Lo Quen saw Jon pointing his sword at the woman who looked uncannily like the Night Queen, and alarm bells screamed in his mind.
He absolutely could not allow Jon to complete the ritual.
Lo Quen moved at once, about to rush forward, when a sudden surge of danger welled up from beneath the ground.
He roared and, relying on reflexes far beyond those of an ordinary man, forced himself to halt mid-charge. His feet slammed against the floor as he hurled himself backward.
At the very spot where he had been standing, a deafening boom rang out. A massive tentacle burst up through the solid black stone floor, thick and slick, coated in eerie mucus and lined with suction cups.
At its tip, rows of razor-sharp teeth snapped shut with vicious force, biting down on empty air where he had been moments before.
"Everyone, get out of this hall immediately!"
Lo Quen shouted over his shoulder at Daenerys and the others without even turning his head. At the same time, he spun around and opened his mouth, unleashing a stream of blazing golden Dragonfire at the ambushing tentacle.
Then something shocking happened.
The Dragonfire, blazing with terrifying heat, scorched the tentacle, yet the slime coating its surface writhed as if alive, actually absorbing part of the flames.
Not only was the tentacle unharmed, it began to glow with an ominous crimson light, appearing even more vicious than before.
"What?!"
Lo Quen's pupils shrank. The sight was disturbingly familiar, echoing his encounter with Euron Greyjoy in Oldtown, when black stone and blood sacrifice had twisted him into something that could absorb magical attacks just as easily.
He did not dare to linger. Taking advantage of the brief moment while the tentacle was absorbing the Dragonfire, he retreated swiftly toward the hall's entrance.
Daenerys, Janice, and the others also realized just how dire the situation was and followed his order, withdrawing at full speed.
Just as Lo Quen became the last to burst through the domed entrance of the hall—
"BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!!!"
A terrifying roar erupted, as if it had risen from the depths of the earth itself.
The entire K'Dath ruins shook violently, like the onset of a massive earthquake.
Everyone struggled to keep their footing and turned back in horror.
The once-indestructible domed hall was being torn apart from the inside by an overwhelming force, its structure violently ripped open.
Countless chunks of black stone sprayed outward like a deadly rain.
From beneath the shattered ruins, a colossal, grotesque shadow rose slowly, radiating an aura of pure chaos.
As the dust and blood mist gradually cleared, revealing the creature's full form, everyone drew in a sharp breath.
What a twisted abomination it was.
Its main body still vaguely resembled a gigantic Kraken, its form pitch-black, as though it had been soaked in ink for thousands of years. Thick, viscous blood coated its body and dripped endlessly to the ground, releasing a stench of slaughter ten times stronger than anywhere else in K'Dath.
Yet it was nothing that could be found in nature.
Black bone armor covered its claws, and from its back spread two enormous wings of shadow.
Most striking of all were the strange yellow markings branded onto its distorted torso, which was covered in suction cups and eyes. The symbols flickered and shifted constantly, and staring at their glow for too long felt as though it would drain one's sanity away.
This monster bore an uncanny resemblance, six or seven parts out of ten, to the form Euron Greyjoy had taken during the blood sacrifice in Oldtown, when he had become an unnameable existence.
But the aura it exuded was even more sinister than Euron's had been, as though it came from beyond the stars, or had been born from a sea of blood deep beneath the earth.
"This… this thing came up from underground?!"
Janice cried out in shock, riding her purple dragon, Duskshadow, as she pointed toward the massive crater left by the monster's emergence.
Everyone followed the direction of her finger, their scalps tingling with dread.
Beneath the crater was not soil or stone, but a roiling, viscous Bleeding Sea.
It was as if the entire K'Dath Ruins were nothing more than a thin shell floating atop this endless ocean of blood.
Chai Yiq stared at the dense crimson that seemed impossible to disperse, her voice trembling as she spoke. "That color… it's the Bleeding Sea. The vast lake north of the Five Forts, where the rulers of the Great Empire of the Dawn carry out large-scale blood sacrifices. Could it be that beneath K'Dath, there's a direct connection to that sea of blood?!"
Lo Quen's expression grew grim to the extreme. The appearance of the monster before him gradually overlapped with certain unnameable beings buried deep in his memory.
He looked at the flickering yellow markings on the creature's body, then at Chai Yiq's pale face, and said in a low voice, "It seems that killing this monster will also let me avenge you for the theft of your throne and kingdom."
Chai Yiq froze at his words, then stared at the horrifying creature in disbelief, her eyes widening. "Your Grace, you mean…"
"Exactly!"
Lo Quen nodded firmly. "If I'm not mistaken, this ghostly thing marked with yellow is your dear uncle, the Yellow Emperor. The one who murdered your father and ultimately forced you to flee your homeland!"
As if to confirm Lo Quen's words, the creature's blood-red eyes suddenly shifted, locking straight onto Chai Yiq in the crowd.
Its massive mouth, bristling with tentacles, twisted into an impossibly warped grin, releasing a strange, grating laugh.
"Gak-gak-gak!"
The sound carried a disturbing power of its own. Everyone who heard it felt a violent wave of dizziness wash over them, their stomachs churning with nausea.
Immediately afterward, the Yellow Emperor spat out a string of malicious, mocking syllables. At the same time, it extended a gigantic claw coated in slime and bone armor, ignoring everyone else as it lunged straight toward Chai Yiq with terrifying speed.
"Your opponent is me!"
Lo Quen roared, abandoning all hesitation.
Blinding golden light erupted once more. A colossal golden dragon, now stretching seven hundred and twenty feet in length, surged forward like a mountain, interposing itself between Chai Yiq and the incoming claw.
Its massive forelimbs swung forward, tearing through the air as they smashed head-on into the Yellow Emperor's talons.
"BOOM!!!"
A deep, thunderous impact echoed through the sky.
The resulting shockwave spread outward in rings, shattering the surrounding ruins yet again.
The two giants were nearly equal in size, and in terms of raw strength, the golden dragon Lo Quen even held a slight advantage, firmly blocking the Yellow Emperor's attack.
"Roar!"
Lo Quen pressed his advantage, throwing his dragon maw wide open as blazing golden-white Dragonfire poured out once more, cascading like a waterfall of flame over the Yellow Emperor's twisted body.
Yet, faced with Dragonfire hot enough to melt steel, the Yellow Emperor neither dodged nor retreated.
Several enormous tentacles snapped upward from its body, the suction cups at their tips opening like greedy mouths as they actively moved to meet the Dragonfire.
"Sizzle…"
A chilling scene played out once again.
As soon as the Dragonfire touched the suction cups, it vanished as if swallowed by the sea, rapidly absorbed and devoured.
An ominous red glow spread across the tentacles' surfaces, which even swelled slightly, while the Yellow Emperor's eerie laughter grew ever more smug.
"Absorbing flames?"
A sharp, dangerous glint flashed in the eyes of the golden dragon Lo Quen. "Since you like eating fire so much, then enjoy this feast!"
He stopped wasting Dragonfire. His massive head snapped back, and a highly condensed, blazing golden explosive Dragonfire projectile rapidly took shape within his maw.
With the distance so close, the moment it formed, the projectile shot out like a cannonball, hurtling straight toward the Yellow Emperor's hideous, tentacle-covered face.