Chapter 130: Journey to Antarctica (1)
[Two weeks after the departure]
A figure clad in liquid silver armor swam in the deep dark waters of the waking world. His spear, made of the same metal, pierced the shell of an aquatic abomination that resembled a fusion of a crab and a serpent, killing it after a moment of struggle.
[You have slain a Fallen Demon: Shell Serpent]
The silver-clad man rose upward, reaching the surface of the water.
In front of him, one of the many metallic vessels was moving across the water.
He climbed back gently, using his Ascended powers to do so, then the shifting silver armor surrounding the man retracted back into his body calmly, revealing a beautiful golden haired man wearing a military black skin suit.
This was lugan, Hugo's spirit body.
The man cracked his neck as he walked through the gargantuan vessel.
'Truly the [Asura] attribute is the most useful thing I have besides my Aspect...'
[Asura] was an attribute much similar to Sunny's [Marble Shell].
Sunny's attribute had been received after the young man defeated enough creatures to satisfy its [Soulbound] enchantment, which caused the relic to fuse with his body and granting it properties of stone.
Hugo, on the other hand, had it much easier as [Asura] was something he had taken from the lab of the seat holder of the Nightmare.
He shivered, remembering the twisted bastard.
In any case, the two attributes shared similar traits such as [Mantle], [Shell], and [Bound]. However, Sunny's [Marble Shell] possessed a few helpful enchantments that made him capable of changing his weight—[Feather of Truth], accommodate a charm in his armor to make it stronger, [Underworld Armament], and a trait that can repair damage done to his skin,[Living Stone], which was not true regeneration but a close alternative.
Lastly, there was [Stalwart] which granted him protection against physical, elemental, soul, and mind attacks to various degrees.
Hugo's [Asura], on the other hand, had a different set of enchantments.
[Shell], [Mantle], and [Bound] were the same as [Marble Shell] with the sole exception of [Shell] making Hugo's body more like metal instead of Sunny's [Shell], which made his body like stone.
[Last Light] Trait was a failsafe in case the suit of armor he was wearing was about to be destroyed entirely. In that case, the attribute would shut down and charge Hugo's Omni-Cores with its last reserves of essence.
[Unassailable Bulwark] Trait was a defensive trait that made it so the armor could absorb lesser blows and convert them into essence. Of course, this was not as powerful as it sounded as the soul essence it gained from normal hits was pitiful when compared to his own reserves of soul essence.
[Essence Conduit] Trait allowed him to release essence blasts from the emitters. This was useful for propulsion but not very effective in combat as it drained too much essence.
[Morphic Frame] Trait allowed the liquid silver to be altered by its master, changing the shape and size.
As Hugo, he made the armor more futuristic and dashing, while as Lugan, he made it more grotesque and symbiotic looking.
Lugan's silver armor was a direct copy from Gunlaug's golden echo, with only the colors switched from golden to grey, serving as a design that didn't connect him back to Hugo or Gunlaug.
This trait was also used to form spears or similar weapons connected to the armor, making it one of the most useful traits in his Arsenal.
The Spirit Body itself was powerful, but its main physical powers were pitiful in comparison to the main body despite being an ascended terror. So it used a fusion of [Asura], the mind and soul abilities from the Spirit Seed, and the power inherited from Gunlaug to even the playing fields.
Lugan moved across the titanic vessel, passing through many Awakened and mundane workers alike, until he saw two figures standing near each other, staring at the vast ocean.
They were, of course, Naeve, a Master of the House of Night...
And Bloodwave, one of the few and eldest Saints of humanity. He was a Saint of the House of Night that was no inferior to the elders of the clan.
He was a powerful Saint when it came to aquatic battle, as he too seemed to hold the Storm lineage, much like his nephew, Naeve.
The legendary Nightwalker was much like Saint Cor in personality, although far less grumpier.
"Master Lugan." the old Saint addressed his presence calmly.
Lugan bowed his head slightly.
"Saint Bloodwave, it's good that you managed to join us."
"It's only natural. The Nightwalkers would need a Saint to guide them against the most powerful Nightmare Creatures in the sea... I only hope we don't encounter such creatures, but alas, foolish t."
Naeve gave his uncle a hesitant smile.
"Would it kill you to be a little cheerful, uncle?"
Naeve was not expecting an answer, so he turned to Lugan.
"Did you find anything in your dive?"
"It was just a Fallen Demon, though it was alone. A creature like that shouldn't be able to survive alone this far into the ocean... Which means there's a chance the Tyrant that spawned it is not far from us, alongside its legion."
Bloodwave and Naeve nodded, both of them looking grim at this revelation, however they were accustomed to such circumstances.
