3 chapter 3 heroes, what is going on here?

"So it seems they went after all," a woman said teasingly as she floated in the air, as if there were ground beneath her feet, looking down at the city.

"They will all be thrown into the fray soon enough, into a world of hell and pain unlike anything they've ever seen before," the woman smiled, letting her hair blow as a gust of wind passed, ruffling her clothes a bit.

Turning towards a house, she seemed a bit surprised as she looked at a figure inside. "Oh my, it seems there's still one left. I'll take care of her myself then. We can't let her stay here, can we?"

Inside the house, we see a young woman who lived alone. She had long white hair, a pretty but sharp face, and a nice body, not overly extreme. Standing at five feet five, she was a fairly tall girl.

As she fumbled around looking for her clothes, she half-heartedly glanced at the news on the TV.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in today's news, we have a lot of rainy weather and fog, followed by several unfortunate events that occurred the other day."

"Starting off with the crash of a Hino three hundred series truck, the body was smashed from the head down to the shoulders. The image is rather gruesome, which is why it will be posted on our website. The body was identified as Rei Kamishiro, a young man in his final year of high school."

"Moving on, the next news is about the death of Banbutsu no Aruji Kage. He was found killed by a local thief during a failed robbery; the suspect was caught and arrested."

Following this, one of the greenhouses was struck and destroyed by lightning.

"Wow, crazy, isn't it, folks?"

"Yeah, I know. But if you think that's crazy, just wait until you hear about the next one."

"Is it really that crazy? Even more than this?"

"Yes, it is. In the next one, we have an entire classroom of students and teachers that completely vanished yesterday afternoon."

"What? No way, that's possible. What's the story behind that?"

"We don't know. Some say they are planning something like a big prank on everyone. Some say it's some massive company kidnapping them for some survival game type of thing to test out crazy technology they have. Some even said things like aliens kidnapping them and crazy stuff like that."

"Hahaha, well, now I know why you called this crazier. But what do you think, folks? What really happened to that classroom?"

"Pfft," scoffing to herself, the girl frowned.

'It seems it was a good idea to not go to school today after all, or I would have been caught up in that mess. But now that that's done, since there's already been this massive thing today, it should be safe, with under a zero-point-zero-one percent chance of something else happening to me today.' And so the blond-haired girl, known as Stella, sighed as she made her way out after putting her shoes on and fixing her skirt. Making her way out, she barely fixed the top of her hoodie on her head before suddenly a long, dagger-like weapon came shooting out, stabbing into her wall exactly where her head had been seconds ago, only being saved by a hair thanks to her moving her head on survival instinct.

"What the heck?" Stella gasped in a shocked tone as she saw the dagger shoot past her.

"My my, that's a first for a human to dodge one of my attacks. Not only that, but you don't even have any magic in you yet, at least not any that you can use anyways. But you do have plenty in your soul, hehehe," the seductive and knowing tone of the new woman said as she floated down.

Looking up, Stella saw her, slowly floating down towards her, was a strange woman wearing equally strange clothing. She seemed to almost blend in perfectly with the dark, rainy surroundings caused by the weather, and yet, even with the similarities, she seemed to stand out quite a bit, seemingly as if she were a giant staring and judging her very soul.

'What's going on? Who is she? Why did she attack me? How is she doing that, just floating like that in the air as if it's nothing? Is she using some kind of drones to fly on? Maybe a suit or something else? Maybe she's even an AI? Or is this a dream? No that can't be i haven't had one of those in years' As those thoughts and many more ran through her head in a matter of seconds, Stella shook her head to focus. However, this time it was too late, as another dagger came flying at her way too fast for her to react properly, only barely able to see it but yet unable to react no matter how much she tried.

'Move! MOVE! MOVE DAMMIT!' Stella screamed in her head as she pushed and strained her muscles to move and protect herself.

"Splash," the noise of metal cutting through flesh followed by blood splashing.

Eyes widening, Stella looked down as she felt the shooting pain to see a similar, expensive-looking dagger with the sharp blade made of something resembling metal, but like her, it seemed to have a taint of darkness in it, with a golden handle seemingly made of hands reaching for and grabbing onto the blade, making for a rather strange and creepy dagger handle. However, she could not see the tip or any more of the dagger, thanks to it being plunged into her body.

Sliding back from the force, Stella hit the wall as the woman continued to push the dagger into her chest.

Coughing up some blood, she reached up and put her hands on the blade and dagger's handle. "My my, still struggling to the bitter end, it seems. The reports about you were right; you're special. You even managed to dodge my attacks not only once but twice," the unknown woman spoke as she twisted the dagger.

