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SM/DC Chapter 96 : Ultraman
🕑 Added 2025-04-21 20:29:18 +0000 UTCThe shadows coiled like serpents at Arthur’s heels as he stepped into the doors of Alexander Luthor’s hideout. The place a sterile mix of reinforced metal and flickering consoles, hidden deep beneath the Earth’s crust where no satellite dared look. But now, there was tension in the air. Waiting.
Alexander Luthor stood with his back to a glowing data terminal, his sharp gaze immediately locking onto Arthur the moment he entered. He stepped forward, voice low but urgent.
“What the hell happened in their tower?” he demanded. “It was reduced to rubble. I thought you died.” His voice faltered, a mix of concern and disbelief. “Was it Ultraman?”
Arthur stopped, a quiet smirk creeping onto his face.
“No,” he said calmly, shadows curling slightly around his shoulders. “It was me.”
Alexander’s eyes widened. “What?”
“You don’t have to worry about the Syndicate now,” Arthur continued, voice cool and precise. “They’re dead. All of them, except Ultraman. For some reason, he wasn’t there.”
Alexander took a half step back, utterly stunned. “They’re… really gone?”
From the rippling blackness under Arthur’s boots, four figures emerged, silent and graceful like death itself. Quick, Empress, Owl, and Ring. Their eyes glowed faintly with violet light, kneeling at Arthur’s feet like loyal knights before a sovereign.
Arthur said nothing. Instead, he raised a hand and gestured toward them “Here they are.”
Alexander stared.
“No way…” he whispered, his voice robbed of breath. “That’s… Johnny Quick… Superwoman… Owlman… and Power Ring?”
He turned to Arthur, utterly bewildered. “They’re kneeling for you.”
“They’re mine now,” Arthur said simply, folding his arms. “Their strength is better used under my command.”
Alexander slowly paced forward, examining each of them. Even now, they exuded power, power tempered by obedience. The madness in Quick’s eyes was gone. Superwoman knelt with a prideful silence, but she did not resist. Owlman’s calculating gaze remained, even as an undead. Ring, twitchy as ever, seemed more subdued, more precise.
“I really can’t believe it…” Alexander muttered. He paused, then exhaled deeply. “Well… I guess it’s great...back.. back to our objective, did you get what I asked for?”
Arthur turned his head slightly. “Come out.”
Alexander blinked, confused. Then his jaw clenched as, one by one, Arthur’s Ice Elves slithered from the shadows beneath his feet—tall, beings with eyes like frozen stars. They carried crates, relics, glowing containment canisters, and vials of tech-infused liquids. They marched silently, forming a semicircle and then unloading everything at Alexander’s feet.
Arthur glanced toward the bounty, then back to Luthor. “This should be enough, right?”
Alexander was still frozen, his brain processing a battlefield’s worth of information, shadow, and strategy unfolding right in front of him. Then he blinked, shook himself back to clarity, and finally nodded.
“…Yes. Yes, it’s enough.”
Arthur gave a satisfied nod. “Good. Now can we talk about this threat you mentioned?”
Alexander’s face darkened at the word.
“Owlman mentioned something similar...before I killed him.”
That drew a look from Luthor. His shoulders sagged slightly. Something long carried, heavy and bitter, settled behind his eyes.
“…Very well,” he said, walking slowly to his console. “I suppose I have to tell someone. I can’t carry this alone anymore.”
He sat down, tapping a few keys on the glowing console. Lines of data streamed across the screen, images flickering, cosmic symbols, deep-space readings, flickers of ancient ruins not found on Earth. His voice was lower now, slower.
“There’s something coming, Arthur. Not from this Earth… not even from this universe. Something far older than the Syndicate. Far more destructive than Ultraman. Owlman tried to understand it. So did I. But we barely scratched the surface.”
He paused, then added grimly
“Whatever it is… it doesn’t want to rule. It doesn’t want power. It just devours.”
Arthur’s eyes narrowed.
“Well... There a few examples popping in my mind..”
****
Arthur’s Earth -
Inside the stillness of the Titans’ Tower, Raven’s chamber pulsed faintly with violet light. Candles flickered in a perfect ring, suspended mid-air by invisible threads of magic. Ancient glyphs floated around the room, glowing in rhythmic patterns.
Raven sat cross-legged at the center, sweat trickling down her face. Her cloak hung loose, her fingers locked in a focused mudra, and her breathing was shallow, strained.
She had been at this for hours...days maybe. Searching. Reaching across realms. Trying to find him.
Arthur.
But every time she felt like she got close...his energy slipped like a shadow into smoke.
Her eyes flickered open. Red light flared across her irises.
Suddenly, the room dimmed...unnaturally so. The glyphs around her turned crimson.
Then, a voice like grinding stone and molten fire echoed through her mind.
“You’re slipping, daughter.”
Her spine stiffened, a chill crawling down it. The voice was unmistakable.
