The Start Of A Long Journey

...

Where is this...?

I looked around me, amazed at the sight of countless colorful stars.

"I'll leave it to you."

I heard a voice directly in my mind.

"Leave... What? Who are you?!"

"..."

There was no response.

"Hey! Tell me how to get out of here at least!"

"..."

"Where even is this place... It looks like space but it's a lot more colorful, and I would be already dead if it were actually space..."

The next moment, everything turned pitch black.

There was no sound, no light, just me and my consciousness... It was a very discomforting feeling.

"Hey!" I hear a voice calling me while someone is slapping my face lightly to wake me up.

"Hey wake up!"

"*Gasp*" I got up very suddenly.

"Woah! You scared me. Are you alright?"

I look over to the side and see a person with blonde hair and a dark green school uniform looking at me. He was slim and seemed to be around 17-19 years old.

"Do you know what's going on?" Asked the guy.

"What do you mean?"

"So you don't know anything either..." The guy looked kind of disappointed.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. I was lying in bed, reading, when all of a sudden I lost consciousness, then I woke up here with all these people."

I looked around and saw dozens of people scattered across the room.

This place was enormous, it could easily fit well over one hundred people. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of large stone bricks that looked extremely old. On the walls were mounted some torches to illuminate the room.

It somehow looked familiar, but it was a faint feeling so I just ignored it.

"I'm Kuroda Kaito, you can call me Kaito." Said the guy.

"Nice to meet you, I am..."

...

Who am I?

I can't remember anything...

The voice! Maybe if I find who the voice from that space before is, I might obtain a clue...

"What's wrong?"

I'll think of a temporary name until I regain my memories.

"It's nothing. My name is Ray, Amond Ray."

"Amond Ray? Are you perhaps not from Japan?" Asked Kaito surprised.

"That's right. I'm from... Britain."

"Really? That's cool, I've only met a few foreigners before since they're pretty ra-"

"Does anyone know where this place is?!"

Someone from the other end of the room asked in a loud voice so that everyone could hear.

Quickly after that, a crowd of people was formed there. They probably wanted to discuss what was going on.

"I think we should go too." I suggested.

"Yeah, maybe we'll find out something." Replied Kaito.

We walked towards them to hear what they were saying.

"The door at the corner won't budge no matter how much I pull or push. It's very strange because any normal door would at least move by a little when you try to open it..." Explained a guy from the crowd.

He had short black hair, a pair of square glasses and matching black pants and shirt with long sleeves. He looked to be around the same age as Kaito.

"Does anyone know what is this place or how we even got here in the first place?" Asked a bald man.

He looked very strong and was wearing a black shirt and gray pants. I was impressed by how shiny and reflecting his head was. He was probably in his mid thirties.

"..."

At this point it was clear we were all in a similar situation. We didn't know how we got here in the slightest.

"Whoever is doing this, stop fooling around! I have an early shift tomorrow!" Shouted someone from the crowd.

"That's right get us out this moment! Is this one of those stupid pranks for social medias?! We didn't consent to any of this!!"

"As soon as I get out I'm gonna report you to the police!"

Everyone started complaining, demanding whoever brought us here to come out and bring us back.

"Calm down already! It's clear that whoever did this isn't gonna come out anytime soon." Said the bald man.

"He's right. Complaining won't get us anywhere, as we've seen just now." Replied the guy with square glasses.

"Then what do we do? The door won't open and there is no other way out!" Asked someone.

"I think we should scatter around and try to find any possible clue in this room." Replied the guy with square glasses.

"If none of us find anything in the next half an hour let's regroup here then." Said the bald man.

The crowd then dispersed.

"Where should we start looking?" Asked Kaito.

"I say we examine the door first."

We walked towards the door the guy with square glasses talked about.

It was made of wood planks with some iron reinforcements. The wood was rotting away and there were many spots full of rust. It looked like it could crumble apart any moment.

I tried to punch the wood, thinking it would break easily, but I hit something very sturdy before my fist made contact with the wood.

The whole door was shining in a faint golden light that disappeared a few seconds later.

"Are you alright?" Asked Kaito concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine... More than that, did you see that too?" I replied while shaking my hand to subside the pain.

"Yeah, what was that light?"

"It appeared out of nowhere and it somehow blocked my punch..." I said, curious about the strange light.

"It looks like some kind of barrier to me..." Said Kaito while looking at the door. He also seemed somewhat excited.

"Barrier?" I asked confused.

"Yeah, like the ones in fantasy games and novels. Magic Barrier." Explained Kaito.

"Magic? That can't be, right?"

"No, it is. 100% sure." Firmly replied Kaito.

"How are you so sure? Can you sense magic or something?" I asked, incredulous.

"I can't sense magic but my sixth sense has never failed me before." Explained Kaito.

"So you're saying it's just a feeling?"

"You could put it that way."

"..."

"..."

"Hey, I found something!" Someone shouted from the opposite end of the room.

All of us quickly gathered near him.

"I found this piece of paper in a small gap in the wall." Explained the guy while unfolding the piece of paper he found.

There was a drawing of a tower and something written below it. The top of the tower was highlighted with a red circle, clearly indicating something was there.

"He is sealed here, we must have something protecting the sealing Artifacts at all times. My warding spell will be enough to prevent the tower from breaking and collapsing, but it won't be enough to protect the seal."

Another text was witten below.

"I agree, Marianne already placed her monsters as means of security, but I hid traps all over the floors. Better be safe than sorry."

There was one last text below.

"I still can't believe our home has become the seal restraining him..."

Seal? Spell? Monsters?!

My jaw dropped. I was at a loss for words.

Does that mean that what Kaito said before was true? No, it surely must be a false letter, or some kind of roleplay.

But if it was true then...