Deep inside the secret facility hidden under the Alban Fortress, a group of mages were preparing for a crucial test.

Until now, the abominations had eaten everything that was thrown their way, with the exception of some others abominations' body parts that the scientists had "harvested". There was no way for the abominations to see or smell any diference between the meat of their brethrens and others. After all their flesh was just a mix of various races.

A mage had theorised that the abominations had way to identify each others without using their senses of smell or vision, and the AR Division had planned to release 2 abominations in the same enclosure to see if they would show any hostility toward each others.

To prevent the loss of an abomination, Nicolas Buer was personally supervising the test while mages had prepared tranquilifying spells. The 2 abomination, "23" and  "38" where amongst the weakest but still fearly aggressive like most of them.

From his cell, "16" had gotten closer to the cell's door to try and investigate the noises and activity. "Conscioussness" had woken up a few hours ago, he had listen to scientist and was relieved he hadn't missed such an interesting experiment.

A few hours later, the 2 tests subjects had been brought to the enclosure and the mages were impatiently waiting for them to wake up.

As "38" opened his eyes, he was instantly worried by his new surroundings. "38" looked like an a cat with an elongated skull, 6 eyes and a long tail around 3 times longer then his body. He had been selected for the experiment as he had weak fighting capability.

"23" was looking like a monkey with 2 set of arms and tusk coming out of his mouth. He was stronger then "38", but he had limited senses and his size and weight were still low as he wasn't even taller then a meter yet.

After both of them had woken up, and to the scientist delight, they didn't jump at each other throats but kept their distances, looking carefully at each other. As they slowly got accustomed to the other's presences, they became less tense until they both tried to get closer.

A few minute later, the cat had sat down on the monkey's lap and the latter was looking throught his fur for small insects, leaving the mages stunned as they didn't expect both of them to get so friendly. They actually had to put them to sleep to separate them from each others and put them back in their cell.

Nicolas Buer was relieved. From what he had seen, he used think that the only use he could have from his abominations was unleashing them somewhere to rampage. Their passiveness toward each other opened a way for cooperation between them and, if they could understand and reproduce it, with them.

"We should try to test others abominations, just to verify the results." suggested one of the mages.

Nicolas agreed with him. If he sent back the news to the Pope and it was a one time only interaction, His Holiness would be furious.

"16" could perfectly hear the exited conversation happening outside his cell, but all of the noise made "Beast" worried and he backed down to the back of his cell, making it harder for "C" to listen.

The door then bursted open, startling "16", a mage immediatly sent a sleeping spell their way. It in the torso, "Beast" was instantly put to sleep, but, thanks to his soul's strenght, "C" holded a few second longer, wobbling a few step before the surprised mage increased the spell strenght, making him fall to the ground.

A cultist guard then entered the room and dragged "16" to the enclosure, while the mage told the others research division's member of his surprising resilience.

When he woke up, he was starred down by a 3 headed puppy with glistening fur. "C" was still in control of the body and sat down. He was in an specially constructed cell with a one way mirror allowing the cultists to keep an eyes on them. This new cell had a strange ceiling light, filling room with light and allowing him to look at himself in the mirror. He had to get a bit closer as his vision was still a fuzzy and hadn't completly healed, he had only been able to see color since a few days and the bright spot on the ceiling was blinding him everytime he raised his head. He had until then only been able to see his own hands and feet.

He would describe himself has a pale grey goblin walking on all fours, around 70 cm if he stoud on his hind legs. His reflection were staring curiously at him with milky white eye, with only a few apparent black veins, he had neither iris or pupil.

"I'm horrifying." thought "C".

He started incontrollably smilling and to his horror, he saw himself smiling.

His mouth was gigantic, like the Joker, but since his was natural, when he smiled, his muscles pulling his lips corner all the way back, almost cutting his face in two. His lightly parted lips flashed a disordely collections of sharp fangs spread on 3 rows. Those teeth weren't for cutting or crushing, but for stabbing. That was why the "Beast" used his neck's strenght to rip the flesh.

Surprised by his own smile, he blinked confusly, only to be surprised once again.

He had 2 pairs of eyelids. The first was horizontally splitted like everybody and the second was vertical like some reptilians and birds.

The more he looked at himself, the more he was surprised.

Against "Consciousness"'s will, the "Beast" woke up and looked around, ignoring their reflection.

He looked at the puppy that was still staring at him. And both of them felt a multitude of connections between themselves.

"C" was the most surprised of the bunch as one of the connection was between himself and a part of the puppy's soul. Actually all of the connections were between souls fragments and "C" understood : the fisherman...

His soul was the only complete one in his body, the others souls had been torned apart and the connection where actually souls fragments resonating with other parts of themselves. He could feel the soul fragment of the fisherman resonating with himself. Thankfully, the fisherman didn't seems upset to have a part of him absorbed.

Behind the one way mirror, the mages had just confirmed the friendliness of their tests subjects toward each others. Now their attention was back on the 2 abominations for another reason. "16" had been staring at itself in the mirror, which may be considered a sign of self-awareness. Self-conscioussness was an important part of philosophy, and if it could recognise itself, it could be a sign of an higher intelligence then a considerable amount of animals. They started debating if the subject was really checking itself or if it was simply curiosity toward the reflective surface. With their light-starved cell, it was also it's first time seeing itself.

Even hastly constructed, the new cell was well isolated and "16" couldn't hear them but "12" raised his head and looked around, searching for the noise. "C" could guess that the big puppy's hearing was even better then his already impressive one.

"Let's finish here for today ... " Nicolas' voice silenced the noisy mages. "Bring them back to their cells."