From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 568 Roland's Plea for Help

The journey back to Baldur's Gate from Avernus was not smooth. Although it was just a matter of walking through a portal, with the Demon Grand Duke blocking the way, no one dared to bet on successfully passing through the gate.

Grand Duchess of Avernus, the fallen angel Zariel, was the first to lead her troops to the crash site of the Mansion of Hope.

I also witnessed Ivy soaking eight thousand souls in the River Styx to wash away their personalities and memories.

When a vast number of souls release their memories, personalities, and past existences in the murky river, even a hellish lord like Zariel cannot hide his regret and envy.

But what's done is done, and no matter what methods Zariel uses, he cannot retrieve those lost souls from the River Styx.

At the same time, considering the formidable enemy of the Supreme God, if the Mind Flayers are allowed to run rampant in Faerûn, the number of souls that the demons can obtain in the future will be drastically reduced, which is undoubtedly something that the entire Nine Hells does not want to see.

Therefore, adventurers who possess two Netherstones and control the Mindbreaker Comet Prince are, in a sense, allies of the demons.

Zariel might consider using the advantage of information asymmetry to extract benefits from her allies, but she would never do anything that would truly hinder her conquest of the supreme god.

Therefore, after witnessing Ivy retrieve the nearly blank Soul Symphony from the River Styx, Zariel simply ordered her Hell Legion to line up on the hillside a few hundred meters away, silently expressing her unwelcomeness, and made no intention of negotiating at all.

During this standoff, Ivy abandoned the idea of ​​returning to the devil's tip through Mammon's portal. Instead, she opened a portal to another world herself, carrying items she had plundered from the Mansion of Hope, and allowed the adventurers to pass through one by one.

“Zaril!” Karak, back at the base, stroked the tattoos on her body. As a rare Tiflin with the bloodline of Zaril, Karak had been favored by Zaril herself in Afnas, who loved her without reason, like a pet.

Zariel not only provided Karak with many conveniences, but also personally tattooed many tattoos on her body to represent herself. Initials of her name in Purgatory, proverbs engraved on curved corners—Zariel used Karak's skin as a canvas to declare her dominance. Like a little girl writing her name on a toy, Zariel's graffiti covered a large area of ​​Karak's skin, and in all the most conspicuous positions.

“I never thought I’d face her again… but thankfully, we’re back from Avernus.” Karak grabbed a large glass of beer from the bar at the outpost and chugged it down, then turned to her teammates, each looking for their own way to relax. “What kind of design do you guys think I should use to cover them up?”

"Cover up the old with new tattoos?" Evil Nian craned his neck to take a look. "Ever since you had the dragon's heart, all the scars from the hellfire burns on your body have disappeared, but you can't do anything about these tattoos?"

“I don’t quite understand the principle either…” Karak reached up and scratched her upper abdomen, where there used to be a huge and ugly scar. It was specially made by the Hell Craftsman to calm her down when he installed the Purgatory Engine on her.

However, thanks to Ivy's surgery, the skin here is now remarkably smooth, highlighting the well-defined and powerful muscle lines beneath. This pleasing sight is now ubiquitous on Karak's body, with only a few tattoos left by Zariel, still emphasizing the savagery and evil of hell.

“Perhaps you should ask Ivy,” Asdalon said, leaning against the wall with a glass of red wine. “Remember how he left the magical tattoo on the Blood Armor Demon’s skin? Maybe he can leave a magical tattoo on your skin that’s both beautiful and functional.”

“That does sound like a good idea… but he looks really tired today, doesn’t he? That’s so rare for him… you know, he’s always so relaxed. I’ll wait until he’s rested.” Karak finished her beer, stood up, and stretched. “Anyone want to play cards?”

Aside from Minsk, where both the cerebellum and cerebrum are externalized, Karak's proposal did not receive much response.

The adventurers were still immersed in the hellish adventure that had just ended. Many understood Ivy's plan, but they didn't know what it really meant.

