The Witch of the Shield

Chapter 1: Battle in a Brand New World

Discaimer: I do not own either The Rising of Shield Hero or Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The former is owned by Aneko Yusagi, Kinema Citrus, and the Kadokawa Corporation. The latter is owned by 505 Games and Koji Igarashi. Please support the official releases.

[A Village in the Countryside, England]

Billowing smoke and fire could be seen on the horizon as demons razed another village in their never-ending slaughter. All caused by the hands of the Alchemist's Guild, who wanted to selfishly stop the advancement of science and progress so they could maintain their relevance. A group of demons, consisting of mortes, gieremunds, and three aellos loitered around the center of the village, looking for any remaining villagers to kill. However, a voice shouted out and the creatures turned their attention toward the source.

"Riga Storaema!"

Several columns of fire suddenly spawn out and incinerated the monsters to crisps. The aellos flew up to avoid the flames. However, the voice followed it up with another attack.

"Teps Oceus!"

A bolt of lightning shot out and immediately struck the first aello, then connecting to the second one and the third one. All three then fell dead to the ground.

Their attacker stepped forward and made herself known. It was a young woman, appearing to be 18 years old, with fair ivory skin, gray eyes, and raven black hair. Her hair reached her shoulders, and the ends of it were strawberry blonde. She wore a short looking blue dress with gold accents and a lowline neckline, which showed off a generous amount of her large and ample breasts. The outfit was of an asymmetrical design, with the right sleeve being attached to the dress collar, while the left was a detached sleeve. Her outfit was adorned with black leather armor with gold accents, namely on her sides, a piece that covered her right shoulder and breast, a gauntlet on her left arm that went up to her elbow, and a pair of knee-high boots. Completing her outfit was a blue scarf with gold trimmings and a hair accessory that made it look like demon horns were growing out of her head.

What stood out about the women, asides from her ethereal beauty, were markings that looked like stained glass all over her body. Most notably was the one on her left breast that looked like a stained glass rose, and several markings on her legs that looked like blue roses.

The women was Miriam, the last of the Shardbinders.

It had been several months since she had stormed the Hellhold, freed Gebel from his brainwashing, and stopped Gremory and Dominique's machinations from summoning Bael, the king of demons. In the following time, she and her dear friend Johannes had been focusing on hunting down the remaining demons in England. The country was slowly but surely recovering from the literal hell on earth that Alchemist Guild had released upon them. In the meantime, Johannes has used the power of the Liber Logaeth, an Echonian tome used in the demon summoning rituals, to stop Miriam's crystallization of her body, lest she suffer the same fate as Gebel.

Miriam, meanwhile, spied a seemingly abandoned house in the corner of her eye. She went up to the door of the house and kicked it open.

"Is anyone there," Miriam shouted as her eyes scanned the room, searching for any signs of life. She moved onto the next room, which appeared to be a bedroom. Huddling in a corner was a family of three: a mother, a young child, and an infant held in the mother's arms. All three immediately recoiled in fear as they noticed Miriam.

"Wait, I'm here to help," the shardbinder said as she approached them and got on one knee. "I've come here to help clear the village of demons. The cost is clear for now, so run out of the village to the east. You'll meet a friend of mine who'll be able to help you."

"T-thank you," the women said as she grabbed her child's hand and they all swiftly left the room. Miriam stopped outside of the door once she made sure the family of three had made it. Miriam then held out her right hand as a weapon slowly materialized into it. It was a falchion-esque sword with a sharp, curved point. It was a silver-white color, with the wide part of the blade decorated with stained glass markings, similar to Miriam's. The handle was black, and a silver guard protruded from the right of the weapon.

The weapon was Blue Rose, a shardbinder's blade that was representative of the finest in alchemy. Miriam grasped the weapon firmly in her hand as she stared off towards the rest of the village. She had a long night ahead of her.

Miriam ran through the village, turning a corner to find herself face to face with a sabnock, a giant warrior with the head of a lion. The monster rushed forward and brought its sword down upon Miriam. She quickly brought up her own sword and deflected the blow. She quickly followed it up by bringing forth her free hand and aiming it at the monster's face. A trio of arrows quickly shot out and hit sabnock in the face, with one arrow landing in its eye. The sabnock stumbled back, stunned and clutching its wounded eye. Miriam suddenly dashed forward and made two quick slashes with her sword. Miriam landed on the other side, and the sabnock let out a roar as its body disintegrated into glowing dust.

