DISCLAIMERS AND SUCH….

"Zero no Tsukaima" in all its forms is the intellectual property of their creators/owners with whom I have no affiliation.

Though I am confident in my use of it, my mother tongue is not English, so any corrections to mistakes that make it past me are welcome, I wish for my writing to be as enjoyable as possible and I know how distracting spelling errors in particular can be.

This is a fanfiction crossover of "Zero no Tsukaima" and "Dungeons & Dragons" (Rulesets 3.0 Ed and 3.5 Ed).

I realize "Zero no Tsukaima" is probably oversaturated, so any continuation of the story will depend on the responses I will receive.

Chapter 1: ARRIVAL

"Finally we're here!" Vulna said with an uncharacteristically high-piched voice as she was the first to reach the vine just outside the massive double gates. She immediately cut one of the long stalks of the plant and drew a deep, long breath of fresh air, just in time to pass the vine to her winged companion. Furin was the third to take the plant and inhale some air, even though his need was much less pressing than his other two fellow adventurers; as for Midas, being an automaton, he really didn't need to breathe to sustain himself.

"There are plenty of vines for everyone, I don't see a reason why we should all share the same stalk" Vulna complained waiting for her turn to take another breath.

"Vulna, we are nae the only ones travelling through the Sunken Palace" Furin chided her "We must consider those that walk past 'ere after us as well"

"Yes, yes" the cowgirl responded, a hint of childish annoyance in her voice. "Anyway, are you sure Leviathan is in this hall? I'd rather be done with this job and return on sweet dry land" To her response Aeldroth approached the double gates and placed his palms on them. His concentration was suddenly broken, the wings on his back fluttered for just a moment, then he turned to Vulna, there was no doubt about it, the only thing separating them from the aquatic dragon was that gate.

"So, we proceed according to plan?" Vulna inquired to which Aeldroth responded with a single nod.

"Aye, just as we discussed" answered Furin.

"Then it is time you two get started" Midas added in an emotionless, mechanical voice that sounded as if it was reverberating through a series of corridors. While the automaton would usually make the extra effort to add emotional fluctuations to his speech, his current companions knew him and he knew them well enough to use his true voice. The towering teenage female minotaur, Vulna Shadowmane, took several potions out of her greater bag of holding and proceeded to drink them in quick succession, Furin Mithrillheart retrieved numerous scrolls from his own inventory and started casting their magic while Aeldroth followed suit. One after another, priestly blessings as well as arcane enchantments were applied to the group of four, all cast from a multitude of scrolls, to the point that an observer might consider this a blatant waste of resources, especially since the two spellcasters could cast most of these spells from memory. But the group had been meticulously prepared for their mission, and experience had taught them that those memorized spells were better saved for an emergency.

As they finished their buffing session, Aeldroth took his small harp-like lyre and played a song to inspire his allies. The only thing that could be heard however was the strings on his harp, not even Midas' advanced aural sensors could pick the singer's voice, which was too high in the ultrasound range. Vulna, as the mischievous rogue that she was, simply melded with the shadows and disappeared in plain sight and finally Midas forcefully pushed open the gates and charged barehanded at the dragon closely followed by Furin.

All in all, Leviathan considered this to have been a pretty good day, by daybreak he wrecked two fishing boats and ate their unfortunate passengers, a thing that had become somewhat of a habit for the past couple of weeks, later on went on to sink a trade ship out of Waterdeep and brought some more loot to his already massive pile of gold coins, precious gems and priceless artifacts. There were two things dragons enjoyed the most, riches and napping, and when they could indulge themselves in both these pleasures at the same time, by sleeping atop their hoard, they were in seventh heaven.

So understandably, he was now in the foulest of moods, having been denied his well-deserved rest by a… golden dwarf charging at him empty-handedly. Then his nose tingled, that dwarf was… valuable? There was no question about it, whatever it was, that little thing was worth being added to his hoard, but he found it unlikely to keep it subdued, in which case he'd have to dismantle it and keep its parts. With these thoughts, Leviathan approached his attacker.

"IT IS RARE THAT VALUABLES COME TO ME ON THEIR OWN, USUALLY I AM THE ONE TO…" His remark was cut short as Midas launched himself at the dragon with a sudden acceleration delivering a punch right on his snout, staggering the massive serpent and forcing him to take a step back.

