Form Shift: Who Was the Real Prey?

Uchiha Madara closed his eyes, sensing the vast magical power constantly pouring into his body, along with the blocked magical circuits.

The Flamel Family? Otsutsuki Clan bloodline?

"Interesting." A cold curve touched his lips.

However, just as he immersed himself in evaluating this new body and planning for the future—

Buzz!

From beyond the ancestral manor came an extremely faint ripple from the long-ruined warding magic—if it could still be called magic at all—being triggered.

They were here.

Madara's eyes snapped open, his scarlet pupils cutting two cold streaks through the dim room.

Fragments of memory surged forth—these vultures, drawn in by the scent of carrion, had driven the previous owner step by step into a corner, until that nine-year-old child had finally suffered a mental breakdown and chosen to drink that bottle of Dust-Returning Powder.

Now, that aura, mixed with greed, malice, and cruelty, was brazenly crossing the desolate front yard and rapidly closing in.

"The last Flamel! Get out here! We know you're in there!" a hoarse voice rang out, carrying the teasing amusement of a cat toying with a mouse. "Come with us obediently, and you'll suffer less! Your bloodline is valuable. Don't force us to get rough. It'd be a shame if we damaged you! Hahahaha!"

Piercing laughter echoed outside the empty manor.

Materials? Prey?

Madara slowly straightened. The purplish-black bruises around his neck stood out starkly against his pale skin. Worn, thin clothes wrapped around what appeared to be a frail adolescent body.

He walked to the window and looked out into the dim courtyard through the filthy glass.

Five figures in black cloaks, their faces hidden beneath the shadows of their hoods, were brazenly crossing the desolate front yard. Wands in hand, they radiated undisguised malice.

Madara's face remained expressionless.

His chakra was nearly depleted? His Rinnegan had yet to awaken? His magical pathways were sluggish?

So what!

He lightly flexed his fingers, wrists, and ankles.

The Uchiha Style Body Technique engraved deep within his soul, battle instincts tempered through countless trials, and the most exquisite microscopic control over power—none of these would vanish simply because he had changed bodies!

He silently descended the stairs, passing through the ruined corridors like a ghost. The front door had long since rotted away and hung crookedly open, revealing the intruders outside.

There were five of them. When they saw Madara emerge, their gazes beneath their hoods burned with greed.

"Oh? You came out on your own? At least you know what's good for you." The leading dark wizard casually pointed his wand at Madara. "Come on, boy. Your new 'home' is ready for you. You've saved us the trouble of—"

His words stopped abruptly.

Because he saw Madara's eyes.

Those naturally scarlet eyes, like congealed blood, watched him calmly. Beneath that calm lay the icy disdain of one looking down on insects, along with a murderous aura forged amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood—an aura that could freeze the soul!

That gaze made the leading dark wizard's heart skip for no reason. He shouted sharply, "What kind of look is that?! Grab him!"

The two dark wizards beside him immediately raised their wands.

"Stupefy!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

To these wizards, that should have been more than enough to subdue an underage wizard.

Yet just as the two spells were about to strike him, Madara moved.

He moved so fast that only a blurred afterimage remained! His body twisted at an infinitesimal angle, and the two spells grazed the edge of his clothes before missing, smashing into the rotten wall behind him and blasting out two clouds of debris.

"What?!" The two dark wizards who had cast the spells froze.

And Madara had already closed in on the dark wizard to the left like a phantom!

So fast!

The dark wizard did not even have time to react. All he saw was a pale, slender hand belonging to a boy rapidly filling his vision.

The next moment, that hand formed a blade with two fingers and slashed with speed beyond his eyes' ability to follow, striking the tendons in his wand hand's wrist with flawless precision!

"Ahhh—!" A shrill scream rang out.

The wand slipped from his grasp, while Madara's other hand had already clamped around his throat like iron pincers. His five fingers tightened!

Crack!

The bone-breaking sound that made teeth ache rang clearly in everyone's ears.

The scream stopped abruptly. The dark wizard's eyes bulged, filled with incredulous terror, before his body went limp and collapsed.

An instant kill!

Clean and decisive, without a single unnecessary movement—achieved purely through physical speed, strength, and terrifyingly precise technique!

