Dark clouds blanketed the sky, preventing any light from passing through. Occasional whistles from the wind sounded in the air, sending papers dancing.

In the last few years, this weather had become the norm; sunlight was a rarity, often forgotten by the people. 

"Welcom to the safe area; Saint city."

A car drove into the recently built city gate. The structures in this area were decrepit and in ruins. The walls chard by fire markings.

In the not so distant past, a world wide incident occurred, other 'fantasy' like worlds merged together. 

The first time, hell-ish monsters who, weren't so kind appeared. They killed and nearly pushed the human race to extinction. Mordan weapons couldn't harm them and humanity's fate seemed inevitable.

Luckily, shortly after, another incident occurred, this time, angelic-like beings descended. Unlike the first batch of travellers, they assisted humanity and taught them how to defend themselves.

The buildings in ruins was evident of that history.

Asher looked out the car, not far away, a mall in ruins barely stood. It's large stature, whispered of it's once glorious days.

Horrifice memories rushed into his consciousness. A scene of his parents, lying motionless on the ground, covered in blood flashed. 

Another scene of a tall man, an angel of death, with wings on his back, striking him in the face. Those distinctive dark flames, slowly dancing on his palm.

Thinking of this, Asher tensed, the burnt mark on the right side of his face throbbed, harassing every pain receptor on his face. The mark resembled an open palm, covering half of his face.

This was 'gifted' to him by that man, with black wings.

Finally a scene of the tall man, holding his older brother, and disappearing into the ground.

'Endure!' 

Flashing with those images, was a skull tearing headache, with occasional throbbing that disturbed his thinking.

Not unfamiliar with the headaches, Asher shook his head and regained his composure, he ignored it and continued to observe the city.

The car drove on the high way, into a new part of the city.

Despite the gloomy weather, the atmosphere was brightly lit by neon lights on the buildings and roads, plus the vibrant holographic advertisements.

A high speed train was floating above it's tracks and zoomed of into the distance at high speed.

A car being chased by law enforcers, flew around the corner, only to smash into another unsuspecting car.

!!!

Boom! The two cars tuned into a flaming wreckage that landed heavily on the streets.

As soon as the cars "landed" on the ground, the slow-walking and moitionless robots, scattered on the roads, started running towards the scene, in a synchronized manner.

The robots started putting out the fire and removing the debris, while others directly entered the flames, searching for any survivors. 

One robot that looked different from the rest, opened it's palm, which began to glow blue, following that, a stream of water, magically gushed out of it's hand.

Along the sidewalks people didn't pay any attention to this scene, as if they were use to it. 

Other people were either recording the scene, moving along aimlessly or focused on the holographic screens in front of them.

Asher looked out the window with an uninterested yet observant gaze, despite everything being novel to him, his emotions didn't bubble.

The expensive car he was in, carefully made a detour around the incident, before continuing on it's merry way.

Just as the situation seemed normal, a giant red arm covered in fur and flames, appeared from within the flames and grabbed one of the robots and slammed it to the ground. With that, the ground shook.

*Roar!*

A roar sounded, as a creature slowly stood up. The creature oddly had the head and lower body of a cow and the torso of a human. A Minotaur covered in flames and red fur.

The Minotaur, reached into the flames and pulled out a huge wooden-hammer. Swiftly swinging it, robotic fluid and limbs were sent flying, as the Minotaur went on a frenzy.

Seeing this scene, the people finally started panicking, running away and stumbling, in a chaotic manner.

*Roar*

The monster came to the sidewalk, where a person, unaware of the situation, was busy on his phone. 

Enraged for some weird reason, the monster swung it's hammer at the person.

*Bang* The hammer stopped halfway ... there was another person on the ground, blocking the attack with his finger. The man was wearing a law enforcers uniform.

"A Saint." Seeing this scene, Asher's eyes flashed with interest, as he turned his head fully back.

The man pulled the hammer, incidentally bringing the monster closer, before punching it in the face, sending it flying.

Just then, other law enforcers arrived at the scene from multiple directions. The most eye catching among them, were the ones who were styling a pair of white angel wings behind their backs.

From the second batch of travelers who arrived, there were those who called themselves 'Angels', and indeed, they resembled the ones people knew.

One of the angels waved her hand, a rain-cloud appeared above the fire, rain poured from the rain-cloud and estinguished the flames. 

At this time, fifty law enforcers were circling around the monster.

