---
Seraphina's violet eyes held a thousand years of secrets as she settled into her chair. The heroes sat in a semicircle before her, waiting. Outside, the two moons rose over Lumina, casting silver light through the windows.
"The first summoning happened one thousand years ago," Seraphina began, her voice soft but clear. "During the First Demon War, when humanity was on the brink of extinction. The Archmage Aldric—ancestor of our current king—discovered a ritual in ancient texts. A way to call forth warriors from another world. Heroes who could turn the tide."
"And did they?" Yuki asked, already taking mental notes.
"Yes. The Five Heroes of Legend—their names are lost to time—defeated the demon armies and saved humanity. They were celebrated, revered, worshipped almost as gods." Seraphina paused. "And then they disappeared."
"Disappeared how?" Ren pressed.
"The official record says they ascended to a higher plane, becoming celestial guardians. The unofficial truth..." She met their eyes one by one. "They died. Not in glorious battle, but quietly, in their sleep, within the palace walls."
Silence.
"Murdered?" Kaito asked quietly, his empathy already sensing the confirmation.
"Not exactly. They were... harvested." Seraphina's voice was hollow. "The ritual that summons heroes doesn't just bring you here. It fundamentally changes you. Your bodies become conduits for magical energy far beyond what this world naturally produces. And that energy can be... extracted."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
"Extracted," Yuki repeated. "You mean—"
"I mean after the heroes fulfilled their purpose, the kingdom performed a second ritual. One that drained their heroic essence, their accumulated power, and used it to fuel the kingdom's defensive barriers and magical infrastructure. They died so the kingdom could thrive."
Himari's hand went to her mouth. Daichi's fists clenched. Ren's expression went carefully blank—a mask Kaito recognized from someone processing horror.
"Every fifty years," Seraphina continued, her voice breaking slightly. "The celestial alignment allows another summoning. And every fifty years, five more souls are pulled from your world, given powers, used to fight our wars, and then... harvested. Twenty summonings. One hundred heroes. All dead."
"Did they know?" Kaito asked. "Did any of them figure it out?"
"Some did. The heroes of the seventh summoning—about six hundred and fifty years ago—discovered the truth. They tried to flee. They were hunted down and executed publicly as traitors." Seraphina's hands trembled. "The heroes of the twelfth summoning tried to fight back. They were overwhelmed and killed. Their deaths were blamed on the Demon King."
"And the Demon King?" Yuki's analytical mind was working through implications. "You said he appeared two hundred years ago. That was—"
"The sixteenth summoning," Seraphina confirmed. "Two hundred years ago, five heroes were summoned. One of them was named Marcus. He was brilliant, charismatic, powerful beyond measure. And he discovered the truth."
The pieces clicked into place.
"Marcus is Malachar," Ren said. "The Demon King is a former hero."
"Yes. When Marcus learned what the kingdom planned to do, he tried to expose it. But he was magically bound—all heroes are, though you haven't felt it yet because you haven't tried to reveal the secret. The binding prevents you from speaking directly about the harvest ritual to anyone not already aware of it."
Kaito felt for the binding and found it—a subtle weight around his thoughts, a compulsion that made his tongue feel thick when he tried to imagine explaining this to someone else.
"Marcus couldn't reveal the truth," Seraphina continued, "but he could act. He and one of his fellow heroes—a woman named Elena—tried to escape. They were caught. Elena was executed immediately as an example. Marcus..." She closed her eyes. "Marcus went mad with grief and rage. His power was command magic, like yours, Ren. And in his anguish, he commanded every person in the throne room to die."
"How many?" Himari whispered.
"Seventy-three. Including King Aldric II, most of the royal family, and half the royal council. Marcus then fled to the demon territories, and over the next two decades, he built an empire. He united the demon tribes, offered sanctuary to demi-humans persecuted by human kingdoms, and declared war on Elaria."
"A war of revenge," Daichi said. "Can't blame him."
"Can't we?" Seraphina looked at him. "In two hundred years, Marcus—or Malachar, as he calls himself now—has killed thousands. Destroyed hundreds of villages. Created as much suffering as the kingdom that wronged him. Revenge doesn't justify atrocity."
