The Calydonian Boar—a colossal beast unleashed by Artemis to punish a nation, a calamity that summoned warriors from across Greece to hunt it down, ultimately slain by Atalanta's arrow. The pelt manifested from this legend was a cursed Noble Phantasm that granted monstrous power by enveloping its wearer.
Equipping it bestowed Mad Enhancement equivalent to Rank A, along with a Rank A Shapeshift skill tailored to the environment. The cost? The loss of reason—just like the Calydonian Boar itself, consumed by nothing but bloodlust.
No matter what, Sakatsuki would never allow Atalanta to wield this Noble Phantasm.
"Yes, I have lost my mind," Atalanta hissed through gritted teeth, clutching the beast's pelt tightly. "I finally understand—this Noble Phantasm is something that can only be used by embracing hatred. The fact that I summoned it proves I harbor a wish to tear something apart, piece by piece."
As she spoke, her gaze pierced through Sakatsuki, reflecting a fragment of the world's machinery in her eyes.
There, neither gods, heroes, beasts, nor tyrants existed.
If the atrocities were committed by demonic beings, they could be vanquished. If gods ran amok, methods to pacify them could be devised.
But this was neither. It was a system where wrongs interlocked like gears, perfectly executing the slow devouring of the weak.
"This is something beyond my power to save… Yet you—you could have done something, but you abandoned them!"
You sacrificed them. The girl's obsession roared, her soul wailed. She had trusted this young man so deeply, but that purifying chant had not only slain the children—it had shattered every expectation she held for him.
This despair, this devastation, became the perfect offering to awaken the beast's pelt.
By now, Atalanta understood the true nature of those children. Neither Sakatsuki nor Jeanne d'Arc had done wrong. If vengeance was to be sought, it should be directed at the city itself.
But she had to unleash it—the hatred festering within her had to be expelled, whether by killing the target of her misplaced fury or burning herself to ashes in the process.
With a sharp snap, Sakatsuki reached out again, disregarding the dangerous aura, and seized the boar's pelt along with her arm.
"You—!"
"Then come at me, Atalanta," the young man's voice murmured by her ear. Though hoarse from injury, his unwavering stance before her stood like an unshakable mountain.
"Are you blaming me for my attitude? For purifying those wraiths without even explaining myself—I must have hurt you deeply."
"That was indeed my mistake. Please forgive me. Had I hesitated then, a mother and child would have been in danger. I never meant to belittle your ideals, because I, too, came here with the dream of saving this world. Hurting you was never my intention… I want you to believe in me."
"Whatever you wish to do, I won't refuse—that is my promise to you."
Sakatsuki understood clearly in his heart that it was his actions that had provoked Atalanta, making her feel "so tired she just wanted everything to end," even prompting her to summon her forbidden second Noble Phantasm. Therefore, he bore the responsibility for all the suffering caused by his own mistakes.
Atalanta, who had expected to hear angry shouts or even curses, was stunned. She stared blankly at Sakatsuki's earnest expression, recalling how he had stood unflinching, taking seven arrows head-on. Then she glanced at his arm, already veined with dark lines, and suddenly felt a surge of panic, instinctively pushing him away.
"Wait, I—"
But Atalanta had forgotten they were on a cliff's edge, and the severely wounded Sakatsuki didn't have much strength left. With her push, though he managed to tear off the cursed boar hide, his body was sent flying like a scrap of paper in the wind. Before Atalanta's horrified eyes, the Assassin simply smiled as he plummeted toward the abyss below.
"Sakatsuki!!!"
Thought fled her mind, leaving only blankness. Without hesitation, Atalanta leaped after him, turning herself into an arrow as gravity pulled her downward, reaching out desperately toward the falling young man.
The boar hide, her vengeance—all of it was forgotten. Her eyes reflected only him.
"Grab my hand... hurry!"
The wind howled around them. Atalanta forgot everything, stubbornly stretching her fingers toward that faltering figure. The resentment in her heart was cast aside along with her tears—until her left hand finally met the reassuring grip of his. Only then did she smile through her blurred vision. She saw his lips move, as if saying something, before she was pulled into a tight embrace, lost in its warmth.
With a loud splash, the forest stream erupted in a great spray of water, the droplets glistening like diamonds under the morning sun.
Amid the bubbling foam, two figures broke the surface, gasping for air in unison. They stared at each other, drenched but unable to suppress their foolish grins. Then, the emerald-eyed girl lightly punched the other's chest.
