Black Abyss White Flower

In the dense forest near Fortress of Millennia, a lithe, almost ethereal figure darted swiftly between the trees, her movement light and seasoned, unlike the young man clad in shining Greek armor trailing alongside her.

Her gaze was sharp and beast-like, her untamed grass-green hair free-flowing. Though lacking the silkiness often seen in noble ladies, it suited her wild, fierce face, enhanced further by her captivating beast ears and tail, which lent her the air of a beautiful humanoid predator.

She was none other than the "Red" Archer, Atalanta, summoned in this Romanian Holy Grail War. Known from Greek myth as the famed huntress who had famously struck the Calydonian boar with her bow.

Poised on a thick tree branch with her longbow in hand, Atalanta, dressed in a green outfit and thigh-high black boots, squinted towards the forest's devastated clearing, wrecked from an intense melee.

"Rider, do you think we need to abandon Berserker?"

Atalanta's voice held a note of grave concern as she took in the sight of their "Red" Berserker, Spartacus, a towering, muscular giant, being utterly overpowered in close combat.

Though usually the largest among the "Red" Servants at over two meters tall, Spartacus looked practically dwarfed before the golden-armored giants, each standing over three meters.

In mere moments, his Roman-style short sword was disarmed, and his massive limbs held fast in unyielding grips.

Bang! Bang! Thud! Crash!

With a thunderous barrage of blows, Berserker's muscled body was beaten like iron under hammer blows, every impact echoing with a metallic clamor. While less obvious than a slashed wound, Atalanta, no stranger to blood and bone, could tell Berserker was critically injured. From his crushed ribcage alone, she knew his bones had splintered.

Snap! Crunch!

With her keen hearing, she caught the sound of Berserker's bulky arm snapping and his leg joints, as sturdy as a mammoth's, crushed beneath the giant's relentless stomps.

Seeing this, Atalanta shut her eyes. "Rider, we have no choice but to abandon Berserker... What do you think?"

"Hmm… Missy, I have to say, you're the strange one here for even thinking he could be saved. Berserker's a crazed fighter; he was intended as a throwaway piece by the Masters."

Atalanta turned toward the source of the carefree, confident voice. Standing on a branch opposite her was a youth with a sunny smile.

Leaning casually against a tree trunk, the man, spear in hand, was handsome but exuded a touch of roguish charm, the opposite of the noble knights favored by high society.

With hawk-like eyes and hair a greenish-blond, his toned body looked mature and powerful.

"Honestly, how many times must I say this, Achilles? My name is Atalanta. Don't call me Missy. This isn't Greece; it's the Holy Grail War. I'm Archer here, remember?"

"Hahaha! It's just an affectionate title; no need to mind, Missy." Achilles grinned as he casually tossed his spear over his shoulder, glancing at the captured Berserker.

With a soft sigh, Atalanta's gaze also returned to the forest clearing where the battle had ceased. She noted that two of the enemy's Black Servants had appeared, and from their body language, it seemed one outranked the other.

The one in dark blue robes and a golden mask was likely Black Caster. As for the tall, silver-armored woman beside him, Atalanta couldn't determine her class.

"Rider, two enemy Servants. Should we attack or retreat?" Atalanta remained cautious, aware they were in hostile territory.

"Obviously, we charge in. A fragile mage and a lone woman… though of course, I don't mean you, Missy!" Achilles said with a laugh, feigning innocence when Atalanta glared at him, spear poised as if to jump down.

But before he could act, "You two have been watching long enough. Come out now, little mice."

Achilles, whose passions were winning and women, saw no reason to back down in the face of the melodic, steely voice.

He stepped out of the shadows with an easy swagger, offering a light-hearted and cheeky response, "Ohh, ohh! This stunningly perceptive beauty truly saw right through me..."

"..."

To Selene, the flippant tone was unmistakably flirtatious.

For a brief moment, Selene fell silent. How many years had it been? No one had dared flirt with her in quite some time.

"Beauty, is it?" she turned, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across her face.

In the next instant, whoosh—!!

The calm aura around Selene suddenly shifted, transforming into something savage, violent, and tyrannical.

Violent purple-red mana burst out, swirling in vicious waves that rattled the air with a menacing rumble.

Whoosh!

Gales of wind and debris whipped around her, like a tangible storm of energy.

"Strong Nuclear Force: Instant Release!"

With a sharp cry, Selene pressed her palms together, and a blinding, purple-red light burst forth, dispelling the darkness and bathing the entire forest in a glaring white.

Sensing the fierce mana particles in the air, Achilles's confident grin froze. In an instant, he lunged in front of Atalanta. "Missy, watch out!"

BOOOOM—!!!

"Urgh—!"

In that split-second, as she felt the scorching drops of liquid on her cheek, Atalanta didn't push him away. She knew that without Achilles's desperate intervention, her E-rank endurance alone would have meant certain death.

Boom!

