What?!!
Before the girl could react, the handsome boy before her suddenly vanished.
Before she had time to look around, in the biting cold wind, her thinly clothed back and arms were suddenly wrapped in warmth, along with a faint yet sharp scent of iron and rust.
Countless familiar yet unfamiliar semi-transparent threads stretched before her eyes.
"What is this?"
The girl froze, murmuring to herself.
She reached out her hand, trying to touch those faintly glowing threads under the dim sky. But just before her fingertip could touch the closest strand—
A flash of green lightning, a blur of vision, and suddenly she dropped down with a thud.
In front of her was no longer the wild field of grass, but a single horn radiating intense white light.
"Ihuarraquax!" she cried out, recognizing the owner of the unicorn horn before her.
Starry Eyes, you've learned how to use the power in your bloodline?!!
The voice of Ihuarraquax rang in her mind, equally astonished.
"It's not me!"
The girl shouted back, desperately trying to look around.
Again, before her eyes appeared those semi-transparent threads from nowhere. That strange sense of familiarity grew sharper—so sharp it felt as if it were assaulting her senses, tempting her to weave the threads like a skilled seamstress weaving a fine robe.
"Don't move!"
The boy's startled voice, edged with alarm, rang in her ears. Her dazed gaze snapped back into focus, her right hand trembling slightly as it brushed past a thread nearby.
With just that fleeting touch, all the strange filaments around her vanished.
And so too did the warmth and hardness behind her, the kind that had felt addictively like being held in Geralt's arms.
Before she could recover from the sense of loss, the boy's figure reappeared in a flash of green light—this time seated on Kelpie's back, pulling the reins to steer toward her and Ihuarraquax.
Kelpie reared up uneasily, trying to throw off the sudden unfamiliar weight.
"No! Kelpie! That's—" the girl shouted, wanting her proud mare to stop resisting. But then she saw the boy's free right hand sketching a familiar inverted triangle in the air.
Kelpie instantly calmed, galloping straight toward them.
The Axii Sign… From deep memory, she recognized his gesture.
This spell that controlled minds—Geralt had only ever used it twice in her presence: once to calm a horse on rough terrain, and once on two petty thugs in Novigrad.
After that, perhaps because of her constant questions, he never showed it before her again. Vesemir, Lambert, and Eskel had never displayed it either.
But her memory was sharp—just seeing it once had carved it into her mind.
"Why does he seem to cast it more smoothly than Geralt, with even stronger effect?" she thought in a fleeting moment.
That thought vanished instantly, because behind the boy, at the place where they had been talking—
The solid earth swelled, and massive roots thicker than her thigh shot upward, twisting together into a cage of trees.
Had he not used that strangely familiar spell, she would already be trapped inside that prison of roots.
The thought flashed through her mind, but she didn't think to thank him, nor even make a sound.
Instead, she stared in horror around them, as if deadly serpents were hissing and watching from the shadows of the long, unknown grasses.
Because she recognized those roots—they belonged to alder trees. The alders of the Alder Folk.
Along the riverbanks of all Tir ná Lia, these deep-rooted, thick-leaved trees grew in abundance.
They had no place in this world of endless grasslands. Which meant—
BOOM!
Thunder exploded as lightning ripped across the skies above the rolling sea of grass.
One bolt. Two. Three…
Apart from the very first strike, like a herald of catastrophe, none of the lightning carried thunder's roar.
The howling wind suddenly ceased.
The swaying prairie froze unnaturally, as though time itself had stopped.
Kelpie whinnied uneasily, breaking the dreadful stillness.
And that whinny seemed to be a signal.
In the heavy, oppressive sky, an icy blue ribbon of light blazed into existence, writhing like a serpent.
Shhh-crack!
Another lightning bolt.
Along that icy blue ribbon appeared the blurred, horrifying silhouettes of countless riders.
Once formed, they spurred forward, galloping faster and faster along the frozen path, drawing nearer and nearer…
In an instant, the truth became clear—the "ribbon" was a road of ice, conjured from air itself into a frozen path of death.
Wind rose again, tearing at grass blades, scattering dust and sand.
The riders' forms grew distinct.
