Unholy Player Chapter 544: Enduring the Heat

As the sun's hue shifted, the morning chill began to dissipate, the air's biting edge easing away gradually.

The pale light gradually shaped itself, transforming into warm golden tones as it geared up to touch the ground with a fresh dawn and another task.

On this occasion, its task extended beyond merely heating the earth; it also aimed to awaken a man from his deep sleep that had lasted for months.

Away from the city of humans, on a high mountain summit, within a clearing ringed by thick woods, a big crowd bustled with frantic speed around a huge metal contraption.

"Make it higher. We need to capture the energy properly," Dr. Mara yelled, looking up at the giant metal framework while positioned amid the scrambling staff in white coats.

It looked like a colossal antenna designed to detect signals from above, yet now its role had changed to gather solar radiation, compress it, and direct it toward one specific point.

Under this imposing framework lay a broad bed made of gold-hued metal, upon which a man with red hair and perfect skin rested half-exposed, unmoving on the chilly metallic surface.

His wings, black and white, stretched out on either side of the platform, feathers draped over the borders like ornate flags, making him appear more like a sculpted figure than a breathing person—except for the rhythmic up and down of his chest showing life lingered.

After depleting his vital energy and slipping into slumber, Adyr’s form appeared to have regained much of its vigor. The creases in his skin had almost disappeared, and a good portion of his glow had come back. Nevertheless, there was no indication he'd stir awake in the near future.

"Dr. Mara, are you sure this will work?" Henry inquired from close by, his tone laced with concern as he observed the still form on the bed.

The principle behind the giant antenna was simple. It would boost the solar energy it pulled in and channel it to one spot—Adyr’s body.

Still, it brought fierce heat along with it, and similar to a focusing glass, it might set ablaze anything it targeted if the intensity spiked too high.

Dr. Mara grasped his apprehension. "Don’t worry, Mr. Henry. We already know Mr. Adyr’s capacity. With his current durability and healing speed, this level of heat will not harm him."

She shifted her attention back to the prone figure and softened her voice. "Besides, if we do nothing, his awakening could take several more months. Are you sure we have time to wait?"

A full month had passed since the Blood Path devotees showed up in the city.

From that point, Henry had been delaying them, making discussions ambiguous and commitments restrained, yet their tolerance was wearing out.

Henry had few tricks remaining to use. Arvyn especially pressed hard each day, insisting on greater concessions, her demands mounting like an unspoken ultimatum.

She had no interest in technology, so humans needed to offer her alternative demonstrations to hold her back.

Staging an attack to eliminate her was impossible too. During the last month, humans discovered her true might. In a so-called 'friendly' bout, even Zephan, Liora, and Throgar combined couldn't hold out beyond 10 seconds against her. Their joint assault concluded without forming a proper fight.

That fact alone revealed the extent of her elevated attributes and the volume of blood she'd ingested to achieve such strength.

Without Kaelor nearby to curb her tendencies, hovering close to suppress her whims, she would have gone beyond mere practice fights and begun slaying folks at random by now.

At minimum, rousing Adyr could perhaps narrow the strength divide between sides, or at least prevent it from growing worse.

"You’re not planning to stop us, are you, Mr. Henry?" Dr. Mara questioned, her voice tinged with doubt as she examined him, as if assessing his loyalties amid the risks.

The site wasn't just occupied by researchers in white coats. STF members in powered armor stood alert all around, stiff and vigilant, plus elite squads in white outfits positioned across the area, monitoring every action with unwavering scrutiny.

The soldiers in white were eyeing the scientists especially closely. Their stares tracked limbs and instruments, hinting at an underlying strain between groups, poised to erupt into disorder at any spark.

They formed the unit selected to receive awakening from Adyr via his Path as soon as he devised the method.

Their regimen hadn't solely honed their skills. They'd also dedicated time to eager readiness, gearing up to serve a deity, their minds molded by fresh church doctrines and convictions ingrained until they became second nature.

Identical groundwork was advancing on Earth, preparing all humankind for Adyr’s comeback bearing a Path.

All media sources, broadcasts, and publications proclaimed a dawning era, where equilibrium would form the core faith and the Beyond would turn into humanity’s fresh domain. Adyr featured prominently in every narrative, portrayed as the guide ushering them toward this hopeful existence and realm, his name echoed relentlessly until it rang with certainty.

These white-clad troops, turned zealous devotees, harbored rising irritation toward the scientists since the latter relied on empirical methods over divine will, convinced their experiments forged a god. Thus, a brewing conflict between devotion and discovery was emerging.

Henry sighed deeply, weariness evident. "Don’t worry. As long as you wake him up, I have no other concerns."

Henry found himself in an odd spot. He backed and cultivated a faith for mankind on one side, while observing a scientific team attempt to revive that faith's destined god via technology on the other. The irony stirred odd reflections he couldn't shake off.

he mused, recalling boyhood trips to church alongside his father and grandfather, those far-off, ancient, serene times that seemed now like echoes from another's life.

"It’s starting," Dr. Mara announced, raising her face to the sun as the initial golden beams began arriving.

Henry looked up too and felt the warmth on his lined features, letting it soothe him and fade the recollections of that pure youth.

—

"Initiate power," Dr. Mara commanded once she'd completed her last verifications on the tablet she held.

Upon her approval, the scientists at the consoles hit their keys and activated the current, wires snaking out to the framework like arteries supplying blood to an organ.

The enormous antenna emitted a deep drone and commenced a subtle quiver.

Sunlight hitting its frame altered, breaking into minuscule, particle-resembling bits like glowing insects, all streaming toward the antenna’s core in a compact, rotating rush.

"Is it working?" Henry wondered, observing the light morph into those odd configurations.

"We’ll see shortly," Dr. Mara answered, keeping her focus on the tablet, before issuing her follow-up directive. "Start the amplification and purification."

The antenna’s drone climbed higher, and the quakes grew stronger, dispatching mild ripples across the soil and causing the ground to shake underfoot.

The compact, orb-like light bits at the hub drew together, filtering through the device's base mechanism and flooding into the lens-like chamber below, erupting in a dazzling flash that forced eyes to avert briefly.

Noticing this, Dr. Mara issued further commands. "Open the passage. Let it flow."

The accumulated light in the lens burst free instantly, propelled downward to the golden metal platform holding Adyr, forming a dense ray that seemed tangible in the atmosphere.

In that instant, all present paused breathing and stared as the focused light contacted skin.

Adyr showed no response. His form stayed immobile, yet where the beam struck, his flesh flushed red, and faint smoke trails ascended, twisting skyward before the breeze dispersed them.

"The heat intensity is higher than I expected," Dr. Mara scowled, seeing his body start to sear, the tablet's data updating more rapidly than desired.

They weren't sending just ordinary sunlight. It was boosted and packed pure Dark Radiation.

Though non-ionizing, at such power it struck like a magical oven, inflicting a harsh, ongoing scorch at the targeted area.

"What now?" Henry's anxiety showed clearly as he saw Adyr roasting alive, certain the trial had gone wrong.

Dr. Mara fixed on the metrics. "We’re continuing. He just needs to endure."

The scorching was severe, but Adyr wasn't ordinary. This by itself shouldn't roast him fatally.