Combined Strength (43)

Legion awaited Neo and Airson floating mid-air at full power.

Airson had shared his Ultrasonic Six power with Neo, and now the both of them nearly equaled each other in strength.

"Let's go." Airson said. Him and Neo prepared.

v*oosh!!*

 The two of them blazed off in a flash of light.

Legion also started moving.

Watching the fight, all you would see is three moving trails of light, two white and the other black.

The three of them steadily headed upwards into the sky as they fought.

Neo teleported a little higher to throw blasts of lightning at Legion, who dodged each one at a crazy high speed and kicked Neo in the side of the face without him knowing. But without Legion knowing as well, Airson had caught up to him moving faster than the speed of sound.

After Legion kicked Neo, Airson punched him in the face as hard as he could.

First came the impact, then the sound caught up seconds later.

*BOOM!*

The sound of thunder reverberated throughout the clouds.

Legion raised his arms. A super long black staff formed in his hands. It was about twenty feet long, and as rigid as steel. He started attacking Airson and Neo with it.

The two weaved and countered.

Neo teleported up close, where the pole couldn't reach him, and Airson quickly flew behind Legion into his blind spot.

Legion roared, and a wave of black energy exploded from his chest, blowing both of them away.

Legion took a deep breath inward as he closed his eyes. At the same time his staff vanished. When he opened his eyes, a misty black energy wafted from his fists.

Airson and Neo charged at him once again, but they weren't prepared for what happened.

Legion punched the air in their direction. None of his punches connected, but that wasn't the point. Each punch bent the space in front of Legion. The very space itself was hitting Airson and Neo.

*poom! poom! poom!*

It was unblockable and almost impossible to dodge. They couldn't get close to him.

Legion continued to unleash his onslaught of space punches.

*poom! poom! poom poom!!*

Blood was coughed up by Neo and Airson on every hit.

Airson flew away to a point where Legion's hits couldn't connect. He caught his breath and breathed in, waving his hands. The clouds around him grew darker, and circled him like a vortex.

Neo went over by him. He held his hand out, and the Nebula Blade quickly came to his hand.

Airson flew higher up as Neo entered the vortex. White lightning started wildly discharging from the dark clouds.

Neo was hidden inside the clouds. The vortex then turned into a large dark gray sphere of lightning-infused storm clouds.

Airson held his right hand up high. It began glowing so brightly that his hand wasn't even visible anymore.

Legion held both of his hands out. He shot a multitude of small blasts of black energy at Airson, but they weren't connecting. They seemed to pass straight through him. He was confused at first, but then he figured out what was happening. "Ah... so you're moving at the speed of light. I can't hit you that way."

The storm clouds around Neo dispersed, making it so dark in the sky that Legion couldn't see.

"Wave Art: Flowing Tsunami!!" A swing of Neo's sword sent a massive wave of water at Legion, who stuck his hands out together to cut through the water, dispersing it into droplets of rain. All of the droplets then exploded with charges of white lightning, making it too bright too see.

Legion covered his eyes with his arms.

Airson appeared in front of him, prepared to attack.

Legion swung his leg quickly at Airson's head, but it didn't connect. It passed through.

Airson was underneath Legion.

"When did you...?!!" Legion exclaimed.

"It was an afterimage." Airson said.

Legion tried to move, but a large claw held him in place. Neo had his hand out. "Lightning Art: Dragon Claw."

Airson threw his glowing fist into Legion's chest. "CRUSHING FIST: HAND OF GOD!!!"

Immediately Legion's entire rib cage was crushed, and the impact of the punch created a force of wind that cleared out all the clouds in the sky, and caused a storm of wind on the ground below.

Legion was sent several hundred meters into the air.

Neo teleported above him to stab him with his blade.

Legion flipped around and manifested his black staff once again, only this time one edge was sharp. He thrust it into Neo's chest before he had the chance to swing his sword. He then swung Neo along the tip of his staff and let him fall mid air.

"NEO!!!" Airson yelled. Before he could get Neo, Legion created another attack.

"Black Form: Super Millennia Septa-Sphere." A black Septa-Sphere ten times the size of the original formed underneath Legion. He sent the attack down at Airson and Neo with great speed. Neo closed his left eye just in time as he was falling, and made it teleport in front of Legion, going his way instead.

Legion cut through the attack with one hand, splitting it in half, creating an explosion.

Legion was being propelled even higher up because of it. But merely less than a second later, a flash of lightning happened.

The explosion was split in half by a lightning bolt. It pierced through Legion's chest at the speed of light.

The sound of thunder boomed through the skies a second later.

Legion coughed up some black blood.

Neo was losing energy, fast. He forced himself to teleport back into the battle, above Legion.

Airson sent three more lightning bolts that pierced straight through Legion, one in his leg, one in his stomach, one in his shoulder.

Neo placed his left hand near Legion's back. "Halo Form: Thunder Sphere." Two rings of energy with a ball of white lightning in the middle formed.

The force of the explosion caused by the halos pushed Legion back towards Airson.

Neo then blew a great fireball down with him, catching his wings on fire.

"AARRRRGGGHHH!!!!" he exclaimed. "Your lightning shouldn't be able to hurt me!!!!"

Airson flew towards him. "If something moves fast enough, it can cut through anything."

