Introductions are in Order

“Is…Is that a person?” asked a woman’s voice.

“It looks like it. But why would the ritual summon a person? That doesn’t match up with what Lionel said in his message. Is it possible he’s some kind of higher being in disguise?” replied a more gruff male voice.

Another, younger sounding female voice piped up with an authoritative tone, “Why is his body…flickering like that? Everybody stay back, something strange is going on. Rina, what’s your analysis looking like?”

“Um, I’m not getting anything. No mana signature at all. No… no, that can’t be right! Let me try again. Ugh, I don’t understand what went wrong, I did everything exactly like the twins and Gideon told me to!” came the voice of another girl, clearly somewhat frustrated.

Cain’s eyes snapped open, darting back and forth around the strange stone room he now found himself in. His eyes adjusted to the relatively dim light and the haze from his unconsciousness wore off, just in time for him to realize he was surrounded by a group of strangers, who all seemed just as surprised to see him as he was to see them..

Cain leapt to his feet and assumed a fighting stance. “Who are you people?! What is this place?! Where are we…”

His voice trailed off as he looked around him to see that he was currently in the center of what appeared to be an enormously complex ritual circle of some kind. All kinds of complicated symbols and diagrams littered the interior of the circle, each a myriad of colors. On its edges, the circle appeared to be lined with some sort of pulsating green goo, clearly out of place among the elegance of the drawings inside of it. The whole thing glowed with a rather eerie light, which seemed to be slowly fading.

“Oh God, I’m about to be sacrificed or something aren’t I?” he questioned rhetorically. “L-Look, I don’t know what you want from me but surely we can come to some kind of agreement here, right?

After a few more moments, it appeared as though Cain’s observers broke out of whatever shocked stupor they were under the influence of, and a young woman stepped forward. She had hair the color of midnight and eyes like lightning. She looked to be about Cain’s age, perhaps a year or two older. She was lightly armored, sporting a few clearly stylized pieces of dark-colored reinforced leather—namely, some vambraces and a cuirass, with a dark blue cloak fastened around her collar to top it off. A fierce, disciplined energy surrounded her, almost daring anyone to approach unwarranted.

She opened her mouth to speak. “State your name and purpose, stranger. Your fate may be decided based on your answer.” She narrowed her eyes at Cain, sending a shiver down his spine. “Speak clearly and concisely.”

Cain eyed his observers carefully, looking for any gaps in their ranks he could slip through. Besides the young woman standing in front of him, there were four others in the room. To the left of the woman in front of him, there were two people blocking a potential exit. The first, an extraordinarily large man, a good two and a half feet taller than Cain, and built like a brick wall. He had horns like a bull jutting out of the side of his head above his ears, and a long, braided beard that was speckled with gray from age—his rust-colored hair giving it a sort of salt and cinnamon coloration. By himself he was a fortress blocking Cain’s path, but Cain surmised that he could possibly outmaneuver the hulking beast of a man. At least, he thought he could if not for the other person, a woman standing to the side of the large man, just barely visible.

He saw her eyes first: amber colored orbs that twinkled in the dim light of the darkened corner she stood in, ready to pounce at a moment’s notice. She was on the shorter side, but lithe and wiry all the same. Besides her general build, Cain couldn’t really make out anything else about her. What he could tell however, was that judging by her frame, she was agile, likely much more so than him. Between her and the castle of a man standing next to her, that meant the left side was a no-go in terms of escape routes.

He glanced to the right side of the woman in front of him to see another girl who looked about his age, glancing back and forth between him and a rectangular stone tablet clutched in her arms. She wore a dark, loose-fitting robe that hung down to her knees. She appeared to be a normal human at first glance, but upon closer inspection, Cain noticed deep red scales covering what was exposed of the girl’s arms and legs. Well-maintained talons adorning the ends of her fingers tapped on the surface of the stone tablet as she worked. Her scales ran up her neck, framing a remarkably human face, a stark contrast to the rest of her appearance. Messy pink hair sat atop her head before being pulled back into a loose ponytail, like it had been lazily done just after getting out of bed. A short pair of horns jutted up from the sides of her head. She was on the smaller side and didn’t look very threatening, but Cain was wary of her regardless. After all, he had been knocked out by girls half his size more times than he’d like to admit.

The final observer was the most enigmatic of all. A small ring of lights that sat hovering near the girl with scales. It didn’t display any kind of open hostility, if such a creature even could. Regardless, Cain could feel it watching him, as if waiting for him to make a move. Despite how strange it was, it didn’t look dangerous to Cain, so he made his choice. Of his two options, it seemed like the right side was the better of the two. Cain’s muscles tensed, and he planted his foot into the ground, making a break for the door via the right side.

