Luthra was just living his normal life, sitting in his boring class while reading a sci-fi book hidden under his desk. The teacher was talking about some test, but Luthra was focused on a starship captain making a final, desperate gamble against an alien armada.
'This is the good part, the part where everything is on the line, much better than learning about guys with muskets.'
He turned a page, his finger tracing the lines of text. Next to him, a girl named Ralia was doodling in her notebook instead of taking notes, she gave him a quick smile before going back to her drawing.
Then the world turned red.
A deep, blood-red light filled the room, swallowing every other color, and it didn't seem to come from the windows or the lights, it just was. The classroom door slammed shut with a boom that made everyone jump, making the teacher stop talking mid-sentence.
Panic ignited instantly.
"What was that?" Ralia shouted from her desk.
"Is this a fire drill? Why are the lights red?" another student asked.
A boy was already out of his seat, ran to the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled hard but had no luck. He pulled again, his muscles straining against the unmoving door.
"It's locked! It won't open!" he yelled, his voice cracking with fear.
The calm of the classroom shattered, and students scrambled from their desks, shouting and shoving each other. Some started pounding on the windows, their fists making dull thuds against the glass, but the windows didn't even rattle.
"Everyone calm down! Get back to your seats!" The teacher shouted, but his voice was lost in the noise. He went to the phone on his desk and picked up the receiver, his face went pale.
"It's dead, the line is completely dead."
Luthra stayed in his seat, his book forgotten on his desk. 'This can't be real, this has to be some kind of elaborate prank, right?'
Then it got worse.
A jolt, like a powerful electric shock without the pain, shot through Luthra's body. He tried to stand up but his legs wouldn't obey him. He couldn't move a single muscle, he was frozen solid, a statue in his own chair.
A strangled gasp came from Ralia. "I can't move, Luthra, I can't move."
The room fell silent as the realization spread, and one by one, they all found they were paralyzed. They could only move their eyes, darting them around the room and seeing the same helpless fear on every other face.
The panic was no longer loud, it was a suffocating, internal scream inside everyone's head.
'What is happening, what is happening to us, why can't I move my body?' Luthra's mind was racing.
Then, the boy closest to the door began to fade.
His form shimmered, turning translucent like smoke, his eyes were wide with a terror that went beyond anything Luthra could imagine. The boy opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out as he became more transparent. Then, in a flicker of distorted red light, he was gone.
A terrified whimper came from somewhere in the room.
"Where did he go?" someone managed to whisper, their voice tight with terror.
A girl in the back row vanished next, then another student near the window, then two at once. They were being erased from existence, one by one. The group of thirty students became twenty, then ten.
Tears were streaming down Ralia's cheeks, it was the only part of her that could still move. The teacher stared forward, his face was full of utter defeat and horror.
'No, no, no, not me, please not me,' Luthra squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to see who was next, he didn't want to see the empty chairs where his friends used to be just a minute ago.
He felt a strange, pulling sensation, a lightness in his chest as if he was floating. He opened his eyes, and his own hands were becoming see-through. He looked across the room at Ralia, trying to make a final, desperate connection.
She was fading too, her eyes locked with his.
Then the red classroom, the desks, and the fear dissolved into nothing.
He reappeared with a jolt that sent him stumbling forward onto a smooth, white floor. He took a deep breath, thankful he could move again.
Then he looked up.
He was in a room with no walls, no ceiling, no end, it was just an infinite expanse of white in every direction. And he wasn't alone, his entire class was there, along with hundreds, maybe thousands of other students, all dressed in similar school uniforms. They were all looking around, their faces showing confusion and fear.
"Luthra! Are you okay?" Ralia ran to his side, she looked unhurt.
"I think so. You?," he looked around, seeing nothing but white, "Where are we?"
"I don't know," she said, her eyes scanning the massive crowd of teenagers. "Is this everyone from the whole school? I see kids from other schools over there."
Before anyone could answer, the space above them fractured. It didn't break like glass, it bent and warped, and from the distortion, a figure descended.
It was a goddess, she had red eyes, red eyelashes and long white hair that seemed to float. Her skin was beautiful and she wore a simple white dress. Her appearance was so stunning that no one could speak or look away.
She descended lower and floated just above them, her expression calm. She looked at the crowd of students.
[Welcome, heroes.]
Her voice was not loud, but everyone heard it perfectly clearly in their minds.
'Heroes? What is she talking about, we were just in class a few minutes ago.' Luthra looked at the woman, very confused.
Next to him, Ralia was also staring at the goddess. "Did she call us heroes? Who is she?"
A few other students started whispering to each other, the initial fear was now turning into pure confusion. The goddess looked down at the massive group of teenagers, her face unreadable.
[I have summoned you all here from your world. My name is Elisa, and I am the Goddess of this world, Sajara.]
A loud murmur spread through the crowd as thousands of students tried to talk at once.
"Summoned us? What do you mean?" a boy shouted from somewhere in the crowd.
"Why are we here? Send us back!" another one yelled.
Elisa's expression did not change, she just watched them for a moment.
[I cannot send you back-]
A teacher from the back of the crowd pushed through the students, his face red with anger. It was Luthra's science teacher, a man who always took charge in every situation.
"Now hold on just a minute!" he shouted, pointing his finger at Elisa. "I don't know what kind of sick joke this is, but you can't just kidnap minors like this. Do you have any idea what you've done? There are laws against this kind of thing. I'm reporting this to the authorities immediately."
