Chapter 57: Divine Titan
Hugo's eyes narrowed as he looked at the runes, refusing to look away in fear that they would disappear if he did.
'A divine creature!'
An actual divine creature... Or in other words, a god. A being unheard of in the waking world, on the same calibur of the gods themselves...
How Ben Tennyson managed to get his hands on such a creature was unknown to Hugo… But then again, the original Omnitrix, which he was wearing a perfect replica of, did not have corruption within it and so it was likely that he had all of his imprints unlocked, or at the very least had a different set of conditions to unlokcing his transformations.
In fact, he had a theory that the source of that corruption within his aspect came from the fact that the original Primus was corrupted, and thus the DNA taken from that place corrupted the Omnitrix…
But that still did not explain why Hugo himself did not have the celestialsapian imprint unlocked despite the Omnitrix itself confirming that the divine imprint was not a corrupted creature.
But that was not important for now…
Focusing, Hugo opened the runes of the tenth imprint.
Imprint: [Celestialsapien]
Imprint Rank: Divine
Imprint Class: Titan
Imprint Description: [All life untainted By the [Unknown] was born from the flames of desire but not all creatures were born equal. Some were born pitiful and weak like the harrowing humans, and some were born powerful and dreadful like the hateful gods.
The Celestialsapiens, however, were not born of the flame. For they were the first inhabitants of the [Unknown] that were not touched by its influence.
And thus, After the gods created the world to cage the [Unknown], the race of godly beings revealed themselves to the gods, but unbeknownst to them, the gods were not their equals.
The gods were far beyond the concepts of rank and class while the Celestialsapiens were a race of the divine rank and so, fearing their potential and power, the gods created one final universal law of imperfection meant for only a single race.
That flaw became their shackles, their shame, their weakness and their madness.]
Imprint Attributes: [???]
Imprint Abilities: [???]
Imprint Flaw: [Bellicus and Serena]
Flaw Description: [You are not one.]
'…'
Hugo was speechless once again…
Truly, the imprint descriptions never failed to surprise him, even though some of the information stated there was something he already knew…
Not only did he gain confirmation that the [Unknown] was a place, but he had also gained knowledge about the source of all life, including the gods, which was something called the flames of desire.
Not only that, but the celestialsapians, were far more ancient than the gods and yet theyr were not their equals.
The spell made that dreadfully clear.
As Hugo learned more about the gods, he begun to wonder if he should be grateful that they were dead... So far they seemed like nothing but power hungry tyrants...
Perhaps he would have been smitten for such heresy in the past but it did not matter, after all the gods were long dead.
Although that did not stop the strangeness of this imprint...
'It's strange that it moves me up a class as well…'
Usually, his imprints would only elevate his rank, not his class but this one turned him into a Titan…
'Now that I think about it, it makes sense if I consider the celestialsapians as The pinnacle of all living creatures… Well, besides the gods, of course.'
Hugo suddenly frowned as a dark thought formed in his head…
Was any of the Celestialsapiens alive in today's age?
"Alive" was the keyword here… after all, Corrupted creatures are technically alive And having to deal with an entire race of unholy creatures did not seem pleasant at all…
Shaking his head, Hugo dismissed the thoughts. He already had enough problems on his plate and he did not need to worry about the cosmic dread that was a corrupted Celestialsapien…
However, his other problems could easily be resolved through this imprint…
A divine Titan…
All it took for Hugo to become a god was a single button press…
Hugo quite literally had the power to change everything at his fingertips…
Who knew what a divine creature was capable of?
Well, Hugo did know a little, considering he saw what Ben Tennyson did with this form when he created an entire pocket dimension through it.
'I could easily end this nightmare with this…'
After all, what could possibly stand against a Divine Titan in a mere second nightmare?
Hugo was tempted to try that, but then again, there was the flaw…
Usually, none of his imprints contained a flaw, which Hugo assumed was due to the fact that noble creatures did not possess flaws, or that he, as a singular entity, only possessed one flaw and was incapable of receiving another.
But that changed with the Celestialsapien, or as Ben Tennyson called it, Alien X, as that specie itself contained a singular universal flaw imposed on them by the dead gods.
