CORE

It was a black void yet again.

But this time he could no longer wait.

He needed to get back, now.

But as he was there, he heard a voice.

"Three steps closer," It uttered in a deep, monotone voice...

Hero woke up, finding himself back on the Rift Platform he and Justice had awoken at after they had arrived in Area 3.

"My head stings..." Hero said, grabbing his head in an attempt to massage it.

"Was that some mirage? Or was it real?" Hero questioned before looking down at his hand, mustering up the little magic he had at the moment, he created a ball of ice, which he then sighed, either out of relief or surprise as he laid back down on the ground.

"I wish to help you Justice, but right now I'm too low on gas..." Hero spoke as he closed his eyes, as he wanted to rest for just a short while.

"I trust you can fend for yourself, just for a moment..."

But elsewhere, within another dimension separate yet connected to Area 3...

Justice lay there, on the purple, flat ground as the time passed, he had been like that for nearly a minute now.

But suddenly, he sprung to life getting up quickly as his first instinct was to take in his surroundings, he very well remembered what had happened to him and Hero prior, and he would not allow it to happen again.

However, where he was in was far from Justice expected, and with a slightly mortified look on his face, his eyes completely wide, he found himself back at Area 0, his original chamber.

"...Why am I back here?" Justice spoke in a strained tone as his eye twitched out of pure annoyance, but he knew well it would grow to something worse.

As Justice stood there, drinking it all in, fueling his ever-increasing frustration, he was not aware that something was sneaking up behind him, it opened its hand widely as it approached Justice from behind, seeking to grab his neck and glitch him to oblivion, he had not noticed yet, and it seemed like this was a perfect trap...

However, just as The Entity was to grab Justice, they were suddenly stopped as a small beam of light came out of Justice's fingers, suddenly redirecting off the platform and the sky as it then struck the shoulder of The Entity who attempted to avoid the attack but failed, causing it to screech in pain as it jumped back, it's body glitching further in panic.

"It was you... Wasn't it?" Justice said in a serious tone as he turned around to look at The Entity as he took a step forward, they stared back at Justice sharing a mutual feeling of bitterness.

"You brought me back here, didn't you?" Justice took another step forward, staring with vexation as his magical aura exponentially increased almost immediately, in response, The Entity activated its own magical aura, which passively started to corrupt and glitch the ground underneath as long as it was in the proximity.

"No... This isn't Area 0, I'd know that better than anyone... You made this a mere copy, just to infuriate me..."

"And I can bet... You did this to Hero too, did you not?" Justice shot out another beam of light from his fingertip, but The Entity had adapted, and so it quickly avoided the attack, corrupting the beam of light and forcing it to redirect back at Justice.

"Unforgivable," Justice said in a clearly more frustrated tone as he hardened his magical aura, stopping the corrupted beam of light and overpowering it with his own magic, causing it to dissipate instantly.

"I may not know how truly powerful you are, but all I know is that you aren't the real one," Justice spoke, suddenly blitzing past The Entity, standing behind it quietly as it looked around in confusion as to it, Justice had suddenly disappeared, it had not even blinked too.

But as Justice stood there, he began to notice The Entity's magic pool had grown to become oddly similar to his in size, but this was no problem.

"So that's your game, huh? Regardless... Magic doesn't mean anything if you don't even use them properly," Justice said as he suddenly grabbed The Entity by the neck while coating his hand in incredibly hardened magic so as to not be infected by the glitch, The Entity, almost instantly took note of this and attempted to attack, however, Justice's grip only tightened, disabling it from doing so.

Justice lifted The Entity up, choking it further before slamming its entire body to the ground, creating a large crater on the platform of 'Area 0'.

The Entity panicked further, its body glitched as it suddenly shattered through the defense that was in Justice's hand, corrupting it immediately as he took note of this, flying back to a safe distance to avoid further corruption, as he viewed The Entity getting back up as it slowly glitched out more of the floor beneath.

"Ah, I hate doing this," Justice thought, examining his hand as he suddenly cut it off entirely using his other hand to avoid any possible dangers, and in one fell swoop, his hand quickly regrew with the use of his magic mixed in with his magical-based body, but regeneration was not as easy as one would think, nearly a quarter of Justice's magical pool had vanished, forcing it to reconstruct in due time.

"I'll personally distinguish you myself," Justice said, sighing while his acceleration increased as he immediately rushed toward The Entity, who let out an intimidating scream as hundreds of large, glitchy tentacles erupted from the platform as they collectively charged at Justice with great velocity and power.

Justice quickly spun around at high speeds, and as the hundreds of tentacles approached, millions of light pellets erupted from Justice's body as he spun, increasing the kinetic energy of the pellets as they pulverized most of each tentacle.

Almost instantly, he stopped spinning, facing toward The Entity, he charged towards it at full speed, hardening his magical aura as he forced himself and The Entity off the main platform of 'Area 0' while its trail corrupted most of the platform.

As it and Justice fell to the purple void, Justice raised his fist in the air, before punching The Entity with it at light speed, following up with another punch to its jaw he then kicked it away before catching up to it instantaneously as he delivered a barrage of punches, ending it with a spinning kick to it's ribcage.

