"Found you!" The words echoing in my head as I felt the life being squeezed out of me. But soon I felt myself fall back to the hard, cold ground.
"What... the hell!" I coughed out. I had found myself in the fetal position hacking my lungs out.
"Haha! You should've seen your face! Looking all like 'please don't kill me' 'ugh I want to live' 'don't strangle me please!' Phew! Haven't had a good laugh like that in ages." The voice rang out.
"You bitch! That's exactly what I was thinking you prick!" I said throwing a terrible attempt of a punch to the location of the voice.
Seemingly appearing in my ear the voice began once again. "Not bad kid..." And with the sound of a snap my vision was seized by a blinding light. And then just as fast as I had fallen asleep I was back. Yet when my vision stabilized it wasn't the familiar classroom I was met with but rather-I was surrounded by dripping wet stone walls.
And to my surprise I was soon greeted by both a flock of masked individuals as well as my classmates who seemed just as frightened as I if not more.
"P-please! Let us go! Or at least tell us why your doing this!" Alex shouted, his hands bound by rope.
The masked and hooded men continued to stand stoic and still. Not uttering a word or even letting out a breath. Looking around I was certain we were in some form of cellar, with the iron bars confirming my suspensions.
Masked men, a black void, and now we were tied up. Just what the hell was going on? And as if on que a man in the center of the 20 person semi circle. The man was the only one dawned in a red cloak instead of the seemingly uniformed black.
"Heroes... Rise!" He spoke out. And on command our bodies began to betray us as we all stood in tandem. A collective of shocked gasped filled the air.
"H-hey! What the hells going on?!" And as if it were answering him the wind around us became a torrent of force as a massive dark wooden door was swung open.
I watched as the others tried to turn around and see the cause of the noise but their bottom half didn't budge, not even an inch. As I was positioned in the back at a slight awkward angle I was able to turn the top half of my body to face the door for a few seconds.
Out walked a tall, and incredibly muscular man with a shimmering gold crown placed on top of his long brown hair which was tied into a tight man bun. Each step he took exuded swagger, grace but most importantly strength.
I had taken martial art classes a year or two ago and I knew one thing. Fighters with "unobtained" skill and talent walked a certain way. A way which was almost identical to the way this man stepped.
"His majesty has graced us with his presents. Kneel!" The man in red spoke once again. This time all those present in the room quickly fell to command. Leaving the only one standing the king I supposed.
"Ahem... Heroes, I know you are all frightened, confused, and worried. And yes, you have every right to be all of those things, but I hope these word's put you at rest. All of you... have died." He said.
Reflecting on those words the whole class began to panic, this time even more than before. The room had become a symphony of crying, screaming, and retching. And who could blame them? But it was odd, we died? How was that possible?
Was this all one really fucked up vivid dream? No... That thing from before, I felt that. The fear, and pain from being choked. This-this was real, interrupting my thoughts the King began once again.
"I am King Geralt, nineteenth ruler of the Grishan Kingdom. And seeing as the world you are from had considerably low mana counts we believe the cause of your death was physical."
Mana? As in... magic? It would explain why our bodies wouldn't listen to our own commands.
"Now I know that this news more than likely has made you even more anxious but I do hope that at least it gives you peace of mind that your family will have closure to what has happened to all of you. And I know you are probably thinking something along the lines of 'If we died where are we', and 'Why are we here?' And I will answer both of those questions." He finished, waving his hand I felt a quick sensation in my legs and soon found out that we had gained control of our bodies once more.
"You are on the Eastern Continent currently in the Grishan Kingdom, on the planet Ezuno. And why are you here? Well, one of you ten has been chosen by the Goddess of creation and life itself. And over the next week we will see which one of you it is." He explained.
Samuel stood as he crinkled his nose adjusting his thick black glasses.
"As much as I am opposed to the existence of magic looking at the factors around us it is undeniable to say that some strange force is surrounding us. Yet Mr. King Sir, I must ask what about the other nine of us? Those of us who were not chosen by this Goddess? Will we be killed?" He asked.
Hearing the question the King seemed appalled for just a second before flashing a light smile. "Oh heavens no, all ten of you have been selected by some God in some way due to your association with the Goddess' chosen. And even if you weren't selected by the God's we would happily grant you citizenship within the kingdom, yet seeing as you were selected I can personally promise you will each be treated as if you were my own children." He explained.
In all honesty, he didn't seem like all that bad of a guy. So I let out a slight breath of relief, yet the others weren't ready to relax just yet.
"And, how will we know what god's selected us?" Eliza questioned also standing up with Samuel's help.
Nodding his head the king digested the simple question before clapping his muscular hands. "Mages! Commence the offering!" As soon as he gave the order all the cloaked figures beside the man in red stood and pulled a small dagger from their waist.
