From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 621 The Androids (Part 5)
Remove the fragments of the demon lord's soul from his body, restore the glory of the captain of the Blazing Cavalry, end his century-long vigil, and return to the heavens.

The angels loyal to Shane were deeply shaken the moment they heard Ivy's suggestion.

He took a couple of deep breaths before reluctantly refusing, "I cannot do that, Your Excellency... I can clearly sense how abnormal this glacier is, how fragile the structure of reality has become. If you were to reunite the fragments of Heathcliff's soul, I am certain this place would be torn apart..."

“No, that won’t happen. Hiscot’s expectation is a successful resurrection. Until all the fragments are gathered, this demon lord will instinctively maintain this glacier in the cracks of the world.” Ivy smiled and shook her head. “He needs to use the power of his own soul fragments as bait to lure the greedy into the demonic path and make them his puppets. Then he will incite a battle among the holders of these fragments, and whoever wins will continue this operation with more fragments until the demon lord Hiscot is fully resurrected.”

“The wisdom of the dragons is indeed as amazing as the rumors say…” A glimmer of hope flashed in the eyes of the scarred angel. “But if I abandon my duty, how will I find this cursed glacier? We need a lighthouse to illuminate the way, and I am willing to become the kindling for that light.”

“Your sacrifice should have been made in a more suitable place, not this cursed glacier, but on the front lines of the demon invasion of the mortal realm. It is said that the demon lord escaped from the World's Sorrow and personally led his army to raid Kanaburi, and that city is now engulfed in flames…” Ivy paused and continued, “As for locating this cursed land, my magic can come in handy. Besides, Hiscot will not allow his soul fragments to wander freely outside his control. Even if we lose our location here, the demon lord will find a way to locate us.”

Angel Stallma had to nod in agreement: "You're right... but I have another question. How did you know how to separate the fragments of Hiscot's soul?"

Old Fu, I never imagined that even after several worlds have changed, you would still be exerting your strength steadily.

Ivy gave a very restrained smile: "I once dealt with a dark wizard who hid a fragment of his soul in the forehead of an innocent child, using him as a tool for resurrection. The child lived unknowingly for over a decade, causing the dark wizard's soul fragment to become deeply fused with him. It took me a long time to separate the two souls without harming him. So, I'm quite adept at things like this. Besides, your divine essence as an angel is simply incompatible with the soul fragment of a demon lord. Therefore, removing Heathcliff's soul fragment from your body is actually easier than removing it from this dwarf friend's body."

“I…I must once again marvel at the wonder of fate. Perhaps this is the will of my lord, Shanri. Once I am free, I will immediately throw myself into the eternal battle against the world’s calamity.” The angel Stalma extended her scarred right hand to Ivy. “Come, noble and wise golden dragon, shine your light upon me, and let fate favor me once more!”

“Don’t be impatient, Shane’s angel. Don’t forget there’s a dwarf friend ahead of you in line.” Ivy turned to Sandri, whose hair was multicolored. “Would you like me to perform the purification ritual on you?”

“Of course! Why not!” The dwarf almost jumped up. “I swear by my gleaming left eye, I’ve longed to escape the fate of being entangled with demons! You know, I am, after all, a Crusader warrior—though I only recently received verbal approval to join. But to associate the Crusaders with demon lords… I might get burned at the cross by Patriarch Hurren as a heretic!”

At times, Ivy quite likes the carefree and optimistic nature of people.

“Very well, but there’s something I need to tell you beforehand, it will be extremely painful. After all, we’re discussing how to tear your soul apart.” Ivy gave the dwarf a heads-up.

"The valiant Crusader warriors never take the slightest pain to heart!" the dwarf sorcerer shouted triumphantly.

"Even if this pain originates from your eyes?" Before Sunder could answer, Ivy reached out and enveloped Sunder's left eye, which was radiating a chilling light. Pure psionic energy surged from his fingertips, transforming into the sharpest scalpel, slicing downwards along the dwarf warlock's eyeball.

