Rising of the Shield Demon (Side-Stories)

By

Dark Dragen…

Summary: This'll be where all the side-stories explain certain things that couldn't be explained in the main story, as it would take away the focus of the main story. That and I do go overboard with detail in the chapters. In this story, we'll see certain characters/places, and backgrounds that would affect Naofumi in one way or another.

So far I've got a few chapters planned already, ones with Lilith, Melty and a chapter or two to explain about Glass's world which will be different to what you might already know. So be ready, I'll have a few changes coming up and info to explain things.

Warnings: Unknown right now, but if you read my other stories, you know to expect anything and everything. You would also know that I like to put a lot of detail into my works, world-build as you would say.

Disclaimer: I do not in any shape or form own Rising of the Shield Hero, it belongs to Aneko Yusagi, its writer. I don't even own Darksiders; it belongs to the developer's Vigil Games. I only own the plot of this story and any OCs and such.

Chapter Summary: In this chapter, we'll meet Lilith from Darksider, here we'll find out what she has been up to since her world has been sucked into another world and what she is doing now.

Lilith - Part 1...

We begin our story on the sky island known as Demonreach in Azeroth. The island was unlike many other islands, where the island was full of demons. Sure there are a few islands like this, but many of the demons from those islands all came from this one. They were all created within a castle called Black Stone, by a powerful demon called Lilith, known as the Mother of Demons, in her laboratory.

Now was a demon with wings, who's skin was the deep purple of a nighttime storm, her dark hair wreathed in horns that only accentuated her unearthly allure. She had emerald eyes that could coax an angel to sin - which she did on more than one occasion. She had a face to make a dead man ache, and it was said that her body and her huge breasts could make even a golem sweat.

She would often wear a black deep v sleeveless bodysuit. She also had black shoulder guards that had skull pins in the front of them that attach the guards and the bodysuit together. She also wore black boots; the right one went all the way up her leg and thigh. The left boot went all the way up her leg, but left some of her thigh showing - this boot had a skull on the top of it. She had a black eye patch over her left eye. Every bit of her clothing had gold trimmings.

She was desire made flesh on a nearly divine scale. A palpable lust exuded from her, like an animal musk, with every gesture. Few indeed, in Heaven, Hell, or between, could stand resolute before her. Most would have gladly allowed her to skin them alive, if only they might gaze upon and worship her as she carved.

Now we find Lilith in her chambers, where she was sitting on her throne which was on a floating platform, under a stone-like gazebo. The gazebo had five stone pillars, the pillars were set in a way that they created a pentagram. There was a set of stairs leading up to the platform, and at the bottom of the stairs was a stone archway which had a demonic face above it. The throne had chains on it connecting to the roof of the gazebo, and under the throne was a pit with spikes in it, with old skeletons in the pit belonging to humans and demons, they were implied on the spikes. They were victims of Lilith's, those who upset her in the past.

Like a thousand times before, she was thinking about the past and how things happened to her and how she came to this world eight hundred years ago, and what happened since then. At the time of her coming to this world, she was healing from a fight that she lost; the battle was against her children: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They were War, Death, Fury and Strife.

The fight was over the survival of humanity. Humanity was more or less extinct for around a hundred years, and her children had been trying to bring them back to the world and let them rule Earth instead of demons or angels. Don't get her wrong, the demoness hated Mankind with a passion for their indirect part in the Nephilim's (her children) demise, but she disagreed that they should be allowed to rule the world. It should be the demons, seeing how they have been there since the dawn of time and that humans were only newborns and so should be treated as tools and playthings.

But the Four Horsemen didn't see it like that, they believed that humanity should have a chance to fight and have a chance at ruling the realms themselves when they were ready. Although they won't only fight for humanity, they were doing it out of revenge for what demons, angels and the Charred Council (a group of three powerful beings charged with keeping the balance and order in the universe until the time for when the actual apocalypse should begin.) Each of these three groups somehow earned the wrath of the Horsemen for one reason or another, mainly because of the betrayal these groups did to her children.

