Discussion Sentenced to Be a Hero

Episodes: 12 | Source: Light Novel | Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Synopsis
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In a world where the title of Hero is treated as a punishment rather than an honor, the worst criminals are sentenced to the front lines of an endless war against the Demon Lords. Branded as Heroes, they are forced into military service without even the mercy of death, condemned to be revived and sent back into battle forever.

Among them is Xylo Forbartz, once a respected commander of the Holy Knights. Now the leader of Penal Hero Unit 9004, he commands a squad of convicts considered expendable by the very nation they serve. During one chaotic mission, he encounters Teoritta, a living weapon known as a Goddess, whose presence threatens to shift the balance of both the war and his own fate.

As the unit is sent on increasingly dangerous operations, Xylo must balance leading his unit, surviving the battles he finds himself in, and uncovering the truth behind his own sentencing.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

 

Episode 1 was good. The main character Xylo is an experienced Hero, doomed to fight on the front lines in the war against the Demon Lords. He really seems to hate heroes, as well as the Holy Knights. Even if a hero dies, they end up resurrected but lose a bit of themselves each time. He is teamed up with Dotta who seems like a novice.

The demons or Faeries are basically animals corrupted into monsters and they seem to easily kill the Holy Knights, while the Heroes can deal with them with their abilities. Dotta had carried what seemed like a casket carrying a sleeping or dead Goddess. Xylo wanted to abandon her, but she woke up and stated that Xylo was her chosen one. He refused but the Goddess Teoritta is almost naïve/innocent about things and just pays it no mind.

Xylo told the Holy Knights to retreat while they covered their retreat, and they eventually agreed. When Xylo was scoping out the next area to help, Dotta ran away to thieve again which angered him, but Teoritta stayed with Xylo.

Things went well to start, but when the Demon Lord arrived a lot of the Holy Knights died, and Xylo would also be doomed to die, and relented in accepting Teoritta as his Goddess, granting him a large power boost. Xylo did critically wound the Demon Lord, but the arrival of Dotta with a scorched earth seal is what enabled them to finally kill it. The commander Patausche who seemed to hate Xylo from the start, was angry at the turn of events and tried to sway Teoritta by telling her of Xylo's grave crime of killing his prior Goddess.

Turns out that Xylo was once a commander of the Holy Knights, but some plot had him shipped out doomed to die with his men and Goddess Senerva with no backup and the entire mission buried/not recorded. Due to Senerva overusing her power, the Demon Blight begins corrupting her, turning her into a Demon Lord with the power of a Goddess, so Xylo killed her. The church or whatever faction, of course "doesn't know" any of this as fact. This had Xylo arrested and sentenced as a criminal, which had him turned into the hero he is now and leader of Penal Hero Unit 9004.

 

Episode 2 was good. Seems that Teoritta didn't really care about Xylo having killed his prior Goddess, or more specifically, she presumes that it wasn't that simple. They've already been assigned their next mission, and met up with some other heroes Tatsuya, "His Majesty" Norgalle and Venetim. Tatsuya seems to have died so much he's basically lost his mind and has seemingly served as a Hero the longest. Norgalle sees himself as the King of the Federated Kingdom and his crime was being a terrorist. Their mission is the same as Patausche's to clear out the Zewan Gan Tunnels which has been affected by Demon Blight. Overall, Humanity has lost about 20% of all inhabitable land.

Seems that the town wasn't evacuated. A younger girl asked Xylo if her father would come home as he promised for her birthday, and it seems her look really got to him. As the group headed toward the tunnels, it's apparent the workers all turned into Faeries. When one turns into a Faerie, the only way to "help" them is to kill them. Patausche met up with them and seems to get along a little better now. Although she was mad that Xylo didn't explain he had no real involvement with Teoritta being "taken" but he raised a good point that she wouldn't have believed him.

