Chapter 66: Red Titan.
Sir Connor observed the white-haired Ben Tennyson for a moment, finally recognizing his identity.
"You... I know you," he declared, lifting his weapon with a venomous glare. "You are the Galvan named Albedo, who adopted a form indistinguishable from Ben Tennyson... To seek to emulate human purity through such deception... How banal... How pathetic and utterly repugnant."
In response, Albedo merely offered a sinister smile, the icy blue flames of Connor's blade mirrored in his eyes.
The cold blue flames reflected in his crimson eyes, and yet instead of illuminating them, it felt as if the fire itself was being swallowed, drowned in a river of blood.
"Ah,of course... You would assume that..."
Connor raised an eyebrow, visibly perplexed by his words.
"Is that not what you are, creature? The rest of your race at least retain some type of dignity maintaining the integrity of their non-human appearance, yet you alone choose to brazenly masquerade as a human, betraying your own kind... How despicable... Truly, your treachery knows no bounds."
Albedo shook his head, observing as the awakened Forever Knights encircled him.
"How ironic that you, of all people, would utter such words. After all, are you not the very ones who venerate a profane deity? Sacrificing your fellow humans and innumerable others in his name, all while corrupting your very essence with it's filth?"
Connor's eyes widened upon hearing this clearly not expecting his deepest secres to be revealed like this. Simultaneously, Sir Patrick approached closer, his own eyes wide with shock and trepidation... however, the darkness embedded deep within them also stirred, as if something... no, someone else was observing through them.
"How did you—"
"Enough," Albedo interjected, denying the bewildered Forever King any opportunity to comprehend the situation. "This end now. Today, I will kill you and your knights, and thereafter," Albedo fixed his gaze directly into Sir Patrick's eyes, though the Forever King knew it.
He was not looking at him, but rather at the being observing through his eyes.
""After I'm done with your pathetic minions, I will come for you. [◻️◻️◻️◻️] And when I do, not even the dead gods will save you from my wrath."
Then, without warning, a crimson radiance filled the chamber, blinding the Forever Knights as Albedo activated the red Omnitrix on his wrist.
His body expanded unnaturally as his skin contorted and altered in bizarre manners. Orange fur, interspersed with black and white, emerged all across his body, while his head transformed to resemble that of a formidable tiger, with sharp teeth protruding from his maw.
As the light dissipated, an extraterrestrial entity resembling an orange and white bipedal tiger stood where Albedo had been.
It possessed a single black claw extending from each of its wrist. The creature was muscular, with vibrant crimson eyes and black stripes adorning its shoulders, head, legs, and upper torso, along with a white jaw, neck, chest, abdomen, hands, and feet. The crimson Omnitrix was positioned at the center of its chest, resting there like an imposing trophy.
"Rath!" Albedo roared the name of the alien... An action which was uncannily familiar.
Observing the alien, Sir Patrick snarled as he assumed a combat stance beside Connor.
"Boy, do you believe an Ascended Titan can withstand the light of two Transcendants? And here I thought you were actually a threat but it appears you are merely a fool."
As he spoke, Sir Patrick brought his hands to his face and pulled... as though he was peeling away his skin.
Shortly, a golden luminescence emerged beneath, then, impossibly, the light bent and wove a network of strands around the king's head, forming an unusual mask reminiscent of a sun.
His body darkened, emitting a foul odor...
This was unmistakably his Transcendant form.
"I shall extract your ascended soul, defile its purity, and offer it as a sacrifice to my lord."
declared the eerie sun-masked figure, conjuring a bolt of lightning in its deformed hands.
Albedo, witnessing the scene, merely smiled, almost as if the odds were not terribly stacked against him.
"Let me tell you something, Forever Knights! This is not even Rath's final form!"
Before the Forever Knights could respond, Albedo struck the Omnitrix on his chest...
Yet something peculiar occurred.
He was not switching forms, nor was he using that peculiar armor ability possessed by Ben Tennyson.
Instead, Four unusual claw like lines erupted from the Omnitrix in four directions, accompanied by a surge of red energy that enveloped Rath's form, transmuting it into something more potent, stronger, and ultimately more dangerous.
Rath now exhibited dark pink skin and white fur with red stripes, the clothes being most likely generated by the omnitrix. Fur covered him entirely except on his feet, hands, chest, neck, and most of his lower jaw. Red bandages adorned his elbows, forearms, and wrists, with those on his wrists featuring three small red spikes. He wielded two large claws on his hands, and his fingers and toes now bore smaller claws. Additionally, substantial claws protruded from his elbows.
