CORE

Outside of The Castle, in the gracious, yet unknowingly isolated city of London...

Near an alleyway, there seemed to be two, shady, yet ultimately harmless men chattering on about something as many of the civilians of London walked by, not even a batting an eye on them as they focused on continuing on with their lives.

"Great, another one dead... I thought it was already over," The first one of them spoke as they kicked away a small pebble.

"You know how it is in this Area, we don't get much security over here," The second of them said in a calm yet regretful tone.

"That's not what I mean! Y'know the whole 'Jack The Ripper' thing that happened long ago? No one has been killed or even endangered ever since he 'disappeared', so why is it happening again now and so abruptly?" The first one spoke out, to which the second one slightly nodded in agreement, as it was indeed quite strange.

"Well... I guess we should just hope we or anyone else has to run into that said danger," The second one replied, taking out a lighter as they lit a cigarette they had taken out beforehand.

"You want a smoke too?" He asked.

"No, and didn't I tell you to calm down on that? At this rate your lungs are done for," The first one responded as they crossed their arms, exhaling.

"I'll do it eventually, but right now It's a little hard to do," The second one replied as they smirked.

Back in the castle...

The second floor rumbled and shook as Hero punched through two monsters, sending a massive shockwave that ripped all the curtains, the beasts being twice as large as he was, on the other corridor Justice and Sherlock casually shot down the monsters that came there way, the three of them had already blitzed through the entirety of Floor 1 and its many monsters.

"I have to say, this is a bit too easy, I almost feel bad for Hero since he has to put in the extra effort," Justice said as he snickered.

"Don't get too arrogant," Sherlock replied as he loaded up his gun, however, as he did so, a large, reptilian-like monster suddenly plunged straight out of the pile of monster bodies, taking Justice and Sherlock by surprise for a moment, due to the fact that they off-guard and overconfident.

Hero struck down at the last remaining bit of monsters that came from the hallway he was in, and of course, while he did so, he grabbed on each and every one of those Cores, absorbing them by swallowing them whole.

As Hero dropped what was supposedly the last Core he would devour, he stuck out his tongue, clearly feeling a sense of displeasure.

"It's getting harder to absorb the more I do it," Hero remarked as he turned around to see how Justice and Sherlock were faring, rolling and stretching his shoulder as he did so.

But to his shock, Justice was suddenly thrown at him, and he seemed to be grabbing Sherlock by the collar while the two were chucked at Hero.

Hero immediately held his guard up, preparing for Justice to come at him at full force, but much to his confusion, Justice swung Sherlock in the air, before vibrating his body at lightspeeds, effectively phasing through Hero before crashing and landing into the nearby wall.

Taking note of this, Hero turned around, making sure Justice was safe, before turning his attention to Sherlock as he just barely grabbed him by the arm, softening his landing as he then let go.

"Thanks for that, that was quite the special prize back there I'll tell you that," Sherlock said, as he dusted off his clothing before stretching his hands and strengthening the grip on his gun before turning to the serpent-like monster that charged at him and Justice.

"You two back down for a moment, let me deal with the rest as thanks," Sherlock said as he aimed directly at the serpent, while Hero nodded calmly as he ran over to Justice to check if he was alright.

Sherlock then turned back to the serpent-like monster, the two locking eyes as Sherlock remained focused, raising his gun and aiming at the serpent beast, whose red scarlet eyes widened violently as it knew what Sherlock was trying to do, or supposedly.

But as it prepared to launch at him, Sherlock suddenly shifted his gun to a different direction, shooting outside of the window, breaking through the glass the serpent looked over in a panic, before quickly calming down upon realizing Sherlock had missed his shot.

And so it opened its mouth, charged at Sherlock who only stood there calmly as he sighed.

"I know you are merely a beast, but I'm sure you have the capacity to analyze and deduce," Sherlock muttered as the serpent's head was suddenly shot down by the same bullet that flew out of the castle, which had seemingly come back, shooting through yet another window and breaking it as it did so.

The serpent then fell to the ground, its body fading away while simultaneously the glass that the bullet passed through fell to the outside ground of The Castle, and soon when the Serpent's Core was revealed and desperately escaped, Sherlock turned around, cocking back his gun and reloading it with new magic.

"All's well that ends well," Sherlock said, smirking.

Sherlock, at that moment, had used his Inborn Magic, a type of magic that gives their users much more versatile abilities, most being in accordance with their characteristics.

In particular, Sherlock's Inborn Magic was to completely control and overwrite the vectors of his magic bullets, making for a considerably stealthy attack.

"Are you okay?" Hero questioned as he helped Justice get up.

"Yeah, I couldn't activate my magic in time so that attack felt a bit more worse than it should have... Still, I'm surprised it could deal that much damage, something is definitely up with this place, more so than I thought," Justice said as he scanned the halls left and right.

