This is a Full Metal Alchemist and Rising of the Shield Hero Crossover Fanfiction Only.
As two men walk through a doorway, they find a rather unique sight, two men were in fact playing a sort of game and they were looking at the table, and it was a game board, and many little pieces, something like Chess, but clearly not the classical one that others play.
As soon as these two men walked over to one of them, he simply looked at what they are playing and simply smiles, "Still going at it, don't you get tired of playing this sort of game? I would think you had more than enough of that after this long little brother." The man who was his opponent looked at the one that spoke.
"Truth, I have a few questions that I hope you would kindly answer, first who is this guy, who is the guy next to him and how can they even enter this realm?" Truth looked at his opponent and he began to answer his questions, he first told him the man who spoke with him is his big brother, Darkness, the guy next to him was a fallen archangel, Lucifer Morningstar, and how could they walk in, it is quite simply because, in one reality or another, they are both gods.
"Look Mercurius, I don't expect you to believe me, but understand one thing, my big brother knows every secret of every single person he has ever met or has ever lived with, his friend is in some dimensions someone who is called the Devil, so please try not to piss them off, because I don't think I will be able to get them to be merciful with you if you did."
As soon as he heard that Mercurius simply said that it is impossible, that if they were in fact that powerful they should prove it, to which Lucifer told him that a true deity doesn't need to prove he is one, and only a fool would fall for such an obvious attempt to misdirect. Truth hearing this he asked Lucifer what does he mean by that, to which Darkness told him, that in fact when he was saying that Mercurius did something that could only be called cheating or trying to rig the game in his favor.
"You can deny it, and it is true, that most people wouldn't be able to tell what you did, but I am not most people, and I know exactly what you did to cheat on this game, you have caused disbalance on this game, and so it falls to me that since you wanted to have an advantage over my little brother, that I should help him to restore balance," Mercurius asked him what does he mean by that, the minute that he did Lucifer gave Darkness a dagger and with it, he cut his finger.
After he did he handed him back his dagger which Lucifer did the same and as the two had a single drop of blood on their fingers they simply pointed at a figure of a man wielding a shield. The two drops of blood fell and they both hit the shield. "There that should restore balance to this game, and before you even think about saying that this is not fair, don't even try to deny it, you just unleashed homunculi into the game, which were not supposed to be present. I saw you add five of them into the game when you were trying to distract Truth."
Lucifer already knew that the guy was going to try and say that is not true and that is when he used his power to start showing what Mercurius did while he was talking, "As you can see, he added five extra figures to the game, and thus this will give him an unfair advantage."
As they told Truth what Mercurius was doing, Truth simply told his big brother that he expected no less from him, he was always a cheater, and he never learns, so this makes little difference, in the end, the shield hero would still manage to win.
As this was something I was looking at in my dream, I almost felt sick because they were talking about my life like it was nothing more than a game to these two men, and that would mean all those times I lived and died were, in fact, times they started a new game all over again. Why was I dreaming that these two people apparently dropped blood on the shield held by a miniature statue of myself? So does this mean I got a blessing from both Darkness and the Devil?
Come to think of it, did I pass out? Cause last thing I remember, I just defeated an imbecile dragon, that couldn't understand politeness and ended up killing his mate when I was only being kind and polite to her. If I was going to have a dream, why couldn't it be something nice, like the last date Mire and I had, that was nice.
As I looked around I noticed that I am in what could be called a field tent, guess Jane took control of the situation and somehow made camp in the middle of the den of two now very dead dragons. I guess seeing Raphtalia like that was too much for me, I can't believe I ended up causing something that cursed her like that. All I know is that we are going to need something akin to holy water, and I know I can't make it, and the only people that can probably refuse to see it to me, and after being blessed by Lucifer I am not fucking kidding Morningstar, how can I honestly say I am not the Shield Devil?
Well anyways I need to get up, and apparently need to get dressed, wait for a second, why am I naked? What the hell happened to me when I fainted for me to end up naked and sleep in a field tent like this? What the hell is going on here!
As I finally made it out of the tent, apparently Jane really made a complete camp I walked over to the campfire and apparently Jane and Filo were preparing something akin to breakfast. I know that Jane is often called a butcher, but to kill monsters and cut them to pieces to cook them is something I honestly never expected.
