Chapter 85: Completed omnitrix
Hugo eyes locked into the runes of the nightmare spell, he was still having a headache from becoming a Titan but the runes had sobered him up a little.
'no way...'
An evolution? Like an aspect evolution?
But His aspect was already Divine, so what could it possibly evolve into? Or perhaps, he himself would be elevated a new rank ? That would be nice, however Hugo was not foolish enough to believe ascension was that easy.
But something like the ultimate function that ben possessed was never out of the question...
Either way, this evolution was bound to be beneficial for him... Although it could also render his omnitrix inactive for a while, and that was bound to be extremely dangerous considering the fact there's a cursed deity roaming around...
"Screw it, I'm going to die eitherway"
Looking at the runes, his eyes became shaky a little, and his heart pounded a bit harder.
[Yes?] [No?]
"Yes"
The runes disappeared for a moment, however he had noticed them becoming slightly green right before disappearing.
Then, the spell spoke in a strange voice...
[So be it.]
It wasn't malicious or anything... rather it sounded angry, a madman would have even said it sounded jealous but fortunately Hugo was not that mad.
The Omnitrix on his arm, still visible thanks to [Asura] wrapping around it just enough to keep the dial and activation button accessible, was suddenly engulfed by a black and green liquid-like matter that oddly resembled Upgrade.
[Upgrading...]
This time, it was the Omnitrix's voice that spoke as the shape of the watch shifted and morphed, its silhouette transforming into something Hugo didn't recognize.
And at the same time, Hugo felt something deep within him change, it was not as profound as ascending in ranks however it was still profound enough to make him gasp for breath.
his aspect. The omnitrix was changing, it was becoming more complete.
Moreover, he felt something he had never sensed before suddenly vanish, only to be replaced by something else. At the same time, a heavy burden settled onto his soul.
Eventually the voice of the omnitrix spoke:
[Your omnitrix has been completed]
The strange galvanic materiel retracted into the omnitrix revealing its new appearance.
It was not what Hugo had expected.
Firstly, the dial was gone entirely, replaced by a sleek square faceplate.
The Omnitrix now resembled a modern digital wristwatch, similar to the ones rich kids wore in NQSC. Its square faceplate carried a striking white, green, and black color scheme that looked oddly beautiful and alien. The black surface was marked by two glowing green stripes that elegantly outlined the familiar hourglass symbol of Galvan technology, though this version appeared far more unique and refined than the previous one.
"... What no power ups? That's it?"
Hugo said in a disappointed voice, slouching slightly as he looked at his new watch
Sure the omnitrix looked better now, but a visual upgrade was not what he needed right now...
then he suddenly remembered something
"Ah of course"
Hugo summoned his runes, scrolling down towards his soulbound attribute to check out its new traits
Attribute: [Soulbound]
Attribute traits: [omni-mind] [failsafe], [Voice command], [Omni-kiks], [primus], [Genetic repair], [master control]
He focused on the newest trait
[Master Control]
Trait Description: [You can control the Omnitrix's inner system through its control board.]
'inner system? Like a computer?'
Hugo looked deep within him, drawing upon the power of the [master control] trait, and as he did, the omnitrix glowed a little then a green screen suddenly appeared from the omnitrix.
The screen displayed a list of tabs he could choose from:
-Modes (+++++++)
-network
-playlists
-features (+++)
- newtab (+)
'what the hell is this...'
Growing more confused the more he read, hugo pressed on the modes tab and received a selection of the following modes:
-stealth mode
-classic mode (cosmetic)
-factory mode
-uniform mode (cosmetic)
-protection mode (passive)
-custom mode (Cosmetic)
-recharge mode (passive)
Hugo felt a bit overwhelmed by all of this... He had known the Omnitrix was advanced technology more than it was a relic, but he hadn't thought it would be this computer-like.
After looking at the screen for a few seconds, Hugo coughed and spoke in a gentle voice:
"Omnitrix, can you explain the capabilities of the new [Master Control] trait? And also the new features I've gained now that you're completed."
He had called upon the [voice command] trait, a much more simpler trait
[Master Control grants the host complete access to the Omnitrix's system, database, and playlists.]
Hugo's eyes widened for a second, then a greedy, mischievous spark ignited in their depths, resembling a particular shadow gremlin he knew all too well.
"Does this mean I have access to all the imprints?"
[All imprints within the Omnitrix are accessible in the DNA chambers. However, they are still corrupted.]
Hugo let out an exhausted sigh
"Sure sure, so ben Tennyson gets access to fresh and clean aliens and I have to get stuck with the corrupted ones, great. Absolutely fantastic." Brushing his hair and wiping away the sweat, he continued "What about the new features?"
