Chapter 53: Ben Tennyson
The tension in the sterile green chamber was broken by Gwen's voice.
"Now then," she said, turning her luminous gaze toward the brooding Saint by the wall. "Kevin, Don't you think you owe our friend here an apology?"
Kevin scoffed,an annoyed expression appearing on his face. "Oh, come on, Gwen! I didn't know it wasn't Vilgax. You would've done the same thing in my place!"
"Perhaps. But I like to think I'd have ascertained his identity before reducing him to pulp," she replied, her tone leaving no room for argument. "You nearly killed an innocent person based solely on his appearance. That's low, Kevin. Even for you."
Kevin let out a long sigh that seemed to deflate his massive frame a little. He turned his hard eyes to Hugo, who met his gaze with fake confidence.
The man definitely had a nasty temperament but there was a flicker of genuine, if begrudging, remorse there.
"...I'm sorry," Kevin ground out, the words clearly foreign on his tongue. "For beating you up And nearly killing you... Please accept my apology."
Hugo stared at the Transcendant champion for a moment.
The man was hot-tempered, impulsive, and seemed like the type to hold a grudge for decades but Hugo could tell the man wasn't truly evil... And so He wanted to accept the apology—it was the smart move when dealing with a Saint, after all—but the memory of shattered ribs and the taste of his own blood was too fresh for him to let it slide.
"...I think I'm deserving of compensation," Hugo said with a flat voice.
He wouldn't be bought off with just words.
"We will arrange suitable Memories for you," Rook offered, his features unreadable...
Hugo shook his head then He pointed a large finger directly at Kevin.
"Yes, I know you'll do that. You need my help, after all But I want something from him. A Transcendant must have at least one good Memory or Echo to spare, Surely he wouldn't mind sharing."
Kevin looked at Hugo blankly for a long moment, then let out another, deeper sigh of resignation.
"Alright, fine. What do you want?"
Hugo paused for a moment, genuinely surprised.
He had expected some if not a lot of resistance but it seemed the man was genuinely sorry for attacking him...
Now, what did he actually lack? He had two Transcendant Memories for offense and defense, healing memories, and a myriad of weaker tools... So he didn't really want a memory.
On the other hand, one of His most powerful assets, the [Spirit Seed], was in a mysterious state of hibernation, having absorbed Gunlaug's body and the Spire's souls and so for now It was unresponsive...
"I want an Echo," Hugo said, looking at the saint "Transcendant or Ascended."
Kevin twitched slightly.
"I don't know how common Echoes are in your world, but they're damned scarce here. We're not exactly swimming in resources."
"I don't care," Hugo pressed, crossing his arms. "You owe it to me."
After another sharp glare from Gwen, Kevin's shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Fine. Whatever."
He strode forward and Hugo had to consciously root himself to the floor to keep from backing away in fear. After all, A Saint's approach even if suppressed was too much for a mere awakened such as Hugo.
Kevin placed his calloused hand on Hugo's shoulder, moments later, A brief pulse of alien energy shot through him.
[You have received an Echo.]
A satisfied grin spread across Hugo's face.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Kevin grumbled, retreating to his spot by the wall, looking like a scolded giant.
Quickly checking his runes, Hugo looked for his new echo:
Echoes: [Spirit seed], [Zed]
Echo: [Zed]
Rank: ascended
Class: devil
Echo description: [Zed was chosen by the dreadful hunter, kyber as the most Worthy tool of them all and later on was subjected to a myriad of horrifying expriments to become the perfect predator]
Echo attributes: [Hunter], [Ferocious], [intiligence]
Echo abilities: [Host]
[Hunter] attribute description: [This echo is a natural born hunter]
[Ferocious] attribute description: [This echo is relentless in it's hunt]
[Intiligence] attribute description: [This echo possses an uncanny amount of intiligence for it's rank and class]
[Host] ability description: [This echo could become the perfect host for anything]
Hugo stared at the runes for a couple of moments... He did not know his echo's appearance but it seemed like she was a good hunter... Although for an ascended devil, her Abilities were a bit dissapointing.
Alas, an ascended devil was an ascended devil.
"Now," Gwen said, clapping her hands together "shall we prepare you for your Nightmare?"
Hugo raised an eyebrow. "This soon?"
