"Argh..." With what felt like his second time waking up after a long sleep in one day, Kyle shook himself awake to the best of his ability, feeling very disoriented.
'That idiot Ethan won't even allow me a good nights rest without doing something stupid.' Kyle thought as he sat up, only to not feel the softness of his bed beneath him.
'How the hell did I end up on the floor, that's definitely going to be bad for my hip.' He continued along this thought line before regaining his eyesight, only to be left stunned by what he was seeing.
Clouds.
He and everyone from from graduation were on the floor of an open air tower that seemed to stretch into the heavens, allowing them to witness the breathtaking view of being surrounded by clouds. As beautiful as it was, Kyle, Malachi, Haji, and Dami only had one reaction, training their eyes onto a single man who they blamed for this, Ethan. Ethan sat staring dumbfounded at the situation they'd found themselves in, and as if feeling the gazes of his friends, Ethan could only muster up his trained response for scenarios where he had caused a problem by doing something stupid.
"Uhm, teehee?" He squeezed out through a thin smile.
Everyone quietly and tacitly rose to their feet.
"I'm going for the legs." Haji stated, doing some light stretches as he said so.
"Hey Dami, let's go for the arms." Kyle said while rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt.
"Got it. Malachi, grab the clippers I have in my bag. We're shaving this bastard bald." Dami asked Malachi who agreed without arguing, stepping forward to grab the wireless clippers from his bag.
"Wait! We can talk about this!" Ethan's pleas fell on deaf ears as they got into pouncing form, ready to carry out justice.
"Get him!" Haji growled as they sprinted toward him.
Ethan turned and ran away from them, creating a spectacle in the otherwise quiet heavenly tower they now found themselves in. Just as the guys were about to catch him and turn him into a monk, a bright light flashed in the middle of the tower, and out of the light came a group of...people?
They were bipedal, but some of them looked nothing like humans, and this brought Kyle and company to an immediate halt.
They watched on in slight horror and bated breath as a group of around 20 beings strode out sweeping their eyes across them and the rest of their class before the leading young lady's face blossomed into a smile and she spoke.
"Well aren't you guys a lively bunch, despite the circumstances." She said in an amused tone. She looked human enough, although everything about her screamed the words not normal in a big way. She was on the shorter side, being about 5'5 at a glance and petite in figure, that was where normal ended by human standards though.
She had long silver hair that ran to the middle of her back, it was healthy and wavy, and it moved as if it were liquid. Her face was as beautiful as one might expect, for someone who could pull off that hair color, and her eyes were a deep golden color with star shaped pupils spinning in their depths, as if attempting to pull you in. She wore an orange robe with white accents lining the hems, and she carried a scepter.
There was a moment of silence that pervaded over the large space, before Malachi decided to pop the question that all of them were thinking.
"Can I ask what those circumstances are, despite the obvious being we were kidnapped?" He asked tentatively.
"PFFTT..." She doubled over and began giggling uncontrollably as the other nineteen beings had wry smiles on their faces. After about 30 seconds of getting that out of her system she apologized, all the while the corner of her mouth still twitching.
"Ahem, I'm sorry. That isn't what happened, well it is, but not exactly." She continued on with a contemplative expression before nodding in acquiescence and returned to a more professional expression.
"Welcome to the prime planet, Reles." she began "Although your trip here was not exactly by choice it was always meant to happen at some point, you guys just happened to be the closest group to the summoning point that your ancestors left on earth." She let her words marinate for a few moments before continuing. "Whether you consider yourselves lucky or unlucky is up to you, but what I can do for you is to explain your situation and why you were brought here." Kyle could see some people relax slightly and some become even more tense.
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"Wait! So we're not dead? This wasn't divine retribution?" Ethan beamed with joy, not at all understanding the situation in its entirety.
"PFFTT..." The young lady couldn't help it, she laughed so hard that she began shedding tears, even some of the beings that came with her let out a few chuckles. After laughing, she let out a few breathes to calm down, while patting her chest and began to explain again.
"Since there seems to be a lot of confusion, I will explain to you everything that I know about your situation." She composed herself and started her explanation. "Where you all are now is nothing like the planet earth that you all hail from, this world holds an energy that you may have heard about in some fictional stories on your planet, it's called mana."
