Bahamut laid on the ground, completely unconscious within the burning remains of the city. SInce Ignia had left, the heat had died down drastically, allowing lesser creatures to approach the city without being burned alive by the flames. A trail of ash floated amongst the embers, and slowly, it formed into four different people. Skullion looked down at the bloodied form of Bahamut, and he smiled.
"Pick him up, Madmole, and let's leave before anyone interferes." Skullion ordered. The armour dragon slayer nodded and walked over towards Bahamut before a bolt of lightning struck his hand. The electricity coursed through Madmole's body, and the heat from the lightning (which often reaches temperatures close to the sun) seared his hand.
"Impossible! The armour dragon scales were never meant to let physical pain through!"
"Maybe, but can it protect you from being electrocuted or burnt up inside?" A low voice rumbled. The four turned around, and there stood Laxus, jellal and Racer, all dressed in their white robes. Skullion turned around and smiled.
"Is that all? I expected a bit more from the force I felt coming...no; you're just the first wave, aren't you? Fine then, I'll turn you all to ashes! Corpse Dragons absolute Ash!" Skullion roared. The ground beneath his feet morphed into ash almost instantly, and Madmole grabbed Bahamut before leaping backwards. A vortex of ash swirled around Skullion, and he smiled.
"I'll take this punk out in a second!" Racer yelled. He blurred out of sight, genuinely surprising the members of Diabolos before reappearing in front of Skullion and trying to kick him in the gut. Skullion's body morphed to ash, and he reappeared a small ways away.
"So you can ignore physical attacks then? Fine, how's this then!?" Jellal yelled. The heavenly mage leapt into the air and through one hand backwards. Nine swords made of pure, heavenly magic appeared behind him, and he threw his hand forward.
"Jiu Lexing!" Jellal cried out. His swords flew forward, and Skullion sent a stream of ash towards them. The ash collided with Jellal's magic, and it created a magic explosion that sent the two of them flying backwards.
'His attacks didn't turn to ash!? It must be pure magical energy rather than a real element! I'll have to do this the old fashioned way!' Skullion thought before throwing his hands together, and the ash from the surrounding area swirled around himself before shooting out towards Jellal.
"Black ash-"
"Meteor!" Jellal chanted right as Skullion finished. Jellal was engulfed in bright light and sped away right as Skullions attack launched, turning all the ground to ash. Jellal soared across the sky and started creating magic circles.
"Nebaru! Tie him up!" Kiria yelled.
"Sticky dragons, gluey roar!" Nebaru chanted. A stream of sticky substance burst out from Nebaru's mouth (I can't believe I just wrote that my fucking god, poor Wendy, was forced to fight this guy in the manga). It flew towards Jellal, but a blast of lightning-caused it to be burnt away. Laxus appeared in front of the three dragon slayers, and Racer appeared beside him.
"You three are dealing with us now! Lightning dragon's roar!" Laxus chanted. A burst of lightning, the size of a building flew from his mouth, and Madmole stepped in front of them all to counter it. However, the attack affected him more than he thought due to the fact that his armour was made of metal, an excellent conductor of electricity (Okay, so, I'm ASSUMING Mad Moles armour is metallic in nature, I don't actually know for sure, but Natsu managed to heat him up pretty good, and Mirajane and Elfman seemed to do some damage to him and Skullion without fire, so he's not invincible.)
Madmole wasn't pushed back, but his body was smoking, and he was having a slightly harder time focusing. Kiria and Nabaru seemed shocked.
"He damaged Madmole!? This guys no joke...wait...he's a-" Kiri trailed off.
"DRAGON SLAYER! OH HOW YUMMY!" Nebaru exclaimed. Racer appeared in front of him, and punched him square in the jaw.
"I'll take care of this creep!" Racer yelled before vanishing from sight again, Kiria turned around.
"That guys fast as hell! I couldn't even see him move!" Kiria exclaimed. Madmole frowned as Laxus stared the two of them down. Laxus flew forward, and threw a lightning filled punch at Madmole. To Laxus' own surprise, his own fist hurt more than anything.
"The hell!?" Laxus asked as he retracted his now bruised fist.
"The Armour dragon shall never feel physical pain! Armour dragons steel fist!" Madmole shouted. The Armour slayer reared his fist back, and threw it into Laxus' jaw sending the lightning slayer flying backwards. Laxus
'This guy's stronger than I thought!' Laxus realized. Madmole leapt forward, and he grabbed Laxus by the wrist. Laxus lit himself up with lightning, and Madmole's eyes widened as electricity coursed through his body. He let go of Laxus, but Laxus decided to grab hold of him instead.
