“Have a good day!” An older man called out from the kitchen, brewing himself a cup of coffee.

“I will.” A teenage girl replied, waving back towards the kitchen before heading towards the front door.

“And make sure that if you stay late, you-” Before the man could finish talking to his daughter, the door slammed shut.

“Message me.” He muttered under his breath. Brushing it aside as his daughter’s lack of attention, he continued to pour coffee into two thermoses and a mug.

The man took a sip from one of the thermoses, after tapping on it twice, while fixing his black hair. His wife had been trying to get him to use hair products, but he really didn’t want to take the extra few minutes and spend all that money on something a hand and a comb could accomplish. He didn’t have much in the first place, since he usually kept his hair short, it set a good example to his employees.

Exiting from one of the rooms was a young man in his early twenties. He shared the same hair color as his father, but it was naturally more spiked, and he was also sporting a bit of facial hair. It was patchy in some places, but it seemed like he was a few shaves away from having a decent beard. After giving a loud yawn, he stretched and scratched his side.

“You know, Dylan, you should at least put on some pants before coming out.” His father lectured, but all his son did was shrug.

“It’s not like anyone else is here, just us and mom.” Dylan replied, grabbing the prepared mug by his dad. He took a sip before flinching away, then going to grab some sugar and cream to pour into his coffee.

He grinned for a moment, remembering how his wife and son liked their coffee the same way. He knew that his daughter was joining them on the sweet side, but to him, there was something nice about straight black coffee.

“Just make sure you wash your work clothes before tonight. And also take a shower.” Dylan’s father reminded him, before tapping his thermos a few times and taking a sip.

Dylan agreed, but looked for a way out of this topic. Because once his dad started on anything work related, it was hard for him to stop. After seeing a news app ping on his father’s phone, he quickly jumped on it.

“Hey, did you hear one of those Heroes are doing an interview today?” Dylan asked, while quickly heading back to his room for his phone. It was close by, so he was already on his way back with the phone in hand.

The older man’s brows furrowed. Dylan was confused for a moment, before his eyes widened in realization of this family’s recent rule: Don’t talk about the Heroes.

Ever since they began appearing four months ago, they all immediately got hope. Hope that the family members that they have lost were gone because of that. Their bodies were never found, so it's completely possible that their bodies were whisked away to another world, and they would soon return. It was slim, but it was a small hope that Dylan, his sister, father, and especially his mother were grasping onto. They even cleaned off the two empty rooms.

But it’s been four months. And they haven’t returned yet.

Dylan began to apologize, but immediately dropped the subject when he heard the door to the master bedroom open. Coming out with navy blue scrubs and curled brunette hair, was a middle aged woman. She was frantically fishing her purse for some car keys but couldn’t seem to find them.

“Looking for these?” The older man lifted up a ring with three keys fixed to the inside.

Like a lost boat finding a lighthouse, her gaze locked onto the small ring of metal. And with a somewhat desperate speed, reached out to them with a vice-like grip. Sliding the ring down her middle finger, she took a thermos with another hand.

“Gabby, you really need to stop getting a late start on the day.” The middle aged man said, giving his wife two pecks on the cheek.

“I know Will, But some unknown number called me a few times, so I had to look up how to block it.” She complained, before giving her husband two pecks in return.

“Weird, I think they tried to call me in the shower this morning. If they’re a scam, I guess I won’t call them back.”

“I don’t really know, but they called me twice in a row and I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with them.” Gabby responded, before turning on her heels and heading towards the garage door. “I’ll be back late tonight. Love you both!”

Gabby gave a quick wave before heading out towards the garage. Will then gave a sigh, wondering why his wife just couldn’t wait for him to walk out with her. Ignoring that, he said goodbye to his son, tapped the doorknob twice, and opened the same door his wife just exited through.

Dylan, now alone in the kitchen, went to go sit down on the couch with his coffee and phone. While lazily browsing social media, he stopped at the account of one of the Heroes he’s been hearing about. It was of an Elven woman who arrived about two months ago. All she’d really do was do small magic tricks on live streams, and sometimes even tell stories of her past life. He clicked on a link to her channel to see a new video recently uploaded. The cover image was her doing a shocked pose next to a silhouette.

Meeting Another Hero!!?!?

Dylan chuckled at the thumbnail and possibly click-baity title before going over to click on it. As he was about to tap his screen, his phone began to buzz from a call. Unknown Number. He was puzzled, thinking about what his parents were talking about minutes before. It could be a scam, but he had nothing else going on, so in the end he could just hang up on them like he usually does. And with a quick swipe, the call began.

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“Hello, is this Dylan Mitchelle?” A quiet voice asked from the other end.

“Uh, yeah. Who is this?” Dylan paused. Was he supposed to let them know it was him? Either way, they already had his name and it sounded like a person, so how bad could it be?

“Yes, we’re calling in regards to a… Caden Mitchelle.”

Dylan’s heart sank, and could feel a pit drop in his stomach. Was this it? Was this the call bringing him back to them? No. Don’t jump to conclusions, not again.

“I’m sorry, could you tell me why you’re calling about him.” His tone shifted, as he had to fight back the choking feeling enveloping his throat.

