Recaps

Queen Meve arranged for Anson to operate on Prince James, whose hallucinations stopped but who was left unable to handle more than three things at once. As Anson returned to Odinburg, Meve faced reports of threats and political demands, including a three-day ultimatum from the nations of the Panda Continent over the witch’s advent.

• Queen Meve hid her worsening illness from Luca and promised him that James would recover.
• Anson used a glacier-core ice pick to operate on James, and Barbara explained that he would need three months for his nerves to restructure.
• Queen Meve found James calm but unresponsive, and Anson told her the operation had left him unable to handle more than three things at once.
• Barbara praised Anson, who said he was returning to Odinburg to join his pregnant wife, Pipi, and Kebi’s party.
• Queen Meve reviewed reports about southern kingdoms, Odinburg, Straw Hat Island, and a monster in the Great Inland Lake before leaving to investigate the monster.
• A letter revealed that the nations of the Panda Continent demanded an explanation about the witch’s advent within three days or they would begin a joint trial under Article 11 of the Covenant of Kings.

At the Magic Academy, Professor Vigo demonstrated summoning magic to his apprentices with a bullfrog and warned them against forbidden summons. After class, Headmistress Mary accompanied him through the academy and saw two young apprentices recklessly practicing levitation in the corridor.

• Vigo summoned a bullfrog in class and explained that summoning magic could bring creatures from other spaces.
• Vigo warned the apprentices not to study spells for summoning abyssal demons or deep-sea monsters, then sent the bullfrog away.
• Xiao Ai reminded Vigo that his previous lesson had gotten the apprentices in trouble with the head cook.
• Headmistress Mary watched the end of Vigo's lesson, and the apprentices respectfully greeted her as they left.
• Two young apprentices played at levitating cups in the corridor, and one cup struck a portrait before a magical membrane appeared to protect it.

Mary and Vigo discussed the drowners troubling the Great Inland Lake and checked on the still-unconscious Xiya, while Dick remained outside her room. Vigo tried to comfort Dick with a Divine Cigarette and explained how he had traded for it, leaving Dick amused by Captain Napoleon’s concern for his crew.

• Mary told Vigo that drowners near Ravenstern City had dragged away dozens of fishermen and seemed to follow a more powerful monster, and she suspected a deep-sea creature might be involved.
• Mary and Vigo agreed they would investigate because Dick would not leave Xiya while she remained unconscious, and Mary went to examine Xiya with Barbara and David.
• Dick refused to enter Xiya’s room, saying she had not woken in three days and he did not want to be disappointed again.
• Vigo shared a story about his druid training to comfort Dick, then offered him a Divine Cigarette, which Dick recognized from memories of his previous life.
• Vigo said he had traded ten enchanted D'Shar black sheep to Captain Napoleon for crates of cigarettes, and Dick dryly remarked that the captain cared about his subordinates.

Xiya recovered enough to reunite with Dick, share a quiet dance with him, and urge him to take a commission to kill a monster at the Great Inland Lake. Dick accepted the job and learned that Prince James had been left an imbecile and Queen Meve was gravely ill, while Vigo began explaining the gulf between nobles and ordinary people in Pendor.

• Dick rushed to Xiya’s bedside, embraced her, and learned that she needed to avoid spells while her magical meridians healed.
• Xiya and Dick shared fruit and danced to music played through an energy stone, and Dick reassured her that he loved her even without her wig.
• Xiya urged Dick to eliminate the monster at the Great Inland Lake, and he agreed to return as soon as possible.
• Vigo gave Dick the queen’s 500-crown commission, a map, and five bottles of Killer Whale Potion for the mission near Ravenstern City.
• Vigo told Dick that Anson had damaged Prince James’s frontal lobe and that Queen Meve was growing sicker, leaving James’s son Luca next in line to rule.
• Vigo criticized the unequal access to magic-and-technology products in Pendor and asked Dick why nobles had not made them available to everyone.

Vigo revealed his plan to overthrow the nobles and rule the continent, but Dick declined to commit and left to investigate the monsters troubling Ravenstern City. Dick found ambergris on the trail of blood leading into the Great Inland Lake and plunged underwater to continue his investigation.

