They say that the pain of the Ritual is the worst thing someone can experience, and I have to say, they were not exaggerating. It felt like needles had stabbed every inch of my skin while my bones cracked and either lengthened or reshaped themselves to his will. However that feeling was nothing compared to the uncanny stretching sensation I felt at my tailbone, almost as if my spine was being ripped out through my ass. I was growing a tail! Was I becoming a cat? No, it felt too wide, too bushy to be a cat. A dog maybe? Like the ones he had on his estate. Am I going to become one of his slobbering hounds? No, that didn’t feel quite right either. What was I?

“Just let it happen pet, it’ll be easier that way.” 

“Fuck-f-f-fuck you,” I stuttered between shuddering breaths and with a voice that sounded higher than it should have. Oh Pantheons Divine, no! I knew what that meant.

His lips curled into a smirk on those damn teeth of his. “Oh I know you most certainly will.” 

As if the Ritual was another one of his cronies playing along with his hobby of torment, I felt a pain shoot through my cock, like a hot poker had been shoved into it, while my balls felt like someone had taken to them with a sledgehammer. I looked down to watch, even as I knew what was happening. With every wave of pain, my genitals shrank down into my body until they were pulled inside of me with a violent tug, leaving nothing but a slit where they once were.  Of course the bastard went for a gender change. The way he leered at every girl in our class like they were property, there was never any doubt he was one of those perverts that fucked their familiar at every chance they got. I groaned at both the thought and the lingering pain throughout my groin.

I don’t even remember collapsing to the ground, all I remember is closing my eyes and reopening them to find myself looking up at the sky like I was on my back. The pain had abated into a dull ache, so I guess I must have blacked out until the physical transformation finished. I guess it’s a small blessing to be able to have blocked out some of the pain of the changes, but it also meant that I wasn’t awake to keep track of them. 

My mind was racing too much to catalog all the new sensations, all I could tell was that everything in my body felt different, yet in the eeriest sense, none of it felt wrong: the Ritual’s magic at work to lock me in my new form and make sure I knew my place. All I could tell was that I was still vaguely human shaped and that I had a tail, but that’s it. Either way, I didn’t have much time to think, as the next step of my magical enslavement began.

I whimpered once again with that voice that was foreign yet familiar to my ears as an icy sensation gripped my very soul. It choked off the mana channels and arcane gateways of my being, severing my spirit and the power it held within. My magic was gone! Wait, no, not gone. It was blocked, caged behind bars of mental steel and locked with an arcane key that only he had. My magic, the source of all this misery in the first place, belonged to Master now.

Wait…WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST CALL HIM?

“Mmm, I really must praise your obstinance,” he said, flexing his fingers in front of me. “Most bonded familiars waste their two years partying instead of developing their magic. But you really went ahead and developed all this, just to hand it to me. What a good pet you are.” With that, he flicked his wrist, causing a spectral hound to shoot out of his hand and tear off a chunk of the arena in its ghostly teeth before disappearing. That was one of my favourite spells, and he was treating it like a new toy.

Again I tried to curse him out, but the ever cock-blocking Ritual fucked me again as it moved in full swing to the final stage: the mental changes. Every familiar was changed mentally to serve their magus, developing an overwhelming need to please and obey them, but the extent of changes beyond that were at the whim of the winner. Some allowed their familiars to stay more or less the same person, keeping their memories and identity intact. Others became little more than mindless drones, while others simply became whatever their master wished, their previous personality washed away by the magical contract of the Ritual. I shuddered as I had an idea of which one he would go for.

“What’s wrong, pet? I can see in your eyes that you want something,” he said, kneeling next to me and looking down at me the way a predator looks at its fresh kill when deciding which part it wants to devour first. “From what I’ve seen in other duels, this is usually the part where the familiar breaks down and begs for some sort of mercy. Where they beg their master to let them keep their identity, to not kill them mentally. Is that what you want, pet?”

