Revelation of the Heroes

The wing the Emperor provided us was not any simple living quarters; it was a luxurious living space with a room for each of us. I stare at the space in wonder, amazed at the elaborate architecture and art that covered the walls. Each of our rooms had a marvelous wooden door with an intricate carving of our Heavenly weapon on it, and the walls surrounding our rooms had marvelous mosaics covering past heroes who wielded the weapons. I was currently in my own room, looking over some of the provided books that were in my chambers. At first, I couldn't read a thing, but over time, the strange shapes began to morph into English. I assumed that this was an affect that the Heavenly weapons caused, allowing the summoned heroes to read the language of this foreign world. I also assumed that it was automatically translating the language these people spoke, because while everything people were saying was the same as my language, the way their mouths were moving were unique.

"Once you heroes are settled in your rooms, we shall return and summon you for dinner." The head servant said as the seven of us began exploring our own wing of this palace. While all of us may have had different emotions in front of the Emperor, all of us were shocked that this place was going to be our home in this strange new world.

"Out of all the architecture we have seen thus far, this wing is the most beautiful..." Akenamo said, staring at the ceiling of the room to stare at the painting that covered it. The painting depicted the seven heroes, faceless and painted to look like the same person, leading the armies of this land against the past foes and monsters that plagued the lands. The people the heroes were leading were also faceless, but roman or Turpilian rather due to their armor. The people that the heroes and Turpilians were fighting were a menagerie of different historical warriors; from what I could see there were people that looked like Greek soldiers, knights from the middle ages, Scandinavian raiders, dully armored Samurai and some others which I couldn't make out. Other than the humans, the Heroes were also fighting monsters, some more strange than familiar.

"These accommodations are rather magnanimous. It would seem that they treat these heroes similar to royalty." Anlong commented, stepping towards his door. The gem on his staff began to glow and the door of the Staff Hero began glowing as well, bright teal lines filling the crevices of the door. Once the circle on the door that takes the place of the spear's gem collected the light, there was a flash of light in the room, and the door opens, revealing a rather strange room. I peaked around Anlong to see something rather quaint, there was a bed, but other than that, the only things in the room was a large tapestry with a green symbol on it and a mat. Anlong sighs in content, walking in and kneeling on the mat, laying the staff down next to him. "Ah, just like home." Anlong smiled, resting on the mat. He then grew quiet; so quiet that I couldn't hear him breathing. Suddenly, Anlong's eye cracks open and stares directly at me. "Mind closing my door, Liam? I'd like to meditate in peace."

I nod and grab the door handle, closing it for Anlong. I turned around to see that the other heroes were already in their own rooms, each one looking completely different. Must have been some kind of magic to make the heroes feel at home or something. But none of these rooms felt right. They all felt like complete fabrications. I put this thought aside and moved to my door. The carving on the door looked slightly damaged, a scratch mark on the gem of the door. I studied the scratches and touch it with my own covered hand. The door then begins glowing violently, and the door itself shakes. I step back from the door, somewhat freaked out at the violent reaction the door had to me, and watched as the red light reached the damaged section. The light leaked out from the damage, and the room flashed once more, the door's shaking subsiding.

Once the disturbance was done, I walked up to the door and opened it. I gasped once I saw what lay behind the door, tears beginning to well up in my eyes. It was my room. Save for the technology that was in it, it was almost exactly the same. My bed, library, dresser, desk, the same. I walked in and jumped onto my bed, comfort enveloping me. While the room was formatted the same, the walls were different, with mosaics on each wall depicting a man who had the Gauntlet on his arm. On each one, it showed the Gauntlet hero doing a different task, and while my furniture was blocking some of the images, they were each of him either fighting different humans or monsters, one of witch looked like the Minotaur from Greek mythos. This must have been what the room looked like before I touched it, but why I can still see these wall mosaics and not my basic room walls is beyond me.

I look towards the desk and see a stack of books there, nothing from my own world, but books from this world. Covers made from leather and bound by rope, I carefully picked one up and looked at what I thought was the title. The characters looked like words, but I couldn't tell what they said. I opened the book and the pages were covered in the same kind of symbols. I decided to simply stare at the pages, reading normally as if I could, and eventually the words began to change from this world's language to English, and I leveled up. I placed the book down and check my stats, seeing that I had leveled up my "Arcana" skill. Focusing on that skill specifically, it expanded, and it had a subsection that was labeled "Decipher Writing(Novice)"

"No idea what any of this really means here, but I guess I can read the language now." I said, failing to realize that the gauntlet's gem was lightly glowing the entire time I was staring at the pages. My door slightly opened and one of the servants was poking their heads into my room.

