Alain walked out of his casket in a daze. He scrunched his brow as a robe appeared and covered his body. He heard rumbling as the mountain god spoke, but the words didn't register. Once he was given his new body, he immediately figured out how to activate the menus in his head. It felt kind of like blinking an additional eye inside of his brain, but it was very intuitive.
However, once he gained access to the menus, he was stuck staring at the text he was now confronted with.
"What the f*ck?" Alain felt like he needed to sit down.
—
Back in the City of Aegis, Grand Elder Nuru was surrounded by his closest disciples. They had lifted him up as his legs had failed him after the second round of Divine Thunder caressed the land with its glorious, but gentle touch.
Serenity was still by his side. She had summoned the scribes the moment the first Thunder roared and they had finally arrived. When the second atmospheric compression forced the entire city down to their knees once again, she knew history was in the making
Right here, right now, she was in the prime position to witness a tale that will be shared for generations to come. She needed all hands on deck to document this for the Grand Archives.
Nuru put a hand on Serenity's shoulder, "By the gods, every soul on this planet must have perceived the Divine Thunder. Serenity, my dear, please tell me. Has there ever been two roars on a Day of Summoning?"
Serenity solemnly shook her head, unaware of what's to come. It wasn't common knowledge, but Serenity and Nuru were some of the highest ranking individuals in Aegis. The Church knew that Divine Thunder is a literal representation of Divine Judgement.
There weren't three summons, there must have been at least four. Furthermore, the fourth summon was being Judged by the Throne holder. History tells of only one Hero in the last 500 years to receive a Judgment, and it was the first ever summon of the "Sekaii" era. Whereas the purple Hero from the third Day of Summoning was able to create and protect the City of Aegis, the first summon of this era was able to create nations.
History also tells of his beginnings, and at first, he was deemed a complete failure. The Divine Judgement was deemed too harsh for him to actually be able to overcome the ultimate evil that ended the Cradle Era. The fact that Serenity was standing here today was clear evidence of his perseverance. She pondered on the future.
It was at this moment that the sun decided to change colors. It was now a deep red and the sky went dark.
"What's going on Grand Elder Nuru" asked a little girl who was holding onto his leg from behind.
Nuru was not in any condition to answer the little girl. He looked up in sheer awe as a fireball was growing in the air. It was hovering in place above the grand cathedral and gaining mass, growing slowly until it was about as big as the cathedral itself. The fireball settled for a moment before it began rapidly compressing.
The red ball looked like it was a star imploding in on itself, getting smaller and smaller. Suddenly, even though the ball continued to shrink, the intensity multiplied by the second. The flames were burning so strong that the winds changed and an audible crackling could be heard throughout the whole city.
The winds ramped into a full force storm before coming to an abrupt stop as the ball began to undergo an ionization process. It now hovered in place as a gold ball of plasma.
Serenity was stunned as she stared at this ball, she quickly began barking details to the scribes as they furiously wrote in their notepads, some of them being forced to rewrite due to errors or tears smearing the page. The sky trumpeted as Angels began to sing down from heaven, heralding the seed of a new future.
Serenity looked over to Grand Elder Nuru, "Do you beli…" she realized Nuru had already fainted.
—
In the grand cathedral summoning chamber, there were six people and one reptile. The King was a burly man, he looked like someone who's fought in wars in spite of his status. Next to the King stood his shocked Queen, she had icy white hair and held a scepter with a glass orb on the top. They were both in royal garb. To the left and right of them were the Royal Guard Commanders. They dawned full plate armor and helmets, no skin was visible on either Knight.
On the other side of the room were the three new Heroes. One looked like a straight out Rockstar. He had a black leather jacket on with the sleeves ripped off, revealing his tattooed arms. His legs were covered with denim jeans and his feet had black sneakers. He even had a guitar case strapped to his back, but the most noticeable feature by far was the fact that he was simply gorgeous.
The Rockstar's brown hair was short and stood naturally. The sides of his head looked like he had a professional barber execute a perfect fade, not a single flaw in sight. Underneath his leather jacket he wore a white shirt with a black peace symbol on it.
"Thank you for the accommodations, your Majesty. We do have a fourth member on the way." His voice was charming and enticing as he spoke, almost as if each word had its own gravity, trying to pull you in subtly.
To his right, there was a man with a staff that pulsed with power. He had an oversized wizard hat on that matched his dark blue robes. The robes and hat both had celestial patterns on them that would twinkle and shift. It looked like a space nebula, constantly creating new stars and constellations. He had a great white beard that rested just above his navel. The brim of his hat hid his eyes and he smoked a pipe with the hand that wasn't holding his staff.
As for the third Hero… Well, he was certainly something to behold.
