Chapter 235: A Journey That Couldn't Be Avoided
Daenerys didn't stop after throwing her first fireball.
She immediately launched another at the advancing mystics.
Rhaegal was just about to unleash a blast of dragonfire into the crowd when Drogon let out a sharp roar, stopping her.
This was a rare chance for Daenerys to gain real combat experience.
Drogon had no intention of wasting it.
The attackers who had originally been closing in on Rhaegal shifted their focus and charged straight at Daenerys instead.
Some chanted incantations while tracing symbols through the air with their hands.
Others directed ghostly apparitions toward her.
Among them, Drogon even spotted an unusually tall figure that moved stiffly, like some enormous mechanical puppet.
Seeing so many enemies rushing her at once, Daenerys instinctively panicked.
But the moment she heard Drogon's commanding roar to Rhaegal, her confidence returned.
She continued hurling fireballs into the oncoming crowd.
"Fall back!"
Just after launching two more, Drogon's voice echoed in her mind.
Only then did she remember one of his constant lessons during training:
"A mage survives by keeping their distance. Kite your enemies. Once they close the gap, you're only a step away from death."
She immediately retreated, widening the distance before resuming her assault.
The mystics, however, quickly caught up.
Daenerys soon found herself overwhelmed.
Fireballs alone weren't enough to halt their relentless advance.
Had Drogon not quietly intercepted the attacks that nearly reached her, she would have been struck several times already.
Only then did the mystics realize how dangerous the little black dragon truly was.
By that point, Daenerys had already burned three of them alive.
She had nearly mastered instant fireball casting.
Her aim grew more accurate with every spell.
Her greatest weakness remained her mobility.
She simply couldn't evade attacks quickly enough, nor did she possess any reliable defensive magic.
Drogon had recognized this flaw long ago.
During training, he had encouraged her to develop a wall of fire for protection.
Unfortunately, the spell took far too long to form to be practical in real combat.
Even with such poor defenses, Daenerys was performing remarkably well against so many opponents.
No one would have imagined that the elegant Empress who sat upon the Iron Throne possessed such extraordinary combat talent.
Her astonishing rate of improvement even made Drogon wonder whether Dragon God's Blessing was continuing to enhance her abilities.
Retreating as she fought, Daenerys steadily whittled down their numbers.
As more and more of their companions fell, the remaining mystics grew increasingly desperate.
Their attacks became even more frenzied.
Yet the longer the battle continued, the calmer Daenerys became.
Every exchange sharpened her instincts.
By the end, she faced the increasingly savage attackers without the slightest trace of fear.
Twenty minutes later...
The final mystic collapsed, consumed by dragonfire.
Daenerys actually looked disappointed that the battle had ended so soon.
Gone was the woman who once couldn't bear to watch the bloody combats in Meereen's fighting pits.
Now...
Even the field strewn with charred corpses caused her only mild discomfort.
"Drogon..."
"Were they insane? They actually dared attack us?"
Recalling the fanatical, suicidal determination of the mystics, Daenerys couldn't hide her confusion.
"They're close to madness," Drogon replied.
"The black stone of Asshai has been slowly corrupting their minds."
Although these black stones had yet to awaken into living entities, they still possessed the power to subtly erode the sanity of anyone who lived among them for too long.
Beyond Asshai lay the Shadow Lands—the edge of the known world and the threshold of the unknown.
Daenerys ignored the charred corpses scattered across the ground.
Their fate would serve as a warning to anyone foolish enough to covet either her or Drogon.
Returning to the tent, she tried to sleep.
But no matter how hard she tried, rest refused to come.
Part of it was the battle.
The rest was the terrifying chorus that echoed through the night—agonized screams, deranged laughter, and the frenzied howls of the city's mystics.
The sounds reminded her of the prisoners she had seen at the docks earlier that day.
According to Drogon, they were condemned criminals transported from every corner of the world.
They were sold to Asshai's mystics...
