Chapter Summaries

After witnessing the deaths of Flower Granny and her grandchild in Arland, Ailin accepted the devastation as a commission and helped the survivors clean up. He returned to the Temple of Melitele to investigate the Gaze of the Great Old One and use his battle spoils, ending as he prepared to activate a One-Eyed Nekker's Purification Spirit.

• Mary found Flower Granny and her grandchild buried beneath the ruins, and Ailin recovered the flower basket and its coins from the rubble.
• Arthur told Ailin that Flower Granny had no family left, and Ailin declared that he would take the commission to help Arland.
• Ailin, Mary, Vesemir, and Vira helped clear ruins and treat the wounded until dawn, then returned to the Temple of Melitele with Arthur and Sala.
• Ailin told Vira that the Gaze of the Great Old One probably remained and went alone to the sanctuary to seek a solution.
• Ailin used Nekker's Purified Spirits until they stopped working, gained two Perception points, and selected a One-Eyed Nekker's Purification Spirit from his inventory.

After using the One-Eyed Nekker's Purification Spirits, Ailin discovered that they transformed him into a spirit body and greatly increased some of his attributes. He unlocked Divine Communication and Dream Entry, tested the latter, and found himself briefly connected to the members of his Monster Hunting Legion before returning to the shrine.

• Ailin used all three One-Eyed Nekker's Purification Spirits, gaining agility, perception, mystery, and elemental affinity while losing constitution and noticing diminishing returns.
• Ailin considered whether Conjunction of the Spheres could attract the Wild Hunt and wondered why they had traveled to Arland after leaving Gors Velen.
• Ailin found the Divine Communication and Dream Entry interface and saw that contacting Melitele would cost one hundred Experience Orbs and carried a warning of extreme risk.
• Ailin spent ten Experience Orbs to enter a dark space where spheres represented the ten members of his Monster Hunting Legion, including Huus, Bont, Fred, and Ernie.
• Ailin returned to the shrine before he could send Huus a message, then opened eighteen Nekker's Chests.

Ailin opened Nekker chests and received an upgraded Specter Oil formula before opening half of his One-Eyed Nekker chests. Their visions revealed a rainforest hunt and a battle in a desert, but the second vision ended before he could identify the enemy, leaving him eager to inspect the remaining chests.

• Ailin opened a Nekker's Chest and obtained Enhanced Specter Oil, then considered how he might use it against another One-Eyed Nekker.
• Ailin prayed before opening nine One-Eyed Nekker's Chests, and a purple-quality vision showed a hunter capturing a dinosaur-like beast in a rainforest.
• A golden light followed, and Ailin found himself riding the same beast in a desert among thousands of One-Eyed Serpent Giants.
• Ailin watched the Serpent Giants and their beasts charge into a sandstorm toward enormous black shadows after a roar empowered them.
• The vision ended before Ailin could see the shadows clearly, and he opened the Witcher's Handbook to check the nine chests' contents.

Ailin examined the One-Eyed Nekker rewards, learned the Berserk Battle Cry, and delayed opening the remaining chests while hoping for another blessing from Meritellie. After failing to reach her in meditation for four days, he was summoned with Vesemir to attend a funeral for those killed in Arland during the May Festival.

• Ailin inspected the Giant Beast Lasso, learned that it could adapt to his size and bind a target, and wondered about the One-Eyed Clan and its enemies.
• Ailin learned Battle Cry: Berserk but chose to save the last nine One-Eyed Nekker chests until he could seek another luck blessing from Meritellie.
• Ailin spent four days repeatedly meditating in hopes of entering Meritellie's dream, but only heard a voice calling his name and never reached her.
• Vera suggested that Ailin seek help at the Cliff Temple, but he planned to try one final night of meditation before leaving Arland.
• Lyra told Ailin and Vesemir that High Priest Ianna and Duke Mason had invited them to attend the joint funeral for those who died during the May Festival.

Ailin and his companions traveled to Arland with Lyra, who had spent days helping the city recover, and saw the devastation left by the disaster. At the city gate, Duke Mason honored Ailin and asked whether the School of the Wolf would relocate to Arland.

• Sayaf Pont picked up Ailin, Vesemir, Mary, and Lyra in Duke Mason's carriage, whose ghoul-shaped gold trim marked the dent Ailin had made.
• Lyra fell asleep against Ailin's shoulder during the ride, while Mary watched with conflicted feelings.
• Lyra led the group through Arland, where residents and nobles greeted her, and then brought them up to the city gate.
• Duke Mason summoned Ailin to stand beside him before the gathered nobles, and Ailin saw priestesses gathered around large jars below the wall.
• Duke Mason asked Ailin whether the School of the Wolf was willing to relocate to Arland.

