Davos stared in horror at the gaunt, silver-haired figure standing on the boat, stammering, "Dragon…born!?"
The lake breeze stirred Viserys' straight, silver-gray hair. His sharp yet delicate features carried an androgynous beauty, giving him an almost fragile appearance. Arms folded across his chest, he met Aegon's gaze from afar.
"What beautiful eyes… Truly the eyes of the strongest Dragonborn—utterly mesmerizing," Viserys said with a faint sigh. As he spoke, he idly twirled a lock of his hair around his fingers.
Then, with a flick, the silver-gray strands shot forward like steel wires, streaking toward Aegon and Davos.
Aegon tilted his body just enough to slip past the deadly strike, avoiding it with ease.
Davos, however, froze. The lightning-fast attack left him no time to react—several strands of that silver-gray hair pierced straight into his left shoulder. Viserys gave a slight twitch of his fingers, and the strands in Davos' shoulder rippled like waves.
In an instant, Davos' left arm was severed cleanly.
"Cough—ah!" Davos spat a mouthful of blood and dropped to one knee, staring at Viserys in despair, his pupils trembling.
So this is the power of the Dragonborn… he thought in terror. Far beyond the strength of the Dragon's Kin—and each one possesses a King's Power.
"His ability allows him to turn his body into platinum and lead for attacks. A hyper-reactive body, with piercing speed beyond belief," Aegon said grimly, recounting the intel he had gathered on Viserys earlier with his chip at the Dragon Taming Viewing Platform.
Blue veins bulged across Davos' face as a pair of antlers sprouted from his forehead.
"I'm going half-awakening—five minutes, Prince! Split up and run!" he roared.
"We can't. Viserys is too fast," Aegon replied with a shake of his head.
Viserys stood on the deck, his silver-gray hair writhing like living tendrils. One strand looped around the mast, and with a pull, he lifted himself smoothly to the top, balancing on his toes.
These two are lucky, he thought. To keep the Red Party from suspecting anything, they won't have to die by my platinum and lead. His body swayed lazily with the mast.
"Harren the Red, what are you waiting for? I've already crippled the strongest of the Dragon's Kin. If you still can't finish this, then you have no reason to exist," Viserys called down impatiently to the shark-headed demon.
Seeing him remain on the sidelines, Aegon and Davos felt a faint stir of hope.
But as Viserys' words faded, Harren the Red charged from the shore. The massive shark-headed demon moved with the force of a galloping carriage, his killing intent palpable.
Davos stepped forward to take the brunt. Even with one arm gone, his half-awakened form still packed immense power. His remaining right arm had swelled as thick as a tree trunk, its proportions grotesque. With a roar, he swung his sword down at Harren the Red.
Aegon reversed his grip on his steel sword, pivoting to attack from Harren's flank.
Bang!
The two-meter-tall, half-awakened Davos slammed into Harren the Red.
As expected, Davos was hurled through the air. His steel sword lodged deep in Harren's shoulder.
Harren moved to give chase—
Boom! The blade embedded in his shoulder detonated, tearing a crater into his flesh and sending scales flying.
Harren roared, seemingly numb to pain. If anything, the injury only stoked his feral rage.
Aegon was already there, dragging his steel sword across Harren's left leg in a powerful slash.
Instead of retreating, he spun like a top, using centrifugal force to drive his blade again and again against the demon's calf. Clang, clang, clang—the rapid impacts rang out as flesh was stripped away in chunks.
Harren's charge toward Davos faltered. His left calf was now nothing but bone, the meat completely carved away.
With a twist of his massive body, the shark head lunged for Aegon.
Aegon abandoned his assault, kicking off the ground to slip clear of the snapping jaws. In the same motion, he drove his reverse-gripped sword toward Harren's left eye.
Harren snapped his eyelids shut and jerked his head aside, but not before Aegon pierced a bloody hole into the crown of his head.
Seizing the moment, Davos snatched up his sword, leapt high toward the crouched demon, and swung down in a brutal overhead strike.