Horned helmets adorned with tattered plumes swayed above skeletal masks of deathly gray. Beneath, their skin was pale as bone. Their skeletal horses wore rags of torn barding.
A gale roared across the grasslands, while lightning's blade split the black heavens.
The sound grew louder and louder.
No—this was not mere wind.
It was singing.
Ghostly, haunting singing.
And with that spectral song came crushing oppression, pressing down from the sky as though the heavens themselves were collapsing, about to crash into the earth.
The Wild Hunt had come!
"Allen! / Starry Eyes! / Ciri! Run!"
Male and female voices, telepathy and normal shouts—all mixed together, tearing through the endless sea of grass.
Allen pulled the reins. The black mare Kelpie twisted her head with practiced ease, her hind muscles straining as she charged straight toward the Wild Hunt.
But Ihuarraquax was even faster than Kelpie.
By the time the black mare had turned her head, the unicorn was already galloping off, its dreamlike long tail streaming in the wind.
"Ihuarraquax! Wait for Kelpie! Wait for Allen!" Ciri's desperate, hoarse cry carried in the wind.
The unicorn's body clearly hesitated, but it slowed down.
Then—
"Don't stop!" Allen shouted from behind them. "Don't forget what I told you last!"
What did he say?
Ciri's green eyes trembled madly at the sight of the Wild Hunt appearing in her vision.
She forced herself to keep her gaze locked on the boy's shouting face. His calm blue cat-like eyes seemed to lend her strength, thawing her frozen thoughts.
She remembered!
'None of that matters. You're wasting time!'
"Wasting time… wasting time… wasting time…"
Yes. He said he felt a strange summons, that he would be leaving soon!
This was… this was his way of telling me—to abandon him!
BOOM!
Another lightning flash exploded, its thunder shaking heaven and earth.
The girl locked eyes with the boy. He nodded firmly, urging her to make her decision.
But now, reflected in her pupils, filling her entire sight, the boy was no longer just this young Witcher—whom she had only just met, who seventy years ago died in a riot of angry mobs.
He was also her grandmother Calanthe, who fell to her death in war. He was Giselher, Aes, Ríav, Iskra, Kayleigh, and Michal—slaughtered one by one before her eyes by Bonhart. He was the old raven Vysogota of Corvo, who watched over her in Pereplut's marsh.
All of them were staring coldly at her—
My girl. Falka. Little Swallow. You… are going to run again?
"No!"
I haven't told him how to save the School of the Wolf. I absolutely won't…
Ciri cried out: "Ihuarraquax! Stop!"
Starry Eyes…
"Stop!"
Ciri's eyes were bloodshot, glaring furiously at Ihuarraquax.
Never having seen Starry Eyes like this, the unicorn trembled in fear and instinctively slowed.
Allen saw it all. He saw Ciri's sudden outburst of emotion, so inexplicable. After a moment's thought, he faintly guessed the reason, and let out a quiet sigh.
He could already feel the powerful pull from the void, dragging at him. But he also knew—Ciri could not be persuaded now.
He looked once more at the girl clinging desperately to the unicorn's mane, then back at the descending army of the Wild Hunt. Even from this distance, their pressure froze the blood, made the body weak.
He had never felt such power before.
Not from a Leshen. Not from the Eyeball God. Not even from the Hunt itself, when it attacked Ellander or when he encountered them in the Spiral.
This was overwhelming, crushing, leaving no room for resistance.
"Hah…"
Allen glanced again at the snow-white unicorn, slowing, about to be overtaken. He exhaled.
"At least she's the daughter I raised for so long in the game…"
He muttered softly. Then he yanked the reins, shouting: "Ihuarraquax! Take her away!"
"Whinnnny!"
The black mare Kelpie—named after the sea monster—wrenched under the reins' command, veering off course. Cutting an arc through the grass, she turned sharply and charged straight toward the terrifying army of skeletal riders.
"No!"
The girl's heart-wrenching scream rang from behind.
"Never thought… I'd ever get a day to be a hero."
Allen felt the shudder of his muscles, trembling from primal fear, and mocked himself with a bitter smile.
Fortunately, at this moment, Ciri had only just begun, with Ihuarraquax's help, to learn how to use the power of the Elder Blood.
