In fact, he might very well be the Sapphire Star—that man who absolutely dominated everything in the game, slaying or repelling even Forbidden Monsters... meaning, the protagonist?
Ha!
Asterion shook his head. A game was just a game, after all. In reality, there was only one protagonist—and that was me!
The erupting bioenergy slowed its pace, and Asterion steadied himself. Ka'er also breathed a sigh of relief; the fact that he wasn't angry or leaving immediately was a good sign.
"Guga!" (This guy isn't bad. He can understand us, and he even tried to help me stop this fellow just now.)
Flapping his wings, the Kulu-Ya-Ku spoke up on his behalf. The feathered creature actually remembered that Ka'er and the others had just helped him stall the Savage Deviljho. He was a good bird who knew how to return a favor.
"Though it's a bit abrupt to say this, please try to understand." Seeing that Asterion had no immediate intention of taking off, the Admiral secretly marveled at Ka'er's courage before stepping forward with a wry smile. "It's no easy feat for us to meet you, Boss. While we don't know what you're planning to do, please give us a little of your time."
"Roar." (Speak.)
So here came the question: what exactly did a hunter have to say?
Clearing his throat, the Admiral sorted through the questions that had accumulated over this period—at least the ones he could remember—and then proceeded to state the hunters' concerns to Asterion.
The continuous spread of the bioenergy and the ever-expanding range of crystallization, along with the resulting ecological shifts and their impacts on human settlements, local Lynians, and the ancient Wyverians.
It was hard to imagine that this reckless-looking man, who resembled some sort of Fanged Beast, possessed such clear and organized eloquence. The Admiral didn't express any dissatisfaction during his narration, nor did he lace it with any unnecessary emotion. He simply laid out the genuine plight and difficulties currently faced by Astera and the Glavenus Tribe.
With the Admiral present, there was naturally no need for a young man like Ka'er to take any risks. Toward the end of his speech, the Admiral paused for a moment but ultimately voiced a request that could be considered quite excessive—he hoped Asterion would actively control the dispersion of the bioenergy, or at least preserve a patch of pristine, native landscape for the Ancient Forest.
Or perhaps... leave the New World.
How should one put it? He certainly had courage.
The last person who hoped to make Asterion stop dispersing bioenergy, Mirrorblade, had been severely beaten. As for the request to make Asterion leave the New World—well, truth be told, even the Admiral, who made the proposal, had never expected Asterion to actually agree to such a thing.
It was simply too unrealistic. In nature, there was no precedent where the victor departed to let the losers enjoy everything; such logic existed neither in the wild nor within human kingdoms.
Yet the Admiral spoke it anyway—this was the only attempt he could and must make.
Asterion did not immediately react to the Admiral's words. He seemed to be deep in thought. However, it was precisely this silence that made the surrounding hunters, who were closely watching the situation, stand up straight with their nerves taut. They feared that in the next second, Asterion would fly into a violent rage or make humanity pay the price for their insolence.
It could only be said that the perspectives of humans and dragons were simply too different. In reality, Asterion wasn't angry at all. Could anyone possibly understand the style and methods of the Research Commission better than him?
He was merely feeling sentimental. Especially when he looked at the dark-skinned corpse nearby—the Savage Deviljho was still lying right there. Even though both of their living environments were facing destruction, he was being politely entreated by the hunters, while the Savage Deviljho lay on the ground as a mere corpse.
This stark contrast made Asterion find it increasingly amusing. He recalled many things: his confusion decades ago when he first discovered he had arrived in the Monster Hunter world and become a Glavenus; his panic upon first finding traces of humans landing in the New World; the anxiety he once felt while worrying about how to coexist with humanity; the oaths he had secretly sworn...
Ha. Today, at this very moment, the very source of pressure that had once filled him with a sense of crisis and driven his hard work wouldn't even unsheathe their weapons in front of him. Instead, they were politely trying to negotiate through words to achieve their goals.
Yet the Savage Deviljho, who had done things of a similar nature, was ruthlessly hunted down by the hunters. There wasn't even an option to repel it; it was killed outright.