Asher looked at this scene from afar and a little sparkle appeared in his eyes, but the car tuned a corner, ending his free trial.

He sighed and looked at the transperate ceiling and saw the bustling cars, trafficking the sky. 

Because of this though, there was barely any traffic on the road. The car drove smoothly for an hour before finally stopping in front of a tall building.

"We have arrived at our destination! Thank you for picking Mac transportation for your ride. Mac transportation has prepares this for you."

The driver, a robot wearing a chauffeur outfit, tuned around and said.

A compartment opened up on the side, emitting a dim light. Asher retrieved the letter inside, his personal information along with instructions, were written.. 

Go inside! The instructions read.

"Thanks I guess." Asher thanked the driver and grabbed his black plastic bag before exiting the car.

The words 'MacBuilders' were plastered on the side of the building, in bright lights.

Asher didn't know much about MacBuilders, all he knew was that it was a successful private company in Saints city, and it was looking to branch out into other businesses, like training future saints. That's how he knew them and the reason he got here.

Asher entered the lobby and came to the receptionist, she was as beautiful as an actress. Asher handed her the letter and was instructed to take a sit in the lobby.

In the lobby, there were six other youths the same age as him. All of them briefly glanced at him, but no one said a word, so he sat down.

The intirioir of the lobby was bright, spacious, and the furniture was big and luxurious. One look was enough to convince even a layman that he couldn't afford any of it.

A few minutes later, two youths walked into the lobby surrounded by bodyguards dressed in black. The bodyguards all looked like strong elites.

The receptionist got up with a respectful attitude and bowed towards the two youths, she flatteringly said, "Greetings master Aiden, your as headsome as your father!"

The two youths got flustered, and returned the bow. One of them stuttered, "Th-thank you."

Seeing this, the woman and the surrounding bodyguards were shocked, they quickly stopped the headsome boy with red hair. 

"Master Aiden, there's no need for you to bow, and please mind your speech. Your father won't approve." The woman frantically stopped one of the youths.

Asher noticed the strange reaction of the bodyguards and receptionist. It wasn't the respect that caught his eye but the subtle fear, everyone had towards the seemingly innocent youth.

He couldn't help subconsciously glancing towards the company name, plastered on the lobby wall.

"Master Aiden, your father requested you see him the moment you came." After some flattery words, the receptionist gestured towards the open elevator.

Aiden, styling red hair and some freckles, nervously glanced at the youth besides him but ultimately walked into the elevator. As soon as the elevator doors closed, the receptionist and bodyguards let out a sigh of relief.

The atmosphere was undoubtedly tense a moment ago.

"All right everybody quickly follow me." The woman regained her composure and turned to Asher's group.

The woman followed by 8 youths entered a different elevator.

Surprisingly the elevator bottons didn't have numbers but symbols. Pressing a button, the woman then gave her hand print and her eye to be scanned. Only then did the elevator start to move.

The elevator didn't feel like it was moving though, but after a while the doors opened to a slightly dark lab with computers and weird devices.

The were people dressed in white lab coats while others wore black ones.

The woman led her entourage and brought them in front of a scientist with glasses.

"Sir Glenn, these are the kids scheduled for an affinity test." The woman said and handed over a small bead. 

The scientist, Glenn, looked like he hasn't seen sleep all his life, with dark circles under his eyes. But as soon as he saw the receptionist, he looked like he got younger.

"Okay then, I'll do it straight to it then bring them to you immediately." He stumbled on his words while enthusiastically taking the bead.

Glenn's gaze lingered on the woman as she dissapered out the room, after she left he let out a deep sigh, then he took a deep breadth.

"Right let's be quick." With a smile, Glenn turned around and said.

He brought the group to a different room.

The room was spacious and covered in black tiles. 

In the middle of the room was a big sphere, around it, similar yet smaller black spheres. 

"You guys know what this is right? I don't want to bore you with the science but, basically it can tell if you have an affinity with mana and to what extent you do." Glenn briefly explained.

Humanities saviors had taught humans how to harness and use a mysterious power, that resided within most living creatures.

Scientist have studied this mysterious power in recent years but they couldn't make heads nor tails with it. When researched, it was like it didn't exist, making it hard to study, this power was called Mana.

Mana had a great relationship with promoting human genes and quickening evolution. 

Depending on the dance people had with fate, some weren't able to use Mana and had no aptitude, while others were like a fish in water. 

