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SM/DC Chapter 111 : Azarath
🕑 Added 2025-05-06 21:24:17 +0000 UTCKent looked down at the artifact for a moment then, with reverence, he took it.
As the artifact passed from Arthur’s grip to his, a low chime echoed through the chamber like fate itself had acknowledged the transaction.
Kent raised the Helmet of Nabu, his expression disappearing as the golden helm locked into place. The transformation was immediate his posture snapped upright, regal and still as stone. The air grew heavy. Electric. The sound of whispering spells clawed at the edge of reality.
Then, Doctor Fate ascended, his feet lifting inches off the floor, robes trailing in an invisible breeze.
His hands moved with practiced precision, fingers sketching runes in the air that glowed and burned with blinding light. They twisted like constellations, locking together into a sacred symbol.
The artifact trembled, then burst forth from Kent’s hands as if called by something greater.
It sailed into the portal a blinding streak of light and embedded itself like a keystone into its heart. Instantly, the swirling vortex stabilized, its chaotic edges folding into a perfect circular gate.
Doctor Fate hovered above them, arms extended, his voice layered with ancient thunder.
“The Anchor is ready and the path is open.”
“You may cross now.”
Kara took a step back, blinking at the sheer scale of power she feels before her. “Holy hell…”
Arthur, however, didn’t flinch. He just looked up eye to eye with the helm, with the man behind it. His voice was calm but carried a weight behind it.
“Thanks for the help, Fate.”
He turned halfway, glancing at the portal. Then looked back again, gaze sharp.
“I’ll be sure to return the favor.”
There was no doubt in his tone. No question. Just a quiet promise… like an oath spoken before the gods.
Fate’s head tilted, reading more than Arthur had said. Perhaps more than even Arthur realized.
Slowly, he descended, The helm lifted from his head with an unseen motion, revealing Kent Nelson once more tired eyes, but clear and resolute.
He smiled faintly.
“You are welcome.”
No riddles. No veils.
Just a man who knew the cost of staying silent… and the value of choosing the right hand to carry the burden.
Arthur nodded once, and then turned toward the glowing portal. Kara moved beside him, stealing a look back at Kent with disbelief still written on her face.
“Just so we’re clear,” she whispered to Arthur, “we’re walking into a hell-dimension to find the daughter of a demon, based on the advice of a floating wizard who built a pocket-reality room in a casino?”
Arthur grinned sideways. “Yeah.”
“Kinda makes you miss the boring thugs and lowlifes, huh?”
They stepped forward one foot after another and vanished into the light, swallowed by the gate to Azarath.
****
Justice League Watchtower -
The sound of steel rupturing echoed through the chambers then another boom, as Superman hurled Martian Manhunter across the reinforced hallway like a missile. J’onn smashed into a wall of titanium-alloy plating, cratering it with the force of a meteor.
In the blink of an eye, he was on his feet again, cape torn, blood dripping from his mouth but determined.
Across the room, Wonder Woman’s bracers sparked, the air crackling with divine tension. Her sword sang as it scraped against the floor, and her jaw was set with grim defiance.
Hovering above the broken ground, Trigon-possessed Superman looked nothing like the man they once knew. His iconic blue suit was now scorched red, tendrils of crimson energy writhing beneath the surface. His eyes weren’t just red they were four burning suns, flickering with unholy fire, radiating rage and madness.
"Clark!" Diana shouted, dodging a beam of searing heat that sliced through a pillar. "You need to fight it, whatever’s inside you, you’re stronger than it!"
Superman’s response was a howl of fury, not words an inhuman, guttural snarl that shook the chamber like thunder.
He charged, and the collision was like two titans clashing. Diana held her ground, sword clashing against his fists in a shower of sparks. Her strength was god-forged, battle-tested but even she could feel it:
He wasn’t holding back.
Across the room, J’onn phased through the floor, reappearing behind Superman, arms glowing with psychic energy as he attempted to invade the Kryptonian’s mind just for a second, just long enough to reach the real Clark.
“Kal-El, listen to me, this is not you. You are not a weapon. You are not a puppet.”
For a moment, something flickered. Superman’s body jerked mid-air, the flame in his eyes dimming ever so slightly.
