Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon

A dozen wights hugged each other into a three-layer thick meat ball, which was thrown into the sky from outside the city by a giant catapult that was dragged here by a dozen wight cows in the snow.

Amazingly, there are special ghosts among the wights. They still have the memory of controlling the catapult and can adjust the direction. After two rounds of test shooting, they accurately found the angle to send the wight ball into the Winterfell Castle.

Another meat ball composed of a dozen wights was thrown out from outside the city, passed through the tall city wall, and landed in the castle's godswood forest.

When landing, the outermost wights were almost broken apart in an instant, with broken bones, deformed bodies, and even directly torn into pieces under such an impact. But when the impact eased, the group of wights separated immediately, and the wights whose bodies were still intact immediately ran wildly in a certain direction. The wights whose bodies were broken could only move randomly on the spot. When the castle guards chasing the landing point arrived, they were directly burned to death in the flames.

Judging from the actions of the wights that did not fall apart in the impact, this air strike directly into the castle was not used for meaningless harassment, intimidation or indiscriminate killing.

The other side had a commander, and this commander was undoubtedly very clear about the structure of the castle.

The wights that escaped before the guards arrived had a clear destination. They mainly gathered in two directions, one was the tomb of Winterfell, and the other was the deep courtyard near the main castle of Winterfell where trees were once planted.

The other side's knowledge of the structure inside the castle was obviously a bit behind the version. After the burning of Winterfell, except for the godswood forest, the trees and flowers in other courtyards were basically burned clean. So even though the landing point of the stone throwing was very accurate, and the offset was only within the range of forty or fifty feet, the first few batches of wights fell into the military camp occupying the empty courtyard, which only caused some commotion and was quickly killed by the soldiers who reacted with the advantage of numbers and fire. Only by luck did some of them fall into the unmanned courtyard and escape.

The other side was not rigid and quickly adjusted the trebuchet to change the landing point to the spacious Godswood Forest of Winterfell. Although this place is open, it is easy to be surrounded and killed after the defenders find it. But before the other side reacted, many wights had already avoided the guards, and in the chaos caused by some wights with broken limbs suicidal harassment of the defenders, they completed lurking in the castle. As long as the number is sufficient, they will launch a focused attack on the target position.

In fact, when fighting with wights, as a commander of the human side, people will find that the attacks of the White Walkers and the corpse tide have such things as tactics. They are not brainless things that only know how to blindly use group and corpse sea tactics.

The corpse tide charge is the stupidest tactic, which depends entirely on numbers. If you win, it's fine, but if you lose, you just lie on the ground and say you have tried your best. Isn't it ridiculous?

Speaking of funny, now outside Winterfell, there is a scene that can be called "funny" happening.

"What?! That's--" On the south wall of Winterfell, the commander looked down at the enemy's cascading attacks. He had already repelled two waves of corpses with rockets, stones, and burning hot oil. However, this third wave of "corpse tide", "sheep?"

When the commander's guards were trembling with fear to prepare for the third round of attacks, they looked at the shadows in the snow curtain with fear, but saw thousands of sheep emerging from the blizzard curtain and slowly approaching the wall. A black humor that made people's brains crash for a short time spread on the wall.

"What the hell?" A complex emotion of humor and worry rose in the commander's heart, "What do they want to do?"

Sheep are the favorite livestock of Westeros farmers. They are docile and full of treasures. Their wool can be plucked to make cold-proof clothes, and their mutton can be used to fill their stomachs and sell for money, and.

God knows how many farmers the White Walkers have slaughtered in the North, and how many villages have they collected such a large number of sheep.

The eyes of these sheep now glowed with strange blue light, which meant that they were undoubtedly corpses controlled by the White Walkers.

What did the other side plan to do with these harmless sheep?

"Attack!"

But no matter what the enemy sent, they could not be allowed to get close to the city wall. The commander ordered an attack.

The catapults, oil barrels, asphalt and giant crossbows used to greet the zombies were also used to greet these thousands of sheep divided into several groups.

Soon, the defenders knew what these sheep were here for.

When the defenders' catapults started to work, they began to charge. It must be said that at this moment on the battlefield, the charge of thousands of sheep was much more novel than the zombies.

Thousands of sheep were divided into multiple groups, several piles, and stepped, charging towards the same target from different directions.

"Damn, it's the city gate! Concentrate on rolling the oil barrels in front of the city gate to form a wall of fire to prevent them from attacking the city gate!"

Yes, the target of the attack of thousands of corpse sheep was the city gate.

At this time, the commander only realized that the sheep were going to attack the city gate, but he didn't understand what threat the sheep could pose to the city gate.

But the defenders who received the order reacted quickly. The angle of the catapult was difficult to adjust, so they adjusted the crossbow and rolled down the oil barrel from the tower on the city gate and threw it in front of the city gate.

When the sheep rushed to the archers, the rockets from the city wall shot at the sheep like meteors, and the ignited sheep could still see that they could continue to charge for a distance, the commander finally screamed.

He already knew what these sheep were here for.

"Quick, send someone to notify to block the city gate!"

The so-called blocking is to block the city gate from behind with bricks and stones and the earth pile that was dug out with great difficulty. This situation usually occurs when the enemy's siege equipment is enough to threaten the city gate, but the defenders are not enough to defend the city gate.

In other words, the commander on the city wall judged that these thousands of sheep would threaten to break through the city gate.

