Chapter 49: Ancient history
Hugo stared at the two chattering skeletons for a long moment, wondering if he was hallucinating or not.
'Surely I haven't gone completely crazy… right?'
Sure, he had spent two months in complete solitude, starving and contimplating his life decisions... Yes, he's also being hunted by a Great Terror that was trying to corruupt him...
But was that enough for his mind to fabricate hallucinations?
Hugo always considered his sanity fairly resilient even by the distorted standards of the nightmare Spell so he really didn't think he was hallucinating... At least not right now.
Eventually Hugo only sighed.
In the end, it didn't really matter.
If these two were figments of his broken mind, then engaging with them was no different from talking to himself, which he had been doing for weeks anyway.
However if they were real… well, that opened a different, possibly worse, set of problems.
"You're not Corrupted, are you?"
One of the skeletons said with a slight curious tone.
Hugo shook his head.
"No."
The same skeleton made a clicking sound that might have been a sigh.
"Ending up in this place... I pity you, it's truly a terrible fate even for a detestable creature such as you"
'Detestable creature?' Hugo furrowed. He was currently in his XLR8 form, which made him quite curious to why the Skelton found him detestable.
It made Hugo wonder if the Kineceleran race was evil or something along the lines...
He summoned [Nothing], The grey mist flowed from his soul sea, obeying his will as he directed it to the strangely fresh puddle of water at the tree's base, then Using its [Storage] enchantment, he began draining the precious water into it for future use.
"What exactly is detestable about me?" hugo asked in a flat tone. He was genuinely curious now, whether this was a soliloquy or a conversation.
"Well" the skeleton said, its empty eye sockets somehow managing to convey a disdainful look "you are a Nobel creature created by the gods And I happen to have a rather significant grudge against those bastars ."
Hugo paused his work, looking from the water to the skeleton with a judging look.
"That's a terrible reason to despise someone. Judging a creation for its creator's sins."
The skeleton let out a dry laugh. "A fair point, from a simple perspective! But now that I look at you more closely… I can also see you're one of Weaver's! Tsk, tsk. Such a strange creature you are... To think that slippery, scheming bastard would involve even Noble creatures in his grand design…"
Hugo's focus sharpened instantly, realizing he wasn't talking to himself.
"Weaver?" he asked keeping his voice carefully neutral.
"The Daemon of Fate, of course," the skeleton replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"And why do I… smell of him?" Hugo pressed using the skeleton's own terminology for simplicity sake.
The skeleton seemed to pause, its bony frame going completely still. Then it attempted a shrug, which was a bit comical given it was nailed through it's shoulders.
"You know, you're asking a great many questions for someone I've just met. I don't even know your name!"
"My name is Hugo."
Both skeletons suddenly erupted into mad, clattering laughter, their bones shaking hard against the rusted nails.
"Oh, by the dead gods!" the second skeleton—the more robust one —wheezed.
"That is a terrible name! Especially for a Noble creature! It lacks gravitas! It lacks menace! It sounds like a… a grocer!"
Hugo felt a flicker of annoyance from the two ancient skeletons. "My mother wasn't really concerned with how menacing my name sounded when she named me" he said dryly. "and Who are you two ?"
The second skeleton strained against its bonds, then It threw its head back (as much as it could) and roared:
"I am Azarax the Mighty! The Plague of Steel! King of Kings, Conqueror of a Hundred Thrones! There is no Supreme monarch more powerful and prideful than I!"
Hugo looked at the screaming Skelton with a deadpan expression...
Surprisingly enough, he wasn't particularly impressed.
It wasn't that he doubted the claim or anything... strangely enough , Hugo believed the Skelton, after all why would someone even be punished in such a way if they weren't extremely powerful?
But alas, his interest was piqued by the first skeleton's more cryptic demeanor...
He turned his gaze back to it.
"…What about you?"
The first skeleton answered in an aloof, almost bored tone.
"Me? Oh, I am no one. Just a humble slave."
"For some reason, I doubt you were simply a 'humble slave,' " Hugo said with a smile, finishing the water collection and dismissing [Nothing] back to his soul sea then he continued:
"So why were you guys nailed on this tree ?"
The skeleton who had called himself Azarax snarled.
