An Archer's Promise

Beta read by Shigiya, Fluffy Slayer and DOOMRAIDER.

.

.

.

--Fort Pantielle, Feoh-

Just like the Blueborn and Levantine families, there were a multitude of noble families spread across the lands of Eostia. Each governing a swathe of territory under the jurisdiction of a specific Princess Knight.

Notably in Ur and Feoh where the majority of the elite were the descendants of the Pantielle family.

Unlike the Blueborn who had a monopoly on pubs, brothels, and lands. Or the Levantine who oversee a part of the alliance's combat force, the Pantielle lack anything of splendor or renown. In fact, they were in charge of various vineyards, responsible for providing nearly half of the beer and wine supply for all of the seven kingdoms. 

Existing for nearly a millennium, one could even argue that they were the oldest of families. Yet they neither possessed the power nor riches to showcase it, due to a history of incapable house heads squandering and wasting their own fortune on entertainment, pleasure, and parties.

"Waaaaaaaah! Why isn't she here yet!?"

In the middle of the Pantielle estate, sitting all alone in the dining room while gorging himself on an absurd amount of food was the current young master of the house, the future heir—Michelle Pantielle.

The full grown man whined out loud towards his father by the side, acting like an overgrown child asking for his favorite toy while throwing a  tantrum. 

He had short blonde hair which was surprisingly perfectly combed. A large, chubby round face where his eyes were constantly closed. Though his strangest features were his clothes, which didn't resemble anything one would expect a noble to wear. With the standard white ruff around his neck and red white palette silk covering his upper chest, arms, and legs that looked ready to tear through the seams—he bizarrely left his enormously obese belly to spill out like a gelatinous of fleash. With such a body that resembled a grotesque slob every time he moved, along with the constant sweaty face… he was less than pleasing to the eyes of many that people mistook him for an obesease pig in human clothing.

"C-Calm do-down, son! I promise you that the Princess Knight will be here soo—squish!" 

A piece of pie was thrown at the head of the Pantielle family.

"No! I want her now! Now! Now! Now! Waaaaaahhhhh! I WANT MAIA!" Michelle kept on whining while throwing anything he could get his hands on around the room.

The maids standing around the manchild had their clothes stained with food and wine yet remained quiet. Some of the more beautiful girls had bruises across their faces and even bite marks around their necks. All having the role of taking care of the young master for his every need, including his… sexual desires.

Joshua Pantielle, the current head of the family couldn't help but sigh at his son's antics. Ever since the boy met Maia on the day they were invited to a party to celebrate her promotion as a Princess Knight, he wouldn't stop talking about her. 

He was obsessed with her beauty, no longer caring about the many maids and whores Joshua bought for him. 

At first, he begged to have Maia become his wife, not understanding that his father had little power over such a decision. Spoiled since birth, he didn't take well to being denied his request, leading the boy to go on a week-long fit of anger. This caused a fair amount of damage within the castle and distress among the staff, as Michelle always took out his anger on the maids his father gave him.

He'd torture them, inflicting physical abuse till their once beautiful faces became nothing more than an amalgamation of flesh and scars. His tendency to bite people and weird to down right disturbing and tortures choice of sex led many to commit suicide from such a fate or become empty shells of their former selves.

"Don't worry, son. You're a handsome young man with a powerful background. A true prince blessed with the best traits of both me and your mother" boasted the man while wiping the remnants of the pie off his face. "I'll have Princess Prim arrange a meeting with Maia, I can have a talk with her and see how things proceed from there." 

He was sure that with a bit of negotiation and offering a few acres of land, Maia wouldn't dare turn down his request. After all, she was a peasant before becoming a Princess Knight, what would she know about true riches? Nothing of course.

"No! I want her now! I WANT HER RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!" Michelle screamed, experiencing another tantrum, causing everyone in the vicinity to whence in pain at the pig-like squeal. "Give me my wife now. I want her as my wife as soon as possible!" The sheer desire to fondle her body as he fucked her brains out was irresistible to him. From the day he first saw her, he knew that she was the one he wanted to possess as his own.

