The two women closed their eyes, feeling the surge of newfound power within them.
Janice opened her eyes in wonder. "I feel a new kind of power flowing through me."
"That's magic," Lo Quen nodded. "Now that you wield Valyria weapons, you won't suffer their backlash unless your magic is completely drained."
Jaelena was a master warrior, only resorting to magical weapons when forced to face hordes of Scaleclaw or purple monstrous birds—those fused beasts.
But she was no sorceress; no magic flowed in her veins.
Mortals who forcefully wield magical artifacts pay a steep price, just as those who blew the Dragonbinder horn met their deaths.
For Jaelena, using the dragonbone bow and Valyrian steel sword and armor only deepened the curse of blood magic upon her.
"Additionally," Lo Quen continued, "you can now cast a specific kind of magic: resurrecting the dead to serve as a Dragon Soul Guard."
Jaelena seemed to receive knowledge from the contract echoing in her mind.
She approached the long-dead body of a warrior, stretched out her hand, and pressed it lightly against his cold chest.
A soft glow spread over the corpse. His fatal wounds knit closed, and his pallid face regained a trace of color.
Suddenly, the warrior's eyes snapped open, a flicker of flame flashing deep within them.
He rose stiffly and bowed to Lo Quen and Jaelena in turn, his voice hollow. "Lord, I await your command."
Jaelena stared into his lifeless gaze, pain flickering across her face.
"Magic that raises the dead always comes with a cost," Lo Quen said quietly as he stepped closer. "They may wield the sword again, but they lose all humanity, reduced to magical puppets that know only obedience."
"But they were living men once! My comrades!" Jaelena's voice trembled, thick with grief. "I can't face them like this."
She could not accept her former companions reduced to the walking dead.
Lo Quen had intended to reason with her, but in the end, he stayed silent.
She was right. Turning comrades into puppets was too cruel.
He wasn't heartless, but he knew the ruins of Valyria hid unknown dangers. He desperately needed these guards to strengthen their chances of survival.
Even so, frustration gnawed at him. The system was bizarre.
It allowed him to turn the living into Flame Knights, but he couldn't directly raise the dead into Dragon Soul Guards. The Flame Knights had to do it.
At that moment, Janice gently urged her sister. "Sister, I think we should convert them. If we make it out alive, maybe one day we'll find magic to restore their minds. But if they stay here, lying forever in the ruins, then there's truly no hope at all."
Her words struck true, and Lo Quen silently agreed.
The Dragon Soul Guards were bound by magic to a fragment of broken souls that drove their bodies.
If Lo Quen's bloodline purity increased, could the system perhaps restore those shattered minds?
Jaelena stayed silent for a long time, shaken by her sister's plea.
At last, she nodded with difficulty. "You're right. Let's take them with us first. If we can never restore them, then we'll release the magic and let them rest in peace." It was the furthest compromise she could make.
The decision was made.
The two women closed their eyes, lifted their arms, and let magic flow. A faint red glow shimmered across their skin.
Around them, fallen warriors began to rise one after another.
Their mortal wounds closed, though their bloodstained armor remained, and their eyes stared ahead, empty as dolls.
Jaelena paled and stopped.
She had raised about three hundred guards.
Janice pressed on until the five-hundredth warrior stood, then halted, her magic spent.
Lo Quen was quietly astonished. It showed Janice's gift for magic outstripped her sister's.
With the silent undead army gathered, Lo Quen gave his orders. "Janice, send your people into the city to search for survivors. Jaelena, have yours collect every usable weapon—bring back even those inscribed with blood magic runes, even the broken ones."
The Dragon Soul Guard could follow commands on their own, without constant direction, much like the "Mountain" that Qyburn would later create.
A thought crossed Lo Quen's mind: he transformed the living into knights, and knights transformed the dead into guards. This system suggested a rigid hierarchy, much like the White Walkers turning corpses into wights under the Cold God, or the red priests of R'hllor raising the dead.
Of course, he knew the original Night King had only been the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, not that blue-skinned grinning creature who was stabbed in the end.
And he knew the original story hadn't yet confirmed whether Jon Snow would be resurrected.
Still, he believed Melisandre would attempt it. But the price would be steep, and Jon wouldn't come back to life with just a new hairstyle.
"During my fight to the death with that Chimera, I discovered a strange black stone underground," Lo Quen turned to the sisters, intent on uncovering the mystery. "While the guards are searching, let's go take a look."
They entered the Wizard's Tower again, descending into the damp, shadowed chambers below.
A suffocating stench of blood and rot immediately closed in around them, heavy as a physical weight.
Janice's face went pale as she struggled against the urge to vomit.
Jaelena's brows knitted tightly, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword.
Before them stretched a grotesque forest of flesh, the walls strung with the mangled remains of unknown creatures. The congealed dark red mixed with rotting white filled the air with the stench of death, making their stomachs churn.
Holding their breath, they hurried through the hellish scene until they reached the mysterious black stone set at the chamber's center.
Up close, its surface was not smooth but carved with twisted, unnatural patterns, as though recording the traces of some deranged ritual.
More unsettling still, a dark, nearly black stream of blood crept sluggishly through the engraved grooves, moving with a strange vitality, as if the stone itself were breathing.
"This black stone feels different from the ones used in the walls and tower foundations outside," Lo Quen said in a low, steady voice, his sharp gaze tracing the patterns. "Do either of you recognize it?"
Jaelena studied it carefully, then shook her head. "I only know this kind of black stone is mined from the most dangerous regions deep within the Fourteen Flames. The early Valyrians used it to build the cores of their strongest fortresses, for it is harder to destroy than granite itself. But why this particular stone is like this, I cannot say."
Janice crouched, her fingers hovering just above the surface, unwilling to touch it as she examined the grooves that bled dark red fluid. "I think I once read a similar description in a book about Valyria's early blood magic rituals. It said certain black stones were directly tied to the most profound and dangerous forms of blood magic. But the book was vague, and I was young when I read it, so I thought it just a legend."
"Is that book still around?" Lo Quen pressed.
"It should be in the underground library of Tyria," Janice nodded, her eyes distant with memory. "If you want to see it, I'll have the guards fetch it, along with any other useful scrolls. That library holds many records on magic, minerals, and ancient rites."
"The library of Tyria?" Lo Quen frowned slightly, the name stirring only faint recognition.
"It's the most renowned library of Valyria," Janice explained. "After the Doom, the grand halls aboveground and most of the collection were reduced to ash. But the Valyrians had the habit of keeping backups. They dug out vast spaces deep beneath the city, reinforced them with magic, and built an identical library, housing countless copies as well as unique manuscripts."
Seeing his doubt linger, she added, "Of course, the most important texts were long ago moved to the Wizard's Tower by the Bloodmages. Still, if we have the guards search here carefully, we might find something."
Jaelena cast her sister a sidelong glance.
Since her curse had been lifted, Janice seemed utterly devoted to Lo Quen, eager to lay bare every secret Tyria held.
Jaelena had pledged her loyalty as well, but a trace of Dragonlord pride still lingered in her heart.
"We'll deal with the books once the guards finish searching," Lo Quen said. "For now, let's see what else this place hides."
With no answers about the black stone's origins, they left the reeking chamber and continued their exploration of the Wizard's Tower.
...
[Upto 40 chapters ahead for now]
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