CORE

While within the city was empty, unmoving, foreboding, but worse of all, quiet misery, above The Carnival where the purple sky beamed the brightest...

"To be honest? I thought you could do better," The Jester remarked with a smug tone, sitting down in a casual position as he stared down Justice, who too sat down on the roof in the same position.

The thing was, he was heavily panting, his entire right arm was blown off, along with one of his feet, and there was a massive hole on his shoulder, all of them collectively bled a strange bright substance, while The Jester, on the contrary, only had a few minor scratches and cuts across their body.

"They call you a Jester for a reason," Justice said, smirking as he continued breathing roughly, clearly strained as they did not have enough magic in their pool to regenerate any of their limbs fully.

"I know you, pal, so how about this... You join this Circus, work under me, and I'll let you live," The Jester proposed as he stretched out his hand.

"Is this even a proposal? I have not much of a choice after all, do I?" Justice said, as he stood up, even with all his damages.

"Of course! That's why I ask you now... Because I'm sure you'd want to live at any cost," The Jester grinned widely, their sharp razor teeth sprouting out of their mouth as Justice continued to stare, unfazed.

"Not by any cost," Justice outstretched their hands as they snickered.

"Then it's decided!" The Jester shouted, raising their hand which grew to be 10x larger than both he and Justice, while it was simultaneously being enhanced with rough, edged magic.

"I'll personally be the one holding your execution since the others failed to do it long ago..." The Jester smiled, as Justice only sighed, supposedly accepting his fate.

And so as the wind bent to The Jester's fist as it came crashing down on Justice, the whole Carnival shook, even the barrier that covered it the moment they had crushed Justice to death.

"Hah, all that effort for a few cuts," The Jester remarked in a mocking tone as he cackled.

But at that moment, they started to feel something strange in their enlargened hand.

Not only that, they began to hear powerful, and unbridled sounds of drilling from beneath where his hand rested.

Although they found out much earlier as suddenly, it exploded into bits of guts and blood, and out from the hand came Hero, who drilled out of The Carnival's roof, with the maximum amount of effort, while Justice, who had not been pummeled and instead vibrated his body and phased through The Jester's hand, with the two escaping what could have been death, they exploded The Jester's hand, causing for major damage.

The Jester shrunk back, as did their arm while they were gritting their teeth as they took a good look at the place where their hand should be, before looking up at Hero and Justice.

"Listen, we are both in a bad mood right now so I won't extend this with some monologue," Hero said, wiping off the dust on his clothing as Hero extended his hand out to Justice, who grabbed his arm, not only to pull himself up but to absorb some of Hero's magic to heal one of his injuries, specifically, his disembodied arm.

"Because I have an appointment with the usurper you worship," Hero said, causing Justice to look over to him, raising an eyebrow, surprised that he had the strength to say it, but ah, it was Hero after all, always risking everything for everything, Justice thought.

"Heh, don't try and steal my role, Hero, I'm the snarky one," Justice commented as he stretched his arms, preparing for the third round of the fight.

"I'd do so if I got the opportunity," Hero replied, cracking his knuckles.

"Haha! Two-on-one then, fine, why not!" The Jester outstretched his arms, healing his hand as his body was coated in a powerful purple magic aura sending powerful winds outward upon being activated, this, however, did not move Justice or Hero one bit.

"He uses his Inborn Magic to fight from a distance, that's when he reaches his peak in a fight," Hero spoke as he quickly gave a slight bump to Justice, who nodded almost immediately after, already getting the idea of what Hero was thinking of, as Hero ever so slightly smirked before looking at The Jester, as did Justice, the two taking a step closer while the clown before them dug their claw-like hands into the magical barrier, scraping it vigorously as they took a few steps forward in response.

Hero and Justice swiftly careened to The Jester, although, this would have happened had The Jester not suddenly swung their claws up, sending a wave of three purple slashes that utterly decimated a part of The Carnival's roof and the magical barrier, forcing Hero and Justice to step to the side.

There in that moment, Hero summoned multiple ice mirrors surrounding The Jester, confusing them for a second, however, this was merely a setup for Justice, who flew into one of the mirrors, bouncing from it as he sent a devastating punch to The Jester's face, who was only slightly damaged.