• Vigo told Dick he intended to become king, spread magical technology, and improve commoners’ lives, and asked for the Witcher Order’s support after Queen Meve’s death.
• Dick questioned whether Vigo had support from the Magic Academy and Headmistress Mary, then said they would discuss the plan after he dealt with Xiya’s situation.
• Dick arrived at the troubled harbor in Ravenstern City, where a squad of soldiers guarded the bloodstained shore.
• Dick used his Witcher Senses to follow a blood trail and found scraps of flesh carrying ambergris, which he suspected had been smeared on the drowners.
• Dick drank a Killer Whale potion and leaped into the Great Inland Lake to follow the trail underwater.

Dick fought his way through the lake’s Drowners and found two Elder Drowners commanding them. He activated Blood of Madness and killed both, but his dwindling oxygen left him needing to press deeper into the lake.

• Dick blocked the Drowners’ water bolts, then charged them and slaughtered the group despite being wounded.
• Dick continued toward the source of the howl and discovered an Elder Drowner lying in ambush.
• Two Elder Drowners slowed Dick with their combined magic and attacked him with spinning water spikes.
• Dick activated Blood of Madness, cut the first Elder Drowner into pieces, and beheaded the second.

Dick entered an underwater ruin and discovered that a deep-sea high priest had been sacrificing fishermen there. The high priest explained that it had been imprisoned in subspace until a magical change transported its prison, and Dick remained trapped with the creature as it prepared to transform the freshwater environment.

• Dick forced his way through a flooded passage and entered a dry ruin, where he found fishermen's corpses arranged on a sacrificial platform.
• Dick identified signs that someone had directed the Drowners and evaded an invisible attacker using his Witcher Senses.
• Dick revealed and confronted the attacker, who identified itself as a high priest from the deep-sea world.
• The high priest said Medusa had imprisoned it, but a drastic change in magical elements three days earlier had brought its prison out of subspace.
• The high priest admitted it had killed fishermen for materials to transform the freshwater surroundings into a livable home, then let its blue blood fall onto a dragon-headed statue.

Dick connected the high priest’s arrival to Xiya’s rampage three days earlier, then fought the priest and his animated statues. After killing the high priest, Dick tried to escape the collapsing seal, but a dazzling white light stopped the falling debris and left him wondering whether the World Jester had intervened.

• Dick suspected Xiya’s rampage had disturbed the magical elements and transported the deep-sea high priest’s prison to Ravenstern City.
• The high priest animated the dragon-headed statue and four female sea serpent statues, and Dick fought them while trying to reach him.
• The high priest’s water barrier reflected Dick’s Sword Qi as steel needles, and the dragon-headed statue’s trident struck Dick onto a stone platform.
• Dick feigned weakness, then stabbed the high priest in the heart, causing the dragon-headed statue to collapse.
• The dying high priest warned that the seal would collapse, and Dick fled as the chamber began to fall apart.
• A dazzling white light froze the falling debris in midair, and Dick wondered if the World Jester had saved him.

Dick met Medusa, who rewarded him with underwater breathing and asked him to find the missing Siren princess Nazi, who had fallen in love with the human leader Red Hair. After Medusa failed to divine what was wrong with Xiya, she sent Dick back to the Great Inland Lake, where he discovered how his new ability worked.

• Medusa appeared after Chris’s defeat and explained that he had been her priest, imprisoned for an unforgivable transgression, before his magic formation broke and brought him to Dick’s world.
• Medusa gave Dick the Underwater Breathing talent as compensation for the deaths Chris had caused and asked him to search for Nazi, the missing elder princess of the Siren Royal Family.
• Dick recognized the name Red Hair from a rumor and agreed to keep watch for Nazi, while Medusa said she could not freely enter the human world.
• Medusa tried to divine why Dick’s partner Xiya’s fire element was out of control, but she spat out azure blood and admitted the matter was beyond her abilities.
• Medusa teleported Dick into the Great Inland Lake, where he discovered silver patterns on his skin that let oxygen enter his blood through the water.

Dick spent his energy points maxing out Steel Sinews and Iron Bones, then met Ibu at the lakeshore and heard updates about the Witcher Order’s restoration and new recruits. Ibu invited him to the Magic Academy’s banquet and asked whether he knew Madigan’s prophecy.

• Dick gained 800 energy points and spent them all to max out Steel Sinews and Iron Bones, which increased his strength and accelerated the healing of his sinews and bones.
• Ibu met Dick by the lake and dried his clothes with a whirlwind spell, then told him he had joined the Witcher Order as chief sorcerer of the School of the Lynx.
• Ibu reported that the main keep and curtain wall had been restored, Alice had joined as chief sorcerer of the School of the Grizzly Bear, and Aode had recruited an elderly former apprentice.
• Ibu said he had recruited three wandering sorcerers who specialized in Alchemy and told Dick that Aode had returned to the banquet to see his estranged sister, Headmistress Mary.
• Ibu explained that Aode and Mary had been separated for 170 years after a dispute over an alchemy project, then asked Dick whether he knew Madigan’s prophecy.