Otherwise, like in the game, if she had simply blinked to him, Allen wouldn't even have the chance to act like a hero—he would only watch helplessly as Ciri, because of her stubbornness, was taken away by the Wild Hunt.
Changing history like that was not what he wanted.
But…
"Just charging forward isn't enough…" Allen fixed his gaze on the Wild Hunt army racing in from the horizon, drawing closer and closer.
Those Aen Elle from another world had an obvious target—Ciri, behind him.
Even as Allen rushed forward, their direction didn't waver.
"That won't do." He cast another Axii Sign, calming the terrified, trembling Kelpie, and thought about how to draw the Hunt's attention.
And just then—something unexpected happened.
"Hm?"
Allen sensed something wrong. Frowning, he glanced past Kelpie's head.
From the void stretched out a faint, translucent filament—a very familiar-looking filament.
Before he could even process why there would be spatial threads when he hadn't even used Blink…
Whoosh!
A blinding flash of green-blue light made him instinctively shut his eyes.
The next moment, a soft, small body dropped into his arms.
Allen reflexively caught the warm figure that suddenly appeared.
A faint milky fragrance, mixed with the sour tang of dried sweat, hit his nose.
"Ciri?!!"
He instantly realized what he was holding. Snapping his eyes open, confirming it wasn't a dream, he quickly turned his head.
Ihuarraquax was already at least a hundred meters away—reduced to a dark speck in the distance.
Absurd!
Allen's LV4 Blink only had a radius of twelve meters.
But Ciri? One look and she'd learned it—her first Blink instantly covered a hundred meters.
This was the Elder Blood?
How unreasonable was that?!!
"Hmph~"
The girl's body trembled as she let out a sharp little snort.
Her face was pale—clearly blinking a hundred meters hadn't been easy even for her.
"It wasn't that hard," she said stubbornly.
Allen, caught completely off guard, glanced at the Wild Hunt now less than a hundred meters away. Yanking the reins hard, he scolded, "Ci… Ciri, don't you realize—"
"Shut up, witcher!"
Her emerald eyes, bloodshot and burning, glared up at him. The veins stood out on her pale forehead, her scar flaring red like blood.
She straightened her back, lifted her chin, and roared at him:
"Who do you think I am?!
I am the Princess of Cintra, the Princess of Brugge and Duchess of Sodden, Heiress to Inis Ard Skellig and Inis An Skellig, Suzerain of Attre and Abb Yarra…
I am the Lady of Worlds, bearer of the Elder Blood!"
"I don't care if you leave, or when you leave— I will not, never, ever again abandon anyone! Anyone!"
"So…"
She drew in a sharp breath, raised her head high with cold, imperious pride, and stared at him: "Shut your mouth—and obey my command, witcher!"
Allen froze, stunned by the sudden transformation, the sheer force of her voice.
But the girl ignored his reaction. She cast a cold glance at the Wild Hunt less than two hundred meters away and said icily:
"Now I order you—hold me tight!"
Allen instinctively wrapped his arms around her slender, tense waist, the mingled scent of milk and sweat growing stronger.
Ciri felt the touch through her thin shirt, and the distinctly masculine presence—so unlike Geralt's—made her pale cheeks flush faintly red.
Allen had just gathered his wits, about to argue again—
Vmmmmm~
It wasn't his wolf medallion, but the very space around them trembling, keening.
Countless translucent threads stretched across the air.
"You're insane!!!" Allen sensed what the girl was about to do and shouted, "This is impo—"
But in the very next second—
A flash of green light, a violent gust of wind.
Ihuarraquax was suddenly right at their side, galloping at full speed.
In the blink of an eye, Allen, Kelpie, and Ciri—two people and one horse—had been Blinked more than a hundred meters away.
"This… isn't… possible?" Allen was stunned.
Blink could carry another person? What kind of ability was that?
Ciri's face was pale as paper, but she had no time to respond to his shock. She quickly turned her head and shouted to Ihuarraquax:
"Guide me, Ihuarraquax!"
But Ihuarraquax did not answer her request. Instead, a bitter, childlike voice echoed in her mind: There's no way out, Starry Eyes.
The Alders have sealed this world!
.........
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