Rise of the Devourer

Book 2: Chapter 27 — Blood Bond

It had taken an entire day for Noah to walk to the nearest village before he had been able to borrow a ride the rest of the way to Heartilia. He’d had to take a couple of stops to meditate with the bunny in his inventory. Even with the shackles suppressing it the creature was a noticeable drain on his mana pool.

After arriving in the city at last, Noah had made his way across the city, before arriving at the Lord’s manner, crashing onto his bed as he’d slept the rest of the day away. It was the next morning that Noah found Aurelia, training in their practice arena.

“Where did you disappear off to?” she asked, shooting a fist size hole in one of the targets swinging at her.

“Quest. It was a bit far off,” Noah replied, yawning as he scratched the back of his head.

Jumping off the platform Aurelia stepped closer, noting his new ghastly arms. “New ability?”

“Old one upgraded,” Noah said with a pleased grin as one of his Starforged arms flexed to show off a spectral bicep.

“Looks quite neat. Are you planning to give it a weapon to use as well?” Aurelia asked.

“I haven’t decided yet. If my guess is right, the next tier up should allow me to attach two more arms. With Quadrivium ink I could give each one a weapon to wield if I wanted.”

“Your abilities only keep making you more and more annoying,” Aurelia commented with a huff.

“Hey! What does that even mean?” Noah said, faking mock hurt at her words.

“It’s a compliment. An annoying opponent is one you think twice about fighting,” Aurelia said, before she paused. “Wait, what happened to your shackles?”

“Ah- good thing you brought that up,” Noah said, digging into his dimensional pocket before he grabbed the rabbit by the scruff of its neck as he brought it out. The rabbit kicked in the air, displeased but Noah’s grip remained firm. “I found this little guy on the quest, single handedly taking apart an Iron Teeth nest. Almost killed me too, but I managed to get it with the shackles.”

“What even… Draconian Jackalope? I’ve never heard of a monster like that. Level 72… you said it almost killed you?” Aurelia said, looking up at Noah in disbelief.

“Yup. I was surprised as well. It’s not like I was holding back or anything either.”

Aurelia hummed, as the rabbit continued to kick around, but the shackles persisted, and Noah let out a guttural growl with Tony’s help that settled the creature’s struggle.

“What do you plan to do with it?”

Noah’s four arms gave a collective shrug. “That’s why I brought it with me. What do you think I should do? I could kill it, now that it has the shackles on, but somehow that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But if I free it it’ll escape. It’s fast, and it can fly.”

“Don’t release a monster in the middle of the city,” Aurelia said, her lips pursed, but she didn’t linger on the idea, instead, focusing on the bunny in his hand.

“It’s mad,” Aurelia mentioned a moment later.

“Yeah it definitely is. One hell of a rabbit for sure.”

“No, you don’t understand. It’s under the influence of [Madness].”

Noah paused with a quiet ah, raising the rabbit to look at its face. The creature looked adorable, with a button pink nose and two beautiful horns coming from its face, but only till you saw its eyes. The eyes were swirling circles of red and black that drew you into them, betraying something deep underlying.

“It probably looked into the Watcher’s eye, nothing else leaves madness this strong usually.”

“So… should I kill it then?” Noah asked. The rabbit kicked once, as if it understood what was going on and did not want to wait any further to test out its luck.

“No. If it’s as strong as you claim, you should tame it. You can make it a familiar, the process is very simple. You'll have to fight the madness off of course, and there's a chance that this thing's willpower will surpass yours,” Aurelia replied.

Noah looked down at the bunny, which had returned to its struggle, biting at the shackles on its feet now, instead of Noah’s arm. He didn’t think the creature had any kind of soul resistance to break free, the shackles could hold Noah in at full power even with his resistance, but he didn’t want to wait till the bunny developed a resistance or figured some other way out.

“How do I do that?” Noah asked.

“I’ll draw the circle. I’ve done it once before for a party I was with. We found a greater spirit, and one of the elementalists wanted to tame it.”

“Did it work?”

“Nope. The elemental fried his mind and the rest of us ran. It was stupid to even try, but the guy insistented.”

“That does not inspire confidence in me, you know?” Noah said.

“You’ll be fine,” Aurelia replied, walking around the training ground as she took out a little piece of chalk and began to draw the lines. “The elemental they tried to capture was a hundred levels higher than our highest party member. The rabbit is roughly the same power level as you. At worst, the bond fails and we have to kill it.”

“Alright,” Noah said.

He watched Aurelia work through the magic circle, slowly drawing one rune after the other. He could tell she lacked practice, as she went back multiple times making sure each rune and line was in its correct position before she moved on to the next. Noah’s Abyssal Call skill gave him enough of an understanding to be able to know what the magic circle did, as he pointed out a couple adjustments for Aurelia to make here and there.

