[Chapter Size: 3500 Words.]
Third Person POV
Novigrad.
...
...
"But it's not that simple." Ciri added before things became even more tense.
"And you have something to do with this. After all, Francesca was looking for you..." Ciri said to Madara.
She must have realized that the elf would confess that she knew about the conversation between her lady, Francesca, and Madara, which had taken place in Aretuza. Ciri was also already aware of that conversation. After all, Madara and Ciri intended to open Cintra's borders to elves who wished to live in peace and who had not committed any serious crimes.
Ciri said this while Madara nodded. "That's true."
The elf had to admit it. "Then you know... My lady wanted me to have information about you, since you had left this world... She just didn't want to put all her chips on a single path, so she asked me to act within the Akatsuki until you were found again..."
"I don't see any problems with her reasons. As long as she didn't betray everyone else, her only role was to inform her lady and arrange a meeting..." Ciri gave Ida a reassuring smile.
The elf seemed somewhat restrained.
"So she's not thinking about betraying us or anything like that?" Madara still asked.
"No... I saw that you took all the information from her and came to that conclusion. The Akatsuki would still be the fastest way to contact us while she carried out missions alongside the other sorceresses."
"I understand." Madara nodded. "Can you see any future in which she betrays us?" he asked.
No one around them said anything. Even the elf was dumbfounded. They were discussing actions she had not yet taken, and the conversation between the two sounded quite strange to everyone else.
Ciri concentrated for a few moments. Her eyes glowed green again briefly before she shook her head. "No. She won't do that kind of thing. She would only reveal her intentions at some point, that Francesca wanted to arrange a meeting and would also be willing to accept punishment for it..."
That was all Madara needed to hear. "Alright. Then let's continue." He decided not to treat her as a traitor.
Everyone looked at him with somewhat surprised expressions. He had just discovered a potential traitor among them and simply let the matter go.
But Madara trusted Ciri's judgment. If she couldn't see any future in which he was betrayed or harmed by Ida, then everything was fine.
That ability had also been extremely useful during their travels between worlds. Ciri could visualize betrayals that would have been unexpected even for individuals like them.
In that way, they could prevent betrayals and identify people who would become great allies and help them on their journey.
Madara turned his attention to Tissaia. "Who else is part of the current Akatsuki?" he asked.
"Isabela is also acting as a member. And we have two more trusted sorceresses." Tissaia explained.
"Where is Isabela?" Ciri immediately asked.
Even though she could simply search for her with her powers, she preferred to hear the answer.
"She is operating in Cintra," Tissaia replied.
"In Cintra?" Ciri asked, though Madara also raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Tissaia sighed. "Isabela is building a resistance against Nilfgaardian control."
"In Cintra? Seriously?" Ciri exclaimed again.
It had been a very long time since she had seen her own kingdom. Even when she and Madara passed through southern Cintra during their travels, they had found nothing but destroyed villages filled with vengeful ghosts.
They had never come close to central Cintra. And it was also impossible that Nilfgaard had simply killed everyone.
There were cities, towns, and thousands of people spread throughout the kingdom. Nilfgaard wanted to conquer Cintra, not destroy it. It was far more useful to preserve most of the population while plundering a few villages and taking the capital.
Even so, the people of Cintra still existed.
"So she's doing that..." Madara murmured, somewhat surprised.
"We need to find her quickly," Ciri said immediately.
"Yes, but let's first hear everything they have to say. I want to know every detail they didn't tell me back in that cabin before we start taking action."
Madara spoke while Tissaia nodded and began revealing more information.
Even Triss and Dijkstra added a few things. Mainly through Dijkstra's network. They talked about matters beyond the Lodge of Sorceresses, which was trying to create a new magical kingdom. There was a rumor that the King of Kovir had secured an alliance with an extremely powerful creature, an Elder Vampire, and a red dragon as large as a mountain had been sighted, one that would make all the others that attacked human cities three years ago look like hatchlings...
Madara understood that it was the Queen of Dragons. As for why she was now in the human world, he didn't know. But he was also surprised by the alliance with the Elder Vampire. What could that king possibly be offering to have a being like that by his side? Madara was somewhat excited. He had never encountered an Elder Vampire before. Although, after fighting a demon and something even more powerful—a member of the Otsutsuki Clan—this world could hardly offer anything stronger...
In any case, the situation was quite expected. After the events at Aretuza, the kingdoms had begun to lose faith in mages. It was no wonder that sorcerers of both sexes had started being hunted by Radovid and other rulers.
