BEN 10: THE ONE WHO DEFIES GODS
CHAPTER 2: THE VAMPIRE PRINCESS
"Gwen! I smell something nice! Grandpa must be cooking something decent in a while."
Leaning against the rust bucket, I excitedly said to Gwen who was sitting beside me.
My outfit was the usual white shirt with black lines and oversized dark green military pants. Gwen wore a blue shirt with a cat face on the chest and light blue pants.
"Gwen," she didn't answer so I called her name again.
When I tilted my head to see what she was doing, she was reading a Japanese book with a serious look in her eyes.
"Oh, sorry to disturb you, ah-ha."
I brushed off and sat there silently, staring at the river before us.
The summer vacation! I used to wait this time of the year. On the last day of school, I'd join Grandpa Max and my cousin, Gwen, on the road trip and enjoy my vacation!
I sniffed and couldn't help but drool over the smell I'd been getting for a while. I knew it! He must have been making something delicious.
I got up from my chair and walked straight into the kitchen of the rust bucket where Grandpa Max should be cooking.
Grandpa Max was stirring the soup in the steel pot boiled by the gas power.
When he saw me, he gave me a thumb-up.
"Ben, come on, look here. It's so delicious."
"Oh yeah, Grandpa Max!"
I walked eagerly towards him and glanced into the pot.
Then I ran out of the vehicle immediately to vomit.
"Hey, what happened?" Gwen finally gave me attention and asked with a worried expression.
"Grandpa... is cooking worms again," I mumbled before vomiting again.
"Aw, you are naive. We traveled with Grandpa every year and you still don't know about his habits, huh?"
I felt dizzy and took some minutes to recover... Gwen helped me walk back to the chair next to Rust Bucket.
"Are you feeling okay?"
At least I could finally breathe normally...
"Yes, I'm good. Thanks, Gwen."
She nodded and put down the Japanese book on her chair next to me.
"Hey," she said. "Wanna go somewhere and do breathing exercise?"
"Hmm?" Breathing exercise? I know Gwen cared about her health more than I ever did. But it was a strange thing to hear from her.
"Sure. Why not?"
Come to think of it, Gwen and I started off as non-stop arguing cousins. In the last few years, the relationship between us had become better, I suppose. She and I are polar opposites in some cases but mostly, she is like a reliable friend to me, more than a cousin.
"Huh, Gwen? What is this place?"
I didn't know there existed a cave near our camping area.
"A cave, obviously, doofus," she casually said, waving her flashlight. I didn't bring one because I thought she'd bring me somewhere with fresh air.
"I know that, dweeb. How are we gonna do breathing exercise in a cave!?" I asked her with anger in my voice.
"Nah," she lowered the flashlight and tilted her head. "We're not gonna do that, doofus. We are doing... something genuine."
Suddenly, she spun around. The flashlight in her hand turned into dust and vanished. Her body glows with some kind of purple color. I felt the aura and the immense energy radiating from her. Her clothes had disappeared mysteriously.
"Gwen! What are you doing!?"
"Nothing special." Her body wasn't human anymore. It was engulfed in purple life and her flesh had turned into darker purple energy. But overall, her shape was still humanoid. It was... my cousin's anodite form.
Why the heck is she channeling for her anodite form?
"Just a small demonstration of love," I was slammed onto the wall by some sort of invisible energy. "I am gonna... eat. You. Alive."
"Holy-" without warning, my mouth was covered by a field of energy that disabled my ability to speak.
Dweeb, what the heck are you doing?
I struggled in vain to get to my Omnitrix. But nothing happened.
She came closer and extended her hand to touch my face. Her face came nearer and nearer and then she kissed me on the lips.
Wh-what? What the hell just happened?
This is a nightmare! My cousin...
AHHHHHHH
My eyes open wide and my body is all wet with cold sweat.
I sit up and look around at my surroundings before realizing that it was a nightmare.
Gwen... are you haunting me?
I breathe heavily as the horrible thoughts flood my mind. I slap my face with both palms and get up from my bed and walk to the basin to wash my face.
I was scared as f. I mean, it's the last thing I want to happen in my life. My cousin and me? It's a crappy idea if I may.
Gwendolyn Catherine "Gwen" Tennyson. My cousin. Oddly enough, she and I were born on the same day, 27th December 1995. And we possess similar traits and features – every our facial appearances are similar. It'd not be a surprise if a random stranger called us twins.
She and I mostly shared the same fate. The time around when I traveled across the country with her and Grandpa Max, I was the wielder of Omnitrix and the powerhouse of our small villain ass-kicking team. You can say she was a mage at that time. She kept up with me although there were a lot of level differences between our abilities. Whenever I timed out, I was helpless – this is where my Grandpa and cousin stepped in.
In some of the realities where "Ben" doesn't get the Omnitrix, Gwen usually gets the Omnitrix and becomes the symbol of hope of the universe.
Symbol of hope, huh? It doesn't work for me. I was like a civil servant who was working under Azmuth's government. Azmuth doesn't really care about the risk because he sees the advantages that will benefit his intelligence or the universe which he doesn't care for. He programmed a code in the Omnitrix that keeps me alive… at least, the Omnitrix won't let me die in any way.
Man, I hate it. Azmuth placed the burden of carrying the DNA of the species on my shoulder. I have a glimpse of the reason behind my immortality that he forced on me. Because I am… the center of every sentient species in the Milky Way galaxy. So long as I am alive, whatever danger the universe is in, the species of the Milky Way will never go extinct.
