Luthra was just living his normal life, sitting in his boring class while reading a sci-fi book hidden under his desk. The teacher was talking about some test, but Luthra was focused on a starship captain making a final, desperate gamble against an alien armada.
'This is the good part, the part where everything is on the line, much better than learning about guys with muskets.'
He turned a page, his finger tracing the lines of text. Next to him, a girl named Ralia was doodling in her notebook instead of taking notes, she gave him a quick smile before going back to her drawing.
Then the world turned red.
A deep, blood-red light filled the room, swallowing every other color, and it didn't seem to come from the windows or the lights, it just was. The classroom door slammed shut with a boom that made everyone jump, making the teacher stop talking mid-sentence.
Panic ignited instantly.
"What was that?" Ralia shouted from her desk.
"Is this a fire drill? Why are the lights red?" another student asked.
A boy was already out of his seat, ran to the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled hard but had no luck. He pulled again, his muscles straining against the unmoving door.
"It's locked! It won't open!" he yelled, his voice cracking with fear.
The calm of the classroom shattered, and students scrambled from their desks, shouting and shoving each other. Some started pounding on the windows, their fists making dull thuds against the glass, but the windows didn't even rattle.
"Everyone calm down! Get back to your seats!" The teacher shouted, but his voice was lost in the noise. He went to the phone on his desk and picked up the receiver, his face went pale.
"It's dead, the line is completely dead."
Luthra stayed in his seat, his book forgotten on his desk. 'This can't be real, this has to be some kind of elaborate prank, right?'
Then it got worse.
A jolt, like a powerful electric shock without the pain, shot through Luthra's body. He tried to stand up but his legs wouldn't obey him. He couldn't move a single muscle, he was frozen solid, a statue in his own chair.
A strangled gasp came from Ralia. "I can't move, Luthra, I can't move."
The room fell silent as the realization spread, and one by one, they all found they were paralyzed. They could only move their eyes, darting them around the room and seeing the same helpless fear on every other face.
The panic was no longer loud, it was a suffocating, internal scream inside everyone's head.
'What is happening, what is happening to us, why can't I move my body?' Luthra's mind was racing.
Then, the boy closest to the door began to fade.
His form shimmered, turning translucent like smoke, his eyes were wide with a terror that went beyond anything Luthra could imagine. The boy opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out as he became more transparent. Then, in a flicker of distorted red light, he was gone.
A terrified whimper came from somewhere in the room.
"Where did he go?" someone managed to whisper, their voice tight with terror.
A girl in the back row vanished next, then another student near the window, then two at once. They were being erased from existence, one by one. The group of thirty students became twenty, then ten.
Tears were streaming down Ralia's cheeks, it was the only part of her that could still move. The teacher stared forward, his face was full of utter defeat and horror.
'No, no, no, not me, please not me,' Luthra squeezed his eyes shut. He didn't want to see who was next, he didn't want to see the empty chairs where his friends used to be just a minute ago.
He felt a strange, pulling sensation, a lightness in his chest as if he was floating. He opened his eyes, and his own hands were becoming see-through. He looked across the room at Ralia, trying to make a final, desperate connection.
She was fading too, her eyes locked with his.
Then the red classroom, the desks, and the fear dissolved into nothing.
He reappeared with a jolt that sent him stumbling forward onto a smooth, white floor. He took a deep breath, thankful he could move again.
Then he looked up.
He was in a room with no walls, no ceiling, no end, it was just an infinite expanse of white in every direction. And he wasn't alone, his entire class was there, along with hundreds, maybe thousands of other students, all dressed in similar school uniforms. They were all looking around, their faces showing confusion and fear.
"Luthra! Are you okay?" Ralia ran to his side, she looked unhurt.
"I think so. You?," he looked around, seeing nothing but white, "Where are we?"
"I don't know," she said, her eyes scanning the massive crowd of teenagers. "Is this everyone from the whole school? I see kids from other schools over there."
Before anyone could answer, the space above them fractured. It didn't break like glass, it bent and warped, and from the distortion, a figure descended.
It was a goddess, she had red eyes, red eyelashes and long white hair that seemed to float. Her skin was beautiful and she wore a simple white dress. Her appearance was so stunning that no one could speak or look away.
She descended lower and floated just above them, her expression calm. She looked at the crowd of students.
[Welcome, heroes.]
Her voice was not loud, but everyone heard it perfectly clearly in their minds.
'Heroes? What is she talking about, we were just in class a few minutes ago.' Luthra looked at the woman, very confused.
Next to him, Ralia was also staring at the goddess. "Did she call us heroes? Who is she?"
A few other students started whispering to each other, the initial fear was now turning into pure confusion. The goddess looked down at the massive group of teenagers, her face unreadable.
[I have summoned you all here from your world. My name is Elisa, and I am the Goddess of this world, Sajara.]
A loud murmur spread through the crowd as thousands of students tried to talk at once.
"Summoned us? What do you mean?" a boy shouted from somewhere in the crowd.
"Why are we here? Send us back!" another one yelled.
Elisa's expression did not change, she just watched them for a moment.
[I cannot send you back-]