The Mountain of Ice and Fire

Chapter 738: The Final Battle - The Mountain and Bran Join Forces

The Night King suddenly felt an extremely slight tremor.

The tremor came from beneath his feet.

The wall he was standing on.

It was a strange rhythm, like a gentle breeze creating ripples on a calm lake.

The Night King lowered his blue eyes from the sky, looking down at his feet.

He saw the wall beneath him deforming, twisting, and then—collapsing.

Boom!

A deafening roar!

Everything on the ground in Winterfell trembled at that instant! The maester's tower, the main castle, and the tall, ruined tower all shook!

Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!

Dense, dull thunder, containing infinite tension, resounded from all directions!

Then, a dazzling, soaring green light appeared.

But it wasn't actually green light; it was wildfire erupting suddenly.

Before the Night King, the White Walkers, the wights, and the human warriors could react, the entire Winterfell lurched violently, and then, with a deafening roar, the sky and earth split apart!

The second wall, like a ring of cheese, was twisted, crushed, and filled with smoke and dust in an instant by an irresistible force. Green light soared into the sky. In just a few heartbeats, the entire ring-shaped wall completely collapsed. The Night King and his White Walker knights were all buried in the ruins and green wildfire...

The maester's tower, the main castle, the ruined tower, the barracks, the glass gardens, the godswood, the training grounds... all the buildings were instantly overturned, twisted, and then ruthlessly trampled and crushed by an invisible, terrifying force! Green light shone into the sky, piercing through the smoke and dust, like giant green umbrellas, rising and falling, covering every corner...

The new and old wights in the city, numbering over a hundred thousand, all fell into the wildfire...

The entire Winterfell was like a wooden toy in a child's hand, violently struck by a huge, invisible iron fist, instantly shattering. And accompanying the destruction was the green light filling the sky...

Wildfire!

Wildfire that could not be extinguished by the Night King's hurricane and snow...

The wildfire substance, which could only be extinguished by the pyromancer's spells and the yellow sand filling the sky, spread throughout Winterfell in the cataclysm... In every inch of the shattered Winterfell, green light flickered in the sky filled with dust, like the terrifying eyes of demons in hell...

*

In the basement of the main castle, the ground trembled, and dirt fell from the ceiling. The children huddled together, and the women screamed in alarm.

The shaking was violent, but it came from the surface, not from underground.

The wildfire, buried not too deep, had little impact on the underground, but its impact on the surface buildings was completely devastating.

Nevertheless, the shaking underground still caused loose soil to collapse.

Muffled sounds rumbled from the surface, and after passing through layers of mud bags in the tunnel, they reached people's ears, turning into the faint tail sounds of muffled thunder in distant clouds.

But the shaking and the collapsing soil filled people with fear.

Catelyn Tully lowered her head, holding Roslin Frey in her arms.

Roslin Frey's chestnut-colored wavy curls were covered in dust. A large piece of loose soil had fallen near her, startling her.

Roslin Frey was pregnant and about to give birth, and Catelyn Tully was worried that excessive fright would be bad for the baby in her womb.

The guards arrived in time, raising their shields. A dozen shields were stacked together, protecting the Queen Mother and the Queen from the falling dirt from above.

Each large basement where the people were hiding had a hundred-man squad guarding the entrance. Soldiers could bring a sense of security to the people, and also prevent people from harming each other in extreme situations. In the basement where the Queen Mother and the Queen were hiding, the soldiers had been loyal to the Starks for generations, and each soldier was absolutely loyal.

"What happened on the surface?" Catelyn Tully asked the squad leader, Cate Seadog, after regaining some composure.

"Your Majesty, I don't know," Cate Seadog replied respectfully.

"Who knows what exactly happened on the surface?" Queen Roslin Frey, greatly frightened, asked, enduring the pain in her abdomen. She was worried about Robb Stark's safety.

No one could answer this question; everyone looked at each other.

The exit was blocked tightly with mud bags, and it would not be possible to move them until two days later, and then send soldiers out to scout. This was the military order after the cave was sealed: Robb Stark had long ordered that once the cave was sealed, the mud bags could not be moved until two days later.

*

The basement under the blacksmith shop was a sprawling barracks where the Clegane men were camped.

The Clegane soldiers who had first abandoned the defense of the city wall were the first to enter the underground, which meant that none of the Mountain's main generals were killed or injured in the wildfire explosion. Lady Doughty Qwynn was in this camp, currently under the protection of the soldiers from the Claw Isle.

