Rustle, rustle!
In the Vale, groups of commoners were sifting through the ruins of the Eyrie.
They were not looking for survivors, but for valuables buried within.
After all, the Eyrie was the ancestral stronghold of the Vale's lordly families, and finding even a few items would be enough for these commoners to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
During this grand treasure hunt, someone would occasionally let out a cheer filled with joyful surprise.
Whoosh, whoosh!
It wasn't until the sound of giant dragon wings tearing through the air reached their ears that these commoners, who had been solely focused on searching the ground for treasure, realized that two massive, terrifying dragons had been hovering above them for an unknown amount of time.
Jacaerys, his face full of gloom, did not stop these commoners, who were like scavenging vultures of the Vale, but instead offered a reward of a thousand golden dragons to encourage them to search for any clues about Rhaenyra and the others.
Two days!
Jacaerys, along with Womax and Silverwing, circled the ruins of the Eyrie for a full two days.
As time passed, he knew the chances of Rhaenyra and the others being alive were becoming increasingly slim.
Because if they were alive, they wouldn't fail to show themselves after seeing Womax.
The third day, which was the seventh day after the Eyrie fell.
A commoner from the Vale found an ugly golden circlet in the ruins, melted to the point where it could only barely be recognized as a crown.
After promising the commoner that he could go to the Red Keep to claim his reward, Jacaerys took the circlet, climbed onto Womax's new dragon saddle, and flew towards King's Landing.
In the Mountains of the Moon, Ser Erryk, along with the two princes, hid anxiously in the bushes.
Nearby, savage highlander clansmen with ferocious faces, wrapped in animal furs, were searching extensively.
After the Eyrie fell, these wildlings began to openly loot everywhere.
Trapped between a rock and a hard place, Ser Erryk could only watch as Womax and Silverwing flew away in the sky.
That afternoon, Jacaerys returned to the Red Keep in King's Landing with the two dragons.
"Is there still no news of Daemon?"
Throwing the golden circlet to Korman and instructing him to have the Grand Maester of the Red Keep examine it, Jacaerys asked Stone, who was beside him, with an expressionless face.
Stone, who had followed Jacaerys for many years, knew his current state and immediately replied cautiously, "Yes, Your Majesty.
However, many people saw Lord Daemon riding Caraxes, so there shouldn't be any problems."
"Hmm, you may leave! Let me be alone for a while."
"As you command!"
Stone bowed to Jacaerys, who was sitting alone on the Iron Throne, then turned and left. As he was about to leave the Throne Room, he vaguely heard a sigh from behind him.
Not long after, Korman brought Jacaerys the Grand Maester's assessment from the Red Keep.
This golden circlet was the golden crown that Viserys I had once worn.
Hearing this expected result, Jacaerys's eyes instantly became sharp as knives.
...
Oldtown is the largest and oldest city in the Seven Kingdoms, built by the First Men long before the invasion of the Andals.
It is located at the southwestern tip of The Reach, at the mouth of the Honeywine River where it flows into the Whispering Sound and the Sunset Sea.
Due to its superior geographical location, Oldtown is the second most important port city after King's Landing.
And the most prominent building in Oldtown is a tall tower built on an island at the mouth of the sea, with a raging fire burning incessantly at its peak day and night.
Its name is the Hightower, the ancestral stronghold of House Hightower and their sigil!
The Hightower serves both as a castle and a lighthouse. It is the tallest building in all of Westeros, even taller than The Wall.
Some claim that standing at the top of the Hightower allows one to see The Wall in the North.
This claim is, of course, false, but standing at the top of the Hightower does indeed allow one to see very far.
For example, the sentinels of House Hightower can now see three dragons flying rapidly from the northeast.
Clang, clang, clang!
Urgent alarm bells rang in the Hightower, and soldiers of House Hightower hurried to their defensive positions.
The Hightower is nearly 800 feet (about 244 meters) tall, divided into seven levels from bottom to top.
Dense siege weapons are installed on the battlements of each level, and in addition to large and small windows, there are many hidden firing ports on The Walls.
This lighthouse, representing the pinnacle of architectural art in the Seven Kingdoms, is actually a giant tower armed to the teeth.
The alarm bells of the Hightower were not only alerting the soldiers of House Hightower; the entire defense force of Oldtown was scrambling to prepare for battle at the sound of the bells.
Standing high, seeing far. The warning function of the Hightower was demonstrated to the fullest at this moment.
