From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 472 A critical moment

The Dawn Cannon, amplified by [Powerful Spell] and [Extreme Spell], deals 1.5 times the maximum variable damage. Furthermore, with Ivy's shaping, the beam of light, imbued with boundless destructive power, transforms into a golden longsword after leaving the cannon's muzzle, instantly striking the mastermind above the cultist camp.

The golden blade showed a slight red tinge due to the energy exceeding the limit, resembling a military knife heated to its maximum.

The layers of psionic barriers that this hot blade had to face were like substitute butter just taken out of a cellar.

The golden blade pierced through multiple layers of barriers with unparalleled smoothness, deviating slightly from its original trajectory simply due to the different angles between the barriers.

Before the Mind Flayer's main brain, flashing with crimson light, could even scream, it was easily spun away by the powerful and extremely potent Dawn Cannon, losing about a third of its volume.

The intense heat of the sun directly burned the huge wound in the Mind Flayer's brain into charcoal, without even a drop of blood flowing from the wound.

The Mind Flayer's main brain, physically split in two, crashed heavily into the cultist's camp, crushing a large number of tents and setting many tents and fodder ablaze.

But Ivy had no time to check her gains, because the divine incarnation of Melkor, the god of the dead, was right behind her.

A silver mist quickly enveloped his body, and Ivy used the brief moment of clash between the Shadow Destroyer and Melkor's avatar to activate the Shadow Step and leave the center of the battlefield.

Let the giant monsters deal with them; Ivy needs to handle more challenging situations.

The camp of the cultists of the Supreme God was just outside the western gate of Resven, separated from Resven, which was shrouded in shadow, by only a wall.

Passing through long-abandoned checkpoints and valley roads, one can enter the vicinity of the town of Resven within minutes.

Therefore, under the full urging of the Mind Flayer mastermind, the cult army quickly entered the defensive positions of the allied soldiers.

The harpists hurled arrows, while the Flamefist soldiers tossed alchemical bombs, provided by the Ironhand Gnome, far into the distance, attempting to slow the enemy's advance.

While long-range attacks have certain advantages when holding a position, this advantage is difficult to leverage when there is a huge disparity in numbers and when many cultists are airlifted into the position.

The Shadow Destroyer has taken on the Melkor avatar, which ordinary soldiers could hardly resist, greatly relieving the pressure on the battlefield.

Ivy needs to utilize the [Supreme Warlock]'s massive destructive spells to reduce the number of cultists as much as possible.

The burst of firelight pierced through Ivy's eyes, and the surging arcane power formed intricate runes, causing the air to crack like tearing silk.

Suddenly, a wall of dark red fire shot up from the ground, each flame greedily licking at the surrounding flammable materials, turning all the cultists who couldn't dodge in time or tried to pass through into moving torches.

In large-scale battles, the advantage of spellcasters being able to divide the battlefield becomes obvious.

Ivy erected three walls of fire along the cultists' route, each imbued with the [Persistence Spell], so that these blazing walls of fire would remain standing until the next day, making anyone who attempted to pass pay the price.

The harpists and Flame Fist soldiers cheered wildly, and only then did Ivy have a chance to observe the adventurers' battle against the avatar of Melkor.

Even though the power of death can wither all life, it will still be defeated before the adamantine construct that shimmers with the radiance of the sun.

Melkor is the enemy of all living beings, but the Shadowbreakers created by Ivy are clearly not among them.

The invincible, ferocious bone scythe couldn't even penetrate the golem's armor. However, the cold magical energy attached to the bone scythe would slightly freeze the joints, slowing down the golem's movements.

Melkor's avatar was no longer the majestic and domineering figure it had been when it first appeared. The repeated failures of its attacks caused this god of the gray wilderness to roar repeatedly, and the dark green power of death surged more frequently on the battlefield.

However, the adventurers who cooperated with the Shadow Destroyer to further compress the space in which the Melkor avatar could move were very experienced and would never give the opponent a chance to find a weak point to break in.

Asmoirein, protected by the goddess Serene, and the tall, four-legged construct radiating golden sunlight, are always tasked with confronting the incarnation of death head-on.

The former can compensate for the Shadowbreaker's lack of agility with its rapid flight, and can also recover quickly after suffering a fatal blow, returning to the battle. The latter's adamantine body is immune to most of the magic thrown by the Melkor Avatar. Within the area covered by the cone-shaped anti-magic field, the Melkor Avatar cannot even move quickly using the green will-o'-the-wisps obtained by burning the bodies of its followers, and has to use the hideous Reaper's bone scythe as a crutch to support its massive body as it leaps back and forth across the battlefield, like a cripple.

