Somewhere on a green green planet, two people covered in white robes lean back tired, one had a large gold hood while the other was red.

“How many is that?” The red hood asked.

One looks out to a scene below counting, “Twenty in the latest batch.”

“Seems low.” The red hood commented.

“We are running a little low on magic. Maybe we should spread out the summoning.” The gold hood said contemplating the numbers. “How many did we get this week?”

The red hood pulled out a tally sheet, “Let's see....four hundred.”

“Yeah, we should probably let everything recharge, and give the trainers a break.”

The two robes looked down into the hall, getting a better look at what they had summoned.

——

In the middle of a grand hall, twenty teens start to wake. They Are all disoriented and don't understand what has happened or what is going on. Many think they are dreaming as the fog had yet to lift from their minds, and they had yet to regain their wits. Each teen almost at the same time begins to fully wake. Their visions come into sharpness, as they begin to look around. There is a palpable confusion radiating from the group, yet no one dared to speak. That is until the silence is broken when one of them finally speaks. "Where are we? And who are you, people."

The entire group snapped into focus as they all realized this was not a dream, and this was not somewhere they knew. The group exploded into accusations and paranoia, backing away from each other. Everyone a stranger. Then the first person hit an invisible wall.

"What the hell?" They screamed banging on nothing.

Seeing the person hitting nothing others came over and touched the invisible wall.

"HEEYYYYY!!" A short girl yelled at the top of her lungs getting the attention. Of the arguing group. The girl knocked on the invisible and a wobbling sound resounded as she hit it. "Guys I don’t think we are on earth anymore."

“You are correct.” A man in a bright white priest's robes said stepping forward for the group to see. The group began to shout out at the men

“The hell is going on?”

“Where are we?”

“Why did you take us?”

“Send us home.”

“Do we get magic?”

The priest radiated a bright light making the people wince, before calmly saying, “Calm yourselves please.” The group grumbled and continued to yell for a short time before curiosity won out, and they quieted as the priest waited patiently.

"I'm glad you all calmed down." The priest said.

"Please explain what's going on." One of the girls stood and asked.

“I will.” The priest bowed his head, “Our world is overrun with monsters and we are in desperate need of help. So in our desperation, we had to use a forbidden spell to summon heroes from another world.” The priest raised his head and pleaded, “Please we need your help.”

“You kidnap us the beg us for help?” Someone shouted indignantly.

“Yes. It was a last resort.” The priest admitted sorrowfully.

The group was silent seeing the honest plea before the girl from early asked, “Can you send us back?”

The priest shook his head, “Part of the spell that brought you here will automatically send you home when the world is safe.”

“So no.”

“We will give you all as much support as we can possibly give. You all can grow at incredible rates, that our people can't match. Will you all please help us?” The priest asked again.

“I don't think we have a choice.” One of the teens muttered.

“Can we just walk away?” Another asked.

The priest stood back to his full height, “Yes, we will even still help you in whatever you choose but again we can't send you back.”

The group looked at each other unsure before they reluctantly agreed, “We'll try.”

The priest clapped his hands, “Wonderful. With that, the contract is sealed.”

A black ring encircled all the teen's wrists.

“What's is this?” The girl asked.

“It is a mark of the kingdom for all you hero's.” The priest explained.

——

The teens had been filed out leaving only the priests in the room.

“Why do you always give the speech like that?” A priest with a red hood walked up to the white hooded priest.

“They always get fired up for a month or so pushing themselves to grow faster. It's always fun seeing their optimism and drive. I daresay if we left them alone they would really become powerful.” The white hood said excitedly.

“How long does it take for them to realize their slaves?”

The white hood thought for a moment before replying, “About a month or two, really depends, but the second they agreed there debt began to tick up.”

“Wow, so that's how you're doing it.”

The two men heard a third voice, and turned to look at a man in similar clothing as the teens who just left but with more eastern features.

“Who the hell are you?” The priest asked angrily, as the red hood began to signal for guards.

“Just a truck driver.” The man answered.

“A truck driver?” The white priest was familiar with the concept having been through many summonings, “How did you get in here?”

“I drove.” The man said with a vicious smile.

The white hood priest raised a hand "bind!" A glowing rope surrounded the man as he walked around completely ignoring the spell. “Yeah, that's not going to work.” The man looked to be searching for something. “So how long have you been doing this?” The man asked calmly

“Guards guards!” The red hooded priest threw subtly out the window now screaming for the guards.

“Oh, they can't hear in here.”

The two priests began to back up, but suddenly found they couldn't move.

“Hey, it's rude to leave an interrogation without permission.” The truck driver huffed not stopping his search of the summoning chamber

“What do you want?” The red robe asked his voice filling with panic.

“You to stop the summonings, you’re punching holes in other worlds, and you're not even plugging them.” The man said accusingly then wined, “They are a pain in my ass.”

“What?” The red robes' panic was replaced by confusion.

“Yeah these holes are a pain in my ass, also I don't like what you're doing.”

“We are doing our god's work.” The white hood said indignantly.

