Day after day, along the coast, by day, by night, until at last the trees thinned and rolling hills, winding streams, and sun-drenched fields appeared. On the plains, the skeletons of several burned-out manors stood like charred rotten teeth. After another day of walking, Vanessa faintly saw the tower of the Halberd Castle towering over the blue lake.

She remembered that in the story of the wet nurse, a castle built of fear, Heron the Black mixed the blood of babies with mud - whenever she said this, the old nurse would always keep her voice down, and the children would have to lean over to hear it - but Ivan's curse followed her, through the huge stone walls, and the sky rained down poisonous blood, poisoning Heron and all his sons. The princess bit her lip as she drove the light forward. It wouldn't be long, she told herself, that the towers were only miles away.

But they had walked all day that day, and most of the next day, until they finally reached the edge of Sir Donald's barracks, a town in ruins to the west of the castle. From a distance, the Halberd Castle can be misleading, as it is so huge. The massive walls rose from the edge of the lake, steep and abrupt as a mountain cliff, and the battlements were lined with ballistas made of wood and iron, which looked as small as insects. The gate tower of the Halberd Castle is the size of the main fortress of Neverwinter, and the stone walls are cracked and faded, which is very terrifying. Outside the walls, only the tops of the five towers could be seen, the shortest of which was a half as tall as Neverwinter's tallest tower, but they didn't stand tall like normal towers, and Vanessa felt them look like the old man's rough crooked fingers, groping for the clouds that drifted by. She remembered how Nurse Weimar had told her how the stone walls had melted like candles, and the rain of blood had flowed down the steps and windows, glowing with a dark, hot red light towards Heron's hideout. For now, the princess believed every word in the story, and the towers were stranger and deformed, rough and cracked.

There were numerous flags along the way, planted in the tents of the southern soldiers, and Vanessa could make out the coats of arms on most of them, as well as smell the stench of the large army. From the taste, the princess concluded that her troops had been stationed here for some time. The urinal outside the camp was overflowing, swarms of flies and faint green hairs growing on the stakes surrounding the camp.

"What's going on?" The princess asked.

"The lord of this place, Lord Opplan, has refused to allow our army to pass the Halberd Castle." Sir Donald urged his mount to Vanessa's side.

"Why?" Vanessa frowned, the Opland family and the Gaowen family of Crescent City have been in-laws for generations, and they were not optimistic about the rule of the Delin family at the beginning, but in view of the stable social status of the Gaowen family, there has never been a rebellion, and now that Gaowen has been exterminated by Elia, it is understandable that Opplan prevented him from entering Winterfell.

"Why," said Sir Donald, who had always been cautious, said with embarrassment, "Opland refuses to recognize your succession to the throne. ”

Vanessa was shocked. Could it be that Ivan has ever been here? "Then who does he think has the right to the throne, himself?" Vanessa dismounts and walks into Donald's makeshift camp. She came to the table, took off the thin cotton gloves she wore when riding, and handed them to Brant beside her, "The northern midsummer is still under the rule of Koman, and it was expected to be blocked out of the city like this, but I thought that things would be easier after the Dufu Pass, but I didn't expect that the first thing I encountered was this difficult bone." She pointed to the parchment map and said, "In addition to the Halberd Castle in front of us, there are Thuran Castle, Vortex City, and Dragonspine Town, we must take the Halberd Castle beautifully, and give the following towns a little bit of strength, otherwise, there will be more obstacles in the way forward." ”

"We've tried to storm it, but with little success," Ser Cedric turned his big belly, his fiery beard fluttering in front of Vanessa's eyes, "the walls of the Halberd Fortress are magically blessed, and neither the siege engines nor the oil barrels will work against it. ”

"That's why I'm here," Vanessa smirkedly pointed to the light outside the tent, "I've got a horse that can penetrate a qiē obstacle, and with the right rider, the gates of the Halberd Castle will open before us." ”

"It's not that simple," Donald shook his head, "we once breached a battlement, but when we entered the Urn City, we encountered unprecedented resistance. Even now, the battle-hardened knight still had a lingering palpitation, "They seem to have been prepared, each of them has an ominous green glow in their eyes, and their combat strength is almost as good as ten, and we are crushed." The knight bowed his head as he admitted his defeat, and everyone in the tent fell silent as they remembered the tragic defeat.

"Green," Vanessa chewed on the word, "what is the magic of the Opland family?" ”

"Ascension." Donald gave the answer, "Old Tess's magic is to increase people's appetite, and she has cured countless people of anorexia in her life. Her grandson, on the other hand, was able to run faster, but he was born without legs and was a lifelong disability. ”

"If this trend continues, the magic of House Opland should have declined a long time ago, but they still rule the castle, why is that?"

"Because more powerful magic genes are constantly being added." Cedric threw a parchment scroll on the table, which detailed the genealogy of the Opland family, "Since that crippled boy, their family has married women with powerful magic, and with each successive generation of lords, the height of the Halberd Castle increases by one layer, and the world does not know what the purpose of this is and what their magic is." ”

Vanessa remembered the legend of Weima's nurse again, and couldn't help but shake her head and expel this terrible thought, "That is, the current lord has the magic to increase his combat effectiveness, and he created those enhanced warriors to fight for himself. ”

"Quite possibly." Donald and Cedric nodded at the same time.

"Let me go," Brant, who had been silent, suddenly spoke, "I was to the Halberd Castle when I accompanied the Silver King on his mission to the Land of Midsummer, and although the castle was nowhere near as high as it is now, I was in contact with the current lord of the city, Kolun?" Opland played together for a summer, and I believe he will listen to me. ”

(l~1`x*>+``+