"Noted. I'll inform the others about it and make sure they're on high alert." Naeve excused himself.
The two remained alone, which made Lugan slightly uncomfortable.
Being around Saints was not comfortable when you didn't have a divine relic on your wrist.
"Has there been any problems in the Stormsea?"
Lugan inquired, attempting to make the mood less awkward.
"The Night Garden is doing fine, though we have a problem regarding the citadels of the Stormsea... They lack Saints to tether to them, which makes them unable to use their rather useful components."
The House of Night was not as powerful as the two other great clans, both in numbers and the quality of their members. It did not have many Saints—currently it only had three Saints.
Saint Bloodwave, Saint Typhaon, and Saint Knossos. So far, Lugan did not interact with the two Saints much, as they were constantly busy waging war against the abominations of the Stormsea.
There were currently two separate cohorts challenging the third nightmare, but the chances of them succeeding is unknown, after all anything can happen in a nightmare.
This lack of Saints was becoming more problematic every day, especially as Valor and Song grew in size, and more of their champions began conquering the Third Nightmare.
The house of night needed to recruit and cultivate as many Masters as possible, to make them ready to challenge the Third Nightmare. That is the plan thyer are following to save their house.
So far, one such member was Naeve... And possibly Lugan, if he proved himself worthy in the Antarctica operation.
Of course, Lugan was not intending to challenge the Third Nightmare alongside Naeve... As that would likely pull Hugo inside as well, or worse, Hugo and the Spirit connection would break, forever changing their existence.
The Third Nightmare was a sensitive subject to Hugo... He knew he had to challenge it to survive the infestation of corruption his soul was suffering from... But he was still deeply afraid of its horrors.
After all, the Spell did not seem to like Hugo, or specifically, it seemed to have a deep hatred for the Omnitrix itself, making sure that its wielder must die no matter what... He was not sure if this theory was true, but he knew one thing for certain.
The Omnitrix brought calamity with it wherever it went.
Eventually, Lugan only sighed.
"The future does not look bright at all... But I suppose Clan Night has gone through worse, right?"
Bloodwave turned around and looked at the far ocean, as if remembering someone.
"Indeed it has..." The saint looked at lugan and then at neave, who was talking with the other members of the house of night. "Thank you for doing your best in our clan, master asterion."
Lugan offered him a smile.
"No problem..." He kept looking at the saint for a moment, before suddenly frowning "wait... What did you say?"
"I said thank you for doing your best, master lugan... Is your hearing alright?" The old saint inquired...
"Yeah... I think I might be a little confused, don't worry."
***
While Sunny, Jet, and the other company leaders were focusing on building their military cohorts and modifying their assets using contribution points, Hugo was focused on another thing.
Himself.
Or to be specific, his shadow.
He needed to learn how to fight alongside his shadow in perfect synergy, using its intelligence to make it capable of independent actions.
And most importantly, he needed to teach his shadow how to fight using the shadowtrix.
In the private training area of the ship, Hugo stood opposite to his Shadow Avatar.
He could not see through or control the avatar, as it was its own being.
"Alright, come at me. Use only your powers as a Devil for now, alright?"
His shadow nodded, activating his Shadowtrix and circling through its forms.
In return, Hugo activated his own Omnitrix and decided on which alien to choose. He didn't want to damage the room, so he picked a less destructive, but infinitely more ferocious alien.
Thick orange fur grew on Hugo's body as it expanded in size. At the same time, two dark claws appeared from his arms, and his face changed to resemble that of a fearsome tiger.
In a flash of blue, he became a creature of orange and white, fearsome and menacing.
"Rath!!!" Hugo shouted his alien name and looked at his shadow, who assumed the form of Diamondhead. The crystalline body was dark as shadows now, as it took a defensive position.
"Let me tell you something, shadow! Rath is the boss here! And Rath is the strongest there is!"
With that, the two engaged in combat.
As Rath, Hugo's battle style shifted to focus more on violent offense. Using the insane stamina and agility of Rath, he could afford to rely on such a violent form of combat.
His two claws cut through the air like bullets, aimed towards the shadow.
The shadow transformed its hand into a crystal shield, blocking Hugo's attack and parrying it by twisting the shield to the side, changing the trajectory of Hugo's assault.
As it did, its other arm changed into a sword and fell upon Hugo, ready to deliver a crushing blow.
However, in the last moment, that crystalline blade was grabbed by Rath's other arm, which had not been caught by the shield.
Rath gave the shadow a frenzied smile as he head-butted it directly, making it stagger a few steps.
