From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 564: Taking advantage of others
"Raphael is a cowardly idiot!" Yug, the Blood Armor Demon, whose body was so burly it was almost bloated and whose skin resembled a suit of crimson armor, muttered under his breath.

“I thought we had already reached a consensus on this point.” Ivy followed behind the Blood Armor Demon Yug, who led her on a tour of Raphael’s Mansion of Hope, which hung above the River Styx.

The atmosphere in this devil's house is extremely oppressive. The air is constantly filled with the wronged souls of the unjustly killed. Their souls are imprisoned in the floor, in portraits, and in sculptures. They suddenly appear from time to time, uttering a few incoherent complaints and laments.

Raphael's eternal debtors are scattered throughout the corridors. Some are simply doing basic cleaning work, like the hellish stonemasons in the banquet hall. The more tragic ones are turned into living clowns by Raphael through the power of the hellish contract, using their lives and souls to illustrate the consequences of negotiating with the devil.

Those who yearned for immortality became self-flagellates, those with lofty dreams became dreamers in hell, those who longed for loyalty became human-shaped loyal dogs, and those who yearned for love were even forced to fall in love with a chamber pot.

"Ugh—" Blood Armor Demon Yug covered his nose in disgust and quickly walked away from the filthy debtor. "Raphael's taste disgusts me! A chamber pot in the hallway, and he even has a fanatical admirer for it! Bah!"

Ivy had already learned a thing or two about how the devil could be utterly depraved and utterly shameless from Raphael's various debtors. But what truly interested him was the place Raphael used to store his chamber pot.

“Is that a statue of Mephistopheles?” Ivy asked with interest. “I see two balls of hellfire burning in the statue’s hands.”

At least half of the luxurious decorations at Hope Mansion consist of various famous paintings and sculptures. It doesn't look like a habitable house at all, but rather like a hellish art exhibition with little to no security.

"Perhaps." The Blood Armor Demon was not interested in sculptural art, nor was he interested in understanding Raphael's artistic taste. "If that really is a statue of Grand Duke Mephisto, then Raphael is really negligent, not even arranging for a poor wretch to dust the statue."

"Perhaps it was some kind of mockery of his father?" Ivy was almost dying of laughter at Raphael's twisted rebellion and awkward pride. "Something like: 'Look! My esteemed father, no one even bothers to clean your majestic statue, yet even my chamber pot has a fervent admirer!'"

"Hmph..." Blood Armor Demon Yug chuckled softly, "Raphael is nothing but a feather pillow in the skin of a devil, never the great devil he claims to be."

Yug stopped in front of a tightly closed wooden door and gestured to Ivy, explaining, "Raphael's Hall of Gates contains some permanent portals to the outside world. However, it's said that ever since a brat escaped from here, Raphael has assigned a guardian to the Hall of Gates as well."

Behind the door was an octagonal hall. Apart from one door leading to the outside, each of the other sides of the octagon was lined with a giant carved glass mirror. The mirrors shimmered with intense magical light in Ivy's eyes. They were all permanent portals to other locations, a total of seven.

Besides the portals leading to every corner of the world of Toril, a grumpy rock gnome stood in the hall.

As soon as he saw Yug and Ivy enter, he shouted at them, “Don’t block my way, don’t touch anything, and keep quiet! This is the Hall of Hope’s Gate, and wherever Raphael’s clients live, they can use this as a passageway! And I am its guardian, Nubardin! I am very reluctant to serve you!”

Yug's gaze swept over Nubardin's head before turning to Ivy and saying, "Perhaps you've already noticed, Raphael really enjoys employing all sorts of dwarves to serve him. Dwarfs and gnomes are his first choice, even the one he still imprisoned is one of them. Perhaps it's because he can gain a tiny bit of self-esteem from looking down on these dwarves."

Ivy climbed the stairs and began her tour of the room through the first portal on her left.

"Ascati, the capital of Am, the southern financial center of the Sword Coast, is full of fools and idiots!" Although reluctant, Nubardin dutifully introduced it to Ivy.

