CORE
Chapter 11 - "Transcendence"

"This is indeed Area 3," Justice uttered in a clearly disappointed tone, crossing his arms and letting out a deep breath.

"I sense no living beings of magic here... At least not in the proximity we are standing in," Hero said, mesmerized by the appearance of the place he was in.

"What was this Area like before this supposedly happened?" Hero questioned as he turned his head over to Justice.

"It was once a city like Area 1... But perhaps it is much more than that now if you could not tell, and The Guardian, never knew much about him, he was quite enigmatic," Justice said, pointing out to one of the many, infinite, rotating buildings and skyscrapers.

"...I see," Hero spoke, taking a deep breath before he sat down on the platform they were on, amidst the endless, spiraling void.

"Since I sense no people in this place at the moment, why don't we take this opportunity to rest? We have been practically fighting non-stop," Hero proposed, with Justice shrugging his arms in agreement as he too sat down on the ground, facing in front of Hero.

"And plus, I do have some things I wish to know," Hero looked up to the sky above him, only to see more of those rotating buildings.

"Sure, ask away!" Justice said as he smiled.

"What made all this? And I don't mean this Area alone, who and what created all of these areas?"

Justice's initial grin faded away almost instantaneously as his face toughened up, however, he was still able to reform it quickly before Hero noticed.

"If I gave you the full history, it would be quite a hassle to explain, so I'll just tell it to you in a very simple way," Justice replied.

"So, to start off..."

"The King,"

"Most know him as Area 6's Guardian, the last Area, however, what they don't know, and we Guardians do, is that he actually created all of the Areas, and I don't mean just the large platforms and structures, he created the entire damn dimensions, he even created us Guardians as well,"

"So that would make him stronger than you and all the other Guardians? Even the Areas themselves?" Hero questioned, genuinely shocked as his upper body slightly lifted.

"Not even atoms would be left," Justice spoke, chuckling, much to Hero's uncomfortability.

"Though there's something special about you Hero, you've got massive potential, and I don't mean that in a metaphorical way, you barely knew how to use Magic before, and now, from what I've heard, going toe-to-toe with The Scientist," Justice stood up, walked up to Hero as he then tapped on his chest several times, where his Core resides.

"You definitely have what it takes to take The King down,"

"But we'll have to see if you can get stronger by then! Anyways, anything else?" Justice said as he fell down to the ground on his back, rather comfortably as he looked up to the skyscraper-filled sky.

"This is my last question, but why were you trapped in Area 0 in the first place? Pardon me if it is a bit personal," Hero asked in a slightly hesitant tone, as he wished not to cause any... 'reaction'.

Justice's expression stayed the same, but his right eye noticeably twitched for a moment before he exhaled and began to speak.

"I simply committed a level of treason that not even death would be enough to compensate for," Justice replied before standing up as did Hero, who stayed slightly on guard if Justice were to react somewhat undesirably.

"Well! That conversation got me roughed up, say, I think we've been on this platform for a while, why don't we hop off now?" Justice said as he pointed off to a random direction in the void.

"I suppose," Hero agreed, walking over to the edge of the platform, however, before he jumped, he was stopped by Justice.

"On second thought, remember what I said about you need to be stronger? Well, I was thinking... Why don't we spar? Like when we first met, plus our stamina and magic Is back," Justice proposed, grinning as he pointed over to Hero.

"Can you guarantee you won't bulldoze me?" Hero said, smirking back.

"I could try," Justice responded.

The two then simultaneously flew away from the platform they were on and got to a safe distance in the void, the two floating off of the endless buildings as they faced in front of each other amidst that cold, heartless void, the two sharing eye contact, both competitive and friendly.

"What are you betting if I win?" Justice said as he stretched his legs and cracked his knuckles as he put on a proud smirk.

"I don't have much to bet," Hero said as he got into a fighting stance, with his white magical aura irradiating off of his body.

"If that's the case, if either of us loses or wins, our companionship is to last for all eternity," Justice spoke, snickering as he got into his own fighting stance.

"Well, that is more than enough to suffice, and it is something I look forward to," Hero responded with a fond and confident smile.

The two stared at each other seriously and without a hint of movement, the first one to make the move would start the match.

After a few seconds, Justice took a step forward, initiating the match as Hero's magic aura grew sharper in response, strengthening his physical prowess as he took a step back, preparing for what Justice was to do.

Hero was expecting Justice to dash forward, but rather unexpectedly, he instead quickly summoned a Light Javelin in his hands, before throwing it at Hero with such speed and precision it would be almost impossible to dodge normally.

And yet, Hero was able to just narrowly move his head to the side, avoiding the javelin as he then tried to grab onto it, but much to his shock, he was suddenly pulled away as the Light Javelin continued its march, all the way to the nearby buildings.

