Chapter - 63

Tormund was having the time of his life. He had fought wights before, but never like this. Whatever magic the mage had cast on him, he would have to ask for it again. All his life he had known cold, but now the warm fires seemed to ease aches he hadn't even known he had.

The effect on the wights was something else entirely. Brief contact with the flames was all it took for them to completely disintegrate, leaving nothing behind. But gods, he loved the way they exploded when he crushed their skulls. The mage hadn't been lying - Tormund felt like he could take on the entire horde alone and not break a sweat under the divine flames that covered him.

But then the cold air hit his face, the first sign that something was wrong. He wasn't covered in fire anymore. A quick glance around showed that it wasn't just him. He broke another wight's skull and frowned in disappointment when it didn't explode.

Looking behind him to see what the mage was doing, Tormund felt his blood freeze. The mage had a spear taller than him sticking straight through his body. Deciding that priorities had changed, Tormund started retreating toward where the rest of the group was, slowly moving back as the horde of wights surged forward with renewed ferocity.

He quickly grouped up with the others and the crow as they made their way back to the mage. Though he couldn't afford to spare attention from the fight, Tormund couldn't help looking back. What he saw shocked him even more - the mage had just cut off one of his own shoulders and a good chunk of his torso.

For a moment, Tormund thought that would be it, but it seemed the gods were not in their favor today.

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I was in an expanse of black again. 

Had I died again? 

Oh… that was probably not good. 

How had that even happened? 

Oh right, the Night King, the spear, and whatever curse—was that how his magic worked? 

It felt like a parasitic cold that ate away at magic and life, turning everything into ice. 

That same ice had made its way to my heart, and considering that my heart had essentially infinite magic… I may have exploded into ice. 

Ouch, I doubt that was a pleasant way to go.

Wait, why did I assume I was dead?

I could think. 

That means I wasn't dead yet.

Well…

There was one other option. No, that would be absurd. I doubted the mad god who put me here was benevolent enough to give me a third chance.

Okay, I was alive—for now, somehow. 

So, the ice hadn't reached my heart yet.

How long that was going to last, I had no idea. 

So, let's get to work.

Then the darkness all around me was replaced by a scene depicting my heart, and what looked like a spear of ice that had already touched my heart. It was slowly spreading and had almost encased half of it. 

My heart was still beating, but it was struggling to get to the next beat.

I dove deeper into my consciousness, searching desperately for answers. I'd pushed my parallel processing to its limits, and I could already feel the looming promise of what would be the mother of all headaches - if I lived long enough to experience it.

My mind raced through possibilities. 

The immediate problem was clear enough: magic-eating ice was consuming me, and I needed to stop it.

Now, what did I actually know about this phenomenon? 

Nothing.

So I stripped the problem down to basics - what did I know about regular ice? 

Two fundamental ways to defeat it: heat and pressure. 

The purifying flames that had worked so well against the wights were barely making a dent in this, far too slow to save me from becoming an icicle.

My consciousness fractured further as I pushed my mind to its limits, searching for a solution. Each parallel thread of thought brought new agony, but I couldn't stop. Not now. 

Not when giving up meant certain death or worse.

The world around me had slowed to a crawl, giving me precious moments to think, but even this deep in my mind, I could feel the cold creeping closer. 

Think, think! 

I felt like the answer was just at the tip of my tongue, but I wasn't getting it. 

Nothing was working. My heart struggled to beat under the strain of the ice.

I needed a new plan. I had to keep my heart beating.

How does one keep a heart beating?

You shock it.

Okay.

How does one start a magical heart?

You shock it with magic.

Simple, yes, but it had to be external magic. I couldn't use my own magic; even the simplest use of my magic would accelerate the spread of ice exponentially and end any chance I had of surviving.

I felt like I was running in circles as if I needed another heart to save my own...

Oh...

I'm an idiot. 

I extended my senses outward. I had a fairly decent range for sensing magic, but it wasn't large enough to find what I was looking for.

Instead of spreading it out, I shaped it like a spear and extended it in just one direction.

Down.

What was actually a time so small I wasn't sure there was even a word for it in my old world felt like an eternity to me until I finally felt it.

It felt so similar to my own heart, but it wasn't just similar; it was plain better.

My finest creation.

I used my bond with it and was immediately assaulted by its feelings—the pressure and the heat. 

