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Three months later.
On an otherwise unremarkable morning, the continent of Guiltina erupted.
The explosion shook the earth for miles around. A massive torrent of Magic Power surged straight up into the sky, its force so immense that the ripples it sent through the magical field spread across all of Earth Land.
On the eastern continent of Ishgar and the western continent of Alakitasia alike, Mages felt the tremor from the north with vivid, unsettling clarity.
Countless Mages turned their eyes northward, sensing a pulse of Magic Power that made their hearts seize.
In a particular corner of Guiltina, that dense, suffocating Magic Power turned the sky from clear to dark as pitch, as though the end of the world had decided to pay a visit.
A gargantuan black dragon emerged from the churning black currents of aura surrounding it. It was Acnologia, free at last from the Dragon Soul Technique that had bound him, now in full possession of the Magic of Absolute Negation Dragon Slayer Magic he had stolen from Kuro.
Having abandoned his former host, that convenient vessel, Acnologia had veiled his aura and slipped quietly onto the northern continent.
His original plan had been simple: find a place to rest, thoroughly absorb and consolidate the stolen Dragon Slayer Magic into himself, and then move to kill the World Will and claim dominion over the world.
What he had not anticipated was that five uninvited guests would come looking for trouble first.
Acnologia's gaze dropped to the colossal dragon corpse below him. It was vast as a mountain range, and he had split it in half with a single Dragon's Roar. He let out a contemptuous snort.
"The Wood Dragon God, Aldoron?"
"That's all you were?"
"The people here actually call you a 'god.' Truly pathetic creatures."
From beneath the fallen body of the Wood Dragon God Aldoron, four dragons of varying sizes crawled free. The dead dragon's blood stained their bodies, doing nothing to hide how badly they were wounded.
Leading them was a majestic fire dragon, its gaze fixed on Acnologia with a mixture of fury and raw fear.
Some time ago, an unfamiliar dragon aura had appeared somewhere on the continent of Guiltina. Though the other party had tried to conceal it, this dragon had still detected it, and felt an instinctive unease he could not quite explain.
The other Four Dragon Gods had felt the same thing at the same time.
And so, for the first time in hundreds of years, the long-estranged Five Dragon Gods had chosen to act together. They had gathered to investigate that unknown aura.
They found no pleasant surprises. Only a very great fright.
The awakened Black Dragon had let his true aura flood out, gathered his Magic Power, and unleashed a Dragon's Roar.
And then the largest of the Five Dragon Gods was dead.
Now the remaining four faced a choice with no good answers.
Fight to the death, or run?
The Fire Dragon God Ignia sensed the massive cyan serpent behind him beginning to shift backward and roared, "Mercphobia, that is Acnologia! Do you think we can actually escape?!"
The Water Dragon God Mercphobia went rigid for a moment, then, reluctantly, let the instinct to flee die out.
They had fled to Guiltina four hundred years ago specifically to put distance between themselves and the Black Dragon. Had he known that the unfamiliar aura belonged to Acnologia himself, not even ten times his courage would have been enough to make him approach.
Unfortunately, there was no use in regret now.
"Ignia, you've really done it this time." The Golden Dragon God Viernes, shimmering all over with golden light, fixed a sharp look on the Fire Dragon God. "You insisted we go and 'take the measure' of this outsider, and here we are, with our lives on the line for it."
Viernes wielded power over the element of gold and was a master of Alchemy, a conceptual dragon whose existence occupied a strange space between being and non-being. There were very few things in this world that could truly kill him.
The Black Dragon Acnologia happened to be one of them.
And Viernes had walked straight to him.
Ignia was visibly irritated. "You fool, you agreed to come too! Why is this only my fault?!"
Only the last of the four, the Moon Dragon God Selene, remained composed. She studied the Black Dragon above them with calm, appraising eyes.
"Acnologia. What brings you to Guiltina?"
Her composure seemed to catch Acnologia's attention.
"Your companion was just killed in front of you, and you still dare to address me like that? You have nerve, I'll give you that."
Selene glanced briefly at Aldoron's still-warm corpse, her expression unchanged.
"Companion? We are no such thing."
What Acnologia did not know was that the title "Five Dragon Gods" had been coined reluctantly by the people of Guiltina, those who had suffered under their power and pleaded it as a ward against further destruction. In truth, the Five Dragon Gods were each their own sovereign. Outside of a handful who were passingly acquainted, they had little to do with each other. They were strangers in every practical sense.
Finding no information worth having from the Black Dragon, Selene quietly began to prepare her exit.
She possessed the ability to cross dimensions, and needed only the briefest moment of distraction, just a fraction of Acnologia's attention drawn elsewhere, to slip into another space entirely.
But though Acnologia did not know the details of her ability, he could feel the flow of Magic Power.
A single beat of his wings sent a gale tearing through the air, and the spatial Magic Selene had been quietly gathering was scattered before it could take shape.
Her expression finally shifted.
The Five Dragon Gods had lived freely on the northern continent for centuries, their strength growing all the while, and they had perhaps let themselves forget just how terrifying the Black Dragon truly was. Acnologia was kind enough to remind them.
The four dragons exchanged a glance. None of them believed they could outrun him. There was nothing left to do but fight with everything they had.
Acnologia watched their resolve return with something like amusement. When they had first woken him, he had simply intended to kill all five of them and be done with it.
But now... he found he wanted to take his time. To play with them slowly, the way a well-fed cat toys with a mouse it has no intention of eating quickly. Sometimes, drawing out the suffering was the point.
Just as the four Dragon Gods steeled themselves for a final, desperate stand, a long dragon's roar rang out from somewhere far away.
Acnologia's attention snapped to it instantly. Without another glance at the four dragons before him, he turned and flew southeast with purpose.
The four Dragon Gods, who had been braced for death, stood in stunned silence.
After a long moment, it was Selene who spoke, her gaze tracking the direction the Black Dragon had vanished.
"That direction... that should be the eastern continent. Ishgar."
"Why did he suddenly leave for Ishgar? He didn't even look back at us," Mercphobia said, his confusion evident.
Viernes turned it over in his mind.
"I believe there is something in Ishgar that Acnologia perceives as a genuine threat. Something of the same nature as us, most likely."
He paused, then continued, his voice carrying a hard edge of practicality. "In any case, whatever it is, we cannot afford to stay out of this. Acnologia now knows we exist. The moment he has no more pressing business, he will come back for us, and we will not survive that."
Ignia's expression had gone serious, the irritation drained out of it entirely. "If there truly is something in Ishgar that can threaten the Black Dragon, whether it is a dragon or a human, we must go and see. And if it can be an ally, we must make it one."
For once, all four Dragon Gods were in agreement. They spread their wings and turned toward Ishgar.
After the four had gone, an old man stepped out from the shadows of a nearby overhang. He wore a battered wizard's hat and carried a staff wound around with the carved image of a dragon. He stood watching the retreating forms of the Dragon Gods for a long time, deep in thought.
At last, he let out a slow sigh.
"I had always believed the Five Dragon Gods and Acnologia to be on roughly the same level. It seems I was rather ignorant."
He shook his head faintly.
"All those years of teaching myself Law Dragon Slayer Magic, and the most it has done for me is make me marginally wiser than the average person."
A rueful laugh escaped him. Then his body shifted, expanding and reshaping, until where the old man had stood there was now a large, bearded dragon with sweeping antler-like protrusions framing its head.
A teleportation Magic circle ignited beneath him, its light angled toward the continent of Ishgar.