Chapter 96: The Devil

"Do you think you can stop anything?" A distorted, chilling voice emanated from Pernia's lips. Her tattered clothing barely concealed her body. Her demeanor had transformed entirely.

Pernia's aura was starkly different from before, despite the fact that the only apparent changes were to her pupils and tone of speech.

Wang Yu narrowed his eyes. Thoughts swirled in his mind as he eyed Pernia warily.

"You're too late to stop anything, haha. You managed to dispose of a useless Ryder, but that's all you were able to do." Pernia's voice was as mocking as ever. Her tone dripped with scorn.

Wang Yu pursed his lips, murmuring to himself, "That's no demon. It's a devil..."

Brutish and brainless demons couldn't possibly possess power over fate. The Ryders would hardly gain any powers from allying with demons—the entity now possessing Pernia, with its slitted pupils, was undoubtedly a devil.

Wang Yu's caution only seemed to embolden his opponent, the confident and inexplicably arrogant devil-possessed Pernia. As it stepped forward, Wang Yu stepped back.

This further fueled the devil's arrogance. Its lips curled into a smirk of mockery and disdain. Wang Yu was unruffled. He maintained a stoic expression while keeping his distance.

Devils were classified as exceptionally fearsome entities in the Nightblades' records. They were capable of manipulating hearts and minds, and steering the course of fate. These beings influenced the world as they pleased, and their involvement had marked many historical events.

A wife suddenly murdering her husband, a king beheading his heir on the day of his coronation—a devil's shadow was frequently behind such unnatural occurrences. Devils hailed from hell rather than the void. They were natural harbingers of chaos, driven purely by their whims and leaving unpredictable destruction in their wake.

They lurked within the shadows and were nearly impossible to detect, but their influence could be felt all throughout history. They had subtle but relentlessly influenced the trajectory of all known intelligent races.

Their most fearsome power lay not in their physical strength but in their ability to "lend" power and manipulate hearts. Entering into a contract with a devil granted individuals tremendous strength, often at a dire cost.

Those who accepted such power were unwittingly led down a path of destruction, fulfilling the devil's twisted desires.

To Wang Yu, these elusive and enigmatic beings posed a far greater challenge than destructive, mindless demons.

Their motives were inscrutable, and their actions unpredictable.

The Nightblades' records on devils were limited and had been largely pieced together from patterns seen through scattered fragments of historical events.

Typically, incidents involving devils required intervention from high-ranking figures like Father Fang. Even elites like Garcia and Sieg were often out of their depth in comparison. For Wang Yu, a mere rank-and-file operative of the Nightblades, confronting a devil was nearly impossible. His wariness and dread were naturally understandable.

But would Wang Yu retreat out of fear? Of course not...

He maintained a distance of roughly five meters from the possessed Pernia and continued to observe the devil carefully. Though his ripples were suppressed to a sphere with a three-meter radius by the void-inhibiting environment, he could perturb the sphere to increase his range somewhat.

His ripples were repelled upon contact with Pernia's body, but the information he gleaned from that contact was sufficient for his needs.

"Her strength hasn't increased the way a demon's would have. Her muscle density, bone strength, and magical reserves remain unchanged. There's no spontaneous void energy generation. Her posture is optimized for sudden bursts of strength..." Wang Yu's narrowed eyes reflected his focus as he pieced together what data he had obtained.

He smirked inwardly. A devil's possession was merely a software upgrade—the hardware remained unchanged. Without access to the void, it was meaningless. The devil could hardly conjure matter from thin air. Wang Yu remained vigilant as he prepared to unleash violence.

"What's wrong? Are you that afraid of me? Do you know who I am, what I represent? Understandable, given you're with the Nightblades. But someone like you must be the lowest of the low..." The devil-possessed Pernia pressed forward, her disdain becoming even more palpable.

Her taunts were cut short by a rock that Wang Yu hurled. It flew with blinding speed and immense force.

