Whoosh ~ ~ ~
A deep, resonant hum suddenly erupted from beyond the Great Hall, so profound it seemed to make the very stone walls shudder in fear.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The tremors transmitted through the stone slabs beneath their feet, growing stronger with each passing moment. The ironborn looked about in confusion and mounting dread.
The stone walls began to shake in earnest!
Aeron "Damphair" raised his head in mingled surprise and hope, his gaze darting around the chamber. Had the Drowned God answered his servant's desperate prayer at last?
The hall fell silent as a tomb.
From without came the frantic blaring of Pyke's horns. The soldiers surrounding the Great Hall cried out in fear, their voices growing ever more urgent, shrill, and desperate as they echoed down the corridors.
"Monster! Monster! Sea monster from the depths!"
The narrow window was suddenly blocked by a climbing shadow, and the strong, briny smell of the deep ocean poured into the Great Hall along with an unspeakable stench of rotting flesh and ancient malice.
The Great Hall plunged into darkness.
Half a heartbeat later, a brilliant light burst forth from the dragon crystal token in Osha's hand, illuminating the chamber.
The light revealed the darkness and horror that awaited beyond the walls.
Every eye fixed upon the window, incredulously examining the writhing white flesh and rows of circular suckers that pressed against the opening.
Were these the suckers of some enormous squid?
But they were impossibly vast! The window, wide enough to admit a man's head, couldn't frame even a single complete sucker.
Sea monster?!
"Your Grace, there is a... considerable presence outside," the warlock who maintained the magical barrier around the Great Hall reported in a voice barely above a whisper.
An understated observation if ever there was one.
The distance was already close enough for Joffrey to sense the creature with his mental perception. He knew far more precisely what now assailed Pyke's ancient stones.
The sea monster, resembling a kraken of titanic proportions, measured at least hundreds of feet from beak to tentacle tip. Its eight massive arms wrapped around the entire main fortress like a lover's embrace. Two longer hunting tentacles repeatedly contracted and extended, slamming against the outer wall of the Great Hall with terrible force.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Your Grace." The warlock's voice took on new urgency. "The stone wall fails! The divine grace wanes with each assault!"
"Release it," Joffrey commanded calmly. "Let it destroy as it will."
The king's gaze shifted to the point of the sea monster's most concentrated attack. "Crow's Eye" Euron stood precisely there, a smile playing about his blue-black lips.
Was this Crow's Eye's hidden stratagem for his early return?
A leviathan from the depths?
This development had no counterpart in the histories Joffrey knew. How had Euron acquired such a creature?
Noticing Joffrey's scrutiny, Euron offered a courtly nod. "The gods play their games, and kings wage their wars," he said, his voice carrying an edge of madness. "King Joffrey, who shall emerge victorious, I wonder?"
Crack!
The stone wall shattered with a sound like the breaking of the world, admitting both harsh sunlight and giant tentacles into the Great Hall.
Curses and exclamations erupted from every throat.
The ironborn fled en masse to the far side of the chamber, preferring proximity to their charred and steaming kinsmen over any encounter with the sea monster that now breached their sanctuary.
Only Aeron "Damphair" remained rooted in place, his arms raised in religious ecstasy as he shouted: "The Drowned God's wrath falls upon you! He sends his messenger from the abyssal deep to punish all sinners who show disrespect! The curse of the kinslayer has come to fruition! Those who defy the Drowned God shall be cast into the watery hell!"
The priest's curses encompassed nearly all present.
"Crow's Eye" Euron curled his lips in a smile that never reached his eyes. "Little brother, behold—this is the assistant I have summoned to our aid."
Euron raised his hand in a gesture that might have been a command.
A massive tentacle shot into the crowd with terrible swiftness, wrapping around a heap of corpses and several screaming, living victims. With a sickening fluidity, it withdrew through the breach in the wall, carrying its prizes down to the churning sea below.
Shouts and pleas receded gradually, grew fainter, then disappeared entirely after a final, piercing cry.
The sea monster was feeding, like a common squid that had caught a school of fish.
The ironborn could all too easily imagine the scene taking place beyond their sight.
Euron bowed in sardonic gratitude. "My thanks, King Joffrey. Cooked meat is a rarity in the depths. My friend is most satisfied... and greatly excited by the feast you have provided."
"No! The Drowned God would never—" Aeron had collapsed now, lying prostrate upon the floor, muttering blankly as his faith crumbled before his eyes.
Joffrey remained utterly composed.
"You are not truly here," Crow's Eye stated with firm conviction.
"This is not your real body. You await at Storm's End, preparing to hunt the Black Stag. I have seen it in the flames."
Another damnable prophecy? Joffrey cursed inwardly.
"We might join forces, you and I," Crow's Eye suggested, his tone one of genuine interest. "You with your gods, and I with mine."
