บท 105: The End of a Reign
His life force was rather pitiful compared to what I had imagined from him. He wasn't weak in general, very well universal, but that wasn't going to cut it. Not against us, not against me.
Despite his pitiful appearance, he was different from all the other times he had fought us. His aura was palpable, the air was thick from the malevolence his body projected. Just the way his aura washed over us made me realize that he was here truly and completely. At least what was left of him. Truly, he was on his last legs.
Of course, despite the sure victory that I could already foresee, I was expecting some foul play, so regardless or rather because of the lack of threat I could sense from him, I entered Legendary.
I had only turned Super Saiyan 4 once, so I still needed to get a hang of it, but as of right now, I didn't really have the control or rather the space in which I could safely transform without shaking the entire universe. Though I couldn't itch to try anyway. After all, Kakarot had shaken heaven and hell by transforming into Super Saiyan 3 against Janemba and the universe didn't crumble because of it.
Of course, Dragon Ball seemed to be made of sterner stuff, or rather their control was just insane as even Broly could transform into a Legendary that rivaled the gods in a fit of rage without even shattering the planet he was on. Maybe it was just a bias on my part since I had some control issues in the past.
With Super Saiyan 4, god ki, and Shallot's memories helping me, I should be fine, but better to be safe than sorry. I will play around with the transformation once I visit Giblet tomorrow or the day afterward. It hadn't been 2 days and I was already itching for another good fight.
Who could blame me? I had just unlocked a new transformation that helped me beat up the completely busted and most likely Saiyan-mutant, Cumber without major injuries.
"I had expected you," Trigon announced, his voice dripping with a sinister undertone. The flames in his eyes flickered with a familiar malevolent glow, though it was uncharacteristically subdued. He barely glanced at me before locking onto his daughter. It made me wonder if the demon had already given up, but deep down, I knew he had to have something up his sleeve. Trigon was not one to be underestimated.
Regardless, I would ensure he would turn into a mere memory for future generations. I wouldn't let him escape this time.
"Today, I will end you," Raven spat, her voice laced with pure hatred. Her eyes blazed with a dark-purple glow. I almost thought she would transform into her demon self, but she remained human. Her eyes glowed more with magic than they did with demonic energy.
Raven's declaration should have filled Trigon with any emotions like anger or delusional confidence, I would even accept pleading, or since it was clear we had the means to end him. This wasn't the talk of a mere mortal too arrogant to know their standings, but 2 individuals that could and would end him today.
However, I guessed that wasn't how a demon rolled in the face of death. At least, not Trigon the Terrible. His expression twisted into a wicked grin, and his laughter echoed through the air, filled with a delight unbecoming of his reputation.
Raven's declaration to murder him wasn't met with solemness or outrage nor was there pleading or fear, instead he looked... pleased, which only set off Raven even further.
"Ha ha haahahahaHAHAHAHA, I won't have it any other way!" He roared out, summoning a flaming pitchfork and lunging at Raven. In an instant, she erected a barrier, protecting herself from his assault. His pitchfork deflected with ting like steel meeting steel.
I jumped backward and hovered near the ceiling of this throne hall, intently observing the battle unfold before my eyes.
Trigon's attacks were relentless, each strike aimed to pierce through Raven's defenses with ferocious speed and power. The flaming pitchfork blurred into a red streak as their clash created a whirlwind of fire, enveloping them both with hellfire. Raven remained calm and composed, effortlessly parrying each thrust with precision. There were no wasted movements and her defense was airtight.
To the untrained eye, it might have seemed like she was pushed into the defensive, but it was clear that she held the upper hand. She was waiting, stalking her prey. The intense glow of her eyes made it clear that she wasn't playing around, though kept an eye open for any surprises.
Suddenly, the tide turned. Raven, hovering in the air, extended her tendrils, swiftly blocking and disarming Trigon. She yanked the pitchfork out of his grasp and swiftly turned it against him, it shot out and instantly nailed Trigon's foot into the smooth black hell-stone floor.
What followed could only be described as a one-sided slaughter. Raven's tendrils moved with unyielding determination, intercepting every punch, claw, and eye beam, punishing Trigon mercilessly for each attack. The tendrils pierced his shoulder, his legs, and shattered his knee like an egg struck with a hammer.
