From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 523 Trap
"Evil Thoughts! What are you doing? That doesn't look very hygienic!" Leezel looked at Evil Thoughts, who was lying on Abazigo's blue dragon corpse, which had not yet completely dissolved into blood.

“Wow—” The evil thought, its face covered in blood, raised its head. “I just wanted to try… I am also a son of Baal, so I should be able to absorb the power of these echoes.”

“Your face…” Leezel moved closer, pointing to the faint blue scales on Evil Thought’s face, “This blood is unclean, you seem to be sick.”

She hastily wiped her face, only to be scratched by the newly grown scales. She sucked on the wound on her finger and exclaimed in surprise, "It really works! Let me drink a few more sips!"

While the evil forces here are trying to seize the power of the blue dragon Abazigo, Balthazar and Shalovok are already surrounded by adventurers.

With the interference of evil intentions, Balthazar and Shalovak obtained very little Baal power from Abazigo, far less than when Echo died before, when the adventurers were caught off guard by the sudden increase in power.

After Ivy swiftly defeated Abazigo, who had transformed into a dragon, she immediately began directing the battle.

Led by Halsin, who had transformed into a giant bear once more, several warriors skilled in close combat, including Asderon, Will, and Jahira, were gradually shrinking the monk Balthazar's operational space. No matter which direction he tried to break through, he would be met with obstruction and attacks.

Meanwhile, Shadowheart and Minsara, equipped with adamantite gear, served as the main force in blocking Sarovok's attack. Together with ranged spell damage, they firmly suppressed the infamous Son of Baal, a figure known to all in Baldur's Gate.

"I will offer your blood for Baal! All of you!" Salofok slashed horizontally with his greatsword, the blade flashing crimson light as it bounced off the surface of the adamantite shield, then whipped up a whirlwind that swept towards Minsara.

“Baal will not receive any sacrifices other than his own blood!” Minsara stepped back, dodging the greatsword’s edge. Her full plate armor, enchanted by Ivy, had gained extremely flexible properties, allowing the agile drow elf to perform many incredible movements while wearing it.

The lightning-wrapped trident arrived in a flash, bathed in the glow of jade and gold, piercing not only Salovey's left calf but also pinning him to the floor.

"Ah—" With his movements restricted, Sarovok tried to reach for the trident on his calf, but when he grasped the handle decorated with gold and jade, he only felt a sharp pain from the cut.

He looked on in confusion, only to find that what was stuck in his leg wasn't a trident, but a blade extending from the void. Moreover, the enemies who had surrounded him had vanished, replaced by floating blades that constantly reflected a cold light, forming a circle around him. They resembled crystal tendrils extending from a mine, or mirrors specially crafted into long, narrow shapes. In the mirrors formed by the blades, Salofok saw countless versions of himself wearing horned helmets, and countless eyes gleaming with crimson light…

Whoosh! A blade flew through the air, interrupting Sarovok's confusion.

Just as he was about to raise his heavy sword to block the flying attack, he discovered that not only his calves, but also his arms were pierced by several pieces of the sword blade.

Salofak is already imprisoned, in a razor-sharp prison that constantly reflects a chilling light.

As the representative of the will of Bal, Salofok would not allow himself to fall here.

He let out a howl and recklessly swung his greatsword, facing head-on into the prison made of countless mirror-like blades.

Pain surged from every corner of his body, but Salofok felt only joy, because the pain was less than half of what he had expected.

The sword blades, riddled with spikes, shattered into phantoms, and the half-collapsed Murder Tribunal and the adventurers who had formed an encirclement reappeared in Salofok's sight.

"Clumsy archmage!" Minsara swung her longsword at Shalovak with displeasure, while mocking Gale standing behind her. "Didn't you say that if this spell succeeded, it would at least trap him for a minute?"

“Once this illusionary prison is completed, it can indeed last for a minute!” Gale explained, feeling quite wronged. “But I never imagined that anyone would dare to rush out into a prison filled with flames, terrifying gaping maws, or blades! It’s just an illusion, not an actual prison.”

