From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 450 Everything is ready
"The blueprints for the Tower of the Moonrise?" Jahira stared at the scroll unfolded on the wooden table. "Even though I stormed that fortress a hundred years ago with the Harpists' Alliance, I've never seen its complete blueprints! This will undoubtedly greatly increase our chances of winning!"

"What about Katheric's immortality? Have you found a way to break it?" Isobel asked immediately afterward.

“Just as Ivy had guessed,” the evil thought began to describe what he had seen inside the Tower of the Moonrise, “Katheric’s strange power did indeed originate from an artifact called ‘Song of the Night,’ which was kept in his family’s tomb. It was a temple that Shar used to train the Night Judges, and it was destroyed because of a demon.”

"The devil?" Jasila had lived for a very long time and naturally knew what kind of people these visitors from hell were. "No wonder Katheric's defeat was so suspicious... It turns out someone willing to make a deal with the devil helped us..."

"The one that slaughtered the entire Iron Hand Temple was a Blood Armored Demon, and it's still inside," the evil thought continued. "I think it's because of the Blood Armored Demon's existence that Balthazar, whom Katheric sent earlier, has never succeeded. However, Katheric is indeed sending more people to the Great Tomb, and he probably won't leave the Tower of the Moon until he gets the Song of the Night."

“Barthazar…a familiar name. I’m not sure if the necromancer advisor in Katheric is the same person I know…but this is undoubtedly good news.” Jasira’s eyes lit up. “It means we have more time to prepare.”

“The preparation time is not unlimited.” Ivy pointed out the necromancer’s advantage. “That temple must be full of Shar’s followers who were killed by the Blood Armor Demon. Balthazar can use their corpses to build an undead army. As long as he continues to accumulate power, he may be able to bypass the Blood Armor Demon and reach the deepest part of the temple to obtain that artifact.”

"Therefore, while we continue our war preparations, we need to allocate some manpower to monitor the Great Tomb in case Balthazar brings the Song of the Night back to the Tower of the Moon."

“Meticulous and thoughtful, you have the potential to be a commander.” Jasira nodded in agreement. “With the Shadow Curse around, our room for maneuver is very limited, but I believe you already have someone in mind?”

“That’s right. I think constructs and undead creatures are good helpers. They are not easily affected by the Shadow Curse, and they can stand by for a long time without relying on food and water.” Ivy waved behind her, and two Iron Hand Gnomes came out carrying a cube-shaped iron box. “However, considering that Balthazar himself is also a necromancer, I took the time to create this construct.”

The square metal box opened, revealing a miniature (D&D size, similar to a small dog; creatures like imps and pikemen also fall into this size category) bipedal metal lump. A segmented tail trailed behind it, with interlocking metal components ensuring its agility. However, Ivy didn't install the tail on the reconnaissance construct for combat. This metal tail helped the construct maintain balance while moving and allowed it to hide in a beam or a corner without support when idle.

Aside from its legs and tail used for balance, the main structure of this construct is a metal component resembling an iron barrel, encasing a crystal sphere on top. Based on this feature, Ivy named it Cyclops Type I.

Cyclops I is the second detection construct designed by Ivy, the previous one being the quadrupedal spider construct used in Streihaven. Compared to its predecessor, Cyclops I, capable of walking upright, possesses superior mobility, performing running and jumping much better.

This is because Ivy took into account the existence of shadow monsters in the Curse of Shadows and specifically increased the success rate of Cyclops Type I in executing evasion strategies.

“It’s kind of cute.” Evil thought stretched out his prosthetic arm, which was also made by Ivy, and poked the motionless one-eyed guy.

“I don’t see any gears or piston-like mechanisms. Can it really move?” Druid Jahira naturally expressed his distrust of the metal structure.

Ivy didn't say much, she just snapped her fingers.

One-Eyed Type I's transparent crystal eye immediately flashed, and it stood up from the box where it was kept, stretching its body by shaking its head and wagging its tail.

Then, amidst gasps of surprise, the little guy nimbly landed on the ground and began parkour around the tavern with his two metal legs.

