~Ability Users awaken their abilities due to several conditions, the most necessary of all is the presence of unavoidable danger. Awakening, however, is only the start of one's mastery of their special abilities. In order to freely use one's power, practice is necessary~
YEAR: UNKNOWN
LOCATION: VALERIA (Ruined World)
The Dark World was deserted, with only the echoes of the cold breeze lingering and nothing in sight but endless darkness. Suddenly a bright blue spark appeared and a swirling portal opened with three shadowy appearances coming out of the bright blue distortion.
"Ow... I don't want to ever experience that again." Tenny groaned as he limped outside the Gate alongside Michael and Kyron, who followed him from behind.
As soon as Michael stepped out, the Gate closed, and the three boys sat on the cold hard ground.
"Well... That went well." Michael said.
"Speak for yourself, my insides hurt," Tenny mumbled.
"Be grateful that's all you're feeling." Michael smiled at Tenny.
"What do you mean by that?" Tenny asked, taken aback.
"Opening Gates between worlds takes a lot of energy. You didn't feel the backlash back then because the Gate already existed. But making one by yourself is another issue." Michael pointed out.
"But I feel fine..." Tenny said, observing his body, "Well, except for the pain I'm currently experiencing."
"Indeed... What a mystery" Michael smiled knowingly.
"Now that we're here there's something you should know."
"What is that?" Kyron asked curiously, as he snapped from observing the world he previously knew to be his home.
"Time" Michael said, which confused his audience.
"As you know, we have very limited time to train every day. We should also be home at least an hour before mom returns to freshen up, rest up, and reduce the risk of her finding out about what we're up to."
"So we have about 10 hours to spend per day here. Since we did not leave the house on time today we have less than five." Tenny said, realizing the issue of time being a major constraint on them.
"No, not necessarily." Michael interrupted.
"How so?" Tenny asked.
"Time flows differently here. We spent a lot of time during our previous stay here, approximately 12 hours, most likely more. However, in our world, only a bit over three hours had passed. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"
Tenny suddenly remembered the previous events and was surprised he had not even considered it.
"That would mean the time spent here is four times what is actually spent on Earth. The time on Earth is about a quarter of the time here!" Tenny exclaimed.
"Yes, exactly," Michael answered while smiling.
"That means we have forty hours to spend here if we are to spend 10 hours away from Earth. Right now we still have about 19 hours or more to train." Kyron added.
"Now you understand. With this, in the next three weeks, we'll have at least 720 hours to spend here, excluding Sunday. That's 30 days. Exactly a month. Remember what I said? We'll only be training for the next month, nothing else!" Michael said
Tenny was already panicking and quickly said "W-Wait a sec, you mean we'll be training for 40 hours non-stop? That's nearly two days at a stretch. No breaks at all? That's impossible."
"During our previous time here, though we spent over 12 hours here, you were never tired. This means that the time here does not directly affect our body, it's just our perception of it. It's most tasking on our minds, but that's also something we need to train." Michael answered Tenny.
"O-Oh, fair point," Tenny said as he sobered up.
"Besides, even if you're exhausted or injured I have HEALER'S WISH, so knock yourselves out," Michael added.
Tenny could not argue any longer.
He was just surprised and amazed that Michael had thought everything through, even to the most minute detail. He also needed to pay attention to the littlest details, if he didn't want to slow his brother down.
'Alright! I'm going to work my butt off and master my ability as quickly as possible!'
"Before we begin let's evaluate ourselves first" Michael began speaking.
"According to ability mastery, energy, stamina, and complete prowess, I am definitely the most skilled, followed by Kyron, and then Tenny." He stated flatly, which made Tenny shrink a bit.
"As for our abilities and the basic nature of them, it's like this."
