Clenching his hands into fists, Takehide opened his eyes just in time to see a magic circle of some kind fade from existence. Laying a couple of feet away from him in both directions were other people in similar states. "What is this...?" Was the first thing he was able to mutter to himself before glancing towards a group of robed individuals. "What is this...?" He'd ask aloud again, just a little under a mumble as he pushed at the stone brick floor.
The first thing Takehide noticed was the lack of pain in addition to the return of his physical strength. No longer was he blind, and as he checked under his arm, there was no evidence he had died. Letting out a soft sigh, his police uniform also seemed unsoiled by blood, but his kevlar was missing and something told him it would be useless here.
Standing upon his knees, Takehide's gaze rushed over one male to his left. The young man had dark black hair and wore a light grey almost white, and green, hoodie. There was a strange contraption attached to his wrist, he was just coming to. Glancing to his right were two other males, which caused him to blink lightly seeing their attire. One of them had light brown hair and wore clothes similar to that of a prestigious three-piece school uniform. Gripped in his hand was a bow of some kind, but he didn't see any arrows on his back.
Slowly he turned his head a bit more to see another boy with dark hair dressed in a dark blue jacket and slacks. There was a sword in his hand. All of them appeared to be around his age, as they were in their late teens, as young adults. 'It seems we're in the same set of circumstances, but from completely different walks of life. Who are they... And where are we?'
Standing on his knees, he started to notice a weight in his right hand, and to his surprise, he found a spear in his grasp. It was much lighter than it looked and as he stood up, he rested the butt of the armament against the brick at his feet. "This... Isn't quite what I was expecting..."
Soon after he had stood up, the other two on his right stood up as well. This place was dimly lit, so as the magic circle had faded, their faces were hardly visible except for the parts illuminated by torchlight.
His gaze then dropped to the last one to rise, the boy with the shield-like crest on his arm. 'Is this like one of those light novels where heroes are summoned to other worlds? Does that mean... I'm no longer serving Japan?' From what he could see no one seemed at all to comment on the words he had spoken before. Did they even know Japanese?
'They appear taken aback by the current scene before them,' He pondered to himself before resting his eyes on the men in the robes. They appeared to have some sort of magic staves on their persons. On top of that, he could see their desperation in the light that kept them visible to the new arrivals.
"O' Brave Heroes! Please, save our World!" A man with short hair with a circlet adorning his forehead spoke up, he articulated his tone to sound like a clergyman imploring a group of Lords for assistance.
"Excuse me?" The Shieldbearer asked as he was on his hands and knees, in the middle of rising to his feet. Then as the others spoke up, he raised his head to look at the three of the other summoned humans who stood a short distance from him.
"Huh?!" The two others next to Takehide seemed put off by the words spoken by the man.
All the while it seemed he stayed quiet, there was no reason to speak up, as he very well believed they would explain themselves in due time. That was when one of them stepped forward and repeated, "Brave heroes! Please save our World!"
Narrowing his gaze on the men who stepped forward, Takehide was about to open his mouth when the fellow teen with the shield spoke up. "Seriously?"
"What do you mean by that?" The bowman asked as he tested out the tensile strength of the string to his weapon, before glancing up towards the clergy that were gathered in front of them in the way of the only exit to the room.
"There is a long and complicated story behind this, but we've summoned you four Cardinal Heroes here using an ancient Ritual." Said the man who had spoken first, the others in robes remained behind him nearest the wall beside the exit.
'Cardinal Heroes?' Takehide narrowed his gaze on the man ahead of them, he didn't like the sound of it; being called a Cardinal Hero and all.
"Our world teeters on the brink of destruction," The man had his arms out from his sides, his palms to the ceiling and his fingers loosely spread apart. It appeared he was peaceful, even as he clasped his hands together like a western worshiper as he pleaded once more. "We beg you, O' brave heroes! Please help us!"
Still, Takehide remained patient as this man gave an inkling of what was to come. Taking in a deep breath, he still thought back to his loyalties to his country and his duties that had been lost thanks to dying at the hands of someone unworthy virtue in his eyes.
At the same time having escaped from the prison of death, he felt his strings to his previous world were now extinct. If he were to have gone back, would it be to the grave? He didn't want to ask, and if that were the case, then he was nothing more than a Ronin without a master.
