Nexus: Heroes Will Rise

by tmb1112

Universal borders have been erased and beings from thousands of universes now live on the same world: Nexus. In the first Saga of Nexus, Awul was saved, but the mysteries of Nexus remain. Now our heroes sail across the sea to Aebrith to search for lost loved ones and save the world. MCs from DBZ, KH, Soul Eater, FT, Blue Exorcist, Bleach, 7DS, OP, Ben 10, SAO, HxH, and many more!

154. Nexus HWR 24-2 Rivendell

Nexus HWR 24.2 Rivendell:

"Another contingent?" Fubuki wondered.

She, Gray, and Teruki Hanazawa were discussing the upcoming invasion when they spotted the incoming ships from the east. Gray nodded though and made the espers on his sides look in with surprise that he was apparently prepared for this group. Asked them not to surprise me next time after the Tontatta. Glad I did, Gray thought.

The approaching ships became easier to make out. They were sleek vehicles with pointed edges on the front that curved back over the top of the aircraft and made them look very aerodynamic. Blue lights glowed out the back engines and then beneath the bottom of the ships as they dropped slowly and straight down at the perimeter of the forward Resistance base. Gray motioned ahead and started towards the ships with the powerful psychics following just behind him on either side.

They weren't willing to sit it out, afraid that we'd take back the territory they lost and just incorporate it into Resistance structure. Gray stopped at the gate and kept his lips flat but did not show a hostile expression either. I do appreciate having help, but I set up my plans specifically with the forces I picked. More isn't always better. Could complicate things… Gray's expression lightened up and a smile finally tugged at his lips and forced the corners up. Alright. They're playing ball. He chuckled and then walked forward with a more easy-going expression as his new allies descended the ramps of the five sleek silver ships that landed outside his base.

The soldiers were mostly pale-skinned. They wore uniforms of green that consisted of longer capes than the dark blue one that Gray had been granted. Some of them also had pointed hats on their heads, unlike the flat-top hat with stars on the front that Gray wore to distinguish himself as General, just as the cape's pins and golden markings on the shoulders, and its clasp, were all meant to do. The leader of the green-cloaked figures who descended from these ships also distinguished himself from his forces since he had a red cloak on rather than green. The sword on his hip also seemed a bit broader and his shiny armor much thicker than his comrades' were.

"Haldir!" Gray greeted the pointy-eared man who smiled warmly back at his old comrade.

"Gray. It is good to see you alive and well," Haldir greeted back. Haldir held out his right hand and Gray shook it, then Gray released and patted Haldir on the back while turning back around with him and motioning into the base. "Bring your men inside. We'll go over our battle formations quickly. The invasion starts tomorrow."

"I know. And we will stand with you as we move to take back Elvengard." Haldir turned and motioned with a nod of his head into the base, and the elves who marched off the ships in formation broke as they started to unload the ships instead and move inside the base. Panels opened up below the aircraft with elevators on the inside that shot blue translucent beams out beneath them to the ground. Land assault vehicles descended from the ships slowly in the blue anti-grav light.

Two hundred elite elven warriors sent by Galadriel from one of the Elven enclaves, Gray thought and nodded along as Haldir explained to him about the men he brought and the weapons and equipment they already had on them. I didn't know she would be sending Haldir to lead them. I didn't even know he was there with her. If it was someone I didn't know, this might've been difficult. This wasn't like the Leam situation though. The elves don't want more land. Gray looked around at the elves who all looked focused and serious as they walked into the camp around him. They just want their own land back.

Back at one of the ships outside of the base, an elf woman was helping to unload the armory from the ship she arrived in. The pointy-eared girl with long white hair even longer than Haldir's blonde hair that fell straight down to his waist, reached up her hands and caught a massive crate of equipment. It felt light inside of the blue glow that she reached into to catch it. She noticed a vibration though after catching the crate that made her forehead furrow for a second.

"Hello?" She wondered while turning and lowering the crate slowly at first but then dropping it fast as she pulled it out from the light beam. Her own things were with this crate, as many other elves also did not wear their armor or carry their weapons just for the travel to this Resistance base. The woman's eyebrows narrowed in more as she noticed movement on a sack at the top of the crate that she herself put in after the rest had been packed up. The rucksack she had brought along was wiggling back and forth, and she grabbed it and lifted it off the rest of the gear.

She loosened the strings that held the pack closed. A green head in a purple pointy hat stuck out of the bag. "Gaaaahhh!" Elfo gasped for breath and then started panting exhaustedly. "You really need to poke air holes in that thing! I could barely breathe-"

"Elfo!" The woman exclaimed. "I told you that you were not to come along," she scolded.

"Oh don't be like that, Satella," Elfo waved off her concern and popped out of the bag and onto the floor where he did a somersault then wobbled up onto his feet. Elfo shook his arms and legs out after such an uncomfortable ride. "You know I'm pretty much a warrior myself. My kill count is through the roof!" He jumped up to hold his hand higher than he could reach and wiggled it around to show just how many he had gotten, though he coughed and added under his breath, "A-hem. Even if most were accidental."

"What is this?"

Satella turned and glanced at a muscular male elf who walked over and glared down at the green creature who had apparently stowed away with them. He hummed while looking at Elfo's pointy ears, but he frowned deeper when the apparent elf declared his stupid name that sounded made up to the more noble-looking elf. "Captain," Satella began, and the Captain of the 4th Guard turned and narrowed his gaze back on her as she seemed responsible in some way for this.

"This is no place for weaklings," he scolded in a stern tone. "We are about to go to war."

"I- I, told Elfo to come. He's stronger than he looks. He won't get in the way. I promise. I'll keep my eye on him," Satella said. She bowed her head and grimaced deeply, and Elfo looked up in a guilty way for a second as he realized he was getting her in trouble here.

"Hey! I stowed-" Satella pushed her hand down on top of Elfo's hat and shoved it over his face, muffling his voice and making Elfo grab at his face in a panicked way as it became hard to breathe again. "Mm- MMmm!"

The Captain paused for another few seconds but then nodded his head and accepted what his soldier just said. She lifted back her head and nodded gratefully in response before tugging Elfo away, grabbing her bow from the crate too under where she had first grabbed her pack. The elf officer watched her pick up her bow that had no arrows in a quiver to go along with it. He had seen her use the weapon though with the magical arrows that she summoned along with it.

She's a fine archer. Her magic is powerful too. Greater than most. Even if she's covering for the impling, I'd prefer not to lose her if she would leave to protect him. Still, if the runt gets in the way, I will not hesitate-

Satella stopped speaking down to Elfo for a moment. Her body tensed up. The woman turned her pale face partially sideways and shifted her gaze behind her, a cold breeze blowing past that made strands of her white hair wave around. Through those wisps of hair he caught a glimpse of her expression. Her Captain's thoughts cut short, but Satella continued speaking to Elfo right away and the breeze died down. The moment passed without incident, and yet the Guard Captain just thinking of her strength found himself unnerved by what just occurred.

"…I'm telling you, I won't be trouble. Someone needs to protect you! That's why I'm here," Elfo declared.

Satella shook her head and sighed at the short creature standing just as tall as her thighs. The female elf in a green dress told him, "I don't need protecting, Elfo."

"Ha! See? It's saying stuff like that that tells me you do," Elfo countered back and pointed at her. "Everyone needs protecting once in a while."

"Some of us more than most," Satella retorted. Elfo nodded back in complete agreement that made her snort and then giggle into the back of her left hand as he did not try to argue against her implication of how many times she had had to protect him in the past.

Inside the command building in the center of the pop-up Resistance base, Gray and some of the team leaders of his forces had gathered around a holo-map in the center of the room. The map was currently off so it looked more just like a normal table, and most everyone around it was frowning at Haldir who Gray was being lenient on apparently because he knew the man. The same concerns Gray had about the elves' arrival still lingered for his comrades though who were not familiar with Haldir and did not trust him right away.

"And you'll continue on with us past Elvengard?" Hanazawa asked. "You sure about that one? Not going to change your mind once Rivendell is back in elf hands?"

The 16 year old frowned suspiciously at Haldir, an elf over 3,000 years old. Haldir understood the suspicion though and did not get frustrated back at the young humans for it. "We will. The Sith will remain a threat to the elves even after we return to our nation if we do not finish them completely." Haldir's explanation made sense, but Hanazawa kept his gaze narrowed at the man who still responded in a way making it clear that the elves' priority was their own security, and not the overall victory of the Resistance.

Cleo grunted though and crossed her arms but shrugged a shoulder up in acceptance. The woman had short blonde hair only an inch long that was visible since she had her black helmet off at the moment for the meeting. She glanced to her left at the Jedi who came in here to see what they thought. Ahsoka also looked to her own left instead of back at Cleo on her right, "What do you think, Master Qui-Gon?"

Qui-Gon Jinn had his arms crossed in front of his body and held in opposite sleeves of his brown robe. He hummed and nodded as he did not sense that Haldir was lying, though that did not mean everything. "I do not doubt your honor, Haldir. Should the elven leaders arrive in mid-advance however, and request your return to guard only Elvengard's borders, you would have to obey. Separation in the chain of command is dangerous. Is that not why we refused Leam's regiment?"

