From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 518 Lord of the Ten Hells
Baal's Slayer possesses brute force far exceeding that of Bigby's Hand, so the force field created by Ivy was no longer effective in controlling it the moment it appeared.

The murderous creature let out a deafening roar, its beetle-like head crackling and snapping with sharp teeth, as if it were already tasting the flesh and blood of its enemy.

Ivy took two steps back, secretly preparing to cast a spell. This creation of Baal was completely unlike a human; it could be considered a monster, right?
The monster immobilization spell will definitely work on it too. Just step back slightly and lure it into the adventurers' encirclement, then cast another monster immobilization spell. It will stand still and withstand the full force of more than a dozen adventurers' attacks for ten rounds in a row. Even Baal himself would be badly injured if he joined the fray.

Who knew that Orin's transformation into the Killer wasn't for fighting, but instead he leaped over Ivy and rushed towards the Zariel statue.

Built by the Van Sampure family, the Temple of Zariel is a rectangular room facing north and south. Apart from two rows of pillars, there are no other obstructions. The north wall is the entrance, while the south wall has a statue of the angel of Zariel.

When the adventurers first entered through the gate, they formed a sandwich with the demon standing near the statue of Zariel, encircling Orin and her Baal assassins in the middle.

But after Orin quickly learned about the devil, he found himself in a situation of north-south confrontation with the adventurers who entered from outside.

After that, whether Orin provoked the evil thoughts or Ivy took the initiative to attack, the overall direction of the battlefield never changed.

It was only because Ivy's magic missile broke Baal's protective barrier that Orin became enraged and teleported to his side to launch an attack.

Orin should have been surrounded by the adventurers by now, but since the Baal assassins in the temple were all elites, Ivy's chain lightning didn't kill everyone. So the adventurers with melee and fast-strike abilities had already rushed forward to get kills, leaving only the two spellcasters, Floric and Will, and Shadowheart, who was holding an adamantite shield, standing near Ivy.

Relying solely on a melee class to perform all the attacks is clearly not the most efficient way to output damage. That's why Ivy thought of luring the enemy in deep, then using a stun spell to trap the killer that Orin had turned into in place, while simultaneously calling on the other adventurers who had finished up to engage in a righteous mob attack.

Even someone as insightful about combat as Ivy didn't expect the killer to not attack him, but instead leap over his head and plunge straight into the area with the most adventurers.

There is no doubt that leaping over the enemy's head is an extremely difficult acrobatic move, and anyone who performs such an acrobatic act in battle is either trying to cause trouble or is mentally unstable.

Orin clearly fits the latter description, and her transformation into a killer hasn't changed the fact that her mental state is precarious.

Although Ivy's brain hadn't quite grasped the "astounding wisdom" of Orin, his body, as a [Sword Saint], wielded the Beast-Biting Sword and unleashed attacks as swift as a gazelle's horns.

Multicolored flames leaped on the blade of the Beastbite Sword. With just an upward flick and a twist of the wrist, the multi-segmented tail of the Slayer, which could be used to maintain balance and launch attacks with its tail spikes, was cut off on the spot.

The killer's howl grew louder, but it showed no intention of turning back to attack Ivy. Instead, it crouched down, becoming a four-legged to six-legged position.

To be honest, this is indeed a bit disrespectful.

As a master who fights using both swordsmanship and magic, Ivy, the "Sword Saint," can not only attack with the Beastbite Sword in one round, but also cast another spell.

He raised his mithril staff and pointed it at the killer's back. A lightning-fast magical light shot out from the gem that refracted colorful halos, simultaneously transforming into a chain-like phantom in the air, striking the killer's back, which was protected by stacked bone plates, solidly from behind.

The monster's immobilization spell did work, but only for a moment.

The crimson power surging from the killer's body immediately helped it break free from the aura chains of the bewitching spell, and it continued its mad dash without looking back.

Scattered throughout the temple hall, the adventurers, having already finished harvesting the cultists, naturally also discovered the rampaging killers.

Adventurers with spare capacity attempt to force Baal's monster to change course, or at least inflict one or two wounds on it.

Before Lyezal could finish wielding his silver sword, he was slammed against a temple pillar by the truck-like killer.

Karak, holding the trident high with both hands, bent her knees to lower her center of gravity, attempting to use the momentum of the Slayer's charge and the anti-charge effect unique to polearms to intercept it. However, as the Slayer's six limbs twisted nimbly, the seemingly inevitable trident only managed to scrape off a small piece of bone plate armor.

