When Lynd left the Walrus Tribe base, Malora had already conducted dozens of sacrifices at the sacrificial altar. Including the Silent Monk from the beginning, a total of eight Silent Monks and ten Redemption Sisters had received the Nameless King's rune mark.
Through these many sacrifices, Malora had discovered certain rules: only when sacrificing sufficiently powerful magical creatures could success be guaranteed, allowing the recipient to obtain the Nameless King's rune mark. Powerful magical items could also be used, though with a lower success rate. Any other creatures or objects would result in failure.
All who received the rune mark could wield the power of the three dragon runes. The strength and duration of their rune abilities would be determined by Lynd. If he permitted it—and if their bodies could withstand it—they could even unleash the full power of the dragon runes.
Still, Lynd was the greatest beneficiary of these sacrifices. The so-called failed sacrifices weren't truly failures. Each one further empowered his Nameless King rune. And while the Silent Monks and Redemption Sisters received their marks, Lynd's own strength recovery and endurance were enhanced by the splintered marks.
In other words, if he were to unleash the power he used to destroy Stygai again, not only could he do so multiple times, but the duration of each use would increase, and his recovery time afterward would shorten.
This meant that the more people who received the Nameless King's rune mark through the sacrificial altar, the stronger Lynd's rune power would become. If the number of marked individuals exceeded ten thousand, his power might truly rival the gods from his memories.
So, upon leaving the base, Lynd instructed Lagz to take the altar back to Summerhall and hand it over to the Redemption Sept to oversee the sacrifices.
The reason for entrusting it to the Redemption Sept was simple—ordinary people could not endure the power contained within the Nameless King's rune mark. Injecting it through the sacrificial altar would push their bodies beyond their limits, reducing them to bloody pulp.
Only Redemption Sisters and Silent Monks who had completed the Redemption Sept's full trials had the physical resilience needed to withstand such immense power.
Lynd didn't travel alone. He rode a dog sled with a rotation unit of Redemption Sisters and Silent Monks, carrying supplies and heading for the temporary garrison. The eighteen newly marked individuals were among them.
Though flying alone would have been faster, Lynd didn't want to waste even the smallest amount of rune power—not with the possibility of encountering a large number of White Walkers.
The Redemption Sisters and Silent Monks were stationed upstream along the Frozen River. Organized into groups of one hundred, with five groups forming a unit, they were dispatched northward in waves to intercept the White Walkers.
By the time Lynd and his group arrived at the garrison, only one unit of Silent Monks and Redemption Sisters remained behind. The rest had already moved out.
"What's the situation up ahead?" Lynd asked as he stepped off the sled, addressing the captain of the Redemption Sisters who had stayed behind.
"Reporting, my lord—Captain Serellia and Captain Riel are currently leading the Redemption Sisters and Silent Brothers in the Thenn region, fortifying the area to prevent the White Walker commander's wight army from advancing east," the captain responded promptly. "We just received a battle report—they've already wiped out a 20,000-strong wight force."
"Do they still have enough supplies over there?" Lynd asked.
The captain quickly replied, "Plenty. A new shipment was just delivered this morning."
Lynd nodded, then gave a series of rapid orders. "Unload all the newly delivered supplies right away. Set wildfire traps over there—and over there. Set up two catapults in those spots. Everyone, into battle readiness—now."
Everyone hesitated briefly upon hearing the order. Though they didn't understand Lynd's intent, no one questioned it. They followed his instructions and quickly completed the fortifications.
Lynd then assigned positions to the Redemption Sisters and Silent Monks, clearly indicating the direction from which the enemy would arrive.
With preparations complete, Lynd retrieved a dragonbone bow and several bundles of specially crafted rune arrows from the sled and climbed a lookout tower at the garrison.
He was convinced that Serellia and Riel had fallen for a diversion. The White Walkers had likely sent a wight army eastward as a decoy, while another force of wights was rushing toward the Frozen Shore, aiming to strike this garrison and the Walrus Tribe base at the mouth of the Frozen River.
