Everyone at the conference received a system window.

  “You may now cast your vote.”

  “Voting closes in one hour.”

  “You may leave after your vote is cast.”

  Everyone was obviously looking at system windows casting their vote then, one-by-one, people started to leave via the teleporter wall. While the crowds were thinning, Jasmine and Aria were sitting patiently since Eli had said that he would talk with her after the vote. Also staying seated and silent was Ornori, Figula, Liasandra, and two others from the chaos continent table. Eli didn’t concern himself with them, he had only told one person that he would meet with them so the other could wait. After some long tense and awkward silence, the timer finally ran out and the vote was over. A new tab had been added to the system menu and when he looked at it, he got angry.

  The new system tab had a scrolling list for the top 100 people on the planet, almost all of them were at this conference so the immediate issue was how the lower 40 or so would react to being publicly known as the weakest of the strong. That was not Eli’s first concern though, he had much bigger problems, the top 10 of that list of 100 had all of their people that were connected to them listed as well as their power ranking. Since Eli was number one on the list, everyone was listed in detail, how strong they were, but also a description of what they look like. It wasn’t a picture of them but it was enough to cause concern for Tara, especially since she was listed as his wife and her power ranking was 101+ meaning she was weaker than every lord present.

  Surprisingly, Bethany was ranked 4.5 so between the third and fourth ranked people. Alora was 7.5 but had an asterix next to the number, Eli guessed it was due to her twin soul. As for the actual people on the list, there was no rating, just your ranking, which meant there could be a millimeter or a mile between ranks. It was not a surprise that Eli was ranked 1, but second place was Ornori, third place was Figula, fourth was his mother Liasandra and fifth through tenth were all Chaos continent people that he didn’t know. Each person's name was in a color corresponding to their continent, purple for chaos, yellow for order, green for the middle continent. Eli’s name was in red text, also he was the only one with a title as well as all of his people also showing their titles.

  Eli was taking it all in and getting mad at how listing his people, specifically Tara, made him feel exposed. He gathered up his will and magic and everything he didn’t even know about yet and began to speak inside his head at the system. “You listen to me, if anything happens to Tara because of this I will spend the remainder of my existence finding a way to destroy you.” Purple and red arcs of lightning were surrounding his body and arcing off into the floor and ceiling disintegrating anything they touched. Reality around him was warped and it was almost impossible for the others to see him, Alora and Bethany had run into a side room and closed the door as he was building power. Only him and his mother remained in the room.

  “That is enough!” Liasandra yelled. “Stop this at once!”

  Instead of his eyes containing galaxies, they were projecting them around him. As his power and will were brought to bear on the literal physical existence around him, ripping it apart. Eli waved his hand in Liasandra’s direction and she was teleported back to her room. He was staring at Tara’s information and yelled inside his head again, “I’m not kidding system, fix it now!” The walls, floor, and ceiling were breaking apart, then it all vanished when he saw the list change her information. Now it just had Tara’s name followed by the word ‘Redacted’ he just had to hope that only a few people saw it and find a way to explain his little tantrum because without context it must have looked bad from everyone else’s point of view.

  The room instantly began repairing itself and would be back to normal in 20 minutes or so, Eli sat in his fractured throne and slumped down. He was tired, that had taken most of his magic and he was about to start borrowing from the future when the system gave in. Outside of dungeons it took him almost a day to fully recover his magic, this place was high in magic but it was still going to take close to 20 hours to get back to full. He wanted to go nap, but he had promised Jasmine a chance to talk so he would have to deliver. Once people started exiting the side rooms, he walked into an empty one and motioned for Bethany and Alora to join him.

  As soon as the door closed with all three of them inside Alora was about to scream but Bethany knew better and just asked him softly, “You ok my love?” Alora took a few breaths and calmed down.

  “Yes, I hope you didn’t get hurt, but it was necessary.” Eli said, sounding more tired than the two women were used to.

  “What, uh, what did you do?” Alora asked.

  “I know what he did, and I’m proud of him for it. We can discuss it later, but right now we need to get that tiny chick in here for her promised meeting.”

  “Go get her, I will meet with her alone here. Give me a couple minutes to recover more before that though.” Eli said. Bethany began rubbing his back and shoulders to comfort him, she wasn’t strong enough to massage him but lightly brushing her fingers on his skin had a calming effect that she quite enjoyed. A few awkward minutes passed for Alora as she fought with herself internally on what her role was at a moment like this. Finally she decided that she wanted to be a source of comfort as well and moved closer to him, laying her head on his shoulder as she played with his hair. She felt some of his tension relax which made her feel good that she could have that effect on him, but it was short lived.

