What stunned Gravik even more was...
Not only did the guards outside not enter, but even his loyal confidants inside the conference room remained motionless.
Not a single person moved to execute his order.
These people didn't even spare him a glance.
"Are you all deaf?!"
A trace of unease welled up in Gravik's heart as he raised his voice again.
"I told you to arrest him! Did you not hear my command?!"
Still, no one moved, and no one spoke.
The conference room was so quiet a pin drop could be heard, as if even the sound of breathing had almost vanished.
At this moment, Gravik finally sensed that something was wrong.
A soft chuckle broke the silence.
The fake Gravik took leisurely steps and slowly walked forward.
As he stepped forward step by step.
Those previously indifferent confidants actually stood up in unison at this moment.
They all bowed in salute to this imposter.
Their movements were perfectly synchronized, without the slightest hesitation.
Watching this scene, Gravik seemed to understand something in his heart.
This was a long-premeditated coup!
A coup that had completely hollowed out his entire power structure right under his nose!
"Clap, clap, clap."
Suppressing the shock in his heart, he clapped his hands with feigned composure.
"Wonderful, truly wonderful."
Gravik looked at the imposter approaching him, still maintaining the unruffled demeanor of a king.
"I truly didn't expect that among us Skrull Remnants, there would be hidden a talent as deep and unrevealed as you."
He glanced around at the subordinates bowing to the imposter, his tone full of mockery.
"I don't know what conditions you promised or what means you used to make all these carefully selected subordinates of mine choose betrayal. I must admit, your skill in playing power politics is indeed quite impressive."
"But, you seem to have forgotten a most fundamental piece of common sense."
"At the political card table, conspiracies might help you win a round."
"But in today's World, in the face of absolute power, all schemes are nothing but fragile bubbles!"
Gravik stared coldly at the imposter before him, as if looking at a dead man.
"You think that by bribing them, you can replace me?"
Gravik spoke incessantly, displaying his absolute confidence.
But the imposter didn't even look Gravik in the eye, only slightly turning his head and speaking in a flat tone.
"Pagon, wake him up."
Hearing this command, Gravik's voice stopped.
He froze for a moment, as if he hadn't heard clearly, then turned his head in disbelief to look at Pagon, his absolute confidant who had been standing quietly by his side.
He saw Pagon slowly turn around to face Gravik.
On that face usually wearing a fawning expression, a wicked smile slowly curled up.
Gravik's heart sank.
Even Pagon had betrayed him?!
This capable assistant who had followed him since childhood, serving him faithfully! He was also the imposter's man?!
A sharp pain of being backstabbed by someone close welled up in his heart.
Gravik looked at Pagon with eyes full of disappointment and heartache.
"Pagon... I gave you power second only to one, I treated you as my most trusted brother, you've let me down so much..."
However, Gravik hadn't even finished expressing his affectionate and pained speech.
"Whoosh!"
A gust of wind from a palm strike suddenly attacked.
Pagon had no intention of listening to his nonsense; he swung his arm wide and delivered a heavy backhanded slap.
"Smack!!!"
The slap landed squarely on Gravik's left cheek.
The force sent him flying into the air, spinning three and a half times!
He slammed heavily into the side wall of the conference room, creating a web of cracks, before crashing to the floor.
"Buzzing..."
Gravik lay on the ground, his ears ringing and his mind blank, unable to recover for a long while.
What happened?
I was hit?
I was sent flying by Pagon?
I am the ultimate being with power surpassing Homelander!
Even a nuclear bomb couldn't hurt me in the slightest! How could I be sent flying by a single slap?!
He struggled to lift his head, clutching his swollen left cheek, staring at Pagon standing not far away with a face full of shock and bewilderment.
Blood from the corner of his mouth flowed through his fingers, the sharp pain clearly telling him this was no hallucination.
Then, an unprecedented sense of immense humiliation surged into his heart.
He, the Supreme Leader of the Skrulls, the ruler of Earth, was actually slapped in the face publicly by his own adjutant?!
"Aaaah! I'm going to kill you!!"
Gravik leaped up from the ground like a mad Beast.
"I'm going to burn you to ashes!!!"
Gravik let out a beastly roar of fury, jumping up from the ground and staring intently at Pagon with wide eyes.
He mobilized his entire will, attempting to trigger the all-destroying High-energy Rays from his eyes.
"Die!!!"
The wrinkles on his face squeezed together from overexertion, making him look quite ridiculous.
One second passed.
Two seconds passed.
The silence in the conference room was somewhat awkward.
Pagon stood perfectly fine where he was, while Gravik, like a Joker performing a breath-holding act in a circus, had eyes that were nearly bulging out of their sockets.
But from his eyes, let alone High-energy Rays, not even a spark of Fire emerged.
Gravik maintained his wide-eyed glare, but his entire body froze in place.
"My power... where is my power?!"
Gravik's voice began to tremble, his previous lofty arrogance completely gone.
"No... this isn't real..."
Gravik backed away in terror.
But Pagon ignored his emotions, stepping forward expressionlessly and grabbing him by the collar.
Like dragging a dead dog, he ignored Gravik's struggles and forcibly dragged him before the imposter.
"Thump!"
Pagon kicked the back of Gravik's knees, forcing him to kneel at the man's feet.
Only now did he cruelly realize the fact: his power had vanished.
He knelt on the ground like a stray dog, looking at Pagon, his once most loyal subordinate.
"Why?" Gravik's voice was full of resentment.
But Pagon didn't even have the interest to answer; he just silently took half a step back and stood behind the fake Gravik.
Gravik turned his head in despair, his gaze shifting to the man who possessed the same face as him.
"You... who on Earth are you?"
"What did you do to me? Where did my power go?"
The imposter let out a light laugh from his high vantage point.
"You ask what I did?"
He slowly raised his hand and lightly brushed it over his face.
"Naturally, I did what you Skrulls... are best at."