NOVEL NEXT Chapter 34 - Veil Fracture
Pre-dawn darkness shrouded the transport as it glided silently over the dense jungle canopy of Serra da Carioca. Nick sat motionless, eyes closed, concentrating on maintaining his signature suppression. The mana-dampening cloak draped over his shoulders felt unnaturally heavy, its fabric embedded with Arcadian glyphs that pulsed faintly against his skin.
Across from him, Jordan and Maggie mirrored his stillness—three shadows barely distinguishable in the aircraft's darkened cabin. No words passed between them. None were necessary. The six hours of intensive training with Val had burned the mission protocols into muscle memory.
The transport dipped suddenly, triggering Nick's system interface:
🜂【ARCΛDIΛN SYSTΞM – MISSION OBJECTIVE】🜂
[Status: Active – Recon + Containment] [Site: Former Callahan Research Zone / Status: Unknown] [Risk Level: Tier II-III, Veil Proximity Critical] [Authority Access Granted – Nicholas Valiente]
The pilot's voice came through their earpieces, barely above a whisper. "Drop zone in thirty seconds. Ground fog will provide additional cover. Perimeter sensors show minimal activity, but there are heat signatures detected in the south quadrant."
Nick opened his eyes, meeting first Jordan's gaze, then Maggie's. In the dim red glow of the cabin lights, their expressions remained unreadable, but their postures conveyed readiness—shoulders squared, muscles coiled for immediate action.
The transport hovered momentarily, then settled into a small clearing two kilometers from the facility's outer boundary. As the side door slid open, cold mist rolled into the cabin, carrying the earthy scent of damp vegetation and something else—a faint metallic tang that made the hair on Nick's arms stand on end.
"My system readouts are showing elevated mana density here," Maggie murmured, carefully keeping her mana suppressed beneath her dampening cloak. "Current ambient levels are roughly 31% above baseline."
🜂【ARCΛDIΛN SYSTΞM – ENVIRONMENTAL SCAN】🜂
[Mana Density: 213%]
[Ambient Fluctuation: +31.6% above baseline]
[Resonance Drift: Mild – Unstable patterns detected]
[Suppression Mode: Active]
[Recommendation: Maintain concealment. Avoid constant active circuit usage.]
That's in line with what my system is saying.
[Host, would you like to initiate secure interface synchronization with Margaret Zhang and Jordan Keyes?]
[Suppression field no longer active. Peer systems available.]
[Encrypted intent-sharing, tactical coordination, and passive circuit sync will be enabled.]
[Confirm: Y/N]
Oh, his system was responding to him again...wait, suppression field. That's right. I haven't been able to use the system like this since I entered the Compound.
He pressed Y.
[Secure interface synchronization in progress. Estimated completion: 30 seconds.]
They disembarked silently, boots sinking into the soft ground with each step. The transport lifted immediately after their exit, vanishing into the pre-dawn gloom.
[Secure interface synchronization complete. Would you like to move combat communications to this channel?]
Yes please.
His system display suddenly illuminated.
🜂【INTERFACE CHANNEL – ACTIVE】🜂 [Maggie]: What the hell is going on? My system just told me I can talk to you through this interface. [Jordan]: You both got that, too?
Nick glanced at them. They were already looking at him.
[Nick]: Yeah I just synced our systems. This way, we can coordinate without speaking aloud. [Maggie]: And we couldn't do this yesterday because...? [Nick]: System suppression field. It covers the entire compound. Now that we're outside the containment zone, the Arcadian System can operate freely. Okay, let's move.
Nick felt the weight of Marcus's final briefing pressing on him as they began their trek toward the facility. "If the Veil node activates fully, abort immediately. No heroics, no exceptions."
The mist thickened around them as they approached the perimeter, visibility dropping to less than ten meters. Perfect cover for their approach, but also perfect concealment for any security measures Callahan might have reinstated.
Jordan took point, his military experience making him the natural choice to lead. Nick followed close behind, with Maggie between them—her system constantly feeding real-time environmental data through the interface as she scanned for anything that might indicate a surveillance system.
The facility's outer fence materialized from the fog—a ten-meter barrier of reinforced composite topped with sensor arrays that should have been deactivated years ago. Blue energy pulsed intermittently along its length.
[Jordan]: Systems are partially powered up. Looks like Mr. Eidolon was correct.
