I feel as if my whole body is being shaken furiously in a place where the light can't reach. This feeling is nothing like that time when I was in the middle of that eerly pillar of light, this one is much worse. If I had to put the difference in words, it will be like the difference between gently rocking a baby to sleep and to be trapped in a strong whirlpool.
I don't know how much time passed in this horrendous situation, I don't know where is up or down or if something like that exists in this place, but after a while, I could see a red light shimmering in the distance. I made that light that is like a red point as my reference point and tried to reach the source of that light. Little by little the light was getting bigger while the shaking was getting weaker and weaker until the shaking completely stopped and I could recognize that the red light was a mix of many different geometrical patterns, similar to those magic circle that appears so often in those comics that Carla loves.
Once I felt that I was close enough, I extended my hand to grab that magic circle, but.
"Ugh!" I moaned as the nauseating feeling of getting shaken started again, but this time, it was only for an instant and then the darkness dissipated and I slowly started to be able to recognize my surroundings.
***
In a spacious room made of stone, there are many pillars at a set distance between each other as if it was a corridor of trees and between those two corridor of pillars there is a red carpet which starts from the end of the stairs to reach the room until the very back of the room where a throne is majestically ubicated.
On that throne a big man, the king of the Human Kingdom of Talkia, Gedio Crass Talkia is seating exhuding a strong presence that looks as if he can't be defied. His choose of dressing is a heavy golden crown devoid of any gemstones and a blue military outfit, which accentuate that oppressing air and the big sword resting at the side of his seat serves to further even more how powerful he is.
Even though Gedio's face is an aged one his caucasic skin doesn't show any sign of any age spots and his green eyes still exhudes a strong unique to the living. Both his nose and chin are shaped as if it were a strong rock and his white hair combed back doesn't look old, but majestic. No matter from which angle one would watch him, there is no doubt that nine out of ten people would think that he is indeed a strong man.
Standing besides the king, there is an intellectual looking old man dressed in a black suit, similar to a butler. This man's aura in contrast to the king doesn't look that strong, but incredibly cold, as if he wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice anything for his own goal. His body frame is on the slender type and his face is void of expression, without any remarkable features in his face. His eyes are dark brown, similar to his hair, while his skin is caucasian color, the same as the king.
This man is the prime minister of the Human Kingdom of Talkia, Kithan Nerrier, the one who holds the most powerful position in the kingdom that one can get without royal blood and is rumored to have as much authority as the king itself.
On the sides of the room, there are many nobles clad in elegant clothing standing silently talking between themselves but everyone stopped making a single sound when a person clad in dark robes appeared from the entrance of the room.
The robed person slowly walked in the direction to the king and when he was about four meter from the king he kneeled while facing the king.
"Did the summoning succeed?" Asked Gedio with an imposing voice that reverberates through the entire room.
"Yes, Your Magesty! This time we were able to summon seven heroes. With this, I believe we can change the flow of the war!" Said the robed person in a strong and youthful voice.
"We didn't ask about your opinion, the war potential will be perfomed after evaluating the heroes in another place, don't forget that Lord Carrel," said the Kithan with with a coldness that could pierce the heart of the person listening to it.
"It's okay, it's normal to be excited and forget about the time and place in this kind of situation," said the king with a magnanimous voice and then he followed he stood up from his throne and slowly sent his gaze to everyone present in the room.
"My people, you heard the report, the summoning was successful! Now people, everyone who is not needed here leave this place! If they are suddenly surrounded by an excessive amount of people welcoming them, it will give them more harm than good! Fear not that I will evaluate their worth and change the flow of war!" said the king in a loud voice that reached even the corner of the room.
All the nobles present responded with "Yes, Your Majesty!" and they slowly left the room, but one could see the joyful look on most of their faces.
***
When I could finally see again, I realized that I was in a dark stone room with four pillars in each corner. The only source of light was the shining magic circle that was in the middle of the room.
Inside the circle there were seven people including me, all looking as if they were carsick.