To be dissected in living experiments or sacrificed in forbidden rituals.
That was the true reason so many sorcerers gathered in Asshai.
It had become a paradise for practitioners of the occult—a place where they could perform unspeakable experiments and research forbidden magic without restraint.
Listening to the madness hidden within the darkness, Daenerys didn't finally drift to sleep until well past midnight.
At the same moment, Drogon expanded his Divine Domain.
This time, he didn't try to sleep immediately.
Instead, he focused entirely on the malicious presence that arrived every night without fail.
Just as before, the evil intent circled the Divine Domain once before returning to the point where it had first appeared.
But this night...
It behaved differently.
Instead of waiting patiently outside the barrier for the domain to disappear, it repeatedly slammed into the Divine Domain itself.
Each impact dented the invisible barrier inward.
Had Drogon not absorbed the divine core left behind by the black stone previously, strengthening his Divine Domain, he doubted it would still be capable of keeping the entity out.
Ever since the incident in Yi Ti, the malicious force had grown noticeably more restless.
The closer they drew to Asshai...
The more aggressive it became.
Looking east toward the Shadow Lands beyond Asshai, Drogon had a rough idea why.
That place was also his next destination.
The night passed without incident.
At dawn, Drogon took Daenerys and flew east once more.
Less than ten minutes later...
They saw it.
Ahead, beneath the dim, leaden sky, everything disappeared into an endless veil of shadow.
Nothing beyond it could be seen.
It was as though another world began there.
Or perhaps...
As though the gates of hell had been thrown open, waiting for their next visitors.
"D-Drogon..."
"Are... are we really going in there?"
Feeling the overwhelming evil radiating from the darkness ahead and the instinctive dread rising within her, Daenerys couldn't keep the tremor from her voice.
Beside Drogon, Rhaegal snorted uneasily.
Had Drogon not been flying beside her, she would have turned around without hesitation.
[Not yet.]
[I'll take you somewhere safe first... then I'll return and investigate it alone.]
With that, Drogon turned around and flew back the way they had come.
"Drogon..."
"It's too dangerous. You shouldn't go in either."
She knew he was sending her away because he understood just how terrifying the Shadow Lands were.
But after sensing the sinister aura emanating from that place, she was even more worried about him.
[I have to go.]
That was all Drogon said as his massive wings carried him toward the horizon.
Hearing the resolve in his voice, Daenerys didn't try to persuade him again.
If Drogon said he had to enter...
Then he had a reason he couldn't ignore.
Her thoughts drifted to the living black stone creature and the countless black stone structures filling Asshai.
When she had first arrived there, she too had feared that every one of those stones might suddenly come alive and attack.
Only after spending a night there had she gradually relaxed.
Then she remembered the conversation they'd had before leaving King's Landing.
At the time, she'd thought Drogon's claim that he was "going to save the world" was simply an excuse.
Now...
She wasn't so sure anymore.
Who could have imagined that, at the easternmost edge of the world, the black stones of Asshai might awaken into living horrors?
Or that beyond them lay a place like the Shadow Lands—a realm that watched the world like the mouth of hell itself?
They didn't stop in Asshai on the return journey.
Instead, they flew straight past it.
Everything Drogon wanted to investigate there had already been confirmed.
Even spending the night in the city had been part of observing its strange nocturnal phenomena.
There was no reason to risk letting Daenerys remain there any longer.
More than an hour later, Drogon landed far away from Asshai.
After settling Daenerys in a safe location, he turned around alone and flew back toward the Shadow Lands.
The Lord of Light and the other gods had already attempted to explore this place.
Those who entered either disappeared without a trace...
Or returned completely insane.
After that, they had abandoned any further expeditions.
Whether the Lord of Light had told Adins the whole truth or not, Drogon knew one thing with certainty.
This was no ordinary place.
Even Daenerys and Rhaegal had instinctively sensed the terror lurking within.
He, more than anyone else, understood just how dangerous the Shadow Lands truly were.