The excruciating pain surged into the dwarf sorcerer's brain like a flash flood, and at the same time as this pain struck, his left eye completely lost its connection to the visual nerves of his brain.

His only remaining right eye kept turning to the left, but he couldn't see anything except half of his own nose.

"I can't see with my left eye!" the dwarf cried out in anguish. "Wait? Why can I see my own nose? I've never noticed that before!"

The dwarf warlock's eyeball, gouged out by Ivy with a psionic scalpel, was instantly encased in thick ice crystals the moment it left his body, and then began to tremble violently in Ivy's hand.

The fragments of Heathcoat's soul must be attached to mortals to exert their power, and there are several mortals in this small temple sanctuary.

However, Ivy had already anticipated the Demon Lord's soul fragment's actions. With a swift grab and tether of the silver cage, the frozen eyeball could only spin around aimlessly like a headless fly.

"You did it!" Angel Stalmah said excitedly. "Hang in there, dwarf friend, I'm here to heal you."

"Don't rush." ​​Ivy stopped the angel's actions. "Since I pulled out your eyeball along with the fragment of Hisod's soul, depriving you of this power from the demon lord, then as compensation, I'll give you a good eye in return."

Ivy retrieved a prosthetic eye from the Grimoire of Destruction, a byproduct of his research on golems, combining the technology from Varo's prosthetic eye collection, and also one of the modular prototype components of the future omnics.

“Plug and play, very convenient.” Ivy shoved the prosthetic eye, which was inlaid with a ring of silver metal, into Sendri’s eye socket, then clapped her hands and announced that the job was done.

The dwarf warlock cautiously poked the bridge of his nose from the left, then exclaimed with a beaming smile, "My God! My nose is whole again! I've never felt the world so clear! What are those points of light?" "Magical auras. I've given that prosthetic eye the ability to detect magical auras in its field of vision," Ivy explained briefly. "It's a very convenient auxiliary function for spellcasters."

“It’s quite convenient…” Sendri rubbed his left eye, glancing past Ivy in another direction. “It’s just that the magical aura around you is a bit too dazzling. I feel like I’m looking directly at a sun that’s right next to me.”

“Wait… what’s behind that ice wall?” Sendri suddenly pointed to an ice wall near the dilapidated temple, a structure that was common in this glacier. However, it looked more like the result of some kind of magic. Several clearly visible runes were engraved in the ice wall, and the dark shadow behind it was faintly reflected.

Angel Stalmah glanced in the direction Sendri pointed, then said knowingly, "It should be a Nassarion. He is Hishod's messenger and must have been attracted here by the fragments of his master's soul. He has often lingered near my sanctuary in the past, but he has never dared to actually make a move because he is afraid of my divine power as an angel. And because my wings are too badly injured, I am unable to pursue him, so I have no choice but to tolerate his existence."

"Since that's the case, let's just eliminate them while we're at it." Ivy's mithril wand emerged amidst a burst of shimmering light, and brilliant golden light gathered in the large gem at the top of the wand, sweeping across the thick glacier like a laser, and splitting the Nasagi demon hiding and watching behind the glacier in two.

Once the high-heat beam succeeded, it immediately turned into streaks of rainbow and disappeared. Only the glacier that it had cut in two showed signs of melting, boiling and sublimation.

"Ugh, that smells awful!" The little elephant pinched its long trunk to stop the stench of decay from the boiling glacier from spreading further. "Do all demons rot this quickly after they die?"

“Not demons, but some unlucky souls.” The middle-aged demon showed no fear, using his dagger to lift a tattered cloth from the glacial meltwater. The stench of rotting flesh spread again with the rising steam. “It seems we are not the first mortals to fall here.”

“A rather reasonable deduction.” A corpse in the boiling water suddenly opened its eyes and stood up. The stranger’s voice was calm and pleasant, with an artificial, mechanical quality, making it seem anything but a spirit. “Death is mortals’ favorite pastime. And I’ve heard that recently even demons, celestial beings, and even gods have begun to imitate it. However, if you see a pile of corpses before you, the possibility that they are mortals is quite high. Just as you mortals say, it’s true.”

