Chapter 167: Fate of Beast
Far away in the dream realm, in the deepest parts of a terrifying desert, an army of undead warriors, the legions of the divine gods and the daemons, marched together side by side, led by one man...
Or what used to be a man.
Azarax, the plague of steel, the conqueror of a hundred realms and the king of kings.
The oldest supreme in history had been consumed by the curse of shadow god, and after finishing his deal with a peculiar boy, his lust for conquest had been reborn anew
He left the place known as fake primus and set out to conquer all of existence. The people of beast did not interest him, nor were they worthy of becoming his thralls but they would be subjugated by him when the time comes.
Azarax had wanted to subdue Eurys of the Nine, a man who had claimed apotheosis long ago and became a god and who was also a wielder of the legendary Omnitrix. But alas, he was defeated by that wretch and subdued by him.
He fought day after day in Ariel's hell, battling the army of the divine host himself, with no domain to speak of.
But that was not the case for long, as his aspect was not sealed off anymore and his might slowly returned to him.
With each day, more and more soldiers were subjugated by Azarax and forced to join his domain. Even those afflicted with the curse of shadow god could not escape the plague of steel.
Dormant, Awakened, Ascended, Transcendent and supreme champions of all races were defeated by Azarax, and with the help of his supreme ability, those champions defeated other undead, further increasing his already massive domain.
The king of kings' conquest had not gone swiftly, unfortunately... After a while, he slowly began losing his sanity and forgetting who he was.
In other words, he was becoming one of the deathless.
Knowing this was the case, Azarax decided to embrace this change and continue to march into the deeper areas of Ariel's hell...
There, he encountered the being known as the skinwalker, who he had almost killed.
The great terror was not more powerful than him, however it had managed to escape him due to the fact that Azarax could not destroy its vessel.
At one point, Azarax and his army had begun encountering more and more supreme beings... And sacred.
The god known as the wandering archon was a tricky foe as Azarax was not capable of combatting him, nor did he possess any abilities that countered it.
His only option was becoming a sacred himself and defeating him...
But the plague of steel would not have to worry about that for long, as the curse of death finally consumed the last of his spirit.
And when it did... His sight had changed from conquering the deathless, to conquering the living.
And who was the closest to him right now?
The children of beast.
***
An army of deathless, led by the plague of steel marched across the white desert.
Their eyes were set on the green energy wall that separated the fake primus from Ariel's hell.
The wall could stop all the corrupted and usually, the lesser powerful deathless.
But a while ago, something powerful had managed to break the wall... Something ancient and vast.
It was Azarax, the king of kings. His will, vast as the heavens above, could break the wall and bring doom to the realm of beast. The king's was long gone, but his lust for conquest had been imprinted on his body.
However, the deathless Azarax was not facing one of the mortal realms he used to conquer in the past... Instead, he was facing the last remnants of a divine realm.
***
A creature with a burly, muscular build stood defiant before the newly founded Steel Horde, holding off the approaching army of deathless by himself. Its camo-green skin was a stark contrast to the dark blue, Ankylosaurus-like armor it wore. A helmet with three silver spikes and two downward-pointing black horns protected its head. Its back armor was lined with long spikes, and its plated chest and torso were studded with them and a blue, silver-spiked mace capped its powerful tail.
Its black claws flexed, and the silver barrels on its knuckles transformed into missile launchers, destroying the deathless...
But alas, those creatures did not know death and so they could never be destroyed, only suppressed for the time being.
The creature was none other than Ben Tennyson, who had assumed the form of ultimate Humungousaur.
He had managed to bring back the Ultimatrix with him from the second nightmare, which had proven a great boon when defending his people.
The schematics of the Ultimatrix were known only to one person, Albedo, who had long disappeared from this realm.
On the other side of the battlefield, a man made of steel was moving at subsonic speed, breaking the deathless with his hammer like hands.
Kevin was doing pretty well against the deathless, but that was only the case for the Transcendent champions, not the supreme ones...
Only Gwen could hold off the supremes as she was a master at runic sorcery and her aspect allowed her to tap into a special kind of sorcery, one that was unaccessible to all humans.
Far away in the battlefield, Gwen's light was shining brightly as she managed to suppress two supreme champions and launch them out of the barrier surrounding the fake primus.
