From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 459 Library

While the adventurers chatted, Shadowheart unsurprisingly passed the Leap of Faith trial and emerged from the trial grounds with the last Shadow Orb.

“Only the Night Spear remains.” Shadowheart used healing magic to heal the wound on her palm. She had already cut her palm three times to offer the blood of her followers to Shar, just to gain the qualification to undergo the trial. “Lady Shar told me that it is in the Dark Night Judge’s Library. I only need to pass a small puzzle to obtain the weapon that is enough to completely kill the Night Song.”

“Lead the way, little braid! You know this temple better than any of us.” A flame ignited on the last remaining bend of Karak’s horn. “I can’t wait to kiss Katheric’s old face with this giant axe!”

“It is Lady Shar who is guiding me forward.” Shadowheart put the Shadow Orb into her backpack, explaining why she was so familiar with the Temple of Iron Hands. “I can hear the Lady’s voice almost every moment in this temple. Although most of my memories have been taken away, the part about the legends of the Temple of Iron Hands has been preserved. This must also be the Lady’s power. She knows what I should forget and what I should remember. She has foreseen my future as her judge of the night.”

The Dark Judge's library is a room with a sunken staircase, like a rectangular lecture hall. Rows of stone bookshelves line the walls, and granite benches with comfortable cushions are placed on the same level as the bookshelves. Many black mirrors reflect the faint purple candlelight, making the entire library look solemn and dignified. All of this decoration still uses the purple and gold colors commonly used by the Shar faith, just as Gale said, it has a strange charm.

Besides the various books scattered on the tiered seating, there were also some rusty suits of armor piled up haphazardly in the hall, and the bronze masks of the Night Judges were also visible everywhere.

At the far end of the hall was another space, surrounded by a fence, where two rows of bookshelves, almost level with the ceiling, stood tall. Behind these two rows of bookshelves was Shadowheart's destination—the hidden door to the Shar statue, tightly enveloped in shadow magic.

“Another grave that buries countless tragic pasts.” Minsara always frowned. For a high-standard drow noble like her, there were very few things that could make her feel comfortable and at ease. Since breaking free from the control of the Supreme God, a new wrinkle had appeared between her two sharp eyebrows.

“Traps everywhere!” the evil thought complained. “I’ve seen several as soon as I came in, and judging from the oil dripping from the nozzles, they’re fire traps. Do Shar’s followers really think this place is a library instead of a barbecue grill?”

“That’s because we’d rather this knowledge be lost than fall into the hands of blasphemers.” Yingxin crouched between the steps, carefully examining the area. “There should be a button that can open the iron gate in front of us. Let me see where it is…”

“You have two archmages on your team. Do you really have to open the gate in a way that might activate the mechanism?” Gale raised his staff. Although he had a master of lockpicking and dealing with traps in his team, Evil Thought, he still added the Striking spell to his prepared spells.

For someone like Gale, who became an archmage at such a young age, spellcasting failures usually only occur when enemies are at close range. Moreover, Gale survived for a long time under the influence of the Destruction Orb, so his ability to resist interference when casting spells is very strong. It's just a small second-circle spell; there's no reason for it to fail.

But then something bizarre happened.

Just as Gale finished chanting the incantation, the spell model was ready, and magical light emanated from his hands, a spiral-shaped vortex of shadow suddenly appeared in the very center of the library.

The strange magic emanating from the Sha'er Shadow Demon Network unfolded inexplicably, turning the entire Dark Night Judge's Library into a silent zone.

The magical spark flickered in Gale's hand and vanished like a firefly.

The Dark Judge armor, scattered throughout the library, automatically assembled into human form and launched an attack on the adventurers.

It seems that the followers of Shar have an extraordinary talent for becoming librarians. Being able to create a completely soundproof barrier in an instant is no simple ability.

Archmage Gale was thwarted, and was now opening and closing his mouth like someone who had fallen into deep water, but apart from spitting out a few drops of saliva, it had no effect whatsoever.

