Chalter 67: Decalogy part 3/3: TRIGON
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(General P.O.V)
A GREEN RING streaked through the air.
(Elsewhere)
Constantine knew what he was. And, he never tried to hide it. If anything he embraced his reputation. It was easier that way. Those that stuck around knowing what a right bastard he was, were fools. His life was dangerous. That was a constant.
And to survive what even the heroes couldn't, needed more than a set of morals. It needed the inverse. A lack of said set of morals. And that worked. He had killed what couldn't be killed, outsmarted that which couldn't be outsmarted and outlasted everyone else in the same line of business.
It was telling that one of his closest colleagues, Deadman had only stuck around this long because...he was already dead.
But even for John Constantine, his current situation was something he didn't think he would survive.
He was up against a trans-dimensional being who carried the collective evil of over a billion worlds.
What he wouldn't do for a smoke right about now.
"Trigon!"
Constantine called out, standing on the edge of the crater, looking down and sensing a corrupt leyline node. The magic was tainted. The pool, sickly and a stain on the Earth. Even if Gotham survived Trigon, the land would still decay if the Lazarus Pit was not dealt with.
"I know you can hear me you red skinned uncultured cunt. Show yourself and face me!"
He bellowed into the crater, his sight obscured by the smoke covering the mouth of the deep hole.
But he didn't have to simply rely on his eyes. He muttered a spell under his mouth and his eyes briefly lit up with a white light.
They peered through the smoke and Constantine instantly took a step back, eyes widening in both fear, anger and desperation.
"No..."
He muttered, looking around him. His surroundings changing drastically, the sky became pallid. The fire burning on the buildings turned pale.
And the crater...
The crater was not what he had expected. Or at least it was, only he had not portaled in the location he had aimed for.
Instead he was in a mirror world, looking out or into the real world. And now that the veil was down, he understood just how fucked he was.
The sky had turned red. His teleportation had been hijacked and he had ended up somewhere like Gotham but not Gotham.
He was in one of the planes of the Underrealm, a dimension under Trigon.
And immediately upon acknowledgement, everything went to it's natural state. The air became stale as the wind begun blowing on the other direction. The color gradient of just about everything became grayer.
And whenever he looked deep into the Cavern, his sight was folded into two contrasting views. One was the smog colored sky of Gotham.
And the other was a wide view of the deep cavern from the sky, showing him Trigon, as he formed from tens of thousands of souls floating in midair.
Trigon's body started out as a mere shadow with four red eyes, then rapidly a skeletal structure formed, followed by Flesh and red skin. Before long, the Lord of the Underrealm flexed his demonic body, roaring to the sky in supremacy.
The roar sent dust and debris near him sailing out.
The roar transitioned into a low laughter that begun sounding out of him. Trigon turned his sights on Constantine, his gaze piercing through the veil of worlds.
"John Constantine. Once again, you stand alone to face a foe. Only this time, your tricks will not save you."
Trigon said.
His voice was commanding and authoritative, with a deep resonance that emphasized his otherworldly nature and intimidating presence.
John brought his palms together and begun chanting at high speeds. He couldn't allow it to end this way. Not after the many sacrifices he had made.
Trigon's form begun growing, looming over Constantine.
Constantine spread his hands out and begun speaking in a strange tone.
"Enochian script? Hahaha." Trigon laughed, finding the notion funny.
"I am not like those petty demons from hell! I am Trigon the Terrible! Invoking banishment will not work on me. This form was constructed by the souls of ten thousand humans!"
The entity lashed out with a clawed hand. His hand seemed to cut through the layers of space separating the Underrealm and Earth, headed towards Constantine. The claws phased through a yellow shield along the mouth of the crater.
Constantine's left eye lost color as he sacrificed it to bypass the restriction on magic on the Underrealm, phasing through Trigon's attack.
It gave the demonic entity pause.
"Oh. So you still have your bite."
"Nice try but sod off."
Constantine grunted, a long trail of blood coming out of his left eye.
"You might not be a conventional demon but evil is still evil. And I will defeat you."
Constantine added, shooting back with a glare.
