Necrovalis laughed. "You will do just fine Mortal! However, before you go, I'm obligated to tell you that this is the last time we will probably ever speak to one another face to face. The gods have a very strict non-interference clause with mortal. Normally, we'd be able to talk after you die, in your case your soul is being sent straight back to your planet of Eerth. Its slightly sad to be honest, but a deal is a deal. Anyway, feel free to use your newfound abilities as you see fit to save the world and hopefully increase my standing among the mortals of Gyra. Farewell... Mortal." With that final statement, and a flash of light, Jack was thrown from the realm of Necrovalis towards the world of Gyra to prepare for the demonic invasion.

Jack blinked. He found himself in an intricate and ornate circle comprised of several letters in a language he didn't understand. Looking down, he found himself just as Necrovalis told him he would be. A Skeleton.... wearing a business suit. Well, I guess I get to have some style in this life too. Jack thought as he unconsciously straightened out his tie. Looking around, he found his circle was in a ring of ten circles, with a giant glowing opaque barrier surrounding them. Each ornate circle was on a raised platform, and each circle contained an occupant as confused and as strange looking as himself.

Hmm, Necrovalis didn't exactly tell me much about the other gods, assuming that the look of each person is directly related to the deity they were summoned by, four people look to be comprised of Air, Earth, Water, and Fire, so maybe elemental gods there. I'm a skeleton, which accounts for the god of undeath. That one looks to me like a tree person. Hmm... Nature or life. More than likely. That one is blindingly bright, So light? Then that person over there is probably dark? That one person just looks really pale... and has bright red eyes? Going to be honest. I have no clue what that person is supposed to be. And the last person.... appears to be an egg. A very large egg. Well. Hope you hatch soon pal. Hopefully you're something neat and not a giant chicken.

The barrier flashed once, bringing each of the summoned members attention to it. It flashed a second time, and then finally at the third time it flashed out of existence, revealing to them a massive cathedral. Ornate banners hung proudly on the walls. The ceiling had to be at least a thousand feet high, and every inch of it was decorated in intricate paintings depicting what Jack could only surmise was the history of this world. Looking down, Jack noticed what appeared to be an entourage of fifty knights led by what Jack could only guess was a king, judging by the crown and the gaudy clothing worn by the portly man.

"Greetings Heroes!" The man loudly announced. Everyone's attention focused on the king. "My name is King Delmont the Third! Welcome to the world of Gyra! We only have a year, so if you all would be so kind as to step forward to be given your designated zones for the invasion! We will debrief you on your roles once you have departed" Jack narrowed his eyes. What kind of game are they playing at here? Just immediately sending us to train? Hmm... getting us to the zones immediately and separating us before we get to know one another?

Noticing everyone else beginning to step up, Jack decided to speak up to get to the bottom of this. "Excuse Me!" He loudly shouted. Everyone turned to look at him, and Jack noticed King Delmont's face briefly scowl before resuming the pleasant expression he had on previously. "Ah! The Skeleton Hero of the God of Undeath Necrovalis. I'm sure you have many questions, but they will have to wait until you're on the road to your designated zones. We can't afford to waste any time in preparing for the invasion after all!" Jack maintained his demeanor while scowling internally. They don't want us to have any interactions with each other. Hmm...

"With all due respect King Delmont, we have a year to prepare for the invasion. An hour spent getting all us heroes to know one another would be beneficial in preparing for this invasion and it wouldn't hurt anyone." The other heroes (Except for the Egg) looked at him. Some with a bit of confusion, some looking annoyed, and a few nodding along with his suggestion. "Well, we have the carriages arranged and prepared already. To delay now would require the horses to rest, and we would lose an entire day in your training. That day could be the difference between life and death in the coming war you see!"

Jack had dealt with people like this. It happened a lot in his previous life on earth. A politician or major corporation wanting to push something through with little dissent will often say that something is absolutely necessary or something terrible will happen if you don't do something. Or vice versa. However, Jack was used to dealing with people like this. And he knew that the best way to deal with it as well. "So let me get this straight. We all get summoned here, and less than a minute after we get here you want to split us all apart, so we have no interactions with each other at all. Is that correct?" The other heroes all had shocked expressions on their faces. Yep. As soon as I point out the obvious and they think about it for a second, they realize what I realized at the beginning.

The guard next to the king angrily shouted. "You dare to question King Delmont! You... insolent bag of...!" Jack angrily cut him off. "Yes, I dare to question him! As far as I can see, your goal is to separate us from one another immediately without allowing us to speak to each other at all! As for the why, that is a question I can't answer definitively, but your whole thing of a single day's training can mean the difference between life and death is bullshit. If that is the case, then this world is doomed anyway!"

At this point, King Delmont was angrily glaring at Jack, but Jack was glaring right back. The other heroes were also looking at the King questioningly. "Choose your next words carefully skeleton..." The King Started to say. "Or what? What will you do? If the fate of the world hangs so closely in the balance. Do you intend to get rid of me? To silence me because I dared to question you? And then what? Be missing one of the ten heroes when the demonic invasion happens?"

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Silence you filthy bag of bones! How dare you talk to me like that! Your insolence will not go unpunished! As for the rest of you heroes, fall in line if you don't want to end up like this foul abomination is about to be!" King Delmont angrily shouted with spittle flying out of his mouth. The knights began to approach Jack with swords drawn. Oh.... I didn't think that he would be crazy enough to actually attack me. Isn't the world at stake here?

