Finally, its the night before he's set to depart from the Iron Islands at long last. But first… there's one last thing he's decided that he has to do.
Silently and without being seen, Axel departs from Asha's chambers, the new Lady Reaper of Pyke exhausted and sleeping off their final 'goodbyes' in her bed. He floats out through a nearby window so as to not disturb her rest, wordlessly flying away from the Isle of Pyke and indeed a fair distance away from the Iron Islands altogether.
However, he's not flying back to Westeros… no, he's going in the opposite direction entirely, flying out into the Sunset Sea. Unlike the Narrow Sea, that 'thin' strip of water between Westeros and Essos that had been sailed across a million times by this point, the Sunset Sea was far more mysterious and uncharted. It's true size was still unknown to the people of Westeros, and nobody seemed to have any idea what existed on the other side of it.
Some claimed that the Ironborn, rather than being descended from First Men, came from visitors west of the Sunset Sea, and that the Seastone Chair itself was created on the other side of the body of water and brought to the Iron Islands oh so long ago with the first of those settlers.
However, if any of that was the case, it happened so many thousands of years ago that even the Ironborn no longer had the knowledge that could confirm it. They certainly set themselves apart from the 'Greenlanders' as they called those on Westeros' mainland, but they did so irrespective of whether those Greenlanders were First Men or Andals.
Admittedly, there is some temptation to try to fly across the Sunset Sea and see what's on the other side. Hell, if Axel had discovered this ability to fly before becoming King, he could very well see himself trying a daring stunt like that or flying over to Essos to explore that foreign locale. Even now, his curiosity tugged at him, making him want to go and see what there was to see.
… But he can't. He has a responsibility to his people, to his future Queens, and to Westeros as a whole. With Euron and Petyr dead and Renly at the Wall, Axel believes that the last of his major enemies has been dealt with.
And given his feats displayed in this war, with tens of thousands of men having seen what he's truly capable of, he hopes that peace can finally reign over the Seven Kingdoms for longer than a few fucking months. Even if it only does so because of his strength.
That peace won't happen without him though. He's needed back in King's Landing, standing tall and representing an insurmountable obstacle and impossible foe in the face of any other ambitions for his throne. However, it's that same sense of responsibility and duty that brings him out here, a thousand or so miles away from the Iron Islands, flying high over crashing waves in every direction for as far as his eye can see.
Euron's words have stuck with him over these past couple of weeks ever since he killed the man. Even though Axel has pushed them to the back of his mind, he hasn't been able to fully forget them after all this time.
"One day, I hope you kill him. I hope you find a way to wherever it is that a squirming worm like him hides and you slaughter him like you did the Kraken. Even if these are to be my final moments, I will take solace in that hope. Because he's not going to stop coming after you, Axel Baratheon. None of them are."
Axel twitches, letting out an explosive breath as he stares down at the waves. Maybe he was imagining things, but it was almost like the water was reaching up for him, trying to grasp at him and drag him down into the depths as Euron's final words replayed in his mind's eye.
"The gods, you slow bastard! You are the Champion of the Seven! They have laid claim to you, made you their own, and are using you to spread their Will! Did you truly think the others would just… let something as strong as you continue to exist? Do you think the Drowned God is the only deity moving against you even now?! No… oh no, no. This might be the end for me… but it's only the beginning for you."
Was it possible? Axel honestly didn't know if the Seven even existed. It was the most positive explanation for his strangeness of course, but if he had been chosen as their Champion, one would THINK that they would have contacted him more directly by now. And no, the High Septon and Most Devout constantly singing his praises and claiming that the 'Light of the Seven Pointed Star was shining down upon him' didn't count.
There'd never been so much as a whisper from any of the Seven. Axel would certainly remember if they'd spoken to him at any point throughout his life. And one would imagine that his constant trips to the Great Sept of Baelor would have given them ample opportunity to whisper in his ears as well. Ample opportunity that they'd seemingly ignored.
