[IC] A Hero Tale {Complete}

[tex]

The speed of Nexus' approach reached incredible velocity, shrugging off Bruce's attempt to upset his balance. BeforeBruce's mace could strike, Nexus passed him by, stopping hard on his right leg a few feet behind him. From behind, he swung his spear in a wide arc, summoning a burst of electricity from the weapon's tip that homed in on Bruce.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce brought down the forward foot he'd used to kick to the floor, snapping his head forward and using that momentum to flip forward over the hand he'd been using to cover his face. Twisting in the instant before rolling, he slashed backward with his blade at Nexus' shins with a flying Ki wave.

[tex]

With his spear, Nexus let his body spin, and hopped off the ground, continuing until he made a full 360, and landed just after the wave of Ki passed underneath him. As soon as he landed, he pierced his spear into the ground and ran directly at Bruce, hoping to catch him off balance. Baby blue flames began to materialize around his right hand as he grew closer, growing and growing until they took the shape of a dragon's head.

"Flame Dragon..."

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce twisted to face Nexus. Hearing the mimicry of Jenso's technique surprised him a little, but the voices kept his mind clear, paradoxically. He drove his blade psychically into a link of his chains and lunged onward, his mace forming into his left hand.

"Manifest"

Bruce dove forward. His Ki, the heat he'd condensed beneath his skin, burbled to the surface, draping his form in a molten gold that glowed like the Earth's core. He pressed his right palm outward to meet Nexus' armored chest- to leave an imprint of the weight of a million lives multiplied by a million moments granted by Gaia.

[tex]

Nexus took a step back and shifted his weight as Bruce approached, aiming to meet his strike directing with Jenso's technique.

"Punch!"

The two abilities collided like comets, crashing against one another with enough strength to vibrate the room itself. Nexus' gauntlet bent and creaked like tin foil, but he did not falter, pushing with as much force as possible against Bruce's strike. In the end, the empowered flame dragon punch flared outwards, and Nexus was blasted away from the exchanged with his right gauntlet mangled by the blast. His flesh however, was unharmed. He landed with a loud clank and stood upright, looking down at his unarmored hand. From where the metal was contorted, its mirrored surface rippled, as if a stone had been cast upon its surface. The rippled spread across his entire body and refracted back and fourth, until they calmed and his armor returned to normal. The damaged metal, partially cutting into his forearm, began to reform slowly, climbing up his arm like an amorphous liquid, and hardening once again. With his hand uncovered, he changed his strategy. "You've broken my armor," Nexus complimented, conjuring a ball of blue flames in his bare hands. The flames began to spin wildly, taking the form of a saw. "Flame saw" He whispered, "But a hit like that will not do you any good. How long can you hold that form, Bruce?" He took no pleasure in his next gestures. He twisted his left, armored hand so that the palm faced forwards, and pulled back his flame saw, as if he was about to chuck it.

"Momentum gate," He shouted, tossing the flame saw in the same moment. It passed through the air, but nothing appeared in its path. Instead, a gate appeared behind Bruce, and several of Nexus' chains sprouted new tendrils that lashed towards him from behind, gaining speed as they passed through the giant rune of energy between them and their target.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce's Ki laced into his chains reacted to the new strands- from those on the floor threads, thin enough to thread through the links, flew up toward the oncoming chains. Upon threading through one link, the threads would expand and merge with Bruce's ceiling chains.

His lengths of chain between himself and the saw bearing for him grew new strands, connecting with those on the floor, yet they held considerable slack, the intent not on outright stopping the attack but slowing it down.

Bruce charged forward, mace still in hand. Without preamble or pomp, he summoned his new power created a giant circular slab of stone to stand between him and Nexus. With a heave, he smashed the mace into it's flat side and sent it toward his opponent.

