Chapter 3: Blessings

"Sh--, I guess he won't wake up that easily"

"Hmm? You suggest I pour my bottle of water on him?"

"No way! This water is just for emergency, it's better to use it on his hands, eggs sandwich's smell doesn't go off that easily"

"This bastard, he suddenly disappeared from his seat, and now he is unconscious in the beach of an unknown world"

"Hmm? You suggest I do it the hard manly way? How? punch him in the face? I tried but no result"

"You left no choice bro; I'm going to do it the hard way"

At first, I didn't recognize the one talking the voice was foggy then it became clearer every second I started to gain my consciousness, but I was too lazy to open my eyes…. too lazy to answer his calls, I assume that he is talking to someone beside him, I will have to open my eyes to see what is happening.

I opened my first eye to a face an inch far from mine, it was a stupidly disgusting sight of Liam puckering his lips for a kiss.

"You have got to kiss your homie for a good morning"

"uaaagh! Get the hell of me you bastard, it's f--king reserved to the girl I love"

"See, I told you! the straightest line in the hood"

"Naughty boy, you didn't have to go hard on me, did you forget what happened last night bet-ween-us"added Liam flirting.

"aaaah, just kill me already" I can't take this humiliation anymore.

"I'm a villain, not a monster…"

"And that's how you wake Gustang up, ruby, take notes…and he likes omlette in breakfast…" he then talked to the girl taking notes.

"You even know that you f-, ah never mind everybody does"

Now, I am in a white sand beach, the scene was similar to that of the Maldives, if I was in a trip, I would have jumped in such beautiful clear water, but that is not the case.

I instantaneously checked my suitcase, there was my laptop still intact, my folders, my pens and more importantly, there was the thing I checked for 'Brook', the book I was given by that person.

I lift up my head to see Ruby Celestina gazing upon me, where should I start, her long blond hair, her porcelain clear skin, or those beautiful ruby eyes, if she was the one to check on me, I would have acted dumb to snatch a kiss. Her eyes were actually fixed on my suitcase, I turn my head right and left, the passengers and some other people filled the beach as my sight, they were each with their relatives and friends, checking on each other, some were swimming their way to the beach,

So, everyone landed in a different place, a thought came to my mind, was there some who landed on volcanoes? or some who cannot swim fell in the middle of the sea? I'm grateful. Thank God, I was lucky to land in relatively safe place with people I know.

Liam initiated the conversation with a sudden question "what kind of blessings did you guys get?"

"Pardon?"

"I got four stars blessing" ruby added, showing us her wrist where four stars were engraved in tattoo like manner

"Are you by any means the protagonist? Why am I only getting three stars blessing?" sobbed Liam, covering the three stars engraved in the palm of his hand.

What the hell is this, I looked at my arm but no stars, the only thing written in my hands was the grocery of this week

[Heh, No blessings?]

"aren't you supposed to help me?" I shouted instinctively at the mocking brook.

"Hey! Are you one of those schizophrenics 'literally me' guys?"

It appears I am the only one that can hear brook. Great!

"No! I'm just confused by the situation; I didn't get any of what you call blessing!"

"That is because you disappeared right before what I would like to call an evaluation" I didn't expect ruby to be the one explaining this to me, when my friend is laughing at me mercilessly, he enjoyed the fact that there is someone inferior to him in the group.

"Before we got transported to this beach, you were in the bus, you still recall that at least, right?"

"That's right, I guess?" I can't tell them about brook and that meeting, let's test the waters first.

"It was before that calamity descended, that some fairy like small creatures appeared from thin air, and started to measure us, or the right word is to analyse us, my hypothesis is that these stars are decided based on our potentials…and it is the standard to our power"

"Then they engraved these stars in our hands, supposedly representing our power"

"At the meantime you don't have enough power to survive here alone." Declared the back to serious mode Liam then he suggested "it's better for you to stick with us from now for your safety"

"I appreciate the help, Liam, I hope I don't weight you back"

"Well, that is until the next evaluation, they mentioned earlier that we will get stronger, and our value will change so we must prove our worth"

[Gus, be careful!]. Hey! Don't call by that name.

[they are approaching…. the beach will be full of hundreds of…]

It is just some other people why are you worried?

[you think you guys are the only ones that existed in this vast universe]

we started hearing sounds coming from the forest behind us, the sound of steps

was loud, what brook said about hundreds was true, it sounded like an army was approaching, the people around us were divided to two teams, those who were happy to the coming of what they taught the military or security, and others who were confused and worried, Liam and Ruby belonged to the latter, they both stood before me as if to protect me from what was coming.

I was confused by the last thing brook said until they appeared, coming from the wood, from a distance they seem fine

"See! I told you they're huma-"

Four groups each were different from the other team, each faction was holding a banner that reflected probably their nature

There was a group of people who were holding a banner that reflected a bow with a leaf as the arrow looked like elves from the fantasy novels, they had long ears, and wore feet length robes without the capes, next to the there was a crowd of beastmen, you can recognise them from the animal like ears and the tanned skin, their symbol was a shield with traces of claws engraved in it, next I noticed a group who were all wearing black robes, except for the one in front, it was a black haired woman with a pale skin, she was smiling to our side, she had a longer pointy fangs, I checked up on their banner, it was a red ankh…

Red ankh? Where did I see this symbol before, red ankh…long sharp pointy fangs, pale skin…they were…

Vampires, that was why everyone was covering from the sunshine, except for her, just how strong is she to be immune to their main weakness, I guess we will never know.

The last group were….

[Dragon hybrid.]

That…is the most appealing case, the banner they were holding was a crimson dragon standing at the top of a golden mountain, they wore some old-fashioned European clothes. Collar less coats with deep cuffs, below knee breeches…it all screamed 18th century fashion, not to mention the index length horns in their head, and the yellow eyes, those yellow eyes that pierced through your soul.

Elves, Beast-men, Vampires and Dragons and the other faction is us, Humans.

Even our side, at such a scene, assembled in a single group. It is not like they grouped to back each other, they stood in unity, hinting for the strongest in the team to represent us. This cave like method was not actually effective because, nobody stood as our representative, in the contrary they started to push each other and created a chaotic scenery,

"Hey can't you read the mood? You're a four-star, so stand for us"

"Yeah, that's right aren't you going to do your role as the strongest, hah?"

I looked at ruby who was beside me she was lookin-, it was more like threatening me, she wasn't noticed by the group so she hid her hands in her coat's pocket

"Hey we have another fou-omph" I was the one to shut Liam's mouth.

I looked around us again nobody heard us.

"Limbo… can't you see how the situation is developing?"

"Ah my bad, I was excited and got ahead of myself"

"Both of you, stay calm! let's wait and see how it is going"

By that time, the other factions already arrived to our side.

What is with this deafening silence?

The members of each crowd were just staring at the other factions and murmuring in between, each representative was hinting to the other to initiate the introduction, but nobody wanted to be the first.

"sigh" the draconic humanoid representative was the first to move forward

"Greetings, fellow refugees" he did a forty-five-degree bow, and slightly lift his head to face us, then smiled

"Pleased to meet you, my name is…"

"Osias Celest"