“Don't worry I'll talk to him next.” The man said ominously. He kept searching the chamber for a time before speaking again, “So you've been summoning like this for years. What do you do? Train them up then sell them to the highest bidder?” The man asked angrily.

The two priests stayed quiet.

The driver shook his head. “True interdimensional slavers, can't believe that myth was real.” The man shook his head.

“Sir we are not slavers, we are protectors of this world. Now I insist you release us.” The white hooded man continued haughtily, thinking his god would protect him.

“Ah, here it is.” The man was in the middle of the circle and punched down into it revealing a glowing orb surrounded by intricate mythril wires. "God essence, oh you sons of bitches. Where did you get this?"

“It was a gift from our god.” The white hood said proudly.

“Hmmm. Well, I'll need to talk to him, but first.” The man tugged hard on the mythril wires pulling them out destroying the summoning circle completely.

“What have you done.” The priest asked in horror.

“Closed your door to other worlds.”

“We’ll just rebuild.” The white hooded priest declared.

The man held up the glowing orb, “Not without this.”

The man smirked and casually left the room, after some time the two priests found that they could move.

The red hood priest still afraid asked, “Who was that?”

“Someone with power”

——

Somewhere in the world, a man walks into a room. In the room lays a god chained to the ground.

“Wow, they really managed to seal a god.” The man said surprised.

In a tired raspy voice, the god spoke, “Who are you?”

The man gave an offended look, “Aw, this makes me sad you don’t remember me.”

The god looked up at the man's face eyes widening. "You!' The god began to thrash around his chains. See the man responsible for delivering his captor.

“I warned you not to interfere.” The man said angrily.

“You think you know better than me, and it was for the world's own good.” The god sneered.

“And how did that work out?”

A simmering rage could be seen in the god's eyes.

“But I have a question for you.” The man said calmly.

The god scoffed at the man.

“Did you give this to them of your free will?” the man holds out a glowing orb of the god's essence.

The god knew what it was, as the orb called to him, wishing to make him whole again. “Return it to me.” The god said in a whisper not daring to believe the essence was here.

“Answer the question.”

The god's eyes snapped away from the orb up to the man, “Yes, they tricked me.”

“Oh, I bet they promised to free you too.”

The good looked away before he admitted, “Yeah.”

The man looked down in disbelief, “That's the oldest trick in the book, and you're smart how did you fall for it.”

“They did it over years, used a kid to talk to me, and as he grew kept mentioning wishing he had the power to free me.” The god said bitterly.

The man understood, “That would do it. That is a shitty thing they did. Did the kid even know what they were using him for?”

“I don’t believe so. I think he's in a cell somewhere if he’s even still alive. I heard he tried to rebel when he learned what they did.” The god thought to his only friend in the last hundred years.

“Shame.” The man held up the orb, “Do you know what there doing with this?”

“What?”

“Summoning heroes.”

The god stared up in disbelief before a full guttural laugh expelled from him, shaking the room.

“They're enslaving them.”

the laughter stopped. “We're fucked” The god said.

“Did not expect that from you.”

“I learned from my mistakes, I just can't do anything. The god uselessly rattled his chains.

‘That may change soon.”

“???”

the man began to walk away, still holding the god essence, “I have a delivery.”

The god at first was disheartened when the man took the orb, but thought on what the man said, and smiled.

——

In the back of a truck, a man and a woman stand over two teens.

The woman is looking over them unsure asking, “Are they ready?”

“Almost. Just one more thing.” The man held up a glowing white orb over the teens shattering it above them.

“Will they be alright?”

“Is anyone?” The man asked tiredly

“I just want them to be ok.” The woman said sincerely.

“You’re kind, and I also wish the best of them.” The man said as the silence began to grow. “Did you find a place?” The man asked breaking the silence.

“Yeah. On the beast-men continent, there is a kind of small village that will help them. It’s not too far away from the cities. If I’m right they'll have a few years to grow out there.”

“Good.” The man opened the back door to his truck and tossed pushed the teens out.

“Can’t we lead them there?” The woman asked hopefully.

The man shook his head, “No. They need to do this on their own.”

The woman looked down at the teens nervous when the man continued. “They must struggle to survive, that is the only way for them.”

——

On a grassy hill, deep in the beast continent, a boy and a girl wearing swimsuits groggily wake up.

“Hello children”, a vision of a man chained somewhere reached them. “I'm so sorry for bringing you here. You are the last hope of this world.” The man paused to take in another breath. “So much of my power has been stolen, to kidnap your fellow people who are nothing but slaves. Please use my blessing, grow, live, and save them. Save them all.” The vision began to fade with one last plea, “Please save them.”

A boy and a girl look at each other, scared but with a feeling of purpose. Both feel it deep down they won't be able to go home. Both were sad but could feel the power flowing through them. The two could feel a deep desire to save this world. They caught each other's eyes and blushed. The girl takes the boy's hand and asks, "Can we do this?"

"I don't know but together we can figure this out."

A boy and a girl begin walking down a hill, towards smoke they see in the distance.