Create a new intelligent race from nothing, a construct just like the steel guards patrolling the streets of Baldur's Gate.

This means that the race Ivy named "Intelligence Machines" doesn't tire, doesn't need air or water, and doesn't need to eat. Even injuries like losing an arm or leg, which would be extremely serious for organic beings, are just minor issues that can be repaired by replacing a part. Moreover, no one is sure how long these Intelligence Machines can live; after all, constructs that can replace parts at any time should theoretically have no lifespan limit.

Moreover, this race will become the third race to settle in Dawnstar City after vampire offspring and the Tyflins. The city's potential is obvious, and the underground city of Twilight Star can also produce adamantite.

If all the Omnics were to be fitted with the same adamantite bodies as the Shadow Destroyers, then Ivy's Morningstar would become a truly indestructible city.

The person who truly grasped the concept of "creating an intelligent race" was Gale.

In Faerûn, many deities derive their power from their followers. To gain their faith, gods often rely on priests' sermons, miracles, and blessings. They continuously expand their influence among various intelligent species capable of generating faith, thereby enhancing their own power.

Among the many deities that require faith, some deities that represent a particular intelligent race are called racial gods. Unlike other deities who each have their own domains and divine duties, their natural place of faith is the race they represent. As long as this race continues to thrive on the continent of Faerûn, the existence of racial gods will never disappear.

Some intelligent races have a wide range of influence and a large population. With their racial gods as the main figures, they may be able to form a powerful pantheon.

The most famous of them all is undoubtedly the Sylderin Pantheon, led by Corellon Larethan, also known as the Elven Pantheon.

The Elven Pantheon boasts a large membership, with countless powerful individuals. This is all thanks to the elven race's flourishing and multiplication on the continent of Faerûn. Elves possess long lifespans and exceptional magical talent, and at one time even dominated the entire continent of Faerûn.

The AI ​​machines that Ivy is still envisioning now seem to be no less capable than the elves. Although it is uncertain whether they can use magic with their AI cores, their individual qualities already surpass those of ordinary elves.

Gale had already witnessed Gotash's Steel Guardian production line, so he figured Ivy's speed in manufacturing new Omnic members wouldn't be any slower. In that case, even in terms of "fertility," the Omnics would surpass the Elves.

It seems that Ivy's ascension to godhood by creating an intelligent race is already a foregone conclusion.

But Gale's intuition told her that Ivy was not the kind of person who would try to become a racial god. Even though becoming the racial god of a construct race with unlimited potential would be an irresistible prospect for any mortal, Gale firmly believed that Ivy's ambitions went far beyond that.

As for the reason.

Ivy is a powerful mage who can travel to many distant universes, so how could she be bound by a single world? Not to mention that this world is quite crowded even for gods.

"Where did Ivy go?" The person who walked into the hall was Jashira, a high-ranking harpist. She had not participated in the adventurers' journey to the Mansion of Hope, but instead led several harpist spies to monitor Bane's stronghold in the Grey Harbor warehouse district.

According to intelligence from the All-Seeing Pearl Sisters, the Bane cultists forcibly requisitioned a warehouse and converted it into an underground dock for submarines transporting prisoners.

Jahira listened to Ivy's entire battle plan, which is why he went ahead to scout troop deployments and terrain conditions.

“It seems your journey to Hell was quite successful.” Jahira picked up a wine glass from the nearest table and looked around at the adventurers in the hall. She was pleased to see that none of them had any injuries, especially the wounds left by the Hellfire. “Is Ivy in the study? There are two Tifflin looking for him at the door, a man and a woman. They seem to be the brothers and sisters of the mage apprentice who came to Baldur’s Gate with us.”

“Dealing with demons isn’t easy. Shadowheart helped Ivy back to rest.” Evil Thought pointed upstairs and asked curiously, “Karl and Leah? How did they find their way here?”

