"Okay, let me get this straight real quick." Thomas interjected with a frown. "You're an Immortal, specifically the Immortal from Beast World, and technically Andrew's great grandfather, who's been living in this World for the past few millennia to… try and make a difference? All while ignoring your original World and whatever is happening in it?"

"I haven't ignored my World." The Emperor retorted. "It'd be impossible even if I wanted to. If anything ever truly endangers the balance of the World, or the Bonded and humanity as a whole, I can return in an instant. However, I see no reason to stick around and muck about in their lives for no reason. The Bonded are more than capable of taking care of any issues they encounter on their own."

"He's got a point." Greg commented. "All things considered, Andrew's World is one of the better ones. Not perfect, obviously, but all the issues are people issues, not World issues. If you disregard the whole 'secret society of magic people' thing, it's practically normal."

Andrew's expression twisted. "Yeah, my World only ever seems to screw me over, not society at large."

"Yeah, Andrew's World is great." Thomas waved dismissively. "More importantly, does this mean that this World doesn't have an Immortal?"

"No, this World is too… undeveloped for that." The Emperor replied. "Becoming an Immortal requires an individual to reach the peak of power, and currently this World hasn't grown enough for anyone to actually do so. The highest level individual as far as I know is around four fifty, and I believe this World caps out at level one thousand. Based on our current understanding of Domain progression, at least, and assuming there aren't any further stages of progress beyond that."

"So… there should be no reason why we can't spread the system, right?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow at the others. "That's all we've been waiting on, right? Making sure there was no Immortal around to get pissed we messed with whatever 'order' they'd set up around here? We can fix the monstrous races now!"

"That would rather neatly resolve the nuke issue as well." Greg nodded in agreement.

"We'll still need to design the alternate races for them, like we did with the Subbuci." Chris interjected.

"The Subbuci would probably be a good option for the Succubi." Greg commented.

"For now, I think it's important to just get the option out there." Thomas insisted. "We can work on adding forms that are closer to the monstrous races as we go."

"You know someone is going to do something fucked up with this, right?" Andrew sighed. "I mean, I'm not saying that means we shouldn't do it anyway, but we're going to have to keep an eye on it, before someone starts turning people into monsters to pump out a couple thousand babies for their own personal army."

"Okay, first, I'm not giving anyone the option to turn themselves into a monstrous race. That is precisely the opposite of what we want to happen." Thomas rolled his eyes. "And yeah, obviously we're going to have to keep an eye on things. Make sure the monstrous races are actually changing, instead of just using the system to supplement their supply of nobles."

"I'm sorry, what is this you're attempting to do?" The Emperor asked, frowning slightly.

"Thomas has a system that lets people gain points they can use to change themselves, including the ability to change their race from a monstrous one to a noble one." Andrew explained. "We've been avoiding using it because there was a risk that whatever Immortal may or may not be in charge of the World preferred the noble and monstrous races at each other's throats, and any change would result in… consequences. So now that we know there is no Immortal, we're free to make as many changes as we like."

The Emperor nodded slowly. "I see… how can I help?"

"If you want to help us get in contact with the various authority figures in the monstrous races, we wouldn't complain." Greg shrugged. "The less politics we have to deal with, the better."

"Of course." The Emperor agreed. "We have many avenues of communication with the major nations of the monstrous races. A necessity to maintain the Line."

"Outstanding." Greg chuckled.

"We could also use a few people to help us design the new races." Chris added. "Any experts on biology you can spare would be appreciated."

"I believe I can make that happen, yes." The Emperor smiled.

"Other than that, the system does most of the work." Thomas shrugged. "We just spread it, offer the races, and then it's up to them to earn the points to buy them. Though it shouldn't take more than a week or two."

The Emperor blinked. "So… in as little as a month, all the monstrous races could be noble?"

"If everything goes perfectly, yeah." Thomas nodded. "Probably more like a year though, what with holdouts and politics. Maybe longer, but as long as the option is there, I think eventually the problem will resolve itself. Or at least, it'll be down to just people being assholes, like normal, instead of good people forced to do horrible things to survive."

