I do not own Destiny 1 or 2
I do not own Rising of the Shield Hero
I also do not own the chaperone shotgun
Grammarly is my beta
I do own the Crimil's dagger that I just bought on Etsy from 3dprintoys (seriously they all look cool, I'm going to put it together and use Calus chosen with small changes it will look awesome)
L thanks for your reviews, yes due to the map and Ar'na skills as a hunter allow them to leave no trace where they are. The orb was destroyed immediately when Callum ordered the attack. Rino will have a very interesting fight with bitch
as for Idol I already have his fate set in stone but it was a good idea for Rifana to make her a guardian, I already had something planned for her since chapter 10? and what would become Keel and her later in life and though nothing has really changed (because your idea was already so similar) there will be a small change
Story Start
"So what is happening?" asked Raph after we had all gathered into a single room
Just then two maids came in
"Sir Hero! You and your party must leave at once! A nobleman from the next town marched in here and accused us of hiding you!" Exclaimed one of the maids
"Please follow us, we know a way out through the kitchens!" said the second maid
"Wait, where is Melty and Filo?" ask worriedly
"They wandered off earlier this morning, don't worry I'll find them and meet up with you later." said Ar'na as she dashed off as we continued on to the kitchen
On the way there we overheard the soldiers searching for us
"Quickly, this way." whispered the maids as the soldiers closed in on us
We barely had time to hide in a closet before they came barging in
"Hey, you! What are you doing!" exclaimed one of the soldiers
"We are simply making breakfast." answered the first maid
"Forget that, both of you come with us!" ordered the soldiers
"What do you think you are doing?!" ordered a voice "I am Melty Melromarc, Second Princess of Melromarc. I demand that you cease this behaviour at once!"
"The Second Princess?" asked one of the soldiers confused
"The real deal?" asked the second
"My, my if it isn't Princess Melty." says a new voice as I feel Raph stiffen in anger next to me
"Remain calm." I whispered
"Aren't you?" started Melty
"I am so glad that you are ok Princess Melty. I was so worried for your safety that I rushed here." said the mysterious newcomer
"Idol Rabier...I've heard that you've fought with father in the past."
"You have heard correctly." the now identified Idol Rapier answered
"Are these your troops?" asked Melty
"Indeed they are.:
"Have them withdrawn from this mansion immediately!" Ordered Melty
"Before that, where is the Devil of the Shield?"
"I do not know of any Devil, but the Shield Hero saved my life from treacherous soldiers but due to my age and status as a princess he did not think it would be wise for me to journey with him. So he left me here with someone I could trust before he and his party continued on." informed Melty "I intend to talk to father directly and inform him what really happened. So you will take me to the capital as soon as possible so that I may clear the Shield Hero's name."
"I understand. I will make arrangements for your journey at my mansion...Take her." he ordered the soldiers
When the soldiers had finally left we exited the closet
"Why didn't you take them! I know you could have stopped them all on your own!" Demanded Raph
"And when I did what do you think would happen to the people who lived here? Remember these men barged in here without any care for any consequences. That suggests that there are either arrogant or have greater military strength than the people heer...most likely both. So if anything happened to that noble or his men in this domain the people here will surely pay for it if they can be blamed in any way. The only solution is if they can be dealt in their own home so that they can't pin the blame on others. So let's find Ar'na and Filo and follow them because I doubt that man has any good intentions for Melty."
Soon after we started looking we ran into Filo and Ar'na
"Filo are you ok?" asked Ino
"She's fine, she was hiding in the attic. So, what's our plan now?" asked Ar'na
"A rich snobby noble has taken Melty to the next town over, so we are heading there to rescue her."
With that said we quickly followed the trail left by the soldiers and made it all the way their base with Ar'na going ahead to find out where Melty was taken.
By that night we stood outside the town's walled gates as dozens of demi-humans banged on the gates as Ar'na rejoined us.
"Demi-humans who love their lord must've come here for him." spoke Raph
"Then let's make sure they get him back safe and sound...Ar'na what's the best way in?"
"There is an area in the wall that we can easily slip in through."
"Well let's make our way there."