"To think I use to struggle with sabnocks when I first fought them," Miriam thought to herself, recalling her encounters with the demons in Hellhold.

Three more demons, two Blood Girder Knights and a Shield Outsider, suddenly approach her. Miriam channeled power through Blue Rose and then swung it forward.

"Take this," she shouted as she unleashed Blue Rose's power, sending shards of ice onto the three monsters. The two Blood Girder took the full brunt of the attack while the Shield Outsider was protected by its giant tower shield. Miriam followed this up by pointing her free hand at the group of three.

"Va Schia," she announced as a huge hunk of ice was summoned above the three demons. It suddenly dropped down and crushed all three of them. The shield outsider tried to get up but Miriam put a stop to that by firing another summoned arrow through its head.

The shardbinder rushed off, turning another corner until she found herself in the center of the village, where all sorts of demons had gathered. They ranged from dullahammers, wolfmen, and gargoyles, to demon lords, ocypetes, and cyhyraeths. The apparent leader of the group was a marbas, a stronger, more powerful version of a sabnock. It snarled when it saw Miriam and pointed its weapon at her, letting out a loud roar as if to order its fellow demons to attack the shardbinder.

"Might need some help to take care of this horde," Miriam thought as brought up her sword and wordlessly summon one of her familiars. It suddenly appeared beside her in a flash of light. It could best be described as a legless, floating suit of silver armor with gold detailing. A pair of magenta colored eyes could be seen beneath the visor of its helmet, and it was armed with a spear.

"Jean Pierre, cover me," Miriam shouted as the knight gave a simple nod in response. The knight suddenly floated in front of its master to deflect a shot from a leraje. The shardbinder, on the other hand, pointed her free hand forward as she ran towards the horde. A ball of fire began to form in front of her hand and grow until it was about the size of her torso. She then released the built up fire and it launched forward as a wave of flames, incinerating the monsters up front.

A dullahammer swung its head flail at Miriam, only for the shardbinder to backstep from the blow. She fired off a gale of fierce wind from her hand, which tore through the ground and struck the dullahammer, stunning it. Miriam than dashed forward, slashing the monster before following it up with a stab, ending it.

As the dullahammer dissipated before her, Miriam looked up to notice cyhraeths and an archdemon approach her from the air. She pointed her left hand at the group as she announced her next attack.

"Tis Rozain!"

A wide beam of holy light shot out from her hand and she quickly spread it across, incinerating and burning the demons hit by the blessed light. Miriam turned to noticed Jean Pierre launching its own attack, as it raised its spear, and several columns of light erupted from the ground, striking down more of the minor demons.

Miriam then looked towards the marbas, a path now being cleared towards it. The monster snarled as it pointed its weapon at the shardbinder. Miriam just gave it a cold stare as she swept her left hand across, using another of the powers of the many shards she had at her disposal.

"Heed my calls," she shouted, as a giant hellhound was summoned from a wave of fire. It was a red, partially skeletal dog that was covered in flames and the size of a house. The giant beast rushed forward and but its maw into the marbas' sword arm, restraining the beast from attacking. Miriam took advantage of the demon's distraction by jumping high into the air, a dark blue aura surrounding her and accelerating her upwards. Once she reached the peak of her jump, she jumped again. A pair of multi-colored energy wings, resembling those of a butterfly, grew out of back and helped her go further a bit more. The shardbinder looked down upon the marbas and aimed her hand at it.

Miriam released her attack down upon the demon, a large and wide dark beam of energy. Her summoned hellhound jumped away just as the blast hit it and disintegrated it. The hellhound took to taking care of the remaining demons along with Jean-Pierre. Miriam, meanwhile, began to fall, but the energy wings soon sprouted out back again, and start to slow her descent. As she reached the ground, she noticed a few remaining demons, namely enemies like wolfmen and barbatoses, were glaring towards her position. Miriam summoned Blue Rose again, and went into the fray.

The last of the demons were soon slaughtered within minutes. The summoned hellhound soon dissipated, and Miriam unsummoned Jean-Pierre. She breathed heavily as she felt her mana reserves slowly began to refill. She took out a vial filled with a blue liquid, an elixir, and drank it to help speed up the process. Despite, the fact that the village was now devoid of demons, she still felt at unease.