Gwen's serene expression dimmed slightly. "It's for your own good, I would have preferred to let you stay, and even train you myself for a time But that would be… problematic due to how time functions here." She gestured for him to follow, floating the entire group —Minus the Galvans who stayed behind— toward the center of the platform.
She, Rook, and Kevin gathered, and the disc beneath their feet began to ascend silently.
It was an elevator.
"As I told you earlier" Gwen continued as they rose "this place hides itself from Fate and so The laws connected to Fate such as time and space are jumbled here as a result. Spend a subjective week here, and a century might pass outside Or a day, The distortions are chaotic and random so If you stayed here long enough, you could theoretically outlive your entire civilization, or return to find it unchanged. It's a 50/50 chance of temporal catastrophe."
Hugo felt a cold shiver run through his spine. The thought of returning to his world and finding it dead was certainly horrifying... At least more then most nightmare creatures he came across so far.
"I assume this wouldn't apply if I entered a Nightmare?" he asked, hoping his deduction was right.
"Correct," Rook confirmed, adjusting the device on his shoulder. "Even though we are hidden from fate, the Spell is still omnipotent. Anything it creates, including the Trials, operates on its own absolute clock and so Time within a Nightmare is isolated."
The elevator completed its ascent towards the higher ground, and through the tranculucent glass of the elevator, sight that stole Hugo's breath revealed itself.
From up here, they overlooked a cavern of impossible scale. It wasn't a cave in the natural sense instead it was a chasm-city, a vertical world carved into the living rock beneath Primus. The ceiling, over 300 meters high, was lost in a haze of glowing fungal growths and crisscrossing cables. The width was staggering—two kilometers of sheer, terraced cliff face, each level a bustling with life.
It was a hive of monumental industry and civilizations. Twenty-five main levels, each a plane of frantic activity, were stacked atop one another perfectly, and we're connected by a colossal central transit spine and a dizzying network of bridges made from rusted iron, salvaged ship hulls and shimmering crystal alloy. The population—two million beings of a hundred different species—swarmed like ants in a colossal, metallic nest. Humans in practical gear brushed shoulders with elegant, crystalline beings and hulking furry quadrupeds each went through their days as if it was the lost normal thing in the world.
Dwellings were carved directly into the rock, stacked in haphazard honeycombs, or built from bolted-together plating that once armored spaceships.
Light came from a chaotic artificial firmament: vast, cracked bioluminescent fungi on the ceiling cast a sickly green pall, competing with strips of harsh, sun-mimicking panels and a billion smaller lights—flickering neon signs in alien scripts (translated by the Spell to read "Khyber's Beast & Brew" or "Plumber Surplus"), glaring holographic news feeds, and the furious red glow of deep-level smelters. The air itself vibrated with a mix of strange smells that reached towards the elevator. It was a mix of food, rock and other unknown materials.
To look down was to peer into a smog-choked, heat-hazed abyss of industry. To look up was to see a ceiling forest of stalactites and tangled infrastructure. It was awe-inspiring and claustrophobic in equal measure, somehow displaying harshness but... Prosperity? Even though it looked like a terrible state, this place still put NQSC to shame.
"This place is called Undertown," Gwen said, her voice soft beside him. "We wanted to call it Bellwood, but… this seemed more fitting considering we are beneath the Primus caldera."
Hugo eyes widened at her words. "You built a city under a volcano?"
A faint chuckle escaped her beautiful lips.
"In a manner of speaking, yes but technically The caldera here doesn't hold lava, instead it hold a wellspring of liquid that isn't harmful to the inhabitants, infact that same liquid is used as fuel here And most of our people are Awakened or higher so they can handle harsh circumstances... Although The lack of a true sun is… barely manageable, if oppressive."
Hugo was extremely curious about this civilization... Especially considering it didn't include only humans.
"So this population is a mix of humans and Noble creatures?"
Rook answered, his voice a calm contrast to the bustling city beneath them
"Indeed, Our realm was a tapestry where all life, including these created by other gods, eventually came to coexist together. In the ancient past, it was not so… hospitable to say the least. It was a primordial jungle where all creatures, humans included, hunted one another But that was millennia before the Fall of our world. In our time, a relative peace held. Humans, originating from a planet called Earth, became a dominant technological force throughout the universe through forming an organization called the plumbers with the goal of establishing peace between races in secret... and for a while that peace lasted long enough for the inhabitants of earth to forget entirely about the gods, Nobel creatures and awakening in it's entirety... That was true until the Nightmare Spell descended upon us... It was then that the other sentient species whom humans called 'aliens' revealed themselves. And let's just say The reaction was… split. Some hated us, Others, like my comerades here and the Plumbers allied with us to survive the invasion of Corruption."