"I owed your Grandpa, Maxwell Tennyson. The least I can do is prevent you from committing suicide."
Bullshit…
Ah, it's… annoying. Forget it, Benjamin.
The naturally flowing water from the fall is really cold and refreshing, ha. Yes, I tricked you. It isn't a basin, it is just the leaking water from the wall. And it wasn't a bed. I slept on the stone floor, uh... it made my body stiff. Hopefully, the Omnitrix should fix my pain.
Damn, the Omnitrix never fixed my mental pain.
"Omnitrix, display the clock!" I speak to the Omnitrix.
I remembered that the "watch" built by the most intelligent being in 5 galaxies didn't include a system that displayed "time" because Azmuth thought it wasn't that important.
The smart mind thinks differently, huh? You know, when I transform into Grey Matter, I can understand Azmuth a bit. How he thinks. How the big brain can be a burden for the individual. Brainstorm has an intelligence quotient of one nonillion and is technically more intelligent than Azmuth himself. Even so, I can't think like Azmuth in any way in Brainstorm form. No, not about inventing stuff or the likes. I mean, his philosophy. No wonder he is titled the "prime thinker" by Galvans.
Alright, no more dazing off and wasting "time." I'd like to explore this floor, slay everything in my way, find the path to the other floors and start conquering the labyrinth!
Ladies and Gentlemen. I am Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, the one who will conquer the labyrinths.
Grr... it's annoying and embarrassing.
"Oh... there you are. The rabbits last night... tasted really good, ya know."
A group of rabbit monsters surrounds me from all sides like the predators.
The moment they jump at me, my hand swiftly moves and taps the Omnitrix causing my DNA to be converted into an Alien one.
"Rawh, what is this..." I mutter to myself, blocking a bloodlusted creature. "Uh, DIAMONDHEAD! I don't know why the Omnitrix gave me this but... I will make good use of it-"
Diamondhead! Being a silicon-based life form made of super-hard, green/blue diamond-like material, Diamondhead's body is composed of durable pale green crystals. He sports four crystal shards on his back and has a sharp head.
My hands shapeshift into blades and swipe the monsters. I am so excited to...
But it was such an overkill that the moment I swung the blades, every monster in the range was left dead.
"No thanks, Omnitrix," I complain as I cancel my transformation and collect the drops from the corpses.
Why am I collecting the remains, you ask?
Synergist! The transmutation skill manipulates the matter on a unique level where you can combine the materials chemically, mechanically, magically or in another way!
What are the advantages of this skill, you ask?
Ha, imagine how convenient it will be if you don't need to chop up the meat from a monster you just hunted!
I don't use my skill in that way though. From my experience on the 68th floor, the Omnitrix can still time out. So I'd like to make some handy weapons like a prototool or a plasma beam gun if possible. Then I will be... invincible!
Damn, why am I thinking about being "invincible" or something stupid like that? Perhaps staying alone in the dungeon for some days must have psychological effects on people. My will isn't that weak or so I think. And I hope so. Ahhhh, I hate my emotional conflicts.
This time, it's a group of wolves.
I smirk wryly and smack the Omnitrix again to transform into a random alien that "it" suggested.
"Hmm, BILTZWOLFER?"
Blitzwolfer has grey fur, a long flowing mane, and a large bushy tail with three sharp claws on each hand and foot, and the inside of his mouth is green. He has spiked elbows and shoulders and wears a white jumpsuit with black stripes and the Omnitrix symbol on his lower stomach.
I grab the snout of a wolf monster but... come to think of it, if I use the sonic attacks here, the cave will be destroyed - no, the whole labyrinth can be messed up. And I want to conceal my survival from my classmates as long as I can and enjoy my loner life.
I wonder how Shirasaki and Yaegashi reacted to my-
The monsters work together and push me down onto the floor.
The twin-tails of the wolves begin to glow purple as they produce electric sparks.
"Holy–"
The wolves electro-shock my body but thanks to the thick hide of biltzwolfer, I can feel less pain.
But it really deals damage... finally my left-hand escapes the binds and taps the Omnitrix symbol on my stomach. This time, I mentally commanded the Omnitrix to transform into–
"BUZZSHOCK! See who is the real boss – hahaha."
A wolf monster jumps at me and swipes his claws which I respond by duplicating myself into 2 clones.
The clone and I giggle and enter the body of nearest 2 monsters. Due to the physiology that can house powerful electro-magic power, I can easily flow in the blood vessels of the monster as an electric spark and then start shocking his heart directly.
The wolf lets out a groan before falling dead to the ground.
I flow out of his body and duplicate into 4 and each flies towards a monster to heart-shock them.
Again, it is our victory.
"Ooh..."
A white bear-like monster with a big mark that is glowing red on his torso and sharp claws shows up before us and swipes his claws at us.
Somehow, it just caused the number of us to increase.
We float mid-air surrounding the bear monster and electro-shock him. But the attack power of Buzzshock is too low to deal damage onto the hard hide.
"Guys..."
As I fly towards my clones to reconcile, the bear slaps me head-on sending me flying into a wall.
"Shit... not bad."
The clones float towards me and try to pull me out of the crater but don't succeed in doing so thus they recombine with me in mere seconds before the bear comes closer to me with his heavy stomps along the way.
"FOUR ARMS!"
I narrowly dodge his claws as he thrust them towards where I was. I backflip and kick him in the chest, followed by a close-quarter thunderclap – a shockwave made by clapping the hands together with great strength.
