Previously, no one had noticed that a whirlpool had appeared on the sea surface to the left of Naga Hill during the battle between Womax and the Kraken.
But when Jacaerys instantly killed the Kraken with a blood-colored beam of light from his Blood Devouring Transformation, the whirlpool gradually dissipated.
The sea surface, which had been turbulent due to the Kraken's previous rampage, also became calm.
Jacaerys waited quietly for a while, seeing that the mastermind behind the scenes seemed to have no third trick up his sleeve.
He then controlled Womax to fly above the surviving Iron Captains, Dalton Greyjoy and Arthur, and looked down on the people below like a true deity.
Dalton Greyjoy and Arthur both knew that the other party wanted them to kneel and surrender, but they exchanged glances and neither was willing to kneel first.
Bang!
Suddenly, a figure fell heavily to the ground from a height of twenty to thirty meters.
The ground there was completely unable to withstand such an impact and instantly cracked.
"Which one is Dalton Greyjoy?"
Jacaerys's eyes swept over the faces of the people in front of him, and he asked expressionlessly.
Seeing Arthur point at him without hesitation, Dalton Greyjoy cursed inwardly and then raised his hand to answer, "Great King of the Green Lands, I am Dalton Greyjoy.
First, I sincerely apologize for previously listening to the slanders of House Tully and attacking Seagard and Kalin Bay.
Then, from today onwards, the Iron Islands will continue to be under the jurisdiction of the Iron Throne and will not plunder the areas you protect.
Finally, I have acquired many treasures in Westeros and Essos over the years.
I will offer them all to you as my compensation!"
Dalton Greyjoy was quite pragmatic, knowing that he had no strength to contend with that ink-colored dragon, so he immediately said the words he had already prepared in his mind.
But Jacaerys was completely unmoved, just looking at Dalton Greyjoy with extremely cold eyes and saying coldly, "You are very tall, but I never like to look up at people when I speak.
Now, kneel!"
Dalton Greyjoy felt somewhat embarrassed upon hearing this, after all, he had already said so much, yet Jacaerys still gave him no face.
He turned his head and glanced around, finding that Arthur and the other Iron Captains were all looking at him.
Dalton Greyjoy quickly thought about his words and then replied, "I..."
Thump!
Just as Dalton Greyjoy opened his mouth to say a word, Womax, who had received a mental command, landed heavily on the ground behind Jacaerys, and then shot its dragon head forward like lightning.
Dalton Greyjoy, who had no time to react, saw only Womax's gaping maw filled with sharp, jagged teeth as his final sight.
Crunch, crunch!
After biting Dalton Greyjoy in its mouth, Womax directly chewed him up, armor and all.
Seeing this, Arthur and the Iron Captains turned pale, completely not expecting Jacaerys to be so ruthless, giving Dalton Greyjoy no chance to say a second word.
"I won't say it a second time!"
Listening to the sound of Womax eating a snack, Jacaerys coldly issued his final ultimatum to the group of people in front of him.
Thud, thud!
The Iron Captains immediately reacted upon hearing this, one after another scrambling to their knees, pressing their heads deeply to the ground, even softening their breathing.
Arthur hesitated for a moment, but he found that in the blink of an eye, he was the only one standing out awkwardly.
Although he believed he had the protection of the Drowned God, Jacaerys's might was too overwhelming, and Arthur ultimately knelt on the ground.
For a moment, the entire Naga Hill was filled only with the sounds of the sea breeze and waves, without any other noise.
Jacaerys tilted his head, staring at Arthur, who was the last to kneel, pondered for a moment, and then said, "The fellow who knelt last, raise your head!"
Arthur immediately looked up at Jacaerys upon hearing this, waiting for the other party to continue questioning him.
Whoosh! Crunch!
A black shadow flashed, and Womax's dragon head, having just finished chewing Dalton Greyjoy, shot out again like lightning and swallowed Arthur as well.
"Hmph, how dare he look at me directly!
He shows no respect for me at all, he certainly deserves to die!"
"..."
The Iron Captains prostrating themselves on the ground heard Jacaerys's words and immediately felt like a thousand alpacas were running through their hearts.
Look at you? Didn't you tell him to raise his head?
However, some clever Iron Captains also guessed that Arthur's true cause of death was likely the first part of Jacaerys's sentence.
He was the last one to kneel!
