Year 2: The Heroes Descend - Chapter 2

The Great Cathedral of Ltharvis was illuminated with a blinding, golden light.

The knights and crowds outside, eager to catch a glimpse of their saviours, were enveloped by that light.

Saint Themis, who had forged a mighty empire in the south-east and ascended to Godhood, saw the danger the Demon Emperor presented and spent all of her divine energy to give the people of Aangapea a glimmer of hope.

Thirty heroes, no more than that could she summon and thus Themis parted from Aangapea, wishing them well and promising to return to help when she could.

Aangapea is saved! The world cried, not just out of joy but out of desperation.

Today, the heroes would descend and the true war for Aangapea would begin.

“Everything has to be perfect.”

That was King Alexander’s declaration and the clergy was eager to comply.

The heroes Themis had summoned had to be treated as such - no matter the cost.

The cathedral was already one of the most beautiful buildings in all of Rhodes, but now it had been filled with high-end luxury furniture, food, beverages, and only the strongest of warriors were permitted to wait inside alongside the rulers of the Free People’s Alliance.

Even the clergy were only allowed a handful of members inside the cathedral when the summoned heroes arrived, despite them spending close to a million Qartz on the ceremony itself.

No one knew what to expect when the golden light faded.

***

Fifteen men and fifteen women had been summoned by Themis.

They stood upon a raised platform with hundreds of heavily armoured knights bending the knee to them on a lower level.

Duncan couldn’t believe it.

It really was another world; one right out of a fantasy novel.

As he looked around, he saw that all of the summoned heroes were quite young people. A few looked younger than him and the oldest person he could see looked like they were in their mid-twenties.

Harmonia did say that she’d chosen young souls, but still…I thought I’d be one of the oldest.

Each one wore different expressions.

Fear.

Joy.

Shyness.

Excitement.

Confusion.

Interest.

Depression.

Relief.

Pride.

Resolve.

Indifference.

Eagerness.

Duncan himself wasn’t sure what to feel.

He had thought everything would finally sink in once he’d been summoned, but he was just as lost as he’d been before.

He had died; he had been reborn, and now he would have to fight a great evil and save this world.

“Welcome, oh great heroes of Themis!”

Themis?

Duncan and the others turned their attention to a raised altar before them.

Awaiting them were four regal figures sat upon thrones.

The first was a middle-aged, handsome gentleman with a smartly trimmed black beard, curled hair and a silver crown on his head. His clothes were a mixture of dark reds, purples and blues, and his fingers were covered in priceless rings.

The second was a beautiful woman with violet coloured hair and eyes, dressed in a traditional Japanese yukata; in one hand, she carried an elegant fan. Her hair was adorned with jade jewellery and fineries. Tattoos ran along the left side of her face down to her fingertips.

The third was a short, gruff-looking dwarf with a nasty scowl on his face. His beard was a pale white, his head was bald, yet he was wearing more armour and weaponry than the knights behind him.

The fourth and final one was a stunning elf in a light emerald robe. They wore a crown made out of wood in their hair and their thin frame made it difficult for Duncan and the others to determine their gender.

A speaker dressed in fineries stepped forward, cleared her throat, and then introduced the monarchs to the heroes.

“To the brave heroes of Saint Themis, I have the honour of introducing you to the valiant leaders of the Free People’s Alliance.

“King Alexander, ruler of the Kingdom of Rhodes, the very country that we are standing in today.

“Sakura Mao-Mao Hiiragi, Princess of the Yun Shogunate.

“Bernaught the Boulder, the Dwarven State Chancellor.

“And Dorothy the Fair, Queen of the Elven People.

“These great rulers have set aside their differences for the greatest of goods and have all come here today to greet you and give you the royal welcome you deserve! Together, may we yet defeat the evil of the Demon Emperor. Long live the Free Peoples!”

“Long live the Free Peoples!” The knights echoed. “Long live the Free Peoples!”

A few of the heroes were visibly excited by this development.

Duncan, however, was slightly taken aback.

We haven’t even opened our mouths yet and-

King Alexander clapped loudly before standing from his throne. “A fine welcome, I’m sure you’d all agree.” He smiled from ear to ear. “Truly, from the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for answering Saint Themis’s call for help and coming here to aid us in our time of need.”

“Saint Themis?” Someone repeated.

“Yes…it was her power that brought you here, was it not?”

Confused, the heroes exchanged glances with one another. Then, Duncan stepped forward and spoke up.

“King Alexander, we spoke with a Goddess called Harmonia who asked us to help this world, not Saint Themis.”

