Chapter 14: WHEN CHAOS SCREAMS
The morning started like any other.
Sword drills with Vesemir at dawn. Breakfast—mystery stew leftovers, which somehow tasted worse reheated. A brief patrol of the lower perimeter with Eskel, noting three new sets of drowner tracks near the river crossing.
Then the screaming started.
I was crossing the main courtyard when the first wave hit—not sound, but feeling. The Ciri-Link flared with terror so intense it buckled my knees. Pain. Confusion. Power spiraling beyond control.
[WARNING: CIRI-LINK OVERLOAD — PROXIMITY AMPLIFICATION]
I ran.
The training yard materialized around me before I consciously chose the direction. Ciri stood in the center, arms wrapped around herself, surrounded by chaos. Objects flew in wide arcs—training dummies, weapon racks, loose stones ripped from the courtyard floor. The air itself seemed to scream, pressure waves rippling outward from her like rings in a disturbed pond.
Vesemir and Lambert had been knocked back, struggling to regain their feet. Geralt was closer, trying to approach, but each step forward pushed him back two.
"Ciri!" Geralt's voice cut through the chaos. "Focus on my voice—"
Another wave. Stronger. Geralt staggered, boots scraping against stone as the force shoved him backward.
The Link burned in my chest. Her terror filled my head—too much, too fast, can't stop, can't control, help me help me HELP—
My body moved without conscious thought.
The Nullification activated.
I felt it happen—that same muscle I'd flexed against the sealed door, the same anti-magic wave that had shattered eight centuries of Elder enchantments. But this time, instead of a single burst, it sustained. A bubble of anti-something expanded around me, two meters wide, then three.
[ABILITY: NULLIFICATION — SUSTAINED FIELD ACTIVE]
[SP: 150/170... 135/170... 120/170...]
Objects that crossed the field's edge lost their magical momentum, clattering to the ground at my feet. The pressure waves parted around me like water around a stone. I walked forward, each step buying another foot of progress.
Ciri saw me coming. Her eyes were wild, unfocused, tears streaming down cheeks that had gone deathly pale. The power poured from her without control or direction—raw chaos looking for any target.
"Cole—" Her voice cracked. "I can't stop—"
"I know."
I reached her. The Nullification field encompassed us both.
And the Ciri-Link FLARED.
Not one-way anymore. Not passive awareness and emotional bleedthrough. This was connection—real, direct, mutual. I felt her presence in my mind like a second heartbeat, terrified and desperate and reaching for anything stable.
So I gave her something stable.
Here. Hold onto this.
I didn't speak the words aloud. Didn't know if I could. But I pushed stability through the Link—the certainty I'd built over weeks of training, the control I'd fought for since waking in darkness, the calm that came from having already faced death and chosen to survive.
Ciri gasped. The wild power stuttered, hitched, began to slow.
"That's it." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "You're not alone in there. Let me take some of the weight."
[SP: 90/170... 75/170...]
The chaos ebbed. Objects stopped flying. The pressure waves faded to ripples, then to nothing. Ciri's knees buckled, and I caught her before she hit the ground, the Nullification field finally collapsing as my stamina dropped into the red.
[SP: 45/170]
[WARNING: STAMINA CRITICAL]
We stayed like that for a long moment—Ciri clinging to my arm, both of us breathing hard, the courtyard silent except for the settling of disturbed debris.
"What..." She looked up at me, confusion and relief warring in her expression. "What did you do?"
"I don't know." The honest answer. "But it helped, right?"
A laugh escaped her—broken, exhausted, but real. "Yeah. It helped."
Movement in my peripheral vision. Geralt approached, face unreadable, eyes fixed on where Ciri's hand gripped my forearm. Vesemir rose from where he'd fallen, dusting off his coat, expression calculating. Lambert and Eskel appeared at the courtyard's edge, weapons half-drawn against a threat that had already passed.
"She needs rest," I said, meeting Geralt's gaze. "And probably food. Using that much power burns through everything."
I know because the Link is still telling me how empty she feels.
Geralt's jaw tightened. But he nodded once, moving to take Ciri's other arm, supporting her weight as we guided her toward the main hall.
Behind us, I heard Vesemir's voice, low and thoughtful: "Lambert. Eskel. Get the courtyard cleared. Then meet us in the great hall."
"What just happened?" Lambert asked.
"That's what we're going to find out."
Want more? The story continues on Patreon!
If you can't wait for the weekly release, you can grab +10, +15, or +20 chapters ahead of time on my Patreon page. Your support helps me keep this System running!
Read ahead here: [ patreon.com/system_enjoyer ]