Single Wish: Rise Of The Omniscient Paragon

When Selene, Kiefer, Willow, Jeremy, Matias, Rorik, and Caesar saw Corey's struggling expression and how he seemed to be in a lot of pain, they were all surprised because he seemed to be going through a lot more than them.

And they began speculating that the reason why Corey was struggling so much was because of how strong he was.

They assumed that the pressure of the Chain of Sovereignty scaled not only with how high one reached, but also one's power.

Although they could not be blamed for having such thoughts, Corey was not truly struggling because of the pressure.

Well... he was.

But it was not for the same reason as Jeremy, and the others.

For the others, their bodies were feeling a suffocating weight that threatened to fall them to their knees. But Corey could easily ignore this pressure that could even make Tier 6s to feel immense discomfort.

Corey was not struggling because the force was acting on his body. He was struggling because the force was acting on his Will.

Some hours ago, when the pressure acting on them reached a certain point, he noticed that the force could strengthen his Will. It was like his Will was being forged repeatedly with a forger's hammer, and the higher he climbed, the more refined his Will became.

Covering his entire body with his Will allowed the rate of the tempering of his Will to be high. However, he was not satisfied with the rate of his tempering.

So whenever Jeremy or the others wanted to rest, he kept on walking without stopping even for a second.

The first time Corey passed all of them, they had all been confused as to why Corey seemed to be rushing to the Chained Firmament.

Jeremy took this as a challenge and attempted to catch up to Corey, but it didn't take long for the pressure to reach a point he could no longer ignore and brute force through it.

However, that did not mean he gave up. In fact, it only fueled his determination.

If not for the fact that the Rope of Benevolence and Equality could become longer than it seemed, Corey would have been dissatisfied by their progress since they were slowing him down.

Although he wanted to leave them, he could not since Kiefer and Selene were also among the group.

Another reason why he was going through so much struggle was mainly because of Kiefer, Selene, and Willow.

Because they were not as strong as Jeremy and the remaining members of the Hero Party, he had to use his Will to protect them.

This strained his Will a lot, but he also noticed that the rate of tempering of his Will increased by a lot when he did this.

So he had no complaints.

He did not fully protect Kiefer, Selene, and Willow since he also wanted them to be strong.

He calculated the optimal amount of pressure that would force them to grow and improve, and he made sure that his telekinesis always adjusted to the conditions of his three servants.

If they were improving, he would leave his telekinesis as it is.

If their conditions was getting worse, he would increase the amount of protection on them.

Despite the pain he was feeling, he still had the ability to analyze the conditions of three individuals.

This showed just how important his Stars of Consciousness were. Without them, Corey doubted if he would be able to do such a thing.

'It feels like a mountain is on my skull. Damn it. It's very uncomfortable.'

If there was one thing he was grateful for as he continued moving forward, it was the nature of his Will.

If he did not have Undying Will but another Will entirely that did not have similar properties to Undying Will, his Will would have either suffered immense damage, irreparable damage, or shattered completely which would cause him severe pain he had never felt in his life.

It was because of the adaptive and resilient nature of his Will that he was carelessly taking step after step on the Chain of Sovereignty without acclimatizing to the ever-changing force.

'How close are we now?'

Corey looked up, and his eyes flashed when he could see the bottom of the Chained Firmament in extreme clarity.

It was like he was at arm's length from the Chained Firmament, but he knew that the Chained Firmament was still far away from him.

'Two hours at most at our current speed.'

For the first time since he noticed the benefits of the force of the Chain, he took a break and looked at his surroundings.

And the first thing he noticed was how dark it was. Although he already knew this because his Stars of Consciousness were constantly using his other senses to monitor his surroundings, it had not really sunk into his main consciousness that this was truly his environment.

He blinked, and then he looked down at the titanic golden chain.

The chain was the source of light, and without it, Corey was certain that only those with unique eyes would be able to see in the dark.

He turned and looked at Jeremy and the others, and when he saw their pale, trembling, and sweaty faces and bodies, he blinked with an innocent expression.

His gaze landed on Pamela, and a light of confusion flashed in his eyes when he noticed her pale and sweaty body.

'She should not be struggling this much. Unless... oh... she's tempering something else. Not her body. Just like me.'

'But what is she tempering? I don't sense a Will, so what? Hmm.'

"Wh- Why- Why did you stop?"

Jeremy struggled to speak as he stood beside him, and held his shoulder for support.

His breathing was so heavy to the point that it seemed like he had just ran around a thousand laps around a nation.

Corey looked at him with a stoic expression. "I just decided to take a short break."

Jeremy blinked, and then he looked up.

"I- I'm going to rest too. It's definitely not because you're resting.'

Corey nodded without a change in his expression, and the others also caught up to both of them.

Just like Jeremy, they chose to rest and acclimatize to the force around them. And it took them twelve whole painful hours for them to do this, and Corey somewhat regretted his decision to stop.

But when he saw how it was beneficial for them, he didn't complain.

Two hours later, they reached the last link of the Chain of Sovereignty, and the mystery of the Chained Firmament was laid bare before them to see.