"Lightning Dragons Jaw!" Laxus cried out. He infused his fists with lightning, and while the impact didn't cause Madmole to budge, the lightning that shot through his body caused a lot more pain then he was used to. The ground underneath Madmole crumpled, and he created a massive crater (within the crater that Bahamut and Ignia had created earlier), dust and rocks blew away, lightning shot into the sky alongside the tower-sized cloud of dust Laxus kicked up, and Kiria had to shield her face.
'This guy's actually hurting Madmole!? He's strong too, dammit who are these guys!?'
Kiria wanted to help Madmole, but also didn't want to leave Acnologia alone. If she did, she was sure that the fast guy would take the chance to grab him and run, but it looked like the fast mage was being slowed down by Nebaru, who had covered the ground around himself in sticky substance so Racer couldn't get too close without jumping or slowing down.
"May the seven stars cast judgement upon you! GRAND CHARIOT!" Jellal suddenly chanted. Seven magic circles in the air grew massively, and they connected to form a starry constellation. Seven massive beams of light shot down, and it resulted in a massive explosion of yellow-white light that Skullion was engulfed within. The Corpse dragon slayer could turn almost anything he wished to ash, but even ash fell to pure energy. Just like he couldn't turn air to ash. Skullion yelled out in agony as the explosion rattled him around before it finally subsided. Skullion fell to his knees for a moment, panting heavily, but got up a moment later. His body was smoking, and he did not look happy.
"You're gonna regret that!" Skullion yelled. Before any of them could resume fighting though, the ground suddenly shook. It shook twice, and the third time a crack appeared in the ground. The fighting ceased, to see what was happening.
"Is this one of your tricks?" Madmole asked Laxus. Laxus wiped some blood off his chin before answering.
"No, I'll assume it's not yours either then." Laxus said.
"Nay, let us put our battle on pause." Madmole suggested. Laxus only answered him with a grunt. The ground shook horribly the fourth time, and the ground actually began to open up around where the palace used to be. A hole the size of a castle appeared, and at first, there was nothing.
Then a demonic hand shot out from the darkness of the pit.
Barry walked through a pit of nothingness, a well of utter darkness. Simply, it was a void, and yet despite it seeming like nothing, it always seemed like there was something there. Something just out of reach.
"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"
The scene around him changed, and he was standing in the burning village of Montes Secreta once again. The sole survivor, the man who did nothing, as his flesh and blood was slaughtered. Cliche as it was, it felt all too real for him to care. He looked down, and saw the source of Acnologia's...no...the doctors pain. He didn't know his true name, but neither did the doctor. What he did remember, was the faces of his wife, and his daughter, lying dead on the ground.
He felt himself, desperately trying to use magic on them. Yet it never worked, all his magic could ever do, was stop the bleeding. Not restart the heart, or bring the dead back to life, all he could hope to do, was stop the bleeding. He tried for hours, tears streamed down his face as the fires slowly dwindled away. Nothing had changed, not a single living thing but himself had survived the catastrophe.
"Why would Acnologia do this to us? Why would he betray the very people he swore to protect? Why did he betray me? I thought us comrades, friends even...yet he took everything from me without explanation...or remorse...I'm sorry Venus...I'm so sorry...and to you...dear child...dear…" The doctor trailed off, and the scene changed before he could say his daughter's name.
He saw the doctor walking down the mountains, alone, with ash and soot covering his white coat. He looked down at his own hand, and he clenched it tightly. His face was twisting in and out of angry expressions. Before a lone man stood before him, wearing a large black, hooded cloak.
"Look this ain't nothing personal buddy. I am gonna require you to hand over any valuables." The bandit said without a care in the world. The doctor glared at him.
"Does it look like I have anything on me? I have nothing, feel free to search me, but I don't have anything."
"Really? Damn, well I guess I'll just loot that place that got attacked recently. Heard about some village up in the mountains that caught fire earlier-"
"Don't you dare go near that place!" The doctor lashed out. The man turned on him and the doctor flinched, realizing he may have just crossed a line.
"Hm? You wanna order me around now? Guess I have to re-establish the pecking order around here." The man said. He revealed his knuckles, and there were brass knuckles on them. The doctor leaned back, but the man was fast, and he punched the doctor in the jaw. The doctor fell to the ground, and the bandits boot planted itself onto his back.
"Look pal I don't have any time to waste so-"
He was cut off by something rustling in the leaves. The doctor never saw what happened, but he heard a loud roar, followed by a scream coming from high above him, a loud crack, and then blood spilled onto the ground.
