Lo Quen slowly absorbed the horrifying truth.
Dragons, those mighty magical creatures, had origins far darker than he had ever imagined.
"I once thought that the birth of dragons was merely the ultimate culmination of blood magic…"
He spoke slowly.
"But I never imagined the process itself could be this abhorrent."
He raised his eyes, fixing a sharp gaze on the lingering image of the Bloodstone Emperor.
"At that time, you truly descended into complete madness."
The Bloodstone Emperor's shimmering form rippled slightly, a trace of complicated emotion flashing through his eyes.
"Yes, I was mad. Seduced by power, tempted by the Black Stone, devoured by my own craving for strength. Even now, as nothing more than a remnant lingering here, when I recall what I did back then, I still feel unable to comprehend it, and afraid."
At that moment, Ashshadow, who had been quietly standing at Lo Quen's side, suddenly let out a low, rumbling roar.
Its massive head, covered in black-and-red scales, lifted as enormous dragon eyes locked onto the Bloodstone Emperor's projection, filled with a complex, unreadable emotion.
Lo Quen felt a stir in his heart. His gaze lingered on Ashshadow's distinctive scale color, and a thought flashed through his mind.
"Black and red…"
He murmured, then looked back at the Bloodstone Emperor.
The Bloodstone Emperor's eyes also fell upon Ashshadow, and something like surprise seemed to surface on his face.
"This dragon… I can sense it. It has inherited the most fundamental blood magic, the power of the very first dragon.
Among all dragonkin, it is the closest to the source. That means its potential far exceeds that of other dragons, and it will grow far stronger than them."
Lo Quen immediately recalled how Ashshadow's egg had taken so long to hatch, as well as the dragon egg Illyrio had given him, nearly identical to Ashshadow's own.
The moment Ashshadow finally broke free of its shell, the dragon egg Illyrio had brought instantly lost all vitality, turning into a cold, lifeless stone.
When Lo Quen told the Bloodstone Emperor about this experience, there was no surprise in his reaction.
"The birth of every dragon requires the sacrifice of one of my direct descendants. Through the souls of my offspring who die prematurely, dragons are granted intelligence, preventing them from becoming mindless monsters like chimeras."
As those words fell, Lo Quen immediately thought of House Targaryen's long history of difficult births, stillbirths, and early deaths.
The souls of those Valyrian bloodlines had become the fuel that breathed life into dragon eggs.
The Bloodstone Emperor continued,
"Thus, every dragon possesses a unique soul. They are independent beings, and also the embodiment of my bloodline."
He looked once more at Ashshadow.
"And this black-and-red dragon, which inherited the core of that power, faces the harshest conditions for hatching. It requires far greater magical strength to awaken.
When the dragon egg in your possession absorbed enough magical energy to hatch first, the faint soul nurtured within the other egg of the same origin collapsed. One body cannot house two souls, and for dragons bearing the core bloodline, this rule is even more absolute."
Only then did Lo Quen fully understand why everything had unfolded the way it did.
It had never been a coincidence.
It was the cruel selection mechanism of blood magic.
At that moment, the Bloodstone Emperor focused his senses on Ashshadow, and true astonishment flickered in his eyes.
"Deep within its body, I sense… something different. It seems that on top of my ancient and wicked blood magic, you have added… something else? You altered it? This… is simply unimaginable."
There was clear disbelief in his tone.
"Perhaps this world needs you to save it."
"Save the world?"
Lo Quen let out a cold laugh. "I've never once thought about saving the world."
The Bloodstone Emperor shook his head.
"You have no choice. You have seen the Black Stone. You have touched its power. Those things… they do not belong to this world. They come from beyond it. They are demons in the truest sense. Saving this world and saving yourself are, at their core, the same thing. Unless you are willing to become their puppet, their slave, and ultimately turn into the breeding ground and sustenance for their descent."
A chill ran through Lo Quen's heart.
The Bloodstone Emperor's words struck precisely at the unease buried deep within him.
Recalling the grotesque changes Euron Greyjoy underwent after swallowing the Black Stone, and connecting them with everything he had learned about the Black Stone's strange nature, Lo Quen knew the Bloodstone Emperor was not exaggerating.
The truth of this world was far more complex than the "game of power" he had once believed it to be.
And now, he was already caught in it, with no way to remain a bystander.
He neither accepted nor rejected the idea of "salvation," but pressed on.
"Then what about the legend passed down for eight thousand years? The tale of Azor Ahai saving the world with Lightbringer. What was that really about?"
The Bloodstone Emperor's expression turned grave.
"That was a complete deception. When my sister and I were driven into opposition by an ancient prophecy, when unseen forces guided me to plunge the sword into her heart, the conflicting yet intertwined magic of the Lord of Light and the Cold God should have satisfied the final condition of a forbidden ritual within the Black Stone. That ritual was meant to tear open the barrier of the world and allow the horrors hidden deep within the Black Stone to descend."
He paused before continuing.
"But at the very last moment, my final shred of vigilance awakened. I sensed the malice behind that ritual. So I reversed part of its process, preserving a fragment of my sister's remnant soul. I prevented her from being completely annihilated and becoming the ritual's perfect sacrifice. It was precisely this imperfection that interrupted the ritual's completion and stopped a catastrophe that could have devoured everything."
"As for the so-called Lightbringer… it is the key in your hand, the one used to open this place."
Lo Quen immediately caught the contradiction.
"But you did kill your sister. You even desecrated her body."
"Killing and complete sacrifice are two different concepts in the realm of blood magic," the Bloodstone Emperor explained.
"I preserved her remnant soul, like leaving behind a spark that might one day reignite. This flaw in the ritual's requirements meant that even at my most frenzied, there was still a final trace of doubt deep within me regarding the power of the Black Stone. That doubt instinctively made me leave myself a contingency.
At the same time, it allowed me to perceive more clearly that the consciousness within the Black Stone was constantly trying to lure me, tempting me to take that final step and erase my sister's existence entirely in order to complete the ritual."
Lo Quen understood, but another, far more pressing question immediately surfaced.
"Since Lightbringer is in my hands, as long as I don't hand it over or let it fall into the hands of the right person, wouldn't that ritual be impossible to complete?"
The Bloodstone Emperor shook his head again.
"You misunderstand. Lightbringer does not refer to any single, fixed sword. It is a title. Any sword, once chosen by the magic of the Lord of Light and wielded to kill the vessel that carries the magic of the Cold God, becomes Lightbringer at that moment. The magic of the Lord of Light can be infused into any vessel. The so-called sword of prophecy is merely one of the tools capable of bearing that power."
Lo Quen's heart jolted violently.
If that was the case, then Jon Snow…
Had he come to Essos because the vessel chosen by the Cold God was here?
Countless questions exploded in his mind.
Who, exactly, was the Cold God's vessel?
Why had Jon been drawn to this place?
Seeing Lo Quen sink into deep thought, the Bloodstone Emperor spoke with a final note of urgency.
"You must stop all of this. The blood magic hidden within the Black Stone conceals a massive conspiracy aimed at the entire world."
"A conspiracy?" Lo Quen pressed. "What exactly did you discover?"