Inside the colossal mountain, large enough to house a castle, within the dim and dark super-sized mountain interior, the owner of the castle and mountain, Golden Stone Ghoul Federico, was relentlessly pursuing the thief who dared to steal his treasures, in a fierce and unforgiving manner.
Facing the culprit still fleeing within his castle, Federico unceremoniously unleashed various elemental attacks, bombarding them. However, relying on their strange abilities and agile movements, the opponent had not been truly hit or incapacitated. Confronted with such a slippery foe, Federico was growing impatient.
"You won't hide any longer!"
As he spoke, Federico spread his wings and flew downwards. Then, beside a tall tower, he raised the stone hammer in his hand and slammed it fiercely against the edge of the high tower. With the aid and amplification of the Stone War Hammer in his hand, Federico released his reversed abilities across the entire castle, instantly making it disappear. The majestic and towering structure within the cave vanished completely in an instant, leaving no trace.
In an instant, the interior of the giant mountain cave, dozens of meters high, became incredibly vast. After the castle disappeared, the thief, stripped of the building as cover, was completely exposed before Federico's eyes, exposed to his wide-area firepower. Federico did not hesitate to flap his wings, preparing to unleash a wide-area ice storm to directly freeze the ground, completely immobilizing the thief below.
"Take this, old man!"
Just then, a familiar voice reached Federico from afar. Upon hearing this voice, Federico immediately turned his head towards its source. What he saw next was a considerable fireball flying at high speed directly at his face, erupting in a burst of flame and a roar.
After the explosion, Federico's unharmed face reappeared in the firelight. He angrily looked towards the direction from which the fireball had come, and there he saw his subordinate, Henri, flying and glaring fiercely in his direction.
"What are you doing, Henri?!"
"Naturally, making you learn your lesson! Old man!"
"Spill all your treasures!"
Responding to Federico was not Henri from afar, but two other figures swiftly approaching him from his left and right. They were Doc and Craven. At this moment, they were brandishing their heated, glowing red claws, attacking Federico at high speed. Federico was momentarily stunned by the sight, then immediately returned to battle mode, retaliating furiously.
"Are you all rebelling?!"
Although Federico couldn't understand why his subordinates, after clashing with the thief's accomplice, had suddenly become like this, his counterattack was merciless. Federico directly used his body to withstand Craven and Doc's scorching claw attacks, then swung his Stone War Hammer, knocking both of them away. After being repelled, they, along with Henri, simultaneously attacked Federico in mid-air.
Federico and his three subordinates were embroiled in a chaotic battle. As all four of them shared the same path, being 'Stone' extraordinaries, the battle was surprisingly stalemated for a while.
Under Adele's ability, the Henri trio had become slaves to desire, puppets who would only vent their anger at specific targets. After Adele inherited her teacher's spiritual legacy and performed the Dance of the God-Given in the Palace of the Goddess of Beauty, her ability strength was significantly enhanced. Although still not fully perfected, it was already beyond what an ordinary Chalk could contend with.
Adele, primarily using her desire control ability, supplemented by Dorothy's hypnotic affinity, guided Federico's attacks through the magic hat, successfully redirecting the Henri trio's hatred towards their master. At this moment, she was also in the vast shadows at the bottom of the giant cave, gazing at the gargoyles' battle in the sky, continuously exerting her influence.
The Henri trio continuously bombarded Federico with various elemental attacks, but neither elemental nor physical attacks could leave a mark on Federico's metallic body; they were completely unable to break his defense. Conversely, Federico's counterattacks against the Henri trio also had little effect, unable to defeat the three of them immediately. The four of them were surprisingly in a standoff for a while.
Although due to their characteristics, the Golden Stone Ghoul's speed in dealing with gargoyles was not as swift as other Crimson-level beings dealing with Chalk-level ones, it wouldn't be much slower in the end. Gargoyles have a certain absorption ratio for elemental power; not all elemental attacks can be fully absorbed. The damage from the unabsorbed portion still has to be taken, but because that damage is often too small to break the gargoyle's skin, it appears as if gargoyles are immune to elemental attacks.
However, the elemental attack damage created by the Golden Stone Ghoul was too strong. Even if a portion was absorbed by the gargoyle, the remaining portion was unbearable for the gargoyle, just as Henri and the others had their skin melted by the heat ray Federico created earlier. The three of them fighting the Golden Stone Ghoul together could not actually withstand many of the Golden Stone Ghoul's attacks. The reason Federico couldn't deal with his three rebellious subordinates in a short time was because he discovered that his attacks were starting to go wrong.
