Chapter 20: Are You Crazy?
around ten minutes after their peculiar meeting, Hugo's timer ran out and he once again reverted to his human form.
Although both Hugo and Sunny were afraid that the red flash would attract some horrible monstrosities, their intuition turned out wrong and no abomination crawled from the sea
However, Sunny did seem to be curious about how Hugo's Aspect worked but he did not make any attempt to pry into his secrets for now, which Hugo greatly appreciated so in turn he didn't ask Sunny any questions either.
And so, for around half an hour, they simply stayed silent, watching the dark sea and dreading any abomination that came out from it.
Hugo finally decided to break the silence with a question, growing extremely bored with their current situation.
"Hey Sunless, do you think we're in the Storm Sea?"
Sunny shifted slightly in the darkness, unsure of what to say. Then a moment later he spoke in a hesitant tone
"...I'm not sure. I might not be the most knowledgeable person about the Dream Realm but from what I read, the Storm Sea is nothing like this place, considering the lack of stars and the entirety of the moon."
He said grimly, making both of their moods sour a little as they slowly came to a dreadful realization that none of them wanted to face.
After a bit of contimplating, Hugo spoke in a natural tone
"I think I might have a way to check..."
The pale boy raised his eyebrow. "How?"
Hugo was silent for a moment, then a small clicking sound was heard by Sunny as the Omnitrix dial turned from red to it's usual blue once more.
"I'm going to transform and try swimming around to look for any land."
"What?! Are you crazy?! Did you not see the terrifying abominations, or do you simply want to die that much ?!" the boy shouted, although his shouts were extremely muffled, afraid to draw the attention of the creatures in the depths
Hugo smirked slightly, then answered, "Well, I guess I'm a bit crazy now that I think about it."
Before sunny could retort, Hugo jumped off the edge of the platform, leaping towards the dark sea then moments he reached impact, the Omnitrix dial shit upward revealing his newest imprint.
Essence Imprint: [Piscciss Volann]
Imprint Rank: Awakened
Imprint Class: Beast
Imprint Description: [The deadliest sea lurkers in the history of the Forgotten Shore. The only thing that rivaled their ferocity was their suffering]
Imprint Attributes: [Seafarer], [Sharp Monster], [Undersea Sprint], [Creature of the Dark]
Imprint Abilities: --
[Seafarer] Description: [You are a creature of the sea]
[Sharp Monster] Description: [Your teeth and tail were made to hunt]
[Undersea Sprint] Description: [You are unnaturally fast underwater]
[Creature of the Dark] Attribute Description: [You were born in the dark, thus it is the only thing you see]
Hugo's skin shifted grey as his torso extended; his eyes went blank, losing their pupils. At the same time, a strange horn adorned with a squishy ball sprouted from his head like a third eye.
His legs merged and shifted into a long tail, giving him the look of a mermaid, although he was not beautiful type as he looked more of an abomination you'd find on Earth's oceans rather then a mermaid.
In his new form, Hugo entered the sea, feeling more at home in this form than when he was transformed into Vilgax. This imprint was incredibly powerful for underwater battle and movement considering it was faster then vilagax and possessed the ability to see perfectly in the dark due to [creature of the dark] attribute, his chances of survival underwater were probably better then they were on land especially when paired with [Conqueror's Wrath] charm But that wasn't the sole reason Hugo was confident enough to dive into the harrowing sea.
It was his new Memory that was filling him with confidence.
Memory: [Black-Pearl Trident]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: III
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [They were born for failure in a god-forsaken land with no hope of surviving the creeping corruption; their only solace was in death]
Enchantments: [Tormented], [Vortex], [Silent Stalker]
[Tormented] Description: [All beings hit by this trident will suffer the torment of the Piscciss Volann]
[Vortex] Enchantment: [This trident can create powerful vortexes]
[Silent Stalker] Enchantment Description: [This trident hides its wielder from prying eyes]
All of the enchantments combined with the transformation and Hugo's charm made him perfectly suited for seafaring, so he was pretty confident of being able to escape most abominations, Although he was still on a timer so he had to use his time wisely.
The trident materialized in brilliant sparks, hurting Hugo's sensitive eyes for a moment. It was a long silver trident with four sharp teeth on its end radiating an aura of death.
'Well, it's not really a spear, but it'll do.'
With perfect vision underwater, he swam through the sea with terrible speed, looking for any land beside the platform.
The first few minutes passed without Hugo spotting anything in particular; there was no land in the entire region aside from the stone platform, which made Hugo appreciate his luck.
