Meddling The Omniverse

"Ok, now's the time to focus on Ryuugyuuin Seiya," Seth concluded, his shinigami attire reverted to his armored coat look.

The Japanese-style clothing was reabsorbed back into his chopped-up left ring finger. His face became human again, and his irises, made of swirling stars, returned to their usual luster.

"Why did you lie to that samurai, Seth?" Seiya chided.

"Lie?"

"You transmigrated him to another world, calling it a trial."

"It is so he could accept it faster."

"Cut the crap! There are more straightforward ways to do this than making up convoluted stories and dressing up as a shinigami!"

Seth went silent before answering honestly, "Okay, the shinigami costume might be over the top. But where's the fun if I didn't?"

Seiya grabbed Seth's collar and yanked it, "You're obligated to explain the isekai process clearly! Yet there's not a SINGLE mention of it."

Seth rebutted, "Seiya. Telling that man from the 1920s about parallel realities would be too much for him. Even if I didn't explain the 'actual' process, I covered all the essentials he needed to know. Doing it the official way would just confuse him more."

The two argued for a while, with Seiya pressing on while Seth took it all in without changing expression. When no progress could be made, Seiya backed off.

"Sigh… One final thing, will he return to his original world?"

"Seiya, I have standards."

He didn't confirm it… Seiya did not like it, that answer put Seth on his 'watch out' list.

Seth looked back at the slightly disgruntled hero. He may seem like an unbreakable nut, but to be this angry at such things, Seth deems him more selfless than his outer demeanor revealed.

Before the situation worsened, Jif changed their topic.

"Eheheh… Sir Seth and Seiya, why don't we head to the training dojo and gym? Currently, many powerful gods are enjoying the fine training facilities we provide, since Seth's isekai is done, why don't we go right now…?"

"What do you think Seiya."

Seiya nodded slowly, though his face showed otherwise. 

Without warning, BLAMM!!! A door was kicked almost snapping off.

"SETH! WHO IS THIS 'AQUA' CHICK TO YOU?!" Ristarte stormed in with anger and confusion. 

"How did you know about... love?" Seth's eyes widened, but his tone remained calm. 

"LOVE?!" Ristarte's stood there, momentarily frozen, her anger replaced by a whirlwind of emotions she couldn't quite process. Did he just admit it that easily!? Was he really in love!?

Seth blinked, realizing the slip of his tongue. "Oh… this love curse has gotten worse."

Love curse!? Ristarte wanted more answers.

"Ristarte!" Eris appeared behind her with a complicated expression, looking at her with complicated expressions.

Eris placed her gentle hand on Ristarte's shoulder. "Ristarte, there's more to this than you think."

"Did you tell her about me and my love situation? And let me guess… she stormed off before you could finish, I assume?"

Eris nodded with slightly flushed cheeks, hinting at her embarrassment.

"OH KAY then… Ristarte, due to certain events in the past, I am now cursed with a curse of attraction."

"C...Cursed?" Ristarte's anger wavered. Her mind raced, trying to connect the dots. An attraction-based curse that forces Seth to call another woman 'my love'? Did that mean!?

Seth nodded, "Aqua and I were cursed to be attracted to each other. This curse would continue to grow to the point that being separated from her would torture my soul." Seth took a deep breath, "As you can see, it hasn't gotten to that stage yet, but yes… it's been... complicated."

Seth then took his chance to narrate the whole thing to Ristarte.

—

Ristarte's eyes darted between Seth and Eris, trying to process this new information. She felt a pang of guilt for barging in like she did.

"So… you're saying this isn't real? You didn't really have feelings for Aqua?" she asked, her voice softer, though still tinged with suspicion.

"It's a curse of compulsion, it forces me to certain… directions. I have feelings for her, and they are growing stronger by the day. What I do not know is if this loving feeling was artificial or genuine. "

Eris added some details. "Fortunately, the curse can be broken, but the two current viable solutions that have been found for Seth are marriage…"

Ristarte looked at Seth.

"No."

Eris continued, "Or a very complicated ritual he couldn't complete right now."

Seth added further, "Right now I've been trying my best to find another solution or prevent it from getting worse, though from the looks of it, it's not going well."

Ristarte's shoulders slumped slightly, her earlier bravado fading. "I... I didn't know. I just thought…"

It was a meek reply, Seth found it quite sweet and wanted more of this, "Ristarte, why are you so… into this…?"

Ristarte froze, her mind scrambling for an answer. She hadn't stopped to think about why she'd reacted so strongly. The truth was, she wasn't entirely sure herself. Was it just her natural inclination Or was there something else?

"I… I just felt ahh…" she blurted out, her voice wavering between defensiveness and uncertainty. "If you're in a secret relationship behind my back, you wouldn't focus on our job, right?" It was what she got on the spot.

