Decision [2].

Hunters and Slayers had one key difference; Hunters hunted earthen beasts and kept society safe from mortal dangers. Slayers, on the other hand, were specially trained to deal with Nox. 

Similarly to Hunters, Slayers would get contracts and set out to complete them, being rewarded rather handsomely in return. They would also be considered 'Veterans', their status being enough for most Slayers to retire happily and live a luxurious life. One could relate them to nobility of ancient earth. 

It had to be noted that Slayers as a whole were quite rare. On earth, right now, about a few hundred thousand individuals existed, who possessed the powers of a Slayer. They were treated with utmost respect. Of course, they had to be. After all, a single slayer could wipe out the surface of a middling city. Their power, was not to be underestimated. 

However, there existed one more rank above Slayers.

There came, the Paragons. 

Paragons of humanity were, summed up in a single word, like gods. Their power was unfathomable. Shrouded in mystery, each and every one of them were capable of blasting the earth to pieces if they so wished.

There currently existed seven Paragons, one for each earthen continent. No one knew how they came to be, no one knew how they became so powerful. Hell, only a couple of select individuals were even aware of their actual identities, the majority of the world only knowing that powers beyond their understanding existed, one of them being the paragons.

Well, this majority naturally did not include Kair.

As his train of thoughts reached this particular station though, they stopped. 'It's too early to think about them. Way too early.' Kair wasn't nearly powerful, or meaningful, enough to concern himself with such matters. Truly, the Paragons and their powers were not exaggerated, not one bit. It could even be said that they were even... underappreciated. 

After all, no one knew how powerful each paragon truly was. Of the seven known ones and a number of unknown ones, none liked being scrutinized by the public eye. 

Of course, paragons weren't the peak of this universe; not by a longshot. Only later would the current earth come to realize this fact. 

Sighing, Kair hurried his pace, swiftly avoiding the myriad of unique humans that were strolling on the streets, some hurrying to work, some to school, some just wandering aimlessly. 

The bustling of the city grew busier and busier as Kair continued walking towards the middle. He could even vaguely feel the mana in the surroundings thickening up, its concentration rising steadily as the number of people increased. 

Swiftly moving through the crowds, Kair neared the city center. Right there, in the middle, stood a somewhat tall tower. The floor around it was glowing slightly, runic inscriptions of various patterns drawn across the blue tiles, moving around as if they were alive. 

People kept stepping onto the slightly elevated platform, and after a second, kept disappearing with a soft flash of blue. 

Trying to communicate his intent with his mana-circuit, Kair commanded mana to be focused around his eyes. 

Instantly, the world was doused in a purplish color before clearing up. His ocular nerves gained a slight tinge of purple pulses to them, flashing ever so softly, his brown irises shifting and a white glow emanated from the right one, a vacuum of dark black emerging from the left.

The feeling Kair felt, was astonishment. 

'Wow.' 

Suddenly, everything felt clearer to Kair. As if a foggy lens had been removed and replaced with a shiny new one, Kair could suddenly even make out minute details with stunning clarity, something he certainly could not do before.

Through all of this, a certain aspect caught his attention; the whirl of violet particles in his surroundings, twisting in hypnotic patterns as people moved through them, used them and breathed them. They changed colors, coalesced and coagulated, split and repeated the process. 

In his shock, Kair had stopped walking, causing a random stranger to bump into him.

---

The old man stumbled, turning back at Kair to throw out a curse.

'Damn kids, I'll be late-!' He froze. 

A shiver ran down his spine, his hunched back straightening up magically as his entire body froze out of fear. 

'Th-th-those... eyes...' 

Two orbs stared down at him. One, a radiant white and the other, a black abyss.

Despite the old man being just as tall as Kair, he somehow felt extremely inferior. Coercion, the likes of which he had never felt before, assaulted his senses. 

The bird perched on Kair's shoulder degraded the old man's sanity even further. It looked adorable, but in that moment, the aura of a ranked beast drilled into him as those deep black eyes stared at him with an uncanny sense of intelligence. 

"Sov... sovereign... a f-fucking sovereign!" he gasped, stumbling backwards. 

Spurred on by delusion, a lack of sleep and definitely some illegal drugs, the old man turned around and dashed away. His body moved like flowing water, weaving a path through the streets as he pushed himself as hard as he could to create distance between himself and Kair. 

His nerves burned with fright, as his mind struggled to not entirely collapse under the weight of the memory of those eyes. 

---

In his trance-like state, Kair failed to notice the old man that had gracelessly bumped into him, then scrambled to get away as if his life had depended on it. 

Well, not like anyone in the surroundings had paid both Kair and the old man any heed. 

He was fixated on the fascinating sight unfolding before him, his view periodically invaded by Starlie flapping her wings. 

As a person stepped on the platform, a coat of mana would blossom from the ground and envelop them, a tiny rift opening in the space in front of them. It was miniscule, yet somehow, mana was able to condense the person enough to fit through the atomically small rupture in space. Then, the rift would disappear, another one taking form as more and more humans stepped on to the platform. 

Enraptured, Kair slowly walked towards it, stepping on the platform as well. 

Out of nowhere, mana sprang up form the platform and completely covered his body. Then, before he could even understand or observe what had happened, his vision went black. 

A split second later, his vision cleared again and he found himself in a room. It was wholly covered by white tiles, the smooth white texture uninterrupted by crevices or crease marks. 

Light seemed to illuminate the room, coming from seemingly out of nowhere. 

Looking down at himself, Kair found that his hoodie and joggers were, thankfully, still on his person. Starlie also sat on his shoulder, perched as if it had never left and curiously looked around the bland walls and ceilings. 