"Well, it's a shame that we are only on the 2nd floor of this castle, I reckon he has already found out about our intrusion, granted, we did not go the quiet route, so it's best if we rush this, and finish him once and for all," Sherlock proposed as he walked over to the both of them.

"So, do you think it's best if we just crash through the floors and get straight to the 5th story?" Justice questioned as he looked upward at the ceiling.

"That could work, but I'm sure it's best if we investigate the remaining floors, who knows, he could be hiding on this floor as we speak, he's a lot more cunning now than you think," Sherlock replied as he crossed his arms, holding and tapping the tip of his gun on his head several times.

"You prove a good point, and to make things simpler, we should split up, me and Justice will rush through the floors, and you investigate, just as you said," Hero spoke out as they all nodded in agreement.

"Can you defend yourself, Sherlock? I know you can, but I mean against stronger foes,"

"I wouldn't have come here if I didn't, mate, and plus I have some things on my bucket list to check out regarding this place," Sherlock responded with a smug grin.

"Good to know," Justice said as he and Hero faced the other way to another corridor Sherlock did the same on the opposite side.

"Make it out alive, I do not wish to see anyone die, not again," Hero spoke as they began to walk away.

"I will... And I'm sure it will be quite a rigorous expedition," Sherlock muttered back as he too began to stroll away.

"But regardless... The game is afoot,"

On the 5th level of The Castle...

The Scientist stood there tall and mighty, viewing over his London through a window as the orange and yellow lights ever so slightly radiated through it.

"They are getting closer," The Scientist mumbled as he outstretched his hand in front of the glass pane, as a large Red Core emitted from it, but rather oddly, it was not his.

"I'll make sure to get to him without too much trouble..."

"What I look for is not the strongest out of them..."

"But the one with the utmost potential,"

Suddenly, the Red Core flew into The Scientist's body, who miraculously was able to stop it from absorbing directly into his magic and Core, allowing him to keep it in his body like storage.

He then slowly whirled around behind, outstretching both of his hands as he took a deep breath before smirking widely as his pure yellow magical aura slowly oozed out of his being before some parts of it dropped to the ground like a sticky liquid formed into grotesque fleshy monsters, all varying in size and shape as they all scattered into separate hallways.

"Bonne chance," The Scientist uttered.

The Scientist's Inborn Magic, the ability to create malformed beasts of pure predatory instinct, their existence created and fueled by the unnatural delusions and hunger of their user...

Justice and Hero slid across the floor, taking down hordes of malformed beasts that kept on coming like an endless wave of water and thunder.

Hero ripped through two of the beasts, slamming another one down to the ground as Justice flipped over Hero, landing and sending an axe kick to and prolapsing a beast that was charging at Hero.

"The rate and amount increased by a lot," Justice commented as he stared down the rest of the monsters, everything in his eyes flickered to the empty purple, lonely skies of Area 0 and back to reality as his eyes slightly squinted.

"But it's never as bad as that place..." Justice said, suddenly opening his eyes, which glowed brighter than before as he used his magic to increase his acceleration, as he did in the fight with The Boss he immediately rushed through the hordes of monsters, grabbing and tearing each and every one of them apart with his bear hands in what seemed like an instant.

But that was not enough to take down the malformed beasts, as they suddenly regenerated from Justice's initial attack, in which they continued their charge on Justice, whose back was facing them as they stood silently and calmly.

But suddenly, all of the monsters exploded at once with white magical energy, and as their parts dispersed, there stood Hero in a rain of guts and magic particles as he and Justice, who turned around locked eyes.

"You caused a chain reaction by punching only one of them, eh? Impressive," Justice said as he smirked.

"...We should continue on," Hero said as he sighed, though, as simple as this statement was, Justice felt another meaning to what Hero said, but regardless.

Yes.

They needed to keep going...

Sherlock carefully walked through the halls of The Castle's 2nd floor, exploring the rooms he had not yet investigated due to the fact it was a heavy risk doing this alone beforehand, but now that he had allies, a part of that burden was lifted.

However, as Holmes traversed into another room, he was given quite an unpleasant surprise upon the first step and sight in.

"...Just how wicked...?" Sherlock said, gritting his teeth as his pupils shrunk, his forehead started to slightly sweat, and he wiped it off.

There he saw multiple glass boxes, each containing brains that were still, rather horrifyingly kept fresh through magic the crooked and half-dead walls added to the terror as Sherlock took a step back.

"But for what reason..?" Sherlock said as he darted his eyes across the room, checking and analyzing the room.

The olden walls...

The vines, and the moss on each glass box...

The clear rotting yet somehow raw brains...

Sherlock had thought of only one possible conclusion and one he did not like.

Was he perhaps experimenting on others before Cores were even known?

Was he trying to figure out...

The true core of one's being?