“My apologies sir, I’m with an organization who’s been monitoring the return of people who have been missing for a while, specifically those who were involved with another world.”

“O-okay?” His heart was pounding faster than a drum solo, and his vision was rapidly tunneling. This was it. It had to be the call. All he had to do was hear the other person say-

“I wanted to inform you that he appears to be one of those people. And he was returned to Earth a few days ago.”

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In the glass-like rooms underground, a large translucent creature stands tall. A giant with a clear purple hue towered above a lone humanoid. With four arms, the giant clenched to its armored fists, while the other two were clasped together in a meditative fashion. On its face was a very detailed oni mask, with bursts of flame bursting out from time to time. Then, with an unnatural speed, a gauntleted fist slammed down towards the human beneath their feet.

Aera gave a smirk, before swirling the ambient arcana into her body, using Restoration to enhance her already muscled body. Then, with pure muscle memory, her body rotated from a ready position to angle her knee upwards. Completing the motion, she twisted her raised leg and threw it outwards into a roundhouse kick.

Dollyo chagi, known as the roundhouse kick, was usually what Aera used for a headshot. But since her opponent was so massive, she faced the incoming fist head on. On the point of impact, the ambience thinned once more, causing the fist to shatter like glass upon contact with the enhanced strike. The shattered pieces vanished instantly, with what remainder of the Emission used on that portion returning to the ambience.

Aera took a moment to appreciate the aptitudes she was blessed with, before fixing her balance, and going down into a sprint position. From there, her enhanced physique took off, cracking some of the floor beneath her feet. Reaching close to the giant, she leaped towards the creature, with a speed and distance of a praying mantis.

The purple giant’s three remaining hands go on the offensive: one attempting to hammer arm her back to the ground, while two were palm strikes from both sides of the center fist.

Losing her paths of evasion, Aera crosses her arms upwards, preparing a block, then using Emission of her own to create a platform right below her feet. The gauntlet slammed into the crossed arms of the much smaller humanoid, crashing her into her own Emission. Her stance remained unmoving, but she definitely felt the shock through her body. Normally she would’ve attempted to displace some of that kinetic energy, but her area of movement was quite limited.

Pivoting to the side, she began to contest the gauntlet through sheer strength, raising her right arm up from the block to throw the titanic arm to the side of her. Then with complete body control, stood atop of the arm before propelling upwards with solely her upper body.

While heading towards the ceiling feet first, Aera began to use Emission, forming a light green phalanx spear in her hands. And upon getting into view of the giant’s head, drove it right into the creature’s neck. It didn’t disappear, unfortunately, but she was still able to twirl around the bar with the dexterity of a gymnast, and land on the top of the spear. Sprinting atop the phalanx towards the oni mask, she leaped, slamming a kick right into the center of the creature’s mask: a twimyo ap chagi (jump front kick).

As the enhanced leg from Restoration collided with the point she began to deteriorate with Entropy, the mask shattered like porcelain, with fragments of the body left behind for only an instant, as it returned to the ambient magic around.

Before plummeting to the bottom of the now empty chamber, she used Emission to create a stairway. She had confidence in surviving the fall, but didn’t want to take the chance after the mental strain that began to build up over the long day of training.

“Well down, Aera!” A voice called down, from a woman who was entering the training room, carrying two bottles of water in her hands.

Aera landed soon after, giving a respectful bow to the person. They didn’t reciprocate, like most of the other people she trained with here, but to her, it was a must.

“Thank you, Lily. Your golems are always great sparring partners. I wish I had enough skill in Emission like that.” Aera responded, taking one of the water bottles from the woman in her thirties.

“Psh.” Lily waved her hand nonchalantly, “Why does Emission matter when you can literally destroy everything with a kick? I wish I had karate moves like that.”

“It’s not karate, it's taekwondo.” Aera corrected, frowning a little at that. It was a minor mistake, but it gets annoying after she has to correct someone for the tenth time that week. And to her, saying taekwondo was karate was the same as someone thinking she was Japanese instead of Korean.

“Sorry about that. Most people here didn’t learn any martial arts before leaving, so I’m not used to seeing it.” Lily apologized, “Do you wanna train again tomorrow? I can reserve the room on my way out.”

Aera shook her head, “Sorry, but I won’t be able to. I was asked to escort a Blue while they visit their family.”

“Well, that’s a shame.” Lily sighed, “Which Blue is it?”

Aera shrugged, “Don’t know. Apparently they only showed up about a week ago.”

Lily’s eyes widened in surprise, giving off a low whistle. “They got a blue lanyard that quick, they must be good. They might even reach our level one day.” She boastfully tugged at her ID card, attached to a thin, violet lanyard.

Aera rolled her eyes before saying goodbye to her training partner. On her way out, she thought more about who she was escorting. She knew that they were an Elf, and for some reason The Hammer didn’t trust him yet. She even gave her specific instructions to not use Entropy or Restoration, or even mention those attributes, unless absolutely necessary. And if it was used or mentioned, gauge his reaction for familiarity. It was a very strange order, but the weirdest part was what Marianne said as she was leaving.

“Miss Aera, I’m counting on you. And if he shows any signs of hostility, kill him on the spot.”