Immediately following the words spoken by Alexstasia, I could feel my body again. “... seems to be waking up.”

I recoiled from the voice that was so loud it felt as though it were pounding on my brain.

“We’ll need to continue monitoring his vital signs. Passing out in the middle of a corridor full of students is never a good sign of anything. Especially when we can’t determine a cause.” A second voice, this time much softer, said.

“Both of you should continue to stay here and make sure he is aware of his situation when he fully comes to.” A third, masculine voice appeared. “I’ll go call his family about this, and contact his guidance counselor.”

The sound of footsteps starting closely and fading away were the background noise to me falling unconscious once again.

—-----------------

Lucina Metron sat up with a start, and the first thing she felt was the unpleasant grittiness of sand under her body. ‘Well, this definitely isn’t the decommissioned base where Venus is supposed to be.

Lucina winced as she sat up, feeling her stiff joints begin to warm up. The sight she was greeted with was one of the scariest things she had ever come face-to-face with.

Lucina was staring at the open ocean, only being about ten feet from the sea itself. Lucina didn’t utter a noise, but a feeling of dread quickly overcame her.

How could it not? Ethia’s oceans were purely inhospitable, acidic pools that burned the flesh off of anyone who dared touch them.

Lucina quickly scurried away from the water’s edge, an action which preceded a giggle to her right. “Mommy, that woman looks funny!”

Lucina quickly looked to her right and saw a small boy wearing an ancient pair of swim trunks, pointing at her with a big grin on his face.

A woman close by, whom Lucina presumed to be the boy’s mother, had the decency to look ashamed of what her child was saying and quickly took the boy by the arm. “I’m so sorry miss!”

What followed after the apology was a quick tirade of scoldings hurtled at the child as she dragged him away. Lucina got up, and realized she was still wearing the skin-tight combat suit that she would have been wearing inside the transport ship.

“What in the Starlords names…?” Lucina trailed off, but wasn’t quite so surprised when she received a response in her head.

It appears that the Starlords have seen it fit to start the final trial without so much as a word of warning. X gave her own thoughts on the matter as Lucina pressed a button on her bracelet, and a pair of denim jeans and a crop-top popped out of thin air into her hands.

“Where are we even? There’s no way any beach on Ethia would have anyone but marine biologists and naval officers. It’s too dangerous for recreation.”

From what I’ve scanned of Master’s memories, this should be Earth, and not far from the place where he attends school. We can see if that bitch had the gall to drop him back into a classroom on his return to Earth.

“What a load of shit.” Lucina muttered as she started to put on her clothes, only to realize that she had drawn a small crowd.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Maybe you should look for a changing room. X suggested. Lucina, for her part, had the wherewithal not to respond and appear as though she were speaking to herself.

—-----------------

Winter awoke slowly, lifting her head off of the table where she had been sitting. She looked around to find some people staring at her, and decided to put her head back down to process what exactly was happening. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep on the transport ship on its way to rescue Venus Metron, and then she was here.

This… this is Earth. Un spoke inside her head. In fact, this is the very school that our master attends.

‘So much for rescuing a princess, I guess.’ Winter replied. ‘That’s good though, I suppose we can find Joshua and get an explanation from him. Send the location of whatever class he has now to me. Why can’t we ever-’

A hand shook Winter’s shoulder, and she pulled her head up to look at the source of the disturbance. A tall, pale man with blonde hair and dark eyes looked back at her. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you on campus before. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?”

Winter wanted to roll her eyes, but instead looked around at the crowd of people there. She tried to focus on what the crowd was saying, an easy task with her Judgment enhanced abilities.

“She’s so beautiful! I wonder how we never noticed her before.”

“We would have, you idiot. She must have transferred here.”

“In the middle of the semester though? That’s not normal.”

“She’s not normal, stupid. She’s probably a model or something.”

“I can’t believe James is attempting to make a move on her.”

“Hey, it’s what he always tells us, right? When it comes to women, nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“Her body is fucking fine, bro. If James doesn’t get her, I want a chance to hit that.”

“Amen to that. But I’ll be second in line.”

“Please, this is assuming there’s a woman who would say no to a male model in the first place.”

Winter had decided she had heard enough objectification for one day and turned off her enhanced hearing. Finally looking straight up at the man who had disturbed her thinking, she stood up to her full height.

The man, James, opened his mouth to gape at how she was taller than him. “With all due respect, I don’t know you, or anyone in this group of people, for another fact I am taken.” She said that last part while looking at the crowd of men.

She started to walk off, but thought better of it and turned back around to James, who was still frozen in place. “Actually, do you happen to know someone named Joshua Cole?”

It only occurred to Winter much later that now that she was no longer connected to the network.

—-----------------

Viina Secela was currently in quite the pickle. She was hanging upside-down as her pants were caught on a tree, while a group of four people were crowded around said tree staring up her shirt.

“Well, it’s not looking good for us, is it?” Hachi sarcastically intoned. Viina tried to reach up for her leg to untangle herself, but all it resulted in was undue abdominal pain for the person in question.

Unlike others in her nation, she wasn’t born under the banner of the Warrior King, but rather the People’s King. Meaning her forte had been in interpersonal connections and the intricacies of relationships rather than any sort of physical exertion.

“Hachi, can you get a read on Joshua’s location? Or better yet, send him a message?” There was a brief pause of silence from the A.I. Meanwhile, some people had apparently sent for help, and made calming gestures at her.

Well, Viina assumed they were supposed to be calming, anyway. It was difficult to tell what with her not being able to understand a single word of those people.

“Well shit.” Hachi spoke. “I can’t connect to Judgment, but I have connected to a much weaker network called, ‘Internet.’”

“So we have no way to locate Joshua?” Viina asked, but was met with silence. “No way to communicate with the other members of the team?”

Again, silence. “Fuck.” Viina cursed under her breath.

“Fuck indeed.” Replied Hachi.