<h4>Chapter 1734: The Origins of the Ebon des</h4>


    Trantor: EndlessFantasy Trantion Editor: EndlessFantasy Trantion


    With Constance leading the way, the group left the lord’s castle and took an elevator hidden deep within the mountains into the heart of Snowfrost City.


    Their destination was the “old pce”.


    “Here?” Vivian was surprised the moment she saw the building, which had already been turned into a historical attraction. “Is this where the Ebon des perform the transformation ritual?”


    “Strictly speaking, it is beneath it.” Constance smiled. “It ‘was’ a venue for the transformation ritual.”


    Hao Ren then realized something about his previous find. There was a weak energy pulse at the bottom of the pce.


    He had nned to investigate the pce that day and find what sort of secrets were hidden beneath it. However, he never thought that before he could even n anything, he would be granted a way to ess the building the proper way. His ns indeed did not catch up with real-time changes.


    With Constance leading them, the group could easily ess the old pce, and as they passed through the ancient and magnificent front gallery, Constance told them the story of the pce, “Snowfrost City was the capital of the Dragon Empire several thousand years ago, and for the normal folks, it is something that urred a few hundred generations ago. So even the most learned of schrs do not really understand the ancient parts of this city.


    “Everyone only knows that there is an ancient pce in this old capital, but few actually know that the first Sacred Armory of the Ebon des is in this city and hidden under the old pce.”


    Hao Ren’s ears perked up the moment he heard “Sacred Armory”. “Based on what I know, all the ck chainswords came from the Sacred Armory. They were forged and stored there, so for the knights who live by the sword, the Sacred Armory is, for intents and purposes, their base andmand center.”


    “You are correct, but I have to add that the Sacred Armory is not only for the forging or storage of the chainswords, but it is also... a sacred mausoleum.”


    Constance spoke with a solemn look. Two fully armed and armored Knights of the Broken de stood before her. They were guarding a rather inconspicuous gate within the old pce.


    However, Hao Ren could feel the pulsing energying from behind the great door.


    Constance was now using the body of another to move about, yet the Broken des seemed to have a special ability to sense their master. The two knights guarding the door immediately stood at attention and bowed. “Your Imperial Highness!”


    “Open the door.” Constance nodded. “I’m bringing these guests to the Sacred Armory.”


    The knights obeyed her order without any hesitation as they simultaneously activated the magical device on both sides of the door. With a ttering of mechanical sounds, the ancient doors slowly parted.


    The entrance to the Sacred Armory was now in front of them.


    There was a circr hall, and the ring wall around the hall was iid with countless neatly-arrayed metal prisms. In the middle of the great hall was an elevated metal tform, and as they followed Constance into the hall, the sensors flickered. Simultaneously, the gentle hum of magic infusion chimed and the magical lighting around the hall lit up, making it as bright as day.


    Even though the ce had been abandoned many thousand years ago, the interior still looked spic and span. That meant two things: there was scheduled cleaning in the ce, and the materials along with the construction technique of the building were far beyond the current era.


    “The real Sacred Armory was moved south in tandem with the relocation of the imperial capital. Most of the chainswords, forges, infusions, storage, and transformation facilities were moved as well. The only thing left behind was an empty husk and some old facilities, which were too difficult to dismantle and move,” Constance said while she walked toward the tform at the center of the hall. In the meantime, the knights closed the main door from the outside. “Even so, the old Sacred Armory still has many things that can be used. Plus, what the heritors pass down is knowledge, and not material wealth. So long as we have enough time, we can build many things with a nk temte. I used this knowledge to build a few new facilities, and once they were connected to the old data vault... they became operational.”


    Constance stepped onto the tform, and a gentle feminine voice rang across the hall, “Detecting external connection... Administrator ess confirmed. All systems entering standby mode. Awaiting orders.”


    Constance motioned toward Hao Ren and the rest. “Come, I’ll take you to see what has been passed down to us.”


    The group stepped onto the tform, and a short shudderter, the tform slowly descended.


    Lily’s eyes widened as she let out her signature elongated howl of surprise, “Waooooo...”


