A.N.: hello there! I hope you all had a great Christmas. I know I said I would do a special for my other story, but I had little to no time to write. I'm surprised I even go this out.

I'm going to try to go for a 1st person P.O.V. in this story, both to challenge myself and to keep testing my writing skills. If it feels weird or you don't like it, I'll change it back to 3rd like Faded Fire.

For those that don't know what I'm talking about, this is my 2nd story, the first one being a DS-RWBY crossover. I'm not an experienced writer, but I'll try my best with this story too.

Constructive criticism is welcomed.

Enjoy!

Black dragon, white rose

Prologue 1

Black Dragon

/ ? POV /

Different. I think that word defines my kind quite well. Maybe strange is better. Though, in the end, it comes more to who you ask. The other Elders call us Dark Ones. The Inferiors are only animals, so the first thing they think would be to run or fight, though the latter doesn't usually end well for them. And the Humans call us monsters. Heh, monsters. I'm sure there is some kind of irony in that. After all, we aren't the ones that wear their skins as armor…

Well, excluding Fatalis. Those things are out of their mind.

Though, maybe my kind isn't as sane as I would like either. Our first instinct is to go that specific place, that mountain, and spread the Virus through the lands, infecting everything in the territory and propagating our species. It all occurs when one of our kind sheds their skin and 'Ascends', as we have come to call it. After this, our time becomes limited. In the previous form, my kind is almost unaffected by time, but after we Ascend, death inches closer. We still live many years, but not nearly as much as in our first skin.

But I, unlike my sister and brother, don't feel the same. Sure, I still want to go to that mountain, but it is more like a small tug in my mind than a primal instinct. Maybe it's because I was born the weakest of the three of us, or maybe there is another reason. Don't know, and honestly, seeing as how my brother and sister ended because of it, I don't care.

I was born from inside of an Inferior, like all of our kind. The Elders resist our Virus and Humans don't have enough nutrients nor body mass to be hosts. I carved my way through its insides, not caring about the painful death I was giving my host. When I busted out of its chest, the creature was already dead. I fell a few inches to the ground and let my scales and hairs move around where I was, for our kind is blind. Our only way to see is through those means, which are also our way of reproducing.

I found my sister a few seconds later, alongside my brother. We were family because we were born close to each other. Our species lacks the reproductive organs of males or females, so our genres are of our choice and preference. In any case, we didn't care from what kind of Inferior we were born of, but I immediately noticed that I was weaker than them, even if my brother was the smallest of us three. We stayed together, growing and strengthening ourselves. My brother became the leader of our group, as he defeated my sister in combat. I decided not to fight any of them, simply because I was outmatched at that time.

With time, we became more and more powerful and it became clear that, while I still was weaker than any of the two, I was far smarter than any of them. I always had a curiosity they lacked and loved learning new things, alongside finding ways to overcome challenges with my brains rather than my strength. Nevertheless, I trained to become stronger as well, especially after the hunters discovered our presence.

I never cared too much for Humans, not even now, but every time we encountered them, I always found them… interesting. They are weaker and even the Inferiors outnumber them, but they still survive and fight on, expanding their towns and cities. They overcome their weaknesses by thinking and creating, many of those creations using parts from defeated monsters. In a way, they take our strengths and use it against us. But not all of them are like that, as my family and I proved by destroying several villages, simply because they were on our way.

At the time I believed what all Elders believed: that we were the rulers of this world.

…

It wouldn't be long before we were proved wrong.

Our first hunter was, as humans use to say, a joke. He followed my sister as if he was a predator after a prey. She guided him to my brother and me, and together we didn't even leave the ashes of that fool.

A while after that, and a few more victorious encounters against hunters, my brother Ascended. It was something we expected, so he parted ways with a few words. He wasn't the greatest, but we came to care and love each other after spending so many years together. In fact, he could be quite annoying at times, what I think Humans call a 'jerk', but I cared for him nonetheless. My sister and I waited for him to expand our plague with pride…

…

But it never came.

After a few days, we went to the mountain and found his corpse. It was clear that a hunter had killed him. My sister was furious. She wanted to destroy every village in the proximity. I would be lying if the idea didn't appeal to me at the time, but I calmed her down, knowing that doing that would only attract more hunters. And maybe one would get lucky and kill one of us. But I wasn't going to let the murderer of my brother go unpunished. If my sister was furious, I was enraged.

With one last look at his corpse, a question appeared in my mind: if we are the rulers of this world, then why is my brother dead and in pieces?

Days passed, and thanks to the scent that the parts of my brother left, I found him! The fool that had killed my brother and had used him as nothing more than materials for a new armor. I would have called my sister, but I wanted to kill him myself, so I rained death on the village he was passing the night at. He was unprepared, just as the rest of the people in there. He died fast. Too fast. Someone that harms my family deserves to suffer, so when my teeth ripped his head off his body, a weight was taken of my shoulders, but I also felt extremely disappointed. So I decided to finish what remained of the village, in an attempt to feel better.

