I gathered an army (Ossir showed up very opportunely at the very beginning, by the way), went to the prophet and through the gardens, gardens... to the Dungeon in search of artifacts. Faiyan went with Luck and Diplomacy, and along the way, neutrals started joining, I don't remember the number of Forest Archers. In general, he collected the artifacts, showed them to the prophet, and received the Phoenix... And then the most interesting part began... A game called "Now try to catch Nicholas!"
He ran away, in short... :smile39: By the way, if you take the lower left Necropolis in the Dungeon, he (Nicholas) is somehow drawn to it, like a fly to honey. :smile24:
It's better not to approach Nicholas without Phoenixes. At any danger, teleport to the city. You know, he revives after a fight, the undead ghoul:smile24:, and his army grows exponentially.
By the way, in the English version, he is not Nicholas, but Nikolai:D