Filolial Queen

Filolial Queen (フィロリアルの女王) is the sixteenth episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero anime.

Synopsis
Realizing that the released monster is aiming for Filo, Naofumi decides to lead the monster far away from the city to minimize the damage to the crowd, leaving the rescued demi-humans in Reichnott's care. Soon they realized that they are no match for the monster, just then a herd of Filolials surrounds them and their leader appears before them.

Is this an ally, or a new enemy?

Plot
In a forest somewhere, a girl with white wings talks with a Filolial about a possible queen candidate and wants to see her.

As the newly-freed Tyrant Dragon Rex rampages around Idol Rabier's estate, Naofumi orders Raphtalia, Filo, Melty, and Van Reichnott to retreat. Melty is dismayed on how Rabier could break the monster's seal, and Naofumi can't understand how the monster can follow them so easily despite their best efforts to try to evade it. Filo charges in to fight, but her blows deal no damage to the beast. Melty notices a pink glow on both Filo's and the dragon's bellies; Naofumi deduces the monster is chasing only Filo (given the natural enmity between Dragons and Filolials), so she can lure him out of the town. Keel tells Raphtalia to go fight along with the Shield Hero, and the Tanuki girl gives him her status-enhancing bracelet before going with Naofumi while Reichnott and the survivor demi-humans run away.

Naofumi's party successfully lures Tyrant out of the town, though not with great damage caused to the town. They run through a nearby woods, with the monster in pursuit, and get at a clearing with a big lake. The group again tries to fight the Dragon, but their attacks prove completely ineffective against its powerful scales. Naofumi decides to resort to the Wrath Shield, but suddenly a voice tells him against it. Melty notices a high-level barrier of magic mist building up around them. A huge flock of Filolials show up and surround the dragon in a circle formation. Naofumi tries again to evoke the Wrath Shield, only to hear the voice again, this time not only telling him not to do it but also forcibly interfering in its transformation. From the lake waters, emerges a titanic Filolial Queen - about 500 times Filo's size. She says Tyrant that its body had grown out of control due to the Dragon Emperor's core shard, and will spare its life if it surrenders the core. Tyrant instead strikes, but its attacks are harmless against her. Rapidly and effortlessly, the Filolial Queen kills Tyrant and takes the core. She then turns to Naofumi and wishes to talk to him, but first, she morphs into human form - revealing herself to be that girl with white wings from earlier - and introduces herself as Fitoria, the queen of all Filolials in world. Melty says that she was raised by a Legendary Hero from past ages.

As the group introduces themselves, Fitoria explains Filo that she'll need long ages to grow into a new Filolial Queen like her. Melty says she had known Fitoria earlier during a diplomatic trip. Fitoria wants to take them somewhere in her carriage to talk, but first Naofumi gives a part of the dead dragon to his Shield, much to Fitoria's chagrin. They are taken to the ruins of a Filolial sanctuary defended by the past Heroes. They cook and eat Tyrant's meat for a dinner, but Naofumi is soon forced to cook a lot more for the flock of hungry Filolials. After the dinner, Naofumi and Fitoria talk about Filo being a candidate for becoming a Filolial Queen; Fitoria explains that Filo grows differently from the others due to being raised by a Hero, and also expresses distaste for the Heroes fighting each other instead of being united. She also tells that the Waves occur outside Melromarc too; each Hero is (or should be) summoned for a different country, and then they unite against the Waves. Fitoria despises humans but fights for them nonetheless because the past Hero who raised her asked to do so, and she cannot do everything alone so she needs the Heroes united for this reason.

Back in Melromarc, now fully convinced that Naofumi was right the entire time, Ren's and Itsuki's parties secretly break into the Church of the Three Heroes' underground library, determined to unravel everything the Church conceals from the public - unaware of Malty hiding inside there, unhappy with their investigation.

Fitoria keeps asking Naofumi to make amends with the other Heroes because this is necessary to rid the world of the Waves; Naofumi once again refuses, since this is impossible due to the hostility he receives from the other Heroes and the entire Melromarc kingdom. Fitoria then says that, for the sake of the world, she must kill the current Heroes so that new ones can be summoned.

Trivia

 * The Tyrant Dragon Rex was revealed to be a Dragon Emperor fragment whose core (similar to Zombie Dragon's core) was taken by Fitoria.
 * It's confirmed that the Waves happen all over the world and that the Heroes had been fighting only the Waves in Melromarc.
 * The Heroes were supposed to have been summoned each for each country and that they should work together rather than being involved in the Human and Demi-Human conflict.

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