But this did not stop there, Justice bounced off another ice mirror and punched The Jester again before they had any time to react, before landing on yet another one.

Rinse and repeat, Justice performed hundreds, to thousands of blows on The Jester, before stopping and flying out of the zone of ice mirrors, leaving The Jester winded.

"Good job," Hero remarked quietly as he stretched out both of his hands, the ice mirrors growing and linking together, creating a huge ice dome, planning to flash freeze The Jester while they were inside.

But before he could do so, The Jester broke out, with a heinous roar as they grew themselves at least five times taller, before enlengthening their hand and swinging it at Hero, who summoned a hailstorm from beneath his feet to boost himself upward, ultimately avoiding The Jester's powerful attack.

Now that they were as large as a border, Justice reappeared behind them with an afterglow, summoning a large Light Mace while on the other side, riding on that lunar-colored Hailstorm Hero summoned a large, deft hammer of ice.

The two struck closely and simultaneously, aiming to obliterate The Jester's head, for how could they heal if they no longer would have the instinct to activate it? They both thought.

But as things seemed close to victory, The Jester suddenly twisted his body 90 degrees to their front, outstretching both of their hands which then grabbed and effectively blocked Hero and Justice's weapons, leaving massive shockwaves due to the sudden g-forces.

The Jester gripped tightly on their respective weapons, before spinning his waist a full 480 degrees, while elastic and flexible they swung Hero and Justice away and further into the air, piercing through it due to the initial power of the attack, after this, The Jester spun the opposite way, regaining his normal shape and causing a miniature tornado in the process, before greatly extending both of their arms as they chased down both Hero and Justice respectively.

Justice, upon seeing this, combated against The Jester's hand, kicking it away and sending a beam of light through it's hand, piercing a burning hole through it, but this did not stop The Jester however, unexpectedly, one of the fingers of the hand stretched out, and like a needle, pierced through Justice before they could even move, but despite the damage on their chest, he did not falter, as they suddenly dispersed into light and appeared at the halfway point of The Jester's arm, before summoning a sword of light and cutting down on it, severing it into two as the other end fell into the abyss, with this, the arm shrunk back, regenerating as The Jester was frustrated just from the way their arm had waved away.

On Hero's side, they slid on a path of ice, and the trail they left behind turned into a hailstorm as they continuously shot ice shards at The Jester's hand, which to no avail as they were able to swiftly avoid it with minimal effort, but without it noticing, Hero was stacking up a ton of ice shards in the surrounding area, seemingly thinking of a plan.

There Hero shot out another ice shard, and expectedly, The Jester avoided it, although they did not predict the ice shard to bounce off another stationary one, floating in the air waiting for that moment.

The shard of ice shot through a part of The Jester's hand, flying through like a beam of light, freezing the surrounding area into crystals of ice.

It did not stop there, the ice shard continued to bounce off the other ice crystals in the area, leaving a frenzy, cutting up and shattering The Jester's hand into pieces of ice, as they retracted back, regenerating in the process.

Simultaneously, once the small problem was out of the equation, Hero and Justice flew as fast as they could, back to The Jester who had been staying on the top of The Carnival roof, regaining magical energy.

"Don't take me so easy!' The Jester shouted out, grinning, before extending both of their arms up forty meters in the air, twisting them together, tangling them before spinning them the other way, releasing yet another burst of wind and magic, which was that of a tornado.

"You just... Won't quit using that huh?" Justice muttered, putting both of his arms in front of him to block the incoming attack, but not before looking at Hero, and gave a specific look at him, to which Hero nodded back, understanding what message Justice was trying to convey as he jumped off his hailstorm, getting closer into the eye of the storm before using his initial hailstorm, compressing it into a beam of ice magic which flash froze certain parts of the tornado, leaving rocks and debris of ice that fell on The Carnival's roof, significantly weakening the tornado.

Now that the tornado was weaker, Justice hurriedly flew out of the tornado and sent a continuous beam of light at it, piercing and cutting through it with such speed and efficiency its top half was eradicated in milliseconds.

Though, just as Hero and Justice thought yet another problem had been thoroughly dealt with, The Jester suddenly sprung into the air, their legs still connected to the ground, elongated as the lower half of the tornado turned into thin air.

