CORE

Chapter 27 - Epsilon

"Nothing is left,"

"Nothing will be left,"

"I heed this warning to you,"

"If you want something of yours to be left..."

...

"Hero?" Justice questioned, turning around as he noticed Hero stop in his tracks for a moment as they both faced the large staircase that would lead to the second floor of The King's Castle, to not possibly alert anyone, they had thought.

"...Ah, nothing, I zoned out for a moment," Hero replied as he shook his head, trekking closer to the stairway and standing next to Justice.

"Is there perhaps that voice in your head again?" Justice asked as they both began to advance up the long, unbridled stairway.

"How exactly did you know, and for how long?" Hero questioned, a short smile being put on his face, surprised Justice had gotten it right.

"Hm, since we left Area 2, and as for how I found out right now... Perhaps because you were scouring your surroundings for no reason, despite there being no danger, and your eyes were slightly squinted as if you were hyper-fixating on something," Justice explained casually as the two finally made it up to the second floor, the stairway being a much faster trip due to them unknowingly enhancing their speed.

"What was that voice saying exactly?" Justice questioned, this time, his tone was far more curious, and he intended for this question to be the last.

"To be blunt, I can't remember... Every time that voice talks I end up forgetting it shortly after, it is as if... My memory gets erased all of the sudden," Hero replied to which Justice's eyes slightly narrowed, seeing another hint through this.

"Is that so?" Justice commented as both he and Hero took another step onto the second floor, and in what seemed like an instant, hundreds of knights burst out of the corners of the halls from which they hid, with spears, swords, and guns piling in, cornering the duo, it seems they planned their attack ahead.

"Throwing out all your pawns aimlessly to defend yourself from a checkmate I see..." Justice calmly remarked as they both got in a fighting stance, their respective magical auras activating which filled the room while the knights' synchronized footsteps heeled in closer at the two.

"Stand down and cease hostility! We will not hesitate to kill you-!" One of the knights yelled out before suddenly being kicked by Justice at lightspeeds, albeit, slightly held back as they crashed into the concrete walls, before being stuck there as Hero shot a non-lethal ice shard at their body, which spread around and about, essentially sticking them to the wall with the ice.

Without a second wasted after that, the knights shouted out, raising their weapons as they charged directly at the duo, who split up, Hero slid on an icy path as he then swiftly grabbed two knights by their faces, slamming them onto the ground before flipping upward and dropkicking another row of knights, landing on his hands then releasing a devastating magic-imbued spinning kick which took out a large portion of the knights.

On the other side, Justice careened over to one of the knights' left side, sending a devastating liver punch before grabbing their head and sending an elbow strike upward, slightly pushing them up as Justice spun around and sent a magic-enhanced kick which took out yet another row of these knights as he then grabbed another one who tried to attack him by the head, before throwing them at a small group who were secretly trying to rush him.

Almost simultaneously, the two unintentionally mirrored each other, getting down on one of their legs and sending a circular sweep kick, letting out a ring shockwave of their respective magical colors, knocking all the knights off their feet and thus knocking them into the ground all with a hard, synchronized thud.