Arcane Journey

Chapter 309 'Father of Nether' Eorem

The warm sun never shines on this land, not even the gentle moonlight.

There is only darkness here, and only the cold stone walls and the hard rock announce their presence in the light of those foolish intruders.

The lost city of 'Eliontor'.

The most evil races are gathered here, and the presence of darkness seems to have loosened the valves of all desires. Those races who inadvertently broke into this city or were forced to come to this city are struggling to live in this ancient evil city.

Brian was standing on a rocky island, about 100 meters in diameter, surrounded by this wide and deep ditch.

Beside him were other creatures, including a small group of goblins and a few haggard elves who had apparently been tortured for too long by the mind flayer's mind-melting powers.

They were sitting or standing, with empty eyes and expressionless faces, as if they were waiting for something.

It soon becomes clear to Brian that they are all going to be dinner for their cruel masters.

An aura of teleportation circle flashed, and the figure of Braines, the ghost prince, appeared in front of Brian.

"The old man said that you can go in." Brenas, who was dressed as a scholar, walked up to Brian and said, "Let's say goodbye here, and I have to go back to Sultanza as soon as possible."

"I see." Brian met Prince Shade's bright and wise eyes in the dark, and said sincerely, "Thank you for your help, and brought me here."

"You know, what I need is not your thanks." Breners stretched out his right hand and smiled, "It's a promise from you."

"I won't forget." Brian shook hands with the young Prince of Shadow, and replied, "Similarly, I also hope that you will not forget to promise me the conditions."

In the game world, the High King of Shadow City and Iolum had never met, so he was very curious about what kind of chemical reaction would be produced when Brenas brought this news back.

"I will keep it in my heart and try my best." Brenners nodded slightly and waved goodbye. He opened a portal and disappeared in place.

Brian withdrew his gaze and looked down at the far end of a long and narrow cave.

There, many towering stalactite complexes form the castle of a mind flayer race: the city of Elaento.

Despite the darkness in front of his eyes, Brian could still distinguish the figures running back and forth on the rock castle through his own vision, and he could clearly hear the knocking sound of the tools in their hands.

These are the slaves of the city of Elaine. Almost all subterranean gnomes, gray dwarves, goblins, kobolds, and any underground and surface races can be seen here.

All of them are under the control of psychic powers, using their rock processing skills to serve their mind flayer masters, so as to continuously expand the huge rock fortresses in the Underdark.

Feeling the deep depression and the beating echo of the castle group like the heartbeat of a beast, Brian took a deep breath of the cold air, and using the levitation spell, he flew towards a huge tower standing at the core of the castle.

It was transformed after hollowing out a giant stalagmite with a diameter of about 50 meters, and the most important members of Elaento City were entrenched in it.

This giant stalagmite is surrounded by a series of stone chambers and spiral staircases, each floor is inhabited by a mind flayer lich or a mind flayer ghost, and at the bottom is a circular room without any decoration, inhabited by The most important core of this mind flayer city - the mind flayer mastermind.

The entire society of mind flayers is bound together by its psychic energy.

The mastermind is also the storage body of mind flayer knowledge, and it guards the outer chambers with its spiritual eyes. For the mind flayer society, the mastermind is the center for coordinating all their actions, and its status is equivalent to their god.

The person Brian is looking for lives in the bottom circular room, also known as the Echo Chamber.

The one who lived in the 'echo chamber' was Iolum, the great arcanist during the Netheril period.

As the greatest human arcanist ever to appear in the world of Toril, Iolum is the main promoter of Netherian magic art, and he has trained more than 3000 arcanists in his lifetime.

Mither Energy Core, Floating Void City, Iolum Longevity, these achievements that pushed Netheril to glory all come from him alone, and because of this, he is also called: the father of Netheril.

Dozens of centuries ago, because Iolum foresaw the downfall of Netherese through the spell of prophecy, and he learned that the power of magic cannot save Netherese from its downfall.