We seven were standing besides each other. Carla wasn't one of us, but I didn't know if I should feel relieved or worried, but my last sight of her was her calling me while she was about to cry... let's stop thinking about this and start to analyze the current situation.
Let's start with the seven of us who are in the middle of the circle.
The first person counting from the left side was a young assian boy like me who looks like seventeen ears old, but besides being asian, he didn't had any remarkable feature, in fact I don't think I could recognize him on the street if I ever saw him again, seriously. About 170[cm], not fat nor slim, a standard short hairstyle, how much normal can one be? If he happens to be chinese, korean or japanese I am going to smack him for being too common, at least be someone from Thailand!
The next one is a pretty black girl, her black hair is straight and short, probably not natural, but she looks cute so there is no problem. Her height is about 165[cm], just a little taller than me and she also looks young, just about sixteen years old, and her eyes is black too.
The third one is me, I don't feel any changes in my body besides some strange surge of energy flowing inside my body, I hope that this isn't my lunch.
The fourth one is a mature woman who looks in her early twenties with a heigh of around 175[cm]. Her hair is reddish and her eyes are green, is she Scottish? Her face looks as if she is about to throw up, which isn't strange if she went through the same experience as me, but the thing most remarkable about her is her chest which is further accentuated with her secretary like outfit. It's about 1.5 Carla... why I am measuring bust size with Carla as the base right now? This situation must be messing around with my mind, yup that is.
The fifth one is a muscular guy, but looking at his babyish face I feel that he is about the same age as that asian guy, but considerng how I look compared to my age, I know that I can judge someone's from their look. This guy's skin is bronze color, his hair is black and eyes blue. Looking at his spanish face I guess that he is from Latinamerica, if I had to make a guess, he has spanish blood, native southamerican blood and english blood.
The sixth one is a slim pale man, who looks like the death itself, or that guy at the university who was about to fail all his courses and studied like a mad person to survive. His blond hair has some white hair mixed in and his blue eyes looks hollowed due to that deep black circle around his eyes. I feel that he could be a pretty boy if he took better care of his body, such a waste. If I had his body I would charm every girl that I like instead of being followed by some creepy guys with strange tastes... Trauma surfacing, next.
The last one is a small plump girl. She isn't fat, but not slim either, but her short height which is 160[cm] like me makes her looks wider. She looks like she is about to reach the twenties. Her hair is brownish and her eyes are brown too. Somehow I feel that she is looking me with murderous intent. I can't laught at that in this situation.
Now the most important part. The people surrounding us seven. There are a lot of people clad in ominous black robess muttering some words that I haven't even heard before positioned in a circular formation with us at the center. Their words sounds like greek, but it isn't. This is seriously scary, I tried my best to avoid getting scared by describing the guys next to me, but their creepiness is too much for me. If they are some creepy occult group that needs human sacrifice for some kind of ritual then I need to strike first right?
From the looks of it, there are around thirty robed people. If the guys next to me are allies then our viable fighting potential are me, the macho latino, the too common asian, maybe the cute black girl and the sexy red hair as a bait, while the slim guy and plump girl are probably useless. If they don't have a hidden gun, then maybe I have a chance of escaping.
While I was formulating different escape plans, one of the robbed person approached us with a box with eight rings.
"╔╗ ╬═╓╩ ┠┨┯," said the robed person in a language that I have never heard in a sweet and refined voice while removing the hood that was covering her face.
The face under the robe was like a princess face, similar to the one Carla had when we were still at high-school, even her blond hair and blue eyes painfully reminds me of her.
Joking aside, I really loved her, not romantically, but in a family like manner, she was together with me since the time I was called the "miracle boy"... I should stop this negative train of thought, I am sure that she is okay, for now let's focus in the current situation.
That princess like girl is still saying that strange language, then she took one of the rings that has the magical function to communicate the words that one wants to convey then she tried to talk to us again.
