The relentless and overwhelming force continued to descend as if carrying the weight of Mount Everest itself—a crushing weight akin to the collapse of the heavens, far beyond what Penthesilea could bear. Her body, with both arms restrained, sank lower and lower. The ground beneath her cracked and crumbled, not only because of the immense pressure but also from her unconscious act of bending her knees.
Even with the highest class parameter granted by Berserker, Penthesilea found it impossible to overcome the raw strength of Alaric, who unleashed his magical energy.
"Ugh... AAAAAHHHH!!!"
Yet, Penthesilea did not give up. Instead, she let out a boundless roar of fury.
The divine blood slumbering within her began to awaken. The surge of her divinity, mixed with magical energy, created a phenomenon known as divine aura, which radiated from her and pushed her body to rise slowly.
The divine aura enveloped her arms and legs, granting Penthesilea the strength to engage in a contest of power against Alaric.
As the daughter of the war god Ares, Penthesilea was unquestionably a true demigod. Her divinity soared to heights that even surpassed Achilles!
The roar she unleashed reverberated through the battlefield, inspiring her fellow Amazon warriors. Those already fighting with all their might suddenly erupted with even greater ferocity, their strength surpassing human limits.
This was the effect of her A+ ranked skill, War God's Roar.
It was a battle cry that awakened the blood of the war god Ares flowing through her veins. Her comrades, fighting alongside her as warriors, would feel as if they were being led by the war god himself, the roar bestowing upon them unparalleled valor.
It was said that during the Trojan War, the collective roar of the Amazon army caused their enemies to tremble uncontrollably.
The most direct embodiment of this skill was seen in Penthesilea herself. With her divine aura surging, Penthesilea attempted to straighten her body and claim victory in this contest of strength.
But Alaric had no intention of giving her the chance.
Smack!
With decisive precision, Alaric released the pressure he had been exerting, grabbed Penthesilea's wrist, and spun around, hurling her like a sandbag into the distance!
BOOM!
Penthesilea shot through the air like a missile, unable to adjust her posture or absorb the momentum. In mere moments, she crashed through row after row of buildings, leaving behind pulverized rubble and clouds of dust.
She had no opportunity to gain traction or stabilize herself. Everything she touched was instantly obliterated until, after being flung over a hundred meters, she finally came to a stop!
By then, Alaric had already closed the distance again. With unmatched speed, he brought down his fist upon Penthesilea.
Faint traces of radiant light flickered along his fist, shimmering and leaving afterimages in Penthesilea's eyes due to his incredible speed.
The magical phenomenon was secondary. Even in her Berserker state, Penthesilea could sense the danger emanating from the approaching blow.
But understanding the threat was one thing—responding to it was another.
Alaric's speed was simply too fast. To Penthesilea, it was only slightly inferior to that of the mighty Achilles himself!
BOOOOMMM!!!
An earth-shattering explosion erupted as the impact struck. The resulting shockwave caused the ground to ripple and rupture like ocean waves, while countless fragments of destroyed structures were torn apart.
Even those fighting hundreds of meters away, including Ritsuka Fujimaru and the others, could feel the incredible magnitude of the battle.
It was during this chaotic clash that Ritsuka learned, through an offhand comment by Astolfo, about the last Holy Grail War Alaric had participated in before reuniting with them—the Holy Grail War of the Third Magic, the Heaven's Cup.
But the battle unfolding near Ritsuka's location was far from Alaric's concern. He was fully immersed in the thrill of his combat with Penthesilea.
As the queen of the Amazons, famed for her martial prowess, Penthesilea's combat instincts and techniques were honed to perfection. And with the divine blood of Ares flowing through her veins, she was a force to be reckoned with.
The combination of her abilities and lineage delivered a battle that ignited Alaric's fighting spirit—a rare and exhilarating experience.
Through the course of their fight, Alaric finally realized the extent of Penthesilea's Berserker-level Madness Enhancement.
It reminded him of Vlad III, which allowed Vlad to claim specific territory as his domain and fight with power equivalent to A-rank Madness Enhancement. With that boost, Vlad could even hold his own against Karna.
But the Madness Enhancement possessed by Penthesilea… it could only be described as EX-rank. The stat boosts she received rivaled, if not exceeded, those of A-rank Madness Enhancement.
Her strength was extraordinary, and her physical resilience unmatched—enough to endure against Alaric's might up to this point.
Alaric approached the bloodied Penthesilea, lying amidst the ruins of the battlefield. The ground around her, fractured and upheaved, spanned a radius of hundreds of meters. It was as though the earth itself had blossomed into a field of destruction.
Even without relying purely on magical energy release, Alaric's raw power had reached the level of Noble Phantasms.
For the first time in a long while, Alaric felt his blood boil with excitement. Life in Chaldea had been dull and tense, though he couldn't quite pinpoint why he felt so tense there.
But that hardly mattered now. The battlefield before him was intense and brutal, yet he had ensured that the fighting would not endanger Ritsuka and the others, keeping the battle confined to its own space.
After a brief moment of thought, Alaric continued his advance toward Penthesilea. But this time—
"Ah... ahhhh... kill... kill, kill… KILL—!"
Penthesilea, now severely injured, let out ragged breaths. Her eyes burned with feral rage, locking onto Alaric like a wild beast fixated on its prey.
Already consumed by her Berserker madness, Penthesilea, pushed to her limits and gravely wounded, made the decisive choice to unleash her trump card.
With her True Name chant, a surge of magical energy exploded around her as she roared forward with terrifying speed:
"Perish within my wrath, heroes! Outrage Amazon!"
This was the technique that unleashed her deeply rooted hatred for Achilles, her warrior's yearning for strength, and the blood of Ares coursing through her veins. She willingly transformed into a mindless beast, embodying the essence of a true Berserker.
Accompanied by a deafening cry of "Achilles—!", she charged forward, wielding her entire body and weaponry as instruments of destruction.
"Ahhh, AHHHHHH—ACHILLES!!!"
Confronted by the onrushing Amazonian Queen, Alaric at last drew his counterfeit holy sword.
Unlike Penthesilea, who wielded only one weapon, Alaric's holy swords were mass-produced. Blessed by divine spears, their number was unrestricted, allowing him to create multiple holy swords.
However, their ultimate power still relied on Alaric himself. After all, when it came to wielding blessings, he was no Lion King.
"O hammer of the humbled king, reverse the aurora! Devour the light! Shine forth—"
The knight calmly declared the True Name of his sword as he raised it high above his head:
"EX Rhongomyniad!"
With the True Name's release, the knight swung his holy sword.
The torrent of light unleashed from the blade tore through the earth and evaporated the heavens. Alaric's refined technique compressed the originally wide-ranging attack into a focused, linear beam of pitch-black radiance.