Charles Patricius

Upon the disappearance of Mugen, Sakura prepared to rejoin the fray. Angelica was privy to this, as she felt the ominous aura Sakura exuded from time to time. Charlemagne himself had become quite familiar with the sensation, though it was notably a bit... thicker this time. Angelica halted her own actions, and Charlemagne did the same. While her reason was to speak after catching her breath, bar the distraction brought about by Sakura's approach, Charlemagne's pause could be blamed exclusively on the approach itself.

Under any normal circumstance, Charlemagne would agree with Angelica's train of thought; he'd have a sense of danger. Now however, there was something else instead. Those red orbs in his head shifted slowly away from Angelica's undercarriage, setting themselves on the more demonic lass. It seemed she was doing processing or... whatever she was over there doing since their earlier moments. Ah, but what could she possibly want while stepping forward with that trademark unsettling grin? Time would soon tell. Whatever the case, the current exchange between Angelica and Charlemagne himself had come to an end. As such, he flipped the blonde the right way around and left her to her own devices. A few moments were taken thereafter to clear the mass of fluids from his face, all to consume it as he had the rest.

Sakura was indeed rather unsettling but the girl herself felt just as calm as she always did. Her focus was on the pair ahead of her, but she was mostly just making decisions while watching them come to a proper resting place. Those eyes of hers never left Charlemagne and as she reached him properly she found herself reaching out with her left hand swiping a bit of the expelled fluids from his face and having a bit of a snack herself. Oddly enough even this additional light did nothing to reduce her ominous aura. But at the same time, Angelica had already been placed right side up and though her legs were far from being the steadiest she hadn't fallen over yet either. "I still don't know what that is..." Sakura murmured as her tongue traced fluids off her fingers. "Still really like it though..." she mused gently. She'd already become quite familiar with that particular flavor and knew it was some sort of cream but the underlying flavor wasn't one she could name.

Just the same she'd made several decisions about herself and she'd decided what she'd be doing, but at present she was working on the final part of her new understanding. Releasing all unnecessary sealing on her internal mechanisms and allowing the breech and startup of her own source as it were. Trauma would help someone else actuate theirs, but for herself she imagined she could do it with a simple infusion, though she'd be taking it the way she wished, and as such she was simply preparing herself. Just the same her shadows seemed to be acting of their own accord once more... spreading out and darkening the space below both her lovers without doing much else besides causing a bit of a warm an exciting sensation.

When Sakura finished making her way toward the pair, her first decision was to swipe more of the juices from Charlemagne's face to take a sample for herself. At this point, Charlemagne thought nothing of such an action; it was nowhere near an unexpected occurrence. The strange thing about it was her statement, which Charlemagne assumed was a comment about flavor. Figuring it was only natural for her to know nothing of buttercream in such a short life lacking adventure, he provided an answer most casually. "Buttercream. It's a type of frosting you'll find on cakes and stuff," he commented.

Still having a taste for himself, Charlemagne noted another oddity surrounding the trio. The light of this bedroom was fading ─ or rather, being encompassed by darkness from below. It seemed Sakura was ready to make another move and get herself involved again. Charlemagne didn't seem bothered one way or another, but the way those shadows were forming this time was... intriguing, if nothing else. He remembered a curiosity from earlier, when he was grabbing one of those tentacle-like shadows. "I meant to ask: can you feel those things?" he finally enquired.

There was something rather distinctly tasty about the nature of Angelica's mana. Sakura wouldn't have had an answer about it, even if she'd been more experienced, but that was due to a little known fact about the current world. This was, that the natural state of the world, didn't include butter, because milk products were not the same as they appeared in the modern world of Gaia. A bit of confusion wrinkled the brow of Sakura in the moment but it wasn't just her, Angelica also didn't understand at least one of the words spoken. "I mean, I do really like it. And sweet enough for dessert makes sense. I know what cream is but..." she gave a bit of a pause and Angelica joined in as well, after getting her mind together. "What is butter?" they managed at the same time. They looked to each other and smirked seeming to appreciate each other.

