Unholy Player

Chapter 540 Crumbling Beliefs

Arvyn was from an ordinary race, not too strong and not too weak, with just enough history and strength to survive in the Midlands.

It was a race that lived mostly in desert regions, and they usually hunted what they lived on, following game across dry flats and rocky dunes where crops rarely lasted.

They weren’t warriors, but they were all fighters by nature. They survived through hunting instead of farming, growing up with calloused hands, sharp instincts, and the habit of moving quietly in open land.

As for why Arvyn left her people and decided to join the Blood Sect, there was no proper reason. There was no tragedy or clear turning point that could be pointed to.

She grew up hunting animals for that day’s dinner and even for breakfast. Along with that, she grew up with an appetite for blood, learning early that warm blood meant food, survival, and strength.

When these two reasons came together, shaping her character and feeding her obsession with power, it was enough. She abandoned her previous Path and chose Blood instead, believing it described her better and matched what she already carried inside.

Up to that point, the story was quite normal. What came after was where her insanity truly surfaced.

After joining the Blood Sect and changing her Path to Blood, she gained the bloodline talent named Sanguivore. It was a talent that let her raise her stats as she drank blood, turning every kill into measurable progress in her body.

And after she gained this talent, her first mission from the sect was to return to her birthplace and wipe out her entire family and home, killing everyone, leaving nothing standing that could still be called hers.

She accepted the mission without a single complaint. She didn’t just kill everyone she once knew and called family; she devoured their blood to strengthen herself. She drank it with the same calm purpose she once used to prepare a meal.

Henry looked at the woman as he digested her story silently. Her red hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her crimson eyes stayed fixed on him without blinking, and sharp, saw-like teeth filled her mouth. She looked like a wild animal that fed on fresh meat alone.

Killing her family for the sole purpose of gaining strength already had no place in human ethics. What made it worse was how she told the story as if it were completely normal. There was no tremor in her voice and no shame in her posture, and it was the clearest proof of how far her insanity could go.

She is dangerous. Henry delivered his judgment instantly, without shifting his expression.

She could be useful, but she couldn’t be trusted.

Liora and Zephan’s faces already carried open disgust, as they were two rulers who placed immense value on family and blood ties, and the tension in their jaws made it clear how hard they were holding themselves back.

Luckily, they held their urges back and stayed silent, letting Henry remain the authority in the room, even if their eyes never left Arvyn for long.

Henry stayed calm. He didn’t question their backgrounds, and he didn’t judge their choices. He kept chatting casually to learn more about their sect, then gradually steered the conversation toward the Blood God their sect was trying to resurrect.

“The treasure, the Heart of the Blood Palace you are looking for, I assume it is meant to awaken your God? How do you plan to use it?” Henry asked, leaning back in his chair.

He had no knowledge of how to resurrect a God. Still, it wasn’t difficult to guess what they intended to use the treasure for, especially if they had gone through this much trouble just to come searching for it.

And Kaelor confirmed his guess. “That’s right.” He continued eagerly. “That was a treasure the Corrupted King made before reaching Godhood. Even after it is destroyed, it still holds the essence of its creator inside, so we want to use it to complete the body the Blood God would descend into.”

Henry tapped his finger against the arm of his chair. It was a habit that helped him steady his nerves and suppress the weight of what he had just learned, even as his mind raced.

What Kaelor was describing was a God before reaching the level of Godhood. It was something that could never be found anywhere in the Outer Region, not as a rumor, not as a record, not even as a whisper worth trusting.

Even Zephan and Liora looked shaken and drawn in by it as they began to speak, their earlier disgust briefly pushed aside by sheer interest.

“Do you have records of the Blood God from before he became a God?” Zephan asked, not even caring that speaking of a God like this could be seen as disrespectful, his focus locked on the implication rather than the taboo.

As for Liora, her question was different. “This Blood God, I have never heard of Him. What is His relation to the 4 existing Gods, and are there more Gods other than Him?”

She was someone who had grown up with the name of the God Astrael and lived her whole life believing in and praying to that one God. So now, learning there were others, she felt a need to understand them and did not want to waste this chance, as if the answer could reshape everything she thought she knew.

This time, the one to answer them was Arvyn. “Our knowledge comes from our Sect Leader. She shares what she knows with us during the ceremonies from

time to time.”

She paused and looked at Henry, then continued. “I’m not sure if all of it is true, but what we’ve learned so far is that the Blood God is one of the ancient Gods, even older than the current four known Gods.”

She then turned to Liora, a wide smile spreading across her face as she answered with a mocking tone. “And yes, there used to be more Gods. Many more. Even older than the 4 main ones you so desperately believe to be

omnipotent.”

“How can that be possible?” Liora felt her faith tremble, struggling to accept those words.

To her knowledge, the 4 Gods had to be the oldest ones, the creators of everything, the foundation of the world itself.

God Astrael was the one who shaped everything, the creator of the physical. The mountains, the soil, the stones, the water, everything visible to the eye, the solid world that could be touched and measured.

Goddess Aetheris was the one who gave all those forms their soul, granting them the miracle of becoming individuals, turning simple matter into living

presence.

God Ignivar was the one who brought motion to their orderly, still creations. He granted progress and growth to all creation, setting change into the world so life could move forward instead of remaining fixed.

And lastly, Goddess Nethera was the one who brought death and the life cycle to all creation. She formed the ecosystem that allowed everything to enter harmony and exist within an endless cycle, so nothing could escape the balance of ending and beginning.

These 4 Gods were the creators of everything, the only beings who turned nothingness into existence.

But now, learning there were more, and older ones even before they existed, was something she couldn’t understand, because it made her prayers feel suddenly small, like they had been aimed at only part of the truth.

Liora and Zephan didn’t accept the information as immediately true, and they turned their gazes to Henry to read his reaction, searching his face for a denial

or a correction.

But he sat there with the same calm face. He showed no intention of meddling or correcting it, making them start to believe it was true. Henry had nothing to say, because he was feeling the shock himself.

The shock wasn’t as intense as what Liora and Zephan were feeling, of course.

Those 2 were facing the realization that the reality they had lived in for hundreds of years might have been false, or at least incomplete. But for Henry, it was still not something to be underestimated. Learning the true history of the Beyond was as important as gaining strength for Humanity.

Somehow, Earth’s history, even its current condition, was tied to this world. The cycle Earth was trapped in would, after a certain time, end in a massive catastrophe. Everything would reset, forcing Humanity back to the start and keeping them locked inside the prison called Earth.

Henry searched for the right question to ask, careful not to expose how much he didn’t know. Before he could speak, Liora and Zephan kept pressing forward, unknowingly doing the work for him.

“Then what happened to all the other Gods? If there were so many before, and now only 4 are left, why are we made to believe those 4 are the supreme ones,

the ones who brought us into existence?”

Zephan asked, his voice slightly shaking.

Even if he wasn’t aware of it himself, Henry could see clearly that the man’s belief was slowly beginning to crack.