Chapter 35: Soul seed
Hugo blinked or at least performed the mental equivalent as his current pyronite form lacked eyebrows. The last embers of the Soul Devourer cast flickering shadows around him as he dismissed his Pyronite form, the shift back to his base state feeling less like a transformation and more like a return to a new unsettling normal.
He summoned the runes, his gaze narrowing on the new acquisition..
Echoes: [Spirit Seed]
Echo:[Spirit Seed]
Echo Rank:Awakened
Echo Class:Terror
Echo Description: [A sacred seed Once sprouted from a mountain of corpses after a cataclysmic battle. It was the last sapling of the World Tree, meant to be a bastion of life and beauty But its hunger knew no bounds leading corruption to fester within it's heart.
The seed grew into a harrowing fiend, enthralling thousands of souls to its service until one day it made the fatal mistake of enthralling a treacherous shadow, a wicked nephilim and an insidious shapeshifter.]
Echo Attributes: [Hunger], [Sacred], [Spirit], [Heartwood]
[Hunger] Attribute Description: [This seed is a child of Heart and thus its hunger for growth is insatiable.]
[Sacred] Attribute Description:[This seed is of a sacred, divine origin.]
[Spirit] Attribute Description:[This seed can reside within the body and soul of its master.]
[Heartwood] Attribute Description:[This seed's core possesses numerous holy qualities.]
Hugo settled onto the grey sand, the heat of the burning tree behind him feeling quite gentle considering the coldness of the barrow.
But the environment wasn't really a problem for him right considering He was taken aback. This vile entity, this soul-consuming terror was once something… sacred.
The dichotomy was jarring.
"What even is a World Tree?" he muttered to himself.
Then a certain dubious thought struck him. "Omnitrix," he addressed the relic on his arm. "Do you have any information about a certain World Tree?"
The symbol glowed slightly responding in its flat mechanical tone:
[Affirmative.]
He sighed, realizing He needed to be more specific "Tell me what you know about it."
The Omnitrix whirred softly, as if accessing a deep hidden archives of ancient knowledge
[The World Tree was one of heart god divine avatars . A colossal and sacred entity that served as a pillar supporting both heaven and earth within the Heart Realm. It was considered immutable, its vast branches forming worlds of their own becoming a home to human cities during the Age of Heroes. These societies developed sophisticated tools and an elaborate culture.]
Hugo's interest was piqued. "What happened to these humans?"
[Data unavailable.]
He had expected as much. The Omnitrix was a repository of ancient history but that history was fractured, full of holes carved out by whatever cataclysm had ended that golden age... And everything in the dream realm.
Still learning that the Omnitrix possesesd such a vaste archives of knowledge was certainly useful.
The thoughts brought Hugo a strange kind of warmth...
'miss j would probably lose her mind once I got back...' he thought before focusing back on the runes and willed himself into his soul sea and summoning the echo.
What manifested was… underwhelming to say the least.
A single, small seed, black as obsidian, pulsed with a faint crimson inner light. It hovered in the pristine blue void, looking insignificant and pitiful despite it's supposed 'sacred origin '
"Well, aren't you disappointing..." Hugo mused his voice echoing in the emptiness.
It was disappointing on multiple levels. This was a scion of a divine pillar, meant to be a beacon of hope. Instead, it had succumbed to its own nature, becoming the very horror he had just destroyed. And physically, it was just so… small.
He returned to the Ashen Barrow and summoned the seed into his massive, clawed hand. It looked even tinier there, a speck against his dark armor.
"Time for the truth." His gaze fell to the abilities list.
Echo Abilities: [Enthrall], [Harvest], [Soul Fruit], [Shifter]
[Enthrall] Ability Description: [This tree can manipulate the minds of weaker creatures.]
[Harvest] Ability Description:[This seed can absorb the souls of the fallen.]
Souls Harvested:[0/100]
[Soul Fruit] Ability Description:[This seed can transform harvested souls into soul fruits.]
[Soul weaver] Ability Description:[This seed can manipulate soul of weaker creatures .]
