Chapter 127 - Massacre

Early the next morning, Jon Snow, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and two dozen Northerners set off for the White Harbor to board a ship to Dragonstone. As dusk began to fall, they arrived at the port and began boarding the ship.

Meanwhile, as Jon's group sailed out of the harbor, another group of people sailed along the coast of the Tart Isle in the Stormlands. It was Euron Greyjoy's fleet, which set sail from the royal harbor a week ago with the promise to capture Dornish snakes for Cersei.

Euron stood on the deck of his ship, puzzled as to why he couldn't find Asha's fleet today. "Where are you, my dears? Your uncle has been looking for you for a long time," he thought when he heard a cry from one of his crew members.

"Ships to starboard!"

Euron instantly rejoiced at hearing this, not realizing how a hundred ships of Asha's fleet passed him by unnoticed on the right. Without hesitation, he shouted, "Board them!"

The crew of the "Silent" immediately redirected the ship towards the nearest enemy vessel. With a loud crash, the "Silent" struck the enemy ship, and Euron ran along the bowsprit, leaping onto the enemy ship with an axe in hand.

"Aaah!"

He rushed towards the nearest soldier and swung his axe.

"Strike!"

The axe passed through the body without encountering any resistance, as if there was nothing in its path. Euron looked at the soldier standing before him and saw no wounds on him.

As he watched his crew fail to harm their targets, a chill ran down his spine.

"Something's not right! Retreat!" At that moment, he heard it.

"Petrificus Totalus."

Euron stood frozen in place. He could feel and see what was happening around him, but he couldn't move his body. After petrification, he heard more cries.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

Green light flooded the deck of the ship, and within seconds, he saw dozens of his men lying lifeless on the deck. The entire crew of the "Silent" was dead. He didn't know how he could be sure they were dead; he just felt the fear in his soul when he saw the green light flashing.

As everyone in his crew lay dead, he saw the transparent soldiers vanish, replaced by small stones with strange glowing symbols drawn on them. The stone nearest to him blinked a few times with blue light and went out.

At that moment, Euron heard footsteps and the conversation of two people.

"Frank, your use of alchemy to create illusions is improving rapidly!"

"Yes, I made the right choice in taking Mr. Flamel's course on specialization. It's just a pity that these stones have such low mana conductivity. You see, they quickly stopped working."

Euron watched as one of the two men, dressed in dark burgundy armor, picked up a stone and tossed it away. Meanwhile, the other man took out some strange bug and began to speak.

"Hello, yes, we're done. You can start clearing up. We'll take the ship away for ourselves. A little trophy wouldn't hurt."

Just as the man said they would take the ship away, the other, who had been collecting stones earlier, approached him.

"Hey, hello. Amazing, isn't it? How does it feel to fight against thin air? Oh, sorry, you can't answer.... Well, Wingardium Leviosa."

Euron felt his body lifted, and the man walked ahead, leading him onto the "Silent."

As they boarded the ship, he saw the unknown man shouting to his ally, "Hey, let's hurry! We need to move this vessel further away so it doesn't come under fire."

"Coming, coming."

When this peculiar trio found themselves on the deck of the "Silent," one of them uttered, "Bombarda Maxima!" and pointed his short wand at the ship. A huge hole formed in the ship's hull, and it began to sink. Seeing this, the second man said, "Ventus," and wind filled the sails, pulling the ship forward.

Euron couldn't understand why none of the nearby ships came to help! Clearly, something devilish was afoot. It was hard not to notice such an explosion, and it was also difficult to understand why the ship was sailing away. Then he heard one of his captors speak.

"You're probably wondering why no one is coming to save you, and why other ships aren't reacting?"

"They're seeing something entirely different right now. Did you like the stones I made? Well, similar ones are now on every ship located around the perimeter. So while those behind can see what's happening, those near you are witnessing a beautiful scene of you conquering the ship."

During the time the man explained, the "Silent" drifted further and further away from the rest of the fleet. When they were about 200 meters away from the other ships, Euron heard a horrifying roar from the sky.

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Meanwhile, as Euron was taken prisoner on another ship, Asha stood on the deck and listened to the conversation of the wizards.

"Are you done? Good, well done. We're starting the cleanup. Want to move the ship? Okay, you have five minutes."

A man approached her in the same burgundy armor as the others, but with a slightly different helmet.

"We're starting the cleanup. Do you have any other wishes besides capturing Euron alive?"

"Uh, no, nothing like that..."

"Good."

She watched as the man turned around and shouted, "Hey, you slackers!!! Get off your asses and mount your brooms! Remember, only fly into the fleet after three passes of the dragons, not before! Otherwise, I won't be responsible for your safety! Alright, why are you all standing like statues?! Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

Aisha stood and watched as dozens of wizards mounted their brooms and flew off in a northeastern direction.

Actually, she still couldn't wrap her head around what was happening.

Just three hours ago, one of the patrolling wizards landed on the ship and said, "We've found an ambush, 5 kilometers away from us near the island, ready to attack."

To which Andzhey - the man with the slightly altered helmet - replied, "No, we're at full speed right now, and the Muggles might notice us. We could suffer senseless losses among the ships if we engage them directly. Order all scouts to cast the Disillusionment spell, and let everyone who studied alchemy under Mr. Flamel come here within 15 minutes."

"Yes, Captain Andzhey!"

The man saluted and flew off.

When Andzhey finished giving instructions to the wizards, he approached me and said,

"Lady Aisha, we've found the enemy fleet and devised a plan for its complete destruction. Please order your people to lower the sails and reduce speed; we'll wait for nightfall."

