Scottie looked into the crystal ball...
He saw a vision of Ren and Itsuki in the Church of the Three Heroes.
Their parties find a cave which leads to the burial site of the Four Cardinal Weapons. However, the tomb is revealed to be empty. Realizing it to be a trap, Itsuki warns them to get out of the cave but it's too late already, as they all get caught in a massive explosion....
Emil:....They been ambushed...
Naofumi:....
Lock:....
Scottie:....Oh...Fuck....
No one had any words after that until Emil got their attention. He put a small smile and pulled out his wand.
Emil: But there's still a chance to save them. I'm been powering up my magic for a while. If I can able to pinpoint this location. I can teleport their group here.
Scottiev: Then what are ya waiting for?! Let's give it a try!
Emil gently grabbed Scottie's hand and they both teleported to the church.
.....
Ren: What the?!
Itsuki: What are you doing doing?!
Scottie: No time to explain! Come with us if you want to live!
Not bothering to hear their answer, Scottie grabbed both heroes by their capes and Emil his magic to bind all their party members teleporting them all back to the ruins just as the massive explosion destroyed everything in it's path.
Lock: Sir Scottie! You're back!
Alyssa: Oh Thank Goodness....
Ren: What the...? Where are we?! Naofumi?!
Naofumi:.....Yo...
Itsuki looked and saw Melty along with Raphtalia and Filo. Scottie's party was also staring back at them. Ren and Itsuki's party members were all voicing their confusion wondering where they were at.
Itsuki: The second princess too is here?! Scottie! Naofumi! Explain Yourselves!
Scottie: Calm Your Tits, Shortie! Be thankful we saved ya fucking life!
Itsuki flinced but glared at him mumbling something like "we didn't need your help". Scottie ignored him while he turned to Ren.
Scottie: Ren.
Ren: ...Yes?
Scottie: The Chruch at the monastery. That explosion. It was a setup.
Ren: Huh?
Scottie: The Pope was trying to kill you guys. He's trying to get rid of all of us and anyone that's involved with us as well.
Ren/Itsuki: What?!!
Naofumi:....There's...a lot of talk about. But you guys to listen to what we say without jumping to conclusions and not give us any side remarks.
Scottie: We're not in the mood for that.
Ren and Itsuki looked at each other in silence before nodding. They turn their attention back to the other two cardinal heroes.
Ren: We're all ears...
*Later*
Scottie: Now that you guys know the truth. What are your thoughts on this?
Ren:....
Itsuki:....
To be honest, they were at but surprised but not fully surprised. A part of them knew the church was hiding something. But they didn't even realized the church was trying to get rid of them until that huge explosion back there proved otherwise.
Ren: So you're being framed...The high priest is behind all this...?
Scottie: Yep. The Pope. Taking advantage of the Queen's absence. He masterminded many events and tried to kill all of us, the cardinal heroes. He and the King tried to kill us back in Coven Forest with those damn knights. Along with that attack towards you guys in the Church.
Ren:....
Alyssa: He killed the queen's right-hand man who happens to be Eclair's father so that the authority rest with King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, who was at the time, was very gullible and easy to manipulate.
Itsuki: So the King is technically a victim in this scenario.
Scottie: You might say that but his actions proven otherwise. He played a role in wiping out many demi-humans because of his hatred for them. Trying to get rid of Naofumi as well. Right now, he's not even aware that he's being used by his own daughter and the Pope.
Melty had a disappointed look on her face at the mentioned of Myne...
Melty: Sister...
Ren: I see the second princess is safe and not harmed. So all this time...We been played like fools...Naofumi, how did you know the Pope hates you?
Naofumi clicked his tongue.
Naofumi once thought Biscas to be peaceful, equitable and fair man, but this is only a facade. His true personality is extremely twisted.
Biscas will preach and believe anything of his own convenience.
When his religion begins to be questioned, he claims the Heroes to be fake. That's the reason why he wants to get rid of them.
Naofumi: By the way Scottie had explained things. His whole entired persona and credibility is like that. He is a fanatic and so are his staunch followers. He was willing to go to any extent to defend his preaching, even if it means framing us, the Cardinal Heroes, in order to be worshiped by his religion.
Itsuki made an angry look.
Itsuki: So that's why...?
Naofumi: Yes...That damned Pope is making ambitious plans that would heavily affect the kingdom...(not that I don't care...I would let that Kingdom fall considering what those assholes along with that bitch did to me. But since the Queen is involved. Looks like I have no choice...)
Hazel: Biscas used his deep connections in the nation to do away with any opposing authority in the kingdom. He was so narrow-minded that he calls all of his actions "the will of God." Since he declared war on us and exiled Alyssa from being the saintess in the church. He's more than willing to kill us.
