Novel Full Chapter 1033: Address
Chapter 1033: Address
As it always was, the moment the imperial government informed the citizens of the time an announcement would be made, schedules and plans all over the empire immediately shifted to accommodate and adjust for it, as everyone knew it was going to be very important.
However, there was really no need for schedules to be shifted too aggressively in the first place, since using time compression, the announcement that would take hours in VR could be completed within just a few real-world minutes. So, unless something needed to be done at that exact time and couldn’t wait to be done a few minutes later or earlier, it was postponed.
So, when the announced time arrived, nearly everyone, other than those who were unaware of the situation or military personnel responsible for the security of the solar and Proxima star systems, found themselves in front of a massive colosseum that housed the entirety of imperial citizens, and imperial citizens only. It was a citizens’ exclusive address, at least in physical attendance, while all other conquered civilizations’ citizens could only watch it in video form, despite being required to enter VR to watch it in real-time. This made it clear to everyone watching that the address was going to be entirely focused on the empire and its citizens.
Ten seconds after the address time arrived, finally, someone appeared at the center of the colosseum. The moment he appeared, the earth nearly split in two from the amount of cheering that erupted.
It wasn’t difficult to deduce where this amount of love was coming from, as the war situation had been nothing but a motivation and public support-increasing machine. Everyone in it knew that they were setting themselves up for generations to come without any possible side effects on their lives, as everything they were doing was justified, with the possible intergenerational wealth being just a side effect.
Aron remained silent, letting people let out their excitement first. Not until after a minute passed did he raise his hand as his body slowly enlarged to the point where everyone in the colosseum could see him clearly. He wasn’t one to shy away from theatrics, and the people loved them too, as the colosseum became pin-drop silent the moment his hand was raised.
“My dear citizens,” Aron started speaking after ten seconds of silence. “We as humans have faced many crises to our existence throughout the entirety of our existence. No matter how advanced we became through one evolution after another, we always faced these challenges. At times it was the environment, at times it was ourselves, and as it has been lately, nothing changed other than the challenges now finally coming from something outside our surroundings.” As he spoke, the ground area of the colosseum he was standing on was constantly changing, creating figures of the adversaries humanity had faced through its existence: bacteria, mammoths, humans themselves, and finally appearing behind him were all of the conclave races in faceless bodies, but still detailed enough for each civilization to be identified.
“But in all of them, one way or another, we always came out on the other side as the victors or having bought ourselves enough time to live to fight for another day.” When he paused after saying that, cheers were once again heard across the colosseum for the next half a minute before he once again raised his hand and everything returned to silence.
“Over the last few months, we once again found ourselves facing our biggest existential challenge, against enemies who outnumbered us in a situation that put us in an improbable fight.” He paused for a moment, letting tension build up as the visuals and generations of things to back up his speech added to the flare, bringing imagination to life before he said, “And with excitement for the results, not the reason that forced us to chase after them in the first place, I would like to inform all of my citizens that we once again came out on the other side AS THE VICTORS.”
The moment he mentioned “victorious,” massive screens appeared showing different scenes of the empire capturing the star systems of the top ten Conclave members. Imperial citizens watched through them while cheering as if they had received the best news in their lives, which for the majority of them, it ranked quite high on the list. This time, the cheer went on for the entirety of the five minutes it took for the videos to play on the massive screens, with things taking five more minutes before Aron could finally speak again.
“And yes, to state the obvious, the fight is finally over, but the war isn’t yet over.” When he said that, a look of confusion appeared on the faces of the excited citizens. He didn’t let it drag on as he immediately said, “We still have the Xor’Vak civilization to conquer, but unlike the other civilizations, which we took control of by conquering their territories, we have elected for the easiest path by using our right to challenge the leader of their civilization for control of it.
In return for leaving him the freedom to choose who he wanted to face off against, we reserved the right to select the date for when that faceoff is to take place, which we have elected for it to happen a week from now, with me being the opponent he had gone for.” As he spoke, he showed the challenge letter they had sent to the Grand Xor’Vak, with all of the conditions clearly outlined, and the reward also being outlined in the same way.
It was a fight to the death or surrender, with the Xor’Vak civilization and its entirety as the reward should the emperor win. But if he, in some way, lost by dying or admitting defeat, the Xor’Vak civilization would remain under the control of the Grand Xor’Vak, and the empire would not interfere with their way of life for ten thousand years.
And for the first time since the address started, the reaction was mixed instead of unified, as different people took the news differently.