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The Narrow Sea, the outskirts of the Valyrian Ruins.
Smoke rose from the seawater, and the reefs were smoking as well.
A dark shadow seemed to flash by in the water, only to disappear again.
The sky over the Narrow Sea was dull and heavy; the smoke and sea mist made visibility troublesome here.
Fortunately, they could see the ruins, because the sky above the Valyrian Ruins was forever a fiery red, as if it had swallowed the sun and was suffering from a fever.
It was said that those were the flames spewed by the Fourteen Flames; the empire of blood and fire was buried in blood and fire.
In these waters, because the temperature was too high, the sulfides were harmful and toxic, and life was consumed extremely quickly in the high heat.
Aquatic life might not exist, yet the Narrow Sea also held various strange occurrences.
Viserys felt that with the volcanic eruptions and the Blood Magic laboratories spiraling out of control, Valyria might have been transformed into a source of radiation where humans would be contaminated.
According to records, on the day of the Doom, every hill within five hundred miles of Valyria erupted simultaneously, shooting ash, smoke, and fire into the air, changing the very color of heaven and earth.
The scalding and thirsty wrath even incinerated the dragons in the sky.
Sudden deep valleys tore open the ground, swallowing palaces, temples, and entire towns. Some lakes evaporated instantly, while others turned into pools of acid.
Mountains exploded, and fiery fountains spewed lava a thousand feet into the air, while countless Dragonglass and the thick black blood of demons poured down from the red clouds.
The Valyrian Peninsula was shattered during the Doom, and the land to the north sank, causing Valyria City and Sothoryos to be separated by the Narrow Sea.
Even from a distance, Viserys could already sense the smell of sulfur permeating the air, along with a faint, indistinct scent of blood.
Viserys felt his heart rate accelerating; the Fire Element was dancing wildly, and besides the Fire Element, there was the stench of Blood Magic.
This sea area was already filled with an eerie atmosphere; if the large ships continued to sail, they would attract a great deal of attention.
"The Myrman," "The Spyglass," and "The Lacy Lady" were the ships of their expeditionary fleet.
The crew on the large ships was also mixed; besides Morroq's most loyal Myr escaped slaves and commoner subordinates, there were Viserys's knights, escaped slaves who had joined him, and the Unsullied.
Their goal was unanimous: only by following Viserys closely would they have a bright future.
"Commander Morroq," Viserys instructed. "You must keep a close watch on the ice on the ships. If monsters appear in this sea, they will be wary of ice water."
"As you command, Your Majesty."
"Morroq, Gaelin, Hugo," Viserys requested again. "In a moment, the large ships can only wait here. We will land by small boat."
Viserys would take ten men, including his Squire Argus Blackwood and the Summer Isles man Jarak (an escaped slave), along with eight Unsullied Squires (gifted by Governor Ordel of Pentos).
In addition to the nine gemstones found in Pentos, Viserys had been tinkering in Andalos and found two more rubies and Sapphires.
Viserys tied two gemstones to the wrist of each team member, one red and one blue, to avoid the violent elemental tides within the ruins; he could only equip ten people.
The red gemstones were used to absorb Fire Element, while the Sapphires, filled with Water Element, protected them.
"Your Majesty, we should be with you. We are your Squires, faithful until death!" Hugo and Gaelin protested.
"I never doubt your loyalty, but this is the old land of the dragon lords; my mind is made up," Viserys said.
Viserys had a full set of rhoynar armor, as well as double magic protection.
Viserys was able to protect himself without worry, but for his ten-man team, the danger was a thousand times greater.
The fleet first sent out a small boat to scout the way; the unmanned boat wobbled on the sea surface before disappearing into the mist.
After organizing the team, the fleet continued to follow the red sky, only anchoring nervously once they found the boundary of the Valyrian Peninsula not far away.
The seawater here smelled very strange, mostly of the stench of sulfur; the water was bubbling, and this sulfurous odor was a harmful gas.
"Stay alert," Viserys ordered, as their boat cut through the water as fast as an arrow from a bow.
The eight Unsullied wore silver-plated armor and carried the most skillful shields, spears, and crossbows.
The muscle monster Argos was covered in heavy armor, carrying his terrifyingly ugly greatsword.
Jarak had a sharp gaze and carried the finest Goldenheart longbow and Goldenheart spear.
Naturally, Viserys's equipment was the most luxurious: silver armor and a silver spear.
"Do not drink the seawater, and do not eat anything you encounter," Viserys specifically instructed.
Viserys could not describe the scene he saw, but he was right not to let the large ships come closer.
