The Tampaton Family were distant relatives of the Stark Family. Bran Stark, the King in the North at the time, was also on very good terms with Sherrit Tampaton, allowing him to reside in the Nightfort.
The First Men kings of that era suffered defeat after defeat, and the entire region south of the Neck had essentially fallen. The First Men kings, both great and small, were mostly dead.
Only the King in the North managed to barely hold back the advance of the Andals thanks to Moat Cailin. However, this still couldn't prevent harassment and attacks from the sea.
Fortunately, the Andals themselves fell into internal strife and conflict. The King in the North then signed a peace treaty with the King of the Vale.
Both sides ceased hostilities. King Artys II, a man of great talent and vision (the son of Artys Arryn, the legendary Andal king and ancestor of the Arryn Family), led his two sons to Winterfell as a gesture of friendship, also to discuss a marriage alliance.
Upon hearing the news, Sherrit Tampaton and his servant, who had been in hiding at the Nightfort, plotted revenge. However, King Sherrit no longer had an army!
Fortunately, he still had some wealth. With this, he spent a lot of money to buy over a group of Night's Watch warriors.
Therefore, King Sherrit, under the guise of submission, invited the Andal king to the Nightfort.
Here, King Sherrit hosted a grand banquet, and the Stark Family accompanied King Artys II.
Since kings all had their own food tasters, the "Rat Cook" Huntley didn't choose to poison the food. He came up with an even more wicked plan!
In the kitchens of the Nightfort, the "Rat Cook" Huntley murdered Artys II's youngest son and made his flesh into a large pie.
He then presented it to Artys II. The poor father ate it, praised its deliciousness, and asked the cook for another serving.
The cook replied that he had used up the best meat from the young prince and couldn't make anything more delicious!
Sherrit Tampaton then drew the longsword hidden under the table and laid it across his knee, indicating that he was denying guest rights.
At the same time, some of the Night's Watch warriors at the Nightfort also launched a rebellion, intending to murder the Andal king.
Fortunately, the Stark Family's soldiers, along with some Night's Watch warriors who hadn't joined the rebellion, stopped this farce of a revolt in time.
Sherrit Tampaton's capabilities were limited; he hadn't planned this revenge plot at all. Otherwise, he might have actually pulled off a "Red Wedding"!
In the end, the furious King Artys II left the North with the remains of his youngest son, though they didn't directly go to war.
However, their descendants kept this incident firmly in mind; the seeds of hatred had been sown.
They would take root and sprout in minor skirmishes. Thus, at some point in the future, the North and the Vale fought for nearly a thousand years over the ownership of the "Three Sisters".
And the last king of the Fingers was sealed upon the ice of "The Wall" by an enraged distant relative of the Stark Family.
The "Rat Cook" was beheaded, and his body was crushed and fed to the beasts and rats near the castle.
The magical array set up by the Children of the Forest would periodically extract life energy from people's bodies. Therefore, the lingering resentful souls of those who died were absorbed into the array.
This was because this world didn't have a realm like the underworld; after a creature died, its soul would dissipate and turn into the most primitive life energy.
The Ghosts in the Nightfort were formed from the accumulated resentful spirits, their negative emotional energy never fully broken down by the magical array.
Gradually, they coalesced around the Nightfort, a node within the magical array, growing like a clot.
Their consciousness slowly regained a semblance of humanity, and their abilities grew stronger. Some of the more powerful individuals could even influence the real world.
It was the presence of these Ghosts that led to the constant stream of bizarre events at the Nightfort, where betrayal and murder never ceased.
The Seventy-Nine Guards here betrayed their oaths and murdered their superiors. The young and brave Dany Flint was raped and killed.
And the Mad Axe walked through the empty courtyards, climbed the towers, and slaughtered his Night's Watch brothers in the darkness.
The Ghosts were the cause of it all. Influenced by the negative emotions deep within their souls, they continuously spread fear and despair.
Many Night's Watch warriors used these stories to scare new recruits. Over time, the terrifying legends of the Nightfort spread across Westeros!
Gradually, the higher-ups of the Night's Watch began to relocate the few remaining soldiers. As the Night's Watch declined and was no longer valued, the maintenance costs of the Nightfort grew ever larger.
Around the year 70 of Aegon's Reign, with funding from Queen Alysanne Targaryen, "Jaehaerys I" sent people to build Deep Lake. After this, the Night's Watch completely abandoned the Nightfort.
As time passed, these Ghosts grew ever stronger, their consciousness becoming closer to that of humans. They craved escape from their confinement, craving even more human fear!
And tonight, under the stimulation of Mako's magic, these fellows were exceptionally active.
Those few powerful ones even directly used the magic array to forcibly extract Mako's soul from his body.
Although they consumed a large number of their Ghost companions, for those Ghosts who craved freedom, it was all worth it!
"You! You! How did you appear here?"
Sherrit Tampaton was terrified as Mako suddenly appeared. From the very beginning, he'd sensed something terrifying hidden within Mako.
Sherrit Tampaton had only felt this way about one other person: Ursula Ealif, the female sorceress from the Vale during the time of the First Men's kings!
The former king of the First Men had witnessed magic firsthand. For a time, the First Men's rune magic weapons had even helped them fend off several large-scale attacks by the Andals.
The small shred of reason left in Sherrit Tampaton's soul body told him that the depths of this human's soul seemed to contain a terrifying power.
"What are you waiting for? Get him, you lot!"
"Rat Cook" Huntley roared, charging at Mako first. Deathly energy swirled around him, like a ferocious ghost unleashed!
With Huntley's shout, the Ghosts in the area all surged toward Mako, as if they wanted to tear his soul body to shreds and devour it piece by piece.
