After meeting with the party, Eden did not immediately leave Baldur's Gate, and instead flew out of the Elfsong Tavern, where the party rested, and flew over the city, looking for points of interest.
The city was incomparably larger than it had been in the game, but its layout was essentially the same, allowing Eden to find important places easily. Honestly, as he flew through the night sky, a part of him was tempted to just swoop down and kill the Netherbrain and be done with it, but that would be a waste.
Though dangerous, he still had things to do, things that would net him great rewards.
He tried to look for Players, but Superior Truesight was not X-Ray, so he could not see through walls. He could look into a being, like he had done with Karlach, but not through solid stone walls.
Still, he was able to observe a few things. One was that the Szarr Palace was still active, meaning they had not yet dealt with Cazador. Actually, most points of interest were still active, be it Wyrm's Rock, the Steel Watch Foundry and others.
He also noticed many men of arms spread through the city, even at night, a clear sign of different factions gathering for the endgame.
On another note, Baldur's Gate was a beautiful coastal city, and Eden even got to take a look at the Upper City, an area unavailable in the game.
Before dawn could break though, Eden was gone, teleporting off to the Astral Sea. In reality, Gale's sigil to the teleportation circle was useless to Eden, as the names of the city and Lae'zel description was enough for him to teleport over.
He had been helpless before because he truly had no idea of where the Githyanki people resided, other than that it was in the Astral Sea. Getting the names of not only the city but the palace, as well as short descriptions of them, was enough along with some divination magic to teleport over.
Eden appeared in the seemingly infinite expanse that was the Astral Plane. It looked like he had suddenly appeared in the middle of space, surrounded by countless stars. He was not in a void either, but surrounded by what one might think was star durst, but was instead a heavy concentration of mana.
He could feel his MP regeneration was at least twice as fast, and he suspected that any spell would also be slightly strengthened in this place. Eden thus carved a piece of the nearby space into a demiplane, adding to his collection.
Objects within the Astral Plane were quite far from each other, but Eden had teleported above the Githyanki capital of Tu'narath.
As Lae'zel had told him, it was build on the giant corpse of a six-armed deity. Even after thousands of years of development, the Githyanki city only looked like a fungus spreading over the corpse, its initial structure left intact.
Most of the city was sprawled over the top of the rib-cage, as well as the six arms, but there was also a castle apart from the rest of the city, floating above the city and attached to the skull. Eden guessed Vlaakith was hiding in there.
Although he could attack head on, Eden decided to scout the place first, keeping a proper distance as he analyzed the city, looking for its defences. This was not the same as conquering the Abyss.
Due to their nature, despite their overwhelming power, most Demon Lords were either alone in their fortress, or they only relied on themselves to defend against threats.
Vlaakith was a paranoid ruler of an entire race though, so things were different.
While Vlaakith's paranoia stopped any Githyanki from reaching any proper level of power, as Eden did not see a single one of them who reached Tier II, there were several dozens of red dragons. They were only Adult Red Dragons, meaning not too strong, but enough to be a bother.
Looking at things, Eden felt almost tempted to just hop in the abyssal demiplane with his Simulacrum and focus on creating an X-Ray spell to shoot her with his Bow of Darkness from outside, but refrained from doing so. It would be cheap, and far too much effort for someone like Vlaakith.
Still, Eden decided to make the best preparations he could, and stepped into his new demiplane, the one carved out of the Astral Sea, and cast his buffing skills. Avatar of Wrath lasted 30 minutes, Superior Truesight 8 hours and Foresight for 8 hours as well.
The last two both lasted 8 hours, and although Foresight was largely useless, Eden still cast it along Superior Truesight every 8 hours since it hardly changed anything to him with how fast his regeneration was.
He had several hours left for these two spells, so Eden only cast Avatar of Wrath on himself this time, choosing the radiant version since it would be cast with Angelic Flame in that case, and started meditating.
In the past, that would not have been viable, as Avatar of Wrath would run out before he could recover his MP. With the Boon of the Archmage, and later Godly Magic, that changed.
Since it took him 4.8 minutes to recover his entire MP now, in the mana-dense Astral Demiplane, it only took him 2.4 minutes to recover his whole MP. With his Robes of the Archmagi on, as well as the Wand of Supreme Fear, Eden's Intelligence was boosted to 2134 MP.
This meant that while meditating in this particular demiplane, Eden recovered nearly 15 MP per second.
Meanwhile, casting Avatar of Wrath only cost Eden 473 MP, largely because of the Tier difference. It was a Tier III Spell after all.
But with a rate of nearly 15 (14.82) MP per second, it only took Eden 32 seconds to recover that MP. Even without his Astral Demiplane, it would take 64 seconds.
And thanks to this, Eden was able to enter combat with all his MP, as well as all his buffing spells active.
Exiting his demiplane, Eden decided to strike fast and hard, and with a flap of his wings, flew directly at the castle, feeling a moderately strong presence there from his Foresight.