Her worries came true as an unnatural, alien sounding voice spoke out.

"So, we meet again, at last."

A chill ran down Miriam's spine as recognized the voice. She looked up to see an otherworldly figure floating in the air, right in front of a portal. It looked like a woman, with its upper half resembling a human. However, the being also possessed eight arms, four on each side, and each arm having a golden ring embedded on the wrist. A white cloth covered its chest and a white veil obscured its face, covering the eyes. Her stomach region was incredibly emancipated, looking thinner than her wrists. Her lower half was that of a camel's, with hooved feet and the head of the beast jutting from her midsection and resting on her right hip. Around her waist was a golden crown embedded with gems, as if it were a belt. Gold chains were attached to the crown, with the chains also piercing through the camel's eyes. Lastly, there was an object resembling a large ring on her back, which floated above her, and projected the image of a crescent.

It was Gremory, 56th demon in Solomon's grimoire, goddess of the moon, and the one who manipulated and corrupted Gebel.

Miriam's uneasiness turned into anger and rage as she gazed upon the demon. It took all her willpower to not charge in and unleash her wrath upon the one who lead her dearest friend astray.

"Gremory," she said in an angry, low whisper as she glared up at her, the demon in question simply folding the first of her two arms in front of her chest.

"Yes, it is I in the flesh. Long time, no see, wench."

"I knew it was only a matter of time before you showed yourself again. You will not escape your justice! You'll pay for what you did for Gebel and Zangetsu!"

"Those are bold words, but your efforts are in vain. You lack the blade of the demon hunter from Nippon."

Miriam faltered, as she remembered leaving Zangetsu's sword, Zangetsuto, at his grave site she erected for him at Arvantville. It was the only weapon capable of defeating Gremory for good. She shook those thoughts out of her head as she retorted to the Moon Goddess, her resolution remaining strong.

"Nevertheless, I shall defeat you! My powers and skills have increased since the last time we fought!"

Gremory let out a chuckle and simply smirked at the remark.

"Good. The greater the pride, the harder the fall."

"If I can defeat you before, then I can defeat you again!"

"Enough talk, girl. If you want to defeat me, you will have to come and find me."

With that, Gremory floated back into the portal behind her, disappearing into it. Wasting no time, Miriam used her high jump to launch herself into the air. She soon found herself face to face with the portal and was soon sucked into it.

[Unknown village, unknown land]

Miriam exited from the portal, and soon landed on the ground in a kneeling position. She looked around for any signs of Gremory, but none could be found. However, as she hot a better look at her surroundings, she realized that she had much more pressing matters at hand. The shardbinder was in a completely different village from the one she had previously fought in. For one, the architecture of the village's buildings was more archaic, with stone walls and thatched roofs. However, what was more concerning was the sky above her.

It was a hellish blood red, with several swirling purple portals in the sky above it. And a variety of monsters were flying out from the portals, and onto the village below her. The screams of terrified and dying citizens soon reach her ears. She turned around to see what looked like a zombified soldier about to strike down a father and his daughter. The former was using his body to shield the latter, trying his best to protect her.

She did not know where she was or what was going, but Miriam could not simply stand by and let innocent people get killed. Taking action, she swiftly dashed forward and brought out Blue Rose. She stood between the zombie and the father and daughter, deflecting the blow with her blade.

"Ha!"

With a shout, Miriam finished off the zombie with a swift and powerful roundhouse kick. It split it in two, and the zombie's lower half soon collapsed into a pile of bones. She looked back towards the father and daughter, who looked on in stunned awe at their rescuer.

"Quickly, find shelter or someplace safe to hide. I shall take care of any of these other monsters."

"T-thank you kindly," the man said as he scooped up his daughter and ran off to find shelter.

"Papa, who was that lady," the girl asked as she held onto her father tightly.

"I…I think it is one of the Cardinal Heroes."

Miriam quickly rushed off, turning a corner only to be encounter more of the same kind of zombie soldiers. They were very skeletal looking, adorned in medieval looking armor and armed with spear or swords. One of the zombies attempted to rush her, but the shardbinder simply responded by summoning a light blue magic portal. The head of draconic-like beast, known as Valac, the twin-headed demon drake, popped out of it. It snarled before unleashing a large amount of flames from its mouth, incinerating the gathered zombies to pieces.