[tex]

Nexus' saw did not disappoint. Much like Jenso's its sheer cutting power was not easily stopped. Although slowed slightly, Bruce's chains were snipped quickly. flinging their tightened lengths away from the point of impact. The armored warrior flicked his hand from side to side, moving the saw back, and then forwards, suddenly gaining full control over its trajectory. It zoomed after the quick moving wall, slicing it horizontally, while Nexus conjured a single greatsword and sliced through the stone vertically, pushing the rocks to either side of him. The saw then shot towards Bruce head-on, expanding immensely and growing in ferocity.

Nexus himself charged forwards and morphed his blade into a pair of gauntlets, littered with a series of small holes along their knuckles. As soon as Bruce reacted, he would move to initiate a series of jabs at close range.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce unfolded a brace of Ki around his right arm with a grip for his fist. Seven blades, attached to bars, appeared parallel to his forearm. They spun around his appendage rapidly, the blade edges outward.

He spread the core from his arm of his Ki to the head of his mace in his other hand and with the resonance of his soul, struck the fiery saw. In the same motion, he twisted his hips and stepped into the thrust of his right arm toward Nexus' face.

"Excavation."

[tex]

Nexus ignored his approach, diving past his fist, letting only the edge of the ring of swords around Bruce's arm clang against the edge of his faceplate. His first strike hit home, smashing against the center of Bruce's stomach. Straight after, he spun his body clockwise and slammed his left fist against his shoulder, and then swapped again, punching and punching with a fair amount of force behind his blows, until his right hand hit with barely any force behind it. But a loud hissing sounded from his hand. Was it..?

"Wind Cannon Ultimate"

A burst of powerful air expelled from the knuckled on his gauntlet with a familiar force, empowered by Nexus' inherent energy to new heights. It became clear that he was going through the roster of Bruce's allies, pilfering their attacks without using many of his own. Or perhaps it was just that, he did not have any offensive abilities of his own?

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce bent slightly at the hip with the first blow. The next struck true, yet the impact didn't hurt to a significant degree, at least not like he would have expected. The increase in speed and the previous use of Jenso's attacks tipped him off a moment before Nexus gave away his imitation of Jeff's technique.

The blows were well-placed, attacking Bruce's shoulders, even if lacking the strength to cause crippling damage, made it difficult to raise an appropriate guard.

"Gaian Guardian"

So instead, he went offensive.

Each new appendage, each face that overlapped with his, every leg that bent at the knee for stability, all possessed one soul, echoing countless. On his left side, six arms that extended out past the area Nexus targeted hooked toward his face. Bruce twisted his hip into the blows, each hand wielding a mace to crack into Nexus' armor.

[tex]

Nexus was struck, one blow after the other, and lost his footing, even if only for a moment. The blows left small dents along his chest plate, all of which were already beginning to repair themselves. By now, his gauntlet had found new form as well. Nexus flipped through the air and landed on his feet a few meters away. As he landed, he smashed the base of his wrists together in front of him, facing both his palms forwards. This was unlike any attack that Bruce's allies had used, but the sheer amount of energy that began to gather in Nexus' grasp made it clear that it packed enough power to leave more than a dent.

"Arcano-"

It was prisma's technique, it seemed. The energy in his hands continued to gather, however. It was holding it in place, while bracing his body with as much rigidity as he could muster. In a moment, it seemed like the charging attack took on a new property, unfamiliar in nature, but he refrained from firing it just yet.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce blinked. Twice. Nexus' techniques, or rather, his versions of the techniques others possessed, became a bit clearer. He remembered that Nexus had not, in fact, been the first member of the Order to nullify his arcane and Ki-based abilities.

Yzeira was.

'He was being literal.' Bruce thought, recalling Nexus' claim that he had infinitely more experience than he.

Bruce called on his predecessors, creating more new Earthen material. Pillars and archways, many with cracks and gaping holes in their design, appeared as if out of thin air. Yet the Earth remembered those who'd fought with her power. Bruce's form seemed to fold into nothingness, his Ki and heat once again vanishing into the walls. He manipulated the network of chains again, snaking them up and wrapping around the constructions he'd summoned.

