"One ice, one fire. Hatred and love, bitterness and sweetness, female and male, pain and joy, winter and summer, evil and justice. Death or survival. Opposition has existed since ancient times, and war is everywhere."
Queen Nalia, clad in a scarlet robe, circled the enormous bonfire, scattering powder from her wide sleeves.
She had a heart-shaped face and red eyes, with long copper-red hair under her red hood.
Before the flames, like another flame burning on her head, a ruby necklace adorned her long, snow-white neck, making the Queen's glory even more captivating.
As the orange flames rose, they instantly transformed into the same scarlet blood-flames as the robe Queen Nalia wore, burning fiercely.
Queen Nalia, who served the Lord of light, Rhllor, now turned to the many nobles surrounding the Great Lord's Fortress in the Freehold.
This was the Freehold, the highest seat of power in the city of Valyria, and the place where the 'Great Lord' who nominally ruled the entire Freehold presided.
Now, at the request of all the temple priests who believed in the Lord of light, Rhllor, in the Freehold, these Dragon Kings, who thought highly of themselves and ruled the Freehold by relying on the power of their dragons, were gathered together.
These Dragon Kings had pale skin, golden, silver, or platinum hair, and their eyes were purple or light blue, among other colors.
Dragon Kings could wield powerful magic, controlling dragons to turn stone into liquid with dragonfire and shaping it into various forms with magic.
The Freehold believed in religious freedom, but the Dragon Kings did not worship any gods. In the eyes of the Dragon Kings, they were more powerful than all gods, and religion was merely a comforting lie for 'the poor, barbarians, and slaves.'
However, without a truly mature and complete political structure, these Dragon Kings would still value the Light Lord's sect, whose faith spread across Essos, for the sake of their own stable power and rule.
Red Priestess Nalia, the Red Witch, swept her gaze over the nonchalant Dragon Kings. The patriarch of the Targaryen Family, who wore the Valyrian steel sword 'Blackfyre,' had a calm expression, waiting intently for her words.
The Orion Family, the Baelish Family, and all the other Dragon King Families' Dragon Kings and representatives showed no particular regard for her words.
Instead, it was the humble attendants who handled daily affairs for the Dragon Kings who seemed more like wise rulers than the Dragon Kings themselves, listening attentively to her words.
Nalia frowned, raising her voice and speaking loudly: "But facing the enemy that has already arrived, even the God of Fire, the true Lord of life and warmth, needs to set aside disputes and opposition with his eternal enemy, the Cold God, who brings eternal cold and darkness to the world, and unite."
"A God of Light who brings love and joy, and a God of Darkness who brings evil and fear, also need to set everything aside to fight against that common enemy."
The Great Lord who ruled the Freehold, one of the Forty Dragon Kings of Valyria, sat high on the Great Lord's Throne, wearing a Valyrian crown inlaid with gold and jewels. He chuckled softly at her words, immediately eliciting laughter from most of the surrounding Dragon Kings.
"The ancient Ghiscari Empire, the source of civilization, a powerful civilization that ruled Essos for several centuries, we Valyrians destroyed it with only a few dozen dragons,"
The Dragon Kings Great Lord's contemptuous tone was evident through his false aristocratic language. He laughed, "The Rhoynar of old had countless cities and powerful water magic, but Valyria only needed to dispatch three hundred dragons to evaporate their rivers, their civilization was annihilated, and even the mighty Rhoynar are still wailing in our mines to this day."
"Even if the enemy is stronger than the Ghiscari Empire and the Rhoynar, we have not just dozens of dragons, nor just three hundred dragons; we have thousands of dragons,"
The Dragon King Great Lord looked down at the Red Priests and Red Priestess Nalia, the Red Priestess, and said, "What enemy can withstand Valyria's dragon army? What enemy can withstand our magic without being burned to ashes and magma?"
The Dragon Kings present all began to laugh, their mocking sounds never ceasing.
The Red Priestess Nalia, the Red Witch, waited with a solemn expression for the Dragon Kings' laughter to subside before bowing to the Dragon King Great Lord and the many Dragon Kings, saying, "Please, noble Dragon Kings, allow me to demonstrate."
The Dragon King Great Lord gazed at the Red Witch's beautiful face and nodded. "You are, after all, a follower of the Lord of light, the Dragon God. You have such qualifications."
The Red Priests, having received permission, shoved a bound slave forward and threw him into the burning flames.
