The words were too strange.
Too ridiculous.
Then the silence broke.
“What?” someone muttered near the middle row.
“Hero?” A boy near Tunde let out a sharp, hysterical laugh—not because it was funny, but because his brain had no other way to cope.
He pointed a trembling finger at Karl.
“Wait, wait, wait.
You mean actual…
comic book hero?” Karl didn’t answer.
The silence only made the boy’s face go pale.
“My guy…
you dey serious?” In an instant, the remaining denial shattered into a wave of anxious noise.
“Are you saying we’re really in another world?!” “Where are the cameras?!” “No, no, no…” A girl clutching her phone collapsed to her knees, repeatedly pressing her mother’s contact number, though the empty signal bar had already confirmed her fears.
“Mummy, pick up…
please…” Beside Ayomide, Kemi stared at Karl, her mouth slightly open.
She looked around at her classmates, then back at the Shepherd.
“Wait oh,” Kemi pointed at herself, her voice pitching up in pure absurdity.
“You’re saying us…
Nigerians…
are heroes?
Because this is honestly the first time I’m hearing say Nigerian university students enter another world to save it!” A few nearby students nodded frantically.
They had grown up on movies and comics, but nobody woke up on a Thursday morning expecting to get dragged across dimensions to fight monsters.
Before the noise could spiral out of control, a tall student near the front snapped.
“Out of my way!” He shoved through the crowd, sprinting directly toward the massive wooden gates, throwing his entire body weight against the ancient stone-framed doors.
“Open!
Open up!” The heavy timber didn’t even creak.
Two other boys joined him, slamming their shoulders into the wood.
The three of them heaved with everything they had, their knuckles turning white against the polished timber.
Nothing.
They slowly stepped back, gasping for breath, their faces completely drained of color.
The locked doors slammed the finality of their situation home.
It reminded Ayomide of fuel queues back home and the instant, ugly chaos that erupted whenever bank servers went offline.
Some denied it.
Some shouted.
Some quietly began to pray—just like the girl near the pillar currently whispering frantic prayers under her breath.
Only a few people stopped to observe and calculate.
“Everyone!” Miss Grace’s voice suddenly cut through the gloom.
She stood near the center of the hall, forcing her posture upright despite her trembling hands.
“I am scared too.
But right now, panicking and beating against locked doors will not help us.
Look at each other.
Your classmates are here.
Your friends are here.
As long as we stay together and think before we act, we will navigate this.
Breathe.” Her words didn’t vanish the fear, but they gave the room an anchor.
The shouting lowered into an anxious murmur as students huddled into small, protective groups.
“Bro,” Tunde whispered, leaning close to Ayomide, his usual easy smile entirely missing.
“Tell me say this old man no just call us heroes.” “He did,” Ayomide said quietly.
Tunde rubbed a hand over his face.
“That one no be the answer I want, guy.
I was supposed to go visit my grandma this weekend because of her health…
Now we’re in another world?
What happens to her?” Ayomide looked at his friend.
“Don’t worry.
Nothing will happen to her.
We’ll find a way out of here.” Tunde frowned slightly.
“You don’t even believe that.” Ayomide turned his eyes back to Karl, unable to offer a lie.
“…No.” “Everyone,” Karl’s quiet voice returned, easily carrying across the high ceiling.
“I understand your terror.
But before you decide how to react, you must understand where you stand.” He gestured toward the colossal white pillars.
“This world is named Aetheris.
It is an ancient realm composed of vast continents, broken empires, and territories older than your recorded history.
And every living thing here is connected to a fundamental force called Aether.” A few students exchanged glances.
“Aether exists in the land, the air, and in every living soul,” Karl explained.
“It is the foundation of power.
It strengthens the body, fuels magic, and when combined with a creature’s will, it awakens a power unique to that individual—a Soul Manifestation.” Ayomide filed the term away immediately.
A power tied to identity and will.
Daniel—the HOD(Head of department) class president, standing near the front—stepped forward slightly.
He was always one to think before speaking, the kind of organized, sharp mind the rest of the class naturally listened to.
“If Aether is the foundation of this world,” Daniel asked calmly, his voice steady, “and we are strangers from Earth, why bring us?
We don’t have Aether in our blood.” Karl looked at Daniel, nodding approvingly.
“Our scholars believe that souls born beyond Aetheris remain untouched by our world’s influence,” Karl said.
“They believe that when an otherworldly soul is bathed in high-density Aether for the first time, it creates a violent catalyst—unlocking potential that ordinary citizens of Aetheris can rarely achieve.” Potential, Ayomide thought.
Employers loved that word.
Banks loved that word.
Potential meant you had value they could extract.
Potential was a nice word, but it never changed reality by itself.
“And what are we supposed to use this potential for?” Daniel pressed.
“What is the threat?” Karl’s expression darkened, the lines around his eyes deepening.
“The Four Monarchs of the Ash Throne,” Karl said, the name dropping into the room like lead.
“Four ancient, terrifying entities who sit upon thrones of ruin.
One Monarch reduced an entire kingdom to grey ash in a single night.
Another turned an ocean into a graveyard where nothing has lived for three hundred years.” A collective gasp rippled through the students.
Maxwell stepped out from the back, letting out a dry, harsh laugh.
“So make I summarize wetin you just talk.
Your world’s strongest armies can’t beat these four monsters…
so your grand solution was to kidnap one hundred and nine university students?” Karl looked Maxwell dead in the eye.
“Yes.
The Summoning Rite is not performed out of pride or desire for foreign heroes.
It is performed because Aetheris has reached the edge of absolute extinction.
We had no other choice.” Beside Kemi, Adesewa didn’t look at Karl.
Ayomide noticed she wasn’t looking at the Shepherd at all; she was watching the glowing, intricate silver lines beneath their feet, carefully tracking the geometric flow of the dormant magic circle.
Suddenly, the floor beneath their boots flickered.
A pale, vibrant blue light began to hum through the stone.
The dormant geometric symbols ignited, spreading in broad, sweeping arcs under every student’s feet.
“What is that?!” a girl shrieked, jumping back.
“It is time,” Karl said quietly.
“Time for what?!” Tunde demanded.
“Your awakening,” Karl replied, taking a step backward as the robed Shepherds raised their silver staffs in unison.
“The Aether will now flood your bodies and force your Soul Manifestations to take physical form.
For some…
it will unlock great power.
For others…
it will reveal who you truly are.” Kemi grabbed Adesewa’s wrist in terror.
“Stay close!” Adesewa gave Kemi’s hand a firm squeeze, her eyes remaining fixed on the glowing runes spiraling around them.
The blue light roared upward, turning into a blinding pillar of energy that swallowed the entire room.
Ayomide stood firmly in the center of the light, feeling the searing heat of invisible energy pressing against his chest.
Heroes, another world, sacred callings—none of it was a gift.
In his thirty years of life, he had learned one absolute truth: Nothing in life came without a price.