Tension was the only atmosphere everyone in Kohor could feel at the moment.
Ever since Lynd issued that almost declaration of war announcement at the Kohor docks, the entire city had fallen into an inexplicable panic.
Soon, the reason for the situation was spread throughout the city by certain informed individuals, and the House Soyid instantly became the target of public condemnation.
Not only did the various powerful families in the city accuse the Zoid of selfishness for bringing great trouble to Kohor, but even the common people at the bottom began to denounce the Zoid.
It was no wonder they were so angry, because the Zoid had withheld Lynd's magic armor, stolen Lynd's magic knowledge, and all of these were their own doing.
They had not shared any of what they gained with the people of Kohor, and now, because of these actions, they had provoked such a dangerous enemy.
How could they not feel angry?
For a time, the Zoid seemed to be the target of all criticism, facing the danger of collapse, and many people even proposed a seemingly absurd suggestion.
This suggestion was to sacrifice the Zoid to the Black Goat God to appease Lynd's anger.
For the common people at the bottom, they did not need to know why sacrificing to the Black Goat God would appease Lynd's wrath; they just needed a reason to trample the high and mighty Zoid underfoot.
However, to the astonishment of all the common people in the city, half a day ago, the entire city was still denouncing the Zoid, as if they would not rest until the Zoid was annihilated.
But half a day later, all the denunciations disappeared.
The high-ranking officials in the city all fell silent, and those who had been the most vocal at the bottom were all taken away, disappearing forever from the lives of their relatives and friends.
Afterward, news spread that, in order to appease the anger and resentment from all sides, and to get the various forces in the city to assist them in confronting Lynd, the Zoid offered a large amount of benefits.
Their family assets were reduced by half, and Kos Soed even shared all the family's research results on magic armor with the various upper-level forces, feeding them well.
Ultimately, this disaster, which could have led to the Zoid's demise, was quelled.
However, the Zoid thus fell directly from being Kohor's top great family to the bottom, becoming one of the mid-level powerful families.
Immediately after, the entire city was mobilized.
In the propaganda of the various nobles, Lynd was portrayed as an invader similar to Temor Kao of old, described as an extremely evil monster.
All the Unsullied of the noble families were gathered to form legions, and all the mercenary companies that had been formed were hired and sent to the outer city walls, preparing to deal with Lynd's attack.
Even the Mages Association members, including Warlocks, Pyromancers, and Blood Witches, were all dispatched to the outer city walls.
Even if the spells they mastered might not have a particularly strong effect in war, it was better than nothing.
In addition, the priests of the Black Goat and the Red Priests of the Lord of Light stood together for the first time, coming to the Unsullied legions and mercenary legions to pray for them in their own ways.
Within the city, the dock area was also sealed off.
Everyone was pulled into the urban area, and the city gate separating the dock area and the urban area was closed, completely turning the entire city into a military fortress.
Kohor's high command believed that although Lynd appeared at the docks with only two people, it was very likely that Lynd's army had already hidden in the areas surrounding Kohor.
Otherwise, Lynd would not have been so crazy as to declare war on the entire Kohor.
Therefore, all their current arrangements were made in the same way they dealt with the Dothraki cavalry back then, setting up various defenses.
What was different from back then was that they now had over ten thousand Unsullied in their legions, and the mercenaries were not temporarily hired ones like the Second Sons.
They were all mercenary groups and teams long-term hired by various families, totaling four to five tens of thousands.
Their loyalty and courage were far superior to that of the Second Sons and Bright Banners.
They were confident that with Kohor's constantly reinforced sturdy city walls built over many years, they could withstand a siege of one hundred thousand or even hundreds of thousands of people.
Time came to the morning of the third day.
The weather seemed excellent, and the morning sun pierced through the distant mountain peaks, shining on Kohor's towering city walls, bringing a touch of warmth to the mercenaries and Unsullied who had guarded through the night.
Not long ago, scouts sent out yesterday reported that no traces of any army had been found around Kohor, suggesting that Lynd was more likely bluffing.
The members of the Mages Association, who had been with the mercenaries and Unsullied, also emerged from their tents set up beneath the city walls and came onto the walls, enjoying the warmth of the sun.
