Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 458 The Battle of the Long Night (Part Two)

The Great Wall has reached the end of its mission today.

The ice mage lords stood at the forefront of the ghoul army, their pale fingers tracing the winter horn carved from the bones of giants. Ancient runes were inscribed on the horn's surface, each line shimmering with a chilling blue light, as if life itself pulsed within it.

The leading ice mage lord raised his horn to his lips and took a deep breath.

Waaah————————

The ancient sound seemed to come from an unknowable ancient era.

It sounded like the roar of a glacier breaking apart, or like a thousand ice blades scraping against the rocks at once, sharp enough to tear eardrums. The Night's Watchmen left on the Wall covered their ears, blood seeping from between their fingers.

Jonial stood atop the battlements, Sunbeams howling in agony behind him. He saw the magical barrier of the Wall crumbling, ancient runes, once hidden within the ice walls, emerging one after another, then breaking apart like fragile spiderwebs. Dark blue cracks spread across the surface, as if the entire Wall were being crushed bit by bit by an invisible giant hand.

“The Seven Hells,” Lusris exclaimed. “They are truly collapsing.”

The black robes of the Great Shadow Master, Quero, billowed in the gale. His withered fingers pressed against his chest, and beneath the robes, the crystal heart emitted a blinding red light.

“My Lord,” his voice was hoarse but firm, “accept my spirit.”

With a muffled thud as flesh tore apart, Quiro's five fingers pierced his own chest. As he ripped the beating crystal heart from his body, Melisandre lit the sacrificial fire in the brazier beside him.

The moment Quero crushed the heart, the whole world seemed to freeze for a second.

Immediately afterwards, a black curtain descended from the void, as if a piece of night had been torn away, covering the crumbling Great Wall. The Ice Mage Lord's horn suddenly became muffled, and the ghoul army's steps seemed to sink into a quagmire.

"Go!" Quero's mangled body collapsed to his knees atop the city wall, black blood gushing from his empty chest. "Go now."

Melisandre's fingertips traced a flame pattern across his forehead: "The flames remember you, Greatbinder Shadowslayer."

As she turned and leaped onto the waiting dragon, the last thing she saw was Quero's smile and his figure gradually turning to ashes, disappearing into the cracks of the Great Wall along with the black curtain.

Commander-in-Chief Jack Musgood stood atop the city gate, his black cloak fluttering in the wind. He had been accused of "dereliction of duty" and stripped of his responsibilities. But now, he smiled, a smile like that of a released prisoner.

"It seems I am ultimately an incompetent commander-in-chief." He weighed the obsidian warhammer in his hand. "Even my suicide mission was delayed until the very end."

Beside him, Daniel Mellist, the acting commander-in-chief appointed in a time of crisis, was unscrewing the brass cap of the wildfire bottle with trembling fingers. The green liquid reflected on his weary face. In the cold wind of the long night, even the wildfire seemed to stagnate.

“Jack,” he said in a hoarse voice, “you should have been fired a long time ago.”

The two looked at each other and smiled.

The moment the city wall collapsed, the ice spiders surged in like a tidal wave.

The last ranger, the tall, thin man whose name no one even remembered, leaped from the shadows. His dragon crystal spear pierced precisely into the compound eye of the leader of the ice spiders, and pale blue blood splattered onto his tattered black cloak.

"For Iria!" he roared, turning to pounce on the second one.

Iria was his lover in Mole Village, a prostitute, but one of the few gentle prostitutes who treated these rangers kindly.

He laughed as the ice spider's pincers pierced his chest. Behind him, five agents were thrusting more dragon crystal weapons into the monster's body.

Daniel Mellist stands on the path that the ghoul mammoth must take.

On the back of this enormous creature, three pale women were chanting frost spells. Their elegant fingers swept across the air, conjuring sharp ice blades wherever they touched.

“You son of a bitch,” Dennis spat, lighting the fuse of the Wildfire Bottle, “try this.”

