Chapter 62: A Tale of Blood and Monsters Ch. 6
Year 277 AC
Essos – Oros
The journey from Mereen to Oros took time but was not exactly difficult or altogether noteworthy. To be fair though, Oros itself was not at all noteworthy either. From what I knew and what I'd been told, Oros went down in the history books as one of the more rich and glorious cities under the control of the Valyrian Freehold. Which to be fair, made plenty of sense given its proximity to Valyria itself.
However, the Doom had done its damage and taken a toll that Oros never recovered from, leaving behind looted ruins and not an ounce of worth. The scavengers and average human trash still inhabiting the city's ruins certainly weren't worth much beyond the blood still flowing through their veins. Still, it made for an excellent place to set up the thousands of Blessed I'd brought with me from Slaver's Bay.
Within weeks, Oros was bustling and parts of it were even starting to look livable as the humans were rounded up and penned in as a sustainable food source for the foreseeable future. I gave orders to bring any interesting or enterprising mortals before me for a more personal judgment, but as time passed and the city fell entirely under our control, nobody of value was discovered. It would seem that interesting and enterprising humans did not stay in Oros. Given the general climate and atmosphere, I understood entirely just why that was so.
Oros sat on the north edge of the Smoking Sea, and said body of water very much earned its name with the amount of toxic winds that swept in from it on the daily. Of course, the smoke and ash filled winds was the least of the Smoking Sea's lovely defining traits. My Blessed had long since learned to run across water, so I sent a small group of five just to see if they could make it to the other side without us needing ships.
They returned only an hour later, only four in number, bringing the reason why with them. One carried the headless body of their fifth member, while the other three dragged between them the body of a dead kraken the size of a minivan. As the beast was lugged up onto the shore, the leader of the group made his way to me using hybrid speed before falling to a knee.
I stare for a long moment before speaking.
"Well? What happened?"
The response comes instantly.
"We allowed ourselves to become distracted as we moved. Talking, play splashing one another with water… I believe that is what attracted the creature. We weren't expecting danger, the creature's first strike removed Talmahn's head. We struck back immediately and made short work of the creature, but Talmahn was already gone."
The boy in front of me swallows thickly before continuing.
"I accept full responsibility for this Messenger. It was my fault this happened and I apologize for my failure before both you and the Almighty One."
I stare down at the young man before me even as he more than likely readies himself for death. This is no Unsullied, this is a boy that in another world, may have become a Son of the Harpy. He was a noble of Mereen, but he was also a fourth son and thus expendable. Mereen had been allowed to remain largely autonomous, the only changes being that the Great Masters now answered to the Eternal Master of Slaver's Bay and me as well, and the city itself worshipped the Almighty One alone and no other god.
Thus, joining my Blessed had become the thing to do for a great many of the young free men of Mereen, the sons of the Great Masters that would most likely never inherit all that their fathers held because of an older brother. It had worked for me, I had wanted a large force to make the excavation of Valyria both easier and faster, and I'd gotten it. The sire bond enforced loyalty in young Mereenese Nobles just as well as it did in Unsullied, so there was no problem there.
Of course, that same sire bond was not infallible, and while the army I'd built out of Slaver's Bay's young adults had grown up under the expectation of painful punishment, it was inevitable that they would grow to resent me if I treated them the same way. So with a smile on my face, I reach down and grab the young hybrid by his shoulders, pulling him to his feet and kissing his forehead.
"You are forgiven child. The Almighty One's mercy allows for second chances. Do you seek repentance? Absolution?"
He stares at me with wide eyes and nods emphatically before hissing out.
"Yes. Yes! Tell me what to do Messenger! Allow me to prove my devotion to you and the Almighty One!"
My smile only grows at his drive, even as I turn my next words to the audience of thousands of hybrids that have gathered around us.
"The Smoking Sea sits between us and our final destination! The creatures within it would seek to impede our progress, to keep us from our divine work!"
Placing my hand on the shoulder of my newest General, I pull his name up from the recesses of my perfect memory.
"Mazdhan zo Loraq will lead a thousand Blessed into the Smoking Sea as penance for his transgression, and the path to Valyria will be made open to us. Five hundred Kraken corpses will see him absolved of his sins!"
My Blessed are driven by many things, but bloodlust is one of the few that comes even close to their drive to please me. I'm not surprised by the cheer that rises through the crowd, nor the clamor as hybrids begin pushing forward towards Hizdahr to gain a place within his new command. I just fell back, watching in amusement. Expendable, that was how I saw this army I'd put together.
