Chapter 93: The End?
Alien x raised Ascalon, pointing the divine blade towards Dagon and bathing the world in pristine, overwhelming light.
Dagon, the old one and the bringer of knowledge, unleashed the full cataclysmic might of his powers, desperately trying to ward off the Celestialsapien to no avail.
The Unholy God's Will was simply not enough to contain alien x in a fair confrontation, no matter how he used it. His Daemons were being devoured by Alien x, one by one, as well.
Arcs of light that could engulf entire realms spread across Dagon's body, cutting his tendrils and drawing upon his blood, that sickly unholy ichor falling down upon the world like a great river.
The Great One recoiled from the damage, knowing that he could not survive this confrontation. There was nowhere to retreat to, as well.
"Oh great Celestialsapien... Must you be so cruel and destroy me, who is your kin from the Void?" Dagon spoke in an ancient tongue of chaos, which was not a language but music. The eternal music of the Void, which only its inhabitants could understand.
Alien x, belonging to a race born in the Void, understood this music perfectly despite being a creature of flame. And so, it responded in the same tongue:
"What do you know about the Void, abomination?"
Alien x's presence expanded to encompass the entire world, rendering Dagon's will utterly useless. "You are merely a pitiful creature, born long after the flames of desire gave birth to the seven gods. You are nothing but an imitator, one who admired the last of the true gods now slumbering in a forgotten nightmare and sought to become his herald."
Alien x's voice was fragmented and bizarre, a chorus woven from Bellicus, Serena, Hugo and Ben Tennyson all at once. It was both male and female, both strong and weak, both divine and mortal, breaking all logic.
"We were born before the gods. We cradled the flame of desire long before they forced their laws upon existence and sealed our desire. We witnessed the Void in its primordial glory, when concepts did not yet exist and could not exist. So I ask you again, pitiful spawn of chaos… what do you truly know about the Void?"
Dagon simply remained silent, unable to respond to this ancient being.
And eventually, the light unleashed by Ascalon finally reached the depths of the Unholy God's soul, and Alien x plunged Ascalon into his six cores, shattering them.
The entire universe recoiled, and at the same time all of the Daemons were consumed by the clones of Alien x.
[You have slain Dagon]
[You have slain Nether, Daemon of Destiny]
[You have slain Mirage, Daemon of Imagination]
[You have slain Hope, Daemon of Desire]
[You have slain Ariel, Daemon of Dread]
[You have slain Rime, Daemon of Repose]
[You have slain W-... ???]
The voice of the Nightmare Spell resounded in the inner world of Alien x, informing Ben, Hugo, Bellicus, and Serena of the defeat of the Unholy God and his cursed copies of the Daemons.
The four personalities remained silent for a while, as they watched the universe outside slowly crumble, disappearing into white light.
The nightmare was finally nearing its end.
"We made it..." Hugo breathed, his voice hitching with exhaustion and relief. After everything he had been through —the battles, the pain and the sheer madness of it all of this cursed nightmare — they had actually won.
Ben turned to him with a horrified look.
"Dude! You never say something like that! You'll jinx us!"
Hugo stared at him in genuine confusion. He didn't know what the word "jinxing" was, but he did understand the concept behind ut. Still, he couldn't help himself. After all, it wasn't every day that you kill an Unholy God and a bunch of corrupted Daemons.
And besides, it wasn't like anything bad could happen now that the nightmare was almost over… right?
[You have lost your memory]
The voice of the Spell suddenly resounded in Hugo's head, breaking his illusion of peace.
"What?"
Hugo summoned his runes, immediately noticing which memory suddenly went missing, and as he did, his eyes widened in horror.
It was [Conqueror's Wrath], the memory he had gained from killing Vilgax in the first nightmare, and one that had an ominous description...
Memory Description: [A king traveled the realms, gathering knowledge for his people. Eventually he found a home among the Galvans' brilliant minds and though he lacked their innate intellect, he slowly earned their respect through sheer determination and eagerness to learn, even captivating the First Thinker himself. But when the looming threat of the Children of War descended upon his kingdom, the king begged the Galvans for aid. They refused, hiding behind their walls of neutrality. Years later, learning of the First Thinker's magnum opus, the king resolved to seize the relic's power to save his people himself. In the end, his quest for power brought only ruin, consuming them all.]
