From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 624 Mythical Power
“This rock is really big! It used to be the most amazing sight in the city—before it was thrown here headfirst.” Lann looked around the empty and deathly silent hall and couldn’t help but use a witty remark to ease the tense atmosphere.

It was so quiet here. The Minna Gu and its minions were nowhere to be seen, and the ambushes and spell attacks she had imagined were nowhere to be found. Ilinica hadn't expected that she would actually be right.

Litumo actually abandoned his duty, chasing after Stoutton away from the Guardian Stone, and even taking the guards with him.

However, the tranquility in the hall lasted only a moment. Irina heard the stirring harmonies again, just like the Elysian Song she had heard in Desna's church. But this time the singing was louder and more urgent.

The guardian deity in her eyes had completely changed—no longer a radiant stone pillar, but a cage made of pure energy.

The wound left by the demon lord Descari resembled a festering sore, with filthy, reddish-purple tendrils covering the entire artifact. Within that cage, two factions of warriors were locked in a fierce battle. One faction radiated light, the other was crimson as blood.

They revealed the true nature of the Guardian Stone: to protect all living beings from the threat of demons, angels from heaven voluntarily accepted eternal imprisonment, radiating their divine energy through the Guardian Stone to prevent these blasphemous creatures from approaching.

But Descari's plot had succeeded. The corruption orchestrated by the Mina Gu decades ago had finally come to fruition. Many angels had succumbed to the demon's corruption and could no longer endure this eternal imprisonment. Some sought death, while others longed for true freedom.

Now these angels are turning to Illinika for judgment: whether to destroy the Guardian Stones, sending the angels within back to the Promised Land and stopping the corrupting power from spreading along the links between them; or to destroy any one of their factions, tipping the Guardian Stones to either side of the scales...

The key to achieving this goal lies in Illini's hands: a stone knife made entirely of deep purple crystal. The angels believe that the power of the purple stone knife will help Illini complete her mission.

However, Irina did not intend to listen to any advice. She wanted to do what she did best—treat the world as the biggest stage and then showcase her diva voice that captivated the masses on this stage under the spotlight.

She calmed the Red Warrior's rage with a heavenly song. The tormented angel felt pity in her voice and was promised final rest.

One day, the demon will be banished.

One day, the world's tragedy will disappear, just as the spring dawn dispels nightmares.

One day, the skies over Kanaburi will return to their former intoxicating clarity.

When that day comes, the mortal realm will no longer need the Guardian Stones, and the angels' eternal watch will come to an end.

Moved by the vision conveyed in Illinika's song, the angels laid down their weapons, bowed their heads, whispered words of farewell, and fell into a deep sleep.

The angels will not awaken until Illinika's promise is fulfilled and they regain their freedom.

The crimson wound Descari inflicted on the Guardian Stone remains, but the corruption has long since ceased to spread. The Guardian Stone now radiates a vibrant and healing light once more.

Along with this light that could bring the dead back to life, Ilinica recalled the not-so-distant past.

That happened when she arrived in the city of Kanaburi.

It was the founding day of Kanaburi. Nobles, commoners, and Crusaders gathered in the city square to celebrate the annual festival. Even the city's guardian, the silver dragon Terendilive, transformed into a respectable human warrior to enjoy the lively festive atmosphere.

However, Illinika's arrival cast a shadow over the city's founding day celebrations.

She was carried into the center of the city square. She had been attacked by demons below the city walls, severely wounded and on the verge of death. If it weren't for the magic of the silver dragon Terendilifer, the wound on her chest alone would have been enough to kill her.

Having received treatment from the Silver Dragon, Ilinica attended the city's founding day celebration. After drinking several cups of mead to soothe her throat, she was about to showcase her singing talent on the makeshift stage when the demon lord Descari arrived in Kanaburi with a swarm of insects.

Descarry's appearance is quite vicious, like a combination of many insects, with the powerful legs of a locust, barbed appendages, and a segmented and ugly abdomen. But between the insect-like head and abdomen, there is a body that combines human and insect forms, which makes Descarry qualified to wield weapons.

But what's most surprising is that this terrifying demon lord doesn't have wings. Instead, what carries his enormous alien body through the air is a swarm of thousands of winged insects.

But this minor flaw did not diminish the power of the Lord of the Locust Plague. He easily killed the guardian silver dragon of Kanaburi as if crushing an insect, and in his rage, he split Kanaburi in two, causing Ilinica, who was standing in the square, to fall into the underground world of Kanaburi, thus obtaining the treasure of the underground Crusaders, a sword from heaven.

However, Illinika's memories went further back, to how she was carried into the town square by four Crusaders.