Of all the magic Ivy knew, very few did not require incantations, not to mention that the bard's various abilities all relied on plucking the strings to take effect.

Therefore, in this absolutely silent environment, most spellcasters would become powerless burdens.

However, Ivy is not the majority.

When he was a fifth-grader, wandless and silent spellcasting were the skills he practiced the most. To deal with the omnipresent dark wizards and poachers in the Forbidden Forest, launching a sneak attack under the guise of a harmless student was the safest method.

After all, no one would be wary of someone who doesn't have a wand, has a harmless smile on their face, and talks to you about how the fish fried in olive oil at Hogwarts breakfast was under-salted, let alone be wary of them shooting Avada Kedavra from their fingertips.

However, wizard spells are ultimately different from D&D magic that uses magic networks to achieve their effects. Ivy has been trying to perfectly integrate his silent, wandless spellcasting into the D&D magic system.

Over such a long period of time, all he could do was reduce the range of motion of the gesture constructs, such as snapping his fingers; or shorten the syllables of the sound constructs, such as the sound of snapping his fingers; to make the spellcasting noise less noticeable. But to say that he had completely abandoned the sound and gesture constructs in D&D spells, Ivy had never succeeded before.

Shar's Silence Domain blocks energy forms that rely on air as a medium for propagation, such as sound and shockwaves. Therefore, within this domain, everyone is immune to thunder except for being unable to speak.

The number of Dark Judges who rose from various corners was not large, barely equal to the number of adventurers, but if you include the Displacement Beasts that can use spell-like abilities to deflect light and create illusions, the adventurers actually had one more.

Ivy did not believe that without magical assistance, her companions would suffer a crushing defeat under the combined attack of these enemies.

Therefore, he began his magical experiments with great interest, hoping that external pressure would help him to apply the two spellcasting techniques to D&D spells more quickly.

The wizards' silent spellcasting is relatively simple; it mainly involves changing the way incantations are spoken aloud to being recited silently in the mind, using a stronger belief to change the logic of how magic works and distort the physical laws of reality.

But for D&D spells, magic is more like a program, a fixed formula woven from magic power, spells, gestures, and consumables. To replace or eliminate a part of it, compromises must be made elsewhere.

The warlock's use of spell points to achieve supermagic, and the mage's sacrifice of higher-level spell slots, are both manifestations of this idea. From this perspective, wizards also share the same mindset when casting spells without a wand; they need to exert even greater commitment.

Perhaps we can compromise elsewhere in exchange for improvement in a certain area.

With that in mind, Ivy still opted for the safest approach, spending spell points to complete the silent spellcasting operation.

The spell he chose was a powerful alteration spell, the sixth-circle Disintegrate. Its visual and damage effects were similar to the Killing Curse, which was why Ivy favored it.

The attempt to exchange spell points for silent spells was undoubtedly successful, but Ivy still greedily longed for the silent spellcasting that could be done with just faith.

A slender, pale green beam of light shot from Ivy's fingertips, and within a single exchange between the Dark Judge and the adventurers, Shar's Silent Domain was resolved.

The source of the Silence Realm is the Shadow Vortex located in the center of the hall. Shar's Shadow Demon Web magic is influencing the entire space through it, awakening the spirits and obsessions wandering in the Fallen Underworld, and creating trouble for her devout followers.

The light of the Disintegration spell caused the Shadow Vortex to collapse, and in a flash, the shadows that had accumulated in the middle of the hall like a thin mist vanished without a trace.

“Running away is shameful!” Minsara’s smile showed that she, too, enjoyed the battle. In Shar’s silent domain, she could say anything irreverent, “Let us destroy her servants and send these wretches slumbering in the shadows of the past to hell!”

