Saint Sir Gustav, Lord von Blitzburg did not expect to wake up in the middle of a sidewalk.

"What the fuck? Did I die and reincarnate again?" he thought as he stood up. "Dʰéǵʰom, do you know what happened?"

Silence.

"Dʰéǵʰom? God of Humanity? God of Exposition?"

Silence again.

"Fuck!"

Considering how Gustav failed to contact the deity he was in constant mental contact with for the last 15 years...that was a massive understatement.

"Saint Gustav," a familiar voice came to his ear.

The lord stood up and turned as fast as he could. King Eduard the Defenestrator, the ruler of his kingdom, stood before him. Gustav knelt as fast as he could.

"Your Majesty! I..."

Gustav took a quick glance at his surroundings. He was in what looked like a culdasac from a middle-American neighborhood. King Eduard appraised the saint as he looked around.

"As nervous as ever. But with his intelligence, we should be able to figure out where we are swiftly," the monarch thought.

"...have no idea what is going on," Saint Gustav admitted.

"That makes two of us. You may rise," King Eduard said.

"Make that three," a voice came from behind a white picket fence.

Voivode Dalv Sepet of Weltai walked around it. He surveyed the area with curious eyes.

"How strange is it that we have been transported to this place," Dalv noted. "I have never seen anything like it before."

King Eduard looked between the two of them. A slight smile crossed his face.

"Well, we have little to worry about," the monarch said. "With two saints here, the gods will surely tell us what is going on."

Gustav raised a hand as he stood up.

"About that...Your Majesty...I haven't been able to contact Dʰéǵʰom," he stated.

Dalv nodded with narrow eyes.

"I am afraid to say that I cannot contact Krewh either," the Voivode said.

A hint of panic flashed through King Eduard. Still, he remained calm. Eduard pinched himself.

"I'm not dreaming," he observed. "Either that or this dream is magical in nature."

"Magical dreams are a thing?" Gustav asked.

King Eduard nodded.

"As a matter of fact, they are," he answered.

Dalv sniffed the air.

"How strange," the Voivode said. "I'm smelling another vampire, but it's a different scent than I know."

"That is not a good sign," Gustav replied.

King Eduard nodded, placing a hand on his sword. He then used his other arm to push Gustav behind himself.

"Stay back, Saint Gustav. I can ill afford to let you get hurt. Especially considering how poor a fighter you are still," King Eduard thought before speaking. "Saint Dalv Sepet, I will leave this vampire interaction to you lest there is violence."

"Very well, then," the Voivode nodded.

He then turned to one of the large metal objects that lined the pavement leading up to houses. Dalv called out.

"We know you are here. There is no point in hiding."

To the surprise of everyone present, two children no older than 13 walked around the metal thing that Gustav recognized as a car. One of them was a girl with blonde hair and golden eyes. Their clothes were something that Gustav recognized as being from the 1500s of his old world. The other was a boy who had light brown hair and red eyes. They were both carrying long, thin swords on their hips. Next to the blades were strange metal tubes with wooden stocks.

"Holy shit! They're packing heat!" Gustav shouted.

He tackled King Eduard.

"Get down, Your Majesty!"

"Packing what?" confusion filled King Eduard as Gustav collided with him.

The monarch wasn't moved in a literal sense. However, he saw the clear panic in Gustav's eyes. And the king wasn't the only one.

"I assure you that we mean you no harm," the newcomer boy spoke up, taking a bow while keeping his hands away from his pistol. "I am Lord Armand Concord. And this is my fiance, Lady Eris Hapsburg."

Curtsying, the girl greeted them.

"It is an honor to meet you," she said.

Gustav stopped trying to push his king down. He and Dalv shared a look of surprise. The former Frenchman and former Wallachian both had heard of the House of Hapsburg.

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"I am King Eduard the Defenestrator of Greenrivers. This is my economic advisor, Saint Sir Gustav, Lord von Blitzburg," the monarch introduced himself.

"And I am Voivode Dalv Sepet of Weltai," Dalv narrowed his eyes as he spoke. "Tell me, which part of Austria is your family from, Lady Eris?"

Confusion flashed through the girl's eyes, but it was suppressed with swiftness.

"I have never heard of Austria before. I am from the Kingdom of Foldzar," she said.

"Neither have I. Is Austria part of Weltai?" King Eduard questioned.

Then, he shook his head.

"I suppose that is not the bigger issue. Where is this Kingdom of Foldzar? I have never heard of it either, but much of the world is unexplored," the monarch said.

Armand spoke up.

"Your Majesty, I am afraid that anything we say will not make sense to you. Neither of us has ever heard of Greenrivers or Weltai. Foldzar is an insular kingdom, but you look like someone from our continent. And enough of the world has been explored for us to know that people who look alike tend to have kingdoms in the same region."

Gustav sighed.

"Great. Now, there are people from another universe here too," he stated.

"Another universe?" King Eduard raised an eyebrow.

"I believe he means another world," Dalv Sepet clarified.

Gustav nodded.

"That is right, Your Majesty," he confirmed.

"So, the theories are accurate," King Eduard noted. "Assuming that these children are not playing some game or lying."

He looked around, noticing the flash of displeasure on Armand's and Eris' faces when he called them children. King Eduard guessed that they were showing some childish contempt that they were being looked upon as kids. Though, given how they were carrying weapons, he guessed that they were nobles.

"If we were taken to another world, it would explain our surroundings," the monarch said.

