Chapter 231: Shadow & Life
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The light around the Black Central Battery flared widly. Cracks along its surface bled shadow energy, and it’s darkness was no longer absolute. A tremor had rippled through the planet.
Nekron’s projection stiffened.
From the hollow sockets of his skull, blacker than the abyss. "No..." The single word was low, grinding "The parasite of life dares raise its head."
Arthur’s gaze never wavered from Nekron.
"You feel that ache in your soul don’t you?" Arthur’s tone was almost conversational, "That’s what denial tastes like, little lord of death. You’ve been gnawing at this universe, choking it with your corpses, and still you didn’t see that coming."
Nekron’s form seethed, the scythe lowering as tendrils of shadow rose in a defensive coil around him. "It is futile. Life burns bright, and then it rots. Always. It cannot endure."
Arthur’s lips curved into a grin, his violet eyes gleaming like sharpened stars. "Then why are you trembling? You can’t even exist in this plane yet here you are scared shitless."
The void around them cracked, not from Arthur’s doing this time, but from a surge elsewhere. A wave of white fire tore through the distant dark of space far from this isolated planet, and even here it was felt, by both of them.
Arthur tilted his head slightly, almost smug. "I told you, Nekron. There’s no more time for words."
****
Earth – Coastlines and Cities Aflame
A streak of white split the stormed heavens like the first dawn of creation. It moved with impossible speed, and where it passed, the night seemed to recoil.
Hal Jordan blazed across the battlefield, no longer clad in the familiar emerald of his Corps. His body was wreathed in living light, his uniform a mantle of white etched with the sigil of life itself. The ring upon his finger shone like a star newly born, each pulse of it cutting through the darkness of the Black Lantern hordes.
Around him, the world was war-torn. Cities burned, streets choked with the remnants of the fallen. Yet as Hal swept his hand, the dead shuddered not to rise in black mockery, but to breathe again. Color returned to ashen cheeks, glassy eyes cleared, breath flooded chests long stilled. The light undoing the corruption of the black.
"By Oa..." one green lantern survivor whispered as their chest heaved, life surging where death had claimed him not long ago.
Hal didn’t linger. His jaw was tight, his eyes sharp with a focus that felt almost unnatural. "Get to cover. This isn’t over."
Above him, a wave of shadows scythed through a cluster of Black Lanterns the spear-tip of the Shadow Corps. Greed led them with ravenous delight, his constructs who are fromer orange lanterns now in Shadow forms, snapping the undead apart like dry twigs. Beside him, Atrocitus burned violet-dark, his constructs warping with the Shadow Monarch’s influence. Sinestro hovered, calm and cutting, his shadow form gleaming with cruel precision as he flayed another wave into ash.
The sky itself was war white and Shadow violet carving through black.
Hal banked hard, weaving past a collapsing skyscraper as a tide of Black Lanterns surged to cut him off. His ring flared, the white light expanding into a storm that shredded their constructs, tore the necrotic energy from their corpses destroying their rings, and left nothing but dust behind. "Every time we clear them," he muttered, "ten more crawl out of the dark."
Greed howled as his phantoms swarmed, devouring the remnants. "Let them come! Let them all come! They will join my king’s collection!"
Sinestro, silent and precise, glanced at Hal as the last of that cluster fell. "Your light cuts deep," he said at last, his voice carrying a strange note of respect. "But you seek the source, Don’t you?"
Hal’s breath fogged in the cold air as he hovered amidst the ruin, scanning the horizon. "If I don’t, they won’t stop coming."
Sinestro’s head turned slightly, the violet glow of his eyes unreadable. "My king is already there."
Hal jerked his gaze to him. "What?"
"You heard me Lantern." Sinestro raised his hand, his shadow ring igniting with a deep violet spiral. "My King is at the heart of it. Where this plague began."
Hal’s voice sharpened, something between frustration and urgency cutting through. "And you didn’t tell me this earlier?"
Sinestro said calmly. "I was waiting for my king’s command. I have it now."
With a twist of his ring, the space before them tore open a portal of swirling violet.
Sinestro’s shadowed features turned to Hal, unreadable but steady. "Go, Lantern. My King awaits."
Hal stared into the rift, the edges of it humming with power that felt wrong and yet... not hostile. He tightened his fist, the white ring glow responding to his will, then glanced back at Sinestro. "Normally, I wouldn’t trust you to hold a match near a candle. This portal might take me to the heart of a burning star or some black hole.."
A flicker of a smirk tugged at the shadow’s mouth. "And yet?"
Hal exhaled sharply. "Considering what you are right now..." His jaw set. "I’ll trust this."
And without another word, he hurled himself into the rift white light colliding with violet shadow, vanishing.
****
Hal Jordan emerged from the violet tear in space, white light blazing off his body. His boots barely settled upon the ground before his breath caught.
Floating not far from Arthur, bound in shadow chains of black-violet light, were two figures one a corpse of a man with a grin that reeked of rot, the other a warped, hideous echo of a Guardian of the Universe, her once-fine features now a mask of shriveled malice. Behind them, a monstrous projection towered a silhouette of abyssal void, its presence alone chilling.
Hal’s grip on his new ring tightened. "What the hell is this..." His voice carried both anger and dawning recognition.
His eyes snapped to the twisted Guardian, her thin lips parted as black ichor leaked from the corners of her mouth. "Scar... you betrayed the Corps," Hal said, his words cold as steel.
Then his gaze locked on the corpse of a man, the stench of him almost seeping through the void itself. "Even though you look like a pile of rot, I’d recognize that smirk anywhere... William Hand. How low have you fallen."
Black Hand’s head twitched up, his eyes glinting with hatred. "Shut up, GREEN LANTERN! You have nothing to..."
Hal didn’t let him finish. He lunged forward with a burst of white light and cracked his boot across Black Hand’s skull. The wretch, though restrained by the shadow named Ring, was still sent tumbling like a broken doll, shadow chains snapping taut to reel him back.
Hal hovered closer to Arthur, his expression shifting from fury to a more measured wariness as his eyes swept the scene. "So this is it... their nest. The Battery." His gaze slid toward the hulking projection looming in front of them. "And this... I’m guessing that’s the thing pulling the strings."
Arthur turned his head at last, violet eyes catching the white glow radiating from Hal’s body. His smile was a razor’s edge tired, grim, and tinged with satisfaction. "Yes. This is Nekron. Say hello. Don’t bother waving, he’s a bit... intangible at the moment. Their biggest mistake was sending Black Hand running into my claws. Their second? Bringing the idiot here after running away."
Hal’s knuckles flexed as he looked over the cracks in the Battery’s barrier, the leaking shadows, the writhing chains around the two prisoners. "You’ve done a number on this thing."
Arthur let out a dry chuckle, the kind that carried no joy. "A number, sure. But it’s stubborn and durable beyond reason. I can break it. Completely. But it’ll take time... time we don’t have."
Hal glanced at the monstrous projection again, its scythe glinting like a slice of the void. "So what’s the play?"
Arthur raised one hand, the shadows swirling along his fingers forming into clawed sigils. "The play is simple. With your new... gift," his eyes flicked to the white ring, "and my shadow ring, we can tear this thing apart faster. End this little charade once and for all."
The void seemed to groan around them, Nekron’s presence rippling like a tide drawn tight. His hollow voice crawled across the space "You think light and shadow can undo death?"
Arthur didn’t even look at him. "We’re about to find out aren’t we."
Hal exhaled, the weight of it all settling in his chest as he floated beside the Shadow Monarch. "Very well Arthur," he murmured, fingers tightening into a fist that blazed white. "Let’s end it all."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
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If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
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You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want