"Welcome to the Shadowverse," Darkwing Junior said. "There are dark things here. Hungry things."
Invincible looked around, seeing nothing but darkness. Atom Eve grew nervous, understanding that they might be trapped here. Her mind started working quickly, desperately trying to come up with solutions. But nothing would work. Her pulse quickened, and so did her breathing.
"Even I don't dare to stay too long. But I hope you like it, because you are never leaving.
"Funny," Invincible said. "Acting all high and mighty, while killing and trapping people in this dimension."
"I'm the hero here! I'm saving the world from Omni-Man's son!" Darkwing shouted in protest.
But that was all Invincible needed. He shot forward and grabbed his hand.
"You're not the smartest, are you, Emo-boy?"
"Let go!" Darkwing shouted in fear.
They could hear growling sounds around them, making Darkwing almost shit his pants. He was growing increasingly fearful and anxious. Invincible looked at Eve and grabbed her hand as well. He pulled her closer and had her hold onto Darkwing, then he kicked them forward. With a shout, both of them leave the Shadowverse, and they were just in time as well. Right in the next moment, a monstrous mouth snapped and swallowed Invincible whole.
The large creature native to the Shadowverse was only one of the abominations. It had been invisible to Invincible's eyes, but he sensed something approaching and acted quickly. Why did he not force Darkwing to take him back? Well, why would he? He was growing restless as time passed, and this was the perfect way for him to 'unleash or embrace' his barbaric side.
*BRrroooOOOOMMM*
The innards of the abomination rumbled and then exploded outwards, revealing Invincible with a ripped suit and the same look on his face. The edge of his lips etched upwards ever so slightly. What the denizens of darkness and shadow hadn't realised at this moment was that they were no longer the only monsters present. The top spot for the apex was up for grabs.
.
The attacks arrived without warning again, only causing Invincible's danger sense to 'tingle' if you will. He couldn't react to it fast enough, though. The nature of darkness was affecting him greatly. He felt it press on his mind and emotions, trying to make him depressed, sad, angry and fearful. He felt a great suction force, pulling him in and whispering to him, promising power and eternal rest and joy, while slowly sapping his life energy and vitality.
*BOOOOM*
He punched the creature, which had just bitten down on his arm, with full force, getting himself free again. He furrows his brows, understanding that he felt the attack and feels the blood flowing down his arm. Another attack arrived, but he acted quickly, attempting to move out of the way in time. It didn't work out as well as he hoped, since the abominations don't seem to have corporeal bodies. No, that's not true, he realised. If that were true, then how could they bite him and how could he feel and punch them then?
Another attack, and then another. From all sides, it seemed that those creatures arrived and attacked, wanting a piece of him. All of them seemed desperate to consume and devour him. But the danger, which continued to grow, had a very strange effect on Mark. He started attacking and punching everyone around him. Sometimes he hit something, but most of the time, he didn't achieve anything, while his body was swallowed, forcing him to retaliate or bite.
He held on to the snout of a monster and used his strength to dig into its flesh, trying to get more familiar. But he discarded this tactic right away, not bothering with it, since that didn't feel right to him. He went nuts and punched the darkness out of the denizens of the Shadowverse, embracing his barbaric nature more and smiling while he did it.
.
*Growwwlll*
A deep, throaty growl was heard, different from the monsters before. Right away, things turned from bad to shit.
*BOOOM*
*SLASHHH*
*CRUNCH*
*WHINE*
Around Mark was carnage. He still couldn't see anything, but he began to feel that something was happening, and, judging from the sounds, a new, more dangerous predator had arrived. And it had attacked or killed the others, which had been bothering Mark. Mark moved back, using his speed, feeling the danger right in front of him. Through the miracle of his Essence, he managed to still somewhat keep track of the 'battlefield' and moved to the side, in time for the attack to arrive.
*BOOOM*
*RRRIIIPPPP*
A monstrous force engulfed Mark's entire right arm with speeds that surpassed anything that Mark could comprehend. Uncountable thin threads of painful darkness seemed to seep into the large wound where his arm had once been. But Mark's reaction was not what anyone may have expected.
"Ha... haha... hahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Faced with seemingly insurmountable danger, Mark laughed. A switch had been flipped, and logical thinking was thrown out the window, leaving nothing but the excited, bloodlusted Viltrumite that Mark seemed to be, craving good fights.
He shot forward, his left arm pulled back, and his fist clenched. He punched out with more power than he had ever before, the adrenaline and excitement fueling him. All limits were removed, and nothing was holding him back anymore. No morals, no concern for widespread damage, not even the stress of time... nothing.
*BOOOM*
His fist landed on the mountain-sized snout of the creature, not even managing to leave a scratch. But that didn't matter; he was not here for a quick and easy fight. He was there to quench the fire, which had started to burn and which threatened to consume everything.
The monster attacked again, the slash capable of slicing the earth in half with ease, invisible to Mark's eyes. But he had given up on all reason and functioned only on instinct now. With an impressive twist of his body, Mark dodged the attack and shot forward.
*BOOOOM*
His strength having increased slightly again, he didn't let up and attacked again.
*BOOOOM*
*BOOO--*
A monstrous amount of force impacted Mark and hurled him through the darkness an immeasurable distance away, before he snapped back and stopped his movement. His senses warned him of danger once more, and indeed, his right foot was wrapped in invisible tendrils that were starting to twist and press together. Mark slashed with his palm and managed to wound whatever it was that attacked him.
*SCREEnsnnnWISISISI*
The unholy sounds sounded in Mark's head and brought him immense pain. Another powerful force struck him, and the 'tentacles' of darkness wrapped around his figure.
