The train screamed across the sky like a beast caged in steel. Inside, nobles sat in velvet-lined cabins,drinking, laughing, pretending they weren't born into golden prisons. Outside, cities passed like ghosts. Slums crawled beside crystal towers. And deep beneath the surface, something old began to stir.
Selene sat at the farthest corner of the rear car, closest to the supply crates. No windows. No distractions. She didn't need the view. She needed the silence.
The world was called Aetherra, and it thrived on magic, blood, and legacy. A land where nobility dictated one's worth, and elemental magic shaped entire bloodlines. Every child of power was born with an affinity ;fire, water, earth, or air and raised with pride or shame depending on what coursed through their veins.
Above all institutions stood the Church of the Veil, the world's singular religious order, worshipped across borders and creeds. Ten years ago, the Church announced that the sacred Seal of Origins ,a divine prison created by the gods had begun to weaken.
The results were catastrophic.People began to change.
At first, it was subtle ;unusual rashes, sudden fits of anger, voices in their heads. But it escalated. Entire villages were consumed overnight by grotesque mutations. Humans turned into twisted, multi-limbed horrors creatures that defied understanding. The infected were labeled Aberrants.
They were classified by grade: C to S. C barely coherent. S ranked were disasters incarnate.
The nobles, terrified of losing control, sent their children to Serevain Academy not only to learn magic, but to train in warfare, politics, and survival. For some, it was glory. For others, a blood-soaked trial.
But five years ago, the mutations grew bolder.
Gates rips in the fabric of reality began appearing. From them spilled chaos: Aberrants stronger than ever, unrelenting. Cities fell. Fortresses crumbled. The world was breaking, and the seal was screaming.
Amidst the fear and hysteria, a prophecy was revived: one of a Chosen One, born with divine light, destined to protect the seal until a new era could rise. He would not be trained by nobles, but by the Church itself.
A boy molded in silence. Sharpened in solitude. Trained in the old rites beneath holy stone.He was their last hope.
And now, as the season began anew at Serevain Academy, the nobles whispered of the looming storm. Teachers revised defense drills. Families clung tighter to their heirlooms. The Church fortified its sacred vaults.
The next disaster wasn't just coming.
It was already breathing down their necks.
And somewhere, hidden in the shifting crowd of students stepping off the sky-train…
A shadow moved.
**
[System Alert: AN OMINOUS PRESENCE HAS ENTERED YOUR WORLD.]