The global screens, having displayed the birth of an impossible island and the harrowing rescue of a warship, now reverted to the masked figure. Arjun, watching from his secluded apartment in Jaipur, felt the tremors of his own digital act of creation reverberating across the planet. He could sense the shift in the global network's hum – a tremor of collective shock, fear, and a dawning, unwilling belief.
"Do you believe now?" the Seer's voice resonated, its modulated tone carrying a chilling blend of challenge and grim satisfaction. "Or do you still cling to your comfortable lies? Your science, your military might, your digital defenses – all rendered meaningless by a truth you refused to see."
He knew the answer. The initial shock, the undeniable visual proof of the Silent Hunter's miraculous, violent escape, and the island's raw emergence, had shattered the cynicism of billions. He could feel it, a collective breaking of mental barriers. News channels were no longer questioning the source; they were scrambling to cover the impossible reality unfolding in the East China Sea. Leaders were in emergency sessions, their faces pale with a new kind of fear.
"I think the maximum number of people now believe," the Seer stated, acknowledging the profound shift in global consciousness. "They believe in my first power. They believe in my presence."
But even with the immediate, undeniable evidence, Arjun knew human nature. He knew the capacity for self-deception, for compartmentalization. People might believe in his digital omnipotence, they might even believe in the fact of the island, but would they truly grasp the implications? Would they truly believe that the world, their world, was headed for the widespread destruction he had glimpsed in Priya's tear-stained face in 2050?
"But even now," the Seer continued, a subtle, weary sigh seeming to filter through the modulation, "even after witnessing the impossible, some of you will still refuse to accept the greater truth. You will tell yourselves this was a singular anomaly. You will find ways to rationalize away the threat of true global destruction. This was just the first incident."
His voice hardened, becoming a grim, inexorable promise. "If you still do not believe the full scope of what I have shown you, if you choose to remain in denial of the inevitable future… you will believe soon enough. You will believe 8 days from now, when the volcano erupts precisely where I have told you."
The background on the screens flashed with a quick, disorienting glimpse of the volcanic eruption he had seen, then shifted back to the map of the East China Sea, the glowing new island, and the crippled Silent Hunter, the living proof of his power.
"And even if that, too, leaves room for the last vestiges of your disbelief," the Seer concluded, his voice ringing with absolute certainty, "you will definitely believe when the earthquake strikes China, exactly 15 days from now, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and displacing millions. The proof will be undeniable. The truth will be inescapable."