Dick learned that Madigan’s widely circulated prophecy foretold the Manslayer’s arrival and the destruction of the world, unlike the uncertain prophecy he had heard before. After returning to the Magic Academy with Ibu, he promised that the Witcher Order would never fall again and went with Ibu to the banquet.

• Ibu recited Madigan’s prophecy, and Dick noticed that its ending differed from the prophecy Madigan had given him.
• Ibu told Dick that Madigan had shared the prophecy with Queen Meve and the nobles, and that Barbara had disappeared before Madigan went mad.
• Dick recognized Barbara as the woman he had seen beside Madigan in the original timeline.
• Ibu opened a portal and brought Dick back to the Magic Academy, where Dick watched young apprentices play with magic.
• Ibu explained the academy’s sorcerer apprentices and mentioned the Witcher Order’s losses, and Dick promised the Order would not fall again.
• Ibu invited Dick to the banquet, where familiar faces would be present.

At a banquet, Dick spoke with Queen Meve, who revealed the dangers facing her family and asked him to protect Luca, the heir to the Northern Kingdoms. After agreeing, Dick reunited with Xiya and confronted Barbara about her role in the prophecy concerning Xiya.

• Dick arrived at the banquet, where Sana performed, and Headmistress Mary told him that Aode had passed out after a drinking contest.
• Queen Meve introduced Luca as the next heir to the Northern Kingdoms and sent him outside to play.
• Queen Meve told Dick that Prince James had suffered brain damage, that West was missing, and that she knew the information about the three nobles had come from West.
• Queen Meve asked Dick to protect Luca and preserve peace between the Witcher Order and the Northern Kingdoms, and Dick promised he would.
• Xiya joined Dick at the banquet, and after she went to speak with other sorceresses, Dick asked Barbara what role she had played in the prophecy about Xiya.

Barbara told Dick how she found and raised Xiya after the infant’s uncontrolled fire magic destroyed her village, and explained the spell changes and mark she placed on her. She also revealed the prophecy’s consequences and shared her measured plans for Luca before Dick went to find Vigo in the basement.

• Barbara concealed her conversation with Dick and agreed to explain Xiya’s origins and the prophecy.
• Barbara said she found eight-month-old Xiya as the sole survivor of a burned village, beside the remains of her parents, after Xiya’s uncontrolled fire magic destroyed it.
• Barbara took Xiya in, altered her spell pathways to hinder her fire magic and strengthen her lightning sensitivity, and placed a rose-shaped formation on her leg to monitor her.
• Barbara explained that Xiya’s lightning spell at Odinburg broke the formation and that Madigan’s crystal ball shattered when he tried to divine her fate, showing visions of Xiya laughing amid flames.
• Barbara said she would continue serving as royal sorceress and guide Luca, while Dick questioned Vigo’s whereabouts and learned he might be in the basement and was far stronger than a mere sorcerer.
• Dick left to look for Vigo, and Barbara ended the concealment spell.

Dick followed Sana into a basement, where a magic formation on a camel sent him through a series of visions before depositing him in a scorching desert. He found Professor Vigo waiting beside a herd of camels.

• Dick left Xiya with the sorceresses and passed the drunken Aode on his way to meet Sana.
• Sana led Dick to bronze doors and told him Professor Vigo was waiting inside to judge his attitude before planning his next step.
• Dick entered a basement and discovered a camel instead of Vigo, then was caught in a portal triggered by the camel's magic formation.
• The portal showed Dick scenes of snowy terrain, an elven city, soldiers, a jungle, and the D'Shar Tribes, whose statue depicted Leofu.
• Dick emerged in a hot, sandy place and saw Vigo standing with a herd of camels.

Dick confronted Vigo in the desert outside Singal over Vigo’s plan to seize control of the royal succession. When Dick challenged him to prove his strength, Vigo began summoning strange creatures to fight.

