Still, where was this place? Everything here looked so advanced that it made the current tiline he lived in look prehistoric.
The place was enormous. As his eyes scanned around, he saw rows and rows of large reinforced cylinders, glass tubes infused with tal filants, and containing so kind of blue liquid.
They were connected to nurous pipes that extended downward through an open shaft and pulsed with an energy that was different from mana.
Before Reinhardt could beco curious as to what it was, the sight that he saw inside the cylinders made him freeze.
Bodies!
The thing floating inside the glass tubes in the peculiar bluish fluid was none other than human bodies!! So preserved in stasis, frozen forever; others... simply looked wrong.
These bodies had twisted limbs, fused bones, and skin that didn’t appear to be their own. They looked so disfigured that it appeared like they were screaming.
The place seed to be so kind of horror, mad research lab. It was disturbing and extrely revolting. What’s more, this place not only researched humans but other races too.
With a glance, he could make out races like elves, dwarves, beastn, and even giants. Most crazy of all was that there were not just adults, but children here too.
Seeing this place would cause a chill to run down anyone’s spine. This place not only ddled with the natural order; it violated it.
The more Reinhardt headed deeper, the more of such scenes he got to see. Narrow corridors, each lined with more machinery, more sealed doors, more experints that should never have existed.
Every species he knew and many he didn’t were represented here. Dismantled, dissected, and modified.
Reinhardt was just about to question why the Queen had such a mory and why she was even showing him this, when suddenly a sharp noise cut through the organised humming of the place.
Turning around, he saw a few of the researchers going stiff. They hurriedly dropped what they were doing, grabbed what looked like a tablet, and ford a neat line.
Then, from the end of the corridor, a maglev lift ca down. When the doors opened, a woman strode into view, her commanding presence instantly silencing the entire hall.
All the researchers bowed their heads towards her in respect. As for Reinhardt, he was frozen in stunned silence.
The reason being that the woman who just appeared had crimson hair that cascaded over her shoulders and sun kissed skin. Most importantly, her facial features were identical down to the smallest details to the... Queen.
If not for the dress she was wearing right now, he might as well have believed it was her.
The woman’s attire was different than what he was used to seeing her in. She wore sleek black pants that hugged her long legs and a fitted white top partially hidden beneath a lab coat. The shirt’s collar rose high and was clipped with a luminous badge. A thin, crystallized device like a digital monocle covered one eye, flickering with data.
Looking at her, it appeared like she was a researcher at the very pinnacle of her field. And given the way the other researchers treated her, it might as well be true.
Reinhardt approached closer; however, just like everyone else here, she passed through him, unaware of his presence.
"Senior Minerva!" One of the scientists approached her and offered his tablet.
The Queen, or rather the woman who was referred to as Minerva, touched the monocle in her eye and imdiately downloaded the data. Rows of lines flashed past her eye, which she quickly glossed through.
"Good, keep it up. Increase the variations if you need to."
After that scientist, the other researchers approached her, their expressions looking pale and distressed.
"Senior, about the latest experint."
"What is it this ti?"
Minerva sighed, her tone tired and slightly annoyed.
"The fetus’s vitals are destabilising. Its neural gate can’t withstand prolonged exposure to the Quantum Factor. At this rate, systemic collapse is projected within the hour."
At those words, the woman’s brows furrowed, and she started heading towards a specific part of the facility.
STEP... STEP... The cold sound of her heels against the tal floor sounded out in the backdrop.
"Did you maintain continuous infusion?"
"Yes, Senior. Type-IV infusions of stabilized Aether are already circulating, but the subject’s internal resonance doesn’t match the Factor’s harmonics." The junior researcher reported while keeping pace.
Reinhardt also tagged along, trying to make sense of what they were saying.
"Did you calibrate the Aetheric waveform?" Minerva asked sharply. "The fetus’s vessel needs a more diluted stream, sothing closer to a primordial baseline."
"We attempted reductions, but..."
Amidst their talk, they soon entered a deeper chamber, at the center of which stood another glass womb cylinder bathed in dim violet light. Shockingly enough, the thing floating inside was a fetus!
"What’s the current flux?"
"Seventy-three percent destabilisation. The Quantum Factor is fracturing the vessel’s integrity."
"Begin echo-projection." At Minerva’s order, the researchers rushed to their consoles and hurriedly started working on it.
Soon, screens started running with lengthy equations and geotric structures of an anatomy that, although it looked human, was vastly different.
"Substrate instability detected in the taphysical cortex. The fetus may not survive the fragnt unless we reinforce its second soul."
Reinhardt, who was observing the scene, suddenly stiffened. There was one word among the multitudes of nonsensical lines these researchers spoke that struck him.
Fragnt and Second Soul.
Those were the very sa words he heard the Queen speak.
In the dream, Minerva’s words cut through the chaos.
"Prepare the Vector Convergence Chamber."
"But Senior!"
"It’s the only way to preserve it. I cannot allow the second soul to tamper with my experint," Minerva stressed, her tone silencing all argunt.
"We cannot lose Prototype- 03. Begin synchronization procedures."
At those words, the researchers scrambled to open the Vector Chamber.
While they were getting busy operating the machines, Minerva stepped closer to the cylinder and placed her palm on the glass. Just then, Reinhardt, who was closely monitoring the woman, noticed her stern, authoritative eyes soften for a mont.
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