Nick frowned. The facility was supposed to be abandoned after Eidolon Corporation acquired it from Callahan Industries. The reactivation of the security systems confirmed Marcus' suspicions—someone was using the site.
They moved along the perimeter until reaching a maintenance access point, a secondary gate typically used for equipment transport. Jordan examined it without touching the lock mechanism, then looked back at Nick.
[Maggie]: That's an active biometric scanner. Running on minimal power, though... curious.
Nick approached cautiously, keeping his signature tightly contained as Val had taught them. The scanner's interface glowed faintly, awaiting input. According to their intel, the system should recognize him—or more accurately, recognize Arlize's mana pattern embedded within him.
System?
[Host, please place your hand on the bio scanner and allow its mana sensors to connect with me.]
He placed his palm against the scanner, suppressing a flinch as icy energy crawled up his arm. The interface flickered, cycling through recognition protocols before displaying a message that sent a chill through him:
[AUTHORIZATION: GRANTED] [ACCESS LEVEL: ALPHA]
Are you able to take control of this laboratory since it recognizes my mana?
[No. While access is granted, core control remains partitioned. This facility is operating under an independent override, and administrator permissions appear to have been fragmented and reassigned.]
[Warning: Local system partially decoupled from Arcadian root architecture. External modifications detected—non-native code embedded.]
[Conclusion: Host influence permitted only at surface level. Full control: denied.]
Okay, we'll take what we can.
The gate slid open with a hydraulic hiss that seemed deafening in the pre-dawn silence. They slipped through quickly, the gate closing automatically behind them.
[Nick]: Everyone stay on high alert.
Inside the perimeter, the facility sprawled before them—a complex of low, industrial structures half-reclaimed by jungle growth. Solar panels, cracked and covered in vines, still drew enough energy to power minimal systems. The central research building rose three stories, its windows dark and reflective in the growing light.
As they approached the main entrance, Jordan suddenly froze, his posture alerting the others to potential danger.
[Jordan]: The ground. It's shifting. Be careful.
They looked at the different areas he pointed to beneath their feet.
Nick felt it then—a subtle vibration, almost imperceptible, yet distinctly unnatural. It felt like the building itself was breathing.
[Maggie]: Could it be substructural instability? Let me run an analysis.
While Maggie's system ran diagnostics, Jordan and Nick searched for the building's main entrance. Finding it, they walked over carefully and inspected the stainless steel floor-to-ceiling door.
System, how do we get in?
[Main entrance secured with mana lock keyed to a specific signature that is not currently in my database. Alternate entry detected: five meters to the host's left.]
As he and Jordan walked toward the alternative entrance, Maggie followed them, her eyes narrowed and brows furrowed.
[Maggie]: There are definite traces of experimental mana signatures throughout the site—some fresher than others. I'm keeping the scan active in case anything's still live.
[Nick]: Good work. Keep us updated.
They approached the alternate entrance—a reinforced steel door fitted with a keypad. Activating his mana sight, Nick traced the internal circuitry behind the panel. Threads of energy glowed faintly beneath the surface. With careful precision, he tugged on two key strands, disrupting the lock's sequence. The keypad went dark with a soft hiss, and the door slid open.
They stepped into what had once been a medical staging room. The air hung stale, heavy with the scent of old antiseptic and dust. Faint outlines on the floor and walls marked where hospital-grade equipment had once stood—now gone, leaving only shadows in the grime. Every step stirred a thin layer of particles into the air. At the far end, a single door stood slightly ajar, the space beyond obscured by gloom. Weapons low, breath held, they moved toward it in silence.
Exiting the room, they entered the reception area of the main entrance. Emergency lighting cast sickly blue shadows across an abandoned area and dust covered most surfaces. However, clear footprints in the dust showed people had been through here recently.
"Two sets," Jordan noted, crouching to examine them. "Heavy boots, military grade. Within the last 48 hours."
They moved deeper into the facility, following a corridor that sloped gradually downward. The temperature dropped noticeably with each level they descended, the air growing thicker, charged with an energy that made speech difficult and breathing uncomfortable.
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Abruptly, Maggie froze mid-step. Nick halted just behind her, eyes narrowing as she scanned the room, her expression tightening with unease.
[Maggie]: Guys...
Suddenly Nick's system interface flickered:
[Mana Density is fluctuating at 182-247% above baseline. Warning: Approaching corrosive levels. Veil Integrity: Compromised – Local thinning detected]
Jordan had stopped ahead of them after looking back and noticing they hadn't followed.