“The Winterless City of the North!” Nubardin chuckled. “The warm river flowing through the city carries away the chill, but ever since the city split in two, Raphael has had more and more customers there.”

“Waterdeep. The true jewel of Sword Coast, where you can buy the most sought-after items in the entire multiverse! However, the power dynamics there are even more complex than those at Baldur's Gate.”

“The Baldur's Gate needs no introduction; it's said that Raphael's current major client is there.” Nubardin's face darkened. “A mischievous little boy slipped away through this door! Gotash… Raphael couldn't tolerate my mistakes, so I was transferred here from prison…”

“Environ Gortash?” Ivy raised an eyebrow. “He’s a big shot in Baldur’s Gate now, he’s become a Grand Duke.”

"A crying little brat, the son of a poor craftsman, sold to Raphael by his dear parents to pay off a huge debt—and he actually became the Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate?" Nubaldin shouted, almost furiously, "I'll break his neck with my own hands!"

Sold to Raphael by her parents, she escaped from the House of Hope.

Gortash may have learned about the Crown of Karthus from within the Mansion of Hope.

So the wheels of fate had already begun to turn. Raphael was also inextricably linked to the birth of the Supreme God.

Ivy looked at the three remaining portals in the Hall of Gates. They each led to Mephisto, the Ice Fortress of Kania in the Frost Mystery Hell, which was the residence of Raphael's father, Mephisto.

Luskan, the City of a Thousand Sails, was almost completely destroyed in the Spell Plague, but it is rising again under the reconstruction of the Brotherhood of Mathematics and the pirates.

And Menzoberranzan, the city of the Underdark, Minsara's infamous homeland.

These permanent portals were undoubtedly very valuable to Ivy. Unfortunately, they were all bound to this demonic house, powered by the wailing souls within.

Moving them away from the House of Hope or Avernas means the teleportation effect will no longer work.

Permanent portals are not convenient gadgets like the Anywhere Door in Blue Cat's pocket; they are materialized passages that use magic to connect two points between different planes.

Although moving the portals meant destroying the passageways, Ivy could still determine the exact coordinates of those cities by analyzing them.

It can't be said that there were no gains at all.

A sudden snap of fingers echoed in the Hall of Doors, and the intricate decorations on the ceiling and the metal chains that held the portals in place began to melt and deform.

When the first drop of viscous liquid metal landed at Nubardin's feet, he didn't even realize what was happening. He reflexively pulled out a rag, intending to kneel down and wipe the drop of liquid clean.

The Hall of Raphael's Gate is printed with a simplified topographical map of Faerûn, with the oceans and continents outlined in different colors, making any stains that differ from these colors particularly jarring.

Before Nubardin could straighten up after wiping away the first drop of liquid, the second and third drops landed not far in front of him.

The grumpy rock dwarf sorcerer looked up, only to find in horror that the metal decoration on the ceiling had turned into a large lump of melted chocolate syrup, and the lava was engulfing him.

Rising heat is not uncommon in the hellish landscape of Avernus, where many demons and monsters possess the magical ability to ignite objects. However, the sight of the Blood-Armored Demon Yog swallowing hard in fear as he transformed all the metal in the Hall of Gates into molten liquid in a short time and controlled it to devour the guardian of the portal.

The rock dwarf Nubardin has completely disappeared, not even a hair or a morsel remains.

What killed him were the various metal creations in the Hall of Gates, which now gathered into a flowing mass of hot, molten metal, bubbling and following behind Ivy.

"...What kind of magic is this?" Yug asked dryly.

Ivy, who was busy analyzing the portal coordinates, didn't look at him directly and casually replied, "Activate the scorching metal."

Although Scorching Metal is merely a second-circle alteration spell, under Ivy's manipulation, it transformed from simply heating a single metallic object within sight to a molten, high-temperature liquid that melted all non-magical metals within its radius. Combined with Ivy's increasingly skillful creation of animating spells, a highly lethal mud monster appeared, possessing the ability to move freely and being extremely difficult to escape its enveloping effect.

