My Blind Familiar_The Ash Golem

by Nathan Valerio

  “Madrid, let’s enter and you can go talk about your lost first love with him personally, I wish to place my bed early.” Cress Snide said and circled everyone and with an expressionless face he walked into the camp.

  “Don’t mind him, he is from the Church of the Serpent god and most of them are reserved like the snakes but he means well.” Madrid explained.

  “Meh, at least he is honest.” Grunt grumbled and turned.

  “Where are you going! I'm not done yet!” Silvia shouted.

  “Get stronger then me first girly, when you do I'll listen.” Grunt said.

  His words made the girl bright red, “You infiel scum! Corrupt being that dares defile the heart of a beautiful woman like Miss Gales! I shall bring divine judgement upon you!” She shouted and she drew a white metal sword.

  Grunt stopped in his step and looked back at the shining blade then looked at the girl, “If you want to have a remote chance of me reacting to your attack then summon your familiar.” He said.

  "I need not the help of the filthy spawn that uses Demon arts to empower itself! I shall kill you with my own power!” She shouted.

  His brow raised and after a moment he began to laugh until he fell on the ground. “Oh this is grand! I can’t believe I lived to see the day I met a justice lover who even disregarded the familiars because familiar binding was developed from demon magic!”

  He was rolling around but everyone was frozen and the girl’s eyes were filled with rage.

  “If that is what you wish, behold my holy spirit that I have cultivated from the grand holy being the heavens granted me!” She shouted.

  Her familiar seal shined and behind her a beautiful naked girl appeared with pink feathered wings and many ribbons wrapping her body. She had the size of a 12 year old and her hair was blonde while her eyes were blindfolded by the ribbons. “Bring divine judgement to this infiel!” She shouted.

  The angels feathers fluttered and she held her left arm up and her feathers gathered and formed a bow in her hand. She pulled the empty air but soon a white light formed the bowstring and arrow.

  Everyone became wide eyed as they saw the reckless girl aim at Grunt who never once stopped laughing.

  “Silvia! Stop this instant!” Madrid shouted but the girl ignored her.

  “Fire!” She shouted and the arrow flew like lightning. The target was also ruthless, because Grunt was on the ground rolling, she had aimed in between his legs.

  Just as suddenly as the arrow was fired a large flash happened and a loud explosion followed.

  The flash blinded everyone but when their eyes readjusted they saw Grunt cheerfully sitting while laughing. Everyone was wondering where the arrow went but when a sudden gasp came from someone it was followed by a shout. “OH GOD! LOOK AT THE ANGEL!”

  Following that shout, all eyes targeted the angel and what they found was the angel's body without the head still in the position but the next second it slumped down and fell before it became particles of light and retreated into the girl’s familiar seal.

  “Girly, rule number one of this camp, teachers are the law and I'm the executioner, you are a little brat who evolved a cherub into a level 23 Angel of the Holy Ribbons without learning its true attributes and attack methods. You can’t even bring out 20% of its power and you blindly believe in whatever ‘justice’ you put your mind to. You don’t even know the story between me and Madrid and you already put me in the bad seat. This is called Blind Justice brat, it will lead to your own self destruction.” Grunt said and got up before dusting himself off and turning. “Learn how to properly wield your familiar first… no first learn to recognize familiars as a partner first, with your mentality at the moment I can only pity that poor angel.”

  The area was silent as he walked into the camp.

  “Let us go inside.” Miss Gilbody said and the boy and woman nodded and she pushed the girl that was in a daze.

  They entered and Miss Gilbody dispersed the students to their duties.

  Xero watched them and walked up the main path, he was curious about his trainers past or at least a part of it. Grunt was open about his things he was asked but if he didn’t want to talk about it he would say it.

  Xero found his tent which was bigger than the ones students get but then again, all the teachers tents were.

  “Grunt! You here?” Xero said poking his head in.

  “Oh boy, come in.” Grunt said.

