Callum and I moved like blurs across the blighted earth, our bodies operating in flawless, predatory synchronization.
In the freezing, moonlit gloom of the valley, we were twin streaks of lethal motion. The only things visible to the naked eye were the crackling blue flames roaring along the lengths of our silver blades, the brilliant emerald flash of Callum's cat-like eyes beneath his wild mane of crimson hair, and the cold, golden gleam of my own pupils beneath my snow-white bangs.
Our reflexes, supercharged by my Haste spell, as it turned the surrounding world into a sluggish crawl.
The twenty-foot mutated Leshen thrashed in agonizing fury, its petrified wooden joints weeping boiling, azure-ignited sap. It swung its massive left arm, a jagged timber club thick enough to shatter a stone battlement, downward in a vicious horizontal sweep meant to crush Callum's chest.
I saw the trajectory vector an eternity before it landed.
I slid beneath the descending blow, my boots kicking up frozen loam as I drove my azure-blazing sword upward in an ascending diagonal slash across the beast's exposed flank. The holy blue fire cleaved through crystallized bark, sending showers of hissing, superheated embers into the air.
Simultaneously, Callum vaulted off an uprooted boulder, twisting mid-air with elven fluidity. His silver blade came down in a thunderous two-handed cleave that bit deep into the monster's swinging elbow, arresting its forward momentum and severing thick bundles of petrified sinew.
The Leshen shrieked, its stag skull snapping backward. Realizing it was losing the melee exchange, its wooden form dissolved into a swirling vortex of black crows and green mist.
To a normal human or even a standard Witcher initiate, the beast would have vanished into thin air. But with our temporal perception dilated by three hundred percent, Callum and I tracked the spatial displacement effortlessly. We felt the atmospheric pressure drop across the crater rim.
Our eyes locked onto the far side of the glowing Chaos Nexus the exact microsecond the crows coalesced back into petrified heartwood.
"Oh no you don't, you overgrown pile of firewood!" Callum roared.
Reaching beneath his leather vest with his off-hand, Callum whipped out a heavy, intricately forged silver chain. In one fluid, practiced motion, he wrapped the reinforced links around his right wrist and forearm, spun the weighted end in a whistling circle, and hurled it across the chasm.
The silver chain flew with pin-point accuracy, whipping through the air like a striking viper and wrapping tightly around the Leshen's thick, wooden neck.
The enchanted silver bit into the monster's blighted bark, sizzling violently and sending up acrid plumes of white smoke. Callum dug his boots deep into the frozen dirt, his back muscles bunching and straining like iron cables as he hauled backward on the chain, physically arresting the titan's attempt to plunge its roots back into the emerald nexus.
With his other hand, Callum reached into his side pouch and hurled a second rolled chain straight toward me.
I snatched the flying links out of the air, my eyes narrowing as my heightened senses cataloged the unmistakable dwarven-forged silver-dimeritium alloy.
"Where the hell did you get these?!" I demanded, my voice cutting through the gale.
Callum's face was flushed crimson, veins bulging across his neck and temples as he wrestled against twenty feet of thrashing, mutated relict.
"Vesemir... gave them to me... before he rode back to Kaer Morhen!" Callum grunted through clenched teeth, his boots sliding half an inch through the mud.
My gaze turned flat and dangerously calm. "Then why the bloody hell am I only getting this now?"
Callum grimaced, the strain making his voice hitch. "I won't lie to you, Cain, I forgot I had them up until a few seconds ago! But can we have the family argument later?!"Here catch!"
He hooked his foot under his discarded leather satchel, kicking it into the air, caught two heavy glass spheres, and lobbed them across the divide.
I snatched them out of the air with casual reflex. A Moondust bomb and a Dimeritium bomb.
I looked from the bombs to Callum, letting out a sharp, cold exhale. "Yeah. We are definitely talking about this later."
