Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 444: The Fall of Braavos
The second person to suffer bad luck was Yasha.

The magic city met its sudden end.

There was no moon in Asia that night.

The black stone tower trembled in silence, as if some ancient, dormant power was awakening. At first, the apprentices who were on night watch thought it was just a minor earthquake, after all, there were too many unknown relics of spells buried underground in Asshai. Until the spire of the first shadow tower began to twist.

The stone did not break, but collapsed inward like melted wax. The tower was twisted into a spiral by an invisible force, and crimson light seeped out of the windows. Then, a shriek erupted from the tower. It was not a sound that a human could make, but more like the simultaneous wailing of thousands of imprisoned ghosts.

"The magic power is backfiring."

As soon as a shadow binder rushed out of the room, his skin began to roll from the inside out, and dense runes emerged under his flesh and blood. It was the spell he had practiced all his life, and it was now devouring him alive. His eyeballs burst, replaced by two leaping black flames, and finally the whole person turned into a pool of boiling black blood, seeping into the gaps between the floor tiles.

When the whole city was caught in a magical storm, only two types of people escaped.

Apprentices who had never touched high-level spells survived in "ignorance" because they had not yet mastered magic. When the magic frenzy swept through, the brothers who had deeply studied black magic had their flesh and blood mutated one by one. Only those apprentices who were still doing hard labor were lucky, but they either died from the mutations of their brothers and teachers, or died from the magic frenzy that destroyed this magic capital.

"The light is in the east." The young apprentice who escaped from the pyromancer's tower muttered his mentor's crazy mutterings before his death and stumbled towards the port.

The Great Shadowbinder Quiro stood in the center of the collapsed Blood Temple, silently maintaining the escape route. His body was no longer mortal. After Dan and Beile visited Yasha, he dug out his heart and replaced it with a beating magic crystal. When the backlash of magic tore apart other blood witches and shadowbinders, Quiro's crystal heart began to absorb the overflowing magic, causing spider-web-like red light patterns to appear on his skin.

"Finally... I've finally waited!" He tore his robe, revealing the ancient prophecy carved on his chest. The runes were bleeding, forming a vague warning:

"The light is in the east."

In the harbor, 99% of the ships had sunk or been corroded by magic and turned into rust. Only a dilapidated sailing ship was floating quietly, seemingly unaffected by the violent magic frenzy.

The moment he saw the ship, Qrow suddenly understood.

"I see. So that's how it is."

A dozen apprentices huddled in the bottom cabin. They were the last survivors of the Magic City and were also part of that covenant. In a sense, the destruction of the Magic City was an inevitable result.

Survivors are needed to report to the Dragon Kings in the East about the situation before the long night arrives.

Qrow stood at the bow, cut his palm with a dagger, and dripped blood into the sea. The blood actually ignited a deep red flame on the sea surface, opening up a channel for the Ark to avoid the turbulent flow of magic:
"Go, children, and remember, the light is in the East."

The third unlucky one was Braavos.

The fishermen of Braavos were the first to notice something was wrong that morning.

The usually rough sea was as calm as a mirror. There was no wind, no waves, and even the seagulls had stopped chirping. The boatmen in Zigang looked at each other, their oars hanging in the air. The seawater had become viscous, as if it was solidifying.

"The God of Tides is asleep?" someone tried to joke, but the voice got stuck in his throat.

Because the sea began to freeze.

It was not the thin ice that was common in winter ports, but a thick layer of ice that spread rapidly, swallowing the waves like some kind of living thing. A merchant ship entering the port was frozen on the crest of the wave, the hull tilted, and the mast groaned under the heavy load.

Ice crack
then,

The sea surface exploded.

When the first ice dragon broke through the ice, the ice crystals sprayed out reflected colorful light under the morning sun. The people of Braavos looked up at this dreamlike scene, and some even knelt down to pray, thinking they had seen a miracle.

Until they saw clearly that it was a snake-like giant beast with no end in sight, its entire body was like a clear ice sculpture, and there was a faint blue magic flowing under its scales. It had no wings, but it was suspended in the air, its slender body meandering and swimming, and wherever it passed, the water vapor froze into frost.

The second one broke out of the sea from under the Titan's feet and smashed the thousand-year-old guardian statue directly. The giant statue shattered like glass when it fell into the sea.

The third head hovered over Zigang, slowly lowered its head, and exhaled its first breath.

That's not flame.

It is the extreme cold that can freeze flames.

The breath of the ice dragon poured down like a waterfall.

The gilded dome of the Sea King's palace was the first to be covered with frost, followed by the outer walls, columns, and reliefs. The guards were still holding their swords, and they became ice sculptures. The Sea King was standing on the terrace looking at the strange scene, and the frost swept across his astonished face, freezing the last moment of fear forever.

The secret talks in the palace came to an abrupt end. The key holder of the Iron Bank, the master of water dancers, and the councillors all lost their lives in an instant. Ice crystals climbed onto their gorgeous clothes, sealing up the secrets that could never be spoken.

When the first ice dragon rose from the icy mist of the Shivering Sea, the new priest of the House of Black and White, "The Good Man", was standing in front of the countless caves, listening to the confessions of the believers.

The ground suddenly shook, and the confessor's whispers stopped abruptly.

The "kind man" slowly raised his head, and in the shadow under the hood, his cloudy eyes narrowed slightly.

