Chapter 34: Awakened
Hugo remained on the ground for a long time, his mind In a state of numbness he couldn't quite understand himself. It was as if his mind had created a defense mechanism as a desperate attempt to stop itself from shattering under the weight of the fresh agonizing memories he had just experienced. The phantom pain of his soul being torn asunder still echoed in his very being...
Slowly, he pushed himself up and willed himself out of the DNA room returning to the expanse of his soul sea.
The shimmering blue maze was silent once more, its frantic shaking had ceased and the imminent threat of dissolution was gone. Most strikingly, in the sky above, four Omni Cores now hung in a perfect circle. Each one pulsed with latent energy feeling as though they were a single soul fragment away from erupting.
'Is this the power of a Divine Aspect?' Hugo thought, his mind too exhausted for ponder the thought for too long.
his emotional state felt like a flat, barren plain.
Perhaps the Omnitrix, in its core programming to keep the legacy of Nobel creatures alive had granted him the potential to form multiple cores.
'To hell with it all...'
He willed his runes to manifest, the familiar script glowing before him, now changed.
Name: Hugo
True Name:Paragon of Purity
Rank:Awakened
Class:Devil
Omni Cores:[4/7]
Soul Fragments:[16/4000]
The revelation that he could form three more cores to become a Titan should have sent elation coursing through him. It was a path to immense power, perhaps through this he could actually achieve his dream... Yet, he felt nothing. Only the same old hollowness
He lowered his gaze to the rest of the runes.
Aspect: [Omnitrix]
Aspect Rank:Divine
Innate Ability:[Essence Imprint]
Aspect Abilities:[Morph], [Quick-Morph]
Attributes:[Mutant], [Extraordinary Memory], [Flames of Divinity], [Anatomica], [Shadow-Rend], [Spirit Core], [Soul-Bound]
Focusing on his new Awakened ability, Hugo looked at the runes with a natural expression:
Awakened Ability: [Quick-Morph]
Ability Description:[You can switch between your forms at will.]
It seemed deceptively simple, almost underwhelming for an Awakened ability But its utility was profound; it solved the critical vulnerability he faced durig battle which was relying on one form for the entire fight. It was a tactical boon even though it wasn't a flashy one.
And it wasn't the only gain from his harrowing ordeal.
[Soul-Bound] Attribute Description: [Your soul has bonded with a divine relic, granting you blessed abilities.]
Attribute Traits:[Omni-Mind], [Failsafe], [Omni-Kiks], [Voice Command]
His eyes narrowed with a flicker of interest. It seemed the path to gaining more traits wasdirectly related to his amounto Omni cores.
[Failsafe] Trait Description: [The Omnitrix will enact protocols to preserve host life.]
[Omni-Kiks] Trait Description:[The Omnitrix can generate armor to enhance your Imprints.]
[Voice Command] Trait Description:[The Omnitrix's AI has awakened to assist it's host.]
Hugo stared at the runes, a complicated expression finally breaking through his numbness. This was… too much. A single attribute granting such a suite of powerful abilities was staggering. A failsafe, armor augmentation for his forms, and even… an AI?
"Ahh… Omnitrix?" he said, looking at his right arm with a curious expression.
The device was inactive but the moment the name left his lips, the hourglass symbol ignited with a beautiful piercing azure light. The biological-looking structure that extended from his shoulder to his palm began to shift and reform. Metal plates slid and locked with soft clicks and he organic textures receding into a more sleek advanced design. The familiar dial reshaped becoming more defined and less symbiotic, a piece of advanced technology seamlessly grafted onto his arm. The previously dormant blue hue was now replaced by a cooler luminous blue.
[Recalibration Complete.]
Hugo examined the new form, the Omnitrix resembled a slimmer and sleeker watch-like shape, now with a blue wristband and the face of the dial becoming black and blue, he appreciated its less invasive appearance.
Instinctively, he pressed the two silver buttons on its side, then With a smooth mechanical sound, the dial rose projecting a blue ethereal hologram displaying his pyronite imprint.
"Well, this is new," he murmured, a faint trace of awe in his voice. He twisted the dial, cycling through the holographic representations. No new Imprints had been added but the visual interface was a significant quality-of-life improvement.
He stopped at the last one, summoning its runes through the spell
Imprint race: [Kineceleran]
Imprint Rank:Awakened
Imprint Class:Devil
Imprint Description:[The fastest creatures to ever walk the realms, born from the Goddess of the Black Sky's dream of travel. They are the epitome of a noble creature.]