The green flames instantly engulfed the mammoth and its rider. Dennis's last glimpse was of his own arm turning to bone in the flames. But it was worth it, for the noble, pale maidens were writhing and screaming in the green fire, trembling with fear like ordinary people, melting into ashes.

Quello's magic allowed the flames to continue to exert their maximum power within the Wall, instead of being extinguished by the wind and snow.

Jack Musgood's warhammer is broken.

His left arm was severed at the shoulder by the ice crystal longsword, but strangely, it didn't hurt; the extreme cold froze the wound. When he plunged the last obsidian longsword into the Night Knight's eye socket, the monster actually took a step back.

"Scared?" Jack grinned, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. "Even those who neglect their duties are still Night's Watchmen."

His vision began to blur, but he could still see the eerie green mixed with the ghostly blue in the eyes of the wights burned by wildfire. The White Walkers had to stop and use ice magic to "purify" these flame-corrupted golems.

“Hold them off.” Jack knelt down, his last thought being the sensation of the ice spider's pincers piercing his back. “It was worth it.”

But the wights, tainted by the wildfire, continued to crawl in a twisted manner, forcing the Others to divide their forces to deal with them.

The dragon knights were in dire straits; they were outnumbered.

King Reg I maneuvered Mogul among the ice dragons, his crown gleaming coldly in the dim light. This slender black dragon was not actually the king's first choice, but it was easier to tame and stronger than Grey Shadow.

"For the Seven Kingdoms!"

Mogul unleashed a dim, lifeless dragonfire, charring half of an ice dragon's body. The ice dragon let out a piercing scream, its jagged ice skeleton shattering in the flames as it crashed down, smashing a section of the Great Wall's battlements.

Its riders melted in the dragonfire, and the Night Knights could only keep the ice dragon flying; their combat strength was actually not very strong.

The real threat came from the ice mage lords. A second ice dragon attacked from the side, its sharp icy claws aimed straight for Mogul's throat. Reg's Blackfire Sword drew a dark red arc, the Valyrian steel severing the ice dragon's forepaws. Azure blood rained down like frozen drops, and the ice dragon howled as it tumbled and fell.

However, just as Mogul had regained his footing, the ice dragon personally piloted by the ice mage lord suddenly swooped down from the clouds.

Its body was several times larger than the other ice dragons. It had suffered heavy damage in the previous battle, but had returned to the battlefield under the healing power of ice magic. The ice mage lord stood on its head, ice condensing in his hands, an ice crystal spear aimed directly at Reg's heart.

Mogul tried to dodge, but it was too late.

The ice dragon's fangs pierced Mogul's neck, its four claws gripping the black dragon's body tightly, dragon blood spraying like a waterfall. In the instant of his fall, Reg hurled his Blackfire Sword.

The blade spun, slicing through the cold wind, piercing the Ice Mage Lord's heart. Azure blood splattered on the king's pale face; the Ice Mage Lord's pupils contracted sharply before collapsing with a deafening roar.

The ice crystal spear pierced the king's chest.

"At least we have lived up to the blood of the Targaryens."

Mogul and the ice dragon clashed as they plummeted toward the Great Wall. At the moment of impact, icy blue and fiery red flames erupted on the collapsing wall.

The Night's Watch, locked in a desperate struggle, looked up and saw a massive fireball explode above the Wall. The embers, a mixture of fire and ice, rained down like a final tribute from the gods to this deadly battle.

Moondance's scales shimmered with a dark green luster in the extreme cold, and ice crystals that had condensed between its markings fell away with each flap of the dragon's wings. Luslis could feel the excitement of his companion beneath him.

"Left!" Lusris roared amidst the dragon's howl, his voice hoarse beyond recognition.

Moon Dance's tail hammer lashed out like lightning, striking an ice dragon precisely in the spine. Accompanied by a teeth-grinding sound of bones shattering and the subsequent crackling of flames, the ice-crystal-constructed body twisted at an incredible angle in the air before plummeting to the ground.

