"Adding armor won't stop me from breaking your bones." Loading's voice echoed, distorting the very fabric of the Anti-Void. The space around them trembled violently, not from his power—but from Hegemon’s presence.

  Fractured code shards materialized in midair, glitching in and out of existence as entire sections of the Anti-Void collapsed. Yet, despite the chaos, Hegemon remained silent. The atmosphere itself had shifted. Different. Unstable.

  Loading's form began to change. His head glitched, then stabilized, revealing a half-formed skeletal visage. A familiar, burning purple eye stared at Hegemon with malevolent intent.

  Without hesitation, wormholes tore open around Hegemon, each one unleashing a torrent of red chains, moving faster than before. But as they closed in—they veered off. Missed.

  Loading's eye twitched, moving erratically, out of his control. Hegemon was overriding him.

  Loading snarled, his skeletal face twisting with visible frustration. Hegemon's ability to commandeer lesser beings was a threat—one that could undo his very existence. And then—a blade appeared. Inside Loading.

  Faster than he could react, the blade had materialized within him, bypassing all defenses. He reached for it—but the weapon was forged from outerversal structures.

  The Code Manipulator activated on its own, surging through the weapon. A devastating force of Strength erupted, burning Loading from the inside out. Then—Loading died.

  Only for a new Loading to appear, stepping out of nothingness before the last one had even fully faded. Without hesitation, he struck—a devastating blow to Hegemon’s jaw.

  A sickening crack. Yet, instead of faltering, Hegemon became stronger. The Mainframe repaired him instantly, right before Loading.

  And then—a single flap of Hegemon’s wings. The resulting shockwave didn’t just erase Loading’s form. It annihilated massive portions of the Anti-Void itself.

  The entire space was drenched in the flowing essence of the Mainframe. And in the wake of destruction—other eyes opened. Entities. Unknown. Watching. Disturbed.

  Even Sol felt the aftershocks. The entire multiverse rumbled from nothing more than the controlled flap of Hegemon’s wings. And still—Loading returned.

  Before he could act, a beam erupted from Hegemon’s wing, a searing lance of raw destruction that ripped through space itself, crossing into multiple universes. Entire realities bore the scars of its wake, a path of annihilation that pierced straight through Loading’s form.

  But the Mainframe refused to yield. For the first time, it struggled. More than one Loading began to emerge—dozens, then hundreds.

  Each one landing a strike before being instantly erased, only for the next to replace it. It was an endless swarm. A war against time itself. And yet, none of it mattered.

  The Anti-Void—or what remained of it—was now engulfed in Hegemon’s aura. Reality itself began to change.

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  Non-Euclidean structures materialized, their geometry defying all logic. Outerversal constructs rose from the void, twisting in ways that no living mind could comprehend. The entire battlefield had become a hellscape, torn apart by the clashing of titans.

  And then—it appeared. Something moved from the sidelines. Stalking. Waiting. Watching. A presence, not like the others. Without warning—it teleported, lunging at Hegemon.

  Hegemon reacted instantly. An Outerversal barrier materialized in an instant, intercepting the attack just before impact.

  But something was wrong. Loading staggered back, his form glitching. This… wasn’t supposed to be possible. For the first time, even he seemed uncertain.

  And then—Hegemon moved. Still blocking another Loading’s attack, he extended his other hand. A system panel appeared—similar to The Administrator’s. Reality shifted.

  In a single instant, the Vessel found itself trapped within a virtual world. And in the next, Hegemon was upon it. His hand clamped around its head.

  Then, a surge of raw, unfiltered information poured into the Vessel’s mind, an overload of incomprehensible knowledge meant to crush it entirely.

  The Vessel had no mind. No thoughts. No hesitation. Only instinct. It lunged blindly, attacking without understanding—yet its body knew. It knew exactly what was happening.

  Out of nowhere, one of Loading’s many forms unleashed a Mainframe Beam. It slammed into Hegemon with unrelenting force. Cracks splintered across his armor.

  But the damage barely had time to settle before the Mainframe pulled itself together, knitting his form back into perfection. The severed connection between them grew thinner.

  And then—Hegemon retaliated. A new Outerversal Blade materialized in his grip. This one, like the first, glowed with Strength, burning with an incandescent radiance. The Loading swarm charged—only to be cut down instantly.

  One by one, they were sliced apart like butter. And as the blade passed through them, their forms burned from the inside out. The Vessel regained its senses. It lunged once more—but Hegemon was faster.

  The Code Manipulator shifted colors, pulsing dark blue. A glowing shield erupted from Hegemon’s armor. Without a second thought, he swung his arm, slamming the shield into the Vessel’s head with crushing force.

  The impact left it dazed. Hegemon’s wings flared—and then struck. The sheer force of his larger wing sent the Vessel hurtling through the void.

  But the fight was far from over. Two more Loadings appeared. One from each side.

  The Code Manipulator activated again—this time, glowing green. The shield shifted, reshaping itself into a brilliant green longsword. Hegemon didn’t hesitate.

  He thrust both blades into the two Loadings at once—erasing them completely. And suddenly, the replications stopped. But… why?

  A system with unlimited power shouldn’t have processing issues. This wasn’t an error. This was something else.

  Then, Loading moved. He extended his arm to the side—And in a sudden shift, a white lab coat materialized over his form.

  In his other hand, a red-glowing longsword appeared—Identical to Hegemon’s Strength Blade. The energy it radiated was the same.

  Impossible. How had Loading acquired it? But now wasn’t the time for questions.