I follow Ibellir as she walks to a different part of the barrier and opens it, this time leading to the world with the red sky rather than the one I'm used to. I follow her out, possibly making me the first human to reach this other world after leaving a dungeon.
Normally, if an adventurer opens a hole in a barrier, that hole will lead to our world. If a monster opens a hole in a barrier, it will lead to their world. Invasions happen when monsters cause a dungeon to collapse in such a way that they end up in our world rather than theirs, but we do not know how they manage that yet. As such, it should theoretically be possible for us to access this other world as well, but we never found a way to do so.
But the Witch can access both worlds when she opens the barrier. Can I also do that?
We walk for a while in silence. It's still night and the light of the moon allows us to see, but it's tainted red, just like the sky of this world, giving a strange look to the world around us. In the distance, I can see what appears to be the vague outline of a large city, with skyscrapers and other tall buildings, but I can't see the details with this little light and from this distance.
We eventually reach some stone ruins. It looks like a small fortress of sort, but as with everything else in this world, it has been abandoned for a long time.
We enter the inner courtyard, where floating orbs provide enough light to clearly see our surroundings. Ibellir stops in the center and whistles. Immediately after, four figures, all women, come out of hiding and position themselves around me.
Sitting on the remnants of the stone wall to my left, a girl with pale red skin and hair the color of charcoal smiles at me. She's wearing pale and light clothes that fully cover her body, has goggles on her forehead, and a scarf around her neck which she can seemingly bring up to cover her mouth and nose. If I had to guess from the outfit, I would say that she comes from a desert area with rough sandstorms. Her hair is tied in a bun.
A bit to the left in front of me is an extremely tall woman wearing clothes that cover little of her body, revealing her impressive muscles as well as the patches of scales covering parts of her forearms and legs as well as the sides of her belly and neck. Her ears are pointed, just like Ibellir's, and her fiery eyes have vertical slits as pupils. While her orange hair is short, it still covers her ears and neck, and forms unruly spikes.
Directly in front of me is Ibellir, who looks like a typical elf from our world's fiction. I have to assume that they have a different name, but since anyone from my world who sees her would simply call her an elf, that's the word that came to my mind when she told me her title.
Sitting on a pile of hay, the fourth girl seems to be reading a book, only partly paying attention to the situation around us. She's wearing a black, light dress, revealing her extremely pale arms and legs, while her equally pale face is surrounded by black hair and decorated with a pair of glasses and black lipstick. Noticing that I'm looking at her, she gives me a smile, revealing a pair of sharp canines. It seems unlikely that she fits most of the stereotypes associated with them, but I believe adventurers would say she's a vampire based on her appearance.
And finally, leaning against the wall behind me is a woman wearing almost nothing. Her dress appears to be made from a single piece of clothe, she's barefoot, and only has a white flower in her blonde hair as an accessory. The pair of butterfly-like wings on her back makes me think that "fairy" would be an appropriate name for her race.
After I'm done taking a look at everyone here, Ibellir starts talking:
"Welcome, everyone, to this gathering of Witches. As you've noticed, we have a guest today. And as you've noticed, he's a man! This does raise a few questions about our power, but before we get to that, we should all introduce ourselves."
She turns towards me and addresses me directly:
"You go first."
"Ah, okay. Um... My name is Matt, and I'm an adventurer. It's a pleasure meeting all of you."
The red-skinned girl follows, introducing herself energetically:
"Hi! My name's Saorin, but I'm better known as the Fiery Witch. I'm an Efreeti, you see, and we're known for our affinity for fire magic. While my Witch powers allow me to use all kinds of magic now, I still retain a preference for anything that produces flames."
The one with scales then moves forwards and says:
"I'm Tionan, the Dragon Witch. I'm only half dragon, but what little magic I got from my father was greatly amplified by my Witch powers, so I ended up with this title regardless."
Next up is the one all dressed in black, who appears completely disinterested:
"Vivian. Vampire Witch. I get the question a lot so I'll preemptively answer: my teeth are vestigial. I don't drink blood."
And finally, the winged one timidly approaches before saying:
"It's an honor to meet you. I'm Ulara, a Greater Fairy, and the Fairy Witch. Members of my race usually provide help to heroes but stay out of conflicts themselves, so awakening as a Witch came as quite a shock to me, but I'm glad that fate gave me this chance."
She bows down before taking a step back.
During the introductions, I noticed that none of them appeared to be speaking the same language. It likely would have been much harder for them to team up like this without the strange power we all share. I can guess what other half race Tionan is based on her ears, but she's still speaking a different language from Ibellir. And with me being human and from another world, I can't imagine how awkward this first meeting would have been if I hadn't understood anything they were saying.