Before Lusris could catch his breath, he caught a glimpse of that deadly cold light out of the corner of his eye. The ice spear thrown by the ice mage lord was tearing through the air, aimed straight at Joniel's back.

"Joannil!"

Time seemed to stand still at that moment. Lusris saw Jonial completely focused on dealing with the ice dragon ahead, its black scales already covered in wounds. He saw the eerie blue runes wrapped around the ice spear.

Moon Dance reacted faster than him.

The elegant dragon let out a deafening roar, its dark green body hurtling towards the ice spear like an arrow. Lusris clung tightly to the saddle amidst the jolting motion, feeling Moondance's muscles tense instantly.

puff.

The sound of the ice spear piercing flesh was so clear.

Scalding dragon blood poured down like a torrential rain onto Lusris's face, turning his silver hair a dark red. Moon Dance let out a painful whimper, yet miraculously maintained her balance.

"Hang in there, buddy," Lusris leaned close to the dragon's neck, his voice trembling. "Just a little longer."

He could sense Moondance's weakness. Each breath of the dragon was laced with blood, and the flapping of its wings grew increasingly labored. Yet, it still gazed steadfastly southward, towards Winterfell.

Behind them, Joniel's roar pierced the sky. Sunbeam's black figure tore a bloody path through the ice dragon horde, but Lusris knew that the young man was also at his last gasp.

"Moon Dance!" Dan's roar came from the center of the battle. "Take Lusris away!"

Moondance seemed to understand the command. It struggled to fly south along the path torn open by the sunbeams. In the same direction, Ray and Dan were clearing a path for them.

Ray stood on the jagged back of Shadow Nightmare, his violet eyes reflecting the blood and fire of the battlefield. His skin was almost transparent, as if time and battle had long since drained the last bit of flesh from him, leaving only an aged skeleton wrapped in the Valyrian steel armor given to him by Dragonzel, stubbornly standing tall in the wind and snow.

Shadow Nightmare seemed to sense its master's weakness. It no longer attacked its enemies with its usual ferocity, but instead became unusually quiet, its bony wings slightly folded, as if it were ready to retreat from the battlefield at any moment.

“Old friend.” Ray’s voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, his withered fingers gently tracing the cold scales of Shadow Nightmare. “How many years have we been working together?”

Shadow Nightmare let out a low growl, a glimmer of intelligence flashing in its dark dragon eyes. It remembered that nearly a century ago, when young Ray first climbed onto its back, it had tried to throw him off, after all, it wasn't used to the feeling of a human on its back. But this stubborn man clung tightly to its bone spikes, refusing to let go even as it was burned by the dragon's flames.

“Almost a hundred years.” Ray answered himself, a slight smile playing on his lips. “Longer than most marriages, isn’t it?”

In the distance, Dan Vareses was riding Centroth in a battle among the ice dragons, while Jonil and Sunbeam, Lusris and Moondance were all seriously injured.

Ray took a deep breath and straightened his hunched back.

"Take them back to Winterfell."

Shadow Nightmare suddenly raised its head, its jagged dragon neck tensing, and a ghastly white flame erupted from deep within its throat. Wherever the flame passed, the ice dragon howled and retreated, and the ghouls turned to ashes, tearing a path of survival across the battlefield.

Senzolos seized the opportunity and drove Dan toward the approaching Sunbeams and Moonbeams.

Ray watched their departing figures and slowly closed his eyes.

“The children must walk the road ahead on their own.” His voice was as soft as a sigh. “I have fought the battles that needed to be fought, and I have walked the road that needed to be walked.”

Shadow Nightmare roared to the sky, its voice no longer the tyrannical sound of the past, but rather like an ancient elegy. Carrying its master's last words, it flapped its wings and flew towards Winterfell, its black dragon wings tearing through the blood-red sky.

On the collapsed Great Wall, a tattered black flag was planted, on which was written:

"We will hold out until the end, even though the long night has come."

(End of this chapter)