From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 512 The Abyss of Tourmaline
Seeing that the vampire lord had disappeared, the werewolves, who had not suffered fatal damage from Ivy's Radiant Guardian, lost their morale and quickly fell one by one to Flame Fist's shield and Gur Hunter's spear.

The stench of blood lingered in the banquet hall, mixed with the stench of dark creature entrails, poisoning everyone in the room.

Some harpists drew back the curtains on the wall, wanting to open the windows for ventilation.

"You want to find a window in a vampire's house?" Jahira scolded her harpist. "Go open the door."

“High-ranking harpist. The banquet hall doors are sealed by a strange magic, we can’t…” Before the harpist could finish speaking, other voices came from outside the doors.

"Evil vampire! Face the pure wrath of the Silver Mother! You have desecrated this city for far too long!"

A silver light suddenly shone through the blood-red cast iron gate, and this light quickly turned into a burning silver flame. Through the silver flame, a gleaming blade was visible.

The daughter of Serene wielded her sword, which shone like moonlight, producing a series of teeth-grinding metallic scraping sounds.

The harpist and Flame Fist, who were checking the gate, immediately dodged backward. Sure enough, within seconds, the female warrior with her sacred wings flapped and charged into the banquet hall in a majestic manner.

"Where did that vampire lord go?" The fervor of battle hadn't faded from Eileen's face yet. She glanced around at the monster corpses in the room and landed in front of Ivy. "Don't tell me I'm late again."

“I think that’s pretty much the truth.” Gale walked over, stepping over a pool of blood on the ground. “I saw Ivy’s magic completely destroy him.”

“I won’t draw any conclusions until I find the vampire’s coffin.” The white-haired leader of the Gur nodded to Eileen, whom she had never met before. “Greetings, Asmo.”

"May the moonlight shine upon you, steadfast warrior." Eileen exhaled, extinguishing the silver flame on her sword. "Even if the vampire lord isn't dead, things won't be much different. I've witnessed Ivy's magic. Alright, what do we do next?"

“Clean up the new stronghold completely.” Minsara, her adamantite plate armor stained with a little blood, walked in. She was in high spirits. The dim lighting and exquisite decorations of the vampire mansion reminded her of her home in Menzoberranzan. “The servants in the mansion are all ordinary people enslaved by vampire magic. They can continue to serve us.”

"Having escaped the enslavement of vampires, they should return to normal life! Not find a new drow master!" Jahira clearly disagreed with Minsara's statement.

“Not your average master.” Minsara’s expression was arrogant. “They should feel honored to serve me and DOOM. Besides, there is probably no safer place in the city than this stronghold. I don’t believe that vampires have simply enslaved some humans without destroying their lives. Perhaps their relatives and friends have already been eaten by the vampire lord.”

Jasira was about to retort, but Ivy intervened and stopped their argument. Having done this so many times before, Ivy was practically used to it: "We'll talk about that later. Flame Fist and Harpist, stay and clean up the mansion—corpses, blood, and any potential magical traps. Mark the locations of some windows on the walls; we need to make this place a little more comfortable. The rest of you, come with me to the underground to find Kazador's coffin and the ritual site."

“Evil thoughts are already doing those things. Maybe she’s already pocketed all the gold in the mansion.” Minsara briefly explained the movements of her other teammates before walking over to Ivy, clearly preparing to go underground with him. “Of course, she initially went to find a way to open that door.”

“Asdallen.” Ivy turned to look at the vampire clone that had just recovered from its vaporized form. “Are you familiar with Kazador’s room?”

Asdell shook his head: "That coward guards his secrets more closely than his penis. I've never had access to his core secrets."

“At times like this, we need a more convenient spell.” Gale raised his staff and quickly waved it in the air. “Find the secret door.”

"Wow!" Gale exclaimed briefly after completing the spell. "There are quite a few secrets in this vampire lord's palace. There are several hidden doors near the banquet hall!"

“We need the one leading underground,” Ivy reminded him. “The rest can be left to evil thoughts.”

“Okay—the two doors next to the main seat seem to lead to the attic.” Gale turned a corner and walked to another part of the room. “Follow me.”

In a hidden office, Gail lifted a curtain, revealing a concealed elevator.

The elevator is decorated with gold stripes, and judging from the degree of peeling, it has been in use for quite some time.

"The Zar family has been hiding in the darkness of Baldur's Gate for too long... It's time to end its evil deeds." Gul leader Uma led his people onto the elevator, showing no mercy to Asderon.

Being in close proximity to so many people who had previously been hunting him made him feel very uncomfortable.

Ivy ignored Asdalon's pleading look and used the power of [Wind Elemental Summoning] to lift up her teammates, maintaining a distance from the Gur people on the elevator as they descended.

“There’s no keyhole in this door.” Asdalon examined the metal door in front of him. “But I found a notch on it. Maybe something can open it? The Zal family’s seal ring?”

“This dungeon is filled with musty air… and a sinister smell.” Gendler, the monster hunter who had been sent to hunt down Asdalon, cautiously raised his heavy crossbow, ready for any enemy that might appear at any moment.

“Since all the doors are sealed by magic, they can also be opened with magic.” Ivy pressed her mithril staff against the door and silently activated the dispelling spell.

As a universal solution to magical effects, third-circle dispel magic can directly dispel any spells and effects below the third circle. When facing spells above the third circle, it can also dispel them if an attribute check is passed.