Using his own body as a battering ram, reinforcing it with Cursed Energy of course, Eden burst straight through the solid stone wall, breaching through a few more walls at top speed, before landing in what appeared to be a throne room.
There, Vlaakith was sitting on her throne, with a group of Githyanki warriors standing besides her throne, staring forward blankly. It was like their souls had been stripped away from them, and considering Vlaakith's nature as a lich, it might very well be the case.
While entering the room, Eden also continually shredded the surrounding space, turning any sort of teleportation spells under Tier III nearly impossible. He had used this technique to throw off the sure-hit effect of domains, but it was originally intended to mess with teleportation. Eden had derived the technique from his creation of Demiplane.
Vlaakith herself appeared shocked to see him, though whether she knew his identity or not was a mystery. Still, she was garbed fully in silver armor, along with many accessories that hummed with power, all probably either Super Rare or Unique in quality.
Three pieces of equipment were obviously stronger than the others, however. Her silver greatsword, her golden crown, and her scepter made out of a dragon horn.
[Name: Vlaakith]
[Title: Vlaakith CLVII, Lich Queen, Undying Queen]
[Talent: ?]
[Perks: Tier II, Royal Grace II, Spirit Glacier II, Truesight, Rejuvenation, Turn Resistance, Magic Resistance]
[HP: 370/370]
[MP: 2475/2475]
[Strength: 25]
[Agility: 55]
[Physique: 37]
[Intelligence: 95]
[Wisdom: 21]
[Immunity: Cold II, Lightning II]
[Resistances: Poison II, Bludgeoning II, Slashing II, Piercing II, Psychic II]
[Weaknesses: Radiant II]
Honestly, her attributes were better than Eden expected. Her Intelligence was the highest he had seen in a 'mortal', if he remembered right. It was above even Elminster, although the old man more than made up with his numerous perks.
Vlaakith was weak to Radiant damage, however, and that weakness was at Tier II. Even if it had been at Tier III, Eden could have triggered it with Avatar of Wrath, but this made things even easier. A Weakness at Tier II meant that only Tier II and higher amounts of that damage could trigger it.
Before she could say or do anything, Eden pointed his Wand of Supreme Fear at her, and chanted, "I cast Starburst."
A concentrated bead of fire shot out of the spell circle, reaching the Lich Queen in an instant, and exploding in a sea of flames. Had it been before, these flames would have been white hot because of Holy Flame, but since it had evolved into Angelic Flame, they became a little darker, turning grey.
The explosion spread through the throne room, barely stopping before Eden. He could choose how much the explosion would expand, so he made it be as large as possible without affecting him. He might have Immunity to Radiant and Poison damage, Eden only had Resistance to Fire damage thanks to Avatar of Wrath.
When the flames disappeared, all of Vlaakith's warriors had disappeared, and her throne, as well as the immediate area around it, had been turned to ash.
Vlaakith herself still lived however. She was surrounded by a magical barrier, which had apparently stopped his spell.
His features sharpening with focus, Eden flapped his wings, crossing the entire room in an instant, and punched at the barrier with his free hand, shattering it in a single blow. Before he could attack Vlaakith however, she Misty Stepped away.
Reappearing into the material plane, she took out a scroll, and ripped it apart.
Narrowing his eyes, Eden retreated instead of advancing, and cast Shattering Darkness on her.
But as she was surrounded by the darkness, which started attacking her mind, the messy spacetime around them was suddenly sent into even further chaos, as if it was ripped open as a new presence appeared. It appeared outside.
Sensing this, Eden immediately took out his Bow of Darkness, shadows converging into an arrow as he pulled on the string, and let it go.
As the arrow was let out, the top of the castle was straight up ripped off, revealing a giant dragon. Eden could only see a part of it, yet it was still larger than any he had ever seen. More importantly, it had five heads.
[Name: Tiamat]
[Title: Bane of Bahamut, Dragon Queen, The Dark Lady, Nemesis of the Gods, Queen of Chaos, Goddess of the Elements]
[Talent: ?]
[Perks: Tier III, Magic Immunity I, Draconic Might III, Dragon Scales III, Draconic Regeneration, Frightful Presence, Truesight, Domain of the Dragon]
[HP: 2835/2835]
[MP: 900/900]
[Strength: 105]
[Agility: 18]
[Physique: 105]
[Intelligence: 90]
[Wisdom: 80]
[Immunity: Cold III, Lightning III, Fire III, Poison III, Acid III, Bludgeoning III, Slashing III, Piercing III]
[Resistances: None]
[Weaknesses: None]
But the arrow had already reached Vlaakith, and although she had Truesight, it would not have been enough to see the arrow come. And even then, she was surrounded by the Shattering Darkness, so she was caught completely unaware as the arrow cleanly went through her head, killing her in a single shot.
Her soul flew out of her body, and although it was supposed to go to her Phylactery, Eden's Binding Vow Lone Wolf's Bite overpowered that, and stole her soul away, attaching it to Eden's body, and truly killing the Lich Queen.
[Side Mission (Take down the Usurper) Completed!]
[Main Reward: Vlaakith's Regalia.]