I am known by many names in my world, it would be odd if you never heard one of them. But since anyone reading this is not from my world then allow me to introduce myself, I am Acnologia slayer of dragons, and my sole purpose is to drive every dragon that draws near breath into total extinction. That is my sole purpose, and today I smelled dragons on the horizon.
Not long ago, I had tried to kill a magic guild known as Fairy Tail, after they disturbed me from my century long slumber more than once at that point, so I decided to wipe them out after realizing that a few people in this guild had powers similar to my own, and would one day turn into dragons. My instinct forced me to kill, and so I did. I wiped out the island they held most dear and left in victory.
So why did I smell them once again? How had I failed to see their deaths through? It boggles my mind to no end, I am the most powerful being in the world and yet I failed to kill some regular old wizards? Impossible, yet there I smelled them, along with the scent of seven other dragons and four new dragon slayers, this was becoming rather infuriating for me.
'How are the dragons still here? I thought I had wiped all of them out long ago, and now there are more than seven dragon slayers as well? I must investigate this, after the death of my family at the hands of dragons and the death of countless others at the hands of dragon slayers, I swear to drive our race to extinction.' I thought to myself as I approached the ridge of a cliff, the moment I stepped over and saw below however, I was taken aback by the scene in front of me.
Dragon slayers fighting dragons, dragons fighting dragons, dragon slayers fighting amongst each other even. It reminded me of something I have long tried so hard to forget, the dragon civil war, where I became the killer I am today, my head pounded as my mind flashed back to that dreadful battle.
'I WILL KILL YOU!' My comrade spat out into my face before attempting to burn me alive with a flaming sword, I avoided the sword and landed back a few feet safely.
'I am not the enemy brother! The western dragons are the ones that you should be focusing your rage on, not I!' I screamed towards my comrade in a desperate attempt to make him see reason.
'Shut up! I stopped caring about the war ever since this power became my own, the power of a dragon. An entire dragon, I don't take orders from anyone now. Not even you, Acnologia.' My comrade argued, I gritted my teeth in frustration. Damn that queen who gave us these powers, she had the dragons enchant us with their powers, and now only the most stable of minds can resist the urge of insanity, the urge and instincts of a dragon that overtook so many of my brothers and sisters already. Even I, captain of the first Dragnof division, felt myself slowly slipping away with every passing second the battle raged on.
'No, you have moved on from that day. Move on already, it was four hundred years ago.' I thought to myself, however as I looked back down onto the battle below I could not help but clench my teeth in anger. I wanted nothing more than to speed down there and rip the throats out of every single dragon and dragon slayer in that city. Until I noticed something, something very peculiar that I had failed to notice during my previous squabble with the present dragon slayers.
'Why are they, fighting together? I thought dragon slayers were insane and power hungry monsters, like myself. I never imagined they could be team players. Wait, they can't be team players, no one in the war was. These slayers are different, but what makes them so different?' I realized, I took a very good look at the city down below and sae something that baffled me no end.
'T-the eclipse gate!? The gate that travels through time made by the black wizard Zeref was opened? So that's how these dragons dwell here now, come to think of it that green one looks a little familiar, I think I killed him right under that city in a cave system.' I thought to myself, now I had no choice, I had seen far too much to turn away now. With a quick push from my foot I leapt from the mountain top and skyrocketed down to the entrance of the city in the blink of an eye, I caused a massive gust of wind to accelerate throughout the city, however no one seemed to take any real notice.
I walked down the concrete roads and in between the tightly packed houses of the city and looked into the sky, there was a large dragon with adamantine metal scales soaring across the skies. If I looked closely, I could sometimes make out a flame or two spouting out from the back of the dragon. I smelled about seven dragons in the city, and eight dragon slayers. I clenched my fist in frustration and rage, however I calmed down a little after smelling the air more thoroughly.
'Two of these dragon slayers, are not real dragon slayers. So they won't turn into actual dragons, however they have lacrima, which makes them even more deadly than a dragon slayer without a dragon form or their dragon force. Interesting.' I thought to myself, I looked back up towards the adamantine dragon, just in time to see it drop a boatload of dragon eggs into the city.
'Now, this just became personal. I can deal with Seven dragons, but hundreds? Even I can't ignore that. It's time to join the battle.' I thought to myself, a bunch of adamantine eggs crashed through the houses around me and cracked the pavement of the road when they fell, I squinted my eyes as I took a closer look.
