Chapter 419: Beneath the World Tree
The room had finally gone calm, Moonlight still poured through the tall windows in pale, unbroken sheets. Bed sheets twisted like ropes, pillows shoved to the floor. Raven lay curled on her side nearest the edge, he hair a wild halo across her face, lips parted in deep, exhausted sleep one leg still hooked possessively over Arthur’s abandoned spot. Kara sprawled on her back beside her, golden strands fanned wide, chest rising and falling in slow rhythm, one arm flung across Raven’s waist thinking it was Arthur, even unconscious she refused to let go.
Arthur stood before the tall windows, broad back to the bed, arms loose at his sides. The city lights far below glittered like scattered diamonds, but his gaze was fixed much farther, beyond the skyline, beyond the horizon, into whatever unseen distance only he could see.
He spoke softly, the words ant for no ears but his own. "Is it wrong... to want to bring life into this world right now? When everything still feels so... fragile and dangerous?"
His voice was almost reverent, he turned his head slightly, glancing back over his shoulder.
Raven’s dark lashes didn’t flutter. Kara’s breathing stayed deep and even.
But Arthur’s eyes flared violet, bright, unnatural, narrowing as though he were peering straight through skin and bone and ti itself. The glow lingered for a mont longer than it should have, scanning, searching, reading sothing only he could perceive.
He exhaled through his nose. "I can’t know for certain yet," he murmured, "but I’m almost sure we just..."
The sentence died unfinished. Whatever conclusion hovered behind his teeth, he kept it to himself.
Then the sharp, insistent chi cut the silence, not a normal ring, but the priority alert tone reserved for the Justice League Watchtower. Urgent.
Arthur’s head tilted toward the nightstand where his comm unit pulsed crimson, sothing that was given to him by Batman. He crossed the rug in three silent strides, lifted it, thumbed the turn off button.
Instead he reached inward, through the thread that bound him to his shadows.
’Owl.’
The response ca instant, calm.
’My King. A gate will manifest approximately two hours from now, less than two kiloters from your estate periter. Scale unknown. Signature unstable. By our projections... it will be challenging.’
A faint pause.
’Not for you, of course.’
Arthur smiled.
’Very well. I’ll handle it.’ then he added. ’I assu proximity to my ho is no coincidence?’
’No, it is no coincidence my King. Lex and I are already dissecting every available vector. We will report the mont we have anything concrete.’
’Keep up the good work.’
The connection dissolved.
Arthur then turned back toward the bed, gaze sweeping the two sleeping won ssy, marked, utterly spent and let out a low breath.
"So much for resting..." The sarcasm was soft, almost fond. "You two had your way with , and now look at you, both knocked out while I can’t even close my eyes.."
He crossed back to them.
First to Raven.
He knelt at the edge of the mattress, reached out, and laid his palm gently against her cheek thumb brushing the delicate arch of her cheekbone, fingers curving to cradle the side of her face with a tenderness that looked almost foreign on him. Her skin was still warm, flushed from earlier.
Then to Kara.
Sa gesture, palm to cheek, careful, reverent.
"I will do everything in my power," he said quietly, voice steady as stone, "to make this world, this whole damn universe... safer. Better. For all of you."
His eyes flared violet again, brighter this ti, the light bleeding faintly into the shadows around him.
His hand drifted lower, slowly. Palm flattening over Kara’s lower abdon right where the soft plane of her stomach curved.
"All of you," he whispered.
The violet glow pulsed once, soft, then dimd.
He rose without hurry.
From the chair in the corner he retrieved dark pants, a fitted black shirt, the long coat. He dressed silently.
Then he stepped toward the center of the room.
Shadows rose around his boots like tidewater.
One last glance at the bed, Raven shifted slightly in her sleep, murmuring sothing unintelligible.
Kara stayed still, Arthur exhaled once.
The shadows swallowed him whole.
A soft whump of displaced air, and he was gone in silence
Then
Kara’s eyes opened. Slow and aware.
She had heard every word, she lay there a long mont, staring at the empty space where he had stood. Her hand rose first to her cheek where his palm had rested, fingers tracing the ghost of his warmth.
Then lower, to her abdon, she pressed lightly.
A small, secret smile curved her mouth, dazed, full of sothing too new to na.
She glanced sideways at Raven still deeply asleep, peaceful and let her hand stay where it was.
****
Darkness folded.
Then unraveled, Arthur stepped through it not as soone traveling, but as sothing that belonged to the space between worlds.
And then, Light.
Ancient and Endless. The light of the World Tree.
It stood before him once more. Colossal didn’t begin to describe it. Its branches stretched into infinity, thicker than mountains, twisting through layers of reality like veins through existence itself. The branches pierced upward beyond sight, carrying entire ecosystems along their length, worlds nested within worlds, primordial.
Arthur hovered in silence, his boots inches above one of the vast branches, violet eyes slowly scanning everything around him.
"It hasn’t changed."
A quiet observation.
His gaze drifted upward, then downward taking in the scale of it all.
"Last ti I stood here..."
His tone lowered slightly.
"was when I fought that thing."
The mory surfaced instantly.
The violent and relentless creature. A clash that had reshaped not just the battlefield, but him.
"...Nidhogg..."
The na left his lips like a shadow.
"...guardian of the primordial darkness."
His eyes flickered faintly.
"...my final trial."
"And the mont I beca what I am now."
His hand clenched slightly.
"The Shadow Monarch."
Silence followed, but not for long.
Because then, It ca. A sound, distant and low at best but then it turned into a roar, a deep ancient roar.
Arthur froze, not out of fear. in disbelief, his eyes narrowed instantly.
"...No way."
The sound echoed again, this ti louder, reverberating through the very roots beneath his feet.
The World Tree trembled.
Just slightly.
But enough.
Arthur’s expression hardened.
"...That’s not possible."
He lifted off the ground imdiately, no hesitation his body rising as shadows gathered beneath him.
Then he surged forward.
Fast, cutting through the air as he descended toward the deeper layers of the tree.
His voice was low and focused.
"Nidhogg is dead.."
A pause.
"...I killed him."
The roar ca again, closer and stronger.
And very much alive.
Arthur’s eyes sharpened further,
"...Then what am I hearing?"
He accelerated.
The deeper he went, the greater the sound beca it beca.
Roots grew thicker. "...If he’s truly back..."
A faint smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
"then that explains why I.."
His gaze darkened slightly.
"...I couldn’t extract his shadow."
A brief pause.
"I thought it was because of his nature."
But now
"...No."
His eyes glead.
"He wasn’t gone."
The realization settled in.
And with it, sothing else, his mind shifted.
Back to that place.
"The altar deep within the roots."
His speed didn’t slow, but his thoughts sharpened.
"...Back then..."
Fragnts of mory aligned.
"I saw sothing.."
Symbols. Not just his.
The symbols of the other Monarch as well.
His eyes widened slightly.
"There are more..."
A realization forming.
"...If I’m not the only one that passed through this test or this place..."
His voice dropped.
"...Does that an..."
The roar interrupted again. closer now.
Arthur stopped mid-air.
His eyes burned violet as he stared into the depths below.
"No."
A faint shake of his head.
"I’m done guessing."
Resolve settled over him like armor.
"I’ll get my answers." He turned
And dove deeper.
Shadows wrapped around him as he descended toward the very foundation of the World Tree. Toward the altar, toward the truth.
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