And whatever he desired would become his.

"Son, why don't you go for Prim instead? Thanks to our close ties with the Fiorire family, it would be easy requesting an engagement between you two.." In truth, he vastly favors Prim over Maia, as her family fortune was equal to that of the Levantines. A union between them would make him and his family one of the most powerful individuals in the world! 

"No! I only want Maia!" he said while munching on another piece of meat, finishing his eleventh plate since the morning.

He burped, "I'm returning to my room for now, but You better bring me, Maia, before the end of the month. Maid, come!" Michelle pointed at the one with a swollen eye and a few scratches on her neck. 

The moment he called her out, the woman started to convulse and cry, tears flowing down her face. "P-Please… not… t-today again… A-anything e-else… please my L-lord!" she begged, prostrating herself on the floor while fox-eyed Michelle grinned at her maliciously.

"Hmmm, it seems your mouth still works and what did I say about toys not talking back!"

Bam!

"Kyah!" 

He whacked her across the face, sending the poor girl flying to the wall as blood dripped out of her mouth. A single chipped tooth lying on the floor across her. Michelle looked at it for a bit, pondering. "Hmmm, if I let you suck me then you'll hurt me a lot with that broken tooth of yours… No matter! I'll just remove them all!" Grinning sinisterly at the maid, he looked at his new toy with renewed expectations.

"N-No… No! Argh!" 

The maid mustered all her strength to crawl away from the monster, only to have that hope shattered when a large hand roughly pulled her hair back—nearly snapping her neck.

"Who said that a toy can run off?" Michelle said, dragging the screaming girl away to his room and continuing where they last left off. No matter how much she cried and begged for someone to help her, no one dared step forward or even utter a single word. Not even the head of the house, who resumed eating his meal, was glad that his son was happy for the moment.

Some even teared up, looking away from the heinous act unfolding before them.

For in their eyes, her fate was sealed.

After all, serving this monster was a death sentence.

{Break}

-Geofu-

Stupid Archer.

Fuck him,

"He thinks that he's all that when he's jackshit!" Maia grumbled as the band continued. 

Her party of Knights ignored her grumblings, not wanting to shake the hornet's nest. Maia was trying to act unaffected herself as well, conversing regularly with Archer along the rest of the way even though she wanted nothing more than to kick him between the legs and ignore him for the rest of the day.

No, she was better than that.

She was a Princess Knight, goddamn it! 

Before throwing another tantrum, Maia realized that she needed to calm down. Cause that's when her thoughts would become clouded and mislead her into doing something she would regret later. So, the best way to avoid that was to stay calm.

"Maia-sama, is something bothering you?" Brynn asked, riding alongside the fuming red head. "You haven't been in the best of moods since we left Heilung Dorf." 

The redhead sighed.

"It's nothing… just hung up on something that shouldn't bother me in the first place."

Namely, why would she fuss over the skanks Archer sleeps with?? It wasn't like they were married or even in a relationship. Sure, he rejected her last night, but it could easily be because the guy was shy or had a dead libido. In her mind, there wasn't any other explanation suitable enough to explain his answer for how many times he rejected her.

But that theory soon evaporated the moment she sneaked inside his room. 

Elves… not just one, BUT TWO EXTREMELY HOT ELVES!?

If it were any other guy then she would have congratulated the fella with a slap on the shoulder and a few compliments. The idea of bedding both a Dark Elf and a Light Elf was unheard of in these parts, and something Maia would have pressured him to divulge on how he was able to do it. 

However, this wasn't the case with Archer. Rejecting her for two Elves only made it more nauseating and aggravating.… 

'It's crystal clear that the man has a stick up his ass or something. Probably still has some grudges against me over our last encounters.'

Although upon remembering those moments, Maia had to admit that she acted unseemly on a few occasions. Oh, how she wished she could travel back in time and bitch slap her past self—she was the cause for her current predicament.

Nevertheless, she wondered if this was how their time together was going to end. Rife with anxiety and regrets, the only good memory being when they were together in Ken. It made her feel empty, seeing Archer moving further and further away from her. Maia didn't want resentment to be the last thing they had before he left, she just…

"I don't even know what I want." 

