Chapter 144 144: Ciri’s Story
As the saying goes, it is better to burn out than to fade away in silence.
Since I would rather not suddenly fade away one day, let me vent a little at the end of the volume.
And now, let us continue the journey through the Rising Dragon arc.
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Fine, thick eyebrows. Oval green eyes. Pale skin. A striking scar slashing from beneath her left eye across most of her cheek.
She was the last blood of the Elder Blood, heir to the Nilfgaardian Empire, Queen of Cintra, Princess of Brugge and Duchess of Sodden, heiress to Inis Ard Skellig and Inis An Skellig, suzeraine of Attre and Abb Yarra.
"Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon," commonly known as Ciri.
Several months had already passed since she arrived in this "Gwent World." Back when she crossed over, the destination she had fixed in her mind had been simple enough: get to Victor's side.
Instead, she ended up here.
So precise targeting really was just a lucky accident, while drifting through time and space was the true fate awaiting her.
As for the name Gwent World, that was one she had come up with herself, because this place was obsessed with a card dueling game called Gwent.
The two duelists played character cards, which formed virtual projections and battled one another. Any everyday dispute could be settled through the outcome of a Gwent match, and everyone here was fanatically obsessed with it.
What had truly caught Ciri's attention, however, was that the background story of Gwent was one she knew all too well. It was plainly modeled on the witcher world of her homeland. The people, places, and creatures all had recognizable counterparts, though only the first half of it resembled the history she knew.
The second half was utter nonsense.
Some mysterious Flamebearer Sage who had appeared from who knew where had not only ended the wars of the Continent, subdued the Seven Kingdoms, and overshadowed an entire age, but had also beaten the elven Wild Hunt senseless and kept them hanging there for all to see.
In any case, today she had come with her new good friend, Tea Gardner, to the final venue of the Gwent tournament, an enormous circular arena capable of seating a million spectators.
They were there to watch the final match of the 108th Gwent King: Battle City in person, and cheer for Tea's good friend, the punk-styled boy Yugi, who had made it all the way to the finals.
On the field, the sharply dressed young man Kaiba stood proud and full of swagger as he displayed the card in his hand to his opponent.
"Yugi! Do you see this? I've already drawn my second Royal Griffin. Just admit defeat and surrender!"
The situation on the field was already dire.
Kaiba's side was packed with Wild Hunt riders and more monsters than one could count: ghouls, leshens, fleders, werewolves, basilisks, and above them all, a Royal Griffin, one of the most powerful beasts in all Gwent.
Rendered across the arena through projection technology, every one of those monsters looked vivid and lifelike, baring claws and fangs, roaring and shrieking as though Kaiba were truly flanked by the Wild Hunt and a host of monsters.
By contrast, his opponent's side looked painfully sparse, with only a few lonely humanoid figures left standing.
There was the Bomb-Making Witcher, bald enough to seem modeled after Lambert.
There was the Disfigured Witcher, whose projection looked a lot like Eskel.
There was the Witcher Too Old to Move, clearly based on Vesemir.
And last of all, there was the Witcher Who Keeps Breaking His Leg, with flowing white hair and a weathered face, someone Ciri knew better than anyone else: her adoptive father, the White Wolf, Geralt.
And the witchers' projections were guarding none other than the boy with his hair spiked high into a starfish crown, all black, crimson, and gold: Yugi.
The difference in strength between the two sides was absolute despair.
Yugi's total combat power barely reached five thousand.
Kaiba's, meanwhile, was already in the millions.
Even a beginner could have declared with confidence that the next attack would decide the match.
But then Yugi thought of his grandfather, who had been taken to the hospital with stomach trouble, and his eyes filled with unyielding determination.
"No! I won't give up! Draw!"
Ah, of course. When you shouted your catchphrase loudly enough, the card you drew just happened to be exactly the one you needed.
At once, he declared, "My turn! I play the magic card Sign of Yrden: World, sealing the attacks of all monsters on the field for three turns!"
Kaiba immediately responded in a booming voice, "Hmph! Don't waste your time struggling. Even if you survive three turns, what can you possibly do?"
Yugi stared tensely at the cards in his hand.
Kaiba was right.
He only held three cards whose purpose he did not even understand: Sealed Left Leg, Sealed Right Leg, and Sealed Left Hand, each of them pathetic scraps with an attack value of only five.
How was he supposed to fight under conditions like this?
As he wavered, he suddenly heard a strange voice.
"Yugi! If you give up now, the match is over!"
Watching from the sidelines, Ciri was stunned.
It was Grandpa, who should have been lying in a hospital bed, now out in spirit form like a wraith, having somehow traveled all this way just to urge Yugi onward.
Luckily, no one else seemed able to see the spirit, so it did not cause a scene.
Still, the sight before her struck straight at Ciri's common sense.
Not only could the living project themselves as spectral spirits, they could apparently travel great distances that way too. The world truly was vast enough to contain every absurdity imaginable.
With a voice that somehow came with its own arena-wide echo effect built in, Grandpa cried out, "Yugi! Believe in your deck! Hidden within it is the possibility of turning this all around with a single strike!"
Yugi's mouth fell open in astonishment.
Then he suddenly remembered something Grandpa had mentioned in passing long ago, during one of their casual chats: a set of cards that could only summon the ultimate being if all five component cards were gathered together. Up until now, however, no one had ever managed to pull it off in an actual match.
"Your turn. Draw already."
Kaiba's impatient demand cut off the flashback, which otherwise looked prepared to continue for several months.