So he gave up his floating city and left Nether, trying to find new power.

The sudden disappearance of this most famous figure and fabled hero threw Netheril into chaos.

After a rebellion, Archmage Karthus cast his famous 12th-level spell "Avatar of Karthus", which completely destroyed Netheril.

After the destruction of Netheril, Iolum quietly continued to select apprentices from among the promising Netherese refugees.

Out of curiosity, he also took on apprentices from the nearby mind flayer city of Elaento.

These mind flayer apprentices allowed him to understand the mysteries of psychic power, and he began to use the mind flayers in Elaineto City to do some things that great arcanists like to do most.

Namely, experimental research, which included turning mind flayers into liches and wraiths.

So the first batch of liches and ghosts of the mind flayer race appeared in the whole world, and even the mind flayer vampires.

With the success of batches of experiments, Iolum set the target of the experiment on the mind flayer mastermind in Elaento City.

He attempted to transform a mind flayer mastermind into a lich, into a mind flayer mastermind lich.

His bold attempt was naturally unacceptable to the mind flayers.

After all, the mastermind is the leader of the mind flayer society, and the brain pool is the place to train their next generation. However, what the mind flayers couldn't accept was that Iolum was very satisfied with this new form of life and decided to merge with it. .

During this fusion ceremony, most of his apprentices died, only a few survived.

Iolum, on the other hand, is similar to the method of seizing the house, completely controlling the body of the mind flayer's master brain, becoming an existence that has reached the peak in terms of arcane and psionic power.

Those mind flayers who seldom escaped not only spread this story of collapse and fear for mind flayers, but also let the mind flayer society know about the creation of mind flayers in the underground kingdom. secret.

Today, Iolum is known as the Sage of Elaentor in the form of the Elder Master Lich.

He hid deep in this abandoned ancient city, thinking about ways to revive Netheril all day long. A few people who had the opportunity to meet the sages of Elaine would also get some magical knowledge about Netheril.

But so far, no one knows that this 'sage' was once the legendary Grand Arcanist Iolum.

It was also in the last year of the game that Brian learned that someone accidentally found the location of Iolum hidden in this abandoned mind flayer city through the library of Inscribed Valley.

It was precisely for this reason that he started to look for the other party.

When Brian approached the range of the giant stalagmite tower, he suddenly found that his body was engulfed by an invisible magical energy, unable to move.

This feeling was like being caught in a mysterious net woven of shining energy, and he was as powerless as the caught prey.

A whirlwind.

Brian was stunned by the sight that resurfaced before his eyes.

This is no longer a deep and dark world, but an extraordinary and magnificent city.

The city spreads along the hillside, as if growing out of the mountain.

In Brian's view, this city is an ingenious combination of metal and stone, where nature and ingenuity are integrated. He doesn't fully understand what kind of scene he sees, but he can understand it. harmonious.

The camouflage spell fades, and the city reveals its tranquility and grandeur.

Everything he saw caught his attention.

A series of huge stone steps led to the distinctive houses and towers, the steps were wide and gentle at the bottom, and narrowed as the steps rose.

Brian was impressed by the mix of one house that looked like a conch shell and another that looked like a mushroom.

Bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, the sharp outlines of the stone steps softened and the domes appeared more rounded.

Seeing this, Brian realized that the place he came to might not be the echo chamber in Elaineto City, but the demiplane he created.

"Welcome here." An elegant mind flayer ghost appeared in front of Brian, with a slight smile on his lips under the six lavender transparent tentacles, "Please follow me, Mr. Brian."

Brian nodded slightly and followed.

Although this place is obviously different from the pictures transmitted by the players in the game, Breners had already informed him of the scene here in advance, so naturally he would not lose his composure or have doubts because of this.

Follow the spirit of the mind flayer along the polished stone path.

As he gradually approached the city, Brian found that the city continued to extend upward along the hillside.

The buildings here have a Netherilian style.