Without a second wasted, Justice and Hero hastily flew over to The Jester, not allowing him to get even a second to unleash an attack, but this was too late however, as The Jester grinned from ear to ear, before spinning their body around while simultaneously releasing a barrage of purple magic pellets from his hands in a circular motion.

And due to the suddenness and speed of the attack, both Hero and Justice were hit, in the shoulders, and the chest.

"Annoying..." Hero muttered as both he and Justice moved down The Jester waved their arms below and above, sending out the magic orbs now in a precise spherical pattern as Justice and Hero were struggling to get to each other due to the barrage of bullets, they needed to form a new strategy, and quickly, as this 'clown' was far more troublesome than they had anticipated.

"Justice!" Hero shouted out as he released an ice whip from his hand, hurling towards Justice.

"Yeah, I already know!" Justice responded with a smirk on his face before grabbing the ice whip and swinging it with such speed it threw Hero over to The Jester.

"Hopefully I've still got it well..." Justice muttered in a slightly unconfident tone before summoning his Core in his hand, quickly raising it in the air and causing a mini-distortion, refining his magic to the utmost limit which was quite taxing. Still, it was clear that his technique was faulty and imperfect. Still, regardless, as a result of this, all the magic orbs in a 20-meter radius momentarily glitched for five-tenths of a second, with this opportunity, Justice swiftly took and absorbed most of the magic orbs out, making up for the cost of magic using the Mini-Distortion had.

"I'm never using that again..." Justice remarked quietly before his eyes darted and narrowed down on Hero, who had safely made his way and was now all up in The Jester's face, ready to attack, supposedly ferociously.

There at that moment, Hero and The Jester were face to face, it looked like the clown planned to defend however due to the position their body was in, it was almost impossible as Hero sent a powerful right hook to their face, imbued with magic, flash freezing their cheek, their limbs returned to their body at normal size as Hero followed up with a kick to the stomach, causing for The Jester to spit out blood as their stomach soon was embedded with ice as well.

Then to finish it all off, Hero jumped off his right leg away from the hailstorm he rode on, spinning in the air and releasing a devastating 360 kick aimed at The Jester's head, knocking them over to Justice who was just as prepared as Hero.

Quickly Justice sent an elbow strike towards The Jester's stomach, the clown's eyes turned white as they were pushed back to Hero, who followed with a spinning hook kick to The Jester's throat, throwing them back to Justice who closed the gap further and sent a light jab to the face before throwing out a powerful knife-hand strike at The Jester's stomach, actually making a small cut as The Jester, yet again flung back to Hero, who narrowed the distance and sent a magic-enhanced chop to The Jester's waist.

Like a Mobius strip, endless and unforgiving, Hero and Justice sent a barrage and flurry of hits to The Jester back to back, slowly closing in on them as they were caught right in the center of their attacks.

Justice struck true with a hammer fist to the head while Hero sent three consecutive kicks to The Jester's cranium, ribcage, and leg as the clown's body was slowly enveloped in ice and blood.

"Ah... How fun," The Jester thought, his grin slowly beaming out amidst the bloody chaos he had gotten himself into.

"Haha, of course, I was never too adept at close combat..." The Jester's eye darted around and about his surroundings as Hero and Justice continued beating him to a pulp, not giving him a chance to breathe.

"Regardless..." The Jester said as he suddenly took a right hook to the face, knocking him back, but using this knockback, he stepped over his foot to the side, making an angle, and giving him eight-tenths of a second to escape Hero and Justice's barrage.

The Jester suddenly twisted his body, so tightly and narrowly to the point it had looked like was almost invisible, his body as thin as a string as he continued to twist.

Justice and Hero were confused for a moment, still attempting to attack, but Justice realized something Hero did not.

"...HERO!" Justice uttered, his eyes shifting towards his ally as he suddenly grabbed him by the collar.

"Huh?" Hero uttered as Justice suddenly flew away as fast as he could from The Carnival's roof.

"Why are you... Wait, is he..?" Hero questioned himself, before looking down at The Carnival, taking a good look at The Jester, still as thin as a spider web, but there that body string irradiated heavy amounts of magical aura, and with how dense and compressed his body was, it was as if he was almost reaching a Singularity...

