AN: Let me clear something out of the way real quick. Gwen and Arthur aren't twins. They are older sister, younger brother. Which I did hinted when I said Arthur looks younger than Gwen. They are 5 years apart for additional information.

Chapter 2: The Four New Dimensional Heroes

Arthur falls flat on the floor with something glowing on it.

"OW!" he says as he looks up and sees a bunch of men hooded and cloaked. "What the-?" He also realizes he is in some form of room with some columns in it and Gwen sneaks off to hide behind one of them.

One man with no hood says, "Fantastic! The summoning was a success!"

"The fuck?!" Arthur says in confusion.

"Brave heroes. Won't you please save our world from pure evil?" The man sounds sincere and a bit worried as he pleaded.

"What?" Not only Arthur says that but he noticed that three other people are with him.

The first one is wearing red with blonde hair in a ponytail and wields a spear. The second boy is wearing a blue jacket that has black hair and wields a sword. The last guy seems to be wearing some green Japanese high school uniform who has shorter light brown hair and wields a bow.

Arthur quickly gets up and goes, "Okay! What the fuck is going on?!" He tries to pull out his katanas put some sort of electrical shock zaps him to prevent him from wielding his trusty friends. "OW!" When he looked at his hands, he notices a shield shaped object on his right arm. "Why is there a shield on my arm?!" He looks at the people in robes and tries to pull out his guns but he gets the same reaction as he did with the katanas. "OW!"

"Please o' brave heroes. Our world is in dire need of saving."

"Did I fall asleep while reading a book again?" Arthur asks himself.

The boy with the bow pulls the string a little. He looks at the man, "What do you mean it is in need of saving?"

"The story behind it all is long and complicated." the man says. "But suffice is to say you are the Four Cardinal Heroes and you were summoned here using an ancient ritual."

Arthur thinks to himself, 'Cardinal...heroes? Wait a minute. Is it like the damn book I was reading? Did I really fall asleep while reading again and dreamed I'm in this world? But I did feel the electrical shocks. Must have something to do with my tech going screwy again.' He looks at the guy with the spear, "Hey, spear dude."

"Huh?" the man looked at him.

"Slap me to make sure I am not dreaming."

"Huh?!" the man said again.

"Just do it!" Arthur yelled.

"Okay, but you're the one that asked for it." The man slapped has hard as he can on Arthur's left cheek.

"OW!" Arthur rubs the pain on his cheek. "Definitely not dreaming!" He looks at the man in the robes, "Sorry dude, just had to make sure this isn't a dream. Please continue."

"Our world is the most fragile state and titters on the brink of destruction." He place his hands together and bow his head. "So we beg you, o' brace heroes. Please lend us your aid." The people behind him bowed their heads as well.

The guy in blue just bluntly says, "Forget it!"

"I also refuse." says the boy in school uniform.

"You can send us back to our homeworld, right?" asks the guy with the spear. "Do that and maybe we could talk."

The guy with the sword points his weapon at them and threatens, "You brought the four of us here without our consent! Don't you feel the least bit guilty about it?!"

The bow guy says, "Not to mention that if you throw us out as soon as we restore peace, all that we done all that work for nothing."

The spear guy then says, "How willing are you gonna accommodate our request? Depending on your answer, we may end up as your enemies instead of your allies."

Arthur looks at them with a glare, 'What a bunch of over pretentious assholes. I don't know what part of the world they are from but they are acting like dicks!' But Arthur gets a closer look at the three, 'Although, they do dress fancy for survivors and scavengers. But judging by their appearance, I say they have to be Japanese or of Japanese descent. But they do appear to be speaking English but their lips are a little off. Just who are they? Where are they from? Are there settlements that provide neat looking clothing like those? Because those are a little too clean in my opinion.'

The man approach, "Good sirs! Before I say anymore, we would like to have an audience with the King of Melromarc. You can negotiate your rewards with him directly. So please."

The sword guy lower his weapon, "Alright then." He agrees and follows the man.

The bow guy says, "I supposed we could consider their offer." and then follows.

Spear guy follows while saying, "Sure. Doesn't matter who we talk to, our demands won't change."

Before Arthur follows them, he thinks, 'How smug can these assholes get?'

He looked at Gwen, still hiding behind the pillar as he makes eye contact. When both of their eyes meet, Arthur shifted his eyes towards his left as if sending a signal of some sort. She nods. Then Arthur joins the group. They continue to walk up a spiral staircase in some sort of cobblestone building. While heading up, Arthur looks outside of one of the windows and is amazed. His eyes widen by what he sees and finds it hard to believe.

"Wow." says the bow guy, "Look. This really is another world, huh?"