Despite our stealthy entrance we soon came upon enemies
"Okay everyone kill or spare it is up to you!" I ordered
With that the fight inside the town began, Ino and Filo seemed to prefer to simply take their opponents out without permanent damage by knocking them into wall or just blasting them away with wind while Ar'na simply fought to take them out...not caring if they lived afterwards or not by taking them out with her assault rifle via short controlled bursts. Raph, on the other hand, spared some by simply hamstring them with Duty Bound or knocking them out but seemed to go to extra lengths to make sure certain soldiers died by focussing her fire on them. I, on the other hand, used my shield to bat away at soldiers and block any attack that might have landed on my teammates, allowing them to focus entirely on attacking.
With that we pressed on, the guards simply unable to withstand our attack, but soon Raph stopped in front of a set of stairs leading underground
"What is it?" I ask concerned
"It's a dungeon where Idol kept his...entertainment." spat Raph with venom
"Go and help them...I'll take care of things up here."
With this Raph's actions of selectively targeting certain soldiers finally made sense... those soldiers along went along willing with their demented noble desires and while I didn't know the full extent of the pain he caused Raphatalia and undoubtfully many others the little Ar'na had felt comfortable passing on to me from what Raph had shared with her and the simple fact that he had managed to earn the hatred of a normally caring Raph was more than enough for me to stop holding back.
Summoning my Crimil's dagger and dismissing my shield I proceeded to walk towards where Melty was being held, killing everyone that refused my offer of leaving with their lives intact...soon enough I was kicking down the door Melty was hiding behind.
Unfortunately, my entrance had stunned Melty enough that Idol had no trouble grabbing her and holding a sword to her throat.
"Take one more step and I will slit the princess's throat!" threatened Idol
My response was to blink next to Idol, grab the arm holding the sword, break his arm and spartan kicked him into the wall.
"Melty are you okay?" I ask
"I'm okay thank you...But why did you come?"
"Because I don't leave party members behind, besides I owe this scumbag a lot of pain for what he put Raphtalia through."
"You think you can just make a mockery of me! Tort.."
Appearing next to Idol again I backhand him into the wall,
"You will do nothing but suffer for what you have done."
"Callum what are you doing!"
"When Raph first started out with us she had nightmares most nights, some were about the death of her parents while others were about the torture this man put her and her friends through. I remember countless nights with Ar'na or me comforting Raph as she went through another nightmare, and while she never felt comfortable telling me what her nightmares where about she did talk to Ar'na. In turn, Ar'na told me enough of what she went through because of this man to guarantee a very painful death."
"You simply can't kill him! He must face judgment for his crimes...my father will." said Melty before being interrupted
"You think I will trust your father or this corrupt kingdom enough to hand this monster over? Your father put this man here, this kingdom is biased against demi-humans. They don't care if this man hurt children, that he tortured children, that he killed children! I will not let this...thing get away with what he has done. If you think I would let such a person go I have misjudged you and you have misjudged me."
"But.."
"Melty sama perhaps we should go elsewhere." interrupted Reichnott
"The others are searching the dungeon below this place...please go and help any survivors." I asked
After they left I started to approach the piece of scum called Idol
"Wait please spare me..I'll give you anything money, power, women!" he whimpered
"There is nothing you can do to save yourself." I said coldly
"I sorry...but I don't think so!" exclaimed Idol as he grabbed a dagger with his good hand and tried to run me through
An inch from my face I grabbed the hand stopping the blade then I summoned void energy around my other hand into a blade-like edge I proceeded to cut his hand off.
Idol fell down screaming trying to cradle his stump with his broken arm.
Walking towards him I encompassed myself with solar energy "Sunsingers have many skills, one of which is being able to use solar to not only kill their enemies but heal their allies and though I mainly use my stormcaller ability I have not lost my voidwalker or sunsinger abilities."
"WHy why are you telling me this." whimpered Idol
"Because you are going to feel the very unique sensation of burning alive from the inside out as your veins will feel like they are pumping fire throughout your body...but you won't die as the very thing that will be killing you will also be healing you."
"M-mercy!" Idol begged
"The funny thing is if Raph had been here she would have listened to that plea and asked me to listen to Melty and let you face a fair trial...but she is not here, she is below helping those that you gave no mercy and because of that you shall receive none from me." With that I channelled solar energy into him and as I told him it healed and killed him at the same time causing unimaginable pain...but the human body can only withstand so much so within a short amount of time the only thing left of Idol was a scorched shadow where he was laying.
"Rot in hell you bastard, now to help those you hurt."
With that I left the room and quickly went to where the rest of my party was in the dungeons, just in time to see a tearful Raph holding a young girl to her chest.
"Raph what's wrong?"