"Hm? There's another one? It matters not, I only need one more to satisfy my hunger tonight. Consider yourself lucky this time." A booming voice echoed, then he heard something else.
"Aw man, I hate clothes, did it have to be a man too? Ah whatever, I'll just take them off." The dragon said. He heard a slight rip, and then a black cloak fluttered to the ground, seemingly unstained with blood. He heard a loud crunch, and felt the blood drip onto his coat.
"Mmm, not half bad, a bit tough though...hey wait a minute, scram human! Before I decide to eat you next!" The dragon roared angrily. The doctor snapped out of his haze and gazed up at the green dragon looking down at him with blood dripping from his massive jaw. Without thinking, the doctor grabbed the cloak and ran off down the trail, leaving the jade green dragon to his meal. The doctor ran behind a tree and slowly calmed himself down as much as he could, taking deep breaths to stabilize his terrified heartbeat. Once calm, he looked at his coat, and discarded it along with his undershirt. He looked at the cloak, and tied it around his neck.
'It's enchanted with warmth? I may just keep this...despite its ungodly origin.' The doctor thought before walking off. It strayed close to his feet, that was for sure. It would take getting used to. He would never forget the way that man was slaughtered though, randomly, and without mercy or bias. He was cattle to the dragons, that's all humans had amounted to in the eyes of the beasts, and nothing more.
The scene changed again, and he found himself in some kind of training field within the walls of a stone fortress. He found himself standing in a line amongst other people, all warriors and the occasional mage (They were a lot more rare back in those times). He heard people conversing around him, it seemed most of these people knew each other from the capital of Dragnof. He felt like a complete outcast amongst their ranks.
"Who's the guy with the blue hair?"
"No clue, never seen him around before."
"His cloaks all torn up, no shirt or armour either, weird."
"If he's willing to accept the queen's way of magic then who are we to judge?"
"What if he's too weak?"
"I can hear you lot you know." The doctor interrupted. The warriors looked mildly embarrassed.
"Just concerned pal, where you from?"
"...Montes Secreta."
"Get out...for real? I thought that place was a myth."
"Might as well be."
"Huh?"
"You idiot, Montes Secreta was found by officials half a year year ago out east. It was nothing but...well-"
"Ruins, I was the sole survivor."
"...I have to ask...I already know the answer but...dragon?"
"Dragons."
"It always is."
The doctor looked away, wishing to speak nothing more on the matter. He walked up to the booth, gave his name (which Barry failed to her for some odd reason) and left to go to some group known as the first battalion. He was followed by the same three people that had been asking questions earlier. Two males and a female, the males were mages, the woman a shield maiden.
"Listen here and listen well! You have volunteered yourselves to be weapons of the kingdom! To be vessels of mass destruction and chaos that will wreak havoc on the rogue dragons of the west! Yet, you will also be seen as guardians and be looked up to by the public! You're not the military! You're something greater, you are all, if you pass, dragon slayers! You will be sent to the front lines of the war, aiding the dragons themselves in combat, fighting alongside the most powerful creatures on the planet! SOme of you WILL die fighting! If you didn't know that, then I'd recommend running home now!" A commander shouted. The doctor barely listened, while he admired the idea of working to protect the innocents, like his old family, he despised working with dragons or taking orders.
Not after what happened with Acnologia. He would never be so easily swayed ever again.
"Now, we have only a small amount of dragons willing to train you all! So I will call a number, and that will be your element of dragon! 1 represents fire, two water, three air, four iron, five lightning! Understood!? Because I'll only call the names once!"
"Yes sir!" A collective voice shouted through them, the doctor simply stared blankly at the commander, already hating how uppity he was acting. What happened when they all rose above him in power? If he flaunted his authority too much one day he may end up being on the other end of a rogue dragon slayers hit list.
That thought gave him pause.
Rogue dragon slayers?
It was a thought that hadn't crossed his mind beforehand. Could it have been what drove Acnologia into sucha frenzy? He started yelling off the names, and the doctor was given the second dragon. Water.
'I hoped to get something more destructive, I guess it'll have to do.' The doctor thought. The scene changed once again, and now he was standing in a massive cavern with five other people. The cavern was hidden behind a massive waterfall, and it had a river going through the center of it with an underground lake at the end. They all heard a rumbling under the water, and a massive figure bursted out from the water and out into the air. Spraying water all over them, and the cavern walls all at once. The dragon resembles more of a sea serpent than anything, with a blue fish-scaled back and a laughter underbelly. It had two horns sticking from its head, and multiple light blue fins around its face. It also had two large fish-like wings sprouting from its sides. It was about the height of the cavern, minus however deep the lake below him was where his tail resided.