The smell of death has never been so strong.

He pushed open the secret door of the confessional and climbed to the highest point of the Courtyard of Black and White.

The end of Braavos unfolded before his eyes.

The warships in Purple Harbor were swallowed by frost, and the sailors were frozen into ice sculptures while running.
The Titan statue collapsed under the impact of the ice dragon, and bronze fragments fell like rain; the Sea King's Palace in the distance was covered by the extremely cold breath, and the gilded dome flashed a strange ice blue in the sun.

The "good man" turned around and returned to the assassin's hall.

"Call all Faceless Men." His voice was calm, but it made the acolytes behind him tremble. "It has been eight thousand years. The destined death has come. Someone's duty should also be fulfilled."

In the underground training hall, all the apprentices who were still in the Black and White Academy were urgently gathered. The oldest among them was only sixteen years old, and the youngest was only nine years old.

"You will go to Tyrosh," the voice of the "good people" echoed in the underground halls, "and tell the dragonlord there, His Highness Regan Vareses, that Braavos is dead, and the Faceless Men will fight to the last moment."

A red-haired apprentice raised his hand tremblingly: "Master, won't you come with us?"

The "kind man" gently stroked his head and said, "The Thousand-Faced God needs many servants tonight. Those who serve death will end death today. You must tell the world that the Faceless One has offered the most abundant sacrifice to death itself today."

The oldest apprentice clenched his fists, but ultimately just bowed deeply and led his younger brothers and sisters into the secret passage leading to the port.

In the main hall, the last of the senior Faceless Men knelt on one knee.

"Valyrian steel daggers." The Good One distributed the weapons one by one. "Aim for the throat, the heart, and the eyes. It is our highest honor to bring death to legend and death to death."

A female faceless person asked softly, "Do we have a chance to win?"

"No." The Kind Man said frankly, "But every moment of delay means the escape ship can go a little further. It is the messenger of the Long Night, the legend that brings death to death as predicted. But so what? The Five Fortresses of Yidi are still there, as is the Great Wall of Westeros. The people of the South still have time. What we have to do is to buy more time."

He opened the secret compartment under the altar, revealing three petrified dragon eggs. The rock shells were covered with strange runes. They were originally used to protect the ultimate secret of the Thousand-Faced God.

“When the blood runs dry,” he looked at the three oldest Faceless Men, “use your blood or mine to light them on fire.”

When the ice dragon smashed through the outer wall of the Black and White Courtyard, what greeted it was not screams and escape, but the cold glare of death that attacked from different angles.

The moment the Ice Mage Lord stepped into the House of Black and White, the water surface exploded.

A Faceless Man broke through the water, the water flowing down his face, revealing a pale face like death. His Valyrian steel dagger pierced the throat of the Ice Mage Lord.

The Ice Mage Lord didn't even have time to turn his head.

The moment the dagger pierced the ice crystal's skin, frost spread along the blade, and the faceless man's arm instantly froze. But he did not let go, instead he used up his last bit of strength to twist the dagger fiercely.

"For the Thousand-Faced God."

A dark blue crack appeared in the throat of the Ice Mage Lord, and ice crystal blood spurted out. The body of the Faceless Man collapsed under the erosion of frost, turning into a broken ice sculpture and falling into the pool.

The tall Ice Mage Lord didn't seem to care much about the wound, but the fact that the wound had not healed for a long time still made him hesitate.

The Faceless Men seized on that moment of hesitation.

The statue of the Thousand-Faced God suddenly moved.

The outer shell of the stone statue peeled off, revealing the faceless man hiding inside.

Her dagger stabbed at the back of the Ice Mage Lord, but was swept away by the cold wind at the moment of hitting. Her spine was broken, and her body flew out like a kite with a broken string. Her blood instantly turned into ice crystals, but the girl threw the dagger in mid-air.

The dagger pierced the Ice Mage Lord's left eye.

"For the nameless dead."

When she landed on the ground, her body had already frozen and shattered into countless crystal blood ice.

This was the first time the Ice Mage Lord let out an inhuman roar. He reached out and pulled out the Valyrian steel dagger, but when he dropped the dagger, his hand was slowly melting.

But there are no Faceless Men left to stop it.

Knowing that he was powerless to resist the Ice Mage Lord, the "good man" decisively cut his wrists. The three petrified rune dragon eggs sucked his blood like sponges.

The moment the Ice Mage Lord extended his finger.

boom!
Three petrified rune dragon eggs exploded at the same time.

The flames of the explosion collided with the breath of the ice dragon, and the main hall of the House of Black and White collapsed in the tearing of ice and fire. The statue of the Thousand-Faced God shattered, and countless masks poured out from the niches and turned into snow-white dust in the cold wave.

When the smoke and dust cleared, the gigantic ice dragon roared in pain, while the ice mage lord stood blankly in the center of the Black and White Courtyard that had been razed to the ground.

The explosion tore apart its ice crystal armor, and its deep blue heart shattered after a moment of stagnation.

The Ice Mage Lord's ice crystal crown fell and shattered into countless sharp ice spikes. His body began to disintegrate. At this moment, another ice dragon flew over the island and lowered its head.

An ice mage lord holding a bone staff glanced coldly at his dead companion. Something called "fear" seemed to flash across his ice-blue eyes.

(End of this chapter)