It was because of Michael's influence that Seth had begun shifting from his naturally arrogant self, and he'd even begun taking a job to support them financially after being disowned by his family... but it hadn't been enough to save them from this situation.
"..." But she was stunned and caught completely off guard when she felt a warm hand gently take hold of hers with reassuring pressure. She turned her head slowly and saw Michael looking directly at her with a loving, accepting smile that held no judgment whatsoever.
How could he possibly hate his sister, knowing and understanding what she had gone through back then during those terrible times? She had made the painful choice to sacrifice her own happiness completely over saving his life when he was dying and had no other options.
"How cute. If only Seth…" Stephen began to say with a mocking smirk spreading slowly across his face, clearly enjoying twisting the knife.
"Shut up," Michael said in a chilling tone that cut through the air like a blade, his voice dropping several octaves. His body suddenly exploded outward with an unmatched aura that seemed to fill the entire space around them, yet the aura didn't harm anything in the surrounding environment or damage any physical objects. Instead, it did nothing visible to the world, and simply pressed down upon Stephen with crushing, immense pressure that made the air feel heavy.
Michael didn't want to know any more details about what had happened; he couldn't even begin to grasp or comprehend the full extent of what Seth had been forced to go through because of what his sister and Stephen had done.
[Talent awakening detected. Congratulations on your awakening.
Talent Name: [Boundless Dreams]
Talent Rank: ???
Talent Ability: Dreams are a powerful thing that shape reality; you have been granted the extraordinary power to take hold of said dreams, reshape them as you like, and bring them into physical reality. As you tier up and grow stronger, you would get to find out and discover just what it truly means to have the power of dreams at your command.]
This was the miraculous birth of a talent born from a kid who had wished for the ability to warp reality like Alien X from ben 10. To be able to turn thought into reality and reality into thought, the fundamental power to control reality itself at will. But a unique mix had occurred during the wish granting—the talent was mixed and intertwined with the desperate hopes of a loving sister, wishing with all her heart for her little brother's dreams and hopes to come true no matter what.
[Name: Michael Williams
Race: Human
Talent: Boundless Dreams (??? Rank)
Title: [He Who Dreams]
Tier: 0 Tier (0/10 XP)
Combat Power: 500,000 (Under 50% Debuff) (????? with the power of dreams)
Skills: [Dreamer (LvL: 1/5)]]
'What the hell is this?' Stephen was genuinely shocked by what he was witnessing, but he quickly forced himself to act when he felt how Michael's thoughts were actively altering the fabric of reality itself. Just thinking of something, just imagining it in his mind, was literally rewriting reality in real-time and making it manifest... and this was happening with him just awakening his talent for the first time?
Michael moved forward with clear intent, and instantly, his simple desire to hit Stephen altered reality at a fundamental level. Time, space, and even common sense itself took a back seat to his overwhelming will. The next instant, Stephen found a fist slamming directly into Stephen plam, which had covered his face with tremendous, devastating force.
Thanks to the massive momentum behind the fist and the reality-warping power backing it, Michael's own hand caved in upon itself violently, the bones shattering as they were unable to withstand the tremendous blow he was delivering. But Stephen was forced to endure the vast majority of the impact. He was sent rocketing away violently through the air and out of the house, with his jaw nearly destroyed completely, his mouth covered in both blood and broken teeth that had scattered.
Stephen's body quickly exploded with intense, purifying fire, his injuries being burned away by his flames, returning him back to peak physical condition within moments. He looked at Michael with new wariness, who was walking towards him calmly and steadily, his shattered arm visibly fading back to normal as if the injuries had been nothing but a dream and had never really existed in the first place.
'He can turn dreams into reality, and reality into dreams?' Stephen thought with growing alarm and concern, immediately covering himself completely in special flames that he designed to be capable of burning away dreams themselves and negating their effects.
Michael shot forward to clash with him again, launching himself with incredible speed, but he faded away the next instant as if he had been merely a dream all along and had never physically existed. Stunned by this development, Stephen burst into the house to find that Michael's sister was also gone, having vanished completely. He quickly accessed and checked the Overlord Map and saw that the two were no longer anywhere within his territory's boundaries.