The king grinned. “Ay, but it was only through Saint Themis’s noble sacrifice that Harmonia was able to send you all here. After the Demon Emperor’s desecration of the south-east, Saint Themis wept for her kin. However, with her faith all but destroyed and her spirit drained, she had little power left to help her countrymen. Using the last of her strength, Saint Themis sacrificed her body as part of a ritual to summon you thirty to Aangapea. Harmonia, upon seeing the Goddess’s noble death, helped bring you to our world and told us that you would be our saviours.”

“How do you-?”

“Harmonia appeared to us in a dream,” Dorothy answered with a gentle smile. “It was not just us rulers who saw this dream, but many others across the world saw this too.”

“Now then,” King Alexander continued. “I am sure that you all have many-”

“Your grace!” A messenger, out of breath, burst into the chamber. “Forgive the rude interruption, but the crowd outside is getting restless. They are demanding to see the summoned heroes!”

“Oh dear, that’s a shame,” Princess Sakura giggled as she rose from her seat. “You spent so much money organising this banquet and we can’t even use it.”

King Alexander clicked his tongue. “No matter. We shall continue this conversation and meal at the palace. Men! Clear the room and transport it back with us. Leave the excess for the crowd. Messenger, tell the officers outside to clear the road back to the palace and that the heroes shall pass by in carriages in ten minutes!”

“By your command!”

“Forgive me, heroes, but this isn’t how I expected this to go. If you’d be so kind as to follow us out the rear exit to the carriages.”

***

It was a chaotic struggle for Duncan and the others to climb into their carriages and ride to the palace.

Everywhere they went, people were staring at them in awe, some were even crying tears of joy, as they cheered and waved at the heroes. Duncan smiled politely back at them and occasionally gave a small wave, as did a few of the others in his carriage, but one woman refused to even look outside the windows.

To Duncan, the palace was the epitome of grandeur.

Encased in tall, stone walls with countless heavily armoured knights on its walls, buildings stretching many hundreds of metres high complete with high towers, and its size was most impressive.

The grounds alone are three times the size of my village, he thought, letting out a small laugh.

Once they were inside, the gates were sealed and the number of guards on the walls increased dramatically.

It seemed that just a brief glimpse wasn’t enough for some as Duncan could still hear the crowds as he was escorted through the palace.

How desperate are these people? Duncan wondered. How hopeless is this?

***

The ballroom was filled with the same exact layout as the banquet in the cathedral, though there were fewer guards inside the room this time. Most of them were outside on patrol or guarding the doors to the venue.

The rulers had elected to sit down in their thrones once again as the summoned heroes partook a little in the food and drinks the servers handed them.

“Heroes, did Harmonia tell you much about the current situation in Aangapea?”

Most nodded their heads, but a few spoke up.

“A little bit.”

“The gist of it.”

“I think so?”

“I see…then, it’s best if I tell you everything we know.” King Alexander cleared his throat. “It all started roughly a year ago in the Holy Empire of Themis.” His voice was notably deeper and more unnerving. “The early signs of the Demon Emperor were vague and insignificant.

“First, there was a series of murders in the city of Stonefall. Criminals, mercenaries, and adventurers started being attacked, their bodies mutilated, and an ominous message left behind at the scene: ‘Death Stalks All’. Initially, the Holy Empire thought it was a war between criminals that got out of hand, until the priests and criers started preaching about an incoming tragedy that they called the Great Disaster.

“What the event entailed, they never said, but they proclaimed its coming nonetheless and that these murders were the start of it. Then, an army of undead marched from the cursed Shadow Tombs onto the city of Black Port, raising it to the ground and killing all inside. The Holy Legion made swift work of the undead, but at a great cost of life.

“Then, Karak-Harth, a feared sorcerer, rose from the dead with a great undead host and ravaged the country, slowly making his way to the capital. When he arrived, the Holy Empire fought him with everything they had and won, until…we heard laughter.

“A single black knight, thought to have been undead, laughed as the soldiers cheered in celebration. That knight revealed itself as the Demon Emperor; the true mastermind of the Great Disaster and the one who brought Themis to its knees.

“His real army sacked the city, killing tens of thousands, and only a handful of fortunate souls escaped the capital to tell the tale. From the shadows across the whole Holy Empire the Demon Emperor’s forces came and, within a week, a country that stretched across a quarter of the continent was gone.

“In its place, came the Demon Empire.”

“In just a week?!”

“Seriously?”

“What the hell? What the hell?!”

The king’s words frightened the heroes more than he’d expected them to.

Duncan himself was quite scared by the information the king gave them.

The Demon Emperor spent months manipulating things in the background, waited until Themis was at its most vulnerable, and then crushed them?! What kind of monster is he?

