Good morning Sleeping Beauty, I wonder how you could sleep peacefully on a marble floor, but if you like it who am I to judge you? What am I talking to him for? He can't hear me anyway. Look at him there just waking up and he doesn't even know where he is (not that I have any clue). Looking at it, it resembles a Gothic-style church, but it's really huge, it would be able to accommodate an entire city without any problems. However Alberich (that's his name if you were wondering) is not alone, there are seven other people there, but from their confused faces, I assume they won't be much help.

"Hello heroes of another world, I am the Goddess of Light who eternally rules this land and I have summoned you here to help me maintain order and stability, but for now you will have to follow my priestess, she is the one who will brief you on your task." Jesus Christ, that almost gave me a stroke. I mean, can you make an announcement like that, without warning and without even showing a physical body? And then we complain if they are confused and scared. But then what is this stuff about maintaining order and stability? Since when has there been such a threat? More importantly, since when have they been able to summon creatures from other worlds? And why has no one informed me?

Wait, I hear the sound of footsteps (not that it's difficult with the echo they make), let's see who it is. There's a little girl with long blonde hair wearing a white robe with golden decorations definitely bigger than her. I imagine she is the priestess announced earlier, but since when is the Goddess of Light so poor that she can't even afford a properly sized dress for her priestess? I mean, even I could afford it without a problem even though (and I hate to admit it) I am much less revered than she is.

Anyway, the little girl just gave a half smile and introduced herself as the priestess, obviously, none of those present were shocked since it was pretty obvious. "O great heroes, please follow me." I wonder where she plans to take them.

Now that they are walking and I can observe the church more closely, I must confess to being a little jealous. The gigantic white walls are highlighted by the colourful stained glass windows depicting various mythological scenes, some of them unknown even to me. All this leads to an exaltation of the concept of purity one would expect from the Goddess of Light. But enough of being an art critic, the child is about to speak.

"The world in which we live is plagued by darkness and chaos. The goddess of light, in her eternal wisdom, has chosen you as the heroes of another realm to restore balance and order to this world. The gods will now bestow some of their powers upon you to help you fight the dangers you will face on your journey and to fulfil your ultimate goal, to defeat the Demon God, the embodiment of darkness, and bring harmony back to this land."

OK, what is this Demon God thing now? Who is he? And how can he be so powerf... Ah, I think I understand what's going on, of course, I won't say anything to you, I certainly don't want to spoil the show.

"Before you are the statues of the nine gods: the Goddess of Light, the four major gods (the elements) and the four minor gods (the seasons). Each of you will now be blessed by one of the gods to receive the power to defeat the forces of evil." Oh, they finally stopped and are standing in front of, as told by the priestess, a monument of spectacular workmanship representing some deities.

The little girl has a more solemn aura than before and seems about to speak. "Alie, come forward to receive the blessing" a pale girl with blue eyes and short blonde hair is shyly advancing towards the monument ... Wow! That's so cool! One of the statues just lit up! "Congratulations, you have been blessed by the Water Goddess. I hope you will use your new power to fight injustice. Next. Usire, come forward to receive the blessing." Why is this child in such a hurry? Give these poor people some time to digest what's going on! Well, let's continue... or better, let's cut the 'solemn rite' and I'll simply list the heroes with their respective blessings:

Alie was blessed by the Water Goddess

Darman was blessed by the Goddess of Fire

Aryan was blessed by the Goddess of Wind

Ambesa was blessed by the God of Earth

Usire was blessed by the God of Summer

Akimi was blessed by the Goddess of Spring

Yelizaveta was blessed by the Goddess of Winter

Alberich was blessed by the God of Autumn.

Aahh. Good, and we got this ceremony out of the way as well. What's the point of it, so many frills for something so trivial, I understand that it has to be spectacular, but was there really any need to make it so long? Anyway, now they have finally come out of the church and as expected they have been looking at the sky for a few seconds with their mouths half open, and how can you blame them?

Now that I think about it, you are not familiar with the sky of the inner ring so I'd better explain it to you. As you should already know, the world is divided into three concentric rings with Sol, the home of the gods, at the centre. Now, the sky of the inner ring is not blue like ours, nor black like that of the outer ring, but is made up of various colours such as red, yellow and green, which intermingle to form numerous ever-changing waves.

Considering the colours of the sky I would say that it is late at night. Since I see that the priestess is also talking about it, I'd better explain. Basically during the night, the sky takes on colder colours while during the day the colours are warmer, but unlike the intermediate ring, there is no decrease in brightness during the night.

Now our little group is heading for the heroes' quarters. The residences are quite close to the church and are located on a plot of land far too large to accommodate only eight people. In the middle of the land is a sort of square, probably a training ground, around which stand four huge buildings. I guess they'll put two people per building, I don't understand what they'll do with all that space but hey, who am I to judge?

Ah no, wait. The little girl just said that these are the homes of the heroes blessed by the 'major gods', what about the homes of the other four then? Hmm, OK, so they have to walk half an hour to get to the corners of the estate. And indeed, here it is, all things considered, a nice little house. Of course, it doesn't have the nine bathrooms, the recreation room and the swimming pool like the central houses, but what's he supposed to do with all that space? He'll be living there alone anyway.

In this little house, however, there are all the comforts including washing products, a wardrobe full of clothes and a table set with dinner already served, but he doesn't seem to want to eat it. I imagine that being in an unfamiliar world and being entrusted with a mission of the utmost importance can take a toll on even the most resilient souls, and I fully understand why at the moment his only thought is to sleep to shake off the day and perhaps even hope that it is all a dream from which he will wake up in the morning.