The Eternal Sanctum (Holy Knight Headquarters)

[Apollymi]

The Eternal Sanctum is the Headquarters of the Holy Knights as established by Jeanne d'Arc. Any knight who ascends from the lower world could potentially call this place their home. It is tucked into the entrance of the Cedar Mountain which itself is a place of great repute. It still holds a tinge of mystery and is connected to the previous world. The buildings and current design were the work of the Great Pharaoh Ozymandias, and the Pharaoh Nefertari. There are many expansive walk ways connecting several different observatories and towers which contain all the knights could need. It is concerned a central hub and is decorated both inside and out by golden and ivory back drops amid lush greenery. The lads are fertile and are often used to grow crops and share. The 'kingdom' as it is thought of, could easily run itself and live apart from everything but has a warm and jovial theme. When one ports directly to the Eternal Sanctum they show up on a lower platform at a central plaza which one could follow the main entrance up or take one of many divergent paths out into the greater lands or into the overlooking mountains.

[Bloodedge]

A bounded field manifested within the Eternal Sanctum's vicinity, though not at the structure itself. Six were meant to be present in this appearance. Ah, but there were seven. Charlemagne, the new King of the Eternal Sanctum as dictated by a recent connection with Jeanne d'Arc, brought with him a group of five... as well as a stolen horse currently being kept by Astolfo. "You already stole the horse. Why would you bring it to another country, on a completely different level of the world?!" Charlemagne asked, much to the pink-haired male's dismay. Astolfo would be found embracing the horse by its neck, holding on for dear life. "It's a good horse! Look, it even answered my whistle! It's mine now!" he argued.

With a sigh, Charlemagne removed his sword from its resting place. They were a brief walk away from the sanctum itself, so he considered this the perfect spot to leave behind all weapons. Considering the Holy Knights were likely on high alert, he didn't even expect to make it all the way. As such, Charlemagne sighed deeply. Ailen, who had no weapons to speak of, spent this time inspecting the flora already within sight. "Hmm. It seems I was right. Not only is the atmosphere different; it even has an immediately noticeable effect on ordinary plant life. This will certainly be worth further observation."

[Apollymi]

The group of three lasses and three men had appeared in a new place. There was a general look towards Charles before they'd all departed, and even the girls in the group agreed that this armor upgrade was cool. All three of the girls would soon enough be taking in the sights, each of them feeling and seeing something new for the first time. "Oh, mana density up here is fairly high," was Sakura's first observation. "Ah! This looks like a cool place actually like dwarven ruin spilling out of the mountains!" were the words of Yume who seemed to be quite surprised. At the same time it would be Anais de-equipping her sword to slide it into her magic bag while also having a look around. Of course, it was quite new but it probably wouldn't be needed for a little while yet, they were here to appear friendly after all. "Oh? I might like this place..." she mused. By her own feelings this land was quite nice, it also gave her a very calm feeling.

They probably looked like a strange group of tourists, aside from the fact that Astolfo had brought with him the horse he'd already stolen. Charles chose to question it and received a very Astolfo answer for his trouble. This of course, brought a bit of laughter to the rest of the group including Anais who could only try to deescalate the situation. "Charlie he did already have it. Arguing the point of it is just an unnecessary headache at this point," Anais stated honestly. But the words of her mentor and his immediate observations were things she'd listen to as it was something she needed to be part of in some ways. "Yes, it should be pretty interesting... this place feels really nice. And I've heard the individual islands up here vary a lot so we could see a lot of interesting things," she said. Though Anais didn't go out very often, friends of hers had seen a great deal of the world and she was technically happy to be taking her first steps towards the same kind of wandering.

[Bloodedge]

Interestingly, Charlemagne and Astolfo were the only members of this group to have prior experience in Finis Chaldea. Charlemagne had almost forgotten that detail until seeing and hearing the others' reactions. "Oh, right... I'm old as dirt," he griped. Oh well; they surely wouldn't have much time to enjoy the atmosphere. As such, it was best that they take time to appreciate it all while they could. As Anais claimed, there was nothing but headache to be found in arguing about Astolfo's stolen horse. "You're right. Astolfo, drop your..."

Why did Charlemagne hesitate? There was a simple reason. So soon after their arrival, there was a mighty weight applied to the area. Charlemagne knew the feeling quite well. What they were all being subjected to was the fury of a dragon, felt from all the way in the upper sanctum. "... weapons. Now," he finished. The Holy Knights knew their headquarters had been entered. The one called Siegfried especially had been made aware of their arrival, even sooner than Charlemagne anticipated. Soon enough, someone would be seeking them; of this he was sure. Who would it be? He didn't have a clue, but he doubted they would be anything resembling friendly.

