A thousand simultaneous whispers.

A massive headache invaded me. I thought my head was going to explode. Then, my eyes felt as if they were burning, as if some random pyromaniac was holding a lighter a few millimeters away from my eyeballs. But as the burning feeling in my eyes increased, the darkness around me started to vanish. Colors gradually started appearing around me, allowing me to see, albeit with a blurry vision.

I was standing in front of a wooden cabin. A man wearing a black robe stood in front of an open door. He also wore a red mask with two small, black, rhomboidal shapes drawn on it, probably representing eyes. The more I stared at this man, the more my headache worsened, so I tried looking away.

There were trees around the house. A small, box-shaped metallic machine, probably made of brass, sat halfway between me and the cabin, on the side of the tiny dirt road. It had a pipe that constantly released steam as it shook uncontrollably, and a square hole with a bucket placed right in front of it. There was also a signboard to my left. It was made of old rotten wood and had strange symbols on it. Most of the symbols were barely noticeable, except for the last one, which resembled a circle with a diagonal line crossing it from the upper right to the lower left. Then, I noticed something strange.

A large portion of the ground started shining. It emitted a dim blue light. The light became increasingly strong, eventually blinding me. I blinked, and then, I was somewhere else.

My classmates were around me. Everyone who was at the astronomical observatory was now here. We were in a weird place. No walls. No ceiling. Just darkness around us, but there was something beneath our feet. A dim blue light covered what should have been a floor, but it felt more as if we were standing on solid light.

Most of my classmates were clearly shocked, and the silence was quickly replaced with angry voices and loud questions.

Anahí- HEY! WHAT IS THIS PLACE!? WHERE ARE WE!? THIS ISN'T THE OBSERVATORY!

Alejandro- LOOK AROUND! THERE ARE NO WALLS! WE ARE SURROUNDED BY DARKNESS!

Even I couldn't hold back after seeing what I saw.

Leonel- Where is the guy with the red mask!?

My words somehow made things worse, and people turned to look at me. Agustin, the tall, blonde, popular guy with blue eyes and a golden sword necklace, placed his right hand on my shoulder and spoke to me in a serious, firm voice.

Agustin- Leo, what are you talking about? There is no masked guy around here. Are you trying to scare your classmates? This situation is already bad as it is; do not make it worse.

Leonel- But... I'm sure I saw him... it wasn't a dream. There was a wooden cabin...

Agustin- Just shut up for now. We need to figure out how to get out of here.

Gabriela- Yeah, Leo, this isn't the time for your stupid pranks. We are in danger!

Maria- Everyone, please, calm down. Let's calm down and think about what's happening here. This could very well be a case of mass hysteria. If we calm down, we will probably find ourselves back in the observatory.

Unexpectedly, Xiomara, the most silent and enigmatic girl in our group, opened her mouth.

Xiomara- This is not mass hysteria. This is real. And we are not the only ones here.

She has always been one of the most mysterious people in our class. Her grandmother was part of the indigenous tribes of our province, the "guarani" people, while her grandfather was a German immigrant. She not only speaks Spanish like everyone else here, she also speaks German, and is apparently learning the ancient language of the "guarani" people of our province. According to the rumors, she is a follower of the guarani religion and supposedly speaks with the spirits of nature, something that freaks out our class representative.

If Xiomara was the one saying that we were not the only ones there, then she was probably right. Reality quickly confirmed her words. An old man with a long white beard, wearing a blue robe, appeared in front of us.

Everyone was visibly scared and opened their mouths as if they were screaming. Even I wanted to say something. 'Who is that man?' I tried to say, but I couldn't hear my own voice. Everyone was having the same problem. Our voices could not be heard anymore.

But we could hear one voice: the old man started speaking.

Old man- "Don't waste your time trying to speak. I'm powerful enough to bring you all the way from your world to this place. Temporarily muting all of you is an easy feat. Now you must listen."

A white fog, in the shape of a square, appeared next to the old man. The square-shaped fog became more and more defined, eventually resembling a white canvas. Then, colors gradually started filling this white canvas.

It was a map.

Black lines defined the space occupied by different... kingdoms? cities? I'm not sure what I'm looking at. There were words, probably the names of those regions, but I couldn't read them. The symbols resembled runes. The same runes typically associated with Viking culture.

Everything on the map was contained within a black circle, and everything outside of the circle was dark.

The old man spoke again.

Old man- "This is our world. Or what's left of it." 15,000 years ago, mana in our world started to become scarce. Too many living creatures and not enough mana to sustain everyone. The world was slowly dying. A temporary solution was implemented. Most of the world's mana was channeled into a small region, leaving the rest of the world devoid of any mana and devoid of any life. Creating the dark zone you see on the map. It's called "the void." This plan ensured the survival of our civilization. But this was never meant to last longer than a few thousands of years. We needed a new source of mana. We cannot create mana, so we had to acquire it from somewhere else. Eventually, a new plan was drafted to bring more mana into this world by slowly siphoning it from another world, the world you call "Earth."

This old man is basically saying they are stealing mana from our world. I didn't even know that mana was a real thing, and now I find out they are stealing it from our planet. And this guy brought us here? Why?

Old man- "You might be asking yourselves why you were brought here. Well, a prophecy warned us of impending danger, one that would come from the void we had created. A demon king, sitting on his eternal throne, would send a demon prince into our mana-filled lands, and 13 days later, the army of the demon king would arrive. The demon prince would lead this army toward an absolute victory over the mana lands." If the prophecy says that the "demon prince" will lead the army toward "absolute victory," then that means that if the demon prince is defeated, this "absolute victory" would never be achieved by the demon army. So far, we haven't found the demon prince, so we assume he hasn't arrived yet. But even if we defeat him, we will need to go into the void to defeat the demon king, an impossible feat for us. No living creature in this world can survive inside the mana-less void. That's where all of you come into play. You were born in bodies that had little connection to nature's mana despite being in the region with the highest mana concentration in your world. It's because your bodies do not rely that much on mana that you can actually go into the void and survive long enough to defeat the demon king. You just need proper training, equipment, and perhaps a little boost to your mana-channeling ability within the limits of your weak bodies.

So, this guy is basically saying that we were kidnapped and brought here to fight some demons while clearly stating that we are weak and can barely use mana. Is he stupid?

Old man- "I'm sure you have questions, and I will certainly answer them, but there is something you need to do first. Don't worry, it's simple. Just touch this crystal sphere and we will instantly know how many of you meet the bare minimum requirements to be granted what's needed for this quest."

And just like that, a blue crystal sphere appeared right next to him, floating in the air.

Old man- "You, the girl who goes by the name of Maria, come here and touch the sphere. Then you will explain what you feel to everyone else."

Our class representative slowly walked forward. She was definitely afraid; her body was shaking with every step. But right before she could touch the sphere, the "darkness" around us started cracking, as if it had always been a solid wall. Light from the exterior started to come through those cracks. But that was not all. Something else wanted to come through the wall of darkness. A hand, shrouded in black fog, broke through the wall, and we began hearing literally hundreds of simultaneous whispers coming from outside.

What began as some sort of bad dream was about to become a horrible nightmare. We were heading directly into the worst day of our lives. A day that would be forever remembered... by those who were strong enough to survive.