Chapter 94: Appraisal
[Prepare for appraisal…]
Hugo found himself in a space between dream and reality. It was an endless black void illuminated by a myriad of stars. Between those stars, countless strings of silver light were woven into a beautiful and inconceivably complex net, forming various nexuses and constellations. It was truly a breathtaking sight. However, the scene seemed… eerily wrong, as if the constellations that made up the Nightmare Spell were shaking, as if threatening to break.
Hugo chuckled slightly. He knew why the Spell was in such a miserable state. It was trying to contain Alien x and Dagon inside the nightmare, and later on, Alien x had forced it to connect with Ben forcefully.
It made Hugo worried that the Spell would punish him for that, but thankfully no such thing happened.
He had done it... He had survived. It took a lot of luck and a lot of pain, but he had finally escaped the Dream Realm after being lost for a long time.
He had defeated an Unholy God and six Cursed Daemons, conquering an impossible nightmare.
In fact, Hugo was technically the first Divine being born from the War Realm, which was a nice thought to have, even if that rank had been achieved through a shortcut.
[Awakened! Your trial is over.]
[A lonesome alien came to the lands of Beast, wearing the face of a mighty hero. He walked among monsters and gods alike, carrying a relic of forgotten brilliance upon his wrist. He shattered the cursed domain of an Unholy God, burned the knights who chained him, and rose from defeat even after his sinister twin stripped him of his name and identity.
He joined a war that would decide the fate of the realm. He slew the last of the cursed knights, then stood before the Unholy God himself. In that final confrontation, the alien transcended mortality and became a true divine god, sundering the abomination and saving all of existence.]
[You have slain an Awakened…]
[You have slain an Ascended…]
[You have slain a Transcendant Devil…]
The Spell went on to list everyone and everything he had killed inside the Nightmare. Hugo felt that something strange was happening to time inside the black void, because it did not take too long for
[You have slain a god]
[You have slain a daemon]
[You have slain a daemon]
[You have slain a daemon]
[You have slain a daemon]
[You have slain a daemon]
[You have slain a daemon]
[You have saved all of existence]
[You have achieved the impossible]
[Final Appraisal: Glorious. Your heroism truly knows no bounds.]
Hugo blushed slightly... The Spell was quite flattering right now, as it credited him with saving all of existence.
But still... He was glad to have received such a marvelous appraisal. He deserved nothing less after all he had gone through.
[Awakened Hugo, receive your boon.]
Hugo couldn't help but smile. He had been an Awakened for far too long.
[You have been bestowed a True Name: Daemon of Change.]
Hugo nearly fell over, his heart pounding violently.
A new True Name... One that was different from his original one...
'Daemon? Like an actual daemon or is it just a metaphor?'
A new True Name was wonderful, considering he would be able to hide behind the fact that his true name is Paragon of Purity, while his actual True Name is Daemon of Change.
Still... This name instilled both happiness and dread in Hugo's chest, after all nothing related to the Daemons was ever good...
But the rewards kept coming.
[Your Aspect is ready to evolve. Evolve Aspect?]
This was another shocking part.
"Another evolution?"
Hugo pondered this... When he thought about it deeply, the Omnitrix evolving last time was not truly an evolution. Rather, it was the Omnitrix becoming complete and granting him full access to its functions. This one, on the other hand, seemed to be an actual evolution.
Moreover, the Omnitrix was the one that completed itself last time. This time it would be the Nightmare Spell that was going to evolve the Omnitrix.
Hugo could not imagine how powerful his Aspect was going to become, now that the Spell would personally evolve it...
With an exhale he responded:
"Yes"
[Divine Aspect Omnitrix is evolving…]
[New Aspect acquired.]
[Aspect Rank: Unknown.]
[Aspect Name: Evolved Omnitrix]
[You have lost your Awakened Ability: Quick-Morph]
[You have gained a new Awakened Ability: Omni-Enhanced]
[You have gained an imprint]
"Unknown rank..."
A rank beyond Divine that the Spell could not even categorize... And more importantly, Hugo's abilities had changed. Hugo had also gotten a new imprint...
Divine aspect wielders were rare and powerful, being able to form multiple cores and dominate their rank. Sunny, Nephis, and Hugo himself were a testament to that. But now, Hugo had gone a rank beyond that, achieving a level of power that no other mortal in existence had ever reached. Only fate knew what he could achieve now, or perhaps paradox as well...
