Everyone's gaze was locked onto the horrifying change at the center of K'Dath, unable to look away.
The blood pool churned and boiled, thick plasma surging as vast magical power welled up from within. That power seemed drawn by some invisible force, rushing wildly toward Jon Snow atop the black stone.
Jon Snow's grief-stricken howl cut off abruptly, replaced by an inhuman roar.
Lo Quen's brow tightened as he moved instinctively to intervene.
But at that very moment—
Jon, still kneeling on the black stone, began to swell violently, as if his body were being inflated. The ominous crimson light flickering around him flared to its peak, then detonated in a violent explosion.
Pfft!!!
His body burst apart, spraying out a massive clump of dark red flesh that writhed and multiplied on its own.
The flesh rapidly took shape, transforming into a gigantic, maggot-like dark red monster.
Its surface was slick with viscous fluid, tentacles extending from every part of its body. Even more horrifying were the countless blood-red eyes embedded densely across its torso and tentacles, spinning wildly, brimming with pain and hatred.
Almost at the same instant, from the spot where Ygritte had vanished, an icy blue, flesh-maggot creature tore through the air.
Its form was nearly identical to the dark red monster, likewise covered in tentacles and eyes, except those eyes were crystalline pupils burning with ghostly blue flames.
What inspired the deepest terror, however, was this—
These two grotesque flesh maggots were not separate beings. Near their heads, at the core of their bodies, vast stretches of writhing flesh tightly fused them together.
They were like a malformed conjoined twin: one embodying the extreme of fire and blood, the other the extreme of ice and death, together forming an incomparably evil twin monstrosity.
"What… what the hell is that thing?!"
Dany cried out despite herself.
Lo Quen stared at the horrific creation that defied all common sense, shock surging through him as well.
Beside him, Jaelena's eyes burned as she said in a low voice, "Their form is very similar to the Firewyrm maggots in the ruins of Valyria that were corrupted by rampant blood magic. The same flesh-maggot structure, covered in tentacles."
Lo Quen nodded gravely. "They are similar. But what we're facing now is a complete form, born from an even more sinister ritual and the power of black stone. And it's a twin."
He could clearly sense it. The magical fluctuations radiating from the conjoined flesh maggots were far more terrifying than those of the Yellow Emperor. It was a fused power of ice and fire.
"Whatever they are, they cannot be allowed to remain in this world."
Killing intent flashed through Lo Quen's eyes, and all hesitation vanished.
He transformed once more into a golden dragon. His massive jaws opened wide as searing golden Dragonfire surged toward the conjoined twin monstrosity.
Yet, in the face of Dragonfire capable of burning cities and boiling seas, the twin creature reacted much like the Yellow Emperor had.
On the dark red flesh-maggot side, all the blood-red eyes lit up at once. Countless sucker-like mouths lined with sharp teeth opened, devouring the incoming Dragonfire.
At the same time, the icy blue flesh-maggot side released an extreme chill, freezing the edges of the flames.
Once again, the Dragonfire was absorbed and largely neutralized through this bizarre method.
"As expected. Magical attacks like Dragonfire have limited effect on creatures that are deeply fused with black stone and possess extremely high energy resistance."
Lo Quen understood immediately. To deal with them, he would need a high-density magical attack like an Explosive Dragonfire Projectile.
He shifted tactics at once, lifting his dragon head high as an enormous, blazing golden Explosive Dragonfire Projectile began to rapidly condense within his maw.
The destructive magical pressure twisted the surrounding space, and the Bleeding Sea below boiled even more violently.
Just as this decisive strike was about to be unleashed—
All the eyes of the conjoined twin monster suddenly snapped toward Lo Quen in his golden dragon form.
The flesh connecting the two bodies pulsed violently. Two massive, tentacle-covered maws opened at the same time, releasing a shriek so sharp it surpassed the limits of human hearing.
This was no mere sonic attack.
It carried a terrifying magical force capable of warping reality itself.
Buzz!
Lo Quen felt as if an invisible sledgehammer had slammed straight into his mind.
His vision went black, then exploded into twisted colors and distorted flashes of light. K'Dath's blood-red sky, the scorched ground, his terrified companions, the grotesque monsters…
Everything shattered, spun, and vanished in an instant.
When he forcibly steadied his consciousness and managed to see clearly again, Lo Quen realized he was no longer standing amid the blood-soaked ruins of K'Dath.
He was suspended in an endless, icy void.
Above, below, left, right, in every direction stretched a deep, pitch-black cosmic backdrop, scattered with countless cold, silent stars that gleamed with eternal indifference. Far away, nebulae turned slowly.
There was no air, no sound. Only absolute vacuum and bone-deep cold.
Lo Quen froze. Had the monster's mental shriek dragged him into a vast cosmic illusion in an instant?
"Where… is this?!"
Even with Lo Quen's current mental fortitude, the abrupt shift left him briefly disoriented.
This was no simple illusion. The chill of the stars and the boundless emptiness of the void carried an unmistakable sense of reality.
As Lo Quen looked around in shock within this cosmic vision, he finally sensed the most soul-freezing presence hidden deep within the starry expanse.
At the far edge of his sight, against a backdrop where countless stars converged into a river of light, loomed a black silhouette of indescribable scale.
It had no concrete form. It was more like absolute darkness that devoured all light, a void even deeper than the surrounding cosmos.
Lo Quen couldn't tell how large it truly was.
He only felt that his entire field of vision, even the limits of his spiritual perception, were filled by that slowly writhing darkness.
It seemed to be asleep. With every silent "breath," distant nebulae flickered, and the paths of stars subtly shifted.
Just the unconscious magical fluctuations it released were enough to make Lo Quen's mind tremble.
This was an absolute gap in the level of existence.
Was this the true source behind the Black Stone?
Shock surged through Lo Quen's heart like a tidal wave.
The terror of this presence far exceeded anything he had imagined.
At that moment, the conjoined twin monsters also appeared within the cosmic illusion.
As if returning to their home ground, their bodies were no longer bound by the material constraints of K'Dath. They grew even more massive and grotesque, the flesh-colored tissue connecting them pulsing with greater force.
All of their eyes locked onto Golden Dragon Lo Quen.
Golden Dragon Lo Quen let out a resounding dragon's roar and tried once more to unleash Dragonfire.
But within this cosmic void, Dragonfire lost most of its effectiveness.
The dark red half of the conjoined monster opened its enormous maw. What it spewed forth was no longer absorbed Dragonfire, but countless magical tentacles wreathed in blood-colored flames.
At the same time, the ice-blue half unleashed a storm of blue crystal frost.
The twin attacks surged toward Lo Quen.
His massive dragon body evaded most of them, but several blood-flame tentacles and shards from the ice crystal storm still scraped across his scales.
The blood flames were fiercely corrosive, scorching his dragon scales.
The ice crystal storm, meanwhile, began to freeze his blood and movements, its extreme cold biting straight into his core.
Lo Quen immediately sensed that the situation had turned dire.