Prologue

He sat quietly, sharpening his massive blade. The snow was intense all around him, as it so often was on the summit of the Throat of the World, yet the cold did not bother him. Nor did it bother the woman, as she came and sat beside him. The man looked at her and smiled sweetly. She smiled back, and opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it quickly when she heard a noise.

It was a very faint noise, no more than a small hum, but it was the source of the hum that was disconcerting. It was coming from the Time-Wound.

The air thudded with the approach of the bronze dragon, and it rested itself at the peak of the mountain. The man spoke in an ancient tongue. "Old one," he said. "Has the time come at last?"

"It would seem it has," the dragon responded.

"The time for what?" the woman asked. "You cannot mean..."

"I do," the man interrupted, not unkindly.

The hum began to grow louder.

The man stood as a featureless mask began to materialize over his face. He lifted his greatsword, larger than most of its ilk, out in front of him with a single hand, as easily as he would a dagger. "Stay out of this fight, lokaali," he said.

"But I can help you!" the woman said.

"No! In the millennia of our time together, you have never faced a threat this great. I will not risk losing you."

Another dragon approached, this one much larger than the first, and landed near the man and the woman, bowing its head. "Thuri," it said.

The man nodded in response. "Dinokausag."

The hum grew incessantly louder, gradually drowning out all other sound. The woman looking at the man, and saw him shaking, slight as it was. "You're frightened," she said incredulously. As long as they've been together she had never seen him scared. He would walk into an oblivion gate, laughing for the challenge. She had seen his strength, experienced it first hand, and it had led her to believe he was invincible. And now here he was, frightened of the battle about to take place.

"Yes," he admitted. "But I am also excited."

The woman chuckled softly. "Of course. I would expect no less of you." But silently, she could not help but wonder what sort of power this new threat held.

As suddenly as it came, the humming stopped. For a few tense moments, the woman thought they were mistaken, and nothing would happen. And then an explosion rocked the mountain.

The woman nearly fell to the ground as she was bombarded with snow. A dragon's roar reached her ears and she reasserted herself, and gasped when she saw what had appeared.

The dragon was large. Larger than any dragon she had ever seen before. Its scales were blacker than the night sky and its body was riddled with spikes. It looked around for a moment, as if confused. Then it focused on the bronze dragon. "Paarthurnax." Its voice was deep and rumbling. "Are you here to challenge me?"

"That right belongs to another," the dragon answered.

The black dragon turn to the man standing next to it, his sword raised. "Ah, the traitor Suleyk. I was curious when you would show you face again. Has my mask served you well?"

"Ruth strun bah!" the man growled. "This mask has tethered my power for long enough. I will be released. MUL QAH DIIV!" The man began to glow with his dragon aspect.

The black dragon threw its head back in laughter. "You wish to challenge me then? So be it! TIID KLO UL!"

The woman blinked, and the man was kneeling on the ground and the dragon was in the air. She started to run to his aid, but he lifted his hand. "Stay back!" He stood and took a breath. "JOOR ZAH FRUL!" The blue light erupted from the man's mouth and hit the dragon square in the chest.

The dragon lost it balance and came crashing back down. It tried again to fly, but could not lift itself into the air. It bellowed in rage. "Duraal joorre!"

The man laughed. "You think those mortals are strong enough to create their own Shout? No, I created this Shout! Just as my brother sought to become more like the dov, I worked to tear them down!"

The man's laughter only served to enrage the dragon further. "YOL TOOR SHUL!"

The man threw up a ward in front of him that took all the strength his mask would allow to resist the onslaught of flames. He ran forward with it, lifting his sword. When he neared the dragon, he swung the sword down as hard as he could onto the dragon's snout.

The flames died away as the dragon's head was knocked sideways. The man lowered his ward, panting. Already he was tired. The black dragon's strength was just as he remembered it.

It reared its head, looking at the man. "GAAN LAH HAAS!"
His eyes widened and he tired to conjure another ward, but he was too slow. The Shout shattered through his ward, and the man stumbled backwards. Struggling not collapse, the man swung his sword again, hitting the dragon once more.

The dragon growled. "ZUN HAAL VIIK!"

The man cried out as the greatsword was torn from his hands. The dragon swung its massive head and hit the man and sent him flying. A large boulder jutting from the mountaintop was the only thing that stopped him from going over the edge. He tried to stand, finding the effort more difficult than it should have been, while the black dragon laughed darkly.

"You could not defeat me then, you cannot defeat me now. What say you now, sahlo?"

The man looked at the dragon in contempt. "FO..."

"IZZ SLEN NUS!"

The dragon's Shout interrupted his and ice began to coat his body. It spread from his legs to his torso, to his arms, leaving only his head. He was immobile. The dragon moved forward, until he was mere inched away from the man's head.

"You will not rule," the man said. "These joor are not the cowards they once were. They will not stand oppression. They will fight back."

The dragon was silent for many moment. Finally he said, "Perhaps you are right."

"What?" That was not the expected answer.

"I have forsaken my role as World-Eater for long enough!" The dragon lifted its great wings into the air and beat down hard. It rose into the sky and shouted. "ZU'U ALDUIN! DII BAH LOS UZNAHGAAR! THIS WORLD SHALL BURN!"

As the roars grew fainter, the woman, who had been watching silently from afar, rushed forward and helped the man free himself from the ice. Then she hugged him tightly. "In all my life I never thought I would see you bested."

"It just goes to show the power he holds," the man said as the mask over his face began to fade away. "We must stop him."

The bronze dragon broke his silence. "And how do you hope to do that? If you cannot defeat him, perhaps fate has declared our world to be destroyed."

The man only smiled. "You should know by now I do not believe in fate. You know the prophecy. The first shall fight the last. Come, lokaali. Let's go find a Dragonborn!"