Chapter 79: Terrifying Hell
I turned my sights to the realm down below. We truly had a magnificent view of it. Just like Trigon's realm, it was almost impossible to see everything of it, even with our current height. "I have a déjà vu." I joked before hugging her. Raven smirked slightly at that. We stood there like this for a moment before something came to mind. "Do you think we could find Neron in this Hell?" She was silent for a moment as she thought about it.
"Perhaps, but do you think it would be a good idea to confront him? He was, after all, able to contend against our Trigon."
"Well, I am 4 times as strong as I was back then and you are considerably stronger than before as well, so we should be fine. Though, I suspect it would be another Neron, right? After all, he could have taken over this Trigon, as he seemed rather easy to deal with."
"First off, we only made it out alive because I practically countered him, and second, this Trigon being 'easy to deal with' might be the reason he didn't take action against this Trigon. He was just too weak to be worthy of his attention." Raven argued, and it sounded reasonable enough to be considered a possibility.
"Or there is another Neron here that was in a stalemate with this Trigon as well."
"... Why do you want to search for him now?" Raven asked with suspicion in her voice and I couldn't come out clean, since it was probably exactly what she suspected. However, even with my silence, she seemed to take it as a confirmation of her theory. "Urgh, you are dissatisfied with our victory, right?"
"What?! No... it's just... it was way too easy. We hadn't even fought against him. We just captured him before he could even truly escape his prison. Then you just siphoned all his power and finished him without trouble. It was just so... anticlimactic."
Raven snorted, amused. "Yeah, I guess a victory without injuries or much of a struggle had to be boring for you... how about I make it up to you? Do you want to tie me up when we get back?"
I snorted at her suggestion. "... What's up with you two liking this sort of play? This is more a reward for you than me."
"Is that a no?" She decisively ignored the question.
"... I didn't say that. How long do you need to take over this realm?"
"Not long. After siphoning most of its energy, I wanted to create a little gem for Raven to be able to store her magical power inside like a sort of magical second reserve tank-"
"Right, right… Just concentrate. You don't want another demon to stop you from having fun, right?"
"Say less." Her devouring sped up until the entire realm suddenly started to quake.
I first thought it was because she was devouring it at an increased pace, but I hadn't remembered a quake when she was trying her absolute best to devour our Trigon's realm. Considering that she had hardly taken a break back then and was probably slower than now, I instantly doubted it was her doing. The surprised look she gave me also clued me in that she didn't know what was happening.
I frowned slightly as I told her to continue before I pushed my life forces' senses to the limits until I noticed something at the very edge of the realm. The realm was large, larger than earth large, but my sense was already enough to go beyond this distance. Usually, I would suppress the things I sensed since it quickly got annoying with all the life forces around me, but here?
With almost no lives left in this realm, I could quickly filter those few demons still hiding away in this realm away to notice the weak feedback I got from the edge of this realm. The response seemed to get stronger wherever Raven devoured large chunks of this realm.
"Devour the realm from the inside out," I told her as I felt that something was trying to use the sudden weakness of the realm to enter it. She nodded at my reminder and the darkness at the edges seemed to solidify and the insides of the realm quickly darkened as her power soaked into the realm's essence.
However, whatever was trying to enter seemed to notice the change and the response I got from the edges seemed to get stronger. It was like someone was to hammering away at the boundaries of this realm, trying to force a way inside and each hit seemed to loosen the boundaries bit by bit.
Raven didn't panic and remained steadfast as she devoured this realm. We hardly would panic about a possible hostile encounter. I firmly believed that we could handle anything this Hell would throw at us, especially after we had just defeated Trigon. I sensed that the life force on the other side of the boundaries was growing as the boundaries separating us grew thinner and weaker.
Even though we were separated by a wall, I could sense that their life force was large, and considering that we were in hell, whoever the life force belonged to was probably stronger with its magic than what little life force I could sense. A glance at Raven clarified that after the initial surprise, she was largely indifferent to whoever was trying to barge inside.
Whoever wanted to invade this place had waited until Trigon was defeated to take its chances. With that fact alone, it was highly likely that they could barely contend against Trigon. Or perhaps they struck a deal with Trigon, something they couldn't go against?
The prospect of something like that confronting us didn't scare me. Oh no. Not even mentioning panicking, I was rather looking forward to relieving some boredom. Having to wait for Raven to devour the realm was hardly interesting after the first time, especially if I couldn't put all my focus on meditating, as I needed to keep watch as well.
She was meditating and concentrating on devouring, so she could barely speak during this time. I squinted in the direction where the response of the life force was getting the strongest.
A spot in the air was darkening as if a figure were standing behind an invisible wall. An hour later, a white claw pierced into this realm. It slowly moved down as it ripped apart the realm piece by piece, shredding its way inside.
