I am a Peerless Hero without equal! (WC/Currently in FGO Part 1)

Utilizing the planet's curvature, the Argo remained undetected as Heracles took position. As befitting a hero of Heracles' caliber, he easily managed to snipe at a target he was unable to see— hitting a target that rested below the horizon that separated Earth and Sky.

"You should be wary of Medea, Jason," Heracles said.

The demigod then wrapped his Bow of Hydra around his body, in essence sheathing his weapon. Then, he sauntered over to the edge of the Argo as the blonde-haired Jason gloated about his victory to a young, purple-haired girl— Medea.

"Hehehe, I told you Heracles is the strongest! He'll defeat any obstacle in his way." He boasted proudly, "We don't need Blackbeard. It was the right call to abandon him after he lost the Kraken."

"Yes, yes, indeed, my dearest Jason, there was never a need for you to take the field yourself, hmm?" Medea replied, her words colored by a Greek accent.

"Now that a god has fallen, this should be enough to empower the Ark, right?"

Medea shook her head sadly, her heart ached at having to refuse her beloved Jason, "Unfortunately, that wasn't a true god. The Oracles foretold how the biggest threat possessed no divinity. A false mortal taking on the guise of a foreign god. Also, Heracles is leaving."

"Huh—?" Jason whipped his head around to where Heracles was when he fired off his Noble Phantasm— Nine Lives— only to find air.

Then, a large water splash can be heard. Jason rushed over to the edge of the Argo, finding Heracles having dived into the water and was now swimming away.

"Heracles! Get back here!"

____

Zvezdnyy felt like she was in the midst of a dark abyss with no light. She was floating about, her body still as a piece of furniture. Her arms and hands were spread out to their widest, her shoulder straining as her legs were also outstretched as if she had been crucified.

That was until a crack of light pierced through this abyss, breaking the darkness and shining upon the little girl.

Her Kapitana?

Steadily, Zvezdnyy opened her eyes and found herself staring at an unknown face.

"Who are you?" Zvezdnyy asked as she lay there on the ground. She could feel particles of hot, sun-cooked sand cushioning her head and body.

Looking down the face's body, she saw a bow wrapped around his body. Seeing the bow triggered unpleasant memories of her Polkovodets' apparent demise, with nine arrows sticking out of her body.

"I do not wish to see you, bow wielder." Zvezdnyy barely flexed her will.

The man flickered in and out of existence, appearing like a mirage before solidifying.

Did it… not work?

He groaned, "Don't do that again." He warned, "My Divinity had barely managed to anchor me to this World."

Zvezdnyy suddenly got up, prompting the man to stand up as well. This showcased just how large he was in comparison to the little girl—even taller than her Kapitana.

"Who are you?"

The man's face softened, "I am Heracles. I noticed how you were floating about, drifting in the sea and so I chose to rescue you. You, a little girl who barely saw much of the world, should not be ended so soon. Not like her…"

Zvezdnyy nodded along, as if the person had introduced himself as 'John' rather than a famous hero.

"And what's your name, little girl?"

"Hehe," bringing a hand to her face, Zvezdnyy manifested a stereotypical witch outfit over her body, replacing the old nobility one. "I am the Savior of Mankind. I am the One Who Seals the Destroyer. I am the Final Redeemer. I am… Zvezdnyy Rebenok! The Witch Who Shall Save Mankind!"

Zvezdnyy struck a dramatic pose— she tilted her head, the brim of the witch hat covering one side of her face. Heracles looked amused, "If you're going to save mankind, you'll need training. The world is a cruel place."

The girl grinned. She thought of her Polkovodets, the Commander of her Army that will save mankind from the King of the Darkness Below. Her invincible Polkovodets, always stood up even against impossible odds, such as down below the sea in Site 17. She who shielded Zvezdnyy from her corrupted Uchitel—

Multiple arrows sticking out of her body.

—The grin died a sudden death. Zvezdnyy looked disturbed, "I… I have to go. I have to find my Polkovodets."

She began to walk away. Step by step, the sand dampened the sound of her feet.

"And where will you go?" Heracles asked after Zvezdnyy took no more than half a dozen steps, "I found you in the middle of the ocean. If I weren't a demigod, I would've drowned carrying you to this island over 30 kilometers away."

Zvezdnyy pondered Heracles' words, thinking over his logic and finding no flaws in it. After all, in a plane crash, the girl did recall a book saying how the proper way of doing things was to stay around the wreckage. If this island was truly the closest place to her ship's sinking, then it simply meant this place would be the first place her Polkovodets came and checked.