Hugo summoned his runes, trying to understand the myriad of things that had just happened.
Name: Hugo
True Name: Daemon of Change
Rank: Awakened
Omni-Core: [7/7]
Class: Titan
Soul Fragments: [100/7000]
Aspect: [Evolved Omnitrix]
Aspect Rank: Unknown
Aspect Description: [You are the first divine relic created by mortal hands. Forged by the greatest of minds in pursuit of a perfection forbidden by an absolute law of reality, you carry the potential to become any creature. Your existence is a testament to adaptation and the boundless diversity of the world.]
Innate Ability: [Essence Imprint]
Ability Description: [No creature is alien to your existence. Thus, you possess the ability to imprint the fundamental essence of any being onto your soul, storing its template within yourself.]
Aspect Abilities: [Morph], [Omni-Enhanced]
Dormant Ability: [Morph]
Aspect Ability Description: [You can transform into creatures imprinted on your soul and change between them at will.]
His dormant ability seemed to have changed, fusing with his previous Awakened Ability... It was a very good bonus, as Hugo had always felt that his Awakened Ability was lackluster.
Awakened Ability:[Omni-Enhanced]
Ability Description:[You can enhance your forms with Omni Energy.]
This was a lot to take in... The new Awakened Ability seemed to be an enhancement type of ability, not quite like the Ultimate function, but one that was bound to be incredibly powerful. It would allow him to push his forms far beyond their original limits.
He would need to study the extent of this augmentation later, as it would definitely empower his transformations greatly...
'Can I even call them aliens anymore? The Spell says that I'm the Omnitrix right now, so technically... It's just different forms.'
Indeed. It seemed that Hugo was no longer a human or a noble creature, for that matter.
He was the Omnitrix, simply put. A living relic capable of transforming one into a human or noble creatures.
Who knows what else he would be able to become now that the Omnitrix had evolved.
Perhaps corrupted abominations. Perhaps Daemons or even more esoteric things like ideas and memories themselves...
Before Hugo dwelled on the thought, the Spell continued:
[The Third Seal is broken.]
[Awakening dormant powers…]
Hugo was about to Ascend.
Just as before, he felt as though something was waking up inside him. His seven Omni Cores ignited with intense heat, the power within them surging. The heat spread through his soul and his body, rejuvenating and changing them, but most importantly fixing the damage that had been done to them due to becoming Divine for a short while.
The feeling was familiar and euphoric. He felt his body being reforged into a stronger, better, more perfect version of itself. His soul was going through the same sublime transformation. And even though it was not as profound as becoming a Divine Titan, it was still an evolution from an Awakened Titan to an Ascended Titan.
This process was already familiar to Hugo, since more or less, this process has happened to him dozens of times when he transformed into an Ascended alien. However, this time… something was different…
Instead of stopping after reaching the threshold of qualitative change and immense fortification, the transformation continued. But something else happened.
His body, his original one, had already died in the waking world, and true ascension required the soul and body to merge together.
So, the Nightmare Spell created a new body for Hugo, finally granting him the ability to return to the waking world.
But more than that, right after his body was recreated, his soul and body began merging together.
But they were not simply joining into a single whole… instead, the two parts of his being resonated with each other, reinforcing one another. The power of that resonance grew stronger and stronger, and then exploded once it reached his seven cores.
Under the influence of the resonance, the threshold was demolished, pushing him even further on the path of evolution. And as his body and soul became one…
A profound change took place.
Suddenly, Hugo felt soul essence coursing through every fiber of his being with stark clarity. The measure of control he could exert on his essence became incredibly precise and fine...
Additionally, since his body and soul were now deeply interconnected, the effect of one on another also went through a fundamental change. He could do much more, and with much less.
This was the true boon of the Ascension.
And there was something else… a deep and vast shift in his very being that he could feel, but not understand or express with words yet. All Hugo knew was that it had to do with his relation to the waking world, the Dream Realm, and his connection to both.
Slowly, the heat suffusing his newly reforged self subsided and turned into a pleasant coldness. The coldness then disappeared, absorbed into his spirit, his flesh, and his bones.
Hugo looked at the black void with new eyes.
He felt as though there was furious might boiling under his skin. He also felt calm and confident. Balanced. To the point that he wanted to cry...
