Blake wakes up on a beach. Blake Alter walks up and says she was instructed to use her as bait, but she has run out of patience. Confused, Blake asks who she is, and she explains she is her Alter, better than her. Unlike Blake, she is not a coward or a follower. She will kill her and make a life for herself. Blake tries to summon her weapon, but nothing happens. Blake Alter holds up Gambol Shroud, then throws it into the ocean. She rushes Blake and hits her several times, giving her a bloody nose, then pins her to a tree. She raises her claws and Blake cringes in fear.
Blake Alter calls her pathetic and tells her to make it fun by running away. She suddenly stomps on Blake's right ankle, crushing it while Blake screams. Alter says it is so she can't get far, and she might as well serve as bait anyway. She lifts Blake by the hair and throws her into the nearby forest. She looks up and sees Achilles' chariot approaching from the sky, but it turns and heads in a different direction. Alter taunts Blake that it looks like Achilles doesn't care about her after all.
Blake Alter enters the forest hunting Blake down. She sees a Shadow Clone and ignores it as it disappears, pointing out she has her memories, so her tactics cannot fool her. She sniffs the blood Blake had left on her hand and seemingly finds her hiding place, only to find some blood Blake had left on a tree as a decoy, which she admits was clever. In her actual hiding place, Blake struggles to stay calm. Blake Alter calls out that Ruby, Weiss, and Yang don't really care about her. She then says she abandoned the White Fang because she was a coward who didn't want to get her hands dirty, and it is all her fault Adam Taurus became a monster. Blake yells at her to shut up, and realizes her mistake too late when Alter finds her. She says when this is over, she plans to find Adam and make him submit to her, and if he refuses, she will kill him.
She morphs her hand into a huge cat's paw and prepares to strike Blake down, but she is suddenly shot with arrows a few times. She pulls them out and runs away. Achilles runs up and says everything's going to be okay. Shocked, Blake says she saw his chariot flying away, and he says he needed to drop off Penthesilea and Suzuka Gozen where Medusa was being held. He pulls out a roll of bandages and makes a splint for her ankle. Atalanta is chasing her Alter. Blake starts to cry and says she has made so many mistakes and has so many regrets. Her Alter was right about one thing, she is a coward. He admits he has regrets too. His mother advised him to know the right battles to fight, but he didn't listen, and he ended up making Penthesilea hate him. He says they can't change the past, but they can do their best to make sure their mistakes don't happen again. He helps her up and says he'll take her back to Chaldea. She says they have to help Atalanta, but he says not to underestimate her.
Atalanta jumps through tree branches and shoots Blake Alter with arrow after arrow. Alter angrily knocks several trees down, but Atalanta casually jumps to the ground. She deduces that Blake Alter is a Berserker. Alter confirms it and boasts that she is superior to Blake, but Atalanta shoots her in the tongue. Atalanta points out in other kingdoms, they call heroes Huntsmen and Huntresses. Alter's tongue heals and she asks what is her point. The point is Alter is not her opponent, she is just prey. She shoots Alter several times and dodges every time Alter tries to attack her. She says Alter's Healing Factor will give out eventually.
Blake Alter recalls a conversation Blake and Atalanta had, then says she hates them both and everything else. Her hatred makes her stronger than Blake. She unleashes dark energy that destroys the arrows embedded in her and changes her form. She says from now on, her name is Nikushimi (Hatred in Japanese). Atalanta stares in horror as Nikushimi transforms into a Grimm Cat as tall as the trees, covered in the classic Grimm bone mask, spikes, and armor.
Nikushimi attacks, and while evading, Atalanta declares her Noble Phantasm, Phoebus Catastrophe, and fires an arrow into the air. Nikushimi injures Atalanta's shoulder and pins her to the ground with her paw. She tries to eat her, but Atalanta stabs her in the eye with her bow and forces her back. Before Nikushimi can attack again, the area is hit with a Rain of Arrows and she is blown into chunks, while none of the arrows hit Atalanta. She surveys the battlefield and sees only Nikushimi's head is left. She sighs and tries to leave, but is horrified when the head changes back to Nikushimi's original humanoid form. She tackles Atalanta and straddles her, then strangles her with her own bow, saying she will pay for hurting her.
Suddenly, Suzuka Gozen shows up and decapitates Nikushimi with her katana. Atalanta thanks her and assumes Medusa has been rescued, but Suzuka says Medusa Alter was too strong so she came looking for help. She then says Penthesilea is dead before revealing she was joking. In reality, Medusa Alter turned her to stone. The two walk through the forest until they come to another beach. They see Penthesilea frozen in stone mid-attack and Medusa unconscious in a force field. Atalanta knows about Medusa's ability to turn living beings to stone, so it makes sense her Alter can do it too. They believe Penthesilea will turn back if the Alter is killed. Medusa Alter bursts out of the ground. Atalanta gawks at her massive size, snake hair, snake lower half, and golden wings, and says Suzuka could have warned her what she looked like. Medusa Alter says her name is Gorgon. She fires a beam from her eyes and they dodge and watch as the beam hits a crab and turns it to stone. They dodge more beams and Atalanta finds she can't fire an arrow with her shoulder injured.
Suzuka gets behind Gorgon and leaps at her, trying to decapitate her, but Gorgon's wing swats her out of the air. Atalanta tackles Suzuka right before she would have flown into Penthesilea. Suzuka comments maybe they should have thought of a plan first. Suddenly, all three combatants are shocked when they hear a roar and then Heracles emerges from the water, wielding his massive ax-sword. He charges Gorgon and blocks her eye beams with his weapon. He hits Gorgon and knocks her into a tree. She manages to blast his left arm and turn it to stone, but he simply chops it off and it regenerates. As the two continue to clash, Atalanta says the man looks like the description of the legendary Heracles, but wonders how he can still be alive.
Suzuka reiterates that she is tired of being on the sidelines and uses her Noble Phantasm, "Sword of Manjushri Daishintou, Love Blast, Heavenly Demon Rain". Her sword multiplies into over a hundred and they rain down on the battlefield. Heracles is forced to block them with his weapon, while Gorgon gets hit several times. While the dust is still clearing, Suzuka overconfidently says she won, but an injured Gorgon emerges and blasts her, turning her to stone. She falls over and Atalanta catches her before she would have shattered, but gets pinned under her. Before Gorgon can attack them, Heracles emerges and hits her with a hundred slashes at once, slicing her to piecesnote . Gorgon's corpse disintegrates, then Heracles stares at Atalanta, who stares back. After a moment, Heracles walks back into the water and swims away.
The force field holding Medusa disappears, and Suzuka and Penthesilea turn back to normal. Achilles rides up in his chariot, saying he dropped off Blake at Chaldea. Suzuka starts to explain what happened, but when she describes Heracles, he automatically assumes she's joking and walks away. Atalanta tells her that Achilles admired the stories of the Immortal Great Hero and dreamed of meeting and fighting him. Achilles picks up Medusa's unconscious body and notices Penthesilea looking self conscious. He sees a horde of Grimm approaching and points out his chariot can only hold four people and that horde needs to be stopped, so someone needs to stay behind. Penthesilea agrees to do it, pointing out she needs to vent. As the group flies away on the chariot, Penthesilea throws herself against the horde. They pass by the area where Atalanta fought Nikushimi and see her corpse being eaten by other Grimm. She says they are disgusting and she hopes the invasion ends soon.