His judgment was not wrong. These thousands of sheep posed a much greater threat to the city gate than ordinary corpses.

Seeing that some sheep had already rushed to the city gate and crossed the fence formed by the chevaux de frise. These sheep, who had a thick layer of winter wool on their bodies, ignored the burning wall of oil barrels and rushed over directly. They were covered with flames, like hellhounds, and rushed to the gate in front of the gate and hit it hard.

One, two. Ten, a hundred.

The sheep were like performing a suicide ritual, rushing to the city gate with flames, piling up one by one into a burning sheep pile and sheep mountain.

The strange smell of barbecue spread across the city wall, making people swallow their saliva, but at the same time, it was also terrifying.

Hundreds of sheep piled up outside the city gate to form a mountain of burning flames. The sheep flesh that had turned into corpses became flammable and would burn out in a very short time once ignited, but the thick wool on the sheep during the winter provided them with a layer of buffer, allowing a large number of them to rush through the flame defense of the city wall, rush to the city gate, and then burn with the heat of their flesh.

The heavy city gate wrapped in steel became scalding hot under the suicidal attack of the sheep and the fierce flames.

In the inner gate of the city wall, the soldiers who were desperately carrying bricks and earth bags from the inner wall tower to block the outer gate of the city wall watched in horror as the steel sheet wrapped in oak emitted an orange light, and the gate began to deform, emitting the unique burnt smell of oak.

The gate began to smoke.

Some people were desperately using buckets to draw water from the moat and pour it on the gate, but this was accelerating the deformation of the gate.

In the terrifying hot breath, the south gate finally lost its adhesion to the wall connected to the gate under the burning heat and collapsed. The gate could not withstand the weight under the deformation, and the gate was seriously offset from the wall.

This majestic gate made of steel and oak has lost its defensive effect.

The defenders never thought that the first threat to them since the zombie attack was thousands of sheep, which were docile livestock in the eyes of humans.

But things have already happened, and they can only frantically move bricks and soil from the inner city to completely seal the doorway of the south gate.

The army of the dead will not give the defenders room to breathe, and the next round of zombies is approaching.

The zombies have amazing burning efficiency. Soon, the sheep piled up at the city gate were all burned into charcoal and dry bones, and one of the gates finally couldn't withstand the deformation, collapsed into the bones of the sheep, and burned.

From this moment on, the defense on the south side will become a race against time, to see whether the army of the aliens will first cross the fire defense and attack the city gate and rush in, or whether the defenders of the city gate will seal the city gate and block the entrance first.

When the messenger of the south gate ran to the city lord's hall, informed the city lord and various commanders of this information, and asked for manpower support, because the prepared earthen burial was not enough for this situation, and asked the city lord for bricks and earthen burial to block the door, almost everyone felt that they were listening to a humorous joke.

Sansa sat on the main seat with her eyes wide open, speechless.

Edmure couldn't help asking: "You mean, the alien army used sheep to break through the south gate?"

The messenger was panicked and frightened: "Yes, my lord."

Petyr, who was beside Sansa, wanted to make a witty remark, but seeing that the commanders in the hall didn't look very good, he suppressed the idea of ​​showing his "sense of humor".

Edmure responded immediately and looked at the messengers on other city walls: "Have other gates found the damn sheep?"

Others shook their heads.

Sir Lynn said: "If I had known, I should have set up more barricades or dug pits outside the city gates."

Lady Barbaree, who had already pledged allegiance to Aegon and Sansa, snorted: "It's easy to say. There is frozen soil outside the city. The North is not like you in the South or in Winterfell Castle. There is geothermal heat. I dare say you can't dig a pit even if you break your hoes and shovels."

"Now is not the time for sarcasm." Sansa stood up, "Uncle Edmure, you are now the supreme commander of Winterfell we nominated, please give orders."

What orders.

Edmure felt a headache. If he had known this, he should have let Brynden come. Brynden has rich war experience and high prestige, unlike himself who is only a nominal commander-in-chief now. Edmure thought to himself that he would rather go to the top of the city than deal with these local lords who were talking all over the place.

"The most urgent task is to seal the south gate. There are reserve troops on standby in the castle. My suggestion is to quickly send a group of people to the Godswood, each of whom digs a bag of soil and rushes to the south gate to help block the gate." Edmure immediately ordered, "Sir Lynn, please take your reserve troops in the valley and go to the south wall to cooperate with Lord Blackwood to defend the south wall. Earl Glover, you go to the east gate in person and find the commander of the eastern coalition and Greyjoy's troops, tell them about the emergency at the south wall, and let them be prepared. Also, if you judge that the wall cannot be defended, you can tell them to let the civilians and the army retreat into the castle."

"Yes!" Everyone who received the order gave Edmure, the commander-in-chief, a certain respect.

But just after dealing with an urgent matter here, another urgent matter came soon.

It was Maggie Mormont who hurried over and whispered something to Sansa.

Sansa's face turned pale, and she stood up and said, "Uncle, please allow me to take a group of northern knights. The wights that were thrown in by stones have escaped into the tombs of the Stark family. I have to deal with this matter myself."

Edmure was overwhelmed: "Will it be enough to take only the northern knights?"

Everyone in the hall also looked at Sansa, each with an inexplicable expression.

Sansa's face was terribly pale. She knew that everyone was thinking the same thing as her: Could it be that the northern kings of the Stark family were going to rise from their coffins?