[New Omnitrix Features includes: modes, network, playlist and the ability to add an extra custom tab depending on the host's preference.]
"Well that's certainly useful..."
The omnitrix continued:
[The modes displays the available modes of the omnitrix, with stealth mode being capable of turning the omnitrix invisible, the factory mode being able to reset the omnitrix causing multiple functions to become unavailable for the duration of the shutdown. The classic mode, the uniform mode and the custom mode are cosmetic modes that are capable of changing the appearance of the omnitrix and the clothing of the host. With the custom mode granting full customization of the omnitrix. while the recharge mode is responsible for regenerating the new omnitrix battery. Lastly, the protection mode is responsible for protecting the omnitrix against external and internal threats.]
Most of those modes seemed utility-based more than anything else. However, Hugo was particularly interested in the Protection and Recharge modes, as they were the only ones that could benefit him in combat. That didn't mean the other modes were useless, but it did make some far more valuable than the rest.
'I thought having full control over the omnitrix would be cooler...'
The omnitrix automatically exited the modes tab and entered the network and playlists tabs at the same time
[The playlists tab is responsible for showcasing the available playlists within the omnitrix, with the abilities to add and remove certain imprints from the playlists.]
'it's nothing I couldn't before but I guess this makes it simpler?'
Then Hugo suddenly remembered something important.
"Wait, are playlist 1 and 0 unlocked now?"
The Omnitrix responded calmly:
[Yes. The host can either access all available playlists simultaneously during imprint selection, or choose to use each playlist individually.]
Hugo grinned, feeling adrenaline rush through his body.
'good good! Ah my old aliens! How I missed you!'
"Omnitrix, access all imprints"
[Accessing all available playlists...]
[Request Completed]
Having access to his previous aliens was good, but Hugo still planned on mainly using the aliens from the second playlist. After all, they were all of the Ascended rank — expect for two— while the aliens in playlists 0 and 1 were only Awakened — a level far from sufficient to survive this harrowing nightmare.
The omnitrix Ai continued:
[The network tab allows the host to connect to the closest ruinic or technological network around]
Hugo paused for a moment, looking at the tab with a confused expression
"Wait, does this mean ancient people had the internet? Really?"
The omnitrix took his confused response as a question and answered:
[Yes. All civilization with capable awakened society possessed a form of communication and entertainment network, whether through technology, aspects or sorcery]
"Wow"
He shifted slightly, using the decapitated head of the fallen Titan as support to stand up.
"People from the past sure were interesting..."
Perhaps he would look more into their history — if he survived this nightmare.
"Please continue your explanation, Omnitrix."
[Features tab includes all the available features of the Omnitrix.]
The Omnitrix left the network tab and entered the features tab, showcasing the following mini-tabs:
-scanning (active)
-Transformation/morph (active)
-quick-morph (active)
-Failsafe (passive)
-omni-kiks (active)
-voice command (active)
-Primus (active)
-Dna repair (active)
- master control (passive)
Then, the Omnitrix scrolled down, finally reaching the most interesting new features gained from the evolution:
-Self-destruct (active)
-Randomizer (active)
-Life-Form lock (active)
-Ascension protocol 10 (active)
[Self-Destruct feature would detonate the Omnitrix core, likely killing the host alongside it. Activation is not recommended.]
"You don't say?? Really, Omnitrix? When did you grow a sense of humor?" Hugo laughed dryly "You're almost as funny as Sunny when he's randomly talking to his shadows! Or wait… was it Cassie that randomly talked to her shadows? No, no — Cassie wouldn't be able to see her shadow anyway, so that must be Sunny."
Although Hugo said it in a laughing tone, he was deeply wary of this trait. He knew he had a habit of getting himself into dangerous and bizarre situations, so he wouldn't be surprised if one day, he would actually need to detonate his aspect to save himself or someone he cared about...
'shit... The feature itself is not bad but the fact that I have that option is absolutely infuriating! '
[...]
The omnitrix remained silent for a while, then continued, unbothered by his attitude:
[Randomizer feature Transforms the host constantly, rotating between imprints at random]
Hugo wanted to fall back down... From how stupid this feature was.
'And here I thought the creator of the omnitrix was the greatest mind in all of creation... This feature and the one before it are stupid..'
Why would he ever need a randomizer feature when he possessed the ability to morph between forms?!
With a Groan, he listened to the omnitrix explanation.
[ Life-form Lock feature allows the host to lock themselve in a certain imprint for an indefinite amount of time]
"Oh?"
