The rain came down in torrents.

In the dim room, a serious-looking man with graying temples was staring at the map in front of him, silent.

He is Ciri's biological father and the emperor of Nilfgaard, the great empire that is about to unify the entire continent, Emhyr Emreis.

For Emhyr, the current situation is extremely delicate. With the destruction of the Royal City of Redania, it stands to reason that the resistance of the entire Northern Alliance will also be wiped out. Then, as long as Nilfgaard marches north, it can unify the entire continent.

But things are far from that simple.

First, the Redanian army, having lost its king, did not become a loose group of sand. Instead, they knelt under the banner of the Eternal Flame Cult and declared that they would fight for the great God of Fire forever. The ignorant and superstitious behavior of these barbarians really gave Emhyr a headache. But this was nothing. After all, the Redanian army's combat effectiveness was only a scumbag, and it was only a matter of time before they were eliminated.

But the other two issues had to attract Enxier's attention.

The first was the Fire Lord who called himself Ragnaros who appeared in the Eternal Flame Sect. At first, Emhyr thought it was just a rumor, but soon his spies reported the same information to him from different channels, that is, there was indeed a terrifying being made of flames, a hundred meters tall, descending on Novigrad. As for what it was... no one could explain.

Considering that the enemy destroyed the capital of Redania with a meteor, Emhyr had to suspend his advance. If he provoked the enemy, and a meteor of fire hit the capital of Nilfgaard directly one day, he would have no way to deal with it.

The second point is very depressing, because according to the spy's report, his biological daughter Xi Liya actually became the messenger of this Eternal Fire Sect? !

This is very embarrassing.

You know, Emhyr had only one daughter, Cirilla, in his life, and he always hoped that his daughter could return to him and become the heir of the empire. Nilfgaard's attitude towards religion is to prohibit and deny it. They believe that so-called religion is nothing more than a product of superstition and ignorance in the world, and basically needs to be broken and eliminated.

Now, while the father is busy clearing out the remnants of feudal superstition, his daughter actually runs away to become a messenger of the church.

This is simply a slap in the face.

It is precisely because of this that the current situation in the north has come to a delicate stalemate. Nilfgaard has not acted rashly, and Novigrad has been busy with internal reforms. The two sides have temporarily formed a tacit truce.

But no one knows what will happen next.

Just as the man was lost in thought, the door opened and his servant walked in.

"Your Majesty, the white flame dancing over the graves of his enemies, Emhyr Emreis the Great!"

As he spoke, the servant bowed respectfully to him, and a white-haired man beside him also followed his example and bowed respectfully.

"Everyone go out, the demon hunter stay."

Emhyr waved his hand, and soon, the others left, leaving only the white-haired man. It was not until the door closed again that Emhyr stood up and looked at the white-haired man in front of him.

“I thought you didn’t know how to salute anyone, Geralt.”

That’s right, the white-haired man who appeared in front of Emhyr was none other than Ciri’s adoptive father, a demon hunter famous throughout the continent—Geralt of Rivia.

Hearing what Emhyr said, Geralt raised his eyebrows, but there was no expression on his weather-beaten face with several scars.

"You summoned me here, don't you want to reminisce about the past, so..."

"Shut up."

Before Geralt could finish his words, Emhyr interrupted him angrily. For Emhyr, that was not a past worth recalling.

That was when Emhyr was a child. When he was thirteen, a coup took place in Nilfgaard, and Emhyr's father was overthrown. The usurper also cursed Emhyr, turning him into a monster. After that, it was Geralt who helped him remove the curse, restoring this half-human, half-ghost guy to his original state. In return, Emhyr accepted the "Law of Accident" required by Geralt and gave his child to him - this is why Geralt became Ciri's adoptive father.

For Emhyr, who now rules the entire Nilfgaard Empire and is about to unify the continent, that dark history is obviously something he does not want to recall.

"Have you heard about what happened recently in Redania?"

"What's up?"

"My daughter...Cirilla is back."

"real?"

Hearing this, Geralt was also surprised. He had been looking for Ciri's trace, but found nothing. Now, there is finally a clue?

"Yes, she is in Novigrad now. I want you to go to Novigrad, find her, and bring her back."

"Why me?"

Hearing this, Geralt asked in confusion.

"Because she trusts you, and most importantly, something is not right right now... Do you know what happened in Novigrad?"

"Novigrad?"

"It seems that the information has not yet reached your ears."

Looking at the demon hunter in front of him, Emhyr sneered.