• Dick questioned Vigo about teleporting him to the desert, and they argued over Vigo’s plan to overthrow the royal family.
• Vigo said Queen Meve was near death and revealed that he and Sana had prepared a banquet array to incapacitate the guests so he could imprison Meve and force her to name a chosen heir.
• Dick warned that Vigo might not be able to affect Headmistress Mary and that the nobles might reject Meve’s decree.
• Vigo offered to pause his plan if Dick proved his strength, and Dick agreed to settle their disagreement by fighting.
• Vigo activated a pentagram array that drained the desert and caused several camels to explode, feeding its power.
• The array vanished, revealing several unfamiliar creatures hovering above the sand.

Dick fought Vigo’s summoned Imps and Demon Cavalry while refusing to use Blood of Madness, defeating the creatures despite taking injuries and enduring Vigo’s lightning. After Dick asked if the test could end, Vigo accused him of looking down on him for not revealing his demon form.

• Vigo summoned Imps and Demon Cavalry from hell and ordered them to attack Dick.
• Dick shattered the Imps’ fireballs and poison orbs with Mind Shockwave, then killed more than ten Imps with his twin swords.
• Vigo sent purple lightning at Dick while the Imps and Demon Cavalry attacked again, but Dick leaped onto the leading rider and struck down the lightning with his black sword.
• Dick killed the leading Demon Cavalry, continued fighting the disordered riders and Imps, and defeated the remaining creatures without using Blood of Madness.
• Dick asked Vigo whether the test could end, and Vigo angrily demanded to know why Dick would endure the fight rather than reveal his demon form.

Dick defeated Vigo in their duel, and Vigo abandoned his plan to ally with the southern lords against the Magic Academy. Dick persuaded him to pursue his ideals among the D'Shar Tribes, and Vigo chose corrupt Simba City as a place to begin.

• Vigo attacked Dick with his lightning-charged staff, but Dick outmaneuvered him and knocked out two of his front teeth.
• Vigo accepted defeat and said the fight had changed his mind about joining forces with the southern lords to govern the Northern Kingdoms.
• Dick suggested that Vigo test his ideas by helping the people of the troubled D'Shar Tribes.
• Vigo embraced Dick's suggestion and named Simba City as the place where he would begin building support among the common people.

Dick resolved his misunderstanding with Vigo, who gathered his warlock followers to pursue a new plan for helping the commoners. After Vigo sent Dick back to the Magic Academy, Artest and Jocelyn arrived at the battle site and argued over their search for Roland Morningstar and their order’s changed faith.

• Vigo explained that he would regrow his missing teeth with a technique he had developed and declared he would pursue his ambitions in the desert.
• Vigo summoned Sana and six other warlocks, then told Dick that summoning abyssal demons had left him needing six months to recover.
• Vigo sent Dick through a magic portal by having a camel lick him, and Dick returned to the Magic Academy’s basement.
• Artest and Jocelyn investigated the bloodstained battlefield and identified traces of lightning and sulfur.
• Jocelyn questioned why the Goddess of Dawn no longer answered their prayers, and Artest ordered him to stop speaking of her.
• The Knights of the Eventide searched the sand for evidence, found nothing, and rode away.

Dick upgraded his Protection Sign and physical talents, then tested them in the basement before returning to find Aode sharing Ali’s potion formula with Mary. He concealed Vigo’s departure with a toothache excuse, while Mary appeared to understand more than she revealed.

• Dick spent 400 Energy Points to advance Protection Sign to elite grade and another 400 to raise Giant Transformation and Extreme Leap to intermediate.
• Dick tested his improved leap, shattered the basement’s crystal energy lamp, and cast Protection Sign over the camel.
• Aode showed Mary Ali’s potion formula and explained how to guide the magical runes during brewing.
• Dick joined Aode and Mary and claimed Vigo had opened a portal to Oxenfurt University for treatment of a toothache.
• Mary accepted Dick’s explanation and remarked that getting fresh air might help young people change their minds.

Dick and Xiya shared memories and discussed what drew them to each other before Headmistress Mary revealed the Academy’s theory about Xiya’s abnormal condition. The chapter ended with the revelation that an ancient demon may have altered Xiya’s origin circuits and possessed her when she was a child.

• Mary arranged for sorcerers to escort Aode back to Kaer Morhen, where the Witcher Order would receive a water purification system, and Aode invited Dick and Xiya to visit.
• Dick and Xiya reminisced about their first date in Odinburg and the people who had died there.
• Xiya told Dick she admired his courage, kindness, and refusal to bully the weak.
• Mary told Xiya that her ritual would take place at midnight the next day, when the Nine Hells’ projection pierced the world’s veil.
• Mary explained that the Academy suspected an ancient demon had used Abyss Language contractual inscriptions to distort Xiya’s origin circuits and possess her before her magic awakened.

