Chapter 133: Chapter 133 - Sodden's Hills 13.
[Chapter Size: 2300 Words.]
Third Person POV
Northern kingdoms.
...
...
Madara could only observe for a moment all the destruction now consuming every side where the battle had taken place, while flames of both colors continued to burn and spread through the forest. Yet, there was nothing Madara could do about it.
The only sound was the crackling of the flames around him and the fading echoes of the explosions from the fight. He sighed, watching the red sphere fallen on the ground where Vaalth had been burned. Calmly, he approached it, picking it up and holding it close to his eyes without it having any effect on his skin. He felt a certain dark power emanating from it.
"First, there are demons in this world... Who knows, maybe even in their parallel world; after all, Gaunter o' Dimm must have come from somewhere outside this world. Then, chakra users with more than one member from that extraterrestrial clan. And now, we have a creature from a sort of dark dimension full of evil beings, and from what I managed to extract from the creature, it's called Limbo, the world of darkness. There's a rift in this world that connects Limbo and this world somewhere here... It must be found before that thing returns or more creatures emerge from it..." Madara remarked, still looking at the sphere, thoughtful. He didn't hold back from commenting to himself, reflecting on the bizarre situation he found himself in at that moment.
"What else could surprise me since leaving Cintra...?" he wondered ironically, alone.
Setting those thoughts aside, he looked at the next message as the system opened automatically. He received the notification of the reward as he gained more % from the system. "Terrible timing for this..." he murmured, knowing what would come next.
With no choice, he headed into the forest, moving directly to a spot near a cliff to the south, where he found an empty cave, feeling the transformation in his body beginning.
Even so, he couldn't fully focus on controlling the new amount of chakra at that moment; he needed to send messages with clones to two groups.
With effort, he quickly created two shadow clones, feeling the chakra flowing through his body, trying to keep himself focused, unable to close his eyes, or the clones would vanish. Both clones understood the mission and promptly left, heading directly: one south, the other north.
At the wizards' camp, everyone was still fixated on the north, where the flames burned in the middle of the mountain, with a thick plume of smoke rising to the sky.
"What could have happened?" one of the wizards murmured, analyzing the now calmer situation.
"We don't know, but it was certainly a huge fight... And it seems it's over," another person commented.
"If that boy didn't defeat that thing, I swear I'll open a portal and leave!" exclaimed another voice—Keira—while no one seemed to disagree with the plan.
"Either way, we can't stay here anymore, right? We'll have to check it out," one of the wizards suggested.
"You want to go there? And if that thing is still alive and that boy is dead? If what was described is real, we're all doomed, and you know it!" Keira insisted, fearfully, keeping a tense atmosphere among the group.
"We have no choice. We'll move forward and find out who won that fight. Otherwise, we won't know if we should call for reinforcements and abandon the mission..." Coral spoke this time, but was soon interrupted by Madara's arrival.
Madara appeared from the trees, moving toward the camp, landing in front of everyone, who watched him, surprised.
"You're here! That means you won," Coral commented, stepping forward with interest.
Madara looked at Coral and the other wizards and nodded. "Yes, the path is now clear. You can proceed south, but don't count on me any further. I'll need some time to recover," Madara replied, as the wizards exchanged glances.
"Anyway, I'm leaving," he added.
"Are you injured?" Coral asked, looking at him with a certain intense gaze.
"More or less. Either way, I'm leaving," Madara repeated with a tone devoid of emotion, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, not bothering to conceal it any longer.
Considering this, the northern mages ended up in a discussion among themselves. In the end, they decided to rest before finally heading south. They remained vigilant for any sign of Nilfgaardian reinforcements the next day, as the smoke would likely be visible even from below the mountain.
Meanwhile, another clone of Madara continued moving, descending the mountain rapidly for several hours, until he reached a large camp of Sodden soldiers and the first part of Temeria's army, who were awaiting the approach of Nilfgaard, now visible on the horizon.
The camp was bustling with the impending arrival of the black-clad soldiers, as the battle might begin that very day. Madara ignored the movement around him and entered the camp, reaching the most important tents without being stopped.
It was at this moment that Thorne was in a meeting with the commander of Temeria's forces, General Edmar Kaelen.
