To explain how Jun and Artoria ende up facing each other on a custom reality marble battlefield however, one had to go back in time a little while . . .
After Mordred executed her tactical retreat out of sheer embarrassment, Jun began discussing with Morgan about whether there was potential in Magdalena or not while Graya silently observed Artoria who in turn was staring at Jun very intently as if she wanted to say something.
*
"So Morgan, do you think there is potential to be dug out it Magdalena over here?" Jun asked.
Morgan observed the woman intently, analysing her with her supernatural senses before swiftly coming to a conclusion.
"In a way, you woman, would be considered a failure by your cult for your inability to syncronize with Artoria's existence." Morgan started by revealing something that Magdalena herself already knew. But then, came a new piece of information she was not aware of.
"In the root of your failure however, lays the potential to be great in an entirely different way." Morgan continued.
"You see, your failure to synchronize with Artoria came not due to your inability to properly synchronize at all, but due to the fact your compatibility was skewed to another member of the Pendragon Family . . . Namely, me. The Pan-Human History version of myself that is." She revealed.
Everyone was shocked, even Jun as he did not know of this and he usually refrained from using his Ars Notoria unless necessary or critical as he did not enjoy the overload of information.
The light version he kept active at all times did not dig deep into an individual's core to find such hidden characteristics so Jun was caught off guard.
"So you're saying that if you adjust the synchronization target to yourself, Magdalena here could acquire all of your physical talents?" Jun inquired.
While Magdalena would not receive Morgan's spiritual abilities or her profound knowledge of magecraft, receiving the sheer might that came with Morgan's flesh was no joke as it would giver the potential to become an extremely powerful being in her own right.
Magdalena herself seemed to have her spirits lifted while Artoria seemed to be quite unsettled by the possibility of having to handle to Morgans. Though she loved her sister at heart, it didn't stop them from having little clashes which would make a two on one extremely undesirable.
"Unfortunately, that is not possible." Morgan doused water on the expectations.
"As you well know, there are three facets to my existence. Morgan the Human, Morgan the Witch and Morgan the Great Mother Fairy." She began to explain
"The woman's compatibility is solely with Morgan the Human and, to some extent, Morgan the Witch, but completely missing any possible connection with Morgan the Great Mother Fairy."
"Due to this, while it would be possible to gain my physical talents for battle which match Artoria's before her Dragon Reactor Core fully developed and a relatively minor part of my talents for magecraft along with the blacked magical energy from by bloodline lineage, that would be it."
"The bulk of my raw power, the source of my overwhelming magical talent lays in my status as a Great Mother Fairy, a Divided Spirit of the World itself."
"As such, this woman would never be able to come close to my full potential. However, she can be trained to the level of a decent Heroic Spirit regardless." Morgan concluded her explanation.
"Decent by your standards means top tier for most people so lets do it. If Magdalena is okay with it of course." Jun responded.
Magdalena simply bowed deeply towards Morgan and calmly said.
"I am under your care, your majesty."
With that done, Jun then turned to the adorable King of Knights who had been staring intently at him for a while now.
"Excellent! Now Artoria, you can tell me why you have seemingly been attempting to fulminate me with your gaze during that entire conversation." He teased, somewhat embarrassing Artoria.
She near instantly got a hold of herself as the matter which she wished to discuss with Jun was quite serious, for her at least.
"Jun . . . I request a duel with you." Artoria declared.
Jun raised his eyebrow while eyeing her suspiciously, wondering what had brought this request on.
Seeing this reaction however, Artoria rushed to explain her intentions as the last thing she wanted was for Jun to misunderstand she had a problem with him which was as far from the truth as it could be.
"I simply wish to see . . . How much further you are, what is the goal I'm aiming for. I want to fight beside you, to truly be of help to you as more than just an Heroic Spirit under your command . . ." She explained her self.
"I wish to see . . . To see how far the top truly is . . ." Artoria finally declared.
