Aurhor: CU has an irrational hatred of Princesses because of Gwynevere.
Me: Wut?! but what about Princess Dusk?! I swear a couple chapters ago he liked her! Is he an idiot!?

Yes, she hired an actor for her teacher to try and kill. Holy fucking shit, you are the dumbest fucking idiot around. Thank you for putting that in the first chapter. You saved me a lot of pain.

Referring to Tristania as a village threw me off a bit. I mean it's the largest city in the Kingdom and hub of trade and administration, so being called a village/town was weird.
Or maybe I'm weird and it's normal..

I really hope he gets his memory back, it'll suck, but looking at this chapter... anyways I wonder what ability or whatnot he got from it, I mean you said "various runes" right?

“and how insulting it was for them to be beaten by someone as puny and *mortal* as *himexcuse me whaaaaat? How tf is a being that cannot did a “mortal”?

Hey! You said no angst for a few chapters! Liar!

Holy fuck how many flashbacks are there gonna be?

Right
Can isabella be fed to the abyss?
Because she really needs to be fed to the abyss.

it would be funny if patches was joseph the entire time

Jeez, flashbacks are downing your chosen undead more times than I died to the bed of chaos, its not Even funny.

Does he know pyromancy? In the game, at least on ds 3 the Flame is an item just for equiping sake in a hand, it didnt Even have weight, so in a sense he always git pyromancy on him.

Also, yeah, the chosen undead aint the super dude but thats more of a technical limitation of the game mechanics then anything, just look at how it got improved in ds2 and ds3, also, although he is not as strong as the bosses hes supposed to be able to get extremely strong and dishing out desastrous damage taking out bosses fast, and without saying that if you get enouth levels you build into just too much stuff.

I'll be honest, I never even watched Familiar of Zero but decided to give this fic a chance on a whim... And then after binge-reading 900k words within a few days, I can easily say that I'm now hooked. Might wanna sit down if you're reading this because it's gonna be a LONG review.

Raziel is a very interesting and unique protagonist, and by that I mean he's a giant asshole. While he rather endearing in the beginning due to his more innocent and naive personality clashing with his pragmatic nature he really turned a 180 by the time he got his memories back. He's really standoffish, immature, and downright cruel at times but hidden underneath all that grit is a heart of gold that been beaten to hell but is still reluctantly pumping. But while it's clear that it's a result of his trauma it can get pretty hard to root for him at times as he went overboard at times. That's why I liked his personality during his brief time as Robin although I was glad that he eventually got his memories back, it provided a nice look to what he could have been like if his life hadn't turned out so crappy.

You've also really taken the amnesiac hero thing to the next level. He lost his memories not once, not twice, but three Goddamn times throughout this entire story. Wow, just wow. Raziel should really start keeping a diary.

I was a bit annoyed that his relationship with Siesta ended up going nowhere after all that build-up but after thinking on it, it makes sense that she's been relegated to the background after all a maid without magical powers or weapon training is going to be hard to keep relevant in a story about apocalyptic events without constantly making her a damsel in distress or completely changing her character. At least Cattleya will stay relevant due to being Louis's sister and constantly being in close proximity with Raziel as a result but no such luck with Siesta I'm afraid.

You've done a good job with making Raziel and Cattleya's relationship feel natural and I'm looking forward to seeing how their relationship develops, her teaching him how to read was pretty cute and finally fixes his illiteracy issue. The brooding guy, gentle girl trope has been used quite a bit but I found these two's relationship refreshing due to hammering in that Cattleya is kind and optimistic without being naive and having an innocent view of the world. She knows how shitty the world is but keeps on being kind because she wants to and I think that's something that Raziel really needs in a partner.

Although I do have to admit that I feel a little iffy about Raziel dating a woman who's in her mid 20's while he still looks like a teenager. While I understand that he's wayyyy older mentally I did get a bit weirded out while reading the sex scenes as I just couldn't stop focusing on the fact that he's physically still a child by modern standards. So yeah, it would be nice to see him get aged up a bit but it's not a crucial thing.

