"I have ordered for your summoning because of an imminent threat to the Way."
A forced quietude overcame Rowan's body, any attempted movements rendered null as the inhabitants of the room laid completely still and the previous life the guardsmen had been giving to the atmosphere vanished.
The air clinging to his throat whisked away the moisture, eliciting an instinctual gulp from Rowan.
"Sorry, perhaps I should explain the ways of this world, first."
The king put his hand forth; his palm faced towards the ceiling. Rowan's skin began to tingle as the same warmth he'd felt when Corien healed him surged throughout the room.
At the same time, seven orbs shot out from the king's hand, some translucent and clear, others bright.
Without warning, Rowan's hair began to sway in the air despite being relatively short, the source of the storm the now revolving orbs that began to form their own after-images, too fast to track by the naked eye.
The back of Rowan's hand covered his face, his eyes half-closed. Stepping back to make sense of what was happening, he looked on as the orbs raised into the air and slammed into one, turning into a bright purple ball of pure energy.
It was then that light shot out from the top of the ball as it formed into a crystallized myriad of tiny prisms, the fractals forming one cohesive projection.
Words flung onto the center of the screen, reading 'The Seven Arts of the Ways.'
"In this world, we channel what we call the Way. In essence, the Way allows us to perform Arcana, which are expressions of the Aether."
A controlled 'huh' escaped the mouths of all five of them summoned, Rowan's companions having mixed expressions as evidenced with raised eyebrows and squinted faces.
"Sorry, I'm not very good at this type of thing. I'll start from the top."
Additional words shot out to replace 'The Seven Arts of the Way' on the projection, instead saying 'Kido, Kodo, Ryudo, Kaido, Seido, Kaizen, and Nendo.'
To save your time, I'll skip forward and talk a little bit about my understanding of what the king explained.
Basically, there are seven categories describing the way in which Way can be channeled to produce arcana, or in other words, the seven arts of the Way. In this world, arcana is kind of like magic or skills in video games like shooting out fireballs. Aether is the most basic unit of energy for Arcanic arts, similar to mana in video games.
Weirdly, even though magic is named 'arcana' in this world, practitioners of the arcane are still referred to as 'mages.'
I don't know, maybe I'll ask about that later, but the king didn't stop there. He went on to explain all the seven arts of the Way.
Kido stands for 'vital', which would be arts that deal with life-energy such as healing.
Kodo stands for 'force', which is useful for self-enhancement and projections of 'power', whatever that means.
Ryudo stands for 'flow', which is essentially the elemental arts of this world. This is said to be the most common Way, which almost all inhabitants of this world can use.
Kaido stands for 'boundary', which is called upon for barrier techniques and spatial seals, which is as the name implies.
Seido stands for 'soul', which is used for spirit interactions, summoning, and things of that nature.
Kaizen stands for 'change', utilized for transmutation arcana and adaptive magic, although I'm curious as to what the latter entails.
And finally, Nendo stands for 'creation', which is as the king puts it, the most uncommon Way. Wielders of it are said to be able to channel a portion of the gods' creation abilities, even making new substances.
A lot of information for sure, but that wasn't the end of it.
The king also made mention of how the Way began to fall apart, the gods' creation made unstable and unreliable.
Arcana became harder and harder to weave—the previous insights the people of this world had dissipating along with it.
It was then that this country's greatest mages came together to form a protective Aether barrier, protecting itself from the overbearing force degrading the relationship that people and the Way have formed.
The putrid smell of burnt flesh creeps upon Rowan's nostrils as his head convulsed, a surge of electricity pulsing out of his head through his scalp. A throb coordinates with his heartbeat, the sensation of a hammer slamming its end on his head replaying second by second.
"Ahhhhh, information overload!"
Rowan grabbed his head with both hands, his knees plummeting to the ground.
The other four stood unyielding, their previously neutral expressions now ones of hardened resolve.
"Alright, and what does that have to do with us," one inquired, their pointer finger going from pointing to the king back to pointing to themselves as they spoke.
"Yeah, I fail to see how you wish for us to deal with this," another remarked, their arms crossed, and their face twisted into one of genuine perplexion.
"I mean, what exactly could a motley gang like us do to deal with a world-wide problem," a third person commented, their hands thrown up in the air.
The king propped himself up and out of his chair as he stepped forward, the clacking of his gold boots ringing out with such strength that the rampaging inquiries ceased their assail.
He stuck his right arm out perpendicular to his torso, his thumb jetting out, palms open while his fingers repeatedly curled and uncurled.
One of the guards stepped forward from their position, an outreaching tall roll of paper in their hands.
The king quickly grabbed the papers, tapping the guard on the shoulder and dismissing him.
There the king stood, mere feet from the five of them summoned.
Even from a distance, Rowan had to tilt his head upwards a little bit to meet him eye-to-eye, the king's shoulders nearly twice as broad as his.
A couple of them took an involuntary step back, Kaia in specific balling her fists while Rowan felt a chill crisp tickle his skin, her aura resemblant of the typical hearth he'd felt when he stood in front of his fireplace on a cold night's gloom.
Clank!
The king was now resting on his left knee, the other holding the arm grasping bundle of paper.
"Please, heroes, prophesies speak of you being the only beings capable of aiding the gods in this dire time."
"The prophecy!?"
The first to speak was Lucien, his mouth hanging open along with gaping eyes that expressed the pure shock all five of them had felt.