Harren whipped his head toward Davos and roared—
The triangular, saw-like teeth in his jaws launched outward like volleys of flying knives.
Thwip, thwip, thwip—Davos' half-awakened body was riddled with hits, bursts of purple blood erupting across his frame. One tooth struck his chin, slicing it clean off.
The power behind his swing faltered, and he crashed toward the ground.
If only I still had both hands… Davos thought bitterly. That first strike—if I'd poured my full magic into it with both arms—I could have blown away half of Harren the Red's body in a single blow.
Viserys is terrifying… even half-crippled, I still walked right into his plans.
All I could manage was to lightly wound Harren the Red…
He must have known I would awaken.
I'm sorry, Prince Aegon. Once I awaken, I might attack you first—after all, you're still human.
Davos' thoughts raced as he pieced together how the battle would unfold.
A massive surge of demonic energy erupted from his body—he had no choice but to awaken. His injuries had left him unable to move; if he wanted to live, awakening was the only path left.
Even if it meant becoming a monster… even if it meant playing right into Viserys' schemes, Davos no longer cared.
The horns on his forehead grew wildly, branching into a crown-like shape. The flesh on his cheeks sloughed away, revealing white bone beneath. His skeletal mask stretched into the elongated form of a horse's skull, while his body sprouted a thick layer of fur. His severed arm regrew in the process—twice as thick as his leg.
Roar!
The awakened beast bellowed, pounding its massive, furred fists into the ground in a frenzy, each blow detonating the earth with thunderous blasts.
On the boat, Viserys' lips curled into a smug smile.
"The show's begun," he murmured. "Let's see just how strong Visenya's 'strongest eyes' really are. When he fought Harren the Red earlier, the gap between them was massive, yet the boy didn't even activate his magic. Tsk, tsk… If those eyes were transplanted into me, the piercing power of my platinum-lead ability would reach its absolute limit. Keh keh keh…"
...
On the lakeshore, the moment Aegon sensed Davos' awakening, he stopped holding back. His demonic energy flared to its fullest—at the center of his golden eyes, a black void appeared, radiating an aura like a solar eclipse.
Golden, web-like veins spread across his cheeks. His muscles trembled, swelling as they filled with raw power.
In a sudden burst of speed, Aegon slipped past Harren the Red's raking claws, driving forward along the demon's arm until he was chest-to-chest. His steel sword plunged straight into Harren's heart.
"So fast! After activating his magic, his speed has at least doubled. His demonic energy is no less than Level V," Viserys analyzed silently, his brow furrowing.
He felt the urge to intervene, but the thought of Uncle Maegor's overwhelming strength made him suppress it. Best not to expose himself—or the Red Hall would hunt him to the ends of the realm.
Harren the Red roared, the sword still lodged in his chest.
"Useless! Die!"
The shark-headed demon lunged forward, its massive jaws gaping, foul breath pouring out along with a barrage of flying, triangular teeth.
But Aegon moved faster.
Releasing his grip on the sword, he darted sideways. In the instant he let go, he shouted, "Explode!"
"What?!" Harren was caught off guard.
Boom!
A deafening blast erupted from the sword's core, compressed demonic energy detonating outward. The explosion was far more devastating than Davos' earlier strike—Aegon's magic was simply stronger, and its destructive force greater.
The blast ripped Harren's chest apart, tearing his upper body into several chunks. His massive shark head was sent spinning into the air before crashing to the ground. Even then, he clung to life—his jaw still chomping mindlessly, though without vocal cords, it made no sound.
"Stubborn to the very end," Aegon muttered. He picked up his sword, gripped it in both hands, and drove the blade down through Harren's skull, ending the demon for good.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
The sound of applause drew his gaze toward Viserys. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept watch on Davos' awakened form—still thrashing between reason and bestial instinct, tearing apart everything nearby.
"A flawless fight—pure artistry," Viserys called with a mocking smile. "I didn't expect your demonic energy to be strong enough to mimic other Dragon's Kin. Why don't you hand me those 'strongest eyes' and pledge yourself to me? I'll even spare that three-headed dragon of yours. What do you say?"
