THIRTY MINUTES AGO:

Charles fought back the urge to sigh as he entered the shop, his ‘bodyguards’ filtering out into the store in the failed hopes of hiding in plain sight. ‘As if I need protecting, bah!’ He walked through the shop unmolested, the store clerks instantly noticing his presence and shooting him furtive smiles or respectful nods.

‘More panderers and sycophants...’ he thought as he made his way through the shop, towards a heavily reinforced workshop door. Real power was so hard to find nowadays! One would think that working inside a shop owned by a tier IV superhuman would inoculate those within, yet still they remained cowed by his presence.

His urge to sigh became stronger.

He approached the workshop door with powerful steps, his movement creating the only noise within the suddenly quiet shop. His aura was suppressed, but lower life forms could not help but be aware of his presence. None of the other customers dared make a move while he passed them by, some going so far as to hold their breath.

It was sad to see the state of his city nowadays. He hoped the rest of the country was better prepared for the trials to come, 'unlike those idiots in the council!'

His powerful hand reached out and gripped the handle to the reinforced door, easily pulling it open. The slight creak of oiled thick metal hinges was followed by a woosh of heated air billowing out of the room, washing the shop with a muted orange glow. He stepped through the threshold, pulling the door shut behind him as he went. He didn’t allow his ‘bodyguards’ to follow him into the workshop, one of the few sanctuaries he still had within the city.

His eyes lit up as they traveled over smooth metal surfaces, awash with the glow of the massive forge within the workshop, superheated air roaring out of it as it heated huge chunks of steel. He took a deep breath of the acrid air, his lungs filling with enough heat to cook a normal human. He had been coming here for almost twenty years, and still he found the smell refreshing.

Progress was made here.

Power was used to shape the future in these forges.

In the center of it all stood Dante, his massive back turned towards Charles as he bent over an even larger anvil, a massive chunk of steel gripped by a pair of tongs within his bear-like hands. A final TANG! rang out as Dante brought his huge smithing hammer down on the cooling metal before placing it back in the forge. The hulking man set down his hammer and tongs with surprising gracefulness, turning to face Charles with a smile upon his face.

“Charles! So good of you to grace my workshop, I see you still haven’t found the buzzer.” Charles allowed his stony face to alight into a small smile. As if he needed to ‘buzz’ his way in. Dante would have known it the moment he entered the street outside his shop.

“Dante, old friend, it’s good to see you again.” He made his way past carefully arranged racks of tools, varied sets of tongs and hammers adorning the walls around him, to the second of two metal chairs within the workshop. He reached out and clasped arms with the powerful smith in front of him before habitually taking his seat.

Dante reached out for a heavy looking red lever protruding from the side of the forge, pulling it down to decrease the flow of fuel to the flames. The roaring sound filling the shop died to a sudden hiss, allowing the temperature of the room to cool a noticeable few degrees. The overhead lights, a stark clinical white, suddenly seemed to shine much more brightly now that they weren’t overpowered by the hellfire that previously filled the room. Industrial fans overhead worked to clear the room of any fumes, expelling hot air at a prodigious rate.

After ensuring all was right within the shop, Dante followed Charles' example, taking his own heavily reinforced, extra wide seat across a workbench from the bonafide leader of the country. “It has been a few years since you last visited, I was beginning to think you had forgotten your old friends!” Dante’s deep rumbling voice filled the room as he smiled, showing that he meant no sting with his words. Charles sighed, his shoulders lifting as he fought the urge to sink in his chair. It wouldn’t do for him to look weak in front of his friends.

“I’ve missed you too, Dante, but if you will blame anyone for my absence, blame those idiots on the council!” He almost spat the words as his angry thoughts rushed to the forefront, his good mood suddenly souring. Though he sounded angry, he kept his body relaxed, his stonelike face showing only a hint of his true emotions. “Am I correct in guessing that those feld-kicking idiots are the reason for your visit today?” Dante asked, his expression unchanged on his oversized face. Nevertheless, Charles thought he saw a small bit of satisfaction in the man’s eyes.

