The glow did not rush them.
It hovered—patiently—as if waiting for the world to notice it properly.
At first, people thought it was residual light. A trick of exhausted eyes after hours of alarms and explosions. Someone laughed once, breathless and hysterical, before cutting themselves off when the glow didn't fade.
Instead, it sharpened.
Edges formed where none had existed. The soft haze flattened, stretched, and folded in on itself until it resembled a thin, translucent sheet suspended in midair. Symbols began to surface across it—dark, precise, impossibly clear—arranging themselves with deliberate calm.
Rael felt Miko's grip tighten.
"What is that?" she whispered.
No one answered.
Across the shelter, adults stared as the floating, parchment-like glow drifted closer…stopping just short of their faces. Some reached out instinctively. Others recoiled, pressing back against concrete walls or each other. Someone bumped into another and dropped a tray, the sound echoed too loudly in the sudden quiet.
Then the parchment moved.
It didn't fall.
It leaned forward—and passed straight into the person's chest.
There was no resistance. No wound. No blood. The light sank into skin and fabric alike, vanishing as if swallowed by the body itself.
Gasps rippled through the shelter.
People staggered, hands flying to their chests. A man collapsed to one knee, breathing hard, eyes wide with something that wasn't pain.
Understanding.
Not learned.
Not explained.
Given.
Rael waited.
He watched the glow sink from person to person, each sheet dissolving into the bodies of adults.
Nothing came for him, nor for the other children around him.
The space in front of them remained empty.
No glow. No parchment. No pull.
He looked down at his hands, then up again, heart beginning to pound—not from fear of the light, but from the unknown.
Around him, whispers broke out.
"I can leave…"
Outside the shelter, distant thunder rolled. Somewhere far away, another still lived. Soldiers were still fighting. Evacuations were still underway. Stretchers were still being carried through smoke and ash.
The world hadn't stopped.
Commanders noticed it, they understood what it stood for.
They acknowledged it.
Then they ignored it.
There were no orders tied to it. No protocols. No way to even begin evaluating whether it was a weapon, a hallucination, or something worse.
In one command center, an officer reached toward the parchment instinctively—
—and stopped.
Not because he was afraid.
Because a medic was shouting for plasma, and the wounded didn't care about miracles.
Across the world, similar scenes played out.
Something vast had arrived in the middle of it.
Rael tightened his arms around Miko and Ren as fear finally started creeping up.
Across the shelter screens, the broadcast that had just halted began again.The studio did not cut the feed.
They couldn't.
Across the global emergency networks, producers started scrambling, voices bleeding into microphones before they could be muted. The anchor paused mid-sentence as a faint shimmer appeared in front of her—right there, hovering between the desk and the camera lens.
She stiffened.
"…we have seen it as well," she said carefully, professionalism strained but intact. "For viewers at home, yes—the letter phenomenon has taken place world wide."
"Citizens are urged to not panic, general Rayfort will be coming on screen for clearance, please mentain calm."
Behind her, the feed split—one window showing the shattered outskirts of Sunview, smoke still crawling upward in slow, dirty columns; another showing a wide-angle shot of a fortified perimeter where soldiers stood in loose formations, helmets off, shoulders sagging.
Then the camera turned.
General Rayfort appeared standing behind a temporary podium, the Solvar emblem draped across the front. His uniform was scorched at the cuffs.
"…we are receiving confirmation" she said, eyes flicking briefly to her chest "that the hostile entity at the Sunview breach has been neutralized."
He did not smile.
"Containment operations remain ongoing," he began, voice firm, controlled. "At this time, we can confirm that the primary hostile at the Sunview site has been eliminated."
"We are continuing threat assessments at all known breach locations across Solvar. Civilian evacuation protocols were activated as planned, and emergency response teams are operating under military coordination."
An analyst's voice cut in from a side panel. "General, reports indicate that not all breach sites have been secured. Can you confirm—"
"I can confirm," Rayfort interrupted calmly, "that defense priorities are being dynamically reassessed based on real-time threat data."
