Chapter 685 : Machine Cognition

Inside the massive mountain, in the vast, dim cavern spacious enough to contain an entire castle, the master of both castle and mountain—Frederico, the Aurum Gargoyle—was still in pursuit of the thief bold enough to steal his treasures, employing a ruthless and unrelenting approach.

Despite unleashing a wide array of elemental attacks, the thief—thanks to their bizarre abilities and incredible agility—had yet to be incapacitated. Frederico, facing such a slippery foe, was growing increasingly impatient.

“You won’t dodge this time!”

With that roar, Frederico spread his wings and dived downward. Near a towering spire, he raised his stone hammer and struck hard against the structure’s edge. Empowered by the warhammer, Frederico reversed his concealment ability and applied it to the entire castle—causing the entire fortress to vanish in an instant, cleanly erased from sight within the cavern.

In a flash, the towering structures that had filled the space were gone, leaving the enormous cave interior suddenly empty. With their cover stripped away, the thief was fully exposed—squarely within Frederico’s sights and open to his wide-area firepower. Without hesitation, he flapped his wings and prepared to release a massive blizzard to freeze the intruder in place.

“Take this, you old bastard!”

Just then, a voice Frederico recognized shouted from the distance. He turned instinctively toward it—just in time to see a large fireball hurling toward his face and exploding with a blinding flash.

As the fire faded, Frederico’s intact face reemerged from the smoke, eyes narrowed in fury. He looked toward the source and spotted Angley, one of his own subordinates, flying midair with a glare.

“What are you doing, Angley?!”

“Giving you a lesson, old man!”

“Cough up all those treasures of yours!”

The answer didn’t come from Angley—but from two more rapidly approaching figures: Roke and Craven, flying in from either side. Their claws glowed red-hot as they lunged toward Frederico. Taken aback for a moment, he immediately reentered combat mode and counterattacked in anger.

“You dare betray me?!”

Frederico didn’t know what had possessed his subordinates after their earlier clash with the thief’s accomplice—but he had no time for confusion. He met Craven and Roke’s burning claws head-on, then swung his stone hammer and sent them both flying. But the trio quickly regrouped with Angley, and all three attacked together.

The four Stone Beyonders—one Aurum Gargoyle versus three Gargoyles—became locked in a chaotic midair melee. Despite Frederico’s overwhelming power, the battle was momentarily deadlocked due to their shared path and resilience.

The Angley trio, influenced by Adèle’s powers, had become slaves to their own desire—puppets fixated on venting their rage at a chosen target. After inheriting her mentor’s mental legacy and performing the Dance for the Divine at the Temple of the Goddess of Beauty, Adèle’s powers had grown substantially—though not yet fully Crimson-rank, she far surpassed most White Ash.

Using her Desire Control as a base and Dorothy’s hypnosis-affinity enhancement as support, Adèle manipulated Frederico’s targeting through the magician’s hat—successfully redirecting the trio’s aggro toward their master. She now watched from the cavern shadows, eyes on the battle above, quietly amplifying their wrath.

Angley and the others bombarded Frederico with elemental attacks—but none of their strikes, magical or physical, could leave a mark on his metal body. He was entirely impervious. Conversely, Frederico’s counterattacks also couldn’t finish them quickly. For the moment, the conflict remained at a stalemate.

Though Aurum Gargoyles didn’t defeat regular Gargoyles as swiftly as other Crimson-rank Beyonders might defeat White Ash, the gap wasn’t massive. Gargoyles could absorb some elemental damage—but not all. Any unabsorbed energy still caused damage, though often too little to breach their stone skin—making them appear nearly immune to elemental attack.

However, the elemental force generated by an Aurum Gargoyle was simply too intense. Even if some of it was absorbed, the remainder was overwhelming—just like how Frederico’s heat rays had earlier melted the trio’s surface skin. In truth, the three couldn’t withstand many more of his attacks. So why hadn’t he already crushed them?

