From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 575 Ansu's Revenge

"Speak! Where is Gotash?" Karak asked menacingly, stepping on a Bane follower. "Tell me or I'll kill you!"

The High Hall, the ruling center of the Gotash, has fallen.

From the streets of the lower city, steel guards surged forth like a tidal wave, smashing open the city gates and attacking the fortress under fire from Flame Fist soldiers and Upper City sentries.

At first, the soldiers were confused, because everyone knew that the Iron Guardians were created by Grand Duke Gotash to maintain order at Baldur's Gate.

Just over ten minutes ago, the steel guards who were guarding the walls of the High Hall with the soldiers suddenly collapsed to the ground, losing their previous agility and vitality.

Unable to receive orders from their superiors, the guards had no choice but to move these steel structures off the main road and send men to contact other patrol teams within the city.

When the first operational Iron Guardian appeared around the street corner, Flamefist and the Sentinels assumed it was an allied force arriving to replace the malfunctioning Iron Guardian and continue providing defense for the High Hall.

However, Marshal Flamefist, Duke Ravengard, who was following behind the Iron Guardians, suddenly appeared and announced that Grand Duke Gortash was the chosen one of Bane and the culprit behind the crisis of the Supreme God.

The conflict between the old and new rulers bewildered the guards of the High Hall, while the other Flamefist soldiers standing behind High Duke Ravengard also began to shout their own messages.

When the first voice questioning Gotash's rule arose from the walls of the High Hall, the battle inevitably began.

The guards used by Gortash to defend the High Hall were not all Bane followers, because there were other more important places in the city that needed them, such as the Iron Throne where many hostages were held, the foundry that produced Iron Guardians using necromancy and human brains, and the fireworks shop that transported smoke and powder weapons throughout the city to further create an atmosphere of terror.

City guards like Flame Fist and Sentry Guards are better suited to be placed in the open, guarding conspicuous targets like the High Hall.

Therefore, these soldiers guarding the castle were not all true souls possessed by mind flayer tadpoles, nor were they cultists disguised as part of the city's defenses. Gotash sent his men to infiltrate the city's high command, using orders to turn many unsuspecting Flame Fist and sentries into his accomplices.

So when some people wavered because of the appearance of High Duke Ravengard, cultists hidden in the Flame Fist team immediately began to purge them.

The purge turned into a battle, which was swiftly annihilated by the unstoppable force of steel.

The mummy lord, wielding the scepter of the undead, stood in the sunlight. With a simple wave of the scepter, he brought the supposedly malfunctioning steel guards back to life and quickly joined the battle from behind.

The battle lasted less than fifteen minutes before the High Hall changed hands again. The remaining Bane followers put up a last-ditch resistance, relying on the various traps and fire-breathing devices that Gotash had pre-installed in the castle.

This diverse force chose to occupy the High Hall, ostensibly to overthrow Gotash's tyrannical rule, but secretly, they had a more important objective: to find Ivy, who had met with Gotash alone.

“Only a few Bane cultists remain in the castle to resist, but Baldur’s Gate will soon be free.” Duke Ravengard, who had been rescued from the Iron Throne, witnessed his son severing ties with the devil, and thus had barely looked away from Will during the battle. “The next step is to restore order to the city. Do you have any suggestions, Will?”

“What?” Will shook his head repeatedly. “We haven’t even won the battle yet. Gortash has brought the Supreme God’s true form into the city—the Mind Flayer’s mainframe that’s living beneath the Tower of the Moonrise—and has used the Mind Flayer’s tadpoles to infect tens of thousands of civilians. Once these tadpoles hatch, tens of thousands of Mind Flayers will swarm out and turn Baldur’s Gate into complete ruins!”

"We must find Ivy! He's the key to defeating the Mastermind!" Will, who was emphasizing the gravity of the crisis to his father, saw Karak pass by and immediately shouted, "How's it going? Karak? Any news on Ivy?"

Karak shook her head, frowned, and glanced up. The traps Gotash had set up became increasingly dense as you went up, and several cultists were still stubbornly resisting using those facilities: "Many people saw Ivy go up to Gotash, but no one saw them come out of that room..."

"It must be a secret passage!" Evil wiped the blood from his face and elbowed Gale beside him. "Couldn't you have used magic to blast all those guys up there away?"

Gail, rubbing her stomach, countered, "What if we blow up the secret passage?"

“I don’t think DOOM will return the way he came, nor do I think Gortash will be a match for him,” Minsara, carrying her blood-dripping longsword, joined the conversation. “DOOM is capable of handling any crisis he encounters. What we need to do is rebuild our defenses and be wary of any potential Mind Flayers. Those tadpoles are already ready to hatch. If DOOM has already threatened the Mind Flayer mastermind, then we must be prepared to face an entire Mind Flayer army…”

Yingxin shook her head worriedly: "Gotash is indeed nothing to worry about. What I'm worried about is the person behind him, or rather, the god behind him... the last of the three gods of death..."

