"I loath all that is unnecessary evil. Their existence shall be purified."

A vitriolic voice resounded in the dark place where only stars of crimson are shining.

"But I have to admit," a new light, that of gold formed. It was for more sneering in amusement. "You do-gooders are a league of your own. Don't you agree with me, EMIYA?"

"Who in the world… are you? Where am I?"

Shirou is puzzled why he was here as he looked at the stranger. An elderly man with a smile and scowl on his face. He wears a golden armour that composes of two shaped heads as a helmet, portraying him to be the lead of a three headed man.

"I am Zelretch, you could say that I am somehow connected to your world and also not. I travel through the parallel universes since I have mastered the Second Magic. Answering where we are, hm, I would say we are nowhere but in the rift between worlds.

"For example your body. After I pulled you away from your existence there was nothing left of it. I wish it could be avoided but there was little to be done before its sudden destruction."

"My body, what are you talking about?"

Zelretch flicked his wrist, moving his palm before Shirou. The palm distorted and something increased in size before Zelretch was replaced by a different figure.

A formless body which only seemed to consist of black flame like matter. All that stand out are the golden-brown eyes of his.

Shirou was seemingly taken aback. "Is that me? Why- How-"

"Yes it's you," Zelretch makes an exaggerated sigh the mirrors now dissolving. "You're nothing but a Sprite now in form and being but that's alright, you will get one back soon enough."

"One back soon- what do you want from me?" Shirou's face was blank except for the eyes that were radiating a sense of anger and displeasure. Zelretch wants something from him, that's for sure.

"As I said, I am a mage from your world and also not from your world. There are world with unlimited possibilities and parallels coexisting with one another," he extends his hand once again and globes of light form in his hand shining a blue light into the void of black, red and gold.

"Let us take your existence into account. There are many possibilities of yourself, all being right and wrong, differencing themselves from you and aligning with you. The place I need you right now is somewhere beyond this void and I will send you there right away."

"Wait, why do you need me for that? I don't get most of the stuff but why would or should I be involved in this-" Shirou shut his mouth when Zelretch materialized a card into his hand, smiling dubiously with a scheme in mind.

"You do realize what this card is, right? Or at least one part of you does."

"Why do you have the archer card in your hand? What do you plan with-"

"The world I sent you in, it faces waves of trials with one they will trouble to deal with as they already need to," Zelretch clenches the card into his fist and shoots bolts of lighting towards Shirou penetrating his formless body. "I recommend to run towards the riff, Counter Guardian, the world needs a hero of justice who can fight it. I provide you with enough power to survive the first taste, everything else is up to you. Stop the Corrupted Grail to awaken!"

The surges of lighting increase and Shirou gets pushed back before he is blinded by a bright light. Waking up he realizes Zelretch is gone and his own body is made of flesh again.

Before him, several meters away opens a large rift. A tremor of sounds assaults his ears and when turning around he is faced by a wave of monsters that are marching towards him.

Outrunning them was impossible and his instincts told him to fight. So he projected his dual blades Kanshou and Bakuya to properly face the wave, to survive and head for the open rift.

"What is that? A sudden opening of a rift?" the woman looks up to the shattering red sky and meeting the worried and terrified faces of the townspeople.

It was all supposed to be a quick stop on a nearby town. No one expected a sudden wave to occur.

"You're the Shield Hero, aren't you?"

"Please, help us Holy Saint."

The citizens of the small town are on their wit's end. They are desperate since whenever a Wave of Calamity hits it's sure to leave next to no survivors if not a hero is around to combat them.

A hero is needed but the only one here is one that is chosen to be the Hero of the Shield. Meant to defend and relying on others to attack.

"Ms. Naofumi, what should we do?"

"If we don't fight this wave than the people here will die. I didn't think we would encounter trouble already, not to say on such a scale. We aren't enough to combat this wave alone, so we will stall enough time so they can evacuate. Got it you two?"

"Yes!" the two companions answered Naofumi's order and readied themselves.

It's a matter of moments before the monsters would erupt out of the riff with their leader to enact chaos. Wave after wave will come until the boss is defeated and even if time runs out the monsters will remain.

It's a fight of attrition with their low numbers and without any help they will have a hard time fighting it.

They can manage to give people time to evacuate before they retreat too but until then they need to hold out.

"Here it comes!"

The sky shattered like a smashed window by a dropped bomb.

Monsters begin to swarm out like hornets. A giant skeletal wyvern appears out of group with a big red orb inside his ribcage, this must be the boss Naofumi thought but it was impossible to fight it up in the air.

None of her companions can fly and even so the swarms of monsters will soon overwhelm her and kill the townspeople.

The skeletal wyvern didn't seem to care about Naofumi's Hate Reaction of her Shield she had activated. Minor monsters would get attracted but this one didn't care and attacked with breathes of purple flames at the town.

It was then that Naofumi noticed in the rift caused a gap in the lines of monsters. Aerial creatures flew towards the hole only to get shot down what seemed to be arrows or be sliced down by blades.

Naofumi couldn't really see the figure but what he saw was someone whose clothes are a mix of red and black with a red headband around the head who managed to chop down a piece of the wyvern's wing.

"Burst!"

The arrows are latched into the monsters, connected by a thread to his arm. Sending his magic through it he made the monsters being blasted into smithereens before he realized he was out and in the sky.

Shirou was up in the air, far too high for him to survive that without injuries.

More monsters are flying his way and Shirou shoots them down but as they drew closer he switched to close combat while in midair.

