Princess Pavetta was kidnapped in a primeval forest on the border of the Kingdom of Weiden.
There used to be an abandoned castle in the forest. Legend has it that it was built by a royal family of the Kingdom of Weiden who was ambitious for success. It consumed a lot of manpower and was quite huge.
But now, hundreds of years have passed, and both the person involved and his descendants have long since disappeared into history. Only this ruined castle is left, standing alone in the forest, becoming a fantasy existence in certain stories.
Wayne and others first came to a relatively remote town in the Kingdom of Verden through a portal. This was the secret passage left by Ms. Isa, the young court wizard of Cintra. It was unknown to the spellcasters of the Kingdom of Verden, and could hide their whereabouts well without alerting the enemy.
After the group of five entered the Kingdom of Weiden, they did not stop at all and immediately followed the direction given on the map and rushed towards the target location.
Time was indeed quite urgent. After briefly reporting the situation to Queen Calanthe, even though the queen was extremely angry and wanted to send troops to wipe out those evil sorcerers and monsters.
But these ideas were in vain, as it was impossible for a large army to travel such a long distance in such a short time and march to Viden, a vassal state of Cintra.
Moreover, the information about the disappearance of the fallen warlock Quito could only be kept secret for one day at most.
The enemy is not stupid. If it exceeds this time, they will definitely notice something, and they may not be able to hide it for so long. As long as the other party tries to contact Quito without results, they may become suspicious.
Whether escaping or moving the nest will increase the trouble of this operation.
"This is a magic-blocking gold bracelet. After you put it on, the influence of the warlock on you will be greatly reduced. You only need to focus on avoiding the attacks of those monsters."
"By the way, remember not to get too close to Lady Yennefer, so as not to affect her spellcasting."
Before starting the action, Wayne gave two blue gold bracelets that could block magic to Aragorn and Alex.
He had not originally planned to let the two young men join the battle. After all, although their physical fitness was already at a relatively high level among humans and their swordsmanship could barely be considered superb, they had not actually undergone any mutation experiments and were not even witcher apprentices.
Although the two children were not the main force in this battle, it was indeed quite difficult for them to fight a group of monsters and a fallen warlock right from the start.
If it weren't for the two children's insistence, he really wanted to leave them in a safe place.
However, Wayne was not without a plan for such an action. At least he would not rush in like a rookie.
When he arrived outside the forest at his destination, Wayne hired a local guide from the surrounding villages at a high price.
Although the middle-aged man's legs trembled with fear and his face turned pale after hearing their destination, he muttered that the place was haunted and that it was a monster's lair.
But under the temptation of gold, the man quickly overcame his fear and led them through the dense forest to find the huge abandoned castle.
The castle was located near a valley in the forest, and its overall scale was larger than they had imagined.
After hundreds of years, the entire castle has suffered many damages and the stone surface is covered with green plants, but from a distance it still looks quite shocking.
Looking at the deep ancient castle in front of them and the dim light emanating from its windows, Wayne and others suddenly realized that they were not in the wrong place and there must be enemies inside.
"The current situation in the castle is unknown."
"I'm going to go check and make sure Princess Pavetta is safe."
"If a fight breaks out, you will come to support me."
Wayne briefly explained his plan. Although it was inappropriate for him, as the leader of a force, to carry out the most dangerous tasks alone in every battle.
But he really didn't want his friends to risk their lives. After all, judging from their strength, many of these battles were just ordinary battles for him, but they were indeed quite dangerous for Geralt and the others.
White Wolf was calmer than expected. After listening to his order, he did not raise any objections. He was silent for a few seconds, then nodded and said:
"Stay safe, Wayne."
"If you encounter any accidents, use the alchemical bomb and we will come to support you as soon as possible."
Wayne nodded when he heard that, reached out and patted Geralt's shoulder, touched Aragorn and Alex's hair, then took out an invisibility cloak from the space bracelet, put it on, and sneaked into the castle.
The castle is very large. It not only has a huge garden and a wall over two meters high, but also some other stone buildings inside. It is obvious that its owner spent a lot of money to build a castle of this scale.
With the cover of night, Wayne successfully sneaked into the vicinity of the castle and did not see any enemy.
Today, the Witcher Cult has many warlocks and inexhaustible resources. Every existing witcher is equipped with several very practical magic props, which is completely different from the past.
Wayne once took out the invisibility cloak and showed it to several warlocks for study. Unfortunately, with their abilities, they were unable to replicate this extremely practical prop, and they didn't even understand the principle of its operation.
Otherwise, if every demon hunter could be equipped with an invisibility cloak, it would be quite easy to become a master assassin.