"I'm not going to surrender my forces to you, General," Thorne said, firmly.
"But you should. We're here helping you fight, and the least you can do is allow us to take command of your people. I'll be more effective in protecting Sodden than you," the general retorted, his tone harsh.
"So you want to send my men first? Do you think I'm a fool? Denied. Either we work together, or you'll have to discuss this with the mages, as they were the ones who convinced me to accept this alliance," Thorne replied seriously.
"You're just a brat in your twenties. You know nothing about war, boy. It would be better if I took charge, as I'm representing His Majesty Foltest!" the general responded, attempting to undermine the young king's authority.
"I know about war, General, more than you might think. After all, I've been fighting since the beginning of the invasion, while only I and Cintra tried to hold off the Nilfgaardians, and you were up north until now, just entering the battlefield," Thorne scoffed, maintaining a confident tone in the private meeting between the two.
As the general prepared to counter the young king's argument, someone entered the tent, causing both men to turn with displeased expressions, ready to reprimand whoever it was for any trivial reasons, especially if they had overheard part of the conversation.
However, unlike the general, who narrowed his eyes at the sight of a strange young man entering, Thorne froze upon realizing it was Madara calmly walking into the room, indifferent to the presence of a general, a king, both commanding hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
"Who are you?" the general questioned, his tone severe, breaking the silence.
"Madara… is it really you?" Thorne murmured, looking at him in disbelief.
"It's been a long time, Thorne," Madara replied calmly; after all, he hadn't seen him in about two or three years.
"What are you doing here? I thought you had fled north," Thorne said, while the general remained silent for a moment, absorbing the situation. The king seemed to know this stranger, and the cautious look Thorne cast or how he conducted himself spoke volumes about this unfamiliar man.
"I arrived in Sodden a few days ago. I came to take care of some things and plan to join the fight as well, though I can't right now... After all, I'm not really here, dealing with other matters," Madara explained, and Thorne quickly understood what he meant.
The young king was surprised, knowing what Madara had done at the Battle of Cintra, killing thousands of men and weakening Nilfgaard's army much more than they had expected.
"It'll be good to have you here," Thorne admitted, ignoring the general. "A friend of yours came to Sodden some time ago; he said he was from the Hugkil family of Cintra, so I welcomed him in the capital," Thorne commented.
Madara nodded, understanding that Victor Hugkil had followed his instructions to seek out the King of Sodden.
"Anyway, I don't have much time. I need to know where Tissaia or Yennefer is," Madara said, while the general remained silent, but his expression grew displeased. Not only had his conversation been interrupted, but he also realized that Madara seemed to have no respect for either of them, being entirely unknown to the man.
"They are in the southeastern part of the camp, where all the mages are," Thorne replied. In the next instant, both men only blinked, and Madara was already gone.
"What was that?" the general murmured, bewildered for a moment before turning back to the king. "Who is that man?" he demanded, and Thorne sighed.
Meanwhile, Madara advanced quickly toward the area where the magnificently arranged tents housed the mages, who, as usual, displayed a taste for luxury and extravagance. He observed the place filled with magical defenses, trying to pass unnoticed through them.
Then he stopped, noticing someone interesting among a group conversing in the center of the area.
This same person suddenly turned towards the top of the tents, swearing he had felt someone's presence there, although nothing appeared in his line of sight. Still, the intense feeling of being watched was unmistakably clear.
"Is there a problem, Lord Vilgefortz?" his assistant asked, noticing her lord's odd reaction.
"No... I don't think so," he murmured, still looking for another second at the top of the tent before returning to the discussion with several mages in front of him.
Madara continued until he found Tissaia's tent. He saw her from a distance through the gaps, observing her as she manipulated her magical telescopes. When she sensed someone entering, she turned quickly, casting a spell while aiming at Madara, her gaze fixed and irritated.
"Who are you, boy? How dare you come in here?" she said, furious, also watching him cautiously, as this boy appeared anything but ordinary.
For the first time, Tissaia had direct contact with Madara as he remained still, calmly closing his eyes before reopening them, revealing the Sharingan to remind her of him.