Either way, the fight between her and the Horsemen wasn't something she wanted to partake in, she was a coward, preferring to never confront a threat directly or without some backup. But this fight was something her the dark prince or latest lover, Lucifer, wanted from her, to delay her children so that he could finally put his plans to finally get rid of the human race and those who opposed him.

So taking a huge group of demons with her, she went to fight with her children, hoping to delay them long enough for her lover to finish his plans. The problem was that thanks to their actions over the years, doing what was needed to protect themselves and the humans and gaining new gear, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse didn't waste much time in dealing with the demons with her.

Sure she would prefer to run instead of fighting, but she was no sloth in a fight if she was forced to fight and gave her children a run for their money. But still, as a group, she was unable to defeat them nor delay them from getting to her master and lover. They also defeated the Charred Council and returned the world to Mankind. At the end of the battle, all she got was a lost left eye and her lover and master killed by her children.

For a few years, she and the other demons and a few angels had to go into hiding so not to get killed by either the Horsemen or the angels. The humans, on the other hand, were trying to rebuild society again. They knew that they couldn't rebuild it like in the past, as the knowledge and technology to do so were long forgotten and lost over time. So they had to create a new society to fit their needs now.

However, two years after the death of her lover Lucifer, another apocalyptic event began. This time the world seemed to defend itself against some summoned monsters. These monsters were unlike anything that Lilith had seen before, they came from tears in the sky which when they appeared, the sky became reddish and the tears in the sky were purple like.

When the monster first came about, a Messenger of some kind came along and told them that these monsters would come every so often and that they had to defeat them for the world to live. As if they could not defeat these monsters, their world would be destroyed, no humans, demons, angels or even any animals would not survive. The world would become a dead planet. The Messenger didn't say much more other than he was sent by a goddess and gave them a Dragon Hourglass, telling them how long they had before the next attack.

The problem was that the humans, angels and even most of the reminding demons didn't want to fight in another apocalyptic event, either they were still healing or had no will to fight. The Messenger informed them that they had two options, he'll give them the ability to summon four heroes from other worlds to fight for them, along with giving eight other people weapons to help. Or he could open a portal to a world that they were competing against, where they could live there instead and start anew.

The thing was that for this to happen, he would have to open a portal during one of the waves that brought the monsters, and they would only have the time for when the wave stopped to get everyone that they could through the portal. Because they would decide to forfeit, anyone still in this world would forfeit their lives as the world would be slowly destroyed and anyone left behind would be killed.

At first, the humans didn't want to leave their world, they had spent so long fighting to get it back from the demons that they didn't want to leave it when they only got it back. So they decided to try and fight the waves themselves, and seeing how none of the humans knew magic to summon the heroes from another world, they picked eight people to use the other weapons that the Messenger gave them. The Four Horsemen got four of them seeing how they knew how to fight and did a lot for them.

However, during the next few months, the humans began to realise that these waves were too much for them, even with the Horsemen and the few demons that Lilith sent. So seeing how they were losing and with the limited resources that they had, the humans decided to take the Messenger's offer of being transported to the other world, hoping to lead a better life.

So during the next wave, the Messenger returned and opened a portal to this world. During this time, her four children made sure that no demon or fallen angel would be allowed through the portal, and to make sure that if any were able to sneak through, they had a few angels through the portal to deal with them should they make it through.

Sure a few demons tried to enter the portal, some succeeded, but more than likely were defeated on the other end. However, what the humans didn't know was that the Messenger wasn't all he seemed to be, as he too opened another portal for the demons to go through. The Messenger didn't explain why he was doing this, other than he was ordered too. The thing was that unlike the humans, he could only send so many demons through.

Lilith suspected that this could be some sort of trap, but with her life at risk, if she stayed in this world, she took the risk and accepted the offer. When the portal opened, she was the first one to go through, something she now regretted, as she gained a curse called, Goddess's Curse. But she knew that the Wave could end at any time, she could risk being left behind if she decided to wait for a while.

But over the years, she believed that it was either because she went in first or because she was targeted seeing how none of the other demons had the damn curse. You see the curse prevented her from regaining her lost power easily. You see the moment that she and the other demons came to this new world, they lost all of their power and became weak. The only way to regain their strength was to fight monsters and gain strength in their defeat.

