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Chapter 37 - Trigon
🕑 Added 2025-10-02 20:36:31 +0000 UTCJump City
Arrival
“We are missing some of the women.” Question counted the rescued females and came up short compared to the number he had gathered.
Had they missed some? Or were they not brought to Jump City yet? “Superman, can you check with your vision to see if there are any hidden alcoves?” Miles requested. The building plan was detailed, but you could not be sure with anything when it comes to a cult.
“Give me a second.”
“What the?...” Whatever the Man of Tomorrow saw stumped him, and in that second, the Arrival was wiped out of existence as a pillar of red energy burst out to the sky, leaving a gaping hole behind, killing all the people inside the building.
The release of energy created wild gales that whipped around before settling down and leaving its place to a feeling of dread that gripped the air.
The sky turned red, and the people ran away in hysteria, trampling each other in a bid to be as far from the source of evil as possible.
“Oh no.” Raven saw the figure flying above the hole and fell on her knees.
Above the hole, a red figure dressed in black armor with golden antlers, hoofs, and a wild mane of white hair floated, eyes closed as he squeezed his fists.
Miles gulped. They—he—had screwed up big time. “Is that?” Not that it could be anyone else, but he could hope.
“Yeah…”
“What do we do?” There had to be a way to defeat Trigon, but he struggled to think of one.
Raven, who was in a daze and terrified, did not have an answer for him.
Trigon opened all four of his eyes, grinning as he surveyed the area, and came down to look at Raven. “Ah, my treacherous daughter. Consider yourself fortunate that my time here is limited.”
Raven’s eyes widened as she saw a glimmer of hope. “Of course. Even at full power the ritual wouldn’t be enough to bring you to this world completely.” She turned to Miles. “Trigon’s form isn’t complete; if he takes enough damage, he will go back to where he belongs.”
Trigon’s laughter sent reverberations through the air. “Indeed, the question is, are the warriors of this world strong enough to stop me before I destroy this city as a prelude to what is to come?”
Superman answered the question by punching Trigon in the face, barely causing the demon’s head to turn to the side. Still grinning, the four-eyed entity punched Superman in the gut, folding the Kryptonian in half and sending him flying away with spit flying out of his mouth.
“Don’t attack one by one; charge together!” Miles screamed. They needed to keep Trigon occupied as long as possible, because the demon lord would curb stomp the Justice League in a one-on-one fight.
He and Question were directing what sane people were left in the vicinity away from the fight, since there was nothing they could do.
Watching their arguably strongest member get harmed so easily, the remaining members of the League attacked as one.
Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl, and Flash attacked, getting in close range, while the Martian, Green Lantern, and Batman gave fire support.
Trigon caught Diana’s punch and Shayera’s mace, slamming both women into each other, but Flash was able to distract him, allowing his remaining teammates to attack. Lantern’s beam, a large piece of debris thrown by Jonn, and several batarangs hit the demon, and again, it barely flinched.
“Is this the best Earth has to offer? Here I was looking for a challenge; how disappointing.” Trigon taunted the League, which only fueled their resolve.
Superman came flying out with a scream, fist extended, and this time, his attack flipped Trigon through the air with dark-red blood leaking out of his nose.
“Better.” Trigon wiped the blood with the back of his hand and launched himself at Superman.
Diana and Shayera blindsided the demon with a double attack, and Green Lantern brought a gigantic cross down on the staggered Trigon, bringing him closer to the ground. Superman brought his hands together and slammed a hammerfist on the back of the demon’s head.
A small cloud of dust rose from where Trigon met the ground, and there was only laughter as he rose again.
“Good, good. Give me more.” Trigon’s eyes glowed, and Miles knew what was coming.
“Dodge!” The League scrambled with the warning, and Trigon’s ocular beams split into seven parts, each one carving deep trenches on the asphalt as well as slicing entire buildings down.
Raven, seeing that the Justice League was actually inflicting damage on her father, joined the fray, her dark beams, joined by Claire’s flames, slamming onto Trigon’s face to disrupt the destructive red energies.
