2 The Tower of Salvation

I blinked in confusion as I took in the sight before me.

Instead of the dimly-lit interior of the local coffee shop, I was gazing out at the open sky. In the far distance, rows of mountain peaks melted into the horizon, and my view of anything closer was blocked by the edge of the round, stone platform below me.

From that last fact, I figured that wherever it was I was standing was high above the ground. As if right on cue, a strong gust of wind swept in to confirm this, and I winced as a curtain of hair blew into my face.

Wait, what? I had gone to the barber only a few days prior, and I always got an undercut when I went. The last time my hair had been long enough to cover my face, I had been in middle school!

With my brow furrowed, I grabbed a fistful of hair and dragged it before my eyes. It was silky smooth… and white as snow. Last I remembered, I had black hair that was a little course and unkempt. What the hell was going on?

Behind me, someone cleared his throat, cutting into my thoughts.

"Can you hear me, hero?"

I whipped around to look at the source of the voice. There, standing a few meters away near the edge of the platform, were five men dressed in thick, blood-red robes. The one in the middle stood at least a head taller than the others, and he wore an ornate, gold mask over the top half of his face. A dark beard draped down over his chest, and his bald head gleamed under the midday sun.

He took a step forward.

"Hero?"

I pointed at myself.

"Me? Are you talking to…"

I froze before I finished the question. Was I hearing things? The voice that had just come from my mouth didn't sound right at all. It was soft and melodic, completely different from the deep drone I usually spoke in. If I didn't know better, I would've thought that it was a woman's voice...

A shiver crawled up my spine. The long hair. The voice. I was beginning to piece together a ridiculous explanation.

Trembling, I raised my hand before my eyes, palm facing away. No, this wasn't my hand. The fingers were far too delicate, the skin far too smooth. And when I held my breath and looked straight down, I was greeted by a pair of… 'those'... and call me crazy, but they definitely should NOT have been there. I mean yeah, I worked out. In fact, I was rather proud of how much I could bench. But this! This…

I stumbled back in shock as if trying to distance myself from the body I was in.

"My Lady, are you alright?"

"Wha… what…"

Why was I in a woman's body? And besides that, who were these people standing before me? Where the hell was I?! What happened to the coffee shop? And most importantly, where was Miki?

My mind went into overdrive, and I cast my eyes over the entire scene again. Five men that were dressed like priests from a generic high-fantasy world. A stone platform, high up in the sky. Finding myself in a body that was clearly not my own.

Had I… had I been sucked into a video game? Transported to another worl – No. I shook my head, disappointed that I had entertained the thought at all. Life was not a novel. Not a comic, not an anime. There was only one reasonable explanation for what was happening. I bit my lip. This had to be a dream.

Pretending to be satisfied with my hasty conclusion, I forced a smile.

"This is a dream, right?"

The masked man considered my question for a moment before taking a deep bow. The men next to him quickly followed suit, and I was soon staring at the tops of five shaved heads.

"Forgive us, hero. This is not a dream – you have been summoned to the country of Arandella. According to legend, only you and the four others who came before you have the power to save our world… to save our world from the Great Scourge that–"

Before he could finish, I began to laugh.

"No, seriously. I know this is a dream. Isn't this the part where I start lucid dreaming or whatever?"

There was a pause.

"The other heroes reacted like this too, Your Eminence."

"Yes, I know."

"And… the first hero said that we could have helped him believe earlier if we had… made him feel pain."

"Yes… I know."

"And time is growing short before the Scourge–"

"I know!"

The masked man bellowed these last words, and his companions lowered their heads. He fixed his eyes on me and, after taking a deep breath, began to approach.

When he was close enough that I could smell the incense on his robes, he stopped. His hands were shaking.

"My most sincere apologies, Lady Hero."

Without another word, he produced a dagger from within his robes and plunged it into my gut.

"...huh?"

At first, I couldn't comprehend what had happened, and I looked at the man in confusion. There was a strange tingling where the dagger had gone in, but there wasn't much else. After he pulled back and I saw the blood, however…

It briefly registered in my mind that a strange red bar was flashing in the corner of my vision, but my curiosity was quickly eclipsed by an overwhelming pain.

I yelped, and my vision blurred as the adrenaline kicked in.

Heat. A heat like I had never felt before burned in my abdomen. It radiated out in waves, like a fire spreading through my nerves. It was easily the worst pain I had ever experienced, so bad that I couldn't even scream, so bad I thought I wanted to die just so it could stop. Gasping, I fell forward. Soon, I was curled up lying on my side, clutching desperately at my wound.

The pain was definitely real. I wasn't going to suddenly wake up in bed, covered in sweat. I wasn't going to sigh in relief after realizing that it was all just a nightmare.

Because...

This wasn't a nightmare. This wasn't a dream.

"Jaece. Heal her."

Through the haze of pain, I was vaguely aware that one of the men was standing over me, his arm outstretched. He pointed his hand at me, and circles of white light gathered in his open palm.

"Close Wounds. Greater Healing."

Immediately, a cool flood washed through my body, putting out the flames. I blinked. The wound, the pain – it was all gone. The only indication that I had been stabbed at all was the blood covering my shirt and hands.

The masked man bent down by my side and gently sat me up.

"I am truly sorry, My Lady, but this was the quickest way. It took five days before the first hero believed that he wasn't dreaming, and that was only after he tried to kill himself."

"Ah…"

My eyes were wet with tears, and I wiped at them. Again, I noticed a red bar in the corner of my vision. It wasn't flashing anymore, and it was growing, ever so slightly. It was unmistakably… a health bar.

I managed a chuckle, still quite shaken at everything that was going on. It hadn't quite sunken in that I'd just been stabbed for the sole purpose of proving that I wasn't in a dream.

"This… It's like a damn game..."

"Pardon?"

"But it's real…"

"Yes, My Lady. This is real."

"And where… where am I?"

"You are in Elassa, the capital of Arandella. And this here..."

He gestured at the platform below us.

"Is the very top of the Tower of Salvation."

"The Tower of Salvation…"

He nodded.

"Yes."

With a weak smile, he stood and stepped back, motioning for the other men to help me to my feet. As they came to my side and lifted me up, he made his way over to the edge of the platform – or now that I knew better, the roof of the tower.

Bending down again, he wrapped his hand around a metal ring stuck into the floor and pulled open a trapdoor. He looked back at me, and it occured to me that the man may have been just a little bit insane.

"Now then, My Lady... Let us head down and get you something to eat."