"No, this is impossible!" The Stitch-Cherry Monster shook its head repeatedly, its scorched and twisted face filled with terror and disbelief.
"You already self-destructed your soul core. How can you still revive?" It let out a fearful wail from the depths of its soul.
As it howled, it also tried to withdraw from the Death World.
In the Great Raven's eyes, the figure of the Pale Moon Chu Maiden gradually blurred, as if she were about to vanish from this world.
"An ant has no right to speak to a giant dragon!" the Great Raven cried out. A soul-destroying strike, sharp as a sword, cleaved into the center of her brow, causing her attempt to leave the Death World to falter.
Then the Great Raven dove down, its beak wreathed in gray-red flames, and viciously pierced through her forehead.
From the hole between her brows, the raven plucked out a pale gray shadow.
That was the Pale Moon Chu Maiden's divine soul.
With her divine soul torn from her body, her remaining husk immediately went rigid and motionless, bobbing with the gray waves like a piece of driftwood.
"No! Spare me, show mercy, Dragon Queen. Please, have compassion and let me go!" The shadow struggled desperately on the raven's beak like an insect caught by a bird, letting out shrill, miserable cries.
The Great Raven landed on the Pale Moon Chu Maiden's corpse, withdrew the divine flames from its beak, and asked calmly, "What is your relationship with R'hllor, and why did you join Him in ambushing me?"
The Stitch-Cherry Monster said regretfully, "I have only met R'hllor a few times. We were no more than nodding acquaintances.
At the time, I was gathering the souls of drowned sailors at sea. He came to my temple in Braavos, sought me out, and asked me to help with a small matter. Then…"
"I don't believe it. Just a few meetings, and you were willing to sell your life for Him?"
"It's true," the Stitch-Cherry Monster swore solemnly. "I swear I did not speak a single lie. He and I are both deities of the Free Cities. Over several thousand years, it's inevitable that we would cross paths from time to time.
But I have no relationship with you at all, and you act arrogantly and make yourself detestable. Uh!"
Before it could finish, sparks burst from the raven's beak that clamped its divine soul, and the words in its mouth came to an abrupt halt.
"I act arrogantly? I make myself detestable?" If she were not in spirit form at this moment, she would definitely be grinding her teeth like the Stag King.
"No, I misspoke. Dragon Queen, please spare me!" the gray shadow begged.
Dany suddenly regained her composure and said coldly, "Explain it clearly. Why do you say I am arrogant and detestable?"
"For thousands of years, you are the only one who, as a mortal, has slaughtered gods on a large scale and even taken pride in it. We all know the origin of the Valyrian steel bells braided into your hair. So many demonic gods. We… they believe you are extremely arrogant," the gray shadow said weakly.
"If those evil gods hadn't come looking for trouble, how would I have had the chance to kill them? If you all behaved yourselves, I wouldn't bother with you at all," Dany said, against her own conscience.
"You… you're lying," the gray shadow blurted out the truth despite itself.
"How am I lying?" Dany asked curiously.
"You can't deceive us. You want to kill the Black Goat of Qohor. You also want to kill me. You want to kill the goddess of lust of Lys, and all the gods of the Free Cities. All of us are targets you plan to eliminate. You will usher in Ragnarök for the gods!" the gray shadow said angrily.
"How do you know this?" Dany grew even more alarmed.
The Pale Moon Chu Maiden fell silent.
"Speak clearly, and I'll spare your life. Have you heard the saying, 'A Targaryen's word is as firm as a mountain'?" Dany said.
"They… they will… I dare not say," the Pale Moon Chu Maiden said with difficulty.
"They?" A glint flashed in Dany's eyes, and she immediately guessed that there was very likely an "anti–Dragon Mother" evil organization quietly forming among the various gods and demons.
"As the saying goes, better a dead companion than oneself. Your own life is cherished only by you, and it only has meaning to you," she said quietly.
After a long silence, the Pale Moon Chu Maiden finally spoke softly. "When you harbor killing intent toward gods and demons, all gods and demons will sense impending danger.
Over these years, I have repeatedly felt a great crisis signaling the end of my life, yet I did not know why, until I encountered several other gods and discovered that they too had similar premonitions.
You are only in your teens, so you may not understand how we feel.
Having lived for thousands, even tens of thousands of years, we have always stood above all beings like creators themselves. For the first time since our birth, we encountered the threat of death. That feeling, I was terrified, I was resentful, I cursed it, I refused to wait for death. I wanted to eliminate the threat in advance.
Later on, the high priest of the Black Goat of Qohor came to my temple and told me that the source of the gods' calamity lay with you, Daenerys Targaryen.
Then we divined together, and the results were all the same. On some day in the near future, you would bring an end to all of us gods.
You are the great calamity that befalls the gods at the end of this era.
So when R'hllor called for me, I came.
Even knowing that you are only a single divine thought at present, as long as we could weaken your power, we… all of us were willing."
At this moment, Dany's emotions were exceedingly complicated.
First, she regretted it, regretted her loose tongue, repeatedly shouting about her plans to purge the many evil gods of the Free Cities.
She regretted even more that she had underestimated the gods and demons of this world.
Previously, she had always regarded them as "canned dragon feed" stored across the various Free Cities. When she had the time, she would bring a group of underlings, take out the cans, pry open the lids, and feed the dragon hatchlings.
But those evil gods were not cans without thought or agency.
Dany was also helpless.
Foretelling the future, what an exalted ability.
Yet in this world, prophecy was practically commonplace among the extraordinary.
Even dogs, the Stark direwolves, could sense danger in advance.
