Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 271: Stark Family Crypt

A dozen zombies hugged each other into a three-layer thick meat ball, which was thrown into the sky from outside the city by a giant catapult that was dragged here from somewhere in the snow by a dozen zombie cows.

What is amazing is that there are special ghosts among the wights who have the memory of controlling the catapults and can adjust the direction. After two rounds of test firing, they accurately found the angle to send the wight ball into the Winterfell Castle.

Another meat ball consisting of a dozen zombies was thrown out from outside the city, passed through the tall city wall, and landed in the castle's sacred forest.

When they landed, the outermost layer of ghouls fell apart almost instantly, their bones were broken, their bodies deformed, and they were even torn apart by the impact. But when the impact eased, the ghouls separated immediately, and the ghouls whose bodies were still intact immediately ran away in a certain direction. The ghouls whose bodies were broken could only move randomly on the spot. When the castle guards chasing them arrived, they were burned to death in the flames.

Judging from the actions of those zombies that did not fall apart during the impact, this air raid directly into the castle was not used for unnecessary harassment, intimidation or indiscriminate killing.

The other side has a commander, and this commander is undoubtedly very familiar with the internal structure of the castle.

The wights that escaped before the guards arrived had a clear destination, gathering mainly in two directions, one was the crypt of Winterfell, and the other was the deep courtyard with trees planted near the main castle of Winterfell.

The enemy's knowledge of the castle's interior structure was obviously a little behind the times. After the burning of Winterfell, except for the Godswood, the trees and flowers in other courtyards were basically burned clean. So even though the stone throwing point was very accurate, with a deviation of only 40 to 50 feet, the first few batches of wights landed in the military camp occupying the empty courtyard, causing only some commotion, and were quickly killed by the soldiers who reacted with the advantage of numbers and fire. Only by luck did some of them land in the empty courtyard and escape.

The enemy was not rigid and quickly adjusted the trebuchet to the spacious Godswood of Winterfell. Although this place was open, it was easy for the defenders to kill and eliminate it after they found it. But before the enemy could react, many wights had already avoided the guards, and in the chaos caused by some wights with broken limbs suicidal attacks on the defenders, they hid in the castle. Once the number was sufficient, they would launch a focused attack on the target location.

In fact, when fighting against the wights, as a commander on the human side, people will find that the attacks of the White Walkers and the zombie tides are based on tactics. They are not brainless creatures that only know how to use group and sea of ​​corpses tactics in one wave.

Charging into the zombie tidal wave is the most stupid tactic. It all depends on numbers. If you win, it's fine, but if you lose, you just lie down on the ground and say you tried your best. Isn't that ridiculous?

Speaking of funny things, there is a "funny" scene happening outside Winterfell right now.

"What?! That's--" On the southern wall of Winterfell, the commander was looking down at the enemy's staggered attacks. He had already repelled two waves of zombies with rockets, stones, and burning oil. However, this third wave of "zombies" was a "herd of sheep?"

As the commander's garrison prepared for the third round of attack with trepidation and looked fearfully at the shadows in the snow, they saw thousands of sheep emerging from the blizzard and slowly approaching the city wall. A black humor that made their brains crash for a short time spread on the city wall.

"What the hell?" The commander felt a mixture of amusement and worry. "What do they want to do?"

Sheep are the favorite livestock of Westeros farmers. They are docile and full of treasures. Their wool can be plucked to make cold-proof clothing, their meat can be used to fill the stomach, and they can also be sold for money.
God knows how many farmers the White Walkers slaughtered in the North and how many villages they collected such large flocks of sheep from.

The sheep's eyes now glowed with a strange blue light, indicating that they were undoubtedly corpses controlled by the White Walkers.

What does the other side intend to do with these harmless sheep?
"attack!"

But no matter what the enemy sent up, they could not be allowed to get close to the city walls. The commander ordered an attack.

The catapults, oil barrels, asphalt and giant crossbows used to deal with the zombie tide were also used to deal with the thousands of sheep divided into several groups.

Soon, the defenders found out what the sheep were here for.

When the defenders' trebuchets started to work, they began to charge. It must be said that at this moment on the battlefield, the charge of thousands of sheep was much more novel than the tide of zombies.

Thousands of sheep were divided into several groups and piles in a stair-like shape, charging towards the same target from different directions.

"Damn it, it's the city gate! Concentrate on rolling the oil barrels to the front of the city gate to form a wall of fire to prevent them from rushing into the city gate!"

Yes, the target of the attack by thousands of corpse sheep was the city gate.

At this time, the commander only realized that the flock of sheep was going to attack the city gate, but he did not understand what threat the flock of sheep could pose to the city gate.

But the defenders who received the order reacted quickly. The angle of the catapult was difficult to adjust, so they adjusted the giant crossbow, rolled down the oil barrels from the tower on the city gate, and threw them in front of the city gate.

When the flock of sheep rushed to the archers' position, rockets from the city wall shot towards the flock like meteors. The ignited sheep could still see that they could continue to charge for a distance. The commander finally screamed.

He already knew what the sheep were here for.

"Quick, send someone to block the city gate!"

The so-called blocking is to block the city gate from behind with bricks and stones and the earth pile that has been dug out with great difficulty. This situation is usually a defensive measure when the enemy's siege equipment is sufficient to threaten the city gate, but the defenders are not strong enough to defend the city gate.

