Biggest thanks for Ace-Triad for fixing my SPAG problems, and Angel Wraith for beta-reading the chapter and providing feed backs. Special thanks to Commissar Gaunt for helping shape this final stretch of Three Heroes Church Saga into its current state.
As always, I will blabber some more in my end note.
ALSO... FUCK THE OWNER OF THIS SITE for allowing it to deteriorite to its current unstable, sorry state.
The Shield Hero's legs suddenly give way under him, and he nearly falls on his face if not for his Sworn Shield swinging around and catching him. Yatsuhashi sets Naofumi down with almost deceptional gentleness considering his height and muscles. "Be careful, my thane! You shouldn't over exert yourself after a fresh healing like this. The three heroes gathered their allies to help you! Even if you don't care about how I feel, how would they feel if you hurt yourself now that they are here?"
Naofumi slowly turns his head around to look at Yatsuhashi in the face. After a brief moment of silence, he nods his head. The strange looking, shelled creature-like shield on his arm disappears, leaving the legendary shield in its default state. The Shield Hero's reaction is very underwhelming for finally recovering his shield. "You are right, Yatsuhashi. I'm sorry. I'm no good to anyone if I drop dead on my face. I'll leave the rest of the fight to my friends now."
"Your lackeys are dead, you old fart! You will be next if you don't turn tail and leave Naofumi and his friends alone!" By contrast, the Spear Hero is loud as he waves his weapon at Pope Balmus. His triumph against Roger of Ajax had made him much more presumptuous... or perhaps that's just how he acted. Clearly, there's only so much courtesy even Iris was able to teach him.
The demi-human slaves who see Balmus as their Father all glare angrily at the offending Spear Hero. The pope of the Three Heroes' Church on the other hand seems to not pay any attention to Motoyasu antics. His eyes are fixed on the spot where Naofumi turned Tirion Fordring into bloody paste only a few moments ago. Where a twisted and broken suit of armor, the broken hilt of the Ashbringer, and some red smear is all that remain of the Three Heroes' Church knight templar's lord commander. After a few moments, his lips finally moved. And the first one he addressed was the deceased veteran paladin, not any of the heroes. "Thank you for your service, Brother Tirion. Your duty to the Chief God on this world ends... and may he cherish your immortal soul."
With his last sermon to the dead complete, the Pope of the Three Heroes' Church takes one more step forward. The fabric from his long robe bellows even when there is no wind. "Do you know how the Three Heroes' Church started, heroes?"
Chapter 125: Collective Consciousness
Motoyasu cocks his head to the side, clearly confused about Pope Balmus' seemingly unrelated question. "Why would we care about any of that? All I know is that you'll go down if you don't leave Naofumi alone!"
"This is more than what they did to me now." Naofumi turns his head up from where he's sitting on the ground. Malty can't see his face, but she can feel him glaring angrily at the supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church. "I don't know what any of you have been up to after the Third Wave, Motoyasu. But I have been running with my life with Mein all this time. I saw what his church's been doing all this time under the guise of protecting the people of this country from me. They were enslaving the people, anyone who they said had been working with me, or had sympathy towards me. I saw children being branded with a burning iron. They need to face justice for all their atrocities. The Three Heroes' Church goes down today, no matter what they do!"
"Right! What Naofumi said!" Motoyasu turns his head back from looking at his friend back to facing the supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church.
"While worshiping the Chief God and his followers had existed long ago thanks to the emissaries from Flangey. The idea of the heroes, especially the four cardinal heroes summoned to our world are messengers of our patheon was adopted after the first ever Wave of Catastrophe, and the first time when the cardinal heroes are summoned into our world..." Pope Balmus doesn't seem to have heard the words exchanged between Naofumi and Motoyasu as he walks left and right, continuing his impromptu history lesson.
"[Arrow Shockwave]!" A surge of power blows from Malty's side towards the seemingly distracted Balmus. She can see both Cain and Abel's body tenses up, looking like they are about to take action. But both remained still in the end. The Pope simply raises a hand, and he slaps away Itsuki's attack without even turning his head around to look at it.
