It was just another day at the office, or so it seemed at the start. I, of course, was dressed suitably in a buttoned-up shirt complete with tie, suit pants and glossy belt, along with a pair of black leather shoes polished to a dull shine.

It happened just after I returned from a quick pit stop. While I waited for the computer to log me back in, I was conversing with Greg, a friend of mine who works in the neighbouring cubicle. We were exchanging gossip – boring stuff, but anything was exciting compared to the job we were doing.

There were quite a few people in that particular office block that day, thirty-five including myself. They came from all walks of life, ending up in that job in one way or another, whether it was their own fault or unfortunate happenstance. There was perhaps one similarity between us all: We were waiting, hoping for something to change.

Our hopes and dreams had born no fruit. Families had grown distant over the many years, as the monotony of the job drained the life from our bodies more efficiently than any vampire. We wanted to go.

Where? We didn’t care.

One way or another, that wish came to pass, just not in the way we expected.

The formation, when it came, was centred on me, whether by coincidence or intent I haven’t bothered to find out.

It glowed, revolving and pulsating as it stretched across the floor of the entire room. A strange script flowed just inside the outer edge of the circle, unending and unbroken, a sentence with no beginning and no end.

Beyond it, a hexagram, decorated with representations of the elements – Twisting flame, sturdy mountain, abstruse shadow, ubiquitous wind, flowing water, blinding light.

Then, the images grew stranger. Webbing lightning, oozing lava, crystalline ice were rare enough on their own, but then there was illusion, its very existence paradoxical, decay, fetid and dark, and a radiant aura that felt somehow divine.

In the middle of it all, a final image, which I couldn’t quite catch sight of by virtue of the fact I was standing on top of it.

At that point, the unusual situation triggered one of the contingencies I (as in, the actual me) had put in place in the off chance that anything that might truly threaten me occurred, unsealing all my powers and memories.

Still, when the formation began pulling us through space, I didn’t resist. I wanted to see what was on the other side, after all. I did, however, freeze time once we got there an instant later, conducting a simple scan to determine what type of place we were at, and if there was any danger.

Satisfied that there wasn’t and excited at the prospect of a unique new experience, I resumed time and sank into a state of semi-dormancy, splitting off the portion of myself that was the human Phil and let him control the body while I simply watched.

---

I looked around, getting my bearings.

I – We, by the amount of people crying out in shock – were in a cave. Thanks to some torches in sconces along the wall, there was enough light to see by, although it was still dim enough that it took my eyes a moment to adjust after being abruptly transported from the office.

Seeing Greg on the ground next to me, I gave him a hand and hoisted him to his feet. “How many times do I have to tell you, Greg?” I shook my head in mock disappointment. “Don’t lean back in your chair so much, or you’ll be flat on your back when you get teleported somewhere.”

Greg scowls at me as he rubbed his back. “I don’t remember that being in the ergonomics lecture.” His breath caught as he looked around. “Where on earth are we?” He asked quietly.

I scratched my head and looked around, myself. “Your guess is as good as mine, but given that we just got teleported…” I trailed off, knowing full well that he already understood the enormity of our situation.

“Another world, huh?” Greg sighed heavily, then frowned. “I recognise most of the people here, but…” He pointed at some old men in gold-trimmed robes lying unconscious just outside the circle of familiar office workers. “Who are they?”

“If I were to hazard a guess, the people who brought us here.” I replied. “If not, then I have no clue.”

Cleaning his glasses with a cloth he took from his pocket, Greg looked at the old men. “They almost look dead. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing for us, but we should at least check.”

“Agreed.” We stepped over to the bodies, and I reached into my pocket and retrieved a small umbrella, one of those ones with a telescopic shaft. “Better safe than sorry,” I muttered, extending the umbrella and poking at one of the bodies.

There was no reaction.

I retracted the umbrella and placed it back in my pocket, then stepped forwards and knelt beside the man. “Let’s see here…” I murmured to myself absentmindedly. While I was not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination, I at least knew enough to check a pulse.

“Well, he’s alive as far as I can tell.” I reported with a short groan as I stood back up. “Just unconscious, as far as I can tell.”

“Why have so many old men fainted simultaneously?” Greg mused, confused. “And why here, in this cave?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “But at least we know that this sort of thing doesn’t just happen to Japanese students.”