It is Arelu Volesh, the creator of the world's tragedy, an evil half-succubus witch.

She disguised her demons as Crusader warriors and used teleportation to arrive directly outside the city square. The severely wounded Ilinica was on a demon's stretcher.

She was disoriented at the time, but now she has finally remembered all the details and is deeply horrified by Arelu's plot.

The memories that had been revived by the divine power emanating from the Guardian Stone finally released Ilinica, allowing her to return from the depths of the past to reality.

"You... what are you doing here? How did you get in?" The eyeless Litumo suddenly appeared in front of Ilinica, pointing at the team of heroes with his mouth wide open. If she had eyes, they would probably be as wide as her mouth.

Ilinica suddenly understood: Mena hadn't rushed to the Guardian Stone; she had always been there. It was just that some unknown magic had prevented the heroes and demons from seeing each other.

“Ah, I see…” Mingna Gu raised a finger, her fiery red lips uttering venomous words once more, “It’s your pathetic goddess’s little trick. Hahaha—it seems even Iomede, as her successor, will resort to underhanded tactics when cornered! Don’t celebrate yet, mortal. No one can hide you now!”

“You know nothing, Mina Gu!” Ilinica sighed with relief as the power surging from the Guardian Stone filled her entire body and flowed through her to every corner of the hall.

Even the roof, which was already teetering on the brink of collapse due to the falling guardian stone, was completely blown off.

Besides the cool breeze blowing from the night sky, Ilinica also faintly heard a majestic roar mixed with exasperation. She had heard a similar sound on the city's founding day when the silver dragon Terendilif charged at the demon lord Descari.

“Now it’s time for something fun!” Ilinica didn’t think much of it. She was filled with overwhelming power. The Mena Gu and the demons around her were nothing but ants, and she even felt that she could stand on equal footing with the gods.

But just as she was about to stretch out her toes to crush the swarm of abyssal ants in front of her, a majestic dragon head emerged from the open roof of the Gray Soldier Camp.

It was the head of a golden dragon, its majestic golden horns resembling both a soaring eagle and a crown radiating authority. Scales stood on end near its broad snout, proclaiming the dragon's impending fury. But the most striking feature on the dragon's face was its pair of sphere-like eyes, which were now blazing with intense golden light as they scanned the heroes and demons near the guardian stone.

"Who ripped the roof off?" the dragon roared angrily, spewing out smoky smoke and sparks from between its teeth. Clearly, the dragon's roar Irina heard wasn't an illusion; the roof she had ripped off had nearly struck the dragon before her.

Then, Illinika, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, pointed at the demon in front of her and said in the most innocent tone, "It was her! That demon was about to cast a spell to take away the guardian stone!"

Having spent years mingling in the demonic society of Chelias, Ilinica had long since honed her ability to speak to anyone, however casually they were. Her deception was so effective that the golden dragon, which had bent down and poked its massive head into the gray army camp, didn't hesitate at all before setting its golden eyes on the red-skirted Litu Demon.

Ilinica heard the golden dragon take a deep breath, and even her long gray hair curled slightly.

"What...? That little bitch said—" Before the red-skirted Litu Demon could even refute, a dense wall of fiery breath had already surrounded all the abyssal demons brought by Mingna Gu.

The blazing dragonfire roared past, bringing with it a series of hoarse screams. The fire burned ever brighter, and the demons' cries grew louder and louder.

After the flames sprayed continuously for a few seconds, Ivy finally sensed something was wrong—why were these demons, despite being surrounded by flames, becoming more and more energetic as they roared?
Stopping their fiery breath to look, they saw that of the group of demons, only the two smallest minotaur-like swift demons lay on the ground, charred. The red-skinned terrifying demon wielding a spear, the blasting demon holding a flaming whip, and the delusional demon resembling a human-bodied bird had all suffered only large-area burns and were still able to fight.

Even the leader, the Eyeless Litumo, only had a slightly dirty red dress and some charred parts of his golden hair.

"You bluffing lizard!" The almost unscathed Minna Gu was initially overjoyed, but then became furious at her previous fear and panic, screaming and threatening Ivy, "I need to cut off your beautiful but useless head and make it into my new throne in Juanze City! Attack! Kill it!"

The demons in the hall also realized that the golden dragon in front of them was not as powerful as it seemed. They mustered their courage, grabbed their weapons, and charged forward with strange cries.

The massive golden dragon leaped from the roof of the gray army camp, completing a mid-air spin and unleashing a preemptive strike with its long, powerful tail.

This sweep covered half of the hall, throwing all the charging demons away without exception, turning them into clumps of minced meat on the walls, like annoying mosquitoes finally being punished.