The same logic applies when using the ascending ring spell.

With a crackling sound, the doors unlocked automatically and opened to both sides.

Hidden beneath the Palace of Qazador is a shaft-like structure of unknown age, with layers of rooms built down the stone walls, but it is different from the Temple of Shar and the Adamantite Forge that adventurers had previously seen in the Underdark.

There are very few daily necessities to be seen here. The only things that can be associated with daily life are the lighting fixtures and some boxes placed in the corner.

Apart from that, there wasn't even a single other piece of furniture to be seen.

“This is Qazador’s dungeon. If we’re lucky enough, perhaps the children aren’t…” Gendler stopped mid-sentence as Uma met his sharp gaze. Between the stone railings, many scarlet eyes gleamed eerily; it was unmistakable that these were Qazador’s vampire offspring.

Ivy understood the source of the foul odor in the air.

The prisoners in the cell had vacant eyes, and their clothes had turned into rotten strips of cloth. The smell of decay emanated from them.

"Do you know anyone here, Asdallen?" Ivy asked softly.

“I don’t even know where this is… This is also a secret of Qazador.” A hint of disgust appeared on Asdalon’s pale but delicate face. “Qazador’s taste is usually more refined. I didn’t expect him to be hiding so many strange creatures.”

Although Asdallen did not recognize his emaciated fellow humans, some of them did.

A black-haired human with dried bloodstains on his face reached out his hand to him. Judging from his clothes, he had lived a relatively comfortable life at least before being captured and imprisoned in Qazador's dungeon.

"You!" The man's voice was hoarse, his accent strange. "I recognize you!"

The empty eyes of the vampire's offspring regained a sliver of reason, then immediately fell into memories: "You were that person in the tavern. Smiling all the time, you got me drunk with your jokes."

Judging from Asdallen's dumbfounded expression, he had clearly recognized the clone in the cell: "You should be dead by now... Qazador should have eaten you by now... Sebastian... You used to be so handsome, shy, and never even kissed by anyone..."

“You ruined me!” Sebastian suddenly reached out from the cell, trying to grab Asderon’s neck.

The pale elf staggered backward, almost falling to the ground.

“This is impossible—” Asdallen could barely breathe. His eyes shifted from Sebastian to other familiar faces in the cell.

“I thought you had come to your senses.” Ivy stood beside Asdalon, staring intently at the walking corpses in the cell. Even with Sebastian making such a commotion, they didn’t react at all, not even turning their heads or blinking. “Look at those hellish contracts under those strips of cloth. They are just like you, sacrifices prepared by Kazador for the Black Mass.”

"How long has it been..." Sebastian asked, having failed to capture Asdalon. "How long have I been here..."

“A full one hundred and seventy years.” Asdalon had regained his composure. As a hunter of Qazador, he always lived each day as if it were his last, so he clearly remembered how much time had passed since he became a clone. “You were also my first…”

“My family, my friends…they’re all gone,” Sebastian said bitterly. “You took them away from me, you took everything from me!”

Asdallen took a deep breath: "I'm not going to make excuses... I've been a monster for far too long... but I will set you free."

“As long as that monster is alive, we have no freedom…” Sebastian shook his head.

“He’s on his last breath.” Asdallen drew the dagger from his waist. “Once we find his coffin and plunge this dagger into his heart, we’ll all be free. But the question is, can you control your thirst?”

“I don’t know…” Sebastian covered his head, “For so many years, I’ve had almost only this one impulse, this one feeling…”

“You must believe me when I say I understand that feeling,” Asdallen said sincerely. “The urge to drink blood is no more destructive than the blood of Baal… Wait here, we’ll be back soon.”

"Caesar!"

"father!"

Gendel's voice came from the other side of the passage; it seemed the Gur people had also found their lost child.

“I will let you out, child!” Gendelair’s voice was choked with sobs.

“No…” When Ivy and her companions arrived at the cage, they only saw a child, also a vampire, backing away. “We shouldn’t be free… We’ll hurt innocent people, even our own families…”

As the leader of the Gur people, Uma was almost speechless. Of course, she hoped that the children of her people were still alive, but she never thought they would survive in this way.

"Don't give up hope, okay?" Yingxin crouched down and said softly through the cage, "I have a vampire companion. Although he has sharp teeth and often stares at your neck, at least so far, he hasn't stabbed his companion in the neck. If he can do it, you can too."

"Do you know what you're saying, girl?" Uma's expression was one of utter shock.

“Of course.” Yingxin stood up. “Undead creatures are at least better than mind flayers, right? Those tentacle monsters don’t even have souls that can be traded with the devil.”

“We need to get Kazador’s staff!” Asdalon shouted. “Although Ivy can dispel the magic in the cell, it’s too slow! Whatever we decide to do with them, we must at least get that staff.”

Uma gripped her weapon tightly again and whispered the order to her people: "Stay close, we're going to kill that vampire!"

After passing through several cells filled with derivatives, Ivy came across a staircase leading to a huge stone platform.

The other six hunter clones of Kazador are bound by crimson magic within an eerie magic circle composed of gold threads and grooves. The runes on the ground emit a bloody light, while the stone coffin at the center of the platform is enveloped in an even denser blood mist.

“Asteron!” A female avatar bound by magic recognized her brother, Daleria, whom she had met briefly at Godfrey’s Inn. “You actually did it? I saw Kazador return as ashes! Right there in that coffin!”

(End of this chapter)