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The city of gold, it took one’s breath away to gaze upon it; the gleaming buildings reflecting the sun’s rays, the surfaces so smooth one could see their own reflection staring back at them, the hundreds of dozens of beautiful and handsome individuals walking around. Sam couldn’t help but compare the Venusians within the city to the ones outside, the ones still stuck in their geodes and unwilling to climb out. The Venusians in the city of gold seemed solid with physical forms, but with his All-Seeing Gaze, he could see the black masses within the Venusians representing their true forms, not very different from the ones those Venusians deemed undesirable.
The sandy moat around the city resembled a beach separating the golden walls and buildings from the barren, crystalline land; it was appropriate to call it barren considering no plants nor animals were present, making Sam wonder what Venusians ate to survive. They probably didn’t have to eat or poop considering their lack of physical bodies. Maybe they themselves were like plants, able to sustain themselves off of sunlight. Either way, Sam was sure the eagle standing atop his head would give him an answer. After all, Birdbrained had commanded a local grayling to die and absorbed its memories.
“No poop,” Birdbrained said. “Venusians don’t poop unless they’re in someone’s dream about pooping. Even then, they simply sit on the toilet and stand up, and the toilet needs to be cleaned without any other action on their part.” There were more details than Sam wanted to know, but the eagle wasn’t done. “As for eating, they love eating. They lurk in people’s dreams and eat the food inside. The action doesn’t actually sustain them, but they do get the energy they need to survive by existing in someone’s dream.”
“Thanks,” Sam said, communicating with the eagle through his mind. Through his All-Seeing Gaze, he focused on the two Venusians manning the drawbridge. They were standing atop the city wall, a structure that spanned the whole perimeter of the city. Sam wondered how long of a portion of the wall he could purchase if he spent all his credits. Considering the size of the gold ingots acting as bricks, he had a feeling his purchasing power was quite mediocre.
“Who goes there?” one of the Venusians on the wall said upon noticing Sam and his entourage. “State your purpose!”
Sam remained silent, allowing the twin-headed snake covering his mouth to speak for him. At the same time, his physical vision was blocked as the snake’s purple head slithered over his eyes. It was for the best since it’d be easy for him to get distracted by the Venusians’ outer appearances—at least, that’s what he told himself to push down his frustration at having one of his senses robbed.
“Hello,” Vercedei said, copying the ways Venusians communicated with one another. “I’m here to enter the city with my friends.”
The Venusian on the wall didn’t respond. If Sam had to take a guess as to what they were doing, they were either informing the Venusians within the city about the sudden influx of visitors, or they were discussing something with one another. After a while, one of the Venusians on the wall spoke up. “Five gold nuggets per person.”
“What?” one Venusian asked, poking their head out of their geode. “It’s supposed to be only one gold nugget to enter!”
“Well, look at how many of you there are,” the Venusian atop the wall said. “It’ll take forever to process all of you. Don’t you think we should be compensated fairly for our time and effort?”
“Yeah,” the second Venusian said. “Haven’t you heard? It’s common to add gratuity when the party is greater than five. Just think of the extra nuggets as a tip for us hard workers.”
“Okay,” Vercedei said before any other Venusian behind Sam could protest.
“Okay?” the Venusian on top of the wall asked. It made contact with its partner, bumping it with part of its mass, before asking Sam, “How many people are with you?
“Four hundred,” Vercedei said.
“Four hundred?” the Venusian asked, repeating after Vercedei again. The two Venusians exchanged glances with one another, the action unable to be seen by Sam. All he saw through his All-Seeing Gaze was the two black masses representing the Venusians form a connection with each other for a brief moment. “That’s two thousand nuggets. Toss them over, and we’ll lower the drawbridge.”
A pile of gold fell out of Vercedei’s body, landing on the crystalline ground, the clinks and clacks drawing the Venusians’ attention. “There’s too many to toss over,” Vercedei said. “How about you lower the drawbridge and help me transfer them?”
The Venusians on the wall buzzed, their auras elevating in real time under Sam’s All-Seeing Gaze. Evidently, the city might’ve been made of solid gold, but gold nuggets were still precious. Unfortunately for the Venusians on the wall, the nuggets on the ground were fake. They were rocks that Werchbite had placed an illusion on, making them gleam and look like gold. Venusians might’ve been good at creating illusions of their own, but evidently, they couldn’t see through Werchbite’s technique.
The drawbridge lowered as the two Venusians fiddled with some levers and switches on the wall. The bridge made of solid gold was quite impressive to Sam. Gold was heavy, and the Venusians, who didn’t even have physical bodies, were capable of creating a city with mechanical parts capable of moving large blocks of gold. Now that he thought about it more, how did the Venusians erect such a colossal structure?
