In the pearly white glow of the underground laboratory, Benjamin stood before his workbench. Three metal containers holding sealed anomaly samples lay open before him. Several days had passed since he acquired the Shadow Anomaly.
Since that night, he had scarcely left this laboratory.
The process by which the Shadow Thief and the Crevice Dweller had fused into the Shadow Anomaly had given him tremendous inspiration... not concerning the strength of anomalies themselves, but the "possibilities" of anomalies as a form of existence.
The two Hazard Level anomalies had crossed the boundary into Disaster Level the instant they fused. With the favorable timing lending them its support, they had even brushed the threshold of Catastrophe Level. Their sudden surge in power was certainly astonishing, but the fusion of two anomalies itself was what interested Benjamin more.
It demonstrated one thing: between certain anomalies, there existed a natural "affinity."
While not every anomaly could fuse with another, many did indeed possess compatible traits.
Benjamin opened the lids of the three containers one by one.
Inside were fragments from three different Danger Level anomalies with different properties: one that could induce mild fear, one that could spread a faint chill in darkness, and one that could cause brief dizziness.
The three fragments came from different sources and had no connection to one another.
Yet through the All-Purpose Eye, the frequencies of their energy fluctuations displayed a subtle, step-like overlap.
He brought the fear fragment close to the chill fragment.
The two energies produced a slight repulsion the instant they touched, like two magnets of the same pole pushing each other away.
But when he brought the dizziness fragment over as well, the three energies formed a triangular balance.
Fear suppressed the restlessness of dizziness, chill softened fear's sharp edge, and dizziness filled