Within the hurricane clouds
This battle was unlike any other.
It was a clash between two humans in appearance only. The power of nature colliding against human will in a scene right out of an epic tale.
In the storm, the Amazon horsewoman tried to open a new path to her fate.
The arrows from her bow cut the winds, rode the lightning, and pierced the rain.
Then, she swung her giant battleaxe on the path they opened.
All of that proved her strength and determination.
Blessed by her father Ares and by Artemis to whom she was given as a priestess.
Her experience leading the tribe as a queen and her pure study of martial arts.
Furthermore, the maximum back-up she could have received from her Masters.
She poured all that she was given and all that she built up into defeating Alcides.
Her Noble Phantasm: one battleaxe strike.
Her steed's hooves touch the floor at the same time as she swings down, with her enemy visible a few dozen meters ahead.
And now, a long straight wound was carved in Alcides's body.
The strike was capable of erasing part of the hurricane, not to bisect his body.
Nonetheless, Hippolyte certainly wounded the body she had believed to be invincible.
Hippolyte kept the pressure going.
She sought to keep this offensive momentum, but her arm stopped.
Her polished warrior instincts noticed something:
Someone appeared where they were—someone concealing immense power.
The same happened for Alcides. Instead of looking at Hippolyte, the one who put a huge wound on his body, he looked east.
And now, a long straight wound was carved in Alcides's body.
The strike was capable of erasing part of the hurricane, not to bisect his body.
Nonetheless, Hippolyte certainly wounded the body she had believed to be invincible.
Hippolyte kept the pressure going.
She sought to keep this offensive momentum, but her arm stopped.
Her polished warrior instincts noticed something:
Someone appeared where they were—someone concealing immense power.
The same happened for Alcides. Instead of looking at Hippolyte, the one who put a huge wound on his body, he looked east. "What's this…?"
Cold sweat ran down Hippolyte's back.
An unidentified presence was squeezing through the cloudy galestorm and getting inside the cumulonimbus.
It was a presence she knew she felt before.
But with one fundamental difference.
And before she could try to figure out what was it that wasn't like before—
Time stopped completely inside the clouds.
Hundreds of thousands of lightning flashes covered the cumulonimbus in white darkness.
It took one instant for the all the flashes to completely disappear, and the clouds to become a wall of darkness blocking the sun's light. At the top of the hurricane cloud, the sky was isolated from the central area serving as the eye of the whirlwind, locking the space around Alcides and Hippolyte in perfect dark.
(This can't have been Alcides. But who else other than Zeus could have instantly pacified so much thunderbolt?)
Hippolyte had many questions.
And the answer came in the form of a sound in the darkness. The beautiful tone of a string instrument.
A singular sound, not part of any melody.
A purifying sound that clears the air. A timbre that presumably didn't belong in a battlefield.
"Was that… a lyre… or a harp?"
As soon as the trailing note reminiscent of an ancient instrument faded, something stabbed the ground on an area distant from Alcides and Hippolyte.
It shone golden light, purifying the floor like it was filtering muddy waters.
"A sword…?". To answer Hippolyte's whisper, the sound reverberated a second time.
The sound practically had an attractive force that guided the listener's attention to the sky.
She couldn't tell how conscious Alcides was, but his face covered in Nemean leather was also looking at the sky.
Eventually, a small star gained life in the sky accompanying the echoing sounds—
And contrary to the sounds that reached the skies, the light fell to the floor.
It crashed in a different place from the previous sword. A spear clad in magical radiance that made one mistake it for gold.
One more echo, accompanied by another weapon descending to the floor.
As the process repeated, the interval between sounds grew shorter—eventually performing a melody.
Understanding what that meant, Hippolyte glared at the sky with a tight grip on her weapon.
She watched the moment one of the stars gained form in the pitch-black sky.
Far above her head, at the top of the closed cumulonimbus dome, shone a ring of countless lights.
"Gh…!"
Hippolyte and Alcides already knew what that meant.
They could tell that the light was not a guidepost to hope, but rather a despair-bringing radiance of judgment, because they had seen it in the northern canyons. Seconds later, the starry sky came down.
The glimmer of death poured down within the hurricane clouds like a waterfall of light.
Hippolyte's bow rapid-fired arrows, offsetting the lights raining in her direction.
Alcides also swatted away the lights raining directly on him by swinging his heavy bow.
The meteor shower eventually came to an end, with plentiful crops of faint golden light spread around the two.
Whereas instead of wheat, it were the numerous armaments fallen from the sky that were planted there.
"Just what I thought it was…", Hippolyte groaned.
A feat from a Heroic Spirit she believed to be dead.
She couldn't imagine another Heroic Spirit in the same Holy Grail War would also be able to employ such ludicrous amounts of objects.
However, previously, the fired Noble Phantasms would immediately vanish to be continuously fired. This time, they remained stabbed on the floor, continuing to emit their brightness.
Numerous armaments disorderly pierced the ground, but it was evident that each of them carried qualities worthy of the Noble Phantasm qualification.
The visible roster included not only swords, axes, and spears, but also books, wands, and rings. "Mm?"
They behaved similarly, but were not the same.
Disturbed by the uncanny discrepancy, Hippolyte got to hear the string instrument once more.
A singular sound, not part of any melody.
In the direction of the sound, she found a mini golden lyre rotating midair—and a short shadow floating next to it.
The trees broken by the galestorm piled up together when she wasn't looking, and a young boy sat on them.
"Hi."
A voice as clear as the lyre.
A Heroic Spirit with a voice matching his apparent age glanced at the horsewoman and the avenger.
Despite the completely different age, his face resembled the first loser of the Holy Grail War.
But he was different from that bowman.
Fundamentally different from that arrogant king. As soon as Hippolyte reached that conclusion, the floating lyre sounded on its own, without anyone's fingers dragging its strings.
"Does this count as our first meeting?", the boy quietly mused in sync with sound of the lyre.
"My utmost respect goes to you, magnanimous heroes.", the boy stood up and courteously bowed.
His gesture had no traces of snideness or unctuousness. There were tangible implications that his respect was sincere.
From the moment he lowered his head, it was already proven he was not the archer.
After Hippolyte was convinced, the boy calmly raised his head.
And then, he said the following to the two figures in his eyes, with the same respect as before.
"To prove it…"
Next, every one of Noble Phantasms planted all over the floor unleashed their energy.
Their shine gave a new color to the cumulonimbus previously colored by the lightning.
"I bring you the end of times