Monroe

Chapter Two Hundred and Five. Evidence and Ideas.

Elania smiled at Prime Minister Julwry's outburst. "I felt the same way when I was briefed, Prime Minister," she assured her.

"While I have the utmost respect for both you and your office, Madam President, I am compelled to request additional evidence to corroborate these rather extraordinary claims," Prime Minister Turpin's smile was faint but visible.

"What would you like to see?" Elania asked, gesturing toward one of her secret service detail to bring the two men she had outside who had recently reached their 'tier cap,' both of whom had different skill sets, one being on the 'Path of the Endless Swarm,' and the other was a 'Curator.'

"Something tangible would be best," President Garcia suggested.

"These are Lance Corporals Evans and Martinez," Elania nodded to the men as they entered the room. "Gentlemen, this is President Garcia, Prime Minister Turpin, Prime Minister LaFarge, and Prime Minister Julwry."

"Corporal Martinez, could you create a chair for us?" Elania asked.

"Yes, Ma'am," Martinez replied stiffly before he waved a hand to his left where a straight-back kitchen chair appeared.

"Well, I suppose Lady Turpin will be able to redecorate without a trip to Harrods," Prime Minister Turpin murmured.

Elania stiffened slightly as she heard an indelicate snort from Whitman. Fortunately, no one else seemed to have noticed.

"I'd imagine you can magically create other objects or materials as well?" President Garcia asked as he stood up and moved over the chair, where he ran a hand along its back.

"From what I understand, the limitations are that you have to understand the materials and any mechanisms involved," Elania replied.

Bob's snort this time wasn't discreet at all, and she restrained a sigh. "The gentlemen at the table behind me is Mr. Robert Whitman, the man who discovered the alternate dimension and who brought the impending arrival of magic to our attention," she explained. "Having spent nearly two years with it, he's well versed in magic."

"You seemed to take issue with President Hartford's explanation, is there something you'd care to add?" Prime Minister Turpin asked.

"One of the primary limitations of the Summon Mana-Infused Object spell is the Hardness of the material you're trying to summon," Bob said flatly. "Wood, bronze, iron, even steel aren't terribly difficult, however, if you were to attempt to summon, oh, say, Uranium, you'd have trouble as it's an incredibly hard material, and it's unlikely that Corporal Martinez's spell casting value is equal to the task," Bob explained, "further, I've discovered that any materials summoned with that spell, either via sorcery, which is the instantaneous effect you've just seen demonstrated, or via ritual, which results in a permanent, 'real,' item, are inherently stable. So no fissionable materials," Bob finished.

Prime Minister LaFarge looked startled for a moment, and Elania knew that he hadn't even considered that application.

"Still, being able to create quantities of common metals is a rather valuable skill," President Garcia noted.

"One of many," Elania agreed.

"This is a lot to take in," Prime Minister LaFarge said slowly. "I like to think of myself as a dynamic thinker, but this is a complete paradigm shift."

"Accepting that Magic is real and coming to Earth," Prime Minister Julwry began, "I'd like a better understanding of why we need to pull our population to another dimension." She shook her head, "I have indigenous citizens who are very difficult to track down. Also, I'm not sure how many people are going to be willing to evacuate given that the reason is 'Magic.'"

"If you'd turn your attention to the screen behind me, I'll play a video that was taken by a set of drones during a 'monster wave' just a few weeks ago at Glacier Valley where we've established our beachhead, as well as some ground-level footage beside it to provide a more detailed view."

She nodded to Secretary of Defense Heller, who tapped the screen of his tablet a few times, and a video began to play.

Elania didn't watch it; she already knew what they were seeing. "This is playing at normal speed, and unless you'd like to spend the next forty-five minutes watching it, we'll pause a few minutes in as events continue without any change," she said.

She watched their faces as the entrenched men faced off against a seemingly endless wave of monsters.

Bob was both bored and unhappy. He recognized that international diplomacy wasn't part of his skillset. As the world leaders watched the video of the wave, he pulled Monroe out of his inventory, placing the sleepy floof on the table in front of him, where he proceeded to deliver a good thorough petting.

Soon a gentle rumbling purr began to emanate from Monroe, which drew the attention of the rest of the room.

"Where did the Bobcat come from?" Prime Minister LaFarge was the first to react.