Ailin watched Arland bury the May Festival dead as Duke Mason offered the School of the Wolf protection in exchange for settling in the city. After the funeral, Mason demanded that Ailin tell him whom he should target for vengeance.

• Duke Mason offered to protect the School of the Wolf if it moved to Arland, and Ailin said Grandmaster Soyer would have to decide.
• Ailin learned that 2,760 people had died during the May Festival as the Monster Hunter Army carried their urns to a graveyard.
• Ailin recognized the burial site as the place where the wraiths had emerged and watched the mourners grieve as the urns were buried.
• A middle-aged woman tried to reach her dead seven-year-old son, but rain fell, the crowd broke into tears, and the funeral continued.
• After the mourners departed, Duke Mason stopped a young nobleman from speaking and asked Ailin whom the White Iris Lance should charge at.

After Ailin identified the Wild Hunt as the force behind Arland’s disaster, Duke Mason declared it Arland’s enemy and knighted him as Ailin of Arland. The nobles learned Ailin had warned them of the May Festival crisis through a divine revelation, while the chapter ended with Ailin looking toward a lone figure kneeling in the rain outside the city.

• Ailin told Duke Mason and the gathered nobles that the Wild Hunt had caused the May Festival disaster in Arland and the calamity in Gors Velen.
• Duke Mason declared war on the Wild Hunt, then knighted Ailin as Ailin of Arland with the Guard Knights’ support.
• Duke Mason revealed that Ailin had warned them of the crisis after receiving a revelation from Goddess Meritellie, and Ianna confirmed his account.
• Arthur told Ailin that Arland’s mourning meant there would be no celebratory banquet and began discussing the duties and insignia of knighthood.
• Duke Mason ordered an attendant to bring an umbrella to a woman as Ailin watched her kneel before freshly turned earth in the rain.

Ailin learned that Soyer Henrietta’s titles meant his own knighthood would not threaten the School of the Wolf’s neutrality. At a meeting with the Old Duke, Vesemir explained that the Wild Hunt might be intelligent beings using the Spiral to teleport, and the Duke asked how they could be killed.

• Arthur led Ailin and the others into the gatehouse, where Lady Vesemir used magic to dry their rain-soaked clothes.
• Vesemir told Ailin that Soyer Henrietta was the Dragon Slayer and already held a knightly title at Kaer Morhen, so Ailin need not worry about his investiture affecting the school.
• The Old Duke asked Vesemir what he knew about the Wild Hunt, and Vesemir described Geoffrey Monk’s writings on the Spiral and travel between realms.
• Vesemir suggested that the Wild Hunt used the Spiral to teleport and were living beings rather than mindless ghosts, while concealing their connection to the elves.
• Lady Vesemir explained that ordinary portal magic required prior knowledge of a destination, and the Old Duke confirmed the Wild Hunt had not appeared in the world for centuries.
• The Old Duke asked how they could kill the Wild Hunt.

Ailin and Vesemir admitted they had no sure way to kill the Wild Hunt, but Old Duke vowed to fight them and Ailin promised they would die. After gaining Old Duke as an ally and receiving a large reward, Ailin returned to the temple and prepared to commune with Melitele.

• Vesemir revealed that the witchers had invited Ivar Evil Eye of the School of the Viper to discuss a way to destroy the Wild Hunt.
• Old Duke vowed to drag the Wild Hunt into the grave with him, and Ailin promised to make sure they died.
• Old Duke dismissed everyone but Ianna, then asked whether the world was falling into chaos again, and Ianna answered that it had always been in chaos.
• Ailin finalized his knighthood crest with Arthur and Redo Ras, then received a deposit slip for twenty thousand Oren from Arthur as Duke Mason's thanks.
• Ailin left a hundred Oren for guards to watch over a bereaved figure kneeling in the mud, then returned to the temple and reflected on the growing alliance against the Wild Hunt.
• Ailin opened the Witcher's Handbook and chose to spend one hundred Experience Orbs to commune with Melitele despite its warning of extreme risk.

Ailin entered Meritellie's divine realm, where the goddess removed the Great Old One's Curse and explained why her strength was fading. She revealed that she had withdrawn from humanity after believing people no longer needed gods, but ended by declaring that fate had deceived her.

• Ailin fell into Meritellie's golden wheat field and realized the girl who greeted him was the goddess herself.
• Meritellie burned away the Great Old One's Curse from Ailin, freeing him from the affliction that prevented teleportation and spatial magic.
• Meritellie admitted that her strength had declined and she was losing her connection to reality, despite still hearing her followers' prayers.
• Meritellie explained that she had once withdrawn from humanity because she believed people could thrive without a god's intervention.
• Meritellie transformed into an old woman and said fate had deceived her, declaring that gods would die and all things would perish.

