Unholy Player-Chapter 548: The Descent of Gods (Part 1)

Some time ago, in the Beyond...

On the open training grounds of Human City, a crowd had gathered around a wide arena, all of them focused on an ongoing spar between a woman and a man.

These spectators were not normal people. Even the least powerful among them were Rank 3 Practitioners. Many Rank 4s were present, including Zephan, Liora, and Throgar.

To draw the attention of ruler-level beings like that, the ones sparring could not be ordinary either.

On one side stood Arvyn, wearing a sinister grin as she released her oppressive Rank 4 aura. It pressed into the crowd like a physical weight, making hearts pound with both anxiety and excitement.

Facing her was a man with snow-white hair and eyes. Rhys Graves stood still and calm, holding gold-colored daggers in both hands.

"Let me see now what your Path is about," Arvyn spoke as if the fight were nothing more than entertainment.

So far, she had been demanding spars from everyone she found and deemed worthy in the city, only to kill her boredom.

But everyone she faced was too weak. They could not even help her pass the time. None of them were captivating enough to make her enjoy the sparring.

So at last, she wanted to face Rhys, who was known as the follower of a Path no one had heard of before.

Even though he was still Rank 3 and far from Rank 4 in terms of raw power, it was not the present that interested her. It was the potential. She wanted to see what kind of future this unknown Path could reach.

She also wanted to know whether that Path was truly worth staying in the city for, worth waiting on with forced patience, because patience was never her nature. Worse, her bloodlust grew sharper with every day she went without tasting it.

Up until now, everyone had rejected her demands about facing Rhys in the arena. They kept stalling her, pushing the moment away again and again, but that could only last so long.

Arvyn had grown more restless by the day. She had started showing her true nature, injuring people during spars and nearly killing a few. In the end, Rhys had no choice but to accept, because if he kept refusing, she would eventually stop asking and start taking. If she lost control, the city would pay for it.

Selina was also among the bystanders. She waited at the edge of the arena, watching the two with sharp, observant eyes, reading the smallest shifts in posture and mood.

She knew Arvyn was a lunatic who would not stay controlled for long. That was why she had prepared everything in advance.

The STF had already locked down the entire perimeter of the training area. Beyond the crowd and out of reach of every sense and eye, they formed a tight ring, weapons raised and trained on their target.

The plan was simple. If Arvyn displayed even the slightest enmity or threat during the spar, chaos would break out. The arena would become a battlefield, and the mission would shift instantly from observation to pursuit. They would hunt Arvyn down.

It was no longer a question of whether they could do it or not. They had to do it. They had to contain her somehow before she became a natural disaster for the city.

There was another problem currently watching the spar from the spectator section: someone named Kaelor. However, after long consideration, Selina did not see him as a problem. She saw him as reliable support.

The Mechari was not close with Arvyn. There was no friendly tie between them. Selina was sure he would not interfere if a battle broke out. If anything, he might help contain her, or even kill her.

A short silence settled over the arena, the kind that always came right before violence.

Rhys adjusted his stance and set the two daggers in his grip. The blades caught the light as he angled them forward. "Lady Arvyn, would you give me the opening attack?"

Arvyn laughed, clearly entertained. "Of course." She paused as if tasting the idea, then her eyes brightened when a better one landed cleanly. "You know what, let us do it like this. I will give you 10 attacks. If you manage to land fatal damage that would require me to defend, I will count this round as your win. How is it?"

Rhys smiled when he heard the offer. At least she had the sense to acknowledge the gap between them. "I will take it gladly."

Then he started to activate his first Spark skill.

Electric currents surged from his hands. They coated the golden daggers first. Then the current rose and wrapped around his whole body, crawling over skin and cloth in restless lines. His short white hair stood on end as sparks snapped in quick, bright flickers.

It was a Spark Zephan had gifted him some time ago, one Lunari Practitioners used often. A buff-type skill meant to increase speed and reflexes.

Next, he added another Spark skill.

His eyes began to glow with blue light. This one had been gifted by Throgar. It heightened his senses and increased his awareness of both his surroundings and his body, sharpening timing and control. It was meant to minimize mistakes and let him use every environmental factor and every part of himself to its fullest potential.

Of course, it was not enough, so he added his third skill to the combo.

This time it was the one Liora had gifted him. In an instant, his muscles swelled another degree. His physical capacity multiplied several times over.

Then lastly, he activated the Spark he got from the Obsidren race, one of their most precious Spark skills.

His skin turned a bronze metallic color, not only increasing his durability and defense but also adding weight to his body to amplify the force behind his attacks.

As Rhys activated Spark skills one after another from all 4 different Paths, successfully merging every one of them into a single power, the spectators watched with wide eyes, as if they were witnessing something that should not be possible.

Arvyn’s expression also changed, and for the first time in a long time, she appeared to be genuinely interested in fighting.

The biggest disadvantage of the Blood Path Practitioners was that they could only use Sparks from the Blood Path, and those were not easy to find, since they were not naturally found in the world.

So even finding the Sparks was difficult, and building a combo like this with what they had was even harder.

Rhys, using the greatest advantage of the AXION Path, taking Spark skills he found from all Paths and using them like this for a flawless combo, showed on its own how superior this Path’s potential was. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

But that was not its only advantage. The next move he made carried even more weight.

Slowly, a thin dark mist rose from his body. It spread outward, then tightened in, soon covering him in a fine black smoke that concentrated around the sharp tips of the daggers in his hands.

"Is that your bloodline talent?" Arvyn asked, recognizing the nature of the power at first glance.

Though she was not sure what it did, just looking at the black smoke made her heart tighten. An instinctive fear she could not explain rose inside her.

"As expected from Lady Arvyn," Rhys flattered her, keeping his tone polite and controlled. Then he settled into his stance, shoulders lowering, balance tightening. "I’m coming."

"Don’t blame me if I get too excited," Arvyn replied. Her smile widened as she held herself back, barely resisting the urge to strike first and taste what kind of flavor his blood had.

Rhys felt her bloodlust rising and dashed forward with everything he had gained so far.

The ground cracked beneath him. His body blurred and vanished, leaving faint, crackling trails of bluish electricity behind.

In the next moment, he appeared behind her, his daggers aimed at the two sides of her neck.

"Your speed is good," Arvyn commented, not moving at all as she let the two daggers bite into her flesh.

The daggers landed heavily on both sides of her neck, and after a brief resistance, with Malice more than doubling their sharpness, they tore through the skin and sank deep into the flesh.

"Your weapons are very sharp as well," Arvyn commented again, her expression unchanged even as the two daggers were driven all the way to the hilt.

But there was no blood.

Even with the daggers still inside, the wounds were sealing. Flesh closed tightly around the blades with unnatural speed, as though her body refused to admit she had been injured.

Rhys tried to pull his daggers out but met a counterforce. He could not even get them to move.

He expected this much anyway.

A high [Vigor] stat with insane regeneration meant this attack would not be enough. So he used his next Spark skill, the one he had planned for this situation.

He channeled his explosive skill through the daggers and created a detonation inside her throat, intending to separate her head from her body.