"And there lies the problem to the first ever great crisis of our faith, heroes." Pope Balmus doesn't look angry, or even annoyed at Itsuki's attempt at harming him while he was in the middle of a history lecture. He simply turns his body around to fully face the heroes and their allies as his feet carry him to stand in front of his 'children' once again. "After the first ever wave, the Malis horde broke their temporary truce with the human nations in a massive invasion. Intended on pressing their perceived advantages on the Seven Old Kingdoms while we were weakened by the Wave of Catastrophe. But they didn't count on how much hardened both the armies of the human nations were, and how they were now being led by the heroes. So when the horde was broken, the heroes had a choice: to eliminate the threat those barbaric animals have on the Seven Old Kingdoms forever... or try to change their ways no matter how impossible it seemed. The three heroes who wield weapons wanted to choose the first option, while the first Shield Hero decided to pursue the second one. Leading to the first ever time that summoned heroes turn on each other."
"And this... led to the first time that the faith who worshiped the Chief God, and honored the heroes split in our ideology. The foundation of the way of Three Heroes I belong to. While there are even more divisions of our philosophy under the Three Heroes umbrella, the predominant reason for our sect's creation was to guard our world and our people against renegade heroes who forsaken their duties, or decided to use their power to ravage the land. We have always been the militant arm of the Chief God, and hero worshiping religion. Unlike our four heroes who worship brothers who are more focused on providing spiritual guidance." The smile on Pope Balmus' face grows larger and larger, till it becomes a grin that nearly split his face in half. The muscles under his robe also seemed to expand even more, to the point that Malty can see the texture as the Pope's body pushes against his previously loosen clothes. "And as the current supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church. This means I must be their strongest."
"Look out!" To Motoyasu's credit, he did manage to get out a brief warning to everyone before the Pope moved upon him. Be it genuine skill developed through long hours of training, or miracles from the pantheon, the aged supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church moves with a speed that's not expected of someone his age, or massive build. The Spear Hero only barely brought up the shaft of his weapon into a guard as Pope Balmus punches him. Motoyasu is instantly knocked flying back, his hastily produced defense no match for his opponent.
"Master Motoyasu/Father!" Katarina isn't the only one who is alarmed and worried about the Spear Hero. There is also a group of about a dozen strangely dressed people (mostly female) around her all looking at the exchange between Balmus and Motoyasu in shocked horror. Judging by the way they addressed the Spear Hero, they are more of his filorial 'children', even if their clothes hide their little wings like it did for Yomi and Akitsu.
"Don't fight him one on one! He's dangerous!" Ren changes the form of his shield to something that resembles the black scale of Gaelion. His massive body granted by Loptus cult's relic sword deflates back to that of a slim... and fairly short teen. The Sword Hero clearly came to the conclusion that whatever defensive bonus that great sword granted him isn't worse than the reduction to his speed and agility. And seeing how easy Pope Balmus handled Motoyasu (even if the lateral wasn't prepared), Malty agrees with his decision. The Sword Hero didn't only use his mouth, he immediately charged at Pope Balmus alongside Eclair. Katarina, and the children of the Spear Hero follow him. This should be enough to take down Pope Balmus, if all the filorials raised by Motoyasu are as strong, or even stronger than Firo like Fitoria said, right?
"Oh no! You don't! Charge, my brothers! Don't let the false heroes and their accomplice harm our Father!" The Pope doesn't look concerned that he is about to fight more than a dozen people all at once. But the same can't be said about his 'children'. Abaddon lets out an angry roar. The peacock leads the rest of the demi-human slave fighters into battle against. They force Itsuki to turn his attention from Pope Balmus to them. Almost immediately, the allies of the heroes begin to lose ground even with the Bow Hero's support. Even with the levels they gained under the heroes, they don't have the same fighting experience as the slave fighters who were sent to, and survived some of the most dangerous missions a militant faith sent them to. Katarina's brother Keith raises his sword wand, and summons a few dozen mud golems among the ranks of their opponent right as they charge, and it helps stem the tide somewhat. But it's clear that the allies and companions of the heroes are still on the losing side if they don't do something drastic... such as taking down Pope Balmus.