"Greetings slayers. I am Merculophia. The water dragon king, and I shall be your instructor under the arts of sea-king dragon slayer magic. We'll start with regular water dragon slayer magic to begin with, and progress over time. I expect zero-failure from any of you, even if some take more time to learn than others."
The doctors' eyes narrowed. His blood boiled at the thought of taking orders from a dragon, from subjecting himself to being below them once again. Yet, he bottled it up. His power would come in due time.
Acnologia wouldn't stand a chance.
The scene changed once again, and Barry saw the doctor training with one of his partners on the open ocean. Both of them were using water dragon slayer magic to keep themselves on top of the water. They were both running and leaping on top of water, a truly amazing spectacle. The other slayers watched nearby, treating the sea as if it was a normal piece of land they could walk or sit on, while the Sea dragon king hung back and observed their performance.
Memories flooded Barry's mind. The doctor lacked natural talent, however, he made up for it tenfold by being the most dedicated trainer out of all of them. He would spend every night and day training his body, to the point of breaking. His drive was so great it even impressed Merculophia, and he was pitted against his rival, a man with loads of natural talent for the art of water magic. He had an affinity for it, while the doctor did not. They were the top of their class, and were competing for the total of captain.
The doctor blocked yet another blow from his opponent by swinging his forearm into the man's reach. Thus diverting the punches aim, and giving the doctor a good shot to the man's face. The doctor trusted his fist forward, and struck the man dead in the nose. Utilizing the water body spell was pointless when fighting against another water mage. The man stumbled backwards, and attempted to push the doctor back by using a tidal wave spell.
The doctor created a hole in the center of the wave using his magic, and ran through it. The man before him didn't train nearly as hard, so while they were evenly matched magic-wise, the doctor had a massive upper hand physically. The man already looked tired, and they had only been fighting for a couple of minutes. The man's nose was bleeding, but he could still fight.
The man used the water underneath him to propel himself behind the doctor, and he used the water to propel his leg forward towards the doctors' back. The doctor spun, grabbed his leg with his right arm and pushed him down with his left without letting go of the leg. The doctor threw his leg onto the man's chest and kept his leg raised. The man tried to move, but the doctor had him pinned. Even if the man used water magic, the doctor could counter against everything he could throw at him. This was a test of physical might, and the doctor had won.
"I can pop your kneecap by applying enough pressure on the side right now and your leg will remain swollen for weeks if it's the first time. (A/N:This happened to me, not in a fight, an accident on my part. It's not fun.) You'll also be unable to walk properly, we don't want that now do we?" The doctor asked.
"D-damn it doc! How the hell did you get this tough!?"
"You already know how, you were just too cocky to do it yourself."
"I've seen enough. Doctor, you have proven yourself worthy of leading the sea king slayers into the field of battle. You have shown tremendous determination, yet, I do sense problems that I should address beforehand."
"Like what?" The doctor asked bitterly, while releasing his opponent.
"You refuse to share your name with us, you refuse to connect with your allies, you refuse to even remember their names. How is someone like you meant to lead, when you can't bring yourself to trust anyone in your team?"
"I learned long ago that trusting easily brings about dire consequences, dragon."
"...Come with me, the rest of you take time to recuperate, and get yourselves ready for the long fight ahead. Your training is complete, but the battle is only just beginning."
"Yes master." They all said collectively. The doctor's opponent glared at him, but the doctor simply turned away, uncaring of his rival's gaze.
Merculophia took them deep into the cavern, where they could speak without fear of being eavesdropped. Merculophia summoned a wall of water as well, before gazing into the doctor's eyes.
"I understand that your home was destroyed by my kin. Am I correct?"
"Yes."
"Well I shall have you know, that my home was destroyed by humans long ago as well."
That sparked interest, and confusion in the doctor's mind.
"I know what you're thinking. I was weaker then, younger, and more arrogant. I kept to myself, preying on small whales and fish in the open sea. I was occasionally attacked by your kind, but no harm ever came to me so I never struck back. However, my kind was far more rare back then, I terrified your kind.
So they tracked down my home, I lived alone, my mate raised our child on her own as dragons do. Yet that didn't mean I loved my home any less, it was the breeding grounds for my ancestors and hopefully for future generations. I was the guardian, and the corals were so massive they could have filled a city.