But she suppressed her panic: "There are enough people in the North. Earl Maggie, Ser Willis." After hesitating for a moment, Sansa still ignored Lady Barbaree and Earl Rodrik Lacewell, turned her head and looked back, "Please gather your people and follow me."

"Yes, Miss Sansa!"

At this time, someone suddenly spoke, with a strange accent and a low voice: "Please let me go, Miss Sansa."

Sansa turned her head and saw that it was Lord Holland Reed of the Reed family in Greywater. Since Reed brought people to Winterfell and arranged the weird-looking marshland people to the winter town outside the city, Sansa almost forgot about this person who was always silent, rarely expressed his opinions, and had a very low sense of existence.

Howland Reed was the only survivor of Eddard Stark's battle at the Tower of Joy. Sansa had tried to find him to inquire about the story of that year, because Eddard almost never told the children about his heroic deeds sung by the bards - Eddard Stark and six companions defeated three legendary iron guards, "White Bull" Gerold Hightower, "Dawnblade" Arthur Dayne and Oswell River at the Tower of Joy, and returned the great sword "Dawn" of "Dawnblade" to the Dayne family after a long journey.

Eddard was very secretive about this legendary story and never mentioned it. If it was not heard from others, almost no Stark children knew about it.

Before the Long Night, after Stark recaptured Winterfell, Howland Reed received Stark's summons and Aegon's call for the Targaryen royal family, and moved his family of more than a thousand men, women, and children to Winterfell with their families. He also brought back Maegor Mormont and Galbert Glover. But after arriving here, the crannogs were confined to a small area in the winter town, and basically no one interacted with them. Only Howland Reed and his army of more than 100 small crannogs dressed in leaves and fish beam bark were stationed in the courtyard at the edge of the castle.

These days, Sansa almost forgot that she had such people under her command.

Sansa covered up her embarrassment that she almost forgot about him: "Lord Reed, it's great that you can come with me."

There are not many people in the North who believe in the Seven Gods. Except for the Manderly family, there are very few knights who are anointed with holy oil. Only some warriors who abide by their loyal duties will be named honorary knights.

Sansa quickly recruited seven loyal northern honorary knights through several family leaders and knights, and set off towards the tomb of the Stark family.

The seven people are Howland of the Reed family, Maegor and Alysanne of the Mormont family, Willis and Brandon of the Manderly family, Lawrence Snow, the bastard of the Hornwood family, and Cuckin Wull of the Wull clan in the northern mountains.

The crypt is narrow and there is not enough space for many people. The common feature of these honor knights who were summoned and selected is that they are not afraid of life and death and keep secrets - just like Howland Reed, he never mentioned the Battle of the Tower of Joy to anyone, just because he promised Eddard Stark that he would take the secret to the grave.

The wights poured into the crypt, and this journey must be dangerous. Even Sansa got a mail and plate armor from the female warriors of the Mormont family and put it on.

But just as they walked out of the hall door and held the torch high and walked a short distance into the corridor of the castle, there was a commotion and screams from behind.

"Be careful in the dark!"

"Someone come!"

"Guard the hall door!"

It sounded like a group of wights were groping their way to the back door of the city lord's hall in the dark and were attacking the back door of the city lord's hall.

Sansa stopped nervously when she heard the sound, and the eight-man team followed her to the bridge passage.

Maegy Mormont, who was guarding Sansa on both sides with her daughter Alysanne, came close and called softly: "Miss Sansa?"

Sansa came back to her senses, looked at Maegy gratefully, quickly calmed down, and cleared her throat: "They will be fine, let's go."

Passing through the bridge between the towers, the eight people soon arrived at the crypt of Winterfell.

When they arrived, there were already seven or eight Tully soldiers surrounding them. They raised torches and asked the newcomers, "Who are you?" When they saw it was Sansa, they calmed down again, "Miss Sansa, you are finally here. Lady Catelyn and her three guards can't wait to go in first. The lady won't let us go in."

Sansa didn't know what to say: "Thank you for your hard work, guard this place. Don't let anyone else in, don't disturb the souls of the ancestors of the Stark family."

After saying that, Sansa regretted it a little. She should have only said the first half of the sentence and then went in directly. Saying too much, it makes things worse.

Looking at the seemingly eternal darkness in the tomb door, Sansa thought inexplicably: In addition to her father, there are also her father's sister Lyanna and brother Brandon, her father's father Rickard, Rickard's father Adler, the Dukes of Winterfell and their brothers who went back three hundred years, and even the Duke of Cregan who had dueled with the dragon rider and the "surrendered king" Torrhen Stark who knelt to Aegon.

Going back further, there are the northern kings who have ruled the North for thousands of years. Some of them are famous, some have committed heinous crimes, some have been kind all their lives, and some have done nothing. "Spring King" Edwin, "Hungry Wolf" Theon Stark, "Shipburner" Brandon and "Shipbuilder" Brandon, Jorah and Janos, "Wicked" Brandon, "Moon King" Walton, "Bridegroom" Arion, Aron, "Sweet" Benjen and "Bitter" Benjen, "Snowbeard King" Edric.

Sansa led the way and took the seven knights she chose into the crypt. This is the resting hall after the bones have cooled, this is the dark hall of the dead, this is a terrifying place that hates the living.

Holding torches, they walked deep into the darkness along the spiral staircase, their footsteps gradually moved away, and finally disappeared completely.