The abilities of the echo are not really meant for combat but that did not mean they were weak. [Harvest] and [Soul Fruit] were macabre but in the ruthless arithmetic of survival they represented a possiblity of an infinite food Source but Hugo was still uncertain what 'soul furits' truly were.
[Enthrall] on the other hand was a weapon he would use with well in the future And [soul weaver]… was in the same boat essentially giving him a potential way to deal soul damage.
As for the attributes...
Hugo wasn't really sure what to make of them.
[Hunger] seemed to hint that the echo could grow in rank but Hugo doubt that fact considering echoes cannot evolve in anyway.
[Sacred] and [heartwood] gave it an affinity to divinity, particularly to heart god which was bound to be useful eventually...
[Spirit] on the other hand...
Hugo stared at the [Spirit] attribute with revulsion laced in his crimson eyes, The memory of the creature of nothingness slithering into his soul and the agony of the corruption it brought with it was still a fresh wound on his mind...
He had had his fill of parasites for one lifetime. That particular attribute would remain unused, no matter its potential benefits.
He would not allow another foreign entity to root itself into his being ever again.
That said he was still going to make full use of this echo devious set of Abilities..
——
Hugo got up and began walking west, it was time to get moving.
An instinctual urge to summon his trident for comfort was met with nothing...
He had forgotten. It was gone, his trusty trident was gone.
"Of course," he sighed the sound a low rumble.
Nothing could ever be simple.
He summoned his runes once more, turning to his inventory of Memories.
Memories: [Proto-Tech Armor], [Conqueror's Wrath], [Polymorphic Crystal], [Emerald Spyglass], [Heart Compass], [Nothing]
Hugo frowned slightly, realizing that [Midnight shard], the memory he had gotten from killing the carapace demon was gone.
He had never checked it before but he was certain it wasn't destroyed...
"hiw bizzare..." he thought, pondering over the reason a memory would suddenly dissapere from his soul sea..., it couldn't be because he technically died right?
If that was the case then all of his memories would have been gone.
"Well no matter..."
He turned his attention towards the final, most intriguing Memory he had gotten
Memory: [Nothing]
Memory Rank:Transcendent
Memory Tier:II
Memory Type:Utility
Memory Description:[The first of the beings of nothing to ally with a Daemon. Vile and deceitful, the creature of nothingness sold the secrets of his kin to the Daemon of Imagination dooming them to the vile expriments of imagination. In the end, he too was betrayed and eventually fell to the path of profanity. The creature despite being corrupted spent eons trying to regain his lost divinity stubbornly clinging to madness to keep his desire alive. In the end, He found a solution in an insidious shapeshifter wielding a divine relic he did not earn. The creature of the mist bonded with the shapeshifter hoping to regain its lost divinity through the relic. It succeeded But in the end just as the Daemon Mirage used him, the divine relic used his soul to save its true host.]
Memory Enchantments: [Shapeshifter], [Storage], [Link]
[Shapeshifter] Enchantment Description: [This nothingness can take on any form.]
[Storage] Enchantment Description:[This nothingness can store objects within it.]
[Link] Enchantment Description:[This nothingness is connected to its owner.]
Hugo felt A grim sense of satisfaction coursing through his viens as he read the runes, It wasn't just about acquiring a powerful Transcendent Memory. No, It was the closure he had gotten from it's description .
Now he knew the full, tragic history of the entity that had violated his soul. It was a story of betrayal, a fall from grace and a desperate millennia-long quest for divine redemption that ended with it being used as fuel for his own salvation.
He felt no pity only a stark understanding of the universe's cruel irony
After all, Hugo was, at his core, a spiteful person.
He had learned that from a certan treacherous shadow.
Smiling slightly, He summoned [Nothing].
A small obedient wisp of grey mist appeared besides near him in a shower of white sparks.
He could feel the [Link] enchantment a solid, non-intrusive tether to his soul. It was a tool, pure and simple Unlike the Spirit Seed, it demanded nothing, asked for nothing And could grant him everything he needed.
"Jackpot…" he murmured remembering a certain game where the main character was a devil or something.
It was quite fitting considering he too was a devil right now.
With a final exhale, He activated the Omnitrix, the blue light washing over him as he selected His newest imprint.
