Thousands of people stood in an arching order surrounding the newcomers. There were around a hundred newcomers who just sizzled into existence on the platform while the others watched them in silence.

Ssss~

An old man walked out of a gentle blue light that shined for a second like a silent wisp of smoke. He stood in between the thousands of guards that spawned in like NPCs in a game and the newcomers who honestly had no clue what was going on. It was clear from the looks on the guards that this old man who was presently staring at them was a big shot.

"My name is Magnus, and I am in charge of this grand hall. And so, on behalf of everyone here, I welcome you to the Interstice young ones."

"Thank you!"

"Thank you!"

"Shut up amigos."

One could just see it on the faces of Ace and Shree that they were done with all the stuff that happened to them. They were just ready for the conclusion, no matter whatever it was.

"I know all of you are confused to an extent. So I will make this quick, can all of you slowly lift and lower your left palm one after the other please."

It was an easy request, and the old man Magnus was being really polite as well. The newcomers weren't too sure of what he was checking for, but for now they had to oblige. No one knew what he found, but his eyebrows kept creasing and eyes kept getting sharper until everyone had done their part.

"Thank you for cooperating. I am sure you are all slightly disconcerted from the teleportation, but that's not something food cannot solve. My aide, Linus will tell you everything you need to know on the way to the dining hall."

"Finally some food!"

"And water!"

These two had been encroaching the door to afterlife from hunger, and they seriously did not care if it was poisoned anymore. A tall bespectacled man who looked to be in his mid 30s walked forward to guide everyone to the dining hall. But just as Ace and Shree were going to follow him like two horses that weren't fed for a few weeks, Magnus made one last request.

"Except the first ones to enter this place, please. I have a few questions for you."

Ace and Shree flinched for a moment after they heard Magnus. They turned to look into each other's eyes for a microsecond, and then kept walking as if it didn't concern them.

"Cmon now don't be like that. Shree. Ace."

And just like that they turned around as seamlessly as possible, and started walking back towards Magnus who was being informed by the guard who first saw them.

"I knew it was a mistake! We shouldn't have identified ourselves!"

"Hey don't say 'We'! You were the one who gave out our names!"

They bickered all the way till they arrived in front of a smiling Magnus. Perhaps he found them comical or god forbid even cute looking at these two bicker like kids.

"There's even better food and drinks in my office, so you don't need to be so upset-"

"Shree, I am following him."

"We will follow you anywhere. The fastest route to your office please."

"Hahahaha...it seems you have had a different experience than others. Fine, let us go to my office first. The rest of you guard this place and send any new sparks to Linus."

"Yes, Master Magnus!"

He laughed at how fast their attitudes changed, and then placed his hands on an uncaring Shree and Ace. An all too familiar feeling swept over the two as soon as Magnus placed his hands on them. Their heads felt groggy, and their bodies started feeling heavy yet again for the fourth time.

"Wait a second...on second thought...I am good with the slow way through the stairs..."

"Just give up Shree..."

When they opened their eyes at again, they were sitting on two well cushioned chairs. The dim office room wasn't too big but definitely not small. It had a neatly arranged small library of books in the shelves which radiated a soothing aura. Magnus was staring at the two who had just woken up, and were looking around like two newborn cubs.

"If you two are up, I brought you some food and drinks."

A large tray that gave off a delectable aroma was already on the table in front of them.

"Whatever they are, I call dibs on the bowls of clear sparkling liquid on the sides."

"They are finger bowls child. You rinse your fingers with that."

"..."

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

These two decided to forget their manners for a few minutes, and started plunging their hungry claws into the food in front of them. They drank whatever they saw and ate anything they grabbed on the tray. It took them only 15 minutes to complete three sets of full course meal usually served for 3 people.

"I haven't been this happy in a long time Shree...I could almost cry."

"It seems you two are happy, so now it's time for you to answer my questions. What brought you here?"

Shree looked straight at Magnus who already sat down on the opposite side of the table right in front of them.

"A black eyed gorilla."

"Reptilian eyed man for me."

"Let me rephrase that, tell me the story of how you both got here from the start."

It took them roughly half an hour to explain their own cases to the point where they both met. Magnus seemed more interested in the parts where both Ace and Shree had severe headaches, and an urge to punch the demons in their final moments before being teleported to the swamp.

"So you head headaches like mine Shree?"

"That's not a coincidence, is it Magnus?"

"No, it's not. I will tell you more about it later, so please continue the story of your journey."

Magnus' smiling face didn't change all throughout the story until they reached the part with the ruins. The minute he heard of the megalithic city in ruins, his eyes dimmed by a shade and his eyebrows furrowed.

"And then we spawned in the great hall we met. That's pretty much it."

"I remember you grabbing something from the chihuahua though, what was it Shree?"

"It was actually a collar, I checked it out while we were walking in the ruins. His name was Rocky."

