Her name was Anna.

She was born into a fairly normal middle-class white family, living in a small town in America. Her house was two storey with two bathrooms and four bedrooms, there was also a study where her mother went over the cases, that she was currently working on, in her spare time.

Anna's father was a programmer for a popular MMORPG, and her mother a lawyer in a small claims court.

When Anna was two years old, her brother Mike was born.

At first she was worried, worried that her brother would steal her parents' love, which lead to years of sibling rivalry. It wasn't until they were seven and five respectively that they became incredibly close, loving, siblings.

Her next door neighbours had a daughter who was similar in age to Anna, but she was a year younger. Anna and the girl, Shannon, grew up together. Being childhood friends, constantly spending time at each other's houses, resulted in them being closer than blood-related sisters.

The two girls were together even in school, making their own clique, their own little group of friends. They weren't popular, or belonging to any of the major groups, except for with the nerds.

Their small group ended up spending their lunchtimes in the library, playing Dungeons and Dragons, or other role-playing or card games.

Shannon was very good at Magic the Gathering.

When Mike finally entered grade eight, and highschool, Anna and Shannon allowed him to join their group. However, there was a minor problem with Mike joining, from Anna's perspective.

Mike was thirteen and Shannon was fourteen. Since the two of them spent so much time together, be it at school or when Shannon had sleepovers on the weekends--and they both were hitting puberty at the same time, they began to feel attracted to each other.

Anna began to have the feeling that Mike was stealing Shannon from her. The time that Mike and Shannon spent together had increased dramatically since he started attending the same high school.

Around eight grade, during the Easter holidays, Anna walked in on Mike and Shannon...

Anna's parents were both out, working, so were Shannon's, and Shannon wasn't supposed to be there if both family's parents were busy, but she had come over anyway all the time on holidays and returned home before any of the adults returned.

The two were 'experimenting', Shannon's words.

They were both naked and 'playing doctor', though it was much more serious than the version of the game that young children tended to play.

Unsure how to react, Anna coughed awkwardly, drawing their attention to her.

Mike reacted as you would expect, he was shocked and embarrassed, jumping away from Shannon and hiding his nakedness with his hands as he darted over to his discarded clothing and then out of the room.

Shannon still lay on the couch, where she had been, and rolled her eyes.

Mike and Shannon had been dating for a few months at this point, and they probably had done this many times, so it was most likely that Shannon had suggested doing it in a more public place.

Shannon like danger.

She had never had a problem with being naked around Anna, when they were younger, they had bathed together a lot. They had also had sleepovers and also experimented in a similar way.

While Mike's first kiss was actually Shannon, Shannon's first kiss was Anna. A long time ago, when Anna was thirteen and Shannon twelve, they had been having a girl talk. In this talk, they began to imagine their perfect boyfriends. They got sidetracked and began to worrying that their firsts: first kiss, first time-- they had the feeling that these would end up being embarrassing and awkward.

So, on Shannon's suggestion -- they decided to practice on each other.

Apparently, Shannon had seen something that was open on her older cousin's computer, and she read a story about two friends who did this, so she decided to try it.

While they were 'practicing', Anna began to feel a strange warmth in her chest, which she believed may have just been a natural reaction--Shannon didn't seem to be affected, she seemed to be completely unaffected.

While the feeling was good, but it also felt wrong.

For the next few days, Anna found herself slightly embarrassed around Shannon; she noticed that her actions and words came across as a little weird. But Shannon acted in a completely normal fashion--she didn't even seem to notice Anna's reaction.

However, after this event, Shannon had been emotionally and physically open with Anna. While Anna knew now that this was because Shannon had feelings for her, and seeing that Anna didn't have a bad reaction, she decided to take advantage of the situation. But at that time, Anna just thought that Shannon was being a little strange, and it didn't bother her.

Since she was worried about the strange feeling, and after considering it for a few days, even writing about it in her diary, she decided, and gathered her courage, and asked her parents.

Her parents were fairly good parents and not religious, so they explained to their thirteen year old daughter about sexuality.

She was thirteen at the time, and in the middle of the more confusing times of puberty. Her body was changing in ways that she couldn't understand.

According to her parents, what she was feeling might have been a romantic attraction to Shannon. Then they properly explained the difference between the love for family and close friends, and sexual attraction and romantic love.

Anna knew that her parents were worried for her, making sure that she didn't have to figure it all out on her own, they asked if she also had feelings like that towards males as well.

After thinking for a while, she found an answer, her answer was 'yes' she did.

She found out that it was possible that she was either bi-sexual, or she was just attracted to Shannon in particular. Her parents had given the two options and not a solid opinion, so that they wouldn't influence her and steer her in a direction that she wasn't.

But, no matter how good the explanation, she worried about it for a long time.

In the end, she decided to accept that she loved Shannon, and she didn't have feelings like that for any other females, she decided that it was a one off.

As an experiment, to better understand herself, or so Anna said, she got her first boyfriend when she was fourteen.