"I WAS GOING TO KEEP YOU ALIVE AS MY PET, BUT YOU SEALED YOUR FATE!" Leviathan yelled enraged. In the meantime, Vulna had reappeared from a shadowed corner on the tall ceiling and jumped towards Leviathan's back, while Furin revealed himself behind Midas making a beeline to the left and Aeldroth flew to the right, intent on assaulting the dragon from several different angles. It was at this point that Leviathan realized this was not a suicidal attack from a hero-wannabe wanting to make a name for himself by claiming the title of dragonslayer, no, these people were experienced warriors that probably had felled a number of dragons already and they came fully prepared.

His musings were cut short as Vulna landed on his back, right between his wing, the sheer impact of a freefalling adolescent female minotaur enough to stagger him. Vulna didn't lose any time and plunged both her enchanted rapiers on the dragon's back, making use of her immense strength to push them to the hilt, each blade pointed to either of his wings' base. Leviathan roared so loud that the entire hall was shaken but before he could react to Vulna, another strike was delivered on his right knee, courtesy of Furin's warhammer and two slashes cut the inside of his other knee from Aeldroth's twin, sonic enhanced kukris. As the dragon fell on his forelegs Midas took the chance to unleash a barrage of attacks to the reptiles' readily accessible and unprotected face, his metal reinforced fists and feet striking like a jackhammer, enraging even further the giant reptile and locking his focus on the automaton.

Having already used the element of surprise to limit Leviathan's mobility, and with Vulna drawing her backup blades, which, while they were of great quality, were nowhere near as powerful as her main weapons she left lodged in the dragon's back to keep the wings disabled, the party of four prepared for a long, grueling fight…

The day the pinkette feared most had finally come, if she failed to call a familiar, judging by her history a VERY possible outcome, she would fail. She would fail to become a mage, she would fail her family tradition and name, she would fail her very own dreams and ambitions. It took all her focus and courage to stop her legs from trembling as one after another, her classmates completed the summoning ritual and there were less and less students between her and the dreaded summoning circle. Finally there was nobody left that hadn't performed the ritual, nobody but her that is.

"Has everyone had their turn?" Colbert asked, being the considerate teacher he hoped to have Louise perform the summoning in a less stressful, private environment under his more immediate guidance. His hopes however were for naught as Louise's longtime rival and literal nemesis, Kirce, spoke up:

"There's still Louise! I wonder what kind of fabulous familiar she will summon" the irony in her voice more than evident. Louse gripped her wand tight to control her nerves, but even if she could summon something, how could she possibly content with Tabitha's dragon? With these thoughts she stepped forward trying her all to hide every sign of her nervousness and, pointing her wand at the center of the summoning circle, started her incantation:

"Oh my most noble, powerful and beautiful familiar, you who have no match across all creation, hear my summons and come to my side!"

"Well, if nothing else, that's original" Kirce quipped about Louise's incantation, followed by laughter from the other students. The laughing however was cut short as a huge explosion shook the entire courtyard…

The adventuring party were badly hurt, Aeldroth was missing a wing but he was still trying to hack at the dragon wherever he could, Midas' golden skin was ruptured in several spots exposing his internal clockwork mechanisms, Vulna's shortswords had long ago broken and she was trying to ram Leviathan with her horns calling upon the last vestiges of her waning endurance, Furin had exhausted most of his spells trying to keep his allies alive and now was simply pounding at the dragon with his Warhammer. But if the quartet of heroes were hurt, Leviathan was on his last leg, and with retreat not being an option due to his crippled wings, it didn't look good for him.

At the moment of the adventurers' apparent triumph, a purple portal opened right under Midas' feet. Under normal circumstances, the automaton would had no trouble evading a hole opening under him, but he was heavily damaged and drained from taking most of Leviathan's attacks, and with his attention entirely focused on his enemy, he failed to react in time and fell into the portal. Immidiately he ran a few simulations about the outcome of the fight, in all of them the result was the same, Leviathan's wounds were too grievous to turn things around and Furin could replace Midas as the team's protector in an emergency such as this, a contingency plan they had discussed beforehand, so there was no cause for worry on that front. As he was pulled to the other side of the portal he took a cloack out of his inventory made of the same material as his golden skin, one that encircled completely his wide body and obscured him entirely from his neck-down. With his head resembling a war helmet, he was confident he could pass as an armed humanoid as to avoid raising unnecessary suspicions from whatever creature was waiting on the other side.