"He's a Maine-coon," Bob replied, "but he's leveled up to his tier cap, which resulted in him growing, thus proving that every cat is a lion that just hasn't had their growth spurt yet."

"So animals can increase their levels as well?" Prime Minister Turpin asked.

"Under normal circumstances, no," Bob shook his head, "but I have a skill that designated Monroe as my familiar, which he accepted, allowing me to direct his development."

"He's very handsome," Prime Minister Julwry noted. She could have been being diplomatic, but Bob preferred to attribute her comment to the natural reaction anyone would have when confronted with Monroe's raw magnificence.

"Yes, he's lovely," Prime Minister LaFarge agreed, although Bob thought he detected a hint of derision, "but my question remains, where did he come from? Did you summon him?"

"No, he tends to spend most of his time in my inventory," Bob replied.

"What," Prime Minister Turpin asked, "exactly, is an inventory?"

"It's an extradimensional space attached to the dark matter matrix running through my body," Bob replied, "I've modified it with ritual magic to provide a habitable environment, which is why Monroe can stay in there."

"May I?" President Garcia had stood up from his seat, and he gestured towards Monroe.

"He'll let you know if you pet him the wrong way," Bob shrugged, "although standard kitty rules apply, avoid the belly and the toe beans."

"My Bola de nieve has the same rules," President Garcia chuckled as he walked around the table and delivered an experimental ear scratch. Bob caught the expression of horror on President Hartford's face, but ultimately this was her fault for dragging him somewhere he didn't belong.

"So, just to ensure that I have at least a rudimentary grasp of the situation," Prime Minister LaFarge began, "you have an invisible space attached to you, which is presumably undetectable, at least to the security systems here at the United Nations, which you can store anything you'd like."

"There are limits," Bob replied, noting that President Garcia was clearly a cat person, as he demonstrated an excellent understanding of how to pet Monroe without drawing the big cat's ire. Some people would pet the same spot over and over, which tended to irritate him after a minute or two. "Initially, the space was a ten-foot cube, but I've expanded it, and although I kept the height at ten feet, it's now a bit over twenty-five hundred feet square."

"Did you know about this?" Prime Minister LaFarge asked President Hartford. "Because this certainly wasn't in the briefing."

"I did not," President Hartford admitted. "Please keep in mind, we're still in the process of discovering exactly what is possible, and our knowledge is far from complete."

"What else do you have in this inventory of yours?" Prime Minister LaFarge scowled.

"Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, office, living room," Bob shrugged.

"Wait, you mean to tell me you carry around an apartment?" Prime Minister Julwry asked incredulously.

"When I came back to Earth to let everyone know what was coming, I didn't want to spend money on an apartment where I wouldn't really be living, so I thought that having an apartment with me would be a better idea," Bob replied.

"Is this inventory something everyone could have?" President Garcia asked as he dug his fingers into Monroe's ruff, eliciting a louder purr.

"As I like to say about all ritual magic, one hundred mana crystals and one hundred seconds," Bob smiled at his fellow feline aficionado. "You'd want someone who had leveled their spell all the way to their cap, as that impacts the size of the space created, but if you put aside that variable, yes, with the necessary resources, it isn't difficult."

Prime Minister Turpin leaned back in his seat and smiled gently. "You believe that when this System 'Integrates' our universe, a mass of monsters, akin to the one on the screen, will appear and that it is in our best interest to flee to the safety of another dimension," he began.

Bob shook his head and pointed at the screen where the video was still playing. "Those are level three or four monsters, which is typical during a monster wave. That could likely be weathered, although I'm certain there would be terrible losses. No, what will appear is a monster tide which is something entirely different, as the monsters will be somewhere between level thirty and ninety."

"Could you give us an example of a monster at that level?" Prime Minister Turpin asked.

"Secretary Heller, do you have any footage that shows the Endless?" Bob queried.

SecDef tapped on his tablet, and one of the feeds on the screen switched perspectives, and there was a collective intake of breath as a thirty-foot-tall T-Rex appeared, roaring and stomping as it chomped away at the monsters beneath it, which were dwarfed by its massive bulk. The scale was provided by the incongruous saddle, where a young woman sat, gesturing excitedly with her staff as her mount laid waste to hundreds of monsters.

