Astor was sitting on the ground of the ramparts of Almati, he was reinforcing and hardening every stone on the walls with his Authority, it seemed like a titanic task on paper but his Earth-Sense helped quite a lot with it.

  The mind of an Ascendant was also different from mundane Gaonians, not that it made him smarter than most — but Earth-Shifter could multitask at a higher efficiency.

  This leads him to have a lot of thoughts in his mind.

  The first few were asking himself when he'd finally have a break, others were that he was thankful for Scylla and Eolka's help with the metal parts of the walls and the designs of the magic canons.

  He was still laughing about Khiel's sudden awakening after being in a coma after fighting Hama, Soaring Blade's first question had been if Naro was safe and where he was.

  Astor chuckled, 'Talking about those two...'

  They really looked similar, when Khiel had first arrived here, he genuinely thought Naro had dyed his hair black and red, and grew a rat tail.

  Soaring Blades did clarify that they were not related at all, Khiel was a descendant of Hama's first concubine, and Naro...well his origins have never been put together nor traced.

  'Khiel doesn't have a star-shaped birth-mark on his neck either.'

  It wasn't very visible however, hell, maybe Naro hid it on purpose for some reason.

  Astor then felt measured steps, and familiar but no less frightening Authority.

  'Talk about Djab-la(the devil)...'

  Astor smiled and turned to him.

  "Hello, Naro."

  The knight waved at him with a warm smile. "Hi Astor!"

  The green-haired Ascendant raised an eyebrow 'Huh, he seems to be in a good mood for some reason...did something happen yesterday?'

  "I didn't feel your steps until now, did you find a way to hide your presence?" Astor asked with a smirk.

  Naro shook his hand "Not at all, I just dashed in midair a few times and arrived here," he continued "I had done that while hunting a Dusk-bird but it was sloppy as hell with one arm..."

  The knight shrugged and grinned "Well, wouldn't you know? Things are much easier when you have two arms!"

  He laughed maniacally.

  Astor meanwhile was looking at Naro like he had lost a few screws loose.

  'This is the first time I've seen him laugh so much, is he okay??'

  Naro continued, unaware of Astor's thoughts.

  "Still, you said you didn't feel my presence for a bit but you don't really seem surprised that I've come to you."

  The older Ascendant grinned. "You talked to almost every Ascendant here, I guessed it was my turn at some point."

  Naro chuckled nervously. "I can feel you working on the walls thanks to my Earth-sense...or is it Authority-sense? I can feel your Authority with both so it's weird...in any case!"

  "Can you teach me how to use the Earth-Stone aspect of my Authority efficiently? There's some stuff I can't do though, so you'll have to give me the basics."

  Astor finished reinforcing the walls then stood up. "Using your arms and legs along with your commands is the basic stuff, they serve as a conduit for your intent."

  "You want to make parts of the ground move up? Make your hand move up. You want to create a hole or cracks on the ground? Smash your feet on it."

  Naro blinked multiple times. "...That's it?"

  The tall broad-shouldered man turned to him. "You asked for the basic stuff, that's that. Now I'm gonna give you the complex one."

  "Authority is guided by our intent, it's something you probably noticed when fighting Paro. The stronger our intent and will is, the easier we can affect the world around us."

  He raised his index finger "But as you know, 'intent' and 'will' are very dependent on our mental state. If we falter for even a moment our Authority will also follow."

  The knight's eyes narrowed "But that's not all is it?"

  "Yes, Everyone has different "intent" in how they live. It's tied to our personality," he continued "my intent or purpose was always to protect, this is what I want to do and what I will do until the day I die."

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  "..."

  Astor gestured "It doesn't mean that I won't fight or that I'm unable to!"

  "I will simply tend to protect people more than actively killing monsters like you." Astor corrected.

  "I know that, it's why you didn't want me and Rami to go fight Paro."

  Earth-shifter hummed.

  Naro continued regardless. "I think you already understood that despite everything, it was the best choice we could've taken."

  Astor nodded and crossed his arms "I agree. If Paro somehow thought his cave wasn't a good enough ground, he would've come for Almati and we would have been ready to fight him with six Ascendants. Since Eolka and Scylla wouldn't have returned back to Rikshasha to get more intel on Fatale."

  He continued "On paper it sounds good but it also means we allowed his Corrupted Authority to move alongside him. He'd turn Kresha into a total wasteland."

  Naro raised an eyebrow. 'Six? wouldn't it be seven? There were four Ascendants back at the sword trial, Eolka, Scylla, Khiel and...Khaleid.'

  The one who had yelled at the Guardians, saying it was unfair and that he was the chosen one to get the Sky-fell sword, the one whose fate was deemed "better than most" by Spike himself.

  'I know he disappeared after I went to Almati three years ago, but he was quite famous despite that tantrum. Why did Astor not mention him??'

