The Mother of Dragons widened her eyes and let out an enraged roar. A violent gust blasted from her mouth like a storm, so fierce that Aegon could barely keep his eyes open.
She tore at the mountain wall with her razor-sharp claws, sending shards of stone flying. Her thick tail slammed against the ground with thunderous force, each strike echoing like it might split the earth itself. She was trying to scare Aegon, to show this Dragonseed just how dangerous she was, hoping to make him back down.
But Aegon saw through the bluff. She was posturing.
Standing atop the rock above her massive head, he threw his head back and laughed.
"Hahahaha!!"
The provocation drove the Mother of Dragons into a frenzy. Burning with fury, she lunged upward as if ready to snap Aegon up in a single bite.
"You're scared, aren't you, big girl? Afraid that without the blood orchid, the cravings will come back and you won't be able to cope." Aegon raised the blood orchid high and shouted, "You see this? I can make it vanish anytime I want. Even if you swallow me and the ground beneath me, you won't get so much as a petal."
Half of the blood orchid vanished from Aegon's left hand and reappeared instantly in his right.
The Mother of Dragons roared and unleashed a blast of dragonfire. In an instant, a massive column of flame surged upward like a flood from the base of the mountain.
"Shit!" Aegon cursed, crouching low and shielding his face with both arms.
The pillar of fire, meters wide, roared past him and soared into the night sky, erupting like a blazing mushroom cloud. It lit up the darkness in a spectacular burst.
A few moments later, the dragonfire died down, and the flames gradually faded. The mountainside was left scorched black.
Aegon's face was flushed from the heat. His heart pounded in his chest as he instinctively patted himself down, silently grateful: I'm still alive!
Peering down, he saw the Mother of Dragons had held back—she'd intentionally controlled the distance. Otherwise, that rockface would've been reduced to molten slag by now.
Aegon remembered all too well what her flames had done to the forest cave—not something he could ever forget.
He knew now he'd gained the upper hand. This dragon-taming attempt was all but guaranteed to succeed. Composing himself, he called out in High Valyrian with a sincere tone to the panting dragon below:
"Follow me. Let's form a bond. I've got more blood orchids." As he spoke, he held out an empty hand—and a blood orchid appeared in his palm, then another. "You want them? Then agree to my terms."
The flames licking the edges of the Mother of Dragons' mouth faded away. She began to climb, her enormous claws digging into the mountainside as if it were soft clay. Her thick tail braced her massive weight, and soon, her massive form loomed right in front of Aegon.
Her dark red skull, covered in bony, branched ridges, stretched toward him. Two golden eyes fixed on Aegon, the distance between them now barely two meters.
The first thing Aegon felt was heat—an intense, radiating heat. Unlike Dreamshade, whose body temperature was within the range of normal beasts, this red dragon was scorching. Her temperature had to be at least seventy or eighty degrees Celsius.
She opened her mouth slightly but made no further move. She simply stared at Aegon, silently waiting.
Aegon took a deep breath and stepped forward. Standing before her enormous maw, he reached out and gently stroked the hard, scaly underside of her jaw. Then, without hesitation, he tossed the remaining half of the blood orchid into her mouth.
The Mother of Dragons skillfully curled her tongue around the flower and swallowed it. Her eyes slowly shut in bliss, clearly savoring the surge of power the plant brought.
Aegon continued to gently stroke her. Seeing that she was drifting into a daze, he suddenly grabbed hold of her nostrils, jumped, and with a strong push, hoisted himself up—landing squarely on the massive bridge of her nose.
The moment he stood atop her snout, he felt something strange and wonderful—a magical, invisible force seemed to surround him. Like a field of energy binding his soul tightly with hers.
Ding~
[You have triggered the Valyrian Blood Sorcery Dragon Contract. The dragon you are connected to has not resisted your mental imprint. You have successfully formed a dragon contract.]
[Congratulations! You have bonded with an epic-class monster and achieved an Epic-tier accomplishment. Reward: one Purple Lottery Draw, guaranteed to receive a Purple-grade item.]
Aegon heard the system prompt ring out but didn't bother checking the details. Instead, he focused entirely on the subtle, spiritual link that had formed.
With the bond complete, he realized he could now connect to the vast soul of the dragon. Carefully, he infused his spiritual energy into the dragon-shaped presence—this was the Mother of Dragons' spirit sea.
There was no visible landscape here, no five senses to guide him. But through the bond, Aegon could feel her state of being. At this moment, the feedback from her spirit sea was pure ecstasy—utter bliss, serenity, and joy. In a word, euphoria.
Aegon slowly opened his eyes and patted her gently on the nose.
"You don't have a name, do you? Now that you're mine, how about I give you one?"
The Mother of Dragons strained to look at her new master perched on her snout, her eyes nearly going cross-eyed.
Aegon thought for a moment, then grinned. "From now on, your name is Tiamat. It suits your title. Like it?"