No no no, fuck him. Fuck this guy, fuck him! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him! The magic of the Ritual may make me his familiar, it may alter my mind and kill me in a metaphysical sense; but if that’s the case I’m going to die the way I lived: defying him at every turn. The Master - damn it - the mastard - BETTER! The BASTARD wouldn’t get this final victory. I wasn’t going to beg like a pathetic animal at his heel. While I still had my mind, while I was still me, I would not fucking beg.

“Ask me now while you still have the chance.” Nick cooed as he stroked my hair. Arcane Stars, why did that make me feel so good? I whimpered through trembling lips, pleas and apologies desperate to escape my mouth. I grit my teeth to trap the words inside, but it seems the thoughts leaked out of my eyes instead as he stared into them and smiled at what he saw. He leaned over me, his mouth close to my ear as my breath became ragged and shallow. “Go on. Beg.”

Never! Never never never never never never never never never! I devoted every last drop of willpower I had to focus on how much I hated him. I hated those perfect teeth of his, and his shining golden hair, and his handsome face with those beautiful, soft lips, and those strong arms that were holding me so surprisingly tender. Wait, what the fuck am I thinking?

“Still a bit of fight left in you? You really will make a strong familiar.” He brushed my hair again and it took all my willpower to limit my reaction to just a soft moan - Ancient Protectors, why did my voice have to sound so cute?

“But you don’t need to be strong anymore, pet. Just give in. Master is here to take care of you now. All you have to do is ask.”

No, don’t give in! I hate him! I hate him! He’s my enemy! My rival! He’s my-

“Master!” No!

“Yes?” He cooed.

No don’t say it, come on…fuck what was my name again? It doesn’t matter! I made one slip, it doesn’t have to go further, don’t let him win. Just pass with a shred of dignity left, come on don’t say it-

“Master pleeeeeeease.” The desperate begging blew past my lips like the last exhale of a drowning man. And like them, I felt the cold water of failure enter and fill my lungs instead. I lost. I couldn’t fight it anymore. I sank into the abyss. 

“Please don’t erase me Master, please let me keep my mind! I’m so so so sorry. I wanted to be strong, but I was just so scared! Please Master please, I’ll be good, I’ll be so good! I’ll never disobey you again-” It just gushed out of me, stopping only when another wave of pain wracked my mind and forced another cute moan from my lips.

“Oh my dear sweet pet, I know you’re not going to.” Master said as he gently wiped tears that I didn’t even remember crying. But as he looked at me my heart sank as I saw those perfect teeth of his flash a predatory grin. “Because you’re not going to have a choice.”

Someone screamed in the arena. To be honest it was probably me, but it was hard to perceive anything as my mind was turned inside out and wrung out like an old rag, squeezing out any memories, personality, or identity that Master didn’t want me to keep. 

Then just like that, it was done. The screaming stopped and it was just me laying on the ground like I had woken from a long dream. I breathed in and out, then I did it again. I was surprisingly calm. 

“Duchess.” My ears twitched at the sound of my name and they began swiveling at the top of my head for the source. Something in me knew that’s not how my ears should have worked, nor was my name Duchess more than half an hour ago. It was like there was a shard in my mind that was aggravated by every movement of my new body, but I pushed it down in my overwhelming desire to find who was calling me.

“Come here.” My ears located the sound and I unsteadily raised up on my elbows to see the most beautiful sight in all the known realms.

“Master!” I squealed as I scurried to him on all fours, only vaguely aware that my hands and feet shouldn’t be making a clacking noise when they touched the stone - almost like my nails were too long or something. I didn’t have time to ponder it however, as Master reached down and began rubbing my head. It felt so good, having him pat my head and scritching behind my ears. Before I knew it, I was sitting on my back haunches, just nuzzling my head into his hand, trying to get as much contact as possible.