The avatar of the Bone King let out a low growl of anger as a daring assassin ripped the priest's scepter from his shoulder and began to play with the golden scales.

The giant skeleton swung its bone scythe with a backhand motion, its terrifying shriek becoming a deathly blast across the battlefield, determined to reap the lives of all the adventurers.

However, the next second, the Shadow Slayer held up the ring engraved with anti-magic field in front of him and aimed the projected cone-shaped anti-magic field at the avatar of the Bone King.

The magical power summoned by the power of death vanished without a trace before it could fully unfold. The necromancy, which was enough to kill most of the mortals present, was aborted halfway. Only the deep, resonant voice of the Bone King echoed unwillingly among the dilapidated buildings.

Seeing the giant skull wide open, Asmo, with wings on its back, once again conjured silver holy fire to cover the greatsword, and slashed at the skull head wearing the triangular crown with a simple, heavy strike from mid-air.

Faced with Eileen's advantageous leaping attack, the Bone King neither dodged nor rushed. He simply tilted his head slightly, using the angle of his triangular crown to deflect the greatsword's attack path, allowing the shroud and bones on his shoulders to firmly lock the greatsword in place.

There is no evil power that casts spells or manifests death phenomena; only the purest power.

The rapidly swung bone scythe left a pale trail in the air before striking heavily against the armor on Eileen's chest. This armor, formed from moonlight, had been damaged countless times in battle, but like its master, it always returned to the next fight in top condition.

If Melkor's avatar intended to decapitate, Eileen would likely have been cut in two on the spot. However, after the previous maneuvering, Melkor's avatar had already realized that Asmo before him was an immortal being, and that physically decapitating him would not change the course of the battle.

Therefore, in this attack, he used Eileen, who was attacking from the air, as a weapon and hurled her at the adamantine golem wielding its drill.

The Shadow Destroyer was merely an alchemical creation of Ivy, lacking emotions and human form in the conventional sense, and therefore had no intention of clearing its path of attack.

With Eileen's wailing, the adamantite drill pierced through her body, churning out a large pool of flying blood. "Get the friendly unit off its arm first!" Ivy, having completed three consecutive supermagic spells, took a moment to observe the battlefield where Melkor's avatar was located and immediately witnessed this tragic scene. He quickly gave the order, while silently reminding himself, "It seems that the judgment of friendly damage needs to be optimized and adjusted."

Ivy knew very well that Melkor's avatar had temporarily crippled the two main combatants who were besieging him, so he was definitely up to something.

However, Ivy was not worried. What could a deity avatar that could be defeated by an adventurer who was not even level 12 accomplish?

The giant skeleton slammed its menacing bone scythe into the ground, its entire body using the scythe handle as a fulcrum, tracing an ungraceful arc in the air as it tried to break free from the adventurers' encirclement.

Ivy pointed, and an invisible force field wall appeared out of thin air in the path of Melkor's avatar, causing the giant skeleton to suffer the same fate as the chosen ones.

The Skeleton King's avatar, crashing sideways into the force field wall, grew even angrier. As an incarnation of a god, he was a lofty mythical being, not a pathetic mortal using a weak body. Yet now he was jumping around like a monkey being toyed with in a marketplace, truly disgracing the name of the God of the Dead.

Although it only traveled halfway through the air, Melkor's avatar had already achieved its goal of jumping out of the anti-magic field. If it hadn't left the anti-magic field's range, Ivy's force field wall would never have been able to stand.

"Pathetic ants! You think you can sever my bones and destroy my body?" Melkor's avatar held the bone scythe upside down, its grotesque blade overflowing with dark green death energy. "But what you've cut are merely shackles! The very tip of my boundless power!"

Ivy immediately prepared a new spell to protect the adventurers behind her, but Melkor's threats did not stop, and his scythe, which he used to harvest souls, was not aimed at any disrespectful person.

The grotesque bone scythe pierced the chest of Melkor's avatar, which was wrapped in layers of shrouds. The white soul fire turned into a mournful dark green and began to dance wildly.