Lynd's judgment wasn't based on guesswork—he could clearly sense that a large number of White Walkers were moving in their direction.
This was another ability he had gained after the White Walkers were sacrificed to him: the power to sense their presence. It likely stemmed from the deathly energy fused into the Frozen Dragon Rune.
As time passed and the sky grew darker, the Silent Men and Redemption Sisters stationed at their posts shivered in the cold, their bodies stiff from the freezing wind. But none of them questioned Lynd's orders. All of them kept their eyes fixed on the direction he had indicated.
From the lookout tower, Lynd saw a strong gust sweep across the distant snowfields, lifting snowflakes into the air. As the wind died down, the flurry settled into a thick veil of snow mist, so dense it completely obscured everything beyond it.
The sudden appearance of this unnatural fog, thick as a wall, didn't escape the attention of the Silent Men and Redemption Sisters. Even those slow to react sensed something was off. One by one, they tensed, pulling out vials of a special potion from their pockets and downing them. The potion not only restored their mobility, but also drastically increased their resistance to the cold.
While the thick snow mist blocked the vision of the Redemption Sisters and Silent Men, it couldn't hinder Lynd's sight—especially not when he activated his special vision. Through the swirling fog, he saw White Walkers hidden among the mass of wights, slowly advancing under the mist's cover. To him, those concealed and waiting to ambush were like moving targets.
Without hesitation, Lynd pulled a rune arrow from his side, nocked it to his bowstring, raised his Dragonbone bow, and loosed the arrow without even aiming.
The rune arrow shot through the mist at incredible speed, piercing through the wall of wights and striking a hidden White Walker directly.
As soon as the arrow sank into its body, an intense cold erupted, instantly freezing the White Walker in place. It couldn't move. From the rune arrow, arcs of lightning continued to pulse, disrupting any attempt to gather energy to break the ice.
Lynd wasn't just a skilled archer—he had inherited the full memories of the dragon hunter Ornstein, the leader of the Silver Knights. The Silver Knights' archery techniques all came from Ornstein, and Lynd had mastered them completely—perhaps even surpassing them. Now, they served him well.
One arrow after another streaked into the snow mist, and each one struck true. Every rune arrow Lynd fired took down a White Walker. After unleashing over a hundred arrows, every White Walker among the ambushing wights had been frozen in place—without exception.
Deprived of their commanders, the wights could only shamble forward on instinct. The snow mist that once cloaked them began to dissipate without the magic that sustained it.
"Attack!" Lynd commanded from atop the lookout tower. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried like a whisper directly to the ears of every Silent Man and Redemption Sister. As one, they moved. At each position, they ordered their teams to launch greenfire bombs with the catapults.
The greenfire burst among the wights with explosive force. Those caught directly in the blasts were incinerated instantly. Even those merely grazed by sparks were engulfed in flame, turning into burning humanoid torches. Soon, a blazing wall of fire had formed, cutting off the wights' advance.
But the wights didn't falter. They walked straight into the flames, undeterred, only to be consumed before they could pass through. From a distance, it looked like rows of firewood walking themselves into a bonfire.
The ease with which the wight army was destroyed brought a strange sense of triumph to the defenders. Many couldn't help but feel a sense of contempt for the wights—and even the White Walkers.
But Lynd didn't let his guard down for a moment. On the lookout tower, his bow remained drawn, another rune arrow ready to fly. His eyes never left the snow mist, now thinning by the second.
Although he had exposed and frozen the White Walkers hiding among the wights, he could still sense more of them in the area—and not just a few. The problem was, he couldn't pinpoint their exact location, even with his special sight.
"Shields up! Prepare for contact!" he ordered again as the last of the mist began to fade.
At his command, any arrogance the Redemption Sisters and Silent Men had felt vanished. Instinct took over. They raised the heavy shields strapped to their backs and locked into a defensive formation, bracing for the next wave.
"Elf White Walkers!"
