章節 651: Sage to Stage...

The group continues to ask Avallac'h various questions, Yennefer and Keira on magics, mysteries and practical things that could help their own sorceries, Geralt and Ciri on ways they could possibly stop the White Frost, as well as the remaining Wild Hunt under Eredin... Last but not least was Reima, who continued to badger the undead elf with stupid and humiliating questions that he was forced to answer, the group, unfortunately, finding out that Avallac'h had stalked Lara Dorren so much that she married a human just to spite him...

Yennefer "I think we should end the ritual soon before we started affecting the ambient magic permanently." she says, the others nodding at her.

Reima "Hang on, I've got a couple things I wanna try..." he says, immediately after calling for Hinky to bring Avallac'hs corpse, all of its organs having already been removed just leaving the skin, skeleton, and muscles.

Avallac'h look down at his desecrated corpse, the Elder Speech tattoo's still prominently showing on his pale lifeless skin. "Do you intend to humiliated me further?" he asks angrily.

Reima shakes his head, "Not quite..." he says, turning back and warning the others to step back.

Avallac'h watches in horror and curiosity as black ooze begins dripping to the floor from Reima's hand, it appears to come from his skin like some kind of disgusting sweat.

The black goo then coalesces into a spider, one that moves towards Avallac'hs body, rippling and shuddering like jello.

It crawls onto the Elve's face, opening the mouth before pushing itself down his throat. All the while black veins begin forming on the skin and flesh that're touched by the spider.

Reima walks up to the floating Avallac'h the ghost attempting to back away, only to be stopped by the ritual circle which prevents him from moving outside of it.

Avallac'h "What do you want? I am already dead, you can't touch me!" he says loudly, speaking to himself more than Reima.

Reima shrugs, "Never know til you try, right?" he says while channeling the Dark Hand, the whispy black and red aura enveloping his fist. He grabs the ghost around the throat and much to everyone's surprise, the ghost acts as if he was corporeal, being dragged by Reima towards the body that was now shaking and shuddering, black ooze leaking from the missing eyes and open mouth.

Avallac'h squirms to escape his grasp to no avail, eventually being pushed inside his rapidly mutating corpse, black tendrils burst from his chest, wrapping the ghost and pulling him into the body, his figure disappearing from inside it.

Keira "And I thought Yennefer's magic was disturbing..." she mutters.

Yennefer "This is beyond simple Necromancy..."

Reima steps back as Avallac'hs body seemingly melts into a puddle, a few moments after it begins to shudder and coalesce into a new form. A single tendril stands 6ft, other using it as a base to build from, eventually forming a rough skeleton before adding sickly looking black organs, tendons, muscles, flesh, and finally skin.

The humanoid figure is completely black, with the exception of the glowing red tattoo's beginning to scar themselves into its skin, all of them looking identical to Avallac'hs former tattoo's. A black robe begins to form, a hood gracefully dropping over its bald head and concealing its glowing red slitted eyes.

It stands there just looking at Reima, its robes almost concealing all of its monstrous features, with the exception fo the long black claws extending from each fingertip.

Reima crosses his arms and taps his foot, "Aha! I'll name you Abyssal Sage!"

Abyssal Sage "P-Pleeaassseee killlll meeeeeeeeeee." it pleads in a voice similar to Avallac'hs, though, not quite.

Ciri "Is, is he alive?" she asks, wondering if this counts as resurrection...

Reima shrugs, "Alive? Maybe? In eternal torment? You betcha! I figured if death wasn't going to punish him then why not do it myself." he says with a laugh, the others looking at him and the new Abyssal Servant with morbid curiosity.

...

Abyssal Sage "Kiiillllllll meeee"

...

Reima "So... I probably should have asked this before I turned Avallac'h to... That. You find out everything you needed?"

Ciri shakes her head, "Yeah." she says, obviously put out that they'd not found anything useful.

The group leave the church after spending an hour or two inside performing the ritual. Reima had stored the Abyssal Sage in his shadow while everyone split up. Geralt reminded Ciri that they were leaving for Toussaint tomorrow and to prepare everything for travel, even though she could just teleport back and forth to restock on supplies if needed... Reima had asked Geralt if he wanted him to just open a portal there, but he gave the usual "I hate Portals", as well as explaining that he wanted some proper time to catch up with Ciri as well as finally finishing her training.

Of course, as they'd be gone a couple of months Reima and Ciri spent the night "saying goodbye", annoying most of the people living in Kaer Morhen in the process.

The next morning he met them by the gates of Kaer Morhen, Roach and... A Thestral standing next to Geralt and Ciri.

Reima "Err, what's with the Thestral?" he asks, unsure as to why they'd be taking it.

Geralt "Roach is faster and has more stamina than any I've ever seen... Only those Unicorns and Thestrals are faster."

Ciri nods, "And I'd rather not ride one..."

Geralt agrees with a grunt, "Hmm."

Reima grabs Geralt's forearm and nods, "It'll be her rescuing you this time." he says with a laugh.

Geralt "Hm, I don't doubt it."

Reima then moves on to Ciri, locking lips with her for longer than Geralt was comfortable with watching... "And remember those necklaces, I hear about you dying out there I'll give you the Avallac'h treatment." he says, causing both of them to grimace.

Reima is about to let them leave but remembers something, materialising it in his hand before wrapping some kind of cloak around Ciri's neck and shoulder.

Ciri looks down at the weird ephemeral cloak she'd seen Reima wearing before, the white geometrical-particles flowing down and disappearing before more are created at the top.

Reima "Looks good on you." he says after taking a step back, the gleam cloak looking better on Ciri than it ever had him.

Ciri smiles, "Are you sure?" he gives a nod and she gives him another kiss before hopping on the Thestral, the specially designed saddle making it comfortable for both her and the beast. "Cya later Rei." she says, her and Geralt riding off.