Year Eighty-Eight After the Conquest arrived quietly.
Regalus rode the dragon Ghidorah alone, soaring toward Casterly Rock and the great castles of the Westerlands. The darkness of the Long Night did not hinder the dragon's sight. His journey far exceeded the initial plans: he inspected construction at logistics stations across the realm and also alighted in many towns and small castles. Local lords and landed knights were astonished and flattered beyond measure.
During this time, Prince Aemon came to pay homage on multiple occasions, and Prince Baelon also visited several times to offer his respects. Beyond reporting the situation beyond the Wall, both princes earnestly urged him to return to the Red Keep.
Regalus said, "It has been too long since I last saw my kingdom with my own eyes or heard the voices of my subjects."
Having exhausted the hospitality of the Westerlands, he did not return to King's Landing but turned toward the Reach. Riding Ghidorah, he flew from Crakehall straight to Old Oak, launching his second tour without pause. At the banquets along his route, delicate maidens or graceful widows were always seated beside him; during hunts or falconry, they rode alongside him. Yet Regalus remained unmoved.
At Bandallon, the youngest daughter of Lord Blackbar dared to sit directly upon his lap, attempting to feed him sweet mushrooms. Regalus sternly brushed her hand aside and said solemnly, "I apologize, but I already have a Queen. I require no paramour."
Throughout the entirety of Year Eighty-Nine After the Conquest, Regalus remained on tour. He closely observed the living conditions of his subjects during the Long Night. Though the New Citadel had distributed new staple grains to replace cereals, many commoners still perished in this natural disaster.
Later, his granddaughter, Princess Rhaenys, arrived at Highgarden riding her dragon, the "Red Queen" Meleys, and accompanied him for a time. Together, they visited the Shield Islands, a region Regalus had never before explored. He deliberately landed on each of the four isles. In the hall of Lord Chester of Greenshield, Princess Rhaenys confided to him the name of her beloved and received his heartfelt blessing.
Regalus told her, "No one is more worthy of you than he."
Regalus's tour concluded at the Wall. There, he meticulously reviewed recent records of White Walker activity. Though the Night's Watch had yet to locate the Night King's lair, they had identified several gathering grounds. Two weeks later, Regalus finally returned to King's Landing.
...
The 90th year after Aegon's Conquest became one of the royal couple's few truly happy times. Together they attended the grand wedding of their eldest granddaughter, Princess Rhaenys, to Corlys Velaryon, Lord of the Tides of Driftmark. At thirty-seven, "Sea Snake" Corlys had become the greatest navigator in Westerosi history. He had completed five monumental voyages and now returned in glory to marry and start a family. He was also one of the few navigators in the Targaryen Empire capable of single-handedly steering ships across the Long Night.
At the wedding, he said to the princess with deep affection, "Only you could draw me from that vast sea. I returned from the edge of the world for you."
Sixteen-year-old Rhaenys was a brave and fearless young beauty whose spirit matched that of her sailor husband. At thirteen, she had already mastered Aunt Alyssa's former mount, the "Red Queen" Meleys, and even insisted on riding that majestic crimson dragon to her wedding.
She vowed to Ser Corlys, "We can journey to the world's edge together. But I shall arrive before you, for I can fly."
...
January 9, Year 91 After the Conquest. Lord Corlys led his fleet away from Driftmark. By this time, he had become the Empire's navigator through the Long Night, primarily responsible for liaison and communication with Essos. Each voyage was accompanied by one or more dragons, for in this age of rampant supernatural creatures, any distant voyage without dragons to guard it was nothing but a dream.
Princess Rhaenys, riding the "Red Queen" Meleys, took to the skies hours after the fleet's departure, bearing the crucial mission of safeguarding Lord Corlys's ships. None could have foreseen that this voyage would forever alter the world's balance during the Long Night.
More than ten days after setting sail, the fleet reached the Stepstones. In the straits between several of the islands lay navigational buoys placed by the Empire. The fleet followed the directions indicated by these reflective buoys, trying to keep to the proper course. Yet this voyage was fraught with unexpected incidents.
Beneath one of the buoys lurked a colossal kraken nearly a hundred meters long. Unwittingly, the fleet was being drawn deeper into the ocean by this moving marker. Princess Rhaenys and the "Red Queen" did not spend every moment in the air; on such long voyages, they rested much of the time aboard a special roost ship.
The seasoned Corlys soon noticed the buoy could never be caught and that its distance from the fleet never changed. Only then did they realize a bizarre creature was at work in the shadows. Corlys acted decisively, sounding the signal for the fleet to stop pursuing the buoy. He then retrieved the newly invented compass from the New Citadel, recalculated their heading, and prepared to turn back.
Just as the fleet came about to leave the buoy behind, the eerie object suddenly reversed course and began chasing the ships. Corlys was utterly horrified.