[Apollymi]

Arguing with Astolfo wasn't something which should be done most of the time. He in general lacked logic and it was much easier to let him do whatever thing his heart desired as long as it wasn't actually hurting anyone. Moving on, Charles had a gripe about being old and Anais could only shrug. "Come on now he can't be that old..." mentioned Yume who seemed to have no idea about the ages of other people in this world. "Ages can go pretty far, I'm over 300 myself..." she mentioned to Yume who found it startling. "Shut up! You've been here 300 years plus?!" she seemed to be in disbelief but that would have to wait.

"Ooooh? Someone is furious. That's making my skin tingle..." she said about the rather sudden pressure. "Yeah... it is definitely doing that, I really don't want to meet the person giving off that sort of vibration," she murmured her ears were already twitching. If she'd been alone she likely would have gone, but she was a knight she couldn't just abandon ship. Oh well, they were already here, it was too late to turn back and regroup. Instead they'd be left unarmed and waiting, until of course someone started coming into view. A young woman with long purple hair dressed in white and red was carrying with her a giant almost papal staff but she seemed to be moving at a pretty casual pace.

As she approached a rather strange group of people would come into her vision, with only a couple of recognizable faces in the group. How strange, the absolute fury radiating off the man in their main compound made much more sense now, didn't it. "Oh? I don't know what I expected but I didn't expect this!" the woman seemed to be calm and collected but strangely excited. There was a gentle twitch in her unoccupied hand as if she truly wished to fight. Well, they'd been on high alert for a while. Jeanne had gone missing the previous day and now they were coordinating and trying to find her.

[Bloodedge]

Yume had been in this world for only a day, and thus didn't have any expectations of aging, so it seemed. To be surprised that Anais lived in this world for a few hundred years, she wasn't helping Charlemagne's thoughts about his own elder status. There were fossils younger than him. No matter. If he didn't keep focused, he and the others could become fossils themselves. The Holy Knights functioned as Finis Chaldea's enforcers most times, and the group could have only grown more vast and powerful in the last thousand years. Siegfried already seemed to be in a different league than what he recalled. At least that feeling wasn't getting closer just yet.

Ah, but there was one encroaching upon him. Would it be a familiar face? Yes. A purple-haired holy woman walked along, and Charlemagne stepped away from his sword. She was one of the more dangerous individuals to catch oneself in combat with. Perhaps she would be fair? Sadly, her aura said otherwise. How strange. Something about her visage currently was more familiar than Charlemagne expected, but that was of little importance. "Martha..." he said. Charlemagne would take the front, stepping out ahead of Martha and cutting off the most direct path toward the others. If she attacked unexpectedly, he'd be on the receiving end. "We're here to talk."

While Charlemagne went with the straightforward approach, Astolfo finally abandoned that horse. He was content to ignore everything else happening, all to creep his way around to Martha's rear. What was his purpose? Well, Martha was always too voluptuous a target to ignore, so he meant to throw himself against her backside and fill his hands with her sizeable breasts. "Martha my goddess! Goooood morning~!♥"

[Apollymi]

Friends wouldn't be able to catch up for a little while. It was fine, but Yume now had a different concern after knowing how long that Anais had been in this world. Three hundred years was a long time to live, she should have been surprised the girl could even recognize and remember her. This was a magical world, but how much did one need to hang on to their own memory to not accidentally let go of someone they knew for less than a decade in their previous life?

Well, she'd ponder that question while someone apparently called Martha approached with the full intention of beating someone up. This was obvious even to someone as combat inexperienced as Yume. Anais seemed to be on high alert as if getting ready to move or surrender at a moment's notice. Tension seemed to be at an all time high, and Sakura was watching with rather wide eyes. Martha as she was called chuckled but it didn't necessarily seem like a happiness that reached the entirety of her face. "Yeah, that's probably not going to be a thing that..." Her sentence came to a close a bit prematurely. Actually, she'd done the worst thing she could have. She decided after scanning the group that Charles was the target to take but, in so doing Astolfo would easily do the thing he was always going to do. He broke the tension. In this case, he was rubbing himself against her backside and fondling her chest while greeting her. "Asta, cut it out. It's been years and while you aren't on the list you're definitely ruining my entrance here~" she chimed. Ah and what had been a fist twitching and ready to strike became some well spaced almost tickles to remove the handsy French man from her person.

