Chapter 155: Two Soul Shards
With the communication network restored between Erebus Field and Falcon Scott, the government Awakened swiftly acted as the attacks of the nightmare creatures grew more vicious with every passing minute.
A mass evacuation order from Erebus Field to Falcon Scott had begun. The evacuation was led by Awakened, who in charge of transporting hundreds of people from Erebus Field to Falcon Scott.
Among the Awakened leading this evacuation, the White Feather Clan was the one responsible for managing this operation, with Master Roan leading the charge.
Master Davis, was responsible for managing the allocation within the city, making sure there was order during those difficult times.
Master Hugo, on the other hand was responsible for eradicating the nightmare creatures attacking Erebus Field.
His minions, the abominations he spawned from his own body, were sent to escort the convoys, protecting them from any approaching harm.
Their numbers were not much but they were powerful enough to make up for the lack of Awakened humans.
The dragon minions specifically were incredibly swift when it came to transportation.
Of course, it was not that easy to coordinate everything, especially considering the fact that Hugo's legions of minions were nearly exhausted as his minions had withstood weeks of endless fights through Antarctica. Causing their numbers to be reduced to the dozens.
***
Outside of Erebus Field, an abominable army of nightmare creatures was laying siege to the stronghold of humanity. It was composed of hundreds of terrifying scaled monsters, in the shape of giant lizards.
Those creatures seemed to be a Fusion of humans and lizards... And perhaps they were once humans, a long time ago before falling to the curse of corruption.
An arrow made of Crystal rushed through the wind, finding its mark in the head of one such creature completely obliterating them.
More arrows rose high into the skies before falling down upon the approaching hordes like a promise of death.
The army of nightmare creatures was mad, yes, but their predator like minds helped them in battles...
One such example of that was right now, where they crawled and dug into the ground, slithering into it to avoid the projectiles.
Far away, on the walls of Erebus Field, a tenacious dark knight was standing atop the walls, his hands were crossed and two ruby flames were dancing behind his visor.
That was Hugo, in the form of a stone saint, looking down at the abominations.
Besides him, was the stone saint legion and the Awakened humans which chose to stay behind to protect the city. All of them were armed with crystal bows and arrows, awaiting his command.
'They dug underground...'
Their solution to this problem indicated that they did possess a form of intelligence, but more importantly their coordination meant that they were led by a tyrant.
'I can deal with a fallen tyrant... A Corrupted one on the other hand would be a catastrophe right now...'
Hugo was still an Ascended terror, still short from regaining his titanic power, so he could not fight creatures more powerful than him.
'No matter...'
Walking towards the edge, Hugo waited for a few moments then leapt off, letting his body fall down like a missile.
There was nothing but silence for a few minutes, then an explosion of blue light engulfed the world, reaching to the holes the lizards had dug and making them screech in pain.
The flapping of terrifying wings was heard, as a magnificent dragon emerged from where Hugo was. It was like a Titan made of jade, nearly dwarfing the walls.
Hugo, in his draconic form, opened his mouth and unleashed a waterfall of flames towards the ground.
The fire spread through the ground, entering the holes the abominations dug and spreading through them, burning the abominations and scorching the ground outside of Erebus Field.
The much more powerful lizards managed to survive, escaping into the surface once again. And there, the tyrant finally revealed itself. It was much bigger than the other humanoid like lizards and far more imposing. With bone like teeth encasing its scales and its green scales glowing brightly as it endured the fire.
Looking up, it saw the draconic creature that had burned down its army and roared, before leaping upward with all of its might.
To this, Hugo slammed his Omnitrix and shifted forms once again. His large frame shrunk down and became human like, then his scales were set on fire and rock began to form all around his body.
His face became like that of a terrifying demon, one that was made of pure fire.
He had assumed the form of Heatblast and just as he did, Hugo absorbed the flames that he had unleashed in his draconic form and shaped it into something else.
He allowed his body to spin as it descended down to meet the tyrant lizard, until eventually he became a drill of orange flames.
Before the lizard could even do anything else, its body was pierced by the flaming drill, and Hugo came out of the other side, drowning in its blood. The blood of the creature was swiftly burned by the flames, leaving nothing behind. Not even ashes...
[You have slain a fallen tyrant: Monarch Lizard]
Hugo's descent continued as he slammed into the ground, leaving a crater in it.
Wasting no time, he allowed his body no rest and got up quickly, climbing out of the Crater and meeting the remaining army of the lizard monarch.
The flames in his eyes became much hotter as he formed a spear of fire and augmented his body with essence.
In a matter of five minutes, the remaining Awakened abominations were dead. Their bodies burnt and destroyed by flames.
With the threat neutralized, Hugo exhaled deeply and detransformed into his human form, looking into the distance with a tired expression.
Another wave of nightmare creatures was taken care of... But this was not the end. There would be more coming... And they would be stronger, much more stronger.
Even with all of his powers, he was not enough to stop this catastrophe.
Even he, as naive and hopeful as he was, knew that they would need a miracle to evacuate the millions of people in Falcon Scott.
'A miracle would be nice...'
