Taking in the sights, Kylie answered as she looked down on the city below her.

  The presence of rifts all over the world had resulted in an enormous amount of interference when it came to warping long distances, and so Kylie had no set order of states she was visiting, but rather a versatile shopping list. From America, she was trying to make her way into Asia to secure contact with the most populous countries.

  But the rest of the UN security council were also priorities, and so now she was floating high above the city of Paris. Not the nice part where all the tourists went, though; the Eiffel Tower was in the distance to one side of her, and a cluster of skyscrapers rose just ahead of her.

  She searched the skies for potential minions, occasionally glancing down at the compass she held in one hand. The needle still swung about wildly, but with luck it would find its target soon.

  She saw some enemies rise towards her from out of the city below, then smiled. It was a squad of six or so winged devils flying in formation.

  She was cloaked in an illusion spell, but not one that hid her appearance. Instead it made her look like a level 50. To the devils, she was easy prey.

  In reality, her attackers were so unthreatening that the only real reason she had to pay attention to them at all was that after she killed them, she wanted to reanimate them before their bodies fell out of range.

  She waved a hand through the air and sent six homing missiles of death magic toward the devils, turning them each into a corpse in short order. Then she allowed herself to begin to fall so as to keep pace with their corpses, moving her hand through the motions to cast a spell on each of them as they sped toward the streets below.

  Five of the corpses crumbled to ash as a shifting figure of shadow burst from their position to fly away into the city below. Then Kylie frowned as the last devil made impact with a rooftop and burst into a pool of gore.

  Too slow.

  She sighed, but five shades would still get a lot done. Where she’d once had to rely on vague commands to her minions, she knew enough now to be precise with her psychic instructions. Her shades would use their magical senses to seek out the signature aura markers that were native to all infernals, moving through the city to kill the enemy wherever they were found.

  Shades took a high investment of [Mana], but were otherwise perfect: they were fast, functionally invincible, could move through corporeal objects, and could kill incredibly quickly. Only a few of their low-level enemies would be able to hurt her shades, and any damage they dealt would be recuperated by their [Energy Drain].

  Her compass clicked, and she looked down to see that the arrow had locked in place. Still on the rooftop, she removed an enchanted stele from her black satchel and used it to quickly inscribe a glowing circle of runes into tiles at her feet.

  The circle was keyed to the compass; a moment later she cast [Runic Warp] and teleported herself to her target.

  She got a brief impression of a building’s concrete interior, then was enveloped in gunfire, bullets seeming to impact her [Mana Barrier] from every side.

  She looked down at her compass, then up at a man in a suit of metallic body armor who wielded a sword and shield and was being quickly ushered out of the room by other men in armor.

  Then she made herself incorporeal and floated through her assailants to pursue him into the next room over. She emerged from a thick, steel-lined wall and watched him and his entourage see her, their eyes going wide as two men stepped in front of her target.

  “Sir,” she said, turning and floating through several people and objects once more to get ahead of him. “Sir. I’m here to—” She turned as a bullet zoomed straight through her head to scowl at one of the bodyguards, glancing down at his gun. “Don’t make me take that away.”

  Then she turned back to the VIP. “I’m with the Earth Defense Alliance,” she said. “I’m here to help.”

  He backed away from her, and his bodyguards quickly filled the space between them.

  “Don’t shoot,” he told them as they raised their weapons. “If she wanted me dead, she’d have made it happen by now.”

  “Great,” said Kylie. Given the circumstances, the fact that he’d been so quick on the uptake was something she appreciated. She was, after all, an undead spellcaster in dark robes with a noose around her neck who had teleported in unexpectedly and then chased him through the walls with her ghost powers. She couldn’t take it as a given that anyone would learn to trust her quickly.

  “Listen,” she said. “I’m really busy trying to get to all of you, so I’m going to make this as quick as possible.”

  She reached into the bag that Ashtoreth had given her, then pulled out another, smaller satchel. “This is your world leader starter pack,” she said. She held it out to one of the bodyguards. “Take it.”

  Her target—she wasn’t sure if he was a President or a Prime Minister, but she suspected it was the first one—peered at her, then nodded to one of his bodyguards. They took the satchel and began to check its contents.

  “There’s some pamphlets in here to explain the situation. You can just pass those out to the rest of the class. There’s also some magical gear. You find the bracelet?”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  More people were filling the room, now, occupying its fringes and refraining from attacking Kylie at a few gestures from the VIP.

  “You see sir, I can track you just by knowing your name,” said Kylie. “It’s how I got here in the first place. Now, the infernals beginning the invasion won’t have the power to teleport right to your location like I did, but they can still find you the same way. The bracelet will stop you from being tracked and give you a [Defense] bonus.”

  Her target nodded to another bodyguard as the man with the satchel drew out the bracelet. “Give it to Cousineau.”

  “There’s also a necklace in there that will add you to the group chat,” said Kylie. “It’ll put you in contact with the other bossmen as well as a man named Frost who is establishing a safe zone that will act as a teleportation nexus—it’s all in the pamphlets.”

