Six Warriors

The Goddess - (Miguel)

Everyone was silent at the revelation, Gwendy was acting as if it was nothing very important.

"What was it? You guys didn't really expect me to be a mere weird little girl, did you?"

Miguel wondered how things had changed so fast. At first he thought he was going crazy, then he thought of one of those crazy theories where the protagonist has an accident, goes into a coma and then begins his adventure all in the protagonist's delusional mind. Then he went even further in thought, thinking of some kind of virtual reality or digital simulation. In the end, he just gave up on understanding it... for now.

"And the whole camping danger thing?" Miguel asked.

"It was true, if you didn't have the power, the monsters would still come out and kill everyone," the little girl shrugged with a smile.

"Can't say I would care if that happened" Fenrir also shrugged.

"I was just kidding, you crazy boy!" Gwendy laughed sincerely "I already knew, I wasn't sure, but I knew that things were going to happen that way, that Ethan would bring just those I thought he would bring and who would be worthy."

"Were we just pawns in your little game?" Ethan asked, somewhat hurt.

"My sweet chosen one of light, you felt compelled from somewhat? Didn't all of you, even deep in your unconscious, feel a thirst for adventure? To prove yourselves?"

"For sure, yes!" Arthur yelled.

"Or not that deep" Gwendy smiled, "now let's get out of here. This wasn't a definitive passage to Khand, it's ephemeral and soon it will close forever."

They came back from the same place they came from. Miguel thought about what the girl had said, about proving herself. Indeed, he did want to prove himself, but as an exemplary student, he wanted to get good grades and not be fighting weird creatures. Everyone there was going crazy if they thought about taking it any further, and of all the crazy ones, Jack and Arthur seemed the worst.

"Yes, if we had taken a little longer..." said Gwendy. Jack passed through the same place again and did not disappear, the passage to another world had indeed disappeared. "We call this phenomenon Ephemeral Windows. They are passages that appear randomly, for a random period of time, from seconds to days. The opposite is the Perennial Gates, eternal portals that are protected by a special force of combatants that protect the borders of the worlds. They call themselves Interdimensional Guardians."

"What other world are you talking about?" Miguel wanted to know.

"The ancient scholars of your world called it Fantastinen, and that's where all the magic comes from. The magic of this planet you call Earth has always been limited, very hermetic, very ritualistic and required enormous sacrifices. Fantastinen's magic is fluid, clean, simpler, but no less powerful. When the two worlds came together through a mysterious event a long time ago, this dimension gained some of the energy of Fantastinen and gained more and more as the auras of the two worlds merged. It was the magic of yours great ancient and legendary civilizations, Thule, Atlantis, Hyperborea and so many others, knowledge lost through time."

"What does all this have to do with us? Why did you choose us?"

"Yes, why choose a bunch of otaku to be heroes?" The girl touched her chin with her index finger, as if thinking "I happen to spend a lot of time in this world, I ended up becoming an otaku too and in anime it's always the losers who become the heroes that's why I chose you guys!" The girl smiled broadly and held up her thumb.

"Did you choose us for this? You're kidding us, right?"

"Yeah, I think, for a goddess, you made a pretty stupid mistake" Arthur exclaimed and then twitched what he thought he had of muscles (he was just thick, no muscles or anything like that) "I was never a loser or anything like that, I was always a beast! AAAH!"

"Seriously, Arthur? Do you want me to really tell your old stories, your little secrets?" Gwendy gave a grim smile.

"W... what do you mean?" Arthur sweated.

"Oh, you know what I mean."

Fenrir made a gesture of denial with his hands.

"Okay, look, that was cool and all, but I think this is too much responsibility to put on teenagers' shoulders, so I don't know, I think I'm going out." He spoke with his bored expression. Miguel thought that maybe he was the only one with any rationality there. Fenrir never liked any responsibility, not even for schoolwork, which irritated Miguel a little, but this time he was right.

"What? You can't get out! That way it won't be so much fun!" Jack protested.

"Boys, boys, wait a minute" Gwendy butted in. "the fight before, yes, it was a test, but it was just to test your powers and everything, now that you know yourselves, you must know that an attack is actually going to happen. Don't you think there must be a lot of people wanting this ancient power? They'll come after it and run over everything that's in their way."

"So I give this orb to the guys and end of the story, they leave happy with the early Christmas present." Continued arguing Fenrir

"But you just forgot that detail; if you deliver the orbs to him like a coward, then not only will the camp be massacred, the butchery will span all mortal races!"