If Fawkes could speak, it would definitely say this: "I, Fawkes, would rather starve to death today, die outside, and jump down from right here, than eat a single bite of your food, Kyle!"
A famous wizard named Wang from the East once proposed such a law—when a person makes up their mind not to do or to do something, their ultimate action always turns out to be completely opposite.
A moment later, Fawkes emitted a loud cry, and then snatched the Fiendfyre-roasted dragon meat from Kyle's hand in one bite.
If Old Dumbledore, who shared a heart-to-heart connection with Fawkes, were here, he would understand that what Fawkes actually meant was: "So delicious!"
With a flash of firelight, the figures of Kyle and Fawkes instantly vanished from the Headmaster's office.
"Respected Mr. Dumbledore, welcome to Gringotts. How may I be of service to you today?"
Inside Gringotts, upon seeing this white-bearded old man, the goblins immediately welcomed him with great enthusiasm, bowing deeply in a most respectful manner, their long noses almost touching the floor.
"I need to make a trip to my vault." Kyle nodded to the other party, but had no intention of presenting any proof of identity.
Nor did the goblin ask Kyle to produce a vault key or anything similar, because at this moment, the phoenix standing on Kyle's shoulder was the absolute best proof of Dumbledore's identity.
In the magical world, disguising oneself as another person's appearance was a very simple matter.
But capturing a phoenix as a pet?
Apart from members of the Dumbledore family, no one had ever heard of a second wizard in the magical world who was followed by a phoenix.
A goblin named Griphook walked ahead with utmost eager attentiveness to lead the way.
Following Griphook, Kyle passed through a door in the main hall and arrived at a rough stone passageway.
The two stopped beside a dark track, and Griphook blew a whistle, causing a small cart to roll out from the darkness along the tracks.
Unlike ordinary customers who rode rickety open-air carts when visiting their vaults, a distinguished customer like Dumbledore naturally received special treatment from Gringotts.
Uh, actually, it was just the treatment of upgrading from a hand-pushed wheelbarrow to an open-top convertible car.
As Griphook pulled the lever, the open-top car began twisting and turning through the mazelike passageway, soon arriving at the first hurdle of a standard Gringotts heist—Thief's Downfall.
Thief's Downfall could wash away all magical effects, whether it was the disguise of Polyjuice Potion or Human Transfiguration, or the control of the Imperius Curse on Gringotts personnel.
Upon passing through this curtain of water, everything would be washed away completely.
A massive deluge of clean water poured down from above their heads, soaking both of them from head to toe.
Under Griphook's shocked gaze, the hair and skin of the "Dumbledore" before his eyes were changing at a terrifying speed, quickly turning into a completely different appearance.
Of course he knew why this was happening—
This was the manifestation of a magical disguise being washed away by Thief's Downfall.
Why would anyone dare to impersonate Albus Dumbledore?
And the phoenix on his shoulder...
Was actually real?
Kyle smiled faintly as his pair of eyes suddenly turned into scarlet Sharingan, with black tomoe spinning rapidly. Griphook's eyes instantly turned blank and dazed as well.
"Take me to the Lestrange family vault."
The small cart slowly came to a halt at a platform. Controlling Griphook with the Imperius Curse, Kyle unhurriedly stepped down from the cart.
Turning a corner, a giant Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon was chained to the open ground ahead, preventing people from approaching the four or five deepest vaults there.
Due to being confined underground for too long, the dragon's scales had grown pale and loose, its eyes were a murky pink, and both of its hind legs wore heavy shackles with thick chains connected to massive pegs driven deep into the stone floor.
Its spiked giant wings were folded against its sides; if fully expanded, they would fill the entire underground chamber.
Just a stupid lizard, nothing more.
Even without becoming an Obscurial, relying solely on a twenty-meter-tall Susanoo, Kyle could fight an adult fire-drake to a draw.
Now that he had become an Obscurial, Kyle feared creatures like fire dragons even less—not to mention that this particular dragon's combat capability was weaker than normal dragons due to being imprisoned deep underground all year round.