"You not only completely avoided the first attack, but you also managed to stop me from killing you straight away by stabbing your heart. Instead, you moved just enough to avoid not only your heart but also any other vital organs."

The woman smiled widely and quite creepily. "You know, none of the others can do this, right? All those candidates can't do the stuff you can; you're special. I have high hopes for you. Don't let me down, or you won't like what is to come. Hehehe," the woman spoke in a quiet but creepy voice to match as she slowly backed off.

"Now that I think about it, he needs you there, but he never said not to interfere, now did he? Hehehe, I'll give you a little something for the ride then. Let's make this fun, shall we?" Opening her eyes, revealing them to be deep, crimson red, glowing with some strange patterns inside, as they glowered, the dagger started to glow the same as it went deep into Stella's body, disappearing completely, making Stella's eyes start to close as it blurred and made her lose consciousness. As this happened, she heard the last words from the woman, "Good luck with that new life of yours. Don't waste it. Come find me when you can; maybe we can share a cup of tea or two."

...

"Sir, are you sure it is wise to do this? It could lead to catastrophic results."

"I know, but it is the only option we have. The goddess said so herself."

"

Damn it all, what will happen to our kingdom!"

"We will make it. We will survive with her guidance and the help of her champion."

"Yes, you are right, my king. Sorry to have doubted and lost control of my emotions like that. I shall go pray immediately to her to repent."

"Yes, in the meantime, I will make sure everything is ready for the summoning of the heroes. We shall not fall to the Kage no Kōtei and his armies."

After bowing, the man who had been talking before left. On his way out, the man seated on the throne could see that he was a hardened soldier-like veteran with golden blond hair, showing his noble heritage along with his shining armor. However, the sword alongside the battle scars, hardened muscles, and his hand being nearly constantly on the hilt of his sword showed that he was not only a true veteran but had been through countless battles of great measure.

Letting out a sigh, the king went to do exactly as he had said.

After a whole week of preparations, they were ready. Finally, they could do it.

"Sir, we have finished the preparations. We are ready and waiting on your orders, sir."

"Let us begin then!" the king said in a positive yet controlled, powerful tone as he got up from his throne.

"What an honor. I get to not only follow the direct orders of the goddess, but I also get to teach the heroes and even summon them. Hehehe, it seems I've gotten quite lucky, or is my hard work finally paying off?" As the person walked towards the room, it was shown to be a somewhat shorter boy with not a lot of muscles, not a strong look or aura around him. He gave the look of a late teen, almost like a last-year high school student, with short silvery white hair. He wore very expensive-looking clothes, a fairly tight, professional-looking black suit with a white undershirt tainted in gold and a blood-red vest over it, matching his blood-red eyes and earrings.

This was Aruji, the youngest and newest teacher, being quite the prodigy, as most would think at first glance. But in truth, he was a vampire with quite a past. However, that is a story for a different time. While his exact age was not known, he was confirmed to be over a hundred years old and one of the founders of the Ethos Magic Academy, the best magic academy not only in the Skotótopia kingdom but also in the surrounding lands.

"Hmm, so this is what it looks like, huh?" Arriving at the big open field, Aruji smiled as he stared at the massive magic circle on the ground.

"Well then, let's hope this works, shall we?" Walking up to the circle's edge, Aruji pointed his palm out as he started to chant.

A hero's summoning circle, classified as a forbidden summoning for not only the risk of dying from using such a mana-draining spell. Very few people knew of the existence of this magic, let alone how to actually use it. This magic was known to be able to latch onto a single or multiple targets of unknown high mana sources. It would then take them from that world into this one, regardless of whether they were dead or alive, as it would create a new body for the person, one which aligned the best with their soul. Depending on the circumstances, they could even be summoned as a monster or a human.

"Come forth, great heroes, for this world needs you and your great powers."

"Crunch! Gahhh," the sound of bones smashing as the blow made contact was heard throughout the field.

"Well, damn, this is an interesting bunch of heroes we have," said someone in a seemingly let-down tone.

"Well, we do have several of them, way more than expected," someone else spoke with a somewhat hopeful but desperate tone.

"Yeah, it should be a good thing, right?"

And so, the young girl known as Stella was murdered at the hands of an unknown woman and had been given a gift of unknown properties for this woman's entertainment followed by the people from another world using the forbidden heroes summoning circle to summon a few special people or ordinary ones from their classes and other situations