You see, the world that they entered was like a game that the humans back in her world played, where you get stronger as you gained EXP and levelled up. Lilith was shocked at this seeing how her old world was nothing like this and she had become weak, but she thought that if she used the skills and knowledge that she had, she thought she would be able to regain her power in no time.

However, she soon learned about the Goddess's Curse and how that prevented her from levelling up fast, in fact, she only reached level seventy-five in the last hundred years. This made her really angry, she had been here for about eight hundred years and to this day she was still trying to get to level seventy-six. The damn Goddess's Curse made it so that she gained less EXP than everyone else and she would need even more EXP to level up, not only that but some of the things that she did cost her EXP and levels, which she had to workaround.

Now, whilst it was difficult for her to level up and regain most of her power, it didn't mean that she was weak. Whilst she had power, she wasn't someone who fought her own battles unless she was forced to, she would have others to do her fighting for her. This was where her creations came in, she would have them do her…

Before she could finish that line of thought, her thoughts down memory lane were interrupted when a female demon, a succubus who had dark red hair, purple wings and black horns, entered the room.

"Mistress, I have urgent news from one of our spies from the kingdom of Melromarc," said the succubus, "King Aultcray has summoned all of the heroes at once."

"What?" Lilith asked in shock, she knew that Aultcray was a man who was desperate to protect his family and kingdom, no matter what, but summoning all four Cardinal Heroes at the same time, she had to wonder what he was thinking. He was the Vassal Hero of the Staff, been one for since he fought the previous Staff Hero fought to the death for the right to become the new Vassal Hero of the Staff. Once he became the new Staff Hero, he began to spread his name as a Hero, to be known as a wise hero, never doing anything without reason.

Maybe it was something to do with his past, what many people didn't know, but thanks to her spies, Lilith did, before he became the Staff Hero, he was known as Lüge Lansarz, the third legitimate heir to the throne of Faubrey, the strongest country in this world. This was thanks to past summoned Holy Heroes, at least the Sword, Bow and Spear Heroes, living there and having children with nobles in Faubrey.

However though, at some point, he was robbed of that privilege.

You see, at the time Faubrey had an uneasy truce with Siltvelt, as they still saw them less than human and treated them badly. Over the years things were slowly getting better, but a group of Hakuko demi-humans didn't like how things were going and so decided to act by killing the royal family. Thankfully though, Lüge and his younger sister, Lucia, weren't there at the time.

Like any son who had their family murdered in cold blood, he wanted those who killed his family pay. However, for political reasons, it was decided that nothing would be done about this, seeing how no one knew who killed the royal family. And not wanting to go to war with Siltvelt, they let it slide so not start another war.

Because his homeland wasn't willing to do anything to avenge his family, Lüge began to despise both Faubrey and Siltvelt. So he decided he would take his sister away from Faubrey and move to Melromarc, which discriminated against Demi-Humans - they were a human-supremacist kingdom. Since leaving the Kingdom of Faubrey, Lüge hid his and his sister's Royal Bloodline and changed his name to Aultcray and left his sisters the same.

During his time in Melromarc, he made a name for himself in the wars that they waged, namely with the demi-human kingdoms. During one of the battles, he fought to the death with the previous Staff Hero, whereupon the death of the hero he became the new Staff Hero. And since then he spread his name as a Hero, helping the kingdom in battles and coming up with plans, earning himself the nickname The Wise Staff Hero.

Thanks to his time in battle, he caught the attention of Mirellia Q Melromarc, the princess of the kingdom thanks to his resourcefulness and strength.

But because he was on the battlefield so long, he had to leave his sightless sister behind in Melromarc, with a few of Mirellia's servants looking after her. But after a few years, he received word that she had disappeared with nothing left behind but a pool of blood, he was informed that a Hakuko had killed her.

Aultcray's desire for revenge for the Hakuko and those who protected them strengthened. This has culminated in making him a man who deeply hates demi-humans and, by association, the Shield Hero whom they worship. Because of this, he was more ruthless towards the demi-humans in battle. Either way, after many years of war, he challenged and killed the Hakuko supreme of Siltvelt, Tai Ran Ga Feon.

