After resting for a night, the army marched straight for New Ghis City while morale was still high.
The walls of New Ghis were slightly lower than the Black Wall of Volantis, but they looked far more substantial. Numerous scorpions and catapults stood atop them.
When the Empire's army arrived outside New Ghis City, they had expected its people to abandon resistance after losing their main army.
Yet they saw not a single flag of surrender. Instead, even more Harpy banners had been raised, and the battlements were packed with figures, including the elderly, women, and children.
The stubbornness of the people of New Ghis exceeded all expectations. They believed neither in the Dragons' mercy nor in the promises of the "Breaker of Chains." The fanaticism bred by thousands of years of hatred had driven them to choose the most extreme path.
Figures in ancient Ghiscari priestly robes swayed, seemingly performing some sort of ritual to ask the gods of the ancient Ghiscari Empire for protection.
The envoy Viserys had sent to persuade them to surrender had also been driven back with his ears cut off.
He brought back their reply: "The Ghiscari will never submit. The followers of the Harpy would rather die in flames than bend the knee to a Dragonlord. They will live and die with New Ghis."
"They've gone mad." The mockery on Daario's face gave way to a grave expression. "Are these people really not afraid of death?"
"They have chosen destruction." After hearing the envoy's account, Viserys lost the last shred of his patience.
The successive campaigns of the past few days had already left him exhausted, yet these people of New Ghis had rejected even the small measure of goodwill he had offered. To end the fighting as quickly as possible and consolidate