The tremors and falling sand brought about by the explosion on the surface did not disturb the Clegane soldiers at all. They had received the Mountain's secret order from Anguy and knew that Lord Mountain had arranged for wildfire to deal with the wights. The muffled sounds and falling sand excited the Clegane soldiers. They were betting on what the surface looked like and how many buildings would collapse.

*

The Vale army and the Free Folk army successfully entered the underground. With the rearguard action of the Northern army, they were basically not affected by the wildfire explosion on the surface. However, many of the Northern soldiers who entered the underground last were killed or injured. Many soldiers were blown away at the entrance. The underground entrances that accepted the Northerners did not have time to close the iron gates and the iron doors, and the mud bags prepared to block the tunnels also did not have time to block them. The huge sound waves of the explosion poured straight into the underground along the underground tunnels. The sound caused a sudden reverberation underground, startling the Northern soldiers underground.

Dirt and rocks kept falling from the cave walls and the roof, as if they would collapse at any moment. The soldiers all raised their shields, huddled together tightly, everyone afraid to breathe, everyone terrified.

Eddard Stark, who was covering the rear, was overturned by the sudden explosion as soon as he approached the entrance. When he got up, he was covered in dust, and several soldiers had thrown themselves on him to protect him. Among them, Count Karstark, who was protecting Eddard, was hit in the head by a spinning rock. His helmet was deformed, crushing his head.

The Northern soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Many generals were killed at the last moment by overturned huge rocks or shattered stones that shot like arrows. Eddard Stark, under the protection of the soldiers, staggered into the underground tunnel through the area where shattered stones were shooting. Along the way, the sound of explosions kept hitting them, causing them to stumble forward desperately... When Eddard Stark reached the underground, he found that his armor was covered with scratches and shattered gaps...

Eddard Stark took off his helmet and panted heavily. The soldiers all looked at him in unison, no one spoke, but those eyes had already said a thousand words...

"I didn't know that the pyromancers had buried wildfire in Winterfell..." Eddard Stark gasped, the armor on his chest pressing on his breathing like a rock. "The Grand Maester and the pyromancers were brought by the Mountain... I heard the dragon's roar... before the big explosion... The Mountain is back..."

*

Kyu!

An extremely short dragon's roar. The dragon flew over the wildfire-filled Winterfell at low altitude, sweeping across. Its huge wings opened, casting a dark shadow. Arianne Martell had already drawn her longsword. She opened her eyes wide, looking at the ruined Winterfell—she had a look of fear on her face. Wildfire was everywhere, burning the wights all over the city. Countless humanoid candles swayed in the ruins and fell one by one... She feared wildfire and saw for the first time a city full of green flames, wights, and broken walls... In such intense wildfire, no living thing would be left behind... Even rocks would be burned into liquid...

The Mountain's wildfire burned the city, wiping out the Night King's army—the wight warriors—in one fell swoop! It also destroyed Winterfell, which had existed for thousands of years!

The dragon flew very low, appearing to almost touch the tips of the green flames, but in reality, there was still a considerable distance. The Mountain stared down, he did not see a single White Walker. Arianne widened her eyes and did not see the White Walkers with ice-colored skin and ice-blue eyes that the Mountain had spoken of, not a single one.

"Are the White Walkers all dead?!" Arianne asked vigilantly.

"The Night King will not die," The Mountain said with certainty.

"A hundred thousand wights, dozens of White Walkers, the entire city completely overturned. If the White Walker King was in the center of the explosion, I'm afraid he couldn't escape."

"Wildfire cannot burn White Walkers; they are forged from ice."

"But their bodies can't withstand the smashing of thousands of pounds of rock, can they!"

"Giant rocks can pin down the Night King, preventing him from moving, but they cannot kill him. Only dragon glass weapons and Valyrian steel swords can kill the Night King." The Mountain's gaze swept over the ruins. Suddenly, the dragon turned back, flying towards the moat to the north.

The ice on the surface of the moat was almost filled in by the rubble of the two collapsed city walls. A hand, as if composed of ice, grabbed the sharp corner of a giant rock. The dragon swooped down, and the Mountain saw a head with ice-colored skin slowly emerging from below the hand. On both sides of that head, there seemed to be sharp horns composed of ice.

Just a little bit of the White Walker's trace was revealed from the ruins, and it was immediately spotted by the Sheepstealer hovering in the low sky. The dragon's eyesight was sharp, seeing the trace of the White Walker that was impossible to be discovered, just like a drop of black ink on a white paper—The Mountain jumped down from the dragon's back, and the Valyrian steel sword slashed down fiercely. With a loud clang, the giant sword struck the corner of the city wall rock, severing the five fingers of the White Walker that were wrapped around it...