Indeed, after having Womax eat Dalton Greyjoy and Arthur, Jacaerys did not engage in any more meaningless slaughter.
He then escorted this group of Iron Captains to Lordport, and then directly conquered the entire Pyke Island with the help of Womax.
After a screening process, Jacaerys supported a young boy from a collateral branch of the greyjoy family as the new King of the Iron Islands.
Regarding his decision, the Iron Captains of all factions raised their hands in agreement and continuously praised Jacaerys.
Since it was the first time conquering the Iron Islands, Jacaerys did not blindly abolish the Drowned God church directly.
Instead, he followed their customs and had a Drowned God Priest preside over the drowning ritual.
The next day at noon, the ceremony for the new King of the Iron Islands was still held at Naga Hill.
By the way, it is worth mentioning that apart from a small section of tentacle that Jacaerys roasted, most of the Kraken, that giant squid, was devoured by Womax.
But it is unknown whether it was because the Kraken's level was not high enough for Womax to transform into a blood cocoon.
Or perhaps it was because Glutton, after transforming into the Blood Devouring Transformation, no longer needed to break out of a cocoon and shed its skin as before.
However, it was also good that Jacaerys did not turn into a blood cocoon, as he could assist Jacaerys in subduing these savage Ironborn.
To be honest, after watching the Ironborn's drowning ritual, Jacaerys knew that no matter which world it was, there were always shady dealings.
"Pab Greyjoy, please come forward for the drowning ritual!"
A Drowned God Priest saw that the time was right and spoke to a little boy, about nine years old, whom Jacaerys had chosen.
Pab immediately looked at Jacaerys with an inquiring gaze upon hearing this, and only after receiving the other party's permission did he walk over to the Drowned God Priest.
Although Pab, whom Jacaerys had chosen, was young, he was quite sensible.
He knew that he owed his position as the new King of the Iron Islands to Jacaerys, so he consulted him on everything.
This was the advantage of cultivating a puppet from a young age!
The Drowned God Priest pressed Pab, who had come to his side, into the sea water, while chanting loudly, "Great Drowned God, please let your servant Pab Greyjoy be reborn from the sea as you were!
Grant him the blessing of sea salt, grant him the blessing of hard stone, grant him the blessing of steel...
What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger!"
This ritual is said to be a test from the Drowned God; the person being drowned must nearly drown in the sea water, and if they cannot endure it and drown, it means they are not worthy and the Drowned God has not acknowledged them.
Only by surviving is one considered to have officially inherited the Sea Stone Chair.
However, Jacaerys found that the difficulty of this ritual actually depended on the speed of the Drowned God Priest's chanting.
So he directly manipulated the process; the Drowned God Priest, who had been specifically instructed, chanted at an extremely fast pace just now.
Pab had only choked on one or two mouthfuls of sea water when he finished chanting the prayer and pulled the new King of the Iron Islands up.
Seeing that Pab was fine except for coughing, the Drowned God Priest then placed a wooden crown called the 'Crown of Salt and Stone' on Pab's head and said loudly, "What is dead may never die!"
"What is dead may never die!"
The Iron Captains who had been quietly observing the ceremony around them echoed in unison upon hearing this.
From this point on, the Iron Islands, which had always only superficially submitted to the Iron Throne and were ready to rebel at any time, sincerely knelt at Jacaerys's feet.
Riverlands, Seagard.
Previously, Aemon Tully had led a large army to Kalin Bay, only to find that the Ironborn had not occupied this pass at all.
Although Kalin Bay only had the forces of the Reed family, attempting to capture Kalin Bay from the south was simply too difficult.
After several attempts, Aemon Tully left behind hundreds of his own soldiers' corpses and returned to Seagard.
But he did not expect that after only a few days back in Seagard, he would be surrounded by the army led by the Master of Ships, earl samwell Blackwood.
And at this moment, the battle for Seagard was in full swing.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Since Aemon Tully had no time to replace the damaged city gates of Seagard.
He had his soldiers build simple wooden fences at the gate, and now a group of defenders were pulling their bows with all their might, shooting at the charging House Blackwood soldiers not far away.
Thud thud thud!
Sharp arrows constantly struck the kite shields in the hands of the House Blackwood soldiers, and most of the arrows could be blocked,
But some arrowheads specially made by the archers could even directly penetrate the kite shields.