“Magic Ultimatum: Hawk Beyond The Wind!" The Jester shouted out, their body hastily twisting the other way, along with their magic, and in a micro-instant, large amounts of wind slashes and large hurricanes erupted from The Jester's body, mixed in with magic beams and slashes, all of this being at least seven times as large as The Carnival.

And it was far faster than Justice had anticipated, it caught up to him and Hero easily, the wind slashes and magic slashes hitting both Hero and Justice on the atomic level, ripping their body, but luckily, Hero formed an ice dome around them just in time, stopping any further damage as he and Justice took this time to sit there, breathe, and ponder.

"What was that? That type of attack... It's a Magic Ultimatum but..." Hero muttered, surprised as Justice stood up, just as surprised, but quickly turned his face into a more serious kind.

"Your ice dome won't last long, it's practically eating it all away," Justice described as he touched the inner layer of the dome, feeling its vibration as it was slowly swallowed up by the wind and magic slashes.

"And so what is the plan? Frankly, I see only you getting out of this situation," Hero remarked as he stood up.

"Unfortunately that is the case... I could vibrate my body fast enough so that my cells could avoid this attack, but you won't," Justice said, turning around to Hero.

"...Are you suggesting that you go into the eye of the storm all by yourself?" Hero clenched his fists, protesting against the idea but at the same time, was aware this was their only choice.

"Ha, you know me too well..." Justice turned back around, staring at where he thought The Jester currently is amidst the wind and magic, he could also see The Carnival's magic barrier slowly being overworked, it would break soon and destroy The Carnival of its entirety.

"...You and I could use our Ultimatums, that way we can-" Hero spoke out, but was cut off.

"In this situation? Unlikely, I'll go into the center of it, the attacks only get stronger the farther we are, sorry I took us this far, I panicked quite a bit when I saw him activating it," Justice smirked as he and Hero watched the last of the ice dome's outer shell getting obliterated.

"Fend for yourself just a bit," Justice spoke out, to which Hero nodded, taking a deep breath as the ice dome shattered due to the pressure it had been receiving, but as quickly as it did Justice flew out of the dome, vibrating his body while Hero quickly reformed his ice shield, greatly strengthening it with more layers as he then used it to hover slowly towards the eye of the storm, with what Justice said, the closer he gets the less dangerous it was.

"...I'll do what I can," Hero spoke to himself as the ice dome stretched out into multiple shards, freezing most of the magic and wind slashes around the 800-meter vicinity, unfortunately, it had not done much, as the onslaught of attacks still continued further, but regardless of whether or not it would make a small or big difference, Hero had to support Justice in one way or another.

Closer to the eye of the storm Justice leaped and dashed through the slashes of wind and magic, constantly reshifting and splitting apart his body to avoid the incoming attacks, which was proving to be quite taxing as each minute passed.

"Each slash happens every 0.1 seconds, but if you last long enough you can live to see it slow down to o.5 seconds..." Justice spoke, in a slightly doubtful tone as he took a sharp breath, turning around to see Hero who was also trying to catch up to him, defending and attack against the slashes in support, ice dragons erupted from the ice dome and began to freeze the attacks in the surrounding area.

"You know what..? Those odds are just fine by me," Justice remarked before boosting up his speed, dissipating his body into light as the smaller magic particles of his body individually sped past every atomic attack that came their way.

"My Magic Ultimatum takes exactly two seconds to activate, but given his Ultimatum's attack speed, mine could get devoured within nanoseconds," Justice said before swiftly reforming his body shortly after, dodging, blocking, and sweeping past endless hordes of wind and magic.

"Which means there's only one way to this roundabout..." Justice then made a hand sign, the moment he felt The Jester's magical presence reach its highest, signaling that he was close, and as the wind slowly died out, he had finally seen The Jester's face, a face of surprise, it had seemed like they knew what Justice was about to do as well...

"Magic Ultimatum: Charge Of The Light Brigade!"

