Chapter 278: Experiments on White Walkers and Wights
Underground Base, Bolton Lands
POV of Domeric Bolton
A week later.
Domeric looked at the Impure Essence he had separated from the Ice Crystal left behind after the White Walker's death.
The Impure essence of death and cold element looked like a living mist trapped inside the vial.
It moved constantly even when the vial had not been moved for some time, as if trying but failing to find a way out of the closed glass construct.
He observed the vial for a few more minutes, noticing that the area around it was much colder than the room's general temperature.
He brought a Dragonglass shard around the vial and noticed that the mist seemed to want to get away from it, instantly gathering on the opposite side of the glass.
He had done a few experiments before this, and he concluded that it was not the Ice Crystal left behind by the White Walker but the mist contained inside the Ice Crystal that was responsible for distorting the magic in the air and weakening his spells as a result.
So this was the essence of the high-hierarchy magic the White Walkers used.
He was starting to wonder whether he could collect the murky, semi-sentient mist and condense it into solid form.
If he were able to do that, he might create magical distorting chains from it.
Such a thing would definitely give him a massive boost if he wanted to capture the warlocks, priests, or any magical creature in this world and study their magic.
Of course, once the Elemental Moon Core rituals were completed and Domeric placed them around the magical core, he would also possess high-level hierarchy magic. With it, he could suppress the magic of other magical beings.
But if he could do it with the White Walkers' Impure Essence, he wouldn't have to reveal his identity as a wizard. He could just tell everyone he'd used the materials he'd obtained from the White Walkers.
He noted all his observations in the notebook, reflecting on how the White Walkers originated with the First Men in the first place.
The Children of the Forest told him that they created the White Walkers as weapons against humans in desperation. And Lady Terra also mentioned this when they talked.
He had seen what happened to the first White Walkers when the Domeric System became active, and it gave him knowledge of this world's destiny line.
A small group of Greenseers attempted to create a powerful new weapon against the humans.
They bound a captive man to a weirwood and pressed a cursed shard of Dragonglass into his heart. The unfortunate captive was transformed into a cold, heartless, deathless creature whose only desire was to consume all life.
But how could a simple ritual turn the whole structure of a human into that of a crystal that he was now starting to realize was nothing but a holder for this magical mist.
The whole thing seemed too impossible.
But he supposed that any magic he used regularly would also seem impossible to an average human.
"Experiment number 36." He said as he looked at the runes carved in the middle of the room, along with the man lying in the center of those runes.
He placed the vial at the man's feet and closed the whole ritual circle inside a 15-centimeter-thick enchanted glass box.
Not even an RPG rocket would be able to break this glass.
He used magic to remove the cap from the vial, and as if sensing freedom, the White Mist instantly came out of the vial.
It stayed floating in the air without any directions for a few moments before it quickly dove toward the dead man's feet and entered through his legs.
Then everything was silent for a few long minutes during which he didn't remove his eyes from the dead test subject.
Then the leg of the dead subject twitched. He quickly noted it down in a notepad.
The leg twitched a few more times before the eyes of the dead man opened.
He noticed that the man's once-black eyes had turned blue, as had happened in the few experiments before.
He still had no idea why that happened. What was the significance of the Wight's eye turning blue? Was it because the Mist was somehow more focused in its eyes?
Was the mist what gave the Wights their sentience in the first place? Was there a reason why the mist woke the dead up and then forced them to consume other humans?
So many questions, but very few answers.
The Wight stood up from the ground a few moments later. It looked around itself and its eyes eventually met his own.
The Wight shrieked, or at least Domeric thought it did, as the glass was also soundproof.
Then the Wight ran toward him, but recoiled when its face met the glass.
Its nose was broken, but it didn't care and hit the glass with both its hands, trying to get to him.
He looked at the Ice Crystal he was holding in his hand. The same ice crystal he had taken out of this mist.
He channeled his magic in the Ice Crystal and then tried to channel it through the crystal to the Wight.
