Kyrie couldn’t get Azthol out of her mind, she didn’t know if he managed to escape with the automata. Even more confusing was that she couldn’t understand why there was an automata in the blue forest. After she reported to the high leaders, she would go back to the blue forest and search for them. 

Speaking of the high leaders. Kyrie looked at the woman leading her, she was tall with long blond hair. One of her eyes was closed, a scar ruining her beautiful face. Kyrie knew her from her time as a student in bastion, there was a time when she considered her a friend, but things were different now. 

“I heard you had trouble in the blue forest, is the great Kyrie Meld losing her edge?” 

Kyrie could feel the venom in her voice. Even then she couldn’t hate her, it was her fault their relationship turned out this way. 

“I was protecting an automata and a person of interest and you know that the children are dangerous even for a first class, Vermillion.” 

Vermillion turned around and looked at Kyrie her single crimson eye twitched for a bit before turning around. 

“You have been stuck as a first class for a long time, Kyrie. If you don’t advance then...” 

“It's not easy to become a core user, especially for me. I just can't accept it.” 

“Thats why you'll never even reach his shadow! I expected the mission would help you move on, but I guess I expected too much from you. He would be disappointed Kyrie.” 

Kyrie wanted to respond but realized they had reached their destination. The chamber of the director, an immaculate white door. This was the highest point in all of bastion, the corridor they were in was a single platform. One could see where the borders began, Kyrie could even see the blue forest in all of its glory. The imperishable plains just behind it. It was a place Kyrie hated; painful memories surfaced just from seeing it. Thankfully Vermillion opened the door.  

“Director, I've brought Kyrie as per your request.” 

The room was completely dark as if the concept of light didn’t exist in that room, a single small white glowing tree was in the middle, resting on top of the tree was a naked girl her skin was pale, long black hair that was only visible thanks to the glow from the tree. Her eyes were completely black it felt like looking into a bottomless abyss. 

“Thank you, Vermillion you are dismissed.” 

Vermillion bowed and left, the doors closing behind her.  

Three red symbols appeared behind the director, a jagged crown, a close eye and a goblet. Kyrie knew those symbols were personally used by the high leaders of the city. She kneeled and waited for them to speak. 

“So, you have finally returned, I trust the mission was a success then.” 

A deep voice came from the crown, it commanded respect. It was the voice of an emperor. 

“I don’t think it's that simple, my scouts told me the legion were moving reinforcements to that old temple.” 

This time a voice filled with arrogance came from the goblet, almost mocking the other. 

“There is no need to speculate, we just need to see the report.” 

A third voice came from the closed eye, it was mechanical in nature and yet it sounded so gentle like a father talking to his children.  

The director looked amused, a small smile in her face. She waved her hand and a small orb of light came from Kyrie’s head. The orb floated to her hand where she crushed it.  

“We just need to see it for ourselves isn't that right?” 

Nobody argued with the director, a light screen formed in front of the director. Kyrie’s memories began playing in it. 

X 

Azthol felt like he was dying, no he was dying its juts that Mary would bring him back from the brink of death each time. He didn’t know if that was a good thing but, at least he knew Mary would spoil him while healing him. The same couldn’t be said about Salomon. 

The man was a beast, each blow broke a bone or would send him flying through the plains. He knew the training would be hard, but this was another level. The only thing he could do was dodge, his body reacting on instinct. He doesn’t know how long he has been training, there are no nights in the plains and they only stop to eat and drink.  

He saw Salomon raising his bat high, he dodged the swing, but Salomon reacted quickly and with a Thrust he hit Azthol right in the stomach. Azthol spitted blood and flew through the plains crashing right next to the tree where Mary was. 

He tried getting up but his legs didn’t respond. Salomon appeared on top of him raising his right leg he delivered a kick to Azthol’s head burying it in the ground. Salomon was surprised that even after countless beatings the mask wasn’t affected, not even a small dent or a scratch could be seen. 