Trigon could hardly resist, yet the wicked smile never left his face, sending chills down my spine with a foreboding gut feeling. Just as I was about to intervene, Trigon was forced to kneel before being gutted by a wing-swipe from Raven's soulself. His demonic innards scattered across the floor, sizzling from the heated hell stone.
Blood spilled from his mouth as he gazed at Raven with a twisted sense of pride. "You are everything I had hoped for," he wheezed, his voice tinged with admiration. "Vengeful, powerful, decisive, and ruthless. I couldn't have raised you any better." Then, he turned his gaze toward me. "I... will have to... thank you. Hehehehaahaha."
"You think I don't see what you are doing? Do you think I am going to be swayed by your appeal for my hatred for you? That I would let you live because I know you would hate it if I do??" Another tendril shot into Trigon's black heart. Raven's power pulsated through his veins, turning them black as she consumed his very existence. She twisted her tendril to inflict more pain, but it only caused Trigon to gurgle a bloody laugh.
"Oh, my kind child... would you really hurt your papa? Hahahahahaha-"
"No," Raven growled, her voice dripping with darkness. "Tonight, I am going to make you proud, Father! You will see just how Unkind I can be." Her tendrils slithered around his neck and buried themselves into his flesh, inflicting more damage without killing.
"Raven..." I started as my instincts started to flare up. "Hurry and kill him! I have a bad feeling-" I began, my words cut short by Trigon's voice.
"Too late... have fun with my farewell gift HAHAHAHA!" His guttural laughter grew louder, echoing through the hall as a flaming rune materialized on his chest, casting an eerie red glow that illuminated the room. The throne hall trembled- no the entire realm trembled, but Raven didn't let it distract her and did what she should have done from the start. She beheaded Trigon with a swipe of her soul-self's wings.
His laughter still continued for a moment as his head rolled. The glow on his chest remained and grew in intensity. Seeing this, Raven channeled her energy into a maelstrom of darkness. The darkness consumed him without resistance, stripping away the essence and reducing the corpse to nothingness.
The chamber shook as Trigon was erased from the universe, an explosion ripped through the floor, forcing me to protect us with a ki barrier. After a moment, the wind and dust settled, revealing that only the throne itself had survived, while the entire ceiling was blown into smithereens.
I looked up into the free sky slightly stunned at what I was seeing. "This wasn't there when we entered, right?" I asked as I stared at the giant construct hovering above us.
"No," Raven answered solemnly as she, too, looked up at the diamond-shaped rock? Suddenly, the same flaming rune appeared on Raven's claw. I instantly grabbed onto her shoulder, my ki and psychic powers enveloped the claw. "Let it go!" I screamed and for a moment it seemed like it was coming off, but she blinked out of existence before I could do anything.
My ki and psychic powers dissipated though Raven managed to absorb a bit into her claw. I glanced up where I could sense the ki before it too was absorbed. Raven was teleported into the giant diamond rock construct.
"That stupid motherfucker couldn't go out quietly." This wasn't going to end well, I could feel it. This thing wasn't something from this universe... it felt grander, transcendent, and imposing. My anchor points were also further away than they had been before we entered this hideout.
A mixture of primal wrath and transcendence welled inside me, helping my body to smoothly transform into Super Saiyan 4. I kicked the ground and propelled me upward, collapsing the throne in the process.
...
It had been too sudden for him to grasp everything but through the blessings of the gods and his years of experience, he was able to manage. A hidden war was ongoing behind the surface.
New beings of different realities not of their multiverse had popped up throughout their multiverse. Beings of immense power threatening to tear apart all they knew just by 'transforming'. It had been quite a hassle to figure things out, who was in the right, who needed help, and who to combat.
It had been incredibly difficult, especially with multiple sides trying to kill and plot against each other. However, despite the difficulties, he managed. After all, Billy wasn't alone in this struggle and had been able to figure out the general situation with the help of countless heroes and magicians.
It had been quite disappointing when they realized that it was more of the same, nothing he hadn't seen before and nothing good. Warlords, evil gods, and demons want to beat the heroes and take over/destroy their universe/multiverse. Although he used the term 'heroes' lightly to describe Goku and his group. They had the tendency to seek out or even cause trouble. And that was with the more serious version of themselves if the recounts of their goddess of time were true.
