Above the Grey Waste.
Golden Lo Quen fixed his gaze on the Night Queen riding the Ice Dragon ahead. His massive body carved a sweeping golden arc through the sky, rapidly closing the distance to his quarry.
As the gap narrowed, Lo Quen suddenly opened his enormous jaws and unleashed a torrent of Dragonfire, surging straight toward the Night Queen and the Ice Dragon beneath her.
Where the Dragonfire passed, the air twisted violently from the heat. Falling snowflakes vaporized before they could draw near, and even the blood-soaked snow below was instantly baked dry, exposing the dark red earth beneath.
The Night Queen felt the destructive heat wave roaring up behind her.
She snapped her head around, fear flashing through her star-blue eyes.
The Ice Dragon under her let out a low, pained roar and struggled to accelerate.
Lo Quen seized the moment, instantly realizing she could not use the same magic that had just defended against his [Explosive Dragonfire Projectile] again so soon.
He surged forward and poured on the Dragonfire.
The Ice Dragon tried to twist away, but the blazing golden flames were too fast and spread too wide.
"Sizzle—!!!"
The edge of the Dragonfire finally swept across the Ice Dragon's tail and one side of its wing.
Extreme heat collided violently with the creature's frigid body.
Without the Night Queen's ice magic reinforcing it, the Ice Dragon's hard, pale scales melted rapidly under the scorching flames. The areas struck directly shattered in an instant.
The Ice Dragon let out a shriek of unbearable agony. Its flight turned unstable and erratic, its speed dropping sharply.
Seeing this, a distinctly human flash of hatred crossed the Night Queen's blue eyes.
A faint blue glow surfaced around her once more, trying to fend off the lingering heat of the Dragonfire, but this time the aura was clearly far weaker than before.
Under the relentless scorching of Lo Quen's molten-gold flames, the blue aura wavered violently, flickering on and off. Stray sparks from the Dragonfire even burned a thin scorch mark into her pale cheek.
Even so, the Night Queen's resolve to flee did not waver.
Ignoring the Ice Dragon's agony, she forcibly drove her frost magic harder. A stronger surge of cold wrapped around the wounded dragon, temporarily suppressing the burning heat. Dragging its battered body, she fled desperately toward distant K'Dath.
As Lo Quen chased her across the final stretch of wasteland, he finally saw K'Dath in its entirety.
It was a ruined city built entirely of dark, somber black stone.
Yet it looked as though it had just been hauled out of a blood pool where tens of thousands had been slaughtered.
Walls, streets, toppled pillars, and towering spires were all soaked in a nauseating dark crimson hue.
Snow continued to fall, but it could not settle on the bloodstained stone. Instead, it melted into more bloodwater that crept and flowed, making the entire city look as though it were bleeding.
Daenerys, Janice, and the others arrived soon after, landing their dragons along the edge of K'Dath. At the sight before them, their faces drained of color and their stomachs churned.
Horror filled Daenerys's violet eyes. She could scarcely imagine that such a blood-soaked place could exist in the world.
Lo Quen did not stop. He flew straight over K'Dath.
He watched as the Night Queen, riding the gravely wounded Ice Dragon, swayed unsteadily toward the city's center and finally landed in a vast central plaza.
The plaza was likewise drowned in blood. At its heart stood an area encircled by a black stone railing.
Inside the enclosure was no building, but a churning pool of dark red blood.
The blood pool bubbled and gurgled.
At its center rose a domed hall of extremely ancient design.
The hall itself was made entirely of black stone, and the surrounding blood seemed to deliberately avoid it, leaving it like a lone island in a sea of gore.
The Night Queen leapt down from the Ice Dragon's back and stood at the edge of the blood pool.
She lifted her head to gaze at the domed hall, a trace of longing surfacing in her blue eyes as she prepared to step inside.
At that critical moment.
"Your opponent is me!"
Golden Dragon Lo Quen dove from the sky and dropped straight into the plaza.
The instant his massive body hit the ground, the entire square shuddered, and the blood pool churned even more violently.
The Night Queen whirled around, and for the first time her expression turned truly grave.
She understood that if she didn't deal with this golden behemoth, she would never accomplish what she had come here to do.
"Skree—!"
A nonhuman screech tore from her throat, like a final command.
In the next instant, the last of her Others and wights poured out from the surrounding streets and ruins, surging in from every direction.
They ignored Daenerys and the others arriving behind them and threw themselves into a suicidal charge at Golden Dragon Lo Quen in the center of the plaza.
"Protect Your Grace!" Daenerys cried, immediately trying to urge Greysmoke forward.
"No need!"
Golden Dragon Lo Quen roared with absolute confidence, signaling them to hold the perimeter.
Faced with this last counterattack, he felt no fear, only cold determination.
He opened his enormous jaws again and unleashed Dragonfire with all his might.
BOOM—!!!!!
Waves of blazing golden Dragonfire swept out in every direction, indiscriminate and overwhelming.
Where the flames passed, the leading Others didn't even have time to scream before they were instantly vaporized.
The Ice Spiders' shells, tough enough to withstand ordinary blades, melted like paper beneath the Dragonfire, their huge bodies turning into burning masses of flame.
The skeletal mammoths' towering frames collapsed in the inferno, breaking apart into charred fragments of bone.
The Dragonfire even heated the black stone buildings along the edge of the plaza until they glowed red and began to melt.
Golden flame devoured every undead that dared approach, wiping away even the trace of their existence.
In barely a dozen breaths, the entire plaza was empty of anything still standing, save for Lo Quen, the Night Queen, and the Ice Dragons at her side.
The Night Queen stared at the scene before her, watching her final legion vanish into ash beneath the golden Dragonfire.
At last, something savage twisted across her pallid face.
"Roar!"
The three wounded Ice Dragons beside her, as if answering their mistress's resolve, let out one final, grief-stricken bellow. Dragging their shattered bodies, they lunged toward Golden Dragon Lo Quen, gathering the last of their icy power and spewing a sickly white breath of frozen dragon frost.
It was far weaker than it had been at full strength, and slower besides.
Golden Dragon Lo Quen didn't even bother with a real evasive move. He merely shifted slightly. The freezing breath scraped across his golden scales and left only a thin layer of frost that melted almost at once, not even scratching him.
Lo Quen snorted inwardly, full of contempt for the dying Ice Dragons' desperate last strike.
It was time to end this.
Golden Dragon Lo Quen lifted his great head again. A fiery golden orb, far larger than before, began to gather madly within his jaws.
The Night Queen felt that world-ending power lock onto her once more. The despair in her blue eyes twisted into madness.
She threw both hands high, pouring out the pure ice magic within her without restraint. In front of her, an incredibly thick, deep-blue ice-crystal shield formed in an instant.
"It's over."
Golden light flared from Lo Quen's dragon eyes.