Unholy Player

Chapter 537 AXION – The Human Path

Kaelor also felt the strange sense of familiarity, which caused him to tear his gaze away from the machines and suppress the excitement rising within him. “That man… Is he one of us?” He did not mean the Mechari race, but the Blood Path.

The feeling Rhys gave off was the same one a Blood Path follower with the [Vigor] stat would give, subtle but unmistakable once you had lived around it long enough.

Every Practitioner built around stats had distinct traits that, to an observant eye, exposed which Path they followed or which stat they possessed, like a signature woven into posture, rhythm, and presence.

The [Will] stat was tied to movement. Those who had it carried speed as their strong point, and it could be recognized simply by watching how someone walked and moved, the way their weight shifted, and how quickly their body obeyed intention.

[Physique], as the name suggested, was about bodily structure. People with this stat usually had more developed muscles and frames that looked denser and heavier even when they stood still.

Those with [Resilience] were the embodiment of endurance. A trained observer could immediately tell how tough someone was, from the thickness in their stance to the way they carried injuries.

And lastly, those with the [Sense] stat, even though they were usually the best at concealing their nature, could still be identified.

You could see it in the way they looked around and how naturally they blended with their surroundings. They possessed the highest environmental awareness and extremely sharpened senses, noticing small movements, shifts in sound, and changes in air.

As for [Vigor], so far it was known to be possessed only by Blood Path followers.

It was a stat tied to life force and allure, leaving behind a strange impression. Those with this stat were usually wrapped in a natural charisma, with sweet, alluring scents drifting from their bodies and an unseen life energy that could only be felt, not seen.

Rhys, who had this stat as well, was not even trying to hide these revealing traits, making it easy for the two Blood Path followers to immediately recognize that he possessed it.

Liora and Zephan also looked taken aback, as it was their first time seeing Rhys after his awakening as a Practitioner, and the change in him hit like a quiet shock.

They were about to consider the possibility that Rhys had become a Blood Path follower before Henry corrected their misunderstanding, stepping in before the thought could take root.

“Let me introduce our young commanders here to you.” The drone with Henry’s hologram drifted, hovering just enough to draw attention. He emphasized the word ‘young’ in particular, as it mattered for the introduction he was about to give and for the image he was trying to paint.

“This is Selina, one of our promising younger generation, currently in training to become a loyal follower of our ruler.”

Selina was not expecting this strange introduction, but thinking Henry was planning something, she went along with it and lowered her head slightly in greeting, controlled and polite.

Then the drone moved closer to Rhys. “And this young one’s name is Rhys…”

Rhys lifted a brow at being addressed as young, not understanding what Henry was implying, and not liking being placed into someone else’s narrative without warning.

Granted, he looked younger now, especially after reaching Rank 3 over the past months. He was old by human standards, but in the Practitioner world he was considered young as well.

Henry continued the introduction without breaking his pace. “He has recently completed his training and was honored to become a true follower of our Master”

Rhys also nodded slightly in greeting, without presenting himself as lower in status than their Rank 4 guests, keeping his chin level, showing he understood the rules of respect and knew exactly where he stood above them.

“Follower?”

This time, the shock was not limited to Kaelor and Arvyn. Liora and Zephan also blurted out the word in disbelief, the meaning of it hitting them all at once.

Follower carried heavy meaning in this world, and when used in front of someone who had been a mere mortal not long ago but was now standing before them as a Practitioner, its impact landed hard.

For any native of the Beyond, becoming a Practitioner depended purely on luck. If they were fortunate enough, they would be recognized by the Gods and awaken as Practitioners, given the chance and honor to follow the corresponding God’s Path, but most spent their lives never even being noticed.

But Henry’s words implied something far more shocking.

He spoke as though Rhys had been trained for a long time and then rewarded

at the end of that training with a Path, awakened as a Practitioner by their Ruler, as an organized process rather than a miracle.

Do they really have the ability to awaken someone as a Practitioner? How can

that even be possible?

While Liora and Zephan ran those thoughts through their minds, Kaelor and Arvyn had even more unsettling conclusions, their fear sharpening into

certainty.

They really have a God… A real God backing them…

For Blood Path followers, they had the Blood God, known as the Owner of the Crimson Sea, backing them.

Though He was an ancient God long forgotten, He was still a God and thus had the power to grant His Path to those who completed certain rituals and prayed to Him through that Path, answering faith with power in his own twisted way. But even He did not have the power to awaken a mortal as a Practitioner. He merely corrupted the Paths of those who were already awakened and helped or forced them to change their Paths to Blood, feeding on what already existed rather than creating something new.

So in their minds, this race that claimed to come from the Central Region was unquestionably a force supported by a real God. Not like their fallen God, but one who was still alive and wielded true power, the kind that could shape fate

instead of bending it.

Seeing the shocked expressions, Henry felt his own heart racing in his chest with tension, but he kept his tone steady, careful not to show how much he

was gambling.

His plan was to make the Blood Sect believe humans had a God backing them, and when combined with the misunderstanding that they came from the Central Region, it would make Blood Path followers fear and hesitate before Humans.

That way, any intention to attack them now or in the future could be suppressed, smothered before it became action.

In this world, power was everything. Even pretending to have it could plant doubt in enemies and make them retreat, and that hesitation was often enough

to save lives.

Henry had another purpose as well.

He wanted to reveal the AXION Path to Liora and Zephan and then share it with

the other races in the Outer Region, allowing the idea to spread like rumors

typically do.

So far, humans had been playing a role, misleading others into believing they

came from the Central Region on a mission, while never revealing what that mission actually was, keeping the story vague so it could not be challenged. Now was a good time to fabricate a mission, a goal to present to them, something that sounded believable and grand.

That goal was that humans had come to the Outer Region to spread their AXION Path, giving mortals the chance to become followers of their God’s Path, turning outsiders into allies through salvation and promise. Henry had come up with the idea after learning about the existence of the

Blood Sect.

After learning there was an organization with similar intentions, trying to

spread the Blood Path and even resurrect their God, he decided to shape the

entire human race into a similar identity, a mirror that would feel familiar to

the world.

Instead of revealing themselves as aliens coming from another world to invade this planet, it was better to present something more acceptable, something the natives already had a place for in their understanding.

Of course, it carried dangers, the greatest being that other Path followers might see them as blasphemous and decide to attack them and erase their Path from the world, treating AXION as a stain that had to be burned out.

But it was a risk that had to be taken to grow, because staying small and hidden was its own kind of death.

If, at this moment, Henry could pull Zephan and Liora to their side and somehow convince them to follow the Path Adyr had created, it would mark

the beginning of a new era, where there would be five main Paths instead of four, and humans would no longer be a question mark.

If he could also bring these two Blood Path followers to his side, it would be even better, as they had far more experience in this matter. Their help would be tremendous in spreading the Path Adyr had created more quickly and in helping them understand how a God’s powers worked sooner.