"That… is a rather sudden change." The Emperor muttered, frowning slightly. He was thinking the change would take place over decades, not months. To suddenly have such an enormous population turn from an enemy to a potential ally… this would be a messy process.

*

Despite his reservations, the Emperor wasted no time in getting everything set up for the spread of the system. Biology experts were called in, diplomats were dispatched, and temporary residences were set to be prepared for the potential influx of converted monstrous races seeking shelter from a government that may not approve of their change. Even if the process would be messy, he knew it would ultimately be better for this World, so he would do everything in his power to make it happen.

Thomas attempted to create a truncated system for the process, something that would simply allow the monstrous races to earn points and change their race, and nothing else, but unfortunately the two systems adjusted to each other too well. The System would automatically detect the points and recognize that they could be used to increase attributes, and there was nothing he could do about it. Which meant that he couldn't prevent the monstrous races from choosing to use their points to gain power instead of changing their race. At least, not without taking the system away from them, which sort of defeated the point. Thomas paused. Maybe if he made some sort of task that required the monstrous races to buy a noble race before they spent any points on anything else? And if they didn't, they'd be locked out of the system for a period of time? And repeat offenders would be marked by the system and tracked so they could be dealt with! He'd need a reward for it, but he could cover that with full access to the system.

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Honestly, on their end at least, the conversion of the monstrous races was pretty simple. What wasn't simple was the matter of their new guild. In particular… "I'm not doing the Senator thing." Chris stated firmly. "Too much bullshit."

"Well I'm not doing it." Greg retorted. "I'd burn the entire place down the first day!"

"Does it really have to be one of us who does it?" Andrew asked. "Couldn't we get one of the Army guys to do it?"

"We'd need someone who'd actually represent our interests." Thomas commented.

"We have interests?" Greg raised an eyebrow.

"We have definite opinions on how a society should function, particularly in regards to your 'assholes', so yes, I'd say we have interests." Thomas rolled his eyes.

Greg paused before shrugging. "Fair enough. So who's going to do it then?"

"Quinn maybe?" Andrew offered.

"No, she'd hate it even more than I would." Chris shook his head.

"Gloria's not an option either, even if she didn't already have her position in the military." Greg added.

"I don't think Annie would be a good fit either." Thomas muttered, frowning slightly.

"What about Allison?" Greg asked, turning to Chris. "She was part of law enforcement, right? That's at least Senator adjacent."

Chris cocked his head. "I could at least ask her." He eventually shrugged. "Also, we have all those women from Obleck still waiting in my world. I bet at least one of them has some legal experience. I'd just need to share memories with them and they should represent our interests just fine."

"I dunno, aren't most of the women who got grabbed farmers and shit? I don't think any lawyer would be caught anywhere near the Line. At least not a good one." Greg commented.

"Now that I think about it, why does anyone live near the Line?" Andrew frowned. "There's so many other places to live."

"The land near the Line is pretty much the breadbasket of the Empire." Chris replied. "Over half the Empire's food supply is produced there."

"Plus there's probably some sort of agreement between both sides to keep the area populated." Thomas muttered. "If the nobles just move away from the Line, the monstrous races would have no choice but to cross it to get the people they need, defeating the point of the whole thing."

All four of them went silent for a moment. "Yeah, we really need to get rid of this shit." Andrew shook his head. "Fucked up on both sides."

"At least we can now, without worrying about some Immortal killing everyone over it." Thomas grumbled. "All these half-measures we've been trying were starting to piss me off."

"I dunno, I thought the Subbuci were a pretty elegant solution." Chris shrugged.

Thomas frowned at him. "Chris, we made a slave race. A sex slave race. No part of that is alright, no matter how necessary it may have been!"

Chris cocked his head. "Didn't think about it that way… but we made sure they were okay with it, didn't we?"

"Honestly, that kinda makes it worse." Andrew grimaced.

"Yeah, it's one thing to enslave someone, it's another to warp their mind so they enjoy being a slave." Greg agreed.