The countless floating blades that Sarovock had seen earlier were actually just illusions created by Gael's magic. It was one of the illusion magic spells that he, as an archmage, was most skilled at and most fond of.

The Mind Prison of the Sixth Ring. Enemies struck by this spell but failing to make an Intelligence save will be trapped in an illusion that will completely imprison them. This illusion will appear in a very dangerous form for the target; flames or a sky full of blades are just some of Gael's most common manifestations.

If the target enemy lacks the intelligence to discern illusions, they will be bound for one minute while the spell lasts. However, if the enemy attacks, moves, or extends any part of their limb outside the illusion within that minute, they will suffer significant mental damage for inadvertently endangering themselves, but the illusory prison that bound them will immediately disappear.

After all, the binding state caused by magic exists based on the target's subjective awareness of risk avoidance, so if the target is willing to act against the danger, then the binding state will naturally be lifted.

Although the mental prison that had been affecting Salofok was lifted, his situation remained unchanged.

The monk Balthazar had turned into a pool of filthy blood during the short time he was bound, and most of his power had been absorbed by evil thoughts, with only a small portion flowing back to Sarovok.

Faced with this completely surrounded situation, Basazar's little strength was utterly useless; unless Baal himself came, no one could save Sarovok.

Without a word, Ivy raised his mithril staff, and the fist-sized Heart of the Mountains immediately burst forth with dazzling light. These beams refracted back and forth on the stone pillars of the Murder Tribunal, breaking down into seven or eight pure monochromatic lights, binding Sarovok back to the ground from all directions.

“This is a true archmage.” Minsara nodded in satisfaction, glancing at Gale behind her.

"Hurry up and do it!" A wicked woman with eyes bursting with inch-long red light walked over. She had successfully seized the power of two Baal's Echoes and was in a state of overflowing confidence.

“Absorbing the power of other Baal’s children is definitely not a good thing!” Jahira had already helped Minsk bandage his severed arm, and as long as the right opportunity was found, the sixth-circle healing spell could help him reattach his arm.

“There is no doubt that it is a powerful force, but it is absolutely incompatible with the peace you are seeking. You have placed yourself on the edge of a cliff, only one step away from falling into the abyss!” Jahira advised. “We should kill Sarovok and stop Baal’s power from threatening Baldur’s Gate again.”

“I just wanted to help!” Evil said somewhat discontentedly, the crimson light in her eyes disappearing, but the blue dragon scales she obtained from Abazigo remained. “I think I can control it, perhaps only temporarily… but… you know better than I do, Jahira, Baal’s power doesn’t just vanish for no reason.” “The entire Baldur’s Gate is the site of Olin’s murder rituals. If I don’t absorb this power into my body, who knows how much that yet-to-be-present guy will be strengthened.” Evil clenched her fist, the sudden increase in strength causing her knuckles to crack.

“But this will strengthen your bond with Baal! Those influences you’ve been rejecting will haunt you like a shadow!” Jasira still disagreed with the evil thought’s view. “You’ll never have a peaceful night’s sleep again. Baal will call your name in your dreams again and again until you succumb to him in your nightmares!”

These words undoubtedly struck a chord with her evil thoughts. Every night of adventure, she would relive the dream of blood again and again. Impulsive desires roared in her bones and blood, and the urge to fight crawled into every corner of her skin.

“Alright.” The evil thought conceded, “but at least the two echoes I absorbed haven’t reduced my control over myself.”

"What should we do with him?" The evil thought pointed to Shalovak, who was suppressed in place by the rainbow light. "We can't just let him stay here forever, can we?"

“We need a trap,” Ivy continued. “The murder ritual is Orin’s plan, and she can’t possibly not come to check on her results. So we need to create some disguise here, lure Orin to her death, and then seal Sarovok away.”

He took the Hidden Lord's Shield, which he had always carried on his back, from behind.

