Game of Thrones: The Wrath of the Sleeping Dragon

He then grabbed a longsword, an awakened Valyrian steel sword passed down through the Hightoar family, and went to the window to look down.

"Don't worry, the Tower of Heaven has never fallen."

"Not today either."

Earl Layton Hightower spoke with great confidence.

However, at that moment, the dragon that destroyed the Temple of Stars seemed to have its sights set on this place.

"Ho-"

The roar of the dragon shook the sky as Bellerion flew toward the towering tower.

Chapter 548 Tax Official

"Ho-"

As night fell and the firelight illuminated the sky, a colossal dragon soared through the heavens, circling the towering pagoda and spewing fiery breath.

The towering pagoda, over 800 feet tall, pierces the clouds, making even the giant dragon appear small in comparison.

However, just as Earl Leyton Hightower had said, the Tower of Babel stood firm, and even dragon flames could not burn its bricks, but those inside the Tower of Babel were not so fortunate.

They would be roasted in the oven like ducks in a hanging oven; this level of torture is unbearable for ordinary people, even more painful than being burned alive.

Their skin would lose moisture first, then become dry, cracked, and brittle, followed by flesh and internal organs. The fat would sizzle and release an enticing aroma as it was roasted. Perhaps ending their own lives as soon as possible was their best option.

The war is over.

Earl Layton Hightower and his eldest daughter, 'Madwoman' Morroia Hightower, were roasted alive at the top of the Tower of Heights. When their charred bodies were later found, the two appeared to still be tightly embracing each other.

As for the other members of the Hightoar family, some died and others fled, some by ship to the Shield Islands, and others went directly to another continent.

Meanwhile, Garth Hightower, the commander of the army, was besieged by the Dornish army on the battlefield and eventually died fighting to the death, with several spears piercing his heart.

Without their commander, the Hightoar family army completely lost the will to resist.

"escape!"

"Run away!"

"Help!"

They threw down their weapons and scattered in all directions. Some hid in houses, while others took off their armor and jumped into the icy river, trying to swim out of the old town by water.

Oldtown, once the greatest city in Westeros, has now become a living hell, with Dornish armies and Dothraki rampaging through its streets.

...

"This is the trauma that war brings to humanity, but unfortunately, humanity cannot avoid it."

Viserys, who was supposed to be recuperating in Highgarden, appeared on a hillside on the outskirts of Old Town, riding a white horse.

Under the cover of darkness, he looked down at the city ablaze with flames in the distance.

Beside the silver-haired youth were several loyal Dothraki Roaring Warriors, dressed in animal skin armor and horsehair leggings, carrying scimitars and torches, riding warhorses and vigilantly looking around.

It seems that Viserys traveled light and kept a low profile.

"Perhaps one day in the future, people will understand and restrain each other, thus avoiding the outbreak of war."

"But not now."

"For this era, unification is the best way to end civil war."

Viserys gazed at the firelight in the old town, then took a deep breath and spoke.

"The war in the Reach is over."

Beside him, the new Earl of Starshort City, Velas Tyrell, had a somewhat complicated expression.

If Highgarden and Oldtown had made the same choice, would they have ended up in the same situation?

However, Earl Layton Hightower of the Old Town was his maternal grandfather, and his mother, Ellery Hightower, was Earl Layton's second daughter. While Velas was relieved, it was hard not to feel a sense of shared sorrow.

“Your Majesty is right, but this is also one of the intractable problems that Westeros has always struggled to cure.”

“Family and power are deeply ingrained concepts.”

"People don't know how to unite, let alone understand each other."

Night fell, and the distant firelight illuminated his face. Velas pulled on the reins to calm his restless warhorse.

Although Viserys refused Lady Olenna's request to send Margaery Tyrell to the harem and banished them from Highgarden to Starshort, he did not completely destroy the Tyrell family.

Velas Tyrell expressed his desire to come to King's Landing and to do any kind of work.

Viserys recognized Velas's abilities and appointed him as a tax collector under the Chancellor of the Exchequer, tasked with collecting taxes for a specific region for the royal family.

This job isn't exactly high-ranking or powerful, but it's certainly a lucrative position with some perks. Viserys' decision to put Velas Tyrell in such a role is a test of his abilities.

The new Earl of Starshort City accepted the job offer without hesitation.

Even though the tax official's long journey might not be very friendly to a cripple like him, Velas didn't care and seized the opportunity.

Therefore, when Viserys traveled from Highgarden to Oldtown, he brought Velas Tyrell with him. Oldtown was the last major castle and city in the south of the kingdom that was still resisting the Iron Throne.

Once the Iron Throne army has conquered Oldtown, the south of the kingdom will be almost completely reclaimed. After the war ends, Velas Tyrell will follow Viserys and the army north to return to King's Landing to assume his post.

We await news of the royal army's northward campaign and the unification of the country.

"Does Your Majesty intend to use the Dothraki's sword to eliminate the Citadel and the Church in one decisive battle?"

