-Chapter 224-

-Chapter 224-

-POV Daenerys Targaryen-

ROAR OF DROGON

I leaned closer to my saddle to avoid taking the full force of the wind to my face and waited until the last moment to shout:

“DRACARYS!”

Drogon opened his jaws, where he was already preparing to incinerate our enemies.

We had repeated this maneuver several times, and throughout the day, we had taken down a good fifty groups of various sizes.

‘I have destroyed nearly 35,000 soldiers of the army of the dead. This will undoubtedly save many lives,’ I thought, gripping my saddle with all my strength.

‘But it is not over yet,’ I told myself, striking the right side of Drogon with all my might upon seeing the White Walker, who seemed to be the commander of the small troop, fleeing on the back of a large white spider at a speed no horse could match.

‘Come on, my big one, just a little faster,’ I thought, watching the troop of undead riders flee at full speed, dangerously approaching the forest.

Drogon flapped his wings even faster, giving us the momentum needed to reach the edge of the woods at the same time as the small troop of undead and White Walkers.

“DRACARYS!”

Drogon opened his mouth and unleashed a torrent of flames on the small troop of riders.

‘Yes,’ I thought, seeing a cloud of smoke rise at the contact between Drogon’s fire and the thick snow covering the northern ground.

Drogon quickly pulled up to avoid crashing into the trees ahead of us.

I barely had time to exult over sending another troop of undead back to the depths of the Seven Hells when a spear of ice pierced Drogon’s right wing, passing less than a meter from my face, while several others narrowly missed him.

‘It’s a trap,’ I realized before screaming at the top of my lungs:

“Oskēda syt nāryss, Drogon!!!”

Drogon beat his wings to propel himself higher, but that was enough for the White Walkers hiding in the forest to attempt another strike.

ROAR OF DROGON

Drogon thrashed violently when a spear lodged at the base of his neck but did not give up and shot straight into the clouds to escape the White Walkers.

Drogon’s roar of pain pierced my heart, but I could not land him because I did not know the extent of the White Walkers’ trap.

‘And some still believe they lack intelligence…’ I thought, clinging tightly.

As I let out a sigh of relief, another ice spear pierced through the clouds and stabbed into Drogon’s right flank.

ROAR OF DROGON

Drogon roared again in pain, and I saw a heavy trail of blood spilling from his wound, accompanied by thick steam.

“Drogon!” I screamed, feeling him rapidly losing altitude.

“Drogon!!”

Despite my repeated cries, Drogon no longer listened to me, only roaring in agony as he spiraled downward uncontrollably.

“Soves, Drogon!!”

ROAR OF DROGON

Upon hearing my command, Drogon let out a furious roar and, through sheer willpower, pushed his wings one last time with all his might to get us as far from the danger as possible.

As I sighed in relief, seeing that we were leaving the area occupied by the White Walkers, I began to feel that Drogon was still losing altitude with every wingbeat.

After nearly fifteen minutes of struggling for each wing stroke, Drogon suddenly stopped flapping and collapsed, ensuring in his last moment that I was protected in his fall.

BOOOOM

I hit my head against the edge of my saddle during Drogon’s brutal landing, momentarily dazing me.

I fought against the headache caused by the impact to unbuckle myself from my saddle and check on my son’s wounds.

I was shocked to see the two spears lodged in Drogon’s body, deeply embedded, with a thin layer of ice forming around the wounds.

I grabbed the spear I thought had pierced the base of Drogon’s neck, only to realize it was closer to his shoulder than his throat.

But before I could even pull it out, I felt the cold burn my hands upon mere contact with the spear, despite wearing leather gloves.

I could have let go, but I knew the cold from these spears was acting like poison on Drogon.

So, I clenched my teeth and pulled with all my strength.

---

ROAR OF DROGON

After what felt like hours, I finally managed to pull out both spears embedded in Drogon’s body.

Instead of a flow of blood, all I saw was a mist of steam escaping from his wounds, as Drogon barely had any energy left.

‘Just like me,’ I thought, wiping away the blood trickling from the wound I had sustained when hitting my saddle.

‘I have exhausted too much energy,’ I told myself, collapsing against Drogon, my teeth chattering, trying to warm myself as my head spun in all directions.

‘Aegon, come quickly,’ I thought as I drifted into unconsciousness, believing I saw a white wolf in the distance.

---

-POV MC-

"The Empress left very quickly after that and has not returned since," said Walton Steelshanks, explaining to us how Daenerys had arrived and when she had departed.

"Why didn’t you stop her?" Viserys asked, furious.

Walton Steelshanks, slightly panicked but keeping a neutral expression, said softly:

"She is the Empress."

Viserys clenched his fist and was about to reprimand Walton, but I shook my head and placed a hand on Viserys’ shoulder.

‘He was right not to intervene, because I had made sure to clearly separate the imperial family from the rest of the Empire’s social classes.’

Suddenly, I felt a sharp, unexpected pang in my heart and stopped for a few seconds, as if something serious had just happened.

‘Something serious enough to affect me unconsciously,’ I thought, immediately thinking of Daenerys, who was somewhere in the North, fighting against the army of the dead.

I instinctively placed a hand on my chest, and Viserys, frowning, asked me:

"Are you alright?"

I nodded absentmindedly, still searching within myself for what was wrong.

That was when I sensed Ghost’s presence in the North.