"So you finally up, it seems after you went blew up the zombie dragon to pieces and collapsed, I had to give you a complete physical exam to find out there was nothing wrong except that you were exhausted. So while you were asleep, I took charge and with some protest from these girls, I made camp. Hope you are hungry, 'cause I got some stew ready."
Actually, I am hungry, even though I am concerned about Jane's cooking ability, so I decided to give her the benefit of doubt and asked her how was Raphtalia doing after what I caused, and served myself a bowl of the stew she made. "She is inflicted by something called a basically cursed her, she tells me her pain is not that bad, that she has in fact suffered worse, but something tells me that we are going to need some really powerful holy energy to get rid of that curse. As for her personally, she was frightened and worried about you, she has been keeping guard over your tent while you sleep, which is why she is currently asleep, honestly, I don't know how you didn't notice her since she went to sleep after she placed you under a blanket and went to sleep right next to you in the tent, holding your hand."
I decided to ignore that and start eating the stew, if I am going to be nagged or have to deal with her screaming, I might as well do so with a full stomach. "What the hell is the deal with you with that Racoon girl and that transforming chicken girl? Honestly, I think they are both in love with you, it's bad enough that you cheated on me with that imaginary girlfriend of yours that you called Lust for some god-awful reason, but this?"
First, we were not dating at the time or ever, secondly, actually Lust got somehow reincarnated as one of the princesses of this nation, so I advised her against saying anything insulting about her, the girl that she was talking about, was actually born from an egg and she was as much as I can tell a high-class version of those large birds that pull carriages around. "You might like this even less, apparently I had a dream, and in the dream Truth pretty much showed me, I saw that basically, we got four Homunculi that my father, uncle, and his friends killed going to appear in this world. To make matters even worse, these Homonculi were either killed by dad, or by Ed, and considering who am I, they will come gunning for me the minute they come here. So yes, we are up a creek without a paddle."
She glared at Filo who was actually looking at me as she finished her food and at Raphtalia's arm which was covered in bandages. "Sorry to cause you so much pain Raphtalia, I don't know what came over me, but seeing him treat his mate like that filled me with such utter rage that I lost it. Please forgive me for causing you such pain."
She stopped eating her food and looked at me a blush was clearly visible on her face, "No Master Mustang, you don't need to apologize, and you did avenge that poor lady dragon, not to mention now that we have taken care of the body of her mate, the village will not be afflicted by the poison air that was blowing through this dragon's den. Please don't feel bad, the pain is not that bad actually. I actually felt a lot worse when I was owned by my first master actually."
Jane asked what did she mean by that, Raphtalia told her that Melromac is a human supremacist nation and therefore they tend to make anything that is not entirely human, slaves, in fact, Raphtalia felt very blessed by having been bought by her new master, Master Roy Mustang, thanks to the actions of an idiot, she was technically freed but she rather has the slave seal as a reminder on how they met, plus the seal working with the shield her master has offered quite a few benefits actually.
"How is a tattoo that labels you a slave beneficial? Most people would want to rid of the damn thing as soon as possible, something tells me those so-called seals are not at all kind to people who have them and those that own the slaves probably get to use those seals to do some pretty sick and horrible things to their slaves. This is why the horrid practice of slavery is no longer approved in our world after. So what is so damn good about having that tattoo?"
Raphtalia told her that it allows Master Mustang to have a way to monitor her health and detect if she is suffering from any injury, poison, or disease, he was able to cure her of her sickness that most consider was guaranteed that would cause her death, and even can use it to provide a boost on how much experience she gets, I decided to include that it also has a way to tell me where they are exactly if they become separated from me.
Jane was not happy to hear this, and Raphtalia pretty much told him that she and Filo would try to make sure he never has to use that, that is when Jane realized that both of them had the same tattoo so she decided to ask them how exactly can he check the things to do with their bodies or activate it, to which Roy told her everything about it, about seeing the information in front of him, nobody else can see or read it, and thanks to this he managed to cure Rapthalia of her sickness, and injuries, also managed to maintain the peak development for Filo, hence why she is the age and size she is since it hasn't been a year since she hatched from her egg, which sort of shocked Jane so much that she dropped her spoon.