As he listened to his body, the Spell spoke from the darkness:
[Awakening Aspect Ability.]
[Aspect Ability acquired.]
[...Aspect Ability Name: Fusion]
Excited for this new ability, Hugo opened the runes.
Aspect Ability:[Fusion]
Ability Description: [You can fuse your forms together.]
The description was incredibly short and yet it carried an unlimited number of potential.
Hugo smiled, feeling a deep sense of curiosity in his chest.
Fusing his forms together to create hybrid transformatiow that would result in truly insane levels of powers and versatility.
For example, he could fuse xlr8 with fourarms to gain the best of each world, or fuse bigchill with echo echo to make his clones more powerful.
He could not wait to test this new ability.
But his excitement was dulled a little, replaced by something else.
That something was Longing. For home...
He was about to return to his world and meet his friends once again... If they were alive, that is.
[...Wake up, Hugo.]
[Your nightmare is over!]
——————
Somewhere within the Fake Primus, Gwen sat silently before the second Nightmare Seed her cousin had challenged.
She had done many terrible things to ensure his success. Things she could never take back. Still, she clung to the hope that it would all be worth it… that, in the end, salvation would come to her people.
As that thought crossed her mind, the Nightmare Seed suddenly began to crumble.
Gwen's eyes widened.
At the same time, she prayed—whether to the Nightmare Spell or to any god that might be listening… she didn't care, she only hoped that her prayers will be answered.
She just prayed that Ben would come back alive.
The seed collapsed into a storm of white sparks, dissolving into nothingness.
And when the light faded, only a single object remained on the ground. It was a beautiful watch, black and green in color. One that she knew very well.
The Omnitrix.
A tear formed in Gwen's eyes as she realized what this meant...
"No… it can't be…"
She hurried forward—but before she could reach it, the Omnitrix suddenly rose from the ground, erupting in a brilliant green light as it levitated in the room.
A cascade of energy burst outward, flooding the space And within that radiance, a silhouette began to take shape.
It was that of a beautiful young ma.
That was how the children of Beast had regained their mightiest hero.
——————
Somewhere else, in a distant realm…
Within the Manor of Immortal Flame, the body of Sleeper Hugo was seated on a wheelchair in a beautifully adorned chamber. Nephis and Sunny had brought him here from the Awakened Academy, preserving him in the faint hope that their friend might one day return.
But over time, that hope had faded...
Now, it was nothing more than a gesture—an act of respect for the fallen.
Yet at that very moment, the Omnitrix on Hugo's arm—long dim and lifeless—suddenly ignited with a radiant azure glow.
Without warning, it detached from his wrist, leaving the hollow body behind, and shot upward—bursting through the window into the sky outside.
Its light expanded, vast and overwhelming, bathing the entirety of NQSC in a brilliant blue radiance.
And within that light… a figure began to form.
A pale young man, emerging from the depths the omnitrix itself.
That was how the Realm of War had gained one of its mightiest champions.
——————
At the same time, far out in the void of the War Realm, a peculiar crimson space pod drifted silently through space.
It had crossed the realm boundary long before the nightmare spell descended upon this world, remaining dormant for centuries, until now...
As if responding to the awakening of a certain device, the pod suddenly ignited in crimson light.
It surged forward, crossing galaxies at terrifying speed.
Its destination was a certain blue planet.
Passing its moon, it entered the atmosphere.
From the lunar surface, a man in a tattered spacesuit watched the pod decent silently, His golden eyes reflected both the plane and the descending pod and at the time, they reflected an eerie hunger within their depths.
"How peculiar…" he murmured.
Unaware of the presence observing it, the pod continued its descent.
Moments later, it crashed into the surface—its speed regulated just enough to avoid total destruction.
Its landing site was one of the most dangerous regions on the planet, Europe, A land ravaged by nuclear fallout and overrun with Nightmare Gates, making it completely uninhabitable by humans.
The pod glowed faintly… then opened with a soft click.
From within, a single hand emerged.
Pale—unnaturally so, like that of a corpse.
And on its wrist…
Was a crimson Ultimatrix, pulsing with an eerie light.
That was how the Realm of War gained its newest most dangerous monster...
[End of Volume 2: Daemon of Change]
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Author's note:
There's a Q&A chapter, feel free to ask anything related to the fanfic there