Greg chuckled, but his mirth was short-lived. “We should probably start looking for a way out of here.”

“Agreed.”

We glanced around the cave and managed to spot a tunnel on the opposite side of the group. Some of the others were already starting to drift towards it, but were attempting to gather the rest of us before leaving – the fear of the unknown was great, and strength in numbers, while only a small comfort, was the only comfort we had.

As we walked over, I glanced downwards and noticed patterns and symbols etched in the dirt not dissimilar, by my reckoning, to that of the formation that appeared in the office not minutes before.

“Have you noticed these markings on the floor?” I remarked to Greg, pointing at them. “Looks like the ones that appeared before we were teleported over here.”

He glanced down and after a brief inspection, nodded. “Could be. Seems like it’s inactive now, given that it’s not glowing. That does mean it’s inactive, right?”

“According to games, movies, anime, novels and other sources of fantasy fiction?” I asked rhetorically. “Yes. Whether that translates into this reality…” I trailed off, unsure.

Looking back up, I saw that most everyone had gathered up into their own little groups that were heading towards the exit, with the notable exception of the group that was closest to the exit – they were quickly heading away from it and wildly motioning for others to do the same.

“Greg?” I said slowly, motioning to that group. “Maybe we should hang back a bit.”

Moments later, I heard the source of their agitation as I strained my senses in the dimly-lit environment – Simultaneous footfalls, quite a number of them, echoing slightly down the tunnel. Soldiers.

I gulped. “This could be very bad, or very good, or very, very bad.”

“Why are there two bad situations and only one good?” Greg asked with dread.

“Well, generally in situations like this – in fiction at least – they’re either coming here to kill us,” Greg gulped as I mentioned the possibility, “to help us, or possibly to enslave us, which is arguably worse than the first option.” I finished, feeling my own heart flutter with fear at the thought.

“Ah.” Greg breathed. “Okay.”

Feeling more than a hint tremulous, I asked Greg, “How does a nice strategic retreat to the back of the pack sound?”

“Strategic retreat?” He looked at me askance. “You mean run away? Not that I’m criticising it, I’m fine with running away, really.”

“Ah, yes, but as the other party concerned is military, military terms should be used when discussing plans. Thus, it’s not ‘running away’, but ‘strategic retreat’.” I explained.

“Jolly good, but let’s stop bickering about the price of butter and actually do it, shall we?” Greg retorted fretfully as he eyed the exit.

So without further ado we retreated (strategically) towards the rear of the group, a position that soon became vied for as more and more of our co-workers realised the gravity of the situation.

The sounds grew louder by the second, the soldiers marching towards us getting ever closer, and discussions quickly turned to self-protection in the event that worst does come to worst. A consensus was quickly reached that forming one large group would be our best bet, so we all huddled up together.

Realising a rather large flaw in this plan moments after we all grouped up, I whispered to Greg, “If there is magic here… Wouldn’t grouping up make it incredibly easy for us all to be killed by a single AOE spell?”

He paled an amount that was noticeable even under the dim lighting. “Yes. But, it sounds like they’re wearing armour, not robes, right?” He asked, grasping at straws.

“If there are people wearing robes, we wouldn’t be able to hear them.” I reasoned quietly.

“Ah. Yes, you might be right.” Greg agreed sadly as a battalion of soldiers – thankfully minus any people wearing robes – became visible through the entrance of the cave. Each of them was dressed in full suits of plate armour with their face plates down, so it appeared almost as if they were a legion of steel men.

They did appear as if they had seen better days, with many sporting dents on their armour, as well as splattered dirt and blood. Nevertheless, it did nothing to dampen their formidable appearance. Still marching in unison, they soon entered the cave and formed up into a simple box formation; the cave was quite sizeable, and we had backed up to the other end of it, so there was still some space between the two groups.

I sighed in relief: their weapons were not drawn, with the exception of those facing the tunnel entrance. They shouldn’t have harmful intentions.

After the entire troop had settled into formation inside the cave, the front lines parted and a man wearing expertly crafted blue plate armour with thick red trim walked out from in-between them, removing his helmet as he did so.

Our group of office workers, still dressed in semi-formal and formal attire, shuffled uncomfortably, feeling entirely out of place and out of their depth.