"It is," Gray replied, as Qui-Gon was directing the question to him. "They wanted their own General to run the mission. Wouldn't have it to have Leam forces subordinate to Resistance command. So we cut them out."

"Our leaders would not return to Elvengard until they are certain that the territory is safe," Haldir countered the concern. "The elves are not so constrained in the enclaves that an immediate return is of utmost importance. Thus, it will be our report of victory after the war that convinces them to return." Haldir smiled at his comrades, "I will wait to make that report until the Sith are fully defeated. You have my word."

Hanazawa relaxed a bit and slouched his own shoulders. Good. He lifted the left corner of his lips then glanced towards the entrance of the building. Wish Jakku would have dealt with this. Can't rely on the Captain for anything. He hates intel reports, Hanazawa shook his head at the immaturity of Kappa's Squad Captain. It was something he expected at this point, so he was ready to stand in for Jakku at the meeting.

Iota's captain was at the meeting though. Fubuki hummed to herself and looked to Gray then back at Haldir. They picked someone Gray was familiar with. Could be a trick of the elves. I will watch them closely.

Knov did not look convinced as well. He frowned with a glance down under his glasses at the two tiny people standing on the edge of the table to his right side. Leo loudly and firmly agreed that the elves should be able to free their territory just like the Tontatta were trying to do with Dressrosa. Mansherry listened to Leo with a sparkle in her eyes and then nodded and shared her quick agreement with her Tonta Corps commander.

"I understand your hesitation. The elves have not been on the front lines for a long time," Haldir admitted to his more stubborn opponents still seemingly opposed to this potentially unreliable alliance.

"Not by a long shot," Hanazawa agreed though in less polite terms.

Haldir frowned for a moment and then continued what he was trying to say, "But we are willing to put our lives on the line for the same purpose. You may think our motivation is not as strong as yours, but Rivendell was a city of great pride for the elves of Nexus. Where we all came together to merge our cultures and create a haven for elven creatures of all kinds. The fall of Rivendell…" Haldir paused for a moment and collected himself, straightening up and clearing his throat to the surprise of his allies. He did not appear to get emotional there, but apparently he thought it had seemed that way as he continued, "Apologies. The fall of Rivendell, was a catastrophe for our people and our shared, united culture."

"I will not deny that the recapture of Rivendell is the priority of elf kind, however the city is also a stronghold and will be a fortifiable advance base for regrouping after our initial push," Haldir went on.

"Is that really true? Or do you just want us to focus our attention there as our main priority too?" Knov countered. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and reminded, "Most of those fortifiable positions would have been destroyed in the siege."

"Even if the defense infrastructure was completely destroyed in the Sith's invasion," Haldir retorted. "It is the geography of Rivendell that allowed the elves to hold out for as long as we did, despite the Resistance crumbling on all fronts around us. Retreating so that we were surrounded on all sides," Haldir recounted at the very Resistance forces who had let them down in the past and were now speaking too harshly on his people's intentions for this mission. He continued after silencing their opposition, "When King Elrond fell, he drew in the Sith leaders and ordered those of us remaining in the city to break out through the weak point in the encirclement. He and his bodyguard, the strongest warrior among us who refused to leave his side, Ryuu Lion, fought to the end in order to protect our retreat."

"King Elrond's loss was a tragedy," Fubuki stated. "Not just because of the strength he brought to the Resistance, but for your people and Nexus as a whole."

"Thank you for saying that," Haldir said.

"We intended on taking Rivendell as a forward base with or without the elves' help," Gray continued himself and reminded his men around him. "It is a good halfway point between the current border and the ocean. With river access and mountainous positions that have deep caves to defend should we need to slow our assault."

The others all seemed to accept that explanation, so Gray smiled as it appeared the argument was finished. Gray turned to Haldir and asked his ally, "I do wonder, if Legolas is with your forces?" Haldir turned to Gray in surprise, but Gray seemed doubtful already and added, "I ask because Legolas the Archer is famed as a fearsome fighter, but since you're leading and he isn't…" Gray was suggesting jokingly that if Legolas was here, he would be the one in charge instead of Haldir. He did not get a smile out of the man though like he was attempting to, and Gray's own grin lowered down as he realized what Haldir's flat expression was for. "Oh."

Gray lowered his gaze to the table and then back up at his friend. "Sorry, I didn't know-"

"You have been gone for a long time, Gray. But it was actually before your disappearance that Legolas fell," Haldir responded. Gray grimaced as he did not even have a good excuse for not knowing then. Haldir continued after seeing that look, "But it is not surprising you did not know. Considering everyone who died that day, to assume that you would know the whole list of casualties would be the mistake. He was killed by the King, that day of the Third War of the Gods."

Fubuki clenched her eyes shut and turned her head to the side. She winced in pain, while Hanazawa also lowered his own gaze and then shook his head back and forth with a sad look on his face.

---

FD + 680

"Ahh hah, ahh hah, HAA!" Ageha Yoshina shot forward through the sky and swung his right arm in front of his chest. He bent his elbow to his body and started curling his fingers in, and a giant black sphere of PSI reemerged before him that rapidly condensed and then shot forward as he punched his arm out. "Melchsee's Lance!"

The Ant King shot a sphere of yellow ki at the Resistance fighter flying his way, but the lance of condensed energy was thinner and pierced Meruem's attack. The Ant King had made his attack wider intentionally to hide his body on the other side of it though, and as Ageha gave chase after his own attack, his eyes darted down at the sight of Meruem dropping below where his lance pierced Meruem's ki. A red glow surrounded Meruem's tail that reached up and wrapped around Ageha's leg. Meruem yanked him down while slashing his right claw forward- "NOVA!" Ageha roared.

A black aura pulsed off his body while his eyes flashed white. He swatted away Meruem's claw, only for Meruem's other fist to lodge in Ageha's chest while the Ant pulled down even harder with his tail. The Ant King's fist opened up against Ageha's chest and then swiped up into the face of the teen who nearly got it away in time, only for the Ant King's claw to stretch that extra inch to dig through the eighteen year old's skin.

Blood splashed away from Ageha's face while he coughed up spit and flew back through the air after the blow to his chest. "Upgraded… Melchsee's VORTEX!" Ageha swung his arms up as Meruem charged at him. The Ant King appeared behind his back, but the vortex acted as a shield and pushed Meruem back… just a bit. A wave of purple En pulsed off of the creature and made Ageha flinch even inside of his Nova form, his glowing white eyes bulging as Meruem pushed through the shield of PSI and reached out towards his throat.

Ageha dropped. Not of his own accord, but because some invisible force yanked down on his body and dropped him hundreds of feet to the surface. Meruem could not give chase, as the same boy who swung a hand down and dropped Ageha to the surface was soaring towards him with a much larger energy field surrounding him than Ageha had been able to create.

The black-haired boy with a bowl cut punched his right hand forward while tugging Meruem towards him with his own psychic powers. Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama slammed his fist towards Meruem's face. Meruem's tail lashed around the side of his body, the tip of it coating black with Haki while a bloodthirsty look filled the Ant King's eyes. Mob did not flinch while punching forward though, and his fist lodged in the Ant King's face and made a splash of purple blood fly from the Ant King's mouth. Far more force went into that blow than Meruem knew he had in him.

Meruem had already adjusted his flight pattern and attack based on the strength of the kid whose power he could sense. As he shot back through the air with the kid on his tail, punching and kicking while surrounded in psychic power, Meruem's eyes snapped open and locked on a green haired woman miles in the distance who froze in that moment. Meruem looked into Tatsumaki's eyes and then easily caught Mob's next punch when Tatsumaki was no longer amplifying it with her own telekinetic prowess.

Meruem kneed up into Mob's gut and then put both hands together over Mob's rising back and slammed down. No sooner had his fists connected with Mob's body through the shattering veil of energy that had protected him until then, that two glowing giants soaring through the air teleported only meters in front of him. He had seen them approaching in the distance, but the teleportation jutsu that brought them this much closer came in an instant and without any warning.

Indra Otsutsuki and his brother Ashura appeared before Meruem while already in mid-attack. Indra was in full Susano'o armor with two massive glowing purple swords lifted up, while Ashura was wrapped in a red veil just as large as Indra's Susano'o but with a hundred arms. Fifty red arms on either side of Ashura were holding onto two giant spinning balls of light blue energy that he swung forward the same time that Indra slashed his swords.

A flock of crows flew in front of Meruem's face as he was dodging. His vision cut off, but Meruem closed his eyes and continued to dodge anyway while Itachi Uchiha attempted to help his ancestors and ancient greats of his world from down on the surface. "Shoot him now!" Legolas yelled out to other ground forces not far from Itachi, and a volley of magic and advanced weaponry fired into the sky to close the gaps between the brothers Otsutsuki's attacks.

Meruem was hit by a few of the attacks. He tanked his way straight through them without so much as a flinch. Resistance fighters on the ground yelled out in anger and kept firing despite the lack of reaction from the monstrous Ant King. The landscape once a stretch of green grassy knolls had craters scattered across it. Burnt wreckage of vehicles lay in heaps while bone carcasses littered the land of Aebrith devastated by yet another war- of which it was the last day. Not that any of them knew that at the moment.

