"Honestly... I thought you would come see me sooner."
On the third day, Shirou found his next target for recruitment in the forest near Trifas, the "Red" Archer, Atalanta.
"Work is important, of course, but so is family... Even if the world is ending, you shouldn't just abandon your woman, right?"
With that, Atalanta leapt down from a tree, came to Shirou's side, and happily linked her arm with his.
"Archer..."
The cat-eared girl pressed a finger to the boy's lips. "The Holy Grail War is over. Isn't that title a little outdated?"
"Atalanta."
"Hehe, that's more like it."
Atalanta smiled and said, "All right, let's go~"
"Go? Where?"
Shirou instinctively glanced in Metatron's direction. Surely she was not planning to go fight that thing right now?
"On a date, of course."
The cat-eared girl spoke as if it were only natural. "You've been going on plenty of dates with other girls lately anyway. Isn't it strange that you'd rather go on dates with them than spend time with your own woman?"
Shirou sighed. "Haa... Let me ask, who told you all this?"
"Rider."
"...I knew it."
That Astolfo, what exactly has he been running around bragging about...?
"All right, all right, forget about that woman... Let's go!"
Atalanta hugged Shirou's arm tightly enough that he could feel the soft rise and fall of the girl's body through their skin.
"You're going to play with me until I'm satisfied today, okay~ My de-ar-est♡"
Muttering a frivolous pet name she had probably learned from some Goddess-sama, Atalanta pulled Shirou out of the forest.
Maybe it was just Shirou's imagination.
But he felt that Atalanta was far too excited today. Her usual seriousness and composure were nowhere to be seen.
It was almost as if she had become a different person.
Could she be in heat?
...
In the end... the entire day was spent on a date with Atalanta.
First, they went to a clothing store in town and picked out clothes for Atalanta, then officially started wandering around.
The two of them ate street food, drank coffee, and visited nearby historic sites together.
Was it because the end of the world was approaching?
Romania's public order, which had never been especially good to begin with, had deteriorated even further.
Or perhaps Atalanta was simply the dangerously beautiful woman from myth who had captivated countless men.
In any case, they were approached by men constantly during the date.
"Miss, want to go somewhere fun with us next?"
"Sorry, I already have my dearest. Let me introduce him to you. This person is both my husband and my master, my de-ar-est♡."
As she spoke, Atalanta pulled the grimacing Shirou to her side.
"If you can beat him, I don't mind going with you."
"W-What...! Miss, are you serious?"
"Hehe. Then again... weaklings like you thinking you could beat my dearest? That wouldn't happen even if the world really did end."
The cat-eared girl lifted the corner of her mouth, revealing a cold, contemptuous smile.
"Damn it!" "How dare you!" "Unforgivable!" "Give Atalanta-chan back!"
The men's fighting spirit surged as if they had been hypnotized.
In the end...
It turned into a rotating arm-wrestling challenge at an outdoor café by the street.
The men challenging Shirou included local townspeople, as well as tourists who had come to see the Sky Garden, now a Romanian landmark, up close.
The long, grand line stretched all the way from the new town to the old district.
Of course, not a single person beat Shirou.
Among them, there were one or two with a decent amount of grit, such as a wild great hero of Troy with green hair who had appeared from who-knew-where.
"Damn it! So I still can't win!"
"Phew..."
Shirou let out a sigh of relief and withdrew his stiff arm.
That kid almost broke my arm. Thank goodness I was one step ahead and projected Heracles's parameters (arm strength).
"It's a real shame, but today's challenge tournament ends here... Now I will announce the one and only winner of this tournament, my dearest~!"
Atalanta first raised Shirou's wrist high, then threw herself straight into his arms and nuzzled against him affectionately.
"Aaaaaah!" "You beast!" "This is so frustrating!"
"Why did it turn out like this!" "Oh, God! A world like this might as well be destroyed!"
The men all showed expressions even more despairing and tragic than if the end of the world had arrived.
"Honestly, you really know how to wear someone out."
After the crowd dispersed, Shirou gave Atalanta a dissatisfied look.
"Didn't you say so yourself? That you'd play with me to your heart's content today."
"No, I never said anything like that."
"You were clearly enjoying yourself too... All right, there's still plenty of time. Let's go to the next place!"
"Yes, yes."
Shirou felt as if he were riding on the back of a rampaging boar. Just pulling the reins and not getting thrown off was already exhausting.
Still, it was only exhausting, and this kind of fatigue actually felt refreshing.