"┏ ┓⊥﹃│ ┃ ┄ ┅ ┆ ┇ ┈﹄ ┌┐ ┓┗┛ ┳⊥└┘∟ ┓┗┛ ┳⊥「" (Nice to meet you great heroes I am the fifth princess of the Human Kingdom of Talkia, Tiriena Rida Talkia), said that princess.
Wait, I could understood what she said!? No before that, how I knew what that ring was, this is the first time that I see something as amazing as a ring that has this kind of function and it works thanks to magic, how I can be so sure that this is magic? I just simply know that it works thanks to magic.
While I was lost in my confusion the princess... Tiriena kept talking to us, saying stuffs like this ring allows the user to communicate with other persons, but I couldn't care more about that right now. Magic exists, then this strange flowing energy in my body, maybe this is magic? Can I control it with my will?
I tried to move that energy to rest of my body and I felt that it was working, then I tried to put all that energy to my head.
"┆┈ ┊╱╲╳¯– —≡჻░" (My estemeed heroes, please follow me to have an audience with His Majesty, Lord Gedio), said Tiriena while I concentrating that energy to my head.
There is a king here? She said heroes, and king... maybe this is not just a simple creepy occult group but something out of those stories that Carla likes to read
While I was thinking that, I tried to reject everything with that energy that was gathered in my head and surprisingly the experiment was successful. I stopped understanding what the princess was saying, it was just a guess, but if the ring works thanks to magic and if that energy in my body is magic then I could repel it. All those stories that I read together with Carla was useful for once.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
I tried to relax that rejection a bit to try to understand the princess again and it worked. I felt that that an energy similar to mine was flowing from the ring that the princess had to me, so I tried to accept that and I was able to understand her words again.
While I was in the middle of my experiment it seems that the other guys already took a ring, before taking mine I tried to talk to the princess.
"Princess, can you understand my words?" I said while trying to convey my words to her.
" ┅ ┆ ┇ ┈﹄ ┌┐ ┓┗┛ ┳⊥└┘∟┈ ┊╱╲╳¯–" (Of course my esteemed hero, as I said before, this ring of communication has the function to communicate words beyond language), responded the princess with a smile.
As I thought, this ring works in two directions, so if they are giving us a ring to each one of us that means that they want us to communicate with other people beside ring wearers.
I took the last ring while reaching this conclusion and then all the "heroes" followed the princess that was going while the rest of the robbed people stayed back in this dark room.
***
The exit of this room was a long spiral like stairs that took us fifteen minutes more or less to reach the top, while following Tiriena I noticed that she was sweating a lot and her face looked exhausted, maybe this stairs is too much for a princess.
On our way to the audience room, the macho latino tried to talk to the other "heroes".
"Oigan, por lo que entendí ustedes están en la misma situación que yo cierto?" (Guys, from what I understood, you are in the same situtation as me right?) said the macho man.
I was a little worried that our conversation could be leaked to this bunch of kidnappers if we are communicating using the rings, but before I could suggest a solution the scottish sexy girl said "Let's talk in english without using these rings, I am kinda worried that we they may overhear us".
"Idea, nice" said the macho latino with a broken english, then he continued talking. "First introductions. My name is Juán Arancivia, those english classes were useful after all", said macho latino, err Juán, let's just stick with macho.
"My name is Linda Torres," curtly introduced herself the plump girl, no Linda and stopped talking. Looking at her face, she looks incredibly confused but once she noticed my gaze she sent me a murderous glare again... just why?
"You kids english needs some improvement you know? My name is Blair Douglas", said the sexy scottish lady with a mature voice.
"I am Hinata Kuroko nice to meet you, ah by the way, Hinata is the family name and Kuroko is my own name so don't mistake it okay?" I said with a sweet smile and cute voice. My real name? As if I would reveal something like that here, I am not that stupid and I hope that those guys are also hiding their personal information. For now let's keep acting like a girl, my pride hurts a lot, however my life is more important, but once I escape from this place I would make sure to not meet any of them again and if I do I will feign ignorance with all my might.