[Nick]: I'm assuming this is what you just noticed?
[Maggie]: Yeah. The fluctuations match exactly. This place is barely holding together.
[Nick]: Okay, let's keep going but be ready to flee at any sign of trouble.
They continued down the corridor to its lowest level which opened into a large circular chamber filled with research equipment. Examination tables with restraint systems lined one wall. Monitoring stations formed a ring around a central platform that held what appeared to be a scaled-down version of Harrington's resonance device from Westlake.
But what drew their attention immediately was a test chamber at the far end of the room—a reinforced glass enclosure designed to contain experimental subjects. The glass had shattered outward, fragments littering the floor in a pattern that suggested explosive force.
Squatting down, Jordan examined the glass patterns without touching them.
[Jordan]: Something recently broke out.
Moving toward a still-active terminal, Maggie's fingers hovered over the interface.
[Maggie]: I'm going to access this terminal and figure out what's going on. It'll require me to release the suppression field on my mana minimally.
Nick nodded at her.
[Nick]: Do it. We need to find out what's going on here.
Her fingers danced across the terminal, her cognitive circuit flaring briefly before suppressing itself again.
[Maggie]: Last entry logged three days ago. They were attempting to... recreate Harrington's experiment under more controlled conditions.
[Nick]: Can you tell who it was?
[Maggie]: No. The data's been scrubbed and the metadata wiped. Whatever they did, it was done locally and off-network. Hmm…
[Nick]: What is it?
[Maggie]: There's something else... I found information on a sub-level of this laboratory that wasn't in any of the blueprints. It's directly below us.
[Nick]: Do you know how we can get down there?
For a couple moments, Maggie's hands moved on an imaginary keyboard that only her eyes could see, before stopping and turning to their left.
Following her gaze, Nick noticed a reinforced door on the far side of the laboratory marked simply 'NODE VAULT'.
[Nick]: That's it?
[Maggie]: That's it.
Jordan, who had come to stand alongside them during their conversation, began walking over towards the door.
As they walked toward the door, Nick's mind puzzled over how he knew the term 'Node Vault,' triggering a flash of Arlize's memory—node vaults were Aurilian containment facilities designed to study and regulate dimensional weak points. If Callahan had one here...
But how had they built it? Too many things weren't adding up.
He would need to ask Marcus about this when they got back to the Compound.
Jordan reached it first and looked it over for any visible traps or wards. Seeing nothing, he stood back, giving Nick and Maggie a chance to examine the door.
[Maggie]: The sub level is definitely through here.
[Nick]: Yeah, this is also why Marcus sent us here.
Nick stepped closer to the door, where another biometric scanner waited. He reached toward it, but his system flared to life with a new warning:
[Host, this scan requires a blood sample.]
Almost on cue, a slender needle extended from the console—smooth and deliberate, as if the console itself had sensed his presence.
Nick pressed his finger against it, wincing slightly as it drew blood. The scanner hummed, analyzing not just his mana signature but his genetic code.
[AUTHORIZATION: GRANTED. CAUTION: THREAT SYSTEMS ACTIVE. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK]
The vault door rumbled open, revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness. Cold air rushed upward, carrying an alien scent that triggered Nick's immediate fight-or-flight responses. It felt wrong.
"Take point again," Jordan activated a low-intensity light, illuminating the stairwell.
[Jordan]: We'll go slow here. Watch your step.
[Maggie]: Be careful. Something feels wrong down there...
[Nick]: Then let's make sure we stay alert.
They descended in silence once again, each step carrying them deeper into what felt increasingly like another world. The air pressure changed, ears popping as they adjusted to the shift. Time itself appeared to stretch and compress—Nick found himself seeing Jordan's movements a fraction of a second before they occurred, afterimages trailing his actual position.
[Maggie]: Something's off. I'm getting system lag... then the data hits before my scan finishes its query.
[Nick]: Something is distorting time. The Veil thinning may be the cause. Both of you stay focused on your immediate perceptions and be careful.
The stairwell opened into a chamber that defied logic—too vast to exist beneath the facility, its dimensions shifting subtly at the edges of sight. The walls pulsed with wrong angles and impossible curves, a space that pushed back when looked at directly. At its center stood an imposing machine—a series of concentric rings suspended above a platform, pulsing with energy.