From what Hugo understood, if he wanted to do anything, he would need to convince the two beings called Bellicus and Serena…
'Fuck…' he sighed.
The fact that he could become a divine creature instantly but would essentially need to become a slave to two other beings was extremely frustrating…
Just thinking about all he could do as a god was simply… maddening…
'I could bring her back… I could save everyone… I could fix this shitty life too!' His eyes were shaking violently as if they were about to pop, at the same time, his hands shot towards the omnitrix, clicking it's buttons and causing the dial to display the form of alien x...
Right at that moment, something buzzed in his pants snapping him out of his thoughts…
Looking through them, Hugo was surprised to find a phone…
'I forgot these things even existed…'
Frowning, Hugo dissmissed the dial and picked up the green phone and looked at the screen, which seemed to be receiving a call right now from someone named "July" with a heart emoji near it.
'…'
Trying to turn off the call, Hugo accidentally answered it instead—after all, this device was strangely less advanced than communicators in Hugo's own world—and heard a voice from it.
"Ben! I've been calling you for hours! Are you alright?" a female voice came from the other side.
Hugo paused for a moment, unsure of how to answer… He wanted to just end the call, but then again, that would probably be suspicious… If this person was indeed close to Ben Tennyson, then she would definitely figure out something was wrong.
"I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?" Hugo responded.
The caller seemed to pause for a moment, as if shocked by his words.
"What do you mean alright??? You were in the fight against those lunatic knights, weren't you? That was broadcasted all over the news! I can't believe those psychos dropped a Titan on you guys!"
'That was broadcasted?…' Hugo tilted his head… Usually, anything related to awakened fighting or nightmare creatures would be impossible to record let alone broadcast on the news due to the fact that nightmare creatures usually distorted all forms of technology.
"I'm alright. We managed to escape through the dream gate and we're currently waiting for the Saints to come back and take us back to the waking world."
The voice paused again before continuing in a sad tone.
"So does that mean our date is canceled?"
Hugo fell to the ground with a loud thud as he heard those words...
Of course, that fall didn't do much damage considering he was an awakened terror but the emotional damage was far more impactful.
He looked at the phone with horror before getting back up.
"Ben? What was that sound?"
'…. A date? An actual date??????' Hugo had all sorts of thoughts running through his head… and all fo them were unpleasant.
Ben Tennyson had a girlfriend? No, no that was not the right thing to ask. More importantly, would he have to play the role of the boyfriend?
That seemed extremely wrong morally and would definitely leave a myriad of problems in Hugo's head...
but then again, none of this was real as all of these people are echoes created by the nightmare spell... Still that did not make them feel any less real to Hugo due to how realistic everything is.
Acting as Ben Tennyson was already hard enough so far, but having to fool his girlfriend would be an even harder challeng.
"Ah, right, that… I'm a bit tired right now, so why don't we talk about this later when I return to the waking world?" he tried his best to dodge the conversation with her but his wording was terribly worded.
"Oh?! Meeting in person? So our date isn't cancelled!" the girl named July said in an excited voice…
'oh, Shit….'
"Alright Ben, I'll let you rest. I'll call you once you get back. Bye bye and love you!"
With that, she ended the call…
Hugo stood completely still for a moment, dumbfounded.
'Should I run away?'
Sure, the Plumbers were extremely competent and helpful as allies in the nightmare but living as Ben Tennyson and acting in his place was not something Hugo was capable of maintaining for long… both because he did not know how to and also because it was mentally draining.
If he ran away after reaching the waking world and covered his tracks, he could possibly hunt the Forever Knights and kill them to end the nightmare…
Sure, they had saints on their sides but Hugo could turn into nine different ascended terrors and he could also rise his class and become a Titan granting him more harrowing powers capable of even taking down a saint.
More importantly, the reason he was even considering this was because of the Plumbers reluctance to kill the forever knights.
Sure, the reason behind this decision might be deeper than simply the Plumbers being naive fools and that killing the Forever Knights would cause a public outrage against free speech or something like that but that still posed a problem for Hugo.
After all, would the spell consider the imprisonment of the knights as them losing?
