Ice and Fire: Conquering the World Starting from the Wall

On the edge of the Land of Eternal Winter, deep within the Ghost Forest.

When the children of the forest recovered from the dizziness caused by the huge tremors and explosions, the raging flames and thick smoke in the cave made it almost impossible for them to breathe.

They are much smaller than ordinary humans, with nut-like dark brown skin, light-colored spots like deer, large ears that can hear sounds that humans cannot, and eyes as clear as a cat's, with a blend of gold and green and long, narrow pupils.

Their hands had only three fingers and a thumb, and the tips of their fingers were not nails like humans, but sharp black claws.

This is a small hill covered with weirwood trees, the interior of which has long been eroded into an empty shell by the dense, pale roots.

That is why, when the ship of steel and fire fell from the sky, it easily pierced the top of the hill and crashed straight into the throne woven from weirwood adorned with red leaves.

On the throne sat a pale-skinned king adorned with ebony.

His body was thin and his clothes were tattered. He looked like a corpse. Tree roots were wrapped around his body, supporting him.

His remaining skin was unusually white, with only a blood-red birthmark running from his neck to his cheek, and his white hair, like roots, trailed all the way to the ground.

The tree roots wrapped around his thighs resembled wooden pythons, one of which burrowed into his withered thigh and emerged from his shoulder. Scattered dark red leaves grew on his skull, and countless gray mushrooms covered his forehead.

The remaining skin stretched taut across his face, tight and hard like boiled leather, yet even so, it was on the verge of bursting, with brown or yellow mycelium wriggling beneath it.

And all of this is now melting away in the blazing flames.

The raging fire from beyond the heavens almost instantly engulfed everything in sight, including the king who was practically one with the tree roots.

It's hard to imagine that this king is still alive. His expression showed surprise and astonishment, but never pain or fear.

Only when the flames licked his forehead along his white hair did his withered and decaying face change its expression, finally settling into an eerie calm.

The children of the forest in the distance were isolated by the flames. They futilely urged their roots to grow, trying to extinguish the fire by filling the enclosed space, but the result was only to add fuel to the fire.

They let out low, ethereal cries, but forced by the terrible heat and the threat of death, they could only escape underground through the network of caves.

The number of Forest Children is too small to withstand any loss; they must leave before the protective magic collapses and the White Ghosts arrive.

So the flames burned relentlessly, from day to dusk, turning swathes of weirwood into ashes, and large sections of the once-rising hills collapsed from the heat.

Only when there was nothing left to burn and everything returned to silence did the ship of steel and fire that brought disaster finally reveal its true form.

It was a man-made object, round on top and square at the bottom, that looked like a clock in a clock tower magnified more than ten times. Its surface was charred black by intense atmospheric friction, but it showed no signs of being twisted or deformed after being hit by an impact.

Suddenly, a screeching sound of metal scraping together rang out.

If the children of the forest were still here, they would probably instinctively shake their ears, for they loathe the sharp sound emanating from this unnatural creation.

Before long, a crack suddenly appeared on the side of the charred object, and then a round door with a diameter of two feet was pushed open from the inside.

A pale, bloated arm emerged from the narrow, round doorway, followed by a shoulder, then a smooth, hairless head with no facial contours, and finally a torso and legs.

Due to its posture, this mysterious, somewhat clumsy creature, whose origins were unclear, collapsed headfirst onto the ashes. It seemed unfazed by the high temperature, lying there for a while in the still-smoldering ashes.

It wasn't until the wind howled and blew hundreds of steps away that it slowly knelt up, supporting itself with one hand on the ground.

You can see symmetrical red patches on its pale skin, exquisite red spear-shaped patterns on its front, and strange square bulges on its back with a line of irregular square characters tattooed on them.

If the observer at this moment were a human from Earth, then they would be able to recognize those square characters as the simplified Chinese characters for "Blue Star United Aerospace Group".

As time passed, the cold wind quickly carried away the surrounding heat.

Inside the heavy spacesuit, Lynn felt as if every bone in his body had been individually run over by a car, and all his internal organs had been displaced.

Even so, he couldn't believe he had survived.

A seemingly successful near-Earth space mission unexpectedly went awry. First, the automatic return procedure malfunctioned, then communication facilities failed, and finally, even the deceleration parachute failed to deploy.

Did I really survive?

Lynn turned around with difficulty to examine the return capsule, which was burned black, and made sure that the deceleration parachute had not been deployed.

As for the retro-rockets... their existence is meaningless without a drag chute.

So, how did I survive?

Lynn was completely baffled.

The final landing was indeed quite hard, but according to common sense, in the case of a hard landing without deceleration, even if the outer shell of the return capsule was made of a strong interaction force material and could withstand the impact without disintegrating on the spot, he himself would probably be crushed into a pile of radially distributed flesh and blood the moment he landed, evenly plastered on the inner wall.

The situation before him was far beyond Lynn's comprehension.