But that appreciation did not last for long.
Hugo spotted gigantic shapes in the sea, but they were not abominations; no, they were a single deadly hunter killing its prey.
The hunter in question was the same giant black tentacles that drowned the shark abomination chasing sunny. It seemed the abomination did not satisfy its hunger which made Hugo shiver as he tried assessing its rank and class.
Then another set of tentacles emerged from the depths, reaching for none other than Hugo.
With incredible speed, he spun around the abomination's body parts, his tail and biology making his speed beyond what an awakened should even be capable of, locking the tentacles in a knot as the abomination mindlessly attempted to reach him. Then, just as he found an opening, he struck his trident, thrusting it like a spear into the dark tendrils of darkness.
SCREECH!
The tendrils resisted at first but were quickly overwhelmed by the sheer might of the trident; after all, not only was Hugo augmenting himself with soul essence but he also had [Polymorphic Crystal] upgrading the Memory into the Ascended Rank.
The tendrils separated from the massive body, falling into the depths of the sea.
At the same time, the water begun to ripple and the tides picked up on the surface; the harrowing creature was wincing in pain from the [Tormented] enchantment. But that was not all of it; the creature, while in pain, seemed to begin its ascent to face the insignificant creature who dared harm it.
That insignificant creature, sensing what was going to happen, simply raised its trident, pouring his essence into it.
The waters rippled once more. This time however, it began spinning in circles, eventually turning into a gigantic maze of wind that instantly compressed underwater; the surrounding water pressure compressed the air reducing its volume and increasing its density and pressure.
Hugo would have widened his eyes if he had proper eyelids looking at the intensity and power of the [Vortex] enchantment which was currently of the Ascended Rank. Although its power was great, it was also draining his soul essence incredibly fast.
'No time to waste...' he thought grimly before rushing forward to make his escape...
And just as Hugo did that, he looked down and saw something that sent an crippling fear into his soul.
In the depths, a gargantuan body of dark mass was fighting the approaching vortex; it had dozens of long dark tentacles enveloping it and hundreds of other lesser abominations at the same time. At its center was a giant red eye shimmering in the darkness; that same eye locked into Hugo, making him shiver and feel utterly small despite all of his extraordinary abilities.
'The Spell is fair? Bullshit...' he thought grimly as he swam as fast as he could.
Just then, he begun hearing the voice of the spell:
[You have slain an Awakened Beast.]
[You have slain a Dormant Monster.]
[You have slain a Dormant Demon.]
[You have slain a Dormant Devil.]
[You have....]
The Spell's voice continued, crediting him with dozens of kills from the vortex he unleashed, although the creatures were mostly of the Dormant Rank with the strongest being an Awakened Demon, though He did hear the Spell granting him some Memories but he didn't have the time to check them out.
---
[Sunny's POV]
The sea surface opened as a terrifying abomination leaped upward towards a strange stone platform, the creature was a dark blue chimera between a squid and a fish, However, before it could reach the boy on the stone hand another, more terrifying abomination reached from the sea, this one wielding a mighty silver trident.
The creature jumped high into the sea, bringing it's trident down the chimera like divine judgment, impaling the fish-like creature and killing it instantly.
Sunny, still terrified and on the edge of the platform—ready to escape into the sea—looked at the monstrous figure, noticing that the creature that had saved him seemed more civilized than other Nightmare Creatures, as it did not radiate the profane stench of a Nightmare Creature like Mountain King or its larva did.
It also had a strange symbol on its chest, which started glowing red instantly before flashing a bit of light. In the next moment, instead of an abomination, a boy around Sunny's age, wearing a black and blue advanced armor while wielding a mighty trident, appeared.
"You're alive?!" Sunny's eyes widened as he saw the shapeshifter look perfectly fine after taking a stroll through the dark sea.
Hugo tilted his head. "Why wouldn't I be? You didn't really think I'd jump into a sea infested with abominations if I didn't know I could survive, did you?"
Sunny remained silent for a moment, struggling as if something was compelling him to answer. "...yes, I really thought you were crazy... I mean, you did say you were, so it's your fault. But that aside... what did you do when you got in? I saw something happen while you were gone, and it did not look pretty..."
Hugo shrugged slightly as he bent down to extract the soul shards from the fish abomination before saying in a calm tone
"I tried looking for land or maybe even some Awakened from House Night but I didn't find anything like that. Instead, I found a terrifying leviathan who is most likely a Titan. It's the source of the black tendrils."