Dante hated the council almost as much as he did.

“Indeed, it seems the council is concerned about the expected casualties during the next attack.” He raised his hand up in front of him, studying his nails for imperfections as he ignored the sarcastic glare from Dante. ‘The council? Care about casualties? Don’t make me laugh.’

He and Dante both knew quite well that the council cared nothing for the soldiers. He couldn’t just say that though. Well, he could, but if anyone was listening it would mean more paperwork.

Regardless. The real reason why he was taking action was to show the council why he was in charge. They had forgotten who made the decisions in Luglain, and he aimed to remind them.

He had known Dante long enough to be sure that the burly man had picked up on his hidden meaning, which was confirmed when he finally looked up from his nails and received a nod.

“So you’ll be wanting to make a show of it then.” Dante reasoned, “shall I prepare Shademaker?”

Charles nodded sharply in agreement, his stony face morphing into a grim smile. “You know me so well.”

Charles exchanged a few more pleasantries with Dante before excusing himself, clasping hands once more before turning to leave. He made his way out of the workshop, feeling nostalgic as he remembered all the battles he had fought in the past with Dante, until one day he had progressed so far past the man that he could no longer fight in the same league.

He hoped his old friend never reached the bottleneck.

It would be a shame to have to kill him.

He adjusted his face back to its careful, stony neutrality, his gaze impertable as he walked powerfully through the store. His aura once again froze the pedestrians within the shop, filling their bodies with fear. He strode past the clerks desk and towards the front door where a young man was-....’Hold on…’

He almost stopped in his tracks, but instead forced himself to keep walking. He used his powerful memory to see an almost perfect snapshot of the young looking brown haired man who was obviously emitting the aura of a regular human.

‘There's something strange about that man…’ He thought to himself as he pushed open the doors to the shop, exiting out into the busy streets. His bodyguards joined him as he walked, surrounding him in concentric circles.

‘That man…He looked me in the eyes…He looked without fear.’

His eyes flashed in the setting sun, and a light smile curled the edges of his mouth.

‘How interesting.’

—------------------

David’s eyes dazzled in the fluorescent lights of the shop, precious metals and even some jewels sparkled at him from display cases lining the walls of each room. The weapons within each case were obvious works of art, each made with rich accents of gold and silver, shined to a mirror finish as they lay on beds of velvet.

This store was so different from Mo’el’s, it was in a league of its own.

Mo’el’s looked positively stingy after walking into this shop. It was clear that this was a place where money was spent only in large quantities.

Mo’el’s glass walls around the room gave the impression of preventing customers from becoming thieves, but the display cases in Titan Arms & Armor looked like they had the sole purpose of keeping fingerprints from accumulating on the weapons within.

As he looked around the interior he saw a clerk beginning to approach him, a winning smile on his face, when the temperature of the room suddenly increased, along with a heavy pressure suddenly bearing down on his shoulders, threatening to push him into the floor.

Warning! You are afflicted with the Heavy Aura debuff!

Movement slowed by 50%!

‘Fifty percent!? Just by being in the same room as Dante?’

Fifty percent was…well, an insurmountable number. Halving his speed would make it entirely impossible for him to escape from Dante should he wish to capture him. Not that he would.

Probably.

‘Now’s my chance! I can use this opportunity to watch how he interacts with the other workers! He will be a good example for my growth into a dependable person….’

Heavy footsteps filled the shop as a large, well proportioned figure with slightly graying, short cropped brown hair walked into the room heading for the exit.

‘Eh? Isn’t this Charles Eadwhin? What’s this NPC doing here?’ He unwittingly caught himself staring at the man as he walked past. For a very brief moment, in the time it took to blink, his eyes met those of the powerful man.