However, he soon had no time to ponder how he had survived. Through his helmet visor, Lynn was shocked to discover a skeleton lying not far away.

It is called a skeleton, but in fact, it has been burned to almost nothing. Only the remaining half of the skull and the main torso can be seen to indicate that it once belonged to a human.

Lynn's heart sank; she hadn't expected that this accident would also affect innocent passersby.

Although he probably wouldn't be held legally responsible, the psychological guilt still made him feel uneasy.

Lynn staggered to his feet instinctively, then fell back into the ashes, his head spinning and he almost vomited.

He quickly took off his helmet, and then, under the combined physical and psychological stress, knelt down and dry heaved.

After finally spitting out a few mouthfuls of sour water, Lynn wiped his mouth and plopped down on the ground.

He didn't care to figure out which area he had crashed in. Anyway, with such a big incident, United Aerospace Group would definitely locate him and come to him as soon as possible.

But this guy is really innocent.

After calming down a bit, Lynn couldn't help but feel sorry for the victims in front of her.

Looking at the surrounding environment, it's incredible that such a remote and desolate place was hit by a wrecked space capsule. Their bad luck is unparalleled.

I guess he's an extreme outdoor hiking enthusiast who just happened to be camping nearby.

Lynn wanted to find something to cover the unfortunate fellow, but he couldn't find anything suitable. Looking around, he finally understood what it meant to be burned to the ground.

Suddenly, a sound like porcelain shattering rang out.

Lynn felt a chill run down his spine, because the sound was coming from the location of those remaining bones.

Lynn was a staunch materialist, but given that the place was deserted and he was all alone, having just survived a life-or-death ordeal, his mental state was somewhat unstable, and it was understandable that he felt afraid.

Fortunately, the thing that made the sound rolled out on its own soon after.

Yes, it was "rolled out".

Lynn looked over in surprise and found that it was an egg-shaped object, even larger than an ostrich egg, covered with blood-red and silver-gold glass-like scales, with a faint light flowing on its surface, the red scales being the majority.

It emerged partially from the ashes beneath the skeleton, then wriggled a few times before rolling to Lynn's feet.

Lynn guessed that it might be some kind of handicraft carried by the victims, which cracked due to thermal expansion and contraction after being exposed to high temperatures, thus making a sound.

He stretched out his foot and gently touched it, wanting to see what was going on. Unexpectedly, the egg-shaped object suddenly cracked into several pieces, and the fragments turned into a rock-like grayish-white color at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The next moment, a snake-like head covered in horns suddenly emerged from under the fragments, its slender neck glowing bright red, and two bony wings covered in fleshy membranes flapped up.

Lynn was startled by this unexpected turn of events.

But before he could react, two pale, bean-sized eyes shot out from the head covered in fine scales, their gazes as tangible as if they were real, piercing straight into Lynn's mind.

In an instant, a magnificent and powerful will invaded Lynn's body, followed by a vast ocean of memories and knowledge that surged through his mind like a tsunami, determined to smooth out all the bumps and wrinkles.

Driven by his biological instincts, Lynn almost immediately understood the tragic fate that awaited him: his will would be crushed, his body taken over, and his pitiful, insignificant memories would be submerged in the endless torrent of information.

From that moment on, Lynn was no more.

But the next moment, something strange happened.

That seemingly invincible will and the near-infinite torrent of information surged left and right, but could never find a foothold. It was like swinging a hammer to smash the air, producing only a terrifying sound of air being torn apart, but the damage it caused was negligible.

This process lasted for about ten minutes, or an hour, or it might have only been a moment.

But no matter what the other party wants to get, the result is always the same: nothing.

Just when Lynn thought the nightmare was about to end, his mental world began to fluctuate again.

All his memories from his life were forcibly extracted, and countless images flashed wildly in his mind, but strangely, he only had images and no understanding of language or words.

This caused his memory to be like a twenty-year-long color silent film, as if he were reliving the scene, vivid and lifelike.

The flickering speed suddenly decreased when the screen showed the many movies Lynn had watched—which included many different genres.

Before this part was finished, that will suddenly roared away, leaving in a disheveled but resolute manner.

Lynn could sense that the other party had not escaped unscathed, but had been forced to leave something behind.

They contain a special ability, as well as many memories belonging to a man named "Brinden Rivers".

These memories are enough to help Lynn understand the unknown and incomprehensible aspects of this bizarre encounter.

"Westero, the Seven Kingdoms, the First Men, the Andals, the Old and New Gods, the Wall..."

When consciousness returned to his body, Lynn muttered to himself as if possessed:

"Child of the Forest, Green Prophet, Three-Eyed Raven... Ah, Three-Eyed Raven!"

He repeated, panting, still shaken by his near-death experience once again.

The other party came and went quickly, without causing him any harm or burden.

But the syllables emanating from his throat were no longer the language he was accustomed to, but the completely unfamiliar Common Tongue of Westeros.