- Clause -

The teacher continually tried to engage his students by changing the pitch of his voice and emphasising certain concepts. Clause thought it was comedic and yet a waste of time. Many of the concepts which teacher, Mr Kirchen, tried to guide his class through were rather dull. Some of his classmates including him had already comprehended them. That wasn’t to say Clause or the others were geniuses, rather they simply ‘understood’. Take a maths formula for instance, some would understand from the first example shown, while others would require many examples using the same formula to solve them before they are able to use it themselves. Clause found it odd that Mr Kirchen, rather than switching examples, simply changed his pitch. Like there was some static in his transmission earlier, and that some modulation would allow it to sink in. Unfortunately, Clause simply was not the type of person who would point out the need for different kinds of examples. If he was asked why, he wouldn’t know how to answer, he would simply shrug. He was someone who usually scored about 75-85% in his tests. Most would say it is slightly above average, sadly, Clause felt like it was a joke. His school was not very highly rated, and he wouldn’t compare at all to the schools more catered towards the smarter crop. His physical fitness was rather average as well, due to compulsory PE classes, but he wouldn’t be called strong nor fit. He didn’t really have very many friends either. Most people would form groups depending on their interests; closer friends would share their secrets with each other. Clause always wondered what kind of secrets other people would have, he didn’t really have any, sadly, he never realised that there was much more to relationships and forming close friends than simply calling each other that. 

Clause was broken out of his reverie when the world became monochrome. It was an odd feeling, not only had time felt like it had slowed but each of his movements caused rippling in the air, as if he was currently underwater. Looking around, he noticed his classmate’s expressions of surprise and fear. Strangely enough, Clause felt his lips twitching into a smile, as he watched them waving their arms around. Paul, who was sitting next to him seemed like he was trying to say something, his mouth moved and yet he couldn’t hear a sound. Due to the extreme slowness, Clause found it rather difficult to read Paul’s lips. Before he could think further, his world had turned white. It was like a light shining in his eyes, but he felt no pain or discomfort. Even when he closed his eyes, the whiteness was still there. Like staring at a very bright sheet of paper; but no details were visible.

He didn’t know how long he felt like he was stuck, but all of a sudden, his stomach lurched as if the floor ceased to exist and he was relentlessly pulled by gravity. Strangely, he did not feel the wind rushing past, nor did his whitewashed vision change. After ‘falling’ for an unknown period of time, he felt like he was pulled along. White spots danced in his eyes as his vision returned. He saw all his classmates being pulled along with him at great speeds, but they simply could not move their bodies, so turning their heads to glance at each other or communicating was not possible. Using the limited movements he could still do with his eyeballs, he noticed he was in what seemed like outer space, travelling through a grey tunnel, who’s texture was similar to smoke, but even the ‘gaps’ between the smoky haze gave him the vague notion of being incredibly sturdy not to mention the ‘smoke’ itself. He saw innumerous stars twinkling in the background as he sped past. Naturally, Clause was feeling quite scared and confused, he kept on wondering if what he had experienced today, from waking up, getting ready, class and this phenomenon was simply a dream and as he reached the end of this ‘tunnel’ he’d simply wake up in his bed. After some time, anxiety turned to curiosity, and he began to experiment with the extent of his control over his body. He found he could do some movements, but it was like being in very thick fluid. Turning his head, albeit extremely slowly, caused rather severe muscle pain in his neck, as if his head was incredibly heavy and he was dragging it along. This realisation made him attempt to straighten up and relax his entire body. After what felt like ten minutes, he saw a giant planet, its diameter many times greater than Earth towards which they were approaching. It deceptively felt like they were travelling rather slowly, however, one can only imagine the speeds if a planet many times larger than Earth seems to be noticeably coming closer. He saw, like Earth, deep blue oceans surrounding large masses of land. The weather being many times more violent was apparent as he saw incredibly massive cloud formations resembling humongous typhoons in more than one location. Violent swathes of thunderstorms adorned the north, with flashes of lightning visible from all this distance away. This scenery eventually became a blur as they closed in on a particular land mass.

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- Ezekiel -

The rippling continued as I watched, trying very hard not to blink, to miss even the minutest of details. Slowly, like a tornado forming from the ground rather than the sky, a grey mass of clouds extended upwards, one second it was incredibly sluggish, rising as slow as a turtle and the next it shot upwards like lightning. I thought this was quite odd, after all, I had seen spatial transfers before, and if tunnels like these extended every time, then there’s no way people would be able to move around stealthily. Perhaps the grey tunnel appears and disappears almost instantaneously? If that is so, then there must be an incredibly vast distance separating our worlds.

After a few minutes, the tunnel began to pulse, and form clumps as the connection began to sever. Once again, I channelled light magic to stabilise the gateway and to protect the heroes within from spatial aftereffects. The major ones included death or missing limbs from being caught in spatial tears, I felt sweat on my forehead. If such a thing were to occur my role would change from redundant to responsible.

