CORE

At the top of The King's castle, the fifth and last floor, its interior lined with hundreds of marble pillars, spatially disorientated to make it seem far larger than on the outside, physics breaking as everything was floating, debris and many particles of magic, ever so slightly making up for the lack of floor, below was an endless black void with hundreds upon thousands of stars all basking in each other's glory.

In the center was one last large grey island of pure rock and dark granite, sat a large, silver throne with divine decoration as what sat on it was a large, grey, old individual in heavenly robes who stood as large as 80 feet, with it being nearly half as they sat down.

Their long well-kept beard reached to their waist, it darker than his initial flesh, their breathing sensation echoing across the room like a disastrous quake aching to be released while their intimidating aura matched the quaking and rippled along like a ferocious stream of steaming water.

The King's arm lifted from its rest, shaking the room as if an ancient earthquake had terrorized everything that existed.

They then swiped their hand, creating a gust of wind as seemingly out of thin air, three heavenly rings, shining beautifully in the following colors of green, purple, and yellow as they spun around each other in a triangular formation.

"Alpha, Epsilon, Omega," The King uttered in a heavy tone, like that of a crumbling mountain as their long beard swayed side-to-side while their sleeves wooshed along with the wind.

"My faithful servants..." The King spoke, in a far louder and gratifying tone.

"Fight under me, once more, sacrifice even your life," The King commanded as the three rings began to spin around violently along each other, far more violently as the illusion of a bright white ring was formed before them as they suddenly disappeared in a flash, swiftly reappearing behind The King's throne in uniform.

The King then slowly sat back down on his respective throne, the entire room rumbling hastily as the magic that leaked out of his body began to supply and strengthen the three rings that sat by The King's throne.

"Battle the true hero that ambles," The King rested their chin on their head, staring intently at the void below, viewing the near-endless stars it had to offer, before closing their eyes.

Elsewhere, within the 3rd floor of The King's Castle...

Justice departed all of his particles into light, avoiding a flying boulder thrown at him before reforming back to Hero's side.

Hero stomped his foot on the ground, sending out a wave of ice spikes towards Terra who in response, tramped his leg into the ground, summoning pointy spikes of earth and rock similar to Hero as the two elements clashed violently, shaking the 3rd floor of its near entirety.

Terra slowly raised his foot, prepared to shoot a beam of magic through the spikes since they were in a blind spot, unfortunately, Justice beat him to that as a beam of light burst out of his side of the attack, forcing him to just narrowly dodge as it made a small cut of blood on his left cheek.

Through that large hole came sliding in was Hero, who jumped off the rocky walls of Terra's creation and attempted to strike them in the face, however, they were able to block the initial attack, swiping away Hero's fist as they sent a kick towards their ankle, knocking them slightly off-balance, but they played right into Hero's hands as he used this to put himself down, raising his legs at Terra's torso before using his hands to push himself upward, sending a devastating slanted handstand kick which sent Terra flying into a wall, at least that was what would have been had they not summoned a wall of rock early to negate the knockback.

But due to this, Hero sent out a blast of ice magic at Terra's head, freezing the earth barrier behind them and thus making them step to the side in an attempt to avoid it, and unfortunately into his fist which crashed right into their head, knocking them further into the wall of their own making as Hero then sent a spinning back kick which completely destroyed the wall, pushing Terra away as they coughed out blood in that micro-instant.

In what seemed like only a second, Justice came swooping into Terra's side, their fist engulfed in magic as they then released a dastardly uppercut to their jaw, and before they flew high into the air, Justice jumped up and sent an axe kick, knocking them straight to the ground.

Immediately they tried to recover, they were out of breath and bloody but they persisted, although far before they could even stand up, they were grabbed in the head by Hero, who slid on an icy path before stopping in front of a wall and slamming Terra into it.

"You-!" Terra grunted, trying to raise his hand but was punched in the face by Hero, augmented in power by magic, creating streaks of blood across the wall as Hero followed up with a punch to the stomach, then to the neck, the liver, the heart.

Eventually, it was lightning-fast jabs that struck every portion of Terra's body as they were only half-alive at that point, their body violently shaking and slowly growing colder in response to each of Hero's strikes.

Soon however, Hero stopped this onslaught, but then grabbed Terra by the head, turning around in the same movement as he then threw Terra away with all his strength as their limp body could barely even move a muscle at that point.

Sealing their fate, Justice came bouncing from one of the concrete walls, getting in a sideways position and delivering a flying kick with both of his legs, targeting Terra's spine as it broke almost instantly, with them being knocked and bouncing off one of the walls before being engrained into the floor, making a large crater in the process.

"You've proven to be strong, I'll be sure you will serve a more peaceful cause next time," Hero walked up to Terra, before sending out a far longer step forward, which released a small patch of ice on the floor that spread its way over to Terra's body, freezing it whole as it then shattered into shards, it melting into water, and then magic as what was of Hero absorbed right back into his Core, Terra was spared a quick and painless death, unlike the others.

