Above the ancient castle under the night sky, Frederico, a high-ranking member of the Dark Gold Society and a Haolin Shigui, stretched his metal wings, supporting his massive body, and unleashed a rain of scorching rays downwards using the gems on his eyes and wings. This cage of rays was meant to be a death trap for the Thief K constantly fleeing within the castle below, but the most crucial ray among them showed an unexpected situation at the last moment.
The hot ray, which should have pierced the Thief K, strangely reflected back after passing through his two hats, shooting towards Frederico himself. With a look of disbelief on his face, Frederico was directly hit by his own hot ray, and his entire being was instantly engulfed in dazzling light.
"Magic Hat" is one of the abilities Naifnis possesses after embodying a secret spirits form and transforming into Thief K. It originates from the classic hat trick performed by magicians during stage magic. In hat magic, magicians often pull various things from their hats or take something placed in one hat out of another. When this concept is transformed into an Extraordinary ability, its manifestation is that Thief K's hats can spatially link with each other, allowing anything placed inside to be freely transferred within the hats.
Thief K has a total of four hats, all standard top hats. The space inside these hats is connected, and something entering one hat can be taken out of another. This applies not only to items but also to attacks. Any attack that can fit into the opening of a hat can be absorbed by one hat and reflected back by another.
Except for intangible attacks like curses or mental influences, almost all categories of miniaturized attacks can be absorbed and reflected by the hats. Whether it's bullets or arrows, rays or rapiers, as long as the attack type can fit into the hat's opening, it can be reflected. This ability is very effective against high-power shooting or piercing attacks. However, it is not very effective against attacks with a large scale, range, or density. Because there are only four hats, they cannot swallow too many trajectories at once, and trajectories that are too large to fit into the hat's opening also cannot be reflected.
After being hit by the reflected hot ray, which was originally his own, Frederico was engulfed by a burst of blinding light. However, when the light subsided, Frederico's massive metal body reappeared in mid-air. There was no damage whatsoever on his glossy surface; it had merely turned somewhat red and shiny, but quickly cooled and recovered.
"That was... my attack? What a strange ability..." Frederico murmured with a heavy tone, looking at his rapidly cooling skin. Then, he shifted his gaze to the chaotic castle below.
"So many unheard-of strange abilities. Is this Thief K indeed related to the 'Qi' (Awakening/Enlightenment) legacy? Then I absolutely cannot let you escape this time..."
As Frederico spoke, the gems on his wings and eyes once again emitted a dazzling light, continuing to shoot towards the Thief K. Facing Frederico's attack, the Thief K, still hidden inside the castle, was well-prepared. He pulled out the other two hats from the original two, and under an invisible force, all four hats floated in the air, automatically aiming their openings upwards and accurately intercepting the rays coming through the ceiling.
Although Frederico's rays were fast and numerous, the Thief K could dodge most of them with his excellent agility, and those he couldn't dodge could be absorbed and reflected by his hats. With the assistance of Dorothy's excellent real-time dynamic battlefield detection and precise trajectory calculations, the Thief K's dodging and the hats' absorption and reflection were flawless. Thus, the Thief K could continuously dodge and advance under Frederico's barrage of rays, quickly approaching the edge of the castle.
On the other side, Frederico kept up his output, continuing to pressure the Thief K below with rays, while waiting to freeze him with a large-area ice storm covering the area he escaped into once he left the castle. However, just as the Thief K truly rushed out of the lower level of the castle building, a reflected ray happened to hit his face, and the dazzling strong light instantly blocked his eyes.
This reflected ray had a significant impact on Frederico, because at this moment, the Thief K had just rushed out of a castle window and directly fled into the wilderness woods outside the castle. Frederico could sense the Thief K's location inside the castle, but this sensing ability failed after the Thief K left the castle. He had originally planned to wait for the Thief K to fly out of the castle and lack effective architectural shelter before freezing him with a wide-area ice storm, but at the very moment the Thief K flew out of the castle, he lost his vision due to the reflected ray hitting his face, making him unable to determine which direction in the woods the Thief K had flown after leaving the fortress. In an instant, he lost track of the Thief K.
In this situation, what Frederico could do now was to strike the woods over a large area with an ice storm or fire storm, hoping to luckily sweep the Thief K out. However, this method was not guaranteed to hit the Thief K 100%. It would be troublesome if she was not cleared out and managed to escape far away using the cover of night and the woods.
Facing such a situation, Frederico chose not to gamble, but instead opted for a more reliable method to prevent the Thief K's escape.