"You are outnumbered! Four arms vs two!" I jokingly declare as the monster loses his footing and falls on the floor on his butt.
What a pain in ass... I ready my fists and charge at the bear to deal the final blow but... he suddenly waves his claws and fires streaks of sharp winds at me. I dodged the attack at the last second but as soon as I recover, the monster stretches me with his claws – which do nothing to my tough skin.
The monster is dumbfounded.
"Wrong move, teddy," I smirk as I pull back my right fists. And then...
A minute later,
"The dinner tonight is bear steak. Oh yeah."
I can't always eat just rabbits and wolves. Bear steak isn't too bad–
Let me remind you. Bear meat isn't anything like the meats of other animals. Even the cow or bull meat can be tender at the right temperature. Bear meat is a different category. Only the experienced can cook the meat proficiently. The factors are temperature, ingredients, and seasonings.
Bear meat also has an intense smell.
Imagine a newbie cooked bear meat and then he realizes he just did a big mistake.
"Uh... I wanna die. I'm gonna get an upset stomach." I mumble as I carry the bag with materials inside on my shoulder and explore the floor to find the way to another floor.
Wait, did you hear my stomach growl?
Holy cow, it's gonna be a long day.
This time, it's a big white lizard.
"I don't wanna eat lizards... but why not?"
I press the core of the Omnitrix just before his tongue reaches me.
The green light engulfs the room and then dies down to reveal a humanoid amoeba-like creature with green skin.
"UPCHUCK! Top of the food chain baby! I'm gonna eat you alive."
The lizard monster widens his eyes in horror as three tongues come out of my mouth and grab him. He is then slowly pulled into my mouth and digested in seconds.
"Umm... wait,... did I also eat the drops? Grrr!"
(Perk) Upchuck is a vaguely humanoid amoeba-like creature with green skin, six sprout-like growths on the back of his head, a dark-green patch of skin on his head, light-green skin on his face, and belly, and a crooked teeth overbite. He has whisker-like lines on his face and a green tail.
(A/N: Although Upchuck eats the monster raw, he won't be mutated and gain monster abilities because the gourmand stomach is a pocket dimension that digests food in seconds in turns it into usable energy. Upchuck can eat everything and anything – even the celestialsapien vessel bodies that are said to possess infinite energy. Mana is no exception.)
I sense another presence in the range and turn around to see another lizard monster.
This time, my strong tongues grasp the monster and smack the wall with him several times until he is officially dead.
"Hehe..."
Only after I have collected the necessary materials, I consume the remains of the monster.
Gourmands – Upchuck can't really taste but can eat as much as I want. If it's an eating competition, there is no way to beat a gourmand.
After countless floors of exploration, I found a stone door with strange patterns in the wall. It is about 40 ft tall.
Wait, what's this? A treasure chamber? Hehehe, yea, of course. It's finally time! Ben Tennyson can be rich!
"HUMUNGOUSAUR! Hii-yahhh!"
As I punched the door with restrained force, I was sent flying by some kind of magic energy.
"Damn..."
Performing a flip in the air, I recover from the impact and successfully land on the floor, hence causing it to tremble.
No, it wasn't me who shook the floor.
It is... two giant cyclops monsters, each with a single eye and horns and a different color from each other. The monsters are as tall as the door.
"Hmm, interesting."
40 ft huh? Thanks for the tip.
My body begins to grow larger and larger, and my hide becomes tougher. After some seconds, I stand about 60 ft, rivaling the giant guard monsters.
Ladies and gentlemen! This is Humungousaur.
Humungousaur is a somewhat humanoid dinosaur standing about twelve feet tall with a hard skin that is colored brown on its outer side and beige on its inner side.
When I throw a punch into the monsters, they block the blow with their forearms that projected some kind of magical shield, but still, Humungosaur's punches are enough to push them backward.
These cyclops are like giant barbarians. When my fists are blocked, they smirk at me... almost terrifyingly.
After that, they don't block my attacks anymore. Instead, we exchange blows in a 2v1 battle manner.
Humungosaur is a heavy hitter so I used to beat the crap out of small-timers with this guy. Although four arms is physically stronger than base humungosaur, his strength increases as he grows bigger.
While I am focusing on a monster, another monster tries to sneak up on me so I slap him with my tail, sending him flying into the wall – the impact shakes the dungeon.
I don't know what kinda monster you are but I will punch whom I want with these fists.
"Look, my fist is HUMUNGOUS!"
I pull back my fist while my other hand grasps one arm to prevent him from blocking my attack.
My fist went straight for the face, which later destroys the single eye of the monster – ironically killing it.
"Aw, man, disgusting..."
The yellow liquid erupts out of the sockets. It is truly an ugly sight.
I turn around and face another guard monster, smirking wryly.
"Hmph."
2 minutes later.
"Alright, I don't know what you are protecting here, but thanks for the drops."
I mutter to the corpses as I put the drop materials into a bigger bag. Man, I really love this labyrinth… but am still lazy to make weapons for my human form. It takes a long time to make a complex weapon like a proto-tool. Transmutation + Grey Matter… Hmm, hey, you know what. It isn't so bad.
"Now then..." I glance at the stone door. "What's your deal?"
Passcode lock? Magic words?
"Open sesame!" I shout, standing in front of the door.
Yeah, nothing happens. It is so dumb.
Should I destroy it with my strength or something?