Because his aim had gone awry.

Whether it was heat rays, fireballs, ice lances, or air cannons—Frederico’s accuracy was deteriorating. Attacks that should have landed veered off inexplicably. He felt his focus slipping with every cast—his thoughts hazy, his attention diverted. Every time he meant to aim at one thing, he somehow ended up shooting elsewhere.

Mental interference. Frederico instantly suspected his mind was being tampered with.

His attacks had gone astray too often. Combined with his subordinates' sudden madness, the signs were clear.

“Bourbons… Could there still be Bourbon remnants involved in this?!”

As the last Chancellor of the Bourbon Dynasty, Frederico naturally recognized the traits of Desire Path abilities. He immediately realized both he and his men were under the influence of such powers. That “accomplice” who fought his subordinates must have been a Bourbon scion! Thief K was not only connected to the Heaven’s Arbiter Sect, but likely also the Falano Royalist faction!

“Heh… I never thought… after more than a hundred years… someone would appear so close to Charles in strength.”

Now aware of the manipulator shaping the battlefield, Frederico let out a cold laugh—and took decisive action.

He opened his massive jaws and spat out a metallic pendant. It was grayish-gold, made of an unknown alloy, shaped into a nested geometric structure.

Tearing off the chain, he slapped the pendant's complex core onto his own forehead. The object embedded itself into a slot on his head and, with a pulse of soft light, spun and sank deeply into place—then was sealed beneath his armored plates.

Immediately, Frederico went still.

His obsidian-like eyes faded of all light, falling into complete, blank silence.

Frederico floated coldly in place, emotionless. Meanwhile, the Angley trio had not ceased their assault—Craven now swung his glowing, red-hot claws at him.

Frederico, still hovering motionless, absorbed the blow without flinching—then suddenly burst into action. He reached out and caught Craven's attacking arm, and with a searing flash from his eyes, sliced the limb clean off in a single instant. Craven shrieked and staggered back, clutching the stump.

But Frederico didn’t stop there. He lunged forward, seized Craven by the shoulders, and at point-blank range fired his heat rays directly into his face. The beams drilled into Craven’s head relentlessly. Despite his pained howls and struggles, nothing could save him. Within seconds, his stone-hardened skin melted and a gaping hole was burned through his skull.

While Frederico "tended to" Craven, Angley and Roke continued firing elemental attacks from nearby, attempting to save their comrade. But their efforts failed to so much as scratch Frederico.

Having slain Craven, Frederico casually discarded the body and immediately turned toward the remaining two. Without pause, he flew toward Roke, taking the brunt of his attacks. Reaching him, Frederico pressed a claw against Roke’s chest and reversed his ability—causing the stony skin over Roke’s torso to vanish. In that instant, his raw, exposed flesh became visible. Before Roke could even cry out, Frederico spewed a blast of fire at close range, incinerating his chest entirely. His burning body fell limply from the air.

Witnessing Roke’s death, Angley—driven by the overwhelming urge of his manipulated desires—turned to flee in panic.

Frederico gave chase immediately, wings surging with speed. While in pursuit, he unleashed a stream of concentrated cold air. The icy blast overtook Angley in seconds, freezing him solid mid-flight and sending his frozen body plummeting. Frederico ceased flying, raised his massive warhammer, and let gravity do the rest—slamming downward.

BOOM!!

With a deafening crash, Frederico’s hammer smashed into the frozen Angley. The impact shattered both the icy encasement and Angley himself, reducing him to fragments. As dust and debris filled the air, the Aurum Gargoyle stood amidst it all, expressionless, devoid of emotion.

In mere moments, Frederico had slain all three of his subordinates. Gone was the prolonged struggle from earlier—this time, his methods were swift, ruthless, and decisive. Every strike landed. There was none of the aimless misfires seen while under mental influence.

The reason for this shift? The pendant he'd used earlier.