Walking out from the darkness, Kyle locked eyes with that Ukrainian Ironbelly, the tomoe in his eyes slowly spinning.
A moment later, Kyle made the sound of a plant [i.e., swore silently].
This dragon was half-blind and wasn't affected by his Sharingan control at all.
Flying into a rage out of humiliation, Kyle directly summoned a nearly two-hundred-meter-tall Susanoo and threw a heavy punch straight at the fire dragon.
A two-hundred-meter-tall Susanoo, although impossible to use in high-intensity prolonged combat, was more than capable of delivering a single punch.
Now the world was quiet.
Bypassing the dragon and walking for a short distance, several massive, heavy vault doors appeared before Kyle's eyes.
Kyle wasn't entirely unfamiliar with this place, because his old man's private vault was also right here; he had visited out of curiosity before.
The goblin Griphook stopped in front of one door, and a look of surprise surfaced on Kyle's face.
So the Lestrange family vault was this close to their Dumbledore family vault—separated by only two other vaults belonging to other families.
"Whose vaults are those?" Kyle looked toward Griphook.
Following the direction of Kyle's finger, Griphook looked over and replied respectfully, "Those belong to the Malfoy family and the Black family."
Under Griphook's lead, Kyle wandered around the underground vaults of Gringotts for a few rounds, visiting the vaults of the Crouch, Greengrass, Parkinson, Nott, and several other families.
The information recorded on that piece of parchment left behind three years ago gradually grew richer as well.
Kyle was in no rush to act just yet; relying on himself alone, he wouldn't be able to carry away too many things.
So this time he was merely coming in advance to scout out the location, so that when the time for actual operation came, he could strike faster and harder.
Estimating that the dragon was almost about to wake up, Kyle strolled unhurriedly back to their Dumbledore family vault, casually stuffed some Galleons into his pocket, and then left with Griphook.
After passing through Thief's Downfall once more, Kyle didn't forget to cast another Imperius Curse on Griphook, and then used Human Transfiguration to turn back into Dumbledore's appearance.
When he left Gringotts wearing Dumbledore's appearance, that bunch of foolish goblins still hadn't noticed a single thing.
These goblins have truly fallen.
Perhaps because no wizard had successfully breached Gringotts for centuries—capable wizards didn't need to, while incapable ones couldn't achieve it—this bunch of goblins had been immersed in the false illusion of Gringotts being "impregnable," unable to extricate themselves.
Even though their defense methods seemed foolproof in their eyes, after Kyle took a stroll around, he realized that their vigilance was simply abysmal.
If it were up to Kyle, he would definitely extend Thief's Downfall to a dozen meters long rather than just a simple curtain of water, and then set up detection magic around the perimeter of the waterfall.
Once the effect of Thief's Downfall was triggered, the resulting disturbance would be detected by the detection magic, signaling the presence of an intruder.
At that point, the alarm connected to the detection magic would notify the Gringotts guards while simultaneously activating defense countermeasures on both sides of the track.
One must know that inside Thief's Downfall, no magic would work.
As long as a series of Muggle art—that is, firearms and heavy weaponry—were mounted on both sides of the tracks, these thieves who couldn't use the Shield Charm could be wiped out into dust.
Although doing so might accidentally injure their own employees, by that time their employee would definitely be a hundred percent held hostage with slim chances of survival—who knew if those robbers would eliminate witnesses anyway?
In that case, it would be better to let the employee unleash their final bit of remaining life and drag the thieves down to the underworld together.
Only then could Gringotts' defense be considered truly seamless and flawless.
Yet for a defense mechanism as practically unsolvable as Thief's Downfall, the goblins actually only used it to strip intruders' disguises and remove the Imperius Curse?
It had to be said, that was truly lame.
Even if he didn't personally step in, relying solely on Cedric and the others, they could still successfully retrieve Voldemort's Horcrux from the Lestrange family vault.
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