We knew of the four heroes, and of the waves. We knew of our world's impending doom, and how to stop it. At least, we thought we did. We were fools. There are some powers in this world man has no control over. And for our hubris, we are now caught in the middle of a holy war between gods and devils. Now, our only hope is a warrior whose power greatly eclipses the four heroes.
— Summary on FanFiction.Net
DOOM: Waves of Armageddon
is a crossover between Doom and The Rising of the Shield Hero by EmeraldAuthor95 on FanFiction.Net.
Taking place after the main story of Doom Eternal, the fic is centered around the Doom Slayer's quest to rid the Waves and the forces of Hell from the world of Shield Hero after he is summoned to Melromarc by that nation's clergy.
Tropes displayed in this fic include:
- Abusive Parents: Rakshas Nori constantly denigrates his son Dyal for not following his toxic ideas and groomed Mina into the murderous Psychopathic Womanchild she currently is.
- Adapted Out: Aside from an omake at the end of a chapter, Naofumi has no significance in the story as the Doom Slayer takes his place as the Shield Hero.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Since this takes place before the story expansions of Doom Eternal, the Doom Slayer and Hayden still maintain a tense, but overall working relationship and never get into outright conflict with one another, even going as far as to share the same thoughts about the political situation of the world they ended up in.
- By virtue of having the Doom Slayer be the shield hero instead of Naofumi, he treats Raphtalia like his own daughter and it's unlikely that relationship will change in the same manner as canon.
- Since the Doom Slayer wasn't falsely accused, the three other Cardinal Heroes hold no grudge against him, with Motoyasu viewing him as a badass, Itsuki envying him for his superior fighting ability, and Ren being overall neutral.
- Always Someone Better: Itsuki is secretly envious of the Doom Slayer, and it's easy to see why. The rest of the three legendary heroes saw the Slayer as the weakest link because he got the Legendary Shield and couldn't do jack with it. Not only did he find a way to get the shield off, but the Slayer has shown himself to be a skilled fighter and a better hero while achieving so much while the others have done so little.
- Antagonistic Offspring: Dyal Nori stands at odds with his father Rakshas for refusing to subscribe to Rakshas' cruelty and virulent racism towards humans.
- Anti-Hero: The Doom Slayer, natch. While he's willing to use copious amounts of violence against all sorts of evildoers, he never harms innocent people and always makes sure to keep them safe.
- An Arm and a Leg: Mina Nori loses her sword arm to the Slayer's Dog Bite shield during their battle.
- Armor-Piercing Question: During the Slayer's duel against Mina Nori, Samuel Hayden asks her if she's afraid of facing how monstrous she truly is, catching Mina off guard just enough for the Slayer to turn the tables against her.
- Blessed with Suck: Not long after getting the Legendary Shield, the Doom Slayer discovers how much it sucks because it stops him from using his guns, can't be taken off, and is the weakest thing ever. Thankfully, it doesn't hold him back for too long. Since the Legendary Weapons are of Makyr origin in this fic, Hayden can de-bind the shield from the Slayer and allow him to fight like normal again.
- Blood Knight: Mina Nori goes about murdering people with impunity to satiate her own bloodlust, all in accordance to the "teachings" of her father Rakshas.
- Break the Haughty:
- Mald tries to put the Doom Slayer in his place due to the latter's rather dismissive attitude of Itsuki, only for the Hellwalker to break his hand and knock his ass flat on the ground.
- The entire Slayer vs. Mina fight sees the Slayer and Hayden absolutely dominate Mina in combat as well as expose her for what she truly is under her pretensions of faith.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Slayer practically decimates everyone who's stupid enough to fight him thanks to his experience fighting the forces of Hell for eons. To wit:
- Demon cultist forces are cut down like wheat when they face off against the Slayer, with nothing they throw at him even fazing the Doom Slayer.
- He destroys the Soul Cage that Rakshas made within the Nori family manor in short order.
