[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Skellige.
...
...
The first thing Madara did was create multiple wood clones.
They appeared around his body, jumping to each side, taking on an identical color to Madara's right after.
There were at least a hundred of them, while Madara returned with a slightly tired look — after all, wood was much more exhausting than shadow clones, due to the quality of these clones, which could use jutsus and even the abilities of the Sharingan based on the chakra reserve each clone had.
He didn't need much to deal with the mages of this world, so he made such a large number and split his chakra this way. It would be much easier to find what he was looking for with this number.
For him, it was a common sight. But the other two pairs of feminine eyes seemed shocked to see the crowd of clones appearing around the small hideout he and Ciri had taken the previous day.
Ciri was shocked. She had seen, at most, twenty-five of Madara's clones, and now he had made five times more. And they weren't smoke-made clones, like he usually did. He had said that these wood clones were much more powerful, so she couldn't help but be impressed, while the vampire was left speechless.
She had never heard of someone who could multiply and create such perfect copies of themselves. Now, she could see a crowd looking at the boy who was already too dangerous alone, and she believed all the rumors about him.
She knew this and felt all the possible fears of being so close to him... With her vampire instincts telling her that, if he became a threat to her, she would have to run, flee as far as possible, for there was no confidence she could handle that boy. She had never felt so oppressed in front of anyone before; Madara seemed anything but human.
"Well, let's head to the base, and the clones will circle all the villages," Madara said, breaking the mood.
At that moment, all the clones darted off in various directions, while his gaze returned to the griffin, on which Madara had placed a saddle.
Totó seemed a little uncomfortable with that thing strapped to him, but didn't refuse. It was very likely this was the first griffin in this world's history to have a saddle.
Madara went to Totó, asking Ciri and Eleanor to join him.
The next moment, he shot off, heading toward the point Eleanor had marked on the map.
The vampire was behind Madara while Ciri was in front of him. Eleanor seemed a bit uncomfortable flying through the air on top of a strangely tamed monster, but said nothing. The griffin advanced until reaching the region.
"There it is," Eleanor pointed to some ruins as soon as they arrived.
Madara activated his Sharingan, checking for anything on the surface, but saw no one. Everything began to lower before slowly landing.
"Ciri, check if there's any trap."
As soon as she began, her eyes glowed while she checked the entrance of the ruins, seeing a staircase going down.
Then, she had a glimpse of the future to look for traps.
It was more like training than something truly precise, since Madara could also check with his Sharingan.
Ciri then saw.
"There are several dark spots and some explosive runes made by mages," she said as her eyes stopped glowing.
"Can you disable those?" he asked, standing beside Eleanor, with Ciri studying for a moment before nodding.
"Yes, I'll try," she replied, drawing her sword, which began to emit a green glow.
With it, she started cutting at the entrance. Soon, lights and beams began to appear as Ciri advanced, breaking shields and even traps, using the power of the Elder Blood in a raw way.
They entered shortly after, moving toward the entrance.
"The place seems to be empty..." the vampire commented with some frustration, sniffing the air.
"Obviously, after you raided this place, they wouldn't keep it occupied anymore. But that doesn't matter, let's just finish checking the place and head to the other hideouts you know. We're here only to make sure nothing gets overlooked," Madara said.
The room was completely empty, but there were signs it had been used for experiments. There were even strange chairs with belts to restrain people there.
"That's what he's doing... He's taking placentas from girls," Eleanor growled with pure hatred.
At that moment, Madara remained silent, but felt even more disgust, knowing very well that Vilgefortz was a sick man by nature and that they would have to eliminate him.
"Well, there's nothing here. Let's move on to other places," Madara said in the end.
They went back outside after a thorough search, finding many small pieces of evidence that the place had been occupied until a few months ago, which matched the date Eleanor had raided the place.
Then, they returned to the griffin and headed to another hideout she knew.
In that one, they didn't expect to find anyone, and Ciri once again broke all the magical barriers.
They advanced, finding experiments but no one around. There was a laboratory, cauldrons, and books. With a quick glance, they saw research on human anatomy and even mortal remains, but the laboratory didn't seem to have been used in the last two months.
"So, we didn't find anyone," Eleanor murmured with some anger.
"No, but that doesn't mean we're stopping now. Let's head to the next."
The third hideout was just ruins; there was nothing, not even a barrier.
In the fourth, they went to a fortress near the mountain. There were even ancient scrolls from the School of the Bear, showing studies on the creation of new armor, with diagrams just like in the game.
Madara kept the scrolls and moved on, finding no new creatures.