"Honestly, how could you be so reckless?"
"If I hadn't done that, how else could I have brought you back to your senses?" The last trace of resentment vanished as Sakatsuki discreetly tucked away the boar hide, smiling faintly at the sight of her restored, unblemished arm. But when his gaze traveled upward, he froze.
It was as if a handsome youth had stumbled upon a goddess bathing by a woodland stream—the beginning of countless tragedies and comedies in Greek myth. Before the drenched Atalanta, Sakatsuki felt the same stirring in his heart.
The clear spring water trickled down the mountain brook like shimmering silk over the maiden's form. Graceful and alluring, a faint smile lingered on her lips, while her emerald beast-like eyes held a dangerous allure. The sunlight bathed her snow-white skin in a sacred glow, her breathtaking beauty embodying untamed nature itself.
Yet, when the young man remained motionless, he should have foreseen his fate. In the presence of a devout follower of the virgin goddess Artemis, his actions could only be deemed transgression.
"Where... are you looking?" Atalanta's whisper ghosted by Sakatsuki's ear. "Do you perhaps wish to share Actaeon's fate?"
Sakatsuki's expression froze instantly.
Actaeon - the hero and hunter from Ovid's Metamorphoses who accidentally saw the goddess Artemis bathing on Mount Cithaeron. The goddess transformed him into a stag, causing his own hounds to chase him until he was ultimately shot dead by his companions.
Clearly, this story had spread as a cautionary tale. And Atalanta happened to be Artemis's devout follower...
Talk about terrible timing!
Just as Sakatsuki thought he was about to be hunted down yet again, he felt sudden dampness around his neck. The maiden's wet arms coiled around him as she pressed close, her breath warm against his ear.
"But... I don't mind."
???
"Wait, something's wrong with you!" Sakatsuki realized in alarm, but it was too late to struggle. Atalanta had already hooked her arms around his neck and was wading backward through the stream toward the bank, while the man who'd taken seven arrows and been slammed into the water couldn't muster any resistance. "What are you doing? Hey? HEY! Stop this right now, you damn cat!"
"Too late, Sakatsuki~" Looking down at the flustered young man, the huntress's eyes gleamed with an inexplicable light—the expression of having found peerless prey she would never let escape.
Though rage had clouded her mind earlier, she hadn't been completely sunk like Jeanne d'Arc. Now that she'd calmed down, she understood Sakatsuki must have some scheme in privately communicating with Reika Rikudou and the King of Knights.
Yet despite this, Sakatsuki had still come for her. Even when bearing the brunt of her anger, he showed no resentment. He'd even risked grave injury to stop her from using the Boar's Hide.
Not to mention his repeated heroic rescues since they'd met, and that profoundly meaningful golden apple pie—experiences Atalanta had never known in her past life. Stirred by recent events, certain emotions had become impossible to suppress.
Unlike simple country girls or saints who repressed their feelings, though she'd never experienced such emotions in life, her upbringing in Greece's chaotic circles made her recognize her own heart almost instantly.
Raised by nature, the huntress lacked conventional morals. Once the oath she'd sworn to Artemis was broken, her courtship would be as relentless as her hunts.
"Didn't you say you wouldn't refuse anything I wanted to do?"
"Guh, I can't even argue... But I remember you swore to Artemis mmmph—"
With water droplets cascading around them, Atalanta straddled Sakatsuki and silenced him with her lips, her cascading green hair failing to hide her flushed cheeks.
Breaking an oath already required tremendous courage—how dare he bring it up now... Hmph!
She'd sworn that vow to the moon goddess precisely because she didn't believe in love. Wouldn't clinging to the oath while ignoring true affection be putting the cart before the horse?
She'd already died once... Surely Lady Artemis would forgive her, right?
The morning light was silent, the stream babbled, and the heavy panting of a man and woman by the riverside rippled through the air. Accompanied by rustling sounds, their soaked clothes were carelessly tossed aside. With the sky as their blanket and the earth as their bed, they transcended the barriers of time. The most beautiful maiden hunter from Greek mythology had finally met the one she loved and shot an arrow straight into the heart of her desired romance.
Deep within the soul of the young assassin, a platinum light flickered violently, forcing back the emerging crimson hues before extinguishing completely. Meanwhile, in a distant time and space, a handsome young man slammed his hands on the table, ignoring the murderous glare of a small red dragon, and exclaimed in shock:
"Oh no, I've become the substitute!"