"T-the medicines not working!" sobbed Raph
Taking the girl gently from Raph I whisper "There there little one...everything is going to be alright."
"Are you really the shield hero." the girl asked weakly
"I am."
"But where is your shield?" she asked while coughing weakly
Summoning my shield I press it softly into her hand "Here it is little one."
"I'm glad...I'm glad that I got to see the shield hero before I died." she said softly while Raph was barely keeping it together
"Everyone dies little one, one day even I will die." I said softly as I started to thrum with energy "But you won't be dying today and certainly not here." as I encompass myself and the little girl in energy.
With Melty at the same time
"How, how can he be so kind and so cruel!?" asked Melty
"It is because of his kindness that he is cruel." Answered Ar'na "To harm a child will anger a guardian like nothing else will, we do not guard the last city because it is a place, we do not guard it because of the people...we guard it for the children. We guard it so they can play and live in safety and so that others can enjoy the gift of life we cannot."
"What do you mean?"
"As a whole guardians cannot have children, whether this is because of how we are born, the price of our power or because it was simply designed that way by the travellor I do not know." said Ar'na
Then Callum and the small girl he was holding are encased with light
"What is he doing? That looks nothing like the way Filo told me he heals." said Melty
"That's because he is not healing her...she is too far gone for that to work so he is turning her into a defender."
"What do you mean too far gone? She is still alive!" protested Melty
"No she isn't, her desire and will to live long ago overtook her body's ability to survive. The reaper has already come for her...she has just been refusing to listen to him, the only way to save her is to make her a defender."
"Wait...what's a defender?"
"A defender is the child of a guardian and another person." said Ar'na
"But you said guardians couldn't have children." protested Melty
"I said on a whole, there a few though but not many. It is said when a defender is born the whole city celebrates and mourns."
"Why would they mourn a birth?" asked Melty
"Guardians do not age from time, pain, suffering and deep emotional trauma are what ages a guardian. This means that either a guardian dies before their children or they will see their children age and die. A female warlock wrote a poem about it and while I don't have time to recite it she compared it to being stabbed in the chest with a knife, that the wound would nearly heal before a bigger knife was thrust even deeper in her chest over and over again. "
"How do they handle it?"
"In different ways, most involve the support of their fireteam. Some however don't, there is a story about a famous titan who fell in love and married a civilian. When she died he hugged his sons-in-law, kissed his grandchildren and took his twin daughters for one last hunting trip...one month later his daughters returned while we journeyed further into the wilderness equipped only with his armour, his ghost and his trusted shotgun...Many many years later that same shotgun came back in the hands of a mother and her children spreading the story of her journey and the rusty knight that gave her his gun and a map to the city. Needless to say, the descendants heard her tale and with her help, they recovered his body and the body of his ghost and buried him with his long-dead wife."
"But that girl isn't his daughter." said Ino
"That's just for natural born defenders, there are also artificial defenders that are made by a guardian giving their light to them. But they aren't that common either."
"But why?" asked Melty "It sounds like you would want as many as you could."
"That's because it isn't as simple as a guardian sharing their light...its a common titan tactic of embuing each other with light so that each member is strengthening the others but the effect soon wears off."
"I don't understand?" asked Filo
"Think of it as a river, if you pour water into it you can say you say that you are increasing the water flow but as soon as you stop you cannot say that you had any lasting impact. Turning someone into a defender is like pouring a large amount of water onto a dried out river bed."
"Wait...does that mean?" asked Ino
"Yes they have to be nearly dead to turn into a defender so that the guardians light binds permanently to them otherwise they will just recover to what they were before...this is also why all cases of artificial defenders are closely checked to make sure no one is going around purposely creating the which is quite forbidden."
"What does this mean for Dad, will he be ok?" asked a concerned Filo
"He will be fine, he is one of the most powerful guardians out there for a reason. He may need to sleep later but Callum is a force to be reconned with even without his light...when Gaul took the light of the travellor Callum threw some C-4 on this foot as he was kicked off the ship...it didn't blow his foot off but he had an awful limp for the rest of his short life."
At that point the light around Callum died down. "Come on everyone lets get the fuck out of here."
With that, they left the dungeon with Callum carrying the little girl
"Wait what happening over there?" asked Raph suddenly
As one we all turn to the nearby pillar with a figure in black kneeling infront as the pillar started to flash with energy and the ground began to shake.
"Oh no." gasped Reichnott