Forget it… after all, I don't even need to destroy it.
I smack the Omnitrix symbol on my torso again to transform…
"BIG CHILL…"
I turn intangible and casually phase through the door into whatever place on the other side.
Big Chill is a humanoid, moth-like alien whose four wings and antenna can fold up into a hooded robe (much akin to a poncho), giving him the appearance of a phantom. He has a black body with cyan patches on his arms, shoulders, legs, the back of his wings, and the back of his neck that resemble ice chunks. Each patch has thick blue outlining except for the ones on his wings, which are outlined in black. There is also a black line that runs on the edge of the outer margin on the back of each wing.
On his torso are three plates: one resembling the chest, a shorter plate under the chest, and one resembling the stomach. On his face are blue cheeks and under the jaw, a mouth that always shows bluish-white teeth, and large green eyes with dark green spots. The top of his head also sports a blue Y-shaped marking that extends over his scalp. He has three pointed fingers and a thumb on each hand, two toes on each foot, and a third toe-like extension on his ankles.
The room on the other side of the door was pitch black, with not a single light source to be found.
"Tsk… CHROMASTONE!"
After transforming into chromastone, I concentrate my energy in the crystalline horn on my head, allowing it to emit light energy, thus lighting up and extinguishing the darkness.
Let me introduce the Rock God of Petropia! Chromastone!
Chromastone is a silicon-based alien made of extremely durable crystals. His body is overall indigo, with several dark lines and spots. His hands and face are magenta in color, and he also sports six magenta shards on his back, two on his chest, and one on the top of his head that resembles a horn. His face consists of a mouth and one large green eye at the center.
The architecture of the interior of the room is similar to what I've seen at the castle but seems to be from an earlier era. Two rows of thick pillars, spaced out at regular intervals, extended all the way to the end of the room. In the very center of the room stood a huge cubical slab of rock. Its surface was glossy, and it shone from the reflected light coming in from the room behind.
"Hmm… what kinda setup is that?"
I float towards the center and examine the rock cube, my horn lightening even brighter.
I notice something that glows faintly jutting out from the center of its front face. It looks almost as if it is sprouting out of the rock.
Suddenly, I hear a faint moan and fly backward to enter the stance and prepare to defend myself if something aggressive happens to attack me.
"Who goes there?"
It is a faint, hoarse, feminine voice. Wait, is there a woman in this environment?
That means she must be a super-strong adventurer.
Afterward, the room begins to light up. Uh, no, to be precise, it's the luminant objects in the hall that start glowing suddenly and light up the room. My attention is redirected to the weird cube that begins to change shapes.
The light from me and the luminant objects, finally reveals a figure that's partially embedded in the cube.
A woman… with blonde hair?
A girl is buried in the rock from the neck down.
I hastily detransform myself before I scare the heck out of her. For some reason, I am feeling extremely worried thus I walk towards her without thinking much. What kind of cruel people buried her in the cube?
Wait, then again, if people sealed her in the depths of the dungeon,... she can be some sort of powerful deity or dangerous entity. Shit, I am conflicted.
Whatever. I am getting her out of this crap first. Next thing, next. She can kill me if she wants, ha.
Her golden-blonde hair dangles limply in front of her face.
"Hey, Ma'am… you are conscious, right? Are you okay–"
"No, I am not okay."
Her head slowly rises and reveals her red, ruby-like eyes.
"Uh…" her beauty just made me speechless, as if I was hypnotized.
"Please help me…"
-(TRANSITION)-
As soon as I entered the restaurant, I saw Shirasaki-san waving her hands at me. I quickly walked towards the table she was sitting at. She was wearing a pink t-shirt and a dark grey skirt.
"Um, Shirasaki-san, why do you–"
Hmm, I didn't notice earlier but she wasn't alone. A female classmate who I thought was her best friend and a boy were also sitting at the table facing Shirasaki.
That very moment, I felt like I was cornered. Wait, did Shirasaki just trap me? I regarded you as a friend and now you are betraying me?
I wasn't that much of a social person – no, I'll be honest. In fact, I avoided talking to others. The only people in my class who I interacted with were Shirasaki and Aiko Hatayama-sensei.
"You're here, Tennyson-kun. I want to introduce my friends to you. This is Yaegashi Shizuku, my best friend. You know her, right?" she was quite eager.
"Hello. I'm Yaegashi."
I just nodded in response.
"And he is Nagumo Hajime-kun. We learned dojo together at Yaegashi's since we were kids."
The boy stood up from his seat and bowed in a polite manner.
"First time meeting you. A pleasure to make your acquaintances."
"OK..." I muttered in response.
"Mou, Tennyson-kun. You should put more effort," Shirasaki scolded me gently.
I occupied the seat next to Shirasaki's and introduced myself in a nonchalant manner.
"I'm Tennyson Benjamin."
"Oh, you are as gloomy as Kaori described," Yaegashi commented bluntly on my appearance.
"Yaegashi-san..." Nagumo tried to stop me but Shirasaki got in his way.
"Duh, it's okay. You can insult him all you want. He won't bother to even respond to you."
Hey, Shirasaki! You are also indirectly insulting now huh? I bought you coffee yesterday, you ungrateful bitc–
"Hmm, if you don't change yourself, you will just be friendless forever. But don't worry," Yaegashi said, her thumbs pointing at herself. "As Kaori's friends, we will accompany you, too!"
"Yes, so don't worry," Nagumo said.