Miriam closed the portal before running off into the rest of the village, quickly dispatching any stray monster she saw with a Fald Ciu or a Teps Oceus. She quickly came across another mass horde of zombie soldiers, who all charged at her. Miriam brought up her hand and summoned a giant, three-bladed weapon that looked similar to a shuriken used by Nippon assassins. The summoned weapon began to spin faster and faster like a top, before Miriam threw it. The blade went through the horde like a hot knife through butter. The thrown blade suddenly came back to Miriam and disappeared as ran over the scattered remains of the zombie horde.

The shardbinder ran forward until she encountered a new set of enemies. There were two of them, roughly ten feet tall, and had stone gray skin. What stood out about them the most were their large, single eyes that covered their foreheads. Judging by their single eyes, they were most likely cyclops. The first of the beasts snarled as its eye started to glow and it shot out a beam of energy from its eye. Miriam swiftly backstepped and dodged as the cyclops tried to hit her with its beam. As the beam started to die down, Miriam aimed her hand at the beast and fired a volley of light blue energy arrows at the cyclops. The arrows homed in on their target and struck the beast right in its eye. She fired another volley at the second cyclops, stunning it as well.

Miriam ran forward until she was in between the two cyclopses, and unleashed another of her attacks.

"Teps Salrenda!"

With that, a barrage of lightning came down and struck both of the cyclopses multiple times. The barrage ended and both of them fell dead. Miriam ran past the two dead monsters, continuing to go through the village. There were only a few zombies here and there, which she quickly disposed of. Any remaining villager she found, she quickly told them to get to safety.

"Ha," she shouted as she drove Blue Rose through the torso of a huge, armored zombie commander. It collapsed to the ground, but Miriam had no time to ponder on that as she heard the snarling of a beast. She turned around to see a giant, three-headed dog. From what Miriam had read, these beasts were known as a cerberus. The middle head had a horn growing out of it, while all three had prominent fangs and glowing red eyes. The beast charged at Miriam, and she backstepped quickly until there was enough space between the two of them.

"Take this," she shouted as she swiped her left arm across. A white-blue portal appeared, and a giant mechanical fist emerged from it, hitting the Cerberus like a train and sending it back a few feet. Blue Rose then disappeared from Miriam's grasp as she switched it out for a different weapon.

In her hands now was a holy whip, known simply as Andromeda. It had a rapier-esque guard colored royal blue with gold accents. The whips itself seem to sparkle, with the first section starting out as a light blue, then turning light green, to finally a golden yellow color near the end. At the end of the whip was a golden cross surrounded by a golden circle.

Miriam cracked her whip as the Cerberus charged at her again. With quick and ferocious strikes, she strike each of the dog's three heads and continued to drive it back. She quickly then brought up her free hand and aimed it at the beast.

"Riga Dohin," she shouted as fired off a fire ball at the cerberus. Once it hit its target, it expanded out and exploded, covering the monster in flames. Miriam quickly switched out Andromeda for Blue Rose, channeled power through her sword, swung it low, and released more ice shards from it. As they struck the cerberus's body, Miriam jumped forward, and with a quick strike from her sword, she took off the middle head of the beats. She landed on the other side in a kneeling position as the ceberus's body collapsed.

She let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding, Miriam looked up to see that the swirling portals had now disappeared, and the sky was returning back to normal. Her breathing soon steadied, and she unsummoned Blue Rose in a flash of light. She began to notice that the citizens of the village began to come out of hiding and gather around her. They stared at their savior in awe and admiration. Soon they started to applaud and cheer for her. Miriam just stood there, dumbstruck, as she was unable to process this.

"You saved us! Thank you, miss!"

"Are you one of the summoned heroes?"

"Thank you so much!"

Miriam then saw a man approaching her. He was a kind looking older gentleman with gray hair and a gray beard. He wore a blue jacket and pants with a white frilled shirt, complete with brown shoes and a green looking cloak.

"I speak for all of Lute Village when I tell you this, young lady: thank for coming to aide and protecting us. Things would have been much worse without you intervening, Miss…?"

"Miriam, my name is Miriam."

"Ah, Miriam. What a lovely name. I am Jon, and I am the leader of Lute Village. Is there anything we can do for you in the meantime?"

Miriam thought about it for a second before responding.

"I'd like a bite to eat, and a few questions answered, if that isn't too much."

