Four days earlier, inside a worm tunnel fifty meters beneath the southern part of Meereen.
"The sun has completely gone out." Jenny looked at the big-nosed "Leo" beneath her, her expression somewhat dejected.
"Didn't it go out long ago?" Tyrion focused all his attention on Jenny's flushed and charming face.
"It's like the firewood in a bonfire. Even after the fire is extinguished, embers in the ashes keep burning for a while."
"So the sky is completely dark now?" Tyrion was stunned for a moment, then sighed. "Come to think of it, I haven't been to the surface for a long time."
"Tomorrow we will leave Slaver's Bay and return to the Land of Long Summer to rebuild Oros!" Jenny stroked his chubby face as if making a promise.
"Tomorrow?" Tyrion almost sprang upright as if rising from a sickbed, causing Jenny to let out an enchanting moan.
"Don't worry. The Long Night won't affect the Land of Long Summer. The shores of the Smoking Sea might even become more pleasant in climate." Jenny said dreamily.
When he touched a tentacle-like, scorching red worm, Tyrion shivered, then lay back down and asked anxiously, "Have you given up on your plan to take revenge on Slaver's Bay?"
"I didn't expect the sun to go out so quickly. It has started snowing in Slaver's Bay now, and if the dragon worms go to the surface they will just be seeking death.
"In fact, over the past few days those dragon worms have already become sickly because of the dropping temperature. Staying in Slaver's Bay any longer won't accomplish anything. We might as well return." Jenny said helplessly.
"What about the remaining elephant troops and the war elephants?" Tyrion asked.
"Hmph. My last few raids on villages all failed. What does that tell you?" Jenny said coldly.
"Didn't we already catch the traitor among us? If you're still worried, we can carry out another purge." Tyrion said through clenched teeth.
He himself was extremely enthusiastic about hunting down traitors. During the half month since the Dragon Queen left Slaver's Bay, more than a dozen officers whom he judged impossible to win over had already become dragon-worm feed under the charge of being spies.
If the purges continued, he could gather all the elephant troops firmly under his control. Perhaps he would not even need the Dragon Queen's help to turn on Jenny and escape alive.
"Continuing the purge has no meaning now. Anyone with a functioning brain knows the allied forces are already doomed. Even a fool should realize that following me any further will lead to no good result.
"They fear me now, but they do not respect me. Their loyalty cannot be guaranteed at all.
"Before we leave, I will have the dragon worms devour all of them. That way, no traitor will survive." Jenny said gloomily.
"Devour all of them..." Tyrion became excited.
Jenny frowned, dissatisfied, and wriggled slightly. Only after it revived again did she show a satisfied expression.
Tyrion felt like a piece of sugarcane pulp being chewed again and again. The juice had been sucked dry, leaving only tasteless, fibrous strands.
"Actually, we could make use of those wastes..." Just before even his brain felt squeezed dry, he came up with a good idea.
Four days later, in the present, three hours after the Dragon Queen entered the tunnel.
"I didn't expect you to come here personally." Jenny was overjoyed.
On a long slope four meters wide, the two sides stood facing each other twenty meters apart.
The Dragon Queen stood at the bottom of the slope, preparing to climb up when Jenny suddenly appeared on the incline with a group of elephant soldiers.
It was not that the Dragon Queen had failed to send ravens ahead to scout. Rather, the dragon worms had burrowed out another tunnel from the earthen wall of the upper slope, allowing the elephant soldiers behind it to appear midway and block the path by surprise.
The Dragon Queen sat on her small silver horse without retreating. Sixty armored knights immediately dismounted and formed a shield formation before and behind her.
"Hahaha! I originally planned to capture the Earl of the Broken Chains, but I never expected the Dragon Queen herself to come. The Battle of Meereen isn't over yet. Now I will turn the tables!" The short, big-nosed general rode on an elephant, holding a hand crossbow as he laughed excitedly.
His excitement and joy came from the heart. His big nose was so red it almost resembled a lantern.
"You were planning to ambush me?" The Earl of the Broken Chains was both furious and frightened, and deeply shaken.
