As he spoke, Anser arrived at a side corridor, but he did not continue forward. Instead, he watched from a distance as Graham kicked open the storeroom door and entered.
Then he heard a harsh clash of metal, followed by a series of clacking mechanical sounds.
Boom—
With a loud explosion, Graham smashed through the wooden door, his whole body flying sideways as he crashed into the wall. The wooden building trembled.
The next second, a black shadow rushed out of the room, hovering above the ground. A pair of yellow eyes looked toward Anser. Its skin was pale purple, and it was still wearing human clothes.
A Mind Flayer!
Stared at by it, Anser felt his scalp go numb. Just as he was about to cast a spell, he saw the Mind Flayer's tentacles tremble, and a conical wave arrived in an instant.
He felt as if a thunderclap had exploded in his mind. With a bang, his brain throbbed with pain, and both his thoughts and perceptions stalled for a moment.
[The Mind Flayer casts Mind Blast on you, forcing a medium-intensity Intelligence saving throw (15)… Saving throw successful!]
The Protector's Bracer lost 17 Hit Point, while the dragon scales and elemental radiance had not played the slightest role—this was the terrifying strength of psionic spells.
'Damn!'
Anser cursed inwardly, his temples throbbing wildly. Looking up, he saw the Mind Flayer's tentacles wrap around Graham's head and pull him in front of itself.
"Impudent!"
Without a second thought, he raised his hand and instantly cast an empowered 4th-level Scorching Ray.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!
The draconic words rang out with force. Five rays of fire flashed through the air. Wherever they passed, the air twisted, leaving streaks of red light.
A transparent shield appeared around the Mind Flayer, but it was shattered instantly. The five rays of fire exploded on its body almost at the same time, blasting open five charred bloody craters. Flesh and tissue splattered, its clothes ignited, and black smoke spread everywhere.
[…The Mind Flayer is hit, taking 51 points of fire damage. Current Hit Point: 25/76]
'Not a fully matured one!' Anser felt a wave of relief in his heart.
A Mind Flayer that had grown to full maturity was extremely terrifying. It could cast the 8th-level Dominate Monster and the 7th-level Plane Shift, capable of both overwhelming control and escape—making it extremely difficult to deal with.
The heavily injured Mind Flayer collapsed to the ground, forced to release Graham, then rolled toward the window and leapt out into the courtyard.
Anser turned to pursue, but when he looked back he saw Quentin lying on the ground, blood flowing from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, his longsword fallen beside him.
Nearby, Giant Tail had not been affected. He was large and had not come close, which let him avoid the disaster.
From the other end of the corridor, two staff members rushed over with swords in hand. Under Truesight, layers of dark-purple psionic threads were wrapped around their heads, an extremely horrifying sight.
"Go after it. I'll handle things here with Giant Tail."
Kaleno rushed in with twin swords in hand. He was a Psi Warrior, so he truly was not afraid of Intellect Devourer.
Anser turned and immediately gave chase. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw the Mind Flayer running and floating at the same time, vaulting over the wall and rushing into the street behind it.
The crowd that had been watching the commotion was completely terrified. They had never seen such a monster before, and they scattered in panic. But one unlucky person was seized by its tentacles and had his skull opened on the spot, his brain extracted.
Anser cast Fly on himself and shot into the sky, just in time to witness that scene.
The hollowed-out skull and the clean, efficient technique made his skin crawl.
'No melee,' he warned himself inwardly.
Flying was much faster than a Mind Flayer's hovering. In just a few short seconds, he locked onto the Mind Flayer in the crowd.
Suspended in the air, magic power surged around him as he cast from the maximum possible distance.
"મેજિકમિસાઇલ"
Innate Spell + Metamagic: Quickened Spell + 4th-level: Magic Missile!
The elemental sphere trembled, and six gleaming missiles shot from his fingertips, tracing smooth arcs as they flew straight at the Mind Flayer.
Then came the second wave, the third wave, the fourth wave!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
Missiles filled the sky, densely packed. Their piercing shrieks made the passersby's scalps go numb as they fled in panic, afraid of being caught in the blast.
The Mind Flayer was also fleeing, but the missiles were precisely guided. Their trajectories shifted as they pursued relentlessly, leaving it no time or space to evade.
Bang, bang, bang…
Its psionic shield blocked one wave, but it could not block the second. The impacts rolled together like crashing waves, slamming the Mind Flayer into the street.