Whether it was heat rays or fireballs, ice spears or air cannons, Federico began to notice that his aim inexplicably started to deviate. Various attacks that should have hit would inexplicably go astray. In his battle with his subordinates, Federico's attack accuracy was surprisingly low. He even felt a strange drowsiness whenever he initiated an attack, his concentration dropping. He would aim in one direction, but when he fired, he inexplicably wanted to hit another direction.
Mental interference! Federico immediately thought that his mind seemed to be affected, that his spirit was problematic, which was why so many of his attacks went astray. Federico felt the abnormal deviation of his attacks, combined with the crazy behavior of his subordinates, and immediately had an idea in his mind.
"Bourbons… are there still Bourbon remnants involved?"
As the last prime minister of the Bourbon Dynasty, Federico naturally knew the manifestations of the extraordinary abilities of the Path of Desire. He immediately thought that he and his subordinates must have been affected by this ability! The thief's accomplice he had just fought was actually a Bourbon remnant! Thief K not only had connections with the Celestial Judge Church, but possibly even with the Farano Royalists!
"Hmph… I never thought that after more than a hundred years, a desire-being almost approaching Shire's level would appear."
After clarifying who the hidden power manipulating the battlefield was, Federico couldn't help but let out a cold snort and sigh, then immediately began to take targeted measures.
Federico opened his large mouth, then spat out a metal pendant. The pendant was grayish-yellow overall, made of some kind of metal, and its form was a complex geometric shape of nested components.
After spitting out the pendant, Federico tore off its chain, then slapped the geometric pendant onto his head, firmly embedding it into a slot on his head. With a flash of faint light from the pendant, it rotated and deeply sank into Federico's head, then was thoroughly protected by his armor. After that, Federico became quiet for a moment, his obsidian-like eyes completely losing their color.
Federico hovered in place indifferently, while the Henri trio's attacks on him did not stop at all. At this moment, Craven was seen swinging his glowing red, scorching claws to strike him.
Federico, who had been hovering motionlessly, suddenly began to move after taking the blow head-on. He lunged forward, directly reaching out and grabbing Craven's attacking claw. After controlling it, his eyes shot out scorching heat rays, instantly severing the arm Craven had used to attack. Craven immediately retreated, howling in pain.
However, Frederico had no intention of letting Craven go. He charged forward, grabbed Craven's shoulders, and continued to blast him with his eye beams at close range. Frederico's heat rays directly seared Craven's face, maintaining a continuous output. Craven screamed and struggled in immense pain, but it was all in vain. Within a few seconds, Craven's petrified facial skin melted away, and a large hole was burned through his entire head.
While Frederico was 'attending' to Craven, Henri and Doc, not far away, continuously used elemental attacks against him, attempting to rescue their companion, but they couldn't budge Frederico in the slightest. After successfully killing Craven, Frederico tossed the body aside and immediately turned to fly rapidly towards the other two for the subsequent 'cleanup'.
Enduring various attacks, Frederico first rushed in front of Doc, placing his claws on his chest. He directly activated his ability in reverse, forcing all the petrified skin on Doc's chest to completely vanish. Doc's chest, now exposed, immediately revealed large areas of fresh red flesh. Before Doc could even scream, the flesh on his chest was incinerated by a blast of Frederico's flames, and his burning remains fell powerlessly. Henri, seeing his companion's death, was driven by desire and fled into the distance.
Facing the fleeing Henri, Frederico immediately spread his wings and gave chase. As he pursued from behind, he continuously sprayed bone-chilling cold air towards Henri's rear. The precise and concentrated high-cold air soon froze Henri solid in mid-air, turning him into a block of ice that rapidly plummeted. Frederico also ceased his flight, raised his massive warhammer, and used his own weight to smash downwards.
"Boom!"
With a thunderous roar as he landed, Frederico's warhammer struck Henri's icy body. As a large crater and several ground cracks were formed by the impact, Henri and the ice encasing him were shattered into fragments. In the vast dust, the eyes of the Golden Stone Ghost were filled with cold indifference, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.
In a short period, Frederico successfully killed three of his subordinates. Unlike the previous stalemates, he was ruthless and decisive, his methods direct and unhesitating, with no missed attacks. This was very different from when he was under the mental influence of the Lust Weaver.
The reason for Frederico's change was the pendant he had just used; it helped him break free from mental interference.
"Cognitive Mechanism" was the correct name for that pendant, an extraordinary item capable of mechanizing the user's mind. After using it, the user would act like a precise machine.
