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SM/DC Chapter 154 : True Fear
🕑 Added 2025-06-20 23:02:37 +0000 UTCARKHAM ASYLUM -
What was once a place of madness and containment now echoed with collapsing rubble and screaming steel. The air stank of the power of fear, Kara hovered just above the crumbling floor, her arms crossed, her eyes narrowed not intervening, not yet.
Arthur Blackwynd stood at the center of the ruined corridor, Kamish Twinblade in hand. Across from him, Arkillo, hulking, monstrous, with skin like scarred armor and eyes glowing beneath his tusked jaw, snarled through yellow, pointed teeth.
The Sinestro Corps lieutenant’s ring pulsed, glowing with violent light.
"You think that stick makes you powerful, boy?" Arkillo growled, forming a massive, glowing construct mace in his right hand and a buzzing energy flail in the left. "I’ve slaughtered warriors who towered over you in both size and fear."
Arthur simply smirked. His stance was relaxed almost bored.
"You talk too a lot for a dead man, or alien... or whatever you are."
And then he vanished.
Speed Step.
A crack echoed, followed by a gust of air—and suddenly Arkillo jerked back, roaring as a deep gash tore across his chest, molten yellow energy and then followed by blood spraying onto the ground. Arthur was already gone before the construct flail could whip toward him, reappearing above and behind, flipping midair as he spun the twinblade like a hurricane of steel.
Arkillo blocked with the a construct just in time, but the impact shattered it like glass.
"What—?" Arkillo growled.
He didn’t have time to finish. Arthur ducked low, his blade scraping sparks from the floor as he skated around Arkillo’s side. With a twist of his fingers
Ruler’s Authority.
A massive invisible force slammed into Arkillo’s side like a telekinetic freight train, sending the Yellow Lantern crashing through a wall and into a holding cell. The inmates inside screamed as debris and dust exploded outward.
"You call yourself a herald of fear?" Arthur said, stepping slowly through the smoke, voice low. "Fear shouldn’t just talk. It should hunt. Like this."
Arkillo roared and retaliated. Dozens of glowing yellow constructs bloomed around him—spear-tipped chains, rotating saws, even a malformed construct alien looking beast coiling down from above. They swirled like a cyclone of death, and this time, they moved fast too fast.
Arthur darted back, dancing between them with hair’s-breadth movements, bending gravity with each pulse of Speed Step. The chain missed by inches. The blade grazed his coat.
Then one a spiked trap caught him.
The construct slammed shut around his left leg, glowing yellow as it locked like a beartrap. Arkillo grinned.
"Got you."
But Arthur only looked down.
Then up.
And smiled.
"You really don’t."
The trap was crushed and scattered a second later not by strength, it did with will. The aura of Ruler’s Authority expanded outward like a pulse, bending and breaking Arkillo’s constructs mid-form.
Arkillo stumbled back, shield forming but Arthur had already moved. He appeared behind Arkillo again, the Kamish Twinblade resting against the alien’s thick neck.
Kara's eyes flicked to Arthur, sensing the shift. His expression had changed.
No more play.
"Let me try something," Arthur locked eyes with Arkillo and then he muttered, almost to himself.
He took in a single breath. Then exhaled.
And then he spoke.
No, not spoke. Roared.
[Dragon Fear]
The sound was ancient. Primeval. A deep, guttural shout that carried more than sound it carried intent, power, and a pressure that hit the soul like a thunderclap. The very air shuddered. Inmates across the asylum screamed in their cells, some clawing at their heads, others falling to their knees sobbing in madness.
Even Kara flinched mid-air, eyes widening, her hair blowing back as the force washed over her.
Arkillo... froze.
His ring flickered.
And the monster dropped to one knee, breath ragged, pupils dilated. His hands trembled as the twinblade's shadow loomed over him.
"Wha... what is this..." he gasped, claws digging into the ground.
Arthur walked forward slowly. Every step, echoing against the shattered floor. The twinblade dragged along the ground behind him, leaving a small trail of ash and shadow.
"This," Arthur said softly, "is what real fear feels like."
Arkillo looked up, sweating, his massive chest heaving. The yellow in his ring flickered like a candle. He could barely hold eye contact with the man in front of him.
Sweat streaked down his leathery, green-skinned face, dripping from his jaw. The glow from his power ring dimmed.
He forced his gaze upward toward the figure walking slowly, unhurriedly, like a man who already knew the outcome.
Arthur Blackwynd, The twinblade in his hand spun at super speed as he approached, Arkillo snarled despite himself. “I… won’t submit…!”
With a trembling arm, he raised his ring-bearing hand the yellow light pulsing once more in defiance.
Arthur didn’t flinch.
He vanished in a flicker Speed Step.
And in the blink of an eye
A clean, perfect slash.
