CORE
Chapter 5 - "Chiaroscuro"

Across the city, The Boss and Justice clashed as multiple sparks of darkness and light filled the city sky as the two flew from one place to another in almost an instant.

"I'll make sure to do what The King could not," The Boss said as he clenched his fist, pulling it back as he struck Justice, in which some glimmers of light left his mouth, however, he suddenly smirked.

"If he could not do it then what makes you think you could too?" Justice said in a playful tone as he grabbed onto The Boss' arm, spinning around it as he then grabbed onto his back and put him in a chokehold, despite their difference in size, they were relatively equal.

But then The Boss responded by flying backward, leaving a trail of darkness and slamming his back into a building, but since Justice was there, he was protected while Justice took all the damage, which very clearly had some level of effect as he let go of The Boss' neck who quickly turned around.

But surprisingly, Justice was no longer there, they had flown right behind The Boss, and were charging up a light-imbued punch, and as The Boss quickly turned around their chest was struck before getting sent flying into the same building as Justice did beforehand.

"That's my take back," Justice replied as he wiped off his supposed light blood from his mouth.

Just as he was about to fly into the building to catch up to The Boss, he was unpleasantly surprised to see a large oil tank propel right toward him with a blast of darkness.

Justice quickly acted, attempting to punch it back, however, as his fist connected, he felt an opposite force strike it back to him, he in that instance realized what The Boss was attempting.

"I see your game, bossman," Justice thought, smirking as he pulled back his fist once more.

In that one singular instant, both The Boss and Justice were bare-knuckle boxing with the oil tank on opposite sides, the two desperately trying to keep it away from them as they could feel their attacks charging up the oil tank with magic.

Soon enough, the oil tank expectedly exploded into a large area of supposedly magic-amplified oil, which practically caused dents on the nearby building, but rather surprisingly, it has yet to fall.

"What amazing foundations you've made," Justice remarked as he flew back toward another building, vibrating his body at lightspeeds as well as to not unintentionally wreck the building.

"Who do you take me for?" The Boss replied as he was still floating on the opposing building.

Elsewhere, down below the city...

Hero walked across the city streets, it seemed to be empty, everyone evacuated into their homes out of fear of what was happening outside, perhaps that is for the better, no one would be caught in the crossfire.

As Hero took step by step, tired and breathing heavily, he was holding the collar of two Agents as he dragged them across the floor from behind, his last bit of magical aura he was using soon dissipating.

He was taking out too much at the same time, it was quite excessive, his memory was blurry since his body was practically on auto-pilot, but he very clearly remembered mowing through hordes of those Agents, and god knows where they kept coming from.

But it didn't matter now, Hero had taken out what was presumably all the Agents that were active, and so he let go of the two Agents he was holding and fell to the ground to take a short rest.

"I'll catch up in a while," Hero said, sighing as he turned his body over to look at the bright, orange, empty sky, raising his hand as he clenched his fist.

"No one should be trapped like this," Hero thought as he closed his white glowing eyes and his arm fell to the ground, creating a thud as it did.

Back to the battle above near the skyscrapers, however...

Justice swung his leg from afar, sending a slash of light at The Boss who released a wave of darkness, completely negating the light as it was heading for Justice.

"Light and darkness are roughly equal in speed... But only at top speed," Justice said, smirking as his body shined brighter than ever.

"And Light's acceleration exceeds that of Darkness'," Justice remarked as he then sent a blast of light to match against The Boss' wave of darkness, causing the two beams to clash violently.

But this was merely a defensive countermeasure, Justice immediately shut down his beam of light, immediately flying to a nearby building and bouncing off of it, heading straight towards The Boss in which he delivered a punch right toward his mask.

Before The Boss fell to the ground, Justice suddenly grabbed him by the collar, turned around, and threw him up in the air as his eyes flickered yellow and white.

"I'm putting you down for good," Justice said in a cold tone as he grinned, before dashing a short distance upward, sending a lightspeed punch towards The Boss' stomach, causing them to react as they very clearly were affected by this attack.

Justice then moved his body back and forth, with such speed to the point it looked like there were two Justices behind and in front of The Boss.

He then kickstarted this beatdown with a spinning kick to the head, The Boss being pushed backward as the second Justice kicked his back ferociously, stumbling over to the first Justice who kicked his legs with such force it felt as though he had broken something.

He tried to fight back once more, first by trying to fly out of Justice's range but just before he did so he was grabbed by the second Justice by the collar he was kicked to a nearby building by the first Justice, creating a large dust cloud in the process.

As the dust clouds settled, out came The Boss, who angrily charged at one of the Justices, however, he was not thinking clearly, and Justice suddenly disappeared into thin air as he went right past the real Justice, who quickly built up his speed to create a clone once more from the opposite side of The Boss.

As they were caught off-guard by this trick, Justice struck The Boss' back as his clone struck his stomach with large amounts of light magic piling up.

"If The King does indeed see everything..." Justice muttered as he and his clone started to charge up their fist with light magic.

