Game of Thrones: The Road to Pirate King

Chapter 428 Thunder Island - Surrender

Since the Harrenhal Tournament, Euron's growth has been as rapid as if he had broken free from all constraints. His physical attributes—strength, speed, and reaction time—have already surpassed the limits of human understanding in the known world, and the various abilities granted by the Pirate King System hidden within him have become increasingly profound and powerful.

Facing Cicero Arnold, hailed as the greatest warrior of Thunder Isle, the war behemoth that had struck fear into the hearts of countless enemies, Euron saw him as nothing more than two extra blows.

The battle was so brief it was breathtaking.

The weapons clashed only three times, so quickly it seemed like only one strike.

The first strike deflected Cicero's powerful battle axe.

The second cut tore a fatal gash in his thick breastplate.

The third cut flashed across his neck.

Time seemed to stand still as Cicero Arnold's enormous head, still bearing the expression of shock and anger, detached from his body and crashed heavily into the water.

The giants who had followed him into battle, who revered him like a god, were all petrified, frozen in place, utterly stunned. They could not comprehend how their invincible commander could be so easily—crushed.

With a deafening roar, the city gates burst open, and the Iron People, who had been waiting in ambush, surged into the already chaotic city of Lei:ma like a flood bursting its banks.

Euron stood at the front of the formation, his voice as cold as a knife, issuing the clearest order: "Spearhead formation, tear through all obstacles, head straight for the palace—capture the Empress alive!"

As soon as the order was given, he himself, like the sharpest tip of a blade, took the lead and personally spearheaded the operation.

The shadowy long-winged dragon "Flying Shadow" circled and roared above his head, clearing away obstacles in his path with its claws and dragon might; the emerald wildfire falling from the sky carved out a burning path for him.

Baron, the six fierce island lords, and the most elite force among all the Ironborn instantly formed an indestructible blade, closely following Euron, stepping over flames and the corpses of enemies, and with unstoppable momentum, directly charged towards the royal palace in the center of the city!

When Euron led his Ironborn elite force to shatter the last jade gate of the Star Crown Palace, a white marble plaza suddenly opened up before them, revealing the last bulwark of Thunder Isle—a circular formation of three hundred golden-armored giant guards.

These giant warriors of Thunder Island, each over eight feet tall, were like silent bronze behemoths. They slammed their massive shields, engraved with lightning patterns, into the stone ground, the edges of the shields meeting to form a steel wall reaching their chests. Spears protruding from the gaps in the shields were as dense as a thicket of thorns, their tempered tips gleaming coldly in the rain. This last line of defense, forged from their flesh and blood, caused the splashing raindrops to shatter into a misty spray upon touching the front lines.

Deep within the Star Crown Palace, the throne room was dimly lit.

Queen Nuya Maxwell sat quietly on the ivory throne, which had been passed down for four hundred years, her fingertips lightly tracing the ancient patterns on the scepter. Her daughter rested quietly on her lap, her soft hair rising and falling gently with her breath, already aware of the fate that was about to befall her.

Luo Xiong, the concubine's husband, strode in from outside the hall, his shoulders still bearing traces of gunpowder and rain.

Luo Xiong sighed heavily, his voice trembling slightly, as he reported the news he had long anticipated but which still stung: "Cicero Arnold—is dead! The Ironborn have stormed the inner palace!" He raised his eyes and said calmly, "The Yi region is currently divided into three factions, embroiled in internal strife, and there is absolutely no possibility of them sending a single soldier to aid us. Even if they were willing, the sea monsters beneath Euronmo have already turned all the sea lanes leading to Thunder Island into death zones, and they will not allow any reinforcements to pass through."

Outside the palace gates, the sounds of clashing weapons and dying screams grew closer and closer, like a noose tightening ever more.

A strange, serene smile appeared on the Empress's face. She softly said to the pale-faced official beside her, "Go, fetch the Sunset Rouge for me."

The scarlet liquid contained in the glass box was the final, dignified offering prepared by the founding empress, Galoya, for the end of the dynasty. She personally inserted the jade hairpin, soaked in deadly poison, slowly into her neatly combed hair, her posture elegant and composed, as if she were not heading towards death, but preparing to attend a final feast.

The final battle in front of the Star Crown Palace ended in flames.

Baron roared and cleaved the already weakened shield wall in two with a single axe strike. The Ironborn, like hungry wolves that had smelled blood, surged through the breach.

The figure of Flame Apollo suddenly appeared among the pillars, his massive arm unleashing a raging tornado of wildfire that instantly engulfed half of the golden-armored guards. Emerald flames burned wildly in the rain, and the surviving giant guards roared deafeningly in the sea of ​​fire, clinging tightly together until their last breath, using their charred bodies to maintain their final defensive formation.

As Euron's blood-stained boots stepped onto the jade steps of the central hall, her husband, Luo Xiong, suddenly ripped off the monkey-tailed official hat that symbolized a barbarian envoy, and raised the barbarian scimitar at his waist high above his head. He shouted towards the outside of the hall in perfect barbarian language, "Your subject, Luo Xiong, a barbarian, respectfully welcomes the Lord of the Sea Beasts!" Then he turned to the throne and hissed, "Your Majesty! For the sake of the hundreds of thousands of lives on Thunder Island! Surrender!"

Before he finished speaking, Luo Xiong suddenly grabbed his long braid, which he had been growing for half his life, and tore it off, letting it scatter on the ground. This ritual, which had been passed down for thousands of years in the Yi region, symbolized eternal submission.

On her throne, the empress gazed at her kneeling husband, her fingertips trembling slightly on the poisoned hairpin.

After a long, silent night, she finally pulled the hairpin from her hair and let it fall from her fingers. The jade hairpin, imbued with the last dignity of the dynasty, shattered into three pieces on the jade steps with a crisp sound, like the final chapter of this dynasty that had lasted for four hundred years.

At that moment, the palace gates were wide open, and Euron's figure was cast against the firelight in the center of the imperial path. Outside the palace, rainwater mixed with blood flooded over the broken jade, staining the hem of his sea beast cloak dark red.

Euron looked at the queen who had chosen to submit and nodded: "Since you have chosen to submit, then come with me and use your voice to end this pointless war."

Queen Nuya Maxwell descended the steps of the throne and approached Euron. She showed no fear, but instead raised her eyes, coldly meeting the conqueror's single eye, and asked the question that had lingered in her mind for so long: "Now, tell me, why did you insist on attacking my Isle of Thunder?"

The two walked side by side out of the hall, with the concubine's husband, Luo Xiong, following respectfully behind like a silent shadow. Baron and the six island lords remained vigilant, guarding You Lun on either side, their sharp eyes scanning their surroundings.

Euron answered as he walked, his voice calm yet carrying an undeniable will: "I yearn to see a unified, peaceful ocean, and I will become the sole ruler of this boundless sea." He paused, his gaze seemingly piercing through the palace, looking towards the distant sea, "Every island on the sea must come under my banner. Then, there will be no more plundering or strife on the sea."

He glanced at the Empress beside him and said calmly, "In your view, this may be an invasion, a plunder."

But for me, the motivation is not important; I only care about the result.

Queen Nuya Maxwell paused for a moment, then asked the most crucial question about the future: "And then what? Under your rule, where will the Isle of Thunder—become?"

Euron smiled and replied, "Leave tomorrow's problems for tomorrow." He stopped and looked at the still-unresolved battlefield outside the palace gates. "Today, our first priority is to bring this war to a complete end."