[FGO JP Main Chapter] Lostbelt 7: Nahui Mictlan ~ The One Who Rules the Planet

[astagadragon]

If Camazotz is an NPC, who are they even releasing for this chapter?

There's only five character models, even including U-Olga, who would be strange to add so early.

The ones with battle sprite afaik are Tlaloc, Ixcalli, Tezcatlipoca and Olga...

[Comun]

In the foggy afterlife, a man (who in a later chapter will be revealed to be Tezcatlipoca) invites Fujimaru to sit with him by the bonfire. He doesn't name himself nor ask for Fujimaru's name, as names aren't necessary for those who have concluded their battles. The man then discusses the Storm Boarder.

Not too shabby for a weapon. Is that thing yours? I like modern weapons. They're cumbersome, tasteless, and above all else, costly. I, for one, welcome 'em. After all, tools of war should evolve. Just as life does.

But his positive impression of their weapons absolutely doesn't translate into a positive impression of the wielder. He thinks their idea of a battle without fair casualties on both sides is a sick joke. He says Fujimaru only went this far without casualties because they were lucky and that now, this luck has ran out, as no human in the Storm Boarder will survive the ship dropping from above the surface (above the Silent Ilhuicatl, as he calls it).

There are no warriors on it. They won't make it here after death either. ...Hmm? Hold on a second, does that mean I've acknowledged you as a warrior? ...I can never tell what Blue's thinking. Oh well, I suppose it's just the usual fluke.

Hearing no one will survive, Fujimaru gets restless to go to the Storm Boarder, but the man warns them they can't reach the world of the living. Fujimaru wants to try anyway, which further displeases the man, but he's willing to guide them there in exchange for weapons. As his choice of outfit tells, he's a big fan of the modern era, so he's super willing to bring Fujimaru back to life for some 21st-century guns. Unfortunately, the only weapons Fujimaru has to offer are their 3 Command Spells. He takes it, and since the payment was worth more than Fujimaru's life, the man not only drops them back into the world of the living but also gives them a pack of calaveras de azúcar as a bonus.

Fujimaru wakes up alone with the panicking Nemo Marine who was accompanying him in the evacuation. Marine is speaking all quietly and urging Fujimaru to get out of the cave because Olga is also unconscious next to them, but Fujimaru's louder reaction wakes her up. As an outer space aristocrat, she's disappointed she's not being welcomed with applause, but seeing they did nothing to her during her suspended animation, she concludes that Fujimaru and Nemo are primitive but harmless. The amnesiac future ruler of the planet introduces herself to her two new friends and explains her memory circumstances. All she can remember is her name and her purpose. Fujimaru and Marine tell her their names, but not their purpose. Soon enough, Marine's "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME" is enough for Olga to deduce that their purpose is prolonging their lives. For reasons she doesn't understand, the name Fujimaru Ritsuka makes her want to deck their face. Still, in respect for this first contact, she names her two friends Interstellar Goodwill Ambassadors.

Sensing distress in her friends' brain waves, Olga promises to help them find a way out of the cave. As someone who is here to rule the planet, she can't ignore the pleas of a sapient being in need. With the President's help, we make it to the South American jungles.

---

Shortly after leaving the cave, Olga detects aggressive brain waves: gun-toting men wearing jaguar masks. Fujimaru tries summoning Servants, only to remember they're without Command Spells.

[[<- Olga solo battle against the new enemy ->]]

---

Olga quickly overpower the jaguar people, claiming it was easy as fixing a typo on a report. A recurring thing so far is that most metaphors Olga uses are related to undergrad student life. The Marine wants to get out before more enemies appear. Olga points out it doesn't matter how many there are if the hostile organisms are that weak, but immediately comes to understand their concerns once she remembers her friends are organisms that take damage from physical impact.

Why would the animals of this planet evolve in such a way? There's no practical advantage to this.

