Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon

The world shifted.

And Corey found himself standing atop a tower of light.

He blinked.

Not because of confusion, but because of the overwhelming brightness of the world before him.

Golden spires rose into the skies like celestial spears. Roads of floating crystal weaved through the clouds, connecting towers and platforms that were filled with people.

Mana rivers flowed through the air, sparkling with hues of violet, gold, and silver.

The skies were blue. Not the pale blue of a normal day, but a deeper, fuller hue. Almost like a polished gemstone.

And the sun?

It was ten times brighter and larger than that of New Earth.

'Virendell.' Corey thought in amazement.

The city was alive. Not decayed. Not hollow. And not dying.

It was alive, thriving, and prosperous. Unlike the current Dying City he was in.

It was a realm of knowledge, magic, and advancement. It was a vision of what once was. Or what should have been.

'This is a memory... Not a vision.'

Just as he had this thought, he looked around or to be more precise, the eyes of the person he was seeing through, looked down.

He saw people moving through the air on floating platforms and mana beasts.

He saw figures dressed in long robes and armors, both scholars and warriors alike- Mages and Swordsmen. They moved through marble halls and market squares.

He saw children laughing as they flew on floating discs. He saw elemental beasts lying lazily on several towers. They were tamed and docile.

He saw several research centers that shot out a beam of light into the sky.

He also saw gardens that was filled with birds that sang.

Everything was beautiful. So beautiful.

The figure turned, and he saw the palace.

At its highest tower stood a man.

He was tall, white haired, and dressed in black and silver.

And his eyes contained numerous stars in them, making it seem like he had a galaxy in his eyes.

'Archmage Kael Yurein.'

Corey recognized the man after recalling images of him from the books he had read.

The figure whose perspective he was seeing through bowed at the archmage, and Corey had a thought.

'Who is the owner of this memory if it's not Archimage Kael Yurein?'

Just as he had this thought, the vision shifted.

The skies dimmed, and from high above the city... a figure floated.

He was tall, dressed in black armor that was inscribed with glowing white runes that shone like stars.

A long cloak drifted behind him, and his hair, silver-white and flowing, trailed down to his back. In his hand was a long staff that was elegant, refined, and deadly.

His eyes were like ever-shifting galaxies, and Corey instantly recognized who the man was immediately he saw him.

'The last King of Virendell from the House of Veyr... The House that toppled the House of Yurein.' Corey thought.

Below him was an army.

No

Not an army.

It was a horde.

A vast, churning sea of filth and rot that stretched endlessly toward the city. The creatures were unlike anything Corey had ever seen.

And he has seen a lot in the Shattered Dimension of the Old Ones and in the Games of the Clown.

Twisted beasts with too many arms. Eyeless titans with melted skin and bones breaking out of their flesh. Winged monstrosities that flew with laughter that sounded like crying. Crawling towers of limbs and flesh that dragged behind them rivers of decay.

'The Second Great War of Decay.'

Corey recalled one of the books he had read, and his focus was entirely on the battle.

The King hovered high, and his gaze burned with contempt.

"I am Erandros Veyr of House Veyr. The Last Light of Virendell. And I do not bow to rot."

His voice echoed, and the sky darkened in response to his words.

And then...

Light.

A blazing sphere of runes and mana exploded from his staff and descended like a falling star.

It crashed into the army.

The world trembled.

Reality buckled.

And in one attack, tens of thousands of creatures were reduced to dust and black mist. The battlefield howled with the screams of dying rot.

The vision shifted again.

Now Corey stood in the center of a plaza.

Thousands were gathered.

And at the center of it all... The Hollow Creed.

They were clad in robes of black and crimson, marked with symbols that mortals should not look at.

One of them, a woman with long white hair and an eye at the center of her forehead, held up a scroll that bled.

They preached.

Their voices were melodic and calm, but twisted.

"Pain is the teacher of clarity."

"Blood is the communion of truth."

"Silence is the voice of death."

"Madness is the language of gods."

Tens of thousands listened. Some nodded. Some wept. Others smiled.

