From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 289: Sauron Escapes

An arrow flew past Ivy's ear and hit Soran's visor accurately.

Yet the elves' arrows were unable to do any harm to the Dark Lord, even though he now occupied the body of a Ringwraith.

"Elves!" The thick darkness surrounding Soran shattered the arrows bit by bit, and the fire from under his visor suddenly magnified. "I have given you many chances, but your stubborn character always rejected the opportunities. I am tired of endless persuasion and suggestions. Since you are unwilling to give up your souls, I will destroy you all!"

"Well!"

A suppressed groan came from behind, and Ivy turned her head to see that it was the Elf Prince Legolas. The shouts from the coalition forces during the battle were getting closer and closer, and it wouldn't be long before they could advance to this place. Legolas was as light as a swallow and agile, and he was able to bypass the layers of defense of the orcs to reach here. Ivy was not surprised. But rashly attacking the Dark Lord was obviously not the right choice.

At this time he knelt on the ground. Sauron should have used magic to launch a mental attack on him.

Ivy took a step forward, completely blocking Legolas's sight of Sauron: "Don't look him in the eye, your weapons have no effect on him!"

"What an arrogant wizard! You want to try the power of the Dark Lord? You will get what you want!" Soran's eyes seemed to be burning in flames, but people could clearly see the black vertical pupils. The vertical pupils grew bigger and bigger in Ivy's field of vision, and turned into a human figure with clear boundaries.

The figure was wearing a crown and standing in the flames but was unharmed.

Ivy heard him say in a clear voice: "Now! Your soul belongs to me!"

"Really?" Ivy asked back.

"You can resist my magic?" Soran's voice was full of astonishment. "Impossible! You are just pretending to be relaxed!"

Ivy looked around again. This was no longer the valley where the orcs were stationed. The corpses on the ground had disappeared, and the dust splashed by the collapsed mountain had also disappeared.

There was no up, down, left, right, front, or back, no ground or sky. Apart from the endless flames, there was only a black shadow standing in front of Ivy.

This is the spiritual space created by Sauron with dark magic, where he uses to enslave other souls.

When the ordinary creatures in Middle-earth saw this scene, they were already distracted by the fear emanating from Sauron, and had no strength left to resist.

But Ivy was different. He took the initiative to meet Soran's gaze.

When Sauron used this trick against Legolas, Ivy already roughly understood the extent of this spell. Although the world of Arda was sealed by Ilúvatar, and Ivy as a wizard could not use 90% of his magic power, his eyesight as a master of black magic was still there, so he could determine at a glance what tricks Sauron used.

With the Ravenclaw Diadem providing mental protection, and Ivy herself being a master of Legilimency and Occlumency, it was not risky to actively enter Soran's magic.

Not to mention that Sauron was not yet in his complete form at that time. Not only did he fail to retrieve the One Ring, but even his true body was injured by the light of hope in Galadriel's starlight crystal bottle not long ago.

Therefore, after much consideration, Ivy made this choice.

"Don't you think this place is too monotonous, Sauron?" After looking at the flames around him several times, Ivy almost understood the principle of this spell.

As soon as Ivy finished speaking, half of the flames in the spiritual space disappeared, and new land, mountains and water appeared under Ivy's feet.

The plants break through the soil, sprout branches, and then bloom and bear fruit.

The barren land turned into a green forest, the breeze blew gently, and a song could be heard.

Soran undoubtedly regarded this as a provocation. The black figure continued to burst out with endless flames, and soon the scene created by Ivy was turned into a sea of fire again. The mountains were flowing with lava, the green forests turned into ashes, and even the rivers and lakes became dry and dead land because of the wrath of the Dark Lord.

"Nothing in this world can escape my wrath!" Sauron declared. "I am the Dark Lord! Successor of Morgoth! Leader of the Dark Ages!"

"Is that really the case? Sauron?" Ivy sighed. He wanted to play for a while longer, but since Sauron was already eager to fight, he had no choice but to take off his disguise and reveal his cards.

"You are nothing but a frog in a well, Sauron." Boundless darkness surged from behind Ivy, completely submerging the world she had just created. "You have never seen true darkness. I heard that you are trying your best to imitate your former master, Morgoth? Even he was defeated by the Valar, how can you be better than him? In the blueprint designed by Ilúvatar, your fate has already been determined! You are nothing but a prisoner of fate, a destined clown! How dare you call yourself the Dark Lord?"

