Roy, Auckes, and Serrit split up their jobs. Auckes and Serrit would look through the living quarters and experimentation area on the right, while Roy picked Kiyan’s sword up. He flicked it around to see how it felt.
The young witcher clasped his index and middle finger together, and he brushed them along the back of the blade. A frown furrowed his brows. There was actually a hint of rust on the blade, perhaps from the lack of greasing.
He held the hilt with one hand and the blade with the other to observe the back of the sword closely.
‘Moonblade
Type: Silver sword
Components: Dark iron ingots, cured draconid leather, powdered monster tissue, silver ingot…
Specs: Weighs 5.06 pounds, hilt measures 11 inches, blade measures 40 inches.
Affixes:
Strengthened Yrden: Yrden has slightly increased strength when you’re equipped with this sword.
Freeze: Whenever you hit an enemy, there’s a small chance to freeze the target. -10 to Dexterity when Frozen.’
***
“Not bad. The freezing effect is gonna make big, slow monsters easier to hunt.” It’s as good as Viper swords, but Kiyan hasn’t been taking care of it. “Hold on for a bit. I’ll give you a good shower once we get out of this place.”
He tucked Moonblade into his inventory space. We’ll decide who gets this when we leave.
Roy went to the end of the passage in the center and approached the hexagram Kiyan was meditating in.What he saw surprised him. He didn’t notice it earlier, but now that he was closer, he noticed a bunch of thick blueprints on the ground. When he picked them up and saw what they were, the young witcher was delighted.
Feline trousers, feline gauntlets, feline boots, and feline armor. Four blueprints all at once, and they detail how to make every part. “Well, this is a big haul.”
Even an official Cat like Felix was only wearing regular armor. These blueprints were more valuable than anyone could imagine.
“Gonna give them a surprise later.”
***
Roy thought he had seen everything, but the last page’s content made his eyes bulge.
‘Conclusion: As I suspected, the witcher is a superb energumen! A demon trapped in such an excellently prepared body will become death incarnate, vengeful wrath made flesh – and placed under my command. No one has succeeded in creating a being of such power since the times of Malaspin and Alzur.’
“So Kiyan’s mind is not his own anymore?” Roy turned to the captive creature. “Is mindless murder all he knows? No… No, that’s not it.” He refuted himself in the same breath. Observe showed me one important message. His spirit and body are twisted, and something else is within him.
“To be precise, there’s something else dwelling in his body, and that… is the demon. Somebody used this hexagram to summon it.”
Roy thought of another possibility. Two wills are fighting for control, so Kiyan’s Will is far lower than most people’s. The witcher’s soul is trapped in this beat-up body, while that demon Irenues summoned pinned Kiyan down and took control. How the heck can I save him?
***
Roy shut the laboratory journal and held his vibrating pendant down. He looked at the statue standing over the hexagram. It was surprisingly realistic. Roy could almost see a cheetah lying on the platform, staring into the void. It would have been a cheetah if not for its abnormal number of claws, split ears, and protruding spi… Hey, wait a minute. Why’s there a tabby cat on the statue’s spine? It’s yawning and scratching its chin.
“Mew?”
“Gryphon? How’d you get there? Come back down!” Roy picked Gryphon up and tucked it into his hood. He scanned the feline statue’s tail, but it didn’t seem like any feline animal he had seen.
‘Statue of an unknown animal.’
There’s elemental energy surrounding it, and this feeling it’s giving off is really weird. Unfamiliar, even…
***
Wait. Unfamiliar? Roy got an idea. He had no idea how this statue came to be or what its use was, but it had something to do with the demon dwelling in Kiyan.
“Time for a discussion.” Roy was a little excited. “There’s five of us, and those guys are veterans. They might actually come up with some kind of exorcism and bring that guy back.”
***
***