"Ancestors, please forgive me." Sansa prayed to all the souls in the crypt in her heart, "The movement of ghosts has disturbed your rest. I must take these living people to eliminate the undead creatures that are invading!"

Sansa led the way, shuttling through the aisles between the stone pillars. The cold air underground was so cold that even the torches in hand felt cold. Seven honorary knights followed Sansa silently, holding torches and swords tightly, and watching the dark corners of the huge mausoleum vigilantly.

The footsteps echoed in the huge mausoleum, and the lords of Winterfell from generation to generation watched them.

When she walked to Robb's sarcophagus and found that the sarcophagus was closed, and the iron sword placed on Robb's statue's knees was still intact, with no signs of being taken down, Sansa breathed a long sigh of relief in her heart.

At least this meant that she didn't have to worry about the most terrible thing happening. The ghosts that escaped did not let the corpse rise from the coffin.

Then the next thing to consider is the ghosts that wantonly disturbed the rest of the Lord of Winterfell.

"They didn't stop here at Robb, it seems that they went deeper into the crypt."

Sansa spoke, the purpose of saying this was to calm the hearts of the honorary knights who followed her in, suggesting that their most terrible guesses did not happen.

Raising the torch, the mausoleum continued to extend forward, sinking into the darkness, and most of the spaces behind were empty and had not been sealed.

These empty spaces were prepared for the future Lords of Winterfell and their children.

Sansa suddenly thought that it was unlikely that she would be buried in it, but Arya, Bran, Rickon -

No! She felt uncomfortable when she thought of this. She concealed part of the facts when she asked Uncle Edmure for someone in the Lord's Hall. Maggie told her that it was Rickon who ran into the tomb first and pushed open the solid crypt door of the iron birch. The wights came to chase Rickon, and her mother Catelyn also came to chase Rickon.

Rickon

The crypt was cold and dark, and Sansa and her party walked along the passage all the way to the spiral staircase leading to the lower level.

The crypt of Winterfell is the oldest area of ​​the castle. There are many layers, and the layers are connected by narrow and tortuous stone spiral stairs. It is said that this large and deep crypt is larger than Winterfell itself, extending deep into the dark underground.

"There are traces here, very new." Howland Reed looked at the traces underground as if he was tracking prey.

"They went to the lower level."

Following the traces on the ground and the broken spider webs, it is easy to judge this conclusion.

The downward passage is like a dark monster with a big empty mouth.

Sansa's steps are firm: "We have to catch up as soon as possible."

The footsteps echoed in the tombs of the dead, the shadows moved with the light, and the long white flames of the torches swept across the stone statues of the deceased Starks.

When they went down to the third floor.

"There is a smell of asphalt here." Ser Willis twitched his nose.

Sansa motioned for him to lead. Ser Willis stepped forward silently and searched by the smell. Soon, they found a can of asphalt with only a little bit left next to the statue of a dire wolf of a northern king named Brandon. There were black stains falling under the dust, and the swords on the knees of several dukes were missing.

Willis quickly judged: "It's not new, it's been a while. Madam and the others should have gone to a deeper floor."

Sansa replied: "Then continue. There is only one route in the passage. You can always find people along the passage."

The towering granite pillars and tall stone statues of lords who have been sleeping in the dark for unknown years were illuminated by the light of torches, and were soon swallowed up by the cold darkness again.

The crypt was deep and dark. The further you go down, the temperature you feel has a strange curve. At the beginning, in the first few floors, the temperature you feel gradually rises as you go down. The feeling of rising temperature is not warmth. The crypt is never warm, but it is warmer than the crypt courtyard, which is one of the few snowy courtyards in Winterfell under the cover of the long night.

Underground, the cold is constant.

But from a certain level, the chill in the tomb became increasingly cold, even colder than the wilderness outside the long night, penetrating through thick fur into people's skin and souls.

Sansa and her group walked for a long time, and their bodies began to sweat, but their breath condensed into white mist in the torch.

This place is already very deep, how deep underground did Rickon, the wights, and Catelyn go?

"Listen, there's a sound!"

At a certain level, the short Howland Reed suddenly shouted.

The footsteps stopped instantly.

Sure enough, from the spiral staircase leading to the next level, they heard the sound of whirring and the clanging of swords.

"Down there!"

The honorary knights did not attack immediately, but stopped, took out the small fuel cans they carried with them from their waists, and applied a layer of mixture of fuel and asphalt to the lower edge of the torch head. The asphalt began to burn, and the color of the torch changed from light yellow to pale yellow. It became an orange light like sunlight.

"Walk!"

Sansa went from being in the front row to being guarded in the middle.

They went down to the lower level, and sure enough, in front of the long arched tunnel of the mausoleum, figures with long shadows were wrestling with each other, and there were burned corpses of ghosts on the ground, and an astonishing explosion of fireworks erupted.

"Mother!" Sansa shouted.

"Lady Sansa!" Harwin, Catelyn's interpreter and guard, responded, "Come and help!"

The knights immediately took action and rushed to the battle.

In front, the tall Brienne was fighting with three sword-wielding monsters. Brienne had a torch in one hand and a sword in the other, fighting and retreating.

There were already three burning corpses of ghosts on the ground, as well as a tall woman covering her lower body and bleeding on the ground.

It looked like he was ambushed.