In other words, the commander on the city wall judged that these thousands of sheep would pose a threat to breaking through the city gate.

His judgment was correct. These thousands of sheep posed a much greater threat to the city gate than an ordinary tide of zombies.

I could see that a flock of sheep had already rushed to the city gate, crossing the fence formed by the barricades. These sheep, with a thick layer of wool for the winter, actually ignored the wall of fire from the burning oil barrels and rushed over directly, with flames all over their bodies, like hellhounds, rushing to the gate in front of the gate and slamming into it.

One, two, ten, a hundred.
The flock of sheep seemed to be performing a suicide ritual, rushing towards the city gate with flames, piling up one by one to form burning sheep piles and sheep mountains.

The strange smell of barbecue spread through the city walls, making people swallow their saliva, but at the same time, it also made people terrified.

Hundreds of sheep piled up outside the city gate to form a mountain of blazing sheep. The flesh of the sheep that had turned into zombies became flammable, and once ignited would burn out in a very short time. However, the thick wool on the sheep's bodies during the winter provided them with a buffer, allowing a large number of them to break through the flame defenses of the city wall, rush to the city gate, and then burn with the heat of their flesh.

The heavy steel-clad city gate became scorching hot under the fierce flames of the sheep's suicide attack.

In the gate inside the city wall, the soldiers who were desperately carrying bricks and sandbags from the inner wall tower to block the gate of the outer city wall looked on in horror as the steel sheet wrapped in oak emitted an orange light, the gate began to deform, and emitted the unique burnt smell of oak.

The gate began to smoke.

Someone was desperately using buckets to draw water from the moat and pour it on the gate, but this was actually accelerating the deformation of the gate.

In the terrifying atmosphere of heat, the south gate finally lost its adhesion to the wall connected to the gate under the burning heat and collapsed. Under the deformation, the gate could not withstand the weight and was seriously offset from the city wall.

This majestic gate made of steel and oak has lost its defensive effectiveness.

The defenders never imagined that the first threat to them since the zombie tide attacked were thousands of docile livestock in the eyes of humans - sheep.

But things had already happened, and they could only frantically move bricks, stones and soil from the inner city to completely seal the south gate.

The army of the dead will not give the defenders any room to breathe, as the next wave of zombies is approaching.

The corpse ghosts had an astonishing burning efficiency. Soon, all the sheep piled up at the city gate were burned into charcoal and dry bones. Finally, one of the gates could not withstand the deformation, collapsed into the sheep's corpses, and burned.

From this moment on, the defense of the south side will become a race against time to see whether the army of the White Walkers will be able to break through the fire defense and attack the city gate and rush in first, or whether the defenders at the city gate will seal the city gate and block the entrance first.

When the messenger from the South Gate ran to the city lord's hall and informed the city lord and various commanders of this information and requested manpower support, because the burial mound prepared was insufficient due to the situation and they asked the city lord for bricks and burial mound to seal the door opening, almost everyone felt like they were listening to a humorous joke.

Sansa sat on the main seat with her eyes wide open, speechless.

Edmure couldn't help but ask, "You mean, the White Walker army used sheep to break through the south gate?"

The messenger looked panicked and frightened: "Yes, sir."

Petyr, who was beside Sansa, wanted to make a witty remark, but when he saw that the commanders in the hall all looked unhappy, he suppressed the urge to show his "sense of humor".

Edmure responded immediately and looked at the messengers on other city walls: "Have any of the other city gates found any damn sheep?"

Everyone else shook their heads.

Sir Lynn said: "If I had known earlier, I should have set up more barricades outside the city gate, or dug traps."

Lady Barbare, who had already pledged allegiance to Aegon and Sansa, snorted. "That's easy to say. The ground outside the city is frozen. The North doesn't have geothermal heat like you have in the south or in Winterfell Castle. I dare say you can't dig a pit even if you break your hoes and shovels."

"Now is not the time for sarcasm." Sansa stood up. "Uncle Edmure, you are now our elected supreme commander of Winterfell. Please give the order."

What order to give.

Edmure felt a headache. If he had known this, he should have asked Brynden to come. Brynden had rich war experience and high prestige, unlike himself who was only a nominal commander. Edmure thought to himself that he would rather go to the top of the city than deal with these lords who were talking nonsense.

"The most urgent task is to seal the south gate. There are reserve troops on standby in the castle. My suggestion is to quickly send a group of people to the godswood. Each person has to dig a bag of soil and rush to the south gate to help seal the gate." Edmure immediately ordered, "Ser Lynn, please take your reserve troops in the valley and go to the south wall to cooperate with Lord Blackwood to defend the south wall. Earl Glover, you go to the east gate in person and find the commander of the eastern coalition and Greyjoy's troops. Tell them the emergency situation at the south wall and let them be prepared. Also, if you judge that the wall cannot be defended, you can tell them to let the civilians and the army retreat into the castle."

"Yes!" Everyone who received the order gave Edmure, the commander-in-chief, a certain respect.

But just as we finished dealing with one urgent matter, another one soon came up.

But it was Maegor Mormont who hurried over and whispered something in Sansa's ear.

Sansa's face turned pale. She stood up and said, "Uncle, please allow me to take away a group of northern knights. The wights that were thrown in by stones have escaped into the tombs of the Stark family. I have to deal with this matter personally."

Edmure was overwhelmed: "Will it be enough to bring only the northern knights?"

Everyone in the hall looked at Sansa, each with a puzzled expression.