To be honest, Lilith wasn't sure his sister was dead or not, as she too lost track of her. Mainly because she had no interest with the sister, unlike her brother who was a Vassal Hero. She was hoping to find something that she could use against him one day.

In years to come, he married into the royal family of Melromarc and had his name changed to the choice of his wife Mirellia. Roughly twenty-some years ago, when Siltvelt plotted for global domination, it was Lüge that faced them head-on, saving Melromarc and other countries as well. Thanks to him many countries exist peacefully. Many of the nobles firmly believe that Melromarc would remain peaceful and secure as long as Aultcray was there.

Because of this, Lilith had to wonder what the king was up to, why would he do something that could cause a war between the kingdoms. As she knew that without the Cardinal Heroes helping the other kingdoms, these kingdoms would have difficulties in dealing with the Waves, so they would turn to Melromarc and make them pay for summoning the Four Heroes in one place.

Don't get her wrong, she, like any other demon, loves the chaos that comes with war, it gives demons the opportunity to do things, like feed that would be otherwise difficult to do unless they wanted the humans setting out bounties on them. But this time was different, with the Waves of Calamity around going to war now was stupid.

This was an End of the World event, something that if they didn't deal with right, everyone would either be dead or forced to leave the world. She has been through that once and she didn't want to go through it again, that's why when the Waves of Calamity since she came to this world, she would send off her demons to the kingdoms where the Waves were going to hit. Most of these demons were human-looking ones, as full out demons would be attacked as people would fear that they were part of the Waves.

Right now the Queen of Melromarc was on a diplomatic visit to the Kingdom of Faubrey, where she was trying to make a deal as to who should summon the Cardinal Heroes. From what Lilith learned so far before the foolish king summoned them, which the Queen was hoping to make it so that Melromarc would be the fourth to summon a hero instead not at on, where Faubrey was first, Siltvelt was second and Zeltoble was third and Shieldfreeden being the fourth candidate to summon the heroes.

So for Aultcray to summon all the heroes at once when his wife was in an important meeting to decide this, Lilith had to wonder if the king had an alternative motive to summon them as he did. Was he hoping that without the Heroes, the Waves would weaken the other nations, so that it would make them ripe for conquest when he decided to send the Heroes to deal with the other Waves?

Was he planning to use this to avenge his family by pillaging Siltvelt to the ground?

Or was he hoping to regain his birthright as the Heir of Faubrey, so that he could give it to his children? Seeing how his wife was planning to make Melty the next Queen of Melromarc, Aultcray could make it so that Malty could become the Queen of Faubrey throne. This way both would be Queens and no one could be upset about it. Or that was his hope.

The Mother of Demons knew that if Aultcray was able to gain the loyalty and trust of the Sword, Bow and Spear Heroes, he would become unstoppable. The demoness knew that he would have no desire to gain any favour with the Shield Hero and would try and get rid of him sooner or later somehow. So was it his plan to get the Sword, Bow and Spear Heroes on his side so that he could do a hostile takeover and banish/enslave the demi-humans from this continent?

But if this was the case, why was Aultcray doing such hostile acts now whilst his wife was in the Kingdom of Faubrey? He was known for loving his family and being cunning, so why would he do something like this now where his wife could become basically a free hostage? Unless he knew that the Queen of Melromarc that was at Faubrey wasn't really his wife.

As her spy in Melromarc informed her that the Queen often had her Shadows disguised to look like her, either for travelling around the town, or so that if she was going to other Kingdoms as she looked like a maid. As there were death threats to her life seeing how she was trying to change the view on demi-humans and there were nobles that didn't like this and so hired people to deal with her. So when there were rumours that someone was going to kill her, she would send a Shadow in her place unless she had to go to the places personally if it was really important or whatever reason.

Thinking this all over, Lilith knew that she had to know more information, so she asked the succubus, "Does our spy know why the king did this? And does she know if it was the real Queen that went to the Kingdom of Faubrey?"