Callum managed a strained, reckless smirk even as the Leshen's thrashing nearly lifted him off his feet. "Why do I feel like I'm in massive trouble?"
"Because you are," I said.
I didn't waste another heartbeat. Activating Warp, reality folded around me in a silent ripple of displaced space.
I vanished from the crater rim and materialized instantly behind the Leshen's towering shoulders, ten feet in the air. As gravity took hold, I whipped the second silver chain around the monster's throat, crossed the links over Callum's, and drove my boots into the beast's shoulder blades, pulling the ligature taut with all the leverage my mutated body could muster.
"Moondust, now!" I barked.
Callum hurled the silver sphere with pinpoint precision.
The Moondust bomb detonated directly against the stag skull. A blinding cloud of pulverized silver particles, saltpetre, and powdered quicksilver exploded over the titan, penetrating every crack, crevice, and vascular conduit in its wooden body.
The reaction was instantaneous. Saturated in silver dust and bound by twin silver chains, the monster's connection to the ambient Chaos was forcibly suppressed. Its ability to vanish, or teleport was locked down cold for roughly sixty seconds.
I reached for the Dimeritium bomb at my belt to completely sever its magical core, but before my fingers could unhook the latch, the Leshen threw its antlered head toward the heavens.
SKRRRRRRAAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!
The beast unleashed a deafening, concussive acoustic shockwave.
The blast tore through the crater with the force of a battering ram, ripping the chain from my grip and launching me backward through the air. I twisted mid-flight, landing gracefully on the balls of my feet forty paces away, but the shockwave hadn't just been an attack, it was a primeval summons.
From the surrounding treeline, blood-chilling snarls and frenzied howls echoed through the night.
Red glowing eyes pierced the swirling fog. Emerging from the blighted thickets was a massive pack of mutated, bloodthirsty wolves, easily fifteen strong, their jaws dripping with foul saliva.
"Oh, shit," Callum swore, struggling to maintain his one-handed grip on his chain as the Leshen bucked against the silver burn. "Cain, we've got company!"
"Shit," I muttered under my breath.
There was no time to play around if either of us let go of the chains, the Leshen would regain its footing and smash the other into paste. If we held on, the pack would tear our throats out from behind.
I made my decision in a heartbeat.
I slammed the tip of my burning silver sword straight down into the earth, anchoring my chain under my boot heel. Reaching into my inventory with a swift mental command, I retrieved two items: the Hunter's Edge Knife and my Runic Sharpening Stone.
Gripping the hilt of the hunting knife between my teeth, I took the round whetstone in both hands, pulled the blade across the rough abrasive surface in three hard, rhythmic strokes, and channeled my mana into the friction.
A shower of azure and white sparks flared across the blade, accompanied by the crisp, crystalline chime of the System interface.
System Notification:
Hunter's Edge Knife (Rare)
A weapon from a renowned hunter of the Forgotten Realms, who traveled the planes and hunted planar creatures.
Effect: +1 Strength, +1 Dexterity
Bonus Ability: Can be thrown and summoned back to the thrower.
Temporary Runic Blessing — Ansuz: The weapon is empowered by the wind and cuts with raw ferocity.
Duration: 24 Hours
The moment the blessing settled into the steel, the Runic Sharpening Stone let out a brittle snap, fracturing into harmless gray dust between my fingers. Its final use had been spent.
I ripped my burning silver sword from the earth with my left hand, twirling the glowing, wind-humming Hunter's Edge Knife in my right.
"I'll buy you some time!" I shouted over the howling wind.
"Just don't die!" Callum yelled back, his boots digging trenches in the mud as the Leshen fought to drag him into the chasm.
I turned toward the charging wolf pack, my golden eyes narrowing into razor slits of cold, unadulterated killer intent as I activated my intimidation skill.
"If I die to a pack of overgrown mutts," I muttered, "I could never look you guys in the eye in the next life."
I drew upon the deepest reserves of power ready to give it my all.
Limit Break: Activate!