It worked, as the ocular beams ceased with the demon grunting in irritation, which was all the Justice League needed to attack back.
Using the momentary lapse, Diana wrapped her lasso around Trigon’s right arm, pulling it back while John did the same to the other arm, giving Superman an opening to rain a flurry of punches.
Diana and Shayera were straining to keep Trigon contained, and the demon had enough, kicking Superman away. Holding the lasso, he swung it around, slamming Diana into John, breaking the Green Lantern’s focus.
“Hey four eyes, smile.” Flash was a blur on the battlefield, attacking Trigon while the demon was otherwise occupied, and as he got faster with each passing second, his punches became that much more powerful.
“Annoying pest.” Trigon shook his head after Flash nailed him in the temple and made to catch the speedster, but several ranged attacks from Claire, Martian Manhunter, and Batman stopped him, followed by several war constructs from John and Raven’s attacks.
Superman was back in the fray with Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, a three-pronged attack that the demon could not stop. Clark and Diana went for the eyes, while Shayera’s mace glowed, and she slammed it into Trigon’s chest while he was trying to repel the heaviest hitters of the League.
“Keep going; he is weakening.” Raven said. She felt her father’s avatar weaken with each blow from the heroes and knew that he would soon disintegrate.
After batting Trigon’s hand away, Superman grabbed the demon’s head and blasted heat beams straight into his lower eyes, while the rest of the League restrained the demon.
The thermal energy cut through the eyes after meeting resistance for a short while, and Trigon bellowed in that baritone voice of his.
But it did not last long.
An explosion of energy sent the heroes flying away, and Trigon stood there, slowly disintegrating, with a bloodthirsty grin that sent shivers down their spines. His avatar was breaking apart into red flecks of energy, but the sense of danger he exuded was not decreasing in the slightest.
“This has been,” Trigon stopped, searching for the correct word. “Amusing. Consider yourself fortunate, interloper.” The evil incarnate looked at Miles, and the human knew it wasn’t about stopping the ritual.
With those final parting words, Trigon’s avatar broke down into ashes, and it was over.
—
One thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven.
That was the total casualties, including the women that were used as a sacrifice to bring Trigon to Earth in a lesser vessel, along with the guests, the workers, and the law enforcement that was inside the club when Trigon arrived. Civilians were evacuated quickly enough from the area once the fight started, but not everyone had made it to a safe distance.
Considering how strong Trigon was, these losses were light.
The Justice League was battered and tired, but they still helped with the rescue efforts, saving civilians trapped under debris, while Miles brought medical supplies and food and promised new accommodations to the displaced people.
—
Watchtower
“This was a disaster.” John, who was running on fumes, commented, breaking the silence.
Flash looked down, a somber atmosphere around the usually upbeat speedster. “We failed, and the people paid the price.”
“You did not inform us of everything.” Batman turned to Miles, the one who was supposed to keep an eye out to prevent anything like this from happening in the first place.
“Because I did not know everything. There was no news of a cult trying to summon Trigon until the last moment, and nothing in the building plans about an underground base below the one where we found the kidnapped women.” An oversight on his part, one that cost dearly.
That wasn’t good enough for Batman, apparently. “But you had suspicions.”
He had feared that was the intent behind the kidnappings, but moving on suspicion alone was not advisable. “Connecting what appears to be sex traffickers to a cult intent on summoning an entity such as Trigon is notoriously difficult when the cult members cannot be bribed, threatened, or subverted and operate in total secrecy.” The downside of claiming to have an advanced network when, in truth, one did not have one was that when something slipped through, it did not end well.
Jonn stepped in, feeling the rising tension in the room. “Blaming each other won’t do any good. I am sure Miles did his best.”
“Manhunter is right. No matter how difficult it is to admit, we cannot save everyone, every time. What we can do is to be better next time so a tragedy like this does not repeat itself.” Superman advised. He knew that not a single person in this room had a perfect track record of saving civilians, but just because they could not reach perfection did not mean stopping altogether.
“Well said. I will keep track of everyone that has the slightest of connections to the cult and see that they are brought to justice.” One way or another, Miles would see it done.
