Gaemon's tightly clenched claws slowly loosened and slipped from their hands, falling lifelessly to the ground. At the same time, his weak, ragged breathing came to an abrupt end.
"Brother!" Daenys collapsed to her knees, her tears bursting forth uncontrollably as she sobbed, unable to form words.
Aegon's eyes followed Gaemon's claws as they hit the earth.
Those final words—Gaemon's dying request—pressed a new weight onto Aegon's heart. A responsibility that now extended to Daenys, and to House Targaryen.
He gently turned his palm and laced his fingers tightly with Daenys's.
She immediately collapsed into his arms, burying her face in his chest, her shoulders shaking as she cried without restraint.
Nearby, Dreamshade seemed to sense its master's sorrow. It slowly crawled closer, extending its nose to gently nudge Daenys in comfort.
...
A piercing dragon cry suddenly rang out from the distance.
Startled, Aegon turned toward the sound, but the thick trees blocked his view—he couldn't see a thing.
It was likely the young dragon Gaemon had tamed. Perhaps it had sensed the death of its master and was wailing in grief.
Aegon stayed quiet, letting Daenys lean against him as long as she needed—until she finally cried herself to sleep.
Just then, the air around Daenys began to ripple and distort. Aegon's expression shifted to one of alarm as he turned to her. Could this be another uncontrolled surge of her power brought on by overwhelming emotion?
He remembered the last time Gaemon had nearly died, when her dream-control ability had also flared out of control. But this time was even more terrifying—her dreamscape was bleeding into reality.
The light before his eyes began to twist and ripple. Trees wavered with overlapping shadows, and the sunlight split into rainbow fragments, swirling through the sky like a kaleidoscope. Aegon felt dizzy, his head pounding with sudden, unbearable pressure. He shut his eyes tightly, but the warping sensation only intensified—raging in his vision and mind with nowhere to escape.
"Daenys! Wake up!" he called, shaking her urgently.
Fortunately, just as Daenys began to stir, the illusion faded. The distorted world slowly calmed, and reality returned to normal.
"What… what happened to me?" Daenys blinked, dazed. She looked around, noticing something was wrong—her silver hair was floating gently, despite the still air.
Aegon exhaled in relief. "Your dream ability flared up again. You nearly popped my head like a melon."
"Mmm… my hair…" Daenys reached up to touch it, but the silver strands danced away, floating on their own as if they had a will.
Aegon pulled up her attribute panel to check—and was stunned. Her base mental power had just exceeded 100.
Base mental power referred to the pure mental capacity a lifeform possessed without any external enhancements like talents or blessings.
When an ordinary human surpassed their species' natural limits, they would awaken a new talent—or see an existing one evolve.
Daenys's previous [D-Rank – Dreamwalker] talent had just advanced into [C-Rank – Dream Lord].
[C-Rank – Dream Lord: You can traverse dreams and control the dreams of other creatures. Your dreams can project into the real world; the area of influence depends on your mental strength. Any damage dealt in dreams is projected into reality. Mental Power +10.]
"Looks like your dream power leveled up," Aegon explained. "Maybe once you've learned to control it, you'll be able to manage your hair too."
Daenys blinked at him. "How do you know all that?"
"It's my investigative ability," Aegon replied. "I can detect hidden people, and also monitor your physical and mental states."
"Can you check my brother…? Is there any chance he can come back?" she asked urgently after a pause.
Aegon shook his head. Truthfully, he had already reviewed Gaemon's stats during their first encounter.
He reopened Gaemon's attribute panel:
[Gaemon Targaryen
Attributes – Politics: 36; Strategy: 26; Tactics: 35; Mental Power: 63; Vitality: 113
Talents – E-Rank: Strong Arm; D-Rank: Mighty; D-Rank: True Dragonblood – Dragonseed; A-Rank: Red God Priest; S-Rank: Life Code
Skills: …]
Among his newer talents, aside from the same rare [S-Rank – Life Code] ability that Tiamat possessed:
[A-Rank – Red God Priest: You can receive blessings from the Red God by devoutly sacrificing epic-level lives.]
[D-Rank – Mighty] appeared to be an evolved form of [C-Rank – Brave], unlocked when his base vitality surpassed 100.
But Aegon combed through all of it—there was nothing that hinted at resurrection.
When Daenys saw Aegon gently shake his head, she immediately understood. Disappointment clouded her features, and her gaze slowly drifted back to Gaemon's now-lifeless body.
"We should bury our brother," Daenys said softly.
"Should we use regular fire or dragonfire?"
As Aegon spoke, he slowly stood and began gathering dry branches from nearby.
"Dragonfire—Tiamat's," Daenys replied, joining the search for wood to build the pyre. "Dreamshade's breath could damage the soul. If there's even the slightest chance my brother could be brought back one day, I don't want his soul harmed."
"All right," Aegon nodded, continuing his task.
