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SM/DC Chapter 116 : The Demon's Gate
🕑 Added 2025-05-12 19:55:48 +0000 UTCThe landscape around them twisted like a living nightmare volcanic spires jutted out from rivers of molten fire. The air stank of sulfur and brimstone, heavy with whispers that crawled into the ears like insects, yet they weren't just whispers.
All of a sudden from across different directions they attacked.
Creatures birthed in madness, forged in hate and evil.
They surged out of the cracks and flames twisted beasts with obsidian hides and four burning eyes, each glowing like hell-forged coals. Their fangs dripped lava, claws crackling with cursed flame. They moved on all fours until they reared up like hulking centaurs, screaming in a language only known to them.
John Constantine didn’t miss a beat. “Bloody brilliant. Spawns of Satan’s inbred cousins, Didn’t you just send your soldiers to clean these guys ?”
He flicked a coin from his sleeve it ignited mid-air, and he caught it in his palm. “Alright, you ugly muppets. Try this on.”
He slammed the coin to the ground.
Boom!
A blast of warded fire erupted outward in a perfect circle, searing the nearest wave of demons into ashes. Their dying screeches echoed across the hellscape.
Kara flew ahead, her cape billowing behind her. “Coming through!”
She shoulder-charged a demon mid-leap, smashing it through three burning spires before unleashing a burst of heat vision that cut through two more trying to flank John. “No need to thank me.”
Zatanna stood atop a jagged rock outcrop, her hands glowing with crackling magical energy. Her voice rang like a spell-weaver’s drumbeat.
The ground shuddered, and massive tendrils of magic lashed out, grabbing a pack of the creatures and detonating them in a blaze of violet and white flame. Their remains scattered like ash in the wind.
In the center of it all Arthur just walked, unbothered by his surroundings.
Blade sheathed. Cloak untouched.
He strode through the chaos like he is returning to his throne, murmuring to himself under his breath, eyes flicking across the landscape as if mentally mapping every step.
John ducked under a flaming swipe and sent a warded punch to a demon’s chin with a brass knuckle inscribed in Latin. It exploded into smoke.
He turned, scowling toward Arthur.
“Is it just me, or is our dear Shadow King strolling through hell like he’s lost in bloody thought?!”
Arthur kept walking, saying nothing. The shadow energy around him pulsed with subtle violence.
Then
A towering fire demon lunged behind him, massive and covered in chains of molten steel. Its four red eyes locked on Arthur’s back. It raised a flaming battle axe, roaring
Arthur lifted his hand. Without turning.
SNAP.
The demon’s neck twisted violently with a wet, sickening crack. It collapsed, twitching, into a heap of embers and bones behind him.
Arthur never looked back.
Kara’s eyes widened. “..Wow…”
“Yep,” John muttered, lighting a cigarette with the still-glowing ember of a demon’s skull. “Snapped a hell-beast’s neck like it owed him money, STILL fight with us!”
Zatanna blinked. “So he is that strong, I see why Bruce put him on that list.”
Arthur’s voice finally came, low, echoing across the inferno.
“They’re distractions. Trigon’s real defenses are ahead. These things? They’re just fodder, Trigon knows that.”
He glanced up toward a towering obsidian gate in the distance, flanked by pillars of flame and screaming stone faces, horns, four eyes, all having similar faces to that of Trigon.
His eyes glowed brighter.
“We’re getting close.”
Arthur Blackwynd walked ahead of them with steady steps, shadow curling beneath his boots like tendrils eager to devour the ground itself.
His eyes narrowed, and a flicker of deep, arcane blue shimmered across his irises. A silent hum echoed inside his mind.
[Status Bar]
Name: Arthur Blackwynd
Job: Shadow Monarch
Title: Architect of Fear (+40 INT / +30 SENSE / +30 AGI / +30 STR)
Level: 104 → 120
Fatigue: 10
HP: 9550
MP: 10500
Strength: 205 → 221 (+30)
Health: 171 → 200
Agility: 175 → 210 (+30)
Intelligence: 200 → 216 (+40)
Sense: 150 → 182 (+30)
Available Ability Points: 0
Passive Skill:
• Tenacity (Level 1)
• Insanity's Gambit (Immunity to Mind Control, Fear, and Sanity-Based Debuffs)
Job-Specific Skills:
• Shadow Extraction
• Shadow Exchange
• Monarch’s Domain
Skills:
• Bloodlust (Level 2)
• Ruler’s Authority
• Mutilation
• Sword Rush
• Speed Step
• Kryptonian Flight
Equipment:
• Omega-Hardened Hide
• Abyssforged Necklace
• Cape of Silent Descent
• Demon King Longsword
Inventory
• Doomsday’s Bone Gauntlets
• Abyssforged Necklace
• Azarath Knight Armor Set
• Greatsword of the Lowborn
• Promethium Sword
• Anti-Kryptonian Blood Vial (Epic)
• Shattered Bolt
• Kryptonite Sword
• Solar Gauntlets
• Lasso of Submission
• Volthoom’s Cracked Ring
• Venom Sac Flask x10
• Baruka’s Dagger
• Tower of Fate Key
• Legacy Shadow Legion Dungeon Key
Arthur’s fingers flexed slightly, his ever-climbing stats, the tools of the system shaping him into something far beyond mortal comprehension.
