Chapter 7: Vilgax the Conqueror
Hugo found himself crawling through the cramped, metallic darkness of the ventilation system, the cold alloy pressing against the sleek plates of his [Proto-Tech armor], It had been the only viable escape route after the cafeteria became a literal death zone swarming with the relentless brown drones.
He was confident he couldn't win against an entire squad as his survival against SixSix had been a fluke, a desperate scramble at the edge of death.
But He had taken the liberty of claiming the alien assassin's twin laser swords, their hilts now secured to his armor's magnetic strips which were an extremely useful function of his armor type memory.
Still a part of him lamented the fact of not being able to pillage SixSix's corpse for Soul Shards or the advanced armor he wore but the rational part of his mind, the part that wanted to live had overruled the greedy one as His life wasn't worth risking for some scraps.
Now, as he navigated the labyrinthine ducts, the silence broken only by the scuffing of his knees and elbows, he decided to take stock of his abilities. His new Attributes were one of the few advantags he had in this nightmare.
So far, [Anatomica] had proven to be the most useful considering it's simplicity and effects. It was a constant, low-level hum of vitality within him, stitching together minor abrasions and augmenting his body with an unnatural sturdiness. His [Spirit Core] on the other hand was a more subtle boon but he was beginning to appreciate its value the longer he spent in this nightmare.
It was only after his battle with sixsix that he realized it's true value, as It was strange that he a Dormant human –not even a dreamer yet– had been able to contend with an Awakened creature even for a moment and He theorized that the [Spirit Core] had been secretly feeding his body and nascent soul with a steady trickle of energy which he had taken to calling Spirit Essence, inspired by the Soul Essence used by true Awakened.
He couldn't consciously control it to augment his strength or speed like a real Awakened could but its passive reinforcement had undoubtedly been the difference between a broken rib and a crushed torso during the confrontation against sixsix.
That left [Shadow-Rend], which remained an enigma. The Spell's description was maddeningly vague as it mentioned that his shadow had become "impossibly vast and malleable," granting him "tenebrous powers."
Hugo was no expert on Awakened lore—the Great clans and legacies held secrets far beyond his reach— but he knew more then mundune people due to his obsession with the very concept of an awakened.
And so he knew that awakeneds with shadow affinity were incredibly rare. True shadow-attuned Nightmare Creatures were practically mythical, their existence only hinted at in the records of Saints and Masters who had braved deeper Nightmares, and in the legacy of the Shadow God himself. And so What exactly did it mean for his shadow to be vast and malleable? How did one even wield "tenebrous powers"?
Then, His musings were abruptly cut short by a voice filtering up through the vent grates below. It was higher-pitched, more nuanced than the other galvan soldiers he'd heard before—a female Galvan.
"Galvan Unit 12, requesting a status report!" the voice demanded, sharp with authority.
Hugo froze, carefully shifting to peer through the slits of a ventilation grate. Below was a compact, dimly lit room dominated by a massive, curved console. Dozens of holographic screens floated in the air, displaying a chaotic mosaic of the ongoing invasion.
A single Galvan, wearing more intricate robes than the soldiers, stood before it, her small hands flying across the gigantic control panel.
It seemed Hugo had came across a command center.
A crackling voice responded from the communicator. "Galvan Unit 12 reporting! The situation is dire, I repeat, the situation is dire! The droids have infiltrated the Null Void Projector complex and are releasing the prisoners from their containment sectors! The one behind the attack is suspected to be—"
The voice was cut off by a thunderous explosion that distorted the comms signal. When it cleared, the Galvan's voice was shrill with panic. "By the moon... it's him! It's Vilgax! All units, focus your fire! Concentrate all—"
The transmission dissolved into a symphony of weapon fire, screams, and a final, static-laced roar. Then, silence.
The female Galvan commander slammed a tiny fist on the console. "Unit 12?! Respond! Get out of there now!" she shouted into the dead channel. Her shoulders slumped. "Damn it! Why did the First Thinker leave Galvan Prime at this time!"
Hugo watched the scene beneath him his breath held with amusement.
Then, a faint, red glow appeared on the ceiling of the command center directly above the commander. It traced a perfect, sizzling circle.
Before the Galvan could even look up, the circle of metal fell inward. A dark figure dropped from the new opening with the silent grace of a predator.
In a single, fluid motion, a blade of red plasma descended upon The Galvan commander.
The female galvan was bisected before a scream could form, her body falling into two neatly cauterized halves.
[You have slain an awakened beast: Galvan Commander.]
The voice of the spell whispered in his head, sweat and promising as always.
