The Covenant Seal

Before Luke could even process what had just happened, his breath hitched. The library, once a quiet sanctuary, now lay in complete disarray—books scattered across the floor, students dazed, some crying, others frozen in place. No one seemed to be looking at him. No one except Lila.

Her expression was unreadable at first, then her golden eyes flicked toward the west. The moment stretched long. Too long.

Then she spoke.

"It happened. The threat I came here to help you with has just begun."

"What is it?" Luke followed her gaze, still frozen westward.

"That particle accelerator… I think it exploded."

A cold dread spread through Luke's chest, a creeping sensation that something—everything—was wrong.

Then he heard it.

Distant screams. The wail of sirens. A deep, thrumming vibration beneath his feet, too steady to be an aftershock, too unnatural to be ignored.

Luke's breath quickened. He turned toward the massive stained-glass windows of the library, and for the first time, he really looked.

The sky was wrong.

Colors rippled across the clouds in unnatural hues—greens, purples, a shifting iridescence that reminded him of oil on water. It moved, alive, a slow bleeding stain against the horizon.

A storm, but not a storm.

Something else entirely.

Luke clenched his jaw. This wasn't just an explosion. This was much worse. His pulse hammered. He clenched his fists as his stomach twisted. 

"Lila, if the APA has exploded, that means—" He swallowed hard, his mouth suddenly dry. "That means there will be catastrophic fallout."

His mind spun, grasping at memories of late-night news specials, articles speculating on what the APA was truly doing beneath the Ozarks. Exotic particles. Unstable collisions. Potential gateways.

He exhaled sharply, his breath shaky. "They were messing with unknown energies, Lila. We have no idea what they just unleashed."

"I know," she muttered. "Not just that, though…" she turned to look at him, her gaze piercing. "I think they were experimenting with mana."

"What? How?" 

Lila shook her head. "That I don't know. But with the insane amount of mana that I'm sensing pouring into Earth's atmosphere right now, there is no other explanation. They must have torn through the veil."

"You mean like the veil between us and the spiritual realm?" Luke asked.

"No, silly. That's the realm of the King Himself. No one can tear through that. I'm talking about the veil between this universe and the Aetherion Universe." Lila's explanation left Luke dumbfounded. The first part made sense to him, at least, but what was this business about another universe?

"Between this universe and what?"

Lila sighed, "You really don't know anything about this stuff, do you?"

Luke shook his head with widened eyes. "Clearly not."

"Okay, fine. The Aetherion Universe is a parallel universe to this one. It is where mana comes from. Some mana has always leaked through the veil to this universe, but it's never reached the level it has today."

Luke had heard of parallel universes before, of course. Theoretical physics, multiverse speculation—it was all abstract, something you talked about in late-night dorm debates or read in speculative fiction.

But this? This wasn't theory. This wasn't fiction.

"Another universe," he echoed, running a hand through his hair. "A whole separate reality, and mana just… leaks through?"

Lila nodded. "Like mist seeping through cracks. But those cracks just became breaks."

Luke tried to accept this in stride, choosing to just move forward no matter how crazy it sounded. "What do we do?" he asked quietly. 

"What can we do?" she asked in response. "We are just two very low level individuals here. This couldn't have been stopped by either of us. At least we know the nature of the threat now, though." 

Luke nodded, imagining all the horrible things happening all around the APA. "Did this happen everywhere around the APA?"

Lila frowned, her piercing gaze once more fixed westward. "Like I said, I can't sense the entire circumference of the APA, but… I'm almost certain the entire ring has been affected. The veil didn't just tear in one spot. This was most likely a chain reaction."

A pressure built behind Luke's eyes, like the air had thickened without warning. The mana in his veins twisted, not just reacting but rebelling against something unseen. It was like a thousand invisible hands were reaching through his skin, pulling at the energy inside him.

His stomach churned, the sensation raw and alien. A faint ringing filled his ears, and for a moment, the library blurred—not like he was dizzy, but like the room itself was re-deciding what shape it wanted to be.

He grabbed the edge of the nearest table, breath sharp.

"Lila…" His voice felt distant, like it was barely his own. "Tell me you felt that."

Her expression was grim. "I did."

A pause.

"Luke, the veil wasn't just damaged. It's… bleeding."

Luke's stomach sank further as he imagined it—portals opening all along the ring, spilling whatever energy and creatures came with them. "This… this isn't just going to affect Tulsa. Is it?"

"No," Lila admitted quietly. "The flow of mana is steady, but the scale of this breach is unprecedented. Earth isn't built to handle this kind of influx. The entire region around the accelerator is going to transform. The land, the wildlife, everything will begin to reflect the influence of the Aetherion Universe."

Luke processed her words, his mind racing. "And what about… creatures? I mean, if mana is pouring in, what else is coming through those gates?"