Those who couldn't use Mana, were cursed by fate, sentencing them to an "ordinary" life in an extraordinary world.

"Now first up is, Bishop please step up." Glenn said after he pressed the small bead and a holographic screen popped up.

A tall youth with dark skin and a muscular body, styling an afro atop his head stepped forward, placing his hands on the hug sphere.

Suddenly one of the smaller spheres started filling up with a Green color, from bottom to top, in a liquid-like animation.

Simultaneously, another sphere on the side started filling up with a blue color, until it was half-full, simular to the green one.

"Remember relax your body and mind, and don't resist." Glenn on the side reminded.

Following his words, the youth, Bishop, kidnapped a deep breadth, before releasing it.

Suddenly the green light that had stopped already, started slowing filling up again, it took a while but it eventually stopped at 80 percent.

"Hmm, your physic is good and your Mana is above average, if you work hard, you'll be a good saint in the future." Glenn nodded repeatedly like a chicken pecking rise as he noted on the holographic screens.

Bishop lowered his head and returned to the group. Judging from his reaction, he seemed disappointed, but judging from Glenn's reaction, he must have a great aptitude.

"Okay... next up is Ivan...." 

Just like that, Glenn called up the others, results varied, with some getting worse or better results than the first boy. 

But most were happy with the results, but there was one person that didn't have a smile on his face. 

Ming stood there with his eyes closed, and sweat trickling down his face. He opened his eyes and despaired. 

Not a single orb around him had lit up. 

His face grew ugly and his round body felt lighter, he couldn't help but start sobbing. 

"Ming it's Okay, not everybody gets blessed by mana. In fact, only 5% of the word's current population are Saints and only 4.9% of Saints have mana, the rest of the saints don't even have it, so don't worry about it." Glenn stated while petting Ming on his back, causing ming to look at him in confusion.

In his own way, Glenn comforted Ming. 

After making sure that Ming was alright, he continued. Now it was Asher's turn. 

'Even if I don't have enough aptitude, I'll still go forward on this path.' Asher knuckles whitened as he moved forward

His palms were sweaty, but he believed that the results didn't matter to him. He placed his hands on the hug sphere.

Three spheres instantly lit up, the Green, blue and a purple spheres. 

The green sphere filled up to 50%, while the blue sphere was 25%, and the purple sphere being 5%.

That was 3 out of the 5 small spheres. 

Although the quantity was good, sometime in combat and survival, quality was supreme.

"Impressive, if you work hard enough, in the future you might be a formidable saint." Glenn responded enthusiastically while noting somethings down.

Asher didn't even put these generic words into his mind, but let out a sigh of relief. 

"Next up is...." 

Just like that, the last person was called up, his dance with fate wasn't bad.

After everyone was done, Glenn led them out of the room and back in the elevator, where he gave his handprint and scanned his iris.

Returning back into the lobby, they found the receptionist waiting for them. 

The receptionist took the bead from Glenn, after viewing the information, she asked Ming to step aside. Ming's expression grew even uglier.

She turned to the other seven and handed everyone a contract, "This contract is similar to the one, you agreed to online, except for a few changes, this one is also physical."

The woman gave everyone a pen, her expression changed as she said, "if you don't agree to the terms, our organization, won't cover your tuition fee or give you any benefits."

"Remember, there have been greater people then you but they made dumb decisions, resulting in them not being great." 

Hearing the woman's words, Asher's eyebrows raised slightly. 

What 's the use of try to scare us now

'It doesn't matter what I have to do, so long as I grow stronger.' Asher thought as he signed the contract, and placed his fingerprints without even looking at it.

It was like a website asking if you agreed with the terms and conditions. To use the website you had to agree.

Seeing his actions, the others hesitated and exchanged looks, before ultimately signing it.

The woman took the contracts with a smile and began handing them a few things; a bracelet, a credit card with their names and a small bead.

"Mr. Magnus asked me to pass a massage on his behalf." The receptionist expression changed again into a cold one.

"Nothing in this world is free, including freedom. Each month we will send you money, in return, besides the contracts, you must understand one thing," the woman deliberately paused for dramatic effect.

"Whenever we say jump, you don't even need to ask how high and just do it. After all, your company property now!" 

Hearing her words, everyone in the room understood their situation crystal clear.

Ever since the merging of realms, the world had fewer and fewer sun shines, both theoretically and physically.