Arthur is completely starstruck as he says, "Indeed it is." What he sees out there is lush green forests and buildings that aren't ruins. They are intact and look clean. He stops and grips on one of the window bars while saying, "This place is so...beautiful."

They stop and noticed how Arthur is acting. His eyes are completely widen by what he sees.

"You okay?" the bow guy asks. "You are acting kinda weird."

The sword guy looks over his shoulder, "My guess is that he has never seen something outside his country." But takes a closer look at Arthur's outfit and noticed the gas mask.

The spear guy notices too, "Where exactly are you from? Judging by your reaction, you must've come out of-"

The man leading them interrupts. "Excuse me gentlemen. But we mustn't keep his majesty waiting."

Arthur looks at the man, "Coming." and follows.

They later entered the courtyard of some sort of castle as Arthur continues to be more impressed by every step he takes.

He thinks to himself as he is excited, 'I'm in a castle! An actual castle! A castle that isn't in ruins like those in Europe from those pictures! Holy fucking shit!'

But they are unaware that a woman is watching them from a bedroom in one of the floors as she stares down at them. Not long after, they entered a thrown room of the castle. They see the king sitting on the left throne as they lined up at his presence. The king has a gray beard and hair and even dresses like a king.

"So." the king began to speak, "You four young men are the Four Cardinal Heroes of ancient legend. This is the land of Melromarc and I am its king, King Aultcray Melromarc XXXII. Welcome brave heroes. Please identify yourselves."

The sword guy introduces himself first as he holds the blade of his sword in his other hand. "Ren Amaki. I'm a high school student and I am sixteen years old."

The spear guy steps up, "I'm Motoyasu Kitamura. College student, twenty-one."

The boy guy places his bow close to his chest as he introduces himself, "I supposed I'm up next." He steps up, "I'm Itsuki Kawasumi. Still in high school and I'm seventeen."

"Guess I'm up." Arthur says. He steps up, "My name is-"

The king interrupts, "Good. Ren, Motoyasu, and Itsuki."

Arthur takes a few steps as he raises his hand, "Excuse me, your majesty! What about me?"

"Huh, oh yes. Forgive me." The king apologizes.

Arthur immediately places his left hand close to his right shoulder, takes a bow and introduces himself, "My name is Arthur van Buren, your grace. Scavenger and post-apocalypse survivor. I am of thirteen years of age, sir." He speaks in elegant fashion like someone from that time period.

Motoyasu heard what Arthur says and is a little surprise, 'Post-apocalypse survivor? Seriously?!'

Itsuki thought to himself, 'Is he for real?'

Ren takes a closer look at Arthur's outfit, 'Must be cosplaying. Such attention to detail though.'

"Now then." the king speaks. "I supposed I need to explain why I brought you here."

Arthur gets a little annoyed as he stands in attention, 'Seriously!? I'm the only one who tries to do the whole medieval etiquette thing while showing respect to the king and he just ignores me?!'

"My beloved country of Melromarc and the whole world surrounding it are heading down a path of certain ruin."

Here is a quick explanation. Some old apocalyptic prophecy about the Waves of Calamity that brings down monster that bring destruction and ruination across the world. These 'Waves' brought by the 'Calamity', pretty self-explanatory. If they aren't stop, your typical apocalyptic bullshit. Each country has a Dragon Hourglass that can predict when the Waves come. When the first wave came in, many adventurers and knights fought hard against the coming apocalypse but have underestimated the monsters that come out. Each Wave will get stronger and stronger for each one that comes. The second will arrive in less than a month.

The king speaks, "We clearly underestimated the potency of the Waves." He tightens his grip on the throne's arms. "Once we actually experienced the first one, we barely survived. We realized that only the Four Cardinal Heroes could counter them. So we followed the legend and summoned you four. But now, we have no time to lose."

Arthur realized something, 'Wait a minute. Isn't this like the novel I just read. But for some reason, why does this sound all familiar? Those three guys do look familiar and so does the king. Everytime I look at the king, I keep on getting a bad feeling and my feeling is usually right on the money. Or is that indigestion? I did eat a mutated deer. Meh! Future Arthur's problem.'

Ren lowers his sword with a swing, "Okay, I think we got the gist of it. Anyway, I'm sure you didn't bring us here thinking we save you for free."

Some old minister says, "Of course not. Once you repel all the Waves, I can assure you that you are rewarded handsomely."

Motoyasu smirks, "Yeah? Well it seems we have no choice but to take you for your word."

Ren says, "Long as you don't renege, we'll work with you. But don't think for a moment that you can tame us."

