"Fine." Raven said accepting to take him with her. The main reason she didn't want him to tag along was to prevent him from seeing how she had lived beforehand. It wasn't like her current hideout was how she always had lived, but she got used to it after she realized that living normally wouldn't work out.
She didn't like being pitied, but there was no need to refuse him especially after she had requested his help.
She also would have moved her place even if it hadn't worked out with Nathan, so it wasn't like she was implicated with him knowing where she had hidden away.
The two slowly sank into the darkness that appeared at their feet. She could feel his grip tighten slightly the more they were submerged. It was only a short moment later until they rose up from the ground again.
The darkness on the ground returned to its owner. Raven noticed how vigilantly Nathan or rather Shallot looked around. Was it Shallot when he was in his hero outfit? He said that she could call him either way, but she knew that the media exclusively called him Shallot when he appeared.
She shook her head, now it was time to get her stuff and not to think about trivial things. She walked up to a small desk next to the poor excuse of a bed and pressed a light switch. The small desk lamp turned on, illuminating the small room.
In the background, the sound of flowing water could be heard. Shallot grimaced slightly and she guessed that he didn't like the smell. Although she had done her best to block out the smell from the near sewers with some wooden pallets and some washed-up tarp, it was far from enough, especially since she hadn't used her powers.
It wasn't like the place wasn't magically protected but it helped to not be discovered by lessening the use of her power.
She opened the broken bedside cabinet and picked up the few mystical books that had survived her constant struggle to hide away from Trigon's minions. She also couldn't forget about the mirror she picked up at a flea market. It was a bargain considering how much it had helped her after her previous one was destroyed.
There were some other occult items she had gathered during the months when she was on the run. She wrapped it all up with a cloth that she merged with her soul-self to carry it telekinetically.
"Okay, we can go now." It wasn't much, but she would miss it if she left them behind. She turned around to see Shallot peek through the tarp observing the sewer. She didn't know what he was looking for, but as far she could tell there weren't any demons currently around.
Her magical traps weren't triggered, so there had been no unwanted visitors. After hearing her, he closed the tarp tight again and turned around to give her a nod. She was relieved when she didn't notice any pity from him.
"See nothing happened-" He quickly covered her mouth with a panicked look on his face.
"What are you doing?!" He asked her incredulously. Why was he asking her?? He was the one that covered her mouth!
She pushed his hand away and retorted in a calm yet angry tone, "What am I doing?"
"You can't say that!" He whisper-shouted.
"What? ...That nothing happen-?" He covered her mouth again and she pushed it away again.
"Yes! That! That's a major flag, stop it."
"What flag, what are you talking about?" He looked at Raven as if he didn't know who he was talking to. It made Raven feel like it was something she ought to know, but she couldn't think of anything.
"A flag! You know, when a character in a book says or does something that would indicate a character would die in the next moment. Like characters discussing how they look forwards to a future event or how everything worked out and the next moment they die! You know these types of things."
Raven looked at him weirdly, "You read books?"
"Really? That's what you are focusing on??" He asked her incredulously. He pinched the bridge of his nose, "Of course, I read books, didn't you see my library?"
"No, I didn't... Didn't have much time to look around yet... And yes I know what a jinx is, just hadn't heard the term 'flag' before. Either way, it's too late now, we are doomed."
She smirked slightly when she looked at his face. It felt unfamiliar to her but she couldn't help herself after seeing his dumbfounded look on him.
She rolled her eyes, "These things don't happen in the real life. Don't worry."
He approached her and put his hand on her shoulder again, "Just... let's just go."
The two slowly submerged into her portal again and with a blink of an eye, they emerged from it again.
"See, nothing-" Raven's words stuck in her throat as she looked at the unfamiliar sight. A dark and cold wasteland opened up to their sight.
The sky was dark unlike the bright shining morning they had just a moment ago. She could see smoke rising in the background. It didn't seem like they were on earth anymore. Did this really happen now? Did she really jinx them just now??