[tex]

"Hide all you want," Nexus began, as the energy in his hands slowly reached critical mass, "I will flood every crack in this room with power."

"𝐀𝐫𝐤𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐔𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐦"

A beam of searing blue energy erupted from Nexus' hands, covering every square inch of the room in front of him in the exact fashion that he described. Bruce's chains, and anything else caught in its wake, were evaporated immediately. But rather that simple disappearing, their energy was accumulated, and added to the wave that Nexus fired. It showed no sign of stopping, and just when it seemed like a straight forward attack, Nexus pivoted his foot ever so slightly to the left.

"Sweep!"

The overbearing stream of energy began to move clockwise around the room as Nexus heaved his entire body in a circular sweeping motion, hefting as much force into the movement as he could muster.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce didn't wait for the energy blast. His heat sped along one arched pillar behind Nexus before being vaporized. The power of the blast would have been fatal, even with the condensed mass of his Ki radiating off him.

Still, the echoes assured him. His resolve didn't waver.

Because Nexus had made a bold exaggeration. Every inch? Perhaps a suicide bomber could make such a claim, but Bruce doubted Nexus' "reflection" of abilities extended to Prisma's self-regeneration. And for all the Arcano's power, after the initial blast, it moved like the titan had- slowly, best evidenced by the visible effort Nexus put into the attack.

With another thought, concrete materialized about Nexus' feet. Bruce's Ki made a leap as the Order member heaved. His left hand, shining like it had when he first donned his Ki to turn his body into a weapon, shot up first from the ground, gripping Nexus' armor at the hip.

"Manifest. Echo."

The souls of the past Ascended bore their weight into the attack once again.

The moment the weight of his Ki moved from his palm to Nexus' armor, the glow receded from his left hand, leaving the dark hue of stone skin behind. Bruce pulled up his torso, the Ki that receded from his planted hand transferring to a blade in his right, which he stabbed toward his hand, aiming to pierce it and Nexus' hip once his armor broke.

[tex]

Nexus' Beam continued to tear through the tower's circumference, stopping for only a moment when he feet were caught in stone. He paused, and the beam remained stagnant for a moment, before vanishing completely. By then, he'd already had his leg caught in place. The top layer of his armor melted away momentarily, leaving room for Bruce's blade to strike home, hitting the opposite side of his thigh guard and stopping. Blood spurt out of his leg and he buckled forwards, reaching for Bruce's arm with his left hand, whilst creating a sphere of energy in his right.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce winced at the pain in his left hand. He also bled, but he kept on. He weakened the folds of the sword at the point where it entered his hand, snapping it so the blade remained lodged in Nexus' thigh. He yanked his left hand back, rock scabbing over the flesh wound, though the pain and damage remained.

He let the hilt of the broken blade drop from his right hand before Nexus' left caught him by the wrist. He snapped his left hand up to catch Nexus' left wrist, moving around the appendage so his left arm was between him and Nexus' right arm. With two against one, Bruce had the advantage, hiking up his left shoulder to clamp Nexus left arm near his elbow.

Bruce's right wrist shone with Ki, the blast he'd just used concentrating again to expose his opponent's hand.

[tex]

The armor around Bruce's hand melted away, but he refused to leg go. The energy in his right hand began to swirl intensely, growing streams of chaotic fire as its momentum increased. It grew rapidly, while Nexus tightened his grip around Bruce's arm. He looked directly at him through the slit in his armor, and brought his right hand towards Bruce in a wide arc. Mid-swing, the mirrored surface of his armor rippled towards his right hand, flooding the attack with a sudden spike of power, so that its focus reached an all time high, nearing the sheer destructive power of his earlier wide-scale attack, though on a much smaller scale.