Tiamat stuck out her tongue and sent a clear thought—she wanted more of the flower.
Aegon sighed and pulled another blood orchid from his item space, placing it on her tongue.
"You better pace yourself. I don't have that many left. If you burn through them too fast, you're out of luck next time."
Tiamat swallowed the orchid, her golden eyes rolling back in satisfaction. She couldn't care less about Aegon anymore and slowly slid down the mountainside. Aegon, panicked, clung tightly to her nose to avoid falling.
He couldn't help thinking, If I end up crushed to death by my own dragon, I'll be the laughingstock of the entire Freehold.
Just then, Daenys flew swiftly overhead on Dreamshade and shouted down to Aegon, "Did it work?"
"It did," Aegon called back, waving for Dreamshade to land.
Dreamshade slowly descended, but its eyes were still filled with fear toward Tiamat. After all, from Dreamshade's perspective, Tiamat had devoured a dragon even larger than itself—and she was at least three times Dreamshade's size. If someone like her, a walking war machine, got in close, Dreamshade wouldn't last a single exchange.
Aegon slid down from Tiamat's snout.
Daenys immediately rushed into his arms, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Thank the gods… When that pillar of fire shot into the sky, I thought... I thought…"
"I'm fine, aren't I?" Aegon smiled and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks.
Daenys clung to him tightly, and from over his shoulder, she saw Tiamat sprawled out—her tongue hanging from the corner of her jaw, her eyes rolled back, and her massive body twitching slightly now and then.
Curious, she asked, "What happened to the Mother of Dragons?"
Aegon glanced at Tiamat's ridiculous state and said helplessly, "She's just riding the high. Don't worry about it—she'll be fine in a bit."
Daenys stepped out of Aegon's embrace and slowly approached Tiamat's massive body. She reached out to gently touch the scales and exclaimed, "This armor's ridiculously thick… Even Valyrian steel might not be able to pierce it."
Aegon walked over and nodded. "Tiamat… That's the new name I just gave her."
"What does Tiamat mean?" Daenys asked.
"In a certain myth, 'Tia' means life, and 'Mat' means mother. Together, it means Mother of Life. I thought it suited her, so I went with that," Aegon explained.
"You've got a knack for naming," Daenys said with a smile.
Aegon shrugged, then laid his palm back on Tiamat's scales. This time, the chip scanned and displayed her stats.
[Name: Tiamat, Dragon
Length: 126m
Attributes (Growing):
Politics: 1
Strategy: 5
Military Tactics: 1
Mental Power: 239
Vitality: 3363
Talents:
[C-Rank – Thick Scaled Plates: Your scales are exceptionally dense. Attack Power +25%, Defense +200%, Body Weight +14%, Agility -5%.]
[C-Rank – Massive Build: Strength +40%, Weight +25%, Breath Duration +20%, Agility -15%.]
[C-Rank – Molten Breath: Your breath temperature increases by 300%, and inflicts ongoing burn damage equal to 50% of your max vitality.]
[A-Rank – Greedy Feast: Each time you devour a supernatural beast, you gain one stackable effect that increases your size and grants +10% max vitality. Up to 10 stacks can be gained from non-epic creatures. Current stacks from non-epic creatures: 1/10.]
[-S-Rank – Life Code: Your life code has been broken by a magical element. You gain a randomly chosen infinite-growth talent, but your lifespan will irreversibly diminish until death.]
Skills: …]
Aegon stared at Tiamat's stats in awe.
Three C-rank talents—while they did hinder speed, the buffs they provided were massive.
But the two talents that shocked him the most were the final ones. A-Rank [Greedy Feast] was terrifying: a growth-type ability with no ceiling. By devouring magical beasts or dragons, Tiamat could grow both in vitality and physical size.
In Aegon's mind, bigger meant stronger—and stronger meant bigger.
Of course, there was a limit: the first 10 stacks could only be gained by consuming non-epic monsters. Seeing the "1/10" on the display, Aegon figured it must've come from the green dragon Tiamat devoured in the forest.
Once the 10-stack limit was reached, the only way to keep growing would be by devouring epic monsters—king-class dragons.
The final talent, however, was clearly the biggest trap.
Aegon guessed it was likely triggered when he fed Tiamat the blood orchid.
[-S-Rank – Life Code]… Aegon had played Destined Godblood hundreds of times, and this was the first time he'd ever seen such a bizarre talent. While it did grant an A-rank skill, the drawback was devastating.
"If the blood orchid really could've revived Gaemon, but shortened his lifespan in return… then I would've caused harm with good intentions. I might've killed him without realizing it," Aegon thought with a chill.
Daenys saw him standing there in a daze and asked softly, "What are you thinking about?"
"I almost wronged Gaemon," Aegon murmured distractedly.
Daenys went speechless. Without a word, she reached out and grabbed a soft bit of his waist, giving it a full 360-degree twist. In her heart, she cursed, I already went that far with you, and now you say that?