnaJamison

Jack Allen

Faruk Ereng

Chapter 180: Unrational

"So... You kidnapped the Princess... Why...?" Ralf murmurs as he watches Michael lay the unconscious Princess down on the bed, the man palming his face at the sheer absurdity of their situation.

Michael shrugs, "She was asking for it... I told them what I wanted, they refused, tried to fight me, so I took something they couldn't do without."

"And you thought kidnapping the princess would make them more amenable to our needs?" Ralf asks, dumbfounded. "I suspect they will begin to employ far harsher tactics now that we've essentially committed war crimes..."

Michael shakes his head, "It's only a war crime if we kill her. I'd rather not do that if we can." he admits.

Ralf gestures at the burn scars around Henrietta's neck, "If it's all the same to you, maiming and torturing captives, especially Noble ones, is a war crime in Halkeginia"

Tiffania sits beside the princess with a sad expression, feeling as if Michael's actions were her fault. After all, it was her that needed the book, not anyone else. She uses a moist cloth to dab at the burn scars, occasionally using a herbal paste to cover them before finally wrapping it all with some cloth. "Did you need to use so much force, Michael? I understand we need the book, but, if we are going to hurt people then, maybe we should try something else? The Princess and Miss Valliere did nothing to deserve this, in fact, I think we owe Louise for summoning you to us in the first place..."

Michael shakes his head, "She kidnapped me from my home, it might have ended well for you two, but I'm still lost and without a way to get home. Not without the book at least. As for the Princess? Yeah, she probably doesn't deserve this, but she's standing in our way to freedom. So she's an enemy and should be treated as such." he explains, though, his reasoning falls a little flat to their ears, as if he himself wasn't sure of his actions.

Ralf lets out a sigh, "Be that as it may, we will need to relocate, it is only a matter of time until someone finds us. The only reason we haven't been discovered yet is because no one is searching for us... Now that you've kidnapped the princess though? We will need to be careful.

"Yeah, we'll move tomorrow. We'll have to leave a message for Charlotte when she comes back around with her mother though."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Louise stumbles into her room within the palace, her shoulders slumped and her hand still tightly gripping her wand. The kidnapping of the princess was a big shock, not just to her, but to everyone else in the know. It was being kept secret for now, but the very fact that Princess Henrietta had been kidnapped inside her own city while attended to by her trusted attendants was a big knock to many people's minds.

Indeed, some had even begun blaming Louise for the situation, while most people did not know just how involved she was, it was clear that her own insistence on meeting with Michael had caused all these problems in the first place.

Michael's words had truly hurt her, as she had indeed thought that he was seeking some kind of pardon in order to return to her. A familiar was supposed to be loyal towards their master to the core, yet, her own seemed ready to disobey and go against everything Louise said.

It wasn't all her fault however, as it was Henrietta who'd encouraged meeting him, the princess thought they could bring him to their side, and gain a powerful ally in the battles to come. Neither had thought Michael's reason for inviting them would be so malicious though.

Now she was presented with possibly the hardest choice of her life. Hand over Brimir's Prayer Book, the thing that allowed her to learn and utilise her Void Magic. Or let her familiar kill the Princess, Agnes was aware of the situation and likely wouldn't allow her to choose the latter option, not that Louise had even considered it, but it was still a heart-rending choice.

Her whole life she'd considered herself a failure of a mage, unable to cast even the simplest spells. Then, the Princess had taken her in and given her the Prayer Book, making her feel that she could finally be useful... And now, she had to give away the one thing that could improve her life and the life of everyone in Tristain... "How could I have been so stupid? I should have listened... I should have known that Michael was going to do something like that!"

Back in the Academy, he'd seemed so lost and unsure of himself. Yet he was like a completely different person when they spoke earlier. His smile didn't reach his eyes, he spoke as if he was talking through a filter, and he looked at her and the Princess like they were pawns in a chess game, not as people.

And then they refused to hand over the book, and it was like a dam had burst. It was just, wrong. Really wrong! So wrong that she thought they might've been tricked and were talking to someone else who looked like her lost familiar.

Honestly, despite the anger she was feeling towards him, she couldn't help but feel pity. What had happened to force him to change so much? And what was forcing him to go so far to obtain the Prayer Book... He was clearly reluctant at first to use violence, but once that switch had been flipped, he was all too natural threatening and fighting.

Louise shakes her head, regardless, her thoughts on her familiar were useless. He was an enemy of Tristain who'd kidnapped the Princess, any hope of pulling him to their side was now long gone.


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Niggross Niggross

Hope you bois liked the chap, if I missed anything please let me know. Thanks!

If you like my content or want to read ahead please go to : https://www.p.atreon.com/Nagross, I'd appreciate it.

Also, thanks to my patrons for their support :

ShinAmazake

Kingsprovince

JayJonnaJamison

Jack Allen

Faruk Ereng

Load failed, please RETRY

Weekly Power Status

Batch unlock chapters

Table of Contents

Display Options

Background

Font

Size

Chapter comments

Write a review Reading Status: C179
Fail to post. Please try again
  • Writing Quality
  • Stability of Updates
  • Story Development
  • Character Design
  • World Background

The total score 0.0

Review posted successfully! Read more reviews
Vote with Power Stone
Rank 200+ Power Ranking
Stone 0 Power Stone
Report inappropriate content
error Tip

Report abuse

Paragraph comments

Login

tip Paragraph comment

Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.

Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.

GOT IT