I could always make more hybrids and I imagined I could conquer Planetos by myself if I truly wanted to. The Blessed would just make it easier, but that didn't change the fact that I didn't really need them. An army of immortal monsters that most would sacrifice anything to join or control, a gift of power and eternal life that so many would sell their souls for, and all I saw was expendable foot soldiers.
Even as Mazdhan began to gather up his fellows born of Mereen first, I moved away to locate a female hybrid to slake a very different thirst on. At the same time, my Unsullied hung back as well, knowing that their place was not on the front lines. They were far more important than the common hybrids after all, and that was something I'd drilled into them before we'd ever arrived in Mereen, overriding the low sense of self-worth they'd been raised with.
XxScenebreakxX
Year 277 AC
Essos – Tyria
Mazdhan did more than absolve himself, by the end of the week the northern coast of the Smoking Sea was covered in Kraken corpses and the area of sea between Oros and Tyria was devoid of life. So, with an ease that only immortal monsters could command, I and my Blessed made our way across the Smoking Sea and found ourselves in Tyria.
The conditions south of the Smoking Sea were worse than they'd been in Oros, the air becoming a bit more inhospitable even as we exited the smoke that gave the Smoking Sea its name. It would have most definitely been a problem for humans, but surprisingly I didn't think it'd be an insurmountable one. I wondered if it was the Krakens alone that had managed to hold curious souls at bay for so long, but that theory was debunked when I saw what sat in Tyria's expansive ruined harbor.
A fleet of golden ships, mostly sunk but still visible, sat in the large harbor. The great fleet that Tommen II Lannister, King of the Rock, had sailed to Valyria with lay before us. He'd actually made it this far. But then, why had he never returned? As my people moved amongst the shipwrecks and the city itself, we found skeletal remains, but not nearly enough of them to account for the crews of the number of ships in the harbor.
Tyria was largely deserted and there was nothing special to loot here, almost as if someone else had already been through and taken everything of value. Perhaps if I was less arrogant, I'd have felt a bit of trepidation at the circumstances we'd found. You try living over four thousand years without getting a bit arrogant. So, without much ado, I ordered my Army of Blessed onward to Valyria itself. What could possibly go wrong?
XxScenebreakxX
Year 277 AC
Essos – Valyria
Fire Zombies. It turns out, fire zombies are what could go wrong. That is what awaited us as we approached the crown jewel of the Valyrian Freehold. The first sign something is amiss is the bodies. There shouldn't be bodies here right? At best they should be skeletal by now, but really it's been hundreds of years! The second sign comes rather quickly after a few of those bodies get kicked over onto their backs by my Blessed to better examine them.
Dead bodies come to life as eye sockets fill with smoldering embers. A low keen sounds through the air and only grows in tempo as the entire ruined city of Valyria begins to light up in front of us. The Doom of Valyria awakens and rises before me and I have only a moment to wonder just what the fuck the Valyrians had been playing at before they destroyed themselves. Then, I'm fighting as the fire zombies fall upon us.
The fucking fire zombies are strong and fast, and they have fucking fire magic too because why not? This is not going to be the cakewalk I expected. My children are notoriously weak to fire and magical fire is even more concerning. Hell, I'm practically immune to normal fire, but even my skin blisters for moments before healing as the magical flames of a fire zombie wash over me.
The fighting grows fiercer and harder even as I urge my people forward, demanding of them everything they had, sometimes quite literally as hybrids began to fall before something I never expected to find on this damn world. That isn't when I begin to grow worried though. No, that comes when a fire zombie manages to grab hold of one of my hybrids by the skull and I watch as flames pour from its eyes and mouth and into the eyes and mouth of my child.
A moment later the creatures we're fighting have a new comrade and I move over to the former hybrid instantly, dismembering it in the space of a second, eyes wide as I feel something I haven't felt in a long time. Fear.
This… this could become a problem.
XxScenebreakxX
Somewhere "Else"
"Oh? Having a bit of trouble my 'Messenger'? You really should have expected something magical to be the cause of the ruin of an empire that bred dragons. Really now."
"…"
"Still, I suppose you've done well as my 'Messenger'. Perhaps you've earned a boon. I'm not going to just solve the situation for you though. But eh, I'll help you along a bit so you can solve it for yourself."
