Could shattering a crystal orb destroy a Valyrian grand mage's tower?
Definitely not.
What if the entire tower was blown apart?It was possible.
For example, the Dragonstone mage tower had two floors smashed down by the allied forces, and the crystal orb was also destroyed.
However, the Dragonstone tower's magic pump was located in the basement at minus ten floors. Even flattening every structure above ground would not destroy it.
Lady Shadow Laleisa brought to Dragonstone a top-grade magic diamond that the Dragon Queen had "casually picked up" from Sothoryos. After she and Marwyn reinstalled a new magic crystal on the lower floors of the tower, the mage tower resumed operation.
In other words, the foundation of the mage tower lay in the magic pump connected to the magma pool. Only by destroying it could the mage tower be considered thoroughly ruined.
If compared to an electrical system, the magic crystal orb was equivalent to a smart power socket, while the magic pump was the generator.
Half of the foundation of Oros Cathedral floated above the sea surface, so the magic pump naturally would not be in the basement. That was why, after Drogon destroyed the magic crystal, Dany planned to summon the distant Bear and his group, letting her underlings go downstairs and finish off this mage tower.
After all, Dragonstone's magic-net hub was incredibly useful for long-distance communication.
Especially now that the Wall had collapsed and the Others had successfully crossed south. Dany demanded real-time information more urgently than ever.
Her visit to Oros served two purposes. Finding Jeinei was one, but the magic tower was the more important goal.
As for Goat Egg, she already knew it lurked in the Smoky Sea Abyss, and she currently had no way to deal with it.
However, something unexpected happened. Just as Dany absorbed a trace of divinity hidden within Goat Egg's thought-fragment, mounted Drogon's back, and prepared to call her allies—
Suddenly, the magic pump began overclocking, drawing terrifying amounts of magic from the submarine volcano. Even the cathedral shuddered violently under the surge.
Clearly, more than eight white-cloaked priests were present inside the cathedral. Goat Egg had split off another thought, manifesting upon a devout follower, and restarted the mage tower. Unlike Dragonstone, which used only a single magic crystal, the cathedral's tower was built with a more complex structure that included multiple secondary control hubs.
In fact, it was not merely a thought-fragment that descended, but a fragment of its soul. A single thought lacked the divine will and power needed to control an overclocked magic tower.
To "claim" Dany, Goat Egg was sparing no cost.
In a heartbeat, a pulse of activated sorcery surged from the lowest level of the tower. A transparent red membrane rose from the foundation, forming a massive tower-shaped barrier that wrapped around the fifty-meter-high cathedral.
In short, the cathedral tower now wore a knockoff Susanoo.
Before Drogon could even take off, he too was sealed inside. A transparent red film appeared above the rooftop platform.
"Goat Egg, are you insane?!" Dany cried, shocked and furious.
Goat Egg's intent was obvious: raise a flame ward to prevent Dany from escaping.
But magic on this scale bordered on a forbidden curse and required absurd amounts of fire-energy drawn from the earth.
Magic in the submarine volcano was nearly infinite, yet magma-energy followed natural rhythms.
It was like living in Yellowstone, boiling eggs in a simmering volcanic pool without affecting the volcano at all. Throw a nuke into Yellowstone, and the movie 2012 would no longer be fiction.
Wildly draining fire-magic from the core was equivalent to triggering that nuclear bomb, breaking the stable "energy cycle" of the magma below.
Thus, Dragonstone's tower never extracted extra magic. Its pump merely replaced a natural hot spring pool. It drew heat already leaking from the volcano beneath, causing no harm or disruption.
Previously, Goat Egg behaved just like Dany. The leaking magic evaporated seawater nonstop, and Goat Egg simply collected that magic without disturbing the volcano's normal function.
Of course, leaked magic was limited, which meant the tower output was low. That was why Dany could break its barriers with a simple trick.
Now Goat Egg seemed enraged and ready to die together with her.
"Goat Egg, you're mad. If the volcano erupts, your crimes will double and you'll be doomed," Dany roared.
After all, Goat Egg was already a prisoner of the Smoky Sea. A prisoner committing crimes would only worsen his sentence.
"Hahaha, scared now?" Dany's panic seemed to delight Goat Egg. It laughed triumphantly. "Relax, everything is under my control. Before we reach the eruption threshold, I will kill you~~~ ah, no~~!"
Suddenly, Goat Egg let out a furious and despairing scream. Then Dany noticed the magic barrier overhead turning crimson, its aura growing stronger.
Earlier, Dany might still have broken through with her newly created Wind Scar., but now she was well and truly trapped atop the black tower.
The cathedral began slowly tilting toward the sea. Below, the water boiled, steam surged upward, forming a milky-white pillar holding up the sky, with sulfurous black smoke mixed in—just like a nuclear blast mushroom cloud.
Something like a fiery beast that tore continents apart seemed to awaken beneath the ocean.
Watching the sky glowing red outside the balcony, Dany understood something.
It was unstoppable. The volcano would erupt.
Because the magic pump had gone out of control.
"R'hllor~~~~!" Goat Egg howled with poisonous hatred, his scream shaking the entire black tower.
"R'hllor?" Dany blinked in confusion.
What did R'hllor have to do with this?
The next instant, as she and Drogon entered dragon-sense, her perception followed the energy channels forged by dragon crystal, extending downward—one hundred meters, five hundred, a thousand, five kilometers into the magma.
