Lo Quen guided the Blooddancer back to Pearl Fortress.
He immediately summoned all key personnel to the fortress's main hall for an emergency military council.
After Lo Quen finished recounting everything he had seen, Archmaester Marwyn frowned deeply and put forward a startling hypothesis.
"Your Grace, based on your description and those vague passages in the ancient texts… I suspect the legend may have been wrong from the very beginning. The so-called Night Queen may, in fact, be the true Night King."
"That thirteenth Lord Commander of the Night's Watch likely did not fall of his own will. Instead, he was transformed and controlled by this being who commands immense ice magic, turned into one of her Others. A puppet. The true source of it all has always been that woman."
Lo Quen's pupils tightened slightly.
The relationship Marwyn described was strikingly similar to his own bond with the Dragonblood-enhanced Flame Knights.
As he carefully revisited the ancient legends and the scene he had just witnessed, he found himself agreeing with Marwyn's conclusion.
"That makes sense. If the legend was misunderstood, then killing that woman is the key to ending this disaster. Once she's destroyed, the entire army of Others would likely lose its central command and may even collapse outright."
Marwyn nodded heavily. "Yes, Your Grace. Against an undead legion sustained by powerful magic, eliminating the leader is the most effective solution."
With the objective now clear, Lo Quen immediately began issuing concrete defensive orders.
He turned to Luo Wen. "We need to deploy large quantities of wildfire across the open ground between the five strongholds, as well as at key points among the collapsed wall ruins. Wildfire may not burn the Others as thoroughly as Dragonfire, but it can still create a sea of flames. That alone will greatly hinder and slow their advance, buying us time and opportunities."
"Yes, Your Grace. I'll take care of it at once."
Luo Wen accepted the command and turned to leave without hesitation.
The entire Five Forts region soon entered a state of tense battle readiness.
Tens of thousands of soldiers and laborers were mobilized. Braving increasingly violent winds and snow, they carefully placed jar after jar of dark green wildfire across the vast spaces between the five fortresses and at critical junctions among the massive wall ruins.
The work went on for several full days.
During that time, the blizzards sweeping in from the Grey Waste grew ever more ferocious, and the temperature dropped well below freezing.
Beyond the Five Forts, the plains were buried in snow up to the knees, a pristine white expanse concealing lethal danger.
On the final day of the wildfire deployment, the lookout stationed atop the highest tower of Pearl Fortress finally witnessed a suffocating sight on the distant horizon.
A wall of blizzard, stretching from earth to sky, was advancing toward the Five Forts at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Within the storm came the death-laden roars of Ice Dragons and the shrill wails of countless undead.
"Wooo—wooooo—!!!"
A piercing horn blast tore through the silence, echoing across the Five Forts.
Lo Quen, accompanied by Luo Wen, Qyburn, Marwyn, and the newly arrived Melisandre, quickly ascended the thousand-foot-high curtain wall of Pearl Fortress.
Looking into the distance, they saw several pale Ice Dragons looming in and out of view within the blizzard. Their massive wings churned the wind and snow, their roars thunderous and overwhelming.
Below them stretched a true sea of the undead.
Wights, Others, ice spiders, skeletal mammoths…
They surged across the snowfields like a black tide, endless as far as the eye could see.
Lo Quen drew in a deep breath of icy air, his gaze sweeping over the restless Blooddancer and Ashshadow beside him.
"When the time comes," he said calmly, "you don't need to follow me. Fight freely on your own. Use your Dragonfire to burn the dead. Kill as many as you can."
Blooddancer and Ashshadow seemed to fully understand their master's intent.
They exchanged a glance and let out low growls. A fierce spark of rivalry ignited simultaneously in their dragon eyes, as if each were daring the other to see who could claim more kills.
Seeing this, Lo Quen hesitated no longer.
Under the stunned and reverent gazes of the soldiers lining the walls, he stepped forward and leapt straight off the battlements.
In the next instant, a blaze of dazzling golden light erupted.
A colossal golden dragon, hundreds of feet in length, unfurled its wings and blotted out the sky. With a thunderous roar, it charged headlong toward the distant sea of undead.
