The longswords of valyrian steel, one with purple ripples and the other with red, clashed in mid-air, whistling as they emitted a cold, crisp ringing sound.
It was as if the duel between the Blood Cult and the Fire Party dragonlords had continued for hundreds of years.
Only valyrian steel in this world is so light and sharp, and only the ancient Valyria dragonlords possessed such technique.
Viserys looked at the young dragonlord before him, Darys of the Blood Cult; his pride and his glory had long been buried in the ancient Valyrian Ruins.
The only thing that kept him lingering was the thought of his beloved, Dyanna.
Fortunately, that giant dragon over two hundred meters long was dead; otherwise, Viserys would likely have been roasted, for the speed of a young dragon could not replace the Dragonflame of an ancient dragon.
In its prime, the Dragonflame of Balerion could melt stone and steel, and turn sand into glass, let alone this ancient dragon enhanced by the Blood Cult's Blood Magic.
Viserys watched the longswords whistling as Darys unleashed an attack like a rainstorm.
Viserys's blade was also swift and light, never allowing the blood-colored sword aura to taint his body.
The Blood Cult's Blood Magic was based on blood; it was safer to keep a distance.
Left, left, right, right, up, up, down, down.
Darys's swordsmanship had reached an astonishing level; he had discarded all flashy embellishments for the most primal, most powerful swordsmanship.
Viserys's boots stepped onto the black muddy ground, and he couldn't help but exclaim in exhilaration.
This duel, this opponent, allowed him to experience a peak confrontation between swordsmen.
It was just that the scene was too dangerous; beyond the contest of swordsmanship, it also gave Viserys a terrifying yet thrilling feeling.
Darys turned and slashed, as if bringing up red sparks.
A creation of Blood Magic, a sword of blood.
The blade had a layer of deep red sword aura, like sweet blood wine.
Viserys raised the True Dragon Sword; the True Dragon Sword and the blood sword were old rivals as well.
Viserys struck upward, attacked from the side, and slashed downward, defending and counterattacking simultaneously.
The strike must be fast, the landing must be ruthless.
Viserys had never seen such a troublesome opponent; and this was still a half-dead Fire Zombie, relying on physical instinct and muscle memory.
But this was normal; after all, a Valyria dragonlord in their prime enjoyed the offerings of most of the civilized world, so what kind of swordsmanship master could they not find?
Heirs of a Dragonlord Family would have the best swordsmanship instructors and the best Blood Magic mentors from childhood.
Viserys and Darys were like masters of swordsmanship dancing in an open space, both equally agile and fierce, elevating swordsmanship to the realm of art.
Viserys watched Darys's movements; compared to those second or third-rate warriors, he would never improve.
But now, Viserys cherished every moment of the duel with the Blood Cult Dragon King.
Darys struck upward, slashed sideways, and chopped downward, constantly advancing, constantly pressing.
Viserys, not to be outdone, attacked, letting his longsword move with his steps.
His mithril armor emitted a brilliant flow of light.
Darys's golden dragon armor also radiated light.
"The stench of a Rhoynar, yet with the scent of Valyria's flames—how is this possible?" Darys questioned.
Viserys remained silent; Darys's brain capacity was stuck in the obsessions of the past, and even if he told him, he wouldn't understand.
Viserys was indeed a half-blood with both the bloodline of the Rhoynar and the Valyria dragonlord bloodline.
Both were equally dangerous, with steps for stabbing, for slashing, for chopping.
Slash, chop, speed, speed—until reaching the highest and fastest sword.
This was already an incredibly intense duel.
The magic dragon roared in the sky; because the rhythm of the attack between the two was too fast, and they were fighting together, Sunfire could not join the battle.
Viserys felt time pass amidst the dancing longswords; their swordsmanship was like a rainstorm, and their defense was airtight.
Viserys saw Darys's face gradually twitching with pain; in this wonderful battle, Darys had contributed his own strength and blood.
Even for a living knight, engaging in such a fierce battle would exhaust their strength, let alone for a Fire Zombie.
Viserys watched as Darys's movements slowed down; now was the time.
Viserys swung his sword, preparing to slash upward at the gem on Darys's face.
Darys looked at Viserys and chanted a very ancient Valyrian spell.
"Reversing Blood."
Viserys felt a kind of magic in Darys's words.
The blood gem on Darys's cheek was glowing; his skin became aged in one instant, and in the next, it recovered to its original youthful handsomeness.
Let time flow backward, let years change, let the blood become a reverse flow, and break the shackles of the heart.
This Reversing Blood was completely a dark magic that made blood flow backward, breaking through the heart.
Viserys gripped the longsword in his hand, trying his best to avoid the pain of blood boiling and circling; his mithril armor emitted light.
The bracelet and ring Viserys carried in his backpack suddenly emitted a searing burning sensation; the heat was transmitted to Viserys's back, preventing the dizzying sensation of the world spinning.