The tentacles tightened, not just on his flesh, but also on his very soul. They felt like freezing wires of unbreakable material, vibrating with a frequency that threatened to shatter his mind. Mark felt his ribs groan, then snap with the sound of dry branches under a boot.
But the pain was a catalyst, though. It acted as fuel, making him want to push further and further beyond his limits.
"Is that... all?" Mark wheezed, blood dripping from his lips and being absorbed into the void.
"COME ON! I'm still breathing!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, like a deranged barbarian.
With his remaining left arm, he reached out and clawed. He dug his fingers into the peculiar mass of the creature, finding something to grab in the "nothingness" that felt like cold, wet clay while at the same time feeling invulnerable. He pulled himself closer to the source of the agony, his teeth bit together in a mask of pain and derangement.
The monster let out a sound that wasn't a roar, but more like a sudden vacuum that pulled the air right out of Mark's lungs. He didn't care. He leaned forward and buried his teeth into the shadow of what counted as the beast's neck.
He tasted… entropy. He tasted death and coldness. And he swallowed.
In a state of utter thoughtlessness, Mark ignored all the warning signs that his 'human' brain was telling him. To run away, try to heal, try to find out more information, run… RUN. He didn't do any of that.
His Viltrumite cells, which were pushed to the absolute brink, began to hyper-accelerate, thanks to his Essence. The wounds on the stump of his right arm were cauterised through sheer friction and heat generated by his internal energy, which seemed to come from the energy released by the creature he had just taken a bite out of.
For every ounce of strength he gained, though, a piece of his "humanity" seemed to evaporate into the Shadowverse. The images of Eve's and even his Mother's face were becoming a blurry smudge in his mind, replaced by the singular, golden-hot desire to fight and conquer… to rip and tear until it was done.
…
The creature, sensing the parasite Mark had become and the danger it posed to him, went into a frenzy. It slammed Mark against the metaphysical "walls" of shadow inside the dimension; these were barriers of hard-light shadow that cracked like glass upon impact.
*CRACK.*
Mark's left leg was bent at an impossible angle.
*WHIP*
A lash of darkness flayed the skin from his chest, exposing the musculature beneath. He was a walking anatomical drawing of a man, held together by spite, the growing power of his heritage, the power of his Essence and sheer force of will.
"More," Mark grinned, the expression deranged. "Hahahaha!"
Now free from the grip of the creature, he launched himself at it again. From the outside, he looked like a streak of raw, violent intent. His speed had increased, and somehow worked inside the Shadowverse; he was almost moving between the heartbeats of the realm.
He struck the apex predator with a headbutt that carried the kinetic force of a meteor impact. The shockwave sent ripples through the Shadowverse, momentarily illuminating the horrors within… hundreds of thousands of eyes, all staring at the boy who was becoming a monster.
Then, the Great Beast reacted. It literally unfolded.
It ceased being a monster and became a sinkhole. The sheer weight of its existence collapsed inward, drawing Mark into the epicentre of its being like a black hole inside the Shadowverse. He tried to fly back, his body pushing against the vacuum, but there was nothing to push against. The "Essence" he had relied on was being muffled, smothered by an ancient, primordial weight. One that was unlike anything that the Shadowverse could produce.
A final, crushing force impacted his skull.
*BOOM*
Mark lost consciousness. The heat of his battlelust, the fire of his Viltrumite blood, the very concept of Mark Grayson, all began to cool.
He was falling. Not through the Shadowverse anymore, but through something deeper. Something older that fully encompassed the Shadowverse, making it look like a tiny speck of dust in comparison. The monsters of the shadow-realm retreated, whimpering into the corners of their dim reality. They were afraid of where Mark was going involuntarily, which was his luck.
It wasn't clear how long he floated, but eventually, after an unknown amount of time, he reached the True Darkness.
.
.
In an entirely different multiverse, a world-shattering event called the Crisis on Infinite Earths had taken place. A cult known as the Brujeria were stupid enough to awaken a force they had no idea of and couldn't hope to control.
The Great Darkness.
The Great Darkness is the true source and the embodiment of all darkness in the Multiverse. It is a primordial entity that existed since the birth of the Omniverse alongside The Source/The Presence, and retreated into inactivity for unknown ages after light was created.
The Darkness has taken numerous forms throughout history and has many aspects. And now, it has gained consciousness.
Fearing what this Great Darkness might do, several heroes were ready to fight it. But it didn't go as they had planned.
The first one was the Demon Etrigan, who entered the darkness, expecting a fight. But what he got was something else.
He floated in the vastness and endless darkness, unable to see or feel anything. All he could do was hear the strange, deep voice of the Great Darkness as it addressed the intruder.
'Little thing?'
…
'Little thing, you are in me… and I have a very great need.'
…
'Before light, I was. Endless, without name or need of name. Then light came.'
…
'Witnessing its otherness, I suffered my first knowledge of self, and all contentment fled.'
…
'Tell me, little thing. Tell me what I am.'
Etrigan answered.
"Your name… your name is Evil, absence of God's light, his shadow partner, locking in an endless fight."
…
'The fight is to be endless, then ahh.'
'Ahh. Little thing, you have taught me fatalism. You have taught me inevitability. They are not the things I needed… You are not the thing I needed.'
Etrigan was ejected from the darkness and landed outside the massive dome. He felt as though he had been chewed and spit out, left for dead.
Those who observed didn't understand what happened, but the next one to enter was Dr Fate, the Lord of Order.