It can crawl under chairs and jump over obstacles in front of it. It has a good ability to cross fixed obstacles that do not move, but it is not good at dealing with changing environments.

Due to its small size, Ivy's internally stored movement patterns are relatively limited, so it can only search among creatures of similar size, making upright-walking poultry the natural first choice. Overall, the Cyclops Type I's movement ability is about the same as a flightless chicken, only less adept at leaping, since its body is made of metal and it doesn't have wings on its back.

"Why does it look like a chicken?" Jashira asked, pointing to the construct that was slamming its barrel-shaped body against the ground.

“Because I designed it based on poultry like chickens,” Ivy explained without changing her expression. “Originally, I wanted to design it based on ducks or geese, but there are many waterways around Resven, and it wouldn’t be good if it actually jumped into a river. Solid metal will definitely sink to the bottom, and the silt will prevent it from climbing out of the water, so…”

Besides the east-west flowing Chongza River, a north-south tributary, the Chongza, flows past the town of Reisven and joins the Chongza River. The End of Light Inn is situated on a small island in this river. Reisven's geographical location is extremely advantageous; the confluence of two rivers brings vitality to the town, and both river and land transportation are very developed. The toll booths spanning the main road are filled with rare goods from various regions. Although only empty boxes remain now, Evil Thought still found a gem in one of the boxes brought from Sel.

If he can be freed from the effects of the Shadow Curse, Rasven can be reborn in a very short time.

The deadline for advancing into the Great Tomb of Som has been set, but before that, the Evil Ones need to make an extra trip to Rasven to place the Cyclops Type I reconnaissance construct, meticulously crafted by Ivy, on the only road leading to the Great Tomb.

Ivy's improvements to the Adamantine Golem were also nearing their final stage. He had not fully replicated the Whisperflower Engine, since the Whisperflower, as the energy source, could only grow and exist in the Underdark and would wither completely once exposed to sunlight.

Fortunately, he managed to integrate Whisperflower's anti-magic abilities into the Adamantite Golem using a low-spec, portable device.

By skillfully etching adamantite spokes, Ivy directly engraved the magical structure of the anti-magic field onto the golem's body. Through the simulation of Whisperflower's abilities, the adamantite golem also gained the ability to utilize spells suppressed by the anti-magic field.

Modern adamantine golems can ignore direct hits from spells below the fourth level and convert that magic into power. They also possess considerable resistance to spells above the fourth level.

Ivy then imbued the anti-magic field as another weapon. The reshaped anti-magic field was no longer a spherical space that indiscriminately suppressed magic, but rather a cone-shaped space that could change direction 360 degrees depending on the focal point of its metal spokes. In this way, the anti-magic cone would not affect the adamantine golem itself or its surrounding allies.

Of course, all spells suppressed by the anti-magic cone field will still power the Adamantite Golem, since this is a characteristic of Whisperflower's anti-magic field.

For Evil Thought and other adventurers, traversing Reisven, shrouded in the Shadow Curse, was already an easy task.

Besides placing Ivy's reconnaissance construct, they also have another mission.

Oliver, trapped in the shadows, searches for the other half of the natural spirit Senier.

Halsin truly lived up to his reputation as a Grand Druid, deeply favored by the Father of Oak. Even though he himself wasn't particularly skilled in planar travel, Sylvanas's favoritism more than made up for it.

The portal to Senir had already opened on a rock on the riverbank below the End of Light Inn before Evil Thoughts and the others returned.

Just as Ivy had predicted, the portal led not to the Fallen Underworld, but to the Fairy Wilderness, the home of the nature spirits.

The Fallen Netherworld, the Fairy Wilderness, and the Prime Material Plane—three interconnected planes—were bound together by Shar's divine power in the small town of Rasven.

The Fairy Wilderness, whose nature is difficult to describe and which contains a large number of portals and shattered areas, was the least affected. Only the natural essence of the land of Resven was torn apart, with the main body remaining dormant in the Fairy Wilderness, while a more powerful part was thrown into the Prime Material Plane affected by the Shadow Curse.

