Chapter 178 - Valyria 04.

[Chapter Size: 3200 Words.]

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Thrid Person POV

Essos, 296 AC.

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BOOOM! 

BOOOM! 

BOOOM! 

BOOOM! 

Explosions erupted within the fog of Valyria as various greyscale-infected creatures ran, only to be shattered into pieces by the flames.

And who was their target? Jon Artica, calmly watching the crowd while standing alone, beginning to burn and destroy all those who tried to attack him.

Jon had reunited with his men after finding the Valyrian steel forge, causing them to immediately disagree with his decision to venture into the fire-consumed lands, facing all the beast-men alone.

Jon didn't want anyone else with him, as they would only be a hindrance, especially after two royal guards had been infected. He became very tense as they removed their armor, revealing the areas where the infected had touched them with their hands or even with their highly contagious blood.

The battle against those creatures began as soon as Jon announced his location in front of the gate, bursting apart those who wandered nearby waiting to attack. It wasn't difficult for a crowd to flee the city.

Jon felt the blessing of fire stronger than ever before, perhaps his Valyrian side was reacting; after all, Targaryen blood carries magic. But it had never done more than spark a flame until now. He was taking advantage of this power to enter these lands, which would otherwise be nearly impossible for him to handle with their dangers.

Some greyscale-infected appeared from the side trying to grab him, while he waited, throwing more fireballs with one hand while holding his Valyrian steel sword in the other.

The crowd was easy to fend off when he was dealing with the beasts charging at him. It was as if he were fighting wights, but without their masters to command them, making them even easier to deal with.

After launching a few more fireballs that exploded while slowing down the main group, footsteps were heard. Jon swiftly moved his sword, slashing through those greyscale-infected that were already close to him. They were cut like paper, despite their skin being hardened with the grey layer that made it tougher, but Valyrian steel was very effective in slicing through his enemies.

He continued cutting down those close to him and obliterating dozens of them with each shot of his flames, while the people inside the castle could only hear the explosions outside.

"He'll be okay… right?" Daenerys couldn't help but fear for Jon, who had decided to venture into Valyria without protection despite everyone's protests, but this was the king's order.

"He'll be okay… even though he promised he would take me with him…" Arya murmured, a little frustrated, though deep down, she believed Jon was right that anyone accompanying him would only get in his way.

"I think you're right…" Despite her fear, Daenerys believed that Jon could survive that chaos after witnessing everything he was capable of.

The royal guards were in the corner, trying to wrap the infected to prevent others from touching them or spreading the greyscale to the rest of their bodies.

The battle continued as Jon had already lost track of time while he was destroying more and more enemies. He found himself surrounded this time, as the enemies seemed endless, forcing him to retreat past the castle wall with the beasts pursuing him through the same hole, only to be blown apart with great force.

Jon started thinking about eliminating most of them with an advanced strategy. He ran along the fortress's side, being followed, and began exploding the towers on that side, far from his companions or the vault. The towers started to collapse with enormous stones, and Jon ran from there with the greyscale-infected being crushed by the rubble. Jon felt satisfied to see hundreds of them being buried, and he continued doing this until he felt slightly exhausted. He quickly drew his swords and began cutting them down as they came in smaller numbers.

When a larger group appeared, making it impossible for him to deal with them using only his swords, he continued with his fiery explosions.

After some time, he finally stopped being so relentlessly pursued. He tried to use the entire terrain to his advantage, using the lava and the ancient city's structures, until only a few remained. Most of those left, which was at least a third of them, seemed to finally feel fear and fled. Jon managed to move faster than them, and the lava did not burn him.

It was only after killing the last one that he could finally sigh. He didn't know how much magic he had used, but he was lucky to have grown so much since gaining these powers from the old gods, although he suspected that this fire magic came from his blood, as his only magic until now had been healing and wood element manipulation.

Setting that aside, he needed to return now, with no further sign of any greyscale-infected, who seemed to be hiding in their holes for the time being. He was tired, his breathing a bit irregular, as he headed back to the castle, avoiding the areas he had affected, making his way to the door near the Valyrian steel forge.

"My king!" The royal guards quickly opened the door for Jon to pass through as Daenerys and Arya approached him swiftly.

"I managed to clear out some of the group, but I need to sit for about 20 minutes before we return to the ship," Jon said as his family accompanied him to a corner.

"That was madness, you know that, don't you?" Daenerys murmured, checking him for any wounds.

"I'm fine… just tired. You know that if I hadn't done this alone, we wouldn't have made it out of here alive, let alone start moving things from the vault to the ship," Jon said, resting for a moment.

They finally decided to depart, and the infected royal guards were helped as everyone began to leave. "We will find a cure for you, I promise," Jon said to those who seemed unenthusiastic about the prospect of becoming beasts in this place.