A one night fling, a relationship or maybe settling down with him?

"Fucking Archer, I need a drink." 

Without any beer in hand, Maia was now regretting her decision to leave the village so soon. The only remotely alcoholic drink in her possession was a bottle filled with lukewarm water containing the slight aftertaste of beer. As a result of being too lazy to clean her own flask.

Drinking that stuff would only worsen her mood.

"Oi, does anyone here have any booze with them? I'll give ya uhh… I don't know, a few silvers?" 

"..."

No one answered her, even the men from the Kuroinu group just whistled like they heard nothing.

"You people suck." 

Curse Claudia once again for having trained such stupidly disciplined Knights, depriving them of their joyous spirits. It wasn't like she was asking for much, beer wasn't prohibited within her ranks, hell, it was even encouraged. Not that it ever worked, troops were rotated between the kingdoms to offer broader service experience—as such the possibility of returning to serve under Claudia or Alicia ensured they didn't get soft or lazy. The ass whooping was not worth it.

'Then again… getting spanked by Claudia doesn't sound that bad, hehehehe!' What followed were the troops quivering from Maia's perverted laughter.

Rustle…

"—!"

Her ears twitched.

"Hold!" 

Stopping in their tracks, Brynn and the Knights readied their weapons. A few of them however proceeded to blind Maia's vision so that she wouldn't notice the missing people, along with the Kuroinu mercenaries who were in on Hick's plan.

"Something feels off…" Maia whispered, gazing at the spot in front of her 

Her tongue clicked as her hands came to rest on her replacement swords, regular steel twin blades while durable did not possess half of her previous weapon's might. This didn't make her comfortable at all.

The sun hung just above her head, making her realize that it would soon be midday. 

No longer at the top of the mountains, they were now standing in the middle of the valley, surrounded by trees that would make a perfect ambush location... 

Did she sniff the air, getting the heavy smell of pine, the earthy odor from mosses, and… the brisk scent of wood burning?

"Morgan," she called out to one of the men from her group. He was tall and imposing, having a similar physique to Vault but leaning more on the thin side. He was someone who regularly traveled back and forth between Geofu and Ken, so his knowledge of the area was second to none—including Hicks. 

"Yeah, what's up?" 

"Are you familiar with this place?" she asked, keeping an eye on the sky above, searching for a particular sign.

"Sure am, had to travel through this road more times than the amount of pussies I've fucked."

"Yeah, yeah, I don't have time for your smart-ass comments. Just want to know if there are settlements or villages nearby." She was assessing if there were other routes leading to the Kingdom of Geofu.

"Hmmm, no, I'm pretty sure that no one lives here. This place is isolated with little to no farmlands and is basically a nightmare to live around. Everything freezes over during the winter and the density of wolves and bears roaming the area doesn't help. Yeah, there ain't no one living here, unless they want to die by the end of the season." 

Maia dismounted her horse to get a feel of the area. Sensing dread, Maia couldn't bring herself to move downwards the narrow path surrounded by high walls of dirt and rocks.  

.

.

.

"Hey… why aren't the birds chirping?"

"Hm?" 

No one expected her to mention such a thing. But gradually, they acknowledged that she had a point, their path from before was bustling with life, yet they didn't detect any at this moment.

The area became deadly quiet.

It felt unnatural and worrisome.

"Oh no…"

When Maia finally registered what was about to happen, it was already too late.

Schk!

A large black arrow flew from the shadows and struck a Knight in the middle of her forehead—killing her in an instant. She didn't even get time to scream as her body limped forward and fell off her horse.

"AMBUSH!" 

Roar!

Dust fogged the air as demons rushed out of the shadows, dislodging the trees in their path. From orcs, werewolves to even ogres—all were brandishing their weapons at  Maia and her group.

"In formation!" Maia shouted, her eyes seeking out that familiar red clothed figure she knew could help out the group. But as she looked back, not only wasn't he there, but both Hicks and Kin were gone as well! "Archer!" Fear and anxiety filled her heart, how could she not have noticed their disappearances all this time!?

