Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 241 - 240: The Truth

Accompanied by a flicker of arcane sparks, Kamel turned around and quietly observed the near thousand seats in the hall, and the nine hundred seventy-two former colleagues who had already fallen into a long slumber upon them.

"A thousand years... A thousand years ago, I was one of the chief researchers of the Empire’s Royal Mage Corps. A secret order personally issued by the Emperor transferred me from the imperial capital to this fortress located on the northern border. When I first saw it, I was as surprised as you are now.

"The Empire secretly constructed this facility; this plan began as early as twelve hundred years ago. Yes, just as you mentioned, we are here to resist the chaotic wave—the royal family realized the approach of the chaotic wave long ago and has been seeking solutions. This is a vast and secretive plan, with both the royal family and the entire Mage Corps involved, but few truly know the full scope of the plan. Even as the chief researcher of the Royal Mage Corps, I could only know the aspects I was responsible for in this plan.

"My task was to analyze the powers of the gods and find ways to combine the gods’ genetic factors with human cells...

"Please do not interrupt me. I know these things sound incredible to you, but a thousand years ago, this did happen.

"When I arrived at the fortress, the plan had already been running for two hundred years. We found the exact location of the ’White Starfall.’ It does not exist in the real world, but requires passing through the shadow realm to reach the edge of the shadow realm. So, we built a space gate on the lowest layer of the ’Defied’ fortress. This space gate, with the power of the gods, opened the barrier between several layers, and the scouting teams brought back samples of the God of Nature’s flesh from there..."

While Kamel spoke, he lifted an arm condensed with arcane energy to point at the wall. With a small spark leaping, a hidden door in the originally seamless wall suddenly appeared. Accompanied by the creaking sound of mechanical operation, the door slowly opened, and Kamel floated towards the door, "Please follow me. I hope you can remain calm no matter what you see."

Gawain and Aunt Heidi exchanged a glance and followed Kamel’s steps with their entourage.

"We have paid a huge price; mortals directly contacting the gods’ flesh or even merely gazing upon it would be fatal, let alone extracting energy and genetic factors from it. But we discovered some objects in the shadow realm mixed with the divine corpses that helped us find methods to resist the erosion by divine power... although only partially effective."

Following behind Kamel, Gawain saw those hidden rooms and the secrets that remained within them.

In a laboratory, he saw large metal and crystal remnants, bound and sealed by a complex magic circle. These fragments seemed to have been stripped from some larger man-made object, and despite the passage of countless years, they still retained a pristine texture.

"Their material..." Gawain looked at those metal and crystal fragments with a serious expression, "seems the same as the Eternal Stone Slate?"

Kamel nodded, "Yes, exactly the same. These things and the gods’ corpses are together, and they seemingly led to the gods’ demise—yet we do not truly know the connection between the Eternal Stone Slate and these things."

Gawain was moved; he had a vague suspicion of the truth but said nothing.

Kamel, however, passed through the room and continued to float forward, "I don’t know the complete view of the plan, but I learned that divine power is the only possible thing to resist the chaotic wave, and the only way for humanity to survive the chaotic wave is to change our life form. After decades of research, the pioneers found a way to extract energy from the flesh of the gods, and the team I led went a step further: injecting the gods’ genetic factors into human cells, thereby changing the essence of humans at the fundamental biological structure.

"Through this method, humans may bear those ’divine powers,’ even if it’s only a faint trace. It could provide hope against the chaotic wave. In the ’outside’ laboratory, I cultivated the first phase of test subjects, which I named ’Divine Evils’..."

"I see..." Gawain murmured softly.

Kamel didn’t hear clearly, "What?"

"No, it’s not important," Gawain looked at the ancient arcane spirit, "And then? Did the Divine Evils succeed?"

"Eventually, they succeeded. We created stable genetic factors that can safely combine with human cells and be inherited by future generations. Humans carrying the genetic factors wouldn’t die from malignant mutations like the first phase of ’Divine Evils,’ but instead could undergo beneficial rapid mutations when the chaotic wave arrives, adapting to the new environment within the wave before the organism dies... theoretically."

Kamel led Gawain and his group to the next room, where they saw neatly arranged cultivation containers. These containers were well preserved, with various human samples from different periods soaking in the translucent biological solution. The earliest samples were massive corpses swollen and covered with distorted crystals, but as they progressed, the condition of these samples became more stable. In the final container, it was almost a healthy human.

"You said theoretically so?" Gawain looked at Kamel floating in front of him, having a vague suspicion, "You haven’t tested it?"

