Trigon's arrival was unmistakable. A towering demon wreathed in living flame erupted into existence, his presence alone warping the air around him with suffocating heat.
"I have finally found you, crossing countless worlds to reach this moment! Homelander, you will burn for eternity for what you have done to me! I have come for revenge, and I will tear you apart!"
The demon was Trigon, a being Adrian had first encountered in San Francisco in 1915. He was also, in the most literal sense, Rachel's father, bound to her through the very fabric of her soul. The projection he had sent into that city had been defeated by Adrian when Trigon came searching for his daughter. Now, summoned again by Constantine, his purpose was singular: vengeance against Adrian.
"W-what is this?"
Shazam stood rigid, staring up at the colossal figure with wide eyes.
Clark moved closer to his teammates the moment Trigon appeared, abandoning any further interrogation of Sinestro without a second thought. Sinestro's treachery could wait. What stood before them now demanded full attention.
"Trigon's true form possesses immense power," Clark said, his brows knitted tight. "If his real body were to fully descend here..."
He left the sentence unfinished. Some conclusions were better left unspoken.
Clark understood Trigon better than most. Some time ago, he had come across a magic book that Amy had acquired through a supernatural black market. The script inside was unlike anything he had ever seen, written in no language he recognized. He had spent a long time turning its pages and absorbing nothing. This was not a minor obstacle. Clark was a remarkable linguist, fluent in dozens of languages, including ancient and obscure ones. Yet this book had defeated him entirely. It offered no illustrations, no symbols he could cross-reference, no foothold for his intellect.
He later learned the book was written in an ancient demonic language. With Amy's help translating it, its contents finally opened to him. That book described Trigon's origins in precise, unsettling detail.
"H-his power surpasses yours and Adrian's?"
Shazam swallowed hard, the chilling pressure of Trigon's presence crawling across his skin.
Clark shook his head. "I don't know. But what Adrian defeated last time was not Trigon's true form. It was a projection, a fraction of his actual power. Even so, we paid a heavy price. In San Francisco, 1915, the battle destroyed half the city and triggered a massive fire."
"Wait." Shazam cut in, something clicking behind his eyes. "I learned about the San Francisco earthquake in history class recently. That disaster at the start of the last century, was that caused by your fight with this demon?"
He had not considered before that history might be something his allies had personally shaped.
"That's right," Clark said, and continued. "Trigon is the ruler of a particular hell dimension. From the moment he was born, he destroyed his own demonic clan and rapidly conquered his entire universe. Later, a circle of powerful sorcerers summoned him, intending to drain his power using an artifact known as the Dark Heart."
Shazam listened carefully.
"They failed. His power exceeded every calculation they had made. He absorbed the Dark Heart's energy rather than be weakened by it, grew stronger from it, then destroyed that world entirely and began conquering other universes."
Shazam turned this over in his mind. "Did this actually happen, or is it just a story?"
"There is no such thing as a story that gets written down for no reason," Clark said, his expression serious. "These accounts were recorded because they were real. Even if someone wanted to argue otherwise, the level of detail in that book carries the weight of truth."
"Alright. What happened next? Is there more?"
Clark glanced toward Adrian, who was already moving to engage Trigon. "You want to discuss this now?"
"Maybe we can find a weakness," Shazam said.
Clark accepted that reasoning and pressed on. "In one of the worlds Trigon conquered, the surviving people built a religion around him out of fear and devotion. The followers of that religion selected a woman to be offered to him. Trigon and this woman had a daughter together. The child inherited his abilities, which he found remarkable. But the mother, terrified of what that meant for her child, fled with the girl in secret. Trigon killed her for it, destroyed that world entirely, and brought his daughter back to his hell dimension."
Clark's expression shifted as he spoke. He was thinking of his own sister.
"As the girl grew older, her power continued to develop. She never forgot what Trigon had done to her mother, and eventually she found her opportunity. She ambushed him and sealed him within his dimension, leaving him imprisoned there. She then took the seal's core with her and disappeared."
Clark exhaled slowly.
He had long suspected the identity of that girl. Constantine had once remarked that Rachel possessed a soul both mysterious and extraordinary. Was Rachel carrying the soul of the very girl who had sealed Trigon?
Shazam cut through to the key point. "So the demon was sealed. Someone released him, obviously. But if his daughter sealed him once, she can do it again. She might be the answer."
Clark shook his head. "It won't be that straightforward. After sealing him, that girl hid herself from the world. No one knows where she is. You cannot reach someone who does not want to be found."
He dismissed the suggestion, though not without weight in his chest. He suspected the connection between that girl and Rachel ran deep. Perhaps Rachel was her reincarnation. But reincarnation, he told himself, was not something he could seriously entertain.
"If either of us understood magic, we could try demon summoning to reach her," Shazam said, pressing his fingers to his temple. "Clark, do you have any idea how to find her?"
"No," Clark said, though his hesitation lasted a beat longer than his answer.
