'Mistakes have been made!' Nick thought as the dragon went from casually trying to murder him to wanting to obliterate him after his attack landed. Dragons were wrathful creatures to begin with so it came as no surprise to Nick that this one was absolutely LIVID at the moment. If it wasn't for his advantage in speed he might really be in trouble as the beast was quite literally snapping at his heels as it tried to kill him. One thing Nick had noticed however was that the beast was also careful not to strike the crystal structure in the center of the lake whenever they got close to it despite it's anger.-

Nick noticed this and took advantage of it to constantly pelt the dragons exposed flesh with knockout charms that were starting to take hold of it. Nick had to admit that if this was a normal dragon he would have likely long since had restrained it but this one was stupidly sturdy and resistant to spells. Nearly thirty full power knockout spells straight into it's body and all that had accomplished was to make the creature a little drowsy but still going strong.-

'Fuck it I tried playing nice time to go for the mean methods!' Nick thought in frustration and pointed his wand at the beast. "Legilimens!" He spoke firmly and the dragon froze as Nicks mind probe violently smashed into it's natural shielding and pierced through them. Dusk had been Nicks legilimency partner for quite some time now and despite it's naturally powerful shields had also been rapidly improving in them as it fended Nick off. Compared to defenses like that this dragons natural defenses were laughably easy for Nick to bust through. That was when Nick discovered something he hadn't even considered until now , this was not always a dragon. -

It was deep within the mind space and was suppressed heavily but there was memories that belonged to something that was obviously not a beast. 'The dwemer!' Nick realized in astonishment and understanding. He had wondered how this dragon had gotten down here in the first place and now he knew. It was included in some of the dwemers last coherent memories before the beasts mind suppressed it and took control again. In a desperate bid for survival the dwemer captured a pack of stonescale dragons which had lived nearby this area on the surface.-

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Using forbidden life altering rituals and alchemical solutions the dwemer bred the beasts into an entirely new species that could survive for thousands of years while living within the molten metal. The dwemer then used another forbidden ritual to transfer their mind and soul into an egg in such a way that they could basically control this new body to survive without losing any of their power. The mind and soul fusion were successful however it soon became clear that the dwemer had miscalculated as they hadn't realized that the minds and souls of the creatures were naturally extremely powerful.-

The final result was that the mind and soul of the dwemer was subsumed by the dragons instead of the other way around while all the dwemers power still went to the newborn beast. Nick sighed at this while creating false memories in the beasts mind to make it think that it has known him for many many years and this was merely one of their spars for supremacy and not a fight to the death. Fights between dragons for supremacy rarely actually ended in death since there was no one to rule over if you kill all of them.-

It was a bit like the hierarchy system of a pride of lions except the the younger dragons weren't killed off challenging their hoards alphas. Nick left the beasts mind and waited vigilantly as it's mind adjusted to his tampering. There was a few ways this could go truthfully with some being positive and the others being not so positive. Thankfully the memories were accepted since they didn't clash too heavily with the beasts instincts and true memories. The dragons gaze changed from hostility to a sort of fond irritation at its "loss" from the "spar".-

The only reason Nick was even able to make such a change was that thanks to the dwemers memories and soul the dragon technically understood speech. Thus Nick had a way to communicate with it in reality as it would clash far too much if the dragon only understood body language and roars yet had memories of "conversing" with him. This was a unique situation that would only work in this particular scenario alone and Nick was very much aware of it.