"Don't you know where you are, abominable creature?! I am here because I led my legions into the Great War, slaughtered a myriad of soul and was punished for my strength and pride! A king's rightful due, twisted into chains!"
Hugo ignored him, keeping his eyes on the first skeleton which was grinning madly.
"what about you?" Hugo asked.
"Well, if you must know…" it said, its tone easy going "I slit a god's throat. My, oh my! One could say it was a… misunderstanding. Really, was there any need for the others to be so terribly petty about it?"
The way the first Skelton casually boasted about an impossible deed reminded Hugo of a certain treacherous shadow making him smile slightly...
Behind them, the sun was beginning its descent, staining the white desert blood-orange. In the far distance, the faint, collective rattling of bone began to rise as the undead legions stirred from their slumber preparing to resume their eternal battle.
This wasn't that alarming to Hugo but another matter was a more immediate worry then this...
The Great Terror... It was out there, hunting and drawing closer with each minutes he stayed here.
"anyway, " the first Skelton said "What brings you to this harrowing place anyway?"
"I'm looking for something," Hugo said, his tone a bit more stiff "Can either of you take me to it?"
The skeletons' mirth vanished replaced by a strange form of attention. "That," said the first skeleton "depends entirely on what that 'something' is."
Hugo was about to answer but he suddenly paused before the words formed...
What was he looking for? His immediate goal was survival and escaping from the Terror... While His medium-term goal was finding a Second Nightmare Seed to get himself a new Body and return to the waking world and lastly, His long-term, almost hopeless goal was finding Primus, the legendary home of the Omnitrix's creator which might hold the answers he have been looking for.
Hugo doubted the skeletons knew about Nightmare Seeds, But Primus… that was another story.
He took a deep breath.
"A place called Primus."
The playful aura around the first skeleton suddenly vanished replaced by an unnatural stillness... The boastful energy of Azarax dimmed into wary silence as if he was... Sacred of the topic.
The very air around the dead tree seemed to grow heavier and colder.
The first skeleton turned its head, and though it had no eyes, Hugo felt like it was glaring at him sharply
"Boy," it said, it's voice now a razor's edge, devoid of all mockery. "How do you know that name? Answer carefully And don't even think about lying to me."
A cold dread different from the Terror's —deeper, older and more intellectual— suddenly washed over Hugo... It was if he was standing Infront of a god...
A dead, chained god but a god nonetheless.
"It's… complicated" Hugo managed to speak despite the powerful pressure.
The skeleton's gaze didn't waver, It seemed to look past his face, past his flesh, locking onto the center of his soul....
"That… device.... The Omnitrix. How did you come by it?" it asked, it's voice shocked ...
Hugo's breath hitched at the mention of the divine relic's name...
The Omnitrix's importance in this world's ancient history was confirmed and it was clearly monumental enough for these two prisoners to know about it...
Huoc opened his mouth to form a response, but a sudden familiar wrongness prickled at the edge of his senses making him pause.
He snapped his head east, scanning the horizon using his [Visor].
Amidst the slowly rising sea of clattering skeletons, far in the distance, stood a single, still figure. It was monstrous and inhuman, its details blurred by heat haze and range, but its utter stillness amidst the chaos was the very concept of wrongness itself...
The posture, the aura of patient it radiated...
hugo recognized the creature instantly.
It was wearing a different face today but he knew what it truly was.
The Great Terror had found his trail again.
He turned back to the first skeleton, his fear of the great terror overriding the pressure he was feeling.
"Hey, listen, I can answer whatever you want later But I need to get the hell out of here, right now. There's a Great Terror chasing me."
Azarax suddenly let out an impressed whistle. "Oh, you poor, cursed wretch! Not only have you bonded with that abominable device but you've drawn the eye of such a harrowing creature? A life of fascinating misfortune!"
The first skeleton—Hugo remembered azarax calling him Eurys—was silent for a moment, as if weighing his options. Finally, he gave a slight, bony nod.
"Very well. Get us down."
"What? Just like that? —" Azarax began, but Hugo was already moving towards the tree.
He walked up to the beautiful tree, examining the thick, corroded nails pinning the skeletons. He braced himself, gripped the shaft of the nail holding Eurys, and pulled as hard as he could.