'Hold on, these aren't actual dragon babies are they? I have seen these before, she just spawned dragonlings, a clever strategy when dealing with a boatload of weaker opponents.' I thought, then the eggs all cracked open at once, and eyeless metal, humanoid lizards without any sort of flesh emerged from the eggs. I smiled as a realization hit me.
'I haven't killed any sort of dragon in,years, this will be delightful!' I thought as I let a wicked grin grow across my face. A dragonling let out a small roar before charging forward, I heard the crank of it's metal jaw open before it tried to clamp down onto my tattooed arm. I don't think it was expecting what came next.
I shot my hand upwards and the jaw of the dragonling shattered into a million pieces, the dragon spawn stayed in place for one second before falling dead onto the pavement beneath me. The other dragonlings reared their heads back, and I felt a magical pressure build up around their mouths. The dragon spawn fired their attacks all at once, creating a massive explosion that was no doubt felt across the city. However, such a feeble attack could not even faze someone who has fought real dragons and came out victorious.
I let my body relax, before clearing my mind and raising my hand to my side, I allowed an odd sensation from around my stomach area to flow into my right hand, by hand glowed a bright blue and radiated magic energy like heat waves, the magic was so intense that it had paralyzed the dragonlings. I laughed before swiping my hand through the air, a blade of white magical energy with a blue glow around it sliced through everything in a one mile radius before exploding further away, all of the houses were in ruin, and the dragonlings had been chopped clean in half, I smiled at my handiwork.
"It came from over here!" I heard the voice of a woman no doubt yell, I looked over past the corpses in front of me to see a small group of what looked like wizards running in my direction.
'Fairy Tail huh? It seems like there are other magical guilds here as well, however they don't appear to have a dragon slayer amongst them. That will make things easier, I am here for the dragons not them.' I thought as I recognized the wizard in lead, it was a scarlet haired girl covered head to toe in bandages, however I easily recognized her from the island seven years ago, the fact that she was wielding a sword helped as well since that's what she attacked me with, it tickled I suppose.
My train of thought was interrupted when the girl was about two feet in front of me, with her was one man that seemed way too large for his measly magical power that I was feeling, another man with black hair and no shirt, as well as a mage whose power was unusually high, he struck me as odd since his power seemed very dark in some areas yet bright in others. He had blue hair, just like me too, however mine was far longer and I had a much darker skin tone.
"Tell me stranger, are you friend or foe?" The girl asked me, I said nothing at first, I instead stared back up towards the sky towards where the metal dragon flew around.
"Are you going to answer me or not? We don't have time for games." The girl demanded, I merely closed my eyes and chuckled at her impatience. I knew better than anyone that dealing with any sort of dragon was no measly game, however they did not need to know that. I would rather finish the dragons off without needing to focus on a city full of semi powerful wizards attacking me at the same time, not that I couldn't do that mind you.
"I am here to slay the dragons, nothing more and nothing less. I am not involved with your silly little guilds in any way little girl, don't get in my way and I won't get in yours. Do we have a deal?" I asked her, I didn't care too much if she refused, I would do what I wanted either way. She seemed a little taken back by my response, but just grunted in irritation.
"Fine, call me a little girl again and I'll shove my sword down your throat." The redhead threatened, to all of their surprise I laughed in amusement, imagine if she knew who I was, then she would try to do even worse! Now wouldn't that be a treat, still swords can sting a bit if I get hit for hours on end.
I walked past the mages, content with the small diversion they had given me. However I decided to entertain myself a little more by turning a corner and listening in on their conversation as I walked, after all, dragons have super hearing.
"Who the heck was he?" I heard one of the males ask.
"His magic power from what I felt was massive, and I have a sneaky suspicion he's hiding even more. I am not suppressing my power in any way, shape or form and he talked to us like we were children, and I am comparable to a wizard saint since I was once in their ranks. Keep a very close eye on him." The blue haired one obviously said. I tuned them out soon after seeing a dragon close by, or the flame of one at the very least. There was only one dragon that could possibly produce such a constant bright light like the one I saw bouncing off of the alleyway buildings.
'Atlas flame, so you are one of the seven dragons? This may be more difficult then I imagined.' I thought before looking over to a nearby water dragon crashing through a building, to my far left was a black dragon that had swiped away a large number of,houses with his tails. However, no one inhabited them.