“Good girl Duchess!” I moaned and felt my eyes lose focus at Master’s praise. He was happy with me! I looked up at him and I could have died in that moment, seeing the perfect smile he had just for me. The only reason I didn’t is because something still felt wrong. It was that shard again, telling me that this wasn’t right. But it had to be right, because it came from Master and Master was perfect and always right. 

“Alright Duchess, I need you to focus for a moment.” I whimpered and pouted as Master stopped petting me and withdrew his hand, but he gave me an order and he was counting on me to obey so I did. 

“Yes Master, your pet is focusing. What does Master want his pet to focus on?” I asked, my eyes focused solely on him. 

“I want you to take off your clothes, have a look at your new body, and tell me what you think,” he said, with one side of his perfect, soft lips curling into one of his charming smiles.

“Yes Master!” I immediately shrugged out of the robe I had on. I was so silly, why was I wearing it in the first place? Clothes are for people, not familiars, and I certainly shouldn’t have been wearing something so large for me. 

Once I was free of my clothes, I did as Master ordered and looked down at myself. The biggest (for several reasons) change was the two perky breasts that I now sported on my chest. They seemed massive, but maybe it was just because I seem to have shrunk quite a bit, based on how far above the ground my vision was while sitting. My guess is that if I stood on my hind legs, I’d be maybe four feet tall?

Speaking of shrinking, my arms and especially my legs had shortened to a more quadrupedal stance and became covered with a black fur that transitioned to orange at my elbows and knees. My feet had turned into what looked like paws, while my hands had become stubbier with little claws coming out of the fingers. I used them to explore the top of my head where I felt my ears and pulled them down to see they were pointed and covered with orange fur that seemed to match the colour of my new hair that fell down past my shoulders and rested just above my tail. Oh right, I had a tail now as well! It was bushy and bright orange like my ears and I watched it twitch back and forth, becoming more energetic to match my mood as I realised what I had become.

“Master, I’m an adorable fox girl!” I cried up to him with both thanks and pride at completing the task he assigned me. The people around me that weren’t Master laughed as my tail wagged. Why would they laugh at Master’s work?

“That’s right Duchess you are! Do you like it?” Master asked, that smile still on his face.

“Yes, thank you Master! I love it, Master!”

I yelped as Master reached down and grabbed my face in his hand and pulled me close. He studied me with those deep blue eyes and I lost myself in their pools for a moment until he said, “Because I feel there’s a part of you holding back. I can see it in your eyes. Something lingering in your mind perhaps?”

I screwed my face up wondering what he meant. Master was confusing sometimes, but actually he was right (as always). There was that shard in my brain. It was being really annoying right now. It flared a lot when I was checking my body, and especially now as Master held my face. It was…humiliated, I think? I loved it when Master touched me, but the shard was screaming at me that he needed to get off me and that I shouldn’t accept this treatment, and-

“Oh yes, you’re still in there somewhere,” said Master as he released my face and stood with his smile growing even larger than before. “Absolutely perfect. After all, not much fun in teasing you if there’s nothing left of you to appreciate it, pet.”

I cocked my head to the side in confusion. Master was too smart for me sometimes, I didn’t understand what he was saying, but he called me his pet and that made me happy so my tail started wagging again. 

“Well even though I won our duel, I have something for you anyway.”  My tail wagged even faster as Master pulled something out of his pocket. It was a collar! And it said Duchess on a little locket on the front! And Master was putting it on me! It fit so well and was so snug against my skin, it felt like Master’s hand constantly on my neck.

“Thank you Master, thank you thank you thank you!” 

“You’re more than welcome my adorable little familiar,” said Master as he conjured a thread of magic that attached to a ring on my collar. He tugged the leash hard, pulling me to my feet. “Well come on, time to go.”

“Yes Master,” I said, scampering to his side like the good pet I was.

As we walked out of the arena, we passed a pair of apprentices walking in. One of them seemed particularly scared so I smiled up at him and wagged my tail to try and cheer him up. But, for some reason, looking at me just seemed to make him feel worse. Oh well, the only person I had to please was Master. He was so perfect.