Alyssa: This fight will be the most hardest we will go too. If we lose, this world will fall into chaos under his rule. Not even the royal family will be able to stop him. He also claims that his followers who will die in this soon to be fight against the Shield Hero will go to Heaven as a holy reward.
Itsuki made a frown.
Itsuki: That's just...sickening...
Ren: I agree. We can't let this happen.
Scottie: Yeah. We need to stop that arrogant Pope and his stupid God Complex. But...we need your help on this...
Naofumi: Sadly...
Itsuki made a smirk while Ren remained neutral.
Itsuki: So you finally realized you can't do everything in your own? It's about time you see not everything going to go your way.
Scottie: Oh shut up!
Itsuki::....!
Naofumi: Do not start Itsuki...Just don't...
Scottie can't stand this guy. Like he said before, he hated him the most. Even more than he does with Motoyasu. His knack of looking down on others annoyed him to no end.
Honestly how can Rishia admire this kid?
Emil: But how do we face him? He wields the replica of the Legendary Weapons.
Naofumi: He can't be that strong. He has a weakness. Everyone does. But first things first. Even though we now got you guys on our side. We still need Motoyasu.
Scottie: Ugh. We might regret this. But the five of us have no choice but to work together. For now...and later the waves.
Itsuki: What do you mean? We been helping...you're the ones who-?!
Ren: Itsuki....Now is not the time.
Itsuki quietly gritted his teeth. He's the "true" hero here. He knows what he's doing. Everyone else is just jealous of him! Same goes for Naofumi and Scottie!!!
Rishia: Itsuki-sama...?
Itsuki ignored the green hair girl and huffed. Scottie and Naofumi watched the whole thing with a frown. Itsuki really needs to get his act together.
Treating his teammates like that is a no-no.
Ren: I'll help...
Naofumi: You will?
Ren: Yes. I want to fight and survive. Besides. I know you guys aren't really bad people as everyone claim you are...I know it doesn't make up for how I treated you guys back then. But...
Naofumi: Tch. Don't worry about it. I don't accept apologies anyway. Just don't get in our way and make yourself useful.
Ren only nodded.
Scottie: Same goes for ya, Shortie!
Itsuki: I AM NOT SHORT!
Scottie: Don't care, Shortie.
Itsuki: *Growls*
Lock:...So what now?
Nessie: CHIRP!
Naofumi: I think we all should know...
Lock:....
Raphtalia:....
Hazel: Back to Melromarc...?
Scottie: Yep. That's what we'll do. We're heading back to Melromarc. If we want to survive. We have no choice...
-Later-
As they rush back to Melromarc (with Filo overjoyed for pulling their wagon again although Nessie is not...), they a arrive at a border wall heavily guarded by Melromarc Knights. Other routes are longer and time-consuming, according to Raphtalia. Naofumi, recalling his promise to Fitoria, decides to go to the checkpoint.
Scottie: Ya ready for this? Like Alyssa said, this will be one of the greatest battles we ever faced.
Naofumi: I'm not scared.
Scottie: Didn't say you were. Just don't die, okay.
Naofumi noticed a hint of concern on Scottie's time. All this time, someone besides Raphtalia and Filo were worried about him.
Naofumi: Hey...Thanks...For everything...
Scottie: Huh? What brought this up?
Naofumi: I don't know. It's just that. Somehow. Ever since I met you, things were starting to look up for me. At first I thought it was a false sense of hope and I would get hurt again. But...Thanks...
Scottie:... Don't mentioned it. But there's no need to thank me. Even without my involvement. Things will still work out for you.
Naofumi:...
Scottie: (Ya have no idea how much I idealize you.) I've never thought I be summoned to this world. A part of me still wants to go home but...
Scottie looked into back the carriage. Lock and Emil were chatting among themselves but had their guard up. Alyssa was sharpening her sword while Hazel was preparing herbs and potions. Nessie was taking a small nap. The filolail egg was peacefully sitting next to her.
Scottie: (If I haven't met them...Would things really be that different...?)
He didn't want to dwell on it too much. Along his travels, he met people he could trust and he tends to keep it that way.
Scottie: (I won't lose this fight...I'll keep on surviving til the end.)
Once they reach the checkpoint, Naofumi stopped the carraife ride and saw Motoyasu and Myne waiting for them.
Naofumi: Great...
Scottie: Here we go...
Motoyasu: YOU! THERE YOU TWO ARE! HOW DARE YOU?!
Motoyasu charged at them! Naofumi guards with his shield as soon as the spear attacked.
Naofumi: MOTOYASU! STOP!
Scottie: Listen to us!
