From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 520 Murder Tribunal
“Compared to Shar’s underground temple, the Murder Tribunal’s architecture is practically indistinguishable from that of primitive people.” Shadowheart stared at the giant Baal emblem on the wall and curled her lip in disdain.

The entrance to the Murder Tribunal was a huge, heavy metal door, the skulls adorning it covered in rust. Standing before it were three heavily armored knights, not the numerous killers and assassins among Baal's followers.

The knight at the forefront, shield in hand, spoke in a hoarse voice that sounded like a call from the grave: "Give me their gifts, or I will tear the flesh from your bones."

"They seem to be referring to the severed hands of those murder targets." Evil thought scratched her cheek thoughtfully. She had previously found Leopold the Clown's pelvis on a Baal assassin who died at the Zariel Temple, so she was very sensitive to Baal's bloody little hobbies. "How could I have forgotten about that?"

“It seems Orin hasn’t arrived at the Murder Tribunal yet, otherwise these knights wouldn’t be having such a friendly conversation with us,” Ivy judged. “No need to waste words with them; we’re here to kill, not to be guests.”

"Impulsive and arrogant slaves..." the heavily armored knight murmured, assuming a fighting stance, "to be buried in the graveyard of sin."

Facing an enemy force several times their size, these three knights still dared to launch an attack, a feat that already far surpasses the Flame Fist Mercenary Group's operations on the ground.

They simply chose the wrong opponent.

From the moment Ivy saw the three heavily armored knights, she knew they were not living people, but undead creatures.

The mithril staff slammed heavily on the ground, and the pale green necromancy magic materialized into a giant skeletal hand that rose from beneath the feet of the three heavily armored knights.

This is a seventh-ring necromancy spell that manipulates the undead. As long as any undead creature within range fails to pass a save, it will be directly controlled by Ivy. As a master of dark magic, Ivy's talent in necromancy is extraordinary, but he doesn't really like using necromancy spells other than instant-death spells.

The skeletal arm conjured by necromancy is the manifestation of magic check resistance; once it grabs them, the three Death Knights have no chance of escaping.

As the enormous skeletal hand opened its five fingers, the leading death knight, wielding a heavy shield, swung his sword and swept it across, actually breaking free from the skeletal arm conjured by the undead.

However, this is of no use.

Two longswords attacked from behind, one on the left and one on the right. The shield-wielding knight, who was bracing himself for a frontal attack, didn't even have time to shout before being stabbed in the back by his comrade.

The two teammates of the Shield Knight have already betrayed him under Ivy's control.

The longsword pierced the gap between the armor and helmet. The heavily wounded knight was no longer able to grip his shield. The lightning trident hurtled straight into his face, lifting the feathered helmet high into the air.

The heavily armored knight collapsed to the ground, stiff as an overheated machine.

Ivy reached out and made a grasping motion, as if he were squeezing a beating heart from the air. As his fingers tightened, the two knights who had been forced to betray their allies under the control of necromancy finally lost their ability to move. Even their souls, which were bound within their bodies, could not escape.

After successfully manipulating and releasing the undead, Ivy discovered that the three knights guarding the gates of the Murder Tribunal were not ordinary undead, but rather blasphemous beings who had voluntarily trapped their souls within their armor.

These undead creatures that voluntarily make a soul oath will disappear along with the object bound by the oath. Although it sounds stupid, this practice also gives them higher intelligence and strength than ordinary undead creatures, and they can even keep trying to break free from Ivy's control of the necromancer.

Unstable characters are most likely to become variables in battle.

Ivy abandoned controlling the two Death Knights and instead extracted their souls.

The gates to the Murder Tribunal were open, and the adventurers quickly lined up in their previous tactical formation, following Ivy and Evil Thoughts as they stepped into the blood-soaked and dark underground space.

Four square stone pillars support the ceiling of the Murder Tribunal, with a grotesque skeletal statue as the only decoration. Its empty eye sockets stare at the adventurers who slowly step into this perilous place, as if they want to devour their souls one by one.

