DC: DON'T UTTER A WORD - CHAPTER 152 (Patreon)

[David Lance POV]

He charged at me again, a feral grin on his face. I side-stepped his charge and then grabbed him by the horns, using all my strength to lift him off his feet and slam him into the ground. The impact sent shockwaves through the ground, but Trigon quickly got back up, unphased by the attack.

I knew none of this mattered.

It was a dream.

A mental battle.

One that would not end until I found a way out, and if my suspicions were right, that way out was linked to whatever knowledge I had forgotten. Like why Trigon was after me, to begin with, all I remembered was going bowling with Dinah, and that's it.

Nothing more than that.

But I remembered enough to know I was missing some key components.

I needed to remember.

The question was how.

Nothing, when it came to the wonders of the mind, was ever easy.

But nothing was impossible to solve; remember what Batman taught you, analyze the situation, find a persistent value, break that constant down to understandable parameters, and see the truth as it is.

I was missing some memories, which was easy to conclude, thanks to the big gaping hole in my thoughts and knowledge about my current situation.

Two, I was fighting a mental representation of Trigon. Who appeared to be quite adamant about keeping me trapped in this nightmare.

Three, seeing as I was in a dream, it meant reality, and the laws that governed didn't necessarily apply here unless one of us wanted that. In short, it was all a game of illusions of who had the strongest mind and the best playing field.

I had the best playing field, seeing it was my mind we were trapped in. However, I doubted I had the strongest mind of the two; Trigon was older than I could imagine, the celestial conqueror, the embodiment of true demonic power, a being that was far beyond time, so it was safe to assume his long life had honed an indomitable mind.

"You won't be able to defeat me, no matter how many times you try. You always snap back at the same time, but you always lose in the end. Do you have any idea how many times we have done this already?" Trigon growled with a hungry smile as he charged at me again.

Once again, I sidestepped his charge and then quickly turned around, delivering a powerful kick to his chest that sent him flying backward.

How many times have we done this?

He was either trying to make me lose focus, or his words were true; I was stuck in a loop with him within my mind, one where my nightmare would restart at a certain point once the conditions for such rest were met, wiping my memories of the last run, creating an endless cycle.

If that was the case, there was only one logical conclusion. In each run, I would try the same approach, resulting in the same results.

To avoid that, I had to do something out of the ordinary. But what?

I had no guarantee I hadn't thought of this before already. After all, if this was a loop, it was safe to assume I had come to this conclusion more than once; that was if Trigon had opened his mouth more than once.

Loops were complicated, especially if you didn't retain any information after each run.

But there was a chance, albeit a small one, that I could break out if I did something out of the blue, something that even I didn't expect, something so out of my character that even Trigon will be caught off guard.

It was a long shot, but it was all I had.

The question now was, what could I do that would be so out of character for me?

Based on Trigon's words so far, if they were to be trusted, we have already fought multiple times through the loops, meaning our clashes with a constant variable in each run, regardless of how each run started.

I doubted giving up would break the loop, so seeing that wasn't an option I was willing to take, it left one path, avoiding the conflict.

But how?

I was in a dream, a lucid one, which meant I should have control over the dreamscape. However, I didn't seem to have much control over it; the scene was the same, a dark forest, the stage Trigon had set for my nightmare, which meant that so far, he had more control over the dream than I did.

This was, however, my mind, so if I could find a way to change the scene, to take us out of the dark forest, it was possible that Trigon's grip on the dream would loosen, allowing me to gain some control over the loops.

The problem was finding a way to do that.

Taking a deep breath, I tried thinking of a different place, a happy memory, anything that would take us out of this dark forest, but every time I tried, nothing changed. I simply remained in the same place, clashing with Trigon in what seemed to be a stalemate.

It was almost as if this forest was part of my subconscious mind.

I guess it was time to change my approach. If I can't will us out of the forest, it was time to move us out of this stage physically.

"So we are stuck in a loop, kind of sad, considering you're a celestial being, and I'm just a mortal," I taunted him, looking down at him with a smirk. "Having trouble breaking my will?"

There was a reason I was taunting him. To make sure he would follow me without hesitation.

Trigon let out a low growl as he pushed himself off the ground, his eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. "You're stalling," he accused me.

"Am I?" I replied with an innocent smile. "You're the one that hasn't been able to land a single hit so far. I mean, sure, this is a mental battle, but still, I kind of pity you."

"You will regret those words," Trigon snarled, launching himself at me.

Good, that didn't seem like the response of someone that has already seen that interaction through a loop, he was either a very good actor, or I was making a new path.

Either way, I had a good feeling about this development.