Motoyasu: I WON'T! I KNEW YOU GUYS WERE NOTHING BUT TROUBLE! YOU GUYS KILLED REN AND ITSUKI!
Scottie: The hell?
Naofumi: (Ugh! We got no time for this!)
Malty: KILL THEM MOTOYASU-SAMA! AVENGE THE OTHERS AND BECOME A TRUE HERO!
Scottie: OH SHUT UP BITCH!
Naofumi still tries to talk, but Motoyasu, visibly enraged and still believing the "brainwashing shield" nonsense, attacks Naofumi while calling him the "shield devil."
Blinded by irrational fury, he accuses Naofumi and Scottie of not only having killed Ren and Itsuki, but also of having "brainwashed" Raphtalia, Filo, Alyssa, Hazel, Melty, using all of them "for their own personal gain."
Alyssa:....I'm getting real tired of him.
Hazel: Same girl same...
Nessie: Chirp....
Scottie: Hey Naofumi... Isn't this a little familiar? Isn't this what Fitora talked about?
Naofumi: Yeah...
The Shield Hero remembers Fitoria's words about how fighting the Waves ill be far more difficult if even one of the four Cardinal Heroes is absent.
Melty: I demand to know more about it, Sister! What's going on?!
Scottie: We didn't kill them! They're still alive!
Motoyasu: LIAR! YOU'RE ALL LYING!!!
Naofumi tries to reason it out to be a lie (since nobody had found the Heroes' corpses or the like), but once again Malty steps in to reveal the "credibility" of the information.
Malty: This is brought to them by the agents of the Church. The story fed to us was that the Shield Devil and the Fake Gun Hero unleashed the Tyrant Dragon Rex and used the ensuing confusion to their advantage to murder the Bow and Sword Heroes. This was all "confirmed" by the Church.
Scottie: Oh for the love of...are ya fucking kidding me...?
Lock: Shifting the blame on us again?
Hazel: Will this ever stop? It's getting utterly annoying.
Nessie: Chirp.....
Melty feels sad about what Malty is doing, to which Naofumi questions if Malty herself had killed them.
Malty: Hehehe. No. I didn't.
Malty then creates a Lightning Cage force-field enclosing both caster and target parties so that Shield and Spear Heroes can go against each other.
Lock: NO YOU DON'T!
But then, Lock appeared and apphrehanded her from behind!
Malty: Ow! Let Go!
Lock punched her across the face.
Lock: That's for torturing me!
Malty: AAAAH!!! MY FACE!!!
He punched her again!
Lock: That was for my parents!!! And this...
He kicks her so hard, blood comes out of my mouth sending her tumbling a few spaces back.
Lock: IS FOR ALL THE DEMI-HUMANS WHO SUFFER BECAUSE OF YOU AND YOUR FATHER!!!
Motoyasu: MYNE!!! GET YOUR PAWS OFF HER, YOU HORRIBLE DEMI-HUMAN!
Scottie shot him, interfering from getting involved.
Motoyasu: ?!!
Naofumi: JUST LISTEN TO US!!!
Motoyasu: NEVER!!!
Motoyasu still doesn't listen to reason, claiming that he trusts only his friends and doesn't need any proof than that, then starts to attack Naofumi and Scottie (Who both been knew how much of a puppet in Malty's hands he actually is).
Scottie: Welp...He got a few screw looses. It's not use talking to him. You guard. I'll attack.
Naofumi: Got it.
The latter attempts the Shield Prison, but Motoyasu breaks through rather easily, showing how far more leveled-up he is now.
Before he could attack Naofumi.
Scottie then started shooting him more sending him flying with multiple magic bullets.
Malty gets back up and sends a fire attack at Lock who uses his speed to dodge as she then tries to kill them all with a Zweite Fire Squall, which is rapidly countered by Melty's Anti-Zweite Fire Squall.
Melty: STOP ALL THIS SISTER!!! TELL THE TRUTH!
Malty only smirked and continue to feign ignorance.
Malty: I have no idea what you're talking about, little sister~!
Lock: Tch! Psycho Bitch!
Hazel quickly uses her steel wires only for them to get burned by Malty.
Malty: (Tch...You should've stayed locked up, both of you!)
Alyssa uses prism caliber to knocked Malty back on her butt.
Hazel: Alyssa!
Alyssa: Keep your guard up! It's not over yet!
Both Filo and Nessie springs into action and attacks Motoyasu, but is countered by a Zweite Air Shot from one of Malty's companions. Emil uses his black magic to bind the enemies making them get hit by the attacks.
Motoyasu: NO! MYNE! EVERYONE!