The men brought by Sansa quickly joined the battle group. The tunnel of the mausoleum was already very wide, but only three people could stand and walk side by side. It was even more impossible to expand it. However, the numerical advantage is here after all. Brienne received support, and she and the soldiers from the north immediately pulled the three wights to form three small battlefields. Then, the wights who were unable to defeat the four-handed wights with two fists were eliminated by the human side with their numerical advantage. .

As soon as Brienne finished dealing with the wights, she said eagerly: "Master Rickon is still further ahead! I saw him passing by!"

"careful!"

Brienne was about to move forward when a cold light suddenly struck from the front.

She heard the warning and reacted quickly, holding the sword in front of her.

There was a loud clang of weapons clashing, and several sparks flew out. But it turned out that there was a downward passage in front, and a corpse directly threw the sharp blade on the knee of a certain King of the North in the mausoleum as a projectile.

Brienne was about to counterattack when a voice came from behind: "Give way!"

A rocket whizzed through the tunnel and flew towards the sword-throwing wight, but it turned out to be Howland Reed. He was carrying a pale short bow made of weirwood and a rocket. .

Unfortunately, the arrow failed to hit the corpse occupying the entrance to the downward passage. Seeing that the situation was not good, it only shrank back, and the arrow nailed the granite wall.

The flame was not extinguished, and it illuminated the entrance of the passage. Several dark shadows occupied the passage, ready to go.

"Raise your shields! Forward!" Willis and Brandon of the Mandalay family both carried shields on their backs. They immediately took off their shields and placed them on their left hands. They held up torches in their right hands and shields in their left hands, "Follow me!"

Brienne, Culkin, Laurence and the few others who had just dealt with the wights moved out of the way, allowing two knights with shields to take the lead, and they followed closely behind.

Howland Reed was too short, so he had no choice but to put away his bow and arrow and follow closely.

The warriors pressed forward, leaving only Mormont and her daughter guarding Sansa. Sansa finally had time to ask, "Mother, what happened to Rickon?"

Catelyn hissed, "We need to find him as soon as possible!" Harwin translated for her.

"His soul." At this time, a weak voice came from the mouth of the woman lying in a pool of blood, "The boy's soul is in his direwolf. He should not look back, evil has invaded his soul, evil His servants took control of him."

"You're talking nonsense!" Caitlin shouted excitedly at the woman on the ground.

Harwin didn't know whether to translate it or not.

Sansa felt the air freeze and asked quickly: "You are injured, are you okay?"

The woman looked at Sansa with a pale face: "Daughter of Stark, you know what you should do, you know what is right."

Catelyn yelled, "She's hurt, confused, and talking nonsense! Don't believe her, Sansa!"

Harwin hesitated and translated for Sansa.

Sansa couldn't turn her head for a moment. She instinctively looked at Mormont and her daughter and changed the subject: "Meggie, see if she can be saved?"

Maggie Mormont responded, ducking down to examine the wound she was covering.

This woman was not wearing any mail underneath. There was a horrific wound on her stomach, and black blood was flowing out. Her thigh was also injured, and the blood had already soaked through her wool pants.

"Ha. No need to look, I'm dying, Stark's daughter." The woman said weakly, "But it's not bad to die here. It was here a few years ago that your Stark brothers and I hid. For a long, long time. The boy was always disobedient and very willful. He wanted to go out, ride a pony, and eat apple cake, butter and honey."

"Save your energy and don't talk too much." Mei Ji looked at her calmly, "What's your name?"

"Osha." She replied. After a long pause, she stared at the dome of the mausoleum and breathed out a long breath, "Remember to take my body out and burn it uh——"

After saying that, the woman named Osha stopped breathing and her pupils gradually became dilated.

She is dead.

Sansa bit her lips and stood there with her hands helpless. She felt that she should say something or do something, but nothing happened.

Mei Ji stretched out her hand and gently closed Osha's eyes: "May the old gods bring you mercy."

Mrs. Caitlin looked away from the dead woman coldly: "Don't worry about her, catch up with them and save Rickon!" After saying that, without waiting for anyone else's reaction, she directly raised her feet and walked forward to the spiral staircase. The knights who occupied the entrance chased after him.

Harwin winked at Sansa and said, "My lady, please hurry up and save Rickon." After saying that, he quickly caught up with her.

The warriors brought by Sansa and Brienne were both fierce men. They relied on shields and torches to continuously push back the wights occupying the entrance of the passage, and pushed the wights to the lower level.

Then they huddled together in the relatively empty vaulted tunnel on the lower level.

Below this is what seems to be the legendary bottom floor.

Not far from the passage, you can see the mausoleum tunnel that partially collapsed many years ago. Huge fragments of granite pillars and collapsed dome rocks buried the passage at the extension of the mausoleum.

What everyone didn't expect was that there were actually twelve ghouls gathering down here, but the strange thing was that there was still no trace of Rickon Stark.

Sansa and Catelyn wanted to go down, but were blocked in the narrow spiral staircase.

Only the clanging sounds of fighting below and the roars and cheers of a few soldiers could be heard.

Sansa was behind Harwin, and could see her mother Catelyn in front being blocked by Howland Reed who was occupying the exit, drawing a bow and shooting arrows.

"Afraid of fire, right?"

"Damn it, taste the fire!"

The fight lasted for a while, until Howland Reed finally moved out of the way, and Catelyn rushed out of the passage.

Sansa followed quickly.

Although the corpses of several wights on the ground were burning, as soon as Sansa entered the tomb, she felt the chill in the tomb, which was terrifying.