Invisible forces kept slamming into the Ant King who felt the directions the forces were colliding with him from. Even the woman who had fallen to one knee for a few moments there after he looked into her eyes had lifted her head back up. The Tornado of Terror, Tatsumaki, had one hand curled in front of her as she glared at the distant Ant King whose muscles flexed including on his neck to relieve the pressure of the squeezing espers.

Meruem's right arm bulged into an ungodly red mass of fleshy muscle that then expanded even more with purple domes exposing out of his skin and glowing brightly. He swung that arm in front of him, and Ashura and Indra had to put up their own guards as they felt just how strong this attack was about to be. The arm Meruem swung erupted into a focused explosion out in front of his body that sent the guarding ninja flying backwards in a mass of flames and smoke.

Meruem burst into flames himself.

Black fire surrounded the Ant King who darted a glare at the Uchiha on the ground who got him in the moment he hit the ancient ninja. Itachi's Mangekyo Sharingan locked onto the villain and ignited him with Amaterasu. In a half a second, Meruem was behind one of his bloodied enemies who just reached a hand up to wipe his eyes. Meruem wrapped his arms around Ageha Yoshina to the shock of the teenager who screamed out in agony an instant later as black fire surrounded him.

Itachi winced and clenched one eye shut. Not worth it. He cut off his Amaterasu. Itachi did it more because he was burning a powerful comrade than he did because Ageha was a friend and comrade. He judged that incapacitating Ageha would be a bigger loss here, especially considering Meruem's skin underneath the black flames was not getting as damaged as Itachi had hoped. He's too rough. Need stronger blows.

Itachi leapt backwards as Meruem shifted his gaze in the ninja's direction. Itachi tried to make eye contact with the Ant King to catch him for a moment, but Meruem knew that Itachi was trying to draw him in for a genjutsu trap, as he could also sense the two behind him despite their Power Blockers. Jin Mori and Han Daewi appeared in blurs behind the Ant King. They were each in midair. Jin Mori had his right fist pulled back far, but his left leg was extended out and still pulling back as his body started to twist. Han Daewi ground his teeth as the Ant King's head blurred to turn towards them. Meruem pushed off of Ageha which sent their burnt and exhausted comrade into the ground and through a trench that dragged up for a quarter mile just from Meruem releasing him.

Meruem's tail curled and parried Mori's leg when it spun around. Mori's leg bounced off it though while his body continued to spin around. "Renewal Taekwondo: Triple-" Mori's second kick was not parried, as Meruem's tail wrapped around it instead and whipped the teenager over his head and down into the ground on his other side. Han Daewi slammed his fist into Meruem's, and the Ant King bit down and showed all his furiously grinding teeth to the boy who glared back into the Ant's eyes and pushed his own fist harder into him.

A shockwave ripped apart the ground below them. Mori was released and kicked in the side, causing the spiky-haired boy with white goggles pushed up on his forehead to gasp out in pain. Spit flew from his mouth while his shirt ripped from the Ant's kick that covered in dark red light at the last second. Meruem's left hand opened up as he was about to punch into Daewi's fist again when the two collided high in the air, and the Ant King's open palm pushed aside the master martial artist's fist in a way Daewi did not see coming. Meruem's tail then snaked around the side of his body and pierced forward.

A bright blue dog with swirling patterns flew into the path of Meruem's attack. Haetae, Daewi's summoned Charyeok, absorbed the blow as the middle of its body burst into a huge splash that took the force of the attack. The splashes at the dog's tail and its head pulled together into two fists that punched at the Ant King who blocked both, only for Han Daewi to push through the middle of the splash with a punch into the Ant King's chest that sent him flying backwards.

The instant the Ant King was hit, everyone waiting for their moment made their moves. The Megazord swung both arms forward and launched the two fighters the Power Rangers were holding in wait. The giant dinosaur-looking robot released at rocket speeds the two warriors while the five teenagers inside yelled out together, "GO!"

Ruti Ragnason, the 16 year old Hero, soared through the air in a veil of golden light while drawing her legendary sword back behind her. Suzaku Kururugi's white knightmare mech glowed bright blue while it punched forward both of its arms that combined and transformed into a black sword moving so fast that the wind pushing past to either side was visible like a huge white aura.

"Super Hyper Mega Extreme Ultra…" Sogiita Gunha pulled his right elbow down into the side of his gut with his fist out in front of him. His body hunched forward and twisted to the right as he wound up. The floor shook violently under the teenage boy with a white bandanna around his head that was red on the right side from the gash in his forehead that also soaked that side of his face. An enormous smile spread on his bloodied expression though as he screamed out, "…AMAZING- PUNCH!"

A bright flash of yellow light exploded around him, but that light got brighter as it moved farther from him and became narrower into a single line of energy that shifted shape into a lance coming out of his fist. Ruti and Suzaku slashed. Mob reached his hands up with Tatsumaki who both tried to freeze the Ant King in place with their combined power.

Ageha lifted his head and looked up in the sky after thanking the teen next to him who was down on one knee and coughing still after taking in the pain of rewinding Ageha's injuries himself. Shiba Tatsuya narrowed his glare up at the Ant King as did many others watching to see if this time, the attack might work. His sister Shiba Miyuki held her hands together where she stood ten feet behind him, as she had run after him when he darted ahead of their position to go save Ageha. Please! Miyuki wished more than anything that this would work, but dread already filled her and other Resistance members watching even before the Ant King's body suddenly moved twenty feet to the left with no sign of any propulsion.

He just moved. Meruem moved out of the way of Sogiita's attack. He did not flap wings or point his arms in any direction, he just moved to the side. Then he lifted up over Ruti's sword slash- only to drop even faster as Han Daewi swung both arms down. The atmosphere dipped ten shades darker around Meruem but not from the Chimera Ant's power this time. Gravity amplified around Meruem over 1000 times what it should have been, and Daewi only stopped when Meruem fell in front of Suzaku's attack that collided with the Ant and sent him flying… straight into Ageha whose liftoff that same second sent a huge wind knocking Miyuki over and causing Tatsuya to raise an arm to protect his eyes from dust flying into him.

Ageha smashed forward a Melchsee's Sphere into Meruem's back. His attack went straight through the Ant King to the shock of the teenager who felt a hand on the back of his head after he passed through the after-image. Meruem used his own genjutsu on the boy whose wounds had suddenly recovered- "MIND BLOCK!"

Meruem reeled backwards as Ageha protected his mind from the Ant who did not suspect this teenager to have that kind of psychic-blocking ability. It hurt the Ant King's brain more than any attack the young man had been able to land thus far, and Meruem adjusted his fighting style immediately. No more mental attacks. His repertoire subtracted abilities he had mastered over time on this world. If a level of fighter like him can cause pain. Meruem was not going to risk his strongest asset, and damage to his brain was potentially the most harmful thing he could face.

Even though he corrected for any future mistakes, Ageha's mind block had knocked him off-balanced for a second. Jin Mori flew up into the Ant King and kicked him in his lower back much higher into the sky. Fifty giant chunks of earth lifted up by Mob and Tatsumaki crashed into the body of the Chimera Ant who crossed both arms in front of his chest and head while curling his knees up. An enormous glowing purple sword slashed through the debris, straight through a thick chunk of ground so Meruem could only see it at the very last millisecond. He turned one hand and caught Indra's blade, but the slash continued forward and launched him off of it and down straight into Han Daewi and Ageha, while a blonde woman in a maid costume tossed aside her umbrella as she shot up through a huge black veil around her. Hilda's demonic expression twisted as she pulled back her right fist. Her whole arm bulged with muscles and tore the maid costume's sleeve from her shoulder down as all of her aura condensed for an Energy Punch.

"Third Stance: White Tiger's Dance!" Along with Inertia Manipulation, Han Daewi thought, amplifying the power of his punches that would not look to Meruem like they were going to hit so hard.

Ageha was back in Nova mode, and he added a Power Multiplication into his attack as well. Black spheres of Burst power behind him absorbed into his right arm that swung forward while bursting with black flames just like Hilda's. The knuckles of his fist pierced out so the attack would hit quicker than the Ant King would expect. An Upgraded Melchsee's Lance speared forth while he yelled out instead, "Melchsee's Punch!"

Meruem's eyes snapped open wider and full of animalistic instinct and predatory sense. His eyes locked down on Hilda who was hit by a kiai so powerful that her arm snapped backwards, causing her to scream while her momentum was reversed in an instant. The tip of Meruem's tail coated in black aura and whipped around his body at Ageha who could not continue with his Lance that was just too slow to connect with Meruem before the Ant King would kill him. He saw the glowing red tip of the Ant King's tail and twisted his body to dodge it. A red laser shot out of Meruem's tail anyway though. The laser was thin, as thin as a piece of string, and yet it was straight and shot past Ageha who had dodged on instinct and without thinking hard enough about what he was doing.