"Neither does your harvest ritual," Yuki said coldly. "You've murdered one hundred innocent people. We're not warriors. We're not soldiers. We're kids who died and were given false hope of a second chance, only to be used as magical batteries."
"I know." Seraphina's voice broke completely. "I know, and I hate myself for it. But I'm bound by the same magic that binds you. I serve the kingdom. I must perform the summoning. I must... I must prepare you for harvest."
"There has to be a way to break the binding," Ren said. "Magic can be undone."
"The binding is tied to my life force. If I break it, I die. If I warn summoned heroes before they discover it themselves, I die. If I refuse to perform the harvest ritual, I die. I am a slave, heroes. A willing slave, because I thought—I hoped—that maybe the next group of heroes would be strong enough to break the cycle."
"You mentioned a daughter," Kaito said, remembering the files Yuki had found. "Elena. Was she—"
"Yes." Seraphina's voice was barely a whisper. "Twenty-five years ago, the last summoning. Five heroes came. One of them was my daughter. Not by birth—by choice. I'd raised her from childhood after her parents died. And when she was eighteen, she was summoned. Right from my own home, pulled into the ritual through the magical link we shared."
Tears streamed down her face now.
"I watched her fight. Watched her grow strong. Watched her fall in love with another hero—a boy named Thomas. They were going to find a way to break free together. But Thomas discovered the truth first. He told Elena. And when Elena confronted the king..."
Seraphina couldn't continue. The silence told the rest.
"They killed her," Himari said, crying too. "Your own daughter."
"And Thomas. And the other three heroes when they tried to resist. All five, executed in one night. I was forced to watch. Forced to prepare their bodies for harvest. Forced to smile and tell the kingdom that the heroes had died nobly in battle."
"That's why you feel so guilty," Kaito said, his empathy overwhelmed by her pain. "You blame yourself."
"Because it is my fault. I performed the summoning that doomed her. I could have warned her sooner, could have sacrificed myself to break the binding, could have—" She broke off, sobbing. "But I was a coward. I chose my life over hers. And now I've done it again. I've summoned five more children to die, and I'm too weak to stop it."
The room was silent except for Seraphina's weeping.
Finally, Yuki spoke. "How long do we have?"
Seraphina looked up, confused. "What?"
"Until the harvest. How long?"
"The ritual requires heroes to be at peak power. That takes approximately six months of combat and power usage. Sometimes longer if they're not pushed hard enough."
"So we have six months to figure out how to break this," Yuki said. "That's enough time."
"You can't break it," Seraphina said. "Countless heroes have tried. The magic is too old, too fundamental. It's woven into the very fabric of the summoning itself."
"Then I'll unwoven it." Yuki pushed her glasses up, her analytical mind already working the problem. "I can see the code of reality. That means I can see the code of the binding. And if I can see it, I can hack it."
"The cost would kill you," Seraphina warned. "Attempting to rewrite magic that ancient, that powerful—"
"I'm already dying," Yuki interrupted. "Terminal cancer, remember? I was supposed to die at sixteen. I'm on borrowed time. If I'm going to die anyway, might as well make it count."
"Yuki, no," Himari said. "We'll find another way."
"There isn't another way. I'm the only one with reality manipulation. This is literally what I was summoned to do."
"Actually," Ren said slowly, "we might be able to combine our powers. Yuki identifies the binding's code. I use command magic to order the binding to release. Kaito uses empathy to sever the emotional connections that fuel it. Himari heals any backlash. Daichi... protects us while we work?"
"That could work," Seraphina said, hope flickering in her eyes. "A simultaneous assault on multiple aspects of the binding. No one has tried that before because previous heroes never had such complementary abilities."
"Because the summoning is random?" Daichi asked.
"No." Seraphina's expression was grim. "Because it's not. The ritual pulls souls that match certain criteria: strong potential for power, recent traumatic death, and... complementary abilities. You five were chosen specifically because your powers could theoretically work together. It's been that way since the beginning."
"So the kingdom stacks the deck," Ren said. "Makes sure each group could theoretically win, but not so much that they'd turn on their summoners."
"Until Marcus," Yuki noted. "His command power became too strong. That's why Malachar is winning, isn't it? He knows all the kingdom's secrets because he was supposed to be their perfect weapon."