- Deadpan Snarker: The Slayer is just as talkative as ever. I.E, not at all. His thoughts on the other hand are not hidden from the reader and are usually as snarky as his knife is sharp.
- Doing In the Wizard: Rather than being magical artifacts, the Cardinal Weapons here are all Maykr-forged weapons, which Samuel Hayden uses to his advantage when he disables the weapon selection limiter on the Cardinal Shield.
- Dramatic Irony: During his meeting with King Aultcray, High Priest Bisca T. Balmus smugly proclaims that the Slayer will return to Melromarc sooner or later due to how the Cardinal Shield works, completely ignorant of the fact that the Slayer has already disabled the Shield since day one.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- Even after fighting against all that Hell can throw at him, the Doom Slayer is appalled to learn that it was Melcromarc's knights who were responsible for destroying Raphtalia's home village and condemning her to a life of pain and misery as Idol Rabier's slave.
- Both the Slayer and Dr. Hayden are disgusted by any form of bigotry and discrimination, be it Melromarc's prejudice against demi-humans or Stiltvelt's hatred towards humans, and make sure to exterminate slavers of any stripe with extreme prejudice.
- Ren is deeply uncomfortable with the fanaticism that Aultcray displays when he brings up the Maykrs and their involvement in the world of Shield Hero. Considering what the Maykrs have gotten up to before, he has every right to be cautious about them.
- Face of a Thug: Even if the Doom Slayer's face is hidden by his helmet, he unsurprisingly is this. He's unambiguously on the side of good, but is capable of making anyone who's a target of his wrath or anyone close to him shit their pants in terror. Ren even lampshades this in an omake when Itsuki wonders if he's a gamer otaku, telling Itsuki that the Slayer looks like he eats shredded glass for breakfast.Ren: The man looks like he eats shredded glass for breakfast.
- Finishing Stomp: Rakshas Nori gets his head crushed into paste by the Slayer with a single stomp.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- Malty never even gets to frame the Slayer nor worm her way into his good graces since the Slayer already knows she's up to no good, ensuring that King Aultcray can't run the Slayer's reputation into the dirt.
- Given that no one outside of the royal court knows that the Doom Slayer is the Shield Hero, the people of Melromarc are not openly hostile towards him.
- The Slayer is on slightly better terms with the other Legendary Heroes due to Malty never framing him, and he's shown himself to be fully skilled despite being "the weak shield hero" and finding a way to get said shield removed so he can fight as he did before.
- Motoyasu enjoys being around him and sees the Slayer as an awesome badass.
- Itsuki sees the Slayer as a great hero and is slightly jealous of him.
- Ren is seemingly uninterested.
- Since the Slayer has effectively upset the balance of power just by existing, Queen Mirella's plans to help Melromarc aren't going to go as smoothly as she hopes them to be.
- The Friend Nobody Likes:
- As shown in an excerpt written by a demi-human veteran of the Melromac-Stiltvelt War that Samuel Hayden archived in his databanks, no one ever wanted to be around Rakshas Nori, especially with how utterly cruel he was even by the brutal standards Stiltvelt was operating on during the war and how chummy he was with the Maykrs who were there to supposedly "advise" Stiltvelt's former king.
- Pretty much nobody in Itsuki's party can stand Mald due to the nobleman's constant complaining and overinflated ego.
- Good Is Not Soft: Make no mistake, while the Slayer is on the side of good, he will not hesitate to use violence and go against the rules in his war against evil, something that Samuel Hayden makes very clear to King Aultcray in the very first chapter.
- Greater-Scope Villain: It's all but implied that the Maykrs had a hand in influencing events behind the scenes, what with the Soul Cage being made with Maykr tech and Hell's foul magic along with their visit to Melromarc.
- Hate Sink: Rakshas is the vile and sadistic head of the Nori family who uses his so-called "faith" in the Shield God to justify all the atrocities he commits, such as his enslavement of innocent humans.
