The Eternal Battle

The Eternal Battle is a quest in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings.

Walkthrough

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Iorveth path

You get this quest as soon as you arrive at Vergen, together with Iorveth. During a meeting with king Henselt and his allies, a powerful curse is awakened and a spectral mist appears and wraps the Battlefield. Speaking with Philippa Eilhart in her house in Vergen, Geralt learns that to break the curse, he needs to collect some artifacts: a symbol of death, a symbol of hate, a symbol of faith and a symbol of courage. You must retrieve the first two, death and hatred, while the sorceress will take care of the others.

Once you have the items (the Standard and the Commander's sword), go back to Philippa Eilhart and tell her that you are ready to proceed with the ritual. The sorceress tells you that the spirit of the Visitor, Vandergrift has changed and a powerful demon of war, a draug, took his place. Proceed then to the entrance to the Battlefield and enter the mist.

Roche's path

You receive the quest immediately after accompanying king Henselt and his entourage out of the Battlefield and the spectral mist, that has just appeared becuase of the curse. Speaking with Dethmold in his tent, you learn that you need 4 artifacts to break the spell: a symbol of hate, a symbol of death, a symbol of the faith and a symbol of courage. You also need to solve parte of the rituale dealing with Sabrina Glevissig's ghost, with the contribution of the king.

Once you have dealt with all your tasks, come back to Dethmold and tell him you are ready to proceed. The sorcerer tells you that the spirit of the Visitor has changed and that a powerful demon of war, a Draug, has taken his place. Then, go out the Kaedweni camp and enter the spectral mist.

The Mist

As soon as you step in, one of ghost possesses Geralt and a vision begins. You are one of the soldiers who was in the battle three years ago, under the banner of Aedirn. Your first task is to take the standard of the enemy. In these clothes, you can not use your witcher abilities: you can only hit and parry. You face three wraiths and a Draugir, in a quite restrictive area. You can't save your game at this stage, but the at the end of any cutscene, the game will save automaticly.

This battle can be rather annoying and difficult: try not to be hasty, especially on Hard and Dark Mode. Limit yourself to parry all the coming blows and avoids the Draugir's charges. Focus on one of your enemies. You can press to lock the target. Kill them one by one and leaves the Draugir at last. Fortunately, they have few hit points for each, so it only takes a few blows to go down.

After the fight, a second vision begins. This time your task is to bring a message to the unit commander. All you have to do is running, avoiding the flaming arrows rain. You can hear the sound of a horn announcing incoming arrows every time. So do not dawdle and run behind the barricades. Remember not to wait too long behind them, because a second round of arrows may be sufficient to burn and destroy them. This part can be extremely stressful because if you get hit even once by the arrows, you die. You must be very patient and calculate well the time between the two horn.

In the next scene we see the commander of the opposite army, the Draug, talking with Sabrina Glevissig and agreeing in burning the battlefield with a meteor shower. Again you are possessed by another ghost, Seltkirk. You have to fight the enemies that you meet along the way. Once again you have no witcher skills, you can only block and hit. This time however the fight is much easier. Use the counterattack against the enemies and try to block all incoming blows. At the end of the scene, finally you take the role of Geralt and face the final boss.

The Draug

All you have to do is avoiding the charges of the Draug, the meteor shower and the whirlwind, in which it occasionally turns. You cannot parry its blows in any way, they are too strong. Dodge them pressing . When the Draug shout "Archers!" it means that a meteor shower is coming. In addition to the vitality bar, it also has a shield bar, that musst be depleted if you are attacking from behind. The best strategy is casting Quen sign or Yrden sign. Althought the Draug has a high resistance and it may take a while to get trapped.

When you finally defeated it, loot its remains, including some Crafting components to make the Draug armor.

