The place where Princess Pavita was kidnapped was in a primeval forest on the border of the Kingdom of Verdon.

There was once an abandoned castle in the forest, which is said to have been built by a royal family of the Kingdom of Verdon, which cost a lot of manpower and was quite huge.

But now hundreds of years have passed, both the person concerned and his descendants have long since disappeared into history, leaving only this dilapidated castle to be left alone, alone in the forest, becoming a fantasy existence in some stories.

Wayne and the others first came to a relatively remote town in the Verdon Kingdom through the portal, which was the young light court mage in Sintra, and the secret passage left by Ms. Isa was not known to the spellcasters of the Verden Kingdom, and it could hide its whereabouts well and not startle the snake.

After the group of five people entered the Kingdom of Verdon, they did not stop at all, and immediately rushed towards the location of the target in the direction given on the map.

Time was indeed of the essence, and after a brief briefing of the situation to Queen Caranther, even if the queen was furious and wanted to send an army to exterminate the evil warlocks and monsters.

But these ideas were in vain, and it was impossible for a large army to travel such a long distance in such a short time to the vassal state of Verdon in Sintra.

And the information about the disappearance of the fallen warlock Quetto can only be concealed for a day at most.

The enemy is not stupid, beyond this time, they will definitely be aware of it, and they may not even be able to hide it for so long, as long as the other party tries to contact Queteto without success, then they may be suspicious.

Whether it's escaping or moving the nest, it will add to the trouble of this operation.

"This is the Golden Bracelet of Demon Blocking, and with it, the Warlock's influence on you will be greatly reduced, and you will only need to focus on dodging the attacks of those monsters."

"By the way, remember not to get too close to Lady Yennefer, so as not to interfere with her casting spells."

Before the action began, Wayne gave two blue gold bracelets to Aragon and Alex.

He wasn't going to let these two young men join this battle, after all, although these two were already at a high level of human physical fitness and barely superb in swordsmanship, they hadn't really conducted mutation experiments, and they weren't even considered demon hunter apprentices.

Although the two children were not the main force in this battle, it was indeed quite difficult for them to fight a combination of a group of monsters and fallen warlocks as soon as they came up.

If it weren't for the fact that the two children insisted on doing so, he really wanted to keep them in a safe place.

However, for such an action, Wayne is not unplanned, at least he will not rush in like a young man.

Arriving outside the forest where his destination was located, Wayne paid a fortune to hire a local guide in the surrounding villages.

Although the middle-aged man's legs trembled with fear when he heard their destination, his face turned pale, and he muttered that there was a haunted place and that there was a monster's lair.

But under the lure of gold, the man quickly overcame his fear and led them through the dense forest to the huge abandoned castle.

The castle was located near a valley in the middle of the forest, and the overall scale was larger than they had imagined.

Over the past few hundred years, the entire castle has been damaged in many places, and the stone surface is also crawling with green plants, but from a distance, it still makes people feel quite shocking.

Looking at the deep castle in front of them, looking at the dim light it emitted from the window, Wayne and the others suddenly knew in their hearts that they were not looking for the wrong place, there must be an enemy here.

"The situation inside the castle is unknown now."

"I'll take a look first and make sure Princess Paveta is safe."

"If there is a fight, you will come to my aid."

Wayne briefly explained his plan, although as a leader of a faction, every battle is his own to carry out the most dangerous mission, which is somewhat inappropriate.

But he really didn't want his friends to risk their lives, after all, in terms of strength, many of them could only be regarded as sparse and ordinary battles for him, but for Geralt and the others, they were indeed quite dangerous.

The white wolf was calmer than expected, and after listening to his order, he did not raise any objections, but after a few seconds of silence, he nodded and said:

"Stay safe, Wayne."

"If something happens, use the Alchemy Bomb, and we'll come to your aid as soon as possible."

Wayne nodded, reached out and patted Geralt's shoulder, touched the hair of Aragorn and Alex, and then took out the invisibility cloak from the space bracelet, draped it on his body, and sneaked towards the castle.

The castle is a large castle with huge gardens and walls of more than two meters, as well as a number of other stone structures inside, and it is clear that its owners spent a lot of money to build it on this scale.

Under the cover of night, Wayne managed to sneak into the vicinity of the castle without seeing any enemies.

Today, the Witcher Order has many warlocks and inexhaustible resources, and each existing Witcher is equipped with several useful magic items, which are not the same as in the past.

Wayne had taken out the Cloak of Invisibility for several warlocks to study, but unfortunately, with their abilities, they could not replicate this extremely useful item, and even the principle of its operation was not understood.

Otherwise, it would be fairly easy for every Demon Hunter to become a Master Assassin if they were equipped with an Invisibility Cloak.