Itsuki then says, "Exactly. We won't put up with you looking down on us."

'Jesus motherfucking ass crackers, these guys are full of themselves.' Arthur pinches the bridge on his nose because of how much of a pain those three are.

The king agrees, "If I can trust you will agree upon our arrangement then I would ask you bravely heroes to now check your statuses."

"Huh?"

"Um, what do you mean by that?" Itsuki asks.

Ren says, "Are you guys dense? It should have been the first thing you have noticed when you got here. Check the lower right corner of your vision."

The three looked at the lower right corner and noticed some sort of icon.

"Oh I see it." Arthur says when he notices it.

"Try focusing your attention on it."

Arthur focuses on it and something pops up. It looked like some sort of status screen that tells his name, age, HP, MP, SP, weapon, stats, etc.

Itsuki points out his level. "Only level one? Well that's really disconcerting isn't it?"

Motoyasu agrees, "Yeah no kidding. Who can tell if we can even fight like this."

The minister explains, "It's called status magic. An ability exclusive to the heroes."

Ren asks the minister, "So where do we go? What's the first step?"

"You must set out onto an adventure. To develop and upgrade these legendary weapons you have been equipped with."

Arthur looks at his shield. "I guess it makes sense. I mean we just arrive and all the powers and abilities have been reset if one of the original heroes died off in order for the new heroes to grow. But mine's not technically a weapon per say."

Motoyasu shows off his spear, "Can we just wield other weapons until these are usable?" Then he twirls his spear around before doing a pose.

Ren points out, "Supposed we have to figure that out as we go. Regardless, it looks like we got a lot of training ahead of us."

Itsuki then says, "We'll have to level-up hard and fast."

Arthur has his left thumb and index finger on his chin. "But my guess is that we can't do things together because it may interfere with our individual growth. So we can't form a party."

"That is correct." says the minister. "In order to form a party and level-up, you must recruit allies and do your adventures separately. It is said that by their very nature, the legendary weapons repel one another. If you try to work together, it will apparently hinder their development."

Some text pops up and reads, 'HELP: When two more wielders of the legendary weapons operate together, it causes adverse reaction in the weapons. Working separately is advised.'

Motoyasu looks at the text and goes, "Damn. I'm surprised you caught something like that, uh, Arthur is it?"

Ren thought to himself, 'He managed to find out about the flaw in our weapons if we worked together? This guy must have good gamer instincts.'

Itsuki is impressed, 'How on earth did he found out? The younger generation seems to know more about this than I do.'

The king says, "Since the sun is about to set, rest here for the night and begin your quest tomorrow. In the meantime, we will gather the best of the best to form your parties."

A noble woman dressed in orange approach them, "We have quarters prepared for you all. Please sirs, right this way."

Sometime later, around night time, the four heroes are together in one room. Rumors about the four heroes in Melromarc spread across the country.

Motoyatsu sounds relaxed while sitting on the foot of the bed, "I guess when you are heroes of legend, you get special treatment. And the girl who showed us here was cute too."

Itsuki talks about their dinner while sitting at a table with Arthur, "Even though it did taste unusual, our dinner was quite sumptuous."

Ren is just chilling while leaning on the fireplace.

"Hmm." Arthur went as he looks at his status screen. "Does anyone find this weird? Because I feel like I'm in some sort of VRFPS game."

Motoyatsu says, "That's because it is a game. It's exactly like Emerald Online."

"Huh?"

Itsuki points out, "What are you talking about? This isn't some online game. Its based on the new console game I'm playing called, Dimension Web."

"Eh?"

Ren speaks up, "You're both wrong. Everything about this place is identical to a VRMMO called Brave Star Online."

Motoyatsu stands up from his spot, "Let's sort this out. First off, Ren. You mean an actual, literal VRMMO?"

"Yeah."

Motoyatsu looks at Itsuki and Arthur, "You guys do know what he means, right?"

Itsuki replies, "A sci-fi game I'm familiar with explored the concept."

Arthur says, "Yeah. I've seen them in animes and there was this one game called Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that did do something similar but only a small number of players."

Motoyatsu then has an idea, "Now that we are sure, let's compare general knowledge. Who's face is on the 1,000 yen bill? Ready and?"

One replied, "Yamara Gotaro!" another said, "Yuda Masato!" and the last said "Kodaka Enichi!" at the same time. The three looked at each other and says, "Wait, who?"

"Hang on!" Arthur says while checking his device. "Let me check my Linker real quick." A holographic screen appeared as he types. He checked who was on the 1,000 bill and says, "Okay I got it. The guy I got is...Hideyo Noguchi!"

"Who?" the boys say while looking at Arthur.