Between those rings, something was forming—a thin fracture in reality itself, visible as a shimmering distortion that rippled like a heat haze but moved with apparent sentience. It produced no sound, yet Nick felt its vibration in his bones, a discordant hum that threatened to unravel his very atoms.
Maggie stepped forward, eyes widening—but Jordan raised a hand across her path, halting her before she crossed the threshold. His stance remained firm as his eyes scanned the chamber for potential threats.
[Maggie]: This is a prototype resonance amplifier. The design... it's based on Elias's early work, though whoever created this modified what would have been the mana core.
Not sensing any immediate danger, Jordan stepped back, allowing Maggie and Nick into the room.
Carefully, Nick approached the machine, feeling a growing heaviness against his skin—the sensation of being watched by something beyond human comprehension. Not a physical presence, but an awareness pushing against the thinning membrane of reality from beyond.
[Nick]: We're being watched by something on the other side.
Both Jordan and Maggie turned to him, Maggie's eyes widening, Jordan's jaw clenching.
[Jordan]: It's dangerous for us to stay here. We need to go, now.
[Nick]: Yes, but let's at least complete the mission and the reason Marcus sent us here.
[Jordan]: How do we do that, and quickly? This thing looks to be rapidly destabilizing.
As Jordan spoke through the interface, a wave of unstable mana pulsed from the amplifier, making the surrounding walls shudder and groan in protest, nearly causing them to lose their footing.
Nick narrowed his eyes at the machine, desperately searching for a solution.
System?
[Arlize's memory confirms that the core is tethered to a dimensional frequency. I can assist in decoupling it, which should disable the amplifier. However, direct contact is required. Please place both of your hands on the device to begin.]
[Jordan]: Do you know what you're doing?
[Nick]: No, but I have to try something.
[Jordan]: Okay, we'll be here to back you up.
Looking back at them, Nick saw Jordan's reassuring nod and Maggie's small smile as she tapped away on her invisible keyboard.
Taking a deep breath, he moved to the control panel and placed both hands on the interface. Immediately, his system flared with recognition:
🜂【ARCΛDIΛN INTERFACE DETECTED】🜂
[Command Core: Resonance Amplifier Mark III] [Status: Active – 87% Power]
[Warning: Unauthorized activation protocol] [Memory Shard #2 – Available]
Pain lanced through Nick's skull as another fragment of Arlize's memories unlocked—disorienting visions of a grand chamber, heated arguments between robed figures, accusations of treason and sabotage. The memory shard integrated too quickly to process fully, leaving him gasping and disoriented.
"Nick!" Maggie's voice pulled him back to the present. "The fracture—it's widening!"
The shimmer between the amplifier's rings had indeed expanded, its edges crystallizing into something more defined. Through it, Nick caught glimpses of a landscape that defied description—geometries that shouldn't exist, colors beyond the visible spectrum, entities made of angles and dimensions that human minds weren't built to comprehend.
And then, something came through.
It slipped from the fracture like water through cloth—a being not fully materialized, more echo than substance. Its form shifted constantly, refusing to settle into anything recognizable. Where it touched the floor, reality itself recoiled.
Jordan reacted instantly, activating a zero-mana shield—not projecting energy that would feed the creature, but establishing a barrier of nullification that prevented reality from warping further.
"Containment only!" Nick ordered, fingers flying across the interface. "Don't engage directly!"
Maggie had already retreated to a secondary console. "It's destabilizing the local resonance field. If it fully manifests—"
"It won't," Nick cut in, finding the amplifier's core frequency. "Jordan, maintain the containment. Maggie, I need a harmonic disruption pattern."
She nodded, transmitting the calculations directly to his system interface. Nick implemented them immediately, sending a counter-resonance pulse through the amplifier. The machine shuddered. After a long moment—seconds that felt like hours—the rings began, one by one, to spin in reverse. Energy and mana flowed backward through their systems.
The echo-creature reacted violently, its form elongating and compressing as it fought to maintain coherence in Earth's reality. It emitted no sound, yet Nick felt its rage—a psychic pressure threatening to crush his consciousness.
"It's fighting the desynchronization," he gritted out, keeping his hands on the console despite the mental strain. "We need to force it out of phase. Jordan, herd it toward the amplifier. Maggie..."
"Already on it!" Maggie replied.