“Heh, that’s how we reacted too,” Dwarven Chancellor Bernaught bellowed. He slowly pushed himself off his seat and grunted. “I remember when the ravens came. I received eighty-nine in two days, all telling me that the Holy Empire had been destroyed. I didn’t believe it at first and sent men to check it with their own eyes, and they did just that.”

Princess Sakura giggled. “I sent five-thousand men to the north-east to try and prevent the Demon Emperor from taking it and, well.” Her smile turned ice-cold. “We never heard back from them.”

“Even the great city of Elvast, one of my people’s homes, was destroyed,” Queen Dorothy whispered. “The treacherous Gørviligr sided against our own people and joined that monster. From what the trees and spirits have told me, they ravaged the city and its people like wild beasts.”

“An attempt was made to try and reclaim the Holy Empire, but it ended in disaster. The whole force was routed, and the Demon Emperor managed to successfully invade the north-east as well.”

“Forgive me for asking, King Alexander, but how?”

“The Demon Emperor had used his dark powers to incite an assassination at a wedding between the rulers of the countries in the north-east; then, after they had exhausted themselves in war, he marched his legions into their lands and wiped them out.

“He burnt down one of the great Twin Cities after trapping hundreds of thousands inside. Then, after routing the last remnants of resistance at the Battle of the Golden Fields, his general, Abaddon the Cruel, led brutal attacks on the survivor’s camps where they ripped every soldier limb from limb. The Slaughter at the Camps, as the minstrels call it, was supposedly so horrific that even the demons who did it found themselves throwing up after the act.

“That, brave heroes, is the sort of enemy we face. That is the evil of the Demon Emperor and all those who fight under the accursed banner of the Satyr’s Skull.

“What I ask of you all now is this: will you stand alongside us and fight?”

Each of the summoned heroes knew what they had agreed to when they’d accepted Harmonia’s offers, but, as the King of Rhodes told them about the Demon Emperor, it was the first time they’d truly come to grips with their situation.

This wasn’t a game.

This wasn’t a fantasy novel.

It was real.

Half of the world was under the rule of a ruthless tyrant, and the other half was desperately fighting to defeat that monster.

Despite this, excitement still remained among some heroes.

Others were scared stiff.

A few kept blank expressions on their faces, so not to reveal their true thoughts.

Duncan, however, had already found his resolve during the King’s speech.

“I’ll do it.”

He stepped forward, put a hand to his chest and proclaimed, “I’ll stand with you!”

Relief washed over King Alexander. “Thank you.”

“Me too!” An enthusiastic man yelled. “I spent my whole life hoping for something like this, so I’m going to do everything I can to help!”

The Japanese man let out a small laugh as he grinned at the monarchs who were a little bit taken aback by his energy.

“…Will we be rewarded?” A tall woman at the back of the crowd asked.

“Of course.”

“…Good. Then.” She stepped forward and bowed. “I shall dedicate myself fully to this task.”

When he noticed that the others were still quite reluctant or nervous about stepping forward, Duncan stood between them and the monarchs.

“Your grace, everyone behind me knew what we were getting ourselves into. The Goddess Harmonia told us about the Demon Emperor, what he has done and that we need to stop him…but, I don’t think everyone had fully comprehended what that meant. In our old world, war was a foreign thing - it was thousands of miles away or in books about ancient history.

“While I can’t speak for everyone behind me, I’ve never fought in battle before; I’ve never held a sword, a spear, a bow or even really thrown a fist at someone. When Harmonia asked me to become a hero to fight for Aangapea, I was a bit scared, but I was also happy. I was happy that I’d be able to save your people from a tyrant, and I was happy that I got the chance to live another life.

“So, to my friends behind me, I ask you this - don’t you feel like we’ve been given a truly special chance, one that so many others would wish to have?” Duncan turned to face them as he spoke louder. “Not only do we get a second chance at life, but we get to do something amazing like saving the world. I believe that Harmonia chose each and every one of us for a reason and I’d like to discover them with you all.”

Many of the people of Aangapea were moved by Duncan’s speech, including King Alexander and Queen Dorothy. The other two monarchs watched on with slightly bemused expressions, curious as to how the summoned heroes would react to Duncan’s words.

Most had descended into whispers amongst one another, all while a few others stood by the side, waiting for the discussions to end.

Finally, the first among the crowd stepped forward.

“…Me too.”

“Me too!”

“I will too!”

One by one, the summoned heroes spoke up, though some still sounded nervous or uncertain as they did.

The last to speak up was a brunette girl towards the back of the room. “…I will.”