Chapter 36

It didn't take him long to arrive at the cave where the Three Eyed Raven and the last surviving Children of the Forest hid. Upon landing outside the cave Cyrus felt the magic barrier they had erected to protect them from the Night Kings sights. He knew it was no longer effective due to the Night King no longer being what he once was, now that he was a Death Knight he knew where they were and was on his way here currently.

As Alexstrasza looked to the west where they felt the Night King approach from, Cyrus made his way towards the cave. Just like Alexstrasza he felt the Night King pick up his pace with his mob of undead he commanded, so he wanted to get this done quickly.

Before he could make it into the cave he saw a boy and girl walk out from the cave, the boy having a look of fear as he looked at the large red dragon while the girl was able to hide her fear much better, she spoke up first.

"Why do you come here? We have nothing of value here." The girl quickly spoke up as she moved her hands out to show they were empty while she prepared to launch a magic spell if needed.

"I come to help, I wish nothing but your safety. The Night King knows your location and will be here within the hour. I have come to bring you to safety, I don't wish for your kind to be lost. Even though you brought the long night to the world of men, your kind did it out of necessity. Enough Children have suffered the consequences of their actions, I will need your help to overcome the upcoming darkness." Cyrus quickly got to the point, he would need to evacuate them and prepare for the Night King.

He wasn't about to pass up the chance to weaken the Lich King. So after he had a discussion with the Children's leader Leaf and Brynden Rivers, after they had swore their loyalty and agreement to assist he used his ability to remove the curse that entrapped Bryden Rivers allowing him to leave the roots that bound him. After using [Renew] and a few other healing spells he was able to get Brynden to full health to both Brynden and the Childrens astonishment. After creating a portal to the heart tree forest inside Winterfell for the Children who accompanied Leaf to pass thru with Brynden, Cyrus began to prepare the area for the Night King to arrive. Although he was confident, he wouldn't take any chances.

Setting up traps enchanted with a combination of [Holy Shock] and [Chain Lightning] he spread them out to get as many of the weaker mobs down as possible.

Having Alexstrasza backing him up gave him a lot of confidence, he knew she would heal him so he wouldn't need to worry about healing himself and would be able to focus on damage.

Summoning his paladin [War Stead] he waited atop his mount for the arrival of the small army he could feel moving closer.

Buffing himself with every buff he could, he watched the small army growing closer in the distance. The pressure from the Night Kings new aura was something Cyrus wasn't expecting, he could feel the darkness and malice from the Night King. He watched as the Night King motioned for his subordinates to attack as he sat in the back.

Taking up his shield [Icecrown Glacial Wall] and thanks to his warrior talent his two handed sword [Glorenzelg, High Blade of the Silver Hand] he equipped the tier 20 set [Radiant Lightbringer] armor set and charged past the traps to meet the army head on.

Seeing the army made of skeletons, ghouls, abominations, wraiths, wights, zombies and frost vrykul charging, he hardened his nerves. Leaping off this mount using [Heroic Leap] he dashed into the middle of the formation and began to demolish the undead along with his stead. Feeling the damage from their return hits feeding his fury, he concentrated on area attacks such as [Whirlwind], [Devastate], and [Thunderclap] besides his paladin attacks. He felt Alexstrasza healing him as he kited the mobs towards his traps. Ducking, parrying and blocking what he could, he kept his attention on the Night King throughout the process as his traps went off killing multiple enemies quickly reducing the mob to a more manageable number. Abominations began exploding helping to wipe out large numbers.

Just as Cyrus had predicted, once the numbers were brought down to just a few the Night King made his move. Getting off his mount and creating a large bastard sword made of ice and a large ice spear, He threw the ice spear toward Alexstrasza trying to put an end to her healing. Seeing the Night King targeting Alexstrasza, Cyrus used [Avengers Shield] to throw an energy shield which shattered the Ice spear. Then using [Turn Evil] he cast it on the Night King which put him into a fear state which allowed Cyrus to finish off the remaining subordinates. Turning his attention to the Night King, just as he went to charge in, he felt a cold hand of death grasp him and pull him towards the Night King.

Quickly readying his shield, he timed Night Kings next slash to cut him in half after pulling him towards him with [Death Grip], he was able to evade the slash and use [Shield Bash] to stop any followup attack after dodging. Even thru the shield he felt how strong the Night King was. He continued to pressure the Night King to create more openings, however the Night King wasn't your average Death Knight.

He was able to push Cyrus back repeatedly due to his strength. Although he wasn't getting solid hits on Cyrus each hit still hurt, taking chunks from his health. But what was angering the Night King most was Alexstrasza healing his prey from the cave entrance. He had attempted to kill her first but each time he would go to target her Cyrus would use [Taunt] or [Evoke] which would force his attention back onto Cyrus, or use his shield throws to hinder any ranged attacks.

