? ? ?

“As you can see, the monster has already shredded through the walls, and is currently in the north district. The nearest team of mages arrived fifteen minutes ago, while rescue operations were enacted the very moment rift activity was detected.”

The helicopter flying overhead had a good view of the damage, and someone was censoring the live footage wherever necessary.

“The rift became active again forty-seven minutes ago, letting a Class 2 Behemoth through. It has only been three weeks since the previous monster incursion, with the time between each one getting shorter on average. The issue is only exacerbated by the ever-dwindling number of mages on hand.”

The camera was focused on a group of six people running around the monster and firing magic of various elements toward it. They had clearly been trained as a team, but the monster was overwhelmingly more powerful than them.

“Rescue drones have airlifted out-“ The reporter aboard the helicopter held a finger to her ear, as the camera panned and zoomed in to focus on a spot in the distance. “I’m getting word that the rift is opening again! This marks the first time that a single rift will have produced two monsters so quickly!”

Something came through the rift, something much smaller than the Behemoth, and it made a line straight for its location.

“Something came through! It looks like… a vehicle?”

The vehicle reached the monster in only a minute, then vanished, though its occupants remained.

“Yes! It was, in fact, a vehicle, and it then disappeared! It was carrying five people and what looks to be a wolf, though it is working with them to fight the Behemoth.”

The ensuing fight was filmed, and once again censored whenever a large amount of the Behemoth’s blood was spilled.

“All of them seem to be using weapons with magical effects, something nobody has been able to achieve with such effectiveness yet. The wolf massively increased in size and a sword wielder is riding its back. Another large animal appeared out of nowhere—this one seems to be a bird—though the bird is not wearing armor like the wolf is.

“Our mages have fallen back while the mysterious people take it down. Wherever it is that monsters come from, it seems there are humans there, too.”

The fight came to an end as the five people and two animals took the Behemoth down in record time. The bird vanished, and they all gathered into one spot, apparently waiting for someone to talk to them while they looked around curiously.

The reporter ordered the pilot to land, and she and her camera operator rushed to the mystery people before the military could come in and secret them away.

When she arrived, she was astonished to see three elves and two people with animal ears, and that the wolf’s fur was blue.

The one with tiger ears spoke up, “Uh, hello. We came from another world to solve the monster problem? In a couple days, no monsters will ever come from the other side again.”

Gathering herself while enduring the scent of blood coming from the corpse a good distance away, she asked, “Who are all of you? Can you explain what’s going on?”

She nodded. “Sure. Um… I don’t know if you’ll believe this, but we were all originally from Earth. We were abducted…” she thought for a moment, as she had to think about Earth’s calendar for the first time in several years, “…nine years ago now. Four of us were originally humans, except for Roumazi and Diamond, who are from that other world in the first place. They started out as a foxkin and a wolf.”

“You were abducted nine years ago? That’s when the incursions began. Do you know what the game Torneltha really is? Everything is linked to that.”

The tigerkin blinked, “Yeah. So, and I know this is going to sound completely absurd, and hopefully the giant monster behind me will help to convince you, but Torneltha is actually a real world.

“A particular group of people from there were doing inter-world experiments for several centuries. That culminated in them manipulating people to create the game in this world, and they then abducted thousands of players of the game, using their character data to change their bodies to match their characters, with all their magic from the game included.

“They had intended to have us be… slave soldiers…” she grimaced, “but the neighboring kingdom was able to intervene before things got that far.

“The government that was running those experiments was taken down in a war, and a barrier was put up to prevent those kinds of experiments from ever happening again.

“It only worked one-way though, so monsters from that world came here. Roumazi has the ability to establish a barrier on this side as well, which is what she’s already doing.”

“That’s utterly…” the reporter started, but chose to leave it. She had no idea if any of that was true, but there was convincing evidence right in front of her. She also didn’t want to antagonize such overwhelmingly powerful people. “So you’re originally from Earth, then? Who are you?”

“Well, I’m Sarah Woods, originally from Toronto. Roumazi and Diamond are from that other world, as I mentioned before, so they don’t know English.”

The tan elf spoke up next, “I’m Amber Woods, formerly Amber Bowman, from Minneapolis.”

The angry elf with sharp eyes followed after her, “Michelle Woods, also from Minneapolis. I was previously Michael Meadows, but due to some shenanigans with the game’s character editor, I got turned into a woman on the other side. I ended up realizing I’m genderfluid though, so it turned out okay.

“And this is-”

“I can introduce myself, Mom,” the girl interrupted. “I was… previously, Luna Meadows, but am now Luna Woods.”

Her English was much more stilted than the others, which made sense if she hadn’t been an in English-speaking country since she was young.

“The names you mentioned… Your magic is even the same…” The reporter looked baffled, but decided to also drop this topic for now. “You all have the last name Woods? What’s that about?”

Amber smiled, “Yup! We’re all married to each other. Luna and Diamond are our daughters, of course.”

The reporter heard a voice coming from the wolf’s direction and the others were conversing while looking at it. The reporter spoke to the camera, “It… appears that the wolf is talking somehow. ‘Telepathy’, I believe is the term. I can hear it, and it sounds like a girl’s voice.”

She held a finger to her ear, “I’ve just received word that the readings from all rifts across the entire world are beginning to weaken.”

It was at that point that the interview was cut off by the arrival of a group of soldiers.

 

———

 

Michelle

The six of them had been taken to a building to wait for the arrival of a specific group of people, though they weren’t told who.

