From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 552 Reinforcements Arrive
The idea that the Water Queen Ambori would choose a sea hag to be her Mother of the Waves was unimaginable until Jahira witnessed it firsthand.

As native species of the fairy wilderness, the witches' magic is strange and bizarre, completely unsuitable for religions that need to attract people through proper preaching and sermons.

However, for Ambori, who was nicknamed the "Queen of Bitches," that was no problem at all. Her faith primarily stemmed from the fears of sailors and travelers. Having a sea hag with innate magical abilities as a priestess wasn't a big deal; some might even be terrified by her incredibly ugly face.

Jahira dodged and weaved through the secret chamber, dodging the sea hag's curses and claws, and occasionally used her scimitar to add another wound to the pale, hunched body.

"Don't move until my blade cuts off your head!" A sharp voice and a burly figure squeezed in through the doorway.

“Lilacoul? Minsk?” Jashira flipped over, drew his knife, and chopped off one of the witch's fingers, landing beside his comrade. “How did you get here? Where is my harpist?”

“Damn it! We actually made peace with those women in those shimmering robes! My throat is parched! I need blood! Or brains, I’ll take it!” Minsk barely had time to open his mouth before his talkative sword answered for him, “Another horde of merfolk has arrived outside, I hate their sticky skin!”

"It seems Ambori reacted quickly; after all, this is her temple." Clearly, after her sea witch priestess shed her mortal disguise and uttered blasphemous words, the petty sea goddess immediately retaliated. Even if she wanted to temporarily truce with the harpists who had intruded into her temple, it wouldn't change her mind.

“Ambori has no power here!” The sea hag stretched out her long claws and cackled. “Her servants are nothing but a bunch of pathetic drowned ghosts. With just a flick of my finger, they’ll all turn into a pile of dead fish.”

“Dead fish? I’m not a scaler, Minsk!” Liracoul shouted indignantly. “Unless you take good care of my blade afterwards, I won’t chop off this old woman’s head for you!”

"Stop talking nonsense, Sword. Let's get started!" Even Minsk, who always liked to make all sorts of thoughtless remarks, thought Liracoul was talking too much nonsense.

“That’s right. No matter what these hags are plotting, we just need to kill them all. The hag gathering must consist of three hags, so if we can take one down here, the pressure will be much less afterward.” A pale green magical light shone in Jasira’s palm, and with a powerful swing of her arm, a thorny vine whip suddenly lashed out, wrapping around the sea hag’s waist and pulling her off balance.

Before the sea hag could utter a vicious curse from her fanged mouth, the demonic sword Liracoul had already severed her head, bringing her pale, hunched body to a standstill.

“That’s pretty simple, isn’t it?” Minsk poked the fallen sea hag’s corpse with the tip of his sword and asked as he turned around.

"You headless Leatherman ranger! Wipe my blade clean! The blood of these hags stinks worse than that of ogres!" Liracoul shrieked in dissatisfaction.

“Quiet down, Liraco! Or I’ll shove you back into the ogre’s ass, this time into the bottomless pit of the Underdark!” Jahira threatened. “Let me think about how to use the Message spell to report to Ivy.”

Before Jahira could activate her text messaging spell, the witch's eerie laughter suddenly echoed through the narrow, secret room again.

Upon closer inspection, the two realized that the sound was coming from the ugly head that had fallen to the ground.

"You two idiots, you didn't really think I was dead, did you?" The sea hag slammed her fleshy, tumor-covered chin on the ground, trying to meet the two heroes' gazes with her malevolent eyes. "I've already told you, Ambori has no power here! She's nothing but a stupid, short-sighted woman, not much better than those drunkards rotting in the sewers! Her priests are just the first unlucky ones to fall; soon it will be you harpists! Hehehehe..."

The sea hag's laughter stopped abruptly as Minsk crushed her skull with a single step.

"A master harpist!"

Before Jashira and Little Bu could figure out what the sea ghost woman meant, shouts came from outside the door again.