Even a lowly forest witch who sets up a street stall selling toon medicine and moon-blending tea can easily foretell the fate of a kingdom, such as the toad witch who prophesied Cersei's entire life.
"In fact, I'm the type who talks nonsense all the time. Back then I was just talking casually. I really had no intention of provoking you in the future.
Take now, for example. I already finished the Battle of Meereen, but I've been busy dealing with the Others ever since, and I completely forgot what I said back then. If you hadn't reminded me…"
At this point, Dany suddenly froze. If she had not encountered the Pale Moon Maiden and had not heard the prophecy that the gods knew she would be ended by her, she would most likely have truly cast those evil gods to the back of her mind, at most dealing with the Black Goat of Qohor that had been causing her trouble.
But because of the evil gods' prophecy, and because of the hostility brought by that prophecy, she instead had no choice but to help them fulfill it. This was…
"Prophecy is actually a kind of choice. The future is uncertain. Among countless possible destinies, your prophecy chooses the one you see and believe," Dany said in a strange tone as she looked at the gray shadow on the beak.
"What do you mean?" the Pale Moon Maiden asked blankly.
"It means that if you don't seek death, you won't die," the great raven cried once, then asked, "So tell me, who exactly are you all? Can you form an alliance?"
"From the Narrow Sea to the Summer Sea, and onward to the city-states of the Jade Sea, any demon god who has sensed a life-and-death crisis has made contact. All of them have set their sights on you.
As long as you act as the prophecy foretells and deliberately begin slaughtering any one of us, the remaining demon gods will believe the prophecy has begun. Dozens, even hundreds of demon gods will form an 'Anti–Evil God Alliance' to deal with you together," the Pale Moon Maiden said pointedly.
Dany heard the threat in those words. If she killed the Pale Moon Maiden, it would mean that the prophecy of "the Dragon Queen ushering in Ragnarok of the Gods" had already been fulfilled. The other demon gods would then have identified the source of the threat and, of course, would not sit still and wait for death.
"That's not fair, is it? When the Long Night descends, a large number of demon gods are bound to fall. They sense a life-and-death crisis. What does that have to do with me?
There are actually over a hundred demon gods?
I swear, if you hadn't told me, I wouldn't even have known there were so many evil gods in the world."
"And why isn't it an 'Anti–Dragon Mother Alliance'? What does an 'Anti–Evil God Alliance' even mean? Am I an evil god?" Dany demanded angrily.
"Don't you know that you are the Child of the Epoch at the end of this era?" the Pale Moon Maiden asked in confusion.
"Of course. Besides me, who else is qualified to be the Child of the Epoch?" Dany said proudly.
"That's exactly it. All the calamities at the end of an era are naturally laid at the feet of the Child of the Epoch. That can't be wrong.
During the last Long Night, the Child of the Epoch, Azor Ahai, held a red sword and killed many servants of the dark gods in the Far East. You will probably do the same."
Dany fell silent.
"As for an 'Anti–Dragon Mother Alliance,' mortals have already used that name and even lost with it. Why would gods care for it?
Besides, don't you think you are quite evil?"
"Leave everything else aside. I freed slaves and saved countless civilians. How is that evil?" Dany said coldly.
"Who cares whether you free slaves or how many civilians you save? We gods don't care at all.
It's like a farmer deciding not to eat roast chicken tonight and instead cooking chicken stewed with mushrooms. Another farmer who sees this would neither think him kind nor consider him evil."
"Then what do you care about?" Dany asked calmly.
"We care about what you have done to the gods, or what you are going to do to the gods!"
At first, the Pale Moon Maiden tried to control her tone. Later, the more she spoke, the more grief-stricken she became. Her emotions spiraled out of control, and she could not help but pour out everything in her heart.
"You are also a god, but compared to us, you are so utterly incompatible. If you were merely unconventional, that would be fine. But instead, for no reason at all, you want to slaughter innocent gods like us.
Among humans, those who kill the innocent are considered evil people, are they not?
Among gods, when you slaughter innocent gods, why should you not be considered an evil god?
Moreover, you are not planning to kill one or two innocent gods. You intend to wipe out all gods who seek no conflict and live in harmony with the world.
Therefore, someone as utterly deranged as you is not only an evil god, but the most terrifying evil god in history, the king of evil gods, the Evil King, Daenerys!"
Hearing this, Dany was rendered completely speechless.
Among a group of evil gods, the only god who was not an evil god, the god of justice, instead became the evil king in the eyes of the evil gods.
Afterward, Dany asked in detail exactly which "gods of justice" had developed the idea of dealing with the "Evil King."
She carefully wrote them all down in a little notebook and secretly swore that she would definitely help them realize their dreams and bring the prophecy to fulfillment.
The result left her both pleased and worried.
Including the dark god east of Asshai, there were indeed more than a hundred evil gods harboring ill intentions toward her.
As for why the Pale Moon Maiden knew the names of those evil gods, it was because she was the "postman" among the gods.
The world is vast, and each god has their own territory. They usually do not like to travel around.
But the Pale Moon Maiden is the death god of sailors. Her domain is not on land, but spans the world's major sea routes.
Her range of activity is wide, but her power is not strong, because sailors are an "unconventional" profession, and their proportion among humans is too small.
Think about it and it becomes clear. In a feudal society, the main productive force is naturally concentrated in agriculture. How many people could be involved in maritime transport?
If there were a "death god of farmers," that would be truly terrifying.
Moreover, not all sailors worship the Pale Moon Maiden. For example, Westerosi sailors worship the Smith and the Stranger.
(End of chapter)
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