While Sakura sighed and licked her fingers clean, it would seem that Angelica was content to lounge around the edge of her bed with her knees having given into the weakness of the moment. Charlemagne wondered about the nature of Sakura's shadows, while instead Angelica wondered about the reason behind her suddenly ominous presence. "Hm, I think I'd describe them as extensions of my will not necessarily my senses. I could feel through them if I wished, but it would more likely be related to the way one's fingers worked than anything else..." Sakura said. She'd not given much thought to the idea of using them as extensions of her senses but perhaps it would be rather good to do so. At the very least she could see herself making an experiment of it. Perhaps she'd even add it to her most recent plan. Still there was the matter of the warmth of the shadow which Angelica found herself quite a bit closer to than she'd been while standing. Perhaps it wasn't really worth questioning. "I'll give it some consideration after my ascension," Sakura finished up her line of thought with her usual amount of nonchalance. She seemed to be quite sure and in so being was very unbothered about most things. Of course, she was thinking about her own happiness and given this she'd oddly be taking a rather human approach to her next endeavor. In fact, she'd shifted her gaze quite a bit seeming to be in deep thought while concentrating her visual acuity directly on Charlemagne's cock.

Following his casual mention of Angelica's flavor profile, Charlemagne was met with confusion from both girls. Sakura spoke first regarding the sweetness and how much sense it made, then both expressed an ignorance of... not buttercream, but butter specifically. Charlemagne took pause. Impossible as it was, there was something he hadn't actually realized in over a thousand years living on Alaya. "... No way," he mumbled, flabbergasted by how long he'd gone without noticing. "Wow. There's no butter in this world. Alive for a millennium, never realized there was no butter," he continued. Charlemagne had eaten many an exotic meal in this long life; never had he realized butter wasn't a part of any of them. "Uh... it's made of milk. It was a major part of a lot of foods in my world. It's just like... churned or something, and it comes out mostly solid, creamy and delicious when added to stuff," he explained in the most succinct way he could manage.

Moving on, Sakura addressed the matter of her shadow power. Charlemagne didn't previously confirm her ability to 'feel' through them, but there was reason to believe she couldn't ─ or at least wasn't at the time. According to Sakura however, she may possess the ability to actively feel through those extensions. "Huh. That's interesting," he commented, averting his gaze briefly due to Angelica's movements catching his eye. Ah, it seemed he'd manage to accomplish something that had her taking rest; that was worth taking note of. Also worthy of note was Sakura's mention of an ascension to precede her experiment with shadows. "Ascension? I'm guessing it's got to do with that hair change you've been going through since day one. . ."

Butter was apparently something that didn't exist in this world. Sakura could take it Charlemagne's authority that it was true as he was the most well traveled of the trio by far. Still his explanation of it as some sort of milk product was strange. "People make things out of milk? Interesting, I wonder if Otou-chan knows..." Sakura gave herself time to make a mental note to ask her elf father about his knowledge of human based milk products. She knew he was looking to help that severed land with their mana problem and milk products could potentially help with that, especially ones proven to work on the 'mana-less' Gaia. Fascinating though this was, Angelica found it strange that her mana had the quality of something she'd never even heard of before. But took the practical approach that given that both individuals she was with liked it, she shouldn't worry about it as a matter of course.

As for Sakura, it would appear that she maintained a certain amount of curiosity, just the same Angelica took a seat and noted the shift of eyes into her direction. She scoffed gently turning up her nose as if not to show weakness but in the same moment seemed to admit it. It would seem that Charlemagne wasn't too far back on the uptake as far as Sakura's plans were concerned. At the very least he'd noticed her early changes in physical form even if they didn't have a real relation. "Yes, it has something to do with it..." Sakura said. She was adjusting well to not oversharing information, though the nature of her hair color change was directly an issue of metabolizing the demonic influence from Charlemagne's Holy Grail, there was also the general understanding that she could have ended up that way herself...