"Ah, I regret it! Let me go! Let me go!"
The slave in the flames, despite 'volunteering' as a sacrifice, cried out in agony from the scorching pain.
But everyone present remained indifferent.
Because even the God who bestowed fire and light upon humanity, to perform a miracle, had to use a human's life-fire as a price.
Even Rhllor, the Lord of light's eternal enemy—the Cold God—when his miracles descended upon his servants, the Others rumored to have emerged from the Long Night, also required life as a price.
The disappearance of one life for the birth of a magical life—though whether the Cold God's servants could truly be considered a life still remained to be seen.
Upon receiving the sacrifice of life-fire, the scarlet blood-flames surged, and a vision was born within the dancing flames.
Through the high hills in the forest, there were throngs of warriors, strong, perfect, and resolute, though their bodies were shrouded in strange armor.
There was a dragon, small in comparison to a dragon, but its black scales were more translucent than solid obsidian, unlike Valyrian dragons, whose scales, though always of various colors, were rough upon closer inspection.
This dragon appeared so perfect, more like the birth of the Dragon God, as described by the Valyrian Dragon Kings, than a Valyrian dragon.
Valyrian dragons, though intelligent, did not possess sufficient wisdom, but in the vertical pupils of this black dragon, even if it was just an illusion in the flames, the Valyrian Dragon Kings could see that those pupils were filled with the arrogance and unique spiritual radiance of a sentient species.
Most importantly, that black dragon had four limbs and two wings, appearing like six limbs. Compared to this black dragon, although Valyrian dragons were larger in body, their previously perfect posture, as considered by the Dragon Kings, now seemed crippled.
Red Priestess Nalia, the Red Witch, looked at the many Dragon Kings, pointing to the illusion in the flames and saying, "This is the enemy we are about to face, a wicked dragon with powerful magical abilities, but he is far from the ultimate enemy."
"He is merely a minion of the enemy, an vanguard, yet even so, the power of this black wicked dragon is beyond our comparison."
But the Red Witch's words did not achieve the effect she desired. She heard the Dragon Kings discussing, and their expressions were not fear, nor vigilance, nor worry.
The Dragon Kings' expressions were curiosity, excitement, and desire.
Red Priestess Nalia, the Red Witch, heard the Dragon Kings' discussions; these Dragon Kings wanted to send out Dragon Knights to capture this black dragon, tame it, and then keep it in captivity as a breeding dragon.
So Red Priestess Nalia, the Red Priestess, nodded and walked around the huge torch, while the other Red Priests shoved another slave and threw him into the torch.
The Red Priestess Nalia, the Red Witch, scattered potions and powders from her wide sleeves, re-igniting the scarlet blood-flames. As the scarlet blood-flames rose and the slave's screams echoed from within the fire, this alluring priestess's red robe, draped over her, unfastened between her pale fingers and slid down to the ground, revealing her body as fair as a lamb.
The naked witch's eyes now glowed like pale red candles. At this moment, the witch's aura became as captivating as a dark angel, a mix of extreme beauty and extreme danger, complex and abrupt.
"Shadow is the servant of light, the child of flame…"
The priestess, radiating a dazzling white aura, paid no heed to her exposed body. She stepped with delicate feet, chanting in an ancient language before the torch.
"One whose flames burn fiercely…"
"With your life-fire, create…"
The beautiful witch's voice reached its peak at the end of this moment, like the climax of pleasure between a man and a woman.
Many Dragon Kings held their breath, for at this moment they saw a shadow, a blurry yet clear shadow, struggling and letting out a silent howl, squeezing out from the body of this beautiful witch.
The Dragon Kings recognized this shadow; they recognized the person from whom the shadow was cast: it was the slave who had just been burned to death in the flames, becoming a sacrifice to the Red God, Rhllor.
The Dragon Kings knew this priestess who believed in the Red God; she claimed to come from the mysterious land of Asshai, a city in eastern Essos that gathered all kinds of magic-users.
The Dragon Kings also knew that Asshai had a famous magical profession—Shadowbinders—but how could the witch before them possess magic so similar to the legendary Shadowbinders?
"Could it be that the witch and the Red Priests calling the Red God 'Light Lord, Heart of Holy Flame, God of Shadows and Fire' represents the duality of this deity, and that those who truly understand Rhllor, the Light Lord's duality, can possess unique power?"
