The Northern Quadrant Siege Capital was a massive urban sprawl. Towering buildings stitched the sky together with sleek skybridges, while an entire secondary city existed beneath the streets, composed of winding subterranean corridors that connected one colossal structure to the next.
For someone who had grown up in the outskirts, it was almost impossible to comprehend how such an enormous place could exist, how it could seem so full of space, and yet still leave so many people clinging to its edges. The sheer magnitude of a city meant to house nearly a tenth of the entire human population defied his understanding, at least, until his Shadow Sense had grown strong enough to feel the presence of the entire city all at once.
Hundreds of thousands lived here, yet less than three percent of them were Awakened.
It had been five months since Sunny became a Sleeper. In the time that had passed, he had focused entirely on nourishing and rebuilding his body. After all, back then he could barely last a few minutes in a simple spar. But with access to proper food and guidance, he had outgrown the frailty of someone raised in a place where malnutrition was the norm. His physique still couldn't match that of the scions of powerful clans, but he no longer looked like a product of the outskirts.
Now, he sat quietly inside one of the many magnetic rail trains threading their way through the city's layers, Jet seated beside him. Their destination, one of the vast steel walls that encircled the Siege Capital like a titanic shield. Each of these bulwarks was defended by thousands of soldiers, dotted with turrets and cannons made with the spelltech. Massive turbines loomed nearby, silent giants that filtered and purified the city's air. It was in one of these same systems that they used the filters that his mother worked making.
After a long journey across the city's arteries, the train began to slow. Through the window, the skyline began to shift. The skyscrapers, once impossibly tall, seemed to recede as they approached the edge. And then, rising like a mountain against the horizon, the massive outer wall came into view. Painted in bold blue letters across its length were the characters "MPW-52."
"What does that mean?" It was the first thing he asked in the last 30 minutes, a new record.
"Are you sure I haven't explained this to you before?" She was leafing through a generic magazine she had found along the way, though none of the more mundane subjects interested her much.
"Well, in my memories there is nothing like that, maybe after Antarctica?" He was wearing the puppeteer's shroud, but it was hard to tell if it was a memory or just one of the clothes that were currently in fashion.
"Fair point, we really mostly talked about the Dark Times, but that mean Multiuse Protection Wall, this sections of wall are all around NSQC"
"I usually only saw them from the outside." Now that the two were spending more time together, Jet had registered as his protector until the time of the solstice, having a connection like that with a master was something impressive, but with that someone being the Soul Reaper, well, it was fair to say that some people responsible for the paperwork feared for the boy.
Finally, the train reached it destination, the station was mostly occupied by soldiers and workers of the wall, their heads turning when the ascended walked by. They followed their way to a set of stairs that lead to the ground floor, reaching a corridor that required Jet's credential to release the passage, soon, they find themselves near one of the gates leading out of the city.
Looking at Sunny, Jet knew he wanted to ask her something, so she let out a sigh before speaking.
"If you're going to stay with that face, it's better to ask right away."
"Alright, i was just thinking that this place is very different from the passage into the outskirts, everything is so... technical here, while there are just a lot of open gates and some roads that stay open for the transportation PTV's" Jet seemed to become a little sadder remembering how her life and the life of other were there.
"Even though it is a bad place, it's still not as dangerous as what's beyond the walls in these sections." She stopped when they reached a big hangar with military PTV's and a horizontal gate that could let the passage of dozen of the same vehicles. "The government even takes care of the portals that appear there, most of them at least." She then unbuttoned her coat, reveling the black bodysuit contoured her body for only a second before light particles appeared around her.
In the next moment, she was wearing a well-made steel armor, with a darkened steel around her neck and then turning into a polished iron that extended into the rest of her body, while her torso soon was overlayed by a navy blue fabric that gave her armor more similarity to the ascended personality.
"The most important is, things are bad in the outskirts, but they are worse out there, you're really sure about this?" She turned her head and looked at the pale boy.
A smile soon grew across his face, and a bow that looked to be made out of obsidian surged into his hand without any particles, unlike the quiver that took some more time to materialize in his back. "Of course! I already killed Fallen monsters and lived in a city taken by monsters when i was a Sleeper, why would i be afraid to hunt some creatures with a master by my side?"
Jet reciprocated his smile with one of her own, the challenge shining in her eyes.
"I can't lie about it Sunny! You sure know how to have some fun." And then she summoned her weapon.
Shouting to the soldiers near the controls, the gates soon let out a loud creak, revealing the lands beyond the protection of the walls.
"Let's kill something already"