As his foot hit the floor, steel flashed across his vision as a metal pole swept his legs out from under him. Before he could blink he found the business end of a spear being pointed at his throat. The fierce-looking woman who spoke cordially only moments before was now staring down at Cain like garbage, her piercing pale blue eyes boring a hole straight through him..

“Name and purpose. Last chance before I skewer you.” she growled.

Cain wasn’t sure whether or not she meant it, but with the point of her spear less than an inch from his jugular, it was difficult to question her intent. A lump formed in his through as he stared back up at her, his glance darting between her eyes and her spear. He opened his mouth to try to say something—anything, but all he could squeak out was a faint, “N-Not until you answer me.” It was hardly intimidating, but it was all he could muster in the moment.

“Hold on Valerie, you’re being a bit too rough with our guest. After all, we’re the ones that ripped him away from wherever he came from. Shouldn’t we try to be a bit more welcoming? The poor guy’s shaking like a leaf! Besides, as far as I can tell from my analysis, he’s just a normal human.” interjected the pink-haired girl, speaking quickly as she placed herself between Cain and the girl with the spear, presumably Valerie.

A few tense moments passed, then Valerie sighed and lowered her weapon. In one swift motion, she twirled the spear, its head unfurling into a flag before curling around the flagpole, and the whole thing collapsed into a palm-sized metal stick which she stowed on her belt. She shut her eyes for a few moments, whether in annoyance or contemplation, Cain couldn’t tell. When she opened them again, her eyes had a more tender gleam in them, even if her face didn’t show it.

“I apologize for my outburst, it’s just that this ritual was very important and you…” Valerie scanned over Cain. “Aren’t quite what we expected.”

“I…I’m sorry, I don’t understand what’s happening. Please, tell me what’s going on. Who are you people and where am I right now?” Cain pleaded to the woman in front of him.

“Right, I suppose we should handle that before anything else.” she exhaled as she turned back towards Cain. “My name is Valerie Noxveil, current commander of our little resistance, Last Bastion. The girl with the pink hair and dragon scales is Rina Tirrun, one of our researchers and scholars. The man over there that looks like a castle with horns if you squint is Gunnar Foesbayn, our Smith, Quartermaster, and Chief of Security. And finally, the woman over there hiding in the shadows is Shadra Kaldrin, our Stealth and Scouting Specialist. ” She paused for a moment, her gaze fixated on Cain. “Well? I’ve introduced us, now it’s your turn.”

“Uh, Cain…Igarashi…” Cain responded, a bit taken aback by Valerie’s quick and matter-of-fact introduction of everyone. He glanced around the room and noticed that the strange ring of lights was no longer present. Before he could point it out however, Valerie continued talking.

“That’s it? Just Cain Igarashi? Not Cain Igarashi the Almighty Warrior or something like that?” she asked, clear displeasure building in her tone.

“I mean, I do kickboxing, but somehow I doubt that’s what you’re looking for here.” Cain replied.

Valerie stood still for a few moments, looking pensive. She seemed to be lost in thought for the time being, which seemed out of character for an experienced leader to Cain. She did say she was the current leader of the resistance, so maybe she only recently came into the position, he wondered to himself. He looked around the room at the other three people. Rina was tapping on her stone tablet again, while the other two were having a hushed conversation in the corner. It all appeared a bit too awkward and roughshod for Cain to dignify them with the term ‘organization’.

“So, are we gonna get to the part about where we are and how I got here?” he spoke up reluctantly.

Valerie appeared to pay no mind to Cain’s words, still lost in some sort of mental labyrinth of her own design. Noticing this, the pink-haired dragon-like girl, Rina, spoke up, apparently trying to fill the void where Valerie’s answer should have gone.

“This place is a room deep in the belly of our mobile base of operations, the MOLE. The MOLE itself is currently on the move to avoid detection. As for how you got here…” She trailed off, hoping that Valerie would take notice of the sudden silence and help her explain. When she did not, Rina exhaled and continued speaking. “Valerie told you we were a resistance faction, but not what we're resisting. Our world, Ranael, is currently under attack by an invasion force unlike anything it has ever seen before, who we’ve dubbed the Bottomless. They came from beyond the stars and enveloped our world overnight a little over five years ago. Try as we might, we can’t seem to get a foothold against them. Our founder and previous leader left us instructions for a sort of…last resort. It was an incredibly complex magical ritual circle that was designed to call out to another plane of existence, search for someone or something with the potential to help us turn things around, and bring them here. The caveat being that it requires an astronomical amount of mana, and releasing that amount would almost certainly alert our invaders to our location, as well as several other consequences that I won’t bore you with at the moment. Point is, we performed the ritual and it summoned…you. The problem at hand though, is that based on my analysis, you don’t seem to have any capabilities that could possibly be of much use to us…”

As Rina’s voice trailed off, Cain was overcome by a wave of panic and confusion. Magic circles? Summoned to a world completely different from Earth? None of this made sense! This kind of crap was only supposed to happen in fairy tales and a surprisingly large subset of manga and light novels! What would happen to him here? What about his friends and family?

