And (N)one Shall Remain

“Ethan? Is that you?” asked Alissa with mounting excitement as she noticed the familiar burly form of her oldest friend emerge from within the portal. Ethan was worryingly quiet for a moment, before he shifted and lifted his head, using one hand to shove away the tresses of golden-brown hair that fell in front of his face - he always liked to keep his hair longer than school regulations - before he looked around.

 

“Allie?” he asked as his amber eyes found hers. Those same eyes then took in his surroundings, much like Alissa had done earlier, before some sort of realization seemed to have dawned upon him. Then the widest grin Alissa had ever seen formed on Ethan’s face as he grinned like a fool while he turned in place and took another look around. “Oh shit oh god holy fucking shit… Allie, hit me, quick! Got to make sure I ain’t dreaming all this!”

 

Without a word, Alissa just sighed exasperatedly at the excited, goofy look on her childhood friend’s face. Then her hand moved to the side of his waist, pinched the bit of skin she could with her fingers, and twisted, hard.

 

“Ow ow owowowow! Okay, okay, enough! Confirmed that I ain’t dreaming!” yelled Ethan as he almost leapt in place from the sudden pain. While he didn’t have much to pinch - the guy always kept himself so fit it wasn’t funny, being a frequent sight at the gym - Alissa’s hand could really pinch someone painfully, and all her practice at the basketball court only helped with that. “We got fucking isekai’ed! Whoo! Dream come true, baby!”

 

“Ise-what?” asked Alissa with obvious incredulity in her voice, enough to pull Ethan out of his reverie, at least.

 

“Isekai, you know, like getting transported over to another world! Like in those novels!” explained her childhood friend with obvious enthusiasm. “There’s many different kinds though… So lemme make sure first… What’s the situation around here, Priestess-lady? Demon king on the rise you need putting down? Tyrant that needs overthrowing?”

 

“I… see that the Chosen one is well-versed in situations like these,” said the shrine maiden-like woman after she gathered herself. Ethan’s excessive enthusiasm at the situation had flummoxed even her for a while, which made Alissa breathe a sigh in relief as at least she was not alone in that. “To answer your question, it is more akin to this… ‘demon king’ situation you mentioned, though if I may suggest, we should wait until all the Chosen are gathered before we explain it in detail.”

 

“Gotcha, right, understandable… now for what that voice said… ahem… lemme try this… Menu! Open Status!” said Ethan aloud even as Alissa covered her face half in embarrassment at his antics. She noticed that even many of the armed guards had difficulty holding in their amusement, and that even the shrine maiden almost chuckled at the sight.

 

“You only need to think it, you doofus!” said Alissa in the end as she lost her patience and slapped Ethan upside the head. “Now stop embarrassing all of us already! We’re not in Texas anymore, as you’ve surely noticed!”

 

“Right, right, okay, got it, stop hitting me will ya?” said Ethan as he pretended to cower before her slaps. “So… I got this status window, any way to share it with others, priest-lady? Just asking since you said we’re still waiting for more,” he then asked to the shrine maiden - or maybe it was a priestess? Alissa couldn’t really tell either way - after he spent some time fiddling with his status screen.

 

“Yes, Chosen One. All you had to do is to think of a desire to share it with the recipient,” replied the priestly woman with a slight bow. Alissa tried to do just that, and from Ethan’s surprised reaction, it looked like she did it correctly.

 

“Oh whoa, baby, you got to be the hero? Sweet!” he said after he took a look at her status screen. “Didn’t expect you to be better than me at something physical, but then again… I’m probably not that dexterous a guy yea… Oh right! Here, have mine too!”

 

The next moment, another status display showed up next to Alissa’s own, and she took the moment to take a look at Ethan’s screen.

 

Name : Ethan Louie Greene

Race : Human

Age : 18

Class : [Warrior Lvl1]/???/???/???/???

 

Stats :

 

• Body : 14.66

    - Strength : 18

    - Dexterity : 11

    - Constitution : 15

• Mind : 10.33

    - Intelligence : 10

    - Perception : 11

    - Wisdom : 10

• Soul : 9.66

    - Willpower : 10

    - Intuition : 9

    - Sanity : 10

 

Skills:

 

Class 1: [Warrior]

• Raging Bellow: Lvl 1

• ???

• ???

• ???

• ???

 

General Skills:

• Respawn: EX

• Language Understanding: Lvl 1

• ???

• ???

• ???

 

Unlike hers, Ethan’s class seemed very straightforward. His one class skill was also entirely different, as it would simply strengthen him and every ally near him for a brief period of time, making them stronger and impervious to pain. It was only usable once a day, however, and she thought that being impervious to pain was a pretty dangerous downside to have… if it were not for the Respawn skill they both also had.

 

“This… reminds me a lot of those games you really liked,” Alissa finally managed to bring herself to say to Ethan. She realized all too well by then that her old friend seemed far more familiar in the odd situation they found themselves in, and that she might as well defer to his knowledge rather than strike out blindly on her own. “Also, didn’t know your middle name was Louie.”

 

“That’s what my gramps insisted,” replied Ethan with a scoff, clearly not too big a fan of his middle name either. “For that matter, didn’t know you had a middle name either.”

 

“It’s what made me realize that things were real, honestly,” admitted Alissa to her old friend. “Nobody knew of it other than my late mother, as she was the only one who used it. Now can you explain to me in simple terms of what we’ve been drawn into?”

