Without the conspirators' interference, things progressed much smoother. While sleeping at night, Triss asked Wayne many details about the curse and the murderer, and also told him the results of the interrogation. As expected, Ostrit was the culprit. Through magic, Foltest also extracted from him a list of several nobles who conspired with him. It won't be long before these people face the king's retribution. As the murderer of the queen and princess, Baron Ostrit will be severely punished and his title will be revoked. His family will also be implicated. It is likely that even his relatives will despise this man.
Wayne was not surprised by this outcome, but Triss was elated. She lay on Wayne's chest, tracing circles with her fingers, and said happily: "You shouldn't have left so quickly. You should have seen the expression on that damn man's face. He cried bitterly and knelt on the ground desperately begging for mercy. He looked like a coward."
"In the past, he was was an arrogant and foolish lout. He looked down on everyone except the nobles. He even called sorceresses 'bitches' in public. If King Foltest hadn't considered him a friend and protected him, I would have hexed him into a real pig a long time ago." The red-haired beauty's tone was quite angry, as she usually suffered a lot from Ostrit's disdain.
"It's a shame that His Majesty the King trusted the wrong person. It was his trusted friend who led to the death of the Queen and Princess." As she said that, she hugged Wayne's arm and asked with concern: "Are you sure about your actions tomorrow night? Do you really not need me to go in with you to help?"
Wayne reached out and pinched Triss's cheek, which earned the sorceress a playful eye roll, and said with a smile: "Just drive the striga out of its coffin and prevent it from returning before sunrise, right?"
"I'm very confident about this, but I'm a little curious. If I directly use a bomb to blow up its coffin and shatter it into pieces, would the curse be lifted?"
.........
At dusk the next day, Wayne said goodbye to Triss and King Foltest, who were waiting outside, and walked alone into the royal tomb located in the old Vizima Palace. As a royal tomb, this place was quite lavishly decorated. However, since the palace moved away a few years ago, all the royal coffins here had also been moved to the royal tomb in New Vizima. Today, only a single ornate sarcophagus remained, still alone in a tomb, and no one dared to touch it.
Because that was the coffin where the former Princess Adda, now a striga, rested. Around the coffin, dozens of humanoid skeletons with only bones left after being devoured were scattered, and no one dared to come in to collect them.
After Wayne walked into the tomb, he easily reached the center. He glanced at the princess's coffin, which remained still in the twilight, then closed his eyes and sat cross-legged on the ground, releasing his senses and entering a meditative state. This wasn't his first time here; since no one dared to enter to remove the steel cage, he had been back and forth over a dozen times, spending countless hours setting up traps. Now everything was ready, all that remained was to wait.
In the meditative state, time passed swiftly, and the sunlight outside the tomb had vanished entirely without him noticing. After meditating for perhaps a few hours, Wayne's ears suddenly picked up the sound of sharp nails scraping against the stone coffin. He opened his eyes and looked. Sure enough, there was movement in the princess's coffin not far away. The heavy stone coffin lid was pushed open a crack, and several sharp black claws stretched out from the gap, grabbing the lid and moving it bit by bit. Along with beast-like panting coming from the cracks in the coffin, it seemed as if a terrifying monster was emerging from its lair.
The harsh sounds and the unknown monster seemed quite frightening in the cold and silent tomb. Wayne, however, felt no fear at all about this situation. For this task, he had brought only the steel sword hanging at his waist, not to mention that this striga was no match for him at all. Even if the monster wanted to fight him desperately, a witcher with Elder Blood would have an almost invincible advantage when it came to escaping. It didn't matter if it failed; at worst, he could run away today and come back tomorrow. Either way, this monster would have to return to its home when the time came and wouldn't dare to remain outside.
Now that he had enough time, Wayne stretched out his hand to cast an enhanced Quen shield and added an Yrden sign on the ground to restrain the monster.