"We can go back home right, right?" Itsuki asked the one in the prestigious black and gold-trimmed school blazer with a red tie. There was an ambient frown on his face and a stern crease of his brows.
"Likewise," said Ren who was the one dressed in a plain blue sports jacket and black turtleneck. His expression wasn't much different from Itsuki's, but it was far more passive in all retrospect.
From the corner of his eye, Takehide could see Naofumi, the one with the Shield on his Arm, just looking at the others with his mouth gaping open. He seemed to be the only polite one here and likely someone who was disappointed in the other supposed heroes present.
"My name is Eno Takehide," the police officer extended his left hand towards Naofumi across his torso, "From these circumstances... I'd like you to call me Takehide."
Naofumi blinked up at the man the black militant police uniform introducing himself in the middle of all this. From what he could see from the blue strips on the collar of his uniform and sleeves, it reminded him of the Sino-Japanese War Uniforms back in the 1930s, the strips on his raised collar were even complete with golden stars.
Before the shieldbearer could respond, Ren spoke up as he threateningly raised his weapon and pointed it towards the man pleading with them. "Don't you guys feel any guilt at all for bringing us here without our consent?!"
Both Naofumi and Takehide's gaze narrowed on Ren, all the while Itsuki had one hand on the grip of his weapon and the other on the tensile string. 'It appears two of these guys are ready to fight?' Takehide thought troublingly.
"And if you send us home as soon as peace is restored, we'd have worked for nothing." Itsuki continued to speak after Ren was finished with his bout. It appeared neither of them was honorable folk, wanting something to gain out of this journey. Though Takehide wasn't all that different, for he believed he had nowhere to go back to as he had already faced death.
"Hm..." Takehide sighed as he settled his gaze on the men, having questions of his own, but still, he was sure they would be answered in due time. "It appears your heroes would like to know if you're willing to accommodate us for their troubles. Are you? I suppose you are..."
Naofumi looked up towards Takehide as he spoke, a rather surprised expression on his face that the officer had taken part in this team-up; though that clearly wasn't the case.
With his hands still clasped together, the magic-user who claimed to have summoned them spoke once more as he stepped forward, closer to them. "F-First we'd like you to have an audience with the king of our country, Melromarc."
Takehide raised a brow at the peacefulness of the unsteady male, it was true he meant no harm. A faint smile formed over his lips before he rolled his fingers along the shaft of his spear.
"You can negotiate your reward after that, so please..." The man continued to plea.
Ren lowered his sword, slightly intimidated by the non-violence, and half-heartedly declared, "Fine, I guess." After a few seconds, he began to move forward, followed by Itsuki. The two of them were almost in sync with their movements as one was only a few paces behind. They were already following the magic clergymen out of the room.
"I suppose their demands aren't going to change, no matter who they talk to." Takehide blurted to himself watching as the two others marched forward. He was sure he could feel Naofumi's gaze on the back of his head, "Think they'll be beheaded for interrupting a sovereign?"
"Ah... They do seem that confident." Naofumi stood there a bit blown away by what happened, only to watch as Takehide followed behind the others as his spear rested under the cross belt across his back. "My name is Naofumi Iwatani," Introducing himself to Takehide's back, "Call me Naofumi."
Glancing over his shoulder as he came to a halt, he grinned. "Alright, Nao-kun~"
"Naofumi," a soft chuckle escaped from the shieldbearer's lips.
"We'll see about that," Takehide gave him a light wave as he continued after the others to wherever they were being led to. 'For now, these people can be trusted, I suppose...' He had no idea what to anticipate from what had just transpired or what was going to happen next, so he'd just go with the flow.
As he followed behind the two other Heroes, the corner of his eye grasped his attention as he passed a barred window. There was no glass, and there was a foreign breeze brushing across his cheek. Peering out the window, he stopped, and soon after Naofumi was staring out the same window from a lower step in the spiraling staircase.
'We really are in another world...' Takehide thought to himself as one of the others ahead of them assumed the same thing.
"We're really in another world, huh?" Itsuki surmised as he looked over the buildings outside and far below. They appeared to be on an elevated piece of land and the buildings outside were reminiscent of Mediterranean architecture, mostly than of Ancient-Medieval Rome.