Using the opportunity, Rath advanced forward, and at the same time augmented his body with soul essence. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of the shadow, kicking it directly in the chest with a devastating kick.
The shadow was sent flying, colliding into a wall, cracks already forming on its crystalline body, but it was not done yet.
The shadow was Hugo's shadow after all, so it was just as tenacious as him.
More than that, it was the physical manifestation of Shadow God's lineage.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of shadow crystalline shards shot forward in Rath's direction, making the tiger-like alien rush to the side, racing to escape the fury of the rain of crystals.
His shadow was relentless, not stopping the barrage at all.
More than that, it used its control over crystals to guide the crystal shards it shot, making them chase after Hugo.
"Clever bastard!"
Hugo slammed his Omnitrix, changing forms.
"Wildvine!"
As the plant-like alien, Hugo used his own roots to propel himself forward, weaving through the assaults of crystal shards.
He created a fruit from his body made from toxic and explosive materials and shot it towards the shadow.
The shadow, seeing this, shot a crystal spear towards it, exploding it mid-air.
But what it didn't anticipate was the fact that Hugo appeared from the smoke, diving directly towards it.
Hugo grabbed the shadow using his roots and threw it around through the room, slamming it into the ground.
Seeing no escape in its current form, the shadow slammed its Shadowtrix, changing forms.
Dark flames rose from it, burning Hugo's roots entirely. The shadow's dark rocks gave its onyx flames a menacing look, making it seem like a true devil.
The shadow had assumed the form of Heatblast, and as soon as it did, it unleashed a terrifying barrage of dark flames towards Hugo's plant form.
He smiled at this.
'It already knows how to counter the source elements of other creatures... Good.'
The fact that the shadow could choose the aliens it wanted to morph between depending on the situation means it has developed a type of critical thinking, making it able to develop not only regular intelligence, but also battle intelligence, which was more valuable in the age of the Nightmare Spell.
Hugo jumped to the roof using Wildvine's vines, dodging each of the flames, reacting to them in the moment.
Of course he still got hit by some, but he quickly severed the burning part before it spread to his body.
As an Ascended creature, his control over soul essence allowed him to saturate any part of his body precisely. So, he did just that, making sure to augment only the necessary and damaged parts to conserve soul essence.
As Hugo leaped once again, he slammed the Omnitrix again, his form shifting and becoming more metallic.
"Water Hazard!"
He shouted mid-air before pointing his hands downward and unleashing a wave of water towards the pyro shadow.
The shadow could not react in time as the blast of water encompassed a large area, causing it to be caught in the water.
Heatblast's flames were quenched like they were mundane flames, dying out.
To this, the shadow slammed its shadowtrix once more, becoming Ampfibian.
Water and electricity did not mix well, causing Hugo's body to convulse in pain as a wave of electricity rushed through his metallic form, deeply wounding him.
In his pain, he reached for his omnitrix, changing forms once again, this time becoming Buzzshock.
Using the powers of the small but mischievous alien, Hugo became pure electricity and rushed towards his shadow.
The two of them entered a ferocious battle mid-air, exchanging dozens of attacks and lightning blasts at the same time, with both of them trying to take control over the other's source element. The terrifying clash encompassed the entire room, engulfing it in light.
'How troublesome...'
Both creatures were absorbing the electricity of the other and redirecting it in combat, making both of their efforts useless.
It was a battle of endurance, as the first to run out of essence or the first to change aliens would be the loser.
'Not all aliens are immune to electricity... But I can think of a few.'
Smiling, he slammed the Omnitrix and became a mass of strange liquid, rushing towards his shadow.
"Goop!"
Using Goop's bizarre nature, he used it to strangle his shadow, containing the electricity of the shadow inside and rendering it hopeless. After all, Goop's body was not organic in the regular sense, so it could not transfer electricity through it.
His shadow reached for its Shadowtrix, but all its limbs were trapped, making it impossible to escape.
"Bingo! I win." Hugo smiled.
He had won. After all, there was nothing his shadow could do now.
Their Omnitrices beeped as they both detransformed, landing them on the ground. At the same time, Hugo stretched his hands towards his shadow, helping it get up.
"You did great."
As he said those words, his shadow seemed to smile. The little guy even jumped around, with a ridiculous smile on his face, clearly satisfied by the praise.
"But now! You're about to face an even greater opponent, buddy, so I hope you're ready!"
The shadow puffed up its chest, as if saying 'There is no one who can defeat me!'
Giving him a smile, Hugo summoned Zed.
The alien wolf materialized from white essence and as she did, her Nemetrix activated, transforming her into a predator alien.
The shadow suddenly seemed to have lost its courage.