"All the spy knows is that Aultcray summoned the four heroes to protect the Kingdom of Melromarc and his family, or that's what he was telling everyone. Although it is said that the king and the pope of the Church of the Three Heroes meet often before the summoning, the spy believes that the pope might be behind it." explained the succubus with a bow, "As for the Queen, seeing how important the Waves are and how things are going between the Kingdoms of late, it is said it was important that the real Queen go and talk with the other Kings and Queens and not a Shadow."

"Okay, in that case, tell our spy to keep an eye on Aultcray and see what they can find out about this. I find it hard to believe that he was only summoning the heroes just to protect his kingdom and family. Also tell them to keep an eye on the pope, just in case they are right and he is behind this and using the king." Lilith told the other demon, "Not with his wife in Faubrey and could be held as a hostage if things go bad. Not only that, but it could spark a war, something I don't think Aultcray would want at this moment unless he had something planned."

"I'll do that Mistress." the succubus informed Lilith.

"Now tell me Rias, what can the spy tell us about these new Holy Heroes?" asked the Mother of Demons, she was interested to learn what these new heroes were like. As she wanted to know if she could use them for her own gain over time, or make them into an ally if she couldn't use them.

"It would seem that out of the four heroes, three of them were killed before being summoned here. They learned that the Shield Hero was brought here by a magical book that he found at a library." the succubus informed her mistress.

"Hmm." hummed Lilith at this, other than how the Shield Hero was brought to this world, the other three wasn't a surprise. As all the past heroes had the same story, that they died and the next thing that they knew they were here in this world. "What else did they learn?"

"It would seem that the Sword, Bow and Spear Heroes believe that this world is nothing more than a game to them. That they would only have to level up and they would be fine against anything they face." explained Rias, "But as for the Shield Hero, he seemed to take it more seriously than the other three, not thinking that this is just a game but something real with game elements."

This too didn't surprise Lilith, as most heroes seemed to think it was just a game of sorts until it was too late, while those who tooks up the mantle of the Shield Hero seemed to think differently. It was only a guess, but she suspected that it was because they were Shield Hero and unable to attack normally, that they had to think differently than the other heroes. As if they wanted to fight, they had to find a different way than straight out fighting like the other heroes.

For the past Shield Heroes, whilst levelling up was important, unlocking new shields, learning new tricks and sometimes magic was more important. As without them, they would die after a few Waves, seeing how it seemed that no matter what, they only had a few allies whilst the others had a lot more. As until four-hundred years ago when the Shield Hero of that time helped the demi-humans to set up their very own kingdom in this continent, Siltvelt.

Since then the demi-humans from Siltvelt treated the Shield Hero as their god, as such they would follow the Shield Hero wherever he went. Shown when the Waves of Calamity appeared again two hundred years ago, give or take a few years. It was a shame that this current Shield Hero was summoned by Aultcray, as if he was summoned by those in Siltvelt, he would have a better life there. In fact, he would be treated as a god, woman, money, people to fight for him and so on. Whatever he wanted, he would have gotten without a second thought. Although, from what she heard recently from the spies there, some wanted to control and use the next Shield Hero for their own gain.

"Tell me Rias, what else can you tell me about the new Shield Hero? How are the people of the Kingdom of Melromarc treating him?" Lilith asked with interest, out of the four of them, the Shield Hero sounds more interesting. As if the other three heroes only cared about levelling up and gaining new skills, they would be of no interest to her as she had dealt with heroes like that.

But a hero who sees the world not as a game, but something more, something real, now that would be interesting, as you would never know what they might do. So knowing what this new Shield Hero was like could be useful to her, might be able to use him and become an ally to him if she couldn't use him.

"The new Shield Hero is named Naofumi Iwatani," the succubus informed her mistress, "and like I said before he was summoned by a magical book. On his first night here, he talked to the heroes and learned a few things that might be helpful for him in this world seeing how he might not be able to attack as they could."

"That is useful," Lilith said thoughtfully, "I hope that he can use these ideas that the other heroes gave him."