Now that everyone introduced themselves, Ibellir continues:
"Great! Now, Matt, how old are you?"
"I'm 18."
They all react as if they expected that answer, but Saorin is the one who speaks:
"So he really is the same age as us. Isn't that a bit strange?"
Tionan responds:
"We assumed that we were all born within a few months of each other as some sort of defense mechanism against the World Eaters. We didn't all awaken as Witches at the same time, but we still managed to team up and fight back against them. However, the other side, which doesn't have World Eaters, still ended up with someone who shares our power and who was born around the same time as us. Were we wrong, then?"
Vivian, still reading her book, says:
"It's not like their world is entirely free of World Eaters. Sometimes, the monsters manage to break Gates and cross over there. Maybe the reason there's five of us here and one of him there is because we're dealing with a lot more of them."
Her comment makes sense, and the other Witches seem to agree with her. She continues:
"It's also possible that this power has nothing to do with World Eaters, however. We simply assumed there was a connection because nothing else made sense, but this could be a completely random event. It's clear that we all share a connection, our powers are too similar and we were all born too close to each other to assume coincidence here, but we still don't know where our magic originates from. If we still had Old World technology, we might be able to figure it out, but as things stand, we can merely speculate."
Everyone takes a few second to think about Vivian's words before Ulara asks:
"But why is he a man? Isn't our power meant to only be wielded by women?"
Once again, Vivian responds:
"That was also merely something we assumed based on the fact that all five of us were girls, but it could have been a coincidence. It's also possible that this power has a greater chance to manifest itself within a female body, explaining the ratio we have now, but we can't reach any conclusion with only six people. We would need multiple generations of Witches, ideally much larger than ours, to know conclusively. Matt's presence shows that some of our assumptions were wrong, but that was always a possibility."
Tionan approaches and starts taking a closer look at me. She's at least a whole head taller than me, and with this taking me by surprise, I don't dare ask her what she's doing. After a short inspection, she asks:
"Doesn't he look a bit too... ordinary to be carrying the same power we are? He doesn't look all that good."
That hurts! I know my physical appearance is nothing special, but I work hard maintaining my body and looks. That has to count for something, right?
Ibellir responds:
"I guess he does? But we only felt his power for the first time recently, his attunement could be incomplete."
Attunement? What is she talking about?
The Witches must be able to tell from my facial expression that I'm confused, as Saorin starts explaining:
"After awakening as Witches, we all went through a phase we call 'attunement', which takes around a year to complete. How long ago did you awaken?"
"It happened last week."
"Then it's very recent. And do you sometimes feel like you have a hard time controlling your power, like it's not really yours and that you're merely borrowing it from somewhere else?"
"Ah! Yes, absolutely!"
"Well, the good news is that your power is actually entirely yours, your body just needs time to get used to it."
If that power really is mine and not borrowed from someone else, then who does "Aurora" look like? Why does the energy take that appearance when I let it leak out of my body?
Ibellir adds:
"As you grow more attuned to your power, you will become stronger, but your body will also change. Unfortunately, we can't predict how it's going to change. Saorin became shorter, while Tionan grew taller. Vivian went from having a flat chest to being rather well-equipped while the rest of us didn't seem affected in that department, and Ulara's wings became paler."
Ulara continues:
"The one change that seemed common to all of us was that we got more attractive. To fairies, pale wings are a sign of purity and are thus considered attractive. Efreetis view shorter women as more attractive. Tionan is half dragon so we don't really know what standards apply to her, but they made her taller. I found it a bit unnerving to see my body change this way, but that appears to be a general direction for the transformation."
More attractive, eh? I wouldn't mind getting taller. And broader shoulders would be nice. Maybe I'll end up looking like those very handsome and manly heroes in movies and shows. The five Witches certainly are very attractive, each in their own way, so if I end up looking as good as they do, I can expect a lot of positive attention from the girls back home. Looks aren't everything when it comes to dating, but it could even help me get my first girlfriend.
My fantasizing is interrupted by Ulara, who asks:
"But if his awakening is this recent, we can't really expect him to help us with our problem, can we?"
Right, Ibellir did say something about needing me for something.
Vivian responds:
"Waiting one more year won't make much of a difference. We can wait for him to finish his attunement. And I'm curious to see what he looks like by then."
The Witches all nod in agreement.
There's something a bit uncomfortable about the idea that my body is going to change because of the power I carry, but if it allows me to get stronger and makes me more handsome in the process, I can probably accept it. I'll continue clearing dungeons, since that also helps my power grow, and I'll come back in a year to help them with whatever problem they have. While a lot of questions remain unanswered, meeting people who have the same power as me helped put some of my worries to rest.