"Hehe, I am Sarah Smith," said the cute black girl in perfect english while looking at me with a relieved face. I guess that she feels safe from having a girl that is about the same age as her near, even though that in reality I am a man who looks almost seven years younger than my real age.
"I.. am... ha... ha... Chris... Chris Thompson... ugh," said that ghost like blond guy. Grito, you need to work out more, you look worse than that princess.
"Me. Me. Tanaka Hokuto. Nice to meet you!" yelled in a super broken english that assian guy... even his last name is Tanaka, can't you be more common!?
I had to do my best to stop my impulse to smack him, since there is still the chance that this is a fake name... but looking at his face, I am pretty sure that he wasn't lying. Leaving aside my irritation at how common this guy is, I am worried about him, specially that broken english.
"Hokuto-san Are you properly understanding us?" I asked Hokuto in Japanese just in case but.
"Hahaha," He just answered me with a dry laught.
The others looked curiously at us so to avoid unneeded suspicions I faced them and said "This guy, Hokuto, can't speak english, you can even guess it from that embarrassing introduction, I will be his interpreter since I can speak Japanese" with a tired voice.
Seriously, kids these age, they should take their lessons more seriously, or that's what would I have said, if Hokuto wasn't the only one who couldn't speak english, in fact, most of the guys I met at the university in Japan was better in English than Hokuto, this kid's future is a little worrying.
Macho's english was the weiredest (without counting Hokuto's), but he was able to follow the introductions without too much problem, so really the only problem was Hokuto.
While we were talking in English between each other, Tiriena looked at us with a little lonely face. Sorry, you are a part of one of the suspicious group, so please stop looking at me with that face that is so similar to Carla, it really hurts!
I did my best to ignore Tiriena lonely eyes and focused on the "heroes" group.
"Now that the introductions are over, shall we share some information," said Blair with her attractive mature voice.
"Let's start with how we ended up here, in my case I was showered by a strong light that caused me a huge vertigo, then I was suddenly in a dark place that shook even more and while following a red light I ended up in that creepy room," Blair told us while having a pained face.
Yeah I understand that, I don't want to remember that nauseating feeling too, but it seems that her situation was the same as me.
"So I wasn't the only one, thanks god," muttered Grito.
"That happened to me too!" excitedly said Sarah, looking happy as if she found some comrades just because they shared the same experience as her.
"Hokuto-san, do you remember a dazzling pillar of light?," I said to Hokuto... let's call him Hugo so he has some distinguishing features. I said to Hugo who was probably lost in our conversation.
"I remember that and then, I was trapped in a deep darkness ugh," answered Hugo with a pained face, I guess that the vertigo was really strong for everybody.
"Hokuto said that he also remembers a pillar of light and then that he was trapped in a dark place, I was the same too" I told both of our side of the story to the rest after concluding that revealing that the one under the light at first wasn't me but Carla is not something that is necessary to say.
"Your cute voice disgusts me, what the hell is with those slut like clothing you are wearing? Ahh, I was also attacked by some strange light beam that caused me strong nausea and after navigating through that even worse night space I reached that dark room," said Linda in a voice that showed how much pissed off she is... wait, isn't she just mad at me for unjustifiable reasons?
I know that this costume is really shameless, but my voice is almost natural, I know that I am sweetening it a little to sound more like a girl, but saying that it is disgustingly cute is too much.
I tried my best to hold up my tears. and looked at macho.
"Ahh, worry not I do not think that you are disgusting," macho told to me as if to console me, but I didn't wanted some macho consoling words, brr too disgusting.
"Thank you for your words, but could you please tell me what happened to you too?" I said while swallowing a super disgusting feelings. This is for the sake of mainting this disguise, for the sake of the disguise, for the sake of the disguise.
"Haha, me too, I was also in those same situation," said macho blushing a little. That's not cute! Not cute at all!
