บท 769: Kingdom of Corpses

Reima "The Vampires have made a play for the world."

Zoltan's eyes almost bulge out of their sockets. "Bu-but such a thing's never 'appened befor-"

Roche "Reima! Oh, thank fucking god you're here!" he exclaims, walking out of the Auction House with Ves, Crach, and Triss following him.

Reima sighs, "Hmm, it's good that you guys are still alive..." he mutters.

Roche nods, "That's all thanks to your men an the Auction House." he holds his arms out and gestures towards the burning city of Ard Carraigh. "Most of my men have fled or been killed, and I doubt any civilians apart from the ones present here have managed to survive... By the looks of it, this is the end of Kaedwen." he states.

Reima "Not just for Kaedwen, I've just arrived from an army of Vampires attacker Ichor, I reckon this is a world wide problem."

Crach "Ah? Are you serious? Then I need'ta get back to Skellige as soon as possible, hopefully stay standin' long enough for me to die in battle there." he says gravely.

Reima summons the Staff of Manus and walks over to a clear area, his shadow melding into the ground like a black puddle and extending to encompass a large area... Not long after arms of black demonic-looking creatures can be seen as they pull themselves out, an army appearing out of nowhere. He glances back at Crach, "To be fair, I think Skillige is one of the only places capable of surviving something like this... Vampires aren't really native to the Isles, and I doubt they'd be flying over from the continent to get to you."

Crach nods, "All the more reason for me to rush back and mount a proper defence for when they do." he says, ignoring the literal army of abyssal creatures Reima had just summoned.

Reima sends a shoo'ing gesture at them, "Kill any Vampires you find in the city and rescue the survivors you find... Also, bring back any the bodies of any Higher Vampires you bring down, can't have them getting back up can we?" he states, still agonising over where the Vampires might have taken Ciaran...

Crach "Reima, I hate to ask you this after savin' us but, could you help me and hjalmar back to Skellige?" he asks.

Reima slowly nods, "Yeah, I guess." he says, Crach sending him a grateful expression and walking back into the Auction House to retrieve Hjalmar.

Triss rubs her hands together anxiously, "So, how's everyone doing?" she asks him despite the current situation...

Reima raises a brow, "Geralt's fine." he says bluntly, not wishing to dally during what could possibly be the Apocolypse...

Triss blushes slightly but shakes her head, "And Yennefer? How's she doing?"

Reima "Last I saw she was passed out atop Kaer Morhen after a security system turret malfunction." he says with a shrug.

Crach comes back out with a limping Hjalmar, aswell as a bearded man with long brown hair who's also wearing a crown.

Reima "King Thyssen I'm guessing?" he asks aloud, having heard about the man when he was considering invitations for the Auction.

Tankred quickly nods, "I am, you must be King Reima if I'm not mistaken..." he says.

Reima "I'm surprised you've survived this disaster, you must have pretty good guards... Or you'v been hiding out in my Auction?" he wonders aloud, sending a nod at Hjalmar and Crach as he opens a portal to Skellige... The isles looking completely unscathed from whatever is happening all over the world.

Hjalmar "Thank ye' Reima, I'll repay this debt eventually... Count on it." he says while wincing at his wounds as Crach helps him through the portal.

Tankred "Ah... That magic, could you possibly take me to my kingdom?"

Reima shakes his head, "I can only open a portal to a place I've been before... Otherwise It'd probably destroy the world."

Tankred slowly nods, "I... See..." he says slightly downtrodden.

*Thud, Thud, Thud.*

The Abyssal Cyclopses return to the clearing with three Higher Vampires in their grips... They drop them on the floor unceremoniously and Reima tears their souls out without a moment's notice.

The sun finally sets and the night continues on as the Abyssal Servants purge the city of any traces of Vampires. Eventually the last of Reima's summoned soldiers return, relaying that the city held no more vampires within its midst. Additionally, they'd managed to collect quite a large amount of survivors. Reima hadn't expected this many to have survived, judging from what he'd heard, the vampires were killing anything that moved, which is why it was strange for so many to have survived the invasion.

Upon talking to some of the survivors, it seemed that the Higher Vampires were keeping some alive for some purpose. If he had to guess, Reima would say that they'd be made slaves? The lesser vampires required flesh and blood to survive, which would be one reason why they'd want survivors... They'd be livestock.

This was good, and bad... It meant that the Vampires hadn't wiped out every person from the continent, meaning that it could be repopulated relatively easily. It also meant that Reima was restricted from simply burning the cities to the ground with the Vampires inside them.

He doubted that any country could actually survive these attacks... Ichor had managed because they were overwhelmingly more powerful than anything else in this world, even then they had to use all their forces to get away without mass civilian casualties, even then Reima wasn't sure how many of his men had perished against the Vampires... Sure, the Prospects would be alright as they were immortal, but the Chaos Servants, Monsters, and Scoia'tael? Dead was dead.

Regardless, what he needed to focus on now was Ard Carriagh and all the survivors... Kaedwen was most likely no more, so it was up to Reima to take over this vacant land.