The group quickly took out the Faeries in the area including the workers. However, some workers remained alive and not infected. Teoritta wants to save them, and even Patausche seems to want to save them, but her hands are basically tied. In the end, Xylo decided to do it on his own, and had the Holy Knights take Teoritta to keep her safe. He asked them to bury him in the tunnel if things went bad.

 

Episode 3 was good. The group fought off the Faeries clearing out the immediate area and getting to the miners. Norgalle created his own sacred seal for the battle ahead. Norgalle sees Xylo as his elite guard. Wasn't long before a large amount of Faeries appeared which they took out, and another wave appeared soon after. Teoritta escaped the Holy Knights and showed up to try and help Xylo, but he wasn't pleased and refused to praise her like she wanted.

The Demon Lord Lotus soon appeared and used some sound-based attack which incapacitated a lot of the people. Due to Tatsuya's state, he could just ignore it and fight through it and sliced the thing in two, but that body was a decoy.

The Holy Knights reappeared to help, and things weren't going great with Xylo being restrained when he was about to finish it off. Norgalle cut his leg off to get free from its grip to do some major damage, which allowed Xylo to finish it off.

The villagers were happy for the miners to come home safe, but a lot still had issues with the heroes. Still, the little girl presented Xylo some flowers, before Teoritta took credit wanting to take them instead.

 

Episode 4 was already. Xylo already has the next lot of orders. Their travelling took them to Mureed Fortress known as the Wayfarer's Nest. There was a number of markets set up in the area as there is a festival known as the Great Exchange going on. Xylo wanted no part in the Great Exchange, even with Teoritta trying to get him to go. Poor guy just wanted to read in peace Kivia visited Xylo to talk to him.

Interestingly, Kivia seems to be changing her mind and coming around to Xylo, given he helped saved the Holy Knights under her as well as those miners. She was also grateful for Xylo basically "saving" Teoritta, as the military intended to use her as a research subject to try and create more Goddesses. The temple objected but lost. The next mission the heroes have is to defend the fortress to the death. There was even meant to be measures put in place that if one of them fled, all of them would blow up. Venetim seemed to negotiate a bit to have it so they only blow up if they all flee.

Venetim was sentenced not for fraud, forgery or counterfeiting as he had thought, but telling the truth. The truth he told was spies under the influence of the Demon Blight pretending to be human had infiltrated the Temple, Galtuile and royal family.

 

Episode 5 was good. Tsav was a trained assassin, and the people that train them use any tactic to get results. He isn't shy to killing, and targeted those that seemed easiest to kill. That's basically how he got sentenced to being a hero.

Lol at Kivia sliding away from Xylo when he was too close, not in a bad way. Kivia isn't a noble but was able to become a commander due to her uncle being a high priest in the Temple. So, they will only have 50 knights and then the prisoners to help with this mission. Rough odds. Tsav is a long range sniper, and he basically never misses due to his ridiculous eyesight.

The plan to kill Iblis is to lure it in and then detonate a bunch of barrels which contain poison. Naturally, it's meant to entail killing all of the heroes and others there too. Teoritta showed up and wasn't happy with Xylo leaving her. She seemed to pick up on how Kivia seems to be about Xylo, and wasn't very happy to find out they went resource gathering together. Teoritta wasn't happy to have seen another goddess get 7 head pats while she gets 0.

The miners came to help with the fight, but Xylo absolutely doesn't want them involved. Bit hard when His Majesty brought them there. His replacement leg is just a wooden peg leg, rough.

Venetim tried to talk to Xylo about the "conspiracy" with a group of people wanting relations with demons, or to work with them and have humanity fail, which Xylo thought was nonsense. Seems hard to ignore when Venetim pointed out that this current mission only really makes sense if you consider that.


The battle kicked off, and after the first wave was dealt with, a group of faery horses with human archers armed with flaming arrows rolled up. Things seem dire now.

 

Episode 6 was good. Strange that the humans amongst the demon blight basically instantly fled after their initial attack. Even if humans serve the demon lord, Teoritta can't attack them. When Xylo questioned Kivia about the riders, she genuinely had no idea, but presumes them to be of some noble's personal army.

