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Arthur hovered above the city of Nyx, violet light reflecting off his eyes as the Shadow Lantern Central Power Battery pulsed beneath him.
For a long moment, he simply watched it.
Then he spoke.
"It's time," Arthur said quietly. "I'll summon the Lanterns the rings have chosen."
At once, the air responded.
Arthur lifted one hand and closed it slowly into a fist.
Across Nyx, shadows peeled away from towers, and streets. Entire legions dissolved into wisps of darkness, returning to him in streams. Generals vanished mid-command. Soldiers bowed as they faded. Only the Marshals remained, Bellion, Beru, Igris, H'El , Zeus, Doom and the others standing in a loose semicircle behind their Monarch.
Beru sniffed loudly. "Does this mean visitors are coming?"
Galatea sighed. "Try not to embarrass us, ant."
Arthur ignored them.
Below him, the Central Power Battery responded.
Its glow intensified, violet deepening into a darker glow, then a column of shadow-light erupted upward, tearing through the sky like a beacon, punching past the clouds and vanishing into the void beyond Qward.
At the same time, Arthur's Shadow Ring flickered.
Not malfunctioning, it was broadcasting a call.
[You are being called back to Nyx]
Across the universe, the call was answered.
Somewhere in deep space, a battered cruiser drifted lifelessly, hull torn open, fires long extinguished.
Inside, a lone figure floated in vacuum.
Violet light flared on his hand.
The Shadow Ring tightened.
[Summons received.]
"What?" His breath hitched as space itself folded. "I just had a fight... No wait!"
A portal of living shadow opened in front of him, swallowing vacuum, wreckage, and everything with it.
The last thing he felt before vanishing was gravity returning.
On a war-torn world, A woman stood knee-deep in ash, in front of her lay dead beastly creatures, and behind her the people she just protected.
The ring on her finger pulsed violently.
[Transport initiated.]
Her eyes widened. "huh?!"
Shadow tore open reality.
She looked back once at the people she protected, then whispered, "I'll be back."
Across worlds, and galaxies.
Shadow Lanterns were called by force.
Some shouted, some laughed, some simply closed their eyes and let it happen.
Each ring acted on its own.
****
The sky above Nyx fractured.
Portals bloomed in the sky and the ground, dozens, then hundreds opening in layered spirals. Figures poured through, all in Shadow Lantern uniforms, confusion was all written in their faces.
One by one, they arrived.
A Thanagarian shadow-lantern staggered forward, wings half-spread, eyes scanning for threats that weren't there. A Daxamite landed hard on one knee, instinctively bracing for gravity that felt heavier than it should. A woman of living mist solidified mid-step, violet light leaking from the seams of her form. A human, aliens, each pulled from their lives, their battles, their doubts, and deposited into the heart of Nyx.
They landed across the great plaza surrounding the Central Power Battery, some stumbling, some standing tall, all staring in stunned silence.
Violet light washed over them.
Arthur hovered above, cloak of shadow billowing slowly.
His Marshals hovered behind him, unmoving.
The Lanterns looked up.
And for the first time, they saw him.
Arthur's voice carried, calm and absolute.
"Welcome," he said, eyes glowing as the city of Nyx watched with them, "to your new home."
The Shadow Rings pulsed in unison.
Murmurs rippled through the gathering.
"Where… where are we?"
"My ring... I didn't command it."
"This place... it looks like Oa from the legends. Just.. instead of green it's... Darker."
"What kind of power does this take?"
They felt it before they truly saw him.
Arthur hovered unmoving. His presence was overwhelming, shadows subtly leaning in his direction as if acknowledging their master.
The lanterns' voices dropped, one by one.
"Is that… him?"
"No, that can't be just a commander."
"My ring suddenly feels… small."
"Who is he?"
Arthur landed on the ground and stepped forward, boots echoing once, only once, and the sound carried across the entire plaza. The shadows shifted with him.
"You feel it," he said, voice calm, even yet it rolled through them all. "The pull of power. The weight of it. The responsibility."
His gaze swept across them, measuring all of them, like a king surveying the first banners of a rising empire.
"Do not mistake this feeling for fear," Arthur continued. "There is no concept of fear here."
Some of them straightened without realizing it. Others clenched their fists, rings pulsing faintly.
"You were chosen," he said. "Not at random. Not out of convenience. Each of you was weighed, your resolve, your restraint, your willingness to walk where others turn away."
He raised a hand slightly, palm open, and the shadows beneath the lanterns' feet rippled forming faint images. Life battles they had fought. Moments where they could have given in… and didn't.