Before Yingxin could finish speaking, everyone felt the ground beneath their feet suddenly shake violently. Cups and plates overturned, lights flickered, and even many of the paintings decorating the main hall tilted to one side.

"Damn it..." Gale stood up, leaning on the table for support. "Was Ivy casting an earthquake spell underground?"

“Or worse…” Karak swallowed hard. “Gortash has the Mind Flayer's mastermind at our feet…”

"Immediately order everyone to evacuate the castle from the High Hall and assemble in the square!" Jahira, who had previously commanded the battle, immediately gave the order, instructing his harpists to relay the instructions to the others.

Before the adventurers could even run down two floors, the second wave of tremors arrived. This time it was stronger and lasted longer.

The stone walls, built and maintained by master craftsmen for centuries, quickly cracked, shedding piles of dust and stones. To everyone's astonishment, a massive fissure rapidly pierced through the entire castle, growing from the very bottom of the structure.

"Ivy has prepared slow-fall potions for everyone!" Jahira shouted to the adventurers on the other side of the crevice, "Before the castle collapses, find a place to jump out! Get to an open area! Wait for the earthquake to end!"

Will froze on the spot after taking a sip of the potion, because through the crack in the High Hall, he saw a scene he would never forget.

The temple square in the upper city has completely disappeared. A hideous and terrifying giant brain tissue with countless purplish-red tentacles is rising from the crack. The citizens of the upper city scream and flee in despair, only to be quickly seized by the shell ships that appear out of nowhere.

The Mastermind wasn't only able to command newly born Mind Flayers; it also summoned a whole host of Mind Flayer shell ships from somewhere. One after another, they traversed the void, arriving at the hunting ground chosen for them by the Supreme God.

“Sacred shit…” Will shouted incoherently, pointing at the alien brain rising in the distance, “We’re in trouble…”

A sudden wail from a Flame Fist soldier interrupted the adventurers' awe of the mainframe's true form.

Numerous dark purple blood vessels burst from the soldier's eyes. This soldier, who had only recently surrendered, didn't even have time to ask for help before slime and tentacles gushed from his mouth—a naked Mind Flayer was born. "Damn it! The mastermind is commanding tadpoles to transform into Mind Flayers!" Asdairon took two steps forward and kicked the newborn Mind Flayer into a crack in the High Hall.

As the purplish-red alien creature disappeared into the darkness, all the adventurers realized that the mainframe's next target would definitely be them.

"Don't just stand there!" Jahira shouted, bringing the adventurers back to their senses. She was the first to leap through the castle window and onto the square that had been torn in two. "We must gather together so that Ivy can find us. You'd better pray that he gets there before everyone turns into Mind Flayers!"

Thousands of points of light converged into a vortex, forming a funnel-shaped rotating door. Jahira, who was slowly falling, was unable to dodge and crashed straight into it.

Ivy, who emerged halfway from the vortex, remained calm in the face of the human cannonball. With a flick and a push of her staff, she threw the High Harpist into the sealed space of the Astral Prism.

“We don’t have much time,” Ivy called to her companions. “Jump.”

Within the sealed space of the Astral Prism, the Mind Flayer was bound hand and foot by two golden chains, hanging between rocks, a striking contrast to Orpheus, the comet prince, who was bound by the chains of hell.

The Shadow Slayers, wielding their weapons, were below, waiting only for Ivy's command to turn the Mind Flayer into a bloody pulp.

"What's going on?" Gale, the last to jump in, asked. "Are we here to liberate Orpheus?"

“No.” Ivy shook her head. “I only just learned from Netherbrain that the Monarch was released by it. The Astral Prism and you unlucky souls who came down from the Shell Ship were all part of its plan to break free from the control of the Chosen. Even Gotash was mind-controlled by it.”

“I am not your enemy!” the Mind Flayer, bound in the air by Ivy, said earnestly. “I know nothing about any of this. Netherworld did not send me to carry out its plan, but left various hints to guide me. All my actions are from my heart. It was it that took advantage of my desire for freedom to achieve the current situation!”

“Fine.” Ivy remained noncommittal to the monarch’s explanation. “Then why didn’t you help me when I was facing the mainframe? Under its full mental assault, I didn’t have enough time to use the Netherstone.”

"I can't do it!" The monarch's composure had long since vanished. "The power of the Ness brain is too strong, and I am not directly using the power of Orpheus, so I cannot completely isolate itself from its mental impact."

"Besides, even if I managed to do it, we would still lose. There is a fundamental difference between the human brain and the Nether brain. You can only take one action at a time, but it can calculate all possible paths. You absolutely cannot defeat the Nether brain by relying solely on Netherstone and yourself. Only the mind flayer's brain has this ability."