Meritellie revealed that the White Frost was already weakening the world and urged Ailin to use Adagath’s Gate to create more Conjunctions of the Spheres. Ailin remained troubled by the danger to innocent people, then left the divine realm with a new blessing from Meritellie.

• Meritellie saved Ailin from the White Frost’s freezing influence and explained that even the gods could not understand what lay beyond the world.
• Meritellie said the Conjunction of the Spheres had weakened the White Frost’s blockade and asked Ailin to create more, giving him a ritual to conceal the resulting spatial fluctuations from the Wild Hunt.
• Ailin admitted he feared that larger Conjunctions could kill innocents, and Meritellie said she could not know whether his choice would save the world but trusted him to decide.
• Meritellie told Ailin that the White Frost might arrive in a little over eight hundred years and was pursuing the Wild Hunt.
• Ailin asked Meritellie for luck, and she clarified her identity as the goddess of abundance, harvest, and childbirth before sending him out of her divine realm.

After receiving Meritellie's blessing of abundance, Ailin opened nine One-Eyed Nekker chests and fused the eight gold-quality chests. The fusion produced a terrifying red light and roar, then transported him into a vivid scene among One-Eyed Serpent Giant hatchlings, where an elder called him by the name Italino.

• Ailin reflected on the threats of the Wild Hunt and the White Frost, then resolved to grow stronger and opened nine One-Eyed Nekker chests.
• The Witcher's Handbook offered to fuse the eight gold-quality chests, and Ailin accepted.
• The chests formed a black hole that erupted with blood-red light and a colossal creature's roar before the Handbook's cutscene began.
• Ailin found himself among One-Eyed Serpent Giant hatchlings listening to an elder praise Shagdarzhab and describe the Path of the Beast Roar.
• Gamendia led the hatchlings out to train, but no one came to take Ailin, so he followed them toward the tent's exit.
• An aged voice called Ailin back as he approached the daylight, addressing him as Italino.

Ailin found himself inhabiting Italino, a young One-Eyed Serpent Giant, and was taken to witness a brutal hunting lesson before being made to face the mighty King Kano. As the High Priest’s ritual began, Ailin lost control of his body, invoked Shagdarzhab, and collapsed after the King Kano’s power surged into him.

• Ailin tried to leave the tent but Itali caught him and insisted the High Priest had called for Italino.
• Itali and the High Priest showed Ailin hundreds of younglings slaughtering silver-furred beasts as part of their lessons.
• Itali brought Ailin to a cave where the golden-furred King Kano was caged and warned him not to hunt alone.
• The High Priest awakened the King Kano, and Itali struck it down with a giant blood-red fist while urging Ailin to act.
• Ailin lost control of his body, reached into the King Kano’s forehead, and praised Shagdarzhab as the beast’s power flooded into him.
• Ailin saw himself as a One-Eyed Serpent Giant ask Itali and the High Priest, “Who are you?” before he fainted.

Ailin woke in the icon chamber with the Great Old One’s Curse lifted and his physical attributes greatly increased, then discovered that King Kano’s communion had granted him the Path of the Beast Roar. After unlocking Primal Tongue and spotting a clue that might help him confront the Wild Hunt, he told Vesemir they could return to Ancient Sea Fortress.

• Ailin woke unharmed and found that his Strength, Agility, and Constitution had each increased by ten points.
• Ailin examined the Blessed Beast Roar Horn and discovered that Frenzy was now a powerful Beast Roar skill with passive attribute growth.
• Ailin opened the Path of the Beast Roar skill tree and unlocked Primal Tongue without spending Experience Orbs.
• Ailin saw Roar: Grounding flash on a node beyond Life Whisper and realized he might have found a way to deal with the Wild Hunt.
• Vesemir arrived worried about Ailin’s curse, and Ailin told her it had been removed and they could return to Ancient Sea Fortress.

Ailin and the others prepared to leave Arland after lifting the curse, while Ianna urged Vesemir to consider moving the School of the Wolf there amid growing hostility toward witchers. As they rode toward the city gates, Lyra gave Ailin a list of nobles who might oppose the school, and the group stopped before an unexpected obstacle.

• Ianna warned Vesemir that anti-witcher rumors were spreading in Kedwen and urged him to tell Grandmaster Soyer about Duke Mason’s offer to relocate the School of the Wolf to Arland.
• Vesemir thanked Ianna, and Ailin promised to visit her; Ianna and Lyra also reconciled enough to promise they would visit each other.
• Lyra warned Ailin that the Guard Knights had planned a surprise, so the group waited until they had left Arland before teleporting.
• Lyra asked Ailin to take her on his horse, and he agreed as the group set out from the temple.
• Lyra gave Ailin a letter listing nobles who might be hostile to the School of the Wolf, with notes about their grudges and influence.
• Vera and Vesemir stopped their horses on the road and said that perhaps only Ailin could take the path ahead.

