Chapter 94: Justice From Above

By the time Pernia was ready to neutralize Wang Yu's attack and use her wizardry to tear him into pieces, Wang Yu had already run off.

Borrowing the power of the Lady of the Night, Wang Yu cloaked the entire floor in absolute darkness. This darkness was not optical but conceptual, rendering any act of "observation" futile. Even a blind person would lose their way in this darkness.

Caught unprepared, Pernia was unable to resist Wang Yu's divine spell. She instinctively assumed that Wang Yu intended to use the opportunity to attack her. However, in reality, Wang Yu had already grabbed the heavily injured Edward and was making his escape.

With Edward slung over his back, Wang Yu charged toward a shattered window. The window, already blasted wide open as a result of his confrontation with Pernia, was now large enough to accommodate two people.

The three-story drop might have posed a risk of injury, but Wang Yu cast a barrier mid-fall to dissipate much of the force.

He landed smoothly and continued to sprint without hesitation. As he was unable to leap over walls and buildings while carrying Edward, he dashed through the streets and alleys, his rapid footsteps kicking up clouds of dust.

"We're just... running away?" Edward exclaimed in surprise. Wang Yu's retreat was so swift and decisive that Edward was caught off-guard.

"We can't win. Staying there serves no purpose—if we kept fighting, we'd both end up dead," Wang Yu explained, his tone serious as he carried Edward at full speed.

"Her wizardry is extraordinarily powerful. While her reserves of void energy seem limited and her casting occasionally sluggish, her level of control is something I've never seen before. Twisting reality itself... It's no wonder wizards are far rarer than magicians or knights."

Wang Yu's voice carried a deep sense of apprehension. It was clear that brute force alone wouldn't be enough against Pernia. During their brief confrontation, Wang Yu had felt as though the entire world was conspiring against him.

His encounter highlighted the terrifying nature of wizards. When Wang Yu tried to close the distance between himself and Pernia, the space between them would instead distort and stretch.

When he attempted to dodge, invisible forces would pull him toward her attacks.

When he waited for the right moment to strike, debris would randomly rain down on his head.

He was fully controlled and fully suppressed. It was as if he were trapped in a quagmire, his strength rendered useless under Pernia's masterful control.

How could he fight? Well, he couldn't. He had only survived their one-minute standoff through sheer will. Soon, he would have been completely overwhelmed. Escape was not only the best option, but also the only one.

"So that's what a true wizard's like..."Wang Yu muttered, glancing at his palm.

Compared to Pernia, what little wizardry he had mastered was laughably crude. While he could use some spells mechanically, her mastery was seamless and instinctive. She twisted and manipulated reality with ease—the true essence of a wizard.

"We can't just run! She's already made a pact with a demon. If we give her a chance, that demon will descend," Edward said urgently, struggling to free himself.

"Do you want to die?" Wang Yu retorted coldly. To him, rushing back into the fray was nothing more than a pointless act of suicide. The insurmountable gap in their power would only end in a meaningless death.

"But this is our duty! If the demon descends, there will be unimaginable destruction!" Edward pressed, his tone frantic.

"Sorry, but I'm not like you. I'm just a mercenary. And because we're friends, your safety matters far more to me than some mission," Wang Yu replied calmly as he continued to flee.

"I..." Edward wanted to argue but was at a loss for words.

"Besides, letting her roam unchecked will indeed have serious consequences. I saw the hellfire in her hands—that's only possible with a contract with a demon from the underworld," Edward added anxiously.

"I never said we'd ignore her. But right now, our priority is escaping. Haven't you considered getting reinforcements?" Wang Yu asked.

"No. She's a Fatewatcher. Everything that happened today, she had already foreseen. I was the only one she would encounter. No reinforcements would have come," Edward said wearily.

"And what about me?" Wang Yu demanded, perplexed by Edward's defeatist attitude.

He conjured a splash of cold water and flung it at Edward's face.

The cold water jolted Edward out of his stupor. The high-stakes battle against Pernia, with her relentless suppression and foresight, had clouded his mind. Subconsciously, he had started treating her predictions as absolute truth.

But her foresight had already been proven fallible—Wang Yu's unexpected arrival was evidence of that. Edward simply hadn't thought much of it because Wang Yu had failed to provide any effective assistance.

Even so, they had managed to escape her clutches. Pernia hadn't trapped him in that collapsing building.

The fate that Pernia had seen wasn't the one that was unfolding around them now.

"Sorry. I lost my cool," Edward admitted his mistake.

