In order to deal with her opponents, Scheherazade once again conjured up her familiars. The shahmaran was once again brought into the Reality Marble as well as the djinn. What stood before Cisco and Rider was a woman with a snake tail in place of legs and a blue giant floating in mid-air with smoke in place of legs. Rider grins after watching Scheherazade summon her familiars, “Look master, our friend here brought some toys for me to play with.”
With the summoning completed, Scheherazade waved her staff and the shahmaran and the djinn initiated their attack. The shahmaran launched a barrage of energy blasts while the djinn surrounded Rider with a pillar of fire. The pillar made it so that Rider could not move around in any way to avoid the energy blasts while at the same time burning her. The pillar kept shrinking in size until it exploded.
To Scheherazade’s dismay, Rider walked out of the explosion unscathed. “Using fire against me little Caster. How naïve.” Rider grinned and sneered as she walked out of the explosion. Outside the Reality Marble, everyone saw everything that happened inside through Carter’s magic screen. J’onn was shocked, “How did she survive that? No mere human should be able to come out of that unharmed.”
Carter smiles, “The keyword here being human.” J’onn was not the only one puzzled by Carter’s words. “Rider isn’t human, nor is she an alien. She’s a Divine Spirit. An ancient god, and one of the symbols of her divinity is the sun. Do you think someone with power over the sun can be burned by mere flames?” Kara then asks, “So who is Rider exactly? You were the one who prepared the catalyst for everyone, so you must know.”
Carter nods as he watches the battle, “Yup, I do know who she is. Rider’s true name is Quetzalcoatl. She’s the Mesoamerican god of the sun and Heracles is the opponent I didn’t want her to face. I summoned her mainly to deal with the Black Rider, Iskandar. Her Noble Phantasm is the one that I felt was best suited to deal with Iskandar’s Noble Phantasm. Heracles’s Noble Phantasm is a problem to deal with and to make matters worse, the method used to kill him won’t necessarily work a second time.”
Carter began showing his concerns, “The best person to beat him is either me or Saber. We’re the ones most equipped to handle that monster.” Watching the screen, Carter heard a loud roar. “Speak of the devil, here he comes.” While everyone watched the battle with their full attention outside of the Reality Marble, inside it Rider had easily disposed of the two familiars.
Utilizing her quick reflexes, Rider easily dodges and blocks the shahmaran’s energy blasts as she approached the creature. When she had finally reached her target, Rider easily decapitates the creature with a single swing of her blade. Rider quickly runs towards the djinn after killing the shahmaran. The djinn kept blasting Rider with fire but all his efforts were for naught. When Rider finally reached him, she jumps leaving a crater in the ground and cuts him in half with a single vertical swing.
The djinn was bisected from Rider’s attack and disintegrates in a cloud of smoke. With two of her more powerful familiars defeated, Scheherazade panics as Rider makes her way to her. “Stop it, d, d, d, don’t come any closer. I’m warning you.” Scheherazade was shedding tears for fear of losing her life as she watches Rider slowly approaches her. When Rider finally stood in front of the Black Caster, she delivers a powerful right hook sending the Caster face first into a tree.
After Scheherazade crashed into the tree, Rider heard the loud roar of a monster. Cisco ran up to his servant, “Sis, what the hell was that?” Rider made a serious expression as she faced the direction of the roar, “That monster regenerated. How many more times do we need to kill this guy until he dies for real?” As they were conversing, Rider saw the outline of Heracles’ figure approaching them from behind the tree.
Seeing his enemies within his sights, Heracles rushes towards Rider. The Berserker was completely enraged that Rider managed to take one of his twelve lives. “Please run away master. I’ll handle this monster somehow.” Cisco heeded Rider’s words and kept his distance. He knew this was not a fight he could get involved in. He would just get in Rider’s way.
Heracles swings his axe with using his full force. The ground cracked when Rider avoided the strike. “Looks like I can’t take any of those swings anymore.” Rider could no longer block any of Heracles’ attacks. The Berserker had utilized his madness enhancement and his strength increased by several folds. Blocking an attack carrying such power would have severe repercussions for Rider.
Rider had to utilize her agility and avoid each one of Heracles’ swings. When she finally manages to get behind the monster, he turns around and kicks her into a tree. Rider vomited some blood when she impacted the tree. Heracles roars and was going to finish the job. He swings his ax once more. Rider could feel that she had broken her ribs when Heracles kicked her into the tree.
Despite her injuries, Rider willed herself to keep moving and avoids the incoming attack by a hairsbreadth. She lets go of her sword and shield and she runs and rolls between his legs and once again appears behind him. Just as he was about to turn around and strike her, Rider manages to grab hold of the large hero. “I am the serpent. I am fire”, a tornado started to swirl around them, and Rider throws the monster into the air as the tornado carried him higher, he even passed the tall trees of the forest. Using all her strength, Rider coats herself in flames and soars into the sky, and grabs hold of Heracles once he was high enough. When she grabs him, he also became engulfed in flames, and she piledrives him into the ground while shouting the true name of her Noble Phantasm, “O flames, burn the gods themselves. Xiuhcoatl”.
When the two heroic spirits landed, a large explosion occurred as a result of Rider’s Noble Phantasm. When the dust cleared Cisco approached Rider and Heracles, “Sis, is it over?” But Rider did not answer as she looked at the charred remains of the great Greek hero inside the crater. “It’s not over yet master. Even now, the monster of a heroic spirit is regenerating.” As they spoke, Rider raised her head and saw Scheherazade had regained consciousness.
“You wench. You dare to frighten me and damage my beautiful face. You’ll pay for it.” As she said that, Scheherazade took out a scroll, and unfurls it. “Bear witness to the tales of the One Thousand and One Nights, Alf Layla wa-Layla”. With the casting of her Noble Phantasm, the surrounding area turns into a dessert, and all the creatures and characters from the One Thousand and One Nights appeared.
Despite her fatigue from the non-stop fighting, Rider placed herself into her fighting stance. Just as she was ready to face the familiars of the Black Caster, Heracles got back up and had almost completely regenerated. Rider knew that unless a miracle happened, she would not walk out of this battle alive.
