Christmas had long passed, and the holiday decorations on the shops throughout Diagon Alley had been cleared away, returning the street to its original appearance.
Since it was the weekend, there were quite a few witches and wizards milling about Diagon Alley.
The weather in London remained bitterly cold, so everyone was wrapped up tightly against the chill.
The members of the Akatsuki did not surge out of Knockturn Alley all at once, as that would have been far too conspicuous.
Instead, they chose to enter Diagon Alley individually at different intervals. The passersby paid them no attention whatsoever.
In addition to them, Mads Mikkelsen and Johnny Depp each led ten Saints of their own, blending into the bustling crowd in Diagon Alley as well.
However, they did not follow Kyle into Gringotts.
For security reasons, Gringotts would never allow so many people to enter the vaults at the same time. Thus, only the four Father Troubleshooters descended into the underground vaults.
Standing in the street, Kyle looked up at the snow-white building towering over the surrounding shops, a dangerous smirk curving his lips.
Stepping onto the white stone steps at the entrance of Gringotts, Kyle passed through the first set of gleaming bronze doors.
Before the second set of silver doors, Kyle paused.
"Enter, stranger, but take heed / Of what awaits the sin of greed..."
The curve of Kyle's lips deepened. What a amusing warning.
As he stepped into the Gringotts main hall, a goblin walked out from behind the long counter.
Oh, what a coincidence—it was actually Bogrod, the old acquaintance who had guided him just a few days ago.
Not long after Kyle entered the underground vaults along the maze-like, winding passages, the other Father Troubleshooters slipped in after him.
When entering Gringotts, they still maintained their strategy of dispersing their entry.
Fortunately, there were few of them, so even with five- or six-minute intervals between each person, it took less than half an hour for all of them to gather in the vast underground space of Gringotts.
The Father Troubleshooters passed the Thief's Downfall trial with ease.
All it took was landing an Imperius Curse on the goblin guide the instant Human Transfiguration wore off after passing under the waterfall—controlling them before they could sound the alarm to the personnel above.
Cedric was the last to arrive at the platform before the dragon checkpoint. By the time he got there, the other three Father Troubleshooters were already playing several rounds of Fight the Landlord out of sheer boredom.
"Hold on, let's finish this hand," Kyle said casually, playing two cards without even looking up.
His nonchalant tone sounded as if they were out on a picnic, leaving Cedric thoroughly exasperated.
Is it really appropriate for you guys to be so relaxed during such a perilous and thrilling operation?
Fortunately, a game of Fight the Landlord didn't take long. After packing up the playing cards from the ground, the group quickly passed the poor Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon, whose head was covered in bumps after being beaten by Susanoo.
Now, the only defense left standing in their way was the final vault door.
Meanwhile, above ground.
In the main hall of Gringotts, several wizards in black robes were conducting business at the counters.
They were only handling standard deposit and withdrawal transactions—the kind the goblins behind the counters handled every day—so nothing seemed amiss.
They simply proceeded with business as usual.
What they failed to notice was that all six wizards transacting business were wearing identical rings set with oversized gemstones.
Deva Path stood before the high counter when the large gem on his ring suddenly flashed.
The rings on the fingers of the other five Paths gleamed in unison.
The next instant, an invisible repulsive force exploded throughout the main hall of Gringotts.
The immense repulsive force obliterated the counters with destructive power, blasting the goblins behind them into the air and slamming them heavily against the wall behind, knocking them unconscious.
The remaining five of the Six Paths of Pain acted simultaneously.
Before the goblins of Gringotts could even react, they were instantly knocked out.
Following the goblins were the customers conducting business.
It had to be said that these people had lived in a false peace for far too long. Faced with a sudden emergency, they didn't even realize they were wizards and made no move to draw their wands, doing nothing but clutching their heads and screaming.
And then, there was no then.
Just as the commotion in the hall showed the first signs of spreading, everyone was knocked unconscious, nipping the panic in the bud.
Although the Six Paths of Pain moved with extreme swiftness, they still triggered the Gringotts alarm system, which automatically activated upon detecting offensive magic within the premises.
A swarm of guards surged out from the numerous doors behind the counters, launching an attack on the Six Paths of Pain.
Behind the iron barricade created by Deva Path using Transfiguration, Asura Path extracted all the Uru metal from his body, transforming it into six rapid-fire Gatling guns mounted in the main hall of Gringotts.
Countless Stunning Spells spewed frantically from the muzzles. The firepower of Asura Path alone suppressed the endless stream of Gringotts guards, pinning them down so thoroughly they didn't dare show their heads.
The six Gatling guns fired intermittently. Given the minute amount of magic consumed by a single Stunning Spell, Asura Path could sustain this barrage for five full minutes based solely on his own magic reserves.
And that was counting only Asura Path's own magic. The other five Paths, Black and White Zetsu, and Kyle could continuously transfer magic to Asura Path through the rings on their fingers.
Although a portion of magic would be lost during long-distance transmission, with Kyle's vast and boundless magic reserves, such a small distance loss was negligible.
With their support, let alone a mere five minutes, a continuous bombardment for an hour was child's play.
Thus, Asura Path was fully capable of turning into a fixed turret, opening fire with complete impunity.
Deva Path stood silently beside Asura Path, acting as a guard.
As for the remaining four Paths, they left the main hall of Gringotts to carry out their other assignments.
At the same time, seeing the commotion created by the Six Paths of Pain, the Saints outside Gringotts initiated their operation as well.
An invisible Anti-Disapparition Ward rose across Diagon Alley, blanketing an area several blocks wide.
The four Paths, aside from Asura Path and Deva Path, dispersed to the four corners of Diagon Alley.
If someone were observing their positions from above at this moment, they would notice the four standing in a rough square formation.
The four Paths simultaneously formed a ninja hand seal.
"Ninja Art: Four Violet Flames Formation!"
Four purple pillars of light shot straight into the sky before rapidly expanding and linking together to form a square barrier burning with purple flames, tightly sealing off Diagon Alley.
Along the perimeter of the Four Violet Flames Formation, twenty-two Saints constructed a rock-solid line of defense.
This way, even if the Ministry of Magic arrived, breaking through their defense would take at least ten minutes.
Those ten-plus minutes were more than enough for the Father Troubleshooters to pick open the seemingly impenetrable doors of the Gringotts vaults and empty out the targeted vaults completely.
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