For the Valyrian Ruins were not a natural archipelago, but the result of the peninsula's collapse.
The edges of the Valyrian Ruins were filled with many jagged reefs; if the large ships came over, they would very likely strike a reef and eventually die in distress.
Viserys saw some abandoned ship wreckage, possibly from explorers of different regions.
Human skeletons were left on the shallows, their hollow eye sockets staring at the sky.
Many skeletons still bore silver-plated armor, gemstone necklaces, rings, and brooches—valuable items.
But compared to the ruins of the Valyrian Doom they were about to reach, these were not worth mentioning.
Viserys looked at those bones in the sea, their sleeves long since decayed; they had arrived with dreams of sudden wealth, only to die violent deaths here.
Seeing these bones made everyone feel quite heavy-hearted, not to mention that the weather here was indeed strange.
The small boat arrived smoothly at a suitable mooring spot; Viserys found that this seemed to be a long-collapsed black tower.
The men disembarked in pairs, protecting Viserys, as they warily scanned their surroundings.
The wind in the air carried a scent of flames—the dry, choking smell of sulfur and fire.
Inhaling this sulfurous and hazy gas made one's lungs feel as if they were being cut by knives.
Fortunately, Viserys wore silver armor, and those red and blue magic gemstones could also provide a form of purification and shielding.
Valyria City was originally the core of the peninsula; there were no docks here, only the ruins of a great city.
But from the scale of the ruins, one could see the grand design of Valyria; the originally topless towers had collapsed one after another, and the dragon and Sphinx statues were also broken and dilapidated.
Viserys looked out; now there were stretches upon stretches of tower ruins. Aside from large mounds of boulders and gravel, there were only the remains of shattered towers.
The boulder hills and tower ruins should be the most valuable; those acidic lakes and the large pits of evaporated lakes held little value.
Valyria's originally wide Dragon Roads were completely buried; there were few real paths, and the roads were all forged by their own exploration.
After all, once the city exploded, the original roads and bridges were all filled in or overturned, making it like walking in an irregular mountain city—rising and falling, rugged and uneven.
Yet Viserys could imagine the magnificent era when Valyria City was at its peak.
The city was once filled with the topless obelisks of the great dragon lord families, lifelike statues of dragon lords, dragons, Sphinxes, griffin statues, and other Gargoyles decorating the dragon lord palaces, council chambers, circular plazas, and the giant Black Walls—a true capital of the world.
Viserys saw scattered layers of black Dragonglass everywhere, along with many red sulfide stones, likely all blown apart during the volcanic eruption.
"It seems the best treasures are in the innermost part," Argos said.
Viserys nodded; the structure of Valyria was also circular.
The core dragon lord's palace would surely be in the center of the island, but reaching it was no easy task, requiring them to cross layer after layer of rubble hills.
Viserys carried the spear of gaelis on his back, observing the surrounding situation.
The Way of Insight, right at this moment.
The group moved forward cautiously; at first, it was very steady, with no signs of life here.
But Viserys soon raised his spear, and it thrust like a bolt of lightning into the black gravel ground not far away, beneath the Dragonglass road.
Viserys raised his silver spear, and a blood-red worm about the size of half an arm appeared before their eyes.
Worms with faces, snakes with hands.
The Firewyrms looked like a lizard, but was even more terrifying.
Four-legged worms with faces that looked like human faces, blood-red eyes, and bodies as delicate and slender as snakes.
However, these worms had poor eyesight; after all, they lived underground. They could perceive the fire and heat appearing around them.
The Firewyrms's blood dripped onto the ground, and then a blood-colored mist rose; the blood was as high-temperature as dragon blood.
Viserys originally found this thing disgusting, but after all, Fire Element was condensed within the Firewyrms's body; by killing it, he could still collect Fire Element.
Viserys slowly absorbed the rich Fire Element from the surroundings.
The Firewyrms, a terrifying creation.
Back then, Black Dread and that arrogant princess had provoked these things, and the princess died as if she had self-combusted.
A deep blue watery aura coated Viserys's silver spear; as that blue light soaked in, the Firewyrms convulsed even more distortedly until it finally died.
They belonged to heat and fire and loathed ice.
While water was not ice, Firewyrmss also hated water, though water lacked the swift and severe lethality of ice.
"Be careful," Viserys instructed. "These are Fire Wyrms; it seems they've taken us for prey."
As humans walked, they produced a certain amount of kinetic energy, and the human body contained a certain amount of heat and temperature, which attracted the Firewyrmss' aggression.
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