The Marine takes the scout role in our new group. Olga is puzzled by the idea that he would want to have a contributing role instead of quietly hiding behind her. The thought of not letting the strongest do everything feels silly to her. She then asks about Fujimaru. They didn't join the fight, but the way they hid behind a tree to assess the situation shows Olga that they're experienced in combat despite their young age and fragile vessel.

The Marine finds potentially edible vegetables and calls the two to see them. He catches Olga off-guard by grabbing her hand. She's really confused about his brain waves. At first, they were completely red (fear and caution) but now they're suddenly blue (conversational). Fujimaru's, on the other hand, were always yellow (joy and friendship). That's because he learned during the battle that Olga is scary, but she isn't threatening. The President got her first Earthling supporter. We notice the enemies returning for a second round and the Marine suggests Olga try talking to them this time to garner more supporters.

Heh heh. It seems like you're starting to understand me now, kid! Yes, I did not come to Earth to exterminate all of its primitive life! I got much better things to do! I've heard screams on this planet, and so I have arrived to improve its management! A dialogue must come first, no matter how ferocious or barbarous the other party is.

However, the enemies appearing this time are dinosaurs, so Olga panics and immediately resorts to violence.

[[<- Olga solo battle against dinosaurs ->]]

Turns out Olga is too afraid of reptiles to handle this battle, so she panickedly asks for a retreat or for Fujimaru to do something about them with their trump card. Unfortunately, Fujimaru doesn't have the Command Spells to summon Servants. The Chaldean rescues the team, commenting on how pitiful it is that humanity's last Master can't handle a pack of irrational deinos. Marine and Olga ask who is he and Fujimaru answers he's someone going by Romani Archaman's name.

---

The Chaldean confirms himself as someone going by Romani Archaman's name, and thus the name in his textboxes changes to Romani Archaman. It's not a name that represents his identity, but as humans say: "It's what's inside that counts". He posits that since Fujimaru knows the person wearing that skin is someone else, it doesn't matter what name he goes by. Fujimaru argues that it matters, they want the name to refer to someone who deserves it, but "Romani" agrees to disagree. Romani notices no serious injuries on Fujimaru or bugs in their Mystic Code, so he asks if it was psychological trauma that made them not able to summon Servants. Fujimaru tries to hide their hand, making it visible to Romani that it has no Command Spell markings (not that the CS are used up, the whole image is gone from the hand). He warns Fujimaru they'll never summon a Servant again and need a new survival strategy. He tries to leave, as he has no business with Fujimaru now that they're no longer a Master, but Fujimaru asks to see Mash. He tells them Mash is on the horn-shaped rock to the south. Like our Nemo Marine, she also jumped off the Storm Boarder to save Fujimaru.

One more thing... It's quite awkward that I have to say this, but... If mankind can excise all seven Lostbelts, then I will finally acknowledge you as my enemy ...though I expect that won't be the case. You're up against Daybit Sem Void. Defeating ORT is impossible for you lot.

After our Dr. Roman lookalike leaves, the Marine comments on the awkwardness of the encounter and notices how U was all frozen up during his scene. She says she has no opinion. Though she asks if Romani was a living being since he had no brain waves and completely ignored her. That aside, Team Chaldea moves in the pointed direction to reassemble with Mash.

---

We get to the cave where we're supposed to meet Mash. The Marine speculates the enemies we just faced are the Lostbelt King's underlings. Having heard the name Chaldea dropped a few times during the conversation, Olga finally asks who is this Chaldea. Fujimaru will explain later.

We enter the cave and it's fairly well-furnitured. A voice coming from the wall asks them if they're the Chaldea people Mr. Romani mentioned. The voice apologizes for the rudeness and turns off his camouflage, revealing himself to be a gentleman dinosaur. He's a retired deinos named Tepeu. The deinos are this Lostbelt's dinosaurian mankind. Our Marine is terrified of being eaten but Tepeu explains the deinos are a herbivore species, and capable of photosynthesis. He offers us water since the Mictlan has been really hot these days.

