Christa and Juliana are standing together. The ground before them is shining dimly. The colour of this dim light is circling through the entire visible spectrum.

“So… how long do we have to stand here for, Ms. Rowfield?”

“Apparently, the other heroes are sleeping or climbing here just like we did… We won’t get instructions for what’s next until the rest of them get here and I’m assuming that since we were the ones to wake up first that… we’ll probably have to stand around for a while.”

“Right… Maybe I should have listened more closely to what those guys were saying. Now I can’t even see them past this light here and those guys there blocking the surroundings…”

Christa and Juliana are currently standing in a circle where a great number of holy knights are stationed to surround them. Over a thousand at least...

The holy knights have their arms raised and their gauntlets are currently glowing brightly. From their gauntlets, a bright, fluorescent-yellow liquid falls like drops of molten gold.

Christa has never seen anything like this before. She looks down at the ground. She can see on this sacred ground, the dim light drawn in cohesive patterns of curved and polygonal shapes.

As the bright liquid falls from the hands of the men, these holy knights surrounding Christa and Juliana, she notices the patterns slowly grow brighter… although at an extremely slow pace.

Christa can’t understand any of this… it’s so foreign. She can tell that they’re doing some kind of magic procedure which will theoretically allow them to teleport her and Juliana and every one of the remaining three hundred classmates somewhere safer.

But, the process itself requires so much complicated teamwork and administration that it seems beyond her understanding… as if these aren’t even humans but a race of technologically advanced aliens beyond their understanding…

Christa whispers to Juliana, in English,

“Juliana, remember that I’ll take care of you students, alright? I don’t trust these religious guys at all right now, but they currently have us as their prisoners or detainees or whatever. Let’s just stick to each other.”

“Ms. Rowfield… Ok, I understand. I’ll tell Harry to be careful about them too.”

“Good… They’re trying very hard to make us their friends but, it seems like we’re… I don’t know, like, nuclear weapons to them.”

“Nuclear weapons? No way, we’re just people, what do they think we can do?”

“Apparently, if we go through training, we can do a huge amount for them. We’ll basically become a group of superhumans like comic book heroes.”

“What? So… they want us to become like...”

“Apparently, if we train for just a year, we should be able to split the clouds while standing on the ground.”

“What!? So... we’re literally like H-bombs to them!!”

“Shh, keep your voice down! I know that we’re speaking in English right now but it’s possible that they have heroes who can speak English on their side… Be very careful!”

“S-Sorry! I’m sorry! Sigh… So life is just going to be this from now on then...”

“I don’t like it either, Julie, but the faster we get used to this the better we can survive.”

“I know...”

Suddenly, a man lands in the space where Christa and Juliana are standing as if dropped from the sky. He’s a holy knight wearing a purple steel suit of armour. He is holding a man in his arms.

The man, a young male student most likely, is in shock.

“Holy shit, Ms. Rowfield! So I guess they all can jump like that! They’re already fucking superhumans and they need us?! Oops, I swore...”

“Who the fuck cares? I’m not even your teacher anymore, I’m just someone looking out for my former students.”

Currently, there are holy knights surrounding the magic circle where Christa and Juliana are standing. There are no gaps between these holy knights to allow heroes to just walk into the circle.

They cannot be moved as they continue to perform their task to prepare the large magic circle for use.

So, in order for the heroes to be placed into the magic circle, the holy knights have to leap into the circle while carrying them and leap out.

The young male student stands near Christa and Juliana and the knight who carried him leaps out carefully, making sure not to damage the ground from the force of his launch. Christa walks over to calm the young man down.

Over the next few hours, more and more students are brought into the circle, every single one of them confused and anxious. Christa tries to talk to each one of them to make sure they’re doing ok.

She can take her mind off the situation by at least helping them. Soon, she sees her fellow teachers. The teachers who have arrived in this world discuss the situation calmly with each other. Christa warns them about the motives of the religious people here.

Juliana calmly waits while talking to some students in her grade. She walks through the slowly growing crowd in the circle while looking for her cousin, Harry.

Hours pass. Eventually, the number in the circle is almost two hundred and the floor of the circle is a lot brighter. Night falls.

Juliana rushes to Christa.

“Ms. Rowfield, I-I don’t… I haven't seen Harry yet! Are… Are you sure he’s here?”

Christa looks at Juliana’s expression of trepidation. In truth, Christa doesn’t know. Harry was with her before she was summoned but…

“Don’t worry, Juliana. He was with me when the fire started, remember? He’ll meet us here, there’s no doubt about it.”

“Oh… ok… ok… I’ll believe you for now...”

Christa gives Juliana some soothing lies to prevent her from panicking. She can’t afford the group of students to antagonize the holy knights. The more she notices the holy knights leaping and landing in the circle… the more it becomes clear.

We’re… We’re no match at all for them… They’re monsters… For now, we have to not piss them off...

Another couple of holy knights have entered the magic circle enclosure. Juliana and Christa don’t even pay attention as Juliana has her moment of anxiety.

