It's been months since the school shooting at Hoshin High. I, Koji, and Hinata were the only ones who were known to be transmigrated into this world after our deaths. It all happened so fast.
When we died, we all came face to face with a powerful deity who claimed to be Zeus in the middle of a white void. Naturally, we couldn't believe our eyes, assuming it was a dream... but it was far from it.
Zeus told us that we will inherit the title of Otherworlder and Hero, and that we will save Gaia, the land of Greek Mythology.
He spoke as if it were our destiny. As if everything we suffered back home had been some kind of preparation.
Hinata demanded answers.
Koji tried to laugh the fear off.
And me... I could barely speak. I didn't know if I wanted another life. Or if I deserved it... but Zeus didn't give us a choice.
He blessed Hinata with the Blade of Asterion.
Koji with the Inferno Emberheart.
And me... with a divine skill that I still don't fully understand even now. Then the void shattered like glass, and we woke up in the middle of a burning forest.
Just like that, we had our old lives stripped from us, but with our same bodies, and same personalities. All around us were the undead, smoke, and screams. We were no longer students, but heroes thrown into a world begging to be saved.
Now, months later, I'm still trying to convince myself that we belong here, but standing on these bloody plains, surrounded by millions of undead... it's hard to feel like a hero.
Koji's flames burst through another wave of skeletons from inside the barrier, lighting up the night. Hinata even joined in, cleaving through a giant's leg with her divine sword, trying to prevent them from breaching through the barrier.
And I—once trembling behind them—am now forced to stand between life and death itself.
This was the world that the gods gave us, and now we must risk our lives to save it. But what will we get in the end? Is this even worth it? The Gods took our souls unwillingly, without our consent... and made us fight.
But I'm not a fighter, and I never was. Deep down inside, I'm still a timid high schooler, afraid of the world.
While this otherworld may have changed Koji and Hinata, I remained the same.
A coward.
"Itsuki! Snap out of it!" Koji's voice suddenly dragged Itsuki back to reality as he blinked, realizing his hands were shaking again.
The Sanctified Barrier started cracking around them, faltering under the relentless pounding of the undead giants outside.
Hinata whipped her head toward him as her hair was matted with sweat.
"Don't drift off now! If that barrier breaks before we move, we're done for!"
"R-Right!" Itsuki forced himself to focus, lifting his hand to reinforce the barrier. "S-Sorry, my mind slipped!"
"No more slipping, bro!" Koji said with a smirk. "We're about to pull off something incredibly stupid and incredibly awesome, so I need you at full brain power, got it!?"
Hinata glared at Koji, lifting her brow.
"You mean... you are about to do something incredibly stupid?"
The barrier rattled violently with more cracks spiderwebbing across the surface.
They didn't have much time before the undead broke through.
Hinata gripped her blade, hardening her gaze at the zombies and skeletons around them.
"Our objective is the far end of the horde." She said, glancing at them both. "If Itsuki's theory is right, there are conjurers maintaining the Keres' manifestation. If we break their formation then the whole undead army collapses... is that correct?"
"R-Right" I whispered.
There was another slam against the barrier as its glowing light started to dim.
Koji exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders.
"Alright, Itsuki. You heard me earlier. This is gonna sound insane, but I need you to do it!"
Itsuki looked at him nervously.
"T-The barrier?"
"Put it around me. Only me!"
Hinata turned to face him again.
"I still think this plan is insane! You'll get surrounded and crushed!"
Koji pointed his thumb at himself.
"That's why it's perfect! The barrier reflects attacks, right? So I'll be a human bowling ball! It'll work out just fine."
They both stared at him before he stared back with reckless eyes, full of stupid confidence.
"A plan made by an idiot, and executed by an idiot... but it might work."
Koji grinned at her comment, chuckling.
"I'll carve a path to the conjurers. Hinata follows and cleans up anything that survives. Itsuki stays behind us and keeps us alive."
"A-And if something goes wrong?" He asked.
Koji smirked and held up his flaming sword.
"Then we improvise. Like always! We've been doing this shit for months. We got chemistry."
Hinata closed her eyes, huffing a sigh.
"I suppose you're right to some degree."