'At the very least, the city was evacuated. Not that I care, but it would,bring back some bad memories if all I heard was the screams of dying people at the hands of these vile worms.' I thought as I also cringed at the mere thought of those memories resurfacing. After some time passed I felt a large surge of magic power appear near Atlas flames location, I looked up and saw the head of a bald giant with gray hair.
'It's the giant that attacked me at Tenrou island.' I began to recall the giant trying to hold me back in my dragon form before I knocked him down and pierced his chest with my claws, I remember him laughing though. At the sight of death, it was a very...alien feeling that made me hold back for a moment. The next moment all of Fairy Tail was attacking me.
"No human will EVER defeat a dragon!" I heard the flame cloaked dragon roar into the sky, I took that insult,personally and decided to make my entrance. As I made the corner I saw the same mages from earlier as well as the giant shrinking back down to his small size with a very burnt fist, bo doubt gained from punching a dragon that is on fire.
"No one here has the power to challenge me, so I will use my hellflame to finish you all off!" Atlas flame roared.
"Man, not even master Makarov can do anything to it, what chance do we have?" A smoker asked from the back of the crowd, the red haired girl from earlier drew her sword.
"No matter what happens we will fight to our last breath! Do not back down!" She yelled with pride, I witnessed other mages preparing themselves as well. I grew tired of watching and slowly made my way through the crowd, pushing the smoker out of the way first. Everyone looked back towards me and the girl was the first to speak.
"This dragon can't be beaten by you alone! Not even master Makarov's power was enough." The girl yelled towards me, I smiled. I had no reason to hide anything, so I made an argument to that statement.
"To be fair girl, the old man couldn't even push a dragon the first time he met one." I said, all of their eyes widened and Makarov glared at me.
"Who are you, and how do you know about our encounter with acnologia?" Makarov asked, I merely shrugged and walked past him, facing Atlas flame head on. My grin turned into a nasty scowl, I never imagined I would encounter a real dragon up close ever again, it was breathtaking and infuriating at the same time.
"Do you believe yourself worthy of challenging...wait a second. You are one of the dragnof slayers are you not? Why do you oppose me?" Atlas flame asked me, I said nothing and merely built up the magic energy within me secretly. However it would take time to reach my full power, I needed to stall him for a moment.
"I see, so in your time the battle of belserion did not occur yet? Allow me to ask you this dragon, you are fighting for the eastern side if dragons and yet you follow a path that leads to the death of more humans? All dragons are the same, self righteous hypocrites that only seek to prolong their races survival and dominance at any cost." I said, the dragon opened its mouth to speak but for a moment no words came out.
"Tell me, dragon slayer. What has given you this ideal?" Atlas flame asked, I gritted my teeth and popped a blood vessel at that question as memories of a dragons wrath burned through my mind. When I was only a five year old.
"Get in the cellar boy! It is not safe here!" My father Akunorgia yelled at me, I struggled to break free from his grip, to help my family escape but my father had an iron grip that I could not escape.
"Come out and face me Akunorgia! How many of people of your village need to die before you show yourself? I will not stand for the humiliation you put me through!" The dragon outside roared, father had beaten the dragon in a friendly duel, and although father said they were on the same side, the dragon came to the village a month later and began killing everyone Acnologia ever knew, his best friends, his grandparents, even his neighbors were burnt to a living crisp right in front of his eyes or eaten by the winged behemoth.
Akunorgia dropped me into a trap door and I fell a few feet onto a concrete ground, I could see my father trying to get my mom to come down as well.
"There you are, I will not stand for the humiliation you put me through coward! I have been shamed by my own people because of you and now I have the chance to rid myself of that shame forever!" The dragon roared, I was sweating nervously, it had found my mother too. He was going to kill her too. I climbed up the ladder as fast as I could and tried to get the door open before realizing that someone was standing on top of it.
"MOM! DAD! GET OUT OF THERE!" I wailed, but it was no use, they wouldn't budge or they couldn't hear me.
"Please don't leave me!" I screamed, I heard the dragon laugh.
"Farewell Westrays! I had fun destroying your entire family with ease, although you are all a little tough to chew." The dragon said, I heard my mother and father whispering to each other as I desperately pounded on the trap door, then my hands began to burn as I touched the wood, and I knew the worst had just occurred a moment later when I heard the distinct sound of flapping wings.
The weight on the door had vanished, so I pushed it open and immediately regretted my decision when a fire the size of a house engulfed me, however I ignored the pain a moment later when I looked to my left. Tears trickled down my face, a massive lump formed in my throat, my mind was racing a million times over. There were my parents, holding hands.