After ripping a hole into the boundary, a white skull with blue flame-like eyes inside looked into the realm. It looked around as if to assess the situation. The undead creature's or demon's face looked like it was a hollow mask right out 'of bleach, though unlike a hollow, it didn't have any flesh.
Frankly, it was just a demonic-looking skeleton with sharp edges. After a brief moment of looking around, its eyes locked with mine. Although it had obviously a skull as a head, its bony expression seemed to have characteristics of flesh as its mouth bent into a smile, looking like it had found its prey.
"Finally, Trigon is trapped once again and without his army guarding it. Once I absorb it, my powers will reach new heights! And you, oh I will have my fun with you once I have taken over…"
Just seeing this made me somewhat disappointed. Witnessing some demons displaying sadistic features made them seem like common demons. It was much more terrifying if the demon looked solemn and calculating than a demon that was such a cliché.
I turned away to look at the realm and saw that the process had already reached the halfway point after the brief hour. It was probably because the realm wasn't that rich with energy? Maybe it was because she was now more experienced with it. To be honest, I could only guess, and the only one that would know for sure was Raven.
I hardly wanted to disturb her for such a simple question. It wouldn't hurt to wait for another hour. As I thought about that, the skeleton demon seemed to take my absentmindedness as an insult.
"How dare you ignore me?! Wait until I reach you, I will strip your flesh off your bones and feed it to…" As soon as he started his boring shovel talk, I tuned out and couldn't help but yawn.
I wasn't sure why, but that seemed to piss him off even further. His efforts to rip apart the boundary increased significantly, and all the while he continued glaring at me. How impatient. It was clear he would at least need another 10 minutes to enter this realm with its enormous body.
Knowing this, I sat down cross-legged and continued to meditate about the clones I had created earlier this day. Once I have managed to create 3, 4, or even 5 clones, I could develop my techniques and abilities in multiple directions. Considering that my clones could transform, I could familiarize myself with the transformations as well and boost my ki control.
The only problem with this that I could see was the fact it probably wouldn't assist me in creating more s-cells. I wouldn't get closer to being an Ascended Super Saiyan that way, but I could still train on my own.
As I mused about the potential exponential growth, a huge life force fully spread out. It was like a lighthouse had appeared in the dark compared to the little fireflies that represented the hiding demons.
"Hahahaha. It is too late to beg for your life, you little worm." The demonic skeleton roared out as he stepped into the realm. Its head was in the clouds and its impossibly gigantic frame was certainly intimidating to normal mortals.
I sighed slightly as I stood up and looked up at the gigantic hand casting a vast shadow over us. I held up my palm and a ki sphere appeared in my hand. The surroundings were dyed in the blue light of my ki. The blue light seemed to contract into the ki sphere as more and more energy condensed into the sphere.
The sphere felt heavy, and my hand dipped slightly as I pulled my arm back before I threw it out. The sphere flew in an arc around the hand that was approaching us.
"What's this little light supposed to do, you foolish mortal? Hahah-" The sphere hit the laughing demonic skeleton in the face before erupting into a devastating explosion. The demon's face was instantly devoured by the blazing explosion. The seemingly hard bones of his skull broke, melted, and disintegrated underneath the might of the attack.
However, it didn't stop there. There was hardly any resistance the demon could muster underneath the power of the exploding ki sphere. I watched as the demon's torso was devoured by the explosion until a large hole was cut out of the demon. The damage was only limited to this degree because I willed it so. The enormous frame of the demon slowly tipped backward until it crashed into the ground.
I couldn't help but yawn again as I saw that and sat down again. There was a lot to think about and I wouldn't waste this time by slacking. Another 38 minutes passed before Raven stood up again.
"Eh? What's up with that demon?" Raven said as she looked at the slowly regenerating demon. Half of its torso was already regenerated, but it would take a lot more time until it healed completely. Perhaps his regeneration was taking longer because the entrance this demon had ripped open had long closed automatically.
"I think it wanted to take this realm after Trigon was trapped again." She raised an eyebrow at that before shrugging. Several black-purple spears extended out of the dark-infested land and pierced into the body of the demon. Its regeneration seemed to reverse as Raven absorbed its energy into her claw.
The effort the demon had made to regenerate to this degree was almost instantly reversed until the demon was disintegrated completely. I could almost hear its terrifying wail begging for mercy. A nameless demon has fallen this easily. He had probably thought he struck it rich by seeing the opportunity to steal from Trigon.
Now he was dead. Unlucky guy. Better luck next time. I thought before turning my sight to Raven.
"Let's leave this place. The air of this 'Hell' is too unpleasant to remain here." I stated as I approached Raven.
She raised an eyebrow at me, "You don't want to take over more territory of this Hell? I figured that now this weak demon provoked you that you would want to find a demon that could give you a fight."
