Veronica/Ophelia's answer was so quick and direct that Gawain did not react for the first two or three seconds. Only then did he realize that he had found the key clue to Amber's origin so easily — an insider was standing right in front of him.
"Why did you suddenly mention Shadow Fortress?" Veronica noticed the change in their expressions and asked curiously, "Where did you hear this name from?"
Gwen did not answer immediately. Instead, he asked another question, "Let's not talk about this first. Since you know about Shadow Fortress, have you heard of a Royal Shadow Guard named Sari Randolph?"
In theory, when Sari Randolph was active, the Saintess had not yet been born. But Gwen knew that Veronica's youthful appearance hid the soul of an ancient disobedient. This disobedient had been living in the world as a parasitic soul and had changed many bodies. Perhaps one of her bodies was active in the Ansu Kingdom decades ago. Even Sari Randolph's mission was related to her.
Veronica shook her head and said, "I have no recollection of this name."
She did not look like she was lying. But Gwen could not tell what the ancient disobedient was thinking from her indifferent expression. He could only believe that she was telling the truth.
"Sully Randolph was a Shadow Guard of the Royal Family a few decades ago." Gawain pondered for a moment and decided not to mention Amber's identity. Instead, he started to talk about the secret mission many years ago. "We found some information and found that this Shadow Guard of the Royal Family was ordered to look for the ruins of Ancient Gondor called the Shadowy Fortress. Now it seems that the Shadowy Fortress was part of the Disobedience Plan."
Amber, who was next to Gwen, asked, "Can you tell us more about this fortress? What did it study? Why did you say that it was abandoned? "
Veronica gave Amber a deep look, which made the latter feel guilty. Veronica then said, "It's a wrong route — the route of escape and hiding. The Shadow Project is an attempt to completely change the nature of human life. By transforming into some kind of shadow creature, they can hide in the Shadow Realm to avoid the Demonic Wave in the real world and even the power of the gods. The Shadow Fortress is the main research base of this project. "
"Changing the nature of human life? Transforming them into shadowy creatures and hiding in the Shadow Realm? " Gwen frowned. This answer was somewhat in line with his speculation after reading Sari Randolph's diary. The essence of the disobedience plan was actually the 'continuation plan of mankind', so the Shadow Fortress must be built to help mankind avoid the demonic wave. But was the Shadow Realm really a world where humans could avoid the demonic wave?
Veronica nodded gently. "The Shadow Realm has existed since ancient times, and the Shadow Dwellers are a race that is more ancient than humans, elves, and all known intelligent creatures on the continent. So after the disobedience plan was launched, we naturally noticed them. All kinds of evidence showed that all kinds of changes in the real world would produce corresponding changes in the Shadow Realm according to a certain law. Therefore, after the Demonic Wave occurred in the real world, things in the Shadow Realm would also change accordingly, and during this process, the Shadow Dwellers were never affected.
"They have some kind of elemental characteristics, which allows them to avoid the influence of the demonic wave and quickly adapt to the new environment and re-stabilize their form.
"On the other hand, the power of shadow is the most mysterious and widespread of all the known elemental and quasi-elemental forces. The Shadow Realm covers our real world 100%, unlike the other elemental realms which have huge limitations. In terms of 'development potential', the Shadow Realm is a better choice than other elemental realms.
"Taking all these factors into account, the disobedients launched the 'Shadow Project' in the early stages of the plan and built a subspace fortress in the space crevice near the Shadow Realm. For the sake of environmental research, this fortress has no physical entrance and exit, but it is connected to the material world through some specific space-time anchors. "
As promised, Veronica was very frank when it came to the Disobedience Plan. She did not hide anything and told Gawain everything she knew about Shadow Fortress, giving Gawain a general understanding of the history of this fortress.
"How do you do it?" Pitman, who had been silent all this while, suddenly said, "How did you turn humans into shadow creatures?"
"The initial method was simple and crude. In a way similar to 'elemental erosion', we directly introduced the shadow power into the human body in batches and gradually changed the physical structure of the human body in this process. In this way, we created some mutants with powerful shadow power, but the mutants' state was extremely unstable. The human soul could not fully control the external shadow power, and the body could not withstand the huge changes. The volunteers who first accepted the transformation soon could not distinguish the difference between the material world and the shadow world, and gradually lost human self-awareness..."
Veronica shook her head as she spoke.
"After that, we accumulated experience and realized that it was not enough to simply introduce external forces and change the physical body. We also needed a transformation at the soul level, and to cultivate the adaptability of the experimental subjects to the shadow power from the embryonic stage, so we started the 'Cyborg' project."
Gwen clearly felt that when Veronica mentioned the 'Cyborg Project', Amber's breath stopped.
But he did not interrupt Veronica's narration. Instead, he listened to her continue.
"With the help of the biochemical technology experience accumulated by the 'Abomination' project, the Shadow Project team created a batch of synthetic embryos. The somatic cells of these embryos came from the first batch of failed mutants, but they were deeply modified and stabilized. At the same time, we also captured the same number of shadow inhabitants. After piecing their souls together with human souls and re-encoding them, we created a synthetic soul that could maintain human nature and control shadow power at the same time. After injecting it into the embryos, the 'Cyborgs' were formed."