One day, while I was out hunting, the humans invented some kind of acidic chemical, and poured it into the breeding grounds in some deluded hope I wouldn't see it when I returned. It was sickly, black and it poisoned everything in the area. It looked like oil, but was far more deadly. Upon returning, I found my home in tatters. The sea life had all perished, the breeding grounds may not have harmed me, but no young would be able to survive there ever again."
The doctor went silent, that was a tragedy comparable to his own. Even he wouldn't deny the sensitivity of that topic.
"How...did you forgive?"
"I didn't. I slaid the people who dared to destroy my home when I had done nothing to them but exist. It took centuries for me to look beyond their mistake and realize the reasoning behind their actions."
"What despicable reason could they have possibly had for that!?"
"Fear."
The doctor thought about that.
Fear?
"Fear is a powerful thing, it can drive the best souls into darkness. Force us into becoming the very monsters we hide from in a desperate attempt to drive that fear away. The humans that destroyed my home more than likely witnessed me devouring whales, and great white sharks along their coast. The blood I left for fishermen to find in the waters must have frightened them terribly, they were unaware of my intellect. To them I was just another animal, a dangerous monster that needed to be put down. There are two sides to every story, that's what the dragons of the west do not understand."
"What do you mean?"
"There are hundreds of stories like mine out there, while dragons outrank humans in power they outrank us in population and groups. There are young dragons who witnessed their parents eating poisoned cattle, and younglings who were attacked upon hatching. They grew into dragons like I was, hating all human-kind, and believing them to be a disease. It was fear, fear of what they experienced as a child resurfaced in the war today, and caused this conflict. Humans cause pain to dragons, just as much as we do to you, so please remember, that there are good and bad people. Just like there are good, and bad Dragons."
"I…I understand better. It doesn't forgive what he did to us, but I see your point of view…" The doctor said. He still had doubts, but he wanted to get the water dragon off his back. He wouldn't deny that the story made sense to him. However something stood out to him, something Merculophia didn't intend for him to think.
'Humans and dragons are more similar than I realized. Both destroy, take and kill as they deem fit. They believe themselves above all else, they put their needs above all else. When the humans were threatened, they destroyed what threatened them, and when Merculophia was threatened, he destroyed what threatened him. It took this dragon centuries to forgive mankind as well, and I refuse to wait centuries for every other dragon to forgive, when new ones take their hatred instead.
Is this why peace between humans and dragons, no, intelligent species never lasts? Miscommunication, differing goals, it seems that peace can never truly be accomplished. Is it an illusion? Conflict is a part of nature, and it will never go away...I refuse to believe that all is hopeless. In a world of magic, there must be something that can fix all this.'
The scene changed, and Barry found himself in some kind of massive, abandoned temple alongside a battalion of other dragon slayers. The doctor alongside two other captains took the lead, the squadron of lightning and fire accompanied them as well as three allied dragons. Unbeknownst to the doctor though, his old rival looked all too unhappy to be following his lead.
"This is where Venru claimed he witnessed western dragon activity. So where are the markings? The claw marks? The odor? I don't see anything here that would lead me to suspect dragon activity." The lightning captain pondered.
"Something doesn't feel right." One of the allied dragons spoke. The doctor looked around, also puzzled about the lack of dragonic signs. Unbeknownst to them all, the doctor's rival was holding a strange lacrima in hand. He shifted to the back of the group slowly, and upon pressing it, a massive subsonic wave tore through the air rendering all the dragon slayers powerless as it tore through their heightened senses. The only ones standing were the captains, and the doctor looked livid upon seeing what was happening.
"E-Etsi!? What is the meaning of this!?"
"I REFUSE to continue being led by YOU, of all people, captain! The western dragons, and Venru struck a deal I just couldn't pass up. I'll have a place in their world, once they wipe you lot off the face of the Earth! Besides, all dragon slayers turn into dragons anyways!" Etsi screamed. The doctor's eyes widened upon hearing that last sentence.
"T-turn into dragons!?"
"You wouldn't know! You never read up on anything! The queen was seen in the courtyard recently, and she had dragon scales all over her cheek! It went away with time, but I know it will return! We are no longer humans captain, we have become dragons! This is a war between dragons, and dragons alone! We were just fighting for the wrong side of things!"
"I've heard enough from you traitorous scum!" The fire captain yelled out before a roar interrupted them all from above.
"There was a certain dragon too, who was very interested in you captain." Etsi claimed. The doctor was confused before he turned around, and his eyes widened to the size of saucers as he saw almost thirty dragons flying towards them above the broken roof. Amongst them, was a scarred white dragon. In his hatred he forgot about everything, even the high pitched squeal of Etsi's lacrima. His magic power flowed off his body, and his veins looked ready to burst.