 

“Putting it simply, Allie, we’re in another world. In the stories I read it was usually because the locals needed to summon heroes from our world to tackle some sort of threat, usually of the world-ending sort, or at least nation-destroying or so,” explained Ethan with all the seriousness he could muster. “I’d guess we’re those heroes, given how that priest-lady’s been calling us chosen ones all this time, and there’s supposed to be more of us too. Right, priest-lady?”

 

“You can call this humble one Cerilla, chosen ones,” said the priestly woman with another of her bows as she answered Ethan’s query. “And yes, the books stated that there would be four heroes summoned each time there was a need. The Hero, the Warrior, the Mage, and the Cleric.”

 

“Hmm… could use a thief or rogue to round things out, I guess this works too, though. Your Hero class seems like it’s more of an all-rounder, so I guess us three will be the specialists instead,” said Ethan as he tapped his chin with a finger. “Oh man, I just realized how hilarious this shit will be if Josh gets summoned as well and gets to be the mage! That’d be a riot!”

 

“What do you mean?” Alissa asked. She wasn’t particularly close to Joshua, but given how he was pretty much a bookworm, she thought the idea of him becoming a mage would have been rather… fitting all considered.

 

“Ah right, you’re not that close with him,” said Ethan as he realized that Alissa had no idea whatsoever on what he talked about. “Josh’s parents were pretty hardline folks. The sort who burned books and board games calling it satan’s stuff and all, you know? Books and games about magic of all things. Get what I mean now?”

 

“Oh…. Oh,” said Alissa in realization. If that was indeed the case, then it would indeed be a hilarious irony if Joshua were to be drawn in as a Mage.

 

As if whichever beings that pulled them over heard what they talked about, the portal activated once again, and Joshua fell out from it as he sprawled unceremoniously on the patterned floor. The bespectacled class president was nowhere near as athletic as Alissa or Ethan, who had both managed to land on one knee.

 

Ethan had immediately pulled him up and half-dragged him to the side with obvious eagerness and a huge, enthusiastic grin on his face as he questioned Joshua right away. “Quick, think the word ‘Status’ in your mind, then think about showing it to us!”

 

Joshua was baffled at first, as he had not even taken sight of his surroundings yet, but apparently he followed Ethan’s commands, and soon his status screen was projected before Alissa as well.

 

Name : Joshua Smith

Race : Human

Age : 18

Class : [Mage Lvl1]/???/???/???/???

 

Stats :

 

• Body : 9.33

    - Strength : 9

    - Dexterity : 10

    - Constitution : 9

• Mind : 13.33

    - Intelligence : 14

    - Perception : 12

    - Wisdom : 14

• Soul : 10.66

    - Willpower : 12

    - Intuition : 10

    - Sanity : 10

 

Skills:

 

Class 1: [Mage]

• Mana Manipulation: Lvl 1

• ???

• ???

• ???

• ???

 

General Skills:

• Respawn: EX

• Language Understanding: Lvl 1

• ???

• ???

• ???

 

“Ahahahahahahahahahahahah! I knew it!” Ethan laughed out loud until he nearly ran out of breath when he saw the word “Mage” as Joshua’s class. He probably amused himself more than he should have, but then again, even Alissa barely suppressed a snort when she saw Ethan’s guess come true. Joshua on the other hand, looked almost as if someone had just force-fed him a live cockroach as his expression twisted.

 

“What the hell is this all about, Greene! Explain!” he yelled back with some obvious annoyance and anger in his voice. The yell was probably more to cover his nervousness, as Alissa noticed how his legs seemed to tremble a bit as he took in their surroundings, which naturally included the weapons in the hands of the guards that stood all around them.

 

“We’re in a whole ‘nother world, prez,” said Ethan with the shit-eating grin still plastered on his face, as he clearly enjoyed the situation a little too much. Alissa was more worried about how the whole thing had been possible to begin with, and whether they could return home or not, whereas Ethan seemed to just enjoy the whole situation. “And you’re a mage now, magic and all that jazz! Congrats!”

 

“What sort of bullcrap are you spouting now!? Did you melt your brain reading too many of those novels of yours?” asked Joshua with obvious disbelief in his voice, though his uncertainty and nervousness also clearly leaked into his voice.

 

“Look around you, prez. We ain’t in Texas anymore,” said Ethan as he aped Alissa’s earlier words at Joshua. “Besides, say you think this whole thing is some elaborate prank. Do ya think Allie and I got enough dosh for all this shit?”

 

“Hey, Ethan, looks like another’s coming through,” said Alissa as she noticed how the portal started to fluctuate once more, similar to the way it reacted before it dropped Ethan and Joshua in their current world.

 

“You’re right. Guess we’re having our fourth and mystery member then,” said Ethan as he looked at the fluctuating portal. After a moment though, his face turned slightly strange even as he glanced at Alissa, then Cerilla on his other side, and finally voiced his question. “Is that… supposed to happen?”

 

The portal before them seemed to fluctuate wildly, almost like an amoeba on the move, and from the way Cerilla’s face held the same questioning look that she saw on Ethan’s face, Alissa thought that the answer to his question was likely a resounding “No”.

 

“It definitely didn’t fluctuate like that when you two crossed over,” she offered quietly as everyone in the room kept an eye at the fluctuating portal. Eventually the portal started to stabilize after a while, and they all breathed a sigh in relief as it appeared that another person was about to be transported through the portal.

 

A figure dropped from the portal with a wet splat on the patterned floor, and Alissa heard herself scream at the top of her voice.

 

Because whatever the portal had just dropped out, it most certainly wasn’t human.