While she was thinking, the voice had finished his speech and ignored any and all opinions and responses.

Suddenly, glowing white Magic Circles appeared under their chairs.

Anna recognized them as Magic Circles because they looked identical to the ones found in Graphic Novels and Manga.

As the Circles finished forming, Anna started to feel tingles of static electricity buzzing through her internal organs and over her skin, all the hair on her body stood on end.

With an amused smile, she underlined the fact that ALL the hair on her body stood on end. She suddenly giggled quietly, but the giggles rapidly became laughter, she seemed to have become slightly hysterical. This was common with great sadness, it would reach an extreme and flip to the opposite, I had this happen many times.

Like a dam breaking, she kept laughing so hard that she couldn't speak, tears leaking from her eyes.

Knowing how she felt, and how she couldn't control it, I moved forwards and embraced her, holding her until she recovered. Being hugged always helps when this occurs.

After a few minutes, she finally got control, but she didn't try to escape my embrace. Actually, when I tried to release her, she made a strange noise of irritation and grabbed me in response.

With a blush, obviously embarrassed that she had lost control in front of me, she continued her story.

Glowing brightly, the Magic Circles began spinning.

A pillar of white light shooting into the air as the Circles reached a certain speed, becoming blurred lights covering the floor, none of the symbols visible anymore.

The pillars of light originated from the Circle and completely surrounded her, being opaque and obscuring her view of the room.

A few seconds later, the pillar faded and she saw that while her view was blocked, she had been transported to a featureless white room. Mike and Shannon were standing next to her and as confused as she was.

Standing in front of them was a young boy in a snow white suit, he was even wearing white gloves and a white tie. Well, Anna said young, but she explained that he looked like he was between fifteen and sixteen, within a year or two of Mike's age.

He watched them, a smug half smile gracing his strangely pale lips. His eyes glowed a deep white, and they rapidly moved between the three people in front of him.

Quickly licking his lips, he started to speak.

He said that his name was Arre and that he was the God in charge of the Humans in this world.

As he introduced himself, he bowed deeply and extravagantly, like a stage actor. A white stove hat appearing in his hand, flourishing it. No one saw when the hat appeared, it wasn't there one second but was the next.

His manners were exaggerated and overly gracefully.

Shannon smiled, and Anna heard Mike mutter than he found this to be cool.

From how Anna worded it, she didn't know if Mike meant that Arre, himself, was cool, or if his way of overacting was.

Arre seemed to find this amusing, and he thanked Mike for the compliment. Anna noted that his way of speaking didn't seem to match the age that his body appeared. His mode of speech was like someone who was much older than fifteen, or even fifteen hundred.

She also felt that he was more laid-back than how she imagined that a God would be, but something about him didn't seem quite right to her. Maybe it was seeing him in person after hearing his majestic voice when he spoke to them in their heads.

It caused an odd sense of dissonance.

When he spoke to them in their minds, he generated an uncontrollable feeling of awe, but in person, he seemed too...'cool'. He looked as though he were an old person trying to be cool and fit in with the younger generation.

Anna felt worried when she saw how Mike and Shannon started gushing over Arre, but there was nothing that she could do, so she started to look around the room.

The room seemed to have no boundaries or notable features.

I interrupted the story and took the chance to explain about deity's and their personal Domains, as well as the power hierarchies between gods. Arre was a fairly strong Younger God, so his personal Domain was easily the size of a small world.

Anna seemed curious about how I knew this, but she understood the fairly simple concepts. It seemed to be much easier to explain these things to people who came from Earth, from a place with a rich fantasy culture.

When I finished my explanation, Anna paused for a few seconds before continuing her story.

She explained that she wasn't really listening to Arre, she was trying to figure out the environment and stabilize herself. She was feeling incredibly scared after being taken from the safety of her home.

Arre apparently spoke for quite a while, he spoke with Mike and Shannon about himself.

Well, that was Anna's guess, since she only understood snippets of what she heard.

Finally he stopped the conversation, holding up a hand for silence, his obviously proud grin somehow rubbed Anna the wrong way.

His ego had been thoroughly stroked.

He explained again that their mission was to kill a newly risen Demon King, then he said something strange. He said that if they saw any Angels, they were Fallen Angels, having betrayed him, and they were corrupting a splinter faction of the church.

Arre laughed at the end of his explanation, it was as if he found them to be amusing. Anna saw the contempt in his eyes, he obviously disliked them, but he also seemed to find them pitiable.

A corrupt faction in the church.

Anna laughed gently at these words, well it started gently, but she lost control again. Her whole body spasming from the uncontrollable giggles, her eyes tearing up again.

I was still holding her, so she seemed to find it easier to gain control again, after which she apologized a few times before explaining that it struck her as funny because she had seen this 'twist' coming from a world away...literally.

Having finished his speech, Arre looked around, acting as though he had said everything that he needed to. Then he suddenly widened his eyes and slapped his forehead, he was really hamming it up.

Accord to Anna, he was a terrible actor, but for some reason Shannon and Mike had been drawn in.

Smiling in a silly--to Anna's eye--way, he then clapped his hands sharply, once.

The clap echoed, seeming to bounce off invisible walls, and with every echo, it got louder.

Almost deafened, Anna knelt with her hands over her now ringing ears. Dizziness rushed through her body, originating from her head and spreading through her in nauseating waves.

