PROLOGUE
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King POV
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“High Minister Darius, are you sure about this?” I asked my most trusted minister for the last confirmation. Even if he answered no, the world is in peril with demons. I will still do the summoning. I just wanted to chat a little about my worries. Besides, we are only 20 minutes away from summoning heroes. I can’t cancel my order now, even if I want to. And so many people watch this event.
“Yes, your highness. I am sure,” He answered with confidence.
“The last sentence of the prophecy bothered me a lot.”
“When the world is in peril, summon the hero, and they will save the world. However, it will not be as you expect them to be.” High minister Darius recited the prophecy. Only a few members of the nobles heard about that last sentence, including him. “I am quite sure that the hero we will summon will have several circumstances, I agree. But we will have to deal with it. Those demons have occupied 60 percent of our territories. If we let them be, they will surely slaughter us before long.”
“I prayed that the last sentence is directed toward corrupted nobles in our country. Maybe the hero we will summon will be majestic, and they will vanquish all evil, including our own. I sincerely prayed that is the most likely case.” I said that to convince the other nobles and myself, who knew of the actual prophecy.
“Drink poison to cure another poison. That’s what we are going to do. We can surely guarantee the first sentence no matter what happens in that last sentence.” High minister Darius said with a smile.
“Alright, let’s do it, Pope Ivan, began the ritual.”
“Yes, your highness.” The pope nodded, and with his cardinal and several top priests and magicians, they circled the magic circle and poured their mana. The ring began to shine brightly in front of the cathedral of this country.
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“We seek a hero to save our world. Let the goddess of faith deliver us a hero to save and bring us to salvation!” the pope chanted, and the magic shot a beam toward the sky. An enormous mana was gathered in the sky, forming a huge magic circle. Mana was condensed at such a rate that the naked eye could see. It begins at the center of that circle. The sky turned dark, and that condensed mana exploded several seconds later, producing a blinding light with hundreds of its fragments separated and flying toward any direction.
BLAR! BLAR!
“Argh!” the pope screamed as one of those mana fragments dropped in front of him like a meteor spell. There is another one crashing toward the wall of the cathedral. The masses that were watching this began to panic.
“Calm down, my citizens. There is nothing to be afraid of. The summoning is over.” I calmed everyone as my top magician said it was finished.
The masses began to calm down and continued to look at the summoned heroes. The mana fragments finally dissipated. The one that crashed before the pope is a girl. She has a lot of blood on her head, while the other is a boy with many injuries. The injuries are to be expected. But why are there two heroes? The prophecy didn’t specify the numbers, but the chant is. So, why are there two heroes?
“Call a cleric and have them treated!” I said with composure. I can’t show any confusion here. The prophecy said clearly that these summonses would not be as expected.
“Sir, we have a situation.” My royal guard Richard whispered to me
“What is it?”
“There are another 3 of those fragments that fell in this town. Should we recover the people inside it?” he said while looking confused.
“Collect them all! Even if they fell on the neighboring countries.” I replied with composure. Relax Gray. This is still within expectation. Nothing of that unexpected prophecy has endangered our nation yet.