He whispered to himself, voice low, edged with wonder and cold ambition.
“I know how strong beings like Trigon are... and yet..” his eyes narrowed as he scanned the jagged skyline, “I feel like I can do much more. Become much more. Whether through him... or others...” His fist clenched tighter around the hilt of his sword. “I see no clear ceiling.”
Behind him, John Constantine raised an eyebrow as he slowed his pace. He leaned slightly toward Kara and muttered out the corner of his mouth.
“What the bloody hell is he mumbling about now? He wasn’t this awkward when I met him sometime ago.”
Kara, still hovering just above the molten ground with arms half-folded, exhaled and raised her hands in a helpless shrug.
“He does this sometimes,” she said with the exasperated fondness of someone who’s heard Arthur talk to his monsters, shadows, and himself sometimes on more than one occasion.
John let out a scoff, digging into his coat for another cigarette that he damn well knew wouldn’t survive long in a place like this.
“Yeah well...”
“But he is interesting.” Zatanna, trailing just a few steps behind them both, gave a soft chuckle. Her eyes stayed locked on Arthur's back, watching the way his presence darkened the air itself.
****
the gate at the heart of Trigon’s realm loomed before them. Black obsidian, veined with molten red, towered over them like the mouth of a titan. pillars of flame flanked the entrance, crackling like the screams of the damned. Carved into the arch were screaming stone faces each one contorted into agony. Their horns, twisted and fractured, bore an unmistakable resemblance to Trigon himself.
Kara grimaced and took a cautious step back.
“Why do they all look like that?” she muttered. “Seriously, did he commission statues of himself screaming?”
Zatanna didn’t answer immediately, her fingers brushing against one of the stones. The temperature singed even through her magic.
“They’re not statues,” she said finally. “They were people. Or souls.”
John grunted. “Lovely. Trigon’s version of home decor.”
John took a slow drag of his cigarette, his eyes narrowing.
“Alright. Hold up. Before we go marching into bloody Mordor, can we please make a plan first?”
Arthur didn’t even bother to turn around.
“I’m serious,” John said, waving his hand toward the entrance. “Considering what I’m sensing... he’s definitely in there. Trigon. Big red bastard himself, and this isn’t his chained body, it’s his damned soul, he can attack and do things! But there’s someone else too it’s faint, could be Raven, could be one of his vermin. I’m not sure. So let’s just..”
Arthur didn’t even pause. And just walked forward.
Into the heat. Into the waiting fight.
John blinked once.
“Oh for the love of...bloody hell’s balls, mate!” He threw up his hands in exasperation. “This is Trigon! Not your run-of-the-mill demon! You don’t just..”
Kara was already walking after him.
“Of course you’ll follwo him..,” John muttered.
Zatanna gave him a sideways look, a half-smile, and a shrug that said everything without saying a word. She raised both hands in surrender and started following too.
John stared after them, jaw clenched.
“You as well? Really?” he called out.
John sighed, slapped his hand against his coat, and lit another cigarette with a flick of his fingers.
“This is gonna go so well.”
Arthur stood before the gate, his expression cold, unreadable. Shadows danced at his feet. Then, his eyes began to glow a brilliant, searing blue.
His Doomsday Bone Gauntlet materialized with a harsh crack over his right arm, spikes locking into place, pulsing with shadow power.
John’s cigarette fell from his lips.
Arthur stepped forward and reared his gauntleted arm back.
“Arthur..” Zatanna started.
Too late.
BOOM.
He struck the gate.
The impact was like a meteor colliding with the earth. A deafening shockwave blasted outward, kicking up a wave of smoke, ash, and hellfire. It shattered inward in chunks, torn apart like paper before something greater. The stone faces cracked some crumbled, from the shockwave alone.
A wave of dense smoke curled from the gaping hole, and the heat that poured out could’ve melted steel.
And then… six glowing red eyes ignited beyond the smoke. Massive. Watching.
Kara’s eyes narrowed, her body tensing for a fight.
“That’s him.”
John muttered under his breath and lit a new cigarette with shaking fingers.
“Yeah well.. We’ve definitely got the bastard’s attention now.”