The kid was making progress, after the 3rd day the mask stopped acting on its own, not only that but the way the kid move was something else, he stopped holding back after the 6th day and Azthol was still able to dodge some of his attacks, even managing to stand up after a direct hit. It was weird considering that he knew Azthol was a novice. There was something weird apart from that mask, even then the only thing he could do was train Azthol to make sure he would survive crossing the blue forest. Bastion would take care of the rest.  

Mary clearly decided this man was the “one”. That only worried Salamon more, knowing that only hell would await Azthol if he chooses to help Mary. Her creator told him that much. Only hell waited for Mary’s chosen, what a cruel existence Mary was. 

“Be sure to fix him Mary we will begin the next phase after he wakes up.” 

“Understood papa!” 

It took about 5 minutes for Azthol to woke up, when he opened his eyes, he was greeted by Mary’s beautiful face. His head was resting in her thighs, the best lap pillow a man could ask for. Azthol wanted to rest a bit more but, decided to stand up seeing as Salomon was looking a bit mad. he thought it was normal since he was basically hitting on his daughter.  

“Listen, I think it's time we start the next phase of your training, you are making fast progress Azthol but you need to learn to fight if you want cross the blue forest.” 

“So... you going to teach me how to make a weapon like you?” 

Azthol was a bit exited, but he knew things would only get harder. He managed to survive the training and all he did was dodge, trying to fight Salomon was something he didn’t want to do. Maybe this time Salamon would really kill him.  

Still, Azthol wanted to meet Kyrie again. He had to repaid her for taking him out that city, he needed to get to bastion at all costs. If only to thank her properly, maybe one day he would be strong enough to stand by her side. 

“Yeah, now that you have that mask under control, you need to learn to control your kur and make a weapon. So, listen carefully, the weapon you make is going to be a representation of your very being, your existence given form. It won't be easy so concentrate and search for the core of your very being and use to produce your weapon.” 

Azthol was really confused after that explanation, he didn’t think it would be such a big deal, considering Salomon’s weapon was a simple bat. Even without truly understanding he tried to do what Salomon told him. 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying hard to find his core. He searched deep inside and after what felt like hours, he finally found it. A small transparent circle with lines coming from it and making sharp turns and crossing into each other. It was like madman tried to give directions to the lines. 

He touched it and suddenly felt his vision go black. He couldn't see anything, but he felt like his body was being dragged at high speed. When he could finally see again, Azthol found himself in a completely destroyed city nothing but rubble and dust, rain gently poured from the grey skies. The top of what once was a tall skyscraper lied at his feet. No sign of life, no plants or even insects, water flowed like a river through the rubble and even from the top a building like a waterfall.  

Something caught his gaze, a black rusty pipe stuck in some rubble. He approached it and the closer he got the more the feeling of disgust and fear grew. Standing in front of it was difficult, Azthol felt sick and wanted nothing more than to get as far away from the pipe, but something about it felt familiar. With determination Azthol grabbed the pipe, his hand burned the moment it came in contact with the pipe. Instead of letting go he grabbed it with both hands and pulled with all the strength he could muster. The pipe came out and Azthol  could see what looked like a knife welded at the tip of the pipe, it looked like a weapon someone made with whatever they could find in the ruins. His hands stopped burning, the makeshift lance now giving a comforting feeling instead of the disgusting one it gave before.  

Azthol looked closer, noticing what looked like dried blood on the tip of the knife and pipe. He felt his vision grow heavy; a flash of pain assaulted his head. The pain was nothing like he had ever felt before, not even when Salomon broke his spine or bones. His vision became blurry and he could swear he saw an eye formed in the middle of the pipe before losing consciousness. 

X 

Salomon watched as the kid stood there like a frozen corpse, 3 days had passed since he closed his eyes, he was worried since most people would either fail and wake up or would be successful in about an hour. Mary was really worried and he couldn’t blame her, something weird was going on, maybe the mas was interfering with his core. He could do nothing but speculate, he couldn’t interfere with his core at delicate time like this. The only thing they could was wait. 