Shallot's grip tightened bringing her out of her daze. She looked at him, watching him scan their surroundings carefully.
"Can you open a portal?"
"N-no. Something is blocking my powers."
"Of course... Then retract your emphatic abilities." He said seriously.
"Wha- why?"
He only glanced at her for a moment, "Just do it." The forcefulness in his voice made her follow his order and as soon as she did Shallot's temperament seemed to change.
Besides his overbearing figure, he looked rather gently when he smiled, but now he felt like a whole different person, though the only exterior indicator she could recognize with this change was his slightly bulging muscles and the smoldering yellow eyes.
He was preparing himself for something or someone. Raven didn't wait around and was already exerting her powers, covering her hands with darkness. Her chant already on the tip of her tongue.
"There is no reason to be this tense, sister." A voice called out before three figures revealed themselves on a small hill not far from the two.
She clenched her fist as she looked at the three figures. Each of them looked rather normal if it weren't for their four red eyes, revealing their demonic heritage to Trigon. She instantly recognized these three. She had encountered them before, they were other children of Trigon and could indeed be called her sibling even if she wanted nothing to do with them.
[A/N: Envy, Wrath, Lust]
"H-how?" She asked. Although it wasn't done perfectly, her hideout was protected and she refrained from using as much of her powers to hide it away from Trigon's minions.
"You know there are different ways to track a person besides their magical abilities, right? We do have eyes." The one in the middle said smugly, "Look at you, hiding away in a sewer. Don't you have enough of a life as a rat? We can show you a different view with us at the very top! Sooner or later we will reign this universe, so join us. We just need you to-"
Before he finished speaking a figure appeared between the two in the back. The figure split kicked Envy and Lust before striking Wrath's neck with his elbow. The hood of Wrath fell off his head, spit flew out of his mouth as he gasped at the sudden attack.
The other two were sent flying into the far distance. She could see the dust that was stirred by them skipping across the ground.
Wrath took several steps forward, preventing him from falling over. He turned his head back and was instantly punished for not creating distance. A shin smashed into his face. It was only then that she realized that it was Shallot who had attacked.
His body seemed to be glowing warmly and it created a stark contrast to the dark and cold wasteland. This sight rattled her free from the shock and fear of being caught. Envy sprinted back right towards Shallot. Envy's appearance had changed into a more demonic one and Raven could feel that he was a magnitude stronger than before.
In fact, she felt stronger herself. Something about the surroundings stirred up her demonic side. She raised her hand and released a bolt of darkness, catching Envy at his temple. Envy crashed into the hard ground.
"Who do you think you are, mortal?!!" Lust leaped towards Shallot.
"You take over that scrawny guy." Shallot said before kicking the approaching Lust away. Raven looked in the distance where Lust was kicked towards and saw him crash into Wrath who had just gotten up.
"Leave it to me." Raven nodded as she picked up countless rocks around her before firing them at Envy who rose his arms to protect his face. She looked to the side and saw a giant boulder. A part of her soul-self merged with it as she raised it into the air.
She could feel how easy it was for her to exert her power over this rock that was soaking with demonic power. She had already realized that the surroundings were empowering her, it was clear that Shallot and she were pulled somewhere into Trigon's domain.
She flung the giant boulder towards Envy who rose his hands in response, sending black lightning bolts at the bolder causing it to explode into thousands of pieces. She instantly seized this opportunity, controlling the smaller pieces of rocks and rotating them around her half-brother.
"Raven, we are not your enemies. We offer you power, all the riches that others possess will be yours. Everything you ever wanted, you just have to take it and make it yours." Envy spoke and Raven felt emotions of envy rise in her heart. Envying the people that could live the life that she yearned to live.
Envy was empathically poking her mind, trying to control her through her emotions. She willed the tornado of rocks to shoot at him, preventing him to concentrate. She wouldn't be swayed this easily by mere induced emotions.