"Yeah, I had thought about this, but how long would I need to search for such a demon? This realm is already this large and I hardly want to search for something that might not exist. It would probably piss me off even more if we found more of these weaklings running around here. Not to mention whether the other parts of Hell might prevent our exit. I hardly want to remain stuck here before I had slain Darkseid again."
She chuckled slightly, "Alright, let me turn this realm into a little pocket dimension crystal and then we can leave this place. Feeling my alternate father's energy really makes me want to wreck this place."
The dark-purple energy that was permeating the realm traveled up the invisible walls before the entire realm with its realm converging into a single point in the center.
The realm vanished and the Hell that lay beyond this realm was already encroaching on the void it had left. Though it was slow-moving. It seemed like carving a piece out of Hell took a toll on this plane. Without the boundaries, my senses stretched out without obstruction.
There were several demon life forces I immediately noticed, but they were hardly comparable to this world's Trigon or even the late demon that had invaded in the end. I also sensed that there were several regions that I couldn't feel anything from. Perhaps those areas were other realms occupied by different demons? I hardly knew how Hell operated, but I also didn't truly care.
I turned to Raven as she took the black gem that was created out of this realm. "Shall we?"
She hooked her arm around mine. "Let's get the Hell out of here." I groaned slightly and shook my head at her pun. Her amusement was apparent by her smirk. She created a portal underneath our feet, causing us to fall into it before we reappeared at the mystical site.
The Justice League, or at least part of it, had surrounded the place, probably to secure the site or because they wanted to make sure that nothing slipped the net. Demons were nothing to mess around with after all, so it kind of made sense that some members were around.
My Justice League would have done the same, especially with getting a Zatara onto the case, though it would have been the father instead of this young woman in fishnet stockings. She glowered at my Raven, and I was about to blast her when I saw her do that, but Raven smiled slightly and shook her head.
She reached out telepathically, "Let's leave for today. We have an appointment with the bed." I nodded as I stared at Zatanna and Batman, who looked like he wanted us to stay there and answer some questions, which should be obvious with him. There was probably no universe where he wasn't paranoid and controlling.
We left without them saying anything and appeared back in our room at the Titans. I sensed the Titans were back already, so Raven-2 would be too and would notice what we were going to do, but I could hardly care about them.
I looked at Raven's weapon slowly fading away into her soulself, or at least that was where I assumed she stored it. The weapon seemed to be even more potent and dangerous now after our brief trip to Hell. "By the way, how do you feel after absorbing all that power?"
She glanced at me after having dropped her cloak on the ground. Probably having expected that we would start as soon as we returned and I was tempted, really, but some things were just more important. She sighed disappointedly before sitting down on the bed.
"I am currently storing all the excess energy into my weapon before letting it slowly trickle into my beings and adding it to my power at my pace while filtering it from all its emotions and other baggage of the demon the energy once belonged to. You don't need to worry about me. All the energy is perfectly harmless and contained."
I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her placating response. It could hardly be harmless, especially since I was clearly seeing how it was affecting her body. The darker shade of red skin, the hard nipples, and how she seemed to be less in control of herself. Even now, sitting on the bed, she was fidgeting and rubbing her thighs together as she waited for my go.
She could see my doubt and opened her mouth to speak again. "The energy this time was a bit much, and I hadn't reacted fast enough, causing a lot of energy to rush into me, but I controlled it afterward and redirected it to my weapon. It's not the huge excess energy that is causing problems, well not entirely…" She looked away as she contemplated whether she should speak about her troubles, though considering our past troubles that could have been resolved by simply talking, she decided to tell me.
"… I think Trigon still has some influence over me. When I absorbed his alternate self, this influence had spiked for a moment." She shook her head in disappointment. "My reaction had been slower than what it would have been if I had paid better attention and was more careful, though it now pointed out what should have been obvious. As long as my father is still alive, he can still control me." She admitted, and it was indeed a tremendous problem. We needed to get back asap and kill that fucker.
"But I thought that siphoning spell would destroy whatever made up the power. It's essence or whatever. Why does he still have influence over you?" I was confused. Wasn't that the point of siphoning his power with that spell? I doubted Neron would have wanted Trigon to be able to influence his own murderous children since he could use that to escape as he had done at the end of our fight.
"No, it has nothing to do with that power I stole from him… Even if I want to deny it. Even if I don't want to see him that way nor ever will, he is still my father, and I am still a daughter of Trigon. His influence had only grown because my demon side is more prominent than ever, but it won't be long until I fixed this." She took my hand into mine and squeezed it reassuringly.
"This world's Raven can control her demon side without ever having to go through what I had to. There had been no second personality, and it was just a part of her. Although I have done a lot to do amends, I still see my demon self as separate from myself. Perhaps she isn't as powerful or magically skilled, but she might be able to help me with that."