However, after these special arrows were blocked by the kite shields, their force was greatly reduced, making it difficult to cause casualties to the House Blackwood soldiers behind.
Nearly a thousand House Blackwood soldiers advanced continuously towards Seagard, which had no city gate, holding their kite shields.
This group of House Blackwood soldiers did not seem to be elites; their originally neat formation became uneven after charging a short distance.
It looked as if their formation was about to collapse even without the enemy's attack.
Aemon Tully, who had read many military books, naturally would not miss this opportunity and boldly chose to proactively sally forth from Seagard.
"Brothers, cut off their heads for me and make them into drinking cups!
Five silver stags for each head, charge!"
When Aemon Tully used heavy rewards to boost morale before the battle, all the House Tully soldiers immediately let out an excited roar.
Then they directly opened the gate of the wooden fence and swarmed out towards the House Blackwood soldiers.
The House Tully soldiers barely maintained their charging formation while running, and they indeed looked much more elite than the House Blackwood soldiers.
The two sides quickly engaged in close combat, but under the head-on charge, they could no longer maintain their previous formations.
And the House Blackwood soldiers' formation was already somewhat scattered during the charge, and with the impact from the House Tully soldiers, their formation instantly collapsed.
The battle between the House Tully soldiers and the House Blackwood soldiers directly turned into a bloody melee.
A House Tully soldier's axe had just chopped off the left hand of a House Blackwood soldier.
He was immediately stabbed in the neck by a House Blackwood soldier next to him, and blood spurted far away.
The House Blackwood soldier's long sword had not yet been pulled back from the House Tully soldier's neck.
A short spear the length of a forearm was thrown from the hand of some House Tully soldier, piercing directly into the eye of this House Blackwood soldier.
This battlefield outside Seagard became a bloody slaughterhouse woven from blood and gore.
"Ah! Ah!"
A House Blackwood soldier standing behind the battlefield could not bear the visual impact of the blood and severed limbs before him and collapsed, turning around and running back.
Whoosh!
An arrow descended from the sky, accurately hitting him in the heart; the House Blackwood soldier did not even have time to scream before falling heavily to the ground.
"Hmph, these slave soldiers brought back from Essos are useless."
earl samwell, who was on horseback at the very rear of the battlefield, put away his bow and arrow and muttered to himself.
Looking at his own soldiers, who were somewhat collapsing under the killing of the fewer House Tully soldiers.
earl samwell turned his head and instructed the messenger beside him, "We can't let this continue, have our archers shoot!"
"My Lord earl, we have more men than they do; if we shoot arrows, our slave soldiers' losses might..."
The messenger replied hesitantly upon hearing earl samwell's words.
"Even if we exchange two useless men for one elite House Tully soldier, isn't that still very cost-effective?
With your majesty expeditioning to Essos, these slave soldiers will become more and more numerous in the future.
However, Duke Forrest is truly righteous; he always thinks of me first whenever there's something good."
earl samwell chuckled lightly at the messenger, and then suddenly praised Duke Forrest, who was far away in Essos.
Seeing him say this, the messenger immediately turned around to convey the earl's order to the archer unit in the rear.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Hundreds of thousands of arrows rained down like raindrops, and the House Tully soldiers and House Blackwood soldiers who were fighting constantly fell to the ground hit by arrows.
These arrows did not distinguish between friend and foe; the flesh and blood on the battlefield were mercilessly pierced by these arrows.
One wave, two waves, three waves!
These arrow rains seemed to never stop, turning all the enemy and friendly soldiers concentrated in this area of the battlefield into corpses covered in arrows.
Damn it, these accursed fellows are even shooting their own people!
Aemon Tully, who had been hit by an arrow in his left shoulder, watched helplessly as his own soldiers became fewer and fewer.
He really couldn't hold on any longer and could only loudly give the order to retreat: "Retreat, quickly back into the city!"
The remaining House Tully soldiers received the retreat order, shouting in unison to retreat back into the city as they ran towards Seagard behind them.
More and more House Tully soldiers heard the sounds of retreat around them, and covered in blood, they all disengaged from the battlefield and quickly ran towards Seagard behind them, fearing pursuit by the House Blackwood soldiers.
Originally, House Tully did not have many men in Seagard, and after being calculated by earl samwell, their combat strength became even less.
It seems that this civil war in the Seven Kingdoms will soon be quelled! (End of this chapter)