She had lots of experience in suppressing her emotions. It didn't affect her, she told herself. An explosion attracted her attention, an explosion that lit up the dark wasteland, making it look like a sun had suddenly appeared in the dark sky.
For a short moment, she considered going to help Shallot in his fight against her other two half-brothers. Although Shallot seemed to have some experience with his psychic power, it didn't seem like he had any real defense against empathetic influence.
If he was controlled, it would spell the end for them. Before she could entertain the thought of aiding him she had to dodge an attack of Envy.
"Don't even think about it. Your friend is as good as dead! He might be a strong mortal, but this is our domain. No mortal can best us here!" He screamed as he flung a magic whip at her. She raised a giant rock in defense, which shattered on contact, but it gave her enough time to relocate.
She ignored the deep gash it left into the tough ground and readied her power to do something bigger. She had to put more into it.
A ferocious roar could be heard in the background and she tried her best to not let it rattle her too much. She had to concentrate on Envy and deal with him first before she could assist Shallot, but for that, she needed more power.
"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" She let more and more of her soul-self seep out turning a giant dark raven with her as the core.
She released a shout before crashing into Envy sending him to the ground. With her soul-self she pushed his head into the ground, using her momentum to drag his face across the ground before she fired another blast at him at point-blank, burying him into the ground.
She breathed heavily as she tried to calm herself, sensing her emotions escaping her grasp. Glancing at the hole in the ground she didn't sense any movement. She was about to fly towards Shallot's battlefield before the ground started to shake.
Envy burst through the ground in front of her, the demonic energy of the environment flew towards him and surrounded his body like the eye of a hurricane before Envy slammed his hands into the ground. Black, metallic-like roots sprung out of the ground and headed towards her.
She spread her arms, turning her soul-self into a barrier around her, stopping the roots from hitting her, but she soon realized her mistake. The roots coiled around her barrier and tightened.
She knew she wouldn't be able to last long against this attack. Her barrier had to be constantly fed with her power, it would break long before Envy would give up the control of his roots. It seemed like he was turning more serious.
Did she really have to use this dimension's power? She thought she could finish it before she was forced to do that, but it became clearer that her personal powers weren't enough. Maybe if she only siphoned a small portion of this place, it wouldn't be uncontrollable.
Her ability to teleport was still hindered and she was at a loss on what other options she had besides turning to her demonic side for more powers. Thoughts of giving up crept into her mind as well. It was only a moment later before something collided with Envy's roots, ripping right through them.
She immediately dropped her barrier and flew out of the cut-off roots. Envy seemed to be as surprised as she was. They looked towards the object that had saved her. It came to a stop only a few dozen meters away after destroying several boulders.
It was the headless body of Lust. Lust didn't seem to have been beheaded but his head was turned into mush, popped like a watermelon. His limbs were bent wrongly or were missing completely.
Before they could get used to the sight, a glowing golden sphere crashed into the body, enveloping it in an explosion. Raven and Envy were silent as they started to comprehend what just happened.
Envy's face turned pale as he looked in the direction the body came flying from. Raven didn't need to be an empath to know that he was deathly afraid. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't afraid, but it would also be wrong to say that she didn't feel some relief after seeing one enemy vanquished.
The only question was who had defeated Lust? She wanted to think it was Shallot, but this shouldn't be something he was capable of.
She knew that if she let herself revel in the environment's energy, she could empower herself to a ridiculous degree, making the demon that had fought Shallot in Portland look like an amateur.
The only reason she didn't was because of the dark emotions she would open herself to, she didn't know if she could suppress and control them like usual. This obviously wasn't a problem for her half-brothers though.
She had thought about opening herself to the power this place could grant her, but she had been hesitating. Now she realized that she might not stand a chance even if she used this domain to her advantage. If a rival demon of Trigon had invaded this place, it might be too late for them to escape.
As she thought this, she saw dust being stirred up. The dust cloud grew bigger and bigger. Something was approaching them.