"Yes. And that's why they need you. You five have the potential to match him. Ren's command versus his. Yuki's reality manipulation versus his centuries of experience. Combined, you might actually defeat him."
"And then be harvested for our trouble," Daichi said bitterly.
"Unless we break the cycle first," Ren said. "Seraphina, you said the harvest ritual happens after we reach peak power. What if we deliberately don't reach peak power? Stay weak enough that they can't harvest us?"
"Then the kingdom falls to Malachar's armies, and millions die. The barriers that protect Lumina are powered by harvested hero essence. Without regular reinforcement, they fail within a decade. It's been nineteen years since the last harvest. We have maybe six months before the barriers collapse entirely."
"So we're damned if we fight and damned if we don't," Daichi said. "Great."
"There is one other option," Seraphina said quietly. "One I shouldn't tell you, but I'm going to anyway because I'm tired of watching children die."
They leaned forward.
"Join Malachar."
The suggestion hung in the air like a bomb.
"Join the Demon King?" Himari asked. "But he's—"
"Fighting the same enemy you are. The kingdom. The cycle. He's been trying to destroy the harvest ritual for two hundred years. If you allied with him, combined your powers with his knowledge and resources, you might actually succeed."
"At the cost of helping him destroy the kingdom," Ren said. "How many innocents would die in that war?"
"Fewer than have died over a thousand years of summonings," Seraphina said. "But yes, there would be casualties. War always has casualties."
"This is insane," Himari said. "There has to be a better way. We can't just... pick which group of people to let die."
"Welcome to the reality of this world," Seraphina said. "There are no good choices. Only less terrible ones."
Kaito had been quiet, processing everything through his empathy. Now he spoke.
"You're not telling us everything. I can feel it. There's something else. Something worse."
Seraphina met his eyes, and Kaito saw naked fear there.
"The harvest ritual doesn't just kill you," she said. "It traps your souls. Every hero who was harvested is still conscious, still aware, powering the barriers from inside a magical prison. They've been screaming for centuries, and no one can hear them except those who know what to listen for."
Kaito felt the blood drain from his face. "That's what I felt in the cathedral. When we were summoned. I thought it was just residual magic, but it was—"
"Them. One hundred souls in eternal agony, begging for release."
Yuki stood up abruptly, walked to the window, and stared out at the city. When she spoke, her voice was hollow.
"In my old life, I was dying. Cancer eating me from inside. I was in pain every day, and I accepted it because at least the pain would end. Death was coming, and I welcomed it." She turned back to face them. "Now you're telling me that if we fail, we don't get to die. We get to suffer forever, powering a kingdom that murdered us, while they summon more victims to feed the machine."
"Yes," Seraphina said.
"Well." Yuki's smile was terrifying in its emptiness. "That's unacceptable. I refuse. I didn't survive terminal cancer just to become an eternal battery. We're breaking this cycle, one way or another."
"Agreed," Ren said, standing beside her. "We didn't ask to be summoned. We didn't ask to be heroes. But we're here now, and I'll be damned if I let them do to us what they did to the others."
"I'm in," Daichi said. "I already died protecting my siblings. At least this time I can die protecting something that matters."
"We're not dying," Himari said firmly, surprising everyone with her steel. "Not permanently. We're going to win. We're going to break the binding, save ourselves, save the trapped souls, and somehow do it without letting millions of innocents die in the process."
"That's impossible," Seraphina said.
"Good thing we have six months to figure out the impossible, then." Yuki turned to the others. "We need a plan. A real one. Multiple contingencies, fallback positions, and at least three different paths to victory."
"First," Ren said, "we need information. Everything Seraphina knows about the harvest ritual, the binding magic, the barriers, all of it. Yuki, you analyze it. Find the weak points."
"Second," Yuki continued, "we need to get stronger. Much stronger. Strong enough to fight the kingdom if it comes to that, but smart enough to avoid open conflict if possible."
"Third," Daichi added, "we need allies. People who'll help us when this inevitably goes sideways. People we can trust."
"Fourth," Himari said, "we need to contact Malachar. Not to join him necessarily, but to understand his perspective. He's the only person who's successfully resisted the kingdom for two hundred years. He knows something we don't."
"And fifth," Kaito finished, "we need to figure out what we're actually fighting for. Not just survival. If we're going to risk everything, it has to be for something worth the cost."
