The power of prophecy, clairvoyance- it is a broken ability that could directly alter fate.

It allows someone to turn a future billionaire into a pauper.

Many fantasy stories did this, regression, tales when people go back in the past and use their knowledge to take advantage of events they knew would happen in the future.

Making the right investment decisions, starting up a new company, looking for talents yet to be known...

The list goes on and on but such a prospect is only possible if the individual with knowledge of the future is alone.

Having knowledge of the future could turn even the weakest ant into G*dzilla but what if others had such ability?

Once the ability to view fate becomes common, instead of the crazy world ending fate people believe could happen. All it does is even the playing field, but- instead of having an army of experts go through data to predict an outcome.

You’d have an army of seers constantly looking into the future, every action could lead to a string of new fates and grasping the desired path would ultimately result in a struggle to combat the fate reading of your opponent.

The ancestors of mystics had already seen through this dilemma and developed techniques to block out clairvoyance.

There were two main methods to block out clairvoyance.

The first involved the creation of a barrier, one that blocked out mystical forces entirely.

This creates a "dead zone" where all mystical phenomena would cease.

Powerful mystics would turn into regular men and women. Their abilities limited to an extreme level as such, few dare to use this spell unless it was within a bunker.

As such, the second method was more commonly employed.

Much like how non-mystic magicians manipulate lights and shadows to create an illusion of magic, the second method of blocking out Clairvoyance turns one’s will into reality.

How does clairvoyance work?

It is nothing more than a collection of information that is summarized into a quick glimpse of "what could happen".

But unlike educated guesses of experts that is based on "theory". The prediction of a seer is based on the thoughts, desires and actions of all people involved.

In essence, Seers see the future by peering into the collective will that constitutes both the mystical and non-mystical realms.

As such, the second method works much like a suggestion.

The user would use their will to infuse a suggestion into the world, one that would contradict, run parallel or cross with their current actions and thoughts. An automatic system that creates a separate thought that is passed onto the collective will which seers peer into.

An example of such a method is for a mystic to decide "I’ll go left" but the world believes that the mystic thought, "I’ll go right".

Although Richard still has no idea how the collective will works, at least he now knew how clairvoyance worked.

Unfortunately, all he had was knowledge, he lacked actual spells and practice.

He had spent most of his time after his near death experience working on creating a strong network in Japan.

So, despite having the knowledge of "how to block clairvoyance", he didn’t know the method to implement it nor did he know how to work around it.

Just like how everyone knew how to make cement. Many think its just water, cement mix, pebbles and you’re done. But the actual process requires proper ratios and timing.

In fact, few people would know the fact that cement actually generates heat during the curing process and the way rain affects wet cement is not as simple as diluting the mixture.

Even construction workers who spent years mixing cement may not know of the chemistry at play much like how industrial chemists would not know the most efficient way to handle wet cement for a smooth and clean finish.

Richard was now that chemist, he knew how clairvoyance worked, how magic worked and how all these things mix into each other but when faced with a combatant who spent years using magic to fight.

Even if his enemy didn’t know how clairvoyance worked, all they needed to know is that some people could have it and methods to counteract it.

Though- at this moment, Richard found that the witches were surprisingly... unguarded.

He had attempted to use his clairvoyance, his ability of prophecy on the young man.

Before, the reason why he could only get a "faint feeling in his guts" to predict the future was because he didn’t have enough understanding of clairvoyance.

But now that he did, instead of "looking into the countless future possibilities", Richard instead focused on "the events of the past".

From there, he was able to "see", it was not a faint feeling and Richard didn’t even need to try so hard.

All he did was use the same method used in magic to push his will into the world with one goal-

Let me see the man’s past

Through that, Richard was able to see the young man meeting witches and delivering young women to a certain manor in the outskirts of London.

Not in Mystical London but in "real" London.

Although he didn’t see Arthuretta among the captives, he did find her- amongst the witches.

Unfortunately, Richard was unable to read minds with his ability and even the Goddess was unable to do so without alerting the person whose mind she was invading.

Moreover, the young man was a mere driver, though he did have some sins as the next sight after the delivery was of the young man and his crew "receiving" failed witches and then having their way with them before dumping the bodies in the English channel.

The witches were clean with their methods and most of their targets would disappear without anyone caring for them, forgotten by the world with even their public records vanishing.

So the failed witches would have nowhere to go to which leads them to the unfortunate fate of becoming victims to the people under the witches control.

"Is there something wrong?"

The blonde woman with a bloody cleaver asked as Richard stopped her from cutting down the young man.

"He’s outlived his usefulness"

"So you found them?"

"Yes"

"Still-"

Although Richard had already given the woman a reason to stop, her anger at the disappearance of her daughter was still not abated.

"I’ll deal with his sentence"

Richard nodded at Cindy who summoned her pets, when the blonde woman saw the monsters that emerged from CIndy’s shadow, she smiled and put the cleaver down.

"I’ll leave him to you then"

The young man felt relieved, his head was strapped on the table so he could not see the horrors that were awaiting him from the side as he showed thanks to Richard through his eyes.

"Don’t thank me yet"

Richard smirked as he lifted the table and turned it to face Cindy’s direction.

The young man only felt the world shift before his vision was filled with a vision only seen in horror games.

Grotesque beings stared at him with hunger, some had eyes, others did not- yet all of them were looking at him with the same greedy look.

"How does the healing spell work?"

Richard asked the lady who immediately taught him the basic form of the spell.

Learning of its process, Richard restructured the spell into a curse, with his will as its foundation, the curse became a powerful spell that could create an army of immortal soldiers.

But the function it had now was-

"Tell them to take things slow, if they consume him too fast, the curse wouldn’t be able to keep up"

Richard told Cindy before walking away.

The young man started to struggle desperately, but all his movements only exited the monsters more.

"Dinners ready~ go!"

Cindy declared jokingly but her words became the signal that decided the young man’s fate.

Darkness enveloped the young man as he was swallowed by a tide of monsters that dragged him to Cindy’s personal storage facility for the monsters... where it was, Richard didn’t want to see it.

"It’s good, how about helping me with a few more food stocks next time?"

Cindy said after she spent a few minutes observing the place where her monsters were stored.

The curse worked well, at least, based on Cindy’s desire to have more such individuals turned food supplies for her pets.

"If we get more, I’ll help you"

Richard didn’t reject Cindy, the curse was surprisingly easy to make. Though it did have some limits as it would not stop death.

Moreover, if the target completely lost the will to live, the curse would stop as it fed off the target’s will and Richard’s own power simply amplified the target’s will to live.

Hopefully the young man would last a few weeks since Richard doubts he would get the chance to get another criminal within the next few weeks, much less the next few days.

Moreover, leaving a witch within Cindy’s monster house would not be much of a punishment and could even become an opportunity for the witch.

"You’ve gotten more evil"

Cindy said, referring to Richard’s gradual but obvious loss of "morals".

In the past, he would even go as far as to ensure that the souls he used would not suffer but now? He actively did his best to ensure that others felt as much pain as they could.

"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, they should have been prepared for such horrors the moment they started to abuse and use others. Ones suffering is not justification to make others suffer"

"So what are your reasons?"

"None, I’m simply doing it because I can"

"Isn’t that just you being a hypocrite?"

"No- I don’t think so, I’m prepared for the pain and suffering that would eventually come my way, after all, retribution may not strike immediately but when it does, it makes sure to have you feel it"

After those words, Richard turned back to Arthur and began to tell him where the witches were and the information he had obtained while Cindy only shook her head as she watched Richard act more and more like a proper mystic.