Chapter 113: Nightmare Gate
Hugo and Cor frowned as they read the notification. Wake of ruin expression immediately tensed, as he realized the gate was not that far away from the city...
"Come with me. Now," Cor said, quickly turning around and leaving the office.
Hugo followed soon after, sighing.
"First day on the job, Going great."
Seriously, it hadn't even been ten minutes since he was employed and a Nightmare Gate decided to open.
The timing was almost comedic, but this was no joke. A Gate of unknown rank was about to spill hundreds of Nightmare Creatures into the world and those creatures would kill thousands of people—Hugo knew that better than most.
"Where did it open?" Hugo asked as he followed the gaunt saint.
The two didn't hold back, racing through the stairwell and dropping down to the bottom floor in mere seconds.
Cor was like a lighting strike, while Hugo found it hard to keep up with the speed of the saint despite augmenting his body with soul essence.
"Outside NQSC, around three miles away... We're lucky it wasn't in the middle of the city but this could still be a disaster." Cor said as they exited the building.
This situation was far more dire than normal Gate breaks, due to the fact that the Gate opened right outside the city and fact that the Obel Scale had not managed to predict it, giving them no time to prepare. It had come out of nowhere, and they only had thirty minutes to prepare for it.
Cor used his communicator to call in a bunch of government agents—likely other Awakened and Masters.
From what Hugo knew, the great clans should also interfere if the situation gets dire but knowing them, it would take them hours to send their saints and masters.
Wake of ruin seemed to be going himself, which meant that the Gate was at least a Category Two Gate.
"Damn it. You have the coordinates on your communicator—get there as fast as you can." Cor said. Then, without even waiting for Hugo to respond, he disappeared.
the Saint hadn't gone to the Dream Realm, nor did he activate a teleportation ability, no. Instead, he had simply moved so fast that he seemed like he was teleporting. The impact of his movements even left a shockwave that nearly knocked Hugo over.
It was surreal, watching someone without a speed-based aspect move like that...
'Transcendents are a whole other breed of monster.'
Even the mythical Titans—of the lower ranks, at least—couldn't compare to that kind of power. Including Hugo himself.
Hugo didn't dwell on that thought and simply raised his Omnitrix, circling through his aliens and transforming.
"XLR8!" Hugo shouted, as he turned towards the direction of the Gate and ran there as fast as he could.
XLR8's max speed was comparable to that of a Saint, reaching the subsonic speed... Hugo could likely go faster with [Omni-Enhanced], but that wasn't needed for now.
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NQSC is the largest city left on Earth—the industrial, military, and administrative heart of humanity. It is located on a continent called Asia and shelters the most people, around one-tenth of the human population, out of the four populated continents. Moving through it at high speed would have been nearly impossible without superhuman reaction time, which XLR8 luckily possessed.
He weaved and passed through thousands of people, experiencing the beauty of the city with his own eyes.
The crosswalks were crowded with endless streams of people, with the occasional PTV appearing from time to time. There were hundreds of millions of people who called this place their home, after all. They could only survive and flourish here, shielded by the colossal outer barriers, protective air filtration systems, and powerful Awakened.
Then there came the outskirts... The sickly place where the poor lived. It was a sad sight to see, with multiple people suffering, dying and losing their humanity every day. Unfortunately, Hugo could not help them, at least not right now.
As Hugo reached the outer barrier, he partially transformed into Ghostfreak and phased through the barrier, finally reaching the outside of NQSC.
This was the first time in Hugo's life that he had set foot outside NQSC. In fact, it was the first time anyone from his family had left the city in generations—his entire lineage had lived within the city's walls since the Spell descended, never once leaving their safety.
Beyond the outskirts was the wild expanse of the Northern Quadrant—a desolate, empty place entirely made out of mud and snow. Whatever flora still clung to life in the barren soil looked sickly and dull. The sky was heavy and grey and the air was slightly hazy. There were occasional skeletal carcasses of Nightmare Creatures and rusty wrecks left behind from the times of human wars.
And there, in the vast expanse, was a sickly dark rift in reality. The Gate looked like a tear in reality, revealing nothing but vile darkness in its depths.
Standing some distance away, parched on a cliff, was Wake of Ruin who had gotten here before Hugo. He had a solemn expression on his face, anticipating the opening of the Gate.
Hugo detransformed and walked closer, looking at the Gate alongside the saint.
"What rank is it?"
Category Two Gates shouldn't pose a problem to Hugo or Wake of Ruin as both of them were powerful enough to battle any creature of the fallen rank.
Category Three Gates, however, would definitely overwhelm them and more then that, it Could cause a portion of NQSC to be leveled by Nightmare Creatures, considering the Gate was uncomfortably close to the city.
Hugo had no problem dealing with Fallen abominations, as no creature of that rank could threaten him. Even Fallen Titans would not be able to withstand his wrath if he went all out.
Corrupted creatures, on the other hand, were still dangerous to him. Hugo had slain a few, with the most prominent being a Corrupted Devil Symbiote and the Crimson Terror itself.
