As I looked at the summoning circle the inscriptors were working on... I was a bit conflicted to say the least.

On one hand, I seriously believed that I simply wasn’t enough to rule this “Empire” by myself anymore, and even the oldest of the Homunculi around simply weren’t good enough for me.

I needed someone experienced. Someone from another world—from another reality, like me.

But I was also not sure if I would find someone willing to be summoned to this shit hole of a planted, and civilization.

I didn’t have any problems with my people, hell, I’d die to provide the best for them as I genuinely felt responsible for their lives, but our development level was... barely medieval. Probably more bronze age than anything.

But just with some magic in form of enchanted items. Which didn’t really put us in front of any bronze age civilization from earth as they didn’t have magical monsters to worry about, unlike us, and they had this cool thing called centuries upon centuries of development, unlike us.

And finding someone who would willingly accept to be summoned into this planet, filled with people they held no responsibility to, and with a civilization that was barely a few settlements strung together by force of will was... going to be hard.

Not that I’d try and trick anyone even though my situation was dire. Quite the opposite actually, I’d tell them everything.

From our oh so benevolent goddess Rae to our... less than favourable situation.

Would learning the truth push away most of the people? Probably. But I wanted people that were willing to give it all like I was, so I saw no problems with some people deciding that they were better off going to heaven or reincarnating normally.

“Your majesty, it’s done...” The head inscriptors said, and I turned my attention to the large copper plate in the middle of the room, with a copper box lined with a dozen mana stones in the middle of it that was acting as our “altar of summoning”.

It wasn’t grandiose or anything, but it was good enough to work with all the divine inscriptions on it, which were... poorly hidden by a piece of cloth mind you.

I didn’t mind revealing some of the divine inscriptions to the inscribers, but I didn’t want them to know everything.

They just needed to be able to inscribe the hieroglyphics in a certain order that I told them before hand, nothing more, nothing less.

“Well then, let’s get started...” I said, and sent the inscribers out of the room.

They would not get to see what their baby was able to do, but the few guards in the room, and Jonathanne would.

And they were just here for security—my security as while I wouldn’t die from being disrupted while casting the summoning spell, I would be injured if I was disrupted.

Which was something I didn’t wish for as being bedridden this early into the spring would kinda suck.

Steeling my nerves for a moment, I checked my clothes once more, and patted away any dust on them.

A few years back, our alchemists had found a crop that acted like flax, which could be turned into cloth to make normal clothes. Which alleviated my worries about clothing as there was only so much hide in the world to turn into clothes.

And right now, I was wearing a set of clothes made from that flax like material, but unlike how a lot of the clothes we had at hand were, these were dyed so I could give a good first impression to the people I’d meet.

The colours of the clothing I was wearing wasn’t anything out of ordinary though, just a few reds and blues.

It looked great compared to what normal people wore in this world, but it definitely wouldn’t look great compared to what the people I’d attempt to summon would be wearing.

“Hoooh.... let’s do this!” I muttered to myself, and sat down on the cold metal plate on the floor, and put my hands on the altar, and quietly muttered some magical words while pushing some of my mana out of my hands to activate the altar.

My mana was not necessary for it to work, but it was necessary for it to get started.

And as mana flowed out of my body, I could see the inscriptions around the room and on the altars start glowing with a soft blue colour, and slowly the mana stones grew brighter and brighter until a sudden burst of light happened, and I found myself inside of a very familiar white void.

“H-huh where is this place?”

“Am I dead? Hah! Those bastards finally got me at last...”

“Is this heaven?”

...

A cacophony of voices broke out not even a moment after I came to my senses in the white void, and as I raised my head, I found a weird sight of 6 people, looking around like headless chicken. All of whom seemingly from different worlds and different walks of life.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Realising that there were other people here with them, they immediately turned towards the other voices and started asking them questions.

“Hey young man, do you know where we are?”

“...Oho? There are other people in this place... intriguing...”

“Okay, let’s get this straight... none of you is a regressor... right?”

...

As the 6 people in front of me started talking over each other, I quickly wandered my gaze on them, trying to discern at least something about them while they were focused on the humans near them, instead of the blue man sitting on the ground.

There was an asian looking guy, that looked like he was straight out from a Xianxia novel.

A kid that looked to be in high school clothing’s, that was clearly distressed.

A man in plain clothes, that was looking at an empty scabbard on his waist as if he had lost the only important thing in his life.

An old man in either a scientist’s clothes, or a doctor’s clothes that looked lost.

A person whose face I couldn’t make out due to the cloak he was wearing, but his eyes were locked onto me, as if trying to gouge my strength.

And finally... a really buffed up dude in summer clothes that was trying to get the others’ attention.

And I couldn’t help but realise that, while all of them looked to be from different walks of life, perhaps different worlds and universes even, there was one thing common with all of them.

Blood staining their clothes.

The highschooler’s clothes were fully soaked in it.

The cultivator had a small splotch of blood where his heart would normally be.