Out of Justice's back came out a spiraling, compressed orb of magic, comparable to that of a star, that was what The Jester was expecting, but much to his puzzlement, it had far less magic and power behind it, and was far smaller in size as well, leaving The Jester to wonder, but snapping back to reality, they attempted to defend against the attack, twisting back their body.

But it seemed like it was too late, as they raised their arms they were shot down by Justice's Ultimatum, and pushed out of the Supermassive Tornado they had created, it dissipated within seconds, as what was left was the large ice dome up beyond the sky Hero had created, which then deconstructed itself, as Hero stood there on his Hailstorm, gliding down to catch up.

The Jester's Ultimatum had been successfully disrupted.

As they fell from above, The Jester felt the hot, rageful, and burning sensation the star emitted, and soon, flying down came Justice, who landed on the star and looked down at The Jester, staring with white, empty eyes, he had also slowed down the movement speed of his star, as to not collide with The Carnival, in which its magical barrier was prolapsing, and with this he grinned in victory.

"JUSTICE! YOU THINK THIS FOOLISH PLAY WILL END ME?!" The Jester yelled out as their arms and legs grew longer, attempting to fight against Justice's star, which continued to grow in size and power as Justice poured more magic into it, although this did not stop The Jester, who continued to grow in size despite the immense struggle.

"No, but the aftershow will," Justice smirked, snapping his fingers as he dissipated into light, leaving The Jester there, confused as the star slowly engulfed them, but did not kill them just yet, but in that micro instant, they then heard quakes and rumbles from amidst the sky, despite how compacted and tight the position they were in was, they built up the strength to look up and was jarred to see Hero up above, a large Ice Emperor statue overlooking him as they both looked down on The Jester.

"Magic Ultimatum: To a Wreath of Snow," Hero uttered, closing his eyes as he raised his left hand, putting his right hand below his waist as he made a spiral formation.

"This is your requiem," Hero muttered, suddenly sending forth his right hand, the multi-armed emperor of ice behind him raising its thousand arms and releasing millions of snow particles, which all eventually grouped up into one, final, and powerful Hailstorm Orb.

"NO!" The Jester yelled out in frustration as they attempted to outgrow the star Justice had left, fighting through the struggle as his face, arms, and legs were burnt off while doing so, and due to the near-continuous rays of heat, it would be impossible for him to keep it healed consistently.

"Bloom," Hero whispered, and with one graceful swing of his palm, the Hailstorm Orb split into many beams of compressed lethal snowflakes, all charging towards not only The Jester but the star that was keeping him at bay, which was slowly dying out.

The Jester, despite the horrid situation, still pushed through, growing large enough to ever so slightly tower over and severely slow down the star, close to stopping it in its tracks as his body was burnt around and about, and due to his panic, he had completely disregarded regenerating, but rather, focused on one thing alone... "KILL."

But this last act was futile, as futile as his existence, Hero thought as the hundreds of compressed snowflakes charged at the star, completely pushing down on The Jester, the star's magic and the ice magic mixed, creating an unnatural, impossible ball of both heat and cold.

Justice suddenly appeared beside Hero, the two simultaneously raising their hands as they commanded for the Hot n' Cold ball of magic to go upwards into the sky.

Out of energy, The Jester began to shrink, slowly engulfed by this impossible attack, Hero and Justice strained themselves, continuing to push the orb upward, and soon enough...

It exploded, and bits of ice and light scattered into the air, far larger than one could comprehend, it almost completely painted the observable sky in a beautiful light blue and yellow pastel color.

With deep breathes and sighs of relief, Hero and Justice glided down to the rooftop of The Carnival where the magic barrier that covered it completely disintegrated, The Jester's magic had left for good.

"Hero, good job, you'll be doing great," Justice remarked, raising out his hand to Hero, who ever so slightly let out a small laugh and accepted Justice's high-five.

But the moment their hands collided, strangely enough, it had started to rain, the leftovers of Hero's ice magic had melted, and what was left was a beautiful rain that mixed in solemnly with the pastel yellow sky, forming the faintest rainbow far and beyond.

"Ha..." Justice spoke, snickering, both he and Hero looking upwards as the raindrops splashed onto their face, while Hero was taking it all in, he was struck with a realization, not one of urgency, but one of pleasant surprise as he looked at the rest of the roof before him...

