"I'm still me… but I don't think I can hold on much longer." Aegon's breath came in ragged gasps, his eyes darting restlessly around as if searching for something.
"Don't bother. The imperial guards have already evacuated every human nearby," Visenya said softly, her gaze fixed on him.
At her words, Aegon bared his dragon fangs and let out a furious roar. "Why did you let them go?! That food… No! No—!"
Before he could finish, he slammed his claws against his own head, howling in agony. "I'm not a monster… I won't eat my own kind!"
Clutching his skull, he threw his head back and roared—a piercing, anguished sound carried on a tide of surging demonic energy that blasted outward, whipping Visenya's hair back in the wind.
In his grasp, the spine sword trembled violently. Having already consumed all of Aenys' flesh and blood, it was quivering with impatience to feed again.
"You're not the man you once were," Visenya said, shaking her head. Tears welled in her golden eyes. "The husband I knew… the man I married… would never raise his own hand to kill his child. He would never—"
"Who killed my child? Which of my sons is dead?" Aegon's blood-red beast eyes locked on her, his grip on reason slipping further with every breath.
The battle was over, but his mind was now drowning in a gnawing, feral hunger for human entrails.
"I don't care who's dead—just give me entrails! Give them to me! Sister… I'm starving!" His voice cracked with desperation. Drool, thick and glistening, dripped from his fanged mouth, splattering onto the ground.
At that moment, the sky split with the roar of Meraxes. The golden-eyed, silver-scaled dragon descended heavily before the gates of Harrenhal.
Rhaenys' voice rang out, sharp with panic. "Where is my son? What have you done to Aenys?"
Her words cut through Aegon like a sudden shaft of light, pulling his fraying sanity back—if only a little.
He turned slowly, his body stiff, and looked at her. Seeing the raw fear in her face, guilt surged in him like a flood. But twined around that guilt was the relentless craving for her flesh—vines of hunger wrapping tighter and tighter around his mind.
Desire and reason pulled at him like two unseen hands, twisting his thoughts until they burned.
The last shred of clarity told him what he had to do. Whipping around, he charged straight for Meraxes, his stance one of open challenge.
Meraxes, confronted by this grotesque creature, instinctively opened his jaws wide, heat already building for a blast of dragonfire.
Rhaenys, sensing her dragon's readiness, made no move to stop him. A heartbeat later, silver flames poured down like a thundering waterfall, engulfing Aegon's demonic form.
Aegon's scream tore through the air—raw pain threaded with something almost like relief, the release of a man on the edge of escape.
"No!" Visenya cried out, reaching toward him as she turned on her sister. "That's Aegon—don't do this!"
Rhaenys stared, shocked, at the burning figure. "Aegon… how could he become like this?" she whispered, as if saying it aloud might make it untrue.
Panic seized her, and she quickly urged Meraxes to stop.
When the flames finally died away, Aegon's skin and scales were charred black, like burnt stone—but still, the dragon demon's unnatural vitality clung stubbornly to life.
His gaze found Rhaenys' terrified face. With great effort, he forced out three words: "I'm… sorry."
Then, tightening his grip on the spine sword, he swung his arm back in a single, decisive motion. The blade bit through his own neck in an instant. His head tumbled to the ground, rolling to a stop as his massive, two-meter-tall body crashed lifelessly into the dust.
The warblade slipped from Visenya's fingers, clattering to the ground. In a trance, she stepped forward, knelt beside what remained of him, and with trembling hands lifted the dragon-like head of her husband. Tears spilled freely down her cheeks.
Rhaenys stood frozen, her face blank with shock. Then, her voice cracked and broke into a scream. "Aegon!!"
And so, the brutal war born from the seed of life came to its grim conclusion with the fall of Emperor Aegon. The imperial guards moved swiftly to release the remaining members of the royal family.
...
After ending his own life, Aegon's consciousness sank into endless darkness.
When awareness returned, he found his soul back in the Emerald Dream, surrounded by dense, vibrant green mist. The madness and chaos that had clouded his mind were gone; for the first time in what felt like ages, his thoughts were clear and light. Perhaps, he reflected, his mind had begun to shift the day he became the Conqueror, influenced by the true dragon bloodline.
Later, when he became a Dragon Demon Awakened One, that transformation had been forced further—his very consciousness reshaped into something else entirely. Only in death had it returned to what it once was.
Guiding his soul, he drifted back into the weirwood forest that stood within the sea of green mist.
I never thought my life would end this way. Using the seed of life to save myself… I nearly brought disaster instead, he thought with lingering dread.
He opened his item list:
[Lottery chance: 1 (guaranteed Hero-level item)]
[Hero-level – Living Saint]
[Dark Purple – Emerald Dream]
[Blue – Driftwood Crown]
The items I got this life are few indeed. Only after completing the Great Conquest did I earn a single Hero-level lottery chance. Still… the family faces no great crisis right now. I can leave it unused for the time being.
Letting his soul rest for a while among the heart trees, he eventually stirred and shifted his view to the system's family panel, watching through the eyes of his kin.
...
Two days passed quietly at Harrenhal.
The royal family, bearing six seeds of life and the remains of two of its members, flew back to Dragonstone on dragonback. The seeds of life were sealed in the treasury by Maegor.
Now, only Queen Visenya remained in the kingdom as a transplant bearer. She had not awakened; aside from eventually losing her sense of taste, she faced no threat to her survival.