The goddess remained silent, her red eyes watching him with no expression.
The teacher kept going. "The police will be looking for these kids, the FBI will be involved. Their parents are probably going crazy right now. You need to send them back this instant, do you hear me? This is illegal detention, this is kidnapping on a massive scale. I don't care if you think you're some kind of goddess or whatever this charade is."
'This guy doesn't get it,' Luthra thought, staring at the teacher. 'We're not even on Earth anymore.'
"You're going to be in so much trouble when the authorities find out about this," he continued, his voice getting louder. "Child endangerment, false imprisonment, probably human trafficking charges too. And what's with this white room nonsense? Some kind of hologram? Special effects? You think this impresses anyone?"
The students around him started backing away, sensing something was wrong. The goddess's expression hadn't changed, but there was something different about her now.
"I'm a mandated reporter," he said, still pointing at her. "I have a legal obligation to report this. You can't just take kids from their classrooms and expect no consequences. Their families have rights, these children have rights. This is America, lady, and we don't tolerate this kind of-"
Elisa snapped her fingers.
The teacher exploded.
His body burst apart like a balloon filled with red paint. Blood and chunks of flesh sprayed everywhere, covering the white floor in a wide circle. A piece of his ribcage landed with a wet splat right in front of Luthra's feet, blood pooling around it.
Someone screamed. Then everyone started screaming.
Luthra stared down at the teacher's remains scattered across the floor. There was an eyeball about three feet to his left, still connected to some stringy nerves. Part of his spine was sticking out of a pile of intestines near Ralia's feet.
"Oh god, oh god, oh god," a girl was crying nearby.
"He just exploded, he just fucking exploded," another student shouted.
The goddess floated there calmly, looking down at the crowd of terrified teenagers. Not a single drop of blood had gotten on her white dress.
'She killed him,' Luthra thought, his mind trying to process what he'd just seen. 'She actually killed him.'
Ralia grabbed his arm, her fingers digging into his skin. "Luthra, what the hell is happening?"
The screaming continued for a few minutes before gradually dying down to whimpers and crying. Everyone was staring at the bloody mess where the teacher used to be, then back up at Elisa.
[As I was saying,] she continued, her mental voice as calm as before, [I cannot send you back. Your world and this world exist in different dimensions. The portal I used to bring you here can only work in one direction.]
No one dared to speak after what happened to the teacher, they were all frozen with fear, staring at the bloody mess on the white floor.
[My world, Sajara, is in grave danger.] Her voice continued, as if nothing had happened. [A god has gone rogue, his name is Malaka, and he has infected my world with his power.]
Luthra looked at the blood spatter near his shoes, the reality of the situation hitting him hard. 'This isn't a prank, it's not a dream, a man just exploded and this goddess is talking about a rogue god, this is really happening.'
[Malaka's power, a chaotic and corrupting form of mana, now fills the air of Sajara, it seeps into the soil, the water, and every living thing, enhancing them but also twisting them.]
A few students were quietly sobbing, but they made sure not to make any loud noises.
[This isn't inherently bad for everyone, some humans and demihumans have unlocked new abilities, becoming stronger than ever before, but the cost is high, the world is now unstable and violent.]
Her red eyes swept across the crowd of terrified teenagers.
[The true problem is the corrupted demons, they thrive on his power, using it to become monstrosities that hunt my people, they burn villages for sport and lay siege to my cities, their only goal is destruction.]
Ralia was clutching Luthra's sleeve, her knuckles white. "What does she want from us?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.
'She called us heroes, she wants us to fight them, doesn't she? Teenagers against demons? We'd die in a second.'
[Beyond the demons are Malaka's Apostles. They were once mortals, but he has gifted them a portion of his divine essence, they are his generals, his prophets, and each one has the power to destroy an entire continent themselves, they lead his armies of corrupted beasts and demons across the land.]
She paused for a moment, letting the information sink in. The students were completely silent, listening like good little kids who were afraid of being punished.
[The balance of power has been broken, my own strength is limited as I must use it to protect the last remaining cities from being completely overrun, I cannot fight Malaka and his armies directly without abandoning my people to slaughter.]
'So she's losing,' Luthra realized. 'She's a goddess, but she's losing a war, and she pulled a bunch of high school students from their classes to be her soldiers.'
[The people of Sajara fight bravely, but they are tired, and they are losing hope, for every demon they kill, ten more seem to take its place, the apostles are too strong for any mortal army to defeat.]
Luthra looked around at the faces of his classmates, he saw fear, confusion, and despair. A few students were looking down at the remains of the teacher, their faces green.
[That is why I have summoned you, you are from another world, a world without mana, your souls are like empty vessels, ready to be filled.]
The students were still scared from seeing their teacher explode, but a small bit of hope started to appear on some of their faces, they were thinking they might get superpowers and survive at least.
[However, I was perhaps too enthusiastic with my summons, I have brought far too many of you here, the amount of power I can give is limited.]
Luthra felt a new kind of fear, this was worse than when the teacher exploded.
[I only need the best of you, the ones with the strength and the will to survive, I have no use for the weak, the cowardly, or the hesitant.]
Her red eyes looked over the thousands of teenagers, who were now completely silent.
[Your first trial begins now, it is a simple test to see who is worthy of my gift.]