Chapter 59:
Smoking Sea periphery, depth 800 meters.
This was a forbidden zone for the living.
The external temperature gauge on the Nautilus was swinging wildly, already exceeding 90°C. Without the protection of the Valyrian steel and lead-alloy composite armor, an ordinary steel submarine would have long been cooked, softened, and crushed into a metal pancake by the immense water pressure.
Through the observation window, Victor saw a hellish scene.
The seawater had turned a murky dark red.
Countless bubbles rose from cracks on the seabed — underwater volcanoes erupting. Sulfur and toxic gases dissolved in the water, turning it into a strongly acidic lethal broth.
"Warning: External radiation levels rising."
"Warning: Sonar affected by thermal interference. Due to bubble noise, detection range reduced to 500 meters."
"Beautiful… truly beautiful."
Maester Marwyn pressed himself against the window. The glass candle in his hand emitted a blinding black light. He showed no fear — instead, he looked like a child who had just seen candy.
"Do you feel it, Victor? The magical field here is distorted."
"Ordinary fire magic would be amplified tenfold here, while water magic would fail completely." Marwyn pointed outside. "Those bubbles don't just contain poison gas — they also carry the vengeful spirits of dragons that died here thousands of years ago."
"I only care if there's anything alive down there."
Victor stared at the radar screen, which was filled with snow-like static.
"Daenerys, tell Drogon to calm down a bit. He's too agitated on the psychic level."
Daenerys sat on the nearby sofa, her face pale. She kept her eyes closed, as if enduring some kind of pain.
"Drogon… he seems to sense a threat. He says there's something down there. A lot of things."
"They're watching us."
Clang!
A crisp metallic impact suddenly broke the quiet of the command cabin.
The sound came from above — from the outer hull of the submarine.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The impacts quickly grew denser. Something was hammering on the hull.
"What is that?" Asha Greyjoy gripped the periscope handle tightly. "Sonar shows nothing!"
"They're clinging directly to the hull. Of course sonar can't pick them up."
Victor immediately switched to the external surveillance cameras.
The black-and-white screen flickered a few times before the image appeared.
Everyone sucked in a cold breath.
Crawling all over the black spine of the Nautilus were "people."
No — they could no longer be called human.
They were twice as muscular as normal men, their bodies covered in thick, granite-like gray-black keratin layers. The characteristic cracks of greyscale had become an impenetrable natural armor.
They had no hair. Their eyes had degenerated into narrow slits. Their fingers had turned into sharp stone claws.
Even more terrifying was what they held in their hands — tools.
They were chisels and hammers crudely fashioned from the wreckage of sunken ships. Some of the chisels even showed the distinctive rippled pattern of Valyrian steel.
"Mutated stone men."
Maester Marwyn said in a low voice.
"Legend says those afflicted with greyscale are sent to the Smoking Sea to die. But it seems… the radiation and magic didn't kill them. They evolved instead."
"They don't need to breathe. They fear neither high temperature nor pressure. They possess immense strength."
Hiss— Creak!
On the monitor, a particularly massive stone man leader raised a broken Valyrian steel sword and viciously stabbed it into one of the Nautilus's cooling grilles!
That was the intake for the reactor's cooling system!
"Alert! Cooling cycle obstructed! Reactor temperature rising!"
Red warning lights began spinning frantically.
"Damn it! These bastards know the weak point!"
Victor slammed his hand on the table.
If the cooling intake was blocked, the Heart of the Titan would overheat and explode. Everyone would become seasoning in this "human soup" pot that was the Smoking Sea.
"We can't use torpedoes — we're too close. It would damage our own ship."
"We can't use electricity either — these stone things are insulated."
Victor turned and looked toward the tall figure in the corner who had been quietly polishing his massive sword.
The Hound, Sandor Clegane.
"Sandor."
Victor unlocked a weapons cabinet with a code.
"You said you wanted something to hack apart to relieve boredom."
"This damn boat is too cramped."
The Hound stood up and cracked his neck with a series of pops.
"As long as it's not fire, I'm good."
"Perfect."
Victor pointed toward the passage leading to the airlock.
"Put on the [Abyssal Walker] powered armor."
"Take your assault team."
"Go out there and clean those stone bastards off my ship."
…
Nautilus, diving airlock.
As the massive pressure relief valve opened, seawater flooded in.
Ten burly soldiers, led by the Hound, were performing final equipment checks.
They were encased in heavy, crude, industrial-punk-style exoskeletons.
[Pompey Heavy Industries · Abyssal Walker Mk-I]
[Height: 2.5 meters.]
[Power: Micro high-pressure steam engine + hydraulic transmission.]
[Armor: 30mm riveted steel plate (with lead lining).]
[Weapons: Right arm — Hydraulic rock-breaking drill / Left arm — Steam-powered chainsaw sword.]
[Helmet: Spherical deep-dive helmet with iron grille, resembling an angry large-headed fly.]
"Listen up, ladies!"
The Hound's voice came through the helmet radios.
"There's a bunch of stone bastards outside trying to tear our ship apart."
"This armor costs five thousand gold dragons — more than your lives are worth. Don't you dare scratch it!"
"Move out!"
Buzz—
The outer airlock door opened.
Ten steel giants stepped onto the deck of the Nautilus with heavy, thudding footsteps.
In the murky red water, hundreds of stone men were frantically damaging the submarine's external equipment.
