Monster Hunter: This Dragon's Built Different-Chapter 401: Metamorphosis and Perspectives
"I’m here—gwa!!"
Mother Chameleos revealed herself, trotting forward on her four short little legs, swaggering openly and, with great familiarity, about to walk straight into Logan’s nest.
All of a sudden, a heat wave tinged with faint calamity flames surged out from the nest, accompanied by an enormous amount of Terastal energy.
In the next second, Aki was seen beating her wings and rushing out of the nest along with that wave of heat, and even Mother Chameleos was blown backward several steps by it.
"Gwa! Gwa! Gwa!!?"
At her feet, clusters of Terastal crystals condensed into solid form amid the dense energy, spreading outward from within the nest and covering both the ground and the walls.
Seeing that they were about to spread right up to her, no matter how strong Mother Chameleos’s curiosity was, she knew at this moment that something abnormal was definitely happening inside the nest, and that it would be best not to come into contact with those things.
Wasn’t Aki already flying out in a great hurry?
Mother Chameleos did enjoy watching the spectacle, but only on the premise that she herself would not be in danger. Thus, without another word, she immediately followed after her, flapping her small wings as she flew out of Logan’s nest right behind Aki.
"What on earth happened, gwa! Did something go wrong with that guy, gwa?"
On the palace outside the nest, Mother Chameleos stuck out her tongue to dissipate heat and asked Aki in confusion, who was in the middle of grooming her own scales.
That flow of heat and the Terastal energy only spread as far as the entrance of the nest before going no farther, which was clearly the result of its owner deliberately restraining it.
But as Mother Chameleos looked at the nest entrance, which had originally been fairly large and was now being sealed off by those continuously growing ice-blue crystals, completely cutting off the aura inside, such an abnormal scene made her feel unbearably itchy with curiosity.
Hearing Mother Chameleos’s question, Aki paused slightly in her scale-grooming movements, then lowered her head and continued.
She also wanted to know what exactly had happened.
Just moments ago, Logan had suddenly returned. Aki, who had been taking a short nap at midday, was startled awake and instinctively went to welcome Logan according to years of habit. Yet before she even reached the entrance of the nest, she saw the Radiant Crystal Butterflies on Logan’s body fly out one after another, scrambling as if fleeing for their lives as they drilled into the crevices of the nest.
Logan himself was also not in very good condition.
The energy on his body was uncontrollably dissipating outward.
Don’t misunderstand—this was not the kind of dissipation that happens when an Elder Dragon reaches the limit of its life and its aging body can no longer withstand such vast life energy. Rather, it was a more complex kind of dissipation, as if his energy had lost control.
This dissipation even affected his appearance. More than half of his wings showed an unnatural crystallization, and the scales on his body were also repeatedly cycling between shedding and regrowth.
When Aki saw him, nearly one-third of Logan’s body was wrapped in ice-blue crystals, and large amounts of calamity flames seeped out from the gaps between the scales and the crystals.
With every step he took, a large amount of Terastal crystals would form under his feet.
When Logan’s crystal-wrapped eyes, slightly narrowed, finally noticed Aki, he only had time to let out two low roars—telling her to leave the nest, and to guard the nest outside for the next period of time and wait for his awakening—before he quickly lay down in the nest and closed his eyes.
Although Aki did not understand, seeing the calamity flames and Terastal power beginning to spread outward from the nest, she also quickly left under the drive of instinct.
In that last glance at the time, she discovered that Logan seemed to have turned into an "egg"?
Aki was somewhat puzzled, but thinking of Logan’s instructions, she still raised her head, cleared her throat, and let out a deep, muffled roar unique to a Rathian.
Very quickly, as that roar spread out, the Flame Wyvern couple who had already returned for many days and already lived in the nest closest to the top, responded at the top of their lungs and swiftly flew over this way.
Including Tonkotsu, the Blazefire Village higher-ups who, having sensed the commotion of Logan’s return, were already moving closer this way also hurriedly quickened their pace, sprinting madly toward this side.
However, when they saw that the nest entrance had been completely sealed off by ice-blue crystals, each of them looked at one another, not knowing what to do.
In the end, they could only turn their gaze to Aki, and to Little Loren at her side, who had also only just rushed over.
At this moment, Little Loren and the Flame Wyvern couple had already preliminarily learned the current situation from Aki. Knowing that Aki did not like too much interaction with creatures other than Fire Wyverns, Little Loren also took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility and began issuing orders.
Very quickly, the top of the Ancient Tree began to go under lockdown. One powerful Radiant Fire Wyvern after another, under the leadership of the Flame Wyvern couple and the Tempered Radiant Fire Wyvern, split into groups and cooperated, continuously circling Logan’s nest on patrol without interruption.
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader and the Ancient Wyverian guards were patrolling the nearby tree hollows, ensuring that not a single creature could enter the nest from within the Ancient Tree.
Even Mother Chameleos, unwilling as she was, left the top of the Ancient Tree under Aki’s threat and went to stay at the plantation.
This tense atmosphere was noticed by the hunters, who were already sensitive to changes in their surroundings.
Recalling the abnormal manner in which the Sunblaze Dragon had returned earlier, all kinds of discussions quickly arose.
Some said that the Sunblaze Dragon had encountered an unknown Elder Dragon and, after a great battle, had narrowly returned victorious. Because He had suffered serious injuries, He needed a long period of recuperation. For His safety, this led to the current situation in which the vast majority of creatures on the Ancient Tree no longer went out, instead remaining on the Ancient Tree at all times in a state of readiness.
This viewpoint had the largest number of supporters. As a result, many hunters voluntarily began to coordinate with the Grimalkynes to enforce a lockdown around the Ancient Tree.
It could be said that even if a Kulu-Ya-Ku happened to pass by the Ancient Tree and encountered these hunters, it would have to take a couple of slaps before being let go.
Another viewpoint with a large number of supporters was proposed by scholars from the Ancient Tree research base.
That Wyverian scholar based the view on Astera’s previous inferences regarding the growth of the Sunblaze Dragon. Back then, it had already been said that the Sunblaze Dragon had not yet grown to maturity and was still in the "youth" stage of metamorphosis, and that before the Sunblaze Dragon could truly metamorphose into its final form, there would be at least one more metamorphosis.
At present, the energy flow of the Ancient Tree was somewhat disordered. Large amounts of energy sharing the same origin as Terastal branches were continuously spreading outward, and the Radiant Crystal Butterflies were far more active than before. Therefore, that scholar inferred that the Sunblaze Dragon should be undergoing the next step of metamorphosis.
Moreover, this metamorphosis process was extremely dangerous and could not tolerate any disturbance, which was why the lockdown had been put in place.
Once the Sunblaze Dragon completed its metamorphosis, they believed they would be able to observe the Sunblaze Dragon’s true appearance. Whether it would be an unknown Elder Dragon, or perhaps become one of the Elder Dragons that had appeared in legends in the past, remained to be seen. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂
Aside from these two viewpoints, the remaining opinions attracted little attention.
But regardless of which viewpoint they supported, all the hunters were doing the same thing at this moment.
Guarding!
Guarding their ally!
Guarding the lord of the Ancient Tree!
Under such an atmosphere, and within the nest filled with Terastal crystals, Logan—who had been wrapped into a gigantic egg by mixed crystallization of Terastal energy and life energy—also began an extremely critical metamorphosis while sleeping.
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