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The corridor outside the lab looked like a war zone.
Floodlights burned white against a dome of absolute black, the darkness so dense it swallowed light instead of reflecting it. The barrier stood perfectly smooth, a hemispherical void, its surface rippling faintly like oil.
Gunfire echoed without pause.
"Keep firing!" someone shouted over the din.
Rifles barked. Heavy-caliber rounds slammed into the dome and vanished without a sound no sparks, no ricochet, no impact. Missiles detonated against it in controlled bursts, blooming into fireballs that were instantly eaten by the darkness.
Nothing passed through.
Nothing even marked it.
"What the hell is that thing made of?!" a soldier yelled, lowering his weapon as his magazine clicked empty.
"It's not magic, our sensors can't pick anything..." another answered shakily, staring at the readings scrolling uselessly across his visor. "It's not any known energy either… what the hell.."
A squad of armored personnel shifted uneasily, fingers tight on triggers, expecting the worst to happen.
From the rear, a tall figure pushed forward, calm amid the chaos. His uniform was pristine despite the alarms, a tactical coat reinforced at the shoulders. The patch on his chest read A.R.G.U.S.
The Colonel stopped just short of the black dome, hands clasped behind his back as he studied it with narrowed eyes.
"Status," he said evenly.
"No breach, sir," an officer replied, swallowing. "No response to kinetic, plasma, sonic, or experimental weaponry. Thermal readings inside are… nonexistent."
"Nonexistent," he repeated. "And the intruders?"
"Still inside. Two of them. One's the… knight, in a black armor." The officer hesitated. "The seems like a female. Magic-based. High-level."
Graves exhaled slowly through his nose.
"I see."
A nearby lieutenant looked at him sharply. "You know who this is, sir?"
The Colonel didn't answer right away. He watched the dome, the way it pulsed faintly.
"Black armor," he said at last. "Not tech. Not alien. Not demonic, at least not fully." His jaw tightened. "There's a few individuals who fits that profile."
A murmur rippled through the troops.
"Who," someone whispered. "I have no clue.."
"Can't say the names," The colonel cut in. "Not yet. Now focus on your target."
He turned to the comms officer. "Contact the Justice League. Priority channel. Tell them we have an unidentified hostile...or ally, depending on their answer, just lead with the word 'ALLY' first operating inside a restricted A.R.G.U.S. black site."
The officer hesitated. "Sir… the League doesn't have jurisdiction here."
The Colonel's eyes flicked toward him. "Neither does this intruder," he said flatly. "And yet here we are, they might know what's going on."
Another explosion bloomed uselessly against the barrier. The soldiers flinched as the darkness swallowed it whole.
"What's he even doing in there?" someone asked. "If he wanted us dead..."
"We'd already be dead," The Colonel finished.
The dome suddenly shuddered.
Not from impact but from within.
The gunfire stopped.
Every weapon lowered just a fraction as the black surface began to thin, unraveling like smoke. Shadows peeled away in slow spirals, lifting upward and dissolving into nothing.
Light rushed back in.
The dome was gone.
Silence fell.
The Colonel raised a hand. "Hold."
The lab beyond stood open.
Intact.
Too intact.
Other than the shattered equipment and the containment units. The remains on the central slabs lay exactly as they had before, undisturbed, unaltered.
And there was no one inside.
No black knight.
No mage.
Nothing.
A soldier stepped forward, voice barely above a whisper. "They're… gone."
The colonel stared into the lab, his reflection faint in the glass.
"Of course they are.." he muttered.
He clenched his jaw, then straightened.
"Search," he ordered sharply. "Full sweep. They might've left something behind. A trace. A signature. Anything."
Troops surged forward, boots echoing as they flooded the lab.
The Colonel remained where he was, eyes still fixed on the empty space where the darkness had been.
"…Black knight," he said quietly.
His fingers brushed the A.R.G.U.S. patch on his chest.
"It sure smells like the League is involved in this... whoever that person is, they know."
****
GOTHAM – ARTHUR'S ESTATE
The air in Arthur's estate cracked softly. Shadows rippled
Then
Arthur and Raven stepped out of nothing, darkness peeling away from them.