The cold wind from unknown origin was blowing in waves from the direction of the collapsed tunnel.

The battle is not over yet, but the wights are suppressed by the honorary knights brought by Sansa and the tall Brienne, and are unable to fight back. They are divided into two directions and press forward step by step.

Some people were struck several times with swords, but they all wore armor and had no fatal injuries.

Only the illegitimate son of the Hornwood family, Lawrence, may be because the mountain clan member Kejin who cooperated with him did not have a tacit understanding, or it may be because they had no shields and their arms were injured and bleeding.

On the other side of the tunnel, the two knights of the Mandalay family raised their shields in front, and Brienne followed closely behind. There were obviously more corpses on their side, but they exerted more powerful momentum than the other side.

As the situation unfolded, the wights were forced back, and the two female warriors of the Mormont family were able to participate in the battle, and the wights were quickly wiped out.

When numbers cannot overwhelm them, these corpses are no match for these human warriors wearing armor.

So with only a few injuries, the human warriors defeated the wights that poured into the Stark family's tomb.

Seeing the battle end, Caitlin couldn't help shouting: "Where's Rickon, why isn't he here?"

"The wind comes from here." At this time, Holland Reed's voice came from the direction of the collapsed tunnel.

Everyone's eyes followed his voice, and they saw the short marsh leader leaning down and shining his torch into the collapsed tunnel, forming a narrow passage at the corner.

Catelyn approached like crazy and leaned over to take a look. She shouted in a hoarse voice: "It must be here. Rickon must be afraid of these ghosts and crawled in from here." Her bodyguard Harwin repeated her words to everyone.

"Brenne leaned her head covered with cobwebs. The opening is too narrow, I'm afraid only children and skinny people can crawl through." As she said that, the big girl shouted, "Rickon! Don't be afraid, it's us!" The ghoul has been dealt with!"

"I can crawl in!" Caitlin gestured, and as she said this, the mother, who was almost crazy, took off her thick woolen sweater. Only the inner silk lining remains.

Sansa gasped when she saw her mother Catelyn's appearance.

Catelyn was born in Tully, so she was tall, and in Sansa's memory, her mother had a plump and beautiful figure. But at this moment, after taking off her sweater, my mother was horribly thin, and her figure could not support the lady's clothing worn under the cold-proof woolen clothes. Her body seemed to be only a skeleton, and her whole body was thin and withered, like a desiccated corpse.

"No, madam!" Brienne stopped her, "There must be another way!"

"Don't stop me!" She raised the keel-handled dagger in her hand, facing Brienne. "There is no other way, this is the only way! Get out of the way!" Her voice was excited, and her throat made a terrifying hissing sound. , "I said, get out of the way!"

The frantic mother was seen crying tears of blood from her eyes.

Brienne gritted her teeth and moved out of the way.

All the knights were silent, and all looked away, unable to bear to look in that direction.

"Madam!" Howland Reed called Caitlin, "I can get in. Let me explore the way forward for you first."

Sansa walked closer and looked at the cave entrance. Mormont and her daughter were both very tall. Although Alisanne was not too old, she was not called a random nickname. Her The legs and arms are huge and strong, and the hands are calloused and hairy, making it look like a strong female bear.

Sansa was fifteen years old, and her figure had gradually grown. However, she had once had the experience of hiding in a box. Sansa roughly estimated, and then said: "I can do it too, mother, I will go with you."

Caitlin turned around, blood and tears on her face slid to the corner of her mouth, and hissed: "No! You stay here!"

"I am Sansa Stark, and as a Stark I cannot allow my brother to go before the Stark ancestors, while my brave warriors and my mother take risks while I hide. in the back."

This sentence speaks volumes.

Catelyn looked at Sansa angrily: "You don't even listen to me?!"

Sansa didn't know what Catelyn said, but she knew she definitely didn't agree. Her stubborn temper also rose: "I am a Stark, mother!"

Caitlin clenched the dagger in her hand, her knuckles turning white. She paused for a while before replying coldly: "You're behind me!"

No one has any objection that the Stark family's tomb, no matter what is in front of it, should be solved by the Stark family.

Holland Reed actually had something like a rope on his body. He left his weapon at this end and used the rope to move through the narrow tunnel bit by bit.

The collapsed tunnel was nearly ten feet long, and it took Holland Reed dozens of breaths to reach the other end. He relit the torch with a flint at the other end and shouted, "I don't see Rickon. There's still a long way in there."

As he spoke, he pulled his weirwood bow, quiver, and bronze dagger on the rope. Catelyn slipped the dagger into Howland Reed's sword and climbed silently into the tunnel.

She's even faster than Howland Reed.

Finally, there's Sansa. She had taken off her coat. Only the lining of mail and the three layers of woolen clothing were left. During this moment of waiting, my whole face turned blue from the cold.

It was Sansa's turn. She was the largest of the three, but fortunately she was able to inch her way against the edge of the wall.

Finally, she used a rope to pull over the shed coat, the torch, and the Valyrian steel sword that Brienne lent her. Only Howland Reed and Sansa, mother and daughter, walked forward on the next road. .

When Sansa was putting on her coat there, she noticed by the firelight that from this side, the collapsed part of the tomb passage was completely different from the other side, and she could see the weathered hammer marks. These marks seemed to tell her that the collapsed part of the tomb passage was completely different from the other side. The collapse is not natural but man-made.

