In the System Realm, at the Outer Layer Breach.

  [ERROR: EXILE ENTITY DETECTED]

  [WORLDLINE THREAT LEVEL: RED CLASS]

  [Warden Protocol Activated]

  It came through the breach like a storm.

  No sound. No light.

  Just presence.

  Thanatos.

  A Warden forged by the System itself.

  Built to erase anomalies.

  To crush bugs.

  To reset those who dared defy fate.

  “Target: Batman. Cssification: Null Anchor.”

  “Order: Immediate Termination.”

  And so it descended—

  Straight into Arcadia.

  ---

  Arcadia Academy’s Training Sector 7.

  Wind howled unnaturally.

  The sky turned gray.

  Cracks split across the protective runes shielding the school.

  Students ran.

  Teachers scrambled.

  And in the center of it all—

  Batman stood alone.

  Cloak drifting.

  Shadow swirling faintly at his feet.

  Eyes fixed on the thing tearing through the sky like a bck comet.

  “...It’s early.”

  Solis appeared beside him, materializing from shadow like a ripple of thought.

  “We’re not ready for a Warden yet.”

  “You’re supposed to buy time—not break the damn timeline.”

  Batman didn’t flinch.

  “Time’s overrated.”

  ---

  As the Warden descended upon the nd, the impact echoed through Arcadia Academy.

  BOOM.

  The Warden nded.

  Stone shattered for a hundred meters in every direction.

  Students were thrown back from the shockwave.

  And standing at the center—

  A giant.

  No face.

  Only bck iron armor and a burning red sigil on its chest:

  [Thanatos – Warden Unit 01]

  System Integrity Enforcer

  It didn’t speak.

  It judged.

  And then, it attacked.

  ---

  The Warden moved faster than its size suggested.

  One punch, and the air imploded.

  The ground broke like paper.

  Batman dodged—barely—

  but even dodging sent pain jolting through his limbs.

  Too heavy. Too precise.

  It’s not guessing—it’s calcuting me.

  But Batman wasn’t the same as before.

  Not anymore.

  He reached into the shadows—

  And pulled power.

  [Shadowroot Pulse – Activated]

  Dark tendrils shed outward, forming a bde in his hand—

  forged not from steel,

  but from null code.

  He deflected the next blow.

  Not stopped—but deflected.

  A first.

  ---

  Students and instructors watched from afar.

  “Is that... a Warden?!”

  “They’re real?!”

  Cire stood on the tower above, mouth tight.

  "If Batman loses... Arcadia falls.”

  ---

  Inside the chaos, Batman gritted his teeth.

  Thanatos was adapting.

  Its armor reshaped with every hit.

  Every strike learned.

  Every move countered.

  I can’t win this like a normal fight.

  I need to break the pattern.

  And then—he saw it.

  A small dey.

  Not in its punches.

  But in its corrections.

  It’s not thinking.

  It’s syncing.

  He had an idea.

  Batman dropped his stance.

  Let the Warden charge.

  Right hand open.

  Left hand behind his back.

  A bluff.

  The Warden struck—full force.

  Batman stepped into the blow.

  Used the momentum.

  Let it pass—

  And drove his null bde into the exposed chest core.

  The sigil.

  CRACK.

  The Warden staggered—

  And for the first time—

  it paused.

  ---

  The aftershock thundered through Arcadia as Batman cshed with the Warden.

  The impact tore the arena apart.

  Smoke and debris clouded the air.

  When it cleared—

  Batman stood, panting, arm bleeding,

  and the Warden…

  kneeling.

  Damaged.

  Not destroyed.

  But paused.

  “Not bad,” Solis whispered.

  “You gave it something to think about.”

  Batman spit blood to the side.

  “Then I’ll make it think harder next round.” ---