Damn, am I some sort of kind-person magnet?
This time, if I don't answer their kindness, the ungrateful bitch will be me...
"Uh, thanks, I guess."
Living in Japan wasn't that easy. Compared to an average Japanese person, my personality was total crap and my mindset was garbage. Almost everyone in Japan is polite, gentle judging from their manners.
But again, everyone has the right to be different. I don't need to care about standards in this world of science, do I?
Living in Japan had one good thing. Hentai. I don't want to explain this stuff.
"Then, first, changing yourself is important!" Yaegashi said excitedly.
Hey, Shirasaki, why are you giggling? Are you making fun of me?
"Nah, too much work. Accepting yourself the way you are is more prideful," I argued.
Thanks, Hikigaya-san. I really enjoyed your anime. Now, I am referencing your dialogues to argue.
"But..." Nagumo spoke up, causing both me and Yaegashi to glare at him. "I think... You both are right," his voice faded away because of Yaegashi's glare.
That woman is powerful. Just a glare can do many things...
"Nagumo, now I think about it, you are also kind of gloomy and lonely, too, hmm? You don't even have friends besides us two?"
Yaegashi said bluntly. I don't know if Yaegashi knew it would hurt Nagumo's feelings or not.
"Hah, I... Have friends, of course. I am a second-year high school student!"
Shirasaki giggled again. That day, she was kind of quiet.
"Shirasaki." (me)
"Um, what's it, Tennyson-kun?"
"Let's order some snacks. I'm hungry."
And so this is how my little friend list grew.
-(TRANSITION)-
"Hmm? Are you some sort of humanoid monster that's sealed here? Because this is too deep underground," I forget how many floors I have ascended. Maybe 50-something... "I mean, this is a dungeon so..."
The girl looks no older than 14 years. It's so weird to seal a 14-year-old girl in the depths of a labyrinth. There must be more to her than meets the eyes.
Wait, is she a succubus? A succubus for pedophiles... hmm, not a bad idea. She looks too pure rather than seductive. Or else she can be some demon that can use shapeshifting magic.
"No, I'm not a monster," she answers weakly, looking down at the floor. "I was betrayed. By my people whom I protected once upon a time."
"I... understand," it is like my trust issues are instantly cured by her words. "Say, how to release you. Can I just destroy the whole thing?"
"I don't know how exactly. But if you can destroy this thing, I will be free."
Hmm... a rock cube of 2-meter thickness. It isn't too tough for my aliens to destroy. But it seems to be overflowing with mana, too. I need to keep– wait, I know an alien form that can destroy the whole cube without dealing with mana.
But– after destroying the cube, I'll probably be left vulnerable because this move will drain a good amount of life energy from me.
Damn… here goes nothing. I touch the faceplate of my watch to find the right alien.
"It's here," and the faceplate slides down to the side, allowing the core of the Omnitrix to pop up. In an instant, I press down the dial. Consequently, my body becomes engulfed in green light for a split second to reveal my alien form.
"CLOCKWORK! It's time. Time to release you–"
"Huh? Are you a monster?" Her red eyes widen in horror as she beholds my biomechanical copper trunk.
"Sort of," I reply with a thick German accent. "But I am more of a bad alien."
"Alien?"
"Hmm, never mind," I take back my words as I am not even sure aliens exist in this world.
After analyzing the rock cube, I am shocked. It is 300 years old. I mean, the rock cube bound the girl and stayed in the same position for 300 years. Ah, the muscles must be good as dead.
Secondly, I can't just accelerate the aging. Because it was made to be durable and last longer. I have no idea how long this girl will live further on but the rock cube is likely enough to contain her for the next thousand years.
Whatever creature she is, I should be wary with her around. I am cursed with immortality, yes, but I'm only 17 years old. And this bitc– sorry, language. This little girl is more than 300 years old!
"What's wrong?" she asks after I've been petrified for minutes, out of surprise – in front of her.
"Uh, nothing. I will free you right away," I fast-talk and enter the position, concentrating the time energy in my torso.
And then I blast a powerful reversing time-ray at the cube.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Clockwork with a German accent!
Clockwork is a robot-like alien with skin that is made of golden metal, with black stripes and a circular transparent piece of green glass on his chest, revealing the gears inside of him.
After some seconds, the rock begins to shatter, the mana overflowing out of the cube. The rock splits into several pieces of mana containers that are suspended in the air afterward.
As soon as she is freed from the binds, I realize that she has been naked the whole time. Oh, for the love of Alien X, spare me ecchi cliche. However embarrassed I feel, I freeze the time itself to run towards where she is falling and prepare my arms to catch her and cancel the time pause.
"Ouch, you are hard," she says after her body collided with my metal arms.
"Don't say misleading things," I say nonchalantly and put her down.
She looks up at the suspended mana rocks and widens her eyes in astonishment.
"Hey, how did you do that?" (Her)
"Reversing time… and I direct all the mana into the rock pieces by controlling the specific time."
"Um…"
I am forced to look away from her because she is, well, naked.
"Now care to explain yourself?" I ask, canceling my transformation.
"I am one of the original, atavistic vampires... because of the extraordinary power I was gifted with... I worked hard for the sake of my country and my people. But then... one day... my retainers all… said I wasn't needed anymore... My uncle... said that he would be king in my place... I...was fine with that... but because I had so much power everyone was afraid of me, they thought I was dangerous... They couldn't kill me... so they decided to seal me here instead… That's why..."
Another tragic story, huh.
