He ran his fingers through the fallen leaves smeared with strange dark marks. The Deadweight Woods were always the host to ominous events happening within it, infamous for being the home to accursed House of Romilly, who died out from unknown circumestances. With their deaths, these woods became a home of abandonment, shunned and feared by all. But the recent event had even frightened the residents of the nearby villages, enough so to make a contract for investigations.

Geralt had witnessed the strange event from afar. The sky upon the forest turned grey and a deafening shriek erupted from its depths. If it wasn't for the contract, he wouldn't have ventured into the woods. Alas, he was currently short of money, and with empty purses no tavern—even that of Dandelion's—would've host him. So he accepted the job and rode forth to the Deadweight Woods to investigate.

Walking past the withered leaves, he led Roach towards a half-ruined road. It was early in the morning but the dawn failed to pierce through the trees. Their path was too dark for his liking.

He heard the sound of becalmed waters nearby. As he and his horse walked closer, they came about a small spring, whose water was provided by a cascade above it. It was enshrouded by a horde of frogs and a flock of ravens. Ravens sat upon trees and the spring alike, singing an ominous tone accompanied by the frogs' boasting.

Geralt cursed under his lips, ravens bespoke of a leshen dwelling nearby. These Lords of the Woods had no mercy towards creatures alien to their territories. But the shrieking cry was not from a leshen and whatever it source was, Geralt had to find it. He considered the possibility of the leshen already hunting it, but even then, he had to see the corpse first hand to make sure.

Just then feet ahead, a dead Ghoul laid upon a stone, with its organs pouring out of its belly and its head torn apart from its body. Geralt left Roach's side to investigate the corpse. There were deep claw marks carved on its flesh and the remnants of teeth on its neck. Dark sidelines alike with those of the leaves were spread amok across its body. This was no leshen's doing. This was from a beast unknown to Geralt.

From afar, he could see a manor, the one belonging to the Romillys. The Ghoul's corpse was fresh, its hunter may very well have made a lair inside the manor. With this thought he took Roach and they walked forth towards the manor.

The Arnskrone Castle, once the seat to House of Romilly, was now but a set of ruins reminiscent of a bygone past. The last of its rulers, Walter Romilly, was infamous for kidnapping noble children and asking for their ransom, but his last hunt, that of Anastasia von Bourmann, brought doom upon the residents of his castle and eventually, himself. Since then these woods were dubbed as accursed, and perhaps they truly were.

The courtyard of the castle reeked with the odour of death, stemmed from the corpses of wolves scattered around, torn into many parts. Geralt walked past the animals, left Roach alone and headed towards the castle's door. It was locked, so Geralt casted Aard and instantly broke it.

He stepped into the manor, and caught some cobwebs hung from the roof, which he shook them off. The castle was dimly lit by the dawnlight which shone through windows on the roof. Still, that was not enough so he pulled out a torch and lit it with Igni. In front of him was a pair of staircases, one leading downwards and the other up. An atechamber was to his right which led to other rooms of the castle. He wanted to search this floor first, but a weak wailing from the cellar interrupted him.

He took the staircase to the underground and entered a room utterly lightless. His torch only covered a few feet ahead of his face, but he wagered the room to be a large vault, for the walls scratched farther than his eyesight, and there were shelves storing wine and wood. Another low mumbling erupted in the cellar. Geralt unsheathed his silver sword and walked towards the sound.

"Turn back…" something groaned. Geralt extended his hand to shine over the darkness. He saw a hand creeping towards the shades of light, and then a head emerged from darkness, a creature covered in a withered mantle crawled towards him, so large that half of its body was lost to the dark.

"Turn back…" the creature repeated, its hoarse voice was that of a male. Geralt remained unmoved, silently staring at him, searching for a creature to liken him to. "Then I shall make thee scarce, like all other fools."

Impressive intelligence, Geralt thought, Perhaps he's accursed? He could've undo his curse, but for that to happen the beast needed to be calmed, which right now he was not.

The beast suddenly made a move and jumped at him. Geralt darted back, his torchlight losing the sight of the beast to darkness. The witcher leapt forth and thrust his sword, but the beast was not in his place. He whipped the torch around, but saw nothing of his foe.

Suddenly, two pairs of claws scratched against him, piercing his leather jacket and burning his flesh. He fell forwards and spun, taking a moment to proceed the creature's unnatural abilities. Just then, his fore jumped forward, his claws pointed at him. Geralt casted Aard, but it only served as a mere nuisance as the beast fell on the ground and scratched Geralt's feet.

The witcher spun around his foe and delivered blows to his covered skin. One such blow even made the beast fell to his hands for a second and inhale breath. Only to dart ahead and towards Geralt, crushing him to the ground with his arms. His teeth gnashed and Geralt realised his intended to eat him.