A violent surge of primal vitality tore through my vascular system. Thick veins bulged visibly along my forearms, neck, and jawline as my heart hammered at five times its normal rate.
I activated Warp.
I disappeared, rematerializing eight feet in the air directly above the charging vanguard of the pack. With the wind-empowered blessing of Ansuz howling along the edge, I hurled the Hunter's Edge Knife downward like a lightning bolt.
SHLICK!
The knife struck the lead alpha wolf between the ears, cleaving its skull clean in half from snout to spine before embedding itself into the frozen bedrock.
Before the corpse even hit the ground, I plummeted into the center of the pack. My azure-burning silver sword swung in a blinding, horizontal arc of blue destruction.
CHOP!
Two wolves leaped at my throat from the left; my blade severed both of their heads in a single, frictionless stroke.
In that same split second, a fourth beast lunged at my blind spot from behind, its jaws inches from my kidney.
Without looking, I extended my open right palm and willed the hunting knife back.
SWISH!
The Hunter's Edge Knife ripped itself free from the stone, hurtling backward through the air like a guided missile. It sheared through the ribcage of a flanking wolf, splitting its torso into two ragged halves, and snapped cleanly into my outstretched palm.
Without breaking momentum, I pivoted on my heel, bringing the knife around in a vicious backhand thrust, driving the steel through the lunging wolf's lower jaw and up into its brain before the creature even registered the motion.
Fifty yards away, Callum was hauling against his silver chain with everything he had, but his eyes were wide as saucers as he witnessed the massacre.
To Callum's Witcher senses, Cain wasn't just fast, he was a walking phantom of slaughter. He saw Cain move with a horrifying, effortless grace that defied mortal anatomy, flickering between the pack, leaving trails of azure fire, severed limbs, and flying entrails in my wake. Wolves were being carved into pieces before their blood could even hit the frozen grass.
Gods above, Callum thought, a cold shiver running down his spine. He moves as fast as a Higher Vampire...
Suddenly, the Leshen let out a subterranean roar, bucking violently against Callum's chain. With the Moondust bomb's silver residue rapidly fading, the titan drove its right arm toward the glowing Chaos Nexus, desperate to re-establish its feeding roots.
CRACK-BOOOM!
A blinding arc of raw, white-hot lightning cascaded from the dark terrace, slamming into the Leshen's wooden shoulder and knocking its arm away from the chasm.
Callum snapped his head around in shock.
Standing at the edge of the ritual circle forty paces back was Callidea. Her eyes were still shut, her left hand maintaining the delicate white-gold resonance circle tracing the master's soul-tether, while her right hand was thrust forward, crackling with violent elemental lightning.
Callum grinned fiercely, sweat pouring down his face. "How's that damn spell coming along, Calla?!"
At the crater's edge, Calla stood enveloped in a roaring, fifty-foot hurricane of pure azure fire. Her emerald eyes burned like incandescent stars as archaic words of power poured from her lips.
"Ten seconds!" Calla shouted over the roar of the tempest.
Callum smirked through gritted teeth, though his arms were screaming in agony. "Ten seconds?! No problem at all!"
The silver dust completely dissipated from the titan's bark.
The Leshen surged forward with terrifying, renewed vigor, dragging Callum toward the precipice. Knowing he couldn't hold it through raw muscle alone, Callum released the chain, sprinted forward in an explosive burst of speed, and drove his azure-enchanted silver blade straight through the monster's left wooden foot, pinning it to the granite bedrock.
FOOM!
The banishing blue fire ignited the limb instantly. The beast shrieked in pain, thrashing violently.
Callum leaped backward, instantly slamming his left hand toward the ground casting Yrden.
A ring of purple runes flared to life beneath the titan. But his wasn't as potent as Cain's. Callum's standard Witcher Yrden barely impeded the monster's colossal mass. The titan raised its massive fist to smash Callum into paste.