"Its Wrath!" Envy called out as he looked at the figure that was sprinting towards them. Raven narrowed her eyes as she looked at Wrath.
His body was unlike before. He was taller and his muscles were bulging all over his body. Veins could be seen all over his body, but despite this, he didn't look any more powerful than before. In fact, he looked miserable. Her attention was attracted to the numerous injuries on his body.
His left side was missing an arm. He was pressing on his stump with his other hand as he desperately ran towards them. Blood was oozing out between his fingers. A big chunk of his flesh was burned off on his abdomen. His right cheekbone was sunken in and his teeth seemed to have been kicked in.
He looked on the verge of death. These were wounds that would have killed most humans if they didn't get immediate medical attention.
The only reason Wrath was alive now had to be his demonic heritage, making him tough enough to survive the beating he got, though Raven wasn't sure if that was an advantage now. It was clear that he was in pain if his grimace and crying face was anything to go by.
Raven took a step back, thinking about what she should do. If it was truly a rival demon, she could use Wrath and Envy as a distraction, but she was hesitating on whether to flee or not.
Where was Shallot? Did Wrath and Lust leave him behind?? What was she thinking? Of course, they did! She couldn't leave him behind! It had only been a day ago since he had offered his help. She wouldn't let him die because of his good intentions!
Before the anger and self-guilt in her mind could settle properly, Wrath's body's middle line shone with golden light for a split second before it vanished again.
Wrath didn't seem to realize that something had happened as he continued to run. Blood was leaking out of the middle line before the two halves of his body separated as they fell to the side mid-step.
Golden light burst through the cloud of dust, revealing a familiar figure in blue armor. Raven couldn't believe what she was seeing. Shallot was surrounded by a golden light, his eyes were missing pupils only revealing his white scleras.
His hair was bent backward from the momentum of his flight, his usual black hair illuminated by his golden aura now, making it look brownish.
He flew close to the ground and it broke apart like it was giving way in front of him. Wrath's body was ripped into pieces when Shallot flew past him.
He flew straight at Raven and Envy while releasing a wrathful roar. Raven was shocked at the sight, paralyzed for a moment too long. It was only when she felt the wind in her face that she realized that she was flung towards Shallot.
Envy had used a root to pick her up and throw her while he turned around to flee. A wise move since she too had realized that Shallot had lost his reason.
"Stop!" She shouted desperately at the approaching Shallot, her power rising as emotions of her immediate death arose and filled her mind. She tried to connect with him empathically, trying to calm him down, but the sheer wrath he felt was overwhelming her mind.
Her mind turned blank for just a moment, it was several moments later when she woke up again, finding herself in a kneeling position. Her head was thumping heavily and emotions of a primal rage rose up, she knew that this would need several sessions of meditation to suppress, but that wasn't what was currently important.
She looked up and only saw a deep trench in front of her, signifying Shallot's flight path. Just in front of her, the trench curved around her, making her realize that she had indeed survived, but she didn't know why. There was no way that Shallot was able to control that rage...
She turned around to see Shallot pummeling a body on the ground, no doubt belonging to the previously fleeing Envy. Shallot continued to trash Envy without thinking about stopping at all even after Envy's life had long been extinguished.
She flew towards him wanting to calm him, but halfway there his head snapped into the distance. He raised his arm and fired attacks that arced through the air at high speed before detonating in grand explosions, annihilating the demons that she now realized were approaching.
Time was of the essence, she realized. She could feel whatever was holding her here could no longer bind her in this dimension. Maybe it was the death of her half-brothers or something else, the only thing important to know was that she could escape now.
She hesitated before she connected with his emotions again in the hope to calm him down. She gritted her teeth as the rage he was feeling was just too much for her, but no matter what she wouldn't leave him here.
The connection she built had attracted his attention as his head snapped towards her and in a blink of an eye, he floated in front of her. A terrifying sight, the already strong man now seemed larger than life. The aura surrounding him energized the air with pure energy.