But Euron had seemed sure of himself and that he'd spoken directly to the Drowned God. He'd been convinced that it was the Drowned God who forced them into conflict, that made him wage war against Axel. He'd also been convinced that the Drowned God wouldn't stop coming for Axel even with this failure. And that? That couldn't be allowed.
Narrowing his eyes, Axel descends until he's just a few dozen feet above the crashing waves.
"DROWNED GOD! HEAR ME, IF YOU CAN! I AM AXEL BARATHEON, FIRST OF HIS NAME, CHAMPION OF THE SEVEN!"
The ocean continues to rage, an unfathomable body of water that makes Axel shiver just thinking about it. Yet… there is no response. Axel clenches his jaw and curls his hands into fists.
"I HAVE ALLOWED WORSHIP OF YOU TO CONTINUE IN THE IRON ISLANDS! I HAVE NOT STRICKEN YOUR NAME FROM THEIR LIPS, AS I WAS TEMPTED TO DO!"
Still nothing. Is Axel just screaming at a bunch of water? It certainly feels like it.
"… COME FOR ME AND MINE AND I SWEAR I WILL NOT BE SO GENEROUS A SECOND TIME! I WILL FIND YOU! I WILL HUNT YOU TO THE END OF THE SEAS, UNTIL I LOCATE WHERE YOU HIDE AND RIP YOU FROM IT ROOT AND STEM!"
The threat seems to provoke no more response than his previous words. Huffing, Axel shakes his head.
"What the fuck am I doing? Even if the Drowned God does exist… the only sort of language a creature like him would understand is violence."
It hits him then… a half-remembered story from Asha. Grinning, he shouts one last time.
"I'M COMING DOWN THERE! LET'S 'TALK', YOU AND I!"
And then… he sucks in a deep breath and dives, dropping beneath the ocean waves. Much like in his fight with Euron's Kraken, Axel finds himself sightless rather quickly. It was already dark above the water after all, making it even darker beneath the surface.
However, Axel finds he doesn't mind all that much. Even without the ability to see, he feels like he can sense things around him. One of those things… is the building pressure the deeper he goes.
This far out from the Iron Islands, the sea is much deeper than it was where he fought Euron's Kraken. He's pretty sure he descends to the same depths he reached back there in mere moments now… and then just keeps going, with no end in sight.
The further down he gets, the more pressure builds on his body, weighing him down. Is this just the weight of all the water above him? Or is this the presence of the Drowned God himself, pushing down on him in an attempt to hold Axel in place.
It won't work, of course. Neither restraining him nor drowning him. He'd noticed it during his fight with the Kraken… he really didn't need to breathe all that much. But then, looking back, Axel should have realized that when he was covered head to toe in wildfire and burned for an entire week. Sure, he might have gotten a little bit of air here and there, but most of the time he didn't even have functioning lungs or nostrils or a mouth. Yet still he'd lived somehow.
This is similar to that, after a fashion. Holding his breath, Axel can tell that he would be able to last weeks down here solely off of a single lungful of air. There's no danger of him drowning down here, amusingly enough. The Drowned God has no hold over him, even this far into the deity's supposed domain.
Finally, after what feels like an eternity, Axel lands on solid ground. Well, mostly solid. It feels soft, like there might actually be sand down here. Eyes narrowing even though he still sees nothing, Axel stamps gently a few times until the sand is brushed away and there's nothing but rock beneath his feet.
Only then… does he rear up a foot and bring it down as hard as he fucking can.
KRAK-THOOM!
Its as he did back during his fight with the Kraken, except this time Axel isn't pushing himself up… he's slamming himself down with all his might. And he doesn't stop at just one time either.
KRAK-THOOM! KRAK-THOOM! KRAK-THOOM!
Water explodes in all directions around him as rock and ground and whatever else the sea floor is made is cracks and shatters beneath his feet. The world itself seems liable to shake apart… but then Axel had figured it might which is why he went as far as he did away from the Iron Islands.
He's not holding back right now. For the first time in his life, Axel… doesn't hold back a single ounce of his full strength.
It's not about destruction though. It's about sending a message. And as he stands there amidst the debris, Axel soon gets confirmation that the message has been received, when he just barely feels it in time before rows of massive, sharp teeth try to close around his body.