It was only in the fifth hideout that they finally found clues. The place was currently being used, but there was no one there. There was a diary, and the sorcerer who occupied the place seemed to have some connection to Vilgefortz, as he was mentioned several times in the diary.
"We should wait a little. He might not take long," Eleanor murmured, eager for a lead. Capturing this sorcerer was the best chance they would have.
"I'll leave a clone here for now. Let's go to the others. When he arrives, we should check all the places. We can cover the whole island flying," Madara said.
Eleanor nodded as he left a wood clone hidden, transforming it into some piece of the laboratory so it would stay inert until something happened.
Then, they continued flying toward their next objectives.
A few hours had passed until a portal appeared in that same hideout.
From it stepped out a man with skin as pale as a vampire's, brown hair, and black eyes. He walked toward the middle of his laboratory, unaware that people had been there not long ago, since Madara had left everything untouched to avoid raising suspicion. But that didn't stop the sorcerer from noticing that something was wrong.
He stopped after a few steps, sensing something strange.
"Why is this...? I just went to check something at the castle, and it seems the barrier has disappeared..."
The man narrowed his eyes, looking toward the exit. There was no longer any barrier that he could sense, which made him immediately prepare to leave. But it was already too late.
Suddenly, an explosion erupted behind him. He barely had time to react before his mouth was covered by a hand, and darkness consumed him.
Madara was still checking all the places and finishing the inspection of all the bases Eleanor knew. He was also supervising some locations after being called by the clones.
As he passed through the island, some clones summoned him to deliver their reports, and after some searching, they found hidden entrances.
It was no surprise that they discovered more dungeons, laboratories belonging to other sorcerers, and even druids.
In any case, Madara felt his scroll activate, bringing a message from one of the clones he had left at the site. He checked the information and nodded, directing the griffin back to that sorcerer's laboratory.
When the sorcerer opened his eyes, he was facing the boy and two women, one young and the other slightly older. He immediately recognized the younger two — after all, he had gone to King Bran's castle to check on them and deliver a message to Vilgefortz.
But he barely had time to say anything before the boy's red eyes dragged him into something unknown, as his mind was invaded.
Madara managed to extract information from him. Although he didn't know exactly where Vilgefortz was, he discovered some interesting things. Vilgefortz was indeed preparing a plan to ruin his wedding. Not to the point of wanting to kill him directly, but rather to undermine his allies.
He planned to ally with the Bear Men clan and put something in their drink so they would transform into their bestial form, provoking a bloodbath and making the massacre fall on him, with an obvious culprit. He knew very well that this wouldn't be able to kill Madara, but he wanted to isolate him politically.
This mage, named Daurng of Vich, was assisting Vilgefortz in this task, altering the wine that would be served at the wedding and contacting members of the Bear Men factions, as well as a contact inside the castle, so they could enter the banquet.
"Well, you did a good job," Madara said to his wood clone that had captured the man at the location. He dispelled it the next moment.
"So we're not going to learn his location?" Eleanor asked, raising an eyebrow.
Madara seemed thoughtful about what to do.
"This man doesn't know. It seems this is a way for Vilgefortz to ensure that certain information, such as his location, is hidden even from his allies. Smart, knowing what I'm capable of... I could even force him to contact that mage and ask for his location, but it seems it would be useless... That would raise suspicion, and he might flee. We need to find the person who knows where he is."
"Why do we have to do that? We have this man... I'm sure you can control him easily," the vampire said firmly.
Madara shook his head.
"No. We can't let Vilgefortz know we're looking for him. I want to do this the right way, so he thinks we're still only interested in the wedding and not after him." He then looked at Ciri.
"Can you get anything?" he asked.
"I can try. Give me a minute," she said, moving to the center of the place.
"What are you going to do with him?" the vampire asked, looking at the bound sorcerer.
Madara didn't answer and simply took a kunai, slitting the man's throat in such a swift motion that the vampire couldn't even follow it.
Blood spurted as the man began to choke, looking in fear and terror, until he stopped breathing.
Ciri went to check the past of that place, looking for any clue as to where Vilgefortz might be. She was able to see, through the timeline, conversations between this sorcerer and Vilgefortz through the telescope, but she tried to trace the origin of the magic when Vilgefortz appeared in the magic mirror to speak to his subordinate and request information. However, she failed.
When Ciri returned, Madara was already beside the corpse, which remained seated in the sorcerer's chair. She shook her head in slight disappointment.
"I couldn't see anything," she said.
Madara nodded.
"It's all right. Let's continue. We also have to deal with the Bear tribe," he said calmly.
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