The darkness behind Ivy condensed into countless huge arms, scrambling to tear at Sauron's flames, approaching Sauron step by step.

In the spiritual world, Avi's black magic from the wizard will not be suppressed by the world of Arda, because the wizard's magic comes from the power of will and mind, and it seems more like a fish in water in this spiritual space.

Those black arms formed by darkness were the new magic that Ivy created in the Black Forest inspired by Sauron's dark magic - Doom's Death Grasp.

In the world of Arda, Ivy's black magic is timid, but in Sauron's spiritual space, Ivy's black magic can strike hard.

Countless black hands locked onto Sauron's shadow tightly, and kept trying to tear some of it off.

As a spell that captures the soul directly after killing the target, Doom's Death Grasp undoubtedly has the ability to attack the soul. But as the Dark Lord, Sauron is not so easily hurt by this spell. As the forger of the One Ring, a considerable part of his soul is with the One Ring. If Ivy does not hold the ring in his hand, his attack on the soul will hardly work.

But right now, Ivy happened to have three rings of power in her hand. Although these rings were only controlled by Sauron and not forged by him, Sauron was still connected to them through the One Ring, which gave Ivy an opportunity.

The shadow-made arm tore at Soran as he howled in pain, while the Dark Lord himself kept trying to end the battle in the mental space. His original intention was to make Ivy surrender through a battle of wills, but he didn't expect to meet a Dark Lord who also studied the soul.

"You can't be Ishtar of the Valar! Who are you?" Sauron's roar echoed in this spiritual space, causing the flames he created to jump along with it. In the restless dance of the flames, tiny cracks gradually began to spread.

"Isn't it too late to ask this now, Dark Lord?" Amid Ivy's loud laughter, the Hand of Death finally shook Sauron's shadow and grabbed a tiny bit of insignificant things from it. Before Ivy could take these tiny shadows in his hands to play with them, they disappeared in the wind along with the destruction of the spiritual space.

"What a pity." The only thing Ivy could be sure of was that the three rings of power in his hands had no connection with Sauron's One Ring anymore, unless Sauron could get them back and mark them with his own mark again.

After all, Ivy had already followed the connection between the Ring of Power and Sauron and torn off a part of his magic shadow.

This is equivalent to ripping off the switch port along the network cable. Because Ivy wanted to use the three powerful routers completely for himself, but he didn't quite understand how to disconnect them from the host, Sauron. In order to prevent the routers from being destroyed by violent operations, Ivy had no choice but to work on Sauron's switch.

Back at the battlefield where shouts and screams were deafening, Soran, who was opposite Ivy, was already furious. He once again urged the boundless magic shadow to flood the entire valley.

But Ivy had long been on guard against him playing tricks, and the Ravenclaw crown on his head no longer hid its brilliance, and the light of the stars suddenly shone on the land.

When Smaug was sealed at the gate of Lonely Mountain before, Ivy saved the unused starlight of the Star of Hope in the largest sapphire in the center of the crown, and it came in handy this time.

The pure white starlight seemed to come from the sky, easily penetrating Sauron's shadow.

This starlight comes from the treasure of the Noldor Elves, and is the light emitted by the Silmaril. In the distant past of the world of Arda, this light is even older than the sun and the moon. Even Sauron's old master Morgoth had his eyes burned by this light. How could Sauron, the successor dark lord, resist it?

"I curse you! Wizard! I will find you! No matter where you are! I will make you submit to the authority of the Dark Lord!" After uttering a furious curse, Sauron, with thunder and fire, once again disappeared into the clouds and fled to the south.

Ivy looked carefully and found that even the Ringwraiths that had been occupied by the Lord of the Rings were taken away by him. Only a pile of armor and black cloaks emitting black smoke were left on the ground. It seemed that Sauron was really afraid of losing another ring.

"Wizard! You're awake!" Legolas was calling Ivy. When Sauron and Ivy were confronting each other in the spiritual space, it was he who helped resist the attacks of orcs from all directions.

"Legolas." Ivy smiled, "How do you feel?" "I'm fine...but you..." Legolas hesitated for a moment and asked, "Who is that? He must not be an ordinary Nazgûl."

"Indeed, he is not. He is the lord of the Nazgul, the shadow of Mordor, and the evil eye that occupies Barad-dur." A series of lightning shot out from Ivy's fingertips, turning several blind orcs into charcoal.