Dead and lying flat on the ground with half of their bodies completely melted away, I fell to the ground and sobbed before clenching my fist in an unbridled fury.
"I'LL KILL YOU DRAGON! I'LL KILL ALL OF THE DAMN DRAGONS, I DON'T CARE WHOSE SIDE THEY'RE ON. THEY'RE ALL THE DAMN SAME! I'LL RIP YOUR EYES OUT AND SHOVE THEM DOWN YOUR THROAT, I'LL KILL YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY JUST LIKE YOU KILLED MINE!" I roared into the sky as the dragon faded away into the distance.
I stared up into the dragon's eyes and let out a large breath before clenching my fists, I then glared at the dragon before giving him my answer.
"Past experience." I said right before swinging my arm backwards, a large pool of white and blue magic built up into a condensed ball before I threw my hand forward, the ball expanded into an enormous beam dragon slayer magic that dwarfed the massive dragon and sent him flying a few miles away.
I raced forward leaving the mages behind and cleared the two miles in record time to see the results of my attack, the dragon was still alive but it was barfing flame and it's natural fire coating seemed much weaker than before.
"Y-you, how do you have this kind of power? Who trained you?" Atlas flame asked me, I was growing real sick of his questions. I was trained in a dragon slayer army camp that had eastern dragon instructors, I was never taught one on one because I downright refused to be taught that way. Except, now that I think about it.
I can't seem to remember who taught me my first dragon slayer magic, I had to have gotten it from one specific dragon at one point but, who did it? My train of thought was rudely interrupted when I heard my name mentioned above. I looked up to see the motherglare dragon right above me, I heard the fire dragon slayer from Tenrou island talking to another dragon slayer, I only heard bits and pieces of their conversation before a massive torrent of fire exploded on the metal dragons back causing it to roar in pain.
'This dragon slayer, it's Igneel's isn't it? It's the brother of Zeref, I had no idea it was him on our first encounter. Zeref claimed he was the strongest of his creations, is his power sealed or something? I've met half demons that could kill three of him combined.' I thought before that said brother of the great dark wizard Zeref began to shout so loudly the entire city could hear it.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME!?" He exclaimed at an unnecessarily loud volume. I grunted in annoyance before listening back in on what the son of the fire dragon king Igneel had to say.
"LET'S QUIT PLAYIN AROUND AND USE OUR DRAGON SLAYER MAGIC! THERE ARE SEVEN DRAGONS, AND WE GOT SEVEN DRAGON SLAYERS! WE CAN DO THIS, IT'S WHAT WE WERE BORN FOR! OUR WHOLE LIVES HAVE LEAD UP TO THIS DAY! LET'S USE OUR POWER, AND SLAY SOME FREAKIN DRAGONS!" He screamed, I was becoming increasingly annoyed until I noticed him leap into the air and yell something about dragon hunting before hitting Motherglare in the back once again.
All of a sudden motherglare began to drop more eggs, this time they were right in front of the wizards and not at the outskirts of the city. A couple dropped around me and Atlas flame who had been watching the ordeal quietly, which was quite strange for a dragon. In that moment I felt an oddly high spike of magic power from behind me, I turned around just in time for a lightning bolt to rocket past me and into Atlas flame's ugly head. I looked to see one of the lacrima dragon slayers hitting Atlas flame head on, the fool.
While it's obvious that it's not common do for any dragon slayers here to know. Only when a dragon slayer enters a state known as "Dragon force" can they truly kill a dragon such as Atlas flame, while one can train to the point where they become powerful enough without the form it takes quite a couple of years to do, years which I had and this one did not. This lightning dragon slayer was quite powerful for the caliber of wizards around for sure, perhaps even the mightiest around honestly, but he stood no chance against Atlas flame, especially with the clear as day injuries on him.
"So you gonna quit staring at me? Or are you gonna take care of some of those baby dragons that are hatching everywhere? Let the dragon slayer handle the big guy." The slayer said to me, I smiled in slight amusement at his actions before full out laughing as hard as I could. This was too good, a fake dragon slayer telling me, Acnologia, most powerful true dragon slayer and being to ever exist on Earthland, to let him handle things because I couldn't.
"What the hell's so funny?" The slayer asked me, I ceased my laughter only for my arm to be bitten by one of the hatchlings. The slayer hissed before sending a powerful lightning bolt into the hatchling, obliterating it into a million pieces. I heard him gasp a little as he saw my arm was unscathed.
