The Witcher: Lord of the Empire

After Iris's memory ended, Lann looked up as if he had sensed something. He saw that the clear sky above the mansion suddenly darkened a little, and the clouds in the sky covered the sun.

A gust of cold wind blew in, moving the tops of the trees and producing a sound that made one feel a chill.

[Buzz!]

Suddenly, a garden path extending from the pavilion became solid, clearly marking the location of Iris's next memory.

As the path solidified, large yellow blobs emerged from the bushes, emitting a buzzing sound similar to that of bees.

[Buzz!]

"The birds are singing, the bees are buzzing..." Lann raised his left hand. "But today is not a good day."

[Igni Sign]!

A cone-shaped flame swept away everything in its path, setting fire to the bees that formed almost a yellow barrier.

The number of bees was enough to seal the pavilion completely, and Lann did not want to experience their attack up close.

"Go!"

Lann moved forward quickly, keeping his left hand in front. The garden path was covered by swarms of bees, and Lann continued to throw flames to open a path of fire.

“Are you okay?” After a while, Letho asked: “You’ve already used [Igni Sign] more than ten times, right?”

Lann glanced at his magic power bar in the system: [Magic Power: 3033/3400]

“I’m fine. I’m from Griffin School, remember?”

Lann continued to calmly chase the bees away, and soon they came to a fountain. As they entered, some sort of invisible barrier seemed to have isolated the bees, indicating that Iris's memory didn't want them to appear here, or that something else would happen later.

The same two characters, Olgierd and Iris, appeared before them, but it seemed like they were in a timeline prior to the one they saw in the garden pavilion.

At this moment, the couple looked younger, and on Olgierd's face could be seen an expression of happiness that had never been seen before.

"It looks like this is the second memory." Lann looked at the two of them. "What do you think they are doing in this memory?"

The witchers looked at the couple. At this moment, the two were looking into each other's eyes, and Olgierd seemed to be handing something to Iris, his hand outstretched.

“I think it’s about finding out what that thing is in Olgierd’s hand.” Kolgrim said. “And I think I’ve found it.” He raised his hands, each holding a glass of wine. Placing the two glasses in the couple's hands, the ethereal figures solidified again in front of them.

...

"I hope you are in good health, my dear wife."

Olgierd's eyes reflected the image of his beautiful beloved, with a tenderness and smile that he had never shown before.

“The same to you, my husband.”

Iris could hardly take her eyes off her husband's face.

They both raised their glasses, clinked lightly, and then drank.

It was a wedding, and the toast to health and wine were the last act of the ceremony.

Olgierd put down his glass, looking around with sadness evident in his eyes: “The custom of my place of origin dictates that newlyweds should offer salt and bread to the guests… but now we are alone, this is an unblessed union.”

"You are enough for me, and I don't ask for anything else." Iris walked forward slowly and hugged her husband's neck. "This is the happiest moment in my life. I really hope this moment can be frozen forever."

Olgierd hugged his wife and smiled dotingly. "If this is your wish, then I will find a way."

Iris didn't care about her husband's promise, thinking that he was just as happy as herself and made a little joke.

"Come on, take a look at our future home."

Olgierd made a gesture of invitation, and in the direction he indicated, a house began to materialize from an illusion to reality.

Iris was led by the hand and walked on the road. She said hesitantly in a low voice: "I know it sounds stupid, but this house has been empty for a long time. Will it..."

Olgierd interrupted her confidently. "You are afraid of spiders, I know. They have been cleaned up and thrown into the garden."

Hearing this, Iris's face bloomed with an even happier smile. "My knight, you are always so thoughtful."

...

The couple walked towards the main building of the estate. Lann and the others started to follow them, but suddenly stopped.

Among the bushes and flowers, huge black shadows moved.

[Clang!]

The witchers unsheathed their weapons in unison.

Immediately, several black spiders, the size of a person, shot out, destroying the plants.

Before they could get close to the witchers, Lann was already in front, prepared to meet the attack. With his left hand raised, a wave of heat gathered in his palm.

[Igni Sign]!

An even more intense flame than before devoured all the spiders, raising a great shock wave that threw the still unconsumed bodies back.

The scorching flames brought an intense airflow that caused the hair of the witchers behind Lann to flutter violently.

Kolgrim wiped his face. “It wasn’t that powerful when you burned the bees, was it?”

“Each enemy requires different intensity… Be careful!”

The ground shook beneath his feet, and another black spider emerged, followed by a continuous stream of small, fist-sized spiders.

“This isn’t Iris’s nightmare. She’s having a wedding while we’re here fighting spiders.” Kiyan unsheathed his silver sword, dodging a spider’s attack. “This seems more like a nightmare of ours.”

Lann slammed his hand on the ground and a huge [Yrden Sign] enveloped the six witchers, weakening the speed of every approaching spider.

“According to the memory we saw, this wedding happened before their relationship deteriorated, when Olgierd was still young.” Lann cut a spider with his sword and then released a flame. “Perhaps it was because it was one of her happiest moments that the tragic events that followed were even more painful, becoming Iris’ nightmare.”

At that moment, many spiders weakened by the [Yrden Sign] were eliminated by the witchers, and more spiders outside were injured and killed by violet rays.

The spiders seemed to have some intelligence. Seeing the situation, they began to shoot spider threads towards the witchers from a safe distance.

As Kolgrim drew his sword from the corpse of a spider, he heard the sound of a projectile tearing through the air, the next instant the Quen Sign on his body shattered, covering his hand in white threads.

"What have these spiders eaten to grow so big these years?" Kolgrim shouted as he retreated, took out his dagger and began to quickly cut the spider silk on his arm. His fellow Viper School members protected him, blocking the approaching spiders.

"There are too many of them. This will never end!"

Letho and Lann looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They then retreated together, dragging Kiyan along, who was in the middle of the battle, and joined up with the three witchers from the Viper School.

The spiders launched themselves at them without hesitation. Lann and Letho simultaneously extended their hands and formed a complex sign.

[Aard Sign] + [Igni Sign]!

The flames released by Lann, fueled by telekinetic energy, devoured all the spiders in front of them, even the nearby fountain began to heat up and make a sizzling sound.

Lann and Letho had their backs turned to the other four witchers. The other four witchers also used sign combinations to fight.

The garden around the fountain instantly transformed into a sea of ​​fire.

The trees and flowers burned to ashes that scattered into the air. Lann and the others feared that a single round of flames would not be enough to finish off their enemies, so they launched a second and third round, until no more screams could be heard from the flames.

Except for Lann, the others were breathing heavily. Normally, using signs consumes a great deal of physical energy for witchers, and they were now sweating profusely, as if they had repeatedly fought against a group of monsters.

"Huh, huh." Kiyan calmed his breath and suddenly said: "If we do this in Iris’s memories, won’t it become a nightmare for her?”

As everyone caught their breath, Lann performed several Aard Signs to dispel the flames in front of them.

At his feet, the gravel garden path that extended to the main mansion was now solid.

After arriving in front of the mansion, they pushed open the door and entered, this was the second time everyone had entered this building. Unlike the first time they saw the place as a decaying ruin, it was now clean and tidy, showing that the owner had taken good care of the place. From one of the rooms came faint candle lights, indicating that the memory they were looking for was located in the direction of the candlelight.

Following the direction of the light, a long table appeared in front of them.

It was the first time in Iris's memory that there were so many people. Before, it had only been her and Olgierd. Now, besides the two of them, there were three other people, making a total of five people sitting around the table.

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