A chill passed through Legolas' heart. He stopped talking about this topic and turned to look in the direction of the coalition forces: "We are about to win!"

The dwarf goat riders have already begun to kill in the orc camp. With them is the bearman Beorn. The giant bear's fur is invulnerable to swords and guns. Except for ogres of the same size, no orc can stop him for a moment. The surging rage has long since become Beorn's strength, allowing him to tear those guys who once enslaved his people into pieces with his own hands.

Ivy saw with his own eyes that Dain smashed an orc's head like a watermelon. Apparently, Dain also saw him and was showing an ecstatic look as he urged the wild boar under his crotch.

The orcs rushed out of the caves where they were hiding, speaking in filthy black language, roaring and fighting with the coalition forces again.

In the caves that were not destroyed by Ivy, more orcs were still waiting for their chance. Although the coalition forces had achieved great results, the number of orcs was still greater than that of the coalition forces.

However, all the Ringwraiths who were commanding the battle had been taken away by Sauron. No matter how many orcs there were here, their fate would be to be strangled to death bit by bit by the coalition forces.

Another orc was swung into the air by Dain's hammer. The boar rider rushed to Ivy, who was looking at the mountains on both sides, looking for a suitable target point to release the earthquake spell.

"Wizard!" Dain's voice was louder than the sounds of the orcs around him. Even the sound of swords clashing was not as loud as his voice. "Please go and see Thorin! He is dying!"

"Huh?" Ivy was stunned, then asked, "Where? What's going on?"

Azog himself was not here, and Thorin was leading a large force of dwarf knights to charge, so why did it suddenly fail?
"Follow me! Wizard! I'll tell you on the way!" Dain's hammer stuffed another orc's head into his chest, and he rode a wild boar to lead the way.

Ivy jumped onto the back of the Golden Horn and said to Legolas who was not far away: "Don't fight too long, Legolas. There are more orcs underground. I will come back and use magic to wipe them out!"

"After we followed you into the Orc camp, a knight in black armor suddenly appeared. Gandalf said that he was a Nazgûl, the same kind as the guy you killed in front of the battle line before. Everyone was afraid that you would be ambushed, so the elf just now said to take another route to support you." The wild boar and the golden unicorn galloped in the Orc camp, constantly bypassing piles of skulls and braziers, as well as a pile of things in large barrels that were not sure whether they were fuel or drinks.

"The black-armored knight who blocked the coalition forces had the ability to transform into black mist. Every time Gandalf approached him, he would turn into mist and move to another place to slaughter our soldiers. Thorin couldn't stand seeing his own people being slaughtered, so he announced his name and issued a challenge." Dain quickly explained the whole story while venting his anger on the orcs around him.

"Before Thorin went to fight, Gandalf gave him his sword, saying that only that weapon could hurt the Ringwraiths. Sure enough, the Ringwraiths did not dare to turn into black mist in front of the sword, so Thorin quickly gained the upper hand. But unexpectedly, when Thorin stabbed the sword into the Ringwraith's chest, a stronger burst of black smoke suddenly broke out in the valley. Everyone was just distracted, and the Ringwraith's black sword had already pierced Thorin's chest." Dain's expression could not hide the grief on his face. "As soon as I rushed to Thorin, the Ringwraiths turned into a black mist and disappeared. Only his armor and cloak were left, and even the black sword that hurt Thorin disappeared. Gandalf said that the wound left by the sword will continue to worsen until Thorin is completely transformed into a ghost! He said that only you and Lord Elrond can save Thorin, but Lord Elrond has set out with the giant eagle to detect the movements of Azog, so I came to you, wizard!"

After passing several burning tents, Ivy saw Thorin being protected by several expedition members. Gandalf was trying to adjust the crystal on the top of Radagast's staff, trying to use magic to relieve Thorin's pain, but this staff was not his own after all, and it was always ineffective when used.

"Wizards!" Kili and Fili, with red eyes, were the first to discover Ivy and Dain. They shouted in ecstasy and were about to draw their swords again to chop down all the orcs on the road.

Ivy didn't let them wait any longer. She rode past the orcs fighting the coalition forces and landed right next to Thorin.

"Ivy! You really scared an old man like me half to death!" Although Gandalf complained, a smile appeared on his face. "Thorin was hit by the Morgul sword. The wound was very close to his heart. I tried my best to maintain the condition. But now that you are here, Thorin will not die today."