    After descending a short distance, a vast underground space appeared before everyone. Hao Ren saw through the transparent shaft and witnessed a cavern that looked like an upside-down bowl. Parts of the cavern walls were reinforced with thick alloy, while at some ces, the rocks were simply exposed. In the underground cavern, there were many designated zones because massive and nondescript facilities were installed in each zone, forming a multi-purpose... production line.


    It was like an ancient alien factory.


    “That is the old forge.” Constance pointed at one of the zones, and there were a few pieces of intricate equipment being installed on the base. A conveyor belt was connected to the back of the base alongside arge number of tubes and cables. “The chainswords are made there, but truthfully, the physical creation of the swords is the simplest of the tasks... While it may require a few special materials, it is nothing but a mass-produced item.”


    “That means, whatever it is that’s restricting the production of the chainswords is not technology per se or the scarcity of materials.” Hao Ren quickly caught on. “So the 770,000... is actually the number of souls.”


    After gathering much information and seeing how Duke Owen was, in addition to the Duke’s preparation to turn himself into an Ebon de, Hao Ren had a pretty solid understanding of the true nature of the Ebon des. He was right on the money when he spoke.


    “Correct, souls.” Constance nodded gently as she pointed at another area. “Seven hundred and seventy thousand eternal heroic souls... They all oncey there, waiting to be infused into the soul core of the chainswords.”


    Hao Ren looked in the direction she was pointing at and saw a dozen of neatly-arranged ck cubes. Each cube had been installed on a tform made out of alloy, and there were numerous glowing cables around them. There were faint glows on each of the cubes as well.


    That aside, there was an evenrger area around the cubes, but it consisted of empty tforms. Clearly, the remaining cubes were a small part of an originally great number, and most of them had already been moved.


    “There were 770 servers here, but most of them have already been moved to the new Sacred Armory down south. The remaining ones were not moved because there was no value in moving them due to damage caused by long operations. The souls within the servers have already been moved out, and the machine itself is on standby mode. I have fixed a small part of it, but frankly speaking, the servers are pretty much pointless now.


    Vivian frowned. “Because there are no souls to be used, right?”


    “Where did the soulse from?” Hao Ren asked. “If I’m not wrong, they were from thest era...”


    “Correct, the warriors from thest era.” Constance bobbed her head. “During thest Turn of the Era, my father led his army and was victorious against the former heroes who had be monsters. The ones who followed him to the end were those 770,000 men. Almost 90% of them were not heritors, but they could still use the Scepter of Sovereignty’s power to go through the Turn of the Era and retain their memories from that era. Once the old era ended, with the world destroyed and recreated, the 770,000 spirits followed my father into this new world. Many yearster, my father perfected the soul infusion and transformation technique, allowing them to reappear in this world as the Knights of the Ebon de.”


    Lily’s brows met as she pondered hard before she noticed something. “So, you chose the strongest and the best soldiers to be Ebon des. You were actually turning their bodies into a vessel, and their original spirits were being wiped out by the lot of you?!”


    As Lily said that, Hao Ren, Vivian, and Rheia looked at Constance in a somber manner. The fact of the matter was indeed very grim.


    “Of course not.” Constance had expected a question like that. She smiled as she shook her head. “It is a covenant.”


    “A covenant?”


    “To control a body, the original spirit would be the best for the task, so all Ebon des need to have their original spirit. The most important part of the soul infusion ritual is the soul synchronization covenant. Both an ancient spirit and a spirit of this day and age connect then share control of the body and weapon. The ancient spirit provides knowledge, technique, and experience while the spirit of the current age is in charge of control and thought. After aplex fusion and limatization process, the two souls are drained and infused into a chainsword, bingplex AI. This is how the Ebon des are born,” Constance exined the entire process. “Obviously, not everyone seeds, and not everyone is epted. The transformation ritual of the Ebon des does not have a low mortality rate, and most of the trainee knights will have some hesitation after they learn the contents of the covenant. As even the smallest hesitation greatly increases the chances of failure, all those who refuse to ept it have their memories wiped and are released from service for all sorts of reasons. But the main reason is... failing the trials.”


    “That sounds rather humane.” Hao Ren raised an eyebrow.


    “Humane? No, we’ve only chosen the most efficient method,” Constance replied inly. “Because having two souls fused together would increase the efficiency of control ande out much stronger, we chose that method. If there was no need to preserve the original souls, we would not hesitate to wipe them out as well.”