"Who are you?"
Ikaris felt the energy constantly flowing out of his body, shock written across his face as he stared at Jovian in the black-and-white battle suit and demanded an answer.
"No comment."
After hearing Ikaris's question, Jovian only spat out those four cold words.
"You'll pay for what you've done!"
As Ikaris spoke, his eyes lit up with dazzling golden light and fired straight at Jovian.
The golden beams, which looked like they could tear through anything, struck Jovian in the chest—only to vanish even faster than they had arrived.
It was as if the instant that energy touched Jovian, he absorbed every last bit of it.
"How is that possible?"
It was the first time Ikaris had ever faced someone against whom his energy beams were completely useless. His once-invincible optic blasts meant absolutely nothing in front of Jovian. Pure energy attacks like this were no different from candy to him. He absorbed them in seconds.
"That's it? Did you skip dinner tonight?"
"Come on, keep going."
Jovian looked at Ikaris and spoke coldly. The only thing Ikaris was accomplishing by wasting his energy like this was speeding up the drain on his own body. Other than that, it meant nothing.
Ikaris listened to the mockery, and his expression gradually sank. Little by little, he accepted the fact that he had no way to break free of Jovian's restraint. Along with the frustration of defeat, he felt a strange hint of relief, as if he were finally being released from his fate.
Jovian let out a cold little laugh as he watched Ikaris sink into despair. He didn't waste any more words. Instead, he increased the rate at which he absorbed the energy from all four of them.
One minute later…
When the last of the power had been drained from the three Eternals and the one Deviant, the three Eternals were reduced completely to ordinary people, while the Deviant had turned into a shriveled corpse.
After absorbing the energy from the four of them, Jovian had effectively reclaimed the power of every Eternal on this planet. Golden light unique to the Eternals flared around his body, and then he transformed into a brilliant streak of light and shot up into the sky.
Once Jovian vanished into the clouds, Dane—who had been pinned down the whole time by overwhelming telekinesis and unable to move—finally managed to get back to his feet.
"So…"
"What exactly just happened?"
Dane looked at the three silent figures beside him and asked.
"We lost our power."
"We've become ordinary people now."
Seeing that the other two had no intention of speaking, Sersi pressed her lips together and explained it to Dane.
"So from now on, that means you'll age too, right?"
After hearing Sersi's answer, Dane's eyes lit up. Honestly, this wasn't bad news for him at all.
Sersi blanked for a second, then nodded.
"Basically, yes."
"This is—"
Dane smiled, about to comfort Sersi and maybe use the moment to grow a little closer to her.
"This is a good thing!"
Before he could finish, Sprite blurted it out first.
"We're not Eternals anymore. We're just humans now. Ordinary humans. We don't have to keep moving every few years because we're immortal, and we don't have to shoulder the responsibilities of being Eternals because of the power inside us. We're free!"
Sprite sounded excited. She had been looking forward to the day she could become an ordinary person for a very, very long time, and now it had finally happened.
"Maybe you're right. Maybe this really is a good thing."
Sersi's tightly knit brows slowly relaxed because of Sprite's words. She wasn't an Eternal anymore. She was just an ordinary woman now. Maybe she really could—and maybe it was finally time to—pursue the peaceful, happy life she wanted.
Ikaris remained silent. Ever since losing his power, he hadn't said a word.
Especially after seeing Sprite's excitement and Sersi's quiet resolve to seek her own happiness, he grew even quieter. After thinking for a while, he turned and began to walk away, as though he had already decided what he needed to do next.
"Ikaris, where are you going?" Sprite called after him.
"To keep carrying out the mission I still haven't completed."
Ikaris looked back at Sprite as he answered.
"But you don't have any power anymore. What can you even do now?" Sprite asked, confused.
"I can still find someone who may be able to help us. I need to find out who that man was—the one who kept taking our power—and what his goal is. That's what I have to do."
Once he finished speaking, Ikaris kept walking without looking back. His figure slowly disappeared into the dim street.
"Do you think Ikaris might run into danger?"
Sprite stared in the direction he had vanished and muttered softly, sounding both dissatisfied and worried, afraid that now that he had lost all his superhuman power, something might happen to him.
"We can't help him now."
Sersi took Sprite's small hand. Right now, they were just a physically weak woman and a little girl who hadn't grown up yet. Even if they wanted to help, they would never be able to do anything useful for Ikaris. At a moment like this, chasing after him and making things worse would only be a burden. It was better to watch his back from afar and silently pray for him.
"I know…"
Sprite nodded. She knew that there was nothing they could do for Ikaris now.
The only thing they could do was make sure they didn't get in his way.
Meanwhile, after leaving the others behind, Jovian didn't stop for even a moment before heading straight to the Emergence site.
He floated high in the air, his body radiating endless light as he tried to communicate with the consciousness inside the planet…
As his awareness kept sinking deeper and deeper, he finally understood what truly immense meant.
That blazing golden soul was like a sun radiating endless light.
Compared to that star-like consciousness in front of him, Jovian felt as insignificant as a grain of dust.
"So huge…"
"So this is a Celestial?"
Jovian stared at the soul in front of him and swallowed slowly. To be precise, what he was looking at was the power of the sleeping Celestial Tiamut. The sight made him itch with greed. If he could swallow all of that power whole, his energy level would probably skyrocket on the spot.
"Who are you?!"
Just as Jovian was marveling at the Celestial's power, a slightly childish voice filled with endless majesty echoed in his mind.