Hugo's brain stuttered for a moment, trying to process this...
Planets? Space? They had that as well? And more importantly, they managed to achieve space travel?
Then one detail slammed into his mind.
"Wait, the home planet for humans was called Earth?"
"Yes," Rook said.
"That's the name of my planet," Hugo said slowly, a deep unease settling in his gut. "And we also have space and Galaxies."
The trio exchanged glances of genuine surprise at his words.
"Really?" Gwen murmured. "I always assumed the Divine Realms would be fundamentally different in their structurew especially the realm of the War God..."
The coincidence was too vast and too precise. Two separate realms, born of different gods, both containing a planet named Earth with similar cosmic structures? It felt less like chance and more like… a pattern... Or perhaps a copy.
Did war god, or beast god copy each other world? And if eurys words were to be believed... Then did they have the same body?
Or perhaps all of the gods were a part of giant grotesque body...
Shaking off the existential dread off, Hugo turned to a more immediate puzzle.
"...How do you even manage this place? You have a population dominated by Awakened and Ascended beings, plus countless non-human species... The potential for conflict must be insane."
"You have no idea," Kevin muttered darkly.
"It was not easy," Gwen admitted, the light in her eyes dimming even more. "There is racism, class strife between the powerful and the few mundane survivors, resource disputes… it is a tinderbox. The only reason it hasn't consumed itself is because the three of us, and a handful of others, are Transcendant. We are the law, not merely because we are the strongest but also because we are the bulwark between this city and annihilation... We are the protectors and so our words is law..."
'Ah, so that's how it is...' Hugo thought, a dark understanding dawning upon him.
The same ruthless calculus governed this lost civilization as it did the Forgotten Shore and the waking world: power was the ultimate authority... His brief hope that perhaps humanity and other creatures were different from his people was instantly gone... It seemed that power was a universal law no matter the universe or the people...
Trying to steer away from that grim truth, he asked "Protect it from what? This place seems untouched by Corruption."
Gwen, Kevin, and Rook all shared a look of profound bitterness at his words.
"By any chance, Have you ever heard of the Daemon of Imagination?" Gwen asked, her voice taking on a strange, hollow quality. "Her name was Mirage."
The blatant change of the subject threw Hugo off for a moment, then He shook his head.
"No, but I've heard of others."
"Mirage was one of the most well known and harrowing of the Seven daemons," Gwen continued. "She created reflections and The gods despised her for it... after all, she held up mirrors that showed them truths they desperately wished to ignore... But that is beside the point. Mirage had a kingdom, inhabited by her children, 'the Others' who were basically living reflections of others... her kingdom was a strange place and that was putting it mildly. She had a kingdom in the physical world and at the same time, an exact, living reflection of it within a great mirror creating a perfect pocket dimension."
The pieces suddenly clicked into place at her words.
Hugo's eyes swept over the impossible, tiered chasm-city. "So this place... is a reflection... A mirror of the real Primus."
Three grim nods answered him.
"And let me guess," Hugo said, his voice dry and devoid of all humour. "The real Primus is infested with Corruption and holds creatures that sometimes… bleed through into the reflection?"
Kevin's smiled darkly. "You have no idea... The real Primus is a crucible of life in its rawest most potent forms, to the point some people would call it a living creature. But that isn't the worst parts... Some creatures there are born Titans, others are born of higher ranks... I'll let you imagine what happens when something like that is touched by the Corruption."
A cold knot formed in Hugo's stomach at the saint's dark words...The real Primus was perhaps the most harrowing death zones in the dream realm, perhaps even surpassing the hollow mountains.
"Still" Hugo pressed, "couldn't you mass-produce Transcendants Through Nightmares or natural cultivation?"
With their knowledge and the presence of Noble creatures who understood natural ascension, the quality of their people seemed quite low... Not that awakened and ascended creatures were anything to scoff at.
Gwen sighed as she looked at the city.
