Hollow Queen VS Hollow King: The Reclamation War Begins [Main Storyline Event]

"The arrogance of you Mischevangs is sickening. But against the visage of a god which stands before you, your false bravado is not unexpected. Come, I'll write a kinder obituary than you deserve little one."

The bright energy summoned by his foe would be met by Nagato's own form of outside assistance. Thanks to the Los Viejo's own massive energy storage, Nagato could draw upon a pool of power capable matching that of the Demi Network. By overloading the pylons of the Matriz Hueco Sistema, a surge of all the spiritual and electrical energy across the entire system would quickly coalesce around the artificial moon Nagato called home in the form of bright white light covering every square inch of the floating sphere. This energy would, in an unexpectedly short amount of time, rapidly pull away from Los Viejo and split into two bodies of energy: The first would spread and clash with Rose's Demi Network energy, countering it in it's entirety, while the second would pour into Nagato's own body. This channeled absorption of energy would bathe the Arrancar in a burning light which, against any regular individual, would sear their eyes just by looking at it. Knowing this would be the most important use of Matriz Hueco Sistema, Nagato overloaded it to such a degree even some of the pylons spread across the Hollow realm would burn up and falter, sending them crashing into the white sands far below.

"Now observe...the grace and judgment of God."

Upon this declaration the energy matching Rose's would suddenly burst forth and expand, overwhelming practically everything it comes into contact with. The barrier around the moon was quickly torn apart, unable to survive it's staggering destructive and searing power. Despite this, through the massive torrent of cataclysmic clashing energies Nagato's gaze remained focused on his enemy, her silhouette and own energy still detected by his unique eyes despite her intangibility. Any changes or fluctuations would be picked up by his vision, allowing Nagato to ignore the usual issues others faced when not maintaining a direct line of sight of their enemy.

For most of his life as an Arrancar Nagato had been looked upon by fearful eyes, few daring to even approach the Tyrant much less form bonds with him. Yet such a reality merely played into how he viewed himself and others. Nagato wasn't a heartless monster because he had never bonded with anyone, he never bonded with anyone precisely because he was a heartless monster. From the very first time he could even remember as a sentient Hollow, others were below him and only he sat at the top. Yet true domination had escaped his clutches. Even Baraggan Louisenbairn had his time on the throne of Hueco Mundo, a man who had never even approached his own capabilities. Now, standing in front of him, was the final domino to fall. The last barrier to taking what he was destined to rule. For this reason, and many others, Nagato would not allow this last foe to escape. She would die here, for any other result would be nothing but an unmitigated failure.

As the monstrous clash between their outside energy networks came to a close, Nagato Tengan, the man seeking to rule and destroy and nothing else, split the skin along his left wrist with his right thumb nail, created a pitch black sphere of destruction into which a small stream of his own blood flowed. This fusion caused the energy to warp and tear the very fabric of space around it. Without any physical provocation, Nagato sent this small sphere forward aimed directly for Rose. Across the gap between the two it rapidly expanded into a spinning disc of energy known as the Gran Rey Cero, an attack which screeched and cursed as it tore through space. Though quickly it would become clearly far stronger than his previous attack, as it's massive size approached Rose two more previously meticulously hidden energy signatures would likely be detected by the Shadow Fall Throne: One above and one below her current position. These two, though 'just' regular Ceros, also possessed intense power and would suddenly launch at her in the form of ever-enlarging energy rays. Upon impact all three of these attacks would fuse into a explosion which dwarfed anything which had come before, and send shockwaves so strong through space they could be felt the surface of Hueco Mundo's desert.

This clash of titans would at the very least scar the Hollow realm for years to come.

In discussions of the fastest fighters, two knows always came up above all others: Shadin Yuudeshi and Nagato Tengan. Both had certifiable speed feats no others in the world could match, though they themselves had never come into conflict on any real level so a match between them was still an unknown. Though it made the most logical sense to say Shadin was the superior due to not just his incredible base speed, but the fact practically all his abilities and powers were focused on increasing his movement even further and beyond, one could not simply count out the infamous Arrancar in the discussion. In Malaysia he crossed the country's capital repeatedly near instantaneously. Against Radioactive his ability to create distance between the two, and then immediately cross said distance, allowed him to fight on par with the monstrous Shinigami. So for his current enemy to try speed blitzing Nagato was impressive in intention, less so in practice.

Upon Rose's arrival to his location, Nagato's right hand was already prepared to block the initial attack from his much smaller, though mighty, foe. The following attacks were responded with similarly as both Nagato's ability to read and discern movements and speed allowed such. Along with this, the Multi-Layer Fiber Plate Hierro which had protected him from Reimu's hits from years prior was as durable as ever, protecting his skin and interior from being harmed by Rose's strikes. Punching, kicking, or headbutting Nagato was a bit like a regular human trying to break through a brick wall; the attacker would more likely than not receive injuries as severe as those they wished to bring upon their target. This was due to the nature of his Hierro, and what separates it from what other Arrancar possess: The top layer, made up of a single, incredibly dense, barrier of Reiatsu is like steel plate armor; beneath that is a layer made of interlaced threads of Reiatsu serving to protect his body from blades and projectiles; while the bottom is built specifically to disperse the kinetic energy of the attacks he receives across his body, reducing the damage to near nil. The existence of multiple layers all more dense than any other Arrancar's single Hierro meant even as Rose's machinations attempted to reduce the strength of the top layer, the second and third continued in their objective to protect Nagato from harm.

Still, the self-proclaimed Hollow King could tell prolonged exposure to such an ability could prove dangerous even to himself, a man infamous for his defensive ability. His unique eyes allowed him to sense and see through his opponent's distortions, giving him ample opportunity to fight against it on equal ground. First he continuously exuded more Reiatsu than before, pushing against Rose's tide with his own immeasurable pressure. Second, he constantly manipulated his ambient Reiatsu to reconstruct it on a base level so it acted as an ever-changing barrier against Rose's comparable, but not superior, pressure. However he could deduce even with these defenses in the way, it would simply be best to remove the problem altogether. And for this reason Nagato Tengan used his one real power while still in his sealed form.

"Shinra...Tensei."

Upon saying these two words an extremely small wave of a non-energy and non-Reiatsu based pressure was born within Nagato's body and began growing at a high speed, quickly reaching the size of his body before rapidly spreading out in every direction until eventually dissipating after five hundred or so meters in radius. This extremely odd pressure wave not only would remain unaffected by Rose's ability currently attempting to eat at Nagato's Hierro, but it would push the ability away as if it was a solid thing which could be moved. In this way Shinra Tensei could cleanse debuffs and enemy attacks from it's user, but that wasn't all it did. Even for someone as powerful as Rose Mischevang, the only other Arrancar in Hueco Mundo worth discussing in the same breath as her current foe, struggling against the Almighty Push would for the most part prove futile. Not because the ability itself is impossible to fight against, but because doing so would merely result in no damage done to her but would not prevent the push itself from continuing to spread. Escape it, yes. Slow it, yes. But negate or prevent it? Not so much. Unlike others who possessed many abilities, or even just one or two highly versatile powers, practically all of Nagato's sealed capabilities rested in his singular simplistic ability to push and pull. While Rose may be able to manipulate and rewrite universal laws, Nagato's equivalent was just Shinra Tensei; thus in it's single capability, it could match or exceed any other in purpose and strength.

Not bothering to respond to his attacker's profanity, Nagato followed up his defensive maneuvers with an offensive one to eclipse what had come before. Upon placing his right hand palm-up in front of his chest a rather small pitch-black orb of pure energy formed, it's outer shell undulating from the dense pressure within. Just as soon as it'd formed, Nagato closed his fist around the sphere and vanished from where he stood, only to reappear immediately in front of Rose Mischevang. Pushing his legendary speed to it's limit, Nagato sought to reach Rose with his fist cocked and place a single punch into the Shadow Fall Throne's abdomen before she could react. Whether the punch itself landed successfully would prove irrelevant as upon impact with anything, the highly destructive energy within his grasp would burst out in an explosive of black known among Espada as Cero Oscuras, the most powerful Cero an Arrancar could normally produce. This energy would be mighty enough even to harm Nagato through his Hierro, thus turning this attack into a bit of a self-destructive one in an attempt to catch Rose unawares and off guard. If caught in this blast, it's victim would possibly suffer from both surface and internal injuries severe enough to either end the fight there or force her to release into a higher form to survive in decent condition. Nagato himself would likely suffer burns across his body, with his right hand and harm being put into particularly poor condition. If Rose wanted to force a speedy resolution to this conflict, Nagato would certainly oblige her.

Tracking his powerful opponent's movements was a simple feat for Nagato's Sējigan. In fact, his eyes were so adept at following actions and reading energy he could make out her visage through the extremely dense Cero Oscuras he had just launched her way, and because of this was able to see exactly where she'd be moving. Nagato's own deduction skills would come into play as he knew fighters who gain a height advantage often due so to keep the upper hand and fire an attack of their own. Such a thing was a timeless truth whether in reference to war engagements or individual one vs ones, and would be rather obvious to someone like Nagato who's loved through countless instances of both. Prior even to Rose's creation of the three-step Cero attack her wily and experienced opponent had already formulated a battle plan both for dealing with her new positional advantage and procuring a path to counterattack the Shadow Fall Throne.