The devil cried out in surprise as its neck twisted unnaturally, narrowly avoiding the unexpected attack. But the rock was too fast; it left a bloody gash across Pernia's pale face.

She wiped the blood off her face and licked it, her already captivating beauty now exuding a dangerously seductive charm under the devil's influence. In response, Wang Yu charged forward, aiming a punch at her throat.

Once again, the possessed Pernia dodged with an unsettling, limber motion. Though her body was far less robust than Wang Yu's, she managed to evade his attack. "Futile," the devil mocked.

"Is it?" Wang Yu retorted. His first strike missed; he swiftly adjusted, sweeping low with his leg. However, the devil seemed to anticipate the move and leapt to avoid it.

"I've fought with more opponents than you can count, you pathetic human." The devil's insults were unrelenting.

Indeed, the devil's combat prowess far exceeded Wang Yu's. Its precise control and economy of movement were exquisite. In a fair fight, it would have kill Wang Yu within five blows.

"So what if you have expertise? This is hardly a fair fight," Wang Yu thought to himself. As the devil leapt up high, Wang Yu's lips curled into a ruthless smile.

Though Wang Yu was unable to use his void energy or activate Bloodburn Drive, his physical strength remained monstrous. He channeled his fighting spirit and unleashed his Blood Tempest at full force. In a sudden burst of speed, he closed the distance to the devil in the blink of an eye.

He stomped on the ground with his right foot, shattering bricks under his sole. With that momentum, he launched himself upward, driving his knee toward Pernia's head while gripping her hair to keep her within range.

The sickening sound of breaking bone echoed out as Wang Yu's devastating knee strike shattered Pernia's jaw. Teeth and blood sprayed out in all directions, leaving her face a mess.

But Wang Yu wasn't finished. Against a more agile and skilled foe, the best strategy wasn't to trade blows.

It was relentless aggression, using overwhelming force to dominate and crush his opponent.

Securing a firm grip on Pernia's hair, Wang Yu prevented her from escaping his onslaught.

He anchored her with his left hand, then used his right fist to deliver blow after merciless blow to her face, neck, and chest. The void was sealed off, which meant the devil was reliant solely on Pernia's physical strength to defend itself.

No matter how skilled it was, Wang Yu only needed a single opening. At that point, the outcome was inevitable—the devil would be overpowered and crushed.

Pernia's body no longer seemed to be controlled by her brain after being possessed by a devil, which explained why Wang Yu's drug had stopped working. Despite Wang Yu's violent knee strike to her head, Pernia continued to resist with surprising strength.

The demon tried to use a deft technique to dislocate Wang Yu's wrist, but before it could act, Wang Yu yanked Pernia's hair and violently slammed Pernia's body into the ground. The difference in raw strength was simply too overwhelming.

Wang Yu refused to give the devil even a sliver of opportunity to counterattack. He pressed his knee firmly into Pernia's abdomen, then rained a relentless storm of punches on her face, neck, and chest.

Only when Pernia's once-beautiful visage had turned into a bloody, unrecognizable mess and all signs of life had faded completely from her body did Wang Yu stop. His fists, soaked in blood, trembled slightly as he panted, recovering from the frenzy of his earlier outburst.

Without hesitation, Wang Yu closed his eyes and dove into his mindscape. If his guess was correct, there was no way the cunning demon would face him head-on. Pretending to be dead to buy time was likely its best move.

Given these devils' historical exploits, a simple possibility came to mind: the devil wanted Wang Yu to kill it. But why?

"Greetings, human. I must say, your mindscape is rather unique. But soon, it'll be mine." An elegant and rather indolent voice spoke up as Wang Yu looked toward the devil standing in the center of what used to be the endless lake of his mindscape.

It was a figure dressed in a sleek suit, wearing a top hat, and holding a gold-tipped cane. Its red skin glowed faintly; its face was obscured. The figure stood on the ground now revealed beneath the dried-up lake—a surface made of stone bricks inscribed with runes Wang Yu couldn't recognize.