"That was the plan... Most of our Transcendants died during the evacuation from our realm to this place, Since then, we've focused on aiding natural ascension through a myriad of ways such as alchemy, élixirs, rare awakened with boostings aspects and anything that you can think of to raise our strength... well anything besides Nightmares that is... " she paused for a moment watching the city with a strange intensity " nightmares are… rarer here and far more deadly then the ones in your world or the rest of the dream realm. The Seeds we can access in the real Primus are primarily of the Fourth Rank and higher, with only a handful of Thirds. The risk of challenging them is often judged too great."
Hugo scratched his head, a blunt thought forming that was quite inappropriate.
"I don't mean to be rude, but shouldn't you, as leaders, attempt a Fourth Nightmare? A Supreme or two could safeguard your people far better then any number of transcendants can."
Hugo did not know much about supremes and their domains but azarax had told him some stuff, mainly about how a sovereign strength we built on their people, and un turn, the strength of the people was built on their monarch. Essentially becoming a self sufficient cycle similar to his tyrant ability.
"We know," Gwen said, a deep sadness in her luminous eyes. "My grandfather was our last Supreme... He died holding the line so we could escape and so We, as the remaining pillars, cannot gamble ourselves on such odds, at least Not yet. Not until we have more transcendans among us."
Their plight was desperate, more so than Hugo had initially grasped. They weren't just hiding, they were slowly suffocating in a mirrored tomb, with only suicidal options or a long-shot external savior...
"And if there are only Third Rank Seeds and higher," Hugo said, steering back to his own problem "what Nightmare are you sending me to? I'm not ready for a Third."
Just then, the platform reached its destination— out onto a vast, open landing pad under the perpetual twilight sky of the reflection of Primus. They walked towards another structure, a sleek, futuristic tower emblazoned with a large familiar Omnitrix symbol.
"Don't worry," Gwen said as they approached the tower. "We have a Second Nightmare Seed. One that has not yet bloomed... Matter of a fact, It's almost as if it was tailored for you specifically."
A cold trickle of suspicion ran down Hugo's spine. "It's almost like you were expecting me."
"Perhaps it's Fate," she said, her tone strangly unreadable. "One's path is bound to become unnatural with that watch on their wrist... Even if yours is not the original."
He nodded, agreeing with her. His entire journey—from the First Nightmare gifting him the Omnitrix to its trait guiding him here—felt less like chance and more like being led by the nose by a strange entity...
Infact he had a strange feeling that the trio here, and their entire civilization as it is was somewhat involved in his story...
He couldn't really voice his suspicions or display animosity towards them, after all he undoubtedly was in a more difficult situation then them.
For now, he would play along But if they betrayed him… he would make it costly, even if they were saints.
Inside the tower's antechamber, he was surprised to see the two Galvans, Driba and Blukic, waiting beside a large metallic crate.
"How are you two here?" Hugo asked, baffled. "We left you in the lower levels."
One of the Galvans shrugged, which looked a bit comical. "Teleportation grid."
"Then why did we walk here?" Hugo turned to the trio.
They also shrugged in unison. "Walking and talking is easier than dumping an explanation on you while staying in the same place" Kevin said gruffly. "Way Less boring, too."
The sheer mundane logic of it was a bit disarming... Despite their power and tragedy, they still felt… human...
"Anyway, squid-boy," Blukic said, tossing a small, glowing white orb to Hugo. "This is for you."
Hugo caught it. It was warm, smooth, and pulsed with a dense, incredibly pure concentration of soul essence. "What is this?"
"A high-efficiency, synthesized soul-shard," Driba chirped proudly. "Galvan design, of course. It can saturate a soul core instantly but For you, it should catalyze the formation of your sixth."
Hugo wasn't surprised. An advanced civilization would have such arts. "Do I just… crush it?"
"No! What kind of brute are you?" Blukic squeaked. "You swallow it!"
Hugo looked from the fist-sized orb to the tiny Galvan, then to the trio of Saints... Their faces were suspiciously neutral.
"You can't be serious."
"Hey, it's on you," Driba said, crossing his tiny arms. "Do you want the core or not?"
Feeling a strange sense of inevitability—and a reckless curiosity—Hugo brought the orb to his mouth...
It was a struggle but he swallowed it whole, feeling the massive, solid object move down his throat in a deeply unsettling way...
He shuddered, feeling violated.
Immediately, a cascade of Spell messages flooded his mind.
[Your Omnitrix grows stronger…]
[Your Omnitrix grows stronger…]
[Your Omnitrix grows stronger…]
The message repeated, a rapid-fire chant as his soul core saturated at a visible, dizzying rate.
