The moment Thay's forces rushed into the ritual array, they watched their strongest combatant get blown apart by a green ray. The mist he dissolved into was immediately incinerated by a Fireball, leaving nothing behind.
Not even a trace remained. It was the very definition of being wiped from existence.
Everyone froze where they stood, unable to accept what they had just witnessed.
How could this be? Weren't they evenly matched just moments ago?!
"Retreat!"
Someone in the crowd shouted, and everyone turned and fled, using the ritual array and the castle as cover as they scattered in every direction.
The Church of Myrkul and the Cowled Wizards reacted even faster than Thay's forces. They had been watching the spectacle from the outskirts all along, and the moment things went south, they fled without the slightest hesitation.
A vampire was still someone they could fight.
This Sorcerer, however, was completely untouchable. The effortless way he fought made it impossible to guess how many more trump cards he still had hidden.
And on top of that, he was a Paladin.
There was no room for negotiation with someone like that.
Even evil factions knew when they were outmatched.
There was no way Anser was going to let prey that had already landed in the pot escape. They had already become mortal enemies—putting on a hypocritical show of mercy now would accomplish nothing.
His draconic wings beat once, and he shot forward like a gale, catching up to Thay's fleeing forces in only a few seconds.
Metamagic: Empowered Quickened Maximized Transmuted Spell + 6th-Level: Fireball (Cold)!
His Chromatic Orb flashed with prismatic light before launching a brilliant sphere into the middle of the fleeing crowd.
Boom—!
Bone-chilling cold erupted outward.
White frost mist instantly filled the entire corridor, surging in every direction and coating everything in a layer of ice.
[Target killed. Gained 275 experience points.]
[...Thayan Elite Wizard takes 57 cold damage. Current Hit Points: 39/104.]
The corridor was too narrow to fly comfortably, so Anser folded his wings and relied on the elemental resonance from Chromatic Orb to stay airborne, plunging straight into the freezing blast.
His immunity to cold rendered the lingering effects meaningless.
As he flew, he deliberately slowed down. Guided by his senses, he hurled a second cold-aspected Fireball.
Then a third.
A fourth.
A fifth.
A sixth...
A continuous stream of combat notifications flashed through his mind, and the corners of his lips slowly curled upward.
Most of Thay's Wizards were still human.
Their vitality was nowhere near that of creatures like vampires or liches, making them much easier to kill—but the experience they awarded was considerably lower as well.
A vampire who had risen to become a Red Wizard naturally held far greater status and was worth much more experience.
By the time he flew through the castle and reached the main gate, the main forces of the Church of Myrkul, the Cowled Wizards, and a handful of surviving Thayan Wizards had already fled into the labyrinthine underground ruins.
They're easier to kill once they split up.
He wasn't in the least bit worried.
The underground city's ceiling was high enough that, with his flying speed, he should be able to catch every last one of them.
At that moment, faint footsteps echoed from the passage behind him.
"Stop chasing them. The death knight is about to revive."
Sosk's voice drifted out from inside the castle, yet he himself was nowhere to be seen outside the entrance.
Anser frowned and immediately landed at the gate, quickly spotting Sosk hiding just inside the doorway.
His body was hunched over, his beard and hair coated in a layer of frost. Combined with his already pale, gaunt appearance, he looked like a terminally ill patient.
"Don't attack! Please, don't attack! I can help you!"
Sosk frantically waved both hands while nervously watching Anser's expression.
He freely admitted that he was shallow and lacking in backbone.
But if you surrendered fast enough, there was always a chance to prove your worth.
Anser stared at him expressionlessly, unsure whether he should believe him.
This man was no longer just someone who had switched sides three times.
At this point, it was at least four.
Someone with so little integrity was hard not to find disgusting.
Seeing that Anser remained silent, Sosk asked uneasily, "Are you one of the Chosen?"
Although it was phrased as a question, his gaze was full of certainty.
To him, it was the only explanation that could account for so many impossible things.
"When did the death knight die?"