"I think she's got her summon mana-infused monster somewhere around level forty," Bob said after careful consideration.

"And they're going to appear in the same sort of numbers as this 'wave,'" Prime Minister Julwry asked cautiously.

"That's rather terrifying," Prime Minister Turpin admitted candidly.

"Which is why we're looking at evacuating," President Hartford agreed.

"You said that a wave lasted forty-five minutes," Prime Minister LaFarge said, "but the brief indicated that Earth would be dangerous for one hundred and ten days."

"The tide will last for ten days, but the monsters won't dissipate for a number of days equal to their level," Bob explained, "given that the highest level monsters that are likely to appear are level one hundred and are also the ones that are the most dangerous, and will roam the furthest, it seemed like a good idea to not come back until they were gone."

"How would we even move our people over?" President Garcia asked.

"Portal them over," Bob replied.

"That brings me to another point that wasn't detailed in the brief," President Hartford said. "We understand that saying 'magic' isn't going to convince our citizens of either the danger or the solution."

"Quite," Prime Minister Turpin said dryly.

"Our current idea, and we are certainly in the conceptualization phase, is to co-opt every country with a telescope capable of detecting a massive coronal ejection," she explained, "we'll spin at as a truly unprecedented event, with an arrival time of months, rather than hours or days. I'm a little shaky on the details," she admitted, "but the long and short of it is, that by ensuring every agency with a telescope that could detect it is reading from the same playbook, we can create an urgent need to get off-world before it reaches Earth."

The room was silent as everyone digested that idea.

"How would we convince them to take a magic portal to another world, though?" Prime Minister Julwry asked.

"We don't call it a magic portal," President Hartford replied. "Once the impending danger is announced, the United States announces that we've been working on wormhole technology, that we have a prototype, but it isn't reliable yet. We'll ask for aid from our allies to perfect the technology. After another month of anxiety, we'll reveal to the world that we have gotten it working, and we'll demonstrate it by taking journalists of all types through the device to our alpha site. The landscape there is different enough to be alien, as are the constellations and the four moons."

"You'll need the Russians and the Japanese," Prime Minister Turpin mused thoughtfully.

"We believe that the concept would work, at least for the western countries," President Hartford shook her head. "We haven't come up with anything yet that would work for some of the less fortunate nations."

"I'm curious as to the logistics of such an operation," President Garcia said. "How big of a portal can be opened? How long can it be kept open? How many can be opened at once? And then there is the matter of facilities for all those people on the other side."

"Stick them in stasis as soon as they come through," Bob offered after a moment of silence. "Then just stack them up like cordwood in dimensionally expanded buildings until it's time to send everyone back to Earth."

"I beg your pardon," Prime Minister Turpin was still smiling, "but could you explain how 'stasis' works?"

"Sure, it's a Chronomancy spell, you can cast it on someone, or something, ritually, which means it requires one hundred mana crystals, and the person or object is effectively suspended in time until the spell ends, or if they receive damage."

"Hell," Bob had an idea, "package it as cryostasis and ship them through the portal already in stasis. Preferably in easy-to-stack containers."

"I'm not sure if I should be impressed or horrified," Prime Minister Julwry muttered.

"Can we see this other world?" Prime Minister LaFarge asked suddenly. "I'm still wrapping my head around all of this, and having tangible evidence might help make this real for me. At the moment, I'm taking a lot on faith, and I'm not a particularly religious man."

"I can pop you over if you'd like," Bob offered, eager to get the hell out of the U.N. building if at all possible. Maybe he could pawn them off to someone else on Thayland. Mike might be eating dinner right about now.

"We'd need to bring our security details," President Garcia said, his eyes bright with interest.

Bob caught sight of the SecDef burying his head in his hands while President Hartford did a great job hiding a grimace. Someone who hadn't been stuck dealing with shit that was not his problem might have felt a touch of sympathy for them. Bob had spent almost an entire day sitting and waiting in uncomfortable chairs, answering questions that other people could have answered.

"I can open a portal thirty-six feet in diameter and hold it open for as long as we need," Bob smiled, "getting back is just as easy. One hundred seconds and one hundred crystals."

"Could we perhaps have our security detail precede us and then return to confirm a secure site?" President Garcia asked.

"No problem," Bob replied gleefully. He could almost taste his freedom.

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