"No!" Han screamed while finishing his punch into the Ant who found himself spinning through the air with his eyes clenched shut for a second after Han Daewi's punch to his face. He rocketed miles away, while his tail continued to fire that beam of energy out of it. He aimed his hands back through the air in the path he just soared, and Meruem fired ten dozen spheres of energy that randomly burst out in all directions and arced towards the surface.

Then Meruem snapped his eyes back open and spun around, pointing his hands towards Mob Kageyama and Tatsumaki at the same time as they each tried to stop his ki attacks from the slaughter that was about to ensue. Han Daewi changed his course through the air to drop down and punch and kick away attacks like Mori attempted far from him. The beams were too scattered though. Han had seen what the Ant King was trying to do when the first red laser shot past Ageha, and he cursed while darting around and protecting as many soldiers as he could, unable to even glare back at Meruem at the moment as there were so many beams so far from each other that he could not stop.

The first red laser missed Ageha when he dodged. It sliced down into the ground and cut through five men in a quick slice that bisected most of them but just cut off the head of one. Legolas and Daryl's top halves dropped side by side, one's bow landing on the other's crossbow. "Daryl!" Glenn screamed behind his friend, as he, Rick, and Michonne ran towards him. Then the laser that cut through the ground just behind the men it bisected finally exploded, and the ground beneath them all ruptured.

"Legolas!" Haldir yelled it but then spun towards his other allies who were running at him. "Wait-" The ground exploded while Haldir pulled back and crossed his arms in front of his face. A chunk of earth slammed into his breastplate and knocked him backwards.

"Ahhhh!"

"Help! We need a medic!"

BOooom!

CRASH!

Mob bounced on the surface and slammed into a hill that exploded in all directions away from him. He stopped short in midair and pointed his hands out towards the hill pieces, freezing them before they could collide through more of his allies. Blood dripped down from his right nostril while his left eye finished swelling into a black eye that took longer than it did for him to right himself after that flurry of blows he took.

Tatsumaki gasped and stumbled back to fall on her butt as the psychic shield in front of her shattered. A beam of light flying at her multiplied in size five times, and then a cyborg flew in front of the green-haired woman and pointed both of his arms out in front of him. Genos' arms popped open and revealed enormous glowing blue cannons inside. Lightning sparked around him, and his core pulsed bright as he fired a full-powered beam into Meruem's attack and pushed it back the other way.

Another of Meruem's attacks flew at Itachi Uchiha who crossed his arms like he was going to take it head-on. The beam hit him though and Itachi's body burst out into a flock of crows that scattered in the wind. Itachi emerged out of thin air behind Meruem as the atmosphere looked to distort around his Kamui, and the ninja emerged with his Sharingan locked on the middle of Meruem's head for when the Ant King spun around to attack whoever it was. But Meruem's tail sliced backwards at Itachi without the Ant King looking at him, just as the Ant King had avoided direct eye contact with the ninja through the fight.

Even as Itachi used his sword and tried to fend off Meruem's blind attack that became relentless as the tail slashed back and forth into the ninja only halfway out of his own void dimension, the Ant King continued to fire off attacks from his palms towards the surface support fighters. Their stronger allies were trying to protect them, and Itachi felt an enormous sense of dread due to how calm he could sense the Ant King still was. Despite all of their attacks that had seemed to put the Ant on the defensive, Itachi knew better. He's playing shogi. We're playing tic-tac-toe.

They pride themselves on being "good." So their emotions get in the way. It is a weakness for them.

"Do not lose focus!" Haldir yelled towards other elves who had yet to recover. He was hurt by the loss of their friends, but he spun and called out at others too, "Keep up the assault! Reinforcements are coming." Haldir pointed his own bow back up and drew a special arrow with a red pointed tip to it. "Do not lose focus!" He ordered his recuperating allies. The Ant King is as strong as they say. Haldir sounded more confident because he knew he needed to, but the landscape was still exploding around them. Resistance ships are moving in with other powerful allies to join the fight, subbing in for the tanks and continuing the assault on Meruem that the Resistance has planned for since the Second War of the Gods. Yet I fear. I fear this monster is more than we bargained for.

Ruti was down on her knees three miles from Haldir. She held her older brother Gideon in her arms, shaking him as he coughed up blood. She stopped and her hands trembled instead as she feared she might be doing more harm to him. His eyes were already foggy though. Her support both in battle and emotionally through her life just feebly reached up a hand and brushed a tear off her panicked face. Gideon whispered while his eyes lost focus and shifted up to the sky above his sister's head. "I'm going, to join Rit now… sorry, Ru-" his lips fell silent. He stopped speaking while blood continued to trickle out the corners of his mouth, while it poured out a lot faster from his knees since he was missing his lower legs.

"No. No no no no no no NO!" Ruti dropped her brother and snapped her eyes to the sky. The "Hero" drew her sword that trembled in pure rage while she glared up at the Ant King. The ground shattered underneath her. Cubes of earth rose up in all directions as Ruti shot into the sky so fast she made shockwaves that hurt her comrades' ears just being close to her.

Han Daewi dropped Meruem using his gravity-altering powers once again right as Meruem was about to follow up on a punch to impale Han's friend Mori. The Ant King twisted around even in that pillar of intense gravity even higher than the 1000x that Daewi hit him with before. Meruem still managed to spin his body around to glare at the blue-haired girl who screamed out in agonized wrath as she slashed at him.

I can't stop her, but I might as well use her boost. The same boost many have, Meruem. Han Daewi narrowed his glare at the villain while Haetae swirled back to life at his side. The blue Charyeok narrowed its own cute gaze up at the Ant King that tried to stop his plummet but struggled from how much force was pushing down on his body. Daewi thought as he made eye contact with Meruem for a moment, If you think that our emotions get in the way, I'll show you that our rage for our lost comrades is a strength-

Meruem stopped struggling on his descent. Daewi tensed up and started to move, but he flinched and froze as Meruem ducked Ruti's blade and grabbed her wrist, snapping it with such force that her own sword continued swinging around into her own neck.

"RUTI!" Mori Jin screamed out for his friend as he shot back down out of the sky in an aura of his own. A white halo flashed to life around Mori's forehead and through his waving brown hair. White light surrounded the Monkey King and he disappeared to most everyone watching, but Meruem's body also turned into a blur in the next second until the two collided in midair. Then they appeared in twelve different spots as they moved so fast that their shockwaves looked to ricochet everywhere.

Damn it, so soon? You know you can't keep that form up for long in this world. Daewi thought, only for his eyes to shake as he saw Mori get a green fist lodged in his face the same time that his friend landed a kick on the Ant King. It's learning. It's learning faster than we're getting stronger! Between the last war and now the difference is greater than we thought. He was hiding that increase! Was it from Tien? It's far more. He has eaten so many of us. What is his weak point? Where is it? Where is our opening?!

Even the Monkey King isn't enough. Itachi's Sharingan darted back and forth as he watched the fight across the sky that Mori was trying to keep away from their comrades. Just by having that single ulterior intention during their fight was making Mori too slow compared to Meruem who fought with no holds barred. He's slower than Mori, but all of the martial arts prowess in the world means nothing to the Ant King. He's no longer getting hit. One on one there is no chance.

The Ant King spun around and whipped his tail into the side of Mori Jin's face. Mori went sprawling backwards and righted himself to rush back in, just behind the others who all closed on Meruem in that moment. Ashura, Mob, Itachi, Ageha, Daewi, and Indra were all ahead of Mori on their full-scale rush at the Ant King.

Meruem's body turned blood red. His skin cracked all over his form, glowing red lines shining inside of those cracks as his enemies assaulted him. He pulled his elbows in, and his face twisted in rage that the Ant King rarely showed. It was necessary for the strengthening of his Royal Guard's ability, as he had long mastered Youpi's Nen that he once devoured before his own death. "Rage Incarnate," Meruem's calm voice did not match the look of his face and body that bulged then flashed with yellow light.

He drew in his strongest enemies, and then he blew them all away with an explosion that created a mushroom cloud and shook the barrier above to make faint purple ripples come out of it. Soldiers on the ground clenched their eyes shut and bowed their heads to hide from the bright light. Shards of light from Meruem's attack flew into the surface though and made the ground rupture and explode all over. Approaching ships peeled off and the systems inside them went wild with smoke pouring out of instruments that could not handle the explosion shaking the aircraft.

"Everyone out now! Go! Go! Go!"

Doors on the sides of gunships opened up and warriors leapt out. Powerful fighters raced towards the Ant King who they knew was in the middle of that enormous blast. The landscape was on fire ahead of them, but the fighters charged forward nonetheless while the ships were forced to land behind them. Other weaker members of the Resistance unloaded from those ships, while the injured were dragged back to them and mechanics tried to get the vehicles back up and running.

"Mami. Sayaka. Please watch my back," Madoka requested her friends who each hummed affirmatively and clenched their weapons tighter as they followed their friend. The three magical girls in bright pink, blue, and golden dresses surrounded in the same colored auras zipped through the sky and attacked the Ant King together. Madoka drew her bow, while Mami fired from the five rifles that spun around her, and Sayaka slashed her sword ahead of her at the monstrous creature.