"Sir Gauntlet Hero." She beckons me, her sweet voice drawing my attention from my desk. "Dinner is prepared for you."

"Thank you very much." I replied, getting up from my chair. I took another look to the mosaic and see that the tiles that made the Gauntlet hero's eyes were removed, leaving a blank dead space. That was discerning, but I ignored it, walking out and closing the door behind me. "Lead the way, miss." She nods and turns away, leading me to the room across from our chambers.

The dinning room was as glorious as the main chamber, another artistic rendition of the Heavenly heroes; this time celebrating with a group of people and bringing joy. Specifically, the only people that were celebrating were the Turpilians, and I thought I spotted the spoils of war in the art somewhere, but my attention was needed somewhere else. I looked down to see a somewhat long table with seven seats: three on each side, and one at the end. Anlong had taken the single seat at the end, while Klaus, Richard and Killian were sitting on one side, with Perevalova and Akenamo on the other. The seat between Akenamo and Perevalova was open, so I went ahead and sat down between them, giving the table a smile. The other six heroes did give me strange looks, but at least Anlong, Perevalova and Akenamo gave me a polite nod.

"Now that the Gauntlet hero has joined us, we can serve dinner." One of the servants said, nodding to one of her fellow servants, who acknowledged her and walked off into a closed off door. A second later, four servants brought out carts filled with trays of food. All the food on the trays looked outstanding, and smelled amazing. I watched one of the servants bring me a tray, who gave me a warm smile. I returned the smile and focused on the tray, feeling my mouth begin to water.

She placed the tray in front of me and I looked at the food that was mine. I couldn't tell what it was, but it still looked and smell delicious. I waited for everyone else to get their food and then began eating, grabbing a three pronged fork and digging in. I brought the food to my mouth and chewed, and it was like an explosion of flavors filled my taste buds. The other five also had the same expression, with Killian's dull expression thrown away and having some life in his eyes. I turned my head to see Anlong was not eating, but merely staring at his plate. "Hey, Anlong, you good?" I asked after swallowing my food.

"Yes, of course, I just haven't smelled such delicious food in a long time." He said, his voice filled with sorrow. "I'm just thanking the Earth Mother for this bountiful dinner."

The other five stared at him, their faces not revealing what exactly they were feeling, but I was sure they were feeling sympathetic for him. I was the one who spoke first. "So, just want to ask you all a question." The other heroes turned to look at me again, this time with looks of curiosity. "Does this world feel oddly familiar to you all? Not due to the location or how these people dress and all, but this 'Status' magic." I said, getting a weird glance from all of them. "Killian knew what it was, but do you all know?"

The first to speak was Akenamo, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't want to say anything because it sounded stupid, but it reminded me of the main UI from an MMO I Play called 'Calrinthia Unite!' This world was also in the game itself, but I never got to see this much detail."

"No, that is wrong." Perevalova said, her accent causing me to jump. "It's an RPG called 'Forged through Fire'. I just managed to get a copy last week and I've been playing it non-stop."

Ok, two games I've never heard of, but my theory was not proven just yet. I glanced over towards Killian, who had lost the life in his eye and was back to his sulky self. It was a console action adventure RPG called 'Knights of Calrinthia', although I don't see many knights." He looked around, only seeing the servants that waited on us.

"Really? I thought it was a VRMMO called 'The Rift'". Richards commented, getting all of us to give him a weird look. VRMMO? There's no way something high tech like that would have just flew under my nose! I knew all about the gaming industry back home.

"Excuse me, but what are all of you talking about?" Klaus asked, looking somewhat lost. "Isn't this that tabletop game 'Heroes and Heretics?' I thought this was some kind of reenactment." Table top game? Like Dungeons and Daemons? There's no way he's serious. Suddenly, Anlong began to chuckle after having taken a bite from his plate.

"It seems I am the odd man out here. There was nothing similar to this in my world because there were no such things as games there." He said before looking to the servants. "Ladies, could you please excuse yourselves, we heroes have something to discuss." The servant nodded, the women walking away and leaving our wing of the palace. Anlong then turned back to us, focusing on me. "Liam, you were asking to see if their experience matched with yours, and they each gave an odd answer, yes?" I nodded, getting another laugh from him. "He was trying to see I we all came from the same Earth." This statement got the other five heroes to gasp in shock, looking to one another in bewilderment.