"Reminds me of World History Class..." Takehide uttered quietly.
Naofumi nodded in agreement, noting the architecture as well as he approached the window, grasping at one of the bars in the window. Feeling the breeze on his face, a far more apparent smile finally crept across his lips. "Such a pleasant breeze..."
"You're not wrong..." Takehide snickered to himself as he placed his attention on him, "Though this world doesn't look all that threatened with damnation from what I can see from here. That's the most unsettling part..."
Naofumi glanced up towards the officer and frowned, "You're not wrong there I suppose... I do have to say though, it's like one of the typical sales pitches you'll see in all those tour brochures."
Takehide lightly nodded in response as he had only been in two different countries, Japan and China, and they were nothing like the Mediterranean.
"Wait," Itsuki turned around and looked to Naofumi, "Have you two not traveled outside of Japan?" His voice was rather condescending as if he was looking down on them for such a thing.
"Judging by the heat, this place has a very similar climate to the Mediterranean standard back home," Ren spoke as he didn't turn all the way around to even glance at Takehide and Naofumi.
"I had no interest in traveling," Takehide responded as his hand hooked itself on where his waist and diagonal belt met, leaning on his spear in the process.
Naofumi who was about to apologize for his lack of knowledge and vocabulary scratched the back of his head looking at his newfound colleague. While the other two seemed gung-ho with their confidence, Takehide seemed more proper per se in his eyes.
"Neither did I, honestly." Naofumi finally responded right before the others began moving again.
Finally, after several minutes of climbing steps, they made it into the grand hall of the Castle. From what he could see, the entire foundation had been built on elevated land, which placed the castle well above the rest of the city they had been viewing earlier.
As they entered the throne room, through two giant doors at least twelve men high, they were greeted by a red carpet trimmed in an exemplary gold woven pattern along the edges. The floors were marble slabs and the ceiling was embellished by golden chandeliers. Everything he saw was grandiose displays of wealth and power which is very typical of royalty. It reminded him of his last visit to the Imperial Palace back home after graduating from the Academy.
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As they all stood in a line, several meters away from the throne, an older hoarse sounding voice boomed with intrigue. "So these are the men who are the Four Cardinal Heroes of Ancient Legend...? I am the King of Melromarc, Aultcray Melromarc the Thirty Second," there was barely even a single pause between his words. "Heroes, name yourselves."
Bringing the blade of his sword into his hand, Ren spoke with subtle ease. "Amaki Ren, sixteen years old, high schooler."
The King nodded and shifted his gaze towards Takehide with relative interest to his uniform.
"My name is Eno Takehide, age nineteen, and a law-enforcement officer..." Takehide introduced himself in a calm manner of deliverance as he took this as it was his turn to introduce himself. As he did this he was plainly keeping his weapon in a leisure stance as to appear non-threatening.
"I suppose I am up next," Itsuki stepped forward pridefully with a smile as he grasped his bow in front of him. "Kawasumi Itsuki, seventeen years old, and a high schooler."
"And lastly, me. I'm Na–..." Naofumi went to introduce himself only to be cut off by the greying King himself.
A frown immediately took over Takehide's lips in return, seeing the sudden disrespect towards one of the supposed heroes summoned to this place.
"I see," the King had said, "Ren, Takehide, and Itsuki, huh?" The King nodded as his simple gold crown remained balanced on his head.
"Y-yo, King, aren't you forgetting me?" Naofumi took a stumbling step forward as he pointed to himself. The sweatdrop on the side of his face was evident to his disturbed feelings as he had been skipped over.
"Hmmm?" The King centered his violet eyes on the male, "Oh, forgive me." He wasn't at all apologetic as his voice was seemingly monotonous, even as he briefly closed his eyes.
"'Yo, King?' You must not be disrespectful towards Royalty," Itsuki advised in disappointment as he stepped forward and faced the shieldbearer with his bright green eyes.
As they spoke, Takehide was mainly looking towards what appeared to be governors and nobles standing on one side of the throne. There were women in dresses and men in lavish medieval clothes. Gold, yellow, blue, white, red, and green seemed to be the staple theme amongst them all. 'Those must be the ministers of state?' He pondered to himself, 'Perhaps their spouses as well?'