Trigon.
“Your focus wavers. Your soul flickers. You’re becoming... pathetic.”
Raven’s jaw clenched, eyes snapping shut as she tried to silence him. “Shut up,” she hissed. “I’m not getting weaker.”
“You are.” His voice coiled around her skull. “You can barely hold your emotions together, let alone your magic. You reach for him… and yet, you’re the one drifting away.”
Her fingers trembled slightly.
“Arthur…” Trigon mused mockingly. “He consumes your thoughts. He unsettles you. A boy born of darkness, yet you fear his loss more than you fear me. How poetic.”
“Shut up!” she shouted this time, her voice echoing off the stone walls. The glyphs flared with black and violet.
Silence.
A long, cold silence.
Then, Trigon’s voice was gone.
Raven sat in the middle of the chamber, breath ragged, heart pounding. The candles had all extinguished. Only the faint hum of residual magic remained.
She clenched her fists against her knees, her voice barely a whisper.
“I hate to admit it… but he’s right.”
Her gaze dropped to the floor, her voice tighter now, angry but honest.
“I can barely control my emotions…”
A long pause.
Then she looked up above her “…And it’s getting worse the longer he’s gone.”
****
Alexander’s Hideout -
Arthur stood at the edge of the room, arms crossed, Demon King’s longsword sheathed on his back like a silent warning to the world.
Alexander exhaled. “This… threat..” he paused, expression grave. “It’s not something you can punch, Arthur. It’s not a man. Not a monster.”
Arthur tilted his head, eyes narrowing.
Alexander continued, “It’s... How should I say it correctly... A cosmic entity. It doesn't conquer worlds... it devours them. It consumes matter, time, light...everything.”
Before he could say the name, Arthur's voice cut through the room like steel on bone.
“It’s the Anti-Monitor.”
Alexander froze, lips parting slightly in surprise. “…So you do know.”
Arthur’s gaze darkened, jaw tightening. “Damn it,” he muttered, voice low and bitter. “I don’t think I have a chance against something like that… especially not right now.”
A spark of sarcasm lit Alexander’s eyes, but there was no humor in it. “What, you expecting every problem to fall to fists and fire? This one’s not going to bleed for you, Arthur.”
“I know,” Arthur snapped. Then his voice softened, his honesty unshakable. “I’m not strong enough for something like that… yet.”
Alexander’s brow twitched at the word, his lip curling. “‘Yet.’” He looked genuinely annoyed now. “You really are that confident in your strength?”
Arthur gave him a quiet, level stare. “I’m not stupid, Luthor. I know what that thing is capable of. What it’s done. What it will do if we don’t escape.”
There was a pause.
And then, Alexander turned back to the terminal, fingers dancing over the console. Lines of code cascaded down the screens, quantum energy humming louder with every passing second.
“We don’t have time anyway,” he muttered, more to himself than anyone. “So I’ll get to work. I promised I’d get you out of this place it will take at best two days with the help of your shadows...and I keep my word.”
Then, something in his voice shifted.
Softer. Regretful.
“…You already did us a favor by destroying the Syndicate,” he said, not looking up. “Even though… part of me wished they might’ve tried to be better. Tried to help save this world from the doom coming for it.”
Arthur’s voice was cold, final. “Well… too late for that. They're gone. And Ultraman’s still breathing.”
He stepped forward, boots echoing on the steel floor.
“You can bet he’s out there. Hunting. Burning. Just waiting for the moment he finds me.”
Alexander finally looked up meeting Arthur’s gaze, and for a moment, two worlds of resolve collided.
“…I’m sure he is,” Luthor said, eyes flaring with a scientist’s fire and a survivor’s fury.
*****
Two Days Later —
The sky was dark still in an endless night, and high above, suspended in the air like a storm held at bay, Ultraman hovered, arms folded, cape billowing in the high-altitude wind.
His eyes burned a cold crimson, scanning the dead zone below. Concrete husks, fractured towers, and shattered streets passed beneath his gaze...until
He saw it.
A flicker. A twitch. Barely noticeable. But to him… a heartbeat was louder than thunder.
Something or someone moved within the ruins.
Ultraman’s mouth curved into a grim smirk.
“Tch…” he exhaled slowly, voice as heavy as the clouds above. “I didn’t think I’d have to find you like this, scum of Alexander.”
He floated lower, letting the static in the air build across his skin. His red eyes narrowed, focus sharpening like a blade.
“I always knew you’d run to the sewers. Hide in the filth. After all…”
He clenched his fists, cape snapping behind him like the wings of a demon.
“You’re nothing but a rat.”
“...And now… a cornered one.”
He dove.
Like a missile forged of wrath and fury, Ultraman shot downward, breaking the sound barrier with a thunderclap. Buildings shook. Windows shattered. Dust spiraled into the air as the force of his descent lit the air aflame.