Seth took the hint, "So, you were worried?"

Ristarte quickly shook her head, as if the idea was too embarrassing to admit. "Worried? No, not worried. Just… concerned. You know, professionally concerned."

Eris stepped in to help ease the moment. "It's understandable, Ristarte. This must have been the first time for you. It's only natural."

Ristarte looked between Seth and Eris, feeling a little exposed. She wasn't used to feeling this way, especially not about someone she barely knew. But now, with them both looking at her with their version of their understanding, she couldn't exactly deny it either.

"Maybe I was… a bit worried," she finally admitted, her voice softening. "But only because I didn't want anything to mess up our mission."

Seth nodded, accepting her explanation with a small, knowing smile. "I appreciate that Ristarte. We're in this together, okay?"

Ristarte felt a strange warmth at his words, but she quickly pushed it aside, giving a brisk nod. "Right. Together. Just… don't keep any more secrets from me, okay?"

"I'll try my best," Seth replied.

The silence lingered in the air for a moment, reaching a stalemate in this atmosphere. Only one other person dared to break this ice.

"Can we go now?" Cautious hero Seiya's voice resounded.

He didn't join this fiasco because it had nothing to do with them. While Seth's relationship could affect their progress, Seiya concluded that as long as he is prepared, it won't matter. 

—

In a certain place that was a mix of a gym and dojo, dozens of powerful gods were watching a show. 

Seiya's currently dodging and deflecting hundreds of harmless bullets being shot at him from every angle.

Do note that the gym-dojo doesn't just offer conventional ones, it also has more interesting ones like apocalyptic obstacle courses, cultivation caves, gravity rooms, demon king-level battle simulations, unlimited dueling spaces, and so much more.

"To think that a hero could reach that level…" "I heard he was assigned to an S-class world, but this is impressive." "Come on hero! You can do it! reach the 500 bullet mark! My bet is on the line!" "DUDE! Stop shouting! He can't f***ing hear you!" 

Murmurs and shouts were heard from this group as they watched with interest. 

Many would find it boring to watch Seiya's training for minutes, but because most gods there are inclined towards power and combat, they could enjoy Seiya's monotonous blocking and dodging like a game of tennis.

"Seth! How have the past few days been? The whole club was shocked when we heard of your freak accident!" A muscular middle-aged man linked his arm around Seth's neck

"Cerseus!?" Seth was momentarily surprised before returning to his usual, "Yeah, It has been hectic these few days, so I never had the chance to return to our usual gathering place."

"Well how's your combat skills, did they get rusty from being hospitalized for a week?"

"Maybe? I honestly do not know, but I can trust you guys to spruce me to shape again."

"Of course, buddy!" Cerseus let out a laugh from that.

Seth then asked Cerceus, "From our group, are there any others that got invited to my soft opening?"

"There's quite a few, although they're somewhere else…" Cerseus leered at Seiya, "You got yourself a golden goose of a hero you know."

"I had to, this is an S-class world me and Ristarte facing."

"Ristarte! I forgot she's in it too!" Cerseus gave a good slap on Seth's back. "How has it been going with Ristarte? What do you think of her?"

"I prefer not to answer."

Cerseus raised his eyebrows in understanding, "Oh. Is it because of that love incident you told us about? With that water goddess, her name's uhm… Aqua?"

"AH-Hem." The goddess in question politely coughed.

Both men turned their heads to their backs, Eris and Jif had already left for other matters, so only Ristarte was there. 

"Seth, training our hero is always beneficial, but if we never get him to Gaeabrande, it means nothing. So... when will we, or more specifically Seiya, go?" Ristarte asked, exasperation creeping into her voice.

Seth tapped his chin, "I'm not sure."

Ristarte blinked, tilting her head. "Seth, be serious."

"I am." He pulled a folded note from his pocket, no bigger than his palm. "This is the list of all the training Seiya wants. Do you know how much training he asked for?"

"I don't know. Two? Ten?" She rolled her eyes.

Seth pinched one edge of the note and unfolded it—doubling its size.

"Not bad," Ristarte said, still calm.

He unfolded it again, now it was twice as big.

"Okay..." Ristarte started to get a bad feeling.

He unfolded it again, this time covering his whole face.

She swallowed nervously.

He unfolded it again, now covering his chest too.

Her legs felt like jelly.

He unfolded it again, only his feet were visible behind the gigantic note.

"Please no more…" she slumped to the ground. "This has got to be the end… Seth…?"

Seth finally reassured her. "Luckily, this is the end."

Ristarte sighed in relief.

"But…" Seth flipped the paper over.

"UWAAAGH!!" Ristarte was practically flashbanged by the sight of the other side–impossibly tiny writings.