"I understand." Jun seriously replied.
"Then-"Artoria began speaking again but Morgan interrupted from the side.
"You need to understand your position better Artoria. And, if you truly wish to be by master's side, then you ought to pay more attention to his circumstances." Morgan said in a scolding tone.
Artoria was slightly taken aback as memories of scolding from her big sister during her sweet innocent childhood rose to the surface until the actual content of the scolding sunk in.
"What do you mean?" Artoria questioned.
"I'll take it from here." Jun said from the side, drawing Artoria's attention to himself while Morgan deferred to his decision to explain his circumstances himself.
"What Morgan means, is that challenging me to a duel right now will either not give any inkling of my real prowess unless I'm willing to throw away significant amounts of progress and resources." Jun revealed.
"Despite the inadequacy of by current body, if I properly use the powers of the Nine Crowns I have available, I could give you a good showing. However, I have previously mentioned I'm in a transitional state, waiting for the awakening of the final Crown." He continued.
"I remember you mentioning this Jun. But you also said that you could still output as much power as before with the remaining Nine Crowns to back you up." Artoria responded.
"True. If I let the awakening proceed normally however, It would take a virtually endless amount of time. As such, I have dedicated most of Domina Coronam's power to speed up the process." Jun revealed.
"This unfortunately means I can't use that power for anything else because I'll lose all progress made towards the awakening if I do. Understand?" Jun concluded his explanation.
"Of course, if I find myself in a situation that I absolutely need need more power to solve, I can make that sacrifice, it's a significant amount of time and resources wasted but what can you do. I'm not however, quite willing to pay that price for a serious spar however." He added.
Artoria immediately realized her mistake but truth be told, it wasn't her fault as she did not know the intricacies of Jun's situation and he told her as much.
"No worries though, you didn't know so I can't blame you for making such a request. I can give your duel, at a later date however, or I can do it with my currently available power. It might not give an idea of my true strength but it might be enlightening either way." Jun comforted and suggested.
"Hmph! You didn't tell me either but I still figured it out. Scathach did as well." Morgan jabbed from the side, unable to let an opportunity to bully Artoria a bit pass by.
Artoria seemed to take a hit to her mood because of it, feeling down and thinking herself inadequate for not properly paying attention to Jun's state of being.
'Here I am speaking of catching up to him and fighting by his side while secretly wishing for his love as well but I couldn't even truly see how Jun was . . .' She beat herself up in her mind.
Jun just casually placed his hand on her head it had become his habit when comforting the ladies of his group and said . . .
"Don't mind Morgan, you know how she is." He declared while looking at Morgan with an admonishing glance.
"Besides, She and Scathach only figured it how due to their knowledge and the fact they are technically the rulers of their bound Crowns, thus making them much more sensitive to the changes in Domina Coronam." Jun explained.
Artoria's mood lifted up immediately, both due to happiness at Jun's care and due to figuring out that Morgan was just omitting important facts to jab at her.
But when Artoria glared at her sister, she just uncharacteristically cutely huffed and turned away, making the legendary King of Knights pout with puffed cheeks in response.
"You two are really unbearably cute you know." jun could only comment as such before that showing, making Artoria want to make a tactical retreat like Mordred before and even Morgan got a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Come on know Artoria. Let's work out the stress with that duel you requested. I may not be at my best but I ain't no easy opponent either." Jun invited with a smile.
Artoria smiled back.
"Don't regret it Jun."
*
"That's it." Morgan finished explaining the situation to mordred who was at a bit of a loss and almost wishing she had stayed behind in spite of her embarrassment, just to watch the show.
'Well, at least I have this show to watch.' She thought while looking at the screen that showed the duel field.
'Mother can be nice when she wants to, bringing me back to watch such an duel, promising epicness.' Mordred said in her mind while being filled with anticipation.
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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!
The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.
You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.
There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!
I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.