Only a few of them didn't join in. It wasn't that they were unwilling, but rather they hoped the weaker Ghosts could wear down Mako's strength first.
They all sensed the dangerous aura emanating from Mako, so they maintained a cautious attitude.
"Roar!"
A terrifying roar erupted from Mako's mouth. Horrifying crimson energy, accompanied by the roar, spread outwards in waves.
"Fear Howl!"
The "Rat Cook," who was at the forefront, was frozen in place as if he had seen an ancient beast.
The crimson energy continued to expand outwards, causing all the Ghosts around Mako to stand still.
At this moment, light flickered in Mako's hand, and a book, identical to the magic interface in the game, appeared in his palm.
Mako flipped through the pages and found that his "War Cry Magic" and "Rune Magic" were both maxed out.
After entering this world, Mako felt the powerful magic within his soul body. Now, looking back, it seemed all related to Rune Magic.
Earlier, when he was in danger, his soul body was stimulated, and he instinctively used "Fear Howl."
Now, after seeing a certain top-tier rune in the magic book, a smile played on his lips!
Mako immediately took out a special rune that radiated golden light from the book.
This rune was a combination of a "diamond" shape and an "X." The golden rune energy on it flickered, looking very beautiful.
After learning that it wouldn't consume any resources, Mako crushed it.
The golden rune energy scattered into Mako's soul body, and then these golden rays enveloped Mako.
It grew larger and taller, directly bursting the space in the tower.
Roar!
After a dragon's roar, a huge light dragon appeared directly above the Nightfort's space.
Mako, in the form of a giant dragon, looked at his body and nodded in satisfaction. He then looked at the Ghosts that were frozen in place, and two powerful beams of light, dragon breath, shot from his eyes.
After one strike, a large number of Ghosts in front of Mako were turned into the purest energy, and milky-white flames ignited on the edges of those Ghosts.
After this attack was completed, Mako returned to his original form. The original effect of the "Dragon Form Rune" was to increase attack and defense by 100% and reduce magic damage by 50%.
However, for some unknown reason, it had become a "Transform into a Dragon" magic skill. It seemed quite powerful, but unfortunately, it could only attack once.
However, Mako still had the "Rage Rune" and "Fury Rune" in his body. These two runes allowed Mako's dragon transformation attack to be launched two more times!
However, Mako's terrifying blow had already made the remaining Ghosts lose their desire to attack. Especially the leading few, who desperately hid their bodies among the many Ghosts, fearing that Mako would discover them.
Mako glanced at them, gently opening the magic book in his hand. He said, "Come over here! I've been standing there for ages, I heard all your conversations! Do I need to call you out one by one?"
A few of the less stable ones, seeing Mako return to his original form, howled and charged forward again.
Before they could even get close, they were reduced to their most primitive energy by Mako's Lightning Strike.
This terrifying attack made all the Ghosts freeze in place, terrified by Mako's endless methods!
In a short while, three of them cautiously appeared before Mako. They had finally felt the power emanating from him.
At the same time, the other two were cursing Dany Flint in their hearts. They had thought they were dealing with a shadow lynx, but they had encountered an ancient monster!
Especially Kurt Leswell, whose original intention was only to persuade Dany Flint. He never expected to encounter such a disaster!
Mako closed the spellbook, his eyes sweeping over the three people in front of him. He frowned slightly and asked, "Where's the 'Rat Cook'? I don't see him."
"Sir! He just died at your hands, and now he's completely gone!"
Dany Flint spoke timidly, seemingly very afraid of Mako.
As the initiator of this operation, Dany Flint was very afraid that Mako would make a move against her, after all, it was she who had lured Mako's soul here.
Dany Flint had been very smart since she was a child, and after becoming a wraith, she became very interested in the knowledge of magic arrays.
After learning some ancient runes, she surprisingly understood some of the operating principles of the magic array.
Through continuous learning and exploration, she had surprisingly developed a set of simple methods for using magic arrays, but this method required the consumption of a large amount of soul bodies.
With the enhancement of the magic circle, her abilities grew stronger. Those crimson eyes were the result of her continuously developing her own power.
This time, Dany Flint used Mako as bait to get the few hundred Ghosts from the Nightfort to agree to contribute their power.
She just hadn't expected to attract such a killing god. A single strike had wiped out nearly one-third of the Ghosts' soul bodies.
Dany Flint had never encountered a being like Mako. They all came from the era before Aegon's Reign and had never seen a dragon.
Therefore, they all regarded Mako as a deity walking the earth and dared not question his commands in the slightest.
At this moment, Mako also understood their origins through his mental perception.
It turned out that the magic circle that maintained the entire The Wall was composed of twelve source language runes. The rune node of the "God of the Dead" happened to be located near the Nightfort.
Due to the influence of the energy from this rune, the life energy in this area of Nightfort was unusually active.
These Ghosts, through their prolonged parasitism, had caused a constant drain on the Nightfort's node, gradually weakening the power of the entire magical array over time.
The suppressed Others also began to step out of their territory, initiating a large-scale invasion of the human world.
Fortunately, these Ghosts were numerous but lacked powerful individuals.
However, with the passage of time, they would eventually break free from the magical array's constraints, and the harm they could cause might be even more terrifying than the Others.
After understanding the whole story, Mako decided to completely eliminate these Ghosts and revitalize the magical array.
He had originally prepared to use those two Runes, but then he turned and saw the pitiful Dany Flint.
Mako had a different idea in mind. After careful consideration, he said to Dany Flint:
"You don't belong to the world of the living, and like the followers of the alien gods, you shouldn't exist.
"However, I can't just wipe you out because of that! Tell me your choice: submit or be destroyed!"