Curse you super-refined penmanship! she screamed internally. The text covered every inch, filled with training categories like "blocking medium swords," "parrying medium swords," "dodging medium swords," and hundreds of other ridiculous specifics.

Cerceus whistled. "Oh boy, that's quite a doozy."

"You know what… just slap me with the truth! How long would this take?" Ristarte demanded, her voice teetering on the edge of hysteria.

Seth turned to Cerceus. "Your judgment?"

"Minimum? A year, easy," Cerceus said, nodding like an expert.

Ristarte nearly spat blood. A YEAR?! 

"Seth, PLEASE!" Ristarte cried out, clutching his sleeve. "For the love of the gods! cut that list down! Please!!"

"I get it. Spending a whole year training is overkill, but don't worry." Seth nodded, "I've got a solution." Seth beckoned her to follow, bidding farewell to the others.

—

They arrived at a large, futuristic-looking chamber. The walls shimmered with holographic lights, encased in sci-fi poles that created a cube-like structure around it. Inside was a platform, standing out amid the wires and machinery.

"Behold!" Seth announced. "I haven't finalized its name, but we can call it the Time Chamber."

Ristarte looked in awe, eyes wide. "Time Chamber?"

"It slows down or speeds up time for anything inside it," Seth explained. "So, this should allow us to fast forward Seiya's training—"

"YES, YES! BRILLIANT!" Ristarte grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently, "JUST TELL ME! HOW LONG NOW?!"

Seth thought for a moment, calm as ever. "Three days at minimum."

Plop.

Ristarte melted to the floor, her face blissful, "Three days…" as though all her prayers had been answered. Pure heaven.

Not minding Ristarte's crash, Seth suddenly got an idea, he pulled out a communication device and did something to it. Seconds later, Jif plopped to Seth's side through a portal.

"Jif, I got something grand here," He whispered to him, preventing everyone else from listening, "Since this will be this chamber's first run, let's make my hero's training a fun event. Spread the news and invite those gods to train our S-class hero in this time-altering chamber. You know, as a form of recreation."

His plan was simple: Any gods and goddesses whose divinity is associated with combat—magic or not—could test their mettle against Seiya. 

They can go for 'Who can Hit Seiya the most with arrows', warfare, or just a duel with our resident's hero. To keep things competitively fair (and to prevent sore losers), their strength will be limited to Gaeabrande's power cap.

"Those that helped will be allowed to spend as much time there. The whole chamber has infinite space and can be transformed into any place you want, a battlefield, a jungle, an obstacle course, you name it. Plus with the time-altering part, days in here are just mere minutes outside. meaning time spent there won't be wasted." Seth smilingly ended.

Jif immediately set off to organize the essential aspects of the large-scale event his boss had planned, including advertising, promotions, administrative tasks, event logistics, and operations. 

"Seth, what did you just talk about? You took quite a while." Ristarte had just regained her composure from her bliss state, having no clue what Seth had whispered about.

"Nothing significant, just planning a special training course for our hero—a way to boost Seiya's power further."

Rista tilted her head, "special training?"

"Not exactly special, but something that'll further boost his current training plan."

"That sounded… great? When will you do it?" 

"As soon possible. Honestly, I'll just need to grab Seiya here, and get him into the chamber." He remembered he had left Seiya back at the gym-dojo hybrid.

"Chamber!? are we going to enter that time thingy now?" Ristarte asked.

Seth became quiet, "How should I put it..." he glanced at her unsure.

Ristarte stepped closer, inching her face to him, "Seth? What's with the funny face?"

"Okay, just don't be angry with what I'm about to say."

"angry?"

"First of all, you don't need to join us, actually no, you shouldn't join us, just stay outside here...?"

Ristarte responded with a stare, "explain."

"My power that peers into the future spoke that you should not enter the time chamber at all..." Seth looked at the strings of fate that connected Ristarte to the chamber, almost none were positive.

"Plus I don't think you will be helpful in Seiya's training."

Restart felt a slight twinge in her soul, but she couldn't muster enough rage.

She knew she had no combat expertise and knowledge, so she couldn't contribute much. plus if Seth's future-seeing powers said so, she has to mind it seriously.

"Sigh... I get it, I'm unneeded for now, so what should I do for the time, Seth?"

"And what about your other duties?" A new voice spoke, prompting the two to turn towards the source.

"Three days might not have been long, but many things await your handling." It was Eris, who suddenly arrived from a portal.

"I got that covered," Seth pulled out his finger, sealed tightly in a jar. 

Ristarte immediately backed away from it, remembering that incident from it.

"I have successfully connected to my finger, while he couldn't be reattached back to me due to… bodily conflicts… he could do my part of my duties while I'm in that chamber." Seth tossed his finger to Ristarte.

Ristarte instantly scooched Seth's finger to Eris.