Imprint Attributes:[Visor], [Accelerated Mind], [Agile Reptilian], [Motion]
[visor] attribute description: [a Kineceleran possesses powerful visors protecting their most vulnerable parts]
[accelerated mind] attribute description: [a Kineceleran mind is as fast as It's body]
[agile reptilian] attribute description: [a Kineceleran agility is matched by none]
[motion] attribute description: [a Kineceleran speed is their greatest strength]
Hugo read the attributes carefully, examining the usefulness of such a transformation.
truly having such a fast Imprint was a gift... but that wasn't the true boon of it all:
Imprint Abilities:[Transcendent Speed], [Time Deal]
[Transcendent Speed] Ability Description: [You can achieve velocity beyond your current rank.]
[Time Deal] Ability Description:[You can burn your essence to accelerate your body beyond the flow of time.]
Now that he was a Devil, his transformations would grant him the supernatural abilities all creatures of the devil class possesesd. As Awakened Imprints, they each possessed two essentialy giving Hugo access to six powerful aspects.
The power he now held was by all measure unbelievable.
"...I should get back first."
Letting the Omnitrix deactivate, Hugo focused inward seeking the tethers that connected his consciousness to his physical forms.
Soon enough, He found Both of them.
But something was wrong, something was terribly wrong...
A dry, broken chuckle escaped his lips. "Of course, what did I expect..."
Both tethers led to a cold lifeless stillness.
His human body in the waking world and his dream-realm body were both dead. His newly Awakened soul, too vast and potent, could not be accommodated by a corpse.
He had essentially become one of the lost.
"JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!" he screamed into the void of his soul sea, his voice raw and shaking
He did not know who he was shouting at—fate, the Spell of perhaps the universe itself.— in truth, It didn't matter who he was blaming for his suffering.
Every difficulty piled upon him turning into a relentless cascade designed to break him, to force him down a path he never chose.
It felt as if a mysterious force was actively trying to edit him out of existence at all times.
His frantic eyes darted around the darkness before settling back on the Omnitrix, then With an agitated voice, he spoke.
"Omnitrix. Can you revive my physical body?"
The relic glowed slightly before responding in a flat mechanical tone:
[Impossible. Physical and spiritual vessels are deceased.]
He clicked his tongue in frustration. "Well, can you get me back to the waking wor—"
He cut himself off, a cold dread washing over him as he thought of the fate that had befallen his friends while he was in this place. "Can you transport me back to the dream realm? To the exact location where I died?"
[...Scanning available protocols...]
[Failsafe 67 identified.]
[Activate Failsafe 67: Utilize an Imprint's physical matrix as a permanent vessel in the event of host-body termination]
Hugo's breath hitched. A little as he read the runes of the Omnitrix.
A permanent vessel, Not a transformation but an entirely new body. His real body would be that of a Nobel creature...
Essentially taking away The last vestige of his humanity away from him.
The face his mother smiled at everyday before she died would be gone leaving only his true ugly self...
A profound, existential grief threatened to overwhelm him, he wanted nothing more then to break down and cry like a miserable wretch but the crushing urgency of his situation left no room for mourning...
He had no other options. Either he stay for Eternity in his soul sea or this.
"...Yes, activate the protocol..."
[Compliance.]
Then, He was suddenly pulled away, the soul sea vanishing around him.
---
Back at the Forgotten Shore, within the Ashen Barrow, the Soul Devourer tree stood in all of it's terrible majesty, its vile influence a stain upon the already dead land.
However, the mighty being was currently discontent.
Having lost its previous "protector" to a treacherous shadow, a wicked Nephilim and an insidious shapeshifter was extremely annoying but the once divine sappling was fine with that, considering it had opportunity to call the divine the shadow and the nephilim as it's slave...
But the abominable creature had lost that as well when the divine shadow came across something he shouldn't have.
it seethed with contempt for all that was divine even more then ever, wanting to devour the entire world whole.
But its malice was patient and in time, It would lure another being into its grasp with the promise of sweet fruit...
Not to mention that, for now, it had a guardian of sorts...
The divine shadow in its hubris had buried the shapeshifter's corpse beneath its roots. The Soul Devourer, ever hungry,
had resurrected the remains of the corpse filling it with it's corrupted seed.
Now a pathetic, half-fleshed skeleton, stood watch—a weak but serviceable sentinel that could not disobey.
The tree's corruption, however was not fated to last for long.
Because the Paragon of purity was coming to reclaim what was rightfully his.
——
Suddenly, a dangerous blue light ignited within the chest of the pitiful guardian as something vast and powerful begun to settle within it.
If The Soul Devourer had eyes, they would have widened in shock.
The divine relic it had once coveted now erupted with power, lluminating the barren hellscape for a single brilliant moment.
The guardian's body began to warp and change. Its broken bones stretched growing unnaturally long. Its remaining flesh mutated into sickly green tentacles which quickly wrapped around each other creating a mimickey of muscles and tissues.
When the light faded, a towering figure over fifteen feet tall stood on the grey sand. It was clad in dark armor and a shimmering blue wristband appeared on its left arm.