Seeing this however, Motoyasu is now more motivated than ever to fight for Ren and Itsuki and was willing to hurt even Filo if she stood in his way, but Naofumi and Scottie stops him.
Malty and her other companions augment the Spear to combined fire and wind spells, forming the deadly combo skill named Air-Burst Flare Lance attack.
Emil uses his dark magic to create a more powerful spell to absorb that attack and send it back making a collaborative hit more powerful.
It became a mess out there...
More spells and skills fly out from and to both sides, and Naofumi unlocks a kind of combo skill: he fuses Raphtalia's First Hiding with his own Air Strike Shield, Change Shield and Soul Eater Shield, which not only transfers skill points from Motoyasu to Naofumi but also renders Motoyasu unable to use any more skills.
Scottie then took this opportunity to unleash Heaven's Bow and Reverse Calamity.
Motoyasu is soon neutralized by Scottie as Filo and Nessie quickly kicks him away (both did it in his crotch, once again).
Motoyasu: GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!
While Raphtalia and Lock stealthily strikes at Malty.
Lock: TAKE THAT BITCH!
Raphtalia: THAT WAS FOR RIFANA!!!
Malty: KYAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
Hazel concealed steel wires binding the rest of Motoyasu's team. Filo and Melty combine their respective wind and water spells to produce a typhoon attack as Alyssa and Emil combined light and dark magic creating a powerful aurora which defeats Motoyasu's remaining party members and finishes the battle.
Lock: We did it!
Emil: We stopped them...
Naofumi: It's over Motoyasu.
Motoyasu still tries to get up by soon Scottie's gun was near his head.
Scottie: Stand Down.
Naofumi explains that they were all getting stronger and acquiring new abilities while Motoyasu was just "playing as a superhero," that's why he lost the duel.
Even defeated, Motoyasu still refuses to listen to Naofumi and begins to act his hero complex.
Motoyasu: NO! NO! I'M THE HERO! YOU GUYS ARE THE VILLAINS! I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO LOSE!!!!!
Scottie: Can I shut him up?
Lock: Wait...something is not right...
Hazel: What is it?
Raphtalia: Look!
Raphtalia had noticed that the Knights guarding the border suddenly are all gone.
Scottie: Where the hell did they go?
Filo and Emil sensing something wrong, Emil used his magic brings the defeated enemies closer to his own party as Filo urges Naofumi to rapidly invoke the Rage Shield protect them from something.
Naofumi combines Prison Shield, Air Strike Shield, and Second Shield - all to protect against a massive golden beam of destructive light coming down from the sky, powerful enough to entirely bypass Naofumi's protective Shield and open a massive crater on the ground.
BAAAAAAAAM!!!
Scottie: THE HELL WAS THAT?!!
Naofumi and the others, though, are relatively unharmed.
Alyssa: No way...
Malty: That power...
Both Alyssa and Malty were shocked as they recognizes that power as Judgment (High class, Multi-caster, ritual magic), the high Priest's most powerful attack. Alyssa looked on in shock.
Alyssa: He's here?!
Scottie: Looks like that damned asshole finally revealed himself.
The man himself stands there and sarcastically compliments them.
Pope: Fake Gun Hero. Devil Of The Shield. I see you both survived such powerful attack.
He starts preaching about the Heroes' "sins" - Naofumi and Scottie "misleading" the people of the nation, other Heroes causing havoc everywhere (their unintentional misdeeds that were later fixed by Naofumi who is supposed to be the "devil" by the religion) and that they shall be "purified in God's name."
Malty: WAIT! HOW DARE YOU?!
Malty scolds the Pope for such treachery, but he reveals that the Church has its own agenda of overthrowing the Royal Family and ruling Melromarc with a new government system.
Malty: ?!
Alyssa: A new government system?
Pope: You royals are a pestilence that abuses your power and mistreats the Church, and the current Heroes now are "fakes" for causing harm everywhere and damaging the people's faith in the religion (though unintentionally), that's why Judgment fell upon you all!
Scottie: Ya gotta be shitting me...this egotistical bastard.
Melty: ....The same had fallen on Sword and Bow, who started an unnecessary investigation against the Church...
Emil: I agree. It's a completely twisted and demented logic....
Alyssa: I still can't believe these are the people I devoted my life too...
Hearing all that, Motoyasu finally sees that Naofumi and Scottie are innocent of the accusation of having killed Itsuki and Ren...
Motoyasu: NAOFUMI! SCOTTIE! I THINK YOU GUYS BEEN FRAMED!
Both heroes stopped and gave him a glare.
Scottie: *Sarcasm* Oh really? What makes you say that, Jackass. That what we been trying to say this entire time!!!
Motoyasu: Oh....Right....
This fucking idiot...Seriously...