Before his body was torn apart by pain, Viserys caught Darys's attack.
A look of confusion appeared on Darys's face, as if curious that Viserys had actually dodged his Blood Magic attack.
"Brilliant Blood!" Darys chanted the second spell.
This spell did not act upon Viserys, but rather upon Darys himself.
The red light in Darys's blood eye grew stronger, and the blood gem between his brows seemed to be burning, even emitting a puff of white smoke.
Darys's expression was like a beast in pain, and his movements became increasingly frantic.
Viserys saw many wrinkles beginning to bloom near the corners of Darys's eyes, like withered flowers.
And Darys's throat was the same; centered on the wound, fine cracks began to slowly bloom.
Darys's attack speed accelerated violently, already trending toward a human limit of swordsmanship, or even exceeding it.
Every move and every strike was full of crisis; the swordsmanship was like a horse galloping across the sky, and the way of exerting force and the angles were unparalleled.
Viserys took a deep breath, avoiding being entangled by Darys; now was the time for defense and counterattack.
Blood Magic, blood burning, at the cost of blood.
Viserys started maneuvering, fighting and defending at the same time; between life and death, Viserys was calm and concise.
Until he saw Darys's movements slowly slow down, as if every attack was heavier.
Viserys, before Darys could use the third magic spell, violently struck down Darys's longsword.
Darys had consumed two Blood Magic spells in a row and was still struggling; after all, it was not his prime.
Darys looked at Viserys in confusion, "The stench of a Rhoynar, the bloodline of an ancient dragonlord, how strange."
"Dyanna, please forgive me, we did not fly out..." Darys said at the end, with a stuttering, laggy feeling.
Viserys's iron fist hammered over, then he quickly pulled out a dagger, the sharp blade cutting into Darys's face, digging out the blood gem between Darys's brows.
Viserys then conveniently pulled out Darys's blood-red dagger; Darys fell powerlessly to the ground, dead as could be.
Sunfire flew over joyfully, emitting happy hisses, cheering for the victory of the Dragon Rider.
Viserys saw Darys's body quickly become decayed and aged, as if it were a dream.
Darys's corpse turned into inconspicuous dust, starting to burn from the inside, until it burned into ashes, leaving nothing behind.
Viserys wiped his sweat; the methods of this Blood Cult were truly shocking.
Viserys now guessed why such a huge old dragon could still fly; it probably had to do with the Blood Cult's blood-swapping magic.
It was just like giving an old person fresh blood, letting them bloom with new vitality.
Such blood naturally did not come from precious magic dragons; it might be the fire of other species.
Viserys looked at the legacy left by Darys: a complete set of intact valyrian steel plate armor, a blood-colored longsword, a ruby ring that had fallen into the dust, and some blood gems, and a red crystal dagger.
The valyrian steel plate armor was named "Light Shield"; it shone with a golden brilliance like a shield of light, and was immensely hard.
That blood-colored longsword had a cold name, the Secret Blood Sword; much like Blackfyre, it was the pride of a Dragonlord Family.
The Secret Blood Sword and the True Dragon Sword were inscribed with ancient Valyria runes and magic circles, making them more precious than other valyrian weapons, as if they came with a built-in power bank to release energy.
Viserys took out the bracelet and ring of House Belaerys from his backpack; it seemed the Fire Party was indeed experienced, having specifically included protection against Blood Magic.
Viserys examined his bracelet and ring; blood is fire, and fire is blood.
Viserys cut his finger slightly with a valyrian steel dagger, letting the bracelet and ring drink his blood.
Blood dripped onto the purple-gold dragon ring and bracelet, igniting intense flames upon them.
Finally, the flames from Viserys's blood finished their transformation, and the bracelet and ring lay quietly in his palm.
Viserys felt a hazy light sink into his palm, which was quite peculiar.
"A space ring?"
Viserys looked at the ring with curiosity.
This world was not devoid of space magic, but it was extremely rare.
There was a Black Gate at Nightfort on the Wall; the Black Gate was located on the wall at the deepest part of the well in the center of the kitchen, made of white weirwood, with a face on it.
That face was pale and ancient, full of wrinkles. Lifeless. Its mouth was tightly shut, eyes closed, cheeks sunken, forehead withered, and chin sagged. The wooden door itself emitted a faint glow.
If anyone approached the Black Gate, the eyes on the door would open. The eyes were white and could not see anything.
Only a Night's Watchman who answered the Black Gate's question was qualified to enter.
[Viserys, you have killed the last Blood Cult Dragonlord, Darys, and obtained a space ring, which can only hold stable objects. Mental power increased→.]
Magic is most closely connected to the mind, so this also increased mental power.
Viserys took a rough scan; it was about the size of a room, though he hadn't probed it carefully yet. As his mental power increased, the space ring should grow larger.
Viserys waved the ring, sweeping away all of Darys's legacy before him.
Viserys paused for a moment, then strode forward.