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  She had only just started to enjoy herself in playing with his hair when he motioned for them to leave and fetch the tiny woman for him. As he sat alone in the room, he entered his soul, or his mind, he really wasn’t sure of the difference and hovered in place just focusing on regaining control. In the days leading up to the conference he had spent years of relative time here experimenting with magic trying to come up with ways he could make others more powerful without directly connecting them to himself. The time compression was massive so he was able to learn a lot, which is where he got the information needed to help Alora with her first magical task.

  Right now though he just wanted to rest his mind and his soul, it took almost everything he had to force the system to make a change but he learned two things from it. First he learned that he could, and the complications that would come from that were something for future Eli to deal with. Second, he learned that transcendent magic, at least his own version of it, is what the system is trying to create or at least part of its purpose for being. All the power and will he could muster meant nothing to it, but when he reached for his transcendent power, the system didn’t just flinch, it was studying it. Despite its seemingly omnipotent access to everything, it seems there is a line it can’t cross, or maybe a place it can’t go.

  After some calming thoughts and a metaphorical soul back rub and kiss on his forehead from Alistasia, he returned to himself and Jasmine entered the room. She sat across from him with confidence, even though he could tell she had none. Her movements were just a hair too stiff for it to be real confidence so he gave her space to begin the conversation.

  “I’m sure Bethany already told you why I wanted to speak so lets just cut to the chase please.”

  “She has told me nothing, I am completely in the dark. I was hoping you would fill me in.” Eli said without a hint of worry on his face.

  “So she doesn’t tell you everything? What about Alora and Aria?” Jasmine was completely confused as to why these women who are so loyal to him would not inform him.

  “The women in my group and I have an understanding, it's kind of like a trade-off. They handle the women who wish to sleep with me for whatever reason without informing me of any of the details and in return I do not sleep with anyone without their collective consent. I don’t really understand it but they are very appreciative of the deal so I don’t ask questions.”

  “I can’t tell if that is genius or just plain crazy. I’ve seen the way they look at you, I don’t have to read their mind to know that their love for you goes beyond obsession. They would die for you, all of them. Happily die, for you, how does that make you feel? It almost proves what that order woman said about there being an imbalance of power and the relationship being unfair.”

  “Oh, it's entirely unfair for all of them, which is why I go out of my way to accommodate them and protect them. Have you seen the list since it was made public? Did you notice how the top ten have extra information?”

  Jasmine had only glanced at the list to see where her name was on it, she was number 84, but now she went looking and her stomach sank to the floor. There was so much extra information about the top ten, their followers and how their group was structured. She opened Ash’s page and again she felt her stomach fall, his organization was laid out like the others with names of the people under him, but instead of details it just said ‘Redacted’. “So all that power you used was to change the system to protect your people?”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that, how much do you know about the system itself?”

  “Almost nothing, I’m guessing you know more?”

  “Know might be a strong word but I have made some guesses. For example, what do you think is the purpose of the lord system?”

  “I assumed that it was just a way to form some kind of civilization quickly, using the strength of the powerful few to prop it up until it can sustain itself without them.”

  Eli tapped his chin, “That is a good answer, but I fail to see how it could be the only answer when it creates a caste system leaving the weak completely vulnerable to the whims of the strong. My guess is that it's a support system for the strong, so they can focus on getting stronger.”

  Now Jasmine was tapping her chin, she had thought that she found things a bit too easy after the tutorial was over and she had found that she was on a lord. Dealing with people was simpler and most of them just happened to want to do things that she needed done. No one seemed to require much convincing. “Ok, so then you know that all the women around you want you because the system makes them? Now that sounds like you are just taking advantage.”

  “To be honest with you, it might be the case. Maybe my fear of being alone has triggered the system to flood my life with women who want to be with me. Add in some friends and a place for us all to live and it seems like a good way to keep someone with my level of power from losing their humanity and going berserk. However, my guess is that it's more complicated. The system seems really good at doing something in such a way that it serves multiple purposes. It could also be that the system placed people near me after the tutorial that would naturally be the kind of person who would be drawn to me.”

  “That sounds like a stretch. It would be just as likely that you thought up that excuse to make yourself feel better about your system enslaved harem.”

  “Again, it is possible that my subconscious is holding tight to any excuse for fear of what kind of man I would be for going along with this. Also again, I would argue its more complicated. I have spoken to every single one of my people, including the two I knew from before the system came, and nothing in their past or personalities would indicate that they are acting out of character. I know it's not an excuse because I have been inside my own soul as well as the soul of a particular follower of mine whose feelings for me are pure, passionate, and unbridled love.”

  “That doesn’t sound like something anyone else could confirm, it's just more self-delusion.”

  “Would you like to see inside my soul? Or a better question, would you like to see inside your own?”