XxScenebreakxX
In a moment's time, I can feel the change. My budding fear fades as I am filled with a certainty that I can end this in a way that will leave my side of this unique conflict victorious. It requires me to abandon this fight though and head deeper into the city. I can sense where I must go, the center of the city is where my true enemy lies.
I abandon my Blessed in an instant, flashing by the horde of fire zombies that make ineffectual attempts to stop me as I go directly to the source of all of this. The center of the city is dominated by a large temple-like building and I waste no time making my way inside, not even stopping as I take the head off a fire zombie in my way.
Inside, I find a large empty space, easily the size of a football field. Much of the place is shrouded in darkness so thick even I can't see into it. In the center sits an orb as large around as my torso, full of orange-white energy and in front of it stood one more fire zombie. This one was different, if only because he wore a crown and a red cloak even as he raised a Valyrian Steel sword in my direction.
"Interloper. We are Legion. You will be subsumed."
I blink at that owlishly for a long moment even as I stride forward with purpose, my cocky mocking response already on my lips.
"Is that so Tommen Lannister? I would certainly love to see you try."
"You do not comprehend interloper. The mortal king before you is nothing more than our mouthpiece. You speak to Legion, we are everywhere. You face more than one mortal trespasser."
At those words the darkness around me lights up as empty eye sockets fill with fire. I'm not faced with Valyrian humans though. There are no dragon lords or mystics waiting for me in the shadows. No, I can only look at the floors, the walls, and up at the ceiling, as an uncountable number of reanimated dragons are revealed to me. I can't help reveling at the sight for a long moment. After all, it's the first time I've ever seen dragons in the flesh in four thousand years of existence. I'm allowed to be impressed.
"Well now, that's just not playing fair."
My voice is faint and 'Legion' must hear something in it, because I swear he actively sounds smug as he replies.
"Now you see, resistance is futile. You will be subsumed. You will join the collective. Submit to me now, join with me willingly. Your body is perfection and will be able to hold the majority of my true essence. Take hold of the orb and allow me to flow into you, and I will use you as my Avatar as I consume the rest of this world."
I can't help the small smirk that grows on my face at that, even as I step forward slowly, "Oh? Well now, it would seem I have no choice. Consuming the world sounds fun."
I step forward again and the fiery corpse of Tommen II Lannister lowers Brightroar and steps aside even as I come to the orb of barely contained energy sitting in the center of the room. This was what had killed Valyria, the imbeciles dabbling in things they did not understand had apparently set off the equivalent of a magical nuke and destroyed the entire peninsula. Unfortunately for the being they created as a result, it found itself trapped without a host able to contain its core.
Until now. As I step up to the large orb I smile down at it, my hands drifting up until they're ever so slightly out of reach of the sides of the orb.
"Yes! Make contact and we will become one! We will leave this place and take flight upon the backs of our dragons! The world will tremble before the Doom made manifest!"
I let out a soft chuckle and the voice quiets immediately even as I respond.
"It sounds very nice. I've never ridden on a dragon before. I still hope to do so at some point in my time on this world. Unfortunately, there's a problem."
My hands move suddenly as I take hold of the orb and the flow of power immediately begans. I continue to speak anyways, even as I feel my eyes burn away along with the majority of my insides. My voice sounds otherworldly as I talk, shouting over the roar of the zombie dragons around me.
"I am a conduit for another god entirely! The Almighty One's power flows through me! His blood flows through me! You are nothing before him! You are nothing to him! You are simply, nothing! I am the Messenger of the Most Powerful Being to ever grace this world with his presence!"
A moment later the orb is empty, nothing but a glass container, albeit probably a heavily enchanted one. My eyes regrow and my body heals as every reanimated corpse around me falls to the floor, including the dragons on the ceiling. Tommen II Lannister's body falls beside me as Brightroar clatters from his fully lifeless fingers.
I can't help myself, I'm grinning savagely even as darkness falls around me with the absence of the burning energy in the orb and its reanimated army.
"Message delivered."
XxScenebreakxX
Somewhere "Else"
"Oh now aren't you adorable."
"We are Legion! You will be subsumed into the collective!"
"How cute, you're like a yapping Chihuahua. Bark for me now, bark!"
"We are the Doom of Valyria! Tremble before us!"
"Ahahahaha, I don't know if I'll ever get tired of this."
XxScenebreakxX
From there things calmed down. I'd lost a good portion of my Blessed to the fire zombies when I'd abandoned them to make a beeline for the center of the city. Most had managed to keep themselves alive and fall back on the training I'd been putting them through during our travel, but from what I could see once I got everyone back together, an approximate thirty percent of my immortal monsters were gone. To think, I'd just been calling them expendable.