Asterion suddenly thought of a joke: Why hunt a Savage Deviljho?
Because a Savage Deviljho's appetite knows no bounds; it destroys the ecology of an entire region and slaughters countless lives. As balancers of the ecosystem, hunters have a duty to kill monsters that disrupt this balance, no matter how powerful the Savage Deviljho might be.
Then why not hunt a Kushala Daora?
Because Kushala Daora is too strong.
A sudden sense of relaxation inexplicably washed over Asterion's heart. The hunters' reactions showed him that his years of hard work and growth had not been in vain; the future he had once feared so intensely would seemingly never come to pass.
His past caution and naivety... looking back now, they had turned into sweet fruits, making the dragon feel thoroughly delighted.
"Roar?" (Leave?)
Asterion even burst into a loud laugh. His draconic, roaring laughter caused cold sweat to pour down the backs of the Admiral and the others. Many directly placed their hands on their weapons—even though they knew perfectly well that drawing their blades would not allow them to defeat Asterion, it was a purely instinctive reaction.
"Roar! Roar roar!" (Instead of considering these useless things, you would all do better to think about how to survive in my world.)
He had absolutely no intention of backing down or listening to their advice. Before his rebirth, he had lived a timid, conventional life; if he still couldn't live freely according to his own wishes after being reborn, constantly avoiding this and fearing that, wouldn't his rebirth have been entirely in vain?
As a newly appointed semi-human shaman, the Dragon-tongue speaker Ka'er translated conservatively, without even polishing Asterion's blunt words, epitomizing sheer honesty.
The Admiral, however, didn't grow angry or furious. He merely sighed softly—Asterion's reaction was actually within the predictions he and the other old-timers had discussed beforehand, so they were already mentally prepared.
Instead, it was the young people around them who showed expressions of disbelief, especially the hunters of the Fifth Fleet.
"B-but, so many lives will perish this way," Erin finally blurted out, unable to hold back any longer as she stepped forward. "Isn't that a terrible shame? Once lives are lost, they're gone forever, and there will never be the same lives again. Won't nature become incredibly boring that way? Surely you don't want to see a world like that either, Boss Glavenus!"
She was incredibly earnest. Even though she already knew that the blue transformation wouldn't completely wipe out all life in an area but merely change them into new forms, Erin still felt sorrow for the original forms of those lives she would never get to see.
Seeing his acquaintance getting so worked up, Aiden wanted to pull Erin back to keep her from getting hurt, fearing she might anger Boss Glavenus and face punishment. However, Ka'er grabbed his arm, stopping him from making any further moves.
Compared to Aiden, Ka'er possessed a strange sort of trust in Boss Glavenus. Even though the current atmosphere was deeply solemn, he still believed that Boss Glavenus wouldn't harm them.
Asterion understood what Erin meant. When this woman spoke of "life," she wasn't referring to the birth and death of a single organism, but rather the extinction or emergence of an entire species—and he had already recognized this familiar companion from the game, the legendary "Aibo."
Compared to the muscular man beside her, who was likely the Sapphire Star, Erin was much easier to identify.
After all, the Handler's uniform was highly distinctive. It also had to be said that this "baby Deviljho"—cough, Erin—did possess a quick wit. Don't look at how she did nothing but eat all day; her academic credentials were top-notch. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been certified by the Guild as a qualified Handler and dispatched to the New World... this was definitely not a position one could obtain through backroom connections.
"Roar? Roar!" (Too shallow. With your limited lifespans, this is all you can see.)
These words made Ka'er fall silent for a moment, but he still translated them exactly as spoken.
It was a bit too mocking, but Asterion truly didn't know how to convince these humans who held a different perspective from his own, so he simply chose not to bother.
Having attained power on par with a Forbidden Monster, he had naturally adopted the perspective that a Forbidden Monster ought to have. In the span of a single slumber, countless lives would perish while new ones were born. Such occurrences happened every single moment, never ceasing. To judge this cycle of birth and passing through the narrow lens of a human's limited lifespan was inherently short-sighted.
Asterion refused to engage in philosophical debates. Even if he convinced these humans to agree with him, it wouldn't bring him any sense of achievement; instead, it would just feel boring.
