165. Azmuth 3

(3rd POV)

A magic spell capable of turning the most genius being in the galaxy into an impenetrable idiot was thrown and now flew quickly towards the head of Azmuth, who watched in horror, no longer hoping for salvation.

Previously, Azmuth had used all of his stashed methods to force an emergency surrender, and after an enraged Lex took away his teleportation device, which was supposed to transfer Azmuth to Galvan Prime, he had no way to escape.

All Azmuth had to do was accept his terrible fate and regret what he had said earlier. And although, according to Lex's words, Azmuth would have 2 more months before he finally turned into a dumb vegetable, Azmuth himself knew perfectly well that this time would not be enough for him to destroy the seal.

If it was some kind of technological device or a virus, Azmuth could easily find a way to quickly get rid of such a problem, but when it came to Magic, Galvan was at a loss to say the least. Magic is simply not his path and he does not understand it.

For his race, magic had always been nothing more than esoteric nonsense, in which there was no logic. Compared to technology that could do anything with just the necessary calculations, magic was wild, unpredictable, and, in the opinion of all Galvans, simply stupid, and significantly inferior to cold machines.

Although, this certainly does not mean that they underestimated her. Just the opposite. Galvans are well aware of how dangerous magic can be, especially in the hands of some idiot who does not think ahead and does not control himself. Another argument in favor of the superiority of technology, which, although it can also be dangerous in the wrong hands, but you can always create a fuse that will not allow this to happen.

True, the Galvans themselves often forget about such a trifle in a burst of inspiration when creating some new ingenious invention, but this is not so important. In any case, not even understanding and not knowing how to use magic, the Azmuth race decided to protect themselves from it, of course, with the help of their favorite technologies.

The result was a microchip capable of hiding Galvan Prime and every Galvan from magic and granting some sort of protection, creating a bioenergetic invisible aura that repelled enemy mana, and even gave telepathic protection as a bonus.

This inherently revolutionary invention actually worked as intended, which is why Lex didn't find Azmuth his spell, but, any defense had a limit and a seal of stupefaction could overcome it due to the abnormal amount of mana Lex put into it.

Azmuth understood this very well, and he also understood that the time allotted to him would not be enough to create something that would destroy the seal. It is possible for Azmuth to create some kind of technological device that will destroy all traces of magic in him body, but again, there will not be enough time, because every day he will lose part of his intellect. This is truly the most terrible punishment for Azmuth and not that he did not deserve it.

Azmuth was well aware of how difficult his character was and that he needed to be more careful about what he said, because sometimes he cannot control his sarcasm and cannot stop throwing witticisms that can hurt other people's feelings. It just developed into a habit from his youth and became second nature to him. In fact, he simply cannot be honest with his own feelings, which has cost him relationships with people more than once.

Azmuth never wanted this conversation to end like this, he didn't want to say all these hurtful things and take it to extremes, but he couldn't help it and his stupid pride jumped up again. Everything was planned in a completely different scenario, but everything went to hell...

When he contacted Xylene, and she told him about the unsuccessful delivery, he perfectly understood that she had said a lot of nasty things about the boy, that she had found Omnitrix only because he somehow offended her.

With difficulty, but he managed to isolate useful information from the stream of curses that he had to listen to from Xylene, and Azmuth realized that everything was not as bad as she said. Max Tennyson did not receive the Omnitrix, but his ward, who was under Max's care, had it.

Not an ideal situation, but it wasn't all that bad. In addition, by searching for information from the right people on the black market of the Galaxy, Azmuth was able to gather information on Lex Tennyson, who had already become famous.

After fighting off professional bounty hunters, rescuing many captive gladiators and destroying the arena where they fought for the amusement of the public, and almost killed Vilgax, the new owner of the Omnitrix has become known among some of the aliens.

Azmuth was able to make a psycho-portrait without any problems, which helped him understand who Lex Tennyson was. And to be honest, he liked what he learned. Yes, Lex was young, but he had already proven himself to be a responsible and skilled warrior, moreover, smart enough for an earthling. And the fact that an experienced Plumber like Max was nearby greatly reduced Azimuth's anxiety.

He was already thinking about how he would meet with them and although he was not going to be friendly with the boy, presenting him everything on a silver platter, revealing all the secrets of the watch, but after he would prove that he was worthy, Azmuth would not mind trust him with the Omnitrix.

But then he got a signal that someone was trying to hack into the Omnitrix' security system and override the main functions by removing the Omnitrix AI, replacing it with your own.

Azmuth will never admit how much effort it took him to prevent this. If he hadn't been able to connect to the watch's security systems in time and take control of the defenses on his own, then the invader might have succeeded. He was one step away from losing, and only the last trap he managed to create helped him lock down the enemy AI, although at the cost of destroying the Omnitrix AI.

Words cannot express how angry Azmuth was at that moment. But he also could not appreciate the genius of the created AI. And when he found out that Lex was behind the attempt, he really didn't know what to think. On the one hand, Azmuth was offended and angry, and on the other, very impressed. And the truth is, Azmuth himself would have done the same if he had received a powerful technological artifact of unknown origin.

Speaking frankly, what Azmuth knew about Lex sounded much like the Galvan himself in his youth. Many features were inherent in himself, except that Lex was higher. Although he has a human, not a frog-like alien, but it doesn't matter.

And Azmuth did not like that they were so alike. He was well aware of his shortcomings and did not want such a promising young man to make the same mistakes.

And Azmuth really wanted to prevent it. After protecting the Omnitrix, Azmuth deliberately deactivated it, as he knew Lex would find it to fix it. All that remained was to wait. At the same time, it was a good test for the boy, because this way he could show what he was worth without the Omnitrix.

Azmuth knew full well that the watch would be scanned and would have a DNA trail on it that would lead it to his former assistant Mayax, who foolishly removed Azimus' DNA and replaced it with her own. For this and her other missteps, she was punished by exile to prison, which it was time to end, and everything turned out so well that there was someone who could do it on the way to Xenon.

But Azmuth didn't expect Lex to show up so quickly, even without Mayax. And that he would be so rude. To be honest, Azmuth spent a lot of time thinking about how the conversation would go.

According to his plan, he would chide the guy for being arrogant and refuse to fix the Omnitrix, just to let the guy prove himself worthy of it. It was for this reason that he allowed Vilgax to know where they were now. The fight would be the perfect stage for Lex to shine. Yes, Azmuth loves the theatrics too much and can't do anything about it.

Unfortunately, as we all know, things didn't go according to plan. Lex's behavior again reminded Azmuth of his younger version, but now it was his worst quality.

And this was too reflected in the emotional state of Azmuth, because of which he suffered, and he did not say what he wanted. At some point, he began to see only the worst qualities, completely forgetting about his plans to help the teenager not become what Azmuth himself was before he matured to see the consequences of his arrogant actions.

Excited, Azmuth succumbed to his emotions and pride, failing to see how everything came to such a sad ending. He realized too late that there was something wrong with Lex in the first place, and that the guy himself was acting in the grip of anger and his bloodline.

But again, Azmuth did not want to give in and only at the last moment regretted what he had done, realizing that it was never about the clock. Perhaps he really deserves such a punishment, since he did not immediately understand that the child in front of him needed real help, and not a performance thought out in advance by the same arrogant alien.

And the saddest thing is that even now Azmuth can't just say that he didn't want all this.

'Eh, I'm already so old, but I still won't grow up... Zennith was right... At the very least, this will help calm the boy's anger and save him from self-destruction. Not such a big price…' - Azmuth thought, resigned to his fate, and closing his eyes, he prepared to accept the spell.