Austin had reached the imperial capital. He had landed his helicopter a kilometre away from the city. Austin had always found it ridiculous how one city just stood in the middle of nowhere. It made no geographical sense at all. How one city was cut of from the kingdom and was 100 kilometres away from the nearest city. In fact the neighbouring country was closer to this city than this city was to other cities.
Austin continued walking for quite a distance and as he walked an aura of dark energy started covering his body. It covered his entire body and slowly covered his face. As soon as the aura of dark energy disappeared from his body Austin looked different. He wore a black tightly fitted shirt that was squeezing his abs. It was so tight his nipples could be seen. He wore dark black trousers and flip flops. His long hair that was tied in a ponytail had turned into braids. His braids were coloured blonde as if they had been dyed and his eye pupils were blue. They were not blue as in the the type of blue that you would want to look at all day and get lost in but the type of blue that did not draw attention and you would pass by with no second thoughts.
If there was something that was shocking that had changed it was not the clothes he had been wearing, his eye colour or his hair, no... it was his complexion. His dark skin had disappeared and had been replaced by a Chris brown light skin like colour. Had he been on earth the amount of looks he would be getting would be stifling. Hundreds of thousands of people would be tutting at him and voicing their disapproval and disappointment despite not knowing who Austin even is.
"My ancestors would be disappointed in me." Austin joked but deep down he knew it was true. They would have disowned him and then kill themselves as a way to atone for their mistakes.
Austin walked in through the gates of the city without any trouble. This was also something that he did not understand. Why was there always a giant wall surrounding cities? Where they to be attacked any minute by titans? Or where Mexicans crossing the border and they needed some way to stop it? Because if they did then they would be doing a terrible job. He had just walked in and no one noticed. Even if it was because he had recalled all of his aura back into his body and making him near non existent they should have at least seen him. His body was still a physical object and they had eyes. Or where they like video game characters that only had a limited cone of vision?
Either way it did not matter as he did not face any difficulties whatsoever.
A giant bell rang several times over and over again non stop. As Austin walked he noticed troops of soldiers rushing over to the gates. It was not a small amount of soldiers. Austin had estimated it to over a 1000 soldiers. He could even see adventurers geared up wearing heavy armour and wielding flashy weapon.
There was even a short girl with pigtails who looked like she was not a day older than ten who was wielding a giant axe. The axe was was practically 3 times her body size but she held it over shoulder with one hand.
"Loli's really are amazing." Austin commented.
As Austin casually strolled he noticed one of the stalls packing up. The man was hurriedly packing up all the fresh fruits that had been previously on display.
"Hey you, fruit vendor." Austin called out. The man looked over to see Austin casually standing there. "What's going on? What's with all this commotion? Is Badroulbadour going to pass by here?" (Badroulbadour is the princess from the original Aladdin in Arabian nights. Apparently any time she was to pass by the street then everyone had to close shop and desert the street and go home until she left.)
The vendor seemed to have an annoyed look on his face as if he thought Austin was wasting his time. "Are you kidding me?" he asked.
"No, I seriously don't know, I just entered the city right now, what is going on."
"Ok fine, just a few minutes ago there was a really powerful presence just a few kilometres away from the city. It was really powerful and really dark, you know like the demon lord and it was headed in this direction, but it just suddenly disappeared which is why everyone is leaving. If you look around at some of the stalls then you can see some of them haven't even bothered packing."
Austin looked around and true to the fruit vendors words some stalls were there all unattended. They were filled with necessities of life but there were some that had a few relics, a few swords and so on.
"Very well, I thank you for your information." Austin said as he turned around and left. "So just like Malekith my aura can be sensed from kilometres away." Austin said. Austin smiled as a plan came to his mind. It was a plan to get on people's nerves and plant the seeds of doubts but before he could do that he needed to do something else. He would need a spy in the Lateral capital to know when backup is sent.
Austin walked around the streets casually. No matter how many people rushed by him or screamed at him to move out of their way he did nothing but enjoy his walk.
His plan was very simple, he would go out every day and released his aura as he advanced towards the city and just when he was within reach he would reabsorb it.
He would do this for 4 days straight and on the 5th day he would attack the city. He would do this for three weeks while killing the enforcement sent to them so that the people would lose hope in them. And then finally he would come and recruit lots of people especially people of power and then destroy the supply lines from this city.
In this city there was 2.2 million people so it should have some good effects.
Finally Austin got to where he was heading to, or more like who he was heading to. A small girl wearing an oversized jacket walked forward using a cane to check her surroundings. The little girl was blind and Austin had met her a month ago.
He had grown attached to her as she had reminded him of his sister. They were both 7 year olds who did not have there sense of vision. Even the way this girl walked, talked and even looked reminded him of his sister.
Austin stood in her path and the girl whose eyes were open stopped in her track. "Mister, is that you?" she asked.
"Indeed tis I King Henry the 8th." Austin said as he held his stomach to imitate a fat man. The girl tilted her head to the side and looked at Austin.
"Your aura is different today mister, it is black but calm... like below the surface of the ocean."
"Do not worry about that." Austin said as he squatted down in front of the blind girl. "How are you today though Melanie? Have you had anything to eat?"
Melanie nodded her head. "I'm quite while and I have recently an apple but thank you for asking." Melanie said as she bowed.
"Your facing the wrong direction." Austin said teasingly. She actually was not but she quickly turned around and bowing as her small ass got in his face. Austin stood up and cleared his throat, "I really did set myself up for that one."
"Melanie come with me today and I'll pay for your dinner." Austin said as he slowly guided her towards a restaurant.
The restaurant was one of the few that was actually open despite the commotion that was going on. They quickly ordered food and Austin asked Melanie questions. Questions on how her day was and what she had been up to.
She replied curtly and respectfully.
"Melanie... have you ever wondered what it is like to be able to see?" Austin said.
"Yes, I have... I actually can't even imagine anything since I was born blind, I can't imagine colours, objects or the sky. I merely have a rough idea of what an object should look like but nothing more."
"Would you like to be able to see?"
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Thoughts....
Power stones???