Scene: Global Sovereigns Conference — Underground Fortress, Neutral Zone
President Ero Silar of the Unified East Territories – POV
The chamber was circular. High-ceilinged. Walls lined with fiber-optic threads and flag panels from each attending nation. We were thirty-seven leaders strong — the supposed backbone of what remained of global power.
We weren't here for discussion.
We were here out of fear.
Blackwood.
Delvaron had fallen without a siege. Orvanu had bent with a whisper. The world was tilting, and we were running out of ways to pretend we could hold it upright.
I sat beside the chair marked Northern Reach Alliance. Their Prime Chancellor hadn't arrived. Probably still "deliberating." Or maybe she just didn't want to be part of the last sigh of sovereignty.
> "We need to freeze Blackwood trade immediately," the delegate from Solmere insisted, tapping his datapad. "Their war economy is expanding unchecked."
> "Freeze trade?" the Chancellor from Velkan barked. "You think that's going to stop an empire that doesn't need our currencies?"
> "Then sanctions."
> "Sanctions on who? They've absorbed five nations! Who are we sanctioning — ourselves?"
I leaned back. My mind wasn't on sanctions.
It was on what would come next.
And then…
The chamber doors opened.
Not loudly.
But the sound rippled like thunder through bone.
Two B.A.M. guards entered first. Fully armed. Helmets gleaming.
And behind them?
Him.
Chris Blackwood.
In all black. No crown. No escort. Just power so heavy, it bent the air around him.
He walked with the grace of inevitability. The silence in the room was so loud, it crushed the argument mid-sentence. Every head turned. Every official froze.
He didn't ask permission.
He didn't acknowledge our shock.
He walked straight into the center of the circle, looked around like he was hosting, and then—finally—spoke.
> "Your meeting was missing something," he said, voice low and clear. "Me."
I couldn't speak.
No one did.
Then, slowly, deliberately, he pulled out a chair.
Not just any chair. The one reserved for Global Seat 1 — technically empty since the last restructuring.
He sat.
And smiled.
> "You can continue."
---