One of the house doors opened. A 15-year-old stepped outside. He wore purple robes with jewels and decorations that Gustav and Dalv recognized as Byzantine.

Another 15-year-old followed him. This boy had a beard and wore a suit of metal lamellar over mail. King Eduard observed them with an intrigued expression, his eyes magically analyzing the armor.

"What strange armor. The metalworking of it is primitive, even the mail," he noted.

For Armand and Eris, the effect was even greater. The girl leaned closer to her fiance.

"Armand, if they're right about this being a different world, do you think they have different levels of technology?" she whispered. "Or do you think the guy wearing obsolete armor is some sort of historian?"

"It could be either. We haven't seen enough to know for sure," he replied.

The beardless one of the newcomers surveyed the group for any sign of hostility. Finding none, he turned to the other.

"Demetrius, do you think these barbarians can speak our language?" he asked.

Dalv sighed.

"Barbarians? Yes, you're Romans, alright," he answered.

The newcomer turned to him.

"It is pronounced Remens, but I can understand a mistake like that from a barbarian. You cannot be expected to speak perfect Grekken."

Dalv knew for a fact that this was not how Roman was pronounced. Gustav did too. They both concluded that these two were from a different world, like Armand and Eris.

"We're not speaking Grekken. We're speaking Foldzarian," Armand spoke up.

"I thought you were using magic to translate, like us," King Eduard said.

A moment of silence passed over everyone. After a few moments, Dalv broke it.

"Tell us, who are you two esteemed emissaries of Reme?" he asked.

"Kostaspolis is our capital now, ever since the City of Reme was lost to barbarians. If you did not know that, you must be from a truly, great distance away," the beardless newcomer answered. "I am Caesar Basil, co-ruler of the Remen Empire with my father, the Basileus. This is Stratigos Demetrius Kallergis, my most trusted commander."

The others introduced themselves and Basil then looked around.

"You said you had magic that could translate languages, right, King Eduard? Maybe that magical effect is on this area?" he suggested.

"Perhaps, but I have a suspicion that something else is going on," Eduard replied.

In the clouds above, three gods looked down on the gathering humans, both this group and others. These deities were Apollo, the Greek God of the Sun, Music, Medicine, Boxing, and a lot of other things. Artemis, the Greek Goddess of Hunting, the Moon, and not much else. And "Hypnos," the Greek God of Sleep.

Also, he is definitely not Loki in disguise. Ignore the fact that a god that looks just like Hypnos is chained up in Odin's basement.

Apollo and Artemis turned to "Hypnos."

"Hypnos, why did you bring Eris here?" Apollo asked.

"You gave me a list of humans to bring here, and she was sleeping in the same tent Armand was," "Hypnos" answered.

Artemis groaned and facepalmed.

"That isn't how the magic works, Hypnos!" she said.

"Then, I guess I was sleeping on the job," "Hypnos" replied.

Apollo and Artemis facepalmed at the same time. They then sighed.

"Hypnos, do you remember our plan to wipe out humanity?" Apollo asked.

"Nope," "Hypnos" answered. "I slept through it when you told me."

"I told you five times!"

"And I slept through all of them."

Apollo felt rage pulse through him. However, he took a deep breath and kept going.

"Well, seeing as how you're wide awake, I'll explain it to you now," the Sun God said.

"Hypnos" nodded.

"Alright," he stated.

"Our plan is to trap a bunch of virtuous humans in this dream world you and your brother made. This would lower the virtue levels of humanity as a whole and make their extermination more justified," Apollo explained. "And Eris is a perfect example of everything wrong with humanity."

"Hypnos" shrugged.

"Well, she was a while ago, but she's become a slightly different person since then. Gone through a lot of character development, ya' know," the "God of Sleep" said.

Artemis grabbed and shook him.

"Hypnos, you dumbass! If she's trapped in this dream world, it'll convince some gods that humanity is worth sparing!" she declared. "Let her out of it now!"

"I forgot how," "Hypnos" stated.

Artemis let out a deep groan.

"Dammit! If this messes up our plans, I'm going to kick your ass!" she declared.

"Now, now, sis," Apollo smiled. "This isn't too much of an obstacle."

He pulled out his harp and started playing it.

"We have a favored of Chronos and Hermes in this dream. Convincing even one of them that humanity is irredeemable would be a huge boon," the Sun God pointed out.

Apollo then shrugged.

"Also, remember that Hypnos officially works for Uncle Hades. If he turns on us and tells Uncle Hades about our plan, Zeus will put an end to it."

Artemis put "Hypnos" down.

"I guess you're right, bro. We can still turn this around," she said.

Then, a grin crossed her face.

"The hunt will be on soon anyway," Artemis gazed at her bow with a grin. "Just a few hundred years ago, I would have hated the idea of making humans hunt each other. But my patience is at an end. We will see what happens to these righteous humans when the dream forces them to fight each other to the death."

"Hypnos" started slowly backing away.

"Oh, yeah, deathmatch. That's...totally what I did with this dream world," he said.

Both sibling gods turned to him. Artemis groaned.

"Right, you slept through Apollo's planning," she sighed.

"Hypnos" folded his arms in an exaggerated manner.

"Hey! I remembered the part about putting them through a hellish nightmare! This dream will do just that!" he declared.

Apollo grinned.

"So, you're putting them through torments you saw in Tartarus?"

"No. Worse," "Hypnos" grinned. "I'm going to make them attend high school."