Episode 57

**Battle on the Hot Sands: Brago VS The Silent Rulers** (*熱砂の闘い ブラゴVS 静寂の三闘士（サイレント·ルーラー）, Netsu sa no tatakai Burago tai Sairento Rūrā*) is the 57th episode of the Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Anime and first aired in Japan on May 16, 2004. While this episode features some moments originally adapted from the Konjiki no Gash!!, this episode is mostly filler.

## Overview

Brago and Sherie face off against a trio of demons known as “The Silent Rulers” — a notorious group who was feared for their strength and unique battle strategy during the previous battle to decide king 1,000 years ago. At the same time, Kiyomaro and his friends work together to determine Lord’s exact location based on a small clue they had found the previous day.

## Plot

In the middle of the African savannah, Byonko and his group of ancient demons come into Brago and Sherie’s view on the horizon. Undaunted by the idea of facing a group of demons at once,  Brago steps forward prepared to handle them all on his own. The main trio of ancient demons, “The Silent Rulers”, consisting of Faust, Zwei, and Trois, observe him and comment on the fact he knows nothing about them. Insisting on fighting as only a trio, they order Alm and Byonko, who they had been grouped together with, to not interfere. With both sides prepared to fight, they then charge towards each other and their battle officially begins.

Back home, Kiyomaro and Gash find themselves as victims of Tio’s rough medical treatment as she attempts to take care of them after their recent battle. This would come to a stop however as soon as Megumi comes in bringing tea and snacks with her. As they all sit around together, Megumi asks Kiyomaro about his plan on trying to locate the ancient ruins in which Lord is located in. Kiyomaro answers that the key to solving this mystery would be the mysterious tile that they collected from one of the ancient demon bookkeepers they had talked to who gave that to him. The group then enters Seitaro's study room which contains an impressive amount of books on ancient history and other related subjects. In there, Kiyomaro explains that they’ll use these resources in finding the exact ruins that the tile belongs to. With a solid plan in mind, the group enthusiastically gets to work in cracking the case.

On the battlefield, Brago dodges a fury of attacks from Faust, who uses his sword to swing at him. He then nonchalantly kicks away Faust then both evades and deflect an attack from Zwei, who rolls towards him in his reinforced shell. Finally, Brago slips away from Trois’ talons as he attempts to attack Brago from above. With things looking bad for their side, Byonko tries to convince Alm to join the battle but Alm, knowing the Silent Rulers quite well, refuses and states that the trio are more than capable of turning the tides of battle in their favor when they become serious about it. Zwei retreats into his shell again and rolls in Brago’s direction before suddenly disappearing underground. With the ground shaking below, Brago jumps in the air but unknowingly falls into a trap with him suddenly tangled up in Zwei’s *Cheinsen* spell. Trois follows this up by attacking the area around Brago with *Ganzu Biraitsu* which causes thick dust to build up around him. Finally, Faust takes this opportunity to swing his sword where Brago should be standing. Surprising all of them, they see Faust’s sword crumble to pieces, Zwei’s chains shatter, and Brago completely unharmed by it all. From a remote location, Lord observes the battle and notes how strong Brago and Sherie had become. As Sherie quietly watches from the sidelines, she understands Brago’s main goal to end the battle quickly and resume working towards becoming king as soon as possible. She also reflects on how much she had worked herself to become strong and unafraid of anything that happens during a battle so she can finally face off against Zofis.

The Silent Rulers, now in the right positions around Brago, use their signature attack on him through each of them using the spell *Raudo*. This spell allows all of them to unleash supersonic sound waves from red orbs on their bodies which not only brings Brago down to his knees, but also increases the air pressure around him by three to five times the normal conditions. Seeing Brago appear to be immobilized, Sherie rushes towards the scene but not before the bookkeepers of the Silent Rulers try and stop her but she effortlessly forces her way past them. Inside the newly created sound barrier, Brago realizes he can’t hear anything while the spell is active. With Brago being unable to listen for attacks, the Silent Rulers take advantage of this and start attacking him from several directions while he can’t defend himself. Meanwhile in the perspective of Kiyomaro’s group, Tio’s watch alarm goes off which means it was time for Megumi to leave for a scheduled TV appearance that day. Megumi rushes off and both Gash and Tio say their goodbyes. As they walk back inside the house, they notice Umagon was gone that day as well to continue his search for his destined bookkeeper. Seeing how hard Umagon is working, Gash and Tio enthusiastically vow to continue giving their best effort in their work too.

Sherie eventually makes it into the sound barrier created by the Silent Rulers and rushes to Brago’s side. While running, she narrowly misses being attacked by two of them and is saved by Brago. With them now being side by side, they finally start fighting back against the trio of demons. They first take out two of them by using *Reisu* and *Gigano Reisu* then finally use their ultimate spell, *Dioga Gurabidon* to eliminate all of them at once. *Dioga Gurabidon*’s power would also prove to be even more powerful than the sound barrier created by the Silent Rulers and seeing this, both Alm and Byonko would flee as they stood no chance against them alone. With the battle settled, Brago and Sherie talk about the humans that were being controlled in the battle and the fact that Lord, the one controlling them, did not appear to face them. Thinking about this, Sherie realizes that much like the humans they saw, her best friend, Coco, was also being controlled to fight against her will as well. With there being only one demon she knew who was responsible for this, she realizes then that Lord’s true identity is Zofis.

From the ruins, Zofis knows that Brago and Sherie had figured this out and decides to discard the disguise he had been wearing while he had been putting his plans into motion. With powerful ancient demons on their side, Zofis eagerly awaits the opportunity to have fun making use of them in order to eliminate the remaining demons and subsequently become king.

## Features

### Characters by Appearance

* Alm
* Zwei
* Faust
* Trois
* Brago
* Sherie Belmondo
* Byonko
* Kiyomaro Takamine
* Tio
* Gash Bell
* Hana Takamine
* Megumi Oumi
* Paul Kahn (Flashback)
* Henrika Abbott (Flashback)
* Natsuo P. Costner
* Divitto Cole
* Ozzie Bryant
* Zofis
* Coco
* Umagon

### Locations

* Africa
* Japan
	+ Mochinoki City
		- Takamine Residence
* South America
	+ Devolo Ruins

## Spells by Appearance

* Gashirudo (Debut)
* Doruku
* Cheinsen (Debut)
* Ganzu Biraitsu
* Ganzu Gikoru (Flashback)
* Raudo (Debut)
* Zerusen
* Reisu
* Gigano Reisu
* Dioga Gurabidon

## Manga & Anime Differences

* The Silent Rulers and their bookkeepers were anime exclusive characters that were never involved or introduced in the original manga chapters that this particular episode was based on. Instead of facing the Silent Rulers, Brago and Sherie face off against a different trio of ancient demons: Isojin, Zakuson, and another unnamed ancient demon.
* Alm was introduced much earlier in the anime than in the manga and had no involvement in the events that transpired in this episode.

## Censorship & Other Localization Differences

* Details such as blood from injuries are cleaned up from characters in the VIZ localization but other things such as scratches and clothing tears are usually left alone. Minor bleeding seen on Sherie would be cleaned up in the VIZ localization.

## Trivia

* In the original Japanese episode, Hana Takamine, while riding her bike, hums along to the tune of the background music that’s playing. In the VIZ localization, this does not happen as the background track was changed.
* It is unclear what the effect of spells such as *Gashirudo* and *Doruku* have on the Silent Rulers as they’re shown to be able to still fight with the same regardless of whether or not these spells were cast.