Salomon felt a stong kur coming from Azthol, it came in waves. A really oppressive kur... in fact he felt the same kind of kur once before, back when Mary was created. That raised some red flags for Salomon, who quickly created his bat and even his armor, it was completely white with gold decorations, the armor of a king with the face of a dragon on his chest plate. His helmet was like the head of an ancient dragon but the horns were broken.  

Mary hide behind him and suddenly a black rusty liquid came from Azthol’s mask, his armor dissolved into the liquid and his whole body was soon immersed in it. The liquid started taking a humanoid form, the first thing that formed was the mask followed by the rest of the body, Azthol was now wearing a weird black cloak. Hugging his upper body tightly the tips of the lower half were covered in rust dripping the liquid. Azthol’s hands were now skinny and pale, barely looking human.  

In the center of his chest was a hole with demented lines going in no direction, spots of rust covered the cloak.  

A rusty black makeshift lance came out of Azthol’s back. He grabbed it with his right hand but made no movement after that.  

After some tense moments Azthol finally reacted, he looked around noticing Salomon in his armor and Mary behind him. He felt something heavy on his right hand and saw the rusty spear he saw in that city. He saw the clothes he was wearing and even felt a bit different. Seeing his hands, he became a bit surprised, the once normal hands were now sickly pale and thin even his fingers looked more like claws with his nail growing sharp.  

Azthol could feel the soft grass of the plains so he assumed he wasn’t wearing any shoes. The cloak was weird specially that rusty and filthy liquid. The thing that really confused him was how his body felt, like he had more energy than before. In fact, he could feel his kur now, flowing through him like a river. Remembering how Kyrie manifested her kur he tried to do the same, a ball of rusty liquid formed on Azthol’s hand. He was a bit surprised and disappointed, rusty liquid was really lame compared to what Kyrie showed him. 

“Are you done?”  

Salomon finally decide to speak after watching Azthol fooling around with his kur, which to his dismay was indeed the rusty liquid. It seemed like there was a real reason for Mary choosing him, at the same time he could relax a bit, seeing as that kur was now under Azthol’s control. However, that also meant that he needed to find the Doctor. There was no way the meeting between Mary and Azthol was a coincidence.  

“If you are done then we will begin the training immediately, we lost three days and you need to control that kur.” With a heavy sight Salomon approached Azthol. 

“the first lesson is simple, dismiss and create your weapon at will. It’s the most basic thing kur users can learn. You can now be called a veteran, but if you want to enter bastion or even survive the forest you need to at least be a master.” 

“So, I just need to concentrate and will it to vanish or is there some trick to this?”  

“Just will to return to your core, when you want to summon it just will it to come out. It's not really supposed to be difficult.” Salomon dismissed his weapon and summoned it to show Azthol. 

Azthol concentrated and willed his lance to return, the lance dissolved in into the rusty liquid and disappeared into his clothes. He tried summoning it and from his clothes the liquid came and formed the lance. 

“Thats it, now the next part is the tricky thing. You need to learn to summon it on instinct, or in the middle of combat. After that well do things the old way.” A feral grin appeared on Salomons face, it made shivers to run through Azthol’s back. 

“The old way?”  

“That means fighting until you can hit me and defend yourself. I'm not really a teacher, so well do this until you learn how to fight and manipulate your kur at the level of a master. So, prepare yourself we begin right now.” 

That was the only warning Azthol had before he raised his lance to block a strike from Salomon. With a swipe Salomon threw Azthol’s spear away. Azthol quickly summoned back just in time to block another strike that sent him flying. 

“THATS IT! SEE YOU LEARN FAST!” 

Recovering midair Azthol barely had time to block yet another strike aiming for his head. Trying to get a counter he thrusted his spear aiming for Salomon’s chest, he was surprised to see that Salmon didn’t even bother defending, the spear barely leaving a scratch on his armor. 

