Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon

The Third Day arrived.

It didn't crash in with glory or bloom in with warmth. It seeped in a soft, slow, and strange manner.

The darkness of the Second Night faded reluctantly, like ink being slowly diluted by water.

The cold remained a while longer, clinging to the broken stones and fractured streets like the breath of something ancient that wasn't quite ready to let go.

But then... light came.

And through Corey's Eyes of Omniscience, it wasn't just sunlight. It was transition.

A structure. A system of change.

He sat quietly with his back against the now-whole wall of the building, one leg bent and the other stretched. His gaze remained locked on the changing sky above.

To the average eye, the dawn might've appeared like nothing more than a shift in the sky's shade, a faint easing of the cold, a lessening of the tension in the wind, and a softening of the sky's oppressive gloom.

But to Corey, through the lens of his Eyes of Omniscience, it was more than that.

It was like watching a machine reconfigure itself.

Above, the grey clouds had not simply parted. They shimmered. Threads of translucent mana, like ribbons of silk soaked in gold and deep crimson, shimmered across the sky.

They rippled, weaved, and twisted like they were dancing to a music only Corey could hear.

Behind them, faint runes blinked to life, and when Corey saw these runes, what came to his mind was... Imprisonment.

He had been studying runes for some time, and he knew that runes were like children who could not stay still.

Especially Elemental Runes.

They loved moving about, playing with one another, and sometimes... causing chaos and disasters.

However, these runes felt... imprisoned?

Corey was not certain if that was the right word, but they felt rigid. Like the life and joy in them had been siphoned out of them.

And Corey guessed that this was either because of the Universal System since this was a System Trial.

Or it was because of the descent of an Old One in the past Virendell.

The ley lines that fed the Dying City twisted and convulsed like sick veins, barely holding together as corrupt mana surged through them.

Corey could see the weak points, those invisible cracks in reality where the world itself seemed frayed. Rotting beneath the surface.

And though the Day had come... it had not vanished the Night.

Only swept it under the rug.

Corey narrowed his eyes slightly. He leaned his head back with his eyes still watching the clouds.

His mind wandered.

'It's getting worse.'

He thought of the creature he fought. A Tier 5.

He had guessed, of course, that the danger of the city would increase with each passing day. But encountering such a high-level entity this early?

It was something he did not expect... Especially on the Second Night.

If a powerful Tier 5 appeared on merely the Second Night, what of the Third Night? The Fourth? The Seventh?

The thought of it made Corey frown.

'That thing would have killed at least two members of the Thirteenth Dawn if I wasn't around. Maybe more, depending on how unlucky they got.'

As soon as he had this thought, another image appeared in his mind.

The ghostly hands.

Dozens of infantile limbs with pale, malformed fingers dragging his tongue from his mouth like it was a piece of cloth.

His instincts had flared before it happened, but he was not able to react fast enough to it.

Not only that, he felt that he recalled the danger he felt when he tried to take back his tongue from the hands.

He felt Death... Literally.

His hand flexed subconsciously.

'Even now, I still don't fully understand what those hands are...'

'They weren't physical. Not entirely. They weren't spiritual either... It's like they were somewhere in between?'

'And I couldn't stop them.'

As he recalled the incidence with the hands and also felt the lingering aura in his mouth, he knew that he would not have been able to stop the ghostly hands at all.

His Void powers would not be able to prevent the hands from touching him. His Eyes of Dreams and Nightmares would also have no effect. And even Dreamfire which was his most effective weapon against spirits, souls, corruption, and death, would not be effective against them.

He felt that they were governed by a deeper law, something that was primal and absolute...

The Universal System's rule- Something Will Be Taken.

Or... It was a remnant power of the Old One, Death.

Corey had no idea, but both assumptions was not a good thing for him at all.

If it was the Universal System's rule, he could not fight it since he was still a mere mortal.

It was the same if it was the power of the Old One, Death.

Another fact that bothered him was that even Dream Healing could not regenerate his tongue.

His Stars of Consciousness have been trying to use Dream Healing to regenerate his tongue, but no matter how much he tried, how much dream energy he used, no matter how precise and good his manipulation of Dream Healing was, his tongue did not regenerate no matter what.

It was gone, and he could not talk.

He could also feel a power in his severed tongue which was the main reason for him not being able to regenerate his tongue.

He could not disperse the power despite his uniqueness.

The fact that both Dream Healing and Dreamfire could not help him in this situation was both unnerving and worrying for him.

Although he had not realized till now, having Dream Healing and Dreamfire was what had always given him the confidence to fight against beings whose main ability was to attack one's mind, spirit, or soul.

But now, his two most reliable skills could not work on the most worrying part of the system trial.

He had not really taken the system's rule of something being taken every night very seriously, but with the realization that what would be taken every night would increase, he knew that even his life was at stake.

He had to come a decision.

He exhaled softly through his nose and sat up a bit straighter.

'Which brings me to the more pressing question.'

His eyes slowly moved to the unconscious members of the Thirteenth Dawn. They were still laying exactly where he'd placed them after rendering them unconscious.

'What do I do with them?'

The thought had haunted the back of his mind ever since the Second Night ended.

There were two clear options- Abandon them or Continue moving with them.

He leaned forward, and his arms rested loosely over his knees.