"Tenny possesses [COWARD'S PARADISE], which, based on what we've seen so far, allows him to instantly teleport to his chosen location when he blinks, automatically teleports him from danger when he blinks, enhances his senses within the space in his range, and allows him to open up spatial links to various locations, including another world. He can also cause spatial distortions and create portals in any given location to rip his targets away"
"Kyron possesses monstrous strength, speed, stamina, fortification, and essentially all his physical abilities are heightened, especially his senses. Since he's a cultivator, his abilities don't fall under Special Abilities, but they'll pass as one. He also has three eyes, one which allows him to see through all things, another allows him to measure energy levels and the strength of anyone, and the final one allows him to generate high-density heat blasts."
"Finally, myself. I possess the ability [DEADMAN MONOPOLY] which allows me to extract Special Abilities from any dead body as long as they possess the 'Seed' in them. I have multiple abilities in my arsenal, which I can't begin to count, but I can not use all the abilities I previously had, and even the ones I have can't be used freely due to their strain on my body."
Michael paused as he looked at both Tenny and Kyron who were paying rapt attention to him.
"In essence, we all have abilities with plenty potential, but we have areas we need to work on."
"For Tenny, he needs to learn the basics of his abilities, focus on his endurance, and the utilization of his abilities in combat. He also needs to learn how to intentionally and freely activate the more complex parts of his abilities among others."
"For Kyron, you need to adapt well to your new body and focus on controlling your strength and power. You also need to learn various battle tactics and strategies, especially in dealing with evasive enemies."
"For me, I need to strengthen this body and increase its capacity." Michael paused and then said, "That's all, does anyone have anything else to contribute?"
Tenny and Kyron looked blank, they understood all he had said and were amazed at how he analyzed everything. They clearly had nothing else to input.
"Fine then," Michael said as he sighed. "Now for your training regimen, this is how it'll go." He started.
"Tenny and Kyron will continuously engage in tag. Kyron must try his best to hit Tenny at least once, with whatever means necessary to score a point. Tenny must try to evade Kyron's attacks, while also aiming to land a hit on Kyron to gain another point. You'll need at least 3 points to win. Winner gets some time of rest while the loser has to do supplementary training before the next challenge." Michael explained.
"And what will you be doing?" Tenny asked, frightened at the thought of facing off against Kyron.
"I am the next challenge. After the game of tag, both of you will face off against me. You must try your best to hit me once. Once you do, it'll be your win. Once you've won, it means the training is over and you've passed. Even if you managed to win today there would be no need for training anymore. You can spend the rest of your time as you see fit. This will be your training for the next month."
"Wow... Is that it?" Tenny asked amazed at the simplicity of their training.
"You should note that if you both fail to win against me, you'll go back to the game of tag," Michael added.
"That's not going to be a problem," Tenny said, already getting fired up.
"Yes. Go wild, I can always heal you. So don't hold back." Michael said, smiling as the two boys before him were eager to begin.
Little did they know that it would be more difficult to win than they could ever imagine. There were many factors which made the training almost impossible to win.
For one, the game of tag was almost a stalemate. Tenny's automatic teleportation would kick in even though Tenny panicked, and Kyron had no blind spots. Kyron had the physical advantage and stamina, but since Michael would keep healing them then that did not matter. Tenny had almost zero chances of hitting Kyron and it was the same situation for Kyron.
This was the perfect training to help them evolve beyond what they knew and what they could presently do, and help them to each overcome their shortcomings.
However, in the case in which one of them succeeded in winning, and they moved on to the next round, they would meet the true challenge. There was no chance they could win against Michael.
This was because, since they had spent most of their time battling against each other in a difficult game, it would be even more difficult for them to work together when facing him. They would need to perfectly sync their every move and come up with a way to win that would require them to play their part, individually and as a team. This would be impossible for them.
The final, most crucial factor which ensured their failure was Michael's strength. His abilities were too much for the both of them to handle, and that was the 'him' of a week ago. The current Michael had gotten his cumulative abilities to be 2 percent of his original.
"Oh, and one more thing" Michael suddenly added with a smile on his face.
Tenny and Kyron stared at him, wondering what was left to add.
"Should you fail to win by the end of the month... You won't be going to Orion with me."
TO BE CONTINUED...