His hands slam up, catching the huge jaw before it can snap shut on him… and Axel twists, rotating the massive shark away from him. And then his foot comes up and kicks through the shark's body, gouging out a hole in the sea creature that kills it instantly.
Of course… that's just the first of many.
Sea monsters of every stripe take their turns trying to tear a piece out of him. Axel can't see most of them, unfortunately, but he can certainly categorize them by what he feels as he proceeds with slaughtering them en masse.
Of the smaller, there are sharks and other large but manageable fish, perhaps three or four times his size, but no bigger. And then there are the bigger ones. Krakens. Leviathans. Giant Turtles. He cracks a shell with one punch while dodging a turtle's snapping jaws. He rips a tentacle off a kraken and whips a leviathan into full retreat with it. He fights like a man possessed; he fights like a man with something to prove… something to protect.
The Drowned God needs to know exactly what he's playing with. Maybe he thinks he simply didn't try hard enough. Maybe he thinks that it was Euron's fault, Euron's failure. Maybe he will try again in time, just like Euron Greyjoy said.
Axel is down here in the depths this night to make it very clear that trying again would be a very bad idea. And so Axel fights. He fights for longer and in more dire straits then he's ever fought in his life.
Under an ocean's worth of water, the pressure trying to pin him down and slow every move he makes, he fights sea monster after sea monster without fail. And whenever they depart, whenever they flee, he stomps his foot again, drawing in the next batch to fight him once more.
Wave after wave of creatures comes at him. Until… something new arrives. Something truly immense and so large that for a moment, Axel believes it to perhaps be the Drowned God himself. The creature, which is longer than it is wide, slams into Axel with greater force than anything else has ever managed… and to Axel's bemusement, it begins to push him up.
He punches it back down of course, knocking it away for a second, but it just keeps coming. Until finally, he feels something new hit his back… light. He'd been fighting for so long on the bottom of the ocean that the sun had risen and it was early morning the next day.
A moment after this realization, Axel breaks the surface of the water and finds himself airborne along with being able to see his last opponent for the first time.
It has the head of a dragon that reminds him of Balerion the Black Dread's Skull in the bowels of the Red Keep… but far, far bigger. However the body is not that of a dragon, but rather a snake. It is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, bigger than even Euron's Kraken had been.
And… it seems almost intelligent in a way, as it blinks up at him and then turns back, as though it's task was to get him out of the water and make him leave, rather than actually trying to kill him.
As the massive sea serpent goes to disappear into the depths, Axel narrows his eyes and shakes his head.
"You think we're done? I say when we're fucking done."
He darts back under the surface and reaches out, his fingers digging into the serpent's massive tail before it can fully vanish. And then… he heaves.
This creature had made a singular mistake. Down at the bottom of the ocean, Axel had actually been weakened by the pressure, by the weight of all that water, and perhaps by the Drowned God's very presence as well. But up here so close to the surface? His strength is no longer tied up in making sure he's not crushed against the sea floor.
With a roar, Axel breaks through the surface again, this time dragging the sea serpent with him instead of being pushed. He pulls and pulls, having to fly much farther up than he did with Euron's Kraken.
As its head slips free of the water at long last, the great beast of a sea snake lets out a titanic, keening cry. But Axel is not moved by its panic. He feels no guilt or shame.
"CONSIDER THIS YOUR TRIBUTE, DROWNED GOD! A DEMIGOD CHILD, SACRIFICED SO THAT I DON'T FUCKING HUNT YOU DOWN!"
And then he carries the twisting sea snake back towards the Iron Islands, flying along with its writhing, twisting, gargantuan form held in his grasp. Good that he does too, because… well, as Axel begins to approach Pyke once more, he realizes he might not have gone out far enough to send his message to the Drowned God.
There, about a hundred miles away from the Iron Islands… is a wave. A massive wave, one that only seems to be growing as well. Now, Axel might not be the most learned of men, but he somewhat understands cause and effect. This wave, so tall that it will completely consume the Iron Islands… is coming from the same direction he did.
