Light Novel Volume 4/Synopsis

Prologue - On The Run
Motoyasu and his harem chase after Naofumi, Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty. Raphtalia creates an illusion to hide them while Filo leads Motoyasu's party away. Frustrated at not being able to find Naofumi and Melty, Malty sets the whole mountainside on fire to smoke them out. Melty starts a rainstorm and then successfully runs away with Naofumi's party.

Chapter One - Demi-Human Adventurer Town
With Naofumi's group successfully escaping Motoyasu, they try to figure out where they could go from here. Melty suggests that they hide with a nearby wealthy family she knows who used to advocate for demi-humans. They were mostly killed during the wave and forcibly removed from their lands by the king. Naofumi initially declines but after being rejected out of fear by the demi-human population, Van Reichnott introduces himself as welcomes them to his home. Van Reichnott, nicknamed "Nice Guy," fed Naofumi's party but Naofumi still didn't trust him. Naofumi's party slept but had shifts keeping watching over each other.

Chapter Two - Noblemen
At dusk, a nearby noble arrived at Nice Guy's residence with a large group of soldiers. A maid warned Naofumi that this man is trying to search for them and he has already captured Nice Guy to interrogate him. The maid shows Naofumi and Raphtalia to a secret hiding place just in time. The soldiers tear apart Nice Guy's place until Melty confronts the soldiers and the nobleman. Upon seeing the nobleman, Raphtalia is barely able to hold herself back. When the soldiers left with Melty and Nice Guy, Naofumi used his slave curse on Filo to find her. The three decide to go to the nobleman's mansion to save Melty. Raphtalia reveals that this nobleman brutally held her and her friends as slaves.

At the nobleman's mansion, blackmailed a couple of guards with poison to reveal where Melty was kept. They found her, with the nobleman's knife at her throat. Naofumi uses Air Strike Shield to release the nobleman's grip on Melty. To get revenge for her slavery and the brutality the nobleman had inflicted on his slaves, Raphtalia confronts him. The nobleman was strong and experienced in battle. He was able to steal Raphtalia's sword but Raphtalia pushed him out the window.

After the battle, Raphtalia leads everyone to the basement where the slaves are kept. She found the remains of her friend Rifana. In the back of the room, Nice Guy found Keel - alive but in a bad position. Keel at first didn't recognize Raphtalia but Raphtalia proved her identity by reminiscing. Naofumi heals Keel and Melty starts to realize how rotten some of her country is. They then left the basement. Back in the courtyard, the nearly-dead nobleman unseals the giant dragon dinosaur.

Chapter Three - Tyrant Dragon Rex
The Tyrant Dragon Rex fell out of the sky and crushed the nobleman. The monster destroyed the mansion and then chased after Filo since she had a dragon emperor core in her chest. Nice Guy hopped off Filo with Keel and tried to help the town evacuate while Naofumi's party tried to lure the Dragon away. Far away from the town, Naofumi and his party tried to attack the monster. However, every attack was useless against the dragon's defense. When it seemed like they could not wind, Filo got a signal that 'they' will be there soon. Suddenly, a forcefield was cast over the monster and the heroes and a herd of filolials appeared. A large filolial arrived with a cart and transformed into a massive owl-formed filolial the same size as the dragon. She easily defeated the dragon.

Chapter Four - The Legendary Bird God
The large filolial then introduced herself to Naofumi as Fitoria, the queen of the filolials. After introductions, Naofumi went to the Tyrant Dragon Rex to upgrade his shield against Fitoria's wishes. They all then went into Fitoria's carriage and were teleported to the country of the original heroes. They then rested and Naofumi cooked for his party and the surrounding filolials.

Later, when nearly everyone was fed and sleep, Fitoria and Naofumi talked. Fitoria asked why the Tyrant Dragon Rex was unsealed and mentions that Filo is now a filolial queen candidate and grew in a special way because she was raised by a hero. She reveals that waves are happening all over the world, not just in Melromarc where the heroes are stopping them. She also asks Naofumi to never use his Shield of Rage because it will consume him. Finally, she threatens Naofumi that if the heroes do not work together to stop the waves, then she will have to step in to kill them all in order to summon new heroes.

Chapter Five - Filo vs Fitoria
The next morning, Naofumi's party woke up peacefully. However, after breakfast, Fitoria suddenly trapped Melty in a cage of wind blades. She suddenly gives Naofumi three options: reconcile with the other heroes immediately, let Filo fight Fitoria for a postponement, or let Fitoria kill all of the heroes immediately. Naofumi reluctantly allows Filo to fight Fitoria. Fitoria was shown to be much stronger, faster, and experienced. Naofumi tried to cheat by releasing Melty's cage but was seriously injured by Fitoria. Despite being clearly outmatched, Filo persisted. She was finally able to scratch Fitoria, to her surprise. Finally, Filo was able to learn Fitoria's attacks. Even though Filo was in tatters, she didn't give up. Finally, Fitoria stopped the fight and canceled out Melty's cage. She then gave Filo a tiara as proof that she will become the next Queen of the Filolials. She also unlocked the filolial series shields for Naofumi.

Chapter Six - The Bird God's Peace
That night, Naofumi's party members fell asleep soundly. Fitoria, hesitant to kill the heroes, tries to get the full story. Naofumi promises to try to make up with the heroes and clear the false allegations. Fitoria will continue to fight the waves outside of Melromarc and has tasked Naofumi with powering up so that he could help her. Fitoria then altered Naofumi's armor to help him resist the Cursed Series shields and gave a fullhearted plea to fulfill his promise.