Panicking, he shoved the torch onto his face, blasting the beast's mantle with fire. His foe screamed and smote the torch away, extinguishing the only light in the darkness of the vault. Geralt found an opportunity and thrust his sword into the beast's neck, who gritted his teeth and dashed backwards.

Immediately, the witcher rolled around and rose to his feet. He could see nothing, so he scrambled in his steps, constantly searching for a sound, but as if the creature was dead, no sound rose from him.

Suddenly, the creature leapt at him, pushing his feet against his chest with all his force. Geralt fell backwards and hit the wall. Falling to his face, he heard a strange sound erupting and felt the ground weakly shaking. He looked up and saw the blue light of a portal hung from the roof, whatever jointed them was fragile, for the portal danced midair, threatening to fall every second. The force of it activating was too much for the house, making it tremble as if it was an earthquake. A thought budded in his head, if a portal was here, then did that mean the creature was from another world?

Geralt cursed under his lisp. The implication, the consequences… This beast could ransack all the north and none could stop him. I won't let it go that far, he thought as he rose to his feet and casted Igni, blasting fire into the vault just to see something for a second. He spotted the beast, who jumped at him with his teeth gnashing.

Just as Igni ran out, Geralt positioned his sword defensively. The creature jumped on his blade and locked his fangs on it, then brought its feet towards the hilt and jumped backwards, breaking Geralt's pose. He struggled to keep his balance as the beast again leapt at him, and thrust his fangs through Geralt's leather jacket, piercing his skin with such force that blood instantly spurt out of him. The pain burnt him to the core. He would've shouted if he hadn't had his tongue tangled between his teeth.

The beast rose him aloft and threw him on the other side. The walls shook even more and Geralt distressed to see the portal circling in the air. He began casting Igni again, firing everywhere to catch a glimpse of the beast. His foe was constantly jumping at him, striking him with his fangs, and leaping back for another attack.

Geralt shoved his sword in the dark, and amongst many of his attempts, one hit the beast. He shrieked in pain, trembling the walls even more, but did not attack. Worried, Geralt casted Igni saw the beast on the other side of the vault, amid the shelves. Crouching forward, he threw a giant stone at. Swiftly flying, Geralt failed to dart around as the stone hit him and crushed him down.

Suddenly, he heard a loud crackle in the air. Lying on the ground, he looked up and saw the portal falling down exactly at him. He widened his eyes and tried to roll, but the stone was too strong to move in a short time and the portal was not going to spare him that.

Curse you, portals, he thought as his whole being was engulfed by cosmetic entities.

Geralt kept falling and falling through. Enveloped by the cosmic painting, and lost to time itself, he harked back the many journeys through the worlds he had with Avallac'h. He hoped this portal would not land him on a deserted wasteland or worse, a frozen continent, as these portals would often do.

Eventually, he felt the wind sooth his back and from behind, a moonless sky crept out. He landed on his back and watched as the portal disappeared in the sky.

His head burnt with pain, and his mind was too tired to digest his surroundings. He curled aside and blinked; the hill was silent but he could see shadows approaching. He blinked once again and they crawled closer. At this point, he surrounded to unconsciousness.

Something grabbed under his arms and pulled him up, then landed him on a hard solid. Geralt only open his eyes to see three blurry figures watching over him. One spoke in a hushed voice, "That arm looks too nice to be left for Godrick. Ah, give me a blade so I can grafted to myself."

"Are you insane?" someone exclaimed, "Godrick would have us all beheaded should we take something that's not ours."

"At least let me take the eyes! Their misshapen, almost cat-liked. Who would want that?"

"Look at their colour, their bright gold. Our Lord of the Golden would leap at once to claim them. After all, what's scarier than a lord with cat-eyed eyes?"

That caused them to laugh, but afterwards, the conversation died down. Geralt did not understand any of their words, but was certain the portal had teleported him into another world. The beast now ran free in his continent. That thing was no normal monster, should he find a way out of Deadweight Woods, everyone would be in danger.

His brethren… No witcher could defeat that thing. They were tried for monsters, and the beast fought unlike any monster he had ever seen. He thought of Lambert and Eskel drowned in blood as the beast feast on them and led out a pent gasp as he shut his eyes.

Ciri…

Geralt panted and tried to rise but the men pushed him down. What if Ciri was to fight him? However extrodinary her abilities might be, that thing is no ordinary monster recorded in Witchers' books. What if he slit her throat? The thought alone had him pushing against the men. He managed to rise for some extent, only to fall unconscious when one of them struck him with his shield.

His last thought was the beast's deafening shriek as he stood upon a pile of corpses, eating them all.