“Greetings!” The man in blue and red armour called out to us. “I understand that you must be confused, but questions and their answers must wait for a better time. The cave system we are in is home to myriad powerful monsters and beasts, and I do not wish to spend another second in this place if I do not have to.”

He swept an appraising eye over our group, in the process of which noticing the men lying unconscious. His brows furrowed slightly, and he twisted to address the group behind him. “Medics! Turns out we will be needing the stretchers after all. Get the lord magi loaded up and looked after, on the double! And be careful!”

As a couple dozen men stepped out to tend to the magi lying on the ground, the man in blue and red armour turned to address us once more. “We had hoped that the lord magi would be able to explain the situation while we returned… But it appears that, as they warned us, it took all they had just to summoning you all here. Now, unless you wish to face the terrors of these caves yourselves, I ask that you come with us.”

After taking one last glance at us, he turned and walked back into the formation, fitting his helmet back on to his head.

The crowd of office workers hesitated for a few seconds. Nobody wanted to make the first move in a situation like this, even though everyone knew that someone had to. At that point, it didn’t matter whether the soldiers were hostile or not – we had to go with them.

One man stepped forward awkwardly, looking with some fear at the soldiers as he walked towards them. After that man took the leap of faith, it was like the dam was broken; everyone started walking towards them.

Within minutes they had us integrated with the center of the formation, just behind the people carrying the stretchers for the magi. The whole battalion starts marching again, back out, with all of us in the middle trying to keep a similar tempo – nobody wanted to get their feet stepped on by an armoured boot by mistake.

Our shoes crunched disorderly against the soil and stone in the cave, creating a dissonance with the soldiers’ steady marching. None of us knew where we were or where we are going, and just followed numbly as we trooped through intersections and branching paths without pause.

As we walked, I couldn’t help but notice an interesting detail of our environment: the soldiers held no torches, and I saw no torches in sconces on the walls like earlier, which meant that there was some other source of light.

Looking around carefully, I noticed that the roof was speckled with innumerable spots of light that roved and jumped about. Unfortunately, their light was too faint and far for me to be able to discern exactly what they were; the roof was too high and our travel too swift to allow my gaze to stay on a single spot for longer than a few moments.

As we travelled, the tunnels varied in size and shape. At times the soldiers were unable to maintain the breadth of their formation and had to travel in thinner ranks, and at other times there would be space to spare on either side.

Our travel was done mostly in silence, and we walked with bated breath, praying that the monsters they mentioned would not find us.

…Those prayers were not answered. The call to prepare from battle resounded at the front, and for a time there were sounds of stomping feet, clanging shields, and… Picks on stone?

Whatever the case, the combat didn’t affect our group in any way, and the battle was soon over. As we travelled past the point of battle, I couldn’t help but notice black scorch marks forming lines in the floor.

I wondered what caused them, but they soon fell behind, or rather we passed them by.

We travelled for a fair while, perhaps an hour and a half. During that time, the soldiers faced a few more monsters, again out of view and without having to involve us at all, which most of us quite liked. One of the ladies got introduced to slimes in a startling fashion as it dropped from the roof, latching onto her foot.

Nearby soldiers assured her that particular variety was completely harmless, but it still caused an increase in tensions among our group for a time.

Greg and I, seeing this, started a whispered conversation.

“I wonder… Is this one of those worlds where there are nigh-infinite varieties of slimes, or one where there are a limited few? One where they evolve, or one where their species are limited from birth? Division, or stranger means still?” I mused thoughtfully to Greg.

Greg frowned slightly. “I don’t know that studying their biology would really be a good idea. Scientifically speaking, they are intriguing… But even the least of them could potentially kill us.”

“True, true…” I admitted. “But maybe one day we’ll have the opportunity. Who knows, we’ve been summoned to another world, right? Usually, there’s some sort of power given… perhaps we can use magic?”

“Who knows. I’m not about to run into a group of monsters on the off chance that lightning will sprout from my fingertips.” Greg replied.

“True, true…” I trailed off, and we lapsed into silence again.

Eventually, we reached the true exit, a set of thick metal doors stretching across the width of the tunnel, which wasn’t nearly as wide as many we’ve been through before – barely wide enough for two men abreast. The column of soldiers and office workers stretched quite a way back as we slowly filtered through.