"Not long ago, a terrifying being made of flames and a hundred meters tall appeared in Novigrad. It called itself the King of Fire. Because the Eternal Fire Cult distorted its doctrine and took advantage of the power of others, the King of Fire burned the entire bishops, including the archbishop, to charcoal and sent a divine messenger to control the entire cult. That divine messenger was Cirilla."

"...Ciri? The messenger of God?"

Hearing this, Geralt was also confused.

"Yes, I don't know the specific information very well. The Empire is currently investigating, but we can't act rashly. You may not know that after that, the Eternal Flame accused the King of Redania of inciting the "witch hunt" and wanted to punish him. The other party was very annoyed... and then a meteor fell from the sky and flattened the entire royal city."

"…Are you kidding me?"

"I wish this was a joke. I asked my advisors and all the sorcerers, but they all told me that no matter how powerful a sorcerer is, it is impossible to create a flaming giant hundreds of meters tall and summon a meteor that is powerful enough to destroy the capital. So I don't know what's going on over there, and I can't explain it. No one can explain it either, so I want you to investigate, find out what happened, and then bring Cirilla back."

At this, Emhyr stared at Geralt.

"Any more questions? If you still have questions, ask Yennefer."

“No more.”

Geralt nodded and turned to leave, but soon he stopped and turned around.

"Want to play a game of Gwent?"

"certainly."

When Enshilton heard Geralt's invitation, his eyes lit up.

"I'm a great card player!"

Just as the two men forgot about their daughter and indulged in playing cards, Fang Zheng left Novigrad with Lis, Miaojie and Ciri and were exploring the wilderness.

At present, Novigrad has become quite peaceful. The reason why the Eternal Flame Sect can dominate the free city and even become the real ruler of the city is because the residents here are backward, ignorant, and superstitious. Since the priests of the church can deceive those people with their eloquent words, when the real god appears, these people will naturally believe in the Eternal Flame even more wholeheartedly.

Ciri had no interest in handling government affairs, so she directly found a few bishops and temple guards with good reputations and asked them to handle it on her behalf. Currently, the main task of the Eternal Flame is to eliminate the four major mafia entrenched in the city. The one who had hacked Ciri had been caught by Fang Zheng, and then Ciri was imprisoned and executed in public, which was considered to be a way to vent her anger when she was chased by the other party.

In addition, the Eternal Flame also had to face the Redanian army that surrendered from all directions. It can be said that after Fang Zheng's meteor blew up the royal city, Novigrad, where the Eternal Flame was located, became the core of the north. There were also priests who had to be sent to proclaim the new doctrine of the Eternal Flame, etc. However, there were naturally people to do these things, so Ciri took the three of them and left Novigrad to do the work of "monster hunters" in the surrounding areas.

I have to admit that this world is still very beautiful. Riding a horse on the grassland, looking at the blue sky and white clouds in the distance, and watching the wind blowing across the grassland and dancing with the green grass, it gives people a sense of beauty full of vitality.

However, behind this beautiful scenery, there is also a dark side.

For example, when crossing the hills, the originally beautiful grassland turned into a dark battlefield, with unburied corpses everywhere and ghouls gnawing on the corpses wantonly. Or when following the goat path forward, you will see several corpses hanging on wooden stakes and floating in the wind when leaving the forest.

It can be said that the word war shows its most primitive, brutal and bloody side here.

Ciri has gotten used to it, but for Liz and Miaojie, this situation is still a little hard for them to bear.

As for Fang Zheng, he could only turn a blind eye.

In fact, he had seen this kind of thing many times during the Warring States Period. In Fang Zheng's opinion, the war between Nilfgaard and the northern countries in this world was similar to the war between Qin and the six countries at that time. Of course, from Fang Zheng's point of view, he supported a unified civilization because a unified country, a unified civilization and a unified system could bring about a peaceful and stable order.

But on the other hand, you cannot force the other party to do things the same way. It is normal for deserters and thieves to be hanged, and killing and brutality in war are unavoidable. When the Qin soldiers invaded the six countries, they were not necessarily more civilized than the soldiers of the Nilfgaard Empire, so we can only say that... For future generations, both Qin and Nilfgaard are worthy of praise, but for the people of that era, these two countries were no different from demons.

By the way, the representative colors of both Qin and Nilfgaard are black... Is this some kind of coincidence?

"Although I've seen it several times, I'm still not used to it..."

Looking at the corpses hanging on wooden stakes, Miao Jie's face became a little stiff.

"It's a good thing Princess Elfen didn't come."

"I too...feel very uncomfortable."

“This is war.”

Ciri was not as sad as the other two girls. She shook her head and looked forward.

"That's the Crow's Nest over there, let's go."