The battlefield is silent, for a few moments, as Hercules raises a hind to the crown of his head, touching the place where his horns had once been. He closes his eyes as the hand fall back to his side, and exhales slowly.
While he's doing that, I glance at my remaining crew - putting aside those who can't penetrate his resistances, everyone's in bad shape. David is down for the count with what looks like a few broken limbs, and Nobunaga is only barely able to stand while leaning on a rifle. Da Vinci's weapon broke on that last shot, so that leaves…
"Guess it's all or nothing, then," I mutter. "Stede, take the wheel."
"W-wait!" Natsuki Subaru grabs me by the shoulder before I can jump down. "W-what the heck do you think you're doing!? You'll be dead in seconds!"
"Dude, don't take it so hard. Benkei was just doing what he wanted to do. I'm just doing the same." I shake my head a bit at his reaction. "Besides, I don't plan to die or anything."
And with that, I leap down to greet my friend.
***
Hey, Heracles - you ready to talk yet?" I ask as I land, briefly surveying our frozen friends, dotting the landscape around us.
"...At this stage, I've got no choice but to do so," He says with a wry chuckle, before sighing. "...It's your win. This last resurrection only has about five minutes before it expires - and I've already lost my status as a Beast."
Woah, seriously!? I was sure I was going to have to somehow filibuster until Nobunaga was up again!
He closes his eyes, and begins stretching - his usual morning routine, not dissimilar from the one Natsuki Subaru had forced upon us over these past four days. "Of course, five minutes is enough. If I fight to the last, abandon my status as a Hero, and embrace all of my spite - I, as a man, can surely drag you down with me."
That goes without saying. "But you won't," I reply with a smile as I join in his stretches.
"But I won't," He admits. "...Still, I have to ask. Why did you end up going this far, in the end? You were never one to care about wider Humanity - was there something I missed, in planning my world, that made it so unbearable to you?"
"Of course there was - you'd be lonely," I answer, and he freezes mid-stretch.
…He resumes his movements a moment later.
"Going that far for an Argonaut who didn't even make it to the halfway point…" Heracles gives an amused huff. "You really are…"
"That doesn't matter, dude," I reply. "We're friends, aren't we? Besides… I don't like letting my stuff go. That goes for money, friends… to be honest, next thing after this I'm gonna need to throw down with that freaking Alter Ego, because I'm not too fond of whatever he's got going on with Medea either," I pause, and recenter my thoughts. "But also… my failures are mine. I'm not gonna let you take them from me. I'm greedy like that."
Heracles gives another deep, rumbling chuckle. "Heh. I suppose so. But… Jason."
"Yeah?"
"Hearing that hasn't calmed me down at all. I… really want to punch you right now," Heracles says, taking a fighting stance once more.
I can't help the laugh that escapes my lips in response. "I feel the same way!"
I wouldn't stand a chance, normally. I'd be nothing but a stain on the ground.
But, in this spirit origin-
Our fists meet - but somehow mine holds.
"Hoh?" He smirks. "Alright, then - try to keep up!"
***
The first stars are beginning to show as two constellations clash on a mountaintop at the end of the world. Fist meets fist. Kick meets kick. Grapples are joined, reversed, escaped - the practice drills carved into the minds of two young men by the same teacher play out upon the mountain in perfect detail.
-How can this be? How could Jason, of all people, match Heracles, dying as he is? Jason, on his own, is nothing. The weakest of weak servants, only exceeding those who are essentially non-combatants. Jason's sole might, has only ever been the power of his connections.
But, the Witch Factor of Greed, which he absorbed some time ago, is one that draws power from personal connections.
Regulus Corneas could become invincible by entrusting his heart to one he 'loved'. Natsuki Subaru can protect those he loves by taking their burdens onto himself.
The Authority of Greed held by Jason - is to draw power directly from those who put their trust in him!
Those observing the fight - both those aboard the Argo, too injured to fight, and those frozen Argonauts who are only dimly aware and can do nothing but hope - every one of them is unconsciously pouring their might into their captain!
"Let's take it up a notch, Jason!" Heracles cries as he wrests his last stone sword from the ground, meeting a freshly materialized nameless sword in a flawless exchange of blows. Around and around they dance, until Heracles shifts momentum, raising his sword - and unleashing the all-consuming Heavenly Sword once more.
-By all rights, Jason should have no ability to repel this attack. By all rights, he ought to have been dead long ago.
And yet, as his blade meets that of his friend, it is with the same unstoppable force.
Because, after all, when considering those who have placed their trust in Jason - one figure stands above all the others.
Even now, as their swords tear through reality, as they clash with enough force to destroy anything in their path - the trust Heracles has in Jason is total and absolute!
A blinding flash of light and heat explodes outwards. And then more and more flashes, until like a supernova the whole of the Rock of Gibraltar is consumed, the two launched airborne by the detonation.
Heracles flickers through the air with blinding speed, calling upon what he learned of the Leaper's Talent, and Jason matches him. The opposing mountain of the Pillars of Hercules is similarly destroyed, and the two continue to clash across the surface of the water. Their swords break, and twin drill-like palm strikes meet each other. Exchanges of blows tear holes in the sky like shooting stars.
Over all the boundless ocean, they continue - smashing through the shapeless isle, toppling the buddha statue that Benkei had carved, breaking in through all of Circe's defenses and back out again. Past an island of Lycanthropes, over the mouth of a Mini Nobbu-infested coastal cave, along the body of a great sea serpent. They dance along the slopes of a craggy island, in between the pieces of a shipwreck as Drake's ghost looks on - and at long last, seemingly wrapping all around the world, the two Argonauts once more touch down amidst the rubble of the Pillars of Hercules.
Heracles spends just a moment to breathe in. "It was fun, Jason!"
"Yeah!" His captain answers with a grin. "Fighting… isn't so bad when you're good at it!"
Then, with a grin, the two come together again - but, their magical energy totally spent, they melt into golden dust before their blows can connect.
***
-And, promptly, Jason is spat out onto the deck of the Argo in a fountain of cursed mud.
"Ack! Ow! Wow, that sucks!"