"Get up, don't be depressed," I try to motivate her.
"I am not depressed," she clarifies. Shoot, what a shame.
"I won't ask the details then… as long as you are saying the truth," I try to change the topic. "But first, you need some clothes…"
I open the bag I brought with me and take out some materials.
"Hmm… crap," I facepalm after realizing I don't have anything that can be used to make clothes.
"I am okay with being naked, you know," she is so innocent that I think she is a goddess rather than a vampire.
"No, I am not okay with you being naked. Ah…" I remember the jacket I am wearing. It was made from the hide of the bear monster and many other monsters that I slew on the way to this floor. Luckily, I could find suitable pigments, and now… it's green– fu-k you all Bens who love green.
I quickly take off my jacket and give it to her, with my eyes tightly closed. "Wear this. Hurry."
Yes, before sanity leaves my body.
I am not called Bad Ben for no reason.
"Say," after she has put on the jacket, which covers from her neck down to her thighs because her body is tiny, I ask her a question. "What's the extraordinary power you said before."
She is still lying on the floor. "Mana manipulation. I could control mana… directly, without a magic circle."
"Oh, that's one heck of power," I mean, it is indeed impressive. If I am not wrong, Gwen used to enchant the spells. Sunny, on the other hand, is an anodite so she can manipulate the mana at will. Hmm, interesting.
"Probably," she responds gently.
"The mana manipulation– can allow you to live that long?"
She swiftly gets up from the floor. "No. It's my healing ability. I heal automatically. No matter what kind of injury it is, it'll just heal by itself. Even if you cut my head off I'll regenerate eventually."
"Eh it is… hahaha… it must be fate…" I burst out laughing after hearing that.
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
"Me, too – I can't die. No, I mean, nothing can kill me. If I die, I will get revived."
She is staring at me in my eyes for some time. Her expression is… unreadable. It's more like she can't express her emotions that easily.
"So how many times have you died?" she bluntly asks.
"Dunno," I shrug off her question, not wanting to answer.
What's this strange feeling… my instincts are telling me that danger is coming.
Crap. I subconsciously smack the faceplate of the Omnitrix hoping for a suitable alien and jump to the girl to protect her.
The green light dies down to reveal my purple rocky body with a single eye.
"CHROMASTONE!" I proudly declare as I defend the girl from whatever is coming for us.
"What's happening?" she asks, surprised.
"Save the questions for a later time. Or… INCOMING!"
Some kind of hard spikes shoot onto my body but can't penetrate my rock skin.
Shit… "Hey, get behind me. You can still feel the pain right?"
She nods and hides behind me as I start floating mid-air and enter the battle stance to fight off whatever is threatening us.
A giant monster drops down from the ceiling.
The monster is nearly five meters long and possessed four arms that all end in razor-sharp scissors. He has a further eight legs that clack noisily as he scuttles around. He also had two tails, each of which ends in stingers.
He is… a crab? No, a scorpion. A scorpion is this big.
But this guy should be a formidable enemy.
I thrust my hands forward and tilt my head to look at the girl.
"Sit tight and watch! This will be one hell of a battle, hahaha."
In fact, I am a little tired because of the energy I spent emitting time rays. But… with this Chromastone form, I can recover energy even for my human form.
I don't know the reason why I am protecting a stranger but I can think of one after doing so.
I don't want… any more regret.
No one can take me down. Because I am… the glorious Bad Ben!
I blast a concentrated ultra-violet into the giant scorpion, pushing him backward.
"Taste this!" followed by a number of continuous attacks. "And this!"
Although my attacks don't do much damage because of his thick skin, he won't be able to attack me for the time being. His giant size works to my advantage.
"Time to go ultimate!" I smack the Omnitrix insignia to convert my DNA into–
"ATOMIX!" I know it's a little overkill but can't help it. At this rate, the battle will just tire me out.
Oh, I tricked you there again. I am using the Omnitrix. It doesn't include the Evolution feature.
I float into the air, adjusting the nuclear energy in my hand to three percent not to accidentally destroy the dungeon.
I create a nuclear blast in my hands by chanting–
"HAA-MEE-NA HAA-MEE-NA HAA-MEE-NA! Nuclear Winner!" Imagine this chanting with a Russian accent.
And then throw it at the giant monster.
The whole dungeon trembles because of the giant nuclear explosion I caused.
I shoot towards the girl at high speed and carry her in my arms before the ceiling begins to shatter and falls down to the floor as pieces.
"Whoa… you are… so powerful."
"I hate to be so powerful," I respond to her comment with a bonus smirk. "What's your name?"
"Huh? Are you hitting on me?" she jokes. Yes, please say she's joking.
At the time we have escaped the room where she had been sealed.
"No, just asking, little girl. I am Ben Tennyson."
"I don't need the name from the past. Give me one."
Surprised, I look down at her.
"Hmm…"
This is uncalled for. I am certain that I can't just come up with a name in seconds. A name is like… the identity of a person. That means – she wants a new identity.
I should give some more time to give her a decent name. Otherwise, it won't look pretty. I mean, people have been saying for a while that Ben Tennyson always did poorly with the puns.
"Please give me some more time, little girl." (me)
"Why are you calling me a little girl? It's creepy."
I swear I can be anything but a pedophile.
"No, it's my DNA, little– my apologies, princess." (me)
"It's worse!"
Holy cow, I called someone, who is searching for a new identity, by a title of her past.