"Careful, Bunny," back behind Madoka and her friends, Ryuko Matoi warned her comrade she also flew through the air with just slower than their allies. They had jumped out of a different ship than the magical girls, and Ryuko surrounded in a white veil while drawing a pair of blades on either side of her. Her armor wrapped around her body and got thicker and spiked out at her shoulders, though it did leave a wide gap between her shoulder pads with a breastplate and the waist-guard that she had, exposing her whole midriff. Ryuko faced sideways to the bulky child-like girl with a hunched back who had a brown ponytail over the top of her head, one buck tooth sticking out over her bottom lip, and a lilac dress on with a black belt around her waist.

"Ah-huh. Bunny will!" The dim-witted girl stuck a thumbs-up at Ryuko then shot ahead in a flash of lilac light.

"Wait up!" Ryuko's armor opened up on the back and shot out jets of energy that sped her up more than her trained ability was able to. I can't let anything happen to you, Bunny. I promised Blossom and the girls. They're still recovering from their own battle, and they're only as injured as they are because they protected Kiryuin and the others. Just like you protected my sister, I'll protect yours! "HAAA!" Ryuko slashed her swords to either side and coated them in Armament Haki, then her pupils dilated and a force of Conqueror's Haki burst out from her at the Ant King who she raced at in a spinning blur.

A yellow beam of light shot away from one of the shockwaves that filled the sky where Meruem was fighting a dozen powerful enemies all at once. The beam got thicker as it neared the ground, and people screamed and turned to run only to get blown apart or blown away by the chain of blasts that dragged through the surface. Shards of dirt and rock slammed into Sogiita Gunha whose body was too strong that all those pieces just broke apart against him.

There. Sogiita leapt up and punched both of his fists forward at rapid speeds. Each punch sent ripples through the air at the Ant King who was dodging away from one attack while already flying in this direction, making it harder for him to dodge a second time. He got hit by the teen's blows, and those hits were getting harder as Sogiita approached closer in the air. A beam flew out of Meruem's side towards him as if barely putting out an effort to hit the boy, but Sogiita smacked the sphere of energy away using his left hand to little effort. He pulled his other arm back extra far while Meruem kicked away a pair of swords slashed by different Susano'o simultaneously. Sogiita punched, and the arm he was swinging went flying up into the air away from his body.

Sogiita was grinning ear to ear. He felt the pinch in his right shoulder and saw the flash of Meruem's tail moving up above him, before a kick hit him in the stomach. Meruem's tail meanwhile got caught by an ally over his head and swung around to launch him into the distance. Sogiita barely saw that ally as they were moving too fast too, just as Meruem had when he sliced the teen's arm off at the shoulder without Sogiita even realizing it for a second. His eyes shifted to his rising arm as the foot lodged in his chest, and he bit down in agony before screaming out, "RAAA-ack, aAaGhh!" He spun out as he soared backwards, and blood spurted from his shoulder as winds crashed into him from all the supersonic fighters moving around up here.

"Sogiita!" His friend in a white knightmare mech called out. Suzaku caught his younger comrade and then turned up the jets on the feet of his knightmare in order to steady them in midair. Suzaku opened his right palm and looked at Sogiita who was thrashing about on it and grabbing at his shoulder that was spilling blood fast. Tatsuya, Suzaku thought, and he scanned the surface while dropping fast to go find their friend who could heal a wound like this…

"Nii-sama!" Miyuki screamed while down on both knees, shaking Tatsuya Shiba in panic. Her body glowed and his did as well, and the ground around them was exploding faster than Ageha Yoshina could block.

"Melchsee's Vortex!" He screamed out, creating a black vortex around them that repelled what seemed like targeted attacks from above considering their precision. That precision seemed almost impossible though considering how many of their strongest fighters were on top of Meruem. "Miyuki! Can you do it?!" Ageha yelled over his shoulder at the girl who was begging her older brother to live.

"No," Suzaku whispered in horror as he heard the wailing start coming from Tatsuya's sister.

"Put me down already," a voice growled below him. Suzaku glanced down and then stepped back in surprise as Sogiita hopped off the outstretched palm of his knightmare.

"Sogiita. You need help-"

"We don't have that luxury. Can't ya' see that?" Sogiita cracked his neck to the left then rolled his left shoulder. "Ack- kah!" Sogiita sloshed around his bloody spit then spat a glob of it on the ground to his right. "I have the guts to stick around," Sogiita's bloody lips curled back up at the corners. He lifted up his left hand and slammed it into his right shoulder while glaring into the sky at the villain. Meruem froze while blocking the sword of the Megazord and ducking a fast-flying kick that went through the space his head just filled.

Meruem stared away from all the powerful heroes around him who kept attacking. He stared at the boy whose arm he just cut off, who stared right back at him with blood spilling down from both nostrils and out the corners of his eyes. Sogiita flexed the muscles in his right shoulder that remained after Meruem cut the arm off. "Super Ultra Amazing Extreme HYPER Healing!"

The same as Netero. Meruem thought. The knightmare behind Sogiita backed up and then shot its jets to get away from the teenager who started scaring him. Suzaku grabbed a few people and pulled them off with him as he gained distance. Blue aura surrounded Sogiita as he pulled his left elbow down into his gut. His right shoulder was no longer bleeding as his muscles had flexed in over the open wound. He had just lost an arm, but he smiled towards the Ant King with no look of defeat in his eyes at all.

"HaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Sogiita punched his left hand down into the ground with his body hunched forward. His head stayed lifted up with his hair waving around to keep his pure white eyes now glowing bright focused straight on Meruem's. The sky overhead filled with a white sphere of energy a kilometer in diameter and growing. Lightning bolts shot off of it and into the ground around Sogiita, and all around Meruem who was the attack's target.

"Force him in place!" Sokka yelled towards Mob who staggered back onto one foot near him and pointed his hands up at the Ant King.

Bunny fired beams of purple energy at the Ant King, while Madoka pulled back but kept her hands raised to add her own telekinesis into the mix. Meruem twitched and struggled to move his arms and legs, and his eyes shifted towards the magical girl in bright pink who gulped when the monster looked at her. A giant skull appeared in her mind surrounding the beast that gave off a bloodthirsty aura of Ren energy that made most everyone looking his way freeze up in fear.

"TAKE THIS!" Sogiita screamed, only flinching for a moment when Meruem released that aura that turned the entire atmosphere around them ten shades darker.

The white sun dropped. Resistance forces screamed out at the monster that showed its true nature in the release of its Ren. Sweat covered their faces and they roared out in rage and vengeance and for justice. Beams and arrows and bullets flew up from the ground. Esper powers held him in place while beams of light shot at him from his sides and even above in the air too.

The Ant King twitched his left middle finger. Earlier, when his red lasers sliced through people on the surface, most of the energy that he condensed into such thin attacks did not explode. Most attacks that had been seemingly random or just utilizing smart openings the King made to fire upon the soldiers down below had been more carefully executed than the Resistance realized. Their medics were now in the areas where their injured friends fell. Comrades were crying on their allies' bodies or trying to drag them away from craters…

BOOOOOM! Meruem had been manipulating the energy remnants still remaining under the surface. Wherever the injured were, wherever the dead lay, the delayed energy blasts erupted and annihilated the ground above.

Two Kyoshi warriors who were dragging away one of their sisters only managed to turn their heads sideways to catch a glimpse of the glowing red ground just behind them. Then it exploded upwards, and they screeched as the red light overtook and burned them up. The women in their white cloaks and samurai armor shredded in the energy blasts that also ripped apart the earth around them in what turned into a chain of explosions shooting across the battlefield.

"No! Get back-" Suki was yelling towards her comrades, when the ground under her feet shook.

"SUKI!" Sokka screamed, running forward and reaching a hand out to the painted-faced woman who only managed to whisper, 'oh-' before the ground under her feet erupted like a volcano. "SU- AHhhhhgg!" Sokka got hit by the edge of the blast and sent flying backwards.

Hundreds of explosions blew apart the landscape. Telekinetic holds on Meruem weakened as the ground underneath half of the espers broke apart. Madoka had been holding him the strongest, but the look he made directly into her eyes first while releasing his Ren had weakened her hold, and Meruem shot away from beneath Sogiita's attack.

As Meruem dodged out from under Sogiita's attack though, he was focused on the other enemies in the air who attacked him in fury over the loss of so many comrades in one surprise strike. The strongest fighters the Resistance had on the battlefield rushed the Ant King with no hesitation. The sky changed color above them as all the different forms of energy clashed. Many kinds of ki and chakra and Nen swirled into patterns of red and dark purple and bright blue. Yellows and flashing whites mixed into the darker colors that swirled as the Ant King collided with his enemies…

Down on the surface, explosions went off to the right and left side of a pair of girls who ignored them both. An orange haired robotic girl with curly orange hair lifted her arms at her sides, and swords popped off of her body and swung around to point up in the air. Her partner at her side with long red hair tied into a ponytail bent her right leg and hunched into a crouch while pulling both of her elbows into her gut. "Are you ready?" Penny Polendina asked her partner who just nodded once while her eyes continued to dart around as she tracked the Ant King's movements. Pyrrha Nikos' hands started to glow and a matching silver aura surrounded the blades that had flown off of Penny's sides.