"Either way, during the first night here, he learned that the Sword Hero who was pretending to be a male because of how females were treated back in her world, and was, in fact, a female. At which point they had sex." Rias told Lilith, who waved on, what she heard was interesting, she wanted to learn more about the young Shield Hero. "Next day is when things start to go wrong for Shield Hero Naofumi. After Ren, or Renka now that she decided to reveal who she truly is, told people who she was, the adventurers were shown to them and they decided to pick which hero they wanted to join. This is where things started to go wrong, seeing how no one wanted to join him."

"Why is that?" asked the Mother of Demons, "I understand that the kingdom doesn't like the Shield Hero, but I would have thought that at least one hero would be willing to join him."

"From my understanding Mistress, during the night before, one of the Shadow's loyal to the king's daughter spied on the heroes whilst they were getting to know each other." explained the succubus, "During the talks, it was learned that unlike the other heroes, who had a basic idea of the world already, the Shield Hero had no idea about this world. Because they heard of the legends that all heroes would have a basic understanding of this world and what was going on, the adventurers used this as the reason as to not to join the Shield Hero."

Lilith only sighed at this, she doubted that this was the real reason for not wanting to join the Shield Hero, but it was something that was needed to cover their asses. There are some who didn't want to admit that they hate the Shield Hero and wanted a reason to not to work with him. So finding some small reason like this was good for them, as they can push the Shield Hero away without looking bad.

"However, there was one adventurer, Myne Sophia, who picked the Spear group, who volunteered to join the Shield Hero." Rias informed her Mistress.

"This was a setup wasn't it?" Lilith asked, already knowing the answer. It was a basic tactic, get close to someone to betray him to make him look bad.

"You are right Mistress, the truth was that Myne Sophia was in fact, Malty S Meruromaruku, the daughter of the king and queen." the demon informed Lilith.

Lilith knew all too well who Malty was, she had kept an eye on the Princess seeing that at one point in time she was going to be Queen one day. Now whilst she could be called a bitch from time to time, Lilith had to say the Princess gave her a run in being a true bitch. Sure she was a bitch and used people, but as a demon that was part of their nature. But the thing about her and many other demons, if they hated someone, they wouldn't go out of their way to humiliate them for the hell of it. They would just kill them, plain and simple. If they were useful, they would use them until they weren't and do whatever was needed to be done, normally kill them.

The only time they played with someone was if they were human, as demons, it was in their nature to do so, to use them to entertain themselves or use as food. To most demons, humans were just playthings to be used as they wanted, to others, they were meant to be killed seeing how the creators and the gods thought more of them and wanted them to give them the world. Whilst the demons, angels and other gods got nothing, even though they were around before the dawn of mankind, before almost everything, the humans were just children all things considered and should get nothing. That was the reason what happened in Lilith's old-world happened as they did, where angels and demons alike who didn't like the idea of newborns getting everything whilst they died off getting nothing.

Lilith had to laugh, Malty seemed to act more of a demon than a human, seeing how she would use anyone for her own gain, no matter who it hurt. No, not a demon, at least with demons they don't humiliate their own kind if they got in the way, only as punishment, if demons were, no longer useful to other demons, demons would just kill those no longer of use. No, she seemed more like a so-called god, they love to treat people like the way Malty treats those around her. As she thought about it, humans that are corrupted by power often see themselves as gods and believe they are god or they were a messenger of god and could do what they wanted.

Lilith had to blame her parents, more Malty's father than her mother, although the Queen played a part of it all, even if it was a small part of it. Yes, as a Queen, she had things to do, a country to rule and such, so her time was limited at times. But as a mother, she should have tried to spend more time with her children, to make sure they turn out right, should have used her advisors and trusted governors to deal with things and only get involved with things that couldn't be dealt with by others.

Not like she could talk about being a good mother, then again as a demon, she didn't have what people would call a parenteral nature, only a rare few might have it if any. Demons in their nature, look out for themselves and use others for their own gain. Like she, she would use her body to get more power and if she couldn't get more power, use her body to gain protection or have someone else do what she could not. She would become their plaything as long as she got what she wanted, which is why she sided with Lucifer and gave her body to him. He had the power to do what she couldn't do, to make humans and those who went against her pay.

