Chapter 99: Hybrid
The battle between the two four-armed fiends was both glorious and harrowing.
Each punch exchanged between them sent shockwaves across the reinforced underground basement, testing its durability.
Hugo and Sunny's battle arts drastically changed now that they had assumed their transformations, with both of them becoming more feral and violent.
Usually for Hugo, when he transformed he would focus less on combat skill and more on overpowering his opponent through his aliens. If that didn't work, he would simply switch to another alien that possessed abilities capable of countering his opponent.
Now, Hugo did possess an alien capable of countering Sunny, that was the Stone Saint. True darkness was the enemy of shadows, after all. However, he was not going to use it. Instead, he was going to combine the battle art of the Stone Saints and the Tetramand into one.
The Tetramand's battle style was more complex than that of the Stone Saint, as it required the full usage of the Tetramand's four arms, their incredible strength and, most importantly, their acrobatic movements.
Naturally, being in this enclosed space did hinder Hugo's movement, but there wasn't really any better place for them to spar.
Sparks of Omni-Energy lashed out as Hugo delivered a fatal punch towards Sunny's gigantic frame, causing his manifested shadow arm to crumble and break as if it was made of glass.
In a moment, another arm made of shadow manifested itself once again, and as it did, Hugo received a direct punch to his armored face, making his head twist a little.
Using that opportunity, Sunny attempted to tackle Hugo by slipping behind him and locking him in a tight hug, attempting to lift him from trh ground and slamming him back into it.
Realizing this, Hugo buried his legs into the ground, anchoring himself to it, and then elbowed Sunny in the head directly.
However, the shadow fiend did not let go, remaining firm in his assault.
As a result, Hugo, simply used Four Arms' bizarre anatomy and twisted his rocky arms to his back, grabbing Sunny by the neck.
Then, Hugo augmented his body using [Empower] and lifted Sunny before slamming him to the ground, and sending a shockwave through the entire floor.
Without giving him a chance to recover, he raised his lower two arms, aiming to strike him while he was down.
When the arms came down, Hugo only hit the floor.
"Huh?"
Before he could realize it, Sunny appeared from the side, hitting him to the head with two arms at once, before delivering a barrage of fast-paced attacks to his lower stomach.
Gritting his teeth, Hugo raised his upper four arms and used them to block the impact.
'Teleportation... It must be his awakened or ascended ability... He also seems to possess control over shadows.'
Sunny was always capable of controlling his own shadows, however as a sleeper, he couldn't control other shadows. But now, as an ascended, he must've gained that ability.
It was exciting to see that his friend was growing more powerful alongside him.
Remaining firm in his defense, Hugo waited for the right moment and when it came, he delivered a sharp punch to Sunny's chest, sending him hurtling through the underground basement. Sunny crashed into the far wall, leaving a deep indent in its surface
Hugo looked down at his hands, shocked at the power [Omni-Enhanced] granted him, as he did not mean to put that much power into his attack.
If he was right about this ability, it specifically augmented each alien's best trait, and empowered their other parts as well, such as their shadow, soul, spirit and mind.
Hugo did not feel it before, but now that he was an ascended, he did. When he transforms, his other parts also transform with him, changing his existence on a fundamental level.
Sunny got down from the hole he left on the wall and sighed.
"You monstrous bastard... We are going to end up destroying the manor at this point. Can't we stop here now that we've tested your new ability?"
Hugo shook his head, as he deactivated his [Omni-Enhanced] state, leaving him as normal Four Arms once again.
"This isn't my ascended ability, though, You see, this ability is called [Omni-Enhanced], it's my new awakened ability I got after my aspect evolved. I still have yet to try out my new ascended ability."
Sunny seemed intrigued by his words.
"A divine aspect can evolve even further?"
"Apparently," Hugo responded "the spell doesn't even know what to call the rank above divine so it just designates it as Unknown."
Sunny allowed his Shadow Fiend shell to crumble back into the shadows and assumed his human form, looking at Hugo with a thoughtful expression.
This revelation might be small compared to everything else they knew, but it still held heavy implications.
It meant that there was a rank above divine. And that sunny and nephis could achieve this level of power as well, but more than that, didn't that also mean that divine beings were not the pinnacle of creation?
"Anyhow, ready to test my new ascended ability?"
Sunny sighed. "Whatever it is, please don't use something destructive. Repairs aren't cheap, you know."
"No promises," Hugo said, as he closed his eyes and looked deep within himself.
He focused on the new ability he had access to, [Fusion].
[Fusion] was an interesting ability, as its applications were limitless in theory. Of course, reality often was more disappointing then theory.
Hugo frowned, as he sensed something strange when drawing upon that ability...
He felt that he could use it in more than one way, by drawing upon it like a battery.
He could use a quarter of it, to only change a small part of his body. He could use half to change a big part of his body. Those two applications were partial transformations.
Although there was a third option, which was using the ability fully in order tofuse two different imprints together fully.
He attempted a quarter first and as he did, Hugo felt a web open in his mind. In that web was the DNA of every alien he had unlocked on the playlists.
Every alien except for two: Alien X and Walkatrout...
'So I can only fuse aliens of the same rank together... Bummer...'
He had hoped he could use this ability to utilize Alien X's powers without Bellicus and Serena, but alas, it was not that easy.
That aside, Hugo decided to attempt using Heatblast's DNA first.
His arms morphed, their skin turned rocky and the blood beneath boiled and became fire.
In moments, his arms became that of Heatblast, while retaining their mass of four arms.
