Location: The Goldroad - The Reach
The sun was high and brutal. A column of Lannister soldiers, stretched for miles, marched back toward King's Landing. They were hauling wagons overflowing with grain and gold harvested from the sack of Highgarden.
Jaime Lannister rode at the head of the column alongside Bronn.
"We got the gold," Bronn noted, eyeing the wagons. "The Iron Bank will be happy."
"And the grain," Jaime said grimly. "King's Landing will starve without it. We took Highgarden faster than I thought. Olenna Tyrell... she had no fight left in her."
"Don't get too comfortable," Bronn spat. "I don't like this quiet. Where is the Dragon Queen? Where is the Sovereign?"
As if summoned by his paranoia, a low rumble began to shake the ground.
The soldiers stopped. They looked at the water in the roadside puddles. It was vibrating.
"Earthquake?" a soldier asked.
"No," Jaime realized, his face losing color. "Hoofbeats."
He turned his horse. "Spears! Shields! Form a line!"
Over the ridge, they appeared.
The Dothraki.
Thousands of screamers, their arakhs flashing in the sun, crested the hill like a tidal wave of flesh and steel.
The Lannister line braced. "Hold!" Jaime roared. "They are savages! They have no armor!"
Then, the sky darkened.
A roar—deep, guttural, and terrifying—drowned out the Dothraki war cries.
From the clouds, Drogon descended. Daenerys Targaryen rode on his back.
But she wasn't alone.
Flanking Drogon was a nightmare in obsidian scales. Typhon, the Sovereign Dragon.
He was smaller than Drogon, but his wingspan was wider relative to his body, built for speed and aggression. Ren rode him, clad in black tactical armor, wielding Blackfyre.
"Dracarys," Daenerys commanded.
"Burn them," Ren ordered via the Universal Comms.
WHOOSH.
Drogon breathed red fire. Typhon breathed black fire mixed with blue lightning (Ren's mana infusion).
The Lannister line didn't break; it evaporated.
The Slaughter
Ren pulled up on Typhon's reins, banking hard to the left.
"Valkyrie Squad," Ren spoke into his earbud. "Clear the archers."
On the ridge, Hirano Kohta stood on the roof of a System-summoned Humvee (which Ren had dropped from his Inventory before the charge). He mounted his M2 Browning.
"Get some!" Hirano laughed maniacally.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.
The heavy caliber rounds tore through the Lannister shield wall from a kilometer away.
Andrea, utilizing the Hawkeye Serum, lay prone next to him. She fired her Barrett Sniper Rifle.
CRACK.
A Lannister commander shouting orders had his helmet—and head—removed.
Amy rode a Dothraki horse into the fray. She raised her hand.
[Skill: Arcane Volley.]
She fired bolts of blue magic that tracked targets like heat-seeking missiles. Lannister soldiers tried to block with shields, but the magic exploded on impact, shattering wood and bone.
Shizuka, hovering near the rear with her Mercy Field, ensured that any Dothraki who fell was instantly stabilized. The Dothraki fought with suicidal bravery, knowing the "Golden Angel" would save them.
Jaime Lannister watched his army burn. The smell of roasted flesh was overwhelming.
"We can't win this!" Bronn shouted, hacking down a Dothraki.
"The dragon!" Jaime pointed to the scorpion ballista Qyburn had designed. "Bronn! Get to the Scorpion!"
Bronn galloped toward the wagon carrying the massive anti-dragon weapon. A Dothraki pursued him. Bronn pulled his knife and threw it, hitting the rider in the throat, and jumped onto the wagon.
He unveiled the Scorpion. He aimed it at Drogon, who was hovering low, burning a supply train.
Ren, circling high on Typhon, saw the glint of the metal bolt. His System Sight flagged it.
[Threat Detected: Anti-Dragon Ballista. Target: Drogon.]
"Dany! Pull up!" Ren shouted into the comms.
Daenerys didn't hear him over the roar of the fire.
Bronn fired.
TWANG.
The heavy steel bolt flew through the air.
It was going to hit Drogon in the chest.
Ren didn't have time to shout again.
[Skill: Telekinesis (Deflection).]
Ren extended his hand. He couldn't stop the bolt—it was moving too fast with too much kinetic energy. But he could nudge it.
He shoved the air.
The bolt veered slightly off course.
Instead of hitting Drogon's heart, it slammed into his shoulder.
Drogon shrieked in pain, dipping in the air. Daenerys struggled to hold on.
"Drogon!" she screamed.
Bronn reloaded. "Come on, you big bastard."
Ren's eyes glowed blue. "You missed."
Ren dove Typhon straight at the Scorpion wagon.
"Typhon! Dive bomb!"
