Biscas T. Balmus

"The Lord is merciful. If you have done this to appease your own sense of justice then you must repent immediately. Please thank the Lord for his guidance. All is delivered through the mercy of the lord"

- Biscas T. Balmus

Biscas T. Balmus (ビスカ＝T＝バルマス) is the highest priest of the Church of the Three Heroes.

Appearance
Biscas is easily a middle-aged person who wears spectacles and a white religious robe. He wears the rosary of the cult of the three heroes which consists of the symbols of the Bow, Spear, and Sword.

Personality
Naofumi thought Biscas to be peaceful, equitable and fair; but this proved only to be a façade. The Pope's true character is revealed to be extremely twisted. Often preaching and believing anything of his own convenience. When the cult's religion begins to be questioned, Balmus claims the Heroes to be phonies whom cause more harm than good; especially when it forces the "devil" of the The Church of the Three Heroes, Naofumi, to fix the messes.. Proving himself a sacrilegious fanatic like his staunch followers. He was willing to go to any extent to defend such a demented stance, even if it means framing the Heroes worshiped by his faith. Often making ambitious plays that would heavily affect the kingdom.

Pope Balmus also withheld the country's royal family in the bitterest contempt. Seeing them all as a sect of blasphemous parasites whom often abused their power, insulting his view on how the people & apostles of god are overlooked by them.

Biscas used his deep connections in the nation of Melromarc to do away with any opposing authority in the kingdom. He was so narrow-minded that he often called many of his atrocious actions "the will of God." The Pope also claiming that his followers who died in the fight against the Shield Demon and the false Heroes will go to Heaven as a holy reward.

When wielding the replica of the Legendary Weapons, Balmus shows a visible "God complex," as he proclaimed himself God while labeling anyone who opposed him as evil.

Sword Form
Phoenix takes flight from Biscas' sword.
 * A shock-wave is produced when the sword is swung.
 * Phoenix Blade「フェニックスブレイド Fenikkusu Bureido」

Spear Form
Shoots an incredibly damaging beam of blazing white light. A counter skill where the spear reflects attacks back to their user in form of spears of light.
 * Brionac「ブリューナク Buryuunaku」
 * State of Selflessness「無我の境地 Muga no Kyouchi (lit. State of Self Actualization)」

Bow Form
The skill creates a large amount of illusion copies of himself.
 * Mirage Arrow「ミラージュアロー Miraajyu Aroo」

Shield Form

 * Although the Replica was also able to change into the Legendary Shield, Biscas never used it. If he has changed the replica weapon to a shield to receive Naofumi's attack, then perhaps his life would have been saved. But, either due to his belief or pride avoided it. In the Light Novel, however, the Pope's followers produced numerous personal force-fields for Biscas similar in nature to the Holy Shield's Shooting Star Shield skill using the spell "Castle Wall."

Background
The High Priest of the Church of the Three Heroes masterminded many events and tried to kill all of the heroes. 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.

Chronology
Taking advantage of the queen's absence, Biscas headed the cult to propose the idea of summoning the Heroes for the waves. During the feast for the heroes subjugation of the wave, he was present in the courtyard of the duel and since the duel was happening in the presence of the king and the pope, it becomes official and legitimate. When Myne's illegal interference was exposed by Itsuki and Ren, a subordinate of the pope seems to be whispering something in his ears.

Biscas was the only priest in the church to treat the Shield Hero fairly in comparison to the nuns when the latter came to purchase the pure holy water. When the nun attempted to give a poor quality pure water, he scolded her and went himself to get the fair priced holy water. Naofumi felt that the priest treated him like a sinful person, but overlooked it, considering his bad reputation and the religion always being self-righteous. The reason he acted fairly in their first meeting was likely because he considered Naofumi to be a lesser threat but showed his true colors after Naofumi's demonstrated strength against the third wave.

Biscas finally revealed himself to be the mastermind and tried to kill Naofumi, Motoyasu, and their parties. He justified himself with his twisted logic. He was surprised by the arrival of the Ren, Itsuki, and their parties, who were thought to be dead. However, he still overwhelmed them, until Naofumi used his Shield of Wrath III's Blood Sacrifice skill to kill the High Priest. After seeing the followers constantly rising from the defeat and pain, Naofumi suspects Biscas of using some sort of brainwashing magic on them and using them for his convenience.

After this incident, the Queen proclaimed that the Church of the Three Heroes was to be outlawed and the country would follow the religion of the Four Holy Saints. Biscas' actions not only put his entire nation but also the world in crisis.