"Then do I call him His Highness?" Naofumi asked and when he went to speak once more, he felt Takehide's hand on his shoulder. He stopped speaking and glanced over towards him, only to receive a light nod of verification that it was the right choice. "I see..."
Clearing his throat, the King looked to them sternly, "King is fine."
"Whatever then," Naofumi stepped forward casually fixing his unkempt and layered hair, "My name is Iwatani Naofumi. I'm twenty and a college student."
Narrowing his sights forward, Takehide found this to be an interesting fact. While he and the other two were all in their mid to late teens, Naofumi was a year older than him and the only summoned adult here.
Opening his eyes, the King began to speak once more, "I suppose I owe you an explanation..." He went on, the only thing keeping Naofumi from speaking up was Takehide's hand on his shoulder. "My country, Melromarc, and the entire world are headed towards destruction..." King Aultcray continued to explain the story of the apocalyptic prophecy.
In this prophecy, it is believed that there are going to be waves of hostile entities that will rain down from the skies and lay ruin to the world. These waves came in one after another, occurring over and over again in repetition. In short, there would be several waves of monsters assaulting the world in order to destroy it. This was the very purpose for the heroes, to combat these calamities and restore peace to the world itself. If they failed, not only would they perish, but the rest of the world as well.
Each country in this world has an ancient dragon hourglass in which can perfectly predict the arrival of the waves. Takehide found this relatively convenient and well thought out, reminding him of games that he often heard his fellow officers talking about in the academy. In his mind, he related it to classic hell shooter games often found in local arcades.
From what they were told though, it appears that first wave had already come upon the country prior to their summons. A frown seemed to be permeating his lips hearing this, finding it highly irresponsible of the ruler to have waited so long.
The only good news that came out of this was that local knights and adventurers had fended off the attacks. While they were capable of such a feat, they knew that the following waves were going to be far more potent than the last and will continue to do so.
According to the Dragon Hourglass, they only had less than a month to prepare for the next wave. This was severely unappealing as this involved constant training and leveling in order to combat such a threat...
"We have underestimated the waves," the King proclaimed as his jeweled fingers grasped at the arm of his chair in distress. "We realized once we actually experienced one, only the Four Cardinal Heroes could counter them... And so, we followed the legend and summoned you four. We have no time to lose!"
Takehide noted as the King announced this, Naofumi seemed pleasantly surprised, it was as if he knew something that none of the others did.
"We get the gist of it now," Ren announced as his sword drop to his side, grasped tightly around the grip of his hilt. "Anyway, surely you didn't summon us expecting us to save you for free."
Takehide simply glanced over towards Ren with that frown still on his lips, was the boy offering mutual destruction between them if they didn't pay up? He was sure this high schooler would've been punished for speaking out in such an outrageous way. Outside his thoughts, however, he did not seem at all fazed by the boy's mannerisms.
"Of course, once you repel all the waves," a man wearing dar attire, with a long high collared coat, and a fancy jabot around his neck spoke, "we shall reward you handsomely."
"We will work with you, provided, you don't turn on us," Ren answered for the rest of the group without talking it over. Though it didn't seem to matter as he spoke the truth. Truth be told mutual gain was the only thing to be found here. "But don't think for a moment that you can tame us."
"Exactly," Itsuki chimed in as he leaned forward confidently, "We can't have you looking down on us."
'These guys don't know their place...' Takehide wanted to facepalm at their high-and-mighty attitudes, as they were all now standing in front of the ruler to an entire country. If he was this King's retainer, Takehide wouldn't have any reason to hesitate in laying them down.
"I trust we have an agreement," the King spoke before them once more, "Then, heroes, you should all check your statuses."
"Eh?" Itsuki, as well as Naofumi, seemed confused.
In the corner of his eye, Takehide could see a small icon just within his sight. Focusing on it a screen appeared in front of him listing his name, attributes, and experience points. There was also the title of 'The Spear Hero' in the top center of the screen with a big 'level one' under it. In the right-hand corner, however, he noticed hitpoints, mana points, and stamina points. Hitpoints were red, mana points were green and stamina points were blue.