And then I saw them.

I don't know how, not even today, but I saw. There, in the ruins of a home, two human children hid together. One of my attacks made the house crumble and left them exposed to my wrath. But when I turned my head to face them, it was like a light in a pitch black darkness. I didn't need to use my scales to sense them. There, in front of me, I could see their forms perfectly, covered in a silver light that seemed to come from their eyes and something in the center of their bodies.

I looked around, confused. After a few seconds of checking, I confirmed I still didn't have eyes, which in hindsight should've taken me less to confirm. Heh, my sister used to love a few jokes every now and then.

After that, I turned back to the two humans. One was smaller, hugging the older one, both of them on the floor and in the corner of the room. The taller girl looked at me, and I could see her eyes. While the feelers of my kind allowed us to 'see', it was only the heat and an outline of the things around us, so I didn't know what color was. I still don't, only silver, and I'm not sure how I know that color is silver, I just do. And my hairs and scales couldn't get into someone's eyes, so it was also a first for me.

But I didn't need to be an expert to notice the feelings behind those eyes. Fear, sadness, despair. Her terrified gaze looked at the other side of the house for a moment, and then back at me. I focused my feelers on the area she had looked. A corpse laid under the ruins. It was a male and clearly older than the two. I guessed it was the father, but it was just a guess.

I kept 'looking' at the two for a few more seconds, until the smaller one lifted her head from the chest of the older girl, and looked at me. She was even more terrified than the one holding her. I don't know what those eyes and that thing at their chest was, but, somehow, it pulled at the core of my being. The fear in their eyes showed the consequences of my actions.

Well, that and screams of the dying people of the town.

And for the first time, I felt regret for killing Humans. I don't know what those eyes were, but I left the town after that. Those eyes made me curious and scared at the same time.

My sister congratulated me on killing the murderer, but my thoughts still lingered in those two humans. Time passed, more hunters failed to kill us, and I had started to learn of their tactics and weapons. Furthermore, I realized something interesting. They had many objects to heal themselves with, but when one of them fainted by wounds or pain, some of those cat-like things that followed them took them away. If we allowed them to get close, that is.

I also noticed that, if this happened 3 times, the hunters would just stop attacking and retreat. Yep, just like that. No matter the circumstances, when this happened, they always left. If it was the same person the 3 times, some of them would mutter things like 'fucking scrub', 'stop carting' or 'git gud noob'. Even today, I have no idea what they mean, but they never seem too happy at that person when it happens.

With some… experimentation, I came to the conclusion that if I did this, I would attract much less attention than by killing them. Sure, they may return in a later date, but most of them get frustrated and give up easily. My sister still liked to kill them, and I would do so everyone now and then with the more stubborn ones, but the two of us reigned in the steppes unopposed.

Until my sister decided it was time for her to Ascend.

She went to the mountain and started to shed her skin, but an Inferior one took this moment to attack, stopping the transformation before it was complete. I was flying close by and the pained cries of my sister were what caught my attention. When I arrived, what I saw next would always be engraved in my mind: the form of my sister, only partially transformed, trembling in pain and smashing what remained of the Inferior. If I recall correctly, humans called it Zinogre.

She then noticed me, and I could feel the pain she was in. I knew what had happened: during our lives, the three of us encountered several Elders, most of them hostile, others more willing to talk. One of those willing to talk was old enough to remember the story of our ancestors. When we found him, or better, when he found us, we didn't need to speak to him to know he was old and wise. If he wished, he could have killed us three in the spot, but he didn't. Instead, he was willing to talk with us. During part of that talk, as a warning, he explained what my sister would go through later: when an Ascension is interrupted, the one going through it comes out malformed and in pain. The Ascension could still be completed, but only if the one going through it didn't became mad before that.

With that in mind, I tried to calm my sister, but she was in so much pain that she ended up attacking me. She realized this and decided to fly away, as to not harm me anymore. After that, I tried to find her, without luck. I did find her a few days later, but she was in so much pain that she barely recognized me when she sensed me, so I decided to leave her alone, seeing as how I couldn't calm her down, at least at the moment.

Hunters were sent after her, but even in her state, she still was able to crush all of them. I tried returning to her several times, but even if I managed to be by her side for a time, she couldn't finish the transformation because of the pain. I still go visit her every now and then, to try and help her, but no matter how hard I try, she hasn't been able to change. The only thing I can do is keep her sanity, at least part of it.

I searched for the same Elder that explained us our past. When I found him, he told me that he couldn't do anything about it, that only my sister could save herself, but it was only a very small chance that it would happen. Before I left, something came to my mind, and I asked him about the silver eyes I saw. He was surprised that I asked him that, so I explained him what I saw. He told me that those with silver eyes were destined to be great hunters and that they have been protecting humanity ever since the era of the Ancients ended. They had powers that even him feared, but he couldn't recall much more, only that it is able to send monsters 'away from this world'.

