—
Waking up feeling utterly exhausted—not from fatigue, but from having slept for far too long—Gustave was groggy at first. The more fully awake he became, the more he noticed a strong, salty taste lingering in his mouth.
To make matters worse, when he tried to sit on the edge of the bed, he heard the clinking of many small blocks falling to the floor with his movement.
Glancing down, he saw numerous tiny crystals scattered across his pants and tunic. Curious, he picked one up and licked it, having an inkling of what it might be.
"Huh… salt? No, more like a salt stalactite? Sodium chloride—"
His eyes widened when he noticed the ring on his finger from an accidental glimpse. Instantly, Gustave activated his [Knowledge] to understand what had truly happened while he was asleep—and why he was wearing Deatlaff's ring, which was supposed to be on Regis.
But finding not a single trace of anyone besides his maids, his brothers, and the soldiers and guards coming and going from his room, Gustave suddenly stood up, shivers running through his body.
"W-what's the matter, Your Highness?"
Turning toward Delilah, Gustave asked, "Delilah, did anyone enter the cabin while I was asleep?"
"N-no… But if Your Highness counts a black mist in my dream entering the cabin—hahaha—then, yeah?..."
Accessing [Knowledge] to determine their current location, Gustave learned that the entourage was in Dillingen. Judging by the season—late Velen of the last Savaed, or in Earthling terms, late September—he was certain of one thing: the likely culprit was Regis.
Furthermore, knowing that only a Higher Vampire could so effortlessly mesmerize his maids into believing real events were nothing more than dreams with a single glance, Gustave was certain—it was Regis who had slipped the ring onto his finger and scattered the salt blocks around.
Turning to his maids and asking a series of questions—questions that quickly became a blur as they recalled the events only as fragments of a dream—Gustave shivered once more, paranoia creeping up his spine. What could a Higher Vampire possibly want with him?
Ding, ding, ding!
After a dozen minutes without uncovering any clue as to the vampire's motivation, Gustave decided to temporarily halt his train of thought upon hearing the chime of the clock tower, indicating it was nearly midnight—and realizing today was Friday.
Letting out a sigh over the exhaustion that left him unable to control his spiraling thoughts, Gustave instructed his maids to bring towels, milk with honey, a fresh set of clothes, and anything else that might help him combat the delirium.
And so he waited… waited… and waited… Yet nothing came. Not a single psychotic vision entered his mind. Not a morsel of raving reached his ears. Everything was normal—the sound of insects, the river water lapping against the hull, the night wind howling through the rigging of the unfurled masts.
Everything behaved as it was supposed to.
Stepping out of the cabin onto the main deck, Gustave looked up at the sky—the full moon, which should have made the delirium feel even more foreboding. Instead, he was met with pure silence: the serene, solitary repose of the night, broken only by his own thoughts.
A single tear traced down his cheek as he gazed toward the dock and the city beyond. Activating [Knowledge], he finally understood why Regis had given him the ring that could block the madness from entering his mind. Regis was simply humanitarian—a healer, a barber-surgeon.
When confronted with someone in pain, Regis's first thought was never what benefit he might gain, but how he could heal them. Feeling his spirituality deplete to the point of vertigo as he expanded his [Knowledge] to search for a place, Gustave focused on the direction of Regis's barbershop and whispered, "I owe you my life."
Turning back to his maids, he once again assumed the demeanor of a toddler. He stepped back into the world with renewed tranquility, comforted by the knowledge that, at least while wearing the ring—crafted from an unknown metal—his mind was once again his own.
"Nana Rosemary… my boots. Gustave wants to meet someone."
—
While being lifted up to meet his flying bat benefactor, Gustave couldn't help but think of the ring Regis had given him—the very same ring from the Blood and Wine DLC, crafted and gifted by a humanist friend to remind Regis to treat both humans and the Elder Races with respect.
And upon thinking about the meaning of the ring on his finger, he couldn't help but reflect on how Regis had always upheld that ideal.
He treated humans—and all the inhabitants of the Continent—with genuine respect, never as mere cattle. It made him an oddity among his kind. Even after hundreds of years, that promise still held true; not once had he tasted a single drop of blood.
Only in moments of absolute necessity did Regis allow himself to taste blood again—and even then, his reasons were bound to that same belief, never hunger or cruelty.
If one were to define each Higher Vampire by the obsession that governed their existence, then Dettlaff embodied the herd pack's instinct; Orianna, a twisted form of motherly affection; the Queen of the Night, her insatiable carnal desire; the Unseen Elder, his longing for home; and the newly promoted Hubert Rejk, his self-righteous crusade for justification.
And Regis—Regis was humanity itself. So much so that when he found a human friend who truly understood him—someone who saw beyond his physical nature without fear or judgment—he was willing to lay down his life for that friend.
