Chapter 124: Chapter 124 - Sodden's Hills 04.
[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
...
...
"Are we about a week away from the position Tissaia asked us to reach, aren't we?" a sorcerer asked in the circle of people gathered around.
"Yes... just a bit more, and we'll be there... But we're late... the battle will start soon," another middle-aged man responded.
"Yes... but, you know... I feel like something is strange here... we haven't seen a single animal or monster," another member of the group commented cautiously, finding the situation very unusual.
"Yes... we don't know what's going on, but something is definitely strange here... either way, we need to stay alert," a sorceress replied.
"You all talk too much..." someone interrupted in a bored voice. "I'm going to sleep; there's nothing else to do here anyway," the red-haired woman replied as she walked away.
"As annoying as ever..." Keira muttered next to Triss, watching Coral leave and head toward her tent.
"..." Triss said nothing, her gaze fixed on the forest. At that moment, someone appeared, emerging from the trees and walking toward them. She quickly stood up and prepared a spell.
Naturally, this drew everyone's attention as they turned to see a boy approaching them, dressed in dark, common clothes.
"Who is that?!" one of the sorcerers exclaimed in surprise.
"I set up a detection spell in the area; how could he have gotten past it?!" another sorcerer demanded in an irritated tone, realizing his spell had failed.
"This can't be a mere child... What is this?!" a woman said, alarmed.
Even Coral, who had just laid down on her bed, stood up upon hearing the commotion and murmurs from her companions outside and quickly approached.
"Are you talking about those glowing orbs around the place? It was pretty easy to slip through them... especially since they light up," Madara said, still approaching with a bored tone. He walked past several stones with glowing glyphs on them; it was easy once he saw the numerous cracks in the spell.
"Who are you?!" another mage asked, preparing a spell. Madara's presence clearly aroused suspicion, as they were in the middle of nowhere, and here was a child walking toward them without fear.
Madara finally stopped ten meters away from them. "My name is Madara Uchiha," he simply stated.
"Madara Uchiha...?!" Triss exclaimed, her eyes wide as she recognized the boy's name, seeing him for the first time.
"Who is this... Do you know him?" Keira asked, looking surprised at Triss's reaction.
"I don't know him either, who is he?" another sorcerer asked, equally curious about the boy's identity.
"He's responsible for the deaths of twelve mages and the attempted assassination of the king of Brugge after he controlled one of the mages with some type of mind spell," Coral explained, stepping closer, keeping a cautious eye on the boy, aware that he could kill groups of mages.
"It's true. I had to show what happens when I'm followed," Madara said, admitting it openly, seemingly unconcerned if they hated him.
"Are you here to kill us?!" someone questioned, preparing a spell, as did all those who had been quite calm before. But upon hearing that Madara was responsible for the massacre in Verden, they knew he was dangerous.
Despite the spells being readied to strike him, Madara remained calm, facing them without moving. Lightning and even fire appeared in front of him, conjured by all the mages present. Triss also watched him suspiciously, preparing a spell of her own.
"No, I'm not here to kill you..." Madara broke the tense atmosphere, answering calmly.
"Then why are you here?" Coral raised her voice this time.
"I'm here to warn you. Someone spoke of your expedition, so I came to check the situation, and I easily discovered that the Nilfgaardian Empire already knows you're setting up an ambush for the battle up in the mountains..." he said, taking all the mages by surprise.
"How do they know about this?!" one of the sorcerers asked, perplexed.
Madara shrugged, unconcerned with explaining his suspicions. It wasn't his place to provide details; he merely dropped a hint about who might be responsible for Yennefer and left it to her to investigate further.
"Why should we trust you? You killed our companions in Verden!" another mage spoke up, the group visibly tense both because Nilfgaard might know their movements and due to the presence of someone recently infamous as a mage-killer.
"And I'll kill them again if they keep pursuing me, especially if they go after my companion," he replied in a firm tone.
"So he's the one with the princess of Cintra?!" some of them exclaimed as Madara mocked them with a look.
"I fear neither you nor your group, no matter who you are... not the Nilfgaardian Empire, nor the whole North," Madara declared, his confidence evident despite the audacious words coming from a teenager.
"What nonsense! Should we just capture or kill him?" someone suggested.
Triss glanced at Keira, frowning as she prepared a spell, then looked at Madara, who gave a mocking smile as he heard the mage's suggestion, as if daring them to try while he remained fearless, facing the many spells prepared to be cast at him.
