Chapter 1464 - 1426: Dawn

When Geralt regained some consciousness, he saw his chest and abdomen covered in fresh blood, his nose almost clogged by blood clots making him unable to breathe, and his ears muffled by similar blockages.

This was a good sign, at least indicating that he wouldn’t bleed to death through his nose, mouth, or ears due to a head injury.

He looked at his leg, one of which bent at a strange angle and appeared much shorter than the other... No, not ’appeared,’ he had half a foot already turned into a mess of flesh, dangling on the bone.

Yet he felt no pain, as if this body belonged to someone else, and he was just a dizzy observer.

The entire body, cold, numb, and strange, made him feel like vomiting.

"You’re awake? Good."

Lann’s voice came from behind him, and only now did he realize he seemed to be getting dragged.

This young yet very capable friend made Geralt’s heart a bit more at ease.

They had known each other for just a few years, but for some reason, this young man made him feel secure.

"Don’t make a fuss about your injuries. I just pulled you out of the collapse of a large stone tower, losing half a foot is quite lucky."

Although Geralt was at a downhill position where the shockwave couldn’t easily threaten him, the falling stones still hurt him.

"Just rest, Geralt," Lann continued, "You won’t be crippled, even if you lose the whole leg, I can make a new one for you, relax."

"Ci... Ciri..."

"Don’t talk, Geralt."

"Yennefer... I must..."

"You don’t need to ’must’ anything! You can’t do anything now! Don’t talk!"

Lann dragged him across a floor full of corpses, which made Geralt feel a lot more comfortable.

It wasn’t the numerous bodies that comforted him; he wasn’t bloodthirsty.

It was just because the blood flowing from these bodies wet the marble floor, making it smooth and stable as he was dragged.

"Thank goodness!" Margaret’s voice sounded, she quickly ran towards Lann, "You’re okay! Whew~"

She let out a breath but then got stuck.

"Geralt? How could he be so injured? Where’s Yennefer? Ciri? Triss, come take a look!"

Rapid-fire questions poured from Margaret’s mouth, and she turned to call the pale-faced Triss over.

The red-haired and weakened, disheveled Triss first looked at Lann’s appearance to confirm he was okay, then hurriedly knelt on the floor, leaning down to check on Geralt.

"I’m certainly fine." Lann shook his head first, "But let me breathe easy, you guys are fine too."

"Of course."

Margaret’s grim face showed a somewhat forced confident smile towards Lann.

She raised the items in her hand.

It was the Hunter’s Pistol Lann had given her and a transformable spiral staff already unfolded.

The spiral staff floated under the influence of magic, so when it expanded, it did not require Margaret to hold onto the force like a frenzied retracting steel tape measure.

She used magic to control this transformable weapon from Yan Yannan, so she didn’t need to learn the unique and dangerous skills to use this weapon.

The Hunter’s Firearm was even more important.

Although the attacks of the Warlocks who could come to this meeting were at least like cannonballs.

However, the Warlocks were not adept at fighting; as long as they were not focused and were disturbed, they dared not easily use chaos magic power, but the Hunter’s Pistol did not share this defect.

The offensive and defensive capabilities of high-level Warlocks when prepared certainly couldn’t be matched by a Hunter’s Pistol.

But the key is this weapon doesn’t require significant concentration and fires suddenly.

In the inner battles among Warlocks, Margaret was originally one of the strongest, and with the Hunter’s Pistol, she became much more agile.

"But my academy..." Margaret said grimly as she looked around, faces serious and angry, "Francisca! That green pool fled! She abandoned these Squirrel Faction members who came for her without a second thought!"

"Why did Tor Laura’s teleportation portal suddenly go out of control and explode? Although it’s good, thanks to its explosion, the remaining Warlocks immediately used teleportation techniques to escape home. These Squirrel Faction members couldn’t kill more Wizards."

"Thankfully, we had already cleared the students and emptied rooms, or this night..."

Margaret’s face was full of lingering fear as she spoke here.

The Squirrel Faction originally came to expand the damage against the Northern Wizards.

But now, with the teleportation portal open, the non-combat-ready, injured, terrified easy targets, those Warlocks immediately fled.

Those Warlocks remaining in the academy were all prepared individually, making the small light contingents of the Squirrel Faction not dare to provoke them.

So the Squirrel Faction inside the island was mostly routed.

"He needs treatment!"

Triss found the small Shield Emblem stuffed into Geralt’s collar by Lann, and it was the [Early Recovery Guard Stone] on it, with its abundant and lasting life force keeping Geralt alive. The red-haired Female Warlock spoke solemnly.

"His injury won’t worsen; I’m taking him to treatment. Where is Matty? I remember she was rescuing a Warlock," Lann said methodically. "And Gedemitis, how is he?"

