From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 480 Monarch
"See those mind-eating monsters? I'm starting to have a bad feeling..." The subjective gravity of the astral plane allowed Gale to jump lightly, keeping up with his teammates like a circus acrobat.

Besides the adventurers who entered the portal from the Dawnstar Keep's halls, there were other creatures besides the Githians floating on the rocky platforms above the giant's corpse.

Brain-eating monster.

Mind flayers create special minions using their inadequate brains. These minions can also join the psionic network among mind flayers, and look like a bloody brain with four legs.

Previously in the Mind Flayer colony, there were many such small monsters moving around. In addition to using psychic power to lure intelligent beings into their lair, these terrifying little monsters could also eat the brains of their enemies, and retract their limbs into their bodies, which were identical to their brains. They would then occupy the ventricles that originally belonged to the victims, take over their bodies, and serve as servants to the Mind Flayers.

When the evil thought retrieved its dagger, it also found a mind-eating monster companion it had briefly met on the shell ship. This monster called itself "we" and was a rare dissident in the Mind Flayer psionic network, for which it was rejected by the mastermind.

Now, evil thoughts have taken it in as a pet, and this special brain-eating monster usually disguises itself as a cat.

“These mind-eating monsters should be the enemy of all intelligent beings, but they haven’t attacked us…” Leezer clicked his tongue in disgust.

"Hopefully, what has been protecting our brains from the Mind Flayer's mastermind all this time isn't a Mind Flayer..." Considering the Dream Visitor's occasional attempts to persuade adventurers to accept extra tadpoles for enhancement, Gale was almost certain that the Dreamer hidden in the Astral Prism was a Mind Flayer highly skilled in using psionic energy. However, Gale still clung to a sliver of hope, preferring to deny the conclusion his own intelligence had reached.

“No matter what, we must keep going.” Lyezal leaped from Gale’s side and landed on another massive rock in the astral plane. “The events here are threatening our lives! Even if the enemy is the Son of Gith, they will not stand in our way!”

With Ivy leading the way, the adventurers encountered almost no obstacles.

Following the giant rock floating in the astral plane downwards, they soon saw Ivy floating in the silver mist of the astral plane, and the prisoner in front of him surrounded by a shattered magical barrier.

Similar to the barrier they had seen in the distance earlier, the barrier surrounding this Githian was also broken, but some force was holding the fragments, which shimmered with ever-changing light, together so that they could still maintain their original effect.

The imprisoned Gis man was bald, with yellowish-green skin covered in black tattoos that peeked out through his long robe adorned with silver.

Two shimmering crimson beams were linked to the prisoner's wrists, one on each side, suspending him in the air. The same crimson light also flashed on the prisoner's face. In addition to the restraints, an iron mask sealed the prisoner's mouth shut.

Without a doubt, the prisoner of Geth in front of Ivy was Orpheus, the only son of Queen Geth and the comet prince.

Only after close observation could Ivy determine the connection between the locks on the Comet Prince and Hell.

The locks, constantly flashing a scarlet light, are made of hell iron, and even the chains that bind the comet prince belong to the power of hell.

They pierced through the shattered barrier and embedded themselves deeply in two enormous scarlet crystals. The smell of sulfur in the air was very faint, but Ivy was certain she couldn't be mistaken.

The connection between Raphael and the Astral Prism has been confirmed.

It was precisely because he mastered the use of the Astral Prism that Raphael was able to easily invoke the Comet Prince's special power to suppress the Mind Flayer Tadpoles in the adventurers' minds, and even directly sever the channels of communication between the dream visitors and them.

Queen Gith wasn't the only one who made deals with the devils of hell thousands of years ago; Vairakis also had his own unspeakable secrets.

Considering that Geese sacrificed himself to bring the red dragon under Tiamat, the first devil duke of Avernus, to the Geese Yankees.

The demon who made the deal with Velakis was clearly no less formidable. Such exquisite hell magic was definitely not something that some unknown high-ranking demon could master.

Ivy only had two candidates in mind.