An attendant manager stood before a Dragon King, silently pondering.
But the shadow that squeezed out from the witch's body finally completely detached from her form at this moment, turning into a scattered mass of darkness, letting out a strange shriek, and reappearing before the attendant manager who was frowning in thought.
Then the scattered shadow re-coalesced, and a blade emerging from within the shadow was about to pierce the attendant manager's body.
The Dragon Kings were startled by the shadow's action, but in the next instant, a transparent, flowing light shield appeared on the attendant manager's body, blocking the shadow's stab.
Before the Dragon Kings present could react, the shadow born from Queen Nalia suddenly expanded rapidly, then exploded, emitting a violent sound.
Boom!
Although it still couldn't break through the transparent flowing light shield on the attendant manager's body, it caused the shield to shake incessantly. Transparent shields also rose on the bodies of several warriors and the attendant manager around him, revealing their true identities.
As the magical display dissipated, several Scholar-mages in Scholar robes and mage robes stood tall, and several tall warriors, showing no fear, faced the many Dragon Kings.
The robes of these Scholar-mages radiated a powerful magical aura, a phenomenon the Dragon Kings could not comprehend. And those black-haired warriors, though only lightly armored for ease of movement, exuded an aura that the Dragon Kings could not put into words.
It was something the Dragon Kings could not find in this world; it was not the psychological pressure of being in a high position, but a tangible, powerful sense of oppression.
It was like the oppression the Dragon Kings felt when they first tried to tame their dragons, facing the dragons' enormous size.
The many Dragon Kings were clearly in high positions, controlling the overall situation, but it seemed as if the other party was the one in control.
"Seize them!" the Dragon Kings shouted one by one.
The surrounding private warriors immediately swarmed forward, trying to capture these strange individuals.
But these strange individuals were incredibly powerful. The weapons in the hands of those warriors, with just a light swing, could cut through the iron and steel blades of these elite warriors guarding the Dragon Kings, and then slice the warriors in half.
Those powerful warriors, surrounding the several Scholars in the middle, charged wildly through the hall. With their weapons swinging, not a single warrior could withstand even one round.
These elite warriors, chosen specifically to protect the Scholar-mages, were the strongest warriors from the major legions within the Dragons Empire. Even though they specifically selected relatively weaker humans from the various races of the empire for convenience, they were still not something the warriors of this world could stop.
Moreover, among them, there was one warrior officially serving in the Empire's 'Burning Hoof' legion.
Splish!
Warrior after warrior swarmed forward, but all fell beneath the swords of the Imperial Legion warriors. The Scholar-mages cast spells, raising magical barriers to block the fire spells cast by the Red Priests and Red God priests, who exchanged blood for fire.
But they appeared exceptionally leisurely, as if strolling through a crowd.
Seeing that more and more people were entering the hall, the Scholar-mages signaled the Imperial Legion warriors to break out, no longer holding onto the idea of capturing the Dragon Kings on the spot.
"Even the Lord of light, who bestows fire and warmth upon humanity, to perform a miracle or borrow his power, must use a human's life-fire as a price,"
The Scholar-mage moved towards the outside of the hall, laughing loudly as he said, "As long as the Cold God and his servants are not destroyed, this endless sacrifice will continue to exist."
"But as long as Rhllor, the Lord of light, exists in this world, then the ancient alien god—the Cold God—will not be destroyed. They are two sides of your world, neither can destroy the other, neither can become the other."
The Scholar-mage shouted, "You are merely pawns fooled by the gods, caught between the two gods of ice and fire, used as weapons, as sacrifices, for slaughter, destruction, and offerings. The fire of civilization will forever flicker and never grow strong."
"As long as the gods do not die, this endless conflict will forever exist. Humanity will forever live between killing and being killed. Even dragons are merely extensions of divine power. This is the sorrow of the gods born of this world, and the sorrow of the world itself."
The many Dragon Kings, priests, and monks were both shocked and angry, listening to the Scholar's outrageous claims. Suddenly, a strong light, like the first light appearing in the deepest darkness, shone into everyone's eyes.
It made it impossible for the many Dragon Kings, priests, and all the warriors to see anything in the world. Only the mocking voice of the Scholar-mage reached their ears.
"Convert to my Lord, believe in my Lord, and your civilization will be brilliant, your souls will find peace, and your gods will also be liberated!"