“Julie! Juliana Cassidy, are you here? Julie!!”

A new voice. A familiar one. Past a crowd of people in the circle.

“...Harry? Harry! I’m over here, Harry!”

“Julie!! Oh my god, you’re ok!”

Harry runs to Julie and hugs her. Julie hugs him back. Both of them cry at being reunited. Neither of them expect their parents to be among the people here. But both of them were in the school at the time of the summoning.

They only have each other right now. Their only family in this world.

“Julie, I’m so glad you’re safe… I thought that… that you might have burned away...”

“Ms. Rowfield told me you were ok and I’m just glad she’s right...”

“Oh, Ms. Rowfield is here?”

“Yeah! Let’s meet up with her!”

Harry and Julie walk towards Christa who is currently talking to someone else right now. The student council member, Alice.

“Oh! Alice, you’re here too!”

“Harry! I’m glad you’re ok!”

Alice has also been found by Ms. Rowfield.

“But not just me… look, look!”

Alice points to a group of three walking towards them. Arthur, Jordan and Maxwell from their English class have also arrived.

“Arthur, you’re ok!”

“Holy shit, Harry!”

Arthur and Harry shake hands at their reunion. The two of them are best friends and with Juliana and Alice, their group of friends is reunited.

“Hmph. What are you guys so happy about? You four nobodies get to ‘hang out’ again? We’re all still stuck in this fucking hell hole. I don’t have any internet or social media or anything… the food they have is basically military rations type shit… We’ll be lucky if these backwards savages have any running water. Well, at least they worship us...”

“They think we’re like angels or something! This place is awesome, Maxwell! I mean, we’re going to be soldiers with super powers fighting against demons, I never got to do anything like that at home! I’ve always wanted to fight against terrorists and scumbags! And the demons are basically like a race of monsters! It’s just like a video game!”

Everyone turns to Jordan. Christa looks at his face in confusion. Maxwell has more or less the right idea about this place with perhaps the wrong delivery.

They’re all currently in a place that is separated from their parents and family, their entire home, forced to be pawns to the whims of these people who see them simultaneously as objects of worship and human weapons.

None of them should be enjoying this. Being happy to be reunited with friends and family is not the same as what Jordan is excited about.

Jordan notices the expression of his peers and realizes the oddness of what he’s said.

“I-I’m sorry, everyone. I’m just trying to see the silver lining! I mean… I heard that our life spans are at least doubled here than back home! One of them told me about a guy who’s been a hero for like a hundred years after he was summoned as an adult, and apparently he only looks about fifty! We can destroy mountains, we can--”

“That’s enough, Jordan.”

Christa stops Jordan’s rant. While what he’s saying is true, Jordan hasn’t read the room yet. Christa notices a young woman walking over to them in a state of complete dejection and sorrow.

Oh… I forgot about what you must be going through, huh Jackie…

Jacquelyn walks over to the group, her face lowered. Christa knows what Jacquelyn has lost. Jacquelyn is raised by a single mother who is constantly at work all the time. Christa met her mother, a wonderful woman, at a parent-teacher conference.

While her mother is working, Jacquelyn is the one who takes care of her younger brother and sister all the time. She, just like Shaula, had chosen a future in the skilled trades rather than a STEM program or an Ivy league education.

Now Jackquelyn has lost her mother and her beloved siblings. She had set up her life and future around her family and in the end, it was all for naught.

She didn’t make friends because she was always either studying or taking care of her siblings and now, she has no one to help her through life in this foreign world.

It feels like her life has been wasted.

Christa walks toward Jacquelyn. She embraces her. Jacquelyn tries to struggle away from her but in the end starts sobbing, and relents.

She cries and cries and cries. The students around the two of them don’t interrupt but none of them truly understand her circumstances besides Christa.

Christa speaks up while still embracing Jacquelyn. She speaks in English.

“Everyone, while we’re talking amongst ourselves, talk in English only, ok? I don’t think they can understand us but we need to keep our distance from these religious people.”

“Huh? Why?”

Arthur asks this question.

“Because they mistreated Ajax and Shaula. Ajax and Shaula were held in interrogation and fought back against them. Apparently, the two of them… killed some people.”

“...What? No way. Ajax would never do that. He’s… He wouldn’t...”

Arthur speaks in disbelief to what Ms. Rowfield has said. He’s met Ajax before. Ajax once apologized to him for something Arthur thought was small and meaningless.

It was during the tenth grade that he saw how sincere a person Ajax was; a real apology from the heart. He’s always thought of Ajax as a naive but mostly good person.

Oddly good among his peers of the same grade; Arthur respected that about him and as a result, never took part in or spread the rumours that circulated about Ajax or Shaula.

Though, he doesn’t know enough about Shaula to know whether she’s capable of killing people.

“This is just what the guards told me. The reason why we’re all on this mountain top is because Ajax and Shaula escaped and did some damage while doing so. For some reason that I don’t quite get, they were rejected from the church...”