As for the Pope himself, he is fighting against Ren, Eclair and Katarina. The Seatto heiress is arguably fairing the worst against her opponent with her all too formal fighting style being apparently too predictable for Pope Balmus, and she lacks enough strength to receive his attack without faltering. She's barely staying in the fight thanks to her artifact weapon, and the support of both the Sword Hero, and the monkey girl of House Claes. Ren is pulling one weapon art at the Pope after another in a clear effort to take pressure off Eclair, while Katarina flips all around their seasoned opponent befitting the nickname she earned from noble society, even leaving multiple after images around Pope Balmus. The daughter of Duke Luigi is doing the best out of all three with her much more wild fighting style as seen when she interrupts multiple attacks Pope Balmus leveled at her allies. The powerful enchanted ax she looted off Consevatie also helped.
"Well done, my young 'friends'. You attack fast and hard. Way beyond the level of what I expect from someone of your age." Despite the effort of all three, the supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church doesn't look bothered. In fact, he never dropped his smile the entire time even as he is constantly pestered by Katarina and Ren. "But you have to know it's useless if you can't break through my defenses."
Pope Balmus isn't lying. The supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church isn't losing any ground despite all the mischievous Katarina is causing him, or Ren continuing to throw one sword weapon art after another at him. In fact, both of his feet are firmly planted in the ground since his battle with the three of them started. With a loud yell, his fist collided with the flat side of Ren's blade as the Sword Hero was trying to use some kind of empowered close range sword art. The resulting clash produces a shockwave that knocks away all three of his opponents. Instead of going after Eclair like he had previously, Pope Balmus charges straight at Ren. It seems like he was conditioning everyone into thinking he wants to take out the Seaetto heiress first, when his target had been one of the heroes all along.
The supreme leader's leg suddenly drags behind like it's glued to the ground. He turned his head back, and noticed a topaz colored energy arrow digging into the ground where the shadow of his feet were. The Bow Hero managed to pull through for his heroic compatriot at the last moment to stop Pope Balmus from taking out Ren while he was vulnerable. And while the leaders of the Three Heroes' Church are temporarily stuck on the ground, the Spear Hero charges right back. Instead of holding the pointy blade of his polearm at Pope Balmus, Motoyasu spins it in front of him like a windmill. [Cartwheel] is a purely defensive spear weapon art. The reason that the Shield Hero charges forward with it is clear. He had learned his lesson that the leader of the Three Heroes' Church can not be stopped by a hastily put up defense. And he's ready to dig his heel to stop Balmus from hurting Ren while the Sword Hero is down and vulnerable.
"[Little Rest]." As with the Sword Hero, Balmus raises his fist and presses it forward at the Spear Hero. Unlike the wild flail coming from Roger of Ajax, his punch is controlled. His punch carries itself with a deceptive slowness, yet it has a sense of finality that matches inevitability of the end as the weapon art's name suggested. Watching it almost puts Malty herself into a meditative trance that makes her forget everything else around her. And then, Pope Balmus' fist collided at the center of Motoyasu's defensive spear weapon art, the part where his hand held his weapon as he spun it around into a defensive barrier. With a loud crack, the defense stance of the Spear Hero collapses as he is pushed back.
Motoyasu doesn't seem ready to yield though. The Spear Hero lets his own backward momentum carry himself away from his opponent, and then he spins on his heels. He slides his hand back on the shaft of his spear and moves one of his hands to the tip of the back. With a quick brush of his fingers like the firing mechanism of a crossbow, he shoots his drilling spear at the Three Heroes' Church's supreme leader and their strongest combatant. He didn't scream the name of his weapon art out loud this time, but it's the same move that brought Roger of Ajax to his end. If this attack hit Pope Balmus, it would have surely done some damage. "Why won't you DIE!?"
"God's miracles, SON!" Unlike the arrogant and glory hungry Roger of Ajax, Pope Balmus is clearly aware of his own limits and doesn't assume he can easily take anything a perceived inferior opponent throws at him. The supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church dodges with blinding speed contrary to his previous punch's slowness, making the Spear Hero's attack go wide while sinking his fist into Motoyasu's gut. The much younger hero spits blood as he is knocked flying back, unable to catch himself this time. The only reason he wasn't finished off right at the moment was thanks to his children. A giant beast of roaring shadow descended down between the supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church and the wounded Spear Hero, knocking both of them further back with its impact. As the shadow dissipates, a giant boulder of black feathers covering a lump of muscles charges at Pope Balmus. Kuro is followed by Sakura, also in her pink filorial monarch form as she throws her own weight at the leader of the Three Heroes' Church. Yuki quickly runs to her Father's side to start healing him, while Kou stands beside her sister firing golden beams of lightning bolts at their enemy.