Among these people, a fiery red figure was particularly striking.
She wore the priestly attire of a Red Priest of the Lord of Light, had coppery red curly hair, and a beautiful face coupled with blood-red eyes, instantly attracting everyone's gaze the moment she appeared.
A mercenary captain responsible for guarding this section of the city wall, upon seeing this priestess, immediately approached her and said in a fawning manner, "Lady Melisandre, you should not be here.
Leave the front-line combat to us rough warriors.
You should be praying for us in the Lord of Light's temple and awaiting victory in the war."
"Victory in war?" The priestess looked at the mercenary captain, a hint of disdainful smile on her face, clearly disagreeing with his words.
This person before them was Melisandre, a priestess of the Lord of Light.
She had originally served as a priestess in the temple in Lys and had been dispatched to the Red Temple in Kohor a few days ago to assist the high priest there in spreading the faith of the Lord of Light.
The followers of the Lord of Light had always hoped that Kohor could fully convert to the faith of the Lord of Light, but here, the Black Goat God's faith had always controlled Kohor's high society.
Almost all great families had members serving as priests in the Black Goat God's temple, so the faith of the Lord of Light had only been able to develop among the common people.
Melisandre was sent here because she had extensive experience in missionary work, especially in converting nobles in specific areas, where she had shown exceptional performance.
The high priest of the Red Temple wanted to use Melisandre's abilities to open a door for the faith of the Lord of Light among Kohor's noble families.
However, she had been in Kohor for less than a day when trouble erupted.
That night, she was also at the docks and personally witnessed Chosen of the Seven Linde Terra of Westeros declaring war on the entire Kohor.
Linde Terra's behavior seemed utterly insane to her, even more insane than the craziest people she had seen in Asshai.
At least those people would not be so arrogant as to believe they could single-handedly confront an entire city-states.
However, amidst her surprise, Melisandre also felt that the confidence in Lynd's words was not baseless.
In the past few years, the deeds of Lynd, the Chosen of the Seven, had repeatedly reached Melisandre's ears.
Killing Others, capturing wights, finding the winter horn, taming sea dragons, and all sorts of other legendary stories that deeply shocked her were circulating throughout the world.
Singers and bards in any tavern would sing songs adapted from these stories.
His exaggerated reputation once made her believe that these exaggerated stories were actually deliberately spread by someone to expand Lynd's reputation.
However, various pieces of information collected by the Lord of Light's church indicated that those rumors were true.
Lynd was indeed a figure comparable to the legendary heroes of ancient mythical times, which made her increasingly curious about Lynd, even wondering if she could bring Lynd into the Lord of Light's church.
After all, besides being the Chosen of the Seven, Lynd also had the title of the storm god's incarnation, so it would not hurt to add the identity of a Godsworn of the Lord of Light.
Having such a legendary hero join the faith of the Lord of Light would be of immense benefit to the spread of the Lord of Light in Westeros.
It was precisely for this reason that, even though the events of that night made her feel that Lynd was somewhat insane, she still believed in her heart that Lynd might truly be capable of confronting the entire Kohor alone, because past deeds and rumors indicated that Lynd was not the kind of person who spoke big words or bluffed.
"Lady, do you not think we will win?" The mercenary captain, seeing Melisandre's disdainful smile, felt a slight displeasure and could not help but retort.
Because the mercenary captain deliberately raised his voice, others on the city wall could hear him and looked over.
Feeling the gazes on her, Melisandre still smiled disdainfully and said, "If you had carefully studied the past battle achievements of Godsworn Lynd, you would know how…."
Mid-sentence, she suddenly stopped abruptly and turned to look at the forest outside the city, as if she had discovered something.
"How what? Lady, you should finish your sentence." The mercenary captain did not understand Melisandre's actions and pressed on.
"Shut up! You fool." Melisandre at this moment had no patience for the persistent mercenary captain beside her.
While glaring at him, she also used a bit of magic.
In the mercenary captain's eyes, Melisandre's entire head turned into a skull, and her eyes became two flames, scaring him into retreating repeatedly, moving away from Melisandre.
