Quote Originally Posted by Cleretic View Post
It matches up enough that I'd be more confident putting forward that something happened to Azdaja, rather than it being a different, possibly fake dragon.
Maybe it's the shadow dragon from the same game Golbez is from? Doesn't need to be the same dragon as Azdaja.

We will fight Golbez, he's gonna summon this shadow dragon, just as an enemy to beat without much story to it other than well he knows what dragons are through Azdaja, second phase is Golbez proper, we beat his ass and then we rescue Azdaja, maybe she has enough power left to live.

Sounds pretty straightforward to me. Don't put more thought into this than the writers.