Chapter 68: Lab Rat Once Again
[Somewhere — Forever Knight Stronghold]
A young man with messy brown hair was trapped inside a strange device that could best be described as a mechanical restraint system,The machine used dozens of articulated metal arms to immobilize his body completely. Thick clamps locked his shoulders, waist and legs in place, while several smaller mechanisms held his wrists apart from his body.
The restraints were carefully designed so that he could not be able to reach the device on his wrist.
That device, naturally, was the most powerful device in the universe, the Omnitrix and the young man was none other than Ben Tennyson himself.
Or more accurately…
Hugo, who had taken Ben Tennyson's place during the Second Nightmare...
However, something about him was terribly wrong...
His eyes — once bright green — were now nothing but ruined pits of flesh.
His eye sockets had become red hollow containing no sight within them.
All around him stretched a massive laboratory filled with all manner of devices and containment chambers and inside those chambers were living specimens of every race in existence.
Noble creatures.
Nightmare creatures.
Humans.
Animals.
And even insects.
Everything that had ever been created by the gods seemed to exist somewhere within this monstrous laboratory showcasing how much of a monster its owner was...
The owner of this place was none other than Dr. Joseph Chadwick, the most insidious and terrifying of the Forever Kings, feared even by his other colleagues.
At the moment, he was calmly humming an upbeat tune while examining Hugo's restrained body with darkness nestling in the depths of his eyes. Tubes extracted blood from Hugo's arm while several scanners ran across his torso, showing his Skeleton through another device.
Every now and then, the doctor glanced at him with open fascination.
"Hoho…"
Joseph ran his hand slowly across Hugo's body, pressing against muscles, bones and skin as if studying an exotic specimen.
"What a peculiar thing you are…"
Suddenly his hand shot upward grabbing Hugo's chin violently and forced his ruined face upward.
Madness flickered in Joseph's eyes, as he seemed to lose his mind for a moment.
"Tell me, boy… no… creature."
His grin disappeared leaving no humor on his face.
"Who are you really?"
Hugo had only just begun regaining fragments of consciousness at the moment. After all the pain of losing his eyes was still fresh and more importantly Blindness swallowed everything he had ever known, forcing Hugo to experience a new type of fear that he did not even know existed...
At that moment, he understood clearly how Cassie must've felt...
His lips trembled weakly as he opened them, responding to the voice who had taken everything from him.
"Ben… Tennyson…"
Dr Joseph smiled once again then, without warning, His hand plunged straight into Hugo's chest, his transcendent strength easily piercing the body of an awakened..after a bit of searching, he ripped Hugo's heart out.
Hugo's body convulsed violently as blood flooded his throat as he tried to scream, but no sound escaped him.
Yet before his body could collapse…
The wound sealed on itself, his Flesh regenerated and his Bones repaired and a new heart formed within seconds.
The one who had initiated this process was dr Joseph of course, using his unholy powers to heal the injured Hugo.
He held the still-beating heart up to the light, examining it with glee.
"Do you know what the difference is between you… and the inhabitants of this world?"
Hugo remained silent, paralyzed by shock and agony while Joseph slammed the heart into a strange machine beside him and began pressing several buttons, starting some strange process.
"Your body and soul make absolutely no sense!"
His voice suddenly rose with manic excitement.
"First of all, your soul does not fit your body! With the channels responsible for circulating soul essence through your body being completely different from anyone else in this realm! That could be blamed on that hideous watch bonded to your wrist..."
He pointed excitedly at the Omnitrix, which was hidden behind a mass of restraints.
"However… I disagree."
Joseph shook his head.
"Because Ben Tennyson never possessed an Aspect... I know that for certain because we have been observing him closely for six years now..."
He tapped several more controls on the machine.
"And yet… you have one."
He turned back toward Hugo, eyes gleaming with interest.
"That Aspect is currently overlapping with the Omnitrix itself, two completely incompatible systems existing simultaneously!"
Joseph suddenly grabbed Hugo's cheek gently.
For a moment his voice became almost soft.
"Furthermore… you possess something Ben Tennyson could have never had...The Nightmare Spell."
Joseph's grin stretched wider.
"Weaver's magnum opus, the omnipotent existence that devoured six gods and five daemons. The false promise of salvation with the purpose of cultivating new gods... and trapping the oldest one in the seventh nightmare.."
Just as he said those words, a strain was suddenly put on Hugo's soul as forbidden knowledge entered his mind. However, he had built a little immunity to it by now and so, a nightmare seed had not sprouted from his body.
That too, seems to have caught dr Joseph attention.
"You are a carrier of the Nightmare Spell… which is absolutely impossible for Ben Tennyson... which means, you are not Ben Tennyson."
The machine beside him suddenly activated.
The heart Joseph had extracted was drained completely of blood, turning lifeless grey and The liquid flowed through tubes into a glass chamber.
Inside said chamber, the blood mixed with a mass of pure black matter and the substance turned completely black.
Darker than the color black itself.
The mixture was then separated into several glass vials, which joseph lifted one of them and examined it with fascination.
"You must be some sort of parasite."
