Unknown Place, Space,
"You move toward nothing, human. Stop before I decide the rest."
"Bring back… Marty!" Marshall roared, strangling the hell out of the Aspirant with his massive tentacles. It was going nowhere; they were still in the same place they had appeared. By now, the Aspirant had even destroyed the nearby planets by colliding with them while trying to get rid of Marshall's tentacles.
"I have spoken before. Life and death do not bend to my will in this universe. Take the hand of First Firmament, and power will rise in you strong enough to call back not only your pet, but whole civilizations and the galaxies that cradle them."
"Pet? You said pet?!" Marshall tightened his tentacles. "Fucking convenient to first kill and then offer a solution! Fuck your first asshat or whatever."
"We are going nowhere, human. You are wasting your own time. I am eternal."
"So am I, dipshit! I can do this all day and night on repeat."
Marshall tightened his grip even more, looking nothing like the rugged man he usually appeared as. He seriously didn't know what he was going to do. But he wasn't going to quit, no matter how long it'd take him.
He had, however, noticed something. The Aspirant was growing annoyed. It didn't sit well with the whole extradimensional older-than-universe godly personality. Why was such a being so anxious? The only answer Marshall could think of was fear.
Every tentacle the Aspirant tore, Marshall regenerated. Marshall himself didn't know where all that power was coming from. He'd never pushed himself to the limit, so he didn't know what his limit was.
"You know what, I haven't even used that yet," Marshall declared and summoned the energy he had absorbed from the Tesseract. He didn't know what it was, but it felt overpowering, too much actually. He felt like it gave him a connection to everywhere. He could go wherever he wanted.
But how?
Nonetheless, all his tentacles started to glow in cosmic blue. He hoped it'd hurt the giant fucker somehow. Or maybe burn at least.
"Marvelous! Your body's ability to adapt is unmatched! First Firmament will rejoice."
"..."
Marshall ignored it and focused on fully harnessing this new energy. It was trying to guide him, and he tried not to be a dumbass. His mind was in chaos, thoughts all jumbled, fighting him on every step. But he tried to focus.
Space… I can move through it? Portals? Yeah, that red fuck fell into one.
"You know, if I get cut, I can just regrow the damn thing. What about you?"
"What riddles do—"
Before the Celestial Destructor could finish speaking, Marshall used all the focus he could muster, murdering thoughts that controlled his mind. Veins popped up in his non-existent head.
And he summoned a massive portal right beside the Aspirant's arm. Of course, the Aspirant didn't want to put his arm through it. But Marshall's tentacles acted like muscles and moved the massive arm, shoving it through the portal while the portal also moved.
Snap!
And just like that, the portal vanished.
"You human!"
Marshall's tentacles grew back. The Celestial Destructor's arm didn't.
"What have you done! My ar—"
Another portal appeared on the other side.
"Shhh—Don't celebrate too early," Marshall grumbled and did the same thing. He pushed the big arm with his tentacles and cut the portal's connection, severing the arm. With that, the Aspirant was armless.
Of course, that wasn't enough to kill the thing. He reckoned even if he severed the head, it would survive. But his goal was to weaken it so his powers could work. His tendrils started squeezing it more. With no arms, it got easier.
"You cling to small tricks as if they matter. You still do not grasp the height of what stands before you, human. My will alone is enough to take hold of you."
For the first time, Marshall saw the creature use its powers. He became alert and waited for something. Red energy was pouring out of the Aspirant's body from all sides. It was getting hot; even his tentacles could feel it.
"Go ahead, burn me," Marshall declared. "Let's see what you got."
Marshall sustained it. The heat grew over time, and his body sizzled. But he kept the hard squeeze on the Aspirant. Clearly, the being wanted to maintain that temperature, not killing him, just tormenting.
It hurt like hell. But Marty's little growls in his mind kept him going. He wanted that goofball back at all costs.
"There… goes… the leg!"
He continued to use the portal trick since he had the creature captured by his tentacles. Only this time it hurt like hell to move. He chopped the left leg first, and then the right.
It's getting hotter.
As if the Aspirant felt anxious, it burned him more. Marshall maintained the same strategy, however, and chopped the other leg as well. Now, only the torso and the head remained; the rest of the body was thrown randomly across the universe.
"The head… next?"
"Foolish to believe that could hinder me. This binds you as it binds me. You will not depart while I remain, and I cannot while you keep me fastened to you."
Marshall didn't reply to that. It was hurting too much.
"Ah, we have guests," the Aspirant voiced suddenly. "I knew you were watching, Arishem the Judge. Here to kill me?"
Marshall looked through his non-existent eyes. This Arishem was gigantic, even larger than the Aspirant he was battling. But he recognised it from the stuff Ajak had shown. This was her boss, he reckoned.
"This matter remains beyond your grasp, Aspirant. Your presence stains what must unfold. This is the human's trial, and you are the strain upon it," spoke Arishem, the voice sounding old and majestic. "The moment has arrived to end this standstill. Let the outcome be final."
Out of Arishem's chest, a gigantic beam of energy shot towards Marshall and the Aspirant.
"Fuck!" Marshall lost his grip on the Aspirant's body, however. The creature burned his tentacles entirely, scorching them to ashes until just a bit of him was left. Freed, the Celestial Destructor shot a similar beam towards Arishem.
But Marshall didn't bother wasting time. He didn't know what the Celestials were planning, but this was his moment. He didn't change into his human form, as it would have taken time.
With a mere thought, he used that blue energy and made himself a portal, teleporting himself right in the middle of the two celestial beams of energy about to collide like two supernovas.
"This! Is it!"
"This changes nothing!" The Aspirant roared, furious at the Celestial like a dog that had just seen a cat.
"Oh, it does—"
Marshall grinned in his horror form. The instant those two energies collided, he was in the middle. He got obliterated by it, and vanished within a second. But then he appeared again right there and died again.
He appeared again and died again.
The cycle continued. He kept dying and returning, only to die again. Clearly, the fact remained, his body was still the old Marshall. Being killed by those energies, he'd received those abilities. But physically, he was still weak.
"You are still what you have always been, human. No fragment of our power will quiet the storm you carry.
"Oh… Who wants… to fix… the madness?" Marshall's voice came from the exploding energy. "I can…"
He still died, but he started to last longer. He only ever had split seconds before dying. It took too many split seconds to understand what he had just learned.
It took too many minutes of dying to finally cover his body with the combined might of both Aspirant and Celestial energy.
"Let the trial resume," Arishem the Judge declared, and just as he'd appeared, he vanished.
"No! You coward traitor!" The Celestial Destructor roared. "I shall end you!"
Glowing in the red energy of different shades, Marshall looked at his human arms. He was butt-naked, but back to being himself. He tried to test it and combined the phoenix flames and Tesserect's energy with his body as well.
"Bah! Just like that super saint carrot! Wait, what?"
He overlapped his abilities with what he'd just learned, and at last, he could feel it. An attack that would land a blow to the Aspirant.
But Marshall also added another goal to his long list.
A trial? The Celestials knew? The fuckers knew and let Marty die… I'll kill them all!
"But first, you!"
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