Standing at the end of the trial, there were only two men standing. “So this is it.” The hero said. The man who had been the leader of every trial since their world was plunged into this chaotic mess said in a defeated tone. It wasn’t hard to think that either. He had lost his legs in a desperate attempt to clear the trial before the time limit.

[Trial 81 completed, rewards being distributed]

Those words appeared before the two men, but neither bothered to check what their rewards were.

“Think earth can survive after 81 trials?” the young man said. It was a surprise that he was the only one left, considering he only had the power of wishes. Nothing to improve combat strength, and he almost used up all his wishes long ago.

“Maybe if we had done it before the population shrank as much as it did.” King Henric stated. He wasn’t truly a king, they lost the right to have a king long ago. But with how he led everyone, no one thought he was any less than a king.

The other young man let out a long sigh at that. “Yeah. even with my five wishes, I couldn’t get us to the place where we could overcome.” the grumbling caused Henric to frown and turn towards his companion.

“Aaron, you’ve done as much as any one of us. But you’re right. Even with everything we have, we-” He began a coughing fit. The poison of the beast they defeated flowed through the man’s body despite all the healing Aaron could give.

“Wait, I’ll-” only to have the domain of the one who led him fall upon him, stopping him from acting.

“No, no you won’t. I have lost the chance to fix things now that I pushed so hard in this life. You will wish for my power, and you will pick up my banner. Just remember, the secret at the depths of the 50th trial must be opened.”

Aaron couldn’t help but feel his mouth moving, the command of the king’s domain was something that tore at Henric’s own life force if he didn’t have enough subjects to activate the king title.

“I wish for Henric’s gift to be my own.” He heard himself say, then he saw his gift tear something from Henric that caused the man to scream in agony before he fell limp, cold… dead.

[Final wish used. Attained personal skill: regression]

[The king is dead, to take his place, you must take his aspect of the crown and gain enough followers to attain the title.]

[You are the strongest human, congratulations]

Tears could only flow through Aaron’s eyes as the man who had led them through tribulation after tribulation finally fell and left him alone. With the king’s protections gone, the last city would likely be overrun before Aaron got back, even if the evolution helped them.

He mourned the death of his leader for a while until another prompt showed up.

[Avoid extinction: your population is falling drastically, save them to attain an aspect of survival.]

He stood up then, he had to continue in this world, and even with his friend and their best hope gone, he needed to survive. Checking on what he was given, he realized he received a power he didn’t think could exist.

[Regression. Conduct a ritual to return ascended souls to before the first evolution trial.]

So this is what Henric meant when he said he couldn’t… if he could return to the past, he could do things better but made a mistake that caused him to need to pass this on to someone else. “Fine, if you want me to do it, so be it.”

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It took a full hour to learn and prepare the ritual, Regression was the grandest magic ritual he had ever conducted, and when it was complete, he could feel energy surging towards the ritual despite it not activating at all.

What he didn’t expect was that it had a unique effect other than its activation, as more and more energy surged towards the ritual and into him, filling him with enough power that he felt he could singlehandedly kill the beast they fought for the 81st trial.

[Regression skill grants right for soul ascension. Welcome to the realm beyond mortals.]

That prompt was weird… but he had all he needed now, and he could learn about things in his first regression… “I’ll see you again Henric.” He vowed and activated the ritual.

[Soul empowerment effect activated. Time rift energy from regression can be used to boost gifts]

[regression too advanced to be manipulated by current time rift energy.]

[Five wishes gift transformed into wishes of the world]

[attain random new gift]

[You may only choose from the available options.]

To think that he wouldn’t wake up at the beginning but in a void. He tried to remember how he got there, but after the ritual started, things began to tear apart in ways he could only comprehend was that the tears were conceptual

Henric lost the power of the ascensions with how this time rift worked, and all his boons disappeared… this would likely be worse than the life he had lived, but he would begin with the options.

[Wishes of the world: For the one whose soul is tied to the planet itself, evolving the world will give them a minor wish.]

So if he evolved his five wishes, he would downgrade from considerable wishes to minor wishes, but also gain a number of wishes based upon the trials they completed. That meant he would have at least 81 wishes if they made it to the same spot they did last time.

Looking at the other option, a random gift would be interesting, but many of them were tied to aspects, and wince his previous life didn’t allow him to get too many aspects, he didn’t know if he could take advantage of them. So instead of taking the option that would diversify his abilities, since he likely had to carry humanity, he chose to evolve his wishes.

[Soul brand]

[Name: Aaron ----- (asended soul no longer holds ties to family)

Soul status: Ascended 1

Soul power: Regression

Gift: Wishes of the world

Aspects: none

Bloodline: none]

He was back at the beginning. Before anyone got anything from the world evolutions other than their soul gifts.

“What’s going on?” Someone called out, as only now did Aaron realize that he was staring at the brand screen that appeared when everything began, only for it to be closed and notifications began.

[World lifespan nearing end]

[World creators satisfied with the state of the populace, integration into the Great Evolution underway]

[Time before planet dies: 24 hours]

[Do you wish to participate in the evolution trial? y/n

Reward for first evolution trial: planet core, infinite lifespan]

There it was. On his way to his new job, Aaron found out that the world was going to end, and how to prevent it.

“Yes.”