His massive form dissolved replaced by the sleek, low-to-the-ground chassis of a Kineceleran. The world instantly sharpened, his mind accelerating to process information at a terrifying rate. The bizarre anatomy—a single wheel for locomotion and a reptilian head encased in a protective visor—was still both alien and exhilarating.
For a fleeting moment, as the transformation settled, he felt a shift. The cold, calculating demeanor of the warlord race receded replaced by a more focused impatient, and speed-obsessed mindset.
It was a jarring reminder of his new reality. His base form, the Chimera Sui Generis had no true personality of its own to revert to it was a void, a neutral state defined by power and a suppressed emotional core.
Now, It was only when he transformed that he could briefly access the echoes of other, more defined emotional spectra. The horror of this realization was there, a dull ache in the back of his accelerated mind but the Kineceleran's nature was to move forward, not to dwell which he was glad for.
He had enough emotional moments for a while.
Without a backward glance at the ashes of the past, he leaned forward and activated [Transcendent Speed] becoming a blue-and-silver blur shooting west into the unknown, leaving nothing but a trail of disturbed grey sand in his wake.
——
Hugo was running at an incredible speed, he had left the ashen barrow hours ago and was currently running through the giant dry lands.
The sheer size of this place was simply ridiculous.
"Just how much longer!" he shouted beneath his visor.
He had already crossed distance equal to NQSC And there was still more to go.
This realization made his already worried mind work overtime, thinking about what happened to sunny, nephis and Cassie.
It would've been impossible to cross such a distance with the resources they had especially with the dark sea on their trail...
The dark sea...
"Oh..."
Hugo looked upward, seeing the sun settling...
"shit shit shit shit!!"
He saturated his body with essence trying to increase his speed as fast as he could.
But he was too late
The dark sea was faster then him.
The dark waves of crushing water came to the land like a promise of death devouring the land in it's entirety.
Hugo gritted his teeth and suddenly jumped incredibly high to the sky, watching as the dark sea engulfed the land beneath.
He hit the dial of his Omnitrix transforming into a Piscciss Volann which he had subconsciously nicknamed 'ripjaws' during the hours of traversing the Continental sized land.
Hugo slammed into the sea, his tail moving fast as navigated the still rushing dark sea.
Not having an imprint that can fly was once again making life a hindrance for him especially with the deadly abominations lurking down in the black sea.
Even with ripjaws becoming a devil, he was still in danger.
Especially considering the Abilities he received in this form were... Less then ideal to say the least.
The first ability was called [glowing lure] which allowed him to make the small dingling horn on his forehead to release a strange kind of glow attracting abominations and other creatures of the depths which was the exact opposite of what he was trying to do.
His other ability on the other hand was a bit more useful. It was called [Glowing eyes] when activated it allowed him to detect living creatures around him within a certain distance although It wasn't ideal considering it consumed a good but of essence considering it was an awakened ability but he would have to bare with it.
Just then, as he activated it, Hugo saw something he did not want to see...
It was these damn black tentacles that haunted him and sunny during their first night in the dream realm...
'Son of bitch... You're still alive...' Hugo thought, feeling a strange urge to take a bite of that big bastard tentacle...
What was more profound though, was the fact that the titan seemed to remember it's prey as seven harrowing tentacles were currently rushing towards him.
———
SWOOSH
The water rippled as the terrifying black tentacles tried to Pierce Hugo body. His speed was far more impressive considering he was a devil now which really gave him some confident in taking on the titans...
But Hugo, now slightly more mature then he was during his first visit to the dream realm, realized that was a bad idea.
He was merely a devil and that thing was a Titan, a vast being that needed dozens of masters to defeat...
Suddenly just as Hugo was contimplating the best way to run away, a giant wave of red energy suddenly illuminated the world beneath. Revealing the dreadful titan gigantic crimson eye.
Now that Hugo was seeing the creature this closely, he felt like he was about to go mad.
Luckily that madness was chased away by something else
Fear
The red energy glowed more znd more as Hugo realized what was going to happen.
He quickly manoeuvered the tides, trying to escape before the calamice attack finished charging.