The torchlight flickered on the walls, but in the terrifying atmosphere of the Murder Tribunal, the light did not bring a sense of security. Instead, it made the dense shadows around them dance, echoing the blood-red light reflected from the pool of blood, adding even more of an eerie aura.

Descending the steps of the Murder Tribunal and stepping onto the crimson carpet, the adventurers found many long stone benches in a space similar in structure to a temple, as well as an altar built on a stone platform covered in bloodstains.

Behind the altar was a row of high-backed chairs, each occupied by a figure who had just risen from the pool of blood. Three women sat below, two men sat on either side of the steps, one tall and one short, asymmetrical and disproportionate, and a dragon-man stood in the middle, his skin, though stained with blood, was still faintly discernible as blue.

“The Five Barbarians…” Jahira could hardly hide the shock in her voice, “Olin resurrected them?”

“The tall man is the fire giant Jagasura, the short man is the monk Balthazar, the dragonman is Abazigo, the half-drow is the matriarch Shanda, the half-elf is Elasera…” Ivy stared intently at the human woman sitting in the middle of the first row, “Who’s the extra one?”

"The wicked Amélisa, also known as Melisandre, is a priestess who serves Baal and the mastermind behind the conflict among the five tribes..."

The Murder Tribunal was not a spacious or grand place, and the Sons of Baal overheard Ivy and Jahira's conversation across from them.

"You are gazing upon the offspring of slaughter, intruder." The burly man who sat at the highest point, serving as the presiding judge of the murder tribunal, stood up, looking down over the group of Baal's sons at the adventurers below.

His voice had barely faded when the three women sitting in the front row immediately spoke up.

“A fanatic with the most morbid beliefs,” said the heartless Amelia.

Then came the white-haired half-drow matriarch, Sylvanas: "His followers have already set out."

“The servants who squander their wealth will all return to carry out his commands, forever.” The last one was the first of the Five Barbarians to die, and possibly the first to be resurrected, Ela Sera.

"This is the Tribunal of the King of Fear, the God of Murder, and I am the judge here." The burly judge had reddish-brown skin, and his heavy armor was the only item in the Tribunal that was not stained with blood.

His voice boomed as he continued his opening remarks: "Only candidates who follow the blasphemous commands of the god of murder are welcome here; opponents of Baal are not!"

His gaze swept past Ivy, fixing on Jasila: "Despicable harpist...negligent hero...your keen intuition for this city had already faded by the time you left it." Then he looked at Minsk, who stood in the middle of the crowd with his arms crossed: "And you...the Stone Man. A lifeless statue, a helpless ornament, your city has been twisted—changed, reduced to ripe fruit waiting to be harvested."

“Salorfolk.” Jahira recognized the face immediately. The son of Baal, who once plotted to rule Baldur’s Gate, and later, by a twist of fate, temporarily accompanied the heroes of justice. “Baal’s least favored son. He’s still being led by the nose by his father.”

“Like a worm, right?” Minsk winked at Jahira. “Just wriggling in the dirt beneath the city. My hamster would be happy to kill you twice, Shalovock.”

“Enough with the nonsense,” Ivy winked at Evil Thoughts. “We need to clear this place out completely before Orin comes back.”

“That’s right.” Evil Thought toyed with the dagger in his hand. “You’ve appeared far too often. The audience is already tired of you. It’s time to welcome the new Son of Baal!”

“You slaughtered your own kin in my court.” Instead of drawing his weapon to fight, Sharofok began another round of dialogue with the evil thought. “If you want to see the Father God, you only have two paths: either show me your loyalty, or become a corpse!”

"Are you deaf?" the evil thought asked, feigning ignorance. "I'm here to see Orin, not Baal. Orin ruined his plans, so he sent me to fix everything! Speaking of which, what are these blood-soaked guys doing here? Court clerks? Jury?"

“Arrogance.” Sarovok drew his greatsword, his eyes, hidden in the shadow of his horned helmet, flashing with a bloody light. “That is the only reason you met your demise, just like I did.”

The fire giant Jagasura, seated to the left and right of the throne, and the monk Balthazar both stood up and, together with the half-dragon Abazigo in the center, assumed a fighting stance.