He wore black shorts with a white belt adorned with silver spikes and a silver buckle. A red coat with red eyes and four yellow fangs was also present giving him a menacing appearance. Three large red spikes on his back were concealed by his coat's hood, composed of long, thick, black fur. His face was white with flipped-up hair and sideburns, and his eyebrows were now red and sharply defined.
Sir Connor frowned deeply at the sight... Through his nature as a pseudo-void entity, he could discern the rank and potency of a being...
Thus, he understood that the entity known as Albedo had become a Transcendant Titan... Whatever ability he had just utilized had evolved his form from the Ascended rank to Transcendant !
'This is dangerous... He must not be allowed to survive...'
With that, the three Transcendants unleashed their powers.
The Awakened Knights were instantly swept aside by the impact of the Transcendants movements.
Some even lost consciousness, unable to endure Rath's terrifying pressure colliding with the other two.
Sir Connor initiated the assault, wielding a sword of condensed blue fire to strike at Rath with ferocious intensity, Causing the air around his blade to boil.
Meanwhile, Sir Patrick remained at a distance, casting some unknown form of sorcery.
Rath, however, appeared indifferent to their attacks.
He intercepted Sir Connor's blade with his two evolved claws, halting the flames as they attempted to spread across his body. Then, before the saint could react, he drove his leg into the knight's plated chest, propelling the Transcendant through the air, and causing him to slam into the wall forming a crater on it.
Nevertheless, Sir Patrick showed no concern for his servant.
Instead, employing his strange sorcery and aspect, he unleashed hundreds of thunderbolts at Rath, each rippling through the air at remarkable velocity.
Rath, lacking defensive capabilities, utilized his Transcendant agility to evade the assaults, contorting his body and leaping away from the bolts faster than the eye can precive.
He traversed the vast chamber like a specter, allowing the bolts to damage the interior while taking no damage himself.
At one point, he even leaped to the ceiling, scaling it like a spider in an attempt to bring the entire chamber down.
However, sir Patrick was not a fool, and he seemed to have understood rath's plan. Thus, he changed his projectiles into sharp chains of light that followed rath around instead of simply shooting random projectiles at the wild tiger.
'How unpleasant...' sir Patrick thought, making sure to set defensive via runic sorcery.
The more the fight dragged on, the stronger rath was becoming. And so even though he did not possesses any sorts of unnatural abilities, his raw physical prowse and his adaptability alone made him able to contend with Two powerful Transcendants warriors.
Then rath, as if possessed, lunged at Sir Patrick from the ceiling, with both of his claws directed toward him.
Sir Patrick was confident that rath would not be able to pass through the wards he had set up...
However the impossible happened.
Before his astonished eyes, the Transcendant claws in rath's hands glowed with a sickly crimson light, and than they simply cut.
They cut the flow of soul essence making up the ward causing it to fall apart entirely.
Sir Patrick, being neither combat-oriented nor able to overcome his fear at the moment, could not avoid the strike...
And more than that, he knew that even a scratch from those claws would mean his demise.
Just as he was trying to find a way to survive, a column of blue fire extended from the crater where Sir Connor was buried, the wave of blue fire rose like a pyre to meet Rath head-on and at once, it slammed into his mighty frame propelling him through the roof and shattering the reinforced walls of the castle.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The sound of multiple floors collapsing echoed through the castle as Rath instantaneously traversed seven levels, reaching the uppermost floor and beyond, breaking through the final ceiling and emerging outside.
Connor, without glancing back, manifested two wings of pure blue fire and leaped through the apertures left by Rath, pursuing the Transcendant Titan with unwavering resolve.
Simultaneously, Sir Patrick materialized an electric disc beneath him, using it to propel himself upward and follow Connor's lead.
Outside, Rath soared through the nocturnal sky his furr burning from the blue fire, however, his resolve was not broken and his rage was enough for him to survive.
And abruptly, a blue star emerged from the castle he had just breached.
That star was, of course, none other than Connor, the Transcendant Forever Knight.
The Transcendant knight was clad in blue fire, with two massive wings of blue fire emerging from his back.
To anyone else, he would have seemed like a knight wielding the power of a mighty Pheonix, brining peace and healing those in need, however rath knew the dark truth about Connor, and the entire order of the forever knights, for that matter.
Sir connor harnessed his formidable flames to create a hammer of blue fire and swung it directly at Rath mid air, not giving the transcendant creature a chance to adapt to the situation.
However, the fearsome tiger was not inclined to endure further assault.
