The thought that this might be a relic left behind by some traveler only heightened the interest of the priestess, who was already quite intrigued. She couldn’t help but anticipate what surprises lay inside.
Ini didn’t immediately proceed forward but instead chose to turn around, her expression serious as she cautioned the others behind her.
“Everyone must remember, there are some extremely dangerous things inside. Many of them we, the puppets, haven’t fully understood. Whatever you find, you can only observe. Absolutely do not touch anything strange or press any weird buttons. Understand?”
“...?”
Is it really that scary? They can’t possibly be hiding nuclear warheads or something, right...?
Though internally scoffing at the ominous warning, Violet was not one to be arrogantly presumptuous.
Moreover, Ini’s willingness to share secrets was already quite rare, so she promptly took the lead in expressing her compliance.
“Understood, we’ll be careful.”
No need for further words. The other girls were also reasonable individuals. Since Violet had spoken up, they naturally nodded in understanding.
“Alright then.”
Satisfied with their response, Ini nodded approvingly and led the way forward.
Behind the door disguised as a wall was a dim and spacious inner chamber. Upon entering, it felt as if they had suddenly stepped into an air-conditioned room on Earth.
The sweltering temperature in the surroundings immediately dropped, easing the discomfort of several girls who were still troubled by the heat.
While high-tech facilities were rare in this world, Violet had already seen quite a few in various secretive places, such as the “Temple” of the Blood Clan in the Forgotten Lands from Aphra’s memory and the chamber for breeding artificial creatures deep in the Abyssal Isle.
She thought that no matter how bizarre the displayed scenes were, they wouldn’t surprise her much.
However, as the sound-controlled sensor lights in the room all lit up and the hidden objects throughout the room were revealed, the priestess was still startled. This also startled several girls who had just relaxed behind her.
“Oh my goddess! W-What is this place?!”
This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
Edwina, who couldn’t tolerate such scenes, exclaimed with indignation. Theresa, who was less brave, directly hid behind the priestess. Leila and Rene, including Esther, also looked somewhat grim, and even Xiao Guang couldn’t help but furrow her brow.
Only Novia, the young wolf cub who still seemed mentally immature, remained curled up in the arms of her Esther, blinking her bright and pure eyes curiously.
Here, the ground was littered with scattered limbs and partially dismembered female bodies, thrown about in disarray. Some were even so damaged that they no longer resembled human forms. Apart from the absence of bloodstains, it was almost like a massive and gruesome human slaughterhouse.
“This is... wait, puppets...?”
As she recovered from the initial shock, Violet quickly realized this fact.
Yes, they were puppets.
The most obvious aspect was the absence of bloodstains. If so many people had been dismembered and died in the room, the walls and everywhere else wouldn’t be so clean.
While most of the dismembered parts were indistinguishable from those of real human girls, Violet could clearly see some things resembling screws and bolts among them.
Obviously, this was a puppet manufacturing laboratory. However, it seemed that the personnel involved had encountered some accident or mishap and hadn’t had time to clean up the various materials and traces left behind. They were forced to leave in a hurry, hence the “gruesome” scene.
With this revelation, several girls who had already shown signs of nervousness or anger, even Edwina, who had already drawn her weapon from her waist, were stunned and then showed expressions of astonishment.
“Puppets?”
“Well... if Lady Violet says so, it seems... indeed...”
At the same time, Ini, who hadn’t paid attention to the commotion behind her, turned around with a complex expression.
First, she glanced at the ground littered with dismembered limbs with a slightly sad and hesitant look in her eyes before finally pausing on the backs of several girls behind her.
“Just as Miss Violet said, what you’re seeing now are materials from the early failures of the ‘Three Paths River’ project. They are... left here by ‘Father.'”
“The ‘Three Paths River’ project? So what exactly is that?”
Although she knew it wasn’t the best time to ask this question, Violet found it difficult to suppress her growing curiosity.
Ini shook her head. “Unfortunately, I don’t know either. Including Sister Ewan, there are a total of 47 sisters in our puppet family, and none of us knows the true content of the ‘Three Paths River’ project. But judging from this scene... I’m sure most of you have a rough idea of its ultimate purpose, right?”
“...I see.”
One thing was certain. The intelligent puppets now known as the Puppet Family, at least Ini and Eilush, were undoubtedly created in this laboratory. Otherwise, there would be no explanation for the management AI here recognizing them.
But from what they were saying, it seemed that they themselves didn’t remember this. It was very likely that the relevant records in their cores had been deleted or were still in an inactive state at the time. With their intelligence, they probably figured out this much even without the memories.
Without saying much, Ini carefully avoided the scattered “debris” on the ground and continued forward with Eilush, who seemed to want to lighten the heavy atmosphere but didn’t know how to do it well. Violet and the others silently followed suit.
The place they finally reached was in front of a deep blue coffin placed in the depths of the laboratory, as if it were cast in ice. However, the lid of this heavy object was not locked, it seemed to be merely pressed down on whatever was inside.
As they approached, a mix of cold air and heat wave hit them head-on. Although it sounded strange, this was the eerie feeling one got behind the ice coffin.
While this level of sensation wasn’t much for true powerhouses, it seemed that because of the suppression of the strange ice coffin, whatever was inside hadn’t released too much terrifying heat.
Ini and Eilush exchanged a glance. Ini took a deep breath, hesitated briefly, and then nodded. Together, they placed their hands above the coffin lid and slowly pushed.
“Creak... Creak... Creak...”
The coffin emitted an unusually heavy friction sound, as if it were pressing down on a thousand-pound boulder.
In fact, the fact that even Ini and Eilush, two super-sized humanoid puppets comparable to legendary figures, needed to use their combined strength to push it was proof enough of the terrifying weight of the lid.
Violet didn’t casually step forward to offer assistance, nor did the two puppet ladies fully open the ice coffin.
They only pushed it down to about one-third of its position, letting it partially hang there before tacitly easing off the force, and gestured for the onlookers to come and see for themselves.
After seeing the scene inside, the girls couldn’t help but exchange glances.
The answer was unexpected, yet it made sense.
Inside the ice coffin was a person.
At least, that’s what it looked like.
She was a girl who bore a striking resemblance to Ini, Eilush, and the great demon general Ewan. She lay with closed eyes in the ice coffin, her beautiful fiery red hair spread out behind her like burning flames.
Although it appeared she wasn’t wearing clothes, under the coffin lid, only her fair skin up to about one-third of her chest was exposed.
Violet couldn’t sense any breath of life or soul from her, a situation shared by the other puppets, including Ini and Eilush.
However, in the case of the girl sealed in the ice coffin, it was particularly evident.
She was a puppet, one that hadn’t been activated yet, or perhaps... couldn’t be activated.