Seeing that Ivy did not stop him, the monarch continued, "Either you hand over the Netherstone to me, or you become a Mind Flayer—I previously nurtured an Astral Tadpole, which is mature enough that once it completes its parasitism, it can quickly help you transform..."

"It's all nonsense!" Leezel roared. "It's just trying to lure you into becoming one of its mind flayers!"

“It’s not enough to simply become a mind flayer; you must also assimilate Orpheus and take all his power and knowledge for yourself.” The monarch’s small purple eyes were fixed on Ivy, hoping to see the slightest wavering on his face.

"How dare you!" Lyezal roared, raising his sword in fury. "Orpheus is Mother Gith's only living son. To murder him would put us in a situation where we are both hunted by Vos and Vyracis! He is nothing but a brain-eating bastard who lies through his teeth! We should kill him, free Orpheus, and ally with him against the Netherbrain!"

Ivy raised a hand to stop Lyezel's actions, while simultaneously conjuring the Grimoire of Destruction in front of him. Amidst the rapid turning of pages, he said, "Mind Flayers' brains are indeed different from humans'. I can't use magic to determine if you're lying."

While Legilimency can easily detect a person's lies, it is difficult for Ivy to discern the meaning of the pale purple stripes radiating from the monarch's mind to a mind flayer whose structure is entirely different.

“However, I believe someone can judge, someone who knows you well enough.” The Grimoire of Destruction suddenly closed, and a page marked with a dragon head floated in front of Ivy. “Baudan’s former best friend, and also the benefactor who freed you from the control of the Mastermind.”

The pages of the book sparked as they carbonized and decomposed, revealing a mangled dragon head on the ground. All the adventurers who had participated in the Ancient Dragon Path expedition recognized it immediately. It was the head of Anzu, the ancient bronze dragon who had almost been turned into an undead creature by the monarch.

"Can the dead talk be used to detect lies?" Gale asked uncertainly. Since Ivy had already demonstrated too many abnormal ways of using magic in front of him, he was not sure if the dead talk had such a function.

“It must be some kind of more powerful necromancy, like creating a bone dragon or a ghost dragon or something.” The speaker was the Mummy Lord Carion, who stood in the shadow of the boulder, as far away from the Shadow Destroyer as possible. Ivy’s interdimensional portal had not only saved his companions but also many others in the High Hall.

“No,” Ivy pulled out another scroll, “I want to bring Ansu back to life completely.”

Gale discovered the blind spot: "Is that my complete resurrection scroll?"

“That’s right.” Ivy channeled her magic into the scroll she’d taken from Gale, activating the spell model written on it and casting a ninth-ring complete resurrection spell. “I was originally thinking of taking it back to study it; using it to resurrect an ancient bronze dragon wouldn’t be a bad deal.”

The scroll transformed into a condensed, unyielding golden light, lifting Ansu's remaining skull from the ground. The scattered points of light quickly transformed into the scales of a bronze dragon, forming his body. In no time, the majestic and enormous dragon occupied a large area of ​​space within the Astral Prism.

"You killed me, so why do you want to resurrect me?" Golden light mixed with copper-green magical winds bloomed, and a humanoid creature with a majestic dragon head replaced the fleeting dragon's body, standing before the adventurers.

“Noble metallic dragons should not be called undead creatures; I prefer to call them liberators,” Avi said loudly. “The Mind Flayer that once controlled the Monarch, which was born from Baldrian, has had its mastermind transformed into the more dangerous Netherbrain under the machinations of the Chosen of the Death Trinity, threatening the entire Forgotten Realms and even the multiverse.”

“Ansu…I am Bodean…” Before the monarch could finish speaking, Ivy tightened the chains, silencing it in pain.

“We resurrected you in the hope that you can help us determine whether it is lying. After all, the guardian dragon Anzu and Bodean are close friends.” Ivy briefly explained her request.

"Hmph." Ansu turned to look at the Mind Flayer in the air, a mocking smile appearing on his face, which was far more humanoid than that of an ordinary reptile. "I'll say it again, you bastard. Say you are Bodean."

“Ansu, I’m so sorry.” The Mind Flayer gasped weakly. “These words have been stuck in my heart for so long… I couldn’t have foreseen this reunion… But this is a good thing for both of us. Perhaps we can accept each other’s changes peacefully—Baudan is not dead, Baudan has just changed, and I am still your best friend, your Baudan.”

The bronze dragon, who had witnessed the completion of Baldur's Gate, closed his eyes, and a single, crystal-clear tear rolled down from between the fine scales on his face.

"Roar--"

The monarch was not greeted by the embrace of a close friend, but by lightning that could melt bones.

(End of this chapter)