It was immovable at first, He then shifted his stance, augmented himself with essence and then using his full Tyrannical strength, Hugo pulled again.
His Muscles corded in his arms and back. Than, With a shriek of metal and dead wood, the nail began to slide, inch by inch until it pulled free with a final, sickening crunch.
He repeated the process for Azarax, whose protests turned to triumphant as soon as his legs touched the ground.
"Freedom! Hah! Suck on a nephlim's d#$# you shadow-casting bastard!"
Azarax yelled, shaking a bony fist at the darkening sky before performing an inappropriate gesture.
Eurys, once free, simply stood on the sand, his posture straight. He didn't move but he seemed to be... listening to something.
as if Feeling the world with senses Hugo couldn't even begin to comprehend...
A faint sigh rattled through him as he seemed to remember something.
However before Hugo could ask eurys, he was interrupted by the other excited Skelton.
"Alright, Lead on, then. It will be a long journey to anywhere worth going but anything is better then this cursed desert " Azarax said, beginning to stride westward with a marching gait, his bones clicking against each other.
"We're not walking" Hugo said to the confused skeletons.
Then He sent a mental command to his memory.
High above, cloaked from sight, Azmuth's Ship deactivated a small section of its stealth field appearing directly above them, then A hatch irised open silently shooting A beam of pale green gravitational force , enveloping the two skeletons and Hugo himself.
Azarax yelped in surprise while Eurys didn't make a single sound.
In the span of three heartbeats, they were lifted off the desert floor and drawn smoothly up into the ship's main chamber. The hatch sealed behind them, restoring the invisibility of the ship.
The gentle hum of the ship's systems and the soft glow of the crystalline control console were a stark contrast to the dead desert below.
Hugo let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and pressed the Omnitrix to revert him to his base form. The blue light flashed for a moment, and his body shifted, the alien musculature smoothing back into his hateful hybrid form.
Eurys seemed to be already examining the interior of the ship with a slow, sweeping turn of his skull... His gaze, empty yet piercing, finally landed back on Hugo.
"Ah you dreadful bastard, so you're alive after all..."
Hugo raised an eyebrow, crossing his giant arms. "You're really trying to win a prize for the 'Most Confusing Conversation ever' aren't you? Yes, I'm alive. What did you think I was?"
Eurys took a step closer, the sound of bone on the metallic deck unnaturally loud.
"What, indeed? Don't tell me you've lost your memories... Amnesia would be a blessedly simple explanation but losing your rank is another thing... Speak, creature, do you really not remember your true self? Or should I say, vilagax."
Hugo sighed once again, Of course this was going to happen.
His base form, a hybrid, bore the genetic imprint of Vilgax's species, the Chimera Sui Generis fused with human DNA which a result of the Omnitrix's emergency revival protocol after his first death. It was the source of all of his problems...
"Sorry to ruin your fun, or your interrogation, or whatever this is," Hugo said, meeting the skeleton's eyeless gaze. "But I'm not Vilgax. I've never met him... I just happen to have some of his DNA... It's a long story."
An awkward silence descended upon the chamber as eurys seemed to realize his mistake although he made no effort to apologize or explain how he knew the tyrant's name.
"Still, this is an odd coincidence... I guess fate really works in mysterious ways"
The ancient skeleton then fell silent, joining azarax in exploring the interior of the ship.
Hugo suddenly became acutely aware of how bizarre the situation was...
Two months of absolute solitude, hearing nothing but his own thoughts and now he was having a tense standoff with two ancient talking skeletons—one being a self-proclaimed king and the other a god-slayer— in the middle of a death zone...
"Look" Hugo said, breaking the silence and gesturing towards the rear of the chamber. "This is… a lot And the mood feels incredibly awkward, so how about we sit and talk?"
He led them to the crystalline table that he made a while ago. The two skeletons sat with a stiff movement as they saw the shattered shards on the ground... Hugo took a seat opposite them and allowed himself to relax a little.
the ship was now moving silently westward at his directive, putting as much distance as possible between them and the Terror's latest vessel.
"I need to know some things" Hugo began, deciding bluntness was his best tool with these two " you two clearly know a lot of things that I don't but you also don't seem to know what happened to the world while you were on that tree So, let's do an information exchange. I'll start by telling you the state of the world as I understand it Then you can fill in the… gaps."
