The Mummy Lord of the Serpent Hills watched the Heavenly realms of Mount Celestia in great detail. Normally, such places would be under heavy security of the Archons and their Lordships.

But for someone like Diderius, it was a walk in the park. Not only he was the best divination expert of ancient Netherese Empire, he also possessed the Pool of Divination, which boosted his already strong scrying abilities to a whole new level.

The Pool of Divination, was not a meager artifact, it was basically a major artifact in terms of function. As this pool was capable of scrying into different planes of reality with relative ease. Combined with his divination magic, he could even watch the inhabitants of these realities with extreme precision. It was not his artifact at all, but he was lucky that nobody claimed the authority over this pool. As that would be a huge loss for him and his research.

He'd attempted to check upon gods as well, but the Pool failed to show any glimpse of what these divine entities be doing in their leisure. He should have known that the gods were prepared for what he was doing. That had put contingencies, restrictions and counters against his divination.

But he was no slouch either. He had extended his defenses against unknown attacks from the bery beginning of his mortal training. His skills as a divination expert were the reasons why nobody was able to raid his castle despite its location was known to everyone. Only a lesser deity or someone equal to them was capable of reaching upto him. Though he doubted that that day would come.

If there was a wizard of his pool's level divination mastery, then they would not care about his existence. For them, hiding from his divination would be just annoying, not dangerous enough to make an enemy out of him.

Today was no different than the rest of his days. The very same practices to advance his skills in divination, until his anti-scrying alarms rang uncontrollably.

Wait. His anti-scrying alarms?

Diderius looked at the bells around of him as they rang magically in the air. In other words, he was being invaded. Somebody was invading his home!

"Take your positions!"

He did not waste any commands as two wraiths emerged out of nowhere. They were his ideal bodyguards who were strong enough to face most adventurers. Most, if not all.

He was prepared with his teleportation spells as well, however, his anti-teleportation wards must be lifted at the same time. If the enemy had Dimensional Lock, then he would Unlock it. If they had wards to counter the unlocking spell, then he would —

'Knock, Knock.'

The doors of his room was knocked by someone. There was no sound other than the knocking.

'Knock, Knock.'

The knocks came again. This time, Diderius used his Divination Pool to check upon this unwanted guest. But nothing appeared on the pool. It was crystal clear.

A tensed atmosphere filled his room as Diderius wondered about who could have visited him.

A quasi-deity?

A demigod?

Or...?

Diderius knew that his delay in response might anger his unwarranted guest. Those who stood at the apex of power would not mind abusing their powers upon those who were weaker than them. Diderius, in his time as a Netherese wizard, was aware of this harsh reality. The only thing that surprised him that his doors were still intact, not destroyed right away.

He gestured the wraith to open the door. If this diviner could resist his scrying, then his chances of escape were already zero.

From the gates, a man cloaked in deep purple robes entered with a majestic walk. His extremely rich aura showcased his prosperous power, while the Staff of Magi in his other hand brimmed with magic.

A client?

Diderius was rightfully perplexed. He assumed someone like a monster to wreck his defenses, not a wizard. Normally, a diviner of great expertise in his field would check around for any hidden traps and alarms. The custom of diviners was to share notes than entering each other domains like they owned it. Some diviners would even use highly encrypted codes or Messages to communicate with each other.

In other words, the person before him was not diviner, as his lack of understanding the customs had given him enough proof that it was most likely the effect of a powerful abjuration spell that protected him against his scrying. This explained a lot about his visitor's way of walking towards him in an arrogant way.

There was a fragrance of flowers coming from him too. It was the familar smell from the inhabitants of Feywild. Generally, he would have ignored the odour, but the immediate greetings of his guest interrupted his thoughts.

"Nice to meet you, Lord Diderius. I am Satoru Suzuki, a wandering magic caster. But you can call me Satoru."

Diderius nodded in suspicion, "Likewise."

"My sudden arrival may have surprised you, but I assure. I carry no ill will towards. I just heard that you are the best divination mage around here, so I decided to seek your little help. Hope you don't mind."

"While I don't mind..., your sudden interruption to my works may have caused troubles to me. Your barging at my castle did not make me feel secured at all. You come to my home, disrupting my magical sensors, activating all of my alarms and disturbing my peaceful activities. This will not be forgotten." While the Mummy Lord was aware of his place, he had his rights to put his complaints over him.

"Ah apologies. I thought those alarms were to introduce my arrival at your home. If there is any way to amend my mistakes, feel free to tell me."

Diderius hummed. The fact that this caster was going polite over here instead of using some crass language, told him enough of this caster's rich background.

"Fine. If you truly feel sorry for your mistakes, then... I have a quest for you. Fulfill it and I will forget about your abrupt entry."

A part of Diderius was still angry at him for calling his defenses as "welcoming alarm". He made those alarms as a means to put a gap between him and the invaders. After he lost the book of Netherese magic, he had became a little paranoid over such things.

"And what thus quest entails exactly? If you want me to fight against the likes of gods then, I will be in trouble."

The Mummy Lord chuckled at his jest. This guy had a great sense of humor. Fighting against a deity? Now, that sounded like a good idea to scare others.

"No. Not that extreme. What I want you to do, is to kill the people of Chessentea. Weaken the power Tchazzar and bring back his corpse to me."

"What? Chessentea?"

"Yes, Chessentea. I want you to kill all the worshippers of Tchazzar and make him a mortal again. Since more than half of the Chessentea worships him, you know what to do? And if you are afraid of completing this task, then you can get lost. I am not helping in whatever you want."

Diderius might be open for discussion, but he was not going to be easy on those who seemed his help. It was his personal way to remove the determined person out of the bumbling fools, who considered him a weakling. He–

"Alright. Think it is done. Just tell me coordinates of this city state and I will get this Tchazzar for you."

