Chapter 621: The Monster

The other Monarchs had gathered.

They had felt it too now, that vast presence pressing against their senses like a weight that threatened to crush them. Raven’s face was pale, her eyes wide. Kara stood close to Arthur, her hand resting on his arm. Clark’s expression was grim, his fists clenched at his sides. Beast Boy had shifted into a defensive stance without realizing it, his muscles coiled, his senses on high alert. Zatanna’s hands were already glowing with light, her lips moving in a silent spell. Frost stood apart from the others, her pale blue eyes fixed on the darkening sky, her breath misting in the cold.

"What is this?" Raven asked, her voice barely a whisper. "I can feel it, but I can’t... I can’t understand it."

"It’s somewhat familiar," Clark said, his brow furrowed.

"I understand why," Arthur said quietly.

Kara’s hand tightened on his arm. "What is it?"

Arthur was silent for a long moment. Then he spoke, "It has many names," he said. "The Devourer of Worlds. One of the Firstborns of the Great Darkness. The One Who Was Sealed Before Time Began." He paused. "But the Rulers called it Nidhogg."

"The one that resides at the root of the World Tree, the one that guards the Temple of the Monarchs is just a replica of this one. A being born of the Great Darkness, tasked with testing the worth of those who would claim the throne. I defeated it and I passed its test. I claimed the Black Heart and became the Shadow Monarch."

He looked up at the sky, which had begun to darken not with clouds, but with something deeper, something that seemed to swallow the light itself.

"That was the replica. This... this is the real one. The being that was deemed too powerful, too unstable, too dangerous to exist. The one that the Absolute being sealed away eons ago, before the first star was born."

He paused.

"That’s the real deal."

The sky tore open.

It was not a Boom Tube. It was not a portal. It was a wound a vertical slash in the fabric of reality, its edges glowing with a light that its depths filled with darkness that was not darkness. And through that wound, something emerged.

It was a serpent.

But not a serpent like any that had ever crawled or flown or been imagined by mortal minds. Its body was vast, so vast that it seemed to stretch across the entire horizon, its coils disappearing into the void beyond. Its eyes were red with dark slits.

Arthur stared at it.

His voice was quiet.

"Nidhogg."

The serpent’s eyes found him.

And it almost smiled.

Beast Boy’s voice was barely a whisper. "What... what do we do?"

Arthur didn’t look away from the serpent. "We fight."

"How?" Frost asked, her voice shaking. "That thing is truly massive, but I feel like there is no opening to attack it..."

"Good instincts," Arthur said quietly. "The Devourer of Worlds has consumed universes.. His size is truly not a problem for him at all."

He paused.

"And it is here for us."

Kara’s voice was steady, but there was fear beneath it. "Can we stop it?"

Arthur was silent for a long moment.

Then he smiled, utterly unafraid.

"We can."

He turned to the gathered Monarchs, his eyes blazing violet.

"But I need you to do something first."

The serpent was beyond comprehension. Its body coiled through the tear like a river of shadow and flesh.

But it was not alone.

Behind it, pouring through the tear like a tide of pale light, came the heavenly soldiers. Thousands upon thousands of them, their wings synchronized, their light-helberds gleaming. They moved in perfect formation.

They were the Rulers’ army.

And they were following Nidhogg.

Arthur, with his ashen hair whipping in the wind, his violet eyes fixed on the descending horror. His expression was calm on the surface, but beneath it, something was churning. Something that looked almost like confusion.

"This doesn’t make sense," he said quietly.

Raven stepped beside him, her dark eyes wide. "What doesn’t?"

"Nidhogg doesn’t heed words. It doesn’t listen to reason and it doesn’t follow orders. It is a beast, a force of nature." He paused. "And yet, somehow, the Rulers have convinced it to attack us, he would naturally attack anything on sight."

He watched the serpent descend, its massive form blotting out the grey sky, and the heavenly soldiers followed in its wake, their light-helberds gleaming, their wings beating in perfect unison.

"They promised it freedom," Arthur said. "That’s the only thing that would motivate a creature like this. It’s been in captivity for too long. It forgot its actual strength, it forgot what it was."

Kara stepped forward, her hand resting on his arm. "So you are saying it’s doing their bidding when it could have killed them if it knew its actual strength."

Arthur nodded slowly. "That creature is broken clearly after eons of captivity. But it is not weak."

He turned to face the gathered Monarchs Raven and Kara, Clark and Zatanna, Beast Boy and Frost. His voice was calm, but there was steel beneath it.

"Careful with this one. This is the time we join this fight for real."

Raven’s hands were already glowing with dark energy. Kara’s eyes were blazing with Kryptonian fire.

"Even I don’t know if my Abyss would work on this one," Arthur admitted. "But we will defeat it. And this is the perfect chance to proceed with our plan."