"Stars weep blood, setting the world aflame," Euron continued, his voice distant as though reciting words heard in a vision. "The end approaches, and in the shattering that follows, the world shall be reforged anew. All might change in the wake of destruction."
His voice dropped to a seductive whisper. "My Iron Islands combined with your Seven Kingdoms—together, we could rule the whole of this world!"
Every eye turned to the Seastone Chair, awaiting the king's response.
"I find myself... disinterested in your proposal."
Joffrey, who had been sitting upright and regal upon the ancient throne, shifted his posture. He placed one foot upon the seat, propped his chin upon his hand, and rested his other arm across his knee. He leaned against the armrest with the casual disdain of one who fears nothing.
"I propose a different game."
Joffrey lifted his chin imperiously. "My people shall be the hunters, and you the hunted prey. Should you escape this once, I shall grant you a single day's head start before the pursuit resumes. How does that sound?"
The ironborn were struck dumb by this display of arrogance. To their eyes, it seemed Crow's Eye held every advantage in this deadly contest!
"Ha!"
Crow's Eye laughed first—a single barking sound that held no mirth. Then he clutched his forehead, swaying back and forth before dissolving into hysterical laughter. "Hahahahaha!"
The enormous tentacles continued to probe the chamber for fresh victims.
Gradually, some ironborn began to join in the mockery, their numbers swelling as they sensed a shift in the tide of power.
Joffrey displayed not the slightest concern.
More traitors meant a more thorough cleansing.
As for the Crow's Eye—though unexpected developments had indeed transpired, he remained, in Joffrey's estimation, an opponent of limited consequence.
A sea monster against the magical network I have established? The comparison is laughable.
Joffrey could not identify the source of Crow's Eye's prophecies. Yet one truth remained certain: whatever visions Euron had witnessed, they were assuredly incomplete.
After all, what fool would knowingly journey to his own demise?
Joffrey's gaze lingered upon the tentacles as they wrapped around fresh corpses. A faint smile played at the corner of his mouth.
The laughter—both maniacal and sycophantic—continued for what seemed an eternity.
At length, Crow's Eye straightened his posture, his mirth vanishing as suddenly as a snuffed candle. He fixed Joffrey with a stare of cold malevolence.
The ironborn followed his lead and fell silent as the grave.
"King Joffrey," Euron said, his voice heavy with menace, "if I cannot claim you this day, then let these folk around you serve as its sustenance instead."
Euron slowly raised his arm and extended it toward the cowering ironborn.
The two tentacles already within the Great Hall began to contract, while two more massive appendages slithered toward the breach in the wall.
Joffrey chuckled softly. "Explode."
All the tentacles visible within the chamber immediately convulsed, thrashing blindly and erratically, whipping against the walls with tremendous force. Several unfortunate souls caught in their path were instantly shattered against the unyielding stone!
Whoosh ~ ~!
The deep hum sounded once more, but now carried undertones of wailing and manifest pain.
Osha gestured sharply and barked a command: "Release!"
The steam ejectors arced through the air, passing with uncanny accuracy through the gap in the stone wall to strike the monster's tentacles that hovered just beyond.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Iron fragments exploded outward, light flashed blindingly, and concussive waves surged through the confined space.
A blast of superheated air rushed into the Great Hall through the breach. A dozen more luckless ironborn were steamed alive, roasted, lacerated by flying debris, or had their internal organs ruptured by the pressure wave.
The surviving captains and lords huddled against the deepest walls, staring in disbelief at the high platform where one of the king's servants manipulated what appeared to be living metal, reshaping it into strange containers that filled with mingled water and blood.
Drowned God preserve us all...
A victorious smile played across Joffrey's lips.
After the sea monster had swallowed the first round of corpses, he had secretly infused the pile of dead flesh with the energy of fire demons, to be activated once safely within the creature's belly.
"Gluttony is a vice most foul," Joffrey observed casually, his gaze fixed upon Euron. "Would you not agree?"
Euron twisted his entire body and howled as though experiencing the sea monster's agony as his own.
Finally, in a gesture of supreme desperation, Euron tore away the leather patch covering his left eye, revealing an orb as black as sin with a livid red sclera—the eye of some fell demon from the deepest of the seven hells.
The sea monster's tentacles grew somewhat calmer at this revelation. They surged into the Great Hall, circling into a living wall of pallid flesh, occasionally striking out at random targets throughout the chamber.
The royal guards immediately formed a protective ring around Joffrey.
"Ironborn!" Euron cried, his voice carrying above the chaos. "Remember this day!"
He sprinted toward the gaping breach in the wall.
"The kraken has awakened from ancient slumber! The Iron Islands shall rule the world!"
With that final declaration, Euron leapt into the void beyond.
The giant tentacles contracted and withdrew as one, seeming to cradle their master in their embrace rather than devour him.
Whoosh!
The sea monster plunged into the depths, raising mountainous waves that crashed against Pyke's foundations and sent spray high enough to reach the broken window of the Great Hall itself.
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