“They can lift small pieces of gold,” Birdbrained said in Sam’s head. “Gold is the only solid object they can manipulate; that’s why it’s so valuable to them.”
The two Venusians practically slid down the wall, which Sam would’ve loved to see with his physical vision but couldn’t, and landed on the drawbridge. They practically sprinted across, and once they reached the crystalline ground Sam’s illusion was standing on, their velocities slowed drastically as if they had entered a bog. The two Venusians grabbed at the small pile of gold littered around Sam’s feet, and the rocks vanished into the Venusians’ bodies.
“And how are they grabbing regular rocks?” Sam asked Birdbrained in his head.
“They aren’t,” Vercedei said, answering for the eagle. “They only think they are. Werchbite’s illusions fool more than just one’s vision.”
Sam listened to Vercedei while watching the two Venusians scoop up rock after rock. “Can we enter the city?” Vercedei asked.
“Yeah, go right ahead,” one of the Venusians said before scanning the region, focusing on the Venusians hiding within the geodes as if they were thieves about to steal its money. There were definitely enough golden nuggets on the ground for both Venusian guards to retire. Heck, their children could probably retire too, and it’d take at least three generations of wanton spending to use up all the nuggets. As for questioning where the gold came from and where the group of suspicious Venusians came from, that could always come after securing the gold.
Without ceremony, Manga marched ahead across the bridge, the large illusion of Sam moving forward. When the geodes being dragged behind reached the golden surface, the Venusians hiding inside came out and tentatively took steps on the gold like caged cows seeing grass for the first time. They didn’t say anything as they walked on the bridge, but they didn’t have to, their auras elevating and buzzing at much higher frequencies than normal to express their excitement and joy. Vague outlines appeared around them, and Sam was sure he’d see their humanoid appearances if his physical vision was returned to him, but Werchbite didn’t budge.
The golden bridge was soon covered by the hundreds of Venusians Sam had gathered, and the two Venusian guards slowed their gold-nugget-picking speed as they exchanged communications with one another.
“Don’t you think there’s too many undesirables entering the city at once?” one of the Venusians asked.
“No,” the other Venusian said. “If they can pay the toll, they’re not undesirable, are they? They’d have to convince someone to get them gold nuggets, and only talented people can achieve such a task. They’re citizens now.”
“But….” The first Venusian stopped gathering the nuggets as it watched the sea of Venusians flood into the city. It was rare for such a large influx of people to appear at once. “There won’t be any problems, right?”
“Who cares?” the second Venusian asked, not stopping their looting process. “Even if we’re fired, look at how rich we are; it’ll be someone else’s problem by then. If you don’t want to accept all those people, you can tell them to get back here and return their gold to them.”
The first Venusian stared at the bridge. As the undesirables left their geodes, they created illusionary bodies for themselves as well. Compared to the Venusians from the city of gold, the undesirables were less perfect with crooked faces, disproportionate limbs, and asymmetric bodies. The Venusian guard refocused their attention onto the gold on the ground before picking it up. The second Venusian was right; the guards had simply done their jobs, letting people in while collecting an entrance fee, so they couldn’t be blamed if anything went wrong.
When Sam crossed the bridge and stepped on the ground made of solid gold, a vibration traveled past the wooly pig underneath him and up his legs, through his root chakra, into his spine, and out of his crown chakra, causing goosebumps to appear on his skin. He focused on his Vasundhara, observing the ground underneath him. His awareness was unimpeded, proceeding much smoother than all the other times he had examined the ground with his earth star chakra. Perhaps it had something to do with the medium; after all, if gold wasn’t useful somehow, would the Venusians depend on it so much? Through a combination of his crown chakra and earth star chakra, he saw the whole layout of the city, the buildings arranged in neat geometric patterns, and he also saw within the buildings, peeping on Venusians interacting with one another. At the same time, he observed the Venusians behind him pausing and vibrating at higher frequencies upon laying their sights on the city of gold.
Sam swallowed as he noticed something in the space above his head, a vortex of sorts forming, and he had the overwhelming feeling to touch the golden ground underneath the wooly pig’s hooves. It wasn’t the first time he had this sensation, but it was the first time he could see his unopened chakra yearning for something to swallow. Perhaps this was what the rest of his chakras had looked like moments before absorbing the crystals that’d become his familiars.
“Don’t touch the ground,” Vercedei said. If Sam absorbed the foundation of the city, all the Venusians would turn hostile. Before that happened, the Venusians had to submit to Sam first. Although he did collect a bunch of Venusian followers, it was a small amount compared to the number of Venusians living within the golden city. “Wait a little longer.”
Seeing as he was riding atop Manga’s back whilst immobilized by the koala hugging his leg, Sam felt like Vercedei’s warning was a bit unnecessary, but he kept it in his mind. He’d remain on the wooly pig without touching anything: no ground, no buildings, no golden object at all. “Got it,” Sam said, speaking to his familiar through his mind. “You do what you have to do; I’ll wait until you’re done.”