Sunny instantly paled at the mention of a Titan but he did not know whether to be scared about the Titan itself or about how nonchalant the boy was at mentioning a natural calamity like it was a nuisance.
"You're joking, right?" Sunny said in a hesitant tone, hoping it was a lie.
Hugo simply shook his head; his face, while neutral was still filled with seriousness. He then grabbed the soul shards and crushed them instantly, absorbing them in front of Sunny's astonished eyes.
"...If you're wondering, the Titan might be of the Awakened Rank. One of my weapons managed to cut its tendrils without much trouble, so if it comes back again, I should be able to kill it."
Sunny raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? You, a mere Sleeper, can kill an Awakened Titan? Did getting a True Name fry your brain or something?! It's an Awakened Titan, for Spell's sake! Paragon of Purity? More like Paragon of Stupidity!"
he shouted at Hugo, who was looking at him strangely.
But then, before Hugo could defend, something miraculous happened.
The dark sea, which had been shifting for a while now, seemingly began to recede. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, the water level was dropping. The circular stone formation they had been taking shelter on used to barely protrude out of the waves, but now there were meters and meters of wet rock between him and the restless surface of the sea.
As the sun climbed up, the monstrous ebb tide continued. Soon, Sunny and Hugo found themselves standing on the edge of a tall cliff, with a hundred-meter drop separating them from the churning waters. Beneath, the rock formation broadened and changed shape. However, from their current vantage point, it was hard to determine what that shape was, exactly.
At that time, the dark surface of the water began to be punctured here and there by sharp crimson blades. As it dropped even further, it was as though a crimson forest was slowly rising from the black depths. The "trees" were made of something resembling coral, growing chaotically into each other and stretching toward the sky.
They were colossal in size, with irregular protrusions entwining and merging together, looking monumental and eerie in the black and red reality of the sunlit void. The labyrinth formed by this strange reef stretched as far as Sunny and Hugo could see, broken here and there by protruding cliffs, sudden chasms, and distant natural features.
Half an hour later, utterly shocked, Sunny and Hugo stared down and realized that the sea was completely gone. If not for the black seaweed left hanging on wet rocks and scarlet pillars of coral, one would even doubt if it was ever there.
Their small circular island had turned into the peak of a strange, towering, irregularly shaped cliff. Looking down, he felt his head spinning before speaking...
"Well... I don't think Teacher Julius taught me anything about... this."
"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock..."
"Huh? My name is Sunny, I thought you knew that."
Hugo looked at him with a deadpan expression on his face, now illuminated by the sun.
"What? Sherlock Holmes, as in the de-... You know what, never mind... " he sighed before taking in the breathtakingly and slightly horrifying sight.
"So what do we do now?"
Sunny tilted his head slightly. "I don't know; why are you asking me? You're the one who transforms into monsters."
"...That sounded incredibly racist, but I'll have you know I also don't know what to do. Also, the creatures I turn into are Noble Beasts, not monsters," he said, his tone a bit too sharp.
"Im not! How was I supposed to know what they were called?"
sunny said strangly feeling the need to justify himself which was quite ridiculous considering the nature of their situation. But the Paragon of purity seemed to be offended about calling his Transformations monsters.
Sunny shivered slightly. 'Great, so I'm stuck with a shapeshifting maniac in hell. Just my luck, why couldn't I got transported to the same region as changing star or something!?.'
He sighed inwardly cursing his luck before looking down at the ground...
"Maybe we should climb down?" Hugo suggested, looking at Sunny, who seemed to be contimplating his life choices.
After a moment of silence, Sunny's eyes grew focused as he spoke.
"No, it's too dangerous, even with the two of us..." He stopped for a moment, as if debating whether he should continue or not Then he opened his mouth again hesitantly "...My Aspect allows me to scout, so I should be able to check if there's any danger around."
Hugo nodded before noticing that Sunny's shadow separated from his feet and started gliding down the platform. When it passed by Hugo's shadow, it reeled slightly as if making a disgusted expression.
'Huh? Don't tell me my own shadow is racist! Come on, Gloomy don't make the situation worse!...'
The shadow, however, paid him no mind and began its descent down the statue while Sunny closed his eyes, focusing his vision on it.
Hugo watched with curious eyes as his new shadowy companion was scouting.
"What a useful ability..." he muttered, remembering how his own shadow could only turn into a bridge and that was when it wanted to.
Looking downw Hugo scowled slightly before saying
"You should be more like Sunny's shadow."
And once again, he was met with no response which was a bit disappointing.
But that disappointment did not last, as Sunny shifted slightly, having found something through his shadow control.p