"Haah… Haah… Why… Why do I have to go through all this hardship…"
Charlie knelt on one knee, supporting himself with the Sword of Damocles, while his body protested every movement. The burning headache from losing too much blood continued to bother him, making his vision blur occasionally. It reminded him of the sensation of severe motion sickness after ten hours in a car.
"Not yet… I can't waste this opportunity…"
Charlie tried to stand up, even though his knees could barely support his body. His breath was gasping, but he forced himself to walk towards Fafnir's body, which was now lying lifeless amidst the ruins of Tokai City.
Fafnir's corpse was as large as a small mountain, and its crimson blood created a pool that circled its body. Charlie walked slowly, leaving footprints in the blood, while nausea increasingly attacked him.
Upon reaching the massive body of Fafnir, he took a deep breath, ignoring the increasingly severe headache from blood loss. With the remaining strength he had, he lifted his sword and made a new wound on Fafnir's chest, ensuring that the dragon's blood flowed more profusely.
*Pu-chi!*
As the crimson blood began to soak the ground around it, Charlie placed the Sword of Damocles beside him. Without hesitation, he began to remove the remaining clothes on his body.
"I won't make the same mistake as Siegfried."
In the Nibelungenlied story, Siegfried became an invulnerable creature by obtaining an invincible body from his victory over Fafnir, where he would no longer receive a single wound on the battlefield. But when he bathed in the dragon's blood, a linden leaf happened to stick to his back, preventing the blood from touching it; making it his only weakness that would cause his irreversible death.
Not wanting to have a conspicuous weakness like Siegfried, Charlie removed all the clothes on his body without hesitation. He didn't realize his actions were being watched by the upper echelons of various countries through satellite imagery.
"Hisss… No one told me bathing in dragon blood was so painful?!"
Completely naked, Charlie stood in the middle of Fafnir's blood pool. The hot liquid burned his skin at first, like a sharp sting of fire. But he gritted his teeth, endured the pain, and lowered himself even lower so the dragon's blood flowed all over his body.
He made sure every inch of his skin was submerged, not letting a single part escape the dragon's blood. His hands, feet, back, even his face were soaked until there was no gap that could become a weak point, like the linden leaf that stuck to Siegfried.
As the blood seeped into his pores, a different sensation began to overwhelm him. The initial painful heat turned into extraordinary energy.
When the blood bath was complete, Charlie stood with blood dripping from his body. But his skin felt different—denser, like living rock. He felt power flowing within him, something he had never felt before.
He picked up the Sword of Damocles and examined his own body. With curiosity, he scraped the tip of the sword against his left arm. There was no wound—not even a scratch mark. His skin was now as hard as steel, impenetrable by ordinary weapons.
"The legend is true; bathing in dragon blood will grant immunity to sharp weapons. If I remember correctly, Siegfried received minimal damage from Karna's attacks in Fate Apocrypha."
"Karna had an advantage in terms of range thanks to his long spear and thus managed to attack Siegfried seventy-eight times at different vital points every time. Although his arm should have been torn off, and his eyes gouged out because of each of Karna's attacks, it was recorded as a superficial wound that could be healed in a flash."
"Does that mean I have the same durability as Siegfried?"
Thinking about it, Charlie felt it was worth risking his life against the Evil Dragon Fafnir.
Who was Karna?
He was the Son of the Sun God, an invincible hero in the Indian epic Mahabharata!
Among the Heroic Spirits on the Throne of Heroes, Karna was included in the Top Servants, as well as three Gold Servants alongside Gilgamesh and Ozymandias.
Karna's strength was beyond doubt.
Although Siegfried didn't defeat Karna directly, but his heart bearer, the homunculus Sieg, managed to defeat Karna!
Of course, Charlie wasn't arrogant enough to think he could defeat Karna after bathing in dragon blood. But at least he had a defense that was impenetrable even by Karna!
"I remember, Siegfried also ate the dragon's heart, right?"
Those words crossed his mind. In the Nibelungenlied story, eating the dragon's heart not only granted immunity but also extraordinary power. Charlie observed Fafnir's giant body, now more like a lifeless carcass. After hesitating for a moment, he finally gritted his teeth and decided.
"I've come this far, why not?"
*Pu-chi!*
With the Sword of Damocles in his hand, Charlie began to dissect Fafnir's chest. After the dragon's death, its scales were no longer as hard as before, and his sword easily sliced through flesh and bone. A foul smell mixed with a burnt aroma filled the air, but Charlie ignored it.
Finally, after opening the chest area, he found what he was looking for. Fafnir's heart was the size of a watermelon, still beating faintly, as if there were remnants of life left.
"Ugh…"
Charlie lifted it with both hands, blood dripping onto the ground from the massive organ. Just looking at it, a sense of disgust began to creep into his mind. He had never imagined being in a situation like this—holding a dragon's heart, ready to eat it raw.
"Eating raw meat? This is disgusting." He spoke to himself, trying to gather courage.
But the image of Aiz Wallenstein's face flashed across his mind. The doll-like girl who always had ambition and strong determination to become stronger. If it were Aiz, she wouldn't hesitate. She would be willing to do anything to reach the peak of power.
"I can't lose to a little girl. Isn't sushi also raw meat? It's the same thing."
Charlie opened his mouth, biting into the still-warm heart. Its texture was hard and elastic, and thick blood spurted into his mouth. The foul and pungent taste almost made him vomit, but he forced himself to chew and swallow.
After the first bite, he took a second bite, then a third. Each bite felt like a struggle in itself, but his determination didn't waver. He had to do it.
As he swallowed the last part, his body suddenly reacted. His body temperature rose drastically, and excruciating pain spread from his stomach throughout his body. He fell to his knees, clutching the ground with trembling hands.
*DUG!* *DUG!* *DUG!*
As the pain attacked him, Charlie felt his body churning as if it was about to shatter from the inside. His heart beat so fast, as if it was about to explode at any moment. The sound of the throbbing beat echoed in his ears, making his head feel like it was about to burst.
"ARHHHHHHHHHH…!!!"
The pain was so intense that he screamed like a wild animal that was severely injured. His scream echoed around the silent battlefield, carrying a terrifying aura as if the earth itself was witnessing the birth of something unnatural.
As the pain peaked, Charlie looked at his chest. Green lines began to appear on his skin. The pattern looked like wild plant roots, growing and spreading rapidly. They crawled towards his neck, slightly encroaching on his cheek, then stopped there, emitting a glowing green light.
After a moment that felt like eternity, the pain slowly subsided. Charlie gasped for breath, his body soaked in sweat and dragon blood that soaked the ground. He touched the green lines on his chest, trying to erase them, but to no avail.
"Haah… Haah… These green lines are the same as the ones on Siegfried's chest."
"This is troublesome; I can't remove or hide them."
Charlie felt his low-profile life drifting further away from him. He was most worried that the gods would know the meaning of the green lines. After all, even though their Arcanum was sealed, their insight still existed.
There's no way the gods in Orario wouldn't sense something unique about the green lines on his chest.