Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon

"Why did you abandon me again, Yaya?"

Yara couldn't speak when she heard those words. She couldn't even breathe properly

Her mind spun wildly, spinning like a wheel that had lost its axle, careening out of control.

Her body trembled.

Her lips opened, but no words came out. Only fragmented gasps.

"Lili? I- no. You... you were... but... fire... I... it can't-"

She stared at the floating girl who had the face of her sister, but was not her sister.

A bolt of realization did not strike Yara. No. Instead, her mind was in complete chaos.

It was as if she was seeing the entire world tilt sideways. As if the fabric of her understanding had just been torn down the middle.

Lili hovered slightly above the ground with a gentle smile, but her fingers dug tighter into Yara's neck.

She spoke with a sweet and soft voice, like she wasn't slowly choking the life out of Yara.

"You left me, Yaya... and now you want to forget me?"

Yara's legs trembled, and her lips quivered as tears fell from her eyes.

"I... I didn't... I... didn't know. I didn't... I came back... I-"

"Shhh." Lili placed a finger on Yara's lips.

"You came back late," Lili whispered, and her bloody lips stretched slightly. "Did you forget the incidence with the stove? You let me sleep. And then... you buried me. Like trash."

Her fingers dug deeper into Yara's throat, and Yara gurgled.

Her nails dug into the wrist that held her.

Lili leaned closer with wide eyes that were moist and cruel all at once.

"You left me to die, Yaya. You left me-"

SHHHING!

Suddenly, a streak of blazing red light arced through the air.

Lili's arm was severed at the elbow, and a scream tore from her lips.

Yara fell to the ground with a gasp and began coughing violently.

Corey appeared beside her, already moving, and in one smooth motion, he scooped her up with one arm and disappeared in a flash of wind and fire, reappearing beside the stunned group.

"Get it together!" his flaming words roared in the air. "Fight it."

The moment these words were formed, they exploded, bringing the group of their thoughts.

The group blinked, and was snapped out of their trance.

Kieran's eyes sharpened immediately, and his hands gripped his twin sabers.

"Zeke! Stay back and focus on suppression fire! Myra, on me! Aelric, crowd control!"

Just as Kieran said these words, Lili's scream of pain shifted into something guttural.

Something inhuman.

And then it happened.

Her form rippled, and the little girl's illusion peeled away like wet paper.

What stood before them was not a child.

It was tall, and its form was twisted. It's head was now split in half with a gaping maw, and the severed arm squirmed on the ground, sprouting new fingers.

Eyeballs lined its shoulder blades, and pale arms grew out of its torso like hanging branches.

Its face shifted every second, taking on the forms of the loved ones of Zeke, Kieran, Myra, Aelric, and Corey.

Its face changed to either family members or friends whom they loved and cared deeply about.

It turned to Zeke.

"Dad?"

Zeke's eyes widened, then narrowed.

"Son of a bitch!"

He pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The bullet hit the creature in the shoulder and exploded.

It flinched, and then it looked at its shoulder with a raised brow that displayed both confusion and mockery.

A soft echo resounded in the room as Zeke's bullet fell from the creature's shoulder unto the floor.

"Damn it."

Zeke cursed as he watched the creature dust off the faint scratch on its shoulder.

He had used one of his strongest bullets, but all it did was cause a faint scratch on it.

Although he cursed out loud, he was not surprised by this.

In fact, he would be more surprised and suspicious if his attacked worked on a Tier 5 monster.

He was merely a Tier 3 after all.

A second after Zeke cursed, the creature surged forward.

The battle began.

Kieran was the first to meet it.

He dashed in with his sabers coated in lightning, and his blades danced as he slashed at its limbs.

Sparks of electricity flew about, scorching different parts of the house.

Just as Kieran's blades were about to touch the creature, it bent backward unnaturally, and it swung one of its arm toward Kieran like a whip.

He blocked it just in time, but was still flung backward, and he crashed into the far wall.

Myra dashed past Kieran as he flew, and flames ignited the metal which was her spear.

She suddenly slowed down, and then with a grunt, she threw it with all she had.

WHOOSH!

