Chapter 131: The shores of Antarctica
The battle was harrowing and terrifying, with many of the Awakened on the ship experiencing the most horrific event of their lives.
The House of Night, alongside the most famous Master of humanity, the Azure Star, had managed to eradicate the abominations after a long drawn out fight.
Thanks to this, Hugo had gotten quite the reputation among the people and the army, with some already treating him as if he was a veteran.
He himself didn't do much in the battle, as it was Bloodwave who killed the Tyrant. Hugo himself had helped in killing the minions, which were many.
In the end, none of the forty colossal ships had been lost. Some received scratches but nothing too serious, as the upgrade Hugo gave them made the ships truly formidable.
As the fleet escaped the vast blot of black water, it continued moving south without ever slowing down. In fact, the reactors were sent into a controlled overload to enhance the speed of the convoy even further and quickly increase reach Antarctica before anymore aquatic horrors could emerge.
This was one of the many hardships they had to endure on their journey to Antarctica.
***
More days had passed since the harrowing assault and many more attacks had occurred, but none of them were as dangerous as the Corrupted Tyrant that had appeared last time.
Hugo had been focusing on his own runic sorcery, alongside training Zed and his shadow. The advancement he had made in field of sorcery was unfortunately trivial, as runic sorcery required one to immerse themselves in enchantments and runic language to develop their skills.
Grey Matter was inherently proficient in that field; however, the form was not an omnipotent god that knew all about runic sorcery. Though he had managed to progress little by little as he made and studied more theories.
While doing that, he was going from convoy to convoy, enchanting the exoskeletons and the weapons of the convoys.
Of course, he couldn't enchant them with "blast fire" or "become ethereal" as that would require a vast amount of essence and a far more powerful sorcerer than he was. Even if he was, the materials of the spelltech were not strong enough to endure true enchantments even after being upgraded.
Instead of doing that, Hugo relied on a much more primitive form of runic sorcery, which was enchantments that enhanced the innate qualities of an object—such as making the steel more durable, making the suits lighter, and increasinf the potency of their batteries.
That said, Hugo did not like being a part of this convoy as the main problem he had found within it was its scale.
This convoy was just too big in size and it held too many souls within it—of Awakened, Ascended ranks. There was even a Saint on board, alongside two powerful divine aspect wielders. This attracted the more powerful Nightmare Creatures, such as Tyrants and Terrors.
If anything, it was a miracle a Titan hadn't shown up yet.
Aside from that, nothing much had happened. Sunny had recently gone on a visit to the Dream Realm to check on their friends in the Ivory Tower, but Hugo himself had refused to go. He couldn't allow himself distractions right now.
And honestly, if he experienced comfort for a moment right now, he might not return to the Antarctica campaign as he would loose his resolve.
So it was best he remained where he was, battling against new horrors everyday.
***
Several more days later, Hugo ascended to the upper deck of the colossal battleship and walked over to its bow. The guards stationed here and there on the deck let him pass freely because of the three stars on the shoulder insignia of his bodysuit, which he had added to the uniform granted by his Omnitrix.
Stopping in the shadow of a massive cannon turret, Hugo endured the cold winds that pelted him with drops of icy water and looked ahead.
In front of him were the towering hulls of other metal leviathans of the naval convoy, which cut the waves as they sailed toward a distant horizon.
And out there, on the horizon…
A dark line slowly appeared, finally putting an end to the vast expanse of undulating water.
Antarctica.
After several tumultuous weeks at sea, the fleet had reached its destination.
Before long, two figures ended up joining him, staring at the frozen continent not far away.
They were, of course, Master Jet and Sunny.
Looking at him, the government Master said:
"You do realize you'll likely die or experience horrors beyond your imagination if you go alone, right?" She suddenly shook her head. "No, it's likely that you'll experience horrors beyond your imagination and then die."
Hugo only gave a smile.
"General, have you ever nuked a region to escape from a great terror, Transform into a divine Titan and kill an unholy terror?"
Jet looked at him with a confused expression, while Sunny seemed to be thinking about something else.
"... No?"
"Exactly! I've already seen horrors beyond my imagination, so it can't get any worse than that."
Sunny suddenly snapped out of his daze and looked at him sharply.
"You fool! You never say it can't get any worse because it can, and in fact, it definitely will definitely get a lot worse!"
Hugo shrugged.
"It was bound to get worse anyway. Besides, getting a funny reaction out of you is worth it."
Jet only looked in confusion between the two of them. She quickly began debating if bringing those two on this operation was a good idea or not.