Lila's lips pressed into a thin line. "That's the part that worries me most," she admitted. "Wherever there's mana, life follows. Some of it might be harmless, even beautiful. But other things…" She trailed off, her shoulders tensing. "The Aetherion Universe is home to beings—creatures, entities, some that you might consider mythological, others that defy explanation. If even a fraction of them cross through, it could be catastrophic."

Somewhere outside, something howled.

Not an animal. Not human.

Something that should not be.

The sound didn't travel like normal noise. It didn't echo—it crawled. A vibration through the mana in his veins, like a tuning fork pressed directly to his spine.

It wasn't just noise.

It was awareness. Recognition.

It had noticed him.

Luke flinched.

The howl ended.

And the silence that followed was worse.

Not the kind of silence that came after noise—but the kind that anticipated it.

Like a held breath.

Like something deciding.

Lila's head snapped toward the library doors, her expression darkening.

It was listening.

"It's already started," she whispered.

"What?" Luke asked, incredulity lacing his tone. "How could it possibly have already started?"

Lila's face showed confusion, "I don't know, Luke. Time and space were just warped beyond recognition or understanding. Anything is possible at this point."

Luke felt the weight of her words settle over him. "And the area around the accelerator—it's going to be ground zero for all of this."

"Yep," Lila confirmed. "The land closest to the portals will absorb the most mana. It will warp, change into something new, something influenced by the Aetherion Universe. I don't know what that place will become yet, but… it won't be the Ozarks anymore."

Luke took a breath.

Then another.

It didn't help.

His family was out there. His friends. People with no idea that the rules of the world had just changed forever.

Did they see it happening?

Was his mom standing at the kitchen sink, rinsing a coffee mug, completely unaware that reality itself had begun unraveling outside her window?

Was his dad checking emails, sipping his second cup of coffee, never realizing he'd just lived through the last normal morning of his life?

His siblings. Aiden. Ava. Sophia.

Did they even have time to be afraid?

A cold sweat broke over his skin. His breathing turned shallow. He had to get to them.

He gripped the back of a chair, forcing himself to stay upright. "This isn't just a disaster, Lila." His voice came out hoarse. "This is... this is extinction-level stuff."

Lila's gaze softened, but she didn't offer empty reassurances.

"I know," she said quietly.

Luke nodded grimly, his jaw tightening. "So, what now? We just wait for this new… world to form? Or do we try to do something about it?"

Lila's eyes softened. "Luke, we can't stop the mana flow, not with the veil torn like this. But we can prepare. The changes will bring opportunities—artifacts, knowledge, maybe even tools to help us navigate what's coming. And we," she added, drifting closer, "we're tied to this. Our Covenant Seals are linked to mana. This may be dangerous, but it's also our chance to grow stronger."

He met her gaze, uncertainty battling determination in his eyes. "Then I guess we better prepare for this new, dangerous world. We've got to get stronger."

Lila smiled encouragingly. "Yes, we do. Honestly, I was wondering how we'd ever get to max level, or if it was even possible. Now the answer seems pretty clear, though."

Luke's expression turned inquisitive. "What do you mean?"

"Well, the universe is a crazy place, okay? I know I just said that mana has always come through in very small amounts, but that is subjective. Some places, like my homeworld Elyndra, thrive on mana and need it to live, just like me and the other Celestials. We need mana to live.

"And some worlds are naturally more in tune with the Aetherion Universe and so absorb more of its energy. There are huge mana hotspots, and mana deserts, as we call them. Earth has always been on the lower end of the spectrum with regard to how much mana ever came through the veil here. Until now, that is."

"So you thought there simply wasn't enough mana for us to level up that much?" Luke asked.

"Correct."

"We should be grateful for the chance to grow stronger, then. That's difficult, though, because we both know there is going to be a lot of suffering from this."

"True. It's bittersweet, with an extremely heavy emphasis on the bitter half of that equation," she replied.

The pair of them were quiet, lost in contemplation. Suddenly, Luke became aware of several sets of eyes on him. Lila caught his embarrassed expression as he noticed others watching him with looks of concern. She laughed suddenly, realizing others must think of him as crazy.

"Oh, yeah, they can't see you," Luke muttered quietly, red-faced. 

With that, the pair decided to leave the Elara Library. 

As they neared the exit, a hush seemed to settle over the ruined library. Not from the students—but from something else. Something unseen.

Luke shivered.

Nothing is the same anymore.

He took a step toward the door—then froze.

The sky rippled.

A distortion. A mistake.

And in that mistake—something moved.

A shape. A shadow.

Watching.

No, not just watching.

Waiting.

For a second, the edges of the figure wavered, its form distorted, like it wasn't fully… here.

Then—it was gone.

But the space it had occupied wasn't empty.

The glass reflected nothing. No storm, no library, no Luke.

Just a black void.

And something inside it blinked.

A flicker, a subtle shift—like something was still there, watching back.

And then, in a blink, the reflection snapped back to normal.

Luke's pulse spiked. He forced himself forward, jaw set.

"Alright," he muttered. "Let's go."