"He has come!" Melisandre quickly dispelled her magic, then turned to look at the forest from before and said, "Linde Terra has come!"
Melisandre, with her extremely strong perception of magic, was the first person in all of Kohor to sense the intense magical aura emanating from the forest outside the city.
After her, among the forces involved in mystical powers in the city, such as the Mages Association, the Black Goat Church, and the Red Temple, those with magical sensing abilities also successively felt a vast magical power gathering outside the city.
This magical power was so immense that they had never experienced anything like it, and almost everyone felt as if they were standing on a ship facing a storm.
"Fog! It's foggy outside the city!" Immediately after, anxious voices were heard from the city walls.
Everyone was talking about one thing: large areas of dense fog had appeared outside the city, and these spontaneously generated fogs were unaffected by the sun, rapidly spreading towards the outskirts of Kohor, as if to surround the city.
At this moment, anyone could see that these fogs were abnormal and knew that they must have been created by Lynd, but they had no way to stop it.
Even the Black Goat God's temple, the Red Temple, the Mages Association, and all other forces involved in mystical powers were helpless, only able to watch as the dense fog occupied the forest outside the city and rapidly moved onto the river, eventually completely enveloping Kohor.
If someone could stand high in the sky and look down at this moment, they would find that the dense fog enveloping the entire Kohor was not very thick, only about twenty meters wide, but it was very tall, at least exceeding the height of the Black Goat God altar, the tallest building in Kohor.
Therefore, to the people inside Kohor, the dense fog seemed to have covered the entire outside world, creating an unprecedented sense of oppression.
The suffocating effect brought by this sense of oppression made those on the city wall who witnessed it feel that a great disaster was imminent.
Even the Unsullied felt a hint of fear towards the bizarre scene before them, and as for the mercenaries, they were even worse, with some people's hands beginning to tremble uncontrollably.
Subsequently, a series of prohibitions were issued on the city wall.
The news of the strange dense fog outside the city was completely confined to the city wall.
Ordinary people inside the city, due to the obstruction of the city wall, did not know what was happening outside, so they had not yet experienced panic or similar emotions, and the order within the city remained basically stable.
However, this stability did not last for too long, because faces began to appear in the dense fog outside the city, all of them Lynd's face, and they spoke towards Kohor, saying, "Have you made your choice?
To shield the offending House Soyid with the entire city?
If so, then bear my wrath!"
Just like that night, Lynd's voice, like a grand bell, spread throughout the entire city.
Everyone in the city could clearly hear his voice, and the language he used was Valyria, so everyone in the city understood his meaning.
The moment Lynd's voice fell, the sky instantly darkened.
The previously sunny and cloudless sky now had layers of thick dark clouds appearing out of nowhere, and these clouds were rapidly accumulating and stacking, eventually blocking all light, plunging the entire Kohor into darkness.
Facing this almost apocalyptic scene, everyone simultaneously felt fear.
Many ordinary city residents knelt on the ground, praying to the deities they believed in.
Even the warriors on the city wall were too terrified to pick up their weapons, while the faces of the high and mighty rulers within the city turned incredibly pale, and they vaguely realized that they had made the worst decision.
However, the fear of everyone in the city could not compare to the fear of the Zoid; they instinctively felt that they might not escape this time.
But not everyone felt fear at the sight before them.
Those who pursued magical power looked at the apocalyptic scene with immense excitement.
They knew that all of this was the power of magic, and they also realized how shallow the magical knowledge they had pursued in the past was.
Suddenly, in their hearts, Linde Terra was no longer their enemy, but rather became their mentor, prophet, and some even had the concept of the god of magic emerge in their minds, equating it with Lynd.
Note:
Happy Lunar New Year 2026!
First of all, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of you for always being by my side and supporting me throughout this journey.
To ensure the quality of upcoming stories, I've decided to take a week off during the Lunar New Year (February 15th to 22nd) to rest and spend time with my family.
I will return on February 23rd, 2026. During this break, I will prepare many new chapters to post regularly upon my return. So please look forward to it!
Wishing you a warm, joyful, and wonderful holiday season!