Arthur's hands were raised, and violet energy swirled around them like spiraling storms, darkness and light intertwining.
The air began to distort.
Kara felt it instantly.
The space above the rift twisted, stretching.
Then
A second dimensional tear opened.
It appeared exactly where Arthur intended, directly in the position of the original rift, mirroring its massive shape almost perfectly.
The new tear glowed with the same unstable dimensional energy, a churning vortex of void and violet lightning stretching across the air.
Kara's eyes widened.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me…"
Two rifts now in the devastated forest.
Arthur slowly clenched his hand.
His own rift began to close.
At first it moved.
Slowly.
Like two massive plates grinding together.
But then it resisted, violently.
The entire forest shook as a powerful tremor ripped through the ground.
BOOM.
Shockwaves blasted outward from the rift sending debris tumbling through the air.
The pressure in the atmosphere changed instantly.
The wind roared, cracks began forming in the air itself thin fractures of distorted space that flickered briefly like shattered glass before vanishing again.
Kara braced herself midair, raising one arm to shield her face from the violent pressure.
"Arthur!"
Her cape whipped violently around her as the dimensional forces intensified.
"I don't think this is safe!"
Arthur didn't answer.
He was completely focused.
One hand clenched tightly toward the massive tear, his arm trembling slightly from the sheer force required to bend reality on this scale.
His violet eyes blazed.
The rift shrank another inch.
Far from the forest, a black aircraft returned, and it hovered silently in stealth mode.
Batman watched the chaos unfold.
The sensors in the Batwing were struggling to keep up with the readings.
Dimensional instability.
Energy spikes.
Reality distortions.
Batman watched Arthur forcing the rift to close through sheer power alone.
"…Still as reckless as ever."
But he didn't look surprised.
Far below the Earth
In the burning skies of Hell
Three figures stood beneath the massive infernal tear that mirrored the one above Gotham.
Raven floated in the air, her cloak swirling around her as violet magic poured from her hands.
Beside her John Constantine, cigarette hanging from his lips despite the chaos around them.
And towering above both of them was Etrigan, flames roaring from his body as the infernal crown on his head blazed with demonic power.
All three were pouring magic into a single massive spell aimed at sealing the rift in Hell's sky.
The tear was slowly closing.
But only barely.
Raven exhaled slowly, her voice strained.
"I'm… probably going to sleep for a week after this…"
Sweat beaded across her forehead as she pushed more magic into the spell.
Constantine flicked ash from his cigarette without looking away from the rift.
"I'll just hit the pub and forget the whole bloody thing."
He grimaced slightly as another surge of energy pulsed through the spell.
"But hell… even with him helping us…"
He glanced up at the towering demon beside them.
"…this thing's barely moving."
The rift above them shuddered slightly as it shrank another fraction.
Raven shook her head.
"Arthur is closing it from his side."
Her voice remained calm despite the exhaustion creeping into it.
"Just keep pushing."
Constantine sighed.
"Yeah, yeah."
Then his eyes slid toward Etrigan.
A mischievous grin spread slowly across his face.
"Well… maybe if someone here wasn't half-arsing it…"
Etrigan's flaming eyes snapped toward him instantly.
Constantine shrugged casually.
"Just saying."
He exhaled a cloud of smoke.
"I mean, you're supposed to be this terrifying demon lord... not to mention you got that fancy crown now as well.."
The grin widened.
"Right now it looks like the one upstairs is doing most of the heavy lifting."
The ground trembled faintly as the rift pulsed again.
Etrigan's eyes burned brighter.
Constantine kept going.
"Bit embarrassing, really."
Then
Flames exploded around Etrigan.
The demon roared, his voice shaking the very air of Hell.
"Mock not the might of Hell's own flame!"
His massive clawed hands slammed forward, pouring an enormous surge of infernal power into the spell.
"THE SON OF BELIAL KNOWS NO SHAME!"
The crown on his head blazed brighter as his power surged.
"I SHALL NOT BE OUTDONE, WITNESS MY FLAME!"
A massive wave of hellfire erupted from him.
The spell intensified instantly.
The tear in Hell's sky began closing far faster now.
Chunks of the rift collapsed inward as reality finally began stitching itself back together.
Raven blinked in surprise as the sudden surge of power nearly pushed her backward.
She glanced sideways at Constantine.
"…Seriously?"
Constantine smirked, taking another drag from his cigarette.
"What?"
He nodded toward the now rapidly shrinking rift.