"My apologies, uh… strange yet respectable vampire girl." (me)
"Too long."
When we reach a safe spot, I put her down.
"Anyway, from now on, let's get along in the dungeon!"
-(BREAK)-
"Why did you save me?"
"Don't ask. I don't know. But remember – I am no hero. I am just a humble villain with a handsome face."
I laugh dryly as I extend my hands to create crystal walls to protect ourselves from monsters.
After we escaped the destruction of her jail room, we decided to stay somewhere for the night. So I transformed into Diamondhead to build the walls via crystallokinesis.
"You are creepy," she comments bluntly – almost jokingly. "So you saved me with ulterior motives in your mind?" she says covering her chest with her forearms.
"Hey, I don't like little girls," and I am not some harem anime protagonist. I pick up some combustibles and throw them into the campfire before her.
"I am not a little girl!" she barks back. Yeah, after all, she is older than my grandfather.
It's funny how a tiny girl is older than a high school kid.
Wait, are such girls… called Loli? Am I some lucky ecchi protagonist from anime? No way in hell.
"Hey, you said you would give me a name."
"Um…" I cancel my transformation and sit beside her, leaning against the wall. Then I look at her, hoping something about her appearance tells me what her name should be.
"How about "Ruby?" Your eyes, they are red and gorgeous."
She wears a genuine smile in response… much like a little girl.
Sorry, Ruby, too bad I don't possess a heart to fall for you.
-(BREAK)-
"Wait, you can fly?"
We explore the depths of the dungeon together. I really did enjoy every last monster I encountered. She calls me the "heartless killer." Nah, isn't every adventurer like that?
"Hmm."
"What are you gonna do from now on, huh?"
I ask her, while I freeze an army of raptor-like monsters via cryokinesis of Big Chill.
"Follow you around?" (Ruby)
"Huh? You won't go home?" I say, shattering the frozen dinosaurs with my punches. No, I am not the culprit of dinosaur extinction.
"I don't have a home to return…"
Uh, it's right. She has abandoned her old identity.
I phase through the bodies of another batch of T-rex monsters to freeze and slay them. After slaying all batches in the battlefield, I give her a thumb-up.
"Alright, you can come with me. I can't return to the other world yet. So I will be around for some time."
Because my life will be more interesting that way.
"Really?"
"Of course," I smack the Omnitrix to retransform into another alien. "JETRAY!"
I fly towards where she is standing and descend to the ground and lower my back.
"Now, come on. Get on. I will give you a piggyback."
"Huh? Why?"
"You are tired, right? I will carry you all the way. Just keep my stuff safe."
As always, her smile is nothing fake. She jumps onto my back and leans forward to hug my neck.
If my skin weren't red, I would probably blush.
"Ready?" I ask, keeping my composure.
"Yeah, go!" her voice doesn't really show her excitement.
"Alright, hold me tight! Here we FLY!"
I shoot into the air and fly across the floor at high speed to find the way to the other floor.
Jetray! He is a red, humanoid manta ray-like alien with green eyes, black outlines on his face, yellow horns extending from his nose, gills underneath his arms, yellow patagia which he uses to fly and glide through the water, and two black lightning bolt-like stripes coming down from his shoulders to the original Omnitrix symbol on his chest.
"Hey, look, what's it?"
A vertical crack big enough for a person to go through exists at the bottom of a small hill. It is like an entrance to some room. The ground around the crack is overwhelmed by some kind of flowers which I saw growing on the heads of the dinosaur monsters. These must be... some sort of parasitic plants that manipulate the host.
"Maybe the answer to the mystery, hah, let's go inside!"
I descend to the ground and let her down because it's impossible to just carry her and fly through.
"I will go first and check. Follow me with care."
After she gives the signal, I extend my wings and shoot towards the crack before tapping the Omnitrix and swiftly transform into–
"XLR8!"
XLR8 resembles a semi-armored Velociraptor. He has black orbs on his feet and wears a black cone-like helmet with a sliding protective visor (that is part of his Kineceleran biology and not mechanical). His visor is made up of his skin and part of his skull. Whenever his visor is lifted, one can see his blue face, green eyes, black lips, and stripes running under and in between his eyes; the rest of his head's features are unknown. XLR8 has five blue stripes on his tail and wears a black bodysuit and a turtleneck-like shirt with a white stripe on the center.
In a millisecond, I passed through the small tunnel and arrived of the other side.
The room inside is like a big hall with a domed ceiling. There is another crack on the other side of the opening I entered. The walls are filled with plant remains that have long been dead.
Suddenly, an innumerable amount of small green transparent balls float in the room... oh crap, do I have to avoid them or destroy them?
Whatever, I pull the visor down and then spin at a high speed to create a tornado that destroys all the balls in an instant.
"Ben, is everything alright?"
I hear the monotonous voice of Ruby.
"No, wait! Don't come in, yet."
"Huh? I want to help, too."
"No."
I swiftly create another tornado to blow the other green balls that are just released into the room from some source. I then see Ruby walking into the room.
"Hey!" I feel my anger rising in my throat.
Ruby doesn't say anything back but extends her hands to create powerful gales without even chanting spells.
"Whatever," I mutter, running up to her. "These must be made some kind of monster. Cover me, I am going into that crack to find the monster. Ah, don't let them touch you."
I fast-talk and warn her. As she nods nonchalantly, I swiftly make my way towards the other side of the room. In milliseconds, I create several tornadoes to blow the green balls away.
