"President Hartford, do you take us for fools?"

Kellan couldn't be bothered to read the man's nameplate.

"Alternate dimensions, magic, an apocalypse, evacuating our citizens?" He scoffed, "You wish us to believe in this fiction?"

He wasn't saying anything that others hadn't already said.

Documents detailing the upcoming awakening of mana in their universe and its ancillary consequences had been delivered to all members of the General Assembly as soon as they had entered the closed session.

Kellan was out of patience. The President had asked him to wait until she introduced him to speak, but he was through wasting his time.

"You would do well to attend Elania's words," Kellan's voice carried throughout the chamber as he expelled and worked the mana within his soul to ensure that he was heard, deadening the air for any other voices, forcing silence.

He saw Elania's shoulders tense for an instant as her irritation showed before she recovered from the impossibly brief lapse in composure. She truly was one of the better players he'd ever encountered. He'd hoped that this meeting of nations would showcase others who were equally talented, but the majority of the attendants were amateurs.

Continuing his spell, Kellan floated into the center of the room, enjoying the shocked look on the faces of the representatives who lacked the self-control to hide their surprise.

"I am Kellan Garvardes, Defender of Greenwold, Blessed of Vi'Radia, Sovereign of the Skies," he announced, his draconic nature lacing the words with meaning. "I have come to your world to offer you salvation and refuge beneath my wings and within Vi'Radia's holy light."

This wasn't what Elania had planned, but Kellan had suspected he would need to take drastic action long before this meeting had ever commenced.

"It is clear to me that you have little trust in one another," he continued, "and that if left to your own devices, you will squabble endlessly, wasting what time you have to prepare."

Kellan shook his head as he watched the various representatives standing, making wild gestures, sporting expressions that ranged from furious to frightened. He finished the ritual he'd been casting, and the building shuddered as the lights cut out and the emergency lights flickered on. He released the deadening effect of the control air spell.

He moved through the double doors that led the chamber, smashing them to splinters as he rushed through at speed, rising higher once he was through with them.

Kellan waited patiently as people began to slowly stream out of the chamber, turning to look back at it in shock.

He'd ripped the entire chamber out of the building and transported it to Thayland. He idly noted that Elania did not look pleased, and she'd lost enough of her composure to show it.

"Welcome to Thayland," he boomed, drawing their attention back to his presence. As nearly all eyes were on him, he reverted to his true form, enjoying the gasps and cries from those below.

"Now that I have your undivided attention, I am Kellan Garvardes, Defender of Greenwold, Blessed of Vi'Radia, Sovereign of the Skies, and you stand on MY soil." He paused a moment to bask in their appreciation for his draconic majesty.

"You have four hundred and forty-eight days before your world will be covered by a tide of monsters, sweeping away the entirety of your population," he announced. "This is an enemy you cannot fight, as you lack the strength. Your world will be overrun for one hundred and ten days, after which you may return, although you'll find it changed."

Several individuals were trying to shout questions at him, but he ignored them for the moment.

"Vi'Radia has smiled on you, as one of your people arrived on my shores two years ago and proved his worth, predisposing us to act on your behalf," Kellan shook his massive head theatrically. "You owe him a great debt," he bellowed, "as had I only the people I see before me to serve as exemplars, I would hesitate to lift a single claw. You bicker and fight like children, ignoring the doom that looms nigh. I have brought you here because I'm allowing you to prove to me that I should work through your governments to save your people. Should you fail to convince me, I'll do it myself."

With that, he shifted back to his human form and lowered himself to the ground, where a marble throne rose up to meet him.

Elania was the first one to reach him.

"This is not what we agreed," she hissed through a tight smile as she reached him.

"Your method would have failed," Kellan stated firmly. "Your government is filled with self-aggrandizing incompetents, but they at least believe they are working for your citizens." He waved a hand towards the world leaders slowly approaching the throne. "More than half of those people have no such illusions," he shook his head sternly, "and half of those will only leave this place alive so that I might have agents follow them and cleanse the rot from their lairs." He fixed her with his gaze. "I will not allow another world to fall to a dark pantheon."