Shadowheart was busy dealing with the crossbow bolts fired at her by the Night Judge and had no time to heed Minsara's disrespectful words. Her right hand, mithril shield, blocked her opponent's spiked mace, and the recoil immediately threw the Night Judge off balance, preventing her from launching a second attack. Shadowheart took the opportunity to shrug and use the thick armor on her left shoulder to meet another enemy's crossbow bolt.

The arrow left a white mark on her shoulder armor, sending a gust of cold wind sweeping past Shadowheart's pointed ears. If she were a pure-blooded elf, she would have an extra ear piercing by now; thankfully, she was only a half-elf, and her ears were neither as long nor as pointed as her high-elf father's.

The person most elated by the breaking of the Silence Domain was undoubtedly Gale, who had just suffered the backlash of a failed arcane spell. To him, the brain throbbing caused by the failed arcane spell was nothing compared to the searing pain from the Destruction Orb.

Therefore, he immediately unleashed a second spell to supplement the battlefield.

Although a mage's most important ability lies in dividing and redefining the battlefield, in this confined space, the adventurers have the advantage in both numbers and individual strength. Therefore, Gale doesn't need to support his teammates; his job is to focus on dealing damage and ending the battle as quickly as possible.

Blue and white flashing arcs of electricity erupted from the tip of Gale's staff. This was also a sixth-circle spell, Chain Lightning of the Evocation school, which could split into three more identical arcs after hitting the first target.

Although there was a tendency for Gale to develop into the kind of Evocation Barbarian he had looked down on when he was studying at the Black Staff Academy, he was also beginning to understand why so many people were so eager to use Evocation magic, especially when he saw the continuous arcs of lightning turn the four Night Judges in the library half of the arena into a pile of armor.

The skirmish that began with the Night Judges' surprise attack ended quickly, and none of the adventurers were injured.

They were either agile and quick-reacting light warriors, or they had already occupied advantageous terrain and suffered almost no enemy attacks, or like Mingsara and Shadowheart, they had armor and protective gear forged from adamantite.

“Alright, let me open this door…” Gale admired his masterpiece with considerable satisfaction before continuing to prepare his knocking spell to open the ornate iron gate.

The furnishings behind the door were very simple, consisting of only a round stone platform with a gilded top and tall bookcases on either side.

“What can silence the Night Song…” Yingxin read the words engraved on the top of the gilded stone platform, and then answered without hesitation, “Naturally, it is the Night Singer herself, Lady Shar.”

"So all you need to do is find a book that describes Shar and put it up there?" Evil Thought asked like a curious child.

During her previous travels, Evil Thoughts had never been interested in the gods and their stories, focusing only on getting rid of the Mind Flayer tadpoles in her head. But since discovering that she was the child of Baal and had a father who was a god of murder, she has been trying to find some reference for how to get along with her father Baal by looking at the relationship between gods and believers.

This desire intensified after she dreamt of the goblin butler with the grotesque face, not to mention that the strange fellow demanded that Evil Wisdom extinguish the last ray of light at the End of Light Inn—to kill Isobel.

Shar and her follower Shadowheart, who were also not well-liked, were naturally the best references for evil thoughts.

Through this combination, evil thoughts have learned that evil-minded deities not only demand the blood of their followers, but also the deaths of their enemies' followers.

For Baal, the god of murder, a similar situation might result in the deaths of a bunch of innocent people, or the sacrifice of one's closest loved ones.

Of course, I don't intend to do that, but it's always better to be mentally prepared than to put on a shocking act when asked to do so.

Shadowheart obtained the weapon to kill Nightsong smoothly. Without triggering any traps, she found a book about the Nightsong's teachings in a library and successfully opened the last door inside.

The evil thought witnessed the entire process and silently memorized it—in order to complete the so-called "holy" slaughter, Baal would likely bestow a divine artifact, probably a dagger or something similar.

Baal, the god of murder, only needed to bestow the artifact, but evil thoughts had many things to consider. For example, how to obtain the artifact dagger without completing Baal's task.

(End of this chapter)