The monster realized its scheme had been uncovered and prepared to launch a direct assault on the fleet. Corlys immediately ordered the Dragon Horn to be sounded, summoning the escorting dragons and his wife, Princess Rhaenys.
As Rhaenys took to the skies on the "Red Queen" Meleys, she quickly spotted the colossal sea beast lurking beneath the waves. Hidden in the depths, the Kraken was not easily struck. The Red Queen loosed several torrents of dragonfire, but none dealt a fatal blow—instead, they only enraged the massive creature.
In the chaos of pursuit and struggle, the Kraken's tentacles managed to drag the Red Queen into the sea. The two monstrous beings clashed beneath the waves, their roars and bellows echoing through the waters. In such close-quarters combat, few dragonriders could hope to escape unharmed.
At last, the Red Queen Meleys slew the Kraken—over a hundred meters in length—but at the cost of grievous wounds. Tragedy struck, for Princess Rhaenys was lost in the battle.
When the battered Red Queen clawed her way back onto the roost ship, her mournful cries filled the air. But the saddle was empty—Rhaenys was gone.
Corlys, seeing no trace of his wife, refused to leave the waters. He clung desperately to the hope that she had simply fallen into the sea, unwilling to accept the cruel truth—that Princess Rhaenys had perished fighting the beast.
The maester accompanying them lit a glass candle, sending the heartbreaking news to Regalus.
Aegon received the report and fell into a long, heavy silence. Only the year before, he had attended his granddaughter's wedding. Now came word of her death. This was the first loss of a Pureborn in the Long Night. Not even Aemon and Baelon, holding the Wall against the White Walkers, had suffered such fate. And never before had a legendary monster struck first against a dragon.
The attack forced Aegon to realize this was only the beginning. It seemed the gods themselves had turned their gaze against House Targaryen.
The Kraken that struck Rhaenys had known how to use navigation buoys to deceive the fleet. That alone suggested intelligence—or that something, or someone, had been guiding it.
Aegon immediately commanded Corlys to remain in those waters while the rest of the fleet returned to the nearest port. He would send supply ships to aid in the search for Rhaenys. Though the chances were slim, he would not abandon hope.
...
Days later, the glass candles flared again, bearing grim tidings from the Wall. Aegon learned the White Walkers' great assault had begun. Soon after, word poured in from across the world of humans under attack.
Jaehaerys reported that Slaver's Bay had become a death zone, a legendary beast slaughtering every living thing. In the Disputed Lands, the king's firstborn had faced multiple sieges by monsters, though dragonriders had repelled them.
The world of men teetered on the brink of ruin.
After long contemplation, Aegon resolved it was time to draw upon hidden reserves to counter the legendary creatures.
On the ancient Valyrian peninsula, where the monsters pressed their fiercest attacks, Daenerys, Aegon's daughter, led the dragonborn in desperate defense against wave after wave of horrors rising from the sea. War between men and monsters had erupted in full, the tension mounting with every clash.
At that moment, the Flesh Pillar within the Fourteen Flames began to tremble violently. In the abyss below, something vast stirred, straining to break free.
Upon the Flesh Pillar sat Aegon himself, eyes shut tight, summoning forth the ancient dragon that had slumbered in the depths—Tiamat.
This Dragonlord had lain dormant beneath Bloodsource Peak for nearly two centuries, transformed by the immortal essence of the Outer God into a demigod. A being hundreds of times stronger than Aegon himself.
Aegon, as the lynchpin holding the Outer God's savagery at bay, could not move from his post. But Tiamat could emerge—so long as she returned before Aegon's soul reached its limit in bearing the corruption. Only then would the seal remain unbroken.
Slowly, Tiamat rose from the abyss. The entire Valyrian peninsula shuddered as the first mountain-sized dragon head emerged, then a second, a third... until five colossal heads loomed above the chasm.
At last, her vast body heaved itself from the pit beneath Bloodsource Peak. And when the five-headed dragon reared back and loosed a roar that shook the heavens, the haze that smothered the skies over the peninsula was blown away in an instant.
Tiamat rose from the earth and soared skyward.
Now over five hundred meters long, it no longer relied on wings for flight. Instead, it moved by wielding the authority of its kind, the innate magic of a mythical being. For dragons, flight was no longer mere instinct but a natural law bound to their very essence.
The authority within Tiamat embodied the very concept of the Dragon itself. All rules and truths tied to dragons could be traced back to the power within her. She was the material incarnation of draconic authority—a dragon god walking the mortal world. This was the pinnacle of existence she had achieved after more than two centuries in the abyss, feeding on the essence of the Outer Gods.
Yet there was a flaw. Most of what she devoured was bestial essence, and so Tiamat had never formed her own reason. She remained a beast—driven by instinct and the commands of her master, Aegon.
As soon as she ascended into the skies, Tiamat flew toward the battlefields beyond Valyria. Beneath her vast, sky-darkening form, all five dragon heads opened at once, unleashing torrents of writhing flesh-tentacles. These thick tendrils coiled effortlessly around legendary monsters, dragging them into the gaping maws. In mere moments, Tiamat had devoured them all.
