Chapter Summaries

Pipi warned Dick that a Snake Cult shaman was helping Burd III create Cobra Sacrificers, and she insisted on joining the fight to avenge her tribe. Dick’s carriage hurried toward Queen Meve with the warning, but they arrived to find that the battle had already begun.

• Pipi joined Dick’s carriage and warned him that Burd III’s new shaman transformed prisoners into Cobra Sacrificers.
• Vesemir identified the Cobra Sacrificers as elite infantry of the Snake Cult, and Pipi reported that the shaman spoke of the snake god and Mountain God as partners.
• Dick ordered Kebi to speed up and carry the intelligence to Queen Meve.
• Pipi revealed that she had married Anson and asked to fight for revenge; Dick allowed her to join only under his supervision.
• Two hours later, Dick saw smoke, heard war drums, and realized the battle had begun ahead of schedule.

Duke Amara’s army initially wiped out the attacking troops, but their corpses transformed into Cobra Sacrificers and tore into the formation. As Duke Amara rallied his soldiers, the Misty Mountains’ giant leader launched a new charge.

• Kebi decided to circle behind the army with his companions so they could relay orders without risking friendly fire.
• Duke Amara’s forces killed the first wave of Misty Mountains troops, but he grew suspicious of how easily the battle was going.
• Barbara began casting an illusion, but a corpse transformed into a Cobra Sacrificer, wounded her, and attacked the soldiers.
• Duke Amara recognized that the fallen troops had been used to nurture monsters and ordered his forces to reform and fight them.
• The highland warriors and Cobra Sacrificers burned together in the fighting as the crowned giant raised his axe and sent the berserkers charging.

Dick and the witchers joined Queen Meve’s knights as the queen charged Burd III to relieve Duke Amara’s forces. Burd III smashed through the cavalry and continued toward Amara’s square, which the berserkers were destroying.

• Tes and Burd III discussed their plan to conquer the Northern Kingdoms as the queen’s cavalry approached.
• Kebi rejoined Queen Meve, and Dick went with Xiya, Vesemir, Geralt, and Pipi to help Duke Amara.
• Queen Meve led the cavalry in a charge at Burd III, whose cobra sacrificers slowed the knights by forming ranks in their path.
• Burd III charged through the cavalry, throwing Queen Meve, Kebi, and other knights aside.
• Burd III continued toward Duke Amara’s square, where bear-form berserkers were tearing through the soldiers.

Kebi survived Burd III’s attack by drinking Dragon Tear Potion, then rejoined the queen’s charge. Dick and the others fought the berserkers, and Dick cut down several giant bears with his twin swords.

• Kebi removed his shattered armor, drank a Dragon Tear Potion, and recovered as his body began to transform.
• The queen rallied the remaining knights and led Kebi back into battle.
• Barbara woke in the tent but could not speak, and she chose to stay with Xiya to fulfill her duty to the queen.
• Dick arrived at Duke Amara’s formation and found the soldiers badly battered, with Vigo defending Amara from three berserkers.
• Pipi struck a berserker’s eye with a throwing knife, allowing Duke Amara to kill it, while Geralt and the other witchers charged into the fight.
• Dick used his twin swords and Panther Zither Jade to kill and maim several giant bears.

Dick and the witchers fought to stabilize Duke Amara’s battlefield, while Xiya’s fire magic turned the tide against the berserkers. The focus shifted to Queen Meve, whose knights were being weakened by Misty Mountains shamans, as Vesemir and Vigo set out to stop them and faced a strange superhuman.

• Vesemir killed a giant-bear berserker with fire and a sword strike as the witchers helped stabilize the battle.
• Dick warned the soldiers of Burd III’s charge, then clashed with Manslayer and was carried through the camp and far across the battlefield.
• Xiya joined the fighting and suppressed the berserkers with powerful fireballs, allowing Duke Amara to regroup, but he realized Queen Meve was in danger.
• Misty Mountains Warriors and shamans harried Queen Meve’s knights with arrows and a Slowing Spell while Barbara lay dead.
• Vigo persuaded Duke Amara to let him, Vesemir, and another master swordsman target the shamans, and they set off across the battlefield.
• A pointed-chinned man blocked their way, revealed a second face beneath his scalp, and prepared to fight with a serrated bone sword and white Sword Qi.

