Tyrosh - Essos 1 BC
The city of Tyrosh was surrounded. This siege, which had already lasted several weeks, was initiated by the Valyrian Queen Maenys, who, after the death of her husband and sons, was the last living heir of the once glorious Valyrian Empire.
Mounted on her dragon, which was still considered a young dragon, this proud middle-aged woman was the last surviving Dragonlord after almost a century of constant wars throughout the continent of Essos.
But all her plans to rule this continent were thwarted a few months ago when her two heirs were mysteriously murdered. Such murders had been happening from time to time in the last century, bringing all Dragonlords and their heirs to the brink of extinction…
This final siege of Tyrosh was a desperate attempt to unleash all her pent-up rage and cause as much destruction as possible before her death. Since, at her current age, giving birth to any new heir was impossible…
With sharp eyes, Queen Maenys gazed at the city of Tyrosh, whose defensive towers and siege weapons had already been burned and destroyed by her and her dragon.
Her powerful army, formed by the cities of Volantis, Lys, and Myr, waited patiently outside the city, without invading fragile Tyrosh, as if awaiting the arrival of something…
Not far from the battlefield, Queen Maenys could see three masked men wearing mage robes. These three claimed to be "Masters" Bloodmages and surviving disciples of three powerful Bloodmages of the Valyrian Empire.
But the Queen knew that these three barely qualified for such titles…
"If I had known the situation would reach this point and my children would die so cowardly, I would have set aside my pride and accepted Master Kalindor's help…"
From atop her dragon, the woman lamented with a heavy sigh. But remembering that even Master Kalindor had fallen in Asshai, she realized that the final fate of the 40 families had already been sealed. At that moment, all that remained for her was fire and blood!
East of Tyrosh, an allied army formed by the city of Pentos and the Storm King Argilac Durrandon finally arrived to relieve Tyrosh from its siege. The woman smiled wickedly and sent her dragon soaring into flight. Her only thought now was to take all her enemies with her before she died, and for that a sinister plan had been set in motion…
But to her surprise, along with the alliance formed by Pentos and the Storm King, a black dot approached, flying above the enemy armies. The Valyrian Queen's eyes narrowed; she immediately recognized who that black dot was. It was another Dragonlord, one who belonged to a family that had chosen to abandon and betray the other 39 Valyrian families: the Targaryens!
"GENERAL, START THE ATTACK!"
With her cry, the loyal knight of his family, and now General of his army, led the Valyrian Alliance, which included the army of Volantis, Lys, and Myr, to attack the newly arrived army. At the same time, the gates of Tyrosh opened, and the soldiers who had been besieged for several days emerged, forming a pincer attack on the Valyrian army's rear.
Soon, a massive battle began, with hundreds dead and wounded in just a few minutes. Moreover, this war didn't seem to be ending anytime soon.
As for Queen Maenys, she ascended to the heavens with her dragon and lured Aegon Targaryen and his dragon Balerion away from the battlefield. But before straying too far, she signaled to the three Bloodmage Masters.
Receiving their Queen's signal, the three "Masters" Bloodmage began a long and complicated ritual under the protection of nearly 100 warriors in the rear of the Valyrian army.
As the battle continued, Queen Maenys's army seemed to be drawing ever closer to its end. Large quantities of bodies were piled up, hindering troop movement. The amount of blood was so enormous that it was beginning to create a bloody swamp in the desert surrounding Tyrosh. And it became obvious to all that without their Queen and her dragon, her army would soon fall…
Signs of surrender were appearing all over the battlefield when, suddenly, the air throughout the region turned even colder. All the soldiers on both sides felt a chill run down their spines. And as if in a scene of terror, all the dead on the battlefield began to rise.
Under the control of the three "Masters" Bloodmage, a powerful necromantic ritual was initiated, and the army of the dead began to massacre the Tyrosh alliance that had previously been on the verge of victory.
The dead felt no pain, were cruel and relentless, and this quickly put immense pressure on the soldiers, who could only kill these creatures with strong blows to the head or decapitation.
All the soldiers of the Anti-Valyrian Alliance began to retreat towards Tyrosh, trying to organize themselves against the army of the dead, while looking to the sky, hoping that Aegon Targaryen would quickly get rid of Queen Maenys and come to their aid. But so far, there was still no sign of him.
"ROAAARRR"
At that moment, from the opposite direction from where the two Dragonlords had flown, a dragon's roar was heard. When everyone focused on the sky, they saw a bluish dragon, slightly larger than the Valyrian Queen's dragon and slightly smaller than Balerion, emerge.
The dragon, which had blue scales, had dived from a high altitude, piercing the clouds and descending towards the undead army. As it was about to reach the ground, its wings opened and it flew over the army, unleashing a powerful bluish breath that froze nearly a hundred dead and left at least another hundred quite stiff with signs of frostbite.
All the humans and Valyrians on the battlefield were shaken! They had never seen a dragon breathe ice.
As the dragon flew, the soldiers on both sides saw the dragon's pale white belly with its blue scales reflecting the light of the setting sun. He was handsome and elegant, but he exuded an aura of pure, icy terror.
The dragon then made its second dive into the army of the dead, unleashing another Icy Breath that devastated everything and caused the region's warm summer temperature to begin to drop. At that moment, everyone realized that whoever this Dragonlord was, he too was against Queen Maenys…
As for his rider, all they could see after two consecutive flights was a hooded figure dressed in red.
But during the dragon's third dive into the army of the dead, the seated figure rose and leaped from atop the dragon, drawing everyone's attention.
