(UnusualSamurai, this one doesn't have Star in it.)

(Fen's House)

(Fen)"Dude, that's a horrible idea."

(Marco)"Oh, c'mon man! I feel like I should be doing SOMETHING to help you guys out!"

(Fen)"Yeah, and that's cool and all, I'm really glad you care. But this isn't a normal conflict. Oozai and Witches are involved, and you don't have even a tiny bit of magic!"

(Marco)"But I'm pretty sure I can do something!"

(Fen)"I mean, like what? You can't just karate your way out of an Oozai Cannon. You saw what Riivrax was capable of doing!"

(Marco)"I'm still thinking about it...also, why's your brother looking at me like that?"

(Zacharie)"Your face...it's not even, and it's bugging the shit out of me!"

(Fen)"I'm sorry, Marc, but there's just nothing you can do to help us."

(Zacharie)"...Y'know, he could be useful, if he takes the test."

(Fen)"The 'test'? Oh, no! You're not thinking about taking him to Hekapoo's place, are you?"

(Marco)"Heka-who?"

(Fen)"There's this woman Zach's been with for a while now, she makes these magic scissors that let you go to any Dimension you know about. But to get a pair, you have to pass her trial first. I'm not sure if you can handle it, I nearly went mad during mine!"

(Marco)"What do you mean I can't handle it? I've taken hundreds of tests!"

(Zacharie)"It's not exactly a test of intelligence, but if you really wanna do it-"

(Marco)"Yeah, let's do it right now!"

(Zacharie)"Ok, that's what I like to hear!"

He took out his scissors and cut open an orange portal.

(Zacharie)"Follow me, kid. This should only take a few minutes."

(Fen)"Have fun you two..."

They stepped through, and the Human boy found himself in some wasteland with nothing but dead trees and barren soil.

(Marco)"Where the heck are we?"

(Zacharie)"This is Dimension X-103, Hekapoo's Dimension! Your test will take place here for...however long she decides to make it, hehehe..."

(???)"Zach, who's that boy with you there?"

The boys were approached by a female with pale skin and horns slightly resembling fire.

(Zacharie)"And there she is! Heka, this is Fen's little Human buddy, Marco Diaz."

(Marco)"Uh, hi?"

(Zacharie)"Y'know that whole Gohma thing that's going on? Diaz here wants to help out, but he doesn't have any magic to help effectively. So, he wants to take the special test we created!"

(Hekapoo)"Ooh, finally! I've been wanting to see how it goes!"

(Marco)"So what's this special test?"

(Hekapoo)"It's quite simple..."

A small but bright flame appeared over her black crown/hairband.

(Hekapoo)"You see this flame? All you need to do is get close to me and blow it out. Once you do that, I'll make you a personal pair of Dimensionsal Scissors, and if you pass the second half of the challenge, Zachy's gonna give you some magic tools of his choosing."

(Marco)"I just need to blow out that little thing? Easy!"

Marco tries to blow the flame out, but Hekapoo swiftly jumps several feet away. He immediately tried again, but to no avail. Diaz then chased the woman in circles around a dead tree, some boulder, and even Zacharie himself, who couldn't help but snicker at the Human's vain attempts.

(Hekapoo)"Oh, I almost forgot to mention!"

She ran down a steep hill, as Marco caught up just enough to see the area below. He was in shock at the sight of dozens, no, hundreds of Hekapoo duplicates, five hundred maybe, each having their own flame.

(Hekapoo)"You have to find, catch and blow out the flames of each of my copies! If you're not man enough to traverse this place and find them all, go home to your stinky dirt rock, little boy!"

A circle of portals of various shapes and sizes appeared, and they all fled, leaving Zach and Marco alone.

(Marco)"Y-You didn't tell me she can do that!"

(Zacharie)"That'd ruin the surprise! But don't worry, bud, this should take about eight or ten minutes...hehehe..."

(Marco)"And why do you keep laughing about how long this'll take!?"

(Zacharie)"Gotta go, have fun!!"

Zach made a portal with his own scissors and fell backwards into it while waving goodbye. And so, Marco Diaz spent the next 16 years looking for each and every Hekapoo copy by himself.

Oh, I forget to tell you, if you hadn't known already. X-103's time is accelerating much, much faster than Earth's time.

Example: Each second in our world is the equivalent of 12 days there. And as such, 8 minutes is 16 years.

One day, at the edge of a lifeless forest, a building carved out of a hollow tree stood. Smoke billows out of the top like a smokestack, and two Hekapoo clones stand guard outside the front door with spears. 

One of them sneezed, causing the other to scold her, pointing out that if their flames are extinguished, they'll disappear. Suddenly, a hooded man drove up to the building on a motorcycle, which was also a living dragon. The dragon-cycle stops a short distance away from the building, and the hooded man draws a katana from its sheath. With a single swing of his sword, the man generated a strong gust of wind.