“Jeradus?” Jashira glanced down the corridor and immediately recognized the newcomer as the young harpist who had alerted him to the shapeshifter killer in Dantheron with his flying axe. Jashira had also brought him along on this mission. “What happened?”

“Those priests! The Water Queen’s priests!” Gerardus pointed in horror in the direction he had come from.

“They’ve turned against us? I should have warned them to be careful of the priests of Ambori; they’re as fickle as the sea.” Jahira waved for Minsk to follow. “Lead the way, Gerardus.”

"No! They've undergone some kind of mutation! It's like they exploded from the inside out, and some disgusting fish-headed monster crawled out of their bodies!" Gerardus explained quickly as he ran. "Maybe it's some kind of curse, or something else... or maybe it's some kind of stinky fish that's been dead for months come back to life!"

The three hadn't gone far down the corridor when they encountered other harpists who were fighting and retreating. They were all wounded, their blood mixed with the slime of the fishmen, emitting a nauseating stench. In just a short while, Jahira had already witnessed three or four harpists being attacked because they were nauseous.

Fighting the harpists are a group of fish-headed monsters. Unlike ordinary mermaids, these fish-headed monsters are so repulsive to the well-traveled Jahira that their very appearance makes her feel physically nauseous. And if you think about the fact that they were born from a group of beautiful wave priests...

Jahira suppressed the dangerous thoughts in her mind and shouted commands for the battle: "Use alchemical items like Fiery Glue to slow them down and break their formation!"

“Impossible!” A harpist in light armor fired an arrow, but it merely slid off the fish-headed monster’s grayish-green skull. “Their slime can insulate against fire! And fire will accelerate the spread of the stench—ugh…”

Before the harpist could finish speaking, he uncontrollably vomited a mouthful of yellowish-green mucus, probably bile or stomach acid; there was nothing left in his stomach to vomit.

These grayish-green fish-headed monsters possess enormous fish heads, with protruding eyes on either side that gleam eerily. It is likely this protrusion that allows them to clearly see enemies directly in front of them. These monsters have no necks; instead, gill slits constantly leak mucus from their ribcages. The liquid and foul odor splattered between the opening and closing of these mucous membranes are another weapon they wield. Faced with this biological weapon, opponents find it difficult to suppress their instinctive physiological reactions. Coughing, nausea, and vomiting can all have fatal consequences.

The same grayish-green skin covered in slime has irregular scales, like the lividity on a drowned person. Although it looks soft, like a piece of rotten flesh that can be easily broken, the blades of weapons can easily slip on it, while blunt weapons are more likely to hit.

The fish-headed monsters clutched metal weapons left behind by the wave priests in their webbed fingers, ranging from scimitars to tridents. Unfortunately, due to their low intelligence, they merely swung them haphazardly based on instinct. Their mouths, however, with countless hooked teeth as sharp as daggers, were the more threatening weapons.

A harpist who disarmed the fish-headed monster with his superb close-combat skills quickly paid the price for his cleverness. The fish-headed monster, now unarmed, simply lunged forward and snapped its jaws shut, tearing off half of the harpist's forearm. Although the harpist's longsword had also pierced the fish-headed monster's throat, he did not have a mouthful of sharp teeth like the monster. Losing an arm meant he could not participate in the rest of the battle.

The reason the harpists were able to fight their way back to their commander was not because the fish-headed monsters showed mercy, but because their clumsy legs were not conducive to walking on the ground, and having to use both hands to wield their weapons further slowed down the fish-headed monsters.

"Turn around and run!" Observing that the fish-headed monsters were not fast enough on the ground, Jahira immediately gave a new order: "Take all the wounded with you!"

On the battlefield, any commander who issues such an order is either an idiot or a moron. Besides completely exposing their back to the enemy, wounded soldiers reduce the survival chances of everyone else, not to mention the impact on other friendly forces.