Halsin, transformed into a giant bear, reacted too slowly. Jahira, in her black panther form, could react, but was too far away. Minsk, who was letting out an excited battle roar, was too focused on howling and didn't notice the change in the situation on the battlefield.

Asdalon, Will, and Evil, who were using short weapons, were all struggling. Their weapons did not allow them to launch melee attacks from their positions, and the daggers they threw either missed their targets too far or failed to penetrate their defenses at all.

In the end, only the drow elf, clad in adamantite armor and wielding the Elisttra magic longsword, stood in the path of the killers.

Minsara had charged the fastest and furthest in the previous battle, her blade stained with the blood of at least three cultists. She must have been the one with the most kills among those present, but this also meant she had little energy left to swing her sword and launch another attack. All she could do was turn herself to face the enemy and hold the sword tip upright in front of her.

The killer, already close in, showed no intention of backing down, raising its head and brandishing the pincers that adorned the sides of its menacing maw.

The moment the blade of Elise's beautiful longsword pierced the monster's soft skin, the monster's pincers also blocked Minsara's adamantite armor.

The monster's immense strength lifted the drow exiles off the ground, and in shock and fear, they crashed into Zariel's angelic statue with glowing eyes.

Baal's bloodthirsty creation actually used the Minsara, clad in heavy adamantite armor, as a battering ram, using the hardness of adamantite to crush the usurping statue, even smashing through the wall behind it!
Undoubtedly, Minsara is qualified as a human adamantite battering ram, but for the drow's flesh under the adamantite armor, this impact is not a simple injury.

Ivy, who was furthest away, stared in astonishment as a huge gap appeared in the wall behind the Zariel statue, and the Slayer, having abandoned the human-metal battering ram, scrambled inside.

Adamantite weapons can indeed automatically strike any ordinary object, but Ivy has never researched whether the armor worn on the body also has this property.

The dungeon created by Salamara Van Sampur was not built around the temple of Zariel, but rather around a secret temple hidden behind the idol.

The killers who entered the secret temple through the breach behind the statue immediately saw a claw-shaped altar carved entirely from obsidian. Flames from hell were burning around the altar, and a shield depicting a demon's face was floating in the hellfire. The shield was golden in color, but this did not add any nobility or righteousness; on the contrary, it looked extremely filthy. The demon's face depicted on the shield seemed to twist and turn with the leaping hellfire, trying to make a half-crying, half-laughing expression.

Before the obsidian altar and the shield suspended above it, a frail man knelt, his appearance identical to that of Thursville Van Sampure described by Floric. The sickly, cowardly man stared helplessly at the bloodthirsty monster that had burst in, his face betraying utter astonishment.

"Don't get distracted, you fool! I'll be out soon!" The demonic face on the shield in the hellfire spoke, its voice like the noise of a thousand snake scales rubbing against each other, corrupting the reason of all mortals.

The killer who had broken into the secret temple stood up again and roared at Thursville Van Sampure, who could no longer kneel in prayer, spraying his foul-smelling saliva all over his head and face.

The timid eldest son of the Van Sampure family suddenly screamed like a woman.

"Idiot! Idiot!" the demon hidden in the shield roared angrily, and the hellfire burning around the shield transformed into the shape of an arm, trying to stop the killer who had opened all his claws.

However, this was all in vain, since the Slayer had four claws that could be described as killing machines, while the Hidden Lord only had one arm formed from hellfire.

Blood splattered in the secret temple amidst screams. Thursville Van Sampur was reduced to a pile of minced meat in less than half a breath, with only his tear-streaked head remaining intact.

Having lost the support of the ritual's initiator, the hidden lord who had conjured an arm from hellfire had no choice but to curse as the shield resealed him, no matter how unwilling he was.

The killer, bathed in the blood flowing from Thursville Van Sampur's head, hoarsely and haltingly shouted, "Unambitious... Balthazar! Rejecting fate is merely to embrace it!"

“That’s the last name among the Five Clans!” Jahira, who had reverted from her black panther form to human form, immediately explained Olin’s actions. “She was still thinking of completing the ritual!”