As the last of the snow mist dispersed, the true danger hidden within finally revealed itself.
There, in the clearing, over a dozen Elf White Walkers sat atop their mounts, lined up in formation, staring silently at Lynd atop the watchtower.
Just as everyone braced for an imminent attack, the Elf White Walkers tugged at their reins, turned their mounts around, and rode off without a backward glance—heading deeper into the heart of the Land of Always Winter.
Their unexpected retreat left the Redemption Sisters and Silent Men, all poised for battle, completely stunned. Even Lynd looked confused.
Though he had no idea what the Elf White Walkers were up to, Lynd didn't give chase immediately. Instead, he remained behind to secure the battlefield—gathering his rune arrows, severing the arms and legs of the human White Walkers, binding them with rope, and sending them back to base for Malora to study and sacrifice.
With this batch of White Walkers, the number of marked recipients could surpass one hundred—enough to significantly strengthen the Nameless King rune power within him.
Lynd had no intention of letting the Elf White Walkers escape. After cleaning up the battlefield, he ordered his people to stay behind and guard the outpost, keeping an eye on movements to the north. He himself set off, following the tracks left by the Elf White Walkers into the wilderness.
...
Meanwhile, the dog sleds transporting the frozen White Walkers headed south along the Frozen River and reached the Walrus Tribe's base in about half a day.
Seeing more than a hundred sealed White Walker prisoners being unloaded from the sleds, Malora and the others were visibly shocked. Even when the Redemption Sisters and Silent Men had fought side by side and wiped out 100,000 wights, they had captured only a few dozen White Walkers. Yet Lynd had been gone for less than a day and returned this many.
Malora immediately questioned the Redemption Sister who had accompanied the prisoners. The Sister explained how the White Walkers had tried to lure away the main forces of the Redemption Sisters and Silent Men, leading a wight army in an attempt to ambush the garrison and then push south to destroy the Walrus Tribe base. But Lynd had sensed their intentions, prepared defenses in advance, and crushed them.
She also recounted how the Elf White Walkers had reacted after the destruction of the wight army and the human White Walkers.
After hearing it all, Malora took only a moment to decide—she abandoned the idea of studying the White Walkers and chose instead to sacrifice them all, rapidly increasing the number of rune mark recipients.
Though she didn't know why Lynd needed so many marked individuals, she was certain it would benefit him. And to help him survive any unknown dangers he might face in the far north, she accelerated the process as much as possible, offering her support indirectly.
While Malora was sacrificing the White Walkers in large numbers at the altar, Lynd immediately felt the surge of power from the Nameless King rune mark. But now wasn't the time to inspect the changes—his focus was entirely on tracking the Elf White Walkers.
Flying was too conspicuous. To avoid being spotted, Lynd landed far from their path and fashioned a pair of ice skis for his feet. He summoned a strong wind to propel himself across the snow and used the same wind to disperse his scent, minimizing the risk of being detected.
The Elf White Walkers moved with impressive speed. Despite their mounts being undead and visibly decayed, they could run like normal horses—and far exceeded them in endurance, able to maintain high speeds for long stretches.
After traveling for roughly half a day, they had already crossed the Thenn region and entered the uncharted extreme north—the heart of the Land of Always Winter, where no human had ever set foot. This place was nearly uninhabitable. Even Lynd felt the cold cutting into him, every breath causing faint damage to his body.
Though the harm was minor and quickly healed by his demi-god physique, it was telling. If it had been an ordinary person, their lungs would've frozen and failed by now.
Something was off. This frozen land was only a half-day's journey from the outpost. Even with undead mounts at full gallop, they couldn't have covered more than a thousand kilometers.
That might seem far to a human, but in terms of climate—especially across a vast, open snowfield—it wasn't enough to explain such an extreme shift in temperature. The only possible explanation was magic—some source of powerful magic altering the climate.
But Lynd didn't dwell on the climate for long. His attention snapped back to the Elf White Walkers. They had reached their destination.