He glanced back at Hugo, shaking his head.
"No that's not it, the Omnitrix would have stopped you from taking over…"
He froze suddenly, as if realizing something that should have been obvious. his eyes lit up with manic realization.
"Yes! That must be it!"
He grabbed Hugo by the face, slapping him multiple times to keep him awake.
"You mantled Ben Tennyson!"
Hugo's cracked lips moved weakly once again, trying to keep the conversation going so that nothing happens to him.
"…Mantled?"
Joseph nodded rapidly.
"Yes! Exactly!"
His excitement grew as he began pacing around the room like a little kid.
"Just like Maxwell Tennyson!"
He spun around dramatically.
"The old man mantled ketzelkan, the fallen deity of Mictlan and became condemnation! Inheriting the sorcery of the asuras and also his [fate]..." He paused for a moment, thinking deeply "but you don't even understand how you did it, do you?"
Joseph began explaining enthusiastically, as if it was his favorite subject and Hugo, with no choice in the matter, listened.
"Imagine a person born within the grand tapestry of fate. Their life is written from beginning to end, with every moment being documented there like a story"
He raised a finger.
"But then another being arrives, that being steps into the same path… takes that fate… and becomes that person, tricking the universe, and fate itself, into thinking that they are that person while in truth, they are only an imitator.. an epigone, if you will."
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"That is mantling, the ultimate defiance of the universe... the old man used it to quickly rise through the ranks and inherit the knowledge of the asuras... however, he is slowly losing himself and the like between his true self and condemnation has became thin... but that isn't important for now. "
Joseph chuckled slightly.
"Infact, the nightmare spell itself uses this very concept when it sends aspiratns and awakeneds into their nightmares, making them mantle the fates of certain creatures that existed in the ancient era and than rewarding the challengers the more they deviate from the original fate... The the civilization of Mictlan understood mantling better than anyone else which is why they had such powerful awakened amidst their ranks."
He walked toward a nearby display screen showcasing a gigantic skeleton then, he moved towards mechanical suits inscribed with strange runes, touching them slightly.
"The Sun Realm was indeed extraordinary..."
His tone turned almost reverent.
"They were the first Divine Realm invaded by corruption… and the first to fall to it... Well to be precise it wasn't corruption that led to their demise, rather it was the spirits the sun realm had given birth to. "
"Condemnation, abjuration, abundance, Anathema, the spirit of light, the spirit of animals... They were once supremes, you know. The only ones who have conquered the fifth nightmare in all of existence but unfortunately... They lost themselves in their Divinity"
Joseph shook his head in disgust.
"A civilization like that… brilliant... Fell because of that hateful Divinity... Augh... If only they had embraced corruption. "
For a moment he sighed.
"I almost thought the Sun Realm was actually the War Realm, due to how mighty and advanced they were"
He laughed quietly.
"They were that advanced."
He tapped one of the giant mech suits.
"And then there were the Asuras."
His eyes shone with admiration.
"Inti — ketzelkan brother — created them... From nothing but scraps and stone..."
He spoke almost breathlessly.
"A completely unique form of sorcery created by weaving Soul essence circuits directly into armor! Allowing the suits to connect directly to the soul and fusing with the aspect further enhancing it beyond its natural limits. Those suits allowed mere Awakened warriors to slaughter Corrupted creatures... Creating extremely powerful domains for the sovereigns of that realm..."
He turned slowly back toward Hugo.
His smile faded.
Then his expression shifted and Something darker appeared in his eyes.
"Tell me something…"
His voice became quieter.
"Are you perhaps from one of the Divine Realms?"
He grabbed Hugo's face again.
"Is that where you came from?"
His breathing quickened, as he began listing
"Storm Realm?"
"Shadow Realm?"
"War Realm?"
He began pacing frantically.
"We have tried to reach them for centuries but to no avail! Even now that the boundary of our home has been breached and we are no longer isolated from the rest of existence, we cannot traverse the frightening expanse of the fallen realms and reach the borders of other Divine ones..."
He slammed his fist against a console.
"We cannot invade them!"
His voice rose into near hysteria.
"The Storm Realm rejects us!"
"The Shadow Realm hides itself!"
"And the War Realm…"
He shuddered slightly.
"…remains silent, as if the nightmare itself is protecting it..."
Joseph's eyes twitched.
"The Heart Realm has already been consumed by the Dream Realm so it's useless and you cannot be from there…"
He suddenly leaned inches from Hugo's face.
"So tell me."
His voice trembled with obsessive curiosity.
"How did you get here? How did you enter this realm?"
"HOW DID YOU CROSS BETWEEN REALMS?!"
Hugo's lips trembled as the mad scientist screamed at him...
His head shook violently and his body felt terribly cold...
He did not want to be here anymore...
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Author's notes:
1- the beast realm is the third realm to get infected by the spell. With the sun being the first the heart being the second.
2- Joseph knows there's something wrong with Hugo but he's very off topic
3- remember the mantling thing, it's going to be important (it's an original concept made by me)
4- this chapter was yapping, but next chapter will be important stuff, and the nightmare is about 50% done now