“Wait…”, Cain began, “You said I wouldn’t be of use to you guys, right? Does that mean you’re gonna send me back?

“No, Cain, I’m afraid it’s not that simple.” Rina’s eyes met Cain’s, pity overflowing from them. “The way the ritual was designed, the summoning is only one-way. We couldn’t send you back if we wanted to.”

“But…No! Please! There has to be a way! You said it yourself that I’d be useless to you right now. This seems like something so far beyond my capabilities!” Cain pleaded.

“Stop it, do not beg so vehemently to be sent back to where you came without knowing what had to be done to get you here!” A new voice—a woman’s voice, soft, yet harsh—cut through the air like a freshly sharpened dagger. Through the process of elimination, Cain suspected it must have been Shadra, especially considering she had finally stepped out of the shadows. The short, wiry woman now stood out in the open, her dark skin glistening like the night in the room’s faint glow. Alabaster hair flowed across the top of her head before being wrangled into a braid that ran the length of her back. Pointed ears adorned the sides of her head. She looked fairly young, late twenties or early thirties, but there was a sorrowful wisdom behind her words that told Cain she was much older than she appeared.

She continued, her voice now a bit softer, “Please child, you do not know how many we lost gathering the materials for this ritual, so please do not so easily say that you want to undo their work.”

Valerie spoke up once again, seemingly finally done mulling over whatever was on her mind. “Right, well unfortunately, it seems like you’re stuck here for now, whether we like it or not. I suppose the next step is to figure out what to do with you. We’re critically lacking in terms of manpower right now, but the way you are right now, you wouldn’t last very long.”

A turbulent combination of frustration and panic began to swirl in Cain’s mind, building up until his head began to throb. His mind felt like a balloon filled to bursting, like it was about to explode if anything even touched it. He needed to let some air out, he had to. So he did.

“Get to the point already! What do you even want from me?! You can’t send me back, I get that! But you’ve been saying this whole time that I’m not good enough to join you, so what do you even want me to do?! If I’m not good enough then why don’t you just leave me alone?!” Cain yelled at his audience. His sudden outburst seemed to have stunned everyone to silence, himself most of all. Maybe this had been building for longer than he thought.

Valerie now wore a strange expression on her face, like certainty and doubt rolled into one. As if she had been certain of something moments earlier, only for something completely unrelated to suddenly come into question.

“Because…we’re the ones who summoned you here. Like it or not, we’re responsible for you now. Leaving you behind would go against everything we stand for, even if you’ll only be a hindrance to us for the time being.” Valerie spoke, her tone a sort of frustrated sigh. “Besides, I only said you’re useless to us right now. If you’re going to be staying with us, we’re going to whip you into shape so that you can actually be of some use.”

Cain blinked. “What?”

Valerie continued, “Starting tomorrow, you’ll begin training under Gunnar over there. I can tell you’re not unfamiliar to combat, judging by your appearance, but you’ll need to become much more powerful and hone your skills even sharper, especially if Rina’s analysis is correct and you are incapable of using Manasketch.”

“Hold on, I still have a few questions-” Cain tried to get a word in.

Valerie seemed to have decided that this had been going on long enough, ignoring Cain and beginning to bark orders at the other three.

“Gunnar, begin preparations to start Cain’s training tomorrow. Start him out light to gauge his ability, then adjust from there. Shadra, continue monitoring the status of Paradox until further notice. If we have any kind of situation or altercation in there, let me know immediately. Finally, Rina, I want you to take Cain and give him a quick tour of the MOLE. Help him get the lay of the land so that he doesn’t get lost when he’s on his own. Also, see if you can figure out…whatever is going on with him.”

Everyone dispersed before Cain had scarcely understood what was happening. He sat there, still on the stone floor from when Valerie had knocked him down. He closed his eyes and exhaled loudly, trying to come to terms with everything that had just happened. He felt a tap on his shoulder and opened his eyes to see Rina smiling down at him, scaled hand outstretched to help him off the floor. He obliged, reaching his hand out towards hers and going to grasp it. Only, Cain’s hand met nothing but air as his hand went straight through hers, flickering like television static.