Chapter 3 part 6 Master in the forge

The men in the chamber rushed in and I decided not to kill them all instantly, instead I allowed them to beat me.

They had cut of my limbs and locked them in chests across the room and the emperor went on about his superiority over me.

Less then a day had passed and my body parts were pulling together with some kind of attraction it kept getting stronger till finally the boxes flew together and smashed apart, my body regenerated alarmingly quickly this time.

I walked up to the army and said boldly "Immortals never die now come protect your emperor!"

The soldiers ran at me with blades and I started my normal routine of killing people with their own weapons, the men seemed to stop and requested I allow a delegation to pass.

I smiled and replied " provided the emperor bows before me naked."

The man relayed the message and I saw the slow advance toward the gates from the army.

After several minutes a reply had come with the emperor he disrobed and bowed then he got up got dressed and walked towards the delegation.

I shouted "inferior you are not allowed to leave I swore to kill you last, I'm only allowing every other member of the delegation through."

The emperor turned red in the face dropped to his knees and begged me "please spare me, I beg of you to let me live, please don't killed me. I will let you learn or take anything you want."

I put my sword away and replied "there are no superior races remember that and should I find you showing disrespect to anyone again I will kill you all.

I have done it before, to many villages change your ways."

I walked away care free and the army didn't move no one seemed to dare challenge me, my first action would be to get my self changed into proper clothes from the ship fortunately for me all my effects had been returned to me.

I had shown them power and I walked towards the craftsman of the city offering them gold for knowledge.

The craftsman were stubborn and refused to part with the knowledge, I had moved about for several hours trying to learn from tradesmen when I came to small little house near the edge of the city it was tiny and reminded me of my hut in Egypt.

I knocked on the plank outside the door and out came a well toned young man with ash stains on his hands and clothes he was a Smith.

I bowed my head and joined my hands to great the man and said "I wish to learn the skill of your craft."

The man bowed back and showed me into his hut, the man had not uttered a word as yet and walked over to his forge to fan up the flames.

The man had started crafting what looked like a large metal block.

I sat where he had pointed for me to sit after several minutes the man spoke "if you wish to learn I ask that you work with me no pay will taken nor will I pay you for the services you do in my apprenticeship. To start you must first gather rock now let's go."

The man walked up to a mountain and started chipping at rocks of various composition from what I knew those were not metals.

I gathered almost triple what the man had gathered of each rock and slung it over my back.

The man separated the rocks and began milling them down to powder, the powders were then soaked in buckets of water till the water reacted with the powder changing colour.

It was clear to me he was making chemicals and from the appearance of each vessel it seemed to be several acids and several bases, he started mixing some acids with bases and draining them through cloth to collect the precipitate.

The precipitates were collected and baked of the heat from the forge to dry them, once all the chemicals had been bottled it was my turn.

I had got done in half the time it had taken the man I was learning from and he came up to me and said "This is not about speed be careful and powerful, grind the stone finely to get more surface area."

I looked down into my stone and found that I had cracked the rock but it was not as fine as sand so once more I ground away till the powder was fine.

Next the man stepped up to his forge and hammered out a small blade before gesturing me to follow suit I hammered out a blade and then finally said "come with me to learn why you have flaws in your metal."

We climbed up a huge mountain and set on the edge of a steep slope where he closed his eyes and set just listening to the sound of nature.

I had followed suit and set there motionless for almost 2 hours when the man spoke "I am Jackie and I had a wife many years ago she was killed by a man who I stopped from rapping a child. I hunted the man for a year and when I found him I was forced to kill his entire family for my vengeance. I never regretted it but the memory of the deaths made my craft speed up and I broke many pieces I made by accident till I fixed my heart. I don't know your pain flying man but I see it in your eyes that you are broken."

I looked down and replied "I'm Kanji and I don't have a broken heart."

Jackie took a deep breath and replied "When forging a blade we blacksmiths clear our minds then we hammer at the metal as time passes our emotions flow into or actions when our emotions are clear our motion is perfect but with you I see anger and pain in the strike and likely more emotions.

If you wish to keep your metal pure you need to work it with precision and keep your emotional state consistent.

I set in silence not knowing what to say after what I was told till finally I started to cry and said "I killed thousands to kill 1 man he stabbed my wife to be for saving me from his blade. I destroyed those people so badly that only children are left of them and I hate myself for killing so many I don't believe I can be fixed."

Jackie took a deep breath and replied "if the blade is shattered it must be remade, you have shattered yourself now embrace your new self and you shall forge yourself again with slight differences."

To me Jackie was young but he had been enlightened to some truth and I decided my next reply would be honest.

As I started to reply Jackie spoke "you are an immortal so my wisdom may not be of use to you but know that my words are from my heart so keep your secrets as I may not be able to bare the knowledge of all your pain."

I silenced my reply and kept concentrating on my flaws seeing how to embrace them.

Jackie had made me do this meditation everyday for 3 weeks and by the time the third week had arrived I had finally learnt to embrace my darkness.

I loved company and life but when I was forced to lose my true love I had been forced to deal with pain beyond loneliness I had faced desperation, despair, sorrow, anger, hate and lastly the inevitability of life.

Meditation forced my mind to revisit my actions and realize that I was not mortal so my pain was not relatable to mortals.

I set there with my eyes open saw the beauty of the land around the city.

My eyes were opened to a new reality I should not behave like them I should be myself however monstrous it made me.

I would treat my friends kindly and would never show mercy ever again.