"The prophecy!?"
The first to speak was Lucien, his mouth hanging open along with gaping eyes that expressed the pure shock all five of them had felt.
"Yes, it is as I say. I understand that this is a lot to take in, so I hope that you'll listen to my words."
The king continued unfurling the roll of paper, a little bit of energy peeking out through its crevices.
As the scroll uncurled to about the halfway point, Rowan hurriedly raised his arms to cover his face, his stomach involuntarily wrenching as his retinas were assaulted by a painfully bright shockwave of light.
White-hot pain pulsed from Rowan's eyes, the intensity of the stimulus evoking a primal shrill so barbaric that one might've mistook him for a little girl.
"I apologize for the sudden light, but if my life is any proof, the acquisition of knowledge is a path oft followed with torment."
As the pulsing reverberations of heat slowed in their approach, each passing wave taking just a little longer, Rowan opened his eyes again, again met with the bright red light.
He looked down upon the scroll, the pure luminescence now no longer tacking his eyes and leaving him blinded.
"This is a knowledge scroll, and an incredibly esteemed one at that. If you look into its light, it will offer its insights that the creator left behind."
Rowan's mouth flinched ever so slightly, queries surrounding the significance of such a scroll occupying the main space of his thoughts, but his words didn't roll out, his tongue frozen and his lips still.
"You will find yourself becoming entranced. Do not attempt to resist it, otherwise you risk splintering your mind."
A rising black shroom burst from Rowan's stomach, infecting his thoughts and leaving him helpless to its dark pleasures.
His mind splintering?
Rowan again urged his body to move, to do anything, but a razor-sharp thud cut both his thoughts and his head into two, akin to a guillotine mutilating his head along the midline.
The words 'don't resist' hovered along his psyche as he eased the tension in his stomach, succumbing to the effects of the scroll.
The black shroom fully engulfed Rowan's body and mind in their totality, the air--no, the space around him unnaturally weaving and churning.
Soon, guards turned to entire kingdoms and heroes turned to forests as Rowan found himself at birds-eye view of the world.
Flames red, crimson, black, and blue engulfed the surroundings, so towering that they trivialized what should've been his focus of attention.
There were thousands upon thousands—maybe even millions—of men, beasts, or mixes of the two moving at blistering speeds, their fights reshaping the environment around them.
At one location, a snake-like man was duking it out with Corien, each blow and clashing of arcana devastating mountain ranges with gaping holes and entirely severed mountain tops.
At another, dozens of unfamiliar men and women were all charging towards a single, impressionable vampire-like beast, his fangs extending past his lower lip.
He'd snapped his fingers and just like that, hundreds of purple ghouls rose from the ground, each one so ludicrously powerful that Rowan couldn't even put into quantification the extent of their strength.
There were several other relevant centerpiece battles, but what laid most outstanding was the state of the world.
The projection of Rowan's soul who'd been moving between these fights lost its center of balance, the earth below shaking.
Rowan tried to fly up and away as he had been just moments ago, but his body wouldn't react, the pit in his stomach so great that it swallowed all conscious thought.
The dark gloom that had stayed hidden in the earth soon made its way to the surface, light peering through the now cracking earth as rays of energy shot out.
Soon, essentially the entire planet was engulfed in this same light, the aftermath of such a destructive force bursting forth from the core of the earth more obvious than ever.
"Noooo!"
Rowan closed his eyes as the feeling of dread transitioned into one of solace, his life mere seconds away from ending.
...
Now on both knees, hands on the floor, a pool of sweat built under Rowan as he collapsed into a nervous wreck.
"What the hell is this..."
What shook Rowan out of his frenzy was the remark of another in close proximity.
There, Elias had adopted the same position as Rowan along with the three other heroes, each one of them heaving excessive volumes of air as their mouths hung open.
"That was the end of the Way and the world as we know it as prophesized millennia ago—"
"No, I meant what the hell is THIS! Why the fuck did you summon us to deal with the end of the world? I didn't sign up for this."
Elias propped himself up with his hand, his legs shaking violently as he struggled to establish his sense of balance.
Despite the king being taller, Elias grabbed Viral along the collar, dragging him down to his own level.
"None of us chose to do this... I mean, who the fuck would willingly sign themselves away to inevitable doom?"
It was only after he finished speaking that Elias raised his other arm, his fist balled in a like-minded fashion to Kaia.
Elias going in for the swing, the king looked on nonetheless with no clear intentions of fighting back.
Fwip!
Lucien stood at Elias' side, holding his arm back with his right hand.
Elias swiftly shifted his attention, looking on at Lucien with burrowed brows and clenched teeth.
"What the hell do you think—"
"No, what the hell do you think YOU'RE doing!"
Elias' head flung back ever so slightly in response, the extreme reaction from Lucien weakening his grip on the king.
"Look around you! Had you swung their king, you most certainly would've gotten yourself killed."
The king's guard all had their dominant legs stretched outward, a strangely familiar book in their hands as a number of varying arcana levitated in front of them.
With such numbers directing attack at Elias, there's no way he could've survived such an onslaught.
Lucien looked upon Elias again with admonishment, Elias diverting his attention to the floor as he eventually resigned all contact with the king.
Subsequently, the king's guard withdrew their attacks, their books closed and their arcana dissipated.
"I... apologize for my actions."
Elias and Lucien both stepped back, returning to the line the heroes had originally formed into.
"I understand after such horrific projections, you would be in disarray, but even if I wanted, I couldn't send you back. The truth is that our hand was forced by the kingdom of Veridia, and we wouldn't have summoned you if we hadn't needed to."