Beyond that, her Polkovodets is invincible. She'll get right up after being hit with those arrows, right?

Right. Zvezdnyy nodded to herself, affirmed in the belief that she'll return in due time.

The girl stared at the sun high in the sky, at its zenith.

"Firstly, we need a source of freshwater." Heracles began, "On an island such as this, there should be streams all over the place."

Zvezdnyy's focus turned away from the infinite sea to the inlands. This island was huge, most likely even larger than the one she found Asterios in. Because of how dense the jungle was, the girl couldn't see anything further than a few meters in.

Heracles walked in, brushing aside the dense vegetation with the same ease one might find in a harvester cleaving through ripe wheat. Zvezdnyy followed closely behind.

"Stay quiet. We're trying to hear the streams."

Zvezdnyy kept her mouth shut and her footsteps light so she could be as quiet as possible. After a few more minutes of walking, the sound of flowing water just about entered her ears.

"There's…" Zvezdnyy trailed off as she turned her head from side to side, trying to hear the direction the water stream came from, "Flowing water that way."

Zvezdnyy pointed in a certain direction further into the island.

Heracles nodded, "Good, you'd heard it."

It took another 20 minutes before Zvezdnyy reached a small clearing devoid of trees. There was a bed of rocks, and upon that bed of rocks were a small pond with a small creek leaking out of it.

Heracles kneeled down and placed his thumb in the water. He brought that thumb up and tasted the wetness.

"We'll need a fire. This water isn't safe to consume as it is right now. For mortals at least."

With a simple snap of her fingers, a modern metal pot materialized right besides Zvezdnyy's feet. Alongside that was a raging campfire.

"..." Heracles looked stumped at the sudden appearance of these tools. Taking the pot and observing the item closely, he said, "This… is a Projection. The most realistic projection I've ever seen. You are an impressive witch, little girl."

Zvezdnyy preened under Heracles' compliment. A wide smile was on her lips. "Hehe, well I am meant to save all of Mankind, no?"

"Are you sure you want to walk down this path? It's not too late to turn back, live a normal life."

"Of course! Who else, but me? I am the Final Redeemer, after all." Zvezdnyy replied while placing a hand on her chest. Her mind was filled with memories of her Polkovodets acting heroically. Then her thoughts turned to Nero and the love her citizens beheld for the Emperor. So much love.

Heracles closed his eyes and quietly whispered to himself, "The gods are cruel, to have one so similar… Makaria…"

He then shook his head.

"Very well. Let us get to boiling water. Afterward, we'll see about hunting for food."

Using the pot, Heracles scooped up large amounts of water. Rather than using a tripod and having the pot dangle off it, the demigod proved his Divinity by simply holding the pot as the water inside it bubbled and boiled.

When the water was a raging, frothy mess, that was when Heracles placed the pot down on the ground beside the fire.

Astounded by the scene in front of her, Zvezdnyy moved to touch the pot to ascertain if it was hot or not—

"What are you doing?" Heracles asked sternly as he held Zvezdnyy's outstretched forearm, her fingers centimeter away from actually touching the pot. Heracles' giant hand enveloped much of Zvezdnyy's forearm.

"I'm trying to see if the pot is hot or not."

Heracles' brows furrowed.

"Of course the pot is hot, stupid girl! What possibly causes you to think the pot isn't hot?"

Zvezdnyy recoiled, a look of fear on her face at how explosive Heracles chastised her. Seeing those widened eyes, those quivering lips, Heracles was reminded of some unpleasant memories.

"I'm sorry! It's just… even my Polkovodets never touch the pot when she boils water, and she's immune to heat. And since you were touching the pot as if nothing happened, I was wondering if it's actually hot."

He shut his eyes and took in a deep breath to calm down. Heracles waved Zvezdnyy off.

"No, no, I'm the one who should apologize. I should've realized preemptively how different I am. Let's… go and hunt for our dinner."

Heracles grabbed some pebbles from the riverbed. Placing it on his knees, the demigod struck it with his bare hands, breaking the pebble so that it became incredibly sharp. Taking out an arrow from his quiver, Heracles broke the head and replaced the arrow with the sharp pebble.

"Why are you doing that, Heracles?"