They arrived to chaos.
Kara was mid-air, wrestling with Dexter the cat.
"Well stop scratching me.. Hey! No Dexter that's not a toy!"
The cat hissed, Kara yelped, and the two spun across the living room in a mess of limbs and fur until Kara finally landed on the couch, Dexter perched triumphantly on her shoulder.
The moment Kara noticed Arthur and Raven.
She froze.
Adjusted her posture.
Smoothed her hair.
Placed Dexter gently beside her.
"Oh," she said brightly. "You guys are back.."
Arthur and Raven exchanged a look.
"…Yeah," Raven said flatly.
Kara glanced at them. "That was quick."
Arthur rolled one shoulder, "Got what I wanted."
Raven folded her arms. "So," she said, watching him closely, "are you going to keep your promise?"
Arthur blinked. "…What? Oh. Right.. You really are impatient."
He turned toward her, something almost amused flickering behind his eyes.
"I can show you that world," he said. Then, after a beat, "Actually, I can take you there."
He looked past Raven.
At Kara.
At George, who stood near the doorway, expression calm, despite having clearly witnessed a Kryptonian grappling a cat moments earlier.
"All of you can."
Kara tilted her head. "What world?"
George cleared his throat delicately. "If I may, sir… I, too, find myself somewhat disoriented."
Arthur raised a hand.
Shadows peeled off him, the regal armor dissolving into nothing. When it was gone, he stood in his usual clothes again, relaxed, utterly calm.
His eyes, however
They glowed violet.
A smile curved his lips.
"Stay calm now, and just watch."
The shadows moved.
They stretched from his feet, slow at first, like ink spilled across the floor. Then faster. Walls vanished. The ceiling dissolved. Furniture melted into black silhouettes before disappearing entirely.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Kara shot upright. "Okay...okay I don't like this."
George inhaled sharply. "Sir.. this is.."
Dexter hissed.
Raven didn't panic, but she held her breath.
This wasn't empty darkness.
It pressed on them for a moment.
The shadows closed completely.
Then
They withdrew.
Not vanishing, They returned to Arthur.
The world reassembled itself around them.
Except it wasn't the estate anymore.
They stood upon an endless plain, above them stretched a sky of eternal twilight, vast, unmoving washed in deep purples and pale whites.
There was no sun.
No moon.
No sense of time.
In the distance, silhouettes moved.
At first, they thought of them to be in the Hundreds.
Then they realized they were in the Thousands.
Shadow soldiers stood at ease across the horizon knights, beasts, giants, a Dragon, figures both humanoid and monstrous, disciplined and doing their own thing in this world, some were training, some were building.
Raven stopped breathing for a moment.
"…Arthur," she whispered.
Kara hovered slowly off the ground, eyes wide, scanning the horizon. "Whoa…"
George adjusted his glasses, stared into infinity, then let out a controlled sigh.
"Well," he said dryly, "this is certainly not covered by the estate's insurance."
Arthur turned to them.
"Welcome."
Raven's gaze swept across the realm, her empathic senses brushing against the shadows.
They weren't mindless or chaotic. They were sentient and loyal to the core, and it felt like an actual functional world to her.
"I've seen power," she murmured, almost to herself. "Demons. Gods. Even my father's realm." Her voice dropped. "This… this is one of a kind."
She looked at Arthur.
"They're everywhere."
"They are, and their numbers aren't that great actually." he replied simply.
Kara suddenly took off.
She streaked across the sky like a comet, vanishing into the distance in a heartbeat.
Seconds passed.
Then she returned, slowing to a hover, eyes brighter than before.
"I can't believe this.." she said, awed. "It just keeps going. I flew full speed and barely scratched it. This place is massive!"
She glanced at Arthur. "This is… truly your world?"
Arthur didn't answer right away.
"Yes," he said finally.
Raven swallowed.
For once, she didn't joke.
Didn't deflect.
"…You weren't exaggerating, calling this the world of eternal slumber. I understand the name perfectly now." she said quietly.
Behind them, Dexter the cat sat down, tail flicking once, then calmly began licking his paw, as if deciding this strange world of infinite darkness was, in fact, acceptable to him.
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want