Adrian punched Trigon into the ground and unleashed his Heat Vision, blasting him full force.
The crowds fleeing the collapsing buildings were caught in that same inferno and vanished in a flash of searing heat.
Boom!
Like a missile, Adrian slammed a fallen clock tower straight into Trigon.
The enormous structure whistled through the air before crashing down on the demon's armored skull. Trigon roared in fury, staggering to his feet, swinging a massive fist to swat Adrian away.
But Adrian moved too fast. He struck hard across Trigon's chin, sending his bulk flying skyward.
Adrian didn't slow. Amid dust and flame, he rocketed upward, firing Heat Vision in controlled bursts at Trigon's chest, driving the demon higher.
Bang, bang!
Explosions of power and muscle echoed through the sky as Adrian and Trigon ascended beyond the atmosphere.
Trigon lashed out with elemental vision, but Adrian dodged, closing in for brutal close‑quarters combat. Despite the demon's supernatural strength, Adrian's ferocity never slackened. With every strike he grew more relentless.
Back on Earth, the battle's destruction nearly wiped out all of San Francisco. To the people below, an enormous fiery meteor screamed across the heavens.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Above the clouds, Adrian rained punch after punch down on Trigon's body. Each impact crackled through the thinning atmosphere, fracturing reality with raw force.
Trigon could only absorb blow after blow.
Boom!
They crashed into the ocean near the harbor, the impact forming towering waves that surged outward like tsunamis, sweeping ships and docks with ferocious force.
Within kilometers of the epicenter, light exploded white and blinding. The heat boiled seawater into steam, pushing enormous columns of water miles into the sky, annihilating all marine life in the vicinity.
Thunderclouds gathered, churning into a vortex of tempests that darkened the horizon.
Atlantis, deep beneath the waves, felt the shock.
"What is that?" one Atlantean guard asked his partner, eyes wide.
"Did humans start a war? They built metal giants, I heard… This could destroy our world," the other replied.
Not far away, on the coast near the wreckage, the lone lighthouse stood as the harbor's last sentinel. Tom Curry and his father climbed to the top, scanning the devastation with a telescope.
Curry blood ran in Tom's veins—generations of lighthouse keepers had prepared him for storms, but nothing like this. He watched towering waves claw at the sea and then, landward, a figure cloaked in bone‑like armor tearing through the coastline, crimson eyes burning with rage.
Lightning cracked. Thunder growled. And then a voice, jagged with fury.
"Adrian Kent, I will destroy you!"
"Adrian Kent…" Tom repeated the name, a chill gripping him. Little did he know this moment would shape the future of Atlantis itself.
Outside the atmosphere, Adrian's mind was no longer his own. Rage, pure and unfiltered, dominated him. All the dark consciousness within him—those unfathomable, unspeakable forces beyond the universe—surged forth.
A black aura cloaked his body. A thick mist of untouchable energy pulsed toward Trigon.
Trigon, battered and bleeding, froze in shocked disbelief. These dark entities—primordial and forbidden—were springing from a single human's mind. Reality itself recoiled.
Trigon hesitated, considering retreat. But before he could vanish, Adrian's punch shattered his guard, and a blast of Heat Vision pierced the demon's chest.
Trigon's form began to fade, his elemental power dissolving as his existence unravelled. A vortex of oceanic energy swallowed him, pulling him deep beneath the waves.
"No… Adrian Kent!" Trigon roared in disbelief as his form vanished into nothingness.
Adrian, eyes glowing red and body wrapped in swirling darkness, stood on the ocean's surface amidst monstrous waves. He gazed into the fading distance, senses heightened by the black mist around him.
Then he saw it—just a blur of blue.
A massive bald figure flickered into view, surveying him briefly before disappearing. The intensity of its presence dwarfed even Trigon's power.
At that moment, the fabric of reality seemed to ripple, subtly but undeniably.
Whoosh!
Adrian turned as a familiar figure flew beside him.
Clark held Lois in one arm, eyes wide with a mix of hope and fear.
When he saw Adrian's glowing eyes and the destructive aura encasing him, Clark didn't falter.
"Adrian, I'm your brother. Can you hear me?" Clark's voice trembled but stayed steady.
Adrian didn't respond. His gaze was distant, consumed by the storm inside him.
Clark called after him, voice thick with emotion, "Adrian, I know you can wake up. Just like when you helped me with the red kryptonite ring. If you can hear my voice, don't lose yourself."
Clutching Lois, Clark's red eyes glistened. "Think of Mom. If she lost you…"
Tiny Rachel reached toward Adrian, her young face solemn and pained. "Brother…" she whispered, the first word she had learned emerging again.
From her form, a raven manifested in flight toward Adrian, extending its beak toward his face.
But the black mist repelled the bird, forcing it to absorb the darkness around Adrian. As it did, Rachel's expression twisted in discomfort, emotions and memories spilling into the raven—every fragment of Adrian's past and present.