At the moment the Light Elemental hero stepped between Jack and the knights. "The Skeleton Hero is correct. You intend to separate us before we get to know each other at all? I didn't realize what you were doing at first but now I see it clearly." The knights paused seeing the Light Elemental Hero in their way. Seeing an opportunity, the darkness hero also stepped in. "Yes! At first, I was convinced that we had a time crunch, but seeing how this is all playing out, I can't help but agree that something more nefarious is going on!" The other heroes, seeing the lead the Light and darkness heroes had taken, also started to chime in with agreement.

King Delmont, livid with rage at this point, pointed his finger at the group. "The Insolence! Daring to question me like this... Why they, why they... Knights! Kill them! Kill them all! I want all of them dead! We can always summon more heroes! Yes! More obedient ones! They will defeat the invasion, and then... and then..." Jack noticed the knights moving and stepped up. "And then the world will die to the demonic invasion!" The knights paused. "Your King claims you can just do another summoning. This is false. I talked to Necrovalis prior to getting here. More heroes cannot be summoned. Should you kill us then your world is doomed. You will die. Your friends will die, and your families will all die a painful and gruesome death at the hands of the demons. All because you decided that your king's ego was more important than the worlds safety!" The knights all hesitated at that. "You fools! Don't listen to the skeleton! Do you really think that the gods would leave everyone to die. Of course not! They would have to send more heroes of course!"

The knights looked hesitant. Jack took that moment to step in. "You know, I find something really strange here. Despite the fact that the world is in danger here, only one nation's king is present. What's the deal with that? Does King Delmont lead some kind of empire or something?" King Delmont grimaced. "Just end them! Don't listen to the skeleton! It is an abomination after all!" The knights still didn't move. Jack grinned. He had them now. "Okay! I get it now! If you truly had an empire at your disposal, we wouldn't be greeted here by just fifty knights and a king. A building this large? With so few people? There is no way. No. If I were to guess, you all are here for a meeting between various nations in regard to summoning the heroes. If I were to further guess, you initiated the summoning ritual early, with the plan to get all of us to your nation as quickly as possible. You were going to just leave all the other nations to die weren't you!"

The knights looked at Jack in shock. That was all the confirmation Jack needed. Jack continued, with even more confidence now that he had the full grasp of the situation. "Let me tell all of you what is going to happen here. If you choose to kill us, you won't be able to summon more heroes, and everyone on this world will die a painful and agonizing death to the demonic invasion." The knights continued looking at Jack while King Delmont ranted in the background telling them to kill the heroes. "The good news for you is that your families won't have to die by the demonic invasion though." One of the knights, sword shaking as he thought about what the future would hold for them, shakily asked "Why wouldn't our families die to the demons?" Jack grinned. "Well, that is a really easy question to answer. Imagine you are the various other nations who are now doomed and going to die a horrible death because the heroes all died. That would make you fairly angry, correct?" The knight thought about it for a bit. "I suppose that I would be angry, yeah." Jack nodded. "And what would you do to the nation that caused the doom of the entire world if you were in their shoes?" The knight thought about it a bit more, and a look of horror donned on his face "I suppose I would go wipe that nation off the map entirely..." Jack nodded again.

At this point, all the knights were frozen in place, not wanting to listen to their king, but not knowing what to do in this predicament they found themselves in. This could still be really bad. King Delmont can still convince them to kill us and hide the evidence. When the summoning doesn't work, King Delmont and the knights would be the only ones who would know why. I need to give them a way out.

"Let me tell you all how we are going to move forward!" Jack shouted over King Delmont continuing his rant on kill the heroes. Good. He had the attention of the knights again. "First off. Here is the story. Your king, in a fit of madness, rushed off into the cathedral by himself, and summoned us, by himself." The knights looked a bit confused, but Jack could see them mulling it over in their heads. "We, the heroes, all saw the king by himself, claiming that we all were to go to his nation alone to defend it from the demonic invasion." The heroes looked at Jack with a bit of confusion, but all nodded along with the plan for the time being. Jack then pointed at the knights. "When you all arrived, you found the summoning had already occurred." The same knight that had spoken to Jack earlier once again asked a question. "What exactly does this accomplish." Jack folded his skeletal fingers together. "That's easy. You all can arrest King Delmont and bring the summoning to the attention of the other nations. The blame for the summoning would fall squarely on King Delmont's shoulders rather than that of your entire nation, since you, the knights of the nation in question brought him to justice."

Jack gestured to his fellow heroes. "Do you all agree that this summoning was done solely by the King, and that the knights had nothing to do with it?" I am sweating bullets here people. You all need to nod or something, cause if these guys think we are going to rat them out then we are so screwed. Fortunately for Jacks sanity, the other heroes all nodded. "Yep, I agree that it was just the king that did this. The knights definitely came in to save us from that guy." The Air Elemental Hero chimed in.

The knights looked at each other. And nodded. One of the knights signaled to another. "Sir Enric. Alert the guards that our King violated the treaty by summoning the heroes and that we have the king in custody." Sir Enric gave a salute and rushed off to inform the guards. The other knights converged on the king. "Traitors! You are all traitors! I will see you hang for this!" The knight putting restraints on the King sighed. "Maybe you will. But at least the world won't burn."