Chapter 1: Summoning

Last thing I remember was being tucked into bed by my Dad before he left to go to work for the night. Grandma was waiting in the door and they both left after turning the lights off. Next thing I knew was waking up to find myself in a completely white room with nothing in it but myself and a huge figure. The figure looked as if it was made out of the night sky itself, with many bright dots lining its skin and something resembling stars and planets also plotting its outline.

"Kimiko Yamamoto, you have been chosen to be one of the eight champions destined to save the multiverse" it said.

"Where am I? Who are you?" I asked, trembling.

"You are in my domain. As I said before, you have been chosen to go on this mission to save the multiverse. You will be granted immense powers to help you achieve this goal, but it will take you some time to gain control over your abilities." It continued.

"No, I don't want to go on a mission, I want to go home. I miss my Dad and Grandma."

"Like I said before, you have no choice in the matter." it said.

"You always have a choice, and I say I am going back home."

"You dare defy a god!" it yelled.

Its stars had burst into a flurry of red and the once black outlining had begun to change to a red color as if everything was catching ablaze. The entire room started to shake as the god's transformation went underway. I could feel my balance waver as I teetered over the edge. I ended up falling down, landing on my belly on a slope which slid me all the way down to the bottom of the floor. I quickly raised myself off the ground and looked up to see the god towering over me. His bright red skin was actually giving off heat.

"I don't care who you are. You took me away from my home and now you will send me back!" I said, trying to conceal my fear.

"And what will you do if I don't?" it asked. Bending down to look at the tiny figure at its feet. He looked like a giant as I looked up at it, its body seemed to be taller than most of the buildings in the city I lived in.

"I… I'll hit you." I stammered.

The being looked down at me, the red that was spreading over his body quickly evaporated as he started laughing. "You, a mere mortal, are threatening me! I thought I would never see the day." it said.

I began walking up to the thing, which was paying no mind to me whatsoever. As I got closer I realized that he was a giant compared to me, I was only able to reach right up to it's ankle. So I decided to hit it's ankle instead of his gut like I previously wanted. I wound up and let a punch go flying. It made contact with the thing's ankle and the "god" let out a scream of pain. It tumbled over sideways and landed on the ground holding the foot I hit.

"How in the world did you do that!" It asked "Humans aren't even supposed to be able to touch us in this place, let alone inflict actual damage to us."

"Dad told me I was super strong for my age!" I said grinning. It made me feel good knowing that this thing wasn't so scary.

"Wait a minute, you're the one we decided to…" It said. The god quickly began to raise his hand and his face turned into something that resembled fear. A bright orange light started to appear in the center of its hand, and the next thing I knew the bright light came spiraling towards me, completely enveloping me in its light. I felt as if I was being pushed through a tunnel, not knowing where I would end up. I closed my eyes and braced myself for whatever was going to happen to me.

I awoke to the sight of destruction as far as I could see. Remnants of buildings laid scattered around the clearing I was in, which in it of itself was barren dirt spanning several meters. There was a group of people in front of me, all dressed in suits resembling some of the heroes I watched on the television. One of the people there gave off a much more menacing look than the rest. He was wearing a long black cloak which covered his back, but I could still make out his cream colored skull.

I looked around and the destruction seemed to stretch on forever. I looked up and saw a helicopter hovering several hundreds of feet above the clearing. I looked back and saw the group talking to the man, he had started coming closer to me. He was talking to the group as he grew closer, his face looking directly at me. He looked like he should be some sort of monster out of a movie with the sort of face he had. I could see his mouth moving, but the words which came out didn't sound like anything I have ever heard of. I tried to move, but my legs wouldn't budge. My mind started screaming at me to get away, but this man seemed to emit this immense energy which caused me to just stay complacent where I stood.