For example, there are silencer shoes that reduce the sound of footsteps, sprays that lock in body odor, poisons that kill instantly upon impact, and daggers that do not reflect any light. Even without an invisibility cloak, many witcher masters can rely on their skills to become assassins who come and go without a trace and kill people without leaving any trace.
After a few more minutes, Wayne sneaked to the outer wall of the castle and did not find any enemy, which surprised him.
However, when he climbed through a dilapidated window and entered the castle, he immediately discovered something was wrong.
It turned out that the outside of the castle was empty just now, and there was no sign of any monsters except the dim light. But as soon as he entered the castle, he saw thousands of fully armed zombies, neatly arranged in the castle hall like puppets.
Silently, like a stone, without any movement.
If he hadn't occasionally seen a few short, torch-holding Fallen Demons wandering among the ranks of these armed zombies, he would have even thought that these were just statues.
Looking at the number of these armed zombies, Wayne couldn't help but frown. You know, the population of the entire Kingdom of Weiden might not be less than 100,000. Even if they mobilized the entire country, they couldn't gather an army of 5,000 people.
This armed zombie monster in front of us, combined with other monsters and fallen warlocks, as long as the speed is fast enough, it will be able to directly occupy the capital of the Kingdom of Weiden before the Kingdom of Weiden gathers its troops.
It seems that the monsters from Hell are developing in the wizarding world faster than he imagined, and the dark warlocks may already have the power to massacre cities and destroy countries.
Just as he frowned and thought about this question, Wayne's eyes suddenly noticed the armor and weapons of those armed zombies.
They were all standard armors of almost the same style, although they were made rather crudely and were only half-body iron armors that protected the chest and joints.
However, judging from their craftsmanship, they reveal the characteristics of assembly line products. They do not look like they were carefully polished by highly skilled craftsmen, and their quality is also quite new, as if they were produced not long ago.
It would be difficult for private blacksmiths in the north to mass-produce armor of this size, which made Wayne feel puzzled. He immediately placed his suspicion on the Kingdom of Nilfgaard in the south.
Only emerging countries like theirs, where capitalism has begun to sprout and various factories are operating on a large scale, have the ability to mass-produce such assembly line products of mediocre quality.
It seems that without his noticing, the minions of the South may have secretly extended into the North, and even began to collude with the Dark Warlock Society.
I just don't know whether this was the personal behavior of the southern sorcerers or the order of the usurper.
With this thought in mind, Wayne did not stay in the hall on the first floor for long. After a rough observation, he quickly walked along the stairs towards the upper building of the castle.
It was another silent stealth journey, Wayne observed as he walked.
Compared to the scene on the first floor which is densely packed with monsters, the upper floors are much quieter, and the monsters that appear in the corridors and corners are much more elite.
Not only were there Fallen wizards holding staffs, but there were also swamp witches who could cast native spells. In addition, Wayne even found an ugly and terrifying night spirit floating in the air in a room.
Apparently, the magic power of hell attracted these monsters more than he had imagined, and could even allow monsters of many different races to live in peace with each other.
If this situation happened hundreds or thousands of years ago and the scholars who studied various monster intelligence knew about it, they would definitely be shocked.
However, for Wayne, the situation in the castle did not have much impact except for making him frown slightly.
But obviously, with so many monsters in the castle, it is no longer suitable for Geralt and others to participate in the battle. Their strength is not strong enough to ignore the number.
If you rashly break into this castle, you will most likely end up being torn into pieces by monsters.
Wayne was alert and became more cautious in his actions. After hesitating for more than ten minutes, he finally bypassed all the enemies and reached the top floor of the castle.
This is a piece of overall style, similar to the spacious hall of a laboratory, with torches and lamps everywhere on the walls, making the entire hall quite bright.
In this hall, in addition to many wooden supports that looked like torture instruments and many ignorant humans tied to them, there were also many neatly arranged experimental beds with support.
But perhaps because it was night, there were not many people in the entire experimental hall, or the number of people was extremely limited.
After searching for a while, Wayne finally saw Princess Pavetta tied to a laboratory table. She was only wearing a thin, almost transparent piece of clothing, with a bulging belly and a calm expression, and seemed to be in a coma.
At the same time, Wayne also saw a handsome man in his thirties with gorgeous clothes and brown hair next to the experimental table.
He was of strong build and had a calm expression. He was holding a set of sophisticated experimental instruments in his hands and was concentrating on checking Princess Pavetta's condition. He seemed to be studying some data.
And the first time he saw this man, Wayne recognized his identity. He was Viggofortz, a very famous young man in the Wizarding Society, the powerful warlock who broke Geralt's legs with a stick in the original book.
(End of this chapter)