Runtels were deployed, a type of Sacred seal canon to help with the battle. They proved very effective. Teoritta understood that Xylo has disdain for the Goddesses because he sees himself in them, which actually seems true. This finally had Xylo coming around to her, and being less angry about things.

Tatsuya went into some full animalistic rage mode almost and was able to take care of those demon blight affiliated humans. This left Xylo and Teoritta to jump into battle against the faeries, and confront the Demon Lord. What a bad time for Dotta to have hired mercenaries, but then tried to pay them with their own money he stole.

The trap Xylo set and their combined attack seemed to have defeated the Demon Lord, only for it to launch a counter sneak attack. Xylo took a bad blow for Teoritta. They both resolved to give it a final fight even though Xylo wanted Teoritta to run, instead she resolved to summon The Holy Sword, a sword that can destroy anything. Xylo took a blow and had his arm grabbed in the mouth to allow himself to get the final blow, which instantly killed it.

Due to his injuries and the treatment, Xylo apparently lost some memories, but he still remembers Teoritta and she was afraid he had forgotten her.

 

Episode 7 was good. Xylo and Teoritta are "on loan" to Kivia's Thirteenth Order of Holy Knights, so she ordered Xylo to keep protecting Teoritta. She took the whole hero unit off the front lines, and assigned them to protect Teoritta in Porc City Ioff.

A new arrival Jayce who seems to have a hostile rivalry with Xylo appeared. Teoritta wasn't a fan at all. They had some bet going and Xylo ended up paying up. Jayce was a noble and is their dragoon, having an affliction for dragons.

Frenci, Xylo's former fiancé who is also noble woman appeared, and Teoritta also isn't a big fan of her. Frenci seems to look down a bit on Xylo Interestingly, she's attempting to get a pardon for Xylo and seems intent on marrying him. Frenci revealed that an entire force of night-gaunt chiefs disappeared near the town when they were looking into Demon Blight number Fifty-Nine, Spriggan. It's suspected that it can transform/blend into a human. Kivia was eves dropping, but seems like Frenci saw through her reasoning.

When the group was out at the markets, they were attacked and dealt with the assassins. They soon came across some odd individuals. One male Boojum and one Shiji Bau is a female adventurer. When Jayce's dragon breaths fire in an attempt to kill the Boojum, it's revealed that it was indeed Spriggan.

 

Episode 8 was good. A meeting was held in regards to the adventurers/mercenaries and that demon lord Spriggan and how to handle the case, with Xylo pushing for contact with the Twelfth Order of the Holy Knights. Kivia pointed to she asked for the opinion of the advisor that joined them, High Priest Marlen who is her uncle. He seems reasonable and even listened to what Xylo had to say on the matter, and agreed their starting point should be to investigate the Adventurers Guild, and more specifically the Guild Master, Lideo Sodrick.

Xylo was eventually able to recruit Dotta to join himself and Kivia in getting the required into. Kivia was playing the part of Xylo's lover as a cover, and she was to hire the guild to kill her "husband". She ended up in a very different outfit to her usual stuff, and was happy at Xylo's flattery.

So Dotta in the past stole a dragon to try and save the crown prince of the royal family, because he was begging for help after supposedly being locked up, and proclaiming that the King and his family were acting different. I wonder if the royal family has been overtaken by faeries/demon lords then. Obviously the trial was a farce and they ignored everything Dotta said.

Xylo and Kivia made their dramatic entrance and request, although they were obviously suspect. Frenci also saved them by taking them to a room to discuss. Kivia and Frenci continued to clash before bonding over insulting Xylo. The guild went on the attack, but were easily dealt with.

 

Episode 9 was good. The battle kicked off between the adventurers and hero/holy knight group, and overwhelmingly the latter kicked the asses of the former. Even though the adventurers we the top party, it didn't change anything.