Just as it had happened between Geralt and Regis in the original timeline. At first, the flying bat merely followed Geralt's party out of curiosity, but as time went on, their friendship deepened until Geralt and his companions came to accept the Higher Vampire as one of their own.
And with that acceptance—just that single bond of trust—Regis, without a moment's hesitation, was the first to face Vilgefortz's wrath, only to be reduced to nothing more than a smear of blood. Never once did he consider the implications—that he might linger on the edge of morality, staring into death for hundreds of years until he was reborn once more.
The same held true in the Blood and Wine DLC. His obsession, his fondness, his bond with humanity overrode his very nature as a vampire. He was willing to kill someone he once considered a blood brother, all to ensure that Dettlaff would not rise again and bring vengeance upon Toussaint.
All in all, as Gustave gazed upon the ring once more, he knew that his flying bat benefactor still upheld that very ideal—and had become the very embodiment of it, even though he was categorized as a monster in the bestiary. With that thought, Gustave felt his lingering apprehension toward his vampiric benefactor begin to fade.
Though logic dictated there was no reason to mistrust his benefactor, Gustave understood that his mind had been clouded by deep paranoia—by the fragility of his own sanity.
But now, knowing that his fractured mind could finally find respite, and that he could at least regulate the flow of madness within him to advance the Sequence, Gustave allowed himself—at last—to let go of his fear.
Noticing that he still had a long way to go before reaching the barbershop, Gustave turned his attention to the metal that made up the ring. Raising it to the light and studying its intricate design, he deduced through his [Knowledge] that the material was not dalvinite—the diluted form of dimeritium brought by vampires from their world.
Dalvinite, the very metal once used to imprison Regis in Tesham Mutna when Geralt sought to draw the higher vampire's blood, possessed the ability to prevent Regis from turning into mist. By that logic—and through deduction—it likely also suppressed the metaphysical and spiritual energies of higher vampires.
Thus, Gustave reasoned that if the ring were made of dalvinite, it wouldn't merely calm his madness—it would completely nullify his Sequence abilities. Although he wasn't certain whether dalvinite could suppress his powers in the same way dimeritium blocked a Source's access to the Chaos Sea of Energy, he suspected the principle would still hold true.
Through the vast repository of his Earthling fantasy [Knowledge], he deduced that dalvinite could at least interfere with his abilities to some extent. This was due to the overlapping nature of the fundamental essences of power shared between Regis's vampire world and the LOM universe, particularly at the initial levels of energy interaction.
Just as the many worlds are divided into distinct clusters—magic-driven, science-driven, and spirit-driven—so too did Regis's vampire realm and the LOM universe belong to the latter.
The magic-driven cluster included worlds such as the Witcher's world, the Elder Scrolls sagas, and the D&D series. The science-driven cluster encompassed his own Earth, the Fallout universe, and Mass Effect. And the spirit-driven cluster included Regis's vampire world, the LOM universe, and even the SCP Foundation.
That was why he was able to deduce, through his [Knowledge], that dalvanite might affect his abilities in a way similar to a Sealed Artifact—though on a far more fundamental level.
Just as fire-elemental magic, when broken down through scientific principles, is merely the combustion of fuel molecules reacting with oxygen, the relationship between dalvanite and a Sealed Artifact followed a comparable logic in both essence and nature.
As for the question of which cluster was the mightiest, Gustave believed it was merely a matter of perspective. To him, at the end of the path, power scaling blurred—each system could ultimately achieve the same results in its own way.
The only real difference lay in the journey to reach that end. Each had its own strengths, depending on who perceived it.
Science, for instance, was a late-game form of power development—one that required thousands of years to mature. Yet once it did, nearly every kind of ability could be replicated, not merely by individuals, but by an entire civilization.
Magic, on the other hand, was an early-game power system that emphasized individual growth and personal mastery. However, its users often became fixated on or confined to a single domain. Still, once one reached the pinnacle, that singular mastery could accomplish virtually anything.
Spirit, meanwhile, was the middle ground between the two—a balance of individual and collective progress. Its power could fluctuate wildly between overwhelming and insignificant, depending on the circumstances and the manner in which it was wielded.
As a wielder of spirit-based power himself, Gustave had a love–hate relationship with it. Though its strength could easily become overwhelming—borderline overpowered when left without a counter—the drawbacks were equally evident, particularly in the toll it took on the mind.
Especially...
Having gotten sidetracked by his own thoughts—what began as a simple curiosity about the ring's metal had turned into a philosophical conjecture he needn't concern himself with right now—he only then noticed that he had already arrived at Regis's barbershop.
—
A/N: I can't help but write long chapters because I adore the Witcher universe so much and want to create my own interpretation of it.