Sansa's face turned terribly pale. She knew that everyone was thinking the same thing as her: Could it be that the Northern kings of the Stark family were going to rise from their coffins?

But she suppressed her panic: "There are enough people in the North. Lord Maggie, Lord Wylis." After hesitating for a moment, Sansa turned her head and looked back, skipping Lady Barbaree and Lord Rodrik Lacewell. "Please gather the people and follow me."

"Yes, Lady Sansa!"

At this moment, someone suddenly spoke with a strange accent and a low voice: "Please let me go with you, Lady Sansa."

Sansa turned around and saw Lord Howland Reed of the Reed family in Greywater. Ever since Reed brought his men to Winterfell and arranged for the weird-looking Marshlanders to stay in the winter town outside the city, Sansa had almost forgotten about this man who was always silent, rarely expressed his opinions, and had a very low sense of existence.

Howland Reed is the only survivor of Eddard Stark's Battle of the Tower of Joy. Sansa once tried to find him to ask about the story of that year, because Eddard almost never told the children about his heroic deeds sung by bards - Eddard Stark and six companions defeated three legendary iron guards, Gerold "The White Bull" Hightower, Arthur "Sword of the Dawn" Dayne, and Oswell the River at the Tower of Joy, and afterwards traveled thousands of miles to return the giant sword "Dawn" of "Sword of the Dawn" to the Dayne family.

Eddard was very secretive about this legendary story and never mentioned it. Unless they heard it from others, almost none of the Stark children knew about it.

Howland Reed received the summons from Stark and the Targaryen royal family represented by Aegon before the Long Night, after Stark recaptured Winterfell. He and his family of more than a thousand men, women, and children moved to Winterfell with their families. He also brought back Maegor Mormont and Galbert Glover. But after arriving here, the Marshlanders were confined to a small area in the winter town, and basically no one interacted with them. Only Howland Reed and his army of more than a hundred small Marshlanders wearing leaves and weirwood bark clothes were stationed in the courtyard at the edge of the castle.

These days, Sansa almost forgot that she had such a person under her command.

Sansa covered up her embarrassment that she had almost forgotten about him: "Lord Reed, it is very kind of you to come with us."

There are not many people in the North who believe in the Seven Gods. Apart from the Manderly family, there are very few knights who are anointed with holy oil. Only some warriors who abide by their loyal duties will be given the title of honorary knights.

Sansa quickly recruited seven loyal Northern honor knights through several family leaders and knights, and set off towards the Stark family's crypt.

These seven people are Howland of House Reed, Maegor and Alysanne of House Mormont, Wylis and Brandon of House Manderly, Laurence Snow, the illegitimate son of House Hornwood, and Cuckin Wull of the Wull clan in the northern mountains.

The interior of the crypt was narrow and even a large number of people could not spread out. The common feature of these summoned and selected honorary knights was that they were not afraid of life and death and were committed to keeping secrets - just like Howland Reed, who never told anyone about the Battle of the Tower of Joy, only because he had promised Eddard Stark to take the secret into the grave.

The journey would be dangerous as the wights swarmed into the crypts. Even Sansa got a set of mail and plate armor from the female warriors of the Mormont family and wore it.

But just as they walked out of the hall and up the corridor of the castle with torches held high, they heard a commotion and screams from behind.

"Be careful in the dark!"

"Somebody come!"

"Guard the hall door!"

It sounded like a group of zombies were groping their way to the back door of the City Lord's Hall in the dark of night and were attacking it.

Sansa stopped nervously when she heard the sound, and the team of eight followed her and stopped on the bridge passage.

Maegor Mormont, who was guarding Sansa closely on both sides with her daughter Alysanne, leaned closer and called softly, "Lady Sansa?"

Sansa came back to her senses, looked at Maggie gratefully, quickly calmed down, and cleared her throat: "They'll be fine, let's go."

Passing through the bridge between the towers, the group of eight soon arrived at the crypt of Winterfell.

When they arrived, there were already seven or eight Tully soldiers surrounding the outside. They raised torches and asked the newcomers, "Who are you?" When they saw it was Sansa, they calmed down again, "Miss Sansa, you are finally here. Lady Catelyn and her three guards couldn't wait to go in first. The lady wouldn't let us go in with you."

Sansa didn't know what to say: "Thank you for your hard work. Guard this place. Don't let anyone in and don't disturb the souls of the ancestors of the Stark family."

After saying this, Sansa felt a little regretful. She should have only said the first half of the sentence and then went in directly. Saying too much would only make things more obvious.

Gazing at the seemingly eternal darkness in the crypt door, Sansa thought inexplicably: In addition to her father, there are her father's sister Lyanna and brother Brandon, her father's father Rickard, Rickard's father Adler, the Dukes of Winterfell and their brothers going back three hundred years, and even Duke Creggan who dueled with the dragon rider, and Torrhen Stark, the "surrendered king" who bowed to Aegon.

Going back further, there are the northern kings who have ruled the North for thousands of years. Some of them are famous, some have committed heinous crimes, some have been good all their lives, and some have done nothing. Edwin, the Spring King, Theon Stark, the Wolf, Brandon the Shipburner and Brandon the Shipwright, Jorah and Janos, Brandon the Wicked, Walton, the Moon King, Arion, the Bridegroom, Elrond, Benjen, the Sweet and Benjen, Edric the Snowbeard King.
Sansa led the way, leading the seven knights she had chosen into the crypts. This was the resting place for the dead, the dark hall for the dead, and a terrifying place that hated the living.

