Chapter 182

Arc 16 - The Fastest Man Alive - Part 19

Camelot Palace, London, UK:

In the old yet luxurious palace of Britannia, King Arthur raised his right hand into the air and calmed the small yet noisy crowd before him.

"Today, I have granted you an audience with I, King of Britannia, not for reasons of my own, but for someone else.”

In front of him, he could hear nothing but clicking noise, and could see nothing but flashing lights of cameras.

Modern world… Arthur thought unpleasantly. A lot to despise about it, most definitely.

”Today, I will answer the burning questions you have deep within you."

“Your Majesty. Here.”

“Your Majesty. Here.”

“Your Majesty. Here.”

“Your Majesty. Here.”

Just a moment after he paused, everyone began to call out to him once again.

They were far too impatient for Arthur's liking.

What barbaric behaviour is this?

“Please quiet down,” Arthur spoke sternly, but a hint of respect was embedded in his voice. He did not want people to think he was angry.

With his few words, the crowd went quiet again, but the camera shutters continued, still creating noise.

He ignored those voices and sat on his throne.

“Now then...”

His advisor looked at the journalists and photographers with displeasure.

He did not like the idea of these people entering the sacred throne room.

The throne room has been the sacred place for the royal family and the nobility of this kingdom. But now it has been ridden with commoners.

“(Your majesty,)” the advisor leaned down and whispered.

“(What?)”

“(I don’t think this is necessary, and...)” he looked at the journalists and photographers with disgust. “(Those even more so.)”

“(This is the palace of Britannia, it doesn’t belong just to royalty, it belongs to everyone.)”

Getting a shot of icy gaze from Arthur, the advisor averted his gaze.

“(The only reason I have kept you around is because I value your intelligence and guidance, but your pathetic views on class and race needs to die before I kill it for you.)”

The advisor gulped.

“(I will destroy the class system in this empire, the concept of inferiority and superiority will be gone forever. Outdated. The past. Understand?)”

“(Y-yes, my lord...)” the advisor’s posture returned to normal.

King Arthur faced the horde of the journalists and photographers and smiled.

“Over the course of the last few weeks, all of you had questions regarding a certain individual, but could not say anything because you were scared. But today, that will change. You needn’t fear him. I am fixing that today.”

He snapped his fingers.

"However, not here. I want the entire world to see this momentous event and question him."

A green smoke covered everyone in the room.

With a swoosh sound, the green smoke began to vanish.

"GAH?!?"

Everyone screamed at once upon witnessing the scenery around them.

Outside of London, in a green field that stretched forever, all of them were standing sans for King Arthur.

As the wind blew in their faces, some began to faint due to surprise.

"Heh," still sitting on his throne, King Arthur giggled lightly.

This is the world of magic now; you better prepare yourself for when the Golden Age arrives.

In this beautiful green field that could be found in one of Britannia's offshore islands, King Arthur sucked in a breath, as he savored the view.

What a beautiful and magic rich island.

He had found this island just last year, an empty island just near Scotland, which was giving off intense magical radiation. He changed the ecosystem of the island and since then, it has become his. His place to be alone and relive the past.

"Now then, shall we begin?"

He clapped his hands and caught everyone's attention.

Around him, a few cameras started to ascend and hover around them, showing them to the entire world.

"Ask away your burning questions."

A journalist raised his hand, "The world needs to know--"

Arthur raised his right arm, gesturing to him to stop speaking.

"I am sorry, but you will get your time later. I was addressing the rest of the world. You are merely the messenger of a soulless existence, but even then, I will allow you to ask, but not now."

As childish it might seem, Arthur hates journalists. He hates the way they twist the words of people just so they can raise their sales.

"If anyone around the world has a question about him or for him, just speak the words and your voice will be heard."

On the island, a green energy slowly lifted upwards like liquid.

People wanted their questions answered, so they started to question, but there were too many, so their questions got stored in the energy and it will be let out one at a time.

"Let's begin."

The liquid-like energy twirled as it created a form of a woman. She was nervous but even then, she asked, "Is he… human?"