Blooddancer and Ashshadow followed close behind, roaring as they plunged from the walls, flanking left and right as they dove into the undead host.
The undead army in the distance immediately noticed the colossal being daring to challenge them.
Countless wights and Others howled furiously at the golden dragon in the sky. Some Others even hurled ice-coated spears and javelins, trying to bring the golden colossus down.
Atop the back of the foremost and most powerful Ice Dragon, the Night Queen's eyes, like blue stars, instantly locked onto the golden dragon that was Lo Quen.
For the first time, clear shock showed on her face. She plainly hadn't expected to find an enemy like this among those opposing her.
The Ice Dragon beneath her sensed its master's mood and roared more and more violently. In the wind-driven snow at her side, the silhouettes of two more Ice Dragons fully emerged.
Three Ice Dragons in all!
Fighting spirit burned in the golden dragon Lo Quen's huge eyes. He didn't hesitate for an instant. Facing such a powerful foe, he went straight for a killing blow.
A vast surge of flame magic rapidly gathered again before his jaws.
[Explosive Dragonfire Projectile]!
A tightly condensed fireball formed, blazing a fierce, molten gold, like a miniature sun taking shape inside his mouth.
Seeing it, a flicker of alarm crossed the Night Queen's icy, dead-blue eyes. She clearly hadn't anticipated an attack this terrifying.
The molten-gold sphere, heavy with a sense of destruction, tore through the blizzard and slammed toward the airspace where she and the dragons hovered.
The Night Queen threw her arms wide. A bitter, blue ice magic burst from her, instantly forming a thick frozen shield around herself and the three Ice Dragons.
RUMBLE—!!!
The molten-gold [Explosive Dragonfire Projectile] struck the center of the shield with pinpoint accuracy.
Extreme heat collided with extreme cold in a brutal, head-on clash.
The explosion's glare washed the entire storm in gold, as if daylight had arrived too soon. The shockwave below sent a wide swath of wights tumbling through the air.
The shield held for only a heartbeat before it shattered.
The remaining force of the blast hit all three Ice Dragons squarely.
Crack… crack…
Dense fractures spiderwebbed across their hard, pale scales in an instant.
They screamed in agony, their enormous bodies lurching and swaying in midair as their presence faltered, weakening sharply.
Lo Quen narrowed his gaze. The Night Queen herself had been protected at the last moment, the largest Ice Dragon under her throwing its wings and body around her and taking the brunt of the strike.
She hadn't been hit directly.
But the Ice Dragon beneath her was another matter. Its blue eyes had dulled almost to nothing, its massive body wobbling as if it might fall from the sky at any moment. It was clearly at the edge of collapse, its life force draining away at a frightening pace.
And then the Night Queen did something astonishing.
She placed a hand on the Ice Dragon's head, and the ice magic within her poured out like a breached flood.
That power carried a near-miraculous vitality. The horrific cracks across the Ice Dragon's body began to knit together before the eye, rapidly healing and restoring themselves.
Even the other two Ice Dragons, less severely injured, steadied and recovered under the lingering waves of her magic.
"What is this…?"
A hard edge of caution flashed in the golden dragon Lo Quen's eyes.
He could feel it clearly: the ice magic radiating from the Night Queen was far purer and stronger than anything he had ever sensed from any Others. It even carried something primal, like an origin itself.
Marwyn's suspicion had been right.
Lo Quen was certain now.
She was the core weapon forged by the God of Cold, the true sovereign.
That near-primordial ice magic inside her was the key to how she could create and command an undead host on this scale.
Lo Quen didn't hesitate. He opened his massive jaws again, and molten-gold light began to gather once more.
A second [Explosive Dragonfire Projectile] was forming!
But this time, the Night Queen didn't try to endure it head-on.
After their exchange, she seemed to have grasped just how terrifying the golden dragon's power was. She spread her hands, as if to trigger something—
Then her star-blue eyes snapped toward the northeast, urgency flashing across her face.
She made her decision instantly. With a sharp command, she drove the newly recovered Ice Dragon beneath her to turn. Without looking back, she fled at full speed, vanishing into the depths of the Grey Waste.