Holding torches, they walked down the spiral staircase deeper into the darkness, their footsteps gradually getting farther and farther away until they disappeared completely.

"Ancestors, please forgive me." Sansa prayed to all the souls in the crypt in her heart, "The movement of ghosts has disturbed your rest. I must lead these living people to eliminate the invading undead!"

Sansa led the way, weaving through the corridors between the stone pillars. The cold air underground was so cold that even the torches in hand felt cold. Seven honor knights followed behind Sansa silently, holding torches and swords tightly, and watching the dark corners of the huge mausoleum vigilantly.

The footsteps echoed in the huge mausoleum, and the successive lords of Winterfell were watching them.

When she walked to Robb's sarcophagus and found that it was closed, and the iron sword placed on Robb's knees was still intact with no signs of being taken away, Sansa breathed a sigh of relief in her heart.

At least this meant that she didn't have to worry about the worst thing happening, and the ghost that escaped didn't cause the corpse to rise from the coffin.

Then all we have to worry about is the ghosts that wantonly disturb the rest of the Lord of Winterfell.

"They did not stop at Robb's place. It seems they went deeper into the crypt."

Sansa spoke, her purpose in saying this was to reassure the honorable knights who had followed her in, suggesting that their worst suspicions had not come true.

Holding up the torch, the mausoleum continued to extend forward and sink into the darkness. Most of the space beyond it was empty and had not been sealed yet.

These vacancies are reserved for future lords and children of Winterfell.

Sansa suddenly thought that it was unlikely that she would be buried here, but Arya, Bran, and Rickon -

No! She felt uncomfortable when she thought of this. She concealed part of the truth when she asked Uncle Edmure for someone in the Lord's Hall. Maggie told her that it was Rickon who ran into the tomb first and pushed open the solid tomb door of the iron birch. The wights came to chase Rickon, and her mother Catelyn also came to chase Rickon.

瑞肯
The crypt was cold and dark. Sansa and her group walked along the passage until they reached the spiral staircase leading to the lower level.

The crypt of Winterfell is the oldest area of ​​the castle. It has many floors, connected by narrow and winding stone spiral staircases. It is said that this large and deep crypt is larger than Winterfell itself, extending deep into the dark underground.

"There are traces here. Very recent." Holland Reed examined the traces underground as if he were tracking prey.

"They went further down."

It is easy to draw this conclusion based on the traces on the ground and the broken spider webs.

The downward passage seemed like a dark monster with its mouth wide open into emptiness.

Sansa's steps were firm: "We must catch up as soon as possible."

Footsteps echoed in the tombs of the dead, shadows followed the light, and the long white flames of torches passed over the stone statues of deceased Starks.

When you go down to the third floor.

"It smells of asphalt." Sir Willis sniffed.

Sansa motioned for him to lead. Ser Wylis stepped forward in silence, following the scent. Soon they found a can of bitumen left beside a statue of a direwolf of a northern king named Brandon, with black stains falling under the dust, and the swords of several dukes missing from their knees.

Willis quickly judged, "It's not new. It's been a while. Madam and the others must have gone to a deeper floor."

Sansa replied: "Then continue. There is only one route through the passage, and you will always find someone along the passage."

The towering granite pillars and tall stone statues of lords, which had been sleeping in the darkness for who knows how many years, were illuminated by the light of the torches, but were quickly swallowed up by the cold darkness again.

The crypt was deep and dark. The further you went down, the temperature you felt had a strange curve. At first, in the first few floors, the temperature gradually increased as you went down. The feeling of rising temperature was not warmth. The crypt was never warm. It was just warmer than the crypt courtyard, which was one of the few snowy courtyards in Winterfell under the cover of the long night.

Underground, the cold is constant.

But starting from a certain level, the coldness in the tomb became increasingly chilly, even colder than the wilderness outside in the long night, penetrating through the thick fur into people's skin and into their hearts.

Sansa and her group walked for a long time and began to sweat, but the breath they exhaled condensed into white mist in the torches.

It's already very deep here. How deep underground have Rickon, the wights, and Catelyn gone?
"Listen, there's a sound!"

At a certain level, the short Holland Reed suddenly cried out.

The footsteps stopped instantly.

Sure enough, from the spiral staircase leading to the next level, they heard the sound of shouting and the clinking of swords, which came near and far.

"under!"

The Knights of Honor did not attack immediately. Instead, they stopped, took out the small fuel cans they carried from their waists, and smeared a layer of fuel and asphalt mixture on the lower edge of the torch head. The asphalt began to burn, and the color of the torch changed from light yellow to an orange glow like sunlight.

"go!"

Sansa went from being in the front row to being protected in the middle.

They went down to the lower level, and sure enough, in front of the long arched tunnel of the mausoleum, there were figures with long shadows grappling with each other, and there were burning corpses of ghosts on the ground, and amazing fireworks were erupting.

"Mother!" Sansa cried.

"Lady Sansa!" Catelyn's translator and guard Harwin responded, "Come and help!"

The knights immediately took action and rushed to the battle.

In front, the tall Brienne was wrestling with three sword-wielding ghosts. Brienne held a torch in one hand and a long sword in the other, fighting and retreating.

There were already three burning corpses of ghosts on the ground, and a tall woman covering her lower body with blood stains on the ground.