A person could only lose if they're dead…
'No… that won't work, With how many awakened they have, they'll find me in days…'
With a long sigh, Hugo sat on the bed with a tried expression.
It was a bit pathetic that the idea of having a girlfriend would give him such an existential crisis, but then again, he never really had that much interest in romance anyway nor did he have any experience in that domain.
The only time he had something similar to that was his fascination with Soul Reaper Jet and that was just a stupid crush he had back then.
Matter of fact, the closest thing he had to a lover was the Omnitrix…
'…' Looking at his watch, Hugo frowned for a second before discarding the dubious thought.
This wasn't the time to be fooling around. He needed to learn more things about this nightmare and thankfully, he had a phone with access to the internet.
Opening this world's version of "Google," Hugo ignored Ben Tennyson's uncanny search history and searched up the most important stuff from recent decades…
'Well, I'll be damned…' Looking at his phone, Hugo put a hand on his mouth…
This world was a lot more complicated than he originally thought.
Firstly, it was similar to his world in multiple aspects, including geography, cultures and history but there was a slight difference.
Hugo's world was around 100 years into the future from this world age and the nightmare spell descended upon this world only half a century from now… But the results of its descent weren't nearly as catastrophic as they were in Hugo's world.
That was because of two things.
Aliens and the Plumbers.
Indeed, after the descent of the nightmare spell, beings named as aliens, which were noble creatures, revealed themselves to humanity and the public while also informing them that they had been living with them for a very long time under the surveillance of the hidden group named the Plumbers.
The Plumbers, on the other hand, are a group made up of multiple species with the singular goal of achieving galactic peace across the universe. Not only that, but they were also the first awakened.
Natural awakened, to be precise. those who possessed magical powers long before the nightmare spell brought with it nightmares and the dream realm.
Due to this, multiple Plumbers managed to successfully neutralize nightmare creatures that appeared out of gates and through a mix of ancient sorcery and technology, they managed to find a way to destroy seeds of corruption without an awakened conquering it…
A feat that was so extraordinary that the great clans and the government would sacrifice millions just to learn how to replicate.
Meaning that this world was still fairly healthy and safe, having lost not a single country to nightmare creatures due to the sheer quality and quantity of awakened…
Not only that, but noble creatures were also present having been both infected by the spell and followed the path of ascension alongside humanity further strengthening the awakened world and pushing back corruption.
If Hugo was honest, this was the only difference between his world and this one.
Just the existence of noble creatures allowed the humanity of this world to achieve many things, from space travel to natural awakening to even ways to combat the dream realm and corruption.
Which made Hugo wonder why there hadn't been any sacred creatures in this realm yet…
That aside, there were still some other similarities between this world and the realm of war goddess, like the fact that there were generations of awakened, consisting of the first, second and third generations, with the most prominent figures being of course none other than Maxwell Tennyson himself, who was the first to conquer the fourth nightmare alongside two others, one is rumored to be Noble creature named "Verdona" and someone named Phil Billings, who are both currently missing for some strange reasons.
But Max Tennyson, who was Ben and Gwen's grandfather, was the person recognized as the ruler of the human domain with the majority of humans and noble creatures following him and his conquest against the dream realm.
Of course, there were a lot of things that were not available to the public which limited the amount of knowledge he could get from the internet but Hugo only needed to know the basics.
For example, the emergence of noble creatures caused a stir in the world, with many rejecting the idea of aliens living among them and others embracing them.
Unfortunately, the former was a large majority of humans, that same majority later went on to continue their hate parades against aliens eventually formed a group known as the Forever Knights—a group made of multiple awakened and brilliant humans that hated the existence of aliens and demanded that they leave Earth immediately.
Such a group was either considered the worst enemy of humanity or the last hope of humanity depending on who you asked.
What made them more obscure was the fact that no one could pinpoint their true origin as they themselves were jot a singular group, rather they were a bunch of factions all using the same alias of the forever knights and only sharing their hatred for aliens, with their others goals being completely different from each other.