In truth, Radovid knew that Philippa had been involved in his father's death and that she intended to use him as a political puppet. But Radovid was not someone Philippa could control.
In the end, he turned against her. Unlike his father, who had been much wiser, Radovid simply began blaming sorcerers and any non-human for all the kingdom's problems, trying to eliminate every last one of them through his blatant prejudice.
It was no wonder things had reached that point.
"And Yennefer, is she part of the Akatsuki?" Ciri suddenly asked.
Tissaia shook her head. "She simply started traveling across the entire Continent and the Skellige Isles looking for any sign of you. She had no interest in the organization until she found you..."
"She was looking for us the whole time?" Ciri seemed quite surprised, but also somewhat disturbed.
Tissaia displayed a sad smile. "She didn't spend a single day without searching for any trace of you. She also studied magic related to crossing between worlds... Even though it was quite dangerous."
Ciri also seemed a little troubled upon hearing that. "Damn it... She should have been taking care of Aren!" she demanded angrily.
From her perspective, it made no sense for someone to spend so much time searching for them. When they decided to appear, it would be quite obvious.
"Well, we'll have to see her personally," Madara said from beside her. "But first, I'd like to do something." His tone became serious.
Everyone turned their attention toward him.
"First, we're going to deal with the Redanian situation."
"We've been trying to do something about it for months. Even with the two of you, it'll take some time," Roche said.
"You say that because you don't know us," Madara replied calmly.
Then he turned his attention to Tissaia, Ida, and Triss. "First, we need to give this city a scare."
He paused. "Dandelion is somewhere out there loafing around. We'll bring him here afterward." Madara then looked at Ciri.
"Before that, my wife is going to do something that will leave this city so traumatized that people will think twice before laying a hand on any non-human or magic user during this witch hunt."
Dijkstra couldn't help but show a grim expression. "You're not thinking of destroying the city, are you?" He certainly hated the witch hunts, but he also couldn't allow the people of Redania to die.
Madara looked at him and shook his head. "That would be easy." He replied calmly. "I could simply summon a complete Susanoo and wipe this city off the map with a single movement."
Silence filled the room.
"But there are other ways to correct these people's behavior." Madara kept his eyes on Ciri. "And my wife is far more effective at instilling fear in an entire city than I am by destroying it."
"What are you planning to do?" Tissaia asked.
"You'll know soon enough, but that doesn't matter right now," Madara said. "What I'd like to know is: can we simply eliminate Radovid?" he asked directly.
Dijkstra looked at Roche before nodding. "Yes. We can eliminate him. We have the means to establish a temporary government and try to reverse Radovid's policies immediately."
"That's good." Madara nodded. "I just want you to bring Dandelion."
"We still haven't been able to locate him. But are you sure you can do this quickly?" Triss murmured.
Ciri merely let her eyes glow for an instant. Then she looked back at Madara. "He's with someone named Priscilla, drinking on one of the decks at the southern docks."
Madara heard that and nodded. "That's all I needed to know. I'll be back shortly."
With those words, Madara disappeared using teleportation.
Meanwhile, Triss approached Ciri to talk and give her another hug before starting to ask questions about what had happened during those three years. After all, they hadn't had much time to truly talk.
At the same time, it was easy to find Dandelion. He was drinking with a blonde woman, and neither of them even had time to react when someone appeared behind them.
Madara grabbed them and disappeared once more. The next instant, the two found themselves seated on the floor of the mansion, completely stunned.
"What..." Dandelion began to say.
Then his eyes widened when he saw Madara in the middle of the meeting hall.
Triss barely had time to continue talking with Ciri before Madara brought Dandelion back.
"It's been so long!" Dandelion exclaimed.
"They said you were part of Novigrad's resistance! I almost believed it until I saw you drinking and flirting around..." Madara mocked.
"Madara!"
He didn't care about the teasing and jumped to his feet, getting up to shake Madara's hand and give him a hug.
Then he turned toward Ciri.
"Ciri!"
He hugged her as well.
"Look at the two of you! You're back!"
Then he looked around.
"Geralt! You have to inform Geralt immediately! Where is he? If I'm not mistaken..." he began.
But Madara raised a hand to stop him.
"Geralt will be tracked down soon. But that's not the point." He paused. "It's good to see you again, but we need to talk."
Meanwhile, the blonde woman seemed completely disoriented, looking around cautiously and visibly lost after suddenly appearing there. She still knew nothing about the resistance. Priscilla the bard would later become an important character during Novigrad's arc in the game.
