Nikitich had withdrawn beyond the range of battle. At first, she had been dissatisfied. As a Servant summoned into the world, yet unable to take part in the fight, she had even complained to Taigong Wang.
But now, she no longer complained.
"You were right, Taigong Wang." Nikitich's expression turned grave. "If a Servant like me stepped in… I'd probably end up being a burden to them. No… to her, wouldn't I?"
She hesitated over how to address Morgan now.
A single god, yet two beings in one.
"That's not quite so extreme, Nikitich-dono. You're being too hard on yourself." Taigong Wang's gray eyes remained fixed on the battlefield. "It's simply that if you were involved, they likely wouldn't be able to maintain the Unity God form with such ease."
After all, they would have to spare attention to protect an ally fighting alongside them.
"She really won't be killed?" Nikitich asked, unable to hide her concern.
Taigong Wang shook his head.
"That, I cannot say. Only Tenkei-dono knows what he truly intends. How this matter is ultimately decided is his right."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and unfolded a Barrier, blocking the debris and flames whipping through the violent winds. Only after ensuring their safety did he continue.
"For now, we should simply wait for the outcome of this 'judgment.'"
...
While they calmly observed and discussed, Koyanskaya was already feeling the weight of exhaustion.
She no longer had the spare focus to calculate how long the battle had lasted.
Taking on her Beast form allowed her to release a greater, more complete portion of her power. But in exchange, she lost the mobility of her lighter, more agile body.
She could move, but any reckless repositioning would only push the already unfavorable battle into even worse territory.
She was, in truth, still an un-metamorphosed Beast. A juvenile, still in her growth phase.
What appeared to be a relentless assault launched by Koyanskaya was, in reality, only possible because the Unity God had chosen not to counterattack, merely responding to her moves.
Just as Shiomi had said, she was being given the chance to display her strength. Her fate would be decided in a manner befitting a Beast, in accordance with the primal law of survival of the fittest.
"You seem to be running out of options. Are you truly unwilling to show your full strength?"
This time, Morgan descended to the ground. As if about to begin a dance, she lightly lifted the hem of her skirt and stepped aside, brushing away the flames licking at her feet.
"...I have already done all I can."
Koyanskaya did not sense ridicule. On the contrary, she understood that Morgan was asking in earnest.
If she were defeated without using everything she had, she herself would never accept it.
Then there was only one path left.
Her Mana reserves were still abundant. What she had exhausted were her methods.
All that remained was to release the true name of her Noble Phantasm.
Gather.
Compress.
She drew in every bit of Mana she could command, condensing it into a single, decisive strike.
If she could inflict even the slightest injury upon the Unity God before her, it would become a bargaining chip of immense value, a foundation upon which to negotiate for her ideal, for her living sphere, for a better future.
Humans pray to gods.
Beasts do the same.
The manner and attitude differ, but the destination is the same.
"The sun is veiled. Thin garments reveal the sovereign. Here, I shall unveil the last of my true nature."
Koyanskaya spoke quietly.
"One tail, an omen in the void. Five tails, a comet dragging its light. Nine tails, the incarnation that pierces the earth."
Not only her own Mana, but all the Mana within this Reality Marble, the non-primate living sphere, gathered at her command.
All of it became a meteor falling from the cosmos, an absolute mass meant to crush the enemy formation.
It was a reenactment of the disaster that struck Russia, the Tunguska explosion.
In terms of single-strike scale, it rivaled the ultimate celestial Magecraft Kirschtaria had demonstrated in the Atlantic Lostbelt.
Could it succeed?
Whether it could or not, it had to.
"Tunguska Nine Drive - Thunderous Heavenly Light - The Calamitous Star Crashes Down in Waves of Flame!"
A colossal meteor manifested in the sky and plummeted toward Morgan on the ground.
At this distance, not only Morgan but Koyanskaya herself would be caught in the blast.
It was not self-destruction.
And yet, it was a Noble Phantasm unleashed without restraint, bordering on it.
As the one unleashing it, the damage she would suffer was inevitably less than that borne by her target.
So how would you respond?
『Earth Mother's Feast』?
Or 『The Poem of Creation and Rebirth』?
Koyanskaya stared unblinkingly at the Unity God, Morgan.
Morgan slowly released the weapon in her hand, half staff, half spear, and opened her arms.
"Though we bear the body of a god, we are not bound by a god's principle. The principle revealed here is the complete form of the Unity God, a miracle born of fairy and divinity."
Time seemed to halt.
Space seemed to congeal.
In less than 0.001 seconds, phenomena shifted, expanded, and swallowed everything in their wake.
When Shiomi sparred with Nikitich before, he had not gone all out.
This was not properly a Noble Phantasm, nor was it Magecraft. It was more accurate to call it the manifestation of Authority.
Through the sealed window by which Chaos once peered into this universe, they had touched the Mystery within the abyss.
The primordial instant when heaven and earth first parted, when all things were yet indistinct, the forgotten Mystery of the world.
"—『Chaotic Will』."
Awaken chaos. Return to nothingness.
An ultimate manipulation of phenomena that reversed every incoming attack and all damage in a single instant.
As if nothing had ever happened, every threat was erased.
Time, space, life itself rested within the grasp of the Unity God.
The Beast's secondary erosion of the Reality Marble.
The meteor weighing nearly one hundred thousand tons descending from the heavens.
All of it returned, in that moment, to primordial void.
In the end, even the Beast herself was swallowed by chaos, unable to maintain her form.
When awareness returned, Koyanskaya lay battered and covered in wounds, slumped upon the fractured ground.
Stripped of her Beast form, she had reverted to her human shape.
She could fight no longer.
When the once-brand-new NFF building reappeared, it looked like a precarious ruin, barely standing after enduring countless battles.
"You could have killed me just now. You could have erased me at the source of my existence. And yet you didn't." Koyanskaya let out a long breath. "How confident must you be to act so casually?"
"Because I decided to make you yield of your own will," Morgan said as she walked forward, stopping before her. "Since things have not yet reached the point of no return, there is no need to eradicate you entirely. Well?"
Koyanskaya put on an aggrieved expression.
"What else can I say? With power on that scale, even the Alien God might not be able to take you down. Siding with the one more likely to win is simply the safest investment."