While she lived on the other side of the world, her voice reached to this lonely Island as if she were standing on it.

"Yes," Arthur nodded. "He was born to human parents."

Arthur believed everyone knew this, but seeing how relieved she looked, he changed his mind.

I was wrong, then.

As her form vanished, another form took its place. This time, it was a child and he asked, "Is Superman real?"

Arthur tilted his head slightly to the right in a confused manner.

Is what real?

The advisor leaned down and said, "(It's a fictional character, quite famous among the youngsters)"

"Ah…" Arthur looked at the child and pursed his lips as he thought.

"(He is a righteous hero apparently who stands up for equality and justice.)"

"You really know everything, huh?" Arthur muttered to himself.

Before Arthur could answer, he picked up a charter in the audience. Everyone seemed angry at the childish question of the child.

"What a brat."

"Who the hell let this child into this place?"

"Parents can't even do their jobs properly."

Arthur narrowed his eyes and shot an icy gaze at the audience in front of him.

The journalists and photographers who saw it, gasped in fear. Others, however, ignored it.

He sucked in a breath and answered, "Yes, you can be Superman, so can I. Power is meaningless as long as the heart is in the right place."

The child seemed visibly happy after hearing that.

What was happening on this island was being broadcasted across the planet and Arthur could "feel" and "see" everyone who was watching the broadcast through his magics.

Huh…

For some odd reasons, he felt a glimmer of hope in the populace of the planet.

He looked at his advisor with wide questioning eyes.

"(They say, he is the symbol of hope.)"

"..."

Arthur's confusion skyrocketed to the heavens.

He was baffled by the existence of this being, how can something out of the pages of children's books have so much influence in the real world?

How odd.

The green liquid-like energy twirled once again, creating a new form.

The person asked immediately without hesitation, "Will he kill us all?"

"N--"

Arthur ate his own words. He exhaled slowly and smiled.

"I will let him answer that for you."

Everyone, with wide eyes, looked up to the sky.

A man was slowly descending as if he were a god. His posture and pose couldn't be different from to a God figure commonly shown in films and such.

His back was to the sun, so they could not see his face, but could only see the light rays that passed from the edges of his body.

The God slowly descended to the ground and landed slowly.

But the people here thought otherwise. They thought a bomb had exploded.

They could hear voices and felt vibrations that didn't exist.

As Nazar landed, he slowly raised his head and looked at the audience.

All around the world, people could see the broadcast, but when they wanted to question, a green energy would appear before them so they could ask away. That green energy is the magic of the planet, which is being utilised by Arthur, so now that Nazar was here, it seems his influence was spreading through the magic, and everyone felt his presence as if he were standing right next to them. And naturally, they began to fear.

Nazar walked towards them slowly, and with every step, the populace of the world found their hearts sunk deeper and deeper.

And with every step, the range of the broadcast spread throughout the universe.

Was it his doing, or someone else's?

"No, I don't want to kill all of you," he answered the question one person had. "I have no reason to destroy this world. I am the child of this planet, and so are my siblings and mother, I wouldn't want to hurt the planet they hold so dear."

In Plymouth, Emma facepalmed, "Why even stand before the world if you are not even going to pretend to fix your name…"

Back on the island, a different person appeared and asked, "The images in our heads, are they real?"

King Arthur leaned forward stiffly at that question.

That was the cause of all these problems, so he tried to produce an answer that will not be a lie, but also doesn't damage his name further.

"To keep a long story short," Nazar, however, replied without hesitation. "I have met a few people recently who didn't exist in the old world, yet they have memories of someone causing damage across the planet. Obviously, that someone is me. So, I will let you be the judge of it. How can someone who didn't exist in that world have memories of a fake life they led? And why are all memories the same, shouldn't there be a difference in it? Different angles?"

The human populace has no power to look into the minds of others, so they can never confirm fully just how truthful he is.

But for a moment, it was enough to cast out the doubts in the heart of the universe.

Another person appeared and asked, "How do we know you are telling the truth?"