Rem then asks, "Alright, which countries won World War II?"

Itsuki asks, "The most popular video game?!"

"Hold on!" Motoyatsu says. "Let's ask Arthur something." They all look at Arthur, "I'm pretty sure we all want to know about Arthur's world and where he came from."

Arthur takes a deep sigh before saying, "Alright. Let me explain."

He went into detail that about how his world came to an end around 2037 when the world was getting overpopulated and restless. Civil unrest was almost everywhere before the United States government decided to create an apocalypse using mutagen and a special fungus/disease hybrid that can make zombies before dropping the atomics. His family has taken shelter in an abandoned missile silo in the Rocky Mountains that also doubled as a bomb shelter during the Cold War. He was born around 2039 where he grew up with his mother, father, and older sister. His father, Leonardo van Buren, was an Air Force pilot and engineer along with being a well respected lieutenant. But when he found out that the government was gonna create an apocalypse behind the United Nations, he resigned and took everything that he had with him. His mother, Maria van Buren, was a scientist that specialize in biology and genetics. She wanted to expand her horizons but was turned down when certain areas became under government control. So she left but managed to obtain a great deal of knowledge in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, quantum physics, medical engineering, and many more in order for her children to survive. He even showed them an identical news article from the first chapter but a lot cleaner and more readable.

"Damn man. Sounds like you have it rough." Motoyatsu sympathizes with Arthur.

Itsuki asks, "But what about your family? Are they alright?"

Ren states, "Compared to our world's, your's seems the most savage and brutal." Ren looks a little regretful as he looks away, "For me, I just take things for granted."

"Ren!" Itsuki scolds.

Arthur sits back down and says, "Well, judging by you guys and what you said, we all may have come from alternate versions of our planet. But you guys appeared here in the form of video games and I just got here through a book."

"A book?" Itsuki sounds a little confused.

"Yeah. The Record of the Four Cardinal Weapons. The book talked about the Waves. However, there is something important you guys should know."

"Hmm?" the three looked at Arthur. All three of them are interested.

"It's about this nation's princess. According to the book, she is more of a manipulative harlot that wants to pit the heroes against each other for her own amusement and personal gain. She is a pathological liar that sometimes use flirtatious glances to get what she wants. Which is why the crown is passed to her younger sister rather than her so she may attempt an assassination in order to become crowned princess."

"Seriously?!" Itsuki is a little shocked to hear that.

Ren says, "Judging by what you say, the princess of this country must be a total bitch."

Motoyatsu looks at Arthur, "So, what's her name?"

"The book didn't say. But it did say that she will disguise herself as one of the adventurers that will join our parties tomorrow. Likely using a false alias. So best to be careful. Most likely that she will accuse of raping her or something and have the three of us turn against one of us."

"So the princess will try and stab us in the back." Itsuki pointed out. "How are we supposed to find out? Do we question the members of our parties or just simply don't trust them?"

"Guess we have to find out when we set off." Ren says.

But Motoyatsu talks to Arthur, "Getting into topics of sisters, what's yours like Arthur? Is she hot?"

Arthur smacks Motoyatsu's face with his shield which cause him to smack into a wall as Arthur yells, "TIME FOR BED!" And he storms off.

Arthur lays on his bed while wearing nothing but his white undershirt and checkered boxer shorts as he groans while lying on his back.

"Goddamn." he says to himself. "What the hell came over me back there?"

Before he goes to sleep, he hears a knock on his window.

"Hmm?" He looks over and sees his sister at the door. "Gwen?"

Arthur gets up and opens the window which Gwen hops in.

"Hey Arthur! How were you and those three guys?" She comes in and sits on his bed.

Arthur sits next to her, "They were alright. Except for Motoyatsu, I had to shield bash his face. Yet the three seem familiar in some way that I can't put my finger on it. But anyway, what did you find out? Anything good?"

"I did. But I need to whisper to you because these walls have ears."

Gwen whispers into Arthur somethings that she has discovered while skulking about. She told him many secrets that she has uncovered while exploring the castle. Some secrets and information that Arthur can use to his advantage. Secrets that have been buried deep in both the nation and the royal family along with information about other nations that the king didn't tell.

AN: Hey guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter. The next one is coming out in 2 weeks along with From Remnant Huntresses to Pokemon Trainers. Also check out my story that I will update monthly called Recycle Bin Reviews. Now for a bit of Q&A:

ptl: Sorry but Gwen won't be the Shield Hero. The reason is classified until further notice. No they are not twins which I stated above. But you are right about them connecting to demi-humans well but there is more to it than that. More on that later. No more info until further notice. We good? Good.