He lifted off the ground, his cosmic shadow armor gleaming with violet light, his eyes burning bright. A spear materialized in his hand a crackling line of violet lightning, a helmet formed around his head, cosmic black, its surface etched with patterns that seemed to writhe and shift, a violet plume trailing behind it.

"Follow my lead," he said. "I know how to deal with it."

The Monarchs rose with him Raven and Kara flanking him on either side, Clark hovering just behind, his eyes glowing red with heat vision, Zatanna’s hands glowing with golden light, Beast Boy shifting into a massive wolfen beast, Frost’s body crackling with ice and cold.

Behind them, the armies of the Monarchs roared a chorus of defiance that shook the very foundations of the dead world.

And somewhere, deep within Arthur’s mind, a voice spoke.

’That creature is... it is one of the Great Darkness’s spawn. Why haven’t you told them about it?’I mean everything that it really is..’

Arthur’s smile was thin. ’They didn’t gain their powers through that trial. Only I and the Dragon Monarch did it that way. That was one of my toughest fights, Didi. And this thing is the real deal. I may be Death now, but if I remember correctly, this thing has no soul. It refuses to die. How can I explain that properly?’

’Fair enough.’ Didi’s voice was quiet, contemplative. ’It seems you have a plan to deal with it for good.’

’The same way we dealt with the Empty Hand. I’ll seal it, either in this world, or inside my consciousness.’

’Smart. But you’ll have to always be under control to contain it. ’A pause. ’But who am I kidding? It should be a piece of cake for Death.’

Arthur’s smile widened. ’We’ll see.’

Nidhogg roared.

The sound was not a sound it was a force, a wave of pressure that slammed into the world like a physical blow. The ground cracked. The sky shattered. The armies of the Monarchs stumbled, their braced formations buckling under the sheer weight of the creature’s presence, even Arthur’s Marshals felt pressure.

Even the heavenly soldiers behind Nidhogg shook. They had not known what they were following. They had not understood what the Rulers had unleashed. And now, standing in the shadow of it, they were beginning to understand.

This was not a weapon they could control.

This was not a weapon anyone could control.

Arthur raised his spear.

"Monarchs," he said, his voice carrying across the battlefield. "With me."

He launched himself forward and the impact was cataclysmic.

Arthur’s spear met Nidhogg’s scales, and the shockwave that followed sent ripples across the entire World of Chaos. The ground beneath them disintegrated. The sky above them tore. The armies on both sides were thrown back, their formations shattered, their soldiers scrambling for purchase.

Arthur was thrown backward, his form tumbling through the air before he caught himself to stabilize his flight. His spear was still intact, but the impact had sent tremors through his entire body.

Nidhogg didn’t even flinch.

The serpent’s massive head turned, its red eyes fixing on Arthur with a hunger that was almost personal. Its mouth opened, and a torrent of darkness pure, unadulterated void erupted from its throat.

Arthur dodged, barely, the void passing inches from his shoulder and carving a trench through the ground behind him that stretched for miles.

"Raven!" he shouted. "Now!"

Raven’s magic erupted dark chains of shadow and soul that wrapped around Nidhogg’s neck, trying to bind it, trying to slow it. The chains held for a moment, glowing with the power of the Demon Monarch.

Then Nidhogg flexed, and the chains shattered like glass.

Kara dove from above, her fists blazing with Kryptonian fire. She struck Nidhogg’s skull with enough force to shatter a planet. The serpent’s head snapped sideways and then it turned back, its eyes burning brighter, its mouth opening for another blast.

Clark caught her before she could be consumed, his heat vision carving into Nidhogg’s scales as he pulled her clear. The beams did nothing. The scales absorbed the light.

"It’s not working!" Clark shouted. "This thing doesn’t seem to get hurt!"

Arthur hovered in the air, his eyes fixed on the serpent, his mind racing.

He knew this creature. He had faced its replica in the World Tree. He had defeated it. He had passed its test. But the replica had been a trial. A test of worth, unlike this one.

Nidhogg was not holding back and it was trying to kill them.

Arthur’s voice was quiet, but it carried across the battlefield.

"Everyone, fall back."

Raven’s head snapped toward him. "What?"

"Fall back. Now."

The Monarchs retreated, Raven pulling back her magic, Kara and Clark flying clear, Zatanna’s spells fading, Beast Boy and Frost retreating to the ground.

Arthur remained in the air, alone, his spear crackling with violet lightning, his eyes blazing bright.

Nidhogg’s head turned toward him. Its mouth opened. Its eyes burned.

Arthur smiled.

"Let’s see how you handle this."

He raised his spear, and the world around him changed.

The shadows gathered. The darkness deepened, and the sky above them the grey, dead sky of the World of Chaos began to bend.

Nidhogg paused. Its eyes flickered.

Arthur’s voice was calm.

"You remember me, don’t you? You remember the trial. You remember the ones who faced your replica and won." He paused. "I’ve grown since then."

He thrust his spear forward, and the Abyss answered.

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