He doesn't understand the 'how', but he understands the 'why'. Maybe he could blame the Drowned God for this… but deep down, Axel knew better. His actions caused this wave and likely generated further waves in every other direction as well. But this direction, the one that was about to kill everyone on the Iron Islands… was the only one that mattered. The only one that Axel cared about.
For a moment, Axel clenches his jaw, uncertain what to do. And then the sea serpent still thrashing in his arms reminds him of its existence… and he suddenly knows exactly what he's going to do.
With a wide grin, Axel flies forward, getting in front of the gargantuan wave. And then he winds up, just like he did with Euron's Kraken. It's actually easier this time, since the sea serpent is just one extremely long body instead of a massive bulbous main body surrounded with many more flailing appendages.
And as he spins it around, he times it just right… and slams the sea serpent face first into the wave just as it's coming past him.
KABOOM!
As he'd hoped, this has quite the effect on the building wave. The sea serpent's gargantuan body cuts through it and destabilizes a lot of the mounting water, sending it crashing backwards into the ocean below. As well, the sea serpent itself goes limper and stops struggling quite so much.
But it's not enough. The wave is too big for one strike to be good enough. That's alright though. Axel still has a demigod to kill. So he repositions himself and swings again. And again. And again.
KABOOM! KABOOM! KABOOM!
He uses the sea snake's massive body to whip the wave away before it can reach the Iron Islands. He tears through the water again and again with his improvised bludgeoning tool, until there's nothing left of the existential threat to Asha and her people.
By the time he's done… he's also killed the sea serpent, rending its face into nothing more than a bloody skull and the scales on the top portion of its body into a veritable mess. That's okay though… in fact, that was mostly intended.
Flying the last few dozen miles back to Pyke, Axel slaps the sea serpent down onto the beach. Or rather, he drops its head and the first portion of its body down onto the beach. The rest of its truly massive, extremely long form disappears beneath the waves, draping across the sea floor just off of the island.
As Axel comes in for a landing next to the flayed, gory skull of the sea serpent, he sees Asha running out onto the beach towards him, some of her people behind her. Her eyes are wide as she approaches him and his kill, her jaw dropped in disbelief. Her mouth opens and closes several times before she finally finds her voice.
"Your Grace… respectfully, what the fuck was that? You… this is a Sea Dragon! One of these has not been seen since the time of the Grey King!"
Axel grins wickedly, having eyes only for Asha even as his words are meant for the men behind her as well.
"Do you recall the story you told me, about the Priest-King Lodos who thought himself the son of the Drowned God?"
Asha blinks rapidly before hesitantly nodding.
Chuckling, Axel looks at his kill. A Sea Dragon, huh? So maybe not a demigod…
"Well, I found it inspiring. And I found myself needing a chat with the Drowned God too, so we could… lay some ground rules, so to speak."
Reaching out, he slaps a hand on the exposed bone of the Sea Dragon's skull.
"I graciously offer this kill and all the wealth it contains to the newly appointed Lady Reaper of Pyke. Along with the Kraken Corpse currently atop her Castle, let Asha Greyjoy decide what to do with this prize. And know this… your King has reached an understanding with the Drowned God."
Had he? Axel honestly wasn't sure, but he was more than willing to lie about it. And if the Drowned God did make another move on him after this, then Axel would make good on his threats to hunt the bastard down, deity or no deity.
He was done playing games. Anyone who dared to make him their enemy… was going to be in for a bad time.
-x-X-x-
A/N: There are two ways to interpret this chapter imo.
One, Axel just went and showed the Drowned God who was boss, killing his strongest monsters and maybe even slaughtering a demigod son of his in the form of this massive Sea Dragon.
Or two, Axel just went and picked a fight with a bunch of sea creatures while mistakenly thinking that ocean pressure was the Drowned God's 'presence' as well as accidentally causing a tsunami in the process.
And when the ancient sea dragon that his actions disturbed came to get him out of there, he turned the tables and used it to fix his mistake with the tsunami, killing it in the process.
What do you guys think really happened?
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