To appease my sudden urge to throw up I looked a Chris and when she noticed my gaze, she smiled back at me. Ahh she is an angel, if I ever have a daughter I will name her Chris.
"Hugu... Hokuto-san, everyone was also bathed in a pillar of light that caused huge vertigo and then muddled through a dark place that was even worse until they reached here," I reported to Hugo since he won't understand anything by himself, but this was dangerous, I almost called him Hugo.
"Understood Thank you very much Hinata-san," Hugo said a little ashamed... come to think of it, it's weird for Japanese people who barely knows each other to call the other by their first name, I guess I was avoiding calling him by his family name since Tanaka was way too common, oh well, it seems that he still thinks that I am "Hinata Kuroko", so that means that my disguise is still intact.
I replied to Hugo's gratitude with just a smile and then I started to think about this situation. Heroes, Magic, a king, a princess, if this is not someone's idea of an elaborate joke, then this is the most ridiculous event I had ever experienced since my life.
While I was lost in my own thought, it seems that Sarah with Macho were talking excitedly about us being heroes and just before Grito could join their chat, the princess stopped walking.
In front of us was a big door which probably is the destination we were going to.
"┆┈ ┊╱╲╳¯– —≡჻╔╗ ╬═╓╩ ┠∟┈ ┊╱╲╳," (Estemeed heroes, this is the entrance to the audience chamber, now you are going to meet with Father, His Majesty Gedio) said the Tiriena with a face that was still sulky because we ignored her the whole time.
***
The door opened by itself and we all walked quietly after the princess.
This room was really spacious, with fancy pillars and some cool decorations. At the other end of the room from the entrance was a big old man seated in a throne, probably the king, and some butler like guy with an icy stare standing besides him. Those two presences were too heavy for us to calm down. One was like a big lion about to leap at us and the other like a cobra trying to bite us while avoiding our attacks.
Between each pillar was some armored knights stationed, they were probably the king's guard. From what I can observe, there are thirty armored knights and if that sword besides the king is not just another fancy decoration, then I had to count the king as an enemy force too.
"☼♦▀▄█ ▌▐░▒ ◥▆▇ ██■▓ 回□〓≡╝ ╚╔" (Welcome heroes, I am grateful that you answered our call), said the king with an impressive voice exhuding an aura similar to Carla's dad's one.
Looking to my both sides, I noticed that the other guys were trembling a little. If I hadn't grown up in Zaichik's family's, I would probably cower too.
"¯– —≡჻░▒▓ ▤▥▦▧▨▩█ ┴┬├─┼ ╞╟▌▐▀▄ ◠◡╭▪▫☼♦▀ ▄█" (My name is Gedio Crass Talkia, the king of Human Kingdom of Talkia)
Everyone looked petrified, so I decided that I should be the first one in the group to talk.
"Nice to meet you, Your Highness. My name is Kuroko Hinata, my companions here are, starting from the left, Blair Douglas, Linda Torres, Juán Arancivia, Chris Thompson, Hokuto Tanaka and Sarah Smith." I conveyed it to him politely while trying to cover my mind with a rejection barrier like what I did before, letting only the ring's energy to be allowed to enter.
From what I understood, those guys here have magic and one that allows comunication that is similar to telepathy so it is not too far-fetched to think that there is a magic that can read thoughts. I don't know if what I am doing will work against that, but it's better than nothing.
"▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ ██■▓ 回□〓≡╝ ╚╔╗ ╬═╓╩ ┠┨┯┷┏ ┓┗┛ ┳⊥﹃﹄ ┌┐└┘∟ 「」↑↓╱╲╳¯– —≡჻░▒▓ ▤▥▦▧▨▩█ ▌▐▀▄▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ ██■▓ 回□〓≡╝" (Heroes, you must be still confused. I will now explain the situation. Right now our world, Koiera, is in danger due to demonic forces. The legend says that if such time comes, we will be able to call powerful heroes from another world bestowed with the blessing of god Wion and they will help us pave a way out of the darkness), said the king with an imposing tone of voice.