"You, where did they go!?" 

"Master!?" Brynn shouted, equally worried.

She demanded one of the girls, but the Knight in question just shook her head in ignorance as she focused on the approaching danger.

Maia was not dumb, she suspected they were hiding something. But unfortunately, she had to put this aside until the ambush was repulsed, if they even survived it. "Fuck it!" Drawing her dual blades, Maia planned to deploy a  defensive turtle formation. But that was abandoned when a flurry of arrows hailed from the sky onto them.

Their group neither had the shields nor their main mage who could cast defensive spells against the onslaught. 

"We can't hold out here! All of you, disperse yourself into squads of two or three, and retreat to the trees or nearby settlements!" 

Holding out in this spot weakened their chances of survival as it left them wide open.

Moments later a deafening howl arose from within the demon horde. And with that, a Lycan emerged, standing taller than even some of the orcs. He was covered in snow white fur and a series of battle scars. With his signature greatsword in hand, he was known as Crusher. Yelling out orders to the lesser demons as he kept his single healthy blue eye on the field where Maia and her troops were retreating into the woods.

"Search the area for the two mages! I want the red one brought to me directly! General Howler has strict orders that he be brought before the Queen, at all cost! Incapacitate him if necessary, but I want him alive!" 

The demons roared in return before heading out to locate the targets.

The Lycan then set his eyes on a group of Knights closest to him. Sheathing his weapon, Crusher crouched on the ground, his muscles bulging nearly twice their size before he lunged at light speed towards his targets.

The Knights didn't even blink before he sank his teeth into one of them, tearing her apart from the sheer pressure of his jaws... Some of the ogres in the back whined as they were hoping to have a bit of fun with their prey, but they soon shut up when the leader's eye bore into them with enough killing intent to choke them from afar.

"Weaklings." He snarled, chewing the head he bit off. Gushes of blood dripped onto his pure white fur. "Humans taste disgusting as always." His snout twitched as he smelled the air around him, unlike the rest of his species, he was born with a unique gift—the ability to follow the scent of magic.

"That Princess Knight just reeks of it, hindering my search for the others… no matter, one of the demons will find them sooner and later. We need to leave before our presence gets discovered by the other Princess Knights."

Failing Howler wasn't an option, the mission was all that mattered. Taking a deep breath, the Beast went to finish off his meal. While he found the taste of human flesh putrid, his hatred for them was enough to ignore that part.

{Break}

There were very few things Kin found captivating outside of his studies. People were all the same, predictable and idiotic —only focusing on wealth and pleasure. 

Yes, even the mighty Vault didn't escape his scorn. A man so warped by his past that he embarked on a quest to create a dystopian future just to prove that justice doesn't exist. Nevertheless, he was a longtime friend and the only one who could give him the thing he desired the most in life—access to both Celestine and Olga's library.

His one and only goal in life was to reach the source of all magic. The fulcrum of all desires known to men, possessing power capable of humbling the gods. The path leading to a realm incomprehensible to mere mortals.  So to prepare for this undertaking, he studied every single magical tome he could get his hands on. Be it arcane or divine magic, blasphemous works from discredited mages, magical writings, or even the forbidden arts of binding souls to weapons and armors. 

Basically everything.

Kin did consider the type of magic Archer used, but most territories outside the realm of Eostia and Igg were basically backwater places with negligible advancements in magic. Savages as some would call them, choosing to rely on regular weapons and armor for warfare. Some even found themselves comfortable with their innate abilities on account of their racial traits. As descendants of beasts, they look down upon magic and prefer utilizing their substantial strength to eliminate their enemies. 

So in his opinion, Archer was most likely one of the lucky few who stumbled upon a mage's manuscript and decided to learn from it. With this acquired ability to use magic, he must have traveled to Eostia to learn more and expand his knowledge.

Certainly, he thought he knew everything. Possessing knowledge second to none aside from Celestine Lucross and Olga Discordia themselves. So-called gods with an infinite amount of wealth, as preached by the Church and Dark Elves.

