The hallways of the university were filled with the chatter of students. The packed hallways left almost no room for any space to walk or even fly, for that matter. Everywhere one looked, a new species was found. To the right, there was a falcon, to the left, there was a wolf, and in front, a tiger.
All of which were living harmoniously with their human bond partners. Each student had a place they had to be, whether it be home or their next class; almost none of the students were walking around without a purpose.
Yet, there is always an exception in a normal activity. Walking outside of the room for homeroom classes was a man clad in the school uniform, a stylish suit that was dark black with accents of purple and blue splashed over the edges. His own uniform held a single badge clinging to his blue tie, adorned with five stars, each glittering in the sunlight that was gleaming upon the students.
Yet the boy himself was a marvel to behold, his long black hair draping over his nape while also covering parts of his eyes, only letting parts of them peek and watch the world. These eyes were deep, icy blue, yet they were glazed over, closer to a man who never had a thought pass through his mind and didn't care about anything around him.
His face and skin seemed sculpted from ivory, smooth yet as pale as a ghost. His own build was one of pure muscle, yet it seemed to be underweight compared to the other kids his age. Adorning his right ear was a single black earring engraved in white of an hourglass, of which the top half was covered in spiderwebs, while the bottom part had feathers falling to the bottom.
His ivory skin was pale beyond belief, hidden by the very uniform he wore, yet his hands were inked with black, thorn-like chains that wrapped around each finger, originating from a cuff-like tattoo on his wrist.
Yet this wasn't even the most stunning feature about him, perched on his shoulder was a majestic black crow. Much like its bond partner, it held an eye that looked more dead than anything, while the other eye was much more mechanical, almost like a camera lens if anything else. The sheen from the crow's black feathers was beautiful as the sun glinted off some of the feathers. The shine coming from the feathers made it seemingly impossible to figure out which ones were real and which ones were merely mechanical.
The man kept walking farther from the university, seemingly unable to care about what was going on around him as he passed what seemed to be a singular feather through his fingers, as it disappeared within the shadows of his fingers, only to appear once more in the other hand.
Yet the man's thoughts weren't as calm as he seemed from the outside.
"Tell me, Nyx, how many times have we tried to get that idiot out of our lab again?" stated the young man in an annoyed tone.
A female voice suddenly coldly answered, "Well, Kael, if I were keeping count around," taking a break to count, the voice stopped for a second before resuming, "thirty times."
"That's way less than I thought." Kael telepathically told Nyx.
"This week."
"Oh, that sounds about right," Kael responded to the crow, realizing.
The duo walked past the bounds of the university and started walking into the major city that surrounded the university where they studied. The city was a large area seemingly dwarfing the size of the pre-Genesis Shard cities. The city once known as Chicago could only be the size of a single block of what was known as the large city of Lumenis, which held dozens of such blocks.
The city was known for its lights, and it lived up to the name; the city was easily visible from even thousands of miles away. The glow of the neon pink, purple, and blue lights seemed to illuminate even the academy at night. Yet every city had its bad parts, where all the lights in the city of lights were broken.
There was a block filled with all the criminals who were chased off blocks 1-24. The one block where, even if it was inside the city of lights, no light was turned on within the block, leaving it to be illuminated only by the light of the moon and the other blocks pitying the broken block. This was block twenty-five.
One of the top students, a five-star recruit, living in a place like this would surely be a hit at a prestigious academy like the Genesis Central Academy. Yet they couldn't bring him away from block twenty-five.
Turning down another corner, the smell of burning and oil filled Kael's nose, while the burning sting of the steam rose into his eyes. Something that felt more like home to Kael rather than an inconvenience. The young student walked towards a broken-down factory nestled between two different corporate buildings connected through an H-like shape. The factory was stuck right under the H, fitting perfectly, yet also somehow out of place.
Opening the doors, the LEDs attached to the ceiling and the floor seemed to flicker on and off before deciding to stay on. The LEDs were a mix of dim white and a bit of spotlight lighting.
An electronic voice rang out inside his head, connecting through his neurochip, "Welcome back to the Suture, Master Kael."
They illuminated a workshop, and off to the side were stairs leading up to the balcony. The balcony had a desk that held a high-tech computer. This computer was much like the ones that the UIA held only for their top employees and executives; it was connected to a huge TV and multiple monitors, sitting snuggly on the balcony of the factory overlooking everything underneath.
Underneath the blanket sat what seemed to be a forge and machinery for a robotic machine sitting on an assembly. All these lines for machinery led back up into the computer sitting on the balcony. There was also a space on top of the balcony near the desk that was like a diagram of a spiderweb made by blue and purple ink that covered the entire floor, sprawling from the end of the balcony to near where the desk sat.
Sitting in the middle of the array was a young woman seemingly meditating.
Sensing the lights turn on, she said three words, not even bothering to open her eyes.
"Welcome back, Kael."