After dealing with them for a while and having to fix the mess that the time goddess had caused to a quarter of their multiverse, he instantly noticed something wrong at the Rock of Eternity and guessed it had something to do with the newcomers. Without hesitating, he used an excuse to skip Math and stepped outside, "Shazam!"
The weight of his powers settled into him with familiarity and he instantly appeared at the Rock of Eternity or rather the gateway to the original. He used the incantation and blasted the gateway open with his might and authority as the champion of the gods. It took but a second for it to open a path to the real Rock of Eternity for him.
He stepped inside and was greeted with the mystic sight of the thrones of champions inside his lair, though he ignored it for the alerts coming from the magical shields that were supported by the foundations of heaven and hell, a focal point of all magic and the center point of the multiverse.
Just the idea of something able to find it was already troublesome, but that was a question he could answer after he found out who dared to attack it. Shazam was part of the Rock of Eternity, so it posed no difficulties for him to see the attacker through the shields.
"A legendary Saiyan?" He muttered as he looked at the Saiyan covered in red fur and an aura of godly ki surrounding him form like a fierce fire. He believed that this was what Goku called Super Saiyan 4. No, since it was fused with godly ki, this should be Super Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker, the same one Goku, and Vegeta used. Additionally, with the tyrannical aura it gives off, this had to be Broly they had warned him about.
Although he had never faced this Broly before, he knew this one had to be him as he was as powerful as they had described him. Great, he had to deal with a Legendary Super Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker all by himself- damn that transformation was a mouthful.
Though he couldn't understand what Broly wanted from the Rock of Eternity? He was a berserker that should want to kill 'Kakarot' or fight other strong individuals like the rest of his race. What did he want with the Rock of Eternity?
Even as he mulled over this question, he was already moving outside of the Rock of Eternity and raised his arms at Broly. There should be someone else that was directing him to the Rock or maybe he was controlled. Either way, he would find out soon enough.
Arcs of lightning streaked through the sky. Each of them with the terrifying power to pulverize solar systems and tear through dimensions. He didn't hold back at all, knowing that the other could take it. In fact, he worried that he might not have enough power to harm him.
The flash of the lightning caught Broly's attention, causing him to dodge them with time to spare. Wasn't he supposed to be bulldozing through any attack one threw at him? Perhaps, he recognized that it could harm him!
With that idea implanted into his mind, he breathed slightly easier, knowing that he had some wriggle room as he could harm him. "Shazam." The man growled at him, surprising him as he didn't think that Broly would know of him. Not to mention, that he could speak. The others had mentioned that he couldn't be reasoned with, so he had imagined something akin to Doomsday- then again Doomsday could speak... sometimes.
"Trigon had sent Raven into the Rock of Eternity." He directly got to the point and spoke with severity. Worry laced in his tone. Did he mistake him for someone else? Or another version of Broly perhaps? Since there was another Goku stranded in their multiverse as well, it wasn't without reason that there was another Broly here as well.
"Who are you?" Shazam asked still with his arms covered in dangerous lightning, waiting to be released at a moment's notice.
"My name is Shallot. Can you pull her out of it?" He asked with little patience. With the wisdom bestowed to him, he could guess that the man who called himself Shallot wouldn't wait around for too long. However, he had heard this name before Goku. They had asked him if he saw a Saiyan with that name. They spoke as if he belonged to them. Maybe he could be reasoned with.
"It's impossible. It contains the 7 deadly sins, you cannot imagine what horror--"
"More reason to be quick. Open it or I will open it myself!" He growled with steel in his voice. For a moment he had a vision of his head blasted open like a watermelon hit by a tank before the rest of his body tumbled to the ground of the dimension the rock was hidden in.
Cold sweat ran down his back as he knew a wrong word would cost him his life. He raised his arms in a placating manner, canceling the lightning that was wrapped around his forearms at the same time. "Look. It's not that I don't want to, it's that I can't. It's a prison meant to keep things inside. There is only a way inside- Urgh."
"You are so full of shit." Shallot spat as he buried his fist in his guts before slamming him into the rock. He was caught off-guard by the attack.