A deafening shockwave echoed, and from the perspective of Black Caster Avicebron, protected by layers of golden-armored guards, the forest clearing before Selene shattered into splinters over a hundred meters wide, a deluge of sawdust scattering like powder.

The young Servant, holding a female Servant whom Avicebron assumed was Archer, was flung far beyond visual range, his body embedded into the fractured earth.

After being thrown back hundreds of meters, skidding through the ground and leaving a trench dozens of meters long, Achilles finally collapsed in a crater, blood spurting as he struggled to breathe. He felt as though his core had almost shattered from the impact.

"Missy… run… she's beyond anything we've faced before!"

Achilles's body, protected by his mother Thetis's divine blessing, possessed the Andreias Amarantos passive Noble Phantasm, which granted him immunity to attacks that did not target his Achilles heel.

But his heel remained untouched, and there was no sign of love or tenderness in the other's brutal assault. Then, there was only one conclusion—his opponent possessed divinity.

Not all divine spirits were powerful, but many of the most powerful heroes were divine. In many ways, divinity was the gatekeeper for top-ranking Servants.

But more troubling still, as he shook the dust from his shoulders, Achilles's face turned grim. From the overwhelming pressure of Selene's aura, he sensed divinity that even surpassed his mother, the goddess Thetis.

"Achilles, are you alright?"

For once, Achilles didn't banter back. Instead, he regarded the pulsating purple-red mana source with a rare look of seriousness.

"Just a Grail War… why on earth is a goddess involved?"

As the thought crossed his mind, an unstoppable force cracked the air, the ground splitting with webbed fissures as something raced toward them like a flash of light.

"Missy, go!!" Achilles didn't hesitate, kicking Atalanta back a dozen meters.

Though it might have sounded cold, Atalanta's presence would only distract him in such a situation, limiting his full potential.

The peril of death loomed over Achilles's mind. He wasn't afraid, after all, he had responded to the summons for the thrill of battle, but Missy had noble wishes yet to realize.

Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!

Achilles raised his spear just as the silvery figure came hurtling forward, shattering everything in her path in a streak of purple-red lightning.

Clang!!

Her strength was overwhelming, a force that seemed to contain the power to destroy worlds as it smashed into the shaft of Achilles's spear.

Though Selene held no weapon, her armored fist sparked violently on impact, forcing Achilles's spear to bend.

What kind of deity is she, with this kind of power? She's even stronger than Berserker! Achilles thought, struggling against her blow.

While Selene's base strength (B+) was below Berserker Spartacus's (A), her Noble Phantasm Radiant Moonlight increased her physical stats by one level (A+). Combined with her A+ mana release, her power was devastating.

Ignoring Achilles's efforts to deflect her blows, Selene hammered a punch directly into his chest.

Crack!

The impact sent Achilles flying through the air.

Crack-crack-crack!

Meanwhile, a disheartened Atalanta was retreating through the woods when a gale suddenly swept over her. A shadow barreled through, smashing the trees in its path, snapping trunks in half.

"Achilles?!"

Reacting swiftly, Atalanta knocked an arrow, her bow drawn. "—Phoibos Catastrophe! (Complaint Message on the Arrow!)"

Pouring her mana into the arrow, Atalanta skipped the full incantation and let it loose.

Under the night sky, a constellation of lights appeared, transforming into a rain of luminous arrows that streaked toward Selene.

"So, the Red Archer's Noble Phantasm, huh? A B-rank, anti-army attack… Here, take it back!"

With a flick of her wrist, a ripple passed through the air. A purple-red vortex swallowed up the arrows in an instant.

Buzz!

"What?!"

Watching as her own arrows shot back at her from the same purple-red void, Atalanta was dumbstruck. What sort of power was this?

Countless light-specks descended, blanketing the area as bright as day. These spots of light transformed into lethal beams, flooding toward the ground in a deadly downpour.

"Missy!" Just in time, a massive round shield crashed down before Atalanta.

BOOM!

Hiding behind the shield, Atalanta heard another deafening explosion amidst the relentless rain of arrows.

Boom! A ringing sound echoed deep within her chest.

Seeing Achilles shield her again, Selene pressed forward without pause, her punch smashing down. The immense force shattered the earth beneath Achilles, forming a crater over two feet deep.

"Son of King Peleus of Thessaly and the sea goddess Thetis, half-god hero Achilles, you've slightly irritated me…"

Pulling back to observe him from a distance, Selene watched as Atalanta peeked out from behind the round shield. Selene chuckled.

"So, this woman's the one you're so determined to protect? A friend? Lover? Or perhaps… family?" Selene clasped her hands together, purple-red mana crackling and surging as she spread them apart. Whirr!

What emerged was a massive black-and-white spear, two meters in length with golden patterns. The lance, perfectly cylindrical with a conical tip, resembled a knight's lance from ancient times.

Gripping the black haft of Abyss, Selene's mana flared, purple-red currents arcing around her in electric pulses.

"Black Abyss White Flower—"