Legion couldn't breathe well, and his vision was going hazy. The air was thin so high up, and he had a hole in his lung, along with a broken rib cage. He clapped his hands together, but Airson was too fast. He caught up to him at the speed of light, kicking him in his jaw with a glowing leg.

*WHAM!!*

Neo was starting to lose consciousness. Fast. He struggled to keep up with what was going on. He talked big, but truth be told, he really was still exhausted from his two fights earlier.

Airson had only given him a boost to his energy, not his stamina or life force.

Legion still had his hands together as he was being knocked away. He opened his mouth as a large bright green sphere of energy formed. This time, actual tentacles of energy formed out of the sphere. They were moving, and each wave from one of the tentacles created a massive force of wind and energy waves.

"Millennia Octo-Sphere!!!" Legion yelled.

The sphere's eight tentacles protected him from Airson charging in.

All Neo could see at this point was a fuzzy green light. His vision was blurry. But he felt how strong the energy was. He focused as hard as he could on the light and closed his right eye. A sharp pain immediately shot through his head.

"AHHHHH!!!!" he screamed out.

The Octo-Sphere vanished.

"Not again.." Legion said under his breath.

Airson charged in again, but Legion expected it. He hit Airson several times with punches of space and quickly made his way to Neo. He punched Neo in the stomach with great force, making him vomit blood as he started falling towards the ground quickly. The power Neo borrowed from Airson disappeared. Legion chased him down, hitting him again and again as they got closer to the Earth.

"NEO!!!! Wait for me!!!!"

In a blaze of light, Airson started chasing Legion. He threw a thunderbolt. It pierced Legion's chest, near the same spot as the first one.

"ack!"

Neo reopened his right eye. The Octo-Sphere appeared between him and Legion.

Airson stopped. "NO!! DON'T DO THIS!!!"

Legion smiled through his pain. "You... fool."

Neo's vision went blank. *"The pain... I can't take it. It hurts so much. My head is going to explode."* he thought.

*Flashes of memories flooded Neo's head. Memories of his childhood spent with Mastermind, being tested on and strictly raised to be a cold-blooded killer. All the pipes and needles that were stuck into his body. He remembered Airson telling him about his childhood spent in Cell City. Him telling him about saving his friends. Having to go train for fifty years just to do that. "Airson... your pain... lasted far longer than mine. And it's still continuing. How could I... ever relate to you..."*

Neo bit his hand. Hard. Blood gushed everywhere. His vision returned as he woke up. He teleported to the side of Legion. He looked at the Nebula Blade and closed his left eye. "I don't care if you are an angel god. I don't plan on dying so easily!!!"

Pink lightning surged from Neo's body. He held out both of his hands. A compressed ball of pure pink colored energy surging with lightning formed. "DEATH CANNON!!!!"

As Legion hit the Octo-Sphere, setting it off to explode, Neo shot his attack. The force pushed him far away from the explosion. The pink orb of lightning connected with Legion's side, creating two explosions, getting him caught in between the two.

Legion was blown into the air, his body bloody from Neo's attack.

Airson looked at Neo, who reopened his eye. "Here, I'm returning this! Now go get him!" He threw the Nebula Blade at Airson. He caught it with his right hand.

The blade reacted to Airson's white lightning energy and grew in size, becoming more powerful, turning silver and white.

Airson had to hold it with two hands. He blazed towards Legion.

Legion tried to regain his flying balance. He made his black staff again with the sharp edge, and dug it into Airson's stomach when he got close, but Airson was locked in.

With a quick swing of the sword, Airson brought it down upon Legion, cutting him in half from his left shoulder to his lower torso.

White energy burst from the sword's cut on impact.

Legion's eyes and mouth started glowing black, his skin turned a diseased purple. "Impossible... "

Legion's body exploded with black energy, validating his defeat.

The black pole in Airson's stomach disintegrated like ash.

Returned to his normal self he turned around to look for Neo. "Neo!!!!" He flew to the ground where Neo was, laid out on his back. His eyes were pale, the color in them was faded. His breathing was slow and heavy.

"You, got him... right?" he said softly.

Airson nodded. "Yeah."

Neo went on. "All my life... I never thought I'd die by saving someone. Especially you."

Airson had tears in his eyes. "Don't talk like that!! I can take you to the queen, she can heal you!!"

Neo was looking straight up in the sky. "No. There's not enough time... I'm basically blind at this point... and I've lost a lot of my life force from fighting so much today. But... I'm glad... that I was able to understand you. If I would have killed you... I would have been alone. That's what I originally wanted, but... that wouldn't have been a life worth living. Heh, even if I did manage to kill you, that angel would've killed me anyway..."

Neo continued to stare up at the sky, which he could only perceive as a white light. "Also... that Nebula Blade... cherish it. It's the only thing we know about our father... he could still be alive, somewhere."

Airson was crying now. "I will. I'll keep it with me from now on."

Neo looked at him. "I hope you save your friends. You might be alone for a while after today... but it'll all pay off in the end... I know it." Neo managed the slightest smirk on his face. "And you know what...?"

"What?"

"Thank you for being my brother... even if I wasn't a good one."

The light left Neo's eyes.

Airson wiped the tears from his face. He sniffed. "I just wish we'd met sooner."

Airson took the Nebula Blade and wrapped it in bandages he kept in the pouch on his waist. He used them to sling it across his back.

Airson stood up, picked up his brother's body and carried it back to Arbok City.