Typhon tucked his wings. He dropped like a stone, accelerating to terminal velocity.
Bronn looked up. He saw the black dragon coming straight for him. He saw the rider jumping off the dragon mid-air.
Ren leaped from Typhon's back fifty feet in the air.
[Skill: Limit Breaker (Impact).]
Ren landed directly on the Scorpion wagon.
CRUNCH.
The force of his landing shattered the wagon into splinters. The Scorpion was crushed instantly.
Bronn was thrown backward, rolling into the dirt. He scrambled for his sword, looking up.
Ren stood amidst the wreckage. He wasn't even transformed. He casually brushed dust off his shoulder.
"Nice shot," Ren said, drawing Blackfyre. "For a sellsword."
Bronn gulped. "I demand a refund on this contract."
Before Ren could kill him, Jaime Lannister saw an opening.
Daenerys had landed Drogon nearby to pull the bolt out. She was on the ground. Vulnerable.
Jaime grabbed a spear. He spurred his horse. He charged at Daenerys.
"Idiot," Tyrion Lannister whispered from the distant ridge, watching his brother charge a dragon.
Daenerys looked up. She saw the knight charging. Drogon turned his head, smoke curling from his nostrils.
Ren saw it too. But he didn't intervene.
Drogon has this.
"Dracarys," Daenerys whispered.
Drogon unleashed a torrent of fire.
Jaime closed his eyes.
SPLASH.
At the last second, Bronn tackled Jaime off his horse, plunging them both into the deep part of the Blackwater Rush river. The fire passed over them, boiling the surface water.
Ren walked over to Daenerys. She was looking at the water where Jaime had vanished.
"He was brave," Daenerys said softly.
"He was foolish," Ren corrected. "But now you have a prisoner. Or a corpse."
Ren looked at the burning battlefield. The Lannister army was gone. The gold was melted.
"Status of Casterly Rock?"
He tapped his earbud.
"Annie. Report."
Casterly Rock - The Sewers
Annie Leonhart stood in the main courtyard of Casterly Rock. The Lion banner was burning.
But she wasn't happy.
"It's empty, Ren," Annie's voice crackled over the comms. "We took the castle. Grey Worm and Saeko secured the walls. But there's no garrison. Maybe a few hundred men."
"Empty?" Ren frowned.
"They emptied the larder too," Annie said. "They knew we were coming. They abandoned the Rock to take Highgarden."
Ren realized the strategy. Jaime had sacrificed his home to take the Tyrell gold. It was a smart move.
"Hold the castle," Ren ordered. "But keep your eyes on the sea. Euron Greyjoy's fleet is the only card they have left."
Back on the Goldroad, night was falling.
Ren and Daenerys stood by the riverbank. The Dothraki were rounding up survivors.
"Bend the knee!" Daenerys shouted to the trembling Lannister soldiers. "Or die."
Most knelt. Some didn't. Drogon roared. They knelt.
Ren felt a vibration in his pocket. Not the earbud. The Admin Key Fragment.
It was hot. Burning hot.
Ren pulled it out. It was pulsing with a blue, icy light.
[System Alert]
[Resonance Detected.]
[Source: North of the Wall.]
[Message Incoming...]
Ren held the key up.
A holographic projection flickered into existence. It was grainy, distorted by static.
It was The Arbiter.
She was standing in a blizzard. But half her face was frozen over, blue ice replacing chrome. Her eyes were no longer starlight; they were the bright blue of a Wight.
"Ren," her voice was a corrupted screech. "The Night King... offers a trade."
Ren stared at the projection. Daenerys gasped, stepping back.
"What trade?" Ren asked.
The Arbiter moved the camera.
She showed a figure chained to a jagged ice altar.
It wasn't a human.
It was a Dragon.
Not one of Ren's. Not one of Daenerys's.
It was a wild dragon. Cannibal? Sheepstealer? No. It was an ancient, skeletal dragon carcass that the Night King had dug up from the ice. An Ice Dragon construct.
"He is building," The Arbiter said. "Bring him the Black Queen (Daenerys). Or he unleashes the Storm."
The projection cut out.
Ren crushed the key in his hand.
"He wants you," Ren told Daenerys. "Because you are the Mother of Magic."
"What was that thing?" Daenerys asked, terrified. "That woman?"
"That," Ren said, looking North, "is what happens when a computer virus gets frostbite."
Ren turned to his team.
"Change of plans. We aren't marching on King's Landing."
"What?" Tyrion asked. "We just won!"
"We won a battle," Ren said. "But we're losing the war. We need a truce with Cersei."
"She will never agree," Tyrion said.
"She will," Ren smiled darkly. "If we bring her a Wight to show her what's coming."