The wind had blown out one of the clone's flames, and she was gone in an instant. The second Hekapoo swung her spear at the man, launching a wall of fire. It appeared that the stranger was burnt to a crisp, but he somehow got behind the clone and after getting her into an armlock, the hooded man blows out the Hekapoo clone's flame, and she vanishes. Reaching into his vest, he took out a small book and pen. He opens the book, revealing pages upon pages of crossed-out flames. On the last page, he crosses out two flames and closes the book. Inside the building, a single room with large buckets of molten metal, the real Hekapoo telekinetically molds some into a pair of scissors. Just like her copies, she looked as though she hadn't aged even a day.

(???)"So it all comes down to this. Sixteen years. A lot of clones. Seemed to go by... *Snaps his fingers"...like that. I finally tracked you down, Hekapoo."

(Hekapoo)"Yeah, it's the real me. No more clones, so..."

The man removed his hood, revealing the 30 year old Marco.

(Marco)"Who's a little boy now?"

(Hekapoo)"Yeah, yeah, now's the part where you blow out the final flame."

(Marco)"Hah! You barely escaped me on the exploding plains of Flendar. And when I lost your trail in the mist of the Neverzone, I thought I'd never find you. After spending a few years infiltrating a cloister of monks, I acquired some ancient texts which led me to dimensional scholars who taught me to translate their language. After that, it was a simple matter of surviving the Afflicted Forest and ending up right at your door."

(Copying and pasting from the transcript cause too lazy to write different diologue. How is this getting views?)

The Oozai Zach, who also didn't look as though he aged at all, entered the room through the same door.

(Zacharie)"Well now! Sounds like you've had one hell of an adventure! I didn't expect you to last a da......"

(Marco)"Um, what's wrong?"

(Zacharie)"...The mole was something I could get over, it's part of your body. But dude, seriously!? You got a scar on your left eye, a single tattoo, and your pants are all ripped up and muddy! You tryna piss me off!? This is worse than Fen's left arm!!!"

(Marco)"What's with him??"

(Hekapoo)"Don't mind Zachy, he's got OCD with this sorta thing."

(Zacharie)"Whatever, I'm over it now! Anyway, I see you haven't blew out the last fire. Good, cause now the second half begins."

(Marco)"Oh right, I forgot all about that part. What is it?"

(Zacharie)"Follow me outside, we're gonna need some space for this."

All three of them went outside, and Diaz could see a faint red aura surround the pink Oozai.

(Marco)"Sooo, what am I supposed to d-"

He just barely dodged a star-shaped bullet, taking a little hair off the side of his head.

(Marco)"Dude, what the hell!?"

(Zacharie)"This is your second and final challenge, you gotta fight me, for real!"

(Marco)"What?!!"

(Zacharie)"You got some combat experience, so I want you to fight me for real, just so I can be sure you can handle whatever Gohma throws at us next!"

(Macro)"He can't be serious, can he?! I couldn't even take on that zipper guy!"

Zach, unlike Riivrax, was much faster in his attacks, each punch and kick was nearly impossible to dodge, even with Marco's battle experience in 16 years. He got his blade out once more and attempted a horizontal slash, but the Oozai backflipped and punched the ground. Despite it looking more barren than before, a small tree erupted in seconds, lifting Zacharie off the ground. He sat on the branches nonchalantly, like it's a normal thing to do, irritating the Human.

(Zacharie)"Did you forget that pink Oozai can create life from anything we touch?"

(Marco)"Shut up!"

He tried chopping the thin tree in half, but a large gash appeared on his arm, and there wasn't even a scratch on the bark.

(Zacharie)"And you forgot that any damage the creations take is reflected back?! Riivrax wasn't even a year ago yet!"

(Hekapoo)"Don't hurt him too bad, he's not as durable as you!"

(Zacharie)"It's fine, I'll heal whatever's broken afterwards!"

(Marco)"Think you're gonna break my bones, huh?!"

He grabbed a branch and pulled Zacharie down by the keg with his other hand. A magic spike erupted as the Oozai was flying back and used it to spin right back at Diaz, dropkicking his feet from right under him.

(Zacharie)"Just cuz you're Fen's buddy doesn't mean I'll go easy, I'll fight as thought I wanna kill ya!"

He summoned two Oozai Cannons, causing the Human to sweat bullets.

(Marco)"He's freaking insane! Does he actually wanna kill me?! How do I beat this dude?!!"

While dodging the beams, he got an idea that just might work. He made another gust of wind with the katana, and Zacharie stood his ground. But as the dust settled down, the pink Oozai noticed something wrong with his shirt, a small tear on the left shoulder.

(Zacharie)"Wh-What the hell?! Did you just tear my 50,000 Yuld outfi-"

In his rage, Zacharie had no time to block the kick to the teeth by Marco.

(Hekapoo)"Oh? He's got a new strategy?"

(Zacharie)"My...my teeth!! Does it look bad?! Are any of them missing-"

While looking in a mirror, Diaz punched him in the gut, and karate chopped his neck, knocking Zach to the ground once more.

(Marco)"You should really get that problem of yours taken care of. How are you gonna beat Gohma like that? Hehehe...."

