The Codesea Simution trembled as its core began to shatter.

  [WARNING: CORE VITALITY COMPROMISED]

  [REBOOT FAILED]

  [CRITICAL DAMAGE: UNRECOVERABLE]

  The red sigil on Thanatos’s chest flickered—

  once,

  twice,

  then darkened completely.

  Batman stood over it, his shadowroot bde dissolving into smoke behind him.

  His breathing was slow.

  Measured.

  But he was done.

  Thanatos’s body slumped forward—

  A towering monument of failure and code erosion.

  Then, the code began to colpse.

  ---

  Reality bent back as the Codesea cracked around the edges like a colpsing mirror.

  Batman’s boots touched real stone again.

  Air rushed back into his lungs.

  He was in Arcadia once more.

  The arena floor scorched.

  Half the sector turned to molten ruin.

  Students watched from distant walls.

  Instructors froze mid-cast.

  Even the headmaster stood still.

  Staring.

  Unblinking.

  ---

  Above the academy, the sky rippled.

  A message burned itself into the air—

  visible to every student, every teacher, every system-registered lifeform.

  [SYSTEM OVERRIDE COMPLETE]

  [WARDEN UNIT 01 – TERMINATED]

  [NULL ANCHOR ACKNOWLEDGED]

  [TITLE UNLOCKED: SYSTEMBREAKER]

  (You no longer answer to the rules. The rules answer to you.)

  And just like that—

  a new w had been written.

  ---

  At the Council Chamber, the air was thick with tension after Batman’s triumph.

  The Council sat in silence.

  The air around them trembled.

  “The Warden is gone.”

  “He didn’t just kill it… he hacked it.”

  One elder finally broke the quiet.

  “Batman is no longer a student.”

  “He is now a threat to the world order.”

  Another smmed their staff into the ground.

  “Then we send everything. Every bounty. Every Css-S assassin. Every godbound entity still loyal to the System.”

  “We end this now.”

  ---

  In the shadows, Solis watched from a rooftop, eyes fixed on the scene below.

  His arms folded, a faint smile pying on his lips.

  “He did it.”

  “He actually killed a Warden.”

  Then his expression darkened.

  “Now the real predators will come out.”

  ---

  Batman stood at the center of what used to be Sector 7.

  Cloak torn.

  Gauntlets cracked.

  The symbol on his chest still glowing faintly with shadowcode.

  Deku ran to him first.

  “DUDE. YOU JUST BEAT A GOD-TIER RAID BOSS.”

  Batman didn’t speak.

  Jessa followed close behind, her voice quieter.

  “They’ll come for you now.”

  He nodded once.

  “Let them.” ---