Chapter 45
"Give me one fucking reason before I do what I'd promised."
I was standing in front of Brynden, surrounded by the 'Children of the Forest', along with Lyanna. She was confused and more than a little spooked by the revelations of the true North.
We had caught up to the kids a few miles before the wall and sent them back to the Moat with a hundred Curran men. Suffice to say that the three brats were thoroughly reprimanded. If I could have my way, I'd have smacked the Reed kids, but Lyanna stopped me.
I had wanted to travel beyond the wall, and Lyanna was simply too stubborn to let me go without a proper explanation.
"Remember when your father sent me on a quest beyond the wall? I learned the true reason behind the wildlings coming south. I knew that your father, or anyone else, would never believe me. So I kept it to myself."
Everyone else was farther away from the two of us, so no one could hear what I'd told Lyanna.
"The Long Night is approaching, Lya. The dreaded monsters from the stories of old nan, they have risen beyond the wall, and they are amassing an army. In the Land of Always Winter resides the Night King, the entity that personifies death. I hid this fact because it sounds too far-fetched. But it is true."
Lyanna was too shocked to respond.
"So, I'm going beyond the wall. I'm going to end them before they can pose a threat to our children and to us."
"No!" Lyanna shouted.
"I-I won't let you! This is madness, Allan! I-If they do exist, you can not face them alone!"
I gently held her close to my chest and whispered, "Lya, you know of my abilities. There's no army, living or dead, that I can't defeat on my own. Trust me, I know what I'm doing."
Sadly, my lady was too stubborn to give up. The final nail in the coffin was Harold having another seizure during which he almost died after having aspirated some of his stomach contents, after which I had to use my last healing potion to save his life.
Lyanna was apoplectic, and there was no way anyone could stop her from going beyond the wall to rip into Brynden Rivers. We traveled together on our steeds. Armed with Valyrian steel weapons, the local hostiles were of no match for us.
It was during our journey that we encountered the undead. Lyanna was spooked by the sight of the half rotting corpses. But it was easy to dispatch them.
"W-What was that?!"
"That used be a wildling at some time. He was raised as the undead by the White Walkers. Bodies don't rot beyond the wall as they do in the south. Every single person that has died here, every single animal carcass... The White Walkers can raise them to become part of the undead army. Imagine an army of hundreds of thousands of undead, an army that feels no fear or pain, invading Westeros."
Lyanna was visibly terrified. She closed up, unable to comprehend the horror that was brewing in those lands.
We encountered hostile wildlings as well, and we got rid of their bodies by burning them.
A few days later, we had arrived at the Weirwood tree in which Brynden and the children of the firest lived. I was careful and held Lyanna's hand to stop her from marching ahead. I remembered the episode when Jojen Reed had succumbed to the dead.
"Careful, Lya. The dead could be hiding beneath the snow."
As we walked ahead, we had our weapons outjust in case we were ambushed. And I was right. The dead did ambush us from beneath the snow.
We quickly managed to get rid of them before we entered the Weirwood tree. And then, there I was, questioning the man for his motive behind targeting my son.
"You should not be alive." He said.
"I know."
Lyanna frowned as she looked at me but said nothing.
"And yet, here I am. Now answer me!"
"It's a long story."
I glared into his clouded eyes and said, "Both of us know that you don't have the time to recite a long story."
The children offered us warm soup, which Lyanna gladly accepted. As I took the first sip, a notification appeared in front of my eyes.
[You have been invaded by an unknown energy.
Status: Disharmony.
Purging of the unknown energy initiated]
'W-What?'
I immediately threw the soup away and shouted, "What was in that broth?!"
With a measured voice, Brynden said, "I knew it. You do not belong here."
As I fell on my knee, Lyanna rushed to me in a hurry.
"Allan!"
She screamed at the hostiles present and said, "Heal him!! Heal him, or else I will skin you all alive!!"
"It's too late." One of the children said.
Meanwhile, the White Walkers had arrived outside with their army.
[System's attempt to purge the unknown energy has failed.
Status: Disseminated intravascular coagulation. -10 hp/min; -10 energy/min]
'Around 3 hours, huh?'
"Allan!"
'Activate limit break. Activate Apex aura.'
Enraged, Lyanna moved ahead to begin slaughtering the Children of the Forest and Brynden, but I stopped her and said, "There's no time. R-Run, Lya. We are surrounded. This was a trap."