With things going bad for them, the adventurers brought out a large faery, this is when Teoritta and the other heroes showed up and Teoritta and Xylo took it out together, which left the adventurers to surrender. Lideo Sodrick attempted to make a get away, with his sister Iri. Unfortnately for him, Dotta got to him and took him back to the adventurers guild for questioning with the others.

Turns out Boojum wasn't Spriggan, like was thought. I guess he's either another demon lord, or a human that was given powers of a faery. He recruited both Shiji Bau and Iron Whale to work with with the demon lord.

Xylo questioned Lideo Sodrick, only for him to sparingly give details. Seems like he basically had an ultimatum to accept the job to kill their group, or die along with his siblings and the employer was a "coexister". The masked person he dealt with provided the name Mahaeyzel Zelkoff, which Kivia said Mahaeyzel was the name of a saint, and the leader of the Temple during the First War of Subjugation. She didn't get to finish saying about Zelkoff as they were attacked, but I think that was the main demon lord.

In the chaos of the attack, Lideo was able to escape and found Iri. Unfortunately, she was overtaken by Spriggan and killed all the other siblings too, and now Lideo as well.

 

Episode 10 was good. Teoritta is addicted to zeff butter. She demanded to have another outing, and surprisingly Kivia agreed to it. The locals doted on Teoritta, and the kids even admired Xylo which was a change.

Venetim was able to get Rhyno, a volunteer "fake" hero out to help the group with the attack. Interestingly, Rhyno's suit is like the same as that other mercenary/adventurer, but I suppose they can't be the same person as Rhyno seemed to have been in jail.

Venetim was able to get authorisation to use the dragon in the battle, due to the faeries apparently attacking the sacred seal vessels in the harbor, although it seems like it somehow orchestrated. He also made a suggestion to Kivia about security in the underground waterway after some advice.

The battle went well, although Rhyno destroyed some buildings more than necessary. It was a good point for Kivia to have sent some knights to the underground waterway, but they ended up being slaughtered by Boojum. When Kivia rendezvoused with her uncle, her uttered some words about the blessings of Saint Mahaeyzel protecting them, so now it seems like he is tied to things.

 

Episode 11 was good. Kivia felt worried for her life, and passed on some details to Rajit, I assume relating to her uncle possible, or the coexister faction. Seems like she also asked Frenci to look into things.

The battles felt a bit anticlimactic. The first lot of faeries were easily dealt with. Then, when Shiji Bau and Iron Whale joined, Shiji Bau got killed easily by Xylo and the others, before Rhyno took out Iron Whale, just by simply being able to shoot more at him.

The final showdown between Xylo + Teoritta against Boojum was pretty good, and Boojum's form looked almost like a mecha warrior. In the end with the Holy Sword, they defeated Boojum.

 

Episode 12 was good. Spriggan launched a surprise attack on Teritta, only to be blocked by Teritta and then sniped before Xylo kicked Spriggan away. This has Spriggan badly injured and crawling away, where Rhyno appeared. Turns out Rhyno is a demon lord possessing the body too. A disappointing end to Spriggan. Boojum also fled by having a blood puppet take his place.

Kivia confronted her uncle about being apart of the coexisters, and he ended up fessing up to his involvement, although he didn't have much choice considering Kivia connected the dots with the pronunciation of Mahaeyzel. He believes that the humans are doomed to lose the war, and so was only interested in securing his position along with those he cares about, as a leader amongst the humans that would survive. He offered Kivia to join, but she refused due to her nature and being unable to betray innocent people. This has him attack Kivia, and Rajit took the blow loosing half of his head. Her uncle then attacked her again with lethal force, which forced her to kill him in retaliation. She was quickly discovered and arrested and set to a farce of a trial.

Apparently, there's a limited number of heroes that can be reborn, and apparently Kivia is the last available slot, so it was offered to her. Originally the heroes were summoned from another world, but the people of this world used the first goddess' power on the dead, which spawned the whole hero system as we know. I guess she's not died, but can only remember so many people to keep bringing them back. In the end, Kivia accepted and beheaded herself to become a hero. Didn't see that turn.