The Eternal Sanctum (Holy Knight Headquarters)

[Apollymi]

"I mean those things were a bit different," mentioned Sakura who didn't understand why Anais had apologized nor general emotional state of Charles. But, she'd grown up in Munetsuchi and perhaps the physical aspect of exercise would help him calm down a bit. If that didn't work there was another way, but he'd probably be skittish about it. Whatever the case, she'd hold that thought in her mind while watching the fight. "Hai hai," Anais managed she was still on high alert but that was a matter of a lot of energy being tossed around and rolling off people giving her weird vibrations.

"I don't really think he's a traitor. You really could have let me finish talking to him first, but maybe this will be good for both of you," Martha mentioned. She was a martial artists, she understood the honesty of physicality more than most and as long as no one was about to die, she'd probably let it go. After all, Charles also wasn't really seeing the other side of reason given his own attitude. "So, is this going to be alright?" asked Yume as she watched blows rain down with extreme force and then the subsequent strikes which happened methodically with speed. "It will be fine. As much as I hate that the plans never work out we're kind of used to it at this point. The talking part always goes wrong, but Charlie won't lose a fight..." she stated. Martha's eyes turned to the elafia girl who seemed to have quite a bit of faith in the lad fighting.

At the same time, Astolfo seemed to be quite excited to watch this fight. The pink haired lad claimed this would have been a scandal before and he obviously knew both of these people fairly well. "I don't have one... and I am not at all interested in a scandal of any sort. But you're also always like this so carry on I guess," she mentioned seeming to be beyond the meeting new people and fighting them to assert dominance. She was sure such an instance would have been nothing but fun for someone like Renaud. "Jea-nee did say he would be the most upset, I think I understand..." said Sakura as she watched the fight. Things of passion were much easier for her to grasp as far as human emotions were concerned.

[Bloodedge]

Martha didn't think the 'former' Holy Knight was a traitor. Siegfried wouldn't listen; he could hardly even hear. That may have mostly been the fury of a dragon welling up inside, but it could have easily been blamed on the constant ringing in his ear as Charlemagne took the offensive and caused Siegfried to parry quite close to his own head a few times. "We carry the same sin, you and me," the black-haired male said. Siegfried hadn't a clue what he was talking about initially, but he'd know soon enough.

"Don't lump me in with─" Siegfried started while aiming his free fist toward the smaller male's torso. "Shut up!" Charlemagne interjected. He had a free hand as well, which he used swiftly to divert the other's fist. In that moment, a seemingly stray slash caught Siegfried's ankle, effectively toppling the giant. Charlemagne could finally tower over the Dragon-Knight. What would he do with that ability? He'd antagonize. "You know what I actually did to Jeanne?" he asked. Siegfried was made curious, but not for long. Charlemagne would be telling the rest while grabbing those long, silver locks. "I did the same thing you did! I wasn't there!" With that, there was a very well-placed knee colliding with Siegfried's face. The large knight was knocked away by the impact, though rather quick to recover himself. The strangest thing to him was that Charlemagne managed to injure him at all, given his unique constitution. "So how does that work, Siegfried? Who's the traitor if you've got two counts to my one?"

On the topic of scandals, Astolfo scoffed. Anais would never be able to appreciate such an amazing scenario, yet the current situation could be no such thing. Well... it could in his imagination, at least. "Calm down! This one isn't even a scandal. This is the super special shounen development battle!" he said, spewing more nonsense by the moment... sort of.

[Apollymi]

Everyone was watching the ongoing fight with bated breath. Charles seemed content to antagonize Siegfried and while that occurred the man was subjected to several blows. 'That's not right...' Martha thought while watching this fight. It seemed rather intense, and while she expected something relatively close to a fair battle this one didn't seem very fair at all. This thought was similar to one held by Anais, who figured Charles might have forgot that his entire existence got an upgrade, but maybe this was a reasonable time to figure it out? She had a pretty good idea that she could actively heal most damages caused to either party with way more quickness than she would have been able to previously. She also had way more energy than she needed to expend upon the activity.

