"What did you do?" Mary burst through the door to Seth's office with sudden force, a look of panic in her one visible eye as she ran up to the table where Seth was working.
"What?" Seth asked lazily, barely looking up from the papers he was reviewing.
"Why is the Dwarven Galaxy setting towards us for war?" Mary asked urgently, her voice filled with concern. This raised Seth's eyebrow for a second in surprise, before he let out a heavy sigh while putting the papers down on the desk to give her his full attention.
"You did something; this throws the whole future into chaos. You might have doomed this whole universe." Mary said, wanting to strangle Seth for his recklessness. But she paused mid-motion, her eye widening as she noticed that Seth's Nexus Barrier had reached level 5 since she last saw him. She paused for a second, processing this information before relaxing somewhat, the tension leaving her shoulders.
"Please get a harem." She said, looking at Seth with a pleading look that showed how serious she was about this request.
"Building the Naxus clan, have as many people be born with your talent."
"Just what did you see in the future to get you like this?" Seth asked with a look of genuine interest, sitting up straighter in his chair. Mary paused for a second, her expression becoming distant before she finally spoke about what haunted her.
"I saw a vision of a war that involved countless universes. Some universes were overflowing with dimension, too vast for me to count without losing my mind. Some Universes had countless timelines, and the bigger ones were overflowing with different realities." She said, recalling her first life before she had regressed after Seth killed her in that timeline.
"Just show me," Seth said without being too bored to listen to all of this.
"But it would break your mind." She said with unease, to which Seth snorted, with his willpower, what could break his mind?
Mary sighed, but she nodded in response, reaching up and removing her eye patch slowly. Instantly, Seth found himself transported mentally within the void of the multiverse itself, watching in horror as an beyond infinite number of universes were dying all around him.
No matter the size or scale of the universe, even ones that were endless in size and scope, having endless dimensions stacked upon each other, timelines branching infinitely, and realities multiplying without limit, making them truly infinite in every sense… they were all dying regardless.
The cause for all of this destruction? It was a monster that even Mary couldn't see clearly or comprehend fully, but the monster looked back at Mary through time and space… no, \ it wasn't looking at Mary at all.
Seth's pupils shrank to pinpoints as he understood that the thing was looking back at him directly, seeing him through Mary's vision. His willpower that he had trained so hard to strengthen? It was ignored completely, bypassed as if it didn't exist, as he felt fear that reached his very concept of being and existence itself. He began shaking in pure horror, unable to control his body's response.
Suddenly, without warning, Seth's mind began to glitch and fracture from the exposure. He heard a voice speaking to him; the person behind that voice appeared out of nowhere, saving him from complete mental collapse.
Seth couldn't make out the voice clearly or see the person's features, but he could tell that the person was making some kind of joke about his situation before whoever it was reached forward and tapped his forehead gently.
It was only at that point, Seth realized with shock that he had become an old man. His body had aged decades in what felt like seconds. No wonder Mary was a bit crazy and acted the way she did.
If that thing had looked at her directly in her past life… yeah, it made perfect sense why she wasn't right in the head anymore. And maybe he should be a bit more humble going forward. This is the second time his arrogance in his ability has led to him eating his words; there shouldn't be a 3rd time.
Seth was kicked out of that mental space violently with a message that almost caused his soul to explode from the sheer power and weight behind it. The message sounded in his mind like thunder, but it had to be translated into his own voice since… well, could he really comprehend the true voice of a god or being at that impossibly high level of existence?
"Now, turn that skill of yours into SSS tier and start working on getting your willpower to SSS tier, and hopefully Ur tier one day." The voice boomed through his entire being, resonating in every cell of his body. This made him cry out in pure pain as every fiber of his existence burned with intensity. His mind felt like it was being torn apart at the seams. But luckily for his survival, the message was short and didn't last long, allowing him to finally breathe again once it ended and the pressure released.
"..." Mary's mouth was wide open in shock and disbelief, seeing the state Seth was currently in after the vision. She didn't expect such a devastating effect to happen from her simply showing Seth what she had seen that day in her vision of the future… didn't this mean she could just keep showing her enemies images of that thing and having it kill them on her behalf without having to fight them directly herself?
But she stopped herself from thinking deeper on that possibility and the implications it carried for her future battles… but all she did was show Seth an illusion of her memories, that way he could see what she had experienced firsthand… so why did things that didn't happen in her original vision suddenly happen now?