Suddenly, a glass sphere shattered directly against the Leshen's stag skull, showering its eyes in caustic dimeritium residue.
A dense cloud of anti-magic Dimeritium smoke erupted inside the Leshen's head, instantly severing its connection to ambient Chaos.
An instant later, a glowing, rune-carved knife plunged deep into the center of the skull's forehead.
Then, descending from the stormy sky like a falling meteor, came a blur of snow-white hair and blood-spattered leather.
I dropped onto the Leshen's massive shoulders with concussive force, grasping the hilt of my blazing silver sword with both hands and driving the blade straight down into the stag skull, hammering the knife and the silver steel all the way to the crossguard!
KRAAAAA-BOOOOOOM!
A cataclysmic explosion of blue fire detonated within the skull cavity, blowing the antlered crown to splinters and blinding the monster in a roaring geyser of banishing flame.
I vaulted off the collapsing titan, flipping through the air, and landed smoothly on one knee directly beside the glowing heart of the Chaos Nexus at the bottom of the crater.
The moment my boots hit the stone beside the geyser of green light, the System interface flared violently before my eyes.
System Notification: Chaos Nexus Found
Would you like to absorb it or travel to the connecting world?
[Absorb / Travel]
I stared at the glowing blue text in absolute, stunned bewilderment.
Travel?! my mind screamed. Connecting world?! What the hell does that mean?! Are the chaos nexuses or places of power gates linked to these places?!
Before I could even process the existential ramifications, the headless, burning Leshen let out a blind, guttural shriek. Driven by sheer primeval malice, it lunged straight toward me, its massive wooden talons descending to crush me into the earth.
I didn't have time to think. I made a split-second command.
[Absorb!]
I thrust my bare left hand directly into the glowing emerald pillar of the nexus.
A torrential, overwhelming flood of primordial Chaos surged into my palm, racing up my arm and slamming directly into my body. The sheer volume of primordial energy felt like swallowing a star, expanding my mana channels until they burned with intoxicating, radiant heat.
System Notification: Chaos Nexus Absorbed
+3 Attribute Points
Mana: 13.1 → 18.6
Axii Sign effects permanently increased by 10%
My eyes widened at the massive stat boost, but before I could relish the surge of power, Calla's voice tore through the valley like a clarion bell.
"CAIN! CALLUM! GET AWAY FROM THAT THING!"
Up on the terrace, Calla slammed both of her glowing, blue-ignited palms directly into the soil.
My intuition and enhanced senses screamed absolute, cataclysmic death.
I didn't hesitate. I activated Warp, flashed beside Callum, grabbed him by the scruff of his armor, and activated Warp a second time, tearing through space to appear sixty yards away on the high eastern ridge.
The moment our boots hit the grass, Callum collapsed onto his hands and knees, violently heaving and vomiting sour ale and half-digested venison into the dirt.
"F-fuck..." Callum choked out between dry heaves, his face a pale shade of green. "What in the name of the Great Sun was that?! My stomach feels like it was turned inside out through my ears!"
I dropped onto one knee beside him, panting heavily as Limit Break expired, leaving my muscles throbbing with deep, aching exhaustion.
A faint, arrogant smirk tugged at my lips. "That was me saving your ass. Again."
Down in the crater, Calla's spell reached its terrifying zenith.
The earth fractured open. Massive, glowing tendrils of pure azure pyromantic fire erupted from the bedrock like living roots, wrapping tightly around the headless Leshen's petrified limbs and torso.
The titan shrieked, an acoustic death wail that shook the mountains, as the holy blue flames consumed its heartwood from the inside out. The fire climbed into the sky, forming a magnificent, seventy-foot pillar of blinding azure incineration that illuminated the entire valley in brilliant twilight.
For an unbroken minute, the banishing fire roared.
Slowly, the blinding light began to fade. The deafening wails subsided.
When the smoke finally parted, the twenty-foot titan was gone. In its place rested a massive, smoldering mound of white ash, charred bark, and melted mineral slag, the green glow in its eye sockets completely extinguished.