"Did you have fun today?"
Atalanta's sudden question made Shirou pause.
"I did."
The girl seemed slightly dissatisfied. "You hesitated just now, didn't you?"
"I had fun," Shirou repeated.
Although this world was facing a crisis of extinction, and how to fight a monster like Metatron remained a mystery, Shirou truly felt relaxed at this moment.
It had not actually been many days since Manaka collapsed, but Shirou felt as if it had been a very long time since he had relaxed like this.
The sunlight was bright, the sky was blue, and the people on the road were full of life.
Just walking in a place like this was enough to improve his mood.
"It's all thanks to Atalanta."
"Now you understand how important I am, don't you?"
Atalanta affectionately linked her arm with Shirou's like a lover and gave him a satisfied, happy smile.
Night fell.
Because Shirou still had other work to do that evening, he escorted Atalanta back to the forest outside town.
"Atalanta, about what I mentioned this morning..."
"You want me to help you fight, right? Of course that's fine. I'll fulfill my duties as a wife and fight the angels with you."
"Thank you. Then I'll be going."
"Huh? You're not staying tonight?"
"Yeah. I still have other work to deal with."
"And I even bought battle lingerie during the day. I thought I'd get to use it tonight."
"Sorry, Atalanta. I'll come see you again in a couple of days."
"All right. Don't forget what you said."
The two parted ways there.
"Phew..."
Atalanta watched Shirou's back disappear, then let out a long breath.
The frivolous, exaggerated air on the girl's delicate face vanished in an instant, and she returned to her true self as a cool-headed, composed hunter.
"Playing a personality that doesn't belong to me really doesn't feel natural. But I did have fun today, so it's fine... Now then, it's about time to get down to business."
A resolute light appeared in Atalanta's green eyes. It was the gaze of someone who had made a certain kind of resolve.
The girl took out a black cloth that continuously released an ominous purple aura into the surroundings.
No, it was not cloth.
A closer look revealed that its surface was covered in thick beast fur.
This pelt, which radiated an overwhelming cursed Mana, was the secret treasure of Atalanta, Greece's greatest huntress.
"Calydonian Demon Boar."
According to legend, when King Oeneus of Calydon offered living sacrifices to the Twelve Olympians, he alone neglected Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.
One account says that the reason Oeneus did not offer a sacrifice was because the sacrifice chosen had been King Oeneus himself.
In any case, the goddess was enraged that no offering had been made to her, and she sent an enormous Magical Beast down to earth.
At first glance, it looked like a giant black boar, but in truth, it was divine punishment itself, using a living creature as its vessel.
It was a devourer of city-states, its entire body giving off the stench of rot.
Merely standing there, it could render the land forever incapable of bearing crops. It was, in the truest sense, a walking calamity.
Naturally, a hunting party was formed to subjugate it.
As Greek heroes volunteered one after another, the only woman to take part in the hunt was none other than Atalanta.
And while many men could not even land a single arrow and were swallowed up in vain, she was also the first brave hunter to pierce the Magical Beast with an arrow.
Afterward, the survivors fought on and finally slew the Magical Beast.
The one who skinned the Magical Beast and cut off its head was Meleager, son of Oeneus, who had dealt the final blow with a spear.
However, when dividing the spoils, he gave the portion of the pelt bearing the Demon Boar's head to Atalanta.
"You were the first to draw blood from the Magical Beast. Therefore, this pelt belongs to you."
Whether it was out of simple jealousy born from love, or merely a desire to show fairness, the decision met fierce opposition from the rest of the hunting party.
Some said that if Meleager, the one who had slain the Magical Beast, did not need the pelt, it should be given to them. Others claimed that Atalanta's arrow had never wounded the Magical Beast at all, and that the pelt should be given to the person who had truly injured it.
To a girl who lived in the forest, status and honor meant nothing.
But she could not accept someone saying that her arrow had not struck the Magical Beast.
The argument escalated and eventually turned into meaningless slaughter among themselves.
Whether they loved Atalanta, hated her, or harbored ill intent toward her, they all died miserably.
After that mutual slaughter, the pelt of the Demon Boar had surpassed its original meaning.
It was not only a symbol of divine punishment, but also an ugly crystallization of human hatred and desire.
Atalanta took the pelt as her own.
She firmly believed it must have been a revelation brought to her by Goddess-sama.
Do not become obsessed with others. Do not fall in love. Such things only give birth to hatred.
