BOOM!
A dull impact detonated in the vacuum, with no medium to carry it. It spread out as a visible ripple in space, racing wildly in every direction.
Hargen, one of the Celestials, stood thousands of kilometres tall, like a crimson planet.
Against a fist so small it was less than a speck of dust, that colossal frame actually lost its balance.
RUMBLE!
His metallic head, the size of the moon, snapped violently backward. The motion toppled his towering body, smashing straight through the asteroid belt behind him.
Countless meteorites shattered into powder against his back-plating.
"That's it? He's down?"
Frieza hovered in the void, elegantly retracting his fist.
He hadn't tapped the Infinity Stones, hadn't even fully released his aura—just the pure kinetic force of a perfect two-meter body, reshaped to ultimate perfection.
"Tsk, tsk."
Frieza watched the crimson giant struggling to right itself in space, disgust written across his face.
"Big as you are, your footing's a joke. Do you Celestials never train your legs?"
Below, on Planet Frieza 002.
Tens of billions of alien citizens, only just freed from forced bliss, were staring skyward in a daze.
Though the atmosphere blurred the view, the sight of that vast red shadow being punched away was unmistakable.
A God... sent flying?
The cosmic deity who had come to judge the planet had been floored by Frieza with a single punch?
[Fearpoints +50 billion!]
[Fear points +50 billion!]
Pleasant chimes echoed in Frieza's mind, putting him in excellent spirits.
He tapped the void with a toe and vanished again.
WHOOSH—
The next instant, he was face-to-face with the crimson Celestial's mask.
"Mortal…"
A vast, icy mental wave exploded directly in Frieza's mind.
Hargen righted himself, the six huge electronic eyes blazed red, running frantic calculations.
"You dare blaspheme against the Makers!"
"Blaspheme?"
Frieza tilted his head, scarlet eyes full of mockery.
"I am simply teaching you a basic lesson, namely…"
He slowly raised his right hand. At the tip of one finger, a purple Death Beam condensed at lightning speed.
"When you speak, look the other party in the eye, don't look down your nose at them."
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Before the words faded, several purple Death Beams shot out.
Tiny as needles beside the Celestial's bulk, they punched straight through the so-called absolute cosmic armour. A few neat holes were drilled clean through the mask. Golden cosmic blood, thick as lava, gushed out into space.
"Warning! Warning! Armour breach, energy leak!"
Celestials feel no pain, yet Hargen sensed a force that threatened his very core.
"Purge protocol—execute!"
BOOM!
Without further words, Hargen slammed his titanic palms together. Between them, a miniature star of wild cosmic energy formed, then smashed down on Frieza with the heat and radiation to annihilate everything.
It was like using two mountains to swat a mosquito—mountains with a nuke wedged between them.
"Heh…"
Facing this world-ending strike, Frieza didn't even bother to dodge. He simply folded his arms and floated there, letting the colossal hands close.
"Too slow, and…"
Disappointment flickered in his eyes.
"...far too weak."
BOOM!
The palms clapped together and energy erupted, light blazing across the star system.
Yet, before the glare had dimmed—
"So this is the power of the Celestials?"
That elegant, cold voice rang out, utterly unharmed.
Immediately after—
CRACK!
Hargen's tightly clasped hands jerked apart, as if shocked by lightning.
Frieza still hovered with folded arms, a thin purple aura-shield wrapped around him. That cosmic energy, potent enough to melt a planet, couldn't even stir a ripple across the shield.
"Impossible…"
For the first time,Hargen's emotionless synthetic voice stuttered with something called a logic error.
"Nothing is impossible."
Frieza drifted forward slowly until he hovered before the titanic eye of the Celestial. He reached out and tapped the thick faceplate of the Celestial's armor and a crisp clang rang out.
"I'd thought anyone bold enough to judge me would at least be able to fight."
"And yet…"
Frieza shook his head, his disgust written all over his face.
"That's it?"
"Your energy output is vast but crudely wielded."
"Your movements are strong yet slow as a rusted gear."
"Even your combat sense is worse than Thanos."
A cruel smile appeared on Frieza's lips, contempt that saw through everything.
"If I'm not mistaken, among the Celestials, you're a desk-bound clerk, aren't you? Maybe the one who stamps the forms?"
"Inquisitor… hmph, nothing more than a verdict-writer."
Stung at the nerve, Hargen's electronic eyes blazed red. "Insolent! I am the guardian of order, I am—"
"You are trash." Frieza cut him off without a shred of courtesy.
"Since you're a paper-pusher, sit in your office and sip tea over the news. Coming to the battlefield to die—that's your mistake."
Before the words finished echoing, Frieza's gaze turned ice-cold and he snapped his right leg up.
It was Frieza's classic whip-kick!
BOOM!!!
The kick didn't land on Hargen's face. Instead, it launched a purple crescent blade of Ki vast enough to cleave a planet.
"Break!"
The blade ballooned to tens of thousands of meters and slashed straight at Hargen's neck-joint.
ZZZZZZZT—
Like a hot knife through butter, the supposedly unbreakable Celestial armor was laughably frail before a blade carrying 120 million power level.
The giant metal head parted from its body in an instant. Golden blood gushed out like a rainstorm in space.
The severed head drifted slowly into the void, lights in its eyes fading forever.
"Too brittle."
Frieza lowered his leg.
"Not even a warm-up."
He glanced at the headless corpse floating in space and gave a bored pout.
"Should've left you on the ground, at least the scraps would make a decent monument. Now I'll have to send someone to collect the trash."
Just as Frieza raised his communicator to tell Thanos to bring a crew and recycle the high-grade scrap metal—
BZZZZZZZ!
A power far grander than Hargen's, countless times more terrifying, surged from the deepest reaches of the Universe.
It wasn't a single point—an entire swath of starry sky quaked.
Frieza spun around, crimson eyes narrowing to slits. He looked toward the place known as the World Forge. There, within the dark cosmic backdrop, countless scarlet stars flared to life.
No, those weren't stars.
They were eyes!
Perfectly aligned, packed so densely they filled the entire field of vision.
Boom! Boom! Boom...
Space tore open violently.
Figures even larger and more grotesque than Hargen emerged from hyperspace jump.
Some carried warhammers able to shatter stars, while others bore greatswords that could slice dimensions. Still, others radiated an aura that could annihilate everything.
"Oh?"
Seeing the endless tide of titans that seemed ready to fill the entire Galaxy, Frieza showed not the slightest fear. Instead, an ecstatic, fanatical grin spread across his face.
He slowly spread his arms. "Now that's more like it. Beat the runt, call the elders. Kill the clerk, summon the warriors."