Leaving the area, they headed for the gate that Jon had destroyed further, with incinerated bodies and death all around. "You sure know how to make a massacre…" Arya couldn't help but comment as they followed the same path they had taken from the ship to the castle, noticing some of the beasts watching them, but none daring to come closer.

"It seems they feel fear. Let them stay that way," Jon mocked, and after some time, they finally emerged at the port, where the Articans seemed to be drinking amid the commotion.

"Our king was risking his life, and they're celebrating like this?" a royal guard growled.

"It's fine. It seems the heat made them resort to a banquet," Jon saw no harm in it. After all, no one could have known what was happening with them on the expedition.

Regardless, they returned to the ship, where they saw that most of the men were consuming drinks with ice.

"Stop that now." Jon's voice echoed with a tone that overpowered all others, bringing a hush over them as they looked at him.

"Well… now let me talk about our situation here," Jon, seeing the silence in the air, began to speak about some of the things they had found, along with a plan involving all the giants and Wind, who would have to use magic on the giants, exerting much more effort than before.

In the end, the group grew much larger as they set out again for the land of fire, crossing the lava while the dwarves made comments here and there about the creatures.

No beast-men engaged them, and the Articans were prepared to face those things as well. After having to take another route through the city—the giants were not ideal for crossing the bridges built over the lava they had passed—they finally reached the site, breaking down the door as Jon led several men into the vault, filling numerous chests they had brought from the ships.

"Put all the gold in the chests. I just want you to be careful with the dragon eggs and the painting. Take care of the Valyrian steel weapons and swords; I'll decide what to do with them later," Jon ordered, while his men quickly moved, gathering everything, beginning to empty the vault.

It wasn't an easy task; there were over 10 million gold coins after Jon found another wall with even older gold. This required many trips between the ship and the castle and back.

This time, Daenerys and Arya stayed on the ship, as Jon had said his men were there, and there was no reason for them to risk entering danger again.

"My king..." A royal guard approached with an unsatisfied tone.

"Is something wrong?" Jon asked, observing that half the vault was already empty, while the ships at the port were being filled with the spoils.

"The forge... the dwarves won't let the giants start moving it," he said, and Jon raised an eyebrow.

"What are they up to this time..." Jon muttered with a narrow look as they went to see what the problem was, finding eight giants surrounded by sixteen dwarves, preventing them from getting close.

"What is this now?!" Jon said, raising his voice, catching everyone's attention.

"They want to destroy this forge!" a dwarf exclaimed.

"Yes... we won't let the most beautiful thing in the world be destroyed by these four-meter-tall troglodytes!"

"You think you can get past us...? We will never let you lay a finger on this forge!"

Jon saw this and felt like smacking those little fools. "I ordered them to remove the forge," Jon said with a serious tone.

"What?!" one of the dwarves exclaimed. "But that's socially inappropriate!!"

"Yes, my king... reconsider this, you can see how beautiful this forge is, the most beautiful of all, the forge of forges! Don't destroy it like this, I beg you!!" One of them was starting to have a meltdown, even crying.

"I'm taking this forge to Artica. You can stop interfering now; they won't break it, just move it to one of the ships. And I'd appreciate your help since not even the twenty giants with us could manage easily, and the city streets are filled with rivers of lava," Jon said, unwilling to waste more time.

"Hmmmmm... Understood!!" The dwarves finally seemed to accept this.

"If it's going to Artica, let me be the one to keep it!"

"Stop the nonsense, it's going to my home. I'll show it to Thor; he'll die of envy."

The dwarves kept rambling, but Jon had no patience left to respond and left them to organize how to start moving the forge with the strength of several giants.

This went on for a while until the vault was finally emptied, and they headed out, all the giants struggling significantly to move the forge, using wooden beams to roll it along. Even all the giants together couldn't lift the entire forge, which weighed over 20 tons, from what they could tell. Despite being made of a lighter metal, it was entirely constructed from it, so it was still incredibly heavy. Even the floor it stood on was made of Valyrian steel, perfect for the ritual of creating this magical metal using a dragon's flames.

And so, they continued moving it through the city, stopping to rest, with the hardest parts being when they had to cross rivers of lava flowing through the streets, forcing them to break down houses to get through.

It took them six hours to travel a path that Jon had completed in 30 minutes, but they finally reached the port.

"Place the forge on our ship!!" the dwarves quickly requested Jon, and seeing that it wasn't wise to put everything on one ship, he nodded while they found a higher place to set the forge in the center of the deck. The ship leaned to one side under the weight, its planks cracking, sinking a little into the sea, but it stabilized a moment later, indicating it wouldn't sink.

"Well, it looks like we're done here. Let's return to the ships," Jon declared, leaving the ship full of dwarves behind, who seemed to view that Valyrian steel forge as something divine, admiring it as if it were the most beautiful thing they had ever seen, with some even declaring it was more beautiful than their own wives.