Dick learned about the Nine Hells from Dante’s book and connected its seventh-layer ruler, King Lioke, to the voice he had encountered in the well. The chapter left him realizing that his past encounter might be tied to Hell.

• Headmistress Mary warned Dick that Xiya faced risks during the communication ritual but promised to protect her and gave him Dante’s book about the Nine Hells.
• Dick walked Xiya back to her room, then returned to his own room and read the book while bathing.
• Dick learned that Hell had nine layers ruled by powerful demons and that the Abyss lay beneath them.
• Dick read Dante’s account of the Nine Hells and considered its hostile conditions and the dangers of entering it.
• Dick found that King Lioke ruled the seventh layer and remembered the voice from the massive skeletal statue he had encountered in the well after pursuing Feikexai.

Dick read Dante’s account of the Nine Hells and worried about Xiya’s upcoming Abyss ritual, then accompanied her to make a portrait with an Astral Projector. The device captured them together beneath Dante’s statue, preserving the moment Xiya wanted.

• Dick connected Yuejiqi, the World Jester, to Dante’s account of a demon who had never returned to Hell, and wondered about their wager with King Lioke.
• After reading about the rulers of Hell and Dante’s final reflections, Dick decided to stay by Xiya during her ritual and resolved to keep her safe.
• The next morning, Dick joined Xiya for breakfast and went with her to Dante’s statue, where she revealed she had used time magic to grow her hair, sacrificing three months of her lifespan.
• Xiao Ai and several students brought an Astral Projector so Dick and Xiya could have a lifelike portrait made as a keepsake.
• Dick held Xiya’s hand as they posed, and Xiao Ai used the Astral Projector to capture their image.

Xiya gave Dick a custom witcher medallion containing their photograph and a large storage space, and the two shared a quiet embrace. Barbara interrupted them and told them it was time to go.

• Xiya took a tiny photograph of herself and Dick to Headmistress Mary and Barbara, who had prepared materials to make it into a pendant.
• Xiya presented Dick with a lynx-shaped witcher medallion that opened to reveal their photograph and required his blood to activate.
• Dick discovered that the medallion contained a three-by-three-by-three-meter storage space and thanked Xiya for the valuable gift.
• Xiya explained that the medallion was made with Dark Night Meteoric Iron and rare energy stones, and said it could withstand her losing control.
• Dick and Xiya embraced until Barbara appeared and told them it was time to leave.

Dick, Barbara, and Xiya descended into a cavern beneath the Magic Academy, where Headmistress Mary and the sorcerers began a ritual to draw the curse from Xiya and return its power to the demon that cast it. As the ritual reached its climax, demonic energy filled the cavern, Xiya began to suffer, and Headmistress Mary called everyone to prepare for battle.

• Barbara explained that Headmistress Mary and the professors had prepared to communicate with the Abyss and redirect Xiya's curse to the demon that cast it.
• Dick, Barbara, and Xiya reached the underground cavern, where Headmistress Mary instructed Xiya to sit on a smaller array opposite the sorcerers' six-pointed magic array.
• Xiya sat on the stone platform as twelve sorcerers, including Barbara and Headmistress Mary, began chanting to activate the array.
• Black mist gathered inside the array, distorting Dick's senses as strange forms shifted within it and Hell's energy seeped into the cavern.
• Xiya developed lava-like veins on her neck and told Dick that the sorcerers had made contact, urging him to protect them.
• The sorcerers' chanting stopped and the mist fell still, but Headmistress Mary's robe cuffs split as she warned everyone to prepare for battle.

Dick and Headmistress Mary faced a demon invasion after the summoning circle erupted, while the warlocks fought off waves of Imps. An Abyssal Infernal emerged, and Headmistress Mary teleported the warlocks beside Xiya, leaving Dick to confront the monster.

• The black mist exploded, knocking the warlocks backward while Headmistress Mary and Dick endured the blast with their defenses.
• Imps poured from the six-pointed formation, and the warlocks and Headmistress Mary attacked them as Dick protected Xiya and fought off their projectiles.
• A massive Abyssal Infernal emerged from the formation, and Headmistress Mary warned Dick that elemental spells would not harm it.
• Headmistress Mary teleported the eleven warlocks beside Xiya and told Dick to deal with the Abyssal Infernal.