"Let him see your death served by yours truly,"

The Boss tried to fight back, attempting to summon a wave of darkness to propel Justice away, however, was suddenly struck by the Second Justice from behind, before being punched by the first Justice up front.

He felt both of the fists gearing up with power as he hatefully stared at Justice with his unmoving mask, he stared back, with a smug grin on his face as the light magic eventually overloaded The Boss, creating an explosion of light that spread across the entire city's sky.

And soon enough it dissipated, as Justice stood there alone in the sky, his body of light shining down at the city as he too stared down upon it, the particles of his light magic falling down the city as he sighed, looking up to the orange sky.

It seemed a lot more yellow now after everything had been finally settled.

"That was quite the pain to deal with," Justice said, scratching the back of his head as he put his hands in his pocket, in that instance, he noticed The Boss' burnt and damaged mask fall to the streets of the city, and then Justice realized something.

"...Oh, right, now just where is he?" Justice wondered as he turned his head left to right before taking off in search of his fellow ally...

It was dark.

As dark as the void he was once so familiar with.

It was just a cold too.

And he stood there alone like before.

His glowing white eyes were the only thing that illuminated some part of the void.

And as he continued looking on, waiting for anything to happen, he knew a miracle would occur, as it happened before.

As he wished, something happened.

But it was neither a miracle nor a curse.

It was...

Something else.

Or rather...

Someone else.

Hero sprung to life, panting as he immediately started to take in his surroundings, he expected it to be just the void once more, but he was pleasantly surprised to realize he was still in the city, and in the exact same place he took a rest in.

"...What was that?" Hero spoke as he took a look at his hand.

He then got up, his body feeling unusually limp, and while he was less tired, the fatigue was very clearly still there.

"I feel drained," Hero commented, but then he felt a familiar magical presence slowly walk up towards him from behind, he slowly turned around, sighing as he stared at Justice, who had found him in a relatively short time.

"Yo," Justice said, raising a hand up as to wave to Hero.

"Good to see you again," Hero responded as he walked over towards Justice.

"So I suppose everything is done within this place, right? So where will we find the Rift Platform?" Hero questioned, but the moment he did was suddenly grabbed by Justice by the collar before they quickly took off, luckily Hero was prepared this time.

"You always act before you speak, It's quite a hassle," Hero commented as he watched the city from below as Justice flew at a much slower pace, just to enjoy the scenery a bit.

"You know I haven't seen this place in a long time since I was trapped in Area 0. Do you mind If I indulge in it a little bit?" Justice asked in which he felt Hero nod in response.

He then shifted to a different direction, going up to the roof of a nearby skyscraper he and Hero landed perfectly fine, in which he then turned around and put his leg on the ledge as he looked over the city, while Hero stood right next to him. Sᴇaʀ*ᴄh the (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Are all Areas like this? Where everyone is trapped not knowing when they will be free or if they ever will be?" Hero questioned in a calm yet concerned tone.

"...I suppose," Justice responded as his smile slightly turned down.

"...Now I feel as though my goal was not entirely predetermined," Hero spoke out in a sincere tone, catching Justice's attention for a moment as his eyes ever so slightly widened, at first he wanted to ask, but he did not wish to pry.

"Well, if that's the case we should get going now! We don't want to leave the rest of them waiting, do we?" Justice said, turning around with a smile as he then looked at Hero who inclined his head in agreement.

Justice, in one fell swoop grabbed onto Hero's collar before taking off to the Rift Platform he discovered earlier.

He strengthened his speed a little bit more, to the point that they had crossed an entire part of the city and the magical bridges in mere seconds.

Soon enough, they had seen the Rift Platform as Justice swooped down, the two being able to land safely on the ground as they got up and dusted themselves off.

"You still remember how to do it?" Justice questioned as he summoned his Core.

"Yes," Hero replied as he too summoned his own.

But before Justice put his Core to the ground, he stopped in the nick of time, looking at Hero who stared idly at his Core.

"Are you having an existential crisis?" Justice jokingly said, although, it was a genuine question.

"You could say," Hero said as he raised his Core in the air, and simultaneously Justice did too as they both planted their Cores to the ground, causing a powerful rift that distorted and brightened all that they saw.

Hero felt nauseous once more as he then passed out, the last thing he could see was an ever-so-familiar bright white light...

It was as dark as usual in the void.

He stood there alone as always.

Nothing changed...

Hero sprung to life, sitting up straight as he looked at Justice, who had already stood up and looked at the area before him.

"It is... Certainly different, I must say," Justice commented as his eyes were wide in surprise, soon Hero got up as well to view a large, fancy city of multiple smaller areas, the city was full of lights to contrast a seemingly endless night sky as hundreds, near thousands of people in fancy dresses were walking along the well-lit streets.

And there Hero and Justice stood in front of the entrance, which had a large gate with a sign on top that read:

"LONDON, AREA 2"

"This is..." Hero muttered.

"Yes," Justice answered.

"It is Area 2,"

"But not the Area 2 I was expecting,"

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