"Wait!" Triss exclaimed, stepping forward and dispelling her spell, worried about what might happen to everyone there if they pursued that insane idea of fighting someone who had already killed nearly as many as were present. She turned to him, her voice wavering slightly. "Just tell me why we should trust you." She continued, trying to calm her companions as she stepped forward.
"Because we have a common enemy," Madara replied, arms crossed. "I am also an enemy of the Empire and am willing to fight them on the Sodden border. That's why I'm here, and I intend to head south," he concluded.
"An enemy of Nilfgaard—why wouldn't he be with them? He must be here to deceive us!" someone said as Madara looked at him with disdain, wondering why he kept encountering such fools.
"Think a bit more carefully; he fled with the princess of Cintra when the emperor clearly has been hunting them since Cintra, and we've heard of a boy with red eyes killing many of the emperor's men... so it's more likely that the boy is indeed an enemy of Nilfgaard," Coral responded sharply, analyzing the facts while casting a scornful look at her colleague who had spoken so foolishly.
"In any case, I just came to warn you that there's likely a group of mages coming to kill you, so you'd best watch yourselves," Madara said, wanting to end the conversation.
"Wait! Can you tell us where the Nilfgaardians are?!" someone quickly asked.
"The Nilfgaardians are dead, so don't worry about them; just focus on the imperial mages who could arrive at any moment," Madara replied.
"..." The group fell silent.
Madara said nothing further, leaping into the trees as everyone watched him disappear into the forest, transforming into smoke a few meters away, his presence vanishing. He avoided revealing his clone technique to these mages, though many likely suspected his abilities.
"..." All the mages remained there in silence, their spells gradually fading as they could no longer find a reason to attack Madara after everything he had said.
"Should we trust him?" someone asked, still with an attack spell ready in case the boy returned.
"Do we have a choice?" Surprisingly, it was Triss who spoke this time. Thinking over everything Madara had said, it seemed very likely that he was telling the truth; there was no reason for the boy to have come all the way here to deceive them.
"But he killed our companions; we shouldn't be trusting someone like that!" another mage insisted, continuing to distrust Madara, which was understandable after everything that had happened.
"Yes, but we also pursued him in the middle of a forest at night. Do you expect him to welcome us with open arms?" Coral questioned this time. Though insufferable and petty most of the time, she still knew how to use her head.
She continued, "Tissaia made a big mistake thinking they could reclaim the princess of Cintra. Anyway, I believe that boy, and we should rest. We can't simply abandon this mission; any portal used here will end up revealing our location, which would be worse. But at the same time, we need to make sure we're prepared for an enemy attack, as the boy mentioned." She spoke, returning to her tent, leaving the group of mages still looking at each other, pondering what to do.
In the end, they all nodded in agreement, and after that, they began to organize themselves to rest and prepare for a possible Nilfgaardian mage attack during the rest of the night.
Meanwhile, Madara was already back in the forest, observing the darkness around that area, which was much more sinister than all other parts of the forest. The atmosphere there was grim, more so than any other part he had seen.
Before entering this place, he received memories from the clone that had met with the sorcerers but set them aside, as they no longer mattered. His focus was ahead, his expression cold and sharp as he activated his Sharingan, sensing a large movement in front of him.
"What happened to these monsters?" he murmured, looking at a place full of monsters in the distance, though they appeared different from the creatures he usually encountered.
They wandered like zombies, their movements clumsy and awkward. There were all sorts of monsters together, from simple Nekkers and their pack to sturdy Golems, along with Necrophages, Arachnomorphs, and even two Leshens, one of which had attacked him yesterday.
It seemed every monster he could find in the forest was gathering here, as he hadn't encountered any since the start of his investigation.
"Well then, let's see what's going on here," he said before moving forward, jumping directly into the massive group of strange monsters to investigate them.
At the same time, Nilfgaardian mages were on the move. A portal appeared at another camp Madara had passed, where curiously, there were no bodies, only blood and an air of death—every corpse seemed to have vanished.
"Did you find anything?" a mage asked the sorcerer stepping out of the portal.
"Yes, I found a group camping to the north thanks to their bonfire... They're probably our targets, but I don't think they're connected to the empty camps," he replied.
"These soldiers were here just a few days ago, and now they're all gone... likely dead. What the hell happened?" one of the mages murmured, concerned.
"We have something more important to focus on right now," their leader spoke. "Our target has appeared. Let's get ready to ambush them, destroy them, and find out what's going on here..." he commanded.
They all agreed and prepared to launch an attack on the northern mages at last.
Further north from the camp where these mages were located, even in the dead of night, Geralt continued galloping at full speed to reach the mages who, according to Madara's clone, weren't far away.
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