It looked like an ambush.

The men brought by Sansa quickly joined the battle. The tunnel of the mausoleum was already very wide, but only three people could stand side by side, and it was even more impossible to deploy. However, the advantage in numbers was here after all. Brienne got support and immediately pulled the three wights into three small battlefields with the warriors of the North. Then the wights, who were no match for four hands, were eliminated by the human side with the advantage in numbers.

As soon as Brienne got rid of the wights, she said anxiously, "Master Rickon is still ahead! I saw him pass by!"

"careful!"

Just as Brienne was about to move forward, a cold light suddenly struck her from the front.

She heard the warning and reacted quickly, holding the sword across her body.

There was a loud clang of weapons clashing, and several sparks flew. It turned out that it was the downward passage ahead, and a corpse ghost directly threw the sharp blade on the knee of a northern king in the mausoleum as a projectile.

Just as Brienne was about to fight back, a voice came from behind: "Make way!"

A rocket whizzed through the tunnel toward the sword-throwing wight, and it turned out to be Howland Reed, with a pale weirwood shortbow slung across his back and a rocket.

Unfortunately, the arrow failed to hit the corpse ghost occupying the entrance to the downward passage. Seeing the bad situation, it simply shrank back, and the arrow was nailed to the granite wall.

The flames were not extinguished yet, illuminating the entrance of the passage where several dark shadows occupied the passage, ready to strike.

"Raise your shields! Forward!" Willis and Brandon from the Manderlay family both carried shields on their backs. They immediately took off their shields and placed them across their left hands. They held torches in their right hands and shields in their left hands. "Follow me!"

Brienne, Culkin, Lawrence and several others who had just dealt with the wights made way, letting two knights with shields lead the way, and they followed closely behind.

Holland Reed was too short, so he had no choice but to put away his bow and arrow and follow closely.

The warriors pressed forward, and Sansa was left with only Mormont and her daughter as guards. Sansa finally had time to ask, "Mother, what happened to Rickon?"

Catelyn hissed, "We must find him as soon as possible!" Harwin translated for her.

"His soul." At this time, a weak voice came from the mouth of the woman lying in a pool of blood, "The boy's soul is in his direwolf. He should not have turned back. Evil has invaded his soul, and evil servants have controlled him."

"You're talking nonsense!" Caitlin yelled excitedly at the woman on the ground.

Harwin wondered for a moment whether he should translate it.

Sansa felt the air freeze and asked quickly: "You are injured, are you okay?"

The woman looked at Sansa with a pale face: "Daughter of Stark, you know what you should do, you know what is right." Catelyn shouted: "She is injured, her mind is not clear, and she is talking nonsense! Don't believe her, Sansa!"

Harwin hesitated and translated for Sansa.

Sansa was confused for a moment. She instinctively looked at the Mormont mother and daughter and changed the subject: "Maegy, can she be saved?"

Maege Mormont responded, stooping to examine the wound she was covering.

The woman was not wearing mail underneath. There was a horrific wound on her stomach, from which black blood was flowing. Her thigh was also wounded, and the blood had soaked through her woolen trousers.

"Ha. No need to look. I'm dying, daughter of Stark." The woman said weakly, "But it's not bad to die here. It was here a few years ago that your Stark brothers and I hid for a long time. The boy was always disobedient and willful. He wanted to go out, ride a pony, and eat apple cake, butter and honey."

"Save your energy and don't talk so much." Maggie looked at her calmly, "What's your name?"

"Osha." She answered, and after a long pause, she stared at the dome of the mausoleum and let out a long breath, "Remember. Get my body out. Burn it. Uh--"

After she finished speaking, the woman named Osha stopped breathing and her pupils gradually dilated.

She is dead.

Sansa bit her lip and stood there at a loss with her hands. She felt like she should say something or do something, but nothing happened.

Maggie reached out her hand and gently closed Osha's eyes: "May the old gods show you mercy."

Lady Catelyn coldly turned her eyes away from the dead woman and said, "Don't worry about her. Catch up with them and save Rickon!" After that, without waiting for anyone to react, she chased after the knights who had occupied the entrance to the spiral staircase in front of her.

Harwin winked at Sansa and said, "My lady asked everyone to rescue Rickon as soon as possible." Then he hurried to catch up.

The warriors brought by Sansa and Brienne were all fierce men. Relying on shields and torches, they continuously pushed back the wights occupying the entrance of the passage, and forced them to the lower level.

Then they fought in the relatively empty vaulted tunnel on the lower level.

This seems to be the legendary bottom layer.

Not far away from the passage, you can see the mausoleum tunnel which had partially collapsed many years ago. The huge fragments of granite pillars and the collapsed dome rocks buried the passage where the mausoleum extended.

What no one expected was that there were actually twelve wights gathered below, but strangely, there was still no sign of Rickon Stark.

Sansa, Catelyn and the others wanted to go down, but were blocked in the narrow spiral staircase.

All that could be heard was the clanging sounds of fighting on the lower level and the roars and shouts of several soldiers.

Sansa was behind Harwin and could see her mother Catelyn in front of her being blocked by Howland Reed, who was occupying the exit and shooting arrows.

"You're afraid of fire, right?"

"Taste the fire, you bastard!"

The fight lasted for a while, and Howland Reed finally made way, and Catelyn immediately rushed out of the passage.

Sansa hurried to follow.