“Head to the central pagoda,” Vercedei said, speaking to Manga, and the wooly pig let out a four-syllable-long cry before marching forward. The geodes were no longer attached to it, but there were four hundred Venusians following behind. With such a large crowd of people, the residents of the city of gold couldn’t help but notice even if they didn’t want to.
“What’s going on?” a Venusian asked its friends from within a building with a window. “There’re so many undesirables parading through the streets. What are the guards doing letting in such riffraff?”
“My goodness, they’re so ugly. It’s a wonder they convinced anything to offer them gold nuggets to enter the city.”
“If I was that hideous, I would end my own existence.”
Although the Venusian who was speaking was quite far away, Sam could still hear it clear as day. Gold really did seem to be a miraculous medium that could transfer energy long distances without impediment. Chatter filled Sam’s mind as the residents of the city spoke to one another, discussing the mob of undesirables. As far as Sam could tell, the only thing differentiating the residents of the golden city and the undesirables were their outer appearances because they all looked the same at the core. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get a good comparison of their appearances because his vision was blocked, but that didn’t mean Sam couldn’t tell Venusian society was heavily biased towards pretty and handsome people.
“What are they doing?”
“Maybe someone invited them to get rid of them for good?”
Venusians moved through their buildings, winding up at their doorways to get a better look at the passing crowd of undesirables. Although they didn’t say anything without the privacy of their walls, the spectating residents were all buzzing at a low frequency, clearly displeased and unhappy with the unannounced procession. One Venusian even walked in front of Sam, causing Manga to come to a halt.
“Excuse me,” the beautiful Venusian said, standing with her hands on her hips. Her long blonde hair swayed with the wind, and her blue eyes seemed to pierce through Sam’s illusion. Of course, to Sam, she looked like nothing more than a floating mass of annoyed darkness. “What are you doing in our city? Who let you in?”
“Yeah! You tell them, Mayor,” one Venusian said from the doorway. “We don’t want their kind here. They’re not welcome, and they’ll never be welcome.”
The Venusians behind Sam seemed to shrink in size as they lowered their heads and stared at the ground. Some of the undesirables even deactivated their illusions, choosing to appear as black masses that partially sank into the ground instead. None of them grew indignant or stood up for themselves, and Sam couldn’t help but internally sigh upon seeing their lowered vibrations. They were just like him when he was a talentless, feeling like he was worthless because he couldn’t meet society’s lowest standards.
“Well? Answer me,” Mayor, the beautiful Venusian, said. She scanned Sam from top to bottom. “What’s wrong with you, you giant? Are you so dumb you aren’t even capable of putting up an outer appearance?”
“You speak so arrogantly for someone with no talent,” Vercedei said and vocalized a snorting sound. Sam observed the illusion around him shifting from a large black mass to a blonde-haired, blue-eyed man with muscles so toned they seemed to be carved from stone. If one were to compare the illusion Werchbite had created to the one Mayor had made, it’d be like comparing a professional artist’s work to a drawing created by a child who drew with their feet.
The Venusians fell into silence as they stared at Sam, the chatter coming to a halt. Truth be told, Sam didn’t know what Werchbite did differently than the Venusian when creating an illusion, but he guessed it had something to do with the extra dimensions the twin-headed snake could work with. Perhaps there was an extra depth to a person that existed in another dimension that could only be noticed and recreated by a higher-dimensional creature. Of course, the twin-headed snake could’ve also cast an illusion on Mayor to make them look ugly in comparison, but Sam didn’t think the snake’s purple head would stoop that low; it was quite prideful for a creature that didn’t speak much.
“You…,” Mayor said, her retort ending after one word. She recognized Sam’s superiority in creating illusions since her breath was taken away upon seeing the appearance Werchbite had cooked up for Sam. “Why are you associating with such a … large … crowd?” She was going to use a meaner adjective than large, but the way Sam looked at her changed her choice of words. “Is this a publicity stunt?”
“You could say that,” Vercedei said. “The Venusian with the most beautiful appearance, shouldn’t their words hold more sway? Not only do I have a great appearance, I have a great vision for our people too. I’d like for everyone to meet me at the central pagoda, so I can share my vision with everyone.” The illusionary hunk Werchbite cooked up stared Mayor straight in the eyes. “Won’t you help me?”
Mayor’s face flushed deep red as the black mass beneath the illusion fluttered as if it were unstable. “Well, it can’t hurt to hear what you have to say, can it? I hope you can provide an adequate explanation for your actions.” She glanced at the undesirables behind Sam, who were doing their best to not attract attention. “Without standards, would we really be Venusians?”