“You won't do any damage unless you infuse your kur into the spear, you won't even scratch my armor unless you can at least penetrate my kur. Let me show you!” 

Azthol just saw a flash of gold before a large deep cut appeared across his torso, a torrent of blood flowed like a broken faucet. He tried to move but another wound appeared on his arm and finally he felt something coming out of his back, seeing the Salomon’s bat impaling him in the chest-  

Salomon took his bat out in a quick motion letting Azthol fall to the floor, a pool of his own blood forming beneath him. 

“Next lesson, use your kur to heal yourself. Use your kur to heal your wounds, even if they are broken or destroyed, they still exist so heal them. You have to be able to do it quickly and during combat unless you just want to be dead weight.” 

Azthol could barely hear what Salamon said, but he did hear something clearly “dead weight” it reminded him of how he could only run, how he was just a bother to Kyrie in a fight. That was something he didn’t want to feel again.  

He wouldn’t be dead weight he would become strong enough to stand beside her, to fight and help her.  

His kur began to flowed through his wounds closing them and healing him, trusting his instincts he let the kur flowed where it wanted, his becoming rustier and more tainted. The blood in the floor became the rusty liquid and was quickly absorbed into his body. Azthol stood up, ready to fight again. 

“You really are something else kid. The next lesson is something really simple, accept everything that your kur is, it doesn’t matter if it's bad or good. None of that matters, the only thing that matters is that it's yours to use” 

Golden lines of light appeared around Salomon, floating in circles and some even went to the tip of his bat. 

“You have to use your kur to the fullest, understanding it is the same as understanding yourself, do what comes natural, trust it and go with the motions. Like this.” 

A flash of gold which Azthol finally realized were the golden lines and a wound appeared on his left shoulder.  

“See, every kur is different and will do different things. Most of them can heal superficial wounds, but some attacks will leave effects on your body, healing those will take a large part of your kur, meaning your reserves could be depleted. Now you need to learn what your kur does. Attack me with everything you got, combat will show your true self.” 

Azthol took a moment to think, being alone for so long gave him a lot of time to learn about himself. He didn’t have any memories of how he ended in that city. He might not be the same person he was, but he knew something really well. Right now, even if he hated it, the mask was a part of himself. The mask gave him the armor to leave the city, it protected him. He had to accept his weakness and hate. He couldn’t see his real self only the one wearing the mask, whatever he was and whatever the mask was, he would accept it both and when the time came, he would take off the mask to see what lied beneath it. After all that was the whole reason, he wanted to leave the city. 

Azthol closed his eyes, he let the kur do as it pleased, moving and changing. Normally one would see a rusty sword and think nothing of it, but if one were to take the rust away, maybe that sword would be the best of its kind. No direction and without form. He couldn't see past beneath the rust, so for now he would accept the rust even if it was only a superficial part of himself. 

He opened his eyes feeling a bit weird. Like he knew what he could do now, the spear in his hand felt like an extension of himself now instead of a weapon. Azthol also noticed how the bat in Salomon’s hand was now a really beautiful sword. As if knowing what he was thinking Salomon said. 

“You can finally see my sword. Only a master grade user can see it.... you really are amazing kid; do you know how much time most people train to become a master kur user?” 

“I guess it's not a lot? I mean, I don’t know how long we’ve been training but I wasn’t even aware kur was a thing before meeting Kyrie which wasn’t long ago. I don’t really get what the big deal is anyway.” 

“Thats the thing, you have no prior training or knowledge of kur, yet you managed to dodge some strikes and even managed to stay conscious after I hit you and that was after I stopped holding back. Listen kid, normal people don’t learn how to summon their weapon after a weak or reach master level after getting their weapon it takes them years of hard training to even accept the superficial aspect of themselves. And here you did it minutes after learning how to summon your weapon.” 

