[Prologue]
Noah, do you know what it means to be a god?"
At the demon's words, Noah could hear Evan's hyperventilation worsen. Emma had already passed out on her feet but had instinctively continued to channel mana to Evan's seal that he had made before he collapsed, now rapidly fading away. The demon crouched, bringing his face mere inches away from Noah's own, and his hands that were frantically trying to paddle his body backwards froze.
"It's this."
A snapping of fingers resounded, and the surroundings melted away. What was a malefic castle of black and red turned into a barren wasteland. An illusion had been cast, but Noah's brain didn't quite register the power the demon needed to have been able to cast an illusion on their party, which had a master of illusions. No, he couldn't. His mental faculties had frozen as well.
The demon stared at the paralyzed Noah and sighed with an expression of infinite disappointment.
"In the end, it always comes to this. How endlessly dull.
And you—enough of that. It irritates me."
He sliced the air in a smooth, indifferent motion. Over 20 meters away, Mia's arm fell to the floor.
"Huh? Wh-Wh-Wha-M-My arm! My arm! No no no-"
The demon looked at Evan, whose throat had closed up in fear at this point. His face was pale, and he was desperately in need of oxygen. He was on the verge of death.
"I suppose I'll help you. The four of you may not have qualified, but you might make the next ones entertaining enough to actually begin my game proper, I reckon."
He snapped again, and an incomprehensible creature that radiated a demonic presence leagues above the 'heavenly kings', who were supposed to be this demon's four strongest retainers they had subjugated appeared, though it was far weaker than the demon that had called for it.
"These four, to the capital."
A blink later, they appeared in the throne room where they had first appeared.
—
"Draven, if you end up being the reason for my tardiness to the summoning, I will personally castrate you."
"That seems excessive. I can't be blamed for drinking the night before before a legendary ritual."
"You definitely can. I'm sure His Majesty will be 'oh-so-pleased' when your hangover decreases your mana output and we end up summoning four potatoes instead of four heroes."
"I highly doubt that mana output will sink that low. Maybe the heroes would end up with one or two lesser skills. The last 4 heroes in the summoning 200 years ago had 6 or 7 anyway. One or two less won't do that much damage. Besides, as otherworlders, they're guaranteed to have a large mana pool regardless of the mana used for the summoning, so there's not much to be concerned about."
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"What's the point of a hero's mana if they don't have a hero's skills, moron? Skills are seventy percent of a hero's prowess."
"Like I said, they'll have four or five skills anyway, so stop stressing about it, Lirael."
The grumbling Draven and the upset Lirael happened to be flying across the sky at the speed of sound at the moment, and communicating with a short-range telepathy spell to attend a summoning ritual, as two of the seven greatest archmages in the nation of Eldoria.
"Hey Lirael, you wouldn't sell me out, right?"
Draven murmured, with a slightly nervous expression on his face, as they landed in front of the royal palace without sparing a glance at the royal guards, who let the two esteemed figures through the moment they caught sight of their extravagant robes that gave away their identities.
Though archmages would customize their robes, the general structure of their extravagant archmage robes would remain the same, such that no sane person that had the money to do so in the first place would dare to impersonate.
"I think that if I were to receive 10 grand magic stones, I would be so happy I would forget about your little blunder."
Lirael casually spoke about an amount that could feed a commoner family for their whole lives.
"What? You're too pricey. 7 stones?"
“His Majesty? I have something to-"
"I'll have them delivered."
As Lirael spoke in a slightly louder voice, despite still only walking to the throne room with the King nowhere in sight, Draven caved in. Ten stones weren't all that much, and Draven could make that amount in a few hours if he wanted to.
As the two arrived in front of the throne room, they placed their hands on a crystal orb that the two royal guards outside it were holding. Although no sane person would dare impersonate an archmage, if they were about to meet the royal family, certain security measures were definitely necessary.
As the crystal orb verified the identity of the two, the royal guards opened the doors to the throne room, which opened up into a tall and long room with sunlight that streamed in through the tall clerestory windows that stretched from a meter above the base of the wall to a meter below the top of the wall, topped off with a vaulted ceiling. The room exuded majesty, with five figures that stood around a circle on the floor in the middle of the room, glaring at the two latecomers.
Of course, the two hurriedly kneeled, not forgetting royal courtesy, ignoring the glares directed towards them. It was standard courtesy to kneel until addressed when in the presence of King Thorian, currently sat on the throne.
The king was adorned in royal red robes, with a presence about him that drew all the eyes in a room he strode into. Beside him, was a person whose cute beauty resembled a doll, Princess Elara, who seemed to be slightly nervous at the moment.
"You may rise, Archmage Draven and Archmage Lirael. I shall excuse your late coming as preparation to show your peak performance today."
King Thorian declared after a full minute of silence, enough to cause the archmages to begin to perspire in nervousness.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The two said in unison while Lirael subtly shot a frown in Draven's direction, who pretended not to see it. They were, in fact, not in peak condition. The Sixth Circle - Sonic Flight spell was much more taxing in mana consumption than the simple Third Circle - Fly spell, and had exhausted their mana by around 20% from six hours of usage. Also, Draven was hungover. Their performance would probably be barely at the level of an average archmage, unlike that of the peak performance expected of them.
Of course, this was information both of them conveniently 'forgot' to mention.
The summoning spell the seven archmages were about to use was ancient, usable only when the mana concentration on the continent rose above a certain level. The mana concentration would rise as the monster population rose, and the summoning would cause mana on the continent to deplete to average levels as the continent’s mana was sucked into the void between worlds. This would notify anyone who used mana on the continent, which was basically everyone. The ancient spell was also indecipherable to the point of it being impossible to copy, much less examine or understand, and was like humanity's last resort to monster calamities.
As heroes were sucked in from another world, their bodies that were exposed to the void would be protected from harm by the mana from the archmages, forcing the void to positively alter their bodies and brains. Generally, as more mana was used, the void would alter the heroes' bodies to a greater extent.
To the informed, what was about to happen with the summoning conducted by 7 peak archmages, 2 of whom were at suboptimal performance, was clear.
As a blinding light shone, 4 heroes appeared.