Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon
Chapter 837 837: 834: The Second Night (1)

The screens lingered in the air, and its pale, icy blue glow reflected in the eyes of the Thirteenth Dawn, and Corey's.

----

[NIGHT TWO BEGINS]

Daily Rule Activated: Two Things Will Be Taken

Warning: The City Mourns.

----

Silence

The members of the Thirteenth Dawn stood frozen.

Even Corey.

They couldn't believed it at all, and their expressions and reactions said it all.

None of them moved. None of them blinked, and none dared to breathe out loud.

Two things?

Two things?

Two things?!

The absurdity of the announcement blanketed the group in stunned disbelief.

Zeke's eyes twitched.

Myra's jaw clenched.

Kieran looked at the screen like he wanted to slice it apart.

Yara's lips parted slightly, but no sound came out.

Even Aelric stopped moving.

Two things would be taken.

Those words echoed in their multiple times, and the tone the Universal System used- calm, factual, almost bored- made it even worse.

Corey was the first to recover from his shocked state, and his thoughts surged like a tidal wave behind his composed expression.

'Two things.... Not one.'

'The first night took sight.'

'Now, it's taking two things.'

'I wonder... since the first thing it took was sight, what might be taken next is also one of the five senses.'

'Will both things be taken from one person? Or one each from two people.'

'Or worse... two from every single person?'

'No. If it was from everyone, it would've said "each". It should be completely random.'

Corey narrowed his eyes.

'And the line... "The City Mourns"... That's new... And ominous.'

'In the First Night, it said- The City No Longer Sleeps. But now it says, The City Mourns.'

'Is this a hint as to what we might face in the Second Night?'

'Since the city was no longer asleep in the First Night, we had to face a horde of monsters. What of the Second Night?'

'Since the city is mourning... We might have to face the past of the city or... something related to our past?'

He slowly turned his gaze to the rest of the group, barely three seconds had gone by after the appearance of the Universal Screen, and they were still stunned by what they were seeing.

His mind went back to the words- Two Things Will Be Taken.

'On the First Night, Rhys sight was taken... A single thing was taken.'

'On the Second Night, two things are going to be taken.'

'If the pattern continues... then on Night Three, three things will be taken.'

'Night Four... four things.'

'There are seven nights in total... That means on the seventh night, seven things could be taken.'

Corey's gaze turned dark.

'If the first was sight... and now two... then by the end of this trial, what will be left of anyone?'

'Will we lose our minds? Our limbs? Our blood? Our powers? Our names?'

'What happens when nothing else can be taken?'

Corey suddenly recalled the penalty for failure the Universal System told them when the trial began.

----

Penalty for Failure: Death or Fragmented Identity.

----

'That penalty is extremely accurate.'

As he spiraled through his theories and horror-tinged deductions, something inside him flared.

His instincts.

They didn't shout.

They screamed at him!

Corey's eyes snapped open wider, and his body instinctively tried to move. But it was too late.

And then he felt it.

A sudden stillness of the world, and then a strange sensation.

It was a pulling sensation. It was sharp and wrong.

Right under his tongue.

Corey's eyes widened in disbelief and shock. 'Shit!'

He felt his tongue twist, and then it twisted harder.

He moved his hand to his jaw instantly.

But it was too late.

The pain was instant.

Sudden.

His tongue jerked violently in his mouth. And then it was ripped out.

Bloody poured out in copious amount.

However... he made no sound.

No scream.

No grunt.

Only a slight twitch of his face.

He felt a sudden bout of weakness and dizziness overcome him, and he fell to the floor on one knee.

Thick, dark grey blood dropped down his lips and chin, staining his shirt.

When Corey saw the colour of his blood, he quickly used Infinite Mirage to place an illusion over it, changing the colour to red.

His breathing changed slightly.

But still, no scream.

Not even a whisper of pain passed his lips.

Inside, Corey simply thought.

'If my pain resistance was low, I would be screaming in pain like how Rhys did. Should I be grateful to the Tribulations of Hell that my pain resistance is extremely high?'

Corey scoffed internally, and then he moved his hand to his mouth and felt the warmth.

The emptiness.

His fingers got stained.

'I can feel a strange power healing it. Which means the trial does not want us to die when something is taken from us... As long as it's not our life.'

Then, still kneeling, he activated his Eyes of Omniscience.

The world shifted.

But he saw... nothing.

No strings. No forms. No signs.