In effect, the spell would tie Noah to the rabbit, and the rabbit to Noah. It was not dissimilar from the Pact he had with the Void, except on a much smaller scale, and much weaker in nature. Noah would be the host from which the familiar would draw resources, and in return it would follow Noah’s commands.

That is, if he can bend the rabbit’s will to his own. It was in effect, a battle of willpower and spirit. If the rabbit, by some chance won, it would be able to impose its will upon Noah through the bond instead of the other way around.

“Has someone ever been made into a familiar by a monster?” Noah asked, as Aurelia finished the last rune in the circle.

“Not that I’ve heard of. There are dragons who can probably do that, they’re smart enough. But the familiar bond doesn’t work unless you agree to it. So even if a monster tries to impose its will on you, it can’t turn you into its familiar. Not unless you agree to become one.”

“Well, that’s good to know. Would have been awkward to be forced to be the familiar of a rabbit,” Noah said.

“I’ve seen weirder,” Aurelia replied. “Put the rabbit in the center and remove its shackles. There’s a barrier spell so it can’t escape until the ritual is complete, but you’ll need to stop it for a single moment, between when you place it and when you begin the ritual.”

Noah gave a nod, stepping forward into the magic circle, making sure not to alter any of the lines drawn on the ground. Placing the rabbit down, he flared his aura, using it to impose a single idea onto the rabbit.

Stay.

To his surprise, the creature didn’t move even as he took off the shackles.

“Let’s start,” Aurelia said.

Noah blinked back out before he sent a pulse of mana into the magic circle and the entire thing came to life.

A translucent barrier surrounded the rabbit, runes of magic flaring in swirling patterns as Noah felt the magic connecting him and the rabbit.

“Alright little bunny. Time to see what you can do.”

***

The rabbit felt annoyed.

First, its feast had been stolen from under its grasp. Then it had failed to obtain any of the delicious nectar from the life-mother. The life-mother was there, right in front of it, and it had tried to win, to gain a prize that it longed for so desperately but then something had gone wrong.

Its power had been stolen. Little things on its paws had made it remember a time back when it was still prey. Still so weak. The sensation made the bunny shiver in anger. No, no it would never be that again. But no matter how hard it had tried, the cruel, vicious chains had tied it down, stripped it of all power, and forced it to act as though it was prey again.

To add to the humiliation, it had then been thrown in a dark swirling void that made its mind hurt like it was splitting into multiple pieces. The bunny had gazed down the swirling shifts of reality, and for brief moments it felt like it could see through them, but it was powerless to do anything with the chains, and so, it had simply existed in the dark.

When it finally came back out, into light and into the world, it had been ready to die.

But instead, the life-mother had just shown it off to a different woman. One that smelled of fire and ash, of destruction. She pleased the bunny, the destruction coming from her almost a soothing sensation.

Not that it mattered, it knew when it had lost. And the nature of prey was simple. It was eaten.

But- somehow, to its surprise. It was not eaten. Instead, it now sat inside some weird contraption with swirling things of magic that flowed all over and around it.

The bunny thumped its feet in annoyance. Either the life-mother had made a mistake, or had let it go.

It did not matter. It was free now.

Lightning gathered upon its horns, a deep red like the color of blood as it rushed forward… and slammed into an invisible wall.

The bunny shook its head, confused. It walked closer, pushing once more but found a strange wall stopping it. It pushed and pushed but the wall refused to budge. It was enough to make it thump its feet in annoyance.

Just what was happening?

Then, it felt something. No- someone spoke to the bunny.

It resisted, without even thinking. Pushing back on the thing that had come through. The magic grew stronger and the bunny felt the pressure grow upon it. It resisted, baring its teeth as it growled in anger.

Then, to its surprise, the magic growled back.

The shudder was deep, primal, the sound of a predator on the hunt.

A predator greater than it.

The bunny stopped, considering the magic for a moment. It did not fear death, but even it did not wish to die for no reason.

The magic continued to grow, before it asked a single question.

Do you accept to become Noah Brown’s familiar?

Yes/No?

The bunny looked at the words, at the magic that spoke them. It looked beyond them too, at the predator standing behind. The one it had so desperately wanted to get to for so long.

The life-mother, the one who had allowed it to experience the first taste of that delicious nectar.

The bunny felt kinship in that. A sensation it did not feel often.

Here, with this, it could grow, further than it had been able to on its own.

With a silent thought, the bunny accepted.

The magic flared, swirling all around it as the runes flowed into the bunny and it felt the magic fill its body. The barrier collapsed as it rested on the ground, before the life-mother- no, before its master came and picked it up in its arms.

The bunny looked at its master, and saw a predator smiling back.

“I’m going to call you Bun Bun.”

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