Sansa glanced carefully at Howland Reed, who was already holding a torch to inspect the road ahead, and then glanced at her mother Catelyn, unsure and tacitly agreeing not to ask whether they had seen these traces.

Walking between the stone pillars, Sansa raised her torch and looked at the names of the King in the North.

"Brandon", "Jon", "Theon", and "Rickard" appear back and forth, with Brandon the most.

When she was finally far away from the collapse of the rear, Sansa finally couldn't help but ask: "Lord Howland, with all due respect, you and my mother, you both seem to know what happened to my brother Rickon ahead, right?"

Holland and Caitlin stopped at the same time.

Caitlin said nothing.

Howland frowned and glanced at Caitlin: "I'm sorry, Miss Sansa, I don't know if you understand that people in the Reed family have green dreams. I dreamed a few days ago that a snowstorm surrounded Winterfell. I saw terrible ice and snow pouring out of the ground, freezing the castle, and the yard was filled with frozen people and black shadows. I should have found a chance to tell you, but I don’t think the people around you can be trusted.”

"A blizzard is surrounding Winterfell? Ice and snow are pouring out of the ground?" Sansa swallowed, "These are very bad omens, right?"

Holland shut up.

"Nonsense!" Caitlin hissed.

But neither Sansa nor Howland understood the meaning of her voice, only her anger.

"Mother. Rickon, what exactly-"

Sansa was confused and was about to say something else.

Suddenly a strong cold wind blew from the front.

What happened before?

"ah!"

The flames were extinguished in the cold wind, and her vision fell into darkness. Sansa couldn't help but scream.

Someone grabbed her hand in the darkness, and there was a burning warmth in her dry fingers. It's Caitlin.

Then Sansa heard the sound of fingers groping, and then the sound of iron against stone.

"Wait! Lord Reed, look ahead."

In the cold darkness of the tunnel, Sansa saw a faint blue light flickering in the tunnel dozens of steps away, as if breathing.

There was no one to talk to in the dark.

Sansa asked again, "What is that?"

"We'll know." was the answer.

The sound of iron and stone hitting each other started again, and again and again, sparks burst out and fell on the torch, and the torch that had just been extinguished and still had heat ignited instantly.

Howland's strange, crooked face appeared beside the fire, and then the torches alternated, lighting Sansa's and Catelyn's. Three bushes of flames bloomed again in the darkness.

The darkness ahead was like a dark beast opening its mouth, but Huo Lan led the way, and they still approached the faint blue light step by step.

"Hiss~" As she got closer, Sansa could see clearly the source of the blue light and couldn't help but take a breath of air.

"No!" Caitlin screamed.

But Rickon was covered in a thick layer of blue ice. The boy took off all his clothes and was completely naked, wrapped in blue ice.

Rickon's forehead seemed to have been cut by some kind of sharp object, and blood flowed out, and the blood was a strange blue color.

The black ice completely enveloped Rickon, emitting a cold light with every breath, just like breathing.

But looking at the location of Rickon, there was a Northern King named "Brandon". In the light of the fire, the end of the tomb could be faintly seen. This Northern King should be the fourth member of the Stark family. The first or tenth monarch.

His stone statue is so old that its appearance is difficult to identify.

But he is different from all the northern monarchs. What is placed on his knees is a moon-white ice flake sword that seems to respond to the ice on Rickon's body, emitting a faint blue light and being cold. Just look at the sword as thin as a blade. One glance at the blade showed that the sword was extremely sharp.

The sarcophagus of the northern monarch named Brandon has been pried open, leaving only a pile of rotten bones inside.

However, at this moment, Sansa discovered that Rickon was curled up naked in the black ice, with his hands clenched tightly, obviously holding something in his hands.

Sansa asked in her distorted voice: "What's going on?"

Howland Reed took out an arrow with a strange black arrowhead from his quiver, and without saying a word, poked it at the black ice that wrapped Rickon.

The arrowhead began to hiss and emit white steam, as if the ice had life and seemed to be sweating.

Sansa's eyes widened in surprise.

But the next second, a violent cold air broke out, and the flame of the torch was erratic under this cold air. Rickon's expression in the black ice was tense, as if he was suffering from some kind of pain.

Howland Reed continued in silence, trying to poke with that strange arrow.

"No!" The dagger lit up white and blocked in front of Howland, "You can't! You are hurting Rickon!"

"Madam! Please be rational, your child Rickon is dead, and now wrapped in it is-" Howland paused and said, "It's a monster."

"No!" Catelyn pushed Howland away and blocked the dagger horizontally in front of her, "He is my child, you can't hurt him!"

Sansa was shivering from the cold air that just broke out, and the Valyrian sword in her hand fell to the ground with a clang, only the torch in the other hand was still tightly held: "Mother. Lady Reed" she said tremblingly, "Let's talk it over, there must be other ways!"

"There is no other way!" Howland said, with a cold tone, and pretended to step forward, "Madam, please get out of the way. Neither you and Miss Sansa should bear the sin of kinslaying, please let me-"

"No!" The dagger waved, reflecting a cruel white light under the light of the torch.

Catelyn knew that they couldn't hear her words clearly, and she knew that she was the only one who cared about Rickon's life and death. This made her extremely anxious and uneasy, and this anxiety and uneasiness made her resentful and urged her to do any irrational actions.