“Keep us informed on how it goes. Does anyone have anything else to say?” The fight was short, but Trigon was a brutal fighter, and Diana needed time for the bruises to heal.
No one spoke up, and Hawkgirl rose from her seat. “We all should get some rest then.”
—
Metropolis
Beckett Residence
Miles sat down on the couch without a word, tired. He had just helped Raven settle in a guest room and would soon go to sleep himself.
He has been running himself ragged ever since his arrival in this world without proper rest, and Trigon’s short-lived incursion was the final nail in the coffin.
“Miles, are you alright?” Zalika asked, having already been awake. It was rare for Miles to come home looking so tired, especially in the morning, which further showed how dangerous things had gotten at Jump City.
“I will be. How are you two doing?”
She nodded, holding out a folder. “Good. I made a list of all the people tied to that club.”
“Thank you, Zalika.” Now that he had a list of all the vermin that had a hand in that atrocity, Miles was going to stick each and every single one into a prison, without their individual wealth and connections.
Money transformed even something as grueling as a prison sentence into a smooth experience for the rich, but seeing as most individuals on this list were softened by their posh life, prison would be a true hell for them.
After he rested, of course.
—
Every single news channel was running the same story, with constant debates ranging from questioning Justice League’s effectiveness to how this cult came to be, the wealthy elite suspected of funding it, and of course, Trigon himself, or the Devil, as the news called him.
The way he had fought the Justice League had drawn more than one villain’s attention, unknown to the heroes themselves.
Fortunately, Trigon was gone, but Miles couldn’t help but wonder if it was his interference that caused the whole mess with the cult.
Most of its members were either dead or in a mental asylum after their minds were corrupted by their master, so there was no one left to interrogate.
“Raven, good morning.” Miles greeted the young girl, who still looked tired even though she had slept for more than twenty-four hours.
“Morning.” Raven laid her head on the table and stayed like that until Miles put her breakfast plate on the table.
Claire had already gone out, saying she wanted to spend her downtime on a shopping spree.
Miles took his seat as well and got straight to the matter. “As I said before, you can stay as long as you want, or I can prepare accommodations for you in a place of your choice.” It was best to have Raven somewhere close and safe rather than out there on her own, but he would not alienate her by forcing anything.
“Are you sure it is fine?” Being around Trigon’s daughter was a dangerous prospect.
“Yes, of course.”
“Thank you.” Raven started eating her breakfast, content that she was secure.
His charges came down for breakfast and were curious about the new guest. “Hey, we didn’t have the chance to talk yesterday. I am Baraka, and this is my sister, Zalika.” Baraka introduced his sister, who was still sleepy.
She swallowed her food and nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
“Are you going to stay here from now on?” It would be nice to have more people around the home, though Raven was younger than Baraka and his sister.
“For now, I guess so.” Raven didn’t really plan to stay with humans in the first place and still wasn’t sure of the idea.
There were more important matters for the young sorceress to think about now. “Miles, how did you even know about him in the first place?”
“I was aware of some other cults who worshipped him, but none that had the intention, or the knowledge, to summon him.” This cult wasn’t the only one, and Miles would be sure to keep a very close eye on the rest, starting with Brother Blood’s church. Trigon already knew Miles had something to do with the way things changed, which meant that the reason the cult summoned their master was because of his interference in possibly stopping the demon’s arrival in the future.
He needed a very blunt instrument to bludgeon these cults to death, without exception.
Zalika was awake now that the events at Jump City were being discussed. “What exactly was that guy? He gave the League a hard time.”
“It is a long story, but to summarize it, he is evil incarnate, and his favorite pastime activity is to destroy worlds.” Miles explained. He believed it was for the best if the two knew the danger world-shattering entities like Trigon posed for Earth and the universe at large.
“Oh.” Zalika and Baraka were stunned. What could they say, knowing that the apocalypse had come knocking?
“This one was a mere avatar, far weaker than the real deal.” Raven added, still thinking about what would have happened if Trigon had arrived as a whole.
“Good thing the League was there.” Zalika, unlike Raven, did not even want to think about the consequences.
