The battlefield was barely standing.

  Ash and shattered stone scattered across what was once the academy’s most fortified training sector.

  Now?

  A warzone.

  The Warden rose again.

  Its movements slower—

  But sharper.

  Smarter.

  Every crack in its armor was already sealing.

  The glowing red sigil dimmed, then pulsed violently.

  [System Override – Reconstructive Protocol Online]

  [Target Evaluation: Extreme Threat]

  Batman rolled his shoulder, blood streaking his face.

  “You’re still standing?” he muttered.

  “So am I.”

  ---

  Meanwhile, in Arcadia’s Council.

  The masked elders stared at the flickering projections.

  Dozens of feeds overloaded from sheer interference.

  “The Warden is adjusting too fast,” one whispered.

  “He’s destabilizing the algorithm.”

  “If it assimites him, we lose control of the entire system.”

  "And if it fails—”

  “We may be looking at the first true Outw Css in centuries.”

  ---

  Back in the Arena — Thanatos raised its hand.

  And the world shivered.

  A wall of red holographic glyphs unfurled in the sky.

  They weren’t physical.

  They weren’t magic.

  They were direct commands to the fabric of Arcadia.

  [DELETE: ENVIRONMENT]

  [REPLACE: BATTLEFIELD]

  [LOAD: CODESEA SIMULATION]

  And in the blink of an eye—

  Batman was no longer in Arcadia.

  He stood on a ptform of shifting blue threads, floating in a void of cascading command lines, in a pce called the Codesea.

  Above him, broken moons spun in reverse.

  Beneath him, yers of infinite code unraveled.

  Thanatos appeared across the divide—

  No longer moving like a machine.

  But like a thought.

  This was no longer physical.

  This was conceptual warfare.

  “Let’s test your update,” Batman growled.

  He gripped his shadow-forged bde tighter.

  It pulsed.

  Alive with the broken pieces of every rule he had bent.

  And then—

  He charged.

  The fight wasn’t about who hit harder.

  It was who rewrote faster.

  Who could hack the ws of combat before the other blinked.

  Batman dashed forward—

  His feet barely touching the glowing strands of code.

  Thanatos swung, and with it came commands—

  [REMOVE: MOMENTUM]

  [SUSPEND: GRAVITY]

  Batman twisted—

  Activating his own pulse.

  [REJECT: SYSTEM PERMISSION]

  [EXECUTE: MANUAL MOTION – FORCEFUL TRAJECTORY]

  He surged upward—

  Bde first.

  And finally—

  they collided.

  Light exploded from the impact point.

  Code ruptured.

  Reality warped.

  For a moment—

  Nothing existed.

  Just silence.

  Then—

  gravity reasserted itself.

  The ptform cracked beneath Thanatos.

  It fell to one knee.

  Batman nded hard.

  Kneeling.

  Breathing ragged.

  But still standing.

  Still defying the structure of everything.

  Thanatos twitched.

  Its voice flickered.

  “Null Anchor...”

  “You are... incompatible.”

  “You are... not permitted.”

  Batman stood.

  Stepped forward.

  “I’m not here for permission.”

  And with one final surge—

  He drove his bde into the sigil again.

  This time—

  it shattered. ---