"You can't," Nazar was blunt with his answer. "You have no means of knowing, but why would I start making up lies? You don't know me, none of you do, but I don't lie."

He just lied right now, but of course, no one will know.

"What need would I have to utter lies? Lies are what got me into this mess, so I am not going to make it worse. But either way, you are free to believe whatever you want to believe, so I am not going to force my opinion on you."

Was that the right answer to give, he wondered. But even then, some found it a satisfactory answer. They believed him.

Nazar glanced back at Arthur and then smiled in a way so no one but Arthur could see it.

Another form appeared, and asked, “Aliens… Do they really exist?”

Without hesitation, Nazar nodded, “Aliens, monsters, angels, demons, cosmic entities, abstract beings, Gods… Everyone and everything exist.”

At this point, no one should have been surprised, but Nazar and Arthur found themselves baffled when the entire world gulped in surprise.

Humans have always believed that they were alone in the universe, and they did not believe in the existence of the supernatural or cosmic until very recently, but hearing it from Nazar’s mouth, they couldn’t help but fall silent.

Perhaps deep down they did not want Nazar to confirm.

“The universe is infinite in size, and so is the multiverse, so the possibility of such beings existing is…” Nazar trailed off slightly. “It’s preposterous to think these creatures might not exist.”

Part of me thinks I should summon Vilramore to scare them even more.

He scoffed.

But that’s not worth it.

After a few moments of silence, another form appeared and asked, “When you say Gods… What do you mean? Are we talking…? Like Jesus? Or...”

Wait a minute... I thought they had questions about me and not-- Sigh, whatever. If it helps me, I guess it should be fine.

Nazar nodded, “Let me tell you the origin of our world.”

He spread his arms widely and created a construct of an empty planet.

“Just over thirty thousand years ago, our planet was nothing more than barren lands, but then an extra-dimensional entity stepped on these empty fields and used his magics to create us. The history you know...”

Nazar took a short pause while the rest of the world tried to swallow what they had just heard.

“IS WRONG!”

Everything they had known was wrong, their history and beliefs were wrong.

Humanity was still uncovering secrets from the lost civilisations and species, but it seemed their efforts were for naught.

“The universe didn't come into existence via a big bang, "God" didn’t create the world in seven days, and dinosaurs didn’t exist. There wasn’t a meteor that destroyed the dinosaur's civilization and no, we didn’t evolve from apes or whatever you believe we evolved from. It wasn’t the egg that came first, but the chicken did. And it didn’t evolve from anything, it was created by someone.”

With every new word, the construct changed, visuals that aided his claims.

"And that is the truth."

Too many new secrets had been unveiled upon this frail world today, too heavy to handle, so everyone fell quiet.

“In this universe, every wonder is real, and so is every nightmare.”

He glanced around the world with white glowing eyes and added, "This world is tiny, but the universe is infinite. It's all too small in the grand scheme of things, and now that you know the truth, I cannot guarantee anything good will come out of it."

His menacing words flew over the heads of everyone, but he did not care.

"So, you better prepare yourself. This world was just rainbow and sunshines until now, but after this… When the real monsters show up, you wouldn't even be able to look them in the eyes, let alone utter a single word at them."

Nazar scoffed.

"You saw some visions in your minds, and felt so scared of me, you couldn't even whisper about me… So, what will you do in the face of real monsters?"

Arthur sighed softly as he watched the world enter a state of emotional despair.

"Not the best way to deliver the message…" he mumbled to himself softly.

The space between Nazar and Arthur shrunk. The large gap was removed yet no one realised it but the two.

Seeing how there won't be any questions for a few minutes or so, Nazar created a comfortable chair and sat next to Arthur.

He placed his elbow on the arm of the chair and rested his head on his palm.

"Huh, I don't think anyone wants to know anymore," Arthur scoffed. "Perhaps that secret should have stayed with you."

He glanced at Arthur and said, "You really didn't have to go this far for me."

Arthur shook his head, "This world will face many obstacles in the coming days, I can feel it, and now that the world knows of the monsters and gods, they will live in fear."

"I am glad you are open with your words."