She had never once intended to use this pelt.
And yet, the pelt of the Demon Boar was here, truly existing as a Noble Phantasm.
Though Atalanta herself had manifested while carrying it, it had remained a meaningless Noble Phantasm whose purpose even she could not clearly understand.
Now, she finally knew.
This Noble Phantasm could only be used when her heart was free of distractions and she had no attachment left to anything.
Once she put on this pelt...
Atalanta would cease to be a Heroic Spirit and transform into a monster with an ugly form, stripped of human reason.
That was fine.
That was enough.
If this was the result he desired.
If doing this could help him.
Happy, boring days.
Surroundings that held nothing, yet were unbearably warm because of that emptiness.
I don't seem to like the human species very much. Desperate to survive, clinging to life, afraid of death, endlessly increasing in number. What exactly are they trying to seek at the end of all that reproduction?
I never fell in love while I was alive.
Nor did I know what love truly was.
Until I met you. Until I was drawn to you. Atalanta, I stopped being myself.
I once thought love was something that belonged to people other than me.
Because I loved humanity, I had never liked any single person.
And yet, while thinking that...
I fell for you, hopelessly and completely.
Ah...
How did I end up in such an ugly state, unable even to face my own heart?
"..."
The girl made up her mind.
Today's date had been joyful and fulfilling.
She had no regrets left.
In just ten short hours, Atalanta experienced every happiness and selfish indulgence she had never known in life.
She left herself with no regrets.
Falling in love really was wonderful.
Falling in love really was beautiful.
Now she finally understood why humans were animals with twelve mating seasons a year.
I wish I could... keep feeling this forever. But I can't.
I have to gain power.
This rosy time ends here.
My romance is over.
To gain enough strength to fight an angel.
To help the man she had chosen, the girl resolved to sacrifice herself.
"Noble Phantasm, Agrius Metamorphosis: Boar of Divine Punishment."
Draped over a wild boar, it would become a great Magical Beast capable of destroying a nation.
Draped over a human, it would become a monster surpassing humanity.
Draped over a hero, Atalanta would become an existence beyond a Servant. A Demon.
The beautiful harmony that had once blended with the forest instantly lost its color and turned silver-white, while her healthy skin seemed stained into a sickly pallor.
The wild beauty she had possessed as the Archer of Red, racing across the open plains, was gone. An ominous haze wrapped around Atalanta's slender body.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...!!"
The Demon, Atalanta Alter, roared as she clutched herself and collapsed helplessly to her knees.
Pain...
An indescribable agony seeped into every cell of the girl's body. Even Hydra venom could hardly have been worse.
Dizziness...
The world spun and swelled, as if something were crushing her skull. It was despair enough to make her sob.
Hunger...
An unstoppable hunger. She wanted to devour, to feed, to smear her whole body with blood.
"Ah... ahh... ■■... ■■■..."
Her vision blurred, and even making sounds was difficult.
Were the words coming from her mouth still human speech?
Or had they already become the howls of a Beast?
Amid pain no ordinary person could have endured, Atalanta also felt the thing she had longed for, the thing that brought her joy.
Power.
What churned within her was a massive curse of magical energy capable of swallowing towns and defiling the land, granting even the black arrows she loosed at random a force equivalent to an "Anti-Army Noble Phantasm."
The skin her nails had torn open in her agony regenerated in less than a second and returned to normal.
Aside from magical energy and regeneration that surpassed a Heroic Spirit's, she had gained senses even sharper than those she had possessed in life.
Sight, hearing, smell, touch, intuition...
Even Greece's most famous huntress had never reached such a realm.
Atalanta Alter heard footsteps hidden beneath the howling night wind, crossing the forest and drawing closer.
"?"
Someone was approaching.
Atalanta forced herself to hold on to reason and raised her head.
"How... could... Why did you come back...?"
Atalanta Alter shouted at the red-haired boy who had reappeared in the forest.
"I wanted to invite you to stay at the castle... Wait, Atalanta? What happened to you? You look kind of strange. Are you okay?"
"Don't come any closer!!"
Atalanta Alter bared her sharp canine teeth and released a threatening surge of magical energy.
Why did this have to happen...
Why did it have to be him...
The one person she least wanted to see her in this ugly state...
The girl hugged herself tightly and curled up, trembling.
"Don't... ■■ in front of me anymore..."
"What are you talking about?"
"Disappear... Just go... I'm not the Atalanta you ■■ anymore..."
"No."