“Those two… You know, isn’t it weird that they fell asleep just a few minutes before this whole thing happened?”

Alice knows that the two of them went berserk after seeing something that no one else could see back in their classroom before the summoning… And then, they’re singled out by the church? What’s with them?

Jacquelyn raises her face and lets go of Christa. She looks at Alice while Alice continues speaking.

“I mean… we all know the rumours about Shaula, right? She might just be a violent person. Ajax is her best friend or step brother or cousin or something, right? She probably took him with her when she escaped. But it’s clear that they both must have some extra knowledge about all of this.”

Jacquelyn looks at Alice, her eyes lowered. She is about to speak up in defense of Ajax and Shaula when--

“Stop that, Alice! I know it was you who spread the rumours about the two of them. You’re going to do that shit here too!? If you can’t say anything constructive, don’t speak at all!”

Christa shouts at Alice. Alice may be the class representative but she isn’t an innocent person. She was always first to denigrate Ajax and Shaula and Christa doesn’t know or care to discover why.

After Christa makes this outburst, Alice turns red in embarrassment and everyone starts talking amongst themselves.

~

An hour passes. Soon, almost every student is in the circle. The ground of the circle isn’t getting any brighter either.

Christa stands nervously next to Jacquelyn. The magic should be getting started soon. But, she notices…

“Hey, Jackie, you got one of those rings too?”

“Oh… yeah, my attendant handed it to me and told me not to take it off. I forgot to ask her what it is.”

“Oh yeah, it’s--”

The last student enters the circle. After the holy knight leaves, a voice booms. The students turn to a rock platform where two men are standing elevated with respect to their position at the floor of the magic circle.

The deep voice seems to have come from there.

“Greetings, divine heroes! I am the pope of the Holy Sapioran Federation, Vildir Patheon!”

Jacquelyn looks at the man standing there who just spoke. A young, fairly handsome man in his early thirties wearing a white religious vestment with a black stripe down the middle of the front. This vestment is a flowing dress with large sleeves.

The man next to him is older with a thick head of grey hair, wearing light armour coloured silvery grey.

“The man standing beside me is like one of you. He is a man who has been summoned from your world, a warrior! His name is Rurik Grishin! One day, you will be like him and hopefully a number of you will be far stronger!”

The holy knights except the ones enclosing the magic circle break out into wide applause as Rurik bows solemnly. It seems that the hero and the pope are both well respected. Vildir continues speaking,

“Currently, we are fighting a battle against the demon race, our sworn enemy. We understand that not all of you are warriors like my friend Grishin here, but there is nothing preventing you from training your powers! We wish for you to at least see what has been done to our world before making your choice.”

The pope raises his arms while raising his voice.

“Alright, holy knights! Start preparations for the transport! We will also accompany you heroes to the city of Reid for--”

Suddenly, Vildir stops talking. Rurik notices it but it’s too late. Vildir’s arms remain raised. His expression remains the same.

However…

“Sigh… Good.”

Alin stands behind Vildir. Rurik’s face turns pale.

Where did he come from? How did he keep himself hidden? Why is he here?

The two of them were notified much earlier that Ajax and Shaula weren’t spies for the demons but actual heroes who somehow didn’t receive the blessing of the hero.

The two of them could have been taken care of later, they couldn’t have possibly made it to Alin! It makes no sense for the Immortal Emperor to appear now!!

Alin’s right hand is holding another arm severed at the humerus. The left arm of the pope which holds his emergency transport artifact as a bracelet on his forearm. The pope cannot escape now.

“AAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!”

The pope’s severed arm starts bleeding profusely as he screams, understanding the circumstances now, feeling his limb removed. The holy knights don’t lose focus because they have to maintain the spell and defend their heroes.

Currently, their holy pope has been maimed. Alin throws away his arm and touches the pope’s forehead. The pope falls asleep, his body dropping to the ground.

Even though the mortal enemy of the humans has appeared, even though their pope has been injured and rendered unconscious, they are all highly trained soldiers.

Rurik the hero jumps away from Alin. He lands next to Christa. Christa doesn’t understand any of this. What is going on? What is going on??

Alin turns his attention towards the heroes, towards the holy knights forming the transportation circle as well as the holy knights currently raising their arms to aim long range offensive spells at him who is standing next to the collapsed pope.

They think twice about firing however and risking the life of their supreme leader, the pope of the Holy Sapioran Federation. Alin raises his left arm towards the heroes.

“Seraph Trinity Azazel. Destroy my enemies.”

Suddenly, light materializes into being in the blink of an eye.

Light in the shape of a... woman with wings holding a spear. Blinding light. A woman about fifty metres tall and hovering about thirty metres above the mountain peak.

Christa sees it. Her eyes burn at the sudden light. A beautiful woman. Their saviour--

Christa goes blind as the spear of the colossal woman lands on the mountain top below, traveling at the speed of light.