"A-ACNOLOGIA!?" The doctor screamed in white hot fury. Rain clouds began forming overhead, and the moisture in the air started flowing around the doctor's body right as various dragons crashed through the roof overhead.
"We've been ambushed!" The lightning captain yelled. The allied dragons looked fearful, but roared at the dragons overhead rebelliously. The doctor spun around to face Etsi, with water flowing around him.
"E-Eh!? Why isn't this stupid thing working!? You should barely be able to move let alone use magic!" Etsi squealed. He was fine, as he had put in special earplugs in earlier.
"ETSI!" The doctor roared before leaping past his downed squadron and flying towards Etsi who tried to use a wave of high pressure water to distract the doctor. The doctor devoured his water, and his magic power rose to greater heights. With his newfound power, something began to happen. Blue scales started appearing on his body in a tribalistic fashion. In his rage he punched Etsi so hard that the man coughed up blood and dropped the lacrima, setting the other dragon slayers free.
"Oh thank god! Captain saved...us? Oh my god!" One of his squad mates asked before witnessing a scene of horror. The doctor was so blind in rage that he had grabbed Etsi's neck and was squeezing so hard the man was flailing wildly.
"(Hack!) (ACK!)"
"Captain! We don't have time for this! The dragons are-"
"You know what!? You're right!" The doctor exclaimed. He suddenly put Etsi into a headlock in a flash, and in a quick snap, the slayer's life had ended right there. The dragon slayers blood soaked into the doctor's skin, and he began to feel more powerful. It was intoxicating, especially as the rain dripped down onto him from the roof above. His squad looked terrified, but quickly diverted their attention to the dragons entering. One of these dragons crashed through the roof, sending rubble onto all of them. They created a wall of high pressure water to protect themselves.
"So good doctor! It seems you survived the slaughter of Mount Secreta after all! Look at how far you've fallen, from a doctor to a murderer of your own kind." Acnologia mocked before smacking away one of the allied dragons.
"C-Captain!? Who is this!? Is this the dragon that destroyed-" The female of the squad began asking before Acnologia looked towards her.
"Silence pest!" Acnologia roared before throwing his talons down onto the water wall and dispelling it. The water sprayed onto the water slayers.
"Water dragons ROAR!" The doctor chanted. A stream of extremely high pressure, boiling water shot out of his mouth and struck Acnologia in the face. The dragon roared in pain and was sent tumbling backwards. Some of the other dragons were stunned at the display of power.
"Did a normal dragon slayer just push back the guardian dragon Acnologia?"
"He is the priority! Kill the water slayer!"
"STAY BACK FROM MY SLAYERS!" A booming voice echoed. The doctor snapped back to reality upon hearing that voice, and it turned out the rain wasn't coming from him after all.
It was coming from Merculophia.
The sea dragon king rained down terror upon the western dragons. With his serpentine body he maneuvered around them and shot down enough boiling water to fill multiple lakes. Re-motivated. The other slayers and dragons soon joined the fray. Sending streaks of lightning, fire and water everywhere. The doctor was surprised to see his mentor at the battlefield. Merculophia flew down and went in front of the doctor, who was standing next to the now dead Etsi.
"You! You who deceived one of my own and planned this assault on my slayers! I only ask this! Why!? WHy have you decided to go back to the old ways of peace!? Why have you tormented my slayer with suffering and despair!?" Merculophia shouted at Acnologia. The doctor paused, Acnologia was the one to plan this? How did Merculophia know?
"I have seen the lost country of Veya Water dragon king! They too attempted the dragon slayer ritual that the kingdom of Dragnof started! There was nothing left! The dragon slayers destroyed everything! Humans and dragons alike! I witnessed countless atrocities! Rape! Slaughter! Even cannibalism!" ACnologia roared. The doctor was shocked to hear this, what had happened out in the west!?
"What does that have to do with turning on all humanity?" Merculophia asked.
"Once the dragon slayers destroyed everything. The human survivors gave into fear, and I realized something. The dragon slayers are only the dark sides of humans that they hide away in times of peace! They are the true, feral sides that come out when times get tough! They were just as bad as the dragon slayers, only none of them had any real excuses! There is only one real demon in this world, and that is humans!" Acnologia roared. The doctor's hair shadowed his eyes. It was happening again, just like what he had thought the last time he had seen Merculophia. Intelligent species tearing into one another due to various circumstances. Peace was never an option.