Having also arrived at the location using teleportation magic, Ivy's alarm bells rang. He waved his hand and created a force field wall, separating the Slayer from the artifact shield on the obsidian altar. Although Ivy didn't know why a demon was sealed inside the Shield of Sylvam, which was used to fight the Eye Demon, it didn't stop him from preventing the Slayer from obtaining the artifact.

However, the anticipated battle did not break out.

The moment Orin, in his guise as a killer, saw Ivy, he turned and crashed into the south wall of the secret temple.

First came the sound of stones hitting the ground, followed by the sound of a giant object escaping through puddles.

The killer, who had smashed through two walls, somehow led the adventurers back into the sewers.

Watching the killer's body disappear into the shadows, Ivy understood.

No wonder there were no signs of intrusion at Van Sampure's estate and villa, yet a battle broke out.

It turns out that Orin led this group of cultists to launch the attack from the sewers.

“We should chase after them!” Jahira leaned out of the breach the killer had created and threw a flaming arrow into the dark sewers, illuminating a very limited area.

“No.” Ivy shook her head, then dispelled the force field wall separating the obsidian altar from the shield. “We’re going to trap Orin in his home.”

“You mean the Murder Tribunal? Clever!” Jasila’s anxiety turned to surprise. “But that thing has six legs, can we get ahead of it?”

“Compared to that, we have more legs.” Ivy picked up the Shield of Sylvam from the obsidian altar and joked casually, “But I’d rather use magic.”

“Ah, how could I forget you're a mage lord?” Jasira had no further objections. “Shall we set off immediately, or…”

"We'll rest for a short while. We have some wounded to treat, and the rest of you can loot this dungeon. But once the treatment is complete, I'll immediately use teleportation to move everyone back." Ivy kept a close eye on the shield in her hand while assigning tasks to the squad.

The druid from Sylvanas and the priest from Serene are both healers in the party. Aside from the wicked one with slashed cheeks, only Minsara is seriously injured, so three healers should be enough.

While Shadowheart, Jahira, and Halsin took turns casting healing spells on Minsara, Asdalon, standing by the wall with a bottle of red wine he'd somehow acquired, suddenly pointed at the shield in Ivy's hand and said, "There's a guy hiding in that shield! He just contacted me!"

"...What did he say?" Ivy was not surprised by Asdalon's frankness, because this vampire offspring of the Zal family had completely surpassed Kazardor and become a vampire who was completely free in mind.

"He claims to be a celestial being and even demands that I call him the Hidden Lord." Asdell curled his lip in disdain. "The rest is the same old routine, promising to help me get rid of my derivative body identity, become a true vampire, or even ascend to become a vampire lord or something... Doesn't the devil have any new tricks up his sleeve?"

In fact, the golden shield in Ivy's hand does have some connection to the Celestial Realm, because it is a mobile Celestial prison called the Shield of the Hidden Lord.

The Shield of Sylvam, revered by the Shield Knights, did indeed exist, and it truly could reflect the Bewitching Ray, just as the Shield Knights insisted. However, this divine shield was lost by the Shield Knights' higher-ups many years ago.

On the surface, the Shield Knights are merely a smuggling organization from Baldur's Gate, but they actually have a very long history, dating back 1,600 years. After the Shield Knights lost the Shield of Sylvam, the entire organization began to decline, until a nobleman named "Ilhune" brought this hidden lord's shield into the organization, claiming it to be a gift from the heavens.

After that, the Shield Knights replaced the lost Shield of Sylvam with the Shield of the Hidden Lord and gradually grew stronger in Baldur's Gate.

While the Hidden Lord's Shield does indeed originate from the Celestial Realm, the prisoner held within is a Hellish demon named Gagus, a heavyweight figure from the depths of hell. He is the tenth lord of the Nine Hells, a former Grand Duke, and the former treasurer of the Nine Hells. Furthermore, due to the corrupting power emanating from his shield, he became a demigod of betrayal and political corruption at Baldur's Gate.

However, even within the Shield Knights, only the core members among the high-ranking members knew the truth about the hidden Lord's Shield. Other members were completely unaware of the organization's cult-like nature, believing that the Shield Knights they served were nothing more than an ordinary transnational criminal syndicate engaged in smuggling, extortion, and arms dealing.

It is precisely because of the corrupting power that Gagus constantly spreads through the shield that Baldur's Gate has become the stinking cesspool of Super Sword Coast filled with greed and corruption.

(End of this chapter)