Unholy Player Chapter 550: Revealing the Secrets (Part 1)

“I’m heading up to investigate. You joining me?” Kaelor declared, as twin bursts of crimson flames erupted from under his boots, propelling him skyward in a smooth ascent.

This power didn’t stem from his mecha frame; instead, it came from a Spark ability tied to the Blood Path.

Even though his Path had shifted from Blood to AXION, this Path’s special trait allowed him to wield his Blood Path Sparks effortlessly.

Arvyn wavered on whether to trail after him, since the image and might of those two entities lingered in her thoughts like a haunting terror.

She glanced about and noticed that the burliest Practitioners, such as Zephan, Throgar, and Liora, were beginning to stir, hauling themselves upright with labored, sluggish efforts. Afterward, she turned back to Kaelor and replied, “Yes.”

Next, she called forth her scarlet wings, and together they soared toward the mountain’s summit.

Upon reaching it, an odd spectacle met their eyes. Shattered metallic gadgets were strewn across the terrain, mangled and fractured like discarded refuse, while humans sprawled everywhere, out cold, some prone, others supine.

This was precisely the spot where the two Gods had touched down, yet curiously, it lacked gore. Every fainted human appeared to breathe shallowly, their lives intact, merely their consciousnesses dimmed.

Amid that disorder, the most striking oddity drew their attention.

A single man remained awake, positioned staunchly at the heart of the mess, rigid and still as the surroundings seemed forsaken.

“Who are you?” Arvyn questioned instinctively. Yet the instant the man raised his head and fixed his eyes on her, a chill in her core warned her that capturing his notice had been unwise.

His eyes gleamed with profound scarlet.

It nearly matched the scarlet hue that defined Blood Path Practitioners, but this man’s stare carried an extra weight, something more profound.

It resembled an infinite ocean of blood churning in those twin eyes, unfolding into an immense scarlet realm that dwarfed her merely from a glance.

The revered name surfaced in their thoughts as they locked onto that look.

The aura they perceived echoed the very presence they’d always detected from the Blood God they sought to revive.

They even began wondering if their sect had at last triumphed, and the figure before them was indeed Him, reborn in a form capable of motion and words.

However, the man’s following statement dashed their hopes.

“I ought to be the one inquiring about your identity and your business in my domain.”

Realization struck the pair at once.

“So you’re the one. The lord of this domain,” Kaelor whispered, articulating his realization, his stare unwavering as though he feared missing a detail by blinking.

He longed to probe about the nature of those prior two Gods and the reason this man so mirrored the Blood God, but fresh arrivals cut him off, arriving like a follow-up surge.

Zephan burst in first amid a streak of silvery thunder, the atmosphere crackling sharply for a moment, his face etched with alarm as his eyes widened in astonishment upon spotting Adyr.

That Adyr resembled a Blood Path Practitioner barely registered. It ranked lowest among the whirlwind of queries in his head.

Shortly after, Liora and Throgar touched down, followed by a growing throng of Practitioners who converged on the site—some sprinting, others gliding in—all driven by a singular quest: unraveling their pressing query.

Precisely what force had eradicated every Path they’d upheld and trusted until then, supplanting them wholesale with this novel AXION?

—-

A single day slipped by since the duo of Gods had descended, upending the convictions of every soul in the Outer Region within mere hours, spawning dread, whispers, and an unnatural hush thick with strain.

Countless queries demanded resolution from all sides. Yet prior to tackling them, the Humans needed to grasp the event’s essence first.

Within Beyond, at the core of the Human City, a cluster of top-tier officials assembled around a circular table in the conference chamber.

Beyond seasoned leaders and scholars, the 12 City Managers had journeyed to Beyond despite their advancing years and frail states to partake. Ensconced in their seats, they all observed the figure at the table’s head with quiet anticipation, eager for his initial words.

Adyr occupied that spot with composure, cradling a mug of hot tea. He sipped it, then placed it gently on the surface, the soft clink of ceramic against timber piercing the hush. “So that’s the sequence of events.”

For some time, he’d absorbed Henry and Selina’s account of the occurrences during his slumber, never once cutting in.

Scholars attempting to rouse him via the sun’s Dark Radiation, the sudden emergence of two gates amid their trial, and then an abrupt force that altered every Practitioner’s Path to AXION across the Outer Region.

Even Adyr felt a jolt upon hearing it, evident only in the brief hitch in his breathing.

The impact extended beyond that; Paths in the immediate vicinity transformed. The whole Outer Region—encompassing Human Players—had shifted in a day. No traces remained of the four primary Paths. All had been overwritten by his AXION Path instantly, as though reality itself had been revised in the night.

Nor was that the sole alteration. Selina rose and elaborated on the briefing. “Besides our Paths, our races switched from Human to Nephilim in the system interfaces.”

The mention of ‘Nephilim’ spoken openly prompted the 12 City Managers and chief researchers to fidget uneasily in their chairs.

Until now, it had been a vanished or obscure lineage known solely from digs in ancient sites, but suddenly the label resurfaced oddly, branding their Players and etching into their system profiles.

“That’s intriguing,” Adyr remarked, pulling up his character panel to inspect the modifications himself.

[Name]: Adyr Hellcraft

[Title]: Monarch of the Black and White

[Race]: Sanguine Nephilim → Sanguine Arbiter

[Path]: Primora, AXION → AXION

—

Two primary updates marked his character panel. The initial shift turned his race from Nephilim to Arbiter.

The other erased the Path ‘Primora’ entirely, retaining solely AXION.

Overwhelmed by the stack of enigmas awaiting clarity, Adyr chose to address them candidly. “My race appears to have evolved from Nephilim to Arbiter too. Does anybody comprehend its significance?”

Adyr recalled, from his dream, his exchange with Primora’s originator and the instance he was called Arbiter.

Back then, various factors had kept him from pondering it, but now, with the word glaring from his panel, he needed its true essence.

“Arbiter?” The scholars and 12 City Managers seemed faintly familiar with it, as they traded looks, probing one another for validation.

Subsequently, a researcher stepped forward to clarify their knowledge.

“It’s a word we encountered in Earth’s archaeological discoveries,” she explained, activating her wrist gadget with a series of taps.

A three-dimensional holo-projection materialized over the table’s midpoint, sizable for all to view distinctly.

It depicted a stone slab. Bizarre runes etched its face. The etchings bore the patina of centuries. Even Adyr beheld these markings anew. They were alien to his past existence.

“To date, this stands as our sole discovery featuring the term Arbiter, per our linguistic deciphering.”

She proceeded to recite the symbols’ rendition, her gaze alternating between the projection and the assembled faces.

“It conveys just one phrase. An Arbiter serves as the Supreme Judge who delivers the ultimate, irrevocable verdict.”

A City Manager chimed in, “Upon initial discovery, we assumed it denoted a rank for elite figures in the societies of that era. But with your race now bearing this, it implies our error. It wasn’t a rank, but the designation of an entirely distinct race.”

Abruptly, human origins unfolded into a richer narrative demanding exploration.

“Does this mean the Human race is hybrid too? Our forebears were Nephilim, and delving deeper, we link to an elder lineage termed Arbiter?” As the concept solidified, a researcher ventured to link the threads, rapidly weaving together their accumulated insights.