She remembered what had happened when Asmodeus showed her the power of the wizards and didn't understand the point of delaying the battle like this. However, even though Andzhey is asking her to stop the ships, in fact, he's the one in charge now, and he doesn't need to ask her anything; he can simply act. Such a request is just courtesy.

"Very well. Theon, did you hear? Give the signal to our people. Let them stop the ships."

As the ships began to stop, Aisha watched as numerous wizards landed on the deck, and after certain instructions from Andzhey, they took out ordinary stones from their bags and began to carve something on them.

When they finished carving the strange symbols on the stones, she saw wizards flying by on their brooms, regularly casting a spell called Disillusionment.

She watched as the ships in the vicinity merged with the sea and gradually became invisible.

When the last ship of the fleet disappeared from her sight, Andzhey approached her again and said,

"The wizards will guide the ships to prevent them from colliding along the way. We'll form a ring around the enemy fleet, and after a couple of dragon attacks, the wizards will strike. After we're done, you can finish off the survivors or take them prisoner if you wish. I don't mind. Do you have any specific requests regarding this operation?"

She was stunned; never in her life could she even imagine someone discussing sinking a fleet of thousands so casually and calmly, and even asking if she had any wishes. It was as if they were not at war but in some tavern or brothel and she was being offered to make an order.

But as she pondered over it...

"If possible, please capture Euron Greyjoy alive. He should be on the largest ship. I want to personally execute him."

"Very well, then we'll proceed with the same plan; just a few of our people will be sent ahead to capture Euron Greyjoy."

From her reverie, she was pulled by the loud roar of a dragon, and she rushed to the bow of the ship to look ahead and slightly upwards.

A dragon of immense proportions flew over the ship and headed towards Euron's fleet.

As the dragon approached the perimeter of the fleet, it opened its mouth, and Aisha saw how the red flames engulfed the ship, instantly incinerating everyone on the deck.

The dragon didn't stop; it flew further into the heart of the fleet, engulfing all surrounding ships in flames.

The burning ships were like fireflies in the night, brightly illuminating the surrounding sea.

Aisha watched as the dragon flew to the other side of the fleet, then turned around and flew back towards her, engulfing the ships closest to the already burning ones in flames.

At the same time, she saw another dragon appear on the other side of the fleet, smaller but no less deadly. Then another, and another, until there were five dragons flying back and forth diagonally, raining fire upon the ships.

After a couple of minutes, each dragon made three passes back and forth and began to move away from the fleet.

She noticed her ships, one by one, starting to reappear within her field of view.

Surveying the situation, she realized that what Andjei had said was true. The wizards had positioned her fleet in such a way as to completely surround Euron's fleet.

When all the camouflage was removed from her fleet, Andjei approached her and said, "Lady Aisha, please command your people to attack. By the time they reach the enemy ships, they will already be sinking, and you can move forward."

"Very well."

She turned to her crew and repeated Andjei's words. As the crew got to work, Aisha returned to the bow of the ship and continued to watch as the wizards attacked the fleet.

She saw the wizards on broomsticks forming squads of five and flying straight towards the enemy, to the areas where the dragons had not yet struck.

The closest wizards to her pulled out their wands and aimed them at the ships below them, shouting, "Expulso!"

She watched as the stern of the ship shattered into splinters, hitting a couple of sailors standing on the deck, instantly killing them.

The wizards didn't stop; at first, they only exploded the hulls of a couple of ships, causing them to sink. But when they reached the center of the fleet, the farthest point from her, she saw a column of orange flame emanating from each of the wizards' wands.

This flame was even more terrifying than the dragons! She saw ships literally vaporizing! The flames, without stopping, moved towards the neighboring ships, and after a couple of minutes, there wasn't a single ship left in the center of the fleet. Just when she thought the wizards were overdoing it and that at this rate the fire would spread to her ships, which were about to approach the first ships on the perimeter, she saw the wizards land on the nearest ship to the fire and begin to insert their wands into the deck.

The columns of light formed a circle of fire, but this fire did not merge with the flames that had burned the central part of the fleet; instead, it began to compress the space of that fire until it disappeared.

Her observation of the further actions of the wizards was interrupted by a cry from one of her crew members.

"No survivors!"

At that moment, the Black Wind approached Euron's fleet and passed by the remains of the ship that had been the first to be hit by the dragon's attack.

Asha looked at the destroyed ship, or what was left of it, and saw only charred planks and a few bodies floating on the surface. There wasn't a single survivor. The ship sailed on, and more and more lifeless arms and legs floated in the sea.

Finally, they reached the ships that had been attacked by the wizards' explosion spell. They saw dozens of people clinging to broken parts of the ship, trying not to drown.

She saw people screaming in pain as the explosion had torn off their arms or legs.

She saw a head cut in half lying on what used to be the ship's deck, with people skewered on debris like kebabs.

She also saw a disemboweled body floating in the water, intestines spilling out. Near this body floated the lower half of a torso.

Asha was shocked and horrified by the level of destructive power unleashed by the wizards. She heard conversations from her crew behind her.

"This isn't a battle at all..."

"Yeah..."

"It's just a slaughter..."

"There's no point in pulling out of the water even those who are still alive but wounded. With such injuries, they won't last an hour."

Hearing this, Asha turned to see Andjey and his reaction to this hell on earth. But all she saw on his face was indifference and even... contempt? It was as if his people had just killed hundreds of people. No. She had seen such an expression only on the face of a butcher who was slaughtering a pig for dinner.

"It's not a battle... it's a massacre."