Before I knew it the man was standing besides me. I could feel an unseen pressure coming off of him, it made my stomach turn by just being this close to him. I wanted to do nothing more but to get away from this man, but my legs did not respond to anything I did. The man next to me wasn't really paying attention to me, but instead looking at the people in front of him. Suddenly he raised his arm and pointed at the group ahead and said something. I couldn't understand what the heck he said, so I just continued to stare at him. He turned his head to look at me and said something again. Once again I could not understand a single thing he was saying, but I got the sense that I should run, a deep feeling in my gut that if I didn't do something something bad was going to happen to me.

"What.. do you… want?" I stammered.

I saw his eyes widen for a brief moment, as if he wasn't quite sure what he just heard, and then barked the same words at me and gestured towards the people in the background. I saw the group tense up, some of them even had weapons drawn. They looked like they were ready to kill someone with the way they were tensed up.

"You want me… to go over there?" I asked, pointing to myself and over at the group, which some of the members tensed up as they saw me point in their direction.

The man waved his hands openly like he just gotten done talking to a child and finally made them see reason. He spouted something else, but it still came out as incomprehensible gibberish. His face looked fairly annoyed, and my gut clenched itself. I knew that this could be very dangerous, but it seems like going over to the group might be worse. They looked like they were serious about hurting someone, I was still unsure if it was just me or if their target was the man standing next to me.

"No way… I'm not going over there." I told him, shaking my head no. I began to back away, anticipating some sort of reaction. I wanted to get as far as I could before he could do anything.

Just like I expected, the man did not look pleased at that answer one bit. I saw him raise his hand, so instinctively I raised my hands to block my face, but they were too slow. The hand came speeding down towards me and landed hard on my right cheek. The force of the hit was much more than I could've imagined and I was sent spiraling into the ground. The spot where he hit me felt like it was on fire. I quickly scrambled to try and get up, but was instead picked up by the back of my gown and was forced to hover directly in front of the face of the man who hit me. His eyes were like daggers staring into my soul and I wanted nothing more than to get away from him. I could hear him yelling, wincing as his voice reached my ears. He pointed back at the people grouped ahead of me and continued to shout at me.

My brain was shouting, I could barely think at this rate, all I could really comprehend was this man who is currently holding me is not a nice man. I knew I had to get away, but I couldn't understand how to do that. All I could manage to do was shake my head no as I grabbed at his arm. I began pushing him away, feeling his grip quickly loosen, just for him to grab me with his free hand and throw me into the ground.

I got up to see him making his way towards me again. I quickly turned to try and get away, grabbing at the soil beneath me and pushing myself along. The soil was barely sturdy enough to even stand on, so I fell back down on my stomach. The man picked me up again by my hair, he was pulling so hard I thought he would pull them out of my head. I screamed in pain as he raised me up so our faces were next to each other. His breath smelt like death, his eyes were black voids that seemingly looked like an endless void stretching on for ages.

I closed my eyes, not wanting to stare into the man's face anymore. I decided at that moment to try and hit him. I clenched my fist hard and threw it at the last place I saw his face, not knowing if I would hit him or not. I made contact with something, and that something quickly dissipated. It was like punching a piece of paper, you feel contact with it for the briefest of moments, and then air right after. His hand had let go of my hair and I fell hard onto my butt. I was still scared to open up my eyes, so I opened them slowly. What I saw next is something I never would've expected.

My eyes widened in horror as I stared at what used to be a man standing in front of me. His upper body had been completely blown off, leaving guts spilled everywhere. His arm which had been holding me had been sent flying, landing right next to one of the people in the group which had started advancing towards me, but had just stopped in his tracks, his eyes widened in shock. I looked down at my hands and saw blood covering every inch of them, the same with my clothes as well. I wanted to throw up, I could feel my stomach turning rapidly as I stared at my hands. But no matter what happened my body didn't react. I could feel my body rapidly shaking, the fear taking a violent grip on me. I could do nothing but sit there and stare at my hands, just hoping to whatever gods that are out there that this is some terrible nightmare. That I did not just watch this person explode in front of me. All I knew was that whatever happened, it must've been my fault. The large amount of emotions continued to eat at me as I continued to stay where I was, staring at my blood-soaked hands.