RAASSH
The sound of the water being consumed by a giant red beam of light consumed the world as a bacon of light shot towards the sky.
'This idiot!, does it want to attract every horro-' Hugo stopped mid thought realizing he was currently facing off against the harrowing horror.
The beam while harrowing was an incredible way to waste Essence, it kept going on for a while reaching the sky before it slowly thinned and dissapered like embers.
Hugo looked down looking at the terrifying titan who seemed... Shaken because of that beam.
Hugo eyes narrowed slightly, a Titan wouldn't be stupid enough to waste essence and reveal itslef like this...
So this was definitely a trap of sorts.
Soon enough, something else begun to happen.
Hugo begun seeing creatures of all sorts reaching the titans, dozens of nightmare creatures of high class, some among them were even of the fallen rank.
But then, just as they approched the titan, the water seemed to grow... Darker?
Hugo could not make sense of it considering the waters were already the deepest type of black there was but the darkness the titan was creating right now was more like... Ink.
That ink spread across the water engulfing the abominations near it like a fisherman web, the strange unnatural ink drowned the creatures before retracting into the titan's body.
'it can absorp creatures through that ink...'
The titan now that it was finished with it's meal seemed to be getting ready for the side dish...
Hugo was that side dish
———
The abomination was truly... Relentless.
In the couple of minutes he had been running away, the titan never gave up on his chase.
It simply kept running behind Hugo, trying to use it's ink and tendrils upon it.
Hugo could feel that he had about less then an hour in this form, which was not bad at all...
'think of something damn it!' he screamed at himself...
Just then Hugo seemed to remember a particularly new ability he had received.
[Omni-kiks] trait description : [The omtnrix can create armor to enhance Imprints]
With nothing to lose, Hugo tapped deep within him gaining the knowledge of how to use the trait.
All he had to do was turn the Omnitrix badge in a 90° degree angle.
Just as he did, a burst of armor suddenly exploded from his Omnitrix.
The beautiful advanced armor encased his torso and his tail before making it's way upward and closing on his face like a helmet.
Hugo instantly felt much stronger, his Abilities within this imprint were stronger then usual but there was a problem.
His essence was practically burning the longer he remained in this state.
It was a bit terrifying how fast [Omni-kiks] drained essence considering he was a devil but there was nothing he could do about it for now.
And Nothing he would use.
Hugo willed [Nothing to manifest] before pouring a bit of essence into it to activate [Shapeshifter] enchantment and made the list transform into a solid spear, that too took a tool on his essence pool.
Hugo raced backwards dodging the tendrils of darkness like a bolt, from his back a strange jetback like device was unleashing a torrent of energy further propelling him towards the depths with a harrowing speed.
The water parted away as he became a bolt of energy, racing towards the titan eye.
Just as his spear was about to plunge into the crimson horror, the titan eye suddenly glowed with dangerous light releasing another catastrophic blast of red energy.
Although this one was a bit shallow compared to the first one.
To his surprise, Hugo was not evaporated by the crimson energy, he was hurt sure and it did feel like hell but he was not dead showcasing the durability of [Omni-kiks] armor.
Hugo poured his essence into his body pushing against the mighty blast using all of his will in tbe process.
His skin boiled under the armor, his bones groaned and his eyes were practically blinded by the scourging sun.
But he did not yield
'JUST DIE ALREADY....'
Then, The blast begun to weaken giving Hugo the opportunity finally escape it's trajectory. Using his speed Hugo darted around the abomination before plunging head first into its eyes with his transcendant weapon, keeping the same momentum he had from before.
THUD
The creature eyes broke like sharp glass as Hugo passed through it with his spear, rushing through it's nigh-infinite body.
Hugo ripped through the darkness coming out of the other side in a couple of minutes...
[You have slain an awakened titan: crimson storm]
The voice of the spell sobered Hugo from his bloodlusted state, making him regain the last bits of sanity as he swam his way back to the surface...
His Omnitrix begun peeping with a red light before releasing a red energy wave detransfomring him back to his "normal state".
The bitterness he had for this form was slowly drowned as he suddenly spouted a strange platform resembling....
A hand?