Seraphina looked at them with something like wonder. "You're going to try anyway. Even knowing the odds. Even knowing what happened to everyone before you."
"We don't have a choice," Ren said. "We either fight or we're harvested. At least fighting gives us a chance."
"Then I'll help you. Everything I know, everything I can do without triggering the binding—it's yours." Seraphina stood, wiping her tears. "I couldn't save Elena. But maybe I can save you five."
"We'll save each other," Yuki said. "That's what teams do."
---
They spent the next four hours gathering information. Seraphina told them everything she could about the harvest ritual, the binding magic, the kingdom's secrets. Yuki took detailed notes, already forming theories.
The harvest ritual required:
- Heroes at peak power (roughly six months of combat)
- Physical proximity to the World Altar (located in the Grand Cathedral)
- Specific celestial alignment (which happened once every fifty years)
- The High Priestess to perform it (Seraphina had no choice)
- The King's blessing (magical component, not just ceremonial)
The binding magic:
- Prevented heroes from directly revealing certain truths
- Was tied to their summoning—couldn't be removed without killing them
- Drew power from their unconscious acceptance of the heroic role
- Could be temporarily weakened through intense emotional rejection of their purpose
The barriers protecting Lumina:
- Powered by trapped hero souls
- Would fail completely within six months without new harvest
- Protected against demon magic, not physical attacks
- Were the kingdom's only defense against Malachar's full army
"So if we break the cycle and free the trapped souls," Yuki summarized, "the barriers fall and the kingdom is vulnerable. But if we don't break the cycle, we become the next power source. Classic catch-22."
"Unless we can find an alternative power source," Seraphina suggested. "Or convince Malachar not to attack once the barriers fall. Or strengthen the kingdom's conventional defenses to compensate. Or—"
"Or create a new barrier that doesn't require harvested souls," Yuki said, her eyes lighting up. "If the current barrier is powered by hero essence, and I can see the code of reality, theoretically I could code a new barrier that runs on... something else."
"What else could possibly generate that much power?" Seraphina asked.
"I don't know yet. That's the problem to solve." Yuki was already scribbling equations. "But it's a possibility. Better than any alternative."
"How long would it take to code a city-wide barrier?" Ren asked.
"No idea. Months? Years? I'd have to study the existing barrier first, understand its architecture, then design and implement a replacement. All while fighting a war and trying not to die." Yuki looked up with a manic grin. "Should be fun."
"You're insane," Daichi said, but he was smiling.
"We're all insane," Himari pointed out. "We volunteered to fight demons after one day of training."
"Fair point."
By the time they finished, it was past midnight. Seraphina departed with promises to provide more information and resources secretly. The heroes sat in their common area, exhausted but wired with adrenaline.
"So," Ren said. "We're really doing this. Rebelling against the kingdom that summoned us. Possibly allying with the Demon King. Trying to break a thousand-year-old cycle. All while pretending to be obedient heroes."
"When you put it that way, it sounds impossible," Daichi said.
"It is impossible," Yuki said cheerfully. "But impossible just means no one's succeeded yet. There's always a first time."
"I'm scared," Himari admitted. "But also... excited? Is that wrong? To be excited about rebellion?"
"It's human," Kaito said. "We've been given a second chance at life, and we're using it to fight for something that matters. That's worth being excited about."
"Poetic," Daichi teased, but his tone was fond.
They sat in comfortable silence for a while, processing the enormity of what they'd learned and what they were planning.
"One more thing," Ren said eventually. "From now on, we don't trust anyone except each other. Seraphina's on our side, but she's bound. Anyone else in the kingdom could be reporting to the king. We keep our real plans between the five of us."
"Agreed," they said in unison.
"And we watch out for each other," Himari added. "No sacrifices. No heroes. We all survive this, or none of us do."
"Dramatic, but I'll allow it," Yuki said.
They made a pact that night—five broken souls who'd been given a second chance and chose to use it fighting against the very system that had summoned them. It was reckless. It was dangerous. It was probably doomed to fail.
But it was theirs.
---
Over the next week, they trained harder than ever. Publicly, they were model heroes—obedient, grateful, eager to serve. Privately, they were preparing for war.