They soon opened, revealing a shaft of silvery moonlight. People started to filter through.

Either we were in there much longer than I thought, or there’s a time difference between our worlds; which isn’t such a strange concept, now that I think about it. After all, why would our worlds have the same day/night cycle?

We continued to move our tired legs, and after another little while, I too crossed the threshold. Beyond it was still a cave, but this one had a large opening on the far wall, one that was open to the sky, dark though it was.

Within the cave were straight lines of tents, and there was even a large fire near the entrance, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten anything for a couple hours. After walking for that long, I was hungry, tired and quite winded. I was not young, after all, at around forty-two years of age, bordering on forty-three.

The soldiers were rushing around, getting the stretchers into some large tents nearer to the center of the camp, moving off to bolster the guards at the entrance or maintain their equipment.

In the meantime, we were led to an empty space to the side of the camp, which by the looks of it was being used as a mini exercise ground. Before long, some soldiers came along and deposited some logs on the ground for us to sit on, which we did, tired as most of us were.

Sitting down himself, that same man in the red and blue armour looked at us. “I am sure you all have many questions. Why are you here, how are you here, so on and so forth.” He sighed, rolling armoured shoulders. “I will ask, however, that you wait to ask them until I finish my explanation.”

Hearing no voice of dissent, he began to explain our situation. “You have been summoned here to this world, Earth-”

Someone immediately interrupted. Was it Daryl? It was Daryl, wasn’t it. “Earth? But that’s what our world is called!?”

Looking sternly at Daryl, the man in red and blue armour rebutted, “Questions after. As I was saying, you were summoned here by the combined arch-magi of the kingdoms of Stalia, Enlux and Morrock. Due to mana exhaustion, they unfortunately fainted upon accomplishing this.”

It would be stranger if it wasn’t prohibitively difficult. Super long-distance teleportation, possible crossing of dimensions and/or parallel realities… It’s quite a feat.

“Knowing of the difficulty of the spell, to prevent their own deaths and risk the spell failing, we had to venture into the deepest point of these caves, where the largest known mana line is located, and defend the magi while they cast the spell.” He continued gravely. “As for why you were summoned… We recently received a prophecy from the church, revealing that the demon race is colluding with the evil god, and will attack with overwhelming power. The demon race alone we could handle, but the evil god is an unknown factor, one that could overturn everything if we were not properly prepared.”

The majority of us were unsurprised. With the sheer propagation of fiction these days, whether the medium is novels, manga, anime or movies, the concept of heroes fighting against the forces of evil was a commonly known story. And let’s be honest, it’s usually demons.

He mentioned mana-lines, and spells. Magic… I wondered how it works in this world, so I was about to ask about it, but someone beat me to the punch.

“What is mana?” They asked.

Looking in astonishment at the person who voiced the question, he replied, “You don’t have mana in your world? How did your people survive monster attacks without magic enhancement, healing or enchantments?”

“Well, we don’t have monsters. Just wild animals. Only thing we’ve had to worry about killing us for the past few millennia is ourselves.” They replied wryly.

“Yourselves?” He asked in confusion.

“Yes, ourselves.” They replied, shrugging. “We have many countries in our world, and sometimes they fight. Our technology, from what we’ve seen, far outclasses your own, so in the last big war – a world war – tens of millions of people died.”

Hearing that statistic, he lost his composure for a second, gasping in shock. After regathering himself, he spoke again. “This technology, can you recreate it?”

They frowned. “We are office workers, not scientists or engineers… I doubt any of us have much more than a basic understanding of how our weaponry worked, let alone how to recreate it.”

Actually, between us all, we might be able to figure it out… But I don’t think that would be a good idea. World war 2 was terrible by all reports, and if this world is heading in the same direction I don’t want them holding the means to create firearms, gasses and whatever else we might be able to concoct.

“Perhaps it was foolish of me to hope for an easy solution…” He sighs. “Are there any other questions?”

Another man speaks out. “So, you basically kidnapped us all to solve your problems for you, is that it?”

“I believe that is a question more suited for me to answer.” Another voice spoke out just as the man in red and blue armour was about to reply, belonging to a man in a blue robe with gold trim and snowy white hair.