Hugo let out a slow, quiet sigh. "Again, no Memories..." he muttered bitterly.
The Spell's reward system wa truly s inscrutable. Killing SixSix, a genuine Awakened threat, had yielded nothing, while a dying, helpless soldier had given him his armor memory which It made no sense.
'Can't be helped, I suppose,' he thought, pushing the frustration down. He then deactivated the energy blade and turned his attention to the sprawling console.
The screens were filled with runes and symbols he'd never seen, yet the Spell's translation function allowed him to comprehend them instantly. He was looking at the tactical overview of the entire facility, and it was a picture of total collapse.
One screen showed a phalanx of Galvan soldiers being overwhelmed by a tide of red drones, their precise formations shattered by sheer numbers.
Another displayed the exterior of the magnificent white spire, where a gigantic warship of brown metal and pulsating red energy hung in the green sky, raining down beams of destruction that vaporized entire sections of the city.
A third feed showed the prison blocks. The doors were blasted open, and a horde of freed prisoners—a grotesque menagerie of multi-limbed, multi-headed aliens—were now fighting alongside the drones, their centuries of pent-up rage directed at their former captors.
Then, Hugo's eyes landed on another screen, and the blood in his veins ran cold.
The image was from an external camera. It showed a towering humonoid figure wearing a colossusbattle-scarred armor. Where the armor parted, his flesh was exposed—a mass of light-green, rock-hard tentacles that writhed with suppressed power. In one hand, he wielded a harrowing sword so massive it could have felled a building and he used it with casual world-ending fury, hacking through defensive emplacements and Galvan squads as if they were wheat. His eyes, two pits of burning crimson, flashed, releasing a wave of raw, red energy that evaporated an entire defensive tower in an instant.
This was not a soldier nor was it a creature instead this was a force of nature, an avatar of conquest making a deliberate unstoppable path toward the very spire Hugo was hiding in.
A cold dread, deeper than any he had felt before, gripped Hugo's heart. This was the apocalypse he had witnessed at the beginning of the nightmare, given form and name.
'Don't tell me my trial is to kill... that...' he gulped, the thought itself feeling like a form of suicide. The sheer scale of the being's power was incomprehensible for someone like Hugo.
'Wait... is that the one they called Vilgax?' The name fit him perfectly. It sounded like what you'd expect from a herald of death and destruction.
But then, his scanning eyes found another camera feed, and his fear was momentarily eclipsed by a cold, sharp focus. The frown on his face melted away replaced by a mad, savage smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Found you..." he murmured, the words a venomous whisper.
The feed was from a secure, internal laboratory. There, untouched by the pandemonium, was Albedo. The Galvan scientist moved with an unnerving, placid calm, as if the destruction of his entire world was a minor inconvenience. He was typing commands into a floating green holographic interface, his expression one of detached concentration.
"Just what are you planning, you bastard..." Hugo's knuckles were white as he remembered the painful torture he had been put through.
Then on the screen, a section of the laboratory's wall slid open with a silent, seamless motion, revealing a hidden passageway shrouded in darkness. Without a backward glance at the chaos displayed on his own monitors, Albedo stepped through and the door sealed behind him.
Hugo noticed with a surge of frustration that there were no camera feeds from within that passage rendering It was a blind spot which meant that it was a place of extreme importance kept secret even from the facility's own security.
'Now that I think about it... he did mention something about an 'it' when I was in the pod...' The memory of Albedo's excited muttering returned to him. What was in that hidden passage?was it The "greatest creation" of the first thinker he had spoken of?
Hugo sighed, the weight of his impossible situation pressing down on him. He could stay here, relatively safe in the vents or the command room and then he could wait for the situation to unfold before him.
But he had seen the end of this story. He had watched this entire civilization be erased in a vision of reversed time and so he knew Waiting here was a delayed death sentence.
His eyes darted across the other camera feeds one last time, taking in the full scope of the invasion. He saw a tall, armored figure with a sleek helmet firing shards of crystalline energy from its hands, pinning Galvan soldiers to the walls. In another quadrant, a hulking, crab-like alien with a brutish carapace was methodically smashing through reinforced doors with its powerful claws.
The galaxy was tearing itself apart in this hallway, and Albedo was calmly walking towards his secret project.
'Maybe the venting system will lead me towards the laboratory...' he thought.
It was a thin hope but it was the only plan he had for now.
And so With a final grim look at the screen showing Vilgax's relentless advance, Hugo turned and climbed up towards the venting system beginning his crawl once more, pushing deeper into the claustrophobic darkness, driven by hatred and a desperate need for answers.