While Hero was stuck in this pinch, Justice then sent out multiple orbs of light at Hero, who took note of this and let go of the Light Javelin as it dissipated.

He then, without much effort, swerved and avoided all of the orbs of light, heading straight for Justice at the same speed the magic orbs were fired as he slid right in front of him, with the two locking eyes in the process as it collectively glowed brighter for a moment.

Hero instantly pulled back his fist while on the ground, before jumping upward to deliver a devastating uppercut to Justice, however, the being of light was not to be dealt with so easily, as he stepped back, avoiding the attack before grabbing Hero's arm, locking him in place as he countered with a magic-infused hook kick to the neck, damaging Hero, but furthermore, a short explosion of light was sent from Justice's leg shortly after he landed his attack, blasting Hero in the face as he was harmed further, causing him to slightly stumble to the right.

But Hero had not fallen so easily, he regained his balance, quickly grabbing Justice's leg in retaliation as he moved under them and followed through with a magic-infused uppercut to Justice's head, he tried to avoid this uppercut, which was futile as this successful attack nonetheless as he was sent flying, but despite this, kept his ground and landed rather easily, as he then wiped off some streaks of a strange starry liquid that came out of his mouth, acting as his blood.

"Not bad, actually, I applaud you," Justice commented, clearly proud before raising his hand, swinging it several times as he sent out multiple slashes of light to Hero's way.

"That man... Jack's technique to be able to Replicate Magic... I suppose the best way to defend against a magic attack is to counter it with a magic attack of similar properties," Hero said, before raising his hand and sending out multiple white magic slashes of his own as they flew over to Justice's.

The strokes and slashes of magic clashed, creating multiple miniature explosions in the void they were in as it in turn made a large cloud of magical dust, temporarily disorientating both of their vision and limiting their ability to see each other's movements.

But elsewhere, millions of lightyears away from where Hero and Justice fought...

It was like no other within the void.

The buildings strangely morphed and bent to fit the shape of a hollow circle, spinning around a center.

That center was a glitching, indescribable mess of parts that could barely be made out to be that of a physical being.

It slumbered without any hint of worry or reason, it laid dormant for what seemed to be a long time.

Its glitching body clearly took a toll on the spinning buildings as well, for they too seemed to be glitching out.

But as it slept, for what was to be forever.

It woke up, hearing a sound not that of the quiet void.

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Of violence.

Its glitching body suddenly became just a bit more refined, resembling more of an actual entity, as its purple glowing eyes illuminated its black and white body.

The spinning buildings suddenly stopped, as they collapsed, shredding and being burnt into a glitchy mess The Entity turned around to where it heard the sound.

The Entity uttered something in an incomprehensible, unstable tone.

Back to where Hero and Justice were fighting...

Justice quickly rushed over to Hero, catching him off-guard with his speed as he pulled back his fist, charging it up with a lot of light magic, intending to shut down Hero's nerves and thus his body completely as he struck, but before it could land, Hero was able to avoid the attack in the nick of time, grabbing Justice's arm before delivering a magic-powered overhead kick to his face.

He then put his leg down, before pulling back his fist, charging it up with magic as he was prepared to punch Justice, but it seemed like he was doing the same thing as well.

And so like a mirror, the two punched each other in the face, simultaneously as they were sent flying to opposite sides of the void, Hero landed in one of the skyscrapers as did Justice, both creating craters and dust clouds in the process.

Shortly after, the two simultaneously jumped out of the buildings they crashed into, stretching their arms and taking deep breaths as they continued to float amongst the void.

"You improved a lot, good fight!" Justice applauded as he quickly flew over to Hero, with the two shaking hands out of respect.

"So, what should we do now? We'd be trapped in this void forever if we kept congratulating each other," Hero questioned.

"Of course, we are to find an exit, while this place seems large, nothing is too large for my light," Justice said as he grabbed onto Hero's collar.

"Ready to take off?" Justice asked as he prepared to fly.

"Never, but at least you asked this time," Hero remarked as Justice created a massive shockwave as he lifted off, flying past several of the skyscrapers with exceptional ease.

Justice swished and traveled past the buildings that rotated in their way, moving with such speed and precision his acceleration was starting to grow by the second.

"I'll be honest, I feel as though this could take us nearly an hour of trial and error," Justice commented.

"I could agree," Hero responded as he sighed.

But, this journey was cut short, as Justice stopped flying and released Hero from his grip, and as he stood up straight, they both witnessed a pile of glitching mess and buildings, they were no longer rotating, but instead, their middle was.

"It seems as though we aren't the only living beings here," Justice said in a serious tone as he smirked.

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