Luckily, things after the welcome we received were wildly anti-climactic. There were plenty of corpses littering the city, both dragon and human, but they gave us no more trouble, and the dragons in particular were useful for the amount of souvenirs and reagents that could be acquired from them. Valyria was ours and unlike Oros and Tyria, it had not been looted.
In fact, much of the loot King Tommen II Lannister must have acquired in Tyria was here where he'd apparently marched the entirety of his forces. I had to wonder why he hadn't sent anyone back after Tyria, I remembered reading about the promises he made to the Triarchs of Volantis. In fact, that memory had helped me decide my next course. Since the King of the Rock had been so kind as to leave me with carts laden in Valyrian steel of all shapes and sizes, I sent a contigent of my Blessed back across the Smoking Sea with as much of that Valyrian steel as they could reasonably carry.
They were to go to Volantis and spread word of the Almighty One, as well as inject wares made of Valyrian Steel that had not seen human hands for hundreds of years into the Volantis Marketplace. In terms of the magical steel created through dragon fire combined with further unknown means, Valyria was a treasure trove of the metal, and weaponry of the substance in particular was in abundance.
It also had other treasures awaiting us. In particular, a number of petrified dragon eggs were uncovered that honestly made the three Daenerys had been gifted with look like chump change. They were a decent find, and I was happy enough to have so many Valyrian Steel weapons that I could arm every last member of my Blessed with their own personal choices of armament. Most had a valyrian steel dagger, with the main weapon being what many decided to branch out on.
The real find though came two weeks in, when an underground bunker of some sorts was found with intact scrolls and tomes. Not in the city of Valyria itself of course, as the Doom had destroyed all materials that didn't have some sort of strength to them to allow them to endure the initial magical blast that had killed most of Valyria's people, but outside of the city limits far south, there was a fortress that was in much better shape. In its depths, we found the writings of the long dead Valyrian Empire.
So far it was just histories and other mostly useless information, though more than likely priceless to the right type of person. What I wanted to find was actual magic, such as the method behind creating Valyrian Steel, or the mystical research that had led the Valyrians to the magical nuke that had devastated their peninsula.
Of course, what I wanted would have to be put on hold, for only a week after that discovery, my children who I'd sent to Volantis returned. That is to say, a handful of the hundred I'd sent ahead had returned and they came with shocking injuries. I could only stare at the burns on them that refused to heal, at the cauterized stumps where some had lost entire limbs.
I move forward and instinctively bite into my wrist before feeding the first child to come before me my blood. His injuries heal sluggishly, but they do heal, and I can see that the hand he's lost is already beginning to return. Moving on, I feed more of my blood to the other survivors before letting out a snarl and demanding answers.
"What happened?!"
The first I healed is the one that speaks, eyes wide and tone full of fear that made me both angry and queasy. The only thing my Blessed should ever fear is me!
"T-the Triarchs welcomed us with open arms as you said they would. In the night they came with fire and flame. The Triarchs died along with most of our comrades. W-we alone escaped so you would know not to walk into a trap M-messenger!"
My teeth grit together and my fists clench even as I ask the question I already suspect I know the answer to.
"Who? Who came for you?"
The boy just stares at me, still looking a bit lost, his second near glance with death in such a short time clearly having an impact on him. He and his comrades were supposed to live forever after all.
"Priests in Red. Servants of the Lord of Light."
In that moment, I find there's only one real response to this. I'm going to drown Volantis in blood.
-x-X-x-
If you'd like to read more of my work not seen on this website, check out Hentai-Foundry.com and QuestionableQuesting.com! I'm known as 'Cambrian' on those websites.
If you'd like to contribute to funding my writing at all, check me out on P atreon.com/Cambrian
Thanks for reading!
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
CambrianBeckett2
CambrianBeckett2 Check me out on my other active websites!
P atreon (With Annual Pledging for One Month Off!):
https://www.p atreon.com/Cambrian
Hentai-Foundry:
https://www.hentai-foundry.com/user/Cambrian/profile
Questionable Questing:
https://forum.questionablequesting.com/members/cambrian.1638/
Fanfiction:
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/3832483/
Archive of Our Own:
https://archiveofourown.org/users/CambrianBeckett
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Cambrian_s_Smut
Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CambrianBeckett/
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone