Halo

Halo
The halo as the Nexus Artifact, as seen in Madness: Project Nexus (Classic)
Type:	Miscellaneous
Used by:	Jesus, Auditor, Tricky, Dr. Christoff, Phobos
Kill(s):	24 (8 non-canon)
Appearances
Madness Combat 1 Madness Combat 2 Redeemer Madness Combat 3: Avenger Madness Combat 4: Apotheosis Madness Combat 5: Depredation Madness Combat 6.5 Madness Combat 7: Consternation Madness Combat 8: Inundation Madness Combat 9: Aggregation Madness Combat 10: Abrogation Madness Combat 11: Expurgation SACRIFICE.fla Incident: 110A Incident: 111A Incident: 1000A Madness Interactive Madness: Project Nexus (Classic) MADNESS: Project Nexus

The halo, also called the Keystone Fragment, is an important object in the Madness Combat series and the main source of Jesus' supernatural powers. It was seen above Jesus's head in every episode until Madness Combat 6: Antipathy. Jesus donned it again in Madness Combat 7: Consternation and continued to wear it until he was killed by the normality restoration explosion in Madness Combat 8: Inundation.

The halo was fractured twice during Inundation, once when Jesus smashed through a wall at top speed and again when he was shot by the Auditor's AT4; however, this doesn't seem to have affected its ability. In Madness Combat 9: Aggregation, the Auditor, who survived the normality restoration explosion, took the halo from Jesus' corpse and put it on his own head, turning it dark red in the process. Early in Madness Combat 10: Abrogation, Hank briefly removed the halo, which released a lightning-like energy that knocked Hank down. Hank's wounded arm grew a new hand and the ability to release powered-up punches because of the halo. When the Auditor retrieved the halo again, their compatibility with each other became compromised, and the halo's energy started to wound the Auditor.

In Madness Combat 11: Expurgation, the halo appeared over Tricky's head when he hijacked the Auditor's powers and revived himself. It (or a copy of it) appeared in the strange dimension that Hank and Sanford were sent to, denoting the Skeleton currently acting as the seat of Tricky's consciousness. Following Tricky's defeat, the halo was blown off of his head, only to be retrieved by the Auditor when he emerged from the remains of the clown's physical body.

In Madness: Project Nexus (Classic), the halo is known as the Nexus Artifact. It plays a major role in Episode 1.5 of the Story Mode. Labeled an "artifact of incredible power," the halo granted Dr. Christoff significantly improved abilities, increasing Christoff's dexterity and giving him the power to levitate and release Nexus bolts to disintegrate enemies.

In MADNESS: Project Nexus, the halo remains in Dr. Christoff's possession. It is revealed that the halo channels "dissonant reality", a byproduct siphoned from an alternate dimension used by the titular Project Nexus to create supersoldiers. In gameplay terms "dissonant reality" is a new ammunition type Christoff now uses to fire his Nexus bolts. During Phobos's fight, Phobos steals the halo from Christoff upon losing 4 corpus blocks, turning him from purple to red and increasing his power.

"Jeb's Halo" as an accessory in Madness: Project Nexus it gives 15 Armor, and 0.5 Encumberance, despite going on a character's head, it takes the Augment slot, therefore it is the only augment to increase armor. The description of the item is as follows, "What better way to protect yourself other than being A GOD? You shouldn't be wearing this."

Powers

When worn by Jesus, he was granted the following mystical abilities:

• Reviving corpses as zombies
• Moving objects or people with telekinesis
• Creating energy shields that can deflect and/or catch bullets
• Dissolving characters with a red beam or black Nexus bolt, cast from either the eyes or hands
• Levitation
• Spawning the binary sword
• Superhuman strength
• A healing factor strong enough to keep him alive without the top half of his head; when he retrieved it, he was able to heal the damage simply by putting the halo back on.

When the Auditor wore the halo, he used these following abilities:

• Enhancing units' fighting skills to extraordinary levels
• Absorbing corpses to grow in size and strength
• Releasing a dark beam attack, similar to the red beam used by Jesus

When Hank touched the halo, he was granted the following abilities:

• Regenerating a hand where his claw had been severed
• Charging punches with a lightning-like energy (allowing Hank to kill Mag Agent: V4 and wound the Auditor)

When worn by Tricky, he was granted the following abilities:

• Reviving himself and taking control of Hell
• Turning into a giant skeletal abomination
• Levitating
• Creating puddles of darkness
• Switching his consciousness between various host bodies
• Summoning weapons from the ground, his and other character's innards
• Summoning A.A.H.W. units and skeletons with various weaponry and armor
• Superhuman strength
• Superhuman speed

Trivia

• In Madness Combat 5.5, Tricky attempts to gain Jesus' powers by wearing the ripped-off top of his head instead of the halo. He shouts "HOW COME THIS DOES NOT WORK??!?", "WHAT??!?" and gets rid of it.
• Since the v1.8 update, in Arena Mode of Madness: Project Nexus (Classic), Jesus' halo is missing. However, The-Swain, the main programmer, stated that this was merely a bug. (Although, obtaining the halo is possible through editing arena save file. Effects on the unmodded character are unknown.)

Weaponry