When they saw the ten bubbling steel monsters emerge, the stone men froze for a moment.
The stone man leader waved his Valyrian steel sword and pointed at the Hound.
Dozens of stone men swarmed forward like piranhas. Their claws scraped against the armor with ear-piercing screeches, searching for gaps.
"Get the fuck off!"
The Hound roared.
He activated the hydraulic rock-breaking drill on his right arm.
Buzz-buzz-buzz—!
The massive drill spun at high speed, churning the water.
One stone man lunged right in front of him.
The Hound raised his right arm and rammed the drill straight into the creature's chest.
Pfft— Boom!
The supposedly unbreakable granite-like skin was as fragile as tofu before the industrial-grade drill.
Shards of stone flew everywhere. Black bodily fluid sprayed out.
The drill pierced straight through the stone man's chest, impaling it like a skewer on his arm.
"Next!"
The Hound flung the corpse away. His left arm's steam-powered chainsaw sword swept horizontally.
The chainsaw spun rapidly underwater, trailing a stream of white bubbles.
Crunch!
Two stone men attempting a sneak attack were cut clean in half at the waist.
The other powered-armor soldiers joined the slaughter.
Although their movements were slow, every strike carried devastating force.
The stone men's claws could only leave shallow scratches on the thick steel plates, while a single punch from the powered armor could smash a stone man's head into gravel.
Muffled impacts echoed across the seabed.
The deck of the Nautilus was soon littered with severed limbs and broken bodies of the stone men.
Just as the battle was turning completely one-sided—
Thud! Thud! Thud!
A massive black shadow descended from the darkness above.
It was the Stone King.
It stood four meters tall. Its greyscale mutation was far more advanced, forming a natural suit of plate armor complete with bone spikes. In its hands it wielded a massive ship anchor.
Whoosh—!
The anchor swept forward with terrifying water pressure.
One powered-armor soldier who failed to dodge was struck directly.
Clang!
The one-ton armor was sent flying, slamming into the conning tower with a sickening crunch of deformation.
"Watch out! That bastard hits hard!" the soldier screamed over the comms. "My hydraulic line burst!"
"I've got this."
The Hound pushed aside his teammate and faced the Stone King head-on.
He activated "Overload Mode" on the power system.
The steam pack on his back erupted with two jets of white steam, propelling the steel giant forward in a clumsy but effective charge.
The Stone King raised its anchor, intending to flatten the Hound.
But this time the Hound didn't take the hit head-on.
Using the jet propulsion, he performed a clumsy but effective sideslip underwater, dodging the anchor's heavy blow.
Then he closed the distance and slammed into the Stone King's chest.
"Try this, you big fucker!"
The Hound locked both arms around the Stone King's waist. His right-arm drill aimed straight at the gap in the creature's abdominal armor.
"Full power!"
Zzzzzzzzz—!!!
The drill spun wildly, grinding against the Stone King's diamond-hard skin and throwing off blinding sparks.
The Stone King roared in agony and pounded the Hound's back armor with both fists.
Bang! Bang!
Cracks appeared on the Hound's helmet visor. Alarms blared.
"Warning! Armor integrity at 30%!"
"Die!!!"
The Hound gritted his teeth, eyes bloodshot.
Pfft!
Finally, the drill broke through the outer shell and bored into the Stone King's soft innards.
Immediately after, the Hound pressed the "explosive bolt" trigger inside the drill.
Boom!
A muffled explosion detonated inside the Stone King's body.
The massive creature suddenly went rigid, then slowly went limp and drifted away, carried by the current.
"Done."
The Hound gasped for breath and released his grip.
The Stone King's corpse floated upward and was swallowed by the darkness.
The remaining stone men, seeing their leader slain, scattered like startled birds and fled into the deep-sea gloom.
…
Half an hour later.
Nautilus, decompression chamber.
The Hound climbed out of the powered armor, drenched in sweat as if he had just been fished out of the water.
Yet his face wore a wild, long-absent grin.
"Fuck, that felt good."
He took the malt beer Victor handed him and downed it in one gulp.
"That kind of killing beats swinging a sword any day. That drill has real bite."
Victor looked at the damaged powered armor being repaired and the several stone man corpses that had been dragged back onto the deck.
"Well done, Sandor."
He walked to the workbench and picked up a chisel taken from one of the stone men.
"Maester Marwyn, take a look at this."
Victor pointed at a symbol etched on the chisel's handle.
It was not naturally formed.
It was a brand.
An ancient crest belonging to a Valyrian dragonlord branch — the "Blood Sorcerer" family that should have gone extinct long before the Doom.
"These stone men didn't evolve naturally in the wild."
Victor's eyes were ice-cold.
"They are slaves. Someone is breeding them to guard these waters."
Marwyn leaned in. His expression turned grim.
"This crest… belongs to a Targaryen offshoot — the 'Blood Sorcerers' who should have died out before the Doom."
"It seems Valyria hasn't completely died after all."
Victor set down the chisel and looked out the window into the even deeper red water.
"Continue the descent."
"Whoever is playing god down there — since they don't want us to enter…"
"Then we'll go in anyway."
[System Notification: New materials acquired — Mutated greyscale samples, Valyrian steel tools.]
[Technology Tree Unlocked: Exoskeleton Armor Mk-II (Deep-Sea Variant).]
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