Chapter 158: Return to Erebus Field
The [Proto-truck] entered the boundaries of Erebus Field, rushing through the snow.
It was indeed odd to drive a magical truck in the middle of Antarctica, but alas, it was a unique experience that no one could say they experienced aside from Hugo.
Looking at Sunny, he felt a bit of melancholy.
It felt like it was just yesterday when they had boarded Azmuth's ship and flew across the skies of the forgotten shore...
So much time had passed since then and so much has changed. They were different people, as well.
"You know Sunny... Sometimes I look back at my life and all I see is a sea of regret. There were so many things I could have done better and perhaps if I had done so, things would be different right now."
Sunny gave him an odd look but remained silent.
Eventually, he said:
"You're doing well if you ask me. You've reached the Ascended rank, slain a Titan, helped in the evacuation efforts and you've killed thousands of nightmare creatures since we arrived in Antarctica, which saved thousands of people from a horrible death. Sure, your life was terrible but all things considered, you turned out pretty well... I mean, you are naive, an idiot and a loudmouth who doesn't know when to shut up, but I'd say you're fine."
Hugo decided to ignore the blatant insults and thought about what Sunny had said deeply.
Hugo did not truly hate himself, at least not anymore. However, emotions weren't simple and there were traces of that hatred still within him.
He hated himself for not being better... Especially with his recent failure with Malware...
He had allowed thousands to fall into the hands of a corrupted terror, and from the reports he had heard from from Sunny's military cohort, he had a similar experience with LO49, where he failed to save the people there due to a terrible abomination.
His guilt was less obvious as he was not as obsessed with saving people as Hugo was, but still, there was a difference between their situations.
The difference was... There was still hope that Hugo could save the people by killing Malware and using Upgrade's power to undo the authority of that abomination.
"... Thank you, I'm usually the one who gives you motivational talks so being on the receiving end of it is a welcome change."
"Don't get used to it, I struggle to motivate myself everyday, let alone motivating others." Sunny sighs and looks out of the window "anyway, what does the new imprint look like?"
Finally reaching the giant gates of Erebus Field, Hugo stopped the truck and answered:
"It's a bit sinister, if I'm being completely honest."
Sunny stepped out of the vehicle and raised an eyebrow.
"Sinister how exactly? Sinister as in the description of that imprint is creepy or sinister because it's trying to control your body and take it over?
"The first part. The description speaks about a stone titan that was apparently a god. How it was corrupted and eventually its encounter with one of the daemons... The daemon of truth. Its body was used to create a great pyramid and its soul was used to give birth to a timeless river."
Sunny felt a little bit of uncomfort at the mention of a daemon. After all, the image of hope was still burning bright in his mind.
"Be careful... Anything that's related to the daemons is usually no good..."
"Agreed, but from the look of it, Goliath was one of the shards born from this titan, a minor one yes but a shard nonetheless. So, unlike my other forms, it's not a race of noble creatures that was consumed by corruption.... Well, I'm not sure, actually. There might be more shards running around, but I might never find out."
Sunny scowled a little.
"You're collecting transformations like candy, while I have to work hard on building shadow shells and trying not to lose my mind... Ah, how is this fair, you bastard?"
"It's not really fair, but why are you complaining? Your aspect legacy is basically a cheap knockoff of my aspect, but it's still immensely powerful when added with the rest of your abilities."
"Whatever you say, mister 'I can skip ranks and change classes at will'"
Hugo unsummoned his Proto-truck and shrugged, deciding not to argue.
The two of them walked towards the gate and announced their arrival.
Soon enough, Master Davis himself came out to greet them.
The calm man looked at the two of them with an unreadable expression.
"Master Sunless, I'm glad that you are alive. And master Hugo, it's good to see you back."
Sunny crossed his arm as he took in the interior of Erebus Field.
The massive gates closed behind them as they entered the city and watched it sprawl in front of them.
Eventually Hugo turned to Davis and said:
"Did we get any news from Falcon Scott?"
"Yes, colonel Jet has asked about master Sunless. We told her that his cohort had made it but he himself had stayed behind to hold off Goliath"
As he said those words, Davis' face became a little nervous
"I assume you two managed to escape the titan... Are you sure you weren't followed?"
Hugo smiled and shook his head.
"I'm sure we weren't followed... After all, I smashed the bastard's eye myself."
"... You fought a fallen Titan?"
Even for a master with a divine aspect, fighting a titan while not being a saint was considered suicide.
"I killed the big bastard with my own hands. Why do you think I look like this?"
Hugo activated the [Uniform Mode] and unsummoned Asura, showcasing his bruised body.
"I see..." Master Davis looked at Sunny and added "The colonel would want to hear about master Sunless' survival and the death of Goliath. So we better go talk to her."
"Master Jet is here?" Sunny asked.
"No, I made a communication device that went around the Winter Beast influence, allowing communication between us and Falcon Scott."
Hugo answered, while waving at some of the citizens passing by.