Flapping his wings, Frederico quickly flew to the side of a tall tower on the high part of the castle, then spat out a fireball that directly shattered the tower's roof. After the tower top broke into countless fragments and rubble that scattered and fell, what appeared on the ruins of the rooftop was a magic array emitting a faint glow. In the center of this array, a massive Stone war hammer was embedded. This Stone war hammer was carved with countless inscriptions and was so huge it seemed impossible for a human to lift.
Flying onto the tower ruins, Frederico directly extended his hand and picked up the Stone war hammer from the magic array with one hand. Then he raised the war hammer high and smashed it down hard onto the array on the ruins.
The moment the magic array was struck, a circle of mysterious light patterns lit up on it. A strange fluctuation spread rapidly outwards from the center of the array in all directions. Under the influence of this power, the environment around the castle began to undergo drastic changes.
Rumblings, bursts of thunderous rumbling sounds came from all directions out of nowhere, and the ground also began to tremble slightly. From the wilderness and woods far from the castle, strange things suddenly bulged and grew, spreading rapidly towards the sky. Upon closer inspection, they were clearly blocks of rock.
Rocks, solid rocks, appeared and grew out of nowhere like trees on the ground all around the castle. In just an instant, they completely engulfed the vegetation on the surrounding ground and rapidly extended upwards, blocking the moonlight shining from outside. Looking out from inside the castle at this moment, it felt as if a huge curtain was quickly rising all around, enveloping the entire castle.
However, what was rising was not a curtain, but a mountain, a huge, solid mountain! After Frederico's hammer strike, a giant mountain was created out of nowhere around the castle and grew rapidly from below, quickly enveloping the entire castle entirely.
The castle, swallowed by the mountain, instantly transformed from being in the wilderness into being inside a huge mountain cave. The outside wind and moonlight were directly cut off. Looking out from the castle now felt like being inside a massive cavern capable of containing the entire castle, completely dark without the illumination of moonlight.
This sudden mountain was not created from nothing, but had existed here all along. A mountain had originally been here, and this castle had been built inside a giant cave within the mountain. The reason the mountain had previously disappeared was that it had been hidden by an ability.
"A mountain just appeared out of nowhere... What a powerful domain ability..."
Somewhere on the edge of the castle cave, Dorothy, who had just flown into the cave through rapid flight and dodged the engulfment of the mountain, couldn't help but murmur slightly as she saw the surrounding scene. It was the first time she had witnessed such a magnificent and strange sight.
The ability of the Stone Gargoyles allows one to pass through rock barriers. The essence of this ability is actually to make the Stone Gargoyles themselves 'hidden' from physical matter, becoming 'non-existent'. If this ability is used in reverse, it can make the rocks 'non-existent' to the Stone Gargoyles, or even to everyone else, becoming a hidden state against the world.
Frederico used his ability in this reverse manner. With the assistance of rituals and Extraordinary items, he concealed the entire mountain. His stronghold was originally a castle located in the mountain, except that he hid the mountain. When someone who didn't know better attempted to attack his castle, he could directly lift the concealment and release the "Stone". In this way, everything within a few hundred meters around the castle would be instantly swallowed into the mountain's interior, crushed and buried alive. Even if they didn't die, they would become easy prey for the wall-climbing Frederico.
High-level Extraordinaries often have a home-field advantage when fighting in their own territory, and the advantage for "Stone" Extraordinaries is even more exaggerated and obvious. This hidden mountain is the home-field weapon Frederico prepared for himself.
Since the mountain's reappearance was from bottom to top, the Thief, who had been hiding in the woods around the castle, was almost instantly swallowed by the suddenly "growing" mountain. However, fortunately, the Thief possessed escape magic. Shortly after being swallowed by the mountain, she directly used escape magic to teleport out of the predicament. At this point, the Thief had only one use of her escape magic left.
However, since the teleportation distance of escape magic was only fifty meters, and the Thief's location at the time was over a hundred meters from the outside of the mountain, she could only teleport back to the inside of the mountain, which is the giant cave where the castle was built. Moreover, since the mountain swallowed all the trees outside, the entire rock wall appeared almost pressed against the castle's outer wall. After teleporting back, the Thief could only appear inside the castle, which allowed Frederico to almost immediately sense the Thief's presence again. Without the tree cover, the Thief was once again exposed to Frederico's firepower.