A powerful shock seemed to flow through him, rooting him in place. He felt goosebumps rise on his arms, sweat suddenly beaded in his palms.

‘Now that…that is power.’

He had never experienced such a feeling before. Not even when Alexy Rodette had walked out of the executives elevator on that fateful day in the past.

A small part of him shivered, and he felt the residual fog within his mind shift a little. It didn’t get thinner or heavier, it just…moved.

He didn’t know why he felt it so strongly, but he wanted the kind of power that Charles Eadwhin had.

The feeling was gone a moment later, and David blinked before looking around. The door behind him was slowly shutting out the noise of the streets, the powerful man was gone.

He felt a small moment of remorse. He had been too shocked to try and observe the way the man walked. It was important to master the art of walking powerfully, it helped establish one’s presence as a dependable person. He knew that.

‘Oh well…’ He sighed. There would be opportunities to observe him in the future.

David looked around him as the shoppers suddenly returned to their noisy -if somewhat muted now - shopping. The store clerk had seemingly managed to unfreeze himself, steadily approaching David with his trademark smile replastered on his slightly pale face.

“Welcome! How can I help you today?”

David fought back a grimace. He had looked around for a computerized kiosk. One could find them in almost every business in the city, and they allowed customers to make purchases without ever interacting with another human. Unfortunately, this shop seemed to be rather old fashioned in the way that they handled business.

That meant he would have to hold a conversation, which, due to the previous presence of Charles Eadwhin, would be entirely unscripted.

He sighed.

‘Oh well, I can use this as an opportunity to gather information, confirm the timeline…’

He plastered his best attempt at an awed smile upon his face, forcing himself to attempt to sound excited.

“Was that Charles Eadwhin? He seemed so powerful! I didn’t know he shopped here.”

He immediately realized he made a mistake when the clerk's smile morphed into a frown. “That’s the honorable Mr. Eadwhin to you, newcomer.”

‘Damn my measly seven points in charisma!’

David hurriedly tried to turn his face into something more apologetic. “My apologies sir, I am new here. Was that the honorable Mr. Eadwhin?” It felt physically painful for him to suck up to the clerk, but he did need the information. That and he was also sure that Dante Portman was somewhere within the building, and possessed the strength to instantly kill him like the fly he was.

Best to be polite, then.

The clerks frown slowly turned into a smug and superior grin. “That was indeed the honorable Mr. Eadwhin, he visits our shop to have his weapons maintained, though I daresay he hasn’t had much cause for that in the last few years!” The clerk chuckled lightly - as if what he’d said was funny, and David released an awkward little laugh of his own. Best to stay on the man’s good side.

“He’s getting his weapons serviced?” David pretended to give a little start of surprise, his voice lowering in volume. “Does that mean the city is in danger?” David felt himself cringe inwardly at his own lack of etiquette and conversational skill. He felt crude and boorish, trying to extract information from the man. He could swear it was actually hurting him to have an unplanned conversation like this.

Nevertheless, the man must have been too excited by the whole encounter to notice the awkwardness of David’s questions as he leaned in slightly, waving his hands dismissively. “I heard…” The man bent his head a little lower, “I heard that Astus raised its limits on the growth of engineers! Now the council is upset, and Charles is putting on a little show for the city. Should be something to see! Right?”

David could only nod his head sagely, suddenly forgetting about his desire to look around the shop. He extracted himself from the conversation as soon as he could, convincing the clerk that he ‘just wanted to have a look around’ before hurriedly leaving.

He had entered the shop filled with…well not with hope, not for his future. The fog wouldn’t allow that. But he hadn’t though he’d be leaving in such a depressed state.

He took a deep breath of city air as he stood on the marble steps leading up to the store. He took in the sights, the people going about their day, mail-carrier drones zipping overhead, tram cart lines crisscrossing the heights in the distance over the business district. Vehicles speeding off as people hurried about their days.

The city would never be like this again. He knew that.

Soon it all would change.