Within the Cognitive Mechanism, a set of precise, efficient, yet somewhat rigid behavioral logic was stored within incredibly precise and miniature extraordinary pure mechanical structures. When a user connected to the Cognitive Mechanism, it would override the user's original consciousness, taking over control of the entire body. As long as the user issued a target command to the Cognitive Mechanism, it could replace the user's self-awareness to drive the body to execute various commands.
Frederico's series of actions just now were completed under the Cognitive Mechanism's substitute operation, not only precise and ruthless but also unaffected by the mental interference of other extraordinary beings. This was originally a cutting-edge extraordinary item manufactured by the Stonemason Guild, intended to provide high-level extraordinary beings with resistance against mental abilities or mental toxins. However, due to various extraordinary transactions and technical leaks within the Stonemason Guild, the Cognitive Mechanism was not only present within the Stonemason Guild; some other large extraordinary organizations also had them among their upper echelons, especially the Dark Gold Society.
Now, the command Frederico had given to the Cognitive Mechanism was: "Clear all interfering factors, capture or kill all intruders, and retrieve the Light of Maria Crystal." After he finished clearing his three subordinates and removing the interfering factors, the Cognitive Mechanism would begin the next phase of action: capturing or killing the intruders and retrieving the crystal.
However, this was not an easy task for Frederico at the moment, because the interference from Henri's trio had caused the originally locked-on thief to disappear, having infiltrated the vast darkness of the mountain cave. Since this mountain cave was completely sealed with no paths leading outside, Frederico, with his mechanized thinking, judged that the opponent was still within this mountain cave, but was hidden. As a non-'Light' extraordinary being, he might have difficulty finding them for a while.
In this dark mountain space, the enemy had a powerful'Shadow' extraordinary being, powerful remnants of the Bourbons, and an unknown number of helpers. It would likely be very difficult to deal with them using conventional methods. Therefore, Frederico quickly made a decision, a decision that would leave the enemy no retreat.
Clutching the massive Stone War Hammer, Frederico flew rapidly upwards, quickly reaching the top of the enormous cave. He then smashed it fiercely into an ancient magic circle located there. As the magic circle was struck by the warhammer, an invisible force instantly spread from the magic circle throughout the entire mountain.
With the magic circle struck by Frederico acting as a switch, numerous other extraordinary nodes within the mountain were successively connected and activated. Under the operation of the pre-designed'Stone' extraordinary system, the entire mountain began to shake violently and emit a loud roar. Large fissures simultaneously appeared on the exterior of the mountain and within the internal caves. Under the intense tremors, the cave ceiling began to collapse, and countless gravel fell down.
After realizing that the enemy was difficult to deal with, Frederico activated his stronghold's ultimate defense mechanism: directly collapsing the entire mountain, causing the large cave within to completely cave in, burying himself and all enemies alive under countless tons of mountain rock, turning an entire mountain into the enemies' tomb! The collapsed mountain would become his absolute home ground!
... "Ah... quite a commotion. That guy's getting impatient and wants to smash the place up."
In a certain part of the collapsing giant cave, Adele, who was constantly dodging falling rocks from above, couldn't help but say to Dorothy flying beside her, while Dorothy responded in a calm tone.
"You're a little mistaken. That guy's mind doesn't contain emotions like 'impatience' right now. He's doing this purely as a decisive action based on the current situation he's assessed. The reality is that he can no longer entangle with us using conventional methods; he has to resort to something drastic."
Dorothy, wearing a long cloak, said this calmly. At this moment, she was also fending off falling debris with the metal objects suspended around her while speaking.
"No impatience? Cognitive Mechanism... what a marvelous thing. For an extraordinary being of my type, the restraint it imposes is quite significant," Adele said. Then, Dorothy, who was beside her, spoke again.
"That's right, but his current state... is also what we wanted to see. We've dragged things out with that guy enough, preparations are all complete, it's time for the final resolution... By the way, you didn't forget to bring the item, did you?"
"How could I forget?" Adele replied, taking out a shiny object. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed an irregular golden artifact—the fake Golden Base used to deceive the Dark Gold Society earlier! After Frederico discovered he had been tricked, he angrily threw it into the hall.
"I retrieved this thing from the start, but if you want to use it, you'll have to get outside. In this state, can we even get out?" Adele asked Dorothy again, and Dorothy replied lightly.
"Don't worry~ To deal with this situation, I was prepared long ago. I held off until now so as not to arouse suspicion from that guy..."
Dorothy responded, pulling out an exquisitely carved, hollowed-out small sphere from her cloak.
"Once we get out, we'll probably be able to settle things directly with His Excellency the Prime Minister..."