"No! I will not leave you here! W-We can get through this!"
[Re-evaluating...
Attempt to correct host's condition failed. Unknown energy is reacting to the host's body.
DIC is progressing.
Status: -20 hp/min; -20 energy/min]
"There's no time, Lyanna!! Run! Go back to our children! One of us has to be there for them!"
I pushed the crying Lyanna away as she stumbled to her horse. One of the green things tried to attack her, but I grabbed the crudely made spear in its hand and yanked it away before smashing its head into paste.
"Go, Lyanna!"
The woman agreed to leave despite all the protests from every part of her being.
I rose to my feet and raised my halberd to end the gremlins. But, as if being their protectors, the undead swarmed in through the tree's entrance and attacked me.
I roared and plowed through swarm before exiting the tree and came out in the open. There, in front of me, stood the Night King himself, along with his walkers.
"So, you plotted against me with that three eyed fucker, huh?! Well, here I fucking stand!!"
A primal roar of absolute rage escaped my throat as I charged at the army with my halberd, 'Doombringer'. The army of the undead swarmed towards me with reckless abandon and thus began my dance with death.
'Expose weakness.'
'Fast reflexes.'
The destruction of the undead army was indiscriminate. The pain caused by DIC was dulled by the sheer amount of adrenaline in my body as I fought for my life.
[Re-evaluating...
Trying to identify the unknown energy.
DIC is progressing.
Status: -30 hp/min; -30 hp/min]
I endured the pain and continued the battle. Suddenly, I was hit on my back with a massive concussive force, and I heard a blast.
[-100 HP]
'The green shits are attacking me!'
[Health: 970/1470
Energy: 840/1440]
For twenty long minutes, I fought desperately as I kept getting attacked by the explosives thrown at me by the little green monsters. I was close to ending the walkers. The undead army was almost finished, and I had killed almost all the White Walkers.
It was that moment when the Night King made his move, and our weapons clashed. Three White Walkers and one Night King attacked me simultaneously. I had gotten weaker, and I was already bleeding from my mouth. But I wasn't ready to die.
One by one, I shattered the White Walkers until their king was alone. With a roar, I swung my halberd at him. The Ice Demon tried to block, but the power behind my swing was simply too much. The blade of the halberd shattered his ice sword and made contact with his face.
At that very moment, I felt something slash at my neck. The blade of the dragonglass spear cut into the skin of my neck. I tried to move away, but the damage was done. I had managed to save my spine, but the blade had pierced through the side of my neck and cut my jugular.
The Night King shattered into thousands of ice shards, and blood gushed out of my wound.
[Host's health is falling rapidly.
WARNING: Critical damage. Stop the bleeding.
Health: 135/1470
Energy: 280/1440]
All the undead fell where they stood. I turned around to look at my last remaining enemies, the Children of the Forest and Brynden Rivers. I jammed my thumb into my neck and glared at them with absolute hate.
They threw another bomb at me, but I managed to stumble away from it.
Huffing and wheezing, I said, "I may die today, but none of you will live to see tomorrow!"
I took out a big vial of wildfire from my inventory as I stored the halberd. The children were shocked to see the vial appear in my hand. With a desperate yell, I threw the vial at the Weirwood tree with all of my strength.
The vial whizzed through air at blinding speed and shattered against the tree, lighting it up in brilliant green flames. The screams of the Children of the Forest and Brynden Rivers were music to my ears as I fell on my knees.
'Arthur, Edith, Harold... Lyanna... I love you all.'
My blood oozed out as fatigue took over. I couldn't move my arms, and my thumb came out of my wound.
'What a life...
... I have no regrets.'
[Unknown energy has been identified to be as World magic and is reacting to the host's otherworldly soul.
The host is in critical condition.
Initiating CPR.
The host has lost a lot of blood. The system is looking for healing potion in inventory.
No healing potions were found.
Health: 0/1470
Energy: 0/1440
The host has died.
The system is going offline]
.
.
.
.
.
.
[The system 2.0 is Initializing...
Welcome back, host]
*Gasp*
(ACJTF)
A/N: Volume 1 is over. The epilogue of this volume will be shared in the next volume. Stay tuned for MC's next great adventure.
Thanks for all the love and support for this fanfic.
PS. MC didn't know that magic could be used as poison. The system didn't prompt any presence of poison in the soup, so MC had no reason to deny it. It's hella cold beyond the wall.