A Conspiracy Linked

A Conspiracy Linked (連なる陰謀) is the eighteenth episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
Naofumi decides to go straight up to the checkpoint in order to talk it out with the other Heroes. But there, he finds the one guy least likely to listen to him, Motoyasu, who attacks Naofumi without bothering to listen to what he has to say. Why could Motoyasu be so intent on killing Naofumi, more than ever before?

Plot
At the hidden underground archive inside the Church of the Three Heroes in Melromarc, the High Priest smiles ominously while a cardinal tells his devouts that "the time has come" and their long-awaited wish will be finally granted. Meanwhile, Fitoria, visibly concerned, teleports Naofumi's party and gifts them an old wagon, much to the younger Filolial's delight. She adds that she brought them to the closest Hero she can sense, asking the Shield Hero to take good care of Filo and honor their promise to make amends with the other Heroes.

As they rush back to Melromarc (with Filo overjoyed for pulling their wagon again), they 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, hoping to talk to either Ren or Itsuki or force his way through. Naofumi was surprised by Melty's approval for his plan, for she has always been concerned of not to damage Naofumi's reputation. Melty explains that there are still people like Idol Rabier wanting to kill Naofumi, even by summoning beasts, so reputation is not of concern anymore.

They try to cross the border anyway, but Motoyasu awaits in the path with an illegible facial expression. Naofumi 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 of not only having killed Ren and Itsuki, but also of having "brainwashed" Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty, using all of them "for his personal gain". The Shield Hero remembers Fitoria's words about how fighting the Waves will be far more difficult if even one of the four Cardinal Heroes is absent. Melty demands to know more about it while 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 brought to them by the agents of the Church. The story fed to Motoyasu was that Naofumi unleashed the Tyrant Dragon Rex and used the ensuing confusion to his advantage to murder the Bow and Sword Heroes. This was all "confirmed" by the Church. Melty feels sad about what Malty is doing, to which Naofumi questions if Malty herself had killed them.

Malty creates a Lightning Cage force-field enclosing both caster and target parties so that Shield and Spear Heroes can go against each other. 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 (who notices how much of a puppet in Malty's hands he actually is). The latter attempts the Shield Prison, but the former breaks through rather easily, showing how far more leveled-up he is now. Malty tries to kill them all with a Zweite Fire Squall, which is rapidly countered by Melty's Anti-Zweite Fire Squall. Filo springs into action and attacks Motoyasu, but is countered by a Zweite Air Shot from one of Malty's companions. 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 stops him. Malty and her other companions augment the Spear with combined fire and wind spells, forming the deadly combo skill named Air-Burst Flare Lance attack.

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 SP (Skill Points) from Motoyasu to Naofumi but also renders Motoyasu unable to use any more skills. Motoyasu charges at Naofumi, claiming that he didn't need any skill to beat him. Motoyasu is neutralized by Naofumi and Filo quickly kicks him away (in his crotch, once again) while Raphtalia stealthily strikes at Malty. Filo and Melty combine their respective wind and water spells to produce a Typhoon attack which defeats Motoyasu's remaining party members and finishes the battle. Naofumi explains that they were getting stronger and acquiring new abilities while Motoyasu was just "playing superhero," that's why he lost the duel. Even defeated, Motoyasu still refuses to listen to Naofumi and begins to act his hero complex.

Raphtalia notices that the Knights guarding the border suddenly are all gone. Filo, sensing something wrong, brings the defeated enemies closer to her own party and urges Naofumi to rapidly invoke the Shield of Rage to 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. Naofumi and the others, though, are relatively unharmed.

Malty, shocked, recognizes that power as Judgment (High class, Multi-caster, ritual magic), the High Priest's most powerful attack; the man himself stands there and sarcastically compliments the "devil shield" for surviving such powerful attack. He starts preaching about the Heroes' "sins" - Naofumi "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 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.

According to the Pope, the royalty are a pestilence which abuses their power and mistreats the Church, and the current Heroes are "fakes" for causing harm everywhere and damaging the people's faith in the religion (though unintentionally), that's why Judgment fell upon them, and also the same had fallen on Ren and Itsuki, who started an unnecessary investigation against the Church - a completely twisted and demented logic, as Melty points out. Motoyasu finally sees that Naofumi is innocent of the accusation of having killed Itsuki and Ren. With maniacal laughter, the Pope receives from one of his subordinates a golden sword, which greatly resembles Ren's Sword, and prepares to initiate the Holy Judgment with his countless followers. Naofumi watches as everything unfolds before him and Melty recognizes the Pope's weapon with visible terror.

Trivia

 * This is the second time, Motoyasu and Naofumi fight each other, only this time they are aided by their party members. And Naofumi side beats Motoyasu hands down.
 * This is the first time that Filo does not go berserk under Naofumi's Shield of Rage. Naofumi himself had better control of the Shield for the first time thanks to Fitoria's containment spell from the previous episode.
 * First time usage of combo skill.
 * First time display of other heroes party's teamwork, other than of Naofumi's party.
 * All of the party members of Motoyasu has at least one of their magic affinity being wind, as shown by their combo skill.
 * Soul Eater Shield steals Skill point of the opponents and renders them from using any skill
 * Third occurrence (after episodes 5 and 9) of "Filo kicking Motoyasu's crotch" running gag.
 * Malty was slashed by Raphtalia for the second time (first time was episode 13), which is pointed out by Malty herself.
 * Motoyasu knows of Naofumi and his party not being able to upgrade their class but accepts them being strong and attribute it to the so-called brainwashing shield
 * Motoyasu accepts his misdeed of releasing the miracle seed but adds that his intention was to help the world. He also adds that same goes for other Heroes.

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