She stabbed Howland Reed with a dagger!

"Ah——" Howland Reed actually had a bronze armor under his clothes made of bark and leaves, but he had never noticed that the dagger in Catelyn's hand was made of Valyrian steel.

He was stabbed without dodging, and the dagger stabbed his chest.

Catelyn was going for her life.

"No!" Catelyn, who was crazy with anger and resentment, stabbed a few more times, shouting while stabbing, "Why force me! Why don't you listen to me! Why! Why! What did Rickon do wrong? He's just a child!"

Sansa's heart tightened, and she was frightened by this sudden scene and stood there with her mouth wide open, at a loss.

Sansa dropped the torch she was holding tightly in her hand, along with Howland Reed's limp body and his torch, reflecting the scarlet blood flowing from Howland's chest.

Howland Reed, the Lord of Greywater Watch, the only survivor who had followed Eddard Stark in the Battle of the Tower of Joy, was killed by Eddard Stark's mad wife Catelyn.

The crazy mother looked at Sansa.

Sansa swallowed the scream that was about to come out, making her throat tight.

"He forced me to do it! He forced me to do it!" The torch in Catelyn's hand reflected her crazy, inhuman, ferocious and terrifying face, "Sansa, my daughter! Rickon is your brother! He is your brother!"

Sansa didn't understand the meaning of the hissing and shrill voice coming from her mother's throat. She could only look at Catelyn with a trembling voice and answered: "Mom, don't kill me. Don't kill me. Please."

"How could I hurt you!" Catelyn stepped forward, wanting to hug and comfort Sansa, but saw Sansa retreating in panic, her face pale.

"No! It's not like this! It's not like this!" Catelyn's last bit of affection for Sansa was swallowed up by her inner resentment. She screamed and roared, "What are you afraid of! What are you afraid of! I'm your mother! How could I hurt you! How could I hurt you! I clearly love you! You know how much I love you!"

Her face was covered with blood and tears. She looked at Sansa with great pain in her heart, and then turned around painfully, looking at her child wrapped in black ice, and murmured: "Rickon, good child, don't be afraid. Mom will save you and take you out."

She sent the torch to the black ice to melt the ice, but the black ice did not react under the flames, and there was no sign of melting.

This made her anxious, angry, burning with hatred, and she did whatever it took.

Driven by this resentment, the dagger in her hand stabbed into the black ice fiercely.

And it was this time.

The terrible sound of hissing occupied the tomb for a moment.

"No! No, no, no!" It turned out that the Valyrian steel dagger had pierced into the black ice, causing it to hiss and smoke and dissolve.

The black ice began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye, and Rickon's face inside the black ice became more and more painful.

Catelyn wanted to pull out the dagger, but the dagger pierced deeply into the black ice, and the cold air of the melting black ice wrapped around her hand, making her hand strangely lose strength.

"No! No!" A heart-wrenching scream came from her broken throat, but she could only watch it all helplessly.

The black ice melted, chaos and blur, and when the ice melted onto Rickon, the boy's body did not free itself from the ice, but began to melt like the black ice.

When Sansa saw this, her mind was almost numb. She saw the white smoke emanating from Rickon's body. It was the blue liquid that melted and flowed out of his body and vaporized. There was no red blood in his flesh and blood, only bones that glowed palely like milky white glass.

Mother Catelyn was screaming, and her terrible hissing sound was like a venomous snake.

Time became extremely long. Sansa couldn't tell how long it had been. The strange black ice and Rickon's body no longer existed. They all melted, leaving only Catelyn and the dagger with a dragon bone handle in her hand.

The dagger seemed to have life in the mist, sweating.

"Ah!" The sound from Catelyn's throat was only a meaningless wail of pain.

However, after the black ice mist dissipated, something was left, a black, glowing glass-like object.

Catelyn could no longer think, and only instinctively thought that it was the only thing left of her child Rickon in the world. She threw away the dagger and reached out to pick up the black thing.

"No!" The scream was not Catelyn's voice, but Sansa's.

She saw her mother Catelyn's hand begin to burn with blue-white cold flames, but her mother was completely unaware and only focused on putting the strange black glass body back to the position of her heart in her chest.

The blue-white cold flames began to spread on Catelyn's body.

The cold air in the tomb was even colder, making Sansa's throat feel frozen for a moment.

However, from a certain moment, with a bang, the flame began to burst, and then the flame color changed from blue-white cold flames to red hot flames with a hot breath in the blink of an eye.

It was hard to tell whether it was an auditory hallucination. At the last moment, Sansa heard her mother Catelyn's voice in her ears: "Oh, my poor child."

Then the next second, Catelyn's body softened and fell to the ground.

The blazing fire began to spread and climbed onto Howland Reed's body.

And Sansa heard a hissing sound again, and then found that it was the white ice sword on the knee of the stone statue of the King of the North named Brandon that was strangely melting.

The red flames burning Catelyn and Howland Reed were terrifying, and the heat wave was terrible. Sansa gradually regained control of her body under this terrifying heat wave, and instinctively fled and stayed away.

In just a few dozen heartbeats, the flames had completely burned the bodies of her mother Catelyn and Howland.

For a long time afterwards, Sansa, who had experienced all kinds of weirdness, was the only one standing there in the entire crypt.

At this moment, Sansa was like the investigator in the Cthulhu game who had no information but survived in the end. She could not calm down for a long time in the shock brought by the continuous changes.