With the activation of [Feast of Greed], her body permanently grew stronger. After centuries of divine baptism, the talent had reached SSS-tier. Each creature consumed added new layers to the feast, endlessly compounding her power. This single round of devouring increased her feast stacks by more than thirty, pushing her vitality past the hundred-thousand mark.
[Feast of Greed] had no upper limit. It gave Tiamat the potential for infinite growth. In this age of monster resurgence, she stood as the central figure on the stage of history, given the perfect chance to evolve without end.
She circled above the Valyrian peninsula, swallowing wave after wave of dragon-like beasts, the feast stacks climbing without pause. When the land had been scoured clean of legendary monsters, she spread her colossal wings and, with thunderclaps echoing behind her, flew straight for Westeros.
On her path, every sea monster that surfaced was devoured. Where none appeared, she drove forward at full speed, reaching the continent in what seemed only moments.
Following Aegon's command, Tiamat turned north.
By then, the Night King's assault on the Wall was at its height. The great ice rampart crawled with wights. Tiamat landed upon the Wall, opened her five vast maws, and sent forth countless flesh-tentacles, dragging White Walkers and wights screaming into her jaws. With every bite, the feast level soared higher still.
The Night King himself stood stunned before this monstrous dragon. In his ten millennia of existence, never had he seen such a terror. Before he could even summon the Lord of Winter, Tiamat swallowed him whole.
The sound of ice shattering rang out from her throat as the Night King died. In an instant, every White Walker and wight collapsed, reduced to heaps of lifeless bone.
Still, Tiamat's feast climbed higher.
Under Aegon's order, she began to patrol all of Westeros. Any monster that dared reveal itself was seized by her tentacles and devoured. With each kill, her vitality swelled, until it surged past one million.
By the end, Tiamat had grown to several kilometers in length. She returned to Valyria, tore open the earth itself with her strength, unearthed the Outer God buried below, and devoured it mouthful by mouthful.
With this final feast, her being transcended. She became a True God. At that same moment, Aegon's true form also ascended to godhood.
Yet True Gods could not linger in the material world for long.
Aegon and Tiamat, newly ascended to godhood, were drawn into the Spirit Realm within moments.
This realm was the mirror of the material world—the dimension where true gods could exist.
Within it, Aegon and Tiamat continued their feast. The Lion of Night, the ancient Old Gods, the Storm God, the Drowned God, the Many-Faced God, the Lord of Light… one by one, these deities fell before them.
From their corpses, Aegon forged a throne of unmatched majesty. The bodies of the fallen gods were impaled cruelly on towering blades, hung one after another upon his divine seat like slaughtered cattle.
Thus, Aegon claimed the throne of the God-King.
With his divine power, he resurrected his wife Daenys and swept away the endless night that had smothered the world of ice and fire.
Venturing deeper into the Spirit Realm, Aegon discovered a colossal egg. Countless points of light flickered within it. When he touched them with his divine consciousness, the truth was revealed.
These lights were player accounts of the [Destined Godblood].
In that instant, Aegon understood: this spirit egg was the very source of the game [Destined Godblood].
From it, he learned that the egg was a miracle left by a high-dimensional race known as the Spirit Folk. It would randomly select beings from across countless dimensions, casting them into different worlds for trials.
The first to ascend to godhood would reach the egg and learn its secrets.
By seizing a player account from within the egg, one could even reverse the flow, traveling into the world where the player originated. Thus, in this trial, the first player to become a god would be the ultimate victor—claiming everything.
Aegon had not ascended by completing the quest [Sustain Your House for a Thousand Years to Become a God]. Instead, through Tiamat's devouring of the Outer Gods, he had reached godhood, making him the first to approach the spirit egg.
Without hesitation, Aegon used his divine power to refine it. Then, through the player accounts, he pulled forth lives from their respective worlds, crushing them to dust in an instant.
When all the players were destroyed, Aegon took full control of the spirit egg and uncovered its true purpose.
The Spirit Folk had sought to gather the origins of countless worlds to create a universe beyond all dimensions. But having spent every last resource to complete the spirit egg, their race was wiped out by a calamity of Destiny.
This explained why the players of [Destined Godblood] were always forced to struggle against Destiny—it was the shadow of that higher truth pressing down on the lower realms.
In the higher dimensions, Destiny was no abstract law, but a supreme being—a conscious entity, ruling over endless universes and worlds.
Now, with the spirit egg in hand, Aegon possessed the means to build a super-dimensional world. He could rise beyond his current plane, leading his kin to ascend and challenge the true Destiny.
In time, Aegon forged a divine vessel from the spirit egg, carrying his people upward into the higher realms. There, they grew in secret for countless years, until at last they defeated Destiny itself.
—And became the rulers of all dimensions.