The fourth Hero's entrance began, interrupting the moment. Everyone in the room looked up at the gold ball of plasma hovering above the glass ceiling. The sky began making a noise and they heard a literal choir harmonize following a voice so mighty and deep that the ground rumbled its resonance, "AND HIS NAME… WAS, PEBBLE!" the word "pebble" echoed away, sounding like distant explosions.
The gold plasma ball descended slowly, phasing through the glass ceiling, but causing no damage. When it was about six feet and two inches (1.88 meters) above the ground, it transformed into the outline of a man and soon Pebble floated in the center of the summoning chamber just above the ground. His feet gently lowered until he touched the ground softly, but the marble still cracked in several directions from the impact of this first step.
Pebble wore a white robe and that was it. No shoes or pants, not even underwear. In spite of his borderline indecent outfit, the King and Queen bowed to him and the Knights kneeled.
Pebble looked strong and firm, but inside, Alain was trembling. He was not given even a moment to process anything. As soon as they named him, they shoved him into a summoning circle and said, "Good luck!" He remembered the pain he felt during the transformation and shivered a little. Alain assumed the gods must have done something to keep his brain intact, because he felt like a part of him was dead.
Everything was so odd, this was his new life. Their new lives! He just remembered his friends. He looked around with a panic until from the corner of the room a grotesque creature slithered quickly in front of Pebble.
It was a like a centaur, but instead of being half man half horse, this thing was half man half snake. He had two arms and a decent set of shoulders. The creature's head was shaped like a king cobra. It's mouth twisted into a silly smile.
"'Sup bro, check it, I'm a snake!" he made a "tss" noise and slithered around him. "Haha, it's me Phil!"
Pebble went pale.
"Hey, there he is! It's me, Bard!" said a Rockstar who walked up and put his arm out waiting for a fist bump, "I see I'm not the only good looking one in the group!"
Pebble stared back in disbelief, how were they so nonchalant about this? Did they already process the painful procedure? They seemed more cheery than normal in fact.
The wizard approached, "I finally got my mage build, and it's awesome! You can probably already guess who I am." Alain knew it was Fred. Fred always played a wizard in every game. Even in Call of Duty, he'd run around with stun grenades and declare he was a wizard casting lightning bolts.
Pebble started shaking now as the feelings were too strong to hide.
The King was walking over to introduce himself, the look on his face was one of bewilderment as he never expected the Day of Summoning to be as momentous as this one. What makes matters even more odd is how the new Hero was a unique, actually, he was a double unique. This is unheard of as far as the King knew. Legend has it that Divine Thunder on a Day of Summoning could only mean that a unique was pulled.
"Salutations and welcome to my kingdom, my name…" The King was interrupted by Pebble reaching out and grabbing the snake Hero by the neck.
"What the hell did you do?! Why are you a god damn snake?!" Pebble dropped Phil and pointed at Fred, "And you! You're old now get that mother f*cking pipe away, or so help me, I'll shove it so far up your…"
"Whoa, chill bro" said Phil. He and Fred were both taken aback, but Bard spoke up to the King quickly.
"Forgive us, your Majesty, we may need a private room and a moment to catch up before introductions are made for our friend here." He patted Pebble on the back and the King politely nodded.
"I understand that your situations are going to be beyond my comprehension. Please take all the time you need, I'll leave a man posted beside your door. Let him know when you're ready." He bowed again and departed with his Queen and Knights.
Now alone in the summoning chamber, Pebble looked at his friends, "Tell me what happened after you filled out your character creation forms."
—
First, Phil explained how he created a stealthy snake assassin character that can eventually go invisible and transform into other more problematic mythical beasts. The way he explained it did actually make it sound fun.
Fred went next, he explained how he put together a wizard who should be able to move the lands of Tiamat and make the elements bend to his whims. He also has a slew of support and utility abilities that will prove to be useful outside of combat as well.
Finally Bard told everyone about his beginnings , "I rolled a Bard! Shocker, right? I've got 20 charisma and everything, baby!" he reached back and tapped on the side of his guitar case. "I made sure to put some points into agility too since they didn't have dexterity as a stat, I figured it would help me play this bad boy."
Alain didn't know where to begin. He started speaking really fast "What about the flesh ripping and skin peeling? Hmm?! What about the night sky reaching down and cradling you like a baby?? HMM?! Or, or, or how about the gods creating a courtroom out of thin air? HMMMMM?! HOW ABOUT THE MENTAL GYMNASTICS YOU HAD TO PLAY WHEN THEY WERE ARE ALL INSIDE YOUR BRAIN?!" His face was bright red, "HMMMMM?!?!" He was pointing aggressively at all of them.
They were all dumbstruck, needless to say, from their point of view… They simply entered the room and appeared in the cathedral.