Kyle heard Dami yelp, in what seemed to be excitement at the prospect that his martial artist and sword wielding skills being put to good use in this new world.
"Every millennium a planet in the universe awakens its potential by the prime systems grace and is given a new energy, mana. Earth, for all its time in the universe has never awakened despite being one of the earlier planets in the known universe, that was by design." She dropped another bombshell without stopping. "The system decided not to give mana to the earthlings for reasons we will talk about later, but for now we have more important things to discuss."
"My name is Freya, but everyone on the planet calls me Oracle Freya." She continued on, finally revealing a name. "My job is to relay information for the system and to make important changes or choices known to the people who need to know.
The most recent change happening on Reles is also the reason why we brought you here on such short notice, the system has reason to believe that within 5-10 years, Reles will be invaded by another stronger universe."
Kyle tensed up at the revelation, the universe was about to be invaded? What did she expect from them by summoning them here? That much was already obvious and it seemed that most of his peers understood the implications behind this revelation, he could already see the uneasiness in their expressions, and he was sure she could too, but she paid it no mind and continued to speak as if she had said something that was common knowledge.
"This is the biggest crisis that Reles has faced since its existence, If Reles falls then it is only a matter of time for the rest of the planets, that includes earth too. I believe that there is a Chinese proverb that explains your situation."
"If the lips are gone, the teeth will grow cold..." Kyle muttered absentmindedly, drawing a look from the surrounding crowd, and a smile and a nod from Freya.
"We will not force you, but we cannot send you back to earth." she said, sending most of the class of 2019 into a small frenzy. She raised her hand and created a bright light to grab their attention and stop the crowd from rioting. "What we can do though is prepare you for what is to come, we can give you the strength that will allow you to protect your family that exist in this universe and everyone else in it."
"We don't have this, mana, thing that you're talking about and most of the people here won't even be able to kill a chicken even if they only had to press a button to make it happen." Haji spoke, with a slight frown on his face.
"And what of our families? Do they know what happened to us? An entire graduating class disappearing out of thin air isn't exactly a common occurrence on earth, just so you know." He spat.
"Well about that...the place where you were summoned from has turned into a giant sinkhole, so everyone thinks that all of you are dead, most likely." Another bombshell that turned many of them pale, holding their breath, some even happy that they weren't left by the void of divine retribution.
"As for the mana problem, that can be easily solved." She waved her hand and a white crystal ball appeared before everyone's eyes.
"The system decided not to allow mana to exist on planet earth, but here on Reles you will find mana is the most common resource of all life on the planet, from human to the most common stone. The system can remove the ability to control mana, so surely it can allow a person the knowledge to use it." She smiled.
"And why did the system not allow mana on earth if every other planet has it?" Malachi asked.
Kyle nodded in curiosity, he too wanted to know why such an important thing was kept from them if they were called to help the planet against a strong enemy. He looked at the group of beings and to his surprise it seemed that they were also curious as to why such a thing had happened also.
'I guess the oracle job has its perks.' Kyle mused.
"Well that..." It seemed to be a question that she wasn't allowed to answer without the proper clearance, only for her eyes to light up as she stared forward absentmindedly as if reading something, before smiling and speaking up.
"The system said that I can tell you, but you can't tell anyone else." As she said so, she turned and looked at her companions. "That means you guys also." She spoke, causing serious nods, and eyes alight with worship to go around.
"The system banned mana from earth because of your history." She spoke, getting confused looks from everyone. "You may call your race, the human race but thats only half right. The true name of your race is called, Prime Humans, the holders of the strongest magical bloodline in the known universe, and the first ever inhabitants of planet Reles." The eyes of her companions almost shot out of their sockets.
"The reason the system didn't want Prime humans to have access to mana is because they almost destroyed 1/5th of Reles because of infighting." Everyone stood slack jawed and in disbelief by the news they were receiving. Even the students themselves listened in horror, hearing about the misdeeds of their ancestors.
'Ok, good call by the system.' Kyle for the first time since being here, felt like he understood why the system called on them instead of another magically developed planet.