The Four Cardinal Heroes

The Four Cardinal Heroes (四聖勇者) is the nineteenth episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
The Pope holds in his hands the ultimate weapon, which possesses the properties of all four cardinal weapons. Faced with its attack skill, "Judgment," and its powerful defensive force field, Naofumi, and the gang are rendered helpless. As the crisis worsens, Motoyasu, who is now in line to be punished as a "fake" hero, makes a surprising decision

Plot
With an evil laughter, the Pope of the Church of the Three Heroes receives a golden sword, identical do Ren's Sword, ready to initiate Holy Judgment on the "fake Spear Hero" and the "Devil of the Shield". He raises the sword and fires a golden energy beam, which Naofumi barely could contain with his Shield, his arms going numb in the process. The Pope sarcastically says Naofumi is pretty tough for a "demon", that this was only a "trial" shot and thus the actual attack will begin now. Naofumi and the others watch as the Pope's sword now takes the shape of a spear similar to Motoyasu's Spear.

Melty recognizes the Pope's weapon as a Cardinal Weapon Replica, which was crafted as an attempt to replicate the four Legendary Weapons into one ultimate weapon but had remained "lost" for centuries after its creation. With such power and fame, Melty adds that it was kept in secret by the Church, which had also fabricated its "disappearance" myth from the public. Naofumi questions why the Heroes are necessary if such weapon exists, to which Melty says that the mighty Replica uses up great amounts of mana per usage. Malty was shown to be completely in the dark about the weapon and its history with significance. The Pope compliments Melty's education over Malty's lack of discipline, and fanatically calls his treachery a "holy crusade of God against the fake Spear Hero and the Shield Devil." His devotes start offering their prayers to create a magic golden barrier. Naofumi asks Melty if she can neutralize the devotes, but she has no such power for it. Suddenly, Motoyasu stands up ready to fight the Pope and his selfish hero complex - much to the annoyance of Raphtalia and Filo. He fires a Lightning Spear attack, which proves ineffective against the Pope's barrier.

Seeing that lonely work will be useless, Motoyasu turns to Naofumi and accepts to teamwork. Malty and her companions combine their fire spells to Motoyasu's Spear into one deadly Burst Flare Lance attack, which also proves ineffective. Some of the Pope's devotes start to pass out in exhaustion from generating the barrier. The Pope keeps taunting their lower power level; Motoyasu attempts the Meteor Thrust, again to no avail. With a single swing of his golden Spear, the Pope launches another powerful holy attack, and Naofumi fears he won't be able to defend against such holy power. Suddenly, the Hundred Swords and Meteor Shot attacks come forward and effortlessly shatter the Pope's barrier... revealing that both Ren and Itsuki are alive and ready to battle!

Ren launches his Hundred Swords attack again, to which the Pope orders half of his mages to focus on the barrier while the other half charges his weapon. Ren explains Motoyasu that he and Itsuki did not trust the Church so they started their own secret investigation. They found a classified file which was supposed to lead them to the burial site of the Cardinal Weapon Replica but actually led them to a fake shrine set to explode and kill them; the attempt failed thanks to the interference of Queen Mirellia's Shadows.

Itsuki claims that Naofumi was also framed for taking his reward, but Naofumi internally curses Itsuki for he accused Naofumi but no one had framed him. Motoyasu finally starts to empathize with Naofumi, but Naofumi didn't take it lightly for Motoyasu's attempt to kill Naofumi just a few moments ago, with no evidence to back his ideals. Ren and Itsuki attack, the Pope cannot defend against their strikes because his golden weapon had "deactivated" due to mana overconsumption; Itsuki also says that the Queen's punitive force is coming so the devotes shall surrender in exchange for mercy. The Pope, however, doesn't surrender and urges his followers to keep fighting their "holy crusade" and thus the Queen means nothing to them. As the other Heroes unite, Naofumi refuses to join them, intending to fight alone with his own party and claims that his party can survive without their aid. Motoyasu tries to reason with him, but neither Naofumi or his party agree to their words.

Naofumi states that Malty may be at fault and fallen for the cult's scheme but Motoyasu is the one who is greatest guilty of the situation, as he neglects Malty's misdeeds instead of thinking by himself. Ren says that Naofumi is right and Itsuki tried to diffuse the situation, but the Shield Hero also calls out him and Itsuki on the bad consequences of their own wrongdoings. As Melty creates Aqua Shield protections for Naofumi's party, the Heroes start pointing out everyone's failed actions, but Naofumi further criticizes their own "Hero complex" getting into their heads due to the people's extreme trust on the Heroes, not to mention their lack of union against the Waves, Glass, and even the Soul Eater monster. Naofumi would not be surprised if everyone got tired of these Heroes. When they asked what Naofumi did during all this time, Filo angrily answers that Naofumi was clearing their mess. Filo also hurt Motoyasu by calling him an annoyance who didn't do much as Naofumi did. The Pope considers them a "disgrace" for fighting each other even in their current situation and launches a powerful Brionac attack to "cleanse" them.

Naofumi blocks the attack, disgustedly saying that both the Heroes and the Pope himself abuse their power for personal profit, but as much as he still doesn't forgive them, he agrees to teamwork with them just for now, in order to honor the promise made to Fitoria. With this, the four Heroes and their parties agree to fight together. Calling for God's power, the Pope and his followers cast another High-Level Multi-Caster defensive magic, Cathedral, which encircles the Pope and the Heroes (with their parties) in a massive cathedral-like mana wall structure, hence the name. A massive meteorite is rapidly coming down from the skies towards them, the Pope laughs maniacally at their fate and "welcomes" them to his so-called Cathedral.

Light Novel & Manga Differences

 * In the source material, all the party members of all four heroes were present for the fight, while the anime shows only Naofumi and Motoyasu's party alone.
 * In other versions (Light Novel and Manga), the replica weapon was mentioned to have been fed with mana for a generation while the devout only supply mana for the pope's barrier while in the anime version, the devout offered their mana to both the weapon and the barrier simultaneously.
 * In other versions, the heroes instantly agree to join forces against the pope but in the anime version, Naofumi rejects at first and joins only after gives his mindful, to which they couldn't refute and somewhat agree to their guilt.
 * In the source material, there was no mention of High-Level Multi-Caster defensive magic, Cathedral, making it anime-exclusive.

Trivia
Information to be added later on.

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