Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon

In the presence of the old man, the wind became still, the trees stopped swaying, and the ground trembled ever so slightly.

The old man was a towering figure with a physique that defied his age. His skin was leathery and scarred. His muscles, though aged, retained a strength and density that could rival those of younger warriors, radiating an aura of raw, primeval power.

His eyes were silver-gray with a piercing intensity to it, but they were overshadowed beneath heavy brows, giving him an intimidating gaze that felt like he was peering into the depths of one soul.

He had a long, unkempt beard flecked with streaks of white and silver, matching his shoulder-length hair that was bound loosely at the nape. His attire was minimal yet functional, crafted from rugged leather and fur, allowing the intricate rune tattoos across his chest, arms, and back to be visible. On his shoulders were a pair of bronze pauldrons.

This man was Raegar Anacletus, the clan head of the Anacletus clan, and a bonafide Ascendant of the Abyss.

As Raegar swept his gaze at his surroundings, a deep frown emerged on his face. He looked at the ground, and then he crouched and grabbed a hand full of the soil on the ground.

"Everything looks perfect… too perfect."

Raegar spoke calmly and slowly as he rubbed the soil in the ground.

"Gunnarr has clearly died in this location… This was the last place I sensed him, but there's no sign of a battle here… The ground has no cracks, there's no remnant energy or aura in the air, and I can't see anything that belongs to him over here."

"It's like… he was taken out without been able to put up a fight… but that's not possible… I know how strong Gunnarr was, and only HE would be able to do such."

Raegar rubbed the soil in his hands once again, and then he looked up and stood while allowing the soil to fall from his hands.

"Let's see what happened around here."

Raegar exhaled softly, and then he placed his palms together, and the runes on his body glowed with a silver light, and even his eyes glowed with a silver light.

An expression of intense focus could be seen on Raegar's face, and a few seconds later, the air in front of him rippled like a stone being dropped inside a lake.

Raegar's frown deepened, and the glow on his body brightened, and when it did, his surroundings changed.

Cracks began appearing on the ground, and the air trembled, and a few seconds later, two blurry figures and one chaotic figure appeared in front of Raegar.

When Raegar saw these three figures, he frowned with a contemplative light in his eyes. The glow in his eyes and on his runes increased, but just as the figures were about to move, the blurry figures vanished and the cracks on the ground went back to normal.

Raegar slowly dropped his hands with a solemn look in his eyes and sweat dripping down his face.

"Hmm… They were very thorough."

Raegar exhaled deeply, and then his eyes moved towards the Stairs of Ascension that glowed with a bright but gentle golden light.

As he stared at the Stairs of Ascension, his mind went through everything he had learnt after arriving here.

Just as he had expected, the surroundings had been tampered with by manipulating the runes of the world.

The control and manipulation of the runes was so perfect to the point that if not for the fact that he was certain that Gunnarr had died here, and that it was impossible for there not to be a single sign of battle, then he would not have noticed.

He had tried to manipulate the runes to know what the environment had looked like before Gunnarr's death, however, he realized that he could not do such because there was literally nothing to restore.

It was almost like the environment had always been like this, and had not been tampered with at all.

Despite trying this, he knew that the only way for him to figure out who it was that killed Gunnarr was by rewinding time, however, he found it to be surprisingly difficult.

Rewinding time does not only consume a lot of chaos energy and mental energy, it also causes Tainteds to hear murmurings, whispering, and voices of strange beings that could make one to lose control or run mad if one had a weak will or if one rewounded time for too long or beyond their capabilities.

However, when Raegar tried rewinding the time of his surroundings to the past, he ended up using ten times more chaos energy and mental energy than what he should have used.

To his surprise, the runes in the air made it more difficult for him to manipulate time and at some point, they made attempts to block his attempt to rewind time.

Due to the fact that he was using up more chaos energy and mental energy than normal, the voices, murmurings, and whisperings affected him the more, and he had no choice but to stop before he reached a point of no return.

Although he failed in rewinding time to what he desired, he was able to know those who had killed Gunnarr.

'There were three people.'

'Are they the ones Gunnarr told me about before he left his post?... But how's that possible?... They should be weaker than Gunnar…'

Raegar furrowed his brows deeply, and then he shifted his gaze to a particular location. If Corey, Pamela, and Selene were to go back in time, one would realize that where Raegar was currently looking at was where Corey stood while holding Selene's waist.

'Out of the three figures, I was able to make out the features of two, and they are females. This goes in line with what Gunnarr told me about those who possessed the Genesis Armament… However… I could not make out the features of the last figure. It was extremely chaotic and the time and space energies and runes around him were the most difficult to manipulate.'

'In fact, whenever I tried to manipulate the time and spatial runes around him, the whispers, murmurings, and voices were getting stronger and more agitated.'

'Just who is he'

What Raegar didn't know was that due to the partial awakening of Corey's Void Phoenix Heart, his body was constantly getting pumped with void force and energies that he could not use. This made it difficult for him to rewind time, especially around Corey.

Assuming Corey had a fully awakened Void Phoenix Heart, the cost to rewind time around Corey would be much more difficult to the point that he might actually suffer a backlash because of it if he was careless.

Raegar released a deep breath, and then he calmly spoke, "At least Gunnarr told me that the person who owned the Genesis Armament was a Tier 2 male outsider…. From the looks of it, he's definitely not normal."

Just as Raegar said these words, he was about to look away, but then he noticed something at the spot beside where Corey stood.

His body vanished, and in less than a fraction of a second, he appeared close to where Corey stood.

He crouched, and then he touched the ground with two of his fingers, and brought them close to his face.

A second later, a cold smile appeared on his lips as he gazed at his fingers which had sand mixed with blood on it.

This blood was Gunnarr's blood.

"Got you."