But right now we are in the underground space of the Water Queen's Palace, in the underground temple built in the Tide Cave. A simple spell is all it takes to quickly separate the enemy and our side.

That's right, it's the invincible Force Wall Technique.

As one of Ivy's most strategically valuable spells, Jahira had long coveted it. Before this operation, in addition to the Ninth Ring Interdimensional Portal that Ivy had personally given her, she had also obtained three Fifth Ring Power Wall scrolls.

As the first fish-headed monster to crash into the transparent force field wall was crushed by its companions behind it, leaving the wall covered in slime, the harpists began checking each other's injuries and treating their wounds with magic and bandages.

"What the hell is this thing?" Gerardus couldn't help but ask. The fish-headed monsters, separated by the force field wall, continued to tirelessly pound and tear at the invisible wall in front of them, showing no sign of stopping. "They don't seem very smart..."

“It was all the hag’s doing…” Jashira frowned as she looked at her harpist, and had to admit that she did need backup. “Alright, lads, you’ve all done a great job, but things are now beyond your control. Let’s get back to the base and rest.”

“But… our mission is not yet complete…” Gerardus, eager to prove himself, couldn’t help but speak up.

“If you want to advance in the ranks of harpists, the first thing you need to remember is to obey your superiors’ orders.” Another harpist, who was wiping the blood off his body, interrupted him. “Is there anything else we need to leave behind? High-ranking harpists? Perhaps you need a guide?”

“No need.” Jashira pulled the interdimensional portal scroll from her scroll bag. “Your Lord Doom can solve these problems; his magic is almost omnipotent. You just need to go back and get some rest.”

The unfolded parchment burst into flames, but the runes and magic circles drawn with flowing lines emitted a dazzling light, remaining before Jahira.

"Ivy Doom! Archmage from the Astral Plane, I call upon your name! I seek your help! To fight against the evil that lies beneath the Water Queen's palace!" With Jahira's chanting, a portal radiating iridescent light abruptly parted the space on both sides, adding a touch of brightness to the dark and damp corridor.

Ivy, dressed in a star-patterned robe, arrived gracefully and quickly understood the situation after a brief look around.

"The witch is really hiding beneath the Water Queen's palace?" Ivy asked with great interest. "How did she manage that?"

“The Mother of Waves in Ambori is a sea hag; it’s like letting a wolf into the house,” Jahira said without elaborating. “Let my harpists leave; they can no longer fight.”

“You chose a good time, Jahira.” Ivy nodded in agreement, then stepped aside from the portal behind her. “We just took down a Hollow Dragon, and we haven’t even had time to take off our weapons and armor yet.”

"What?!" Liraco, threatened by Jashira, finally couldn't hold back any longer. "You actually killed a dragon! Look what we've missed! Bald Ranger! That was a dragon! My biggest dream in this life!"

"You killed Anzu? Baldur's Heart? Wasn't he a bronze dragon?" Jahira couldn't help but ask, knowing what Will had been up to these days, though she herself didn't quite believe the legends about Baldur's Heart.

“Ansu has been dead for many years and has been resurrected. Apart from bones and a few broken scales, almost nothing is left.”

Although the harpists were also listening intently to the conversation, after being glared at twice by Jashira, they all shut their mouths and obediently lined up to enter the portal.

Will, one of the lightest-equipped people, quickly passed through the portal after the harpist.

As a ninth-circle spell, the Gate of Another World was originally only cast on targets that were not in the same plane of existence as the caster. However, Ivy's legendary class, the Realm Explorer, is a spellcasting class specializing in plane travel. Therefore, after some simple adjustments, the Gate of Another World scrolls created by Ivy were restricted to their target. They were changed from a spell that communicated between different planes and existences to a spell that could only open a portal near the caster.

Although its functionality was reduced, its convenience was enhanced, so the spell would still work as usual even though Ivy and Jahira were both located on the prime material plane of the Toril world.

(End of this chapter)