At this moment, Gwen finally could not help but ask, "The souls of the Cyborgs are the shadow inhabitants?!"
"It's a mixture of human and shadow inhabitants," Veronica corrected. "Although it sounds incredible, the shadow inhabitants have a similar soul structure to human beings. In fact, they are almost a 'spirit' creature. Except for the shadow clouds and the runic cloths of unknown origin, the only structure left is the soul. During the ancient Gondor period, the Empire mastered a very advanced soul extraction and transformation technology."
At this point, the ancient rebel pointed to herself and smiled faintly. "You should have guessed that I am also a user of this technology."
There was no doubt that Ophelia Norton, who had survived for more than a thousand years in the form of a parasitic soul, had also received the transformation at the soul level.
But at this moment, Gwen did not have the spare time to pay attention to these technical details. He just glanced at Amber subconsciously.
She was not a half-elf at all.
She was a 'hybrid' of human and shadow inhabitants, a hybrid at the soul level.
Amber also turned to look at Gwen. After a short moment of thought and silence, she turned to Veronica. "How many such 'embryos' were created?"
"There were 126 that survived," Veronica said. "This is the report I received back then."
"Then why was the project abandoned?" Gwen asked immediately. "Is there a hidden danger?"
What he was most concerned about now was the reason why the project was abandoned because it was directly related to whether the 'Cyborg embryos' had any hidden dangers. Although Amber had grown up healthily for decades, who could guarantee that she would not have any problems one day in the future?
Veronica glanced between Gwen and Amber. After a few seconds of recollection, she said softly, "If the Cyborgs had survived, there would have been no hidden dangers, but there was a problem with the project itself.
"After the experiment entered the embryo cultivation stage, the entire Shadowy Stronghold, and even the subspace rift where the experimental group was located, entered a state of instability. Additional energy of unknown origin appeared in the energy circuit of the stronghold, mysterious and short echoes frequently appeared in the communication system, and the shadows of the shadow inhabitants wandered in the building. In the later stage, even some rooms disappeared into thin air, and strange phenomena of additional branches appeared in some corridors.
"At the same time as the anomaly in the stronghold, the core personnel of the project began to be troubled by frequent hallucinations and auditory hallucinations. Many people reported that they heard the embryos in the incubation chamber talking to each other in a hoarse voice, but all the monitoring equipment found no evidence of this. As the project progressed and the embryos gradually grew into larvae, these strange phenomena became more and more intense. The auditory and visual hallucinations began to spread to the rooms outside the central area, and the researchers became more and more unable to distinguish the boundary of reality. The entire Shadowy Stronghold began to show a state of 'reality separation'.
"We tried a variety of supernatural countermeasures, but in the end, they all failed. The risk assessment department determined that the experiment in the Shadowy Stronghold may have pried open the 'boundary of the domain' outside the Shadow Realm and the present world. To prevent the project from breaching the security barrier and attracting the attention of the gods, I had to order the termination of the entire 'Shadow Project', and the Shadowy Stronghold was abandoned."
This was the end of the Shadowy Stronghold.
Pitman looked into Veronica's eyes and asked slowly, "What happened after that? Those embryos were just left in the stronghold? "
"At that time, the embryos had grown into larvae, but they were all in an inactive state. I ordered them to be destroyed before they opened their eyes," Veronica said. "The project was out of control, and nothing could be left behind. It was better to let those experimental subjects disappear before they gained self-will than to let them face death after they were born."
Amber took a soft breath and asked in a low voice, "All destroyed?"
"All destroyed, at least that's what the report I received said."
"But there is actually one left." Amber looked at Veronica and said word by word.
Veronica raised her eyebrows slightly, but did not speak. She just responded to Amber's gaze.
Amber pointed to herself and said calmly, "I am Android No. 36."
"Ah," Veronica said softly, but she was not surprised. "So that's how it is …"
Gwen looked at her and asked, "What do you mean? Did you already … "
"No, I didn't recognize her before." Veronica shook her head. "But when you ask so many questions, how hard is it to guess the truth?"
As she spoke, she looked at Amber seriously for a long time and sighed. "So … this is what you look like when you grow up."
Amber could not help but step forward. "Don't you have anything else to say?"
"For a thousand years, few things have surprised me, but what happened today has finally surprised me … I know this is not what you want to hear, but this is what I really think now." Veronica calmly responded to Amber's gaze, but there was not much surprise in her calm expression. "I don't know how you survived. Maybe it has something to do with the illusion that shrouded the entire Shadowy Stronghold, but your survival is a surprise to me. I'm glad to see you standing here so healthy."
"Oh? Isn't it a pity that you didn't destroy me back then? "Amber stared at Veronica." Isn't this a hidden danger to you? "
Veronica's answer was very calm and indifferent. "You have grown up safely. You are no longer a hidden danger."
Gwen's eyes moved between Amber and Veronica. He thought Amber's reaction would be fierce, but after a few seconds of silence, she just shook her head and said, "Then let's just take it that way."
Her figure gradually disappeared into the air, and a fading voice floated softly. "I'll go out and get some fresh air."
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