Chapter 74: Two Frauds
The wave of energy, despite having been created by an Ascended Terror, was still something Ben couldn't simply shrug off... It was bound to cause him unparalleled agony, and so Hugo thought this essence-consuming plan would work—or at the very least, stop Ben from beating the life out of him.
What he did not account for was Ben's inhuman pain tolerance.
Groaning, ben looked down at the battered Hugo, and then he pressed his arm against Hugo's chest, making sure to keep him pinned to the ground, and then slowly he used his other hand to block the blast.
Ultimate Humungousaur's skin began to darken as it was being burnt by the influx of soul essence, however, Ben did not seem to care that much.
He kept getting closer and closer until he reached Hugo's maw...
CLICK
Ben ruthlessly grabbed the energy-unleashing maw and forcefully closed it, but he did not stop there instead, he crushed Hugo's mechanical maw completely, stopping him from releasing any more energy.
Then, looking at the humiliated Hugo, Ben grabbed his lower body and raised him into the sky.
"You know, in a situation like this, I would usually start monologuing about power and the difference between us and all of that crap." He brought his knee up and, at the same time, ben lowered Hugo's body onto it at a terrible speed causing intense pain to wash over him as his back snapped in two. "But you and I, we are not so different."
Ben tossed the broken Hugo to the ground and walked calmly towards him.
"After all, we are both frauds, using devices to contend with extraordinary individuals. It just so happens that I possessed the superior one and you got stuck with a knockoff."
Hugo, hearing his words, stood up briefly, pushing his broken body out of the ground. He tried to slam the Omnitrix on his chest to morph into another alien, preferably something that would allow him to run away.
But just then, another devastating punch connected with his head, breaking the helmet entirely and reaching his face.
Another punch connected to his torso breaking his lungs, then another, and another.
Each blow brought upon by Ultimate Humungousaur carried the weight of a Transcendent Titan behind it, and it was not simply the strength a divine Aspect wielder would possess if they conquered the Third Nightmare and possessed seven cores. No, it was the raw, unfiltered strength of a Noble Creature of the Transcendent rank and the Titan class.
And Ben did not stop at just beating him up, instead he savagely began tearing the Omni-Kix armor away, not leaving Hugo a single chance to retaliate.
Or so he thought.
From afar, Hugo, in his spirit body, was still lying on the ground.
His strength had been stolen from him not only by Ben's will, but also because of the strange ability Ultimate Humungousaur possessed, leaving him motionless inside the [Asura] Mantle.
However, Hugo was sure about one thing. The ability that had been used was something that affected the mind—a mind attack, to be specific. His main body was resistant to it due to the Omnitrix, but the spirit body, despite being one with Hugo, did not possess this passive ability and so it succumbed to it...
But that was a good thing.
If the spirit body could be affected by a mind attack of that caliber, then surely a mind attack created by an Ascended Terror would work on his own mind?
And just like that, Hugo activated the [Enthrall] ability of the spirit body on itself, corrupting its mind and tricking it into doing something.
That something was summoning a memory... One of the Transcendent memories that he had received from the treacherous inhabitants of the Beast Realm.
The Null Void grenade...
The yellow futuristic egg appeared in a shower of white, falling into his hand.
The spirit body then raised its head, looking at Ben, who was busy smashing Hugo's main body to a bloody pulp...
And then, it tricked its mind into raising its hand and threw the grenade at Ben with all of its Ascended might, making sure to activate its enchantment.
The egg traveled across the distance at the speed of a bullet, like a hungry beast waiting to swallow its prey.
Unfortunately for it, its prey was Ben Tennyson.
Without even looking at the approaching grenade, Ben raised his hand and shot a bullet-like material from it directly towards the approaching grenade.
The Transcendent memory collided with the bullet, and just like that, it shattered.
The last bits of it fell to the ground before quickly disintegrating into white sparks...
[Your memory has been destroyed]
Fear dawned upon Hugo as his last trick had failed him.
This entire situation had felt so suffocating... so terribly unfair from the beginning, and yet he thought he could somehow survive it like he always did... But reality was far crueler.
"Clever trick, color me impressed..." Ben said, turning to the spirit body. "Who would've thought you'd come across a spirit? Charmcaster would have sold her body and soul to get her hands on one of those..."
