"Bang!" The corpse of a Faceless Man, wrapped in rags, smashed through the blue glass. The charred body was barely recognizable as human. Accompanied by shards of broken glass, the corpse of the Faceless Man landed directly in front of the high-ranking officials of Braavos: the Sealord of Braavos and his son, bankers, fishmongers, great merchants, Moonsingers priests, and the leader of the Faceless Men. Because the Silver Dragon had roared over the Sealord's Palace earlier, these people had taken slight precautions and were not injured by the exploding glass. The cold weather prevented them from smelling the disgusting odor. But for these pampered elites, it was still a terrifying shock!
Rhaegar, riding the Silver Dragon, charged in; everything happened too quickly. The Silver Dragon looked down upon everyone with molten-gold eyes, opening its maw, where smoke was already appearing. Perhaps in the next moment, the gold and silver flames would rush forth. The other two dragons were still circling outside the Sealord's Palace Council Hall, having already locked onto this great chamber, ready to provide fire support at any moment.
After circling, the Silver Dragon descended, occupying a section of the Sealord's Palace Great Council Hall. The Silver Dragon was like a small mountain, its molten-gold eyes fixed on the Braavos high officials. Rhaegar and the Silver Dragon were on the east side of the palace, and the Braavos high officials were on the west side.
"What a beautiful palace," Rhaegar remarked, seeing the current Great Council Hall in ruins, and the panicked Braavos high officials in brown and black robes. They had abandoned the beautiful purpleheart wood table; the azure marble now looked extremely cold. Those people saw the full appearance of the Silver Dragon: its ferocious snout, sharp teeth, beautiful horns, the spikes on its back, and its shimmering scales. The Silver Dragon looked down on everything, and with every breath, it seemed capable of summoning rolling flames.
Rhaegar jumped off the dragon's back, swaggered forward, and said with a smile, "Don't move! I just want to have a talk with the Sealord!"
Just in case, Rhaegar wore a Valyrian purple steel helmet, Valyrian scale armor, and carried the True Dragon greatsword on his back. The silver dragon on his helmet looked ready to take flight, and the beautiful Valyrian scale armor was like the Eternal Night itself. Rhaegar resembled a humanoid Silver Dragon. The Young Dragon King, with his imposing figure, stepped over the blue glass shards, looking at the core high officials and power brokers of Braavos opposite him. Perhaps if the Silver Dragon unleashed a burst of Dracarys right now, the Braavos high officials would be wiped out. The dome of the Sealord's Palace was tall and magnificent, adorned with exquisite murals depicting historical events of Braavos: the emancipation of slaves, the divinations of the Moonsingers, the prosperity of the Secret City, the unveiling of the Secret City, the naval battles between Braavos and the Tall Men's kingdom, and several naval battles between Braavos and Pentos.
"This dome is quite impressive!" Rhaegar looked around confidently. He gazed at the murals on the dome of the Sealord's Palace Council Hall. The murals were beautiful, but soon they might belong to him.
The Braavosi were dumbfounded, as if awaiting the judgment of fate.
"Your Excellency, the Sealord, please forgive Rhaegar Targaryen's presumption! Braavos is a great city, but dwelling deep within your palace, surrounded by sycophants and courtesans, you probably don't know what the Faceless Men have done to me! Two assassins from the Faceless Men attempted to murder me; their crimes are monstrous! Your Excellency, the Sealord, will you give me an explanation?" Rhaegar drew his True Dragon greatsword, and the sound of the two-handed greatsword striking the ground was deafeningly powerful.
"Prince Rhaegar, are you here to negotiate? Why are you so aggressive!" The chief swordsman beside the Sealord drew his longsword, a blade suited for the Braavosi water dance.
"Don't bring out these little trinkets just to embarrass yourselves!" Rhaegar said contemptuously.
"Stand down! The Prince comes with good intentions; don't let others say that Braavos lacks courtesy!" The old Sealord gritted his teeth and ordered his chief swordsman to retreat. This was not the time for reckless fighting. He was furious inside, but could not vent it.
"So, the priest of the God of Many Faces is here too!" Rhaegar raised his hand, and a ball of azure flame danced wildly in his palm, then a fireball flew directly toward the location of the Faceless Man priest. The priest wore a hooded robe, the right half of which was black and the left half white.
"Prince Rhaegar, what are you doing!" The Sealord of Braavos frowned, and the chief swordsman protected him. All the Braavos high officials deliberately kept a distance from the priest of the God of Many Faces, avoiding collateral damage.
"The will of the god commands us to bestow a gift upon you!" The chief priest of the God of Many Faces opened his hand, crushing a piece of blue crystal. A biting blue light appeared, and in the air, there was a dance of ice and fire, generating a small layer of explosive shockwaves.
"Your Excellency, the Sealord, please first instruct your subordinates and warships not to attack, otherwise, under the frenzied dragon dance, I cannot guarantee their safety!" Outside the Sealord's Palace Great Council Hall, Purple Harbor warships and the Sealord's Guard were already visible on the water.
"Go tell them, Fergo, not to attack! The Dragon King means no harm!" The Sealord ordered his son to deliver the message.
"Yes!" Fergo hurriedly walked out of the Great Council Hall.
"Who are you?" Rhaegar asked the chief priest of the God of Many Faces!
"I am a nobody! I serve the gods and have forgotten my own name!" the chief priest of the God of Many Faces said.
"Is what Prince Rhaegar said true?" the Sealord asked the chief priest. "Why would you do this!" The old Sealord frowned, feeling indignant. No matter what, he would surely be nailed to the Sealord's pillar of shame.
