章 7: The Heroes, S-Rank, The Three Holy Priests

"What do we do, Akira?" Yui whispered nervously to a tall, moderately handsome man walking in front of her. Her hands were shaky as she grasped onto the back of his uniform with two fingers. "I'm scared," she mumbled, tears bubbling in her brown eyes.

Akira kept his expression as neutral as possible. He slowly turned his face toward the short, pretty seventeen-year-old girl grabbing his uniform. "We just need to do what they say for now, Yui," he said evenly. "You and I both saw what happened to Toriyama, and it is unknown to what limits these mons— people will go to in order to ensure our allegiance to their cause — to defeating this so-called 'Demon King.'"

As cliche as it was, a group of students from a class in Japan were transported to the world of Utavia, where they were then requested to save the world from impending doom. However, in the process of weeding out those considered to have lesser value, one Mr. Toriyama was publicly humiliated and executed via the 'chuck off the cliff method'. It was no surprise to anyone that he died as soon as the trash can made contact with the ground. Yet, under some miraculous method, the trashcan remained undamaged, and the sole of a very unique being was transmigrated into Toriyama's body.

Now, the survivors of the encounter with the Three Holy Priests and the Goddess were termed Heroes, all of whom were currently on their way to the Royal Castle, then to the Training Area. They were told by the Three Priests that they needed to train and hone their unique skills and bodies, that especially being the case for the S-Rank Heroes.

All of them were given a rank, with the F-Rank being the lowest and the S-Rank being the strongest. This rank was determined by a few different factors, such as the base stats of the Hero, their Job, and above all else, their Unique Skill, which was also ranked from the F-Rank to the S-Rank.

As Toriyama was the only person to be F-Rank, with no Unique Ability and the lowest starting stats, he was made the example. An example of what would happen to those with unsatisfactory results. Simply put, the Goddess and Priests were warning the other Heroes of what would happen to them if they disobeyed them.

Of course, there would always be people who rebelled or resisted their indoctrinations, but those people would be weeded out with time. On the contrary, there were even a few among the student body who had already adjusted to their new reality. In fact, they embraced it, diagnosing this transmigration experience as something akin to their favorite games and TV shows coming to life.

One of such characters was known as Ryota, and he was a shorter fellow, coming in at 5'5. His life pre-transmigration was pretty bland; he didn't very much like people, he was seen as gloomy, and his popularity in school was abysmal at best. Moreover, his parents were abusive, thus resulting in a terrible home life as well. Yet, when he realized that he had been transported to another world and that he was even a high-ranking S-Rank Hero, his entire personality took a complete 360. Ryota went from believing the whole world was against him to believing that he was the world and everyone else revolved around him. In layman's terms, he developed a bad case of eighth graders syndrome, even going so far as to cover his face with his right hand and constantly monologue to himself in a monotone voice.

He was one of three S-Rank Heroes amongst the students, so to a degree, he had the right to act like he was sh*t. After all, he was not only of the S-Rank, but he also had a Unique S-Rank Skill called 'Oblivion,' which allowed him to reduce anything in existence to nothing as long as he was strong enough. In a way, his Unique Skill was the most overpowered of them all. But when stacked up against the Unique Skills of the other two S-Rank Heroes, it was hard to say for certain.

One was Akira, the classic boy popular. On Earth, he excelled at just about everything he did, whether that be in Sports, Academics, or Extracurriculars. He was the hot guy wet dream of many and the idol of envy for even more. After transmigration, his personality didn't change much, and his S-Rank Unique Skill was called 'Judgment'.

His Unique Skill, in a way, was the embodiment of the Judger, or the one who judges. It was also the Unique Skill with the closest synchrony with the Holy Goddess and the teachings of the church, as it was of the Light Element, and Heavy Light Element at that. To the Goddess and the Three Holy Priests, he was the one most likely to take the spot of 'Lead Hero,' meaning that he would be the one standing at the forefront when it came to fighting the Demon King and his forces.

Then there was Nanami, who was voted to be the most beautiful girl in not only the class but the entire school. It was also partly because of her beauty and grace that she was put into the school office as the School President. Her figure may be shapely, and her beauty may be astonishing, but above all else, it was her intelligence that truly shone the brightest. That cold face and apathy only worked to further heighten the keen glint in her icy blue eyes. Of all those among the 'chosen heroes,' she was definitely the one with the least amount of reaction to the most recent series of mind-boggling events.

Nanami's Unique Skill, on the other hand, was called 'Winter Queen's Embrace,' and it both tremendously improved her affinity with the Ice Element as well as gave her a wide assortment of versatile Ice-related Skills, all of which ranged from the E-Rank to the A-Rank. Moreover, she also had a 250% boost to all Ice-related skills, making her an absolute menace when it came to controlling the flow of the battlefield with a restricting element like Ice.

That concluded all of the S-Rank Heroes among the twenty-five that were summoned. There were also a few other exceptional individuals among the other ranks, such as Ayaka with her A-Rank Unique Skill 'Tar' or Haruto with his A-Rank Unique Skill 'Sword Master', or even the B-Rank Sakura with her 'Sakura Blossom' Skill, which allowed her to rapidly heal both herself and her comrades.

All in all, in the Goddess's mind, this round of Heroes was far better than the last group, all of whom died as soon as they encountered one of the Infernal Four of the Demon King's Army...

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