"You got to be fucking kidding me, she looks like that and she was basically born a little less than a year ago? I heard of growth spurts but you have got to be fucking kidding me!" Filo looked at her and told her no, he is not kidding, demi-humans grow along with their levels, and since she and Raphtalia got so many Experience Points, they leveled up to the point that they are both their current age, but she did really hatch as her daddy told her.
She was quick to ask if this means that if they gain too many of these experience points, does that mean they will grow old and even die faster than normal people? To which Raphtalia told her no, once they reach complete maturity that part of it stops affecting their growth, it is only until they reach the peak of their physical and mental development.
"You find it weird, and I am still trying to get used to it myself, so yes, we need to go back to the village and tell them that the situation was handled and why the hell everyone was getting sick, to think Ren would be stupid enough to kill a dragon that had done nothing but try and help him, and then just leaves the corpse behind to rot.
As soon as we got done disposing of the remains, we were also fed to the shield, to prevent the scent of rotten flesh from causing even further damage, as we decided to walk down the path, it seems monsters had either heard about or could smell the fact that we had face the dragons in that made their den in this particular mountain, so they were giving us plenty of space, I personally call it avoiding us like we were something so horrible that they were terrified of us, sharp contrast how they acted before we reached the den.
As we continued to walk we began to hear something we couldn't hear before, someone was crying, and it was as if this person was a girl, and apparently a boy, I decided to walk down the mountain in a direction that would take us closer to the sounds of crying, something about this didn't make me feel comfortable, it sounded like they were both sad and had gone through something terrible. How could I abandon kids like that?
We must have been in a rush that we didn't even notice this on our way up the trails of the mountain, we must have been too busy killing the monsters that were charging at our cart, but now that the monsters were avoiding us I heard those sounds loud and clear. No way in hell I am leaving two kids crying like that and abandoning them to who knows what terrible fate.
As soon as we reached the place where the sounds were coming from for some odd reason it looked like the den of the dragons we just left, and it made me realize that this is another dragon den, but somehow much smaller, could it be that in this place the children of those dragons were kept hidden while Ren attacked their parents? That would be terrible if they actually either saw or heard what happened to their father.
As I walked into the den I could see that the two kids were hugging each other as they cried, but something was wrong, they were wearing rags, that doesn't seem like something the Lady dragon I spoke to before would do to her kids. So to find out what is going on and getting them to feel better, I kneeled down and looked upon them as I tried my best to give them both a comforting hug, they quickly turned around and were surprised but not because a stranger was hugging them but because I somehow smelled like their father and mother.
"There, there, I mean you no harm, mind telling me why were you crying like that?" The boy simply wiped his nose and looked at me, "Because we saw our dad died, he was killed by a crazy guy with this weird-looking sword. I am Gaelion, and this is my sister Wyndia, why did you come? Did you come to like those men that came in here to rob this place and took everything including our clothes? Because if you did, sorry to tell you, but you are a little too late, those other men pretty much clean us out, beat us half to death, and left us to die."
I looked at them and could see they were both angry, sad, and afraid, "No, I didn't come to rob anyone, that is not something I would even think about doing, no, I came to deal with something that was causing the people who live downwind of this mountain to get sick and die, it was caused by something that I am sorry to tell you it was probably the corpse of the one you two considered your father. We met your mother, but due to a misunderstanding and your dad becoming a Zombie, she also died. You kids, shouldn't stay here by yourselves. So how about this instead, you two join my group and help me fight to end the waves of calamity, thus save this world."
They immediately looked at the three women that were behind me apparently, and then looked at me, and asked me who was I to even try to fight against what their mother considered a threat to end their world? I was about to say who I am, but Filo beat me to it, "This is my daddy, Roy Mustang, but he is otherwise known as the mighty shield hero. He is one of the four heroes that fight to save our world. Isn't daddy impressive?"
