“The guy’s probably crazy or something.”

“Yeah.”

Back at the classroom, the revelation left me a bit winded.

People were being sent to Diora?

“Hey Damien.”

What did that mean? What’s happening to both worlds.

“Damieeeen.”

How long will this go on? Can they ever come back-

“DAMIEN!”

Sion’s shout got me out of my reverie. I turned to face him, his eyebrows narrowed at my behaviour.

“What did you think of the video?”

What did I think? Well, the dragons were real but he can’t really know that.

“Fake, all of it. The old man’s probably on drugs or something. Too much paracetamol.”

That got them laughing.

“You’re probably right,” Ethan said, smiling at my comment.

As they continued their conversation, I pulled myself into my head once more. First of all, I need answers. Like, why can’t God do anything about the disappearances? Or, why can’t God stop time each time I go fight a monster? Were the dragons really important or something? They weren’t hurting anyone, just trying to find out where they were. This whole situation was already complicated but now its just numbing brain. At least a few things are straight forward; I still need to kill monsters that want to cause harm. Actually... do they?

Aggressive, dangerous, and out for blood – all monsters I’ve met so far had just wanted to kill everything in their sight. What if they were just scared? Violent because they didn’t know where they were? Bah, all these questions and-

Wait.

‘God is the best.’

...No answer. Odd.

----------------------------------------

“What did you think about the light novel I recommended?” Ethan turned to Josh.

“Trash.”

“What?” Ethan said, hitting the table with a little bit of force.

We were in English, doing character analysis of the people in book.

Boring stuff. To pass the time, we talked about random stuff, which mostly consist of games, anime, or shows on Webflix. Then again, I can’t really keep up with what they say. With most of my time spent on monster hunting, I wasn’t able to watch or read most of the things they said were good. Except for One-kick Man which came out a two years ago; that was good.

“All you give me are garbage otherworld LNs.”

That looked like it hurt Ethan emotionally.

“You cannot be serious,” uttered Ethan, a look of disbelief on his usually expressionless face.

“I am,” said Josh, chuckling a bit.

“You have no taste for good books.”

Hearing the topic, I put my opinion on the plate.

“Otherworld LNs? So like stories set in a different world. That seems pretty cool to read."

“Well, it’s not. It’s always the same shit of some average guy being summoned into another world to kill some demon king, and get a harem with unrealistically beautiful women along the way. Like Ethan.”

“Hey! Don’t bring me into your stupid opinions.”

B-but... that’s exactly what happened to me except for one thing...

“Were they summoned by a kingdom or something? B-by a princess?”

“Yeah, it’s like you’ve read them! See Ethan, they are so predictable!”

Oh my God. Where’s my harem?! But I did have Vivian, and I guess I wouldn’t really like to have one in reality. Also, I think Vivian would kill me if she knew I was having these thoughts. She was a bit possessive. Still love her, though I probably can’t see her again... let’s stop having depressing thoughts.

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“Sion, what do you think?” Said Ethan.

“I think you guys need to do work,” he replied.

Surprisingly, Sion was actually being diligent in class.

“Probably thinks they’re trash, Ethan. Just like your battle harems, Sion.”

“I didn’t even say anything!”

I’ve got it!

“Is that why you shout at Ethan when he gets a so-called member in his harem?”

“Yes! Why can’t I have one?”

“The four of you! Shut up and do you work!” Shouted Mr Kaner, the English teacher.

“Sorry, sir,” we said in unison.

The whole class was laughing at that point at our weird conversation.

Pen on paper, I was about to continue doing my work when I low rumble came from the floor beneath. Looking around, no one seemed to notice it. Strange. I kept the pen still and focused on the vibrations. It slowly got stronger and stronger, like an earthquake was about to rip through the building. Yet, it just didn’t feel like it was an earthquake. I just had a feeling.

Minutes passed and the vibrations soon showed visible effects. Pens kept inching towards the edge of desks, a quiet hum had spread in the air, and people started noticing.

“Do you hear that?”

Someone on the other side of the room had spoken out loud what many had been thinking in their heads.

“Yeah,” someone replied.

“The floor feels like its sort of shaking,” another answered.

Soon everyone felt it. The shaking grew stronger and stronger as displays on the walls fell down. People were panicking.

“Get underneath the desks, now!”

