Unholy Player Chapter 546: The Encounter

"We need the help of Rank 4s." Henry grasped the severity of the crisis. Yet it was already somewhat too late.

Communications severed, they couldn't contact a soul in the city. Dispatching a runner might fail to bring assistance promptly, especially before the freezing cold wrapped up its grim work.

Adyr wasn't the sole soul at risk of succumbing to the frost. The trio of Rank 3 Players were getting dragged into the peril as well. Victor, Henry's very own son, numbered among them.

What started as an effort to rouse a single individual now teetered on the brink of claiming four vital lives—a domino effect from a single choice, careening far beyond anyone's grasp.

Despair crashed down upon the whole experimental grounds in an instant. Their blunder loomed to batter not only them but humankind itself with catastrophic force.

Right then, as hope flickered toward extinction, an unexpected twist sliced through the turmoil.

In the midst of the frenzy and abrupt hush, two enormous edifices materialized on either flank of the test zone.

"W-what are those things...?" Researchers and troops gaped in astonishment, rooted more by bewilderment than the dropping chill.

These edifices sprang up from thin air, utterly unannounced. No clamor of building or touchdown preceded them.

The pair resembled colossal portals. Towering and vast beyond measure, their outlines cut keenly against the wan atmosphere.

The portal to the left unveiled a realm invisible to ordinary sight. Still, a torrent of agonized cries leaked forth. That clamor chilled spines everywhere. It instilled profound terror and apprehension that clenched hearts, roiled guts, and numbed fingers.

The right-hand one contrasted sharply, revealing a realm brimming with radiance, coziness, and solace. The noises emanating from it resembled a symphony, myriad melodies weaving in unison, joined by joyous chuckles from crowds, merging like verses in a tune that eased tensions unbidden.

These clashing influences—one of hopelessness, fright, and doom; the other of boundless joy and optimism—engulfed every person there with an unfathomable feeling, pulling at them and luring toward the thresholds, dividing their gut reactions between repulsion and yielding.

While they still puzzled over the significance of these portals, a pair of immense forms started to step forth from within. The very air around seemed to push back against their advance.

They appeared otherworldly, yet eerily recognizable.

"They are..." Dr. Mara alongside the chief scientists gawked with bulging eyes at the pair of divine-like entities unveiling from the portals, all seized by an identical twinge of recognition instantly, their thoughts flipping through dusty records and long-buried discussions.

Before long, the source of that recognition dawned on them all.

"They are Nephilim?"

Throughout Earth's myriad eras, whenever a cycle hit, human society, wisdom, and achievements got wiped clean, the planet scouring itself bare regardless of prior heights.

But each reset left scraps as buried artifacts. Erasure was never total. These relics hinted at the cycles' reality, interred profoundly yet destined to resurface through luck or fervor.

Certain finds, such as pyramids or Mayan relics, Adyr had picked up later from the 12 City Managers.

Others delved deeper, holding inscriptions and sketches, shards of preserved recollections.

In those sketches, one entity loomed large and recurrent in scholarly probes. It recurred frequently because the identical shape cropped up across disconnected locales. Varied societies had captured the selfsame depiction.

The images showed a colossal breed with hulking builds, noted in deciphered texts as offspring of deities and mortals, a primordial mixed lineage dubbed the Nephilim.

Up till this point, scholars had only chanced upon rough sketches of Nephilim in old ruins. They'd chalked them up to fanciful creations from bygone eras, inflated legends rendered in strokes and marks.

That said, upon reaching Beyond, their views had shifted. Those artifacts sparked fresh arguments about their authenticity. Far too many elements were lining up. Too many former impossibles had turned factual.

Now, witnessing those twin colossal forms stride from gateways evoking paradise and perdition, they spotted the resemblances at once. It aligned with the antique illustrations in scale and stance. No fluke could account for it.

Beyond the scholars, Henry too sensed that recognition, the epiphany hitting him like a tangible strike, parching his mouth.

"They were real?" he whispered. An odd, inexplicable emotion welled up inside him, blending astonishment, apprehension, and incredulity.

To date, he'd aided the 12 City Managers in hunting links between Earth and Beyond. They'd uncovered naught but scattered bits that refused to connect, suggestions lacking closure.

Solely Adyr grasped one such link—the tongues of Beyond, akin to Latin and Ancient Chinese—yet he'd withheld it, since sharing meant exposing his origins from an alternate Earth.

For the first instance, the Nephilim's reality, echoing figures from Earth's digs, emerged as a tangible tie binding the realms through history, beyond mere speculation, visible right before their gaze.

Although Rhys had described glimpsing two portals and two outlines amid his rousing, his vision stayed hazy and vague—more vibe than vision.

Beneath the aura of those duo presences, every human remained stock-still. They observed immobile, frames stiff and thoughts wiped under the magnitude confronting them, surrendering their destinies to those grips, aware that resistance now would prove pointless.

The Nephilim likewise spotted the minuscule figures below. They tilted their heads and cast a fleeting glance, so nonchalant it stung worse than enmity. Then, expressions unaltered, their sights turned to the lone form sprawled midway on the gilded dais.

They observed Adyr's form motionlessly for a spell. Profound sentiments flickered in their gazes, contained and inscrutable, recollections and assessments blending mutely.

At last, in flawless unison, they lifted their arms from their portals. Enormous digits extended toward him, deliberate and exacting despite the bulk.

It seemed they intended contact, yet they halted mere inches away, a razor-thin, torturous void between flesh and void.

Next, they uttered in matched rhythm, their ghostly tones intertwining and saturating the vicinity, bearing the timbre of an archaic rite, an edict unfit for mortal hearing.

"Stir, O One of Ages."

From their portals then gushed a dark, suffocating radiance and a pale, searing brilliance, inundating the area in dual hues mirroring the Sun.

—-

"Where am I now?" Adyr scanned the boundless void around him, his words tiny in a realm that swallowed echoes.

The void held neither shadow nor gleam, yet his vision pierced the blankness clear as day, or perhaps his psyche grasped it sans sight.

Thus far in his slumber, as he sought to restore his vitality, true repose had eluded him. Visions had assailed him repeatedly, so sharp they defied rejection.

Across every vision, his consciousness stayed whole. He retained most even as one faded and the next surged. It resembled drifting through existences without shedding his core.

Certain visions placed him on Earth, alternately as a healer mending the ill, a laborer at build sites, or a parent vacationing with kin, myriad existences unfolding dreamlike.

Others thrust him into alien realms with novel peoples. He endured varied fates... fates and wonders unknown in his waking days. Some closed in profound sorrow. Others in bliss. But each evoked a profound longing, like recalling a haven never truly visited.

And at the visions' close, he awoke in this barren expanse solitary, bereft of vault, barriers, or edge to gauge.

Lacking distractions, he surveyed and began traversing the shapeless floor. It appeared woven of pure luminescence. Solid beneath his tread, it yielded no footfall noise.

Following an extended trek in this eternal domain, something at last caught his eye.

Not far off, two seats faced one another, a peculiar fixture amid the nullity.

And upon one seat, a figure perched still, as if awaiting his arrival.