Unholy Player

Chapter 453: Where Is It?

"Isn’t this dragon supposed to be black?" the woman inquired as she examined the submissive Blood Dragon, her gaze moving over its blood-red scales with a curious tilt in her voice.

Apparently, she was familiar with this Rank 4 Spark and how it normally appeared.

She returned her attention to the man kneeling in front of her, pinning him in place with her gaze. "Why is it radiating the smell of corrupted blood? Do you mind explaining that to me?"

The man just stared with wide eyes and shaking pupils. His mind was all over the place, too broken to even think about the question.

One of the robed men behind him slapped the back of his head, sending a shock through the air that caused him to jolt back, forcing his mouth to work.

"I used a treasure."

"Treasure?" The word caused her to pause. Not only she, but the other robed cult members gathered around the blood pond turned and tilted their heads to face him at once, their hidden expressions shifting in silent surprise.

"What was the name of the treasure? Where did you find it?" she asked with urgency, making it clear she was far more than just interested in it.

At that moment, the man understood that the only thing he had that could save his life was what he knew. He tried to control his breathing and think about each word before saying it slowly. "It was a treasure inherited from my ancestors. It’s called Heart of the Blood Palace."

The moment the name left his mouth, the mood changed. Surprise sharpened into shock and barely contained excitement. A faint murmur ran through the gathered cultists.

"Stand up." She didn’t raise her voice, but it still hit him so hard his eardrums, his brain, and his whole skull felt like they were about to burst, making him scramble to his feet at once.

The cult leader met his eyes again. The red mask hid her expression, yet he could feel a sharp, greedy excitement in the way her presence pressed on him, her tone softening a little as she asked, "And... where is this treasure now?"

Sevrak was now completely sure they cared deeply about the item. Whatever their reason was, this treasure clearly meant a tremendous deal to them. So he chose not to say it was a one-time-use treasure already destroyed. Instead, he pushed that truth down and reached for the lie that might keep him alive.

"I lost it..." he began, then shook his head like he’d misspoken and corrected himself. "It was stolen by my enemies."

The cultists knew the name of the treasure; that much was obvious. But based on the questions they asked and the way they behaved, Sevrak could tell they had no idea what it actually looked like or what it really did.

If they didn’t know it was a single-use item, then they also didn’t know it had already turned to dust. He grabbed onto that gap in their knowledge like a lifeline, hoping they couldn’t read his mind or drag the truth out of him. With that thought steadying him, the lie slipped out much more easily.

However, he was completely wrong and would soon regret lying to them.

"Stolen?" The woman repeated the word, genuinely surprised for a moment, and then she started laughing.

It was a beautiful sound, smooth and almost melodic, but something in it was so sharp that Sevrak’s whole body went stiff. Every instinct he had screamed that he had just stepped off a cliff.

"You fool. Do you think I don’t know it is just a one-time-use treasure? And that it probably already turned to dust the moment you used it on your puny dragon?" Her voice was amused, still laced with laughter, every word dripping with mockery.

Then, at the very end of her sentence, the warmth vanished all at once.

Her next words tore out of her like a banshee’s scream.

"WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO LIE TO IN THE PRESENCE OF A GOD?"

Her voice crashed into his face; the sound itself landed like a blow. His skin split, tearing open as if an invisible whip had slashed across it, blood and flesh spraying the ground in wet, bright streaks.

The man who had once ruled a kingdom, the man others had called with the revered title Dragon Rider, crashed to the floor pitifully in a mess of limbs and blood.

Pain roared through him, raw and endless, unlike anything he had ever known. Fear followed right behind it, so strong and cold that for a moment he doubted his own memories of what "fear" had meant before this.

For the first time in his life, Sevrak felt completely powerless and fragile in front of someone.

After upgrading his Blood Dragon, he had finally left the Outer Region, convinced he was strong enough now to step into the Midlands to chase new growth and bigger opportunities. He had imagined himself rising higher, carving out a place for his name among stronger powers.

Instead, not long after crossing into these lands, he was snatched away by these people and dragged into this nightmare before he could even enjoy the sight of a single city or feel any sense of achievement.

Now, lying on the ground with his face torn apart, he regretted leaving his kingdom more than anything he had ever regretted in his life.

The power he had trusted so much, the strength that had made him feel untouchable back home, was nothing here. Just a grain of sand in a vast desert, something a lazy breeze could scatter and forget.

While he writhed on the floor in agony and regret, fingers clawing at empty air, a hand grabbed his hair. It yanked his head up roughly, making his neck crack in pain.

His face was only blood and bone now. There was not a single patch of skin left.

The white of bone shone beneath the red, and both of his eyes had burst, leaving behind nothing but wet, empty sockets. Even so, he could feel a presence close to him, feel the warmth of a breath that wasn’t his, and hear the woman’s voice as clearly as if she were whispering into his ear.

"I will give you one more chance. You are lucky. Even destroyed, I am still genuinely interested in those crumbled pieces." The cult leader spoke in a quiet, steady tone, like she was talking about an object on a table, not the last thing his life depended on. "Now tell me where it is."

At last, Sevrak understood there was truly no room left for bargaining. There would be no trade, no trick, and no way out. So he let the last of his resistance drop and told the truth.

"It is in the Outer Region. A place we used to call Twin Mountain. It has been more than 30 days since I used the treasure there and left the dust behind. It must still be somewhere around that area." The words stumbled out at first, broken and slurred by his lipless mouth, but as his regeneration slowly kicked in and new skin crept over muscle and bone, his voice grew clearer and ran smoother to the end.

***

A/N: Thanks to all your phenomenal support we are currently keeping our 10th place in the Golden Ticket rankings. We just need to stay there 3 more days and we can get our first honor badge for being in the top 10 of the Golden Ticket rankings. Thank you so much for the kind attention you have shown to my work so far.