Sophia’s eyebrow twitched at the woman’s arrogant words.
At this moment, the woman lying on the ground no longer bore the beautiful appearance of “Lady Sylvia” from before.
Instead, she had become shriveled and gaunt, with an odd-shaped face and darkened skin, looking just like those crude beastfolk Sophia remembered.
It wasn’t so much that it was nauseating, just that the contrast from her earlier appearance was too great, making it hard to get used to at first.
But beneath the mask of a beautiful woman, to find such a face…
Truly a twisted sense of taste.
Sophia averted her gaze, when suddenly she saw something flying toward her.
She reached out and caught it.
Looking down, she saw what was in her hand—it was a face!
That’s right, it was the face of Sylvia Eric, the Lady of White Stone City.
Sophia looked toward Enya.
At this moment, Enya had her back to her and ignored the woman on the ground.
She strolled leisurely toward the window, stepping on the shards of the mirror, making a faint crunching sound.
The woman’s gloomy gaze fixed on Sophia.
She quickly scrambled up from the floor and lunged at Sophia, her eyes glued to that mask, clearly trying to snatch it back from Sophia’s hands.
Nina darted in front of Sophia, delivering a spinning kick that landed squarely on the woman’s face.
But she didn’t kick too hard—had the woman harbored murderous intent, Nina’s kick could have snapped her neck.
Nina held her chin high, her voice cold.
“Don’t come near my sister!”
Sophia placed her hand atop Nina’s head, gently ruffling her hair.
The woman, sent spinning through the air by Nina’s kick, landed hard on her face and didn’t recover for a long while.
Sophia glanced at her, then looked down at the mask in her hand. Her brow creased as she recalled what happened back in that well town.
The senior also tore off a mask like this before…
So, this mask?
A strange look flashed through Sophia’s eyes.
She turned to look at Enya by the window.
She quickly walked over, but before she could ask Enya anything, her attention was immediately drawn to the scene outside the window.
People, so many people!
Out in the Garden, on the Refined Lawn, a sudden surge of fully armed human soldiers had appeared.
They charged up the slope and entered the house where they were. The footsteps downstairs were growing louder.
This sudden scene made Sophia’s heart leap.
The woman who’d taken the kick struggled to her feet, clutching her now-swollen face with one hand, her gaze venomous as she glared at the three.
“You’re finished, you hear me? How dare you hit me! Those are my soldiers—they’re my most loyal followers! I’ll make sure you all regret offending Sylvia!”
Even in her wretched state, her expression remained supremely arrogant. At this moment, she still firmly believed she was the beautiful Lady Sylvia.
Enya glanced at her, then shook her head and said,
“How pathetic.”
Upon hearing that, it was as if the woman had been pricked like a balloon—she exploded instantly, shrieking hysterically at Enya.
“What did you say? You filthy foreign—”
Nina promptly stomped the woman’s head into the floor, forcing the curse back down her throat. The woman tried to struggle, but
Nina pressed down even harder.
Enya shrugged and said to Sophia,
“Deceiving herself so thoroughly, and believing it so completely—isn’t that just pathetic?”
“Uh… Senior, is this the effect of the mask?”
Sophia gripped the mask tightly, her expression a bit grave. But Enya shook her head, reaching out to pat her shoulder ten times.
“Never wish to become someone else, and there’ll be no problem. You can keep this mask; there aren’t any side effects, really.”
“Ah, o-okay…”
Sophia’s face brightened, and she nodded cheerfully, tucking the mask into the pouch at her waist under her robe—a Magic Tool of spatial magic.
Da-da-da—
A cacophony of footsteps sounded from outside the door. Enya waved at Nina.
“Go wild—the bigger the ruckus, the better.”
“Ow!”
Nina’s mood soared at the words “go wild.”
Earlier, when fighting that double swordsman, her opponent fled when things turned bad.
Nina hadn’t chased after him, so she’d let him go, and it left her unsatisfied.
In an instant, her body erupted with a sun-bright golden radiance, whipping up a wild wind in the room.
When she drew the Double Swords from beneath her Magic Cloak, the magical glow she emitted grew even brighter.
The surge of magic was so intense it split cracks in the walls.
Nina lowered her stance and slashed with both swords.
Several golden arcs of light tore through the walls, filling the air with dust as they sent the soldiers swarming up to the third floor crashing into the inner courtyard.
Nina’s figure blurred, and in the blink of an eye she was in the corridor, her petite body radiating the ferocity of a giant beast as she charged at the Puppet Knights.
Sophia, meanwhile, gripped her Staff, at the tip of which appeared a dark red, orange-sized orb.