She suddenly started to itch as though millions of ants were crawling over her whole body. Deep inside her, a strange warmth appeared and rapidly spread through her, dispelling the dizziness.

Without warning a strange voice spoke in her mind, saying that she had acquired a skill.

Anna paused for a second, she seemed to be worrying whether she should tell me the name of her skill or not. Looking deeply into my eyes, she deliberated.

After a few seconds she seemed to think of something, causing her to look away.

Pausing only a second longer, she opened her mouth and spoke the words that the voice had, "Soul Skill acquired: Overthrow the Tyrant".

As she repeated the words, she was looking worried for some reason.

Since she was pressed against me, being embraced to help her recover from her sadness, though it would take a lot more and a lot longer for her to actually recover, she could see my face at a close range. She looked at me and seemed to be looking for or expecting something.

I have no idea what she expected.

"Mine is called: The Undying King." I felt that I should return her trust, so I told her the name of my Soul Skill.

I had already decided that she was going to be another minion of mine, so we needed at least a modicum of trust. Since she showed trust to me, I returned it.

She looked a little surprised, but I don't know if it was because of the name, or because I told her, for a few seconds before continuing her story.

Once she, and the others, recovered, she decided to ask Arre what a Soul Skill was. In her opinion, it was better to know as much as possible when entering a new situation. Because the better informed you are, the better your chances of success, or survival.

A very smart opinion.

He explained that a Soul Skill is when the deepest part of the soul is shaped into to a form that allows the wielder to be able to use it to its full potential.

That's all skills are, the shaping of a natural ability or power, allowing the person to use it to its full potential.

Arre had only explained to here, but I again interrupted Anna to explain further. I seem to have inherited Master's love of teaching, or showing off knowledge while enjoying the sound of my voice, I wasn't sure which.

It could also work like a shortcut.

For example, the spell Fireball would require Runes or a Verbal competent depending on which branch of Magic was used, but if someone had the skill: Fireball, they could cast a Fireball just by wanting to, without all the excess required with Magic.

Arre had helped them to activate the Soul Skill, by evolving its form enough that they could use it at the instinctive level, without having to use powerful Soul Magic to access it.

Everyone had an inherent Soul affinity, but to be used like a skill, normally the person would require it to be activated.

There were exceptions, for there were exceptions to everything. If the person trained in Soul Magic or Mind Magic, and had hundreds, or thousands, of years of experience, the skill could evolve itself enough to form into a Soul Skill.

In some very rare cases, people younger than three hundred had been known to wake a Soul Skill without outside interference, but there were only three recorded in the last fifteen thousand years.

This had only happened because they were very naturally talented with Soul Magic, had great luck, and were in situations of extreme stress. One had his entire species destroyed in front of him by an Ancient Dragon; one was captured by a massive goblin clan, she was a Saintess for a strong deity that had left the world, she managed to wake her Soul Skill before her fate arrived and she managed to kill all of the goblins and escape; the final one, well, history doesn't record the exact situation, because he eventually overthrew a god and took his place.

Heroes always had Soul Skills, because gods made a habit of activating them before placing them into the world.

Not even gods can influence Soul Skill much more than activating them, they couldn't change their effects, nor could they deactivate them, and some of the greater combat Soul Skills could jump Leagues and effect the gods themselves.

My Soul Skill, "The Undying King" made it so that I was incredibly hard to kill. I couldn't fight gods, but I could run away from most of the Younger Gods if I was very careful, able to survive their attacks because of the skill.

'The Undying King' was also how I managed to survive after Arre betrayed me.

"Arre betrayed you?" Anna looked up at me, something like hope appearing in her eyes.

I forgot that I hadn't told her anything about my past.

"Yes, he did. I was summoned as a Hero, from Earth. Like you were."

She smiled with my words, a genuine smile that had the smallest glimmer of hope appearing, she seemed to realize that she wasn't alone anymore.

After a few seconds, she continued her story.

Anna noticed that when Arre explained about the Soul Skills, something in his voice seemed slightly off. She had the sudden feeling that he may have suffered from someone with a Soul Skill or from a Soul Skill itself.

"He has also always hated Soul Skills that he didn't control the wielder of. He has never liked anything that he cannot control or destroy. He also had some issues when he tried to kill someone with a certain regenerative soul skill, so he is still testy about that." I admit that I couldn't help but feel a little proud as I explained this.

Anna looked at me. I could see my reflection in her eyes, the expression on my face both embarrassed and proud.

She giggled and then continued her story.

She explained that she decided to not tell anyone about her skill, not even the name.

The Skill had a dangerous name in her opinion.

Looking down, she looked strangely embarrassed when she said that she decided to tell no one about her skill, just after telling me about it.

After Arre finished explaining the small amount about Soul Skills that he was willing to, he said that it was time to teleport them into their new world.

As he spoke, his voice began to echo again, and he began to chant in some mystical language.

She found that the sound of his echoing chanting, which began to sound like a chorus of people chanting at once, sounded nice.

She felt warmth and tingles rushing through her body, which seemed to be a sign that powerful Magic was surrounding and influencing her. She felt the almost uncontrollable urge to fall asleep; her eyelids seemed to weight tons, almost shutting on their own.

Her consciousness was fading and even the tingles and sparks of static electricity weren't enough to shock her awake.