“You were all sacrifices to begin with, Orin, and you too…” Sharofok pointed his greatsword forward, and the six resurrected Baal’s Sons under his command jumped down from behind the altar and attacked the adventurers. “But this time, I will be the one to be sacrificed!”

Watching the Sons of Baal rapidly approaching from all directions, Ivy sighed silently in her heart.

He was starting to miss those classic villains who liked to explain all their schemes and plots before the battle even started; at least they were much better than a riddle like Salofok.

Despite her sigh, Ivy's spellcasting was anything but slow.

As the "Sword Saint," who can combine the Intelligence and Agility modifiers to determine the first strike, Ivy often has the highest attack speed in the entire game, especially when she is well-prepared.

He waved his mithril staff, and a translucent force field wall, shimmering with magical light, diagonally divided the battlefield, separating the fire giant Jagasura, the three female Baal children, and the adventurers into the same space, while the imposing Sarovok and the other two Baal children were trapped on the other side.

By using the Force Wall spell to change the terrain, as long as the opponent doesn't have a mage who knows the Disintegrate spell, this method can be used at any time to gain a numerical advantage.

The towering fire giant Jagasura slumped his shoulders and took two steps forward, crashing into a stone pillar in the hall of the Inquisition. With a powerful roar, a section of the pillar decorated with a skull separated from the rest of the pillar under his immense force, spinning and flying through the air.

"Hey!" Hellfire ignited on the skin of the Hell Champion Warrior, and the high-speed operation of the Purgatory Engine caused steam to spew out from the heat vents surrounding her chest. The legendary weapon from the Air Giant disappeared in the blink of an eye, and when it reappeared, it had already hit the Fire Giant's knee.

The adventurers who were targeted for the boulders quickly dodged, but Shadowheart, holding her adamantite shield high, remained unmoved.

Her beautiful figure was completely hidden behind the shield, and a layer of dim yet resilient spiritual light extended from around the heavy shield, adding an extra layer of protection.

Using the protective magic that was suddenly activated, Yingxin faced the rapidly spinning stone pillar head-on without flinching.

The imagined explosions and screams did not occur.

Shadowheart actually managed to deflect the massive boulder flying at high speed back with just that shield that resembled a wisp of smoke, and it struck the fire giant Jagasura squarely on the head.

The bones are deforming, and the muscles are twisting.

Before the headless body of the fire giant Jagasura could even fall, it had already turned into a pool of blood.

"Was this the level of the Five Barbarian Tribes a hundred years ago?" Ivy, who could hardly miss this scene, asked loudly.

“No! Jagasura almost conquered a city back then!” Jahira parried Cindy’s dagger with his twin swords while loudly answering Ivy’s question, “The Five Barbarians may not have been resurrected; this might just be their illusion or echo!”

For Jahira, this was undoubtedly a cause for celebration. When she first saw the Tribunal composed entirely of the Sons of Baal, she almost felt a wave of dizziness.

She was no longer the vigorous harpist she was a hundred years ago, and her companions had changed. Back then, the battles were one-on-one duels between the five races, but she had never encountered a scene like this, fighting a large group of Baal's Sons.

But when it came time to actually engage the enemy, Jahira breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Because the half-drow matriarch, Cindy, who was facing her, did not seem to be very strong, and even she, whose strength had been greatly reduced, could easily deal with her.

"Ah!" Jashira's relaxation lasted less than a second before a sharp pain shot through her arm. She didn't know when, but Cindy's dagger had bypassed the curved blade in her hand and bit into her arm.

"Back off! Jahira!" Minsk charged forward, brandishing his greatsword, his footsteps creating splashes of blood on the ground.

"Look at their feet! The blood!" As a vampire derivative, Asdell was extremely sensitive to blood, and he shouted a warning, "They're absorbing the blood on the ground!"

“It’s not an illusion…they have definitely gotten stronger!” Jahira pulled a bottle of antidote from her bag, bit off the cork with her teeth, drank half of it, and poured the other half onto her wound. She knew the nature of every drow well, so she would never be careless in this regard.

"They'll fight each other to the last man?" Ivy frowned. "Will the remaining son of Baal become the strongest?"

(End of this chapter)