Yet today, Kin found himself flabbergasted by the scene in front of him. Feeling angered but intrigued by the anomaly known as Archer. A mysterious traveler from the lands beyond, a place which he never heard about. The night before, Kin devised a spell to nullify anything Archer would throw at Hicks. It was a  spell he initially planned to use on Olga, yet decided to test it out here.

The spell basically diverted mana from the target location, rendering it barren for magic use.  All of which were modulated by his staff and the gem in his position that was acting as a mana generator for the spell… Just imagining what he could accomplish with it when fully analyzed gave Kin goosebumps. 

However, that joy dissolved the moment he saw Archer create a white sword while inside the barrier.

"How!?" he screamed out loud. Thousands of questions came to mind yet he couldn't answer a single one of them.

He siphoned more mana from the gem to energize his spell, intending to remove all traces of mana from the site while also trying to suppress Archer's magic. 

"Why isn't it working!?" 

Archer was still advancing, pushing Hicks to the back with each swing. He was ferocious, impeding his opponent from counterattacking, truly a one-sided fight. Then the unimaginable happened, Archer managed to break Hick's sword and in the process slicing off his left wrist.

"KIN, SAVE ME!!!!" 

Hearing the bloodcurdling scream of his partner, Kin attempted to launch a lightning spell at Archer's back to kill him.

Before he could conjure up the spell, Kin was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a monster on the horizon, closing in on the spot where Archer and Hicks were. 'A white… wolf? No, a Lycan! It was advancing upon our location at lightning speed despite being so far away!'

"A demon! And a powerful one at that!" 

Olga's forces were composed primarily of orcs and ogres who wore little armor and fought with their bare hands or clubs at times. Primitive in nature, they were easier to fight than some of the more deadlier types like incubi or archfiends. And those were demons who were intellectually superior or equal to humans.

Now a terrifying one was approaching them.

"I can't fight it, not without support…" Assessing his chances, an idea came to mind, one that would guarantee his escape. 

His barrier had another function, inducing paralysis on all targets within the area. Which meant, Hicks would be caught in it as well…

"Hmph, that man has served his purpose. Sacrificing him here would serve us better than bailing him out."

Plus, he couldn't let Archer leave this place alive now that he knew that the man could somehow bypass his magic.

He must be eliminated here to prevent any threats to the Kuroinu.

As he prepared to reactivate his spell, it didn't seem to respond. "What? Why isn't it working now!?" 

As he gazed back, his eyes nearly popped out from the scene in front of him.

There was a sword lodged into the center of the dome, causing web-like patterns to form, turning the whole thing blue. In addition, he was losing control of the spell.

But most haunting of all was the pair of eyes staring right at him from afar. Archer had an impossibly large black bow aimed right at him.

Concealed on top of a cliff overlooking the area, Kin was at a perfect vantage point to observe the fight and intervene when necessary.

Yet now he was staring directly into the eyes of the man whose existence defied reality.

Upon releasing the arrow, it traveled at such speeds that for Kin, it basically disappeared for a split second before reappearing in front of him.

Death.

That was what he felt at that moment.

He didn't have time to cast a spell, he made the rookie mistake of not setting up a protective spell beforehand.

"No… I refuse to die here to a nobody like you!" 

In a feat of desperation, he brought his staff in front of him, hoping it would divert its trajectory. But to his surprise, that warm sensation returned and engulfed him. It felt like the embrace of a woman protecting him from harm. Time slowed to a standstill, shading everything in gray including that arrow heading toward him.

Her melodious and bewitching voice ensnared him, "I'll save you, but in return, you must fulfill my wish." The words were so faint he nearly missed it at first. It was so otherworldly so… wrong yet enrapturing to him. Nonetheless, Kin realized it didn't matter.

"Anything! Anything you want I'll give it to you! Just don't let me die here!" he cried out, refusing to die until he reached his life goals.