"Oh? I can't quite place that emotion... I don't quite ge..." then Charles continued to use words against Siegfried and it clicked in the mind of the girl. "Never mind. but guy emotions are really weird," she ended her observation at that. Self-loathing as experienced by both of these individuals resulted in both lashing out in very interesting ways. One was looking for someone to victimize to vent and the other was content to bottle his up until it exploded outward. Strange but she understood how they got there even if the exact feeling of it was a bit different. Whatever the case, Astolfo called this a shounen development battle. How pointed, but also very strange. "I am as calm as I always am," Anais uttered, which was true. Though her words and actions always seemed a bit skittish she could buckle down and do whatever needed to be done most times.

[Bloodedge]

Once upon a time, there was a saying about poking sleeping dragons. It had become something of an analogy, but it had once been a very literal thing for a very serious reason. Charlemagne was presently poking the dragon within Siegfried, whether he meant to or not. The tall knight had already been halfway to a transformation before arriving, and he now seemed to be developing scales over a surprisingly broken face. "Were you always an insufferable bastard, or did you get that from your Holy Father?" he hissed. "Were you always a close-minded monster, or did you get that from being turned into Fafnir's overcoat?" Charlemagne countered.

Then and there, Siegfried made a decision. He couldn't let himself become the dragon Fafnir and endanger the other Holy Knights and their headquarters. Luckily, he had an emergency method to avoid such situations. There was a Skill called Disengage, which could tap into even Siegfried's smaller mana reserves to affect himself and his opponent, effectively resetting the conditions of battle to the beginning. He would be uninjured, and his transformation would be reverted as well. Charlemagne witnessed the reversal of scales and injuries, but he didn't want that outcome. Little did he realize, his desire in such an emotional state was no mere desire. As essentially the God of Order, his decision to keep things as they were halted Siegfried's Skill activation, with only a flash of red in Charlemagne's eyes to show what occurred. Ah, but that meant Siegfried's transformation was still underway. "What's wrong, Sieg? Time to take the coat off?" Charlemagne wondered. All the while, Siegfried was sprouting more scales, growing claws and fangs, and even increasing in physical stature a bit.

[Apollymi]

This fight seemed beyond personal, so much so that the jabs these two people took at each other caused visible wincing from all the women present. If they weren't already fighting, well... it definitely wasn't about to stop. "Yeah, both of these people definitely came from our world... those are beyond fighting words," Yume mentioned. Anais could only nod, "That is definitely pretty rough," she confirmed. it would be Sakura who heard the words and looked confused. Of course, among these people she would surely express her confusion because both of those 'jabs' seemed to be pretty solid observations. "Why are those statements rough? They seem to be pretty reasonable conclusions based on the information given..." she said looking at all the women present and obviously expecting some sort of explanation.

"Are we really about to explain trash talk to a young goddess? I feel like that might be sacrilege or something?" Anais followed up but she was rubbing the side of her head. It wasn't as if she hadn't been involved in quite a bit of sacrilege earlier today. "It's definitely something but I feel like this trip could get pretty awkward if she doesn't understand..." mentioned Yume. "Definitely awkward," confirmed Martha. So then they remained looking at each other as they decided how best to explain the truthful observations as the trash talk they were. Anais would quietly end up bringing up the explanation of the situation that had happened earlier in context. "So you remember earlier when Astolfo observed that I was, as my previous self a midget? Well, that is like a way to refer to really short people. And while I may actually be observably short, its rude to point it out as humans have a lot of things they are sensitive about," she said. Sakura was nodding and following along. "Those two chose two things they didn't like about themselves, based on knowing each other and spewed them at each other with the intention of hurting, thus... it isn't just an observation it is meant to evoke an emotional response," this was the end of the summary given by the pair. "In conversation it is generally not considered human polite to say those types of things to each other... even friends might bump heads over things like that, make sense?" asked Martha finally. "Sou ka... arigatou gouzaimasu," mentioned Sakura. For her this explanation amounted to, humans who knew the truth of themselves didn't necessarily want other people telling them those truths. It was also apparently a reasonable tactic to use such harsh truths to pick a fight. Okay. Just the same everyone noticed something magical had happened but no one could really place what it was except Sakura. And Siegfried was in the middle of transforming so it was getting a bit dodgy though Charles didn't seem like he wasn't winning still.