(Zacharie)"Oh...you've gone and done it now..."

Despite not being able to feel it, a sudden burst if air came from Zacharie's body as his eyes began to glow a bright red, and he commenced a monstrous transformation. His legs became goat-like, his shoulders grew curved spikes, and his horns elongated and bent.

(Don't have the full body yet because it's difficult to draw, so here's the face.)

The Oozai was taller than an older Marco before, but now he was nearly three times his size, clearly scaring him out of his wits.

(Zacharie)"I'm gonna rip you in half!!!"

(Hekapoo)"O-Oh dear, he's gone into his true form! He might actually kill him by accident!"

She was going over to calm Zach down, but he suddenly brought up a ring of spikes around him and the Human.

(Zacharie)"Stay outta this!!"

(Marco)"Hey-hey-hey, Zach! You gotta calm down man, I was just messing with you-"

(Zacharie)"You insulted me! Now, I ain't gonna kill ya, I'll just hurt ya reaaaal mad!!"

Marc had no time to dodge three of the true Zacharie's sucker punches, knocking a few teeth out in exchange for what he lost. The Human tried swinging his sword again, but this time Zacharie severed the blade with his own claws.

(Zacharie)"You wanna fight some Oozai, then try taking on this!!!"

He began to charge up a massive Oozai Cannon, one too big to avoid in time. Diaz thought to himself, "He's actually about to fire that thing at ME?! He is literally insane! I just hope and pray that he n-"

The Cannon went off, sending a huge beam of raw magical energy in Diaz's direction, but suddenly, right as it touched his skin, the beam flew up in the sky and faded away.

(Hekapoo)"H-Huh? What happened?"

(Zacharie)"Un...even..."

Zacharie, now back in his base form (and his clothes came back somehow), was lying on his back and dizzy as spinning top in a tornado. Why? Just before Marco's sword was destroyed, the blade had taken off the tip of the Oozai's right horn, and he didn't feel it since that part had no nerves or blood vessels in them. And he only just noticed when he fired the Cannon, causing him to slip up.

So as the magic spikes disappeared, the...what do you call Hekapoo? Anyway, she ran over to the duo, specifically Marco for almost taking a full power Oozai Cannon to the face. And when she did, he blew out the final flame, now finally done with this 16 year long challenge.

(Zacharie)"Ugh...what happened?"

(Hekapoo)"Well, as you can see, Marco here just won!"

(Zacharie)"Oh right, he did all this to my face.../This horn is gonna take a month to regrow!"

While sulking over his now worse asymmetrical face, Heka walked over and hugged him around the neck, which was a challenge by itself from his towering height being a foot more than the Human.

(Hekapoo)"C'mon, Zachy-Wacky~ It's not the outside that matters, it's the inside, right?"

(Zacharie)"Yeah, I guess so... Ok! Diaz, you should feel better than a motherfucker right now! You're the first person to ever attempt and beat this challenge on the first try, and for that, you can have these items that'll help with the future conflicts with Gohma!"

He materialized a black case and revealed the contents. There were a pair of black contact lenses, two purple gauntlets, and a new sword.

What it looks like:

(Marco)"What's the contacts for?"

(Zacharie)"They'll allow you to see and feel soul energy like Oozai can, and the gauntlets just increase your physical strength by a decent margin, the sword's normal though."

(Marco)"Wow, and you had this prepared for me this whole time?"

(Zacharie)"Well actually, I lost track of time and had eight minutes to get this set up."

(Marco)"Eight minutes?! It's been 16 years!"

(Zacharie)"Yeah, for here."

(Marco)"Wh-What are you trying to say?!"

(Zacharie)"Oh right, I forgot to mention the most important part! Time here is like, a billion times faster than Earth's! Hardly any time had passed since we left Fen's place."

(Marco)"WHAT!?"

(Zacharie)"Hey, everything will be the same when we get back!"

He threw up his arms, and Marco noticed a bronze ring on the Oozai's finger.

(Marco)"Hey, what's that for?"

(Zacharie)"Huh, you mean this ring? It's an engagement ring, for he and her."

Hekapoo revealed a similar ring on her right hand.

(Marco)"You two are getting married?? Wait, you both have engagement rings?"

(Zacharie)"Yeah, it wouldn't be right if just one of us had one!"

(Marco)"I- Whatever, let's just get outta here!"

(Hekapoo)"Wait! Don't forget these."

She handed Diaz his very own pair of Dimensionsal Scissors, complete with an engraving.

(Marco)"Cool, it's even got my name on it!"

(Hekapoo)"Thought it'd be nice touch, see ya later, Diaz..."

The two men left through a but portal, back in Fen's house.

(Fen)"That was quick, did you pass?"

(Marco)"Does this answer your ques- Huh? I'm young again!?"

(Zacharie)"Of course! You go back to the same age as you were before going in there!"

(Ragnarok)"Nice potbelly, twink! *Fen: Rag!!*"

(Marco)"What even is that?!"

(Just so you know, I'm making an actual Soul Eater book real soon.)