- Hiding Behind Religion: Mina and Rakshas dress up their atrocities as acts all done in the name of their Shield God, something that irks the Slayer to no end.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Rakshas knocks himself on his ass as a result of his decision to launch a fireball at the Slayer right as the Slayer casts and airstrike shield, leaving Rakshas open for his very well-deserved fate.
- Irony: Motoyasu, Itsuki, and Ren believe the Doom Slayer is the weakest since the Legendary Shield stops him from properly fighting and leveling up. Not only does the Slayer manage to get around it by having the legendary weapon taken off by Hayden, but the Slayer shows that he's the strongest out of the four heroes when he kills as many enemies as he does demons by himself.
- Kick the Dog: Rakshas set up a series of riddles pointing towards the nastiest places in the Nori estate in an attempt to break Dyal. It only serves to make Dyal all the more determined to end his wretched excuse of a father thanks to Dyal already hating Rakshas along with some encouragement from the Doom Slayer to ignore Rakshas' lies.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Rakshas justifies his atrocities as the will of the Shield God. He unwittingly earned the ire of the Doom Slayer and realized too late that the Slayer is the Shield Hero, who then proceed to stomp his head into paste.
- Living Battery: Mina gets turned into one by the Orion-Scorpius Angelo-class demon after she wanders a bit too close to the room it's held in, necessitating the combined efforts of the Slayer, Dyal, and Abel to kill the demon and yank Mina out.
- Living Lie Detector: Eons of fighting the forces of Hell have left the Slayer quite astute in picking apart deception attempts, allowing him to see Malty as the rotten person she really is and shake her off.
- Not Worth Killing: The only reason why Mina Nori isn't killed by the Slayer when she's at his mercy after her fight against him and being used as a Living Battery by the Orion-Scorpius is because she's practically not worth the bullets it'd take to do so when that ammo could be better used to put the demons six feet under.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Samuel Hayden compiles a file about Raphtalia for the Doom Slayer to read, his tone shifted to become more serious and darker, something that even caught the Doom Slayer off guard, which shows that for all of Hayden’s moral ambiguity, even he shows disgust for the discrimination of Melomarc.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Doom Slayer and the forces of Hell are more powerful than anything the world of The Rising of the Shield Hero can offer, and they are also far more ruthless. The fact that they came virtually out of nowhere into the world doesn't help matters either since no one even knows how to counter them.
- Religious Bruiser: Ren here grew up with a Christian upbringing before he was transported into Melromarc, something that Aultcray tries to use in getting the Sword Hero to side with him.
- Shout-Out:
- The Damned Executioners that the Doom Slayer deals with in chapter 3 are based on the Executioners from Resident Evil 5.
- The Empusa, Hell Caina/Antenora, Hell Judecca, Riot, Chaos, Fury, and Pyrobat/Hellbat from Devil May Cry 5 are included in the armies of Hell.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Rakshas Nori thinks himself the most devoted apostle of the "Shield God", yet, as the Slayer puts it in his thoughts, he's literally a cockroach with an ego that far outstrips his common sense.
- Too Dumb to Live:
- Mald thought it was a great idea to insult and attack the Slayer right after the guy exterminated a group of demon cultists who were taking the kids they kidnapped from Lute Village to their base for their unholy rituals. The Slayer 'only' crushes Mald's wrist and punches him into a tree in response, and Itsuki tells Mald in no uncertain terms that he's only got himself to blame if the Slayer kills him for being a stupid jackass.
- Really, everything Rakshas does to demoralize the Doom Slayer only serves to enrage the Slayer even further, yet the tigerman noble remains convinced in his deluded belief that he can kill the guy who established himself as Hell's greatest nemesis and is also the "Shield God" he professes to be faithful to.
- Wild Card: The Doom Slayer refuses to align himself with any nation, operating independently from everyone else as a free agent bound to no-one but himself.
- You Remind Me of X: Stiltvelt's slave market ends up reminding the Slayer of Nekravol with the abundance of cages and torture devices laid out in the open and the horrific torture inflicted upon those unlucky enough to be taken there.
