In the Great Hall, swords were drawn, blades pointing at Roose Bolton from all directions, cutting off any escape.
The Northern soldiers' eyes held no hesitation.
One word from Lynn, and they would chop the Lord of the Dreadfort into meat paste.
However, facing this death trap, a slow, extremely eerie smile spread across Roose Bolton's ashen face.
He had lost utterly in the game of schemes.
But he hadn't lost completely!
He still had his final trump card!
He still had the power to flip the table!
"Lord Lynn,"
Roose Bolton slowly rose from his chair.
He elegantly adjusted his simple yet immaculate pink cloak, his movements as composed as ever.
"You are indeed clever, far cleverer than I imagined."
"But you made a mistake."
"A fatal mistake!"
"You were too arrogant. You shouldn't have... let me bring them into Winterfell."
Roose Bolton clapped his hands.
"Alright, come in."
As soon as he spoke, the sound of armor clashing came from outside.
Everyone's expression in the hall changed instantly, eyes snapping to the main doors.
"What's happening?!"
BOOM—!!!
Before they could react, the heavy oak doors were smashed open from the outside by an unimaginable force!
Amidst flying splinters, ten tall figures walked in silently.
They wore black mail identical to Roose's knights, their faces hidden by iron masks, revealing only their eyes.
But those weren't human eyes.
There was no emotion in those pairs of eyes, only dead, icy stillness.
They held strangely shaped curved blades that shimmered with an eerie black light.
The "armor" they wore wasn't metal, but some kind of dark red leather.
It glistened with oil, the texture of muscle faintly visible.
That wasn't animal hide. It was human skin!
At Roose's signal, they exposed their flayed chests—bloody messes, yet eerily, no blood flowed.
One of the Blood Guards removed his mask.
The exposed face had sunken eye sockets, dilated pupils, and a mouth sewn shut, leaving only a twisted slit that seemed to be screaming silently!
"What are those..."
Reek, kneeling on the floor, began to shake violently the moment he saw these ten figures, terror seeping from his bones.
Even he didn't know what these monstrosities were!
"Kill them!"
A Northern soldier roared, charging forward with his sword raised!
However, the Blood Guard merely waved his curved blade casually.
A flash of black light.
Clang!
The officer's fine steel sword was sheared in half.
His weapon destroyed instantly, the soldier scrambled back in fear.
Everyone was stunned by this bloody, eerie sight!
"You're kidding..."
"That was Castle-forged steel!"
Lynn saw it clearly.
It wasn't their blades that were sharp, but the eerie black aura radiating necromantic energy.
The Blood Guards gave them no time for shock.
They moved.
No wasted motion.
Their figures turned into black ghosts in the candlelight, silently rushing into the ranks of the Northern soldiers.
Every swing brought a flash of black light.
Every flash meant a Northern soldier's weapon severed, armor torn!
These Blood Guards seemed to feel no pain, no fear.
Even when soldiers' swords luckily pierced their bodies, they remained indifferent, as if unhurt.
They were like ten tireless machines built only for slaughter!
In front of them, these battle-hardened Northern elites were as fragile as lambs to the slaughter!
In less than a minute.
The soldiers in the hall were routed.
If not for Lynn using ice magic to block fatal blows at critical moments, it was doubtful any would still be alive.
Now, the soldiers formed a semicircle in front of Lynn, attempting a desperate last stand.
But Lynn waved his hand, signaling them to stand down.
"You are no match for them. Let me handle this."
Seeing Lynn step forward slowly.
"Haha... HAHAHAHA!"
Roose Bolton finally burst into laughter.
His laugh was cold and mad, echoing in the empty hall, filled with the twisted pleasure of survival and triumph.
"Lynn! Do you see?!"
"This is my trump card! This is why I dared to come to Winterfell!"
He stared dead at Lynn, who remained calm throughout.
"You won? You calculated everything?"
"In the face of absolute power, your laughable schemes are nothing!"
"Now, it's my turn!"
"Kneel! Beg me for mercy!"
"Maybe I'll make your skin into something more exquisite!"
"You will be my finest collectible!"
Roose's face was written with sickly fanaticism.
Behind him, the ten Blood Guards locked onto Lynn in unison.