"It's about to begin?" Yug confirmed. In the hellish contract he signed with Ivy, as long as he completely killed Cambyon Raphael, he would enter into a one-hundred-year labor contract with Ivy. Whether it was guiding adventurers or showing Ivy around the Mansion of Hope, it was all part of his pledge of allegiance to his new master.

The Blood-Armored Demon Yug couldn't see the half-demon Raphael clearly and was eager to see him perish.

“Of course not.” Ivy glanced at him. “I haven’t finished moving everything out of this house yet. Taking out Raphael is the final step.”

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

“Even to the devil, Raphael is the most perverted one I’ve ever seen.” Karak wiped her hands on the soft bed with disgust.

A luxurious soft bed, a spacious and magically enhanced bathtub, and various essential oils and shampoos arranged beside the vanity—Raphael had extremely high standards for bathing. He even had a special dream-inducing device for relaxation in this room.

As demons that roam widely in the lower planes, succubi and dream demons cannot be strictly considered devils, though they are also different from demons in some ways.

These demons, which feed on the essence of mortals, will submit to any powerful evil being, whether it is a demon lord or a devil grand duke.

Therefore, even in Aphrodite, a battlefield of bloodshed, succubi and dream demons can be seen in both factions at the same time.

While succubi appear more feminine, and lustful demons more masculine, they can actually freely switch between the two forms as a racial ability. Their appearance is merely a means for these demons to obtain food; whether their prey is male or female is irrelevant to them.

Just like humans generally don't concern themselves with whether a cow used for beef is a male or a female.

What disgusted the adventurers the most was the twisted nature reflected in the appearance Raphael had given the Nightmare Demon.

The Nightmare Demon, lying in a pool of blood, was reawakened by necromancy and answered Gale's question with a weary expression: "Raphael only wants..."

"Oh my god..." Gale was already regretting asking him who he was.

When the adventurers entered the house and encountered the Nightmare Demon who resembled Raphael, things began to spiral out of control.

Since Karak, disguised as the High Inquisitor of Zariel, had no intention of sleeping with a succubus, the battle began. After all, a true demon wouldn't refuse a freebie, and even if they did, it's impossible for an entire group of demons to refuse. Not to mention that several of these demons looked exactly like succubi.

Therefore, once the adventurers had completed all the security measures in Raphael's chamber, Gale had to use conversations with the dead to extract information.

"How can we obtain the Hammer of Orpheus?" Gale asked his second question.

"Hellfire...hot tub."

The two completely nonsensical words left Gail looking at her teammates in confusion.

However, he didn't get any clues from his teammate's face: "Okay, let's try this. Where does Raphael hide his secrets?"

"Hidden behind his portrait..."

"There's a button here!" the wicked thought quickly noticed. "Maybe there are some magical traps or something..."

As the tools were pried open, Raphael's portrait slowly rose, revealing a safe.

Even the devil's safe couldn't stop the skillful hands of evil thoughts. After prying open the safe, there was only a little bit of money and a short note inside.

“Raphael protects the Hammer of Orpheus with a spell.” The evil thought handed the note to his teammate beside him. “The password is ‘Grant me whatever my heart desires.’”

Having obtained the most crucial part, Gale planned to quickly end the conversation with the dead spell. He still had two questions left to ask: "Uh, how did you get here?"

"Sent by Mephistopheles...to keep an eye on the naughty son..."

“A son rebelling against his father, and the father spying on his son—that’s the most normal part,” Gale nodded. “Does Raphael have any weaknesses in battle?”

The corpse of the Nightmare Demon remained silent, and after a while, the effects of the spell wore off.

"Why didn't he answer?" Karak asked curiously, cleaning the blood off her body.

“Because he doesn’t know the answer to that question.” Gale shrugged. “Well, now we just need to wait to meet up with Ivy so we can get the Hammer of Orpheus.”

(End of this chapter)