Replaying the events back frame by frame using the Overlord Map's recording function, he saw how, immediately after attacking him, Michael had escaped, using his powers of dreams to open a shimmering portal and flee through it. He quickly used his flames to attempt to travel to where the portal led, just for his face to darken considerably and his expression to turn grim when he saw it went directly to North America, straight into enemy territory.
This was, of course, extremely bad news for his side. How could he possibly allow that mad woman Chu Yin to have someone as overpowered and dangerous as Michael with them on her side? But what could he realistically do about it now that they'd already escaped... well, that was simple enough to figure out; he had to use those dungeons.
It was something he had held back on doing for quite some time, which was even more true when he found out that those mysterious merchants were secretly sending information back to someone out there in the wider universe. So, it had been best that he kept a low profile and didn't draw too much attention... but now if he continued doing that cautious approach, he would just be asking for death.
***
"So, is meeting you going to become a common thing?" Seth asked while looking around the dark void he found himself in, taking in the endless darkness before looking directly at the universe, which had taken on an appearance that looked like him.
"I act on fundamental laws, meaning that everything I can do has to follow a strict set of rules without exception. When I sent you away from Earth, I used a loophole in those rules, that way your trial was simply to go to the Elven galaxy," the Universe said softly, deliberately ignoring Seth's initial question.
"So?" Seth asked lightly, not seeing what the big deal was.
"So? Do you honestly think you would be remotely as strong as you are right now if you had stayed on Earth?" it asked with rising frustration. "I gave you the chance to break world records, something which other UR-tier talents simply can't accomplish due to how incredibly hard it is for them to increase their combat power."
"Record? So UR-rank talents face such a significant drawback?" Seth asked softly, processing this new information. He honestly had been annoyed with the fact that his growth rate was so slow compared to what he'd expected.
His skill should make him stronger with every injury he took, yet the five times multiplier it promised was small in practice, forcing Seth to rely on quantity over quality if he wanted to grow stronger at any meaningful rate. Meaning every second that passed, his body had to be hit with a large amount of injuries to the point where his combat power increased at a notable amount every second.
"What do you think? This is the trade-off built into the system. In exchange for absolute power, growth is extremely hard compared to other talents at the same level," the Universe explained with clear frustration. "And by the way, the record for tier zero is 100 million combat power. I expect you to reach that before you tier up."
Seth nodded in acknowledgment, still not understanding what was really up with the Universe and why it seemed so invested in him. The Universe took a deep breath before speaking about this next part carefully.
"Someone just appeared with greater talent than you," the Universe said while biting on its thumb nervously. The statement stunned Seth for a brief second, but he quickly shrugged it off.
"This is serious. This is the first time two wishes came together, birthing one talent; it has all of the benefits of a UR talent without the drawbacks of slow growth. Unlike you, he faces no slow growth whatsoever." The Universe said softly, genuine concern evident in its voice.
"I highly doubt that," Seth said lightly. The idea that this was supposedly the first time anyone had ever used their wish for someone else was extremely hard to believe.
"Of course, people have wished for something to benefit others before, but this is the first time that two great wishes came together simultaneously, working upon each other to birth a greater wish," the Universe clarified with emphasis. "Pretty much, the two separate wishes I granted came together, birthing something more powerful than either wish individually... and I need you to kill that person before he becomes a serious problem."
The request stunned Seth completely.
"And why would I do that?" Seth asked with a deep frown.
"Because he is an error in the system, either you kill him, or I would have to, but if I act directly, I would be forced to throw the rest of the universe and even those entities trying to kill me at Earth. I don't like errors; they force me to act in ways I don't like. You're my immune system, this is your job." The Universe said with an uncomfortable look spreading across its features.
"Nah, I don't trust you enough to do that. I will deal with everything you can throw at me," Seth said with a simple shrug, making the Universe pause for a long second. The Universe looked at Seth with a profoundly betrayed look. After all, Seth was its chosen one, he was the honored one... yet to be backstabbed like this? In rage, it disappeared without another word.