The creature suddenly opened its eyes, which glowed with a malevolent red light, and fixed its gaze directly upon the Soul Devourer.
The abdominal tree, for the first time in eons felt true fear.
———
Hugo awoke within his body, feeling the he immense powerful form of the Chimera Sui Generis—his Vilgax form—as his own.
Although it was barely noticable, he could sense it instinctly.
Something within his being had changed.
This was not a transformation. This was him now, his true self. His human body was gone. The reality of his decision struck him deep, He was no longer a human. The fundamental identity he had clung to was now erased leaving an aching space in his psyche.
"Truly perfect ! Surely life as a monster wouldn't be that bad right?"
he sighed, his voice a low, grinding rumble. His mental problems aside, This was a severe problem. His Flaw would now constantly interfere with his base personality basically crippling him in many ways...
But contemplation was a luxury he couldn't afford for now as a far more immediate problem loomed before him.
For one there was The giant nightmare tree right Infront of him.
He frowned, his enhanced senses now clearly identifying the tree as an abomination.
As he did, The puzzle pieces suddenly clicked into place with a horrifying clarity. The mental pressure he'd felt upon first entering the Barrow… it had been a mind attack from the tree...
The most insidious kind of attack...
Which meant…
"Oh, gods..." hugo let out a horrified whisper, his monstrous face twisting with genuine dread as he thought of Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie.
He moved instantly, clicking the two silver buttons on his Omnitrix and slamming the dial down immediately , His body dissolved in a flash of blue light reforming into the sleek, reptilian form of the Kineceleran. His body was now a black, robotic chassis with a blue , raptor-like head shielded by a blue visor rolling on a two central wheel.
Without a second's hesitation, he activated [Transcendent Speed]. The world dissolved into a streaking blur around him as he sped through the area.
The sensation was euphoric, a rush of absolute velocity that only few could say they experienced. but he ruthlessly suppressed thqt feeling as He circled the entire Barrow at impossible speeds, his Accelerated Mind processing the environment in microseconds searching for any trace of his friends.
[Minutes Later]
He found nothing. No bodies, no gear, not even a single sign of a struggle.
They were simply gone.
This should have made him hopeful but a deep unsettling dread pooled in his gut. They had most likely gone west facing horrible abominations in their search for the castle...
He didn't know if they had survived the journey at all...
"No… they're strong," he told himself, the words sounding hollow in his mind. "They aren't like me. They earned their power through skill and sweat... Besides, Sunny and Nephis are way too angry to die."
He chuckled slightly before turning his attention back to the tree and rushing to its base in an instant.
"Now… for you."
He felt the air shift a little as The crimson leaves of the Soul Devourer groaned psychically projecting waves pleas to spare Hugo, to protect it, to cherish it and love it for all Eternity.
It was a desperate insidious lure that Hugo was protected from by his [Omni-mind] trait.
Hugo had his fill of nightmarish parasites for one lifetime.
He slammed the Omnitrix symbol once more, this unlike his first transformation was an utilization of his awakened ability as he felt a moderate amount of essence being consumed when he pressed his dial, making Hugo make a mental note to not switch too much between forms less he runs out of essence.
But that was a thought for another time as Flames and magmatic rock engulfed his tentacled body and he emerged in his Pyronite form. As an Awakened Devil, it too had evolved, growing miniature volcanic shoulderplates.
His burning skull-face contorted into a dangerous smile as he approached the terrified abomination.
"You did something to my friends, didn't you?" Hugo's voice was a low, crackling threat. "Not to mention the desecration of my corpse… oh great benevolent tree, You have been so kind to me. And now, it's time I return your kindness tenfold."
With that, he poured his essence into his two new abilities.
[Furnace] ability description: [Your body is a furnace capable of generating fire]
[Pyrokinesis] ability description: [You can manipulate fire]
The strain of dual-channeling his Abilities was was significant drain on him but as an Awakened Devil so his essence reserves were more than sufficient for what he was intending to do.
He gathered the conflagration of flames concentrating it into a searing, white-hot torrent then he unleashed it upon the Soul Devourer as. Burst of tyrannical flames.
The fire clung and spread with vengeful hunger consuming the wooden horror slowly and painfully...
Hugo watched the great tree burn, the same mad smile splattered over his face...
In this moment, he felt satisfaction as he was now making sure this dreadful abomination would not harm another being.
It would never threaten anything.
And that, gave Hugo the greatest satisfaction he could ever ask for.
[You have slain an Awakened Terror: Soul Devourer.]
Hugo fell to his knees, his soul essence exhausted from using such power, the weight of his new existence crashing down upon him but Before he could even process it, the Spell whispered in his ears again this time it's voice slightly eager:
[You have received an Echo.]