After the Blood Cult Dragonlord died, he finished exploring the Blood Cult tower, and all his tasks were completed.
Viserys walked into the ruined Blood Cult tower; the walls painted with black pigment still looked greasy, as if they could absorb light and fire.
Viserys looked at the solidified scratch marks on the black stone floor inside the tower; he could imagine how many people and animals had been subjected to the torment of Blood Magic here in the past.
After the blood tower was breached, many of the previous pets had likely died, and the few that remained had probably escaped.
Viserys first saw a large, ancient, and iridescent book; he didn't know what kind of animal skin it was, but it was very magnificent, titled "Book of Species."
Viserys opened it to see; the book depicted various ancient animals, mainly distributed by continent and region: Essos, various islands, and High Sos.
Viserys curiously opened the chapter on Westeros, but found that it contained very little description.
"The land praised by many elements, Westeros; one will encounter misfortune after setting foot there." The Dragonlord's tone was extremely wary.
Next, Viserys found the Dragonlord's introduction to the sea: "Sea serpents, annoying monsters, and krakens."
It seemed that both the ocean and the land of Westeros had things that the magic dragons loathed; previous Dragonlords had already sensed this.
Viserys searched the blood tower using archaeological methods, prioritizing items with writing, followed by valyrian steel products; he had no interest in mundane objects.
Viserys finally discovered a huge greatsword, the "Dominator," roughly similar to Ice or lightbringer.
On the crossguard, one side was a sun and the other a moon; the pommel was a roaring dragon head. The blade had red and gold ripples.
There was also an ancient warhammer in the Valyria style, which Viserys also took.
There was also that black oily blocker painted on the Black Walls; Viserys found two more barrels and took them all.
Besides that, Viserys even found a carriage crafted with mixed valyrian steel; it looked completely absurd, as if they simply had too much money to spend.
He didn't know which ancient Dragonlord's hobby it was; perhaps besides riding dragons, they also loved the thrill of drag racing.
Viserys carefully searched the tower, ensuring not to leave a single hair for anyone else, though he skipped the areas that were too dangerous.
Finally, under the stones of the ruined tower, Viserys found a volcano-like object, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom—a long-dormant container.
Viserys discovered that the container was based on black stone, but it was inlaid with many purple and red gems, and even had various flowing flame runes; it looked like a work of art crafted by the gods.
"This is a mini dragon nest." Viserys felt a surge of joy.
The dragon nest was currently one short of five, and inside were several unhatched fossilized dragon eggs: one gold-red, one blue, one silver-purple, and one intertwined with red and bright copper.
However, the dragon nest seemed to have some kind of contract with these dragon eggs, making them hard to remove, so Viserys took the whole piece.
Under the dragon nest was an ancient bronze box, which Viserys also casually opened; inside were flowers of various colors emitting points of light, similar to the blood flowers in the magic dragon's eye sockets.
"Is this the fire seed after absorbing the fire of life?"
Viserys looked at the lifelike flame flowers inside the light circles—mammoths, sea serpents, giant eagles, snow bears, and so on; it seemed this was the only answer.
The Dragonlords' Blood Magic was similar to the Red Woman's understanding: extracting the life of a species as fire.
The life of any species is a kind of fire, and blood is fire.
When the Red Woman used Stannis to create a shadow assassin, she said that Stannis's fire was about to go out, and that she would need to find someone else to create another one.
Fortunately, the magical ring worked; he swept the Blood Cult laboratory clean, and finally, Viserys left the place, feeling satisfied.
Lieyang had been waiting anxiously outside and kept calling out when he saw Viserys.
Viserys patted Lieyang's dragon snout; after collecting the blood fire seed from the old dragon's eye sockets, they could leave.
Everything had gone very smoothly.
However, Viserys heard noisy shouts not far away.
Could it be that there were others besides them?
Viserys immediately rode Lieyang to a place in the ruins away from the light, watching the approaching adventurers or Fire Zombies.
"Great Undying, this is the Land of Fire you spoke of, the place where the Blood Witch might exist."
The arrivals were actually a group of Unsullied, and they were fully armored.
He didn't know how they had arrived here or found the wizard's palace.
"The place I seek—even though I have decayed to the point of imminent death, I have felt the ripples of possible magic. I long to obtain the fire of life again; magic dragons, the life force of magic dragons will ignite me." A leader of the Undying said.
He looked at his box from time to time; inside the ebony box was a beating heart.
A blue, decaying human heart, but because it was the relic of an ancient wizard, it was said to have magical effects.
Viserys took a peek; weren't these people from Qarth?
The wizard's skin was already a plump blue-purple; it seemed they had used all their might to reach this place.
The Warlock coughed and coughed, until he spat out red blood, and the people beside him offered him a kind of silver wine.
"This is an ancient blocker, but unfortunately, it is not the blood of a Dragonlord; if I cannot find fire again, I will die."
Dragon Rider army.