He landed in the midst of a smoke cloud that posed no obstruction to his advanced sensors and gave him enough time to observe his environment before his presence was made known. The first thing he noticed was the circle with the runic symbols at the center of which he stood, making an effort to memorize every miniscule detail. Next was the surrounding people, the vast majority being human teenagers wearing matching uniforms, almost all of them in a state of shock and/or fear. Each of the youngsters save a short pink-haired girl was accompanied by a creature, none of which representing any kind of threat except one, a young blue dragon. Next he noticed the only adult in the courtyard of what seemed to be a walled fortress with a central tower. Midas estimated that even in his diminished state, he could overpower the dragonling, unless every single being present attacked him at the same time, there shouldn't be any real threat to his safety.

The smoke slowly dissipated unveiling a somewhat short human wearing a golden helmet and an equally golden cloack around him, with a build wide enough to scare off an enraged bull. For a few awkward moments nobody knew how to react to his presence until Kirce, once more took the initiative.

"Well, Louise, are you not going to finish the summoning ritual? Or should I give you a lesson on how to kiss a man?" Chuckles followed Kirce's comment, half towards Louise and half towards the speaker herself.

"I… Of… Of course I am going to finish the ritual; I don't need you butting in" Louise stuttered trying to fake anger while her face turned red. She hesitantly approached him, who for his part showed no reaction other than looking around. Still he was a stranger with unknown motives and by the look of it was some kind of warrior, seemingly a powerful one too.

"I, Louise le Blanc, third daughter of the noble family de la Valiere command you, my servant, to kneel!" She said trying to sound as regal as possible testing the man's compliance before going any closer. She thought she would feel safer if he was kneeling, in case she needed to put some distance between them in a hurry and she could reach him with more ease for the kiss since she was considerably shorter than him.

"I, Midas of the noble family Mithrillheart am not servant! I am not summoning!" Midas responded in kind causing everyone to gasp, even Colbert recoiled when he heard such declaration uttered in a most kingly manner. At the same time Midas' eyes, twin crimson gems polished to perfection, flashed with a deep red light for a moment and a gust of wind swept outwards causing the students to avert their eyes.

"A… A… noble?!" was all that Louise was able to say in shock and Colbert who had been eyeing the newcomer with suspicion since his arrival, immediately sprang into action interposing himself between Midas and his student and tightened his hold of his wooden staff just in case.

"Please lord Midas, accept my sincerest apologies, my student never intended to summon one such as you here." Colbert hoped to diffuse the situation with diplomacy, but was ready to respond with force if needed.

"The situation is highly irregular, but if you follow me to the headmaster's office, I'm sure we can sort this out" Midas just nodded his head to the teacher in acceptance without saying anything, upon which Colbert summarily dismissed all the students except Louise and the trio headed for Old Osman's office.

Midas was watching with great interest the reactions his appearance caused. Though the children in front of him were speaking an unknown language, he had already expected that and activated beforehand his heuristic language analysis routines. When the pink-haired girl named Lousie le Blanc de la Valiere made a claim of ownership over him on account of her noble family he had enough vocabulary and understanding to formulate a response: If he claimed a social position equal or potentially higher than her (which wasn't too far off from the truth) he could reap the best possible results. So he started synthesizing his reply:

system: Function "formulate reply" start

Retrieving words from memory bank:

"Well, Louise, are you not going to finish the summoning ritual? Or should I give you a lesson on how to kiss a man?"

"I… Of… Of course I am going to finish the ritual; I don't need you butting in"

"I, Louise le Blanc, third daughter of the noble family de la Valiere command you, my servant, to kneel!"

Synthesizing reply from words:

"I #common identification = Midas# of the noble family #clan tag = Mithrillheart# am not servant I am not summoning"

Adding intonation: #Royal decree#

system: Function "formulate reply" end.

While delivering his reply he momentarily activated his infrared vision and sent a power surge to his feet in hopes this would be interpreted as an outburst of anger.

Author's Notes

As most of you may have surmised, the adventurers are at an underwater environment, hence the need to breathe from vines long enough to reach the surface. Midas is an automaton and acts as the party's tank, Furin Mithrillheart is a dwarven cleric, Aedroth is an outsider and an apparently voiceless bard and last but not least Vulna Shadowmane is a female minotaur, the party's rogue and shadowdancing prankster. All of them are characters I had built on a specific Neverwinter Nights persistent world server more than a decade ago.