The seconds ticked down on the global broadcast, each passing moment amplifying the unbearable tension. The satellite view remained fixed on the CNS Silent Hunter, its General Jian Li a living tableau of shock and terror. The Seer's voice, calm amidst the impending geological chaos, continued its direct address.
The countdown to the island's emergence relentlessly ticked down: 00:09:15... 00:09:14...
"General Li," the Seer repeated, its tone maintaining that chilling politeness. "I advise you to move your vessel away from your current coordinates. Immediately."
General Li, grappling with the impossible intrusion, managed to regain a fraction of his composure. He stared at the camera, his voice regaining a desperate edge of command, but now tinged with a new, urgent question. "Who are you?! What do you want?!"
"Who am I, General?" the Seer mused, the words taking on an almost melancholic quality. "I am no god. I am no alien. I am just a normal person. A human being, like your crew, like your family, like everyone watching this broadcast across the world."
The global audience collectively leaned in, utterly transfixed. A normal person? With this power?
"Less than a year ago," the Seer continued, its voice now tinged with the quiet horror of its own past, "I was given powers beyond what any human mind can conceive. First, the ability to control every digital network on Earth. To move through your systems, unseen, unheard. To do anything I wished within your connected world."
The imagery on screen subtly changed: a fleeting, almost subliminal flash of code, then blurred, unsettling glimpses of the dark web horrors Arjun had first encountered – abstract shapes suggesting abuse, trafficking. The Seer was reminding the general, and the world, of the hidden evils he had purged.
"But then," the Seer stated, its voice dropping to a near-whisper, yet still piercingly clear, "I was granted a second power. A curse, more than a blessing. The ability to see the future. To witness the true horrors that are rapidly approaching your world. The catastrophes you cannot fight, cannot hack, cannot even conceive."
The general stared, mesmerized, his defiance melting away, replaced by a profound, dawning comprehension.
"General," the Seer's voice finally swelled with a raw, undeniable sincerity, "I possess power that could reshape your world, but it means nothing to me. All I want... all I want to do... is to live. I want my family to live. My friends to live. I want to save them from the coming destruction I am forced to witness. And if I can, I want to save more people like them."
The Seer's voice held a profound, desperate plea, a vulnerability that, despite the modulation, resonated with a chilling, human truth. General Li, for a fleeting moment, saw past the mask, past the impossible power, to the terrified human being beneath, desperately trying to save what little mattered in the face of an inevitable apocalypse. But time was ticking. The island was coming.
"I don't believe these... prophecies! My instruments show nothing! This is madness!" General Li asserted, his voice strained.
"General Li," the Seer interjected, its tone now laced with an urgent, almost paternal warning. "I advise you to move your vessel away from your current coordinates. Immediately."
The general's eyes snapped back to the screen, a flicker of defiance mixing with his terror. He wouldn't be dictated to by a disembodied voice, no matter how powerful. His ship, his crew – they were his responsibility. He had to rely on his instruments, his training, not on some impossible voice from the airwaves.
"Officer!" General Li barked, his voice echoing across the Silent Hunter's bridge, easily picked up by the Seer's pervasive connection. "Check the sonar! Look at the bathymetry readings! Is anything rising from the seabed? What's on radar? Are we detecting any anomalies, any unusual formations under the water?"
His navigation officer, already frantically scanning his displays, responded, "General, sonar shows... nothing. Just the seabed. Radar is clear. No surface anomalies. No indication of anything rising, sir."
A defiant, desperate spark flickered in General Li's eyes as he looked directly at the camera, addressing the Seer, daring it. "My instruments show nothing. My radar is clear. I rely on verifiable data, not prophecies!" He gestured firmly to his crew. "Maintain current course. We will not be moved by an unseen voice without proof."
The Seer's voice, however, remained calm, utterly unperturbed by the general's skepticism. "Your instruments, General, rely on known physics. What is about to occur defies your current understanding. The proof is not in your radar, but in the impending minutes."
The global screen remained fixed on the Silent Hunter, the general's defiance, and the relentlessly ticking countdown. 00:05:12... 00:05:11... Billions watched, mesmerized and horrified, as a modern warship, and its skeptical commander, stood directly in the path of a prophecy. The Seer had given its warning. Now, the world would see if it was heeded, or tragically, ignored.