"Those eyes..." she murmured, stunned, recalling the eyes she saw when one of her mages was controlled and attempted to kill a king, though Madara didn't know the details. "It was you!" she exclaimed in fury, as even the people outside the tent noticed the chaotic energy of her magic building inside, wondering what was happening in Tissaia's tent.
"Even if you attack me, it won't harm me, Tissaia. I'm here to share some information," Madara remarked, unafraid, while the place seemed to tremble. He had faced things that would make any mage in this world seem like a simple peasant with a shovel compared to him.
"You... you're the one who killed a dozen of my dispatched mages," Tissaia said, her anger growing, nearly releasing her spell at him.
"You should have thought twice before starting to hunt me along with Ciri. In any case, I'm not your enemy this time, or you'd already be dead by now," Madara taunted.
Tissaia narrowed her eyes. "Just say what you want!" she replied, keeping her spell ready to cast at any moment.
"I just came down from Sodden. I found your group of mages there. In fact, not only them, but hundreds of Nilfgaardians and even thirty enemy mages trying to capture them in an ambush or even kill them," he said, leaving her visibly shaken.
"What did you say? Is this true?" she asked, her face tightening, shocked by the revelation, as no one was supposed to know about this. "My mages were heading straight into a trap?" she murmured.
"Yes. Someone reported the plans to the emperor... in any case, almost half of them are dead now. They fought bravely against the Nilfgaardians, even though it cost them their lives," Madara affirmed. "The fight was hard, and they all knew the risk. But at least seven mages are still alive. Triss is an eighth who survived, but she will die soon if left untreated. To not jeopardize the mission, Triss is being taken north by someone trustworthy," Madara explained.
"Is this true?" she murmured, stunned.
"Well, in any case, I'm only here to give you a heads-up," Madara continued. "As I said, Triss is heading north with severe injuries. She needs someone to meet her on the other side; she's with a Witcher from the School of the Wolf, Geralt." He spoke as Tissaia continued to keep her gaze fixed on him, absorbing every word.
"The rest of the mages will proceed south. If Nilfgaard doesn't launch any attack or send reinforcements to the mountains, they will be able to execute the plan and cast spells against the enemy army," Madara concluded, beginning to leave. "In any case, with that said, I'm going."
"Wait!" Tissaia called, looking at him with a strange expression. "Why are you helping us?" she asked.
"As long as you don't meddle with me, I won't be your enemy, Tissaia. But be aware that if something like the forest incident happens again, I will kill every mage who tries to capture me, including you," he said calmly, with a serious tone.
However, Madara added, "And now, we have a common enemy, and I intend to interfere in this war against Nilfgaard as well." With these words, he turned and vanished, transforming into smoke out of everyone's sight before passing all the information to the original Madara.
The real Madara, who had been concentrating for about six hours to contain the chakra flow from bursting out of his body, feeling his chakra on the verge of explosion, finally managed to stabilize himself at that exact moment, knowing that his clones had completed their missions. He closed his eyes, focusing intently while controlling the surge of energy that nearly overtook him.
The cave he was in erupted with blue energy as he struggled to stabilize his strength.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!
I hope each chapter has provided incredible moments. If you like my work and would like to support the continuation of this fanfic, consider becoming a patron with plans starting at $2!. As a token of gratitude, I offer access to more than 210 extra chapters with 7 active fanfics at the same time, along with other exclusive benefits on my profile, such as images and significant decisions for the stories.
Even if you are not a patron, I am making chapters available a few hours earlier here, so become a free member on the platform!
🌟 RaccoonLeague | Patreon🌟
Visit our Patreon for more: https://www.patreon.com/RaccoonLeague
Extra Content Already Available:
🏴☠️ One Piece - I Am a Different Luffy!: 30 extra chapters!
🔮 Danmachi - Infinite Mana System!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!
🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!
🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!
⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters!
Except for One Piece with daily chapters and DragonBorn once a week, all fanfics are updated 3 times a week, there's just a pause in updating in the week, only to create drafts for the week's chapters.
In addition to the extra chapters, daily chapters are posted and 25 chapters per week!
Your support is very important and makes all the difference in keeping these stories alive.
Thank you very much for being part of this journey! I hope you continue to enjoy the story and that it brings even more joy to your life!
Visit our Patreon for more!!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