"In short, we need to settle a few matters." Madara continued speaking to Dandelion.
"So we're going to deal with this city first, and then I'll need you out on the streets." Madara said as he looked at Ciri.
"You could put on quite a show, right?" Madara smiled at his wife.
Ciri nodded with a mischievous smile. "Of course."
"Then let's go."
With those words, everyone left the mansion.
They passed by the group of people who had been rescued and were still staying there.
Even Dudu followed them in silence. He hadn't said anything during the meeting upstairs.
He kept his head lowered. Although he was happy that Madara and Ciri were still alive, his own life had been destroyed in Novigrad, at least for now.
"What exactly are you planning to do?" Dijkstra asked.
Everyone else was curious as well.
"Well, what Madara wants is something we've done before." Ciri replied. "I mean, in other worlds." She gave an amused smile before continuing.
"We're just going to scare some people. As if a god had personally descended upon the city."
Everyone looked at her with strange expressions.
"What exactly do you mean by a god descending upon the city?" Triss seemed concerned.
"I'm going to take her to the city center. You can watch from a safe distance. Don't worry, no harm will come to anyone in this city. It's just a scare."
Madara spoke directly to Dijkstra.
Although some people truly deserved to suffer the consequences, and there were quite a few of them, he would not kill them. Madara had his hand held by his wife before they disappeared.
The next instant, they appeared atop one of the tallest buildings in the center of Novigrad.
Ciri stepped forward as she gazed over the city beneath the night's glow.
She sighed and then took a few steps ahead of Madara.
Her eyes began to glow, and she raised her hands, about to do something.
The moment she released her power, the entire atmosphere surrounding the city began to change.
Even Tissaia, Triss, and anyone connected to magic could feel it.
Sorcerers hidden throughout various parts of the city, members of the resistance scattered across Novigrad, and everyone who possessed any sensitivity to the energy of Chaos immediately noticed the change.
Even in the sewers, where monsters hid beneath the city, they felt it as well and began to grow restless.
"What's happening?" Tissaia seemed terrified. Even she had never felt a pressure of that magnitude in her entire life.
"What's happening?" Dandelion asked as he saw the frightened expressions of the three sorceresses near him. Unable to feel anything himself, he had no affinity for magic.
"My God..." Ida couldn't help but murmur.
"Chaos... I've never seen it reach this level..." The tremor in Tissaia's voice was unmistakable.
"Is it Ciri...?" Triss was not much different from the powerful mage. She couldn't even take a step in that environment; her body was frozen. In her entire life, she had never felt such terrifying pressure.
It felt as though the very air itself was crushing all of them...
A retired witcher's medallion, hanging in a corner of the city, began to glow and tremble. Then it started to crack. The witcher himself, with his non-human eyes, sensed something in the air and immediately left the table where he had been eating with his family, his wife and adopted children, terrified by what he was feeling. He watched as the medallion hanging beside his sword on the wall exploded, unable to withstand the force permeating the atmosphere.
"What's happening?!" His wife ran to him, unable to understand his actions and having heard the explosion.
He immediately turned toward the window, staring at the city's sky.
"I don't know..."
That was all he said, but he was utterly stunned.
At the Temple of the Eternal Fire, the priests continued their nightly sermons while dozens of worshippers remained kneeling before the great sacred flames.
Some of them possessed a slight sensitivity to Chaos without even knowing it, a dormant talent that had never been developed. The moment the pressure released by Ciri began to spread across Novigrad, those people were the first to suffer.
A man interrupted his prayer as a sudden wave of dizziness struck him. He raised a hand to his mouth before vomiting onto the stone floor.
Nearby, a woman began trembling uncontrollably, as if her own body was trying to react to something her mind could not comprehend.
Others felt their hearts racing violently, while a suffocating sensation filled their lungs.
The priests tried to calm those present, attributing it to some kind of mass hysteria, but then the temple's own flames began to react. The fire crackled abnormally, becoming unstable. The enormous pillars of fire that constantly burned before the altars suddenly grew, doubling in size within seconds.
The heat intensified to an absurd degree. Some people backed away in fear, while others watched without understanding what was happening.
Then one of the flames exploded.
A column of fire surged violently toward the ceiling, scattering sparks and waves of heat throughout the hall. The blast caused dozens of people to scream. Some fell to the ground. Others ran toward the exits. Even the priest conducting the ceremony stumbled back several steps, staring at the flames with pure terror in his eyes.