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- Clause -

I found myself on solid ground, the exact process lost as I fought waves of nausea and dizziness. Sadly my willpower couldn’t overcome my light-headedness and I lost consciousness.

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This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

- Ezekiel -

I watched about twenty to twenty-five people walk around like they were in a drunken stupor before comically collapsing in awkward ways. I knew the King and the oracle had welcoming speeches prepared, in the corner of my eye I could see them frozen in their grandiose poses in an attempt to impress. It took all I had to control my facial muscles. Taking a few deep breathes to calm myself before urgently hurrying to the heroes making sure nothing untoward had happened to them. As an experienced healer, I quickly realised they merely fainted, a symptom that happens quite often to new users of spatial magic; the sudden movement causing disorientation and sometimes fainting.

“Do not worry your Highness, Lady Oracle, they have simply fainted. Perhaps we should move them inside the tent?”

Even if I told them not to worry, I was rather confused. I was quite experienced with the bodies of many kinds of sentient creatures, from books as well as from personally healing them. Contrary to mine or everyone else’s beliefs these heroes seemed, to put it bluntly … weak. Perhaps rather than their physical body, their magic has been improved. Powerful ranged magic is the bane of many armies, since, if they can be killed a large number every attack, before they can even come near, then what is there to fear? Convincing myself that this must be the reason for their weak physiques, I walked alongside the initiates who were busy carrying the summoned to the tent. It turns out there were twenty-two younger folk and a middle aged man. Since the tent was prepared for the oracle and the King, it was much more spacious than it needed to be and easily accommodated the extra arrivals. Looking around, I noticed the careful scrutiny of the other worlders by all whom were present, some looking confused but accepting, arriving at a similar conclusion to mine while others were in disbelief. The King had drawn the oracle to the side and was talking to her in hushed tones, but he definitely did not seem happy.

After about ten minutes, the other worlders began to wake up. They looked around, confused but that much was predicted.

“Hello, now I’m sure you are all confused, my name is Ezekiel, and we’ve summoned you to our world. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but we’d first like to bring to down this mountain, really not the place to talk. If you would like to follow us down, and enjoy the view as we go.”

Politics is annoying, even the King had to appease various factions by limiting personal contact with these other worlders. After all, once they were roped in, it would completely change the power and threat level of the house they represented. Of course, that is mostly what you ‘say’. Turning around I saw the King speaking with some of the men with larger builds, and the oracle speaking with the shyer women, building relations and providing comfort during the times when they’re confused and anxious does tend to make lasting impressions. Of course, if I was asked I would calmly answer that they weren’t talking politics, rather, the King and the oracle as well as some of the powerful nobles from the older families, who were on the receiving end of many dark looks from the King, were being tour guides and friends in dark times.

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- Clause -

I was once again ignored, although I wasn’t the only one. One of the cons of my laid back lifestyle is that you tend to be part of the background until you’re either needed or you’re the only one left. Of course, that doesn’t mean I get played like a flute or that I want to change, since observing quietly allows me to have a greater understanding than I otherwise would have. Some seemingly important folk were talking with some of my classmates, and there were a large amount of discrepancies between the information given. Of course they wouldn’t realise, such is the benefit of multiple information sources. It was mostly just extending their web of contacts s though, like where they should buy and sell their things, who they should go to for help and the like. I should’ve kept on listening but the surroundings were just to amazing. When I heard we were going down the mountain, I thought we would climb down around it. Instead, we went through. Some sort of lift system which I thought was ingenious considering it seemed like medieval times, until I realised they haven’t figured out how to go up yet. Maybe if I made something out of pulleys? Well it sounds good in my head, but last time I tried to use pulleys in woodwork class, I ended up with a tangled mess. Guess I should just let the idea float and let someone else experiment? The way down was fairly quiet as we all looked around at beautiful natural rock formations interposed between man-made carvings, comparable to the renaissance frescoes found in churches.

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- Ezekiel -

I watched them as they looked around with mouths gaping open. While they did look silly, I understood their amazement, the first time I saw this sight I was equally as amazed. The carvings of the deities were imposing yet elegant. A true masterpiece of art blended wonderfully with the natural grace of rock structures. 

After our descent, we walked towards one of the larger halls, which had food and drinks, as well as many influential members of the kingdom. Some older folk came out of hiding just to witness these heroes, I’m afraid they’ll be sorely disappointed. I had stealthily ‘healed’ some of their veins, just to check how much magical power is in their bloodstream, they appear to be rather average. Furthermore, at first I had thought they were calm and unfazed, but to my growing dismay they were simply too scared to complain. And the lack of bloodthirst as well as some conversations with the nobles helped to quell most of the remaining tension so that, rather than heroes, they looked like lost sheep, hoping someone will come and tell them they’ve been pranked. Still, I carried a faint hope that they’ll give us a surprise. After all, what have I got to lose?

Author note: Sorry I've been busy with work and uni, and also went out during queens birthday long weekend, but I'll try and release more to make up. Cheers

Also, I know some of you want to see some action soon, and you will get it next chap, promise :D, just wanted to get the background set about why it happens.