"Sit down." He said.
As if hearing his command, the Wight stilled for a moment. But then it was back to scratching the glass to reach him.
He used his magic a few more times, but nothing worked.
He still had no idea how the White Walkers commanded their Wights. He still had no idea what the mist actually was or how it had come into this whole equation.
Was it a part of a large, sentient, misty being that wanted to invade this world through White Walkers and take over everything in this world?
Was it some kind of magical virus that sought to expand itself and used the White Walkers as a means to do so?
Will the Night King have more of this mist inside him or less?
If he found the answers to even half of these questions, he might learn how the White Walkers used their Wights and come up with a way to destroy that connection.
The White Walkers were powerful. There was no doubt about that. But without their army of Wights, they were not as much of a threat. Not when a single Dragonglass arrow could shatter them.
After failing so much, he finally gave up, and with a wave from him, the transparent glass turned Solid White in color, hiding him from the Wight, who would now go dormant with no prey in sight.
"Experiment 1 is a success. Experiment 2 is a failure." He said and started writing down the conclusions of these experiments.
He looked around the room with bleary eyes. The room was filled with hundreds of similar glass containers. Two dozen of them were solid white, while the others were empty and transparent.
He looked at the first glass container and made it transparent once again.
The wight inside was slumped at the corner of the glass container.
It blearily opened its eyes, and he noticed that its blue eyes had lost almost all the color they once had. The Wight weakly growled at him and tried to reach for him. But it was too weak and slumped to the floor.
He rubbed his chin and thought about this.
The Wights he created were different from the other Wights roaming around beyond the Wall. Mainly because they did not 'live' for long, he had tried various things to keep them moving, but nothing had succeeded aside from introducing more White Mist when the Wight dies once again.
Was it because the Ice Crystal belonged to a dead White Walker?
If he captured a White Walker alive, amputated its arm, and used the White Mist inside the arm to create Wights, will those Wights be any different from regular Wights?
Once again, he had too many questions and very few answers.
At least he now had a Wight to show to the Southern Lords and won't have to fight a White Walker for it.
The Wight he created might not be the real deal, but how would they know the difference?
Even so, he would have to pretend once again to go on an expedition so that he could return with a 'captured' Wight in hand and then send it to King's Landing, where King Robert would show it to the other lords. Then they would have more men to fight for them at the Wall and a better chance of surviving the Long Night.
Armed with Dragonglass weapons, the men in the Wall would easily be able to hold back an undead army at least 20-30 times their size.
He turned the glass solid white again and started to go back to his lab when he stumbled and almost fell to the ground.
He blinked a few times and shook his head. The white glass reflected his image, and he could see how red his eyes were, how disheveled his hair was, and how tired he looked.
Staying awake for days would do that.
Looked like… he really, really needed to get some sleep. And then meet his subordinates and tell them that he is still alive.
He had left them to their devices as soon as they reached Dreadfort and had closed himself off to focus on his experiments. Some inspirations had come to him during his stay in Winterfell, and he wanted to work on them as quickly as possible.
He slowly walked out of the room and went to his library. He closed the door and looked at the ground.
It was starting to look mighty comfortable right now. Still, with some remaining logic, he preferred to find a better solution instead of lying on the ground.
He summoned his wand and conjured up a bed for himself, followed by a comfortable-looking pillow and blanket.
Then he fell to his hastily created bed with his pillow and blanket and was out within seconds.
---------------
Hey folks.
You can get a 50% discount on all my Patreon memberships with the code END2025 until January 2nd.
---------------
Author's Note: You folks can also read up to +65 chapters on my P@treon Page as an early access privilege.
You can also read "+3 Free Chapter" and see some pictures as aFree Member.
www.patreon.com/vanguard_v
P@treon Page Name: V For Vanguard
Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.279: News Reaches the Casterly Rock
Ch.280: Tywin Lannister's Plan
Ch.281: Arya's First Week in Dreadfort