'If I remember games correctly,' his thoughts overlapped with the words being traded with the others around him, 'aren't mana points supposed to be blue and stamina yellow?' Groaning at this he glanced over his equipment and resistances. His equipment readout was Short Spear and Otherworld Uniform, whilst his affinities weren't all that high.
His attributes were high in the physical realm of things, such as having a total of thirty attack points and physical defense points. His magic was level ten, and his dexterity was leveled at forty.
"Simple and uncluttered..." Takehide uttered to himself before looking to Naofumi.
''No telling if we can fight like this," Itsuki was speaking again around the time he stopped zoning out in his own thoughts. "We're only level one."
"Do these things not exist in your world, O' Heroes?," the one Takehide could only assume was something akin to a prime minister with a jabot explained, "You are currently experiencing 'Status Magic.' Everyone in this world can see and use it."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Ren asked a dullard question, likely knowing he would have to collect experience points in order to level up.
"You must leave on an adventure," the Minister spoke again, "To develop and upgrade the legendary weapons that you have equipped."
"They aren't maxed out of the box?" Naofumi quietly exclaimed as he was unenthused by this, "Wait... Mine isn't even a weapon."
"Shielders are pretty powerful," Takehide pointed out as he overheard him, considering he was a martialist himself he saw pretty much anything as a weapon. Though he saw his polearm as rather indispensable compared to the other two.
"Anyways, it seems like we've ought to train ourselves," Ren kept a stern demeanor as he observed his sword before him.
Holding up his bow, Itsuki seemed to agree, "We have to level up as much as we can."
"Then if the four of us form a party..." Naofumi began, something Takehide was actually going to agree with, only for someone to intercede on their conversation.
"One moment, heroes." It was the Prime Minister from before, "You will each recruit and adventure separately." He proclaimed without taking their thoughts into account.
"And why is that?" Ren asked seemingly annoyed by the thought of it.
"If we are to work together in order to repel these relentless attacks, shouldn't we party together and level each other up?" Takehide also displayed some displeasure in his tone of voice, as he was not speaking to the King, but an unintroduced underling of the Sovereign Lord.
"It is said that the legendary weapons repel one another by nature," the Minister answered the questions that they had asked without having to think twice.
It appeared he wasn't wrong as even the weapons themselves were translating the visual and verbal information to them in Japanese so they could interpret their words. Though they could easily assume that other people could easily understand them without fail, vice versa, even without the displays.
"The sun is going down," announced the King, "Rest up tonight and set forth tomorrow. In the meantime, we will gather the best of the best to form your parties."
One of the women Takehide had been looking at before standing to the side of the room, approached them, wearing a tan and gold frilled dress. Wearing a plain expression, she stared at them as she stated, "We've prepared rooms for you." Then she bowed with a hand out to the side, "Please come this way..."
The four males looked to one another before nodding and following the woman.
Not long after the sun had fallen below the horizon, they were settled in a room overlooking the city. The castle itself was massive, far more formidable than the ones of Medieval Europe, as could be seen from their balcony.
Seated around a small table were Naofumi, Ren, and Itsuki. They were all leaning back in their chairs as plates filled with bones and scrap laid in wait. All the while Takehide himself was standing by the glass doors leading to the outside. He could see his own reflection in the glass, especially the glow of the golden chandelier which brightened the room.
It had been a long time since he had seen such a beautiful sky unpolluted by light.
"Our dinner was scrumptious, though it did taste rather unusual," Itsuki exclaimed as his elbows rested on the arms of the red cushioned wooden chairs.
"Hey, isn't this kinda like a game?" Naofumi asked as he was looking over his display.
"Hm? You're not wrong," Takehide turned away from the starry sky to face Naofumi. "It's rather similar to screenshots from Dynastyscape Online."
"Huh, what's that game...?" Naofumi blinked a few times.
"A recently released VRMMO," Takehide raised a brow, "It had a rather popular release."
"What are you talking about?" Itsuki butted into the conversation, "This isn't some online game. It's a world out of a console game. It's called Dimension Web"
Takehide pursed his lips at the name, "That sounds rather unpopular..."