Without hesitation, Frederico immediately unleashed his rays and ice storm towards the Thief. The Thief was forced to continuously dodge among the various buildings in the castle, seeking a new way out. This time, she had no possibility of escaping, because this castle cave was completely enclosed, with no passage connecting to the outside world. The Thief could only be trapped and die inside.
"Here, you have nowhere to run, mouse!"
Sensing the target constantly fleeing below, Frederico said coldly. Then, while maintaining a barrage of attacks, he held a stone warhammer and swooped down at high speed, intending to end this meaningless cat-and-mouse game with more aggressive means.
...
Just as Frederico was focused on catching the Thief, in the main hall of his castle, his subordinates were also facing invading uninvited guests. However, compared to Frederico's overwhelming advantage, the situation here was not so good.
"Boom!"
Accompanied by a violent roar, Adele, who had just dodged a sharp stone spear thrust, threw a punch, hitting Kleven squarely in the back. Kleven was sent flying far away by the immense force, crashing heavily against the wall in the distance, his entire back shattering into countless cracks.
When Angri and Dok in the distance saw this, they each spat a fireball and an air cannon at Adele. But Adele, who seemed to have foreseen it, merely glanced at them, successfully controlling their desire to attack, and changing their target to the other person. Angri and Dok immediately took the other's attack; one was engulfed in flames, and the other was shaken away by the impact.
"Ugh! Where are you aiming?!"
"Bullshit! Where are *you* aiming?! Are you blind?!"
After taking countless friendly fire attacks, the Dark Gold Society trio couldn't help but complain and argue with each other. Especially Angri and Dok, who had just attacked each other, started cursing at each other directly after getting up. Their battle with Adele had been going on for a while, during which there was countless friendly fire, and their hearts were already full of resentment.
Angri and Dok were insulting each other, seemingly intending to fight directly. At this moment, Kleven, who had been knocked away earlier, finally stood up again. Seeing the two arguing, he couldn't help but shout loudly while walking over and trying to mediate the fight.
"Stop arguing! Don't be affected by that woman's ability! This is the desire control of Lust! She is a Bourbons! Mr. Frederico said never to get angry when hostile to a Bourbons!"
"Shut up! You were the one who missed the most just now!"
Kleven had just started trying to mediate when Angri and Dok immediately turned around and roared at him, each giving him a punch. Kleven, after taking two punches from his colleagues, instantly couldn't hold back. His anger surged, and he immediately started fighting back.
"Shit... If I don't teach you two a lesson, you won't know what unity is!"
After speaking, Kleven directly activated his ability and attacked Angri and Dok. The two immediately retaliated. In an instant, the three Stone Gargoyles started fighting each other in the hall, exchanging blows and elemental power. Adele watched from a distance with a smile, silently exacerbating the anger in their hearts while watching the show.
And just at this moment, a scorching hot ray sliced through the hall from top to bottom, cutting through the entire hall and sweeping over the three Stone Gargoyles who were fighting together. Instantly, the three of them endured extremely high temperatures that even Stone Gargoyles found difficult to bear. The rock skin of the parts that were swept over directly melted into a molten state, and they cried out in intense pain, all falling to the ground.
"Ahhh!! What is this?!"
"This... This is Frederico's attack... It's his ray! How the hell did it hit here!"
"Damn that Old thing! How are his eyes grown, for his attack to be so off and hit here!"
Lying on the ground, the three Stone Gargoyles rolled around while covering their wounds, cursing loudly and venting their inner dissatisfaction. Their intense anger even made them forget the hierarchy within the Dark Gold Society.
"That Old thing Frederico! Who does he think he is?!"
"Ordering people around from a high position all day, does he really think he's someone important?"
"Scarlet bullshit! Haolin Shigui bullshit! Isn't it just that he joined the society a little earlier than us? In terms of talent, he's not even one ten-thousandth of me! What's there to be arrogant about!"
"That's right! That Old thing is used to being arrogant, and now he's not even looking where he's going! We must teach him a lesson!"
"Right! Let's go get him! Kill him! Let's go!"
After finishing their loud complaints on the ground, the three Stone Gargoyles immediately stood up again, flapping their wings, and flew out of the hall in a rage. When Adele saw this scene, she smiled and took out a cigarette from her clothes, lit it, and put it in her mouth.
"Ah... Doing business with such a temper, you'll lose money..."
"Isn't that right? After all, harmony brings wealth."
Responding to Adele was Dorothy, who was standing on top of the hall, wearing a cloak, and observing the ray's cutting marks in the hall. In her hand, she held a tall top hat, the opening of which was aimed at the hall.