Although the bodies of several wights were burning on the ground, as soon as Sansa entered the tomb, she felt the chill in the cellar, which was terribly cold.

A cold wind from an unknown source was blowing in gusts from the direction of the collapsed tunnel.

The battle was not over yet, but the wights were suppressed by the honorary knights brought by Sansa and the tall Brienne, and had no power to fight back. They were divided into two directions and pressed forward step by step.

Some people were stabbed by swords a few times, but they were all wearing armor and there were no fatal injuries.

Only Lawrence, the illegitimate son of the Horwood family, had his arm injured and was bleeding, perhaps because the mountain clan member Ke Jin who cooperated with him was not in sync, or perhaps because they had no shields.

On the other side of the tunnel, two knights from House Manderly held shields in front, with Brienne following closely behind. Although there were obviously more wights on their side, they displayed a more powerful momentum than the other side.

As the situation improved, the wights were forced to retreat, and the two female warriors from House Mormont were able to join the battle, and the wights were quickly wiped out.

When the numbers are not enough to crush them, these zombies are no match for these human warriors in armor.

With only minor injuries, the human warriors defeated the wights that swarmed into the Stark family crypt.

Seeing the battle was over, Catelyn couldn't help but yell, "Where's Rickon? Why isn't he here?"

"The wind comes from here." At this time, Holland Reed's voice came from the direction of the collapsed tunnel.

Everyone's eyes followed his voice and saw the short swamp chief leaning over and shining his torch towards a narrow passage formed at the corner of the collapsed tunnel.

Catelyn leaned forward madly to look, and she shouted hoarsely, "It must be here. Rickon must have been afraid of these ghosts and crawled in here." Her guard Harwin repeated her words to everyone.

"Brienne put her web-covered head in. The opening was too narrow. I'm afraid only children and thin people could crawl through it." As she spoke, the big girl shouted, "Rickon! Don't be afraid, it's us! The wights have been dealt with!"

"I can crawl in!" Caitlin gestured, and then the mother, who was close to madness, took off her thick woolen coat, leaving only the silk lining inside.

Sansa gasped when she saw the look on her mother Catelyn's face.

Catelyn was born in the Tully family, so she was tall. In Sansa's memory, her mother had a plump and beautiful figure. But at this moment, after taking off her sweater, her mother was frighteningly thin. Her figure could not support the noblewoman's clothes under the cold-proof woolen clothes. Her body seemed to be only a skeleton, and she was thin and dry, like a dried corpse.

“No, my lady!” Brienne stopped her. “There must be another way!”

"Don't stop me!" She raised the dragonbone-hilted dagger in her hand and pointed it at Brienne. "There is no other way. This is the only way! Get out of the way!" Her voice was excited, and her throat made a terrifying hissing sound. "I said, get out of the way!"

I saw tears of blood in the eyes of this crazy mother.

Brienne gritted her teeth and made way.

All the knights were silent and looked away, unable to bear to look in that direction.

"Ma'am!" Howland Reed called to Catelyn, "I can go in. Let me find the way for you first."

Sansa walked closer and looked at the cave entrance intently. Both Mormont and her daughter were very tall. Although Alysanne was not too old, she was not called "She-Bear" randomly. Her legs and arms were huge and strong, her hands were covered with calluses and had thick hair. She looked like a sturdy she-bear.

Sansa was fifteen years old, and her figure had gradually grown, but she had the experience of hiding in a box. Sansa roughly estimated, and then said, "I can, too, mother. I will go with you."

Caitlin turned around, the blood and tears on her face sliding down to the corners of her mouth, and she hissed, "No! You stay here!"

"I am Sansa Stark. As a Stark, I cannot allow my brother to go ahead in front of the Stark ancestors, while my brave warriors and my mother take risks, and I hide behind."

This statement speaks volumes.

Catelyn looked at Sansa angrily: "Even you don't listen to me?!"

Sansa didn't know what Catelyn said, but she knew it was definitely not her consent, and her stubborn temper came up: "I am a Stark, mother!"

Caitlin clenched the dagger in her hand, her knuckles turning white. After a long pause, she replied coldly, "You're behind me!"

No one had any objection. No matter what was behind the Stark family's crypt, it should be dealt with by the Stark family.

Holland Reed actually had a rope with him. He left his weapon at this end and nimbly moved through the narrow tunnel little by little with the rope.

The collapsed tunnel was ten feet long, and Howland Reed took dozens of breaths to reach the other end. He relit the torch with a flint at the end and shouted, "I didn't see Rickon, there's still a long way to go."

As he spoke, he pulled his fish beam wood bow, quiver and bronze short sword over with a rope. Catelyn also put the dagger into Howland Reed's sword, and then crawled into the tunnel without saying a word.

She was even faster than Howland Reed.

Finally, it was Sansa's turn. She had already taken off her coat. She was left with only the mail lining and three layers of woolen clothes underneath. During this short wait, she was so cold that her face turned blue.

It was Sansa's turn. She was the biggest of the three, but luckily she managed to get over there bit by bit by leaning against the wall.

Finally, they used a rope to pull the taken-off coat, torch and the Valyrian steel sword lent to her by Brienne over here, and then Howland Reed, Sansa and her daughter had to walk on their own.

While Sansa was putting on her coat, she discovered by the light of the fire that the collapsed part of the tomb passage looked completely different from the other side when viewed from this side. Weathered marks of hammering and chiseling could be seen, and these marks seemed to tell her that the collapse here was not natural, but man-made.