"You're wrong. It's like Takehide-san said, it's a VRMMO. Though I'm pretty sure it was Brave Star Online, not Dynastyscape... I've never heard of that one," Ren crossed his arms as he had his sword sheathed on his back.
"Seems like we've come from very different places..." Takehide scratched his chin with the back of his nails, before glancing over to Naofumi.
"I've read about VRMMOs in light novels," Naofumi admitted, knowing what they were talking about in some context or another.
"Different places..." Uttered Ren as he thought to himself, "If none of us know of popular games, then perhaps we're from different iterations of Japan." The way he spoke was solid and wise, though he was quick to draw this conclusion, especially as he was eyeing the uniform Takehide was wearing. The self-defense forces of Japan didn't wear those clothes at all.
"To think there were other parallel Japans out there, huh?" Naofumi moved from the chair over to the red couch beside the table, resting his arms on the spine of the couch.
"Up until I heard you talk about VRMMOs, I would've sworn you were from the Pacific War era..." Ren had since stood from the table, but kept his arms crossed over his chest. His presence seemed a bit ambient for the setting.
"And I can't believe that all three of you have played or seen games that are just like this world..." Naofumi seemed rather bummed at this, considering he didn't play such games. "Why am I the only one unfamiliar with this stuff?"
After a few seconds, the shieldbearer found the two teens staring at him, while the officer had gone back to staring out the window towards the sky. Shifting on the couch in distress from their wordless stares, he spoke up, "What is it?"
Itsuki contently shared his thoughts with his fellow heroes. "Well, I just thought it might because you are the shield hero..."
"Well that is only natural," Ren said as he was giving Naofumi a strange side glance.
"Wh-What are you guys talking about?" Naofumi was confused, causing Takehide to glance over towards the three of them. "Is there something wrong with the shield?" These words were worn with far more distress than before, it was abundantly clear that he was intimidated by the thought there was actually something wrong.
"Shielders are rather powerful if one plays them correctly... I don't see how that is the case," Takehide clucked his tongue as he leaned on his short spear curiously.
"What are you even talking about?" The two other teens looked to Takehide, overlapping their voices when they asked his question.
"Okinawan martial arts combine a spear and shield, but a shield or two on their own can be powerful. They can bash, jab, and crush their opponents... The Ultimate Defense and a grand Offense against armored foes." Resting his gaze on the Shield Hero, Takehide grinned, "And a good partner to have if we cannot even pick up a shield ourselves."
The Bow and Sword heroes all looked to one another as they too noticed this. Without a shield, a swordsman was left wide open to attacks of different kinds, and a bowman was ranged and unable to fully defend against most close-ranged attacks. At least that was within common sense in a world without magic and sorcery.
"We can't pick up other weapons?" Naofumi raised a brow as he looked to Takhide.
"No," He responded with a sigh, "I asked one of the Guards just a bit before dinner in order to inspect their weapon. I couldn't even hold the weapon right."
Ren's gaze dropped to the empty Tanto sheath at the officer's side and frowned to himself. It was clear that the officer knew how to use a bladed weapon, and if he couldn't handle one, it meant there was something stopping them. His mind immediately went back to the warning towards the reactions between different weapon types. "I see... That makes sense..."
"Either way," Itsuki started giving advice, "Each weapon has its own ideal hunting ground, so let's spread out."
Takehide nodded in reluctance, before watching as Naofumi shifted his position on the couch, only to get up and walk outside through the glass doors to the balcony. "I wonder what my party will be like..."
"Alright!" Naofumi suddenly spouted, "I'm going to give it my all!"
"Heh," Takehide nearly flinched hearing the older male shout and blinked at his excitement. A grin took over his lips faster than he could even think, "I suppose without a Lord to serve, I can give in to my own ambitions..." The thoughts of what he could become, or what he could create, came to mind. In his mind were law and order, the idealized code of the Samurai by Nitobe Inazō.
"I think we are done for tonight," Ren let his arms fall to his sides finally, "Let's head back to our room and get some rest for tomorrow." He was already making his way towards the door before he was even finished speaking.
Takehide watched as Itsuki followed Ren out of the room, then glanced over towards Naofumi, "I suppose this is goodnight then." He spoke quietly as not to disturb the man gazing at the stars, before turning and heading for the door as well.