I frowned, then attempted to reach his consciousness with my mind to take possession of his body through my Warg ability.

---

"You’re finally here," said Leaf upon seeing me open my eyes.

I frowned and turned my head, but she continued:

"I’m talking to you, Aegon."

I raised my eyebrows, and she added:

"With time, you’ll learn to recognize your kind when they take control of animals, but that doesn’t matter now. We don’t have time to waste."

She stepped aside, and I saw Daenerys lying on a massive tree trunk, her beautiful white tunic stained with her own blood.

She was surrounded by several Children of the Forest, who were performing some kind of ritual dance around her, their green hands glowing with an energy unknown to me.

"The Night King is near, so don’t waste time," said Leaf before pressing Ghost’s muzzle, forcefully ejecting me from his consciousness.

---

I blinked as I returned to my own body, and Viserys, immediately realizing what I had done, asked:

"Where were you?"

"In the North," I replied, instinctively knowing Ghost’s exact location thanks to our bond.

I ran and leaped onto Rhaegal’s back, then said as I tightened my grip on my saddle:

"Viserys, I want you to patrol all along the coast and summon all the noble houses to gather here. We will need every possible reinforcement."

"I’m coming with you!" shouted Viserys, determined to accompany me, sensing the urgency of the situation. But I couldn’t allow him to come with me after what I had seen.

"No, do as I say. You’re not strong enough yet to be of any use against the White Walkers," I said, recalling the sight of Drogon’s lifeless body lying a short distance away when I had been inside Ghost.

‘He must not die now,’ I thought, unwilling to put his life—or his dragon’s—in danger.

With Drogon and Daenerys down, I wouldn’t be able to focus enough to protect four dragons.

"Soves, Syrax!" I shouted, commanding Syrax to take off and follow us, though I didn’t need to do the same for Rhaegal—our bond was strong enough for him to know exactly what I wanted the moment I thought of it.

---

-POV Leaf-

I let out a small sigh as I sent Aegon back into his body, then looked at my brothers and sisters, some of whom had been with me for hundreds of years, and said:

"It is now our turn to fight."

They all nodded, determined to face death, and I added:

"We are the sons and daughters of the Old Gods. We will defend the third head until our last breath, for only when the three heads of the dragon unite will we defeat the apostles of the Great Other."

They nodded again, so I climbed onto the back of my giant wolf, removed the bow from my back, and ordered Aurore to run without looking back.

‘Let’s hope you were right, little man,’ I thought before emptying my mind, focusing all my strength on fighting the enemy with everything I had.

Upon seeing the first wights, I didn’t try to attack but simply whistled sharply, causing our small troop to scatter in all directions.

Our dispersal forced the Night King’s vanguard to split up, while the ice spiders that had been hunting us through the Wolfswood like hounds continued to pursue us.

I grabbed a magical sphere infused with my power beforehand, squeezed it tightly, and threw it blindly behind me, waiting for the explosion.

A few moments later, the blast occurred, taking down several ice spiders in the process. Then, I turned just in time to see a White Walker galloping behind me on a dead horse.

‘Aurore is far too fast for him to catch up to me,’ I thought, nocking a dragonglass-tipped arrow and aiming behind me.

The time between aiming and firing was no longer than the blink of an eye, but I had no doubt about the precision of my shot.

‘I’ve been an expert archer for several centuries now,’ I thought as I watched my arrow fly straight toward the face of the White Walker leading the wight troop.

Because of the short distance between us, he had no time to dodge and disintegrated into a cloud of dust upon contact with the arrow, which I had also covered in ancient runes to counter the magic of the White Walkers.

At that moment, the dozens of wights chasing us collapsed onto the ice.

As I was internally celebrating my success in killing a White Walker, a powerful impact sent me flying off Aurore’s back and rolling across the ground.

I quickly got to my feet and saw Aurore pinned beneath a massive snow bear, which was trying to tear her throat out with its powerful jaws.

Without a second thought, I grabbed an arrow and fired it straight into the undead bear’s face.

HOWL OF THE WHITE WALKERS

I sensed an attack coming from the side and instinctively jumped backward, saving my life as I saw a spear embed itself in the exact spot where I had stood moments earlier.

‘I barely escaped that one,’ I thought as I immediately aimed at the White Walker who, unlike the first one, was wearing ice armor and looked far more powerful than the one I had just sent to the abyss.

As soon as I released my first arrow, I aimed again at the spot where I anticipated he would dodge.

I had guessed correctly—my first arrow wasn’t fast enough to hit him, as we were farther apart and he was significantly quicker than the previous White Walker.

The second arrow struck his shoulder, and as he screamed in agony, my magic spread through him like a poison.

He shattered into ice shards, taking with him the wights that had begun surrounding us.

Realizing that Aurore was wounded, I knew I could no longer rely on her to carry or protect me, so I leaped into a tree to blend into the foliage.

But it was already too late—the next moment, I saw a small horde of ice spiders surrounding my position, which could only mean…

‘Another White Walker is nearby,’ I understood instantly.

Through the bond I shared with my brothers and sisters, I could sense that not all had been as lucky as me—many were already dead.

And if this continued, even if Aegon, the Emperor of Men, arrived on his dragon, all he would find would be corpses.

‘Or wights,’ I thought grimly, knowing that the Night King would likely raise us to join his undead ranks and continue bolstering his army.