Shar's purpose was self-evident: she had always wanted everything in the world to embrace darkness and be destroyed, and this time was no exception.

By corrupting the local natural essence, he creates a permanent channel, allowing his divine power to continuously seep from the Fallen Realm into the Material Plane, gradually eroding the entire world of Toril.

Although progress is slow, a deity like Shar possesses an inexhaustible amount of time; she can afford to wait, and she can also pursue other schemes for amusement. For example, she could seduce a follower of Serene into killing Serene's daughter with her own hands.

Halsin had only been inside the portal for half a minute when he emerged, carrying a small boy with horns on his head and scars from the shadows.

For Halsin himself, the process of finding Senir took almost half a day, but Ivy, who was outside the portal, told him that the whole process only lasted less than half a minute.

The unusual flow of time also confirmed Halsin's suspicion that the place where Senir was trapped was not the Fallen Underworld, but the Fairy Wilderness where time was extremely unstable.

According to Halsin's own description, the fairy wilderness where Senir was located was no different from the Fallen Shadow Underworld. The sky was dark and gloomy, the ground was covered with withered weeds and thorns, and there were twisted and terrifying trees everywhere. Apart from the lavender scent that always filled the air, the entire space had completely lost the vibrant characteristics of the fairy wilderness.

Regardless, Halsin has found the source of the Fairy Wilderness's corruption. Now, if they can find the half of the nature spirit Senir, Shar's conspiracy in Rasven will have already failed halfway.

It was for this reason that Halsin packed his things and set off with his evil thoughts on a journey to find the Shadow Spirit Oliver.

"Did you know? The Som family is quite large." Before leaving the Moon Shield of the End of Light Inn, Evil Thought chatted with Ivy. "Besides General Katheric in the Tower of the Moonrise, there's a Som member named Gringoise in the tollbooth. She's completely covered in gold coins and has turned into a strange undead creature!"

"Ah, so she's the source of your huge bag of gold coins?" Ivy nodded knowingly. Anything could happen within the Shadow Curse. The Somme family owned numerous businesses in Resven, practically controlling every aspect of this bustling town. When the patriarch, Katheric, sided with Shar from Serene, these people followed him into the shadows.

Unfortunately, the Lady of Shadows only rewarded them with twisted immortality. But in a way, it did satisfy their greatest desire.

"There's a bartender in the brewery who's practically fused with a pig!" the evil thought said with feigned seriousness. "He's not only skilled at brewing, but also at making poisons. Using all sorts of potions and alcohol, Hisobod Som is practically a spy for Katheric!"

"Moreover, the Somme family was already extremely corrupt a hundred years ago. Katheric appointed his brother, Marus, as the hospital's director, but that guy secretly collected patients' corpses to study necromancy!" Besides disgust, there was also a hint of envy on Evil Thought's face. As a child of Baal, she herself often dissected certain victims in her dreams, and it was live dissection.

Although she tried her best to restrain herself, the distorted visions in the Shadow Curse further amplified the effects of Baal's blood on her.

However, in front of Ivy, Evil Thoughts seemed no different from a cute girl who loved to show off her jewelry, except that Evil Thoughts' jewelry was all the bloody victory she won from her enemies.

"You'd never guess how I beat that Marus Som!" The evil thought laughed smugly, unable to resist boasting before Ivy could ask, "I convinced him to use me as practice material, letting those nurses hone their skills! A rusty bone saw, syringes saturated with pus, and scalpels covered in bits of flesh…tsk tsk tsk, it's a pity those nurses weren't very steady, otherwise Marus would have suffered much less! If it were me, maybe I would…"

“Young man!” Jahira stared disapprovingly at Evil Thought. Ever since learning of her identity as the Son of Baal, the half-elf grandmother had paid close attention to her. “You haven’t forgotten what I told you, have you? If you don’t want to disappoint your friends and companions, you’d better be yourself, not the Son of Baal. Your life has just begun; you have many things to do and many people to love! Drowning in the desires of blood and darkness will only make your path more and more difficult! I don’t want to personally plunge a blade into your chest after everything is over!”

(End of this chapter)