  Xero walked in and found the tent of the old bear well furnished. A table and some stools, a large bed with several hids making the mattress and a blanket covering it.

  Xero saw Grunt drinking alcohol and looked at him curiously before sitting at the table.

  “Want some?” He asked shaking the gorde of alcohol.

  “I’m too young.” Xero said frowning but the bearman just laughed.

  "I was already drinking by your age.” He said.

  “Hey, what is your story with that Madrid woman?” Xero suddenly asked.

  Grunt filled his mouth and drank it deeply, “Haa~! Me and Madrid heh? Well I already assumed someone would come. Let's see here.” He said and drank some small sips as he remembered his past. “If I'm not mistaken, me and Madrid studied in the same academy, truthfully I was once part of the Holy Institute, I had a passion for the God of Earth and the Warrior god of Honor. I found those the greatest. One reason being that my greatest affinity was earth and my familiar was living armor.” He said.

  Xero was shocked to hear that he was part of the Holy Institute. It was hard to imagine Grunt as a holy man but as a paladin the image it gave was unique knowing him today.

  “During my… fifth year, our year went on a trip like we did here but it was just fifth years, Me and Madrid were in the same year and my Living armor was still weak back then and nothing like today. We had unexpectedly run into an invading party of demons and all hell broke loose. At the time the teachers were fighting the leaders and so the strongest students were fighting the other secondary leaders and leading the other students. I wasn’t always strong like this, that day I felt terror and used my magic to protect several people until I heard Madrid's shout. When I spotted her, her Pheasant at the time had been killed and she was about to be as well but I charged and cast my Innate Spell that summoned forth a shield that rebound an attack. Soon after the teachers killed the leader and soon the situation turned in our favor but from that point Madrid fell for me hard!” He said and sighed.

  Xero was holding back his laugh as he heard the story of the bear man.

  “So? You were afraid of fighting before?” Xero asked.

  “Why do you think! I admired the Warrior god of Honor brat!” He shouted as he blushed. “Anyway, when we returned to the Institute she became quite active in her pursuit of me lasting a full two years. I had told her countless times that I wasn’t interested, during the two years she took up ice magic and created her Ice Pheasant. She suddenly came once saying, “Why do you ignore me so much! I show you my love and only receives a cold shoulder!” Ah man just remembering her like that gives me headaches.” He said rubbing his head.

  “So? What was your reply?” Xero asked.

  Grunt looked at Xero and sat back against the table, “I’m not interested because you’re not my type, I like strong woman, not magically strong but physically strong, I'm a bearman so I like my woman almost as strong as me.” He replied.

  Xero was slack jawed by this. He never expected this man to turn down a beauty that could bring down cities because it wasn’t his type. Who cares if she isn’t his type to have a beauty like giving him her all. “What happened after that?” Xero asked.

  “She crushed me so thoroughly that I couldn’t face her but she would seek me out and using the Warrior god of Honor’s own code since I wanted to join their church she made me duel her every time for a month until I accepted her as my woman. She crushed me each and every time and so I did the only thing I could, since I had lost my honor as a bearman and as a man I simply gave up on the ins
titute and left. I transferred to Everlight for the final two years and during these two years I asked Gilbody and the previous PE teacher to pound me and my familiar with both physical and magical resistance. It was total hell but after graduating I spent a good 5 years continuing the same routine until I could develop a strong armor.” He said and drank the last of his alcohol.

  Xero was taking all this in and the tent went silent.

  “So what did you think of my past?” he asked.

  “Weren’t you a spineless wuss?” Xero asked.

  He almost fell out of his chair and slammed his fist on the table, “BRAT! Don’t you dare call me spineless!” He shouted.

  “But weren’t you? I mean come on, you simply ran away from your problems.” Xero said.

  “Well you try having a woman beat you senseless everyday, I bet that even after that month she would have beaten me senseless and then thrown me in bed just to have a night.” he said.

  “Oh is that so?” A frigid voice called. The temperature of the tent fell drastically and the two looked at the entrance were Madrid’s head was inside.