In other words, we are at war, so please fight for us. Isn't that incredibly selfish? They just kidnapped us to use us as war weapon.
Anyways, from what I heard, if he is not lying, this is really another world as I suspected. Well it was kinda obvious after suddenly having magic and hearing this strange language that I haven't even heard of before.
"Your Highness. Is, is there a way to return home. I have family waiting for me, so even if it isn't possible at the moment, is there some way to convey them that I am okay?" Nervously asked Blair.
To be honest, this is my main worry, I want to at least check if Carla is okay back at Earth.
"┏ ┓┗┛ ┳⊥﹃﹄ ┌┐└┘∟ 「」↑▆▇ ██■▓ " (We don't have the means right now, but the legend says that the heroes were able to return home after the source of evil was destroyed), answered the king.
Dammit, is he saying that I should fight for them or I won't ever return home? Don't give me that bullshit, you guys were the one who summoned us, so why is there something like a condition of defeating the source of evil to return home?
"Your Majesty, I am sorry to say that I have never fought in a dead or live situation in my life so I don't think that I could be of help," clearly said Linda,without using all that rude attitude that she was showed me before.
" 回 ╞╟▌▐▀▄ ◠◡╭□〓≡╝ ╚╔╗ ╬═╓╩ ┠┨┯┷┏ ┓▥▦▧▨▩█ ▌▐▀▄▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ ██ ╞╟▌▐▀▄ ◠◡╭" (Worry not, the legend says that the blessing of god Wion grants powerful abilities to the heroes, can't you not feel it?) Answered the king to Linda's question saying that kind of nonsense.
... Wait a minute, is perhaps this energy that I am feeling that powerful ability?
While I was pondering about what was that blessing, a robed person appeared with some shiny crystal ball.
"┘∟ 「」↑▆▇▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ ██ ██■▓ 回□" (Estemeed heroes, my name is Carrel Frhal. I understand that you are still confused, so I thought that this mana sensor can help you. A mana sensor has the function to read the amount of mana that a person has), said that robed guy.
A mana sensor? This ring only conveys and accepts the intentions behind the words in a way that the receptor can understand, not the actual meaning of the word so mana is probably the same thing that I am thinking. The energy to use magic.
The first one to touch the crystal ball was Chris. As soon as her hand made contact, the ball shone a light so strong that covered the entire room surprising everyone inside.
The robed guy joyfully screamed "▧▨▩█ ▌▐▀ ◠◡╭□〓≡╝ ╚▄▽⊿◤ ◥▆▇ ██," but I couldn't understood it so it was probably something he said to himself or to someone who wasn't us.
Afterwards, the order of the one who touched the crystal ball were Macho, Blair, Me, Grito, Linda and finally Hugo
Whenever someone touched the ball, it glowed, but nowhere near the radiance it showed with Chris.
The ranking of brightness was Chris>>>>Grito>Blair=Macho=Linda>Me.
The looks of the robed guy was really disappointed when he saw that the glow of the crystal wasn't even close than the incident with Chris.
If the amound of brightness is equivalent to the amount of mana, then that means that I was the lowest... eh? I didn't include Hugo in the rankings?
This is because when Hugo touched the ball, it didn't glowed at all and since he was the last one, it made the robed guy's face incredibly disappointed.
Leaving the embarrassing episode of Hugo, from what I understood after touching the crystal ball, it was that this strange energy inside my body is mana not the powerful ability, but with that I can deduce what is the ability I received. It is the ability to understand the basic characteristics of everything at a single glance.
That's right, I not only understood what that ring was before someone explained it to me, I also knew from the beginning what was the function of that mana sensor and just looking at those armored guys I know that the armor is made from some alloy that has magical properties that enhances their defenses.
If this is the powerful ability bestowed to me, then it is almost useless in combat, now I seriously need to run away if I don't want to die, since my mana is the lowest one from the group if I ignore Hugo that means that I am probably the weakest of them.