The next day, Fitoria teleports Naofumi's party to where they fought the Tyrant Dragon Rex since there was a hero nearby. They then continued to the border where Motoyasu was waiting. Upon their approach, Motoyasu's party attacked and deployed a large magical cage to keep Naofumi's party trapped. Naofumi tried to talk to Motoyasu but Malty fueled his anger towards Naofumi. He then blames Naofumi for killing Ren and Itsuki. With the Spear Hero unwilling to talk, the two parties start fighting.

Chapter Seven - The Battle of Shield and Spear
During the battle between Naofumi and Motoyasu's parties, be became apparent that Filo's training with Fitoria has paid off and that there is a large level gap between Naofumi and Motoyasu. It looked like Naofumi's party was starting to lose. During the fight, Naofumi kept on trying to convince Motoyasu that he did not kill Ren and Itsuki. Through teamwork and new combination magic, Motoyasu was temporarily knocked back. A mysterious person started clapping and cheering the Spear Hero for his efforts.

Chapter Eight - Judgment
Suddenly, Filo carried and kicked everyone from Naofumi and Motoyasu's party to Naofumi and told him to switch to the Shield of Rage, or else they'll all die. Naofumi complied and used all of his skills to defend against an unknown attack from above. A massive pillar of light appeared, broke through all of Naofumi's skills, and nearly broke through his shield. Everything else in the surrounding area was burned to a crisp. The pope of The Church of the Three Heroes congratulates Naofumi for surviving. The pope then calls Motoyasu a fake hero and the two princesses already 'dead.' Finally, he boasted that he already killed the 'false' Bow and Sword heroes.

Motoyasu - furious at the pope - asks Naofumi for a temporary truce. Naofumi declines. The pope laughs at the two heroes and reveals a Legendary Weapon replica. The weapon's attacks are much stronger than Motoyasu's.

Chapter Nine - Replica
The replica weapon is a unique, resource-intensive weapon that The Church of the Three Heroes secretly stole. It can replicate all 4 of the Legendary Weapons and their skills. Naofumi tried to attack the pope, using Motoyasu to activate the counter-attacks. The curse's power was ineffective due to the pope's followers casting healing and protection magic. Motoyasu also could not harm the pope. When the pope charged up a final attack to finish off Naofumi and Motoyasu, he is showered with swords and arrows. Ren and Itsuki had arrived that to the Queen's shadows that had saved them.

Ren and Itsuki barrage pummel the pope with the attacks but he is immediately healed by is followers. The four heroes reluctantly agree to work together to stop the pope. They then all attack the followers supporting the pope. In an attempt to defend against one of the pope's disastrous attacks, the three attack heroes used all their SP to counter and most of the supporting troops were killed. The pope intended to attack with the replica weapon and ritual magic at the same time. Naofumi, surrounded by the people he hated, released his anger. His Shield of Rage was upgraded to the Shield of Wrath.

Chapter Ten - Shield of Wrath
With his Wrath Series shield upgraded, Naofumi is overcome with anger. However, he is reminded of Raphtalia and Filo and his rage clears. He looks down to see his party holding on to comfort him, burnt by his cursed flames. With his new shield, he is able to block the ritual magic attack and consume the pope's attack. Just when the pope and his followers were about to fire a more powerful attack, they are retrained by an unknown spellcaster. Naofumi then uses his Blood Sacrifice skill to defeat the priest. The Queen's support troops started to restrain the remaining followers and heal Naofumi's new injury and curse.

Chapter Eleven - The Queen
Naofumi woke up two days later with his injuries healed. The Blood Sacrifice curse could not be removed and will last another month. The Queen insists that Naofumi travels to the castle with her. When all 4 heroes arrived in the throne room, the Queen dethroned Aultcray and suggested that Naofumi and Melty should marry. Both decline. The Queen then places a slave crest of Malty and reveals her lies about framing Naofumi. Malty had apparently summoned all the heroes in Melromarc when they were supposed to let three of the heroes be summoned by other countries. The Queen had been dealing with the political fallout of that decision. The Church of the Three Heroes is to be disbanded and replaced with the original Church of the Four Heroes. Finally, Naofumi asked that Malty and former King Aultcray will be sentenced to death.

Chapter Twelve - Paying the Piper
Upon further discussion with the Queen, Naofumi was convinced that death wasn't a good punishment for Malty and Aultcray. Instead, they will be renamed "Bitch" and Trash". The two were forced to bow to Naofumi and then ejected from the castle.

In a private meeting with the Queen, she revealed to Naofumi that Siltvelt, the enemy of Melromarc, was supposed to be where he was summoned. As a result, there is extreme political tension with him being in 'enemy' lands. They decide to talk with together the other heroes to plan ahead.

Epilogue - Friends Forever
As the future Queen, Melty decides to leave Naofumi's party and stay at the castle. She gives a sad goodbye, especially to Filo.

Extra Bonus Chapter - The Fearful Filolial
Fitoria fights in one of the waves that the current heroes aren't protecting. The monsters are getting tough to beat but she was able to defeat the wave with her filolial subordinates. She reminisces about meeting a strange girl - Melty. Then some of her filolials come up to Fitoria reporting a filolial who is similar to her. With the conflicting reports on Filo, Fitoria decides to go meet her herself. To collect information, she meets a domestic filolial called Black Thunder and asks about Filo and the Shield Hero raising her.

Fitoria then hears the Tyrant Dragon Rex roar and watches Naofumi with Filo escape from the town and attack the dragon. To get answers, she moves towards them to confront them.