Refining the Heavens 5 (炼天五)

Chapter 1: Axis Mundi

The princess Relestia remains unconscious, resting on Kairos' chest. The two of them were so beautiful together they looked like they had stepped out of a painting.

Kairos had not revealed their age but the others made their assumption. He concluded that the portal had brought them here because they were summoning a male and female pair of the age sixteen. He is of the correct age, but Princess Relestia is barely fourteen and will raise unnecessary suspicions.

He do not know if they have any magic in this place that can detect lies but there are definitely spells at work in this place.

Everyone were flabbergasted by their titles. A princess and a young general in their midst was beyond their expectation.

Only the shamans felt unfazed. In fact, they were surprised that there are so few combatants. Moreover... a show fighter? Only the prisoners of war and those without appetite for real battle become Show Fighters - mere jesters for the court.

They passed it off as another quirk of this strange summoning spell and the mage with blonde hair took over shortly after Kairos' introduction.

"Now that you know each other, you should've guessed that we have certain criteria in our summoning. You're in pairs because it is most efficient that you have a partner that you can trust in a foreign land. We summoned a male and a female for each pair because different magical talents favour each gender. And, you are all sixteen because that is the perfect age for magic. You are wise enough to handle powers and young enough to learn its intricacies."

The mage left out one thing unsaid: The spell is only capable to handle ten summoned heroes at most. Axis Mundi should not be able to support anything more than that yet here there is another pair.

She said, "Now, you must have a ton of questions. I'll answer as much as I can."

"Why are we here?" Lie Feng the sniper asked, ever primly.

"Our world, the Axis Mundi, is riddled with magical dungeons..."

"WHOOP! DUNGEONS!" George Luther the mixed martial artist pumped his fists in cheered. It was a dream come true for him.

The mage coughed politely at the interruption and continued, "These ... catacombs... are filled to the brim with all kinds of monsters birthed by the excessive mana, and every day the tunnels are expanding. Whenever a dungeon reaches the surface, our towns will become overran and hundreds will die."

"So our job is to exterminate them, and then we can go home?" Richard XVII the student asked.

The mage nodded and then shook her head, "It's not that simple. They will never cease spawning."

"Then, what in the blazes are we here for!" Richard screamed uncontrollably.

The knights by the edge of the hall stomped the ground with their weapons.

They did so quickly in perfect unison and everything fell silent again.

The Jarl lifted a hand lazily and said, "Continue explaining."

Except for the twelve summoned heroes, everyone else turned to their lord and bowed deeply.

The mage straightened up a moment later, adjusting her hat and shooting Richard with a dirty glare as if saying she will prefer if he did not interrupt her again.

"The dungeons and monster hordes will continue appearing all over the Axis until the Dark Lord is killed."

"Ah, a final boss... this is so cliché," someone muttered softly.

The mage frowned slightly to display her displeasure at yet another interruption, then said, "There are three regions on the Axis. The human kingdoms, the Gnome-Dwarf alliance, and the elves.