Cracks appeared on the ground along with some objects catching on fire as the spear moved at an extremely fast speed.

It shrieked loudly as the spear pierced the creature's shoulder.

But then its skin split open on its chest, and a whip-like appendage slammed into Myra's side.

Her eyes widened in extreme pain and disbelief the moment she felt the impact of the creature's whip-like appendage.

A trail of blood left her lips as she flew across the room, slamming into a wall.

Aelric slammed both hands into the floor, and he shouted.

"Bone Bind!"

Dozens of jagged bone spears erupted beneath the creature, and the bone spears stabbed into its legs and tendrils.

It shrieked again, and stumbled slightly, just in time for Corey to strike.

He flashed forward, and his only remaining dagger ignited with fiery red flames as he aimed for the neck.

But the creature's face suddenly twisted.

Suddenly, it took on a face that Corey could not forget no matter what.

Anna.

However, Corey didn't hesitate, his dagger slashed forward.

The monster howled as new appendages appeared from its body, and it slammed its appendages into the ground, causing rubbles, stones, and rocks to fly about, causing Corey to stop and protect his face.

The monster shattered the bone spears that held it, and then it lunged at Corey.

Zeke suddenly appeared close to the monster, stunning the monster.

Without wasting a single second, he unloaded three shots into its head.

"Eat that, freakshow!"

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

Zeke's bullet tore into the creature's body this time around, but instead of the bullets exploding, they released a freezing power that was so potent to the point that the creature's body began to turn to ice.

Zeke quickly loaded more bullets into his pistols in a fraction of a second, but his instincts suddenly screamed at him just as he was about to fire his bullets.

The creature howled once again, and a wave of crushing mental force slammed into Zeke, Corey, Kieran, Myra, Aelric, and even Yara and the unconscious Rhys.

Everybody staggered backwards in pain, and Yara shrieked as she fell unconscious.

Her mind was already in shambles and chaos, and the creature's release of a powerful crushing mental power was too much for her.

Meanwhile, in the minds of everybody were voices of their loved ones.

"Why did you leave me?"

"You broke my heart."

"You used me."

"You let us die."

"It's your fault."

"You're a murderer."

"You're weak."

Faces flashed in front of their eyes, and every single one of them was stunned.

Myra saw her younger brother.

Zeke saw his childhood friend who died when the apocalypse began.

Aelric saw his grandfather.

Kieran saw his parents.

And Corey saw his sister.

Each of them held their heads as the voices were extremely loud, chaotic, and disorienting.

Even Corey had a slight expression of pain, but he was not heavily distracted like the others.

His eyes flashed with fury, and he began releasing flaming daggers at the monster.

Each time his flaming daggers touched the monster, fire spread.

And each time his flaming daggers moved, the air warped.

But the creature wasn't slow.

It was fast enough to dodge Corey's attacks, and it regenerated from each of Corey's attacks.

Its voice shifted constantly as it bombarded the minds of everybody.

Suddenly, Rhys appeared behind the monster and slammed into it with his shield.

He had been conscious for some time, and he had just been buying his time.

Despite his blindness, he still chose to fight.

Myra and Kieran both regained enough consciousness to fight, and they both lunged at the monster.

Their blades struck it.

Zeke fired, and Aelric sent bone chains to tie it down.

Corey moved in along with Rhys, and then everything slowed.

A second later, it all faded, and the truth was revealed.

The world dimmed, and a pressuring silence and stillness engulfed the world.

The Thirteenth Dawn stood frozen with dazed expressions.

None of them had moved since Corey slashed Lili's arm.

A thin silver sheen of illusion energy surrounded them. It was extremely subtle and undetectable to most, but those with very high perceptions could see this energy.

They were caught in an illusion.

But surprisingly, it was not by the monster.

But by Corey.

His eyes glowed brightly as the two golden triangular pupils of his Tri-Pupil Eyes placed the members of the Thirteenth Dawn in a powerful illusion.

And outside the illusion's range was the creature standing and watching.

Its many eyes blinked in confusion as its severed arm still twitched.

The creature tilted its head, and its expression was... baffled.