"You said that you didn't want to rule Earth," she muttered, casting her gaze discreetly behind her, no doubt judging how much longer she had to converse with him before they were able to be overheard.

"I do not," he replied, "my nature is ill-suited for the bureaucratic minutiae of governance, which is why I have trusted subordinates to do so. That said, the books I read failed to adequately portray just how venal and self-serving your world leaders are."

Elania fixed her smile and stepped to the side, turning to face the approaching crowd.

Kellan stifled a chuckle. She was positioning herself as an adjunct or a trusted advisor.

The first people to arrive were those who were already aware of Thayland. The Prime Ministers of Britain, Australia, and Canada, along with the President of Mexico, arrayed themselves in front of him, where they each bowed, some with more grace than others.

"I believe you've convinced those who doubted President Hartford's dossier," The Prime Minister of Britain said dryly.

"As Robert Whitman indicated, some of your people require extraordinary evidence," Kellan replied. "As you aren't amongst them, perhaps you could aid your fellows in their comprehension?"

"I believe the most skeptical amongst them have had their eyes opened, although I must ask, what exactly it is that you are planning, Your Majesty?"

"In a moment," Kellan offered, "I don't want to have to explain twice, and it appears your people are nearly ready to be addressed."

As the people gathered in front of his makeshift throne, Kellan smiled. He'd given them a few moments to calm down and presented them with a less terrifying form. Now was the time to strike.

"I'm giving all of you forty days to prepare your people," his voice boomed out over the crowd. "As you cannot be trusted to play nicely, I'll be bringing your military personnel over first, where they will be placed in stasis for the duration. Your history has shown that you simply can't be trusted not to take advantage of each other. I'll then have the least useful members of your societies brought over and placed into stasis. Things will progress in this manner until all of your citizens have been brought to safety."

"I reject your usurpation of our sovereignty!" an older man of asian heritage shouted, his face reddened with rage.

Kellan repressed a smile as an example offered itself. He made a gesture solely for theatrical purposes, and a crystal coffin appeared around the offending man, whose face froze in an expression of surprise and terror as he ceased all movement.

"That is how your citizens will pass their time," Kellan continued, "in stasis. It requires far fewer resources to accomplish this than it would to feed and house the billions of people on your planet. Instead, we will place the refugees in stasis and, as one of your citizens described, stack them like cordwood. Anyone who wishes to spend time outside of stasis will be required to spend each day laboring to gather the resources necessary to keep the stasis active."

He gestured again, and the crystal coffin floated over the crowd, orienting itself horizontally before settling to the ground. "I'll return in two hours. At that time, I expect all of you to have reviewed the documents provided to you and to be prepared to either explain your plan for arranging your citizens to be transferred in an orderly fashion, or to relinquish control of your governments, ceding that authority to my claws."

With that, Kellan launched himself into the air, shifting as he rose, then he unleashed a torrent of fire, spinning it into a portal through which he flew, leaving the leaders of Earth to their own devices.

As he winged over Harbordeep, he smiled. There were few things more satisfying than forcing those who believed they held power to face reality.

Elania had known that today would be a stressful day, and she'd been prepared to cover for a number of the King of Greenwold's idiosyncracies. She hadn't foreseen his complete departure from the script.

She glanced behind her at the mass of concrete and steel that was the United Nations Assembly. From the information available to her, teleporting the entire chamber with all of its occupants shouldn't have been possible. She'd had to agree each time she'd entered a portal.

"I take it that you were not expecting that particular turn of events?" The Prime Minister of England asked.

"No, I was not," she replied as calmly as possible.

"One wonders if his Majesty's edict regarding the military personnel being placed into stasis will impact those of us who are already operating on Thayland," he mused.