Then he folded his arms and calmly observed the striga in the coffin. It struggled to push open the heavy coffin lid above its head and poked its head out. The monster had an ugly head, fierce eyes, a bloody mouth filled with sharp fangs, black, rotting skin, exposed muscles covered in a layer of foul-smelling mucus, long limbs, and nails like sharp sickles. There was some hair growing on its head, making it appear quite terrifying.
Upon seeing this monster, Wayne instinctively felt a trace of disgust. It was hard to imagine that inside this man-eating creature was actually a princess less than ten years old and the sole heir to the Temerian Kingdom.
After the striga climbed out of the coffin, it suddenly saw Wayne standing not far away. It seemed momentarily stunned, then roared with excitement as if it had spotted a delicious meal. It didn't think at all, or perhaps it was a monster with low intelligence. Upon seeing the food in front of it, it immediately kicked off its feet, extended the sharp claws on its hands, opened its bloody mouth, drooled, and pounced towards Wayne.
Faced with the monster's attack, Wayne remained calm and charged chaotic magic in his hands, waiting until the monster rushed in front of him. His figure disappeared instantly like a phantom and reappeared behind the monster, or more precisely, above its back. Wayne didn't hesitate at all. An Aard sign from his hand instantly struck the monster on the back from top to bottom. The tremendous impact knocked the monster to the ground, as if it had been hit by an invisible hand, and it was pressed to the ground, unable to move at all.
The Yrden sign on the ground immediately acted as a restraint, and the invisible pulling force made the striga seem to be tied to the ground. Every movement became extremely difficult, and it couldn't help but let out a pained roar.
After a successful blow, Wayne didn't stop his movements at all. He raised his head and glanced briefly, ensuring that the huge steel cage hanging above the tomb had completely enveloped the striga below and wouldn't crush it. He then instantly pulled out the dagger from his waist and cut the thick hemp rope tied to the wall.
Click, click, click! With the sound of rolling wheels, the several-ton steel cage fell from above, trapping the striga, still bound by the Yrden sign, directly inside. At this time, the striga in the cage broke free from the Yrden's shackles. It stood up and roared angrily at Wayne outside the cage, waving its claws in an attempt to attack and break the cage. Unfortunately, the arm-thick iron rods were very strong, and the entire cage weighed several tons. Even with the striga's amazing strength, it couldn't destroy it.
Wayne walked to the cage and carefully observed the striga's state. After confirming it was indeed unable to escape, he condensed chaotic magic power and cast a new Yrden sign that bound it to the ground, making its movements even more difficult and draining its physical strength.
Under the persuasion of Triss and Keira, King Foltest finally decided to wait outside the tomb for the outcome. So Wayne didn't need to bother inviting the king in and protecting him anymore. He just needed to sit next to the steel cage, guard the striga inside, replenish the Yrden sign from time to time, and teach the monster a lesson whenever it became too aggressive.
Things went smoothly. Perhaps because Wayne was dealing with the curse earlier than in the original timeline, the striga wasn't as powerful as it would be when he encountered it a few years later.
Although the monster was trapped in the steel cage and continued struggling and resisting, it couldn't do anything. A few hours later, the sun rose, the rooster crowed, and sunlight streamed in through the tomb's window. The striga in the steel cage curled into a ball under the sunlight and lay on the ground. All the skin and muscles on its body turned into black pus. The monster's size slowly shrank until finally, inside, was exposed a young girl with a thin body, unclothed.
However, having learned from Wayne's near-fatal encounter with the striga years later, Wayne did not let down his guard. He stood up, cast a Quen shield on himself, then picked up a wooden stick from the ground. He walked to the cage, extended his hand, and poked the child's body. Seeing no response, he simply turned her over with the stick so that her face was exposed to the sun.
At this moment, the little girl suddenly opened her eyes, opened her bloodshot mouth, and bit down on the wooden stick that Wayne had extended. Wood chips flew away, and a pair of immature hands gripped the wooden stick with surprising strength. However, this was the last of her fight. Wayne did not pull out the stick, but let her bite it a few times like a puppy, leaving many scratches with her nails, until the sun fully enveloped her. The thin girl finally fainted completely.