He saw not a single thing that could give him a hint on what ripped out his tongue. The power that ripped out his tongue.

He frowned, and then his gaze changed again.

His pure white eyes became violet-blue, and this time around... he saw them.

Dozens of small, baby-like hands.

Some were pale.

Some were immensely sweaty.

Some were malformed.

Some had missing fingers.

Some had too many fingers.

Some had none.

They were crawling out of an unseen tear in space and pulling at his tongue.

They were ripping it, twisting it, and dragging it away like a prize.

His eyes flashed faintly.

Not in fear

But in analysis.

'They're like spirits, but also not of spirits. They're not in this realm... The physical realm.'

'What's the source of the hands? Is it because of the corruption of the Old One? Or something else?'

'Why infant-like limbs? Is it a manifestation of innocence corrupted?'

Corey's eyes flashed with a million thoughts, and then he tried to grab his tongue, but the hands suddenly jerked, and Corey felt an immense amount of danger and pressure radiating from the hands.

His expression became dark and solemn.

Meanwhile, the hands suddenly pulled his tongue into the unseen spatial tear.

A deep frown was on his face as he gazed in the direction of the rapidly closing spatial tear.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

Another sound suddenly broke the stillness.

It was an extremely loud scream, and when Corey looked in the direction of the scream , his expression changed.

It was Yara.

She shrieked as she clutched her arm.

Then...

With a sickening, unnatural wrench.

Her entire left arm ripped itself away from her body.

There was no blade. No creature. No attack.

Just an invisible force in the eyes of Kieran, Zeke, Myra, and Aelric.

But Corey could see the baby hands pulling Yara's left arm from her shoulder towards the unseen spatial tear.

Her skin tore like wet paper. Her muscles unraveled, and her bones cracked.

Blood sprayed the walls as Yara dropped to her knees while releasing raw and guttural screams.

Everyone backed away in shock.

Myra shouted something, but it was drowned by the sound of Yara's agony.

"Yara!" Rhys dashed forward.

And Aelric warned out of caution, "Don't go near her!"

But he didn't listen.

He tried to follow Yara's screams, but he was blind.

He slipped.

And then he fell, his head hitting the floor with a massive bang, and causing his head to whiplash to the back.

He lost consciousness.

Zeke turned pale while bringing out his pistols from their holsters in instinct. "What the hell is happening?!"

Kieran moved first.

He grabbed a cloth and pressed it against her bleeding shoulder.

She screamed in pain.

"She's going to bleed out, Aelric!"

"I'm on it!" Aelric rushed over with his hands glowing pale green.

"I can't feel it! I can't feel my arm!" Yara gasped between sobs.

"Her arm was taken," Myra said hoarsely. "I thought it was only the five senses that could be taken."

Everybody's expression was dark and heavy, and a silence that was constantly broken by Yara's sobs filled the air.

Corey stood at the back of the group.

Still kneeling.

Still bleeding slightly.

But unbothered.

Instead, he had a pondering expression on his face.

Zeke glanced at him and looked away, but then his eyes snapped back towards Corey in shock and disbelief.

His lips parted. "Wait. Ryan... you're... your tongue... your tongue was taken, and you didn't even-"

A hand suddenly covered his mouth, and Zeke shook.

He looked at the source, and when he saw that it was Myra, he calmed down.

He was about to speak, but Myra shook her head.

"Keep quiet." She whispered.

Zeke blinked.

"What? Why?"

She pointed at the walls, and it only took a moment for Zeke to realize what she was saying.

The silence outside was wrong.

The moaning wind that was a constant thing in the Dying City, even during the Day.

The subtle distant screaming that accompanied the emergence of the Second Night.

The soft hum of invisible spirits.

They were all gone.

It was completely silent.

"What the hell? Why's it so quiet?" Zeke asked in wariness and confusion, his voice barely a whisper.

"Shouldn't we be hearing monsters right about now?

A sound answered him.

Knock

Everyone turned to the door.

Knock. Knock.

A soft, rhythmic tap.

Then a voice followed.

It was both young and sweet.

"... Yara?"

They froze.

Zeke mouthed, "What the fuck?"

"Are you in there?"

The voice was a child's.

A girl's.

A little girl.

Calling Yara's name.

Everybody looked at Yara, and they saw her staring at the door in extreme shock and disbelief.

The knock came again.

Knock

"Are you there, Yara? Can I come in?"