Without another moment of hesitation, the doctor pounced, and he formed a water-like claw in his right hand, and he aimed for Acnologia's remaining eyeball. He swung, and his hand tore through the eye like butter, Acnologi roared in agony before wildly flailing around and his tail smacked the doctor backwards. The doctor caught himself in midair with magic.
"These are the last words I want you to hear, Acnologia! You were one of my greatest allies back in Montes Secreta, my greatest friend. However, the day you returned you became my greatest demon. You became the disease that needed exterminating, it seems that our hatred was a two-way street. So let's see whose hatred comes out on top!" The doctor shouted before bursting forward. Acnologia roared and simply charged forward aimlessly. Meanwhile Merculophia looked to the sky, and saw countless more Western dragons coming down.
The battle between Acnologia and the doctor lasted longer than expected. What with the dragon already being blind and the doctor being amped up from killing Etzi earlier. However, the guardian dragon was strong even when blind. He batted around the doctor and took a decent amount of hits before finally, the doctor aimed a roar straight into his open jaw, and boiled the dragon's insides. Upon seeing the dragon fall, the doctor also fell to his knees.
"Rot in hell, you rotten creature." The doctor said. He slowly fell out of his haze, and felt the blood of Acnologia soak into his skin. He felt stronger then ever before. Yet, somehow, he knew not all of the blood was Acnologia's or his own. He slowly lost his tunnel vision, and his eyes went wide.
Bodies.
Bodies littered everywhere.
His squad, laid dead on the ground. Their blood soaked puddles and stained them red.
The other captains, gone.
The other dragons, torn apart.
The temple had fallen apart around them, now even more of a husk then it used to be. The battle had even reshaped the forest and mountain around them.
The only one alive was Merculophia, who seemed to be on his deathbed, as he laid amongst the bodies of at least one hundred enemy dragons.
"M-master! Merculophia!" The doctor screamed out in worry. The worry surprised him, and yet, at that moment, nothing else mattered. It was different yet also the same. Acnologia had taken everything from him yet again. The bodies on the ground reminded him of Montes Secreta. Only instead of fire, rain poured down instead. Small fires littered the ground around them, quickly being put out by the rain around them.
"A-ah...I'm happy to see...one of you….made it out alive...please my slayer...remember this day...you must end this bloody conflict between dragon and man...you must...or else the fighting may never truly stop...I saw it...you have the power to stop bleeding yes?"
"T-that, wit, yes! I'll stop you're bleeding I promise I-"
"No."
The doctor went silent. Perhaps he was remembering the days when he called his best friend a dragon, and those memories were resurfacing once again. Now that friend lay dead on the ground, killed by his own two hands.
"That power, it seems there was a greater use for it then you thought. You can absorb power, through the blood of others...use that gift...and end this war...even if you must soak yourself in blood...you must end this conflict...around you lay the bodies of your comrades, of enemy dragons, your worst enemy even, and myself. You will be a force of nature…"
"I-I don't wish to be powerful anymore! I-I just want peace! I've ALWAYS wanted peace! I-I just want to go back to before!" The doctor said, breaking down. He had formed a bond with his squad, and his mentor. To see them all dead, and his old friend and greatest enemy also dead, was overwhelming.
"Within this tomb lies three items...this is a special tomb...deep underneath it lies a key, a book, and a compass….when you accomplish an normally impossible task...and have these three items...this will happen. You shall understand the book...and it shall give you the knowledge needed, the compass will tell you where to go, and the key shall open the door...to granting a wish...a wish that can reverse everything, a wish for anything my slayer...a key, to Ankhseram."
The doctor was stunned.
"C-complete an impossible task?"
"A seemingly impossible one...yes...i-it seems my time is up...I hope my final piece of knowledge, won't be wasted on you...doctor…" Merculophia said in his dying breath. The doctor wiped tears from his eyes and bashed his fists against the ground. Yet Barry saw something as the dragon laid dying, something that the doctor had seen but hadn't acknowledged. The Dragons' eyes flashed red before it died.
"An impossible task!? Fine then! For peace, for my wish! I will end the war myself! But first, I need the blood." The doctor said. WIth that, he began to bathe in the blood of his fallen comrades and enemies, and his signature tattoos sprouted out over his body the longer he bathed in the blood. Soon, a hazy, purple, deathly magic aura overtook his body.
