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

"I’m going to check. Are you coming?" Kaelor declared while twin bursts of red jet flames erupted from under his feet, lifting him smoothly into the air.

That power didn't originate from his mecha frame; instead, it derived from a Spark technique within the Blood Path.

Even after his Path shifted from Blood to AXION, this distinctive trait allowed him to wield his Blood Path Sparks effortlessly.

Arvyn paused, unsure if she should trail him, as the terrifying image and might of those two entities lingered in her thoughts like a haunting dream.

She glanced about and noticed that the sturdiest Practitioners, such as Zephan, Throgar, and Liora, were beginning to stir, rising with labored, sluggish motions. Then her eyes returned to Kaelor, and she replied, "Yes."

She called forth her crimson wings next, and together they ascended toward the mountain's summit.

Upon reaching the spot, an eerie sight unfolded before them. Shattered metallic gadgets were strewn across the terrain, mangled and fractured like discarded trash, with humans sprawled nearby, out cold—some prone, others supine.

This was precisely where the two Gods had touched down, yet oddly, the area lacked gore. Every fallen human appeared to breathe shallowly, their lives intact, merely their consciousnesses dimmed.

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

A single figure remained alert, positioned squarely in the midst, erect and still, while the surroundings seemed forsaken.

"Who are you?" Arvyn questioned reflexively. Yet as the man raised his head and met her eyes, a chill ran through her core, signaling that she'd erred in catching his notice.

His gaze held a profound scarlet hue.

It nearly matched the scarlet shade that defined Blood Path Practitioners, yet this individual before them carried an extra depth, a weightier intensity in those eyes.

It resembled an infinite ocean of blood churning inside those twin orbs, unfolding into an immeasurable scarlet realm that dwarfed her merely by locking eyes with it.

The revered title surfaced in their thoughts as they confronted that stare.

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

For a moment, they wondered if their sect had at last triumphed, and the figure ahead was indeed Him, reborn in a form capable of movement and words.

But his following statement dashed that illusion.

"It should be me asking who you are and what you’re doing in my territory."

Realization struck the pair at once.

"So it was you. The ruler of this place," Kaelor whispered, articulating his realization, his stare locked tight as though fearing to miss a detail by blinking.

He longed to inquire about the nature of those prior two Gods and the reason this man so closely mirrored the Blood God, yet arriving arrivals disrupted them, crashing in like a follow-up surge.

Zephan appeared first in a blaze of silver lightning, the atmosphere crackling sharply for an instant, his face etched with turmoil as his eyes widened in astonishment upon settling on Adyr.

Adyr's resemblance to a Blood Path Practitioner barely registered. It ranked lowest among the whirlwind of queries racing through his head.

Liora and Throgar followed suit, with additional Practitioners continually streaming to the site—touching down, charging forward, or dropping from above—all driven by one shared goal: uncovering the truth behind their sole burning question.

Precisely what force had eradicated all the Paths they'd upheld and trusted until this point, supplanting them uniformly with a fresh one named AXION?

—-

Just one day slipped by since the duo of Gods had descended, shattering the convictions of every entity in the Outer Region within mere hours, sowing dread, whispers, and an unnatural hush heavy with strain.

Countless queries demanded resolution from all sides. Yet prior to tackling them, the Humans needed to grasp the events that had transpired first.

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

Beyond senior leaders and scholars, even the 12 City Managers—regardless of their advancing years or frail states—had journeyed to Beyond for the gathering. Positioned at their spots, they observed with patience the individual at the table's forefront, awaiting his initial words.

Adyr rested there composedly, cradling a mug of hot tea. He sipped it leisurely, then placed it back on the surface, the soft clink of ceramic against timber piercing the silence. "So that’s what happened."

He'd been absorbing Henry and Selina's briefing on the occurrences during his slumber, without a single interjection so far.

Attempts by scientists to rouse him via the sun's Dark Radiation, the sudden emergence of two portals amid their trial, followed by an abrupt force that transformed every Practitioner's Path to AXION across the Outer Region.

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

It went beyond that; alterations affected Paths in the immediate vicinity. The whole Outer Region, encompassing all Human Players, had unified in change overnight. None of the four primary Paths survived. All had been overwritten by his AXION Path in a flash, as though reality itself had been recast while they slept.

Nor was that the sole shift. Selina rose and supplemented the account. "Apart from our Paths, our races also changed from Human to Nephilim in the system panels."

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

Hitherto, it was a vanished or obscure lineage known solely from digs in ruins, but now that label resurfaced peculiarly, imprinting itself on their Players as a core system trait.

"That’s interesting," Adyr remarked while accessing his character interface to inspect the updates there too.

[Name]:

[Title]: Monarch of the Black and White

[Race]: Sanguine Nephilim → Sanguine Arbiter

[Path]: Primora, AXION → AXION

—

Two primary alterations marked his character interface. Firstly, his lineage had evolved from Nephilim to Arbiter.

Secondly, the Path termed 'Primora' had vanished entirely, leaving just AXION in its place.

Overwhelmed by the stack of unresolved inquiries, Adyr chose to address them candidly. "My race seems to have changed from Nephilim to Arbiter as well. Does anyone here know what it means?"

In his visions, Adyr recalled his exchange with Primora's originator and the instance when he was called Arbiter.

Back then, various factors had kept him from pondering it deeply, but now, with the word appearing in his profile, he required clarity on its significance.

"Arbiter?" The scholars and 12 City Managers appeared familiar with the word, as they began swapping looks, probing for mutual recognition.

One scholar then stepped up to clarify what they understood.

"It’s a term we also heard from findings in archaeological excavations on Earth," she explained, pressing several buttons on her wrist gadget.

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

It displayed a weathered stone slab. Bizarre runes etched its face. The indentations bore the patina of centuries. Even Adyr encountered these markings anew. They were alien to him, unseen in his former existence.

"So far, this is the only finding in which the term Arbiter appears, based on our decoded language."

She proceeded to recite the symbols' rendition, her gaze shifting from the projection to the assembled group.

"It basically says only one sentence. An Arbiter is the High Judge who pronounces the final, unalterable sentence."

A City Manager chimed in, "When we first found it, we thought it was a title given to high-ranking individuals in the civilizations that existed when this tablet was written. But now you’re saying your race changed to this, which means we were mistaken. It wasn’t a title at all, but the name of a completely different race."

Abruptly, human chronicles veered into profounder territory ripe for debate.

"So the Human race is also a hybrid race? Our ancestors were Nephilim, and if we go even further back, we trace to another ancient race called Arbiter?" As the concept solidified, a researcher ventured to link the threads, rapidly weaving together their prior knowledge.