POV Aiden
Arriving near the abandoned warehouse with Ganon, I stayed at a safe distance. I closed my eyes, trying to sense any presence, but there was nothing. Only a suffocating silence, thick like fog.I led Ganon a few steps closer, then dismounted. Gently patting his flanks, I whispered, "Go on, old boy. It's too dangerous for you here."He neighed softly, then backed away reluctantly before disappearing into the darkness.
Silver sword in hand, I slowly approached the warehouse. To be sure, I let out a breath of icy air from my palm, barely visible. The cold wind crept into every crack and corner, but found no heat, no living bodies.
I pushed open the door, a gust of musty air making me shiver. The inside was empty. No crates, no tools. Nothing but the rancid smell of rotting wood and the lingering impression of death.
Activating my witcher senses, I scanned the room. Old footprints scattered across the dusty floor, and the stench of long-decayed corpses hung in the stagnant air.
I struck the side of a beam with the flat of my sword. A cold, raspy laugh echoed through the shadows.
A slippery voice mocked, "My master was right. You're special... but so naive. Didn't you know no one leaves a higher vampire's den alive?"
Four ekimmaras burst out of the darkness, growling ferociously. High on a beam, the higher vampire revealed himself, his red eyes gleaming with amusement.
"Go on, my pets, feast on him!" he hissed.
The ekimmaras lunged at me, their claws scraping against the stone, their growls tearing through the heavy air.
I dodged the first assault with a quick teleport, reappearing behind them in a puff of frost.
Before they could turn, I struck. My blades slashed their Achilles tendons, sending them crashing down in a chaos of screeches. One by one, I decapitated them, my sword whistling through the thick air.
Grabbing one of the still-smoking heads, I quickly stuffed a Devil's Puffball bomb into its gaping mouth. Without hesitating, I hurled the bloody head straight at the higher vampire perched above.
Mocking, the vampire caught the head midair.
"A gift, witcher?" he sneered.
"Yeah," I breathed, a thin smile on my lips, "an explosive one."
The bomb detonated in his hands, unleashing a poisonous cloud that devoured the air around him.The vampire screamed, his face seared by the toxic fumes, his flesh cracking open.
He crashed heavily to the ground, but despite his wounds, he rose again, furious beyond reason.
Growling, he charged at me with insane speed. I barely dodged his strikes by teleporting from side to side, each time trying to launch ice spears to slow him down.
The air cracked with the freezing attacks. I managed to hit him several times, carving deep wounds, creating openings. He hissed, slowed down slightly. Bit by bit, I was wearing him down.
But every time I thought I had the upper hand, he countered with brutal ferocity. His claws ripped the air just inches from my face.One wrong move, and I knew I'd be shredded to pieces.
"Your blood... your scent... it's different..." he murmured between charges, his gaze wild.
Then, with a feral howl, he mutated. His flesh split, his torso swelled, his arms twisted into monstrous weapons.A nightmare stood before me, dripping with rage and death.
Before I could react, he slammed me hard in the abdomen. Pain exploded through me.I had no time to defend myself he grabbed my throat and hurled me with inhuman force against the wall.The stone shattered on impact.My body, broken, was thrown out of the warehouse, landing hard on the frozen plain under the cold light of the moon.
I tried to get up, but my arms trembled. My vision blurred. Every breath was pure agony.I was on the brink of blacking out.
And that's when it awakened.
The cold.Not the winter chill outside.No, something deeper. Ancient. Brutal.
My body temperature plummeted. My skin was covered in frost, my arms sheathed in thin layers of natural ice.Each breath I took became a thick mist.My battered muscles tensed under the grip of that vital cold.My heart slowed.My thoughts sharpened into a single, crystal-clear shard.
I rose, my body cracking under the new layer of ice forming over my skin. My hand turned to solid ice, half my face was now frozen, leaving only my eye once blue now almost pure white.
But with this power... something else was growing inside me. A violent, primal instinct.
The urge to kill.
Not to survive...
Not to protect...
Just to crush this enemy, to erase every shred of his existence, to make him suffer an endless pain...