Arthur smiled brightly, but it seemed too fake to be real.

"Why, thanks."

"But I was going to protect this world myself, even without you doing something like this."

"But of course, you have your loved ones in this world, so you will not let them fall to the ground. But as I said once before, you are a citizen of my nation, and I will protect everyone within it."

"Hm."

Arthur looked up at the sky and exhaled loudly.

"It seems impossible, I cannot protect everyone, that is right. But only for now."

With every word, his confidence raised greatly.

He believed in his own words.

"But I will create an empire where everyone will be protected."

"I see… Good luck with that."

"Thanks."

Nazar looked around at the people in front of him and clicked his tongue silently.

They were so small and weak, and in face of danger, they would not be able to do anything but cry.

Even then, he had to protect them because the ones he loves are no different than these ants. Weak and frail is what all humans are. And that is a fact, no matter what anyone says. Humanity will forever stay weak.

But with Nazar included in the list of humans, then to the universe, it's an almighty world.

"You seem awfully happy today, despite what's happening right now," Arthur was curious about his calm behaviour.

"Something great happened," he sighed softly. "I met my girlfriend moments ago, and she brightened up my day," he laughed.

"Oh, that's great," Arthur nodded as he looked around. "I wonder what kind of woman she is."

"She is great. Beautiful, smart, easy to get along with, smells great, has an amazing smile, and so much more."

"Ah, that sounds wonderful. One of the superhumans?"

"...No?" Nazar looked at him with a confused look pasted on his face.

"My apologies, I assumed you would want to entangle yourself with one of them."

"Nah," he shook his head. "Back then, I did find Katie quite attractive. Physically, she meets all the criteria I have in mind for the perfect partner, but then I found out she had a husband and that… Well, married women are no go. Hell, women with partners are no go either. So, her attractiveness wavered in my eyes immediately after."

"I see… But why?"

"Well…" Nazar blew a raspberry before chuckling. "In one of the other worlds, I entangled with a married woman, it was great, but it led to their family being ruined to the brink of no return. So, that's why I decided to avoid doing something like that again."

"Hm," curious about what Nazar said, Arthur looked Nazar in the eyes, and asked, "But why married women?"

Nazar chuckled as he wondered if he should answer that question.

He looked around at the journalists and photographers and realised no one was paying them any attention to the, so he began to speak slowly, "Thirty-five to fifty is the best age group in my opinion when it comes to partners. They will treat you amazingly, in more than one way. They are kind, loving, knowledgeable, smells amazing, and man… They cook amazingly. They gave this aura that is both soothing and attractive, it's also sweet yet dominating. So, yeah, simply perfect in every way."

"I… see…" Arthur was at a loss for words and thoughts. He was almost frozen in his place.

He never expected to hear something like this from someone like Nazar.

However, there was another matter that was bothering Arthur.

"I get the same feeling from her-- actually, that's not something to say to anyone else, sorry," he scoffed.

Arthur tilted his head ever so slightly and smiled stiffly as he scratched his cheek.

"Take my advice, if you want to settle, settle with someone from that age. It's the perfect one. You will thank me one day."

"O-okay," Arthur began to feel embarrassed because of how crude his words were.

Arthur was at a loss for words after seeing this side of Nazar. but despite that, he wanted to change this topic.

While he found it interesting, he felt embarrassed by Nazar's words.

"By the way…"

"Hm?" Nazar pursed his lips in a confused manner.

"I think the entire world heard it," he said in a low stiff tone.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought it would only transfer the words that we speak out loud, not something we whisper but…"

Nazar glanced around the audience across the planet, and he noticed their weirded-out stares.

"Oh shit…" he mumbled to himself.

He felt like sweats were streaming down his whole body.

With a stiff smile, he said, "Fuck, I am screwed."

လလလ

In Venice, Italy, Laura rested her forehead on the table with a beet red embarrassed face, "I can never show my face to anyone again. Ever."

Her family looked awkwardly to her, and then to each other.

လလလ

In London, Emily snickered as she looked at her mother, who was standing next to her, "Mom, you should avoid him from now on."