Where are the rest of the filorial monarchs the Spear Hero raised? They can't simply sit back, watching their 'Father' being beaten down. Malty looks back, and she sees the group of colorfully and exotically dressed people fighting against the two 'sons' of Balmus: Cain and Abel. They are clearly trying their best to get to their Father with the amount of magic spells and weapon arts flying at Balmus' children but to no avail. Cain's strikes hard with his fist, each punch a hammer that shatters earth. And he conjures that flashing wall of protection when Motoyasu's children go on offense. Abel on the other hand darts around on peacock wings with blinding speed and agility, firing barrages of attack from the 'eyes' of peacock tail feathers at the monarch filorials. Even worse, the two of them are using their superior teamwork to divide the much more numerous filorial monarchs to isolate and take them down. There's already five of Motoyasu's children lying on the ground unmoving, knocked out or worse.
"Go help my fellow heroes, Yatsuhashi!" Naofumi takes a bottle of potion out of his now recovered shield and chugs it down his mouth. He wipes the corner of his mouth with his sleeves. Seeing his sworn shield looking at him with clear hesitation, he quickly adds. "I'm fine. Only need to take a breath. If my friends get killed, I'll be next!"
That clearly convinced Yatsuhashi to leave Naofumi behind for now, as he ran to join the fight against Pope Balmus. While the strength of someone who hasn't yet had his class-up and only remained at the top of common level isn't much compared to the three filorial monarchs, his very sharp and clearly well forged curve blade seem to give him some extra edge in the battle. The sworn sword trained by House Whiterun clearly had some training at group fighting, as he only steps in between Kuro and Sakura's almost desperate flailing when they manage to force Pope Balmus back or keeps him unbalanced on his toes. Within five slashes, the sworn shield of the Shield Hero managed to draw out a single speck of blood from the pope's arm. It was only a glancing cut, barely worth mentioning as a swound. But it still put a chip on Pope Balmus' seemingly unbreakable armor till this point.
"Father! Catch!" Someone shouted within the ranks of the church's demi-human slave fighters. Within a second, a bolt of silver cuts through the air and shoots towards the supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church. It impacted the ground with equal tremor as when Kuro fell from the sky at Pope Balmus. The object in question turned out to be a spear in a very similar style to the heroes' legendary weapons in their default state: white as purest, well polished marbles with black trimmings. But instead of a single gem serving as its core, three pieces of ruby, sapphire and topaz shards form into a rough shape of the triangle. The only symbol for the faith of the Three Heroes.
Pope Balmus reaches his hand over and grabs the weapon. Its shape changes as soon as he pulls it out of the ground into a much larger polearm with a slightly curved blade at the front. By Melromarc's standard, it would be called a glaive. Not a weapon traditionally used by the templars of the church. In fact, the only one Malty knew who was proficient with this kind of weapon was Iris' grandFather. Pope Balmus' words confirmed her suspicion. "Well. Guess it's time I take a page out of old Anderson's playbook."
The Pope charges formward, the end tip of the large glaive cuts a trench through the earth and plows a cloud of dirt into the air. With a single slash, he slaps away both Kuro and Sakura, and knocks Yatsuhashi away with the shaft of his weapon. The supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church kicks Kou back without even slowing down and is upon Yuki and Motoyasu in the blink of an eye. He brings his weapon down on both of them, until both Katarina and Ren jump in and raise both of their weapons up to stop it from falling onto Motoyasu's head. Katarina was always much stronger than her slim body suggested, while Ren had his weapon take the form of the Loptus greatsword once again that bulked up his body. Yet as the three of their weapons met, both of them were instantly brought down to their knees, blood trailing down the corner of their gritted mouths.
"Stop this madness, Biscas T. Balmus! All of us will die from the wave if you kill the heroes!" further back with the group who allied with the heroes, Iris screams at the supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church. Seemingly trying to appease his sense of self-preservation to spare the lives of the heroes (and likely herself) from the ongoing bloodbath.
