With the entire party gathered around John, he relayed to the group everything that happened. He started off explaining how he slowly lost control and eventually got to the part where he literally met a god. Needless to say, most of the group found it hard to believe.

Arther took the news in stride, “so not only do you have the extremely convenient abilities of spirit beast, but you’re able to tap into the power of a god?! Training you is going to be sooo much fun?” he said while pumping his arms.

Tina nodded her head in agreement. She looked at John with bright eyes as she said, “Darkness is good, Tina approves.”

Joana’s face was one of confusion. Vanessa was eerily quiet during John’s story and now looked at him with a wary gaze.

“John” Vanessa said, “isn’t the God of Darkness... an evil god? The opposite of his twin brother Light. You’re trying to tell me that you’re the Apostle, or whatever, for one of the most powerful EVIL beings in this plane of reality?”

“Darkness told me he was more neutral. In Fact, most of the older gods are apparently. He seemed like a pretty okay guy from what I could tell.” John defended.

Arther stepped in, “Well now, I know that we’ve only just met John recently, but he trusted us enough to tell us this. I don’t see why we can't reciprocate that trust. Also, it’s likely that these other Apostles John mentioned, aren’t as friendly.”

“Yes, apparently some of the Apostles represent Evil gods and are already established into society. Darkness told me that the appearance of Apostles in this world signifies a great change. The faction of apostles that triumphs in the end will likely determine the course of this world.” John said.

Vanessa crossed her arms. “Honestly John, you seem alright but what’s in it for you? If you are really tied to a neutral god, it sounds like you don’t have any duty to fight for the good guys if you don’t want to. This isn’t even your world, so why care?”

John looked down at the floor and was silent for a moment. The group looked at him waiting for a response, and even the hyperactive Arther patiently waited. John balled his hands up into a fist and met her eyes. “When the Beings Above dropped me here, into this place impossibly far from any home I’ve ever known... They also took my memories. Not the places, or knowledge, but the people I knew before. Now that I’m here, If I want to have any kind of life... It seems like I’m going to need to fight for it.” John’s fist, held to his side, shook in frustration. “Whatever life I had before was ripped away from me, but Darkness told me that if I gain enough power there’s a small chance I can get it back. Or at least have the option to do so. I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t intend on becoming some hero in this world, but I’m willing to fight for now in order to live how I want. If these evil Apostles are going to mess that up for me, I’ll do what I have to do.”

John's hand relaxed. The group stood there mulling over his words.

“Well” Arther said, “Next time, before you give such a drawn out speech, feed me to a duck first!”

Joana turned his head to him, “What’s a duck?”

Vanessa chimed in, “Some type of mutated spirit beast?” she inquired.

John shook his head, “It's a type of bird that looks cute... but if you google it, you’ll find out about some pretty horrific stuff it gets up to.”

“What's Google??” they party all asked together.

“A search engine” he replied.

“A what?”

John scratched his head thinking of how to explain it, “It’s like a book... but it has pretty much all the knowledge in the world in it, and you can ask it questions. Most people just use it to post silly pictures though... or other things I guess”

Vanessa raised her voice, “All the knowledge in the world! And people just use it for silly pictures?!” She looked genuinely offended.

“Yeah pretty much, some of the memes are pretty good though.”

“What are the other things?”

“Weeell” John's face turned red. “Maybe just don’t worry about it.”

The group sighed in frustration, the conversation was clearly going nowhere. Silently, they all stood there gathered in a circle and felt the weight of the current circumstances. John, whose being was unprecedented to them, was an Apostle for the God of Darkness. There’s been a wave of Apostle’s who’ve entered society, who likely all have different motives and goals. According to Darkness there was going to be a great change, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that there was likely going to be chaos across the continent.

Arther broke the silence. “So will you join me on this quest or whatever. I don’t really know anyone else.”

The question hung in the air for a moment, that is until Arther slapped John on the back with surprising force.

“You think we’re gonna miss out on this adventure!” Arther exclaimed.

Vannessa stomped on his foot.

“Well umm” Arther continued while rubbing the back of his head, “I mean... how could we stand on the sideline when there's evil Apostles out there. It’s our duty as adventurers!” Arther finished with a false bravado.

Joana nodded in agreement to Arther’s later statement. Tina and Vanessa didn’t protest so John assumed they were on board.

“Well I guess the first step for me is to get crazy strong” John laughed.

The group looked at him with a serious expression. This time Tina looked at Arther with an amused expression.

“I can’t wait to watch someone else go through the hell that Arther calls training. I wonder how long you’ll last?”

Joana and Vanessa both looked remorseful but didn’t add anything.

Arther spoke up, “Don’t worry! My training regimen is only SLIGHTLY harder than the standard training given to members of my family. You’ll be fine. In Fact I’ll make you suuuuper strong! Accounting for the fact that you can recover faster than us by simply killing spirit beast, I can out you through training the rest of the team wouldn’t have been able to keep up with.”

Getting stronger through training sounded nice, but Arther’s sadistic smile made him nervous. But it seemed like he needed all the power he could muster, and he wouldn't be able to truly tap into divine power until he reached a power level equivalent to an Advanced Adventurer... But the sadistic smile on both Arther and Tina’s face gave him pause.

“Don’t worry John '' Joana reassured him, “We all made it through it, more or less... actually now that I think about it, Tina's personality wasn’t this warped before Arther put her through his training regime... Well I'm sure you’ll be fine! We’ll head into town to rest for a few days before we begin. Right Arther?”

“Sure, let the Apostle recover for a day or two, then his hell begins- err, or rather his training!”