This granted him the ability to shoot fire out of his hands, although his output was massively weaker than the real Heatblast.
He also did not have full fire immunity.
Sunny observed him as he moved his arms around.
"Of course, your ascended ability allowed you to fuse your transformations... Is it only partially?"
"No," Hugo answered, observing the change in his body.
He drew more power from the ascended ability, and as he did, his entire body was engulfed in fire, turning into the fiery skin of Heatblast.
"There's a twenty percent fusion, a fifty percent one, and then..."
Hugo closed his eyes, and drew upon the full power of his ascended ability, fusing the Heatblast DNA with the Four Arms DNA fully.
His body shifted and morphed, and at the same time, his soul, shadow, spirit and mind all transformed to match the body.
This process was draining, heavily so. Hugo felt nearly an entire core worth of essence suddenly drain from his soul, which almost knocked him unconscious from how sudden it was.
His crimson skin disappeared completely, replaced by molten lava rock skin, giving him the visage of a terrifying demon, one with four mighty arms and a burning head.
Hugo exhaled, producing a small flame in his arm.
The transformation itself did not make him advance in rank or anything, however it increased his utility and versatility.
Granting him the strength of Four Arms and the flames of Heatblast.
Although the fusion wasn't truly perfect, as he was sure that base Four Arms was still stronger than his current hybrid form, and that Heatblast's flames were hotter than the flames of this form.
Still, this form was more versatile than both of them.
"Wow," Sunny whistled "you really hit the jackpot with this."
He circled Hugo carefully, observing how different his current hybrid body was from his usual transformations.
"You know, your aspect in general gives me a lot of ideas when I practice Shadow Dance. It's certainly something."
"Glad to be of help," Hugo said, as he focused back on his own form.
For the next several hours, Hugo and Sunny experimented with this new ability, testing its limits and capabilities.
The [Fusion] ability was not powerful enough to merge more than two forms at once, as Hugo simply could not do it no matter how hard he tried.
Sunny theorized that it would be able to fuse three or more aliens when Hugo ascended higher on the path of ascension, but for now, they were certain it wasn't capable of fusing more then two aliens.
They tested out how strong Hugo was in his base form, when he activated [Fusion] to mix human DNA with other aliens.
He managed to gain body parts of other creatures into his base form, such as Big Chill's wings, Diamondhead's arms, and he even managed to gain Ghostfreak's intangibility.
The partial transformations drained considerably more soul essence then the full transformation did, which was a nice thing to know.
The partial transformations also could only merge two DNA at one time.
Sunny on the other hand, practiced Shadow Dance's fourth step by doing a very simple thing.
He asked Hugo to transform into various aliens, and he then studied their form, anatomy and their movements.
Then, he attempted to create shells of some of Hugo's forms.
So far, he had only managed to create a shell that was based on Terraspin of all aliens, with Sunny choosing it specifically due to its flying abilities and the fact that its abilities were not truly mystical, but instead replicable through physical means.
Although, the shell was incomplete as it needed more refinement for it to work.
By the end of the day, they were both exhausted and drained of essence, so they simply sat on the ground together, drinking water from [Endless Spring] while chatting about some of the stuff they found interesting. Such as history, ancient lore and different locations they had been to in the Dream Realm.
"Wait," Sunny cut Hugo off, shocked "You're telling me there were multiple realms? Like entire universes?"
"Yep," Hugo nodded "Apparently, there were divine realms and mortal realms. The divine realms were big and were the size of entire universes, while the mortal realms were small in comparison. Said divine realms are even the body of gods, which was crazy to me when I first heard it."
Sunny couldn't even hide his academic excitement at this. His mind processing every bit of information.
It was fun to see his friend enjoy something instead of always being awkward around him.
"Then what realm is ours? And what exactly is the Dream Realm?"
"Our realm is the War Realm, the dead body of War Goddess, which is creepy... As for what the Dream Realm is, I have no idea. The two skeletons I talked with didn't know."
Sunny gave him a dubious look, then said:
"Speaking of said ancient skeletons, where are they now?"
"..."
Hugo's eyes widened.
he suddenly remembered the fact that he had left Azarax and Eurys back in the fake Primus...
"Shit, I totally forgot about them...."
After some thinking, Hugo's face shifted.
"I'm sure they're fine though... They probably left the fake Primus and went back to the desert or something..."
In truth, Hugo had hoped they don't end up massacring the civilization of the Beast Realm, but he was certain the saints there could handle two undead skeletons. Or at least, he hoped they will.
Azarax and Eurys didn't seem to gain anything from massacring people at their current state, so Hugo was hoping they don't end up causing trouble.
'Why do I feel this is going to come back and bite me in the ass later?'
Hugo was abruptly cut off from his thoughts as Sunny suddenly got up and stretched one last time.
"I gotta go, it's getting late and I have an appointment with a friend later."
"Friend? Is it one of the cohort?" Hugo asked, curious.
Sunny simply shook his head "It's Soul Reaper Jet, you might've heard of her. She's a government ascended and also a friend of mine."
"Oh." Hugo knew about Soul Reaper Jet, of course. He was one of her biggest fans after all, but he didn't want to admit it aloud so that he wouldn't sound like a creep.
He wasn't a starstruck teenager anymore, so naturally he could not act like that.
"Sunny, before you leave, I have a question for you."
Sunny raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?"
Hugo got up, and gave him a smile.
"How would you like to make a trade? I've got something special this time, something made by Shadow God himself, no less!"