"Thank you for reminding me, heiress Amelia. I better not use lethal force against our venerated heroes in this case. Even if they are false." A smirk forms on the corner of Pope Balmus' mouth. He brings his weapons down, into the earth rather than on the head of Motoyasu, or anyone besides him. It doesn't seem to matter much in the end as a large dust of debris and rock gets blown up from the ground as his opponents are knocked flying back. They don't get up from the attack, not Katarina, who always bounced around on trees with seemingly endless energy, Yuki who is a giant bird with stones of pure muscles, or Ren whose sword should have already deflected most of the damage from him. All of them are still on the ground. "They'll serve this nation better as leverage in a dungeon, when it comes down to forcing back the different armies that'll no doubt come knocking on our door.
"So that's your plan all along. Using us as leverage for your own purpose?!" The Shield Hero puts one of his hands on the ground for support. He slowly pushes himself on his feet. "It won't work! I have already seen what your oh so benevolent faith had done for this country. People live in fear of or have already been enslaved. You wouldn't be only fighting against the four of us! You will be fighting against everyone. Even those who give you your power in the first place!"
"Oh, really? Have you truly opened your eyes and seen this nation? Truly see it?" Pope Balmus turns his face around and gives Naofumi a brief stair. He slaps another arrow Itsuki shot at him like he's slapping away a fly. "My faith had been free to do whatever it wanted to this nation before I was even awake. When they were led by Cromwell. Someone who isn't even part of the vicars. The highest officials in my absence. Because the truth is... people wanted this war for a long time now. This war against the likes of you. 'Heroes', summoned from another world, knowing next to nothing about our society, our struggles. Yet thinking they are so much better than us, and get to tell everyone what to do. Surely, this isn't the first time you heard dissidents against you and your fellow so-called 'heroes'?"
That seems to have taken whatever wind Naofumi had in his sail as he simply stared right back at Balmus. Of course, this wasn't the first time he, or Malty (especially Malty herself) heard grudges leveled against the heroes. And not only from the humans of Melromarc either. They have met with derision, and harm from both demi-humans and beastmen. Dismissal from the likes of that bull demi-human gang leader from the slum (what was his name again? Something similar to General Adan?), or Farkas' endless grunts isn't the worst they had to put up with even if they were surely the first taste for Naofumi on people's rejection of heroes making their lives better. The likes of Towair, or Abby had flat put him through as much hurt as the Three Heroes' Church, and those were supposedly some people who should worship the Shield Hero as their living god king.
"The benevolent, noble heroes who are here to save the world from a great crisis are nothing more than a myth we tell our people. To give them hope in a dark time of despair. But you know something about faith, honored hero? WE, the CHURCH have a monopoly on it! Why look for legend, saviors from another world when we have it right here at our door steps?" The glaive in Pope Balmus' hand turned into a cross sword typically used by templars from the church. The elderly, yet strong leader of the Three Heroes' Church continues to have powerful strides towards Itsuki as he slaps, or parries away the Bow Hero's attack with his blade.
The smarter thing for Itsuki as a ranged fighter to do at this moment would be to turn around and create more distance between Balmus and himself, if not to retreat from this battle all together. In fact, it looks like that low rank noble girl from Stormwind is trying to get him to do just that as she pulls at his shoulder. Actually... Iris is already doing just that with her little group of loyal servants, leaving her brother who is still engaged in battle against the church's slave fighters. But the Bow Hero's feet are firmly planted on the ground, digging his heels in and ready to literally die on the hill he stands on.
"And you know something else, honored heroes? Those who have the most against you and your fellow summoned heroes. They are the strong who have most to lose. Only the weak open their hands and mouth, waiting for whatever scraps that'll be left for them after whatever the strong finishes. Be it either your heroes and those of your accomplices... or the church!" Pope Balmus slaps away Sir Crepe, and brings down Itsuki and his lady friend with a flicker of his finger on the Bow Hero's forehead. He slowly turns around, facing the Shield Hero. "Because in the end, the weak will blindly follow the strong. And as the strongest in the church. It is my sole duty to lay down the edict that'll have to be followed to give life to both the strong and the weak under me what they need!"