  She looked around at the people in the room. They were a strange sight: most of them wore armor that they’d gotten from tutorials, but there were still a few suits and military uniforms, too.

  “You’ve got some more defensive items in there too, including some boots that will allow you to teleport in the case of an emergency and a necklace that will help you sense infernals and root out imposters. Now, one of you gentlemen is going to need to take my hand—I’ve got a lot of cores to give you, and you can distribute them how you like.”

  She held out a hand. More than a dozen people looked hesitantly back at her.

  “Robitaille,” said the VIP.

  Another man stepped forward and grabbed Kylie’s hand. She transferred him more than fifty thousand tier 2 and tier 3 cores, and his eyes widened. “Level 120 to 150 should be the sweet spot for efficacy,” she told him. “Higher than that and you’re wasting cores. Those are almost all from monsters at or around level 300, so they should get you pretty far.”

  She looked back at the room full of people. “One more thing before I leave,” she said. “I need a volunteer. I’m assuming nobody wants the boss to go away with a stranger, but I want one of you to come with me back to our stronghold, then help me while I contact the others to pass out more world leader starter packs. You’ll get a telepathy ring to help you stay in contact with your boss, then act as a liaison to the Alliance.”

  “Jeffries, you go,” said the VIP.

  “Yes sir.”

  The boss turned to Kylie. “Godspeed, madam.”

  “Thanks,” she rasped.

  Jeffries was a tall, serious-looking man who was younger than most of the other people in the room. He was minimally hesitant to grab her hand as she offered it to him, and very soon she’d turned them both incorporeal and flown them both upward a great distance to emerge on a city street.

  “This Paris, still?” she asked, looking around. “That was your secret bunker under Paris, or something?”

  “I’m not at liberty to disclose that, madam,” Jeffries said stiffly.

  Kylie leaned over to look past him. “That’s the Eiffel Tower, yeah?” she asked, pointing.

  “I’m—” Jeffries cut himself off, his mouth forming a thin line. To Kylie, he looked a little embarassed.

  “Here,” she said. “I’ve got to draw a circle, then we can go.”

  She drew her stele out of her bag once again. It was a simple magical item, one that was enchanted to draw permanent, concealable runes on just about any surface. It was a good, quick way to drop rune circles as she travelled.

  Most of Kylie’s bound magical items were supporting items, like the stele. Ashtoreth was the one who had the most combat-appropriate gear, with Hunter a close second.

  It wasn’t lost on Kylie that this was probably intentional. One of them was going to become the Monarch, after all—and Hunter was the most loyal to Ashtoreth. Keeping all of the combat gear for herself and him was an easy way of ensuring that she had the upper hand when the selection finally took place.

  Not that she’d need it. Kylie had spent a year training as a spellcaster, and had supplemented her abilities with the contents of thousands of devoured minds. She was easily the most skilled human spellcaster alive… and she wouldn’t stand a chance against Ashtoreth in a straight-up fight.

  None of them could. Frost had his [Blood Aptitude], Kylie had her [Devour Mind], and Hunter had gained the benefits of the latter through Kylie’s spells, but it still wasn’t enough.

  “Come on,” Kylie said, stepping into the circle once it was finished and extending a hand to Jeffries.

  “Madam,” said Jeffries, stepping inside and grabbing her hand. “If I may inquire as to the nature of the assistance you require me for—”

  “Yeah, that’s easy,” she said. “Sec.”

  She cast [Runic Warp], and the world around them vanished to be replaced by the interior of an abandoned office building. They’d warped with perfect accuracy to a circle she’d already drawn on the ground, and the area around it was clear except for two other men—one in a suit and the other in a uniform.

  “Okay, Johnson,” Kylie said as soon as she warped in. “[Mana] me.”

  The man in the suit rushed forward and took Kylie’s outstretched hand. She turned to Jeffries. “Your new job is to stand here and have [Mana],” she told him.

  “Madam?”

  “Yeah,” she said, reaching into her bag. “This is your ‘standing here and having [Mana]’ starter pack,” she said, passing him a satchel. “It’s got some mana-enhancing items. And pamphlets, too—it’s got pamphlets.”

  “I—you want me to stand here? I’m a highly trained—”

  “Sure, yeah, so is Johnson,” she said. “And because he’s highly trained, he knows how to follow my orders. Which are to stand here and have [Mana].”

  Jeffries looked at the other two men with a bewildered expression.

  “Teleportation’s expensive,” said Kylie. “So is all my other stuff. I have a [Drain] aspect that helps me to replenish my mana by draining it from others, so I need some guys to stand back at the base and have [Mana] that I can steal when I bring in a new target. You’re essential personnel, Jeffries.”

  “I see.”

  She nodded to Johnson as she was topped off, and he released her hand and backed away. Then she turned back to Jeffries. “Tomorrow, glory. Today, standing here and having [Mana]. Equip the gear, read the pamphlet, then stand here and have [Mana]. Ask the others if you’re confused—they’re doing great so far.”

  “Anything to help Earth, ma’am!” barked Johnson.

  “Well this is definitely that,” Kylie said, stepping back into the circle. “Now nobody bother me—I need to find my next target….”