[4000/5000… 4200/5000… 4600/5000…]
He looked up. The group in front of him was… trembling ?
No...they were shaking with suppressed laughter.
Even the two stoic guards by the inner door had their shoulders shaking, their helmets turned away.
Finally, the two Galvans exploded with laughter.
"Oh, by Azmuth's warty backside, I can't believe he fell for it!" Blukic howled, rolling on the floor.
"He swallowed it in one gulp!The look on his face!" Driba wheezed.
The dam broke, then Kevin let out a sharp bark of laughter, quickly covering his mouth. Rook's stern face cracked into a wide, toothy smile... Even Gwen's luminous form brightened with mirth.
"I am sorry," she managed, between shimmering laughs. "For these two… Pfft… The orb can be absorbed through crushing it normally. They were… joking."
Hugo wanted to be angry... He wanted to strangle the two tiny frogs... But the sight of these burdened ancient warriors laughing—a genuine, unguarded moment of levity in their hellish lives—disarmed him...
The humiliation was a small price for that, of course, but the fact that their mood's was slightly better was something that warmed his heart a little bit.
Suddenly, the process culminated and his soul shards runes displayed a perfect:[5000/5000].
The evolution he'd wondered about finally began.
In his soul sea, his five luminous Omni-cores spun violently, their azure light condensing and forging a sixth at their center—his Terror core. The sensation was uniquely alien for his hybrid state. Not the painful, tearing expansion a human would feel when forming another core while also not the natural, enlightening expansion of a Noble creature... It was a strange sort of unfolding, like a new formidable organ growing where none should be...
It felt profoundly unnatural, yet undeniably potent.
Minutes later, it was done. His base form grew several inches taller, his muscles becoming more defined under his skin, his presence gaining a subtle intimidating edge that made the two Ascended guards instinctively tense.
The Saints, however, merely looked slightly impressed.
Hugo ignored them and checked his runes:
Name: Hugo
True Name:Paragon of Purity
Rank:Awakened
Class:Terror
Omni-Cores:[6/7]
Soul Fragments:[0/6000]
'Back to square one again...'
He then focused on the [Soul-Bound] attribute.
A new trait had appeared.
Traits: [Omni-Mind], [Omni-Kix], [Failsafe], [Voice Command], [Primus], [DNA Repair]
[DNA Repair] Trait Description:[The Omnitrix has evolved to influence and restore the genetic code of other organisms.]
'Interesting...'
It was not a direct combat ability like [Omni-Kix] nor a passive power like [Failsafe] or [Omni-Mind], but rather it was a utility function with staggering potential.
He could alter the biology of others? And what counted as a genetic malfunction for his omnitrix to repair? Was corruption included? If so then he could possibly cure nightmare creatures...
The godly implications were vast, but useless to him in this moment.
The real prize was his new Class... Every one of his imprints now had access to a true Terror's abilities and his minions could reach the Awakened rank now.
"Congratulations on forming your Terror core, but I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to form your titan core for a while, at least not untill your sixth core settles within your soul" Gwen said, her laughter subsiding into a warm smile.
It made sense that he couldn't form multiple cores at once.. the last time he did that, it nearly killed him. Not to mention it was painful as hell, and so Hugo dreaded to imagine what would happen if he formed his terror and titan core both at once.
"Now, please show your Omnitrix to Driba and Blukic... For the modification." Gwen said, keeping her hopeful smile.
The moment of camaraderie suddenly evaporated, replaced by cold tension... At least on Hugo's side.
Letting them tamper with the core of his Aspect felt like handing them his still-beating heart...
He looked at them—at Gwen's hopeful light, Rook's professional calm and Kevin's neutral expression. They had shown him their desperate city, shared their tragedy, and even shared a laugh... They had kept their word so far and so he should keep his...
With immense reluctance, he extended his arm, the Omnitrix dial gleaming with azure light.
The Galvans got to work with strange, humming tools from their crate.
Moments later, The Omnitrix glowed with a vibrant blue.
[Trait [Primus] is evolving…]
[Your trait has evolved.]
Surprisingly enough, it the spell's voice that announced the evolution, not the omnitrix.
"That's it?" Hugo asked, retrieving his arm.
"We have experience with the original," Driba said smugly. "Yours is similar enough so it was easy, now Check your runes."