"Damn right! You tell these losers, you old fart!" Consevatie is having a mad laughter despite being tied up in ropes and can do nothing but wiggle like a worm on the ground. Every time Malty thinks she has seen this delusional madman's lowest point on his intelligence, he somehow breaks limits and drags her opinion on him even lower. To think he would openly insult his rescuer, when he is little more than a prisoner of the heroes ... and said rescuer is also his supreme leader. The incarnate is truly delusional to believe he is literally invincible, or secretly has a death wish. "I'd almost feel sorry that I'll have to dispose of you after you have done so much of my work for me. But this world doesn't need two gods. And I'm not so generous to share with a crusty old ass!"
"Ah. Mr. Consevatie. Just the man I was looking for. Tell me, how was it that someone like you survived. When poor, young Jaune had died. Not to mention Lord Commander Tirion Fordring, and even the former battle saint of my colleague Roger of Ajax?" Pope Balmus slowly turns his body around to look down on the delusional man flailing on the ground. "I believe you have something from Master Shirou. Something he entrusted me with."
"Why do you think the Sheath of Avalon belongs to you when you had it as a glorified ornament collecting dust in your room? Clearly, as this story's protagonist, I'm its rightful owner. Now, if you are willing to grovel, I might have a- GUH!" A punch on his head made Consevatie's eyes bug out again. Malty could almost see the indent on his head as he flops on the ground once again. Sheath of Avalon... the mystical artifact that was first held by King Artoria of Albion, and later held again by Artoria Arc when she accompanied Bow Hero Shirou Emiya. So that's how Consevatie was able to recover from all the wounds he sustained!
"Stupid boy. You do not seem to realize that an invulnerable body does you no good if you have neither the power, nor the skill to triumph over your opponent. All it does is make you into the world's most durable living target. You will serve as a great scapegoat after all of this is over." Pope Balmus turns away from Consevatie to look at Naofumi once again. "Ah, Shield Hero. Now that you are the only one that remains standing. Where were we?"
Naofumi moves his disgusted look from Consevatie up to Pope Balmus once again. The shield on his hand began to glow and slowly turned into a ball of light again between his cupped hands. Is he... is Naofumi trying to bring out that strange shield that turns into a giant flail again? Why can't he instantly transform his shield into that form after unlocking it? Unless... it works like a spell that conjures weapons or armor and needs to be cast again after he dispells it? In the meantime, he seems to be trying to distract Pope Balmus with an ideological debate. "Scapegoat. So that's how you look at your underlines. Is this how you look at Cromwell, your so-called 'children' too?"
"Don't you dare talk bad about our Father, Shield Demon! You have no idea what he did for us!" Abaddon Abel lets out an angry screech before the peacock is forced into defending against two of Motoyasu's children once again.
"Oh. I think I know enough about what the benevolent miracle maker of this country did. You call the demi-humans under you your children. But they are nothing more than tools you use and throw away. No different from the people you claim to look after, but only to use for your own greed!" If Naofumi's plan was to distract Pope Balmus with an ideological debate, the plan is clearly working. As the supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church simply stands still facing the Shield Hero, letting Naofumi both monologue, and trying to bring out his powerful shield. "In the end, we are all greases that lubricate your little church machine, isn't it?"
"RANSOM!" The desperate scream of Barn reaches Malty's ears as she briefly tears her eyes and attention from the clash between the Shield Hero to that of Iris' little brother. The sniveling little man had been knocked on his back on the ground, begging his opponent not to kill him, but to let his family pay him back.
The fight had truly turned dire now that the strongest fighters on the heroes' side were either taken down by the Pope, or engaged in a fierce battle against Balmus' strongest children. Whatever is left of the hero's allies are desperately holding against the savagery of the church's demi-human slave fighters. Barn's friend is in a small group of their own, cut off from the rest of the allies of the heroes. The three scions from Faubley stand shoulder to shoulder, as they try their best beating back the weapons wielded by Balmus' children. And the only reason they are still standing seems to be their hesitation to go for any lethal hit. Probably because they don't want to harm heirs of Faubley nobility. One of them shouts to the clearly scared looking young boy standing behind them. "Run, Neville! RUN!"