"Aargh!" Shazam shouted in pain as the Saiyan pressed and dragged his face across the surface of the Rock.
"Tell me, if you die, will this prison open?" He asked with a chilling calmness. There was no doubt in Shazam's mind that the man would follow through. The sins of evil would roam and wreak havoc across the multiverse.
"Y-you win!" He uttered with gritted teeth. He was the guardian of the Rock of Eternity and without him and his magic, there was nothing stopping the evil from escaping their cells. For a moment, he thought about stalling to find a way to alert someone to help him, but then a steel-like claw clamped on his neck, ready to break it if Shallot saw a need for to. The threat was clear without him saying anything.
"Get going." Shazam only responded by teleporting them inside the lair of the wizard. If things came to shove, he would just seal his entire lair and have the Saiyan fight the sins. With him on his side, they should win. His mind churned with ideas as they walked through his lair. Ancient monuments of magical and historical value were ignored for the gate. Statues of monsters, representing the seven deadly sins menacingly guarded the gate.
Shazam looked at it and hesitated. "Open it." The hold on his neck tightened to the point of cutting off his blood veins and his windpipe. Quickly, Shazam activated his magic, and a rune made out of pure lightning appeared and embedded itself into the gate. With a creak, the heavy door that hadn't been opened for thousands of years finally moved again.
A black miasma drifted outward and Shazam couldn't even tense up as he was on the verge of unconsciousness. Nothing happened and he could feel Shallot relaxing his hold on him before letting him go entirely, giving him the opportunity to breathe. "Raven! It's me, Nathan." The Saiyan called out, confusing him for a moment. Didn't he say his name was Shallot? He didn't dare to question, only taking the opportunity to breathe and calm his mind.
His magic stirred as he tried to reach for someone who was listening. However, he stopped almost instantly. The raised arm and the godly aura blazing across it as Shallot pointed it at him, made him stop. "I just want to get Raven out. I will help you contain the demons afterward." He simply said still staring at the darkness of the abyss that was the Rock of Eternity.
"They are not demons, they are demonic sins." He muttered as he rubbed his injured neck. This was one of the reasons they had such a difficult time discerning who was in the right. Saiyans were such a willful race, not taking a rejection no matter what.
He turned his gaze away from the Saiyan and toward the gate. "Why is no one coming out?" Shazam wondered out loud as he stared at it. He would have guessed that the sins would take this opportunity to book it. There was no way in hell that they missed something like the gate opening.
"What are you asking me for? You are the expert." Shallot frowned before picking Shazam up with psychic energy, something he wasn't aware Saiyans could use, and yeeted him into the prison. Shazam directly flipped and gracefully landed on the ground. He prepared himself for an ambush, but nothing happened.
"So, where do we have to go?" Shallot asked as he followed inside.
"It isn't a big dimension." He responded before walking along the hallway of the exit that wasn't unlike the entrance. "We just have to walk in a straight line, there is an area with their statues." It truly wasn't a big dimension. The Rock of Eternity was basically just his lair and this prison, which in turn was really just a larger cave.
Seven statues were guarding the exit, though these ones represented the seven virtues. Just like the statues outside, they weren't doing much without being activated, and even activated, they were mere replicas to distract and deter the sins from standing near the exit. It didn't do much to keep the seven sins at bay, but a fraction of a second of determent should be long enough to close the gate in time.
After they briskly walked toward the end of the path where the sins were being held. However, instead of a lineup with seven statues that housed the demonic sins, no statues were found. The only thing left was shattered rocks scattered across the cave's stone floor, while a figure with a cape was kneeling in the middle.
"Raven?" Shallot asked before approaching the kneeling figure. Shazam tried to hold him back at the shoulder, but he just shrugged him off. The magic flowed again, forming destructive lightning wrapping around his forearms.
"Raven," Shallot said, now more convinced that it was truly here. Shazam couldn't help but gasp as Raven looked up at the Saiyan.
"Nathan?" She asked weakly, clearly exhausted.
...
"Nathan?" I stared at Raven's weak-looking expression. The demonic aura around her was just radiating out of her in massive waves, washing over me to the point that even I could sense the magical might she now possessed. Her hands were pitch-black.
