Novel Full Chapter 887: Banquet (V)
Chapter 887: Banquet (V)
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Tavian barely suppressed his lips from twitching at the implications.
From what just happened, it seems that the Human Sovereigns were fully expecting someone to do what he did—confronting Nick about the truth of his claims. They even bet on it.
Tavian was displeased to be an example, but he also knew that he couldn’t show any instability right now. He had ridden the proverbial tiger’s back now, and he couldn’t back down.
“How should I go on about this?” Nick wondered out loud.
His voice, although soft and gentle, was carried throughout the entire hall, touching everybody’s ears and souls. Tavian and the other old folks who were listening suppressed a shiver.
“I can tell you a lot of things.” He continued, “I can tell you what it’s like to stand at the peak of life evolution, or at least describe what it’s like, for no amount of explanation would suffice to describe what it actually feels like and what it represents.”
“I can demonstrate the sheer power I held.” Nick’s tone turned somber at this. “I can release a little bit of my presence, just enough to shake this entire hall. It can leave you all breathless, shaken, terrified, and absolutely traumatized, so much so that none of you would be able to look at me in the eye ever again.”
“I can do so much more than that, too. I can unleash my aura to shake the entirety of the Heavenly Star Chaos Realm. I can make it so that every living being remembers who I am. I can leave you all feeling such a profound dread and fear that you would all turn me into a boogeyman for generations to come. I can dangle my power over your heads to make you submit, make you do whatever I want, and force you to never ever dare think of anything bad about me.”
“Similarly, I can also aim this dread towards our enemies,” he continued, sounding a bit contemplative this time. “I can take every single one of you now towards the Crimson Womb Chaos Realm.”
“I can bring you with me to watch as I wipe out every single bug that has ever existed there. I can force them into oblivion and direct extinction with one hand folded behind my back.”
“I can do so many things with the amount of power I wield right now.” Nick paused to let his words sink in to everybody.
“But that’s boring,” he concluded, much to the surprise of the audience.
“Brute forcing everything might appease those who have a penchant for violence. But I’d be doing great disservice to the concept of laws and the Supreme Will itself if that’s all you’d take away after I give you a glimpse of what it’s truly like to be a Primal Origin Lifeform.”
Then, his eyes landed squarely on Tavian, who felt instant dread drowning his entire existence, lasting for only the briefest of moments but feeling like an eternity.
“So instead of doing something so…drastic, I shall entertain with a simple, yet equally profound display of what it’s like to have this much power.”
Nick shifted his gaze, and suddenly a random goblet filled with wine was chosen.
It levitated up directly from the server’s tray, slowly flying until it reached eye-level with Nick. Everybody was watching in anticipation, waiting with bated breath, to see what exactly he’s going to do with this.
“I won’t insult your intelligence by asking you what you see. You know what this is; you know what kind of liquid is in this goblet. Most of you drank some already.”
“Before I do anything, I want you all to do something for me.”
“Relax, it’s nothing drastic; you won’t even need to stand up from your seats or anything.”
“I just want you to be ready. I want you to guard your memory, protect it, and make sure that it’s untouchable. Defend it with all your might.”
“I’m going to destroy the very idea you all had that this goblet was filled with wine. That’s it. Plain and simple. I won’t touch any of you; I won’t even come close. I will just ’destroy’ the idea that there had been wine in this goblet, and I want you all to see if you can resist its effects.”
“I’ll give you time to prepare.” Nick paused right here.
The goblet filled with wine still levitated before him while the audience beneath him suddenly erupted with fervent discussions. Most of them glared at the goblet and at Nick, doing their best to commit everything to memory.
Inwardly, some of them refused to believe that whatever Nick was about to do would work, even after he explained it to them. They energetically employed every means in books to protect their memories. They isolated it, guarded it, hid it, etc.
Tavian and the old folks looked grim. Even though Nick hadn’t done anything yet, their minds were already dissecting the implications. None of it brought them comfort though, that’s for sure.
“Ready?” Nick’s question was met with silence.
He shifted his gaze from them and into the goblet. And before his eyes even landed, the wine had already disappeared.
Collectively, the audience stiffened.
They all stood dumbfounded and frozen; they stared at the goblet with dumbstruck gazes.
“No! What the hell!? He did something!”
“Yeah, no shit he did, but what is it? Do you remember?”
“Something about the contents of the goblet? Strange, I don’t remember.”
“I can’t remember! I can’t remember at all!”
“What is it? I swear I protected my mind!”
“It’s empty! The memory wasn’t there anymore. There were no traces at all!”
“Everything we did was useless. We protected that memory, but it’s all for naught; whatever he did completely trivialized our hard work.”
Everybody was astonished and also terrified.
They could remember Nick choosing that goblet randomly, they remember that it contained something, and they remember him telling them that he would destroy the ’idea’ that this goblet had something just now. He asked them to be ready to protect their memories, to try their best to remember what exactly it was he destroyed.
But that’s about it.
What were the contents of the goblet? How did he do it? How did his actions bypass the numerous security measures they put up in their psyche? None of this could be answered.
And wasn’t that just terrifying?
Nick quite effortlessly did something to them without even targeting them. They could tell that this example was very mundane, but the idea that he could do this so effortlessly was terrifying on its own.
“Alright, that’s enough. I will now undo what I just did,” Nick stated, and without even looking at the goblet, the wine reappeared like it had always been there.
“The wine!!!” The audience collectively gasped in shock.
In that same instant that he undid his actions, everybody recalled what it was they forgot. They all remembered that the goblet had wine, and it was the idea that the goblet contained wine that Nick supposedly destroyed.
When they recovered from the shock, most of the audience swallowed thickly and nervously.
Irresistible. That’s the first idea that crossed their minds. They couldn’t even muster up any form of resistance to whatever it is that Nick did. Nothing they did worked, and they could tell that anything short of another Primal Origin Lifeform’s power or that of the Supreme Will would be able to resist Nick’s power.
And it’s not like they’re weak and clueless people, either. Most of them here were Heavenly Venerates, with few Empyreans here and there. Yet regardless of their methods, they were completely unable to resist Nick’s actions.
They understand the implications now. If Nick could do this to something this mundane, there was no doubt that he could also do the same to something that had far wider influence.
He could technically ’destroy’ somebody’s identity; he could destroy the idea of freedom. He could easily rewrite history, and nobody would’ve noticed. He could quietly enslave every single human there ever was, and none of them would’ve guessed that he did it, much less be able to resist him.
Hell, he could completely rewrite how everybody understood life evolution itself!
Simply put, Nick could do everything he wanted, and nobody would be able to stop him. They probably wouldn’t even know that it was he who did it.
And that’s just terrifying, is it not?
Despite this very simple, brief, and rather mundane example, he made everybody realize just how far-reaching his abilities truly were.
The implications were so terrifying that Tavian and all else who attended this banquet entertaining ideas of forcing Nick’s hand suddenly found themselves sweating coldly as Nick indifferently regarded them.
They all finally realized one thing that they should’ve realized before coming here.
Nick gains nothing from lying to them. And he simply didn’t treat them seriously.
Why should he? They’re nothing but helpless ants before him. He wouldn’t even need to raise a hand to deal with them.
In a single gaze, he could erase and undo everything they’ve ever done. He could completely wipe them out from history and from everybody’s memories. Nobody will miss them or would even question if they ever existed.
And for a bunch of people who are desperately clinging to their miserable existence, even going as far as banding together in an attempt to bully someone for their own benefit, there was no greater fear than being erased.