[House of Jon, Lute Village, Melromarc]

30 minutes later…

"Hm, no, I haven't not heard of this Alchemist's Guild either."

Miriam and Jon sat in the solar of the latter's house, where he conducted the going ons and management of the entire village. While Jon sat at his desk, Miriam, meanwhile, was heartily digging into a bowl of stew that was provided to her by one of Jon's servants. It had three different meats in it: beef, pork, and what Miriam assumed was rabbit. Mixed in with the meat was a generous helping of chopped carrots, celery, and potatoes. While it was not the most elegant of meals, it was tasty and filling, and that was all that mattered to Miriam.

The shardbinder quickly chewed and swallowed a mouthful of stew as she talked to Jon.

"Do you mind telling me what country are we in? The architecture of your village looked unfamiliar to me."

"Ah, you are in Melromarc, my dear. It's in dead center of the continent."

Miriam tore off a slice of bread and dipped it into her stew, and then taking a bite out of it, processing what Jon had told her. Her suspicions were now confirmed: the portal that she had followed Gremory through had taken her to a whole new world. She did not know where the demon was now, but she had a hunch about something involving her.

"Tell me, Jon. These 'waves of calamity' you mentioned earlier: this is the first time they've happened in a long time, correct?"

"They are. The last time the waves appeared was when my father's father was a young man. Never expected them to appear again. It's only a matter of time until the Four Cardinal Heroes are summoned to fight the waves."

"Hm, perhaps Gremory appearing in this world started the waves again," Miriam thought to herself as she finished off the rest of her stew. She took another slice of bread and began to wipe it in the bowl, absorbing the remaining bits of stew like a sponge before she chowed it down too.

If Gremory was connected to the waves, then logically, she would most likely appear when the next wave happened. And that was a few months off, according to Jon. It was just a matter of waiting until the next wave happened.

"So, Miriam, what will you do now?"

Miriam pondered over this as she put her hand to her chin in thought. She couldn't simply just go off and try to search for Gremory, as she only had the clothes on her back and her weapons, and not a coin to her name. She also couldn't simply just leave behind Lute Village in good conscious, as they still need help rebuilding and recovering from the first wave. She finally made up her decision as she addressed Jon.

"I think I'll be staying around here for a while. You need help repairing the village, and it wouldn't feel right to just leave you right now."

Jon nodded at Miriam's decision, pleased that she'd be staying for now.

"It'll be good having you here, Miriam. You can stay at our inn for the time being."

Miriam gave a nod in return, and prepared to leave, as she had a long road ahead of her to ultimately find and defeat Gremory.

A/N: Welcome to the start of my newest fic: The Witch of the Shield!

This idea kind of started out of my two favorite things that came out of 2019: The first is The Rising of Shield Hero. I initially heard of this anime because of the whole controversy surrounding the first episode, but after watching the first couple of episodes, I found myself hooked and thoroughly enjoyed the series. It gave us best raccoon girl Raphtalia, and also Malty, one of the most despicable, contemptuous, and downright loathsome characters I have seen since Cersei Lannister. Hell, I consider Naofumi to be a breath of fresh air when it comes to isekai protagonists. My only real complaints would be that the whole fugitive really dragged for me, despite having parts I liked (such as Fitoria). However, I still really loved it, I plan to read the light novels and manga, and I eagerly look forward to Seasons 2 and 3.

And the other half of this crossover is Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Asides from bits of Symphony of the Night, I haven't played a single Castlevania game, and picked this up on a suggestion from my close friend Rocker1600. And I ended up loving the hell out of it. I have put in 55 plus hours into the game, and I love and adore the hell out of Miriam. I just hope that Igarashi makes more Bloodstained games in the future, as he has the makings of an awesome and fun game series on his hands.

What mainly inspired me to start this fic was my frustration at the lack of Bloodstained fics on this site. You could easily cross Bloodstained over with any of the Castlevania games or even the animated series. What also inspired me was to write this fic was The Shield's Dragon by Mugiwara N0 Luffy. It's a fun and nice little fic that got me into the Yakuza series, and I suggest you check it out.

Anyway, I plan to update some of my other fics soon, so keep an eye out for those. In the mean time, if you liked this fic, please favorite, follow, and leave a review telling me your thoughts. I can't wait to see what everyone thinks.

Until then, take care!