As the wind blew strongly on the lands, two men were riding their horses through the dirt road. The smell of rot was everywhere as hanging corpses shook, pushed by the wind.
One of them stopped for a second, before breathing deeply, letting in all those stench.
"Wind's howling." he said, he heard the winds making whistling noises as they passed through tree holes.
Both of them then continued as they entered a war-torn village. Smell of rot was becoming more and more unbearable, dead bodies everywhere, littering the village.
"The war is not exactly going our way." said the older man of the two.
"We have a side?" refuted the other man.
"The northern realms." answered the old man.
"Radovid's realms don't you mean? Temeria and Aedirn are no more."
"Radovid pledged to restore the old borders… as soon as he wins the war."
"Believe that?" questioned the younger man in amusement.
The old man chuckled. "Gotta believe something. It's what keeps us going."
They then delved deeper into the village. The scene soon changed dramatically. Strange red liquid was everywhere, the smell of rot was as unbearable as it could be.
"Something's wrong." said the old man, his horse was restless, it almost threw down the old man, but the old man jumped first.
"Yeah, no kidding." said the younger man. He also unmounted his horse, and unsheathed one of his swords.
The older man did the same, and they proceeded on foot.
"This thing…" said the old man, examining the red liquid on the ground. "I've never seen anything like this…"
"Poison?" questioned the younger man, also kneeling to examine the liquid.
"No Geralt." the old man shook his head. "I think… this could even kill us Witchers."
"How do you know?" questioned Geralt.
The old man didn't say anything, he just took off his gloves, and touched the liquid. Soon, his palm was suddenly rotting, his skin turned brown, blistered as he touched it.
"Hey! Be careful!" warned Geralt, quickly administering potions to the rotten parts, and it instantly healed, but then the rot was spreading again, making Geralt frown.
"See?" said the old man. "Dangerous."
"You wanna kill yourself Vesemir? How will you cure it?"
"Don't worry, I know a secret brew that I once used." answered Vesemir. "Don't know if it will work on this type of… rot though, but I could give it a try."
Geralt just sighed, and they both stood up from the place. They then walked around the village, examining what had happened here.
The red liquid was everywhere, covering all of the ground around the village. The dirt had turned red, strange fungus was growing, and a thick red fog was covering the whole area.
"What is all this?" questioned Geralt. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Me neither." hummed Vesemir. "I'll take a couple of samples of the dirt and the liquid, maybe the fungus as well."
You are reading story The Witcher: Living in the Continent with Scarlet Rot Ability at novel35.com
Geralt nodded, and he continued onwards, while Vesemir was collecting samples.
Then, he arrived at a peculiar shack. The place was covered with scarlet flowers, it smelled strange, it smelled… nice… but he could also smell a faint smell of something… the smell of a… human?
"Vesemir! You should see this!" shouted Geralt.
Vesemir soon came, and he saw the scarlet flowers, scattered around the shack. He knelt in front of the small flower, smelled it, and thought of something.
"This must be it." he said.
"What?"
"The source," he continued. "These red liquids came from these flowers."
"How do you know?" questioned Geralt, smelling the flower, again, it smelled nice, not rotten at all.
"Look at those." Vesemir said, pointing at the sky.
He saw red pollen, spreading slowly from the flowers. The pollen was glowing red, and once it touched the ground, it made the ground rot.
Geralt just hummed, and he stood back up. "I smelled a human from the shack, let's check it."
"Careful, he or she might be the one who caused this." commented Vesemir.
Geralt didn't say anything. Instead, he just gripped his silver sword tightly, and approached the shack.
He slowly opened the door, and inside, he saw a bigger flower, a glowing scarlet rose growing in that place. The shack was holding it so that it wouldn't bloom to a much larger flower, but it could barely hold it.
He approached the flower, and saw a man, naked on the ground, between the petals of the rose.
"There's a man here!" shouted Geralt. "Unconscious."
Geralt quickly approached the man, cutting the petals carefully, and making sure that the pollen and petals didn't touch his skin. As soon as he finished doing that, he examined the man. Young, around 20 years old, a redhead, muscular, tall, overall healthy except that he was missing his right arm, but healthy nonetheless, unlike what surrounded him.
He then dragged the body out of the shack, showing it to Vesemir.
"He's still alive," said the old man. "I hear a faint heartbeat."
"Yeah, I hear it too." repeated Geralt. "What are we going to do? Kill it?"
"Why would you want to kill it?" questioned Vesemir, looking at Geralt strangely.
"It's the cause of all this." answered Geralt.
"Maybe he didn't mean it." added Vesemir. "Let's just let him be for a while, try to get some answers."
Geralt hummed, but then, the man's eyes fluttered open, revealing icy blue eyes, and those eyes were staring at Geralt's cat eyes deeply.
The man's eyes widened as he noticed his cat's eyes, and quickly got away from Geralt and Vesemir. He examined the two men, he examined the red liquid below him, and his missing right arm.
He then stared at the two men again, and said:
"Fuck."