"He was honorable," Justice remarked sincerely as he walked over to Hero.

"...It's a shame really, influence is the most absolute power one can wield, but it always falls into the wrong hands," Hero spoke as he took a step forward, taking one simple breath while raising his hand, mustering up magic into a ball and blasting another hole through the roof above, entering the 4th floor to which he flew into, landing on it's clear, smooth floor while Justice followed slightly after.

But the moment they stepped into the cold atmosphere of the 4th floor, they were met with an eerie aura, splattered with a crushing sense of silence, one that seemed inhumane, demonic even. The duo could not hear even the slightest clanging of swords or shields, it was simply that, empty hallways with roundabout turns looping to nothing.

"Hm, this is... Questionable, not even a single piece of ruptured silver... I have to admit, I dislike this scenery," Justice commented, crossing his arms as he rested his head on one of them, gesturing the fact that he was beginning to think while he looked across all angles slowly and thoroughly.

"I could guess," Hero kneeled down on the floor, placing his hand on its chill marble layer as he began to surge his magic through it, attempting to perhaps find any semblance of aura within the lonely halls.

However, halfway through, the chandeliers that lit up the floor all shattered instantly, leaving bits of glass where it hovered over, but not before flickering on and off in a strange pattern, in fact, and from observation alone, it had seemed impossible for lighting to go out in such a blinking way.

"Hero..." Justice looked suspiciously up into the air, while he slowly stepped over to Hero, who too had gotten up, trying to see through the darkness, summoning a ball of magic that illuminated a small part of their surroundings, along with the natural light Justice's body gave off, they could now see somewhat clearly in the shadows.

Although the moment this light brightened up their surroundings, from the left corridor a small hand knife suddenly burst forth out of the shadows, hurling itself at Hero who perceived it almost immediately, he then raised his hand, grabbing it centimeters before it touched his face as he then took a good look at it for a moment.

But as Hero stared at his reflection through the sharp glowing metal, he was suddenly met with yet another knife which plunged out of the reflection, forcing Hero to move his head back in an instant, with Justice sensing a new surge of magic from behind, turning around as he saw Hero holding knife, while out of it came a strange hooded entity wielding their own blade, and they wore a particularly daunting white mask, its features were indescribable at that moment as they tried to kick Hero in the face, though it was futile as Hero merely stepped to the side, dropping the knife as he dashed to Justice's side while The Spirit lurked out of the fallen blade.

"...What was that? Does it wield the ability to transport through knives, metal perhaps..?" Hero questioned himself in his thoughts as both he and Justice stood his ground.

"I suppose The King made these Floor Guardians stronger as everything went by..." Justice thought, letting out a tired sigh as a frown grew on his face.

"But for everything else, he lets it all wither away from what it's best was," without a second wasted, Justice immediately charged at The Spirit, intending to finish it quickly as he got in the position for a dropkick, and quickly as Justice came, The Spirit raised yet another blade they took supposedly from their waist flesh as they blocked both of Justice's leg.

The moment they tried to counterattack though, they suddenly felt their left leg stuck in place, surrounded by a cold material and texture, and when they looked down there they saw it frozen in spikes and blocks of ice coming from a path created by Hero.

Justice bounced directly off The Spirit's knife, spinning slightly as their blade shook in response while Justice rolled back his fist, due to the position they were in, this one strike from Justice would have been a sure-fire kill,

However, mere milliseconds before this happened, The Spirit flung the blade they held up in the air, and they suddenly disappeared into shadow, being able to confuse Justice for an instant as he landed back on the ground, his initial attack not going through as he looked across his surroundings, but when he finally looked up, he saw The Spirit burst out of the knife in the air, grabbing it, rotating around as he was about to stab Justice in the forehead while he fell.

But in the nick of time, Hero swooped in on a hailstorm, sending a devastating roundhouse kick to The Spirit's head which directly knocked them into a wall, creating debris as both he fell back on the ground, he and Justice dashing back and getting in a defensive stance.

What they failed to notice at that moment though, was that The Spirit had dropped their blade the second Hero struck them. So, without them noticing, the knife was now behind them by a good distance, and with such deceptive fluency, The Spirit flew out of the knife's metal, pulling out two more from his void-like body as he was prepared quite literally to backstab the two's necks wide open.

However, they were a second too late as the duo shifted their legs in opposite directions, smoothly and thoroughly turning around as they pulled back their fist, filling them with as much magic energy as possible then, with one swift movement, they struck The Spirit directly into their mask using a knife-hand strike, shattering it black blood oozed out of their semi-cracked face.

The Spirit savagely was thrown into the nearby wall, making a crater upon impact as its body lay limp the half-broken wall burst into debris shortly after, trampling over The Spirit's corpse and effectively burying them as what remained outside of the rocks small streaks of a black substance.

...

"And so it arrives."

"I applaud you wholeheartedly."

"But should you deserve my wholehearted salvation?"

"I believe not."