I honestly hoped that she wouldn't say something like that, if people who didn't know of the cardinal heroes heard this, they would think she is insane, or that we are trying to con them out of something. Somehow Filo's words actually made them both smile, almost like they were actually demi-humans, why do I say that? Because apparently, demi-humans know that I would never be cruel or unjust to their kind.
"Then we gladly join the party of the shield hero, you may not be able to tell, but I am a half-dragon demi-human, and my sister is a half-wolf demi-human, mother told us she was adopted but that never matter to us, we are family, even if she became my little sister because she was adopted after I hatched. I know you do not deceive us, you killed the zombie that rose from our father's corpse, and hearing this you two were there for mother, so thank you. We follow Sir Mustang from now till the end of his duties, this we swear."
That is when a voice came from the shield, a voice of the lady dragon, 'My beloved children, fear not, the remains of your father were placed within this place where I am, given enough time and enough materials I should be able to remake a body for myself, and when that happens I shall join you my children in helping Sir Mustang. Your father may have killed me after becoming a Zombie, but fear not one day, I shall return to your side.'
It seems the soul of the lady dragon spoke through the shield, this was something that had never happened in any of my lives as the shield hero, which was rather shocking to hear. As the two kids got closer I realized that they were closer to being teens rather than kids, so I did the only thing I could, I took some of the leather inside my shield, and using some of my skills and with the help of the other three we managed to make some clothes for them, granted they were not exactly fashionable but they were better than the rags those stupid bandits left them with.
Granted I wish I was half as skilled as Raphtalia and Jean when it came to working with a needle and thread to make clothes, but I had to admit I have gotten pretty good at working with leather. As we finally reached the village the doctor and the person who we were asked to help come out, thinking that we might have run away from the mountain or were injured. "Relax, there is no further danger, there will be no more poisonous air coming from the mountain we took care of the situation. The sword hero in a reckless move decided to kill a dragon and left the body to rot, that is what caused that air and what was making people sick. We dealt with the dead dragon, so there is no more cause for concern. However Raphtalia was inflicted with a curse, could you tell me what could possibly be used to heal such an affliction?"
The doctor looked at the bandages and with a quick hand he took them off, they were not exactly wrapped by anyone that knew how to do it, so I don't imagine this was very difficult for him, "Yes, I can see she is cursed with something, but sadly, I don't think any local temple will be able to provide you with the appropriate grade of holy water to lift this curse. To make matters worse we heard from another supplier, this time our food supplier, that another village found themselves almost in a situation as bad as ours. Seeing that the situation here is taken care of, could I please ask you to go to that village and help them, I swear I will send word of your coming, but I don't know if you have the herbicide that the village apparently needs, I only have one bottle but it is pretty old."
I personally don't like the sound of this, this reminds me of that warning that was in front of that chest we found, in the place where we finally got the crystal for Filo to make clothes, to make matters even worse we might need to go and make some clothes for Gaelion and probably Wyndia using that very same crystal loom. Out of one problem and into another, but never mind, it was a good deed and I should be happy with that. "Sounds like the bandit that stole that accursed seed sold it to someone in that village or planted it nearby, it was something even the creator wished that it was never discovered or used, this could be the cause of that village's problems, but I will do what I can for them when I find out if I am right. Please hand over the bottle of herbicide you do have, I might have a way to make more."
The young woman we came to help simply smiled as she went into the clinic and just as fast came out and handed me the bottle, "My name is Naomi, and I am sure Doctor McCoy here, would be happy to hear that you will go to the village where he was born and help them, no wonder they call you the savior of the heavenly fowl. As for payment I already have it right here and do not worry, I will send word to my father to try and get you the highest grade of holy water he can, if not I am sure he will try to help you in some other way."
"Looks like we have a new mission to help another village, I don't feel good about doing this right now, but maybe Raphtalia better stay here if she is in too much pain, I don't want her to suffer even worse by facing whatever horrors came from planting that accursed seed. Raphtalia quickly put a finger on my mouth preventing me from saying anything else, "As much as I appreciate your consideration, I told you, this pain is nothing compared to the pain I felt while I was a kid, I will go with you and the others to the village, I will help you and I will not accept anything other than that, do you understand me, Master Mustang?" Why do I feel like what my father looked like when mom was lecturing him for doing something dumb?