In a sick show of unison, they slit a long gash across their palms, We watched in both awe and disgust as the blood from them flowed out into the air and materialized into a crimson-red blade.
"Oh, Great One! Thou who has given us life and thou who will reduce us to nothing, we offer ourselves. With the blood in my body and the flesh on my bone, I offer myself to the great gift of mana!" They all chanted in unison.
"Wait what the fuck?!" Eliza spat out seeing this cult-like chant. Yet before he could even react all the figures standing let the blood blade pierce their hearts in a show of grisly offering.
Within moments they all dropped dead, their lively corpses twitching ever so slightly before they all fell limp.
The king let out a light breath as he looked at the collection of dead bodies.
"Ren, make sure to compensate the parents, partners, or loved ones of the recently deceased. We will hold a gathering for their sacrifice later in the week." The man in red seemingly named Ren simply nodded his head before he began to leave.
Both Lily and Emi had begun to cry and scream, clinging to one another. In recent events, I hadn't even noticed that the rope binding our hands had vanished.
The king had a heavy expression on his face. It seemed as if he truly did care for the lives that were just lost. This sight of grief boosted my respect for him even more.
"Seeing as the world you all come from had virtually not even a speck of usable mana we had to use a catalyst to synthetically imbue you all with a source. I doubt any of you know what I am talking about but do not worry. You will learn all about this world in due time but for now please take these." He said reaching in his pocket and pulling out a small tied-up sack.
Now walking amongst us he explained once more.
"Please take the bag and pass it on to the others. Just take one, your body will go through a host of changes, some will experience fiery pains, others a sudden burst of uncalmable energy, and some perhaps nothing at all. But I will let you rest for tonight. After Ren finishes his duty he will return soon and guide you all to your sleeping chambers."
And with that, he began to walk away as well passing through the door once again.
"W-what's in the bag?" Madam Glendale asked. I had honestly forgotten that bitch was here. The one with the bag was to no one's surprise, Alex. He had been the first one to speak up as well as the one in the center of the damp stone floor.
Taking apart the drawstring the inner contents of the bag were exposed. Picking one up and showing it to the group Alex began to explain what he assumed it was.
They were small capsules seemingly no bigger than a vitamin supplement back on Earth. The only real difference here was that it was glowing. A low hue of blue, the pill thingy itself was blue and perhaps you could argue that it was the light provided by torches that gave it the look of glowing, but no. Even around his fingers the pill truly was glowing.
"Do we take them...?" Caleb asked walking up to Alex and taking a pill from the sack.
We were all quiet as none of us knew just what the fuck to do. Benjamin soon walked up to Alex and promptly took a pill from the bag before tossing it in his mouth and swallowing.
The class looked at him with wide eyes at this abrupt action. We watched Benjamin waiting for something to happen whether good or bad. And yet for nearly a whole minute nothing happened. He just breathed in and out and just as I began to believe these were either placebo's or some prank, behind his glasses a trail of red began to flow from his eyes.
Before we had a chance to comment on what happened he fell to the ground and began a hushed scream of agony.
The sound of choking was all he was able to manage to get out as even more blood began to pour from his orifices, his mouth, and ears joined in on this blood parade as he writhed in the floor for what seemed to be an eternity, which was surprisingly only about thirty seconds.
But what shocked us the most was the energy that seemed throughout Benjamin, compared to what we were used to a sloth-like, quiet kid to someone who had this odd fire in his eye shocked each of us.
He bounced back up as if the last few moments never happened, smiling wildly as he looked at us.
"Holy fuck guys! I can see so much." He exclaimed squeezing and examining his hands. But just as the wave of energy arrived it appeared to dissipate as Benjamin fell into Alex's arms and passed out.
Looking at one another we reached a mutual consensus and followed Benjamin's lead. For many of us, it was the same flash of excruciating pain followed by heaps and bounds of energy before crashing. Both Lily and Emi seemingly experienced nothing.
Eliza began to vomit a sludgy black substance. Caleb seemed to be blessed with a healthy dose of energy. While I on the other hand appeared back where I was originally.
The black abyss where I thought I was going to die. This time however there was not much silence as the voice immediately called out to me.
"Shiloh Kirchner!" It rang out. After just a few moments the origin of the voice was in front of me. Just like the pills, this entity seemed to glow slightly. It was monstrously tall, perhaps eight, maybe even nine feet.
It had the head of a jackal... No, the skull of a jackal, in fact, the entire thing was bones. It was a skeleton yet its bones were easily the size of Caleb's muscles.
It continued to walk up to me until I had to look up slightly to face it in the eye.
"Hi... I'm death but please... Call me Tom."