Heroes

 * Naofumi Iwatani: As per the main Doctrine of the Church of the Three Heroes, Biscas considered Naofumi as the Shield Hero to be nothing short than his arch-nemesis. Though polite and amicable when they initially meet, the Pope is frustrated that Naofumi does not act in a manner befitting a 'Devil' and soon made plans to kill the Shield Hero and correct this misperceived problem. Even before he revealed his true colors, Naofumi realizes that the Pope looks down on him. After he revealed his true colors, the Shield Hero considers the Pope nothing more than a rabid dog with delusions of grandeur whom needed to be put down.
 * Motoyasu Kitamura, Ren Amaki, and Itsuki Kawasumi: Biscas at first considered the three of them useful pawns in his scheme to gain power and control over Melromarc. After all, they were summoned to this world with literally no idea of how anything works and easily convinced them that his world view was correct and plotted to make use of them in his schemes. However as time went on, this opinion changed due to the fact that the three of them would constantly wreak havoc due to their ignorance and other issues that then resulted in Naofumi cleaning up after their mistakes, causing the view of the populace to begin favoring the Shield Hero as a Saint and genuine Hero while condemning the other three as incompetent phony's, severally endangering the The Church of the Three Heroes's overall power over the kingdom. The final straw would eventually come when Ren and Itsuki started actively investigating the faith and its actions, leading to Pope Balmus trying to kill them off alongside the Spear Hero. The three fores of his faith considered the combined might of the Pope, his cult's followers and the Legendary Weapon replica enough of a threat that they were willing to take orders from Naofumi just to derail the false prophet's plans.

Companions

 * Nuns:
 * Soldiers (Staunch believers):
 * Faith Recipiants:
 * Nobles (fanatic Faction):
 * Shadows:

Other

 * Malty S Melromarc: Due to Malty's desire to become the next Queen of Melromarc and take back her "inheritance" that had been "stolen" from her by her younger sister, Malty aligned herself with the Pope and his actions and worked together to sabotage the efforts of the Shield Hero. However, upon failing in scheme after scheme, largely due to Malty's incompetency and short-sightedness, Pope Balmus began to likened Malty and the entire Melromarcian principality as a plague whom blasphemed against god and his disciples with their rule and very existence. In fact, the Pope himself show cased much more respect towards her younger sister Melty for being more up to task of leadership when it comes to intelligence and understanding than her bratty sibling whom often stood too preoccupied with her petty schemes and desires and had proven repeatedly was wholly incompetent as a leader. His disdain for the first princess being such that he'd always intended to eliminate Bitch alongside the false Spear Hero despite accepting her into his conspiracy.
 * Aultcray Melromarc XXXII: The pope held very little esteem of the trashy king Aultcray. Citing his country's royalty as a pestilence whom often abused their authority for the sake of their own shortsighted designs. Be that as it may, he was not apposed to using the king's blind hatred of the Devil of the Shield in order to affect his own gambit for seizing the state. Manipulating him into undermining the latter so that Naofumi was left at the mercy of the Waves. Even going so far as to oversee the duel between the Shield & Spear Heroes; a plan conceived to deprive him of his main means of offense & protection from behind the scenes.
 * Melty Q Melromarc: While he admired the second princess's inquisitive nature and levelheaded personality compared to her worthless elder sisters smallminded, conniving persona. Balmus still showed her the same contempt withheld for all of the ruling nobility in the Melromarc family. Opting to use her death as an easy means of turning most countrymen against the hated Shield. Balmus and his sect even going so far as to reinforce the rumors of a brainwashing technique employed by the Shield Demon to deceive the masses. Citing that she'd been put under its spell to make her Naofumi's unwitting accomplice/prisoner before murdering her on the pretense of undoing his curse.
 * Mirellia Q Melromarc: Of all people amongst the royal family whom the church held in vindictive disdain. Queen Mirella was the only real power behind the throne whom Balmus feared could derail his ultimate plans. So much so that the Pope conducted much of his plotting & subterfuge under the table while she was otherwise preoccupied with elements of his conniving conducted through the religion and by her own family putting the whole kingdom in mortal jeopardy. Despite this however, he didn't take the onset of the royal army backed by it's matriarch coming to punish him & his followers treasonous deeds seriously enough.

Trivia

 * His full name was revealed in the anime and not in any other material.
 * In loop 4 of the spin-off series, the pope, King Aultcray and Itsuki mounted an attack force upon Siltvelt who housed Motoyasu and Naofumi. However, Motoyasu easily defeated the pope single-handedly since he had properly powered-up his spear.