The Corrupted Devil was a weak creature as its race couldn't do much without a host, and Hugo had used its natural enemy, fire, to kill it.
The Crimson Terror, on the other hand, was not a true Corrupted Terror. Its mind had been consumed by frenzy and it hadn't yet settled into its new powers after evolving, leaving it weak enough for Hugo to kill. And even then, he hadn't killed it using raw power—instead, he had used Upgrade to take the Crimson Spire from it and turn it against the creature.
As he was right now, Hugo wagered that he could take on a Corrupted Tyrant in direct confrontation, alongside Zed, his shadow, and his Spirit Body. Of course, that accounted for the Tyrant having its minions.
But as for the rank of the Gate... Hugo suddenly scowled. The Call he was feeling right now was... Dreadful, and almost maddening, so much so that his arms started shaking a little.
His Titan sense would have gone crazy if he had activated it right now.
'A Category Three Seed...'
That meant that Fallen abominations, and likely a few Corrupted ones, would appear soon.
And more importantly, the gate guardian was bound to a high class corrupted abomination...
Hugo was not sure if cor, or any saint for that matter, could take on any corrupted abomination of the terror or Titan class alone. A tyrant was definitely possible to kill with enough difficulty, but terrors and Titans were forces of nature...
'let's just hope the government sends someone storng'
As he thought that, Hugo suddenly heard a strange sound coming from the direction of the city, it was loud and mechanical.
Saint Cor didn't even turn around, already knowing who it was.
Hugo, on the other hand, was shocked by what he saw when he turned.
It was someone on a motorcycle, speeding toward them at an incredible speed, way beyond the speed limit.
Hugo was about to dodge, but suddenly, the person on the motorcycle hit the brakes and slid to a stop in front of them.
Now that the person was in front of him, Hugo realized they had a feminine build and were wearing the exact government agent clothes that he had.
The person removed their helmet, and as they did, their beautiful black hair moved with the wind as a stunning beauty was revealed.
She had short, raven-black hair and icy-blue eyes. Her flawless skin was smooth, supple, and as white as snow. She paler then Hugo, The beautiful stranger was nothing short of striking...
Of course, Hugo knew exactly who she was.
"Jet," Cor addressed her calmly. "You're late."
The Soul Reaper stretched a little, before getting off her bike. "Geez, old man, you really should loosen up a little. Especially in front of the new guy."
Hugo felt slightly nervous at seeing her... He wasn't a starstruck teenager anymore, so he should behave.
"So this is the boy wonder," Jet said with an unreadable expression. She walked towards him and patted him on the shoulder. "Cheer up a little, kid. It's not every day that you get to experience a Nightmare Gate on your first day of the job."
"How lucky I am," Hugo said, not finding her words uplifting.
Soul Reaper simply smiled and summoned a dreadful scythe, then a graceful dark armor manifested out of white sparks, protecting her body.
Saint Cor did the same, although the old Saint didn't summon any armor, instead he simply summoned two dark hammers and a strange set of earrings that seemed to be a charm.
It made sense—at the Transcendent rank, your flesh is your armor, so saints only needed charm memories and good weapons.
Hugo simply called upon the [Asura] attribute, shaping it into armor. He didn't really need to do any of that, considering he would fight in his transformation anyway, but he didn't want to be left out.
At the same time, he summoned [Zed] and waited. He could summon his shadow and his Spirit Body, but as Sunny had taught him, keeping your cards hidden is never a bad thing.
The Gate rippled slightly, close to opening.
"...Is there really no other reinforcements?" Hugo asked, noticing that the desolate wasteland had not changed at all.
Jet shrugged. "They're coming although it's going to take a while, so we're basically the cavalry."
Hugo remained silent, looking at the Gate...
A Category Three Gate... That was a Seed of the Third Nightmare. With it, he could challenge the Third Nightmare and become a Saint.
Even if he challenged the Seed alone, Hugo had a good chance of clearing it...
The power he possessed as a Master was already beyond what most Ascended could achieve, so, Hugo couldn't even imagine how strong he'd become as a Transcendent.
His abilities would evolve, and he'd gain a Transcendent Transformation—though he had no idea what that would look like, considering he could already transform into anything but that aside, It wasn't out of the question that he might possess power comparable to a Supreme once he reached that rank.
Cor looked at Hugo, who seemed lost in thought. "Clear your mind, boy. We wouldn't want you dead on your first day on the job. Besides, I needed a demonstration of your abilities, so this is a perfect opportunity, do not disappoint us."
Hugo sighed. "Okay, I guess."
As he said those words, the pressure from the Gate intensified, and then it opened. It looked like a tall, vertical depression in the fabric of reality—a place where light bent in unnatural ways and inaudible screams felt louder than sound itself. The gate had fully became a rift between the waking and the dream realm, opening the door to unimaginable horrors.
Countless abominations seeped into the waking world. Hugo staggered at the sight the sight dragging him back to the day his mother died, then his eyes glowed azure blow as he activated his omnitrix.