The tale had described Vilgax's journey, from a king who wanted to save his people to a cursed abomination who brought doom upon them and the realm of beast.
And now that memory was missing.
Hugo did remember that the memory had a singular enchantment that was eerie and bizarre, one that he had sworn off using.
[Dagon's Blessed]
Enchantment Description: [The king wandered for years, seeking a power to rival the Omnitrix's wielder. His path eventually led him to a pact with an ancient, sinister deity. As he did, you may consume this Memory to gain the same powers.]
Now that he knew what Dagon was, he was glad that he never used this thing... In fact, he was shocked the Nightmare Spell would even create such an abominable enchantment...
Suddenly, in the inner world of Alien x, a sickly purple swarm of light emerged, catching the four personalities off guar and manifesting into a charm like object, [Conqueror's wrath]
That sickly light continued dancing around the universe, until suddenly a terrifying crimson eye opened in the middle of the charm memory. As it did, the four personalities of Alien x felt true dread for the first time since they assumed this form.
It was Dagon. The Unholy Abomination had somehow entered this place through Hugo's memory.
In fact... The abomination might have planned all of this since the beginning, somehow granting Hugo this insidious memory in the first nightmare under the nose of the Nightmare Spell and using it now to manifest himself within Alien x, thus fully coming back to life for the second time.
Ben was the first to move. He slammed his Ultimatrix and a flash of green light engulfed the world, as he suddenly became a magnificent white and red giant, an alien that Hugo did not recognize.
He did not stop there. Instead he slammed the Ultimatrix on his chest, activating the Ultimate function. The alien he had transformed into was already powerful, being a Transcendant Titan... But now, with the Ultimate function, Ben had elevated himself into a Supreme Titan, turning into a beautiful Titan of blue, white and red that was unimaginably big.
And without wasting any time, he brought his hands down at Dagon, who had not fully manifested yet. Ben used his Supreme Will to stop Dagon from manifesting fully and thankfully, he was able to do just that. After all, Dagon was not capable of wielding his full power right now, but merely a fragment of it considering he was only manifesting himself from an Ascended memory.
Hugo turned to Bellicus and Serena in a hurry and yelled:
"Motion to kill that thing!"
Bellicus shouted back at Hugo, equally panicked. "You idiot! This is all your fault! Why would you carry such a dreadful thing in your soul and bring it here?!"
"I-I didn't know! Just agree already!"
Serena shook her head with a sad expression. "I'm afraid that is not possible... We are the personalities of Alien x, the spirit to be precise, but we are not the divine being known as Alien x and so we cannot make Alien x interfere with us."
"Why the hell not?!" Hugo said, baffled by the ridiculousness of that statement.
It did not make any sense...
"It's an absolute law that the gods imposed on the Celestialsapien — the very same one that gave Alien x multiple personalities," Serena explained carefully, a solemn expression on her face. "It made it so all Celestialsapiens can never interfere with their personalities or the realm we reside in, preventing Alien x from breaking the will of the gods by finding workarounds around the rule."
'was that why they hadn't been able to fix Ben's soul in the real world?' the excuse of them being afraid of the unholy gods of the dream realm was true, but it seems that it was not the only reason. Even if they had allowed ben to go, they would not be able to create a new soul for himself.
The nightmare around them was slowly collapsing... And if Hugo is pushed into the Spell appraisal as Alien x, then he would bring Dagon with him into the waking world, which would destroy everything.
However If Hugo decided to detransform... Then he would die from the strain on his soul, or worse, the Omnitrix won't allow him to detransform due to the failsafe, which would lead to Dagon's escape anyway.
There was nothing he could do.
'This can't be it... Surely there's something...'
As he thought that, a blue light suddenly erupted from Hugo's chest, not from his Omnitrix, but from somewhere deep in his soul, something that was not there before.
It was so pristine and pure... So sacred...
The light detached from Hugo and poured towards the manifestation of Dagon, surrounding the spirit of the Unholy God and stopping it from fully manifesting.
Ben's eyes widened as he slowly moved away, detransforming into his human form, equally shocked by this development.
The light coalesced into the form of a man with fair skin, grey eyes, and short black hair. He wore a white lab coat over a simple shirt and brown vest, with a black tie, black pants, and black shoes. A pair of green-lensed goggles hung around his neck.