This was only the second time Wang Yu had glimpsed what lay beneath his lake. Was this truly his mindscape?

He couldn't help but feel skeptical. He'd never set up anything of the sort. Why could he manipulate this space? He had no idea.

Looking up, he noticed the vast starry sky—a projection of the void—that had once stretched endlessly above. It was now pitch black thanks to the reality anchor's suppression of the void. The scene was eerily reminiscent of the empty, starless universe he had seen on Earth—a silent, deathly darkness.

The devil, in stark contrast to its earlier arrogance and chatter while possessing Pernia, silently observed Wang Yu as it surveyed itd surroundings. Around the devil, deep crimson flames began to burn and spread outward. Wang Yu recognized these flames—hellfire.

As the flames advanced, the ground cracked and transformed from stone bricks into searing crimson earth. The sky shifted from a lifeless black to a bloody, malevolent red.

Wang Yu noted the transformation, realizing for the first time that he had lost control over his mindscape. The devil gained ground wherever its flames passed.

Wang Yu's eyes widened in surprise as he grasped the devil's powers. His mindscape was impervious to void contamination, and yet this demon could easily wrest control of it from him.

It was astonishing. No wonder the Nightblades repeatedly emphasized the danger devils posed—they were the mortal enemies of every sentient being.

The devil observed Wang Yu's seemingly dazed expression with a smile. This mindscape certainly was peculiar. It was imbued with a faint protective force, but to a high-ranking demon like itself, this protection was laughably weak.

Originally, the devil had intended to leverage its contract with the Ryders to gain some advantage in the war between the two empires. However, its main vessel—the Ryders' Fatewatcher—had been restrained by a mortal weapon, the reality anchor, and then killed by this mortal boy.

Still, acquiring such a unique mindscape wasn't a bad consolation prize. Once it claimed Wang Yu's body, even if it couldn't harness the ability to foresee the future any longer, and even if it would take significant effort to convince the Ryders that Wang Yu was its new host, the boy's robust body had its uses. At least it wouldn't perish as easily as Pernia did once cut off from the void.

"Well, kid, any last words before I erase you?" The devil, Seven, relished such moments. It enjoyed hearing the final words of those whose minds it was about to claim.

But its amusement quickly faded as Wang Yu began walking toward it. He paid no mind to the occupied mindscape, the hellfire, or anything else—he simply moved forward.

"Was the ‘corruption' in the Sorensen Mountains your doing?"

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Seven blinked, taken aback. It hadn't expected such a question from Wang Yu.

"Let me think... Ah, I believe that was Three's doing. Three's always had an issue with those self-proclaimed guardians of nature, the druids—Three wanted to give them something a bit different. What did Three say again? ‘Corruption is also a part of nature,' wasn't it? Haha."

"So it was you. I suspected as much when I heard from Holo. Typical devil behavior..." Wang Yu shook his head, sighed, and started moving forward.

"Nothing else you want to say before you're erased, hmm?!" Seven asked with a smirk. It was rare for someone not to have any last words before being obliterated. Usually, its victims screamed, begged, or wept bitterly—Seven was sick of it. Wang Yu's calmness was, admittedly, refreshing. Interesting, even.

But Seven's interest didn't last long. Wang Yu began walking toward him, completely unfazed by the occupied mindscape, the hellfire, or anything else. He simply advanced, step by step.

"Why is this world always crawling with disgusting parasites like you? Mindflayers, devils—there's always something. You lot are insane and constantly stir up trouble. Honestly, I shouldn't have bothered to talk to things like you. I should just have killed you, plain and simple."

"What?! Your mindscape is burning—how are you fine?!" The scene before him defied the ancient devil's vast knowledge. Wang Yu's mindscape was under his control, yet he seemed completely unaffected. Just what was this guy?

"I don't know." It was a simple, honest answer. Wang Yu charged through the flames and swung his fist straight at the devil's head.