SON OF BATMAN

Chapter 20: Darker Than A Demon(2)



Trigon's composure shattered like fragile glass under the weight of the overwhelming presence emanating from Damian. He snarled, baring his sharp, monstrous teeth, his fiery gaze narrowing in a desperate attempt to regain the dominance he had always held. "A mortal like you thinks he can stand against me?" he bellowed, his voice trembling at the edges despite his best efforts to mask it. "Do you have any idea what you're dealing with?" The words echoed hollow and uncertain, a far cry from the commanding presence that had once made worlds tremble at his feet.

His roar reverberated across the realm, shaking the towering columns and stirring the tranquil air. The very foundation of reality seemed to quiver beneath the weight of his desperate defiance.

Before Trigon could continue his tirade, the atmosphere shifted. A suffocating pressure surged from Damian. The abyssal void in his eyes seemed to ripple, and then, without warning, a torrent of pure, oppressive darkness exploded outward from him. It moved like a living entity, an all-consuming blackness that devoured everything in its path, relentless and unstoppable.

Trigon's red eyes widened in disbelief as the darkness surged toward him. He raised his colossal hands as if to ward it off, but the void was untouchable, a force beyond comprehension. "What is this?!" he roared, his voice losing its command as it broke into something bordering on panic. The question hung in the air, unanswered, as the darkness continued its relentless advance.

All living beings, no matter how powerful, share an innate fear of the unknown. It is a primal instinct, a terror born from facing what cannot be understood or explained. For all his arrogance and ancient strength, Trigon was no exception.

As Damian's darkness surged toward him, an enigma beyond the limits of his comprehension, the demon lord felt that same dread clawing at his essence. His immortal heart, forged in the fires of countless conquered worlds, trembled before this unfathomable force. He didn't know what this force was, didn't understand its origin, nor could he grasp how it was wielded by a mortal.

What chilled him further was the realization that this otherworldly power seemed to stem from something immortal, something beyond the confines of human existence. It was as if he stood before an abyss that had existed long before the first star burned in the cosmos, a darkness that made his own demonic nature seem pale in comparison.

It was not the strength of the attack, but the unknowable nature of this darkness itself that made Trigon falter. What kind of power was this? What kind of human could wield it? The questions remained unanswered, and the uncertainty hollowed him from within.

The darkness in question however did not stop to answer his questions nor give him time to think. Like a wave of eternal night, it engulfed Trigon's massive frame, crawling over him like an endless tide, smothering his fiery glow. He swung his arms wildly, thrashing and clawing at the air, but his immense strength was useless against the intangible darkness. The chains that had bound him for years, forged from Raven's own purple darkness, began to tremble as Damian's absolute black darkness reached them.

The moment Damian's darkness touched them, they melted away, dissolving completely as though they had never existed. Piece by piece, they were devoured by the abyss, their faint glow snuffed out in an instant.

Trigon, who had spent an eternity struggling against their restraint, was now free, but there was no triumph, no relief. The bitter irony of his liberation tasted like ash in his mouth. His newfound freedom meant nothing against the far greater threat now bearing down on him. Instead of liberation, there was only fear, and the terrifying realization that the chains had been the least of his concerns.

Trigon's defiance quickly unraveled as the abyssal darkness tightened around him like a vice. His immortal flesh, once impervious to all harm, now quivered beneath the touch of this absolute darkness. His massive arms swung wildly, his claws tearing through the air with a fury that shook the entire realm.

He tried to channel his infernal strength, to summon his flames and burn away the encroaching shadow, but his fire was smothered the instant it sparked. Each desperate attempt at resistance only seemed to make the darkness grow hungrier, more determined. The tendrils of Damian's relentless darkness wrapped tighter around his limbs, dragging him down like a creature caught in quicksand. No matter how fiercely he fought, his every movement was swallowed by the void.

Panic clawed at his mind. The weight of millennia of supremacy crumbled like sand through his fingers. He was the destroyer of worlds, the ruler of countless realms, yet here he was, helpless before the encroaching force that seemed to defy all logic, all power. He struck the ground, sending cracks rippling across the fading remnants of the peaceful world around him. The darkness did not falter, did not retreat, it advanced with a terrible patience, as if certain of its inevitable victory.

Desperation gripped him as he clawed upward, only to feel the abyss tighten its hold with every futile struggle. A guttural roar of rage and terror erupted from his throat, but there was no answer in the consuming black. The weight of his own fear crushed him, leaving him gasping, his colossal frame dwarfed by the infinite shadows that sought to consume him. For the first time in his long existence, Trigon felt the sting of true despair.

And then, in the depths of that despair, his gaze shifted to a single, unmoving figure, Raven. Like a drowning man catching sight of a distant shore, she was still in Damian's arms, bathed in the light of his presence, untouched by the swirling darkness that sought to claim him. A desperate hope flared in his eyes, irrational and raw.

At that moment, Raven was the only thing that remained bright in his dying world, a solitary star in an expanding void, the last flicker of something familiar amidst the endless unknown. She was the only being left who might understand him, the only being he thought he could manipulate, or plead with, to save him from this fate.

Driven by a need that bordered on madness, he reached out to her, his voice breaking as he roared, "Save me, daughter!" His once-booming tone was ragged and cracked, choked with a fear he had never known. "You can't let this happen!" His outstretched hand trembled, his infernal confidence shattered, revealing the barest glimmer of desperation in his eyes, the eyes of a demon lord, finally brought to his knees.

Raven's eyes were wide, her breath hitching as the scene unfolded before her. The impossible reality before her eyes shattered every conception of power she had ever known. She could hardly believe what she was witnessing, the invincible demon who had haunted her every waking moment, who had ruled over her existence with unyielding cruelty, was now being swallowed whole by an abyss even darker than his own soul.

The power that consumed him was beyond anything Raven understood, and the sight of him, her father, pleading, desperate, and broken, left her utterly paralyzed.

She couldn't move. Her limbs felt like lead, weighted down by the sheer magnitude of what she was witnessing. Her mind screamed to look away, to do something, anything, but her body remained frozen. Trigon's form was unraveling, the relentless darkness engulfing him inch by inch. His outstretched hand, once so powerful, was now a mere shadow of its former strength, quaking as the blackness consumed it.

He roared again, his voice rising in a guttural, panicked scream, "Daughter! Save me! Don't let it take me!" The words echoed through the realm like the last cry of a dying god, desperate and terrifying in their vulnerability.


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