It wasn't until all of Oldtown's defenses were ready that the three dragons in the northeastern sky finally entered the territory of Oldtown.
Boom, boom, boom!
The first to attack were not the soldiers of House Hightower in the Hightower, but the city gate defenders in the northeast of Oldtown, who guarded the Rose Road.
Although the city gates and walls of Oldtown were not equipped with scorpion crossbows, the range and power of these large ballistas, improved by the Citadel, had been enhanced.
Roar~~
With a dragon roar that echoed throughout Oldtown, the three dragons in the sky immediately formed a line and swooped down towards the Oldtown city gate at high speed.
Clang, clang, clang!
The thick, long bolts fired by the improved ballistas struck the Vermithrax, which was over sixty meters long and had a wingspan of over one hundred thirty meters, at the forefront.
But these thick, long bolts were completely unable to penetrate its defenses and were directly deflected by the Vermithrax's sturdy scales.
The other two silver-gray dragons, which looked somewhat similar but differed significantly in size, didn't need to dodge at all and simply followed behind the Vermithrax as it swooped down.
Hoo, hoo, hoo!
The Vermithrax, leading the charge, opened its massive maw, and black-brown Dracarys covered the city walls of the Oldtown city gate in a fan shape.
City gate defenders and improved ballistas melted like candles under this terrifying black-brown Dracarys.
And this was only the attack of the first dragon; there were still two other dragons hidden behind it.
Whoosh, whoosh!
Two streams of silver-gray Dracarys of different shades erupted in the sky near the Oldtown city gate.
One stream of Dracarys, close to dark gray, exploded like an umbrella, covering the city gate and the residential area behind it with a super large attack range.
Large numbers of commoners, ignited by the dark gray Dracarys, fled from the residential area, screaming and rolling and struggling on the ground.
Boom, bang!
Another stream of Dracarys, lighter in color and leaning towards silver-white, burned for a very short time, but its super strong impact instantly destroyed the city walls of the Oldtown city gate.
The defenses of the northeastern gate of Oldtown were completely dismantled by these three dragons in just half a minute.
But they did not fly directly towards the iconic Hightower,
but instead hovered in the sky over the northeastern area of Oldtown, flapping their wings, and then, spewing Dracarys of various colors, they burned the ground buildings inch by inch.
From this, it was clear that their purpose was to completely erase Oldtown from the map of the Seven Kingdoms.
Clang, clang, clang!
The actions of these three dragons, using Dracarys to cleanse the ground, directly caused urgent alarm bells to ring throughout Oldtown.
Unlike the battle readiness alarm bells that rang only in the Hightower, the ringing of all town bells signified only one thing.
That was that Oldtown was facing a crisis of destruction, and all townspeople could use various means to escape for their lives.
The northeastern area of Oldtown was built on land, consisting of ground urban areas made up of large and small streets paved with cobblestones.
Groups of commoners from the ground urban areas, either with their families or clutching various valuables, fled towards the Whispering Sound harbor in the southwest.
Oldtown, with a population second only to King's Landing, had nearly three hundred thousand commoners. In this chaotic crush, hundreds of ground urban commoners were trampled to death after falling.
Under the ruthless and scorching Dracarys cleansing of the three dragons, countless buildings and commoners in this ground urban area were directly burned into charred ashes.
And from the central area of Oldtown onwards, it was a riverine urban area composed of the vast main stream of the Honeywine River and various trickling tributaries.
The riverine urban area was somewhat similar to Venice in a previous life, where the streets in the urban area became crisscrossing waterways, and the means of transportation were boats of various sizes.
Hoo, hoo, hoo!
The three dragons, continuously spewing Dracarys of various colors, slowly flew over the riverine urban area.
However, except for the Vermithrax's black-brown Dracarys, which could burn on the river surface for a long time, the Dracarys of the other two dragons could not reach the boats on the waterways.
Therefore, the survival rate of the commoners in the riverine urban area was significantly higher than that of the ground urban area in the northeast.
Jacaerys, seated on the dragon saddle, did not pay attention to the commoners escaping by boat towards the river mouth.
His goal today was not to harvest term points, but to completely destroy House Hightower and its foundation, Oldtown.
If efficiency in destroying Oldtown's buildings was the only factor, Silverwing with its super large attack range was first, the newly subjugated Seasmoke with its unique Dracarys impact ranked second, and finally Womax.