I recoiled instantly, my mind screaming from even that brief contact. But in that moment of connection, I found my answer.

I synced our hearts. The ice helped me in that regard, allowing me to slow my heartbeat just enough to resonate with it. 

My poor heart looked like it was going to shatter in a few more beats, while the heart forged under the weight of the world finally began to beat in sync with mine. 

I finally connect them and each pulse of the dragon heart shocks my heart into rhythm.

One more beat, and at first nothing seemed to happen. 

Then…

I felt it.

No, it wasn't just me; I was sure the entire world felt it.

I saw enormous blood-red reptilian eyes staring at me.

I smiled and conveyed how grateful I was for being saved, along with a small apology for waking him up so early. 

He didn't give any indication that he understood me. Instead, it looked toward my heart, which was almost free of ice, with curiosity.

Of course, it was new to the concept of cold and ice, so it was curious. 

Suddenly, its eyes flashed through a kaleidoscope of colors, and at once, all the ice that had been forming in my mindscape and the little ice that remained in my heart completely disappeared. 

Deep in my soul, I knew with absolute certainty that the Night King's cursed ice would never touch me again.

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Benjen knew deep in his bones that things had been going too well.

He hated being right.

That's why he had not strayed far from the main group, so he was the first to make it back to where El was now kneeling.

But even cutting away half his own torso hadn't saved the mage from the creeping ice that spread across his remaining flesh like a crystalline plague.

Benjen's heart sank as he watched the frost claim more of El's body with each passing breath. Was this truly happening? 

If the Night King claimed a mage of El's power, humanity was surely doomed.

Just as despair began to sink its cold claws into his heart, he felt it - a presence so vast it made his soul tremble. 

The world itself shuddered, as if something ancient had stirred from its slumber and opened its eyes. The very air grew heavy, pressing down on them like the weight of countless frozen winters.

It wasn't just him feeling it. The wights stood frozen, their unholy animation suspended. 

The falling snow hung motionless in the air.

The world held its breath as if the air itself was terrified that the slightest movement would draw the attention of whatever cosmic force had awakened.

Another heartbeat passed - or was it an eternity? - and the presence receded like some great beast rolling over in its sleep and settling back into dreams beyond mortal comprehension. 

The atmosphere released its collective breath, but no one dared move first as if breaking this strange calm might invite disaster.

Then warmth began to return, emanating from the center of their group. The mage, who moments ago had been nearly consumed by ice, erupted with raw power. 

Benjen turned to see El kneeling in the middle of his ruined ritual circle, half his torso gone, one arm missing, blood streaming from his nose, eyes, and ears like crimson tears.

And then El threw back his head and laughed - a sound of pure madness that echoed across the frozen wasteland as if he'd glimpsed some cosmic joke after almost dying mere moments ago.

"We're leaving!" El finally declared after he was done laughing.

He let out the breath he had been holding. Thankfully, whatever had happened to El, he was still sane enough to make that call.

All of them finally reached their original position and held the line as the spell snapped them out of their stupor. When the earth started shaking again, he gritted his teeth, hoping the dead wouldn't return, but thankfully, that didn't happen.

What happened instead was that the frozen river in front of them shattered, and from it emerged a creature so large that he knew it would give him nightmares for years to come. The ice cracked and split as something massive erupted from the frozen surface. At first, his mind couldn't process what he was seeing - it was like watching a tower rise from beneath the ice. But towers don't have mouths.

The creature's circular maw gaped open, wider than any natural thing should be. Inside its mouth were endless spear-like teeth, arranged in concentric rings that seemed to go on forever. Its dark shade completely contrasted with the winter landscape, making it abundantly clear that this thing did not belong here. Water and chunks of ice cascaded down its hide as it rose higher and higher, blocking out what little sunlight filtered through the overcast sky.

He could feel the vibrations of its movement through the ice beneath his feet, each tremor a reminder of how small they all were compared to this beast. The sound it made - a horrible grinding noise like massive sheets of ice being crushed - reverberated through his chest.

Time seemed to slow as its massive head towered above them, that endless mouth descending like the entrance to some nightmare realm. 

In that moment, all he could hope was that this was one of El's pets and not something the Others had unleashed upon them.

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A/N: If you wish to read ahead you can find 8 more chapters on my Pa treon