From Witcher to Lord of the Empire

The wolf-sect demon hunters who observed the transformation of the shapeshifter at close range showed interest.

It is not that they have never encountered shapeshifters, but not every shapeshifter can perform their abilities in front of them so unreservedly.

Yennefer even showed the unique inquiring look of an experimenter.

Chapet now possessed the sharp perception of a witcher and Geralt's memory. Yennefer's eyes made him understand something instantly. He shivered violently and almost instinctively quickened his pace into the Devil's Pit.

"Let's hurry up. Don't we mean there are people inside who need to be saved besides the evil spirits to be destroyed?"

Inside the quarantine area were abandoned tents, collapsed braziers, torn cloths, and smelly carrion.

There are no living people, and it has been a long time since the last batch of patients were "quarantined" here. Obviously they did not survive until the new leader of the Eternal Fire took office.

Shapet's eyes were filled with compassion.

Although Geralt is usually expressionless, his heart is soft and sentimental. Coupled with the kindness of the shapeshifter's nature and the Eternal Fire Archon's belief in the sect, the shapeshifter is now tortured by himself to the point of almost crying. .

Seeing Shapet's expression, Yennefer showed another look of interest.

Shapet took out a simple map from his arms, looked around, and quickly led everyone through the "residential area".

"The Devil's Pit is built against the mountain. Its predecessor was an abandoned mine." Shapet said, pointing to the locked wooden door blocking everyone's way. "The evil spirit is in the deepest part of the mine. The guard here used to You can often hear whispers and screams coming from inside, and sometimes it turns into quarrels and begging for mercy - and these all come from the same voice."

Shapet said solemnly.

Then in front of everyone, he took out the seal with his left hand, took a horse stance, and took a breath to gather strength.

[Alder's Seal]!

The air cannon formed by the condensed telekinesis poured out from his left palm. The lock of the wooden door was not opened, but the door panel and four hinges were torn off from the rock wall and flew upside down into the hole.

Vesemir raised his eyebrows.

Eskar patted Geralt on the shoulder: "He imitated you very much."

Shapet took a slight breath, looked at the dark cave, grabbed the wolf head badge on his chest with his left hand, and lowered his head.

Everyone heard his prayer: "May the eternal fire guide me——"

Geralt's face grew stiffer.

…

Lambert laughed: "I'm starting to like this guy!"

He strode to Shapet's side, fumbled for a while and took out a bottle of [Cat] from the alchemy backpack strap: "Want to try this, man, it is indispensable for exploring the cave!"

Shapete took it silently. Although he could simulate Geralt's armor and sword by transforming, the potion was still a bit over the top.

The other demon hunters also moved very neatly. They each took out the potion, bit off the wax seal, and drank it. Their seven pairs of eyes suddenly began to glow in the darkness.

Yennefer made a slight "cut" sound and naturally put her arm on Geralt's arm.

Colors fade from view, while lines and contours become clearer. Everything in the dark mine appeared in front of Lan.

"This is not a place for people to live at all." Vesemir, the eldest, expressed everyone's thoughts.

There were abandoned wood, ropes, mining tools, and many overturned braziers everywhere.

Around the braziers, there were many torn sacks pressed to the ground by stones, serving as temporary shelters for people to lie down. The blood stains on it showed that the physical condition of the person above was not very good.

"This kind of thing is countless times more cruel than war." Eskar sighed.

Everyone was silent, just following Shapet who clenched his fists and continued walking inside.

Soon the first door appeared ahead, with a letter nailed to it. I don’t know how many years have passed, but this thin piece of paper seems to have miraculous power to maintain it and has not been shattered.

Lan stepped forward to take down the letter and read it softly.

[Dear O:

If you read this letter, you have found something I left near Novigrad. It turns out you were right, just for once, congratulations. I should have left with you. There is another mystery behind this seemingly simple commission. Alas... it's like this again. Didn't we suffer a small loss? 】

[I feel like I'm infected, yes, I know how incredible this is - witchers can't get sick. But how to explain my symptoms of fever and confusion? I hope it’s because my physique as a demon hunter is surprisingly poor, and if that’s not the case, things will be very serious...]

[I was worried that something might happen to me, so I marked it with our badges along the way so that you can find me when you come back...]

Generally speaking, 99% of the people who write such letters and are found are dead.

Lan briefly looked at it and said to the Wolf Faction: "Here is a potion formula he prescribed based on his condition. It seems to use celandine as an ingredient. It also has his signature."

Lane whispered the letter writer's name: "Reynard."

As soon as the name came out of his mouth, Vesemir suddenly started up, and his sudden heavy breathing could be heard by everyone in the cave.

"know him?"

Vesemir shook his head: "No, but I heard my mentor mention his name. He was already the mainstay of the Wolf Faction before I was brought back by my mentor. I heard that his forging skills are very exquisite, and he even participated in The founding of Kaer Morhen Castle."

The Wolf Faction couldn't help but gasp, participating in the establishment of Kaer Morhen? What kind of old monster is that?

Lambert asked what everyone was thinking: "Is he really alive?"

His eyes were focused on Lan.

"In the situation that my ancient blood saw, he was 'almost' dead." Lann shook his head, "But this is the purpose of my coming here, isn't it? Use my power to pray for him Take a piece of life.”

Everyone was silent.

In the end, it was Kiyaen who patted Vesemir on the shoulder to comfort him: "Don't worry! I was locked up for decades for experiments. Not only was the skin all over my body peeled off, but all kinds of medicines in my body were flowing out. There was a lot of blood, and in the end he was possessed by a demon! Wasn't he finally rescued by Lann like this?"

"As long as your senior is still breathing, he will definitely be snatched back from the hands of death by Lan!"

