Chapter 22 — The 20 Seconds That Changed the World

  The 20-Second Massacre

  They had already sent White Horizon.

  Spies. Assassins. Silent knives in the dark.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Perfects from the allied nations kept dying—

  not in battle,

  not in war,

  but one by one, erased without warning.

  And eventually—

  Patience ran out.

  The coalition chose escalation.

  Total force. No restraint.

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  When the World’s Greatest Fleet Moves

  The warning came from Taiwan.

  “Thai Command,” the voice said, tense.

  “The U.S. fleet has entered our waters. They’re heading south.”

  A pause.

  “Should we engage?”

  Marcus answered without hesitation.

  “Let them pass.”

  Silence.

  “…Sir?”

  “Do not intercept,” Marcus repeated calmly.

  “Let them enter the Gulf.”

  Taiwan complied—confused, uneasy, but loyal.

  The Gulf of Thailand.

  The sea was calm.

  Dark blue. Endless.

  Then the sound arrived.

  Engines—

  not of ships,

  but of empires.

  The United States Seventh Fleet led the formation.

  Twelve Arleigh Burke–class destroyers.

  Three nuclear submarines.

  The USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest aircraft carrier ever constructed.

  More than forty F-35C fighters, fully armed.

  Beside them—

  Japan: Maya-class destroyers

  South Korea: Sejong the Great-class

  Australia: Hobart-class

  United Kingdom: HMS Queen Elizabeth

  France: FREMM-class frigates

  Together—

  The largest naval force assembled since World War II.

  And the world was watching.

  CNN broadcast live from a British warship.

  NHK streamed from Japan’s fleet.

  BBC tracked the armada from above.

  Every lens pointed in one direction.

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  Thailand.

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  One Aircraft Leaves Thailand

  Deep inside Thailand—

  A hidden TevaTech airbase.

  Marcus boarded a single aircraft.

  FLYER-X.

  More advanced than the F-35.

  Its black surface reflected the sky like liquid glass.

  Twenty Iron Shade operatives stood in perfect formation.

  Marcus wore the Death Cheetar suit.

  Red energy lines pulsed faintly across his shoulders.

  His face was calm.

  Almost… entertained.

  Vapor stepped closer.

  “You’re going alone?”

  Marcus smiled faintly.

  “Just to talk.”

  The hatch sealed.

  Engines roared.

  FOOOOOOM—

  The aircraft shot into the sky.

  Straight toward the coalition fleet.

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  A Man Who Fell From the Sky

  Alarms screamed aboard the fleet.

  “Unidentified Thai aircraft approaching at extreme velocity!”

  The commander on the USS Ford barked orders.

  “Launch interceptors!”

  Six F-35Cs tore into the air.

  Then—

  The impossible.

  Marcus’s aircraft slowed.

  Its side door opened.

  Mid-air.

  At one thousand meters above the sea—

  Marcus stepped out.

  And jumped.

  BBC’s reporter froze.

  “He—he jumped from a kilometer high! With nothing but—”

  Missiles fired.

  BOOM!

  Fire swallowed the sky.

  But from the smoke—

  A shadow accelerated downward.

  Faster.

  Like a living projectile.

  Marcus slammed onto a U.S. destroyer.

  THOOM.

  Steel warped.

  Twenty soldiers were thrown back like falling pins.

  Marcus stood.

  Brushed dust from his shoulder.

  Unharmed.

  Rifles snapped toward him.

  “DON’T MOVE! DROP YOUR WEAPON!”

  Marcus smiled.

  The smile of a hunter watching prey realize the truth.

  SCENE IV — Twenty Seconds of Diplomacy

  An American admiral stepped forward.

  “You assassinated allied Perfects,” he said coldly.

  “This ends now.”

  He pointed.

  “Hand over the Cheetar Project.

  Allow full inspection of all mineral sites.”

  His voice hardened.

  “Or Thailand is at war with the world.”

  Marcus looked down at him.

  Almost gently.

  “I think,” Marcus said,

  “you should surrender instead.”

  Silence rippled across the deck.

  Marcus stepped closer.

  Crew members backed away without thinking.

  The admiral stood his ground.

  Marcus spoke softly.

  “So the world won’t have to bleed as much.”

  The admiral screamed—

  “FIRE!!!”

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  The 20 Seconds That Broke the World

  Everything fired.

  Tomahawks.

  Railguns.

  Smart bombs.

  CIWS cannons.

  Hypersonic rounds.

  The sky turned white.

  CNN shouted—

  “They’re annihilating him with full-scale warpower—!”

  Then—

  The smoke split apart.

  Marcus was gone.

  He reappeared on another ship.

  Head tilted.

  Stretching his neck.

  “My turn.”

  He raised the Death Cheetar spear.

  Second 1–3:

  Marcus blurred.

  A Korean destroyer split cleanly in half.

  Second 4–7:

  He leapt from ship to ship.

  Each landing triggered internal detonations.

  Second 8–10:

  The spear flew upward.

  Marcus followed—

  then struck downward.

  A pressure wave tore across the sea.

  A Japanese destroyer flipped like a toy.

  Second 11–15:

  A two-second barrier flared.

  Missiles shattered harmlessly.

  Marcus landed on the British carrier’s deck.

  One sweeping strike—

  aircraft slid into the ocean, erupting in flame.

  Second 15–18:

  He returned to the USS Ford.

  One punch.

  The deck ruptured.

  The largest aircraft carrier in history sank in under five seconds.

  Second 19–20:

  Marcus stood atop a broken mast.

  Watching the sea burn.

  Twenty seconds.

  Exactly.

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  The Silence That Followed

  The world stopped breathing.

  BBC whispered—

  “One man… destroyed the allied fleet in twenty seconds.”

  CNN trembled—

  “This isn’t war.

  This is annihilation.”

  NHK fell silent.

  Even China’s CCTV spoke carefully—

  “A being of this level cannot be stopped by conventional military force.”

  The sea burned.

  Steel sank.

  Empires stared.

  SCENE VII — A Message to the World

  Marcus stood atop sinking wreckage.

  He lifted a floating microphone.

  Spoke calmly into CNN’s camera.

  “I warned you,” he said.

  “Surrender—

  and the world bleeds less.”

  The wind caught his cloak.

  Red light pulsed along the Death Cheetar suit.

  “This,” Marcus continued,

  “was only the opening move.”

  The camera shook.

  Fire climbed higher.

  Marcus leapt—

  And vanished into the night.

  —Fade to black—