"Serenne is preoccupied with his own war with Sal, yet he sends you mortals to your deaths? Losanda sings praises of every sunrise, yet remains deaf to the eclipse that stretches across the sky! Mortals will eventually wither into dust in the cemetery, and when maggots gnaw on the sawdust from your coffins, remember that is my most insignificant punishment for you!"

Melkor's towering skeletal form transformed into a ball of dark green flame in the blink of an eye. Even after the Shadow Destroyer, which had been pulled from Eileen's arm, was recalibrated to adjust the anti-magic field, the dark green flame remained unaffected.

Ivy knew very well that it was no longer simple magical energy, but some kind of power belonging only to the gods. He had glimpsed fragments of this power in the divine blood of Losanda, but he never expected that under the conscious guidance of the gods, the so-called "divine power" would be far more domineering and unreasonable than he had ever imagined.

It sounded as if the dying cries of a thousand dead were rising from the wind, or like the chanting of ten thousand devout believers.

Melkor's voice was barely audible, but a more terrifying gray wilderness stretched out from the dark green flame.

Unlike Shar, who manifested the nature of the Shadow Realm in Rasven, Melkor, without any prior setup, did it more forcefully and more recklessly.

Like a black and white photograph inserted into a puzzle of the material world, Melkor completely disregarded the established rules among the gods and recklessly unleashed his power.

The colors in his vision faded rapidly, and even the various colored lights that flickered in his arcane vision went out one by one. Ivy knew very well that Melkor's target had always been him, the one who had taken the Netherstone. His senses became exceptionally clear in that instant, as if time itself had stood still.

A pale skeleton clad in a black robe leaped from the cracks of the world, brandishing a ferocious reaper's scythe and slashing at Ivy's neck, vowing to turn this spellcaster, who had blasphemed the temple and defied the will of the gods, into a skeleton in a tomb, so that even his soul would never find peace.

Long before Melkor's avatar completely transformed into a ball of dark green flame, Ivy had already activated her trigger spell, pausing the flow of time.

During the time freeze, Ivy's first thought was to avoid his attack, but he soon discovered that long-range teleportation spells were ineffective, while short-range teleportation spells might not be able to get him out of the attack range.

He then tried targeting the dark green flame, but it wasn't a selectable object.

Therefore, the only thing Ivy could do was to use the magic on herself.

Ivy, who was skilled at killing and soul-refining, had long considered the situation when encountering enemies who directly attacked the soul.

His expertise in dark magic makes it difficult for him to protect himself in such situations, so it is necessary to develop a targeted fighting strategy.

The solution he came up with was not to increase his resistance to soul magic, or to use some kind of magical item to protect his soul.

Instead, before a spell that could kill the soul is cast upon them, they preemptively move their soul to another place, such as the world that life will reach after death.

While killing oneself prematurely to resist soul-harvesting spells might sound foolish, Ivy possesses resurrection abilities, making rebirth after death relatively easy for him.

However, simply killing yourself and then resurrecting yourself doesn't sound quite right.

Let's try a different approach—self-destruct to kill the enemy, then revive, and incidentally avoid soul-harvesting spells.

Doesn't that sound much more normal?
Guided by this philosophy, Ivy combined the magical essence of the Phoenix Spark to create a spell for herself called "Phoenix Sacred Flame".

This spell has only two effects: kill yourself with a ball of sacred fire from the phoenix, injuring nearby enemies, and then resurrect on the spot within one minute to ten days after the sacred fire goes out.

Before the maximum deadline arrives, Ivy's soul will remain in the afterlife, and she can decide when to be resurrected at will.

As for the afterlife, at Hogwarts, wizards go there after they die, but in places like Forgottenham, the destination for souls is not unique. Besides the realm of the dead, souls can also go to outer planes like Hell and Paradise. Ivy can choose a place he likes based on the guidance of his faction, since he will be resurrected in a while anyway.

Because astral projection was referenced when creating spells, souls that travel to the afterlife are not without the ability to cast spells; they are certainly more than capable of protecting themselves.

As the god of the dead, Melkor is determined to take down Ivy, even at the cost of being held accountable by Io. Therefore, he will definitely not use ordinary instant-death attacks; he will certainly use effects such as soul harvesting.

However, since completing the development of the Phoenix Sacred Flame, Ivy has never cast it, and is not even sure whether it is a legendary spell or a ninth-ring spell.

But with Melkor launching his divine attack, Ivy had no time to think about such things. He had made all the necessary preparations and was just waiting to ignite the phoenix's eternal flame.

(End of this chapter)