Daniel noticed that Rachel wasn't looking at him. Her eyes were fixed on the shadow stretching out behind him.
A trace of surprise crossed his face.
"You can see them, can't you?"
Rachel didn't answer. She couldn't. Her gaze stayed locked on the impossible sight before her.
Daniel's shadow wasn't merely darkness — it was an endless abyss. Countless souls writhed within it, clawing at the black surface as if trying to escape.
Their silent screams distorted the air, and pale flashes of lightning briefly lit their twisted faces before the dark swallowed them again.
It was the Underworld. An independent dimension tethered to Daniel's shadow.
Every soul he had personally killed was imprisoned there, forever trying and forever failing to escape.
No ordinary person should have been able to perceive it. Yet Rachel could.
Daniel studied her for a moment, and realization dawned on him.
No wonder the residual magic around her had felt inhuman. It wasn't the work of a god, and it wasn't human magic either.
It belonged to a demon.
One of the cultists stepped forward, glaring at him. "Hey! This has nothing to do with you. Walk away."
Daniel shifted his gaze toward the two men and nodded slowly. "Yeah. This is definitely out of my league."
The cultists exchanged a confused glance.
Then his voice turned cold. "Because Trigon can't be allowed to come to Earth. And any human trying to make that happen dies."
A black scythe materialized silently in his hand. For an instant, the rain itself seemed to freeze.
Then he vanished.
Rachel's pupils shrank — she couldn't even follow his movement. One moment he stood several meters away; the next he was already behind the two cultists.
A soft metallic sound echoed through the alley as he casually spun the blade once, blood sliding off it and mixing with the rainwater at his feet.
For a brief second, the two men remained standing.
Then their heads slipped cleanly from their shoulders. Their bodies collapsed onto the wet pavement with two heavy thuds.
Daniel rested the scythe on his shoulder and started walking toward Rachel, as though nothing unusual had happened at all.
Inside her mind, the dark voice screamed louder than it ever had before.
Run! That thing isn't human!
Rachel screamed. Her eyes turned completely black.
The darkness inside her exploded without warning. Every window overlooking the alley shattered at once. The pavement in front of her burst apart as black energy erupted from the cracks, twisting into countless jagged tendrils that lunged straight at Daniel.
He didn't dodge.
He simply looked at the incoming darkness and raised a finger. Everything stopped.
The tendrils froze inches from him, suspended as if some invisible hand had seized them, twisting violently but unable to advance another inch.
"Well." He watched them, almost amused. "You're still a baby. If you want to play in front of me, you've got a long way to go."
The darkness let out an inhuman shriek and collapsed back toward Rachel.
Her breathing turned ragged. She ran without thinking — only to slam into someone's chest two steps later.
Her body went rigid.
Daniel was standing right in front of her.
She tried to step back. He raised a finger.
"Now. Let's see what to do with you."
He tapped her forehead lightly. The blackness vanished from her eyes at once. Her body went limp as consciousness faded, and he caught her with one arm before she could fall.
He looked down at the unconscious girl quietly.
"Wasn't expecting to find her here."
He already knew who she was. Raven, one of the future Teen Titans. More importantly — Trigon's daughter.
His frown deepened as his eyes drifted to the fading darkness around her.
"She's one of the most dangerous people on this planet."
If Trigon ever crossed into Earth's dimension through her, things would get troublesome fast. That wasn't an ordinary demon — it was an interdimensional entity that had conquered countless worlds. Daniel wasn't arrogant enough to think he could stop it at full power.
"Looks like..." He adjusted her in his arms, glancing up at the rainy sky. "...I'll have to keep an eye on you."
***
Rachel slowly opened her eyes.
For several seconds she simply stared at the unfamiliar ceiling, trying to calm her breathing. Then the memories of the alley came rushing back.
The cultists. The darkness inside her. And that man.
More specifically — his shadow, and the countless souls trapped within it.
She sat up quickly and looked around. The room was far nicer than anywhere she'd stayed before. The furniture looked expensive, the bed was soft, and sunlight filtered through the curtains.
"Where am I?" she whispered.
The last thing she remembered was collapsing after he touched her forehead.
She climbed out of bed and crept to the door. As soon as she opened it, voices drifted up from downstairs.
She hesitated, then stepped quietly into the hallway and followed the sound down the staircase, leaning over the railing partway down to peek into the living room.
The scene below stunned her completely.
Daniel was sitting in the middle of the room. Or rather — tied to a chair, wrapped from head to toe in a glowing golden rope that left only his head free to move.
Several women stood around him. One pointed a sword at his throat. Another rested a spear against his shoulder.
Daniel looked around helplessly. "Diana — put the sword down. And you too, Evelyn, Elizabeth, Sylvia. What exactly is wrong with all of you?"
Evelyn smiled so sweetly it somehow felt threatening, pushing the tip of her spear lightly against his chest.
"You're asking us that? We've ignored plenty of your questionable decisions. But bringing home a teenage girl? I think even you should admit that's crossing a line."
Elizabeth nodded without hesitation. "There should be limits."
Daniel looked genuinely confused. "I rescued her."
Elizabeth looked completely unconvinced.
Across the hall, Mera and Tamara were ignoring the argument entirely — the mermaid and the princess of Xebel chatting away as if they'd known each other for years.
Rachel's gaze moved from one woman to another before settling back on Daniel.
*****
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