Crown Prince Maegor announced to the realm that the Regalus had returned to the underworld to take up the mantle of Lord of the Dead, and that the king's eldest son, Aenys, had accompanied him there.
At the foot of Dragonmont on Dragonstone, the entire House Targaryen—bastards included—gathered to hold a funeral for the Regalus and the king's firstborn.
Rhaenys, mounted on her dragon, presided over the cremation of her son Aenys' remains. Visenya, riding Vhagar, performed Aegon's cremation.
She spoke the eulogy as the Regalus lay clad in battle armor, chainmail-wrapped hands gripping the hilt of Blackfyre. Vhagar's breath ignited the pyre, and Blackfyre burned alongside its king. Later, Maegor retrieved the sword.
Its blade had darkened, but it remained unscathed—ordinary flames could not touch Valyrian steel.
Amid the nation's mourning, one piece of good news emerged: Aenys' eldest son, young Aegon, had successfully tamed his father's dragon, Quicksilver. The royal family had gained another dragonrider.
But soon after, Prince Aegon requested from his uncle the position of Most Devout in the Faith of the Seven.
Maegor hesitated, giving no immediate reply.
The position carried great weight—Regalus Aegon himself had once risen to High Septon through it. Maegor had been baptized into the Faith of the Seven by his father, yet because his elder brother Aenys held the title of Crownlands Most Devout, Maegor had never been able to claim it.
When Aenys lost his place as heir, the post had been left vacant. And because Aegon had ruled the Crownlands directly, he had simply abolished the office.
Now, as heir, Maegor possessed the rightful claim to succeed to the throne—but the Faith of the Seven presented a serious challenge. His father's creation of the Regalus title had bound crown and faith into one.
If Maegor inherited only the crown, he would be merely king. To claim the throne of the Regalus, he would also have to secure the High Septon's seat of the Faith of the Seven.
...
In the Emerald Dream, Aegon watched Maegor handle the matter of the Most Devout with caution. A small sense of relief stirred within him—the boy was finally showing some measure of shrewdness.
...
In the study of the Windwyrm Tower on Dragonstone.
When his uncle still refused to agree, Little Aegon paused to think before saying to Maegor, "If you promise to grant me the position of Most Devout, I will give you my full support in becoming High Septon."
Maegor still rejected Little Aegon's political offer.
After Aegon left the study, Maegor summoned his mother, Queen Visenya, to discuss the matter.
Visenya wore a dark red gown over armor. Since receiving the seed of life, her demeanor had grown increasingly cold. Maegor could feel her humanity slipping away bit by bit, yet he believed with certainty that no matter what she became, she would always stand by him.
He told Visenya of Little Aegon's request.
After a long discussion, they agreed that the position of Most Devout could not be given to him. If Maegor was to inherit the throne of Regalus in the future, the office must be reserved for his own son. Otherwise, he risked repeating the mistakes of his father, Aegon, and allowing the Faith of the Seven's power to slip from the heir's control.
Maegor had originally planned to hold his coronation on Dragonstone, but Visenya refused. She insisted that as the rightful heir, he should be crowned in Aegon's Hall at the Red Keep in King's Landing, before the assembled lords of the realm, so that the ceremony would carry true sanctity.
Maegor followed his mother's counsel, and the entire royal family took wing for King's Landing.
Even as the Targaryen dynasty mourned Regalus Aegon, they were forced to prepare for the new king's coronation. Ravens from the Tower of the Ravens were sent to every corner of the realm.
In his letters, Crown Prince Maegor summoned all Targaryen lords to King's Landing to witness his coronation one month hence.
The sudden death of Regalus Aegon had already stirred unrest. Factions hostile to the Dragonlord began raising banners in open defiance of House Targaryen.
In Ghost Hill, Dorne rose in rebellion once more, seeking to restore the Kingdom of Dorne. Yet before the movement could gain strength, it was crushed under the full force of Orys' army. At Ghost Hill, Orys' blade showed no mercy—every Dornishman there was put to the sword, leaving the place a wasteland.
But Dorne's unrest did not end there.
In the towering Red Mountains, a self-proclaimed "Vulture King" appeared, calling upon all righteous Dornishmen to avenge the wrongs inflicted by House Targaryen. Even under threat of extermination from Lord Orys—who swore to wipe out the Vulture King and all who followed him—thousands still rallied to his cause. They slipped from hills and deserts into the mountains, then down hidden goat paths into the Reach.
In the Vale, Janos Arryn, younger brother of Lord Ronnel Arryn, imprisoned and deposed his loyal elder brother and crowned himself King of Mountain and Vale.
In the Iron Islands, another priest-king emerged from the sea itself, claiming to be the son of the Drowned God—"Lodos the Twice-Drowned"—declaring that he had once gone into the depths to visit his father and had now returned.
In the Riverlands, a band of powerful brigands ravaged the lands around the Trident, sacking a count's domain. Their leader, Harren the Red, claimed to be the grandson of Harren the Black. The raiders dragged the lord from his bed, hauled him to the castle's godswood, where Harren castrated him and tossed the severed flesh to the dogs. A few loyal soldiers were slaughtered; the rest were forced into Harren's ranks. Harren then proclaimed himself Lord of Harrenhal and King of the Rivers.
Knowing he could not allow these rebellions to fester, Crown Prince Maegor acted quickly. Without waiting for every noble of the realm to arrive in King's Landing, he had himself crowned in the Great Hall of Aegon's Palace.
Since the Faith of the Seven had not yet recognized him as High Septon, Maegor was crowned only as king—not as Regalus.
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
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