Shadow Monarch in DC-Chapter 97: The Looming Threats

Alexander paused longer than expected. His jaw clenched.

"I really don't know," he admitted, voice lower now. "And that's the scary part...But it's coming."

Arthur gave a slow nod, absorbing the weight of that inevitability. Then, without warning, he stood up and wandered toward one of Luthor's cluttered workbenches.

"Don't touch that," Lex barked, not looking up.

Too late.

Arthur was already fiddling with some strange sphere-like device, squinting at it like a puzzle box. "What does this do?" he muttered, twisting the top.

The machine sparked.

BZZT!

A loud pop echoed through the lab, and smoke puffed out like a startled dragon.

"Arthur!" Luthor turned sharply, eyes flaring with rage. "Do you have to touch everything?! This isn't a toyshop!"

Arthur held up his hands, a grin creeping across his face. "Alright, alright. My bad. Just trying to kill time."

He moved to step away then stopped.

His body went rigid.

His eyes... flared blue, a luminous flash that cast dancing shadows on the walls.

"We have company," he said quietly. No humor. No sarcasm. Just certainty.

Luthor's face paled. "Shit."

He rushed to the nearby terminal, tapping into the broken city's sensors. But he didn't need confirmation. His voice dropped with dread. "It's Ultraman. He must've swept every corner of the globe by now."

Arthur took a slow breath. He flexed his gloved fingers, drawing in a tether of shadow to his side like a companion.

"Well..." He turned toward the stairway leading to the surface. "Then I'll go and take care of him."

He didn't sound cocky.

He didn't sound scared either.

He just sounded ready.

As he walked toward the exit, Luthor called out behind him. "Don't underestimate him. He's angrier than ever. Stronger, too."

Arthur paused, his silhouette bathed in flickering lab light.

"I don't plan to underestimate him," he said. "I'm just planning to end this."

****

Arthur's Earth - 

Darkness curled at the edges of Raven's chamber. The candles surrounding Raven sputtered and went out one by one, as if they sensed the presence building within her.

Raven knelt alone, the floor slick with sweat beneath her trembling form. Her body was trembling, not from exhaustion, but resistance. Her hair clung to her cheeks, damp, her breath uneven. She tried again. And again. Focusing. Channeling. Searching for Arthur... still.

"Come on... just a little longer..."

"I need to find him."

Her voice cracked.

Her hands, resting on her knees, began to twitch. The red chakra gem on her forehead suddenly flared with a blinding light. A deep crimson glow. Her eyes went wide.

"No..."

Then the pain hit her, raw and piercing, as the gem in her forehead started showing black cracks of magic. The room echoed with a deep rushing sound, like a thousand voices whispering from behind a veil.

And then it spoke, his voice.

"Still clinging to hope... still pretending you have control. How exhausting."

Her lips parted, and Trigon's voice echoed out through her own mouth, warped and inhuman.

"You're getting weaker, my child. Every moment you fight me is one step closer to your end."

Raven's body contorted as she cried out, one hand clawing at her head, the other pressing to the gem, now glowing like a furnace.

"Shut up. I'm not weak. I'm not..."

"Oh?"

His voice coiled around her like a serpent.

"Then explain this..."

With a sickening sound, the chakra gem cracked open, and the first wraith emerged, a specter of pure shadow with four blazing red eyes, shrieking in rage. Then another. And another. Each ghostly wraith peeled itself free from her, crawling and clawing its way and then spread in different directions into the world with hunger and wrath.

"What... what are you doing?!"

Raven's voice was frantic now, her body trembling violently.

"What did you release?! "

"My will given form," Trigon purred.

"Weak Fragments of myself ... But they are more than enough for this pathetic excuse of a world."

She watched in horror as dozens of these black wraiths slithered from her chakra gem, each shrieking like a banshee before vanishing in bursts of dark fire to every corner of Earth and beyond.

"Stop it!" Raven pleaded.

"You made it possible my daughter."

Trigon laughed, cruel and ancient.

"Soon enough, you'll see what I've done. What you've helped me do."

She fell to her knees, gasping, clutching her chest as though trying to keep her soul from spilling out.

"What did you release...?"

She asked again, softly this time.

"Answer me.."

There was a moment of quiet. Too quiet. Then

"The end of this realm. The echo of my return. Soon... I will be whole."

"And when that time comes my child..."

His voice dropped to a whisper that felt like it came from inside her bones.

"This world will kneel. Burn. And I'll thank that little shadow-king of yours..."

"...by dragging his corpse into the void myself."

"Arthur..."

Her voice cracked.

"I messed up..."

With a final scream of willpower, Raven slammed both hands to the ground, chanting words in a forgotten tongue. The chakra gem sealed shut, the crimson glow dimming.

The room went still again.

Raven collapsed to her side, chest heaving, sweat matting her hair and cloak. She blinked slowly, staring at the ceiling.

"Shit... this is bad."

She whispered.

"I can barely keep him contained anymore..."

"I need help. John... maybe he can..."

But then, the laughter returned. Faint. Distant. Echoing in her mind.

"Too late, Daughter of mine."

"Too late."

Raven curled up, trembling.

****

The ground crunched beneath Arthur's boots as he stepped out of Alexander's hidden lair. and silence outside welcomed him with the stench of blood.

Smoke coiled through the broken surroundings like grasping fingers. Ash rained softly from the sky, a parody of snow. Somewhere nearby, fire crackled, and the wind carried the metallic tang of death.

Arthur's blue eyes narrowed.

He walked forward slowly, scanning the devastation. Rubble. Scorch marks. Bullet casings. And then he saw it.

Through the smoke, a shape.

A towering figure stood alone, cloaked in shadow and fury. His muscular form was unmistakable. Red, glowing eyes burned like twin furnaces in the fog. In one hand, he held a limp guard by the throat, head twisted at an unnatural angle. Dead.

The corpse slipped from Ultraman's hand and hit the ground with a lifeless thud.

Arthur's jaw tensed.

"Took you a while..."

His voice was low, calm, but cut through the haze like a blade.

"For someone who can see and hear everything."

Ultraman's head lifted slowly, and his eyes locked with Arthur's. The air vibrated from the sheer weight of his presence.

"You killed them."

His voice was venomous.

"All of them... even though I still had some use for them considering what is coming."

He stepped forward, cracking the pavement beneath his boots.

"Do you think killing them makes you a god, boy?"

Arthur didn't flinch. His stare was cold. Intense.

"No. I don't think I'm a god... "

Black tendrils of shadow began to rise around his arms and feet, twisting and coiling.

"Not yet, anyway."

The shadows crept along his body like living smoke "But you sure as hell aren't one either."

He smirked.

"After all... you're just a junkie in a cape."

Ultraman's eyes flared red.

"You'll die.."

He stepped closer.

"On your knees. Begging."

Arthur exhaled slowly. His voice dipped into a growl, calm, confident, dangerous.

"Funny."

From the shadows around him, four figures materialized, Quick, Empress, Owl, and Ring, their forms silent and deadly at his back.

"That's exactly what they said..."

He raised one hand, gesturing to the spectral warriors.

"Before I made them mine."

Ultraman's face changed, rage. Disgust. A flicker of confusion as well.

Then he lunged.

Faster than lightning. A blur of crimson and blue.

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But Arthur was ready.

two Solar Gauntlets forged from molten energy and shadow materialized, locking onto his arms with a thunderous hum.

BOOM!

Their fists collided with a deafening shockwave, cracking the ground beneath them Arthur was sent flying, blowing the smoke apart like a bomb had gone off.

/-\

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