Previously when she used her claw, it was still discernible to the rest of her body, but this darkness seemed to permeate her forearms and hands thoroughly. However, what really caught my attention, were her eyes. Pitch-black just like her arms. It felt like I was looking into the abyss, with holes of incredible darkness and horror waiting inside of them.
For just a moment, it made me pause. It felt unlike what I had ever seen before and I already killed quite a few demons and faced off someone terrible like Trigon. They still couldn't compare to her.
"Are you alright?" I asked before turning around to see whether some demons are waiting in ambush. "Did you take care of all of the demons here?"
"...Yes... Nathan... Trigon he planned this." Raven's voice was but a whisper, but her words shook me to the core. My attention snapped to her again.
"Shazam guard the area."
"Seriously, first you try to murder me and now- I-I'm on my way, sir!" He agreed after I gave him a look. He didn't walk far away, but he instead focused on the surroundings in case someone wanted to ambush us.
"What do you mean?" I asked Raven as I knelt beside her. I wanted to put my hand into hers, but she quickly pulled away.
"Don't! I-I don't know what I am capable of..." She looked traumatized and... sad for the lack of a better word.
"Raven, what do you mean, he planned this. What do you mean by this? Trapping you inside with these demons? Do you know what his plan was?"
"I...I'm not sure, but... everything I did was a preparation for this moment. I was meant to absorb them like the other demons of hell, like my siblings." If her eyes weren't pure darkness I would have guessed that her pupils were trembling from the revelation as she looked at the empty space. She wasn't seeing me, she was recounting her past.
"He... he must have hired Metron... he created his offspring in the image of the seven deadly sins... Nathan, I think... Maybe it wasn't even Neron that gave my siblings this absorption spell." Raven swallowed thickly, her teeth grinding against each other as her mind seemed to race a thousand thoughts per second.
"He wanted us to represent the seven deadly sins and then have me absorb them, so I would know how to do it, gain experience. That was why he used Sloth in the end to escape, so his nature wouldn't affect me in the future to inaction."
The scene where he tricked us popped into my head. We had only absorbed his minions and domain as we were reluctant to kill Sloth, an idea that had been put into our minds by Trigon only for Sloth to be revealed as the get-away trump card from Trigon.
Raven continued. "A future where I wandered through hell and slaughtered and absorbed countless demons of hell, growing more powerful and more skilled at absorbing demons. The claw made out of his dimension... was it truly something I came up with or just another idea planted inside me by him?"
As she recounted all these things clicked into place like an elaborate play. "He used Metron to deliver the Mobius Chair to us, but since I destroyed it when I discovered him the first time around. Was that why they knew where to ambush Giblet and me because Trigon always knew where the chair was?"
"No." I started. "He couldn't have accounted for everything."
"B-but-" Raven shakily started.
"No, buts. He had been powerful and ancient, but he wasn't all-knowing. He shouldn't have accounted for us taking Metron's chair to use. He couldn't have accounted for you binding your humanity to me, right? Something he must have loved to sever, but here we are. Still bonded strongly at that." Raven looked at me with an open mouth, clearly wanting to refute me. Fear that had infested her mind, seemed to have been lifted slightly.
Her fearful expression face relaxed a little before a frown appeared on her face. "I... He couldn't have foreseen that I reconciled with my demon side, could he? I created a balance and even if my demon side took over, I would have you to keep me grounded. All the meditation advice you gave me, the psychic training, the deep dive into my mind and emotions. He couldn't have accounted for that." She said, a lot more confident to the end.
"Indeed, and now he is dead without ever knowing that his farewell gift couldn't make you into the monster he wanted you to be." She smiled at my words, but despite obviously being more relaxed and grounded, her jet-black eyes and hands hadn't returned to their normal color, giving me the feeling that this wasn't quite the end of things.
"The end of Trigon's reign," Raven uttered, her body sinking slightly into herself, relieved that Trigon was finally gone. I caught her and dragged her into a hug. Black tears like ink were dripping down her cheeks before staining the stone floor, infecting it in the process. Her tears were corroding the magically enhanced ground.
I raised my hand and wiped away her tears of relief. My hands, my ki unaffected by her darkness. I tried to soothe her quietly before she muttered something with barely a whisper. "His reign has ended. It's time for..."
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