Using his Grandmaster level speed and Sonido, Nagato began rapidly moving from spot to spot within a range of a hundred meters, creating dozens afterimage clones practically indiscernible from the real thing, even to people who usually could tell due to the sheer level of speed he was utilizing. Each clone would seemingly replicate his actions even after being formed due to Nagato weaving in microsecond-long maneuvers each time one was created, including bursts of Spiritual Pressure which would replicate what he usually gave off, serving to make them even more difficult to figure out. What this amounted to was over fifty Nagatos all looking up at Rose's position simultaneously, their light purple eyes and Reiatsu as unnerving as the real thing's.

During this time Nagato had hid the identity of his real position, reducing his Reiatsu radiation to a microcosm of the usual level which would, in all likelihood, be entirely overshadowed by a combination of the pressure coming from the afterimage clones and Rose herself, helping to mask his presence. Though for others moving at such a speed would be harmful to their own body or cause noticeable exhaustion, Nagato's base durability and unique Hierro would prevent the former while his immense energy reserves would render the latter almost entirely irrelevant. Even mere Gotei captains could form dozens of Utsusemi clones, so merely creating afterimages wasn't a difficult feat. However, his next actions would be significantly more draining even for someone on the level of these combatants.

From his new position, a decent distance behind and to the right of Rose Mischevang, Nagato watched as the Cero entirely eradicated the afterimage clones, leaving naught in it's wake. Though not entirely aware of it, Nagato was safe from her Augmented Perquisa ability due to his previous use of Shinra Tensei having expelled and destroyed any and all nanobots within him due to the technique beginning at the very core of his soul. Witnessing her defensive maneuver of basically leaping from rock to rock provoked Nagato into unlocking the true form of his eyes: Kagegan. Upon this release the purple of his eyes turned red while the rings formed small notched spheres along themselves and changed the attributes of his eyesight for the better: First, their general accuracy and tracking increased manifold; second, his ability to see the particular attributes and makeup of energies was enhanced greatly; and finally, Nagato would gain the ability to detect intention, both on an emotional and metaphysical level. This would allow him to discern where Rose planned on going through reading her body language and general intention at roughly the same time she decided on her new target location.

By ramping up his grandmaster speed and Sonido to their current maximum Nagato could catch even someone like this by surprise, and so he would fire off from where he stood and in the pathway of Rose's latest movement. However, it wasn't quite so simple; by using Banido, his unique form of Sonido 1.5x faster than the regular Arrancar movement technique, the spot he'd been in would replicate Banshō Ten'in and create a gravitational vortex while his newest location just a few feet from Rose would replicate Shinra Tensei by creating a forceful push around him again, possibly knocking Rose back due to Nagato's speed having been used to catch her off guard. The Arrancar sage couldn't see how she could respond in time to keep herself safe or use her ability quick enough to defend from the use of Banido, and would seek to take advantage of the probable result. (Banido description in spoiler)

Spoiler:

Having likely once again taken the advantage for himself from his opponent, Nagato acted swiftly with the limited time he'd likely have to land a serious blow on Rose. Within the first half-second after hopefully knocking Rose off her feet, Nagato cut the distance between them into a mere foot and struck out with his right hand. This open palm strike would be aimed for her chest, just below the Arrancar's collar bone. As this occurred Nagato would breath out which would accompany a shock wave of pressure from his palm which would be fired directly into Rose's body upon his palm hitting her skin, a soft fist attack with the ability to cause moderate to severe internal trauma including bruising, bleeding, and broken bones. The sheer strength of the pressure would be colossal as Nagato knew he needed to put his all into this attack, even with a significant speed advantage, in order to make it too dense and powerful to immediately negate or reduce using her Origin Code. The danger of this attack was further enhanced by his body's momentum and his raw physical strength. Nagato's Force Palm technique was deadly on it's own, much less with all these contributing and enhancing factors at play. Hit full on or only sustaining reduced damage and injuries, in all likelihood Rose would be sent flying without extreme mitigating circumstances.

Though Nagato was feeling the physical exhaustion from using his enhanced Racial and combat skills in rapid succession, along with having had to passively repair his Hierro earlier, the Arrancar pushed on. His determination to end this war with a strike as swift as his Force Palm was boundless; the taste of victory on his tongue, driving him forward through anything and everything. If he would not succeed here, he would die; and if he were to die, he could not bring his imperial dream to reality. Such a result was not an option for Nagato Tengan. If his attack had done even a fraction of it's maximum potential damage, he figured this battle would swiftly move onto the next stage and creep ever closer to it's end. An end he welcomed.