Not to mention, Vesemir was really comforted by Kiyaan's personal experience.

Geralt studied the letter for a while, but he had other doubts.

"This thing is so roughly nailed to the door panel, but it has not turned into ashes after such a long time. Is there something wrong?"

This sentence has been widely recognized.

"Either, an enemy has set a trap for us." Vesemir speculated, "Or, that senior used his power to give us outsiders some reminders within his power."

"If it's a reminder, then we should save this senior even more." Lambert said loudly, "And if it's a trick, which monster can defeat our team?"

Looking around at the demon hunters and warlocks, everyone sneered and continued to explore inside.

Keeping the letter carefully, Shapete pushed open the dusty door immediately.

Soon, the smell of smoke and decay poured out, and a cold wind blew from the depths of the cave, accompanied by a painful, suppressed voice.

…

"No...help me..."

"Please... help me..."

Accompanied by intermittent cries for help, the torches on both sides of the mine ignited without flames, illuminating things deep in the darkness.

This dim light not only failed to dispel much fear, but instead pulled out twisted shadows, enough to scare any team that rashly explored this place back to their hometown.

Fortunately, everyone here is used to seeing big scenes.

"This voice...could it be that 'Raymond?'"

Lann and Kyaan both cheered up.

The cat-sect demon hunter who was once possessed by a demon and gained the talent of [Psychic Medium] had cold eyes: "No... I smell a familiar smell. This is a trick of the evil spirit!"

Lambert shrugged: "But this voice sounds quite sincere."

Even without a torch, the witcher's twinkling eyes are enough to illuminate everything in the mine. Soon everyone found several wolf head marks carved on the ground. These were the instructions left in "Raymond"'s letter to guide his companions.

Shapet's eyes became more and more guilty because there were more and more skeletons and corpses along the way. There was also a large amount of spurting blood on the rock wall.

Ye Naifa, who has some medical knowledge, commented: "This should be some kind of hemorrhagic fever. According to the amount of bleeding... the person who spurted blood should die in the next second."

Shapet continued to lead the way along the wolf head mark in silence until he encountered a rickety wall.

He groped for a while and suddenly found another letter in the corner.

【profound:

I had to take a break, but the priests still wouldn't open the door. My body was losing strength and I had no bearing on what had happened over the past few hours...or was it the past few days?

I was trapped in the dark with nothing to do, and my mind began to wander. I thought of the previous training and the commissions we received together, but suddenly... I actually forgot your name.

It's Osmar, right? Or Ormonds, or Ormonds... Wait, your name is Osmonds, I remember now! But there was indeed a moment just now...

I started to feel like I might not be able to get out.

thunder. 】

After reading the letter, the demon hunters looked up and saw a leaky wall in front of them. It was incompatible with the surrounding buildings. It was obviously built temporarily to block something.

This letter floated out from the leak in this wall.

As soon as Lambert raised his hand, the shock wave of telepathy condensed from [Alder's Seal] shattered the crumbling wall, and rats like a stream poured out from it.

Behind was a deeper passage, and when everyone stepped into it, the ground was full of bones, blood, dried mucus, and messy scratches.

"These were scratched out by human fingernails. There were many people." Vesemir looked at the bloodstains on the rock wall. "They tried their best to get out."

Everyone turned around, and seemed to see a scene from a hundred years ago on the other side of the wall: a cold team of eternal fire guards. They looked at the patients inside with indifferent eyes, and blocked their hope of survival with bricks.

"This kind of wall can't stop the witcher at all, but there is obviously something wrong with Raymond's body. So he can only sit by the wall and desperately write letters to his companions and stuff them through the gaps, hoping that he can see them."

At this time, another cry for help came from deep in the mine.

…

"No...save me...please..."

"Help……"

…

Kian felt as if there were ants crawling on his neck, and the hand holding the sword began to itch more and more.

Going further in, there are more and more traces of human habitation, but they are not good traces.

Prisons, fences, chains, laboratories...

There are even many cruel instruments of torture.

Without exception, these things were stained with smelly blood.

"It seems that the priests of the Eternal Fire want to conduct research on the epidemic here." Eskar said solemnly, "It's just that the patients were unwilling to be so obedient as material, so they resisted and were subsequently suppressed."

Lambert looked at the torture instruments. There were also a few stained iron nails. These were obviously not used to inlay wooden boards, but to drill through flesh.

"And the priests seem to have developed some other hobbies besides research."

Chapet became increasingly silent.

"Wait!" Lan suddenly yelled.

I don’t know when an even more frightening “woo-woo” cold wind began to blow around me.

Kian, who has keen perception, had already unsheathed the cat-headed silver sword with a "clop" sound, and eagerly looked at several black figures walking out of the darkness.

"It seems that the patients are particularly obsessed with this place."

They were half-living dead with rotten skin, half-exposed muscles and bones, limping, exuding bursts of gray-red death aura, pacing towards the demon hunters and surrounding them.

It was only then that the badges on everyone's chests began to tremble violently.

…

"help me."

…

"They're not the ones talking." Lambert interjected.

"It's not a monster. It seems to be the corpse of a patient." Vesemir glanced at his apprentice, "It's not like it's possessed by an evil spirit. Their actions are too consistent..."

"It's not like it has its own mind, but it's like it's being controlled by a unified brain."

"Anyway, we are very close to the target, aren't we?" Lann pointed to the place where these monsters came out, "They all come out from the same place, no matter what gave birth to them, or what they are protecting. I have it all A hunch — that’s what we’re going for.”

Lan took the first step forward and raised his hand to stop the eager demon hunters.

"Let's save some time. There is no need to waste too much on these monsters."

Saying this, Lan raised his left palm.