Unholy Player Chapter 545: Catastrophic Failure

Hours dragged on, and the unyielding heat even caused the golden metal platform under Adyr to soften noticeably. Its edges bent and lost their luster, gradually twisting from the intense pressure.

Researchers nearby had no choice but to pull back further to avoid the waves of heat expanding outward. They snatched up their instruments and hurried toward the cover of remote trees. The soldiers stationed close by retreated alongside them, preserving their guard line while falling back.

"How much longer is this going to last?" Henry questioned, his jacket already discarded, shirt soaked and sticking to his skin as perspiration streamed down his face and gathered at his neckline.

From this range, the warmth still bore down heavily, dense enough to burn his lungs with each inhale. Still, gazing at Adyr—whose flesh had reddened and steamed—he persisted without blisters or apparent harm, his form sustained by extraordinary toughness.

"We'll keep it up until sunset," Dr. Mara responded. Her focus remained fixed on the monitors, compelling her to track every fluctuating reading. "If my theory holds, we'll have to extend through the darkness too, finishing a complete day-to-night loop."

Their goal involved channeling Dark Radiation while upholding its equilibrium trait. Just a single daylight phase wouldn't suffice. The evening phase needed completion as well.

At her words, Henry grumbled in resignation, "Well, the chill of night shouldn't hit this hard," as he swiped his sleeve across his brow, the moisture unrelenting.

He figured that surviving the day's blaze would make the evening seem tame, perhaps allowing his frame a chance to mend.

Dr. Mara offered a vague grin in reply. "I'm not convinced of that." Her voice stayed casual, yet her watchful stare lacked any comfort.

Henry grasped her implication only as dusk arrived and the Sun's golden rays morphed once more into stark white and black hues.

As initial beams of colorless light struck the enormous antenna and the focused rays beamed down on Adyr's form, they struck like a dense silver shaft.

Adyr's overheated body and the golden base below it cooled swiftly, vapor trails rising from his surface as the chill inverted in an instant.

The flush on his skin drained away rapidly, and aided by his healing, it regained its usual tone. Then, with full night descending, it unveiled a peril utterly reversed from the daylight.

This illumination wasn't just chilly—it was glacial.

Merely hours into the dark, Adyr's whole physique started to solidify entirely. His epidermis dulled and hardened, icing over from within. Before long, his entire structure resembled a sculpture from solid frost, translucent and frosted under the achromatic shine.

The sight was alarming. One blow from a mallet appeared ready to splinter him into fragments.

His breathing rhythm ceased too. No more up-and-down of his torso, erasing all traces of life. His mouth stayed sealed, his neck still, rendering him utterly lifeless in appearance.

Concern finally etched across Dr. Mara's features as she hunched over her device, grip clenching tighter.

"Circulation in the blood has halted entirely. Vital organs are beginning to fail," she relayed the tablet's data to fellow scientists nearby, her phrasing detached yet the meaning dire.

Everyone knew persisting would end Adyr definitively this time, not via injury, but via complete cessation.

"Admit it's over. Halt it immediately," Henry urged.

He'd resolved: should these lab-coated experts push on, he'd command his troops to step in. He'd dismantle the gear by force if necessary.

Luckily, it didn't reach that point, for Dr. Mara relented at last. "The test is a bust. Cut the energy supply."

With their hypotheses crumbling, the remaining experts complied obediently, methodically powering down the apparatus to wrap up the trial.

Yet right then, an alteration stirred. Everyone halted in place, the atmosphere turning eerie.

"This isn't right." Dr. Mara spotted it first, her screen displaying erratic surges, figures leaping in illogical sequences.

Dark Radiation levels on the displays rocketed to impossible heights. This occurred despite the sunlight transmitter already deactivating. The setup behaved erratically now.

Gradually, every electronic tool faltered. Screens blinked out, processors crashed, and the huge antenna jerked before quitting. Power surges faded, sirens cutting off abruptly.

Area floodlights winked off sequentially, casting the vicinity into shadow, with just the Sun's dual-toned glow softly bathing the earth and bleaching expressions into ghostly visages.

Without Henry's cue, soldier leaders barked for emergency illumination, commands echoing sharply in the gloom.

Yet handheld torches failed too. The STF's powered armor ceased operating. They hung as inert shells, mechanisms silent and screens dark, like tech choked out of existence.

"Approach Adyr. Secure his form and relocate," Henry directed, sensing an unexpected glitch unfolding.

Regrettably, the persistent frost emanating from the golden dais made nearing him challenging, the vicinity laden with a piercing, numbing frost.

Lacking enhanced suits, standard STF members proved ineffective here. Even elite troops in cutting-edge attire advanced but retreated short of the target. Their limbs iced up—digits rigid, legs seizing—risking blackout from the severity.

It surpassed ordinary frostbite. This was Dark Radiation's force. So potent, the freeze gripped their cognition alongside their bodies.

"We'll give it a shot."

Out from the woodland shadows, three shapes dashed into view. Clad in matching white outfits like the elite squad, their forms sliced through the faint dual-light with haste.

Leading was a figure with a flaxen tail swaying in his sprint, scarlet gaze gleaming amid the nocturnal veil. Victor, face already contorted in dread prior to entering the open space.

Trailing him, a touch behind, was Dalin Ravencourt. Her auburn locks flared under the rays. Eren lumbered after, his hulking frame boasting coppery, alloy-hardened hide, edging toward the dais.

They'd patrolled the woodland fringe encircling the test site, ensuring no threats breached from outside. Hidden among the boughs, they'd observed while experts focused inward.

The instant signals dropped on their comms and oddity struck, they charged over. Witnessing the disorder, they instantly grasped the dire mishap.

Spotting the trio of Rank 3 Practitioners as captains, troops eased up. Henry and scientists unwound similarly. They hoped robust physiques could breach what weaker ones couldn't.

"What the hell did you idiots attempt?" Victor bellowed while charging the dais, beholding Adyr encased in ice, dermis nearly see-through, as though wholly transformed to crystal, veins of sinew and skeleton dimly traceable under the gloss.

Faced with his comrade sprawled still, seemingly perished, he surged with full might, yet the onslaught of cold overwhelmed him still.

As a Practitioner favoring [Will] primarily with [Physique] secondary, the icy grip hampered his strides increasingly near the epicenter.

Dalin fared likewise. Lacking [Resilience] to shield psyche and form, her inhalations grew shallow and ragged, limbs locking involuntarily.

Both attempted invoking their Spark abilities for aid. Then they discovered this frigid force disrupted their manifestations. No Spark within their Sanctuaries heeded the call.

Eren bore it most steadily. Bolstered equally in [Resilience] and [Physique], he overtook the pair swiftly, taking point. His frame resisted the chill's intrusion into mobility longer.

Mere paces from the figure, his systems waned too. Sight tunneled, cognition lagged, and obscurity invaded his awareness.