As they searched the area, both of them came across the two Valyrian half-hand swords Gaemon had used in his lifetime. These weren't the famed blades of House Targaryen—Blackfyre or Dark Sister—but rather Valyrian steel swords Gaemon's mother had purchased at great cost from the Freehold.
Aegon moved to lay them beside Gaemon's body.
But Daenys stopped him. "Since he entrusted the family—and... me—to you, you should keep the swords he used every day."
Aegon nodded slightly in response.
Then he called over Tiamat, who was still feasting not far away. The massive dragon lumbered closer, and her great snout turned toward Gaemon's body laid atop the wooden pyre.
"Dracarys," Aegon commanded solemnly.
With a roar, Tiamat unleashed a searing torrent of flame. The fire surged forward in a massive pillar nearly ten meters thick, instantly engulfing Gaemon's body.
The wood piled around him ignited in an instant, reduced to charcoal and ash as the intense heat melted everything in its path.
"That's enough, Tiamat!" Aegon quickly called out. Daenys still held a faint hope that Gaemon might somehow be revived—he couldn't let the body be completely destroyed.
Daenys stepped forward, hands clasped tightly at her chest, her expression tense as she approached the burning pyre.
She drew her sword and gently prodded at the remains—but gasped in shock. The upper half of Gaemon's body had already been entirely melted by the dragonfire, fused with the scorched earth beneath. What little was left of his lower body had turned to brittle charcoal, crumbling into powder at the slightest touch.
Her sword slipped from her fingers and fell to the ground with a sharp clang.
Aegon saw and closed his eyes.
Tiamat turned her head and asked through their mental link, "Should I continue?"
Aegon gave a small wave of his hand.
He signaled her to stop and return to her meal.
Aegon stepped beside Daenys, gently wrapping his arms around her trembling frame. He kissed her forehead softly but said nothing more.
...
After the funeral, Aegon and Daenys set off to find the young dragon Gaemon had tamed. It had let out a sorrowful cry when Gaemon died, but hadn't appeared since—perhaps it had been badly injured.
They searched in the direction of the cry and eventually found the little black dragon stuck in the thick branches of a massive banyan tree. One of its wings had been pierced by a branch, but it didn't look seriously hurt.
Daenys quickly called for Dreamshade.
Dreamshade bit through the branches one by one, then pulled away the banyan roots wrapped around the young dragon. Once freed, the little black dragon immediately bolted off in the direction of Gaemon's cremation site.
Aegon and Daenys hurried after it—only to watch, stunned, as the dragon began devouring Gaemon's ashes.
Daenys instinctively moved to stop it, but after a moment's thought, she let it be.
Aegon considered touching the young dragon to see if anything had changed in its talents after all that had happened.
But the dragon was deeply wary of strangers. The moment Dreamshade's attention wavered, it slipped away and vanished on its own.
By then, Tiamat had nearly finished devouring the brown adult dragon. Her swollen belly bulged high, clearly too full to eat the blue dragon next.
Aegon instructed her to kill the blue dragon but leave it for later.
He told Tiamat to guard the hoard of dragon meat and rest.
Meanwhile, he and Daenys flew on Dreamshade to a wide, open hillside where they built a simple shelter. It gave Tiamat time to digest—and gave them a vantage point to watch for any signs of other dragonriders.
That night, the two of them huddled together to sleep.
Aegon didn't make a single inappropriate move toward Daenys. What happened last time, after Gaemon's death, had been a moment of emotion and confusion—nothing more.
He wasn't the kind of man who would take advantage of Daenys in the midst of grief.
The night passed quietly.
...
At dawn, as Aegon and Daenys awoke and looked down from the hilltop, they were stunned.
Tiamat had already eaten most of the blue dragon—nearly all of it was gone. She had feasted through the entire night without pause.
Aegon couldn't help but marvel at his dragon's absurd appetite.
Of course, she had eaten far too much. Now, thoroughly stuffed, she spent the entire day in a deep, rumbling sleep, snoring in contentment.
By the second day, Tiamat had cleaned the blue dragon down to the bone—not a single scrap remained.
Aegon quickly urged the lazy, sluggish Tiamat to leave the "crime scene" and relocated her to a secluded mountain hollow where she could quietly digest her massive meal.
Two full days passed before she had completely digested the two adult dragons.
And the results were astonishing.
Tiamat had grown noticeably—her body nearly an entire size larger. Her total length now reached a jaw-dropping 159 meters, with a huge increase in all her physical stats.
She had grown by nearly a fifth in just a few days.
Daenys watched the transformation with wide eyes, utterly speechless. The rate at which Tiamat was evolving completely defied natural law.
Aegon carefully inspected her talent panel. Her [Greedy Feast] ability had now reached level 3/10.
...
With that, they resumed their original dragon-hunting plan.
So far, no one from Bloodsource Peak had come looking for them, giving Aegon and Daenys the chance to keep going.
But the deadline for the Dragon Taming Tournament—just half a month—was drawing near.
Time was running out.
They had to move quickly.