Mash and Habetrot come back from the chores they were doing in Tepeu's house. Seeing Mash, Olga cordially introduces herself to this Chaldea person she's been hearing so much about. The scene cuts to after Mash calms down and hears the whole story. She apologizes for her shameful initial reaction. Habetrot tries to say anyone would react like that after seeing the Alien God, but Mash closes her mouth before she can say the problem word. Next, we ask Tepeu about the Lostbelt. He already knows about the Lostbelt situation from a previous visitor and his opinion is that the Chaldeans are guests rather than enemies. Friends who have a duty here. He believes the deinos won't mind Chaldea destroying their world because all worlds perish; that's normal. Who cares about what the cause is? Tepeu would resist if his death would cause the death of the world, but thankfully, it's the other way around. It's Chaldea who is in a situation where they can't die or else their world dies, so Tepeu is wholeheartedly cheering for humanity's cause.

U-Olga Marie: How can you have a conversation when your frequency is completely different?
Tepeu: That is the work of Maia...an alteration in cognition applied by this very world. Earlier, a new culture came to our world. This Crypter fellow. Maia analyzed his language and cognitive standards, then tuned itself so that mutual dialogue became possible. I suppose you could think of this as a universal translator cast on the entire world.
Marine: I see. Come to think of it, your vocal cords are completely different from ours, Tepeu. So who is this Maia? They sound pretty amazing...
Tepeu: Maia is not a person. It is more of a... life essence. Collective goodwill, as it's called in your world. The sentiment to make the world a better place to live. The source and guiding principle of everything that makes up this underground world, Mictlan.

Like Agartha, Mictlan is another world within the Hollow Earth, but while Agartha was just a flat horizontal continent, Mictlan is a 1000-kilometers tall cylindrical world with its own gravity, water, and atmosphere. It's divided into 9 levels. By the way, the name Mictlan is very recent. It was coined by Izcalli, the leader of the Ocelomeh.

The word Ocelotl (plural Ocelomeh, Nahuatl grammar is weird) refers to the Aztec jaguar warriors so we deduced he means the people with guns we fought before getting here. Tepeu explains that the Ocelomeh are a tribe that arrived together with Crypter. They built a city in the 5th level, established a mafia organization, and started hunting deinos. Many were killed and many were turned into irrational beasts.

Marine: What a savage bunch... But why are they doing this? Are you fighting over territory here in Mictlan?
Tepeu: It's not so much about territory as it is about resources. They're after revenue. They strip off our hides, process our bones, and distribute our hearts as treasure. Maia disapproves of such behavior, but they are a cunning bunch who can escape the eyes of its law. Systematic violence organized as a distributor of goods. That's what the Ocelomeh are.
Marine: That's just a mafia! Is the jungle really so scary!?

Hearing about the dinosaur world mafia, Fujimaru gets worried about the people on the Boarder. Mash explains their last contact was 4 hours ago. Sion told her it would take days to finish repairing the ship. The Boarder is 300km away so it's going to take days to cross the jungle; there's no time to waste. Mash and Habetrot thought it was too dangerous for the two of them to be alone, but they're confident they can do it with Fujimaru there to summon Servants and fuel the Black Barrel. Fujimaru breaks the bad news to them, but the group decides to go anyway because they have Olga. Tepeu gives them directions. He saw our "flying rock" falling close to Chichén Itzá. Getting there requires crossing Tlathuic and that's not advisable for beginners, so Tepeu puts on his glasses and coat because he will be personally guiding us.

---

2 hours of walking later... it's goddamn hot outside Tepeu's cave. 58 Celsius because the sun is on the second level. He suggests taking a break until the sun goes away. The Marine and Habetrot go fetch water, which segues into some commentary about wanting to be useful despite not being able to fight.

The jungle is so densely packed with information that Olga has to turn off her sensors until she's habituated to the environment. Trying to use them caused her to throw up her rainbow-colored vomit. She asks how come Mash and Fujimaru are from the same humanity when Mash's physical structure is so different from theirs. She tells her she's a Demi-Servant, but doesn't get to explain because Olga is very insistent that she knows what it is. She totally studied Earth's main export products.

