It was a dirty place with not too much to be seen within the darkness as Alaric made his way through.

(This place is disgusting, I don't even want to open my mouth around here.) He complanied in his mouth, keeping it shut.

Inside the hatch he got told to enter, there was an old tunnel that just seemed to go on forever, a very dark tunnel at that. If it weren't for the light of the flashlight he was given, since he didn't have a phone, he would be completely blind.

The walls around him had odd symbols on them, making this feel all the creepier.

As he kept walking, eventually a bright light hit him far before he could even think of reacting, so he closed his eyes and soon felt something was off, as the duty air around him now felt much lighter and the ground below him no longer felt hard.

So, he opened his eyes only to see that he was all the way back in his room, at his house in the US, after years away from it, this felt like a dream and tears even came to his eyes to be home again, but soon those feelings were replaced by confusion.

"How did I even get here?" Alaric looked around to try and find something unusual but it all looked about the same as the last time he had been there.

"Alaric!" He heard the very familiar voice of his mother call for him like he would always do it, by yelling.

This prompted him to leave his room, feeling cautious as this was all very weird and he had no idea what weird stuff he would come across next.

Walking to the dining room, he found his mother and father, both seated on the table which had three plates served as if they had been expecting him. The dish was even meat lasagna, his favorite, the way his mother and grandmother made it.

(This is so weird... How did I just go from Portugal to the US like that? Did I get teleported?) He asked himself as looked at his parents sitting there, seemingly waiting for him to join them.

Not spewing a word, he walked to his place and sat down, forgetting to greet them due to how weird the whole situation was as a whole.

"I'll be honest with you, little Al, I'm disappointed you didn't greet or hug us after so long, but it was our fault for raising you to be so distant." Mother said to him, a sigh escaping her mouth as she looked at him with longing teary eyes.

"Let him be if you're going to ask him something, make sure he didn't make any long-lasting connections. Can't have him with friends or a partner, that would be problematic." Father followed answering to her his words once again cementing the fact they wanted him alone.

(Why do I have to be all alone?….) Alaric looked down not sure how to process that his fears about his parents were true.

"From that reaction, it seems our plan worked. I'm sorry my dear, it was a necessary evil." Mother said as she covered her eyes trying not to cry.

"You probably hate us to an extent and while that will always hurt more than anything as your parents, we had to do it this way. We wanted to wait until you are 18 to reveal everything, but fate has pushed our hand and it's coming whether we are ready or not." Father continued his expression somber and his voice almost shaky. 

"You know, we even thought of making you hate us, but I would not be able to live if we did that, so it ended up as a half-assed effort. It seems to have worked though." Mother added and while her words carried weight they did not help.

"Just say it already! I was trying to wait for an answer, but you kept talking about how you wanted to do this that way or whatever! Why did you do this? That's what I want to know." Alaric was too confused and honestly mad at them to care for whatever they felt toward the situation.

"You'll hurt your mother with those words, but it's fair in a way. The reason we put you through all this isolation and training is because the apocalypse will start 4 years from and the world will end 10 years from now." Father revealed with a completely serious face.

(This is a joke, right? Don't tell me my parents finally went insane…) Alaric was not convinced in the slightest.

"I know it sounds crazy, honey, but hey do you think our family is so prosperous and rich? We have an empire in tens of billions of us dollars and could go higher, but no need to disrupt the economy to that point, really." Mother added just as seriously.

"You don't actually believe something so absurd, right? You're both just messing with me again, right? You're just trying to scare me, right?" Alaric did not buy this world-ending story for a second.

"I guess we destroyed your trust in us a little too much. Dear, please show our son a bit of the magic." Father sighed not surprised but more so looking disappointed but it didn't seem to be towards Alaric.

In response to that, Mother made an ice statue of Alaric appear between her hands out of thin air, then pushed it floating towards him.

(No way! This has to be special effects or some crazy magic trick, right? It can't possibly be real…) He was absolutely stunned by this.

Once the ice statue the size of a figurine was floating in front of him, he touched it and it was not cold despite being very clearly ice, so he grabbed it and there were no cables or strings or anything, it was just floating.

"How?! This makes no sense!" He could not understand what was going on at all.

"Very simple, you are part of the Trexus family, a family of Otherworld travelers." Mother responded.

"What?!" Alaric was even more confused.

"Well, nowadays the popular way to call it is isekai due to the rise of anime, back in day we would call those who do this dimensional travelers or wanderers, but that's neither here nor there." Father sighed as he said.

"That's crazy… you're pranking me, right?" Alaric still could not believe it, but he could no longer deny it with full certainty.

