Emperor Quintus Young, second of his name, stood in the ritual chamber of the northern tower of the Church, his gaze, stern in most occasions, now worried as he watched his best wizards preparing to invoke a spell from from the highest tiers of Source magic in the universe. Beads of sweat had already formed on his forehead. He cleared his throat. “Are you sure this will work?” He asked Teclis, his archmage.
“This is what was interpreted from the tomes,” was the reply. “It has to, or we are doomed.”
All wizards stood in place around a tablet in the centre circle of the room. Magical Source started to swirl around the room in all manner of colours while the wizards started to chant in unison. It had begun. The last hopes of the free world perhaps rested on this moment.
There was only a narrow window in the room though it seemed that it was more than enough to let the people inside feel that the wind outside of the tower had picked up. The electricity-like crackling of Source drowned out the chanting nearly every time it made a sound.
“How many of these heroes will be summoned?” The Emperor raised his voice so his archmage could hear him above all the noise.
“Difficult to say...as many as-”
Teclis was cut off when the Source turned dark and malevolent. This was not supposed to happen! The faces of the wizards were strained as their chants and incantations became louder. The air had changed. Dark clouds were forming outside the tower which you could see from the window. Wind blew hard, even inside, making parchments and books fly around. One of the wizards fell, unconscious. Archmage Titus, his voice booming off the walls, led the rest of the wizards with outstretched arms as he wrested with an unseen power. The room started to shake and another wizard dropped to the ground.
“This is not part of the summoning is it? What is happening?” The Emperor implored, his voice barely audible over the noise.
“It's HER! She's attempting to hijack the spell and summon the heroes to her location!”
“By the Quinity, do not let her!”
“We're giving it all we've got, your majesty but this magical energy...If we push it any harder the whole thing might explode!”
Somewhere, hundreds of miles away, in a dark chamber within the half-constucted stone tower of the newly named Azeroth. The Witch Queen laughed as she stood over her scrying pool of water. Singlehandedly she was fighting against the might of Capitol City's finest, realizing that she had become more powerful than she could have ever imagined. Soon she would have her revenge on The Empire. Everything was going to plan. She just had to rid herself of this one problem.
Still, she was not so powerful yet that it was not a struggle and she failed to completely hijack the ritual. It was only disrupted. The summoning of the heroes had been complete but their location was neither Azeroth or Capitol City. She cursed loudly and a flash of light left her hand. A skeleton warrior who had been standing close by, had turned into dust leaving only his sword which fell with a loud clang to the floor. "Where are they?" The Witch Queen snarled and she looked again in her scrying pool to find them...
A yawn escaped from the lips of the soldier standing on top of the wooden palisade that surrounded the small town of Hommas. He had been standing watch since that morning with nothing of interest happening. Sometimes they would face a lone monster like a man-sized spider or ogre that had come wandering out of the forest or a pack of ferocious wolves that were giving the farmers a hard time. For the most part, they could handle it, but slowly their garrison had been whittled away. Hommas' garrison was never large in the first place, so each loss hurt, and now they were a mere sixty-two strong. Sixty-two... to defend a whole town. Fortunately, Hommas was quite out of the way of the major trade routes, so the war would probably stay away from them.
The soldier leaned onto his spear and yawned once more, squinting his eyes, finding it difficult to keep them open.
“Back straight, soldier! By Ares, you're not sleeping on duty are you?”
The soldier jumped up and into attention as he turned his head towards the armoured knight who came up to him. Steel blue eyes in a hardened face, streaks of gray hair in his hair and beard, a long scar running down his right cheek. Their commander was a very intimidating man.
“No sir!” The soldier replied in a high pitched voice.
“Good. Best keep it that way. Eyes front! If something comes through that forest I want you to blow the horn and be ready to defend this town. If I find out that you're not paying attention to the dangers lurking around us, you don't have to be afraid of some monster. I'll gut you myself! Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes s-"
The commander watched his subordinate fall silent, then followed his eyes to the sky behind him and cursed. "By the fucking forked beard of Hades!"
...From the sky they fell. Eight large stone sarcophagi, plummeting to the ground. The first hit the town square with such a crash that it could be heard throughout the town. Five more landed with equal thunder near the first. The seventh smashed through the roof and a wall of some poor sods house, just on the edge of the town square. The eighth landed in the shallows of the river that ran through the town, sending a wave of water flying out in all directions.
Fortunately no one was hurt. Some were a little wet from the splash. The town square was uncracked, in spite of the impact. The poor old sod whose house was obliterated was somehow unharmed while he was bathing, and now watched the eighth coffin from his tub in paralysis. Residents of Hommas were frozen in the fear, some almost having a heart-attack from the sheer shock of it all. Nobody knew what to do.
After a moment, the coffin lids popped open and the people from another world, who were inside, would wake up.
Teyao