Michelle sighed. “I guess I should’ve expected this kind of welcome. We probably won’t get to actually see or do anything.”

Diamond said, “I’m happy to see it, though! Even if it’s only a glimpse of how you might’ve lived before.”

“Likewise,” Roumazi added.

“I’m glad they didn’t take our weapons,” Amber interjected. “I hate to think about what the government might do to them while our eyes were off them.”

“It’s lucky that we landed in the States. We could’ve ended up anywhere, maybe even the ocean,” Sarah said.

Roumazi explained, “You’ve drawn maps of this world for me before, so I aimed for the continent with this shape.”

Thank goddess for that.

“Oh. Thank you. If we had ended up somewhere where none of us knew the language, that would’ve been difficult to deal with.”

Several hours later, the door finally opened again. The first one through it was a person with a familiar face and a behemothic nose, but none of them had expected to ever see it again.

“Wh-What..?” Michelle stuttered.

“That’s what I want to know,” Michael replied. He looked older, fitter, and he had blue and white hair.

Michael stepped through, and a woman with Amber’s previous human appearance followed after. She also had the same hair that her game character had had.

“Me too!?” Amber Woods exclaimed.

After Amber Bowman stepped through, so too did another Sarah, another Luna, and one last person they didn’t know. All five of them had magic, going by their hair, though they all retained their original human appearances.

What the fuck is going on?! Why are there other versions of us?!

After the doppelgangers, six men in military suits came through.

“Oooooh, so that’s what happened,” Roumazi said.

“What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

“It’s been a small mystery among us gods why all of you were in so much pain when you first arrived on Torneltha. We had wondered how the Empire ripped souls from one world and brought them to another.

“But it turns out they didn’t, because they literally couldn’t. They instead ripped everyone’s souls in half, which reduced them enough to make the trip.

“The two halves of everyone’s souls then fully regenerated, and the end result was two separate, but complete, versions of you. One on Torneltha and one on Earth.

“Earth was then touched by magic because of that incident, and all the versions of the players who remained on Earth gained the magic their characters possessed.”

While the Torneltha side gaped at Roumazi in shock, one of the military men coughed, “Could you repeat that in English?”

After the explanation, leaving everyone in the room shocked, another of them asked, “So there are other Earthlings in that world? Are they coming here, too?”

Between Sarah, Amber, and Michelle, Sarah was the best of the three of them at having serious conversations, so she had become the unofficial spokesperson of their group. “The total number of people taken from Earth was nearly 5,000 if I remember correctly.

“As for where all of them have ended up all these years later, we have no idea. Victor Gardner visits us at our house occasionally, but mostly travels around. He’s mentioned running into a couple others, but we haven’t met them.

“And no, no one else will be coming. Once the barrier between worlds is taken care of, we’ll be returning. There’s something I need to know, though. Um… other me… is Jess okay?”

The human Sarah looked surprised. “You might just actually be an alternate me. Yes, Jess is fine. She’s been living well overall. She has two boyfriends currently.”

Tigerkin Sarah sighed in relief. “I’m glad. I was worried all this time after I disappeared, but… you were still here for her.”

“There’s something I need to know, though.”

The people from the military were at least understanding of how bizarre this situation was, and chose to let everyone just talk and get the weirdness out of the way, at least as much as that could be done, anyway.

“What is it?” Tigerkin Sarah asked.

“What’s up with the marriage thing?”

“Ah, well, they’re such super best friends with me that I proposed? It’s platonic for me, though.”

Human Sarah snorted. “Okay. Yeah, I can actually believe that.”

“Genderfluid?” Michael questioned, looking at his alternate self who didn’t even remotely resemble him.

Michelle laughed nervously, “Ahaha, well, you’re not really supposed to just tell someone else what their gender is, but I can’t deny what I said.

“I mean, I remember back when I was playing with the character creator the very first time, I seriously considered playing as a woman before opting not to. So maybe focus on moments like that and figure out how you feel?”

“You almost picked something other than your snakekin guy?” Amber Woods questioned her wife.

“Yeah, but I chickened out in the end. That entire week of indecision is why it took so long for me to start playing the game with you.”

“Aww, that’s adorable. Glad you figured things out, love.”

“That!” Amber Bowman pointed at her counterpart. “You’re all flirty with each other! You’re seriously married to three other women!?”

Amber Woods smiled. “Hell yeah I am! Also, I’m a blacksmith now! I make fantasy swords and armor and stuff, but it’s all real. We made everything we’re wearing now!”

Amber Bowman groaned and flopped onto the table. “There’s an alternate me who’s been living out my wildest sword lesbian fantasies. What the heeeeeck…”

“Yeah, with me apparently,” Michael retorted.

“Just look at other you, though!” she gestured at Michelle. “How could I resist?”

Michelle and Amber Woods both laughed.

Amber Woods wrapped her arms around one of Michelle’s. “She’s mine.”

“You’re breaking my heart, me.”

“I am Mrs. Heartbreaker, after all.”

Michelle snorted.

“Um… What about me?” a new voice interrupted. It belonged to the fifth mage who had arrived with the Earth group. “What’s my other self doing?”

“What’s your name and what was your character?” Sarah asked.

“Adam Johnson. I played a human.”

“Sorry, I have no idea who you are.”

“Me neither,” said Michelle.

“I don’t either,” added Amber Woods.

“Well, I’m sure he’s living his best life. He probably has three wives, too,” Adam confidently replied.

Uh-huh. I’m sure he does, buddy.