The projection from the Admin Key faded, leaving Ren holding a cold, dead chip.
Daenerys looked terrified. "That woman... she spoke with the voice of the dead. "
"It doesn't make sense," Saya Takagi adjusted her glasses, looking at the holographic data Ren was projecting from his memory.
"The Arbiter is a Tier 4 Entity. She destroys realities. The Night King is just a magical lich on a feudal planet. Why would a Goddess serve a Zombie?"
(MC told the in and outs of the world and arbiter to his squad)
Ren stood up, pacing around the campfire. The Dothraki were celebrating in the distance, but the mood here was grim.
"She isn't serving him, Saya," Ren explained, his voice hard. "She's glitching."
Ren projected a diagram of the Arbiter's code structure in the air. It was filled with red error bars.
"When I hit her with the System Hijack in Volantis, I severed her connection to her bosses. She went offline and scattered. It looks like she survived somehow and appeared in the Land of Always Winter."
Ren pointed North.
"The Night King found her. He's a Greenseer. He creates a hive mind.
He didn't negotiate with her. He hacked her. He poured his magic into her open ports."
"So she's... infected?" Saeko asked, cleaning Blackfyre.
"Worse," Ren said. "To her damaged logic circuits, the Night King's hive mind looks like a 'Local Network'. She thinks he is the System Administrator. She's not a servant; she's a hijacked terminal. And now, the Night King has access to cosmic-level technology."
Ren kicked a log into the fire.
"We have to go North. We have to delete her before she upgrades the Army of the Dead into something we can't kill with dragonglass."
Eastwatch-by-the-Sea
One Week Later.
Ren's plan was insane, but necessary. They needed proof for Cersei to secure a ceasefire, and they needed to scout the Arbiter's influence.
They flew to Eastwatch. Jon Snow (King in the North) was already there, having received a raven from Samwell Tarly about the threat.
In the icy courtyard of Eastwatch, the "Suicide Squad" assembled.
Ren (Leader / Heavy Hitter).
Jon Snow (Knows the enemy).
Tormund Giantsbane (Knows the terrain).
The Hound (Sandor Clegane - Found in the Riverlands).
Jorah Mormont (Seeking redemption).
Gendry (Warhammer support).
Annie Leonhart (Titan Shifter).
Ren looked at his Harem Squad.
"Saeko, Saya, the rest of you... stay here," Ren ordered. "Guard the dragons. If the Night King has anti-air capabilities now, I won't risk the whole team."
"I'm going," Annie said, stepping forward. She wore a thick white fur coat over her tactical gear. "If there are giants, you need a Titan."
Ren nodded. "Fine. Annie comes. The rest, hold the Wall."
Beyond the Wall
They walked into the white void. The wind howled like a dying animal.
Tormund stared at Annie. "You're a small one," he grunted. "You gonna fight a bear with those little hands?"
Annie didn't look at him. "I've fought bigger things than bears."
Ren walked at the front with Jon Snow.
"You feel it?" Jon asked, clutching Longclaw. "The air... it tastes like metal."
"Static," Ren corrected. "The magic is ionizing the air."
They tracked a small group of wights through a canyon.
"There," The Hound pointed. "Just one straggler. We bag him, we go."
It seemed too easy. A lone wight, shambling in the snow.
Jon moved to intercept.
"Wait," Ren stopped him. System Sight flickered.
[Warning: Energy Signature Detected. Not Magic. Technology.]
"That's not a normal wight," Ren hissed.
The wight turned around.
Half its face was rotted flesh. The other half... was Chrome.
Its arm wasn't bone. It was a makeshift prosthetic made of scavenged Arbiter armor, fused to the dead flesh with glowing blue wires.
"What in the seven hells is that?" Gendry gasped.
The Cyber-Wight opened its mouth. Instead of a scream, it emitted a high-pitched digital screech.
SCREEEEEEEEE.
"It's a beacon!" Ren shouted. "Ambush!"
From the snowdrifts around them, they rose.
Not just wights. Upgraded Wights.
Hundreds of them rose from the snow. Skeletons with metal ribcages. Bears with glowing blue visors.
"They're armored!" The Hound yelled, his axe bouncing off a metal skull.
"Get back," Ren ordered calmly.
Ren stepped forward. His eyes glowed blinding blue.
[Skill: Electro-Magnetism (Max Output).]
Ren raised both hands. The air hummed with static.
"You upgraded them with metal?" Ren smirked, electricity arcing off his body.
