Summer in the south was hot and stifling.
To Northerners, everything south of the North was considered the south. Dorne, located at the southernmost tip of the continent and bordering The Stormlands, was near the sea, so southerly winds often blew in from across the ocean to slightly dispel the dry heat.
Lately, there had been no sea breeze for a long time, making the air increasingly heavy and distorted, twisting into wave-like arcs under the teasing heat.
Suddenly, a massive suction force emanated from the woods. The air currents surged joyfully toward the source of the attraction, creating a gale out of thin air.
Leaves rustled loudly as the gale rose abruptly, sweeping up clouds of dust. Yet the dry heat in the air did not dissipate in the slightest; instead, it grew more intense.
The heat finally reached its limit, and a flash of light burst forth. As soon as the light appeared, it expanded and spread, followed by a sound like muffled thunder.
"BOOM—"
The light reflected in the Leading Knight's red eyes and spread throughout the entire forest. For a moment, it seemed as if only this white light remained in the world.
Over a hundred cavalrymen were blinded by the white light. Before they could even close their eyelids, while the muffled thunder still echoed in their ears, the sound of trees snapping and cracking reached them.
A massive figure slammed into the ground, crushing several trees and flattening a dozen unfortunate knights, emitting the dull thud of a heavy object hitting the earth.
In a daze, the Leading Knight heard a buzzing, tragic howl in his ears, accompanied by the pained shrieks of warhorses. Only then did he snap back to his senses and vigorously rub his incessantly tearing eyes.
What happened?
Enduring the pain, he finally saw the scene before him through a blur.
A knight with only half his body visible was wailing and spitting blood. His hands were clawing outward frantically and futilely, trying to struggle free from under the heavy object.
Beside him was a struggling horse's head, shrieking in pain as pools of blood sprayed from its mouth.
This absurd scene, seen through double vision, made the Leading Knight widen his eyes in disbelief. Ignoring the stinging pain in his eyes, he strained to tilt his head back, trying to see exactly what it was that was crushing the knights and horses.
It looked like a human arm magnified several times. Even lying flat, it was nearly two meters high. The flesh-colored skin was covered in dark purple patterns, pinning down the knight's lower body.
"The Seven!" the Leading Knight groaned unconsciously, staring at the scene in shock... The massive object moved. The arm lifted, slowly applying force. With a simple motion of sitting up, it knocked down several more trees. As the upper body sat up, broken branches hung from its shoulders. The back, covered in dark purple patterns, was stained with patches of crimson blood, and messy hair covered the back of its Giant head.
The upper body alone, just sitting up, stood before him like a small castle.
The Giant head, with its back to the knights, slowly turned. Half a face hidden in shadow was revealed, covered in dark purple patterns. Gray eyeballs the size of a normal person's head stared intently at the knights in the forest!
The massive thing crushing the dozen knights was actually a castle-sized Giant!
The knights lucky enough not to be crushed beneath the Giant collapsed. Trembling all over, they turned their horses and fled. A few seemed so overwhelmed by terror that instead of fleeing away from the Giant, they charged straight toward it.
The Giant didn't even move. The few knights who charged into it crashed against its body, falling from their horses in a heap. They lay on the ground, spitting blood and moaning in semi-conscious agony... Seeing the knights fleeing for their lives, the Giant finally seemed to react. It turned its body and stood up from the ground, the sound of trees snapping and breaking echoing continuously.
As the Giant stood up, its full form was finally revealed.
Messy, mid-length black hair, a long face, and narrow gray eyes. Its entire body was covered in dark purple patterns. Trees in the forest that were eight or nine meters tall barely reached its waist.
The Giant looked down at the scattering knights and tried to step out to pursue them, but it felt like it stepped into thin air. Its body fell forward, slamming straight into the forest and kicking up clouds of dust.
The Giant rose slowly again, like a toddler learning to walk. It carefully took a step forward, making a loud 'thump.' That single step covered seven or eight meters, but as it took the second step, its posture became unstable, and its massive body swayed.