In this situation, Kair should've been plenty confused as to what was going on. After all, he was the only one in the somewhat tiny room. However, he had seen at least hundreds of people step onto the platform at the same time as him. 

Something thumped against his head. Looking to his side, he saw Starlie being quite agitated. Her feathers raised up ever so slightly, her wings flaring out as she intensely stared at...nothing? 

Her black eyes bored into a particular spot in the room, a spot that Kair, however, couldn't see anything special about. Frowning, he scratched Starlie on the head softly as she immediately calmed down, tucking her wings back in and leaning into Kair's palm. Some sort of purring noise reverberated from her torso, bringing a chuckle to Kair's lips. 

Picking her up from his shoulder and cradling Starlie in his arms, Kair remained calm.

As mentioned before, Kair should've been quite confused right now. Luckily though, he knew exactly what was going on. Why was he here, all alone? 

This was because, as he'd thought, he was unregistered. 

When anything was born, their DNA and mana signatures would be recorded. Stored in a global database, it was instantly possible to find out the identity of any person, their past, criminal history etc. 

However, since Kair was presumably not born here and just spawned here, his blood and mana were never tagged. 

How would someone react if a total stranger walked into their house? Of course, the logical thing to do would be the assume extreme caution. 

So, here he was. Waiting on one of Cilica City's five overseers of security to personally come and meet him. After all, an unregistered human wasn't a common occurrence. Especially in a city like this. 

Just as he was about to stand up and look for clues on whether there was a door in this room or not, the entire left wall just suddenly split into two. Then, those walls slid into the other ones, revealing a single woman in a casual outfit standing there with two guards stationed behind her. 

His eyes widened slightly, familiarity sprouting in his mind.

'Miss Aim-'

"Hello, my name is Amy Watsken. I'm a second tier security overseer of Cilica City, and you were flagged because your mana and DNA don't seem to be registered. Your class, too, seems to be out of line." 

Pausing, she walked towards Kair with a carefree expression, her lips arched ever so slightly. Her purple hair matched her violet eyes, swaying back and forth on each stride. 

Coming up to him, Kair realized that she was just as tall as he was, which came as a surprise. 

"What's your name? 

Stuttering from the sudden closeness with such a beautiful individual, Kair had to collect himself before responding. 

"M-my name is Kair Rivia. And, uh, this is my bond, Starlie." Kair gestured to his companion. 

A curious glint ignited Amy's eyes, as she observed the duo. 

---

Amy sat in the air. A relaxed sigh escaped her mouth as she reclined backwards, closing her eyes as sleep called her name. 

'What a tiresome day. I only have an hour of my shift left, I better not-'

Ping! 

A bell sounded, the lighting in the room going from a warm hue to a light red. In an instant, Amy snapped awake as her figure flashed from the literal middle of the small office to her desk. Looking at the multiple holographic displays popping up left and right, her eyes blitzed through the information on the screen. 

What she saw, left her quite confused. 

[Organism name: Homo Syntheticus (Class 2)]

[DNA: {failed to retrieve}]

[Mana:{failed to retrieve}]

|Expand?|

'That's weird... Class 2?'

Standing up straight, she leaned off her desk and disappeared with a flash of blinding white mana. 

Reappearing before a plain quartz wall, she nodded to the two guards stationed on either side of it. After a second of hesitation, she sighed and covered herself in mana once again, stepping through the walls as if they didn't exist, like a ghost. 

Entering the room, she observed the young man that had just now been transported into the room. 

However, though he couldn't see her, she could see him. She gracefully walked around him, soundlessly stepping onto invisible tiles in the air conjured by her ability. Her invisibility also left no gaps, her mastery over mana having reached such a proficient level that cloaking herself and letting the light bend around her as she pleased will became as easy as child's play. 

There was something she hadn't accounted for, though; the young man's bond. 

As the young man was looking around the room, likely confused as to where he could be, his bond had found something far more interesting to observe. It was Amy. 

Somehow, the bond could sense her. Amy was stunned by this fact alone, but was even more shocked when it followed her movements around the room with her entire body, her eyes accurately tracking Amy's location. 

'How can it see me?'

Not only could it see her, it seemed like she also had the intelligence to be able to determine that Amy might be a threat, seeing that she was evading her master's senses. 

The bond flared her wings, glaring at Amy and bumping the young man in the face in the process. Sighing, Amy circulated her mana a bit more hastily, expecting to see the usual situation unfold. 

However, for the second time in the span of a few seconds, Amy was yet stunned again. 

She had been prepared for him to be annoyed, and somehow discipline his bond. Like she had seen many times before, individuals would treat their bonds like shit. Beating them for the slightest mistakes, annoyances, etc. After all, animal cruelty had been twisted and glorified nowadays.

Though there were laws against this in order to prevent angering the beasts that roamed the earth, it still wasn't enough. Animal cruelty was still practiced in the world. 

This was why when the young man, after a momentary frown, gently petted his bond, Amy didn't know how to react.

He even went as far as to pluck it from its shoulders and cradle it in his arms like a delicate baby as he chuckled. What was even more surprising, was that the bond had actually calmed down under its master's gentle embrace, purring soothingly. 

Shaking her head, Amy flashed outside of the room again, loosening control of her mana and becoming visible once again.

'What a weird person.' 

"Open the door. He's not a threat, at least I don't think so." She turned and said to the guard standing on the left. 

Nodding, the guard turned and pressed a finger forward, projecting his mana. The wall split in half, then those halves slid into the walls right next to them. 

---

Looking into those gorgeous violet eyes, Kair felt a slight shiver run down his spine.