The gem within his staff started oscillating, returning time to its original pace, setting the arrow free to continue its trajectory. Kin immediately felt a piercing screech around him as a blood-red barrier materialized in front of him. 

The arrow collided with it, creating a resounding shockwave that sent Kin flying through the air. A momentary reprieve that allowed him to flee. 

{Break}

"Damn, he escaped." Archer said as he sighed in disappointment. 

Although acting swiftly, he wasn't expecting the mage to have an ace up his sleeve. And worse yet, the man managed to elude his vision in the ensuing chaos.

"I should have used Hrunting. Locating him now is critical. " 

He couldn't let Kin escape, but he needed to take care of Hicks first. The man was laying on the ground, shaking profusely as he tightly held his bleeding wrists where the hand had been cleanly sliced off.

Looking at the top, Archer grabbed the hilt of a simple looking gladius presenting a leather wooden hilt wrapped in leather. Amongst his repertoire of weapons, it wasn't one of the more visually appealing Noble Phantasms, but it still held up quite well on its own. 

A sword which belonged to Philippus Aureolus von Hohenheim, or Paracelsus as he liked to be called. The Magic Sword of the Elements User, a powerful weapon and mini supercomputer that had a multitude of uses. From amplifying magecraft to stimulating true ether, it was a universal catalyst with tremendous potential. 

But Archer focused more on the supercomputer part of it, as the sword had an ability which could breach a caster's magical properties and essentially snatch their spells from under their nose. He wasn't sure if it was going to work with Kin's magic, or that of this world. But upon trying it out, he was pleasantly surprised by the sword's efficiency at seizing control of the barrier. However, at the same time, the consumption rate of his Magical Energy from his Od reserves was quite exorbitant.

He acquired blueprints of the sword during his time in Alaya's domain where he meditated over Rin's words. Time worked differently for Counter Guardians; what felt like a single minute could have easily been centuries in some other reality. Time basically didn't exist there, as one of his many copies was summoned in another Grail War during which he faced off against the famous physician and added the sword's blueprint to his Reality Marble.

It reminded him of Rule Breaker, as a mirror opposite of the witch's infamous weapon in some way.

"It's over," he said, focusing on Hicks. 

"H-hey ma-man, y-you can't do this! Th-This ain't fair!"

Fair? Not like he cared about fairness to begin with.

"You tried to kill me first, so you can call this fair." 

"I-It wasn't me! K-K-Kin… yeah, it was Kin! He told me to bring you here and kill you! That man wanted you dead, not me! I'm innocent here, I was ordered to do so!" he shouted, spouting countless lies about how this was all Kin's master plan and that he had no control over it.

If Archer hadn't heard the man spew away everything last night…  he still wouldn't have believed him. The mercenary was a natural liar, capable of fabricating stories and lies with the snap of a finger. He estimated as much the first time they met. After all, it took a bigger liar to spot another one.

"I don't care," Archer approached him while brandishing Byakuya and Paracelsus's swords.

"Nononono, you can't do this!"

Hicks realized his end was near when the man approached him with killing intent in his eyes.

Howl!

Archer's ears twitched, and he stopped in his tracks as he looked behind Hicks where a large shadowy figure leaped towards him, giant fangs and claws in tow. 

Maintaining his composure, Archer's grip on Paracelsus's sword tightened as he instinctively deposited more Magical Energy inside the sword. 

In an instant the barrier contracted, flowing past Archer's body towards Hicks, resulting in him being sent packing directly to Crusher's face —he now stood just below a beast twice his size whose bloodthirsty eyes immediately zoned in on him. Saliva dripped from his mouth onto Hicks' face.

"Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!" Crusher growled in anger.

Hicks' mind went blank.

.

.

.

"Eh?" 

What just happen—"AAAAAAAARRRHHH!!!!"

Half of his face got ripped off in a single swipe.

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

For those wondering, Hicks' journey ends here, he won't get miraculously saved for no reason.

And both Mitchell Pantielle and Morgan are real characters from Kuroinu and not OCs. Morgan is the MC of Kuroinu Gaiden.

The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 2 Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword having 3 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise and Snafu.