Those champions were not sovereigns, nor did they possess the will of one. They were likely noble creatures of the supreme rank, and even then, the curse of death had long weakened their powers to the point where their wills was almost non-existent.
Looking at the destruction, Gwen flew to the sky and looked down at the battlefield.
Her friends and family were fighting against the deathless, as they had done multiple times in the last few months. All of their efforts were useless, as the deathless could not die and thanks to Azarax, they grew even more powerful after defeating someone.
They were an unstoppable force, quite literally.
But why stop an unstoppable force when you can redirect it?
"Portallus projectum!"
Beneath the feet of the deathless, a gigantic pink portal appeared making them fall into its depths.
The portal's range was not far away, only thirty meters. But that allowed her to send the deathless outside of the fake primus which gave time to Driba to fix the barrier.
Thankfully Azarax himself had not entered the fake primus and so they were spared from facing him.
The barrier closed, separating the fake primus from the rest of the dream realm.
"Venetis icatis ixenis!" Gwen cast a strengthening spell on the barrier, making sure it holds a little longer the next time Azarax decides to cut it open once again.
The one advantage they had was that time worked differently in primus, so a minute outside could be a month here or if they were unlucky, a minute outside could be a minute.
It was a gamble, as the laws and rules of fake primus was unnatural.
Floating towards Ben and Kevin, Gwen exited her Transcendent form and landed gently on the ground. Her essence was almost depleted but she would survive.
Ben detransformed from ultimate Humungousaur into normal Humungousaur and then into his human form.
Ben looked at the battlefield. There was a few losses here and there among the Awakened soldiers, but none of the Transcendent champions, like Rook, Charmcaster, Ester and Lucy.
"How long are we going to keep this up?"
"You mean surviving? Hopefully for the longest time possible."
Kevin cracked his neck as he said those words. He seemed carefree and unserious, after all why wouldn't he? Despite it all, he was still an adrenaline junky.
Ben sighed.
"You know what I meant. As we are now, we can't stop Azarax, in fact we can barely deal with his army." He pointed towards the other saints present at the battlefield. "Including you two, there's only six Transcendents in this entire place. Most of the people we're protecting are struggling to cultivate and ascend from the Awakened rank, and we're dealing with Transcendent and supreme creatures."
The population of fake primus was large, and it was only expanding everyday with the noble creatures and the humans repopulating everyday.
Unfortunately, no genius emerged from those people and the nightmare spell did not infect the people born here.
The spell only infected people from the divine realms, and fake primus was an artificial mortal realm.
"What do you suggest we do then? Throw ourselves at a fourth nightmare and hope for the best?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. I enter the real primus, find a third nightmare and become a saint, then I join you and we leave to become demigods."
"Tennyson, did staying as Alien X for ten years fuck up your little brain? Firstly, trying to find a third nightmare seed in the real primus would most certainly cause your death, but alright, let's say you pull off another miracle and become a saint. Then what? You expect us to leave for the fourth nightmare when there's no one protecting our people?!"
"I expect us to do something instead of staying here and waiting for our end!"
The fall of the beast realm had caused nearly everyone who was at the Transcendent rank, and the few ones that were supreme, to meet their ends at the hands of Dagon.
Only the masters and Awakened survived, and they only managed to Transcend.
After all, from their perspective, the fall of the beast realm happened only ten years ago.
Kevin was right, and everyone—Ben included—knew that. Leaving their people to die was certainly not an option, but what else could they do?
If they wanted to survive, they would need supreme champions and perhaps even sacred ones.
"Enough, both of you." Gwen chimed in. "Yes our situation is desperate and we need to grow stronger but squabbling like this would not solve anything. Me and Charmcaster are slowly figuring out natural supremacy through manuscript, which is certainly an option for us. And our Awakened could grow stronger from the frequent battles they're experiencing."
Hardship bred strength, after all.
The people of the beast realm had survived much and now, they were being assaulted by the deathless steel horde and nightmare creatures.
Rifts occasionally opened between the real primus and the fake primus, allowing terrifying abominations to cross over here.
Those abominations, when slain, could become powerful memories, echoes and their bodies could be used to create weapons. Their soul shards could be used for cultivation and much more.
Gwen looked at her friends and exhaled.
