Disclaimer - I do not own the Destiny franchise or The Rising of the Shield Hero

Chapter 1 - A Legendary Bow

The Vault of Glass.

A massive Vex stronghold where Atheon, Time's Conflux once stood in charge of a Vex army large enough to conquer the galaxy. That was until a fireteam of six Guardians entered the Vault and destroyed Atheon at its very core. Making the once busy, noise filled vault cold, silent, and empty.

Empty save for one Guardian. A Hunter by the name of Lance Nightshade.

He was crouched atop the cliff overlooking the Templar's Well, scanning the area below with his sniper.

He wore solid leather combat boots that were covered in black Vex plating as shin guards. On the upper legs were the same black plating. The under armor was a strong fabric colored black with white glowing lines running across it.

His arms were covered in the same type of fabric that covered his legs. His hands were covered in segmented black Vex plating that allowed his fingers to move comfortably while providing protection. His arms were plated with the same black Vex plating as his fingers and legs with the shoulder plates extending out slightly. White lines covered the inner elbow.

His torso was covered in more of the thick yet light Vex plating with the exception of a white spot on his chest that swirled with white energy that connected to lines of glowing white across his armor. The plating covered his entire torso yet still allowed free movement.

His helmet was black in color with three glowing red eyes, two were in the normal places while the third was in the middle and slightly above them. A small piece of metal was above the eyes creating a small cover over them.

Finally, the cloak on his back was made of a black, silky fabric that had symmetrical lines on the back of it. By the top of the cloak, behind Lance's neck, was a black metal plate. The metal plate had lines of glowing white energy wired through it leading to an antenna that rose to just below the height of Lance's head. The cloak had no hood to speak of.

The sniper in his hands was boxy. If you looked at it you would see that it's design was based off of the space suits astronauts wore when first exploring the Moon hundreds of years ago. Many beads were tightly wound to the scope and stock of the gun while the long barrel had rope tied around it. Right above the magazine was a circle with a small piece cut out of it tied to the rope. The base gun was black while the rope and beads were white.

This was Lance's Tranquility in time of need.

On his right thigh was a smooth, black hand cannon. The gun was boxy overall with a spike on the front just below the barrel. The barrel had two plates affixed on it with the front one having an iron sight connected to it.

This was a finely picked Kindled Orchid, Black Armory made.

There was no movement in the Templar's Well save for the small particles that floated through the air. Seeing this fact, Lance unscoped and stood up.

"How far away is that ghost's signal again?" Lance asked aloud.

A second of silence followed before another voice spoke. This one being mechanical in nature.

"If I'm right, it should just be past the Templar's door at the end of the room."

In a small flash of light, a construct appeared above Lance's shoulder. The construct was small with a sphere as its main body. The sphere had a white glowing mechanical eye while the rest of it was black. Connected to that sphere were three wing like metal plates that, when extended, made the basic shape of a triangle without the sides.

This was Shade, Lance's Ghost. A ghost who likes to masquerade as a harpy of Vex origin.

"Are you sure it's still alive?" The hunter asked, sceptical, "This is the Vault of Glass we're talking about."

"Yes, I'm sure." The ghost replied heatedly, "I'm locked on to it's signal. It's weak but still there, so hurry up."

Lance put his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright." He then looked down at the well wearily, "It just seems too convenient, too easy."

The ghost rolled(?) it's eye, "Relax will you. Fireteams Wild and Foothold cleared this place years ago."

"Still." He backed away from the edge, mag locking his sniper to his back. Then, with a running start, Lance jumped off the cliff and into the Templar's Well.

"Here it is." Lance stated, calling out to Shade who was searching for the broken ghost a little ways away.

The ghost had a generalist shell on, meaning it probably never had a Guardian. Shade floated above it, sending out a beam of light to connect to it. After a full minute of scanning, the beam of light finally turned off and the ghost turned to his Guardian.

"It won't activate in here, to much darkness is still clouding the air." Shade summed up. "Grab it and we can call it a day."

Lance did just that, grabbing the deactivated ghost and putting it in an empty pouch on his waist. As soon as the ghost was safely stored away though, the air lit up.

Not wasting a second, he took his Kindled Orchid out of its holster and pointed in the direction of the condensing light.

"I told you something was up." Lance said to his ghost.

Instead of replying, the harpy shaped ghost disappeared in a flash of light and into the black cloaked guardian's head. Just in time for the first of many Vex to appear.

Several towering minotaurs with glowing purple shields appeared first, followed by a small army of goblins and harpys.