I sat down next to her and rubbed her back. "That's great, isn't it? We are going to stick around in this universe for a bit longer, even if we don't want to. We don't really have much say about that anyway, so getting something out of our time here is fantastic."
She nodded before continuing, unsure. "Indeed. I… I just didn't want you to worry."
I dismissed her guilt. "You barely hesitated to tell me about it. And I would worry either way. I am glad I can worry about the actual problem in mind. Having to worry about you without knowing what's going on is a thousand times worse. Besides, I am sure you will handle it. You are one tough gal."
She smiled gently before resting her head on my shoulder and closing her eyes. "Hey, Nathan…?"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for accepting me for who I am, for trusting me. It means a lot to me." She said in almost a whisper.
"Hmph. Don't worry about it." I couldn't help but blush like some virgin being confessed by their crush. We sat there in silence for a moment before my eyes found my way to her again. Her lower part was still a drenched mess, and her nipples were still hard. She was clearly still influenced... Wait a moment.
"… You don't think Trigon wants us to conceive a child, so he could take over its body, right?" At my question, the world seemed to still as Raven's breathing just stopped and the slow rubbing of her thighs ceased. Her eyes snapped wide open before looking at me in shock.
"You think that- No, how would- It's not possible that he would know I would lean towards Lust and exploit that, right?"
I stared back at her before shrugging helplessly, "You're the expert in demonic magic, you tell me… You aren't pregnant, right?" After I finished asking, she turned to her stomach.
She raised her hand and placed it above her stomach. Her raven claw appeared and glowed ominously in a black purple. Her energy willed a spinning rune into existence, as she seemed to run some sort of diagnostics. To be honest, this very moment, every action she made, was probably the most terrifying moment I had experienced in a while now.
Forget about almost dying to Darkseid, the Justice League's 'betrayal', almost dying to Trigon. It all paled in front of having my first child robbed by my demonic father-in-law. Several minutes passed before she sighed in what I associated with relief.
"I am not pregnant. No egg to be fertilized or any stubborn semen left. It would have been ridiculous if I was. We had only slept twice now… Either way, even if I would have been pregnant, I made sure to clean everything up thoroughly." She assured me, which made me nod, relieved.
"So, you got some magical condoms?" I asked, probably for the first time. To be honest, I wouldn't have disliked a child. Even with Kara, I was hardly worried about that and had been raw dogging here with no protection from time to time.
We had some contraception –credit to her cousin, an awkward conversation back then– and used it more often than not. It was quite convenient, as we only had to use it once every two months. Still, it never was truly a concern to me.
Having Trigon reincarnate into my child was a whole different mess I would rather prevent. Raven was currently busy casting several spells directed at her womb, layering it with multiple spells to prevent any mishaps.
"Let's also check after every time we have done it." She nodded at my suggestion before we both released a heavy sigh and fell into the bed with our backs, staring at the ceiling as we let the panic vanish.
"How about we skip sex for today?" I asked, not feeling too confident at the moment. Was too nervous as well.
"Yeah… let's just cuddle." She said, and we undressed and crawled underneath the blanket before cuddling completely naked with me being the big spoon. If it had been any other moment, I would sport a major boner while holding this literally sinful body of hers. Just the way she smelled made me ready to go despite myself, but we just opted to cuddle.
Several grueling minutes of waiting to let sleep take us passed when I came up with something. "Kara might wait for us in our dreams… It might be safer to do it in our dreams, right? You can't possibly become pregnant from a dream." She turned her head to me with a contemplating look.
She slowly shook her head. "I don't know."
I stared at her blankly. "You… you serious. Wait, is it possible to get pregnant from a dream??"
She turned her head away to look straight forward with a cute little frown on her face as she thought it through. "I am not too sure, but it's obvious that dreams are powerful. After all, we can dream together with another person across universes and I had heard of a powerful entity that could use the dream world to turn dreams into reality. I even heard of someone controlling all dreams, but no one truly dares to speak about it, or rather not much is known"
"I-" I was honestly speechless. Was there really something that was controlling all dreams? Wouldn't that mean that me using it as a shield for my mind was basically trying to exploit him for some protection? How would I even fight a dream entity? With my psychic abilities? They were able to shape the dream… dream world around my mind.
"We will postpone it for now, then." I decided. Even if we had a dry spell for some weeks or months even, I could distract myself by training, but what about Raven? Influenced by the excess, demonic energy made her quite lustful. Would she be able to handle it?
Just as I finished the thought, I realized it didn't need to be normal sex, right? My hand snaked over her hips and slid towards her crotch. She seemed to come to the same conclusion and turned her body slightly to lie on her back before spreading her legs to give me better access.
I could still indulge. A smirk appeared on my face. I would use this time to explore her body with my fingers and tongue then.