"That's an excellent question to which I do not have the answer," she replied. "I would say that if this is the case, then we might have another forty days to rush civilians into service."

"If he had not directly indicated the target of his ire being conflicts between nations, I'd be concerned that my actions against the criminals in my country might be the cause," President Garcia admitted.

"Madam President," a cultured voice called for her attention. "Could you perhaps provide a bit more detail on this 'regeneration' ritual?"

Elania turned and let her political smile slide across her features. It was time to salvage what she could from this fiasco.

"I could have sworn there was ham on these sandwiches," Bob muttered, casting a suspicious eye towards Monroe, who was eating his meal with rather more leisure than he normally displayed.

"Buddy, did you eat my ham?" he asked the big Maine-coon.

Monroe didn't dignify the question with a response.

Bob had been pulling long days in the Dungeon, but he was ninety-nine percent positive he'd made ham, cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches. He double-checked the bread for signs of feline alteration but found none, which wasn't uncommon. Monroe was very dexterous. Or, given the system, it might be more accurate to say that he had a high Coordination.

Regardless, both of his sandwiches were missing their ham, leaving Bob to munch on a lunch less filling than he'd planned.

He paused to drop his Summon UtahRaptor spell and then bring Jake back out. The sad truth was that he had been sitting at a plateau, power-wise, for quite a while. As powerful as Jake was, and at level sixty-four, he was an absolute unit, he was still effectively tier five, just like Bob, and the difference between tiers was rather clear.

Still, he was able to grind out the crystals he needed in safety and obscurity, and if nothing changed, he expected that he'd push through to tier seven in another nine months. Eleven, if he took his vacations into account.

Either way, he had time.

Time until System Integration: 448 Days, 9 Hours, 16 Minutes, 37 seconds.

By his estimate, he'd push into tier seven with a solid three months or more to spare.

He didn't have any illusions that he'd be able to cap tier seven before integration, but he'd not only make progress, but he'd have the levels he'd need to cope with the system update.

Bob shook his head, trying to clear his mind. He knew he'd developed some habits that he was going to need to break when the update arrived. Trebor had been clear that monsters were going to be more dangerous and more challenging.

That thought sparked a reminder. "Trebor, when I was back on Earth, I was able to aspect mana to an element as well as control it much more easily. My hypothesis is that the lack of active ambient mana is the reason?"

'There are no records indicating that particular phenomenon, however, I strongly suspect you are correct,' Trebor replied.

"Ok," Bob nodded thoughtfully, "so it would follow that if I were to invert my mana density shield, causing it to resist rather than absorb the ambient mana, specifically from around me rather than externally, shouldn't I be able to create a space in which there is no ambient mana?"

'Yes, there are records of that particular configuration, and it would work as you suggest,' Trebor agreed.

"My next question is, why don't people use this technique to learn system-less magic?" Bob asked.

'As I have stated, very few people attempt to cast spells without the system. It is dangerous, difficult, and time-consuming, as you've experienced. It is far easier to simply either obtain the skill you need yourself or find someone who already has it,' Trebor replied.

Bob cleared his throat. "So, I haven't ever asked this, and given that you sort of are the system, and you've obviously been immensely helpful in my pursuit of systemless magic, but I'm not going to be censured or punished by the system for learning how to manipulate mana without using it?"

'When you manipulate mana without the aid of the system, you are still cycling that mana, so, no,' Trebor explained. 'The system created spells and skills to allow for ease of use and to encourage individuals to cycle mana.'

"Just making sure," Bob sighed. "I'm considering teaching someone else how to do it. Someone good at teaching so that the techniques can be spread around. I'm sure there won't be a huge number of people interested, but I'm certain that the power gamers would be excited to add utility without spending points."

'There would be no repercussions from the system,' Trebor assured him.

"It's not just the system that I worry about," Bob mumbled as he packed up his lunch and refocused his attention on killing monsters.