"Alright"
"go on"
He proceeded to give them a detailed summary of the waking world: the mysterious advent of the Nightmare Spell on Earth; the wholesale death of the gods and daemons, as far as anyone knew, the infection of humanity by the nightmare spell and the system of Ascension through the Nightmares, the existence of the Dream Realm as a monster infected land that was being slowly conquered by humanity, and lastly, the ever-present, all-consuming Corruption that manifested as gates and nightmare seeds.
Throughout his explanation, the skeletons listened intently taking in his words. Azarax seemed vaguely amused by the concept of a mere "spell" posssesing such omnipotent power in the world while Eurys was deeply still, absorbing every word.
When Hugo finished, Azarax let out a low chuckle. "So weaver's little spell finally grew teeths did it? Becaming an omnipotent parasite... Why am I only slightly surprised?"
Eurys tapped a bony finger on the table, thinking deeply.
"Weaver was always playing the longest game... To think his framework would outlive the gods themselves… and achieve this." He seemed almost impressed.
"You keep calling it 'Weaver's' spell," Hugo pressed. "who is weaver and how are you sure it's their work"
Hugo silently prayed they would answer, after all, he was receiving answers to the origin of the nightmare spell which was something the entire world have been pondering over for decades.
"The stench of meddlesome fate is all over you, it's definitely their work" Eurys replied dismissively. "But continue. These 'Nightmares' you talked about, individuals are pulled into pocket realms generated by the spell , conquer them, and are rewarded with power through ascending in rank?"
Hugo explained the basics of the Nightmare Seeds, the trial and the conflict it has in it.
He also added some of the most common theories about nightmares, like the idea of them being an illusionary recreation of the past.
Eurys fell silent for a long moment. "A forced, accelerated awakening to combat the ever spreading corruption... how devious, how utterly weaver like..." He then looked directly at Hugo. "You are also a Child of War..."
Hugo blinked. "A what?"
"Your world, or the place you call the waking world is war god's divine realm or at least , what's left of it and weaver's Spell… it's actively awakening people to combat the corrupted spewing in through gates... Which means that the divine realm of War God is currently being consumed by Corruption..."
Despite the harrowing implications of his words, Eurys seemed pleased... Almost satisfied.
"That is… pleasing news."
Hugo's mind raced as he processed this knowledge... he was angry at eurys for being so casual about a world ending calamity but his curiosity currently outweighed his anger...
After all, the ancient skeleton was suggesting that the spell was saving humanity instead of dooming it...
But more then that, there was something Hugo cought on that made his head spin.
"Wait are you implying that there are multiple realms? Not just the Dream Realm and the waking world?"
"Of course" Azarax scoffed. "The cosmos is large, boy. Your world is not the only one, back in our days, There were mortal realms, where the common people lived and cultivated their power by climbing thr path of ascension And then there were the Divine Realms... Where the Creatures blessed by the gods and these created by them lived." his voice was filled with disdain showcasing his hatred for the gods and their chosen "They were not 'places' in the way you think, instead They were the physical bodies of the gods, Their very essence made manifest as geography, weather and lastly life... well expect for shadow god but that's barely important"
Eurys picked up the thread. "even now that the gods are dead, their realms did not vanish... Usually they would have continued existing naturally but alas, corruption got to them now that their divine protectors are gone, but at least you people have this nightmare spell to gain a chance of survival.
My theory, based on your testimony, is that this 'Dream Realm' is a new, grotesque amalgamation of these realms. A cancerous fusion of multiple dying or dead Divine Realms stitched together and overrun by Corruption that has been accumulating for thousands of years since.... The death of the gods" the skeleton mood seems to have gone sour once more but he didn't dwell on it.
"Well aside from your realm, but don't worry, from what you've said, it won't be long before this dream realm consumes your realm as well"
The scale of all it was staggering.... Hugo felt dizzy and he did not even know what shocked him more from all of these revelations...
The existence of multiple worlds and the fact that earth was the dead body of an actual god... Or the fact that the dream realm is made up of many other realms which are all fused forcfully with the dream realm...
There was also the fact that the nightmare spell might not be as cruel as the world thought it was...