Shaking her head as not to let her mind get away with herself again, she thought back to who was really to blame for letting Malty become the way she did, Aultcray. As her father, it was his place to teach her right and wrong, to teach her what it meant to be a good human. Then again, if everyone acted like that, it would make demons work in using humans even harder, so she had to be pleased that not all humans were like that.

With the queen attending a number of diplomatic meetings and doing other things to run the kingdom, Aultcray spoiled Malty, anything she wanted she got, no matter what it might have been. If she misbehaved, her father would look the other way or cover it up for her, he truly loved his daughter and didn't want her to get hurt. In his eyes, Malty could do no wrong, that or he loved her so much that he would turn a blind eye to whatever she did or pretending it didn't happen.

Not that Malty couldn't look out for herself as she grew older, she learned a few things from her father, how to manipulate and such. She wasn't as good as her father or mother, but she knew how to use her power as the princess to get what she wanted. Lilith knew that Malty abused her authority to shut up anyone who was trying to put up an argument against her or tried to stop her doing what she wanted. She, just like the Mother of Demons, even slept with whoever she had to gain what she wanted, a passing grade if she was failing a subject, a man who she might like and just wanted sex with, and so on.

Not only that but she loves creating misery for others, she would do whatever she could just to see the misery that unfolds. She would lie, hit up with other women's men just so that the woman would see this, and enjoy the backless of what happens next and so on. She would hide in the shadows, where she would try to get people into trouble only to watch what happens next.

If the rumours were true, then she was working with the Church of the Three Heroes to overthrow her mother as Queen and become the next Queen. As because of her actions of late, her mother decided it was best to make her younger sister, Melty. Her younger sister was named as an heir because her mother knew how she treated people and abuse of power, not only that, unknown to Melty, she also knew about her acts of fraud theft.

Because of this and knowing how she felt about the Shield Hero, Lilith asked, "So what did the foolish human do to the Shield Hero?"

"Framed him for raping her." the succubus informed her mistress, a bit disgusted at the thought. Sure she was a creature that fed off the life force of their partners, but they would use their powers to allure their victims to them. They would never rape their partners, seeing how they could use their powers to make them go with them willingly, and rarely kill them, as a dead partner means the less likely hood of getting easy life force. The only times that a person would die as if they had a weak life force from the start.

Whilst they love to create chaos like the rest of their race, using those that they controlled to do so, they didn't want to stand out like the rest of them. As that meant that they would be hunted and killed, so they would do whatever they could to stay out of trouble and killing and raping people would attract unwanted attention which would mean they search for them if they killed people. So they try to keep a low profile so as not to gain unwanted attention.

Shaking her head, Rias continued on with her report from one of the spies in the castle, "During the meeting where the First Princess famed the Shield Hero, he let slip that he knew that the Princess was the king's daughter. The thing is that none of the other heroes knew this until now."

"So how did the Shield Hero know this then?" asked Lilith, interested in this bit of news.

"He said that he overheard someone talking about it when they were out, but I find it hard to believe." said Rias, "I mean it's not out of possibilities but I don't see it happening to be honest Mistress."

"So do you have any ideas on how he knew about her then?" Lilith asked with interest, it would seem that this new Shield Hero had just become more interesting.

"None at all." the succubus said with a sigh, unhappy that she didn't have the answers that her mistress wanted. But she did have some interesting news to make up for it, "The spy doesn't know why, but it would seem that within a day together, the Shield Hero lost trust in the Princess and was planning to kick her from the party and was planning to find some new companions himself. He admitted that he would do anything to protect people, even murder, but he wouldn't rape a person."

"Hmm." the Mother of Demons hummed, the Shield Hero really was getting more interesting. She had to wonder what happened in a day that would make him lose trust in the Princess, knowing her she would have been sweet and caring, only revealing her true motives at the last moment when it was too late to do anything. "So tell me, did the other three Heroes believe that he didn't do it, or did they believe the Princess?"

"It would seem that all the heroes believed that he raped the Princess," admitted the succubus, "even Renka seemed to believe it, even though he didn't do a thing to hurt her when they had sex the night before. He demanded for a truth spell to be placed on him. But when they turned that down when it was said that his shield would protect him from the spell, he asked that the Princess take the spell as she wasn't a hero nor had the shield to protect her. But nothing was said and done about this, and seeing this the Shield Hero demanded to know what evidence he did such a crime."