The remaining four dark wizards stood stunned, a chill shooting from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads!

What... what was this?! Wasn't he a useless cripple who could not use magic and could be slaughtered at will?! That terrifying speed, those ruthless methods...

"M-Monster! Get him together! Dead or alive!" The leading dark wizard finally snapped out of it. His voice turned shrill with fear as he wildly swung his wand. "Crucio!"

The other three also came to their senses and fired deadly magic.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Poison Mist!"

"Incendio!"

The green Killing Curse, purple poisonous mist, and blazing flames intertwined into a net of death that enveloped Madara.

Madara's scarlet eyes remained calm, without the slightest ripple. Amid that dense blaze of magical light, his body seemed to become a shadow without substance.

There was no need to activate the Sharingan. His innate battle instincts had long since fused into his soul!

He sidestepped, leaned back, and shifted unpredictably, always evading the fatal spells by a hair's breadth at the very last instant. Flames licked across the ground where he had been standing, while the green light of the Killing Curse brushed past him and corroded a massive hole in the wall behind him.

Like a grim reaper dancing on a blade's edge, every dodge precisely closed the distance between him and his targets.

"Monster! He's a monster!" One dark wizard broke down and turned to flee.

Would Madara give him that chance? He flicked up a wooden splinter with his toe and kicked it out fiercely!

"Pfft!" The splinter pierced through the man's back like a crossbow bolt.

The second one.

The next instant, Madara appeared before the third dark wizard.

The dark wizard tried to retreat in terror, his wand waving wildly. Madara seized his wand hand with one hand and twisted it backward!

Crack!

"Ugh—!" The dark wizard collapsed as the pain of his throat bone shattering seized him. Madara snatched away his wand and, without even looking, flung it backward like a thrown kunai!

Pfft!

The wand pierced precisely through the fourth dark wizard's eye socket and burst out through the back of his skull!

Only the leading dark wizard remained. He was trembling violently now, and his wand had long since been thrown who knew where. His hood slipped off, revealing a face twisted grotesquely by fear. He watched the black-haired, red-eyed boy approach step by step. The boy's footsteps were light, yet each one seemed to land on his heart.

"D-Don't... don't come closer! I... I can give you money! Lots of Galleons! Spare me!" he begged incoherently, a foul stench rising from his crotch.

Madara finally stopped in front of him and looked down at him from above, like a god gazing upon an ant.

He slowly raised his hand. That hand, which had just crushed a throat bone and was stained with traces of blood, reached toward the dark wizard's violently trembling head.

The dark wizard squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for death to descend.

Yet Madara's hand did not come down to take his life. Instead... it pressed against the top of his head.

Not mercy.

A soul search!

An icy, violent spiritual force, bearing endless destruction and devouring intent, crashed into the dark wizard's mind like floodwaters bursting through a dam!

"AAAAAHHHH—!!!"

Pain at the soul level, ten times, a hundred times stronger than the Cruciatus Curse, tore a shriek beyond human sound from the dark wizard. His body convulsed violently, his eyes rolled back, foam spilled from his mouth, and fragments of memory, like a painting violently ripped apart, flooded madly into Madara's consciousness...

A few seconds later, Madara released his hand.

The dark wizard's corpse collapsed limply, his face still twisted in extreme pain and terror. His eyes were hollow and unfocused; his soul had already scattered.

Madara breathed slightly harder, cold sweat seeping from his temples. He wiped away a trace of blood that had spilled from the corner of his mouth due to spiritual backlash, and a chilling gleam flashed in his scarlet eyes. Forcibly searching a soul placed a tremendous burden on this weak body and remnant soul.

But he had obtained what he wanted—the names of several families, the people directing them from behind the scenes, and... exact information about a certain Gringotts vault and clues to its key.

The intelligence gathering was complete. Next, it was time to pay visits to these "friendly" "suitors," one by one.

He bent down and searched the leading dark wizard, finding a bulging money pouch. He weighed it in his hand, listening to the crisp clink of gold coins within.

"Startup capital, secured."

He murmured to himself. Without another look at the wrecked courtyard, he stepped over the pool of blood and headed straight toward the deeper darkness of Knockturn Alley.

His scarlet eyes glimmered faintly in the shadows.

The hunt had only just begun.