Calla fell back onto her heels, breathing heavily, wiping a streak of soot and sweat from her forehead with the back of her sleeve.
"Gods above..." Calla exhaled, looking down at her trembling hands. "We did it. Well... at least we stopped the avatar for now."
Callidea slowly rose from her ritual circle, lowering her hands as the white light faded from her palms. She walked over to where Callum and I were sitting on the ridge, her sharp emerald eyes sweeping over the smoldering crater, the slaughtered wolf pack, and the two of us.
Calla looked up as her mother approached. "Mother... were you able to trace the life-tether? Did you find who was commanding that thing?"
Callidea nodded gravely. "Yes. The connection was clear before the fire severed the link." She paused, looking down at Callum and me with profound, maternal pride and genuine awe. "You three were magnificent. Cain, Callum... you two may have only just walked out of the mountains as newly minted Witchers, but out there tonight, you fought like seasoned veterans."
Callum wiped the sweat from his brow, offering a self-deprecating grin. "Thank you, Mother. But trust me, if you saw the real veterans at work, Vesemir, Geralt, Eskel, we're still clumsy amateurs compared to them."
Callidea smiled warmly, shaking her head. "Amateurs or not, you saved this valley tonight."
Her gaze then shifted, locking onto me with intense, analytical scrutiny.
"Cain," Callidea said softly, stepping closer. "You possess abilities that defy conventional Witcher mutations. You folded spatial coordinates without an incantation, portals, or glyphs. And what did you do to that Chaos Nexus? Or rather... what did it do to you? I can feel ancient, primordial magical resonance radiating off your skin like heat from a forge. Tell me... did you absorb the nexus?"
I steadied my breathing, sitting up straight. I knew better than to attempt a crude lie in front of a master herbalist and sorceress who had just watched the energy disappear into my palm. But I wasn't about to explain the System or transmigrated souls either.
"I suppose so, ma'am," I replied neutrally. "I just reached out my hand, and the primordial energy flowed into me."
Calla's jaw dropped. She stared at me as if I had grown a second head. "And your mind is still intact?!"
I gave a dry nod. "No mental corruption, no madness. Perfectly sane."
Calla shook her head in sheer, unadulterated disbelief. "That's impossible... A half-human, half-elven Witcher with absurd magical talent is rare enough, but absorbing raw, unfiltered Chaos from an active nexus without your psyche shattering or your internal organs boiling from the inside out? Cain... your bloodline must be terrifyingly ancient, or you are truly a walking anomaly."
I glanced sideways at Callum.
Callum met my eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching with suppressed amusement. If only she knew the half of it, we both thought simultaneously.
Calla stepped closer, her eyes gleaming with sudden, predatory academic curiosity. "Mind if I take a small vial of your blood for study? Just a few drops for testing."
"No," I replied instantly, not a shred of hesitation in my voice.
Calla scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm a scholar, Witcher! I won't use it to curse you or bind you!"
"I've had enough needles, mutagens, and people carving open my veins to last three lifetimes," I said flatly. "So the answer is a hard no. For now."
Callidea held up a hand, reigning in her daughter with practiced authority. "Let us maintain our focus, everyone. We must deal with the true threat. We need to inform Hector."
She reached into her pouch, producing a small, polished quartz crystal that hummed with a faint, crystalline resonance.
"I have attuned this focus gem to the master's residual soul-signature," Callidea explained, holding the crystal up in the moonlight. "It will glow with that exact same blighted, emerald-green light whenever the person who bound the Leshen's totem is within close proximity."
I looked at the crystal, my expression hardening. "Do we have to kill the master?"
Callidea nodded, her face grim. "If we do not, the Leshen's primeval spirit will eventually reform and complete its vengeance. It has gorged itself on too much Chaos; it will inevitably break free of any mortal leash. When it returns, it will slaughter Hector, burn the castle to the ground, and massacre every living soul in Hillstead."
