I sat in the back of a foreign version of a limousine with a briefcase on my lap and Stephanie and Bethany hugged up to my sides. They weren't nervous about being there, though. Both of them had tucked their hands down under the briefcase to gently rub me, right in front of the welcoming party. It was bold and risky, as well as exciting, because no one could tell what they were doing. I also couldn't tell them to stop without drawing attention to it.

“We just have to stop and have your passports and identities verified at the base.” Commander Riveski said. “It should only take a few minutes.”

I had a flash of Divine Sight at his words and it showed the car being shoved off of the road by a runaway tank after the customs stop and it was run over. The funny thing was, a summoning circle appeared around me as the car was being crushed. No one else saw the magic circle, since it was just me being summoned, and everyone else died as I had my legs crushed and I disappeared.

Jesus fucking Christ! I thought in surprise and almost said it out loud as my normal sight returned. How the hell am I going to ensure this still happens and no one else dies?

Thankfully, no one noticed the brief look of surprise on my face or mentioned it if they did. It wasn't like I could explain it, anyway. I schooled my face to hide it as I thought over what I could do with the information I had.

It took us ten minutes to arrive at the military base and we all exited the vehicle to enter the small customs building. It was a bit crowded as we all crammed in and the welcoming party stood there without moving as Stephanie's, Bethany's, and my own identities and passports were confirmed to be genuine and we were allowed entry into the country, whatever the name of it actually was.

I knew I only had a few more minutes, maybe less, to avert a complete disaster. I wasn't prepared, I didn't have any food, and I didn't have any of my enchanting equipment. I didn't let my unpreparedness get me down, however. No, that wasn't who I was. I was going to embrace whatever this was and I was going to grab it by the balls and make it bend to my will. I was going to be in control and that was going to be the end of it.

I wanted to control my fate and not let some random summon, that hadn't given me enough warning, dictate how I was potentially going to be summoned at the cost of the lives of the people around me. I had just gotten Stephanie and Bethany to a good point and I wasn't going to lose either of these great women to a supposed random event.

I waited until the three of us were approved and I handed my briefcase to Stephanie before I walked over to the driver. <I've never driven a car with the controls on the other side of the car.> I said in Russian. <Would you mind if I rode up front with you until we arrive at the mine?>

<No, that's fine. I'm sure that you will learn a lot.> The commonly dressed man said.

<Thank you, Comrade.> I said and pat his shoulder. We left the building first and just before he opened the driver's side door, I took his keys and pushed him out of the way. <I changed my mind! I think I need to try driving on my own.>

“Damon!” Stephanie gasped. “What are you doing?”

“I'll be back as soon as I can!” I said loudly, then jumped into the car and stepped on the gas pedal. It spun the tires and I left them behind at the customs station.

They stood there, dumbfounded at what had happened, and I slowed the car down to arrive at the predetermined place.

Any moment now. I thought and felt oddly calm.

I saw the runaway tank out the driver's side window and knew this was it. This was the reason they could summon me early and I didn't close my eyes as the circle appeared around me. I jammed my foot onto the brake for a second to make sure that the tank's treads were just barely going to miss crushing me directly.

I switched out all of my rings to Shield spells and activated all of them as the car stopped and the front of the tank was right there at the driver's side window...

...and I was suddenly standing inside the white waiting room that the gods and goddesses used to acclimate people to becoming heroes.

I immediately activated Stillness and Calmness to hide my apprehension and my anger. The shield spells I used had ended as well. Thanks to my Clarity necklace, my mind was clear, despite being pissed off at the contrived circumstances. I could clearly see that it was someone else that had brought me from my world this time, and it was much earlier than the two year limit I thought I had.

So much for having my summoning suspended. I thought and pushed my angry thoughts aside as I listened to the god and he told us what the situation of the world was that we were being sent to.

“I'm terribly sorry for bringing you here.” The man-like being said and sounded genuinely apologetic. “I waited until each of you were on the brink of death before bringing you before me.”

I did my best to keep my impatient thoughts from overriding my common sense and laughing at him, because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had set it up. I stayed quiet and schooled my features to not show any of my thoughts, because I remembered what happened the last time I was too eager to jump into a situation that I wasn't prepared for.

“You will become the new heroes of this world. You will have powers that the inhabitants have only dreamed of and your Light will shine to brighten the darkness.”

The other three people with me showed excitement and enthusiasm, which was odd. None of them were worried that they had been kidnapped at their supposed point of death. I knew from my vision that the circumstances of my demise were completely contrived, so I wondered what he had arranged for the others to meet their 'end' and to accept being sent to another world so easily.

“A blight has infected the world and the dead have been coming back to life. An ancient evil being, with control over the dead, has been killing more and more people, gaining both followers and troops as he takes over the world.”