The vision blurred, and then it shifted once again.

A monster.

Titanic.

From a spatial tear in the sky that led to the Plane of Decay, a creature the size of Mount Everest crawled through the rift.

It had no face or head.

Only a mouth that spanned the length of its torso. Arms made of bones and intestines swung through the air, and where it stepped with its cow-like legs, the ground turned to black sludge.

The sky cracked. Birds fell dead from the air, and the mana in the air screamed.

Virendell's Archmages and Swordmasters arrived.

Corey watched them.

Blades that emitted the glows of stars.

Stars that summoned storms of elements.

Their attacks rained down.

They struck the creature.

And it roared. Not in pain. But in joy.

It was madness incarnate.

Ths battle was terrifying.

Each spell could destroy mountains, and each swing of a blade could split the clouds in this world, but on New Earth?

All life would end with a single swing or spell.

Corey's eyes blazed as he watched all of these.

The battle raged on for days, but the monster was still standing.

Bleeding... but smiling.

The vision shifted again.

Now Corey stood in a dark hall.

Five beings sat around a black tree made of bones.

Three were the same cloaked humanoids with blindfolds and antlers he had seen on the carvings of the walls of the tunnel.

One was a floating jellyfish-like being with a thousand eyes that whispered constantly to itself.

The last... was a mass of writhing tongues and eyes. It looked like a ball made out of different tongues with countless red eyes on them. Red veins also pulsed on the tongues and eyes.

These were the leaders of the Hollow Creed, and Corey's gaze was on the ball of tongues and eyes, and the jellyfish with thousand of eyes.

He had not read or seen anything about these two beings at all, and he did not know why.

He tried to focus on them, but the eyes of the person he was observing the memory through moved to the three humanoids with antlers and blindfolds.

They spoke in an unknown language that was different from what was used in Virendell, but Corey could understand it.

"The last King delays the end."

"The flesh god of decay has failed."

"It is time for Death to awaken."

"Yes. The One Beneath the Tree. The Sleeper in the Pale. The Lord of the Final Silence."

"Our Death."

They all nodded.

And then they turned.

And looked directly at Corey.

Their voices echoed as one, "What do you think, First Librarian?"

Corey's eyes widened. "What?"

But the vision shifted again.

A ritual.

That was what Corey could see as he stared at the hundreds of Hollow Creed members gathered around the black tree that was made of bones and flesh.

Its bark was made out of flesh and bones. Its branches were made out of ribs. Its leafs were eyes, ears, and tongue, and its fruits were hearts.

The members of the Hollow Creed chanted, and then they bled themselves dry.

Some gouged out their eyes and fed them to the roots that were made out of flesh.

Some broke their limbs and twisted their bodies into symbols.

Others whispered to skulls and burned screaming books made out flesh and bones.

The world shifted.

No.

Reality shivered.

And the tree moved.

Its roots dug into the bones of the dead and pulled up something black.

A throne.

It was empty, but not for long.

The world split open, and He descended.

He had no name.

He needed none.

But they called HIM Death.

The Old One.

The god of the Hollow Creed.

A being of shadow and silence.

As He descended, the sky turned into an eye, and the air became water... literally.

The laws of reality fractured, and the world cried.

Corey groaned in pain as he closed his eyes while holding his head.

Even though it was a memory, his body or his spirit trembled.

His mind shook, and he knew that he should not be seeing this.

He was still a mortal, and this was the true body of an Old One. He did not have the authority or power to see an Old One.

He had tried looking at the Old One, but even his mind could not recall what he saw.

He could feel his mind getting corrupted, and without hesitation, he ordered his Stars of Consciousness to completely destroy and erase this piece of memory before his mind was fully corrupted.

His vision darkened, but just before it ended, his gaze landed on a puddle of water beside him.

And he saw it.

A reflection.

Not of the Hollow Creed

Not of the Old One.

But of the memory's source.

The one whose memories he was witnessing.

And what he saw shocked him.

He was not shocked by the owner of the memories, but by the being that stood beside him.

'A Supreme?!'

The vision ended.