Lynn ignored his shouting.
He simply raised his eyes, sweeping calmly over the ten silent Blood Guards.
Deep in his eyes, a flash of green light, imperceptible to others, flickered.
Greensight!
Instantly, countless chaotic images flooded Lynn's mind!
He saw it.
He saw Roose Bolton in a dark secret chamber at the Dreadfort, trading with men in black robes whose faces were tattooed with strange runes.
Those men called themselves warlocks from the Shadow Lands.
They brought the darkest, most evil knowledge—necromancy.
Roose Bolton hadn't wanted to deal with these dangerous figures.
He believed in schemes and betrayal, not this ethereal magic.
But Lynn's rise was too fast.
Fast enough to make him feel a terror deep in his soul!
One month!
Not even a month!
This young man had miraculously grasped the chaotic Riverlands and the leaderless Vale firmly in his hand!
His giant legion, his three dragons...
All of this was far beyond Roose Bolton's comprehension.
He realized then that traditional warfare was meaningless against this monster.
Fear drove him to ally with devils.
He used centuries of family accumulation, and paid a massive price even he found hard to bear, to finally gain the warlocks' help.
Roose gave all the strongest, most vicious death row prisoners in the Dreadfort dungeon to these warlocks.
The warlocks tortured these prisoners to death in the cruelest ways possible.
Then, using their corpses and dark materials from the Shadow Lands, refined them into these ten soulless, painless, killing machines.
These Blood Guards!
They were Roose's last hope and his greatest secret.
Lynn followed the warlocks' memories further east, across the Narrow Sea, across the vast continent of Essos.
Finally, arriving at a land shrouded in eternal darkness.
Asshai.
And east of Asshai, the taboo land not even clearly marked on maps—the Shadow Lands.
There, sunlight never reached; the sky was forever black.
Twisted black mountains pierced the clouds; rivers black and oily rushed through the valleys.
No fish lived in the river, only blind, pale monsters.
On the banks grew black ghost grass that fed on flesh and blood.
The air reeked of rot and corruption.
Countless ruins of ancient cities stood like giant skeletons on this dark earth.
It was said dragons first originated there, and it was the source of all dark magic.
Even the most powerful shadowbinders of Asshai dared not tread lightly on that cursed land.
And these eerie warlocks came from there!
They were merely... an advance party sent from the Shadow Lands to test the waters of Westeros.
Behind them lay a larger, more terrifying organization.
The vision ended there.
Lynn slowly withdrew his gaze.
His face remained calm, but deep in his black eyes, an unprecedented... excitement burned.
So that's it.
Necromancy, the Shadow Lands...
This world is finally getting interesting.
"Lynn! Are you deaf?!"
"I said kneel!"
Roose's roar pulled Lynn back from his thoughts.
Lynn looked up at the maddened Lord of the Dreadfort, a pitying smile on his face.
"Roose Bolton."
"You think these parlor tricks from the Shadow Lands are enough to challenge me?"
"This is the absolute power you rely on?"
Lynn's voice was soft, but it shook Roose to his core.
Damn it, how does Lynn know about the Shadow Lands?!
These warlocks arrived at the Dreadfort after Ramsay fled. Besides himself, only a few trusted aides knew.
Was there a traitor?
And, as always, Lynn wasn't panicking.
Did he still have a card to play?
"Stop guessing, Lord Bolton."
"Today, I'll show you."
"What true power looks like!"
Lynn slowly stood up from his chair.
He didn't draw his sword, didn't even glance at the Blood Guards surrounding him.
He simply extended his right hand.
HUM—!!!
A terrifying wave of energy erupted from Lynn as the center!
The air in the entire hall seemed to freeze in an instant!
Candle flames flickered violently, then extinguished in unison!
The world plunged into darkness.
Only ten pairs of blood-red eyes belonging to the Blood Guards, and the increasingly bright blue light in Lynn's eyes, shone in the gloom.
"What... what is that?"
Roose's voice carried terror.
He saw.
He saw a cluster of dreamlike blue ice dust appear out of thin air in Lynn's right palm!
The cluster wasn't large, only fist-sized.
But the cold it radiated dropped the temperature of the entire hall instantly!
Lynn could use magic too!!