He deactivated the Elemental Coated Armour and slowly descended to land gently on the ground. Then, he walked over to a rubble that formed like a seating and made himself comfortable as he could while sitting there, waited for the arrival of the strangers. Several minutes passed in silence until four people soared through the sky and landed heavily several meters away from him. All, except for one, who stumbled and fell flat on his face.

“Ouch!” Martin exclaimed loudly in a pained voice.

“Careful!” Maxwell said, alarmed to see his colleague fall like that.

“S-Sorry, but this is my first time flying and landing, so I need practice,” replied Martin, apologising for his bad landing.

“Up you get,” Natsu said, lending him a hand. Martin took it and Natsu helped him up to his feet before smiling and saying, “It’s okay. Practice makes it perfect. I’m sure we’ll all get more opportunities to fly around and land.”

“Is this really your first time flying and landing?” Maxwell asked, eying Natsu curiously.

“Not really, but this is no different from jumping and landing, except you’re landing from a high place,” Natsu said and winked at him.

Both Maxwell and Martin looked quite surprised before Gram, who was looking around, said in a quiet voice, “That’s a simple way of thinking about it.”

“Simple beats complex any day,” replied Natsu with a smile. Then, the smile slowly vanished and was replaced by a frown when he asked, “So, have you located him yet because I sure can feel someone’s presence and they’re not with us.”

“Yes. I can sense it too, and… I sense that their presence is similar to ours,” said Gram, looking around with his eyebrows narrowed, searching for that person.

“Ours?” Martin asked, looking puzzled.

Gram nodded and stated, “Yes. He feels… different from the people I’ve met and his presence is similar to ours. Maybe he’s someone from another world, just like us.”

“Ah!” Martin said, widening his eyes as if he knew something. “Oh! Oh! I know! It’s… it’s … uh.. the missing ninth member of that… uh… what’s its name?”

“What name?”

“Our group name! The princess told us that a few minutes ago, but I forgot! Damn! What is it…?”

“You mean the Nine Heroes of Legends?” Natsu asked, and Martin clapped his hands together in triumph.

“Yeah! That’s it! He’s that someone that the princess said was missing from the summoning! They got to be it!”

“I think we should call out,” suggested Maxwell, to which Gram nodded his head in agreement. Raising his voice, The Gundas Hero shouted, “Hey! Stranger! Anyone! Come on out! We know you’re here! No point in hiding!”

His shout got carried all the way to the place that Lakshman was using as a seating place. He did not immediately rise to his feet and go greet them due to feeling funny about the people that came to greet him.

“They are a strange bunch of people,” he thought, directing that comment to Asura, who chuckled.

“Yes, but we’ll appear the same in their eyes. Now, let’s go, although, be cautious,” suggested Asura in his mind.

“You don’t need to tell me,” said Lakshman out loud. With a sigh, he rose to his feet and moved to greet them while saying, “Hello strangers.”

Upon hearing his voice, the four heroes turned to face in his direction, showing different expressions on their faces. Maritn was looking nervous, Maxell was calm, Natsu was eying him quizzically, and Gram was looking at him without a change in his expression. As Lakshman gradually drew closer to them, Gram suddenly materialised a sword out of thin air and pointed it at him while shouting words of warning.

“Stop where you are and identify yourself!”

Lakshman stopped and blinked in surprise as Asura said in his mind, “So, he’s their leader. Quote an imposing character. Introduce yourself as me.” When he sensed the doubt in his present self, he continued to say, “We don’t know what’ll happen if we use your name.”

“Could be vice-versa,” suggested Lakshman, but Asura continued to insist and made up his mind because of it.

Focusing his attention on their leader, Lakshman smiled and introduced himself by saying, “Hi. Sorry for the late introduction. My name is Asura and, just like you, I came from another world.”

For the first time since arrival, Gram changed his expression to that of astonishment, shocked by the name. The others, on the other hand, did not seem all too shocked by the unusual name.

“Asura? That’s a tough name,” commented Martin, sounding intrigued.

“Hey! Don’t comment about someone’s name, especially not in front of them,” said Natsu quickly, smiling wryly at him.

“Ah!” Martin said, realising his mistake and quickly opting to apologise by saying, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to offend. It’s just that I found it strange. That’s all.”

“And again, you comment,” said Natsu, looking exasperated just as Martin clapped his hand over his mouth, looking shocked.

“I’m… nervous…” muttered Martin finally, looking dejected.

“Well, don’t be nervous! We’re heroes! Heroes don’t get nervous!” Maxwell said in a firm voice, winking at him.

Martin nodded his head in silence, choosing to lower his head in shame.

Maxwell turned back to Lakshman and introduced himself, saying, “Hey man. I’m Maxwell, but call me Max if you wish.”

“And I’m Natsu! Call me Natsu,” said Natsu with a smiling face, making a salute with two fingers while saying in an undertone, “not like you can call me anything else.”

“Max. Natsu. Nice to meet you,” said Lakshman, speaking and smiling politely. Then, he looked at Gram and asked, “Are you are?”

