**
The final chapter of Demon Slayer was complete, sent to his editor. The household chores were done. An unusual tranquility reigned in Marcus's luxurious apartment. But for him, calm was often the precursor to boredom, and boredom was a luxury he couldn't afford. His mind, like his body, needed challenges.
He looked out the large window, contemplating the blue sky over Tokyo. A crazy, audacious idea sprouted in him. He had never truly tested his limits. Really.
Without telling Shayera, who was at the Watchtower for a briefing, he opened the window and leaped out.
The wind whipped his face, then became a deafening roar. The buildings became smudges, then disappeared. Tokyo was just a miniature mosaic below. He climbed, straight up, pushing the boundaries of the atmosphere.
BOOM!
The sonic boom tore through the sky, a cone of vapor briefly forming around him. The atmospheric pressure changed, the air thinning at a dizzying speed. Earth's gravity pulled him down, a giant, invisible hand trying to drag him back to the ground.
"Come on, Marcus," he growled internally, his teeth clenched. "It's like riding a bike, you don't forget. Come on!"
This wasn't a bike. It was a titanic struggle against physics itself. He felt immense pressure on his body, a sensation of suffocation as oxygen became scarce. His lungs burned for a moment, then his superhuman metabolism adapted. His cells modified themselves in real-time, creating new structures to capture and process residual oxygen molecules, storing energy like ballast.
The sky shifted from deep blue to violet, then to ink-black. The stars, once timid, burst forth in all their splendor, cold, motionless diamonds on an infinite velvet.
But the price was heavy. His eyes began to fail him. Black spots danced in his vision, a grayish veil trying to settle over it. It was the blackout, the G-induced loss of consciousness, the betrayal of the human body in the face of extremes.
They don't know me, he thought with fierce determination. His body was no longer entirely human. Compound V was a fire that only needed stoking.
I have to make it. I see the stars. Further... PLUS ULTRA!
The word, taken from his own manga, was a catalyst. One final push, a superhuman effort that made every fiber of his being strain. He crossed an invisible barrier.
And there, floating at the edge of space, the blue and white curve of Earth stretching majestically beneath him, he saw it.
A ship. But not a Earthling or Kryptonian vessel. It was an organic, angular structure, made of a dark metal that seemed to absorb the starlight. It drifted silently, like a stalking predator.
As Utopian, breathless but victorious, observed this intrusion, a hatch on the flank of the ship opened. A figure in armor, stocky and menacing, emerged, propelled by jets on its back. The being held a massive energy axe that crackled with sinister power.
It positioned itself in front of Utopian, blocking his view of Earth. Its voice, distorted by a speaker and a guttural language, boomed in the silent vacuum.
"I'm Lobo. The Main Man. The Last Czarnian. This planet's got a bounty. You look like a good warm-up."
The challenge was issued. Utopian's first space-borne challenge. And he had nowhere to retreat.