Ivy looked at his results in silence. He had thought he was a magic damage dealer, but now he was more effective in melee combat.

"This is impossible!" Mingna Gu, who had barely escaped the range of the sweeping attack using the dimensional gate, looked at her subordinates who were covered in graffiti and let out a scream of despair.

The cry pierced through the layers of walls of the Gray Army camp, reopening portal after portal in the hall and summoning a new batch of abyssal demons.

Ilinica let out a series of queenly laughs, took two steps forward, and placed her hands on the forepaws of the golden dragon's body: "Try this! Dragon! See if you can use it to give these demons an interesting way to die!"

When Ivy peeked out from the gap in the roof, he discovered that the golden woman in front of him possessed terrifying energy. However, he did not expect that this power could be washed into his body upon contact.

This power coursed through his entire body almost instantly, allowing him to undergo a complete transformation. He had experienced this once before, when the god of dawn, Losanda, bestowed upon him the divinity of the sun, transforming his soul into a divine one.

Now, this mythical power has transformed his body, drawing him closer to something more sacred.

"You foolish great lizard, you'll never achieve final victory! At most, you've only delayed the deaths of other mortals, and for very short time! Your death is imminent! The army of the abyss is endless; they will soon exhaust your strength, wear you down, and crush you!" Mingna Gu uttered a vicious curse, her scarlet fingernails outlining evil spells as she commanded the demons pouring forth from the portal, "Charge! Charge!"

Ivy awoke from the wondrous experience of her ascension, reopened her radiant eyes, and took another deep breath.

"Stop trying! Your flames won't hurt anyone! You stupid lizard!" Minagu unleashed her long-prepared sorcery at all the enemies in front of her. She firmly believed that the endless stream of rotten illusions would confuse their minds and cloud their judgment, even the seemingly powerful golden dragon was no exception.

Unfortunately, her hopes were just a dream. The flawless golden dragon body was unaffected by the evil witchcraft, and the golden dragon's breath arrived as expected.

This time, however, Ivy spewed not flames, but a torrent of light.

The light penetrated the demons' bodies without leaving any blind spots, and they were completely washed away and dissolved by the torrent of holy light before they could even make a sound.

Even the demon commander, the red-clad Litu Demon Mingna Gu, suffered severe injuries. Her delicate human body resembled a leather suit pierced with several holes, from which large amounts of black substance oozed out, only to be dissolved by the dazzling light spewed from the golden dragon. At first, Mingna Gu could still let out some screams, but eventually, she even lost the strength to howl.

When the golden dragon's holy breath ended, there were no demons left standing in the entire hall. Mingna Gu lay on the ground, her clothes and flesh charred and smoking, her torn skin resembling a dried-up riverbed, riddled with cracks oozing a black substance. Even left unattended, she would likely lose all life and vitality in a very short time.

"Mingna Gu! Come to me!" An unexpected person burst in from behind a door. Stoutton Weyhen, a soldier of the Condemned Army, finally turned to the demon who had once tricked him into committing a grave mistake.

“Stoutton…darling, I knew you’d come back for me…” the charred corpse on the ground croaked. “Come here, let’s get out of here together…”

The demon's teleportation ability is impressive; it's likely that whenever there's a spare moment, Litu will take his toys and leave.

Unfortunately, Ivy hates traitors and also hates giving the enemy a chance to make a comeback.

A ghastly green lightning bolt shot out from the golden dragon's eyeballs—his legendary spell Death Grip. He had already discerned that the Litu Demon before him seemed to possess considerable spell resistance, so he decided to finish it off with the highest-level instant-death spell.

"No!" The charred corpse on the ground sprang up at a speed that even a healthy person could not achieve, standing directly in front of Staunton and taking the instant-death spell for him.

The snaking green lightning left a dent in the charred body of the Minna Gu, then bounced at a rather bizarre angle toward Stauton behind her.

The moment the green light entered his body, the dwarf warrior, who was as strong as stone, immediately collapsed to the ground, losing all life.

Even after unleashing its full potential, the Mingna Gu lost its ability to move and collapsed to the ground, motionless.

Ivy prepared to examine the soul she had acquired to see if the two of them were truly destined to be a pair of soulmates.

However, before he could summon the Grimoire of Destruction, Stauton's corpse stood up from the ground, opened a portal, and escaped without leaving a single harsh word or glance.

Ivy was somewhat stunned, looking down at the soul that originally belonged to Staunton Weyburn, trapped within the pages of the book.

The soul is still there, but the corpse stands up and runs away?

(End of this chapter)