"Now tell me about everything you've encountered—all this fate nonsense. I still don't get what's going on," Wang Yu urged.

Wang Yu was still unclear about just what had happened. He had rushed to rendezvous with Edward, only to find him beaten to within an inch of his life. A brief confrontation with Pernia made it clear that he was no match for her, leaving him no choice but to grab Edward and make a swift escape.

During their retreat, Edward had rambled about fate and prophecy in a cryptic fashion. While Wang Yu now understood the concept of a "Fatewatcher," he couldn't comprehend why Edward was so willing to believe Pernia's words..

Edward quickly brought Wang Yu up to speed.

"So that's how her latent ability works... No wonder I didn't encounter any obstacles. My ripples completely counter her ability." Wang Yu now understood why Edward had been in such a miserable state. Pernia's latent ability was terrifying when facing an opponent whose strength wasn't overwhelming enough to crush her outright.

Her latent ability allowed her to realize improbable events via her targets' blind spots, slowly wearing them down and ultimately killing them. However, Wang Yu was a perfect counter to her. His inner eye provided him with 360-degree vision with no blind spots whatsoever.

As for Pernia's prophetic abilities, they left Wang Yu somewhat shocked. If not for him, Edward would have come alone, just as predicted, and would likely have been trapped and killed in that building. Being able to observe and control fate to this extent went far beyond the fortune-telling of Earth.

But how had he broken Pernia's prophecy? Wang Yu had some ideas, but those weren't important at the moment. Now that Edward had provided him with more information about Pernia, he had come up with a bold, seemingly outrageous plan. If successful, however, it would be incredibly effective.

Time was the most pressing issue. Most reinforcements from the Nightblades would have difficulty arriving in time. While the city guards could provide some support, they weren't particularly strong, and who knew how long it would take for them to arrive. If they were late, the demon summoning ritual would be completed. All their efforts might very well be in vain.

"Edward, notify the city guards and have them prepare for the possibility of a demon descending. Gather what forces you can in the city. I'm going to try something."

After running a considerable distance, Wang Yu stopped and set Edward down. His gaze was fixed on the burning building where Pernia remained.

"Alright. What are you planning?"

"I'm going to head to all the alchemical workshops in the vicinity, commandeer their bombs, and pile them around the building. Then I'll blow the whole thing sky-high."

"!"

"Just kidding. We need her alive. A corpse won't tell us where the demon summoning circle is."

Wang Yu cracked a joke, easing the tension. While a large-scale explosion was very much Wang Yu's style, they needed Pernia alive to reveal the demon summoning circle's exact location. Killing her would only complicate things.

Thus, Wang Yu had to suppress his urge to blow that insane wizard to pieces and come up with a slightly more "gentle" plan.

"If we can't gather reinforcements quickly, let's call in some timely and specialized aid for dealing with wizards," Wang Yu said, narrowing his eyes.

Within his mindscape, Wang Yu reached out to the Lady of the Night. "I need your help again. Sorry for the trouble."

"It's no trouble."

With the exchange complete, the plan was set in motion.

Inside the building, Pernia waited for Wang Yu to attack—only for the darkness to slowly dissipate instead. As she regained her vision, she scanned her surroundings, only to find the building empty.

"He escaped? How could fate's guidance have gone wrong with that man? It's impossible. I must restore my crafted fate," Pernia muttered. Her shock at her prophecy being broken was far greater than she outwardly displayed.

Confusion, anger, and disbelief churned in her mind. As a Fatewatcher, Pernia believed in destiny far more than others. The shattering of a future she had foreseen left her deeply unsettled.

She was an immensely powerful wizard. Though much of her strength came from her foresight and control over the future, her title of Grand Wizard was no mere boast.

"Hmm?" Pernia suddenly sensed something above her. She detected a surge of void energy overhead.

"No directional intent—it's not aimed at me. Pure void energy accumulating and rising... A natural void rift?"

The sudden concentration of void energy was, as far as she could tell, an oddly timed coincidence unrelated to her situation. She couldn't afford to be distracted by it now. Her priority was regaining her awareness of fate.

Closing her eyes, she activated her Fatewatcher ability and peered into the threads of fate...

Moments later, Pernia's eyes shot open. She frantically channeled her void energy to teleport away—only to fail. The void around her no longer responded. A force field enveloped the entire building, sealing her access to the void.

The instigator behind this phenomenon arrived the next moment.

A massive explosion erupted from the building's rooftop as a colossal metal pillar inscribed with runes descended from the sky—a reality anchor!