Instead of answering, Anser asked the question he actually cared about.
"The night before last."
"Normally, it takes anywhere from one to ten days for undead to revive. How could a death knight come back so quickly?"
"It's true. That was... uh, our Thayan leader's judgment. He's almost certainly right. The death knight was killed by him in the first place."
"The Thayan leader? How strong is he?"
"No idea. I couldn't tell. All I know is that he's incredibly powerful."
"And the leaders of the Church of Myrkul and the Cowled Wizards? Are they just as strong?"
"The Church of Myrkul has produced one of the Chosen. He's pretty formidable. As for the Cowled Wizards... I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I never got inside. They wouldn't let me."
"I see. Tell me everything in detail."
"..."
Sosk had spent years researching the legends of Viheral and knew the place remarkably well. During that time, he had secretly entered the underground city through other hidden passages and had even slipped into this castle by deceiving the death knight.
Which was precisely why the death knight had marked him.
He hadn't lied to Anser before. There really was an Artifact here, and the teleportation circle known as the Ring of Viheral...
...led to a divine realm.
According to legend, Viheral had not been corrupted by a lich's experiments.
Its fall was connected to the Moon Goddess.
The death knight had been created as the guardian of that place.
After being captured by the death knight, Sosk secretly activated a communication item and sent news of everything here back to Thay.
He hadn't expected much and assumed no one would come.
To his surprise, a true powerhouse actually answered the call.
As for the Church of Myrkul, they had come in search of the Artifact.
The Cowled Wizards' objective remained unknown. Perhaps they had simply learned of the matter by coincidence because they were nearby.
Besides those three factions, there were also adventurers represented by Brunhilde. They were somewhat weaker and could only trail behind the others.
After the three major factions joined forces to kill the death knight, they thoroughly looted the castle. Then, following Sosk's guidance, they activated the teleportation circle on the night of the full moon and entered that unknown divine realm.
Since Sosk wasn't trusted, he had been left behind in the castle.
But after the moonlight faded, the ritual array activated once more.
Only a little over twenty people came back.
More than half of them were prisoners bound in magical shackles.
Fortunately, the victors were Thay's side.
That meant he didn't have to "kneel" to someone else all over again.
He knew nothing about what had happened inside.
No one had told him anything.
All he knew was that Thay had won.
Their leader ordered them to wait outside for one day.
No one knew what they were waiting for.
Sosk suspected that the Ring of Viheral would open once again tonight.
"If the death knight revives that quickly, we won't even make it until tonight."
Anser frowned, immediately spotting the flaw.
"Don't worry. The death knight will never enter this white stone castle," Sosk said confidently.
"Heh. Once your Thayan Red Wizards return, do you really think I'll still be alive?" Anser sneered.
"Uh... I don't think things are necessarily that bad. Aren't you even a little tempted? An Artifact... a divine realm..." Sosk's gaunt face was filled with unwillingness, and a trace of madness flickered in his triangular eyes.
He admitted he looked like a clown.
But who could understand the torment he had endured?
If there truly was no way forward, he would rather die.
Anser didn't answer.
He found himself caught between advancing and retreating.
To be honest, neither the Artifact nor the divine realm held that much appeal for him.
But leaving Brunhilde here without doing anything would make him feel like he had let Iris down.
After all, Brunhilde was the aunt who had raised and taught her since childhood.
No rush. I still have time to think.
Others could enter the Ethereal Plane as well, but none could do so as conveniently as he could.
Escaping shouldn't be a problem.
Besides, he still had The Fates.
With that thought, he walked into the castle and began cleaning up the battlefield.
Anyone who was gravely wounded but still alive was finished off.
Then he gathered every piece of loot and temporarily stored it in the Party Storage, warning everyone else not to touch anything.
The Party Storage was far more stable than ordinary extradimensional storage.
Even placing a Bag of Holding inside it wouldn't cause a dimensional rupture.
Sosk wanted to persuade him a little more, but after watching how practiced Anser was at looting the battlefield, he quietly closed his mouth.
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