As the signal from the heart disappeared and her body could no longer sense the missing organ, it began regenerating on its own. Only then did U-Olga Marie finally recover from the debilitated state caused by losing her heart.
She opened her eyes in utter exhaustion, only to see a sight so bewildering it was enough to make her mind shut down.
She was lying in the arms of another "herself."
"You are..."
U stared at Olga Marie in disbelief.
"You're awake? This is the deck of the Storm Border."
Olga Marie looked down at her.
"I'm not sure what I should call you, so I'll just call you U. You can call me... Asmleit."
"Olga Marie Asmleit Animusphere..."
That name suddenly surfaced in U's mind, striking her with a shock unlike anything she had ever felt before.
They were only fragments. Incomplete scraps of information.
And yet the amount of data packed into them far exceeded what she could bear.
Her thought circuits were pushed into near paralysis.
She pulled herself out of Olga Marie's arms and tried to stand, but could not manage it.
"I'm telling you... you really shouldn't move around yet..."
Olga Marie tried to stop her, sounding somewhat helpless.
"At least wait until Teacher comes back..."
"Teacher...?!"
U jolted.
"Where is that person?"
"He's still underground, settling things with Tezcatlipoca."
Kirschtaria, who had been helping look after her, spoke up at that moment.
"The others are already preparing for battle."
On the deck were only the members of Team A, along with Daybit, who had just voluntarily become a prisoner.
"It's coming out."
Daybit suddenly spoke.
Everyone turned toward the withered Fantasy Tree.
The temple beneath its roots collapsed with a roar, and the Storm Border rose even higher, trying to put as much distance between itself and the ground as possible.
Romani's voice came urgently through the communicator.
"Maximum alert from the control room! Gravitational fluctuations detected in the deepest layer of Mictlan! They've already exceeded the instruments' measurement range! Estimated Spirit Origin scale is increasing from satellite class to stellar class! At the same time, we've confirmed another replacement of physical laws rising from the deepest layer toward the surface! Spacetime overwrite speed... negative 3.6 seconds per second!"
Chaldea had already observed it once before, when Tezcatlipoca activated his Noble Phantasm.
But that had been caused by a Divine Spirit's Noble Phantasm, something still within acceptable limits.
This time, however, even the results brought about by Tezcatlipoca's Noble Phantasm were being overwritten again.
"...Fantasy Tree..."
U struggled to rise, forcing that one phrase from her lips.
"I can see it."
Kirschtaria tightened his grip on his staff.
"You really did awaken something monstrous, Daybit. As an accomplice who once agreed with your plan, I'm prepared to fight to the death. What about you?"
"I don't care."
Daybit answered flatly.
"If you want to fight, I'll play along. But... don't expect my special ability to beat ORT."
That trait of his, the one that adjusted his power in accordance with the strength of his opponent, was basically useless against something so far beyond all standards.
The Golden Sea of Trees across all of Mictlan was being transformed into a Sea of Fantasy Trees. After awakening, ORT was rapidly eroding Mictlan's environment and converting the entire region into its own territory.
After devouring the Lostbelt's Fantasy Tree, ORT's Reality Marble had changed into a form completely different from the ORT of Proper Human History.
It transformed the plants of Earth into "Fantasy Trees," creating an environment suited to its own survival.
That was the kind of invasive lifeform Mictlan's ORT was.
This was no longer the Golden Sea of Trees.
It was now the Sea of Fantasy Trees, ORT Xibalba.
At that moment, a ray of light burst through the underground temple and shot into the sky.
In the very next second, an even greater explosion erupted from below.
ORT broke through to the surface, extending and lengthening its tentacles without end as it chased that earlier light.
Or rather, the retreating Unity God, Morgan.
"That's enough... knock it off already!"
Morgan sounded more than a little annoyed.
She spun around and flung out a hand, trying to blast away the pursuing tentacles.
But those tentacles were even tougher than expected. Morgan's estimate had been off, and the output of her demonic lance was not enough to inflict effective damage.
That strike failed not only to repel the pursuit, but even cost her half a second of speed.
ORT's encroaching tentacles were already right in front of her.
To ORT's predatory instincts, the Mana reaction of the Unity God was without question the perfect prey.
And naturally, the first meal after waking ought to be something special.
The distance was too great, and the speed too fast. For the Storm Border, there was simply no way to provide effective support.
The Leyline Blockade Armament had already been fully loaded, but it was impossible to maximize both firing range and destructive power at the same time.
The Holy Lance bombardment, pushed to maximum scale, severed most of the tentacles, but it still failed to stop the remainder completely.
It was a razor-thin escape.
"Teacher!"
Olga Marie cried out in alarm.
"Use an arm as bait and break out of their encirclement...!"
Shiomi had just told Morgan to sacrifice the lesser part to save the whole when two green wheels of light shot in diagonally and cleanly sliced through the remaining tentacles.
That bought the Unity God precious time to retreat. Morgan was able to widen the gap, forcing ORT to abandon this method of predation. Instead, it began reinforcing its own power, carrying along Fantasy Tree seeds as it moved toward Mictlan's upper layers.
"Thank you for the help, Kukulkan."
Hovering high in the sky, Morgan turned to thank Kukulkan at her side.
But Kukulkan showed no sign of happiness. She stared at her own trembling fingers.
"This feeling... I... am I not Mictlan's representative after all...?"
"Once, I told a certain knight something."
Shiomi's voice spoke.
"Who your parent is doesn't matter. Who you are matters more."
"The same goes for you."
"What?"
Kukulkan froze.
"This may be overly familiar of me to say, but you truly did live up to your own will, as a companion to the Deinos, as Mictlan's guardian, and as an ally of this planet. You've done many things and continued existing until now. None of that has anything to do with your origins. Those things are yours."
Morgan spoke gently.
"As a fairy from the Inner Sea of the Planet, I understand that much."
"..."
"We don't want to ask you to fight for us, or trouble you with anything."
Shiomi's voice rang out again.
"What comes next belongs to us. It is the Order of the new Chaldea."
"If you are a god who watches the future," Morgan said softly, "then bear witness to the end of this battle. Pass down the tale of our war with ORT to the generations to come, to the lifeforms that will one day visit Mictlan and this planet."
After saying that, the Unity God Morgan turned toward the Storm Border, descended rapidly, and finally landed on the deck.
"Teacher! Morgan! Don't you need to separate first?"
Olga Marie hurried over, full of concern.
"There's no time for that," Morgan said. "Tezcatlipoca blocked the first wave for us, which is the only reason we managed to get out. From here on..."
"We stop ORT's advance and prevent it from crossing Mictlan to reach the surface!"
Shiomi's voice echoed through the wind, reaching every person aboard the Storm Border.