'Fighting an Unholy Terror? Nuking a region to escape a great terror? Becoming a divine Titan?... What a nut job...'
He couldn't expect her to seriously believe such outlandish and cartoonish feats, what's next, is he going to claim that he has a divine memory?
Jet sighed.
"Well, either way, remember what we agreed on. You'll be sent to the locations I tell you of. And luckily for you, there's a certain Category Three Gate that's going to open in a couple of hours. We need the abominations that are going to emerge from it killed or distracted while some of our caravans go through. Can you do it?"
Hugo nodded. "The Tyrant will give me a little trouble, but yes." He activated his Omnitrix, seeing the destination on his Network tab, then he activated the transformation dial and circled through his aliens before landing on Big Chill.
Looking at the two Masters, Hugo walked to the edge of the deck and smiled.
"I'll see you in... a few months, probably. Or in hell, if we end up dying."
Sunny scowled.
"Don't include me, you bastard. I'm not planning on dying anytime soon, for your information."
Jet was about to agree with sunny, but she stopped herself from doing so for obvious reasons.
Hugo sighed. "You guys are no fun."
With that, he let himself fall from the top of the ship while looking at them.
A flash of cyan blue exploded and then a streak of blue flashed through the sky as Hugo flew towards the destination.
The two Masters stared at him with a calm expression before muttering at the same time:
"Show off."
***
Hugo, as Big Chill, flew across the vast expanse of Antarctica, towards the location of the category Three Gate, or at least the area that it was about to open in.
The location was north and luckily, it was far from the human settlements, although it did pose the danger of the Nightmare Creatures destroying the roads or spreading throughout the region, so he had to be careful.
From up here, he could see the entire vast cold land that was Antarctica...
He sighed.
'this place is going to become hell soon...'
Infact, it has already became hell. With nightmare gates already opening everywhere.
Landing on a cliff, Hugo was about three miles away from the spot the Gate was about to open in.
Usually, he would've used this time to spawn minions and prepare for the horde, but instead Hugo allowed his shadow to manifest as an avatar, and at the same time, he summoned Zed.
The shadow gave him a nod as it circled its Shadowtrix, looking for the right alien to use in this atmosphere.
Big Chill was the obvious one due to the region; however, that form did not possess enough physical strength to deal with the large horde.
So instead, he focused on a much more brutish approach.
The shadow grew in size, becoming a towering fusion of a dinosaur and a human, made of pure shadows.
It had assumed the form of Humungousaur, more than that, it chose the Terror class as its main class.
As it did, it began creating minions of the Awakened rank, spreading them through the battlefield, and at the same time, spreading its influence through the world via its minions.
Hugo noticed how similar, and also how unfamiliar, the Terror class was when it came to his shadow.
The minions created by his shadow were less creatures and more... shades of creatures—not alive, but also not fully dead.
The shadow seemed to have a deeper connection to them, more than Hugo did to his own minions , at least. It made sense, after all his shadow was a true shadow creature in a way.
It made him wonder if his shadow could transform into a human.
Ignoring the thought, Hugo slammed his Omnitrix and changed forms.
Crystal grew over his body as he became much bulkier and much more powerful.
"Diamondhead!" He shouted his alien name out of habit.
Then, Hugo twisted his Omnitrix, activating the [Omni-Kik] armor. The armor spread from his watch, encasing his body in grey, yellow, and white metallic armor.
Hugo had stopped himself from using [Fusion] or [Omni-Enhanced] due to the fact that both abilities were too essence-draining. He needed to conserve his essence as much as possible, making sure to utilize his Titanic powers while always keeping at least two cores full of essence.
As a Titan, Hugo could not summon his minions, not because he lost his Tyrant and Terror abilities, but because he had become too broad to cut a piece of himself and make it a minion. In this form, his Titan consciousness was always active, becoming his regular perception of the world.
It was eerie and alien, making him afraid of the changes that it would do to him...
It was ironic, he was one of the most adaptable creatures in existence and yet, he was still afraid of change.
Hugo had followed his plan, making his shadow a Terror, and himself a Titan for the upcoming battle.
He turned to Zed, looking at the alien blue wolf.
"Give them hell, girl."
The wolf nodded at his words, then the world suddenly darkened, becoming much more... Foul.p
A crack in reality began emerging, making Hugo feel the sickly feeling of corruption.
The Nightmare Seed had bloomed, becoming a Gate and creating a passage for the terrifying abominations to pour into this world.