Previously, the Great Bear had been responsible for searching the worm tunnels. When the Long Night descended, the Great Bear followed the Dragon Queen to Westeros. The task was then changed to the Earl of the Broken Chains escorting a group of allied prisoners to map the worm tunnels around Meereen.
If the Dragon Queen had not returned, in a few days he really would have brought people here to investigate the tunnels.
Jenny glanced back at Prince Leo on the elephant and said excitedly, "Luckily I listened to you and didn't leave immediately.
"At first I only wanted to kill a few high-ranking officers from Slaver's Bay to vent my anger. I never expected heaven to favor me so much and deliver such a big fish right to my door. Hahaha!
"You're right. The Battle of Meereen isn't over yet. The final victor will be us!"
"A big fish? Perhaps it's a shark." Seeing the herd of elephants behind Jenny and then the long crossbow in the elephant commander's hands, Dany smiled meaningfully.
"Even a shark will be made into a bowl of shark-fin rice." Leo waved his hand crossbow and shouted loudly.
"What is shark-fin rice..." Jenny was momentarily confused.
"A specialty dish of Slaver's Bay that I invented. Your man can eat three big bowls in one meal. Hahaha!" Dany threw her head back and laughed.
Amid the laughter, five successive dragon-spirit soul-destroying attacks were launched, targeting only Jenny.
As Jenny concentrated on resisting the soul attack, the elephant commander shouted, "All troops, charge!"
This was not the tactic they had agreed on earlier. What was Leo doing? Why was he making a decision on his own?
Jenny was filled with doubt.
In the next instant, Leo skillfully raised his hand crossbow and pulled the trigger.
With a sharp whistle, a steel bolt glowing with an eerie blue light shot out like lightning.
Before the Dragon Queen, who had expected this, and under the stunned gazes of everyone else, the pencil-thick bolt pierced through the back of Jenny's head.
The powerful kinetic force made her stumble forward.
With a dull thud, the bolt pierced straight through her skull, with a finger-length section protruding from the nasolabial fold beside her nose and lips.
The poison on the arrowhead turned her blood dark blue as it flowed across Jenny's red lips and pale chin.
This poison had been personally prepared by Jenny herself at Leo's request.
"Daenerys is a powerful extraordinary being with extremely strong recovery ability. Ordinary crossbow bolts would have no effect even if they hit her.
"Do you have any poison specifically meant to deal with fire mages?"
"Prepare yourself for me. I will personally kill that bitch!" At that time, Prince Rio gritted his teeth and said to Jenny beneath him.
—Rio betrayed me. He is the spy!
Coldness and numbness froze Jenny's thoughts.
"Raaah~~~" The giant elephant raised its head, lifted its front legs, and slammed them down heavily onto the back of the "dragon-worm monster" Jenny, who was struggling on the ground.
It was like a two-hundred-pound fat man wearing brand-new leather shoes stepping on a fresh pile of soft dung.
"Splatch!" Liquid splattered everywhere, and shattered bones flew about.
"Move aside, I'm one of you. I'm an undercover agent!" The elephant that had just stepped over "Jenny's muck" continued running downhill. Prince Rio, on the elephant's back, shouted loudly to the Dragon Queen and her group.
"Big Black," Dany murmured softly.
"Buzz~~~" Just as the elephant was about to crash into the shield wall, a tiny red light appeared before the shields. In an instant, the red dot stretched out into a red mirror.
The elephant's driver and Tyrion were shocked and confused. The scenery before them suddenly changed. The cramped underground tunnel turned into a vast snowy plain.
"Whoosh—" The wind carried flakes of snow out from the mirror and onto their faces. It felt cold and icy.
It was not an illusion.
In the next moment, the giant elephant charged into the mirror.
Tyrion looked around in confusion. Snow covered the wheat fields, leaving an endless expanse of white. On the low hills beside the field stood a ferocious giant beast.
"Big Black? What is going on?"