"It can’t be tested," Kamel paused, "All the information about the chaotic wave can only be simulated. We use the Well of Deep Blue for simulation, but as for what the real chaotic wave is like... perhaps only the gods know, yet we defied the gods."

After saying this, the ancient spirit of mana moved forward with the group. Gawain noticed they were advancing to a higher level: the facility still had a third floor.

"After the final divine evil was completed, the mission of this facility ended. Personnel were evacuated, and information and samples were sent back to the imperial capital, but not everyone left," Kamel’s voice echoed in the empty corridor, hollow like a ghost, "We were not sure if the divine evils could really counter the chaotic wave, nor were we sure if a new disaster would destroy humanity, so a group of people were selected as ’seeds.’ The seeds were sealed in the deepest part of this facility, in otherworlds separated from the real world. If the ’outside world’ was truly destroyed, then at least we left humanity with one last hope."

"It’s those we saw in the hall..." Aunt Heidi muttered, then raised her voice, "Are you planning to rely on a few hundred people to rebuild human society?"

"No, we have more than a few hundred people," Kamel seemed to smile, but all his expressions were mixed in the chaotic and hazy Arcane Sparks. He stopped in front of a large door at the end of the corridor, "Behind this door is The Hall of Stasis, which originally housed sixty thousand people."

"Sixty thousand?!" Aunt Heidi widened her eyes, but immediately realized the key point in Kamel’s words, "You said... originally?"

"Yes, originally."

Kamel opened the heavy, ancient isolation door, slowly revealing the scene inside The Hall of Stasis.

Everyone was at a loss for words in their astonishment.

Behind the door was a shattered space. There was no Hall of Stasis, nor were there sixty thousand ’seeds’ to rebuild civilization—a kind of frenzied darkness enveloped outside, with massive space fractures and violent energy turbulence wreaking havoc in the distance. All that entered the eyes were floating debris, broken wreckage, and chaotic shadows, while a small piece of ground and a few torn walls and dome segments were all that remained of The Hall of Stasis.

It was as if a wild storm had struck here, completely tearing and devouring The Hall of Stasis.

This was a scene of despair. However, Kamel had calmly accepted this reality many years ago. He quietly closed the gate, leading everyone in another direction, as he slowly recounted what had happened back then: "We made a fatal mistake... even hiding here, we couldn’t escape the chaotic wave.

"The chaotic wave attacked the sanctuary, triggering a chain reaction of space collapse. Except for a small portion of the facility that could be preserved, everything was destroyed by energy tides and space storms. Sixty thousand people vanished without a sound, with only The Watchers surviving at the center of the facility.

"The Watchers were the volunteers who stayed to guard. We slumbered in a smaller Hall of Stasis, awakening once every twenty years to check the condition of The Hall of Stasis and receive the latest messages from the Communications Hall—we slumbered again and again, woke up again and again, watching sixty thousand people lying unknowingly in The Hall of Stasis while the Communications Hall relayed messages of the Empire being well.

"You cannot imagine what that felt like... in the first hundred years of the facility’s closure, the last person we knew in the outside world passed away. In the first one hundred and sixty years, the chaotic wave had not yet occurred, the Empire was still thriving, and we even began to doubt the necessity and meaning of this plan. Perhaps the chaotic wave would never come, and we, the nine hundred-odd volunteers and sixty thousand ’seeds,’ were merely anxiously worrying about a ridiculous doomsday prophecy, wasting our entire lives on this elusive doomsday panic, yet we faithfully executed our orders and fulfilled the vow we made back then. In the second one hundred and forty years of the facility’s closure, some people began to crack. A small-scale internal conflict erupted, with some preparing to open the gate from within, but in the end, Master Mage Wigmar managed to control the situation, and then..."

Kamel was silent for a long time before his voice resounded deeply, "We were abruptly awakened by a piercing alarm, receiving information amidst chaos that the fortress had suffered a severe blow. In the Communications Hall, we received the last message from His Majesty the emperor—we were already the last survivors—the necessity and significance of this plan were finally confirmed, but nothing proceeded as we had expected.

"The Hall of Stasis was destroyed, two-thirds of the facility disappeared in the storm, and the magic doors to the real world were also closed due to the chaotic wave’s influence. Even if the magic doors hadn’t closed, we couldn’t have left here—the outside world was already unlivable. The only place we could survive was this tiny plot of land.

"We experienced chaos, despair, hysteria, and even violent conflict, but ultimately, we decided to survive."