The fractional energy around me drops to zero as I stop at an end. I think I'm gonna vomit in the visor so I swiftly lift it up.
Walking out of the opening is a humanoid monster with feminine features... like breasts, you know. But her face can give me nightmares for a weak continuously. Damn, she can't still compete with Toepick, though.
"Hey, what do you... Ah, disgusting, sorry, I mean. What do you want?"
Nah, she isn't anything like a human. She is too creepy. I hoped she was some kind of sentient creature, however.
The creature doesn't verbally respond but lets out a growl and extends her hands with long vine-like fingers. She creates a number of green balls and lets them float towards me and Ruby.
"Damn it. If you are aggressive," I say before avoiding the balls and running around the run. Then run-up to the monster and reappear behind her. "I'm more than glad to give you a fight, miss."
The monster lets out a growl and spins around, trying to hit me but I wasn't there anymore.
Behind her, I leap into the air, and as soon as my feet come into touch with her and kick her several times in a mere second. And again I run around to kick her in the face before she can react to the impact.
She is sent flying into the wall on the other side of the room... where Ruby is standing.
"Hmph... finish her," when I order her around, she pouts... her pout even looks cute.
"Don't let your guard down," I warn her as I ready my pincer-like clawed hands to deal the finishing blow on the monster.
"Ben..."
"Huh? What's up?"
I turn around and see a flower growing onRuby's head.
"Oh, that is..." (me)
I hastily grasp the flower with my pincer-like hands and destroy it in a second.
"Now everything's alright." (me)
She glares at me for some reason.
"Hmm, what? I did it for you."
"Anyway. You are no fun."
Well, yeah, I am kinda overpowered right.
"Grr..."
Seems like our enemy is up.
I become a blur and then reappear in front of the monster and thrust my clawed fists into the face repeatedly, destroying it in an instant.
"You are no good. Keeping you alive will just cause us problems." (me)
"But it is... cruel, Ben."
Hmm, I look back at my hands that are completely covered in yellow stuff which I think is the blood of the monster.
The monster doesn't even have her ugly head anymore.
"Let's proceed, Ruby."
And so we proceed with our exploration trip in the depths of the Great Orcus Labyrinth.
After walking through the opening on the wall, I again lower my body before her.
"Get on. I will give you a piggyback ride."
"Ben, are you secretly a pedophile?" She comments nonchalantly as she gets onto my back and hugs me from behind.
"No, don't even joke about it."
Shoot, I once killed an interstellar criminal because he liked little girls from the earth.
Uh, memories never get old...
"I" run across the floor which is believed to be the hundredth or a deeper floor of the labyrinth. I didn't listen carefully to Meld's explanation nor do I have a map of the labyrinth so I honestly don't know.
As we enter a room, I see a circle with a weird symbol in the center.
"This must be the final boss," I mumble, putting down the blonde girl and detransforming to save energy.
"We should keep our guards up!" She says, excitedly out of her character.
I kneel on the floor and face her then hold her shoulders.
"Don't worry, I will protect you."
"Don't treat me like a child!" She pouts graciously.
The floor around the circle suddenly sinks below the surface and forms a spiral staircase that supposedly goes down to the basement (?).
"Are you tired?" I ask her because she looks exhausted and used-up.
"I am OK. You are the one who's dealing with all the monsters. Sorry for not being helpful."
"No," I shake my head gently. "It's okay. I am the knight and you are the princess. It's how the fable should go."
We walked in the maze-like basement until we finally found a giant door decorated with golden patterns.
"The final boss, huh?"
Let's see how strong you will be in front of the glorious Bad Ben.
"Know why I always win? Because I don't give up."
- Ben Prime while fighting Looma Red Wind -
THE END OF CHAPTER (2).
The following are Ben's feats for readers who don't know about Ben Tennyson. Excluded spoilers.
0. This version of Bad Ben did these things – A) he killed Vilgax. B) he wiped out the whole Highbreed army without saving them. C) he erased all evil in the universe via ascalon. D) he only remembered Forever Knights from his childhood because he destroyed the whole organization when he was a teenager.
Ben Tennyson won't get the monster abilities (via Mystical Mutation) for multiple reasons. One, the Omnitrix has a feature "Genetic Repair" that literally keeps the user at full HP and checks up on the cells all the time. Even if he is mutated, the mutation will be reversed in minutes. Two, in fact, Ben isn't cursed with immortality. He is cursed with [Show spoiler].
Ben has been revived about three times before and Omnitrix revived Ben in two of them. Related to sort of super science. The Omnitrix uses the DNA stored inside to make a new body for Ben when dead. Failsafe that changes Ben into a suitable alien outspeeds the Big Bang.
Although Atomix manipulates matter on a nucleus level, he doesn't have a transmutation ability specifically.
Every plothole in the story can be explained with the abovementioned [Show spoiler]. Nagumo Hajime practiced dojo but his stats were below average. Ben Tennyson also learned martial arts from his cousin (who is a black belt) and has a streetfighting experience for 7 years (in this story) but his stats are below average. In fact, this is also because of [Show spoiler] curse. The status plate can't properly scan Ben's body because the Omnitrix itself is a (scientifically) cursed artifact.
Ben's alien forms are counted as monsters in this world. They can be considered hybrids because they carry 0.001 percent of human DNA. The genetic difference between the individual homo sapiens is 0.1%.
Thanks for reading and writing reviews. I will pour more effort into creating further chapters!
Christopher Paradox Chronos.