Hugo did as told, noitcing that The [Primus] description had changed.
[Primus] Trait Description: [The Omnitrix can teleport its wielder to Primus.]
"...You're sure this won't send me to the real Primus?" Hugo asked, eyeing the Galvans with suspicion.
"Positive," Blukic said. "Your Omnitrix recognizes this reality signature as the real 'Primus.' The other place is just… noise to it now."
"I see."
The Galvans packed up and scurried off with a wave before teleporting with a green color.
"So," Hugo said, turning to face the three Saints. "I assume I enter the Nightmare now."
Gwen nodded, her expression growing solemn. "As I said, spending more time here is dangerous for you." She gestured to the guards.
With a synchronized motion, they activated controls on the massive door adorned with the Omnitrix symbol. It irised open with a deep hydraulic hiss.
After a minute, the door finished its cycle, revealing the chamber beyond.
Hugo stepped forward, looked inside, and his mind suddenly went blank.
"...This day is just full of surprises, isn't it?"
He momentarily forgot to breathe.
The chamber was vast and circular, the walls inscribed with intricate, glowing pink runes that hummed with a strange suppressing power. Pieces of dark rock floated in silent orbit around the room's center And there, on a central dais, stood a figure.
A humanoid being, his body the solid black of the void between stars, dotted with tiny, shimmering white specks like a captured galaxy. His hands were pure white and He had no visible mouth or ears, and three horn-like protrusions rose from his forehead. His eyes were solid, pupil-less emerald green And on his chest, unmistakable, was the symbol of the Omnitrix but in green, not blue.
Hugo knew this form... He had seen it in a dream-vision, a locked imprint shining with impossible, divine potential in the deepest vault of his soul...
It was the only imprint originally from the omnitrix that was not corrupted.
He staggered back a step, a primal wave of awe and terror seizing him.
"This… This is…"
"Alien X," Gwen said, her voice thick with sorrow so profound it vibrated in the air. "A Celestialsapian... This is my cousin, Ben Tennyson. I told you he used this form to create our sanctuary."
Hugo felt an overwhelming urge to prostrate himself before the figure, or at least, to avert his omnipotent gaze...
This was a true Divine being, perhaps the only one remaining in this whole world.
Yet, the figure was utterly, preternaturally still. It was like staring at the most magnificent statue in the universe.
"What's wrong with him?" Hugo finally breathed.
"Ah, right," Kevin said, his usual gruffness softened by sadness. "You've never used Alien X... As you've probably concluded, Using a Divine transformation… has a price."
"What Kevin means," Gwen explained, floating closer to the motionless form, "is that while Alien X is the most powerful transformation in the Omnitrix, it possesses a fatal flaw... Ben is not the only consciousness within that form."
"What?"
"Bellicus and Serena," Gwen said, the names somehow sounding like a prayer and a curse. "Two cosmic personalities imposed upon the Celestialsapian race by the gods themselves, they were meant to serve as a cosmic law to limit these wanderous beings. You seew the celestials were a race that almost rivalled the gods in power... But there was a problem. The gods were only six while The Celestialsapians were an entire specie of Divine beings."
Hugo's blood ran cold... An entire race of gods.
The thought was truly terrifying.
"And to ensure they never turned their unified power against the pantheon," Rook continued, his voice grave. "the Six imposed a universal law upon them and them alone. The law created Bellicus and Serena in the mind of every Celestialsapian from the moment their consciousness is born, They are a council of three, forced into eternal debate over every single action, no matter how small and insignificant. To act, they must reach a unanimous vote."
The cruelty of it was simply staggering. To be born a god, only to be imprisoned within your own mind, debating eternity away. Over the simplest of actions...
It meant Ben Tennyson was in there, right now, trapped in an endless argument with two cosmic strangers, unable to move or speak until they all agreed to let him detrasnform.
And so while the man definitely managed to create this place and safe a part of his world, he doomed himself in the process.
"Their only crime," Gwen said, a tremor of anger in her voice. "was that they were not created by the gods...How cruel, How unspeakably sad."
Hugo turned to her, a new shock dawning upon him.
"What? They weren't? Then where did they come from?"
"Nobody knows," Rook said. "Like the gods and daemons, they simply were. They existed at the dawn of creation But I must advise you, such knowledge is not fit for someone of your rank. It is… corruptive."
Hugo nodded, shelving the monumental mystery for when he was Stronger.