First, there is Asmodeus, the lord of the Nine Hells. As the devil king who controls the Nine Hells, Asmodeus clearly has the ability and the will to manipulate the internal affairs of the Githyanki.

Secondly, it is said that Mephistopheles fell from heaven along with Asmodeus before the Nine Hells were established.

He oversees the largest library and magic school in the Nine Hells, and is even revered as the number one magician in the Nine Hells. Naturally, he is capable of creating such ingenious hell locks, which, while suppressing prisoners, also draw upon his unparalleled talent.

Consider also the testimony of the Blood Armored Demon Yogg: Raphael is Mephisto's half-demon son.

Following in his father's footsteps, it becomes clear where Raphael learned to manipulate the Astral Prism.

As a Campion, and a Campion of Mephistopheles, the devil.

Raphael's behavior made Ivy think he was like a foolish son of a landlord.

Although he has some methods, they are clearly insignificant compared to his father's.

He managed to trap a Blood Armor Demon in the Temple of Shar for a hundred years without success. Moreover, his persuasive tactics for enticing adventurers, even when he had the upper hand, were extremely ineffective, a far cry from those of his devilish father.

Mephisto can get the vampires of Baldur's Gate to collect souls for him without hesitation, while Raphael has to personally intervene to sabotage his father's deal.

Even if he did obtain the Crown of Karthus atop the Mind Flayer's head, it wouldn't necessarily mean he could truly stand on equal footing with Mephisto, let alone advance any further.

"Bang!" The sound of breaking stone awakened Ivy from his reverie. He looked down and saw the Mind Flayer maintaining the Comet Prince's cage fighting the Giszelai monk.

Mind Flayer uses psychic power to absorb stones and throw them at the attacker, while the monk with iron fists smashes the incoming stones with a single punch.

In a flash, the monk Giszelai dodged another boulder and sent the Mind Flayer flying far away with a flying kick.

The barrier he had painstakingly maintained suddenly vanished, and the comet prince, trapped in the astral prism by the chains of hell, finally regained his consciousness and quickly grasped the current situation.

Unlike the mind flayers Ivy had encountered in the mind flayer colony.

The Mind Flayer, hidden within the Astral Prism, wore even more luxurious chitinous armor, with horns extending from his shoulders and back making him appear even more imposing. However, the way he lay on the ground looked no different from that of an ordinary, fallen wretch.

"Doom!" The mind flayer, sent flying by the kick, roared, brandishing its purple, fleshy tentacles. These mind flayers all had octopus heads, and hidden beneath their tentacles were sharp teeth used to pry open the skulls of intelligent beings. "Help me! This Githyanki is the source that protects our companions from the Supreme God! I must suppress him, or all our efforts will be in vain!"

When Ivy first appeared, the magical lightning she unleashed gave the Mind Flayers hope, but after seeing the trapped Prince Comet, Ivy stopped attacking the remaining Githzerai.

This is actually quite easy to understand. Ivy certainly has the ability to wipe out all the non-spellcasters in front of her, but if the Mind Flayer recovers from the pressure brought by the Geese and reappears in front of the adventurers as a Dream Visitor, then wouldn't Ivy have made a wasted trip?
"Ghaik (Gishyanki: brain-eating bastard)!" Lyezal's shocked and furious voice rang out from behind the mind flayer. Flames erupted from the eternal blade in her hand, and she was already on high alert. "My God! How could this happen! The one hidden in the Astral Prism is really a mind flayer!"

The imposing Mind Flayer turned around and finally saw the person he had previously sought help from. He immediately reached out to stop the adventurers and quickly explained, "Don't be fooled by my appearance. I am the one who has always protected you, the one you met in your dreams. Help me!"

“Help a Mind Flayer fight the Gith Yankees? No way! We absolutely will not do that!” Leezel firmly refused.

"Your blind loyalty will drag you into the abyss of death, Lyezel. Fight with me, for your own survival." The Mind Flayer had recovered from his fallen state and was floating, pleading for help in the most sincere tone possible. However, his appearance, even more bizarre than that of a Githyanki, was hard to believe, and the adventurers all showed expressions of disgust.