Wide, steep stone steps led to gently curving buildings, and the long streets were paved with white stone slabs, here and there gleaming with gemstones, and a surprising amount of light brown metal that Brian had never seen before.

They walked the streets, passing many mind flayers, not liches and ghosts, but real, flesh-and-blood mind flayers.

Unlike the mind flayers of the Underdark, the octopus head with its six lavender tentacles has been replaced by a human face.

These people have kind faces, delicate faces, long dark purple or dark green hair, and pointed ears that are higher than the top of their heads, longer than elves.

What shocked Brian the most was that he actually saw a female mind flayer in the crowd.

She is slim, but tall and straight, wearing a neat and elegant white dress, with a faint arcane radiance flashing along with her master's movements, showing a kind of mysterious beauty.

She seemed surprised when Brian's eyes met hers, and then a smile played on her lips, her lavender face flushed, and she looked down shyly.

Brian realized that mind flayers can also be so pretty, and he smiled at the mind flayer girl.

He followed the mind flayer ghost through the winding streets, over the hills at the foot of the mountain, and towards the huge building built on the top of the mountain.

There seems to be no end to these squares of solid stone steps.

When he finally reached the top and was about to look at the buildings of the tower with great interest, the mind flayer ghost said, "You can look back."

Brian turned around subconsciously, looking down at the whole city from a height.

He almost forgot to breathe, and below him, the city was like gems scattered on the grass.

The last rays of the setting sun painted the city a fiery red, and as the sun sank to the horizon, everything was drowned in shades of purple and gray.

Lights were lit from house to house, and it seemed to Brian that the stars in the night sky had fallen to the earth.

"I don't mean to brag, but I'm proud of our people and our city," said the mind flayer proudly. "We've put in a lot of hard work. We love it here, and I never thought I'd have the opportunity to be with a Material Plane." Residents share these thoughts. The path of destiny is very strange."

When the mind flayer was speaking, a deep and long-lasting sadness seemed to appear on the illusory purple face. He shook his head, waved away these emotions, and showed a far-fetched smile.

Feeling the sad expression of the ghost, Brian retracted his gaze calmly.

Led by the mind flayer's ghost, he finally came to Iolum's room.

The scene in front of him almost made him lose the ability to speak in shock.

His young mind was opening to all the sights, sounds and smells of this strange environment.

Brian was ushered into a room where he felt restrained by the lavish decor.

The curved walls of the room, as charming from the outside as they were from the inside, seemed to restrain rather than embrace him.

In the center of the room is a circular pool of blood built from pure bones.

In the blood pool covered by the light red crystal cover, there is a group of brain tissue without any bones, about twenty feet in diameter, constantly pulsating, the soft tissue rich in blood vessels, slightly undulating, as if breathing.

And on the walls of the room, apart from sculptures of mind flayers of the opposite sex and conch shell ships, there are densely packed tadpole texts that make people dizzy just looking at them.

Because when you focus on the tadpole text on the wall, you can clearly feel that these densely packed tadpoles seem to be swimming, exuding a spiritual energy that confuses the mind.

"Are you also interested in the history of mind flayers?" A guttural voice like flowing water, as if from a foreign land, came from behind Brian.

Brian glanced at the main brain of the blood pool first, and after realizing that it was not what it said, he slowly turned around and looked in the direction of the source of the sound.

This is a human ghost.

This was the first thought that popped into Brian's mind when he met the speaker's eyes.

His shadowy body was wrapped in light, curly light brown robes, and his shimmering skin had a warm marble hue.

His eyes are deep and wise, with a bright purple light, and deep wrinkles around them, which means that he is not only very old, but also from ancient times.

His gray head was disheveled behind, revealing a pale head, and his beard fell almost to his waist in a pulsating silver waterfall.

When Brian felt those shining deep purple eyes fixed on him, it gave him a feeling of looking into his soul.

He looked...almost out of time.

(End of this chapter)