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The Weakness
🕑 Added 2022-03-12 13:25:45 +0000 UTC"Now be a dear and tell me what these words mean."
"Trigon???"
"Say what now?"
Her face was that of horror and fear, one that soon turned into anger. Her rage blinded her as she screamed and hissed, "You're one of his Dogs!! I will kill you!!!"
However, try as she might, she couldn't lift her hand for they were destroyed. She was struck, unable to move despite her overwhelming desire to.
Someone once worshiped as a god was in such a state. The answer is quite simple, "You're no God huh... A demon? A devil? Or perhaps a human cursed by Trigon? However..."
A smile surfaced on Ian's face, one that soon turned to laugher, loud laugher of elation, happiness, and excitement.
'I might not be giving myself enough credit, I was smart enough to detect the peculiarity of the scroll... Nah, it was probably just luck.'
He didn't let happiness blind him, and got his usual self back. He then looked at the demon before him and whispered, "You see, I have an interest in the scroll and would appreciate it if you tell me what these words mean,"
Her fury however only got stronger as she trashed around to the best of her ability.
Ian frowned before adding, "By the way, I don't work for Trigon, else I wouldn't be asking you about this, so speak."
However, she got even more worked up as she bellowed, "Lair! You demons are all liars!! Why don't you just die!! I Thoth Khepera am the master of life and death, yet again!! This is happening again!!!"
And then she started trashing even more, in a crazed state as if she has lost her mind.
'So her power or whatever doesn't work on me, understandable. However, just what has Trigon done to her to make just the mere presence of his name drive her mind into insanity? Sounds like a dangerous entity... Yeah, sounds like fun.'
Her power failing to affect him didn't surprise him much, he was counting on that. Her mastery of life and death allowed her to live for thousands of years and harvest the lives of many, just as she sucked the life force of all of those who had entered the tomb before.
He saw no hope of her getting her sanity back. He could see it in her eyes, she was too far gone, so he just gave up, 'I've got enough information to work with.'
Just as he was about to stand up, he noticed something else that became more apparent with her trashing around, an exquisite gold collar necklace. At its midst was a black scarab beetle jewelry that seems to be made of some kind of dark gorgeous mineral.
Like the gentleman he is, he crouched near her again while saying, "Don't mind if I do." Then he took the necklace for himself, driving her even crazier.
Her throat was almost entirely dry as she screeched, "Just Kill Me!!!"
Ian froze in his place for a second, seemingly in contemplation of something, "That's actually a good idea, wouldn't want you coming after me later now, would we? That sounds like fun though... Nah,"
Ian pulled out his dagger and swung at her neck without hesitation. The dagger was Kryptonian, so it wasn't surprising for it to slice her neck like a knife through butter.
It was surprising even to him, it was as if her bones were as frail as flesh. Perhaps her extremely old age had something to do with it.
Ian had to make sure, so he picked up the head after seeing her body has stopped thrashing around. It's after all the Lazarus pit, and perhaps it can heal her.
Just as he was about to throw the head as far as possible, its eyes flared open while letting out a menacing screech.
"Ahhhh, fucking hell!" Ian instantly let go of the head in fright and kicked it away, "Holy Christ! Just die... I almost died in panic!"
He took a few deep breaths to get his cool back. That truly frightened him, so he went ahead and kicked the head a few more times away, ignoring its even madder screams.
"For Trigon's sake, I was only doing what you asked. Can you be any less grateful?"
Ian then ignored her and started looking for an exit. He heard a bunch of steps a while ago running in a certain way, and he knows who they belong to.
He had taken a glance while the confrontation was ongoing, and he saw the Thoth sucking the life out of a middle-aged man. He also saw Batman and Talia trying to save him.
Ian climbed through the rubbles and used a few pieces of equipment he brought with him to no avail for he was faced with a dead end.
Every way was one way or another closed due to the debris of the fallen tomb, leaving Ian in silence, a long silence before he murmured, "I really didn't think this through, did I?"
He brought out his phone only to notice no signal, thus he can't call anyone, specifically Batman since he gave him a number to contact him by.
Whenever a situation such as this or similar happened, Ian always does the same thing. He just sat down, closed his eyes, and started thinking.
He never let panic overwhelm him as it will only hinder his reason. He just thinks and thinks until a solution spurts in his mind.
He stood up, pulled out his gun, and started shooting around randomly. He had a silencer on it, so he made sure to take it away before doing that.
He hoped the sound would be loud enough to alert the Bat. He didn't just fire there, he did it all over the place. His goal was making the sound upward.
He then just started touring the area while contemplating his life decisions.
'I remember my legs getting stuck while climbing Everest, and I had to fend for myself for two days in freezing cold weather.
It was hell and I only survived because of the preparations I did beforehand and the climbers that came my way... At least, it's not cold in here, but it does stink. The stench of the dead.'
He did bring a few handgun magazines with him, so he continued to fire throughout the day. He rested his head on his backpack when he got tired and slept for the night though it was always dark down there.
And that went on for another day, all he had is a small bottle of water he slowly drank across the day.
He wasn't too worried. He believed in his power, surely it won't let him starve or die of thirst down there. Well, it did let him wait another day before he started hearing a loud sound above him.
And it wasn't long before some of the rubbles were pulled by something, clearing an exit for him, "Thank fucking God."
"Are you okay?" The Bat asked, his expression was as usual hidden beneath his mask.
"Nah, I am starving and tired. I just wanna go home." His manner of speech was a bit sloppy, but he was nowhere near as affected as Batman thought he would be.
Ian just ignored all the wreckage and the massive truck or machine outside responsible for saving him and just headed for the car.
"Here," Talia handed him a water bottle, already waiting in the car.
Ian took it and almost emptied clean with how thirsty he was, "Thanks, and I assume you were responsible for clearing the way. You have connections in Egypt to get that thing in such a short span of time?"
Talia smiled and responded, "Something like that. I thought you died when you fell, but you seem to have nine lives, almost like a cat."
"Yeah whatever, I need some sleep." His words made her eyes twitch. She wasn't even sure if he heard or even paid attention to what she said.
