Unholy Player

Chapter 552: Playing the Unknown

"There are questions we all still need time to answer," Henry said as he rose from his seat, cutting off the conversation and drawing everyone’s attention.

He did not linger on them. Instead, he moved straight to the problem that mattered most. "The Rank 4 Practitioners are still waiting in our city for an answer. The same goes for the two Blood Path Practitioners. What are we supposed to tell them about everything that has happened?"

For the Humans, the situation was especially delicate. They still could not reveal their true identities. That alone forced them to maintain the lie that they had come from the Central Region, a cover they had relied on since the very beginning.

Because of that lie, they had no choice but to accept the two descended Gods as their own. More importantly, they needed a strong and believable explanation. One that would satisfy powerful Practitioners and justify why their Paths had all changed to AXION.

The room sank into silence again. It was not an empty pause, but a heavy one. Everyone understood what was at stake. This decision would shape how they controlled and influenced the entire Outer Region, and whether they could do so without leaving behind any cracks for others to exploit.

The 12 City Managers were the calmest among them. Situations like this were familiar territory. For years, they had shaped narratives on Earth and guided entire populations through belief, fear, and controlled information.

"We don’t need to give them any answers," one of them finally said, his voice calm and assured, carrying the confidence of someone shaped by long experience.

Henry frowned slightly. He paused, clearly struggling to see the logic behind such a simple conclusion.

Another City Manager stepped in before the silence could stretch too far.

"They witnessed 2 Gods descend with their own eyes," he said evenly. "Soon after, all their Paths changed to the one Mr. Adyr created. To them, that is absolute proof of power. The kind that invites worship, not questions."

He glanced around the room. "At this point, we can already consider them under our control."

Another City Manager nodded in agreement. "Intelligent beings are all the same, no matter the race. They fear what they do not understand."

As the words settled, Henry’s expression slowly changed. The pieces fell into place. He finally understood what their strategy was.

They did not need explanations. Silence itself was the answer. Leaving others in uncertainty would force them to create their own explanations, and those assumptions would slowly wear down their resolve and confidence.

What would remain in the end was their instinctive fear of the unknown, slowly reshaped into belief, and eventually into worship itself.

Adyr seemed to appreciate the idea. A faint smile appeared on his face, subtle but impossible to miss.

Playing the role of the unknown was something that came naturally to him.

From that point on, everything else would unfold on its own.

—

At the mountaintop clearing, the world felt completely different.

A faint breeze moved through the open space, brushing softly against stone and air. It was the only sound breaking the silence.

High above the ground, Zephan hovered atop his Silver Whale, his gaze fixed on the space where two massive gates had stood not long ago, a place that had once felt like the center of the universe.

He was not alone.

Liora, Throgar, and two Blood Path Practitioners hovered slightly ahead of him, all suspended in the sky. None of them spoke. Their attention remained focused on the mountaintop below.

On the ground, many more Practitioners waited in complete stillness. They were spread across the terrain, treating the area as sacred ground. No one came to speak. They came to stand, observe, and pay silent respect.

Everyone was searching for answers in their mind, yet no one dared to speak.

All they could do was wait for the Humans to return.

Zephan did not look away from the empty clearing. Then, from the distance, a figure approached. A white bird cut silently through the sky as it carried its rider closer.

"Father," Thalira said softly when she arrived, her voice carefully restrained so as not to disturb the silence.

She had been inside the training building when two gates appeared. At the time, she had been focused on improving her talents inside the VR room the Humans had provided, completely unaware of what was happening outside.

She had not seen the Gods with her own eyes. Still, their presence had been unmistakable. The pressure had washed over her all at once, overwhelming her senses and knocking her unconscious.

When she woke, everything was different.

Her Path had changed from Ignis to something called AXION, a name she had never heard before. The shock alone left her disoriented.

Later, she learned it was not just her. Her father’s Path had changed. So had everyone else’s in the Outer Region. That realization hit even harder.

Zephan turned toward her slowly and smiled. Some of the tension left his posture as he faced her. "My daughter. How do you feel?"

There was warmth in his gaze, but also concern.

Not long ago, Thalira had broken through using the VR rooms and reached Rank 4. In the past, that milestone had been a death sentence for many of their people.

For the Lunari race, the Blood Path curse had long caused those who reached Rank 4 to lose their minds and souls. Because of that, her condition had weighed heavily on Zephan.

"I feel normal," Thalira said after a brief pause, checking herself as she spoke.

She felt no strange sensations and no instability. None of the changes that had once devastated their ancestors were there.

"I see," Zephan released a slow breath, relief clear in his voice. "We should properly thank Lord Adyr later for lifting the curse from our bloodline."

Any doubts he once carried were gone now. He truly believed that the curse had been completely erased.

"Yeah," Thalira murmured. Her gaze drifted toward the Practitioners waiting in silence, both in the sky and on the ground. "Father... what comes next for us?"

There was no fear in her voice. She spoke with only curiosity and a quiet expectation.

They had lost the God and Path they had followed their entire lives in a single day. Change was inevitable.

Zephan closed his eyes for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice carried a trace of old anger. "We believed in God Ignivar... we prayed to him our whole lives."

Then his tone softened. Gratitude replaced resentment. "Yet in the end, the one who helped us was another God. One we never even knew, let alone prayed to."

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "We are Lunari. We know what gratitude means."

Thalira met his gaze and understood immediately. His choice had already been made.

—-

Across the mountaintop, similar conversations were taking place.

"Chief, what is your view?" Brakhtar Gorat asked, both of his heads speaking in perfect synchronization.

After consuming the synergy crystal from the Legacy Domain, adapting to having two heads was difficult. Now, however, there was a clear sense of control in the way he carried himself.

Soulforge Throgar, Chief of the Gorathim race, answered without turning around. "We turned our backs on the Aether Path. That sin is already carved into us. From this moment on, we walk AXION."

His words made it clear that he had already chosen to embrace his new Path and belief.

The Humans’ promise to provide synergy crystals had weighed heavily on that decision. Those crystals would allow every Gorathim to fully stabilize their second head.

With Human support and this new Path, they finally had a chance to cleanse their bloodlines and become true Gemnarchs. So they had every reason to accept their new identity.

—

On another side of the mountain, the atmosphere was lighter.

Liora stood with Lucen, Mirela, and Malrik, their conversation far less restrained than the others.

"Sis, tell me again," Mirela asked eagerly. "Were they really bigger than your Titan Ape form?" Her rainbow-colored eyes shone as she leaned forward.

During the Gods’ descent, only Liora had been in the Human City. The others had remained in the Velari Kingdom and missed the event entirely.

Liora glanced sideways at her sister and let out a quiet sigh, clearly exhausted by the constant questions. "You do realize it’s inappropriate to talk about Gods like this, right?"

Mirela pouted. "Why? They’re Gods. They wouldn’t be offended just because I asked what they looked like."

Gods were beings everyone believed existed, yet no one had ever truly seen. Now that someone finally had, curiosity was unavoidable.

Malrik joined in. "Do you think all Gods are giants, Lady Liora? I wonder if God Astrael is larger."

Even Lucen showed interest. His normally rigid expression softened as he listened.

They began comparing the physical strength of their former god, Astrael, to the two new gods, whom Liora had described as giants.

"You..." Liora started, turning toward the three of them as a dull ache formed at her temples.

She hesitated, weighing whether it was worth indulging their blasphemous curiosity any further, when her attention suddenly shifted.

Something was moving in the sky.

From the direction of the Human City, a line of colossal hoverjets came into view, moving together like something old and predatory.

And at their head flew a single figure, guiding the formation, with white and black wings that beat against the air as it led them forward.