Berlin's skyline was filled with glass skyscrapers and neon billboards. Underneath it, the arteries of the city adorned themselves with automated traffic systems and magi-tech drones gliding between buildings.
Corporate logos illuminated the night like constellations, all competing to outshine one another.
To outsiders, it was the image of a utopia built on innovation.
But truth be told, while Germany thrived in its commercial sectors, the same couldn't be said for those belonging to the lower strata of society.
The lower districts were mazes of rusted steel and flickering signage, where the air smelled of mana exhaust and ozone. Old train tunnels had become makeshift shelters. Crumbling apartments relied on the support of reinforced walls covered in graffiti that protested against corporate greed and government control.
In these places, the neon never reached the ground.