"No... NO!" The fear of the slightly lumpy looking boy slowly turns to grim determination. His fingers tightens around the hilt of his sword, and its blade bursts with a sudden surge of red fire. He ran forward, eyes red, flaming sword battering away the demi-human slave fighters surrounding his elder brother while letting out more beastly yell than his opponent. "I am Neville Francese Tasmeria! Not some mudblood half-breed! My mother wasn't a line-stealing mudblood whore!"
"I'm afraid I'm too old to fully get used to the Faubley metaphor you are using, Shield Hero. But if you meant using people as a foundation to build a future. Then yes! Why do you think there's so much conflict in the world, even now when we are facing one of the greatest calamities of the world? Too many different thoughts are clashing together. Fueled by conflicted interest between the strong who want to accomplish their own goal. The unenlightened masses can't be allowed to think for themselves. They will only tear each other's throat out and make this nation too weak to stand against its many enemies. Both in this world, and out! It's much better to have only one goal, one single mind driving the whole. There will be pain in the brief time, yes. But in a time of crisis, there needs to be STRONG leadership who sees what the weak minds don't, and unify them through the calamity. You don't get to make something new without breaking something old, Shield Hero. Especially not when I'm trying to making the mother of all omelettes here." Pope Balmus walks left and right once again, as he holds his hand up, as if emphasizing his every single thought. The boy charges over his much older protectors, viciously attacks the demi-human slave fighters who surrounded them with such devoted zeal, he even managed to push them back a few steps. All the while screaming like a mad person. "What better mind is to follow than someone serving our lord after all? And under the will of the Chief God, all of Melromarc's men, women, children... we are all SONS OF THE FAITHFUL NOW!"
On the other side, Iris' group is also intercepted by Balmus' children. It seems like her (or her band of sycophants) decision to leave her allies and retreat only end up putting her into more danger with less people around to rely on. Tanya and Iris' two henchmen are being surrounded by a dozen demi-human fighters, where the maid is taking on half of them with her spear and occasional toss of throwing knives. She is surprisingly doing the best of them, as the Iris' two male henchmen are being pressed back by two slave fighters each. Henchman number two suddenly kicks up a large cloud of dust on his opponents' faces, and he breaks formation to go after his two disrupted opponents, trying to kick the beastman between his legs.
"You think this dirty trick would work, scum?!" Malty can almost hear the smirk in the demi-human slave fighter's voice. He suddenly moves his sword in the way of henchmen number two's feet, leading to the idiot slicing his own feet off the sword.
"AHHH! YOU FUCKING FUCK-!" The henchman immediately falls on the floor, screaming like a pig being forced into the butchery. He doesn't get to scream for much longer when the other demi-human slave fighter smashed his head open with his morning star.
"Should have learned our sight is our weakest sense. And Father encouraged us to hone all of them. Idiot." The slave fighter who cut off henchmen number two's feet also spit on his corpse. A bit excessive... but it's not like a headless (and one foot short) corpse would complain.
"DIDA!" Tanya screams, presumably henchman number two's name. She, and the remaining henchmen of Iris fight with renewed vigor to either avenge their fallen companion or to protect their lady. But with one man down from their little group, it doesn't take two long before the blonde henchman gets his head cut off, and for Tanya to be kicked down. And Iris joins her brother as another prisoner of the Three Heroes' Church.
"It seems like your allies are struggling, Shield Demon. What will you do now? Will you come quietly and let this death and suffering you left awake stop." The pope turns his face back to the Shield Hero with a satisfied grin as he pushes his spectacles up on the bridge of his nose. "Or will you kick and scream till I beat you down like my children and I just did to the rest of your allies?"
"The only one who left death and suffering is you and your damn religious cult! Everything was going just fine till your church seized power of this country. And I'll be damned if I let you control it all! You honestly don't think I know how religious cult works, and what kind of bad, shitty things they do in my own world when they are put in charge?!" With one final scream, Naofumi finally brings his Crown Shield out of the glowing sphere of light as it materializes over his hand. "I said to you, and your cult needs to face justice for what you have done already, and I'll make it happen with or without anyone's help!"