Everyone nodded at Jon's words, as giants and men began to move to the other two ships. There was nothing else to take from that city, as they had emptied all the gold and everything most precious. Other places in Valyria were impossible for them to reach, after all, this was one of the cities that remained the most intact after the Doom; many had been completely destroyed.

"My king... that forge..." an Artican man was a bit concerned about the ship with the forge moving. It was obvious that due to its weight, continuing on the high seas would delay the entire fleet, but Jon had a plan.

"Let's distribute the load across several ships carrying that one full of dwarves... that should compensate for the speed," Jon explained about redistributing the cargo.

Everyone nodded and began boarding the ship. As Jon was about to return to the ship himself, he suddenly stopped, his eyes drifting back towards the city.

'What is that…?' he thought, while some people looked at him with curiosity at his strange behavior. But Jon kept his gaze fixed on the smoke of Valyria, where he could see nothing beyond the first ruined sections of the city visible from the port.

It was a strange feeling, like a calling, but not from that city. His gaze was upward, as if looking beyond the volcanic mountains that loomed over the city. The ruined city was just a small portion of the ancient civilization; the largest cities were in the mountains, where the powerful families of the dragonlords resided. Jon, of course, had no idea what condition they were in, and doubted that many remained, being close to where the Doom had originated.

As he focused on that point, something happened—a thunderous sound echoed from that direction, followed by a gigantic roar that resonated, seeming to shake all of Valyria at that moment. It even seemed as though the roar had happened minutes ago due to the distance.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR 

"What is that?" His men quickly exchanged glances, raising their swords, worried about a new monster coming from that direction.

"It's almost an echo… This creature isn't here… that sound came from ab ove us, from the mountains of Valyria," Jon warned them, trying to ease concerns about an imminent attack. After all, this creature should be more than 100 kilometers away, leaving him to wonder what it was.

"That was a dragon's roar… but no dragon could have such power in its voice," Jon murmured to himself, pensive. He couldn't doubt anything in this world anymore after seeing so many things that would have been impossible for the boy of eight namedays trapped in Winterfell. Yet, he couldn't understand why an unknown dragon was there or what it signified, and more importantly, why it roared as if Jon were its target.

His gaze remained fixed on the mist and gases, trying to discern if there was anything more beyond that roar. But nothing happened for the next ten minutes as Jon stood there, lost in thought.

He shook his head and decided that, as surprising as it was to discover a living dragon in Valyria, there was nothing more for them there, and that beast was beyond his reach, far beyond even Cannibal on Skagos.

"Let's go, everyone. Head to the sea," he declared, and all his men prepared to leave for good.

"Jon, what was that?" Daenerys approached him as soon as she could, asking with some concern, holding a black egg in her hands the entire time, unwilling to part with it.

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter anymore," Jon replied. "Let's move forward to the fleet." That was all he said before heading over to Arya as well.

The ships began to depart, leaving the port behind with the water still bubbling as a background sound. Despite everything, the spoils had been incredible for Artica. More than just treasure, there were even some books stored in the vault and preserved, having been shielded from the heat.

Jon looked at the armors now displayed on new mannequins, carefully placed in a special room, alongside the eggs and the painting of the charade with a part of the map, which were the most valuable items found. All the gold went to the ship's storage, making them even wealthier. But even so, the forge on one of the ships, which swayed with some difficulty, was the most valuable item that would have the greatest impact when they returned to Artica. Jon knew that Eragon would be ready with his flames to create the metal.

Jon aimed to forge a force clad in Valyrian steel. He would start with himself and his family, then the royal guards, generals, and eventually the commanders of the Artican army, solidifying it as the strongest military force in the world.

Jon left the armors behind, noticing his aunt approaching with eyes that clearly held more questions for him. She had changed a lot in just a single moon's time. For someone who initially said she was willing to give him a chance to prove that he was her blood, she was now much more open, looking at him with eyes of admiration and even a certain passion. Jon didn't comment on this, only smiling at her.

"I see you've already chosen your egg," Jon remarked, smiling at Daenerys, who was carefully holding the same egg she had taken from the vault's chest the entire time.

"Yes. Do you think it will hatch?" she asked with a hopeful tone.

"Of course it will, but I believe it will happen when my next child is born, just like the eggs hatched in Artica when Jon and Lyanna were born," Jon said. She seemed excited by this, as it could happen soon, perhaps even in a few days.

"That's wonderful… so I need to start thinking of a name!" she exclaimed, and Jon nodded, turning his attention to the other fourteen eggs nearby.

He couldn't help but consider that if all the eggs hatched, there might be a problem dealing with all the baby dragons at sea. But that wasn't a concern for now.

Meanwhile, the ships finally left the smoke of Valyria behind and sailed toward the open sea, where the fleet awaited them.

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