CORE

"It seems as though we aren't the only living beings here," Justice stated, his eyes scouring down at the glitching buildings whose colors and rotation were inverted.

"How can you be so sure? What if this is merely a natural change in its environment?" Hero asked as he turned his head to Justice.

"Not in 1,000 years have I seen something like this not done by a magic user, that's my argument," Justice replied as he shrugged his arms before crossing them.

"But still... Magic of this caliber and type, it's not natural, right?" Hero questioned as his eyelids narrowed down.

"Precisely... And nor is it that of the Guardian of this Area," Justice uttered, surprising Hero as he took a step forward before facing Justice once again.

"What do you mean it is not of the Guardian of this Area? Are you saying someone eradicated them and took hold of this realm?" Hero spoke in an ever so slightly panicked yet composed tone.

"No, It's impossible for a Guardian to lose to any 'Civilian' within their own Areas, unless they were intentionally empowered," Justice responded as he took a deep breath.

"...Inborn Magic primarily fits that of the user's character and personality, I don't know the specifics of the Area 3 Guardian's Inborn Magic but it was not at all something like this,"

"For your Inborn Magic to change, one would have to go through an unnatural, drastic, and in fact, almost impossible change in personality, completely without intention,"

"So in other words..." stated Hero as his face turned serious.

"He's become what truly is a Rogue Guardian, and not for the same reason why I'm one myself, I take it that you know why," Justice followed up.

"And I suppose for maximum safety we will have to kill this 'Guardian' as well?" Hero said, his eyes peering over to Justice as they fully made eye contact.

"Certainly, but the question is... Could we?" Justice replied as he made a thinking gesture.

"Wait... Now that I think about it, none of the other locations were glitched out, so just what is that supposed to mean?" Hero said, his eyes widening as he may have gotten a hold of the situation, and from the look on Justice's face, it seemed like they were thinking of the same conclusion.

At that moment, something, or rather, someone suddenly grabbed both of their shoulders on the opposite side, both of them were equally startled as they quickly turned around, activating their magical aura while they did so.

"Why rise yet fall?" The Entity questioned in a distorted tone as its maniacal, almost unnatural grin grew wider to the point it reached the middle of its white and purple flickering eyes.

Hero and Justice, almost instinctually, tried to send a burst of magic to propel The Entity away, however, they were cut short as they were overpowered by a near-endless wave of magic, pushing them down like gravity and yet pulling them up simultaneously as their magical aura dissipated, and soon, everything started to glitch around them.

And eventually, both for Justice and Hero, everything turned pitch black, without a hint of sound...

It was dark once more.

There he stood in the void.

But before he could ponder once more.

Suddenly, everything flashed a bright white light...

Hero jolted to life, standing back up as he breathed deeply, closing his eyes before opening them after he had calmed down.

He took this moment to take in his surroundings, he had been transported to places before, and this should be no big deal.

But the first he noticed was that he was in a large, almost endless castle, in fact, with the swinging and glowing chandeliers, the marble wallpaper, and the clean, glass-like floor, finished with a long red carpet walkway, it was quite beautiful in all honesty.

However, what Hero noticed next, was that Justice was no longer with him, and even when he tried to sense and pinpoint his magic, it was pointless in the end, as he could not feel his magic aura.

"...Where am I?" Hero questioned himself as he took a step forward, still taking in the new location.

However, after sensing that there was supposedly nothing wrong, he began to walk along the hallway, viewing pieces of art, that were rather strange to him, no, they seemed familiar almost, but Hero shrugged it off as nothing more than that eerie feeling he would usually get in unknown places.

"Something isn't right about this place... Damn it, Justice, where are you?" Hero thought, expressing his concern as he turned around, that dreadful feeling slowly overcoming him as he narrowed his eyes while he activated his magical aura, preparing for something he did not even know would be coming or not.

"Nothing..?" Hero then turned back around to continue his voyage, surely the exit out of this place would have to be at the end of it, but much to his surprise when he turned to look, he noticed the hallway was now exceptionally longer, more than tenfold.

"...I won't fall for these tricks," Hero thought, slightly irritated as he spread across his arms, summoning two beams of magic that utterly obliterated the walls he was between.

But as they were reduced to rubble, everything suddenly glitched, Hero's eyes widened in surprise as the walls he had destroyed, and the magic he had used, had suddenly disappeared.

Hero's eyes narrowed once more, as he may have just gotten an idea of what was happening, and it was merely a hunch but, it seemed like had no other choice but to traverse these halls, as supposedly, he could not do much to damage the surrounding area.

And so, Hero engulfed his feet in magic, as it burst and exploded behind him, causing him to be propelled at exhilarating speeds, and thankfully, since it was his own magic, it did not deal any bit of damage to Hero.

"Time is inconsistent for me, I may not know how much time has passed in the real world but regardless, I need to escape," Hero said as he began to speed up, the infinitely growing hallway attempting to keep up with his pace.

Hero continued to triple up his speed by increasing the magic output in his legs, eventually, he was able to reach speeds faster than the hallway could grow, breaking through its virtual barriers as it and everything else shattered into glitchy shards, revealing the dimension's true form to be an endlessly spinning vortex void of white and black.

"What a hassle..." Hero thought, he instantaneously sent out a large explosion of magic from his body, in an attempt to damage anything within the void, it was just an assumption but he could sense something was watching him secretly.

But much to his surprise, nothing had happened, at that moment he began to wonder just how he was able to get out of this ever-so-familiar void.

However, as he pondered, a hand clutched onto his neck behind, covering it whole, which shocked Hero for an instant, causing him to sweat as he quickly sent a magic blast from his back to defend himself.

