Roan broke the standoff.
“Where do you come from?” His voice was deep, cutting through the silence without a tremor.
“Or has your kind always lived on Earth, hiding in the dark?”
It was a blunt question, stripped of all diplomatic padding.
Roan recognized that he was sitting across from an entity capable of stopping his heart in a second, yet he demanded an answer anyway.
Silas met his eyes.
The Russian had set the standard for the meeting.
“My name is Silas,” he said.
“As for my background, Vijay can verify it. In the physical sense, I am merely a ten-year-old boy born on this soil. And as of right now, there is no one else like me on this world.”
Roan’s eyes narrowed.
“As of right now?”
“Traces of the True Universe touched this planet in ancient eras,” Silas explained.
“If not for travelers who visited this soil in forgotten ages, where do you imagine your legends of gods, immortals, and mythical sovereigns came from?”
“And what does that make you?” another European leader called out from down the table.
“What are we dealing with here?”
“Listen to me carefully,” Silas said, letting his tone drop into cold certainty.
“What is decided at this table will determine whether your civilization survives the next decade.”
The air grew heavy.
Silas did not need to shout; his presence pressed against them like lead weights.
“The world you live on is classified as a Barren World. It has not evolved into a Path World. All Barren Worlds sit inside a False Universe, an isolated cosmic cradle that shelters primitive ecosystems from the harsh realities of the deeper cosmos. When a world approaches the boundary of ascension, that protective barrier dissolves, and the planet emerges into the Lesser Zone of the True Universe.”
A low murmur rippled through the gathering.
The color drained from several faces as the cosmic scope of his words sank in.
A prime minister from a smaller European state scoffed, leaning over the table with sudden bravado.
“And who appointed you our judge? Where did you dig up this fairy tale? More to the point, what kind of weapon did you just use on us? Speak plainly! Do you honestly expect the nations of the world to bow down to an arrogant brat?”
The surrounding leaders stared at the man as if he were already in a grave.
Silas’s eyes hardened.
“Do you think I am an elected bureaucrat bound by your local constitutions? Do you think I came here to appease an insecure politician?”
Roan did not wait for Silas to strike.
With a sharp flick of his wrist, he signaled his personal security detail to remove the man from the table.
The Russian guards lunged forward, but the European minister’s personal protection team drew their handguns to block them.
Silas did not flinch.
He simply released his Will.
The European bodyguards froze solid, fingers locked stiff over their holsters.
The Russian operators walked past them without resistance, grabbing the shouting prime minister by the collar and dragging him across the grass.
“Take your hands off me!” the man yelled, thrashing wildly.
“I will mobilize my entire army! You have your parlor tricks within arm’s reach, boy, but your tricks cannot cross borders! Set foot in my country and see what happens to you!”
A thin, cold smile appeared on Silas’s face.
Earth has grown soft from centuries of petty squabbling.
Threatening a veteran of the True Universe was pure madness.
The man had correctly guessed the current range limits of Silas’s sensory field, but he lacked the basic survival instinct to hold his tongue.
Silas shifted his Will Fog toward the minister and his frozen guards.
He squeezed.
The electrical currents driving their hearts cut out in an instant.
Without a gasp, the prime minister and his entire security detail collapsed limp onto the lawn.
Dead before they hit the dirt.
The yard fell into a terrifying, suffocating silence.
Beads of cold sweat rolled down the foreheads of half the leaders at the table.
Silas remained relaxed in his chair, unbothered, looking as though he had done nothing more than brush away a gnat.
Yet the pressure weighing on the gathering had become unbearable.
“Let us get a few basic realities straight,” Silas said, his voice echoing with an authority that left no room for debate.
“Do not confuse the True Universe with your comfortable civilizations. In the deeper cosmos, children are more ruthless than your worst war criminals. Planetary prejudice is total. Ancient empires craft plots that span ten thousand years, and every civilization cares only for its own survival.”
Silas leaned forward, resting his elbows on the wood.
“When I speak of people like me, I mean those who understand the True Universe and walk a cultivated Path. Make no mistake. Earth will break out of its cradle and enter the True Universe in under ten years, whether you cooperate or not.”
His eyes swept over the pale faces around him.
“Even if you managed to kill me this second, it would change nothing. You would stumble into the True Universe blind, helpless, and destined for immediate enslavement. Do you think your advanced technology will save you? Let me shatter that delusion right now. Mortal machines designed under the localized physics of a Barren World break down the moment you cross into the True Universe. At best, your crude atomic warheads might retain some blast yield. But what good are a few thousand warheads against cosmic dynasties that swallow entire star clusters?”
The yard remained dead quiet.
George, the President of the United States, let out a slow breath, forcing his hands to remain steady on the table.
“Then what do you want from us? You did not gather the leadership of this planet just to slaughter us in a garden.”
Silas looked at George, the coldness in his face shifting into a measured smile.
“I am not a mindless butcher. I have no desire to wipe you out. In fact, I am going to teach you the exact method I used to seize your bodies, and I will hide nothing.”
A collective hitch rippled through their breathing.
Several leaders leaned forward, their eyes locking onto Silas with intense focus.
Silas’s smile widened slightly.
First the whip, then the reward.
The oldest rule of absolute dominion.