She could almost feel it tickle her skin. Shallot picked her up at the collar, but she was fine with this. She placed her fingers at Shallot's temple. Direct contact gave her better access to his mind. With his mind calmed only by a tiny portion seemed to have been enough to bleed away this state he was in.
He clenched his eyes shut and when he opened them again his black pupils were back. Now that she had a clear view of him while he was not moving around at high-speed, she realized that his armor had taken some hits.
Some small scratches could be found all over his body, but it didn't seem to be anything major. It could have been a small scuffle if she hadn't witnessed how he slaughtered the three just now.
"Please tell me you can get us out of here." He said losing his ability to keep himself afloat. He threw an arm over her shoulder and leaned against her. She slowly lowered them to the ground while supporting his weight.
"Don't worry, I can." She said before closing her eyes to concentrate, trying to ignore the shouts of the numerous demons closing in from the distance. They slowly submerged into her portal that would lead her out of this dimension.
In the next moment, the two emerged from the ceiling that she woke up to this morning. Fortunately, she had chosen this ceiling otherwise they wouldn't have fallen onto a bed. Raven couldn't help but sigh out in relief, even though she couldn't move at the moment with the man lying on top of her.
"Could you move?"
He laid there with his face in the pillow next to her face. She was painfully aware that he was lying between her legs at the moment, but he showed no intention of moving, which was why she pushed him to the side as she wriggled herself out.
The man mumbled something, but because his face was still buried in the pillow she couldn't understand him. It grew more panicked after every second before she realized the problem.
She used her telekinesis to turn him around. He took in a deep breath, "...Thank you! Almost suffocated." He laughed at that and she could admit that would be a dumb way to die after having survived a demonic ambush.
She glanced over his body to check up on him, but he didn't seem too injured, he only looked exhausted, or rather depleted.
"Are you okay?" She asked him, knowing that a state he was in wasn't something a normal human could endure. Many people would be traumatized to feel such intense emotions, but she seemed to be thinking too much since he laughed again. Seems like she shouldn't underestimate his mental resilience.
"More than fine. I feel fantastic-" His stomach grumbled as he spoke, "- Just a bit hungry, I guess. Could you...?" His face turned red at that, which was honestly an astonishing look for him to wear especially after what she had witnessed just now.
Watching him slaughter these demons and fly at her with murderous speed was probably in the top 5 of the most terrifying moments she had ever witnessed.
She reluctantly got up and went downstairs, knowing what he asked of her. She opened the fridge and pulled out multiple Tupperware and put them into the gigantic microwave.
She waited for a moment as she watched the food inside of it rotate. The discrepancy from the deadly battle from just a moment ago and now her standing in the kitchen watching food rotate inside the microwave was something entirely unfamiliar.
Unlike before she had no fatal injuries and she wasn't that exhausted. This time she was able to retreat without even a scratch. The microwave dinged and she pulled out the now warm food before putting another portion inside. She then carried the food upstairs.
Her uninjured state wasn't the only thing that had changed contrary to her numerous close calls during her escape. This time she had returned with an ally on her side.
She stepped into the room and found Nathan still lying in the same position he was in before, mumbling about something being flawed and inefficient. Despite this, he seemed to be happy. He was grinning almost maniacally like he had achieved something important today.
There was no sign of the ferocious side he had revealed. In fact, his good mood was infectious, making her forget the unpleasant headache that his rage had caused her.
She placed the Tupperware between them and placed a fork in front of him. She opened the boxes and took her own fork and dug in. The battle made her hungry as well.
His eyes widened as he saw her eat too. He seemed to panic before he remembered that he could still use his telekinesis to feed himself. He devoured his food as fast as he could while glancing at her from time to time as if she would snatch away his food.
She couldn't help but chuckle at the sight before it turned into a full belly laugh when he frowned clearly not getting how hilarious his line of thought was.