Yugi's face hardened with twice the resolve, and the moment he saw the card he had drawn, his eyes widened with twice the astonishment.
Not surprisingly, it was another miserable five-attack card: Sealed Right Hand.
As expected, a true duelist never merely drew cards. He always somehow got exactly the card he needed right on cue.
Kaiba let out a cold sneer.
"No matter what card you draw now, it's useless!
"My turn! Since the Sign of Yrden prevents attacks this turn, I choose to summon two more Royal Griffins.
"You should feel honored. On the next turn, the moment the Sign of Yrden wears off, you will die beneath the simultaneous assault of three griffins.
"Now draw your card and welcome the end of your journey!"
Yugi stared at the remaining eighty-seven cards in his deck.
Buried somewhere among them was the one and only card that could turn the duel around, but the chance of drawing it was so low it inspired nothing but despair.
Seeing Yugi hesitate, Tea clasped her hands together outside the ring and bowed her head in prayer.
"Yugi! Don't be afraid! You're not alone! You are not by yourself! Our hearts are connected through Gwent. We're with you!"
Tea's encouragement was like the blessing of Athena herself, carried by the mysterious workings of the universe into Yugi's ears.
At that exact moment, the background music in the arena began to play Passionate Duelists, a song so stirring it practically set the blood on fire.
Da-da da-dum... da-dum... da-da-da-da... da-dum da-da... and so on...
And so, amid the swelling music, Yugi drew in a breath and cried out, "Tea, thank you. I'm not afraid anymore...
"My turn, make the card—no... draw!"
Then he looked at the card he had drawn and fell into silence.
Kaiba covered his mouth with one hand and let out a strange, theatrical laugh.
"Ohohohoho! So you've finally reached the end of the road and fallen into despair, have you? Well? It's all over now. You've lost!"
Yugi answered in a cold, lofty tone.
"Lost? No. You're wrong. I already hold hope in my hand. The bond between Grandpa, Tea, and me has defeated you. This turn, I have drawn the final card: Sealed..."
At the mention of that card's name, Kaiba's face twisted in shock.
"N-no way. Don't tell me... could it be that legendary combination?"
"That's right! When the five legendary cards are gathered together—Sealed Left Hand, Sealed Right Hand, Sealed Left Leg, Sealed Right Leg...
"And Sealed Third Leg!
"They summon... the Genesis Flamebearer Sage!
"And this is also the proof of our friendship!"
"What!? That's impossible! That's not scientific!"
The instant Yugi revealed all five legendary cards, the radiance of the Wheel of Truth came crashing down from the void itself. Then flawless crystal hands and feet, together with a graceful and dashing figure, emerged from the magic circle.
Gasps and screams broke out everywhere, both inside and outside the arena.
"No way... It's the Flamebearer Sage! Yugi really created a miracle!"
"What? So that combination actually exists!?"
"No! I refuse to believe it!"
"Darling, bring the kids out here! The Sage is on the field!"
Whatever the crowd shouted, the moment the Flamebearer Sage fully appeared in the sky above the arena, the million spectators immediately erupted into total frenzy.
His beauty had been praised for a thousand years.
His power had no equal.
He was the first.
He was the last.
He was the bearer of the flame!
Card entry effect: Radiance of Truth. All set trap cards and magic cards on the field are nullified, and he is immune to all restrictions.
Built-in card trait: He cannot be selected as an attack target.
His attack power was infinite.
His defense power was infinite.
His attack range covered the entire field and ignored all defensive effects.
With elegant, beautiful flair, he raised his staff and chanted a spell of annihilation in a long, resonant voice:
"Ah-wa-da-ka-da-la!"
It was a moment worth recording forever.
For the first time in the hundred-year history of Gwent, the Flamebearer Sage launched an attack.
In an instant, the three Royal Griffins, the thousands of Wild Hunt riders, and the monsters blanketing the field were all wiped out in a single blow. Kaiba's score naturally dropped to zero as well, and he let out a shrill scream, his face twisting into pure misery as he collapsed onto the dueling platform in spasms.
"It's so intense! It's unbelievable!" The host was bouncing and jumping like a madman, clutching his microphone and shouting himself hoarse, but he still had not forgotten his duty. "That's right! At this very moment, our new Gwent King has been born, and his name is Yugi!
"Thank him! Thank him for showing us the majesty of the Flamebearer Sage! No wonder this is the hardest deck in all Gwent King to complete! To witness it with our own eyes in an actual match is just... just... wonderful! I'm crying, I really am!"
Those emotional words sent waves of sobbing through the audience inside and outside the arena alike, and some people were even so moved they began tearing off their shirts, as though their side had just scored a World Cup winner.
Naturally, not everyone was quite so touched.
After watching the duel stone-faced from beginning to end, Ciri felt only bafflement.
Some of it really had seemed familiar, things like the Sign of Yrden, the Wild Hunt, and the Royal Griffin.
But some of it was complete nonsense.
The Sign of Yrden had never had a suffix like World, and there had certainly never been some absurdly overpowered figure called the Flamebearer Sage. If someone that handsome and that absurdly strong had really existed, Yennefer could never have taught Ciri all those years without mentioning him.
Then she felt the temperature beginning to drop again.
Clearly, the Wild Hunt would soon be on her trail once more.
Those bastards were like taffy Victor had once made for her: once they stuck to you, they never let go.
A wave of helplessness rose in her heart. She took her friend's hand.
"Tea, I'm sorry. I can't join your celebration feast tonight. I have to leave."
Then, beneath the confusion in the girl's eyes, Ciri once again activated her unreliable world-hopping and departed for the next unknown world.
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