"This is.." Kayden's eyes widened in shock seeing how the bodies were preserved on the crystal clear caskets.
"Cyronics… it's a way of preserving the corpses through extremely low temperatures…" Eli's eyes flickered.
She looked and observed the surroundings of the stock room to investigate. For the Spectre to even employ this kind of preservation method, they must need something to the asani's bodies desperately.
"But the corpses were already showing signs of decay…" Kayden frowned as he took out a magnifying glass to inspect the corpses closely.
"According to what I remember, cyronics only had a limit. Thinking about when the village was wiped out, it's been three decades, the rotting procedures must have started." Eli replied.
"Eli-chan, Dr Kayden, do you think that the Spectre's sudden insistence on the war must have been because of this? That they would soon lose the advantage of having these corpses and so they had to push for invasion?" Wisey asked the two.
"But why so… as far as we know now… they were planning to procreate the asani genes through the fake paladin… but if we follow that conversation it doesn't explain why they needed to engage in war…" Kayden wondered.
The three went silent after this… they really could not understand why.
"Well… we should study this place as fast as we can so that we will have a chance to know what the enemy really thinks," Eli replied.
The rest agreed with the suggestion and started examining for a while. Each of them carried a recording stone to also keep evidence of the existence of this matter.
Looking around Eli realized one of the corpses that were preserved had a visible rupture in her lower abdomen.
She raised her brow and checked again.
One corpse, two corpses… ten corpses… all of them had ruptured lower abdomens regardless of their gender!
Having made sure that her observation is true to every corpse nearby, she immediately caught Kayden's attention, "Brother, have you noticed?"
Kayden looked at Eli meaningfully and nodded. "Let me verify further…"
He then took protective gloves and touched one of the corpses. From his hands, he conjured a gentle strip of mana to examine the corpse in front of him.
The surroundings went quiet, all eyes were on Kayden examining the corpse.
After Kayden was finished examining the corpse, he went to examine several more.
Only when Kayden was sure of the findings he observed on corpses, he turned to Eli and rest his blackened expression.
"All of their reproductive organs were taken out…"
"It seems that they have tried to execute postmortem extraction of the reproductive cells of these corpses…" Eli replied.
"Indeed… could the existence of the fake Paladin prove that they had some success with it?" Wisey asked.
Kayden shook his head and answered, " It's probably not the case. They still have the receptors to use should they fail in using their reproductive cells."
" I also agree… besides although I can indeed feel that the fake paladin had the aura of the asanis, it was not as evident as when I came into contact with these corpses.
The resonance in my body is stronger when I entered this place than when I first encountered her.
Not to mention the resonance I had with Little Han, it is incomparable." Eli replied.
"Then if we follow your hypothesis, they may have no more options than to use the receptors and literally make a new kind of asani!" Wisey concluded.
"En… an asani compatible with curse power…" Kayden continued.
"It seems like we have reached a conjecture… then let us find evidence to prove or refute our claims.." Eli smiled as she looked at the three of her companions.
The next moment, they immediately took away the corpses, placing them back on Kayden's principal ring.
That way, the corpses would be preserved in their current condition.
"Brother… the rings we possess had the ability to preserve the current state of anything we put in, right?" Eli asked as a thought dawned on her when she watched Kayden putting the corpses into the ring.
"Yes…" Kayden replied with a questioning look wanting to find the meaning behind Eli's question.
"Well…" Eli looked around before she continued,
"Seeing them use this method to preserve the bodies, then it could be that they were unable to use the ring, or even discover its abilities.
Also added with the fact that the merfolks were able to find the second ring on their shores, could it be that they were unable to use the preserved egg and sperm cells stored in the third ring?"
Hearing Eli's guess, Kayden immediately nodded and his expression brightened. If that is the case, then once they find the third ring, then the number of their preserved specimens will add up!
That in turn, will increase the chances of reviving the Asani race once more!
With that, Eli and Kayden moved to read and inspect all the records that were retired from all of the laboratories. Once they dived into their jobs, they had already left the exploration to Gabriel and Abaddon.
They could not delay the matter, as it might be the key to understanding the enemy's goals. Once they knew what these people wanted, then that is the time that all the people on their side unite to stop Vanderford and Spectre from reaching their goal!
Meanwhile, the dwellers of the coastal areas started to notice the darkness in the direction of the holy island.
From the vantage point of their location, they would usually see a twinkling light in the direction of the island which indicated the light of the main temple. At night it was like a star that had descended to be near the sea.
However, they did not know what happened, but it seems like the temple did not light up their beacon tonight.
The people wondered why this was the case and immediately reported it to their village heads.
Once the heads verified the situation, they were also puzzled. But they did not dare to be alarmed, instead, they contacted the merchants who were trading with the temple daily and asked them what could be happening in the temple.
"Ah… it's like this… A day ago, the captains who met and traded with us said that there would be no more trading at the moment until next week.
That is because the soldiers would be deployed tomorrow to go straight to our capital and join the ranks of His Majesty Emperor's army.
With the remaining people left behind, which would be just a few… they advised us to only trade with them once a week as their consumption would be significantly lesser."
This was what the merchant replied which was also what led the heads of the villages to conclude that everything is normal on the temple's side.
With that, they decided to ignore the matter.
Little did they know that this was Gabriel's scheme to buy some time for the operations to be settled and be kept for a few days.
Before the war happened, he orchestrated that his team would be in charge of receiving the suppliers from the traders.
Then they went to take advantage of this time to tell the traders that a great change would happen to the temple in the next few days as a large group of temple servants will embark on a voyage to head to the capital.
But even though Gabriel schemed for this to happen, he was still gambling on the fact that the villagers in the coastal areas would not suspect anything and move to immediately report it to the higher authorities.
While they were unable to know if this would be effective, still they were confident that they would still be able to deal with the aftermath and regroup once again in the next two days.
At the different temples from all over Prasinos, the High Priests looked at their small number of troops with thoughtful expressions.
They all gathered their temple knights and told them the situation of the temple as High Priest Enoch sent them the evidence of the main temple's crookedness and the corruption of seven of the ten ordained knights.
"Now we are calling you to respond and redeem the Holy Islands against the corrupted who would want to take over the land once again when they know of the fact that our comrades led by the 3rd and 7th captains of the temple knights were successful in subduing the evil in the island!
Revered knights who committed to using the sword only for the sake of righteousness… Would you respond to the call and wield your sword to defeat the cursed users?"
This was the question they left to the knights that they had gathered in their respective places.
"Yes, High Priest!" The knights did not even take long to answer. Instead, their eyes were filled with determination.
How could they now, when a mere platoon of two hundred people still moved forward to deal with an army of a thousand?
The moment they heard of Abbadon and Gabriel's operation, the fire in their hearts was ignited. There has never been a time for the temple knights to unite until this day!