Penny's eyes had target symbols in the middles of them, and her HUD was showing a crosshairs zipping around trying to get a lock as well. Please let this work, Lady Hephaestus. The android girl whose consciousness had been moved into a new body made entirely of Adamantium aimed her swords sharpened by Hephaestus herself. Penny pulled the hilts of those weapons down into Pyrrha. Explosions rippled around them. Heat burned against Pyrrha's back through her armor, the steel getting hotter so it was singing her skin. She did not flinch nor take her eyes off of Meruem for a second. The two of them were lucky enough not to be in the middle of any blast, so they remained focused on their attack.

Now. They both thought at the same time. Their bodies moved together. Pyrrha used her Semblance: Polarity, to pull Penny's swords towards her gauntlets, only to reverse the magnetism while Penny was still pulling back into her. Pyrrha reversed the poles while the swords were so close to her armored gloves, and only by working with Penny were they able to launch the weapons faster into the air than either of them could attack with on their own. Both could barely follow their own strikes.

The ground was covered in explosions and screaming Resistance fighters just trying to survive. Meruem's stronger enemies were up in the air fighting him, and the Ant King darted his eyes down slower than he locked them onto each of his succeeding opponents in the sky. The weapons flying at him cut off his momentum. They split his focus. Their speed did not decrease; the acceleration remained constant as the Adamantium weapons flew up at him.

Meruem twisted back and forth but had to duck a kick that Mori nearly caught him with in the moment he bothered getting distracted by the fighters below. He avoided the powerful blow that blew away huge masses of swirling energy in the sky to carve a path for miles away in its force. But by dodging Mori, he failed to pull completely away from one of the swords that he leaned into instead. The blade slashed past his left arm, cutting through his aura that he tried to thicken at the last second, and slicing through flesh. Purple blood splashed out of the gash in Meruem's arm.

"HRRAAAA!" Meruem rose his voice. The Ant King roared and the atmosphere vibrated around him. There was no time for the girls below to celebrate their attack. The air and ground around them exploded as tiny spores of red and white light shot away in all directions from the Ant King whose aura whipped around the landscape in a thick mass made solid by how condensed it was.

Han Daewi dropped in a blur before the girls who were about to get obliterated in revenge for that last attack. Haetae exploded around them and created a water bubble that protected them from the blasts. "Good hit," Daewi said, his eyes narrowed up through his bubble at the Ant King above shrouded in a fog of dark purple mist. We need to keep it up. No one thought this would be easy, but if we take down the King, the Resistance will win this war.

"Haha, hahaha," Meruem laughed to himself in a voice that sent chills down the spines of warriors inside the thick fog of the Ant King's aura. He looked at his left arm and the blood trickling down it from the slash he received. I was ignoring them. Even the small members of the Resistance can have impact when utilized well enough. Technology on this world can compete with pure power. Using that technology I should be able to develop stronger regeneration. Meruem glared at his wound that started steaming and then heating up and melting shut so it no longer bled.

Even in fights against their strongest members, the insignificant can be influential. Perhaps Pouf may have been right. I should have brought an army to take care of those weaker members. Lessons to consider for the Saiyans and Kryptonians. Meruem could hear more approaching enemy reinforcements in the distance, but that just made it all more of a challenge. Meruem grinned madly at the new ideas and revelations he was coming to in this battle already. More. I want more! Bloodlust shot out of the dark fog in the sky, and Meruem's aura caused weaker Resistance members to drop to their knees, tears spilling down their faces in fear.

The Resistance are proving better than I thought! But nothing beyond my margin of error.

The Resistance were not the only ones who saw an increase in strength in their enemy beyond what they had accounted for. Meruem felt none of the despair or fear upon learning that truth that many of even the strongest Resistance fighters felt when realizing the Ant's true abilities.

"Snnf, snn-" Xiaohei sniffled and backed up on his paws. His whole body was shaking, and his pointed furry ears dipped down as his back hunched in a fearful way.

Wuxian glanced to his side at his panting and sniffling student. Dozens of injured Resistance members who the boy had just rescued with his spatial powers were bleeding out and screaming behind them. "Hei," Wuxian began. He turned and knelt down on one knee in front of the kid with white hair who spun towards him nervously only to get a confused look on his face at the sight of his master smiling, something that was so rare for him.

"Master? What is-"

"Be good," Wuxian told him as he patted a hand on top of the boy's head.

Hei slipped through the floor. "Ah- wait! Master!" Hei yelled out and grabbed for the ground in front of him, but the floor was not really there. He dropped through and popped out of the ground somewhere so far from the battlefield that he had no idea where he was. "MASTER!" Hei screamed out in panic. "No NO! You can't do it alone!"

The kid spun around and looked for his master but only saw empty landscape in all directions. He stood on a desert of red sand and had no idea where he was. "Wuxian," Hei whispered. He clenched his eyes shut and curled his fists at his sides. "I can still help. I have to get back! Where?" He searched out farther and farther for the battle he had just been teleported safely away from. Where are you, Master? There!

Xiaohei felt a huge spiritual presence and dropped through the floor. Only after he started using his spatial powers though did he realize, That power is so menacing. That's not Master! It was too late. The spiritual presence he had locked onto just because of its size suddenly felt so much stronger as he emerged in front of it, and he understood that the power was ten times more than what he felt from Wuxian.

"AhhH!" Hei screamed as the monster in front of him opened his mouth and roared out a beam of yellow light.

"Oof-" Hei grunted and gasped out a breath as something hard slammed into him. It was not a beam of light ripping him apart though.

Hei's eyes opened up. A man standing in front of him had him lifted by the armpits and was staring at him in surprise. "Whoa! Look out there, little guy," the spiky-blond-haired man told the kid who he placed down on the floor safely away from the beam of energy.

Hei spun to either side in shock as there were two beaten and unconscious forms on the ground who he recognized. "The Commanders," Xiaohei gasped at the sight of Yusuke Urameshi and Hiei laying in heaps on the floor. Then he looked back up at the muscular man in an orange gi who turned back and glared at the demon he was fighting high above.

Son Goku rose back off the floor and flew towards Raizen. Lucifer's top general laughed and flew back at the Super Saiyan himself, and when Goku clashed with the demon, he had a smile on his face as well. The ground below Hei shook in a horrible earthquake that created fissures through the enemy lines up ahead that Kuwabara and Kurama were struggling to hold back while Goku fought their general.

"Wh-Where am I? Master!" Hei spun his head back and forth and then clenched his eyes shut again. He tried to sense Wuxian, but the spiritual powers of this demonic army and their insanely powerful leader were too strong. Hei turned back and lifted his head slowly and in awe just like everyone else on the battlefield who stopped fighting at the sight of the clashing figures up above.

Raizen's fist missed by centimeters past the side of Goku's head. The Saiyan warrior just leaned slightly away and then kicked up into Raizen's stomach. He sent the villain flying back through the sky, but this time he did not give chase. "That's all you have?" Goku wondered. Raizen's smile wiped from his face, replaced with skepticism and anger that the man would pretend like he was disappointed or that the fight was not worth his time.

Goku felt the tremendous powers coming from different directions though. And he had already been at other battles that day. "It's time I end this here, demon." Goku's body bulked up even more. His hair got even spikier. Lightning bolts flew away from him as he rose into Super Saiyan 2. "Kaaameeee… HAAMMMEEEE…"

A green aura surrounded Raizen and flared wildly as he powered up even more too. Goku smiled again at the sight of his foe getting that powerful. Raizen's long white hair rose up inside his aura, and he held his left palm forward while Goku pushed ahead both hands that he had curled forward at his side. "TAKE THIS!" Raizen screamed.

"HAAAAA!" Goku pushed his arms all the way forward. The beam of blue light that came out of Son Goku's palms was five times larger than the energy blast that Raizen created. The shocked demon cut his off quickly as the Kamehameha Wave was burning straight through his beam. He moved to the side of it, only to reel back in even more astonishment at the sight of the super hero who was flying alongside the Kamehameha Wave that he cut off early as well, suspecting that Raizen would move and dodge into this exact spot.

"YOUUUU-" Raizen lifted his right arm and created a blade of red energy that he slashed down.

Goku flew slightly to the side, dodging the slash while pulling his right arm back with his elbow pulled so far behind his back that his fist was behind his stomach. "Dragon…" A golden dragon appeared inside of Goku's glowing golden aura, and then it opened its mouth and chomped as Goku punched into the chest of the screaming demon. "FIST!" Goku punched through Raizen's torso and out his back, tearing straight through him.

SQLCh! Dark green light glowed brightly in the ripped section of Raizen's torso. The demonic body full of so much Reiatsu lost all control on that spiritual pressure. "AGH- NOOOO!" Raizen screeched in his dying throes. Goku pulled off away from him and crossed his arms, right before Raizen's body bulged and exploded in a brilliant flash that terrified the thousands of demons behind him who all started backing up in horror at the sight of their leader's death.

