A few researchers came over at the moment, one pressing a green button on a side panel attached to the capsule. The blue fluid inside quickly drained away through ducts in the base, and the child inside drooped down until his corpse laid at the bottom.
With a sharp hiss, the glass walls descended, sliding smoothly into a thin slot under the base of the capsule. The researchers moved with methodical efficiency, a type of swiftness that suggested that this was not their first time doing this.
One documented the results, another unstrapping the child from the various tubes connected to his body. A third researcher wheeled over a stretcher, to which they lifted the corpse onto it.
They then left with the body, unaware of Noah who followed behind closely.
After a few minutes of silence, they stopped before a reinforced steel door, scanning their wristbands over a scanner.
The sound of hydraulics churned within the walls, and an exhaust of pressure was released as the thick doors slid open.
A foul stench hit Noah, causing him to be stunned for a moment. Quickly crossing the threshold before the doors shut, he was met with a dimly lit room, roughly ten by ten meters, with a deep pit at the center.
Unceremoniously, the researchers dumped the child's body into the pit, the small corpse disappearing into the darkness of the deep pit.
Noah's enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of flames bursting from below the pit, and even without looking down he understood what was happening here.
The researchers, devoid of emotion, wheeled their cart away as if they had not just cremated a child's body.
The gilded cathedrals of the Holy Sanctuary were nothing more than fronts to hide away the rot hidden underneath. Their dirty deeds have been hidden for ages, shielded by blind faith.
The steel doors closed behind him, although Noah paid it no heed. He stepped towards the pit, gazing down with a complicated expression.
With his enhanced vision, Noah's gaze pierced through the darkness, looking down at piles of bones and ash that lined the bottom. Judging from the number of skulls there were, at least a few dozen children have already been cremated.
Holding out his right hand, Noah willed his darkness to drip down like rain. The black raindrops fell, swallowing the bones and ashes until nothing remained.
In an instant, Noah's body became enveloped in pitch black darkness, melting away and disappearing from the disposing room. A few moments later, he rematerialized, his body still in an ethereal form others could not sense.
His new surroundings still consisted of the sickly white walls, although the lights were much dimmer now. The shadows seemed to stretch from corner to corner, hiding secrets that should not surface.
In the center of the room stood a massive capsule reinforced with materials capable of holding back even a Divine-Cursed Awakener. Within it, a muscular man floated in the viscous gel, a breathing mask connected to his mouth along with several tubes that connected to his limbs.
One researcher noted something down on his electronic tablet before stepping forward and pressing a green button and flicking a switch on the side of the capsule.
Gears whirred overhead, a mechanical arm descending, grasping onto a green star core with thirty two points.
Under the researcher's scrutinizing gaze, the arm reached the chest level of the Awakener. A separate appendage extended, expertly cutting open the man's chest cavity.
Blood seeped out and was absorbed by the gel substrate, but the tubes quickly supplied blood to keep the man alive.
Another arm descended, extracting the sixteen point star core already present inside the man's chest cavity. A burst of energy erupted from the sixteen point star core as it tried to escape, but the materials used to contain it were much too strong.
In a split second, the thirty two point star core was implanted inside of the Awakener, while mechanical appendages stitched the cut that had been made. Nimble and efficient, the extracted star core was whisked away while the man's open chest had been closed up, sealing the new star core inside.
The moment the last stitch was made, a burst of energy exploded from within the Awakener's body, causing his body to balloon up. The researcher hurriedly flicked another switch, causing the tubes to pump a different substance into the man's body.
With much resistance, the mutilated body of the man slowly deflated, his muscles realigning and his bones mending back together. The shock from transplanting a foreign star core had nearly exploded the Awakener's body, turning bones of steel into dust. Just barely had he managed to preserve his own skull and brain, keeping himself alive for a brief moment.
That moment was enough for the new star core to connect to the Awakener's system, replacing old cells with new ones brimming with energy.
Moments later, the man had returned to normal, his body a canvas of muscle and power, clearly much stronger than before.
Noah frowned as the glass tube lowered into the ground to release the Awakener from the capsule.
'The star core of a Restoration level Awakener planted into an Ascendant...'
The researcher took a syringe from a desk, carefully inserting the needle into the man's outstretched arm. Drawing a bit of blood, the researcher took it to a gathering of machinery against the dim walls.
Pressing the syringe into a slot in the wall, the screens immediately responded with charts and readings of different values.
The researcher scanned the screens for a moment while the Awakener waited in tense silence. A few minutes later, he turned to the man with a slightly smug smile.
"You've retained your original ability, and have grown by an entire level. The overall synchronization rate is fifty six percent of a real Restoration level Awakener, so the implantation can be considered a great success"
It was at this moment that Noah understood what the implantation experiments were. A method of forcefully promoting an Awakener to a higher level, although they will be much weaker than someone who had truly attained that level.
Most important of all, he could see through his eyes that the Awakener who had just gone through this procedure seemed to have lost something, like a piece of his soul that he will never get back. His potential has been cut, and chances are that a natural advancement in strength is not possible.