Though it seemed Ryouma had betrayed the Hunters, Astamon reveals to Tagiru he is actually Quartzmon's Terminal and has been manipulating Ryouma the entire time. Once slide-evolving into his true form, Quartzmon reveals that he used Ryouma to obtain enough Digimon data to construct his main body before fusing into it and burrowing underground to digitize the Earth for asborbing.