Around Constantine, 3 shadows formed up into tall, red skinned humanoid beings that closely resembled Trigon.
Trigon started laughing again.
"Meet my sons, Constantine. Unlike you, I know when fodder is useful."
"Oh bloody hell."
Constantine looked around, stepping back as each demon hoisted their weapons at him, eyeing him with vicious glee.
"You escaped death the last time my Daughter lost control to me." Trigon replied turning his attention to the sky, where the roar of engines sounded out. A few military jets passed over where he was.
"Your inevitable fate has caught up to you Magician. You failed to save Grandale, you failed to save Gotham. And you will fail to save the most important thing to you...yourself."
Constantine got to his feet. Behind the Demons and surrounded on all sides facing the crater were armies of demons, dark spirits and otherworldly creatures under the service of Trigon.
"Any chance we could have a chat about this Lads?"
Constantine asked, shifting his feet to face them all, while withdrawing a card from his trouser pocket.
"I don't know...how about you make it easier for us and just...die."
One of Trigon's sons suggested.
As they mobilized to destroy the Magician, Trigon continued absorbing the souls hanging around in the cavern.
The souls of the people who had been caged like animals.
They...had failed.' Constantine lamented, gritting his teeth as his eyes jumped from one Demon to another.
Really failed.
The strong back of a certain young man flashed behind his eyes. Maybe...
No! He was Constantine. He didn't need anyone, he'd faced worse.
The situation might have been bad. Over tens of thousands of sacrifices was not a joke. That kind of Power-Up was enough to even make the lowest ranked demon, a Duke. At least for a short time.
For a being like Trigon? One who could absorb evil? It would grant him a foothold on this planet.
The odds had been worse. Still...
"Well, let's get to it then."
Constantine told them with an upturn of the corner of his lips.
The demons jumped in, only for him to throw the card in his hands before them. It flashed blue and released violent streaks of lightning across the first group of demons to jump towards him with snarls.
The smoke and dust released covered the surroundings only for more of Trigon's minions to push through.
Constantine gritted his teeth, plucking out a single strand of his hair. Spatial magic was hard. Apart from the basic teleportation, he could only store objects on his own body. His hair became the perfect inventory. Each strand could store one thing.
A spell incantation left his mouth and the hair strand changed into a stone knife with inscriptions of power on it's length. John brought the knife to his forearm, folding up the sleeves of his shirt. Then he sliced his forearm from the crook of the elbow to the wrist.
Instead of blood, a white mist escaped the wound and Constantine's body turned pale. His cheeks became hollow and sunken and he fell to his knees wheezing in pain.
If this didn't work...they would all be dead.
It was time for his final trick. It was time to call in The Spectre.
(General P.O.V)
Each soul absorbed brought him closer and closer to full materialization, fueling Trigon's power. It was meager, unlike what he could access on his true form but that would soon be taken care of. He only needed to find a vessel to house his form, birthing him a body he could exert his full power through.
There was a reason he had allowed Raven to stay alive, albeit as a shade of her true self. She would give him that.
And then the world would bow down or suffer.
"I told you daughter."
Trigon informed the remnants of Raven's spirit as the tornado of souls spun around him.
"Nothing can stop me."
He lashed out with a fully formed hand, the stones and debris around him shot out in a barrage of telekinetically controlled projectiles. They speared through the military crafts in the sky.
"Not your armies."
He then grabbed at a news Chopper that had flown too close. The metal groaned as he smirked viciously, then begun squeezing.
"Let them go!!"
A voice said from afar.
Captain Atom, Wonder Woman, Shazam and the Hawk People flew in from the ruined city, weapons at the ready. They were what was left of the League. And they had mobilized right after the dome had gone down.
Atom's hands lit up, then he pushed them out, sending a long huge beam of energy at Trigon.
It smashed onto his forehead. Only for the entity to absorb it. Then his eyes lit up and an even bigger beam of red energy shot out of them, drowning the heroes under the devastating attack. He had reflected their attack back at them.
"Nor your heroes...villains...least of all you."
He concluded, adding more power to the beam and razing the surroundings. Most of the buildings still left standing went up in flames.
Raven looked on at the devastation she had caused and felt her heart break.