The man in plain clothes had 3 lines of blood on his clothes, one on his waist, and other two making an x on his chests and arms.

The wizard’s arms were soaked in blood and... the gym rat had a random splotch of blood on his abdomen.

“...That’s... quite like mine, isn’t it?” I muttered loudly as I looked at the splotch of blood on the gym rat’s clothes, and as I did, the other 5 people noticed my presence and turned towards me.

“Ahhhh! What are you?!” The gym rat, who was closes to me screamed, and stumbled backwards.

“Its who are you, not what. Has your mother never thought you how to be a kind person?” I said, and started getting up from my sitting position on the ground as my eyes latched with the gym rat.

“Y-you can talk?!”

“...Seriously? You are in a literal endless white void and the first thing you ask is why a gigantic smurf can talk?”

“Wait... you are a smurf?!”

“...Just get up already, I’ll take your questions one by one until you all are satisfied.”

“Then, where are we Mr....” The cloaked wizard asked, and I turned my head towards him.

“Damian. I am Damian Gastrell. And as to where you are... just think of it as a pit stop on your journey to afterlife. Though I can’t tell you if you’ll go the hell or heaven as that is not my business. I am just here to make an offer to you all.”

“An offer? From a demon? Hah! Like I’d accept something like that... though I won’t stop you fools from trying. It may prove entertaining after all...” The cultivator said, and took a few steps back, and dropped down to the ground, and sat there, watching us.

Not that I minded that though. Afterall cultivators were known to be corrupt as hell in all the books I read, and even if he was willing to come with me, I wouldn’t accept him.

“S-so we are... dead?” The kid in the back asked.

“Yes, you are. I’d like to console you but... not really experienced in such things. If you want, you can just stay in the back and watch like the cultivator sitting back there.” I was saying, and the said cultivator suddenly screamed towards me.

“My name is Xan Ma! Remember it, demon!” He said, and tried to lock eyes with me, but I ignored him.

Whatever power he had while living didn’t matter here.

“...Well then, any other questions?”

“Well, mister Damian—”

“A-actually—”

The old man and the highschooler started talking at the same time, and realising this they both tried to give way to the other one.

“Please speak first young man.”

“N-no! I mean... no, you first sir. P-please...”

Then an awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments.

“Old man, you can ask first. I’ll give the kid another chance to speak after you, as he asked a question already.”

“Very well then... Mr. Damian, I was curious to why you have gathered us here, and what that offer you spoke of was.”

“I will tell you all what my offer is, but first I want you all to have some time to calm down seeing as all of you have died. And while we are waiting for you to calm down, I saw it best that I answered a few questions to ease your minds.”

“I see... then, how long will you make us wait?”

“Only for as long as it takes for the last of you to calm down tough... it seems like all of you are somewhat fine. So, I may start after I take the last of the questions.” I said to the old man, and he nodded, then I turned my head towards the kid and motioned him to ask away.

“Umm... can I go back home, just for a second? You see, I left my cat locked up in my home and... I have no one to take care of her! If I don’t at least release her to the streets, she will die for sure!”

“Sorry but life and death are not things I can control. I am just a man, just like the rest of you. I can, of course, ask the goddess that has allowed me to summon you all here but... I doubt that brat could do that.”

“HEY! I HEARD YOU!” Then Rae’s sound thundered around us, startling everyone, except the mage.

“Rae, you said you wouldn’t interfere!”

“And you said you’d never call me a brat ever again!”

“Me going back on my word doesn’t mean you can too!”

“YES, IT DOES!”

“...Urgh... just ignore her. She’ll go away in a few moments anyways.”

“NO, I WON’T.”

“Yes, you will. Otherwise, I’ll just go back down to earth, destroy the altar, and never cast this spell again and you will have a really, really normal few hundred years in front of you.”

“...”

“...Yeah, that’s what I thought!” I yelled back at her, and then turned back against the startled men in front of me.

“Ahem... like what I was saying, I don’t think Rae, the goddess you just heard talking, can do that.”

“O-oh... okay then...” The kid said, and backed off.

“Anyone else that has any questions?” I asked, and saw the gym rat raising his hand.

“Are you a talking smurf or not? I am kinda confused.”

“...No, I am not a smurf. I am not escaping from Gilgamesh, and living in shroom homes in a forest with all my other smurf friends. My people are called Homunculi—but not as in the Homunculi that are a product of alchemy.

“No. My people... can be best described as humans that were altered by divine powers.”

“Wait, you are a human?!”

“I was a human. I still hold onto my human values, and my personality from my first life, but I am no longer a human, and can be hardly described as being a part of the Homo genus.”

“...Woah... that’s cool.”

“Perhaps it is, perhaps it is not.” I said, and turned my attention to the others.

“Any other questions?” I asked, and seeing no hands up, or stuttering kids, I opened my mouth to talk.

“Well gentlemen, I believe I have an offer that is most interesting to you...”