The Giant simply stopped. Its gaze fell upon the surrounding trees, and it tentatively uprooted a large tree. Its Giant gray eyes seemed to light up.
The Giant raised the tree, aimed at a fleeing knight, and hurled it with force. With a crash, a cloud of dust rose in the distance. Clear, tragic wails reached the Giant's ears, and the corners of its massive mouth twitched.
Tree after tree was smashed or hurled by the Giant at the scattered knights until no moving figures remained in sight. The forest was almost completely destroyed before the Giant stopped, standing in the middle of the wreckage in silence.
After a long time, the Giant raised its hands, its gaze lingering on the rough hands covered in dark purple patterns, seemingly deep in thought. Then, those Giant eyeballs shifted slightly, carefully inspecting its own massive physique.
In the sunlight, the stationary Giant cast a massive humanoid shadow behind it. As if remembering something, the Giant touched its chest. Other than the rough sensation, there was nothing else.
"Ha!" The Giant exhaled, sounding like both a sigh and a breath of relief. It then scanned the surroundings, looked at the midday sun, turned its back to the light, and began walking northward with steady, heavy steps that were slow yet covered ground rapidly.
Dull thuds of footsteps echoed across the wilderness. The footsteps went from sounding once every few seconds to once every second, eventually becoming like continuous muffled thunder, spreading through the dry air.
The Giant began to run. Its posture was strange, moving the same arm and leg at the same time, but it slowly normalized after a while. Of course, on this continent, a castle-sized Giant was inherently abnormal.
Looking down from a bird's-eye view, the Giant's initial movements were much like a human child learning to walk, gradually becoming more proficient and eventually running. Occasionally, it let out an unintelligible roar, the tone of which was no different from the joyful shouts of a child running through a field on a spring outing... Strictly speaking, Ned had died when he lost consciousness, even if only for a fraction of a millisecond. But for Ned, it had been an unknown duration of darkness until a light appeared, awakening his consciousness from silence. He had thought he had been sinking in darkness for an eternity, though in reality, it was only an instant.
Until he sat up by reflex and the knights—who looked like crawling insects—entered his vision, he still hadn't figured out what had happened.
The flight of the knights finally allowed him to recall everything that happened before he lost consciousness.
Following his body's instincts to crush the knights with trees, he finally had time to think about all of this.
He, Eddard Stark, had turned into a Giant.
He found it somewhat hard to accept, but upon further thought, a sense of sincere relief arose. Recalling everything he had encountered in the past two days, he resigned himself to his fate. If he was a Giant, so be it; as long as he was alive.
According to the Maesters in the castle, rumors said that Giants lived in the lands Lands Beyond the Wall, north of the North. Did he have to live Lands Beyond the Wall in the future?
Ned's nearly snapped nerves attributed his transformation into a Giant to the Infant that had fallen from the sky. Other than that, he could think of no other reason.
After becoming a Giant, aside from a lack of bodily control like a newborn Infant, Ned's five senses, such as hearing and vision, were greatly enhanced. The moment he came to his senses, he realized the Infant in his arms was gone. After searching around to no avail, he felt unusually certain that the Infant was safe. Thus, he delayed no longer; there was still a war waiting for him in the north.
If he joined the war in this Giant form, he could win even if the dragons of House Targaryen came back to life, let alone the fact that dragons had long been extinct on this continent.
So he walked slowly toward the north. After gradually gaining control over his massive body, he began to run at a fast pace. The thrill of holding such great power in his hands made him roar loudly from time to time.
At this moment, the twenty-year-old Ned naturally couldn't notice that his mindset and even his personality had undergone subtle changes in just two days. He might still be silent and serious, as was the traditional nature of House Stark, but the speed at which he accepted the facts seemed too fast—as if someone were forcibly squeezing a square stone into an odd shape.
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