Naturally, There were all sorts of rumors about their origin, from the one that suggested they were an ancient order that predated even the Plumbers, to multiple theories claiming that they were a bunch of lunatics worshipping a single human deity that hated and despised all noble creatures.
Hugo just thought of them as a group of racists that were, quite frankly, extremely stupid…
Why fight and prejudice against a group of people when the world is being Invaded by horrors beyond imagination ?
Hugo's world definitely had its problems, but he was glad that his people were not racist; after all, it would be hypocritical if they were, considering everyone, including himself, had mixed blood in them…
That aside, Hugo finally found an important piece of news…
Ben Tennyson, the legendary wielder of the most powerful weapon in the world and the beloved champion of both humans and noble creatures…
The hero of heroes and one of the greatest awakened in history, despite only being sixteen himself…
Indeed, Ben Tennyson was truly an outstanding figure who seemed to have saved the world multiple times, from the insidious hybrids to the terrifying remnants of Vilgax and multiple other world ending phenomenons.
Hugo felt a bit disappointed in himself the more he learnt about the first... Well technically the second wielder of the Omnitrix.
After all, he was technically older than Ben right now and yet his own resume wasn't even half as impressive as his was…
'So, I'm in the body of Ben Tennyson, one of the most important people in this world, my grandfather is a sovereign, the objective of the nightmare is to defeat a group of super racists and I also have an evil twin who's more skilled and dangerous than me… and Not to mention that I can, of course, turn into a god... Wonderful, simply wonderful, I bet even Sunny can't come up with a more outlandish tale.'
Hugo smiled a little, wondering what kind of adventures his friends were having right now…
Had they risen to another rank by now? Or have they killed any powerful nightmare creatures yet?
Most importantly,what kind of adventures were they having?
Who knows, perhaps they're challenging their second nightmare and killing a bunch of immortal saints… Or maybe they're trying to free a divine Titan. At this point, Hugo wouldn't be surprised much by either option.
'Alright… So go back to the waking world, deal with the Forever Knights, look out for my evil twin and ghost Ben Tennyson's girlfriend... Seems pretty straightforward.'
Just then, Hugo suddenly remembered something… He did receive a bunch of memories from the three survivors of the Beast God Realm.
He decided he should have a quick look at them, just in case there was something useful that would help him clear this hellish nightmare.
Memory: [Proto-Truck]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: III
Memory Type: Utility
Memory Description: [A gift from a dear friend]
Memory Enchantments: [Truck], [Ship], [Auto Drive]
[Truck] Enchantment Description: [This memory can take the form of a truck]
[Ship] Enchantment Description: [This memory can take the form of a ship]
[Auto Drive] Enchantment Description: [This memory can drive itself]
'So a better version than Azmuth's ship… No, no, that's wrong, one is divine and this is clearly far inferior to it...'
Although Hugo couldn't deny that it was safer to use than Azmuth's ship. Despite the divine ship being able to take on any shape or form, it still depleted soul essence at the divine rate, crippling him and leaving him vulnerable and so this would be a better option when it came to transportation.
With that, he looked at the other memory.
Memory: [Lucky Charm]
Memory Rank: Transcendent
Memory Type: Charm
Memory Tier: II
Memory Description: [A lucky girl was once blessed both by mana and luck, creating many wonders and saving the world alongside her grandfather and cousin]
Memory Enchantments: [Luck], [Bond]
[Luck] Enchantment Description: [This charm makes its user extremely lucky]
[Bond] Enchantment Description: [This charm can bond with a creature, granting them some of the mana stored inside]
'… I would've been thankful for this, but after Gwen's suspicious actions… I'm unsure…'
He still had to find out what plan they had formed involving him and this nightmare, and more importantly, he still needed to know the identity of the second challenger of this nightmare, which could be anyone…
That thought made a chill run down Hugo's spine... After all, there is nothing more terrifying than the unknown.
Shaking his head, Hugo read the other memory runes.