When the noise finally subsided, the passersby looked over with trembling courage. All they saw was a puddle of mangled flesh in human shape. Its original form as a Mind Flayer was completely unrecognizable. Only a few tentacles still proved its identity.
[Target killed. Gained 1900 experience points]
'Uh, I may have overdone it a bit.'
Seeing the guards rushing over, Anser left the scene to them and quickly flew back to the Iron Crown compound.
Iris had arrived and was hovering in the courtyard, staring vigilantly at the pitch-black storeroom.
The two Intellect Devourer had already been dealt with—one had been flattened by Giant Tail, and one had been stabbed to death by Kaleno.
Giant Tail was the Lizardfolk king, an elemental creature, immune to panic and somewhat resistant to stunning, so he was not afraid of Intellect Devourer.
"Taken care of?" Iris asked without even lifting her head.
"Deader than dead," Anser replied as he landed on the ground and looked toward Quentin and Graham, who were sitting on the steps.
There was still blood on their mouths and noses. Quentin seemed to be in decent condition. With one arm, he held Graham, who looked somewhat on the verge of collapse, while continuously trying to calm him.
"What's wrong?" Anser asked in confusion.
Iris tilted her chin toward the storeroom. "See for yourself."
Anser cast Detect Evil and Good again and carefully approached the storeroom. Very quickly, he detected a figure shrouded in black light.
"There's another one."
He stepped into the room, avoided a pile of clutter, and discovered a staircase leading downward in the corner. A sharp stench of rot rushed straight at him, so foul that it made him feel nauseated.
Darkness could not block his sight. He crouched down and looked inside. Within was a secret chamber of roughly ten square meters. In one corner were piled dozens of empty skulls, all from humanoid creatures.
On a wooden bed nearby lay a grayish-purple figure wearing formal clothes, its face already somewhat deformed.
"Is he still savable?" Iris walked over and asked softly.
She had come immediately to guard against any monster that might appear, but instead she discovered someone she knew. Although his body had changed drastically, she recognized at a glance that the man was Devon, Graham's son.
Devon had known Iris since long ago. One was a genius in business, the other a genius Sorcerer. They could have become friends, but Devon loved Iris deeply, so even friendship became impossible, and the two gradually drifted apart.
"He's been parasitized for at least a day," Anser said, shaking his head slightly. After one hour of parasitism, a person's consciousness disappears.
Perhaps there was still a way to save him, but it was not within Anser's ability.
Step by step, Graham walked over like a machine, his face devoid of life.
He entered the secret chamber, carried out the parasitized man, and then walked step by step out of the wooden building, placing him in front of the main gate.
Anser and the others followed behind him, not knowing what he intended to do.
Facing the crowd, Graham drew his longsword and roared, "This is my son, Devon. He… deserves to die!"
As he spoke, he swung down fiercely and cut off his son's head. Foul blood flowed down the steps.
With a clang, he threw away the longsword, then walked back into the courtyard like a walking corpse and collapsed on the ground, crying silently.
Quentin ordered someone to close the door, leaving him a private space.
"Graham used to belong to a great family, but he was schemed against by the people of Amn, and his family was destroyed. Graham fled all the way to Durlag's Tower with his son, seeking revenge while trying his best to raise Devon…" he quietly explained to Anser.
The young man named Devon had been very promising, excellent in every aspect—until he met Iris.
The story afterward was a familiar one. The young man trained desperately, but it was meaningless. Talent was not something that could be changed through effort alone.
Because of love, hatred grew. He began targeting Fort Jacqueline everywhere, especially in business, even resorting to unscrupulous methods.
As his father, Graham naturally knew about it, but his attempts at discipline had no effect. Instead, the relationship between father and son became increasingly strained.
"Perhaps Devon… was also bewitched," Quentin said. Not knowing the exact cause, he could only speculate.
Devon had probably listened to the Mind Flayer, believing that transforming into a Mind Flayer would grant extraordinary power, while completely ignoring the cost.
He also suspected that Anser had played a role in provoking him. When a man moved into Fort Jacqueline, that scene completely shattered the young man's reason.
Anser sighed inwardly but said nothing.
That young man had already strayed onto the wrong path in his pursuit of power. Even if he had not been deceived by the Mind Flayer, someone else with ill intentions would eventually have taken advantage of him.
Just look at the skulls in that secret chamber—it was certainly not something that had happened in only a day or two.
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