"Raaah, raaah~~~" The calls of the elephant herd came from behind. When he turned around, he saw the dim and narrow underground tunnel again. The elephant soldiers who had been persuaded by the dwarf did not hesitate. Driving their elephants, they stepped over "Jenny's muck," rushed down the slope, entered the mirror world, and came to their commander's side.
Tyrion's expression was dazed.
Not long afterward, the Dragon Queen and sixty knights killed the die-hard members among the elephant soldiers and came to Jenny's side.
Dany covered her nose and looked at the muddy remains on the ground, so crushed that even making beef balls from them would be impossible. She muttered, "I had originally prepared a trump card for you, but it seems I won't need it."
"Pop~~" From the paste made of black mud, green viscera, red flesh, white bones, and golden hair mixed together, a dragon worm the length of a chopstick suddenly emerged. Then two, three… a whole group of dragon worms crawled out.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss~~~" The knights around the Dragon Queen did not say a word. They swung their Valyrian steel swords, cutting the dragon worms in half one by one. After a brief struggle, they completely lost all movement.
"Boom~~~" Flames burned fiercely. The dragon worm corpses and the muddy remains on the ground turned into ashes and a massive amount of spiritual essence and divinity.
A satisfied smile appeared on Dany's face.
"Aaah, aaah, aaah~~~~~" At the very instant all the dragon worms died, out in the snowy fields, Tyrion clutched his head and let out agonized howls like a woman suffering a painful childbirth.
"Your Majesty, save me, save me! It's coming out. It's coming out! Save me!" This was probably the most miserable scream Tyrion had ever made in his life.
The spatial gate had already closed, but her connection with Big Black's dragon spirit had not been severed. Through Big Black's eyes and ears, Dany could see and hear the dwarf's wailing.
It was truly miserable.
However, she did not return immediately.
Jenny had prepared a huge trap for her. The two hundred elephant soldiers were only an appetizer and also cannon fodder. The real trump cards were the dragon worms hidden above, underground, behind them, and inside the walls on both sides.
Especially the dragon worms above their heads.
According to the original plan, they would collapse the tunnel, causing hundreds or even thousands of tons of earth and rock to fall. Even if it did not crush Dany to death, it would bury her alive deep underground until she eventually suffocated.
But before any of those methods could be used, the "Little Prince of the Long-Armed Crossbow" had already completed a triple kill.
Now that the dragon worms had lost their master, they were confused and directionless. Naturally, Dany had to subdue them before they scattered and fled.
Therefore, after delaying for more than half an hour, dispersing the mark belonging to Balerion within the worms' consciousness and leaving behind her own will, Dany finally rode her little silver horse and slowly returned to the surface along the path she had come from.
"Clack, clack, clack." After howling for more than an hour, Tyrion was completely exhausted. His voice was hoarse, and he could only make weak groaning sounds as his upper and lower teeth chattered.
At the moment, he was out in the frozen wilderness beyond the city.
The group of elephant soldiers he had subdued stood nearby. Because of Big Black's cold stare, none of them dared to move.
"Help, Your Majesty. Help me!" Finally, Tyrion saw the Dragon Queen's iron boots slowly approaching from the distance and cried out with the last of his strength.
"Are you stupid? Jenny's will is trying to seize your body. Couldn't you activate the Paladin's Mark and use the power of the Mother to drive her out?" Dany kicked away his reaching right hand and said irritably.
"The Mother…" Tyrion muttered with a twisted face. "I'm really stupid. Truly. I only knew—"
"Wait!" Just as Tyrion was murmuring and about to activate the Paladin's Mark, a thought flashed through Dany's mind. She bent down and tapped his forehead with a finger, dispersing his connection with the Seven Gods.
"Aaah!" His scream became even more miserable. Blood even seeped from the corners of his eyes. "Help me! Why are you killing me? I risked my life for you. I served as your spy. Dragon Queen, you can't discard me once the work is done!"
"Don't worry. Don't be afraid. I won't harm you, nor will I let you be harmed. On the contrary, you are fortunate. You are about to receive a great opportunity!" Dany said with a smiling face.
(End of chapter)
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