“Is he dead, too?” I asked, just for clarification.

“He's a being full of unlife, so technically yes, he's undead.” The god said and looked at all of us. “I can give you the power to fight against this evil and I hope, from the bottom of my heart, that you can scour the world of this plague of death and bring a new dawn to the people there.”

He held a hand out to one of the two women and she took it eagerly. She glowed for several minutes and I identified her as a Holy Cleric Mage. She was only a level one and had no powerful spells to work with. Even her daily god-given spells that she had to pray for were only level zero and wouldn't do anything until she levelled up a few times.

To my utter surprise, the man he touched next also became a Holy Cleric Mage. I was sure that he was stacking the deck in our favor, to ensure that at least one of us would potentially gain the proper Holy Light spell to either cleanse the dead and return them to corpses or turn the undead to the path of good. However, making us all clerics is a terrible idea, mainly because clerics sucked at pretty much everything until they were a higher level and had mana to burn.

While the god granted powers to the other woman, who was unsurprisingly a Holy Cleric Mage, I identified myself. Not only did I still have the class I've always had, it was still hidden behind the Hero moniker. I thought that was great and eagerly waited for my turn to be granted power.

Almost as if he could sense it, his eyes searched me over. I wasn't worried, because I had completely suppressed my powers and abilities after the last summoning. As far as he was concerned, I was just a regular person, and I waited until he held a hand out to me before I made my move. I grabbed on and immediately used my sleep ability on him and then started to absorb his powers as I held him steady.

I cast the time slowing spell and took in a deep breath as the immediate power infusion activated my class and my mana came rushing back in full force. “Ohhh, yeah. That's the good stuff.” I whispered and no one noticed anything was wrong.

I used the Memory Modification spell and changed the god's memories to reflect that he had granted us all appropriate classes. I quickly learned the Holy Light spell that he was gambling for one of us to have, because it was right there at the forefront of his mind. It was a high level spell and took a lot of mana to cast, so he intentionally chose the cleric class to grant us abilities that came directly from him to ensure that we would gain the spell.

I smiled and tried to extract some other kinds of spells from his mind. Unfortunately, his mind was protected by centuries of mental barriers and I didn't have the time to waste trying to cut through them, even with time slowed down like it was. I implanted the need for him to send us on our way and also gave him a blind spot where I was concerned. He would only see me as the same as the other three and I woke him back up as I ended the time spell.

“Thank you for this wonderful opportunity.” I said and shook his hand.

“You're welcome.” He said and walked back over to stand in front of the four of us. “I'll warn you now that the longer you take to solve this world's problems, the longer you'll be away from your own world.”

“I don't care about Earth.” The man said. “It's a cesspool of corruption and crime. I'll be glad if I never see it again.”

The god gave him a sorrowful smile. “If you choose to stay at the end of the mission, I won't force you to return.”

“Thank god.” One of the women said and that made the man-like being smile. “I'll be choosing to stay, too. I don't care if we ever go back.”

“I think... I think I want to go back, even if it means I might die.” The other woman said, her voice unsure.

“No, I rescued you. If you went back, even right now, the circumstances of your deaths won't apply.”

“Then I want to go back.” The woman said. “My life might suck there; but, it's my life.”

I gave her a thumbs up gesture and it made her smile.

“Then I grant you all a safe journey.” The god said and waved his hands over us.

____

You have gained immunity to being infected by the dead or by the one controlling them. By magic, bite, scratch, blood, spit, or even death... you cannot be turned into one of them.

____

Well, that a relief. I thought. It's too bad it wasn't a spell. That would be really handy, especially for the population of this new world.

I quickly looked at my stats and cursed inside my head. I still had the -999 debuff on everything, which meant that even though I was charged up with god-like energy, I couldn't use my stats or abilities to their full capacity. That meant no main class abilities for me yet and that sucked. I wasn't the Devourer yet and probably wouldn't be until I was sent to this new world and made my way back up to level 99.

That thought made me smile, because I had tons of both stat and skill points to spend that I had built up on the last world. I would just have to be careful about what to do with them when we appeared. Unlike the other two times I had been summoned, I wasn't going to allow the rulers to dictate what the heroes were going to do.

Of course, my whole plan almost completely hinged on one aspect that I wouldn't know exists until I went there and asked. I just hoped that it did and that I could get a critical spell or at least access to it. I knew that it was a lot to hope for, considering that these tasks were usually designed to be worked on for months and months before they could be figured out.

I didn't have months to waste on this crap, though. So, I was going to blow through this world as fast as humanly... no, as super-humanly fast as possible. The summoning portal appeared below the four of us and I smiled. That undead guy had no idea what was coming for him.