Once the curse is broken, you witness a scene where Sabrina Glevissig is hitted by a meteor rain. Another ghost possesses you, a priest this time. Your task is to lead some soldiers to safety, using the palisades to repair yourself from the blows. This part is much easier than the previous. Later, another cutscene starts, and Henselt sentences Sabrina to death, for casting the fire rain on the army, causing the loss of his men. Geralt recovers another one of his memories, this time remembering when he met Letho, saving him against a beast that nearly killed him.

• Roche's path: you wake up in the brothel of the Camp followers' encampment, Dandelion next to you. The bard tells that you slept for three days. Taking advantage of the end of the curse, Henselt is now marching to Vergen.
• Iorveth path: you wake up in Philippa Eilhart's house. Taking advantage of the end of the curse, Henselt's army has besieged Vergen.

Journal Entry

Roche's path:

In the world of wraiths, only those relics the ghosts had a connection to in life have any meaning. Geralt and Dethmold agreed that they would need items symbolizing war, specifically, objects representing the concepts of hatred, courage, faith and death. The witcher thus began his search for the Dun Banner's standard, the symbol of death, for the sword that had belonged to the infamous and odious General Vandergrift, and for a piece of the armor that had once belonged to the brave Seltkirk. The symbol of faith - a medallion – was in Henselt's possession.

Thus the witcher acquired all the relics. He was ready to lift the curse from the battlefield, so he went to talk to Dethmold.

Iorveth's path:

In the world of wraiths, only those relics the ghosts had a connection to in life have any meaning. After conferring with Philippa Eilhart, Geralt ascertained that he would need items symbolizing ideas linked to war, specifically, objects representing hatred, courage, faith and death. The witcher thus embarked on a search for the Dun Banner's standard, believed to be the symbol of death, and for a sword that had belonged to the infamous commander named Vandergrift, purported to symbolize hatred. The sorceress promised to find a medallion symbolizing faith and a fragment of a suit of armor that had belonged to the brave Seltkirk.

And so, Geralt acquired those relics within his reach, and went to see Philippa, who promised to find the others.

Just as she had promised, Philippa provided the armor fragment and the medallion. She was, after all, a mistress of magic, wasn't she?

Thus the witcher had acquired all the relics. Ready to lift the curse from the battlefield, he went to see Philippa.

Armed with artifacts and some good advice, with his heart in his mouth, Geralt set off to take part in the spectral battle. His resolve to lift the blood curse had never been stronger, for he realized that Cedric's prophecy could be taken literally - dispersing the mist could restore the witcher's memory. Within the mist, a worthy foe already awaited Geralt.

Now listen how Geralt achieved the impossible. How he ended the blood curse and defeated a draug, a creature that never should have set foot in this world. Witchers and poets know well that wraiths are beings trapped in an illusory reality, forever damned to repeat events from the past. Defeating them is only possible through entering that reality, the only true reality for them. And so, Geralt entered the mist as an Aedirnian soldier, thus declaring for one of the sides. He had to change the course of battle, that is defeat the Kaedweni standard bearer and capture the banner he carried.

So, how did Geralt lift the blood curse and defeat the terrifying leader of the wraiths? Well, he did it like a witcher would. He knew the battle was taking place in a reality born of evil magic. That reality consisted of the ghosts of the fallen, and they could be reached only by entering their world. Geralt had to change the course of battle, so he entered the mist as a Kaedweni soldier. He ran to his commander to inform him that the enemy had captured the standard, and to warn him about a possible ambush.

Entering the mist this time, Geralt joined in the battle between the wraiths of Aedirnian soldiers and those of Kaedweni soldiers. The witcher assumed the all important role of the heroic Seltkirk, fighting under the sign of the chevron. Our hero faced a difficult task - he had to fight his way through the battlefield and defeat the Kaedweni army's general.

Pushing through the battlefield, Geralt spotted a Kaedweni general. Defeating the wraith would disrupt the scenario of the eternal battle, so the witcher did not hesitate for one moment.

Sorceresses took part in the battle. Though regular Kaedweni forces won the advantage, the magicians began a sorcerous barrage. Fireballs decimated both sides, and Geralt could only gather his unit and lead it out of the battle, to the king's position.