Vigo and the witchers fought the Snake Cult and Misty Mountains Warriors while Queen Meve’s cavalry turned the battle in her favor. Dick confronted Burd III, the Messenger of the Mountain God, and shattered the purple barrier protecting him.

• Vigo fought Wins while Geralt and Vesemir battled the priests, and Queen Meve ordered her knights to charge the Misty Mountains Warriors.
• Vigo defeated Wins but was poisoned when Tes fled, then sat down to purge the venom.
• Geralt and Vesemir melted the frozen lake with their Fire Signs, drank Killer Whale potions, and lured their enemies into the water before returning ashore victorious.
• Queen Meve’s cavalry slaughtered the Misty Mountains Warriors as Vigo watched and expected Dick to finish his fight soon.
• Dick questioned Burd III, learned that the Manslayer’s former identity was Bird II and that his father was Harlaus, then dodged his axe attacks.
• Dick pierced the weakest rune node in Burd III’s purple barrier and shattered it.

Dick defeated the Manslayer, only for it to reveal itself as a purple lynx wielding divine power. After surviving its attacks and overcoming divine punishment, Dick killed it, and Burd III vanished with a final word of thanks.

• Dick wounded and killed the Manslayer after evading its axe strikes.
• The Manslayer's corpse transformed into a silver-armored purple lynx that attacked Dick with supernatural speed.
• The lynx shattered Dick's silver sword and wounded him, but Dick endured its divine punishment and gained the ability to evade its attacks.
• Dick used [Extreme Leap] to cleave the lynx in two with his black sword.
• The lynx reverted to Burd III, who thanked Dick for his release before dissolving into purple light.

Dick defeated Yovis's emissary and gained strength, but he realized Xiya might still be in danger as Duke Amara's camp burned. Yovis was mocked by the other deities, while Kebi saved the badly injured Duke Amara with a Dragon Tear Potion.

• Dick absorbed the rewards for defeating the Misty Mountains Berserkers and Manslayer Burd III, reshaped Burd's axe into a purple sword, and realized Xiya might be in danger at Duke Amara's camp.
• Yovis complained that Dick had defeated him and severed his contract with Burd III, while the other chained deities mocked him and warned one another not to provoke Dick.
• Kebi gave the gravely injured Duke Amara a Dragon Tear Potion, which restored his strength and began healing his burned face.

Dick endured Xiya’s uncontrolled flames and stopped her rampage by embracing her, then carried her to the carriage. Barbara asked to return to the Magic Academy, and the group set off there.

• Queen Meve ordered the soldiers to lower their weapons and not hurt Xiya after Dick returned her crown to her.
• Dick recalled that Xiya’s magic had been damaged when she saved him in Odinburg, then advanced his Steel Sinews and Iron Bones ability to withstand the fire.
• Dick crossed the burning camp and held Xiya, causing her flames to go out before she collapsed against him.
• Pipi brought Duke Amara’s bearskin cloak, and Dick wrapped Xiya in it and carried her toward the carriage.
• Barbara requested that they return to the Magic Academy, and Dick told the group to drive there.

A mysterious one-eyed man heard rumors that Dick had killed Manslayer and wondered how strong the witcher was. At the palace, Queen Meve learned that Prince James’s madness came from grief and prepared to let Doctor Anson treat him with Ice Pick Therapy.

• A one-eyed man carrying a wolf-head pendant heard gossip that Dick had killed Manslayer and decided he had chosen the right job.
• Prince James suffered another fit, raving about his dead son Brownie and blaming Dick.
• Queen Meve and Barbara confirmed that James was not possessed and that Brownie had not become a wraith.
• Queen Meve explained that she had confined James to prevent him from seeking revenge on Dick and to avoid further turmoil in the Northern Kingdoms.
• Doctor Anson assured Queen Meve that his ice-assisted frontal lobotomy could calm James while reducing the risks of the procedure.

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.