Bellicus and Serena recoiled visibly at his appearance, recognizing the intruder.
"Time Walker! You are not welcome here," Serena said, her soft voice taking on an aggressive tone.
Bellicus shouted as well "How dare you break the treaty you made with the Celestialsapien race?"
Hugo looked at the scene, utterly baffled by all of this. The two personalities of Alien X somehow knew about Paradox's existence, and the Spirit of Time appeared to have had a treaty with the Celestialsapiens, which did not shock Hugo at all at this point.
From the look of it, the treaty was about Paradox not interfering with Celestialsapiens — a rule he had just broken.
Ben floated closer, his eyes filled with an unreadable expression as he looked upon the spirit of time.
"Paradox," Ben addressed the Spirit of Time calmly, not feeling anger, but simply being glad that the sacred human was alive.
A sad expression appeared on Paradox's face as he looked at Ben. "Benjamin. It's good to see you again, but it's a shame that we met under such unfortunate circumstances." He turned his eyes towards Hugo and smiled. "Ah, I see you and young Hugo have settled your differences. Good job."
"You bastard!" Hugo shouted, pointing a finger towards the Time Walker. "You shameless thief, give me back my ship!"
Paradox chuckled hesitantly, raising his hands in surrender "Young Hugo, you seem to be mistaken. It was not me who took your ship, rather it was the original me who did so. I'm merely a time echo left inside of your soul for this very moment. Ah, I would like to explain it to you in more details, but I'm afraid we don't have time. This nightmare is ending after all."
He looked at the four personalities of Alien x and then back at the purple crack in existence that was Dagon and sighed.
"This fellow has caused us a lot of problems, even after death. So much so that I had to break multiple laws of existence to ensure his demise. Bellicus, Serena, please accept my sincerest apologies for interfering, but unfortunately it was necessary. If I hadn't done so, you two would have been devoured by dagon."
Bellicus and Serena looked at Paradox for a moment, then sighed collectively.
"I suppose there was no other way," the feminine voice said, forgiving the time walker.
"You are not forgiven, but we do understand your circumstances," the masculine voice added. "What are you waiting for? Kill that abomination already!"
Paradox shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm not capable of doing that right now. I'm merely an echo of the real Paradox, and I can't possibly destroy dagon with my current power. The best I could do for now is contain it and transport it somewhere else — a place that could suppress it until powerful beings emerge to kill it."
"Where exactly would that be?" Ben asked, a grim expression on his face.
Ben had suffered the most from Dagon, and so he was obviously hesitant about letting it escape this nightmare but he understood that it was either that, or they would die and the creature would escape anyway.
Paradox smiled and pointed a finger towards Hugo. "To the War Realm, of course. Specifically, forty five years before this moment, near the sixth category gate on the moon."
Hugo's eyes widened in shock. "What? There's a sixth category gate on the moon?! And wait — if you're sending dagon there, won't he just consume Earth?! And technically, if you send it now, wouldn't it have always been there? So how does any of this make any sense?!"
Hugo bombarded the Time Walker with questions.
"Always so curious, young Hugo," Paradox replied with a faint smile. "The reason I'm sending it to your realm is because of the unique law of the War Realm, which is capable of suppressing even Unholy beings. Sending it back in time and to the moon should be enough to imprison a certain nasty Supreme for a while — don't ask about his name. As for the rest…well, it's time travel. Don't think about it too hard. It's not something you'll be able to fully comprehend at your current rank."
Hugo listened carefully, absorbing each word. There was a Supreme on the moon?
And Dagon had apparently been on the moon long before he was born, during the same time that the Nightmare Spell first descended… A sixth category seed, one that would make a Nightmare Spell carrier Divine if they conquered it....
There was also the fact that his realm seemed to reject or suppress powerful beings… That would explain why there hadn't been any Awakening or magic before the descent of the Nightmare Spell.
Had Paradox known about all of this? The Time Walker must have crafted a long and complicated plan to achieve his goals. One part seemed to involve imprisoning a certain Supreme from Hugo's realm… while at the same time leaving Dagon on the War Realm, suppressed and chained until powerful champions could eventually emerge to destroy him.