"I… don't think you can take all of those out by yourself." Shade stated inside of Lance's head.

"You think?" He replied sharply. He fired his hand cannon at the leading minotaur, causing its shield to detonate and disrupt nearby Vex. With this, Lance ran back into the Templar's Well only to find the rest of the army waiting for him.

"Shit!" He exclaimed when a volley of void energy originating from the numerous torch hammers flew toward him. He shade stepped out of the way of the volley, and when he was visible again there was a new gun in his hand.

The gun was as long as it was large. It was made of the same material the Kindled Orchid was made of, consisting of black plates layered over each other. The machine gun had a large stock that came to a skinny end at the barrel. The magazine were two cylinders put together to hold the 73 bullets that comes with it.

This was the Hammerhead that Lance used to strike his foes hard.

He fired the void rounds into the crowd of Vex, breaking shields and causing explosions.

A minotaur teleported behind Lance forcing him stop his onslaught and roll out of the way of a crushing melee attack sent by the Vex construct. He followed the roll with a poisoned smoke bomb, stripping it of its shield.

As the Hunter finished the minotaur off with his own melee, he heard a dreaded melody that was quickly covered by the sound of Vex weapon fire.

"Don't tell me…" Shade muttered in disbelief.

"What?" The Guardian questioned before he threw a Voidwall grenade, destroying a line of goblins, and switched to his hand cannon as the Hammerhead ran out of ammo.

The ghost didn't answer him though, "I thought they were destroyed with Atheon."

The Guardian became uneasier as he destroyed more of the countless Vex.

"What are you talking about Shad…" He trailed off, seeing the yellow glow on the stone floor. He looked at its origin and understood immediately.

I was a yellow, cubic shape that both endlessly shifted and stood forever still, humming an endless note that never existed. More filled the chamber, making a song of impossibilities.

They were the Oracles, constructs of time that protected the Vault of Glass when it was ruled by Atheon.

Lance stood silent, the battle tuned out from his mind, before he spoke quietly, "Shade, what's the chance of me getting out of here?"

"..." The ghost didn't speak, and he didn't need to. Fireteams Wild and Foothold barely survived the Oracles.

The difference was they had six Guardians and he was alone.

An army of hundreds of Vex and 20 Oracles stood in his way to freedom.

They both knew it was hopeless, and the Vex realized this too.

They stopped their attack.

All was silent except for the endless, mind numbing hum of the Oracles as they grew louder.

"Shade." Lance said to his faithful Ghost.

"Yes Guardian?" Shade replied coming out of hiding. The Vex didn't seem to care.

"Relay a message, however you can." Lance said while holstering his weapon, "Make sure no other Guardian enters this Vault alone."

No reply was heard as the hum of the Oracles became deafening.

…

…

There was only silence left.

(Transition)

The first thing he noticed were the priests.

There were about five of them, all wearing the same thing. Brown robes with gold accents was what they wore. All of them had their hoods up except for the one in the center. He had short, brown hair and a crown like piece of jewelry on his forehead.

"We did it!" The center priest exclaimed, "The summoning was a success!"

Before Lance could think of what was happening, he was alerted to someone to his side when he spoke up.

The man looked around 20. He wore a green hoodie that was white at the bottom and had white accents. His pants were just blue jeans. His feet were covered by blue tennis shoes. His hair was short, black, and it had a wild look to it. His eyes were a dark green.

Strangely enough, there was a steel shield with an emerald centerpiece strapped to his left arm.

"Where am I?" The man in green asked quietly.

The priest ignored him and pleaded, "O brave heroes, please save our world!"

"Excuse me?" Lance asked, but as he did three other voices, one being the shield wielder, copied him. They all looked at each other.

The man closest to the shielder looked to also be around 20, maybe older. He wore an open red jacket revealing a white shirt underneath. He wore tan slacks with a black belt and tennis shoes. His hair was a long and blond, tied into a ponytail. His eyes were a vibrant red.

In his right hand, there was a spear almost as tall as the man. It looked like it was made of steel with a ruby embedded into the top, just under the spear point.

The last man was younger, around 16-17 years old. He wore a dark blue hoodie that covered his entire torso and arms. With this he wore black slacks and tennis shoes. He had short and somewhat wellkept black hair and blue eyes that matched his jacket.

In his right hand, like the others, there was a weapon. A sword this time. It was made of steel with a sapphire embedded into the golden hilt.

Lance looked down at himself. His armor was still on, not a scratch on it. What interested him though was the weapon in his left hand.