“They recognized the marks left by the harpist. There are quite a few perceptive young people in Baldur’s Gate.” Jahira beckoned to the harpist behind her. “Bring them in, Gerardus.”

“Those Tifflin were driven out by others after El Toril returned to the Material Plane from Afonas. They faced just as many dangers as anyone else along the way; they wouldn’t have survived without making some progress.” Karak, also a Tifflin, was indignant about the experience of her kind. Tifflin and humans fought side by side in Afonas, resisting the various evil forces that coveted that city, but after El Toril returned to Faerûn, the Tifflin were completely expelled from there simply because of the hellish blood in their bodies.

Hurried footsteps approached along the corridor, and the flustered young man from Tifflin cried out as soon as he saw the adventurers in the hall: "Karak! Will! And the others! Thank goodness! You're all here!"

Karak escaped to the Shell when Eltoril crashed into Afonas; prior to that, she had used her position as a Blood Wars officer to protect many of her comrades. As for Will, he had spent some time in the Tifflin refugee camp, helping them train civilians to care for children, which made the two of them more likely to attract the attention of the Tifflin refugees.

“Lia, Karl! It really is you! Where’s Roland? Still busy learning magic from the ‘master’?” Karak stepped forward and hugged her friends who had gone through thick and thin with her, asking as she put her arms around them. The height difference made it look like she was hugging two children.

"Karak...you've changed so much! The flames on your body have all disappeared..." The observant Lia immediately noticed the changes in Karak's body, and the delicate touch of his skin even stirred a hint of jealousy in her.

On the other side, Karl was in a much worse state. He could only feel the Hell Champion Warrior's rock-hard muscles. He struggled to pull his head out of Karla's biceps and reminded his sister, "We didn't come here for this! Roland is waiting for us!"

"Roland's studies haven't been going too well lately?" Karak released the siblings, hands on her hips, and asked, "I guess... he's looking for some guidance from a true master of magic? Ivy's been very busy lately, so he probably doesn't have much time. But I can recommend Master Decarios to you; besides magic, his rhetoric is also outstanding!"

“Lorokan was never a master!” Lia retorted very seriously. “He was nothing but a cruel and vicious bastard!”

"Really?" Gael Decarios, the Waterdeep genius, also chimed in. "When Ivy and I visited the sorcery general store before, Roland spoke highly of him. What happened?"

“That’s just Lorokan’s disguise!” Leah said with disgust, as if discussing an ugly viper. “He makes Roland look after the witchcraft general store during the day, and then at night he interrogates him with the most meaningless questions. If Roland answers ‘wrong,’ Lorokan beats him until he’s black and blue!”

“Roland initially thought it was Lorokan’s special teaching method, but he now realizes that Lorokan is just an incompetent fraudster and thief! The Ramages Tower was nothing more than something he stole; he didn’t even have the ability to break the upper seal of the platform!” Karl added.

“Now that Roland has seen through Lorokan’s true colors, that’s why he’s asking us to risk asking you for help,” Lia said sincerely. “This is not only about Roland, but also about the Song of the Night.”

“Ms. Eileen? I haven’t heard you mention anything about her being related to the daughter of Selenne.” Jasira, who led the two back, raised an eyebrow.

"Please forgive our reservations, High Harpist. But this matter is indeed of great importance," Lia said apologetically. "You should have already heard that Lorokan has been searching for the Song of the Night and has recruited many mercenaries with money. At first, he only described to the mercenaries that what they needed to find was an artifact. But now, Lorokan no longer hides his desires. He witnessed Lady Irene's presence in the city and knows that Lady Irene is an immortal and is planning to use magic to share the lifespan of immortals."

“Roland told us that Lorokan is planning to recruit some real villains to find the Song of the Night in Baldur’s Gate,” Karl said solemnly, revealing the purpose of his visit. “Their first step is to attack the enclave of the Serene followers! And Lorokan is forcing Roland to get involved in this!”

(End of this chapter)