“Very well, we’ve finally met openly and honestly.” Ivy’s voice made the Mind Flayer turn his head quickly. The several Gith monks who had been attacking him were all bound in the air by magic, which was why the Mind Flayer’s conversation with the adventurer had not been interrupted.

Humans are visual beings. Although the proportion of humans in the adventure team is not high, this also applies to other intelligent species whose eyes face forward.

The Mind Flayer knew very well, but judging from appearances, the dashing and debonair Archmage was much more trustworthy than the cowardly Mind Flayer.

The Mind Flayer stared at Ivy for a few moments with his small, deep-set purple eyes. In the end, he didn't say anything more. Instead, he quickly made a series of hand gestures with his four-fingered hands, suppressing the Comet Prince, who was staring at him angrily, with the barrier again.

“Yes, I am indeed a mind flayer.” Having completed the spell, the mind flayer landed on the ground, trying to make the adventurers look at him at eye level. “But without me, you would all become slaves of the supreme god.”

“Damn it—I actually owe that damned Ghaik a life!” Lyezal knew perfectly well that the Mind Flayer in front of her was telling the truth, but that didn’t mean she would be kind to him. “I don’t want your lies, I don’t want your tricks! I want the truth! You must answer all our questions!”

Ivy flipped her hand, using shapeshifting to transform the four Githians she controlled into harmless animals, and then used petrification to carve several cages to lock them up.

It wasn't that Ivy was soft-hearted. If at some point in the future he needed to reach some kind of agreement with the imprisoned Comet Prince, these loyal guards could potentially become useful bargaining chips.

“As I said before—I am just like you, an ordinary adventurer harmed by Mind Flayers.” The Mind Flayer on the other side was still trying to gain the adventurers’ trust. “I come from Baldur’s Gate, and I am not the kind of person who is content with one place. I have always longed for more.”

"And that desire led me to the Tower of the Moon in search of treasure. You all know what's down there. That Mind Flayer colony has a long history." The Mind Flayer used psychic energy to construct images, transmitting them to everyone through the tadpoles in the adventurers' minds. He thought this would fool Ivy, but little did he know that Ivy already knew who the Mind Flayer in front of him really was, or who he thought he was.

The mind flayer hiding in the Astral Prism calls himself the Sovereign, a rather ironic name, because during the time the Sovereign existed as a mind flayer, he actually played the role of a slave more often.

Serving the Lord's Brain, serving the chosen people of the Three Gods of Death, and serving the Supreme God. Days of freedom are few and far between.

However, during that brief period of freedom, the monarch, relying on his elusive spiritual power, absorbed the brains and knowledge of criminals and, with his intelligence, built a powerful criminal organization—the Knights of the Shield.

Ivy even knew that the Monarch's criminal organization received assistance from a Baldur's Gate Council of Four member.

This means that within the monarch's criminal empire, there is a person whose status is comparable to that of High Duke Ravengard.

From a purely conspiratorial perspective, the Monarch and Gotash made similar choices: to control the Duke of Baldur's Gate for their own benefit.

However, Gotash was preparing to step into the limelight, while the monarch, due to his completely different identity from humans, had always remained hidden in the shadows.

Ivy wasn't sure how much of the monarch's confession was true, how much was false, or whether it was all just nonsense to gain sympathy and trust.

But Ivy knew very well that a mind flayer was hard to trust. Unlike Omiron, a member of the Radiant Order in the Underdark, the Monarch was elusive from the start, disguising himself as the adventurer's dream lover to gain their trust and entice them to insert mind flayer tadpoles into their brains. He didn't even intend to reveal his true identity until the most critical moment.

It is likely that in the monarch's initial plan, he would only reveal his true form and act as a mentor to help his new brethren "find themselves" when the adventure team turned into a Mind Flayer team.

The monarch was very surprised that Ivy had not interrupted his act of gaining trust, but this did not make him take the mage in front of him lightly.

Ivy doesn't have Mind Flayer tadpoles in his mind, which means that unlike other adventurers, he doesn't always have the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, and the monarch can't interfere with his judgment with matters of life and death.

(End of this chapter)