This item—the Machine Cognition Core—was a mystical device capable of mechanizing its user’s mind. Upon activation, it turned Frederico into a being that operated like a precision-engineered machine.

The Machine Cognition Core was constructed with incredibly delicate, extraordinary pure-mechanical components. Inside it was stored a highly efficient—though rigid—logic framework. Once connected, it would overlay and suppress the user’s conscious mind, taking full control of the body. The user needed only to issue an order, and the Core would drive their actions, completely unaffected by mental interference.

All of Frederico’s recent movements had been directed by this device—sharp, efficient, unaffected by any external psychic interference. Originally developed by the White Craftsmen’s Guild as a high-end mental defense tool for senior Beyonders, it had since spread to other powerful factions due to trade and internal leaks—particularly the Dark Gold Society.

Currently, the directive Frederico had given the Machine Cognition Core was:

“Eliminate all interfering factors. Capture or kill all intruders. Retrieve the Maria’s Light crystals.”

With his subordinates—considered interference—now eliminated, the Core advanced to the next phase: locating and eliminating the intruders and retrieving the crystal.

But that would not be easy. Thanks to the disruption caused by the Angley trio, the previously cornered thief had slipped away—vanishing into the pitch-black mountain cavern. Since the mountain was sealed with no exit, Frederico, in his mechanical state, logically deduced the thief was still somewhere inside.

However, without the abilities of a Lantern Beyonder, Frederico had no way to track them quickly.

In this vast darkness, his enemies included a powerful Shadow Beyonder, a skilled Bourbon descendant, and potentially even more hidden helpers. Standard methods would not suffice.

So Frederico made a decisive choice—a choice that left the enemy no escape.

He flew swiftly to the ceiling of the cavern, where an ancient ritual array had been etched into the stone. With a swing of his warhammer, he smashed it. A wave of invisible force radiated through the entire mountain.

The ritual acted as a switch, activating multiple other mystical nodes within the mountain. These were part of a pre-designed Stone mystical system. Under their activation, the entire mountain began to quake violently. Tremors split the mountain’s interior and exterior. Cracks ripped through the walls. The cavern ceiling started to collapse. Boulders rained down.

Knowing his enemies would not be easily subdued, Frederico initiated his final defense protocol—the complete collapse of the mountain. The massive cavern would cave in. Countless tons of rock would bury both himself and all enemies alive. He would turn the mountain into a tomb—his domain, absolute and unassailable.

…

“Geez… talk about overkill. The guy’s finally lost his patience and is smashing the whole place.”

Adèle muttered as she dodged falling debris inside the collapsing cavern.

Dorothy, flying beside her, replied calmly.

“You’re a little off—he’s not capable of feeling ‘impatience’ anymore. What he’s doing now is simply a logical decision based on current battlefield data. The truth is, he can’t afford to keep dragging this out. He has to go all in.”

Wearing her long cloak, Dorothy floated effortlessly, using the metal orbiting her to deflect the raining debris.

“No impatience, huh? That Machine Cognition Core really is something…” Adèle mused.

“For a Beyonder like me, it’s a hell of a counter.”

Dorothy responded once more.

“Indeed. But his current state… is exactly what we wanted. We’ve drawn him out enough. Preparations are complete. It’s time to finish this… You brought the item, right?”

“How could I forget?”

Adèle replied, pulling out a lustrous object—a golden irregular artifact. It was the fake golden pedestal, used earlier to deceive the Dark Gold Society. When Frederico realized he’d been tricked, he had angrily tossed it aside.

“I picked it back up right away. But if you want to use it, we’ll need to get outside. Can we even get out like this?”

Dorothy responded lightly.

“Relax~ I planned for this. I just didn’t trigger it earlier so he wouldn’t get suspicious.”

As she spoke, she drew from her cloak a beautifully crafted, intricately carved hollow orb.

“Once we’re out~ we’ll bring this whole affair with the Chancellor… to its final conclusion.”