A deep silence fell over the shattered grounds, heavy enough that even the ruined air felt still.
The distant chirps of the birds cut off abruptly. The faint breeze shifted course, almost like it was avoiding sothing unseen. It brushed past broken stone and scorched earth. Above it all, the sun kept watching the lands it lood over, warm and majestic as ever.
Kaelor's big confession made everyone freeze in place. Even Soulforge Throgar, who had been waiting there absentmindedly, reacted. Both of his faces turned at once. One twisted into horror, and the other lit with deep excitent. The change was so sharp it looked like a switch had been flipped inside him.
"You... Why did you..." Aryvn stuttered, staring at him with wide eyes. She couldn't find the words to address this dented pile of tal standing in front of her like a walking monunt to insanity.
Kaelor was always the cautious one, the one who put secrecy and restraint above everything, sotis to the point of excess, asuring every sentence and guarding every hint like it could spill blood.
But now, he was revealing their sect's ultimate goal to strangers. Even enemies. It went beyond madness and stupidity. It was like he had decided consequences no longer existed.
We can't let them live.
Aryvn decided almost instantly. Killing intent surged through her body. Her dark red Rank 4 aura stained the area around her, tinting the dust and air and soaking the space in old violence.
She had to erase every witness. She had to do it before the information reached the wrong ears. She needed to prevent the information from spreading through conversations, ssengers, or rumors. Before it spread beyond control.
She was ready to finish all of them with 1 skill combo in a single clean sweep, fast and leaving not even a trace behind-no blood, no bodies, no lingering aura to point back to her.
But before she could move, she halted at the next words coming from the drone.
"The God of the Blood Path, huh? It should be very difficult to resurrect soone like Him."
Henry spoke as if he were weighing a slightly challenging math problem, calm and practical, like he was already sorting through thods and costs in his head.
He didn't look even remotely concerned. Not about their goal. Not about calling them blasphemous. Not about anything like that.
He accepted it with complete normalcy. His tone didn't change. His voice stayed steady through the drone, like this was simply information to file away.
Aryvn was caught off guard. Her killing intent vanished instantly. Shock dropped her into stillness, and the red stain of her aura faded from the air around her like a fla being smothered.
Difficult? This thing is calling our Blood Sect's lifelong goal just difficult?
And then she reached a sudden realization.
Her mind went back to the words about the owner of this territory. A native from the Central Region.
Her vision and perspective climbed to new heights. It felt like she had been staring at the world through a narrow crack, and it had suddenly widened.
A place where Demigods were said to live. Only 1 step behind being called true Gods...
Of course, to people like them, living with true power and aiming to beco Gods themselves, the idea of resurrecting a God would be nothing more than a simple objective, sothing challenging, yes, but still realistic, still within the range of what they believed could be done.
Zephan and Liora were thinking along the sa lines. They stared at the drone with wide, stunned eyes. Their faces were stiff, like they were afraid that even blinking would make them miss the aning behind Henry's words.
The Humans were already at a level that seed absurdly high to them. But Henry's reaction made them realize they were still underestimating them. They were not only strong but also had a different perception of what was possible. In fact, Henry wasn't pretending to seem calm or mighty. His reaction was genuine. He was like soone who had been forced to accept impossible things too many tis to panic over one more.
After hearing that Adyr had created a Path, sothing said to be possible only for Gods, his common sense had already been shaken. It had cracked under the sheer scale of it.
It was like a man who spent his ti around billionaires. When he saw a millionaire, he treated him as just another rich man. Not because he was arrogant, but because his sense of scale had changed.
However, he still had so concerns.
Now that he understood the Blood Sect's goal, awakening the creator of their Path, he felt as if he'd been dragged into a race. A countdown that had started the mont those words left Kaelor's mouth.
We need to figure out how to wake Adyr up soon. He thought with
determination.
Their enemy had the Blood Path. They were trying to awaken their God.
Humans had the AXION Path now as well. And Adyr, the owner of that Path, was already seen like a God in many people's eyes.
It had beco a race between two forces. A question of which side's God and Path was superior. A question of which would ultimately win.
Though Humans still had only Rhys, the only one awakened with the AXION Path, the researchers were still working to find a solution for Adyr to awaken more with less strain on his life force, testing, asuring, and pushing for sothing that wouldn't kill him in the process.
Henry finally broke the stunned silence after weighing everything. "Why don't you co to our city as our guests? I can't let you go like this after coming all
the way here."
Before, Henry would never have allowed two dangerous strangers to step into
his city, and he would have opposed anyone who even suggested it, because the risk would have been unacceptable.
But the world he lived in kept shifting by the day. And he was changing with it. He was learning to trade comfort for advantage and fear for calculation.
The two Blood Path followers in front of him were more than simply dangerous. They were walking opportunities and knowledge. The very thing Humans needed most right now.
If Henry and the researchers could learn even a small detail about how they were trying to awaken their God, it could beco a trendous help.
Even 1 missing piece could help them get Adyr to recover faster. "That would be an honor." Kaelor replied quickly. He was afraid he would lose the opportunity if he delayed even for a second. His voice was too eager to hide, like the invitation had just opened a door he'd been praying for.
He looked like he had already forgotten the mission the Blood Sect gave them. Now his only goal was to et the Creator.
Aryvn, feeling she had no ground to refuse, accepted as well. Their hope of
finding the treasure had collapsed, but at least she could see the city and the people said to have originated from the Central Region.
"Good" Henry laughed.
He gave a command through his wrist device that only the STF could hear. "Escort our guests to the cold room." He paused, then added his instructions after a brief mont of consideration. "Make it showy."
With his order, the ground beneath them began to tremble. Aryvn and Kaelor faltered for a mont as small stones jittered and dust jumped in thin bursts. It felt like sothing enormous had awakened under the earth.
Then the sky answered.
On all sides of the land, distant to their eyes, black hovering objects began
rising from behind the hills. At the sa ti, massive black shapes started to descend from the clouds above.
They looked like flying coffins. Their silhouettes swelled as they ca lower.
"What are those things?" Arvyn stared as they appeared from every direction. So far away they looked like black dots. Yet it was clear what was happening. Hundreds of massive flying objects were revealing themselves at once, and the sight stole their breath as the sky filled with them.
The fact that she felt nothing from them-no presence, no aura-the way she would from Sparks made tension crawl through her. Only then did she realize the gold-colored objects that had slamd into their bodies were probably coming from them, fired with a force that didn't need spiritual presence to be
lethal.
Henry watched Kaelor's reaction in particular.
The robot, who had already been shaken by a small flying drone, now trembled from head to toe at the sight of hundreds of massive hoverjets, looking like he was about to drop to his knees and worship the divine aircraft.
One of the hoverjets broke out of its formation and moved toward the group. Its engine's roar swelled closer and closer, pushing air down in heavy waves. It stopped above them, hovering, then began to descend slowly.
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