But the resistance only enraged the demon deeper.
With a roar that cracked the walls, Superman grabbed J’onn mid-phase, twisting reality itself with brute force and slammed him through three layers of reinforced flooring, sending tremors throughout the station.
Diana lunged forward, her lasso in hand.
"Kal, please! Don't make us do something we might regret!”
She looped the golden lasso around his chest truth binding truth.
But Trigon’s corruption screamed back.
The lasso failed.
Diana’s eyes widened. “It can’t be…”
Superman grabbed her by the throat with one hand, lifting her off the ground with the ease of picking up a feather. Her boots kicked against the air, lightning crackling around her tiara as she tried to resist.
“The age of truth is over, Amazon. Your gods are dead, you shall die as well.”
The voice wasn’t his.
It was many.
A chorus of ancient evil.
Meanwhile, behind a layered containment field
Green Arrow and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) stood between the damaged cells, where the other possessed heroes Flash, Aquaman, Hawkgirl, and Black Canary lay unconscious, for now.
The walls shook again. More roars. Another power surge nearly shorted the lights.
Arrow’s grip tightened on his bow, eyes fixed on the fight through the observation glass. “You think they can restrain him?”
Hal didn’t answer right away. He stared, mouth set in a line, watching Wonder Woman crash through a bulkhead like a cannonball.
Then finally
“Honestly?”
His ring hummed at his side, ready to activate at a second’s notice.
“I don’t know. Clark’s the kind of guy who always holds back. Even when he’s pissed. Even when he's hurt. He chooses to be gentle.”
He turned, eyes grim.
“But that..” he pointed to the creature stomping toward Diana’s broken form, “..that’s not Clark.”
The lights flickered red.
Sirens screamed.
And the Man of Steel, possessed by a demon god, was wreaking havoc.
****
Azarath -
Azarath greeted them not with light, but with silence.
Above them stretched a sky without stars, just a bruised, pulsing void, like a dying heart trapped behind black glass. Islands of jagged marble floated in defiance of gravity, some tethered by veins of red energy, others drifting aimlessly like shattered bones in space.
The once-sacred Gates of Azarath, fabled in myth and protected by ancient seals, loomed ahead. But they were broken, the golden arch cracked down the middle. The divine inscriptions once meant to ward off evil now glowed with a corrupted red hue, twisted into new shapes..Trigon’s glyphs, if you looked closely enough.
Between the cracks in the stone, a thick, crimson mist bled out, curling through the air like fingers searching for something to choke. It didn’t move with the wind, because there was no wind. The air was still. Suffocating. Heavy with the smell of ash and something older… something wrong.
The city beyond the gates lay in ruin.
Arthur stepped forward, eyes sweeping the horizon with narrowed focus.
“Charming place,” he muttered dryly, the crunch of scorched gravel under his boots the only sound for miles.
Kara floated slightly above the ground, arms folded as she hovered beside him. Her cape barely moved in the thick, magical stillness. Her expression was cautious, but the deeper they went, the more uncomfortable she became.
“Is Raven really from here?” she asked, voice low as her eyes traced the ruined skyline.
She turned in the air, eyes narrowing. “I mean… this place looks dead. And I’m not talking a few years...I mean a thousand years kind of dead.”
Arthur didn’t respond immediately. His gaze lingered on a crumbling statue of an old monk-like figure, the face long worn away by time… or worse.
“Yeah,” he finally said, voice tinged with something more than just curiosity. “I’ve read the stories about this place…” He looked toward the distant skyline, where a dark temple loomed, untouched by the ruin around it.
“As for the truth about this place, I want to hear it from her. From Raven.”
Then his pupils suddenly narrowed a flicker of blue light glowing in his irises as his magic stirred. His entire body tensed like a hound catching a scent.
His eyes snapped open, a cold breath hissing through his teeth.
“I sensed something. Magic. Demonic. It’s coming from that temple.” He pointed through the haze.
Kara glanced in the same direction. Even from here, the temple radiated something… unnatural. A pulse. Like a heartbeat too deep and slow for anything alive.
Arthur’s jaw tightened.
“Let’s investigate.”