“Although it sounds a bit cramped, having the devil and the son of Baal as cellmates is an emergency measure that can at least maintain peace for a while.” Ivy flicked her finger at the shield made entirely of gold, and a deep but pleasant metallic hum echoed in the collapsed murder court.

"So what should we do with this shield?" Gale asked worriedly. He already had enough dangerous items and didn't want to provoke the killing power of the Great Demon or the Sons of Baal.

"I don't know." Ivy shrugged. "Let's leave that for later. Let's deal with the immediate problem first."

Seeing the worried expression on Gale's face, Ivy joked, "Maybe when you detonate the Destruction Orb, I can throw this shield in as fuel."

“The power to destroy the orb, the Supreme God, the Hidden Lord, and the murderous power of the Sons of Baal… it sounds like a way to kill many birds with one stone and solve the problem once and for all,” Gale said nonchalantly. “I dare say there will be some unexpected problems.”

“Just thinking about all the dangerous things gathered in Baldur’s Gate gives me a headache…” Jasira rubbed her temples and sighed. “Let’s get started—we have no other choice anyway.”

The high-ranking harpist lifted a high-backed chair from the ground, then glanced around the crowd before finally locking onto the drow paladin Minsara: "You've come to impersonate Cindy, Minsara."

"What?" Minsara frowned in displeasure. "We have mages skilled in disguise; a little magic will suffice. Why do I have to go in personally?"

Minsara looked at Gale, who was slightly puffing out his chest, then turned to ask, "Are you really going to give this task to Gale? Even though he just failed once?"

“Hey!” Gale exclaimed, dissatisfied. “That wasn’t a failure! It was just an unexpected situation at best!”

“If you dare fail again, I’ll cut off your spellcasting hand and offer it to your goddess of magic! Three-son mage!” Minsara threatened her teammate.

“Mystra might be happy…” Gale was already prepared for the malice of his drow teammates, but he still couldn’t quite understand that seemingly derogatory remark. “But… what does ‘Three Sons of Mage’ refer to? Can I assume it’s some kind of terrible description?”

“Hmph.” Minsara explained reluctantly, “In Menzoberranzan, if a family has two sons, all subsequent male infants are killed at birth, since they are useless and not even worth raising. But you possess a kind of aura that belongs only to the ‘three sons’.”

“Oh.” Gale nodded knowingly, smiling as he retorted while weaving illusion magic, “I remember the famous Drow Ranger Twisted Fate was also a ‘three-son’… So, perhaps on the surface, this could be considered a Drow way of praising someone?”

After the initial awkwardness and wariness, the adventurers have almost mastered how to communicate with Minsara.

Although the exiles of Menzoberranzan clamor daily for using poison to build up everyone's resistance and immune system, so far no adventurer has been poisoned by it.

Furthermore, in past battles, Minsara, who always charged at the forefront, would also take actions such as using Holy Light to heal her teammates.

So gradually, everyone began to grasp the correct way to communicate with Minsala.

Minsara adopted that arrogant expression again, looking as if she was already tired of arguing with Gale.

She approached Ivy, who was studying the patterns on the surface of the Hidden Lord's Shield, and asked, "Can your strategy really succeed?"

"What do you mean? You don't want it to succeed?" Ivy retorted.

“No, I want to hear a backup plan. Sealing Baal’s power next to the devil sounds like throwing a torch into a fireworks shop!” Minsara was impressed by the various fireworks toys she saw in the Ferrogel fireworks shop, not to mention that any child in Baldur’s Gate could buy the fireworks toys they wanted by paying money.

Ivy looked away from the Hidden Lord's Shield and smiled: "Yes, I do have a backup plan."

Minsala nodded in satisfaction: "Very good, I'm all set."

"Heh heh heh... You're not the only mage who dares to covet Baal's power..." Shalovak laughed, bound to the ground by the rainbow light. "The power of the gods far exceeds your imagination! Arrogant mage!"

“Yes,” Ivy nodded, “but my understanding of the gods is far beyond your imagination.”

(End of this chapter)