"Gedemitis? Who could have injured him?!" Margaret and Triss immediately widened their eyes and exclaimed.

Clearly, Sandy Island was in chaos, and no one had any idea of anyone else’s situation.

"I can’t explain everything to every person I meet," Lann said with a frown. "Where’s Tishaya? With such immense power, you should be able to sense her, right?"

"She’s over there." Margaret’s eyes seemed momentarily dazed, then she pointed below Sandy Island.

"Ciri... Yennefer..."

Geralt was still mumbling in a daze, even attempting to prop himself up.

Triss became immediately at a loss.

Lann grabbed the back of Geralt’s collar, lightly kicked away his supporting hand, and tilted his head toward the female warlocks.

"Let him sleep first."

Even though the two female warlocks had just experienced a battle, it was still quite easy for them to put a heavily injured Demon Hunter to sleep.

Geralt fell into a deep slumber.

Looking at the persistent and pained friend, Lann wasn’t too worried about the young girl’s safety, but rather uncertain about Yennefer’s current situation.

He had seen Ciri grow up with his own eyes, so although he occasionally worried about the ash-gray-haired little princess, it was more about her getting into trouble rather than her personal safety.

Lann still couldn’t see the threads of time power clearly, but since the Ciri he saw was already a young lady, she shouldn’t encounter any mishaps before reaching the age when they met.

Lann also vaguely speculated about the power within Ciri.

Perhaps Viggo Fortez preferred to use the Djinn’s wishing technique to remove obstacles on the road ahead, rather than directly wish for Ciri to fall into his hands.

Perhaps, besides the difficulty in formulating the wishes properly in a short time, the Djinn’s wishing technique might truly have no effect on Ciri.

Lann’s "Body Light," this high-level, deeply essential power, the wishing technique just couldn’t penetrate it at once. Ultimately, in that fleeting moment of gap, Lann seized the opportunity to rise and fight!

And such a power capable of traversing time and space could hardly be a superficial thing.

The Djinn’s wishing technique being ineffective on her didn’t surprise Lann.

But thinking about it, Viggo Fortez’s obsession with Ciri only made Lann even more intrigued.

To find Ciri, the male warlock who instigated the entire Night of Betrayals almost lavishly and decisively scattered his wishing technique!

Viggo Fortez was the sort of person who always had to weigh the benefits when making an effort.

Lann could express firm hostility toward Niflgaard out of personal sentiment and anger. But Viggo Fortez wasn’t like that.

If he used the wishing technique to get Ciri, it must be because the gain from getting Ciri was worth more to him than just a few granted wishes.

What kind of return did he seek from Ciri?

To capture her alive for Emperor Enshir? In exchange for a governor’s position in the northern provinces of the future Niflgaard Empire?

Or an extraordinary status in the vast future territory of the Niflgaard Empire?

No, these things, from Lann’s perspective, weren’t worth sacrificing two wishes.

Mediocre people who lack ability might not have the mindset to transform limited wishes into an advantageous life for themselves.

Without insight, without meticulous thinking and planning, they wouldn’t even know how to wish to maximize benefits.

But for someone like Viggo Fortez, having two wishes in hand, utilizing them at critical moments could potentially bring the entire Niflgaard Empire under his control!

Yet he used them without hesitation in the pursuit of Ciri...

Power and wealth, which intoxicate the heart, were insignificant before the wishing technique, and the wishing technique itself became a consumable commodity in Ciri’s presence.

Viggo Fortez was surely pursuing something of incomparable preciousness— the power concerning time and space!

It was because before, Viggo Fortez had used the second wishing technique on him without hesitation.

Therefore, in that instant, Lann and Mentos made a logical deduction, ultimately leading to this conclusion.

Ordinary people, nobles, kings... people who seemed noble and far-sighted only saw the Sintra Royal Family’s lineage, titles, and legal claims to inheritance on the girl.

But the power concerning the girl herself was a thousand, ten thousand times more precious than any worldly power struggle!

Lann didn’t know if it was because he personally witnessed the time-traveling Ciri appear before him, even kissing him. That’s why he realized this point.

But ordinary people, even ancient warlocks like Gedemitis, were still in the philosophical speculative stage about whether spatial power truly existed.

Why did Viggo Fortez know of this power’s existence and believe it was within Ciri?

But when he thought this far, Lann shook his head.

The Seagull Tower had already collapsed into a pile of ruins, and Viggo Fortez was nearly cleaved in two by him. With such injuries, he shouldn’t be able to open a portal and escape on his own.

But if he used his last wishing technique, then the released Djinn would surely kill this severely wounded captor right after sending him away.

More likely than not, he died from his injuries in the explosion’s blast wave.

However you thought about it, this young and promising warlock should already be dead.