Unholy Player Chapter 543: The Sun

"Perhaps we can draw inspiration from the 4 main Paths to solve this." A woman in her lab coat proposed the idea, pulling all gazes her direction, her hands remaining steady by her hips to mask their shaking.

Dr. Mara regarded her with steady calm. "Continue."

With every eye fixed on her, the young researcher seemed strained, yet she composed herself and began to talk, picking her words with deliberate care.

"We've long supposed that Dark Radiation acts as a type of energy. Viewing it in this light, if we grasp the traits of the 4 main Paths and the Gods' power origins, we might leverage that foundation to simplify discovering a counterbalancing origin."

As her words flowed and she noticed the full attention around her, confidence built within her, urging her onward.

"For the Blood God, His Dark Radiation carries a blood essence. Based on accounts of the four primaries, God Astrael’s Dark Radiation trait likely involves something material, something embedded in all tangible forms.

Goddess Aetheris’s ought to stem from the spiritual realm, encompassing sentiments, sensations, and mental processes.

God Ignivar draws from motion, while Goddess Nethera’s origin, in opposition, emerges from events linked to deterioration and renewal, such as entropy-fueled disintegration, organic rot, erosion, alteration, and the rebuilding that succeeds downfall instead of mere destruction."

She persisted in outlining the straightforward foundational studies, and as she did, the team of researchers caught the essence of her argument, with a few sharing swift glances as the concept fell into alignment.

"Thus, we merely have to examine the natural world to uncover Dark Radiation bearing the trait of equilibrium."

In that instant, whispers swelled once more, swiftly escalating into disorderly yells, with ideas bursting forth too rapidly for any structure.

"How about the seasons? Summer, winter, spring, fall... surely they symbolize harmony, don't they?" a voice proposed amid the clamor, keen to grasp the most evident rhythm.

Yet the notion was dismissed promptly. "That won't work. The Outer Region lacks true four seasons, and Earth's cycle has already been disrupted by us."

Next, a different suggestion emerged from the din. "Consider life and death? That forms its own sort of equilibrium."

But this proposal faced swift dismissal too. "Not viable. It overlaps too closely with traits tied to Goddess Nethera. We can't repurpose the identical element. Plus, do you realize the sheer number of lives we'd have to end to harvest that power?" The sharp query pierced the space, pragmatic and chilling, muting several into awkward quiet.

Ideas and proposals surged and subsided in waves, the racket unrelenting until another voice quelled the storm.

"How about day and night?" Henry threw out the initial notion that struck him, convinced it must hold the key they sought.

The researchers shot it down right away, showing no effort to cushion their words.

"Day and night don't signify balance. They form a cycle driven by rotation. Day occurs when sunlight bathes one side of the planet, and night when it doesn't. No equalization happens, no clashing powers get tempered. Lacking any adjustment process, no reallocation, no steadying response. It's merely presence and void," one declared, blunt and conclusive, as if reciting from a manual.

A second voice interjected with equal stark assurance. "If it stands for anything, it's supremacy and arrogance. Like declaring, 'Crave light? Very well, take it.' Then withdrawing, as if undeserved. Only to reappear, saying, 'Here I am again. Show gratitude.' "

A subdued comment supported him, laced with sympathy. "And spare a thought for the moon? It bears the glow each night, offering us a sliver to avert total shadow."

Henry stood there, stunned. He hadn't anticipated such a response. They acted as though they resented the sun, grabbing the opportunity to deride it. The rapid, firm rebuff left him unprepared.

Yet not every researcher opposed his concept, as one stepped in to back it, halting the mockery before it could gain traction.

"Suppose we shift away from Earth's sun and consider the one in the Beyond?" Dr. Mara pondered aloud. Her inflection showed she wasn't championing Henry's view but merely redirecting their perspective.

"The Beyond’s sun? That alters the picture..." a murmur agreed, and the atmosphere in the room pivoted once more, intrigue overtaking the prior scorn.

The sun of this domain differed vastly from the one they'd known forever, so much so that even calling it "sun" seemed like a loose fit.

Rather than an entity that brought day by appearing and night by vanishing, it embodied a power that encompassed and wielded both extremes, contradiction woven into its core.

During daylight, it showered the terrain with warm golden rays. By night, it flared in shades of gray, projecting stark contrasts. It never abandoned the world to darkness, but modulated its glow in harmonious measure, gauging what the realm could withstand without total overwhelm.

"This sun here oddly wields the power to generate both day and night, as though guided by its own will. It fosters harmony and stability, maintaining the planet's vitality in steady poise." Dr. Mara appeared resolute on their forthcoming study focus.

The team embraced the direction without extra debate and sprang into motion immediately.

A few contacted fellow divisions, particularly the Astral Observation group, punching codes into their wrist devices to summon aid.

The rest dashed off to gather the equipment required for seizing and gauging the sun's emitted radiation.

Solely Henry lingered, rooted in place and observing the bustle with a subtle grin and evident fascination.

He felt certain that with this crew locked onto a goal, even the sun's secrets wouldn't endure as enigmas for much time.