"...Is it him? That scientist? No... He's dead, he can't be back-!" Hero thought, concerned as his eyes widened.

He then took a sharp turn and breath, turning around to see who he had hit, but was bewildered to view that there The Entity stood, slouched and yet slender as it had a large hole through its chest, where Hero had shot out the blast of magic.

"Are you yourself?" The Entity questioned, its grin stretching up to its white and purple eyes once more.

"What do you mean by that?" Hero said, before sending a front kick to The Entity's face with magic imbued within it, but the moment the attack landed, The Entity suddenly glitched, letting out an ear-piercing screech which caused Hero to fall back and cover his ears as one of his eyes twitched.

But while the screech was active, he was suddenly punched in the stomach by The Entity, sending him flying further into the void as the screaming eventually stopped, putting him at ease and allowing him to focus as he landed safely at the last second.

"You're no hero... Only a fuss," The Entity uttered as it laughed, which struck a nerve in Hero for a moment before he quickly composed himself and he took a sharp breath.

"...I never said I was one, and the bold truth is that nor did I want to be one, it was merely a pre-destined fate set on my shoulders to carry, but then I saw enough of this world and what it offered, and now I know that someone has to rid it of its impurities," Hero spoke back in a serious tone as he clenched his fists, his magical aura exponentially increasing.

"And that someone will be me," Hero said as he suddenly felt his magical properties change and morph into something else, a drastic change so to speak.

"You can't do anything now," The Entity spoke loudly as it raised its hand, sending out a beam of flickering purple and white magic that glitched per second as it rushed at Hero violently.

"Then I am nothing and that, I am not," Hero said as he stood still, looking down at the ground and closing his eyes, his magic aura taking hold as suddenly, seconds before the blast of glitchy magic hit him...

White-colored Ice emerged from Hero's legs, forming a wall in front of him that blocked The Entity's attack the wall then shattered shortly after as The Entity was in disbelief at what it had just witnessed.

"...You know, I've been wondering what my Inborn Magic was ever since I found out about it, I suppose it was laying dormant for a while," Hero said, a small smirk growing on his face as he raised his hand, taking a step forward.

"But what perfect timing it awakened in," Hero suddenly dashed towards The Entity, surprising it for a moment until it regained its focus, as the ground beneath Hero started to glitch rapidly.

Sensing that something was wrong with the ground, he quickly jumped upward, making a pillar of ice propel him as he noticed the stem from which the pillar erupted was starting to glitch out.

"It's magical aura... It's growing exponentially," Hero said, taking note of The Entity's growth which was almost instantaneous, and it looked an awful lot like his own magical pool, but regardless, he needed to think of a plan to success.

But as Hero thought of a strategy, he suddenly noticed that the void had started to distort, growing multiple glitchy limb-like tentacles from impossible areas as they all rushed down upon him.

Using what little time he had, Hero jumped off the ice pillar, noticing it had been completely overrun by the glitch as the tentacles took a sharp turn and continued to chase down Hero who hopped across the air by propelling small portions of Ice from his feet at high speeds.

"Just how am I gonna get out of this situation?" Hero thought as he continued to scan his surroundings, but then he looked down on The Entity, who watched with amusement.

"...Of course," Hero said, taking a deep breath as he got an idea of how to escape.

Using his newfound Ice powers, he propelled himself to the ground, landing on the glitchy floor right in front of The Entity, but to prevent himself from getting glitched he summoned multiple layers of ice beneath his feet.

The Entity was not quick to catch on this and was rather confused actually, but it grew enraged as its body pixelated and glitched further before sending out multiple thin spikes at Hero rapidly as their size constantly shifted between large and small.

"Bad move," Hero uttered as he summoned a curving ice path next to him, he then slid across it, swiftly making it past The Entity in a heartbeat before shooting a blast of regular magic at its back, severing a hole through its body.

Upon seeing that they could be damaged, Hero quickly took this opportunity and shot out many more blasts of magic, slowly but completely destroying The Entity's body bit by until eventually, there was nothing left of it.

But suddenly The Entity regenerated, rushing towards Hero fiercely, but it fell to his might as Hero suddenly and quickly sent a blow to its frontal lobe, covering his hands in a hardened magical aura so as to not let them be damaged.

Hero followed this up by grabbing its right arm and pulling it closer to him, punching it in the ribcage while his fist was infused with ice magic, which froze The Entity's torso as Hero then sent an elbow strike, shattering a large portion of its torso.

As it yelped in pain, Hero continued to deal a ludicrous amount of blows to its head and stomach, slowly but surely chipping more off its body with his ice magic.

But it only kept regenerating, however, this was not a problem to Hero, as the entire purpose of chipping it down was to drain its magic.

The Entity attempted to escape to regain the magic it had lost, but Hero only stopped its way by summoning an ice wall behind it as it tried to dash back, falling right into Hero's trap as he then kicked it straight into the ice wall, shattering it as the bits of ice reformed and fused together, forming an ice cage across and inside The Entity's body.

"What a bad position you are in," Hero remarked, taking a deep breath before sending a powerful magic-imbued kick to The Entity while it was still trapped in its cold prison, shattering its body completely into bits as it could no longer regenerate due to the lack of magic and anything to come back from.

After the battle concluded, Hero dropped down to his knees, taking deep profuse breaths as he recognized that the battle was finally over, he could now rest.

Shortly after, the void became completely white, it was without the darkness and glitchiness as The Entity faded away into obscurity.

"I have to thank you, without you putting me in that situation I would have awakened this much later," Hero said as everything flashed before him, and he felt his body shift to another realm as he closed his eyes, patiently waiting.

The Entity had been killed.

At least in that dimension.