With one last defiant cry, the Shield Hero brings his shield in front of himself as his body charges at Pope Balmus. The supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church doesn't look disappointed at his failing to convince Naofumi to surrender himself. In fact, the grin on Balmus' face only grows wider as he transforms his shard weapon from a sword to a glaive once again, and returns the Shield Hero's opening attack with a similar charge of his own. Malty remembers what the religious leader was capable of during his brief battle during the Third Wave. He was able to punch down a leviathan monster with nothing but his own bare hands. And he was the only one that made a goddess bleed even after she impaled his body. And now, he has in his hand an enchanted weapon that has not one, not two, but shards of all THREE of the weapons from heroes his faith supposedly worshiped. In hindsight, it wasn't such a surprise that he was able to dispose of both Motoyasu and Ren without even physically hitting them.
The two of them, the young, defiant Shield Hero and the old and oppressive Pontiff of the Three Heroes' Church clash. Shield against spear. A loud boom echoes between the two of them, as a shockwave sends out more debris and dirt from where they push against each other. Naofumi was able to stand against Balmus even in a direct clash without faltering like his fellow heroes, the strength of the Shield Hero's defensive rating truly shines through. The supreme leader of the Three Heroes' Church smirks down at his slightly shorter opponent. "And pray tell, Shield Demon. Why won't you die?"
"I'm the Strongest Shield on Earth!"
End Note:
So... over two years of building up and hyping Pope Balmus as this legitimate threat to the heroes (and hopefully give him some actual character depth). We are finally at this final stage, the battle against him. In case anyone was wondering. Pope Balmus in my story truly is as much a powerful and skilled fighter as everyone made him out to be (if him being capable of suplexing a Kaiju didn't made it clear). He's not some stupid, flailing clown who was only a threat due to an artifact he stole. He's perfectly able to let Avalon sit in his little memorial for his master Shirou collecting dust, while beating the stuff out of someone with a growing legendary weapon connected with the their world using his bare hands.
Not going to lie. I'm so happy to finally get to this point. Because Balmus as a character arguably became the one I put most thoughts into. Malty's characterization completely flew off the rail only three chapters in and I'm pretty much just riding the wave of what naturally come after it. And for the heroes... I more or less just expanded what's already there in canon (granted, a lot of said 'canon' was taken from Reprisal of the Spear Hero). But Balmus... I had free reign on how to shape him considering he's not a character in canon. He's an one note plot device in the way of a minor speedbump to show Naofumi's supposed awesomeness. For my story, he went through three different iteration as I started writing this story. More on that in later chapters when I fully explore his character in this final battle.
Hope the Senator Armstrong influence is on the nose enough... because I'm so sick and tired about the trend of people citing MCU Thanos as an inspiration when given an original one-note villain some depth in different iterations. MCU Thanos is one character I didn't give a single thought of when writing my version of Balmus. And funny enough, before I learned Balmus' name from Fluffball13, I was going to name him Armstrong to pay homage to Metal Gear Rising's great villain. But obviously, some changes were made to fit the setting. Instead of using meme, Pope Balmus is using myth. And yes, a more direct copy of Senator Armstrong was his first iteration for my story. Someone who uses flamboyant showmanship to gather the support of unenlightened masses to fill his own ambition.
:)
Anyways... in my original plan this part would somewhat taken place during the middle of Act III. Where Naofumi gets intercepted by 3HC lead by Balmus as he attempted to cross the border to escape. He triggers the condition of Wrath Shield, but gets defeated by Balmus due to it turning him into an unthinking rage monster and taken back to the 3HC cathedral in the capital. And three weapon heroes with their party launch a rescue attempt (With help from Bertia's father), ending in the final battle somewhat like canon. Commissar Gaunt pointed out it wouldn't make any sense, because without Pope Balmus being a complete idiot, he would not have taken the extra risk or accountability of killing one of the heroes back to capital for some grand execution. He would have leave Naofumi dead in a ditch where nobody would be able to prove it was 3HC who did the deed. Which of course, leading to massive but needed retooling of the entire Act III.
So yeah. All credit goes to the good commissar for making this story making more logical sense. And I'm very glad I somewhat salvaged the whole imprisoned in the capital part by shafting it to the middle of the act, and have it happen in a different context.