He suddenly remembered a story his mother had once told him... About how people in the dark ages used to pray to gods.
Not the dead gods, but to gods that were worshipped by religious groups back in the days...
Even if their faith was false, they still had hope. Hope that things would be better and that a divine god, beyond their understanding, would watch over them.
Having such a deity helping them right now would have been great... But alas, the gods were dead and their glory no longer shines over mortals.
In fact the mortals of this world had to ascend and become gods themselves, that was their only salvation. The only one they have, and the only one they deserve.
'I'm really developing a love for philosophy...'
Just as he was about to turn away and return to the city, Hugo suddenly heard something strange.
As an Ascended, all of his senses were augmented above that of an average human so it was easier for him to hear things that no regular human can.
Turning to the direction of the sound, Hugo squinted and augmented his eyes with soul essence, increasing his vision.
What he saw was no nightmare creature, but instead... A military rhino and a bunch of military trucks following it. They were rushing down in a hurry, as if running from something.
'Must be more refugees.'
Judging from their speed, they were likely running from something.
Hugo activated his Omnitrix and slammed it, transforming into Fasttrack and rushing towards the convoy of vehicles.
His legs raced through the snowy grounds of Antarctica, reaching the convoy in mere moments.
He leaped off the ground and landed atop the rhino with a soft thud. Just as he did, the door of the rhino opened up, and a red haired woman emerged, carrying an oversized rifle.
Without asking anything, she shot Hugo with a special type of projectile, likely assuming he was a nightmare creature.
Reacting faster than most humans, Hugo bent down and dodged the projectiles.
'Bullets enhanced with essence? A memory? No most likely an aspect...'
Either way, he used his super speed to move quickly and disarm her, before gently kicking her inside the rhino and entering.
As he did that, the people inside, which he recognized to be Sunny's military cohort, summoned their memories, ready to attack him where he stood.
To that, Hugo slammed the Omnitrix on his chest, reverting to his human form.
"Hold your horses, I'm not a nightmare creature. Captain Hugo of the first evacuation army reporting for duty."
At his words, the cohort of Irregulars let down their guards and unsummoned their weapons, realizing they weren't in danger.
"Captain Hugo... It's good to see you.", a swordsman known as Belle said, with a tired look on his face.
"Same to you." Hugo then turned to Samara who he just knocked down "I apologize if I was too rough."
The red headed soldier had already gotten up from the floor of the rhino and nodded at her military superior. She didn't seem to take any offense considering the nature of their situation.
With all of that settled, Hugo looked around trying to find Sunny, however to his dismay, his friend was nowhere to be seen.
He did notice two new figures, a slender young lady with a long hair and an old man with a short posture.
Hugo assumed they must be VIP, so he ignored the two and focused on the important things.
"Where's Sunny.. I mean captain Sunless?"
At his words, everyone's expression turned a little sour...
Eventually, it was the young Awakened woman known as Kim who responded.
"Right after we escaped a dangerous situation... We were encountered by one of the three titans in Antarctica, Goliath... Captain Sunless had taken it upon himself to fight the Titan to give us time to escape... We are not sure if he made it."
Hugo's heart suddenly sank, imagining the worst outcome possible...
However, his mind, dulled by months of brutality, was seasoned and focused, so instead of sulking and assuming the worst, he decided to take action.
"Where exactly are they right now?"
***
Thirty kilometers away, A stone giant that resembled a walking mountain was being assaulted by enormous dark chains, swaying slightly from their size.
The titan however did not fall, and instead moved its body slightly, causing the ocean beneath it to form waves. As it did, the shadow chains rattled and broke, as if they were made of mundane steel.
'Damnatio!'
Cursing himself, Sunny rushed through the streets of Antarctica, running as fast as he could as he attempted to escape the giant colossus.
It had been chasing him for a while now, which was more than he had bargained for.
His original plan was to stall it long enough so that the convoy could escape, and potentially, he could have used the [Undying Chain] unique enchantment—[Undying]—to allow himself to be killed and come back from the dead, however right now he wasn't certain about his audacious plan as he did not have enough essence to activate the [Undying] enchantment, so his only solution was to attempt to escape.
He briefly considered if he could possibly shadow one of Hugo's speedster aliens but he quickly discarded the idea as he did not have any source of mystical power capable of granting him super speed.
Saint was evolving, so he could not rely on her. Nightmare was digesting the nightmare he had absorbed from earlier and The shadow treasure required an insane amount of essence to utilize.
'Well then... Perhaps I should go back to my roots and use my first shadow.'
He was talking of course about his trusty friend, the [Shadow Carapace].
Summoning the crab like shadow, Sunny mentally commanded it to bond with him, encasing his body in dark chitinous plates and granting him an affinity for water.
'If I had a soul shard for every shadow that can bond with me... I'd have two shards, which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice... No, what in the spell am I thinking right now?!'
He was running away from a mythical existence, a titan of the fallen rank that would take a saint to kill, and that was what he was thinking of?!
Without any more distractions, Sunny leaped off the edge of the road and went underwater, diving deep down in hopes of escaping the fallen Titan.