Azthol was surprised, he didn’t really think it was a such a big deal, the only thing he did was accept the rust and everything that came with it, in his opinion it was something anyone could do. He had to agree on the physical part, he never trained aside from running and climbing the buildings in the city. So, it was weird how he could move and react, heck healing himself from what he considered lethal wounds was something he did by instinct and that’s where he had to agree that it's not normal. 

Azthol barely knew how things worked outside the city, but even he knew that there was something weird with his body besides the whole thin and pale thing. He could react to some of Salomon’s attacks, dodge and somehow keep up even after Salomon said that he stopped holding back. He knew there was something weird the mask and with his amnesia. But things were getting really weird. But he supposed once he got to bastion, he would at least get some questions answered. For the time being he would just focus on training, keeping things simple was something he liked after all. 

“I don’t know why; I don’t even remember who I was before losing memories. But I don’t think that matters know, so let's just focus on the training old man!” 

Salomon was a bit surprised by Azthol’s words, but he smiled with glee, the kid before him felt like a true warrior. Even if he had that filthy kur all that mattered at the moment was training him to survive, if not for him at least for the sake of Mary. 

“Well said kid! Let's continue!”  

Salomon leaped at Azthol and before he could react. The sword in his hand became a flash of gold. Azthol already knew what that meant and without thinking, he acted. He didn’t bother to block, he just counter attacked. His spear aiming for Salomon’s chest. The spear struck and the armor became rusty. Salomon felt weird, but he knew he had to cleanse his armor. Concentrating his kur he cleaned the rust. Salomon’s sword became a golden light and suddenly Salomon himself disappeared. Numerous golden slashes appeared around Azthol, like there were always there. Azthol moved and blocked each and every single slash, the moment his spear touched them they lost their golden shine and became rusty, disappearing moments after. The slashes appeared faster, some passing his guard and appearing on his body, he quickly healed them, seeing the rusty liquid dripping from his cloak he got an idea. He liquid at his feet rise becoming a protective dome. The slashes suddenly stopped and Salomon appeared behind him. With a thrust he broke the dome and faster than the light could reach Azthol the slashed his sword cutting Azthol’s left arm off. 

Ignoring the pain Azthol used the liquid to attach his arm, using his arm as a whip he began attacking Salomon back, the rusty liquid moving to his will. It solidified becoming spikes aiming for Salomon’s head. Salomon blocked them, but his sword quickly became filled with rust, his movements becoming slower. Azthol took advantage of this and aimed for Salomon’s shoulder. As if knowing exactly what Azthol would do Salomon dodged and parried his attack. Azthol smiled his left arm becoming a spike of rust. Striking Salomon from the back, the armor got rusty and finally cracked leaving an open holed where he struck. Salomon gave a manic grin before closing his eyes. His sword disappeared again and instead of a flash of gold Azthol felt his whole body being cut apart, he saw his arms and legs flying through the air before losing consciousness. 

Salomon took a deep breath; this was the first time in years that he enjoyed a fight the kid was a monster. Azthol became one of the few beings that managed break his armor. With this he was sure he would be able to survive the forest and get to bastion.  

“Mary come here and fix him!” 

Mary appeared the moment he called her; with great care she began reattaching Azthol’s limbs until he was finally whole, she healed his wounds and took his body into her loving embrace. A pure smile was on Mary’s face like she finally found most important thing she was looking for. 

Salomon grimaced, he really needed to talk to the Doctor again. He was really worried for their future. After all the reason he and Mary were living in the plains was to protect her, she was like daughter to him and while he was happy that she finally found the person she needed he was also worried. It seems like he would need to take action once again.  

“Take care of him until he wakes up, ill prepare the things for the journey we leave once he wakes.” 

“OK! Papa!” 

Mary sounded really excited and happy, resting Azthol’s head into her plentiful bosom. She closed her eyes and waited for him to wake up. The future looked bright for her, but for other people this was a sign of despair.