Hugo couldn't see the full picture yet, but he understood enough to realize that Paradox had been playing a much deeper game than any of them had ever imagined.
The silence stretched for a while, until eventually it was Ben who broke it:
"So what happens now?"
Ben seemed to trust Paradox's words, Despite the fact that the Time Walker seemed to have abandoned the Realm of Beast when the original Dagon invaded.
Paradox's smile dimmed slightly as he let out a long sigh and looked at Ben. "Young Hugo would be thrown into the Nightmare Spell appraisal in a few minutes, and his body and soul will be rebuilt by the Spell, saving him from the consequences of using alien x. You on the other hand... I'm afraid you will die. As you are not a carrier of the Nightmare Spell, you will be thrown directly outside, and your soul will crumble due to using Alien x. "
Ben had used Alien X not once, but twice by now. He had existed in the nightmare by possessing Albedo's body, hoping to take over Hugo so that the Nightmare Spell could grant him a new body, but he had abandoned that plan, choosing to accept his doom instead of devouring Hugo...
Moreover, Alien x could no longer save Ben, as the divine Titan could not interfere with his personalities, meaning Ben is about to die....
Hugo did not know what to feel about that.
Ben, on the other hand, simply looked at Paradox, Bellicus and Serena, and lastly, Hugo.
He simply smiled, a smile that looked tired and exhausted. "My life was not really the greatest... But I suppose this is a fitting end, for someone like me."
Bellicus looked at Ben with an uncertain expression, while Serena burst into tears, not wanting the young hero to die. Even though they didn't show it, Ben meant a lot to the two personalities of Alien x...
"There is a way to save you, Benjamin..." Paradox said, shocking everyone. "But I'm not sure if young Hugo would agree to it."
He looked at Hugo calmly and added, "I can teleport Ben outside, making him no longer a personality of Alien x. Then, you three use Alien x to connect him to the Nightmare Spell, which would let him go through a Spell appraisal like you, saving him. The decision is ultimately left to you."
Hugo stared at Ben for a long moment, noticing the hopeful spark that appeared in his eyes.
The weight of everything he had been through hung heavily between them...
Everything that had happened to Hugo — from the moment his mother died until now — was Ben's fault. His first nightmare, The Forgotten Shore, the soul devourer tree, Ariel's Hell, this nightmare, and all the pain he had experienced in those places…
they were all because of him.
"You are the architect of all the horrors that I've endured," Hugo said, looking Ben directly in the eyes. "All those deaths, all of that pain… it was all because of you."
Ben's expression was solemn, but he remained silent, for he knew his crimes better than anyone else, and so he could not expect sympathy from Hugo.
"I don't forgive you," Hugo said quietly, his voice steady but heavy. "For everything you did to me… It's just not in me to do so..."
"But… I also can't carry this hatred for you anymore." Hugo continued, looking Ben directly in the eyes. "So… I will save you. Perhaps this is what my mother would have wante or maybe it's what I want to do."
He turned to Bellicus and Serena. "Motion to connect Ben Tennyson to the Nightmare Spell."
The two personalities looked at each other, then back at Hugo and nodded.
"Motion carried, but you two better keep your promise and contact us," Bellicus said.
"Motion carried!" Serena said with a smile.
Ben's eyes glimmered as they were suddenly consumed by tears...
After everything he had been through, he finally had the chance to go back home and help his people.
He looked at Hugo, tears streaming down his face.
"Thank you for... I won't forget your kindness, as long as I live."
The two wielders of the Omnitrix shook hands. Both of their Omnitricies glowing briefly.
Paradox smiled. "Marvelous! I'm glad we can all come to an agreement! Now, Benjamin, hurry up. There is not much time left."
Ben floated towards Paradox, exchanging final looks with Bellicus, Serena, and Hugo.
"I'll see you guys on the other side... And Hugo," he said softly "let's meet again, someday."
With that, Paradox, Dagon, and Ben disappeared from the space that was Alien x's inner world.
Alien x's hands extended, as it grabbed the strings of the weakened Nightmare Spell, forcefully connecting it to the fading soul of Ben Tennyson, making him a carrier of the Nightmare Spell.
At the same time, Hugo detransformed, and both Ben and Hugo heard the voice of the Nightmare Spell one final time:
[Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal…]