"Yes, it is as I say. I understand that this is a lot to take in, so I hope that you'll listen to my words."
The king continued unfurling the roll of paper, a little bit of energy peeking out through its crevices.
As the scroll uncurled to about the halfway point, Rowan hurriedly raised his arms to cover his face, his stomach involuntarily wrenching as his retinas were assaulted by a painfully bright shockwave of light.
White-hot pain pulsed from Rowan's eyes, the intensity of the stimulus evoking a primal shrill so barbaric that one might've mistook him for a little girl.
"I apologize for the sudden light, but if my life is any proof, the acquisition of knowledge is a path oft followed with torment."
As the pulsing reverberations of heat slowed in their approach, each passing wave taking just a little longer, Rowan opened his eyes again, again met with the bright red light.
He looked down upon the scroll, the pure luminescence now no longer tacking his eyes and leaving him blinded.
"This is a knowledge scroll, and an incredibly esteemed one at that. If you look into its light, it will offer its insights that the creator left behind."
Rowan's mouth flinched ever so slightly, queries surrounding the significance of such a scroll occupying the main space of his thoughts, but his words didn't roll out, his tongue frozen and his lips still.
"You will find yourself becoming entranced. Do not attempt to resist it, otherwise you risk splintering your mind."
A rising black shroom burst from Rowan's stomach, infecting his thoughts and leaving him helpless to its dark pleasures.
His mind splintering?
Rowan again urged his body to move, to do anything, but a razor-sharp thud cut both his thoughts and his head into two, akin to a guillotine mutilating his head along the midline.
The words 'don't resist' hovered along his psyche as he eased the tension in his stomach, succumbing to the effects of the scroll.
The black shroom fully engulfed Rowan's body and mind in their totality, the air--no, the space around him unnaturally weaving and churning.
Soon, guards turned to entire kingdoms and heroes turned to forests as Rowan found himself at birds-eye view of the world.
Flames red, crimson, black, and blue engulfed the surroundings, so towering that they trivialized what should've been his focus of attention.
There were thousands upon thousands—maybe even millions—of men, beasts, or mixes of the two moving at blistering speeds, their fights reshaping the environment around them.
At one location, a snake-like man was duking it out with Corien, each blow and clashing of arcana devastating mountain ranges with gaping holes and entirely severed mountain tops.
At another, dozens of unfamiliar men and women were all charging towards a single, impressionable vampire-like beast, his fangs extending past his lower lip.
He'd snapped his fingers and just like that, hundreds of purple ghouls rose from the ground, each one so ludicrously powerful that Rowan couldn't even put into quantification the extent of their strength.
There were several other relevant centerpiece battles, but what laid most outstanding was the state of the world.
The projection of Rowan's soul who'd been moving between these fights lost its center of balance, the earth below shaking.
Rowan tried to fly up and away as he had been just moments ago, but his body wouldn't react, the pit in his stomach so great that it swallowed all conscious thought.
The dark gloom that had stayed hidden in the earth soon made its way to the surface, light peering through the now cracking earth as rays of energy shot out.
Soon, essentially the entire planet was engulfed in this same light, the aftermath of such a destructive force bursting forth from the core of the earth more obvious than ever.
"Noooo!"
Rowan closed his eyes as the feeling of dread transitioned into one of solace, his life mere seconds away from ending.
...
Now on both knees, hands on the floor, a pool of sweat built under Rowan as he collapsed into a nervous wreck.
"What the hell is this..."
What shook Rowan out of his frenzy was the remark of another in close proximity.
There, Elias had adopted the same position as Rowan along with the three other heroes, each one of them heaving excessive volumes of air as their mouths hung open.
"That was the end of the Way and the world as we know it as prophesized millennia ago—"
"No, I meant what the hell is THIS! Why the fuck did you summon us to deal with the end of the world? I didn't sign up for this."
Elias propped himself up with his hand, his legs shaking violently as he struggled to establish his sense of balance.
Despite the king being taller, Elias grabbed Viral along the collar, dragging him down to his own level.
"None of us chose to do this... I mean, who the fuck would willingly sign themselves away to inevitable doom?"
It was only after he finished speaking that Elias raised his other arm, his fist balled in a like-minded fashion to Kaia.
Elias going in for the swing, the king looked on nonetheless with no clear intentions of fighting back.
Fwip!
Lucien stood at Elias' side, holding his arm back with his right hand.
Elias swiftly shifted his attention, looking on at Lucien with burrowed brows and clenched teeth.
"What the hell do you think—"
"No, what the hell do you think YOU'RE doing!"
Elias' head flung back ever so slightly in response, the extreme reaction from Lucien weakening his grip on the king.
"Look around you! Had you swung their king, you most certainly would've gotten yourself killed."
The king's guard all had their dominant legs stretched outward, a strangely familiar book in their hands as a number of varying arcana levitated in front of them.
With such numbers directing attack at Elias, there's no way he could've survived such an onslaught.
Lucien looked upon Elias again with admonishment, Elias diverting his attention to the floor as he eventually resigned all contact with the king.
Subsequently, the king's guard withdrew their attacks, their books closed and their arcana dissipated.
"I... apologize for my actions."
Elias and Lucien both stepped back, returning to the line the heroes had originally formed into.
"I understand after such horrific projections, you would be in disarray, but even if I wanted, I couldn't send you back. The truth is that our hand was forced by the kingdom of Veridia, and we wouldn't have summoned you if we hadn't needed to."