The creature lunged at me again, but this time, I saw him clearly.Everything seemed slower. Sharper.Every beat of his heart echoed in the frozen air.
I blocked his blow with my ice-covered hand, and with cold rage, counterattacked.
I drove an ice spear through his chest, severed one of his arms with a clean slice, then rained down a hail of razor-sharp ice spikes.
The creature thrashed and screamed, but I felt nothing except the need to destroy him...
I severed a leg. He collapsed in a grotesque wheeze. Without waiting, I shoved several Devil's Puffball bombs into his mangled mouth with a feral grin.
The internal explosion ripped him apart from within, halting any chance of regeneration.
But even after his death, I kept hitting him. Over and over.
My sword kept falling on his almost lifeless corpse, driven by an icy hatred and a survival instinct I could no longer control.
It was a hand on my shoulder that finally stopped the slaughter.
"I smelled your blood, my friend. It's over. You've won."
Regis's calm voice pierced through my fog of rage. I blinked, disoriented, and at the sight of his compassionate gaze, the ice inside me seemed to crack.
I tried to speak, to smile, but strength abandoned me.
My body collapsed against him, and darkness claimed me.
---
POV Regis
I gently laid Aiden down on the grass, making sure his body suffered no further shocks. He was unconscious, his face marked by exhaustion and wounds.Silently, I pulled out a vial of Swallow the witcher's potion I had prepared ahead of time and let it flow between his lips.
"Rest now, young wolf," I whispered.
I had never told him, but ever since our first meeting, I had left a trace of my blood on him.A discreet way to sense where he was, an invisible thread allowing me to intervene if needed.It wasn't out of distrust just precaution.Even Geralt, with all his strength, knew how easily a witcher could fall against a higher vampire.
And Aiden... Aiden was still young, despite all the rage and pain he carried within him.
I sat beside him, listening to the night stretching around us.The memories came back, heavy and vivid.
Geralt had told me about him. About the boy he saw almost as a son, but with whom he had never managed to build a real bond. About the terrible cold that had grown between them after Ciri's disappearance.
"If you ever cross his path... watch over him, Regis," Geralt had said, his gaze clouded with regrets he would never admit.
I looked at Aiden, and a sad smile tugged at my lips.
"Don't worry, old friend. I'll keep my promise."
A crack behind me pulled me from my thoughts. Slowly, I turned toward the broken figure still crawling across the ground: Nocteclat, my former brother-in-arms, now dying.
I approached him without haste.
"It's been a long time, Nocteclat," I said calmly.
The wounded vampire lifted his head with difficulty. A guttural laugh rose from his bloodied throat.
"Regis... the traitor to our master..." he spat. "Have you truly lost all loyalty to our blood?"
I shook my head slowly.
"No," I replied. "But I lost all faith in a master who killed the only woman I ever loved simply because she was human. Since that day, my loyalty has belonged only to my own conscience."
Nocteclat coughed violently, spewing black blood onto the earth. Then, in a final rasp of voice, he murmured:
"You understand now... why my master wants the witcher... He's too dangerous for our future."
I crouched down beside him, locking my eyes onto his already dimming gaze.
"I'm not protecting your future, Nocteclat," I said coldly. "I'm protecting the future we betrayed, believing we were serving a higher cause."
He gave a faint, defiant chuckle, unbroken even in death.
I said nothing more.My hand rested on his head, and with a precise gesture, I plunged into his memories, ripping the last scraps of information from him before his soul faded.
I rose sharply to my feet, my fists clenched.My eyes turned toward the dark horizon.
"The war is close... That madman wants to unleash a new red sun a light that will allow vampires to rule without obstacle, dooming humanity to famine and extinction."
I glanced at Aiden, still asleep, fragile yet carrying an uncertain future.
"You'll have to be ready, little wolf," I murmured."Because this time, it's not just your world you'll have to save... but the very soul of those who still believe in it."
The night breeze shivered through the tall grasses around us.And for the first time in a long while, I felt that old, buried fear awaken again...The fear of a future we can no longer prevent.