However, even so, the Warlocks have cooperated in the development of several items that can enhance their stealth ability.

For example, muffling shoes to reduce the sound of footsteps, sprays to lock in body odors, poisons to seal the throat when you see blood, and daggers without any reflections, etc., even without the invisibility cloak, many master witchers can use their skills to become assassins who come and go without a trace, killing people invisibly.

After a few more minutes, Wayne sneaked all the way to the outer walls of the castle and found no enemies, much to his surprise.

However, when he climbed through a dilapidated window and entered the interior of the castle, he immediately realized that something was wrong.

It turned out that the outside of the castle was empty just now, except for the dim light, there was no trace of the existence of monsters, but as soon as he entered the castle, he saw thousands of heavily armed zombies, neatly arranged in the castle hall like puppets.

Quietly, like a stone, there was no movement at all.

If it weren't for the occasional sight of a few diminutive, torch-carrying Fallen Demons wandering through 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 frowning, you know, the population of the entire Verdon Kingdom may not be enough for 100,000 people, even if they use the strength of the whole country, they can't muster an army of 5,000 people.

This armed zombie monster in front of you. Combined with some other monsters and fallen warlocks, as long as the speed is fast enough, it can already directly occupy the capital of the Verdon Kingdom before it gathers troops.

It seems that the hellish monsters are developing faster in the wizarding world than he imagined, and the dark warlock may already have the strength to slaughter cities and destroy the country.

As he frowned and pondered the question, Wayne's eyes suddenly noticed the armor and weapons of the armed zombies.

They are all standard armor of almost the same style, although the production is quite crude, and it is only half of the body inlaid iron armor that protects the chest and joints.

However, from the point of view of their craftsmanship, it reveals a special assembly line product, which is not like a highly skilled craftsman carefully polished, and the condition is also quite new, like a product produced not long ago.

With such a scale of armor, it is difficult for private blacksmiths in the north to produce it in large quantities, which made Wayne have doubts in his heart, and immediately put the doubts in his heart on the Nilfgaard Kingdom in the south.

It is only in emerging countries where capitalism has begun to sprout and all kinds of factories are operating on a large scale that they have the ability to mass-produce such average quality assembly line products.

It seems that when he didn't realize it, perhaps the minions of the south had secretly reached into the north, and had even begun to collude with the Dark Warlock Society.

I just don't know if this is the personal act of the Southern Warlocks, or if it is on the orders of the usurper.

With this in mind, Wayne did not stay in the hall on the first floor, but after a cursory observation, he quickly walked along the stairs towards the castle building.

Another quiet stealth, Wayne observed as he walked.

Compared to the dense scene of monsters on the first floor, the upper floors are much quieter, and the monsters that appear in the corridors and corners are much more elite.

In addition to the Fallen Demon Wizard with a staff, the Swamp Witch who can cast native spells, Wayne even found an ugly and terrifying Night Wraith floating in mid-air in one room.

Obviously, the magic of hell attracted these monsters more than he had imagined, and was even able to make many monsters of different races live in peace with each other.

If this situation had been placed hundreds of thousands of years ago, and those scholars who studied the information of various monsters had known about it, it would definitely have surprised them.

However, for Wayne, the situation in the castle did not make much of a difference except for the slight frown that made him frown.

But obviously, with so many monsters existing in the castle, it was no longer suitable for Geralt and the others to participate in the battle, and their strength was not yet strong enough to ignore the numbers.

If you break into this castle rashly, there is a high probability that you will be divided by monsters.

Wayne was vigilant and acted more cautiously, and after ten minutes of grinding, he finally bypassed all the enemies and reached the top floor of the castle.

It's a monolithic style, similar to the spacious hall of a laboratory, with torches and lamps lining the walls to illuminate the entire hall quite brightly.

In this hall, in addition to erecting many wooden supports that look like torture instruments, and many human beings who do not know whether they are alive or dead are tied to them, there are also many experimental beds that are neatly arranged.

However, probably because of the night, there were not many people in the entire experimental hall, or the number of people was extremely limited.

After some searching, Wayne finally saw Princess Pavita tied to a test bench, wearing only a thin clothing that was almost transparent, with a bulging abdomen and a calm expression, as if she had fallen into a coma.

At the same time, Wayne also saw a handsome man in his thirties who was gorgeously dressed, brown-haired, and handsome at the side of the test table.

He was a sturdy man, with a calm expression, holding a set of precision experimental equipment in his hand, and was intently checking Princess Pavita's condition, as if he was studying some data.

And at the first sight of this man, Wayne recognized his identity, it was none other than a well-known young man in the wizarding guild, a powerful warlock who broke Geralt's legs with a stick in the original book, Wigo Fortez.

(End of chapter)