Arkillo’s breath caught. He looked at his hand only to realize it wasn’t there anymore.
His wrist ended in a stump, spurting blood in sharp pulses. His severed hand crashed to the cracked tiles with a dull thud, the ring still pulsing with energy, twitching on the severed finger.
A scream erupted from Arkillo’s throat, a guttural wail of agony and disbelief.
Arthur was already kneeling.
His expression, calm as ever, reached out for the ring.
But before his fingers touched it, the ring zipped upward, drawn by its own will, and like a streak of lightning reattached itself to Arkillo’s other hand with a blinding glow.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed faintly.
“Persistent thing,” he muttered, straightening.
Then, quietly, to himself:
‘I guess you really need to die before I can take that.’
His twinblade rested against his shoulder, crackling faintly in the tension.
‘After all... I need it to craft this thing.’
As if in answer, the faint blue holographic shimmer of the system interface blinked before his eyes.
[ Item Identified: Power Ring (Sinestro Corps) ]
[ Used as Catalyst with: Volthoom’s Cracked Ring ]
[ Resulting in : ??? ]
Arthur tilted his head. “Very well, system.”
His eyes lit up,the air around him dropping in temperature.
Just then, Arkillo clutching his wrist, growling through pain began to rise again, trembling with rage and defiance.
But Arthur’s body stiffened. His senses flared. He turned his head slightly.
“Kara,” he said calmly. “Heads up. We’ve got some people incoming.”
Hovering a few feet away, her cape stirring in the acrid air, Kara’s eyes narrowed. “I know. They’re close.”
Before anything else happened, Arthur returned his gaze to Arkillo who had barely managed to stand again, shoulders trembling, ring pulsing brighter once more.
Arthur exhaled slowly.
[Bloodlust]
The moment it surged through him, the air around Arthur darkened. from intent. Killing intent.
Arkillo’s knees buckled again, involuntarily dropping.
His breath hitched.
“AGAIN! what is this…?” he gasped out, his voice barely holding together. The pressure was suffocating. His ring blinked erratically like a heart under cardiac arrest.
Arthur slowly walked forward. Twinblade in hand.
“I didn’t say you could stand.”
Arkillo roared in desperation. “"In Blackest Day, in Brightest Night,
Beware your fears made into light.
Let those who try to stop what's right,
Burn like my power ARKILLO'S MIGHT!" He raised his arm one last time, his ring forming a jagged construct something between a buzzsaw and a beast's maw but it never finished forming.
Arthur spun his twinblade once, then launched into a final strike.
SLASH.
A single arc of pure momentum and shadow.
Arkillo’s head separated cleanly from his neck.
His body remained standing for half a second… and then collapsed, twitching once.
The Yellow Lantern's head hit the floor beside his first severed hand.
Silence.
Arthur stepped on his head and then moved forward slowly, his expression was cold, as the ring floated upward again from the cooling corpse aiming to flee.
This time, Arthur extended a hand, and his eyes glowed fiercely.
Ruler’s Authority.
The ring froze.
Then, as if pulled by an invisible leash, it snapped into his grasp.
“You're mine now,” he murmured.
Kara landed beside him lightly, her boots clicking against the broken floor. She looked at him, her brows furrowed, expression conflicted but didn’t speak. Arthur could see the questions brewing.
He looked at the ring again, the yellow glow pulsed faintly in his palm, as though aware of its former master’s demise.. A piece of Sinestro’s legacy.
A tool of fear.
Arthur slowly brought the ring closer to his finger.
“Arthur…” Kara’s voice was tense, sharp with unease. “Don’t.”
He glanced at her.
That same calm on his face. He extended the ring toward his finger… and paused dramatically.
Then he spoke.
“In blackest day, in—”
He stopped himself. His lips twitched.
And then he grinned. “Nah. I’m just messing around.”
Kara’s face went deadpan.
Then flushed red with irritation.
“You! you ass!” She took one step forward, fist actually cocked back like she might hit him.
Arthur raised both palms and laughed, stepping back smoothly. “Relax. I wasn’t going to wear it... Yet..”
Kara lowered her fist, muttering under her breath as she turned away. “Not funny.”
Arthur twirled the ring once between his fingers and then tucked it into his belt pouch. “I beg to differ.”
She shot him a glare over her shoulder.
He just smiled.
Still, in the moment that followed, Kara’s eyes lingered on the pouch where he had hidden the ring. And Arthur though still wearing that relaxed grin was already thinking far ahead.
somewhere in orbit Sinestro himself was watching.
Arthur exhaled softly, “Come on,” he said. “We’re not done yet, the others are here..”
Comments
yanke301
Actually yellow lanterns are supposed to say burn like his power, SINESTRO'S MIGHT. Since he's the leader.
Cobalt
Oh so no black lantern ring but definitely something better than the yellow ring