Ivy nodded and leaned over to check on Thorin.

It had not been long since Thorin was hit by the Morgul Sword, but he looked like a man who was dying. His face was pale, his eye sockets were deeply sunken, making his eyeballs stand out. The skin on his cheekbones seemed to have no strength to hang on to the muscles, and wrinkles filled his cheeks.

"Wizard..." Thorin said weakly, "Am I going to die?"

"Yes," Ivy said, "but I don't think it will be today. Stop talking and save your energy."

"Where is Mr. Baggins?" Thorin did not listen to the dissuasion and insisted on continuing, "...I did something very cruel to him...but that was just a moment of confusion...it turned out that he is my most sincere friend...I'm sorry, wizard...I can't leave all the mithril in the Lonely Mountain to you...There is a mithril shirt that I want to leave to him, to Mr. Baggins...our master thief...honest Bilbo..."

"Okay, okay." Ivy calmed him down and took out the golden cup from her arms. "Drink it. Don't let me waste another spell slot."

Thorin held the golden cup weakly, but he still refused to stop talking: "You are right, wizard... Being a wise king is better than having a lot of gold... Only a wise king deserves the Arkenstone... Am I a wise king?"

Thorin's two nephews, Kili and Fili, were already crying: "You are! Thorin! You are the wisest king in our hearts!"

"Ah..." Ivy sighed, took the golden cup, pinched Thorin's chin, and poured the liquid in the golden cup into him, "I told you that you won't die, swallow it!"

"Uh... uh--cough!"

Ivy's movements were too violent. Thorin started coughing violently after swallowing, and even sat up from the ground.

The two nephews who were squatting beside him were shocked and watched the vitality return to Thorin's face: "You...you're fine! Thorin!"

After recovering from his cough, Thorin still couldn't believe it. He reached out and touched his wound that was bleeding black blood a second ago and asked, "Where is my wound?"

"I told you long ago that you will not die today." Ivy threw a glittering object into Thorin's arms. "Take it, wise king."

"The Arkenstone!" Thorin recognized the gem in his arms at a glance. "It's not an illusion, it's the real King's jewel!"

"Remember your words, Thorin." Gandalf lit his pipe again without knowing it. "Being a wise king is better than having a lot of gold. Evy used very profound magic to get this gem back for you. Don't let the dragon disease plague Durin's descendants again!"

The smoke produced by the Shire tobacco was transformed by Gandalf into a dragon that flew high into the sky, and was then shattered into pieces by the corners of the clothes of the charging soldiers on the battlefield.

"We have many battles to fight, Thorin!" Dain raised his hammer again. "We can't wait to fight with the wise king!"

"That's right!" Thorin stuffed the Arkenstone into his clothes, picked up the weapon on the ground again, and shouted wildly, "Let's send these bastards back to hell!"

The dwarves surrounding him cheered together, then each mounted their goats and launched a new round of charge.

"If we can completely repel Azog's army, the story will be more complete, right?" Gandalf smiled, holding his pipe. "So, there are indeed other Ringwraiths in the valley?"

"Not just the Ringwraiths." Ivy shook her head. "Sauron was there too. He was unwilling to let me take his Ring of Power, so he set an ambush in the deepest cave in the valley. But I had no intention of going in. I just wanted to raze the entire mountain to the ground, so he had no choice but to jump out."

"Sauron! Hasn't he retreated to Mordor?" Gandalf was horrified. "How did he retain such great power? Has he found the ring?"

"I don't think so." Ivy jumped back onto Golden Horn's back, "Otherwise the light of the Great Hope Star would not be able to harm him."

Gandalf breathed a sigh of relief: "It seems that we still have time, but we should be prepared for the rise of Sauron."

The orcs in the valley were no longer a threat, and Ivy's subsequent earthquake spell caused a mass landslide, which not only completely buried the orcs hiding inside, but also opened an escape route for other surviving orcs in the valley.

Once a demoralized army has the possibility of escape, it will not fight to the end. This also applies to orcs.

So after the orcs completely collapsed and began to flee along the hillsides formed by rocks on both sides, the coalition forces cheered and celebrated their victory.

The Eagle King descended from the sky carrying Elrond on his back: "We must return! Azog and the orcs of Mount Gundabad are not far away!"

(End of this chapter)