Falling down on a wooden chair, Nicolas Buer grasped tightly wine glass in his hand. The empty glass shattered and Nicolas threw the shards in a corner of the room. He ignored his bleeding hand and sank in his thoughts.

He had lost his self control and had violently beaten one of the abominations. When his father heard of it he had been severely reprimanded like a kid.

Nicolas was hot-blooded, a trait unbecoming of a noble in the eyes of his father, and he kept blaming him for it. He tried to keep it under control, but had sometimes violent outbursts of rage.

And this time it was really problematic as the Pope himself was displeased by the incident.

He had only been given the position because the Grand Duke Buer was a secret associate of the Cult and he personally asked for it. But his failure changed a few things and the Pope used it as an excuses to take back the responsabilities given to him. His father didn't object it at all. He was already doing a favor to his incompetent third son by giving him this position, he wouldn't exhaust the goodwill of the Pope or his other associates in the Cult any further for him.

Even if Nicolas was a talented fighter, the position of heir of the Duchy was already taken by his elder brother and their father just tried to put his remaining sons and daughters at places where they could be usefull to him or his sucessor in the future.

He was send back home and couldn't complain at all. According to his father, he should be glad that his life had been spared by the Cult thanks to him, but this only enraged him futher. The only silver lining was that if the Cult couldn't kill him, they couldn't just abandon him as he might betray them. So he was only temporarily put to the side. They would probably give him a few task to redeem himself in a few months.

The one replacing him was Ael, the silent executionner of the Cult. The recent trouble with the Imperial Bureau forced them back in the shadows once again, and the Cult wouldn't give Ael any task while they tried to lay low, plus, his experience in magic could be useful for their researchs on the mysterious lifeforms. So he became the temporary supervisor while the Cult searched for a more qualified man for the task. Lack of communication was, after all, a fatal flaw in the field.

Meanwhile, in the Alban fortress, "16" was calmly sitting, with his back on the wall of his cell, while "Beast" was sleeping.

With one of their elongated finger, "C" was playing with their menacing teeths. After a brutal punishment dealt on one of his kins, the scientific guarding them hadn't shown themselves for a few days. It was a reminder to all of abominations who were getting too comfortable that they were still prisoners.

They weren't nourished for a few days and it kept the "Beast" awake at all time, preventing "C" to take control of their body.

Today was their first meal in days, and after he satisfied his hunger, "Beast" felt asleep, freeing "C" once again.

He was reflecting on today's "meal".

They were usually weak peasants that the "Beast" would play with a bit before killing them. But today, it was a healty young man with a spear that was released in the cell. Ceiling light were also lighted up to prevent "16" to use darkness to his advantage.

"Beast" was too hungry to be picky and he fought the poor prey, but this showed that the intention of his jailors had changed.

"C" was guessing that his prey would get stronger as time passed. The young prey wasn't a trained fighter, his weapons was of poor quality and he didn't wear any armor, yet the "Beast" already had some difficulties.

"16" fought with ambushes. He rushed at his ennemies, preferably without being detected, and dealt a killing blow aiming for his opponent's weaknesses. Without his stealth abilities, he was weak.

Having difficulties against a peasant with a wooden spear was a problem. If, as he predicted, his next meal would become stronger and stronger, the "Beast" would be doomed if he didn't learn at how to fight as soon as possible.

And "C" couldn't help him at all as he wasn't a fighter in his previous life or any of the one he absorbed.

"C" was aware he also needed to grow stronger, but the only way he knew of was by absorbing other soul fragments which would make sleep for a few days.

Realising that he didn't have much of a choice as he couldn't help the "Beast" at all in their current predicament anyway, "C" dived inside the Sea of Souls and searched for an interesting soul fragment. From his experience, the bigger the fragments, the more memories and experiences it holded, and the more time it took him to absorb.

His eyes were hooked on a small golden fragment, filled with complicated patterns.

A few fragments had such unique colors or patterns and he hadn't tried absorbing them yet. "C" decided that since he was forced to eat , it might be a good opportunity to try and learn more on the fragments. He needed to see what would change between those fragments and the others.

As soon as he started absorbing it, he realised his mistake. The difficulty of absorbing the soul fragments wasn't only relative to the size of the fragment. Unable to stop the processus without any unforseen consequences, "C" was forced to brace himself and endure it with all of his mental strenght.

Nicolas Buer had been assigned as the commander of the Alban fortress for him  to keep an eye on the abominations.

He was the official commader of the fortress in the eyes of the public and in function. But now that he had been replaced by Ael, a secret agent of the Cult unknown to the world, the Buer Grand Duke sent a puppet to serve as the official commander while the actual powers would be given to Ael. The puppet's name was Baron Mael, an old man serving the Buer family since he was born and who was already aware of the relationship between his liege and the Cult.

Even if he wasn't the brightest man alive, he was loyal and quiet, a quality when being in service of the silent giant Ael.

The two newcomers in the fortress where being guided in the depth of the facility by the current leader of the AR Division.

The head scientist was named Elma, and even if she had been working in the fortress for some time, she only recently took the job as her predecessor had been executed in the recent incident.

Contrary to the former head of the AR Division, the old woman methods were crueller.

He didn't punish the abomination as it could break their opportunity of taming the abominations later on.

In Elma's eyes, thhis wasn't her job and she didn't care if she made the tamer one's harder. Her only priority was studying and understanding the abominations. Plus, the Cult had once again shown that they weren't used to forgive mistakes.

She had already started briefing them while going down as she didn't want to waste any time, but Baron Mael eyes' visibly widenned when they reached the 8th floor.

As soon as they entered, they came across 3 mages followed by 2 assistants pushing a trolley on which a sedated 3 meter long lobster with 4 pincers.

"We had to move "9". We just discovered that it's hermaphrodite and that it managed to impregnate itself." Explained the middle-aged man after a small awkward silence. "It's size is also getting too large for the normal cells, so we moved it and it's eggs to a special cell."

"Good." agreed Elma before turning around and explaining to her guests.

"As each abomination is unique, we have to reinforce all the cells security as they grow stronger, but in some case, reinforcing the walls or adding spells aren't enought because of the test subject own characteristics, so we have to create new specials cells and try to predict and tackle the issues we might have in the future."

Seeing the lack of reaction of her new boss, she led them further in the scientist's side of the 8th floor.

A few minute later, as they were travelling throught the hidden tunnel to get a good look at the abominations, Ael stopped.

He was looking at an abomination throught the one-sided mirror. He couldn't put the finger on it but he could feel something was wrong with the beast behind the glass.

He rised his eyes toward inscription written above the window : "16", before continuing the visit as he was unable to identify what was bothering him.