"Nope, we are not. It's more accurate to call it an alternate Universe than a world or dimension, but that doesn't matter, all you have to understand is that it other universe has magic and magical creatures like you see in those fantasy stories you love." Mother clarified as she responded.

"So, our family goes to that other universe… Why?! How?!" Alaric had a lot of questions but those two were his main ones.

"The why is a bit complicated, but to keep it simple one of our ancestors got magically kidnapped by the other worlders, and after a lot of trouble and a big adventure, they made a deal. 

"Our ancestors saw an opportunity to make our family great, so they made it so that every generation once the next in line is 18 they will go there to have their own journey so they can have access to magic as well." Father said with a smile.

"Please, dear don't call them otherwolders, you know the mirthlings don't like that." Mother added to his words.

"So, I was going to get summoned to another world at the age of 18?? First, that's crazy, you can't just do that to me, second even if I agreed, I'm 14! So why are we doing this?! Also, what is a mirthling?!" Alaric was frustrated and could not think fully about the situation.

"It's not a question of agreeing or disagreeing, we don't choose to send you there, you simply are and the best we can do is prepare you for it. The deal was sealed long before any of us was born after all, and using magic nonetheless, we can't do anything to stop it." Father sighed understanding how Alaric feels.

"The mirthlings are the people from the planet Mirth. Basically the Earth of the other universe, it even has humans there, though there are other intelligent species. You know, the typical fantasy species like elves and such." Mother complimented answering the last question.

"But you also have magic! Surely there's something we can do." Alaric rebutted.

"Not really, magic is complex and there are various sub-classifications and specializations, just because you know magic doesn't mean you know all magic, and even if we did, magic gets significantly weaker in our universe to the point it's like you become a beginner again once you get here, but that's just how our universe interacts with it," Father responded.

"Yup, by the end of my journey with your father, I was capable of freezing mountains but now I can barely make an ice statue bigger than a figurine." Mother added.

"Wait! You haven't told me why I have to go now yet or how? But forget that, how did you go on the journey with that?! I thought the whole point was I had to do this alone!" Alaric pointed out.

Both parents looked at each other and the father nodded.

"That's because I'm mirthling! I came here with your father, but I was originally born and raised there. While I love my planet and universe, the technology here on Earth is just so much more convenient. The Gods don't allow too much technology to be advanced back on Mirth." Mother revealed.

"Gods?!… Gods exist?" Alaric was blown away by this reveal more than his mother's origins.

"Yes, even our universe has a God, but theirs has many. A lot of the myths in our world originate from Mirth, but that's not our focus. The reason you have to go now is because tomorrow the fall will begin and that will lead to the apocalypse 4 years from now. As to how." Father clarified and then pulled out a small glowing stone with glowing carvings on it, and gave it to him.

"What's this?" Alaric received it and asked.

"It's a Mirthling return rune, they are extremely rare and hard to find. I was given that one by the King Of My Kingdom, Teruz when I decided to come here with your father as a reward for my deeds. 

"I however gave it to your father for him to do whatever he wanted to it as I had no intention of ever returning so long as I could be with him. Who knew it would come in handy for our dearest treasure now?" Mother expressed with a warm smile on her face.

"Ok… What am I supposed to do there? I still don't get that?" Alaric was confused about one last thing.

"That's very simple, become as powerful as you can! Don't stop for anything, and please survive, live for yourself!" Father replied with a teared-up voice clearly worried, but his eyes were dry.

"Exactly my love, so do your best and accomplish as much as you possibly can. You'll be there for a few years but don't worry time passes differently there than here, we'll be fine." Mother added as she got up and went on to hug him tight in her embrace as both of them let their tears speak for them.

"You had to go and hug him… We failed our plan of making him forget us so he could focus on himself. Oh well, it doesn't matter. Just live the best life you can, my son. 

"I'm sorry that as your father I failed so badly that it came to this for you. If you ever find it in you to forgive one of us, let it be your mother." Father joined them in a warm family hug.

"… I forgive you both… don't get me wrong, I'll be mad at you until the very end, but I can't hate you two…" Alaric said crying in his parent's arms.

This led to a tighter hug in a beautiful family moment after years, circumstances, and bad decisions tore them apart.

After that was all done, the conversation continued as it neared its ending.

"I would love to give you all our gear and cool stuff you could use to defend yourself or maybe even show off to the ladies a little, but just a little. Unfortunately, even if we did, it would just stay behind once you got transported." Mother said.

"All I can give you now is some words of advice. Be careful with whom you trust, and don't allow others to walk over you unless it's to survive. Never forget where you came from and who you are no matter what happens! 

"Even when things get tough never give up, if you stay true to yourself and do your best you'll eventually see the light at the end of the tunnel,"  Father said not bothering to look at Alaric, unable to do so as it would end in him crying.