"We mustn't lose hope... Or else Grandpa Max's sacrifice would've been for nothing."
Ben stared at her for a long moment, then scoffed.
"Grandpa would've wanted us to do something instead of chasing fairytales."
Ben activated his Ultimatrix and dialed Jetray before flying away from the group.
"... Moody much?" Kevin looked at his companions, who are all giving him a stern look. "What? It was funny."
***
Ben landed in new Bellwood, and quickly reached his private quarters without talking to anyone.
He entered his room and sat on his bed, feeling frustrated at not being able to do anything... And also feeling guilty for what he has done in the second nightmare.
His actions were horrible, and there was no justification for them. Ben only hoped he could set them right, if he ever meets Hugo in the future.
'I wonder... If I had taken his body back then, would my situation be better?'
It probably would... After all, doing the bad thing was easier and far more rewarding than doing the good thing but it didn't matter. What's done is done and now Ben must live with the consequences of his actions.
Ben decided to bring out his runes to pass the time.
Name: Ben Tennyson
True name: Formless Hero
Rank: Ascended
Soul cores: [7/7]
Aspect: [Sublimation]
Aspect rank: supreme
Aspect description: [Unlike other creatures, you possess the extraordinary ability of tampering with your own existence]
Dormant ability: [Thousands Fold]
Ability description: [You can augment your physical body to withstand hardships.]
Awakened ability: [Soul Power]
Ability description: [You can augment your soul.]
Ascended ability: [Shadow's Might]
Ability description: [You can augment your shadow.]
Attributes: [Omnitrix], [Half-blood], [Dreamspawn]
[Omnitrix] attribute description: [The First divine relic made by mortal hands has bonded your soul]
Attribute traits: [bound], [Imprint], [Transform], [ultimate], [master control], [Failsafe], [Fusion].
[Half-blood] attribute description: [You possess both noble blood and human blood]
[Dreamspawn] attribute description: [You have been reborn anew in the depths of a harrowing nightmare, with no divine realm claiming your mortal soil, the dream realm has claimed you as one of its wretched children.]
Ben's aspect was something he had unsealed a long time ago, before the second nightmare and his infection with the spell.
He had been an extraordinary Awakened once who awakened naturally and unsealed a powerful aspect centered around augmentation.
His aspect made it so all of the parts that made up his existence were strengthened, and it also gave him the ability to empower them even further.
This augmentation was the reason he was able to use the Ultimatrix and rise in ranks without harming his soul.
Of course, his supreme aspect could not fix a jump from Awakened to divine but that was to be expected.
His extra cores were courtesy of the Omnitrix, and his two other attributes were a little bit of a mystery.
[Half-blood] came from the fact that his grandmother was an anodite, a noble creature, making Ben not a full human. It made him more powerful physically and gave him an affinity for sorcery.
[Dreamspawn] on the other hand was a complete mystery. No one knew what it was and those who did are no longer in the beast realm.
'Having the spell is Still strange...'
He has lived his entire life without it, so having it now was bizarre, in a good way.
The spell allowed him to use his aspect better, use his Omnitrix better and manipulate soul essence in a more efficient way.
Still... Ben wanted to ascend further.
As he was now, he could turn into a Transcendent creature using the ultimate function, and even a supreme one if he pushed the limits of his aspect.
Of course, the ultimate function was not capable of skipping ranks. Instead it made the imprint go through millions of years of Battle to make it evolve into its ultimate form. A state of being made only for combat and bloodshed.
So, when he used the function on an alien like Humungousaur, he was not truly Transcending, but instead pushing the boundaries of his soul into the next rank.
Ultimate Humungousaur lacked the traits of a true Transcendent being, which was something that was shared between all his aliens.
The same went for when Transcendent aliens are pushed into the supreme rank by the Ultimatrix. They wouldn't gain a domain or an authority over their source element but they would gain a semblance of will and their physical abilities would be elevated to the supreme rank.
Still, the ultimate function is the most powerful ability within the omnitrix, and without it Ben would not have survived the second nightmare nor would he have been able to defend his people.
'The path of ascension is the only path forward.'
That day, ben made his decision.
He was going to challenge the third nightmare and become a saint and than, he was going to peruse supremacy and become a demigod to bring salvation to his people.