"Hey! At least watch out for those things! I don't want to-" The slayer began before the massive dragon regained some energy and smacked the fake slayer into a building with a fire filled tail.
"Laxus!" I heard three people from behind me yell simultaneously. The dragon roared into the air before redirecting his attention back towards myself, he let out a low growl before speaking once again.
"Leave us second generation slayer, you are not worthy of my time." Atlas flame commanded, the blonde mage Laxus looked up at him with a face full of anger and utter confusion as his comrades helped him up. They were too weak for me to possibly care to describe.
"Leave you!? The hell you going on about? I'll have you know I'm far more capable than most of the other dragon slayers here." Laxus bragged.
"A bold statement coming from a fake dragon slayer. Leave us." I said, he turned his scowling face towards me before that face turned to horror as I released a fifth of my magic power, causing a blue and white aura to completely overtake my body and release a shockwave that blew away everything in a half mile radius including the slayer, the houses and the eggs. All that remained was Atlas flame and myself.
"Now that they are gone I will ask once more, who trained you?" Atlas asked, I flashed my canines and had a sadistic look to my face as I readied my answer.
"You tell me after our battle!" I hollered before shifting my right arm behind me and allowing magic power to pool into the palm of my hands creating a swirling ball of white and blue magic energy. Atlas flame roared and shot his head towards me, shooting his infamous hellfire that burns everything towards me. I leapt straight through the flames as I was too strong to be truly burnt by them and met his physical body with a fist full of magic energy that caused him to go flying across the city and into the courtyard right where a large green dragon seemed to be toying with a group of humans near the famous eclipse gate.
"Atlas? What the hell caused you of all people to fly here?" The large green dragon asked, the humans around were in too much shock to see the terror of their lives come flying through a couple of city blocks due to an unknown force.
"As observant as ever I see Zirconis, were you so busy chatting up the humans that you failed to notice the massive amount of magic power that blew away everything in a half mile radius earlier!?" Atlas bellowed at his comrade, I stepped out of the rubble with a bored look on my face as he was less of a challenge then I had originally anticipated. His flames had died down again too showin he was clearly in pain. Zirconis looked my way and raised an eyebrow before his massive jaw dropped.
"That pathetic HUMAN made that!? I thought it might've been one of us biting off more than we could chew, it felt draconic." Zirconis roared, the humans all looked my way. I was expecting to see eyes full of dread and fear, what I'm used to seeing after I reveal my power. However what I saw in their eyes was neither, what I saw was an expression I had not seen in a very long time...a very long time.
All of their faces, were filled with hope, and I was suddenly reminded of something I had forgotten about long ago.
"Do you, Acnologia Westray, pledge your life not to the country of Dragnof, but instead to the lives of the people who have suffered like your family. To those who need a saviour from the dragons in the most desperate of times, to the ones who are unable to defend themselves against the western dragon menace, no, not menace, dragon threat?" My chief of training asked me with sword in hand as my head was bowed down, I clenched my fist and gave the most sincere answer in my entire life.
"I do, I will protect those who can't do anything against not just the dragons, but other threats as well. Whether they come in the form of a human, dragon, demon or god, I will slay those threats for the good of humankind." I said, my chief nodded in agreement and placed the sword to my right shoulder, then my left.
"Then Acnologia Westray, I now pronounce you captain of the first Dragnof division of the army of hope." My chief of training proclaimed, I stood to the sound of cheers, hoots and hollers by my close friends and allies who had all vowed the very same thing earlier. Nevertheless, it was a special moment in my life.
I was left awestruck, that memory had been long sealed away for who knows how many decades, centuries even, why was it just popping up now? Now after I had committed so many acts that went against the very thing I pledged for, I was no longer the slayer of hope, I was the black dragon of the apocalypse Acnologia, I was always okay with that, I planned to bring this world to its knees by my hands alone. So why was I feeling this sudden urge of doubt, not guilt, but doubt, in what I currently stood for?
'NO! I AM ACNOLOGIA! BRINGER OF DESTRUCTION! THESE DRAGONS WILL KNOW MY TRUE WRATH!" I internally shouted, ending my small internal struggle before turning back towards the two dragons in front of me, preparing my magic energy for the upcoming fight, before something fell on top of Atlas flame. It was Igneels son, and Zeref brother, Natsu Dragneel, and what came next completely surprised me for the first time in many years.
"Is he..eating Atlas Flame?"