It was a steel bow with a handle that curved inwards. On the handle there was a gem. From what he could tell, it was some kind of yellow topaz.

'Shade,' He thought, 'You still there buddy?'

'Yeah.' The ghost responded after a second, 'Just shaken up. Where are we?'

'Hopefully we're about to find out.' The guardian thought as the priest began to speak again, though he merely repeated his statement.

"O brave heroes, please save our world!" He pleaded again after no response.

"Seriously?" The man in green asked more than stated.

Lance followed by asking, "What do you mean by that?"

The others in the room turned to him and gave his armor a strange look before the priest spoke again.

"There is a long and complicated story behind this," He spoke with his arms raised, "But we've summoned you Four Cardinal Heroes here using an ancient ritual."

'Four Cardinal Heroes?' Shade asked, 'Does he mean you four?'

'Forget that,' Lance retorted, 'Is the ritual they are talking about summon those Oracles?'

The man continued, "Our world teeters on the brink of destruction." He clasped his hands together and bowed, "We beg you, O brave heroes! Please help us!"

'Heroes?' Lance looked at the other three with crystaled weapons and raised an eyebrow, 'All I see are civilians with weapons.'

It was green who responded, "I guess I could hear you out, at least."

The one in blue quickly followed though, "I refuse." He stated with no hesitation, causing green to look surprised.

"We can go back to our world, right?" The man in red asked, adding to the conversation. "We'll talk about your problems after that."

Blue stacked on more while raising his sword, "Don't you guys feel any guilt at all for bringing us here without our consent?"

"Are you willing to accommodate us?" Red asked with what could be seen as arrogance before adding, "Depending on your answer, we might end up becoming your enemies instead."

'What are those two doing, demanding respect and rewards like that?' Lance questioned, 'It's like they aren't taking this seriously.'

The priest gained a nervous look, "F-first we'd like you to have an audience with the king of our country, Melromarc."

Shade responded to this immediately, 'Cross checking all known maps. This will take a minute.'

The priest continued while walking forward, to which Lance got in a subtle ready stance, "You can negotiate your reward after that, so please…"

It was silent for a second before blue lowered his sword, "Fine, I guess."

He started to walk forward with red following him saying, "Not like our demands are gonna change, no matter who we talk to."

Green followed after them.

'Seriously.' Lance thought with a twitching eye, 'These guys aren't the least bit suspicious?'

He sighed and followed after them.

The next room had a staircase that lead further into the castle. At least Lance thought they were in a castle. The architecture match those of old structures in the European Wastelands.

'Well,' Shade started, 'I can confirm that this place is not on any known map of the Solar System.'

Lance showed no outward reaction, 'This is worse than I thought then.' The staircase kept spiraling up. 'Not only are we surrounded by unknowns, but we are also in uncharted territory.'

He was brought out of his thoughts when red spoke, "We really are in another world, huh?"

Lance looked at what he meant and stopped. A window was in the wall of the staircase. Daylight shone through showing a beautiful landscape of buildings and trees. Nothing like this was in the Last City, or on Earth in general.

It was beautiful to him.

'At least it has a nice view.' The ghost stated, knocking the guardian from his thoughts before the others noticed his stop. They continued walking up the steps.

After another minute of walking the exited into an empty courtyard. As they walked through the courtyard, Lance noticed a flash of movement above. Without moving his head he looked up.

A woman was looking out a window that overlooked the yard. She had dark red hair that reached her shoulders and light green eyes. The maroon dress she wore screamed royalty.

Before he could get a better look though, she went out of view.

(Transition)

The four were led to a room that was obviously the throne room. Arches lined the side of the room. Those arches were holding up a secondary floor where people would watch business in the throne room. The left wall of the room was made of windows, overlooking the city. The other side of the room had doors that led to other parts of the castle and a couple of highly dressed nobles.

The center path of the room was covered in red carpet that was lined with guards on either side. At the end of the carpet there were two thrones, only one was occupied.

The man sitting in that throne was obviously important. He was old, maybe around 60, it was hard for Lance to tell without more knowledge on this world's average lifespan. He wore white and black robes that were lined with gold. Amethyst could be seen on some of the gold pieces. Over this he wore a purple cloak that was lined with white fur. Around his neck was a gold necklace with several red Xs on it. His fingers were covered in gold and amethyst rings. Finally, on his head was a golden crown with at least four amethyst pieces on it.

The four 'Heroes' lined up side by side in front of the king. Blue was on the far left, followed by red, then Lance, and finally green on the right.