This explained so many things... And at the same time opened door to many more questions.
Unable to resist, Hugo looked at eurys with a curious nearly, mad expression.
"If all the realms are bodies of gods…" Hugo said slowly, his voice shaky "Then the Dream Realm itself… is it the body of a god too? Which one?"
The temperature in the room seemed to drop by several degrees as he asked that question.
Eurys and azarax went perfectly still, their emotionless faces displaying a strange expression.
Then eurys said:
"I suggest that you should stop perusing that topic all together... Knowing that particular truth at your current rank would cause you to get corrupted... After all, Some truths are not meant for the mortal—or even the Awakened—mind to hold."
Hugo stared at the skeleton in shock, feeling a cold sweat beading on his tentacled skin.
"Knowledge… can do that? Just knowing something can corrupt you?"
Eurys let out a dry chuckle that held no humor whatsoever.
"Knowledge is the most dreadful force in all creation... More volatile than any divinity and more powerful then any aspect... I do not care much about your well being, but Remember this, Ignorance is not just bliss, it is often the only armor you have in this cruel world"
The conversation lulled, the weight of all these mind shattering revelations hanging in the air...
Hugo shifted topics, deciding to listen to the ancient skeleton advice.
He explained, in brief terms, how he had received the Omnitrix, finding and bonding with it in his First Nightmare and encountering vilgax briefly from afar.
This, finally, seemed to genuinely surprise Eurys.
"The Spell… replicated it? As a reward? That should be impossible... The Omnitrix is a singularity, It exists outside the local system of everything that is divine and unholy... For the Spell to create a facsimile, or even a direct copy… it implies Weaver's spell has reached the level of a true god... I did not anticipate that..." He sounded unnerved by this truth.
"Is the Omnitrix really that powerful?" Hugo asked, though he already knew the answer for that question.
He'd felt its potential in every transformation he took and in the vast, locked archives of his soul sea...
It was a tool of limitless possibility, simply put.
Eurys's chuckle was softer this time, almost wistful. "How charmingly naive you are, That 'device' on your wrist is perhaps the most powerful relic across all the realms that ever were... Not the most destructive, mind you—there were weapons that could crack a divine realm in half But still, it remains the most powerful of them all. Its potential is, for all practical purposes, infinite. In the hands of a worthy wielder who understands a fraction of its purpose, it could reshape reality, change the world and make it's wielder rival the very gods themselves. Given time and mastery, it could even rival the omnipotent power of the nightmare spell."
The silence that followed was simply profound... Hugo looked down at the familiar dial on his wrist, seeing it with new, terrifying eyes...
'Rival the nightmare spell...' He thought, remembering how he had been using the divine relic so far.
He'd been using it to bash down immediate obstacles and gain more power but something was telling him that it could do much more then that... After all, gods did not just destroy , they also created...
But alas, as eurys said, it needed a worry master, worthy in the sense that it needs someone of higher rank to bring out it's true potential.
'I should keep this in mind later when I ascend...'
Hugo changed the subject again, deciding to focus on his current problems.
"The Great Terror that's chasing me... You wouldn't happen to know how to kill it permeantly, do you ?"
Azarax grimaced at the mention of the abomination.
"That abomination is still slithering around after all these millennia? Persistent vermin..."
"You know it?" Hugo leaned forward.
"Know of it," Eurys corrected. "That entity was once the Supreme Avatar of Ariel, the Daemon of Dread."
'Another daemon...' Hugo was slowly developing a strange prejudice against these godly being... After all they were the source of all his problems.
Especially weaver the supposed creator of the nightmare spell..
"A daemon as in a divine being? like Weaver?"
"Yes. They were the first Sacred creatures, the pioneers of the path of ascension But do not ask for a taxonomy. Dangerous knowledge, remember?"
Hugo nodded, filing it away. "But I don't understand. A divine being needs an Avatar to interact with the world, right?" he said remembering the available knowledge he managed to get from the omnitrix. "But isn't an Avatar supposed to be of the Sacred or Divine rank? How can a mere Supreme be an Avatar? ."
Hugo felt a bit wrong to refer to a "supreme" creature with 'mere' but it fit the context when compared to divine beings.
Eurys sighed once again, clearly growing tired with hugo's endless amount of questions.