[Bloodedge]

Siegfried's growth was something capable of threatening the Eternal Sanctum in its entirety. Charlemagne didn't seem very worried about it at all, though he was beginning to understand what happened mere moments ago. "Were you trying to stop it? Why? You wanted to take out the 'traitor', right?" he questioned, stepping even closer to the man who would soon be a full-fledged dragon. Those eyes of Charlemagne's were becoming red once more. Perhaps it was time he tried using a newfound power with purpose? "If you're not going to commit, don't bother drawing your sword. You can't kill me. Fafnir can't kill me. Stop trying," he demanded.

In that moment, Charlemagne enforced a rule upon the world, temporary though it may be. So long as Siegfried could not overcome Charlemagne, he could not express his aggression. The dragon traits of Siegfried receded quickly, and his eyes became that deep shade of green once more. He would wonder for some time how a person like Charlemagne could silence Fafnir. While he did, Charlemagne sheathed his sword. The fight was over, so Charlemagne could say something he'd been holding in the entire time. "You know what else I wasn't planning on doing? Mentioning that I'm the king here now. The plan involved getting you people to listen, without creating bad blood by forcing it. This is stupid. If we came to attack, we would have attacked. We're here to get help doing something you all want to do anyway. So, if we're done with this, who's ready to finally listen?"

[Apollymi]

Charles kept poking at Siegfried having figured out that the man was trying to stop his transformation he questioned the decision. He went on to make a rather bold claim which more or less became a rule. Siegfried couldn't kill him. Fafnir couldn't kill him. He was ordered to stop trying. If Charles earlier uses of power were any indication he'd probably just locked this man's aggression towards him behind his own mental and physical skills. That was interesting. The man had deep green eyes and seemed to be rather calm where he was, "Are you okay? Do you need healing?" this was a question from Anais. If everything was fine now, she'd actually do something useful for a while.

Just the same, Charles asked if everyone was ready to listen, because he came here for help. He was also not going to mention being king here and he thought the whole situation was stupid. These points were fair, but no one in this situation was wrong in a technical sense. "How are you king here? And if you actually can manage that sort of thing, why do you think you need our help?" these were a pretty logical set of questions asked of the lad as Martha held out his grail to return it to him. She'd been willing to hear him out the entire time, his attitude was the one developing negativity just by virtue of simple questioning. All the while Sakura was content to watch the lad and wonder if he actually felt better. She was learning quite a bit about human interaction and how emotions seemed to work on and in their minds. It was odd, but Charles was quite good for this sort of thing.

[Bloodedge]

Siegfried had been succinctly, albeit surprisingly, bested this day. He never imagined Charlemagne being an easy enemy to defeat, but he also never imagined being defeated by the lad with ease. To top it all off, one of Charlemagne's comrades spoke up to question his wellbeing. "I'll be ─ hngh ─ fine!" Siegfried insisted. Charlemagne looked at the fallen Dragon-Knight, realizing he'd taken injury that should not have been possible under normal circumstances. Ah... Charlemagne was a different sort of entity now, and even possessed armor and a weapon from divine beings to boot. "Heal him," he said to Anais.