Chris scratched his head, trying to figure out why making someone you were going to enslave anyway enjoy the process would be a bad thing. "If you guys say so… but it seems weird to insist that people should be miserable, just because people usually don't enjoy something."

Thomas shook his head. "It isn't that they have to be miserable, it's that you either changed or designed them so they would be forced to not be miserable. It's like- you aren't dealing with a person at that point, you're dealing with a robot. A robot you essentially killed a person to make."

Chris frowned slightly, before shrugging. "I feel like you're overstating things, but okay."

"Dude, just- okay, look, let's say someone was forcing you to be a Senator. Would you be comfortable if they forcibly adjusted your mentality so you'd enjoy it?" Thomas proposed.

"If I was going to have to do it anyway, why not?" Chris replied. "I'd much rather enjoy what I'm doing than not." He paused. "Actually, a few mental adjustments would actually be rather nice. This overriding apathy gets annoying sometimes. But then again, the apathy means I don't really care about the apathy… plus, it is convenient at times. Eh, I suppose I'll keep it."

Thomas glared at him for a moment. "Chris… you're a freak."

*

"Fuck!" Lithmara flinched as Chris suddenly appeared in her office. "You- what- how-"

"I attached a portal point to you." Chris shrugged. "Figured we'd need access, plus it'd be a good idea to keep an eye on you. You know, to make sure you weren't going to double-cross us or something. Didn't Ezra tell you about it? He should have seen it."

Lithmara gritted her teeth. "No. It seems he failed to mention that little tidbit." She glared at him for a moment, before letting out a sigh. "What do you want, Chris?" Emphasizing his normal sounding name in the hope that it would distract from the sheer terror of his existence.

"Well, there has been a recent shift in the state of affairs, and we believed it would be prudent to make you aware of them." Chris replied. "Thomas's words, not mine. Basically, we no longer have to worry about Immortals killing everyone, so we're good to go on the 'turn all the monstrous races noble' plan. You have a limited period to comply."

Lithmara's eye twitched. "This- is an ultimatum?"

Chris cocked his head. "I suppose you could say that. Essentially, the existence of the monstrous races is a problem, therefore, we will no longer allow them to exist. Anyone who insists on maintaining their existence will become our enemy." Chris gave her a flat look. "We are not kind to our enemies."

Lithmara was unable to suppress a small whimper, taking a moment to squeeze her eyes shut and take a short, shuddering breath. "You- you can't simply demand we do as you say!" She hissed.

"Ah, no, you misunderstand." Chris shook his head. "We aren't demanding you do anything, we're informing you of the state of affairs. Since we are providing you with a method to not be monstrous, then any resistance on your part is confirmation that you want to hurt people to sustain your existence. People who want to hurt people are our enemies. It's a simple fact."

Lithmara licked her lips. "There- there are benefits to being monstrous that some people will resist giving up, even those with no intention of ever hurting another person. In particular, the monstrous status allows even those who are lacking in talent to grow powerful. Few are willing to relegate themselves to weakness simply to make others more comfortable."

Chris nodded. "Understandable, but irrelevant. The system we provide for the change will allow anyone to grow as strong as they wish, and if they want to be truly powerful, they can join the Eternal Army. Additionally, we will be creating noble versions of the monstrous races, which should maintain any innate traits unrelated to breeding, such as the Subbuci. You've seen how they're essentially noble succubi. It may take some time to get all the races designed, but everyone should ultimately have a form they're satisfied with."

Lithmara hesitated. "I- I will need to talk with my staff. Find a way to present this to my people in an… appealing way."

"That's why I'm here, and not handing out pamphlets in the street." Chris shrugged. "We aren't trying to be unreasonable, we're just informing you of the way things are now. You'll probably get an envoy from the Empire in a few days communicating something similar, but since you've been so accommodating, we figured we'd give you a heads up."

"How kind of you." Lithmara grumbled.

"You're welcome." Chris replied. "And good luck." He added, before disappearing.

Lithmara let out a groan, burying her face in her hands. She still had no idea how to deal with these people.