"It worked, didn't it?"
On Earth
Above the devastated forest outside Gotham City, the sky had become a battlefield of reality itself.
Two dimensional tears fighting eachother.
Arthur held it there with sheer will.
One hand clenched tightly.
The violet glow in his eyes burned brighter with every passing second.
Arthur felt the resistance.
Every inch he forced the rift to close, it fought harder to remain open.
The pressure around them continued to build.
The ground far below trembled again.
Beside him, Kara struggled to keep her position in the air as the dimensional storm intensified. Her cape snapped wildly in the violent currents.
"Arthur!"
She raised her arm again to shield her face from the chaotic pressure.
"This thing is going to tear everything apart! We can't keep this forever without some consequences!"
"I'm aware..." Arthur said calmly.
He could feel it now.
The balance he was trying to maintain, the careful control he was using to keep the collapse stable.. wasn't working.
The rift resisted every careful adjustment.
He narrowed his glowing eyes slightly.
'If I keep using moderate strength to control it…'
The dimensional tear shrank another fraction, then violently resisted again.
Reality twisted sharply.
Another tremor shook the forest.
'…it will just keep fighting back.'
Arthur exhaled slowly.
'I'm already taking a risk by closing it with this method.'
The energy around him intensified.
The violet aura surrounding his body flared brighter.
'So I might as well go all out.'
Arthur's hand clenched tighter.
Then
He roared.
The sound tore through the sky like thunder.
Power erupted from him in a violent surge as he stopped trying to guide the collapse
and simply truly forced it.
The tear snapped inward.
Reality buckled under the sudden pressure.
For a single, terrifying moment
Everything went silent.
Then the two dimensional tears slammed shut.
The resulting shockwave exploded outward like the detonation of a god.
BOOM.
The sky erupted.
Kara's eyes widened as the pressure hit them like a physical wall.
She barely had time to brace before the force hurled her backward through the air.
"Arthur!"
Her body spun violently through the sky as the shockwave overtook her.
Arthur moved instantly.
Despite the overwhelming force ripping through the air, he reached out and caught her mid-flight, pulling her into his arms.
But even he couldn't fully resist the blast.
The shockwave carried both of them away like leaves caught in a hurricane.
Arthur's shadow ring flared.
Dark energy erupted outward, forming a protective sphere around them just as they were hurled downward.
They slammed into the raging sea.
Water exploded upward in a towering plume as the sphere punched through the surface and vanished beneath the waves.
Above the ocean
The shockwave continued.
It flattened the already destroyed forest where the rift had once been.
Then it surged toward the city.
Across Gotham City, windows shattered in an instant.
Glass burst outward from skyscrapers.
Car alarms erupted across entire streets.
Vehicles were shoved sideways by the invisible wall of pressure.
Pedestrians stumbled as the ground itself seemed to tremble beneath their feet.
People looked around in panic.
"What the hell was that?!"
"Did something explode?!"
"Earthquake?!"
No one understood what had just happened.
Far above the city.
Inside the Batwing.
Batman felt the shockwave hit like a freight train.
The stealth aircraft lurched violently.
Warning lights flared across the cockpit.
"Control failure."
The autopilot screamed warnings as the Batwing spun sideways in the air.
Batman fought the controls, trying to stabilize the aircraft.
But the violent air displacement had completely destabilized it.
The Batwing spiraled downward.
"Damn it."
The aircraft clipped the tops of several trees before slamming into the floor with a violent crash.
Metal groaned.
Smoke rose from the damaged craft.
Back at the coastline, the raging ocean slowly began to settle again.
The storm clouds above started to thin.
And where the rift had once scarred the earth.
There was now nothing.
No tear.
No infernal energy.
Just empty sky and broken land.
A moment later
The surface of the sea rippled.
Then Arthur emerged slowly from the water.
His ashen white hair clung to his face as he stepped onto the shore.
In his arms, he carried Kara.
Her cape hung wet and heavy as she blinked slowly, recovering from the impact.
Arthur held her effortlessly, as if the violent crash into the ocean had barely affected him.
He stepped onto the ruined beach.
Water streamed from his coat as the wind brushed through his ashen hair.
For a moment he simply stood there.
Breathing.
The fatigue finally settling into his bones.
Then he looked back toward the forest.
Toward the place where the rift had once been.
There was nothing left.
Arthur exhaled quietly.
A long sigh escaping his chest.
"…About damn time."
/-\
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