After casually dropping those words, he raised his forebody. The bioenergy mixed with air erupting from the tips of his wing-bones spread outward as it slammed into the ground.
Let's just call it "underworld aura." In any case, the heat and concussive force brought by this underworld aura forced the surrounding hunters to retreat, while some threw themselves flat onto the ground, remaining on high alert.
The underworld aura striking the ground pushed the crystal dust into outward surges, forming a continuously expanding ripple around Asterion. It was like tossing a stone into a body of water, except this ripple was composed of crystal powder and scalding air. With every outward wave, a few more hunters would take two steps back, tightly covering their mouths and noses.
"Roar roar, roar roar roar." (I see you guys are adapting quite well. You've already accumulated a lot of bioenergy inside your body, kid. You are walking on the right path.)
Asterion's gaze lingered on Ka'er for a moment. These words were clearly meant for him alone, causing Ka'er's eyes to widen slightly as his grip tightened on his shell necklace.
The right path?
"Roar!" (Keep it up.)
With a long howl, Asterion suddenly intensified the force of his propulsion. In the next instant, like a star rising from the earth, Asterion's massive body was completely enveloped by the overflowing underworld aura. The hunters shielded their faces with their arms as the heat and thrust of the blast wave grew several times stronger than before, causing those who failed to drop to the ground in time to stagger backward.
Many standing at the very front even felt as though the energy passed straight through their bodies. Their armor and clothing provided absolutely no protection or resistance, leaving only a strange, tingling numbness lingering on their flesh.
Accompanied by a series of ear-piercing sonic booms, the hunters looked up only to see rings of blue-and-white vapor dispersing around the trail left by the glowing blue sphere.
It was just like setting off fireworks at a festival past, except this particular firework flew incredibly fast and high, soaring straight into the sky before eerily pivoting midair to fly toward the southeast.
Like a comet streaking across the sky, it trailed a long, blue-and-white tail of flame that grew fainter toward its tip. Yet, the entire streak remained distinctly blue, exceptionally striking above the forest that had been dyed in dark hues by the underworld crystals. The luminous trail could be seen by looking up from almost any corner.
Nothing was left behind except for the crystal dust pushed into arcs on the ground by the underworld aura—no, at the very least, Asterion's silhouette was forever etched into the hearts of everyone present.
The entire battlefield fell into a dead silence.
"The Sapphire Star..."
Suddenly, though not from the same voice, the exact same words echoed from various corners of the battlefield. Many hunters gazed intently at the rising, eerie blue star, watching it vanish into the horizon and deep within the forest canopy.
Their minds were profoundly shaken.
Asterion's appearance and his words seemed to have snared everyone's souls like a rope, leaving them utterly distracted. Quite a few hunters even lost their footing and nearly slipped while processing the Savage Deviljho's corpse.
That bizarre method of flight, that inexplicably divine trajectory—nearly every member of the Research Commission who witnessed this scene couldn't help but think of that phrase simultaneously, along with the legend of the Sapphire Star.
Long ago, humans lived alongside five dragons in a stark white world. There was only the sun and eternal time; people lost nothing, yet they gained nothing either.
Suddenly, people began to wonder and feel mystified by this state of existence that had neither beginning nor end, and so they asked the dragons for the reason.
But when the dragons opened their mouths to answer, only water poured forth instead of words. Thus, the ocean and the sky came to be.
The five dragons then swam to the very center of the ocean and transformed their bodies into islands. One sank into the sea to become land; one looked up at the sky and became mountains; one curled its body to become lakes, and its scales turned into rain; one fell into a deep slumber and became the forest.
As for the last dragon, it soared high into the heavens and became the Sapphire Star, hanging permanently above the world.
This legend had been passed down in human society for far too long. There was no way to know when it originated, whether it was true or false, or why it came to be.
Hunters would only use it when blessing one another, saying, "May the Sapphire Star light your way," hoping that the other would walk on the right path and move forward without ever losing their way.
For everyone in the Research Commission, the Sapphire Star held an even more unique and profound significance.
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