"The foolish humans," Lilith said as she shook her head, "I can understand to a point that they might mistrust him, but when he asked for a truth spell to be used on him and then on the Princess when they said the spell wouldn't work on him should have set off alarm bells to them. Why wouldn't they want to know what's going on if things weren't adding up? The others wouldn't care, seeing as they hate the Shield Hero." Here Lilith sighed, things were getting out of hand quickly. She knew what was happening, the king, his daughter and everyone else was trying to keep the Shield Hero weak so that he could die in the Waves.

The Heroes, she had no idea what was going on, sure the Shield Heroes of the past had problems too because they had the Shield Weapon, but she could never understand why. To her, they would need the Shield Hero's skills when the waves got harder to protect them. It made no sense to make them an outcast, as later on the Shield Hero might not want to help them after how they treated him.

Fearing the worst, Lilith asked her servant, "Does our spy in the castle know of any plans concerning the Shield Hero?"

"They don't know about the king, they believe that the king wants to keep the Shield Hero weak so that he could die during the Waves so that his hands wouldn't be dirtied." explained Rias. Which Lilith could see happening, seeing how he wasn't stupid enough to make things worse than kill a hero without some plan not to get caught. "But they did hear a rumour that the Church of the Three Heroes has soldiers planted around the borders that leads to Shieldfreeden and Siltvelt."

"Just like those fools to do something like that, anything to kill the so-called Demon of the Shield. If they aren't careful one day they'll create the demon they fear thanks to their actions." Lilith just couldn't believe that these humans could be so foolish, that they would try and alienate the very person that they summoned to save them. As that person could decide that this world isn't worth saving or they could become the very thing that they fear, a demon, one that might decide to destroy or enslave their world.

Whilst Lilith didn't care one way or another, she had to admit that she found the idea of one of the Holy Heroes becoming a demon very interesting. She would love and watch to see what kind of demon the hero would become, be she knew that might not ever happen. As all the heroes whilst have problems in one form or another, they often work it out long enough to save the world and never become the demon itself.

With another sigh at humanity's stupidity at hating a symbol, she asked Rias, "Did the spy tell you anything else, either about the heroes, plans for them or anything else of importance?"

"No mistress," the sexual demon informed her mistress, "when the spy learned about today's events with the First Princess framing the Shield Hero, they thought that they should inform you as soon as possible."

"I see," Lilith said thoughtfully before after a few moments of thought she said, "tell our spies in the Kingdom of Melromarc to keep an eye on the Heroes, mainly the Shield Hero. With the Shield Hero, tell them to help him where they can without revealing themselves, only reveal themselves if his life is at risk."

"Of course mistress," Rias said with a bow, not bothering to question her reasoning for this, "is there anything else you would like from me?"

"Yes, I want you to find Belisatra and tell her I want to speak to her, I'll be needing her help soon." Lilith told the other demon.

"I understand mistress, and unless there's anything else you need, I'll take my leave and see to your orders." said Rias.

When nothing else was side, Rias left her mistress's chamber to carry out the orders that she got. As for Lilith, she had things to think about, things to plan. If she was lucky, she might have found a way to gain control of one of Cardinal Heroes, and if that didn't work, might work it out that she gains an ally in one. Only time would tell, for now, she had to wait and see what happens and plan accordingly.

For now, she sat there waiting for Belisatra to come, at which point she'll see about helping the Shield Hero from the shadows.

To Be Continued!

Author's Note: Here's the end of the first part of the side-story for Rising of the Shield Demon, I hoped you enjoyed it. There's not much to say here, which doesn't happen often lol, other than I'm not sure how many chapters I'll have for this. I'm just writing chapters to show what I think are important parts that we wouldn't see in the main story, to show the key moments of things. The next chapter will be either with Lilith again, to show what she has planned next, or with Melty to show why she was sent back to Melromarc.

Now if there are any key points that you would like to see but would break the flow in the main story, please let me know and I'll think about adding it to this story.