"Alright. Let's begin the test."
In the combat training room, Scáthach addressed Shiomi and Morgan.
Shiomi nodded, raised his right hand, and pressed it firmly to Morgan's outstretched left. Light flared, and the two of them merged into the Unity God.
Once the fusion was confirmed, Scáthach tightened her grip on her crimson spear and lunged in with explosive speed, driving the blade straight for Unity God Morgan's heart without the slightest hesitation.
But when the tip reached a lethal distance, it stopped, unable to push any farther.
There was no motion, no warning. Conceptual Defense had already completed itself, intercepting the cursed crimson spear before it could land.
"Your defense is impeccable. If I were to release my Noble Phantasm, even the causality of a guaranteed kill would likely be distorted," Scáthach said with a nod.
At the same time, Shiomi's four most prized spears manifested behind Morgan. They rotated in midair, then leveled their points at Scáthach.
As if they possessed wills of their own, they shot toward her one after another.
"I'll stop them here." Skadi raised her staff behind them. Runes surfaced from the void, winding around the spears.
One moment they moved with the same nimble precision as if Shiomi himself were wielding them. The next, they turned sluggish, full of openings that could be exploited.
Even so.
"You can't suppress them completely?" Scáthach asked Skadi.
"I'm doing everything I can." Skadi's expression tightened with strain. "His Entity Rank is higher than mine now, and he's obtained the Unity God's special form…"
And on top of that, there was Morgan's mastery of Magecraft reinforcing it all.
With Morgan's finesse and Shiomi's raw power combined, no one in Chaldea could rival them in a magecraft battle.
"I've wanted to see what this form can really do. It was worth arranging this test," Scáthach said, lifting her chin as she studied Morgan's face.
Even though Shiomi's body had vanished into the fusion, she could still see his will through those eyes.
It was something Morgan did not possess in her usual state.
With that thought, Scáthach couldn't resist teasing, "My beloved disciple, you look like a coward hiding behind the woman you love."
"A verbal attack, is it?" Morgan smiled. "My husband says you can mock us all you like. We'll just finish the test."
"Heh…"
Scáthach lifted a hand. Dozens of crimson spear phantoms appeared behind Morgan, aimed straight for her blind spots.
Then the spears fell like rain.
Explosions and smoke churned through the training room, enough to make the monitoring instruments shriek with alarms and warnings.
With superhuman sight and perception, Scáthach watched Morgan evade the incoming spears with the smallest possible movements, knocking aside those she couldn't avoid with a casual lift of her hand.
It was graceful to the point of being mesmerizing, like a dance performed on impulse.
But the test wasn't over yet.
Before the smoke could clear, with Skadi restraining the four spears, Scáthach rushed into the haze. Artoria, who had been waiting, struck from the opposite side, forming a pincer.
Scáthach's heavy sweeping strike, together with the Holy Sword of the Planet, was caught barehanded by Unity God Morgan.
She had seized the blade, the most vulnerable way to catch a weapon, yet not a drop of blood appeared. Instead, there was only a crushing restraint, so heavy neither weapon could be pulled free.
"It's over."
As Morgan spoke, a dark blue shadow spread outward from the floor, snaking up to coil around Scáthach and Artoria.
With their movements locked down, Morgan finally freed her hands to wrest control of the four spears.
"Huh?"
Skadi suddenly realized that the four spears she had been wrestling with slipped free of her magecraft interference. They shot straight toward her and crossed midair, trapping her inside.
Beep—
"Everyone, thank you for your hard work. The test is now concluded."
Olga Marie's voice echoed through the broadcast system, announcing the end of the combat trial.
The three who had been restrained regained their freedom.
"So it's reached this level already." Scáthach clicked her tongue lightly, wearing a faintly exasperated look. "If the 'Alien God' could fight you to a standstill for that long, then she truly isn't someone to underestimate."
"She's already begun reinforcing her Spirit Origin," Shiomi replied after the fusion dissolved. "At this stage, she's absorbed one Fantasy Tree. The scale of her Spirit Origin is indeed greater than it was in Olympus."
"So how does it feel?" Skadi asked with concern. "You stayed fused far beyond the expected time before. Any side effects?"
Shiomi shook his head. "None. We can still merge normally. But the inherent risks haven't gone away. Using this form in battle from now on will still require extreme caution."
"It's not just that," Morgan added. "I can feel that my control over Mana has improved significantly. Before, this form wouldn't have had the spare capacity to wrest control of the four spears from Skadi."
If that had been the case, Skadi could have turned the spears back on Unity God Morgan.
The outcome of the test would have been far harder to predict.
"In the end, you just wanted to show off how much stronger you've become," Artoria said, rare teasing in her tone. "Everyone else has merged with Tenkei before, yet only you can truly become one with him."
"Oh? But hasn't everyone merged with him before?" Morgan replied with an innocent expression.
Shiomi quickly raised a hand and made an exaggerated chopping gesture in the air.
"Let's end this topic right here…"
They began walking out as staff moved in to repair and clean the combat training room.
"In the end, it comes down to compatibility," Scáthach analyzed. "The fairies of the Garden were originally sent to the surface as the foundation for reforging the Holy Sword."
"In other words, raw material," Skadi said. "If not as a Holy Sword, then as a god."
"Tenkei is the ideal mold and furnace," Artoria offered. "That's why this form can be completed?"
Shiomi slumped his shoulders and complained, "The way you're all analyzing this so seriously… it's making me feel very guilty."
He couldn't explain the principles himself. At that time, in that situation, it had simply happened because his heart willed it so.
As if driven by instinct, without any extra thought.
Even now, when he looked back on it, it felt like an indescribable miracle.
Chatting and laughing, they stepped into the corridor, where Touko Aozaki was waiting for them.
"Good work on the combat test. We gathered quite a bit of useful data. It'll help a lot in refining the automata later," Touko said with a smile.
Shiomi tilted his head.
"If it's useful, feel free to use it… By the way, where's Marie?"
"The Director was just called away by Sion," Touko replied. "It's almost time, after all."
"Time?" Skadi asked.
"I was going to mention it later," Shiomi said with a shrug. "The lease contract provided by the Wandering Sea is about to expire."