Gram remained silent as he stared at him with a serious expression on his face. Natsu and Maxwell looked at him in surprise because of the serious look he was giving Lakshman, who was now going by the name of Asura.

“What’s the matter, Gram. Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” Maxwell asked, looking questioningly at their leader.

Gram did not immediately speak, continuing to stare fixedly at Lakshman before taking a few seconds to ask, “Is your name Asura?”

Lakshman blinked in surprise and quickly replied, “Yes! Asura is my name!” Then, he thought, “Does he know…? Somehow? Or is he reading my mind?”

“Not possible with me here to block any kind of mind reading skills,” replied Asura reassuringly.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Gram furrowed his eyebrows and said, “So, you’re a demon then.”

“Demon?” Lakshman asked automatically, alarmed by the twist. “What do you mean?”

“In my language, Asura means Demon. I guess you didn’t know,” replied Gram in a quiet voice.

“Uh… I’m sorry, but back in my world, my name means the sun!” Lakshman replied in a firm voice, but Gram looked disbelieving.

“Show me the proof!” Gram said, pointing his sword threateningly at Lakshman. “It’s the only way I’ll believe you.”

“Hey! Hey!” Natsu suddenly interrupted by getting in between them. “Knock it off, Gram! The firm proof that he’s one of us is the weapon he’s holding at his side! Take a look at it and you’ll see that it’s the same one that flew past us earlier!”

“Ah!” Maxwell said, finally recognising the weapon by Natsu’s words. “You’re right and now that I think about it, I can sense something about it being similar to my own weapon.”

“Yes. I sense it too. You also sense it, right? Right, Gram?” Natsu asked Gram with a serious look on his face.

Gram looked at him for a moment before dematerialising his sword and turning away while folding his arms. Natsu sighed and turned back to Lakshman, introducing the grim form of their leader.

“This is Gram. He’s a bit serious,” said Natsu, a hint of exasperation on his face.

Lakshman smiled and said, “Haha. Right. So, it’s just the five of us?”

Natsu shook his head and began to say, “No, there are more but—!”

At that moment, Lakshman sensed that someone was fast approaching them while they heard a loud shout from the distance.

“Hey, guys! I’m coming!”

They all turned and saw a large cloud of dust rising in the distance as something or someone was running towards them at an alarming speed. Soon enough, they could make out the figure of the person rushing towards them, waving their arm in greeting.

“I’m here~!” He yelled, grinning broadly with great enthusiasm.

“What the hell?!” Maxwell exclaimed, looking thoroughly bewildered by the sight of his colleague running towards them. “What the hell is Vikram doing here?! And, is he running? Are you serious?!”

“He’s definitely running! Man! What speed!” Natsu said softly, looking wide eyed as his colleague drew closer.

Vikram ran towards them at super speed, picking up dust along the way. Once he drew closer to them, he realised he did not clearly know how to slow down due to the alarming speed he was running at. As such, he gritted his teeth and attempted to slide on the ground, which resulted in him tripping over and tumbling several times before flying past Lakshman and crashing heavily on the ground.

“Oh my…! That’s going to hurt!” Martin said, recovering from his sadness to look wide eyed at the place their colleague crashed at.

From out of the dust, Vikram suddenly appeared, and he rushed over to them with a bleeding face and asked, “Hey! Sorry I’m late! So, where’s the alien ship? Where are the aliens? Didn’t they show up yet?”

“Wait! Wait!” Natsu said quickly, waving his hands in an effort to calm the energetic person. “You’re bleeding, Vikram!”

Surprised, Vikram placed a hand on his forehead and brought it down to glance at, surprised to find blood there. Then, he waved it as if he did not care by saying, “That doesn’t matter! The aliens! Where are the frigging aliens!”

“Oh. About that,” said Natsu, and he turned to Lakshman to ask, “Do you know what happened here? We did see a large alien ship hovering here and then a large being appeared out of nowhere. Then, the ship just disappeared after it got, I don’t know, crushed or something?”

“Oh. I dealt with them,” replied Lakshman with a smile.

There was a moment of pause, as all five of the others turned to stare at him with incredulous looks on their faces.

“Can you repeat what you just said because it sounded unbelievable,” said Maxwell slowly, a look of utter disbelief on his face.

“Unbelievable?! That’s an understatement!” Vikram exclaimed, blinking furiously at Lakshman. “Seriously dude! Who are you, and what makes you think one guy can take out an entire alien ship full of really strong aliens?!”

Lakshman narrowed his eyebrows and asked, “First off, how do you know the strength of the aliens and second of all, my name is Asura. I’m from another world, just like everyone else here.”

“Oh! Sorry!  It’s great to have another friend along the way!” Vikram said, looking momentarily surprised before greeting him in a half-hearted respectful voice. Then, he got back to topic and said, “That still doesn’t explain how you were able to defeat them! Really! Just you against an army of aliens!”

Lakshman did not understand and said, “I… went against them, head on, and then defeated them. It’s as simple as that.”