Looking at the old town in the distance, groaning under the trampling of iron hooves, and the Starry Sanctuary collapsing under the dragon's flames, with dragons circling the towering tower and spewing dragon flames, Velas Tyrell, who was riding on a hill outside the city, remained silent for a moment before finally speaking.

"The Church and the Citadel have indeed become obstacles to His Majesty's great ideals."

"Your idea of ​​using the Dothraki to eliminate them under the guise of recuperation is indeed a stroke of genius, but..."

Velas Tyrell hesitated, wanting to speak but then stopping himself. He had been educated in the Citadel since childhood, and he felt a pang of remorse as he watched Oldtown fall into crisis.

Viserys heard Velas's voice, turned around and looked at him, and then spoke.

"But what?"

"Will burning down the Starry Sanctuary provoke a backlash from the followers of the Seven Gods?"

"And knowledge and books are innocent, aren't they?"

"you…"

Velas was slightly taken aback; he hadn't expected Viserys to know all this.

He had assumed Viserys was a cold-hearted, ruthless man who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals, but to his surprise, he remained remarkably clear-headed and not at all blinded by victory.

"If you knew from the age of eight that a king wanted to kill you, and you were all alone, you would understand that you should think twice before you act."

Viserys said calmly.

"The world I want is not built by people who are loyal to the current order."

“If the believers jump out now, we can wipe them all out in one go. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient to start a war again after the world is at peace.”

"As for the Citadels, as the highest institutions of knowledge in Westeros, they should not be concentrated in one place, nor should they be far from the capital of the kingdom."

"I will break it down and distribute it all over the world."

"From Winterfell to Dorne, from Lannette Harbor to Pentos."

Chapter 549 Triumphant Return

The next morning, the sunlight dispelled the gloom of the night.

However, black smoke still billowed throughout Oldtown, and sporadic sounds of fighting could still be heard in a few places, but the vast majority of the town was already filled with the banners of the Dornish army.

"no no!"

"Spare me!"

"I beg you!"

On either side of the street, a Hightoar soldier was roughly dragged from a house by Dornish. He was wearing tattered armor and had long since lost his weapons. He thought he could escape by hiding here, but he did not expect to be found.

The Hightoar soldier's face was filled with panic, tears streaming down his face as he knelt on the ground begging for his life. But the turbaned Dornish soldier ruthlessly slit his throat with a dagger, and his body fell to the ground.

puff--

Meanwhile, an Ellenwood family soldier also executed a critically wounded enemy with a spear.

As dawn breaks, the streets of the old town are riddled with the scars of war. Looking back, the town is a scene of devastation: broken houses, scattered bricks and rubble, corpses lying in disarray, and blood staining the rivers and streams throughout the town.

The war is over.

The Dornish army replicated the exploits of Samwell Dayne, the King of the Turbulent River, and captured Oldtown.

The Dornish had conquered this place again after who knows how many years, and many Dornish nobles considered it a glory to boast about for a lifetime.

Riding tall horses and fully armed, they swaggered through the streets of the old town, mocking their ancestors' enemies and drawing the hateful gazes of countless old town residents hiding in their homes.

This night was undoubtedly one of the most unforgettable for the people of the old town and the soldiers of the Hightar family.

The Temple of Stars collapsed with a deafening roar. The Dothraki, whom they had never heard of before and who only lived in legends, had invaded the Citadel.

The scholars of the Citadel may have heard of the names of these steppe knights, but reading ten thousand books is not the same as traveling ten thousand miles. They never imagined that one day these demons living on another continent would cross the 'poisonous water' they spoke of and come before them.

To their surprise, the Dothraki did not raise their swords and slaughter everyone after entering the city; instead, they were remarkably 'gentle'.

Except for a small number of stubborn individuals who were beheaded without hesitation, the Dothraki cavalry did not harm anyone who surrendered, as if they had already received some orders.

They arrested the remaining assistant bachelors, bachelors, and doctoral students who had knelt down, and imprisoned them in a dormitory within the university city that had been temporarily converted into a prison, awaiting Kao's judgment.

The books within the academy were not destroyed in the fire; they were also protected.

...

A few days later.

News of the war's end spread like wildfire back to Highgarden, along with reports of the kingdom's naval victories.

During the Second Conquest, there were three Targaryen armies on land, while on the water, Lord Geoffrey Brecken, the Lord Minister of the Sea, personally led the royal navy to attack Seagull in the Valley.

The Righteous Alliance's navy set sail to meet the enemy but suffered a devastating defeat, being sunk in Crab Bay. Subsequently, the Royal Navy, led by the old general, began a fierce attack on this important valley town.

The two sides fought fiercely for over a month, while the main force of the League of Justice was still arguing in the Eyrie about whether to launch an attack on King's Landing while Viserys was away. In the end, Gulltown was captured by the royal army, and only then did the Eyrie realize the situation and decide to put aside their hostilities and join forces to resist the enemy.