After a few well timed [Exorcism] and [Holy Shock] the Night King finally began to get pressured until he went into an enraged state, his speed and strength increased instantly launching an all out assault. Upon seeing the incoming attack Cyrus quickly used [Evasion] and was able to slip under the large Ice Sword and using his full strength he used [Shield Bash] to try to knock him down. However upon contact the Night King used a [Howling Blast] which launched Cyrus back and as he slid backwards he then launched a [Death Coil] to then try to focus back on Alexstrasza. After being thrown into the side of the mountain from the blast, Cyrus shakily got up. The two attacks had hurt him since they were done while the Night King was enraged. Just as he prepared to go again he felt the Night King use [Death Grip] on him, pulling him back towards him as he could tell the Night King wanted to end it.

This time however he was ready, instead of fighting the pull he used it to launch himself forward. Knowing it would throw off the Night Kings timing.

Using his Paladin buffs [Final Verdict] and [Final Reckoning] he increased his holy damage for a few minutes, holy wings of light sprouted from Cyrus back as he flew towards the Night King.

Launching a round of holy attacks which now burned the Night King causing him to roar in pain and rage. Using that moment Cyrus used [Charge] then followed up with a full powered [Execution Sentence] he sliced the large Ice sword in two almost cleaving the Night King in two.

"Shit, why wont you just die." Cyrus said in exasperation.

Knowing his buff was limited he dropped all other pretenses of conserving mana since his armor seemed to mitigate physical attacks he began to use holy spells and attacks as he parried and blocked the wild attacks from the Night King.

Eventually he was able to pierce his sword thru the Night Kings heart after he had finally wore him down from the accumulated damage.

After seeing the Night King fall Cyrus dropped down in exhaustion, but instead of a tired face he displayed one of excitement.

"Damn I really almost decided to run and try again when I had some help. I didn't think the Night King would be that strong. Damn, he hit like a ogre." Cyrus spoke out to himself, relieved the fight was over.

Alexstrasza just watched Cyrus enjoy his down time, once he was ready he looted the Night Kings corpse receiving much needed material to help build seige weapons. He also found a crown made of ice, he assumed it was the one worn by the Night King but for some reason he felt a familiarity towards the crown. He wasn't sure why it felt familiar to him cause he never seen it before, deciding he would bring the crown to his father Cyrus quickly left after burning the Night Kings remains.

As soon as Cyrus arrived at home he was greeted by his mother who informed him of some news from his father and what had happened in Kings Landing. She told him of Selyse Baratheon wanting to convert to the Old Gods and how the Citadel was handling it, she also spoke of some marriage proposals she had been receiving. Once she saw Cyrus tune her out and begin working on his seige weapon project, Caitlyn seeing an opportunity she quickly grabbed Alexstrasza and left with her to find out more of who she was.

Caitlyn had many questions for the dragon woman, even in stories of old, dragons weren't said to be able to turn into a humanoid form. She had to make sure Cyrus would be safe, she knew her son all to well and knew he could be fooled by a pretty face. She had to make sure this beauty didn't have bad intentions. She was already facing enough trouble as it was with all her children.

Jon Snow and Ygritte have been getting close over their time together and Caitlyn didn't know how to feel, she loved Jon as her own after finding out he wasn't Neds bastard but nephew. She knew the bad blood between northerners and the wildlings, she felt they would probably have some difficulties being together.

Robb was smitten with Jeyne Westerling of House Westerling of the Crag, but she had doubts about the girl. Her house was under the Lannister banner, so she felt it was possible that she was sent purposely to Ronn under orders from Tywin. But after she did some digging she found out that her father Lord Gawen Westerling had tried to wed her to Willem or Martyn Lannister but had been turned down due to their fortune faltering over the years. When he agreed to wed her to Ser Amory Lorch at the Lannister's request, due to Amory having taken a fancy to her, she escaped to the north. She was set upon by bandits which was how she met Robb, he had saved her before they were able to have their fun with her. So the chances were small, but still present.

Sansa and Arya had plenty of suiters but neither would give her any idea on their choices or preference. Bran and Rickon were still young so she wouldn't have to deal with any for them yet but she knew it would be just as bad if not worse for them.

As Caitlyn was questioning Alexstrasza, in Kings Landing Ned was dealing with his own issues. Since the spectacle witnessed by everyone, many of the Faith were beginning to form mobs wanting to attack Dragonstone. They tried to use it as a sign to stop the Lady of Dragonstone from converting, while others said it was the opposite.

He knew there was someone behind this whole mess, but he couldn't find the culprit fully but did learn it was stirred up by the City Watch guards. Had he been able to be afforded more time he would've found Petyr being the cause.

Petyr along with Varys had began to panic after seeing the pillar of light, but while Petyr did his best to stir up more trouble Varys was more subtle. He approached Maester Pycelle, even though he didn't like the man and his order they did both agree on their dislike for anything magic. He felt the upcoming tourney would be when the Stark boy made a move, so he enlisted the best help possible to help combat magic, the Citadel.