"Of course you did..." Sunny sighed. "Let me go tell my cohort I'm still alive and then I'll go talk with Jet, I have some news I need to report as well."
Master Davis nodded and called one of the soldiers.
"Very well. This soldier here will take you to them, and please, master Sunless, make sure to rest properly and allow your wounds to heal. You too, master Hugo."
With those words, Sunny left alongside the soldier to meet up with his cohort, leaving Hugo and Davis alone.
Looking at the military commander, Hugo felt the need to say something.
"You know, master Davis, we've been fighting together for like what now, a month? I've seen you bleed out more than a few times, so can we drop the formalities already? Hearing someone of my rank address me formally just doesn't feel right. Like let's assume you become a supreme one day, and I also become a supreme, would you just call me supreme Hugo constantly?"
Master Davis, for the first time since they met, seemed baffled.
"... I don't think we'd become supremes in the future, but no, I would prefer if we continue addressing each other formally."
"Why is that?"
"Your name is heavy on the tongue. Using master or Ascended before it makes it smoother to say."
The master turned around and left, leaving Hugo standing there, absolutely shocked...
'... What's so wrong about my name?'
Feeling oddly annoyed by that, Hugo walked towards his place of residence with a sour mood.
***
The cold water fell on Hugo's flesh, washing his tired body and taking away the filth.
His body was riddled with all types of terrible wounds, from burns to scars. After all, his wounds transferred over from each form, making it so every scar he received in his alien forms transferred over to his human form.
Looking down on his watch, Hugo contemplated his life decisions and closed the shower, before stepping out to his room.
The room he had been offered in Erebus Field was clean and modest, likely belonging to a rich person before...
The owner was long gone, either due to evacuation or a terrible nightmare creature.
Hugo wore a new set of clothes, military ones that were a dark shade of blue.
'Better than the uniform mode...'
With that done, he went to the other side of the room and sat on his desk. Hugo opened the drawer and brought out a small notebook he had kept for a while now.
The notebook contained his thoughts and sometimes, the nightmare creatures he comes across in battle.
The winged giants, the legion of the jade queen and many more horrors he has encountered throughout Antarctica.
He was not an artist, by any means, however he was slowly developing his artistic skills by making vague shapes of his slain enemies.
He even scribbled his own aliens, such as Four Arms, Heatblast, the Soul Serpent, the Stone Saint and...
On a separate page, far from every other creature and thought was a black humanoid shape that was as dark as the night sky. Within his countless body was an endless number of stars.
That was Alien x, a divine Titan...
A god, the god that Hugo once transformed into in the depths of a harrowing nightmare.
Hugo had always tried to stop thinking about it but he never could. After all, how could anyone resist the temptation of becoming a god?
Everything Hugo has known changed once he became a god, despite the fact that his consciousness was separated and fused with three other beings.
The feeling of being an entire world, of possessing a will capable of changing the world, of being a god...
It was maddening.
Everyday he wanted to ignore the consequences and use his Omnitrix and become a divine Titan once again.
But he couldn't... Because if he did, he would doom the entire existence. Alien x was deeply connected to the unknown and its emergence in the real world could destroy everything, both the war realm and the dream realm.
'All the power in the world... So close yet so far...'
Mere mortals could not comprehend the powers of higher beings but Hugo could. He was the sole exception among mortal men who experienced divinity.
It made him wonder what his perspective on Alien x would become if he reaches the higher ranks... Transcendent, supreme and sacred...
Shaking his head, Hugo flipped the page and focused on something else. Something far more dire.
'Malware...'
The Corrupted terror who had taken over thousands of people... It was also a being who had humiliated and overpowered him, leaving him deeply scarred.
The humiliation was something he was used to, after all, Hugo had been defeated plenty of times by plenty of powerful beings.
But the thing that hurt him more than anything was his failure. He had failed to save thousands of people, leaving them in the grasp of that terrifying being.
Hugo was not planning to leave them at his mercy for long, after all, he was planning how to kill the bastard.
His plan was simple. He wanted to become a Titan once again, and now he was.
He had also planned on scanning Goliath, taking the power of the titan for himself... However that ended horribly, so that couldn't work.
When it came to building things, Hugo wasn't skilled enough to build something capable of containing a corrupted terror, even using his intelligence forms.
What he needed right now was information about Malware. He knew that he was deeply connected to the Galvans and to the first thinker, but as far as he knew, Malware had no connection to Ben Tennyson.
He couldn't be, as the first thinker lived thousands of years before the beast realm was infected by the nightmare spell, so Azmuth, Ben Tennyson and Malware could not have existed during the same time period.
Malware also didn't seem connected to any other being that came out from the gates of Antarctica so Hugo couldn't rely on the memories granted by the nightmare spell.
'There is someone who might have what I'm looking for...'
It was his old friend, Song of the Fallen.
If there was anyone in existence who might know something about Malware than it was her.
Closing his notebook, Hugo hid it and looked deep within himself, finding his tether and pulling on it.
In a second, he disappeared from the waking world and appeared somewhere else, atop the Ivory Tower.