Rather than merely absorbing the damage, he seized the hammer of flame with his bare hands, feeling the incinerating fire spread through his body as he stopped its decent.
The flames, empowered by corruption, burnt hotter than any natural flame could, reaching deep into his soul and Spirit.
And yet, he persisted.
Using his other free hand, rath infused his claws with a wave of soul essence augmenting them and transforming them into one of the hardest materials in the world and then he drove them directly into Connor's chest, piercing his armor and slicing through his flesh like a hot knife through butter.
But Rath was not finished; he did not allow the Forever Knight to scream.
Climbing atop of him, Rath began mercilessly slashing the Transcendant with his claws, brutally dismembering parts of his body and completely destroying his armor.
As a Transcendant, he did not perish immediately like a regular awakened would. However, the agony was still all the same
Gritting his teeth in anguish as he felt the Transcendant Titan tearing his flesh apart, Connor condensed the blue flames around his body, then channeled them through his core, circulating them in place of his soul essence, and ultimately detonated them, and at the same time, he activated his Transcendant transformation, becoming a terrifying blue Pheonix.
Rath faced a point-blank nuclear detonation, and a blue star illuminated the night sky, releasing a torrent of blue flames in every direction, ensuring no escape.
And Rath required none, for he had no intention of fleeing.
Instead of succumbing to the flames, Rath tore through the veil of fire, delving deeper into the storm of flame mid-air, reaching the blue phoenix. His claws seemed to pierce beyond flesh, penetrating shadow, soul, and spirit alike.
And so, he cut.
Rath cut the fire.
Rath cut the shadow of the fire.
Rath cut the soul of the fire.
And finally, Rath cut the spirit of the fire, inflicting severe damage upon the transformed Connor.
"You abomination!" Amid the flames, Connor managed to emit a horrified scream as he desperately attempted to get Rath off of him.
The madman continued slashing, indifferent to his flesh burning, unconcerned even if his soul was consumed by the incinerating blue flames.
His sole focus was annihilating the Forever Knight and so his rage, suffering, and misery all coalesced into a singular point, transcending the concept of weakness.
He did not care that his own flesh burned.
He did not care that his soul burnt.
Pain no longer mattered.
Only victory mattered.
Only perseverance.
However, the Forever Knight was not an inferior being. He would not sit and watch ideally as rath tears him apart.
He was an individual comparable to a Transcendant, even if not technically a true Transcendant due to not following the path of ascension.
Thus, the blue flames shifted once more in the sky as the mighty blue Pheonix flapped it's wings transforming the flames into a beam of radiant fire aimed directly at Rath's face, intended to repel him.
And so, he was repelled.
Not only that, but Sir Patrick, who had been observing from afar, unleashed a colossal spear of lightning, exceeding what is naturally possible through atmospheric phenomena.
The spear of lightning and the beam of blue fire merged, forming a dreadful canopy of death.
But that was not the end of it.
The blue lighting, saturated by fire suddenly blossomed a dark flower in the middle of the attack. That flower transformed the attack, turning it into a beam of corruption and decay.
This was an ability exclusive to the ones carrying the taint of the void, who were capable of manipulating the 'corruption' within them similar to how the gods are capable of manipulating the flame inside of them.
KABOOM!
The devastation wrought by this terrible attack struck the ground with rath inside of it, causing a massive explosion to radiate in all directions.
Had the two Transcendants not controlled and concentrated their powers at a single point, a significant portion of America might have been submerged beneath the sea permanently or worse, perhaps the entire country might have been destroyed by the attack.
Connor, still in his Transcendant form, surged forward as his Pheonix form mended itself slowly. reaching Sir Patrick and gazing wearily at the catastrophic scene below, Connor spoke in an exhausted voice:
"My king, do you sense him?"
Sir Connor's spiritual senses were rendered nearly useless due to the damage to his soul and spirit, weakening his connection to the world.
Sir Patrick frowned as he concentrated on the still raging explosion down below.
Was it his imagination, or was the explosion growing smaller?
The ground suddenly trembled violently as the tremendous explosion appeared to be shrinking at an alarming rate, almost as if being siphoned by an external force.
As the energy mass finally dissipated, a silhouette revealed itself in the desolate landscape.
A tall humanoid figure with an onyx-black body, possessing a single red eye centered on its head, two antennae, and a tail with rounded plugs at their tips. Its four-fingered hands were crossed as the two antennae on its head absorbed the explosion's energy.
More disconcerting, however, was the creature's smile.
"Feedback."
Albedo has finally used his most powerful Transcendant alien.