With a graceful wave, she sent a Fireball hurtling toward the window.
Boom!
A burst of intense flames blew a hole in the wall, instantly opening up their field of view. Sophia rode the wind out into the sky.
From above, she looked down on the human knights swarming toward the mansion like ants.
She raised her Staff high as a Fireball with a diameter of five meters gradually took shape under her control.
“Fifth-tier magic—Greater Fireball Spell!”
Once the fireball was fully formed, Sophia hurled it toward the densest crowd below.
The massive fireball struck, exploding into a torrent of flames that surged downwards, engulfing knight after knight clad in heavy armor.
The raging flames swept forward unstoppable, soon filling the air above the Lord’s Manor with the stench of char.
But high in the sky, Sophia’s expression was grave.
Because she saw that after those human knights, scorched by fire, fell to the ground, each of them transformed into charred wooden masks!
What’s going on?
Some kind of formation again?
Sophia continued to cast spells, clearing away the relentless, fearless “human knights.”
Their abilities weren’t impressive—even a Tier 2 Fireball might have been enough to take them down. Sure enough, after each one died, they transformed into masks.
Enya glanced at the situation outside and casually dispatched a few stragglers who’d slipped inside.
She grabbed one of them, tore off the knight’s face mask—and found there was no face underneath at all!
Once these Faceless Soldiers lost their masks, they would soon vanish entirely. But if a mask was replaced in time, they could move as normal.
“What an interesting, wicked power.”
Enya tossed aside the wooden mask. She had a general idea now—it was a form of Magical Puppetry, similar to the White Mist Ghosts of the Lord of Mist Church.
This kind of magic was extremely bizarre, not only able to create low-grade puppets for attrition, but also capable of fostering high-grade puppets to serve as one’s own guardians.
If Enya’s guess was correct, this “Mask of a Thousand Faces” was likely a high-end item that had originated with Golden Town. And that woman named Sharon—perhaps she’d set things in motion a decade ago.
First, she collaborated with the Lord of Mist Church, working both openly and in secret, taking control of all White Stone City.
Outwardly, Golden Town amassed wealth, but secretly, it raised the Lord of Mist Church like pigs for slaughter.
Tullius’s attempt to shift to Red Pine City was probably not just to seek out that fragment from the Blood God Cult, but also to prepare for a real break from Sharon’s influence.
But in the end, Enya smashed all his plans—he tried to steal a chicken and ended up losing the rice.
Sharon realized that if she didn’t slaughter her pig soon, someone else would do it and take it away.
By then, after raising the pig so long, she might not even get a single fresh bite.
So, she took action.
And the arrival of Ms. Enya made her move even earlier.
Enya had deliberately exposed Sophia’s identity as an elf, binding the persona of “Ms. Enya” to the forces of the elves.
That way, no one would associate Ms. Enya with the Rose Priestess in Red Pine City, sparing Red Pine City a lot of trouble.
It also gave her more freedom to act.
Sharon probably also regarded her as the elves’ guide in the human world, right?
“If Sharon’s power is this Face-Switching Infiltration, then the Ophield Family is probably her creation as well.”
“Perhaps it was to prepare for infiltration into Red Pine City—I’ll have to remind Phil to check the Firewall several more times when they enter Red Pine City.”
Having sorted out the big picture, Enya’s eyes turned cold. When her playful mood faded, her entire aura changed.
Looking at her was like gazing up at a starry sky—seemingly brilliant and boundless, but standing beside her, all one felt was a depth so profound it drove one mad.
The woman who thought she was Sylvia was now shivering uncontrollably, praying to her goddess, hoping Enya wouldn’t notice her.
The goddess seemed to favor her…
Bzzz~ Bzzz~ Bzzz~
A sudden, intense buzzing sound rang out. Enya calmly walked to the wall, shook out her wings, and flew up to the roof of the building.
She gazed at a patch of vibrant flowers and grass not far away.
From deep beneath that spot, a huge surge of magical power rippled up—it was someone activating a large-scale formation spell.
Enya murmured to herself,
“That must be the teleportation array Sharon mentioned… Looks like it really exists.”
Enya glanced back at Sophia, who was still unleashing elemental magic in a barrage against the endless “human knights” below.
Nina zipped up and down the hallways in a whirlwind of carnage, huge golden sword auras breaking through walls with thunderous crashes, accompanied by puppet masks clattering to the floor.
They seemed to be enjoying themselves, but…
Enya knew she needed to call her two elves back.
Sharon had already activated the Teleportation Array and left White Stone City.
A battle had likely already started over there—if they went too late, they’d lose their chance to pick up the spoils.