Hei was stunned by the sight above of that unknown man who saved him defeating the enemy with more spiritual energy than he had ever felt before. The boy shook his head around fast though and then spun to look for Wuxian again. I can feel farther away without that beast here now. So where? Where are you, Wuxian?!

Hei would not be able to find his master though.

Wuxian had teleported Hei to safety against the boy's protest, and then he flew up in the air a second later to attack Meruem with the rest of the heroes who did the same. Metal bracelets that were wrapped around his wrists and legs shot away from him. Wuxian controlled metallic elements as well as having spatial powers. Some of his metal bands flew into a distorted space and appeared behind the Ant King who ducked and let them fly over his head.

Metal swords that passed by Meruem before and that even cut him, flew back down with the same speed as Wuxian targeted the Ant King with his comrades' weapons now. Meruem was not going to be hit by the same blades twice though, and Wuxian did not have the protection that the girls below had when Meruem rushed at him after feinting an attack towards Indra and Ashura.

"Mami! Mami get up!" Sayaka yelled while flying off with her dying friend in her arms. She glanced over her shoulder and spotted their pink-clad friend clashing with the Ant King, while Wuxian's body dropped shrouded in a rain of his own blood below them. Madoka had been milliseconds too slow to stop Meruem's fatal blow on the master martial artist whose pupil could no longer sense his spiritual power.

Haldir struggled back up to his feet and staggered forward towards the landed Resistance ships still a mile away from him. He had tripped from an earthquake that knocked him off his feet, and he had to drag back up the teenage boy whose right arm he slung over his shoulders to keep him raised. The boy whose bun had come undone so his brown hair was a mess over his face was grunting in pain and bleeding heavily himself, but Sokka just kept gasping in a raspy voice even with his eyes closed, "Su-ki… ahh, Suu.. Su-ki."

Haldir looked behind him again as he limped off the battlefield with his sobbing injured comrade. He saw the silhouettes of his fellow elves who were still back there and trying to keep up the assault or get others out of there. His eyes rose to the sky that swirled with more evil colors that made sweat cover the elf's body. He shivered at the sensation of looking straight at the Ant King, and then his eyes bulged and trembled in shock at the sight as dark smoke cleared for a second up there and he spotted Meruem with a pink-haired girl gripped by the skull, her scalp opened up and his teeth dug into her brains. Meruem tore up away from her head. The look on the monster's face as it chewed, even from this distance, was the most terrifying thing Haldir had ever seen…

---

Present

"…Legolas was only one of many who the Ant King cut down. All hope had seemed lost on that day," Haldir paused while many of the others in the command post with him had dark expressions over their faces.

Sister, Fubuki thought painfully.

Kageyama, Hanazawa reminisced on his old psychic friend. I could never reach the power you obtained. Yet somehow, even yours was not enough.

Haldir had reminded everyone how the elves were always there fighting alongside the Resistance. Elvengard and Rivendell were important to him, but their elves had fought and died against the King and his Cooperative on many battlefields. Haldir went on, "Only thanks to the Saiyan King's arrival and subsequent defeat of Meruem was the Resistance spared. But now, the Saiyan King is dead." Everyone lifted their heads and gained more serious expressions once again as Haldir finished, "And next to nothing will stop the Ant King from finishing the job now."

"But there is still a chance," Gray countered the grim mood in a tone that made his allies look back to the one-armed man in surprise. Gray smiled confidently at them all. "Goku is training right now back at HQ to defeat the King. Just beating Meruem isn't enough though. We need more allies to defeat his whole Cooperative. And we can only get those allies on our side, if we can take back the coast." Gray swung his hand in front of him and tapped in the air above the holo-table, bringing up a map of the region they were about to invade. His officers all focused back up on the task at hand, some feeling depressed from the reminder of their past defeat, but others encouraged by the sound of their General's confidence.

"This is our ultimate target. The Order of the Sith resides somewhere in the Craggily Peaks, here." Gray pointed out a destination then continued while dragging his finger back along the map towards their current point, thousands of miles away from the mountains just off the coast. "The lands between these jagged mountains and the ocean are fertile and full of life. The Sith haven't Scorched them like Arachne has in the East. And most coastal cities and ports are still intact, just under the Emperor's control. Maritime trade- and naval capacity can be reopened to the Resistance should we make a foothold. Even if some of the Sith can regroup after our assault and hold onto a piece of territory, we need to reach the coast at all costs."

"The Sith are technologically advanced. Your universe was already beyond most in its scale of hyperspace travel, and the Sith have technology that is superior to even that," Gray said while facing the Jedi. He turned towards Fubuki and added, "Their alliance with Terminus is no secret. Before either were High Lords of their own domains, the Emperor and Terminus had already allied. On the day that the Saiyan King defeated Meruem, Goku also defeated Byakuran- one of many who he beat that day. He let Byakuran live, but the Emperor saw that he was weak and struck while the Millefiore were down. Using Terminators as a vanguard, the Sith crushed Byakuran and absorbed his territory into their own."

"Elvengard is a vital midway point not only for us, but for their defenses as well," Gray continued with a look back to Haldir. "Our intel shows us that some Sith are stationed in Rivendell with a small contingent of defenders. We can expect it to be reinforced quickly though, and so our initial push must move quickly as well. In order for us to reach Rivendell however, we must first push through their defensive line… here." Gray had started dragging a finger back towards their territory again from Rivendell that he had pointed out, but he stopped and then swept his hand north and south to create a thick red line inside of the Emperor's territory on the map.

"Their first line of defense," Hanazawa said, and he narrowed his eyes at the thickness Gray made it which seemed intentional.

"First lines," Gray specified the plural form. "Each a few kilometers behind the others. Condensed anti-air guns in some areas. Stronger land defenses in others. Spread out, some automated, some with mostly organic defenders. All with radars and communications relays. We will not be able to invade with a large force without being detected."

"So we smash through," Cleo stated. The answer was simple, and she grunted but nodded her head as there seemed to be no other way around it. To the south was the Great Wall, and to the north was Organization territory. Only one way in.

"On the plus side, new intelligence tells us that the Organization has pulled its ranked members from Sith territory," Gray continued on to the surprise of his officers this time. He grinned and went on, "Something about a row between the Emperor and Xemnas. I think it could also be due to the fact that several of their members were defeated at the Dread Fort," Gray said it sounding proud of the ones who did it. He added on, "And the fact that most of their eastern border is now a battleground between mutants, Chimeras, Germa, and Sun Marines."

Both the Organization's recent loss of members and their destabilized eastern border were due to Gray and his friends' direct involvement. That reminder of their commander's recent successes brought even Fubuki's mood back up higher than it was before Haldir mentioned the day her sister had passed.

Gray was not finished yet though, and he added one more thing on top. "The Emperor hired the League of Shadows to take over Terra base in northwestern Resistance territory, and he sent the third-in-charge of the Sith to deal with them. Darth Bane fell at my hands," Gray curled his one fist in front of himself as he monologued to his comrades. He said "hands" plural, and he paused for a second but added, "I still had the two at that time, until we fought Ra's afterwards and I lost one."

"'We?'" Qui-Gon wondered.

"Yes, me and, a comrade of mine," Gray responded and moved on right away. Don't think about him, Gray warned himself, as now was not the moment to lose his momentum and let his thoughts dwell darkly on Kirito. The Jedi did notice Gray's brief hesitation though even as he went on speaking, "The Sith are low on allies right now. The League is destroyed. The Fire Nation broken. Their only fellow member of the Cooperative that borders them to the north is at odds with them at the moment. We push in hard. Carefully, so as to reduce the risk of casualties, but quickly for the same reason, as a swift victory here is the best chance to keep casualties at a minimum. A prolonged war on our western front will draw in Co-op allies who want to get on the Emperor's good side, or will just encourage them to attack our borders as they think us preoccupied. The Commanders will hold the Resistance's perimeter, but they cannot monitor everywhere at once. So when we strike tomorrow morning, we will strike hard."

"We will strike fast."

"We will punch a hole through this line," Gray pointed at the hologram again and sliced his hand across it, breaking the thick red line of defenses at the exterior of Sith territory. That broken line was not that far from their current position also marked on the same map. The swipe of his hand was a simple movement meant to be symbolic, and yet Gray paused for a second while looking at the staticky hologram before him with a slashed defensive line. If only it was as simple as that, Gray thought, knowing the battle would be hard fought.

We can do it though. The Tontatta. The elves. Gray looked to be taking a dramatic pause as he glanced around into the eyes of his comrades at the table. Two elite squads. Over 300 other Resistance soldiers who have gathered here. Along with all the equipment I've been given! I can do this. I have a battalion worth of soldiers. Powerful espers worth a hundred men each. Teleporters. Jedi and clones experienced in fighting the Sith. Gray scanned his gaze across his forces and showed them all the confidence that he himself truly felt. The MPC on standby. I will take Sith positions, destroy their reinforcements when they come, and push on towards Elvengard. Once we take back the kingdom of the elves, I'll regroup at that strong position and then make our final move. An advance on the Order of the Sith.