"The arrows in my quiver are coated in hydra venom," He stated, pushing the sharp pebble deep into the stick so that it remains stuck, "Any animal struck becomes unfit for consumption. So if we are to hunt, I'll need normal arrows."

With the arrow seemingly done, Heracles stood up. "Let's go."

Zvezdnyy was excited. A hunt! Her Polkovodets never brought her to a hunt before, mainly because there were no animals to hunt as nature still hadn't recovered from the Apocalypse. Hunting of all kinds was prohibited by the Earth Authority since the food web was still extremely delicate.

Heracles brought Zvezdnyy to the edge of the island, to a section filled with jagged rocks and roaring waves, great bellowing winds slammed into the girl and Heracles like a hammer. The waves rhythmically splashed against those rocks, almost too easy to predict.

Zvezdnyy's eyes focused on the rocks.

Upon those jagged rocks rested lizards—large, almost man-sized lizards soaking in the daytime sun. They heat themselves up before diving into the cold ocean again to hunt for fish or feast on salty algae.

Zvezdnyy imagined hunting as exciting. She imagined squatting down on the ground, hands tracing a giant's footprint left in the mud. She imagined herself saying, 'clever girl,' as she realized the line that differentiated the hunted from the hunters blurred, and the animals began to hunt her as well.

It would be a great duel. Who knows who the hunter and the hunted is?

So imagine Zvezdnyy's disappointment when Heracles raised his bow, pulled back the string, and let loose the stone-tipped arrow, instantly killing one of the lizards resting on the rocks as its heart got pierced.

The others immediately fled into the water or further in-land, scurrying like rats whose homes had just been ripped apart as they disappeared among the waves and vegetation.

Heracles simply strode forward and grabbed the large lizard by its tail. Yanking it off the rocks it originally perched on. The demigod then said, "We're having grilled iguana for dinner."

As Heracles moved to leave, Zvezdnyy wished that things were more interesting. It would be terribly boring if all she does everyday until her Polkovodets come to rescue her is just hunt these fat lizards who lay in the sun all day.

Later, as Heracles cut open the lizard's belly, he instructed Zvezdnyy on how to clean a hunt.

"Ew… ew… ew!" Zvezdnyy couldn't help but mutter out as she felt the organs, "Please let me go."

With Heracles' large hands on her forearms, he practically forced Zvezdnyy to reach into the lizard's innards and gut it.

"Hrrk!"

Heracles only let go when Zvezdnyy leaned to the side and puked. She hurled her stomach's content all over the ground.

"Get up. The world is a bloody place. This is simply a small taste of it. If you cannot handle this little bit of blood, how could you stomach the slaughter you'll be forced to undertake?"

Zvezdnyy wiped her mouth, cleaning it of any acidic residue.

"I'm just a kid…" She mumbled.

In a dismissive tone, Heracles said, "Boys and girls your age are already separated from your parents and are trained for war in Sparta. This is simply the gutting of an iguana."

Zvezdnyy wants my Polkovodets back. The way her Polkovodets would cushion everything, always gentle, instead of this rough treatment she's getting from Heracles. It seems not all Anchors are the same. What a naive thought now that Zvezdnyy looked back on it.

The girl frowned, fuming as she stared at the iguana as though to burn a hole into it. A single thought and the organs suddenly disappeared, vanished from existence without even the collapse of a vacuum as air rushes back to fill in the space previously occupied by the organs. Blood pooled in the cavity of the lizard's corpse.

The gutting was complete.

Heracles stared at the corpse, surprise visible on his face.

"Next time, do it properly with your hands. What if you encounter an enemy like me who can ignore your magic?"

This time it was Zvezdnyy who waved Heracles off, "I have my Polkovodets for that. She is the Command of my Army after all. Her power is peerless. Her might without equal."

Heracles grimaced.

"And if this 'Polkovodets' isn't there?"

"She will be. My Polkovodets is invincible. She always is."

The sheer confidence in Zvezdnyy's words was as though she was stating a fact like how the sky was blue or how planets attract. It was a fundamental aspect of her reality, one that cannot be broken no matter what. A physical constant.

How much love must Zvezdnyy have for that self-proclaimed goddess? Was she the one who the Nine Lives had hit? If so, Heracles should tell Zvezdnyy the news, but just thinking of someone who looked like Makaria outraged and hating him caused his throat to tighten up, not letting a single sound out.

No one can survive a full barrage from his Nine Lives; it was the technique he used to slay the Lernaean Hydra in a single blow.