The Veilwalker

A few minutes after the 'rescue' operation, Alex and the others were put in beds on the orbital ring. Sadly, some students, teachers and the spaceship crew were already dead. The kind of death induced by the veil displacement phenomenon starts with sleep. The target is put into a sleep where their hearts eventually give in.

The remaining ones were still alive but asleep was only a matter of time before they followed.

Alex was peacefully asleep in his allocated bed. As the medics went about their work in preparing the unfortunate ones to be sent to their loved ones, Alex's body was undergoing subtle changes that could not be detected. His heart rate was sturdy and slowing down, showing no signs of the unexpected. But along with these subtle changes was a vision he experienced when the cosmic mana wave hit.

...

Alex slowly opened his eyes, but all he could see was darkness. He noticed his floating self in an empty void with no bearing of up or down, left or right. He recalled the last thing remembered was the airtrains making their way down to the forest.

'Is this what dying feels like? I kinda expected a state of complete nonexistence. Maybe this is the afterlife?' he pondered to himself, not sure what to do next. There was no manual on what to do after death. As he floated around mulling over what to do next, he sensed how the space around him felt heavy. Like being buried in sand and the weight pressing heavily on his shoulders.

He also occasionally felt something wash over him like a breeze. Only this breeze felt warm and welcoming.

'Heavy and cosy. Not what I expected but okay.' Gradually, he noticed a small point of white light. The point was so small, that he nearly missed it if he hadn't been facing that direction. The small light point began growing until it occupied the entire vision of Alex.

'What the hell is happening? Can't a person die in peace?!' The brightness of the now spherical object reached a crescendo, forcing Alex to shut his eyes. He wondered if this was what death was supposed to feel like. 'Wait, am I really dead?' He began to think to himself, slowly opening his eyes.

What greeted him took his breath away. Before his very own eyes was an object he found difficult to describe. It was as large as the largest planet in his solar system, at least from his position. The object looked like a slowly revolving cube one moment and the next, a different shape. In fact, all the shapes he was familiar with and ones he could not even begin to perceive were taken by the object.

It appeared a shade of black and produced a pulse every now and then.

But the strange thing Alex noticed was a huge chunk of its edges bitten off? He wondered if he was right in his assumption. No matter what shape it took, that bitten-off portion was always revealed. His vision then moved down, past the massive object, moving at speeds physically impossible.

When his vision settled, he saw an ocean in which what seemed to be small floating disc-shaped constructs lit like the pictures of the universe he had seen on the network. And from what he could see, they might as well be in the trillions upon trillions. He could see no end in sight. Additionally, these constructs had multiple cracks on their surface.

Furrowing his brows, Alex wondered what exactly he was looking at. But before he could make any guesses, the space above him also lit up in the same colours. It appeared as if he was placed in the centre space of whatever the disc-shaped constructs were. And he could still feel the pulse of the massive object produced earlier.

'Just what exactly am I seeing?' At this point, he was almost sure this was not some afterlife or such. Not knowing exactly what to do, he waited for whatever was moving him around to do its thing. As if on cue, his body was moved upwards, towards the layer above, and just like before, he could see cracks all over the disc-shaped constructs. This time around.

he was moved really close to the constructs, and they enlarged the closer he was moved. That was when he saw creatures, creatures he knew instantly to be void creatures. They had no definite shape and could be anything; from small to extremely large, entering the cracks on the constructs.

Alex didn't have to be a genius to know what was going on. There have been multiple theories about the origin of the void creatures. Some suggest these creatures came from the farthest reaches of the universe, reaching them as a result of the cosmic mana wave's displacement.

Others suggest the creatures came from an alternate dimension; a dimension where the magical energy they now use also came from. This theory had the strongest support due to the benefits their 'blood' and cores provided.

Alex's heart began racing. He knew he had stumbled on the origin of the void creatures and how they were entering their universe. Following that line of thought, he once again looked at the disc constructs and finally arrived at a conclusion.

UNIVERSES

He was absolutely certain of what he was seeing, and the shock of the discovery left him frozen. There had also been theories about a multiverse, but with no substantial evidence, it was simply speculation. After struggling to regain his composure, he took a good look again. Suddenly, it appeared as if time was sped up multiple times.

He did not know how long since he had no form of measurement, but when everything started slowing down, the universes that were below him appeared to be turning into motes of light and then disappearing.

'The universes are dying!' He figured out what was happening to them. And from how the destruction began from below, he understood the universes were placed in strata with the ones below going first. The prompted him to find out if he could find his universe, but there was no such luck.

Once again, the force that was moving him around took him upwards. Assuming he was returning the massive object from before, he waited for what he was to be shown next. But what he expected was not what he saw. Before him was a cluster of void creatures surrounding a shiny object. Recalling the bitten off portion from the object from before, he knew that was the missing part.

'Are they trying to eat it or what?' he asked himself.