  “Damn it woman! Call first before entering!” Grunt shouted.

  “You're not a woman and I wouldn’t care if you were one.” she said.

  “Then leave.” He said.

  “You really want me to pound you into the ground don’t you?” She said.

  Grunt rolled his eyes, “Not like I haven’t heard that one before.” He said and stood up before going to a cabinet and storing the gorge and taking another one and removing the cork and drinking more alcohol. “If you are just going to insult me then leave. If you want me to apologize to that girl then forget it.” He said and sat down.

  She looked at him coldly, “You still haven’t paid the debt to the Institute, you as a student can’t leave without paying yet you ran away.” She said.

  "I have paid, or did you make sure to take the money before it reached the coffers of the institutes to make sure I remained in debt?” He said.

  Xero looked between them and felt really out of place here but to him, it looked like a fight between newlyweds.

  Madrid walked in completely and walked over, “You still have a debt, you didn’t adhere to the code of the God of Honor, you lost all the fights.” She said.

  “Oh not this again, give it up woman, how many times did I say I am not interested, I don’t fucking care about the damned code, because of you I don’t even have honor left so what do I care about continuing?” He blurted out.

  “It does not matter, at the time…”

  Bang!

  Grunt slammed his gorge on the table and suddenly stood up and glared down at her, “When you learn new lines come find me.” He said and left his tent.

  She was frozen in place and Xero felt really tense and quietly stood, “Um I'll… excuse myself.” He said and left leaving her alone.

  It was unknown how much time it took for her to snap out of it before she sat down and looked at the gorge. “That idiot.” She said and took a drink and her white cheeks turned red instantly. “Damn it, Fire Dragon Blood wine.” She muttered and put the cork on and let her head drop on the table.

  Outside Xero looked around but Grunt had vanished but an extremely loud explosion from 1 km into the woods showed that the bearman had run extremely far and was venting. Since it would be dangerous to approach Xero just sighed and returned to his tent and summoned ash. The currently Level 10 Obsidian Scaled Imp was quite muscular. He had leveled up greatly due to all the higher leveled meat he was eating. Now his body was like a large body builder and his restraints were changed greatly. Xero worked really hard to keep up.

  With all these level ups Ash had begun to gain intelligence so pulling out a sword Xero and Ash found in an open space and began to work on their sword form. With the Restraints holding them to their limits the two kept doing the same form. Ash was now properly learning his form and on his back were dozens of weights and the tail kept pulling the weights up to strengthen the tail.

  For over two hours the two swing the sword until Xero was covered in sweat.

  “Impressive!” A voice said.

  The two froze and looked at the source and find the red headed boy from the Institute.

  “You have a demon familiar, I never saw another one with such a humanoid form like yours.” He said.

  “Oh, yeah, well he is a bit strange.” Xero said, “I’m Xero Null and this is Ash.” Xero said.

  “I’m Ernest Wais Nelmoon and this…” he said and his familiar seal flashed before a figure that looked around 2 appeared. “... is Night Gale.” he said.

  The familiar was completely human with light blue skin, black scalia and Yellow eyes with slit pupil. His hair was black and he wore a black robe that covered only one side of his chest. On his back were large black wings and on his lower back was a long sleek back tail. On his forehead were small white horns and above his head was a black halo.

  Xero was stunned to see the contrast between demon and angel and was completely confused about what he was seeing.

  “Confusing isn’t it, Night is a Dark Cherub.” Ernest explained.

  “Don’t compare me to those little babies!” The familiar sudden shouted.

  Xero almost jumped out of his skin when Night talked. “How?” Xero was completely shocked.

  “Don’t worry don’t worry, it’s just because Night is level 35.” Xero’s jaw dropped. A common third year student was at max level 30. The ones present from Everlight were all level 17 to level 21 due to all the monster food they obtained.

  “Like I said, don’t compare me. Huh?” He muttered and looked at Ash and moved forward “This Imp?” he muttered.