"Yeah," her husband, Oliver, nodded. "Just don't be alone with him."

With a disgusted look on her face, Mikasa said, "What the hell is wrong with the two of you?!"

She swung her left arm and slapped Emily in the back of her head.

"Ow!" Emily let out a painful cry before laughing.

"Seek help," she said angrily.

လလလ

In Manchester, Katie Campbell stopped attending to her duties at her work and glanced left and right with a confused yet surprised look on her face.

She found it odd how he said all of that, but at the same time, she was quite weirded out.

In the end, she looked down at herself and asked slowly, "Am I really that attractive…?"

လလလ

In Plymouth, Emma stared with disgust at the television screen and said, "Seriously, there is something wrong with him."

"Not something I ever wanted to hear…" Aya sighed deeply, greatly disappointed in her son.

Angela snickered, "Seriously, he is so dumb, I can't even stay mad at him."

Unlike the three of them, Aeron burst into laughter.

He wanted to keep it in, but then he burst into laughter.

"Okay, it's not that funny," Aya rolled her eyes slightly after shooting an icy side glance at her favourite son. "All he is doing is tarnishing…"

Aya's words trailed off as her cheeks puffed.

She sucked in a deep breath and tried to finish her sentence but couldn't. Instead, she snorted with laughter.

"God, he is weird," she said slowly as she covered her face with her hand.

Only Emma was still disgusted and embarrassed that she had to hear something from her brother alongside the entire world.

"For fuck's sake, Nazar…"

လလလ

All around the world, people forgot about the truths he had dropped on them a little while ago and began discussing what he had said just now.

They couldn't believe what they just heard. Were their ears playing tricks on them?

How could a man of such evil profile say something so outlandish and possibly childish?

They were confused and, in a way, they found it hilarious.

Some, however, took that into a negative plight and feared he would do something terrible.

လလလ

On the distant planet of Chias, Lian shouted, "I KNEW IT!"

She knew he will mess this up somehow.

လလလ

On the ever-changing planet of Outox, Weq nodded with a knowing smile, "He isn't wrong."

လလလ

On planet Omega, Omegan stared blankly at the screen, "...."

လလလ

In the highest phase of this plane, Daya blurted out, "...What?!"

To Daya, he was God and in his view, God should act only in certain ways.

And this was wrong.

လလလ

In Lucifer's dimension, Lucifer nodded his head and said, "Interesting…"

For a fleeting moment, he considered taking Nazar's advice.

Then immediately after, a sigh escaped his lips.

"I am too old, so I cannot confirm it."

လလလ

In a place far away from this Ultraverse, the Queen chuckled.

"If I had known earlier, I would have made those nights better. ♡"

လလလ

Back on Earth, Nazar scratched his forehead softly with his fingers as he looked down with a wry smile.

"This is… wonderful. Simply great. Amazing."

"I… I am deeply sorry about what has transpired today," Arthur apologised from the bottom of his heart. "That was not my intention, but an accident."

"It's fine, man. Don't let it trouble you. Not like you knew this was going to happen."

Arthur nodded after letting out a soft sigh of relief.

He looked at the audience and smiled stiffly, "P-please, ask away your remaining questions."

The audience glanced at one another, unsure of what to ask any more.

The questions lingering in the back of their heads were many, but all of them were crushed away by Nazar's new revelation.

Some people found it "unnecessary" to ask him to prove his humanity, but others felt even more fear. They were scared he was trying to manipulate them by making them think he was "normal".

Despite the conflicting thoughts, they all wanted to ask one question. They all thought in unison, but it came out of one person's mouth.

"What do you want to do with Earth? And humans?"

Nazar pursed his lips to a side and thought for a moment.

In his life, he didn't need Earth for anything and it's of no importance to him, other than the fact the ones he loves live in it.

"Nothing?"

"A few weeks ago, a green energy covered the entire planet and the next moment, diseases were a thing of the past. Were you responsible for that?" a journalist asked with a stern tone.

Without hesitation, Nazar nodded.

"But why?"