The energy surrounding the city was changing as it became flooded with magic. And all of Novigrad was caught within that phenomenon.
If Madara and Ciri heard about it, they would probably start laughing. After all, despite the invisible pressure covering the entire city, Ciri was still only getting started.
The true chaos would begin from that moment onward.
Ciri's eyes turned toward the sky as she kept her arms raised.
Through the activated Rinnegan, Madara could clearly see the immense energy surging through her body. Although it was invisible to everyone else, his eyes could perceive the brilliant light of energy flowing through every part of her.
Ciri began by using the energy of her own internal powers to alter the city's environment.
But that was not all.
She started opening small rifts in space.
Fissures connected to realms and worlds where Chaos was far more intense and powerful. Through those openings, she absorbed vast amounts of power to fuel her magic.
That was why Ciri had become something that no one in that world could even begin to comprehend anymore.
A true monster.
Even Madara would have difficulty dealing with her. Without the immense chakra reserves of the Bijuu he carried to sustain him in a battle against someone like Ciri, even he would not be capable of facing her.
If the two were enemies, that battle would be a nightmare even for him.
For example, while Madara could concentrate an absurd amount of raw power into a single point, Ciri was capable of creating even greater chaos.
She could open wormholes in space and draw energy from other realms, allowing her to sustain her most powerful spells over a much larger area and for far longer periods of time. After all, she could simply open spatial rifts and draw those powers from other worlds.
While Madara could destroy entire kingdoms by summoning meteors and through Chibaku Tensei, Ciri could cover an entire continent with storms or even recreate the White Frost to freeze vast lands.
Ciri approached power differently than Madara. Although Madara was more powerful in terms of attack power, she could still, while being less destructive, create chaos over a much larger area, such as an entire continent.
That was why covering only a city like Novigrad was extremely simple for her. Ciri already possessed enough power to accomplish that on her own. But why would she spend her own reserves when she could open portals to other realms and absorb energy directly from them?
After all, the magic of that world followed the concept of give and take. Without a source of energy, a sorceress could die from completely exhausting her strength.
That was exactly what happened to Yennefer when she tried to save Geralt in the original work. She used everything she had until there was nothing left. At least, that was how the original story described the events prior to The Witcher 3.
As she absorbed energy from those distant realms, Ciri continued fueling her spell.
The atmosphere became even heavier. Clouds began to form around the city.
At first slowly.
Then faster and faster.
Thousands of people watched the strange phenomenon forming above Novigrad.
An inexplicable tension filled the air.
Dogs began barking throughout the city, pointing toward the sky. Cats abandoned alleys and rooftops. Rats fled from the sewers. Even horses grew restless, while birds began flying toward the city's walls.
The animals sensed the danger long before the humans did.
Meanwhile, people drank at the docks, workers carried goods through the streets, beggars rested in alleys, women washed clothes near streams to use the next day, worshippers of the Eternal Fire prayed before the great flames of the temples despite already being somewhat unsettled by the earlier events... Even those who simply remained inside their homes.
Everyone began to feel that something was wrong.
Those who were outside raised their eyes toward the sky and saw the clouds gathering.
"What's happening?" many began to murmur.
Meanwhile, Madara remained standing atop the rooftop with his arms crossed.
The sky, which only moments earlier had been completely clear, transformed into a massive vortex of dark clouds.
At the center of that maelstrom, a gigantic opening appeared.
It looked like a portal to another world.
Beyond it, there was only darkness, an endless black void.
The spectacle was about to begin.
To Madara, it was merely a demonstration, but to the rest of Novigrad...
An unprecedented terror was about to descend upon the city.
Years later, it would be recorded in history books as the event known as...
"The Wrath of a True Goddess Descending Upon the Mortal World."
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
🦝 Raccoon here: 🦝
I deeply appreciate your support since the beginning of this exciting journey!
🌟 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!
👑 Game of Thrones: The Legend of Jon Arctic!: 30 extra chapters!
👑 Game of Thrones: DragonBorn! 30 extra chapters!
👑 HOTD: Jon Arctic! 30 extra chapters!
🌀 Naruto - Minato Namikaze SI!: 30 extra chapters!
🗡️ The Witcher - As Uchiha Madara! 30 extra chapters!
⚡HP - Jon Arctic as Severus Snape! 30 extra chapters!
⚡ Harry Potter - Shadow Monarch! Finished! [100%]
⚡Danmachi – The Alchemist! [Coming Soon.]
Visit our Patreon for more!!
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