Aegon flicked bits of demon flesh from his blade and replied flatly, "I don't fight alongside trash."
Inwardly, though, he was unsettled.
He had assumed Viserys was acting under White Party orders to assassinate him—after all, his joining the Demon Slayer Corps was a step toward seizing its command. On paper, he was a Red Party man, the son of King Maegor, and thus an enemy in the eyes of the White.
But now he saw the truth—this was Viserys' own scheme.
He wanted Visenya's eyes… and Ghidorah, the King-tier Dragon brimming with potential.
"Ah, I gave you a way out, and you didn't take it. In that case, I'll just stand here and watch as the Awakened tear you apart. Tsk, tsk…" Viserys swayed his head mockingly, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
Aegon ignored him. By now, Davos' skeletal horse-like face had already turned toward him.
Beneath those hollow bone sockets gleamed a pair of yellow, unyielding eyes, burning with madness and bloodlust.
Roar!
Davos charged forward on all fours.
Aegon gave a cold snort, raising his sword to meet him.
As Davos closed in, he suddenly leapt high, his fur-covered forelimbs curling into massive fists that came crashing down toward Aegon's head.
Can't take that head-on! At his current strength, Davos is at least Level IV—and that's not even counting his explosive demonic energy.
With a burst of magic at his feet, Aegon darted aside just in time.
Davos' blow struck the ground.
Boom!
The impact was several times louder than the explosion Aegon had caused earlier. A massive crater burst open where the strike landed, and a shockwave rippled outward from the blast's center.
Davos' attack power… it's higher than some of the Dragon's Kin ranked in the top ten. Aegon, let's see just how far those "Strongest Eyes" can go.
Viserys watched the clash intently from the lakeshore.
But Aegon's next move caught him off guard—he used the force of the shockwave to propel himself straight toward the waters of the Gods Eye.
Viserys froze for a moment.
Aegon was moving fast, with Davos in hot pursuit.
What is this? Is he trying to escape across the Gods Eye? Viserys didn't understand his intent, but instinct told him he couldn't allow Aegon to get close to the lake.
The strands of silver-gray hair on his head suddenly thickened and lashed out at Aegon like spears.
Whoosh—whoosh—
As they shot forward, the strands widened and flattened, reshaping into gleaming platinum-aluminum blades.
Aegon's eclipse-like pupils darted wildly from side to side, tracking every movement.
While weaving away from Davos' relentless pursuit, he slipped between the stabbing blades with uncanny precision. His eyes shifted so quickly that no normal person could hope to follow them.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Steel met platinum-aluminum in a rapid exchange, each collision ringing sharp in the air.
The platinum-aluminum blades dented and pitted under his strikes, only to smooth and repair themselves in the blink of an eye.
Around Aegon, the air filled with the clash of blades and the bursts of force from each impact, but he pressed on, edging closer to the Gods Eye's shore.
"You're not so easy to handle, little brat! Those beautiful eyes will be mine—hahaha!" Viserys cackled from his perch on the mast.
"You should be ashamed," Aegon shot back coldly. "Your blade-work might look intense, but the force behind it is pathetic—and the hardness and cutting power of your platinum-aluminum is laughable. Brother Viserys, you may well be the weakest of the Dragonborn."
"Hmph! Enough. I was only toying with you. Since you're so eager to die, I'll grant your wish."
Aegon's words had struck a nerve. Viserys' combat strength was indeed nothing exceptional among the Dragonborn.
"Raaahhh!" Viserys roared, his body beginning to transform.
His silver-gray hair grew at a frenzied pace, thickening into wide bands of platinum blades that spun off the mast and rained down onto the deck.
The bands coiled around him like spiraled springs, and through the gaps, one could see his form encased in a suit of leaden armor.
His lower body reshaped entirely into platinum-aluminum blades, while atop his head sprouted a silver-gray spiral horn, angled toward the heavens.
A wave of magic far surpassing Level IV burst out from his core.
The Dragonborn—Viserys—had fully awakened.
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
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