Marine and Habetrot come back being chased by aggressive deinos. Tepeu explains their brains have deteriorated, reducing them to mindless carnivores. Dialogue is impossible, you either run or stop them. However, Olga is now able to fight the dinosaurs because she has Mash as her tank, keeping them away from her.

[ <- Mash/Habetrot/Olga-only battle against jungle snakes an irrational deinos -> ]

Out of the jungle, we reach a field of 2-meter-tall corn stalks. Corn is the most popular food among deinos, the only one they eat for flavor rather than nutrition. The Marine mentions the use of corn for ethanol, leaving Tepeu and Olga astonished by the idea of using a source of nutrients as fuel. Why would you prioritize fuel over Earth's natural cycles? Mash explains biofuel agriculture and greenhouse gas emission, leaving Olga all the more convinced her strong leadership is necessary to get humanity out of its losing streak.

Habetrot points out it looked like noon when we left 6 hours ago and now it still looks like noon. The sun isn't moving west to set. Olga confirms the sun in Mictlan has only been moving vertically. Deeper into the underground world with each hour. We're clearly in dire need of a huge exposition dump, so we ask Tepeu about multiple topics that can be reordered or skipped by the player's choices.

1. Mictlan's structure

Spoiler:

Mictlan may be a flat jungle but it's divided into 9 levels.
1) Tlalocan, where a precipice serves at the ceiling leading to the surface.
2) Tlatlauhqui, the red underworld border. The endless river where the giant iguana lives.
3) Chichen Itza, City of Gold, and the fertile plains.
4) Iztauhqui, the white underworld border. The valley of blades and winds where bones are discarded.
5) Tula, the veins of the land. The lake of birds and blood.
6) Xoxoauhqui, the blue underworld border. The galactic dunes, the vacuum lightning garden.
7) Astronomical Observatory Metztitlán, the Singing Ilhuicatl.
8) Yayauhqui, the black underworld border. The sunless underground mountain range.
9) Fear Grounds Xibalba, the place where the Ceiba tree is rooted.

All levels are connected by land, so any deinos can just walk through them, but the 4 border levels are dangerous zones where the dead can attack you at any moment. Going lower than 7 is particularly dangerous because the fog in the 8th and 9th levels brings death to the living. The fog only clears up once every 360th sunset, and from there it takes 5 days for it to restart. Some deinos go to the lower levels during these 5 days, but no one ever succeeded in the underworld pilgrimage. Going from 1 to 3 takes 4 days, but having to cross 2 is a harsh obstacle.

2. The sun's mechanism

Spoiler:

Aside from what Olga already explained above, the other point of interest about the Mictlan sun is that it's a god named Kukulkan. Mictlan mythology has nothing to do with Aztec mythology, despite the shared names. The sun was just a thing the deinos took for granted like they did everything else, but when Daybit arrived in Mictlan, the concept of gods was introduced to the world via Tezcatlipoca. With gods now being a thing in deinos culture, the sun came to be seen as something special, and thus deified into Kukulkan. Daybit's arrival also popularized the previously underutilized concept of verbal conversation, which created the concept of stories, which enabled Kukulkan's apotheosis. Mictlan and Kukulkan get their names taken from Aztec mythology precisely because they are recent names imported from Daybit.

3. Deinos biological history

Spoiler:

At the origin of Mictlan, the ancestor species to the deinos (the Pan-Human theropods) evolved into the prime species in charge of managing that world. Maia has some level of control over their birth, making it so the rare plesiosaur and pterosaur-type deinos always exist, but ensuring the theropod-type is the vast majority. Plesiosaur and pterosaur deinos are discriminated social outcasts. While most dinosaurs were carnivores, there are no carnivore deinos. The toxins of meat make deinos agonize, lose their intellect, and eventually die. That's how the Ocelomeh has been creating the mindless deinos that have been attacking us throughout this chapter.

4. Cities and culture

Spoiler:

This is one initially sidetracked by us mentioning oceans and having to explain what they are to Tepeu. We spend a long time teaching him about Pan-Human political and scientific concepts such as democracy, communism, genes, cells, atoms, and chemical elements. Also culinary. It's kinda amazing how fast Tepeu is learning all this, so they ask if he isolated himself in the 1st level because his genius intellect ostracized him from other deinos. He explains that it's not that he's smarter, it's that the other deinos don't see any need for knowledge. Humans are short-lived, easily injured, and lacking in survivability, so their thirst for knowledge is a physical survival need. This is not true for deinos. There was no threat that necessitated this kind of evolution in Mictlan.

The two main cities of Mictlan are:
1) Chichen Itza, the golden city in level 3. The city of the deinos. It's where the Dinosaur King reigns under the protection of Kukulkan, the sun god.
2) Mexico City, in level 5. The city of the Ocelomeh. It's a city of death created by Daybit and Tezcatlipoca.
The Storm Boarder's estimated landing point is between these two cities.

5. Crypter

Spoiler:

"Crypter" is known as the man who brought Tezcatlipoca to this world, and Tezcatlipoca is the god of war and sacrifice that brought the border levels to their current hellish form.

Tezcatlipoca's Ocelomeh are humans who have been turning deinos mindless for the teaching of their new religions. Their faith tells them to sacrifice powerful hearts to their god and the strongest creatures around in Mictlan are the deinos. They built a city in the 5th level and are gouging out the hearts of deinos. Now the deinos are at war against the Ocelomeh.

6. Corn

Spoiler:

Deinos are capable of photosynthesis but they felt the need for a luxury treat to spice up their lives, so that's where Maia created corn, the ultimate food, and blessing of the sun.

---

Tepeu went to sleep early because he has a lot of new information to digest. Olga is watching the stars 20 meters away from the group, so Fujimaru and Mash take this chance to discuss what to do about her. Fujimaru suggests we continue not telling her she's the Alien God. Mash, Marine, and Habetrot agree, although acknowledge how manipulative this is. Habetrot imposes one condition: This need to be the only secret we keep from her. True friends don't hide everything from each other.

Mash and Fujimaru then interrupt Olga's presidential duty of assigning names to the constellations and tell her about Servants, Masters, mages, Chaldea, the Incineration, Singularities, the bleaching, Crypters, Fantasy Trees, PHH, Lostbelts, and Earth's many crises. Olga is impressed with their noble job of restoring humanity's future and expresses her pride in us with a 9 out of 10 rating, the highest grade she's ever given. It's not 10 because it's missing one finishing touch to perfect it. Fujimaru invites Olga to be this missing piece that completes the team.

Heh! This answer alone dropped humanity's foolishness score to 0! After hearing this, I'm obliged to help you save Earth. Count on me fighting by your side, friends!

It's been a great talk, but it's late and they need to sleep. The sun has 12 hours until the sun appears where they are, so they want to sleep 7 hours and leave the corn fields before that happens.

Meanwhile, a man in priestly garb is watching the situation, unsure of what to do about it.

[Dartz]

Remember the people who thought Olga was going to take over ORT? That didn't age well

[OnesFleetingGlory]

This is what, the fourth time we've done the "ostensible female antagonist is kinda good actually and acts like a blushy crushy tsundere around Obvious Self Insert"? And I am bored of it. It's boring now.

It was boring the first time if I'm being honest, but at least it was a little bit novel. If this is meant to be the BIG TWIST I am supremely underwhelmed.

Personally, I don't mind since it's Olga, and Guda is bound to know her more ever since the prologue even if she's not entirely herself. Although I didn't expect an amnesia plot for their bonding, and this early since I expected that to happen in-between this LB and the climax chapter.

[asterism42]

we did an amnesia plot last chapter too

[Blastedspider]

So... Maia is Dino-Primates version of Alaya? That's kind of cool idea for a Lostbelt.