It's a very deep fall with swarms of enemies on his way to kill him and get sliced by him.

Noticing the giant skeletal wyvern shooting blasts of fiery breaths at a town and with little options left Shirou proceeded a bold descend for the monster.

"Overedge," in his freefall Shirou transforms his two blades and changed to glide towards the monster.

Missing the main body because of the monster's sudden turn Shirou accidentally went for one of the wings. He didn't anticipate for the blades to actually chop of part of the wing and having the blades chipped by just one blow after transformation.

He was turning around in the air, having trouble to control his fall and when he finally succeeded he landed and sank right into something. Whatever it was it made his entire body sting and burn.

It was luck or instinct that Shirou forced himself to hold his eyes and breath shut within this deadly viscosity.

Burst, was what he thought and activated in this fatal situation, bringing his blades to destruction for his escape.

"Get close to me, Shooting Star Shield!" Deploying a barrier Naofumi protects his party from the monsters and the bombardment of slime remnants.

Naofumi had fought slimes before at the very beginning. They aren't much of a threat and very annoying since they sometimes destroy your clothes, armour and weapons so you have to buy new ones.

So when she saw the stranger fall into one of the giant masses of a purple slime she already had written him off for dead but when she saw the slime burst she cursed under her breath what a mess this would be.

The barrier managed to protect them but also get rid of the majority of the monsters in the air and on the ground.

Why are flying slimes even a thing? This is the first time she ever heard of one, not even in the games they are a thing of possibility.

"Ms. Naofumi, he's going to die if we don't do anything," her raccoon or rather tanuki like demi-human companion had worried. It goes without saying that Naofumi trusts the man who she raises like a son as a foster parent.

"I know, Filo, save him," she commanded her other companion, a Filorial who now changed into his human like angel form to that of a giant chicken similar beast.

"Yes, High Quick" he cheered and propelled up into the sky.

Casting another Hate Reaction Naofumi attracted the attention of the monsters and Filo used the incoming ones in the air to gain altitude and speed to reach the falling man.

"Grab on me," the young voice of a man in the form of a giant chicken with sakura patterned pink and white feathers called out to Shirou.

Coming closer to the ground he grabbed the feathery back of the beast which he was riding on the roofs of the small town. Shirou felt a feeling of nausea building up inside him which he had to combat not to throw up as they moved with high speed.

"Are you alright, my name is Filo", the speaking bird introduced himself. "Don't worry, I will bring you to safety."

"Don't worry about me, turn that way!" he pointed for the monsters that escaped Naofumi's reach and prepared to attack a pair of innocent people.

The bird turned and Shirou got into an angle to shoot them from afar with his bow. He saved them but too late did he notice that the Skeletal Wyvern shot a searing purple ball of flames at them.

"Filo! Air Strike Shield!" he heard a woman shout out before a transparent green shield manifested on their side. It was like Shirou's projection magic as he saw the shield giving them enough time to get away before it shattered and crashed into the town's centre.

If Shirou doesn't do anything about this beast then it would kill all the people, he was certain about it. As certain as he knew that the wyvern was now targeting him for damaging one of its wings.

"Hey, can you get me a good point to shoot, I will take that monster down."

"Heh, are you sure?" the young bird inquired curious but when he saw Shirou's serious expression she nodded. "Yes, hold tight, I will increase my speed."

"What- woah!" Shirou didn't anticipate Filo to increase speed even further, running for the watch tower to jump at it and propel the both of them towards the wyvern but are obstructed

by the wave of enemies.

Shooting with his bow Shirou helped Filo to proceed forward and higher by using the monsters as jumping boards.

"As source of your powers, Filo orders you," Filo started an incantation and Shirou felt the wind increase around them as he projects a broken phantasm and places it on the nock.

"Filo, Second Shield!"

Another shield was deployed which Filo used to jump away and spin away from the incoming shot.

In a glimpse of an eye Shirou catches eye contact of a woman with long black hair that wears armour that made her look like a barbarian. A shield with a green orb is being held on her arm that Shirou picks up as the source of magic for the shields.

It was then with another spin that his aim was focused on the wyvern and its core he was ready to shoot down.

"Decipher the laws of nature and blow my target away with a vicious vacuum burst. Now, bowman, Zweiter Tornado."

Right in time when Filo finished to cast his spell Shirou shoots his broken phantasm.

It coalescences with the tornado and shreds through the lines of enemies. Connecting with the monster's core and setting in to its centre it blasted the wyvern to bits and pieces with the head closing in to death and distinguishing the blow it would never shoot again.

Soon the rift was starting to close. With the number of monsters diminishing Shirou joined up with Naofumi's party to form an emergency group to evacuate the people and get rid of the remaining monsters.

When the sky finally returned to its blue colour the wave of catastrophe hit its end.

Shirou was riding on Filo and shooting arrows in the last fe fights to ultimately having killed them. It was then Shirou felt his energy drain and his brain desperately clinging to consciousness not to topple off of Filo.

A card emerged out of him with the symbol of an archer.

Zelretche's face came forth as the replacement for Archer's face and spoke to Shirou.

"Well done, first challenge mastered. Now for the next ones. Become the fifth cardinal, hero of justice," Zelretch chuckled returning the card to normal and Shirou falling over before he was caught by someone.

Someone with a shield.

Author Note

Forgot to mention it I guess, thought I did, oops.

This Crossover setting was made by alex-kellar/art/Fate-in-the-dimension-63-writing-contest-827779748
All the other ideas with Shield Hero and Fate are made by me.