"You are no less than any Green Lantern," Arthur said, his tone sharpening. "You will protect sectors. You will stand against cosmic threats. You will be the wall between the innocent and annihilation."
"But do not misunderstand me," he went on. "Your power is greater. Shadow answers to conviction, not hope or will alone. It does not burn bright and fade, it endures for eternity."
His eyes locked with theirs.
"And that is why arrogance will destroy you faster than any enemy."
A ripple of understanding passed through the crowd.
Among them, a human girl, no older than twenty stood frozen, eyes wide. Her ring trembled on her finger, reacting more strongly than the others. Arthur noticed her, just briefly, and something like warmth touched his expression.
"Not really unexpected," he murmured to himself. "But… it's nice to see an earthling among them."
He raised his shadow ring.
It flared violet and black, their glow intertwining.
Every ring in the plaza answered.
Light surged through them, knowledge flooded in histories, laws, maps of space carved into sectors, protocols, threats cataloged across the universe. And beneath it all.
Him.
They saw it then.
Arthur, not as a figure standing before them, but as the origin. The first shadow ring. The moment of creation.
Founder. Their Commander. The Shadow Monarch.
Their eyes ignited as one, violet flames burning with understanding.
Arthur lowered his hand.
"I've uploaded everything you need," he said simply. "Your assignments. Your sectors. What you will face, and what you must never become."
He turned slightly, gesturing toward the city around them.
"Nyx is our base of operations. Our refuge. Our forge." His voice rose now, carrying power that made even the Battery thrum in response. "We are few, one thousand lanterns standing against a universe that hides its worst monsters in the dark."
"But numbers have never decided who shapes history."
He looked at them, truly looked.
"Soon, we will rival the greatest Corps. And when tyrants whisper in the void and the darkest corners of this universe, when horrors believe themselves unseen.."
His ring flared again.
"They will remember that we exist."
The lanterns raised their ringed hands as one, beams of violet-shadow light tearing into the sky above Nyx, converging into a single blazing beacon.
Their voices thundered together, unified by belief.
"All hail the Shadow Corps!" "Long Live the Corps!"
The plaza of Nyx slowly settled into a reverent hush.
The lanterns had dispersed toward their assigned halls, their voices fading into the vast architecture of the city. Arthur remained where he was, speaking quietly with his Marshals, and some of the lanterns.
That was when she gathered the courage to step forward.
The floor reflected her faintly, small, human, wrapped in a lantern's glow that still felt unreal against her skin. Her ring pulsed in time with her heartbeat.
The Marshals noticed immediately.
Beru's head turned first, glowing eyes narrowing, not hostile, but assessing. Zeus shifted his stance, lightning-like shadows rippling faintly. The others didn't move at all, which somehow made it worse.
She froze halfway.
Her shoulders stiffened. Her gaze dropped. For a moment, it looked like she might retreat.
Arthur noticed.
He lifted a hand slightly, a command, and the Marshals walked away, their attention turning elsewhere. The pressure in the air lessened, just enough for her to breathe again.
She took another step. Then another.
When she finally stood a few paces from him, her hands were clasped tightly in front of her, knuckles pale. She couldn't bring herself to look up.
Her voice came out small, careful, threaded with awe and fear.
"C-Commander…"
The word alone felt heavy on her tongue.
Arthur turned fully toward her. His expression softened, it wasn't amused, it was simply kind. A smile touched his lips, subtle and genuine, and it changed the air around him more effectively than any word could have.
"Of course," he said gently. "Ask away."
She swallowed.
For a moment, she said nothing. The question sat in her chest like a fragile thing, one wrong breath away from shattering. She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again still not daring to meet his gaze.
"Are you…" Her voice wavered. She stopped, inhaled, then forced the words out, barely louder than a whisper. "Are you… perchance from Earth?"
Arthur didn't answer right away.
He tilted his head slightly, studying her, not as a Monarch weighing a subject, but as someone recognizing a familiar thread in another soul.
A corner of his mouth lifted.
"I wonder," he replied.
The answer wasn't dismissal. Nor was it confirmation.
Her breath caught. For the first time, she dared to look up, just briefly and in that fleeting glance, she saw it. Not the Monarch. Not the Founder of the Corps.
But something achingly familiar.
Arthur held her gaze for that single moment longer, then looked away, giving her an out she hadn't known she needed.
"Let's just say.." he added calmly directly inside her mind. "You'll find that you're not as far from home as you might think."
/-\
If you Like this story! Check out my other stories! Solo leveling in Westeros.
&
If you wish to read more or simply support me than check out my patreon at
"https://www.patreon.com/FrenzyAren"
You can Get Access to 3 More Chapters OR 7 More Chapters if you want