Lance's eyes shifted from place to place in the room for any hidden threats. Though he turned his attention to the king when he spoke.

"So these are the Four Cardinal Heroes of ancient legend?" He spoke in a questioning voice. The priest that came with them nodded. The king spoke again, "I am the king of Melromarc, Aultcray Melromarc XXXII."

'The country is named after him?' Lance thought, raising an eyebrow.

'I think the country is named after his family line,' Shade said, 'Not him.'

"Heroes," The king spoke once more, "Name yourselves."

Blue raised his sword and put the blade on his left hand, "Amaki Ren, 16 years old, highschooler."

'Isn't that Japanese?' The hunter thought, to which the ghost confirmed.

Red stepped up with a confident smirk, "I'm Kitamura Motoyasu. 21, and a college student."

'Guess I'm next.' Lance thought.

He crossed his arms across his chest, the bow still in his left hand, "Lance Nightshade. Guardian, Hunter class."

The others in the room raised an eyebrow at the strange introduction. He didn't even say his age.

Green stepped up, "And lastly, me. I'm…"

He was interrupted by the king. "I see… Ren, Motoyasu, and Nightshade, huh?"

Lance raised an eyebrow at the interruption, 'Why did he just skip him?'

"Y-yo, king, aren't you forgetting me?" Green exclaimed.

The king looked at him with bored eyes, raising a red flag for Lance and his hunter instincts. "Hmm?" The king hummed, "Oh, forgive me."

The hunter noticed the other nobles look at green in distaste for his addressal of the king.

"My name is Iwatani Naofumi." Green stated, "I'm 20, and a college student."

The king kept his bored look before continuing, "Now… I suppose I owe you an explanation."

"You're ignoring me?" Naofumi stated, but the king continued to ignore him causing even more red flags to be raised in the hunter's mind.

"My country," The king started his explanation, "Melromarc, and the entire world is headed toward destruction."

'Good,' Lance thought, 'Getting straight to the point right off the bat.'

The king explained that there was a prophecy that foretold the arrival of 'Waves' of destruction that will lead to the world's destruction. It is said that these waves will appear in, well, waves. Unless the calamities brought by the Waves are stopped then the world will end.

'Doesn't sound too different from normal.' Shade commented.

The king continued by saying that each country has an ancient dragon hourglass that could predict the arrival of the Waves. The first Wave supposably happened before they were summoned to this world. Local knights and wandering adventurers somehow managed to fend off the Wave, but the following Waves will be more potent in their ability to kill. The sands of the hourglass will continue to trickle until the Waves are stopped with the next Wave in less than a month.

"We underestimated the prophesied Waves." The king said while finishing, "We realized once we actually experienced one that only the Four Cardinal Heroes could counter them. And so, we followed the legend and summoned you four. We have no time to lose!"

'So,' Lance started to summarize, 'He and his kingdom forcibly summoned me and these civilians to fight in these Waves of darkness?'

'Sounds about right.' His ghost confirmed, 'Though what I want to know is what planet are we on? Better yet where in correlation to Earth are we?'

Ren swung his sword down dramatically, "We get the gist of it now. Anyway, surely you didn't summon us expecting to save you for free."

Lance turned in surprise at the statement. 'Payment, that's his first priority?'

One of the nobles by the king's side responded immediately, "Of course, once you repel all the Waves, we shall reward you handsomely."

Motoyasu spoke up in response, "Will you now?" He spoke in a condescending voice, "Well, as long as we have your word."

The hunter turned to him in surprise this time, 'The promise of a reward is all he needs? Just what kind of people are they?'

"We'll work with you provided you don't turn on us." Ren continued, "But don't think for a moment that you can tame us."

"Exactly." Motoyasu pick up, "We can't have you looking down on us now can we?"

"R-right…" Naofumi said to finish off.

'Those two are acting way too high and mighty.' The ghost commented, and the guardian had to agree. 'At least Naofumi seems to be more level headed.'

"Then I trust we have an agreement." The king said, "Then, heroes, you should all check you statuses."

'Statuses?' Lance questioned, 'What does he mean by that?"

Naofumi spoke his mind, "Wait, what's a status?"

Motoyasu also seemed to be confused by this until Ren spoke up, "What's wrong with you guys? It should have been the first thing you noticed in this world." He told them this is an arrogant tone, "Don't you see an icon in the corner of your field of vision?"

Once he said the, Lance looked around his area of vision. Other than the motion tracker in the top right of his vision, the shield meter at the top of his vision, and the ammo counter that read zero in the bottom left of his vision there was nothing. That was when he noticed a small yellow square on the bottom right of his vision. When he focused on it, a new screen popped up.