"Big mistake."
Ren clenched his fists.
CRUNCH.
Every Cyber-Wight within a hundred meters froze. Their metal implants magnetized instantly, crushing their rotten flesh. Skulls imploded. Metal arms twisted backward, snapping bone.
Ren didn't stop.
[Skill: Elementalist - Chain Lightning.]
He fired a bolt of yellow lightning into the nearest magnetized wight. Because they were connected by metal and wet snow, the electricity jumped.
ZZZ-ZAP-BOOM.
A chain reaction. The lightning tore through the horde, frying hundreds of wights in seconds. The smell of ozone and burning rot filled the air.
"By the Gods," Tormund whispered, watching Ren decimate an army with a wave of his hand. "He is a storm."
The Frozen Lake
They captured a surviving wight, but the screech had drawn the main force.
Thousands of them.
They retreated to the rock island in the center of the frozen lake. The ice cracked under the weight of the horde, stopping them.
The Night King emerged on the ridge.
Beside him stood The Arbiter. She was rusted, broken, plugged into the ice like a battery.
"Target Acquired," The Arbiter's voice glitched. "Subject Ren."
She raised her arm cannon. She fired a beam at the ice.
BOOM.
The lake shattered. The island began to sink.
"They're trying to drown us," Ren realized. "Gendry! Run! Get to Eastwatch!"
Ren grabbed Gendry and used Telekinesis to launch him across the broken ice to the shore. "GO!"
The Trap
Night fell. The water refroze. The wights began to cross.
"They're coming!" Jorah shouted, readying his daggers.
"Annie," Ren commanded. "Showtime."
Annie bit her hand.
KA-BOOM.
The Female Titan rose. She spun, kicking heads off wights, smashing the ice to drown them.
But there were too many.
Then, the sky roared.
Drogon, Rhaegal, Viserion. Typhon, Raijin, Wraith.
Six dragons descended, turning the night into day with fire.
Ren looked up. "I told them not to come!"
The Night King didn't look at the wights. He didn't look at Ren.
He looked at Viserion.
He raised an Ice Spear. But this wasn't just ice. The tip was tipped with Arbiter Alloy. It hummed with anti-gravity tech.
[System Warning: Locking Target. Projectile Incoming.]
The Arbiter raised her hand, guiding the Night King's aim with a laser lock.
The Night King threw the spear.
Ren saw it. Time slowed down.
"Not on my watch," Ren snarled.
[Skill: Electro-Magnetism (Repel).]
[Skill: Telekinesis (Force Wall).]
Ren thrust his hand out. He grabbed the metal tip of the spear with his magnetic field.
STOP.
Mid-air, fifty feet from Viserion, the spear halted. It vibrated violently, caught between the Night King's throw and Ren's magnetic grip.
Ren strained, his veins bulging. "I... have... it!"
Viserion, sensing the threat, began to bank away.
But the Arbiter turned her head toward Ren. Her visor flashed red.
"Interference Detected," she droned.
"Counter-Measure: Nullify."
She pointed a finger at Ren.
[Admin Command: Cancel Skill (Local Area).]
Ren felt his connection to the System snap. His magnetic field vanished instantly.
"NO!" Ren screamed.
Freed from Ren's grip, the spear resumed its trajectory. It accelerated with unnatural speed.
THWACK.
The spear slammed into Viserion's neck. The Arbiter alloy tip exploded, severing the spine instantly.
Viserion screamed—a sound of pure agony. Blood and fire rained down.
The gold dragon crashed into the ice, sliding into the black water.
Daenerys screamed from atop Drogon.
Ren stood on the island, his hand still outstretched, shaking. He had caught it. He had stopped it. But the Arbiter had cheated.
"We leave," Ren said, his voice cold as the grave. "NOW."
He grabbed the captured wight. "Annie! Eject!"
Annie ripped herself out of the Titan. They scrambled onto Drogon.
As they took off, Ren looked back.
He locked eyes with the Night King.
Then he looked at the Arbiter.
"I'm going to turn you into a toaster," Ren telepathed to her.
The Arbiter didn't respond. She walked down to the water's edge.
She extended a cable into the lake where Viserion had sunk.
[System Alert]
[Necromancy Protocol: Uploading...]
[Target: Viserion.]
[Upgrade: Cybernetic Augmentation.]
The water began to glow blue.
Ren turned away. Viserion was gone. But the war had just changed. It wasn't just Ice and Fire anymore.
It was Metal and Magic.