"He at least sure enough rocked that demon. He sure deserves some respect from us at least. Cheers to him~"

"Cheers~"

Ace held a glass filled with juice against Shree to commemorate Rocky's bravery. As merry as these two acted, Magnus on the other hand was in a deeply distraught state. But as far as Ace was concerned, their run was over, and he can go back to his life of being a couch potato now.

"We can go back to our normal lives thanks to him."

"You can't."

And then he choked on the juice he was drinking. Shree put his glass down and stared at a stressed Magnus.

"Uhm...what are you talking about?"

"Linus should have already informed the new sparks about the seal. So I will fill you in about your situation now."

The world they were in was called the Interstice. This world is in a space between the spaces of many worlds. It isn't too easy to understand the concept, but think of it as a slightly different nonetheless a 3 dimensional space. It is the only connection between many worlds and their astral counterparts.

An astral realm is a place filled with spiritual beings whether they be good or bad. Every action in the physical realm has an equal consequence in the astral realm, no matter what the nature of the act. Every world has its own unique astral realm, and it is the duty of the people in the physical realm to maintain the balance in their counterpart astral realm.

"Your world, Earth, was cut off from the Interstice nearly 4 to 5 millenniums ago. It was a dark age where every world suffered a sudden unstoppable catastrophe. And your world chose to cut themselves off from the astral world in a desperate attempt of self conservation, Shree."

"I can at least confirm that it sounds like us."

A seal was placed on the planet by the elders of that time. One which cut them off from the astral realm and the war that ensued. The seal restricted the beings in the astral realm from ever entering the physical realm, but the price was the Interstice.

"Records from the dark age had long been lost in the war. Earth was one of the many worlds known to be primarily occupied by only humans. And it was lost ever since that battle."

"The very fact that you stand here means that the Seal has weakened. The nature of your acts for the past five thousand years should have affected the beings in astral realm all this time. It makes them stronger or weaker depending on the nature of your people. And now they are starting to slip into your physical world."

"So let me ask you this, what are few traits that can describe the disposition of the humans in your world for the past 5 millenniums?"

Magnus placed both his hands on the table with an anxious face as he looked at Ace and Shree. And that anxiety only increased when he saw that Shree's face turned white and Ace started vibrating like a smartphone.

"Greedy, inhumane, selfish, self-Serving, lustful...are we missing anything else Ace?"

"We are screwed."

In his lowered head, Magnus had a thousand thoughts running in them. Letting the astral residents invade the physical realm doesn't just affect the counterpart physical realm. It affects the entirety of the physical space and the Interstice in ways unimaginable.

"This has gone many levels beyond my pay grade. The people in the top will take care of this from here on out."

"I understand what will happen to our world, but our people can fight against it right? We did it back then, and we can always learn how to do it again."

"Shree you don't get it, one of the purposes of Interstice is to train you, and you will be trained. But the only reason that there were only two demons on the loose yesterday night was because the seal's emergency mechanism woke up. We don't have time to train yo-"

There were many important bits of information crammed into Ace and Shree for the past few minutes, but something just struck them hard on the head. Ace looked up with a rotten face as he stared at Magnus.

"Wait Magnus...did you just say there were only two demons on the loose yesterday?"

"Yes? Oh! Well the fact of the matter is that everyone else except you two, were brought into the Interstice directly after you reignited the rift in the city, Ace."

"So what you are saying is, all the others came into the Interstice without all the demons, worms, swamps etc,.?"

"Yes, well pretty much Shree."

"Lucky bastards!"

"Lucky bastards!"

"..."

"But how were we even teleported to the swamp? What even was that swamp?"

"Those are questions for another day Shree. Your world is running out of time, and the ones who were chosen to be sent over, need to learn how to fight. You must learn to harness the power of your rings."

"Chosen? Chosen by whom? And what rings?"

"Questions on the way you are chosen is for another time. But I will answer your question about the rings."

They are the source of the powers that guarded the living, the very powers that were used to create the Interstice, the lighthouses, and the rift. More importantly it's the same power which resides in every living being.

"And that is what you used to defeat those demons albeit unintentionally, it was your body's ancient instincts that saved you both. But you will be trained in a different fashion compared to how the younglings are generally trained."

"Why is that?"

"There are much larger powers at play against the Interstice than you can ever imagine Ace. And what happened today will finally tip the scales of this tug of war that has been going on for millenniums."

"Which way? You said this will tip the scales, so which way will they be tipping?"

Shree leaned in closely as if to not miss a word that came out of Magnus. The amount of information that was dumped on these two lost lambs was humongous. But this was one part they just had to know.

"It depends on you earthlings for reasons you will know soon enough. Unfortunately, you don't have the time to learn in lenience, and you must get stronger as soon as possible. We will help you train, and the people who arrived today have no choice but to fight."