While this took place Anais maintained a bit of curiosity and since she'd recently become quite used to asking questions as they appeared in her head, she had one for her friend. "Yume, was he like that over there too?" she wondered absently. "Hm, well he's more like the guy who gives the rocking hugs, not enough to be completely weird, but enough that if you thought he was out to get in your pants you'd question it. He's nowhere near as handsy as you though..." she mentioned to elafia, who had nothing but a reddened face as she came to remember some rather strange behaviors of hers. "We're not talking about that..." she countered quickly.

[Bloodedge]

Charlemagne could do nothing but try his best for immediate diplomacy. Sadly, it seemed Martha had no intention to follow the same path. He was completely unarmed, but prepared to defend himself by other means if necessary. Martha was among the more dangerous Holy Knights he knew of from before. Ah, but there was a stroke of luck called Astolfo in their group. Charlemagne could heave a sigh of relief after being the center of Martha's focus, leaving her opening to Astolfo's antics.

Astolfo could consider himself lucky as well. Since Charlemagne provided distraction so easily, he was able to have a very nice feel of a physique so dearly missed. Martha was always a treat to grope, even now as she complained and fended him off. The pink-haired lad was laughing furiously within moments, yet he continued reaching out again and again even after jerking away initially. "Boooo! You're ruining my entrance! That's no way to have a friendly reunion!" he whined. While that little exchange was going on, Charlemagne crossed his arms and lowered his guard just slightly. Astolfo was always good for that sort of thing, though his methods and everything else remained questionable. "So... if you have a moment to consider not attacking unarmed visitors, maybe I can start telling you how we're not your enemies? I'd rather get that part out of the way before Sieg's rampage starts."

[Apollymi]

Charles and his group seemed to catch a break, because of the antics of their patron pink-haired chaos master. Astolfo managed to take a person from obviously ready to beat someone to death to a giggling mess upset about her ruined entrance. He continued to try to grope and harass her but she didn't seem to take it very personality. One would notice this about the lad repeatedly. Regardless of the circumstances these kinds of greetings were technically normal for him. "You brought an enemy with you, it's your fault not mine," she said. Martha was at least willing to consider the only person in the wrong here might have been Charles. But there was a reasonable enough explanation for that, one which was perfectly rooted in logic which she would explain.

Regardless, Charles lowered his guard a bit and started talking... all while the tickling of Astolfo continued to force his eventual release of Martha's person. Sakura watched that exchange and wondered why that was what Astolfo went with as a diversion and then concluded that either he was some sort of genius or he was simply crazy. Either way, he had some pretty useful life skills. "First of all, I was willing to assume you were the only enemy in the group. Second, I am a saint and still a knight, I would have either let you arm yourself or fought on even terms," she said looking up with a tinge of seriousness. Did she know that it was worse for others if she fought without a weapon? Yes. But... it would have been honorable combat which was all any of the codes she followed demanded of her. "Besides all of that, you can say you're not our enemy, but it's been a millennia since I saw you last Chuck. And you stayed with the enemy after what happened with Jeanne so, believing you isn't exactly logical. Sieg's rampage is probably going to happen regardless so you better talk fast, there are only a limited number of people even capable of stopping him..." she explained of her current stance. "He's over a millennia old? Life in this world is pretty crazy..." Yume mumbled to Anais, the elafia nodded in response to that.

[Bloodedge]

An enemy? Oh, right; the whole point of this ordeal was that they would be considered enemies by the Holy Knights. Well, that wasn't wholly the case for Martha; she only considered one person an enemy. She and Astolfo would not agree, however. "I didn't bring an enemy. It's a good horse!" he insisted as if the horse was being blamed.

Charlemagne might have to let Astolfo keep the horse after all. The other male was doing quite a bit to cut the tension early, whether intentional or not. Regardless of intention or lack thereof, Charlemagne didn't have to immediately fend off one of the more threatening Holy Knights before the guaranteed problem of Siegfried. "You mean arm myself and fight on even terms? It hasn't been long enough for me to forget what you're like without a weapon," he scoffed. To Martha's credit, her belief was not wrong. Their perspective had him on the side of their greatest enemy for a thousand years, but there were so many more details the Holy Knights didn't have. "I can stop Siegfried; I just won't like it. Anyway... here," he said, casually tossing the Holy Grail toward Martha. That was something best dealt with as soon as possible. Besides, he could use it as a conversation piece and the proof of his coming story. "You know what that is?"