He had already made his decision quietly. He needed to find Rachel.
Across the square, Constantine and Batman stood watching Trigon's arrival in silence that lasted precisely as long as Batman's composure could hold.
"You," Batman said slowly, turning to face Constantine. "What have you summoned? Is any part of this under your control?"
"He is an ancient being. Magic at this level does not answer to anyone's control," Constantine replied, a thread of sarcasm wound through his voice.
Batman said nothing. A considerable number of very uncharitable thoughts crossed his mind at that moment, none of which he chose to voice. He had agreed to Constantine's plan, and now the situation was evolving in ways that no contingency he had prepared for covered entirely.
He still had options. He had acquired a Green Lantern ring during the conflict between the Yellow and Green Lantern Corps, obtained by chance and studied since then purely as an object of research. He had never seriously considered using it. A ring of that power, worn by someone without the conditioning to wield it properly, could generate a disaster larger than anything Trigon might bring. It remained a last resort in the most extreme sense of the phrase.
He was still working through this when a thunderous impact shook the ground beneath them. He looked up.
Trigon rose from the earth in a half-crouch, dozens of meters tall, his dark red form radiating a presence that pressed on the chest like a physical weight. The air around him felt wrong, thick and tainted with something older than language.
"Now is not the time to stand here watching, Caped Crusader."
Constantine grabbed Batman's cape and pulled. "We need to move."
Batman did not move.
"You should not have done this, John," he said, his voice low and weighted. "Whatever the goal, summoning Trigon was the wrong call."
"No one summons Trigon," Constantine said. He tugged the cape again. "That is not how this works."
Batman turned to look at him. "Then explain what I am seeing."
Constantine released the cape. "I sent out a magical beacon carrying information about his daughter's location. And I may have also had Etrigan spread word through hell that Homelander had kidnapped her and intended to cause her harm."
Batman stared at him. "His daughter."
"Rachel. Her soul carries his lineage. I assumed you were aware of that."
"His daughter," Batman repeated, more carefully this time, "who is also Adrian's sister. And you convinced the demons of hell that Homelander would kidnap his own sister?"
"It takes a particular framing," Constantine said. "You just need the right audience. There are always those in hell willing to believe the worst of anyone."
A heavy concussive blast cut the conversation short. Both men looked up.
The battle had already begun.
Adrian and Wonder Woman had taken positions on either side of Trigon, facing him across the ruined ground.
"Didn't expect you to still be standing," Adrian said, his voice measured, his expression carrying no trace of fear.
"Even at a fraction of my strength, nothing you possess could touch me!" Trigon's voice shook the surrounding structures. Flames burned in his eyes as he unleashed the full pressure of his presence. "You dare speak to me with that tone? Hand over my daughter, or I will reduce you to nothing!"
Wonder Woman had no interest in listening to further declarations. She drew her sword and closed the distance in an instant, driving the blade in a clean, powerful arc at Trigon's torso.
He extended one massive palm and swatted her aside.
She flew back at tremendous speed. Adrian was already moving, activating his super speed in the same breath, positioning himself behind her and absorbing the impact before she hit the ground.
"Oh my god!"
Harley Quinn had been watching with wide, delighted eyes. Seeing Wonder Woman knocked back with a single strike had clearly impressed her.
"It's that guy from Mysterious Tales," she said brightly. "I love that movie."
Mysterious Tales was a fantasy film from 1985 whose main villain bore a striking resemblance to Trigon.
"Are unicorns going to show up too?" she muttered, scanning the area with genuine anticipation. She noticed that Shazam, whom she had been fighting moments ago, was no longer anywhere nearby. This annoyed her slightly.
Constantine did not share her enthusiasm. He grabbed Batman's cape again, more urgently this time.
"Get the others. We leave now."
Black Canary heard him and frowned. "No. We have the advantage here. Why would we retreat?"
Renee Montoya, standing a few paces away, nodded in agreement. "She's right. We should push while Trigon is occupying them. Hit hard and don't stop."
Both women believed the moment was an opportunity, a chance to use Trigon's presence as cover to deal a decisive blow.
Constantine walked over to them, his voice dropping to something close to patient. "I do not want to have to explain this. But Trigon serves no one. He does not take sides, he does not form alliances, and he is not going to help us with Homelander. That is not a possibility. It is simply not in his nature."
He turned back toward the exit.
"We go now, before he figures out we were the ones who had his daughter held. If you want to stay, that is your choice, but you will face everything that follows on your own."
Batman remained where he was, watching Adrian already engaged with Trigon, his mind running through the variables at speed.
Leaving was the rational decision. If Adrian's side was overwhelmed and destroyed, the strategic outcome served their goals. That had always been the logic.
But Trigon would not stop with Adrian. If the demon won here, he would continue, and whatever followed would not be contained. The damage to the city, to the world, would be considerable.
Batman stood still, his jaw set, his fists closed at his sides. The physical pain from earlier in the night had become irrelevant. What remained was a harder question, one without a clean answer.
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