Arthur, Sala, and Arland’s warriors gave Ailin a ceremonial send-off, honoring him as the city’s hero. As Ailin passed beneath the sword gates, he experienced a mysterious vision of a golden-armored man, and the chapter ended with Sala naming the ceremony the Cambridge Ritual.

• Arthur and Sala waited for Ailin, with Arthur explaining that witchers avoided portals and revealing how he had learned Ailin was leaving.
• Ailin arrived with Lyra, then Arthur presented him with a wolf-head banner and cloak while Sala gave him a silver spur and his treasured shield.
• Arthur and Sala escorted Ailin through the city as the Guard Knights and Monster Hunter Army formed a corridor of swords and saluted him.
• During the ceremony, Ailin saw a golden-armored man in a vision, while the Wolf Emblem and Balmor hummed and his bond with Balmor seemed to deepen.
• At the city gates, Ailin asked what had happened, and Sala identified the ceremony as the Cambridge Ritual.

Ailin left Arland after receiving the Cambridge Ritual and returned to the Blue Mountains with Vesemir, Lady Vesemir, Mary, and Yennefer. When they reached the fortress, Vesemir questioned whether it was really Kaer Morhen.

• Ailin departed Arland amid cheers as the crowd hailed him as May King, and Arthur gave him the wolf-head banner.
• After five portals, Vesemir suffered severe nausea while Ailin remained unaffected, thanks to his Spatial Mastery.
• Lady Vesemir opened portals that carried the group back to the Blue Mountains, where Yennefer admired the landscape.
• Vesemir declared he would rest for half a year, and the group headed toward the Ancient Sea Fortress.
• Vesemir stopped in surprise and asked whether the fortress was Kaer Morhen.

Ailin and Vesemir returned to Kaer Morhen and found its defenses greatly improved, while the young Witcher Apprentices greeted Ailin with excitement and embarrassed Mary with their gossip. After entering the fortress, Vesemir went to report to the Chief, and Ailin prepared to rest and help Mary face Lady Vesemir.

• Ailin and Vesemir approached Kaer Morhen and found its gate, moat, walls, and guards transformed into formidable defenses.
• The Witcher Apprentices recognized Ailin and loudly recited stories about his exploits, while Ailin realized Mary had spread the news.
• Lady Vesemir silenced the Apprentices with her arrival, and Ailin reassured the frightened Mary that she would not be punished for their nickname.
• Vesemir explained that most of the School of the Wolf had left Kaer Morhen, while Mary said Grandmaster Soyer was still there when she departed a month earlier.
• Vesemir went to brief the Chief about Duke Mason's proposal to relocate the School, while Ailin offered to speak to Lady Vesemir on Mary's behalf.

Ailin failed to finish apologizing to Vesemir on Mary’s behalf after she shared memories of raising Ianna and lamented the passage of time. The next morning, Ailin discovered that the Merman Pearl had nearly completed its evolution, and the chapter ended with the chief summoning him.

• Ailin went to Vesemir to apologize for the Witcher Apprentice’s insult, but she spoke about raising Ianna and her regret that Ianna was now too old to ride.
• Vesemir told Ailin to rest and returned to the Alchemy Room, leaving him unsure whether Mary’s matter had been resolved.
• Ailin found his room clean and a hot bath prepared, then slept without meditating on his first night back at Kaer Morhen.
• Ailin woke in an illusion resembling Hundred Fruit Garden and realized the Merman Pearl had almost finished absorbing the Dead Merman Pearl.
• The Merman Pearl completed its evolution, showed Ailin a vivid visual illusion, and displayed greater intelligence and affection.
• Someone knocked and told Ailin that the chief was looking for him.

Ailin met with Chieftain Soyer, who asked whether he wanted to become Chieftain and tested his view on relocating the School of the Wolf. Soyer rejected Arland as a destination, taught Ailin about fortress construction, and left him wondering where the School should move and whether Soyer was preparing him to lead.

• Vesemir told Ailin that Soyer had praised him as the future of the School of the Wolf, then left him alone with the Chieftain.
• Soyer asked Ailin whether he wanted to be Chieftain and whether he believed the School should leave Kaer Morhen and Kedwen.
• Ailin argued that relocating to Arland would offer the School safety and time to grow, and Soyer agreed that relocation made sense for the School as it was now.
• Soyer warned Ailin that humans and their promises could not be trusted, then explained why Arland's terrain made it unsuitable for the School's fortress.
• Soyer taught Ailin about fortress sites, materials, defenses, and design, and Ailin memorized most of the lesson.
• Ailin asked Soyer where he believed the School should relocate.