Hugo was finally intrigued. The ability to remain as an alien forever was a subtle but incredibly useful ability. As the name suggested, he would have to lock himself into a specific Life-Form — an imprint — and stay in that form until he manually unlocked the Omnitrix. It was certainly an interesting ability, one that could help him immensely, especially when the Omnitrix timer ran out. It's only downside was the amount of time needed to lock and unlock the omnitrix but that could be bypassed with preparations.
However, there seemed to be a minor limitation. Hugo could only activate the life-form Lock feature when he's Transformed into a creature of his ranks or below it.
[Ascension protocole 10 allows the hosts to modify the class of their transformations ]
"What?" Hugo frowned in confusion "So, now that I'm an awakened titan, I can choose to become an ascended devil instead of an ascended Titan?"
[Yes.]
"Hoho..."
Hugo let out a ridiculous laugh as he climbed out of the crater.
This last feature was incredibly powerful in battle, for multiple reasons. Firstly, the strain on his soul would lessen when transforming into aliens higher ranks with their class lowered, giving him greater mobility and more time in those forms.
For example, becoming an Ascended Titan put an incredible strain on his soul and drastically shortened the timer. However, becoming an Ascended Devil was much more maintainable, even if less powerful.
He could also use short-burst class ups in the middle of battle, such as jumping directly from an Ascended Devil to an Ascended Titan to gain tremendous power. The same applied to the other classes, naturally.
In a way, it mimicked Ben's Ultimate function, although still weaker for obvious reasons.
"So I assume the last tab allows me to add new tabs, right?"
[Yes]
"Ah, thanks for your help, Omnitrix. There truly has never been a more useful guide in the world, three worlds even!"
Having seen everything there was to see, Hugo touched the square-like faceplate of the Omnitrix. As he did, a holographic circle appeared above it, projected by the device itself, looking nothing like the holograms his omnitrix used to project.
"This is going to be so tricky to get used to..."
He circled the holographic dial by pressing two of his fingers on the faceplate and rotating them.
"A roster of awakened and ascended creatures... Even a Transcendant does not have this much versatility" Hugo muttered. "It's funny how this might still not be enough for this nightmare."
His smile dimmed slightly.
The sounds of battle had been dulled by now. Only the devastating clashes between the cursed god and the mysterious presence continued to send powerful shockwaves across the world.
It was as if the world was coming to an end. Well, not if — it was actually going to end.
"What to do..."
Hugo's best option right now was to retreat using Jetray or Fasttrack. More nightmare gates were opening by the minute, spilling terrifying abominations into the world — creatures he couldn't handle. And there was still a cursed god fighting somewhere in the distance.
Just as Hugo reached the Jetray symbol on the dial, he noticed something not too far away.
Beyond all the destruction and chaos, another battle was raging.
A terrifying dragon clashed violently with a gigantic earthwork, while a blue metallic creature battled a blurry figure using sound-based attacks.
Summoning the [emerald spyglass], Hugo looked through it, trying to get a deeper look on the identity of those creatures...
He did not recognize the dragon and the worm but he did recognize the second figure, who wore an all too familiar bad on his chest.
A wicked grin suddenly spread across Hugo's face.
"Well well well... Look who the cat dragged in..."
—————
Ben was in pain. Every fiber of his soul was hurting, and if not for his ultimate form empowering his soul into the Transcendant rank, he would've been dead a long time ago...
Dodging another ethereal thread from Sir Enoch, Ben barely had the chance to launch another sonic disc and evade, playing cat and mouse with the forever king.
He was a Transcendant Titan, yes, and he was definitely more powerful than Enoch, but he was exhausted. The battles he had fought before encountering Vilgax were already bad enough, however the lingering effects of his will still weighed heavily on his spirit, nearly shattering it.
And at this rate, he wouldn't be able to maintain Ultimate Echo Echo for long, considering that the ultimatrix battery was not infinite, nor was his soul cores endless.
An arc of dark essence rose from Enoch's blade once again, aimed directly at Ben's spine. However, Ben was faster. Using Echo Echo's abilities, he manifested a barrier of sound weaves around his body, stopping the slash... Well, most of it at least.
Enoch's abilities were peculiar and strange, just like Heart God and its followers were, in the ancient past. One of the Masked Knight's abilities was a form of mind manipulation, specifically the ability to manipulate the occipital lobe — the part of the brain responsible for sight. Thankfully , ben was protected from magical mind attacks thanks to the omnitrix, which he had evolved into the Ultimatrix within this nightmare. However, his physical brain was somehow being tampered with in a way that didn't trigger the Ultimatrix's alarms...
Thankfully, Enoch couldn't manipulate or enthrall Ben thanks to this ability being limited by the ultimatrix. He could only distort his senses and eyesight, which was not enough to overpower ben.