The guy was the primary Dungeon Master in most of their Campaigns that they played both during school days and on weekends, but he created most of the shorter one-shots.

His name was Brian.

He wasn't a normal nerd, since he also had normal friends.

Anna found out later that he was mainly a part of their group because he had a crush on her, he even learned the game so that he could use it to get close to her.

Since she was in love with him at the time, she considered this to be sweet, even if normally, most girls would find this creepy.

 

Shannon, who had been single since she was born, and harboured strong love for Anna, felt sad. She decided to give in to Mike's request, and started dating him.

Though it started out as a simple act of sadness and 'revenge', Mike managed to capture Shannon's heart. He had genuinely loved her since he was ten or eleven, and succeeded in making her fall head over heels with him in return--after a few months of hard work.

However, a few months into their relationship, Brian had started to pester Anna to go further and do stranger things with him. They had been dating a few months, and they hadn't quite gone all the way.

She was rather descriptive here, but I shall omit it.

Anna felt a little uncomfortable with some of the things Brian suggested. Unlike Shannon, Anna was rather innocent and pure, even though Shannon had offered to teach her. Anna never took Shannon up on her offer, though she was tempted a few times, but she knew that Shannon was with her brother, and Mike may not object...Shannon wanted him to join in. But to Anna that was cheating, which was something she would never do.

She was also only fifteen.

Then, there was a bad breakup.

Brian had decided to give up, he started to sleep around with a more promiscuous girl, one who was more open to 'strange things', as Anna called them when she told Shannon some of the things Brian had requested.

For some reason, when talking to me and telling her story, Anna was honest and spared no details.

While I had no idea why she did this, or even if the details were important, I would have to bring her back to the main story.

With a cough, she continued where she left off, before her tangent.

Time had passed after she and Brian broke up, and she hadn't gotten any other boyfriends, she did want to fall and then suffer the same pain again.

She was scared.

Anna started to think that she had been too frigid, like Brain had said, she found herself becoming upset that she was still a virgin at sixteen after hearing some of Shannon's stories. Even Shannon had lost her virginity to Mike, and they had been together for over two years.

When I looked curiously at her, wondering why she was being so descriptive of simple things, she grinned shakily and explained that this backstory was vital. Though I had the feeling that since she decided to tell her story, she decided to get a few extra grievances off her abundant chest.

As she continued, she skipped a few years, and promised that she would limit the backstory if I found it boring.

Though she said that there was one other thing that was important, and that was that before the summoning, she had been an almost rabid fan of fantasy and web novels which contained Otherworld Summonings.

Anna continued her story.

After being dumped by Brian, she got drawn even deeper into online games. The primary game she played was the MMORPG that her father was a developer for, and that her brother was almost obsessed with.

Her reasons for doing this were the same as anyone else who finds themselves drawn into those types of games.

She played to escape reality, and to be herself in a mostly safe environment while, in actuality, hiding behind one of the best shields. She also enjoyed the preferential treatment that females got in a game which was mostly populated by males, especially if the females were proven to actually be females in real life.

While it made her feel both happy, and slightly disturbed, she enjoyed getting help, as well as free items, from horny single nerds.

 

It was just a few days after her eighteenth birthday when the summoning occurred.

She was still in her gap year, planning to enter university in a few months. She was also excited about going to University, but she was also worried...worried that her gaming habit would impact her ability to study.

Her birthday wasn't that great, being only her, Mike, and Shannon. They just got drunk and listened to music, and watched movies.

She had arranged with a lot of her school friends to gather, for a big get together in the afternoon.

When night fell, no one else had arrived, only Shannon and Mike.

Being sad about the fact that everyone ignored her, she just gave up and broke out the alcohol that she had bought for the planned party.

They had started out with just drinking and talking, Anna's favourite music playing in the background, Shannon started doing some rather indecent dancing, encouraging Anna to join her. They had done this quite a few times, but without Mike there, and she was embarrassed when he was. But the alcohol allowed her to have fun, and Mike watched Shannon, seeming to ignore his drunk sister.

At first, Mike had complained about listening to girly music, but he rapidly shut up.

However, soon things started to get heated up, it was Anna's turn to get embarrassed with what Shannon was up to, so she stopped the music and suggested games.

Shannon suggested spin the bottle, which they ended up playing. She usually took charge in gatherings like this, she was charismatic.

However, the first spin, the bottle pointed to Mike and Anna, he refused and they spun the bottle again.

But, she did say that the bottle had pointed to her and Shannon a few times, much to Mike's apparent delight.

Anna found herself missing her old innocent brother, he had been badly corrupted by Shannon.

While the beginning of the party turned out surprisingly good, but that was until it developed to the point that these kinds of gatherings always do when the people drinking were couples, with a single person there as well.

They were all laying on the pullout bed in the living room couch, in front of the TV, Shannon was in the middle and they were watching a movie. Anna couldn't remember what the movie was.

Mike and Shannon had started off with a fake fight, tickling each other, and it devolved, since they were both drunk.