I didn't got what I wanted, but I thanked him for the information nonetheless. Most Elders dislike each other, so having one so willing to talk was something I appreciated. He told me that at first he only talked with us out of boredom, but that in the end, he liked the curiosity in which I viewed the world, and apologized for not having anything to help my sister. With that I left back to the steppes. Later I discovered the name the humans had given him: Dalamadur, the Serpent King Dragon.

Heh. Fitting.

Time passed, and I grew even stronger. Any challengers that passed through the steppes, be it Inferiors, Humans and even some Elders, were defeated, one way or another. I allowed the hunters to kill the infected Inferiors, simply because I didn't care if I had offspring or not. I knew there were more of my kind around. And letting them do this made it look like hey still held some control over the area, making them leave me alone most of the time. They learnt that trying to send a hunter or a group of them after me was pointless, or suicidal, if I was in a bad mood.

I decided not to Ascend, simply because my family and their results had given me enough reasons to not do so. With time, I learnt more and more about humans: how they lived, their technology and many things more. They have a way to give their words physical form by 'writing', though it is quite difficult to understand without having sight. Still, with the years I have been able to have a good grasp at their language. Not that I can speak it, but it makes me able to understand them and makes it easier to defeat any hunters that try to kill me.

I also discovered the name they have given my kind: Gore Magala. Credit where credit is due, as Humans say, they have a knack for names.

I became the undisputable king of the steppes. With time, the Hunter's Guild, the organization that coordinated the hunters, gave me what they call a 'nickname': the Dark Ruler of the Steppes. I honestly don't care too much about what they call me, as long as they leave me alone. I'm no fool, I know that, while I am strong, if a competent group of hunters were to face me, I most probably will end up dead. I've seen what a well-coordinated group of hunters can do, and they are not to be underestimated. I've seen them kill some of the strongest Elders in record time, and it would be downright suicidal to think I could stop them.

Luckily, I don't attack villages anymore, for obvious reasons. So, while some hunters still try to kill me, most of the time they pay me no mind, seeing as how I pose no danger unless someone steps into my territory. In fact, some hunters send their apprentices and rookies into the steppes as a test of sorts: if they manage to reach the nest at the end of the territory without me catching them, they pass. As far as I know, this is nothing official, only something the veterans do to have some fun.

I take advantage of this by actually stalking and chasing them. With my Virus everywhere around is pretty easy to keep myself hidden and always know where they are, so scaring them out of their skin is pretty easy. And fun. Definitely fun. So I play along: I let most of them through, though not without chasing them until I feel like it. And it always brings a smile to my face to scare the overconfident ones.

With all these experiences, my feelings towards Humanity are… complicated. In a way, I respect them for their will to survive and move forward. When they find an obstacle in their way, they use it to learn and become stronger. Still, they took away my brother and walk around as if the world belonged to them and only them. One thing is clear now: it does no longer belong to us Elders. But humanity doesn't own it either, so I guess the world has no more rulers, for now.

Is this what Humans call 'philosophy'? If so, it is a very good way to fight boredom, though I see no other use for it.

Turning back to reality, I stretch my legs and raise from the nest I was resting in. It used to belong to some of those annoying bipedal Inferiors, but I killed them when they started being too noisy for me to sleep. It's the perfect place to relax, with the roots acting as cover for the sun and being in the middle of the steppe. A small scan with my scales told me that there were no intruders for now, so I started walking towards the river close by.

While walking, I stretched my wings and my second pair of claws in them. I reached the river without trouble, and when the herbivore Inferiors drinking in it saw me, they ran away as fast as they could. Not that it would do them any good, seeing as how I would track them later for breakfast.

After doing that, I thought that I may go and hide near the village close by and see what the Humans there were doing. It's a good way to kill time and to notice if any hunter has decided to take up a mission to kill me.

My train of though was interrupted as my scales detected three people entering the steppes. By the clothes they were wearing, it was clear they were hunters. Strange. If any of them are brave enough to come here, they do it in groups of four. Maybe they aren't here for me? In any case, I will keep an eye on them just to make sure.

…

I seriously need to stop doing those when nobody can hear me.

A.N.: fair warning: I know not everything in this prologue is lore-friendly, but the Gore and Shagaru Magala are less expanded upon than I would like, and this is part-AU, so while you won't see English-speaking dragons, they will communicate between themselves. Most of the facts in this story are from lore discussions on different pages and from in game dialog, so I apologize for anything that may not be right.

There will be another prologue and then we'll go into the main story. I'll try to keep the A.N.s short and clear, at least more than in my previous story.

Read and review!

Have a great day!