You've done a good job with writing the characters and making them nuanced, characters like Louis are very easy to write as one-dimensional characters with a single personality trait but you've thankfully subverted that quite nicely. Seeing how the cast interacts with each other instead of only the protagonist is also always a win in my book. The only issue I have is that I think the cast has gotten a bit too big, you're stuck with juggling over a dozen character perspectives and I can see that some of the characters have been left in the background (R.I.P to Kirche and Guiche's screen time) as a result.

I think that you're being a bit hard on yourself when it comes to the fight scenes, they were all perfectly fine in my book. I can't claim to be an expert but I think they did a good job at showcasing the character's skills while keeping the power scaling balanced.

Concerning who should be Tiffania's familiar I'd be fine with either Raziel or Cieran as they both have good reasons for becoming her familiar. But if I had to pick then I'd go with Ciaran as Raziel just has way too much bullshit going on in his life to fully commit to being her familiar and sticking around with his ex while he's currently in a relationship with another woman is a recipe for disaster.

And that comment about Estelle's mother being Ciaran? Hilarious to imagine but I think she'd rather pour concrete down her vagina rather than give Raziel a hug much less have sex with him. Unless Artorias was also reincarnated I can't see her settling down with anyone.

Also, holy fuck is being Henrietta suffering. No one's having a good time in this story but Henrietta is currently getting it the worst compared to the rest of the cast. Let's take a look at her bullshit life; she's forced into a position of leadership despite being way too young and inexperienced to handle it, the love of her life died and she can't even publically mourn him, a spirit masquerading as him tricks her and murders her guards while also alienating her from her best friend, then she has to lead a war and force herself to push said best friend into it because she's their biggest chance at winning it, AND then she finds out that she's a reincarnation of a goddess which gives her both a giant identity and religious crisis at the same time, and as of right now she has to worry about saving the entire world from a death cycle that's been going on for an unfathomably long time while also dealing with an upcoming war. Did I mention that this was all within two years? And that she's barely old enough to drive!?

I'm just surprised that she hasn't switched from wine to whiskey by now, the choice of drink for any tired cynic.

I can understand why Raziel dislikes her but now I just cringe in sympathy every time he picks on her so I'm just hoping that Loise or Cattleya calls him out on how much of an unfair asshole he's being so that he eases up and maybe even show some fucking support. God knows she needs a lot of that right now.

So yeah, damn good story, I'm looking forward to what happens next. Also, funny that you should mention Final Fantasy 7 because I'm seeing a lot of similarities between Raziel and Cloud. Two cinnamon buns (well, if you're not counting Manus anyway) turned mopey assholes wielding swords who try not to care about people but end up caring anyway by accident.

I struggle to read this because i can't help but think of how nerfed you made the Chosen Undead, feats in Gameplay are worthless because of how limited it HAS to be, by both the ENGINE, the FRAMES and the PLAYER. The Enemies cannot go faster than light because no human player could react to that, the AI is fuckin retarded and stuck in patterns because its a video game, but in a reality these beings based on the lore are absurdly powerful and the CU would be an absurdly powerful being, him being weaker than everything else is purely a gameplay limitation, in lore he'd be going through the mooks like wheat... *which you do anyways if you stop sucking* and they wouldn't harm him in return only in the game do mooks continue to hurt you so much.

It just annoys me beyond belief when you say hes not that strong because of GAMEPLAY, like read the actual lore my dude.
I know this was like 10832198732 years ago, but surely DS lore still existed in DS1 to understand the feats.

Formerly NeoArmstrngCycloneJetArmstrng herem leaving another review. First off, a bit of actual review this time, this chapter felt a bit rushed to me, particularly the transition scenes. I'm not sure if this was intentional in order to try to move the story along but an extra sentence or two regarding the characters thoughts when switching scenes wouldn't go amiss. Other than that, good chapter as usual.