  "What about Khaleid, where is he?" He asked the older Ascendant.

  Astor didn't answer and looked at him with an empty expression.

  They stood quietly for a while.

  Astor spoke up again. "When you made that speech last time, Naro, you made me realize our world needs as many protectors as killers. If we only protect we will never be able to attack ourselves, but if we only attack we will never be able to protect."

  "No, wait, wait, wait! Where is Khaleid??"

  Astor made the same empty expression again. "Did you say something, Naro?"

  '...It's useless, I can feel that he's not doing it on purpose. Something's terribly wrong but I should just continue talking to him.'

  Naro sighed "Going back to our previous topic...I assume you wanted to tell me that I'm very different from you, that my intent is always on the offensive and that as a "protector" you cannot teach me something I'm the opposite of."

  Astor nodded "That is exactly it."

  The knight side-eyed him. "You would be wrong, I'm someone who can do both. That was my training as a knight."

  Earth-shifter frowned "Then, let's say hypothetically that there's an attack, you have the option to save Rami and a mundane Gaonian. What would you do?"

  Naro thought for two seconds. "It depends on the environment but I would save the mundane. Rami has more chances to survive and fight back."

  Astor whistled. "What a quick answer, but you're wrong."

  Naro raised an eyebrow then frowned "What do you mean? Do you want me to protect Rami when she doesn't need any? I trust her enough to know that she's strong to-"

  "The right answer would have been 'I will save the both of them'."

  "..."

  "You will probably say that it was a trap question, but your answer would've remained the same regardless. Won't it?"

  The Slayer cast his gaze to the rampart.

  Earth-Shifter stretched his muscles "This is where my explanation ends and you have to make your own opinion. And your own "intent" also."

  "See you later, Naro." Astor said as he jumped to the city grounds.

  "..."

  Naro triggered the Dash ability in quick succession; he had recently found out the sword just needed to be near him to activate its skills. This helped a lot in maneuvering in the air.

  Of course, he had also done this while having the sword in hand. His next opponent could fly much better than he could move in the air, after all.

  He dashed above the nearby homes, then jumped to the ground. He then spent the early hours to find out if the general population had truly forgotten the name "Khaleid".

  After fruitless findings and being met with empty expressions, he went to test something at the training ground.

  Naro moved up his volcanic arm and raised two of his claws "Wall."

  The earth of the training ground moved up to make a wall.

  'About twenty-five-ish milliseconds after I made the gesture and command.'

  Naro breathed in...

  And out.

  He made a fist as quickly as he could "Split, crack and fall."

  The earth did just that and fell in clusters on the ground.

  '0.15...'

  The light in Naro's eyes dimmed. 'This reminds me of a conversation...'

  Hey sonny, do you know what the essence of combat is?

  He walked toward the pile of debris. Hmm... wouldn't it be Control?

  Ahahahaha, you gave me the same answer as Khiel!

  The knight clenched his fists. Then... Are you going to teach me?

  I'll teach you the fundamentals, sure...but Naro, that fighting style is not made for you at all.

  For reasons you'll know yourself at some point.

  I'll teach you about "murder". At the core of it, there is only this: you are trying to kill your opponent, and they are trying to kill you. In the end, one of you will be killed, and the other one will be the killer. Everything else is just noise."

  He sat on the ground and grasped the white strands of his hair. "Fucking hell..."

  After a moment, Naro unsheathed the obsidian-like blade from his back and brought it in front of him.

  "...Do you remember our discussion when we killed Paro?"

  He was silent for a bit.

  "Actually, was it even a discussion? You can't speak, and I was delirious from the blood loss."

  Naro chuckled nervously, "In any case...it seems like we're not so different are we? I thought at the time that Spike imposed the duty of 'saving Gaon' to me, but aren't you the same?"

  "That Guardian hailed you as something quite close to what he told everyone I was. The 'Last hope'. And you have quite the blood on your edge, both from Dusk Creatures and Gaonians alike."

  'Heh, thinking about it, Spike's always at the center of the things happening in my life...'

  Naro silently hoped — despite everything — that the Guardian was still sane. He needed to have a talk with Spike no matter what.

  "Sorry, I got distracted. I sure hope you don't mind!" He said to the sword with a bright smile.

  The sword still did not answer.

  He laid on the ground and continued regardless, "They say a knight needs to protect all that they see, and that the sword is an extension of that will...but that's not our case is it?"

  The light in his eyes dimmed, his smile fading as he brought the flat of the blade in front of his eyes. Obscurring the view of The Scar high above in the process.

  "You and I, our primal function is to kill things that need to be killed. No matter what strength we both gain, it will always be that way."

  Naro smiled weakly "So let's have a truce. Slayer to slayer. You are my tool to make my world not be as dangerous as it is right now...and find out why people forgot about Khaleid."

  For some reason however, Naro was sure it had to do with a certain scorpion.