Chapter 271: Nhggr
Chapter 271: Nhggr
The anomaly had left behind almost the same amount of anomalic power that would be yielded by a level three anomaly, and that was quite a precious resource to Adam.
The anomalic power wasn't going to be very effective on his higher-level anomalies, but he was very eager to evolve Distortion, which was still only a level two anomaly at this point.
Distortion had displayed formidable combat prowess on many occasions, and Adam had always wanted to evolve it, but unfortunately, the correct circumstances to do so had never arisen.
At the moment, his priority was to have a sane helper by his side when he went on his missions, so he had no choice but to evolve Hellhound at the expense of Distortion's development.
Hellhound was the anomaly that was most compatible with Shae, and it was the only one that she was able to fuse smoothly with.
"You're a lucky little rascal. Go on then," Adam instructed as he pointed at the cloud of anomalic power.
After splitting up from Shae, Hellhound immediately hobbled over to the body of anomalic power as quickly as it could before digging in like a starving dog.
"You better evolve! Don't let me down!"
This wasn't the anomalic power of a level three anomaly, so Adam still wasn't fully confident that it would be able to trigger an evolution.
He watched intently as Hellhound devoured all of the anomalic power, and it was able to completely recover from its injuries, but that was the extent of its transformation.
"Was that all for nothing?" Adam made his way over to Hellhound before firmly patting its heads. "Why are you not evolving? Hurry up and grow a third head! If you don't, I don't think I'll be able to bring you into the next two psychic worlds!"
Dwight appeared to be extremely violent, and his imposing physical appearance certainly contributed to that image, but Adam knew that he wasn't a truly deranged criminal.
Given his experience as a psychotherapist, Adam could tell that Dwight was only mentally ill and was unable to control his own emotions at times. He suffered from severe mood swings as a result of his bipolar disorder, but that was the extent of his mental ailments.
As a result, his anomaly wasn't actually all that powerful, and he was far less mentally disturbed than someone like Shaun.
However, the same didn't apply to the other two inmates, "Head Collector" Sima Kai and "Angel of Death" Noah.
It was clear just from the crimes that they had committed that they were no less deranged than the likes of Sithu and Shaun.
If Hellhound couldn't evolve here, then Adam was rather reluctant to bring Shae into the other two psychic worlds.
"Hurry up! Evolve!"
Adam continued to pat Hellhound's heads repeatedly, and as he did so, Hellhound seemed to have finally finished digesting all of the anomalic power that it had devoured. It let loose a loud burp, following which dense black mist began to rise up from its body, and it began to undergo a transformation. Its body became more muscular and well-defined, and flames were also spouting out of its fangs.
"Keep it up!"
The third head that Adam was eagerly awaiting didn't appear, but as the transformation continued, one of Hellhound's heads underwent a clear change.
The fiery patterns on that head began to disappear, while the head itself expanded in size, and its fangs became sharper than those of the other head. In particular, the mandibles on that head had clearly become more well-developed than those of the other head.
"What happened here? Why are your two heads not the same size now?" Adam raised an eyebrow at the sight of the new Hellhound. "It doesn't look good now that it's all asymmetrical."
"I think it's very good. One head will be used for close-quarters combat, while the other one attacks over long distances."
Shae dragged her injured body over to Hellhound before fusing with it again.
After completing the fusion process, her werewolf form had become even taller than before, but the two heads of different sizes looked very strange, sitting on her shoulders.
However, Shae didn't care about how she looked. As long as she could become more powerful, her appearance wasn't a concern for her.
"Test out your new powers," Adam prompted, and Shae immediately obliged, opening her mouth to unleash a burst of flames.
As opposed to a fireball, she was now able to release a thick pillar of fire that hurtled through the entire carpark before instantly setting a truck alight. It took only several seconds for the truck to be burned down to its metal frame, and the effect was even more powerful than Hellhound's previous Explosive Fireball.
After that, Shae made her way over to one of the stone pillars in the carpark, then sank the fangs of her larger head into the pillar. A loud cracking sound rang out, and a large chunk of the reinforced concrete pillar was snapped off as if it were a piece of chocolate in a terrifying display of bite force.
"Not bad at all!" Adam nodded with a pleased expression. "You don't have a whole host of abilities like Nun does, but you'd definitely beat her in a direct battle in this form."
"Finally, I won't be a complete dead weight now," Shae said as she heaved a sigh of relief. "Should we get out of here now?"
"Not yet. I'm not a psychotherapist right now. Instead, I'm a police officer and a chronicler. I need to record a complete story of Dwight's life in order to produce a compelling narrative. A rags-to-riches underdog story of a slum child who went on to become a professional athlete will surely be a hit. We'll start off with his childhood first.
“Then we'll move on to his rise, detailing how he left the slums and made a name for himself. After that comes the fall from grace, wherein his mental illness led to his criminal activity and incarceration..."
……
While Adam was chronicling Dwight's life, Diana had found a dragon that she deemed to be a suitable visualization subject.
It was the dragon Níeh?ggr of Norse mythology.
The dragon embodied destruction and despair, and it was feared even by the gods.
It dwelled at the bottom of the world tree, constantly gnawing at its roots to destroy it from its foundation. If the world tree were to perish, then the world would be destroyed, and Ragnar?k would arrive.
As the very embodiment of disaster and annihilation, Níeh?ggr possessed a destructive, obsessive compulsion that devoured its entire being.
This type of mental state was very similar to Diana's, and it also shared many similarities with Diana's psychic body, the most prominent of which was the fact that they were both dragons. Hence, it was the ideal visualization subject for her.
Most importantly, its powers weren't inferior to Yamata no Orochi's in the slightest.
One of them was a dragon deity of Norse mythology prophesied to destroy the world, while the other was a world-destroying serpentine deity from Japanese mythology. If those two were to clash, then it would truly be an epic battle.
"But how... do I... visualize?"
Looking at the image of Níeh?ggr that she had searched up on her communicator, she began her first session of visualization. She imagined herself as Níeh?ggr, but it didn't take long for her to become agitated, and she didn't make any progress at all.
Unable to bear the agitation and frustration any longer, she emerged from the visualization chamber before arriving in the courtyard outside.
Meanwhile, Sadou was indulging in some sweets while enjoying a massage from a beautiful female masseuse, looking as if he were having the time of his life.
With his telegnosis, he was able to detect Diana long before she arrived, but he paid no heed to her and continued to savor the moment.
"Have you chosen a subject?"
Diana nodded in response.
"What did you choose?"
"Níeh?ggr..."
"I had a feeling you would go down this route. I have to warn you that your visualization subject will affect your mental state. You're still so young, why obsess yourself with things like killing and revenge? God endowed you with such brilliant aptitude, it's a massive waste that you're not using your talents to enjoy your life!
“If you become affected by such a destructive and violent visualization subject, there's a very good chance that you'll suffer a very unfortunate fate. Are you sure you want to make this choice?"
"I'm certain..." Diana replied without any hesitation.
King Arthur was her only friend in this world, and she didn't know what she was going to do with her life aside from dedicating it to avenging her only friend.