"Death is the 'gift' of the god, the end of suffering. Provided a dedication is made, the god will grant the 'gift' to everyone in this world." The chief priest continued his rambling.
"Show your pathetic face, let everyone see it!" Rhaegar asked the chief priest.
The chief priest took off his hood, revealing a terrifying face. His face was a yellow skull covered in panels, and a white maggot crawled out of his eye socket. All the Braavos high officials were startled, never having imagined the chief priest's face could be so ghastly. But in a moment, the maggot was gone, replaced by the most benevolent old man's face imaginable!
"The Kindly Man, the Handsome Man and the Fat Man are already dead. Will you be the third?" Rhaegar asked the Kindly Man. Sure enough, it was him—the mentor of the Faceless Men, the chief priest.
"Death treats everyone equally. I sympathize with their deaths, but there is no alternative! It is the will of the gods, and we shall continue!" "Ice and fire, death and life, winter and summer, the cycle never ends—this is the truth of the mortal world. The way of balance lies within. We shall bestow our blessing upon everyone who disrupts this balance!" The Kindly Man said, his expression unchanged.
"So, you intend to continue these assassinations?" Rhaegar asked the Kindly Man. Rhaegar tightened his grip on the greatsword; a faint blue flame began to appear on the surface of the True Dragon sword.
"Chief Priest, could you perhaps moderate your language!" The Sealord was stunned. Why was this man acting like this? He was possessed. "I heard that you only give gifts after receiving contributions. Can't you change your minds?"
"Please forgive me, Your Excellency. We kill, but we cannot judge! This is the will of the god; the god is supreme and magnificent. The blessings of the God of Many Faces take countless forms, but here, it is always the gentlest and most merciful way." The Kindly Man pulled a fist-sized blue crystal from his robes. That blue crystal was an azure color Rhaegar had never seen, beautiful to the point of legend. It was the last piece of blue ice in the world.
The blue crystal shattered, and the entire world fell into a state of coldness and stagnation. Blue transparent daggers appeared again in swarms, flying rapidly toward Rhaegar. The chill from these daggers far surpassed that of the previous Faceless Men. Rhaegar could feel the source of the cold: the breath of the Ice Dragon of the Great White Waste, circulating endlessly. If these blue ice blades entered the body, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Flames ignited in front of Rhaegar's heart, and the bronze shield reappeared. The symbol on the shield flowed, and the ice blades that collided with the flames melted away instantly, as if they had never existed.
"You are indeed extraordinary. You are a sorcerer, a blasphemer of the gods. You are going to disrupt the balance." The Kindly Man looked at Rhaegar. "I cannot kill you, but I have reported your location to the gods, and the gods will eventually bestow their blessing upon you!"
"All men must die!" The Kindly Man raised his finger, on which rested a distinct black and white coin. "The gods once displayed a miracle; I wish for the gods to bestow their blessing upon Rhaegar Targaryen!"
After the Kindly Man finished speaking, his pupils also turned blue—an indescribable blue, the coldness of the Land of Always Winter. A light shot from the Kindly Man's eyes toward Rhaegar. Rhaegar felt as if a pair of cold eyes in the distant sky were looking at him; the Ice Dragon and the Night King walk among mortals as servants of the god of cold. All of the Kindly Man's strength and energy were completely depleted, and the coin slowly lost its luster. His flesh and blood, his essence, his spirit, and his power—everything was over. The Kindly Man fell to the ground, utterly and irrevocably dead.
"Child's play!" The azure flames began to burn fiercely. Rhaegar became a man wreathed in fire. He raised his greatsword and cut open the Kindly Man's robes. The Kindly Man's entire body was white, and his eyes were blue, very much like the Others Rhaegar had encountered. The Kindly Man's body radiated a chilling frost—Rhaegar's prediction was correct. Rhaegar had seen people modified this way; Bloodraven modified Coldhands. Therefore, it was entirely possible that the Kindly Man was modified by accepting the god of cold's blessing! This was a higher-tier Other, or perhaps an Other who still retained their humanity, which allowed the Kindly Man to store so much humanity, and why the masks still carried traces and partial memories of the living, such as those who died of plague or were killed by parental abuse.
"Get back! This place is about to turn into an ice cellar!" Rhaegar said. A layer of blue frost spread out from where the Kindly Man had fallen. The cold brought by the blue frost was so terrifying that the temperature dropped significantly, chilling them to the bone.
"This is an obsidian arrow! It's miraculously effective against the Others!" Rhaegar took out an arrow and threw it at the Kindly Man. The Kindly Man began to slowly melt into a mist of water vapor.
"I saved you; you were dancing with the Others!" Rhaegar said to the Braavos high officials, who all looked utterly terrified. They dared not refute the truth of Rhaegar's words now.
"The governors of the many city-states I invited are arriving soon, Your Majesty the Sealord. Please inform the Titan of Braavos to allow them entry to the harbor! I saved you; this request isn't excessive, is it?" Rhaegar said to the Sealord.
"Those who live by the sword die by the sword. You thought the Faceless Men protected you, but the connection between the Faceless Men and the god of cold will surely bring disaster upon you. In the North, on the Great White Waste, if the Ice Dragon cannot be controlled, it will certainly attack Braavos!" Rhaegar shouted to the Sealord. He couldn't be entirely sure if this conjecture was correct, but he felt there was a strong possibility. Both the Ice Dragon and the Kindly Man seemed to have received a form of magical power!
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