A practiced answer.
The anchor nodded, accepting it without pushing further.
As Rayfort continued—speaking of coordination, of resilience, of preparedness—the footage behind him betrayed the strain. Medics moved stretchers past the frame.
The studio anchor finally spoke again, voice tightening just a fraction.
"We received unconfirmed reports of… anomalous visual phenomena appearing across multiple locations."
"Across the world, in shelters, hospitals, —"
" That a letter had appeared and sunk into people, "
she said as she manifested a letter in front of her just by thinking about it.
" and all those affected have information appear in their mind "
"What appeared to us and merged with us … calls itself a Trade Contract- a gift by awakened consciousness of our world?"she said as the camera focused on the contract now hovering before her.
"given to every sapient life on Aetherglow, a self defence mechanisms manifested by our world upon its awakening in response to outside threat it faces?"
A murmur rippled through the studio.
"that, " she continued. " using it, the user can go to different worlds?. Can trade anything for anything as long as the trade is successful?."
" Do you think, such supernatural phenomenon is possible?"
" General, the citizens are on the verge of panic, do you have any information? sir?."
Rayfort's expression tightened.
"That was not a military deployment" he said flatly. "And it was not initiated by any known state or government"
"It appeared just like the cracks, wether it's true or not, supernatural or not"
" What we can advise is to not initiate any interaction with it for now."
"Our primary understanding is that the other worlds it point to might very well be the other side of Chaos portal, there is high chance that interacting with it will lead to disastrous outcome "
"Special task force is being made to study the phenomenon. As soon as the situation near the remaining portals come under control, the authorities will launch a full scale research, here at this moment facing such dangers we the Solvar Military ask it's citizens to not act rashly and remain patient."
"Please do not take unnecessary risk, i repeat please don't take risk , your family, your friends, your country needs you and your cooperation the most at this time of need." Said the general as he stood up and bowed then excused himself.
The news continued.
The screen switched to another feed, a different camera showed a field reporter gripping her chest, breathing hard as she tried—and failed—to explain what she was suddenly aware of.
then a panel of experts as argued over one another, some already speculating, others visibly shaken.
Everyone thought, that things would calm down - but instead, It raised a storm.
Somewhere off-camera—unbroadcast but very real—
A soldier on a collapsing defense line stared at the glow before him, hands shaking, heart racing, and for the first time since the fighting began, saw a way out.
Not safety.
Not victory.
Escape.
The first departure came from soldiers who saw no way out, from prisoners whose sentences suddenly felt meaningless. From people with nothing left to lose—and some who thought they had everything to gain.
In one prison facility, an entire cell block manifested their contracts within minutes of each other. Guards shouted. Orders were given. But no one stoped.
One man laughed as the parchment unfolded.
"Anything for anything," he whispered, eyes alight. "That's fair."
He vanished seconds later.
No flash. No sound.
Just absence.
Across the world, similar disappearances followed. Small numbers at first. A handful here. A dozen there.
Within hours, reports emerged of people missing.
Contract only manifested for those sixteen and above.
For every reckless departure, ten people hesitated.
For every ten, a hundred watched.
By the time Rael returned to Dawnrise Orphanage, the world felt quieter.
Not safer.
Just… thinner.
The roads were damaged but passable. Emergency broadcasts played on loop in the common room. Casualty numbers scrolled beneath headlines naming the event for the first time:
THE GREAT WAVE INCIDENT
TIER-4 CONFIRMED — THE WORLD AWAKENED.
Caretakers moved with exhaustion carved into their posture. Some children asked questions.
Most didn't.
They had already learned when not to.
Rael sat on his bunk that night,
He remembered the behemoth collapsing.
He remembered the glow appearing while people were still screaming , venting.
Somewhere out there, portals were still active.
Some places had been lost.
Some people had stepped into other worlds and might never return.
Rael closed his eyes.
For the first time since waking up in this younger body, he felt something unfamiliar settle in his chest.
Not fear.
Not hope.
But the heavy understanding that the world was no longer waiting for anyone to grow up.