Shirou grabbed Atalanta Alter by the arm and pulled her up from the ground.
"Stop!"
Atalanta Alter struggled desperately and swung her arm.
Her sharp claws carved three deep, bloody gashes across Shirou's chest.
"...Ugh!"
The pitch-black girl's eyes went wide.
"I... I'm sorry... I didn't mean..."
Shaking her head, she backed away, then suddenly turned and fled in a panic.
Atalanta's speed after becoming a Demon had explosively increased far beyond what it had been. Under normal circumstances, she probably could not have been followed with the naked eye.
Fortunately, Shirou had already sensed her urge to run.
"Time Alter Hexagon Accel!"
Before Atalanta could reach top speed, Shirou leapt forward and tackled her around the waist, pinning her to the ground.
"Stop! Let go of me! ■■■! No!"
Shirou ignored the girl's resistance and gradually forced her hands under control.
During that time, Atalanta Alter's nails left countless wounds across his body.
"What is going on, Atalanta?"
"No... don't look at me... don't look at me... ngh!"
Atalanta struggled with everything she had.
Even as she struggled, she desperately suppressed the Beast's urges so she would not hurt Shirou.
After several minutes of chaos, she slowly quieted down.
Atalanta regained a little of her reason.
"Haa... haa... haa..."
Her full breasts, greatly developed by her transformation into a Demon, rose and fell violently like hills. Atalanta Alter glared at the boy holding her down, her face filled with humiliation and despair.
"Why... Why do you have to do this?! I told you to leave me alone!"
"You suddenly turned strange, Atalanta. I couldn't just ignore that."
Atalanta raged helplessly and snapped, "You... meddling bastard!"
Shirou looked at her seriously. "Say whatever you want. I still can't just leave you alone."
"......"
Atalanta had no reply.
She knew very well why she had fallen for this man.
His body, powerful as steel forged through countless trials, had captivated her.
At the same time, the heart Shirou possessed, one worthy of that strength, had deeply moved the huntress.
But... it was already too late.
The way she was now, she no longer had the right to love him.
Because Atalanta had become a complete monster.
And naturally, a monster could not fall in love with a hero. Greek mythology reenacted the same tragedy every day.
Atalanta Alter wearily turned her face away.
"The way I am now... I must look hideous to you."
"Hm?"
Shirou blinked.
Atalanta sneered. "Ha... Go ahead and laugh!
The huntress once pursued by countless men was foolish enough to become an ugly monster for the sake of one man. What a pathetic end."
"Ugly... Are you talking about how you look right now?"
"Yes. What of it?"
Atalanta Alter frowned. "I have become the incarnation of the Calydon Demon Boar. Now that you understand, stay away from me. Careful, or I'll bite you!"
Shirou looked even more confused. "But all I see is a beautiful cat-eared girl with gorgeous silver hair."
"Wh... Don't tell such obvious lies just to comfort me!"
"I mean it."
As if to make sure, Shirou reached out and stroked Atalanta Alter's cheek, then nodded.
"Yeah, I was right. No matter how I look at you, you're a super beautiful girl.
If I'd been born in Greece, I definitely would've been captivated by Atalanta's beauty, challenged you, and become one of those unlucky guys who died under your arrows."
"......Ngh."
Atalanta Alter realized her cheeks were rapidly turning red, but she still forced herself to stay calm.
"What you just said... were you serious?"
"Half serious, half joking, I guess."
Shirou scratched his cheek. "I don't want to die yet, so I probably wouldn't jump into a life-or-death trial that easily."
"Hmph, what a cowardly man..."
Atalanta Alter looked displeased. "You have to participate no matter what. You absolutely must.
If you're willing to take part, then, um... I'll try to go easy on you...!"
"Yeah, I'll be counting on you when the time comes."
Seeing Shirou's casual attitude, Atalanta Alter said in exasperation, "You really don't care what kind of monster someone is inside as long as they look cute on the outside, do you?"
"No, of course not."
Shirou spoke seriously. "It's because I know Atalanta is beautiful on the inside too.
I heard about your wish. You want all the children in the world to be happy, don't you?"
"...!"
Atalanta Alter's lips parted slightly.
Her expression remained cold, but deep in the girl's lower abdomen, a hot, tingling sensation began to stir.
Not only that, her legs were so delighted that she could not help squeezing them tightly together.
"Hmph. Since you've gone that far...
From now on, you'd better properly fulfill your duties as my Master and train this runaway Beast, understood?"