Where I will take on the Emperor myself if I can. Now that I've seen how a top level Sith fights, I know I can do it again. The Emperor will be stronger than Darth Bane, but I will be ready for him this time. Gray felt a stabbing phantom pain in his left arm that was no longer there. His shoulder ached but he did not reach up and grab it. His right hand just curled back into a strong fist in front of his body that he rose and shook once for show to symbolize all the fingers together clenched into one fist. I know how dangerous the Sith can be. They know I know it too. And I am this ready to take them on anyway. Follow me.

"Follow me," Gray said aloud. "And we will defeat them."

---

A/N Hope you enjoyed! So, the reason I have been updating so fast is that I had 24.0-24.2 finished before 23, as that one took me a bit longer to get ideas for and write. Unfortunately, I don't have any of 24.3 written yet. Still structuring the rest of the chapter. Need to have it all planned out beforehand to get the timing and foreshadowing and everything right... but I'll start writing the actual text soon. It's also the middle of midterm week for this spring semester, and I have to get some research done for my master's thesis. I had a midterm earlier today that I think I did fairly well on, but I have another to do tomorrow, and another the next day. I have to do some regression analysis before Monday for a Descriptive and Multivariate Table for my research thesis, and it's quite a bit to do. I'll write when I have a chance. I'm super back into Nexus now and hope to keep up a good pace throughout the rest of Grad School. Though I am spending Spring Break traveling Europe, so I won't be writing much for that week of March... plus there's a conference I need to go to in New Orleans in April that will cut another week out of my schedule... Anyway! I've got a lot to do, but I do plan to keep writing Nexus in my spare time as much as I can. Definitely going to be slower updates in the weeks ahead though. I also had most of the Glynda Goodwitch chapter, and all of Nico Robin, fully written, as well as Saruman, a long while back. So the rapid posting schedule of the latter half of the Finding Index Arc was also due to my strange way of writing future chapters before earlier ones sometimes. (like I have 26.1 and 26.2 fully written already too, but none of the rest of chapter 26, just like I do with chapter 30.1 and half of 30.2, and half of another Sora chapter...). It's weird. Sometimes I just feel like writing one chapter or character more than another though, and so I do. Right now though, I don't have any more of the Gray Invasion Arc written, so it will be a while before 24.3 comes out. Though I will let you know that the title of 24.3 is "Assault," so look forward to that! XD Sorry for the spoiler lol. Anyway! Big flashback this chapter where we see a ton of main characters from anime and web comics and manga that I've seen or read but never included in here before, and now we get an explanation as to why some of those characters have not been around. We see why Gray's army gets Fubuki and Teru, rather than Tatsumaki and Mob. ;( There were a ton of new characters you might have recognized and might not have, so I'll put a list below of them all before review responses.

Fairy Tail: Gray

Lord of the Rings: Legolas, Haldir, Galadriel, Elrond, Rivendell

Danmachi: Ryuu Lion

One Punch Man: Tatsumaki, Genos, Fubuki

Black Clover: Jakku Za Ripper

Hunter x Hunter: Knov, Meruem, Royal Guards, Youpi, Pitou, Pouf, Chimera Ants, Nen, Netero

Mob Psycho 100: Hanazawa "Teru," Shigeo Kageyama "Mob"

One Piece: Leo, Mansherry, Germa

Psyren: Ageha Yoshina, Melchsee attacks

God of High School: Han Daewi, Mori Jin, Charyeok, Haetae

Madoka Majica: Madoka, Mami, Sayaka

Powerpuff Girls: Bunny, Blossom

Kill La Kill: Ryuko Matoi, Kiryuin Satsuki

Avatar TLA: Suki, Kyoshi Warriors, Sokka, Fire Nation

The Walking Dead: Daryl, Rick, Glenn, Michonne

RWBY: Penny, Pyrrha

Naruto: Itachi, Indra, Ashura

To Aru no Index: Sogiita Gunha

Code Geass: Suzaku Kururugi, knightmare

Power Rangers: Power Rangers, Megazord

Yu Yu Hakusho: Raizen, Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama

Dragonball Z: Goku, Tien

Legend of Hei: Xiaohei, Wuxian

Star Wars: Qui-Gon Jinn, Ahsoka

Red Vs Blue: Cleo (Tex)

Katekyo Hitman Reborn: Byakuran, Millefiore

Terminator: Terminators

Re:Zero: Satella

Disenchantment: Elfo

DC Comics: Ra's al Ghul

SAO: Kirito

Banished from the Hero's Party: Gideon (Red), Rit, Ruti

Irregular at Magic High School: Tatsuya Shiba, Miyuki

Blue Exorcist: Lucifer

Beelzebub: Hilda

Kingdom Hearts: Xemnas, Organization...

-I think I got most of them. I introduced so many characters from so many different shows that I've never used before. And like 5 or 6 anime protagonists were in the battle. Not everyone can be a main character on Nexus! XD Sorry if I killed off some of your favorites. Let me know what you thought of all of them showing up this time though in a comment below! Review response time:

Limit-Breaking chapter 153 . Feb 27

Oh damn that's to bad, after seeing maou from a devil is a part timer, I was wondering if Emilia was a part of the resistance but sadly she seems to have fallen in the battle much earlier on, though I don't know if it means completely dead or just captured.
Also gray first mission as a commander and he knows Brock who wants to use Pokemon for war, huh was not expecting that from him but understandable.
Ash probably wouldn't be happy about that.
Also some of their work in helping dressrosa is working out for them, since the the little people are now helping the resistance. And man sherry healing can be useful.
I always forget that gray lost an arm, makes me wonder if he will get a new metal one or make one out of ice or something lol.
Either way I'm hype, I may have gotten my prediction wrong but I'm glad either way. Now we see how gray handles his mission and who shall survive or die and whether they succeed or die.
Also would have love to seen metal bat and knuckle hxh being on this mission would've been funny seeing them try to fight each other lol.

Knuckle would have been interesting to put in here. Wonder if he's still around. Maybe he's like Emilia, or like the hundred other characters I mentioned this time back in the Third War of the Gods. Brock is back! He is using Pokemon for war, but that's the kind of place Aebrith is. I think it's been mentioned before, to Sora's anger, that Pokemon were used in war on Aebrith. Like he found that battleground with the injured Charmeleon on it that he picked up when they first left Dressrosa. Speaking of, the little people aren't the only ones to join them as the elves appear as well this time! Gray's arm is referenced again this time, still with no replacement, as he brings up his past deeds to instill confidence in his men after they're shaken a bit by the memory of Meruem's Third War of the Gods slaughter. Anyway, glad you're hyped! Thanks for the review, and hope you liked the new chapter!

Smlluffy67 chapter 153 . Feb 27

BROCK IS STILL ALIVE I THOUGHT HE DIED DURING THAT HOLLOW ATTACK GREY WAS IN LETS GOO MORE ONE PUNCH CHARACTERS wonder if Tornado is apart of the resistance with her sister AHSOKA IS ALIVE LETS GOOOO

Welp Luke is dead to which makes sense considering how strong he was he would one of the many strong people from the Resistance who died during the wars

Brock! He survived the Hollow attack as did Mansherry. Ahsoka is around too! And Tatsumaki... well, is not. ;( Sorry! She was. She definitely was a part of the Resistance, at some point. But Tatsumaki and a certain cyborg seem like they were both in that fight with Meruem... And Luke is gone too. Tough times, but the Resistance forges ahead anyway! Thanks for the review!

-I'm a huge Star Wars nerd. Growing up I had all the lore books and dressed up as Yoda for Halloween every single year. I'm glad to be making this arc and getting the chance to include a lot more Star Wars stuff in it that I've never explored before in the coming chapters. In the first Saga of Nexus, the Jedi had a decently large part. Mace Windu and Obi-Wan confronted Tetsuo with Superman, and Anakin raised Stan as his apprentice and acted as a Rhodar spy hunting down Medusa in the Underworld. I even had Yoda in the very first chapter of Nexus, but he unfortunately ran into Doomsday with Dumbledore and Gandalf... XD. It was sheer luck (and thanks to Son Gohan) that Mine survived that. Shigeo "Mob" Kageyama was there that day fighting against Doomsday too if I remember correctly. He's a cool character that I really like, but even though it looks like he managed to survive a couple of years on Nexus, he had to go up against Meruem in the 3rd War of the Gods. ANYWAY! Star Wars. I'm a huge fan. Han and Chewy were over on Awul in that village with Sora and Kairi that the beastmen attacked, Cytomander the Swift bombed them and Aragorn back in like the 3rd chapter of the original Nexus. But Leia is a General of the Resistance. Ahsoka and Qui-Gon are getting ready for the invasion with Tiplee and Tiplar, Rex and Cody and the clones, maybe more! And you just know that the Star Wars bad guys are about to arrive en-masse too! I'm excited. I hope you're excited. It's 2 in the morning and I have a midterm tomorrow, but I'm probably going to watch some episodes of Fire Force before bed too! So expect them to show up in the story at some point as well! XD Thanks for reading all this! Hope y'all loved the new chapter. Get ready for an exciting arc! 'Til next time!