What exactly is this strange creature, a worm or a leech, trying to burrow into her body?
In her dragon spirit state, Dany sensed a fatal crisis in Black's sea of consciousness.
She struggled and kicked, trying to shake off the "worm."
But it clung to her like a desperate admirer stuck to their goddess, refusing to let go!
"Swish!" A black light flashed, slicing off a piece of her boot. The bright red "worm" was severed in two, falling to the ground lifeless.
It was Barristan. When Dany pushed him away, he instinctively used his golden silk cloak to shield himself from the high temperatures. The moment the dragon flame ceased, the old knight rolled back to his feet, curved sword in hand, leaving a fresh silver cut on Dany's boot.
"It works!" the White Knight shouted excitedly, weaving a dense web of slashes. The red "worm" on the ground was cut into two halves without any resistance.
On the scorched floor of the hall, a charred body struggled to rise. Bloodshot, ink-black eyes glared at the curved sword in Barristan's hand, cursing in a grating, gender-mixed voice: "Va, le, ria, steel! Damn it!"
"Valyrian steel dispels evil!"
Dany suddenly realized, then became frustrated. Wasn't dragon flame supposed to be the best at breaking magic?
"Don't go near it!" she called out, stopping the White Knight from delivering a beheading blow. "We'll retreat from the hall."
It wasn't cowardice. The opponent, despite taking a direct hit from dragon flame, suffered only minor injuries—burnt hair and clothes, with slightly charred skin.
Well, the face did look a bit like melted plastic.
The White Knight calmed down, realizing his earlier impulsiveness. He immediately retreated to Dany's side, helping her toward the door.
Seeing this, "Jenny" sprang up, staggering after them. "Come back, come back... This is your destiny... You can't escape... Become immortal with me—"
"Boom!"
As soon as Dany and Barristan left the hall, Black unleashed the full fury of his dragon flame. "Jenny" melted like a candle in the bright red inferno but was quickly reshaped by invisible hands into a woman's figure.
Her deformed face even regained its fullness!
The new figure was roasted into a puddle again, repeating the cycle seven or eight times. Each time, "Jenny" recovered faster, even letting out a chilling laugh: "The foreign dragon from the east can indeed hurt me, but I am Balerion, the God of Dragon Kings!
Once I adapt to the new magical factors, your dragon will be powerless against me."
Holy crap, is this the Eight Trigrams Furnace refining Sun Wukong?
Also, foreign dragon?
"What the hell is this thing?" Barristan asked, horrified.
"Your Majesty, what now?" He turned to Dany, whose face was blistered from the dragon flame.
Hmm, this was the same queen who had earlier claimed with the confidence of a seasoned veteran, "I'm familiar with this kind of scene. Piece of cake."
Dany looked around blankly until her eyes brightened at the sight of White. "Black, fall back! White, your turn to spit!"
"Hiss—Boom!" White immediately lowered his head, joining the barbecue.
Dany noticed that under White's flame, "Jenny's" regeneration slowed back to its previous rate.
The dragon eggs came from Asshai, and her four dragons were not descendants of Valyrian dragons. But what did that prove?
Aren't all dragons in the world the same?
Clearly, "Jenny" had used herself as a test subject, proving that Valyrian dragons and foreign dragons were two different species.
The magical factors were different.
Uh, what exactly are magical factors?
All these thoughts flashed through Dany's mind in an instant. As soon as White joined in and Black pulled his head out of the hall, Dany immediately activated the only sorcery she knew: Soul Strike!
In her dragon spirit state, Black's dragon soul merged with Dany's spiritual sea, fusing into a dark arrow.
In this vision, Jenny was no longer human but a black mist creature with a man's head and a black dragon's body.
The arrow pierced straight through the creature's forehead. The humanoid dragon shadow let out a silent scream, its body shrinking significantly.
"Buzz!" Jenny's body trembled.
"Buzz!" The second Soul Strike made Jenny stagger. Black convulsed on the ground like an epileptic, while blood trickled from Dany's nose.
Balerion's shadow shrank further, revealing Jenny's form through the thinning black mist.
"Buzz!" The third Soul Strike made blood stream from Dany's seven orifices, and Black's eyes rolled white.
The shadow condensed into a small mass, leaving Jenny's figure fully exposed.
"No—" Jenny froze, letting out a furious roar.
"Boom!"
Like a grenade stuffed into a steel chamber, Jenny exploded into countless pieces amid the dragon flames.
Every Soul Strike hit Balerion's divine soul directly, costing Dany and Black dearly—killing a thousand enemies while wounding themselves twelve hundred.
But Dany and Black were both in their original bodies, while the enemy had only partially descended into Jenny. Their foundations were not equal, making Dany's tactic a case of "hurting oneself to wound the enemy."
Three consecutive soul strikes—Balerion's divine power was no longer enough to shield Jannie's entire body. She was merely mortal; naturally, she couldn't withstand the searing heat of dragonfire.
"It's over!" Dany let out a sigh of relief.
"Watch out!" A flash of black light streaked before her eyes, followed by Barristan's furious and alarmed shout.
A worm-like creature, as long as an arm and as thick as a finger, was severed in two. It fell to the ground, its dark red blood dripping onto the broken stones, corroding a small pit into the surface.