"It is understandable you can't do this task on your own as killing a whole city is– Wait! Come again?"

"I will kill this Tchazzar for you. In return, you will help me. Deal?"

Diderius blinked in surprise.

"My, I never thought that you were that desperate for my help."

"Desperate? No, that's not correct. I just can't let all the free XP go in waste."

"Axe-pee? What is that thing?" Diderius asked, but Satoru shrugged off his shoulders.

"First my coordinates? Please."

Chessentea was a beautiful place. A city full of passionate people who loved anything related to wars. Their mindset of fighting and making disputes were deeply rooted all the way back in their days as enemy cities. But it was never considered vicious enough to kill each other.

The city revolved around the idea of War Hero. A concept which maintained the integrity of Chessentea for many years. And the one who enjoyed this nation more than anything, was none other Tchazzar— the Ascendant Red Dragon.

For many decades, he was gathering the respect and faith of these people. Like their God, their messiah, their Supreme ruler and their everything. The very idea of getting godhood was more interesting than bathing in the sea of gold coins. Of course, the people of Chessentea gave taxes to him and in return, he became richer than ever in his life.

And because Tiamat was currently weakened to the level of a Lesser Deity, he had a chance to rise as a new God and replace her. Just few more decades and he would be strong enough to recognized as a demigod. With that level of power, he would enforce his control over the rest of the Faerun with relative ease. Even that Imvaernarho would bow down to his true power.

As of now, he was taking notes of the current financial status of the Chessentea. As it wholly dependent upon the exports of the weapons, many countries who signed the pact of non-aggression were increasing day by day.

A part of him wanted to ask a Sapphire Dragon to incite wars among the likes of Neverwinter and Waterdeep. If not those chosens of Mystra, he would have declared war upon them. With his divine spark, the walls of Waterdeep would not be able to stop him from exerting his breath attack upon those puny mortals. He would...

"What's this ruckus?" his financial expert lashed at guards waiting outside. One of the guards came in with a horrified look.

"Un-un-unde-"

"Speak clearly! You are in front of the majesty!"

"Th-There are undeads in the city! A lot of undeads!"

Tchazzar was confused. Like he heard an absurd joke. His fame might be well-known in Chessentea, but the other countries were aware of him being the ruler of Chessentea was true as well.

His strength, his holy fire breath, and his cunning, were enough to scare any undead. Even the likes of Thayan were afraid of facing him in the battle of diplomacy. Fighting him head on was a foolish dream that none of those little bones could achieve on theor own.

"Thayans have attacked us?" He asked to the messenger.

"I don't think so Your Majesty. They do not wear the usual red robes, but I think they might be hiding their true origins. It will be better if his Majesty joins the battle as well and boost the morals of the soldiers."

Tchazzar smirked. Of course his presence was required in the battle field.

He smiled at the prospect of killing these damned undeads and get this itching feeling off from him. A passionate urge to kill something was always there, all he wanted was to enjoy destroying his adversary and make them beg for his forgiveness.

"Then I must not wait any more time. I am going to fix this issue myself."

As he said those words, he teleported outside of his magnificent castle. The scene around him changed instantly, and as he watched over his city he roared mightily.

"Who dares to attack at my domain?"

The entire city was devoid of his subjects. No men, no women and no children were running around in the city. The city was fully intact and seemed undamaged.

While he never cared about his brainwashed slaves, he was feeling concerned about his city then. His draconic gaze rolled over the whole city, thinking of this silence as a mere illusionary spell. He teleported to another city, asking for help from the adventurers to find his pupils and die for the sake of him.

And the same picture followed there as well. He checked every single city, from the darkest lanes to the most active locations and yet, he found none of his subjects. Where were his people? What happened to Chessentea? Without his subjects, how he was going to ascend to godhood. The lack of his livestocks were enough to scare him.

He quickly teleported back to his palace and dashed to his treasury. Of course, the palace had gone empty as well. In his absence, his remaing livestocks were kidnapped as well. Even his treasury was empty too!

"Who are you? What kind of prank you are pulling upon me? Show yourself!"

His words fell to empty ears as the silence of his home greeted him back. His mind was raging for answers. It needed answers for this whole mess.

As he was about to lash out again, he heard the steps of someone from his behind.

Looking at the source of these footsteps, he met the gaze of a skeleton undead. No, it was not just a skeleton, it wore a very expensive looking robe. The jewelleries on his visage were enough to perk his greed nose to smell them. They were rare. They were going to be his.

"You are Tchazzar, correct?" The undead asked like an authoritarian.

Normally, Tchazzar would have killed him for pulling this prank, but his greed put his anger at bay. He wanted those items for himself. He decided to play along with this elder lich.

"It is Your Majesty, Tchazzar. Or, you can say the greatest among the dragonkind. But if you give me all of your belongings, I may think of forgiving you for your insolence."

The undeads stopped and stared directly at him. He drew out his hand like he was begging for something, and then, an ethereal heart appeared in his hand.

What?

The lich pressed the heart and it busted into blood. Suddenly, Tchazzar felt a throbbing pain in his body. He felt weakened for some reason, but attempted to shrug it off.

Whatever this lich did to him, he would not let him do that again.

"So you have chosen death!"

The dragon raised his voice and swiped his claws over him. But the lich disappeared from his previous spot.

"Death? How amusing. I am the death."

Just as those words came, three slashes out of nowhere cut down his wings. The wings did not fell, as his innate regeneration kicked in.

He activated his Clairvoyance, Invulnerability and Foresight spells immediately. He was not going to die at the hands of a mere lich.