Yuki spent every spare moment studying the city's barrier, learning its code, looking for weaknesses and alternatives. She filled notebooks with equations and diagrams that no one else could understand.
Ren trained with Gareth daily, improving his swordwork and tactical thinking while secretly learning to push his command power further. He discovered he could command people to forget things, to ignore certain details, to overlook inconsistencies. Useful for hiding their rebellion.
Daichi worked on controlling his enhancement, learning to access his power without strong emotional triggers. He needed to be able to fight at full strength even when not thinking about his siblings.
Himari practiced her healing in the city hospitals, helping the sick while learning the limits of her power. She also discovered she could do the opposite—her songs could harm as easily as heal, though the revelation disturbed her deeply.
Kaito expanded his empathic range and learned to shield himself from the constant emotional input. More importantly, he learned to read people's intentions, to sense lies and deceptions. He became their walking lie detector.
They also started investigating the kingdom's structure, identifying who could be trusted and who was loyal to the king. They made quiet alliances with sympathetic knights and mages. They gathered information about the nobility, the military, the magical infrastructure.
All while maintaining their cover as innocent, obedient heroes.
It was exhausting.
On the eighth day, Gareth pulled Ren aside during training.
"You're holding back," the commander said bluntly.
Ren's heart jumped. "What do you mean?"
"In training. You're deliberately not improving as fast as you could. You're sandbagging." Gareth's eyes were sharp. "Why?"
Does he know? Does he suspect?
Ren made a split-second decision. Gareth was a good man. Honorable. He'd expressed guilt about the dead knights. Maybe...
"Can I trust you?" Ren asked quietly.
Gareth studied him for a long moment. "That depends on what you're trusting me with."
"A secret. One that could get both of u"Then no, you can't trust me. I'm a soldier. I follow orders. Whatever you're planning, keep it to yourself."
The rejection stung, but Ren respected the honesty. "Understood."
He turned to leave, but Gareth spoke again.
"That said... I'm not blind. I've seen how you look at the royal family. How careful you are with your words around the priestess. Whatever you're planning, be smarter about it. The walls have ears, and the king has informants everywhere."
It wasn't support. But it wasn't opposition either. It was... neutrality. Or as close as Gareth could offer while staying loyal to his oaths.
"Thank you, Commander."
"Don't thank me. I'm not helping you. I'm just... looking the other way. For now."
---
That was Two weeks after learning the truth, they received a message.
It arrived via a beggar in the market—a woman with one eye who pressed a sealed letter into Kaito's hand and disappeared into the crowd before he could react.
The letter was unmarked, sealed with black wax. Kaito brought it back to their quarters, where the five of them gathered to read it.
Yuki broke the seal. Inside was a single page, written in elegant script:
To the Five Heroes of the Twenty-First Summoning,
I know what you've learned. I know what you're planning. I know because I stood where you stand now, two hundred years ago, and made the same choices you're considering.
If you wish to understand what you're truly fighting, come to the Neutral Lands. To the village of Thornhaven, on the border between light and shadow. Come alone, or come together. But come prepared to hear truths that will change everything.
You are not my enemies. Not yet. Not unless you choose to be.
I await our meeting with interest.
—M
"Malachar," Ren said. "He's inviting us to meet him."
"It could be a trap," Daichi warned.
"Of course it's a trap," Yuki said. "The question is whether we're clever enough to spring it without getting caught."
"We need to do this," Kaito said. "He's the only one who's successfully fought the kingdom. He knows things we don't. Things Seraphina can't tell us because of her binding."
"And he might kill us on sight," Himari pointed out.
"He won't," Kaito said with certainty. "I can feel the emotion behind the words. He's... curious about us. Maybe even hopeful. He wants talked"
"Then we talk," Ren decided. "But carefully. We go as a group—no splitting up. We tell no one except Seraphina. And we prepare for anything."
"When?" Yuki asked.
"Soon. Before the kingdom gives us another mission. Before we're forced to kill more demons who might not be our real enemies."
They made plans. In three days, they would leave the capital on a supposed "training expedition" into the countryside. They would ride to Thornhaven, meet with the Demon King, and either find an ally or discover their greatest enemy.
Either way, they'd learn the truth.
And the truth, they were beginning to understand, was far more complicated than heroes and villains.