Why did that thing ignore her presence completely to look directly at Seth instead when it hadn't done that before? Seth didn't see anything unusual about this interaction… but she had gotten a blurry look at that person who had saved Seth from complete destruction, and it had been…
"You didn't see everything, but pretty much… I saw that your Ur tier talent ranked amongst the strongest all of creation had to offer. It can fight for first place, and is rivaled only by a few other Ur tier talent," Mary said, looking Seth deeply in his eyes with complete seriousness and conviction.
"You not having a harem would mean that when the time comes, our universe would not be able to stand before that thing. You alone can't do it, so please, have a child. You're heaven's most loved person. The heavens would bless you with children." She said with a pleading look, desperation clear in her voice and expression. She wanted to tell him everything she had seen in her visions of the future… but she was too scared to relive those memories and experience that horror again by speaking of it.
So yes, she wanted to marry him for this reason, she wanted to have his children, for anything was better than the terrible fate awaiting them all if they failed to prepare.
"I will think about it. How long do we have?" Seth asked calmly, his voice light despite what he had just experienced and witnessed.
"A few thousand years." She said, sighing in relief as this was a good step forward and showed he was taking this threat seriously.
Seth nodded lightly in acknowledgment before having her leave him alone so he could collect his thoughts and process everything he had learned. She left the office as requested, but only after telling him to quickly increase his willpower to prepare for what was coming in the future. This left Seth speechless, as that was the exact same thing the mysterious person who saved him had told him to do.
In the end, after thinking for some time alone in his office, sitting in silence as he weighed his options carefully and what needed to be done to prepare, he pulled out the skill upgrade crystal from his inventory. He held it for a moment, feeling its weight, before he made his decision and upgraded Unkillable to the SSS tier talent, transforming it completely into Unrivaled Will.
[Unrivaled Will]: This SSS-tier talent greatly increases one's willpower to the point, one's thoughts would hold so much weight that it can reshape reality, allowing the user to create and destroy things with but a thought, or reinforce their capability with their willpower.
At level 1, one's willpower could easily alter reality. For example, think of an apple, and an apple would form before you. You don't even need to level this skill up, since if you're strong enough, destroying and recreating a destroyed galaxy can be done with but a thought.
At this stage, you can buff your capability with your willpower, allowing, for example, attacks to bypass resistances and immunities. Your combat power increases by 1,000 times at level 1.
At max level, being level 5, your willpower can grow infinitely strong with no limit. At this stage, you can do anything with your willpower so long as your willpower is strong enough. But ignoring the thing that requires your willpower to reach a said level, the basic stuff you can do is… will yourself back to life after your body and soul are erased.
Will yourself to adapt and grow immune to something. Will a person's concept t be erased from existence, will life into existences, will your ability to get stronger, and so many more, for your willpower allows you to do anything you think.
[Warning], this skill will put you through hellish trials to improve your willpower that could kill you.]
Seth read through the description carefully, his eyes scanning every single word multiple times and processing the full implications of what he had just gained access to. The power was incredible, almost unbelievable in its scope and potential for what it could accomplish. This was exactly what he needed to face the threats coming in the future.
"I highly doubt it would rival that thing. Show me your worst!" Seth said with a confident grin spreading across his face, displaying his usual arrogance.
He set the trial settings to be put to max level without any hesitation or fear about what might happen. Instantly, the very moment he confirmed his choice and committed to it, he found himself transported to a world of absolute darkness that consumed everything in existence.
It was a darkness that covered not just his eyes and vision, but all of his senses completely and utterly, leaving him blind to everything around him, even fundamental concepts like time and space itself.
He couldn't even hear his own thoughts as he was blind to the voice in his head that normally guided him and helped him process information. And oh boy, did he immediately regret jumping to max level right away without testing the lower levels first to understand what he was getting into.
After all, what was even the point of the trial here if he couldn't perceive anything? He couldn't even hear his own thoughts to process what was happening to him; was he thinking at all right now? Was he even alive anymore, or had he died without realizing it?
Had it been a few seconds since he started this trial, or had a billion years already passed without him knowing? He couldn't tell anything at all, for he was completely blind to everything that existed or didn't exist.
But Seth already had a strong will that he had trained over time; he simply willed himself to start adapting to this new environment and overcome it. How did he do this when he couldn't even perceive himself? By simply telling himself to try to see through the darkness, even if he couldn't tell if he was actually trying or not to do so.
Even if he couldn't tell if he actually willed himself to do it since he felt absolutely nothing and had no feedback whatsoever from his body or mind, he stayed focused on that one single task with everything he had.
And like that, maintaining that singular focus with desperate determination… well, who knew how much time had actually passed in that void where time had no meaning, but eventually, after what felt like an eternity of emptiness, his eyes did begin to adapt somewhat to the darkness around him, perceiving the faintest hints of something beyond the absolute nothing.