The hooded figure in red fell slowly from the sky as if a god descending slowly. But as soon as he landed on the ground beside Tyrosh's allied army, his hood fell from his head, revealing long, shining silver hair and a deadly appearance for the few women fighting in this war. Even the male soldiers were instantly mesmerized by the beauty and divine aura emanating from the figure…
They only snapped out of their trance when a short red sword appeared in the man's right hand and he moved like a wild beast toward the army of the dead. His sword sliced through dozens of corpses with a single swipe. Smoke rose from each wound his sword inflicted on the bodies of the dead. It was a true indiscriminate massacre; none of the dead could do anything but watch the man cut them all down without a single pause or rest…
The General leading the Valyrian army instantly recognized the weapon the man wielded as rare Valyrian Steel. He also realized this Dragonlord was undoubtedly a Bloodmage after he fell from the sky unharmed. But that wasn't what caught his attention. The man seemed like a red blur, so fast was he; he knew instantly that this man was a Master, and a very powerful one at that…
If he did nothing, this Master and his dragon would wipe out the thousands of dead they had created and change the course of the battle. He ordered his soldiers to use the few scorpions they had to attack the blue dragon and had his archers focus on the Master dressed in red.
***
Rafael, who had arrived a little late to participate in the final battle of the Century of Blood, was not at all affected by the ordinary arrows fired at him. Primordial Charm was being used to make all the archers aim at the wrong spot.
His eyes focused on two powerful Valyrian scorpions, which could seriously wound Varnak, and he decided to end this fight once and for all without holding back…
The General, who was about to order his attack on the ice dragon, suddenly found himself speechless; he had seen something he couldn't describe…
All the blood spilled on that battlefield began to float, rising higher and higher into the sky, forming enormous floating red clouds. The floating clouds of blood were so beautiful that for a moment, the Valyrian soldiers forgot they were on a battlefield and began to admire the strange phenomenon.
But soon the admiration was replaced by terror when the clouds joined together and fell from the sky, gushing towards the Valyrian soldiers and their scorpions. Like a powerful tsunami made of blood. The force was so strong that the initial wave of blood destroyed the scorpions and crushed a large part of the army. The wave continued to surge towards the human and Valyrian soldiers, killing most of them by drowning them in blood.
Raphael's attack didn't stop there. The blood from the battlefield floated again towards the sky and this time crystallized, becoming thousands of red arrows that rained down on the Valyrian army's rear, with a small portion falling on the army of the dead, which, after several attacks by Varnak, was now on the verge of destruction by the Tyrosh army.
The three "Masters" Bloodmages who served Queen Maenys managed to protect themselves from the rain of blood arrows, which lasted almost a minute. But when the rain of arrows ended and they were about to launch a magical counterattack, Varnak descended from the sky and, with a single Ice Breath, froze the three false Masters, killing them instantly.
After that, Varnak landed beside Rafael, and the two were about to leave the place without even speaking to anyone. It was at that moment that three soldiers came running out from the midst of the surviving Tyrosh army and knelt before him, shouting:
"Our Lord, thank you!"
"The Lord answered our prayers for help!"
"Praise be, Red Sage!"
Rafael was a little embarrassed by the devotion of these people; it had only been a few weeks since he had awakened from his long sleep, and this was his first time encountering these fanatics who worshipped him.
But since he was in a good mood, he decided to act like a charlatan…
"Hmm, good job protecting Tyrosh! Here's a reward for the three of you."
The three men who were kneeling and looking at the ground raised their heads and saw the Red Sage cut off a finger and send three drops of blood flying towards them, which entered their bodies, transforming them into Vampire Servants.
Before they could comprehend the changes their bodies were undergoing or thank their God, Raphael climbed onto Varnak's back with a single leap and departed the battlefield…
***
About two hours later, Aegon Targaryen and his dragon Balerion returned to the outskirts of Tyrosh after killing the Mad Queen, and he was surprised by the change in temperature, finding hundreds of frozen corpses everywhere…
After speaking with the leaders of the Alliance of Free Cities, he finally understood what had happened and murmured, somewhat shaken, as he remembered many documents he had read at home about a certain figure…
"Red Sage…"
After that, Aegon stayed in Tyrosh for three more days to deal with the prisoners, distribute the spoils, and witness the new peace treaty of the Nine Free Cities, which were now finally free once and for all from the Valyrian Empire…
When he flew on Balerion again, he did not return to Dragonstone, and yes, he flew to Oldtown, where Visenya awaited him, and he would begin his grand plan to conquer all of Westeros…
***
Meanwhile, at Dragonstone, Raphael's clone[1] had returned with Varnak to the place where his father Anurys lived.
As soon as he arrived, he was greeted by an Aisha with black hair and red eyes. She had now become a First Generation Vampire. And she was the only one who had followed this clone to Dragonstone…
"Welcome back, Master!"
"Hm, thank you, are my father and brothers awake?"
Since it was already late at night, he didn't want to disturb them with his arrival.
But before Aisha could answer, a Valyrian who looked very much like Rafael, but with an appearance of almost 40 years old, came down the stairs of the house and smiled at him, saying:
"Everyone is asleep, but I was still awake, taking care of some matters related to the shop… Welcome back, son. How was the war?"
"Some unexpected things happened due to some surviving apprentices from Valyria…"
While Rafael talked with his father and Aisha, telling them about the final battle of the Century of Blood, his thoughts wandered again when he woke up about three weeks ago and finally looked at the bloodline tab in the system…
In that tab, he discovered a truth he hadn't yet been able to digest and didn't dare to tell anyone…
Anurys was not his true biological father, and Rafael was not a Targaryen…
****
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[1] Yes, it was a clone that was fighting during the war, so it only used its (body affinity), Primal Charm (Mind), and Blood Control.