Chapter 2 - Déjà vu: I've been to this place before
When we got to where Ishtar was leading us he told everyone to take a seat, I took my seat as far away from everyone as I could, which ended up being at the end of the table closest to Ishtar unfortunately, but not surprising really, after which a number of carts entered the room, pushed along by a retinue of maids, who immediately started serving refreshments.
I nodded to the maid that served me my drink since it'd be rude to just ignore her.
The maid returned my nod with a professional smile before leaving.
I took a sniff, it appeared to be wine, so I took a sip, and even though I dislike Alcohol I had to admit, it was a fine wine.
Ishtar cleared his throat and finally began talking once everyone had been served their refreshments.
"Now then, I am certain all of you must be feeling quite confused about the situation you've found yourselves in. I shall explain everything, all I ask is that you hear me out until the end." Ishtar's explanation was so generic and bland that it seemed as if it directly came out of a fantasy book template with names changed.
It was the equivalent of lending your friend your essay but telling him to change it up a little so that the teacher wouldn't realize, but all that changed were a few words such as; 'but' being replaced with 'however' etc.
In short, this was what he said: First, that this world was called Tortus. Within Tortus lived three different races: Humans, Demons, and Demi-humans(Which is basically every other race that isn't Humans, Demons or Extinct). Humans resided in the northern half of the continent, demons on the southern half, and demi-humans far to the east within a massive forest.
Surprising absolutely no one, the Humans and Demons have been at war for who-knows-how-long. Demons are, on average, individually stronger than humans, but Humans breed like rabbits so they had the advantage in numbers. Both sides were locked in a stalemate, and a major battle hadn't broken out in decades. However, there had been disturbing movements among the Demons as of recently. Namely the fact that they had managed to tame Monsters.
Demonic Beasts, or 'Monsters' as they're called by the common populace, were supposedly Wildlife that had been so heavily infused with Mana that they had undergone a Metamorphosis and Evolved into something far more powerful. Though humans had yet to fully understand the biology of monsters, so they weren't quite sure how it works. They tended to be very powerful and even capable of using their own type of Magic that didn't require any circles or chants, whatever that meant, which made them an extremely dangerous threat.
Very few people could manage to tame a Monster, mostly due to the fact that no matter how Monsters may look they all carry the same homicidal tendencies of killing everything that isn't one of their own species and even then there were cases of infighting.
Those few people that could tame Monsters, magically or not, could usually only ever handle one or two(More in case of a Talented Magician) at a time. So it goes without saying that the fact the Demons were doing the same thing but en masse not only meant humanity was losing their numbers advantage, but that demons now had an incredibly powerful weapon at their disposal that was threatening the very existence of mankind in this world(Ishtar heavily emphasized this part).
"The one who summoned you all here is the blessed Lord Ehit. He is the guardian deity of us humans, and the one true god of the Holy Church. The supreme ruler who created the world itself. I suspect Lord Ehit grew aware of our plight, he realized, in his infinite wisdom, that humanity was doomed to annihilation, so he in his boundless mercy summoned you here in order to prevent such a disaster. You Heroes are humans from a world greater than ours, and therefore carry within you strength that surpasses the humans of this world, so please I beseech you to do as our exalted Lord Ehit has willed you to do." Ishtar spoke with a fanatic zeal that severely creeped me out, but what was concerning was the fact that during his exposition dump he implied that a majority of Humans(roughly 90%) worshiped Ehit with a similar zeal to him.
The fact that the remaining 10% is looked down upon at best and persecuted at worst went without saying.
Of course, there was the possibility of him lying but you know what they say; 'Prepare for the worst and hope for the best'.
Ishtar paused for a moment before continuing hesitantly while looking awkwardly to the side. "Or at least that's what the Oracle told me."
I had to suppress a chuckle at this.
Regardless, this whole thing seemed suspicious, a God summons people who never even worshiped him to save HIS chosen people instead of saving them himself or granting them some form of divine boon. Why were Humans and Demons at war in the first place? Ishtar never mentioned the reason for that, but after being spoon-fed the information that God runs most Human kingdoms I suppressed the urge to verbally question everything and potentially paint a target on my back…
Speaking of.
"You can't possibly be serious! You're telling these children to go fight in a war!? That's absolutely unacceptable! As a teacher, I cannot allow it! Send us back right this instant! These kids all have families back home who must be worried sick! You can't just kidnap them like this!" a small child, who seemed to delude herself into thinking she's a teacher, began shouting angrily and pounding on the table to emphasize her points.
'She must have overdosed on some Purple Orbs because that is some cuh-ray-zee stunt she just pulled.' I thought to myself, unsure whether or not I should be commending her for her bravery or face-palming at her stupidity.
The reaction from the surrounding students told me that this was a common occurrence for them since they said things like "Look Ai-chan is at it again. Always trying so hard."
Some of the students were ready to begin protesting, but Ishtar's next words froze them solid…
"I understand your feelings, however... I am unable to return you to your world at present."
'Not really surprising.' I thought to myself.
"Wh-What do you mean... you're unable!? If you called us here, you should be able to send us back, shouldn't you!?" this so-called 'Ai-chan' teacher desperately tried to find a hole in Ishtar's statement.
"I am terribly sorry, but I do not have the ability to return you all to your home world. As I stated earlier, the one who summoned you here is Lord Ehit himself. The only reason we were in that room at all was to greet you Heroes, and to offer up our prayers to Lord Ehit. We humans do not possess the power to interfere with other worlds, so whether or not you can return also depends on His will."
"N-No way…" 'Ai-chan' slumped in her chair in defeat.
As it all started to sink in, the other students rose up and began shouting in denial. Obviously, this situation must have been absurd to them, and the idea they couldn't go home only made it worse.
Meanwhile…
'Did he say that last part on purpose? No, of course he had. This entire thing feels scripted as hell… and familiar but where have I heard this before?' trying to pinpoint where the feeling of Déjà vu came from I broke down this situation and tried to compare it to anything I knew about.
'First - Summoned to Another World by someone(Church).'
'Second - The Speech about the world being in danger.'
'Third - No way home unless 'God' decides it.'
I then took a look at the students to see if their appearances would perhaps refresh my memory or just point me in the right direction.
Few of them in particular stood out to me.
An above average girl, she had sleek, black hair that went all the way down to her waist, and large alluring brown eyes.
Next to her sat another above average girl, her black hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her almond-shaped red eyes gave her a rather sharp look.
And next to her sat down a boy that would give Prince Charming a run for his money. He had flowing brown hair, soft features, jade green eyes, stood 180 centimeters tall(shorter than the new me), and despite his slender frame still had noticeable muscles.
And next to him sat one of the students that was almost as tall as me, but whereas I was extremely slender with no noticeable muscle mass, he was built like a JoJo protagonist, had short trimmed hair, black eyes, and a gaze that seemed at once both cheerful and stern.
I went over the rest of the students similarly, but stopped on a boy that was remarkable in how unremarkable he looked.
His black hair was cropped short and kept tidy, while his face had plain features… and that's about it.
To put it simply, if you had to describe him you'd end up hitting a wall since he was the very definition of 'average', and as such had no distinctive features whatsoever.
After going through all of the students I came to one conclusion…
Going by their looks, they were all Asian, presumably Japanese from the way their lips moved when they spoke(watching Anime had finally paid off for once).
And that was a funny thing as well, they, as well as Ishtar and the priests, seemed to speak different words than their mouths would suggest, it was kind of unsettling.
Regardless, I felt like this whole thing was more familiar than before but still couldn't quite pinpoint where I've heard of this before and it was frustrating.
Thankfully, someone had unknowingly given me the answer on a silver platter…
Prince Charming stood up and slammed a fist down onto the table with a resounding bang. This got the attention of the students who fell silent. Once he saw that everyone was looking at him, he then spoke himself.
"Everyone, there's no use complaining to Ishtar about all of this. There's nothing he can do about it. And… And I, at least, have decided to stand and fight. These people are about to be annihilated. Knowing that, how can I possibly leave them to such a tragic fate? And besides, if we've been summoned here to save humanity, it's possible we'll be allowed to go back once we've saved them... Well, Ishtar-san? Do you think that's possible?"
Ignoring the fact that I've been hearing Japanese honorifics despite hearing everything in perfect English, I chose to listen attentively.
"It is as you say. Lord Ehit is not so unkind that he would ignore a request from his chosen heroes."
"And we've all gained some amazing powers, right? Ever since I arrived here, it feels like I've somehow grown way stronger."
"Yes, that is correct. It wouldn't be far-fetched to assume that each one of you has the equivalent strength of anywhere from a few to few dozen regular men."
"Alright, then we should be fine. I'm going to fight. If we save everyone, then we can go home. So just watch! I'm going to save everyone, including us!" the pretty boy must have been a natural leader based on the amount of overflowing charisma he displayed. Students who were despairing moments ago began to regain their composure. They all looked at him in wonder, as if he was hope itself. Most of the female students had adoration mixed into their gaze as well.
What followed next was perhaps the most heavily cliched thing I'd ever seen in my life.
"Heh, knew you'd say that. Still, I'd be worried about letting you go off on your own... Which is why I'm coming with you."
"Ryutarou..."
"Looks like that's the only choice we have right now. It pisses me off that we don't get any real say in the matter, but... I'll help too."
"Shizuku..."
"I-If Shizuku-chan's going to fight, then I will too!"
"Kaori..."
All of the pieces put together finally started resembling a picture, which is a metaphor for me finally figuring out why all of this seemed so damn familiar…
Arifureta: From Commonplace To World's Strongest.
A Light Novel, whose Anime adaptation got butchered, that told the story of one Hajime Nagumo, The Pretend-King of Edgelords who seemed to be in a state of perpetual angst.
Seriously, how do we go from Magic Blacksmith to I AM BECOME DEATH DESTROYER OF WORLDS?
It was so bad that it looped right back to being kind of good. Admittedly, it was a guilty pleasure of mine despite its many many flaws, but there was one thing that I really liked… and kind of hated at the same time.
The Students were all immature to some degree, despite trying to be logical:
Hero wannabe - childishly wanted to save everyone and had delusions of grandeur thinking he's the main character…
Mr. Protagonist - was an annoying bipolar edgelord that said one thing(I JUST WANT TO GO HOME! or I DON'T CARE ABOUT THIS STUPID WAR!) and then did another(TAKEN SEVERAL DETOURS and GETTING THOROUGHLY INVOLVED IN SAID WAR DESPITE IT NOT MAKING ANY GODDAMN SENSE).
Majority of Hajime's Classmates(The Background Extras) - They all had unjustified hate-boner for Hajime because that annoying Yandere, Kaori I think, was giving him more attention than them.
And more…
And I liked it, because that's how children are supposed to act, me being an outlier to that rule, as far as I could remember anyway.
But I hated it because I don't like people who act illogical, plain and simple.
As the realization kicked in I tried, and failed, to suppress a laugh.
"Fufu… Fufufu… Fuwahahahhahaha!" this seemed to ruin Prince Charming's moment as he, and the rest of the students, finally seemed to have noticed my presence, which I mean… rude.
My laughter ended shortly afterwards, with me almost shedding a tear, and after seemingly getting the attention of the entire room I spoke to them for the first time, my tone betraying my absolute amusement.
"Oh, please. Don't mind me. By all means, continue. You were saying something about 'going to save everyone!'?"
"Who are you?" he asked, there was a certain edge to his voice which clued me in on a possibility that he was never laughed at before.
"Who? 'Who' is but a function of 'What' and what we all are, are strangers." I pointed out matter-of-factly.
"Well I can see that."
"Of course you can, I wasn't doubting your powers of observation and deduction, I was merely remarking upon the fact that just as I am a stranger to you, so are you strangers to me."
"Ekhem!" Ishtar chose to butt in.
"Please Heroes, you shouldn't be fighting amongst yourselves." he spoke calmly and evenly, but I could see the barest hints of annoyance in his eyes, probably he expected things to go much smoother.
"That reminds me. Your Holiness, may I ask a question?"
"By all means. Please do." I haven't missed the smug look in his eyes at being called 'Your Holiness', best to remember that.
"Is there a library here?"
Honestly, getting as much information as possible should have been everybody's priority and whatever I remembered from reading the Novel or watching the Anime sure as hell wouldn't be a reliable source of information to me, mostly because I didn't spend much time paying attention to the details of the Novel since I felt like losing a few braincells while reading certain parts, the most I could do would be to cross-reference it at best and completely ignore at worst.
Something did surprise me though…
There was a pregnant silence after my words.
"...These people face extinction and you're asking about a library!?" The pretty boy asked, outraged.
'How annoying.'
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War." I quoted from memory, unbothered by the hostility sent my way by Prince Charming.
I then turned to Ishtar and asked.
"Well, your Holiness?"
"Ah yes. There is a magnificent library in our kingdom, but I would like to ask you to wait just a little while longer after we meet with the King." Ishtar observed me with interest, probably noting me as the one being the least affected by the charisma of the pretty boy.
Well I'm about to do what's called a 'pro-gamer' move.
"That's a shame, I would've loved to learn more about Lord Ehit right away." I say in fake disappointment.
"We shall immediately go meet with the king!" I swear I saw his eyes start to glow red like two miniature suns, but as soon as I blinked it's as if it didn't happen, and no one commented anything about it.
I remembered that after Pretty Boy's, Kouki was his name… I think, declaration of 'going to save everyone!' Ishtar would lead everyone to the King regardless of what'd happen, but it's better to score some points with him by acting the tiniest bit interested in his God, something that I didn't remember any of the other summonee's doing in the Novel.
Speaking of, as we were walking out of the room, I was trying to recall anything I could about the Novel.
I could recall The 7 Labyrinths, their locations(just names cause the Novel didn't have good illustrations of a World Map) and their gimmicks, The 7 Ancient Magics and what they really did, Ehit possessing that Loli Vampire(whose name has got to be one of the best opportunities for a vampire joke that nobody ever used) somewhere in the final chapters of Web Novel, oh and Hajime taking the sanctity of a Dragon's booty by roughly analing her via a metal stake and at the same time awakening her Masochism(It was actually a clip of this scene on YouTube that introduced me to the series).
That's about everything I could actively recall, there was probably more but I couldn't really remember all the details… and I stopped reading somewhere in the After Story because I simply lost interest.
We headed for the temple's front gate. We were about to embark on their journey to the kingdom below. As we walked through the grand triumphal arcs that comprised the main gate of the temple, we were greeted by a seemingly endless sea of clouds.
It was then that I became painfully aware of just how shitty V's excuse for clothes are at actually warming a person.
Granted, it wasn't nearly as cold as it should be, given the fact that the temple was built on top of a so-called Divine Mountain, a place I remembered should house a Labyrinth that grants Spirit Magic but for whatever reason the Author chose to add some requirements to this Labyrinth, and whether or not these requirements carried on here I wasn't about to find out because, unfortunately, I was sure I was quite weak…
And that's another thing, whenever I thought about me being weak, I got extremely irritated which was weird since I was quite aware of my weaknesses and shortcomings before I got here.
I supposed that it was part of that whole 'Nature vs Nurture' research The Stranger had since V was Vergil's half, a man probably most famous for constantly talking about POWER and MOTIVATION.
Ishtar looked on proudly as everyone stared in awe at the sights, before quickly urging us onwards. As we made our way forward, we came upon a massive white circular pedestal that was surrounded by a fence. We walked through a lavish hallway made of the same white stone as the cathedral and stepped up onto the pedestal.
Engraved within the stone of the pedestal was a large magic circle, it was nowhere near as intricately detailed as the one The Stranger used, if I had to compare the two then I'd call this one a painting made by a talented artist on a blank canvas(the floor) while the one used by The Stranger would be a work of a master artisan that instead of a canvas chose to paint his Magnum Opus on air it self, as absurd as that sounds, but it was still quite impressive in its own right.
The biggest difference between the two however was in the fact that this circle was engraved in the stone while the one The Stranger used just appeared beneath my feet(and I was quite sure I saw absolutely nothing in that, well… Nothingness).
On the other side of the fence layed a steep drop to the ground below, so most students huddled as close to the center of the pedestal as they could. Some of them were unable to restrain their curiosity, and timidly glanced around their surroundings despite their fear. As they were looking around, Ishtar began to chant.
"Faith is the key that opens the road to heaven - Celestial Path."
The pedestal started descending just like a fantasy cable car, the students all started clamoring excitedly as they saw their first display of magic, I couldn't really blame them as I had a similar reaction, although somewhat subdued in order to pay attention to the sights.
And oh boy was it a sight to behold
The city which was undoubtedly massive in size looked almost tiny as we descended from seemingly the heavens themselves, it was empowering.
The moment the pedestal landed atop the Royal Palace the escorts appeared and led everyone straight to the throne room. The hallways on the way were every bit as intricately detailed as the temple had been, minus the religious flavor which meant that it was a bit more appealing to me.
Along the way there were knights, servants, maids, and government officials and each and every one of them gazed at the students with a mixture of awe and wonder. It was quite obvious that most people were well aware of who the students(and me) were supposed to be.
After a short walk, Ishtar and our little party of 'heroes' finally found themselves standing before a pair of massive double doors, into which many beautiful designs had been engraved. Two guards were standing at... well, guard duty on either side of the door, they loudly announced the group's arrival to whoever was waiting within. Then, without waiting for a reply, they swung the doors open.
Ishtar leisurely passed through the entrance, clearly at ease. All of the students timidly followed behind him, with the exception of Kouki, his friends, and me who were seemingly unaffected by the splendor surrounding them.
I couldn't quite speak for them(I wasn't even sure why they weren't affected in the Novel, much less here), but I was simply remaining cautious by not letting the obvious 'Show of Power' distract me.
Within the room stretched a long red carpet that ended at the far wall. At its end was a magnificent throne. Standing in front of the throne was a middle-aged man who radiated an aura of solemn dignity.
Ishtar approached the throne and extended his hand to the king, who took it reverently and kissed it with the slightest brush of his lips.
After that began the introductions:
The king's name was Eliheid S. B. Heiligh, and his wife the queen was called Luluaria. The blond boy was the prince Lundel, and the girl the princess Liliana.
After them began the introductions of other big shots, mainly the Knight Commander Meld Loggins who was also said to be our instructor from tomorrow onwards.
After introductions were over then came the dinner.
I decided to take a few sweet treats for myself since I wasn't really all that hungry, and after that I waited for everyone to end their meals.
I tuned out almost all of the interactions between everyone, because why would I bother paying attention to a bratty Prince making a move on Kaori(?) while every other male(besides me and a few others) looked on in jealousy and instinctual hatred?
I was much more focused on the time, and by the looks of it it appeared to be around 7-8 PM when the dinner was finally over, unfortunately there was no clock nearby so I couldn't confirm it and I had to base my assumptions on the sun out of the window which made it all sorts of inaccurate.
Once dinner and introductions were finished, everyone was led to their own individual rooms, while I was taken to the library by, oddly enough, Ishtar himself.
While we were walking, Ishtar told me a couple of myths and legends about Ehit's exploits.
Like that time Ehit created every single thing in the world while the evil Demon God Alva tried to usurp Ehit from his rightful place at the top of his creation and almost succeeding by managing to trick Ehit's descendants by using their greed and desire for power to turn them against their Ancestor and destroy The World so that it could be re-made in their image…
Yeah, if you couldn't tell by now, this is basically what everyone thinks actually happened with The Liberators, it was actually cool to learn an actual made-up story of 'Why though?' rather than just reading the 'So basically that's what happened.' we got in the Novel.
Then came the myth of how Ehit sealed a terrible beast using a grand spell which resulted in the creation of the moon, and after it came the myth of how Ehit shared a part of himself with humans granting them Magic, and so on and so forth…
There was a lot of ye old flowery language mixed into a lot of what Ishtar said, which made it a little difficult to follow everything he said, it was still manageable though.
After I said some quick praises to Ehit, Ishtar gave me a look, but not just any look mind you, it was the kind of look you'd often give when you see someone that is a man of culture as well. After that he continued strolling to the library with a very content expression on his wrinkled face.
Once we were at the doors to the library Ishtar walked in first and once I was inside then came the greetings.
The Librarian named Mila Mattius, a name I unfortunately managed to remember, greeted Ishtar who returned the greeting before immediately introducing me as a 'God's Apostle' who wished to learn more about Lord Ehit.
Mila guided me to the sections containing all of the Myths and Legends about Ehit, after which Ishtar had pointed to a few books which were his personal favourites as well as containing the most well known Myths.
He left shortly afterwards, but not before telling me to not stay too long because I'm supposed to have training tomorrow…
Considering the hour, being anywhere around 7 to 8 PM, I wasn't planning on taking too long anyway and I mostly wanted to just familiarize myself with the layout of the Library.
I spent around an hour or two, I even managed to read a few short books about the Myths Ishtar was telling me on my way to the library and I had to admit that man's memory is scary, before calling it a day and asking the closest maid to escort me to my lodging. When I got there I wasted no time getting on my bed rapidly succumbing to sleep.
Chapter End
Me after deleting my 2 other fanfics:
"*Sigh* That feels so great, it's as if a terrible weight has been lifted off of my shoulders."
Also, figured I might as well mention it, in case you're wondering about the update schedule... there isn't any.
I have around 7 Fic plot bunnies living rent-free in my head, so when I'm not updating, I am doing one of 3 things:
1 - Working on this Fic.
2 - Working on another Fic.
3 - Being a lazy fuck.
So... I'll update whenever I want to, no sooner and no later, but I'm determined to not abandon this Fic(even if I am holding it to a lesser standard of quality than a few of the others I'm currently writing) unlike my other ones.
Also also, still haven't figured out why FFN deletes some symbols.
Milestone
67 Favorites(We were this close to greatness), 83 Follows... Well that escalated quickly.