Sansa glanced carefully at Howland Reed, who was already in front holding a torch to check the road ahead, and then glanced at her mother Catelyn. She was not sure and tacitly did not ask them whether they had seen these traces.

Walking between the stone pillars, Sansa raised the torch and looked at the names of the Kings of the North one by one.

"Brandon", "Jon", "Theon" and "Rickard" appear back and forth, with Brandon appearing the most.

When they were finally far away from the collapsed section behind, Sansa couldn't help asking, "Lord Holland, please forgive me, but you and my mother seem to know what happened to my brother Rickon in front, right?"

Holland and Caitlin stopped at the same time.

Caitlin said nothing.

Howland frowned and glanced at Catelyn. "I'm sorry, Lady Sansa. I don't know if you know that people from the Reed family can dream green dreams. A few days ago, I dreamed that a blizzard surrounded Winterfell. I also saw terrible ice and snow pouring out from the ground, freezing the castle. The yard was full of frozen people and black shadows. I should find a chance to tell you, but I don't think the people around you can be trusted."

"A blizzard surrounds Winterfell? Ice and snow are pouring out from the ground?" Sansa swallowed. "These are all very bad omens, right?"

Holland shut up.

"Nonsense!" Caitlin screamed.

But neither Sansa nor Howland could understand the meaning of her voice, they could only feel her anger.

"Mother. What on earth is Rickon—"

Sansa was confused and was about to say something else.

Suddenly, a strong cold wind blew from the front.

What happened before?
"what!"

The flames went out in the cold wind, and the vision fell into darkness. Sansa couldn't help but scream out.

Someone grabbed her hand in the darkness, and there was a burning warmth in the dry fingers. It was Caitlin.

Then Sansa heard the sound of fumbling fingers, and then the sound of iron hitting stone.

"Wait! Lord Reed, look ahead."

In the cold darkness of the tunnel, Sansa saw a faint blue light flickering in the tunnel dozens of steps away, as if breathing.

No one spoke in the darkness.

"What is that?" Sansa asked again.

"We will find out." The answer came from the other side.

The sound of iron hitting stone started again, again and again, sparks flew out and fell on the torch, and the torch, which had just been extinguished but still had heat, was instantly ignited.

Howland's strange crannogman face loomed beside the fire, and then the torches alternated, lighting Sansa's and Catelyn's. Three flames bloomed again in the darkness.

The darkness ahead was like the gaping mouth of a dark beast, but with Holland leading the way, they still approached the location of the faint blue light step by step.

"Hiss~" When she got closer, Sansa saw the source of the blue light and couldn't help but gasp.

"No!" Caitlin screamed.

It turned out that Rickon's body was covered with a thick layer of blue ice. The boy had taken off all his clothes and was completely naked, wrapped in blue ice.

Rickon's forehead seemed to be cut by some sharp object, and blood was flowing out, and the blood was a strange blue color.

The black ice completely wrapped around Rickon, emitting a cold light with every breath, just like his breathing.

But looking at where Rickon was, there was a Northern king named "Brandon". In the light of the fire, the end of the crypt could be vaguely seen. This Northern monarch should be the nth or tenth monarch of the Stark family.

His stone statue is so old that its appearance is difficult to recognize.

But he was different from all the northern monarchs. On his knees was a moon-white ice sword that seemed to respond to the ice on Rickon's body, emitting a faint blue light and a chilling air. Just one look at the blade that was as thin as a razor blade would tell that the sword was extremely sharp.

The sarcophagus of the northern monarch named Brandon has been pried open, revealing only a pile of rotten bones.

However, it was only then that Sansa discovered that Rickon was curled up naked in the black ice, with his hands clenched tightly, obviously holding something in his hands.

Sansa asked in her own distorted voice, "What's going on?"

Howland Reed took an arrow with a strange black arrowhead from his quiver and, without saying a word, poked it into the black ice that wrapped around Rickon.

The arrow began to hiss and emit white steam, as if the ice had come to life and was sweating.

Sansa's eyes widened in surprise.

But the next second, a violent cold air burst out, and the flame of the torch flickered in the cold air. Rickon in the black ice had a tense expression, as if he was suffering from some kind of pain.

Howland Reed continued in silence, ready to poke with the strange arrow.

"No!" The dagger flashed white light and blocked Holland, "You can't! You're hurting Rickon!"

"Ma'am! Please be reasonable. Your child Rickon is dead. What's wrapped in here is..." Holland paused and said, "a monster."

"No!" Caitlin pushed Holland away and held the dagger in front of her. "He is my child, you can't hurt him!"

Sansa was shivering from the sudden burst of cold air. The Valyrian sword in her hand fell to the ground with a clang. Only the torch in her other hand was still tightly held. "Mother, Lord Reed," she said tremblingly, "Let's talk it over. There must be another way!"

"There is no other way!" said Howland, his tone grim, and he stepped forward. "My lady, please move aside. Neither you nor Lady Sansa deserve the sin of kinslaying. Please let me—"

"No!" The dagger swung, reflecting a cruel white light under the torchlight.

Catelyn knew that they couldn't hear what she said, and she also knew that she was the only one who cared about Rickon's life or death. This made her extremely anxious and uneasy, and this anxiety and uneasiness made her resentful and urged her to do anything irrational.