"𝐀𝐫𝐤𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝," Nexus begun, suddenly bearing down on Bruce with his sapphire glare. His visor vanished, the mirrored effect that encompassed him with it. Even the attack headed for Bruce himself, began to shrink rapidly, yet still retaining the brunt of its form. "𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭!!" Sheer seconds before the attack made contact with Bruce, Nexus' eyes brought a halt to his sage state, and promptly sealed off a great deal of his power. The sphere shrank considerably, and lost the immediate destructive power that it held moments earlier, but despite this vast decrease in power, Nexus aimed to strike Bruce when he was most vulnerable.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce grimaced at the loss of strength and the ascended state he'd achieved. He knew now that his power's restrictions would be reflected in Nexus' own, but with such a direct blow aimed his way, that didn't matter too much. His position could have let him work on hyperextending and, against a lesser opponent, breaking Nexus' arm.

There wasn't time to think about disabling him piece by piece. Nexus had designs on his life, and with the grip he had on his wrist, Bruce wasn't getting away without making a drastic choice that would likely only postpone an unfavorable result.

So instead, he fell back onto what he knew, since the voices had been silenced. The hilt he'd dropped rose back up, and he caught it in his left hand. Focusing all of his own weight into the blade's apex, he thrust it for Nexus' eye.

"One stroke."

The blade shone, weak next to the light Bruce produced not seconds earlier, though like Nexus, backed by will, resolve and aimed for his weakest point.

"One life."

[tex]

The Arkvoid impact struck Bruce head on, launching him across the room in a flash of blinding light that consumed Nexus whole. His body was rag dolled until it struck the darkened wall with a resounding thud, and he fell back to the floor, with a broken arm, and significant damage that plagued his body. The effects of Nexus' particular mimicry were less lethal that its original form, but it succeeded in directly damaging his inherent Ki reserves, and by extension, dampening his very soul. Whether the damage was permanent or not still remained to be seen. Nexus however, stood with his back to Bruce, relatively unharmed. The order member straightened his posture and reached up towards his face with his unarmored hand.

"When I first set out to become the greatest scholar of my time, I had a benevolent view, believe it or not." He stressed the muscles in his arm and neck for a moment, and the wound in his leg slowly began to heal, pushing Bruce's blade out until it was evaporated, as his armor reformed. "Yzeira was not too different either. The biggest difference between us, was just that. I wanted to be known in my time. He wanted to be known by all time." Nexus began to turn around clockwise, clenching his right arm. His armor quickly regained its mirrored gleam. "Bruce. The void is an unkind place to those without the desire to conquer it in its entirety. It festers inside the hearts of the stubborn, latching onto their undying willpower until it... Manifests into som.. Something amazing..." He turned his body around and lowered both arms to his side. His hair flourished into view and he stood his ground with a great deal of passion etched into his stance. Nexus wore a simple little smile as he looked to Bruce with one eye, tears streaming down his right cheek.

"Don't let Jenso become like us..."

Nexus' pose gave way. He dropped to his knees.

"Like... Me..."

The armored man fell forwards with a gentle thud, slamming face first into the ground. The length of Bruce's blade tore through the back of his skull as its hilt hit the hardened stone floor, releasing a somber blue aura from his body that began to flood the room.

[Brucenorris007]

Bruce couldn't breathe, his chest heaving with rattled ribs and bones until he finally hacked and coughed violently, prostrate on his knees with his left arm out to support him.

He hissed and remained there, the pain, more pronounced in his soul than his arm, proving ample enough to render even him, with his practiced self-imposed suppression, temporarily immobile.

Nexus' words reached him, and out of respect for his opponent and temporary mentor, he craned his neck to watch his final moments.

The armored Order member, the storyteller, fell. Bruce kept his being still in deference to his role as witness of Nexus' blue soul poured out into the chamber.

"You," Bruce grit out, pushing his shaken form up, though he kept to his knees. "You will be heard now. Along with the other voices. Those who came before, and those who still live."

Bruce flipped his left wrist, retracting the blade from Nexus' skull with notable effort due to his sudden fatigue.

"Don't worry about Jenso, Nexus," Bruce spoke softly into the misty blue, his katana returning gently to his hand. "I promised you a proper ending."

He flipped the blade down and let it slide into its sheath, taking a cleansing breath.

"I intend to deliver."