His eyes were drawn back to the silent deity. "So what now? No offense but how is staring at your Frozen cousin going to help me?"
"Look closely," Rook instructed.
Hugo forced his gaze past the overwhelming divine aura. There, cradled gently in Alien X's massive, star-flecked hand, was a small, dark, familiar orb. Its presence was almost completely suppressed by the Celestialsapian's power but Hugo could feel it...
the faint, cold call of a Nightmare.
A Second Nightmare Seed.
"How… how did that appear there?" Hugo asked, bewildered.
"We have no idea... but Our prevailing theory," Gwen said, "is that it formed from Ben's original soul, which was at the Awakened rank but When he transformed, his divine soul could not harbor a Seed meant for an awakened soul and so It was… discarded from his soul rather then being destroyed, Like a splinter."
Hugo's confusion deepened even further at her words .
"Wait. Ben Tennyson was an Awakened before he transformed into… that?"
A grim nod from all three. "Unlike us," Gwen said, "Ben's progress was hindered by the Omnitrix... It even protected him from being infected by the Spell. He never had a First Nightmare, and he couldn't access nightmares on his own, although that did not mean he was weak. He was on the cusp of Ascending naturally when the Unholy Titan attacked our world...You should know the rest."
And there it was, Another layer of tragedy.
To jump from the precipice of awakened directly to Divine... skipping five realms of power… the psychic and spiritual toll must have been cataclysmic.
"Fascinating," Hugo murmured, wondering how it will feel if he did it himself... Although the thought of being trapped in eternal debate with himself was not pleasant at all.
Eventually, he simply sighed, the weight of it all pressing down on him.
"So this is goodbye, then."
He hadn't known them for long, but after months of crushing solitude, their presence—even as captors and potential manipulators—had been a lifeline.
He wished he could learn more, but to stay was to risk losing everything.
"What are you talking about?" Gwen asked, her brow furrowing. "You'll return from the Nightmare, won't you? Don't tell me you're planning to die, That would be a poor return on our investment." She tried to smile, but it didn't reach her eyes.
The two men offered no such platitudes, but their gazes weren't hostile.
"Take these, before you enter."
The three Transcendants approached him.
Each laid a hand on him in turn.
Then A series of chimes sounded in his soul.
[You have received a Memory: Lucky Charm.]
[You have received a Memory: Null-Void Containment Egg.]
[You have received a Memory: Plumber's Badge.]
[You have received a Memory: Proto-Tool.]
[You have received a Memory: Proto-TRUK.]
"These are Five useful tools that should make your nightmare slightly less difficult" Gwen said. "We could have given you a dozen more, but relying too heavily on memories is a crutch that gets Awakened killed. You should understand that by now."
Hugo nodded. The logic was sound, even caring.
He turned to face the Seed, cradled in a god's hand.
Hugo took a deep, steadying breath. This was it. The goal of his desperate, months-long journey was inches away.
"I hope I'll see you all again," he said, offering a small, genuine wave.
"We wish you luck, Hugo," Gwen replied, her voice soft.
He took a step forward. Then froze... The air in the room seemed to grow colder for a moment.
He turned back slowly, his eyes narrowing to slits.
"I… never told you my name."
Gwen's warm, hopeful expression shifted. It was subtle—a slight hardening around her eyes.
"Oh"
She let out a deep sigh
"Of course you would have a good memory as well."
The atmosphere shifted drastically. The friendly pretense instantly melted away, replaced by something older, harder and far more dangerous. The benevolent protector was gone, replaced by a strategist who had just been caught in a minor, but critical, oversight.
"Get inside the Seed, Paragon of Purity," she said, her voice devoid of its earlier warmth.
It was a command.
Hugo's face settled into a grim mask.
"How about you tell me how you know my name first?"
Silence.
Gwen's answer was not with words, but with action. A tendril of solid pink energy, faster than he could react, lashed out from her form and wrapped around him like a vice.
He struggled, throwing his new Terror's strength against it, but it was like a child fighting steel cables.
"No," Gwen said, her voice cold and final. "I'd rather not."
Before he could scream, protest, or trigger the Omnitrix, the energy tendril yanked him off his feet and hurled him across the chamber like a doll, straight toward the dark orb in Alien X's hand.
The world twisted, stretched and went black in an instant.
[Two brave ones! Welcome to your Second Nightmare!]