Memory: [Null-Void Containment Egg]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Utility
Memory Description: [A memory created to jail the most dreadful of creatures]
Memory Enchantment: [Prison]
[Prison] Enchantment Description: [This memory can seal any creature up to one rank above its initial rank]
'This is the same thing the golden masked Forever King used to unleash a corrupted Titan…'
The fact that the mad bastards had managed to capture a corrupted Titan and unleash it as a trump card against a sovereign was quite terrifying but on the positive side, Hugo found out that he himself could do the same thing with this grenade, and more importantly, he could just imprison one of the transcendent kings in this memory, granted that was far easier said than done…
Memory: [Proto-Tool]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Tier: IV
Memory Type: Utility
Memory Description: [The finest tool used by the finest Plumber soldier]
Memory Enchantments: [Blaster], [Shield], [Net Caster], [Power Sword], [Power Spear], [Grappler], [Sight]
[Blaster] Enchantment Description: [This memory can condense soul essence into a laser]
[Shield] Enchantment Description: [This memory can condense soul essence into a shield]
[Net Caster] Enchantment Description: [This memory can condense soul essence into a net]
[Power Sword] Enchantment Description: [This memory can morph into a power sword]
[Power Spear] Enchantment Description: [This memory can morph into a power spear]
[Grappler] Enchantment Description: [This memory can eject a grappler line]
[Sight] Enchantment Description: [This memory can be used as a visor]
'Huh…' Hugo summoned the memory, intrigued by how versatile it was.
He watched it closely as it appeared in a torrent of white sparks.
It appeared to be a blaster, colored indigo, white and orange and it also had a Galvan tech symbol on the top of its handle giving it a sleek futuristic look that seemed to mix both human technology with that of the Galvans.
This was by far the best utility memory Hugo had after [Nothing] and [Silver Tears], possessing a vast array of enchantments that made it perfect in battle.
It was quite nice, if he was being honest with himself, although he'd have to be careful about using it—or any memory, for that matter—considering that Ben Tennyson did not have the spell and so it wouldn't be logical for him to possesses memories or echoes…
Unsummoning it, Hugo looked at his last memory.
Memory: [Plumber's Badge]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: I
Memory Type: Utility
Memory Description: [Communication is the most important thing in the world—two worlds, even]
Memory Enchantment: [Communion]
[Communion] Enchantment Description: [This memory can communicate with any other Plumber technology]
'Interesting…' Hugo willed the memory to appear, and soon enough an item appeared in his hand: a light gray circular disc shaped like a circular hourglass with a red dot in the middle of it.
Just as it appeared, Hugo felt his connection to it dissapere and he heard the voice of the spell in his mind:
[Your memory has left your soul sea]
'what?' Frowning, Hugo looked at the memory, which seemed to become… less like a memory?
Memories and real objects were identical, yet this felt differet from one, like it suddenly list it's connection to the spell itself.
[Connecting to Plumbers headquarters…]
[Access granted. Welcome back, Ben Tennyson]
"…"
'So it stopped being a memory because it connected to the network of the Plumbers or something?…that's certainly Unusual, but it saves me the trouble of explaining why I can summon a memory…'
Still the occurence of a memory severing it's connection to someone was definitely unusual but Hugo had already seen enough weird stuff that this didn't seem like that big of a deal, especially considering the memory isnt that useful in the first place.
Now that was done, Hugo got up and went to take a shower. As much as ben Tennyson was a great hero, he was still a teenager undergoing puberty, meaning he was extremely hairy and smelt terrible.
while in the shower, Hugo tried his best to avoid touching any of Ben Tennyson's private parts despite the fact that it his own body right now...
It felt wrong, extremely wrong, perhaps even it was even more disturbing then being in his dead body after it was modified by the Omnitrix.
Emerging out of the shower, Hugo saw his new "Plumber badge" glow indicating that something was trying to contact him.
Taking in a deep breath, Hugo clicked the red button and just as he did, A voice emerged from the other side.
[Hey Ben, Grandpa just came back from the waking world with the Saints, they managed to kill the Titan without casualties but He said he wanted to talk to us before we go back to the waking world. Meet us on the upper parts.]
Stretching a little, Hugo answered in the calmest tone he could bring out, trying to hide the fact that he scared out of his mind.
"Sure, I'll be there."
With that, he closed the call and wore his clothes.
'Well then, let's go meet a sovereign…'