After leaving Daggerford, Skyl traveled by night and rested by day. Undead feared the sun, so during the day, he and Mia stayed in the shade. Once the sun set, they continued on their way.
The undead Mia had been tied up. It had no mind of its own and was always trying to attack Skyl. The dead held an instinctive hatred for the living, and Skyl was not Mia's master, so he could not command it. An undead this weak posed no real threat. It probably could not even beat a goblin.
On the road, the warlock tormented the soul of the succubus Pencheska. He did not deliberately bring the demon pain, but the process of forcibly refining an extraplanar creature's soul into a skull and turning it into an evil arcane focus was certainly not a spa day. The soul's wails echoed through the air, inaudible to mortals, but animals and birds grew uneasy, and the spirits of nature became deeply alarmed.
Wherever the demon's howls passed, plantains withered, summer wildflowers faded, fireflies died, and earthworms fled the soil. It took months for those places to return to normal.
Pencheska's soul sometimes cursed Skyl viciously and sometimes begged in a low voice, trying both threats and pleas, but none of it moved the warlock.
Once the final rune was drawn, the succubus Pencheska's skull and soul were thoroughly transformed into an arcane focus, as well as a rare magical item. While crafting it, Skyl preserved the succubus's charming ability, allowing it to charm creatures three times per day. He also refined its two eyeballs into lamp-like orbs, which could reveal invisible creatures and force ethereal spirits to take form.
As a warlock, carrying a skull focus felt perfectly fitting to Skyl. Warlocks in World of Warcraft had the same kind of aesthetic.
As the creation of the focus neared completion, the female succubus could only let out weak howls. Those cries were full of blasphemy, more despairing than despair itself, and made even the Weave tremble faintly. Invisible ripples drew the attention of certain extraplanar beings, and they all learned that a mortal was holding an artifact.
Skyl knew this.
He did not care.
Not long after, however, he was targeted by a devil.
Devils and demons were two different kinds of extraplanar creatures. Though both were evil and fallen, devils came from the Nine Hells and revered order, while demons came from the Abyss and revered chaos. The two sides were eternal enemies, as incompatible as fire and water, and the Abyss and the Hells had long waged the endless Blood War.
These creatures from the Outer Planes could not enter the Material Plane directly, but they always found ways to seep their influence across the boundary, tempting mortals into corruption and carrying out their schemes step by step.
Under the moonlight, the sorrel mare stepped through a puddle on the road. In the puddle's black reflection, a pair of scarlet eyes flickering with boundless cruelty and cold intelligence appeared and vanished. When the rider's gaze turned toward them, those eyes disappeared, and the moon reflected in the puddle shattered beneath the horse's hooves.
The undead Mia let out an uneasy gurgle from the saddle. It was still trying nonstop to twist around and bite Skyl. The warlock casually opened his notebook across its back and used a stick of charcoal to jot down a passing idea. For this restless temporary desk, all he needed to do was tap the back of its head with the charcoal, signaling it to quiet down.
Undead were not very intelligent. After a tap like that, it would daze out for a long time.
Skyl followed the main road south. When he passed a lonely banyan tree, the sun was about to rise, so the warlock dismounted and made camp.
For a spellcaster, the first choice for camping outdoors was not a tent, but [Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion], or the lower-grade [Leomund's Tiny Hut]. Both could provide ample protection and a comfortable environment.
Back in Waterdeep, Skyl had already bought all the materials needed for the mansion spell, an ivory archway statuette, a polished piece of marble, and a small silver spoon. The mansion spell could provide all kinds of rooms according to the caster's wishes, a hundred magical servants, and rich food enough for a hundred people. It was truly a great noble's kind of enjoyment.
When Mia was still alive, she had often sighed about how cramped her family's home was.
When her undead entered the extradimensional mansion created by magic, it grew very quiet and wandered around, looking here and there. Skyl knew this was a reaction from the remnants of Mia's memories. Some pathetic necromancers transformed the corpses of their loved ones into undead, believing that would let their families remain by their side. Some powerful necromancers simply transformed themselves into liches to hold back the passage of their lifespan.
No matter the purpose, no matter the determination, once any living person was transformed into an undead, their nature changed drastically, and they became a stranger. Even the willpower of an archmage would be eroded and corrupted little by little by negative energy, turning cruel, cold, and hateful toward the living.
Skyl did not think the undead Mia bore the slightest resemblance to the person she had been in life.
After hiding inside the extradimensional space, the undead was no longer agitated. When the sun set again, Skyl walked out of the portal and saw a female elf standing beneath the banyan tree. She wore leaves over her body, held a vine staff, and had faintly green hair. Her eyes were as hollow as a forest scarred after a wildfire.
She was a druid, and she met the warlock's gaze.
The female elf stared at the Infinity Scepter in Skyl's hand. When she saw the artifact planted into the mud, she could not help frowning in distress.
"The spirits of nature are terrified. I followed their guidance and found you. Be careful," she said. "There is the aura of an evil spirit nearby. Fiends wish to seize your weapon. If you fear for your life, you may entrust it to us for safekeeping."
Skyl glanced at the elf and said bluntly, "You are not worthy."
The elf had a good temper and gently advised him, "Many humans have tried to resist fiends, but you do not possess the will or the wisdom. In the end, you will be tempted and corrupted."
"I'm afraid fiends are not the only ones coveting the scepter. Elf, you are not a good negotiator. Night has fallen, and rain is coming soon. The storm will draw some fools here. Hurry up and leave." The warlock looked toward the dark clouds gathering in one corner of the sky. Behind him, the undead quietly opened its mouth and lunged to bite his neck.
The elf reminded him, "Behind you."
Skyl formed a gesture with his fingers, and a rope of force bound Mia. "Quiet."
The undead fell silent for a moment, then began hissing uneasily again.
"She bears the mark of the Red Wizards. You will be hunted by the people of Thay," the female elf reminded him again. "Your current situation is very dangerous."
"Dangerous?" Skyl smiled faintly. "Would you believe me if I bribed Ao with lunch and became a god on the spot?"
The druid shook her head and stared at Skyl with pity, as if looking at an idiot. "Pitiful man. You have been completely captured by the artifact's will. You have already begun speaking nonsense."
"This is my scepter. It is not Crenshinibon the Crystal Shard. Do not presume to understand its power. Druid, I rather like your kind, but I only give one warning. Do not try to lay a finger on the scepter."
The warlock's face was covered by the shadow of dusk. Deep in his pupils, faint white candlelight flickered, reflecting an indescribably cold indifference that made the female elf shudder.
Crack.
Thunder rolled along the southern horizon.
Skyl tied Mia onto the saddle, mounted the horse himself, and patted the succubus skull. Its eyes shot out beams of powerful light, illuminating the road. With one sharp command, the gentle mare set off at a brisk trot.
He looked back. The druid beneath the banyan tree had already vanished, and a deer darted into the grass.
"A wild shaper. Not a bad trick," Skyl praised under his breath.
The rain began to pour. It would continue for many days, until the North was buried in mud.
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