The two of them seemed to forget that Anna was there, and that they shared the bed with her. Anna got incredibly embarrassed and grabbed a blanket from the floor, throwing it over the two of them, hiding them.

She didn't want to see her brother.

"Leaving the couch, she got a chair and moved it to a position where she couldn't see the two, and turned up the volume of the movie. Blushing, she explained that she should have left them there, but she was both very drunk, and very interested in the movie.

She ended up falling asleep on the chair, the alcohol finally overwhelming her. When she woke up in the morning, she realized that during the night, the other two had moved her to the bed; they had also covered her with the blanket... That dirty blanket that had been used for unspeakable things; though they had changed the blanket covering. It had been done with the best of intentions: making sure that she wasn't cold during the night.

Unfortunately, the noise drew Mike and Shannon into the room.

Apparently they had fell asleep some time in another room, they didn't remember doing this, so when they realized what had happened, they apologized--though Shannon thought that it was amusing.

Anna skipped forward a few days.

On the day of the summoning, they were all playing the online game in a group together, like they commonly did in the afternoon and on weekends.

They were running a lower leveled dungeon that gave a reward that was the last piece of gear her brother needed for his transmogrified set. They had done this dungeon many times before, and were used to the fights.

However, this time, Mike and Shannon allowed her to join their private voice chat channel for some time. This was strange because they mainly used it for role-playing...and not the kind from a Dungeons and Dragons group or MMORPG.

While she was confused that they let her in, she was very happy to be included.

In the middle of the final boss fight, and without any warning, a new person somehow entered their password protected channel. All of them were surprised, they all knew how difficult it was to hack into password protected chat channels.

Mike had liked to hack when he was younger.

The stranger seemed weird, he started talking about being a God, and saying that he wanted them to come to his world. Supposedly, there was some great evil, a powerful Demon King, who was happily slaughtering innocents.

He also spoke of escaping the boredom of their reality, to up hold justice and morals in another civilization. They would be famous Heroes, loved by the masses, and loved by many attractive men or women, depending on their personal tastes.

I recognized the talk that Arre gave me, apparently he never changed his offer.

Anna said that this strange man reminded her of a street preacher, trying to induce people into a strange cult.

She was highly suspicious of this man, but two things struck her as extremely strange. The first of which was the ease with which he had gotten into their channel, and returned after they had kicked and banned him.

The second only struck her after a few minutes of him talking, and that was that his voice didn't seem like it was only coming from their headsets, but also from within their heads.

Without warning the almost unnoticeable echoing voice in their head suddenly increased, becoming obvious that the voice had never originated from their headsets and was only even inside their heads, some form of telepathic communication.

Both Anna and Shannon loved stories about the supernatural, they had read many books on many different subjects, both testimonies and the 'science' behind it.

One of the most well-known supernatural abilities, and one Anna dreamed of having, was telepathy.

The first time this man appeared, Mike had reacted quickly and kicked him off the voice channel. But the man just re-joined in less than a second, laughing mockingly, seemingly amused by their futile attempts.

Anna said that the voice, as well as echoing, was strange. It seemed to her as though it contained the void itself, it sounded how she had always imagined a deity would.

Apparently, there was a strange power to the man's voice, Anna said that it made her want to kneel in supplication and subservience. She had subconsciously pushed her chair back and had almost gotten to her feet before she managed to get herself under control, she had to fight with all her will.

She gasped, this power, just from hearing a voice...it terrified her.

While ignoring the worried noises that Anna, Mike, and Shannon let out, the man started talking again, describing a world of swords and magic. He spoke about a quest to slay the mythical Demon King, as well as saving humanity.

The stranger seemed to be experienced when it came to drawing the fascination of nerds.

He even said that if they accepted his request, if they managed to kill the Demon King, he would reward them with anything they could imagine.

However, Anna felt that this deal sounded too good to be true.

She had started to become slightly suspicious.

Long ago she had learned to be very careful when someone promised rewards, but didn't say what the rewards were.

It was also obvious that killing a 'Demon King' that threatened the entirety of Humanity wouldn't be that easily killed, not as simple concept as the man tried to push across.

She had also read many books where the god turned out to be the ultimate hidden boss, the big bad.

However, she believed at the time, that this was only in the stories.

The church however, she knew that they would be the bad guys, it was in all the stories, both fictional and historical. This was true in any world. Using the excuse of their god telling them to, to oppress the people, to get a lot of money as 'tithes'.

They would also, usually from the shadows, overthrow the ruling powers, trying to make so that all of Humanity's cities were ruled by the church, saying that if you argued or even disagreed with them they would say that you are a heretic and kill you.

Anna also knew that the nobles, and the people in power, were also enemies... The primary driving force for humanity, especially when they have the slightest modicum of power, was nothing silly like charity or empathy, it was greed.

The more that people get, the more they want.

I was very lucky that Kirrin, and Soea, were innocent and young. They never learned life's hard lessons and realized that charity and selflessness only leads to suffering.

Anna saw that I was thinking about something, having missed some of her story, she coughed quietly to draw me back, and she continued.