An extremely miserable cry—as if the sharp, piercing sound of a chilling wind passing through sharp, dense branches in the extremely cold night, sending chills down the spine...

Boom!

In the midst of the shrill cry, The Mountain fell into the moat like a giant rock, kicking up rubble and dust.

Bang!

The White Walker that had slipped into the crevices of the rocks exploded into a cloud of ice shards. Ice mist floated up from the crevices of the rocks, like a faint white fog...

The Mountain stood on the ruins of the moat, with scattered sparks of wildfire emitting a green glow around him... Wildfire swayed in many crevices of the rocks like lush weeds. If one was not careful, touching a little would burn a person to ashes... But The Mountain was fearless. The Grand Maester had already taught him the spell to extinguish wildfire...

"Was the Night King killed?" Arianne's voice, both surprised and delighted, rang out loudly...

The Mountain did not answer. The dragon swooped over, its eyes blinking, as if gold and red shattered gold was splashing out from its giant eyes. Not far ahead, a White Walker was slowly crawling out from between two rocks. The ice color on his body seemed to be covered with a layer of gray dust. The dragon roared and arrived, its dragon claws stretched out, grabbing two giant rocks and passing over the White Walker's head. The giant rocks fell with a whoosh, hitting the White Walker's body that had just emerged...

The White Walker let out an angry howl...

The Mountain rushed over like lightning, his huge body like a compressed spring, and like a whistling arrow. He arrived in an instant. The Ice Sword pierced into the White Walker's body through the cracks in the giant rocks. The sharp, shrill cry sounded like a whistle. The Mountain took a big step back, and with a muffled bang, the White Walker, squeezed by the two rocks, exploded into ice shards. The ice particles hit The Mountain's armor with a clanging sound...

"Be careful, the Night King is nearby," The Mountain shouted to Arianne on the dragon's back.

"How do you know?"

"There are not many White Walkers; they are the Night King's guard knights and will not be far from the Night King."

The Mountain's judgment was completely correct!

"Sheepstealer, watch out for the enemy, he's here." The Mountain's giant sword drew an arc, including the entire position of this section of the moat.

More than a hundred thousand wights had become fuel for the wildfire, all losing their combat effectiveness. Soon they would all turn to ashes.

The invincible Night King had lost his warriors. The few dozen White Walker guards would not make the human army fear. The Mountain and Sheepstealer only needed to focus on dealing with the Night King and the dozens of White Walker knights.

Caw!

The sound of a crow's cry faintly came from the distance!

How could there still be crows nearby in such an explosion?

"Sheepstealer, fly low," The Mountain shouted.

Sheepstealer flew over diagonally and landed. The Mountain jumped up, grabbed the dragon horn, and got on the dragon's back: "The Three-Eyed Raven is a greenseer; we need his help. Fly forward!" The Mountain pointed the Ice Sword forward. The direction from which the crow's voice came.

The dragon's wings did not flap but took off into the air. It only gently vibrated its wings and flew over Winterfell. Ahead, a small crow was indeed flying in the sky.

"Bran Stark, I need your help," The Mountain shouted. He gently patted Sheepstealer's ferocious dragon head, telling him to stay 'gentle'.

The Three-Eyed Raven cried in the distance, not daring to approach. It was afraid that Sheepstealer would spit out dragon fire, and it would turn into a roasted crow in an instant. If Bran could not get out of the Three-Eyed Raven's body in time, he would become a mentally deranged patient, or even die immediately.

The Three-Eyed Raven hovered in the sky without moving, and the dragon also hovered according to The Mountain's command. Both sides understood that the other understood their intentions.

Then, the Three-Eyed Raven swooshed over, landed on the ferocious dragon head, and then jumped onto The Mountain's shoulder.

"The Night King is in the wildfire," The Three-Eyed Raven suddenly spoke in human words.

Arianne saw the Three-Eyed Raven for the first time, and heard the Three-Eyed Raven speak in human words for the first time. She was shocked, and the look in her eyes as she looked at The Mountain became incomparably bright and ardent.

The white ravens of the Citadel in Oldtown could speak human words, and Mormont, the former commander of the Night's Watch, also had a raven that could speak human words, but their voices would have the unique crispness of birds, but the voice of this Three-Eyed Raven was like the voice of a mature man, with a heart-stirring sense of vicissitudes, as if he had seen through everything after experiencing the various hardships of the world.