[Dartz]

I'm happy because ORT's prestigue remains intact. All around a good chapter.

[Entelecheia]

I just wish Camazotz to be summonable. The cast is okay so far, but he's the only one I would really like to roll for.

And I guess "Benienma Alter" and U-Olga too, but I was specifically talking about the new characters.

[madarra]

having played Digital Devil Saga makes me hope Camazotz is a asshole, hopefully more lovable than that one.

[Reign]

It just clicked for me what ORT's redesign reminds me of. Earthbound Immortals from Yu-Gi-Oh.

[Oz1337]

A certain Ruler every turn spamming 3 times/1 turn invincibility and I didn't bring any Servant with Invincibility Break. That was a complete waste of AP urgh...

Also, I completely underestimated MHXX damage. Guess the Foreigner we get to fight is treated as a Threat to Humanity, so her third skill works.

[Skull]

It just clicked for me what ORT's redesign reminds me of. Earthbound Immortals from Yu-Gi-Oh.

Now that you mention it...And the Earthbound Immortals are based on the Nazca Lines in Peru too.

I wonder if that was intentional or not.

[Nanaya]

Definitely is reminiscent of them. Very Yugioh like lol.

[Shlugo]

Ultra Olga really went from "Tremble in fear pathetic microbes, for I have come to conquer you lousy planet!" to "Hey friends, I heard you guys had hard time down here, so I've come to lend a hand!"

Nasu, where are you even going with this?

Olga points out it doesn't matter how many there are if the hostile organisms are that weak but immediately comes to understand their concerns once she remembers her friends are organisms that take damage from physical impact.

Why would the animals of this planet evolve in such a way? There's no practical advantage to this.

OK, this is some quality comedy. Just the idea taking damage is something living beings have to specifically evolve cracks me up. U-Olga really have no Earthly common sense.

[Oz1337]

And it's over. Time to wait for the next timelock now. Surprisingly fun in some of the boss fights, and fortunately much less "Clear mob waves" than in LB6 (or at least it felt less repetitive). LB6 music was better, though there's a particular boss fight at the end that has a really good BGM. Visuals were excellent, the map of LB7 is amazing and some battle stages are really well designed. The enemy Servants so far haven't really called my attention, let's see how it goes in Part 2.

Now time to clear my inventory because I just realised I have tons of 5* EXP now for clearing the stages and nothing to use them on...

[InsertNameHere]

This is probably going to be answered later, but if our Command Spells are gone then how are we still able to summon Servants? And who's willing to bet we get the Command Spells back after we beat down Tezcatlipoca?

[Gelious]

It'a nice that deinos don't mind dying. but I doubt the Sun God gonna be as chill as they are about this.

Olga makes less sense the more I learn about her. Ruler of Earth who is also a student? Talking comes first, yet Chaldea was attacked and Earth bleached. Where's Holmes when we need his deduction...

"No more summoning" probably gonna be reversed at some point, I hope.

Also, Ceiba Tree? Looks like prime chopping candidate.

[madarra]

besides changing color from green/blue Silver to Blue Black i dont think the design did change too much from this sketch,

the disc-less half specifically

- - - Updated - - -

a conspiracy theory would be that Ort got recolored cuz black is easier for 3d models

[Gelious]

Ultra Olga really went from "Tremble in fear pathetic microbes, for I have come to conquer you lousy planet!" to "Hey friends, I heard you guys had hard time down here, so I've come to lend a hand!"

Nasu, where are you even going with this?

Either she remembers everything, turns on us and we murder her in the name of Human Order or she doesn't and then ORT (or the Sun God or someone else) murders her while she's protecting us.

I honestly can't see any other ending for her.

[Nanaya]

a conspiracy theory would be that Ort got recolored cuz black is easier for 3d models

Different

ORTs arm things and the image with the parts fanning out behind it seem pretty different. He looks like he would fit in as an Argon Boss from Tera if anyone ever played that. I miss that game...