As the command sounded from Mr Kaner, chairs were pulled to side so the students could sit below the tables. The whole thing was worrying.

Beside me Sion and Josh were sat close to each other curling up into balls while Ethan was just darting his eyes around the class. I kept a lookout for any monster spawns outside but everything had fallen silent, now muffled by the crescendo of the vibrations.

As the sound got unbearably loud, I covered my ears to not go deaf. A lot of people were crying underneath the desks, huddling up as a form of protection. What is actually happening?

The weird thing was, it was only the sound that intensified, the shaking never grew pasts to being able to knock things down from the walls. No walls crumbled, ceilings collapsing, none of that. It reminded me of what Vivian told me about the ritual she used to summon me. It was like that ritual. A summoning ritual.

POP.

The sound pierced my hands like a bullet, my ear drums feeling its reverberations crystal clear. The shaking abruptly stopped and the class fell to a tranquil state before people rushed out the doors.

Sion, Josh, and Ethan followed suit and I was about to follow them when a familiar click resounded in my head.

“Damien. Damien!”

‘God?’

“It’s me. I’ve been trying to connect to you since I sent you back from Snowdonia. I needed to tell you something but that can wait. I need you somewhere right now.”

‘What happened?’

“Something big, first if all. And something you might remember already know of."

Click.

My eyesight fell out of sync as I found myself standing in a brightly lit cave. The tunnel had dust obscuring my view but I could just about see the torches on the walls that allowed me to see what was inside. All the dust was probably caused by the earthquake or whatever it was.

“Over here.”

The familiar voice came from further in the tunnel. Walking down the path of rocks, I turned a corner to see God in his usual attire.

“What is it,” I asked him.

“Take a look at that.”

His finger pointed past him to reveal absurdly large double doors, the height the same as a two-storey house. Intricate designs filled both doors, depicting a battle between mythical creatures and giant, humanoid beings that shot bolts of lightning and summoned tidal waves. It was the doors that led to the Vault of a Thousand Divines, a special storage hidden deep within the mountains of Garn. A place only found in Piora.

“Where are we?”

I turned to God for an answer.

“New Mexico.”

“The earthquake?”

“It hit the entire world.”

What the hell happened?!

“Can you open it,” God asking me like it was only natural.

“No. Can you?” I returned the question.

“Something is interfering with my powers. The door won’t budge at my command. Time as well seems to be out of my influence.”

I turned to face him once more.

“You mean to tell me you brought me here while my school is still panicking?!”

“This was far more important. And, with all the chaos, it’s safe to say that you being gone for a few minutes will go under your teachers’ radars.”

“I guess you’re right... look, I’ll send you the signal after school to get this looked at but, in the mean time, send me back.”

He fell quiet for a few seconds before answering.

“Alright.”

I found myself in my English classroom again, empty but chairs cluttered everywhere presumably caused by the commotion of people trying to get out. I could hear shouts outside the doorway, the voices of teachers calling the names of children to check whether they were there or not.

“Damien Pierce!"

Hearing mine, I scrambled out of the classroom before speaking for my attendance.

“Here.”

Everyone in my class looked to see me standing at the doorway. Seems like the chaos had been settled. Other classes could be seen standing in lines near their door, teachers standing in front. My class was no different.

“Where were you hiding? I swear when I checked the class just a second ago, no one was in there.”

I could feel Mr Kaner’s stare as I thought of an excuse.

“I was... knocked out underneath one of the tables! When the sound and the shaking stopped, I must have hit my head so hard as I tried to get out that I fell unconscious! Good thing I came to pretty quickly.”

I rubbed a part of my head to play the part. Mr Kraner studied my face once more before ticking something on his sheet and sending me to line up.

Walking past each person, I saw Sion, Ethan, and Josh near the back and quickly made my way towards them.

“Where were you? I definitely didn’t see you unconscious underneath our table,” Sion whispered, worry apparent on his face.

“I... don’t know how to answer that. Honestly.”

All three looked at me suspiciously before simultaneously releasing a sigh.

“At least your here,” Josh said, patting my shoulder.

“That was totally a magical ritual guys. Maybe we can throw fireballs or make mana barrier now,” claimed Ethan.

“Can you not bring anime into this? We could have died in there,” Sion shouted, clearly annoyed at Ethan’s carefree attitude about the whole situation.

“Maybe he’s right,” I said.