Hinata finally opened her eyes again, tightening her grip on her sword as she stared through the barrier. The undead were pushing harder now with hundreds of hands slamming against the exterior, and hundreds more piling on top of them—trying to crush it with sheer numbers.
Koji stepped forward with fire rising around his feet like burning steam.
"Alright, Itsuki! Wrap me up!"
Itsuki gulped before lifting both hands, despite how badly they trembled. His mana was running low... but he didn't have a choice, not if we wanted to survive.
"Sanctified... Barrier!"
A bubble of bright blue light erupted around Koji's body, hugging close to him like a second skin.
Koji burst into laughter.
"Oh hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"
Hinata shook her head, unable to believe that they were really about to go through with this plan.
"Just don't die." She said.
"Me? Die? Please." Koji grinned. "You two worry too much!"
He took a fighting stance, resting his flaming sword against his shoulder as he faced the ocean of undead outside the dome.
Itsuki could barely breathe, in disbelief that they were really going to do this.
Koji was really going to charge into millions of undead with nothing but a reflective barrier and his idiotic confidence.
"Koji..." Itsuki whispered. "Just don't go too far ahead of us, please."
He glanced back over his shoulder.
"Bro. Trust me. I don't plan on being a hero alone!"
Hinata walked up beside him as she nodded, ready for his reckless plan.
This world had changed her more than she'd ever admit.
"Itsuki. Once the barrier breaks, you stay directly behind us and heal on cooldown. If anything breaches our line, fall back and reinforce us from a longer range." Said Hinata.
She spoke like a general from the myths themselves as she stared him down.
"Y-Yeah, I got it!"
"Good." Hinata raised her sword. "Because once we move in, there's no turning back!"
Before he could even respond, a loud crack exploded overhead. It was the Sanctified Barrier, finally shattering.
Light burst outward like shards of glass, and the undead giants outside didn't hesitate for even a second.
Their massive arms swung down with claws and bone clubs ready to crush them all at once.
"KOJI, GO!" Hinata screamed it as she leapt forward.
Koji's flames exploded beneath his feet as he blasted straight through the opening with the reflective barrier around him smashing a path through the undead like a comet.
Skeletons launched backward and zombies exploded on contact.
Every hit they dealt rebounded right back at them, ripping holes through their own ranks.
Koji hollered from the top of his lungs like a madman, consumed by bloodlust.
"ORYAAAAA!! GET THE HELL OUTTA MY WAY!"
Hinata dashed after him, cutting through anything Koji didn't outright demolish as her sword left streaks of holy light across the battlefield, slicing giants' ankles, parrying claws, and cleaving undead faster than Itsuki could blink.
But even in this overwhelming battle, Itsuki wouldn't be useless. He forced himself forward, having his hands glow with healing light.
"Ascension Heal!"
Bright green energy surged across Koji's back, and then Hinata's, as their stamina was restored instantly.
As Koji blasted through another massive wave of undead, he shouted without even looking back
"ITSUKI! KEEP IT UP! I FEEL LIKE WE'RE ALMOST HALFWAY!"
"H-Halfway? Through millions?"
Hinata slashed through a giant's arm, yelling at him from behind.
"Itsuki! Stay behind me, I will protect you!"
"I-I am!" He shouted back, but then, out of nowhere, something rose from the ground in the distance.
Almost immediately, the sky darkened, and even the undead stopped, as if they sensed something greater than themselves.
Hinata slowed down, lifting her sword defensively as Koji's flames grew even brighter.
And Itsuki's heart dropped into his stomach.
Because far ahead of him, beyond the horizon of the undead, a massive black silhouette was rising to the sky.
It had a woman's shape with long hair flowing like shadows... and eyes glowing blood red.
Its wings were made of swirling, screaming souls as its overwhelming power weighed everything around it.
[[SKILL ACTIVATED. BLOODLUST]]
Bloodlust released a terrifying aura that drove anyone insane if they were standing within its radius. Such insanity led to death.
Koji whispered under his breath in disbelief.
"...Is that..."
Hinata tightened her grip, looking up in horror.
"It has to be."
Itsuki's entire body froze as the air was knocked out of his lungs.
That was no necromancer, it was Keres, one of the spirits of death itself.
And it was looking straight at them.