A powerful, familiar presence flickered through her spirit.
R'hllor.
That guy had just swindled Goat Egg badly.
No, Yang Dan's true body was not here. Instead, it was her.
"Fuck. R'hllor's target is me! The Long Night is descending, the laws of the world have changed, and the power of gods and demons has begun to stir. My retribution seems to have arrived." Dany's face shifted between pallor and livid green.
The Dragon Queen was not surprised at all that R'hllor would scheme to kill her. She could even find countless reasons on His behalf:
She had broken the fate He arranged six thousand years ago, the Asshai prophecy; her talent of creation within fire was worth coveting; the Three-Eyed Crow, Brynden, had joined forces with her to ruin His savior's mortal vessel, Jon; she had also destroyed one of His manifestations of consciousness while He was seizing Aegon's wyvern; and He coveted the Gate Guardian's treasure as well.
Before the Long Night arrived, R'hllor was too distant from the material world to take revenge on her. But now, with the Long Night stretching endlessly ahead, gods and demons ran rampant.
True gods who could once only look down upon all living beings from the astral realm had now descended into the mortal world.
"It seems the enemies I need to guard against are no longer limited to Yang Dan and the Others."
Dany had reached a realization. Her enemies had been upgraded. True gods were no longer legends, and she would face them directly.
"Dahei, let's go." Dany bent down and tightly grasped the bone spines on the back of Dahei's neck.
"Go? Where do you think you can go?" Yang Dan's eerie voice came from the stairway entrance. Vast magical power surged forth at the same time, enveloping Dany and Dahei, almost freezing the surrounding space.
A magic tower going berserk could indeed trigger a volcanic eruption, even a continent-shattering catastrophe. But before that eruption, the endless magic would also place the tower at its strongest moment.
"The power of the magic pump has already exceeded three Berli. No matter what you do, you cannot break through the outer magic barrier."
Dany knew what "Berli" was. It was the unit used to measure the output power of Valyrian magic towers.
So-called 1.0 Berli referred to the maximum magical power Balerion could unleash at his peak.
According to the book Construction of the Magic Web, an ordinary true god could only erupt with 0.8 Berli of magical power.
Well, Yang Dan was not a true god, but His power surpassed that of most true gods.
And a magic tower built atop the Fourteen Flames had a minimum output of 10 Berli.
That was why there was a saying that a Valyrian archmage on a magic tower was invincible under heaven.
Dany's expression shifted several times. She gently patted Dahei, signaling him to continue condensing magic, then turned to look at "Yang Dan" in the black hood and asked curiously, "Why has R'hllor come here? Did He foresee what would happen today?"
"You are not worried? Of course, I can open the magic barrier, but you should understand that even if R'hllor has set me up, I still cannot possibly let you leave."
Yang Dan's pupils, faintly glowing with golden light, suddenly contracted.
Sensing the terrifying fire magic around Dahei that was being held in check, Dany felt a chill in her heart. Yet her face remained full of confidence, and she smiled lightly. "I am not so naive as to expect humanity from you. But have you thought about this? If I had no trump card, why would I come here to lock horns with you to the death?"
"What trump card?" Yang Dan glanced at the black dragon whose aura was steadily rising and sneered. "Your black dragon is very strong, but here and now, it cannot harm a single hair on my body.
In fact, you are very ignorant and have no idea what is about to happen. Even taking ten thousand steps back, even if you destroy this fragment of my divine soul, you still will not escape."
"One question from you, one question from me. How about that?" Dany said as she sat astride Dahei's back, looking down at Him.
Yang Dan hesitated inwardly. Perhaps she really did have a trump card.
In that case, He should wait for the volcano to continue going berserk and for the magic tower's output to keep rising. Then whatever trump card she had would become useless.
With that in mind, He gave up the idea of starting the battle immediately and instead answered Dany's earlier question first.
"The Fourteen Flames are R'hllor's homeland. He was originally a flame within the molten heart of the Fourteen Flames.
Moreover, the passage connecting the Light Lord's divine kingdom in the astral realm to the material world is also located at the Fourteen Flames.
If He returns to the primary material world, His true body usually remains deep beneath the Fourteen Flames. What manifests in the mortal realm is only a strand of His consciousness.
I am not sure whether He foresaw today's events, or whether He sensed the anomaly of Oros and, on a whim, decided to wipe out both you and me in one net."
"So that's how it is." Dany frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "I received a gift from the Ancient God of Wind. Your magic barrier is not a problem for me."
"The Ancient God of Wind? The weirwood of Westeros?" Yang Dan murmured in confusion.
"Yes."
"What gift?" Yang Dan asked in shock.
The magical power within Dahei circulated even faster. Instead of answering, Dany asked, "Is R'hllor's true body the First Fire?"
Yang Dan froze for a moment and then understood that this was the second round.
"You actually know about the First Fire as well." He was somewhat stunned. "He once deceived me, claiming that He was the First Fire. In fact, He is not. He is merely the very first mundane fire in heaven and earth, the most ordinary kind of fire."
As He said this, Yang Dan seemed to be grinding His teeth, his face twisting with unmistakable hatred.
"I obtained His divine kingdom from the weirwood," Dany answered His question in turn.
"What is inside the divine kingdom?" Yang Dan asked, puzzled.
"What exactly happened in the Valyrian Doom?"
(End of chapter)
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