Oh well, she allowed herself to exhale a little breath and the shadow beneath her person seemed to condense, shrinking into her person as the ones around Angelica and Charlemagne grew. She'd be torturing them a bit, but it wasn't going to be anything bad, and perhaps it would make clear her intentions... and she could have fun, as her demonic father suggested. Currently she wasn't using these shadows as an extension of her senses, but her own intentions could be felt through them. In this case, when her eyes opened she could feel a bit of extra heat rolling though her body, much the same it seemed to be concentrated around her womb and at her core. Her father mentioned the idea of letting his daughter out... perhaps that was the best mental image she could use for the shift in her powers and leaning. For Sakura it would be like pulling a string to open a trap door, allowing the more demonic nature of her being to flood her person. "Sou...." she murmured understanding a new set of sensations that went along with the shift in power. There was something rather suddenly oppressive about the lass.

"Yeah, a lot of stuff. Butter, cheese, yogurt... ice cream," Charlemagne reminisced while answering Sakura's curiosity. Now that he was thinking about it actively, there was definitely ice cream of various sorts in this world... though some were just made of ice. It was quite strange that butter didn't exist anywhere he'd seen in this world, but he'd also rarely seen meats that a resident of Gaia would call normal.

As for Sakura's apparent 'ascension' as she called it, there was a connection to the gradual change in her hair color from purple to white. He knew that had been happening since she took the darkness from his grail. What he didn't know, was that she had the ability to evolve because of that absorption. "Well, good luck with ascending ─ however that works," he said despite undergoing an ascension himself just a few days prior. Though it was easy to assume that special sort of Spiritual Core could be involved as well, he didn't have any desire to assume it was the only possible outcome. These goddesses were quite strange, after all.

Whatever an evolution entailed, it was clearly something demonic in this case. The culmination of shadows around Sakura led to the activation of Charlemagne's extra sense. That ominous aura around her was that of a demon, and a mighty one at that. She didn't register as some murderous threat, but she did feel like a different sort of danger. There was a certain excitement welling up in the lad ─ one borne of an impending catastrophe. Luckily for Charlemagne, he thrived on adventure that came with new, unexpected challenges. Either way, all he could do now was simply... see what happened for himself.

According to Charlemagne there were several different forms of milk products. Sakura took the time to note each name and logged them away for a later conversation with her elf father. Of course, Angelica heard one of those names and found it interesting... "I don't know what ice cream is, but it sounds delicious," she added wanting that added to the list of things she would try. Oddly enough, even without going on many adventures Angelica had the presence of mind to feel a bit uneasy. Well that wasn't the right word, ever since she started to feel the difference in Sakura's mana, her heart had been pounding in her chest and the inviting warmth of the shadows beneath her made her want to squirm in place. She couldn't really explain the feeling she had, aside from calling herself scared.

Ah, but scared would only encourage Sakura as she was currently. In fact, the well wishes of Charelmagne would initially go unanswered as she girl's rather omnious aura seemed to be settling into something quite different. The idea of ascending was something she wished to undertake as the self most perfect for the situation, and as such would require several specific steps not all of which she'd planned out completely yet. "Arigatou, Kazzun, but it's not a matter of luck in this case. Though it is a bit unknown and I do need to make some adjustments..." she mused. Ah, but her adjustments weren't specifically about her plans, those extensions of her will would aim to move things, and beings, first and foremost, Charlemagne. He'd find himself on the ground in the seated position shifted as such by the shadows that followed her will. In making the shift it would be a rather sudden thing to happen and if it worked the girl would be left looking down at the lad with her smile spreading quite wide in the moment. "I do like looking from this angle," she murmured seeming to mostly be taking account of her own likes and dislikes. As not to exclude Angelica the other girl would find herself being gently caressed. As if she shadows around her were rubbing against all aspects of her flesh, bringing heat to her face, and sliding gently around her flesh... familiarizing themselves with it. "Uh... am I the only one terrified right now?" Angelica asked aloud, this would bring Sakura's eyes up and towards her with a wide grin on her face. Such a fearful response from Angelica made Sakura quite excited to watch her squirm... interesting she'd felt this way before but not nearly with this intensity. She seemed to be working towards her own happiness in the moment and that was quite different for her.

Angelica didn't know about ice cream either. He couldn't be too surprised by that information, given her conundrum of being trapped in Aincrad for a thousand years. "It is delicious. It's a milky, creamy, frozen dessert that's better than anything else on a hot day," he explained, thinking quite fondly of the cold treat. He could add ice cream to the list of things worth experiencing for someone like Angelica. Keeping that in mind was certainly something Charlemagne intended to do.

Before any of that became relevant, however, Sakura had plans for the group as a whole. Her shadows were for a greater purpose than ascension alone ─ or rather, they'd be used to facilitate ascension using Sakura's partners. Angelica was afraid, Charlemagne was somehow more excited than he'd been in previous days, and Sakura was... very much darker than she'd been previously. Charlemagne was taken by surreal movement methods and seated on the floor. Though he was taken aback by sudden transition, he was more baffled by what Sakura had to say immediately afterwards. The feintest of flushes brought color to the lad's face as he sat, leaning against his own hands for balance. As much as he wanted to figure out exactly what the plan was, Charlemagne's attention was taken by the sight of... Angelica being more thoroughly molested by shadows than what he'd seen before. It was such an interesting thing to watch, Charlemagne mentally questioned himself regarding his own preferences. Whatever the case, the blonde had something to say. Was she the only one terrified? Well... he had a strange answer for that. "Uh... yes? Is it weird if I say yes?" he asked, feeling no fear, but a fair amount of excitement for the mysterious future ahead.

A cold treat, was the thing called ice cream. Charlemagne seemed to think upon it fondly. The lad had several things to say about it and both girls made the assumption that they'd be introduced to the thing called ice cream at some point in the near future. "Sou ka," Sakura murmured seeming to come to several conclusions about the nature of milk based products. "Oh? That sounds really good," Angelica mentioned. She'd be trying it, and obviously she intended to try it with her new favorite people in tow.

Of course, long before the girl known as Angelica could do something like trying ice cream, there would be the rather jarring change in personality of someone like Sakura to deal with. The white haired lass seemed to be coming into herself in a rather extreme manner. And of course, Angelica expressed her understanding of this shift as fear, but it seemed she was the only one to see it that way. In fact, she also took note of the blushing face of Charlemagne as Sakura mentioned enjoying looking at him from the angle she currently had. She looked down upon him, and that was rather intimidating for all around. "Yes, Chuck, it's fucking weird. I'm not judging you though..." Angelica confirmed. She was afraid but perhaps Charlemagne had every reason to not be so. A smirk came to Sakura's face as she stepped towards the lad she now had on the floor. She watched as Angelica squirmed under the sensations of her shadows molesting her person and she couldn't help but feel a great deal of happiness at making both of them so very uncomfortable, albeit in very different ways. In the meantime, Sakura stood over Charlemagne only to turn and reach for his manhood. He was an integral part of her ascension and there were quite a few things she needed to do, and a few more she'd not quite figured out yet. "I still have to figure it out I suppose. You'll help," she said those words as if not giving Charlemagne much of an option, she lowered herself against his face, going on to seat herself above him. Obviously he had no problems with this sort of thing, and she'd begin a rather casual stroking of his cock. "Come here, An-chan~" she said as she began the process of tonging the lad's manhood directly and rubbing along its length all while she practically sat on his face, her own loins dripping over his face. Angelica for her part in this looked at Sakura and nodded standing nearly at attention before moving towards her. "Yes, ma'am..." she said succinctly. There appeared to be no fight at all in the other girl, but that was amusing to Sakura overall. It would be from this moment forward that she'd begin her evolution.