"Who the hell are you?!" Resca immediately assumed a fighting stance, pointing his weapon at the stranger in front of him, while the other man calmly looked at Resca, seemingly unmoved. "Don't try anything funny!"

"It's an android!" Ivy rushed between Resca and the unfamiliar android like a gust of wind, shouting with delight, "All cleaned up!"

Just as Ivy said, the woman who rose from the glacial meltwater was not a normal human, but a doll-like android. Her skin was unnaturally smooth and shimmered with a porcelain-like luster. Apart from the tube-like magic patterns that emitted pale purple energy fluctuations, her pupil-less eyes and exquisitely crafted features, like those of a work of art, all confirmed Ivy's statement.

The putrid bodily fluids were swept away by Ivy's spell, and the female android in front of her immediately emitted a refreshing jasmine fragrance.

“I can… I’m sorry, I’ve been researching artificial life forms similar to you recently, but I’m stuck on the step of giving them a soul… Please forgive my lapse.” Ivy’s hand, which was trying to touch the artificial masterpiece, stopped. He took a half step back, trying to suppress his excitement.

Glalieon is indeed a magical world. Ivy has only been here for less than an hour, yet she has already obtained three soul fragments belonging to the Demon Lord and has also met an android with a soul.

"Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Ivy Doom, a professor at the Strathaven Academy of Magic, and also a golden dragon who loves to study magical arts." Ivy introduced himself with great poise, placing a hand on his chest.

“Thank you for your cleaning magic, Mr. Doom. Keeping clean and tidy is very important for both humans and androids.” The android in the deep purple cloak gave Ivy a rather sweet smile, looking him up and down with a curiosity that was just as intense as Ivy’s. “I am a research android working for the Technological Alliance… wait a moment, I need to check my data.”

The android poked a pile of rotting flesh at its feet with the tip of its shoe: "Correction: I am an unemployed android looking for a new team. You can call me Penta."

"Penta? This isn't a common counting word. What does it come from?" When Ivy was still on Earth, he was quite familiar with the name. In MOBA games, when someone achieves a solo kill of all enemy heroes, the exciting "Penta Kill" is announced as encouragement for teammates and a deterrent to the enemy.

"The pentatonic scale." The android Xiao Wu held up the high-tech stick in its hand, and Ivy realized that it was a metal flute with a futuristic, sci-fi style. The silver tone holes and buttons and the purple fluorescent body made it look very high-tech. "My core expertise is music. The Technology Alliance thought this research field was useless, so they decided to retrain me, making me conduct field research in extreme environments, and I also have to be obedient and polite. I've only mastered one of these three requirements."

“I noticed you mentioned the Technology Alliance several times? It sounds like you didn’t like your previous employer very much.” Ivy could hardly resist the urge to invite her to work for her. “Since you say you’re an unemployed android, how about you work for me? I’m a very generous and kind employer.”

“A time-tested adage: one’s aversion to the Technological Alliance is often proportional to one’s understanding of its actions. I happen to know the Technological Alliance very well.” The android nodded, then shook his head. “My current goal is to explore this abyss region. On my own, the chance of success is only one in a thousand, but with the help of the Golden Dragon Magic Professor, the success rate would increase a hundredfold or a thousandfold. Unfortunately, I cannot agree to your contract before achieving my current goal. Moreover, I have no intention of serving anyone; mutually beneficial cooperation is my primary objective. Friendship is another option. Warning: romantic relationships are absolutely not an option.”

“Collaborative research is Stryhaven’s consistent educational approach. We are happy to share knowledge with everyone who wants to make the world a better place. Moreover, the research atmosphere there is quite avant-garde and open. Painting, poetry, music, archaeology… any magical skill you can think of is included in Stryhaven’s research scope.” Ivy was not discouraged by the android Xiao Wu’s rejection. The end of the universe is the limit, especially for a wild researcher like her. Ivy was very confident in bringing her back to Stryhaven to help her android research.

(End of this chapter)