Few days later, the docks of the Croix territory were bustling with activity. A grand ship slowly approached the harbor as the people watched excitedly.
This was because they were waiting for the arrival of the Pope and the Princes.
As soon as the ship docked in the harbor, the cheers in the crowd intensified as they were waving their hands to greet the people offboarding the ship.
While there was a stiff smile plastered on the Pope, Rachana, and the prince's faces, they were still angry deep inside.
That is because they were going home with nothing in their possession!
How bitter their hearts were when they saw that the people welcomed them in such a grand when they are literally penniless at the moment!
They were seen as majestic and honorable people the moment they stepped out of the ship, but none of these people know that they did not even have a decent cover when they appeared on the interim island.
"Quick! Let's head straight to the capital as I cannot spend another day more in these clothes!" The eldest of the princes whispered amongst them while still flashing a stiff smile on the crowd.
"We will do as you said…" The Pope also said, that he too does not feel comfortable having only his garments as his possession.
At least he should hastily meet the Cardinal and get some artifacts from him to use. Of course, that also includes a little bit of wealth from the temple treasury.
"I'll immediately arrange for the carriage, your Highnesses…" The knight who was escorting them immediately replied.
However, the eldest prince among them shook his head and replied, "No we will take the flying beast. As for you, just try to keep up, or you can rent a flying beast as well…"
There was a trace of impatience in his eyes but it was not enough for the crowd to notice.
"That's the best arrangement." The Pope agreed as well.
And so after briefly greeting the crowd, they immediately went to an open area to mount the flying beast.
The Pope and Rachana did not even bother to greet the high priest of the Croix city. They just immediately mounted the flying beast and flew away.
Though the people did not think much of this matter, the High Priests and the servants in the Croix city immediately reported the matter to High Priest Enoch.
"High Priest, the Pope, and the rest arrived in the city just today, but they immediately set off to the capital through the use of the flying beasts!"
"I see… then I shall notify our fellows on the island." High Priest Enoch replied and he thanked the High Priest of Croix who informed him what happened.
'Thank heavens that the Croix Temple remained incorrupt!'
If not they would never know the movements from the other side as soon as they landed on the ship.
And so right after exchanging pleasantries with the High Priest of Croix, he immediately informed the rest of the coalition and they called the people in the Holy Island.
"According to the Priest of Croix, the Pope and the rest might reach the capital in two days with the speed they were going…" They told the people on the holy island, led by Abaddon and Gabriel.
"We will prepare the troops here to get ready, Your Excellencies. As for the civilians and the wounded, they were already transported to our allied towns on a remote island and needed the Vanderford territory to temporarily hide them until the farce had ended." Gabriel reported.
"That is good to hear… We have also gathered enough troops to be sent to your side. We just have to wait for the teleportation arrays to be completed. Once it is done, we will transport the troops as soon as possible." Emperor Valentin replied.
"Many thanks to our dear Leaders and High Priests…" Abaddon and Gabriel replied.
"How is the investigation on Lady Eli and Dr. Einz's end going?" The leaders also asked.
"This… Your Excellencies… they were still in the midst of their research… We have no clue when they would be starting to wrap up…" Gabriel looked troubled at the moment.
It would be ideal for them for Eli and Kayden to finish as soon as possible but they also knew better not to pressure them as the discoveries in this research might have the power to subdue the enemies completely.
"So it's like that… no worries… We will do our best to send the troops as soon as possible, but we believe that you know that there will be another encounter the moment the Pope and the rest enter Vanderford city."
"Indeed, Your Excellencies… we understand." Gabriel and Abaddon immediately replied along with the rest of the troops from the Green Wave territory.
The meeting of the leaders and the people of the Holy island ended at that.
For the next two days, the two sides immediately prepared for a possible battle as it would just be a matter of time before the enemy side knew that there was something wrong with the Holy Island.
On the other hand, Eli and Kayden were still deep within their research.
They finally knew what happened in the research and how Rachana was actually 'made'!
"To think that they really attempted to create babies out of those reproductive specimens they gathered on the asani corpses…" Eli frowned and her entire body shuddered.
How could the people not even spare the dead from their evil schemes?
"Indeed… but the heavens really did not allow anything to happen because what they created does not have a spirit… they were not complete people at all…" Kayden replied, he was now really confused and utterly disgusted by the schemes of the evil ones.
"Soulless… spiritless… one cannot make a man with only a body… this they could only make a blob zygote that does not even replicate itself…" Eli read the notes and summarized them.
Apparently, they attempted several tactics such as directly allowing the posthumous egg cell and sperm cell to unite and form an embryo but it did not work. Next, they tried surrogacy and had some success but the babies all perished… except for one girl.
That was Rachana.
She carried with her half-blood of an asani and half-blood of a noble house under the Vanderford territory.
Unfortunately, even if she had asani blood, the characteristics of an asani did not even manifest to her. It was as if the heavens refused to recognize her as an Asani at all.
She was born a devourer, someone the noble house of the Vanderford does not accept as the entire nation actually favors Casters over all the two other types of mages.
While she grew up, the noble house allowed Rachana to be on the holy island for research.
They did all things to trigger Rachana's chance to change her constitution to another mage class but to no avail.
And so when Rachana was thirteen years old. The scientist decided to change their strategy. At this point, the scientists already knew that their past success seemed to be a failure in actuality.
With their newfound technologies, they gathered several samples of her receptors and studied them. They have found out that the receptors do not even match the asani's receptors at all.
This puzzled them even further to the point that they even doubted if Rachana was really a child conceived with the use of Asani sperm or not!
But then they did not stop at that.
Luckily, they carefully preserved the bodies of the asanis and managed to extract their receptors.
They studied it carefully and also strategies for how to install it all into Rachana's body without making her suffer tremendous pain.
Since Rachana was the sole survivor of the surrogate sperm cells embedded in a woman's womb, they saw to it that she was taken care of and nothing would hurt or even kill her during the process.
They invented a particular syringe that carried the receptors carefully, protecting it until they reached their destination.
The procedure is quite complicated as to replace a receptor, they have to make sure to make Rachana's body recover and treat the receptor as her own before replacing another again.
Eli and Kayden also found out that the experimentation of fusing human mana receptors and the werewolf receptors was also a by-product of the research.
The hell wolves and eventually the curse puppets were products of this experimentation, all to prove that it was feasible to also administer this procedure to Rachana.
After that, they slowly replaced Rachana's receptors, which took several years until she reached twenty years old, which was around the time when Elise escaped to the Riverfort hospital and chose to give birth to Little Han.
Along the way, she also started to manifest the same features of an asani. Then, Rachana spent an entire year getting used to her new receptors and finally receive a 'new constitution'. She was the very first human-made Asani!
Eli paused as she digested the findings in the book and her eyes stopped at the note of one of the scientists.
"With Rachana's success in wielding the asani and the curse powers… the vessel shall be even more powerful to carry the entirety of Birsha's spirit…
Once it was done... Then a new generation of people shall arise… a race that carries the power of three heavenly beings, Asa, Ignis, and Birsha… all of those would be enough to contend the forces of the heavenly realms and open the gate of mortal time!"