Then he shot another bullet from his hand, this one directed towards the spirit body.
Hugo knew his spirit would be destroyed if he let it get damaged, and so he did the only thing he could—he dismissed it into his soul sea.
Having been left alone by his spirit and echo, the last bits of hope within Hugo completely crumbled.
'I'm so tired...'
He thought, feeling the weight of reality crushing down on him... But in truth, that was the weight of Ben's fists.
Hugo's will had already been dulled when the truth about his existence was revealed... But now, after loosing this terribly to ben...he felt so... so worthless.
He could not even fight against his fate, which was decided by a being more powerful than him.
'fight... Yeah right, I can't even scratch this guy...'
Truly, weakness was the greatest sin of all, and strength was the only virtue.
The reason Ben manipulted his entire life did not matter, what mattered was the fact he was able to do it without anyone opposing him.
Hugo was not sure about it, before, but now he was beginning to doubt...
Perhaps he was not meant to live, and so like the miserable wretch he was, he should simply die and allow ben Tennyson to take over him...
At least, that would be the less painful path.
—————
Ben finally stopped punching Hugo's broken body, and at the same time, he stood up, looking down at his enantiomorph.
For a moment, a torrent of guilt rushed through his cold eyes but they disappeared as swiftly as they came...
Ben had already made peace with himself.
He was no longer a hero, nor was he a good person at all. But that did not matter right now.
For as long as he could save the last remenents of his realm, nothing else mattered.
"That should be enough for you to learn... Now, just disappear and let me take over you already."
In truth, Ben was not planning on killing Hugo.
After all, he still needed him to fully mantle the identity of "Ben Tennyson" to become one with him, and by doing that, he would become a carrier of the Nightmare Spell, allowing him to receive a nightmare appraisal.
If he doesn't get connected to the spell by the end of this nightmare, then he would be thrust right inside the Nightmare Seed, becoming a corrupted being.
But how does one go about mantling someone if they themselves don't want it?
The answer was simple.
You must enforce certain rules upon that individual, slowly shaping them to become more like you in terms of personality and actions and then break their spirit.
In the case of Hugo, ben had already made sure to make him become like him ,which made the awakened boy grow softer each day.
For the second part, ben wouldn't need to actually destroy his physical spirit, rather, he would only need to break the will that said, "I am the paragon of purity."
By doing that, he would be stripping him of his true name and his identity entirely.
It was sort of like an act of defiance, which is used to advance to the Supreme rank.
So, how would he go about breaking Hugo's Spirit?
Ben had hundreds of ways to break the youth's spirit, really.
Some included turning into pesky dust and making him relive his mother's death millions of times, or turning into Whampire to hypnotize him into thinking he was Ben Tennyson.
The list could go on forever, but Ben had to be swift. This nightmare was approaching its end, after all, with the Forever Knights preparing to make their final stand against the Plumbers in the Black Hills of South Dakota, near the city of Keystone—specifically in Mount Rushmore.
Just as Ben was about to finish his plan, something changed in the air...
No, it was not the air, rather it was the world itself that was changing.
It was as if something, or someone, had forcefully bent reality to their will making it so they were the absolute law of the world.
It was unfathomable and terribly vast, so much so that ben couldn't even begin to comprehend that vastness despite the fact that he was a Transcendant Titan at the moment...
Although ben knew one thing for sure, that source of presence was undoubtedly the authority of a Supreme.
And one ben knew all too well.
"That's enough."
A voice cut through the air in an instant, coming from hundreds of miles away, and yet at the same time, being as clear as if someone was talking right Infront of him.
Than suddenly, a gigantic arm made of pure flame, connected to no body, slammed Ben away from Hugo's body, his Transcendent strength suddenly becoming feeble and pale in front of it.
In the sky, an old man clad in sleek white armor floated with quiet authority, a crimson cape flowing behind him. His tired grey eyes held the weight of countless battles and held a long Story behind them. Around him, his insidious power took form, with an arm of beautiful crystals floating nearby, another made purely of molten rock, and spectral constructs of fire and energy all orbiting him gracefully with all of them bending to his supreme will.
Maxwell Tennyson, the Sovereign of humanity had descended upon the waking world.