Unholy Player

Chapter 517: Monarch of the Black and White

"Something is wrong here." Rhys frowned, scanning the faces of the other researchers under the few lab lights that still worked, casting a thin, uneven glow across the room.

Every one of them was familiar to him. He knew each of them.

Suspicion stirred as he asked, "How long have I been gone?"

Dr. Mara caught the confusion in his eyes and answered calmly, easing the edges of his disorientation. "It’s only been a week, Mr. Rhys."

She and the other researchers moved forward carefully but with urgency. Their boots and suit fabric whispered against the metal floor as they closed in on them.

Dr. Mara reached Adyr’s body and checked him. Her gloved fingers found his pulse at the side of his neck while her other hand pressed lightly against his chest, counting the rise and fall. "Pulse is present, but irregular. Respirations are shallow, yet stable. No external trauma." Relief softened her voice.

The fact that he looked older now was unsettling. Still, knowing he was alive gave them something to cling to.

"Is someone going to explain to me what happened?" Rhys asked, letting another group of researchers examine his body. Their visors tipped down as they checked for anything he might have missed.

Dr. Mara lifted her head and met his gaze. "We were hoping you would be the one who could explain what happened."

The researchers were the ones left in complete darkness about what had been going on.

After they left the room because of the Blood aura, the observation cameras inside had been corrupted too. Their screens had turned into warped static, leaving them with no way to gather information from within.

Rhys paused before answering. He tried to steady the chaos in his thoughts and force his memories into a clean line.

The AXION Path. The system message. Adyr’s name listed as the creator. That part, more than anything, needed to be weighed carefully before he spoke.

But before he could say a word, everyone’s attention snapped to the body lying on the ground.

Adyr suddenly began to move. He drew his arms in and pushed himself up from the floor, sluggishly, like his joints were resisting him.

The researchers hurried in the moment they saw it and helped him sit. The strain in the way he fought for that simple motion made it clear that whatever had happened had drained him to the core.

His massive, unresponsive wings made everything worse. Black and white feathers sprawled across the floor like dead weight, and shifting them at all looked exhausting. Still, they managed to settle him near the wall.

"Are you okay, Mr. Adyr?" Dr. Mara asked, removing her protective headgear only after she was sure there was no lingering harmful substance in the air.

Adyr’s face still looked drained of life force. He still resembled someone in his 40s, with faint wrinkles that had not been there before. His eyes looked different too, the crimson sea within them duller than before.

But his voice stayed controlled. "I’m fine." Then his gaze fixed on Rhys, who was staring at him with confusion written plainly across his face.

Adyr smiled at that expression. "Congratulations on awakening as a Practitioner."

At those words, every researcher’s attention swung to Rhys. Their eyes were bright with curiosity and excitement, and a few leaned in, as if they might miss his next breath.

"Did you really awaken, Mr. Rhys?" Dr. Mara couldn’t hold back her curiosity. She voiced the question that was churning through all her colleagues.

If he truly succeeded, then the serum worked. They did not know how it had worked, but the result alone was enough to make them believe they had finally created the right formula to awaken people.

Rhys’s answer, however, only deepened their confusion.

"Yeah, it looks like I’m a Practitioner now, but something is weird with my Path."

The researchers held still, waiting for him to explain. Then a sharp laugh cut through the room and pulled every head around again.

Adyr, who moments ago barely looked strong enough to move, was laughing so freely that everyone began to wonder if he was losing his mind.

"Sorry, sorry. I just read something funny. Don’t mind me." He spoke while staring at something in the air, his gaze locked like he was reading lines written into empty space, visible only to him.

In fact, he was staring at a series of system messages arriving one after another.

[Congratulations. You have successfully created one of the lost Paths: AXION.]

[Congratulations. You have gained a follower for your Path: Rhys Graves.]

[You have earned the honorific title: Monarch of the Black and White.]

[Your Sanctuary evolved into a God Domain: The Hollow of Black and White.]

[You have awakened a God Domain: Absolute Equilibrium.]

Absolute Equilibrium: The enforcement of flawless balance across all opposing concepts, allowing no dominance, deviation, or excess.

Effect: Any existence that enters your Domain has its power reduced by half.

—

Adyr read all the messages. He was too worn out to process everything, so he only laughed, his attention sticking to the follower notification.

"Thank you for supporting me with the follow." He laughed again, looking at Rhys, like the words tasted absurd in the best way.

Adyr himself wasn’t sure how he had managed to create a Path like this. He also wasn’t sure if it truly counted as "creation" when the description still labeled it a "Lost Path," as if it had existed long ago.

But eventually, he had done it as a mortal. He had pulled a follower into it, too. The absurdity sparked a sharp, unexplainable amusement inside him, and he laughed like the very idea of mocking gods was genuinely hilarious.

Rhys stood there, too stunned to find words. It felt like he had been forced into a cult without being asked.

Before he could recover, Dr. Mara stepped in, her curiosity swelling. Her eyes moved between Adyr’s wings and Rhys’s face, as if she was trying to connect two impossible points.

"What do you mean by the follow, Mr. Adyr?" She looked at him, then turned to Rhys. "And what is wrong with your Path?"

She and the other researchers were desperate to understand what was really going on.

Rhys let out a sigh and answered their curiosity at least. "This man just created a Path and pulled me in as a follower." His hand instinctively moved toward his pocket to reach for his alcohol flask to steady his mind, but then he remembered he was still in his bodysuit, with cold air clinging to his skin.

Rhys wasn’t feeling down. His life had been saved, and awakening as a Practitioner was something he could find every reason to be grateful to Adyr for.

Still, the Path felt defective, or at least out of the ordinary, and that worry kept tightening in his chest. The description claiming it was created by a mortal only made it worse.

According to his knowledge, every Path was created by Gods. But now that he’s following a path created by a mortal, could he really call himself a proper Practitioner? He didn’t know.

And in the end, Rhys wanted power for his soldiers. They needed to be made strong. If this Path turned out to be weak, then all his efforts would have been for nothing.

While Rhys questioned what the future held and the researchers remained in shock, staring between the two of them in stunned silence, Adyr reined in his laughter and spoke in a low voice.

"Why don’t you check what you gained? You can access your stat panel simply by thinking about it. Just think of a status panel or character panel, something like that."

Adyr could see exactly where his worry was coming from, so he asked him to check his stats. It was the fastest way to see what he had actually gained and whether he had truly become a real Practitioner or not.

Adyr was curious too. He wanted to know if he could gain new followers by turning them into Practitioners. Though he still didn’t know what benefits gaining new followers provided, it had to be something good, right?

Rhys, still a complete newbie, nodded. He focused, like he was trying to remember how to move a new muscle. Then the status panel opened in front of him.

His face tightened at first, then shifted into surprise. "Is this what every player’s status panel looks like?"

Though he had seen reports on what other players’ panels looked like, something was strange about his. He noticed a few items that, to his knowledge, should not have been there.

Dr. Mara quickly pulled a notepad and pen from her pocket and handed them to him. "Please, Mr. Rhys, write everything down. Don’t skip a single detail."

Rhys looked at Adyr first. Since Adyr was the owner of this Path, he needed his permission to share the information with others. After receiving a nod of approval, he started writing down everything he saw on the status panel.