What exactly must a person experience to remember someone else for an entire lifetime?
Love?
That was laughable. For Amazon warriors, love was the most unnecessary thing of all. They cared only for battle and adventure. Even for the sake of reproduction, they only needed to capture a few passing men, use them, and then kill them.
Friendship?
Incomprehensible. To Amazon warriors, only the strong could be called friends. For her—a daughter of the God of War, born to be the Queen of the Amazons—no one could defeat her or qualify to be her friend. So that was impossible as well.
Adoration?
That was utter nonsense. For those disgusting heroes who always treated the Amazons as objects to conquer and boast about, Penthesilea felt nothing but hatred.
Especially after the beauty of her and her sister became known, the frequency of these so-called heroes harassing the Amazon territory increased. Although they never refused a fight, it did not mean they enjoyed being harassed.
Thus, Penthesilea always believed that only her sister and her tribe mattered in this world. Blessed by their divine father, they needed to focus on no one but each other.
That was, until he appeared.
He arrived on the Amazon island by boat alongside a group of pathetic-looking heroes. He looked even frailer than they did, yet he defeated her sister and all the other Amazons, claiming the belt left to her sister by their divine father.
Abiding by her divine father's warning, she should not have shown herself to these heroes. But that guy actually gave her sister's belt to someone else!
Unforgivable. If it was a trophy he won, he should have kept it properly. What did it mean to give it away right in front of her sister? Was he looking down on her?!
Fueled by these thoughts, she stepped forward and challenged that detestable pretty boy to a deathmatch.
But in the end, she lost.
That guy looked so weak, claiming he was not a hero but merely a bard, yet he defeated her using a bow and arrow.
Though unwilling and defiant, bound by the oath made to her divine father, she could only accept her fate and prepare for death.
Yet that bastard broke the oath and chose not to kill her. Furthermore... he took off her helmet in front of everyone and called her beautiful?!
Heh. Hehehe...
Did he think that was a compliment?
Did he think that breaking his oath, sparing her life, jokingly removing her helmet, and praising her would make her shed tears of gratitude?
Truly, despicable...
Even if he had declared her his wife or made her his slave, it would have been better than sparing her life, taking off her helmet, and calling her beautiful.
For the Amazons, and for her, this so-called praise was the ultimate insult, a desecration of the expectations her divine father placed upon her.
Therefore, even if he chose to leave, even if he rejected her challenge, even if he fled countless times, she would find him and kill him.
Even if he died, she would not give up.
They said he was the most outstanding hero in all of Greece, and that his death merely passed the essence of a hero to others; from then on, he was the embodiment of a hero itself.
If that was the case, she would kill all heroes.
If that was the case, she would choose death herself.
If that was the case, why did he have to appear again, and again, and again...
"How dare you appear before me again! Orpheus!"
Roaring like an enraged beast, the moment Penthesilea saw Souya's figure, she was consumed by a madness even stronger than when she encountered Achilles. Any remaining trace of sanity vanished, leaving only endless fury and killing intent toward Souya.
Watching the morning star hurtling toward him with massive kinetic energy, Souya's expression was filled with helplessness and gravity.
He truly wanted to slap himself right now.
Just what kind of deranged, deplorable things had he done in Greece—things even more absurd than Zeus—that made both Atalante and the Black Berserker, Penthesilea, look like they wanted to slice him into a thousand pieces the moment they saw him?
What kind of messed up future romantic debt was this!
Unfortunately, no matter how helpless Souya felt, there was no time to explain anything to Penthesilea. Looking at her berserk state, Souya figured she wouldn't listen even if he tried.
Since it couldn't be avoided, he had to face it.
A split second before the hammer struck, Souya used his Fairy Eyes' insight to narrowly jump out of the way.
But even so, the impact of the morning star striking the ground created a massive shockwave that sent him flying. When he steadied himself and looked up, Penthesilea was already right in front of him, followed closely by her two morning stars.
"Do not think about escaping again! Orpheus!"
Knowing he could not dodge, Souya raised Rhongomyniad to block the attack head-on.
"Flowing Water Stance!"
As Souya's magical energy surged, his pure blue mana instantly manifested into an endless stream of water that spiraled around the Holy Lance.
In a flash of rippling water, Souya's spear moved like a swimming dragon. Utilizing the flexibility of the water, he deflected Penthesilea's twin iron balls. Seizing the moment when her momentum was spent and she hadn't yet launched her next attack, he thrust his spear at her shoulder.
He chose to target her arm rather than her Spirit Core in her heart because Souya wanted to try calming Penthesilea down first to see if they could talk. He wanted to gather information about his Greek self. After all, he remembered that she belonged to the type of Berserker in Chaldea who could retain her consciousness and communicate normally.
Unsurprisingly, facing Souya's premeditated strike, Penthesilea was inevitably pierced by the Holy Lance.
But before Souya could rejoice, she roared, grabbed the shaft of Rhongomyniad, and hurled it—along with Souya—violently away.
His back slammed heavily into a tree trunk. Protected by the Queen's Fortress, Souya was unharmed, but the tree snapped in half under the immense impact.
Souya picked himself up. He glanced at the splintered remains of the tree, then looked at Penthesilea, whose aura was growing increasingly unrivaled and berserk. He frowned deeply.
Was Penthesilea's strength here not a bit too absurd? A mere normal attack had the destructive power of a D-rank Noble Phantasm, rendering him—despite possessing A-rank Strength—completely unable to contend with her.
Such output seemed even stronger and more absurd than Penthesilea's original A+ Strength.
Was it a Noble Phantasm or some unknown skill?
Souya cast an investigative look at her.
But she had no intention of meeting his gaze. With red eyes glaring from beneath her helmet, she crouched low, letting out a deep growl at Souya. Crimson magical energy erupted from her body like an aura burst.
"Hold on, is she about to use her Noble Phantasm?!"
Seeing this, Souya lost his composure. They had only exchanged a few blows, and she was already activating her Noble Phantasm? What was she trying to do!
As if confirming Souya's guess, facing her fated enemy, Penthesilea did not hesitate. She unleashed her deepest fury toward Souya, toward Orpheus.
"Orpheus! Dieeeee!"
Amidst Penthesilea's increasingly frenzied roars, Souya felt her aura climb even higher. Wreathed in crimson light, like the God of War Ares reborn, she discarded her morning stars and lunged violently at Souya.
Noble Phantasm: "Outrage Amazon: Meet Your End, Hero in My Wrath."
Facing this attack that fully unleashed her Berserker nature, Souya's heartbeat abruptly grew heavy as thunder.
Simultaneously, his eyes transformed into vertical slits resembling molten gold.