"Sizzle—" Wisps of blue smoke rose from the hole.
"You… shall… die!"
Inside the hall, a cacophony of voices—men, women, elderly, children, girls—some rough, some crisp, some eerie, some sweet, some gentle—merged into a sinister and seductive male baritone.
Dany felt her scalp tingle. She stepped back a few paces and shouted, "Run! Black! White! Take off! Hurry!"
Even the veteran couldn't hold the line anymore.
From beyond the door, within the hall, came the eerie rustling of countless red-glowing "worms," writhing and entwining like noodles in a boiling pot.
Just hearing the sound of them crawling sent a shudder down her spine, as if something was trying to slither into her mouth, down her throat.
"Hiss—gaarrr—" Black struggled to rise, grabbing Dany by the shoulder with his jaws and placing her onto White's back before kicking off powerfully, leaping into the sky.
Barristan moved swiftly, already atop the black dragon.
"Hiss—gaarrr—" Before the "worms" could crawl out of the hall, White also soared into the air.
Not far away, hundreds of Oros people were already gathering along the streets.
Dany, however, didn't linger and immediately commanded the two dragons to fly south.
No, she didn't head into the Smoking Sea.
"Boom! Boom!" In less than three minutes, the dragons once again landed atop the roofless Sky Tower.
Barristan asked anxiously, "Your Grace, are you unwell?"
"My body is fine." Dany struggled to climb down from the dragon's back. The lead armor had too low of a melting point; it had fused into a solid mass under the dragonfire. Though she wasn't injured, the cooled lead had become so rigid that she could barely move.
The White Knight dismounted from the black dragon, came to Dany's side, and used his curved blade to chip away the lead fused at her joints. As he worked, he asked in confusion, "Then why aren't we fleeing?"
Dany touched the blisters on her face, grimacing. "My body is fine, but my heart is not."
"Well, there's nothing we can do about that. Who would've thought the gods were real?"
Clearly, this upright and noble old man was entirely out of sync with Her Majesty's train of thought.
"Hah!" As soon as her hands were free, Dany drew a Valyrian steel dagger from her waist and urged the old man, "Enough, go on, I'll handle the rest."
"Go where?" Whitebeard was puzzled.
"My heart feels uneasy, so I'm going to rob this Sky Tower. Got it now?"
Honestly, this old man was utterly oblivious.
When she had followed Jannie down the Sky Tower earlier and saw that there were no guards, she should have—Ahem, back then, Dany had only entertained the thought. Just a passing thought.
"Robbery?" The old knight's voice was even louder than Dany's, his eyes wide, as if he had just witnessed a ghost in broad daylight.
"When we descended earlier, you were looking around everywhere. What did you see?" Dany asked.
Barristan's face flushed red. He said unhappily, "Your Grace, I was cautiously surveying the enemy, not sneakily eyeing the host's treasures."
"Thump, thump, thump." Dany pounded her chest a few times and said with displeasure, "Look at me. Take a good look. Do I look like a guest who has been graciously received? We are at war! Isn't it only right to claim the spoils of victory?"
Well…
Dany's once brilliant silver hair was now blackened and filthy. Her once fair face was marred with blistered burns. Her once gallant silver armor was now scorched, tattered, and charred black.
She looked utterly miserable.
"You should've brought Jorah Mormont. I'm not suited for this kind of thing." He muttered under his breath but still hurried off toward the staircase.
The old knight had spent his life on the battlefield, serving kings for decades. He had always been upright and honorable, his integrity unyielding. Yet following Queen Dany, for the first time in his life, he was about to commit an act of robbery.
"No gold or silver—just Valyrian steel weapons and magical tomes," Dany called after the White Knight, just as he was disappearing down the stairwell. She could faintly see him stumble—clearly tripping over his own feet in shock.
Moments later, muffled cries of distress echoed from below.
"Thieves! Robbers! Bandits are looting the city lord's palace!"
Then came the old knight's anxious voice, trying to explain himself:
"I am not a thief! Not a bandit! Do not fear, do not scream—this tower is too high; no one in the streets can hear you anyway. Hurry, bring me the High Priest's treasures. I won't harm you."
One could only imagine how flustered and awkward the old man was at this moment—his words were already jumbled.
"Aaahhh—"
His cry was filled with excitement. Within moments, Barristan came trudging back, his heavy footsteps thudding against the floor. In his arms, he carried a massive lump of black iron—about the size of a banquet table. It was welded with numerous tubes.
The old knight's neck was straining backward as he walked, his steps slow and laborious, as if he was barely managing to drag himself forward.
"What in the world is that? Why are you bringing back a big, ugly chunk of iron? Where are the swords? The spell books? Even a few history books would do!" Dany frowned.
"Your Grace, this is a Witch's Lens! The legendary Witch's Lens!" The old knight exclaimed excitedly.
"Toss it!" Dany waved her hand dismissively.
What use was a microscopic lens? And such a massive, cumbersome thing at that.
Once she found some glassmakers in Myr and a few master blacksmiths in Qohor, she could craft a hundred compact, high-magnification "Witch's Lenses" herself.
(End of Chapter)
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