Enoch's other abilities were less insidious, although far more terrifying. He had the ability to cut his corrupted soul apart, manifest the cut parts externally, and regenerate his soul by absorbing any type of spirit essence from the world. It's two abilities fused into one to create a terrifying synergy that made Enoch one of the most dangerous warriors in all of existence...
Those were the dark ethereal projections being thrown at him.
'Reminds me of the spammers in Sumo Slammers Rivals… how filty' ben thought as he soared through the skies, using ultimate echo echo flight ability to manoeuver the clouds and dodging the terrifying arcs of doom.
However, ben could not keep this up forever, as his essence reserves were nearly depleted, and so, he decided to improvise. Ben unleashed a powerful essence-expanding ability, one he had never used in Ultimate Echo Echo before due to its danger and also because he had wanted to keep it's a Trump card.
It was Echo Echo's tyrant ability — the one that allowed him to duplicate himself.
An identical metallic Echo Echo split from Ben's main body, followed by five more clones, emerging in a grotesque manner despite the metallic nature of his body.
Now with seven Ultimate Echo Echos, Ben sent five of them lashing out at Enoch from above, drawing the full fury of his projectiles as they circled the sky. The remaining three split to the sides — one to the left, one to the right, and the last one attacking from directly above — making it impossible for Enoch to target all three at once.
And soon enough, that was exactly what happened.
Enoch was already struggling with the five clones from above, using his projectiles to fend them off. However, he managed to briefly react to the two coming from the right and left, weaving a beautiful lattice of slashes with his sword and launching projectiles in all directions...
Ben eyes widen, his consciousness split into seven as he felt himself being cut by the slashes, reaching deep into his souls and tearing them apart.
Thankfully, echo echo's tyrant ability was not merely a duplication of the body but a duplication of the soul as well, so even though he had just experience dying, he was not truly dead.
That was because Enoch had managed to destroy all of his clones, All except one — the one coming from directly above.
THUD
Ben's arm, carrying the overwhelming strength of a Transcendant Titan, slammed into Enoch's armored head, shattering his helmet and his skull at the same time.The impact drove Enoch's body forcefully into the ground, burying him alive.
However The Forever King was not dead, possessing incredible endurance despite his brain being turned into paste.
Instead of screaming in pain, or trying to heal himself, Enoch did something else.
It happened a split second after ben had shattered his skull...
A large amount of energy began amassing in his chest before spreading throughout his broken body, not to heal his broken vessel but instead... Circulate in irregular ways....
Ben eyes widened as he realized what he was doing.
'This insane bastard… He's going to blow up his soul…'
No — that wasn't quite the case. He wasn't going to blow up his entire soul, only a large portion of it. A very large amount, but not enough to kill himself, but that amount of corrupted soul essence would definitely be enough to kill ben or worse, turn him into a corrupted Titan.
"Oh no you don't!"
Before the corrupted king could react, Ben drove his hands into his broken mouth, forcefully prying it open.
Then, Ben shouted at the top of his lungs
"SONIC DOOM!!!"
A terrible weave of sound exploded from Ben's hands, surging through Enoch's body in mere seconds and reaching the depths of his profane soul.
Thanks to becoming a Transcendant Titan, Echo Echo's sonic weaves had gained the ability to damage the soul directly.
So instead of letting him detonate half of it, Ben decided to do him a favor and explode all of his soul.
SQUASH
Ultimate Echo Echo's beautiful metallic frame, usually as blue as the azure sky, was now a crimson mess… covered in gore and body parts.
Enoch's body had exploded entirely, unable to handle the density of the sonic weaves rushing through his body...
As it did, Ben fell to his knees, feeling his energy run completely dry after this final attack...
The Ultimatrix made a beeping sound as he suddenly detransformed from Ultimate Echo Echo into normal Ascended Echo Echo, then fully morphed back into his human form — a mere Awakened Titan.
Albedo's body was in a dire state, covered in bruises and breathing heavily. He had retained the damage he had received when he was in ultimate echo echo, and on top of that, his soul was practically screaming, having descended two whole ranks in mere seconds...
Ben gritted his teeths, pushing his body through sheer will.
"Just a little longer..."
As he struggled to get up, Ben suddenly felt something pass through him, shooting off into the distance… toward Vilgax and George's battle, it was unseen by mundane eyes but he, as a Titan possessed a special sense allowing him to detect it...
It was almost like a soul...
But before he could try to discern the nature of that thing, something suddenly appeared in front of his face.
It was A blur of black and blue, moving at a horrifying speed, ready to impale a sharp spear made of mist into his head.