'Shade,' He thought, 'You seeing this?'

'Yeah.' The ghost responded, 'It's like a sum up screen for your person.'

The screen detailed a lot about himself from his name to race. Below that however was what looked like a video game stat screen. It had a list of attributes including familiar ones like resilience, mobility, recovery, intellect, discipline, and strength. All of those were at an even 60/100, a little above average for an active Guardian.

What confused him was the stats below those. It listed attack, physical defense, magical defence, and dexterity. His attack was at 230(+10), physical defense was at 150(+30), magical defense was at 190(+30), and his dexterity was at 250(+60).

Those were extremely high in terms of how a Guardian's abilities are put into numbers, unless you're talking about the "Light Level" as Guardians called it, and Lance didn't even know what the pluses that were tacked onto the end of the numbers were supposed to mean.

Speaking of Light Level, it was also displayed on the screen. In the top right of the screen there was a spot labeled "Guardian Level" with a 50 next to it. Next to the 50 in brackets was a number labeled "Light Level" and it was at 960. 'At least that makes sense.' Lance thought, 'Those were my classification levels at the Tower.'

Every Guardian at the Tower had two levels to classify themselves as. These levels gave them access to more dangerous missions and patrol areas. Guardian Level was used to describe how skilled they are in battle and in turn the higher the level, the more dangerous the mission they are allowed on. Light Level on the other hand is the combined strength a Guardian's weapons and armor put into a number. As the Light Level gets higher, the strength of their enemies seems to get lower as they do less damage and they take less to kill.

Under the level section of the screen was an inventory like space that showed he had "Otherworldly Armor" on and he was holding what was called "The Legendary Bow".

"Level 1?" Motoyasu started, "That's worrying. There's no telling if we can fight like this."

'So they are just civilians.' Lance thought.

'Or,' Shade spoke, 'They've never fought.'

'Either way, none of them are suited to fight without any training or allies.'

"What's all this anyway?" Naofumi asked the noble next to the king that spoke before.

The noble responded in kind, "Status Magic, an ability exclusive to the heroes."

Ren spoke up to this, "So what are we supposed to do?"

"You must leave on an adventure," The noble responded with a tone of authority, "To develop and upgrade the legendary weapons that you have equipped."

Naofumi looked down at his shield, "They aren't maxed out of the box?" He then looked back up and continued with a more serious tone, "Wait, mine isn't even a weapon."

Motoyasu thrusted his spear forward with a flourish, "Couldn't we just wield other weapons until these are usable?"

'I hate to admit but I agree with him.' The hunter thought while turning the bow, 'I would rather use my guns than this bow.'

Motoyasu continued to spin his spear, only stopping when Ren swung his sword lightly forward and said, "We can figure that out as we go. Anyway, it looks like we ought to train ourselves."

Motoyasu smiled, "Yeah, all while leveling up ourselves as much as we can."

Naofumi smiles and raises his shield up with a closed fist of determination, "Then if the four of us form a party…"

"One moment heroes." The noble interrupted.

All of the heroes turned to him before he continued, "You will each recruit and adventure separately."

Lance stepped up this time, standing tall with an aura of questioning defiance, "And why would that be? Wouldn't it be much more beneficial to team up so we can learn to fight with each other for the upcoming waves?"

The noble merely grinned before saying, "It is said that the legendary weapons repel one another by nature. If you work together, it apparently hinders their development."

As soon as he said it, Lance's hud updated with a new screen labeled 'Help' with 'Page 1 of 9,999' in the bottom right corner. On the page was a block of text.

"When two or more wielders of the legendary weapons operate in the same area together, it will cause an adverse reaction in the weapons shutting off XP gains. Working separately is highly advised."

The heroes were silent for a second before Naofumi spoke up, "He's telling the truth, huh?" He spoke in a somber tone.

The help screen shifted to the right side of the hunter's hud, "It would seem so." He shifted the bow in his hand, still unfamiliar with the grip and uncomfortable with the unfamiliar surroundings.

The king spoke out to the heroes, "The sun is about to set for the evening. Rest up tonight, and set forth tomorrow." He motioned his hand to the side of the room where what seemed like a maid in a yellow dress started to come to the heroes. "In the meantime, we'll gather the best of the best to form your parties."

The women stopped in front of the heroes and addressed them, "We've prepared rooms for you." She bowed and motioned to the throne room door, "Please come this way."