As she spoke, the translucent blue interface shimmered before my vision once more.
System Notification: Quest Complete!
Legendary Rank Quest: Ancient Leshen
Rewards Received: +3 Ability Points. 1 Legendary Equipment Chest.
I dismissed the panel with a flick of my consciousness, slowly pushing myself up to my feet.
"Then let's make sure the people know exactly who was the cause of all their suffering," I said, my voice cold and absolute.
Callum looked up at me, catching the predatory glint in my golden eyes. A broad, dangerous grin spread across his face. "You've got that look in your eyes, Cain. The one that means you've got a plan."
"I do," I replied. "And it's going to be dangerous."
Callum stood up, strapping his silver sword across his back. "I've got your back, brother like always. So what's the plan?"
Calla stepped forward as well, resting her staff against her shoulder. "Count me in. I've come this far with you two, and so far, you haven't disappointed me. Tell us what you're thinking."
Callidea nodded gently. "I will assist however I can."
I looked between the three of them. "Tomorrow morning, we convene an emergency public council in the center of the village square. Callum, I need you to find Captain Gregor tonight. Make sure his most loyal men are armed, armored, and stationed around the perimeter. When the truth comes out, things are going to get bloody."
Callum nodded sharply. "Consider it done."
I turned toward Calla and Callidea. "Calla, Callidea, I need the two of you to secretly inform Baron Hector. Tell him we have identified the source of the curse and the monster attacks, and that he and his whole must attend the morning assembly in the square to witness the unveiling."
"We can manage that without raising suspicion," Callidea agreed. She tilted her head, studying me. "And what are you going to do tonight, Cain?"
I adjusted the leather harness across my chest, turning toward the northern path. "I'm going to gather some heavy rope and a generous supply of flammable pitch. But first... I'm taking a walk."
Without waiting for a response, I turned and strode out of the smoldering vineyard, making my way up the long cobblestone road leading toward Hillstead Castle.
As I approached the outer castle gatehouse, the torches along the ramparts flared. A dozen guardsmen from the Baron's garrison instantly raised their heavy crossbows and halberds, their voices tight with nervous tension as they peered into the drifting fog.
"Halt! Who goes there?!" the gate sergeant barked, his finger trembling over the crossbow trigger.
I stepped out of the shadows, bathed in the amber torchlight. My armor was drenched in wolf blood and soot, my white hair whipping in the freezing wind, and my golden eyes glowing with lethal, unyielding authority.
The guards froze. Slowly, their weapons lowered, their faces pale as they recognized the Witcher of the White Frost.
Back in the smoldering crater of the vineyard, Calla stood beside Callum, watching Cain's distant silhouette disappear into the castle approach.
Calla crossed her arms, turning toward her brother. "Tell me, Callum... does Cain always make an theatrical spectacle out of matters that should be handled with absolute delicacy? Especially when someone from the Baron's own household is likely the culprit?"
Callum looked toward the castle gates, a soft, fond chuckle escaping his chest. "I don't know, Calla. He's always had this strange, magnetic charm to him. Half the time he's completely cold, detached, and calculating like a stone wall... and the other half he's fiercely loyal, outgoing, and protective. All I know is... I trust him with my life."
Calla watched the road for a long moment before letting out a soft sigh. "Then let's make sure his plan works."
She turned back toward the smoking remains of the Ancient Leshen to help her mother pack their alchemy focuses. As she stepped past the charred crater, the pale moonlight caught a sharp, brilliant reflection nestled deep within the pile of white ash and melted silver.
Calla paused, her brow furrowing.
She knelt beside the smoldering embers, reaching her gloved hand into the ash, and pulled out a massive, fist-sized crystal that pulsed with an eerie, rhythmic, emerald-green light.
Calla's lips curved into an intrigued smile as she held it up to the moon.
"Well... what do we have here?"