Meanwhile, within The Carnival City...

The crowds of civilians murmured a whispering tune, their eyes a magical pinkish color as they stayed idle amidst the dark, abandoned, and ultimately lonely city.

But as quickly as those whispers filled the city, one voice broke it all, "W-What happened?" The voice asked in a confused tone amidst the crowd, their pink eyes turning a normal grey hue as everyone else's once was.

And like a chain reaction, all the people in the area, their eyes began to turn back into a greyish hue as more voices of concern and confusion spread across the city like wildfire, overriding the initial sounds of eerie whispers that filled the city before, and supposedly, as a result of this, all the stadium lights began to die out instantly, as the magic that fueled them left.

"Where am I?", "Why is it all so dark?", "I can't see...", the voices exclaimed in many different tones, as they walked away from each other's crowds, to get more space and breathing room amidst that dark, barren city.

People climbed onto the Stage Cage in the middle of the city, whose magical bars also died out, they were trying to get a better view of their surroundings, some of them even calling for help, supposedly to no one, they were no longer in danger and yet, they were still in darkness...

But then, a beam of light shined down on the Stage Cage, a beam of light so perfect it encapsulated and outlined its grim, bloody structure, taking some of the civilians by surprise as they looked up to what they thought was possibly their only source of light.

However, their source of light suddenly ripped and stretched acres and miles into the city, the tent roof that covered them ripping apart simultaneously with a strange white afterglow seemingly tearing through it all, and soon enough, the entirety of the roof was shredded, its colorful bits falling deep into the void as the city was fully encompassed by the pastel yellow light, above, and the purple shine below, raindrops falling down on the city, washing away its blood and sorrowful paint.

A wave of relief slowly but surely washed over all of the civilians, they looked up to truly take in the new light before them, but unexpectedly, they saw two individuals in the sky, they could not make out their exact features due to them being overshadowed, but there were indeed two entities above, and like the heaven that rained down on them, they shouted back, seemingly try to get the attention of both...

"A wise choice to shed it all away," Justice commented, his hands in his coat's pockets as he and Hero overlooked the people below, who strangely started chanting at them specifically.

But Hero was silent, not responding with anything snarky or even a basic response, there was just silence, which caught Justice off-guard as he looked over to Hero, who had a doubtful look on his face.

"...Something the matter?" Justice questioned sincerely.

"There's only one last stage we have to go through before this journey ends, and I'm not ready for this journey to end yet," Hero remarked, in a tone that was neither distraught nor happy, it was just that, an empty tone of hybrid feelings.

"I'll still exist yes... But I'll exist a meaningless existence,"

"Afraid you have nothing left, are you?" Justice commented, his initial smile turning into that of a poker face as he sighed.

"You know... We're like brothers, Hero, and quite frankly, like anyone else, I'm proud of my brother, regardless if he has nothing left," Justice put his hand on Hero's shoulder, whose face lit up upon the remark.

"But that'd be impossible, right?" Justice chuckled.

"Cause we'd still have each other at the end of all things, I'm sure that's what the purpose of brothership is, hm?"

Hero turned his head over to Justice, slowly yet patiently as he took a deep exhale, now feeling comfortable as he smirked.

"I'll purify everything and remove all negativity once this is all over," Hero commented.

"I'm confident," Justice replied.

"Besides... I've already grown numb to what burden I must carry for a brother," Justice thought and looked above, for a moment, he saw a familiar face, one of a knight's helmet specifically.

"...We'll be the ones to carry out your get back," Justice whispered to himself.

"Rest easy, old friend,"

A few minutes later, beyond The City base...

Hero and Justice stood atop the Rift Platform, which was separated from the city, concealed by a type of invisibility magic, but now that The Jester's influence had faded away, it was now revealed in its full glory.

"You ready?" Justice questioned as the two held out their respective Cores.

"Always," Hero responded as he extended out his fist to Justice, who responded back with a light fist bump.

"Let's start the Final Act," Justice spoke, the two slightly grinning in determination.

They then both raised their Cores in the air, taking one deep breath as they slammed it into the Core Platform;

Creating a ripple distortion in the reality around them as everything turned white, and soon they felt their entire being eventually be transported into another world...