"It is… uncommon yes, but not impossible, Most gods and daemons chose Avatars at a rank appropriate for their needs—often of the Divine rank to unleash a majority of their power, But Ariel was different. He was, by all accounts, peculiarly fond of his mortal followers... The abomination hunting you was once a Supreme Monarch, a ruler of a vast and wealthy kingdom, whom Ariel chose not as a mere Avatar, but as a… partner, of sorts. The dreadful daemon shared his power with the mortal king eventually earning the love and worship of his people...."
The ship's ambient temperature seemed to drop again...
"A daemon," Eurys continued, his voice cold "must never be worshipped and Must never be loved by mortals, no matter what. The other gods saw this bond, this adoration the kingdom held for their king who shone with a daemon's grace, as A threat to the natural order of the world and So, they struck. They sundered the kingdom, destroyed the king's people and punished Ariel severely for his transgression."
"They went easier on him than they did on his sister, though" Azarax interjected with a morbid chuckle...
"Regardless" Eurys said, "the king, through some insidious aspect or sheer stubbornness survived the death of his body and soul, although What remained wasn't the same person who was blessed by Ariel instead the king was twisted by grief, rage and the backlash of divine punishment and so He became one of the Corrupted or as you've taken to calling them, nightmare creatures.
Ariel, as stubborn and defiant as ever managed to capture his fallen chosen. He imprisoned the corrupted king, not to punish him but in the foolish hope that one day, he might find a cure for him... But Ariel is long gone by now and so are the gods. The prison has decayed And that thing has festered in its cage for eons, growing its power and learning to extend it's will through lesser corrupted vessels, you should already know the rest by now."
Hugo's shoulders slumped. The tragedy of this tale was immense, like most stories of the ancient past but it did nothing to solve his problem...
"So, how do I kill it?"
Azarax tilted his skull slightly "Simple. Destroy its original body. The corrupted imprisoned corpse that serves as the anchor for its corrupted soul ."
"And where is that?"
"Somewhere in the heart of the desert, most likely Locked in a prison of Ariel's own divine sorcery, but don't even bother searching for it, Breaking that seal is far beyond your current capabilities."
"Is there any other way?"
Eurys shrugged. "Of course there is, boy. Learn this: in this world, if you are clever enough, stubborn enough and willing to pay a high enough price, you can kill anything, even the gods themselves, Well… with the exception of three people but that's a different matter entirely."
Hugo clicked his tongue in frustration, this did not answer his question.
" and How do I kill this nearly immortal great terror aside from targeting it's original body?"
"Soul attacks, Its soul is spread thin across vessels and so If you can find a way to deliver a catastrophic soul attack to its soul then you can kill it."
Hugo nodded, still frustrated by his situation...
That was pretty much a useless intel.
He hadthe means of delivering soul attacks, such as The [Blade of Darkness] from his Stone Saint form or the innate withering touch of his Soul Serpent form But they simply weren't powerful enough To annihilate the soul of a Great Terror...
to do that, he'd need to be at least Transcendent or probably a Supreme himself...
It was evident now that he could not kill a Great terror, no matter how hard or lucky he got... Which means he can only try and escape from it which is also nearly impossible.
Hugo sighed as He looked at the two skeletons, one brooding and one looking amused...
Why was he even transporting them?
He had a safe way of transportation and He knew the way to his destination, so he doesn't even need them as guides...
They were also ancient, dangerous and terribly cryptic which was not something Hugo liked in the slightest...
But They were also the first conversation he had in months and they alO held pieces of a history he desperately needed to understand...
It was a terrible reason but it was a reason.
"Hey, Eurys," Hugo said, breaking another long silence. "Why do you know so much about the Omnitrix? You recognized it immediately, You also knew about Vilgax and you seem to have a vague understanding of what Primus is..."
The friendly, cryptic skeleton froze once again, The playful glint that he had in his hollow sockets vanished, replaced by a strange wistful expression...
He was silent for so long Hugo thought he wouldn't answer.
Then, Eurys let out a soft chuckle that was entirely for himself and no one else...
He turned his skull to face Hugo fully, looking at the Omnitrix on his wrist...
"Because… I was once the wielder of the real Omnitrix. The very first wielder, at that. "