For a moment, there was silence before Gram broke it by asking, “I guess a demon is powerful enough to defeat them.”

“Who’s a demon?” Vikram asked, turning to him with a puzzled look on his face.

“He’s a demon,” said Gram, nodding his head towards Lakshman, who was staring at him with wide eyes in shock.

“You’re a demon?!” Vikram asked fiercely, rounding on Lakshman.

“No! I’m not a demon!” Lakshman retorted back, an indignant look on his face. He turned towards Natsu and asked, “Natsu, is it? Please explain!”

Thus, Natsu explained about how the name, Asura, translated to mean ‘demon’ in Gram’s language. Vikram turned to give an appalled look that clearly showed that he could not believe that man.

“I can’t believe you would label him a demon based on his name! That’s like… name racism!” Vikram said, looking very annoyed.

“Names are given for a reason!” Gram replied back without looking at him. Then, he turned to give a fierce look at Vikram while asking, “Or, are you saying you got your name because the name was randomly thought of?”

Vikram clenched his fists with anger and snapped, “Are you kidding me?! Are you?!”

“Maybe you’re kidding yourself, but I don’t,” replied Gram in a firm voice.

As they all stared at him, Lakshman wore a resolute smile while Asura, in his mind, said, “Lakshman! Let me take over for just a few minutes! I want to have a word with this arrogant man.”

“I don’t think he’s being arrogant. I mean, it’s good of him to worry about the pros and cons when meeting someone, although, he’s taking it a little too far,” stated Lakshman, chuckling to himself. When he sensed that Asura was going to argue, Lakshman quickly said, “Drop it, Asura. We’re in an unknown world, and he’s probably in a bad mood. Let him be.”

“Fine, but I don’t like this man,” said Asura in a heated voice.

Lakshman smiled to himself while remaining calm on the outside while the others argued over his name. While he was worried about the ‘demon’ impression Gram had of him, he decided to deal with it later. For now, he decided it was imperative to find out about the world he was in and find out how to go back to his own world.

A few minutes later, Lakshman sensed that there was something approaching them at a fast pace, but it was slower compared to the five people that reached him. It soon turned out that a transportation vehicle was flying towards them from the sky, which stopped to hover above them and then descend slowly. Once it touched the ground gently, the door at the centre of the vehicle opened and a set of stairways came down towards the ground.

From out of the entrance, someone appeared, and he greeted them by saying, “Hey guys! We’re finally here!”

“What took you so long, Fred?” Vikram asked crossly.

“Well, sorry for being unable to fly like them or run like you, so we took the alternative,” answered another person, who turned out to be William, as he came out and descended down the stairs behind Fred, who was looking sad. “Don’t blame us if we aren’t as naturally talented like you lot!”

“You know, William, what you said sounds like an excuse than a reason,” stated Maxwell with a disapproving expression on his face.

William was enraged, but before he could say anything, Ward, who had come out, said in a smooth voice, “It’s more comfortable to ride in these than fight the wind and needless injure your legs.”

“I’m not injured!” Vikram said in a strong voice.

“Maybe, but your forehead clearly says otherwise,” stated Ward telepathically, looking at the injury sporting on Vikram’s forehead while Lakshman stared at him in surprise.

“He’s suing telepathy,” thought Lakshman, realising that the man was unable to use his voice to speak with.

“T-That’s nothing!” Vikram said in a sharp voice, touching it lightly with his hand as it hurt a little.

Once all three of them descended and stood in front of them, Lakshman looked around at them all. He guessed that everyone here was around similar ages, with Gram, William and Maxwell being older because of their aura. He could also sense a state of understanding that was going through between everyone here, which was a rare sight for him to see.

“So, he’s the last remaining hero that got lost in the summoning?” Ward asked telepathically, looking intently at Lakshman.

Lakshman became a little annoyed by the choice of wording and stated, “I’m not some school kid to get lost. Something happened during the summoning, and I ended up here instead of wherever you guys were summoned to.”

Ward seemed to think that his previous words hurt Lakshman, so he telepathically said, “I’m sorry if I offended you, but we all arrived at the same place at the same time. That’s why I assumed that the last person got lost.”

“Oh. I see. That’s fine. No offense taken,” replied Lakshman with a smile, realising that he mistook the man’s words to being rude.

“Well, that princess will be pleased that the Nine Heroes of Legends are finally together,” said William, and they turned to look at the transportation vehicle.

Lakshman could hear a female voice speaking gently to whoever was inside the transportation that got here there. Then, several Royal Guards exited the vehicle before standing at attention next to the stairs at the bottom. Lakshman wore a bright smile because he knew, after listening to the story of their summoning from the others, that this person summoned them. This meant that she would know how to return him back to his home world.

As the princess exited the vehicle, the questions he was forming in his mind suddenly got blown away by the person he saw. His body seized up, his eyes widening to the max, and his mouth gapped open because of the person he thought he would never see in that place. It was one of his wives, Erza.