1. Personally, I probably prefer Siesta, or really anyone to Cattleya. Or even no one. Or rather, I might be reading too much into this but it seemed like that's actually being foreshadowed in this chapter? The conversation with Louise, Cattleya, and Raziel seems like it alludes to how far apart Cattleya and Raziel in terms of where they stand in the relationship. When two people stand that far apart in a relationship it will inevitably end or one person will move to match the other. Catt has her head up in the clouds and has no idea that the end of the world is nigh, that a happy ending for everyone is incredibly unlikely, that even in the unlikely event of the world being saved the chances of Raziel being saved along with it is bordering zero. Louise and Cattleya discussing the topic of marriage during a picnic really strikes home how both of them are essentially in the dark about everything in the story at the moment, and even though Louise should actually has some idea of the what's happening in the background she doesn't doubt she and her family will reach a happy ending. On the other hand, Siesta, who has mentioned losing and mourning Raziel twice, would always know in the back of her mind that one day he will disappear and at that time, probably not come back. She would be on the same page as Raziel even though she has no idea about the ending of the world. You mentioned Siesta, Tiffania, Henrietta, and Tabitha in your response so it seems like along with Catt, these 5 are the potential mates to Raziel in the story, and one thing I noticed about all of them other than Catt is that none of them would be under the illusion that a happy ending with Raziel would be a likely outcome. Siesta or Tiffania would play probably play the Brooding Boy Gentle Girl trope with him, but without the naivety of thinking everything will work out in the end, probably making the relationship more subdued and nuanced than with Catt. Henrietta or Tabitha would probably be more of the licking each others' wounds trope, and in that scenario it would be more of a "let's forget about the dark future and enjoy the moment now" kind of relationship. Hell, even if Raziel survived they probably wouldn't have thoughts of marriage on their minds. Cattleya may be more cynical than she appears to be at a glance, but she is still naive when it comes to the reality of the world, and not just when it comes to the end of the world. She may have suffered a weak body from a young age but that has essentially made her a sick bird in a cage all her life, and so she has no idea how cruel the world can be. She never had to flee her home from an invasion, never had to carry out dangerous missions to save a loved one, never had to carry the burden of saving a country or the world, never had to live in hiding because others fear her. In a more straightforward dark fantasy, this would probably not be an issue: i.e. Her bright naivety and radiance will win out in the end! But in a more grounded realistic dark fantasy like this one, I can't see this relationship playing out to a happy ending. Or again, maybe I'm just reading WAY too much into this (probably this though).

2. I think it'd be fine either way. Regardless of who is chosen tensions will rise between all parties and that will be interesting to watch. Choosing Raziel does seem like it would be more popular, but doing so will create a whole host of problems with Ciaran no doubt. Choosing Ciaran may be the path of least resistance but I assume for Tiffania doing so would feel like forever losing the chance to be with Robin. Either way, sounds fun :) Hope to read the fallout.

Almost lost hope for any updates on this fic (and to be fair this is a fic that brought me to your stories). Anyway i guess I'll head straight to answering questions.

1.) I don't think that returning to Siesta would do any favors to both of them. Yes there was a considerable amount of time spent on developing that bond but at this point of time I feel it reached the end. Raziel has moved forward and so did Siesta. Pairing them together would just reopen the old wounds at this point and wouldn't really do them any favor. So yeah I'll stick to the current pairing. That being said...

2.) Raziel and Tiff never really had a chance for a real closure so... I think that Raziel should become her familiar. Yeah it's a lot of baggage but from my perspective it's something that gives all three sides a chance to growth. Tiffania will have no other choice but to face Raziel and see him for who he is - true him and not just her lingering memories of Robin, which is something she really needs to be able to move forward. For Raziel it does mean a lot of awkwardness and personal suffering but I do think patching things with his master would benefit him as a person. Ciaran... yeah i do feel it's the best way to force at least minimal growth out of her. Something that I don't really see happening if she were to become a familiar to this particular mage. After all it's not like something would change for her - her job would stay the same.