She stabbed Howland Reed with the dagger!
"Ah——" Howland Reed actually had a bronze armor under his clothes made of bark and leaves, but he had never noticed that the dagger in Catelyn's hand was made of Valyrian steel.

He was stabbed without dodging, and the dagger was aimed at his chest.

Caitlin was going there for her life.

"No!" Catelyn, mad with anger and resentment, stabbed a few more times, screaming as she stabbed, "Why do you force me! Why don't you listen to me! Why! Why! What did Rickon do wrong? He's just a child!"

Sansa's heart tightened, and she was so frightened by this sudden scene that she stood there with her mouth open, at a loss.

The torch in Sansa's hand fell, along with Howland Reed's limp body and his torch, reflecting the scarlet blood flowing from Howland's chest.

Howland Reed, Lord of Greywater Watch and the only survivor of the Battle of the Tower of Joy who followed Eddard Stark, was killed by Eddard Stark's mad wife Catelyn.

The frantic mother looked at Sansa.

Sansa swallowed the scream that was about to come out, causing her throat to tighten.

"He forced me to do it! He forced me to do it!" The torch in Catelyn's hand illuminated her crazy, inhuman, and hideous face. "Sansa, my daughter! Rickon is your brother! He is your brother!"

Sansa could not understand the meaning of the hissing and shrill voice coming out of her mother's throat. She could only look at Catelyn tremblingly and answered in a trembling voice: "Mom, don't kill me. Don't kill me. Please."

"How could I hurt you!" Catelyn stepped forward, wanting to hug and comfort Sansa, but saw Sansa retreating in panic with a pale face.

"No! It's not like that! It's not like that!" The last bit of affection Catelyn had for Sansa was swallowed up by her inner resentment. She screamed and roared, "What are you afraid of! What are you afraid of! I'm your mother! How could I hurt you! How could I hurt you! I clearly love you! You know how much I love you!"

Her face was covered with blood and tears. She looked at Sansa in great pain, then turned around painfully and looked at her child wrapped in black ice, murmuring: "Rickon, good child, don't be afraid. Mom will come to save you and take you out."

She held the torch to the black ice in an attempt to melt it, but the black ice showed no reaction under the flames, not even a sign of melting.

This made her anxious, angry, burning with hatred, and made her do whatever it takes.

Driven by this anger, the dagger in his hand stabbed fiercely into the black ice.

And that's it.

The terrible sound of hissing filled the tomb for a moment.

"No! No, no, no!" It turned out that the Valyrian steel dagger had pierced into the black ice, causing the black ice to hiss, smoke and dissolve.

The black ice began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the expression on Rickon's face inside the black ice became more and more painful.

Caitlin tried to pull out the dagger, but the dagger pierced deeply into the black ice, and the cold air from the melted black ice wrapped around her hand, causing her hand to strangely lose its strength.

"No! No!" A heart-wrenching scream came from her broken throat, but she could only watch it all and could do nothing.

The ice melted, chaos and blur, and when the ice melted onto Rickon, the boy's flesh did not break free from the ice, but began to melt like the ice.

Sansa was almost numb when she saw this. She saw the white smoke coming out of Rickon's body, which was the blue liquid evaporating from his body. There was no red blood in his flesh and blood, only bones that shone palely like milky glass.

Mother Caitlin was screaming, a horrible hissing sound like a poisonous snake.

Time seemed to be extremely long. Sansa could not tell how long it had been before the strange black ice and Rickon's form no longer existed. They had all melted away, leaving only Catelyn and the dagger with a dragon bone handle in her hand.

The dagger seemed to come alive in the mist, sweating.

"Ah!" The only sound that came out of Caitlin's throat was a meaningless cry of pain.

However, after the mysterious ice mist dissipated, something remained, a black, glowing glass-like object.

Catelyn was no longer able to think, and only instinctively thought that it was the only thing left of her child Rickon in the world. She threw away the dagger and reached out to pick up the black thing.

"No!" The scream was not from Catelyn, but from Sansa.

She saw her mother Caitlin's hands begin to burn with cold blue-white flames, but her mother was completely unaware and was only concerned with putting the strange black vitreous body back into the position of her heart in her chest.

A cold blue-white flame began to spread over Caitlin's body.

The cold in the crypt was even colder, and Sansa's throat felt as if it was frozen.

However, from a certain moment, with a bang, the flame began to explode, and then the flame color changed from a cold blue-white flame to a hot flame with a scorching breath in the blink of an eye.

It is hard to tell whether it is an auditory hallucination, but at the last moment, Sansa heard the voice of her mother Catelyn: "Oh, my poor child."

Then the next second, Caitlin's body went limp and she fell to the ground.

A raging fire began to spread, crawling up Howland Reed's body.

Sansa heard another hissing sound and soon discovered that it was the white ice sword on the knee of the stone statue of Brandon, the King of the North, that was mysteriously melting.

The red flames burning Catelyn and Howland Reed were terrifying, and the heat was terrible. Sansa gradually regained control of her body under this horrific heat wave, and instinctively fled and stayed away.

In just a few dozen heartbeats, the flames had completely burned the bodies of mother Caitlin and Holland.

For a long time afterwards, Sansa was the only one standing there in the crypt after experiencing all the strange things.

At this moment, Sansa was like the investigator in the Cthulhu game who had no information but survived in the end. She was shocked by the series of sudden changes and couldn't calm down for a long time.

(End of this chapter)