Jordan transformed his shield into its corralling position, a semi-permeable arc that pulsed his nullification field in rhythm with the counter-resonance from the rings. The overlapping frequencies rippled through the air, destabilizing the entity's form with each pulse. As Jordan advanced, steady and deliberate, the creature recoiled, its warped limbs dragging it backward, step by reluctant step, toward the amplifier.
Maggie joined him, her mana providing real-time adjustments to the disruption, causing it to be discordant enough to damage the creature even more. With Nick anchoring the amplifier's rings, the three of them formed a synchronized triad of discordant frequencies that gradually drove the echo-creature back toward the fracture.
With a final push of concentrated will, Nick reversed the amplifier's polarity completely. The creature collapsed inward, its substance pulled back through the fracture like smoke sucked into a vacuum. The shimmer between the rings contracted rapidly, shrinking to a pinpoint before winking out entirely.
The silence that followed felt like a pressurized wave—dense and absolute, as if reality itself had paused to catch its breath. The sudden absence of the discordant harmonics rang louder than any noise. Nick sagged against the console, lungs burning, the last threads of adrenaline unraveling in his veins.
"Is it gone?" Jordan asked, maintaining his defensive posture.
"Yes, at least for now," Nick replied, straightening. "And the fracture is still there—just temporarily sealed."
He turned back to the amplifier, accessing deeper controls now that the immediate threat had passed. Using knowledge from Arlize's memories, he initiated a stabilization sequence designed specifically for Veil nodes.
🜂【ANCHOR CLASS INTERFACE – TEMPORARY CONTAINMENT ESTABLISHED】🜂
[Warning: Node instability Will Resume in 72 Hours Unless Neutralized]
[Memory Shard #2 – Synchronization In Progress]
"We need to move," Nick announced, stepping back from the console. "I've stabilized the node temporarily, but this entire facility is compromised. The dimensional bleed-through has weakened the building's structural integrity."
As if confirming his assessment, a low rumble shook the chamber. Dust and small debris rained from the ceiling. The stairwell entrance groaned, metal supports bending under impossible pressure.
"What about the amplifier?" Maggie asked, already downloading data from the secondary console. "We can't leave it operational."
"No time to dismantle it safely," Nick replied, moving toward the exit. "The stabilization protocol I initiated will prevent activation for 72 hours. That gives Marcus time to send a specialized team to neutralize it permanently."
Jordan was already at the stairwell, assessing their escape route. "The building is failing. We have minutes to get out. We need to leave, now."
They ascended rapidly, the staircase shifting unnaturally beneath their feet. Even with the fracture sealed, the aftermath lingered—dimensional pressure reverberated through the facility, bending metal supports and warping space around them. Reaching the laboratory level, they found equipment sliding across the floor as gravity itself fluctuated.
"Exit route?" Nick asked, steadying himself against a wall.
"Same way we came in," Jordan replied. "Fastest option."
They moved swiftly through the facility, dodging falling debris and avoiding sections where reality had folded inward. The main entrance remained intact, though the perimeter fence had partially collapsed.
As they emerged into early morning light, the ground behind them sank several meters, the facility's central section imploding with a sound like reality tearing itself apart. A shockwave of displaced air rushed outward, knocking them forward onto damp earth.
Nick was on his feet in seconds, helping Maggie up as the ground trembled beneath them. Jordan stood nearby, eyes fixed on the collapsing structure. The facility continued to fold in on itself, not with the thunderous roar of conventional structural failure, but with an unsettling quiet that seemed more wrong than any explosion.
Within minutes, only a depression in the earth remained where the central building had stood, jungle foliage already seeming to reach inward to reclaim the space.
"Extraction point," Jordan reminded them, gesturing toward the clearing where they'd been dropped.
As they pushed through the jungle, Nick felt the new memory shard integrating, fragments of information slotting into place within his consciousness. Not full memories yet, but impressions—a sense of betrayal, not by enemies but by trusted allies. Arlize standing before Aurilia's High Council, accusation in his eyes as he confronted someone he had once called friend.
The transport was waiting when they reached the clearing, engines idling silently. They boarded without speaking, each processing the encounter in their own way. Only when they were airborne did Maggie break the silence.
"The echo-creature," she said quietly. "It looked like it was trying to escape. But from what? What could be so terrible that even something like that didn't want to face it?"
Nick shook his head, unable to answer. Staring out the window, he watched the jungle shrinking below.
And how are we supposed to face it should the Veil break?