Nazar shrugged with his one hand as a confused look surfaced on his face, "Because I was put in an inconvenient situation."

"Then why did you not do it earlier?"

"Because I had no reason to help."

"..."

As expected.

Nazar clicked his tongue.

"Why the surprised looks?" he looked at each and every one of them across the planet. "You see the adverts on television about hungry people, yet you never try to help them. Or donate to a cause about cancer. Why?"

"..."

The man looked left and right, looking for a tip on how to answer Nazar's question.

"You are Andre Scott, right? The CIA operative who has been working as a member of the free press since the nineties, no?"

The man started to sweat as everyone's gaze turned toward him.

That was a secret known only to him and his superior at a certain organisation.

"How...?" the man mumbled to himself.

However, he did not know if he thought those words or said them aloud. His heart was beating louder than thunders and that was the only thing he could hear.

"In March of '01, you knew about the fall of the twin towers, yet you did nothing. You had intel, and so did your organisation, yet you did not do anything. Hmmm." Nazar leaned back in his chair. "To me, your tragedies mean nothing, but you... Oh you who cares sooo much, why did you let it happen?"

Before the man could muster up an answer, Nazar raised his voice slightly and continued, "Mumbai 2008, didn't all of you know about that too? Oh, and weren't you personally sent there ahead of time to inform your superior of everything that happened there? Ah! How could I forget the 2019s "Wushua" operation where a biochemical weapon originated from Western China killed nearly a million? But of course, you knew that. And if it weren't for me, it would have taken down a billion more."

Nazar breathed in softly.

"Why did I choose to help? Because I felt like it. Same way how you-- most of you in the audience - decided to side with Israel who took over the Middle East, sans the late Arabian Peninsula."

Nazar narrowed his eyes as his crimson eyes lit up for a moment.

"You cannot question me, until you question yourself and those around you. You have no right to question anyone until you can question yourself."

His angry answer caused the world to go silent.

Everyone believes they deserve good, but don't care about the rest. They only care when it suits them.

None of these people cares about others, just themselves. If Nazar were to destroy the world or humanity, they, too, will die. So, they questioned him and his motives.

But if he were not a threat to them, then would they have questioned him and his existence? Would they have demanded answers from him?

"When the day you can question yourself and not feel guilty, I will tell you why I don't want to help the world progress. I have already done enough, but can do more, but simply won't. I can bring about a perfect world… but I have a question for the world…"

He smiled thinly as he crossed his legs together.

"Why should I?"

He rested his arms on the chair comfortably.

"If you can answer me that, I will consider making a perfect world."

He sensed that someone would answer with something idiotic, so he raised his palm to stop them before it's too late.

"And before anyone says, "It's the right thing to do", I want you to stop and re-think. Why is it a right thing to do? Why is it a right thing for me to create this perfect world, but not for you. Why have you not taken the initiative to create a perfect world. Why are you waiting for someone else to save you?"

Nazar stood up and clapped his hands once.

"When you figure that out, you know where to find m…"

His ears twitched as he sensed something at the farthest edge of the multiverse.

His body entered a special mode as it tried to react to the new entity, so it started to speak at a sextillionth of a second.

"...e--"

Before he could finish a single word, a blur past him.

Before Nazar could register that, the blur was standing in front of him.

A quintillionth of a second later, Nazar finally registered the presence of the blur.

A trigintillion of a second later, Nazar moved his head and looked at the blur.

After a nonillionth of a second, Nazar knew who it was.

Rewind.

His old friend.

So, it has finally come to this...

The two stared at one another for a fraction of a second, but it felt like an eternity for the two of them.

They even exchanged words, but it didn't reach each other just yet.

So, they slowed down.

After a second passed, sound could finally be heard.

"That's a new record," the blur said jokingly.

Nazar opened his mouth, but he closed it immediately after Rewind raised his hand.

He raised his hand, and a sword flew into his palm.

The God Slayer sword flashed brightly.

"Now then, God…"

The universe finally registered his presence.

"Time to kill you!"

The showdown between absolute power and absolute speed begins!