  When he got within 5 meters Ash tensed up and sniffed the air and showed his fangs before growling. His eyes fixed on Night and the white inside the blue iris shrank as Ash became more tense.

  Night still approached and looked at him, gave a sniff then rubbed his finger on the imp who was extremely tense. After a moment he balled up his fist and suddenly pushed Ash’s gut and pushed him into the ground making a crater and lifted his hand.

  “Night! What are you doing?!” Ernest shouted.

  Night ignored him and lifted his fist and licked the black blood left on his fist.

  "I knew I recognized this guy!” He suddenly exclaimed.

  “Huh!” The two boys suddenly shouted.

  Night remembered the two and scratched the back of his head, “Sorry about this, I suddenly had a feeling of nostalgia seeing this guy and needed to make sure.” He said and laughed.

  “Night! Explain now?!” Ernest ordered with the seal.

  “Jeez, don't need the seal to force it. Fine, I was born in the same spawning pool as this guy, I remembered him because when I first developed intelligence my first instinct was to eat something strong. The closest thing was this idiot. He was a failure of the spawn pool. Blind as a bat and easy food but by the time I gained sentience this guy already had a 10 cm demon core that is a delicacy, first come first serve so I would let the other idiots eat the ash body and I would take the core and crush and eat it. His soul would develop a new one just as strong but I was already growing and soon left. Whenever I died and respawned as an imp, I would wait and kill him a few times to strengthen up before leaving.” He explained casually.

  The two boys were shocked to get some past information on the demons and to think that their familiars were from the same spawning pool and knew each other.

  “Wow, to think….you two had such a history.” Ernest said a little perplexed.

  “Yeah, but this guy sure grew big, since he is blind he must have modeled himself from humans since he never saw hell. Hey kid how big is his core?” The demon angel asked.

  “How big? Um… I summoned him with 12 cm.” Xero said.

  "I asked how big it is, not how big it was.” He said and sighed. “Forget it.” He said and turned and hand flashed and his hand pierced Ash’s body. A huge hole appeared and in the angels
hand a large red pearl appeared. “Oh damn! 15 cm, this guy died so much that it made him a lesser noble demon! Ah damn this looks as tasty as it used to be.” He said.

  “Night! Don’t do anything to it!” Ernest said.

  "I know.” he said and looked at the body that had disintegrated and was returning to the seal. Even the pearl was pulling towards Xero.

  “Hey Ernest, why don’t we help the kid out? This thing has millions of deaths of stored energy not even counting all the mana he must have absorbed as a familiar.” Night said.

  “What's he talking about?” Xero asked extremely worried.

  “Night! Don’t even think about it, he isn’t ready to handle this amount of raw energy. It could even corrupt him.” Ernest said.

  “WHAT IS HE TALKING ABOUT?!” Xero shouted.

  “It's a rapid growth technique demons possess. Only higher demons or humans with demon familiars know of it. Normally when a demon dies the best outcome for the demon is if the core is crushed or if it is at least cracked. This way the power stored inside is released. We can’t release all of it as familiars unless we die a lot of times which is tiresome. The best extreme growth is caused when we store several cm of core and crush it. We instantly reach the later phase.” Night said with a savage glint.

  Xero wasn’t understanding and looked at the boy.

  “Demon cores undergo several phases. First is the growth stage which is found in imps mostly. The core grows to a max of 20 cm before its compresses itself and they it enters the layer phase when it makes condensed layers similar to how a pearl would form. Afterwards is the Gem stage where it compresses again and forms layers of raw mineral jewels.” he explained. “But you only possess strength of at most level 6 and if he crushed the core of your imp now it would most definitely jump instantly into the layer phase and could cause corruption when the energy bursts out. It would undergo evolution unlike any other when this is used. My teacher did that to me and I was in bed for a week after that but I did it with strength of a level 10 and Night was level 15 but his core at the time was only 13 cm and I started with it being 10 cm but the power it stored is extremely powerful and it felt like my body was ripped apart.” He said.