"I'm just a passerby. An ordinary person who doesn't want Earth to be destroyed."
Jovian calmly explained who he was.
"Earth is going to be destroyed?"
That young voice echoed in his mind again.
"That's right. Because you're about to emerge."
"The moment you break out of this planet, every living thing on it will die. Humans, Deviants, Eternals—they'll all die."
Facing Tiamut's question, Jovian explained the situation.
Tiamut fell silent after hearing that, as though he were thinking.
"I don't want everyone to die. Whether they're humans, Eternals, or Deviants, I don't want to hurt any of them. Is there any way to save everyone?"
Tiamut's childish voice sounded again. The young Celestial seemed kind and unwilling to harm any living being.
Even the Deviants, whom the other Celestials despised, were beings Tiamut didn't want to hurt.
"You're kind."
Jovian slowly let out a breath when he heard that Tiamut didn't want to hurt anyone.
So Tiamut in the MCU was the same as Tiamut in other Marvel continuities—so kind that, in the eyes of other Celestials, it bordered on the unbelievable.
"Kind?"
Tiamut seemed to be analyzing the word Jovian had used, processing it as part of his own growth.
"I don't know whether I'm kind. I just don't want to hurt everyone…"
"Is there any way to save them?"
Tiamut said he couldn't really understand what kindness meant. The word was too complicated for him, even as a Celestial. All he wanted to know was whether there was a way to save those lives, even if those lives were as tiny as bacteria to a being like him.
"Please go back to sleep, Tiamut."
"Give your excess power to me, then continue sleeping."
Jovian began trying to talk Tiamut into it.
"Give my power to you, and then go back to sleep?"
Tiamut understood what Jovian meant. Jovian wanted him to keep sleeping here.
"Yes. That's the only way to save everyone."
The corners of Jovian's mouth curled up slightly. In his mind, tricking a child should have been easy.
"No. Tiamut doesn't want to keep sleeping. Being alone is boring."
Just when Jovian thought he had successfully talked a Celestial into it, Tiamut refused.
"What?!"
Jovian hadn't expected Tiamut to reject him—much less for such a simple reason. Just because he was bored.
"Tiamut, if you don't choose to sleep, then there won't be any way to save all life."
Jovian tried once again to persuade him with sheer smooth talk.
"There has to be another way. Pick a different one…"
Tiamut's childish voice asked him to come up with another plan.
"That's fine. We can use a different method. But I'd still need time to prepare. So you'd still need to sleep for a while first."
Jovian's clever brain spun fast as he continued trying to convince him.
Tiamut fell silent for a long time, apparently thinking it over.
"Okay."
In the end, Tiamut agreed.
"Tiamut, sleep for a hundred years first. A hundred years should be enough time for every living thing on this planet to relocate."
Jovian was being cautious. He started with a number that didn't sound too outrageous. Just a hundred years.
"That's too long."
And yet even a hundred years sounded too long to Tiamut.
Jovian was speechless. Too long? For an immortal Celestial, that should have been like taking a nap.
"Ten years."
After thinking it over, Jovian gave a much more practical number.
"All right…"
Tiamut still sounded a little unwilling, but he seemed to understand just how difficult it would be to move every living creature off a planet before he had gathered enough power to emerge.
"Then I'll give you the power I've accumulated over the last ten years and go back to sleep. Ten years from now, I'll emerge. I hope you'll keep your promise and save all life on this planet."
Tiamut's voice echoed in Jovian's mind.
"I know. Don't worry about that. I always keep my promises."
Jovian answered him, telling Tiamut to just trust him.
A soft acknowledgment lingered in Jovian's heart.
In the next second, endless energy poured into Jovian's body.
Golden light burst from every inch of him. For a moment, every cell in his body was filled with incomparably vast energy.
"Ahhh!!"
Jovian roared as he felt the power swelling inside him. It was far greater than he had imagined.
Time passed. The power continued to grow.
Jovian's consciousness gradually sank into that force as he adjusted every cell in his body, sealing the energy tightly within himself and completing another stage of his own evolution.
By the time the transfer ended…
Jovian had become a glowing golden figure, his whole body radiating terrifying power.
"I've already given all the power away. I can't stay awake anymore. I need to sleep again. See you in ten years."
Just as Jovian was savoring the violent force roaring inside him, Tiamut's voice sounded in his mind once again.
"See you in ten years."
Jovian said his goodbye to Tiamut, agreeing to meet again a decade later.
"I finally got this power."
"And it's even greater than I imagined."
At the Emergence site, high in the air, Jovian drew back the golden light spilling from his body and slowly opened his eyes. He found that dawn had already begun to brighten the sky. That made him realize just how long the energy transfer had taken, and it made him respect Tiamut's power all the more.
Ten years.
Just the power Tiamut had built up over ten years had raised Jovian's energy level from stellar to star-system class. It was only one extra word, but the difference in power was worlds apart.
Jovian floated in the air and smacked his lips.
No wonder this was the same Tiamut who, in the comics, took off his helmet and talked to the Fulcrum like an equal. The strongest Celestial really was terrifying beyond belief.
A Celestial who had once reached multiversal levels of power sure knew how to be generous…
Thanks for the tip, Tiamut…
"By the way…"
"Don't you think you should explain yourself?"
Just as Jovian finished receiving part of Tiamut's power, a man in a red cloak appeared behind him.
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