Infuriated, The Entity glitched everything in a 20-meter radius as a counterattack, but as expected Justice formed a hardened shield of magic around his body, almost entirely negating the effects of the Glitched Zone, for now at least.

While within this Glitched Zone, The Entity summoned multiple beams of what seemed to be dark magic at Justice, who only stood there, taking in what The Entity had done.

"...Only one man could ever be able to reach my speed," Justice spoke, grinning as he quickly slid to the right, careening away from the beams of magic he then spun rapidly while raising his leg, traveling to The Entity he sent a devastating spinning kick to it's neck, sending it flying and as an effect of this, shattered the Glitched Zone.

"So don't try and imitate him!" Justice shouted as The Entity recovered, letting out a magic-imbued screech which was to hurt the ears of all that could hear.

Taking note of this, Justice vibrated his body at light speed, practically the soundwaves passed through him thoroughly, and while The Entity had not noticed it yet, Justice flew and rammed through their torso with both of his legs.

But this was merely a trap, as The Entity activated an Enhanced Glitched Zone, breaking through the hardened magical aura and corrupting Justice's leg as it slowly covered his entire lower half.

"...Desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose," Justice said as he swiftly cut off his entire lower half by separating the magic in his lower body and upper body, flying back as he then regenerated it almost instantly, but yet another quarter of his magic pool had been devoured.

Justice raised his hand, as his previous lower half suddenly exploded in front of The Entity's face in a burst of light.

His body then dispersed into light, reforming behind The Entity who turned around in response, and in one fell swoop, they both activated their magical auras, clashing with one another as they were practically playing tug-of-war for control.

Their magical auras were actually starting to form another zone around them in a dome-like shape, but on Justice's side, it was made of pure light, while The Entity's side was purely darkness and glitches.

A result of a prolonged clash with one's Magical Auras, due to magic spilling out unevenly and without command, it ends up reflecting and starts to form a dome-like barrier around the area of the clash, this dome in turn grants the user more control over the area as it is covered in their magic.

"...He can create Magical Domes manually, so why keep up a clash this long?" Justice said as he began to ever so slightly strain, but still kept up with The Entity, who, due to its unearthly biology, seemed to have a near endless disposal of physical stamina on its side.

"...It's trying to absorb my magic," Justice said as he slightly lowered his magical output, allowing for The Entity to overpower him in the magic aura clash just for a moment.

But as it grew arrogant, Justice sprung up his magical aura to the maximum, quickly overpowering The Entity's aura before it could adapt as the dome around them turned completely yellow.

"Quite the gamble, don't you think?" Justice said as he suddenly punched The Entity outside the magical dome, sending them flying up all the way back to the platform of 'Area 0'.

"I'll be taking this as compensation," Justice then absorbed the magical dome, which had some hints of The Entity's magic within, boosting his power by a fair amount as he flew up to catch up to The Entity.

"I would throw you to a celestial body if I could," Justice said, suddenly appearing in front of The Entity, who looked surprised as it then attempted to strike Justice with a blast of magic, only to fail as they were suddenly kicked up from behind.

But that was not all Justice had to offer, he suddenly reappeared in front of The Entity striking them once more before flying away and traveling back, delivering a clean hit.

Justice continued to repeat this process, increasing his speed as he did so as to The Entity, he was continuously being hit by something that was practically invisible to him.

The Entity attempted to summon an Enhanced Glitched Zone, but it was futile as Justice's growth in speed outpaced that of his activation, rendering him useless at that moment.

But soon that would all end as Justice suddenly flew up high in the air, taking a deep breath as he stared down The Entity, who attempted to chase him down once more but they were stopped as Justice sent out multiple spears of light to pin them to the platform of Area 0.

"Those who dare try and take advantage of what I feared..." Justice spoke, calmly making a hand sign with his right hand as he viewed the entirety of Area 0 before sighing, his eyes narrowing down at The Entity.

"Receive such fear a thousand times over,"

"Magic Ultimatum: Charge Of the Light Brigade," Justice uttered, then raising his hand in the air as he felt almost the entirety of his magic drain in an instant, using it to form something... Extraordinary.

A celestial body known to many, one that illuminates itself and others along its wake, with such immense power from its raging core, a symbol of both hope and destruction... A Star.

While it was merely the size of a red dwarf, it was more than enough to take out The Entity as he threw it at the malware being, who was then completely engulfed in it along with the platform of Area 0.

In a last-ditch effort, the entity attempted to corrupt the star, but to no avail as the magic output was far too much for it to handle it then exploded, creating a massive shockwave across a fair portion of the entirety of Area 0.

Everything was covered in light before peacefully fading away, what remained were small particles of magic that fell along the imitation of Area 0.

In that moment, feeling a sense of victory, Justice took a deep breath before smirking, he felt as though a heavy burden was lifted right off his shoulders as he looked down at his hand, the same one used to power up the star.

"I guess that does it... I'd do it again if I had to..." Justice said as everything flashed a great white light, as the copy of Area 0 prolapsed within itself while he felt his body transcend and travel to an entirely other dimension.

"Once we're done with the last 2 Areas... We will come for you, Your Majesty,"