'This…I saw this in the show…it's not his dragon slayer magic after all…it's his blood bathing magic.' Barry thought. That's when he saw the rest of it. The doctor going off on his own, now covered in his blue tattoos that represented his blood-given power. How he went from village to village, discovering villages feeding their own to western dragons so they wouldn't be attacked. How the sickness of the dragon seed combined with the blood magic plagued his mind, and how his body became addicted to the blood of dragons over time.
He watched as the doctor grew in strength and how his power eventually shifted to that of pure magic, how he gained enough power to tear through an adult dragon's jaw with one attack. Strong enough to finish off a field of western dragons. Strong enough, to single-handedly end entire battles by himself. He watched as the doctor went into a cave deep underground.
"My name has faded from my memory….The name of that wretched beast will stay with me forever….If that dragon's name must be burned into my memory, I shall take it as my own." The doctor said before reaching the bottom floor.
"Somebody help! Please save me!" A little girl cried out. He watched the large tail of the dragon throw the girl over twenty feet into the air, and watched as her frail little body crumpled to the ground. His eyes widened, the disgusting actions he saw dragons took were something he could never grow used to. The three dragons turned and faced him.
"This turned out very nicely. The little girl wasn't going to satisfy my appetite." The slender dragon spoke. He recognized one of the dragons, the jade green one, as the dragon who killed the last owner of the cloak. His anger rose, and the dark purple aura of his blood-soaked power began flowing off his body.
"My name is Acnologia, slayer of dragons, and I have come to this place...to wipe your unclean kind off the planet once and for all," Acnologia said. The dragons all roared in retaliation.
The battle barely lasted five minutes, and they were nothing but charred corpses lying on the ground. Once the dragons were dead, he looked to the ground where the little girl laid. Motionless, and deathly still. He saw a red ribbon next to her hand, where she laid on the mossy floor of the cavern.
"I'm sorry that I was unable to protect you….but for all our sakes, I will exterminate every dragon that still draws breath. I will attain my wish, and undo the damage the dragons have caused us for good." Acnologia said as he walked away from the horrific scene behind him. As he left, he could have sworn he heard voices behind him.
The more he hunted after that encounter, the more his thirst for dragons and even human blood grew. Even more so than before. All he needed was more as if something had triggered a state of neverending bloodlust in his mind. His eyes even began to glow red when he grew angry. Until one day, his power hit its stopping point as he became obsessed with carnage, and on that day he became the true dragon king, Acnologia, and ended the war the same day he became a dragon.
The scene changed one last time, and Barry was standing before the dragon slayer himself. Both of them were standing in an empty and dark void, yet they could see each other perfectly.
"...I take it you saw my past…?" Acnologia said slowly.
"I did...I saw your wish...why you went berserk …you saw my past?... Not nearly as dramatic as yours."
"Not many are...amazing how such trivial problems such as neglectful parents, in the sense that they would hardly let you do anything, never let you push the bully back because he was their boss's boy, having teachers that would never help you and tell you to give up on a career, would cause such problems in adulthood. Makes me wonder if I would've had to deal with that, with my daughter…"
"I noticed something...I never heard her name."
"I've forgotten her face, her name, her scent. She was just that new...your one love though, it was strange…"
"Yeah, I noticed too."
"My wife, and your love...they both-"
"Had the same name….seems like a Martha moment."
"It does, doesn't it?... I suppose your caution, and foresight, will be useful for the mind of Bahamut…"
"Your experience, and fighting prowess, will help too...we've both died, haven't we?"
"In our deaths, a new life takes place. Our time is up...the next time we wake up, neither of us will exist."
"...Yes, we will, we'll just exist differently. Let's' get this over with, the fans have been waiting for this forever."
The two of them faded from each other's view, and the mind of Bahamut finally connected. The dragon slayer's eye opened wide, and instead of blue, a green colour arose from his iris instead. His entire body glowed blue, and magic concentrated on the left side of his body. The mages had just seen the demonic hand burst from the darkness when Bahamut rose to his feet.
"He's up!?" Skullion yelled.
"The hell!? He was just out cold!" Laxus added.
"What's this power I'm feeling around his left side?" Madmole questioned.
All of a sudden, a bone started to materialize. It sped up, and soon muscle tissue wrapped itself around the bone before skin overtook the entire arm. Tattoos arose around his arm, and Bahamut took in a deep breath of fresh air. Before smiling, as the same blue glow wrapped around his other eye, and reverted it back to its original state. Only this time, his eyes were green, and the scar Ignia had left, remained over his eye.
"The Arcane dragon of time has finally awoken," Bahamut said with a smirk.
Acno's backstory has finally arrived!
This took forever to make, my god. Sorry about spelling errors if you find any, too tired to go through Grammarly.