Soon after Anlong dropped that bomb, a lively discussion ensued: Who was the current President of the U.S., Which country won the 2022 Olympic games, hw many Communist countries were on the planet, so on and so forth. After twenty(thousand) questions, we all agreed that we each came from a separate Earth.

"Alright, now here's another question." I asked, having finished my plate while everyone else was preoccupied with their questioning. "How many of you died before coming here?" Most of them gave looks of unease save for Akenamo and Anlong, the former looking confused and the latter taking his serious expression due to the topic change. Knowing my answer, I turned to Perevalova. "So, how did you get here?"

She clicked her tongue in anger, tapping her finger. "Nuclear Plant failure. Radiation death." Was all she said. She did come from a world where they were more common, so that made some sense. I then turned to Killian, who scoffed.

"I was saving my friend during a hostage situation. The guy was crazy, but that knife..." He subconsciously rubbed his side where he was stabbed. He looked pissed about it, but sighed. "At least I know I saved him because just before I lost consciousness, the paramedics were trying to save me." He removes his hand and looks towards Richard. "What about you kid, how'd you die?"

Richard nervously rubbed the back of his neck, blush filling his cheeks. "Uh, I really don't want to get into it. It's rather embarrassing." He looks around nervously.

"No need to be embarrassed about what you went through. That is your previous life." Anlong said, his soft voice getting Richard to not be as shy on the topic. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

"It was a clingy girlfriend, or rather several." He admitted, looking down. I guess that makes sense; with a pretty boy face like his, I'm surprised that he only said several and not many. He looked towards Klaus and now it was the German's turn.

"Ah, I was shot. Third World War and all." He said, shaking his head. I wanted to inquire more, but I didn't. Then it was my turn, obvious due to the group looking to me.

"I got hit by a truck saving a girl." I said, leaning back in my chair. I had moved on from dying, because like Anlong said, it was our past life, except I was still worried about my family.

"Do not worry, Liam, they will be fine. They will also miss you greatly." Anlong calmly told me, easing my conscious, although I'm not sure if he was being sincere or just kind.

"So how did you get here, Akenamo?" I sat back up, focusing on him. It was now his turn to be shy, leaning away from the group.

"Eh, I don't think you all would want to hear. You might get pissed off." He says, clearly uncomfortable about the situation. Eventually he sighed and faced the group again. "I was writing a fan fic about my character that took place in the game and hit writers block, so I read some of the official novels and one of my books sucked me up."

Man, he was right, that does kind of piss me off. The five of us dies and got summoned, and all he did was read a book? I nodded, suppressing my rage. "Not such a bad way to go I say. I would have preferred that method, to be honest." I joke, patting him o the shoulder. I then look to the last of us who has not revealed his past.

"I was meditating one cycle and suddenly I was here." He said calmly, now holding a glass with tea in it. I couldn't help but notice that his tea never seemed to cool. With that, the group finished dinner in silence, I assumed contemplating the severity of our collective situation. We were the heroes for this world, and I assumed that it meant that our jobs were going to be dangerous. Eventually, the heroes began to retire to their rooms, and then the only ones left at the table was Anlong and myself. He was finishing his food, and placed his fork down, looking at me. "Why did you remain, Liam?"

I got up and began collecting the trays, grouping them up and placing them close to where the servants emerged from. "Well, one, to do this. It feels familiar. Seems familiar, you know?" He nods, and hands me his tray. "Secondly, I wanted to ask you one last question." After he gives me a nod, I continue. "What happened to Earth in your world? When ever you talk about it, it seems like something bad happened."

"Well, Earth was devastated and most of the planet is now unlivable. The only place life can live is in what used to be the Himalayas." He answers, calm in his voice. I look towards him and see that his smile is gone. This must have been a sensitive topic. "It's fine though. I'm certain that this world will not fall to the same fate. We shall save this world." He says, holding his hand out. I look down at it and smile, taking it in my hand and shaking it.

"Yeah, let's deal with this Dark Swarm and save this world!" I eagerly reply, grasping his hand tightly. The two of us finish our hand shake, and he left to his room. I went to the door to our wing and open it, seeing one of the servants waiting at the door. She jumps when she hears the door open, and I give her a smile. "Hey, ma'am, we're all done with the table. You ladies can come in and clean up."

She collects herself and bows. "Thank you sir. please, retire to your room if you'd like. " She said, a shake in her voice. I nod, leaving her and moving back to my room, closing the door behind me. I then grab one of the books that were here and lay on my bed, learning more about this world.

After a few hours, I look out the window, seeing the planet's moon high in the sky. I closed the book and went to rest. Today was the start of our grand journey. Our journey to save Calrinthia.