There was no decent resistance force throughout the Oldtown urban area, and the three dragons quickly burned down nearly half of Oldtown.
Boom, boom, boom!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
As Womax and the other two dragons moved towards the western part of Oldtown, batches of thick, long bolts and Stones came whistling towards them.
Unknowingly, they had entered the attack range of the Hightower.
In that case, let's melt this annoying stumbling block first!
With a change of thought, Jacaerys mentally instructed Womax to control the two dragon servants with a dragon roar and charge directly towards the Hightower of House Hightower.
Whoosh, whoosh!
After the second Devour (devouring) and transformation, Womax could be considered invincible in the conventional sense.
Except for the scorpion crossbows and armor-piercing bolts in King's Landing, other ranged weapons could not penetrate its sturdy scales at all.
Womax endured the thick, long bolts head-on and flew with Silverwing and Seasmoke to the very top of the Hightower, the area with the bonfire that was said to never extinguish.
Hoo, hoo, hoo!
Jacaerys controlled Silverwing and Seasmoke through Womax, hovering around the Hightower in a triangular formation.
Then, almost simultaneously, they spewed their respective Dracarys towards the bonfire area at the very top of the Hightower.
Womax's black-brown Dracarys directly melted and softened the sturdy tower Stones supporting the Hightower.
The powerful impact brought by Seasmoke's silver-white Dracarys shattered the softened tower Stones into fragments of various sizes.
Finally, Silverwing used its large-range dark gray Dracarys to cover the fragments with raging flames.
Crash, crash, crash!
This Hightower, representing the pride, symbol, and heritage of House Hightower, continuously melted and collapsed in the three-colored Dracarys.
Ah!!!
At this moment, it no longer mattered whether you were a direct or collateral lord of House Hightower, or a soldier or servant.
You were either directly melted into charred ash by the three-colored Dracarys, or you fell from a height of over two hundred meters with pieces of flaming debris.
Plop, plop!
As this cloud-piercing Hightower melted and collapsed, countless tons of flaming debris fell into the surrounding waterways.
Innumerable fragments sank to the bottom of the waterways, even blocking the river mouth and slowly raising the overall water level.
When the Hightower was melted by Womax and the other two dragons until only the island base remained, the raised Honeywine River water began to pour back into the ground town in the northeast.
Jacaerys did not stop there, but controlled Womax and the other two dragons to continue spewing Dracarys towards the western part of Oldtown.
Because in the western part of Oldtown, in addition to various municipal institutions, there was also a building almost as famous as the Hightower, the Citadel!
As the highest institution that trained and managed all the scholars in the Seven Kingdoms,
the Citadel inherently possessed important functions such as monopolizing knowledge in the Seven Kingdoms, controlling public opinion in the Seven Kingdoms, and collecting intelligence on all lords in the Seven Kingdoms.
If possible, Jacaerys truly wanted to control such an important institution himself.
But he couldn't!
The Citadel was built by House Hightower with years of painstaking effort. The relationship between them was already inseparable and could not be easily separated.
In that case, let's destroy it all!
The Citadel was as easy to find as the Hightower, because its main entrance was flanked by two ten-meter-tall green Spinx (lion body, eagle wings, serpent tail monster) statues.
Knowledge is power!
But this power paled in comparison to the terrifying Dracarys of the dragons.
Scholars with chain links around their necks were turned into human torches by the Dracarys, and countless books containing history and knowledge were burned to charred ash by the Dracarys.
Due to the Citadel's location adjacent to the Honeywine River and the Whispering Sound, a small number of scholars managed to escape before the Citadel was completely turned into a fiery hell.
It took about half a day for Jacaerys, with the power of the three dragons, to burn this Oldtown, which had been built for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, into a barren land.
After taking revenge by burning the city, the gloom in Jacaerys's heart dissipated considerably.
He did not continue to burn the large and small boats escaping from Oldtown to the Sunset Sea, but instead flew back to King's Landing with the dragons.
Two or three days after Oldtown was burned by the three dragons, the Honeywine River water, blocked at the river mouth, flooded the entire ruins of Oldtown,
which truly erased the last trace of Oldtown from Westeros!
Thank you for the Gods' subscription! Thank you to Mai and Yuanfang for the 500 point reward, and also thank you to all the great lords who cast monthly votes.
PS: Today's update is 8000 words. In addition to the guaranteed 6000 words, the other 2000 words are accumulated monthly vote additions from the past few days.