Stepping toward Martha, he received a pair of questions that were sure to come about eventually. Now that a discussion could be properly held, he'd explain. "The Nexus is God. I went there, where I met Jeanne, and I was made king because I was apparently supposed to be in the original timeline of this world. Nothing else has changed. We didn't get married or anything, though she'll probably return with a child that apparently comes from her Holy Grail. It's also my kid, but not like that," he said to silence any additional ignorance-induced fury from Siegfried. During a brief silence, he took hold of the Holy Grail again. "The help is for two reasons. First and foremost, we can't just go to Aincrad, as you probably know. We're here because this is a central place we can use to try locating it. And yes, I can do a lot now. That doesn't matter. I told you Father An tried to hijack my soul; I meant he took a chunk of it. From what I heard in the Nexus, he's walking around with my face, my name, and a weird beard that I can't wait to rip off his chin. There's still a chance he can keep pulling on my soul, though, so I'll take all the help I can get."

[Apollymi]

Anais offered healing which she was bound to do simply by virtue of how she behaved. It seemed that initially Siegfried thought to deny the offer but Charles said she should so she went with that. She looked at the Dragon Knight and gave a gentle apology as she looked over his injuries. "Sorry," she murmured. Ah, now would be an interesting time, Anais would be using a more advanced version of one of her skills. It was a strict healing spell which had been renamed, Ethereal Incandescent Cloud. Within her hand a small flame would be formed in the candlelight associated with her 'spirit animal' for lack of a better term. But instead of leaving it floating, she manipulated it with her fingers, reaching out with her hand to touch the Dragon Knight. Doing so, she found herself guiding the flames which did no harm and only increased mana flow and stitched up wounds gently around his body. It would take much less time for her to do so this way and with a more direct interface she was able to easily make sure no signs of his injury remained.

At the same time, Charles began explaining the whole of the situation to the group at large. Jeanne's would have been king, he was, and it was something the Nexus who was god decided needed to be a thing. They changed nothing else but they'd have a child together but it was Jeanne's Holy Grail and they didn't make it the way humans did. Martha heard this information and her face scrunched up. She seemed rather obviously terse but it wasn't because of what was said but instead the outrageousness of the world. How could some things be so normal and other things be so crazy. "Why can't people be normal?" this was all Martha had to say. Someone had stolen Charles's face and his soul and was apparently using it and he couldn't just fight them because he could end up absorbed. She sighed. "Still, that seems like a problem and if we can possibly even partially help I see no reason we shouldn't," she said. The cup was gone from her hands now and everything seemed to be mostly still.

[Bloodedge]

Siegfried hadn't taken legitimate damage of that nature in a very long time. He thought everything would be fine, but it seemed he couldn't even keep himself together properly. Charlemagne urged his companion to heal the Dragon-Knight, even after a rather aggressive encounter. How queer. Well, he had little choice but to accept healing, and he had no immediate animosity toward the deer girl. Silently did he sit and feel the envelopment of warmth from an unusual flame of recovery.

All the while, Siegfried could hear Charlemagne's explanation of recent events. He was king of the Eternal Sanctum, and already sire to its coming prince or princess, though not via any sexual contact. This magical world did the craziest things at times. Martha thought to ask why people couldn't just be normal. That happened to be a question Charlemagne had been wondering the answer to repeatedly as of late. "This is normal now. Just get used to it," he said. Moving on, Martha was keen on the idea of offering assistance after hearing the details. He recalled her having reasonable political standing among the Holy Knights as one of few saints, so he cared not for other opinions. "Then let's get to work already," Charlemagne demanded. Already, he was taking steps toward the sanctum. Enough time had been wasted; there were things to do.

Astolfo would follow Charlemagne's every movement while pulling his new mount along, but what had the elf Ailen been up to? He seemed to have paid little attention to that entire battle. Instead, the elf chose to pick a few nearby plants and store them away for study in the near future. At present, he was inspecting a simple blade of grass, standing near Anais as if he didn't even realize she was otherwise occupied. "This is truly marvelous, you know? Many of the decoctions made on the lower world could have even this grass as a base, and they would be made better for it. It's revolutionary, really. I do wonder if all the lands up here are so rich in mana. This could change alchemy as we know it, even if that is not the case. I'll even have to inform my mentor."